No doubt there is consternation in the ranks of the far-right tonight as somebody has published what purports to be the entire membership list of the British National Party on a blog (they weren't so concerned when Redwatch was posting pictures and personal details of anti-racists). Naturally I was curious to see if any of my neighbours are card-carrying racists so did a search under postcodes. Good news is that the whole of New Cross/SE14, Deptford/SE8, and Brockley/SE4 seems to be a BNP-free zone as far as members are concerned. Other areas have only one (Bermondsey/SE1, Catford/SE3) or two (Peckham/SE15). In fact out of around 10,000 paid up members there's only about 26 across the whole SE London postcode area. No room for complacency mind, activists might be few and far between but that doesn't mean there isn't a reservoir (or possibly cess-pit) of support out there.
See also BNP in South East London Update.
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15 comments:
Funny how YOU don't now seem to be complaining about data leaks. These people are all members of a legitimate UK political party you know... if you want to protect human rights, it can't JUST be illegal immigrants all the time...
Well I haven't posted anybody's personal details here, but the information is all over the internet so naturally I'm curious -most probably posted by a disgruntled former senior BNP member if the online gossip is to be believed.
Were the BNP posting Redwatch?
Still I agree there is something fascinating about searching the list to se if you know anyone.
There is someone from New Cross listed.
I’m not keen on anybody’s personal details being available on the internet without their consent, even those I despise. Apart from anything else such lists always contain errors so that people might get unjustly labelled as neo-nazis just because they live next door to one and somebody made a typing error. So I chose not to post details of individuals. I have also removed personal details posted in the comments here – the main site has now been taken down because of legal action and I do not want the same to happen here.
However the list is out there and that fact does tell us something interesting about the state of the BNP. Firstly that it is in organisational disarray as a result of internal splits – it seems likely that the list was leaked and indeed posted by a senior ex-member of the BNP as part of this row. And it shows that the BNP itself is careless about personal information – the list includes details of some people’s jobs, hobbies and religion. Anybody wavering about joining the BNP is going to be discouraged by the organisation’s inability to maintain the most basic levels of data security.
Secondly, the list tells us that the BNP is organisationally weak in London including South East London. Others who searched the list did find one member in New Cross and three in SE4, but the general point remains that whatever passive support it may command, the BNP has very few members round here. No serious political party can hope for power without a major presence in the capital – maybe the BNP is pursuing some kind of maoist ‘encircle the metropolis’ strategy, hoping to capture villages around the M25 and then invade London!
I am personally very relieved to see that there isn’t a large group of BNP activists in my area, as I do not regard them as just another political party with views on immigration I disagree with. From Nick Griffin down, the BNP is full of people with a track record of international neo-nazi connections, holocaust denial, racist attacks, violence and general fondness for stiff right arms and dodgy uniforms – even if the latter are now at the back of the closet behind their new suits.
Transpontine - there are 4 people from SE4 on that list.
transpontine i agree with your conclusions as to what that list means for now, however given the large elecotral support and latent political support the BNP can rely upon across the south east if this is either maintained or built upon (which they have been doing effectively over the last few years) it will only be a matter of time before that latent/passive support can be converted into a more active support (whether through formal membership or not).
the outing of the kinds of people on that list won't do the BNP any harm at all in the long term either as it will dispell the image of the BNP as a bunch of knuckle draggers in ill fitting suits in the minds of the middlet/upper middle classes and remove one of the reasons for a swathe of people not to become a formal supporter of the BNP (although countering this is the worry about the lack of security with information etc..). The BNP leaning middle classes have a ingrain contempt for the lumpen proles that they have previously probably seen the BNP as mainly consisting off which in the past has probably preventing at least some of them becoming formal supporters. this opens up a new route for griffin and he will capitalise on it once the short term problems arising from this have been worked through, he'll also capitalise on the human rights breaches, demonisation, blah blah blajh. i think we saw something similar when the ballerina was outed as a member, it went some way to 'normalising' the organisation and this latest incident will continue that - so if this was an attempt by disident nationalists to destable the BNP i think it's backfired pretty badly as far as the medium to long term is concerned.
the other thing is that's it's telling that the only setbacks that the BNP seem to be having these days are as a result of their own internal disarray and infighting, not because of any effective political counter to their ever rising support (i.e. the cack handed liberal 'vote anyone but the BNP' only serves to perpetuate the political conditions that lead to increased BNP support in the first place). It's satisfying to see the BNP tear themselves apart from within nonetheless however it does highlight the impotency of any progressive alternative that's currently on offer and as we move into what will probably be the deepest recession that most folk alive today have ever experienced, the conditions that are leading people to support the BNP are only going to grow and there's nothing, other than hoping they continue to shoot themselves in the foot, in place to put a check on this
SE3 is Blackheath, not Catford!
SE3 is westcombe park, not blackheath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SE_postcode_area
Wikipedia disagrees. SE3 is Westcombe Park, Kidbrooke and Blackheath.
It definitely isn't Catford though.
I'm quite surprised by the low number of BNP members in the area - but I don't think there's any room for complacency. The National Front - even more thuggish than the BNP - got 5.8% in the assembly elections in this constituency. And of course London as a whole got the BNP assembly member.
J
Sorry Catford for the typo - though there are a few BNP members in Catford, see next post.
I thought there might be, sadly. I haven't looked myself...
You should probably be apologising to the residents of SE3 for lumping them in with Catford. I'm sure they wouldn't like that one bit. ;)
Blackheath is where the residents tried to ban icre cream van music - give me catford anyday
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