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UK: BNP election broadcast opposed

01 March 1997

The British National Party (BNP) had to abandon its pre-election press conference, which was booked into a Victoria hotel under a false name, when it was overrun by anti-fascists in April. The press-conference ended in farce after party leader, John Tyndall, had water poured over him as it was about to start. The conference had been expected to announce that, after a desperate search, the BNP had found the 50 candidates required under the Representation of the People Act to qualify for a five-minute television broadcast and free postal distribution of 2 million leaflets by the Royal Mail. Their broadcast went ahead on April 24 but was dropped by Channel 4.

Although the BNP have been planning their election campaign for the past two years it has been plagued by incompetence and until recently it looked as though they might fail to field enough candidates to qualify for the television broadcast. Among those who are standing for the party, which has been playing the "law and order" card, are a number who have been jailed for illegal possession of firearms and/or explosives and participating in violent racist attacks. While the organisation doesn't have the remotest chance of winning any seats it is hoping to benefit from the publicity to gain new recruits.

In the build-up to the broadcast the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other channels faced considerable internal dissent from staff and regular pickets by anti-fascists. The broadcast, which but was dropped by Channel 4 who argued that it was offensive and incited racial hatred, called for the repatriation of all "non-whites". While senior BBC and ITV officials have insisted that they were powerless to do anything more about the broadcast the Media Workers Against the Nazis organisation collected hundreds of signatures from BBC employees angered at the idea of having anything to do with the BNP's Hitlerite views.sti