More like this
BNP’s Nick Griffin to visit the Palace
Can the police, the Palace and the mayor do anything to prevent the far-right party’s leader meeting the Queen and Prince Philip?
Red faces all round: not only is the far-right British National Party threatening to win its first ever European Parliament seat in the June 4 election, but the party's leader, Nick Griffin, has managed to get himself a ticket to one of the Queen's summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace.
How it happened could not be more simple: Richard Barnbrook, a BNP member of the London Assembly, was invited to the June 21 event along with the other members of the assembly. And he has chosen to take Griffin as his guest. "I imagine there will be a to-do and a hoot," said Barnbrook.
He's right. London's Tory mayor Boris Johnson is furious that a royal garden party should be turned into a "political stunt" and has written to the chairman of the assembly, Darren Johnson, demanding that he intervene and withdraw Barnbrook's invitation.
However, a spokesman for the BNP, enjoying the controversy, said that for Barnbrook to "snub an invite from the Queen would be absurd", and added a warning: "If we get elected MEPs, this is the kind of thing we are going to be doing on a regular basis."
And of course the flag-waving BNP is a great supporter of the monarchy. Griffin is said to be looking forward to the chance to chat to the royals, his spokesman hinted darkly: "I would have thought he and Prince Philip would have a lot to say to each other."
How to stop Griffin attending without interfering in the democratic process is now exercising the police, the Palace and the Mayor's office. The simplest solution would be to argue that there's a threat to security in his attending - there are bound to be protests. But the fact that Griffin was convicted in 1998 for distributing material likely to incite racial hatred is apparently not enough to have him barred. Watch this space.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
Michael White, the Guardian: If the Palace invited all elected members of the Greater London assembly, then the BNP's Richard Barnbrook surely had to be invited. He was lawfully elected by the citizens of London; he is their democratic representative. If he chooses to take Griffin with him (a spouse or partner is the more normal option), that is his choice. We can only hope that it is just a publicity stunt and that they do not hold hands... Anti-racists who oppose racial and other forms of discrimination are sometimes too quick to invent exceptions for people they don't like because they are - I quote from one indignant interviewee on Sky News last night - "racists and fascists".
Dave Hill, the Guardian: Had I been in Boris's shoes, I too would have tried to put some obstacle in the enemy's way, but the downside is, of course, that the resulting airtime puts the Griffin gang in the spotlight in ways it can exploit by claiming to be victims of a hypocritical political establishment it dreams of displacing. Still, I hope a way is found to block the BNP blockheads from fouling the Buck House grass. The Palace says it allocates tickets to organisations not individuals, "so it is a matter for those organisations who they invite." This lobs the ball crisply into the GLA's part of the lawn, and it's not yet clear how it intends to field it. ·
Comments are now closed on this article
Comments
If the monarch does not allow any one to visit, the palace, knowing that person is well known and is in the media, it better to allow him even for a shot while. Why? As is there are intruders who have accessed the palace without the permission and this is not the first time. Once some one sat near the bed.
Let us look at today...The tabloid News of The World said two of its reporters posing as Middle East businessmen paid 1,000 pounds to the chauffeur to evade security checks at the palace.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
As a mixed race person, i share the sentiments of HKdog. The BNP is a recognised and legal party in the UK, therefore they must be afforded the same rights as everyone else.
I find that when the "do gooders" get involved,they make matters worse. Giving this story such coverage plays right into the hands of the BNP.
As the head of the United Kingdom,the Queen has never apologised for her country's role in slavery and colonialism,so if you ask me,she would be in the right company around Griffin.
Much as I despised the BNP and everything they stand for, I'm afraid that they have a democratically elected representative in the London Assembly who is therefore entitled to the same treatment as all the other democratically elected members of that body. I don't see how this odious individual's invitation can be withdrawn without withdrawing all the other invitations to LA members. It is a sad indictment of the contempt in which the people hold the mainstream parties that the BNP got elected in the first place. Maybe they should look at themselves before spouting off at another party.