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BNP is hijacking Army’s good name, generals warn
Attack comes as BBC Trust agrees to review ‘Question Time’ invitation to BNP’s Nick Griffin
A group of former British army generals has launched an attack on the ultra-right British National Party (BNP), accusing it of "hijacking the good name of Britain's military" for its own political advantage. "The values of these extremists - many of whom are essentially racist - are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness," the generals warn in a letter revealed by the Times newspaper.
The generals' warning comes as the BBC Trust agreed to review the decision to allow BNP leader Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time this Thursday - a decision that has angered many politicians and provoked considerable comment.
The Trust, which has never before been asked to intervene prior to a programme's screening, is responding to a letter from Cabinet minister Peter Hain, in which he argues that the BNP is not "lawfully constituted" because of its admission that its whites-only membership policy breaks discrimination laws.
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, defending the invitation to Griffin, has argued until now that the BBC is obliged to have the BNP on the show because two of its members were elected to the European parliament this year and, if there were to be a general election now, the BNP would be able to field candidates.
The Trust is expected to examine only whether the process by which Thompson made his judgment was fair, rather than commenting on the merits of the decision.
Meanwhile, the letter from the generals is bound to be a topic for discussion on Question Time, whether or not Griffin ends up appearing on the panel show. The generals concerned are a high-powered quartet: Sir Michael Jackson (above, left) and Sir Richard Dannatt (above, right), both former heads of the Army, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, former Chief of the Defence Staff and Major-General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the Gulf War.
They are particularly upset by the BNP's repeated uses of insignia and other symbols of Britain's military heritage to promote its right-wing politics. The party named its campaign for the European parliament elections the 'Battle for Britain' and chose a World War Two Spitfire for its campaign logo. It regularly uses photographs of Winston Churchill and evokes the 'spirit of the Blitz' on its website.
Leader Nick Griffin repeatedly wears a poppy badge, knowing that it upsets the Royal British Legion, and claims his party has a better relationship with the arnmed forces than the mainstream parties. "How dare they use the image of the Army, in particular, to promote their policies," Gen Jackson told the Times. "These people are beyond the pale."
Meanwhile, a leaked list of BNP members is expected to be published on the internet today. The list is understood to show that the party has 11,560 members. ·
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After the "marvellous" work done beating hotel receptionists to death, and throwing teenagers off bridges to drown, I wasn't aware that the British Army - or its war-criminal madman Dannatt - had any reputation left to lose. A bunch of racist nutter scum in khaki uniforms.
To Mark Walker:
Your posting of the Articles of the 1948 UN are outdated and null and void as to what the UN is today. It is a forum for the 56 or 60 Islamic states to thwart any hope for peace in the middle East. Also, get you facts straight about the shooting up of ambulances in Faluja. If you would read anything besides the BBC ,or your Left Wing Newspapers, about that conflict you would know that those Amulances, rather then carrying patients were carrying Hmmas hiding behind the ambulance symbol. Clear your stupid biasis and see what is happening to your country. I don't know what the BNP Party is all about but I do know that the Brits will be the first to fall under Islamic Law. Your blathering is pathetic. Remember also, if it weren't for the USA you wouldn't be spewing your nonsense. Probably wouldn't even be here. I, assume you are a young child who knows nothing of your past history, as your parents would have been killed by the Nazies and you would have never been born. When discrediting US's War efforts as not yours, we saved you in 1918 and in 1940.
Since I am a veteran of WW II I feel I have the right to call you out. Wish Curchill was alive today to save your nation once again.
I think that this is interesting. Is there not a case for Blair and the others who went to war against Iraq and Afghanistan to face a War Crimes trial? Of course they will not but that is not the question. If there is a case against the politicians is there a case against the Generals too? These are serious questions but it is only now in a BNP row that they have hit the front pages. I doubt that they will be seriously considered as they will get lost in the usual hysterical reporting and partisanship that all things BNP seem inevitably to descend into.
As to use of Spitfires etc. these are part of a common cultural heritage that anyone can refer to. I donâ??t interpret them in the same way as the BNP do but I wouldnâ??t say they donâ??t have the right to represent them as they choose. Some of the ways our establishment use such images rankles with me too. All cutural areas can be contested. Thatâ??s nothing new.
We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law, especially in respect of:-
1: 1949 Geneva Convention IV: Article 146
The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention.
2: 1907 Hague Convention IV: Article 3
A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said regulations shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all the acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces.
We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.
We are concerned that without justice and respect for the rule of law, the future for us and our progeny in a lawless world is bleak, as revealed by recent US declarations about the use of torture and the events of December 2008 in Gaza show.
The following are our sample complaints relating to the Iraq War 2003-2009:
1: Deceit and conspiracy for war, and providing false news to incite passions for war, causing in the order of one million deaths, 4 million refugees, countless maimings and traumas.
2: Employing radioactive ammunition causing long-term destruction of the planetary habitat.
3: Causing the breakdown of civil administration, with consequent lawlessness, especially looting, kidnapping, and violence, and consequent breakdown of womensâ?? rights, of religious freedom, and child and adult education.
4: Failing to maintain the medical needs of the populace.
5: Despoliation of the cultural heritage of the country.
6: Supporting an ally that employs â??waterboardingâ?? and other tortures.
7: Seizing the assets of Iraq.
8: Using inhumane restraints on prisoners, including dogs, hoods, and cable ties.
9: Using Aggressive Patrolling indiscriminately, traumatising women and children and wrecking homes and property.
10: Marking bodies of prisoners with numbers, writing, faeces and other degrading treatment.
11: The use of cluster bombs and other indiscriminate weapons including white phosphorous on â??shake and bakeâ?? missions.
12: Supporting indiscriminate rocket attacks from F16 fighter planes on women and children in Fallujah in Nov 2004
13: Supporting the shooting up of ambulances and medical personnel in Fallujah in Nov 2004
14: Supporting the expulsion of the entire population of Fallujah save for young men of military age, for a reprisal attack on that city in Nov 2004.
As to Poppies I see Brown launching an appeal today in the paper. How is it right for him (warmongering useless swine that he is) to associate himself with this and not for others. He is responsible for many of the injuries for sending soldiers out to fight with poor kit in the first place. Hypocrite!
Jerome Peter's comment sums up exactly why there's such a furore about giving a public voice to the BNP. Wow, that's strong stuff. A million true Britizens demanding a voice. A shadowy Communist/Capitalist/Feminist Elite suppressing the truth. Socially engineered oblivion for the native British race. If we can rely on the BNP to continue to spout the rubbish that Jerome uses to finish off his comment then we've no worries. Sorry Jerome, but your "politics" were out of date before Adolf Hitler shot himself and his henchmen burned his body in the ruins of Berlin.
Well, the ex-generals have gone down a lot in my estimation. The armed forces don't represent or serve any political party. They serve the Crown. No legitimate political party aspiring to government should be barred or considered wrong in using pictures of the forces that serve the Crown - they, after all, wish to be Her Majesty's government. Of course, the lefties don't like it because it doesn't fit with their Marxist view of history, which is their prerogative to pervert and claim as their own, but nobody has a monopoly on history; history is nobody's property. Whether the BNP shares "the values of the modern British military" is more of a commentary of how warped modern British values have become. Anyway, what's it got to do with the Army what values are held by political parties? - they serve the Crown, irrespective of who is in power: or should we have military coups to remove governments the Army don't like? The BNP's values are much closer to the middle-of-the road values around in the 1950s and early 1960s, and so much closer to those who fought in the last war, many of whom would now be regarded as homophobic, sexist, xenophobic and such like (add whichever lefty term of opprobrium you like). Like it or not, the BNP are far closer to traditional British values than many modern politically-correct incarnations.
The BNP must be pleased with the publicity that the BBC and the General's give them. The Military chiefs have "offered themselves up" to promote the Governments wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have increasingly become involved in politics and should refain from commenting.
I think the spitfire image which the BNP chose shows how little the BNP does actually engage with the armed forces because surely someone would have pointed out that the pictured 303 Squadron aeroplane would have been piloted by a Polish airman fighting side by side with us in WWII.
Also i would love to attend the meeting of the elitists, communists, extreme capitalists & feminists when they next collude; they have such common ideologies what could possibly stop them bringing in a capitalist, communist, elitist utopia run by women?
The BNP did not admit that our membership criteria broke the law and Peter Hain has been openly accused on the BNP's website of lying. Peter Hain is an anti-democratic bully as are these misinformed establishment generals. Their word means absolutely nothing to right thinking people who are sick of the way that our armed forces have been hijacked by this Government to wage unecessary and illegal wars in other peoples countries, for no reason other than to support the imperialist desire of the United States to control most of the world's oil and gas supplies. Whether Nick Griffin MEP, with a million British people's votes behind him appears on Question Time is now largely irrelevant, because the programme has already served its propaganda purposes. We don't need the media, they need us to sell their publications. Once again though the British people can see how the entire establishment of elitists, communists, extreme capitalists & feminists, have colluded to destroy the only political party between the British race and the socially engineered genealogical oblivion we face, if the merciless invasion of these shores continues unchallenged.