BY ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

Yesterday, the Centre for Social Cohesion released its latest report 'The BNP and the Online Fascist Network'.  Authored by Edmund Standing, it is an investigation into the BNP's online support network which includes blogs of official members and activists and official BNP YouTube accounts.  The full report can be downloaded by clicking here.

The main purpose of this investigation was to challenge the BNP's assertions that they have moderated.  In the run up to the European elections Griffin has engaged in something of a clean up operation, attempting to distance the party from its racist neo-Nazi past.  The small success they have enjoyed is a testament to the success of this programme.  

However, although some of the votes gained by the BNP may represent those who have fallen for Griffin's tactics and others who may have lodged a protest vote against the major parties, there is no doubting the growing base of hardcore racists and neo-Nazis who support the party.  Our report exposes that there is a significant number of BNP members and supporters who are ideological racists and neo-Nazis who see the BNP as the most effective vehicle through which they can further their agenda.

Of particular interest should be the blog of Lee Barnes, a leading BNP member and head of the party's legal team.  As well as expressing support for the National Front, here are some choice quotes which should go some way toward exposing the mentality of this individual:

"The West deserves all it gets.

The faster the fools that run the West destroy the West the better"

"Anway back to the metro-sexual knobhead on the tube - okay we know you have an IPod and you like shit and cheesy drum and bass.

But if you play it any louder I will reach over, rip your fucking lungs from your chest and paint the carriage red with your intestines.

I dont want to hear what shit you are listening too.

I would rather hear your last gurgling breath as you pray for deliverance from my fury to the great god of simpering arse bandits.

I often fantasise about strangling them with the wires of their Ipods whilst Goldie drops a phat beat into their ears ands they slowly turn blue and vanish into dickhead oblivion"

Believe it or not, Barnes is also a rampant racist.  Writing on the US reaction to the death of Michael Jackson, he says:

Those in the streets, inclusing [sic] those idiot blacks in America who are in the grip of some primitive tribal hysteria, are truly pathetic.

[...]

The black man in America is now above the law if he can hire the best lawyers that money can buy - whilst the victims are despised, abused and hounded Jackon was adored and feted. 

Lee Barnes is a particularly nasty and hate filled individual, and normally it would not be worth wasting any time exposing him.  However, he is a leading member of a political party which is now accountable to to the electorate.  The BNP wish to be treated the same as the three major parties, and even a cursory look at one of its leading representatives shows just how many light years they are from getting anywhere close to that.  

The relative success of the BNP may be a blessing in disguise. It will lead to an increased scrutiny into the true nature of this neo-Nazi inspired organisation that could herald its eventual downfall.