'Race', Education & the BNP

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Last updated 11.05.10.

The British National Party has two Members of the European Parliament and until last week had more than 100 councillors. The 2010 election appears to have seen their rise halted with the failure to get their leader Nick Griffin elected to the British parliament, and all 12 of their councillors in the Borough of Barking and Dagenham suffering shock defeat after a huge concerted effort by antifascist campaigners in the area (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8669000/8669697.stm ) (For further details see: http://www.uaf.org.uk/news.asp?choice=100508 ). Nevertheless, the BNP continues to have quite high levels of localised support, and more than half a million voted for the party nationwide this May, a increase nationally of 1.2% on the last general  election.

The British National Party (BNP) was founded in 1982 by longtime Nazi-sympathiser John Tyndall. “A former chairman of the National Front and editor of the fascist magazine Spearhead, Tyndall was on record as stating that "Mein Kampf is my bible".” (Brown, 2007, p.29) However, the BNP has changed, on the surface at least, over the last decade since its leadership shifted from Tyndall to Nick Griffin. Is it still fascist? Perhaps this is not a question we can answer. What we can say is that, on the terms we have discussed during this module, it is certainly profoundly racist. We will look principally at the writing of the British historian Nigel Copsey (2004, 2007, 2008)to consider how this vehicle for contemporary British racism operates to reproduce and reanimate some of the myths of earlier decades, and to shore up the old racialised categories for the twenty first century (you might also want to look at a shorter, comparable study by Roger Eatwell, 2004). We will then focus specifically on the impact of BNP racism on schools.

John Tyndall, Nick Griffin and the history of BNP racism

Most academic discussion of British fascism draws a distinction between those strands influenced by ‘scientific racism’ (such as Arnold Leese) and those such as Oswald Mosley, whose racism had a more ethnocentric and cultural feel to it. Copsey asserts that if one examines the ideology of the BNP under John Tyndall, “what lay at its core was a racial nationalism that was more in debt to Leese, Hitler and ‘biologically racist’ ideas of Nordic supremacy than to Oswald Mosely.” (Copsey, 2004, p.87)  “There is thus, in Tyndall’s eyes, a ‘pure’ British ‘race’ and it is this entity which forms the bedrock of the nation… Tyndall also remained true to his earliest writings that the Nordic ‘white’ race is inherently, that is to say genetically, superior.” (Copsey, 2004, p.88) With subsequent ‘race’-relations legislation, the BNP and Tyndall became less candid about their views in this regard, leaving Tyndall lamenting the new reality in which anyone who suggested in public one ‘race’ might not be equal with another would find themselves on “dangerous ground”. In 1998, he wrote “ ‘liberal’ dogma forbids us, on pain of the worst conceivable ostracism (including the attachment of the well-worn epithet ‘nazi’) even to consider the introduction of a policy of genetic improvement as a means of breeding out the worst, and procreating the best, strains in our population” (Tyndall, 1998, p.333) (A reference copy of this text can be found in the library) Regarding nationalism, Tyndall’s position is fundamentally racial: “Race and not geographical location, is the cement that binds nations” (Tyndall, in Copsey, 2004, p.88), “‘nation-races’ rise and fall according to their relative homogeneity and survival instinct.” (Copsey, 2004, p.88) For Tyndall, democracy, the spread of liberal ideology and ‘multiracialism’, and, by implication, immigration into Britain of non-whites are part of a Jewish ‘conspiracy’ to subvert the British ‘race-nation’. “As Democracy tamely allows droves of dark-skinned sub-racials into our country, the Jew cleverly takes advantage of their presence to propagate the lie of racial equality, thus gradually encouraging their acceptance into European society, with the ultimate results of intermarriage and race-degeneration that he knows will follow.” (Tyndall, in Copsey, 2004, p.89) The Jews, it is believed, have a particular influence overt the media industry and are thereby able to spread a ‘poisonous virus’ which ultimately ‘destroy our country.’ (Copsey, 2004, p.92)

Since 1999, Nick Griffin has been leader of the BNP. Griffin had also been a leading figure in the National Front in the 1980’s, and, when he joined the BNP in 1999 was given free reign by Tyndall to propagate Holocaust denial in the party (Copsey, 2004, pp.92-3). Under Tyndall’s leadership, 1982-1999, the BNP was, clearly a fascist party. Copsey argues that Tyndall wrongly imagined that the British public would flock to a pure revolutionary form of ultra-nationalism (Copsey, 2004, p.98-9). However, Griffin was determined to re-present the party, rebranding the product by means of a series of cosmetic manoeuvres: “Politics is always the art of the possible, so we must judge every policy by one simple criterion: Is it realistically possible that a decisive proportion of the British people will support it? If not, then to scale down our short term ambitions to a point at which the answer becomes ‘yes’ is not a sell-out, but the only possible step closer to our eventual goal.” (Original emphases)(Griffin in Copsey, 2004, p.102). Whilst fascism remained the party’s underlying objective, when it came to convincing the public, they should keep quiet about genetics and Zionism and present themselves to the electorate as models of moderate reasonableness (Copsey, 2004, p.102). The BNP adopted the French National Front’s strategy of appropriating the terms usually used to stigmatise it and turning them on their head to attack their opponents – thus we have ‘anti-white racism’ and ‘Muslim fascism’. Particularly important is the term ‘identity’ a term that “raises all the issues connected with mass immigration… [whilst avoiding] the negative Pavlovian conditioning which decades of brainwashing have associated with the word “race””. (Griffin in Copsey, 2004, p.103) We should note this carefully. ‘Identity’ is increasingly taking on a particular function in marking boundaries which were previously signified by ‘race’. That is to say, identity takes on a racialising role for contemporary racists, marking the perimeters of ‘culture’ and of ‘whiteness’ without needing to explicitly identify phenotypical types. For instance, in the 2000 London mayoral elections, the BNP focussed on the issue of ‘bogus’ asylum-seekers, insisting that it was not opposed to individual immigrants, rather “what we oppose is the destruction of the traditional identity of the British people in our homeland” (emphasis added) (BNP, in Copsey, 2004, p.115). Despite their protestations that this was not about racism, in fact racism was merely being repackaged around that term ‘identity’.

It should be noted that there is some disagreement among commentators about the nature of the contemporary BNP. Not all think, like Copsey, that it retains its fundamental fascist ideology:

“While it is morally satisfying to call the BNP Nazis, and while their ideology is indeed racist, xenophobic and abhorrent, it’s starting to become clear that this rather slippery political beast has in fact shed its old skin, and is no longer plausibly describable as a Nazi, or fascist, party at all. Why is this "worse"? Because, although one must rejoice in the abandonment of this diabolical ideology by anyone, it also increases their chances of success... This is logical: racial hatred is their only political bedrock, and the swastika is just one expendable way of expressing it.” (McKibben, 2007, p.26)

McKibben has a strong case for arguing that the BNP no longer comfortably fit the definition of ‘Nazis’ or ‘fascists’. The expulsion from the party of hardcore Nazis may be merely presentational, but the rejection of the old anti-Semitism cannot be a complete façade, he suggests, and the cries of ‘sell out’ from the devotees of the old ways may be decisive evidence of a change. However, the emphasis the BNP now gives to “foaming-at-the-mouth Islamophobia” (McKibben, 2007, p.27) may offer some explanation for the BNP’s “unexpected rapprochement” with Zionism. In response to McKibben, Ben Drake asserts, in the same journal, that the BNP remain, at core, fascist: “the dark heart of their politics remains "Race and Nation" with the latter absolutely defined in terms of the former. They continue to operate as part of an international network of White Supremacist groups, and their stated mission is still to "save" the (ill-defined) "white race" from multiculturalism”. (Drake, 2007, p.28) Whilst Muslims have replaced the traditional target of fascist hatred, the Jews, as their primary enemy, “[f]ascists are shamelessly opportunistic – they absolutely need scapegoats but it doesn’t matter really who they are, as long as they can be defined as "Other" (non-White) and a threat. Hence Jews in the 1930s, Muslims now.” (Ibid.) Leading BNP members’ continuing denial of the Holocaust is also a good indicator of their true sympathies (Drake, 2007, p.29) Brown (2007) is also able to provide many examples of pro-Nazi sentiment from leading BNP members, though these have tended over recent years to be private rather than public statements, caught on secret camera.

For Nick Griffin, the development of the BNP beyond 2009 depended upon its gaining a legitimate foothold in mainstream British politics. Writing in 2008, before the recession, Copsey suggested that Nick Griffin then aimed to consolidate its position by acting as “a beacon of hope for millions of indigenous (white) Britons at the point at which the entire global economy experiences systematic collapse.” (Copsey, 2008, p.170) The difficulty, then, Griffin saw as protecting “the BNP’s core revolutionary principles (in other words, its neo-fascism) from being watered down by the inevitable influx of ‘ideologically incoherent’ recruits that the onset of the crisis would effect.” (Ibid.)

The BNP and immigration

As we saw last week and elsewhere in this module, contemporary racialisation or xenoracialisation of immigrants takes a variety of complex forms. As patterns of migration have shifted since the end of the Cold war period (1989/90), anti-immigrant racism has revived old themes and invented new ones. In particular, since the late 1990’s ‘race’ has been repoliticised around the ‘immigration issue’ or the ‘asylum issue’. Copsey writes:

 “Under the guise of the asylum-seeker issue, the ghost of Enoch Powell was returning to haunt mainstream political life. During the 1970’s Powellism had opened up a legitimate space for the National Front, but when Margaret Thatcher had made a bid for the racist constituency in the late 1970’s this space had been reoccupied by the Tories. Thereafter, the ‘race’ issue was removed from the arena of national political debate even if by means of successive pieces of restrictive legislation… this was the case down to the spring of 2000 until the Conservative Party leader William Hague re-politicised the ‘race’ issue by turning asylum into a central plank of the Tories’ may local election platform.” (Copsey, 2004, p.117)

The tabloids had tried on a number of occasions to force the ‘race’ issue back onto the political agenda, but it wasn’t until the late 1990’s that their coverage of asylum grew appreciably. “And on this occasion, mainstream politicians joined in the cry of the tabloid scaremongers.” (Copsey, 2004, p.118) An Audit Commission investigation in October and November 1999 found that only 6% of local newspaper reports made mention of the positive contribution made by asylum seekers. By spring 2000, when William Hague reignited ‘race’ as a political question, the headlines had become extreme in their intemperance and sensationalism: “Time to kick the scroungers out” ( The Sun, 15 March 2000);  “Get Out Scum” (Daily Star, 4 April 2000); “Hello Mr Sponger…Need any Benefits?” (Daily Star, 27 April 2000), etc.  The Daily Telegraph saw ‘race’ and immigration as the ‘big idea’ through which Hague could make a challenge to labour at the next general election (Copsey, 2004, p.119). In the words of Bill Morris, all this had “given life to the racists” (Morris, in Copsey, 2004, p.119). As Nick Griffin was quick to acknowledge, the ‘asylum issue’ came at just the right time for the modernising BNP. With the mainstream parties now trying to outdo one another on anti-asylum seeker rhetoric, the BNP were able to manoeuvre themselves into position to seize their opportunity. “The asylum seeker issue has been great for us… It’s been quite fun to watch government ministers and Tories play the race card in far cruder terms than we would ever use. This issue legitimises us.” (Griffin, in Copsey, 2004, p.119)

During this period, the BNP started to gain ground politically. Their electoral upturn was due to three factors: “[1]The asylum issue and mainstream politicisation of ‘race’, [2] cultivating the appearance of moderation, and [3] grassroots community politics in isolated pockets.” (Copsey, 2004, pp.124-5) Copsey (2004, pp.128-9) offers the example of the Oldham Chronicle newspaper spreading the mentality of ‘white victimhood’ and redefining racism as ‘anti-white’, thus meshing with BNP discourse, giving its call for “Equal Rights for Oldham’s Whites” legitimacy and credibility. William Hague’s comment that Labour was turning Britain into a ‘foreign land’ added to the mood of anti-immigrant racism, further fuelling BNP success. Hague was joined by Tory MP John Townend who blamed ‘coloured immigration’ for rising crime and criticised the government for turning Britain into a ‘mongrel race’(Copsey, 2004, p.130).

9/11 was a considerable boost for the BNP (Copsey, 2004, p.135) who, in its immediate aftermath, were quick to tap into anti-Muslim sentiment and stoke Islamophobia. It issued tens of thousands of anti-Islam leaflets and saw an opportunity to play down its racism by approaching rogue elements in the Sikh and Hindu communities, who whilst unable to join the BNP because of its whites-only membership policy, supported its anti-Muslim front. By 2002 a MORI poll indicated that for 39% of respondents, ‘immigration’ was either the most important or one of the most important issues facing Britain today (Copsey, 2004, p.141). At this point the Labour Party was beginning to change its tactics in relation to the BNP, David Blunkett urging the mainstream parties to challenge them head-on rather than ignoring their electoral advances. However, as we have saw in week 8, rather than playing down immigration, Blunkett them went on to take a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher’s book and employ the strategy she tried in 1978 of appropriating the racists’ language. He warned that asylum seekers were ‘swamping’ Britain’s schools. But, rather than repeating Thatcher’s success in undercutting the extreme right, Blunkett’s tactic merely served to legitimise the BNP’s discourse and lend their xenoracism greater respectability. The BNP were successfully able to feed popular misconceptions about the number of asylum-seekers in the country, spreading urban myths carried abroad on a wave of tabloid scare stories. A 2002 Mori poll found that, on average, Britons believed that the UK was home to 23% of the world’s asylum seekers, when the true figure was, in fact 1.98%. (Copsey, 2004, p.143) The BNP’s next round of electoral efforts were helped by Sun and Mail headlines such as ‘Asylum meltdown’ and ‘Read this and get angry’ (Copsey, 2004, p.145).

The rebirth of the politics of race

The biggest factor behind the rebirth of the BNP has been the resurgence of popular racism. In 2000, the British Social Attitudes survey found 2% of Britons admitted to being ‘very racist’ and 23% ‘a little racist’ with two thirds believing that here are too many immigrants in Britain (Copsey, 2004, pp.145-6).

“Whilst Britons have undoubtedly become more tolerant of multicultural society and overt forms of racism have become socially unacceptable (hence the BNP denial that it is a racist party), immanent racism has reanimated itself through a series of sensationalist media campaigns directed against asylum-seekers and the accommodation of anti-asylum rhetoric by mainstream politicians. This racism, albeit articulated through ‘socially acceptable’ forms of intolerance towards asylum-seekers, and heightened by post ‘9/11’ insecurities, has provided the British National party with its largest reservoir of support.” (Copsey, 2004, p.146)

Whilst every one of the BNP’s pledges at the 2003 local elections used the language of ‘common-sense’ populism (Copsey, 2004, p.148), this ‘common-sense’ effectively serves to naturalise xenoracist ideology in exactly the way Cole suggested (see week 8). Common sense ideas filter down through the popular press and the other organs of civil society, in an unformulated and incoherent manner, but there exists a relationship between this common sense and the discourses emanating from the governing party and dominant groups in society. These are often reformulated and reinscribed in common sense belief and come to be seen as neutral and uncontentious. Like other political parties the BNP operate within civil society – they have their own trade union, and environmental/rural interest group. In this context, they are able to echo or amplify aspects of the hegemonic discourse on ‘race’ and articulate persuasive but untheorised ideas around contentious topics of the day, both riding on the back of hegemonic forms of racism, and strengthening and reproducing these:

 “As was the case with the national Front in the 1970’s, the ‘race’ issue has been the vehicle for the party’s electoral emergence. Wherever this politicisation of ‘race’ occurred, be it through Asian-on-white crime, ‘positive discrimination’, anti-Islamic sentiment or opposition to asylum-seekers, space has opened up for the British National Party.” (Copsey, 2004, p.147)

‘Race’: In their own words

In 2003, Nick Griffin defends his position, not merely that ‘races’ exist, but that they are fundamentally unequal – ‘human equality’ is, he suggests, a “pernicious fantasy”. We are, of course, in no doubt which ‘races’ are superior and inferior, though to state this would be to fall foul of the law. (The following quotations have been removed from the updated BNP website since autumn, 2007)

“Mankind is divided into races, and those races, while sharing many common features of humanity, are innately different in many ways beyond mere colour. Despite the propaganda of neo-Marxist academic and media prostitutes, and the cowardice of conservatives who dare not stand up to the totalitarian bullying of Political Correctness, this is a fact. Whether those differences are God-given or the result of evolutionary pressure is irrelevant; the important fact is that the British National Party recognises such ineradicable facts of human nature and seeks to base its political programme on such realities, and not on the pernicious fantasy of ‘human equality.’” (Griffin, 2003, http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/race_reality.htm)

‘Races’ are, in the mind of the BNP’s leader, biological realities, a ‘fact’ which can be established either genetically or religiously, the difference between the two being ‘irrelevant’. His deeply anti-scientific disregard for the findings of forty years of genetic science suggest how deeply rooted ‘common-sense’ prejudice can be, even among Cambridge graduates, if fuelled by ideological zeal. With classic fascist authoritarianism, Griffin labels ‘abnormal’ all those who might want to speak with or even see on their streets members of another ‘race’:

“The divine or Darwinian pressures which created different races in the first place also very clearly created the innate human tendency to prefer ‘us’ to ‘them’ as the way in which such differences would be preserved. So while we don’t hate other peoples, we would rather mix with our own. In a nutshell, we want to walk down our streets and see the familiar faces which a hundred generations would all have recognised as ‘British’ [i.e. ‘White’] – and all normal people of all races feel the same way.” (Griffin, 2003, http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/race_reality.htm)

In 2009, a BNP members’ manual, leaked to the press revealed the party’s continued attachment to the concept of ‘race’ and its application to political conditions as a tool in advancing exclusively white British interests (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8011878.stm ). The BNP leader defended the contents of the manual, declaring that the increased presence of non-white people in the UK represented a “bloodless genocide” of the native population (Press Association, 2009). The publication had sought to clarify the relationship between the BNP’s understanding of the relationship between nationalist and ethnicity or ‘colour’, crudely drawn, “[t]hese people are 'black residents' of the UK etc, and are no more British than an Englishman living in Hong Kong is Chinese” (BNP, in Press Association, 2009). And again, reinforcing the hard reality of racial classification, "[c]ollectively, foreign residents of other races should be referred to as 'racial foreigners', a non-pejorative term ... the key in such matters is above all to maintain necessary distinctions while avoiding provocation and insult.” (Ibid.) The BNP's “ultimate aim” remains the “lawful, humane and voluntary repatriation of the resident foreigners of the UK” (Ibid.). At present, such a policy would aim to ‘repatriate’ about 180,000 non-white people per year, via a resettlement grant of £50,000 per person (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8650000/8650909.stm )

The BNP, racism and schooling

Perhaps none of this would matter had the BNP not gained ground at the polls and won seats on local councils, especially in former Labour heartlands, even taking a place on the London Assembly and gaining two MEPs. How does this affect education? The BNP are on the threshold of wielding power in local authorities, and that means that they could begin to influence the way schools are run. In Stoke on Trent, a BNP councillor is chair of the Children and Young Persons’ Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee. In Barking, the BNP had 12 councillors until last week, making them the official opposition. In December of 2006, they tabled a series of motions to begin to exert their influence over schools. The BNP aimed to use religious rather than strictly ‘racial’ means (in line with trends we have identified earlier in the module) to attack their traditional targets: halal meat would be banned from state schools in the borough, along with Islamic headdresses; all pupils would sing the national anthem during assemblies and the Union Jack would be flown every day of the year (Barking and Dagenham Recorder, 2006). All of these proposals were defeated, but give a hint at the way in which the BNP would aim to reinforce and greatly extend institutional racism in schools. What do you think would have happened were these measures to have been introduced?

In order to examine the BNP’s intentions for education we need to look at a number of sources: their recent manifestos; their attacks on the teaching profession – in particular the NUT; commentary on their website. We will then look at some of the consequences of BNP presence in an around schools.

We will start by considering the BNP’s assault on what they perceive to be the liberal consensus in educational ideology, and the left-bias (which they characterise as ‘Marxism’ of teachers)

In response to NUT policy on fascism (see below), the BNP launched an assault on teachers in 2004. This included intimidation and threats of delegates to NUT conference. Several teachers were also physically attacked and injured in Oldham and elsewhere. The BNP issued statements on their website which condemned the “multi-cultural brainwashing programme” and “bullying” promoted by  NUT “idiots and anti-white bigots” (BNP, 2004a), whilst insisting that sensible teachers do not support “things like welcoming asylum seekers, teaching Islam in schools and telling primary school kids that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle choice” (ibid.). They issued a series of questions to teachers by way of a challenge to anti-racism. You may feel it is the responsibility of all – teachers, students, or anyone interested in education – to be able to counter this kind of racism. Thus, though they may be absurd and risible on every level, it is perhaps worth considering some responses to this selection of the BNP’s questions:

“Why is it bad that white people colonised Asia and Africa, but good that Asians and Africans now dominate cities like London, Birmingham and Bradford?”

“If all cultures are equally valid, do you agree that strict Islamic countries are right to force women to cover themselves up and to ban them from driving? If not, are the British National Party wrong to oppose the Islamification of our country?”

“Why do people worry about rare beetles or butterflies or tribes of Amazon Indians becoming extinct but think that it's a good thing for mass immigration to destroy the native people of Britain?”

“Why do Communist teachers use the crimes of Hitler's Nazis to put people off nationalist parties like the BNP, but say nothing about the far larger numbers of innocent people murdered by Stalin and other Communists in Eastern Europe at the same time?”

(BNP, 2004a)

Let’s look next at the view of Leading BNP member Tony Wentworth in an article entitled The failure of the modern classroom, published on the BNP website in 2005. If we believe that it is right to counter racism, we should also face head-on the positions held by those such as Wentworth who wrap up extremist white supremacism in the ‘common-sense’ language of populist moral outrage. Take a look at the following extracts and consider how you might respond to these statements:

“This dialogue is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how nationalists feel about education in contemporary Britain. While it does not cover all aspects of BNP education policy it does go a long way in explaining many issues that are ignored by the mass media and our education system.”

“Take 'Black History Month' for example. It is taught within the context of the achievements of Black/Asian people as a race(s). The chattering-class liberals complain that youngsters learn too much about White historical figures, e.g. Shakespeare etc. But what they fail to point out is that the teaching of these subjects is not done within the context of the achievement of White people as a race. This is why we call for a White History Month - so White youngsters can learn about and be proud of the achievements of their race, whether they be British or European and their innovations through out the history of humankind. This is what BHM teaches both White and non-White youngsters - the history of the Black race, as a race - so I feel that children should be taught about the history and achievements of White people - as a race.”

“[B]lame for… [criminal] behaviour doesn't take a lot of looking for. They are products of the 'trendy' teaching that has dominated our classrooms since the late 1970's. With corporal punishment banned, thanks to our absurd "human rights" laws, the nicey nicey approach that teachers are forced to take and the totally inadequate powers that the courts and these social workers we call the police have to deal with them is it any wonder many young people will amount to nothing?”

“I agree that some kind of sex education is necessary, but the teaching of homosexuality in schools is wholly unnecessary as the homosexual population of the UK is so tiny... Of course, the classroom isn't entirely to blame for the disturbing trends with young people and sex, pregnancy and abortion. The mass media has played it part, too. I refuse to own a television and will not allow my daughter to watch it either because quite frankly I find it poisonous to young people's minds… [T]he trash that today passes as 'music' on our airwaves and the gutter culture of MTV, terrestrial soaps and reality TV shows, the utter filth and irrelevance that passes as 'news' in our red-top tabloids have all played their part in turning the minds of your young people to mush.”

“I agree that arming youngsters with the facts is essential, but they are not being armed with facts; they are being armed with politically correct fairy tales about how 'wonderful' our "diverse" society is. Hence the need to criminalise those who expose the multi racial/cultural nightmare for what it really is - a disastrous failed experiment that is leading a once great nation into oblivion.”

(Wentworth, 2005)

It is also well worth considering the BNP’s education policy because of the way in which many of the forms of racialisation we have discussed in this module are integrated into its populist call for an authoritarian education system which could be supported by many a ‘man in the pub’. It is interesting to note that this neo-fascist policy includes several elements with which you may agree. Your task is to put them into historical context and to approach them using the tools of critical analysis provided by the theorists we have discussed in this module:

“We are against the 'trendy' teaching methods that have made Britain one of the most poorly educated nations in Europe. These are based upon neo-Marxist egalitarianism, which has done untold damage both to the fabric of our nation and to an entire generation whose average level of attainment is now lower than before the introduction of universal state education. We reject egalitarianism, and base our plans for the education system on the scientific fact that different individuals are born with different abilities and potentials.”

“We will end the practice of politically correct indoctrination in all its guises and restore discipline in the classroom, give authority back to teachers and put far greater emphasis on training young people in the industrial and technological skills necessary in the modern world.”

“We will also seek to instil in our young people knowledge of and pride in the history, cultures, and heritage of the native peoples of Britain.”

“We will fight tooth and nail against the looming catastrophe of forced integration within secondary schools… in which pupils from different ethnic minorities are mixed through bussing schemes which will rightly be resented and resisted by all communities.”

“Key Policies on Primary & Secondary Schooling

1. All staff at teacher training colleges will face compulsory re-evaluation and re-training. The egalitarian and anti-British dogmas that have betrayed a generation will be rooted out and replaced with a commitment to competition, excellence and British culture…

5. We will replace the study of world history and cultures with a predominant emphasis on the history of the British Isles, English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish culture, and their relation to Western Civilization as a whole.  We will prohibit all curricular pandering to the cultures of immigrants….

17. We will re-introduce assemblies based on traditional Christian values and worship.”

(BNP, 2005)

In addition the BNP would seek to staff classrooms with retired teachers whom they believe might be more sympathetic to their politics. “We would end all recruitment of teachers from Teacher Training Colleges where discipline is disparaged and traditional teaching methods are not taught exclusively. Instead BNP-controlled Education Authorities will take on retired teachers with at least 30 years experience and get them to train new teachers ‘hands-on’ in the classroom”. (BNP, 2006, p.9) The shutting down of all existing ITT providers, to be replaced with training institutions dedicated to ‘traditional’ discipline, presumably under the strictest of control from the centre is truly a vision of a fascist education regime. The idea that all those teachers who were trained in the sixties and seventies and have recently retired would be willing to come back and teach in the classroom is simply laughable, and particularly ironic given that, even if they did, many of them would be far more progressive and liberal than their younger counterparts, given the period of time within which they trained and worked!

On a more threatening note, BNP councillors who actually have some influence in the way schools are run in their boroughs are committed to “end, or oppose the introduction of the teaching of Asian languages to classes containing any native British children. Once pupils have attained basic literacy and numeracy skills, there is a good case for giving them lessons in British Sign Language so that they can communicate with deaf people of all backgrounds, but everyone living in our country should have to learn English.” (BNP, 2006, p.9) The implication of this is not just opposition to Asian languages but to all foreign language teaching – the only additional language worth learning being BSL. Further, in a move to segregate Asian, Black and minority ethnic students from their white peers, and in an echo of the language of sixty years ago, the BNP declare that “[w]here foreign pupils have not achieved a satisfactory standard of English, they should be taught separately rather than being allowed to drag down standards and hold back native English-speakers” (BNP, 2006, p.9). The discourse of the pollution of Britishness is evident in the restatement of the racist position that the presence of non-white children will ‘drag down’ the standards of the more intelligent ‘race’. The BNP manifesto reeks of nostalgia for a more ordered society where each ‘race’ and class knew its place, a school system where ‘smacking’ was the answer for misbehaviour, and the early twentieth century (and distinctly fascist) obsession with hygiene as a means of controlling and regulating the working class and ‘lesser races’ is recalled with their demand for the reinstatement of the ‘nit-nurse’ and her regular head-lice checks.

We finish by examining some of the responses to the increasing influence of nationalism and racism in schools in pockets of the country. On May 4 2004, John Crace reported in the Guardian on the situation in Halifax. His article is worth quoting at length as it offers a careful look at the way in which the legitimisation of the BNP through political processes in a climate of media-fuelled xenoracism has had an effect in schools:

“It's circle time for year 5 at a primary school on the outskirts of Halifax. Each child is asked to describe their idea of a good time. One 10-year-old replies: "Getting on my bike and kicking the fucking shit out of a bunch of fucking Pakis." The teacher registers little sense of shock; he's heard it all too often before. He tries to get the boy to recognise just how offensive he has been, but he knows he's fighting a losing battle. "You come up against this type of behaviour almost every day," says Peter, the teacher, who has asked not to be identified. "Kids regularly use racist language in schools. 'Paki' has become such a common term of abuse that you even find white kids using it to insult one another. One kid has a swastika cut into his hair, and many kids decorate their exercise books with racist graffiti. Playground fights between whites and Asians are also commonplace. It's an extremely uncomfortable environment to work in and all you can really do is firefight on a session- by-session basis."

Racism is one of the last taboos of the education system. Ask to talk to a head about drugs, sex or violence in school and you'll be given chapter and verse. But ask to talk about racism in schools in flashpoint areas and the phone line goes cold. Not one of the headteachers we approached even returned our call.

"I told you so," says Sue McMahon, secretary of the Calderdale branch of the National Union of Teachers. "The official line is that there isn't a problem. In extreme cases, pupils at secondary school will be excluded for racist behaviour, but at primary level all incidents are dealt with in-house, so there's a natural tendency for schools to gloss over or under-report some behaviour. Our members frequently report back to me with horror stories, but when you see the official log of all racist incidents - which schools are obliged to complete - you usually find it blank. Schools just don't want to be stigmatised by racism in any way."

McMahon can pinpoint the moment when racism in schools took off in her neck of the woods. "It was January 25, 2003," she says, "the day Adrian Marsden, the first BNP councillor in Calderdale, was elected in the Mixenden ward of Halifax. The day is scarred on my brain." Since then, Calderdale has acquired two further BNP candidates - Richard Mulhall, who was elected in Illingworth, and Geoffrey Wallace, who defected from the Tories in the same ward. "It's as if their election through the ballot box legitimised racism."

(Crace, 2004)

The incidence of racist assaults both inside an outside of school also increases in areas where the BNP has become a recognized part of social life, with West Yorkshire Police figures showing “a year-on-year 21% rise in the number of racist incidents in Calderdale - an increase comparable with Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, where the BNP also has a presence” (ibid.). Crace focuses on the targeting of schoolchildren for BNP campaigning, via school-gate leafleting by parents and older children. The BNP recognise the importance of promulgating their ideology among children and teenagers whose life experiences may be limited, but whose dedication to a black-and-white worldview shores up the old categories of biological ‘race’ and reproduces patterns of societal and institutional racism. Also important in terms of influence in schools is the placement of BNP members as parent governors on schools’ governing bodies, and the increasing confidence some teachers have to declare their allegiance to the BNP, and to deny the Holocaust (ibid.).

A great effort to combat the BNP’s influence in schools has been made by the NUT. The British National Party has developed a loathing of the Union, ludicrously issuing a statement naming the NUT as “a communist front group for the Socialist Workers Party whose membership composes of convicted criminals and political fanatics, [and who] are a well known subversive organisation. They are a relic of the communist movements of the nineteen sixties and one of the last bastions of unreconstructed Stalinism in Britain”! (British National Party 2004b)

This tirade was launched in response to the NUTs policy accepted at conference in 2004, which reads, in part:

“Conference is disturbed by the escalation in levels of racism and intolerance within the communities that have BNP councillors.

Conference is appalled by the education policies of the BNP as these threaten the multicultural comprehensive ideals in our schools and learning communities.  Further, the material that the BNP peddles in our schools and communities engenders fear and hatred throughout the community. 

Conference congratulates the TUC in conjunction with Searchlight on their work in this area, and agrees to support it in all ways possible.

Conference therefore calls upon the Executive to:

1.       disseminate the best practice of the TUC and Searchlight to Divisions and Associations in combating the far right;

2.       provide advice and support to those Divisions where BNP Councillors are elected, particularly when they serve on committees that make decisions about education and youth work;

3.       provide advice and support to Divisions and Associations where BNP members including councillors are school governors or are standing for election to be school governors;

4.       provide advice and support to our members where racist propaganda and activities are directed at pupils and teachers;

5.       continue to campaign for the closure of the ‘Redwatch’ and all associated internet sites.”

            (National Union of Teachers, 2004)

References

Please note, BNP articles below can best be accessed by using a web archive facility such as http://www.archive.org/index.php and entering the url into the search engine.

Barking & Dagenham Recorder (2006) ‘'Racist' BNP foiled over school ban’ Barking & Dagenham Recorder, December 13 2006, http://www.bdrecorder.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=NewsBarkDag&itemid=WeED13%20Dec%202006%2022:37:27:990&tBrand=RECOnline&tCategory=search

British National Party (2004a) Twelve Questions to ask a NUTty teacher,  http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/nutty_teacher.htm

British National party (2004b) NUT protects pervert teachers, http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/2004_april/news_apr32.ht

Brown, G. (2007) ‘Why the BNP is Still Fascist’, What Next? 31, pp.29-32

British National Party (2005) Education for a British Future, http://www.bnp.org.uk/candidates2005/manifesto/manf8.htm

British National Party (2006) ‘Education – End Trendy Failure’, British National Party Council Election Manifesto 2006, pp.9-10 available online at http://www.bnp.org.uk/election2006/manifesto2006.pdf

Casciani, D. (2008) BNP gains from Labour disaffection, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7382831.stm

Copsey, N. (2004) Contemporary British fascism : the British National Party and the quest for legitimacy, Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, pp.87-93, 144-150

Copsey, N. (2007) ‘Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999-2006’ Patterns of Prejudice, 41 (1) pp 61 – 82

Copsey, N. (2008) Contemporary British fascism : the British National Party and the quest for legitimacy. Second Edition, Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan

Crace, J. (2004) ‘Booted and Suited’, The Guardian, Tuesday 4 May, http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,5500,1208556,00.html

Drake, B. (2007) ‘Suited and Jackbooted: Behind the Hype, the BNP are Still a Fascist Party’, What Next? 31, pp.28-29

Eatwell, R. (2004) ‘The Extreme Right in Britain: The long road to ‘modernization’’, in Eatwell, R. & Mudde, C. (Eds.) Western Democracies and the New Extreme Right Challenge, London: Routledge

Griffin, N. (2003) The BNP: Anti-asylum protest, racist sect or power-winning movement? http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/race_reality.htm

McKibben, A. (2007) ‘Is the BNP Nazi? No, it’s Worse: It isn’t’, What Next? 31, pp.26-27

National Union of Teachers (2004) ‘Racism and the Rise of the British National Party (BNP)’, Resolutions Passed at Annual Conference 2004 Equal Opportunities Section, http://www.teachers.org.uk/resources/word/2004AnnualConfResolutions.doc

Press Association (17.7.2006) ‘Teachers call for ban on BNP members in class’, Education Guardian

Press Association (23.4.2009) ‘Archbishop of York condemns BNP 'bloodless genocide in UK' claims’, Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/23/bnp-nick-griffin-race

Tyndall, J. (1998) The Eleventh Hour: a call for British rebirth, London : Albion Press,

Wentworth, T. (2005) The failure of the modern classroom, http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/rebeccareply.htm