Britain’s most reviled man

27 March 2004

Jeremy Clarke talks to the BNP leader Nick Griffin, and is a bit shocked by his moderation

‘The answer to that is no, I can’t define it,’ he said. ‘The phrase was invented by Leon Trotsky, so it’s a piece of political cant invented for political purposes to demonise opponents. The standard party response to “Are we racist?” used to be “If by that you mean do we stand up for our own people, then yes we are.” A far more accurate response would be “Define your terms.” Then if you say that a racist is someone who hates people, then the answer is no, we’re not. It’s a term that has been pushed down people’s throats for so long it’s like Pavlov’s dog. The bell rings, dog salivates. Hear the word “racist”, mind shuts off. It’s a term of abuse that actually doesn’t have any meaning at all — even less than “fascist” or “Nazi”, which at least can have a technical and accurate meaning.’

‘Who asked us whether we wanted to go multicultural?’ I said. ‘Who asked us?’ This is another question that has been niggling me for a long time. ‘Nobody,’ said Mr Griffin. ‘And all the indications are that had we been directly asked about a multicultural society in a referendum, we’d have said no. Nonetheless, we’ve accepted it at the polls at every general election since Macmillan and that “never had it so good” speech. So we haven’t a moral right to turn around now and say, “Right — you people out,” because effectively, by our acquiescence, we’ve accepted them being invited in. Of course, we can only put up with mass immigration if numbers are at such a level that we retain our culture and our homeland, which every people and every nation have a right to, and the newcomers don’t want to change our society into something else.