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

‘Islamic fundamentalism is something that, if it stays here, will undoubtedly transform our society. You can have Islamic fundamentalism or you can have democracy. You can’t have both. You can have Islamic fundamentalism or you can have women’s rights. You can’t have both. We’ve got to decide. I’m not necessarily saying that our ways are superior to those of Islam. In many ways they do things better than us, in my opinion. For example, they’ll cut the hands off five or six thieves a year, and as a result virtually none of their elderly folk are burgled in their own home by some scumbag who pushes them over and they die from shock a year later. So we’re squeamish about five scumbags having their hands cut off, and we’re not at all squeamish about hundreds of our pensioners dying in misery as a result of a few scumbags running around. Islam can teach us a lot. But unfortunately Islam is essentially incompatible with too many of our own values — and vices.’

But Mr Griffin remains cheerful. ‘Government figures show that by 2060 we’ll be a minority in this country. At present, the ethnic minorities comprise around 10 per cent of the population. So if we move now it certainly isn’t too late. If we shut the door tomorrow it would help. While there’s 10 per cent, 15 per cent or even 20 per cent, there’s still time on a Europe-wide basis to slam on the brakes quietly and peacefully and by negotiation and consent persuade some to go back — as liberal Holland has done recently. The best we can do then is cut the numbers to a sensible proportion and make sure that the people who are here become as British as they can be.’

He sounded so very reasonable and moderate that I quoted Mr Howard’s assertion, when he spoke in Burnley last month, that the BNP ‘preaches a message of racism, intolerance and brutality that flies in the face of this country’s history and heritage’. Was that right? I wondered. Perhaps, I suggested to Mr Griffin, racism, intolerance and brutality had defined our country’s history and heritage; perhaps these attributes, along with philistinism, drunkenness and child abuse, are what is meant by English culture.