The BNP’s appropriation of British institutions must be resisted

Hardly a day passes without Nick Griffin cosying up to a poster of Churchill and the Few. Valour provides potent nationalist imagery, but Griffin has no right to it – as his distinctly ambiguous stance on the Ghurkhas’ residency rights makes clear. This morning, senior officers, in conjunction with Nothing British, condemned Griffin’s opportunism:  

‘We, the undersigned, are increasingly concerned that the reputation of Britain’s Armed Services is being tarnished by political extremists who are attempting to appropriate it for their own dubious ends.

We deplore this trend for two reasons.

First, 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. Commonwealth soldiers, who comprise about 10% of the Services, represent an invaluable contribution to the success of Britain’s military, both in history and the current day.