The big BNP members list free-for-all

News over here that a list of members of the BNP was leaked on a blog came whilst I'm in the midst of some kind of illness. (For the non-British readers, they're the far-right wing 'political' party born out of the thugs of the National Front - I won't link to them, but I will link to Wikipedia instead.) Now, having had 14 hours of sleep today to try and beat this illness off, I'm wide awake at 00:30, so I decided to check the list out; firstly with the rather excellent BNP Member Proximity Search, and subsequently at a website setup solely to host the list (so that I could get more details).

Regarding the membership of political parties, I can say this: it's one thing to vote for a party, it's quite another to give them your cash in the form of membership. These aren't people who've dallied with the vote in elections, these are people who've said, "YES! I subscribe to your views in your pamphlet! I want to carry a card in my wallet to show how like-minded we are!"

Having ties to both Pontypridd and Gloucester I was interested to see what both locations have to offer in racists. I'm pleased that Pontypridd can only offer two paid-up racists, one in the midst of a (former) council estate, the other in a vaguely better area. There are more BNP members around in neighbouring towns, but they are few.

Gloucester offered up a few more shocks though. I was expecting much more there because, from my own experience, Gloucester is a far more volatile place than Ponty, and it's significantly bigger. I wasn't expecting the spectrum of membership though.

A man living two doors away from my grandfather's house (despite having died a quarter of a century ago, I still think of it as his house, not least because the current owners still have the same front door) is a card-carrying member, as is someone a couple of streets away. These people are a white-supremacist's stone's throw from my mum's house.

Also, the foreman of the Crematorium in Gloucester is listed. I'd prefer it if the care of the plaques for my dead relatives weren't in the hands of someone who believes that merely by being white they're better than someone else. If my surname was Patel, I'd be VERY concerned about it.

Shock of the lot was that the former Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in Cheltenham (Gloucester's more affluent neighbour) is now a member of the BNP. To go from a nice, pro-planet party that my mum votes for regularly to one so unpleasant is just weird...

Anyway, the list is now out of the box and won't go back in - although the BNP would like to think it can, and will try and play European Human Rights legislation (even though they hate Europe) to get their way, but now the list is on Wikileaks, torrents and a whole load of people's computers, they don't stand a chance. Them's the breaks.