BNP: bankrupt leader of a bankrupt party

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/03/bnp-bankrupt-leader-nick-griffin

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An extreme right breakthrough in British politics is sometimes predicted, especially at times of economic uncertainty and unfairness. The alarm is always sounded with great sincerity – Tony Benn's repeated warnings of a post-crash British National party revival in his recently published Last Diaries are a case in point.

Nevertheless, the lurch to the extremes never quite seems to follow the Cassandras' script. Contrary to Mr Benn's predictions, the racist BNP – "Wishing you a White Christmas" is one seasonal slogan on its website – has not been able to benefit from the general low esteem for mainstream politics since the financial crash, while even the current furore about immigration has failed to revive its fortunes.

Frustration with the political class has certainly benefited Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Ukip, but has done little for the more traditional extremes of either the right or the left. Friday's news from Welshpool and Newtown county court, where Nick Griffin, the party's only vaguely recognisable national figure, was declared bankrupt because of his failure to pay his legal debts, will surely postpone the prospect of a BNP breakthrough a little further. Not since PG Wodehouse's Roderick Spode, leader of the Black Shorts, was exposed as the founder of a ladies' lingerie business has an extreme-right man of destiny opened himself to such derision. Yet Mr Griffin's debts are merely the latest of many BNP humiliations.

Following its successes in the 2009 European and local elections, almost nothing has gone well for the BNP. Mr Griffin's infamous appearance on Question Time in 2009 was a public relations disaster, not the boost that some feared. The party has since split into factions, faced financial crisis, put forward fewer candidates and lost votes in places where it once hoped tomorrow belonged to the BNP. Characteristically, Mr Griffin was blustering on Friday about being re-elected to the European parliament in May. But recent BNP electoral performances suggest he will have a hard job. Let's hope so. Mr Griffin is the bankrupt leader of a bankrupt movement, while the BNP is a political spittoon.

However, 2014 could prove a successful year for parties that blame others for their countries' misfortunes. Across Europe, xenophobic parties, unmistakably of the extreme right, will enter the May elections with better prospects than the BNP. Ukip may not be a party of the extreme right but has tapped some of the same feelings and the anti-political anger highlighted in the Guardian's recent poll. A challenge to mainstream parties – and one that some, like the Conservatives, have not faced with either principle or distinction.

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