Stop the Peddlers of Hate

Searchlight is calling on the authorities to investigate whether the BNP's Racism Cuts Both Ways campaign is an incitement to racial hated. We believe that the BNP's 12-page glossy magazine and the accompanying website are a clear attempt to whip up racism through lies and selective reporting.

The BNP campaign claims to highlight examples of anti-white racism. In an introduction to the website section devoted to this campaign, party leader Nick Griffin calls it the "silent epidemic of racist targeting of indigenous Britons".

To back up his claims the BNP has released the names of 167 people who it claims are the victims of anti-white racism. In addition, it has published 200,000 copies of a glossy 12-page pamphlet, which it is distributing to every councillor and MP in the country. The party also claims that copies are being sent to all 18-year-olds in 50 key parliamentary constituencies.

The BNP claims that 167 white people have been the victims of racist murder over the past years but its evidence is totally inaccurate.

• FACT In only a handful of the 167 cases is there any clear indication of a racial motive.
• FACT In several cases the perpetrator was in fact white not black.
• FACT In other cases the perpetrators were part of mixed race groups, including whites, but the BNP only focuses on the white victims and black perpetrators.
• FACT The list includes several supposed racial murders where the alleged perpetrator has not actually been convicted.
• FACT Much of the BNP research was copied directly from the National Front website.

The BNP has twisted facts to make them fit its warped racist agenda. It doesn't care that it causes distress and anger to the families.

The BNP clearly sets out to whip up racial tensions. It hopes to make young people in particular angry and vengeful. It hopes to get people to join the BNP but it could just as easily be unleashing racist violence.

The BNP campaign is quite simply dangerous and the fascist party should be held to account. It is time for the authorities to act.

HOPE not hate was set up to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond. Over the past few years the British National Party has seriously contested council elections all over the country and achieved 55 councillors at district/borough level after the May 2008 local elections, though this has since fallen to 54. The BNP is now concentrating all its resources on the European elections, in the hope of getting Nick Griffin elected to the European Parliament. Once there, he would link up with other European fascist parties, to gain international influence and, above all, funding beyond the BNP's dreams. At Searchlight we want to make sure that people know the full story about who the BNP are and what they really stand for. The HOPE not hate website aims to do just that, serving the anti-fascist movement and providing up to date news, good practice and analysis.