We’ve been so preoccupied with the lavish expenditures of our MP’s, that the rise of right-wing fascism has largely gone unnoticed. On June the 4th,the British National Party will only need 8% of the vote to break into the European Parliament. A figure made all the more frightening by the fact that this is a party where its outspoken leader Nick Griffin was found guilty of inciting racial hatred in 1998, and charged with the same crime in 2004.

The BNP have tried to rebrand itself as a defender of free speech and the ‘right’ party for ‘British people’. But do not for one minute believe they have given up on their bigoted and racist tendencies. It is still a party where its leader denounced Islam as a ‘monster’, where he also claimed the extermination of over six million Jews was ‘allied wartime propaganda’, ‘and latter day witch-hysteria’. It is a party which breeds violence and intolerance in a country which represents acceptance and equality.

The threat to our democracy is very real. By exploiting the growing dissatisfaction with the economy, fears of globalisation, and Euro-scepticism this ultra fascist party has alarmingly become the fourth largest political contender in the country. A study from the Institute of Community Cohesion claims that one in thirty British voters voted for the BNP in the 2008 elections. The rise in popularity means in just under a weeks time, Nick Griffins who has openly refused to accept members from the Asian and Black community as British, preferring to use the term ‘bloodless genocide’ or the more watered down ‘ racial foreigners’,could represent the United Kingdom in Strasburg.

The last time a fascist leader was given a chance in global politics, we saw the systematic murder of millions of people who were deemed unfit to live on the basis of his flawed theory of a ‘Master Race’.

We cannot afford to make the same mistake again. The BNP stands for hatred, oppression and ugly nationalism. One seat in June will be a seat too many.

Laya Sasikumar