Author: Rashmee Z Ahmed
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 26, 2002
Some days after the election successes
of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Britain is fearful that the
far-right British National Party (BNP) might make gains in next month's
local authority elections.
With local elections just a town
days away, leading British politicians and race relations activists are
warning that the French presidential poll was a "wake-up call" for Britain.
On Tuesday, an alarmed Gurbux Singh,
head of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned in an open letter to
Prime Minister Blair that the BNP could capitalise on Le Pens success in
the May 2 UK local elections.
Leading members of Blair's party,
including former foreign secretary Robin Cook and party chairman Charles
Clarke have admitted there is a "localised" threat from the British far
right.
The BNP, however, is generally considered
a potential threat across the English regions. Its Oxford-educated leader
Nick Griffin, admitted to this paper in an earlier interview that his party
had to build an image as had the French far-right.
After September 11, Griffin began
to build bridges and extend his party's appeal even to minority, non-Christian
communities such as Sikhs and Hindus by publicly proclaiming that he was
opposed only to Muslims.
Griffin, in concert with a few angry
young Sikh in the Punjabi dominant Southall area of London started
to issue posters and cassettes asking Sikhs and Hindus to boycott Muslims.
Immigration, asylum, multi-faith
schools and integration have long been urgent issues in a Britain that
officially calls itself multi-cultural even though ethnic minorities account
for just 6.5 per cent of its total population.
The BNP vote percentage in those
constituencies at the last general election was an unprecedented over-10
per cent.
Blair's Labour Party may do badly
in the local polls.