Farooq Siddique - Let us follow Churchill, not the BNP

In two days time, it will be time to make our voice heard in the European and local elections on Thursday.

I fear that in our disdain for our current crop of politicians, we will end up boosting the British National Party, abdicating our collective responsibility to our society.

In October 1990, the BNP was described by the European Parliament's committee on racism and xenophobia as an "openly Nazi party".

The BNP wants to end non-white immigration, and would "persuade" the non-whites of the UK to leave. The BNP believes in biological racial differences that determine an individual. Its membership is restricted to "Indigenous Caucasian".

It wraps itself in the Union Jack, encouraging people to celebrate St George's day. Yet, if the BNP were in charge back then, today there would be no such thing as St George's Day. St George was born in Nocomedia, modern day Izmit in Turkey, which has been Muslim since 1337. His father was a Roman army official from Cappadocia, again in modern day Turkey. His mother was from Palestine. St George died in Lydda, in Palestine.

I believe the BNP has always been anti-Semitic.

In 1996 BNP leader Nick Griffin said that he did not believe that six million Jews were "gassed and turned into soup and lampshades". In 1997, Griffin referred to the gas chambers in Germany as "nonsense" and a "total lie".

I believe the BNP is blatantly anti-Islamic. The principle of hate remains the same.

In a channel four documentary in 2004 BNP Youth Leader Mark Collet said AIDS is "a friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it".

I think the BNP is characteristically opportunistic and hypocritical. If they secure any seats in Thursday's European elections they will have access to European funds.

One of the heroes of the BNP is Winston Churchill. But he was certainly no fan of theirs.

In 1941, Churchill, declaring war on Nazi Germany, said: "We know it will be hard; we expect it to be long, we cannot predict or measure its episodes or its tribulations. But one thing is certain, one thing is sure, one thing stands out stark and undeniable, massive and unassailable for all the world to see. We cannot see how deliverance will come or when it will come, but nothing is more certain that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth."

The problems that Churchill had hoped would be wiped out, are rising again not only in Europe but in the UK.

On the 68th anniversary of that speech, in our current apathy, let us not elect BNP candidates to the European Parliament.