The British National Party has voted to scrap its whites-only membership rules after an extraordinary general meeting. BBC.

Utterly pointless they’re still racists – does anyone really believe black and Asian people are going to join.

“We had to do it (change the constitution) for legal reasons. Many of our members think it’s a good thing.

“A lot of people said we should have done it some time ago but that’s really by the by.

“Our problem with this is a government funded, taxpayer-funded quangos telling people who they can and can’t associate with, [which] is a fundamental outrage.

“Nevertheless, we recognise legal reality, so we have done it and now, for one thing, they can’t call us racist any more.” Nick Griffin, BNP Leader.

But we can – the BNP is nothing but a bunch of racists.

There’s been another leak of the BNP membership

The list, which purports to be a snapshot of the party’s support in April this year, includes the names, addresses, postcodes and telephone numbers of people who have signed up to the far-right group, including the grade of membership assigned by the party – standard, family, family plus, gold, OAP, and unwaged. Robert Booth, Helen Pidd and Paul Lewis, The Guardian.

The list of arseholes can be found at Wikileaks.

Here’s two photos’ the first is from Microsoft’s US website the second is from Microsoft’s Polish website.

Did you spot the difference? Of course you did – Microsoft has replaced the face of the man in the middle – so one of the world’s largest companies is still riddled with racists. No it’s not an error of judgment if you aren’t racist then there’s no judgment to be made.

Source: BBC.

A London council has described children of Pakistani origin who attend the borough’s schools as “Pakis”. The term appears in an official council document that provides a breakdown of the ethnic background of pupils at the borough’s schools. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

First it was a simple error (sic)

“The council is aware that a document produced by an early years development worker does contain abbreviations of various ethnic minority groups, however this was due to a computer error. The full titles were inputted correctly into the database but had been reduced due to the size of the cells. This was automatically done by the computer and was not displayed on the screen but was apparent when printed”. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

And then it wasn’t

However, the word “Pakis” does not appear at the edge of the spreadsheet where half of “Pakistani” might have been chopped off but on lines with plenty of space or where other words follow it.

Later, the council said human error was involved and the manager of the council’s Sure Start programme had investigated. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

What does this say about the culture at Redbridge Council – the use of racist language is commonplace – vote Tory and BNP and this is what you will get.

The UK’s equalities watchdog has begun legal action against the British National Party over concerns about ethnic restrictions on its membership.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said limiting membership to those of an “ethnic origin” described as “indigenous Caucasian” was illegal.

It has issued proceedings against BNP leader Nick Griffin and two officials. BBC.

Why has the Equality and Human Rights Commission waited until now? The BNP is racist full stop and it’s certainly not suddenly changed its membership criteria.

My knowledge of women’s history is sadly sketchy and outside of anything taught in state schools appalling. My response to the news story that Mary Seacole is having a memorial statue erected is probably the same as you – who was Mary Seacole. So doing my small bit for women’s history here’s start of her Wikipedia entry.

Mary Jane Seacole (1805 – 14 May 1881), sometimes known as Mother Seacole or Mary Grant, was a Jamaican-born multiracial British nurse best known for her involvement in the Crimean War. She set up and operated boarding houses in Panama and Crimea to assist in her desire to treat the sick. Seacole was taught herbal remedies and folk medicine by her mother, who kept a boarding house for disabled European soldiers and sailors.

Confident that her knowledge of tropical medicine could be useful, and after hearing of poor medical provisions for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, she travelled to London to volunteer as a nurse. Relying on her experience in the Caribbean, she applied to the War Office and asked to be sent as an army assistant to the Crimea. She was refused, mainly because of prejudice against women’s involvement in medicine at the time.

The British Government later decided to permit women to travel to the affected area, but she was not included in the party of 38 nurses chosen by Florence Nightingale. Instead, she borrowed money to make the 4,000-mile (about 6500 km) journey by herself. She distinguished herself treating battlefield wounded, often nursing wounded soldiers from both sides while under fire. When the conflict ended in 1856 she found herself stranded and almost destitute, and was only saved from adversity by friends from the Crimean War who organised a benefit concert. In later years, she expressed a desire to work in India after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but was unable to raise the necessary funds.

Seacole was lauded in her lifetime, alongside Florence Nightingale, but after her death she was forgotten for almost a century. Today, she is noted for her bravery and medical skills and as “a woman who succeeded despite the racial prejudice of influential sections of Victorian society”. Her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, is a vivid account of her experiences, and is one of the earliest autobiographies of a mixed-race woman. Wikipedia.

The New Your Post had been obsessed with the shooting of a pet chimpanzee that had viciously attacked the owners friend, how that ends up in this cartoon though is shocking – portraying Obama as a chimpanzee is racist – but you didn’t need me to tell you that.

Source: The Guardian.

Steve Doughty and James Slack are nothing but racist scum in The Daily Mail they write:

However although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants. Source: Daily Mail.

Oh I’m trying so hard not to swear.

Hat Tip: Liberal Conspiracy.

I personally don’t find the word Golliwog acceptable, I was born in a time and a place when it was often used as a term of abuse, Carol Thatcher thinks it OK if you’re joking.

The corporation said it had hoped Thatcher would issue an unconditional apology but she had declined to do so.

Her spokesman told The Times she made the remark in a conversation with the show’s presenter Adrian Chiles back stage and it was “meant as a joke”.

“Carol never intended any racist comment,” he said.

“She made a light aside about this tennis player and his similarity to the golliwog on the jam pot when she was growing up.

“There’s no way, obviously, that she would condone any racist comment – we would refute that entirely. It would not be in her nature to do anything like that.

“It is disgusting that we’ve had a leak of private conversations in the green room – the BBC has more leaks than Thames Water.

“Carol is mortified that anyone should take offence at a silly joke. She has summarily apologised.” Source: BBC.

Mortified she’s lost a lucrative income more like. Still, Thatcher’s bad enough, but readers of The Daily Mail’s defy description, here’s one readers comment

Fact: A certain jam manufacturer used a gollywog image on it’s jars for many years.

Fact: We all know what a gollywogs hair looks like.

Fact: Some hairstyles are reminiscent of said gollywogs.

Fact: Carol Thatcher remarked on this.

Fact: Britain is no longer Great. Indeed, it is insane.
- Paul Weston, London UK, 03/2/2009 12:27 Source: The Daily Mail.

People like Weston make me ashamed of my country, in fact ashamed of the human race.

The Socialist Worker has created a chart showing occupations of BNP members from the leaked members list. Construction includes both workers and self employed.

Hat Tip: Lenin’s Tomb.