Leaked BNP Membership List: Fishing in Troubled Waters
- BNP Membership List Published: Analysis of Legal Position for Blogs
- BNP Membership Data Loss: Further Implications
- Leaked BNP Membership List: Fishing in Troubled Waters
- I Don’t Care Who Is A BNP Member
Denials in the Press
There is already a denial in the Wakefield Express from the one of the named “clergy” who appears on the BNP “members list”:
Vicar denies BNP connection after appearing on leaked list of members:
Published Date: 19 November 2008
A WAKEFIELD vicar who was named on a leaked list of BNP members has denied having anything to do with the party.
The Rev Paul Barker, of Fox Court in Durkar, told the Express this afternoon: “I’m furious. I used to be on the mailing list but I have never been a member. I don’t know why my name has gone out on the list and I’m now considering the action I am going to take.”
Mr Barker is one of 81 people in Wakefield named on the list that was leaked by a former BNP party member.
The list, which dates from 2007, has the names, addresses, jobs and phone numbers of more than 10,000 people.
There are going to be a series of reactions to that, ranging from “he would say that, wouldn’t he” and “Christianity is one of the most intolerant religions in the history of religions” (quoted from a comment on Indymedia.org.uk) to “phew!”.
In fact if you reverse-lookup the phone number it comes up as a Complementary Medicine Company. Make of that what you will.
Any use of the detailed data about individuals is going to cause a lot of damage to a lot of innocent people. Consider that people move house in the UK every 5 to 7 years, then consider that this data is both padded out and almost a year old, and then work out how much of it is probably wrong. That is how much “collateral damage” may be caused.
A breakdown of numbers to the first half of a post code is about as detailed as I would go on interpreting this information.
It was “Bloggers” that did it, Mavis !
One familiar meme I can’t help noticing note is that the Telegraph – in classic cynically nihilistic big-media style – are reporting that the posting of the BNP data is due to “bloggers”:
They were exposed after bloggers posted around 10,000 names, together with home addresses, telephone numbers, jobs and even hobbies on the internet.
Not good enough, Mr Telegraph – that’s tarring all of us with the same brush again. Is your name Hazel Blurs or Andrew Spleen, maybe?
On the right I have today’s Daily Star Front Page, complete with whatshername celebrity-memorable in a surprisingly large (for the Star) bikini. From that I draw the conclusion that “Newspapers” – all of them – feature girls wearing not very much.
No – that wouldn’t be good enough either.
Categories: All WW, Comment, Media, News - Current Affairs, Political Blogging, Politics
I looked at the list and AFAICS there is no reference whatsoever that this is a list of politically affiliated people.
It is a list.
That’s all.
If there is another which states they are members of that party I did not find it.
For the sake of avoidance of doubt I rate the BNP as highly as I rate NL: could NL with their record of losing records be as much to blame about this as an ex party member of the BNP?
STB.
@ScotsToryB: I looked at the list and AFAICS there is no reference whatsoever that this is a list of politically affiliated people.
I think we’re past that now – enough confirmation is out there that it has a lot of members on it.
I’m going to do one post about membership distribution, then leave the story alone.
[...] displays a list of related posts that cut across categories and tags in the body of a single post (example [...]
[...] BNP members. From the little I know of The List, I’m not sure I’ll ever look at railway enthusiasts the same way again… Some [...]
There have been a number of threats made to the employment of those on the list. Leaving aside Employment Law this seems to me to amount to interference with the exercise of their right to freedom of association under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Further it would be difficult to argue that in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 2 of Article 11, the interference had been prescribed by law and had pursued a legitimate aim. Any member of our Union who is also in the BNP will be vigorously protected should they come under pressure from bullying employers in the same way we would a member of any other Party.
Currently only the Police and Prison Service ban members of the BNP. Such bans have yet to be properly tested by the Courts. Our Union takes the view that there are people of all political persuasions in those services yet only one viewpoint is deemed unacceptable. This is discriminatory. Only if there is actual evidence of wrongdoing should someone be subject to disciplinary procedures. Clearly there was nothing wrong with the behaviour of those listed as working as Prison Officers, policemen etc as there membership came as a shock.
As a Trade Union we will uphold our member’s employment rights and work to ensure that no-one in this country loses their livelihood due to this new McCarthyism.
Yours sincerely
Patrick Harrington
General Secretary
Solidarity Trade Union
http://www.solidaritytradeunion.org
Telephone: 07794486858
[Matt W: Direct donation / membership links edited]