Another BNP Own Goal, by Rose Whittaker.
(c) 2009 LMHR – do not reproduce without permission.
What do a bisexual black man, a Jewish immigrant from Poland and two Russian Jews have in common? They all appear on the nazi BNP’s Battle of Britain CD. Jewish immigants Irving Berlin, Bud Flanagan and Joe Loss and black artists The Four Vagabonds and Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson have songs included on the compilation, which has been put out by the to raise money for their campaign to get elected to the European Parliament.
It’s the last place you’d expect to find a collection of people the BNP would clearly rather do away with than promote in their latest patriotic offering. But that’s because the BNP has used songs whose copyrights have expired, without the artists’ permissions (and without doing their homework and finding out who the artists actually are).
The CD has already attracted legal threats from Dame Vera Lynn, after they included her singing “White Cliffs of Dover” and “’All Alone in Vienna” on the CD.
Ironically, this attempt by the BNP to appeal to the nationalism of the World War Two era only serves to remind us that the BNP would’ve been on Hitler’s side during that war and it’s leader, Nick Griffin, interned by the British forces like his predecessor, Oswald Mosley, was. Those who fought in that war were fighting against the very thing that the BNP stands for.
But the BNPs hypocrisy, or indeed its stupidity, doesn’t stop there. They have been upsetting (and in some cases enraging) musicians up and down the country by using their music on fundraising CDs.
Jon Boden, fiddler for folk singer Kate Rusby, is reportedly carrying an ANL sticker around on his case after discovering that fuhrer Nick Griffin has been showing up at Rusby’s gigs. Another folk artist, Phil Beer, is trying to get a BNP British folk album removed from the BNP website after discovering his songs on it.
Cu Chulainn – Over an Hour of Irish Folk, was being sold on the BNP’s online store until a week ago. It was removed after anti-fascists highlighted this unlikely alliance between the BNP and the struggle for Northern Ireland. The album contains ‘Back Home in Derry’ by IRA member and political prisoner, Bobby Sands and other Irish rebel songs.
It’s likely that the only reason more of the artists featured on the CDs haven’t vented their disgust is that they are unaware they are being used to promote the BNP.
Apparently it doesn’t matter whether artists and their songs are against everything the BNP stands for. They may still be bootlegged and used to fund the BNP’s fascist filth.
