@AC

"What is your opinion on religious people working in the health service? Large number of doctors are Muslims and Christians, hardly harboring the most tolerent of views towards homosexuals and transgendered people who they need to offer comfort and lifesaving care to."

Just because you are muslim or christian doesn't mean that you aren't tolerant to others choices , nor that you believe the whole story.

I think it's wrong that people are banned from any particular political party but I see no problem with banning someone from public service if their actions aren't compatible with public service. IE in this case it'd be wrong to fire someone because they are a member of the BNP but it wouldn't be wrong for the internal affairs/integrity commission to investigate people on the list to see if their actions aren't compatible with the public service.

Why do people support the BNP?

I have commented elsewhere in my role as an official of the Trade Union Solidarity. I've made it clear that we will take action to defend the rights of any of our members bullied by Bosses as a result of being on this list. There is no justification for employers converting this list into a blacklist. In a purely personal capacity, however, I would personally like to a few points.

Much media comment has focused on knee-jerk denunciation and vilification of the B.N.P. as racist without attempting to even ASK (let alone attempt to ANSWER) the question of WHY some people support it. Some of this, at least, is the work of politicians trying to deflect attention away from their own inadequacies. Some of it is journalistic laziness. I think that maximum emphasis should be placed on encouraging a debate about people`s MOTIVES for joining/supporting. There is evidence that this is already happening, but it requires as wide an audience as possible - and constant repetition.

One reason why many people sympathise with the B.N.P. in the textile towns of West Yorkshire and East Lancashire is simple hostility to change. They don`t like whole neighbourhoods where they grew up being transformed out of all recognition, pubs and churches closed, the de facto segregation of schools, local butchers dealing only in halal meat etc. The middle classes object to change as well, but they are allowed to defend their own environments in the name of conservation etc. But when the working classes try to do the same they are denounced as racists. It should be stressed too that such towns are mostly bi-cultural not multi-cultural – more like Belfast and Londonderry than Birmingham or London.

I hope that the publicity surrounding the publication of this list will lead to a much wider debate within our civic society between all those (of all political affilations) who are sincerely interested in harmony.