ENB vs BNP
The Latest News || Saturday, 6 January, 2007
Controversy continues to surround English National Ballet (ENB) dancer Simone Clarke and her membership of the far right political party the BNP (British National Party).
Ms Clarke, a principal dancer with the ENB, has been a member of the party for over 18 months, citing concerns over immigration issues as her primary reason for joining. Thus far some reports have stated that ENB management is receiving requests to sack Ms Clarke.
One report has also suggested she was 'confronted' by other dancers prior to a performance of the company's recent run of The Nutcracker.
Just being a member of the party puts the dancer in direct opposition to the Race Relations Act 2000 which ENB is obliged to comply with because they are a publicly funded dance company. Arts Council England (ACE) provides over £6million(GBP) to the company every year. Whether of not the act itself requires employees with questionable political affiliations to be dismissed is unclear.
The BNP is known in the UK for its often racist immigration policy, intimidation tactics and possible connections to violent extremist groups although the party denies any connection to groups that use violence or intimidation against ethnic minorities.
For its part the BNP has remained silent on the issue and no mention of Ms Clarke can be found on their website, at least not one that we could find.
One section of the BNP’s policy on immigration reads as follows;
“To ensure that we do not become a minority in our own homeland, and that the native British peoples of our islands retain their culture and identity, we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of all bogus asylum seekers, all criminal entrants and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants and their descendants who are legally here are afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question.”
Such a policy is in direct contradiction to Article 14 of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights however and as such would be unenforceable even if the BNP became the majority party in the UK.
Thus far ENB has described Ms Clark’s decision to be a member of the BNP as a “private” matter and the implications on freedom of speech and expression if Ms Clarke is sacked are unclear. (somewhat ironically covered by Article 19 of the same human rights charter after which this publication is named)
At present the BNP is not an illegal organisation and the party has several elected officials in office at local government level.
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