Bring on the BNP - out of the shadows

I detest fascism and hate racism. But the election for the first time of two members of the British National Party (BNP) to the European Parliament I welcome, rather than oppose for knee jerk emotional reasons. Democracy isn't  always pretty.

As chief Times leader writer Daniel Finkelstein, a Jewish journalist and former Social Democratic and then Conservative political candidate, said on BBC television last night: "A lot of British people are racist. I know because I have met them on the doorstep when I canvassed as a candidate. They'd say to me 'I'm not racist but I hate Black people.'"