Who are the real bully boys?

Much has been made of the leaking of BNP membership details onto the Web. I must confess I find myself in two minds on the matter: remember the old cartoons, where a character faced with a choice, sees an angelic version of himself pop up to promote what's right, only for a demonic version to then pop up and advocate a far nastier course of action? I feel like that.

My 'angel' says that this is wrong. How would I, as an SNP member, like to see Party records hacked into, and my details plastered all over the Internet? Now, there's a massive difference between a mainstream, peaceful, democratic SNP and the fascist bully-boy Nick Griffin and his cronies, and I'm proud to state my credentials, but I would get a little freaked out to see my address posted where literally anyone can find it. And if I wouldn't want it done to myself, why would I want it done to other people?

My 'devil', meanwhile, takes a different view. These people want to shut the door on asylum seekers fleeing persecution. They want to bribe immigrants into returning home and tie international aid to countries who take the people they throw out. They want to close the door on foreign imports, claiming to want a 'self-sufficient' Britain (how does that square with their 'quality not quantity' line, hmmmm?), and bring back corporal, and more seriously, capital punishment. They want to bring back the chain gang. They want to pull out troops from peace-keeping, humanitarian missions. They want to ban not just Halal, but also Kosher meat (anti-Semitic policies don't help dispel the 'Nazi' comparisons, now, do they?). They want to re-introduce academic segregation, which cuts off mobility prospects for thousands of kids which don't make the grade at 11. They also want to take back the Republic of Ireland. Yeek!

Basically, these aren't nice people. And the people who subscribe to these aims can't be pleasant either, so one could argue that we all have a right to know when these people live in our area. They want to create an ugly, ugly society led by racist, sexist, homophobic bigots. If they want to put a bit of stick about, why shouldn't they get something back? And besides, why don't they want to be named? Why is your party affiliation something you'd want to hide? What sort of organisation is it, that members don't want to admit to being a part of it?

And the list. Good grief. A Human Resources consultant - no doubt he sees us more as Resources than Human. Members and former members of the police - supposedly there to protect us all. But the most sickening one of all, and the point at which I closed the file and couldn't stand to read any further: a nurse.

A nurse. A profession built on compassion, with one of its members in this hateful, vicious group. How ill that made me feel.

And yet, my 'angel' wins the day. Why? Let me explain.

This naming-and-shaming, this outing, this plastering of people's names and addresses on the internet, putting the people on that list at risk of all sorts of threats, violence, intimidation, harassment and humiliation - all that shouldn't be the tactic of the anti-fascist. It's the approach of the hate-monger. It's the approach of the bully boy.

Those who are against the BNP are supposed to be against all of those things. And yet they're guilty of them now. In their struggle against an enemy that, yes, has to be crushed, they have, I fear, become the enemy.

I oppose the nutters, the bully boys, the hate-mongers and the threat-makers. That's why I oppose the BNP.

And that's why I oppose the publishers of the list.