A newspaper has been criticised for publishing an advertisement for the far-Right British National Party.

 

The Hampstead & Highgate Express in London - known locally as the Ham & High - published the advertisement, which was for the Greater London Authority elections to be held on May 1.

 

It showed a happy family with three children under the headlines "People like you voting BNP" and "The BNP putting Londoners first".

 

The newspaper is circulated in an area that has a large Jewish population and is represented in Parliament by Glenda Jackson, the Left-wing Labour MP.

 

Geoff Martin, the newspaper's editor, defended the decision to run the advert. He said: "A lot of people don't think they are a legitimate party but it's not our job to decide."

 

He said he received 11 calls complaining and only one was from a reader. The rest were from politicians and journalists. He said: "We are not associating ourselves with the BNP. In our editorial column we have made clear what we think of the BNP."

 

In his editorial column, Mr Martin wrote: "To be able to tolerate those we vehemently disagree with is the hallmark of an open, egalitarian and democratic society, where freedom of speech and expression are sacrosanct."

 

Theo Blackwell, a local Labour councillor, said it was a "shameless pursuit of profit over principle".

 

"This comes at a sensitive time because everyone knows that the BNP only need five per cent of the vote to get a seat on the London Assembly."

 

Source: Sunday Telegraph

I think they'll most probably get a seat on The London Assembly. As much as I am against them...

If you restrict political parties advertising themselves we stop living in a democracy, which is what the UK allegedly is.

I don't think they are THAT racist

So long as the BNP are a legalised political party they should be entitled to advertise be it newspapers, party political broadcasts on tv and so on, whether they should be legal is a different matter but so long as they are they should be free to advertise