Creation of a new party
Oddly, he neglected to tell us this is one of two recent break-aways from the BNP (the other being the British Democratic Party, or True Brits as it did originally call itself).
So, what’s new, apart from the millennial in-fighting of the far right, and cults of personality?
Will Patria put up candidates here?
The epithet about being as welcome as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip comes to mind…
What of the BNP and also BDP?
The BNP, already staggering from internal and financial crises, has been dealt a pretty mortal blow – by its loyal members.
I have read the brief constitution online but it says nothing as to who can join, how membership is determined/accepted/removed.
Intriguingly it also states: “Dual membership of Patria and another political party is permissible”, but also: “No member shall, as an independent, contest an election to public office in which the party has an official candidate.”
And (of course): “Members may organise within the party with a view to changing its leadership, constitution or policies, but shall not form a party within the party.
No group having its own distinctive programme, policies and propaganda may operate within the party.”
It DOESN’T say that a Patria member who is also a member of, say, BNP, couldn’t stand for the latter in an election.
Rum state of affairs.
Jan Cosgrove
Bognor Regis
Dr Andrew Emerson replies
6:36 PM on 02/03/2013
Patria welcomes applications for membership from British patriots and nationalists, regardless of any current or former party affiliations.
Please visit the Patria web site, at www.patria-uk.org and join online via PayPal, or write to Patria at 64A Cedar Drive, Chichester PO19 3EJ.
The briefer a party’s constitution is, the more likely it is to be read and understood. If a party’s constitution were to attempt to stipulate everything that a member could not do, then it would need to be even longer than that of the Labour Party. Brevity is a much underrated virtue in such documents.
Will Patria stand candidates in Bognor Regis? As Asquith used to say “Wait and see”.
As for “millennial in-fighting” (I think he means ‘perennial’ in-fighting) I think I can safely say that Patria will not stand candidates against any other genuinely patriotic party.
Which means that Lib-Lab-Con and UKIP are fair game, of course!
Bognor Regis Observer
