RIBA Presidential candidate Peter Phillips has confirmed that he is a member of the British National Party, a far-right political party in the UK. According to its constitution, the BNP "stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948". More from BD Online and The Guardian.
RIBA Presidential candidate Peter Phillips has confirmed that he is a member of the British National Party, BD can reveal.
By Ellen Bennett
Phillips made a statement at last night's presidential hustings confirming he has been a member of the right-wing party for five years, and has stood as a BNP candidate in elections.
He will shortly be issuing a statement on his website with more details.
RIBA president Jack Pringle said he was "shocked but not surprised by the revelation.
"To find out a member of RIBA Council has been a member of a legal but extremist party is really worrying," he said.
Phillips had already caused a stir in the presidential race by suggesting that pressure groups should not have special access to or be funded by the RIBA. Fellow candidate Sunand Prasad said he found the views of the BNP "abhorrent". He added: "They say they are not racist but it's a party based on racial purity and racial separateness, and their views are entirely abhorrent to the majority of people who want a better world."
Both Pringle and Prasad stopped short of calling on Phillips to stand down from the election, saying the BNP was a legal party and it was up to the electorate to decide.
"It's good that he has come clean," said Pringle, "and there's no question of him being disqualified from running. But it's important the electorate understand the context in which his views are held."
The third candidate, Valerie Owen, declined to comment, saying only: "The institute is apolitical which is exactly as it should be given its international status."
46 Comments
All I would say is be careful of slander on the internet, no matter how true it may be...
hmmm...
when is RIBA06 Convention?
signum - slander is a lie to damage someone's reputation. phillips confirms that he is a member of the the extremist bnp, and that seems to be the only news here. where's the slander?
it is phillips who is slandering non-whites.
That's disturbing. I've always thought that design professionals tended to be more progressive than the general population. Ugh.
most architects are not design professionals in the sense of challenging the status quo. most are design vendors...
Is he the one who said he wanted to keep London a "vanilla city"...?
As if Architecture needed a racist to preserve its pasty whiteness.
this guy is one scarey dude!
Petes objection to why women leave architecture
petes beliefs....in his own words
Shouldn't RIBA take some responsibility for allowing Phillips to even get this far as a candidate? Weren't his beliefs researched prior to accepting his candidacy??
The first link that TED posted is a report that sounds as thought it were written by a vengeful adolescent. Also he mentions Nazis a few times, which I found ironic.
I hope that doesn't count as invoking Godwin's Law.
website.
From their website: "The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia. We use the term indigenous to describe the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers here after the last great Ice Age and which have been complemented by the historic migrations from mainland Europe. The migrations of the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Norse and closely related kindred peoples have been, over the past few thousands years, instrumental in defining the character of our family of nations.
While we recognise the United Kingdom as a political entity, the BNP does not arrogantly seek to impose one set of Westminster dominated decisions across these nations. We embrace and cherish the native cultural diversity within the British Isles and wish to extend the concept of democracy to the lowest possible level, where those that are affected by a decision are the ones who influence and make the decision."
bnp on european union;
"the greatest single threat posed by the European Union comes from the plans (supported by the Conservative Party) to expand further into Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and subsequently into Turkey. The former expansion would give eight million Sinta gypsies the right to move into Western Europe, the latter would at a stroke increase the EU's Muslim population by more than 75 million. This would mark the end of Europe's ancient and historic close identification with Christendom, and the beginning of the end of secular democratic government in the West."
slander on balkans. and, turkey is a secular republic since 1923. even before that, ottoman empire was not a some kind of religious empire anyway. these are lying fanatics...
but go tell that to mountains.
this whole thing is way too embarrassing for british architects. i wonder if it is going to be hush hushed?
Xenophobia is the bread and butter of racist politicians/opportunists world over. without it, these people would be nothing...
racism is an acceptable social behavior nowdays in the west specially against muslims. real dangerous. regressive.
Racism is bad and all that, but what really ticks me off is the guys self-righteousness: he continually picks on small pressure-groups that are driven by one cause - calling them minority voices. then he himself defends his views, when they called "minority/extreme views" as being actually the ideas of the so-called silent majority. how convenient. what a freaking idiot.
Is that you Sir Oswald Mosley?
shazam! the return of the british fascists!
The Guardian takes a look at the brewing controversy.
Wherein "brewing" means "developing" - not distilling a beverage.
i think as the other two candidates pointed out, the guy's a wacko but he shouldn't be stopped from standing. i doubt he would get many votes anyway, and stopping him would just result in the BNP latching onto the issue and making a martyr of him.
unless he's right about the "silent majority" thing...in which case...well, I can't imagine that is the case, hoepfully he'll be eating those words in the hear future...
and to Paul's comment - the bnp is a legal entity. RIBA has no authority to not allow him to be a candidate. Also, as far as research goes, surely they knew, but it may have been necessary to have him "confirm" before using it as fire-power against his candidacy....slander, litigious-ness and all...
this just in... a response from a BNP representative...
How can a supposed intelligent organisation such as yourselves be so far wide of the mark. When trying to discredit Mr Phillips for being a member of the most honest & worthy political party of the day, I feel that your heads must be so far planted in your rectal passages that you can not even take the time to get up to speed with the BNP's policys and manifesto before reverting back to 2 decade old wordings of the organisation. You really are one of the woolly flock who totaly missrepresent people by being so rectaly challenged and narrow sighted that you failed to see that as an organisation who is supposed to be racist we have members of ethnic (asian etc) origin and to label us Nazis which can only be translated as being anti semetic we even have councillors who are Jewish doing a great job of keeping an eye on the truly corrupt partys, which again & again keep introducing new potential voters into the country in the guise of asylum seekers.
So please get a grip will you and try just for once to remove your poo stained heads from that dark place and look at what is really happening around you.
When you are being forced to chant "Allah the greatest" or be beheaded, you can be safe in the knowledge that you assisted in bringing GREAT Britain to its knees.
Richard
BNP Organiser Lincolnshire
bnp_lincolnshire@yahoo.co.uk
Sorry, is that directed at us? At Archinect?
Yes, that email was submitted to Archinect, in response to this news post and comments.
didn't we already bring great britain to its knees?
BNP Organiser Richard,
your overuse of rectal stuff puzzled me. is that the kind of area your mind preoccupied with, and your manifestos come out of? stop torturing yourself trying to talk through your rectum. let it go... fart them out... otherwise this shit is gonna tear it up. and you have to fart thru your upper hole. there is still time for you. an asshole is a terrible thing to lose for a useless manifesto.
*an unexpected friendly suggestion from your muslim nightmare...
I would say -- leave Phillips alone.
I don't agree with the BNP -- I am in an inter racial marriage, and have a mixed race child.My extended family is fairly typical of today's British nation, and is made up of Xtian white, Jew, black British, ethnic white, and Asian.
The BNP wouldn't accept "my kind of Brit" for a moment -- and neither would I want to hang around with them needless to say!
But surely -- we can't silence someone simply becuase we disagree with them. That in my view, is appalling. That will only force those with BNP sympathies underground, where they will fester with resentment.
Look, we may not like them -- but they are not an illegal party.
Is it that we only like the democratic process -- when people say what WE like and consider politically correct?
Put simply -- That is wrong, and it is repressive.
In my view, we should be looking at WHY people vote BNP ( usually the chronically poor, though not in this case of course ), and try to remove those causes.
I speculate it is because working class people have been historically looked after by labour,who took sincere care to provide the underclass with housing,and the chance for jobs --
Now labour has abandoned them, treated them with undeniable contempt -- they go to a party which postures and poses as having their interests at heart-- and in all fairness, the BNP MAY have the well being of the white working class in mind. I don't know them well enough to say yea or nay on that point.
Labour has abandoned the poor, pushing them into the arms of the BNP.
Just as young Muslims have been forced into the arms of intolerant demagogues in some cases by labours war/foreign policy -- I believe the same has happened to disenchanted whites in UK.
As Chomsky said :
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
Leave Phillips alone -- would you go on a similar witch hunt if you found an architect belonged to a Muslim nationalist party, or back in the 60's you discovered a fellow worker with sympathies for black separatists ?
Look -- take away the swamp like conditions that are at present forcing white underclass into the ( devious) arms of the BNP -- and no one would even bother with the party -- The BNP would fade back into the shadows of obscurity from whence they came.
Janosh wrote :
//As if Architecture needed a racist to preserve its pasty whiteness.//
I find such wording offensive. I am in a mixed marriage, and I would find it deeply upsetting if someone refferred in a derogatory fashion to my wife and/or daughter's "dusty brownness" --
Give it up -- Janosh's statment is simply offensive.
What next -- shall we refer in obviously withering terms to someone's " tar like blackness" if we work in Africa, or shall we speak of someone's "jaundiced yellowness" if we work in Asia?
Leave out the "pasty whiteness" comments please.
Speaking as someone in an inter racial marriage -- we DO NOT need such comments.
i got the following email this AM from the RIBA president John Pringle:
"RIBA Statement - RIBA presidential election candidates
The following statement has been posted on the RIBA website:
During a hustings debate by the RIBA presidential candidates at the Institute on 14 June, one of the candidates, Peter Phillips, confirmed his membership of the British National Party.
The RIBA is a non-political organisation which does not enquire or endorse the political affiliations of its members.
It values the contribution to architecture and society by people of diverse origins and backgrounds, and is firmly committed to equality of opportunity. All members and staff are guided by the Institute's Equal Opportunities Policy which was established in 2001 and is regularly reviewed.
A diverse group of candidates is currently standing for election to President 2007-2009 -- Valerie Owen, Peter Phillips and Sunand Prasad. The views that the candidates express in their election campaigns will not necessarily represent the position of the RIBA as an Institute, nor the views of its wider membership."
Looks like a balanced, common sense approach to me from Pringle.
Look, I have no sympathy at all with BNP's over all plan, their racial exclusivity, their inherent facism etc -- but gagging people is just not the way to go. It will only make people think there really is "something to hide", and in my view, will only add to people's interest in the BNP.
It is like those holocaust revisionist crackpots and demagogues -- I say, let them too have their say in public -- then I truly believe you'll find the vast,overwhelming majority of people -- would simply ignore them and they'd fade away.
The truth shines brightly, and the historical record on the numbers of Jewish dead simply, just does NOT accord with people like Irving's revisionist thesis. You just don't need to quickly put a sock in their mouths in an Orwellian fashion. Chomsky recognises this too.
But -- Shut them up, jail them -- and I believe people will think there is some "truth" which is being repressed.
If the BNP's ideology has no inherent rightness or strength -- let it then wither in the light of rational debate, not grow in the dark cellars and basements of the frustrated, disenfranchised , politically ignored, disadavantaged and resentful.
What was this stuff designed by stick insects or guinea-pigs or goldfish or something?
1. Osirak nuclear bomb production facility, for public relations purposes described as Osirak research reactor, location Iraq
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq.htm
2. Al-Manal biological weapons production facility, for public relations purposes described as the Daura Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Facility, location Iraq.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/al_manal.htm
presumably none of these facilities were designed by stick insects, guinea-pigs or goldfish but by architects, funny that none of these dubious projects seems to have upset the sensibilities of the architectural profession, particularly as I am sure more than a few me of them have been involved in tendering for large NHS hospital projects and if they were the slightest bit competent, they should have been fully aware of just what a case of undiagnosed infectious smallpox would do in a large hospital, obviously then the profession has nothing better to do than beat up on Mr Peter Philips.
http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/pages/events/dark_winter/dark_winter.html
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
http://www.adrianwainer.blogspot.com/
What I wonder is the RIBA’s position on candidates having connections with parties such as e.g. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Respect as to a greater or lesser degree all these parties seem to me to be “racistâ€, except that such “racism†is directed against both non-Muslims in the United Kingdom and the majority community of law abiding and decent Muslims in the United Kingdom, whilst pandering to Islamofascists and Islamofascist Arab racial supremacists at home and abroad.
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
http://www.adrianwainer.blogspot.com/
What on earth is the point of the last post?
So, clearly, some Muslims design buildings for dubious, warlike purposes?
Hmmm......
And?
So does every other ethnic group on earth, from Jews to Anglo Saxons, to Celts to Indians to Arabs....
And?
redafiya63 wrote
What on earth is the point of the last post?
So, clearly, some Muslims design buildings for dubious, warlike purposes?
Hmmm......
And?
So does every other ethnic group on earth, from Jews to Anglo Saxons, to Celts to Indians to Arabs....
And?- redafiya63, Jun 18, 06 | 9:08 am
So Osama bin Laden with bioengineered Smallpox
No problem bro!
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
I personally don't care what you call him, the post just reminded me of something I heard about the other day, which was an internet poster being sued for expressing damaging views on someone/something (I don't remember who or what) All I'm saying it´s good to think carefully before you say something as strong as that. Only a word to the wise, not a criticism, Paul.
how can any member of a party whose mission includes "wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples" not be labelled a racist??
I agree the policies of BNP are racist -- coming from a mixed race faimly unit this is particularly unpalatable for me -- yet, all I am saying is, BNP are not an illegal group. If Phillips has sympathies with them, well, so be it. Let the people decide on whether to further his position, or to leave him where he is.
Do we want to end up like Israel and Bush, suddenly complaining about the democratic process when Hamas get noticed in the electoral process?
Look, if BNP are getting more notice -- it is because the white Brit poor have been ignored by all the major parties. It is THEY who should be getting the flak.
I agree with Tony Parsons' comment on the BNP -- He also is in a mixed race marriage, but blames the govt for totally ignoriing the hopes and aspirations of the white working class. It is THAT which is givning BNP life. No more, no less.
The white working class, who never had much hope anyway, but at least had a glimmer in the past -- have now had all possibilites strangled by new labour. Blame them for pushing the underclass into the hands of the BNP, who at least APPEAR to care for the urban poor whites.
that sounds like appeasement to me. the left needs to listen, but let's not pretend that there something right in a racist world view. let's not forget the le pen and chirac debacle where the french liberals started to heed the words of the fascists! there is no understanding racism! it's bullshit period. there is no space for it. now we can understand that racism as condition will always be a point to deal with, but don't play around thinking that its worth listening to or that the leaders who use it to their advantage have any ethics or moral high ground. as nieztche once said every anti-semite (racist) should be shot! perhaps figuratively rather than literally
like nietzsche did with wagner...
Well John, you can ignore the racists for as long as you like, or you can even stamp them underground -- or --
You can look at why bogus intellectually limited groups like the BNP are gaining strength....and then eradicate the causes...
I believe that the white British working class ( from where the BNP after all, gets its main support ) are not esentially racist....but rather they feel frustrated at being ignored and marginalised by the main parties....
I wouldn't give appeasement, not for a single moment to the BNP....That would be suicidal in a very personal way for me....my family are Asian mixed race. Why would I want to entertain the racist views of a party that doesn't consider my Asian mixed race wife and daughter, and my Jamaican cousins British?
No -- I say, deal with the reasons that racist parties like the BNP are gaining ground -- and very quickly, I think you'll find the BNP fade away into the shadows of archaiac obscurity like the National Front did in the 80's......
Unlike many of the PC gang who love to sneer at the British working class with jokes about white van men, football hooligans etc -- I do not laugh at the poor white working class. I come from the poor white working class myself, and I have faith in the white British working class, and I know they are, for the most part, not racist. After all, who is that often integrates first, through marriage, housing, area ethnic mixes etc? It is the white British working class! Go to almost any traditionally white working class area in UK (of course, besides racist strongholds in certain areas ) and you'll find balck and white intermarried and getting on just fine, in many many places.
As Tony Parsons, himself from a white working class background and in a mixed race marriage, with NO love for the BNP said -- "Mr Blair, ignore the white working class at your peril."
Speaking for myself, as someone who also comes from the white working class, now in a mixed marriage, with NO love for the BNP, for a single second -- I agree 100% with Parsons.
sounds like its time to fight then. pens now or swords later. thats my point
and by the way, I'm in the same boat I just live in the states.
In fact, at least THREE leading members of the BNP have BLACK parents or Jewish ethnicity.
Now -- why on earth, why iin God's name would someone from a black /Jewish background for a single moment be a part of such an odious, racist,demagogic,throwback party as the BNP --
I say it is out of sheer desperation at being ignored by any main stream political process.
see links --
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17252802&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=bnp-s-little-white-lies--name_page.html
and --
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2124820,00.html
Again -- I reiterate, I DO NOT support or even sympathise or appease the BNP.
So --Let's address the needs of the white urban poor -- and I truly believe the BNP wil be history.
Or are you suggesting there is something inherently racist in the poor urban white underclass?
If so, be prepared to prove it.
With respect John, you live in Chicago, and therefore, I presume know little about the grinding reality of life in overcrowded, tense, impoverished urban ghettoes in UK,and the grim reality of having no job, poor housing and being held in contempt by the mainstream parties, just as I know zero about life in troubled ghettoes in the US.
For more proof of -- surely severe desperation -- see this link about a Jewish canditate in the BNP.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1105908,00.html
I agree, but the points are always similar...and no one is doubting that you know what you are talking about. In fact, I agree with most of what you rant about.
However, I do not agree with the point that any problems in a State should revolve around rascism. Additionally, the british condition in regards to its immigrant population seems to be pararelling the rest of europe. this is why I pointed you to the election of chirac.
I admire your desire to draw out the margins for us here. But my position is no different from yours with the exception that I'm not preaching to the choir. I'm stating that we the children of the working classes who see the Real issues here are being distorted with a racist message which is imbedded in fear of the Other. You can either fight it now when people are just starting to pick sides or you can wait it out and fight harder later for something that should be a non-issue. whne people hear racism that should be a sign--a warning. I little bell that says this isn't right. Now if they don't hear it, its up to you and I to ring that bell harder.
so I think we'd agree if we can dismiss the geography....its not about the core issues. its about whats right. right?
We both agree I think John.
The debate regarding Phillips has dried up it seems -- I still say the whole thing is pure Orwell and Kafka. Leave the man alone.
Take a parallel real life situation -- I have very close friends at work whom I know are sympathetic to, and actively involved in hard left causes and groups. This doesn't bother me for a moment, it doesn't bother me in the slightest -- they have every right to be so. The groups they sympathise with or are pret of, are not illegal.
I would object therefore, if one of my friends expressed a desire to shut up a work mate with BNP tendencies. It would simply be hypocritical.
Is it a case of one rule for the PC and one rule for the rest?
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