Ex-BNP members in explosives plot?

The alternative media is in a lather over an interesting story that appeared in a local paper, Pendle Today. It is also being picked up by bloggers. (Thank you for the comments and emails about it, I have been following it via urban 75 message boards, and I was holding back to see if it got picked up by the national, rather than local media and if more information about the men charged, and the exact nature of the substances found, came out before posting. Only the Sunday Times so far...so I'll dive in)

The story concerns two men arrested and appearing in court charged with being in possession of an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose. The offences are under the Explosive Substances Act 1883. The ''22 chemical components recovered by police at a Pendle address are believed to be the largest haul ever found at a house in this country'' says the local press.

The prosecution alleged the pair had "some kind of masterplan", ( having produced a single witness) saying a search of Jackson's home had uncovered ''rocket launchers, chemicals, BNP literature and a nuclear biological suit.''

Hmmm. ''Rocket launchers'', as an u75 poster pointed out, can cover used 66mms - while techically a fire arm its actually a fiberglass tube - the sort of memorabilia alongside replica guns neo-Nazis love to collect - and can also cover what are ''essentially large fireworks.'' ( Like erm, the popular fireworks known as ''rockets''. In which case, I've got a rocket launcher left over from 5/11/05. It's a stick. And I have just checked, and yes, I have over 20 chemicals in my own home too, including some quite nasty things to unblock drains and clean ovens, peroxide based things, ammonia based things, fertiliser, and so on.)

Anyway, what we know so far....

Some local police - not dozens of anti-terrorism police - raided a home in Colne on Thursday of last week. The house was taped off while forensics officers searched the premises. Neighbours were told to stay in their homes for their own safety ( that's normal. If it had been a pre-Armageddon arsenal in there, the whole town would have been evacuated.) A car belonging to one of the men was also taken away for examination. The two men, who have been remanded in custody, will appear at Burnley Crown Court on October 23rd.

The twist is that the two men were white. One is an ex-BNP member who stood as a candidate in the Pendle Council elections in May. Why has this not recieved wider mainstream media coverage, froth some in the blogosphere? Is it because they are not Muslim/Asian/Black and so do not fit the stereotype of current ghastly threat to the nation's security?

I don't think the media have held back generally from covering stories about white extreme right-wingers, racists, anti-semites, or BNP bone-headed thuggery. I can think of dozens of stories over the last year, so the conspiracy theories doing the rounds that the Government is victimising Muslims and the media are complicit in deliberately fostering race hatred are, I think, largely bollocks. That doesn't mean that there has been some very irresponsible and offensive reporting about Muslims this year, which can only add to the sense of grievance amongst some. But then, our press is like that, and until we stop buying copies, it will continue to pick on people and sell shock shlock as it drives sales. Vote with your feet and don't buy it, complain.

But there has also been a very great deal of responsible reporting, determined efforts to cover news concerning Britain's largest minority in a careful, thoughtful manner. The recent discussion ignited by Straw about segregation symbolised by full-face veil has spawned acres of reflection, debate and investigation, and very little lazy Muslim-bashing. Muslims are in the news a lot these days. Perhaps many of them are sick of it. It wouldn't surprise me. In the 1970's there was a big debate about turbans and motorcycle helmets and Sikhs were in the news a lot then, and apparently many of them got pretty sick of it too. (There were lots of vile stories about gays when AIDS came to the media attention. That was offensive and lazy journalism too.)

The difference though, is that there was not an extremist but highly vocal fringe active within the Sikh community at the time espousing worldwide conversion to the Sikh religion and threatening acts of terror as reprisals for the UK's foreign policy, successfully pulling off a murderous attack last year. And the fact that there is this extremist fringe actively recruiting within British Muslim faith communities and that it is linked to a global, violent, anti-Western political/religious extremist movement, against whom the world's largest superpower has declared itself ''at war'', makes Islam and Muslims hot news, unfair as that is to the peaceful majority who are not represented by the rent-a-ranters who seem to turn up to speak on their behalf with disturbing regularity.

Doesn't mean that white nutjobs plotting explosions aren't equally interesting news though. In fact, the mainstream media should welcome the chance to cover this story, if only to prove that they're not up to their ears in a sinister agenda as the lackeys of the New World Order Government's ( c) conspiracy theorists everywhere efforts to demonise innocent Muslims. So I've pinged off a few emails drawing attention to the story to some journalists, and we will see what happens...I'll let you know.

UPDATE: BBC ''missed it'' and will cover the 23rd October court case instead. The local press picked up on it, then the weekend happened, by which time the arrests were less newsworthy.

I think it's a pair of nutters and their unpleasant little Reich fantasies myself. But what coverage this story would have recieved if they were Asian, or Muslim, is still a hypothetical point worth discussing. Fair and balanced, are we, responsible reporting, the politics of fear, is it, don't you know, what d'you think, chunter chunter, hmmmm...