Better than closing this thread, I suggest that we all agree to ignore the rantings of DMR, plus those of all his other aliases, and get on with the business of seriously discussing the threat to democracy and freedom which the BNP poses. I know this board is supposed to be about music but a lot of us clearly hate the BNP and all it stands for, and with good reason. Therefore, the off-topic section seems about as good a place as any for us to exchange ideas/information about how we as musicians, singers, dancers or just plain punters can help in decapitating the hydra.

The BNP impinges on music activity in too many ways for us to allow this thread to degenerate into a mudslinging match between DMR and everybody else. I'm thinking not just of the fact that their sales arm markets CDs of musicians and singers who wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nor am I thinking just of the way the BNP is trying to ingratiate itself with the folk revival and with folk calendar customs.

Music is one of the strongest proofs we have of the emotive and sensate and intellectual unity of mankind. Yes, I know that Beethoven sounds nothing like Ravi Shankar. But every human society on earth creates music. And though it may assume all manner of cultural facades, we are all moved by it. It makes us laugh and cry. It makes us angry and happy and joyful and sad. In every corner of the world countless generations of mothers have rocked babies to sleep with it. Numberless crowds of bereaved mourners have overcome their grief with it. Millions upon millions of distressed lovers have found comfort in the stuff. And it has stiffened the resolve of people the world over to withstand slavery and despotism and exploitation and brutal imperialism.

If I ever needed to ask myself why I hate racism and chauvinism and nationalism and fascism, I would not have to look any further than the thousands of records which I have collected during my lifetime from all over the world. Because however different the sounds may be that they produce, all those Balkan bagpipers, those flamenco guitarists, those Irish fiddlers, those African griots, and those Islamic 'ud players, are all saying the same thing. It is that beneath the different skin tones, beneath the vast variety of human cultures, we are all the one people, because if we weren't we wouldn't all be making music.

And lest anyone thinks we haven't got a problem of comprehension, here's one reply to an email I sent asking people to use their vote in the Euro-election, thereby ensuring that the BNP don't get in by default.

"if you believe in free speech then you should stop this ridicules scare mongering nonsense they have the same right as I to hold or teach their political ideologies I do not agree with anything the bnp stand for but what you are doing is insulting the rest of the free thinking population and is just as bad as they are. Its exclusive bigotry look at yourself b4 you point the finger at anyone in fact don't point your finger its rude!!!"

No, the guy isn't some closet racist or far right conservative. He is in fact someone who has done an enormous amount to extend and propagate our knowledge and enjoyment of pre WW11 jazz and blues, and many other forms of Black music. It's great and sterling work, but somebody ought to tell him, just what would happen to his record collection if the BNP ever came to power, and which concentration camp he'd be consigned to.