The Bacup Coconutters have got a stronger justification, in the form of actual tradition.

Personally I don't think tradition is any excuse at all. And haven't they already been banned from dancing in Manchester? I saw them dancing last year at Fylde and found it uncomfortable to watch; disturbing to think that anyone, let alone the dancers themselves, could find this in any way acceptable in 21st Century England. Of course it is in no way traditional for them to dance outside of Bacup on any other day than Easter Saturday, so in this sense they're no different from any other folk dance troupe - just a bunch of burly blokes in extremely silly costumes. Their blacked-up faces not only offend my humanity, they also scare me shitless as to what they represent in terms of a far deeper tradition of xenophobia and racial intolerance that is the source & cause of most of the worlds tensions. Harmless fun? Hardly the wonder the BNP are hiking such things to their noxious cause. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Nutters : Image One

Nutters : Image Two