Data Protection Act.
The publication of the list of members of the British Nationalist Party caused an uproar last year. Vociferous supporters clamoured to complain that their secret membership had been made public. At least one member complained that ‘his brother had signed him up’ – it was all a misunderstanding.
This week, the previous deputy head of security – who presumably was in charge of making sure that this sort of thing didn’t happen (!!) was found guilty of contravening the Data Protection Act.
Sentencing Mathew Single to a £200 fine, Judge John Stobart said he was surprised to find that the offences only merited a fine, not a more serious punishment, but said he was less surprised to find Single was on benefits.
The judge said: “It came as a surprise to me, as it will to many members of the party, that to do something as foolish and as criminally dangerous as you did will only incur a financial penalty.
“It comes as no surprise to me that somebody to do with an organisation that prides itself on Britishness is in fact living off the British people on Job Seeker’s Allowance, and that is why the fine is so low as to be ridiculous.”
h/t John Oates.
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September 7, 2009 at 12:04 pm -
oooh I thought the N in BNP was National, not Nationalist. Silly me.
I have to say that the judge really lowered himself in the statement about Mathew being on Jobseekers Allowance (”Job seeker” is all one word) – so what?!
I fail to see the irony in someone of the BNP (or previously a member) claiming benefits. It makes it seem that the only sign of britishness (lowercase for a reason) is claiming benefits. I would actually go to the extent of saying that I would rather be pissed off if a member of say the IRA was claiming benefits from the British taxpayer.
Maybe the leak of this information actually done the general public a favour?
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