Should principal ballet dancer Simone Clarke be sacked from her job with the English National Ballet because of her membership with the BNP?
Anti-racism campaigners United Against Fascism thinks so and will be protesting at today’s performance of Gisele at the London Coliseum. They state:
“We are calling on all those who have an appreciation for the arts, music, and dance to demand that the promotion of racist and fascist politics are incompatible with a leading arts institution such as the English National Ballet, to speak out against the association of artists with the BNP, and that Simone Clarke should be removed from her position.”
Simone obviously had her personal reasons for joining, citing “mass immigration”, crime and increased taxes. She can hardly be accused of being racist herself as her partner and co-dancer Yat is a Cuban immigrant whose father is Chinese.
The UAF believes that the BNP is exploiting Simone’s membership in order to promote and prettify their extreme right wing politics. I don’t think she would go along with that kind of manipulation.
Simone insists there is no contradiction in her choice of a foreign partner or in her decision to work with one of the most ethnically diverse ballet troupes in the world. And she says that, for her, the issue is simple: mainstream politicians are failing to tackle the issues that worry people most, while the BNP is promising firm action.
“I think the BNP are honest. They’re not trying to dress up what they want, which is change on these issues.”
We live in a democracy and it is not illegal to belong to the BNP, distasteful though it may seem to many, it is a matter of personal choice. Has anyone been sacked in recent years for belonging to the BNP, or any other political party?
Morning Elle
I think the BNP rightly or wrongly are gaining support given the way people are feeling over certain issues facing the UK. As Simone mentioned immigration, taxes, and crime.
What concerns me about the BNP is how they are going from strength to strength, purely on the basis of how bad a job Nu-Lab have made of things. I don’t actually know of the BNP’s policy on Education, NHS or how they would tackle immigration or other pressing issues.
Hopefully the Tories can address the issues we face and start letting everyone know their policies. I actual think this would wane support for BNP with a real alternative. At the moment people just seem very unhappy and want change. BNP are making the right noises, and as such people are jumping onboard.
Teri, The Mail story mentions the ground that the BNP is making. People know what it stands for and will join if they feel aligned to it, whatever their profession. As you say, Tories have to get their policies over, especially as according to a recent ICM poll the BNP could attract seven per cent of the UK’s total vote in a General Election.
Ellee and Teri, you both make a number of important points and I find myself in complete agreement with all of them. I too feel that Simone Clarke is entitled to her views-however, much I personally disagree with them. I fear though that there will be something of an orchestrated witch-hunt at the English National Ballet and Ms Clarke will be severely victimised in the near future. If she were a member of Respect or the Socialist workers Party, would she be confronting the same problem? I think not. And, yes, the BNP are advancing on the basis of legitimate concerns about immigration, political correctness, crime and the deteriorating state of many public services. Ever more reason for the Conservatives to have clear and detailed policy proposals to deal with those very concerns.If we don’t, the BNP will swiftly step into the vacuum…
Simone is such a lovely dancer, it seems such a pity she has got tangled up in all this.
IT – valid point on witch-hunt. I wouldn’t like to see that, but I suspect it will turn into one. Like Jim says it is a pity.
As you said she does have the right to support who she wants.
I’ve just looked up the BNP Council Manifesto for 2006. In all honesty having read what they propose and their views on some issues, I think if I didn’t know better would support them myself! How scary. Fantastic marketing I must admit and all by taking peoples genuine views onboard. The Tories really do need to get themselves together. Here’s the link if anyone wants to have a look at it.
http://www.bnp.org.uk/election2006/manifesto2006.pdf
Elle thanks for the heads up on the mail.
Um she is entitled to her opinion.. as long as it is this. democracy is what it is all about (to a point)
simone is such a good dancer.i dont actually understand uaf.everyone is entitled to their views.does this mean bnp members cant have respectable jobs?sometimes thee so called liberals amaze me.i wig cameron will address immigration instead of green issues which i dont care about.
Well if Her Majesty’s Oppostion had the guts to actually listen to people’s concerns then perhaps neo-nazis like the B*P wouldn’t be getting all this publicity.
We need a “son” of Thatcher or Churchill to turn this country’s fortunes around.
Jeremyci – arms deals or a coup? lol
No one should be sacked for having an opinion. Simone isn’t expressing hatred for anyone neither is she using her position to make a political point. if the guardian never exposed her no one would know or care.
They’re not good bedfellows but as one who is in the middle of a BNP issue right now, it’s line ball either way. It reminds me a little of the Springbok Rugby tour and the anti-apartheid protests. I could see bothsides.
Simone Clark is entitled to belong to BNP if she so wishes as long as she doesn’t try and promote their ‘ideals’. She doesn’t! For goodness sake leave her alone. More to the point have a look at what CobbettRidesAgain.blogspot.com says. We have a lot more to worry about than a dancer who is minding her own business!!
You say that Clarke cannot be accused of being racist “as her partner … is a Cuban immigrant”. But there is no logic to this statement – one could equally say that no married man could possibly be a misogynist.
Geraldine (#12) states that she is entitled to belong to the BNP “as she doesn’t try and promote their ‘ideals'”. But this is exactly what Clarke has done in here extensive interview in the Mail on Sunday.
Mark, Yes, I was quoting the Mail on Sunday, hence the link to the paper. And we can all have our own interpretation about the issues involved.
“Has anyone been sacked in recent years for belonging to the BNP, or any other political party?”
you won’t even be considered for a job with the Prison Service if you are a BNP member.
‘Applicants will be required to declare whether they are a member of a group or organisation which the Prison Service considers to be racist.’
Why is the opposition not shouting about this freedom of thought/freedom of speech issue ?
They will not of course, they will take on no major issues…. and that is why they are loosing support.
Her political beliefs are of no consequence; her talent as a dancer is far more important.
I must admit I would love to see Simone dance, I love ballet, I used to do it as a child (very badly, of course). I saw Giselle at the Royal Opera House last year with Tamara Rojo dancing the lead, but I shall look out for Simone’s name on future programmes. I know blogger Jim who comments here is a great ballet fan too.
What about Freemasons?
The Mail on Sunday interview, in terms of her own comments (and don’t tell me that she doesn’t know how the media works) could have been her giving a party political broadcast on behalf of the BNP. She might not be explicitly stating hatred, but she is lending her full support to a party who undoubtedly do so, and would do so to her for her mixed-race partnership and motherhood were she not a member.
Firstly. in response to post 15, it is perfectly legitimate that those who have power over imprisoned people-amongst whom ethnic minorities form a disproportionally high figure- should not belong to organisations with a declared hostility to such groups. UVF members were not guards at the Maze.
Secondly this is the English NATIONAL Ballet. It is a representative institution theoretically for the Nation. Therefore it’s main public faces have standards to fulfill, such as not being public users of heroin, say, or of supporting groups widely regarded by the english Nation as abhorrent.
The BNP can NEVER be considered as acceptable and that message needs to be made clear.
The people who are responsible for the rise in the BNP are not individuals like Simone Clarke. The blame must firmly be attached to our Governing elite who continue to ignore people’s real concerns over the quantity and quality of immigrants arriving in this country.So Tony Blair, there is your legacy, you have managed to make voting for a racist political party seem attractive to many people. You must be so proud, I bet you cannot wait to tell your grand kids !
As mentioned on my blog:
“Some newspaper columnists and bloggers (usually right-wingers) have been saying that we should leave Simone Clarke alone, on the basis that (as despicable as her views are) she has a right to have opinions and not being persecuted for them and that she is in the Arts, which is in itslef apolitical.
This may well hold some water although it does not take the following into account:
1) Would the same people mention this view about Simone Clarke to racial minorities who feel threatened by the BNP? (and before anyone accueses me of bias, I have posed a similar question a while back to a hardened socialist on a non racial left viewpoint that she held)
2) The BNP is a nationalist party with politics similar to the Nazis (at least before the Night of the Long Knives)
3) Many on the left are in fear after speaking up against the BNP, because they have found themselves and their details mentioned on a site called RedWatch.
I am open to the view that Simone Clarke shouldn’t be sacked, but equally I believe that it was right to out her and for someone who stated that “I am not too proud to say that a lot of it went over my head” with regard to the BNP manifesto, she will now have to explain her views to many who find them offensive (inc myself) and that she has learnt the hard way how important it is to use ones brain rather than one’s instincts when being involved in politics.”
Given that it is increasingly difficult to insert a cigarette paper between the respective policies of the two main parties, and that the Conservatives are intent on simply becoming “Blue-Labour”, is it really any wonder that those parties formerly considered extremists are gaining more support.
People have become tired of the two major parties. They have the same policies, the same corporate backers, the same disinterested careerists as MPs and they inculcate, in the general public, the same degree of loathing and mistrust.
Partisan politics had has its day. Our system has become corrupt and self-serving, it represents no-one but the political class themselves, cocooned as they are in their limos, away from the real world and the concerns of real people.