Griffin: Pursued by police, Twitter and gay B&B couple
A gay couple who were targeted for mob action by Nick Griffin have lashed out at the BNP leader, amid a police investigation into the incident.
The far-right leader was temporarily suspended from Twitter last night after he encouraged supporters to visit the home of Michael Black and John Morgan, who had won a legal case against a B&B which refused to give them a double bed.
"Certainly the public response to the incident, when it happened two-and-a-half years ago, and again in the last 24 hours, has been overwhelmingly in support of our stand against discrimination so hopefully that will mean the vast majority of the people in the country will just see what an idiot Nick Griffin is and reject his views," Black said.
"It would be difficult for people to gather as we live in a small village and there's nowhere to park."
Griffin's account was reactivated this morning, albeit without the offending tweet. He faced a barrage of criticism on the social networking site after ending the tweet.
He remained unapologetic this morning, however, with a series of tweets mocking gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
"If you get burgled & police don't want to know, just tweet something Peter Tatchell can claim to be offended by. Plod will be round in minutes" he wrote.
He is now under investigation by Cambridgeshire police, after tweeting the couple's address and saying a "British justice team" would go to "give [them] a bit of drama".
The row comes at a uniquely problematic moment for Griffin, who is desperately trying to hold together the remains of the BNP party.
This week, fellow MEP Andrew Brons quit the party following a failed leadership attempt.
Brons suggested 80% to 90% of party members, activists and officials had left and that Griffin bore "heavy responsibility".
The question of whether B&B owners should be forced to provide a room for gays or other minorities is also a potentially traumatic one for the Conservative party.
Legal rulings have found the refusal to provide gay couples a room contravenes the ban on discrimination in the provision of goods and services. But justice secretary Chris Grayling found himself in trouble before the general election when he defended Christian B&B owners.
"I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home," he told the Centre for Policy Studies in 2010.
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Tags:
- bnp ,
- gay rights ,
- nick griffin ,
- racism
