With the BNP beset by splits and financial problems, Nick Griffin's decision to publish the address of a gay couple who won a court case against a Christian B&B owner (before encouraging his supporters to demonstrate outside their home) was a transparent attempt to distract from his party's woes. He tweeted:
A British Justice team will come up to [their Huntington address] & give you [the couple, Michael Black and John Morgan] a … bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple's home is their castle. Say No to heterophobia!
An earlier message read:
If anyone can give us address of the 2 bullying 'gay' activists who've won case v Christian B&B owners, we'll hold demo … for rights of all home owners, gays included, to rent or not rent rooms to whomsoever they wish
Unsurprisingly, Griffin is now under investigation by Cambridgeshire police, who said they were "looking into" the complaints they had received. A spokeswoman added that "officers will also visit the men mentioned in the tweets as part of our inquiries."
Griffin's Twitter account was suspended after he posted the couple's address but was reactivated this morning, albeit without the offending tweet.
Incidentally, one wonders if we will hear from our new Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, who has previously defended the right of B&B owners to turn away gay couples. In April 2010, he was revealed to have told a Centre For Policy Studies meeting:
I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences. I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, 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.
In response to yesterday's ruling, Michael Black and John Morgan said:
We're doing this to try and make sure that all B&B owners realise what the law is and think twice before discriminating against gay people, black people, Christians, Muslims, Irish, any other group.
Hear, hear.