Like the vast majority of Londoners, I was shocked and disgusted by the news that the Nazi BNP had secured a seat on the London Assembly in the May 1 elections. Unlike your correspondent Dave Young (Matters of Opinion, May 8), I don't think the blame for the advance of the BNP lies with political campaigners of legitimate parties who contested the elections.

The BNP themselves were careful to hide their Nazi beliefs behind a mask of moderation. A lazy media let them get away with it.

A few times in the London Assembly campaign that mask slipped and the true nature of the BNP peeped out. In April, for example, the views of Nick Eriksen - second on the list of the BNP's candidates for the London Assembly - revealed his views on women and rape when he argued that: "Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal. To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched."

But outrageous comments like these were largely ignored by the media. Indeed the political advance of the BNP has been prepared for by forces outside of their ranks.

The media - in particular the national tabloids - bear a heavy responsibility for the BNP's success. For well over a decade the British national press, and the tabloids in particular, have run front page after front page attacking refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants. This coverage has been overwhelmingly negative and its cumulative effect has been to create a corrosive "commonsense" in people that immigration is a "bad" thing. It has de-humanised immigrants and has made them scapegoats for the government's inadequate social policies. It has prepared a racist climate in which the BNP have thrived.

In addition, media Islamophobia - the press's own contribution to the "war on terror" - has fuelled suspicion of all Muslims which has given the Nazis confidence to organise.

But while the BNP might have fooled some people into voting for them, London is not a racist city. The vast majority of voters did not vote BNP. The white working class has a proud record of unity with black and brown workers.

We live alongside each other, we marry and live with each other, we have children together and our shared history, from the Chartists to the Anti-Nazi League, is one of unity against racism and the racists.

The key to stopping the BNP is activity. It's no good sitting back and waiting for others to campaign and mobilise against them.

Time to stand up and be counted.



Sasha Simic, West Bank,

Stamford Hill.