BNP member outed as ballet dancer
1 Jan 2007
The British National Party is facing calls to expel one of its members over allegations that she is a ballerina. Simone Clarke, a BNP supporter, was recently 'outed' by the Guardian as being a member of the English National Ballet. She is due to take the lead in a production of Giselle at the London Coliseum next week.Doug Ramsbottom, a local BNP organiser in Bootle, said he was appalled by Ms Clarke's behaviour. Speaking shortly after getting his head shaved, he told DeadBrain: "I've always believed that what someone gets up to in the privacy of their own home is their business, so long as they're not a Paki or a poof. But prancing around in a tutu in front of people? She's an embarrassment to the party."
Greg Mullet, a BNP councillor until he was convicted of benefit fraud last month, was similarly outraged. "Apparently her husband's part Cuban, part Chinese. It makes you think, doesn't it?" he said. "They come over here, take our jobs and make our women dance about on stage to stupid music. It's a bloody disgrace."
Despite the criticism, Ms Clarke said she was proud of her career as a dancer. "Everything will be different now, I'll be known as the ballerina BNP member," she told the Mail on Sunday. "But I don't regret anything. I've wanted to be a ballerina all my life and I'm not going to give up now."
"Ballet dancers have a positive contribution to make to this country – they have new ideas and new solutions, not the same old clichés," she added. "To say otherwise is political correctness gone mad."
A spokesman for the BNP said that some of its membership officers would be speaking to Ms Clarke behind closed doors at an undisclosed location before deciding what action to take.
