Lies, Damn Lies and the BNP

Further proof, if it were needed, that the BNP are, like all political parties, an irony-free zone.

The leaflet that has been dropping through the nation's letterboxes - sample quote 'British jobs for British workers' - features a friendly-looking elderly couple under the slogan 'Why we're all voting BNP'.

It would be something of a surprise if they were, since they are, in fact, Italians. According to the Telegraph, Italian photographer Luca Di Filippo confirmed that the people in the photo were actually his parents, who had only ever visited this country as tourists and do not share the views of the BNP.

Bloggers Stephen Paulger and Tim Ireland reverse-searched the photos on the leaflets and found at least three of them for sale from an agency. As far as they can establish, the pictures above feature two Italians, three Americans and a Irishman.

The BNP are unrepentant; a BNP spokesman said that the images were "clearly meant to be representative" and denied that the party had broken the law.
"All the major political parties use actors in their adverts," he said.

So that's alright then. Only it sounds a bit like the sort of 'everyone else is doing it' excuse we've heard rather too much of in politics recently.