The BNP may have surrendered to the legal need to abandon its 'whites only' membership policy but BNP members were hostile to the change

James Bethell of NothingBritish.com.

Nick Griffin delights in the flattering comparison, but today's abolition of the BNP's infamous white-only membership restriction was no "Clause 4 moment".

Although he has energetically implemented the presentational modernisation of the BNP ("suits not boots"), he is deeply entrenched in the old ideology. Straight-up ethno-pluralism with a national socialist twist. Rather than leading today's constitutional change, he was dragged reluctantly to the moment, using every dog-ate-my-homework excuse to avoid the EHRC's case to the courts. Nor did he carry his party. His spin-doctors will say it was passed virtually unanimously on the day, but only 100 of the BNP's 14,000 members could be bothered to attend the hastily-organised EGM in a remote East End pub (far from the party's heartland in Yorkshire and the NE). Comment on the BNP's network of blogs has remained hostile, despite a blizzard of begging emails and YouTube presentations from the Leader.

I am alert to the danger that the BNP could become a mainstream popular nationalist party, manipulating the considerable anger and frustration amongst Britain's working classes into success at the ballot box. Certainly there are millions who have bona fide grievances:

• Economic pessimism - jobs that have gone off-shore or to hungrier, better-skilled immigrants, and there remains no hope for something better.
• Cultural dispossession - communities transformed by new-comers; a national climate that stigmatises patriotism and Britain historic achievements.
• Political isolation - politicians that find their issues (immigration, Europe, Islamist terror and law-'n'-order) too toxic to handle and instead focus on swing voters in the heartland of England.     

But Griffin does not seem like a man with the political imagination to create a party capable of scoring a significant electoral breakthrough: 

• The finances of the party remain shambolic, instigating an on-going inquiry by the Electoral Commission.
• There remains minimal support amongst professionals and intellectuals - a key feature of Continental nationalists like France's Front National and Italy's Forza Nuova.
• Negligible impact in the European Parliament, re-inforcing his post-QT reputation as a bottler. 
• A flimsy political manifesto - most of the party's policies are ludicrous and would cost voters on average around £5,000 per head per annum to implement.

The party is flat-lining in the polls - the Guardian suggested down from 4.8% in June 2009 to 1%. Google Trends suggests internet inquiries are back down to pre-QT levels. The puff has gone out of the BNP.