I was astonished when someone told me about Simone Clarke's membership of the British National Party, especially as her personal life is such a model of cultural openness. She's in a mixed race relationship and she and Yat-Sen Chang have a four year old daughter (the couple were profiled on Ballet.co in October). She is patently not racist - but comes across as ditzy, and cannot have thought about the implications.
According to today's Times , "The Sugar Plum Fairy in English National Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker had to confront angry colleagues before yesterday’s matinee performance after she was revealed to be a member of the British National Party." It's a hideous problem for ENB and for Wayne Eagling - a PR disaster, which could damage the company's ability to raise funds, and to appeal to new audiences, not to mention the damage to relationships within the company. Performances could be picketed by demonstrators, or even interrupted. On the other hand, Clarke cannot be fired on the ground of her politics: an unemployment tribunal would find in her favour and award damages. And, there are inconvenient questions about liberty (which nonetheless can't be ducked): are we to persecute people because they hold views we consider abhorrent?
Some of the issues have already been rehearsed by Tim Footman in The Guardian's Comment is free. Here's a flavour:
"Should the views of a dancer (as opposed to a writer or academic, or someone else whose work and opinions are inextricably linked) be of any concern to us? Can a plié or an arabesque have racist overtones? Can she subliminally express far-right propaganda with a wiggle of her tutu?
Cobain suggests that the recruitment of middle-class professionals such as Simone Clarke is a sign that the BNP is still desperate to improve its credentials as a respectable political organisation. If we put such considerations to one side, and applaud her next performance, are we offering tacit acceptance of organised racism into the mainstream of debate? Or should we make our displeasure felt more strongly?
In the meantime, I'll be watching the Guardian letters page for the announcement that Balletomanes Against The Nazis will be staging their first protest. And you don't want to get on the wrong side of them."
In his Guardian blog, Luke Jennings writes:
"Life in a ballet company is hard, and many dancers view themselves as a Spartan elite in a decadent, couch-potato world - a view that chimes harmoniously with far-right attitudes.Many will rush to judgment on this issue, but Clarke's situation is complex, and should be viewed as such. Right now, I suspect that she wishes she were the Dormouse she portrays so touchingly in ENB's Alice in Wonderland - able to shut her eyes to the whole thing."
The blogosphere is coming alive with posts about Clarke. Here's an Australian left wing blog Larvatus Prodeo.
"In what circumstances is it appropriate to name members of this organization? Specifically, I feel a little uneasy about the naming in one of the reports of Simone Clarke, a principal dancer in the English National Ballet; particularly as her partner (on and offstage) is Cuban-born, of Chinese extraction. Nasty as her political views are, and contradictory with her private life as they are, it’s not absolutely clear to me that either justifies her outing on its own."
And a slightly similar perspective from a right-wing UK blog Bel is Thinking:
"Her fellow dancers are reported to be confronting her, and members of the audience have been asked whether the ‘revelation’ has affected their appreciation of the performance. But why should it? Are we now suggesting that BNP members should not have jobs in society? Do we expect them to be hidden in the shadows, sneaking out in the dead of night to forage for food while respectable citizens are in bed? Shock, horror, they have lives like other people, sometimes fulfilling, sometimes not. The story of the infiltration has a sense of the witchhunt about it which I do not like."
Guardian BNP story
22 comments:
You've missed one major point, which is how many little girls model themselves on the principal ballerinas, in particular the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Simone's a great dancer and a lovely person. I think joining the BNP was a mistake but her concern over the massive wave of immigration that is changing Britain is perfectly understandable and legitimate. Personally, I'm much more worried by people who ignore the problem.
Let's just look at what she's signed up to. From the BNP's constitution:
"The British National Party is
wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the
British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948."
You comfortable with that? I'm not. Shame on her.
Jonathan - of course I'm not comfortable with what she has done. In my posting I was bending over backwards not be too condemnatory and excusing her apparent naivety (on the basis of the clear contradiction between her stated beliefs and her lived experiences).
But yes, you're right. She has to take responsibility for her actions. And what she has signed up to is horrific.
Apologies Brendan - the fact that you've had the moral courage to post on this topic at all and outline the issues, however even-handedly, makes it very clear that you're not comfortable with it.
I was addressing the previous commenter ('anonymous'), and any future commenters who might also be tempted to wave away membership of the BNP as nothing more than 'a mistake', without perhaps reading the fine print first.
The worst thing about this sorry episode is that the images of Simone in her tutu, and the association of the story with English National Ballet have given the BNP precisely the kind of image-laundering that they want.
The only thing that has been exposed has been the mass medias campaign to perpetuate the lie that to support BNP policies you must be smelly and poor.
Surely the point of The Guardian's reporting was the opposite: that the BNP was trying to attract a middle-class constituency?
I'm happy to host a discussion here, given that the main dance websites won't do so. But I'd prefer that people didn't post anonymously. As this is a blog about dance, I'd also ask that contributions had some relevance to the particular case of Simone Clarke.
I am a member of the National Executive of the Solidarity Trade Union. I'm also a former member of the National Front (I voted to disband it in 1989). I have a keen interest in civil liberties issues and due to my own experiences a detestation of bullies of any political stripe.
I can assure you that Simone would have the full support of our Union if her human or employment rights were not fully respected. The whole article smacked of a New McCarthyism to me.
Simone has a right to freedom of expression and association. In a democratic, pluralist society she is entitled to join any Party she chooses. I would suggest that all concerned exercise an underated virtue - tolerance.
Patrick Harrington
Solidarity Trade Union
www.solidaritytradeunion.org
solidaritygb@aol.com
Good Point Mr Harrington, The Rights or Wrongs of The BNP can be argued about endlessly, However Your comparison to the Mccarthy Witchunts is correct !!
The Irony is that many who would like to see Simone hounded out of her job,(as they have tried to do with many other less public members of the party) are the first ones to accuse the BNP of being intollerant !! oh the irony
Good Point Mr Harrington, The Rights or Wrongs of The BNP can be argued about endlessly, However Your comparison to the Mccarthy Witchunts is correct !!
The Irony is that many who would like to see Simone hounded out of her job,(as they have tried to do with many other less public members of the party) are the first ones to accuse the BNP of being intollerant !! oh the irony
When we vote there are booths which protect us from intimidation by giving us privacy. That is democracy on the ground, hands on democracy, something The Guardian doesn't respect.
Happy new year folks, ive just got in acracker.....
The real story here is the Guardian STOLE membership details and published them in a national newspaper.
This is in clear breach of the Data Protection aCT. It is illegal to take member or customer details from a secure database,
I hope Ms Clarke takes this rag to the cleaners. As for those who object....GOOD its a democracy isnt it,... ALL opinions are welcome, majority wins!!
From here on, I will delete any post on the topic of Simone Clarke which is not made from a specifically dance perspective and which does not address in a reasonable way the intersection of politics and the arts.
I also asked that posters not opt for anonymity - and I will insist on that from here on, deleting posts as necessary.
I meant to add: this is a weblog whose primary purpose is to discuss dance. While other topics might be raised, they are usually brought up in a dance context.
So please, frame anything you say on this blog in the context of dance, dancers and dance aesthetics.
I am someone who, on occasion, will attend dance and other cultural events.
I am also an immigrant, and have lived here for quite a while.
Someone needs to talk to Ms. Clarke about fascism and its attitude toward the arts. Maybe a discussion of the artists who died at the hands of fascists in Germany, Italy, Spain, etc would be a good start. You know, the artists who stood up to tyranny so that people like her might have a chance to express herself though dance.
It would turn my stomach to see an enabler of Nazism in this country on stage, so I will not pay to see the ENB until she leaves.
Brendan, I'm surprised at your description of Simone as 'ditsy', implying maybe that she doesn't think things through? I would disagree with that, surely the rigorous training needed for the ballet can only be achieved by strong mental and physical discipline; reading your link to the interview with Simone and Yat, I get the impression that she has a down-to earth disposition, and actually has a brain as well as being artistic. Also, apparently she discussed her feelings with Yat, who approved of her political leanings, so this was not a decision she took lightly.
In any case, I cannot see why her politics should affect her position; she was a much-admired dancer before the revelation and no doubt popular with her Company; nothing has changed, she is the same person now - except that she will face persecution for belonging to a legal though un-PC Party. Personally, I'd rather that than hear that she was on drugs, like so many revered role models of today's youth.
I applaud this women for standing her ground. The communist establishment have already called for her to be sacked. Which proves once again that we do not live in a democracy. The BNP is a legal political party in which anyone of it's members should not be oppressed simply because they don't believe in multiculturalism and mass immigration. After all, we never asked for it. Anyway, atleast the BNP haven't waged 2 illegal wars in which thousands have been murdereed in the name of ZION and OIL!
I have read with interest the various comments, by those with forenames and those only known as "anonymous" on this site. Ms Clarke has made it known that she is not against immigrants, but against lax border controls. If that is her reason for joining the BNP, then she could easily have joined either of the main political parties since they all agree on this point. I wonder if she is aware of the other elements of the BNP's manifesto regarding race relations. A quote from her this morning in the Guardian says that she found that much of the BNP's material went "over her head". I wonder if crucial points did? Suzanne
Don’t be stupid. The mainstream parties have had decades to correct their stance on immigration. If anything they are desperate to increase the flood of immigration to fuel their globalistic economic designs.
No mainstream party intends anything other than a continuation of mass mass immigration.
This woman has only now discovered the blatant political oppression of the establishment. Being a known member of the BNP (a legal party for which 100s of thousands have voted) carries a sentence of instant dismissal from anywhere ive ever worked and prohibits hiring within any civil service.
Please show courtesy to other posters. And - please - political discussion is not a central purpose of this weblog.
Keep postings specific to the person of Simone Clarke. There are more appropriate places on the web to debate wider questions about UK immigration policy.
Simone Clarke is clearly a great dancer and should be regarded as such. However regardless of her position within the English National Ballet, Simone Clarke clearly has no place being a member of the BNP. The Chairman of the BNP Nick Griffin has previously written, "Do I regard someone who is married to or living with a partner of another race as a suitable member or candidate for the BNP? No, because by their choice they have clearly shown that they do not share our most fundamental values." http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/race_reality.htm
Either the BNP must expel Clarke or continue down the slippery slope of compromise for the sake of a few more council seats. The BNP should be a white party for white people, not a mixed race party for race mixers. Where will it end?
I am now closing this thread to new comments, but will allow those that have been posted to stand.
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