by Ross Palmer

It seems that being a liberal these days means defending the right of more and more people to say and do ever more stupid things. Take the case of Simone Clarke, hitherto known as a principal dancer with the English National Ballet, now universally known as the BNP Ballerina, after Ian Cobain, an undercover journalist for the left-wing British daily The Guardian, revealed her as a card-carrying member of the British National Party. The BNP, so you know, “stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” and is “committed to stemming and reversing the tide of nonwhite 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.” These platform planks come from its constitution.

Cobain’s article also exposed two other figures in the public eye in Britain, one a health-care regulator, the other a leading proponent of complementary medicine who has “links”, according to The Guardian, to Prince Charles. In itself, a BNP member being friendly with the Prince was somewhat surprising, for (if you don’t know) the House of Windsor is a branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the Prince’s father is a member of the Danish House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Then again, it’s often struck me as funny that so many people of the far-right in British politics are also staunch monarchists.

But the furor has been focused on Clarke, partly because “BNP Ballerina” makes a good headline—better, perhaps, than “Prince’s Doc says, ‘Different races aren’t complementary’ “—but also because her position within English National Ballet (ENB) is funded in part by the Arts Council of England, which distributes money obtained from the Government and the National Lottery. Public money, some argue, must never promote racism.

And they’re correct. It mustn’t.

But the English National Ballet and the views of one its dancers are not the same, and the ENB has made a statement saying as much: “Any personal view expressed by one of our employees should not be considered as endorsed by the company.” But Clarke’s first public performance after the hullabaloo still drew a large group of protesters waving placards and banners and calling for her dismissal. Among those making their presence felt was Unite Against Fascism (UAF), which accuses Clarke of “using her position to support a party which fosters division,” despite the fact that, until the undercover reporter exposed her beliefs in late December, no one knew what her views on immigration and racial integration were. She had certainly never made a public pronouncement while wearing a tutu and dancing Swan Lake, onstage or off. So while Unite Against Fascism’s cause may be equality and racial harmony—and Lord knows we need some of that—their opportunistic methods seem to undermine their cause.

Clarke is in the unenviable position of being a pawn in two different games. While she is used by the BNP, glad as they are to have a member who defies their conventional stereotype, she is targeted at the same time by organizations like UAF, who are happy to have a proper, solid target for a change. After all, confronting an abstract noun must get tiring after a while.

Clarke herself doesn’t seem to know what she stands for, as her BNP membership is rather at odds with her relationship with the Cuban-Chinese dancer Yat-Sen Chang. “I am not too proud to say that a lot of it went over my head,” she has admitted, “but some of the things they mentioned were the things I think about all the time, mainly mass immigration, crime and increased taxes.” This has only added weight to the suspicion that the rarefied air of the ENB has cut off the supply of oxygen to her brain.

The BNP remains a repellent pseudoparty whose brand of racist populism interspersed with outbursts of physical violence is designed to appeal to the simple-minded. It appears that it still fulfils that function admirably. But if it is ever to become a genuine electoral force, it must change the wider public’s perception of it, so it tolerates Clarke in the belief that she—and others like her—might help change its image. According to the British broadsheets, high-ranking members of the party were present in the audience during Clarke’s star performance in Giselle, her first performance since the controversy began.

Of course, Clarke does not really agree with the BNP’s views. Whereas she claims, “It is not about removing foreigners. It’s about border controls,” the BNP protests that it is about removing foreigners. The more the better. She clearly hasn’t read the constitution of the party she’s sacrificed her reputation defending. The media reaction, she says, has hardened her resolve to stay a member of a political party with an ideology with which, by her own admission, she doesn’t agree: “I’ve never been clearer in my head that I’m moving in the right direction and at the right time. I will be known as the BNP ballerina… but I don’t regret anything,” she has said. You see what I mean about having to defend the right of people to be stupid?

Some time has passed since the publication of the article that began this diverting interlude in the history of the English National Ballet, and it seems that Clarke will retain her position as principal dancer, facing down those who called for her head. This is, of course, only right and proper. Membership in the British National Party is not illegal and Clarke has done nothing that might constitute a sacking offence. It is not a pleasant thought that public money is spent retaining the services of someone with far-right views, but if the ENB is convinced she’s the best dancer for the job, then that’s all that matters.

What is most dispiriting about the whole affair is that we imagine that those who dedicate their lives to the arts are likely to be open-minded and liberal in their views because, if you dig music, literature, film, ballet or any art form, by and large you’ll respect and admire quality, passion, dedication and excellence, qualities that know no color, race or religion. Twenty-nine years ago, 80,000 people attended the Rock Against Racism concert in east London (and the march that proceeded it) in a very public demonstration against the spate of violent racist attacks then sweeping the UK and some allegedly racist comments and gestures made by David Bowie and Eric Clapton.

That campaign has been succeeded by Love Music Hate Racism, which was, in fact, co-launched by UAF, in partnership with the Anti-Nazi League. While it would be better if it were no longer necessary for it to exist, the campaign does good work. And, in those 29 years, much has been done to remove the racist football hooligan, that enduring British stereotype, from the terraces: Real progress has been made, perhaps because the excellence of a footballer like Thierry Henry simply demands respect (although there remains the worry that there remains a hard-core of fans that are only color-blind when regarding their own team).

Yet now, with parts of Britain’s Muslim communities becoming more insular and the continuing and appalling failure of successive governments to do anything about the problems of educational underachievement, lack of opportunity, and a prevailing gang culture in our inner cities—like excellence in the arts, these also know no color—it is depressing that someone like Simone Clark, from the cosmopolitan world of ballet, should align herself with the BNP. Clarke has presumably blinded herself to the fact that the party she belongs to would, if in power, deport her boyfriend and the majority of the ENB’s other principal dancers.

Still, she must be stood by, as galling as it is to have to do so. We’re in Voltaire territory, here: In 1770, he famously wrote to M. de Reich, “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” While it may often seem safe to assume that everyone who works in the arts is a left-liberal, the truth is that where you have people, you have diversity in opinion, religion, race, in pretty much everything. And when you stand up for diversity, you have to tolerate those who don’t agree with you. Variance of political opinion (and until the day that Clarke starts beating up immigrants in the street, that is the only issue at stake here) is nothing other than intellectual diversity.

I wouldn’t want to attack Unite Against Fascism, as the bulk of their work is worthy, low-profile and undertaken out of solid, deeply-held conviction. However, they go too far in calling for the ENB chiefs to fire Simone Clarke. It seems like a publicity stunt. There are more serious and more insidious threats to racial harmony in Britain than a ballet dancer who didn’t bother to find out the true mentality of the average BNP member before she signed up, and it is those threats that UAF and other organizations like it should be confronting.