A while ago an individual left a racist comment in response to a post on the far right British National Party. It didn’t get through moderation. Today that individual emailed me again, from rhoryfraser@hotmail.com.

Let’s take a look at the comment trail left by that email account.

Here’s a recent one from the Independent [cached]

Being a member of the BNP doesn’t make you a fascist. Most of the current Labour leadership have communist/far left backgrounds and I wouldn’t want them in any sort of position of power but they are. Individual BNP members should be allowed the same freedoms as anyone else

So Rhory is a political neutral, but with sympathy for the BNP as an ordinary political party. Fair enough. But take a look at another comment. Rhory actually appears to be a UK Independence Party supporter, regretting a decline in its electoral fortunes:

I’m afraid this result (and the result in Bedworth) are nails in UKIPs coffin. If we can’t pick up votes in a place like Croydon with the current Conservative leadership doing their best to imitate the Lib Dems, then when can they? We were saved at the last Euro elections by Kilroy-Silk’s media-staged intervention. It is time for a major re-think.

But no! He/she/it is actually an old-fashioned socialist:

Fascism is a creed that believes in using violence to achieve political ends. The UAF are more fascistic than the BNP. Your activities are a disgrace to the ordinary, hard-working socialist.

I’m Irish and a socialist and to see so-called socialists attacking a 75 year old politician made me physically sick

These comments are, of course, classic sockpuppetry .

It’s often said – by people like rhory, in fact – that the BNP is not racist, and its members should be judged at face value. You can see from the activities of people like rhory that this view doesn’t look very convincing. And yes, there is likely no real rhory, just an anonymous email account – probably one of several.

The moral? The world cannot – alas – be taken entirely at face value. But if part of your life consists of leaving fake comments on websites then it might be time to re-evaluate it.

++UPDATE++

And ‘Mr Fraser’ responds:

[C]an you imagine the frustration of having opinions like mine about immigration – shared by most ordinary people I know – and facing the complete omerta in the National and local media?

…It is getting harder and harder for the likes of you to characterise people like myself and the BNP as extremists. Can you imagine if you removed the media opprobrium and allowed us a fair say? We would win National elections and the wholesale betrayal of the indigenous population would cease.