Today sees the beginning of the trial at Leeds Crown Court of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.  The charge against them is of using words and conduct likely to incite racial hatred, and it refers to remarks made to private meetings in West Yorkshire two years ago.

I firmly believe that the Home Office has this prosecution completely, utterly wrong.  Yes, the verdict of the court is always a matter of deepest uncertainty and nobody can be confident that the two defendants will be acquitted.  The liberal leanings of the judiciary are such that one must question whether a fair trial can be guaranteed at all.

But, for once, the effect of the trial on public opinion is surely NOT guaranteed for the Home Office.  The left is so given to bellowing the “Racist! Fascist!” bugaboo everytime someone strays from the prescribed party line, it doesn’t seem ever to have considered whether this ploy might one day fail.  That day is today.  The English public is no longer much impressed by the lavish use of special Marxist epithets.  These are steadily losing their power to shock, and just becoming rather predictable and, therefore, boring.  Coincidentally - or perhaps not - New Labour is losing its power to command political affection.  Public sympathy is all at sea.

This development, if I am not mistaken, pressages the possibility that people might actually begin to assess an argument on its merits.  In the Griffin/Collett case that means that the Great Unwashed, who hate a bully and love an underdog, mightn’t swing so mechanically behind the ruling class.  For never was the identity of the bully and the underdog more clear.  In strategic-political terms there is much for Griffin to gain in the coming days.

One worry for him will be a determinedly disinterested or just plain disingenuous MSM, which is why such an energetic effort has been made by his Party to set-up ad hoc communication channels.  Their reach beyond the Party faithful might not count for much in MSM terms.  But it is the best they can do, and much more than has been done in any previous case in which the BNP has been on trial.  It is a sign of a clear collective conscience, too.

The blogosphere ought to take a keen interest in what, after all, could turn out to be the biggest legal-political fiasco since Profumo.  We shall be looking to see how our friends and enemies perform as well as commenting on proceedings ourselves.

I hope Nick and Mark will be restored to their respective families with all speed, cleared in name and bouyed by a great legal, moral and political victory.  If not, the electoral outcome should still be favourable for their Party.  But a Win-Win is clearly just.