A comparative discourse analysis of the construction of in-groups in the 2005 and 2010 Manifestos of the British National Party

Since Nick Griffin’s appointment as chairman of the far-right British National Party (BNP) in 1999, the party has undergone a drastic makeover in terms of the language it employs in the public domain, adopting a moderate discourse of unobjectionable “motherhood and apple pie” concepts, whilst privately maintaining its core ideology of racial prejudice. This paper continues the work previously done examining BNP literature in order to ascertain what discursive techniques the BNP is adopting and how their language is changing to appeal to a wider electoral base. Using Corpus Analysis as a base, and drawing upon techniques of Discourse Analysis (DA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study compares the 2005 and 2010 BNP manifestos. Its focus is the way in which “in-group” categories such as nationhood are invoked to imply inclusivity yet on closer inspection are racially defined. The project of disguising BNP racism in seemingly moderate discourse is continuing apace.