THE most dangerous extremists are those who seek to wrap themselves in the cloak of respectability. If proof were needed, then look no further than the British National Party.

The BNP's policies on issues such as law and order and the need to tackle crime could be seen as the essence of reasonable conservatism.

The party's stance won't find favour with everyone, but you would be hard pressed to call it extreme. Some people would broadly agree with it, even the call for the return of corporal punishment for violent attacks.

And there lies the danger.

For down at the bottom of its list of policies, safely out of the spotlight, lurks the real agenda of the BNP.

A complete halt to immigration, the repatriation of ethnic minorities and an end to multi-racialism.

The BNP has gone to great lengths in recent years to distance itself from other extremist groups such as the National Front and Combat 18.

It presents itself as an honest broker, simply expounding the views of those who find the mainstream parties too liberal and ineffective.

Such are its tactics in west York where it has used the plight of assault victim Doug Unwin in an attempt to win over public support. The 57-year-old churchgoer needed ten stitches in a head wound after he was beaten up outside his own home.

Typically, the BNP spotted the opportunity to cash in on public sympathy for him - and went for it.

But this apparent veneer of respectability should not be allowed to mask the real goals of the party.

It is not this newspaper's role to tell its readers where to place their political allegiance. But it is our role to tell you what your vote will mean.

Put your cross against the name of a British National Party candidate, and you will be voting for racism, bigotry, hatred and fear.

We thought you ought to know that.

Updated: 12:29 Tuesday, October 28, 2003