I don't think that the intention was that.
It is true that the BNP has an image of a party of thugs and, well... no comments here... and that they are on a campaign to try to change that image to make themselves more acceptable to the public. A cosmetic change, a face lift if you prefer it.
To that end I wouldn't be surprised if they provoked a split inside the BNP to have the most conspicuous nazi and hooligan elements out of the BNP public picture. Or that they agreed that this burden was taken by the National Front. This is just a speculative analysis, but there is much likelihood in it.
Also, if The Guardian has had a reporter infiltrated inside the BNP for 7 months, one should not be as naïve as to believe that this article is everything that they will come with.
Probably just a preview.
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'Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum
prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto
accipiet reduces. Antiquam exquirite matrem:
hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris,
et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.'
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
–Plato–
'Many people, I believe, wish for a society where faith, decency, pro-life convictions and national self-determination within Europe can flourish; and not be swallowed up in a dictatorial EU bureaucracy.'
–Gerry McGeough, Irish Nationalist and POW–