Norwich remembers war dead

From Norwich Evening News 24:

Remembrance Sunday in Norwich

The people of Norwich turned out in force yesterday for a poignant service to remember those who died for their country in days gone by - and those who are today putting their lives in peril.

Standard bearers flanked the steps of City Hall as wreath after wreath of poppies was laid on a specially-erected plinth - watched by a crowd of thousands who congregated nearby.

The Rev Peter Nokes, vicar of St Peter Mancroft Church, who led the act of remembrance, said:

It's a day when we shine a light on the human courage and self-offering which has brought protection and peace.

We also shine a light on the terrible, terrible cost of war and the grief and loss it brings. We remember thousands and thousands of lives lost in the first world war in the most awful carnage and we remember the fallen of the second world war.

He drew people's attention to modern-day conflicts, and said:

The current events are a poignant and ghastly reminder of the ongoing cost of conflict.

The Last Post was played before an impeccably-observed two minutes' silence that was interrupted only by the sound of birds flying overhead.

Don Cooper, 83, from Sprowston, who served in the second world war in the 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions in France, Germany, Norway and Palestine, said:

At times like these you lose your sense and proportion of life. All you can think of is those who've passed and the great comradeship that you lost.

His thoughts also turned to those serving in Afghanistan. He said: “

Let's thank God that we have a good nation that supports countries in the world when they are in trouble.

Rita Siddall, from Norwich city centre, was at the service to remember her late father, who fought with the Royal Navy Reserves in Malta in the second world war.

She said;

We should never forget. It's particularly important now, because of what's going on in the world today. This is an event that is significant, even for the younger generation.

After the act of remembrance, which was attended by members of the three armed forces, many representatives from the Royal British Legion and numerous war veterans, there was a march through the city centre to attend a memorial service at Norwich Cathedral.

It was the first time in many years that the act of remembrance was not held in the Memorial Gardens in front of City Hall. The area, which was in poor condition, has been sealed off as builders work on an overhaul.

By STEVE DOWNES

Commonwealth contribution

Britain could not have won either of the World Wars without the contribution made by non-white and non-British soldiers.

This was nothing new. The British Empire had always relied heavily on non-white and non-British troops to secure its new territories. The largest of these was the Indian Army, whose troops served throughout Asia and Africa.

The British Navy recruited widely throughout the Empire. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 there were 187 sailors from the Caribbean, 28 from Africa and 23 from India aboard ships in Nelson’s Fleet. The Death of Nelson, painted between 1859 and 1864 by Daniel Maclise, clearly depicts two black sailors, whom he included after meticulous research to ensure the historical accuracy of his composition. Figures such as James Africanus Horton (1835-1883), Oludah Equiano (c.1745-1797) and Mary Seacole (1805-1881), to name but three, all served in the British armed forces before 1914.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 Britain recruited heavily from her Imperial possessions. Over one million men from the non-white colonies served during the First World War. The greatest military contribution came from India. Over 138,000 Indian troops fought in Belgium and France during the conflict. More than one quarter of them became casualties. In the first battle of Ypres in Flanders in 1914, a platoon of Dogra Sikhs died fighting to the last man, who shot himself with his last cartridge rather than surrender. After the bloody battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, the Sikh regiments had lost 80% of their men. Three regiments stood at only 16% of their original complement.

Khudadad Khan, from what is today Pakistan, served as a machine gunner with the 129th (Duke of Connaught’s Own) Baluchis, becoming the first native-born Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for bravery.

Fifteen thousand men from the West Indies (white and black) saw active service during the First World War. The British West Indies Regiment was formally established in November 1915 and 11 battalions served in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, suffering 1,325 casualties including 185 killed in action. The racial prejudice to which it was subjected contributed to a mutiny among its troops in 1918. Troops from Africa played an important part in the defeat of the Germans in East and West Africa. Others, from countries including Egypt, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa and China, swelled the ranks of labour units, providing logistical support for frontline troops.

Walter Tull served in the trenches and became the first black British army officer before being killed in action in 1918 during the last battle of the Somme. Before the war he had been one of Britain’s first black professional footballers, playing for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town.

Four Indians and one West Indian served as pilots in the fledgling Royal Flying Corps (RFC), which was to become theRoyal Air Force. Lieutenant Indra Lal Roy, who was born in Calcutta, served with the RFC and recorded nine victories against enemy aircraft before being shot down and killed in 1918. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The Royal Navy also received invaluable support from the Hong Kong Naval Special Volunteer Reserve, the Colombo Minesweeping Force, the Nigerian Marine and the Royal Indian Marine.

Shown left is a vintage historical World War 2 poster of servicemen from the British Commonwealth. Allied War Effort: Together

It was a similar story during the Second World War.

Over 2.5 million Indians – Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims – served with the British armed forces during the Second World War. The Indian Army (which included recruits from the areas that later became Pakistan and Bangladesh) was the largest volunteer army in the world. Over 36,000 Indian members of the armed forces were killed or posted missing in action during the Second World War and another 64,000 were wounded. Indian personnel received 4,000 awards for gallantry, and 31 VCs. The only VC winner from elsewhere in the in the Empire was Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, of the Fiji Military Forces, who earned this highest of all commendations in June 1944 at Bougainville.

One of the 31 recipients of the VC was Havildar Gaje Ghale, who in May 1943 was in command of D platoon, 2nd battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles. Although badly wounded, he continued to lead a charge against the Japanese forces on the Tiddim Road in Burma.

The citation for his VC stated that he had “dominated the fight” with “his outstanding example, doubtless courage and superb leadership … Covered in blood from his own wounds, he led assault after assault”. In total there were 2,500,000 Indian people in uniform during the conflict.
Approximately 6,000 men and women from the Caribbean served with the RAF during the Second World War. Some 300 or so West Indians served as RAF aircrew, and around 90 men received decorations. This included seven Distinguished Service Orders (DSO), and 64 DFCs.

Probably the most decorated was Squadron Leader Ulric Cross (pictured left), who was awarded both the DSO and the DFC.

The citation for the latter notes his “exceptional navigational ability” and the “very large number of sorties” he had flown “against heavily defended targets” in Germany.

Sam King served with the RAF. He returned to Britain on the Empire Windrush and became the first black mayor of Southwark. He was later awarded an MBE.

Some 520 men came from the Caribbean colonies to work, mainly in munitions factories in the northwest. About 80 West Indian women, initially only white women, were recruited for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).

By December 1944 around 5,000 black Africans were enlisted in the West African Air Corps as RAF ground crew. A very small number served as aircrew with the RAF. Tens of thousands served in supporting roles such as in the medical corps or as anti-aircraft crew, as well as in construction and other vital war work.

Some 372,500 African troops fought in East Africa and Burma, helping to defeat the Japanese.

Non-white, non-British people also made a significant non-military contribution to keeping Britain going in the fight against Nazi tyranny. Approximately 15,000 colonial merchant seamen brought vital food and raw materials to Britain and transported war material to various battlefronts. Five thousand of them perished. Some are buried in Commonwealth War Graves as far away as Murmansk.

One of the most famous agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which fought behind enemy lines, was Noor Inyat Khan (pictured right), an Indian Muslim princess who worked as a radio operator with the French Resistance. Betrayed by an informer and arrested by the Gestapo, Khan refused to talk. After being tortured and beaten, she was executed by the Nazis in Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

The sacrifice made by many of these troops who helped to restore democracy in Europe was all the greater when one considers that many had no desire to return to the status quo ante, in which their countries were colonies denied self-determination.

Even when independence was granted to these countries after 1945 many of their citizens continued to serve loyally in the British armed forces, producing heroes such as SAS Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba from Fiji, who was killed fighting in Oman in 1972 at the Battle of Mirbat, and Private Johnson Beharry, who received the VC (the first awarded since 1982 and the first non-posthumous award of the medal since 1965) for his bravery in helping fellow soldiers in Iraq.

During the 1960s an unofficial quota limited the number of ethnic minority personnel serving in the Army to a maximum of 3%. Today, however, ethnic minorities comprise 5.6% of the armed forces and 2.9% of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Civil Service.

Ethnic minorities and people from the British Empire, later the Commonwealth, have a long and illustrious history of service in the British armed forces, to which they have made a vital and often unsung contribution. The British National Party aspires quite literally to whitewash this history, dismissing the notion that such troops, even if they were born here, are “British”. Indeed such is the BNP’s contempt for the contribution of these troops that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, even dismissed the Gurkhas, the feared Nepalese fighters who have fought for Britain for generations, as nothing more than “mercenaries”.

The BNP even had the temerity to claim that Johnson Beharry (pictured left) only received his VC because he was black, and further defamed him and his bravery by stating that he was an “immigrant” who had merely driven away from the scene of a battle, implying that he was a coward.



You may also like to read We Were There

The “We Were There” exhibition is on people rather than events. It celebrates personal commitment and professionalism regardless of religion, race, gender or social background.

Knowledge is power

So what does all this background information about the BNP's questionable operations in Northern Ireland have to do with Norfolk?

It forms part of the information needed to counter the BNP propaganda and outright lies. Knowledge to counter the nonsense.

Knowledge of the facts about dodgy accounting, knowledge of the criminal convictions of much of the top BNP leadership, knowledge of the BNP's links to white-supremecists and fascist extremists worldwide, knowledge of how the BNP seeks to change historical truths, and knowledge of the cruel racism and bigotry at the heart of BNP policies.

It is knowledge of the facts that emboldened a 13 year-old schoolboy to shame Nick Griffin just last Wednesday.

Well done William Robey for foiling another cynical attempted BNP hi-jacking of military symbolism and British war history.

From the Independent:

Schoolboy confronts Griffin at memorial

BNP leader argues with a 13-year-old at WWI monument to Indian troops

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has paid a secret visit to a First World War memorial in Belgium – only to become embroiled in an angry confrontation with a 13-year-old schoolboy, The Independent has learnt.

On Wednesday the pupil, William Robey, was in Ypres visiting the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing as part of a school trip. It was built to commemorate the thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient in 1914-17, and its walls are inscribed with the names of 54,360 men who died for the British cause – including the 40th Pathans, an Indian infantry regiment which suffered great losses. But as "The Last Post" was about to be played, the schoolboy spotted Nick Griffin surrounded by some of his supporters.

William told The Independent: "I asked him if I could take his picture, next to the memorial for Pathan Indians. He reluctantly agreed, but as I went to take my photo I asked him, 'Isn't this against your party's policy?' One of his supporters put his hand over the lens, told me to 'get my facts straight', and grabbed my arm."

I took the picture [above] but it's very blurry. I said to him, 'Your party's built on hatred.' He started shouting at me, pointing his finger. The rest of his lot were all laughing and smirking. I just felt a bit sick inside to see him there to be honest. There they were with their poppies on, trying to put this respectable front on, yet they're happy to confront a 13-year-old at a war memorial to try and get their point across."

He was just saying 'I've got lots of Sikh friends' when my teacher stepped in and took me away."

A BNP spokesperson said Mr Griffin often visits War Memorials when he returns to the European Parliament. He said the BNP leader "doesn't recall any jostling,." He also "It wasn't one of Nick's security entourage who put his hand over the camera. It was someone else who was there."

William's mother, Lucy, said that since the incident her son had been approached by a number of people who wanted to congratulate him for "standing up against racism".

_______________________________________________________

Volunteer members of the HOPE not hate, Norfolk team will be leafleting in Norwich this afternoon. The leaflets will give you some of the information you need to learn about what the BNP fear the most - the truth.

Just look at the aggression displayed by Nick Griffin as snapped by young William Robey. That is the BNP reaction to the truth.

As Jonesy says - they don't like it up them.

Irish TUC calls for enquiry

Searchlight’s investigation into the business activities of the BNP front man Jim Dowson has led to a call for an enquiry into whether the employment practices at the BNP call centre are in breach of Northern Ireland’s Race Relations Order of 1997, which prohibits racist employment practices.

The Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) issued a joint call last month for an investigation by the Department of Employment and Learning, after Searchlight passed them evidence that employment agencies had been duped into providing staff for the BNP.

In response to Searchlight’s investigation, the employment agency Office Angels issued a statement through its London PR company admitting it had supplied a “small number of staff to a call centre called Adlorries” but withdrew them and terminated the agreement once it became apparent who the customer really was.

The statement went on to say that Office Angels “would not support any client who appeared to discriminate and would review our contract with them forthwith. Our philosophy is to not only uphold the word of the law but also our company morals, standards and policies.”

While there is no suggestion that Office Angels has contravened the law or in any way behaved improperly, Searchlight does have evidence that at least one other high profile employment agency is not only still supplying staff to Adlorries to work for the BNP but is also allegedly “cherry picking” prospective employees based on race, religion and sexuality.

Launching the joint call for an investigation, Peter Bunting, ICTU Assistant General Secretary, said:

The BNP are fascists. They misrepresent facts about public housing going to immigrants, about foreigners taking our jobs, about Muslims and crime and about the Holocaust. They even deny what Britain fought during World War II. The truth is that Britain fought against fascism, and this clearly is a fight that is not over yet. These are tainted jobs from an evil employer, and no employment agency should have any truck with them.

Searchlight is also calling for an inquiry and we will be handing our dossier to ICTU and NICEM to present to the authorities leading the investigation.

You may also be interested to read
Dissecting the Dowsons Part 3 of a three part investigation Searchlight Magazine November 2009
Dowson's empire Part 2 of a three part investigation Searchlight Magazine November 2009
From rags to riches Part 1 of a three part investigation Searchlight Magazine November 2009
BNP Bosses Uncovered A former employee lifts the lid on life working for 44-year-old Jim Dowson and the BNP in Belfast by Steven Moore Sunday World October 2009
'Cash strapped' BNP fails to deliver accounts Sonia Gable on the BNP’s current financial problems Searchlight Magazine September 2009
The man who bought the BNP Sonia Gable untangles a BNP financial web Searchlight Magazine July 2009
Truth truck or lie lorry? Sonia Gable uncovers another BNP financial scandal Searchlight Magazine August 2008
BNP accounts don't add up Sonia Gable analyses the BNP’s latest figures Searchlight Magazine September 2008

Hope not Hate

Dissecting the Dowsons

From Hope not Hate:

The leak of the BNP membership list last month has turned the spotlight on the party's Belfast call centre, the tensions it has caused in the party, and the links between the man who runs it and a charity that has received a six-figure sum in EU funding. Matthew Collins and Simon Cressy investigate.

The posting on the internet of a British National Party membership list two days before the BNP leader's prized appearance on Question Time was a huge embarrassment to the fascist party. After the BNP lost an earlier list of members and contacts last year, the party promised to put security measures in place to ensure such a thing could never happen again. It was only because of this promise that the BNP managed to stem a walkout of members concerned about losing their jobs and friends because of the revelation of their racist adherence.

Searchlight can now reveal that the "security measures" consisted of handing over the files to Jim Dowson, a hardline anti-abortion activist with a string of criminal convictions, who runs the party's "secret" administrative lair in Northern Ireland.

In what has become known as the BNP's Belfast bunker, an office on an industrial estate in Dundonald, Dowson's private company, Adlorries.com, employs staff recruited through employment agencies, to handle BNP members' personal information. Staff are not security vetted, though East Europeans and Asians applying for work at the call centre are automatically rejected, in contravention of employment legislation.

Staff, one of whom is the wife of a police officer working at Castlereagh police station, do not even have to sign a confidentiality clause. Yet one of their roles was to persuade up to 3,000 lapsed members that their personal information and membership details would now be kept securely and encrypted in the secretive call centre.

Dowson has told the police that a former staff member leaked the membership data after leaving her job taking a laptop computer in lieu of £2,000 that she claimed she was owed in unpaid wages.

One of the employment agencies that supplied staff to Adlorries was Office Angels. The firm would only speak to Searchlight through a PR company but confirmed that it had supplied staff to the call centre. A statement from Office Angels said it had terminated the contractual arrangement once it learned that Adlorries was a "third party supplier to the BNP". It added:

We do not discriminate against a person's race, age or sex. It is totally against Office Angels' values to do this, not to mention against the law.

The BNP claimed that Northern Ireland was a "safe haven" away from the strong opposition the party faces on mainland Britain. Since spring this year the BNP has carried out almost all its telephone fundraising and recruitment activities from the Dundonald office and another in nearby Ballyhackamore. Staff solicit donations and send out information packs all over the UK for a wage of £6 an hour plus commission based on the amount they raise.

Since the move to Northern Ireland the party has been trying desperately to plug a succession of embarrassing leaks to the Irish press identifying key personnel in the Irish operation and exposing the gradual and almost forced takeover of the BNP by a man who claimed publicly to have "stepped down" from fundraising for the party, but who still has his hand very firmly on the BNP's purse strings.

Gradually, since Dowson first became involved with the BNP in late 2007, he has taken over more and more of the party's operations and drawn the BNP further into his web of business, campaigning and charity interests.

Until the membership list leak, BNP members were receiving an average of three telephone calls a month from the call centre, soliciting donations and encouraging people to renew their membership early or upgrade to the life or gold membership schemes.

Legal action by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has forced the BNP to suspend recruiting members while it makes changes to its constitution. Instead, Dowson is now desperately trying to revive the near moribund Trafalgar Club, members of which contribute at least £15 a month in exchange for an annual dinner with speech by Nick Griffin, the party leader, usually in a smart country hotel, on the Saturday nearest to Trafalgar Day, 21 October.
Dowson has also put his staff onto increasing subscriptions to the party periodical Voice of Freedom as well as making begging phone calls for donations to fight the EHRC's case against the BNP. In reality the funds are being raised to pay the EHRC's costs, which are likely to be awarded against the BNP, after Griffin gave up the hopeless battle.

All these calls are made from the same telephone lines that the Dowson family use for their charity, anti-abortion work and the plumbing business run by James Dowson Jr. In overall charge of answering and dispatching calls to the correct part of the set-up is Marion Thomas, Dowson's sister-in-law.

Marion Thomas is married to Alex Thomas, who acts as chair of Solas, a Northern Ireland charity, which he runs together with Dowson. Solas NI is a victim support group set up in 2003 to help bereaved and injured victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles. It says its aim is "to ensure that those most affected by the Troubles have recourse to a non-political and non-sectarian organisation which caters specifically for their needs".

Solas operates from the same address and uses the same telephone number as another Dowson organisation, the Christian Youth Fellowship.

When Searchlight telephoned the number it was answered by a woman with a Scottish accent who gave her name as Marion. We then asked to speak to Jim [Dowson] and she proceeded to connect us.

Searchlight has discovered that up to March 2007 Solas received £111,479 of funding under a European Union programme for peace and reconciliation. The money, part of a £6.8 million allocation for projects in Northern Ireland in 2006-07, came via Proteus, an intermediate funding body.

Announcing the grants, Pat Donnelly, chief executive of Proteus, said: "There is real evidence that projects funded by PEACE II [the EU programme] have contributed to a significant change in mindset and created the necessary preconditions for genuine cooperation and improvements to take place".

Dowson's past record and current involvement with the racist BNP, which only seeks to divide communities, shows that cooperation is the last thing on his mind.

As well as controlling income coming in through the call centre, Dowson has placed his own accountant John Thompson to look after the BNP's books. Thompson, who is based in Comber, also looks after the accounts for Alex Thomas and Dowson's anti-abortion campaign, the UK LifeLeague.

Last April, Griffin announced that the "current and anticipated growth" of the BNP had necessitated the formation of a "full Treasury Department" headed by a professional chartered accountant", whom he did not name. Thompson's main achievement in that role appears to be the failure to produce the party's 2008 accounts on time, incurring a fine of at least £1,000 under electoral legislation.

Thompson was supposed to work under the oversight of the BNP's treasurer. At the time of his appointment this was one of the many party positions held by Simon Darby, the deputy leader. Thompson is believed to have clashed a number of times with Darby over the payment of bills, in particular to Romac Press Ltd in east Belfast, which now does the party's printing, including the endless begging letters the party sends out to an esoteric mailing list.

It appears that Romac Press, which also prints for Dowson's other operations, is being lined up to print Voice of Freedom. Senior party members on the mainland are said to be resisting the move, but Dowson hopes this may placate the owners who still have a large bill to be settled.

Senior BNP officers on the mainland have also voiced concern over the apparent independence of the Irish operation. They include Simon Bennett, the BNP's webmaster, Eddy Butler, the national organiser, Martin Wingfield, the Communications and Campaigns Officer for the two BNP MEPs, and even Darby. Bennett is especially aggrieved because Dowson is earning commission on the money he raises for the party. Bennett was offered commission on donations raised through the BNP website but the party appears to have reneged on the promise.

Searchlight can reveal that it was Griffin's sole decision to give Dowson free rein to run major BNP administrative functions. Perhaps it was to pacify them that the BNP announced in June the appointment of Emma Colgate as the party's administration officer in place of "consultant Jim Dowson", though in fact Dowson's role has not changed.

Dowson's remit is not limited to Northern Ireland, however. During the European election campaign the BNP announced proudly that it had acquired a number of office premises to house its growing operations, but kept the locations secret.

Searchlight has discovered that early this year the party leased three rooms in a smart building on the Salmon Springs Trading Estate in Stroud Gloucestershire for "training" at a cost of £5,000 per year. However it was not the BNP's name on the tenancy but that of Adlorries.com. The three-year lease was a waste of the BNP's money. Except for one meeting, at which the party sacked Michaela Mackenzie from her positions as administration officer and national nominating officer, the offices have remained unused and unfurnished.

It is different in Nuneaton, where the former pub landlord Alwyn Deacon is fronting the BNP's merchandising operation, Excalibur, complete with a mini call centre with 20 phone lines, in a property leased in his own name from the local Conservative council in Slingsby Close on the Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate. Deacon and his wife follow a series of fundraising guidelines set down by Dowson, under which former customers of Excalibur as well as all other party members and even members of the UK Independence Party are bombarded with phone calls and special offers.

How the BNP will afford these new premises is unclear. Any attempt to hide the costs in the party's expenses claims for the new MEPs would of course be fraudulent.

Partly to meet the concerns of members of the Party's national advisory council about Dowson's power in the party, Griffin's daughter Jennifer and her new husband Angus Matthys moved into a flat in Comber last month to begin work at the Dundonald call centre. Ms Griffin, a former leader of the Young BNP, once manned the tills at the same Co-op store where her father was briefly employed. Now she is allegedly forging her father's signature on the photograph of the revered leader that gold party members receive as thanks for their generosity.

Since moving to Northern Ireland, Jennifer is believed to have concurred with Arthur Kemp, the South African former apartheid intelligence agent who now edits the BNP website, that despite his father's wishes, Dowson's eldest son, James, could not be publicly annointed as the head of the BNP's youth wing. The decision has apparently caused resentment in the Dowson family as the Griffin and Dowson heirs vie for supremacy in the call centre.

However, this has not stopped Mr and Mrs Matthys joining Dowson Jr as members of the Goldsprings "kick the Pope" marching and flute band, a clear sign that despite the BNP's protestations to Anglo-Irish members on the mainland, a strict evangelical, racist and sectarian policy still runs through the very core of the BNP.

Another of Dowson's religious cohorts unpopular with senior members on the mainland is Zak McAdam. An IT specialist who has clashed with the BNP's webmaster Simon Bennett on a number of occasions, McAdam recently made a name for himself with a one-man campaign against lesbians and computer games. A number of holders of party laptops were furious to discover that they could not access pornography after McAdam blocked access to some of the party employees' favourite porn sites.

Although the latest BNP membership list leak has been overshadowed by Griffin's Question Time appearance, limiting the damage in terms of bad publicity, advisory council members are angry and are blaming Dowson for the embarrassing loss of data that were supposedly kept encrypted.

Wingfield, whose wife Tina used to be the party's membership secretary, was the first to comment shortly before midnight on the eve of the anticipated leak. Wingfield blogged: "I know the leak certainly didn't come from our end here."

Days after Griffin's disastrous performance on Question Time and the membership list loss, Jennifer and Angus Matthys attended this year's Trafalgar Club dinner alongside Dowson at a smart country house hotel near Ross-on-Wye. The tension between senior BNP officers and Dowson, and the animosity between Griffin's daughter and Dowson Jr, cannot have made for a congenial evening.

Who's who in the Belfast bunker

Jennifer Matthys (née Griffin):
Newly married, Jennifer and her husband Angus moved to the village of Comber, where a number of the BNP's key Northern Ireland personnel already live. Until recently a checkout assistant at her local Co-op, the BNP leader's daughter (pictured with father) is supposedly entrusted with keeping a close eye on the activities of the Dowsons. A new car was thrown into the bargain to sweeten the move away from her long-time love interest Mark Collett, the controversial designer of BNP leaflets and newly appointed editor of the party's newspaper Voice of Freedom. It is Jennifer who has stopped James Dowson Jr getting his hands on the Young BNP after a battle of wills between them.

James Dowson Jr:
Until Jennifer Griffin's arrival, James Jr, Dowson's eldest son, was cock of the north around the village of Comber and in the BNP call centre from where he ran his plumbing firm, Ultraplumb.com Ltd, set up with his father's financial help. Dowson Jr, 21, is a senior member of the Goldsprings flute band, a favourite of Protestants who want to "kick" the Pope. His planned rise in the BNP has been curbed since Ms Griffin came on the scene. His father is alleged to have bought him a Russian bride who upped and left not long after arriving in the Dowson home.

Marion Thomas:
Unknown until now, Marion Thomas has emerged as the key link person to the Dowson empire. Thomas, Dowson's sister-in-law, is the administrator of Dowson's various business and campaign interests and signs various documents on Dowson's behalf. Her husband, Alex Thomas, is a business partner of Dowson and chair of Solas NI, the victim support group linked to Dowson. Allegedly no great fan of Dowson, Marion allegedly keeps a record of all the business transactions that go on in Dowson's offices.

John Thompson:
Dowson's long-time accountant, Thompson was taken on last April to sort out the BNP's books and records after a succession of changes in the BNP's treasury department, which had been widely accused of incompetence at the time of the winter 2007-08 rebellion in the BNP.

Although the BNP described him as a "professional chartered accountant" he appears to have been unequal to the task and the BNP's 2008 accountants, due with the Electoral Commission by 7 July 2009, are still missing. Since the election of the BNP's two MEPs, Thompson has taken on the role of "paying agent" for the MEPs' staff on the European Parliament payroll.

Searchlight thanks all the people in Northern Ireland and England who have helped in this investigation.

Dowson, BNP, and Northern Ireland angle

From Hope not Hate:

Sonia Gable shines a light on Jim Dowson's string of business and campaigning interests, and the connection with the BNP

Solas NI

Solas NI, a charity with the registration number XR86269, describes itself on its website as a victim support group set up to help bereaved and injured victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles. It says its aim is "to ensure that those most affected by the Troubles have recourse to a non-political and non-sectarian organisation which caters specifically for their needs". It was formed in 2003 and up to 2007 had received £111,479 of funding under a European Union programme for peace and reconciliation.

Jim Dowson is not known to hold any position in Solas, but its chair is Alex Thomas, a business partner of Dowson and husband of his sister-in-law, who is also involved in Solas. The charity also uses the same address and telephone number as another Dowson organisation, the Christian Youth Fellowship.

Adlorries.com Ltd

Jim Dowson is the sole director of Adlorries.com Ltd, the company that hired the Belfast staff. Incorporated in October 2004 it describes itself as "an independent company providing professional services without prejudice to NGOs, charities and political organisations … We are the complete business solution," its scanty website claims.

The company owns little of substance. Its latest accounts show fixed assets plus cash of nearly £27,000 against £25,000 owed in debts and long-term loans.

One of its assets is the BNP's "truth truck", better known outside the party as the lie lorry. Last year the BNP claimed to have bought the truck after a successful appeal to supporters to raise the £26,550 needed. However when bailiffs tried to enforce a county court judgement against the BNP, the party's solicitors responded that the vehicle was "registered in the name of another person who … has no connection with the judgement debtors".

In fact the truth truck turned out to be the same vehicle that Dowson had bought two years earlier for the anti-abortion UK LifeLeague, after appealing for donations from supporters. It even had the same name. A press release issued in April 2006 claimed Operation Truth Truck would "enable the pro-life message to reach the unreached across the towns and cities of Britain". The UK LifeLeague and the BNP had milked their gullible supporters twice over for the same "truth truck" which never left the ownership of Adlorries.com.

Albion Logistical Solutions Ltd

Incorporated in February 2009, Albion Logistical Solutions Ltd has an address in Loughborough and one director, Jim Dowson. It was this company that organised the printing of over 28 million glossy BNP European election leaflets earlier this year.

Midas Consultancy

Early in 2008 BNP senior officers and activists were invited to attend "high level management training" arranged by "a professional management consultancy and training company", which "uses a property in Spain as its main training base".

Searchlight quickly established that the organiser was a Belfast-based business called the Midas Consultancy, the name under which Jim Dowson marketed his management and fundraising skills, and that the training base was in Valencia on the Costa Blanca.

Christian Youth Fellowship

The Christian Youth Fellowship shares premises with Solas NI and its contact person is listed as J Dowson. Its activities centre around anti-abortion and anti-gay campaigning, though in May it took part in the launch of TIDY Northern Ireland's Clean Coast Programme on Portrush, Whiterocks beach.

UK LifeLeague

Jim Dowson is the main public face of the hardline anti-abortion UK LifeLeague, which uses highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff. Similar actions by anti-abortion groups in the US have resulted in the murder of doctors.

Formed in 1999, the LifeLeague claims to be committed to peaceful campaigning "to end the violence of abortion". Although its website states that "campaigning is an important part of what we do", the organisation appears to have done nothing since early 2008 apart from raising money.

Ultraplumb.com Ltd

Jim Dowson helped his eldest son, James Dowson Jr, to set up Ultraplumb.com Ltd, a company registered at Dowson's address in Cumbernauld, Scotland, in 2007. Dowson Jr, 21, is the sole director and Marion Thomas, Dowson Sr's sister-in-law, is the Company Secretary. Ultraplumb styles itself as "Northern Ireland's premier plumbing company" but of the three testimonials on its website, dated 2007, one is from Thomas herself. Its accounts are several months overdue for filing at Companies House.

After the exposé of the BNP's Belfast bunker operation in the Irish press, Dowson Jr painted out the signs on his company's vans, fearing reprisals from the local population.

BNP offices in Stroud and Nuneaton

Stroud: The large grey stone house on a Stroud industrial estate is not the sort of place one might expect the BNP to occupy. Jim Dowson's company Adlorries.com Ltd leased three rooms at Unit 13, Salmon Springs Trading Estate, Painswick Road, Stroud for three years, paying £5,000 a year in rent to the owner, D J Melsome Ltd. They were to be used as a training centre for the BNP run by Michaela Mackenzie, but have remained empty after the party sacked her from her posts as administration officer and national nominating officer. Like many in the BNP it appears she clashed with Dowson, but came off second best. Unfortunately for Dowson, the lease has no cancellation clause.

Nuneaton: Alwyn Deacon, the BNP's West Midlands regional organiser, leases Unit 3 Slingsby Close, Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate, Nuneaton from Nuneaton and Bedworth council, where the BNP has one councillor following the resignation of a second last month. Deacon is also the BNP's enquiries secretary and national dispatch manager, a job he carries out at the unit.

Like the unit the BNP secretly occupied on a Deeside industrial estate last year, until the landlords evicted the party following a Searchlight exposé, the Nuneaton premises also houses Excalibur, the BNP's merchandising operation. Since May Excalibur has been run privately by Arthur Kemp, the BNP's foreign affairs spokesman, under an annually renewable licence from the party. Excalibur's range of tatty cringe-making and overpriced goods include golliwogs, Replica Victoria Crosses, condemned by the Ministry of Defence as an insult to British troops' heroism, Enoch Powell t-shirts and copies of Kemp's own dismal books.

The Nuneaton unit also houses a call centre with 20 phone lines, where BNP staff try to solicit as much money as possible in donations and merchandise sales from past Excalibur customers, party members, and anyone else unfortunate enough to be on their phone number list.
__________________________________________________________

HOPE not hate, Norfolk, believes this well-researched article suggests a promising avenue of enquiry with many side roads to explore.

As one commentator says:

(Dowson) seems to have a controlling financial interest in the BNP but isn't a member. He also seems to be semi-detached both organisationally and ideologically. If I was an ordinary BNP member I would be concerned and it just goes to show that the BNP still operates amateurishly, with patronage dished out to a select group of Griffin favourites. A forensic audit of BNP accounts would throw up a few skeletons -

Isn't this the portrait of Dowson as, at best, a cynical opportunist? - for example for selling the BNP members the Truth Truck (or Lie Lorry) whilst retaining ownership, what a scam.

EU grants earmarked for the regeneration of Northern Ireland could provide rich pickings for a plausible conman, and the 'charitable' enterprises described above also seem suspect. One wonders whether the so-called pro-life and the anti-gay enterprises are designed to get funding from the far-right religious (which suggests a US angle).

Which all bolsters the theory that the BNP is a party of docile sheeple led by cynical conmen. How does the membership put up with these webs of deceit and constant exploitations?

Cue another begging letter from Nick Griffin . . .

Want to stop the BNP? Then you need to act

Support Hope not hate in Norwich, or in Dagenham - you decide!

As part of the Hope not hate national day of action Norfolk Hope not Hate will be leafleting in the centre of Norwich on Saturday, November 7 from 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

We will send out teams of leafleters around the City. We will be using this event, which marks Remembrance Sunday, to remind voters about the true politics of the BNP.

Please look out for the Hope not hate, Norfolk team and say Hello!
You can join the very friendly HOPE not hate, Norfolk group by sending us an email at hnhnorfolk@gmail.com

OR -

As received from Hope Not Hate:

This weekend the Hope not hate campaign will be taking to the streets and I want you with us.

We’ll be working in Dagenham, which is under threat from the BNP - and we’re providing a coach to take you there. You can find your nearest pick up point here:

Every minute you can spare will be of huge help - you’ll be doing the activities that we’ve proven stop the BNP. And you’ll be doing this side by side Hope not hate supporters from all across the country and every walk of life.

Many people are angry and disillusioned with the politicians - but we can’t let the BNP prosper in this environment. The election of two BNP MEPs has to be seen as a wake up call for all of us - and I’m giving you the opportunity to do something real and tangible to stop them.

We have our strategy. We have our direction. Now we need you.

Please join us for our weekend of hope in Dagenham - there is a lift waiting for you in your community now:

On the weekend of Remembrance Sunday I can think of no fitter tribute to those who gave their lives fighting the fascist threat in the last Great war, than each of us standing up to the BNP’s Nazi threat today.

This is your chance to make a difference in an area where the BNP pose a real threat of taking over the council next May. I hope you can join us.

Thank you,
Nick Lowles

Jim Dowson: How a militant anti-abortionist took over the BNP

From Hope not Hate:

Through the keyhole

Today we start a serialisation from the current issue of Searchlight Magazine which features a special investigation into the heart of the BNP. We highlight the organisational set-up, the secret locations and the people running the fascist party. We expose how the running of the party has been outsourced to a rabid Loyalist anti-abortionist in Belfast and we reveal that this man is receiving European Union money for peace and reconciliation.

We have also been busy working with the media. Many of the revelations and exposés we have read in the newspapers over the past few weeks have originated from Searchlight.

Forty-seven years after Searchlight was first formed we are proving that we are still ahead of the game.

From rags to riches : Part I of a three part investigation.

By Gerry Gable

Ten years ago Jim Dowson was a down-at-heel anti-abortion campaigner and hardline Protestant, who had marched with a loyalist band that played songs in praise of the convicted loyalist murderer Michael Stone

His luck changed when he formed an alliance with Justin Barrett, a far-right Catholic lawyer and leader of the notorious Irish anti-abortion group Youth Defence, which had previously stormed buildings in Dublin in their crusade against a woman's right to choose. In 2000 Barrett had attended a rally of the German nazi National Democratic Party, where he met Roberto Fiore, the Italian fascist friend and mentor of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader. The trip was arranged by Derek Holland, one of Griffin's old colleagues from the days of the National Front Political Soldiers.
Barrett attracted attention as the lead spokesperson of the successful Irish campaign against the Nice Treaty in 2001 and money started to flow from far-right anti-abortionists in the United States.

In 1999 Dowson had formed Precious Life Scotland and it was through cooperation between his group and Youth Defence that he met Barrett. The link proved beneficial when Barrett pitched £50,000 into Dowson's organisation to pay for the production of anti-abortion CDs and video tapes to be distributed to schools and churches in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Dowson was a "rent-a-cause" extremist who had been kicked out of the Orange Order. He has a list of criminal convictions including breach of the peace in 1986, possession of a weapon and breach of the peace in 1991 and criminal damage in 1992. Although a Protestant, he was happy to sell thousands of photographs of the Pope at inflated prices to Catholics in the Irish Republic.
Barrett faded from the public arena after the Nice Treaty vote was rerun and went the other way. His political demise was hastened after the publication of his book The National Way Forward, in which he described immigration as "genocidal". He also became increasingly antisemitic, influenced by the nazi leaders he had met in Germany.

In contrast, Dowson's campaigning activities grew. He turned his sights on gay people and encouraged his followers to abuse and threaten people who attended or worked in abortion clinics.

This resulted in Dowson parting company with some of his Precious Life fellow activists, but he was now in a financial position to go it alone, turning his faction into the UK LifeLeague. He never looked back.

Dowson, 45, started working with the British National Party late in 2007, and he quickly revolutionised its fundraising. His first appeal, launched at the time the BNP was tearing itself apart in an internal rebellion, was carried out as a free sample to show the party what he could do, but since then he has worked on a percentage commission.

His work for the BNP grew to encompass the provision of manage-ment training in Spain and revamping the party's administration. Early in 2009 he set up the Belfast call centre, piggybacking it on his successful fundraising for the LifeLeague, thereby cutting costs and perhaps giving doubtful BNP officers the impression of a larger operation than it actually is.
Over the past two years he has clearly raised huge sums for the party, although it remains financially strapped. Partly this is the result of scams, such as the truth truck, which Griffin claimed had been bought with thousands of pounds of supporters' donations. It turned out still to belong to Dowson's private company, Adlorries.com, and, like much of the other equipment the BNP claimed to have bought, it was only leased by the party.

Today Dowson practically owns the BNP, which he briefly joined to placate his critics but left as soon as the heat was off him. He remains at loggerheads with many senior party officers and employees. One, whom he sacked in spring, is heading for an employment tribunal.

Griffin's claim that the BNP is being flooded with donations via Dowson's call centre is a lie. Income is down to a trickle and membership is a mere 8,000 or so. People are not queuing up to join after the end of the three-month moratorium on membership, they are leaving in droves, especially since the latest membership list leak from Dowson's Belfast bunker.

All this comes on top of the party's forced climbdown over its racist constitution, the non-appearance of its 2008 accounts and concern over the number of senior party officers who have been put on the European Parliament payroll as staff of the two BNP MEPs.

Tomorrow: Dowson's empire by Sonia Gable
Friday: Dissecting the Dowsons The leak of the BNP membership list last month has turned the spotlight on the party’s Belfast call centre, the tensions it has caused in the party, and the links between the man who runs it and a charity that has received a six-figure sum in EU funding. Matthew Collins and Simon Cressy investigate.

Amnesty march on violence against women

From Liberal Conspiracy:

Hundreds of Amnesty activists and women’s rights campaigners head to Parliament today to demand protection for all women facing violence in the UK.

On Wednesday 4 November, hundreds of Amnesty International campaigners and campaigners from women’s rights groups from across the UK will travel to London to join the organisation’s mass lobby of Parliament.

Activists will be gathering at the Shaftesbury Avenue Cineworld, London, from 9.30am and they are due to arrive at Parliament at 12pm for the mass lobby.

While at Westminster, Amnesty activists who are travelling to London from as far as Rochdale and Southampton will meet their local MPs and urge them to call on the Government to provide adequate funding to protect all women who are victims of violence living in the UK.

Specifically they will call for all women living in the UK to be able to access a refuge and receive specialised support.

Currently hundreds of women with insecure immigration status are not able to get a refuge or adequate support because of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule.

They will also challenge their MP to pressure the Government to increase funding for specialist services such as rape crisis centres and refuges as they roll out their Violence Against Women Strategy, expected later this month November.

Joy Barredo of Norwich Mind told HOPE not hate, Norfolk earlier this year that the foreign brides of British men were particularly vulnerable for the first two years of their lives in Britain under present policies. They usually have no idea of their rights, and no place to go should they seek to flee abuse, because of the 'no recourse to public funds' rule.

BNP and pandemics

It was very sad to read today of the first real victim of swine flu in Norfolk. This was not only a tragedy for the family but also a reminder of the dangers everyone faces from this disease.

I began to wonder what the BNP had to advise about swine flu, and found this article from the Mirror published in May:

The BNP has been accused of using the flu to push its far-right views.

It is calling for half-hour medicals on foreigners arriving in Britain with "coughs or sneezes", schools to shut for two weeks and councils to turn off air-conditioning.

The alarming measures to tackle swine flu were suggested by BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, 48, (pictured right), who claimed the illness could come from "the countries of Africa", not Mexico.

A spokesman for anti- racist group Searchlight said:

Only the BNP would try to hijack a global pandemic in an effort to promote their agenda of division and hate.

Richard Barnbrook, as usual, gave great glee to the merciless anti-fascist site, Lancaster Unity:

Doctor Dicky blames Africa for swine flu

Doctor Dicky has made it his business to investigate the origins of the current swine flu pandemic - no doubt using the well-equipped laboratories and highly-qualified medical personnel at the BNP's disposal - and has come to the conclusion that the illness could well originate from 'the countries of Africa', not Mexico as all other medical experts around the world have stated after examining all the evidence.

This is not the first time that Doctor Dicky has taken on the medical establishment. A couple of years ago, he claimed that his bout of tuberculosis, contracted on a visit to Turkey, was actually caused by immigrants, backing up this claim by stating that TB had been eradicated in the UK 'donkey's years ago'.

This insane (and completely untrue) claim was pooh-poohed by Paul Sommerfeld of the charity TB Alert, who pointed out that tuberculosis had more to do with poverty and living conditions than country of origin.

He said:

It is clear TB is endemic to the UK...one of the biggest issues is the distinction between infection and active disease - many more people are infected than develop it because it is dealt with by their immune system. When their immune system is lowered they get the active disease - and that could be 50 years later. They could have actually become infected in the 40s or 50s when the disease was very, very common. The majority of recent immigrants who get TB tend to have been here upwards of two years. That suggests they did not have raging TB when they arrived but it is the conditions in Britain which led them to develop it. They could be living in poor, overcrowded conditions where their chances of catching TB are much higher. It is a disease of the poor rather than a disease of immigrants.

There are two key facts that Dicky chose to ignore when attempting to attack immigrants for TB;

- tuberculosis was NEVER wiped out in Britain, despite doctors finding an antibiotics cure more than 50 years ago.

- cases here have NEVER fallen below 5,000 a year. Half of all TB diagnosed is in British people that were born in the UK.

Whether the Dicky and the BNP like it or not, swine flu appears to have originated in Mexico and its spread to other countries appears to have been via those returning from Mexico, not 'the countries of Africa'.

Which all goes to show that dumbass Dicky is perfect for the BNP - he'll never let the facts get in the way of passing the buck on to immigrants. Or as a spokesman for Searchlight put it;

Only the BNP would try to hijack a global pandemic in an effort to promote their agenda of division and hate.

That's what racism does to a person. It is an unnatural point of view that skews the mind.

Death threats for journalists covering far right demos

From the National Union of Journalists (NUJ):

Tough and urgent action is needed in response to violence, intimidation and death threats targeting journalists covering far right demonstrations.

The call by NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear comes in the wake of specific email threats against photojournalist and investigative reporter Marc Vallée, and video journalist Jason N. Parkinson. The emails follow verbal threats and intimidation aimed at photographers covering a march by the English Defence League in Leeds at the weekend and other EDL protests this year.

Professional journalists covering the events have filed reports with the NUJ detailing physical violence, including one being punched in the head, verbal threats, and attempts to seize cameras and smash equipment. The union is to file complaints to the police.

Jeremy Dear said:

In a week when yet more photographers have been targeted by right-wing hate website *Redwatch, when out on the streets professional photographers are subjected to violence and intimidation by right-wing thugs, there must be tough and urgent action in response to these latest death threats. These are not idle threats made by kids - these are direct, named threats made by individuals who can be traced - in one case an individual already convicted of stabbing someone. They are designed to silence the media and stop photographers showing the true nature of the protests and protestors. The police must act now before a journalist is killed or seriously injured.

Jason N. Parkinson said:

It is ironic the English Defence League claim they are protesting 'peacefully' against Muslim extremism. Then late Saturday night, after returning from covering the Leeds protest, I receive a threatening email from one of their Welsh and English division organisers entitled 'Fatwa'. This is exactly the behaviour and tactics of extremism the EDL claim they are against. Someone should remind the EDL that the fundamental root of all democratic society, including in the UK, is press freedom. Intimidation, violence, Fatwas and death threats are not.

Marc Vallée said:

I find it intriguing that only four weeks after attending a BNP press conference - at London’s City Hall - I’m targeted by Redwatch in this way. We should be free to go about our lawful and necessary work without such intimidation. I’m determined that when journalists are targeted in this way the only effective response is a collective one as well as journalistic one.

HOPE not hate, Norfolk notes this report is issued on a day when Nick Griffin, chairperson of the BNP, was in court in Preston complaining that someone had shouted at him and had made threatening hand gestures.

*Redwatch is a British neo-Nazi website that publishes photographs and personal information of alleged left-wing and anti-fascist activists, according to Wikipedia

UPDATE:

According to Sky News an Asian man has been cleared of racially abusing British National Party leader Nick Griffin.

Tauriq Khalid, 23, denied shouting "white b*******" at a group of far-right demonstrators in his home town of Burnley, Lancashire, in November 2008.

A jury of five women and seven men cleared Khalid of one count of using racially abusive threatening behaviour.

They deliberated for 45 minutes at the end of a three-day trial at Preston Crown Court. Khalid admitted shouting abuse as he drove past a gathering of far-right BNP demonstrators outside Burnley police station.

He told the jury he stopped his silver Vauxhall Astra and shouted "Nick Griffin, you f****** w*****" and made a V-sign with his fingers.

He also admitted he shouted several times "get the f*** out of Burnley, you're not welcome here".

He told the jury: "I shouldn't have done what I done really, it was just a spur of the moment thing."
________________________________________________________________

Not Nick Griffin blog has a satirical take on the trial.

I wonder how much it cost the tax payer -

Norwich joins in vigil against hate crimes

Norwich joined with London and cities around the world last night in a candle-lit vigil for the victims of hate crimes.

From Norwich Evening News 24:

Norwich joined with London and cities around the world last night in a candle-lit vigil for the victims of hate crimes.

About 40 people assembled outside the Forum in the city centre to light candles and join a two-minute silence, along with thousands of people in London, Brighton and other cities internationally.

Ten years after the London nail-bomber terrorised communities, the vigil aimed to remember the victims of those bombings and other, more recent, attacks such as the beating of a gay police officer in Liverpool.

The main vigil, organised by charity 17-24-30 and hosted by Sandi Toksvig, took place in Trafalgar Square, where on September 25, 62-year-old Ian Baynham was the victim of a homophobic attack, suffering injuries from which he later died.

Messages of support for the vigil were received from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron.

Noam Zabari, a spokesman for Norwich Pride Collective, said:

There have been some horrific homophobic attacks across the UK recently that have shocked the nation. This vigil is about showing the world that this criminal behaviour is unacceptable here.

Janet Brandish, of People First of Norfolk, a self-advocacy group for people with learning difficulties, spoke at the event. She said:

People with learning difficulties are bullied and attacked because they are disabled. We want to make sure more people report hate crimes so that something can be done.

by MARY HAMILTON