Most of us are moved to compassion by news of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake which has probably killed over a hundred thousand. Most of us support our government's contribution to international efforts to help the traumatised citizens of that country. Many are making personal donations to help the wounded and homeless of Haiti.
Not all of us, however.
Earthquake tremors have shaken some racists out of the woodwork, too, and into the open, like cockroaches whose hiding places have been disturbed. A few racists scurried over themselves to make the nastiest comments, and these spontaneous reactions are very revealing, as they were apparently unguarded.
In Britain, Tabloid Watch remarks "Mail doesn't put Haiti on front page, plugs free DVD instead" and 5cc writes of Mail lack of coverage "Never mind the earthquake, feel the voodoo".
In the US Rush Limbaugh was the first to "tell it like it is". On his Jan. 13 radio show, Limbaugh vented to listeners that Obama was happy for the quake in Haiti, as his administration will "use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, in the ... the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made to order for them."
Next, it is reported: "In the wake of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, television evangelist Pat Robertson took to the airwaves to provide the hidden explanation for the rubble of Port-au-Prince.
"On "The 700 Club," Robertson laid historical blame at the feet of the Haitian people, stating, "They were under the heel of the French ... and they got together and swore a pact with the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.' "
Mr Griffin, chairperson of the BNP, often boasts that his party's foreign policy will be independent of US influence, and yet he proves himself dependent upon money from the white supremecists of the US and very much influenced by their actions.
Apparently not to be outdone by the US bigots, Griffin has described UK aid to Haiti as "stinking elite hypocrisy".
According to the BBC, Griffin's original postings, on Facebook and Twitter, said: "While the Haiti earthquake is terrible, the winter death toll in Britain will be similar. No aid here though."
Griffin's lapdog racist supporters have blogged in similar vein, with many comments are even worse, and not for repeating.
One platform of the BNP's election manifesto is 'no foreign aid', which not only excludes compassionate responses to disasters like the Haiti earthquake, but also nixes far-sighted long-term projects such as programmes of education and health in the poorest developing nations, including information on reproductive health and family planning.
The BNP cannot expect to be taken seriously when exposed as not only lacking in compassion but also as completely lacking in common sense.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Rise in hate crime follows BNP council election victories
From the Guardian:
Reports of racial and religiously motivated crime rose following the election of British National party councillors in several far- right strongholds, police statistics have revealed.
Complaints of hate crime increased in wards in the West Midlands, London and Essex after the election of a BNP member, in spite of declines in reported hate crime in the wider police areas. In other wards race crime reportedly rose in the runup to BNP election victories, according to the figures, obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.
The findings came as the party stepped up its campaign to win its first seats in the House of Commons with a "weekend of action" in Barking and Dagenham, where the culture and tourism minister, Margaret Hodge, faces a challenge for her Labour seat from BNP leader, Nick Griffin. Hodge said the new figures cast doubt on police assurances that there is no link between racially motivated crime and a BNP presence.
Yesterday, BNP member Terence Gavan was jailed for 11 years after police found nail bombs and 12 firearms at his home in the borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, where the BNP has councillors. The Old Bailey heard that Gavan harboured "a strong hostility" towards immigrants.
One of the biggest increases in hate crime came in Barking's Eastbury ward, where racially motivated violence, theft and criminal damage more than doubled in the year after Jeffrey Steed won a council seat for the BNP in May 2006. A year later, hate crime rose again and 45 racial incidents were reported in 12 months.
In several other BNP wards, race crime fell in line with declines in the wider areas, but anti-fascist campaigners believe rises may be linked to BNP election wins. "Voters have been emboldened in their racist views by seeing the BNP in power and that could have led to the increases in racist attacks in some areas," said Sam Tarry, campaign organiser for the Hope Not Hate campaign, set up by the anti-fascist group Searchlight:
In Essex, complaints of race crime rose after the election of BNP councillors in parts of Epping Forest, while in Chelmsley Wood, a suburb of Birmingham, the average annual incidence of race crime almost doubled after George Morgan won a seat for the BNP in May 2006.
In the four years before his election, there were an average 11 incidents a year rising to an average of 21 a year in the following four years. West Midlands police said some cases involved assault, while most were incidents of verbal abuse in shopping centres, taxis and in the police station with white and Asian victims.
Detective Chief Inspector Sharon Goosen said: "None of the offences reported in the area since 2006 can be directly attributed to an elected member or political organisation."
The BNP is understood to be planning to field more than 1,000 candidates in local elections and 300 candidates in the general election. Griffin and the BNP deputy chairman, Simon Darby, who is standing for Stoke Central, are considered to have the best chance of winning seats at Westminster.
By Robert Booth with additional reporting by Holly Bentley
Reports of racial and religiously motivated crime rose following the election of British National party councillors in several far- right strongholds, police statistics have revealed.
Complaints of hate crime increased in wards in the West Midlands, London and Essex after the election of a BNP member, in spite of declines in reported hate crime in the wider police areas. In other wards race crime reportedly rose in the runup to BNP election victories, according to the figures, obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.
The findings came as the party stepped up its campaign to win its first seats in the House of Commons with a "weekend of action" in Barking and Dagenham, where the culture and tourism minister, Margaret Hodge, faces a challenge for her Labour seat from BNP leader, Nick Griffin. Hodge said the new figures cast doubt on police assurances that there is no link between racially motivated crime and a BNP presence.
Yesterday, BNP member Terence Gavan was jailed for 11 years after police found nail bombs and 12 firearms at his home in the borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, where the BNP has councillors. The Old Bailey heard that Gavan harboured "a strong hostility" towards immigrants.
One of the biggest increases in hate crime came in Barking's Eastbury ward, where racially motivated violence, theft and criminal damage more than doubled in the year after Jeffrey Steed won a council seat for the BNP in May 2006. A year later, hate crime rose again and 45 racial incidents were reported in 12 months.
In several other BNP wards, race crime fell in line with declines in the wider areas, but anti-fascist campaigners believe rises may be linked to BNP election wins. "Voters have been emboldened in their racist views by seeing the BNP in power and that could have led to the increases in racist attacks in some areas," said Sam Tarry, campaign organiser for the Hope Not Hate campaign, set up by the anti-fascist group Searchlight:
The figures suggest that if the BNP wins more seats, people from ethnic minority and gay communities could face greater persecution because racist and bigoted views will have been further legitimised.The BNP denies that increases in hate crime are related to its activities and blames the rises on increased immigration. Bob Bailey, the party's London organiser said:
This is due to an increase in the ethnic [sic] population. There are more people who are prepared to go to the police complaining they are victims.The Guardian has analysed data from 11 police forces covering 29 wards across England where voters have elected BNP councillors in the past six years. In eight wards reports of hate crime rose following BNP election wins despite a wider decline across the police force area. It declined in 14 wards, in line with force-wide reductions, and there was no change in four and an insignificant amount of data in three.
In Essex, complaints of race crime rose after the election of BNP councillors in parts of Epping Forest, while in Chelmsley Wood, a suburb of Birmingham, the average annual incidence of race crime almost doubled after George Morgan won a seat for the BNP in May 2006.
In the four years before his election, there were an average 11 incidents a year rising to an average of 21 a year in the following four years. West Midlands police said some cases involved assault, while most were incidents of verbal abuse in shopping centres, taxis and in the police station with white and Asian victims.
Detective Chief Inspector Sharon Goosen said: "None of the offences reported in the area since 2006 can be directly attributed to an elected member or political organisation."
The BNP is understood to be planning to field more than 1,000 candidates in local elections and 300 candidates in the general election. Griffin and the BNP deputy chairman, Simon Darby, who is standing for Stoke Central, are considered to have the best chance of winning seats at Westminster.
By Robert Booth with additional reporting by Holly Bentley
Friday, 15 January 2010
Electoral success in Europe hides problems at home
From Hope not hate:
David Williams reviews how the BNP fared in 2009
Last year was the most successful for the British National Party since Nick Griffin took the helm in 1999. A decade as leader of the BNP was crowned in June when Griffin and his fellow veteran fascist Andrew Brons were elected as Members of the European Parliament for the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber regions respectively. This victory, generated largely by the MPs’ expenses furore and voter apathy, gave the BNP an international platform and generous European funding to staff the MEPs’ constituency offices.
Griffin did not have it all his own way, however, and 2009 was not without its setbacks for the party. The BNP began 2009 nearly £170,000 in debt, a sizeable sum for a party with a turnover of around £1 million in 2008 and an inauspicious start to its European election campaign. A big rise in staff and administration expenditure was largely responsible.
Its turgid racist publications continued to be loss leaders. In an attempt to make Identity more saleable, and financially viable, Griffin ordained that the magazine should cease monthly publication and become quarterly. Voice of Freedom, which Searchlight revealed Griffin wanted to scrap, was kept on out of obduracy but its editorship passed from Martin Wingfield to Mark Collett, who surprisingly has so far failed to run it into the ground, although it compares poorly with Wingfield’s editions. The BNP has turned increasingly to the internet as the principal means of communicating its message and bypassing what it believes to be a conspiracy by the “controlled media”.
HOPE not hate presented a 95,000 signature petition to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the day the BNP MEPs took their seats, saying that the BNP does not speak for the British people
Two BNP councillors resigned their seats in 2009, one in Nuneaton and Bedworth, the other on Loughton town council. Both by-elections were held on 10 December. On the eve of poll Simon Darby, the party’s deputy leader, speculated expectantly: “Now things are finally starting to settle down a bit we can look forward to more reliable voting patterns with a view to predicting what may happen at the general election”. The double defeat was probably not what he had in mind.
In both these by-elections and many other elections during the year the HOPE not hate campaign was central to letting voters know the true nature of the BNP.
There were raised eyebrows when Pat Richardson, the token Jewish BNP councillor, attended an American white supremacist conference on the theme of “Preserving Western Culture”, which involved a number of Jewish racists and Islamophobes keen to distance themselves from the antisemitic outbursts of men like David Duke. This was part of a broader strategy by Griffin to distance the party from the stain of antisemitism, which bedevils far-right politics in Britain. At the beginning of the year Griffin stated that he had “no time” for antisemites, despite being one himself and surrounding himself with them. It failed to fool anyone other than some of the more gullible BNP members.
The centrepiece of the year was of course the European election campaign. The BNP set out its stall early with a provocative “Battle of Britain” theme, which misappropriated iconic images of the Second World War in an attempt to draw parallels between the fight against Nazism and the BNP’s fight against “Islam”. The universally derided campaign got off to a bad start when someone noticed that the Spitfire fighter plane pictured on the BNP’s website and leaflets belonged to the 303 Squadron of the RAF, consisting of Polish flyers, undermining at a stroke the party’s campaign against East European immigrants.
Griffin’s continual wearing of the poppy in an effort to associate himself with the Armed Forces angered the British Legion, while his usurpation of Churchill’s image angered the Churchill family and several senior military personnel.
The BNP campaign was hampered from start to finish by its ineptitude and extremism, which brought a welter of negative publicity. Aware that this was its biggest chance to break into the political mainstream, the BNP pulled out the stops to shed its extremist image. This did not go according to plan. Searchlight drew the media’s attention to the party’s Activists’ and Organiser’s Handbook, which stressed the need for the BNP to counter the party’s stereotypical thuggish image by urging members to be seen as ordinary people not as “shaven headed football thugs”.
The Language and Discipline Manual provided a similarly rich seam for the media to mine with its claims that “Black Britons” and “Asian Britons” “do not exist”. This exposure of the party’s core racist ideology led to the hurried removal and rewriting of these documents as well as some awkward questions for Griffin.
The party suffered from equally negative publicity when Searchlight tipped off the media that Darby was going to Milan, Italy, to address a conference of the fascist Forza Nuova. He was photographed entering the building greeted by fascist salutes without any objection from him. The media also seized upon racist remarks about a black Victoria Cross winners and election leaflets featuring foreign actors to depict “British workers” and BNP sympathisers, which made the party look particularly foolish.
Much of this negative publicity was orchestrated by Searchlight, which ran a highly effective media operation throughout the campaign. Both Darby and Wingfield, not to mention Griffin himself, paid a backhanded compliment to its effective ferocity which, by the eve of poll, the BNP had come to believe had cost it the election, in which it had previously confidently boasted of winning up to 12 seats.
Against the backdrop of the expenses scandal Labour voters in particular stayed away from the polls on 4 June. In an election based on proportional representation this was all that was needed for Griffin and Brons to win election. This was galling, though some consolation could be gained from the fact that in both regions the BNP vote was lower than in the 2004 European election. The shock was palpable. In the six weeks after the election over 95,000 people signed HOPE not hate’s Not in My Name campaign.
On the same day the BNP fielded 428 candidates in the county council elections, including a full slate of 75 in Essex. It won just three seats, all in areas that have seen sustained BNP campaigning in recent years, signalling a small foothold in a new layer of local government that the party had hitherto failed to penetrate.
Victory was not without its costs. The BNP spent “nearly £600,000” to get Griffin and Brons elected. In the aftermath party administrators confessed that it had been left “bruised” by the outlay. One of its bigger donors last year, giving £5,105, was Eileen Sheridan-Price, a former beauty queen and a friend and admirer of the villainous Kray twins who she believed made the East End “a much nicer, safer place”. The Krays were gangsters involved in torture, armed robberies, arson, protection rackets and murder to enforce their will. They were both convicted in 1969 and sentenced to life imprisonment, so much for the law and order policies of the BNP.
Griffin’s attempts to bask in glory were short-lived. His effort at a victory speech from College Green opposite the House of Commons ended in ignominy when he was pelted with eggs.
Once elected, Griffin embarked on a display of nepotism by handing out jobs on his and Brons’s European staff to the party faithful. Martin and Tina Wingfield, Eddy Butler, Clive Jefferson and Chris Beverley in particular were all beneficiaries of his policy of jobs for the boys (and girls). Activists in the North West who had played a key role in Griffin’s campaign were similarly rewarded though one, Alistair Barbour, did not last long in his position as case worker, resigning from his job and party membership after less than six months, disillusioned with the party which he was “sick” of defending against accusations of racism, no doubt because he couldn’t.
Griffin’s victory revealed other tensions in the party. Darby stood down as West Midlands regional organiser and was replaced by Alwyn Deacon, a Nuneaton and Bedworth publican. This angered Richard and Tanya Lumby in Birmingham, who believed that the job should have been theirs. It also outraged Chris Turner, the Coventry BNP organiser, who took exception to Deacon following the publication of photos of members of the openly nazi British Freedom Fighters giving “Sieg Heil” salutes outside his pub. Turner, furious that Deacon was not disciplined, resigned from his post.
The BNP had hoped to celebrate its European election victory at its annual Red, White and Blue (RWB) festival in August but this proved a damp squib. Party members were few and far between with maximum attendance on the Saturday around 800. The white supremacist Preston Wiginton, who had been invited to the festival, was deported back to the United States upon arrival at Heathrow. Those who attended were regaled with speeches by the Swedish fascist Marc Abramsson and Griffin’s Italian fascist friend and political mentor Roberto Fiore, the convicted former leader of the terrorist Armed Revolutionary Nuclei, who had failed to retain his MEP seat.
BNP members displayed their racism at the party’s Red, White and Blue festival
The RWB provided yet more evidence of the visceral racism of many BNP members when an undercover News of the World team filmed several members engaged in the mock execution and burning of a gollywog doll for “crimes” against whites. Other BNP members were arrested for giving Nazi salutes to protesters against the event, two of whom were convicted of racially aggravated harassment in December.
Throughout the later part of 2009 Griffin was becoming increasingly alarmed at the participation of BNP members in the confrontational and racist activities of the English Defence League (EDL), which emerged in March 2009 in the wake of an attempt by a tiny group of Islamist extremists to disrupt the homecoming parade of the Royal Anglican Regiment in Luton. A number of protests across England followed, precipitating clashes with anti-fascists and local residents, which also acted as a magnet for the forces of organised racism despite protests to the contrary from EDL organisers. Griffin dismissed the EDL as both “Zionist” and a state-run “honeytrap”.
All of this was a distraction for Griffin, who was busy attempting to coral the variegated forces of the European far right into a homogenous movement. He had tried and failed to precipitate such a union before the European elections but afterwards was pivotal in marshalling its sparse forces into the European Alliance of National Movements, a pan-European party rather than an official group of the European Parliament, which would require the support of 25 MEPs. It was formed too late in the year to apply for EU cash, which was, of course, one of its principal aims.
Griffin courted outrage in November when, as his constituents in the North West faced severe flooding, he travelled to a Nazi conference in Madrid as a special guest speaker at a far-right rally held to commemorate the death of the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco. The conference ended in violence after which Griffin appears to have paid a visit to Franco’s tomb, although the party issued a curious non-denial about the story that had appeared in the Daily Telegraph. On his way to Madrid Griffin stopped off in Turin, Italy, a visit organised by Fiore.
While Griffin was off grandstanding on the European stage, the BNP was beginning to show a distinct lack of momentum, a sign perhaps of the physical and financial exhaustion brought on by the exertions of the European election campaign.
In September Matt Single, the former BNP security guard, was fined £200 for putting the entire BNP membership list online, which made the BNP a laughing stock in 2008. Within two months Griffin was again wincing with embarrassment as he tried to explain how yet another membership list had been posted online despite his claim that such data were now held securely.
Further irritation was caused to the BNP when Searchlight exposed its fundraising nexus in Northern Ireland, revealing the pivotal role that Jim Dowson continues to play in the party, which has effectively outsourced central functions to a convicted anti-abortion extremist.
For Richard Barnbrook 2009 was certainly not a good year. His election to the London Assembly in May 2008 made Barnbrook the toast of the BNP. His star has now been eclipsed by Griffin’s election as an MEP. Almost immediately Barnbrook lost his two staff members, Emma Colgate who was poached to become the party manager, and Darby who, suspended for racist comments about the Archbishop of York, jumped ship seemingly having lost interest in holding Barnbrook’s hand.
Shortly afterwards Barnbrook was suspended from Barking and Dagenham council, where he is the BNP’s deputy group leader, and officially censured by the Greater London Authority for lying about murders. He was forced to issue a public apology which appeared on his own blog and the council website.
Autumn brought two historic moments in the history of the British far right. In October Griffin appeared on the BBC’s flagship discussion programme Question Time. His performance, watched by over eight million people, was lamentable. He lied openly and brazenly in response to questions about his past statements, tried to pretend he had not denied the Holocaust by claiming he was legally prevented from saying anything on the subject, despite being assured by the Justice Minister that there was no such law, and defended David Duke’s Ku Klux Klan as “almost totally non-violent”.
Perhaps more important, at least to the cosmetic modernisation of the party, was Griffin’s capitulation in the legal case brought by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that the BNP’s “whites only” membership policy contravened the Race Relations Act. Griffin, who was adamant he would fight the case to the death, caved in only days later much to the chagrin of many members. Having conceded in court, Griffin put the question to the vote at the BNP annual conference in Wigan, where the “voting members”, the party’s key officers and activists, rubber-stamped the decision, perhaps in the knowledge that a protracted legal tussle with the EHRC could bankrupt the party.
The new constitution was to have been put to a vote of the full party membership, which Griffin had argued he was constitutionally obliged to do and which the court accepted. However, it is understood that the necessary Emergency General Meeting will now take place several days after Griffin returns to court, depriving members of a genuine say on their new constitution – so much for party democracy.
Whatever happens, the BNP will have to unveil its amended constitution soon. What is not in doubt is that its core racist values will remain unchanged. Further proof, if any were needed, was the arrest of another BNP member on terrorism charges, this time in Kirklees. Terry Gavan admitted 22 offences and will be sentenced shortly.
A few days after the annual conference the BNP announced that Griffin would be contesting the 2010 general election in Barking, unceremoniously abandoning the voters of the North West after less than six months. Richard Barnbrook had rather embarrassingly already launched his own “Barnbrook for Barking” campaign with a huge billboard on one of Barking’s main roads, though stood aside for Griffin, seemingly on the promise of the supposed sinecure of Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, which the BNP believes it will win in May.
Griffin’s victory in the 2009 European election has undoubtedly coloured perceptions of the success of the BNP in 2009. However, it overshadows a myriad of serious personal, political and financial problems that have continued to affect the party, which, by any measure, should be performing far better than it is in the current dismal political and economic climate. Although it currently claims 13,000 members, with another 3,000 waiting to join after the lifting of the membership freeze arising from the EHRC legal action, Searchlight intelligence suggests that the number has barely changed from the 9,801 recorded at end of 2008. Whether all these troubles will continue to hamper the BNP in 2010 as it vies to elect its first MP and seize control of its first council only time will tell.
by David Williams
11 years for BNP terrorist
From Harry's Place:
News on the BNP terrorist:
A man who admitted making nail and ball bearing bombs at his West Yorkshire home has been jailed for 11 years.
Terrence Robert Gavan also pleaded guilty to six counts of having or collecting documents useful in terrorism.
The 38-year-old from Batley was arrested in a raid by police at his home in May 2009, the Old Bailey heard.
The arsenal of weapons and explosives included home-made shotguns, pen guns and pistols.
Sentencing Gavan, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said his case was “unique” because of his long and persistent manufacture of guns and explosives.
Gavan pleaded guilty to a total of 22 charges at Woolwich Crown Court last November.
More on Gavan and his links to the BNP here.
By Neil D.
News on the BNP terrorist:
A man who admitted making nail and ball bearing bombs at his West Yorkshire home has been jailed for 11 years.
Terrence Robert Gavan also pleaded guilty to six counts of having or collecting documents useful in terrorism.
The 38-year-old from Batley was arrested in a raid by police at his home in May 2009, the Old Bailey heard.
The arsenal of weapons and explosives included home-made shotguns, pen guns and pistols.
Sentencing Gavan, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said his case was “unique” because of his long and persistent manufacture of guns and explosives.
Gavan pleaded guilty to a total of 22 charges at Woolwich Crown Court last November.
More on Gavan and his links to the BNP here.
By Neil D.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
BNP's legal director on 'common purpose' in Norwich
From 21st Century British Nationalism:
Today I visited the site of BNP's sometime spokesperson and legal director, and was surprised to find him referring to Norfolk. In particular, he linked to named persons in "Norwich Media, Schools, Police & Prison service" (sic) who, it is claimed, studied a 'Matrix course'. The legal director, Lee John Barnes raved:
I'm not making this up, it really is a BNP and far-right belief, almost an article of faith, although I may be a little shaky on the details.
The BNP's legal director claims to have discovered a list of names of men and women now working in Norfolk, mainly Norwich, in our schools, prisons, police stations, probation services, colleges, and the UEA.
These names and places of work are given but I doubt I am legally allowed to link to them, although the BNP's legal director does.
The people indentified should be aware that their names are being trafficked on far-right sites as graduates of the EU Matrix courses "committing treason and destroying our children's futures", in the words of the link given.
The link also promises:
Today I visited the site of BNP's sometime spokesperson and legal director, and was surprised to find him referring to Norfolk. In particular, he linked to named persons in "Norwich Media, Schools, Police & Prison service" (sic) who, it is claimed, studied a 'Matrix course'. The legal director, Lee John Barnes raved:
List of EU Fifth Columnist Common Purpose Graduates Revealed The list of EU trained Ffith (sic) Columnists in the media, police and prison service have been revealed here (link given). Write those names down and remember them.This course, according to the link he gave, is an annual course that seems to have taken place over the past decade or so. So far so good. But, according to LJB and others of the far-right, it is an EU course designed by the great conspiracy called the "freemasonry Bilderbergs", including all sorts of powerful people (the "global elite") who want to keep us ordinary folk cowed into submission so that we accept the 'common purpose' of one world government and individual microchipping.
I'm not making this up, it really is a BNP and far-right belief, almost an article of faith, although I may be a little shaky on the details.
The BNP's legal director claims to have discovered a list of names of men and women now working in Norfolk, mainly Norwich, in our schools, prisons, police stations, probation services, colleges, and the UEA.
These names and places of work are given but I doubt I am legally allowed to link to them, although the BNP's legal director does.
The people indentified should be aware that their names are being trafficked on far-right sites as graduates of the EU Matrix courses "committing treason and destroying our children's futures", in the words of the link given.
The link also promises:
More to follow soon for names in the councils, Business and voluntary sectors, Over 80,000 'Graduates' in the UK, In all areas of life, describing themselves as a charity, courses cost in the thousands of pounds, tax payers money being stolen as usual. Freedom of info requests now being dodged. (sic)If anyone knows anything about this Matrix course and why it is upsetting the BNP's legal director so much, please let me know.
Monday, 11 January 2010
Planet Earth saved by the BNP
Not everyone knows this. Probably, according to both parties concerned, there was a deliberate media blackout.
A news clampdown about the fact that a great meteor was hurtling to Earth and impact was due - yesterday.
A great rocky meteor threatening life itself as we know it -
Somehow the legal director of the BNP got wind of the attempted cover-up when a mate of his tipped him off.
He sent the message out on his famous Earth-alerting blog, and BNP members immediately rallied to the cause.
With ray-guns manufactured from everyday kitchen objects according to plans downloaded from the internet, the BNP members, watched by supporters and awed family members blasted that meteor right out out of the sky, and saved us all!!
Hard to believe? Well, here we are, still on Planet Earth, and none the worse.
Hang on a minute. Perhaps I got that story slightly wrong in some details.
This is the other version.
Some religious extremist was proposing a march though Wootton Bassett, and some far-right fanatic was proposing to stop any such march.
So two posturing, would-be-macho primates roar and beat their chests in total disregard for the inappropriate vulgarity of the display.
It makes a great story, except for those of us fed-up to the back teeth with posturing males acting out their problems in public.
No march took place, so the far-right ideologists claimed victory over the far-right religious. It must have been the ray-guns! Or the threat of counter demonstrations, or something.
The proof that the far-right ideologists of the BNP and EDL won is that no march took place. It's so obvious.
And Planet Earth is saved.
A news clampdown about the fact that a great meteor was hurtling to Earth and impact was due - yesterday.
A great rocky meteor threatening life itself as we know it -
Somehow the legal director of the BNP got wind of the attempted cover-up when a mate of his tipped him off.
He sent the message out on his famous Earth-alerting blog, and BNP members immediately rallied to the cause.
With ray-guns manufactured from everyday kitchen objects according to plans downloaded from the internet, the BNP members, watched by supporters and awed family members blasted that meteor right out out of the sky, and saved us all!!
Hard to believe? Well, here we are, still on Planet Earth, and none the worse.
Hang on a minute. Perhaps I got that story slightly wrong in some details.
This is the other version.
Some religious extremist was proposing a march though Wootton Bassett, and some far-right fanatic was proposing to stop any such march.
So two posturing, would-be-macho primates roar and beat their chests in total disregard for the inappropriate vulgarity of the display.
It makes a great story, except for those of us fed-up to the back teeth with posturing males acting out their problems in public.
No march took place, so the far-right ideologists claimed victory over the far-right religious. It must have been the ray-guns! Or the threat of counter demonstrations, or something.
The proof that the far-right ideologists of the BNP and EDL won is that no march took place. It's so obvious.
And Planet Earth is saved.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
BNP crisis as Nick Griffin faces jail over whites-only policy
From The Times:
If found guilty, Griffin could face a jail sentence
The British National party is facing a crisis in the run-up to the general election after it emerged that Nick Griffin, its leader, could be jailed over its illegal “whites only” membership policy.
Whitehall officials believe Griffin will be unable to comply in time with a court order forcing him to change the BNP’s constitution to admit Asians, blacks and members of other ethnic minorities.
They say the BNP’s membership is not due to vote on the constitutional change until after the court deadline expires towards the end of this month. Trevor Phillips, head of the government’s equalities watchdog, which won the legal ruling three months ago, has instructed his lawyers to be ready to ask the court to impose crippling sanctions, including a heavy fine or possible jail term against Griffin and Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader.
If successful, the move could paralyse the right-wing party at a time when many at Westminster believe it is on the verge of winning its first seat in parliament with the support of disillusioned former Labour and Tory voters.
Officials question whether the head of a political party who has been imprisoned, fined or has had his assets sequestrated could continue to be its leader.
“The BNP is very much Nick Griffin’s party,” said one official. “Were he forced to stand down three months before an election, then what are the prospects for the party? He could be replaced by someone who was much more hardcore. They would potentially be in disarray.”
The legal action began last year when the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued county court proceedings against Griffin, Darby and Tanya Lumby, another senior BNP official.
The watchdog argued that the BNP’s constitution was unlawful because it restricted membership to particular ethnic groups and those whose skin colour is white.
Last October Judge Paul Collins agreed and awarded costs against the party. Griffin was forced to order a freeze on membership applications. The court gave him until January 28 to persuade the party to change its constitution and allow non-whites to join.
However, Griffin is unlikely to be able to deliver the change in time.
by David Leppard
If found guilty, Griffin could face a jail sentence
The British National party is facing a crisis in the run-up to the general election after it emerged that Nick Griffin, its leader, could be jailed over its illegal “whites only” membership policy.
Whitehall officials believe Griffin will be unable to comply in time with a court order forcing him to change the BNP’s constitution to admit Asians, blacks and members of other ethnic minorities.
They say the BNP’s membership is not due to vote on the constitutional change until after the court deadline expires towards the end of this month. Trevor Phillips, head of the government’s equalities watchdog, which won the legal ruling three months ago, has instructed his lawyers to be ready to ask the court to impose crippling sanctions, including a heavy fine or possible jail term against Griffin and Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader.
If successful, the move could paralyse the right-wing party at a time when many at Westminster believe it is on the verge of winning its first seat in parliament with the support of disillusioned former Labour and Tory voters.
Officials question whether the head of a political party who has been imprisoned, fined or has had his assets sequestrated could continue to be its leader.
“The BNP is very much Nick Griffin’s party,” said one official. “Were he forced to stand down three months before an election, then what are the prospects for the party? He could be replaced by someone who was much more hardcore. They would potentially be in disarray.”
The legal action began last year when the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued county court proceedings against Griffin, Darby and Tanya Lumby, another senior BNP official.
The watchdog argued that the BNP’s constitution was unlawful because it restricted membership to particular ethnic groups and those whose skin colour is white.
Last October Judge Paul Collins agreed and awarded costs against the party. Griffin was forced to order a freeze on membership applications. The court gave him until January 28 to persuade the party to change its constitution and allow non-whites to join.
However, Griffin is unlikely to be able to deliver the change in time.
by David Leppard
Dishonest BNP deliberately misquotes George Carey
From Edmund Standing:
The BNP likes to present itself as a party that tells the truth, unlike mainstream political parties that rely on lies, misrepresentation and spin, but have yet again demonstrated that this is far from the case.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, recently wrote an article for the Times on immigration and the rise of the BNP. Carey was immediately denounced by the BNP Legal Director as an ‘idiot’ working for ‘Zionists’, but the BNP’s official statement on the article has wisely avoided following Barnes’s line (as it usually does). The BNP website’s take on Carey’s article (‘Lord Carey predicts BNP victory in Dagenham’) puts a typically dishonest spin on what he actually said. From the BNP’s commentary, you’d think Carey was on the verge of joining the party and it appears that he has endorsed them.
BNP website:
Lest there be any doubt about Carey’s view of the BNP, here’s what he told the News of the World in October 2009:
by Edmund Standing
The BNP likes to present itself as a party that tells the truth, unlike mainstream political parties that rely on lies, misrepresentation and spin, but have yet again demonstrated that this is far from the case.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, recently wrote an article for the Times on immigration and the rise of the BNP. Carey was immediately denounced by the BNP Legal Director as an ‘idiot’ working for ‘Zionists’, but the BNP’s official statement on the article has wisely avoided following Barnes’s line (as it usually does). The BNP website’s take on Carey’s article (‘Lord Carey predicts BNP victory in Dagenham’) puts a typically dishonest spin on what he actually said. From the BNP’s commentary, you’d think Carey was on the verge of joining the party and it appears that he has endorsed them.
BNP website:
What Carey said:Writing in The Times this morning Lord Carey warns: “The fact is that a rise in the UK population by ten million in two decades will put our nation’s resources under considerable strain, stretching almost to breaking point the enormous reserves of tolerance and generosity of the British people. Failure to take that action could be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society.”
He also acknowledges that the million people who voted for the British National Party at the European Elections had genuine concerns about both overpopulation and the ability of this nation to integrate new communities whose values are sometimes very different, even antithetical, to our own.
BNP website:The fact is that a rise in the UK population by ten million in two decades will put our nation’s resources under considerable strain, stretching almost to breaking point the enormous reserves of tolerance and generosity of the British people.
The declaration by no means spells out a halt to immigration. In fact we welcome the contribution of both economic migrants and asylum seekers to our lively cosmopolitan culture. But we urge a return to the levels of the early 1990s, about 40,000, compared with 163,000 in 2008. Failure to take that action could be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society.
Last year nearly a million votes were cast for the British National Party. We cannot ignore the fact that such far-right groups exploit genuine concerns about both overpopulation and the ability of this nation to integrate new communities whose values are sometimes very different, even antithetical, to our own.
What Carey said:He then went even further, and predicted that the British National Party could win the parliamentary seat of Dagenham at the General Election.
He told the readers of Britain’s premier newspaper:“In Dagenham, where I was brought up, the white working-class electorate, alienated by far-reaching social change and largely ignored by the mainstream parties, could vote for a BNP Member of Parliament.”
He said that people were supporting the BNP because it was the only political party echoing the sense of unfairness that many people felt about immigrants, economic migrants and bogus asylum seekers coming to Britain and availing themselves of our social services and our jobs.
In Dagenham, where I was brought up, there is a very real danger that a white working-class electorate, alienated by far-reaching social change and largely ignored by the mainstream parties, could vote for a BNP Member of Parliament. This would be a tragedy in our long history of parliamentary democracy. Yet we play into the hands of the far Right if we do not seriously address the concerns that have led to some otherwise decent people supporting modern-day fascism.For some reason, the BNP’s statement fails to offer a link to Carey’s article. I wonder why that is?
Lest there be any doubt about Carey’s view of the BNP, here’s what he told the News of the World in October 2009:
Quite so.To hear the phrase “Christian Britain” coming from the mouth of Nick Griffin made me shudder. It was the most chilling moment of Question Time, perhaps better described as the Nick Griffin Show.
And what a pity that none of the other panelists challenged Griffin’s deceitful attempt to align his despicable policies with Christianity. This squalid racist must not be allowed to hijack one of the world’s great religions.
All of us who believe in tolerance and decency must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in rejection of Griffin’s notion that “Christianity” has any place in his bigotry. I tend to agree that the BBC was mistaken to give the BNP such prominence. To use Margaret Thatcher’s phrase, it was the “oxygen of publicity” that propelled the insignificant and undeserving party into the Big Time. The BBC’s Director General errs in arguing that in a democracy all views should be heard. The views of the BNP are not simply false, they are dangerous, indeed irredeemably evil.
Nevertheless, ‘Any Questions’ DID expose Nick Griffin’s views to public scrutiny. What we saw on our screens was a 21st Century pipsqueak heir to Hitler and Mosley. If the public believed beforehand that support for the BNP was a protest vote against remote or out of touch politicians, they were proved wrong. The BNP leader was unveiled as a sly, shifty figure who would hide unpalatable truths, and cynically spin regardless of the truth, for the sake of votes and funds.
by Edmund Standing
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Lord Carey denounced over 'Christian' anti-immigration views
From Ekklesia:
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has been strongly criticised for backing an attempt by anti-immigration campaigners to turn migration into a confrontational election issue and for appearing to want migrants who accept 'Christian values' to have priority.
A group of largely Conservative politicians, backed by Lord Carey, Baroness Boothroyd and Labour's Frank Field MP, issued a call on 6 January 2010 for manifesto commitments from the main parties to drastically reduce net immigration to the UK to 1990s levels and to except a population cap of 70 million.
However, data from the Office of National Statistics released in November 2009 concluded that net migration – the number of people who come to live in Britain minus the number who move abroad – actually fell by more than a third to 163,000 in 2008, its lowest level since Poland joined the European Union.
Immigration reached 590,000, with the largest single group comprising 85,000 British citizens returning to live in the UK. That total compares with 574,000 in 2007 and 596,000 in 2006.
The 'Balanced Migration' campaign, which has the backing of the established anti-immigration lobby organisation Migration Watch has been received enthusiastically by Britain's tabloid newspapers. It says it is attempting to thwart the political progress of the far-right British National Party.
However, critics - including church figures, human rights activists and refugee and asylum campaigners - suggest that accepting similar assumptions to the BNP and proposing policies which look like watered-down versions of theirs, is part of the problem, not the solution.
Meanwhile, Lord Carey is in trouble for appearing to suggest that Christian migrants should be given priority over others. According to a Daily Express article by Alison Little, headlined 'Let Christian migrants in first, demands Carey' and a Times opinion piece by the former archbishop entitled 'Migration threatens the DNA of our nation' (7 January 2010) he stressed however that he did not want to prevent non-Christian immigrants from entering the country.
The Rev Vaughan Jones, a United Reformed Church minister who heads the cross-London agency Praxis, which specialises in working with displaced people, said yesterday:
Carey also wrote: "[t]he sheer numbers of migrants from within Europe and elsewhere put the resources of Britain under enormous pressure, but also threaten the very ethos or DNA of our nation."
On BBC Radio FiveLive's breakfast programme, Lord Carey responded to broadcaster Nicky Campbell's question "So because we want people with certain values, it's more likely that they will come from Christian countries?" by saying, "Exactly"
But senior Welsh churchman and ecumenist the Rev Aled Edwards OBE, responding on his website, said: "Lord Carey’s discussion around matters of faith is deeply problematic. Migrants who wish to enter the UK lawfully cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their religion or belief."
He went on: "His sense of the ‘DNA of our nation’ will not be shared by many good British citizens of different faiths and of none. The UK now also has three devolved Governments containing parties with a sense of national identity that isn’t primarily British. This reality impacts increasingly on faith communities. The notion that migrants to Wales should be made to believe that they live in a country with an established church is as quaint as it is erroneous. Wales has no established church."
The evangelical Jubilee Centre commented: "Irrespective of whether it is even realistic for politicians to set population targets, our response to this widely-felt concern should surely be tempered by compassion."
Meanwhile, a New Statesman journalist, Samira Shackle responded to Lord Carey:
By Ekklesia staff writers
___________________________________________________________
Isn't all this debate yet another argument for keeping religion - any religion - out of politics?
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has been strongly criticised for backing an attempt by anti-immigration campaigners to turn migration into a confrontational election issue and for appearing to want migrants who accept 'Christian values' to have priority.
A group of largely Conservative politicians, backed by Lord Carey, Baroness Boothroyd and Labour's Frank Field MP, issued a call on 6 January 2010 for manifesto commitments from the main parties to drastically reduce net immigration to the UK to 1990s levels and to except a population cap of 70 million.
However, data from the Office of National Statistics released in November 2009 concluded that net migration – the number of people who come to live in Britain minus the number who move abroad – actually fell by more than a third to 163,000 in 2008, its lowest level since Poland joined the European Union.
Immigration reached 590,000, with the largest single group comprising 85,000 British citizens returning to live in the UK. That total compares with 574,000 in 2007 and 596,000 in 2006.
The 'Balanced Migration' campaign, which has the backing of the established anti-immigration lobby organisation Migration Watch has been received enthusiastically by Britain's tabloid newspapers. It says it is attempting to thwart the political progress of the far-right British National Party.
However, critics - including church figures, human rights activists and refugee and asylum campaigners - suggest that accepting similar assumptions to the BNP and proposing policies which look like watered-down versions of theirs, is part of the problem, not the solution.
Meanwhile, Lord Carey is in trouble for appearing to suggest that Christian migrants should be given priority over others. According to a Daily Express article by Alison Little, headlined 'Let Christian migrants in first, demands Carey' and a Times opinion piece by the former archbishop entitled 'Migration threatens the DNA of our nation' (7 January 2010) he stressed however that he did not want to prevent non-Christian immigrants from entering the country.
The Rev Vaughan Jones, a United Reformed Church minister who heads the cross-London agency Praxis, which specialises in working with displaced people, said yesterday:
On the substantive issue of radically cutting migration and introducing a population cap, Jones said:Lord Carey is living in an unreal world. Church offices and local clergy face daily frustration around immigration issues for members of churches, international theological students and visiting church officials. Immigration controls are biting and biting hard, creating many pastoral problems including the forced separation of families.
Obscurely worded rhetoric about supposed 'Christian values' and British society is far removed from the coal face. We so desperately need church leaders to devote time and love for our Christian brothers and sisters languishing in Britain’s deportation centres - and for all people fleeing misery and persecution. Lord Carey's interventions let down hard-working clergy in his own Church and others who are supporting desperate people.
The demand for an optimum population is fundamentally at odds with orthodoxHe added:
Christian teaching. Christians believe in the protection of life and a just stewardship and sharing of the earth's resources. Without immigration we would need to take some very drastic decisions about who could and who could not live. This is a life and death issue for many.
We are faced with a changing demography which will either require the UK to have a smaller population with fewer elderly people or a larger one which has a sufficient base of people who are economically active to support the larger number of people who are not. Numbers are not the issue. In place of populist and vacuous statements and sterile debates we need urgent action to create international agreements on the movement and exchange of labour, peace-building, ecological responsibility and respect between people of faith.In his Times article Lord Carey responded to interpretations of his earlier remarks which had been construed by the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and the Express as wanting Christians as a group to be given priority. He wrote: "what I am saying is that those who seek to live in this country [should] recognise that they are coming to a country with a Christian heritage and an established Church."
Carey also wrote: "[t]he sheer numbers of migrants from within Europe and elsewhere put the resources of Britain under enormous pressure, but also threaten the very ethos or DNA of our nation."
On BBC Radio FiveLive's breakfast programme, Lord Carey responded to broadcaster Nicky Campbell's question "So because we want people with certain values, it's more likely that they will come from Christian countries?" by saying, "Exactly"
But senior Welsh churchman and ecumenist the Rev Aled Edwards OBE, responding on his website, said: "Lord Carey’s discussion around matters of faith is deeply problematic. Migrants who wish to enter the UK lawfully cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their religion or belief."
He went on: "His sense of the ‘DNA of our nation’ will not be shared by many good British citizens of different faiths and of none. The UK now also has three devolved Governments containing parties with a sense of national identity that isn’t primarily British. This reality impacts increasingly on faith communities. The notion that migrants to Wales should be made to believe that they live in a country with an established church is as quaint as it is erroneous. Wales has no established church."
The evangelical Jubilee Centre commented: "Irrespective of whether it is even realistic for politicians to set population targets, our response to this widely-felt concern should surely be tempered by compassion."
Meanwhile, a New Statesman journalist, Samira Shackle responded to Lord Carey:
There is something profoundly uncomfortable about taking one faith and stating that its members are by nature more democratic, particularly given that Christianity is by no means monolithic... Let's not pretend that Christians always, by default, do democracy... Christianity is the dominant religion in Belarus, the last remaining dictatorship in Europe. So, too, in Zimbabwe.She concluded:
The call for a cap on immigration is said to be motivated in part by a desire not to play into the hands of the far right. But stirring up divisions along religious lines risks doing just that.
By Ekklesia staff writers
___________________________________________________________
Isn't all this debate yet another argument for keeping religion - any religion - out of politics?
Friday, 8 January 2010
The 2010 HOPE not hate campaign will be our biggest
From Hope not hate:
Amidst ankle deep snow it has been busy as normal for me and my colleagues this week. After a short break for Christmas and the New Year we are back at work and focusing our minds on the pending local and General elections.
We will shortly be opening a base in Barking & Dagenham, Billy Bragg has agreed to perform a full set at a fundraising gig we are holding on Saturday 6 March and a HOPE not hate campaign plan has been agreed with the Daily Mirror.
It is a busy period but it needs to be as we have a long battle ahead. The BNP is likely to contest over 200 parliamentary seats in the General Election and up to 1,000 council seats. The main threat is in Barking & Dagenham, where they could take overall control of the council, and Stoke-on-Trent, where they could become the largest single party. There is even a chance that Nick Griffin could win the parliamentary seat in Barking. Across the country we have identified 102 council wards at risk to the BNP.
It is not going to be easy but with your help, your continued involvement, we can win. Without the hard work of HOPE not hate activists the BNP would have won more MEPs last year.More recently, we have proved in successive council by-elections that we can beat the BNP in their strongest areas. The 2010 HOPE not hate campaign will be our biggest yet. For it to be successful we need everyone to get involved. I’m excited about the coming months. I’m sure we are going to have our ups and downs but I’m really confident that we can drive the BNP back in the gutter where they belong.
by Nick Lowles
__________________________________________________________
If you would like to volunteer to help keep the BNP and its far-right chums out of Norfolk, please email hnhnorfolk@gmail.com with your contact details.
Hope not hate, Norfolk will be active as the elections approach, and all the team look forward to some lively canvassing and campaigning in the weeks ahead.
BNP admits lying to raise money
From Hope not hate:
The British National Party’s deputy leader has admitted that the party lies to gain financial advantage.
A document filed with the Electoral Commission showed that the BNP exaggerated its spending during the European election, in which it gained two seats.
Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, has often said the party spent more than £500,000 on the campaign, especially when asking his members and supporters for more money. But figures released by the Electoral Commission this week show that the fascist party spent just £282,843, only £54,000 more than it did during 2004.
Simon Darby, Griffin’s deputy, told a reporter from The Times that the party needed to exaggerate because “if we had said we wanted to spend 10p, it wouldn’t do us any good … there’s a bit of hyperbole with politics”. He refused to comment further on the discrepancy, saying that it was not a “worthy question”.
For “hyperbole” read “lie”.
During the European election campaign the party claimed to have met its fundraising target of £390,000. An email on 22 May, two weeks before polling day, announced that the party had only £17,495 still to go. There was also a thermometer-style graphic on the party’s website, which eventually reached the top after unsteady progress. Those who gave in response to the numerous calls for donations will be wondering whether these figures were another lie or, if true, what Griffin did with the rest of the money.
One clue may be the rumour, currently doing the rounds on fascist and anti-fascist forums, that the BNP paid “£336,208 in the first 11 months of 2009 to three Dowson controlled entities”.
We have no way of judging the truth of this figure, to which only a handful of people in the BNP or around Jim Dowson, would have access, but we have long maintained that Dowson, a militant anti-abortion campaigner with a string of criminal convictions, who provides management and fundraising services to the BNP, has “bought” the party. It is Dowson who runs the BNP’s main call centre in Belfast, owns the “truth truck” advertising lorry, which Griffin regularly lies that the BNP has “bought and paid for”, and arranged the printing of the party’s 28 million European election leaflets last year.
Darby, probably realising that his anger at being asked probing questions by the Times journalist, whom Searchlight knows to be highly professional, had led him to speak unwisely, later claimed, amid a string of insults, that she had “twisted and distorted” his words. He and Griffin now refuse to speak to her.
Meanwhile the BNP has tried to divert attention from the lie by claiming that it ran a more efficient campaign than the four bigger parties in terms of amount spent per vote received. Its £282,843 equated to 29p per vote, compared to 51p for the UK Independence Party and higher amounts for the three main parties. Naturally the party failed to explain why it had claimed spending of £500,000, which would have been similar to the UKIP’s cost per vote. And it was no surprise that supporters commenting on the website article also avoided the awkward question and had nothing but praise for the party.
Nor has anyone on the BNP website expressed any concern that the party’s latest accounts, covering 2008, do not comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as the party did not maintain adequate financial records. The BNP’s former treasurer may yet face prosecution for this.
by Sonia Gable
The British National Party’s deputy leader has admitted that the party lies to gain financial advantage.
A document filed with the Electoral Commission showed that the BNP exaggerated its spending during the European election, in which it gained two seats.
Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, has often said the party spent more than £500,000 on the campaign, especially when asking his members and supporters for more money. But figures released by the Electoral Commission this week show that the fascist party spent just £282,843, only £54,000 more than it did during 2004.
Simon Darby, Griffin’s deputy, told a reporter from The Times that the party needed to exaggerate because “if we had said we wanted to spend 10p, it wouldn’t do us any good … there’s a bit of hyperbole with politics”. He refused to comment further on the discrepancy, saying that it was not a “worthy question”.
For “hyperbole” read “lie”.
During the European election campaign the party claimed to have met its fundraising target of £390,000. An email on 22 May, two weeks before polling day, announced that the party had only £17,495 still to go. There was also a thermometer-style graphic on the party’s website, which eventually reached the top after unsteady progress. Those who gave in response to the numerous calls for donations will be wondering whether these figures were another lie or, if true, what Griffin did with the rest of the money.
One clue may be the rumour, currently doing the rounds on fascist and anti-fascist forums, that the BNP paid “£336,208 in the first 11 months of 2009 to three Dowson controlled entities”.
We have no way of judging the truth of this figure, to which only a handful of people in the BNP or around Jim Dowson, would have access, but we have long maintained that Dowson, a militant anti-abortion campaigner with a string of criminal convictions, who provides management and fundraising services to the BNP, has “bought” the party. It is Dowson who runs the BNP’s main call centre in Belfast, owns the “truth truck” advertising lorry, which Griffin regularly lies that the BNP has “bought and paid for”, and arranged the printing of the party’s 28 million European election leaflets last year.
Darby, probably realising that his anger at being asked probing questions by the Times journalist, whom Searchlight knows to be highly professional, had led him to speak unwisely, later claimed, amid a string of insults, that she had “twisted and distorted” his words. He and Griffin now refuse to speak to her.
Meanwhile the BNP has tried to divert attention from the lie by claiming that it ran a more efficient campaign than the four bigger parties in terms of amount spent per vote received. Its £282,843 equated to 29p per vote, compared to 51p for the UK Independence Party and higher amounts for the three main parties. Naturally the party failed to explain why it had claimed spending of £500,000, which would have been similar to the UKIP’s cost per vote. And it was no surprise that supporters commenting on the website article also avoided the awkward question and had nothing but praise for the party.
Nor has anyone on the BNP website expressed any concern that the party’s latest accounts, covering 2008, do not comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as the party did not maintain adequate financial records. The BNP’s former treasurer may yet face prosecution for this.
by Sonia Gable
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
BNP members - we did try to warn you
From Denise of Norfolk Unity:
You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh (Denise writes in reference to the Times article posted below).
Other facts that came out of the accounts have already been highlighted on here, but two that deserve further mention concern membership numbers and the extortion of a massive loan from the Regional Accounting Unit - that is, BNP members' hard-earned money, paid over to benefit their local branches and groups.
On the matter of membership, the BNP's own figures for 2007 were 9,784. We all remember the hype about "rocketing membership figures", "hundreds joining", "best year ever" etc., etc. The BNP's figures for 2008 were 9,801 - an increase of just 17!
This begs the question as to how many of the alleged 4,000 apparently wetting themselves as they wait to join the BNP when the membership block is removed will turn out to be real and how many figments of Nick Griffin's fertile imagination.
On the matter of the "loan" made by the BNP's Regional Accounting Unit (RAU) to the central party, it seems that the membership has been well and truly turned over.
One of the most interesting items listed in the RAU's 2007 accounts was an acknowledgement that “During 2007 central office borrowed from the regional accounting unit", borrowings that were to be repaid by monthly standing orders.
The BNP's auditors, Silver and Co., took a dim view of this, saying that at the close of 2007
How many times over did the BNP membership pay for Nick Griffin's Euro-seat? Or did this money really go elsewhere?
The RAU's treasurer (and supposed guardian of the branches' interests) David Hannam and his good friend Nicholas Griffin have some serious questions to answer, and we can but hope that they eventually come to be answered in the proper place, because we are certain sure that the gullible sheeple of the BNP will never have the wits to challenge the parasites who have for so long fed on them with such unalloyed contempt.
From HnhNorfolk:
Well posted, Denise.
Let's hope that AT LAST the BNP membership will see the nasty conmen leading the BNP for what they really are - exploitive cynics who care for nothing but their own deep pockets.
You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh (Denise writes in reference to the Times article posted below).
Other facts that came out of the accounts have already been highlighted on here, but two that deserve further mention concern membership numbers and the extortion of a massive loan from the Regional Accounting Unit - that is, BNP members' hard-earned money, paid over to benefit their local branches and groups.
On the matter of membership, the BNP's own figures for 2007 were 9,784. We all remember the hype about "rocketing membership figures", "hundreds joining", "best year ever" etc., etc. The BNP's figures for 2008 were 9,801 - an increase of just 17!
This begs the question as to how many of the alleged 4,000 apparently wetting themselves as they wait to join the BNP when the membership block is removed will turn out to be real and how many figments of Nick Griffin's fertile imagination.
On the matter of the "loan" made by the BNP's Regional Accounting Unit (RAU) to the central party, it seems that the membership has been well and truly turned over.
One of the most interesting items listed in the RAU's 2007 accounts was an acknowledgement that “During 2007 central office borrowed from the regional accounting unit", borrowings that were to be repaid by monthly standing orders.
The BNP's auditors, Silver and Co., took a dim view of this, saying that at the close of 2007
... the party owed the Region £42,000 and the reason why this is the case is that it had insufficient funds, which places doubts on the ability of the Party to repay this money.These doubts were well founded, and a con had to be worked that would allow the BNP to keep its own branches deprived of their own much needed money. How it was worked came in this glib sentence, which appeared in the RAU's 2008 accounts:
In 2009 certain costs were incurred on behalf of the Branches, by the Central Office, in connection with the European election. These are to be recharged, and will cover the money due by Central Office to the Branches.So, "certain costs", unspecified, and "in connection with the European election" - and that cancels the debt owed to the branches on a loan they were never consulted about making?
How many times over did the BNP membership pay for Nick Griffin's Euro-seat? Or did this money really go elsewhere?
The RAU's treasurer (and supposed guardian of the branches' interests) David Hannam and his good friend Nicholas Griffin have some serious questions to answer, and we can but hope that they eventually come to be answered in the proper place, because we are certain sure that the gullible sheeple of the BNP will never have the wits to challenge the parasites who have for so long fed on them with such unalloyed contempt.
From HnhNorfolk:
Well posted, Denise.
Let's hope that AT LAST the BNP membership will see the nasty conmen leading the BNP for what they really are - exploitive cynics who care for nothing but their own deep pockets.
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