Extremism breeds extremism

From HOPE not hate:

A BBC radio report into the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit has found that police are worried that the violent actions of the EDL are feeding Islamist extremism.

This is precisely the argument that I have been making this week. Hate breeds hate. The EDL breeds Islamist extremism. Islamist extremism breeds the EDL. The bile spewed out by some of Brtiain's newspapers breeds both.

It's time to break the chain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11787839

By Nick Lowles 19 November 2010

Taking on extremism, including Islamic extremism

From The Jewish Chronicle:

The anti-fascist publication Searchlight, which was behind the "Hope Not Hate" campaign to stop the British National Party in east London, is to expand its operations to oppose the Islamophobic English Defence League and Islamic extremism itself.

The magazine, founded in the 1960s to monitor the rise of the extreme right, intends to set up a thinktank to investigate the phenomenon of the English Defence League, which has become a focus of ultra-nationalist opposition to the so-called "Islamification" of Britain. Writing on his blog last week, Searchlight editor Nick Lowles attacked both the EDL and the Islamic extremists of Muslims Against Crusades, who burned poppies, denied the Holocaust and called for a new Muslim fascism.

"For the MAC, the presence and activities of the EDL prove how white British society is the enemy. For the EDL, the Islamist extremists are proof of the violent nature of Islam," he wrote.

An online survey of Hope Not Hate supporters' reaction to Mr Lowles's words showed that over 95 per cent were in support of what he said. Around 40,000 people have viewed the post since it was written last Thursday.

Mr Lowles said that he felt a huge sense of relief that he was finally able to speak his mind. "Islamist extremism has been the elephant in the room for too long," he said. "Everyone knows it is wrong and is actually part of the problem but people have either been bullied into silence or lack the confidence to speak out."

He added: "Islamist extremism is no friend of a progressive society. Staying silent on attitudes and behaviour that is both wrong, offensive and downright dangerous is abandoning one's own progressive values and moral compass. Remaining silent and uncritical will be viewed by others as passive support or acceptance and that is not the basis to build a popular broadbased campaign against Islamophobia."

Several Muslims posted supportive comments on the Hope Not Hate blog as a result of the intervention. Sameena from East London wrote: "It would be good to get some Muslim academics, and leftist leaders on board and being vocal. I would like to see some Muslim women sans hijab as well. There are plenty of us - but the media always wants to show the ones who fit a particular image."

Bushra added: "MAC do not represent all British Muslims! I am a British Muslim and I wore my poppy proudly and observed the two-minute silence. I am sickened and offended that these people have no respect for those who fought and died, so that they could have freedom of speech."

A plague on both their houses

From HOPE not hate:

(left ) Supporters of the Muslims Against Crusades, and (right) the English Defence League in West London

Two sides of hate faced each other today in West London. As Britain remembered those who had died in past wars, 30 Islamist extremists, under the banner of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), hurled abuse, burned poppies and waved their hate-filled placards. A few metres away 60 supporters of the English Nationalist Alliance and the English Defence League pushed their own intolerant message.

Let us be quite clear, both groups are as reprehensible as each other. In fact, such is the symbiotic relationship between the two that they actually need each other to justify their own existence. For the MAC the presence and activities of the EDL prove how white British society is the enemy. For the EDL the Islamist extremists are proof of the violent nature of Islam. They are two sides of the same coin of hate.

We stand opposed to both sides. We oppose the racism and Islamophobia of the EDL just as weoppose the religious bigotry and antisemitism of the MAC. To hear these Islamist extremists publicly deny the Holocaust and call for the formation of a Muslim Waffen SS Division – as they did today – should rightly sicken every anti-fascist just as much as the racist bile spat out by the EDL and ENA.

We think it is important to criticise both groups publicly. Criticising one group but remaining silent about another leads – correctly – to charges of hypocrisy and double standards. Only by criticising the actions of tiny extremist groups can we say with any validity that neither speaks for the wider communities and religions they claim to represent.

And in criticising both extremist groups I believe that we are in tune with the majority of British people, who want to live in peace and without the hatred and violence extremists bring.

by Nick Lowles 11.11 2010

Pat Richardson now Eastern Region membership secretary

From BNP News:

It was announced on 16th November 2010 that 'long serving British National Party councillor Pat Richardson has been appointed the Eastern Region’s new membership secretary as part of a major overhaul of party’s local organisation'.

It was reported that Cllr Richardson will now be responsible for making sure the branches are kept up to date with all the relevant enquiry information that future campaigns bring in.

Regional organiser Paul Morris said “The regional executive decided exactly how we are going to proceed with local and regional issues and the growth of the British National Party in the region as a whole.”

Mr Morris exhorted the meeting: "(I)t’s up to us to get out there and tell the public exactly what the BNP are about not what the lying media tell them.

“The region is facing change in many areas, such as housing and jobs, about which the public has not been consulted or made aware of. We intend to address these issues with maximum effect.

Delegates were also nominated to attend the intensive election training which is currently being rolled out across all sectors of the party.

Hope not hate, Norfolk will be interested to follow the progress of this little group in a faltering and failing BNP.

Obituary: Bill Fitt, Poringland BNP activist

The Man Who Introduced Nick Griffin to Nationalism

From BNP News:

It is with great sadness that we report the death of veteran nationalist, Norfolk BNP stalwart and the man who introduced Nick Griffin to nationalism, Bill Fitt, who passed away aged 84 on 21 May after a short period of ill health.

Mr Fitt was Norwich born and bred. During the Second World War, he joined the Royal Marines at the age of 17 and saw active service in the Far East.

He had been an active nationalist since the 1950s and was a member of an earlier version of the British National Party which later merged with the League of Empire Loyalists to form the National Front in 1967.

During the 1970s, Mr Fitt remained active in an organisational role in East Anglia and bravely stood as a candidate on several occasions.

Apart from being a lifelong nationalist, Mr Fitt was also a dedicated trade unionist, and served as a TGWU shop steward for many years. He was elected by his union branch to act as their delegate to Norwich Trades Council much to the fury of the leftists who launched a campaign to remove him from that body.

Paul Morris, BNP Eastern regional organiser said:

Despite being in his 70s, Mr Fitt agreed to serve as Norfolk BNP organiser from 1998 to 2002 in order to re-establish the party in that county.Even after stepping down from office, he did all that he could to help to promote the party in his locality. Bill’s placement of BNP posters in his garden riled the far left who resorted to committing acts of vandalism to his property in a futile attempt at political intimidation. As Bill remarked to the local press, having survived Luftwaffe bombs and Japanese snipers, he was hardly going to be intimidated.

BNP Chairman Nick Griffin paid tribute to Mr Fitt for his contribution to the nationalist cause saying:

Having known Bill Fitt for 36 years, I am truly saddened to hear of his passing. Bill was the first nationalist I ever met. It was due to a letter he had published in a local newspaper that I first became interested in nationalist politics. I always had the utmost respect for Bill.All those who knew him will confirm that he was a man of principle, integrity and courage. My condolences go to his daughter Helen — who stood as BNP candidate for South Norfolk at the general election — and the rest of his family.

_________________________________________________

It is interesting to learn that Helen Mitchell is the daughter of Bill Fitt. Thanks to Nick Griffin for the information.

Helen Mitchell stood as a BNP candidate and gained a 'risible' 2% of votes in the recent General Election in South Norfolk, so losing her deposit. I was wondering to whom in the BNP she was related, as there was no information about her individual work for the party.

Mr William Fitt is the reason that I first joined the anti-BNP movement. When I asked about the BNP's policies in Norfolk some seven years ago, he was so breathtakingly rude about my married name that I was totally taken aback. I am a Norfolk woman who happened to marry a Japanese. My married name has nothing to do with any lack of patriotism to my country.

Once and for all Griffin should acknowledge what he knows to be true. Not everyone who opposes the BNP is 'far-left'. Some of us are moderates appalled by the knee-jerk racism of BNP characters, and some of us are apolitical but implacably opposed to the hatred that animates BNP policies. Some opponents of the BNP are decidedly right-wing (see There's Nothing British About the BNP, for example).

Strange that both Nick Griffin and I were politicised by Bill Fitt.
In different ways of course.

All Norfolk BNP candidates lose their deposits

From Norfolk Unity:

BNP’s night of disaster

The BNP’s general election campaign hit the buffers across the country in spectacular style last night, with the vast majority of its candidates losing their deposits, unable to make even the tiny 5% necessary to keep their £500In the BNP’s two main target constituencies there was no joy for either party leader Nick Griffin or his deputy Simon Darby.

Darby, parachuted in to Stoke Central at the expense of former organiser Alby Walker, took only 7.7% and 2502 votes, increasing the BNP vote by just 0.1%, a derisory increase given that the party seriously believed it could gain an MP in the constituency – that being the reason Alby Walker was elbowed aside by Darby.

Darby’s lacklustre, almost non-existent campaigning, is sure to further anger already demoralised local BNP members, who felt that the well-known and – unusually for the BNP – highly regarded Walker, a local councillor and former leader of Stoke Council BNP group, had been badly used by Griffin and Darby, who squandered the BNP’s chances on the altar of their own ambition.

In Barking, where Griffin had carpet-bagged the constituency from local councillor Richard Barnbrook, no amount of hoopla could save the BNP leader from getting self-inflicted egg all over his face. Barking was another constituency the BNP believed might give them an MP, hence Griffin’s order to Barnbrook to stand down in favour of himself.

As the campaign went on Griffin began to reign in expectations, claiming that his candidature was intended purely to assist the simultaneous BNP campaign to take control of Barking and Dagenham council, though he still expected to increase the BNP vote and come second to sitting Labour MP Margaret Hodge.

In the event Griffin lost ground, his vote share falling from 16.3% to 14.6%, placing him a distant third, behind the Conservative Simon Marcus, who, like Hodge, put on votes and share.

In Norfolk the BNP nose-dived. In Norfolk North West, where even the BNP’s opponents expected them to at least save their deposit, Dave Fleming took a meagre 3.8%, not helped even by the antics of Labour candidate Manish Sood, who lost 18% of the governing party’s vote.

In next door Norfolk South West, the BNP (Dennis Pearce) managed on 3.6%, while in Yarmouth, despite the Labour vote plummetting by 12%, Bosco Tann managed to convince only 3.3% of the electorate. In Mid Norfolk the BNP’s Christine Kelly fared even worse, taking only 2.5%, and in South Norfolk Helen Mitchel took a risible 2%.

The BNP were made to look complete fools in Norwich South (Len Heather), achieving a joke 1.5% as former Labour minister Charles Clarke lost the seat to the Liberal Democrats.

Only two Norfolk results involving the BNP remain to declare as we post, but it is unlikely the BNP will improve on its lamentable performance across the rest of the county.

(LATER: BNP's Edith Crowther crashes in Broadland with just 1.7% of the vote, and BNP's Tom Richardson in Norwich North with hilarious 1.8% ).

As the racist party faces serious internal turmoil due to Griffin’s highly public falling out with ousted webmaster Simon Bennett, who has made a number of serious accusations against Griffin, the future for the BNP looks bleak.

Nick Griffin encouraged BNP members to hold utterly unrealistic expectations of success in the general election, many of them believing the party would gain several MPs, for which they repeatedly dug deep into their pockets. With those expectations shattered disenchantment is certain to follow as the Griffin-worshippers come to see that the expensive and wrong-headed strategy persued by the BNP was the product of Griffin’s own incompetence and that nobody but him is to blame that in an election when the word “immigration” was on almost every voter’s lips, they came away empty-handed and humiliated.

Griffin’s only hope of salvaging something from the wreckage of the BNP campaign is a face-saving performance in local election counts, due to begin shortly. If the BNP fails to impress, Nick Griffin and the BNP could easily be facing their 1979 moment*.

By Denise Garside

*In 1979 a similar performance by the National Front resulted in the swift implosion of what had been the biggest fascist movement in Britain since the days of Oswald Mosley.

Posted in NU articles

BNP total failure in Norfolk confirmed with last result

Norwich North

Name	Party	Votes	%	+/-
Chloe Smith	Conservative	17,280	40.6	+10.1
John Cook	Labour	13,379	31.4	-15.7
John Stephen	Liberal Democrat	7,783	18.3	+2.2
Glenn Tingle	UK Independence Party	1,878	4.4	+2.1
Jessica Goldfinch	Green	1,245	2.9	-0.3
Thomas Richardson	British National Party	747	1.8	+1.8
Bill Holden	Independent	143	0.3	+0.3
Andrew Holland	Christian Party	118	0.3	+0.3
Majority		3,901	9.2
Turnout		42,573	65.2	+3.4

Crowther crashes in Broadland

From the BBC:

Name	Party	Votes	%	+/-
Keith Simpson	Conservative	24,338	46.2	+2.8
Daniel Roper	Liberal Democrat	17,046	32.4	+2.9
Allyson Barron	Labour	7,287	13.8	-9.8
Stuart Agnew	UK Independence Party	2,382	4.5	+1.1
Edith Crowther	British National Party	871	1.7	+1.7
Susan Curran	Green	752	1.4	+1.4
Majority		7,292	13.8
Turnout		52,676	72.0	+7.6

Norfolk South West

Elizabeth Truss	Conservative	23,753	48.3	+3.4
Stephen Gordon	Liberal Democrat	10,613	21.6	+2.4
Peter Smith	Labour	9,119	18.6	-11.4
Kay Hipsey	UK Independence Party	3,061	6.2	+1.5
Dennis Pearce	British National Party	1,774	3.6	+3.6
Lori Allen	Green	830	1.7	+1.7
Majority		13,140	26.7
Turnout		49,150	66.2	+4.1

Norfolk North West

Name	Party	Votes	%	+/-
Henry Bellingham	Conservative	25,916	54.2	+4.3
William Summers	Liberal Democrat	11,106	23.2	+8.5
Manish Sood	Labour	6,353	13.3	-18.3
John Gray	UK Independence Party	1,841	3.9	+0.2
David Fleming	British National Party	1,839	3.8	+3.8
Michael de Whalley	Green	745	1.6	+1.6
Majority		14,810	31.0
Turnout		47,800	65.3	+3.7

Great Yarmouth

Name	Party	Votes	%	+/-
Brandon Lewis	Conservative	18,571	43.1	+5.0
Tony Wright	Labour	14,295	33.2	-12.4
Simon Partridge	Liberal Democrat	6,188	14.4	+3.3
Alan Baugh	UK Independence Party	2,066	4.8	+0.5
Bosco Tann	British National Party	1,421	3.3	+3.3
Laura Biggart	Green	416	1.0	+1.0
Margaret McMahon-Morris	Matriarchal Party United Kingdom Great Britain	100	0.2	+0.2
Majority		4,276	9.9
Turnout		43,057	61.2	+1.2

From the BBC

Norwich South - Clarke loses to LibDems

Simon Wright	Liberal Democrat	13,960	29.4	-0.6
Charles Clarke	Labour	13,650	28.7	-8.7
Antony Little	Conservative	10,902	22.9	+1.1
Adrian Ramsay	Green	7,095	14.9	+7.5
Steve Emmens	UK Independence Party	1,145	2.4	+0.9
Leonard Heather	British National Party	697	1.5	+1.5
Gabriel Polley	Workers Revolutionary Party	102	0.2	+0.0
Majority		310	0.7
Turnout		47,551	64.6	+5.6

Target seat