Dear Matt,I trust Matt O'Connor is sensible enough to tell the BNP precisely where they can stick their email.
I am surprised, and disappointed, to see that you are considering standing as London Mayoral candidate for the English Democrats. In view of your concern for justice for fathers when it comes to family separation and the custody of children, you must surely be aware that the British National Party is the ONLY party to clearly state, in its national manifesto, that "Divorce and family laws and maintenance arrangements discriminate against men" and to have the policy pledge to "make joint custody of children the norm in divorce cases"...
...The BNP is the most 'father-friendly' party in Britain. Of course I know that there are loads of lies and smears directed towards us, but if you read our manifesto you will see that the modern BNP is a sensible, democratic and non-racist party and one which I am sure you could support.
The English Democrats are, frankly, a miniscule fringe group who are using you. You will know that last year they received fewer votes in a parliamentary by-election that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, and the other week in a by-election in Lambeth the EDs received a mere 8 votes - less than the number of people required to fill in the nomination form!
If you are genuinely concerned about England's representation within the Union, then you will see from our manifesto that it is the BNP's policy to "introduce an English parliament within the United Kingdom". As you can see the BNP is the party which best represents the views you are seeking to promote. Instead of allowing yourself to be used by the English Democrats for their own ends you should come over to the party which genuinely cares about families, fathers and children. The BNP is growing at a tremendous rate. While the EDs were obtaining a mere 8 votes in Lambeth the BNP won a council seat in Havering. People are realising that the BNP is not as it has been misrepresented by our opponents in other parties and in the media. We are a friendly party with the best interests of the British people at heart. Our policies are based on traditional values and commonsense.
Please do contact me if you would like to discuss this or if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Nick Eriksen
BNP London Organiser
Iain Dale's Diary
4 comments:
Taken from Kirklees Unit blog.
BNP organiser Nick Cass (the one shown on Sky tv with the nazi tattoo and holocaust denial books in his garage) has sent a threatening email to Labour councillor David Sheard. The email is reproduced below:
From: kirklees BNP
To: Cllr David Sheard
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 7:45 AM
Your a traitor to your own people David.
I will never forget your childish behaviour in the Old Hall last year when you made a complete prick of yourself pissed out of your head. If we had been half as bad as you and your pathetic leaflets make out I would have kicked you down those steps and not just asked you to leave when you gate crashed our party looking for trouble..
Still time will tell wont it and this area under you and the other traitors in the 3 'main' parties is not going to get any better that is for sure. And you can continue kissing the arses of the local Muslims and do deals with your fellow traitors in the Lib-Dems and Greens to try and win the ward for all we care.
That just shows the contempt you have for the real local folk.
This country is falling apart because of the likes of you, but its not finished yet, and let me assure you that like the rest of the people who have sold our people and way of life down the drain for a few shekels, in time when we take control, you and the rest will be facing trial for treason and ultimately the rope.
Nick Cass
From this month's Searchlight magazine:
The watchdog that did not bark
Sonia Gable reveals more about the BNP’s dodgy financial dealings and the Electoral Commission’s failure to respond.
“No party financial records were shredded. They are held in electronic format, and cannot be shredded,” proclaimed the British National Party after Jon Cruddas MP exposed the party’s dodgy financial dealings in the House of Commons on 18 December.
By 13 February, following the broadcast of the BBC’s File on 4 investigation into the BNP’s finances, the BNP had changed its tune. Said John Walker, the BNP treasurer: “The bag of shredded items produced in the studio to me which the listeners were expected to believe the BBC’s claims, appeared to be in the main, working copies of the print outs of the book keeping software and draft accounts. To suggest I shredded cheques and invoices is ridiculous, why would I destroy invoices, as I would not have paperwork to cover the expenditure as required by the auditor.”
The BNP works on the principle that if one lie is exposed, try another, and hope no one notices the contradiction. Apart from the fact that Walker now admits that the BNP does have non-electronic records, Searchlight’s perusal of the shreds has revealed numerous pieces of original receipts and cheques, clearly identifiable by their various colours, typestyles and handwritten details.
They include numerous references to various family members of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, which may bolster the allegations from across the political spectrum that Griffin treats the party as his “cash cow”.
Another name that appears on several of the bits of paper is Vanguard Promotions. This is the private printing business in Leeds owned by Mark Collett, the party’s unpopular and incompetent graphic designer and star of the Channel 4 television documentary Young, Nazi and Proud. His imprint appears on many BNP leaflets and many people have questioned the relationship.
Walker was also rather coy about the BNP’s failure to include a donation of £5,315 from Steve Johnson on its return to the Electoral Commission for July to September 2007. “Only one donation for the 3rd quarter of 2007 … was missed,” glossing over the fact that this was 50% of the total number of donations. “It was not reported to my regional treasurer at the time,” he continued, protecting another seriously incompetent BNP officer David Hannam, “and as soon as the Electoral Commission brought this matter to my attention it was duly reported to the satisfaction of the commission”.
Walker does not explain how the Electoral Commission knew about the donation to bring it to his attention before he reported it. Perhaps he does not want to admit that he found out about the omission from Searchlight’s Stop the BNP website.
Reporting a donation late is not the unique preserve of the BNP. The Electoral Commission publishes a list of donations reported in the fourth quarter of 2007 that should have been reported previously. Donations to all three main parties and others are on it, but not Johnson’s, which has simply been added to the BNP’s quarterly list as if it had been reported on time. It is unclear why the BNP receives such apparently preferential treatment from the Electoral Commission.
The BNP reported three donations received in the final three months of 2007, from Sheila Butler, Charles Wentworth and Adam Champneys. Each gave precisely £5,000. Champneys, who has made large donations to the party before, appeared on the BNP’s list of candidates for the South East in the 2004 European election. Butler is new to the donors’ list. It is not known whether she is the same Sheila Butler who made donations to the UK Independence Party in the South West in 2003 and 2004.
The shredded financial records had originated from John Brayshaw, Walker’s predecessor as BNP treasurer. Before resigning he refused to sign off the party accounts because he had not been given access to all the records he wanted to see. He told the Electoral Commission that he had resigned as BNP treasurer “as a number of irregularities had come to light”. Explaining that he had seen Walker and Hannam shredding the documents and been told to burn them, he declared: “I have not seen what the party sent to the commission but do not believe it is a full and accurate set of accounts for the BNP”.
But the Electoral Commission was unconcerned. It took just two weeks to dismiss the matter, without even asking to see his evidence. Its response to him was blunt: “with regard to a breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, we currently have no reason to believe that such a breach has taken place”.
Jon Cruddas MP was similarly unable to persuade the Electoral Commission to take complaints against the BNP seriously. In a letter dated 28 January 2008 the Commission pointed out that the BNP had paid the “appropriate fine of £1,000” for the late submission of its 2006 accounts, in other words end of story. As for the BNP’s attempt to solicit donations from overseas via its front group Civil Liberty, the Commission dismissed the concerns stating that there was not “sufficient evidence to establish that ‘Civil Liberty’ was an organisation of any significant scale, that it raised any substantial funds from any source, or that it passed funds to the British National Party”.
Civil Liberty is not a limited company and has no obligation to make its accounts public. How exactly did the Electoral Commission investigate what funds it had raised? Did the Commission do any more than ask the BNP and/or the BNP officers who ran Civil Liberty, Kenny Smith and Kevin Scott? On this the letter is silent.
“The Commission does however monitor the activities of political parties and associationed [sic] organisations and individuals, and keeps matters under review,” the letter concludes. We are not reassured.
From this month's Searchlight magazine:
English nationalist rival moves in on BNP territory
As the elections for London’s Mayor and the London Assembly approach all eyes are on the British National Party. Looking ahead to the 2009 European elections, the North West promises to be a particularly fraught battleground as the BNP comes up against a determined anti-fascist campaign.
Another hurdle the BNP will have to contend with in the North West is a resurgent England First Party (EFP) whose message of unabashed white supremacy continues to threaten the hegemony of the BNP in the region. With Nick Griffin arrogantly disregarding the wishes of local party members by appointing himself regional organiser instead of the preferred candidate Chris Jackson, there will be much more to play for than seats in European Parliament. Griffin will also be putting his personal reputation on the line in an area where his political opponents on the far right are strongest.
The EFP was founded in 2004 by Mark Cotterill, a former chairman of the American Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP), which channelled tens of thousands of dollars into the BNP before a change in UK electoral law made it illegal to raise money abroad. Cotterill, who had been involved with the nazi National Alliance while living in America, was subsequently deported because his fundraising also contravened US law. Upon his return to England he fell out with the BNP, Griffin seemingly unwilling to reward his endeavours with a commensurate party position. Disaffected, Cotterill moved to Blackburn, Lancashire where he formed the EFP.
The EFP makes no bones about its white supremacist ideology which marks the party out as more vocally extreme than the “modern” BNP. The EFP wants to “win back” the country from hordes of “immigrant invaders”. To do so requires the “repatriation of all immigrants to their lands of ancestral origin”, which will not be a voluntary matter.
To the EFP ethnic minorities are unassimilable and unwanted, their very presence creating friction: “… their clothes, their food, their culture, their psychology, their biology, their physiology and their history challenges ours at every point of the compass”. To reenergise the sense of national identity it believes has been corrupted by these “aliens”, the EFP advocates the teaching of “the Aryan histories of Western Europe” in schools and “the abolition of the Islamic faith and the demolition of all mosques”.
Many BNP members agree with these sentiments but they would perhaps be loath to couch them in such uncompromising terms. The EFP regularly operates in tandem with both the National Front and the openly nazi British People’s Party. Its meetings are graced by individuals such as Lady Michele Renouf, David Irving’s chief cheerleader who is particularly close to Peter Rushton, deputy editor of the EFP’s magazine, Heritage and Destiny.
Another barrier is the genuine ideological difference between the EFP and the BNP over “English” and “British” nationalism which, though it might seem of minor importance outside far-right circles, certainly contains the potential for a major ideological split. There are certainly people in the BNP who would prefer to “ditch Scotland” if not Wales, especially since the recent internal crisis in which Scottish activists were prominent opponents of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader. The BNP’s monthly magazine Identity has recently attempted to jump on the “English” nationalism bandwagon so as not to be usurped by the EFP not to mention the larger English Democrats party, which recently adopted Matt O’Connor, founder of Fathers 4 Justice, as its candidate in the London mayoral election.
By virtue of its very existence the EFP impedes the progress of the BNP in its main Blackburn base and is beginning to pose a threat elsewhere. Griffin was furious when Cotterill and his fellow EFP candidate Michael Johnson, a local publican, were elected to Blackburn council in 2006, not least because Cotterill again trounced the local BNP organiser in the process.
Cotterill’s triumph did not last. Within a year he had resigned and Johnson had left the EFP, joining the For Darwen group on the council. Cotterill cited the offer of a job in Preston as the reason for his departure not only from the council chamber but also as party leader. He remains actively involved behind the scenes, however, as the party’s nominations officer and, more importantly, as the editor of Heritage and Destiny.
The departure of Cotterill and Johnson does not seem to have diminished support for the EFP in certain areas of Blackburn and Darwen. Although the EFP has not won any more council seats in Blackburn, in May 2007 it polled strongly in Higher Croft (15.2%) and in Mill Hill (18.2%), where it beat the BNP candidate.
Steve Smith took over the reins from Cotterill. Smith had previously been the chairman of Burnley BNP and is widely credited with orchestrating the party’s breakthrough in the town between 2001 and 2003. John Tyndall, the BNP’s founder and veteran nazi leader, was certainly impressed, writing: “Steven Smith is the most successful branch organiser in the history of the British National Party”. Smith alas was unable to enjoy the fruits of his labours. He was arrested and jailed for forging signatures on BNP nomination papers.
The BNP rapidly moved to dissociate itself from its erstwhile hero. Smith claims that Griffin was motivated by vanity, fearing paradoxically that the rise of the BNP in Burnley threatened his own position as chairman. Similar sentiments have been voiced in connection with the expulsion last December of Sadie Graham, another capable organiser now outside the BNP.
With Smith at the helm the EFP expanded its base of operations into Burnley with the intention of taking it back from the BNP. His first move was to stand in a by-election in Daneshouse with Stoneyholme in February 2007. He came third with 141 votes (7%), beating the Conservative candidate into third place. In this predominantly Asian ward Smith never had a hope in hell of being elected and knew it. His candidacy was meant to deliver a simple message: Smith was back in town.
In May 2007 Smith stood in Cliviger with Worsthorne. He came second with 372 votes (17%), though a long way behind the victorious Conservative candidate. More importantly, however, Smith utterly thrashed the BNP candidate Dave Shapcott, who had taken over from Smith as Burnely BNP organiser, beating him into third place. Between them the far-right vote was 29% and Smith appears bent on capturing it all. In Queensgate ward, Simon Bennett polled a creditable 26% for the EFP, coming third.
Smith also has his eye on Brunshaw ward, which once yielded a strong vote for the BNP and returned one BNP councillor. BNP support has dissipated since those heady days and Smith believes he can displace the BNP as a “nationalist” alternative to the Liberal Democrats. Smith fired the opening salvo in October 2007 with “Operation Blanket Burnley” – his plan to saturate the town with 25,000 “wonderfully controversial” leaflets, which stated, “England is being deliberately destroyed by cowards, liars, anarchists and traitors” and alleged that white Britons were “becoming an ethnic minority in their own land”. The Burnley Police hate crime unit is currently investigating the leaflets’ content for incitement of racial hatred. Not that this has stopped Smith handing them out: he claims he only has 8,000 left to deliver.
Shapcott is not amused by the support the EFP is gaining and even less amused by his own members fraternising with the EFP despite its proscription, something surely of concern to the BNP leadership.
The EFP has also begun picking at the bones of other areas in which the BNP has begun stagnating. Since May 2007 it has moved into Wigan where it has won the support of Ian Hague, the former Wigan BNP organiser, and Oldham, where the former BNP organiser Martin Brierley has joined up, another sign that the EFP is gaining in areas where the BNP has failed to capitalise on what was once fertile ground.
The party has also begun to move southwards, establishing a presence in Hastings, Sussex, through the good offices of Alan Winder, another BNP renegade. The EFP fielded a candidate in Whaddon ward, Milton Keynes in June 2007, which caused some strife for the BNP. Anna Seymour, the EFP candidate, came third of six beating the Liberal Democrats, UK Independence Party and an independent candidate. Her campaign drew support from local BNP members including Barry Taylor who has since been expelled.
It is important not to exaggerate the threat posed by the EFP to the BNP. It remains a minute outfit in comparison to its rival. It is, however, the only far-right party capable of mounting a serious challenge to BNP hegemony in the North West. Smith appears to have reenergised the organisation following Cotterill’s “departure”. Shapcott and Griffin have been left bristling with annoyance as the EFP encroaches on its former power base in Burnley. And although there is no indication at present that the EFP are on the cusp of displacing the BNP in Burnley, Smith’s zeal and organisational ability must be a cause for concern within the BNP and indeed for anti-fascists too.
I would hope that this begging email to Matt O connor of the English Democrats nails the lie often made by main stream politicians and various groups that members of the Campaign English Parliament and English Democrats are the far right.
This accusation was casually made by Kenneth Clark Tory MP only a few weeks ago in front of the Justice committee.
We demand fairness and equality for all the peoples of England.
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