Disturbance after ex-Burnley BNP councillor's funeral

Police were called after reports that mourners were hurling objects off a Burnley bridge following the funeral of a former BNP councillor.

Officers arrived at the Yorkshire Street bridge at 9pm on Tuesday after being told around 40 youths were causing a disturbance. The mourners had attended the funeral of Luke Smith, 26, of Brunshaw Road, who was found dead last week, police said. The convicted football hooligan, who was forced to resign as a councillor after continued allegations of violence, was said to have been suffering from psychological problems when he appeared in court earlier this month charged with assault.

Sgt Phil Carter, of Burnley police, said: “Police dispersed the group on Tuesday soon after arriving and no arrests were made.”

It is believed the mourners had been drinking in the Lounge pub, in nearby Higgin Street, following Mr Smith’s funeral. Yesterday a large banner was hung from a bridge in Yorkshire Street with the message “Luke Smith lives forever”.

Speaking last week, Mr Smith’s uncle, Steve Smith, who was the BNP leader in Burnley when his nephew was elected, and is now leader of the far-right England First party, said: “He was a lovely, lovely lad who, like a lot of people, was just too sensitive to exist in what is effectively an extremely cruel world. Things had gone downhill for him.”

Mr Smith was 21 when he was elected as councillor for Lanehead ward, in May 2003. But he was suspended from the BNP less than three months later, after it emerged previous football-related violence had earned him a lifetime ban from Turf Moor, and he was alleged to have been fighting at the party’s Red, White and Blue festival in Sawley in July that year.

In September 2004, after a full investigation by the Standards Board for England, he was banned for three years from becoming a member of any council across the UK.

Earlier in 2004, the former gas engineer had been given a two-and-a-half year football banning order, and he was jailed for 11 months in March 2006, after breaching the order and being involved in football-related violence in Manchester, Blackpool and Burnley. His football banning order was extended to six years.

In his latest court appearance, on July 14, he was charged with assault after an attack on the landlord of the Princess Royal – the pub near where he was found dead.

Lancashire Telegraph

So farewell then, Green Bigot

So farewell then, Green Bigot
King of the BNP bloggers,
Greatest of armchair warriors
White Knight of the ku klux keyboard.

You were our hero as you
Resolutely laid siege to the
Pakistani Heretical Girl
With just 460 of your friends.

Thanks to your courage
We all took a peek at her busts
(Which were very nice)
And got to see pictures from
Pornographic websites
That you surfed in the dead of night
Because IP addresses can't be seen
In the dark.

So farewell then, Green Bigot
Your legacy will live on
For seconds
And in years to come
People will say that
The Bigot blogged as he lived
In true BNP style
Peddling hate and lies

And then he was gone
Just like the takings at the RWB

Exley reveals divisions around Auty and BNP

Former BNP councillor David Exley (left) has lifted the lid on turmoil at the heart of the local party.

Last week The Press revealed how BNP councillor Colin Auty had quit the party and was set to resign his Dewsbury East seat on Kirklees Council.

This week Mr Exley, ousted from Heckmondwike at May’s local elections, told The Press of some of the internal strife within the Kirklees BNP.

Mr Exley said he quit as local organiser after he was ordered by the party hierarchy to discipline Coun Auty over comments he made to newspapers when he announced he was to challenge BNP chairman Nick Griffin for the national leadership.

“I was told Colin had to be disciplined, it was more an instruction than a request,” said Mr Exley. “They said he had brought the party into disrepute but I read everything that was in the press and a lot of what he said was unpalatable but you cannot hide the truth.

“I totally refused to discipline him because he had done nothing wrong in my eyes. He stood up for what he believes in and did what he thought was correct.”

Mr Exley said that a few weeks later the national party withdrew the local party’s credit facilities when their account dipped into the red after the local elections.

Mr Exley said he had spoken to Mr Griffin about what had happened and was told he was “100 per cent” behind the decision.

“I feel this was retribution on me for not disciplining Colin Auty. They deny it but I believe it’s true.”

Last week Coun Auty told how he just failed to reach the 100 nominations needed to launch a leadership challenge, and that only two local party members backed him.

Mr Exley said: “The reason I didn’t sign Colin’s nomination was that I felt he was standing for the wrong reasons.

“If he was just standing for the leadership I would have signed but he was standing to force change. The only outcome would have been that Nick Griffin would have won by a big majority and would have a mandate.”

There have been claims that Mr Griffin runs the party in a “dictatorial” style and expelled those who disagreed with him.

Mr Exley said changes were needed in how the party was run nationally.

“Our management structure is geared up for a small party but we are not a small party anymore.

“Nick Griffin is, in my opinion, a brilliant politician but terrible at man-management. It has been said we are not democratic and we are a one-man dictatorship.

“I have spoken to Nick Griffin about this and put my signature to a letter from Kirklees BNP. We are not just having a gripe, we are making constructive criticisms.”

Mr Exley said he did not believe the BNP was in crisis but added: “Our local group has some serious problems and we need strong leadership.

“Our group has always been able to sort things out but all this has come about as a result of head office meddling. There’s no falling out within the group. It looks like there’s a massive split but that’s not the case.”

Mr Exley, who led the three-strong BNP group on Kirklees, hailed Coun Auty as “a bloody good councillor” who refused to toe the party line and stood up for local people.

“He was elected by the people of Dewsbury East and he is their voice. Why he wants to throw that away I don’t know.”

The Press

Discuss this post on the Unity anti-fascist forum.

Race-hate pair flee to US for political asylum

Two men convicted of publishing race-hate articles on the internet have skipped bail and fled to the United States to claim political asylum, the Yorkshire Post can reveal.

Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle were given bail by a judge at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, despite having been found guilty of a series of race-related offences. The pair were due to return to court on Monday while a jury continued deliberating over further charges, but they failed to show up.

Last night Sheppard, 51, and Whittle, 41, were being held by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport – outside the jurisdiction of the British court system.

It is believed that the pair travelled from the UK to Ireland by ferry before taking a direct flight to Los Angeles. They are likely to have their case considered at an immigration hearing in the US before UK authorities can secure their return.

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police, which led the race-hate investigation, said: "We are led to believe that they are indeed being detained by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) at Los Angeles Airport. They are in custody and we are in liaison with the INS to establish that this pair are our two men and, if so, what is likely to happen to them."

Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, was found guilty after a seven-week trial of 11 counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material. The jury gave unanimous verdicts on nine of the charges on Friday, and returned with two majority verdicts on Monday while Sheppard was absent.

Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, was convicted of five counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material. Four of the verdicts were reached unanimously on Friday, and the fifth was returned by a majority of 10 to one on Monday after Whittle had absconded.

The jury were unable to reach verdicts on seven further race-related charges which Sheppard faced. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said it had yet to decide whether Sheppard should be retried on the seven outstanding charges. It has 14 days to reach a decision.

The case is due to be considered further at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court on July 28.

Yorkshire Post

Dodgy duo disappear - or do they?

BPP associates Stephen Whittle and Simon Sheppard, found guilty last week on charges of publishing racially inflammatory material on Sheppard's Nazi-loving Heretical website, failed to appear at Leeds Crown Court yesterday to face further related charges.

Warrants were issued for the arrest of both men, who now face further charges of breaking bail.

Postings on the Nazi Stormfront under the nom de guerre of British Peoples Party women's section leader Kate McDermody lend currency to a story being touted on the internet that both men have fled to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, allegedly because TRN Cyprus is recognised only by Turkey and has no extradiditon treaty with the UK.

McDermody states: "Within an hour Sheppard's home was entered by the Police to enforce the warrant. One hour. Obviously by this point he was sunning himself on a beach", and :"Let's look this objectively - aeroplane tickets are booked and data stored on a database which is indubitably monitored intensely by the security services yet Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle (two men deemed guilty the day before) were STILL able to buy international travel tickets, remain on a database for a few hours and STILL flee the Country? I'm sorry but common sense dictates that in my opinion they could very easily have been intercepted but were not. Whoever overlooked their little jollies, thank you from every Nationalist in the World!"

In fact, McDermody repeats the same "fled the country" line so often (without confirming TRN Cyprus as the fugitives' destination) that it's beginning to look like a case not of "she doth protest too much" as "she confirms to often".

Other than in Nazi circles speculation as to the true whereabouts of Whittle and Sheppard is hardly at fever-pitch, but some anti-Nazi cynics smell a large rat, believing that both men remain in the UK and that the whole thing has been cooked up to propel their little reported case into the headlines in the hope of making "martyrs" of the pair and winning the tiny BPP (now run by dole-scrounging Nazi coward Kevin Watmough) national publicity.

Given McDermody's statements on Stormfront, it can't be very long before the police pay her a visit (they may already have done so), since with every word she posted on Stormfront she openly advertised her inside knowledge - a remarkably strange thing to do in the circumstances, unless she was deliberately inviting police attention.

More on this as we get it - and we don't think we'll be waiting too long.

The BNP's bad news week

Any pretence that the British National Party is anything other than a pale copy of the Nazi party it strenuously claims not to be ended with the pre-ordained expulsion of Roger Robertson (previous post), campaign manager for Councillor Colin Auty's doomed leadership bid.

Reflecting the attitude of the BNP to all normal concepts of justice, Robertson was told by the party that he would be expelled even before the rigged disciplinary tribunal set up to "try" him had met. He told the Hampshire Fleet News: "I’d already received an email previous to the tribunal saying I was going to be expelled from the party. The interesting thing is that I don’t feel at all disappointed that I’ve been expelled. The fact is that myself and many other like-minded people are being let down by the leader [Nick Griffin] and his sycophant coterie. He surrounds himself with yes men and people who simply obey his orders."

The online Get Hampshire website, reporting the story of local man Robertson's expulsion, included quotes from a widely circulated email believed by many to have been authored by the BNP's anti-semitic dope-smoking "legal advisor" Lee Barnes, which said: "Anyone who has already signed or is thinking of signing the nomination forms for Colin Auty will be suspended from party membership pending an internal disciplinary tribunal where members will be tried for conspiracy and treason. Those found guilty will be expelled from the party and proscribed for life."

As this fits in perfectly with public statements previously made by both Nick Griffin and Lee Barnes few saw any reason to doubt the email's authenticity, but Barnes - a known liar and manufacturer of numerous libels - sought to deny that the words were his, and threatened Get Hampshire with a libel suit if the statements attributed to him remained.

The threat was made by email and was as hollow as a previous threat made against the author of this article and the Lancaster Unity website, but Get Hampshire caved in and removed the entire article - giving Barnes one of the few (and undeserved) victories he has ever enjoyed.

In the meantime, Barnes was on the Nazi Stormfront in his Walk Towards The Light persona, saying: "Trying to get members to break away and form a splinter party, will get anyone kicked out of any political party."

As Robertson had not attempted to do this, and as he was never charged with doing so, Barnes was, as usual, lying - and rather confirming suspicions that he was indeed the author of the disputed email.

In the same Stormfront thread, Griffin mouthpiece Purging The Droid promised a purge of Griffin's opponents to come: "Leave the door open on your way out Mr. Todger [Robertson], there are others following not far behind you."

Robertson's expulsion was quickly followed by Colin Auty's resignation from the BNP and the announcement that he is to stand down as a Kirklees councillor.

From the moment Auty's intention to stand against Griffin for the BNP leadership was announced the Griffinite party machine swung into action to demean and belittle one of its most prominent councillors, and made barely veiled threats against those - such as Roger Robertson - who supported the challenge. "One official described me as a joke candidate," Auty told the Yorkshire Post. "It might sound funny coming from a BNP member, but I believe in democracy. The process was certainly not democratic."

The only real surprise is that Auty took so long to make the discovery.

It is evident that the BNP leadership, though loathing Auty, feared the damage he could do as a loose cannon outside the party, and it appears that last minute attempts were made to keep him on board, not least by Freedom editor Martin Wingfield.

Inexplicably, Wingfield opened a blog post with a nonsensical piece on how he sat down on Wednesday night with a glass of wine and listened to part-time musician Auty's racist "Savile Town" song three or four times. "Colin Auty is a brilliant nationalist musician and, as someone else in the business of winning people over to our cause, I know just what a potent message there is in his songs. Great stuff Colin, well done."

The cooing and billing had little effect, as by then Auty had made his decision.

Martin Wingfield is the author of the most meaningless spin-phrase ever invented by the Griffinites. "The BNP's quiet revolution" handily damps down electoral expectations while simultaneously conning BNP members into believing they are enjoying steady success, when, as the last round of local elections clearly indicated, the BNP enjoyed stagnation, steep reverse and very little by way of success.

Last Thursday's local by-election results were so appalling for the BNP that Wingfield could barely bring himself to comment on them, instead focussing on a short article appearing in the obscure Wiltshire Gazette & Herald newspaper, "Voters turn out in force to reject BNP", which was, according to Wingfield, a "shocking piece of journalism".

Not quite as shocking as the loss of one third of the BNP's vote in Wigan West, the loss of half of its vote in Kirklees Dalton, or the derisory 37 votes (1.4%) "achieved" by the party in Redbridge Cranbrook.

Cranbrook candidate Anthony Young whined afterwards, "If you were to ask me why we bothered to fight this time round I would have to reply that trying to understand what my party's leadership is thinking is like trying to read the mind of God", which drew the comment from BNP deputy-leader Simon Darby, "I would suggest that he won't be standing again."

Always quick to attribute the BNP's alleged successes to the leadership of Nick Griffin, the Griffinite cheerleaders were - as ever when bad news hits the party - notably reticent in coupling his name with these disasters.

In the space of a single week, then, the British National Party had a kangaroo court expel a well-known member on utterly bogus charges, seen one of its best-known councillors leave the party, and watched its vote plummet in the three by-elections it fought. Its only "victory" was that of the demented Lee Barnes in having a barely-read internet story taken down from a website.

Such is the BNP's "quiet revolution". Such is success, Nick Griffin style.

So goodbye, Roger Robertson

You won't last long in the political cesspit that is the BNP unless you get one thing right in your head straight away: you don't challenge Nick Griffin, understand?

'Cos if you do all kinds of nasty things are going to start happening to you - like your name will be trashed, your achievements will be belittled, Nick will forget every nice thing he ever said about you, and it won't matter a damn if you once chaired a BNP conference.

You'll be a gonner and no mistake.

So farewell to Roger Roberston, chief backer of Cllr Colin Auty's failed bid to challenge Nick Griffin for the leadership of the family business, found guilty of "subversion" by a BNP kangaroo court.

Now if Roger Robertson is guilty of subversion for backing Auty's half-baked challenge why is bottom-drawer election pundit and editor of BNP lie sheet Freedom Martin Wingfield cooing at Councillor Colin ("They don't see me as a Nick Griffin type") Auty on his blog - the one where Wingfield explains away the party's rotten election showings as the BNP's "quiet revolution"?

Right out of nowhere Wingfield starts a post by sending Colin a nice message that he loves the Composing Councillor's awful song Savile Town so much that he settled down one night and played it three or four times. Mind you, he was drinking wine at the time, so that probably explains it. Maybe the wine made Wingfield come over all gooey-eyed and forget all about Auty's treason in daring to oppose his mate Griffin, because he added:

Colin Auty is a brilliant nationalist musician and, as someone else in the business of winning people over to our cause, I know just what a potent message there is in his songs. Great stuff Colin, well done.

Aw, Colin, you're my bestest mate in all the world, you are.

So what's going on here? Auty's mate Robertson gets expelled for subversion amid the usual hyena cackling of the Griffin groupies but the main man himself is all right?

It smells fishier than Lowestoft quay.

Unless Wingfield is putting himself up for the bullet (unlikely) we reckon the word's gone out from on high to pull Colin back into the fold before he does some real damage, and Wingfield's doing his insincere bit.

It's called Divide and Rule. Last year Griffin pulled the same stunt after Christian Jackson's hamstrung leadership bid went down to rigged defeat, expelling main backer Mike Easter but leaving Jackson well alone.

The signal is easy to read - Nick daren't pick off the name who opposes him, so he'll go for the backroom boys, sending the message loud and clear to the entire BNP membership that if any one of them gets wonky ideas like Democracy into his head, Nick's going to stick that head on a pike.

It's the coward's way of doing business, and it's the only way Nick Griffin knows.

Out on the Nazi Stormfront the Griffin pack are in full cry over Robertson's expulsion, and it's very noticeable that none of the Regular Griffinite Suspects has a bad word to say about Councillor Colin - just like they were all singing from the same hymn-sheet. Kick Robertson while he's down is the order of the day - "kicking while he's down" being something most of the cowardly cabal have had a lot of practice at over the years.

One of them is possible Searchlight/State plant, lesbian dating site regular and dodger of flying soft drinks Sid Williamson, the moron who squealed that the police failed to protect him from "the poofters" when the SuperChav bravely showed up at Brighton Pride expecting to hurl insults from behind a couple of rows of Sussex's Finest - the same moron who encouraged his boys to confront Antifa at a BPP conference (read: drinking session) then left his boys in the lurch and had it away on his toes when Antifa stood their ground.

Also showing up is the Green Bigot, coward extraordinaire and lumpen liar - the BNP's least active member and loudest mouth, who turns up to accuse somebody showing support for Roger Robertson of being an infiltrator.

The Bigot, who visitors will remember only joined the BNP just before Christmas, has a long history of accusing nationalist veterans of being infiltrators and Reds, and prefers to do his campaigning from behind the anonimity of a keyboard, from where he presents himself as a man with a nationalist past (lies) and who is In The Know (more lies) - which is much safer than showing your face on the streets, eh, Bigot?

If a man (even one as secretive as the Bigot) is known by his friends, then who better to judge him by than his mate, fellow armchair nationalist and paranoid sniffer out of Reds, the equally useless and cowardly Brighton Rat?

A quick look at the Bigot's barely used forum tonight turned up a thread started by the Rat, 10 BNP activists hurt in clash with police. The Rat feverishly posted an extract, "At least ten people, including a journalist and BNP activists, were injured in clashes between the law enforcers and BNP activists", and linked to the story, which in his excitement he hadn't read.

There's real BNP brains for you.

The story was actually about the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which the Rat only belatedly discovered.

Being as stupid as they come (even in the BNP), though, the Rat smelled - a rat. "When I search for news on the BNP I get loads about the Bangladeshis boys and BNP Paribas. I think it's a conspiracy to confuse us and weaken the BNP 'brand'."

Well there you are. Of course. Naturally.

And since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and BNP Paribas both pre-date the British National Party by many years it's quite obvious that both were set up to deliberately confuse the would-be members of a would-be BNP should a party of that name ever come into existence.

Whew! What evil machinations are worked against the BNP! Even before the party ever set up shop "the conspiracy" was ready and waiting to whack it to the tiny mind of the Brighton Rat.

So, judging a man by his mates, we judge the Green Bigot to be terminally stupid.

But that's no worse than how Nick Griffin and his mates judge the BNP membership, who can be made to believe that a completely legal leadership challenge is somehow "subversive" and that anybody involved in it is "vermin", "thieves", "liars" and "cheats".

Yup, it takes a special kind of stupidity to join today's BNP. Ask the Bigot and the Rat.

Redwatch threatens to murder councillor after abusive BNP email published

BNP members have put John Taylor on Redwatch with a threat to kill him

Andrew Gatward, the BNP's West Lindsey organiser, is one of those bright sparks who would appear to have graduated from the Lee Barnes School of Charm with full honours and a special commendation for making vivid (or is that livid?) use of the imagination.

Back in December Gatward turned his coat to join Sadie Graham's hopeless band of rebels, but within days had turned it again to rejoin the Griffinite BNP fold, thus ably demonstrating the "unity, loyalty, and comradeship we all have in the BNP", of which he speaks below.

Exactly what Dukinfield Labour councillor John Taylor said or did to excite Gatward's considerable ire we do not know, but it was enough to cause Gatward to fire off a missive to Cllr Taylor that for sheer hatred and hysteria (not to mention appalling punctuation) is all BNP.

The following is taken verbatim from Cllr Taylor's Dukinfield Views blog, and as a poster on our forum notes, really requires no further elaboration:

A BNP regional organiser's mail to me. The real BNP at work

3 July 2008

From: AndrewGatward@aol.com
Date: 03/07/2008 09:54:41
To: jwt35@**********
Subject: Re: Welcome to my web site I am a labour councillor in Tameside for the Dukin...

have spoken with my mates in tameside, they dont know what your talking about...so the liar strikes again....you really are worthless to anything decent taylor...your illiterate, retarded, and must have suffered a very bad childhood...was it the sex with your mother thats upset you...and regarding the closure of your site dumbo...you say it your self in one of your latest posts...senile as well, but then so are the rest of your mob...get a life, and stop being jealous of the unity, loyalty, and comradeship we all have in the BNP, which i am sure you all long for in the Labour nazi's......and yes, you will be out your seat in no time, whether it be by BNP candidate, or Conservative, i don't really care at this stage...conservative can win all for me, as long as the Labour Hitlerites are removed.....your very very sad taylor, you need medical help, and I suggest you get it

Do you suffer from Illiterate BNP Email Syndrome? If so, do send them in (with headers) and we'll run the best of them as space allows.

Update: Redwatch threatens to murder councillor

BNP members have put John Taylor on Redwatch with a threat to kill him:

http://wagdukinfield.blogspot.com/2008/07/democrats-at-work-bnp-style.html

Democrats at work bnp style

-----Original Message-----
From: Anonymous [mailto:cripto@ecn.org]
Sent: 05 July 2008 20:25
To: John Taylor - COUNCILLOR
Subject: Redwatch

Congratulations, you're on Redwatch. I am going to take you out. Six .22
rounds in the back of your head should do the trick. I would bring my
.38 special but it makes one hell of a mess. I'll be seeing you.