Norfolk Unity

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2009-08-22T01:11:00.002+01:00

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The BNP will lose the argument

2009-08-21T14:12:00.003+01:00

It's not hard to intellectually undermine the far-right party – don't just dismiss its racist arguments, break them down

Last weekend the BNP's annual shindig, "Red, White and Blue", took place in a small town in Derbyshire. Reports said that there were actually fewer attendees than there were anti-fascist protesters outside the gate. Unfortunately, some of these anti-BNP protesters soon became violent – leading to 19 being arrested. Although it is good to see ordinary people protesting against the BNP, such protests become ineffective when they descend into heavy-handed violence. Just a week earlier, for example, violent clashes erupted between the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism in Birmingham, leading to bottles, sticks and banners thrown, and brought police in riot gear on to the streets. This ended up actually boosting the BNP after the Daily Mail and other papers ran full-page pictures of Asian youths attacking white protesters.

Violence is not the answer to countering the BNP. A paper I authored entitled In Defence of British Muslims: A response to BNP racist propaganda was released last week. Since about 2006 (particularly post-7/7), the BNP has consciously changed its rhetoric from being overtly anti-Asian, anti-black and anti-Jewish to being ardently anti-Muslim. My paper takes 10 of the key accusations made against Islam and British Muslims by the BNP and points out their intellectual inconsistencies and factual weaknesses. Rather than simply dismissing the BNP's ideology as racist or bigoted (an approach that the BNP's steady popularity proves is not working) or resorting to violence, there needs to be a greater focus on intellectually undermining it through a systematic deconstruction of its arguments.

This task is not particularly taxing. The BNP's arguments are easily undermined using proper statistics and historical and textual evidence. Nick Griffin's broad argument is that Islam is an "efficient imperialistic machine" with a "conscious and deliberate plan" to take over and Islamify Europe and install an Islamic state.

First, Islam is not a religion with a cunning master-plan for its adherents to emigrate with the intention of mass conversion. The Islamic concept of migration (hijrah) is to flee from religious persecution rather than a calculated drive for world domination. Second, Muslims constitute roughly 3.3% of Britain's entire population (according to government estimates in 2008). Despite population increases, is one of the greatest threats to the UK today really an impending Islamic takeover?

The BNP makes a significant proportion of its accusations on the basis of the impending Islamic state; one that will restrict individual freedoms and apply a literalistic form of Islamic penal code. These are arguments that Griffin has (knowingly) made on the basis of the ideas of a small minority of Islamists rather than the majority Muslim population; projecting extremist interpretations as representative of Islam in general. The BNP takes this even further, making the claim that Muslims support the tactics of jihadists: "The fifth characteristic of immigrant Muslim populations in all nations has been their widespread support for terrorism." This claim of "widespread support" is in fact based on a 9% figure taken from a 2006 NOP report, and is therefore both hyperbolic and factually inaccurate.

This is an intellectual battle that needs to take place at all levels of society. The specific allegations against Islam need to be refuted, at least in part, by Muslim communities themselves. Rather than extremist voices, the majority Muslim population needs to acquire the confidence to undermine the slurs being made against it and show that it will not be held to account for the actions of a minority faction of Islamist extremists.

This intellectual challenge also needs to be made by the British politicians who claim to represent the Muslim communities. The British MEPs' recent shunning of Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons in the European parliament is certainly a step in the right direction, but we also need a simultaneous breakdown of their arguments. Nick Clegg's description of the BNP as "a party of thugs" or David Cameron's statement that he was "sickened" by their EU election success will not alone persuade people not to vote BNP. Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, wrote in a foreword to the paper that "The political class has recoiled in shock and indignation following the BNP's recent electoral successes, yet has failed to confront the way they demonise British Muslims … because of this vacuum the BNP have been able to focus on an extremist Islamism as being representative of the views of all Muslims."

Finally, British society needs to start responding more thoughtfully to the views of the BNP. These issues are not limited to British Muslims. The BNP has not abandoned its sentiments towards other minority communities (its whites-only admission policy is under scrutiny by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission), and other minority groups must also stand up to such discrimination. Muslim communities should not face intolerance in isolation, but should be bolstered by the support of British society as a whole. Smear campaigns against BNP candidates who supposedly have "Nazi" written on their number-plates are insufficient. The BNP needs to be intellectually challenged by all who condemn concepts of racism, intolerance and segregation, and stand for a free and fair society in Britain.

Lucy James at Comment Is Free (hosted by The Guardian)

UAF back Birmingham United campaign

2009-08-20T00:03:00.000+01:00

The Stirrer's Birmingham United campaign to show the city's peaceful support for our cultural and racial diversity has won backing from Unite Against Fascism. Mike Wongsam, Chairperson West Midlands UAF explains why.

Twice in recent months, Birmingham has played host to racist protestors. Now there is a threat they will return again. How should the people of Birmingham respond?

Adrian Goldberg has suggested a "Birmingham United" event to give people of different colours and varying faiths a chance to show to the outside world the true face(s) of this great city. It is a great idea, and one that Unite Against Fascism will strongly support.

We think the best, and most effective, response to those who would spread hatred and division is for Birmingham to come together in a spirit of unity. Birmingham is a multi-cultural city and proud of it. We are one society and many cultures. Our diversity is one of the things that make this city special.

We do not want to see a repeat of the violence that broke out on August 8th. If the Birmingham United idea can be turned into reality it would be the best possible demonstration of our rejection of these hate-mongers, and the best possible assertion of the true face of Birmingham. It should be peaceful and united. It deserves the support of all of us.

The story of August 8th, though, should not be distorted. There is an attempt to paint anti-fascist protestors as "outsiders" and "trouble-makers", no different from the racist thugs who came to cause the trouble. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It was obvious to anyone who was there that the anti-fascist protestors were almost exclusively from Birmingham. Large numbers of young people assembled because they feel, rightly, that this is as much their city as anyone else's. And they were not prepared to turn the other cheek when repeatedly provoked by racist gangs hurling abuse.

The days when Black and Asian people felt they had to cross the road rather than risk a confrontation with racists are long gone.

Unite Against Fascism called the protest, responsibly negotiated with the police at all stages, and provided stewards. It is, however, asking a lot for volunteer stewards to achieve what the police were ultimately unable to do in the face of repeated racist provocations.

Those who think this anger can be whipped up by "outsiders" or those with a "political agenda" are deluding themselves. Many people assembled under the banner of UAF, but the truth is that the vast majority were not members of UAF, and most had arrived after hearing from friends that the "BNP" were coming to abuse Muslims in our city centre. In the age of the internet, news travels fast.

Repeated racist demonstrations will inevitably provoke a response. The anger that was felt by these young people cannot be turned on and off by anybody, and certainly not by UAF. But this risks creating a dangerous situation in our city centre. That is a challenge for all of us. And we all have a responsibility to do something positive to respond to it.

In his August 6 column in the Birmingham Mail, Adrian Goldberg said: "In the absence of a ban, it would be nice to see some forthright condemnation of this protest from figureheads in the church and politics, but I guess civic leadership is something we lack in Birmingham right now".

Quite right. It is not enough for us to bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away. All of us who oppose racism and fascism have to stand together and speak out against those would divide our city and inflame tensions.

Let us show that Birmingham really is united.

Join the Birmingham United Facebook group here.

The Stirrer

(Stirrer editor and Birmingham Mail columnist Adrian Goldberg also hosts a nightly phone-in show on TalkSport Radio, between 1 and 5 am.)

Three charged over racial taunt at BNP rally

2009-08-17T16:24:00.001+01:00

Three people have been charged with racially aggravated public order offences after a group heading to a far-right British National Party camp on Saturday taunted anti-racism protesters, police said.

Derbyshire police arrested 19 people during the mainly peaceful anti-BNP rally near a farm outside the village of Codnor where the BNP's Red, White and Blue festival was held over the weekend.

The three were among a group who crossed fields to get to the camp on foot under police escort as hundreds of demonstrators waving placards saying "the BNP is a Nazi party" blocked road access to the site.

The BNP, which campaigns to halt immigration and repatriate immigrants voluntarily, won its first two seats in the European Parliament in June.

Although it has no representatives in the British parliament, the party has won support from white voters angry about unemployment and access to public housing and other services during the worst recession in generations.

Reuters

BNP targets children as recruits for party's youth wing

2009-08-16T23:50:00.002+01:00

YBNP annual training camp 2008 - Mirror story
Inside the tent adorned with the Union Jack and St George’s flag, Peter and Anthony are on a recruiting drive.

They hand out leaflets telling potential converts that their organisation is not racist, merely “helping to resist the racist colonisation of Britain”.

Their table is scattered with postcards of young, white women draped in the Union Jack, holding placards with the reminder that “nationalism is for girls too”. The pair tell The Times that the British National Party is great for the country and that they are proud to support it.

However, they are unable to articulate why they are attracted to the far-right party, and they squirm in their seats when asked about their understanding of issues such as racism, nationalism and discrimination. They may be simply too young to appreciate such concepts: Anthony is 14 and Peter just 12 years old.

Nevertheless, the pair spent the weekend recruiting for the youth wing of the BNP at the party’s annual gathering in Derbyshire, which attracted several hundred families.

Peter, whose mother brought him to the event, said: “Young BNP is just about making sure that we are going to have a good place in the normal BNP when we’re older, and that’s what we want. It’s cool, we play lots of sports and stuff.” Several events at the Red, White and Blue Festival, which was picketed by protesters, were geared towards youth in what anti-fascist groups said was “disturbing indoctrination” and an attempt to create a new generation of nationalist sympathisers.

Young children’s faces were painted with the Union Jack and many sported BNP T-shirts and fake tattoos of crusaders and the St George’s flag. They were encouraged to throw wet sponges at a man in the stocks, who was dressed in Islamic clothing and wearing an Osama bin Laden mask.

Even infants were exposed to the nationalist cause, with toys and blow-up furniture in the children’s tent being decorated with the Union Jack.

Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, told The Times that the younger generation was “very important” for the future of the party. “We don’t think short-term, we think long-term,” he said.

Mr Darby denied that the party was indoctrinating youth: “We’re just pointing out another side of things — that it isn’t a good idea to completely destroy our own culture. We are making sure they know that white people aren’t inferior, because that’s what they are being taught in schools.”

However, anti-fascist groups whose blockade of the event, near Denby, resulted in 19 arrests after clashes with police, said that the BNP’s approach was “very dangerous”. Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said that the BNP was actively trying to recruit the young in a new drive because so many of its members were from older generations. “It’s really dangerous. They are trying to normalise their politics among young children. It is very concerning — do we really want this to be going on in our playgrounds?”

Alongside Peter and Anthony, Tristan Simekins, 18, had travelled from Corsham, Wiltshire, to recruit for the BNP’s student wing.

His leaflets explained that the movement provided advice to young people on dealing with “anti-white discrimination”. He said: “My problem is with the indoctrination of Islam. I admit not all Muslims are evil, but I feel Islam is.”

Times Online

RWB reports 2

2009-08-16T00:01:00.000+01:00

'Barack Obama' is put in stocks as festivities kick off at the BNP summer party

2009-08-15T22:26:00.000+01:00

The BNP have often denied being a racist party. But as a man dressed as U.S. president Barack Obama was put in stocks, the true colours of the party were clear for all to see.

The shocking scene was part of the BNP's annual Red, White and Blue festival which is taking place in Codnor, Derbyshire this weekend.

The rally, in its 10th year, has sparked widespread controversy and today protesters descended on the site to show their opposition. A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Police said a small number of arrests had been made near the village of Codnor as hundreds of demonstrators voiced their opposition to the festival.

'Those arrests were of protesters who had been acting unlawfully,' the spokeswoman said, adding that some of the demonstrators had gathered outside approved protest zones.

The main body of demonstrators, which is being monitored by police CCTV cameras, gathered in Codnor's Market Place and is expected to march to Codnor Denby Lane later. Campaign group Unite Against Fascism has joined forces with Midlands TUC and local protest group Amber Valley Campaign Against Racism and Fascism to bring hundreds of anti-fascist protesters to the area.

They plan to 'kettle' the rally today and have organised the protest march to the site of the festival and back again.

Kettling, also known as containment or corralling, is sometimes used by police and involves a large cordon to contain a crowd in a limited area. The move comes after an open letter was published yesterday on Unite Against Fascism's website, condemning the event. The letter, whose signatories include former London mayor Ken Livingstone, children's author Michael Rosen and trade union leaders, said the event's purpose was to 'build up a hardened neo-Nazi core at the centre of the organisation'.

It said: 'We condemn the BNP and its festival of race hate, and we urge people to reject this party's poisonous and anti-democratic agenda.'

This year is not the first time the festival has attracted opposition. Last year about 30 anti-BNP protesters were arrested after clashes with police. Derbyshire Police have planned a 'significant policing operation' throughout the three-day event, including restrictions on the planned protests.

Yesterday a American white supremacist was stopped from entering the country to attend the Red, White and Blue Festival.

Preston Wiginton, a close associate of BNP leader Nick Griffin, was turned away at Heathrow because officials believed his presence would stir up racial tension. There were suggestions he would be speaking at the event, but the BNP denied these rumours.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said Mr Wiginton, 44, was sent back to New York from Heathrow airport on Thursday.

The BNP's deputy leader Simon Darby said of Mr Wiginton: 'He came to last year's Red, White and Blue and was coming to this year's but they wouldn't let him in for some reason. He wasn't coming to speak.'

Mr Wiginton, a freshman student at Texas A & M university, wrote an essay in 2006 which described non-white immigration as 'an abnormal growth that is threatening the life of American culture and the life of American people'.

He said: 'If action is taken, and time is of the essence, this cancer can be eradicated.' If not, he added, 'the death of the American way of life, identity and sovereignty is certain.'

He is rumoured to spend half of the year living in a flat in Moscow that he sublets from a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. In October 2007 he organised and paid for Nick Griffin to speak at three American universities to coincide with Islam Awareness Week. As well as financing the trip he also appealed to members of Nazi internet forums to donate money to the BNP.

Later that year he organised a march in the Russian capital at which leading Nazis addressed a crowd of fascists shouting 'death to Jews' and 'glory to Russia.' He also spearheaded the support for Griffin during his trial for inciting racial hatred in 2006, and set up an online petition urging the British Government to drop the prosecution.

He regularly posts anti-Semitic messages on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront. One reads: 'And the Jew - how many nations and economies have they destroyed - yes they were doing this in many centuries ago as well. The Jew has infested every nation - there is no where else to go.'

Nick Lowles, editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said the decision to ban him was 'great news'. He added: 'He is one of the world's most extreme racists - this shows what the BNP are really like.'

Mail online

RWB reports 1

2009-08-15T12:21:00.001+01:00

BNP nazi guest barred from UK

2009-08-14T13:40:00.000+01:00

A white supremacist friend of Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, was banned from entering Britain yesterday as he headed to speak at the BNP’s Red White and Blue festival this weekend.

Preston Wiginton (left), one of the world’s most active nazis and antisemites, was refused entry by immigration officers at Heathrow airport under laws to keep out “undesirables”. He was to have been the star overseas guest at the BNP’s tenth RWB festival, which opens today in Derbyshire.

It was Wiginton, 44, who organised Griffin’s anti-Islam tour of three US universities at the end of October 2007. As well as financing the trip, Wiginton appealed to users of the Stormfront nazi internet forum to donate money to Griffin while he was in America.

Wiginton had been unknown in the UK before Griffin’s trip and it was Searchlight that exposed him and revealed his extensive nazi activities and connections. This was no doubt what brought him to the attention of the UK Border Agency.

Shortly after his tour Griffin wrote an open letter to “European Colleagues” endorsing Wiginton’s involvement in organising a march in Moscow at which leading nazis addressed a crowd of fascists giving the Nazi salute while shouting “death to the Jews” and “Pure Russia”.

Griffin praised Wiginton as a “very effective organiser [who], rarely among American nationalists, understands the importance of image and popular acceptability to all nationalist parties”. The letter explained that Wiginton “is very well connected in Russia, with good contacts with various nationalist organisations and elected politicians”. The organisations to which he refers are some of the most racist and murderous neo-nazi groups and skinhead gangs in Russia who have been responsible for dozens of racist murders.

Referring to Wiginton’s role in planning a “major march and rally” in Moscow Griffin continued “the BNP supports this endeavour wholeheartedly and asks all our European comrades to do likewise, hopefully thereby creating the beginnings of an effective cooperation between patriots of both Western and Orthodox Christendom against our common enemies: Mass immigration; radical Islamism; Western liberalism and Wall Street/White House dollar imperialism”. The language is typical of neo-nazis.

Griffin and Wiginton have collaborated for many years. Wiginton spearheaded US support for Griffin during his trial for inciting racial hatred, setting up an online petition calling on the British government to drop the prosecution. Together with Jamie Kelso of Stormfront, he also organised a protest outside the British consulate in Houston, Texas in January 2006.

Wiginton’s connections and activities are wide-ranging. He caused a furore at Texas A&M university some years ago by arranging a series of meetings for Frosty Wooldridge, a prominent opponent of immigration. The two men ran a joint campaign to repeal a 2001 Texas law that allows immigrants to pay the same reduced fees at state universities as Texas residents.

These days Wiginton works with the Texas chapter of the Minuteman Project, a group of would-be vigilantes who take violent exception to Mexican immigrants, or the “mestizo parasite” as he prefers to call them.

Kevin Strom, leader of the neo-nazi National Vanguard (NV), was another associate until his arrest on child pornography charges when Wiginton and Griffin dropped him like a ton of bricks. Wiginton boasts of being friends with perhaps the most famous NV member, April Gaede, mother of the nazi pop twins Prussian Blue. Their act is named after the chemical residue left by Zyklon B, the gas used to murder the Jews in the Nazi death camps.

Wiginton also has close ties to Denis Gerasimov, lead singer of the notorious Russian white power band Kolvorat (Swastika), for whom he wrote a racist ditty on how immigration is diluting the purity of Russia’s “blood” and “soil”.

Despite repeated denials to the contrary Wiginton regularly posts antisemitic vitriol to Stormfront to which he also donates money. A typical posting of his, on 13 July 2007, read: “And the jew – how many nations and economies have they destroyed – yes they were doing this in many centuries ago as well. The jew has infested every nation – there is no where else to go.”

That Griffin should invite this hardline nazi to help celebrate his election to the European Parliament at the BNP annual festival shows yet again that the BNP’s claim to legitimacy is just a pretence and that Griffin has not moved far from his fascist roots.

Searchlight/Hope not hate

Former BNP candidate charged over distribution of leaflets

2009-08-11T13:42:00.001+01:00

A former British National Party election candidate has been charged in connection with the distribution of leaflets which alleged Muslims were responsible for the heroin trade.

Anthony Bamber, 53, of Greenbank Street, Preston, Lancashire, is accused of incitement to commit religious hatred, police said.

The leaflet was distributed in Burnley and reportedly circulated in other parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire. It urged people to "heap condemnation" on Muslims and said it was time to "apologise" over its claims they were responsible for 95 per cent of the world's heroin trade.

A photograph of Rachel Whitear, 21, who was found dead at her flat in Exmouth, Devon, in May 2000, holding a syringe, accompanied the literature.

A Lancashire Police spokeswoman said: "Following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service a 53-year-old man from Preston has been charged in connection with an investigation into the distribution of leaflets in Lancashire which claim Muslims are responsible for the heroin trade."

Bamber, who stood for the BNP at local elections in Preston in 2006, will appear at Preston Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Three other men, all from East Lancashire, arrested as part of the investigation were told by police last month they would not face charges over the matter.

Supporters of the BNP, including party leader Nick Griffin, demonstrated outside the police station in Burnley last November following the dawn raid arrests.

Lancashire Telegraph

Far-right group, the English Defence League, in disarray after Birmingham fracas

2009-08-10T15:48:00.001+01:00

A rightwing group, which has promised a summer of demonstrations against British Muslims, was in disarray today after its first significant protest ended in violence and 35 arrests.

The English Defence League staged a march near the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham this weekend but its small band of supporters was drastically outnumbered by anti-fascist campaigners and riot police. The protest ended in violent skirmishes and running battles through the city’s busy shopping streets on Saturday evening.

Members of the League resorted to bitter in-fighting today as supporters labelled the organisers “ridiculous” and the event a “shambles”.

At least three people were injured as hundreds of police, some in full riot gear, broke up fights between anti-Islamic protesters and anti-fascist groups who came to disrupt the demonstration. At one point officers were forced to seal off New Street with a steel barrier.

Emily Bridgewater, who was shopping when violence broke out, told the Birmingham Post: “It kicked off very suddenly and there was stampeding and screaming.

“We ended up being herded into Primark, where they brought the shutters down to protect us. It was very frightening.”

The League publicised its demonstration in the weeks leading up to the march and claimed that another would be held in Luton on August Bank Holiday weekend.

Despite efforts to promote the event, fewer than 100 were thought to have gathered. Left-wing groups including Unite Against Fascism were alerted to the march and were able to organise a counter demonstration.

One member of the League’s online forum, registered as Adder, wrote: “I support you guys but yesterday was a shambles and you made us English look like an embarrassment. What exactly happened to supposed 'In the high hundreds' who were supposed to turn up? I saw the video and it seemed like there was barely 70 of you.

“Holding it such a high profile public place, ridiculous idea [sic]. That's just asking for normal civilians minding their own business to get attacked.”

Neil Edy, another member of the website, said: “I went to the march ... the turn out to the event wasnt good enuf only a few of us were there supporting the cause.”

Another sympathiser, calling himself Bill, said that he had not been able to find the others: “We were in the City most the afternoon, but then left as we had no one to contact and meet with, and we werent the only ones.”

Despite the failure of the first large event, the League insists it will continue to hold demonstrations. Comments on the group’s website, and the affiliated football hooliganism site Casuals United said that the next one would be bigger.

One message on the Casuals United site read: “We will arrange it via the Inner Circles secret forums, so we will arrive unnanounced and neither the police or the scum will know any details.”

Some members may find it more difficult to travel to future demonstrations after West Midlands Police said that they were studying footage of the violence and would consider applying for injunctions against troublemakers.

A police spokesman explained that the English Defence League had not informed local police of their intension to march but said that officers had no power to prevent a demonstration.

The English Defence League claim not to be a racist group and say that they have no ties with the British National Party. One of the websites linked to the League is believed to have been set up by a known BNP member, but that has now been taken down in an apparent attempt to conceal any link.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, insisted that there was no link with the group. He said: “It’s a potentially very dangerous development. I understand it mainly comes from Luton ... which is a tinderbox.”

The group, which organises events on its website and through a Facebook group with 198 members, plans to hold its next large official gatherings in Harrow and Luton in August and then in Manchester in October.

The Times

Police ready for clashes at British National Party festival

2009-08-10T00:40:00.000+01:00

Police are to conduct a huge security operation in a Derbyshire village this week amid fears of clashes at an annual British National Party gathering.

Eighty coachloads of anti-Fascists are to protest over the Red, White and Blue festival in Denby, which is likely to attract thousands of supporters next weekend. Up to a thousand police officers will be stationed in the village. There was violence last year and greater disruption is expected this time. It is the BNP’s first mass gathering since it won two European seats in June.

Lee Barron, a trade union organiser of the protest, said that a peaceful march was planned and that violent protesters should stay away.

The BNP advertises its festival as a family event involving historical re-enactments, Morris dancing and a dog show. However, previously there have been complaints by local people about skinheads with vicious dogs descending on their village and playing tapes of Third Reich martial tunes.

Police officers have been granted special powers across the four-day event, which begins on Friday, to prevent more than 20 people gathering in certain areas of the village, among other restrictions.

Residents asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution for speaking out against the BNP, but told The Times that the party was not welcome. One said: “It is a place of warmth and tolerance and we don’t want to be associated with these people.”

Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, denied that the location of the festival was inappropriate and said that the presence of two BNP representatives on the local council showed that the party had support. “We’d have the same problems wherever we had it. Its the Left that are causing all the problems,” Mr Darby said.

Weyman Bennett, of the Unite Against Fascism group, said that the BNP rally would be a “magnet for Fascists and neo-Nazis from across Europe”. Mr Bennett said: “We want to make sure that there is opposition.”

The festival, in its tenth year, was moved from Lancashire to Denby three years ago. It will be held on a 34-acre property owned by Alan Warner, a local BNP member.

Times Online

Birmingham city centre protests: Riot police arrest thirty-three people

2009-08-09T07:12:00.000+01:00

Riot police made 33 arrests tonight as they fought running battles with rival protesters as racial tensions spilled over on the streets of Birmingham.

Two people were injured as violence broke out in the city centre between a right-wing group campaigning against Muslim extremists and anti-fascists. The rivals had held vocal but peaceful protests in separate parts of the city centre until trouble flared in New Street just before 7pm.

Terrified shoppers cowered in Primark and Saturday night revellers fled in panic as hundreds of police, some clad in full riot gear, struggled to keep the peace. As our dramatic pictures show, at one point a man shields his head as he lies prone on the ground while a young thug attempts to kick him in the face. Another photograph appears to show a middle-aged man throwing a punch as he is confronted by another man as tensions reach boiling point.

By 8.30pm police had restored order, but tensions remained high. A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘‘We can confirm 33 arrests have been made to date the majority for disorder. To date there has been one report of criminal damage to a car, although we expect further reports. We have also had reports of two people being injured and no known injuries to police officers. A high visibility policing presence continues. A post operation investigation has now commenced into any criminality that took place during this afternoon’s protests.’’

The unrest flared after a group called Casuals United organised the city centre demonstration against Islamic fundamentalists. The group rumoured to have links to the English and Welsh Defence League and the far-right BNP were formed after radical Muslims caused outrage by protesting against returning British troops in Luton earlier this year.

But Unite Against Fascism organised a rival rally after claiming the Casuals are made up of hardcore soccer hooligans intent on causing racial unrest. Their protest took place next to Birmingham’s Bullring, while the Casuals gathered outside the council house in Victoria Square.

It us unclear what sparked the disorder, but riot police were soon involved in a large number of incidents and at one point they were forced to seal off New Street with a steel barrier. Other officers were seen running ran across Corporation Street, desperately trying to keep the opposing sets of protesters apart.

Scared shoppers fled in all directions as chaos and confusion descended on the city centre. Emily Bridgewater was buying clothes in Primark on New Street when violence broke out. She said: "Everything seemed fine until suddenly it all kicked off outside and there was stampeding and screaming. We ended up being locked in Primark, the shutters came down and the alarms went off as the riot police tried to regain control of the street. It was very frightening."

Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood condemned those involved in the disorder. The Labour MP had previously called for the Casuals rally to be banned after the Sunday Mercury first revealed the plans. He said: "I predicted this would happen when the Casuals announced their protest. Lots of innocent people, children and families, could have been hurt in this idiotic incident and I wholeheartedly condemn both sides for taking part in these scenes which have brought shame on Birmingham.

"I condemn the Casuals for organising their protest and inciting this fighting but I equally condemn the anti-fascist campaigners who rose to the bait. People have a democratic right to protest. But perhaps in future West Midlands police should look at holding sensitive demonstrations on separate days. That way they might avoid the scenes which have blighted our city centre tonight."

A West Midlands Police spokesman said the force had been aware of the planned rally by the Casuals but no formal request to march had been received. He said: ‘‘An additional counter protest also took place in the city centre by Unite Against Fascism. West Midlands Police has been in talks with leaders of this organisation and they have fully co-operated with police throughout the planning stages for this event.’’

Sunday Mercury

Barnbrook a non-person?

2009-08-08T18:58:00.005+01:00

Just a few days before his hearing before the Standards Board and a week before the BNP's annual Derbyshire love-in for racists news has been reaching us that the party's much lauded Greater London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook is in deep trouble with the paranoic British National Party leadership.

In Orwellian moves typical of Nick Griffin and his Stalinist style of leadership the BNP has ceased making positive mentions of the man who, until the election of Griffin and ex-Nazi Andrew Brons to the European Parliament, had been the BNP's most prominent elected politician, and - more ominously - has removed a link to Barnbrook's blog from the main BNP website.

In fact the blog has disappeared altogether, replaced with a photo of Barnbrook captioned with the sinister words "Under reconstruction".

Since Griffin's election to the Euro Parliament a cabal of Griffin yes-men has been put in place to run the party during the leader's frequent absences, and it appears there has been widespread resentment at the influence of these lackies, who include the idiotic Mark Collett and shady South African emigre and former spook Arthur Kemp.

There is also on-going disquiet that yet again the party is to be fined for failure to file its accounts on time, internal BNP financial practices that give rise to suspicions of fraud, and - last but not least - some of the more savvy members have finally worked out that despite the lucky chance that saw Griffin and Brons elected to Europe, the party's performance was dismal in both the European and County Council elections.

This was driven home when the Griffin-selected candidate for the Norwich North by-election, the fake "reverend" Robert West, scraped only a morale destroying 2.7% of the vote, and in three notable local by-elections in recent weeks where its vote plummeted by a half to two thirds.

Richard Barnbrook seems to have become associated with BNP dissidents who believe that Griffin should step aside from the leadership, and his punishment (so far) seems to be that of being made persona non grata.

Griffin runs the BNP with the same degree of paranoia that he once ran the National Front, divisions and purges following the man around like a dog on a lead. Making Barnbrook a non-person could be the harbinger to yet another round of Griffin-inspired expulsions, but we doubt that Barnbrook himself will be touched unless a plausible excuse can be found to sell his departure to the gullible BNP membership.

We are, though, expecting the fun to begin at regional and branch level very soon as Griffin's men identify and isolate the dissenters.

Dispersal orders issued ahead of anti-Muslim demo

2009-08-07T01:46:00.000+01:00

Anti Muslim protestors and their anti fascist counterparts planning to gather in Birmingam on Saturday will be greeted by draconian dispersal orders, warning them that the police can move on any gathering of two people or more if they believe they have good cause.

There has been no advance publicity about the decision to invoke the powers, which are presumably based on anti-terror legislation, but warning notices have already started appearing on lamposts around the city centre. The powers will also remain "live" for several weeks after the event.

The threat to the civil liberties of ordinary peace-loving Brummies is being compromised, it seems, to allow a group of far-right rabble rousers to have a march on the busiest shopping day of the week - a privilege recently denied to pro-Palestinian marchers protesting against Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Free speech is of course a precious right - but the police also have the job of upholding the law which, last time we looked, forbids incitement to racial hatred.

West Midlands Police were unavailable for comment last night.

The Stirrer

Far-right talks up violence threat

2009-08-04T10:11:00.002+01:00

Far right groups staging a demo against Muslim “extremism” in Birmingham on Saturday are already talking up the prospect of violence – no doubt hoping that it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A previous demo in the city last month was organised by the English and Welsh Defence League, who had links to the BNP – while spokesman Paul Ray argued in a radio interview that all devout Muslims are “at war with our country”.

He's now taking a backseat in organising the campaign, having passed the mantle to a group called Casuals United who describe themselves as “ex football lads united against extremists”.

They claim not to be racists or Nazis, but their site talks unashamedly about “removing Islam”. The group also says it’s liaising with West Midlands police about a march from the Bull Ring to the “council offices”.

The choice of date of their visit may or may not be coincidental (the eighth of the eighth has been linked to the eighth letter of the alphabet, giving the initials HH for ‘Heil Hitler’) but in any event it spells trouble for Brum.

One posting on the racist Stormfront website yesterday, talks up the prospect of aggro. It says: “This could well be the turning point, if it all descends into violence we must not lose, our future depends on it!

“They will not be up for a bout of 'fisty cuffs', they will be armed. So be prepared (how 'prepared' is up to you).

”Have your cameras ready, as when the police come wading in on OUR PEOPLE, you need to film the severe beatings they dish out, and also the grace with which they treat the opposition. This could prove priceless later!

”Suggest that a splinter group meet outside Zavvi's at 5pm and 'introduce themselves whole heartedly' to the reds, before the reds have the luxery [sic] of police (liebour stormtrooper) protection.”

There have been suggestions that Muslim youths and anti-fascist protestors might be on hand to provide a “welcoming committee” – which would no doubt be just what these agitators would want.

The question now has to be asked whether the right to free speech is outweighed by the threat to public safety and the likelihood of disorder in a city which is proud of its multi-racial heritage.

The Stirrer

Woman who intimidated Asian mother was BNP member despite councillor's denial

2009-08-03T16:16:00.001+01:00

When a woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was branded a ‘BNP mum’ by the media, Councillor Paul Golding made a video vigorously claiming she had never been a member of his party. However, News Shopper has discovered she was registered as a member of the British National Party - under a different name.

The Daily Mirror said Gravesend resident Helen Forster was a member of the BNP after she was found guilty of intimidating her Asian neighbour in May. In response, Paul Golding, councillor for the St Mary’s ward of Swanley, made a video in which he claimed the reports were “outrageous lies”.

The video [above] was posted on the BNP website and YouTube. In the video, Cllr Golding said Forster "is not a member of the British National Party and she never has been". He added: “I contacted our membership department and asked them to check all of our records going back many years and she is not on there whatsoever. I spoke to Andy McBride, the south east regional organiser, and he said that no-one in the whole region had ever heard of her.”

Cllr Golding went to Forster’s home in Park Place and interviewed her on her doorstep, and she too called the reports “lies”. The 32-year-old said: “I was not a paid member, I was just a graphic designer. I produced leaflets.”

However, a woman named Helen Colclough, of the same address as Helen Forster, was registered as a member and activist for the BNP. Last week a Kent Police spokeswoman confirmed that Helen Forster and Helen Colclough are, in fact, the same person.

The video was made as part of Cllr Golding’s Operation Fightback campaign, which aims to expose so-called media lies. But when he was asked to explain why his video on Forster contained a lie, he said he could not comment. After conferring with the BNP legal team, he told us: “I was told data protection stroke litigation rules mean I cannot say anything about the story.”

Following his election in February, Cllr Golding’s political career was brought into question when details of a family member’s criminal past were exposed. His brother Jamie has been convicted of stealing cars and committing more than 150 burglaries in the Bexley and Kent area.

Last Monday (July 27), Forster pleaded guilty to common assault and perverting the course of justice at Maidstone Crown Court. She has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on September 7. The charges relate to an incident in Fort Gardens, Gravesend, on May 23. In May she was given a 10-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of intimidating her neighbour Meherjan Miah, a 30-year-old mother of four. The court heard Forster had encouraged children to throw eggs and fire an air gun at Mrs Miah’s home.

News Shopper

Far right launch campaign of violence and intimidation against opponents

2009-08-03T00:25:00.000+01:00

Aryan Martyrs' Brigade issues death threat against anti-fascism activist Weyman Bennett, while student attacked after BNP protest

Far-right activists have launched a campaign of intimidation and violence against political opponents including a series of death threats and physical attacks.

Hardline fascists are targeting students and leading anti-racism activists who campaigned against the British National party in June's European elections.

A group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs' Brigade has issued threats including a "death warrant" sent to Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, stating he will be killed before the end of the year "for crimes against all loyal white patriots and British nationalists".

The threat, which the police are investigating and has a picture of Bennett in cross hairs, states: "We know exactly what you look like and what venues you frequent and can strike at will. The police, special branch, MI5, Searchlight cannot save you from the bullets coming your way. No matter where you are, we will get you, all we need is a lock on your mobile phone signal and you are one dead nigger."

Others have received threatening emails and at least one prominent activist was attacked after his picture appeared on an extreme rightwing website that was taken during protests against the BNP.

"There has definitely been an upsurge in attacks and intimidation since the European elections," said Bennett. "The fringe rightwing groups appeared to be on their best behaviour when the BNP were campaigning but once the election was over they seem to be trying to take their revenge on those of us who were prominent in the anti-fascist campaign."

The increase in rightwing violence comes after Scotland Yard admitted it was deploying more resources to monitor far-right extremists amid fears of a terrorist attack. Commander Shaun Sawyer told a meeting organised by the Muslim Safety Forum last month that there was a growing threat from the far right.

"I fear they will have a spectacular …they will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere," he said.

Sawyer added that more specialist officers needed to be deployed to counter the threat from far-right groups.

Bennett, who has received threats in the past, has been told by the police to take the latest death threat more seriously.

"Standing up against people like the BNP you do sometimes get verbal threats and intimidation but this appears to be more serious," he said. "I don't intend to stop organising anti-racism events or confronting the fascists in the BNP but something like this does make me think more about my personal security."

One of the people who has been assaulted in recent weeks is Gary McNally, who helped organise a Love Music Hate Racism festival in Stoke-on-Trent in May. After the European elections, when the BNP gained two MEPs, the 23-year-old attended a protest outside a meeting in Blackpool. Several photographs of the student appeared on the extremist Redwatch website, which is understood to be linked to the Aryan Martyrs' Brigade, alongside the slogan "Remember places, traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes". A few days later McNally was attacked.

"I was about 200 yards from my house and I felt something smash against my face and I heard the words, 'You are a disgrace to your country,' and I saw a pair of shoes as I fell to the ground," he said.

McNally, a student at Staffordshire University, was taken to hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises to his face and head.

"After I had been hit I thought I had gone blind in my left eye. The attack has left me very scared – the BNP put on this respectable front but I suppose this is the reality of what happens if you publicly stand up and disagree with them."

Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP, said the attacks and threats had nothing to do with the party.

"It is rather ironic that they are complaining about being attacked when they use similar tactics themselves," he added.

The Guardian

BNP in a Hitler rant row

2009-08-02T18:37:00.003+01:00

British National Party backers have been accused of launching a phone campaign of Nazi abuse against anti-fascist campaigners.

Anti-racist group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) claim BNP supporters are deluging activists with sinister phone messages. They say the threatening calls have included a man growling “Heil Hitler” down the phone, a recording of Bavarian-style German marching music and a pro-BNP rant.

All the activists targeted are involved in a planned picket of the BNP’s annual Red White and Blue festival in Codnor, Derbyshire, on August 15.

The far-right party denies sympathising with Hitler’s Nazis – despite leader Nick Griffin having a conviction for inciting racial hatred by denying the Holocaust.

UAF activist “Tim” said: “I got a message saying, ‘We are the BNP’, while others contain a Hitler speech.”

BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “Nobody would ring people up and play that down the phone.”

Daily Star

Demonstrate against the racist and violent BNP in Liverpool on August 5th

2009-08-02T13:17:00.000+01:00

Click on image for full-size, then right-click and
'Save As' to save it for printing and circulating

The fascist British National Party have called on their members to support Peter Tierney, BNP lowlife and local ‘businessman’, who is on trial on August 5th. Tierney is charged with assault, following an attack on an anti-fascist protester in April.

Let’s show the BNP that we won’t tolerate their racism and violence in Liverpool or anywhere else.

Tell your friends and let’s have a really big turnout on August 5th.

Stand up to fascism.
Join us on August 5th

A hot August?

2009-08-01T11:02:00.001+01:00

In February 2001 senior British National Party officers and activists from the North West gathered in Oldham for a regional conference. The local organiser greeted them with the words “welcome to Oldham, the front line of the race war”.

The words were ominous. By May Oldham was burning after racist provocations and attacks drove a des-pairing Asian community onto the streets to defend itself. Two months later Bradford was ablaze. The scenario was the same: goad and abuse people in the streets, in their homes and shops, and sooner or later they will defend themselves.

Those arrested from the local Asian community were treated harshly and with some haste. Despite the firm evidence of involvement of the BNP and other nazis, racists and football thugs, justice was dealt out to them much later. The convictions upheld what we had been saying all along: a conspiracy involving disparate sections of the far right but led mostly by known BNP activists, who had helped plan and orchestrate the “race war”.

Despite continued pronouncements from Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, about a coming “civil war” (race war), the authorities have been looking in only one direction for terrorist threats. Until last year they failed to wake up to the ample evidence of far-right efforts to set this country ablaze this summer, unchanged by the BNP’s European success.

The BNP’s declared enemies, Muslim communities, are the target. And the BNP has had a growing influence on other far-right extremists who want a war in our streets against not only Muslims but anyone of Asian origin.

Many of those responding to the call of several different groups looking for a fight with Islam are unaware of who is jerking their strings. Unless the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) intervene directly, there is a danger of serious violence spreading across the country this month and beyond.

The accompanying diagram focuses on some of the key groups and players to whom officers of the BNP are offering political and physical assistance. The BNP will not be able to wriggle off the hook, but action after the event is not good enough; prevention is needed.

Two outbreaks of violence in Luton earlier this year wrong-footed the police. The situation was not helped by the failure of the local council to ask for Home Office intervention. As a result the police have stepped up infiltration and disruption of some of the key groups.

The far right were looking for a catalyst for action and found it on 10 March as troops from the Royal Anglian Regiment, known as “The “Poachers”, were to be welcomed home from Afghanistan with a parade through the streets of Luton.

Eight members of a Muslim extremist group, already disowned by the local Muslim community and told to stay away from the Luton mosque, put on an appalling display of hatred towards the troops, calling them child killers and butchers.

It would have been no problem for the large number of police stewarding the local people who had turned out to greet the troops to arrest these fanatics for race hate offences. Instead two people ended up being assaulted by the angry crowd. Only one was one of the Islamists – a former local leader of the fanatical al-Muhajiroun group. The other victim was the former mayor of Luton, a Sikh who was there to greet the troops.

Paul Ray, a Dunstable-based Islamophobe who blogs under the name “Lionheart”, applied for local authority permission to stage a St George’s day parade but was turned down. However he had already attracted the attention of the BNP and a series of anti-Islam groups including the United British Alliance (UBA) and March for England (MFE), both of which had been visible outside the notorious Finsbury Park mosque when Abu Hamza, the terrorist-linked extremist preacher and his followers had seized control.

After Abu Hamza was expelled from the building, he would preach hate to his followers in the street every Friday, until he was imprisoned in May 2004, and the UBA and MFE would turn up to jeer. These encounters were overwhelmingly non-violent, except when the National Front (NF) turned up and were driven away by the UBA and MFE.

The UBA and MFE appeared to draw large numbers of young men including some black people and even a couple of Jewish football supporters from Surrey. Many were former soldiers and former football hooligans. They were frighten-ingly disciplined. Hundreds marched to the Regents Park mosque in that period.

While these largely overlapping groups have kept up an internet presence, it was not until the events of 10 March in Luton that they suddenly reappeared on the streets.

Denied the opportunity to heat things up in the name of St George, Ray was attracting interest from Chris Renton, a BNP activist from Weston-super-Mare, and several other BNP activists from around the country including Marlene Guest from Rotherham, whose main claim to fame is her statement in Sky TV’s BNP Wives programme that some good had come out of the Holocaust in the form of dentistry and plastic surgery.

Tom Holmes, the NF leader, called on his troops to turn out against Islam at the earliest opportunity, which came on Easter Monday, 13 April, when the police decided to stop the progress of an anti-Islam demonstration in Luton.

The police struggled with a large crowd and even the use of horses did not disperse them. They included familiar faces from the pro-nazi football crews from the time when the nazi terror group Combat 18 was active in the 1990s. Only when police reinforcements from London arrived were they able to disperse the demonstrators.

Separate from the MFE and UBA are the English and Welsh Defence League (EWDL) and Casuals United, run by the Welsh football hooligan Jeff Marsh. They all used to work together until recently when Ray turned against Dave Smeeton, leader of the MFE.

On 24 May the EWDL produced a bigger turnout with football hooligan support for a march that had been given the green light by Luton Council and the Bedfordshire Police. The result was a disgrace as Islamophobes, hooligans and fascists broke away from the local marchers and tried to storm the Muslim area of Luton. Shops and cars were damaged and 150 young Muslims prepared to fight to safeguard their homes and families. It was beginning ominously to look like the fascists were achieving their aim of a repeat of the Oldham and Bradford riots.

In the run-up to 24 May Luton mosque had been the target of an arson attack.

At this point these various groups decided to spread their message of hate to other parts of the country.

Now there were signs that police infiltration was succeeding. A call to march through central London evaporated after intelligence was passed to the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist command SO15. Then a mysterious figure called Dave Shaw called for EWDL supporters to gather at a Wetherspoon’s pub near Trafalgar Square on 27 June to go on to an activity outside the East London mosque in Whitechapel. Only a few turned up to be greeted by a large police presence and no sign of Shaw.

The EWDL began to realise it was a police sting operation and most of them decided to go drinking in Convent Garden instead. The police told the rest they could go to Whitechapel but only with a massive escort. Reports suggest that only eight to ten made it and were filmed, photographed, shoved around and told to behave on the tube journey.

The following weekend, on 4 July, the EWDL picketed a “Life under the Shari’ah” Islamic road show in Wood Green, north London, organised by the Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary, to find the police clamping down on both them and the Islamists.

On the same day the EWDL staged a voluble protest in Birmingham’s Bull Ring “against muslim extremists that interrupted a British soldier’s funeral”. Again prompt police action prevented any real trouble.

One of the nazis present was Mike Heaton, “Wigan Mike”, the violent leader of the small but crazy British Freedom Fighters, not deterred by being charged with racial hatred after his arrest outside the BNP victory rally in Blackpool in June.

The Islamophobes intend to return to Birmingham for a “march against sharia law” on 8 August. The date was fixed for before the start of the Midlands football season. Luton Town plays its first match on that day but the demonstration starts at 6pm, giving fans plenty of time to get there.

Interest in going to Birmingham may be growing. One Luton Town supporter noted that the EWDL had recently changed its booking from a 25-seat to a 52-seat bus. One nazi noted how it was the eighth day of the eighth month which, for nazis, translates as the eighth letter of the alphabet: “HH” or “Heil Hitler”.

Three whites from the extreme left in Birmingham have tried to recruit and incite Muslim teenagers to respond by taking to the streets with racially abusive language and slogans. Perhaps two political extremes are seeking confrontation in the city.

Now Martyn Page, the Hitler-saluting treasurer of the BNP’s Broxtowe group, is organising forces intent on setting the country ablaze, offering to bring in some heavy lads from his area. The target is Luton and the date is 30 August.

Searchlight

Electoral Commission to fine BNP - again

2009-07-31T12:05:00.000+01:00

From the Electoral Commission website, July 29th:

Regulatory Action

The British National Party and the party’s Regional Accounting Unit were both granted an extension to the deadline for submitting their statements of accounts. Both have failed to deliver their accounts within the extended deadline so the party will be fined a minimum of £500 and the accounting unit will be fined a minimum £100, this figure will increase if the accounts are more than three months late.

Peter Wardle Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission said: “Political parties play a crucial part in our democracy. But, now more than ever, voters need to be confident that party funding is transparent and that parties will comply with the law.

“While we are disappointed that the British National Party and its accounting unit have failed to submit their accounts on time, I’m glad to see that the majority of the large parties and accounting units have understood the need to ensure their accounts are submitted to us by the deadline set. Transparency about party finances is one of the key factors that can help public confidence in politics.”

In May, the Commission published the financial accounts of 281 political parties and 483 accounting units whose gross income and total expenditure were each £250,000 or less. Accounting units with income and expenditure that are both £25,000 or under are not required to submit their accounts.

The Commission has published a comparison of the parties’ gross annual income and total expenditure from 2003 to 2008. This is available on our website.

The Commission is currently reviewing all the accounts submitted. Where this review suggests that there may have been any breaches of the law we will raise this with the parties and where necessary use our regulatory powers.

Electoral Commission

Burnley BNP councillor tried to defraud insurance company

2009-07-31T12:04:00.000+01:00

A serving Burnley councillor could face criminal charges after a civil court judge ruled he tried to defraud an insurance company.

Coun. Derek Dawson, the British National Party councillor for Gannow, made a claim against Zurich Insurance which would have initially been worth up to £30,000. The claim related to an accident in 2003 at Zurich customer Mr Stephen Hargreaves' house in Whalley, where it was alleged Coun. Dawson's severely fractured ankle was caused by a ladder being knocked onto his leg by a car driven by Mr Hargreaves.

As it was a civil trial no punishment was handed down by the court, but Zurich was granted permission to pursue Dawson and Hargreaves for Contempt of Court proceedings through the Attorney General. If successful, this will attract a criminal penalty.

But Burnley's BNP leader Coun. Sharon Wilkinson defended Coun. Dawson, calling him "an excellent councillor" and even questioned whether the judge was influenced by Dawson's "political persuasion".

During the case, which began last year before starting again this month, Deputy Circuit Judge John Morgan heard evidence at Burnley County Court, which proved the fracture was caused by Dawson falling off a ladder rather than Hargreaves' car knocking the ladder onto him.

Coun. Wilkinson said: "At the start of the case, the judge was made aware Derek was a BNP councillor. He then chose to believe the evidence of Zurich's expert engineer and not Derek's expert engineer as to how his injuries were caused. Whether the judge was influenced by Derek's political persuasion we can only speculate. Derek is an excellent councillor and I don't think this will affect his position."

But Burnley Council leader, Coun. Gordon Birtwistle called for Coun. Dawson's resignation saying: "Any councillor that attempts to commit fraud is not a fit and proper person to be a councillor."

Mr Stephen Langton, representing Hargreaves, appealed against the judge's decision, which was not granted. Mr Langton and Mr James Hurd, representing Dawson, also appealed against the imposition of court costs, but again the judge found in favour of Zurich. The costs, which are expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds, will be decided later.

Mr Simon McCann, representing Zurich, argued: "Dawson and Hargreaves colluded together to defraud Zurich. Fraudsters should not benefit."

Mr Scott Clayton, claims fraud and investigations manager for Zurich, said: "Fraud is something we take very seriously as this case shows. Unfortunately, some people will go to great lengths to secure financial gain. We challenge fraud because the costs in challenging these cases are spiralling at the expense of the honest customer."

Burnley Express

La Mesa Man Convicted Of Making Threats Against Obama Online

2009-07-29T21:02:00.002+01:00

A La Mesa man who posted racially charged comments on Yahoo about killing Barack Obama during the presidential campaign was convicted today of making threats against a major candidate for president.

Walter Bagdasarian - who was indicted in January - faces up to five years in federal prison when he is sentenced Oct. 26 by U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff. The judge found Bagdasarian guilty on two counts after an hourlong bench trial in which no witnesses were presented. The 47-year-old defendant - who is free on $100,000 bail - left the courtroom without speaking to reporters.

In finding Bagdasarian guilty, Huff said the defendant's Internet postings last Oct. 22 were intended as a threat when they were written. Others who were reading Bagdasarian's writings told him that law enforcement was monitoring the Web site and one reader even told him that he was going to report him, the judge noted.

The writings were subsequently reported to the Secret Service, which tracked them to Bagdasarian's home computer, which was in his wife's name.

Bagdasarian used the computer to post threatening messages on a Yahoo Finance message board, including one that read, "He will have a 50 cal in the head soon," and 20 minutes later posted a message that read "Shoot the n-------," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cole.

The defendant also sent e-mail messages containing a link to a YouTube video depicting a vehicle exploding after being hit by a round from a firearm, the prosecutor said. "The defendant admitted that he posted the statement(s) on his home computer," Cole told the judge. "When people make threats, things happen."

During a search of the defendant's home, agents found six weapons, including a .50-caliber rifle, Cole said.

Defense attorney Ezekiel Cortez argued unsuccessfully that Bagdasarian was drunk when he posted the comments in a political discussion chat room last Oct. 22. The attorney said the original comments were made about midnight or 1 a.m., then Bagdasarian came back on the computer at 8 a.m. and said he was drunk hours earlier.

KFMB-TV

Norfolk Unity asks - if US law enforcement can take action against these racist fruitloops what's stopping the British police from doing the same?

BNP mother-of-three admits assault

2009-07-29T20:54:00.000+01:00

A mother-of-three who has previously claimed to be a member of the British National Party (BNP) has pleaded guilty to common assault and perverting the course of justice. Helen Forster (see here and here for more info), of Park Place, Gravesend, admitted the charges at Maidstone Crown Court on July 27.

The 32-year-old, who has previously stated she has produced leaflets for the party, has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on September 7.

The two charges relate to an incident in Fort Gardens, Gravesend, on May 23. In May, Forster was given a 10-month suspended sentence at Maidstone Crown Court after being convicted of intimidation. In this case, the court had heard she had encouraged a group of children to throw eggs and fire an airgun at the home of her neighbour Meherjan Miah, who lives there with her young children.

News Shopper

BNP leader extends sick pledge to capsize refugee boats

2009-07-28T17:33:00.001+01:00

When I came face to face with BNP leader Nick Griffin on his first day at the European Parliament in Strasbourg I thought he might find urgent business elsewhere in the building.

After all, this was a rare occasion when he didn't have burly minders at his side to intimidate interviewers who dare ask awkward questions. And he would have been only too well aware of the Mirror's anti-BNP Hope not Hate campaign in the run-up to the European elections. But, in fairness to Griffin, he was only too happy to air his views on, for example, global warming ("a man-made myth").

I gave him an opportunity to back down on his comment that Europe should sink boats transporting illegal immigrants from the coast of North Africa.

"Do you regret making that statement?" I asked.

True to form Griffin replied that he only had one regret: that he did not extend his murderous scheme to vessels transporting refugees to those in the Adriatic and Atlantic. It was exactly the kind of nakedly racist response that makes it impossible to take seriously the BNP's claims to being proper politicial contenders.

I would bet that Griffin would not have considered Save The Children's recent report into the condition of youngsters trying to get from Libya into Italy. Had he done so he would notice that most of the children on the barely seaworthy boats being turned back from Europe have fled war in countries like Somalia and Eritrea.

As Fosca Nomis, spokesperson for Save the Children, said: "Many of the children on the boats from Libya had been forced to travel thousands of miles, often alone, to escape conflict and poverty in countries such as Somalia, Eritrea and Nigeria. In ten months we received over 2,000 children entitled to receive protection in Italy. They were often exhausted, hungry, severely dehydrated and terrified after the journey. Many children have recounted harrowing stories, of rape and of having to see dead family members thrown out of the boat.

"Many of the child migrants had been locked up in adult detention centres before boarding the boats for Italy, and we are afraid they may be returned there when they arrive in Libya. Conditions are notoriously bad. Human rights organisations have persistently reported allegations of torture and ill-treatment at the centres in a country which has not signed the Geneva Refugee Convention."

This is the kind of inconvenient truth that gets in the way of Griffin's deliberately controversial - but totally hollow - soundbites.

Mirror

Griffin finds his roots - emotional family reunion

2009-07-27T14:33:00.002+01:00

BNP warning to public - "If we duff you up it's your fault"

2009-07-26T17:14:00.002+01:00

BNP shut door on White Van Man

2009-07-26T10:25:00.000+01:00

Gipsy-bashing bosses of the British National Party have had to ban the mobile homes and caravans of their OWN supporters from their summer festival.

They had hoped to encourage scores of far-right campers to attend next month’s Red, White and Blue jamboree in the Derbyshire village of Denby. But their plans have been scuppered by local fears about traffic, noise and disruption.

So BNP chiefs have had to warn off travelling fans. And that could hit attendance at the event as the party has been particularly keen to bring in supporters from all over Europe.

A spokesman for Amber Valley Council said: “The council’s chief executive is responding to complaints from residents after last year’s event. “They were about the number of caravans on the site giving rise to traffic and noise issues. He is asking the council to apply for an injunction to prevent caravans entering the site because of concerns that planning and caravan legislation will be breached.”

Last year, revellers clashed with anti-fascists protesting at the event. Riot police with shields and visors used batons and police dogs to control the mayhem as residents in the quiet village cowered in their homes.

BNP leader Nick Griffin, 50, has described regular travelling people as “anti-social and criminal” – although it has been revealed that he is descended from gipsies himself.

Daily Star

Woeful West walloped!

2009-07-24T14:57:00.007+01:00

Norwich North voters gave a two fingered salute to the BNP and its bogus vicar in yesterday's hard fought by-election, rewarding the racist party with a deposit-losing 2.7% of the vote - putting the "reverend" Robert West in seventh place, behind Craig Murray, the "Honest Man" candidate.

The full result from the Press Association:

Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, +6.29%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, +9.45%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, +7.08%)
Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48%, -0.17%)
Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)
Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)
Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.10%)
Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)

C maj 7,348 (21.37%)
16.49% swing Lab to C
Electorate 75,124; Turnout 34,377 (45.76%, -15.33%)
2005: Lab maj 5,459 (11.61%) - Turnout 47,033 (61.09%)
Gibson (Lab) 21,097 (44.86%); Tumbridge (C) 15,638 (33.25%); Whitmore (LD) 7,616 (16.19%); Holmes (Green) 1,252 (2.66%); Youles (UKIP) 1,122 (2.39%); Holden (Ind) 308 (0.65%)

The BNP realised that it was in for a drubbing in Norwich North some time ago, and though it announced its intention to stand the dodgy West in a blaze of hype that saw excitable BNP members predict their first MP, it quickly became obvious the party's campaign was firmly stuck in some very deep mud.

The party attempted to stir disharmony in the constituency by falsely claiming that African immigrants were being housed ahead of locals in Norwich, and West became a figure of ridicule as doubts about his status as a "reverend" surfaced and dogged him throughout the campaign.

Realising the party was on a hiding to nothing the BNP stopped mentioning the by-election, and national support for West was not forthcoming. Planned visits to Norwich by BNP Euro MEPs Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were shelved so as not to taint the pair with the impending disaster, and the puny Norfolk BNP organisation was left to sink or swim on its own.

It sank - and how!

The BNP's dismal Norwich North result falls into a clear pattern that has emerged since the heat of the Parliamentary expenses scandal has abated. In three significant local by-elections the racist party has seen its share of the vote tumble.

Last week in Nuneaton Arbury and Stockingford (Warwickshire County Council) - a division the BNP thought it could win - their vote share crashed by 11% as two thirds of those who had voted for the racist party in June deserted them.

Yesterday, in Reddish North (Stockport), the BNP vote share fell by 6.6% as more than half their votes evaporated - bad news for Nick Griffin, as Stockport falls within his North West Euro-region constituency. And in Dormanstown (Redcar-Cleveland) the BNP again managed to lose more than half its votes, its share again down by 6%.

As we saw in June, despite Nick Griffin's claim that the expenses scandal and disquiet at the scale of immigration amounted to a "perfect storm" for the BNP, the party managed to increase its vote by only 1.6%, and only disgusted stay-at-home Labour voters allowed him and Andrew Brons to win their Euro seats.

Griffin's lucky success was the only thing disguising what was a disastrous election for the BNP given the circumstances in which it took place. In fact it's pretty obvious that had the expenses scandal not broken when it did then the BNP vote would have fallen, with the happy result that Griffin's alleged electoral Midas Touch would have been exposed for the self-serving fiction it always was, and that with nothing to show for all the money, time and effort expended by the BNP in June the party would now be looking at its all too fallible leader in a very different light.

The Norwich North result shows that the BNP will never achieve power in the only place that matters - Westminster - and their disastrous vote losses in recent local by-elections give a true picture of the situation viz-a-viz the electorate and the BNP. Whichever way the BNP wants to look at it that picture is one of utter electoral failure.

Finally, we should like to mention the tireless anti-fascist campaigners of HOPE not hate and other organisations, and thank them for their unstinting efforts in getting out the truth of Robert West and the BNP in Norwich North. And to our list of people to thank we'd like to add Nick Griffin MEP, for providing us with the sitting duck candidate that was the ropey "reverend" Robert West. We couldn't have chosen better ourselves.

Report by Atreus (in his living room) and Denise Garside (by email from Berchtesgaden!)

Who do you think you are kidding...?

2009-07-23T15:46:00.004+01:00

On the trail of the BNP as it makes its first, shambolic appearance at the European Parliament in Strasbourg

It is a humid July day in Strasbourg, and inside the Louise Weiss Building it feels like the start of school term. Journalists and politicians, assembled for the opening session of the European Parliament, are greeting each other like old friends outside the main debating chamber, known in a typical piece of EU jargon as the Hemicycle. Here, in the glass and pine atrium of this imposing cylindrical edifice - Britain's signature contribution to which is a garish floral carpet in the staff bar that bears more than a hint of cross-Channel ferry - you might spot Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the ex-revolutionary French Green and the closest thing the EU has to a pop star, strolling around with his entourage of admirers. Or Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), as he lambasts the rise of "the European military superpower" in front of assembled TV cameras. The atmosphere here, compared to Westminster, is open and collegiate.

Hidden away, however, at the end of a winding corridor on the top floor of an adjoining administrative block, a strange meeting is taking place. Convened by Andreas Mölzer of Austria's immigrant-hating Freedom Party, it is a meeting of the non-inscrits, the "non-attached" MEPs, from parties that have failed to make it into one of the mainstream coalitions. Aside from a few mavericks, such as Diane Dodds of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, this means the far right - including two of Britain's new crop of MEPs: Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons of the British National Party. Although the BNP is not a traditional fascist party or Nazi organisation, its constitution commits it to "restoring . . . the overwhelmingly white make-up of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948".

Earlier in the day, having travelled across France by car, Brons and Griffin had commanded the attention of the British press corps when they made their first, tentative appearance at the Hemicycle. Now they are due at a more furtive gathering. I remove my bright yellow press badge, slip it into my pocket, and watch an international assembly of bigots file into the conference room: Krisztina Morvai of Jobbik, the gypsy-hating Hungarian party with its own private, uniformed militia; the French Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National, along with his daughter Marine; assorted podgy members of Belgium's Flemish Interest and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom, both of which are anti-Islam.

Then, ambling down the corridor, come Griffin and Brons, accompanied by Simon Darby, the BNP's press officer, Jackie Griffin (wife of Nick) and a large minder in an ill-fitting suit. Outside the conference chamber stand a few men and women wearing tourist passes and speaking in French. One of them, barely out of his teens, clutches copies of a magazine titled Identitaires. This is the in-house magazine of the French sect Bloc Identitaire, which runs a Europe-wide "news" agency called Novopress that distributes far-right propaganda. Griffin walks up and shakes his hand. "We've met before, haven't we?" he says. They make slightly awkward conversation, the young man explaining that his group has "a good relationship" with the Front National. Griffin makes a vague offer to help get the magazine translated into English - "for those of us who are interested in identity", he says, sighing. They then follow the remaining members into the conference room.

The collection of oddballs on the other side of the door is the dirty secret of the European Parliament. In the family of nations that the parliament supposedly represents, the far right has long been the foul-mouthed elderly relative. In a way, Britain has simply caught up with the rest of Europe, which has grudgingly accepted the presence of a few extremists as part of the proportional representation electoral system.

But it is also part of a more disturbing narrative. Lívia Járóka, a Hungarian MEP of Roma origin, is particularly concerned at the support gained by Jobbik, which came third in her country's elections. "[Jobbik's success] has a lot to do with the current economic crisis. People feel very unsafe, so they are ready to accept answers with no real base in fact." She feels the best way to challenge their arguments is to confront them directly. "Rather than ignore the far right, we should try to show that what they are claiming is complete empty propaganda."

Little more than a month since the BNP was elected, its victory looks decidedly hollow. Its negotiations with other far-right parties, conducted at the parliament's other base in Brussels over the past month, have failed to round up enough allies to form an official coalition of MEPs. As a result, they have been denied any extra funding beyond the standard salary (a generous £63,000) and staffing allowance, nor will they have access to any influential positions, such as committee chair or vice-president of the parliament. At most, they will be able to obtain seats on parliamentary committees and use them as a platform to make grandstanding statements - assuming anyone is still listening in six months' time. Griffin, who believes climate change is "bollocks", has already got a seat on the environment committee.

While the BNP and its closest allies remain isolated, however, there has been a wider shift to the right since their electoral successes in June, and some ultranationalist elements have managed to insinuate themselves into the mainstream. This is largely thanks to the actions of two British parties - the Conservatives and Ukip.

Under the direction of David Cameron, the Tories quit the centre-right European People's Party to form a new, Eurosceptic coalition, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Their main partner is Poland's socially conservative Law and Justice party, which has a well-documented record of anti-gay rhetoric. Its leader in the European Parliament, Michal Kaminski, was a member of the far-right, anti-Semitic National Revival of Poland in the late 1980s. In 2001, the US-based Anti-Defamation League accused him of having attempted to stop the commemoration of a wartime pogrom against Jewish people in the Polish town of Jedwabne. Despite this, the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan this month described Kaminski on his blog for the Daily Telegraph as "a Thatcherite: a sturdy Polish patriot who is nonetheless, in outlook, almost a British Tory".

Not all of Hannan's colleagues share this view. Edward McMillan-Scott, a committed pro- European Tory MEP of 25 years, respected across the political divide, was expelled from the Tory group on 15 July when he stood against Kaminski in an election for vice-president of the parliament, and won. Kaminski was the ECR's official candidate for one of the EU's 12 vice-presidential posts, which are divided between the coalitions in what parliamentary insiders cheerfully refer to as a "stitch-up". EU etiquette frowns on MEPs who rock the boat by opposing members of their own coalitions.

Describing himself to me as a "loyal Tory", who spent the 1980s working in Poland with reformist groups, McMillan-Scott regrets going against the wishes of his party, but says he was compelled to do so by what he calls "the rise of respectable fascism" in Europe. He sees the alliance as a grave setback for Cameron's attempts to decontaminate the Conservative brand. "This is where the modern Conservative Party has to tread very carefully," McMillan-Scott tells me. "David Cameron has done a remarkable job in repositioning the party on most things. Its attitude to gays, or the environment, for example, has fundamentally changed. There's just the question of these links [to right-wing extremists in Europe] and one can't close one's mind to it."

To the Labour MEP Michael Cashman, this shows a lack of leadership on Cameron's part. "It suggests that Cameron is unable to control his MEPs and has shifted them where they want to go, which is further to the right."

Ukip's new friends are even more unsavoury. The party's major partner in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, formed at the beginning of this month, is Italy's Lega Nord, which, despite being part of Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition at home, wants autonomy for northern Italy and has a track record of xenophobic and anti-gay statements. Other members of the group - described by Searchlight's Europe correspondent Graeme Atkinson as a "far-right-lite" coalition - include Greek and Slovak extreme nationalists. Nikki Sinclaire, Ukip's first openly lesbian MEP, concedes to having "reservations" about her new allies. "All the parties [of Freedom and Democracy] have signed up to a statement saying they oppose all forms of discrimination. But it is difficult. I think this is going to evolve over the next couple of months."

The Freedom and Democracy coalition is in part a shrewd move to block the more extreme far-right parties, such as the BNP, from forming a coalition - Lega Nord was initially touted as a possible partner for the BNP. However, it creates a potentially more toxic alternative. Most of the British MEPs are now in alliances with extreme conservatives, with whom they will be seeking a common position on a range of issues, from equality legislation to the Convention on Human Rights.

Labour, meanwhile, faces severe problems. The party has only 13 MEPs left in the parliament - level with Ukip. The corresponding drop in funding (which is allocated according to the number of MEPs elected) has led to redundancies among auxiliary staff. Yet, despite the BNP's electoral success being largely down to a collapse in the Labour vote - even if most core Labour voters wouldn't dream of supporting the BNP, they helped it by staying away from the polls - none of the Labour MEPs I spoke to was willing to look beyond short-term causes. I suggested to Cashman, a former EastEnders actor who now represents the West Midlands, that Labour had lost the support of its working-class base. "Bullshit. The ascent of the BNP, along with the ascent of Ukip, can be traced directly to the timing of the Westminster expenses scandal," he said.

Richard Corbett, who lost his seat in Yorkshire and the Humber, where the BNP's Brons was elected, narrows it down even more. "The final nail in the coffin was Hazel Blears resigning [from the cabinet] the day before the election. It was a kick in the teeth to thousands of volunteers in the party and caused maximum damage - in our case, the difference was only a few thousand votes, so she really made that difference."

The damage now extends beyond the Labour Party. Griffin, Brons and their European allies may have failed to form an official grouping, but they share a strategy of trying to play down the overtly racist rhetoric and to influence mainstream debate. "We are treated like pariahs," Marine Le Pen tells me when I ask her what the Front National has in common with the BNP. "The traditional parties try to give us a completely warped image."

I eventually meet Griffin an hour or so after the majority of Britain's 72 MEPs have gathered for a drinks reception hosted by Glenys Kinnock, Britain's Europe minister. Griffin and Brons were pointedly not invited. The snub evidently hurt: throughout the opening week of parliament, journalists were treated to Griffin's witty riposte: "I would not want to share a drink with Glenys Kinnock. She is a political prostitute, simple as that."

Despite fears that the BNP would try to gatecrash the party, Griffin and Brons stayed away. Instead, they returned for a few hours to their "reasonably priced" hotel on the edge of the city, a low-budget dormitory surrounded by decrepit industrial buildings, where Jobbik's Krisztina Morvai also stayed.

When we meet in a busy lobby back at the parliament, the pair come across as rather shambolic. Brons, a retired teacher who used to be in the National Front, burbles along in conversation, quoting de Tocqueville and Voltaire. Griffin has a gift for the soundbite but in longer conversations tends to stare at the floor and rant circuitously. I get lost for a while during a passionate discourse on the genetic similarities of human beings to chimpanzees - and why this means we're all bound to kill each other one day unless we maintain ethnic purity. What is interesting about his language is the way in which he manipulates the fears of a declining 21st-century industrial society. He talks of shadowy "global businesspeople" (as opposed to a global financial system), presents human cultures as endangered species (rather than as products of our collective activities), and refers to the apocalyptic threat of peak oil (but not, as we know, climate change).

The suggestion that Britain has benefited from immigration is dismissed as "self-hating racism", but to avoid accusations of racism on his own part, Griffin takes cultural relativism to an extreme. He deplores the "Islamification of Britain", but says Muslims are free to behave as they like "in their own countries. We don't have a right to interfere". Indeed, in his maiden speech, given during a parliamentary debate on Iran, Griffin appeared to defend President Ahmadinejad's regime, describing the pro-democracy protests as a cover for "a third illegal and counterproductive attack by the west on the Muslim world".

Although the BNP's view of society makes no class distinctions, Griffin appeals to "working-class Britons" when it suits him. One word that crops up repeatedly in his analyses is "elite" - as in "the EU is an elite project which has no connection with reality". The other place I notice the use of the word that day is in an email to members of the BNP's mailing list, purporting to come from a "Chairman Nick Griffin MEP". It offers readers a chance to make a donation and become a "Gold member". "Gold members are the 'elite' of the Party," the email says. "They go that extra mile and quite rightly display their Gold membership badge with pride at Party meetings and events." The badge "also makes a superb addition to any type of clothing, whether a suit or casual".

Despite his party's commitment to British withdrawal from the EU, Griffin tries to strike a conciliatory tone. "We're going to engage here, because although we believe Britain should be withdrawn, you can't have this many people together and not come up sometimes with something that is actually a good idea."

I had had an insight the previous day into the far right's idea of what it means to "engage" at the meeting of non-inscrits, the aim of which was to nominate one group member who could speak on behalf of the others at official engagements. Waiting outside the meeting, I listened as the murmured voices became louder and more strained. Then a row erupted. It went on and on. A posh English voice filled the corridor, followed by the smoker's rasp of Marine Le Pen, and then that of her father, shouting in French. Le Pen Sr yelled at the chair of the meeting: "You are a civil servant! I am an elected representative!" The chair replied: "Monsieur, if you carry on like this then I will have to close the session."

Soon after that, the voices stopped. A group of interpreters exited from a side door, laughing. As they passed, I heard one say to the others, mockingly, "And they say dictatorship would be a bad idea . . .".

New Statesman

Racist BNP teenager pushed girl, 14, to the brink of suicide

2009-07-23T07:43:00.001+01:00

A teenage BNP supporter who drove a classmate to the brink of suicide has been convicted of racial harassment in a landmark legal case

The youth, 15, subjected his female victim to months of racist abuse, on one occasion telling her: 'Go back to your own country, you don't belong here.' A court heard the 14-year-old girl - who had already moved schools once to avoid racist abuse - was also called 'wog, c**n, n****r, gorilla and golliwog' by her tormentor. He taunted her with chants of 'white, white, white is right, kick them out, fight, fight, fight' - taken from a film about football hooliganism.

But the girl feared reporting the abuse would make him become violent and instead suffered in silence, the court was told.

The victim, who has mixed white English and black African heritage, endured the abuse for four months before she attempted suicide in January this year. A source close to the case said the teenager, who, like his victim, cannot be named for legal reasons, was a BNP supporter who had actively tried to enlist other youths.

Raymond Wildsmith, prosecuting, told Lincoln Youth Court the insults happened 'again and again and again' - anything up to four times a week.

But the girl only revealed her torment after she tried to kill herself. She took a mixture of stress pills and painkillers in January before writing a note telling her family that she did not want a 'sad funeral'. Giving evidence by video link, the girl told a police officer the abuse made her 'want to die'.

She added: 'I wanted to die because of everything that was happening at school. I thought, "Do I want to do this?" And then I thought, "Yes, I don't want to be here".

Last night, her mother described her daughter's tormentor as 'evil'. She said: 'He seemed to mimic everything his father did and became a ringleader of a violent set of boys at the school.' She told how her daughter left a suicide note requesting that nobody wore black at her funeral. She said: 'My world fell apart. I had no idea that there was anything wrong with her. At home she put on a brave face and seemed totally normal.'

The teenager was hospitalised and then sectioned in a psychiatric hospital for several weeks. She has been out of school virtually ever since but is due to start at a new school in a different part of the country in September.

The mother reported the girl's ordeal to the school and police, but said she had a 'long hard fight to get justice for my daughter'. She added: 'When I first informed the school, they as good as called me a liar. I then had a long battle convincing the police to take this seriously. They were desperately slow and interviewed 25 people before they seemed to appreciate the seriousness of it.' The court was told that the girl had only been in the Lincoln area for a year before the abuse started.

Her 15-year-old tormentor, who denied the charge, was convicted of racially aggravated harassment. He will be sentenced on August 13. A second 15-year-old was cleared of the same charge.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it was the first successful prosecution of a schoolchild for racial abuse in the UK.

Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for Lincolnshire said: 'We would like to thank the victim for her courage in coming forward and strongly encourage other young people in the same situation to report to the police when they have been targets of campaign of racial bullying.'

Daily Mail

BNP get police to arrest socialists

2009-07-23T00:36:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday 14 July I was arrested, along with two other Socialist Party members, on alleged public order offences following a complaint made by local members of the fascist-led British National Party

The BNP's allegations were entirely without substance, and were a poor attempt at intimidation. The complaint related to campaigning on Saturday 30 May, when we were running a stall in Wrexham town centre.

We were promoting the No2EU-Yes to Democracy European election challenge and campaigning against the BNP. We had spent two hours campaigning prior to the local BNP mob arriving and setting up a stall a few yards away from us.

The BNP outnumbered us, but we did not rise to their deliberate attempts to provoke us. A member of the BNP approached us and made a number of racist comments, while another BNP member filmed us for several hours.

Arrests

One Socialist Party member was arrested at his home on 14 July at around 9am. I went to the police station of my own accord at around midday, where I was arrested. The third Socialist Party member went to the station after finishing work at 5pm, and he was also arrested.

We were detained for up to two hours each. We were asked to provide a statement, and then subsequently to provide fingerprints and DNA, and we were photographed. We also spent time in the 'custody suites'.

North Wales Police (NWP) treated us courteously, and the arresting officer behaved in a very professional manner. Nonetheless, the police had no evidence whatsoever, which leaves the question of why NWP chose to arrest us for what was evidently a fabricated charge.

We were bailed unconditionally, to appear back at Wrexham police station in August. The following morning we were contacted by the arresting officer, who advised us that there would be no further action.

We had to spend a fair amount of time in custody, and our DNA will be retained for 12 years, despite not being charged.

We were told that we had been arrested because NWP had a duty to investigate the complaint, and that the only way in which the police could investigate was to arrest us. It is not acceptable for the police to detain socialists and anti-fascists simply for campaigning against the BNP.

Dylan Roberts, Wrexham Socialist Party

The Socialist via Left Wing Criminologist

UKIP sleazeballs attempt to manipulate HOPE not hate

2009-07-22T13:59:00.002+01:00

It's no great secret that even by UKIP's standards their Norfolk outfit is a bit more right wing and a lot more ready to flirt with racism than is the norm for the anti-EU party.

From the start UKIP's local operation has made its dislike of HOPE not hate and other antifascist campaigns clear as crystal.

We witnessed their behaviour towards HnH campaigners outside Norwich City Hall hustings last Thursday, their refusal to take leaflets, and their aggressive attitudes when their Norwich North candidate Glenn Tingle was asked the simple question: "Have you ever at any time been associated in any way with the National Front?"

As usual Tingle refused to answer.

At the hustings UKIP brazenly used the organisation's Turkish descended youth wing vice-chair Yasin Akgun to smear HOPE not hate in a question claiming HnH was responsible for pelting BNP leader Nick Griffin with eggs. Unfortunately for Akgun, none of the Norwich North candidates thought that badly of the idea - only Glenn Tingle, who used the opportunity to attack HOPE not hate, knowing full well that Griffin's eggciting adventure was at the hands of the UAF, not HnH.

Since then UKIP has been claiming that their headquarters have been targetted by HOPE not hate campaigners, a claim which is - like most of UKIP's failing Norwich North campaign - one big fat lie.

Today they're claiming that HOPE not hate have been out with their spray cans, and sprayed the message "UKIP a bunch of nazi's" signed by "Hope not Hate" on a wall in Norwich.

Conveniently, a UKIP member just happened to be walking past, spotted the message and started raising hell.

Norfolk Unity isn't as constrained as HOPE not hate in what it can say publicly, so I'll spell out what's going on here.

The BNP can kiss goodbye to any hope of a decent result in Norwich. We know it and they know it - that's why they've stopped reporting it on their website and why they haven't bothered mobilising their members to support the bogus "reverend" West and his moribund campaign. But UKIP have been expecting great things in Norwich, and as the canvass resturns are showing, it's just not happening.

We're not saying Tingle will do that badly, but Norwich North isn't going to be the stellar breakthrough they thought it was going to be.

They're desperate, and the closer we get to polling day the more desperate they've become - so they hit on the idea of smearing themselves at the expense of HOPE not hate and the BNP.

Put simply they're generating a last minute opportunity to put themselves in the local newspapers with a story that they're not Nazis like the BNP (though it's hard to tell the difference, from their campaign literature and statements). They get to distance themselves from the BNP, mop up a few more votes from the BNP and attack the organisation they really loath - HOPE not hate. They also hoped to manipulate HnH into blaming the BNP for the fictional anti-UKIP campaign, which would have done UKIP no harm at all.

That's what it's all about.

For the record, HOPE not hate campaigning has been aimed squarely at the BNP, despite UKIP's fantasies.

Only two dishonest parties are campaigning in Norwich North, UKIP and the BNP. Steer clear of them both when you cast your vote tomorrow.

BNP supporters 'beat man who clashed with Griffin'

2009-07-22T02:18:00.001+01:00

Supporters of the British National Party were accused last night of operating like "a private army" after they set upon a man who poured a drink on the group's leader.

David Drew MP told the House of Commons last night that a "totally upstanding" constituent was given "one hell of a hiding" by BNP supporters.

He said the attack took place as Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP who was last month elected as a Member of the European Parliament, was visiting Painswick, Gloucestershire. "I don't know why he was wined and dined in my constituency in Painswick but he was," Mr Drew said. "It just so happens that one of my constituents took offence at this and happened to spill some beer over Mr Griffin. As a result of this he was given one hell of a hiding."

The MP for Stroud added: "I am not prepared to accept that any politician has a private army. I am not prepared to have the BNP anywhere near my constituency. But I hope that we will look at the actions of the BNP."

He told the Commons that he knew the victim, whom he said he was proud to be associated with, but that an arrest and charges were unlikely to be made because the constituent was too shocked to pursue it. "That's just indicative of what the BNP is like," the MP said.

The Deputy Commons Leader Barbara Keeley said the allegation of the attack was a "serious thing".

The attack is alleged to have taken place on 11 July at the Falcon pub in Painswick after the constituent, a teenager, waited outside and threw a pint of Guinness over the BNP leader.

A spokesman for the BNP dismissed the claims made in Parliament as, "just another MP trying to make a bit of political capital out of this". He said that the constituent, for whom he had "no sympathy", had verbally abused Mr Griffin before throwing a drink.

"People have got to realise that they cannot go around trying to attack senior politicians in this way," he said. "After he threw the beer, our security treated him robustly. That could've been acid for all we knew. How did he expect us to react?"

In an interview with a local newspaper the victim, named only as Ben, said he had wanted to confront Mr Griffin to give him, "a taste of people's feelings towards him". He told how he had felt intimidated by a group of BNP supporters before being put in a headlock by "one of his security people".

Gloucestershire police said in a statement: "The group restrained him and it was during this time that the man states he was assaulted and bruising caused to his face. He did not wish to make a formal complaint."

Independent

Dicky dips out

2009-07-21T15:44:00.003+01:00

According to El Grauniad the bottle loving Dickie Barnbrook called in sick this morning just before he was due to answer charges of bringing his office into disrepute. Barnbrook claims to have been signed off for two weeks by his GP.

The hearing will resume on either August 12th or 4th September.

The ordiginal complaint against Barnbrook was made by friend of Norfolk Unity Cllr. Val Rush, a cabinet member on Barking and Dagenham council. Staunchly antifascist and acknowledged for her untiring work on behalf of her constituents, Cllr. Rush is one of a number of Barking and Dagenham Labour councillors deselected at the instigation of supporters of local MP Margaret Hodge.

Hodge is widely blamed for talking up the chances of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham, which helped them secure 12 seats on the council.

BNP member faces suspension from London assembly

2009-07-21T11:27:00.003+01:00

One of the most senior elected members of the British National party today faces suspension from the London assembly as a panel decides whether he has brought his office into disrepute.

Richard Barnbrook, who is the BNP's only member on the 25 strong assembly as well as a councillor in Barking and Dagenham, faces a grilling over comments he made last year on a video posted on the internet.

A joint investigation for the Greater London authority and Barking and Dagenham council concluded in May that Barnbrook brought his office and the respective authorities into disrepute after falsely claiming in an interview that three murders had taken place over a three week period in the Barking and Dagenham area.

Barnbrook will face a full hearing in Dagenham before the standard committees of both the Greater London authority and the council to explain his position and take questions.

If found in breach of the code, Barnbrook faces a range of possible sanctions, including up to six months' suspension from elected office.

The complaint against Barnbrook was first lodged last September after he claimed in an interview posted on YouTube and his own website that a girl had been murdered within the borough within the past three weeks. "We don't know who's done it. Her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute," Barnbrook said in the prerecorded interview, in which he sought to highlight failings in tackling knife crime.

He also said that two weeks previously "there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where two people were murdered".

Valerie Rush, a Labour cabinet member at the local authority, accused Barnbrook of "openly and outrageously" lying to "whip up fears in the London community".

In her complaint to the GLA and the council, Rush said Barnbrook had acted in a way that brought his honesty and integrity as a councillor into disrepute.

Barnbrook, who is one of 12 BNP councillors in Barking and Dagenham, said that he knew at the time that he made the statements that "there had been no fatalities in Barking and Dagenham", according to a report documenting the investigation into the complaint.

Barnbrook nevertheless refused to apologise for the statements "until knife crime is over".

This meant that the interview – filmed by Simon Darby, the BNP's deputy leader, who works part-time for Barnbrook in the London assembly – was posted on the internet despite Barnbrook knowing the statements were incorrect, the report noted.

The Metropolitan police confirmed that there had been no murders or incidents resulting in critical injuries requiring intensive care in the time period cited, and that murders in the area were actually decreasing.

By the time the draft investigation report was published, Barnbrook said he did not accept that "the inaccuracy of my statement was deliberate". He also stated: "I did not know that the data in the recording was incorrect. I would not have posted the recording if I had known that it was incorrect."

Barnbrook also insisted that "once I realised that the data was incorrect, the recording was removed from the internet on my instruction within 24 hours".

The investigation ruled that Barnbrook's original claim that he knew what he was saying was untrue "seems at odds" with the principles of honesty and integrity. "If the public were aware that Mr Barnbrook was in fact putting out statements that he knew were false, we consider that his could reasonably be regarded as undermining public confidence in both members and the authorities as a whole in being able to fulfil their function."

The report's findings prepare the way for one of a range of sanctions today, including suspension from office for up to six months.

But this can be challenged on appeal to the president of the Adjudication Panel for England. If an appeal is accepted, the body can overturn the finding or vary the sanction.

The Guardian

BNP to use EU taxpayers' money to fund chosen causes

2009-07-20T18:31:00.001+01:00

Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, the party's two MEPs, will skim off part of their expenses and salaries to fund a party-controlled "community chest", they told the Daily Telegraph.

People in their European constituencies – North-West England and Yorkshire & The Humber – will then be able to apply for the money in order to fund "worthwhile" local projects, including St George's Day celebrations.

The plan, which is against the European Parliament's rules, is likely to prompt concerns that public funds will be spent on racist groups or other controversial activities.

It is also likely to raise fears that the BNP will misuse public money to broaden its domestic appeal ahead of the general election, at which it plans to aggressively target a dozen constituencies.

Both Mr Griffin, the party leader, and Mr Brons will put 10 per cent of their £80,000 annual salary, as well as thousands more from unused accomodation and travel allowances, into the constituency fund, they said.

Mr Griffin said: "When we've got money left over, we're putting it back into our constituencies. We've pledged to do so, and we will do so. It will be good for people in our area."

"We'll set up a bank account in the names of three of our members, who will decide to spend it on what we consider worthwhile projects … things like St George's Day celebrations," added Mr Brons, a former chairman of the National Front. "Anything surplus will go into this community chest".

A spokesman for the European Parliament said: "That would not be allowed. The rules are quite clear. Allowances can not be used for things that are not set out in the guidance."

MEPs are given a generous allowances package worth about £363,000 a year, including a £261 daily subsistence allowance simply for turning up to work. Unlike MPs in Westminster, they do not have to claim the money but are instead given the maximum amount as a lump sum.

However according to the European Parliament guidance, MEPs must use the money only to pay for their offices, staff, food, accomodation and travel.

St George's Day is likely to fall during the campaign for the next general election, which is expected in May next year. Funding celebrations of it in this way could leave the BNP open to accusations of misuse of public money.

Told that the plan would be against the rules, Mr Brons said: "So it's all right if we use it on champagne and caviar?" Mr Griffin then also suggested the money could be spent on young people's activities or on help for armed services veterans.

Speaking during an interview at the end of their first week at work in Strasbourg, Mr Griffin and Mr Brons said that the party planned to use their new European platform as a launchpad for more domestic influence.

Mr Griffin said that they were optimistic that they could win a seat at the next general election, and would strongly focus on "probably a dozen seats". He said that he expected to do even better at the election after next, because as prime minister David Cameron would let down traditional Conservative voters.

The BNP would be able to "really produce a shock" if the major parties allowed MPs tarnished by disclosures about their use of expenses to try to retain their seats, Mr Griffin said.

He also confirmed that his party would field a candidate in Buckingham, the seat of John Bercow, the new Commons Speaker. Convention dictates that the major parties do not contest a Speaker's seat.

Mr Griffin said that the party planned to run a campaign inspired by Barack Obama's successful run for the US presidency, funded by small donations given over the internet by lots of different supporters.

He and Mr Brons attacked Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe minister, who earlier this week said the BNP was a party of "racists and extremists". Mr Griffin said the Government was "racist against indigenous working-class Britons."

Mr Griffin also said he planned to use his new role as a member of the Parliament's Environment Committee to challenge the consensus that man-made global warming was a threat.

"There's also been global warming on Mars," he said, "so it's not down to SUVs (sports utility vehicles) or people who refuse to be vegetarians ... It's not going to happen or become a disaster [soon] – it's about 80 years before the polar bears start drowning."

Mr Griffin said that while they have been shunned by most British MEPs, whom he labelled "petty", he and Mr Brons had solidified their alliance with Jobbik, the far-right Hungarian party whose street militia, the Hungarian Guard, wears fascist-style uniforms.

He said that he had written his maiden speech to be heard alongside that of Krisztina Morvai, a Jobbik MEP, and that he and Mr Brons had this week stayed in the same Strasbourg hotel as the Dr Morvai and the rest of her European party.

He also said that the BNP was already considering taking legal action against the Parliament for not allowing them and other parties unattached to larger political groupings to vote for their own delegate to the influential council of presidents.

Meanwhile Mr Griffin and Mr Brons, who were driven to Brussels in order to elude photographers at stations and airports, said that their arrival in Strasbourg was delayed when they were given a €45 (£39) fine for being caught speeding as they passed through France.

Telegraph

Stuffed in Stockingford

2009-07-20T13:27:00.001+01:00

I've always had a soft spot for Stockingford, which is part of Nuneaton. You see I was born there, in one of the terraced back streets, where, at the time, everybody kept chickens and rabbits for the table and every inch of the garden was used for growing vegetables. I only lived there as a tot, and when Dad came out of the Army we left for Mum's native north Warwickshire village. The house in ------ Street was my Aunt Flo's and one of my cousins still lives there.

Despite having a soft spot for the place I never thought the day would come when I'd be singing ordinary old Stockingford's praises, but last Thursday the place did me (and you) proud.

In a barely noticed local by-election Stockingford told the BNP where to get off.

Now my fellow contributor to this blog, currently swanning around the Alps, keeps tabs on local by-elections and was always noticing that it was very rare for the BNP to improve its vote. If they'd stood in a ward for a first time then they'd usually lose ground on the second.

In Stockingford on Thursday they lost ground all right. Two thirds of it!

In June the BNP fought the Arbury and Stockingford division of Warwickshire County Council, and with 1283 votes they took 25% of the vote. For reasons too boring to go into here, a by-election was called in the same division for July 16th, and with a solid looking base to build on, 2 MEPs and tons of news coverage the BNP entered the contest brim full of confidence.

But with the MPs expenses scandal now in the background sanity returned, and with antifascists able to concentrate their efforts the BNP share of the vote fell by 11%, one of the biggest reverses the party has ever suffered. But that hides the fact that the BNP's Martin Findlay (already a Nuneaton Borough councillor) saw his vote crash to just 449 - a drop of two thirds.

June
Con 1637/1582
Lab 1480/1472
BNP 1283
Green 849/692

July 16th
Lab 1331 +13%
Con 1079 +2.5%
BNP 449 -11%
Green 170 -9.5%
LD 118
SA 43

Ignoring the figures (he didn't publish them) Martin Wingfield, proponent of the BNP's "quiet revolution" only mentioned that the BNP had beaten the Liberal Democrats.

In fairness, the Green Party vote also dived in Arbury and Stockingford, which shows exactly how many people wanted to punish the major parties and reluctantly rewarded the minor parties last month.

In June the BNP hardly improved its share of the vote over most of the country despite the expenses scandal, and this result confirms what most of us were thinking - that if there had been no expenses scandal the BNP's vote would have stalled and most likely fallen, it wouldn't have scraped two MEPs, and an internal revolution would be underway, probably with Nick Griffin out on his ear some time soon.

Closer to home for us here in Norfolk the Norwich North by-election is underway, and the BNP hobbled itself from the start by gifting us the bogus "reverend" Robert West, who's just so easy to lampoon and discredit. As in Stockingford electoral politics seem to have returned to normal, with the latest polls showing the BNP not registering at all, with those intending to vote for the devious devil dodger included somewhere among the 5% reserved for "others".

Has the tide turned?

Well I reckon it never really came in for the BNP. The truth is that in June with voter disillusion at fever pitch they hardly managed to grow their vote at all and only got their MEPs due to voters not turning out for the main parties, so their supposed victorious advance is more apparent than real, something they bang on about to keep their own members from seeing the political reality of their electoral situation.

The BNP got stuffed in Stockingford, let's hope they get nuked in Norwich North.

Teenager explains BNP attack

2009-07-20T11:13:00.001+01:00

The teenager who hurled a drink over British National Party leader Nick Griffin said he wanted him to know people will not tolerate his views. The 18-year-old, from Stroud, caught a taxi to the Falcon Inn in Painswick because he wanted to make his point peacefully but forcefully with Mr Griffin.

"I have a serious objection to the BNP," he said. "I had intended go and confront him verbally and say my piece to him. Something needs to be done wherever he goes. While I was outside, he was leaving the pub and I was not comfortable with him visiting the area without getting a taste of people's feelings towards him."

He said he left the pub on July 11 after an argument with another of Mr Griffin's party. While waiting outside, the teen saw his chance as the BNP leader walked out of the front door.

"I left the pub voluntarily because after having a conversation with one member of the party – I was sworn at by some of his colleagues," said Ben, who did not want to be identified with his full name. I felt a bit intimidated – there were 20 of them. Nick Griffin came out and I decided to splash him with Guinness. I was swiftly put in a headlock by one of his security people. I was backing away and had my hands splayed out.

"They started taking me down the road, and I was worried about that. Then a member of staff from the Falcon came out and took me off the BNP security person and took me back in to the pub. Then I was asked to leave the pub via a different door."

But he said he was later spat on in the street and verbally abused by a member of the party in a car. He said he declined to make a formal complaint to the police, and excused the spitting incident, as he had thrown the drink, although not the glass, over Mr Griffin.

BNP spokesman John Walker said: "People have to start to realise now that they cannot go around taking liberties with a member of the European Parliament, whichever party they represent. We won't put up with it. It is not civilised behaviour. If he got duffed up, he was a victim of his own misfortune.

"Everyone has a legitimate outlet for their opinions at the ballot box. He was asked to leave the pub. He chose to wait outside and threw a pint of beer. Whatever happened after that, I have no sympathy for him."

Staff at the Falcon Inn declined to comment.

Last week, Gloucestershire police issued a statement regarding the incident confirming Ben did not want to make a formal complaint.

This is Gloucestershire

BNP’s ‘devils’ find they are without friends in Europe as right-wing bloc fails to materialise

2009-07-19T02:59:00.003+01:00

Their success in the recent European elections sent shockwaves through the British political establishment but the arrival in Strasbourg of the British National Party's two newly-elected MEPs this week could not have got off to a more shambolic start.

Travelling to the picturesque French city for their first week at the parliament's inaugural session after June's elections, BNP leader Nick Griffin and his sidekick Andrew Brons found themselves on the wrong side of the law, having to explain to the police why their car had broken the speed limit.

The car was doing about 10mph above the limit and Griffin was fined £50, small change compared to the combined £350,000 a year he and Brons will receive in parliamentary salaries and allowances.

A further, far more damaging, setback for the two "devils" - Griffin's mocking self-description - was their failure to find enough far-right comrades across the EU to form a new bloc.

However, the BNP still had plenty of friendly fellow travellers to hang out with. Griffin has been getting matey with several groups. One is Jobbik, the far-right Hungarian party that won 14.8% of the vote in the Hungarian European elections despite its anti-gypsy stance and unpleasant comments about the nation's Jews.

Griffin and Brons even stayed in the same hotel as three Jobbik MEPs. The party, also known as the Movement for a Better Hungary, won nearly as many votes as the ruling socialists, securing three seats in the European parliament.

Others involved in talks with the BNP were France's Front National - which won three seats, including the re-election of its veteran controversial leader Jean-Marie Le Pen - Belgium's Vlaams Belang and Ataka, the nationalist Bulgarian party.

Griffin said: "We needed at least 25 members from seven different member states to form a group but we failed and, yes, it is a setback. There is no doubt that we would have been able to wield a lot more influence if we could have formed a group."

Griffin hit the headlines even before he and Brons landed in Strasbourg, following his call for the EU to sink boats carrying illegal immigrants. He also told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that the EU had created a "super-state that isn't far from fascist".

Accompanied by two burly bodyguards because of what Griffin says have been personal threats, the newly-elected neo-fascists swaggered into the institution they have vowed to abolish.

"If and when the free nations of Europe get their destinies back, perhaps this building could be turned into a monument to the follies of imperialism. We must get rid of this ridiculously wasteful circus," declared Griffin.

British officials had already imposed a "cordon sanitaire" around the BNP and the pair were told they would be banned from a UK government reception, hosted by Glenys Kinnock, the Europe minister.

Under new guidelines, agreed by UK foreign secretary David Miliband, Griffin and Brons will be isolated and kept at arm's length from the world of diplomatic socialising.

The pair of BNP MEPs have been placed in seats numbered 780 and 781 for the next five years, close to and just one row in front of the new Conservative and Reformist Group founded by the UK Tories.

As they took their seats in the assembly's debating chamber, Griffin and Brons were surrounded by like-minded colleagues: three Hungarian Gypsy-haters, four Muslim-baiters from the Netherlands, a couple of Austrian deputies elected on a platform of anti-semitism, Le Pen and his daughter Marianne, who both believe the Holocaust is a myth, and an assortment of Italian racists.

Glenis Willmott, the Labour Party's leader in Europe, was prompted to say: "This is a sad day for Britain. Two UK fascists are taking their seats in this parliament for the first time."

Richard Howitt, a Labour MEP, said he was ashamed, as a Briton, that the BNP was taking part in the parliament.

However, Timothy Kirkhope, who leads the UK Tory group of MEPs, said he was "not particularly uncomfortable" sitting in the Strasbourg assembly with two extremists behind him. He added: "I'm not happy, but they were elected by the people of Britain."

Griffin, who is expected to sit on the environment committee, appeared unconcerned by all the fuss around him, or by the fact that the Democratic Unionist Party's MEP Diane Dodds abandoned her seat when she discovered she had been put next to Brons.

He was equally untouched by news that 90,000 British voters signed a petition stating that the BNP does not speak for them. He said: "We're speaking happily with European nationalists. I even spoke to several German Greens. But there is very childish behaviour from some of the British."

As a "non-attached" member, the amount of speaking time Griffin will be given in debates will be strictly limited, but he used his first speech, during a debate on Iran, to denounce alleged human rights violations against "nationalist dissidents" in Britain.

He accused Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats of routinely deploying "intimidation and violence against nationalist dissidents in Britain". He claimed they were using taxpayers' money "to fund their own militia, which breaks up opposition meetings and attack their opponents with bricks, darts and claw-hammers" and described the Unite Against Fascism movement as an "organisation of far-left criminals".

Griffin told a two-thirds empty chamber that "warmongers" were itching to attack Iran and were using human rights as a new "casus belli". He invoked Elvis Costello's song Oliver's Army to protest against the prospect of British youths being sent to die in Iran.

"Do not leave the war which hypocritical rhetoric will help to justify and unleash to the usual brave British cannon fodder: 18-year-old boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne," he said. "Instead, send out your own sons to come home in boxes, or without their legs, their arms, their eyes or their sanity. Or mind your own business."

However, there were no publicity-seeking tactics - that was left to the UK Independence party. UKIP leader Nigel Farage, whose new desk is next to commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in the debating chamber, plonked a mini Union Jack in front of himself during a debate.

Barroso responded by asking an aide to get a mini EU flag for his own desk.

Griffin returned to his home in mid-Wales on Thursday at the end of what had been an eventful first week.

This week, it's back to Brussels, where Griffin's notoriety has already seen Brons and himself banned from Fabian O'Farrell's, an Irish pub popular with Eurocrats, something he says amounts to "a form of apartheid".

They say they will be keen attenders at the parliament over the next five years, a prospect that is likely to fill many of their fellow MEPs with dread.

Sunday Herald

Meet the mates of the BNP's "Man of God"

2009-07-18T01:48:00.004+01:00

Banned from election hustings organised by the PCS trade union on July 16th, the BNP huffed and puffed and threatened to hold a press conference on the steps of Norwich City Hall to whine and whinge about their treatment. At the appointed hour the police were there in force, the press were there in force, and dozens of antifascists turned out, all eager to hear what the BNP and the bogus "reverend" Robert West had to say.

Alas - and true to form - Norfolk BNP had an attack of cold feet and with news of their press conference well and truly leaked their members stayed home to watch television (as most of them have been doing throughout the Norwich North by-election campaign).

Which was a pity, because we really wanted to have a chat with two friends of the Vicar of the Parish of The Front Room, located at 35 Farrow Avenue, Holbeach.

The first was Martin Roberts, seen below with His Eminence Robert West.

Until recently Roberts was the BNP's national enquiries secretary and Worcestershire organiser, but then the alleged Falklands veteran decided to drag his racism all the way to Norfolk - in fact, to 22 Church Road in hitherto unsullied Potter Heigham, where he relocated his online Calder Designs business.

During last week's little contretemps on Mousehold Lane in Norwich Roberts repeatedly asserted that he wasn't a Nazi (or a racist), but until the BNP ordered its members to remove all outward signs of support for Nazism Roberts had no problems at all shifting stocks of badges aimed squarely at the neo-Nazi market, which he sold alongside a range of BNP tat.

Nor does he have a problem hosting Calder Designs with NoisyDinosaur, run by BNP web guru Lambertus "Bep" Nieuwhof, an Afrikaaner immigrant convicted of attempting to blow up a church school in Nelspruit, Transvaal, in 1992. Nieuwhof had also been a member of Eugene Terre'Blanche's terrorist neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Movement. Nieuwhof eventually fetched up in Hereford, close to Martin Roberts' old turf.

With the Nazi stuff tucked away under the counter, Roberts intoduced a range of "golly" badges in the colours of various football clubs. These are clearly intended to insult and inflame - there's no other purpose to them - and are equally clearly sold on their parasitic but completely bogus association with the football clubs concerned, including our own Canaries - a club with a long standing committment to anti-racism.

So that's one of the fake reverend's dodgy friends we can't wait to meet again.

The other is Steve Ames. Steve is a man of convictions, lots of them, but they're not of the Christian variety. Here he is in all his glory, looking like a character dreamed up by Harry Enfield.

Ames runs one of the strangest second hand car dealerships you're ever likely to come across this side of Arthur Daley.

For one thing, you only get to visit his Trident Cars "showroom" by appointment, and his website gives only a vague location off the Norwich Ring Road. The funny thing is, all the photographs of the cars in his "showroom" seem to have been taken at or near 18 Carterford Drive, which happens also to be just off the Norwich Ring Road, and is Ames's home address. In fact, here's Ames's plush showroom, right at the end of the Carterford Drive cul-de-sac.

But Steve is so much more than a second hand car salesman. He's the violent goon mate of the Holy Robert who snarled "I can do what I fucking well like" while committing an unprovoked assault against an antifascist during last week's tete-a-tete between three antifascists and twenty BNP members outside the Duke of Norfolk pub.

When he realised the cameras were out Ames backed off, probably because - being a frequent client of theirs - he realised that telling a court "I can do what I fucking well like" wouldn't go down too well.

Steve has form, you see, and a fair old bit of it at that.

Back in 2001 our Steve was up before the beaks for harrassing a girlfriend who'd dumped the hot headed hooligan, and only narrowly escaped a prison sentence. Just two years before the romantic racist had been convicted of harrassing two other women (we hope any females visting Ames's open air "showroom" at the end of that cul-de-sac take a burly escort for protection), and, as it turned out, Ames had been in court so often since the mid 80s he was probably on first name terms with the magistrates.

Having witnessed Ames's violent temper at first hand, we're not surprised that Ames is considered first rate material for that party of law, order and stalkers, the BNP, or that he's a mate of the unholy Robert West.

More is coming to light all the time on the unsavoury activities of Steve Ames, but to keep you going (and to give your weekend a lift) here's the Norwich Evening News's report of the hilarious case of the Rejected Racist and his "war of love" - just click the pic:

Oldie but goldie - BNP dimbo doesn't notice daughter's boyfriend is mixed race

2009-07-17T01:44:00.001+01:00

BNP nut Liz Walton comes out in support of West

2009-07-15T12:36:00.003+01:00

BNP isolated as MEPs take up European seats

2009-07-15T00:58:00.003+01:00

British civil servants and officials imposed a "cordon sanitaire" around British National Party MEPs as they took up their two seats in the European Parliament. The pair were banned from an official government reception for British MEPs, hosted by Glenys Kinnock, the Europe minister.

Nick Griffin, the BNP's leader, elected in the North West of England last month, dismissed the drinks party ban and the prospect of socialising with Baroness Kinnock. "I am not in the least bit fussed about not being able to drink champagne with Glenys Kinnock. She is a political prostitute," he said. "She and her husband started off their careers as anti-common market and now they are there not just with their noses in the trough, they are in the trough."

A spokesman for Baroness Kinnock refused to comment on Mr Griffin's remarks.

Under new guidelines, agreed by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Griffin and his colleague Andrew Brons, representing Yorkshire and Humber, will be isolated and kept at arms length from the world of officialdom and diplomatic socialising.

"Officials will not engage in any other contact with elected representatives of any nationality who represent extremist or racist views, unless specific permission has been granted to do so on a particular occasion," a government spokeswoman said.

The BNP is planning a challenge to any government moves to bar its MEPs from briefings by officials.

The MEPs have been placed in seats numbered 780 and 781, just one row in front of the new Conservative and Reformist Group founded by the British Tories. They were originally put next to Northern Irish MEP Diane Dodds but the Democratic Unionist refused to take up her place.

Both will collect combined salaries and allowances worth over £350,000 a year each but the BNP has failed to find enough far-Right colleagues across the EU to form a new bloc in the parliament.

Mr Griffin is expected to sit on the parliament's environment committee and Mr Brons on the constitutional affairs committee. Both MEPs have pledged to attend sessions of the parliament and to play a full role holding the EU to account.

"We will attend sessions. The EU has no right to legislate over Britain but the reality is that the parliament has real powers and we will do what is in power to improve legislation," said Mr Griffin.

Glenis Willmott, Labour's leader in the European Parliament, made a statement to MEPs condemning the BNP.

"Sixty years ago we fought against the fascists together. Today two UK fascists are taking their seats in this parliament for the first time. Today is a sad day for Britain and we will not let matters rest," she said.

Telegraph

Centre for Social Cohesion reveals BNP's online fascist network

2009-07-14T10:24:00.003+01:00

Centre for Social Cohesion reveals BNP's online fascist network
Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 13 July 2009

On the day before two leading British National Party (BNP) members take their seats in the European Parliament, a new Centre for Social Cohesion report reveals that members and supporters of the BNP and its online activists display significant ideological affinity with key tenets of the neo-Nazi ideology. This included: support for violence; antisemitism and an admiration of the Third Reich; extreme racist views; and Holocaust denial.

The BNP and the Online Fascist Network shows blogs run by members and self-professed supporters of the BNP continue to host, and link to, material that is pro-Nazi, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic. The BNP continues to sell books produced by neo-Nazi publishing houses on its website.

Support for violence

> Lee Barnes – leading member and head of the BNP legal team – supports the National Front on his blog. He refers to the group as a valid ‘nationalist’ organization and suggests that they operate as a street force for the BNP.

> Barnes advocates the downfall of western civilization: ‘The West deserves all it gets. The faster the fools that run the West destroy the West the better.’

> The BNP supporting blog Britain Awake praises Combat 18 and supports violent attacks on Muslim women. Britain Awake is hosted by a self-described member of the BNP who claims to have attended the party’s annual Red, White and Blue festival.

Antisemitism and an admiration of the Third Reich

> The official BNP YouTube account and the official YouTube accounts of the Thurrock and Burnley BNP branches show close links with neo-Nazi and antisemitic activists and organisations.

> Blogs run by members and self-professed supporters of the BNP continue to host, and offer links to, material that is pro-Nazi, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic.

> A member of the Covert Tactics blog, strongly linked with the BNP, refers to Jews as ‘greedy subhuman scum’. One member, Tommy Williams, is a neo-Nazi whose name appeared on the leaked list of BNP members. The blog expresses admiration for Hitler and has on a number of occasions denied or trivialised the Holocaust.

Extreme racist views

> So-called patriotic concerns of the BNP mask an underlying fear of racial ‘dissolution’ and a commitment to ‘soft’ ethnic cleansing in the form of policies attempting to coerce non-white Britons into leaving the UK.

> Material found on BNP supporting YouTube accounts, blogs, and internet forums contravenes the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.

Holocaust denial

> The BNP website promotes books by neo-Nazi publishing houses which are dedicated to rehabilitating Nazism and denying the Holocaust.

Edmund Standing, author of the report, says:

“The report shows that the BNP is a party dedicated to promoting racism, and continues to attract and empower adherents to neo-Nazi ideology, whose supporters include admirers of Adolf Hitler.”

Douglas Murray, Director of the CSC, says:

“This report shows that members and supporters of the BNP continue to hold and express the vilest racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist views - shocking even to those of us who thought our opinion of the BNP could never be lower.”

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow at the CSC, says:

“The BNP leadership insist that they are a mainstream political organisation, yet this report demonstrates how abhorrent their views truly are."

For a pdf of the full report access this link

Press enquiries: 0207 222 8909 / 07538 248610 / pressoffice@socialcohesion.co.uk

The Centre for Social Cohesion is an independent think tank

* The Centre for Social Cohesion * Clutha House * 10 Storey's Gate * London * SW1P 3AY *
* 0207 222 8909 email: mail@socialcohesion.co.uk *

Accrington BNP supporter spared jail after targeting Asian family

2009-07-13T20:30:00.000+01:00

A man who made his Asian next door neighbours’ lives a misery with his anti-social and racist conduct was spared immediate jail.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Nigel Hesmondhalgh, 36, who had a British National Party sticker in the window of his Accrington home, was abusive and insulting to the couple, repeatedly picking on the wife. He piled dog dirt up in the alley outside their home and told them: “It’s a white country, not a Muslim state.”

Hesmondhalgh, said to be the carer for his brother, who has learning difficulties, told the husband of the couple he should be scared and shouted support for the BNP.

The couple had lived in their home for 14 years before he moved in. The defendant, who has since moved but wants to go back to the property on Higher Antley Street, had earlier admitted racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.

Hesmondhalgh, who has almost 90 previous convictions and has been flouting the law since he was 11, had struck while on bail for similar allegations which were left to lie on the file. He kept his freedom but his hostile and anti-social conduct was slammed by a judge, who warned the courts would not tolerate it.

The defendant, of Stanley Street, Accrington, was given 36 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, with 18 months supervision and the Thinking Skills programme.

Martin Hackett, defending, said the offence was unpleasant. Hesmondhalgh had been very close to his mother who died last July and he may have been adjusting.

Lancashire Telegraph

BNP leader has drink thrown over him

2009-07-13T17:18:00.000+01:00

The leader of the British National Party had a pint of beer thrown over him at a Cotswold pub on Saturday night. Nick Griffin was dining with colleagues from the right-wing party in The Falcon Inn in Painswick when the incident happened.

An 18-year-old was ejected from the pub for arguing with the group, and waited outside for them to leave. When the party walked out of the pub, at around 11.30pm, the teenager threw a drink over Mr Griffin.

A statement issued by Gloucestershire police today confirmed the incident. It said: "On Sunday, July 12, Gloucestershire Constabulary received a phone call from an 18-year-old man stating that he had been assaulted the previous night, July 11, outside The Falcon Public House on New Street, Painswick.

"The man stated that he had been asked to leave the pub after he was involved in an argument with a group of diners. He left the premises but remained outside and a while later, at approximately 11.30pm, the group of diners left and he threw drink at them. Following this the group restrained him and it was during this time that the man states he was assaulted and bruising caused to his face. He did not wish to make a formal complaint about the incident."

Simon Darby, spokesman for the BNP said: "It appears this was an opponent of ours who thinks he can go around throwing drinks over people."

This is Gloucestershire

Huge BNP turnout to support West - 20 descend on derelict pub - intimidated by 3 anti-fascists

2009-07-12T13:42:00.013+01:00

The BNP's top-secret RV point
Three HOPE not hate campaigners surprised and angered the BNP in Norwich on Saturday when they arrived to monitor what the BNP supposed was a secret meeting point at the Duke of Norfolk pub in Mousehold Lane. Unknown to the fascists, who snuck into the area for a leaflet and canvass session, the closed public house had been watched since early that morning.

The arrival of the fake "reverend" Robert West - the BNP's candidate in the Norwich North by-election - prompted the three anti-fascists to move in closer, and it was several minutes before the BNP noticed we were clicking away.

The penny drops
We approached the ropey reverend to ask who ordained him, but the prefabricated prelate went all sheepish on us and demanded that we address him as "reverend". We decided to address him as "fake".

Would you buy a used crucifix from this man?
We also asked him about Leader Nick's call for the sinking of refugee boats, because we couldn't find the verse in the Bible which states: "Blessed are those who torpedo black people on the high seas, for they shall inherit the Earth."

Needless to say West wasn't too interested in answering that point and went off to pretend to look through some BNP "literature" - a shoddy leaflet claiming that blacks are being housed ahead of whites by Norwich City Council (if they knew anything about Norwich North they'd know it's within the boundaries of Broadland District Council, and the housing policies of Norwich City Council have no effect in the constituency).

Those fellow fascists of West's who approached us all began with the "I'm not a racist" spiel then proceeded to justify blasting black people out of the water, one idiot talking about the New Testament's justification for Nick's sink 'em policy, then going on about the Old Testament when, quelle surprise, he found himself out-brained by a real Christian who'd done more than read the Bible's title.

While this was going on one or two of the motley assembly of 20 race haters were obviously losing it, and one of their goons suddenly jumped the wall separating us and attacked one of the HOPE not hate trio from behind, grabbing him around the neck, wrenching his arm behind his back and hustling him along the pavement.

Realising the camera's on him, West's goon backs off
When I pointed out he was committing a serious criminal offence the goon retorted "I can do what I fucking well like" - just as we saw outside Parliament the other week, when BNP goons ordered the public out of the way while they escorted Griffin and Brons to an egg-pelting party, and then again when they felled and trampled a black woman as they rushed their terror-struck Leader away from the scene.

The attack on our man prompted two of the BNP, including West, to call the police to claim that the three of us were victimising the 20 of them, and in minutes three police cars came blazing into the scene.

The lies quickly agreed to by the BNP didn't compute with the police, and the officer who interviewed us was quite ready to arrest the BNP goon. I've got to say I was in favour of it, but it would have meant hours at Norwich police station and the loss of our cameras, so our man declined to press charges.

Edith Crowther, who stood in King's Lynn Gaywood in the county council elections, explained that she had a degree in Arabic and that her goon mate was a "working class man from a poor council estate who doesn't know any better.."

What they're driving on poor council estates these days - West's thug and his 4x4
The kind of poor council estate where everybody owns a petrol-hungry 4x4 with a personalised numberplate, eh, Edith?

Crowther ("My husband sometimes lets me out of the house") was peremptorily told to stop talking to us. We can't say whether it was her husband who gave the order.

Motley collection - would-be BNP boat sinkers
The turnout for the BNP was pathetic. Despite a national call for help most of the twenty belonged to Norfolk BNP, with few of them from Norwich - and almost all of them had out-of-county accents. Until recently, while the rest of the BNP prepared to fight elections Norfolk BNP prepared to order lunch, but we still couldn't help but notice the absence of some of Norfolk BNP's biggest online loudmouths, who, like most of the BNP, are too ashamed to show their faces in public and prefer to do their politicking from the anonymity of a keyboard.

After that not much happened. Everybody, including us, had to give their details to the police, and that kept the BNP corralled on the pub car park for more than an hour. When told they were free to go, the BNP cars waited around while a number of mobile phone calls were made, leading the HOPE not hate trio to suspect that something else was being planned, then they made a number of unsubtle feints (we're not that stupid, West) and finally drove off in convoy.

As we had no chance of reaching our cars in time to follow, and as the police were still watching, we decided to call it a day at that point, happy that we'd acheived what we set out to do - but there's a way to go in the Norwich North by-election yet, and we're pretty sure we'll be meeting up again with the BNP and its deceitful devil-dodger some time very soon.

UK diplomats shun BNP officials in Europe

2009-07-09T18:26:00.000+01:00

The government is to single out Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, the British National party's two newly elected representatives in the European parliament, for special treatment, denying them some of the access and information afforded to all the other 70 UK MEPs.

Under new guidelines drafted in Whitehall and in the Foreign Office following the June elections to the European parliament, the two BNP leaders will be kept at arms' length from the kind of routine contacts and socialising that take place between British civil servants and MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg.

When the new parliament convenes next week in Strasbourg, Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe minister, is to host a reception for all British MEPs. Only Griffin and Brons have not been invited.

"Officials will not engage in any other contact with elected representatives of any nationality who represent extremist or racist views, unless specific permission has been granted to do so on a particular occasion from the FCO permanent under-secretary and the minister for Europe," said a government spokesperson.

The official said that the BNP duo would be subject to the "same general principles governing official impartiality" and they would receive "standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time."

But British diplomats made plain that they would not be "proactive" in dealing with the BNP MEPs and that any requests for policy briefings from Griffin or Brons would be treated differently and on a discretionary basis.

A Brussels-based civil servant said it was acceptable for him to meet MEPs across the party spectrum for a drink, but that any such meetings with Griffin or Brons would be frowned upon.

The MEPs of the anti-EU UK Independence Party have been invited to next week's government reception.

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said he was satisfied that he was treated equally by the 155 diplomats and civil servants working at the British mission to the EU, known as Ukrep, in Brussels.

"During the British [EU] presidency in 2005, I remember Jack Straw telling me that we'll be treated the same as all the others," said Farage. "If we ring Ukrep, we would expect to be treated fairly by them. If we contact them, they help us even though they're almost certainly closer to the other parties. We've not found them to withhold stuff from us if we ask."

Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat MEP, said that the BNP represented a special case and that the government was entitled to differentiate in its dealings with elected representatives.

"A line has been crossed [with the BNP]. It's a difference of degree. It's not surprising that the government has to draw up guidelines to deal with a different situation."

Following the European elections, the civil service and government officials considered a range of options for dealing with the BNP, from an inclusive non-discriminatory approach to total quarantine, effectively ostracising them. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is said to have signed off a decision that would bar the BNP people from government and embassy events in Brussels, while providing the extremists with some policy information.

"I don't think the policy of isolating them, of a cordon sanitaire, will work at all," said Farage. "It's a mistake. They're elected representatives, whether we like it or not."

The isolation has been compounded by Griffin's failure over the past week to cobble together an alliance of extremists in the parliament in order to qualify for official caucus status and thus benefit from better funding, speaking time, and committee positions.

To qualify, a parliamentary fraction needs to muster 25 MEPs from at least seven EU countries. Griffin's signature failure was not persuading Italy's anti-immigration party, Liga Nord, to join him. Instead the Italians linked up with Farage's Ukip.

The Guardian

BNP members banned from joining Methodist Church

2009-07-09T18:24:00.000+01:00

The Methodist Church has become the first major denomination in the UK to ban all its members from joining the British National Party (BNP).

A resolution passed by the annual Methodist Conference, meeting in Wolverhampton, declared that “No member of the Church can also be a member of a political party whose constitution, aims or objectives promote racism. This specifically includes, but is not solely limited to, the British National Party”.

The news follows a similar ban on Church of England clergy, but the Methodists have gone much further, saying that no-one can even be a member of the Church while also belonging to the BNP.

“We must be clear that racism is a denial of the Gospel” said Rev Sylvester Deigh, who proposed the motion.

“An openness to all people, regardless of nationality, is at the heart of Methodist identity” he continued.

The motion was seconded by the Rev Dr Angela Shier-Jones.

While strongly condemning racism and the BNP specifically, the motion declares that “those who support racist parties are also God’s children, and in need of love, hope and redemption”. Supporters of the measure are keen to stress that no-one will be banned from attending a church – only from membership of it.

The BNP have in recent months attempted to appeal to Christian voters, claiming to be protecting the UK's “Christian heritage”.

They have fielded the Rev Robert West as their candidate for the Norwich North by-election on 23rd July, though he has failed to make clear in which church he has been ordained.

Most Christian denominations have condemned the BNP and called on their members not to vote for it. However, the thinktank Ekklesia has pointed out that churches need to disassociate themselves from the “Christian nation” rhetoric which the BNP exploits.

The Methodist Church will now undertake the legal work required to put their agreed measures into practice and report back to the Methodist Conference in July 2010.

Ekklesia

BNP's sink 'em policy claims first success

2009-07-09T01:29:00.002+01:00

Demo against 'growing threat' of BNP

2009-07-09T00:01:00.000+01:00

A wave of protest against the British National Party is to culminate in a protest march in Lincoln.

Lincoln and District Trades' Council organised the march following the election of two BNP members to the European Union. The group is keen to highlight what it feels are the real policies and background of the BNP.

Secretary of the Lincoln and District Trade Union Council Graham Peck said: "Lincoln and District Trades' Council is bitterly disappointed with the recent election of two British National Party members to the European Parliament. In the light of this growing threat in the county, and the election on our doorstep of Andrew Brons for Yorkshire and Humberside region, the Trades' Council has decided to call a demonstration to oppose the rise of the racist BNP."

The far right organisation had 23 candidates standing in the Lincolnshire County Council elections, but did not make any gains in the area. Boston is currently the only place in the county with a BNP councillor.

The rally is due to be held on Saturday, meeting outside the University of Lincoln at 11.30am before leaving at noon and heading up Wigford Way, along Guildhall Street and down High Street.

East Midlands regional organiser for the BNP Geoff Dickens said: "Irrespective of what people like to think, different communities do not get on well together. Some of the more established communities of immigrants from the 60s and 70s are as much in despair of the new groups and the state of the country as the BNP."

Lincolnshire Echo

Full details from L&DTUC:

The assembly point is in front of Lincoln uni, and we will be congregating at 11.30 to leave at 12, marching up Brayford Wharf East, along Wigford Way, turning left down Guildhall Street and right on to the High Street before stopping for a rally in front of the former Tourist Information centre

L&DTUC Facebook page

Sink immigrants' boats - Griffin

2009-07-08T19:28:00.000+01:00

The EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering Europe, British National Party leader Nick Griffin has told the BBC.

The MEP for the North-West of England said the EU had to get "very tough" with migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Pressed on what should happen to those on board, he said: "Throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya".

Libya has long been a staging post for migrants from Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa wanting to reach Europe.

Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian shores last year, an increase of about 75% on the year before. But with the prospect of a new immigration and asylum policy being voted on this autumn by MEPs, Mr Griffin is advocating measures to destroy boats used by illegal immigrants to reach the EU's southern coastline.

'Combating the flow'

In an interview with this week's edition of BBC Parliament's The Record Europe, he said: "If there's measures to set up some kind of force or to help, say the Italians, set up a force which actually blocks the Mediterranean then we'd support that. But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over.

"Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats. Anyone coming up with measures like that we'll support but anything which is there as a 'oh, we need to do something about it' but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe' we will oppose."

The interviewer, BBC Correspondent Shirin Wheeler, said: "I don't think the EU is in the business of murdering people at sea."

Mr Griffin replied: "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea - I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya. But Europe has sooner or later to close its borders or its simply going to be swamped by the Third World."

In May, the Italian government gave Libya three patrol boats as part of a deal aimed at combating the flow of illegal migrants making the crossing to Italy. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigration Lega Nord party, hailed the first 200 migrants picked up by the boats and returned to Libya as an "historic" moment.

But human rights groups have raised concerns about Italy sending migrants back to Libya without first screening them for asylum claims or to discover whether they are sick, injured, unaccompanied children or victims of human trafficking. Libya has no functioning asylum system and is not a party to the 1951 UN convention relating to the status of refugees.

'Influence'

Separately Mr Griffin, who will next week formally take up his seat in Brussels, has admitted that the BNP has failed to convince other like-minded parties to form an alliance in the new European Parliament. Talks with France's Front National, Lega Nord, and other groups fell apart, with Lega Nord now joining the new Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, led by Britain's UK Independence Party.

Mr Griffin told The Parliament.com: "We needed at least 25 members from seven different member states to form a group. There is no doubt that we would have been able to wield a lot more influence if we could have formed a group. No one was prepared to commit themselves knowing that we had not got Lega Nord on board.

"Even so, we will continue to work together with these other groups and share ideas. We will have less access to things like speaking time and committee votes but it's too bad."

The BNP advocates British withdrawal from the European Union and an end to all immigration to the UK and last month won its first two seats in the European Parliament.

Mr Griffin and the party's other recently-elected MEP Andrew Brons will sit in the "non-attached" section of the Parliament, which means they will be entitled to less administrative and financial support.

BBC

2 pints of lager and a packet of BNP leaflets

2009-07-08T13:46:00.000+01:00

The BNP website reports:

The British National Party in the West Midlands is expanding once again, reports new regional organiser Alwyn Deacon.

Speaking to BNP News after his first regional council meeting held after the European elections, Mr Deacon said he had already appointed four new organisers, one new fund holder and three new contacts for up and coming areas.

Along with the report, we find a cheery picture of West Midlands BNP activists standing outside a pub:

Take note of the logo in the background. We've seen that somewhere before. Back in April of this year, I noted the activities of the British Freedom Fighters, a gang of openly Nazi skinhead thugs, who had posted photos of themselves out and about, stomping around the streets of an unspecified location and enjoying a beer and sieg heiling session at a pub:

So, where might this pub be, a pub visited by both the jolly West Midlands BNP brigade and the BFF boneheads?

A bit of digging based on street signs and shop names in BFF pictures turned up a bar in Nuneaton called 'Eliotts Bistro'. According to the pub's listing on nuneatonpages.co.uk, Eliott's Bistro offers a 'welcoming and friendly atmosphere' and the contact is given as 'A. Deacon'. Note the logo:

What are the chances of that? The West Midlands BNP regional organiser is one Alwyn Deacon, and his crew are pictured outside a pub run by an A. Deacon. According to a May 2008 Coventry Telegraph report, 'BNP leader Alwyn Deacon, a Nuneaton pub landlord, failed by just 16 votes to oust Labour stalwart Bill Hancox in Bede ward'. This same Alwyn Deacon also stood for the BNP in the recent local election there.

Now either there are two pub landlords in Nuneaton called A. Deacon - one BNP and one non-BNP - and the BNP A. Deacon likes taking his BNP buddies for drinks at the pub of the non-BNP A. Deacon, or BNP organiser Alwyn Deacon is indeed the landlord of Eliotts Bistro. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and go with the latter.

Given this, it is interesting that of all the pubs in Nuneaton that the BFF could have chosen for their boozy stiff arm session it just happened to be the pub of BNP activist and landlord Alwyn Deacon. An odd coincidence, no doubt...

Still, for anyone planning a night out in Nuneaton who doesn't relish the thought of spending time at a pub run by a BNP activist, you might like to give Eliotts Bistro a miss.

Edmund Standing at Harry's Place

Family's fear of Huyton race hate gun thug

2009-07-08T13:44:00.000+01:00

A family told of their shock and fear after a neighbour racially abused them before pointing a gun at their father.

The Adedoyin family watched in horror as Ian Maitland, 44, “erupted like a raging bull” before waving the gun and unleashing a torrent of racist abuse. They had never spoken to the cabbie across the street before he screamed at the children aged five, 10 and 15-year-old twins and told Jeff Adedoyin to “get home to Africa”.

He boasted about being a BNP member before declaring he “would kill them all”. Maitland was jailed for nine months yesterday after telling Liverpool crown court the children awoke him by playing outside around 9pm.

The court heard IT consultant Mr Adedoyin went to see Maitland at his home in St Christopher’s Drive, Huyton, after hearing a volley of abusive shouting and finding his children in tears. The 37-year-old, who is originally from Nigeria, stood outside the house as his terrified mother-in-law dialled 999 and Maitland appeared with the gun and a baton.

He screamed and waved the gun towards them. Maitland’s wife Julie appeared and spat at Mr Adedoyin’s mother-in-law, Julie Durkin.

The 52-year-old told the ECHO: “I just felt this shock and disbelief that this was happening. He was like a raging bull. You wouldn’t think it could happen. I’ve never heard language like it. The whole thing has been horrendous. It’s had an affect on all of us.”

Restaurant worker Lindsey Adedoyin, 33, said she had struggled to sleep and was unable to work for months after her children and partner were threatened. She said: “I keep having panic attacks and it took me almost a year to get back to work. I kept thinking I saw him in the street – even though he moved away – and I worried about the children playing outside. I had nightmares about it for ages. I still feel shaken.”

She said she noticed a change in her children, particularly her son, now 11. “He always used to be really outgoing but now he holds everything in. I’ve seen a difference in him; the way he is with his friends.”

Maitland admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear and causing racially aggravated fear of violence during the incident on August 10 last year. Prosecutor David Watson said when police arrived he told them: “I am BNP, that’s my choice,” but later denied being a member of the right wing party in interview.

Michael Maher, defending, said Maitland was “essentially all mouth” with “no bite.” He said he had since lost his house, his Hackney taxi licence and feared being separated from his children.

Julie Maitland, who admitted common assault, received a community order with 12 months supervision and was ordered to attend a human dignity probation programme. She wept and shouted “I love you” as her husband was led away.

Mrs Durking said her family were upset by the sentences. She said: “We can’t help thinking if this had been an 18-year-old lad waving a gun and shouting racial abuse he would have gone away for a lot longer.”

Victims of racial abuse can call the Knowsley Ethnic Minority Support Group on 07890 948 912.

Liverpool Echo

Wirral BNP supporter admits threatening female shopworkers during far-right march

2009-07-08T13:42:00.000+01:00

A BNP sympathiser has admitted threatening staff at a bookshop during a far-right march. Liam Pinkham, 21, was taking part in a BNP march through Liverpool city centre when he burst into the News from Nowhere community bookshop on Bold Street.

Liverpool crown court was told the skinhead was dressed in stereotypical far-right clothing, including a bomber jacket and jack boots and was abusive to the two women workers inside. They claimed he threatened to “burn down the shop”.

Pinkham yesterday admitted intentionally causing harassment, although his barrister Philip Astbury insisted he had only threatened to “shut down the shop”.

Pinkham, of Leeswood Road, Woodchurch, Wirral, had originally been charged with criminal damage and racially aggravated intentional harassment, but he pleaded to the lesser charge on the day his trial was due to start.

Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, told the court Pinkham’s victims were extremely frightened of giving evidence and his pleas were acceptable.

Mr Astbury said Pinkham had now moved away from supporting the party. He said: “This was a fairly radical establishment which was obviously anti the organisation with which the defendant sympathised with.” He added: “He has tried to take himself away from that sphere of interest.”

The court heard Pinkham had been subject to a community order at the time of the incident on November 29 last year. Judge Bryn Holloway said: “On any view this was an extremely unpleasant incident.”

He adjourned sentencing until July 31.

Liverpool Echo

BNP activist rebailed over 'racist leaflets'

2009-07-08T13:41:00.000+01:00

A BNP activist whose name was put to alleged racist leaflets distributed in Lancashire has been rebailed by police probing the incident. Tony Bamber (right), aged 53, of Greenbank Street in Plungington, Preston, was arrested late last year on suspicion of the publication and distribution of written material intended to stir up racial hatred, and the possession of racially inflammatory material.

It has now emerged three other men arrested over the distribution of leaflets in Lancashire which alleged Muslims were responsible for the heroin trade, will not be prosecuted. However, Bamber must answer bail again later this month.

More than 3,000 anti-Muslim leaflets were distributed in Tulketh, Preston, and in the Lancashire villages of Great Eccleston, St Michael's and Chipping, as well as Burnley.

Supporters of the British National Party, including leader Nick Griffin, demonstrated outside Burnley's police station last November following dawn raids which they described as "Gestapo-like". The BNP said two of four men held in the raids were BNP members in the local area.

The leaflet urged people to "heap condemnation" on Muslims and said they should "apologise" over claims they were responsible for 95% of the world's heroin trade.

A photograph of 21-year-old Rachel Whitear - who was found dead holding a syringe at her flat in Exmouth, Devon, in May 2000 - accompanied the literature. Miss Whitear's mother, Pauline Holcroft, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, later told the Lancashire Evening Post she was furious and condemned the way it referred to heroin addicts as "nasty pathetic parasites".

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "A 41-year-old man from Nelson, a 44-year-old man from Darwen and a 57-year-old man from Nelson were all arrested on suspicion of the publication and distribution of written material intended to stir up racial hatred, and the possession of racially inflammatory material. However, they have now been told they will not face prosecution."

She added a 53-year-old man from Preston arrested on suspicion of the same offences was rebailed until later this month.

Lancashire Evening Post

BNP Leader: Don't Say You're With Us

2009-07-08T13:37:00.000+01:00

British National Party members have been accused of being ashamed of themselves after their leader told them to hide their support for the controversial group.

In an email to members and supporters, party chairman Nick Griffin told them to "try and avoid" owning up to being BNP supporters when writing to complain about the treatment of two activists.

An emailed newsletter, entitled "Adam Walker needs our help" seeks donations and calls for letters of complaint in support of teachers Adam and Mark Walker who have stood as BNP candidates in elections.

Adam Walker, described by the BNP as a 'super activist', is accused of religious intolerance by the General Teaching Council (GTC) and could be struck off the teaching register if found guilty. He left Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland in 2007 after it was alleged he used a school laptop to contribute racist and religiously intolerant views to online discussions during lessons.

His brother Mark, lost an appeal against his sacking from Sunnydale College, Shildon, County Durham after being accused of accessing the BNP's website during school hours.

Mr Griffin, who was elected as MEP for the North West region in June, calls on BNP supporters to email or telephone the GTC to protest about fascist harrasment", but without admitting their political affiliation.

"We need all our supporters to contact the General Teaching Council and protest in the most determined way," he says. "When complaining, please be articulate, polite and sensible and try and avoid stating that you are a BNP supporter."

Former Education Secretary David Blunkett said Mr Griffin's comments show that BNP members are ashamed of themselves. "It's not surprising that decent people are ashamed of the BNP when the BNP have demonstrated very clearly by this that they are ashamed of themselves," he said.

Sky News

Protestors - "Brit Muslims are all extremists"

2009-07-07T10:16:00.000+01:00

The far right group responsible for Saturday’s demo against Islamic extremism in Birmingham has revealed its opposition to all Muslims practising their faith in Britain. In an interview with Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg on Talksport last night, spokesman Paul Ray also admitted their links with the BNP.

As we revealed yesterday, the protest was organised by the English (and Welsh) Defence League.

Despite the group’s claim to be non-political, it’s emerged on Indymedia that their website was set up by Chris Renton, a BNP activist who lives in Weston-super-Mare.

When EDL spokesman Ray was quizzed about this, he acknowledged Renton’s involvement, but insisted, “people’s political views are their own affair.”

During the course of the interview, it became apparent that Ray’s own view of Islamic extremism isn’t limited to suicide bombers and hook handed preachers of hate.

He argued that the Qu’ran teaches all its advocates to wage jihad or holy war in non-Muslim countries, and acknowledged that on this basis, all devout or practising Muslims in Britain, are – in his words – “at war with our country.”

When pressed, he said: “They’re ultimately engaged in converting our country to an Islamic state…that is the religious mandate of the Qu’ran that all Muslims must adhere too.”

So what of Muslims living here? Should they be banned from practising their faith – or would be they be deported?

“That’s a question for the politicians…” replied Ray, who was once investigated for 18 months by police in Bedford for allegedly inciting racial hatred on his blog Lionheart – although he was never formally charged.

He boasted that the Birmingham demonstration – and a similar event in London’s Whitechapel on the same day – marked the beginning of a new movement.

“This is only the start of people coming together to fight back against Islamic extremists on the streets”.

With the group planning a further visit to Brum on August 8, it will be interesting to see what action – if any – the Police take.

Inciting religious hatred is, of course, a crime – and an organisation which claims that every active member of a mainstream religion is waging a battle against their own country is, at best, flirting with the limits of free speech.

The Stirrer

Anti Muslim protestors demo in Brum

2009-07-06T01:06:00.000+01:00

Dozens of far right anti-Muslim protestors disrupted shoppers in the shadow of Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre on Saturday afternoon, but were contained by a sizeable police presence. The hatemongers are promising to return on August 8 to whip up more ill will.

The protest appears to have been organised by – and certainly involved members of – the English Defence League which was also occupied with another demo on the same day in London’s cosmopolitan Whitechapel district.

This shadowy group first emerged on the streets of Britain last month when they turned up on in Luton to register their disapproval at the barracking of homecoming British troops by a small number of local Muslims.

There’s also a linked Facebook called the English and Welsh Defence League which – like the EDL - claims to have no political affiliation, but nevertheless claims that “Labour have done a fine job destroying our country”.

They make the the curious claim that “racism will not be tolerated in this group”.

In distinct contrast to the BNP’s attempt to give fascism a moderate face, these supposedly peaceful protestors have the look of hooligan boot boys – and indeed there have been suggestions of links with football gangs.

Chants of “No Surrender To The IRA”, “We Want Our Country Back”, “Allah Is A Christian”, “We Want Muslims Out”, and “Lets Go Fucking Mental” do nothing to dispel the image of a few footy firms coming together to cause mayhem in the close season.

The Facebook group is now advertising a further “meeting” in Birmingham on August 8 at 6pm.

The Stirrer

Bomb seizures spark far-right terror plot fear

2009-07-05T00:04:00.000+01:00

A network of suspected far-right extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter-terrorism detectives.

Thirty-two people have been questioned in a police operation that raises the prospect of a right-wing bombing campaign against mosques. Police are said to have recovered a British National party membership card and other right-wing literature during a raid on the home of one suspect charged under the Terrorism Act.

In England’s largest seizure of a suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s, rocket launchers, grenades, pipe bombs and dozens of firearms have been recovered in the past six weeks during raids on more than 20 properties. Several people have been charged and more arrests are imminent. Current police activity is linked to arrests in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Police are examining allegations that many of the guns were manufactured or reactivated, then sold over the internet to viewers of a right-wing website. Details of the previously secret operation were disclosed by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, to security officials.

Police sources say that in a recent case not linked to the current arrests, detectives seized maps and plans of mosques from the homes of suspected far-right supporters. A senior Whitehall official said MI5 was monitoring the police investigation. While the security agency did not have a brief to probe right-wing terrorism, that position was constantly under review, said the official.

Fears have been heightened by the discovery of an alleged plot involving ricin, a lethal poison; two men have been been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act.

Concerns that this might be part of a global trend have been reinforced by the case of James Von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist charged with shooting dead a security guard at the Holocaust museum in America last month.

Bettison said 32 people had been arrested in the investigation, although the counter-terrorism unit in Leeds said this figure was in fact the number of people questioned. At least 22 properties have been searched.

The operation had thrown up evidence that suspects were communicating online.

“The internet gives it reach and scope,” said Bettison. “The big bad wolf is still the Al- Qaeda threat. But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn’t first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.”

Several alleged right-wing extremists have been charged with terrorism offences in the UK in the past year. In one case, a jury convicted Martyn Gilleard, 31, a neo-Nazi forklift truck driver, who wanted to “secure a future for white children” and kept explosives at his flat in Goole, East Yorkshire. He built small hand-held bombs, and among the material seized were membership cards for the National Front, the British People’s party and the White Nationalist party. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

In 1999, David Copeland, the so-called London nail bomber, carried out a campaign against black, Asian and gay communities. His home-made devices each included up to 1,500 4in nails. In his final attack Copeland killed three people, including a pregnant woman, after nail bombing a Soho pub. He got a life sentence for murder.

Far-right parties across Europe are growing in popularity. In last month’s European elections, the BNP won two seats for the first time in Yorkshire and the northwest and took 6.2% of the national vote.

Sunday Times

Norwich North by-election

2009-07-02T11:34:00.001+01:00

The BNP's candidate, The Holy Hypocrite

The Norwich North by-election has been called for Thursday July 23rd. The known candidates so far are:

Thomas BURRIDGE (Libertarian)
Bill HOLDEN (Independent)
Alan HOPE (Official Monster Raving Loony)
Craig MURRAY (Independent)
Chris OSTROWSKI (Labour)
April POND (Liberal Democrat)
Rupert READ (Green)
Chloe SMITH (Conservative)
Glenn TINGLE (UK Independence)
Robert WEST (BNP)

The BNP's strange decision to nominate the slippery "Reverend" West has been something of a gift to Norfolk anti-fascists. His refusal to come clean regarding the validity of his alleged ordination is already being discussed in the local press, and we expect the matter to be persued by television journalists if the BNP allows their candidate to go before the cameras.

In Norwich North the BNP will be looking to save its deposit. Anything else would be a bonus, bolstering the party's premature claim to have broken into the mainstream.

The only occasion on which the BNP tested the electoral waters in the area was in the June County Council elections, when local organiser Julia Howman stood in Sprowston, coming last but with 6.67% of the vote (UKIP polled 19.11%). Anti-fascist campaigners will be attempting to keep the BNP's vote below the 5% required to save its deposit.

Questions have been raised concerning the political past of UKIP candidate Glenn Tingle. Rumours have been planted (by BNP members we must stress) that Tingle was once a National Front activist in Norwich. Though UKIP supporters have denied the rumour, to date we have yet to hear Mr Tingle make a direct refutation. Verifiable information on the truth of the rumour is welcomed, but we do not intend to repeat anything not backed by concrete fact.

The campaign against the BNP in Norwich North is being organised by Norfolk HOPE not hate and Norwich Trades Council. If you can help out on the ground please contact the campaign via the main HOPE not hate website, the Norwich Trade Council website, or the Norfolk HOPE not hate blog. Other local websites that will be covering the by-election and supporting the anti-fascist campaign are Norfolk Unity and Great Yarmouth HOPE not hate.

Doubts over BNP man's title claims

2009-06-30T11:30:00.001+01:00

There was confusion last night over whether Norwich North's British National Party (BNP) candidate has the credentials to call himself “reverend”.

The Rev Robert West is at the centre of a row over his ministerial moniker, which he claimed was genuine - even though he admitted he had no current connection to any Christian denomination.

When questioned, Mr West, who lives in Holbeach in Lincolnshire, said: “It's been dealt with once and I don't have to justify myself.”

He said he had explained himself and shown his ordination certificate on a TV show in recent months, and said he had been advised “not to go through it all again”.

He said he had been “ordained as an elder” of the Apostolic Church of Wales some years ago. He claimed the word “elder” in the New Testament came from a Greek word meaning “priest”.

Mr West, who will be bidding to win the vacant Norwich North seat once the by-election date has been announced, said: “Ordination means recognition. It's simply recognition of what you are. It recognises your gifts.”

Meanwhile, UKIP leader Nigel Farrage was in Norwich yesterday outlining how his party planned to reach out to traditional Labour voters and Tories disenchanted with David Cameron's Conservative Party.

Norwich Evening News

The Way Forward

2009-06-29T16:52:00.001+01:00

With the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament Nick Lowles looks at where the anti-BNP campaign goes from here

There are three clear facts that need to be remembered at the outset of this article. The first is that the British National Party has won two seats in the European Parliament. This provides it with the platform, financial clout and semi-respectability from which it hopes to build future success at a local and even parliamentary level over the coming year. Secondly, their election is a game changer. Debates around no platform, access to the media and political representation will change whether we like it or not and we will need to adapt accordingly. Finally, and in terms of this article probably most importantly, anti-fascism can be successful particularly if it becomes more organised. While I will argue that only by addressing the public policy issues that give rise to the BNP and challenging the racism at the core of its support can the far right be properly defeated, anti-fascism, particularly at a local level, can halt and even reverse its growth.

It is also important to dispel two widely (though separately) held assumptions. Firstly, this is not the protest vote against mainstream parties and useless locally elected representatives that many politicians would like us to believe. It is an increasingly hard and loyal vote which is based on political and economic insecurities and moulded by deep-rooted racial prejudice. This in turn is linked with a second myth, that the way to beat the BNP is simply to tack left and offer more socialistic policies. While this might peel off some BNP supporters who feel economically marginalised, it will not in itself address the strongly held racist views of many BNP voters.

As the YouGov poll (see below) clearly shows, the racism of many BNP voters goes well beyond simple opposition to current immigration and eastern European migrant workers which one might expect if their support for the BNP was prompted simply by economic insecurity. Belief in the intellectual superiority of white people over non-whites, the view of nearly half of BNP voters that black and Asian people can never be British, the almost universal dislike of even moderate Islam and the contempt and suspicion many of their voters have towards a liberal and multicultural society show how hardline much of the BNP support is and how it will take more than a more progressive economic policy to win them back fully.

More importantly, and regularly overlooked by politicians, activists and commentators alike, are issues around identity. As I have discussed before, the BNP is emerging as the voice of a forgotten working class, which increasingly feels left behind and ignored by mainstream society. As the YouGov research confirms, the majority of BNP voters feel that the Labour Party, for many their traditional political home, has moved away from them and is now dominated by a middle-class London elite who care more for Middle England and the interests of minority groups than for them.

Class politics exists but not as we once knew it. The Labour Party, in line with many other centre-left parties across western European and Scandinavia, draws the bulk of its support from the middle class, public sector workers and minority communities, especially in the big cities. The BNP, on the other hand, is the voice of a section of the white working class, particularly in those areas of traditional industry that have experienced the greatest economic and social upheaval over the past twenty years.

Most of the local authorities with the biggest BNP vote are in areas once dominated by the car, steel, coal or ceramic industries. All have gone, and those people able to leave have left. While some new jobs have replaced those lost, the work is generally lower skilled, short-term and further away from their home. In addition to economic difficulties the identity of the areas has collapsed, leaving behind a confused, resentful and alienated minority. This is the cultural war that the BNP has cleverly exploited, particularly by tapping in to people’s paranoia that outside forces are deliberately conspiring against them and giving preferential treatment to others (viewed by most BNP voters as undeserving).

However, all is not lost. While the BNP vote edged up it did not make the sweeping gains it and others predicted. The vast majority of voters still reject the BNP and many of those equally disillusioned with the political process did not vote BNP but stayed at home.

Addressing the widespread economic insecurities, solving the democratic deficit and forging new progressive identities requires public policy changes that are beyond the remit of the HOPE not hate campaign and anti-fascism generally. We can mobilise the anti-BNP vote and even sometimes suppress the pro-BNP vote but we cannot build houses and reduce waiting lists; we cannot prevent undercutting of wages and the abuse of migrant workers. Local anti-fascist movements cannot get resources into communities, often the poorest, dealing with extraordinary levels of migration.

That is the job of politicians and political parties. It is their failure currently to do so that is resulting in the increasing tribalism of local politics along racial and religious lines.

Making a difference

What we can do, however, is make a difference on the ground. And we do. Results in several local authority areas in the European elections showed the BNP vote (both actual and share of the vote) down compared to 2004. Among these areas were Burnley, Pendle and Oldham in the North West, Bradford and Kirklees in West Yorkshire, and Sandwell and Dudley in the West Midlands.

A common factor in all these areas has been the intensity of local anti-BNP campaigns, which has been all year round and not just a leaflet at an election.

And this sets the model for the year ahead. We will go into the 2010 local elections with an emboldened and financially secure BNP and we believe the number of council wards at risk is now over 150 across the country. The BNP’s main target will be Barking and Dagenham where it will be looking to take control of the council.

To fight the BNP effectively we must move away from city and town centre events to focusing on the very communities where the BNP is drawing its support. We need to return to localised leaflets and newsletters, tapping into the local identities of neighbourhoods and addressing local issues to undermine the BNP’s message of hate.

Smaller, local events are more important than one-off larger ones. The recent anti-racist carnival in Stoke-on-Trent might have been attended by 15,000 people but was it really the best use of £300,000? Even the carnival the year before, in Hackney, might have been attracted 60,000, but what impact does it have on the London hotspots such as Barking and Dagenham and Havering?

The effort required to put on and build such an event drains and diverts activism away from local campaigning, which will be the priority in 2010. Of course in the ideal world we would like both big national events and smaller local events, but where funds and activism are limited this is not possible.

A proper local strategy requires us to localise our campaigning. What works in one area will not work in another. Talking to principally Conservative voters requires a quite different leaflet to what would be put out in a traditionally Labour area. Localising our approach allows us to deal with local issues and also to target our message depending on what we are trying to achieve. And mobilising the anti-BNP vote is sometimes quite different from trying to suppress the BNP vote.

That is why the HOPE not hate campaign will be encouraging and supporting local groups to begin their own local anti-BNP newsletters. We hope that by starting this summer and focusing on the key wards for 2010 the newsletters will become a crucial tool to defeating the BNP at the ballot box.

To begin to undermine local BNP support we also have to build alliances within the community. Local anti-BNP groups need to be accepted and even respected. Every community has key movers and shakers and spending a bit of time cultivating relationships with these people will open new opportunities, allow our message to be widened considerably, potentially increase our activist base and give us a regular flow of information to rebut BNP myths and lies.

We also need to be cleverer in how we present our arguments. The YouGov survey shows the complete lack of respect BNP voters have towards authority – way beyond those of other parties. That means dogmatic or one dimensional arguments on anti-fascist leaflets are likely to fail.

We have to recognise that we might not always be the best messenger to get over an argument. One of the most successful leaflets we have ever produced was in Halifax where we got quotes from local doctors and pensioners to dismiss BNP claims that asylum seekers were forcing old people off GP lists and causing hospital operations to be cancelled. The strength of getting other people to speak up for us, particularly those respected by local people, is also evident from the survey. Local GPs, at 82%, came out as the most trusted professionals among BNP voters.

A new reality

We also have to accept that the political landscape has shifted. Searchlight comes from a proud tradition of No Platform, a belief that fascism should not be allowed to air its politics of hate publicly. We have always opposed legitimising fascism through public debate and where fascists try to incite hatred within communities through provocative marches and actions, we have backed mobilisations against them.

While I still adhere to this in principle I also believe that we have to accept a new reality. Firstly the BNP has MEPs and whether we like it or not Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons will appear more regularly on television. No platform agreements between political parties were already breaking down before the election, with only Labour holding to them, and this process is likely to quicken now.

Likewise, we also have to change our tactics on the streets. The hammer attack on a BNP activist in Leigh, Greater Manchester, in March was an unmitigated disaster. When we learnt about the BNP’s intention to hold a fundraising event in a local nightclub we got almost 5,000 people, including 400 from the local area, to sign an open letter from a local vicar calling for the event to be cancelled. Our pressure proved successful but what should have been a great media story, showing the strength of people power against the BNP, became three days of appallingly negative local headlines after an anti-fascist struck a BNP member in the head with a hammer.

Our response to any BNP activity is a tactical issue. Just as we always consider what is possible, so we have to think about the possible outcomes. With large chunks of local people supporting the BNP something that gives the party media sympathy is often counter-productive. In a 24-hour-communica-tions world every small event that in the past would have gone unreported can be headline news on television, the radio and on the internet within minutes.

With the BNP leaders far more politically savvy than in the past it is not difficult for them to spin a story to their advantage.

There is also a need for an honest debate about the use of rallies, marches and pickets. While one could argue that it is important continually to oppose the BNP gaining any legitimacy, such protests are increasingly ineffective and, probably more importantly, a distraction from the real work required in the communities.

The reality is that most people other than a few highly motivated activists will not come out on a regular basis. Continually chasing the BNP uses up their time when there is more serious but perhaps less glamorous work to be done in local communities. Again, people might say that we should do both. That may be the ideal but it is not the reality and choices have to be made. We have to prioritise our agenda rather than continually react to the BNP’s. Obviously there will be times when mobilisations are important but this cannot be a distraction from the real work at hand.

Moving forward

Over the next few months our priority is to build anti-fascist groups in every community in the country. Over 115,000 people have engaged in some activity for the HOPE not hate campaign. That’s an incredible one in 470 adults in Britain. Over 80,000 people have signed our “Not in my name” petition since the election, of which over 60,000 were completely new to us.

This shows the level of anger at the BNP success, but now we need to harness it in a positive and constructive way that helps us build the necessary networks that can defeat the BNP in the community.

Our initial job is to turn our online supporters into activists on the ground. Hopefully some will emerge as local organisers, committed to the localised strategy ahead. Old hands must be encouraged to support new organisers and we will be providing an organising and leadership programme in every region of the country.

A series of one-day training events will be held to give key activists from local groups the basics in running a local campaign group, working in a target ward and building alliances within the community.

From there a handful of the most enthusiastic local organisers will be invited to a three-day residential programme, to be held in the late autumn, where they will develop leadership and organisational skills.

Developing a pool of local organisers is the way to ensure good quality campaigns. Whatever the enthusiasm of local activists a lack of organising skills and the ability to localise campaigns effectively will result in continued reliance on national help, which in turn reduces the effectiveness of a local campaign.

To support local groups, particularly in the run-up to next year’s local and probable general election, the HOPE not hate campaign will be seeking to put trained organisers on the ground in each region of the country.

The work of local groups will be further supported by an even bigger online effort than we achieved this year. Through online telephone canvassing, supporters across the country will be able to help in our key battlegrounds from their front rooms. Matching groups and activists in one part of country where there is no BNP threat to an area where there is one can help us raise money for local material.

Remaining focused

The BNP success has led some to argue that we need to politicise anti-fascism, even to offer a political alternative to the BNP. While there are clearly public policy failings and a democratic deficit, it is not our job to fill this void. We must leave that to the political parties, old or new.

We are about defeating the BNP, both by turning out those voters totally opposed to their racist politics and by dispelling myths and challenging the assumptions and ignorance that give rise to BNP support.

We have a big job to do but it can be done. The work on anti-BNP campaigns in East Lancashire, Oldham, the Black Country and West Yorkshire is testament to that.

However, for us to defeat the BNP over the coming year requires hard work, building local broad-based coalitions, adapting to the new realities and being a little bit smarter than we have been before. Get these components right and we can hold the BNP at bay.

A hard and alienated vote

Who votes BNP and why

A new survey into the attitudes of BNP voters has produced some startling revelations. Unsurprisingly BNP voters are overwhelmingly opposed to immigration and asylum seekers but a sizeable number also share the BNP’s hardline attitudes about citizenship and racial superiority.

It shows that BNP voters are predominantly working class, drawn from former Labour-voting households and feel more insecure about their economic prospects.

Conducted by YouGov from 29 May to 4 June, the survey questioned 985 BNP voters as part of a much bigger study of the political views of 32,268 people.

The study tells us that men are twice as likely to support the BNP as women, 44% of BNP voters are aged 35 to 54 and 61% are drawn from the social groups C2DE. One third of BNP voters read The Sun or the Daily Star, whereas only 13% read the Daily Mirror and those reading The Guardian and The Independent are statistically insignificant. One fifth claim to be members of trade unions or trade associations and 36% identify themselves as skilled or semi-skilled manual workers.

On one level the report tells us little new. More BNP supporters regard immigration as one of the key issues facing the country at the moment – 87% compared to 49% among all voters. Again unsurprisingly, 94% of BNP supporters believed that all further immigration should be halted. This compares with 87% of UK Independence Party voters, 68% of Conservative voters, 46% of Labour voters, 43% of Lib Dem voters and even 37% of Green voters.

Only 4% of BNP voters believed that recent immigration had benefited the country.

What is more startling is the strength of the racial attitudes of many BNP voters. In a result that gives the lie to the BNP vote simply being a protest, 44% (compared to 12% of all voters) disagreed with the statement: “non-white British citizens who were born in this country are just as ‘British’ as white citizens born in this country”.

Among BNP voters 21% strongly disagreed with the statement compared to just 1% of Greens and Lib Dems and 2% of Labour and 3% of Conservative voters.

More disturbingly, 31% of BNP voters believed there was a difference in intelligence between the average black Briton and the average white Briton.

Although only 2% of BNP voters deny that six million Jews, Gypsies and others died in the Holocaust, a further 18% accept that the Holocaust occurred but believe it has been exaggerated.

It is clear that the BNP receives support primarily on issues of race, immigration and identity but there is also a clear link with economic insecurity. Several of the questions probed respondents’ views on their current and future economic prospects. BNP voters repeatedly had the most gloomy outlook.

When asked whether they were satisfied that they had enough money to live on comfortably, 74% of BNP voters said no, compared to just 43% of Labour and 50% of Conservative voters.

On whether they were confident that their family would have the opportunities to prosper in the years ahead, 75% of BNP voters said no compared to just 35% of Labour voters.

Over half of BNP voters felt the financial situation of their house- hold would worsen over the next 12 months. In contrast only 29% of Labour voters agreed and 27% thought it would get better.

Again, more BNP voters thought someone in their family would lose their job in the current recession than supporters of other parties.

One of the most startling results was the response to the statement that “there is a major international conspiracy led by Jews and Communists to undermine traditional Christian values in Britain and other western countries”. Amazingly one third of BNP voters completely or partially agreed.

However, the significance of this response actually lies in the feeling of victimisation felt by many BNP supporters and cleverly exploited by the BNP itself. The view that they are losing out because of the conscious action of others is widespread among BNP supporters and it comes out clearly in this survey. Over three quarters of BNP voters believed that white people suffered unfair discrimination whereas only 3% thought Muslims did. Nine out of ten BNP supporters felt that councils allowed immigrant families to jump housing queues.

This feeling of victimisation coupled with a widespread belief that the Labour Party, which most once supported, at best no longer cares about them and at worst conspires against them makes these voters susceptible to the BNP’s big lie. It is hardly a surprise then that so many people in Barking and Dagenham were happy to believe the Africans for Essex myth.

Think of the balance of forces. On one side you have the Labour Party (which 57% of BNP voters think no longer cares about them), politicians (who 78% of BNP voters think are corrupt), senior officers in the council (who only 1% of BNP voters trust a great deal) and immigrants (who 87% of BNP supporters think are a problem and only 4% believe contribute anything positive). Then you have the BNP, the anti-establishment party speaking up for the forgotten white working class.

This survey is both predictable and disturbing. While immigration remains the dominant issue for BNP voters it is clear that they more than any other group feel economically insecure and politically abandoned. What is shocking is the depth of their racism and the alienation from mainstream politics. Support for the BNP goes far beyond being a protest, as some politicians would have us believe, and the racist attitudes will not disappear simply by improving economic conditions.

We should be under no illusion that a long and hard struggle lies ahead.

What do you think?

We are opening up the August issue of Searchlight to find out your views on the way forward. Please restrict articles to 500 words and get them to me nick@stopthebnp.org.uk by 10 July. (Please note that space is limited and we cannot guarantee to publish every article.)

Nick Lowles, Searchlight

Prosecutors press for action against BNP leaflets

2009-06-29T00:08:00.000+01:00

• Pressure mounts for end to race hate law loopholes
• CPS powerless to pursue complaints made by police

Senior prosecutors are calling for the laws on race hate crimes to be strengthened to counter the threat posed by the British National party.

The threshold for securing a conviction is so high that far-right activists are able to evade prosecution for material that many people would consider to be threatening and racist, according to sources at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Prosecutors blame the lack of convictions on the strict legal test, which requires showing an intention to "stir up racial hatred" or a likelihood that racial tension would be stirred up.

The offence, which was created under the Public Order Act, only applies to acts that take place or are witnessed in public so it does not cover leaflets that are pushed through people's letter boxes. It also offers no protection against the publication of inaccurate or false information.

Several BNP leaflets have been referred to the CPS over the last five years – some by senior police officers and one by a judge – but no further action has been taken.

Peter Herbert, the chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers and a part-time judge, submitted a complaint last year over a leaflet called The Changing Face of London that had two pictures, one depicting an all-white street party from the 1950s, the other showing three Muslim women wearing a niqab, one of whom is making a V-sign towards the camera.

"Under the law, it has been extremely difficult to mount a prosecution against extremism and hate speech," said Herbert. "But with the rise of the BNP, and the subsequent rise in racist attacks and the fear the party's leaflets can provoke, it is essential we are given the tools to deal effectively with this threat."

Herbert said the law should protect people from material that creates a fear of racist attacks as well as those that are deemed to incite racial hatred. "All the evidence suggests that it is people from minority communities and the faith communities that are put in fear of violence when racist leaflets are delivered in town centres or on estates. If someone handed out the same thing in the workplace, most employers would consider that gross misconduct; if someone does the same thing in the street, there is very little we can do."

Another complaint was submitted to the CPS by Lancashire police who expressed concern about a BNP leaflet which blamed Muslims for the heroin trade. Four people were arrested and released on police bail last year but detectives are still waiting to hear from the CPS about whether they have grounds to prosecute for "incitement to stir up racial hatred".

In another incident, Derbyshire police alerted the CPS about a BNP election leaflet claiming three asylum seekers had raped a woman. The police said the rape claims were "unfounded", but the CPS said there were no grounds to prosecute under existing law. "Whilst those details in the leaflet regarding the alleged rape are factually incorrect, this in itself does not constitute a criminal offence," said a CPS spokesman at the time.

A senior prosecutor told the Guardian: "There are numerous problems. The test to show incitement is very high and the material has to be distributed in public rather than put through people's doors. This makes it really difficult to get convictions for material which many people consider racist."

A CPS source confirmed that the organisation would review its policies on prosecuting race hate crimes following the election of two BNP candidates, including the party's leader, Nick Griffin, to the European parliament.

"We will need to look again at the situation with prosecuting incidences of this material," the source said.

Last week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the official watchdog on race and equality, wrote a formal letter to the BNP giving them one month to remedy three alleged breaches of the Race Relations Act, including the party's whites-only membership policy.

That announcement increased the likelihood of legal action against the BNP in the civil courts, but critics say there have been too few criminal proceedings, despite material distributed by the party which many regard as inflammatory.

Herbert, the former chair of the Metropolitan police race hate crime forum, said a number of anti-racism and human rights bodies would back a change in the law.

"I expect a strong coalition will form around this idea and put pressure on the government to instigate a change in primary legislation as soon as possible," he said.

Anti-racism campaigners welcomed the crackdown on inflammatory or racist leaflets but warned more was needed to effectively counter the threat posed by the BNP.

"Where the BNP has been distributing racially offensive material, it is right that they should be prosecuted with the full force of the law," said a spokesman for the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight. "However, the way we will defeat Nick Griffin and his party is street by street and estate by estate, not lawyer by lawyer and courtroom by courtroom."

The Guardian

Have you faced discrimination? Your MEP, Nick Griffin, wants to pretend you have

2009-06-29T00:06:00.000+01:00

High-minded notions of rooting out Euro-sleaze voiced by Nick Griffin at his oh-so-lucky election as an MEP already seem to have been forgotten as the Cyclopic one elects to tread more familiar BNP turf, and takes for his first "case" that of a "24 year-old former prison service employee" who attended a Fire Service recruitment open evening in Oldham, and who, according to a posting made by Griffin on his shiny new website, was sent away because "the gentleman concerned was white and he along with around 20 other white males and one white female were told that the fire service were only targeting people from the ethnic minorities and the gay community, and they were sent away and dismissed from the recruitment process".

Even on a first reading this seems improbable, and on a second impossible. If this had actually happened there would have been a clear breach of the law on the part of Greater Manchester Fire And Rescue Service, which covers Oldham, and GMFRS's representatives would have been reduced to making snap judgements on the ethnicity of the attendees, as well as improperly inquiring after their sexual orientation.

Can you imagine the justifiable uproar, the outraged Daily Mail headlines?

So far the outrage seems confined to Griffin's office manager, Tina Wingfield, who fulminates: “This is a worrying case of positive discrimination gone mad. Here we have an ideal applicant for the job of firefighter but he was barred from even applying because he is a white hetrosexual. This is a shocking state of affairs and that needs to be addressed.”

What needs to be addressed is the BNP's relationship with the truth.

An amused GMFRS spokesperson told us there was not the remotest possibility of any person being "sent away and dismissed from the recruitment process" because they happened to be white heterosexuals. He agreed that not only would such a move be negative and counter-productive, it would be a public relations disaster. The idea that this happened to 22 white heterosexuals at an informal open evening in Oldham was "ridiculous".

Nick's first Euro lie nailed?

Croydon Council looks to take action over BNP member's sick boast

2009-06-26T10:07:00.000+01:00

Croydon Council is looking to see whether it can take a BNP member to court after she boasted about mounting a hate campaign against a family of immigrants living in the flat above her.

Charlotte Lewis, who earlier this year stood as a candidate in the Waddon by-election, told a meeting of British National Party members she played loud music late into the night - which may have contributed to the Afghan family moving out. The comments were made at a meeting in east London to celebrate the party's showing in the recent European elections.

Addressing party members at a pub in Dagenham, she said: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal at 1am."

When the Advertiser asked the 36-year-old, who lives in Bensham Lane, Thornton Heath, to explain the comments, Ms Lewis said she had "embellished" the story for the sake of her audience. But she added: "I'm of the opinion that none of them should be in this country anyway. It would be in the best interests of this country if they moved back to Afghanistan. If British people were to move in upstairs I would keep the noise down."

Asked if she had made any efforts to get to know her neighbours, Ms Lewis added: "That would be hypocritical, and I'm not hypocritical. What on earth would we speak about, even if they could speak English? They're immigrants in my country and I'm a member of the BNP."

Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks - a patron of the West Croydon Refugee Centre - said he was appalled at her remarks. He said: "If she admits that she made the comments, it's a really extraordinary thing. It's clearly anti-social behaviour and the idea that someone could be considered for elected public service after admitting this kind of anti-social behaviour is bizarre. It shows the good sense of the people of Waddon for not voting for her."

Councillor Alison Butler, who represents the Bensham Manor ward where Ms Lewis lives, was equally disgusted by her bragging. She said: "I'm going to see if there's any action we (Croydon Council) can take. I'm just horrified at her despicable remarks, I just wish we'd heard about it sooner."

Gavin Barwell, the council's cabinet member for safety and cohesion, has asked officers to investigate what steps they can take against her under anti-social behaviour laws. He said: "I share Councillor Butler's concerns and will be looking into it. I view it very seriously, and I'm taking advice from officers about whether there is any legal action we can take."

This is Croydon

Going West

2009-06-25T15:21:00.005+01:00

While leading members of the BNP are afforded the luxury of having themselves pelted with eggs, those lower down the ranks are only thought worthy of cheaper alternatives.

In the case of the BNP's Norwich North by-election candidate this was a jug of iced water expertly flung at pretend prelate the "Reverend" Robert West by an irate housewife in North Hykeham, Lincs, when West - sporting his trademark dog-collar - came calling on behalf of the racist party.

The incident happened in 2006, soon after West resigned from a Conservative Party about to expel him for speaking at BNP meetings and for his role in setting up the BNP's bogus "Christian Council of Britain".

The unnamed housewife later told the Lincolnshire Echo: "He was wearing a dog collar so I asked him whether he was a real reverend. He refused to enter into a debate about it. I had the jug of iced water because I was preparing for friends who were visiting that day. I refuse to apologise. I have no remorse. If he comes here again I will empty a whole jug over his head."

The matter of whether West is a "real reverend" or not has exercised quite a number of people for quite some time, not least those who take a closer interest in religious affairs than the "Rev." West finds comfortable.

In the past West has refused to discuss the validity of his orders - that is, who ordained him, into which church, when and where? Without valid orders, West has no more right to call himself "Reverend" or to pass himself off as a clergyman than you or I.

There have been unsourced reports that West was ordained as an "Elder" into something calling itself the Apostolic Church, but the only legitimate existing British church of that name denied all knowledge of him, telling a researcher for the Love @nd Rage website:

First of all may I confirm that The Apostolic Church does not support the views or the activities of the British National Party. The Church has no political association whatsoever.

On the second matter I am uncertain about who is the Mr Robert West mentioned in the article. One thing is certain: he does not speak on behalf of The Apostolic Church. If this person lives in Lincolnshire he does not attend The Apostolic Church. In fact as a denomination we have no churches in Lincolnshire.

I note that he is quoted as being ‘ordained as an elder’ within the Church. If this person has had any association with The Apostolic Church in the past the only means by which he can maintain either his membership or office is by attending one of our churches. If he were an active member of the Church his views would not be accepted by the Church and disciplinary action would be undertaken by the Church which strongly distances itself from views such as these.

West operates - if that is the word - the Grace Covenant Fellowship from his Holbeach home, the "Fellowship" strongly suspected, like the "Christian Council of Britain", of having a membership of one.

Following the European elections West appeared on BBC television's "The Big Question", in company of ex-Nazi and ex-National Front leader, Andrew Brons. At the beginning of the show West was explictly challenged by Ekklesia director Jonathan Bartley to say how many members the CCB had, and not for the first time shied away from answering. Bartley told West in no uncertain terms that it had one, namely himself, to which West could only grimace lamely.

Back in April, however, on the East Midlands version of The Politics Show, West produced what he claimed to be a diploma from the Apostolic Church Bible College, located in Pen-y-groes, south Wales. An Apostolic college certainly exists in Pen-y-groes, and is indeed run by the Apostolic Church, a Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in the early 20th century. Its title, however, is Apostolic Church School of Ministry (ACSOM), previously the Apostolic Church International Bible School.

What is immediately apparent from its website is that ACSOM and the church to which it is attached are multi-cultural, multi-racial, and inclusive. Its members do not wear dog-collars, nor do they use the title "Reverend". And the last thing they will preach about is the "sin" of race-mixing.

Little wonder, then, that the church is keen to distance itself from the claims of the "Reverend" West.

As Jonathan Bartley asks of the well-watered "cleric": "Will any church come forward to claim him? Or is this another example of BNP deception?"

Well, the voters of Norwich North and Norfolk journalists are going to have every opportunity to find out the answer to Jonathan's question when West and his cohorts of decidedly unsaintly BNP hatemongers descend upon the Fine City in the near future.

Don't forget to ask: who ordained Robert West? Into which church? When? Where? And let's see his written orders, please.

BNP: Commission takes action over potential breach of race discrimination law

2009-06-23T11:27:00.000+01:00

The EHRC has today written to BNP over possible breaches of anti-discrimination law.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has today written to the British National Party over possible breaches of anti-discrimination law. The Commission has demanded that the party address potential breaches related to its constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to the public and constituents.

The letter, sent to the party chairman Nick Griffin, outlines the Commission’s concerns about the BNP’s compliance with the Race Relations Act. The letter asks the BNP to provide written undertakings by 20th July that it will make the changes required by the Commission. Failure to do so may result in the Commission issuing an application for a legal injunction against the BNP.

The Commission has a statutory duty, under the Equality Act 2006, to enforce the provisions of the Act and to work towards the elimination of unlawful discrimination. This duty includes preventing discrimination by political parties.

The Commission thinks that the BNP’s constitution and membership criteria may discriminate on the grounds of race and colour, contrary to the Race Relations Act. The party’s membership criteria appear to restrict membership to those within what the BNP regards as particular “ethnic groups” and those whose skin colour is white. This exclusion is contrary to the Race Relations Act which the party is legally obliged to comply with. The Commission therefore thinks that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally.

The Commission has required the BNP to provide a written undertaking that it will not discriminate contrary to the Race Relations Act in its employment and recruitment policies, procedures and practices.

The BNP’s website states that the party is looking to recruit people and states that any applicants should supply a membership number. The Commission thinks that this requirement is contrary to the Race Relations Act, which outlaws the refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation. The Commission is therefore concerned that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally.

The letter asks the BNP to provide a written undertaking that it will amend its policy on recruitment accordingly so that it complies with the Race Relations Act.

The Commission is also concerned that the BNP’s elected representatives may not intend to offer or provide services on an equal basis to all their constituents and members of the public irrespective of race or colour. The Commission thinks that this contravenes the Race Relations Act and the Local Authority Model Code of Conduct and that the BNP may have acted illegally and may act illegally in the future.

The Commission’s letter asks the BNP to provide a written undertaking that its elected representatives or those working for them will not discriminate on grounds of race or colour in the provision of services to members of the public or constituents.

John Wadham, Group Director Legal at the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:

“The Commission’s statutory role includes a duty to investigate possible breaches of discrimination law and take action where appropriate. The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National Party’s constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold. We await a response from the BNP to our letter before deciding what further action we may take. Litigation or enforcement action can be avoided by the BNP giving a satisfactory response to our letter.”

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Four arrested at BNP rally

2009-06-21T00:53:00.000+01:00

Four people including a teenager have been arrested on suspicion of "racially aggravated" offences at the British National Party's 'Victory' rally in Lancashire.

The men, who are not believed to be connected to the party or anti-fascism protestors picketing the event, are being held by police after confronting protestors outside the Kimberley Hotel in Blackpool on Saturday. The four arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred were a 16-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man from Widnes, Cheshire, a 21-year-old man from the Wirral and a 41-year-old man from Leigh, near Wigan

Up to 80 members of the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group gathered outside the hotel where BNP leader and North West Euro MP Nick Griffin is expected to address members around 4pm.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said that the protest ended around 2pm and passed off "without major incident" despite the arrests. She said: "It is not believed the four are associated with the UAF or the BNP in any way."

Protesting outside the hotel on the resort's seafront, Raymond Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, held up offensive, threatening posters which he claimed had been put through his door by the party. He said: "Don't tell me it's a normal political party - that's what the Nazi Party said in the 1930s. And we must expose them. It doesn't matter what Nick Griffin says.

"They are respectable in the daytime but at night go around kicking in doors."

Mr Griffin, who was elected a Member of the European Parliament for the North West earlier this month, said the rally was to thank the party's "key people and activists all over the country." He said: "We will be talking about where we go from here and to make sure we serve our constituents properly."

Lancashire Evening Post

Ignore this vile abuse, Kelly Holmes is a true Brit

2009-06-21T00:52:00.000+01:00

You always remember what you were doing when something wonderful happened.

Well, on the evening of August 28, 2004, I was standing on a track-side seat and screaming as a young woman drove herself through the last few strides of an Olympic final. When she crossed the line, adding the 1500metres title to her 800m victory, I apologised to an American colleague for my outburst.

'Don't worry,' he said. 'She's a great lady, Kelly Holmes. You Brits should be proud of her.'

He was right, of course. Kelly's double was a prodigious achievement. In the annals of British sport it takes its place alongside Roger Bannister's four-minute mile, Bobby Moore's World Cup winners of 1966 and the 2003 Rugby World Cup victory of Martin Johnson's men. I well recall her tears of pride as she climbed to the peak of the podium and she did not cry alone.

Since that glorious Athenian evening, Kelly has continued to bring honour and credit to her sport. She was appointed National School Sports Champion and has enjoyed real success in increasing the amount of PE and active sport in our schools. She has designed and promoted programmes to support the development of gifted young sportsmen and women.

And she carries the credibility of an athlete whose own career - despite being distorted by injury and plagued by ill fortune - represented the ultimate vindication of spirit, endurance and towering talent. She was created a Dame in 2005 and more recently was elected President of Commonwealth Games England. In short, she is something more than a mere heroine; she has attained the status of national treasure.

Which makes the intervention of one Andrew Brons even more offensive.

Mr Brons is a leading light in the British National Party. He recently polled 9.8 per cent of votes in the Yorkshire and Humber region, which won him a seat in the European Parliament. He is a former member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. And this odious fellow has just expressed a view about our Kelly.

Although she was born in Pembury, Kent, and served for several years in the British Army before embarking upon her stunningly successful career in the British vest, she is not, in Brons's considered opinion, a fully-fledged Briton. For Kelly is the daughter of an English mother and a Jamaican-born father and her mixed-race heritage means that she is 'only partially from this country'.

Or, as he puts it: 'I don't accept the term Black British or Asian British. Britons are the indigenous peoples of these isles.'

Now, normally I should not dream of publicising the pitiful fantasies of Brons and his fellow inadequates. But his idiocy gives us the chance to reflect upon just how far sport has come.

Football, the national sport, has played a major part in engaging the entire community. The briefest glance at the current England team tells us how handsomely the sport has embraced diversity. Track and field has always had an admirable record in this area while rugby and cricket can point to genuine progress.

In truth, most of our major sports - with tennis a faintly depressing exception - have made intelligent efforts to broaden their talent base and British sport has benefited greatly from such enhanced inclusiveness.

It is, therefore, appropriate that the country should take collective offence when a fascist like Brons dares to question their presence in the nation's sport by declaring: 'They are British citizens, which is a legal concept, but not British by identity.' It is a statement both baseless and insulting and it says more about the poisonous dullard who made it than the men and women who it seeks to belittle.

For they are considerable people who have achieved great things, people like Ugo Monye, Ravi Bopara, Emile Heskey, Theo Walcott, Monty Panesar and Rio Ferdinand, as well as the woman who brought us screaming to our feet at the Athens Olympics.

'She's a great lady, Kelly Holmes,' said the American journalist. 'You Brits should be proud of her.'

Indeed we are, because Dame Kelly is one of the finest athletes in Olympic history. And she is one of us.

Patrick Collins in the Mail on Sunday

Euro far-right rejects the BNP

2009-06-19T15:56:00.000+01:00

The British National party's (BNP) efforts to form a coalition with other extremist groups in Europe have ended in failure.

Party leader Nick Griffin had hoped to form a grouping with parties such as Italy's Northern League and France's Front National.

Parliamentary groupings require 25 MEPs from at least seven countries, which triggers up to a million euros funding for staff and office costs.

"It appears at present we are below the threshold," Mr Griffin said after talks at the European parliament in Brussels.

"We have to see how the other political groups get on with their negotiations and if they cannot do a deal whether they will deal with us."

The BNP grouping has only attracted 12 MEPs, despite wide gains for the far-right in the recent elections.

The far-right often struggles to work together across national boundaries.

In the last parliament the Greater Romania party broke up the far-right Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group after a spat with Mussolini's daughter, Alessandro, who said all Romanians were criminals.

The Northern League's rejection of a BNP grouping will severely hinder Mr Griffin's attempts to have a strong presence in the parliament, because they carry nine MEPs.

Geert Wilder's Dutch Freedom party, which mostly sells itself on an extreme variant of anti-Muslim thought, also rejected the BNP, despite being sufficiently extreme to be banned from entering Britain.

Mr Wilder is understood to be attempting to appeal to mainstream Dutch voters, and is furiously avoiding associations with the likes of the BNP or the National Front.

The Danish People's party is also avoiding Mr Griffin. It has also tried to avoid Jean Marie Le-Pen's National Front, after he again denied the Holocaust at the parliament.

Groupings must be declared by July 14th, for the parliament's inaugural sitting.

Politics.co.uk

Hodge accused over Barking selection battle

2009-06-19T01:46:00.002+01:00

Barking MP Margaret Hodge was accused this week of involvement in alleged dirty tricks over selections to her local council. The row threatens to tear Labour apart locally and help the British National Party take over the council in next year’s elections.

Speaking to Tribune, Labour activists, councillors and community representatives have accused Ms Hodge of being a “control freak” who has engineered the deselection of Labour members of Barking and Dagenham Council in a bid to exercise personal control over her constituency Labour party. For personal family reasons, Ms Hodge was unable to respond before Tribune went to press.

Eight Labour councillors have been struck off the candidate list since March this year, including Val Rush, cabinet member for the environment, and planning chair John Denyer. A ninth, deputy mayor Fred Barns, was also deselected but reinstated on appeal. Barking and Dagenham has 12 BNP councillors, more than any other borough in Britain.

Asked what linked the councillors together, one activist said: “They’re all people who didn’t like Margaret”. Another declared: “She is a control freak and she wants total control… I can see the BNP controlling the council”.

Barking Labour Party has been riven with factionalism since 2006, when Ms Hodge was attacked over her remark that eight out of ten white households were tempted to vote BNP in the local elections.

One deselected councillor said of the events: “I felt it gave the BNP the oxygen it needed and I wasn’t alone in speaking out. I think that I’m now paying for that”. They had suffered “bullying and intimidation” including silent phone calls, they added.

Some deselected councillors were discriminated against for their disabilities, a well-placed source said: “John Denyer can’t walk the streets, but there was always something for him to do… Fred Barnes has a disability but he would drive everybody around, pick leaflets up, but he had a hip replacement. That was given as one of the reasons.”

Various sources complained that the selection panels had been fed misleading information about councillors. At least three councillors heard of their deselection before being officially told, and one said: “The BNP seems to know a lot more about what’s going on in Barking Labour Party… They told me before I even had my interview”.

Ms Hodge is said to have announced the deselection of two councillors in Barking’s Thames ward at a coffee morning on 13 March – the same day one of them, Cllr Barnes, received the letter informing him.

The MP is also blamed for alleged misconduct at Barking CLP’s annual general meeting of 2007, branded a “shambles” by two separate sources. They say that non-Labour Party members were allowed into the meeting but other Labour members were barred and that Ms Hodge’s staff instructed delegates how to vote. Delegates complained to London Labour Party.

A London Labour Party spokesperson said its selections had been “fair” and denied any impropriety, including any contact with the BNP over deselections. It was “totally spurious” that disability had been used against councillors, they added. Laila Butt, Ms Hodge’s CLP secretary, said Ms Hodge had no involvement in selections.

Tribune

Norfolk Unity is a proud friend of Cllr. Val Rush. She fights fascism. Margaret Hodge paved the way for 12 fascists to become councillors on Barking and Dagenham Coucnil.

Nazi sticker on Blackburn BNP man's car

2009-06-17T21:09:00.002+01:00

A British National Party activist drives around with the word “Nazi” written on the back of his car, it has been revealed.

Robin Evans, the BNP’s Blackburn organiser, said he had not tried to remove the word as he did not find it offensive.

The former councillor for Mill Hill in Blackburn, who now lives in Darwen, said he did not know who had stuck the letters on his metallic green Volkswagen Golf, but thought it was “quite funny”, adding: “It doesn’t bother me”

Blackburn MP Jack Straw said the sticker “exposed the true colours of the BNP”.

Party leader Nick Griffin, who was recently elected as a Euro MP for the North West, advised Mr Evans to remove the term.

When asked about it by the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Evans, who stood for the BNP at this month’s Darwen Town Council elections, said: “You know what people are like. Everyone calls me a Nazi.

“Someone put it on there 12 months ago. It was in silver letters. What you see there is the wreckage. I haven’t a clue who tried to take it off but I couldn’t be bothered.

“To be honest I thought it was quite funny. It’s better than them putting my windows through or smashing bottles on my head which I’ve had before.

“The car is on its last legs. I would rather be driving around in a big Porsche. But my car and whatever it looks like does its job and I am OK with it.”

Asked whether he found the term ‘Nazi’ offensive, Mr Evans added: “Everyone is individual. My personal interpretation, not the BNP’s, is that it means a nationalist, which is where the word has come from. If someone’s in the street screaming ‘Nazi, Nazi’, that is offensive. It is not offensive against other people.”

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “It’s very offensive, especially to people who are Jewish, but also to virtually everyone else in society.

“This exposes the BNP’s true colours.”

Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen Party leader and deputy council leader, said: “If someone put that on my car I would have it taken down instantly. It is absolutely tasteless.”

Mr Griffin said: “I would advise him to take it off. It was obviously put there by some crank. He may be putting a brave face on it.”

Asked whether he found the term offensive, he added: “I don’t know if it’s offensive per se, you see all sorts of swastikas on news stands and history books.

“But used against us it is highly offensive, because we believe in British values like free speech.”

Lancashire Telegraph

We think we know why Robin West isn't bothered about being labelled a Nazi - because he once attempted to start his own Nazi party! See here

The shower behind the BNP throne

2009-06-14T10:36:00.000+01:00

The henchmen behind vile BNP leader Nick Griffin have their thin veneer of acceptability stripped away today.

His minders and hangers-on wore smart suits and ties as they leaped to shield their party leader from a barrage of eggs and anti-fascist taunts this week. But the News of the World can reveal their respectable image conceals a Nazi-saluting RACIST, a depraved SWINGER and a FAILED wannabe councillor who lives with his mum.

The rotten shower were among sidekicks who jumped in to protect Griffin, 49, from furious protesters in London. Griffin and Andrew Brons, who together had just become MEPs in the Euro elections, had been trying to portray their party as a reasonable voice. But we can reveal that their minders' views are every bit as warped as the BNP's policies.

Take JAY SLAVEN, who was seen on camera roughly pushing a bystander aside as he escorted Griffin and Brons away. A truer picture of Slaven, 25, emerges from another photo of him giving a Nazi salute and posing with a St George's flag draped over his shoulders.

The snap features on a Facebook photo album entitled "Forever Brave, Forever True, Forever England! St George's Day!"

Slaven, from Doddinghurst, Essex, tried to make a name for himself by defending Jade Goody's racist remarks to Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. At the time he claimed the huge row which erupted over comments made towards Indian actress Shilpa was "laughable".

In another rant Slaven, an assistant distribution manager, declared: "I see no possible wrong in wanting to preserve this island race of ours. Racial mixing is not leading to the BNP success, the vast damage done to our nation by successive governments is."

Pictured near Slaven at the egg demo was burly BNP minder MARTIN REYNOLDS, who is Griffin's head of security and a regular feature at his elbow. But Reynolds - married with three kids - is also a regular on the swingers scene and lusts after "big girls". The 41-year- old from Leeds was pictured at the London bust-up in dark glasses. But he wore far less as he watched women indulge in sex acts at a squalid orgy.

Months earlier he had gone on dating website faceparty.com with fellow BNP organisers Mark Collett and Dan Hannam. Reynolds told how he hated stuck-up people and women on diets - and listed his ideal female as "size 16 and above with a good sense of humour and a sex drive to match mine".

Also among Griffin's gang was TONY GLADWIN, who lives with his mum in a 1960s house with a St George's Cross flying from a 6ft flagpole outside. The 25-year-old landscape gardener recently stood as a district councillor but failed miserably to get elected. Gladwin, from Billericay, Essex, has said: "Everyone that knows me knows I am in the BNP. I'm very proud of it. People have made out it's like a secret society, like we should be hiding it."

Another Griffin minder is former London mayoral candidate JULIAN LEPPERT, a postman who is happiest when he is delivering racist scare stories. He said: "We don't want to be a minority in our city, let alone our country. That is what we are going to have by 2055 if current trends continue."

Meanwhile new MEP Andrew Brons, 61, seeks to be the respectable face of the party but 25 years ago he was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. He and another National Front member were shouting slogans including "Death to Jews" and "White Power".

NoTW

Guess what? The BNP takes white-supremacist cash from the US

2009-06-12T20:02:00.000+01:00

Who'd have thought it, eh? James Von Brunn, the white supremacist who shot dead a security guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns, at the Holocaust museum in Washington, attended fund-raising meetings of the American Friends of the British National Party.

Yes, I know you can't always blame political parties for where their funding comes from. But imagine if this had happened to a mainstream political party. Suppose the Conservative Party was found to have received funds from a raving anti-semite. Not exactly a source up there with Michael Ashcroft, is it? Suppose the Labour Party had accepted a donation from Hamas?

And remember the fuss we used to make about the IRA receiving financial support from the US? Yet somehow we're not that surprised, nor particularly alarmed apparently, that the BNP is supported by the kind of anti-semitic nutter who murders a Holocaust museum attendant, that BNP leader Nick Griffin has spoken at the AFBNP meetings that such pond-life attend and was only too happy to say that they made a "significant contribution" to the BNP's [2001] general election campaign.

I only mention this because the BNP's apologists have been out in force lately, after the ethnic-cleansing party won two Euro-seats, saying that I have to understand that the miseries and pressures put on communities subject to immigration push white people to vote for the BNP in protest.

I couldn't understand that, apparently, in my cosseted home-counties existence. Which is a bit rich when it comes from tank-topped, metropolitan, neo-cons, tapping away in their stripped-pine loft conversions, with their hearts bleeding for the oppressed Aryans of inner-city Bradford. Patronising or what?

Let me spell it out, BNP apologists. This is the company you keep when you concede that BNP voters have a point: James Von Brunn. It really won't do, saying: "I'm not a racist, but these immigrants are the problem, not the BNP." Immigration pales into insignificance as an issue compared with a party gaining elected representatives in the European parliament, which is funded by the Von Brunns of this world.

You don't have to be a wishy-washy, tree-hugging, airy-fairy, unpatriotic, sitting-on-the-fence liberal to rank the political danger of the BNP and its supporters above the effects of post-war immigration, serious as those are. You just have to be able to think. And to have read a book beyond one-shilling, war-hero trash mags. (Better now, thankyou, nurse).

Telegraph

Welcome for the BNP: Egg throwers disrupt leader Nick Griffin's victory speech

2009-06-10T12:21:00.000+01:00

The moment Griffin's goon brushes pedestrian aside at 0.29
After his party gained its first two MEPs in last weeks European elections, BNP leader Nick Griffin obviously wanted to make his victory Press conference a statesmanlike affair.

But when the far right leader arrived to deliver his speech opposite the Houses of Parliament, he found his party's message of hate was afforded precious little respect.

Together with fellow British National Party MEP Andrew Brons, Mr Griffin tried to use yesterday's Westminster meeting to publicise his party's racist agenda. But, instead, he was pelted with eggs by anti-fascist protesters, some of the projectiles finding their target.

Perhaps anticipating trouble, Mr Griffin had come with a squad of his own burly security guards. There was also a sizeable presence of armed police.

But he was able to speak for only a few minutes before a large gathering of the campaign group Unite Against Fascism disrupted the meeting.

In scenes that are likely to be repeated as the BNP tries to establish itself as a legitimate political party, the Press conference disintegrated into violent chaos as campaigners waving placards and shouting 'Off our streets, Nazi scum' threw eggs and tried to get between the BNP and the news cameras. Heavily outnumbered, Mr Griffin and his supporters were forced into waiting cars, which then sped away.

One of the protesters vowed: 'Wherever you go, we will make sure you are welcomed by demonstrations.'

Television cameras captured disturbing images of one woman in a red jacket being aggressively shoved aside by a BNP security guard in the melee. A female tourist was also injured. Police later received an allegation of assault and reports of a collision, thought to have occurred as the BNP group drove off.

The violent scenes took place on College Green, a small patch of grass opposite the Houses of Parliament often used for interviews.

Still wearing his egg- stained suit, Mr Griffin later toured the television news studios to complain that he had been denied his democratic right to free speech. He said: 'It's a very, very sad day for British democracy. People should be entitled to hear what we have to say and to hear journalists question us robustly.'

Mr Griffin described the protesters as 'an organised mob' and alleged that the police officers had 'on orders from the Home Office' deliberately done nothing to protect him.

Unite Against Fascism is an umbrella group formed by the veteran campaign groups the Anti-Nazi League and the National Assembly Against Racism as well as various trades unions in response to the rising electoral threat of the BNP. Numerous MPs are listed as supporters, including Conservative leader David Cameron.

A BNP spokesman said that it will re-organise the Press conference for later today in Manchester, but said details of the time and place were being kept secret to prevent further trouble.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said two people were taken to hospital after the protest and inquiries were continuing.

Daily Mail

Griffin's thugs knock down innocent woman

2009-06-09T20:39:00.001+01:00

An innocent female pedestrian was brutally thrown to the ground and trampled by Nick Griffin's panicking security thugs as they hustled the terrified BNP leader away from anti-fascist protesters during an abortive press conference outside the Houses of Parliament.

The incident was inadvertently captured on video by ITV News, who said that two people were later taken to hospital.

There are suspicions that the BNP, which employed far more than the normal quota of thick-necked bodyguards to watch over Griffin and Andrew Brons, had engineered the confrontation. Unusually, last night a post on the BNP website announced the "press conference" and gave a telephone number for journalists to contact for further details, and it is believed that this open invitation is how anti-fascists discovered the whereabouts of the event.

Griffin had only just begun to speak when the protesters arrived and began to pelt the North West MEP with eggs. Griffin was quickly hustled away to his car, accompanied by the press and the protesters. It was as they neared the car that a woman pedestrian was elbowed in the throat by Griffin's minder and fell into the busy road, where she was by trampled shaven-headed thugs in the rush to save Griffin's skin.

Ignored by Griffin and the BNP, the woman was helped by anti-fascists.

Here's the sequence of events, taken from the ITV footage:

The woman, captured on video moments before the BNP assault

Engulfed by the BNP

Caught in the melee, Griffin's minder goes for the throat...

... and the woman is trampled by fleeing fascists

The only concern - save Griffin's hide

Later, safe in a South London pub, Griffin told ITV News that the actions of the anti-fascists were "disgusting". He did not ask after the health of the woman knocked down and trampled by his own thugs.

ITV coverage

Andrew Brons: the genteel face of neo-fascism

2009-06-09T00:13:00.000+01:00

British National party MEP and former National Front chairman who started political life in group set up in honour of Hitler

It was on Hitler's birthday, deliberately chosen, that the National Socialist Movement was formed in Britain in the 1960s. It was the first political organisation of the far right that Andrew Brons, the newly-elected British National party MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside, was to join – but not the last.

The group that he signed up to as a teenager had been founded in honour of Hitler by the British fascist leader, the late Colin Jordan. No mention of this early political involvement features on the BNP's website celebrating Brons's victory. Instead, Brons is portrayed just as a "veteran British Nationalist".

Brons, 61, comes from what might be described as the genteel wing of British neo-fascism. He lists William Cobbett, the radical journalist and author of Rural Rides, as his favourite historical person, the Pickwick Papers as his favourite book and Zelig as his favourite film. But his early associations with the far right were when it was at its most overtly racist and before it had started to try to present itself as just another political party.

The group he first joined included among its members people responsible for arson attacks on Jewish property and synagogues. According to the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, which has been tracking his career for decades, Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan's wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who "mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues", to which Brons responded that "on this subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point."

By the 1970s, Brons had moved on the National Front, then the leading far-right group in Britain. He was voted on to the NF's national directorate in 1974 and, as the NF's education officer, he hosted seminars on racial nationalism and tried to give its racism a more "scientific" basis.

After the late John Tyndall left the NF in 1980, Brons was promoted to the post of chairman. Among his allies was Richard Verrall, the author of Did Six Million Really Die?, with whom he edited the NF journal, New Nation. In August 1981 he led a rally in Fulham, west London in support of "rights for whites" and concluded his speech with a call for compulsory repatriation, chanting: "If they're black, send them back." According to Searchlight, in 1982 Brons led an NF march through Northfield on which marchers chanted "We've got to get rid of the blacks".

In June 1984, Brons was convicted by Leeds magistrates of using insulting words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. The court was told that when PC John Raj, the area's community constable, who was of Malaysian origin, told the group to disperse, Brons, then 37, responded: "I am aware of my legal rights. Inferior beings like yourself probably do not appreciate the principle of free speech." Brons denied the allegations at the time and continues to deny them, describing them as "absurd". His challenge to Raj's evidence was not, however, accepted at his subsequent appeal at Leeds crown court.

After drifting out of far-right politics, he became a lecturer in politics and law at a further education college in Harrogate. He joined the BNP in its current incarnation three years ago. Divorced, with two grown-up daughters and four granddaughters, his election platform was that he "would work to expose the activities and corruption of the EU to strengthen Britain's case for withdrawal" and "would co-operate with patriots in other countries who seek to bring the EU to an end".

Sonia Gable of Searchlight said that his past made him a strange choice for a BNP seeking to create a "respectable" image for itself.

"Everyone in the BNP is trying to look respectable and Brons is an odd choice because he was in the NF at its most racist," she said.

She added that she thought Brons had been chosen as a candidate because Nick Griffin, the chairman of the BNP, believed that he would have strong links with far-right organisations in Europe.

The BNP denies being an anti-semitic organisation, and when asked about Brons's involvement with the NSM and the NF and his calls for compulsory repatriation, a spokesman for the party said: "That was nearly 30 years ago, times have moved on … You print what you want."

Guardian

BNP routed in Norfolk

2009-06-05T17:20:00.000+01:00

A long night and day of County Council election results has seen the BNP fail dismally in its quest to ride the wave of public discontent.

As we publish, the BNP has gained only three county council seats nationwide after more than 600 declarations. For the BNP, Nick Griffin's "perfect storm" never happened, and currently the BNP leader is feverishly reining in his members' expectations. Griffin and deputy Simon Darby talked up those expectations, but now fear the consequences should disillusion set in as the scale of the party's failure dawns on the membership.

Expectations for the Euro elections, to be counted on Sunday, have been quickly revised. Whereas previously BNP leaders were happy to encourage the idea that the party could gain seven MEPs the new leadership line is that the election of just one BNP MEP will count as success.

Whichever way the BNP want to look at it, to gain that one MEP will have cost the racist organisation proportionately more in money, time and effort than that expended by any other party. If they fail, then they will be forced to content themselves with the three most expensive county councillors in recorded history (as Nick Griffin might put it).

However, we're not going to count our chickens before they're hatched and Sunday's results might yet yield a nasty surprise or two.

In Norfolk, where anti-fascists have been very active, the BNP failed on all fronts, its best result being in King's Lynn North and Central, where it had serious expectations of winning after Norfolk BNP mounted its most professional campaign to date. In other West Norfolk seats the BNP performance was mediocre, while the party barely registered in Yarmouth and Norwich.

Full Norfolk results:

Yarmouth North and Central

Conservative 1001 (34.14%)
Labour 856 (29.2%)
UKIP 549 (18.72%)
Liberal Democrat 278 (9.48%)
BNP 248 (8.46%)

Sprowston (Norwich)

Conservative 1123 (32.37%)
UKIP 663 (19.11%)
Labour 593 (17.09%)
Liberal Democrat 564 (16.26%)
Green 298 (8.59%)
BNP 228 (6.57%)

King's Lynn North and Central

Conservative 677 (32.66%)
Labour 616 (29.72%)
BNP 431 (20.79%)
Green 349 (16.84%)

Gaywood North and Central (King's Lynn)

Conservative 1090 (42.38%)
Labour 445 (17.3%)
Liberal Democrat 369 (14.35%)
BNP 346 (13.45%)
Green 322 (12.52%)

Clenchwarton and King's Lynn South

Conservative 1015 (39.25%)
Liberal Democrat 743 (28.73%)
BNP 313 (12.1%)
Labour 301 (11.64%)
Green 214 (8.28%)

Gaywood South (King's Lynn)

Conservative 865 (32.08%)
Labour 551 (20.44%)
Liberal Democrat 435 (16.14%)
UKIP 376 (13.95%)
BNP 273 (10.13%)
Green 196 (7.27%)

Freebridge Lynn

Conservative 1690 (54.5%)
Liberal Democrat 431 (13.9%)
Green 385 (12.42%)
Labour 347 (11.19%)
BNP 248 (8%)

The sickness at the heart of the BNP

2009-06-04T17:58:00.003+01:00

‘Paedophiles against the BNP’ is the title of a post at the ‘Red Squirrel’ blog of the lunatic Elizabeth Walton of Swindon BNP branch. The post refers to the Church of England as a ‘vile perverts organisation’ and refers to C of E Bishops as ‘pompous, self-righteous windbags … renowned for interfering with young boys’.

Walton borrowed from the post from the BNP supporting ‘Britain Awake’ blog, which is filled with crude racist bile and homophobic content.

Here’s how ‘Britain Awake’ covered a racist attack on a black anti-racist activist:

Racial tension leading up to the European and local elections spilled out onto the streets of London this week after a black anti-fascist campaigner was beaten senseless by a pair of white men…

Police were called to Eltham High Street last Saturday afternoon when the volunteer from ‘Unite Against Democracy’ was set upon by two men said to be defending the democratic rights of the British people. Their victim had been handing out anti-democratic leaflets begging people not to vote for the BNP.

Quite frankly this bastard got all he deserved, if he dislikes democracy that much, he should fuck off to Robert Mugabes shit-hole that is better known as Zimbabwe!

Black anti-fascist campaigner… Wouldn’t it be great if it was that Weyman Bennett cunt who received the pasting!

Here’s ‘Britain Awake’ on the dance group ‘Diversity‘, winners of this year’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ competition:

Lack of talent contest BGT crowned negro dance troupe ‘Diversity’ as this years winners. Why would anyone would want to watch a bunch of arrogant bastards poncing about unless it was through the sights of a semi-automatic?
The Queen has to sit through this type of shit every time she visits some remote commonwealth country, we think she deserves a break from this sort of crap!

And the ‘Britain Awake’ blogger also posts a video of an Indian man dying from electrocution with the description ‘Certainly more entertaining than that “Diversity” nonsense that won Britains got talent!’

This is the real BNP on show. Remember that when you hear people talking about ‘protest votes’ and seeing the BNP as potential ‘allies’ against Islamism.

Screen shots (click to enlarge):

Harry's Place

East Midlands BNP officer on nazi night out

2009-06-03T19:35:00.000+01:00

Meet Martyn Page on a night out in a Nottinghamshire pub with his mates in May. Page (front, left) is fundholder (treasurer) of the BNP’s active Broxtowe group. With him in dark jacket is Benny Bullman, lead singer with the Nazi band Whitelaw and activist in the openly nazi British Movement.

Page’s wife Kim (below) also seems to have a predilection for a certain type of stiff right arm salute in the company of Bullman. She too is a BNP activist regular fundraiser for the Broxtowe group.

Hope not hate

Kids say the cutest things

2009-06-03T15:36:00.000+01:00

Green Bigot in eyesight failure shock

2009-06-03T14:23:00.007+01:00

Welsh windbag and armchair BNP "activist" Paul Morris, known and loved by many long term Lithium takers as Green Arrow, is really down on his uppers (or up on his downers) due to a combination of chronic imbecility, too much cheap lager, and a deep sense of rejection since his missus cleared off.

All the Nantyglo Nazi's got in the world is his blog and a belief that this time next week the Queen will invite Nick Griffin to form a government.

It seems now that his mental disturbances are beginning to affect his visual senses, and the Bigot is having trouble telling people apart.

I mean, how do you mistake Tony Blair for David Cameron unless you're a) drunk, b) an idiot, or c) both?

Well, as you can see, Muppet Morris managed to do it.

Now that worries us. What if Morris meets Weyman Bennett in a pub and and invites him home for tea after mistaking him for Simon Darby? The consequences don't bear thinking about.

So we thought we'd help out the myopic Bigot by showing him a pic of two of his favourite people as a test of recognition. We've even made it easy by labelling the pics so the Nantyglo Nazi knows who's who:

There you go, Paul Morris. Just keep staring at the pics and reading the names until you've got it off by heart.

The Nazi who's voting BNP

2009-06-03T09:15:00.003+01:00

This is the front window of one Beverley Kerry.

An outright Nutzi, guinea-pig lover Bev supports the BNP, as you can see.

She's also a moderator on the openly Nazi Blood and Honour forum, and has just been made a moderator on the cesspool that is the Vanguard Nationalist Network forum.

In her late thirties, Bev is one of those Nutzis with a lot of time on her hands who spends all day on the internet dishing it out to other Nutzis - you could almost mistake her for one of us, really.

Now Bev has never turned a hand in the real world to support her politics, and sometimes resorts to lies to give herself credibility (as when she recently claimed on Stormfront that she'd helped the BNP deliver election leaflets). No, Bev is strictly an on-line campaigner, and she's usually campaigning against veteran fellow Nutzis who have got a record of real-world activism.

Vile Bev Kerry ("English by birth, Aryan by the grace of Odin") is banned from a number of her local supermarkets (and possibly most of her local kebab shops too). She loathes Jews, Muslims and just about everybody else, but she absolutely loves BNP leader Nick Griffin's Nazi Covert Tactics team, and is extra specially careful to keep on the right side of them.

By repute a workshy lump (aren't most of them?), the Aryan Odinist reckons that missing Madelaine McCann was murdered by her mother, though we don't know whether she's contacted the police to tell them she's solved the case.

Bev likes contacting the police, though they don't seem to take much notice of her as nobody here in Norfolk or up in Lancaster has seen hide nor hair of the boys in blue.

She also likes tracking down the home addresses of antifascists and publishing them on Nutzi websites in the hope that something nasty will happen to them and their families. And, of course, she's won herself much kudos from the dimwit Stormfront Nutzis by copying the dates and locations of Hope Not Hate events from the HNH website and posting them on the Nazi forum.

Now some people (not us mind!) might suggest that in making those posts Bev Kerry was hoping that BNP members would turn up at the Hope Not Hate events, something that would be bound to end in confrontation given the Neanderthal brains of most BNP activists, and which would end up with the BNP earning a nice piece of bad publicity.

We're not in the business of confrontation, however, so we advise the organisers of antifascist events to steer clear of Bev's home at 4 Shirebrook Close, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. We extend the same advice to anybody delivering leaflets for Ilkeston kebab shops.

Failure to do so could result in Bev making a nasty post about you on Stormfront, and you wouldn't want that now, would you?

The legend of Billy Brit

2009-06-02T13:39:00.000+01:00

The BNP's "Billy Brit" - aimed at children but enjoyed by BNP adults everywhere - learns some home truths...