BNP leader extends sick pledge to capsize refugee boats

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

Who do you think you are kidding...?

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

BNP to use EU taxpayers' money to fund chosen causes

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

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

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

BNP isolated as MEPs take up European seats

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

Euro far-right rejects the BNP

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

HOPE not Hate - Norfolk campaign launch

Norfolk Hope not Hate Campaign Invites you to a meeting in the Council Chamber Norwich City Hall 2pm Tuesday 10th March 2009

Don't wake up on 5 June to the BNP nightmare!

The BNP is aiming to win an MEP in the East of England region next year. They want to spread their poison across the region and join up with their racist and nazi mates in the European Parliament. They know that just one MEP will transform their political and financial fortunes - that is why they are going flat out to win seats next summer.

BUT WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET THEM WIN.

The BNP are boasting on their website that they'll be running their "most sophisticated election campaign to date." Their threat is very real. But the vast majority of British people fundamentally reject their campaign of hate. And with your help we'll win this important fight.

The BNP are already active in the Norwich area with recent activity in Sprowston and Thorpe and all mainstream political parties, faith and community groups ignore this at their peril.

The British National Party should be of concern to all decent people. It is not a matter solely for politicians. The threat of racism and fascism needs to be addressed before it is too late and that means all good people doing something.

The Norfolk “Hope not Hate” campaign welcomes representatives of all mainstream political parties, all community, all faith and all other interested groups to bring together people who want to play their part in solving issues fairly and honestly.

The Norfolk “Hope not Hate” campaign believes that everyone who lives and works in Norfolk should be able to do so with dignity, free from prejudice and discrimination and we are sure that the vast majority of people in Norfolk share this view.

Together we can bring Hope and defeat those who promote Hate. Details of our meeting are given above. We hope to see you there.

If you have any questions or would like further information please phone: 01603 630819 or email geraldinemurray@ntlworld.com

Join the demo against the BNP Conference at Blackpool on Saturday November 15th

Once again, it has become clear that the fascist BNP is holding its annual conference in Blackpool. This year's conference has a special edge to it though because the party's leader Nick Griffin is using the event to springboard his NW England campaign for a seat on the European Parliament - the elections for which take place next June. Griffin has been yearning for a place in Europe for years - desperate to get his sticky mitts on the vast expenses that can be run up by the greedier and more unscrupulous Euro MP.

Should he win a place, we could see the income of the BNP improve dramatically, to the detriment of everyone who opposes it. Richard Barnbrook tithes 10% (£5,000) from his income as a London Assembly member and Griffin would be expected to do the same. This amount can buy an awful lot of lying leaflets and/or petrol for the infamous Lie Lorry. Once inside Europe, Griffin's BNP would also strengthen its links with the many other far-right groups that are represented at Brussels, some of which are a good deal more overtly to the right of the BNP.

We have a good deal of work to do to keep Griffin or any of his acolytes out of Europe, and he knows there is a real possibility of winning a seat this time. With Euro-scepticism rife and the right-wing press slagging off the EU on any pretext, the mood is in his favour. But we'll fight him and we'll keep him out - and Blackpool is the very first stage of this fight. While he announces his campaign, we'll be there to show him and Blackpool BNP that there is massive opposition that is prepared to stand up and be counted.

A triple demo then - opposition to the BNP conference, opposition to the BNP in Blackpool and a big two-fingers to Griffin's opening shot in his campaign for a seat on the European Parliament.

Time: 12 noon

Date: Saturday November 15th

Location: the square at the top of Victoria Street at the side entrance to the Winter Gardens. A map that clearly shows the location is at the top of this post.

Directions: If you're coming from the prom, aim for Blackpool Tower and Victoria Street is just a few metres to the North of it. Victoria Street is pedestrianised so walk to the other end of it and you'll find us in the big square next to the Winter Gardens. For drivers, the best way is to park up in the Hounds Hill shopping centre multi-storey car park, go out through the shopping centre and you're in Victoria Street. Turn right and the demo is a fifty metre stroll.

Dress up warm. It's chilly in Blackpool in November.