A Winchester politician with the UK Independence Party has admitted he was "naïve and mad" for donating money to the far-right British National Party.
Dr David Abbott made a donation to an associated organisation of the BNP when he was living in the United States. Dr Abbott, who lives in Shawford, stood for the UKIP in Winchester at the 2005 General Election and polled 1,300 votes. He said he was a victim of his own naivity about the British political situation when he made the donations in 2000 or 2001.
Dr Abbott, 63, said he was living in the United States at the time: "I was not aware of the BNP," he said. "I heard its leader Nick Griffin speak. I was approached by an aide of his who said his freedom of speech was being impaired back in Britain. I was naïve, absolutely and mad. It was a mistake but made with the best of motives. It was naïve in several ways - naïve in not thinking what the consequences might be, but more in believing I was thinking this was a good cause. I am not a racist. I wish I had not made the donations, now I know what the BNP stands for."
He said he was a supporter of minority causes in the USA including native American rights. In the mid-90s he was arrested at a demonstration against the building of the M3 through Twyford Down and received damages from Hampshire police for wrongful arrest.
George Hollingbery, the Tory candidate in the 2005 election and the prospective candidate for the Meon Valley, said: "The UKIP voters in this area will be appalled to think that the candidate they voted for at the last election has such direct connections to the BNP."
Mr Hollingbery, who is also deputy leader of Winchester City Council, added: "That Dr Abbott remains on the national board of UKIP despite the party knowing what they know is deeply worrying."
This is Hampshire
March 19, 2007
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6 comments:
He was wrong to back UKIP too, considering they only got 8 votes in a by-election a couple of weeks ago.
LOL Eight? Bloody hell.
I am cool, sane and quietly determined.I have given the BNP about �200 in recent years.
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141507&command=displayContent&sourceNode=201813&home=yes&more_nodeId1=201752&contentPK=16905371
Mr. Mottram was a well known supporter of the NATIONAL FRONT in the 1970's - who is on record as describing the NF as a "party of common sense" and as an admirer of the National Front's leader John Tyndall!
So we have UKIP members giving cash and supporting facists!
'I am cool, sane and quietly determined.I have given the BNP about �200 in recent years.'
If you've given the BNP £200, you hardly qualify as sane. That's probably bought Griffin's lunch for him.
"Mr. Mottram was a well known supporter of the NATIONAL FRONT in the 1970's - who is on record as describing the NF as a "party of common sense" and as an admirer of the National Front's leader John Tyndall!
So we have UKIP members giving cash and supporting facists!"
I'd forgotten all that Buster Mottram stuff but I guess we should be forgiven our long-distant pasts. It was over thirty years ago, after all and the NF are moribund now. On the other hand, he's working for UKIP which is, as you say, supporting fascists, so perhaps we shouldn't forgive him after all.
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