The 'Toytown Nazi' BNP get uppity with columnist Richard Littlejohn

The BNP's National Press Officer, Dr. Phil Edwards (or Stuart Russell, depending on who he's talking to), is currently in something of a tizz about Richard Littlejohn, the Daily Mail columnist who on April 27th described the BNP as 'Toytown Nazis' in an article that made it very clear where he stood with the party. The appropriate section of the column is reprinted below:

'...While we’re talking rubbish, a couple of weeks ago I asked where were the candidates in the local elections who would promise to keep or reinstate weekly collections. If you look down the list in the Mail of those councils who have scrapped them, all three main parties are guilty.Since our campaign started, it has become the big election issue. A number of people have written to tell me that the BNP is pledged to empty the bins every week. For quite a while, I have been concerned that decent people are contemplating voting BNP because they think that Labour, the Tories and the LibDems are all as bad as each other. This column doesn’t go in for endorsing any party. It’s up to you how you cast your vote. But I would implore you not to vote for the BNP. They may have been to Man at C&A, but underneath they’re still the same unpleasant bunch of racist, anti-Semitic skinheads they’ve always been. If you want to protest, try UKIP or the English Democrats, or the Monster Raving Loony Party, for that matter. Anyone but this bunch of disgusting Toytown Nazis. Democracy encompasses the right not to vote. That’s also a protest against the system. I don’t care if the BNP promise to empty the dustbins twice a day. Frankly, I’d rather put up with an overflowing wheelie bin, full of six-month old waste, crawling with rats. It’s bad enough having vermin in our rubbish without having them infest the Town Hall, too.'

As much as any decent person must despise Littlejohn for much of the tosh he comes out with, it must be admitted that on occasion he produces an interesting phrase or two.

Edwards, describing Littlejohn as a 'tiresome hack', was furious but managed to get his revenge instantly. Just a day or two before, he had received the following email from Atlantic Productions:

'I am writing to you to request an interview with Nick Griffin for a Channel 4 programme we are producing. I hope you are able to pass on the request (below) and we look forward to hearing from you...We have been commissioned by Channel 4 to produce a one-hour documentary on anti-Semitism. The programme is authored by Richard Littlejohn, the newspaper columnist, and will air at peak time later in the year...In the film, Littlejohn will look at the causes of anti-Semitism and examine how it is no longer only associated with far right neo-Nazi extremists but is also finding a home with extreme Islamists and elements of the political Left. He will explore the complex relationship between this new form of anti-Semitism and attitudes in Britain towards the state of Israel and its foreign policy.'

Although he doesn't actually say this in his reply to Atlantic Productions, Edwards states on his blog:

'The BNP have no policies which espouse or encourage anti Semitism, so why they should contact us illustrates just how out of touch are the likes of Littlejohn.'

Perhaps we can help him out as his memory seems to be at fault - possibly due to the copious amounts of beer he claims to be able to down. Maybe Atlantic and Littlejohn did a quick five-minute search of the internet for 'nick griffin' and 'jews', which would have found them these little snippets:

'He [Griffin] had become editor of The Rune, an antisemitic quarterly produced by Croydon BNP. Griffin was opposed to attempts to modernise the BNP, accusing those who wanted change of "rainbow Conservatism". He also announced that the BNP should prioritise denying the Holocaust to schoolchildren.'

'A Griffin publication, Who are the Mindbenders?, claims to prove that the minds of British people are brainwashed through Jewish control of the media. The booklet includes a list of all known Jews working in the media as though they are working together for a joint cause. He proves Jewish control of the BBC by naming a mere 19 Jews who work for the corporation. He has never repudiated this work.'

'In another article he said, 'I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the earth is flat… I have reached the conclusion that the "extermination" tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter-day witch-hysteria.' (Carlisle Two Defence Fund Bulletin)

'In 1997 he told an undercover journalist that he had updated Richard Verrall's Holocaust denial book Did Six Million Really Die?. He also described his former MP, Alex Carlile, QC, who had reported The Rune to the police, as "this bloody Jew... whose only claim is that his grandparents died in the Holocaust."'

'Despite Griffin's new moderate image, he remains a Holocaust Denier. He has attacked fellow Holocaust denier David Irving for being too moderate (!) for admitting that some Jews did indeed die during the Holocaust claiming the "True Revisionists will not be fooled by this new twist to the sorry tale of the Hoax of the Twentieth Century."'

'On his farm in Wales Griffin has, according to Wales on Sunday, two pigs one called "Anne" and another called "Frank" - a crude anti-Semitic parody of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose wartime diary, written whilst she was in hiding in Amsterdam is a world famous indictment of Nazi persecution of the Jews. Anne Frank was later betrayed and died in a concentration camp. Apparently Griffin thinks this is funny.'

That may be why Atlantic contacted the BNP about anti-semitism. It may also explain why Littlejohn referred to the BNP as 'disgusting Toytown Nazis'.

Curiously, Edwards didn't seem to find the implied accusation of anti-semitism inaccurate enough to complain about, choosing instead to get his revenge on Littlejohn for the perceived insult to the BNP. Here's his reply:

'Further to your request for an interview with Nick Griffin for a Channel 4 programme you and Littlejohn are producing about the causes of anti-Semitism, I would like you to read the following comment by Littlejohn in his scurrilous Daily Mail column of April 27:

"Please don’t vote for these Toytown Nazis...While…..[truncated] It’s bad enough having vermin in our rubbish without having them infest the Town Hall, too"

Neither Nick Griffin nor anyone else in the BNP would wish to associate themselves with the likes of Littlejohn. I will put this correspondence on the BNP web site under Columnists and Doc’s Diary for all to see just how unpleasant are Littlejohn and all his works. Please do not contact the BNP again on behalf of Littlejohn.'

So an accusation of anti-semitism is okay but being referred to as 'vermin' isn't? The mind boggles.