July 22, 2007

BNP plans to seek safety in Croatian idyll

When the fossil fuels run out, leaders of Britain's far right hope to survive on a farm in the Balkans

A few miles from the historic southern Croatian town of Knin lie 1,100 hectares of farmland and a couple of abandoned buildings. A tributary from the river Krka runs through the lush countryside nestled close to the sun-drenched Adriatic coast.

It is a tranquil place, one that would make an ideal spot for a campsite or a clutch of holiday homes. But instead the land is destined for a rather more bizarre sort of retreat. It is here that a small cabal, comprising senior members of the British National Party, plans to hole up once, as they expect, the world's supply of oil runs out, triggering anarchy.

The land is owned by an anonymous BNP sympathiser from south-east England whose late father is understood to have made a fortune in the pizza business. At the moment it lies unused, but the BNP chairman, Nick Griffin, has visited the site several times. One day some in the party hope it will become a sustainable community, one that is not reliant on fossil fuels or outside power of any kind but instead is capable of harnessing solar energy and tapping into local streams for fresh water.

A spokesman for the BNP said this scenario was 'totally without foundation'. But The Observer has established the plans were discussed extensively during a three-day secret BNP meeting last September at a Hampshire hotel. Griffin and several senior members of the BNP, including Lee Barnes, the party's ponytailed second-in-command, had invited an energy expert, Andrew McKillop, to speak about his pet theory, the end of oil and gas supply, a subject about which he lectures widely on the conference circuit.

Also at the meeting was the BNP's economics adviser, a man called Alan Goodacre when residing in Britain but who, when in the US on business, apparently uses the name Ian Fletcher, according to party sources. Throughout the meeting Fletcher carried a large briefcase stuffed with thousands of pounds in cash which he used to pay the hotel and restaurant bills.

'It was like something out of a film,' a member of the hotel staff said. 'He just kept dipping into the briefcase and doling out the money.'

For McKillop, who lives in the US, the meeting was equally surreal. He had been told he would be picked up from Heathrow airport by two BNP stalwarts, only to be instructed at the last minute to make his own way to Portsmouth. From there a car took him to a hotel. 'It was all a bit Monty Python,' McKillop recalled. 'They seemed extremely paranoid.'

As soon as he arrived, Griffin ushered McKillop, who previously had links to the French far right and the late billionaire James Goldsmith, into a room to address eight of his colleagues. Over the next two days McKillop, who says he was not paid for his presentation and had been contacted by the BNP via the internet, talked widely about his belief that global oil and gas supplies are peaking and that this would have profound repercussions for mankind. As he talked his audience became more excited.

'They didn't want to know what I was talking about,' said McKillop. 'They just wanted to know how to use it to their advantage. They grabbed it as a ball to play with. They developed a completely exaggerated idea of when the world's oil supply will be turned off. They were asking, "How can we exploit this, how can we use it to build an election platform?"'

McKillop was told a BNP supporter owned a large amount of land in Croatia that the party's senior figures had high hopes for. Initially he thought the BNP intended to use it simply for eco-tourism. But as the conversation developed there was talk of turning the land into a community for the BNP and its supporters.

'In the end I formed the impression they saw it as a bolthole for when the world blows up,' McKillop said. Claims that the BNP senior hierarchy have discussed developing the Croatian site have been corroborated by several disgruntled party members who have supplied detailed information to Lancaster Unite Against Fascism (UAF), a body that campaigns against the BNP.

The revelation that the BNP senior hierarchy anticipate a doomsday scenario has parallels with millenarianism - the view that the world is on the brink of an apocalypse. The links between such views and the far right are well known. The Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, harboured suspicions that the UN was trying to take over the world and that a global war was an inevitability.

McVeigh and the London nail bomber David Copeland, jailed for an explosion at a gay pub in Soho, London, which killed three people and left 70 injured, were heavily influenced by William Pierce, the founder of the white supremacist National Alliance in the US. Pierce was also the author of The Turner Diaries which predict a series of racial wars that develop into global genocide. Several BNP members have attended National Alliance meetings.

Observer

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice little mention of lancaster UAF there.:)

Anonymous said...

More revalations about Croatia. I wonder how accurate the story is.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this is all the truth about Croatia at all. I think theres a hell of a lot to find out and the writers so far have only skimmed the surface though Antifascist and Jamie Doward have both done an excellent jobgiven the misinformation that's been spread around, the lies the BNP leadership have told and the amount there appears to be to cover up. Keep digging guys -there's more information out there and it could destroy the BNP if it all came out.

Anonymous said...

Interesting response to this story over at Stormfront where Green Arrow (who is further up Nick Griffin's butt than Martin Webster ever was) is claiming its all rubbish.

"Griffin knows his time is nearly up and he will be a persona non grata in Britain, ie, back to being a nobody,he is obviously planning a future, financed by someone elses cash, whats new.
Croatia is no longer cheap, a property on the coast that cost 50k 5 years ago is now 250k, I wanted to buy a second home there but have been outpriced.
Didnt he pull the same stunt in France a few years back ?"

Yes he did.

Antifascist said...

'...where Green Arrow (who is further up Nick Griffin's butt than Martin Webster ever was) is claiming its all rubbish.'

In the words of Mandy Rice-Davis (which shows my age); 'Well he would say that, wouldn't he.'

Anonymous said...

1100 hectares? That's a HUGE amount of land. Roughly around two and a half thousand acres. Where the hell would the BNP or anyone associated with it get the money to buy that lot?

Anonymous said...

What over active imaginations you sad lot have, just lies lies and more lies, Lee Barnes is not by any stretch of the imagination the 'second in command' of the BNP.

As support for the BNP grows daily so do your silly stories that only idiots will beleive, keep it up it makes the BNP look better all the time, you have lost any argument you may of had, people are turning to the BNP and nothing will stop that, time to face fact lads!

Antifascist said...

'Lee Barnes is not by any stretch of the imagination the 'second in command' of the BNP.'

That at least is true and we have no idea where Jamie Doward got that information - though it should be said that there have long been complaints from the membership that Barnes appears to have a disproportionate amount of influence in the party for someone who isn't even a member.

'people are turning to the BNP'

No gains in the last May council elections (and now a net loss of one). It doesn't sound like people are 'turning to the BNP' to me.

Anonymous said...

"Nice little mention of lancaster UAF there"
Definitely. Excellent.

Anonymous said...

Explain Sedgefield, know-it-all?

Antifascist said...

Sedgefield? Is that near Croatia or in any way related to this story? No, I didn't think so.

On the other hand, in Sedgefield, where you lot put up the best candidate you could possibly find, delivered more leaflets than all the other parties combined and had a known name involved in a one-time popular protest, got 9%. Big deal.

Anonymous said...

I thought BNP stood for

'British National Party'?

Perhaps they should change it to BNPCSLS

'Bloody Nice Place Croatia So Long Suckers'

Aren't the BNP supposed to be fighting for their ancestral land and not occupying someone elses. Wouldn't that make you all Asylum Seekers? :)

Anonymous said...

"Didnt he pull the same stunt in France a few years back ?"

Yes, and in Suffolk. Now, I wonder how much money this wealthy friend has donated to the BNP and how much has been accounted for?

Anonymous said...

'"Didnt he pull the same stunt in France a few years back ?"

Yes, and in Suffolk.'

Spain too, a few years back when he was involved with the ITP.

Anonymous said...

All have had one thing in common - Spain, France, Suffolk - a small(ish) bit of land, with vewry little on it, made (or attempted to be made) habitable by the free labour of party members, while one Nick Griffin retains ownership of the freehold.
Similar to what went on a few years ago in Wales, as well.
Croatia is, instead, a bloody massive undertaking, much too far to be worked on by free party labour, and apparantly not owned outright by Griffin. Also still seems to be very much in the realms of possibility and rumour. Yourselves and the Observer quoting each other, so 'proving' the 'facts'.
I remain sceptical, seems a little far-fetched even for the increasingly unstable and paranoid Griffin, I would have thought that any large sums of money would have been invested in various get rich quick schems in the UK rather than a tried and blatantly insane scheme that always results in a fiasco.
A lot more information needed, before this is anything other than a vague possibility.

Anonymous said...

"Spain too, a few years back when he was involved with the ITP."

Why do the members put up with it, they must be stupid.

Anonymous said...

"I would have thought that any large sums of money would have been invested in various get rich quick schems in the UK rather than a tried and blatantly insane scheme that always results in a fiasco."

Do you have any idea how much an acre will soon cost you in Croatia?



"There are also large areas mined during the 1991-1995 independence war where the soil has not been used for many years.

Producers and experts believe that in the future Croatia should focus on supplying the local market with organic products notably because the number of foreign tourists looking for local and healthy food is growing.

"Croatia has the image of a country with intact nature and natural agriculture products. These are strong messages on which we should insist," Karoglan-Todorovic stressed.

Croatia's glittering Adriatic Sea coast, which features more than 1,000 islands, attracts more 10 than million tourists each year."
http://www.eubusiness.com/news_live/1171166402.68/