They never change: ex-BNP London mayoral candidate and treasurer in anti-Jewish postings

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Hexapla. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

Michael Newland and his anti-Jewish postings

Michael ("Mike") Newland, the BNP's former treasurer and ex-London mayoral candidate (and currently treasurer of BNP breakaway group, the Freedom Party) has been a busy boy online.

I recently chanced upon Newland's rather odious and racist anti-Jewish internet postings he'd made under his online nickname 'MikeinCamden'. Under one discussion thread entitled, 'Miliband, Mild Mel and the Joys of Judeocracy', Newland preposterously states:

"Some Jews have a grudge against white people because of Hitler. It's a simple as that. A knee jerk reaction of always supporting attacks on white society. Lots of blacks are just the same over slavery. The behaviour is reinforced by the rewards given to PC persons".

In another thread, 'BNP is now pro-Israel!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!', Newland links his anti-Jewish hate with his disenchantment with Nick Griffin's leadership of the BNP (indeed, following a clash with Nick Griffin, Newland left the BNP with several other BNP members to form a rival racist party, the Freedom party). Posting the following diatribe twice, Newland strangely argues:

"Please! The Jews have cash and Mr Griffin wishes to schmooze forsaking past opinions".

One strongly suspects from the above two posts that the phenomenon of fantasy politics inhabits the mind of Michael Newland, as it does the minds of many members of the far-right from the BNP to the plethora of breakaway groups that the BNP has manifested. Under other topic headings such as 'Spain Breaks Ranks With Jewish Thought Control', 'Re: Dumb Niggers & gloating Jews' and 'Disgraced Jewish Northern Rock Chief Gets 1 Million payoff', Newland makes a series of otherwise banal observations and uninteresting comments.

Unfortunately, within many racist and fascist circles the phantasmagorical figure of the mythical 'Jew' still serves as an all-weather device by which many fascists can overcome their political and intellectual inarticulateness, and direct their various resentments, frustrations and failures at and onto the carefully constructed and anonymous figure of the (non-existent) 'Jew' (this is also equally true of the 'Asian', 'Muslim' and 'Ethnic').

Michael Newland and his tortured relationship with the BNP

It seems that Newland has not learned his lesson from his time in the BNP. I guess it is true what they say – a leopard can't change its spots. And, this leopard certainly doesn't want to change his! Newland is a die-hard fascist and will most probably remain one to his dying days. But, then again this is his choice and he's welcome to it.

Back in the mid-1990s, when Newland was the treasurer of the BNP, he was caught up in the violent feud between the BNP and its then military wing, the neo-nazi terrorist group Combat 18 (1 = A and 8 = H giving AH, the initials of Adolf Hitler). Combat 18 had gone on a frolic and decided to live a life fully independent of its creator and father, the BNP. Combat 18 members turned up at Newland's house in Camden, north London (where Newland still lives today) and beat him up with a hammer. Despite sustaining several broken bones at the hands of his fellow 'nationalists', this didn't deter Newland from persisting with his activism within the BNP.

Then in 1999, Newland stood as the BNP's mayoral candidate for London, openly calling for the deportation of all non-whites living in the UK. The only noteworthy event of his largely forgettable election campaign was that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) won court injunctions twice against Newland (as well as against BNP leader and Holocaust denier Nick Griffin and another senior BNP official Tony Lecomber, convicted of assaulting a Jewish man in a racist attack) for breach of copyright after the Newland's BNP campaign materials copied a press advertisement from the MPS's 'Race crime is hate crime' campaign and altered the text for the BNP's racist leaflets. The MPS described the BNP leaflet produced by Newland, which carried the MPS's emblems, as "particularly offensive".

But, in August 2000, at the instigation of BNP leader Nick Griffin, Newland was expelled from the BNP over his accusations of internal financial mismanagement. In protest, along with BNP couple Sharron and Steve Edwards and what used to be the BNP's favourite barrister Adrian Davies (who represented Holocaust denier David Irving), Newland formed a rival racist party, the minuscule and largely irrelevant Freedom party (the name seems to be inspired by the successful Austrian fascist party, the Freedom party). Opinions within the BNP on Newland are divided. Some praise Newland as a stalwart of the 'old' BNP, the time when the BNP openly and proudly displayed its hard fascism for all to see (unlike the 'soft fascism' that one sees under the BNP's current leadership). Others openly emit distrust towards Newland, even accusing him of supplying anti-fascists with what they consider to be misinformation: that as a sick anti-Jewish joke, Nick Griffin keeps two pigs, one named Ann and the other named Frank, as a play on the name 'Anne Frank' (the famous young diarist murdered during the Holocaust by the nazis). This is what one BNP internet poster called 'Sweetpea' says about Newland on this very issue:

"The Anne and Frank lie comes from one Mike Newland, the one-time BNP Treasurer with whom we parted company years ago when he went off to co-found a now defunct rival semi-nationalist party. It was he who suggested the names by way of one of the warped jokes of which he was fond, but they were never used except once, in order to tease a very humourless left-wing neighbour."

Source: http://www.burnleyweb.com/forum

Frozen out of the BNP, Newland's only outlet is the internet in the form of his anti-Jewish and anti-nonwhite postings. It's a sad life. But, this is the choice that fascists and racists make. ¡No Pasarán!