November 29, 2008

BNP Threatens Free Media

16 Comment (s)
Indymedia is yet again facing legal threats to prevent the free flow of communication, this time from a political movement known for its hostility to free speech. On the 21st November 08 Indymedia UK received an email from someone claiming to be a legal representative for the British National Party, threatening to take legal action on a number of counts for publishing information on BNP members.

After the hilarity of the “little Fuhrer”, Nick Griffin, running to the safety of the Human Rights Act to try to prevent the publication of members’ details, Britain’s fascist party has resorted to threats.

The letter sent to Indymedia by Lee John Barnes LLB (hons), from the “BNP Legal Affairs Unit”, threatens to take legal action, on the basis of theft, data protection and contempt of court, unless the list of members is removed.

The “lawyer” also attempts to shoehorn his charges into the form of anti-terrorism legislation, “The use of this information we feel is being hosted on your site for use only to incite acts of harassment, incite violence and direct targeted attacks against our members in the Leeds area”. He then goes on to explain the sections of the Terrorism Act under which Indymedia would be charged.

Indymedia rejects any accusation that the information could be used to incite violence and has strived to remove any comments that may be seen as incitement. One volunteer explains that there are many legitimate uses for the information, “for individuals to be able to check that their doctor, teacher, nurse etc. isn't a member of the BNP, for example”.

Indeed, Merseyside Police has already used the information in such a way to dismiss an officer, PC Steve Bettley, who has been exposed as a member. A spokesperson for the police said: “Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe has reiterated our position that membership of the British National Party is totally incompatible with the duties and values of Merseyside Police”.

Most incredibly Mr Barnes then explains, “I will also be issuing a request to our internal investigations team to initiate actions to collect your home addresses, contact details and financial details relating to you personally as persons running or hosting the Indymedia website”. Internal Investigations? Once the BNP has this information, it “will be used to initiate legal actions upon yourselves, to initiate financial sanctions against your company and also will be publicised on various websites so that people may contact you and address any legal issues they may have”. Pot, kettle, black?

Indymedia’s legal volunteers have been somewhat baffled by Mr Barnes’s email. One volunteer explains, "the BNP has been terrified by the fact that its members are being outed. You might expect these mouthy nationalists to wear their membership with pride, but this email exposes the BNP yet again as a bunch of cowardly thugs, utterly incoherent and amateurish."

Indeed, it seems to Indymedia that the BNP’s “Legal Affairs Unit” is about as impressive on law as its Policy Unit is on policy. Mr Barnes – now Director of the unit – proudly displays his incompetence in noting that the list of ALL members in the country leaves room for concern only for “our members in the Leeds area”.

The references to the Terrorism Act were described by Indymedia Legal as “plain stoooopid”, and it is doubtful that any qualified legal practitioner would make such claims. The threat may have joined the growing list of worrying misapplications of the Terrorism Act had it not been so laughable.

Mr Barnes’s threat to post personal information about Indymedia participants may in itself be illegal – it certainly would cause a registered legal practitioner to lose his credentials. Perhaps then, it comes as no surprise that the Law Society confirms that Barnes is NOT a qualified lawyer at all.

In fact, Mr Lee John Barnes LLB (hons) is an incoherent, buffoonish windbag who could well be charged with incitement himself.

Believe it or not, Mr Barnes lists his favourite music as Morrisey, Sinatra, Manic Street Preachers, Public Enemy and the Sex Pistols! But then fascists have always tended to like self-flagellation (for those of you unfamiliar, the bands range from the left to the far left).

http://www.blogger.com/profile/16093052197059748663

If that weren’t enough, Mr Barnes’s mysticism should impress. In Mr Barnes’s fantasy world, he hails from “The Barnes Clan”, which “are of the Bjeorn bloodline - Bjorn meaning bear was changed to Barnes - and this is the surname of those that were once the Berserkers - the bodyguards of Norse kings and the fiercest men in battle”. Yes, indeed.

http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/

Such is Mr Barnes’s buffoonery, there are now whole web sites dedicated to “all things that are John Lee Barnes LLB (hons)” and to particular instances of his many gaffes.

More sinister material can be found elsewhere. Particularly disturbing is Barnes’s claim that, “This is not a game we are playing, this is a war and in times of war unquestionable obedience and loyalty to the commander in the field must come first, The 'First Law Of Nationalism' is - If you work with the enemy, then you are the enemy.”

http://www.joechapman.org/thebnp/bnphistory.htm

http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/

http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/05/lee-barnes-lays-down-law-to-challengers.html

See also

http://ambientroutmask.livejournal.com/39557.html

imc uk legal

November 28, 2008

Lie lorry tour fails to deliver

21 Comment (s)
Talking to himself: Nick Griffin aboard the lie lorry
“We will start in Scotland and work our way south over one month, stopping in all major cities from Edinburgh to Southampton,” promised Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, in a fundraising appeal in September.

This so-called truth tour, using the BNP’s notorious “lie lorry” advertising vehicle, was intended to promote the launch of the party’s Racism Cuts Both Ways brochure. Copies would be handed out along the way and “millions will see and hear our message”.

The truth was rather different. Driven by Paul Golding, director of the BNP’s British Pride “white history” website, the truck left London at 8.30am on Monday 10 November. Over five days, wrote Golding, it “visited Brighton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Salisbury, Bath, Corsham, Wolverhampton, Dudly [sic], West Bromwich, Birmingham, Stoke, Manchester, Oldham, Huddersfield, Leeds, Middlesborough [sic], Sunderland, South Shields, Barking, Dagenham, Thurrock, Grays, Tilbury, Blackburn and Blackpool”.

And that was it. The geographically convoluted tour “ended on Friday night at our annual conference,” said Golding, whose name is notably absent from the leaked list of BNP members.

Even though the tour missed huge areas of the country, including the whole of Scotland and Wales, wherever it stopped Golding and Mike Howson, the middle-aged leader of the Young BNP, distributed “thousands and thousands of the Racism Cuts Both Ways booklets to an eager public,” boasted Golding. In Oldham the team “received a wildly enthusiastic response from the public”, similarly in Huddersfield “it was mobbed by highly enthusiastic members of the public”.

The trouble was that the reports were accompanied by pictures of the lie lorry in the various locations visited. And the one thing that the photos had in common, apart from the truck, was the complete absence of any members of the public, eager or otherwise. In fact it was remarkable how many big empty spaces the BNP managed to find in England’s supposedly overcrowded towns and cities.

No doubt Griffin is relying on the people who put up the money for this fiasco being too gullible to notice.

Racism cuts both ways

November 27, 2008

Watchdog wants BNP to be denied right to teach

6 Comment (s)
Members of the British National Party (BNP) working in universities should not be allowed direct contact with students, the higher education equality watchdog has said.

Several higher education staff were among BNP members whose details were recently leaked on the internet.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), said this week that while "primacy of freedom of speech is fundamental", universities had legal obligations to promote good race relations on campus. "It is hard to see how institutions can reconcile their duty to promote good race relations with staff being members of the BNP. Institutions may therefore consider that it is inappropriate for BNP members to have teaching and/or pastoral care responsibilities, or other direct contact with students," she said.

Academics named as members of the far-Right party included Arthur Nightingale, head experimental design engineer at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Industrial Photonics. The university said staff political affiliations were "a matter for them" as long as they did not affect the workplace, so no action would be taken.

Strathclyde University, whose estates manager William MacLachlan appeared on the list, said that political beliefs were "a personal matter" but it would consider its position if "such beliefs should impinge on a staff member's professional activity".

Dennis Hayes, founder of Academics for Academic Freedom and head of the Centre for Professional Learning at Canterbury Christ Church University, said the ECU recommendation was "an improper restriction of a democratic right ... and a new stage in the attack on academic freedom. These people have not said or done anything - they are being punished for existing."

Dr Hayes said discrimination should be tackled as it occurred.

Les Ebdon, vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, said: "It's the views rather than the party membership that's crucial. If somebody espouses openly racist views it's difficult to see how they can be in a lecturing position in a university where they may have students from a whole variety of ethnic groups."

THE

BNP Karaoke

2 Comment (s)
Image courtesy of LOL Griffin

November 26, 2008

Anger over BNP's 'white history month'

12 Comment (s)
In the wake of publication of the BNP's membership list, Tim Lezard reports on the anger over the far right party's bid to promote 'white history month'

Teaching unions have attacked BNP plans to promote White History Month in schools, colleges and universities across England.

As the party reels from the leaking of its membership list, its youth and student wings have launched an alternative to Black History Month, saying: “This is our month, where we can be proud to be white and express it openly.” The campaign aims to counter 'white guilt trips in the national curriculum' by teaching children the 'truth' about slavery, colonialism and imperialism.

Matthew Collins from anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, said: “This odious campaign reveals the BNP’s true colours. Their views on history have always been selective – [BNP leader] Nick Griffin has denied the Holocaust ever happened. They also conveniently neglect to mention their own history, which is ridden with racism, fascism and violence.”

The BNP claims to have sent out thousands of leaflets to teaching establishments and to have emailed headteachers, university deans, student groups, campus groups, scouts and guide groups.

“The world would be a very different place if it wasn’t for the British Empire,” according to the literature.

“The only way the government can get British people to allow themselves to be dispossessed in their own homeland is to make them ashamed of themselves and their history. Never be embarrassed of the Empire or ashamed of it, no matter what your teachers say. Be proud of it. It was a time of great improvement and advancement in the world and it was all thanks to the British.”

As part of the month, the BNP is promoting 'The March of the Titans - a history of the white race', a tome that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and praises Adolf Hitler for backing an anti-smoking drive, discouraging alcohol abuse and outlawing vivisection, whilst admitting "he will always be associated with an outburst of anti-Jewish sentiment".

The book then attempts to justify the Holocaust by saying: "No-one would question that the Jews, like everyone else in the Second World War, suffered great misfortune and were in particular subjected to unprecedented persecution and harassment on racial grounds. International Jewry had however publicly and openly declared war on Nazi Germany and the Nazis therefore regarded Jews as a hostile combatant group of special significance."

The campaign was condemned by University and College Union (UCU) General Secretary Sally Hunt, who said: "The BNP has no interest in the freedoms that UCU or the majority of people in this country believe in. The academic community is one that is built on diversity and tolerance. The BNP has no interest in sharing those values and preaches only hate and fear.”

The NUT’s Acting General Secretary Christine Blower, said: “The BNP's latest publication, like all of its literature, has no place in the school curriculum. A key purpose of education is to promote respect and equal opportunities. These values are in direct contradiction to BNP policies.”

The Guiding Association of Great Britain also condemned the initiative. A spokeswoman said: “One of the core values of Girlguiding UK is promoting equality and diversity and throughout our membership we build a respect and understanding of a range of cultures."

New Statesman

BNP's Excalibur evicted from Deeside home

49 Comment (s)
Griffin wondering what new disasters might be hiding around the corner
As the British National Party was desperately shutting stable doors after the list of members had bolted, its leaders had to contend with an equally serious problem.

The party had just been given notice to quit the hate factory that Searchlight had exposed in September. Where would it move the “vast array of new equipment” the party had purchased back in January, when it announced proudly that it had moved into a “brand new ground-floor warehouse”, let alone its range of tatty cringe-making and overpriced goods, Replica Victoria Crosses, condemned by the Ministry of Defence as an insult to British troops’ heroism, Enoch Powell t-shirts, stocks of its new racist brochure Racism Cuts Both Ways and the party’s back catalogue of publications?

The facility had been the first fruit of the BNP’s huge “Building to Grow” fundraising effort last winter and the first time the party could centralise its key operations in a modern unit.

The BNP had tried to keep the location secret but Searchlight, in conjunction with Lancaster Unity and Wales Friends of Searchlight, had tracked it down to the Evans Business Centre, a recently built development of workshops and offices on Deeside Industrial Estate, in Flintshire, North Wales, where the BNP occupied unit B2.

The landlords, Evans Easyspace, appeared uninterested at first. When a Sunday Times journalist contacted Brian Mawhinney, a non-executive director of the company and former Cabinet Minister, he replied that he had not been aware of the BNP connection and said, “Thank you for drawing it to my attention”, before putting the phone down. Lord Mawhinney is currently the chairman of the Football League, which has pledged to stamp racism out of football.

But all bad things come to an end and Evans Easyspace did turn out to be unhappy that an organisation that had rented the unit under the name of Excalibur turned out to be the BNP. When Mirror journalists visited the place on 21 November, they found a “to let” sign outside and an irate Arthur Kemp, the South African in charge of the BNP’s ideological training, trying to close the door on them.

“Evans Easyspace was aware of renting a property to Excalibur, but were not aware of its links to the BNP,” said Tom Stokes, managing director. “We have now terminated their agreement and they are moving out at the end of November.”

Searchlight

Keep Merseyside Fascist Free!

3 Comment (s)
Counter-protest
Saturday November 29th
10am Church Street (Bold Street end), Liverpool

Bring banners, placards and people!

called by Liverpool UAF and Liverpool LMHR groups, supported by North West UAF

On Saturday 22nd Nov 2008, 12 members of the BNP were arrested in Liverpool city centre while handing out leaflets spreading their message of racism and hate ( racism cuts both ways leaflets) . The fascist BNP are planning to hold a demo in Liverpool this Saturday 29 November and are asking their activists to bring more leaflets!

We are organising a protest to stop the BNP spreading their racist lies in Liverpool. We are calling on everyone to unite against them and come to Liverpool and oppose the BNP!

November 25, 2008

Of Agincourt, child pornography and yet another plea for money from Nick Griffin

32 Comment (s)
BNP leader invokes Agincourt, Nelson, Wellington and 'Good Queen Bess' in desperate bid to screw money out of the besieged membership. Oh, and he tells a lie or two, as well.

The BNP loses all its member's details, allowing them to be released to the world at large and thus making life difficult for hundreds of people, and what does Nick Griffin do? Say sorry? Say it'll never happen again? Apologise profusely to each and every member on the list? No. He asks them to give him some more money. Why? Because, as Nick Griffin states in an insane attack on pretty well everyone, if they do, he will take legal action against employers, newspapers and the police, where they are perceived to be attacking the BNP membership or not treating it in the way Nick Griffin says they should. But only if the members cough up financially, of course.

The mad rant that accompanies this current plea for money - needed to replace the membership fees lost because of the BNP's own incompetence and stupidity - compares the current plight of the membership with that of the Jews during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Here's Griffin's version:
'...finally it was open season on them and anybody else who dared question the totalitarian political elite. Windows were smashed, firebombs were thrown, and innocent people were hauled off to prison. Is this not exactly what we are witnessing now, here in Britain, in 2008?'
Well no, not really. In a single night, November 9–10th 1938, 92 Jews were murdered and 25,000–30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. In the past few days since the BNP membership list was leaked there have been a few unpleasant (and unverified) telephone threats and a car has apparently been firebombed (though a BNP councillor in the area pointed out himself that it was unlikely to be connected to the release of the list).

Griffin seems to have decided who to blame for the leak though. Having flailed around trying to make the blame stick to John Walker, Kenny Smith and then the December rebels, he has obviously decided that they are in a position to take him to court for defamation, so has gone for a somewhat broader target:
'The leaking of our members’ details was not the mere rash action of a disgruntled ex- employee. No! It is part of a co-ordinated campaign...they have unleashed the attack dogs of the media and the legions of the PC fanatics, trade union Marxists and every other hater of Britain they can muster.'
Suddenly (and somewhat unnervingly) Griffin goes into Henry V-mode:
'Are we not heirs of those who stood, against all odds, at Agincourt? Did not our forebears hold fast the ‘thin red line’ on every continent in the world? Were not our ancestors those bold heroes who stood at Tilbury dock with good Queen Bess against the assembled hordes of Europe, and served heroically with Nelson and Wellington? Unlike our fathers and Grandfathers, we have no Somme, Paschendale or Dunkirk to test our metal [that's mettle, dumbass], but none the less we have our own battles to fight and this is a major test for us as Nationalists and British democrats. If our courage fails at the first sound of battle, then all is lost.'
Gosh. It'd all be terribly exciting if Griffin didn't then go and spoil it all by lying:
'Being ‘on the list’ is a mark of honour, and people are now clamouring to join and be on it too!'
Tut-tut. Every report we have had from inside the party (and that, let me tell you, is quite a lot) states very clearly that people are clamouring to get OUT of the party and OFF the list ASAP. So much for Griffin's mark of honour.
'We never went looking for this fight, but now it has started we must stand fast in defence of every single member who feels threatened, harassed or intimidated. Employers who attempt to victimise our people will be challenged in court. Newspapers that deliberately whip up hatred against our people will also find themselves on the wrong end not only of legal action for receiving and misusing stolen property, but of well-thought out actions denied to hit their owners in their pockets. Police forces that fail to protect our people, or even worse try to join in the intimidation, will be called to account too...As well as our coming legal fight-back, we’re going to be organising hard-hitting political action too. We’ll make Liverpool’s politically correct police bullies wish they’d never tried to stamp out the BNP. We’re designing new Truth Truck ‘skins’ and we’re going to visit the owners and big shareholders of the Daily Mirror and tell their neighbours about their vicious campaign of intimidation, lies and incitement. These swine started this fight, but we’re going to win it!'
So Nick Griffin, in his madness and megalomania, intends to take on the newspapers, the police and employers. He's certainly going to have his hands full, particularly if he also intends to organise illegal demonstrations at the homes or offices of shareholders of the Daily Mirror - though one wonders why he's doing all this when he clearly apportions blame elsewhere, thus:
'The campaign of media demonisation, police repression and intimidation by gangs of leftist thugs mobilised and endorsed by Labour cabinet ministers...'
There you go. That's who released the BNP membership list - the Cabinet, who obviously having nothing better to do than upload BNP membership lists to Blogspot.

Just one final thing, and this is disturbing to say the least. In this latest attempt to screw money out of the members, Griffin has this to say:
'Independent observers such as leading libertarian Dr. Sean Gabb are comparing the onslaught launched against us to the political witch hunts in the early days of the Soviet and Nazi regimes.'
This would be Dr. Sean Gabb who has some very peculiar ideas about child pornography, as is apparent from his article 'Reflections on the Gary Glitter Case', 14th November 1999, where, after concluding that he found it hard to see why there should be laws against possession of child pornography if the pictures are bought and paid for, he goes on to compare child sexual abuse with child labour:
'...it can be argued that it is less harmful for a child to be photographed in a warm studio over several hours than to be worked day after day in a factory with unguarded machinery all around.'
If you didn't quite get what he meant in that sentence, re-read it a few times until you do. It is, and I make no excuses for my language, fucking filthy.

And this is someone Griffin uses to prop up his arguments?

November 24, 2008

BNP condemned for Sharon claims

6 Comment (s)
The far-right British National Party has been condemned for claiming in a leaflet that the murder of Bradford police officer Sharon Beshenivsky during a robbery was a racial attack. The leaflets, distributed across the country, detailing more than 160 other claimed racist incidents, have been branded as a blatant attempt to incite racial hatred.

PC Beshenivsky was shot dead by robbers on November 18, 2005, outside a travel agency in Morley Street, Bradford.

Her widower Paul Beshenivsky said: “Sharon’s murder was not a racist attack and it should not be used in that way. These people are totally distorting the facts and just making it up. I was told about this by the Police Federation and both they and we are not at all happy about it. At the end of the day the call Sharon went to could have been responded to by anyone. It would not have mattered whether it had been an English, Asian or Polish officer who attended, this gang would have shot them.”

Tom McGhie, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “It is appalling that the BNP would use the tragedy of Sharon Beshenivsky’s murder to try to further its own political agenda. I can’t imagine what the Beshenivsky family and Sharon’s colleagues would feel about her death being used in this manner. To relate the murder of Sharon to a racist attack is simply wrong. It was a crime carried out by violent criminals and this fact was highlighted at the court case. These were dangerous criminals prepared to use ultimate force.”

Bradford South Divisional Commander Chief Superintendent Alison Rose said: “Sharon Beshenivsky died doing her duty trying to stop a robbery, there was not a racial motive to her death. It is unfortunate that the BNP have used her image to inaccurately portray a racist crime when in reality she died doing her job trying to stop crime.”

BNP spokesman Simon Darby defended the party’s tactics. “We are angered by the continued murder of white people,” he said. “We used exactly the same criteria as the Institute for Race Relations and if it had been an Asian police officer killed by white people it would have been classed as a racist attack. No-one ever criticises their statistics. This is a typical tactic of the left.”

But Paul Meszaros, of Bradford Hope Not Hate, said the leaflet was a cynical attempt to stir up hatred. He said: “This is another attempt by the BNP to incite racial violence. They have deliberately twisted the facts to misrepresent the issue.”

Bradford Telegraph and Argus

BNP London assembly member under investigation for YouTube murder allegations

10 Comment (s)
Greater London authority investigates allegation that Richard Barnbrook wrongly claimed that three murders had taken place in his borough

Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's only member in the London assembly, is under investigation by the Greater London authority after he was accused of wrongly alleging that three murders had taken place in his borough.

Barnbrook, GLA member for Barking and Dagenham, claimed in September that a girl was killed within the borough three weeks before. He also claimed that within the same timeframe, two other people were murdered in knife attacks.

He made the claims while accusing Boris Johnson, the London mayor, and councils of failing to do enough to tackle knife crime in the capital.

Barnbrook made the allegations on a YouTube video, posted on his website as part of an attack on local authorities' action against knife crime

The GLA's standards subcommittee decided last month to refer the allegation to the monitoring officer for further investigation after viewing the broadcast. Under section five of the code, London assembly members are warned they must not conduct themselves in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing their office or authority into disrepute.

Barnbrook, also a member of the 11-strong BNP group at Barking and Dagenham council, could be suspended by the GLA for up to six months if the complaint is upheld against him, or face tougher sanctions at the hands of the adjudication panel for England.

Valerie Rush, executive member of Barking and Dagenham with responsibility for safer neighbourhoods and policing, lodged the complaint against Barnbrook with the standards committees of both her own council and the GLA for allegedly bringing his position as an assembly member into "disrepute" and seeking to "damage the reputation of the GLA and its elected members as well as Barking & Dagenham council".

Rush alleged in her complaint that Barnbrook's claim over the murder of a young girl was "an absolute lie".

"He also goes on to claim a further two murders in the borough in the last two weeks, which is also a lie," she added.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, is a member of the standards committee which will be responsible for deciding Barnbrook's fate if the allegations against the BNP are proven.

Though GLA sanctions are limited up to six months' suspension, the committee has the option from next month to refer the matter directly to an independent judicial tribunal, the adjudication panel for England, which could lead to tougher sanctions up to and including being disbarred for five years.

Barnbrook was discussing knife crime fatalities and the failure of both Johnson and local authorities to "do more" to tackle the scourge of knife crime, when he said: "This year alone, up until now there has been 27 murders of youths between 13 and 17 by knife crimes with several thousand more being attacked by knives," said Barnbrook.

"In Barking and Dagenham alone three weeks ago there was a murder of a young girl, we don't know who's done it; her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute. Again two weeks ago there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham and two people were murdered."

Barnbrook told guardian.co.uk he had been advised by the GLA not to comment while the investigation was still under way. But blogger Adam Bienkov, who first broke the story, said Barnbrook had told him that his dyslexia may have led him to have "muddled" his account.

"He also said that one of the three murders he had referred to in the video, had actually taken place 'just over the river' from Barking and Dagenham."

Barking and Dagenham police were unavailable for comment.

Guardian

Northern Ireland BNP 'members' on list: Ex-cop 'proud' of membership

11 Comment (s)
A pretty blonde mum from Bangor, a lonely heart ex-RUC officer and a former fire chief are among the Northern Ireland people whose names have appeared on a leaked list belonging to the far-right British National Party.

A total of 39 local people are named on the alleged membership list of around 13,000 people UK wide. The BNP leadership has confirmed the list that has been spread across the internet is largely accurate, but say some non-members names had been added to create mischief.

One Northern Ireland man who openly says he’s proud to be a member of the BNP is ex-RUC officer Sandy Alexander from Portstewart. The lonely heart divorcee may support the BNP’s tough anti-immigration policies, but he certainly seems to enjoy the company of foreigners having developed online friendships with a string of Thai beauties on a social network site.

Ex-cop Sandy describes himself as “fun-loving”, “romantic” and a “good listener” on his Friendster site where he has posted pictures of himself posing with a machine gun, his sports car and in his old RUC uniform. The divorced dad-of-three says he’s “still looking for his ideal lady” and the dating site reveals that most of his online contacts are with women who live in Bangkok.

Last week Sandy told the BBC how he was proud to be a member of the BNP after his name appeared on list of party members leaked on the Internet.

“I'm in a party I firmly believe in and why should I not hold my head high like anyone else,” he said.

The BNP supports a policy ending immigration and repatriation of immigrants already residing in the UK.

Former Dungannon fire chief Harry Martin — a one-time vice-president of the UK Retired Fire Fighters Association — said he had made a one-off payment to the BNP, but then charged his mind about joining the far right party a short time later. Mr Martin, who now works as a lollypop man, said: “I realised it was important that I was neutral. The fire brigade is neutral and I have always been neutral. There was just one particular thing they were doing at that time that I agreed with and I can’t remember what it was.”

A mum from Bangor and her husband are also among those revealed as members of the British National Party. Young professionals Andy and Lisa Giltrap say they were in the BNP for about a year and attended a number of party meetings, but are no longer members. Husband Andy told Sunday Life: “I would stress we are not racist in anyway.”

He added that the BNP had been unfairly branded as a Nazi group by the media.

“I do care about being British and I do believe we are being overrun by immigrants. I support the party’s policy of controlled immigration,” he said. “In the time we were in the BNP we attended meetings and we met a lot of good people. We never met anyone who was racist. There were old ladies and all kinds of people at those meetings. They were people who concerned about issues like immigration. People were seeing what has been happening in England, there are areas where people just can’t go into.”

Mr Giltrap said he joined the BNP via the internet because at the time he passionately agreed with many of the party’s policies — particularly those on immigration, capital punishment and education. He said he took out family membership as his wife broadly shared his views. He added that he still agreed with many of the BNP’s views, but had left about a year ago as his interest had waned.

On her Bebo website Lisa Giltrap says her favourite past-time is “going out with my friends on the booze and making an ass of myself”.

One message posted some time ago on Lisa’s website was from a woman friend from Carryduff who said: “BNP. We’re gonna be a MINORITY, in 25 years your kids are gonna get beaten up for being white. Sure thing Lisa.”

Another message from a man called Stevie and posted long before the BNP list was leaked, said: “Up the BNP. Happy Hannukah!!”

Mr Giltrap said his wife could not be responsible for messages posted on a Bebo site she rarely used, but added that he knew the man who sent the “Up the BNP” message and described him as an “idiot”.

Squaddie Gary Wilkinson from Ballycarry, Co Antrim was another named on the leaked BNP list. The serving soldier no longer lives at the address that was held on the BNP’s now-exposed membership list. Oddly, for someone who appears on the BNP’s membership list, Wilkinson complains on his Bebo website that he hates England.

“I know loads of nice English people, but in general they are ignorant,” he says.

After his name was one of dozens of Ulster names leaked last week by a former BNP activist, his website was being attacked by anti-BNP campaigners. When Sunday Life contacted his family home his mother confirmed that he had received mail from the BNP, but added “he wasn’t interested in it” and the mail was never forwarded on. She added: “He doesn’t have anything to do with it. There was paperwork came in at a time, but I haven’t been forwarding anything on to him.”

Another person on the list is north Belfast pensioner Margaret Weir who told Sunday Life she was horrified and mystified that her name and details appeared on the list. She says she has never been a member of the BNP.

“I’d never even heard of the BNP until Tuesday night and I don’t understand how my name got on this list. I don’t agree with what they stand for,” she said. “The first I knew anything about it was when I got a crank call on Tuesday night. I thought the man said BP and was trying to sell me oil. I’ve had about six crank calls since then. I’ve no idea how my name got on my list. It’s very worrying,” she said.

The fearful pensioner asked that we use her name so that she could publicly deny having anything to do with the BNP, but did not want us to publish her full address. The BNP is a perfectly legal party although serving police officers are banned from being members.

Merseyside police, which has ordered an investigation into one of its police officers whose name appeared on the BNP list, issued a statement saying: “We are very clear, membership of the BNP is totally incompatible with the duties and values of the police service. We will not accept a police officer or police staff being a member.”

The Association of Chief Police Officers said all 43 constabularies were examining the list to see whether any of their serving officers were on it.

BNP leader Nick Griffin did confirm the list was largely accurate, but he said said some non-members names had been added to create mischief.

The anti-racist group Searchlight believes the leaked list overstated membership by 2,000. Instead, it thought it was a target list for potential donors and recipients of propaganda material, among them past and present members. The full UK wide list includes 16 serving and more than 50 former soldiers, five civil servants, 15 teachers and several church ministers.

Belfast Telegraph

November 23, 2008

Army sack cadet officer after he is exposed as leader of BNP in Scotland

4 Comment (s)
An army cadet officer who trained teenagers was drummed out after he was exposed as the leader of the BNP in Scotland.

A shocked mum complained to top brass after learning Company Sergeant Major Gary Raikes was the racist political party's top man. Raikes trained boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 as a part-time officer at the Army Cadet Force's 2nd Battalion C Company in Boddam, Aberdeenshire.

He was accused of abusing his position to peddle the far-right party's vile views.

The mum, from Turriff, said: "I withdrew my son after Raikes tried to use my child for one of his BNP stunts. He had the temerity to use one of the pictures on his sick website. It is disgusting and a misuse of trust. It is deeply worrying given he is making inroads into the vulnerable minds of children."

Raikes works for Scottish Water and lives in a caravan on a farm near Turriff with his wife Samantha. He said: "I have nothing to say about the army issue. It is nonsense to suggest I was trying to indoctrinate young cadets. The mainstream political parties are scared of us. It's a plot against us. I'm not saying any more. You'll say we're all racist anyway."

After the mum's complaint, army bosses asked Raikes to discuss the issue but he repeatedly failed to attend meetings and was eventually sacked.

An Army Scotland spokeswoman said: "We would not stop anyone from joining a political party but if those views do not accord with the views of the Army we would want to ensure that the person involved kept his beliefs to himself while training others, especially children. We wanted to discuss his views with him but he just never turned up again."

Raikes became the BNP's Scottish leader after UK chief Nick Griffin ousted Glasgow-based Kenny Smith in a bitter power struggle. Smith denies he was responsible for last week's leaking of the personal details of around 12,000 members - including Raikes, who is hated by those loyal to Smith

Sunday Mail

Teacher accused of sexual relationship with former student runs for council

5 Comment (s)
A former teacher at a Shildon School, who was officially sacked recently on the grounds of his sickness record, has since been accused of having a sexual relationship with a former pupil.

The details of the conduct between Mark Walker, who lives in Spennymoor, and the 17 year-old in question came to light after elements of an investigation into his behaviour were leaked to a regional newspaper. Mr. Walker has denied the allegations, claiming they are politically motivated. The technology teacher believes his suspension from Sunnydale Community College to be based on accusations that he had visited right-wing websites on a college laptop.

A report produced by the NSPCC, however, claims that he was suspended for viewing adult pornography with a colleague during school hours, using school equipment. The report, which was carried out for the Durham Children and Young People Services, adds that a number of emails were found on his school computer which indicated a sexual relationship between himself and the former pupil. The report finishes by saying, "The NSPCC believes that there is sufficient evidence from the emails and from previous matters concerning his professional conduct to conclude that Mr. Walker's behaviour has resulted in his conduct being less than one would expect of a teacher placed in a position of trust."

Mr Walker commented on this latest allegation, saying, "My former bosses have made a continually shifting set of allegations against me. "Each time an allegation has been answered, more have been advanced. At base their motives are political." Only days after the allegations were made against Mr Walker, he has decided to run for one of two vacant spots on Shildon Town Council. Although he lives in Spennymoor, Mark is eligible to stand in the Sunnydale Ward as he has been employed there for 12 months prior to December 11th, election day. He will also have to have had ten signitures from residents of the Sunnydale Ward.

Mr Walker will be the only British National Party candidate vying for a position, competing against a record number of candidates. Mark's brother, Adam Walker, was involved in a similar situation,quitting his job as a technology teacher in February 2007 after being suspended for accessing right-wing websites during school hours at his school, Houghton Kepier, a foundation school in Houghton-le- Spring.

Adam, 39, has since won an appeal to have an expresident of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) removed from a General Teaching Council committee, who will consider the charge of misconduct brought against him. Mr Walker believed that the presence of Judy Moorhouse could bias the hearing. The meeting, which was due to take place in Birmingham on Monday, November 17th, was therefore adjourned. Police officers were on duty outside of the building where dozens of BNP supporters had gathered to support Mr. Walker.

Original Article

BNP leader Nick Griffin bleats like a lamb

4 Comment (s)
BNP leader Nick Griffin treated us all this week by hilariously whingeing about members of his party facing “discrimination”.

Aw, diddums.

To anyone who has been away from the world this week, a list of BNP members was posted on the internet. The confused flag-wavers first blamed a disgruntled ex-activist for the leak, but now say it’s all probably Labour’s fault.

Moaning Griffin claimed it would be illegal to sack BNP members from their jobs for party membership, saying: “In the highly unlikely event of one of our many thousands of members being exposed to their employers and suffering discrimination as a result, a substantial compensation pay out will be on the cards.”

Tragically, the Oxford grad, who sadly lives in Wales, could be right. Professor Hugh Collins, law head at the London School of Economic and Political Science, thought it would be “clearly unfair” to dismiss someone “just for being a member of a political party”. Surely workers in responsible jobs shouldn’t be in the BNP because they can’t serve people indiscriminately?

But what I really don’t get is why a group of people who dub themselves “British Lions” don’t have the courage of their convictions? They seem only too eager to hide behind a veil of anonymity rather than stand up for their beliefs. Listen to those “lions” roar.

Wales Online

Evil paedos are secret BNP thugs

11 Comment (s)
Perverts: the BNP's Andrew Wells and Ian Hindle
Two abused 14 year olds after getting them drunk

Two paedophiles jailed for sex attacks on schoolgirls last week are named on the leaked list of British National Party members, we can reveal. Perverts Ian Richard Hindle, 32, and Andrew Paul Wells, 49, plied two 14-year-olds with alcohol before subjecting them to sickening abuse.

Both men appear on a 12,000 strong BNP membership roll, alongside police officers, soldiers, doctors, prison officers—and even vicars. The sex beasts’ membership will bring further shame to the far-right party.

BNP leader Nick Griffin had claimed the number of people with respectable jobs on the list contradicted the view that the average member “was a skinhead oik”. But Gerry Gable, spokeman for anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: “The fact that these two sex offenders are on the list shows the sort of vile characters which gravitate towards the fascist group.”

A court heard last week that twisted Hindle took advantage of one of the girls by having sex with her. Wells took snaps on his mobile of himself sexually assaulting the other teenager. The vile pair were caught when the horrifying images later came to the attention of the girl’s mother, who called police.

The men, of Blackburn, Lancs, carried out their depraved acts after getting the girls drunk at Wells’s flat. Hindle admitted unlawful sex with a child and was jailed for three years. Wells, who admitted two charges of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, got two years and three months.

The horrendous abuse did not even stop when one of the drunk girls became ill, Preston Crown Court heard. When she staggered to the toilet, Wells followed her in and exposed himself to her.

Detective Constable Lee Eckersley said: “It is a prime example of men exploiting the vulnerability of a young girl for their own selfish needs.”

Their sentences came as the Metropolitan Police in London suspended four employees who were on the BNP list leaked on the internet. They are a PC, a special constable, a police community support officer and a civilian staff member. Cops and civilian police staff are banned from BNP membership.

News of the World

November 22, 2008

Some people think you should resign for failing to protect this data, Nick

17 Comment (s)
The question was simple.

"Are you apologising to your members, whose details you failed to protect?" asked Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Taken by surprise, and being unused to making apologies to BNP members on any account, Nick Griffin blinked and quickly uttered "Yah" as if the word was something indigestible sticking at the top of his gullet, and he couldn't get it down fast enough.

Recovering in another blink, he cleverly shifted the unwelcome but all too pertinent focus on his own culpability in the leaking of the BNP membership list: " - We're - we're very sorry for people who may have problems as a result of this," he said in barely suppressed agitation, going on to notice that most BNP members would not have any problems, and that if anybody came to be sacked from their jobs on account of their political beliefs then they would be entitled to "massive compensation".

With his personal apology reduced to a rapid and grudging "Yah", his own responsibility subsumed into a corporate "we're", and questions answered that were never asked, Griffin was fixed to continue in his evasiveness, but an unimpressed Guru-Murthy was having none of it.

"Some people think you should resign for failing to protect this data," he interjected. "Are you considering that?"

Following some self-serving waffle that "we" have done all "we" can to prevent this leak and that "we" have changed the "policies" which led to it and sacked the people responsible for it, Griffin's predictable answer was, "I won't resign" - which is more than a little curious when we recall the number of occasions, some very recent, on which Griffin and his spokesmen have called for ministerial heads to roll when lowly departmental minions in the pay of the government have lost similar data in far less dubious circumstances.

Clearly, the buck doesn't stop with Griffin, the man who directly appointed those he now blames for the BNP's predicament, and who therefore bears the heaviest responsibility of all.

Nothing daunted, Griffin continued: "If my members wish to vote me out - we're a very democratic party - we have an election available every year, and if they want to elect someone else in my place that's fine."

Except, of course, that it's anything but fine, as our readers are well aware and those sidelined and expelled members of the BNP who have attempted to unseat Griffin know to their cost. Krishnan Guru-Murthy, more usually concerned with higher matters than the internal affairs of a squalid collection of racists and fascists, cannot be expected to know that Griffin's comment stands the facts on their heads, and so made no intervention as an increasingly confident BNP leader talked of "an appalling witch-hunt by a liberal-left media and by rival political parties", mostly for the benefit of his own watching members and in the cause of further distancing himself from any personal culpability.

To that end Griffin switched his focus to the recent BNP gain on the obscure Boston Borough Council, a tactic mirrored on the main BNP website, knowing that until news of the leak broke on Lancaster Unity the membership continued to bask in the warm after-glow of the Boston result, in which a grand total of 279 people voted BNP.

At the end of the five minute interview Griffin executed a perfect about-turn in the matter of who leaked the BNP membership list. Having begun by saying that he had sacked those responsible (the Decembrist rebels), he now claimed: "This was leaked by our political opponents, this is a big campaign by supporters of the Labour Party to try to damage and intimidate the British National Party because they know that we're creeping up on them in election terms."

Ever since the leaked membership list entered into the public domain the BNP membership has switched smoothly into familiar victim mode, loudly protesting about their rights being infringed, of the danger they are in, and making frequently preposterous claims to have received death threats.

On our side of the fence we naturally take a rather jaundiced view of this unedifying self-pity, knowing, as we all do, that for years the normal method of transmitting the names, addresses and photographs of the BNP's opponents to the Redwatch hate site is through the BNP's active membership.

Nor do we have great sympathies with their shrill wails that Muslim organisations and websites have come into possession of the list. This community has for so long been vilified, lied about and insulted by the BNP and its army of bloggers and keyboard warriors that there is a certain sense of justice being done at last if the BNP hate brigade spend so much as one sleepless night kept awake by stray noises in the dark as penance for the vituperation and indignity to which they have subjected this community.

The police are now investigating the matter of the leak. The leak came from within the BNP, despite Nick Griffin's contradictory claims. It wasn't leaked by Lancaster Unity, it wasn't leaked by the Labour Party, it wasn't leaked by Searchlight, and it wasn't leaked by the fairies at the bottom of the garden.

It came from within the BNP and nowhere else - and it will be the BNP itself which is subjected to police investigation. What subsequently happened to the list is another matter entirely.

If the membership of the BNP had but a fraction of the backbone they claim to possess, they would not be crying like little girls who have had their pig-tails pulled by the school bully. They would be demanding the immediate resignation of the man ultimately responsible for their predicament, the man whose incompetence was responsible for putting in place the "policies" which led to the worst debacle - bar none - yet to have befallen the BNP.

They would tell him to go, to do it now, and to rid himself of any thoughts of severance pay.

Do they have the guts? Do they even have the wits to see that their own worst enemy is the man who, when given the chance to apologise to his members on Channel 4 News, gobbled down his feeble "Yah" as if it would make him sick?

BNP members under arrest for "racist" leaflets

2 Comment (s)
Twelve men were arrested today on suspicion of distributing racist material in a city centre, police said.

The men were arrested after distributing leaflets at around 12.50pm in Whitechapel, Liverpool city centre. Merseyside Police said those arrested were: a 29-year-old and a 51-year-old from the Liverpool South area; a 64 year-old from the Wirral area; a 19 year-old; a 46-year-old and a 41-year-old from Liverpool North; a 61-year-old and a 42-year-old from Knowsley; a 70-year-old; a 44 year-old; and a 29-year-old and a 48-year-old from St Helens.

Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Colin Matthews said: “Merseyside Police condemns racism in all of its forms and will take prompt action to support all of our communities. Merseyside Police today arrested 12 people on suspicion of distribution of racist material. This follows the distribution of leaflets in Liverpool city centre, which officers believe to contain racist content. Racist literature is not welcome on the streets of Merseyside in any circumstances. We serve many communities in Merseyside and it is important that all our communities are assured that we will take positive action where it is needed.”

The men have been taken to Merseyside police stations where they will be questioned about the incident. A police source said tonight the arrests were linked to the British National Party (BNP).

The organiser of the Blackpool and Oldham branches of the BNP, Roy Goodwin, confirmed 12 members of the party had been arrested. He said: “I understand 12 of our members have been arrested distributing official party leaflets in Merseyside. There was nothing unlawful in the leaflets - all the contents of the leaflets had been carefully vetted, or they would not have gone out.”

Liverpool Daily Post

Teacher at prestigious prep school faces probe after her former job with BNP is exposed

12 Comment (s)
Chamberlain while working for the BNP
A teacher at a top prep school has been exposed as having worked for the British National Party.

Drama mistress Emma-Louise Chamberlain, 32, has been teaching at Dulwich College Preparatory School for two years. Pupils at the school, which caters for three to 13-year-olds, include the son of a senior Tory politician. It has emerged that Miss Chamberlain lost her previous job after her employers found she had done work for the far-Right party.

The former actress had presented online videos broadcast on the BNP's website. In one she interviewed a senior party figure charged with inciting racial hatred. She also lectured party activists on public speaking, giving advice such as: 'The sound of Winston Churchill's voice provokes feelings of pride and victory in the hearts of every true Briton.'

This week her name appeared on the list, leaked on the internet, of 12,500 alleged members and contacts of the party.

George Marsh, headmaster at the £13,000-a-year school, said he had previously been unaware of Miss Chamberlain's BNP links and has begun an investigation. But one parent said: 'The school should have examined Miss Chamberlain's work history more closely - they should never have hired a woman with such close links to Right-wing extremists.'

University-educated Miss Chamberlain lost her job teaching drama to children between four and 14 for the Astor Theatre Arts Centre, in Deal, Kent, after it was revealed that she had presented filmed interviews on the BNP website.

One online interview was with the head of publicity Mark Collett during his 2006 trial alongside party leader Nick Griffin on charges of inciting racial hatred. Mr Collett was cleared.

Miss Chamberlain's boyfriend David Green, a lawyer, said: 'Emma bitterly opposes the BNP and so do I.'

Her lawyer said she 'is not a member of the BNP and never has been. Neither is she a sympathise'. She was approached whilst working as a freelance actress and voiceover artist to carry out work for the BNP over which she had no editorial control.'

Mr Marsh added: 'We are aware Miss Chamberlain is an alleged contact of the BNP. She has categorically denied she ever has been a member.'

Daily Mail

The BNP next door

0 Comment (s)
Ex-squaddies, accountants, engineers - the leaked BNP membership list is a snapshot of far-right Britain, and a chance to find out whether its supporters live on your street...

It's a fascinating document. Row after row of names, addresses, telephone numbers, emails. Column upon column of personal, professional and biographical detail - career, education, family, hobbies. Here are 12,801 of our fellow citizens, their lives laid bare in this remarkable respect: we now know that they are, were once, or have at some time expressed an interest in becoming members of the organisation that calls itself "the foremost patriotic political party in Great Britain".

When I say "we", of course, I mean anyone with an internet connection and some time to spare. Nearly 13,000 individual records - 11,211 of them in England and Wales, the remainder in Scotland or abroad, from Alicante to California - is a lot of information. But it comes in a spreadsheet, which means it's searchable and (sort of) analysable.

And what emerges from a few hours spent with the membership list of the British National party that was posted on the net this week is a picture as alarming as it is, strangely, reassuring. It is a picture of a certain kind of England. At times, it's depressing. At others, it's frankly hilarious.

"Member describes himself as witch: potential embarrassment if active," reads a worried note appended to the record of one Wiltshire supporter. "Will not be renewing," laments another: "Objects to being told he shouldn't wear a bomber jacket." I'm also fond of: "Hobbies: letter-writing to local/national papers," "Retired shoe-shop manager: model figure collector (mostly medieval)", and "Retired local government officer. Static caravan on east coast".

Your first instinct, naturally, is to check if you know anyone. I didn't, as far as I could see: no one in the small Middlesex village where I grew up (though four in Pinner, where I was born), and only three in the district of west London where I now live. Colleagues have pored in amazement over the records for their home towns. "I would never have thought it," said one friend, from Ripon in North Yorkshire. "It's a prosperous middle-class market town, and there are are nine BNP voters there. Look! Two there; I know that street." A university friend said she had discovered to her not-altgether-immense surprise that her parents' nextdoor neighbours in Windsor were members. "Crusty," she said. "And very cheap sherry at Christmas."

The geographical stats are interesting, up to a point. Lancashire is our proud nation's farthest-right county by a bootlace, with 861 names on the list. West Yorkshire comes a close second, with 858. Yorkshire as a whole has more than 1,600 BNP supporters, including 263 in Leeds, 164 in Kirklees, 190 in Bradford and more than 100 each in Barnsley, Sheffield and Wakefield. Essex is up there with 670-odd members, including 73 in Barking and Dagenham, and the West Midlands has more than 580, including 187 in Birmingham.

But there are some surprises. Six members in Maidenhead? Fifteen in Bognor Regis? Thirty-eight in Bournemouth, 13 in that haven of lefty London-fleers, Brighton? There are six in High Wycombe, 22 in Cambridge, five in Oxford, three in Chelsea, eight in Cheltenham, 11 in Chichester, two in Henley-on-Thames, seven in Hemel Hempstead and, weirdly, 192 in Surrey.

Is this scary? Well, it looks as if it's a myth that the BNP fares best in areas of high immigration: according to one report that cross-matched the list with data from the Office for National Statistics, only 5% of BNP members live in areas classified as having high Asian populations, and 2% in areas with big Afro-Caribbean communities. Some 18% of the party's support comes from traditionally working-class white areas. Twenty-two percent of BNP members may live in deprived parts of England and Wales, but 16% live in the wealthiest.

Professor Roger Eatwell of the University of Bath, who has written extensively on the BNP, sounds a cautionary note: from his first look at the list, he says, "many BNP activists don't actually appear to be members". And in any case, "members and activists are not the same as voters". That's obviously true, and the list is clearly an incomplete picture of BNP support. But in its fabulous welter of detail, you can almost see some of those who feature on it.

In Surrey, for instance, is a "retired accountant. Fellow of Inst of Chartered Accountants/ Management Accountants. MA (Oxon). Hobbies: military history, ethnology/anthropology, carpentry/cabinet-making. Ex-serviceman & TA Capt. Former district councillor. Letter writer". Somewhere in Middlesex is a "chartered mechanical engineer. MD of high-pressure water pump firm. Hobbies: flying, fullsize & model aircraft. Restoration of 'O' & 'I' gauge trains. Caravanning, walking". Can't you just picture them? Or how about, in Sussex, a "retired antique dealer. Owner: tourist attraction abroad. Former racing driver. Hobbies: competition shooting, sword collector. Author." Or in Gloucestershire: "Business owner (antiquities). Public speaker. Has two suits of 14th- & 15th-century armour and can joust for rallies."

There are some common strands. One is the retired (or semi-retired, or nearly-retired) middle-to-upper-middle businessman who would probably never recognise himself (or his wife, who is often a member too) as racist, but who obviously believes, as they say, that the country's going to the dogs. Very often, their hobbies include "collecting WW2 memorabilia (British)" or "restoring classic vehicles (owns WW2 jeep)".

Then there's the ex-servicemen, of whom there are more than 100, former policemen, and Territorial Army. These may be self-employed, perhaps in building, or security. How about: "HM Forces (3 tours NI). Rhodesian Security Forces. Freelance security: Africa/South America/Europe. Hobbies: military history"?

Several proclaim Christian faith: "Retired labourer. Committed evangelical Christian, attends Bible studies/prayer meetings". Elsewhere is "retired chiropodist. Devout Christian lay preacher (non-conformist churches: Baptist, United Reformed, Presbyterian etc). Scottish country dancing", and "HND Chemistry. Hobbies: gym training, martial arts. Member of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church".

There are only three listed taxi drivers, but there plenty of builders and plasterers, IT workers - many eager to help: in Buckinghamshire is a "Classics BA (Hons). IT & PC skills (may be able to donate 2nd-hand PCs)" - and 38 HGV licence-holders. In Scotland, there's a driving instructor - "(discount for BNP members)". There is, generally, an obsession with further educational qualifications. Some, you feel, may have lost their way somewhere: "Mental health professional, specialism in mental health law, also retired university lecturer (plant sciences). BSc. Phd". Others are myth-seekers: "Window cleaner. Former pig farmer. Pagan prison chaplain. Hobbies: growing mistletoe, rune-making (wood)"; "Active Odinist/member of pagan organisations." A student is "willing to give talks on medieval/dark age subects" and "interested in ... setting up a British pagan group".

And there are, of course, the serious headbangers: BNP leader Nick Griffin may boast that this list proves his members are not "skinhead oiks", but there are still martial arts fanatics, people suspended for "inappropriate tattoos" and at least seven email addresses incorporating the number 88, which is neo-Nazi code for HH, or Heil Hitler. Other email addresses are lordhawhaw, saxondelight, darkenedangel and napalmdeath. Someone gives his pastime as "World War II reenactment".

Eatwell recognises these almost comforting stereotypes as "pretty much spot-on. Among BNP activists, there is certainly an older group. There are also a lot of ex-military people, and former National Front types of a more thuggish, even Nazi persuasion. A recent poll showed fully a third of BNP support to be middle-class, although the really big concentration is C2 - solid, respectable working-class."

But there's a worrying new element that doesn't show up on the list at all, Eatwell warns. "Young people are coming in who had no political commitment before. They don't see themselves as racist, and they're not thuggish. They're there for what they see as moral reasons: maybe because their grandad was let down by the NHS. And remember, by far the biggest issue among BNP voters, besides immigration, is simply pessimism. Pessimism's rocketing right now. They're the ones to watch."

Guardian

I'm sorry - I just can't resist...

4 Comment (s)

Warning - bad language alert

Can Nick Griffin get anything right?

5 Comment (s)
Oops...

November 21, 2008

BNP Sponsor Lancashire County Council

2 Comment (s)
Please copy and send (or email) to your Lancashire County Councillor (who can be found here) and Hazel Harding, the current Leader of the Council, whose email address is hazel.harding@lancashire.gov.uk. Feel free to forward it to any media of your choice.

It has been brought to our attention that a recent judge in the recent Lancashire County Council cycling photo competition is a member of the British National Party.

John Aspden and his partner, who own 'On Yer Bike' (Burnley and Blackburn) have recently had their details leaked to the world as being members of the racist and fascist party BNP and thus are not qualified to participate in any event that is organised by, for or on behalf of Lancashire County Council, whose Equality and Diversity Policy states:

'We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and to closing the gaps between people in social and economic wellbeing. Equality and diversity are part of the core purpose of our Corporate Strategy. They will run through everything that we do. Our commitment is underlined by legal duties to promote equality and diversity for people of every age, disability, faith, gender, race and sexual orientation.'

Lancashire County Council will be very well aware of the BNP's appalling views on Muslims, Jews, diversity, equality and sexual orientation and will, we feel sure, avoid working with the BNP in this way in the future, now that it is aware of Mr Aspden's connection with a party that repeatedly espouses hatred of minorities and directly promotes racism. An example of the latter can be seen here.

I would appreciate an acknowledgment of this email and I would like to be informed as to what measures will be taken in the future to avoid any connection with similar racist groups.

Yours faithfully

Quit demands for councillor on BNP list

6 Comment (s)

A BARNSLEY councillor is facing demands to quit after her name appeared on a leaked list of BNP members.
But Independent Coun Donna Hollins has denied being a member of the far right political party.

She was included in a list of 12,000 alleged members posted online.

Three months ago rumours swept the town hall that she was in the BNP.

Barnsley has never had a BNP councillor but in recent years the party has seen its vote increase. It came second in eight wards in elections earlier this year.

Coun Hollins has served on the council since 2004. She has represented Kingstone ward since May 2006. Her term of office expires in 2010.

A councillor, who asked not to be named, said if she was a BNP member she had deceived voters and should resign.

He added: "She's very meek, never talks to anyone. I can only remember her once standing in the council chamber and that was to second a motion against asylum seekers."

Miss Hollins, aged in her 40s, sits on the Regeneration Scrutiny Commission, Joint Employees' Consultative committee and Appeals and Awards Regulatory Board. She is also on the Friends of Locke Park committee and a Cooper Art gallery trustee.

She lives in Barnsley town centre and works part-time in a dry-cleaners.

Coun Hollins said she was aware her name was on the BNP list of members but when asked how it came to be there said: "No comment."

Ward colleague Independent Coun Geoff Bowden said: "We confronted her about this three months ago and she denied it."

Barnsley Council borough secretary Andrew Frosdick said: "I can confirm Coun Donna Hollins has contacted me as the officer responsible for the Register of Members Interests and she has confirmed that her entries on the register, which make no reference to membership of any political party, are accurate and up to date."

Town hall records show Coun Hollins seconded a motion lodged on June 26 calling for the council to, 'give immediate notice to terminate its contract with the Home Office for the provision of accommodation and related services to asylum seekers'.

Original Story

And the sun kept shining over Auschwitz

2 Comment (s)
Keynote speech by Ronald Eissens during the INACH/ADL Global Summit on Internet Hate, 17 & 18 November 2008, Washington D.C.

Let me start by thanking the ADL and Chris Wolf for making this into a great conference. I’m pleased to be here in the United States, in fact I’m always happy to come here but this time is doubly joyful since America has voted massively for hope. Hope for America and hope for the world. Now, step into my time machine, we’re going back 2000 years.

The first dissemination of antisemitism comes to us from the Alexandrian Apion, a Greek-Egyptian philosopher and writer. When the great library of Alexandria burned down, Apion’s Egyptian History burned with it. We only know partly what was written in those books because the Roman historian Tacitus quotes some of the content. Another source for Apion’s antisemitism is to be found in the work of the historian Titus Flavius Josephus, the former Jewish military leader Joseph ben Matthias. Josephus wrote a treatise called ‘against Apion’ in which he attacks and refutes Apions’ ideas, which probably makes him the first advocate against antisemitism.

Apion described Jews as sinister and revolting, barbaric because of the practice of circumcision. Apion was not unique, many popular believes about Jews during those days –we’re talking about the year 30- were extremely negative. Because of the Shabbat, Jews were thought to be lazy. Jews were thought to sacrifice humans during strange rites – the blood libel throwing its shadow backward - Jews were considered anti-social and worshipped only one god, which in those polytheistic times was considered to be foolish and alien, although some of the Greek intellectuals thought the idea as such was very stylish. Apion’s antisemitism was quite popular with the Greek elite of Alexandria and his writings fuelled the flames of the first pogrom in history, in the year 38. That pogrom broke out when the Jews of Alexandria protested a decree by Roman Emperor Caligula in which they were ordered to pray to his statue. Apions’ rabble-rousing resulted in the murder of thousands of Alexandrian Jews.

Now, Apion was a charismatic individual, who did not have the use of Internet but rather his writings, copied by scribes and disseminated by –and through his friends and admirers and he used public speeches to spread his hatred. Instead of Internet the Alexandrians of that age knew the bathhouse.net and the marketplace.net, where information, gossip, writings and speeches went from person to person.

Jumping forward in time, we have to note that for every succeeding pogrom there was either a verbal or written slander campaign to incite the masses to attack Jews. Sometimes it was writings by religious leaders; sometimes it was word-of-mouth, often instigated by kings, emperors, religious or other leaders, creating myths like the blood libel, the poisoning of wells by Jews, the Christ-killers accusations, and many variations on those and other themes, culminating in what Lucy Davidowitz very aptly calls ‘the war against the Jews’, the Shoah.

After the Shoah followed a period in which antisemitism in the western world was mainly spread underground, on paper – books and pamphlets. The protocols, Mein Kampf and other leftovers of Nazi ideology were disseminated both in Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East, where European-style antisemitism found an already fertile breeding ground. But, both in volume and in reach it was nothing compared to what we see these days on the Internet.

From 1992 on, Neo-Nazis started to use the Internet to spread their rhetoric. Already in the in the pre-world wide web age German Neo-Nazis saw the potential of Information Technology, using Bulletin Board Systems and moving onto the web when it came available.

In as sense, those German Neo-Nazi’s did not have to go far from home. As the journalist and writer Edwin Black proved, the information age was not born in Silicon Valley but in 1933 in Berlin. IBM facilitated the administration of the Holocaust with census cards and punch card technology, even after 1941, through full IBM subsidiaries managed from Switzerland. The Nazi’s had a problem and IBM had a solution for their final solution. It teaches us to be wary of those who say that they are only selling technology and don’t care what it is used for. Or those who say that others should do no evil while they themselves engage in the large–scale technological facilitation of oppression.

The Internet gave Antisemitism a new common carrier, to use a technical term. Thanks to the Internet, there is more antisemitism and Holocaust denial available in the world than ever. Thanks to the Internet, there is more information on the Holocaust and antisemitism available than ever. But these positions hardly cancel-out each other, even if you believe that bad speech can be countered by good speech. No longer is it the grubby bookstores, which sold stenciled copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion under the counter. No longer is it the house-to-house delivered stenciled antisemitic pamphlets, a hundred here, a thousand there. Now it's tens of thousands of websites and hundreds of thousands of expressions of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Now it's millions of hits here and hundred thousands of page views there.

In 1995 who had heard of Stormfront? Yet there they were, in the forefront of the Internet age. As no other, Neo-nazi’s, white supremacists and other extremists understood the potential of the Internet for the unbridled dissemination of their ideas. Antisemitism. Holocaust Denial. National Socialism. Racism.

By now, the bulk of all antisemitism and Holocaust denial has firmly moved onto the Internet. Old media have become obsolete. You will still be able to find Mein Kampf or the Protocols or Hardwoods ‘did six million really die’ in the proverbial grubby bookstore – or get it by post order through the Internet. But ask yourself, who under 30 years old still reads books? Very few. In the 15 years since the Internet took off, antisemitism and holocaust denial have penetrated every nook and cranny. You can find it on web logs, web forums, Youtube, in online games, in chat boxes, on facebook, myspace, et cetera, and it is the largest category of online hate.

The number of websites offering antisemitism or Holocaust denial runs in the tens of thousands. We’re not only talking about ‘dedicated’ Neo-Nazi or other extremist sites here. A “normal” popular web forum has 1000-plus postings per day, of which on average 50 are of a racist or antisemitic nature. There are thousands of web forums like that. If you add the thousands of extremist web forums that generate hundreds of hateful expressions per day, the total volume of hate on the net is mind-boggling. I understand that the latest CD Digital Terrorism and Hate 2007, published by our colleagues at Simon Wiesenthal Center identifies some 5000 “problematic” websites. I think that is quite an underestimation. We’re not even taking into account all the web logs, and the still existing Usenet newsgroups, historically known for a large hate content. It is impossible to really give exact figures on online hate. We only know that the volume is enormous, but registering and monitoring is a bit like trying to count fruit flies. There are lots of them, they die soon but since they breed fast new ones appear all the time.

The current interactive web, web 2.0 as it’s is called, with its blogs, forums, photo –and video repositories like Youtube turns everybody into an instant publicist. Internet is the biggest soapbox in the world, and people who would not dare air their views offline find their outlet in posting them on the Internet, thinking they are totally anonymous. Internet is also the big recycler. Once something is online, it is quite hard to get rid of it for good. The boost the Internet gave to The Protocols is enormous. Twenty years ago, it had almost sunken into oblivion. The immensely popular Youtube is used on a large scale to share short video-clips with the world. Neo-Nazis use Youtube as another great tool, but you can also watch Holocaust deniers like David Irving walking in Birkenau, explaining why Jews were never gassed there. You can see Leuchter fans doing a so-called scientific experiment ‘testing’ Zyklon-B on each other, showing that ‘the concentrations of Zyklon-B that were allegedly used to kill Jews are in fact harmless’. Do a search on the Youtube site for ‘gas chambers’ and the second video that will be presented to you is footage of Fred Leuchter talking about his report which claims that the gas chambers at the death camps were never used to gas people.

Then there’s the online games and games sold over the Internet, like Ethnic Cleansing and ZOG’s nightmare, which add another level of nausea and last but not least there’s the virtual ‘Furry Nazi groups’ in Second Life, who amused themselves by building gas chambers and ‘playing’ camp, trying to capture Jewish Second Life users in order to ‘test their facilities’. Good news is that just two weeks ago, after pressure brought by Jewish groups in Second Life, owner Linden Labs removed the Nazi’s and their virtual ‘Third Reich’. A small victory.

The Netcraft October 2008 web server survey tells us there are now almost 200 million websites online. A sea of data, which would be impossible to navigate without search engines. But here’s the rub. Your average non-Jewish student who becomes curious about his Jewish classmate goes to Google and types in the word ‘Jew’. The third search result is the infamous hate site ‘Jew Watch’, which will teach the student that Jews control the world and every evil deed ever done in history was done by Jews. Oh yes, since recently you will see as a first search result a notice by Google saying that they do not endorse some of the disturbing search results and that it is better to search on Judaism then on Jews, in order to get informative and relevant results instead of ‘unexpected ones’. How easy it would be for the privately owned company Google to just omit sites like Jew Watch from their database. But I guess that would be ‘doing evil’.

Sadly, it doesn’t end with ‘classic’ antisemitism. Where before you could only find a limited amount of left-wing antisemitism, after the disastrous 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, which turned into an antisemitic hate-fest, the masks came off. Blatant antisemitism on left-wing sites is now quite acceptable, of course prudently called “anti-Zionism”. Some left-wing sites even link to antisemitic content on neo-Nazi sites and since the rise of Islamism and Jihadism there is an increasing overlap between Islamist and neo-Nazi rethoric, uniting seemingly natural enemies in their joint struggle against the “Zionist world conspiracy”. The common ground for online hate-mongers is called Jews.

The Internet not only dramatically changed the scope of antisemitism, it also facilitates its mutation. The antisemitism-virus always seems to seek a new myth to piggyback on and if there’s one thing the Internet is good in, it is the fast dissemination of urban legends and myths. The Jews are behind 9/11. The Jews working at the World Trade center stayed home on 9/11. The Jews are behind the financial crisis.

Then there is the online trivialization of the Holocaust – which is maybe the biggest danger. The Holocaust depicted as a dance party in the infamous video ‘Housewitz’. A Belgian far-right politician singing a song about ‘the little Jewess that is going to Dachau to be gassed’. Or comparing the Holocaust to anything, from bad treatment of animals and abortion clinics to discrimination of smokers.

Lastly, there is the encrypted antisemitism, a language of code words for Jews -like Zionists, or cabal, or the media elite, or those that control the banks. This language creates an environment that eases the path for openly antisemitic rhetoric.

The results: Holocaust Denial is becoming fashionable, antisemitism quite normal, Zionism is deliberately depicted as racism and antisemitic violence is on the rise.

Those who say ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ need to do a reality check. Apion’s words fuelled the flames of the first pogrom. Hitler’s and Goebbels’ and Streichers’ words caused the Holocaust. Every genocide, pogrom, or act of antisemitic violence in history was built on words.
There’s a well-known quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” He wrote this in 1914 in his publication Other People's Money—and How Bankers Use It, referring to the benefits of openness and transparency in financial issues. Many an advocate of freedom of speech takes this quote to mean that hate speech, once it is exposed and out in the open, will shrivel away and die. First of all, I think it is doubtful that Brandeis meant this. Justice Brandeis died in 1941 but had he lived to see the Holocaust, I don’t think he would have agreed with the new meaning his quote was given. Secondly, in recent history, let’s says since 1900, we’ve had very little success countering genocides or atrocities only by publicity and sunlight. The sad thing is that the amount of people outside of Germany who were aware of the holocaust already in 1941 is quite large. But nothing happened while the sun kept on shining over Auschwitz.

The Shoah itself illustrates the danger of the repetition of hate speech best. Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels loved to advise everybody to “make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually people will believe it.” Mass-murderer Rudolf Höss, commander of Auschwitz, illustrated this further during his interrogation shortly after his capture in 1945 when he said: “I was absolutely convinced that the Jews were at the opposite pole from the German People, and sooner or later there would have to be a clash between National-Socialism and World Jewry…but everybody was convinced of this; that was all you could hear or read.”

The role of antisemitic propaganda and language was significant in creating a mindset in Germany in the 1930s that predisposed acceptance of racial policy even in its most radical form. The constant repetition of antisemitic sentiment, whether fanatical Party propaganda or the casual racial aside, lodged in the collective psyche in ways that reduced the ability and willingness of a great many Germans to question race policy and encouraged them to endorse it.[1]

So why should everybody work on countering antisemitism and Holocaust Denial? Many think that National Socialism and the Holocaust are things of the past, and antisemitism is not seen as a real problem.

The Nizkor Project– whose director, Ken McVay, to my great pleasure, is present here today, gives us the answer. In 1996, a small Neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist White Peoples Party, wrote in their electronic magazine "The real purpose of Holocaust revisionism is to make National Socialism an acceptable political alternative again." Nizkor published this profound quote on its main page – and it is still there today.

This is why we need to counter antisemitism and Holocaust denial. We want to do it because we need to remember those who were murdered, lest they be forgotten, but we need to do it to make sure National Socialism never again becomes an acceptable political option. Now to make the world understand that. A tough challenge.

Of course we need good speech. Of course we need truth. So are we doing that? In the physical world I think we can’t complain. Lots of great work is done by scholars, Non-Governmental Organizations, Jewish Communities and Community organizations. Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial are illegal in a number of European countries. Thanks to the effort of a number of Jewish NGOs and individuals, some present here, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency now has a Working Definition of Antisemitism. We have Holocaust museums. We have a wealth of online information on the Holocaust, available through the Nizkor Project, the Survivors of the Shoah Foundation, Yad Vashem and many others. We commemorate. We warn. We give testimony. We educate. We take young people to see the camps. We try to prevent.

On and through the Internet, NGOs like mine, the INACH Network, the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and others work on countering hate. Since 2002, the INACH network has gotten thousands of instances of antisemitism and Holocaust Denial removed. That sounds like a lot, but looking at the vast hate-scape that has unfolded on the Internet, it seems almost futile. I fear we are not able to stem the tide in this way.

The memory of the holocaust is fading, the first and second generation of Holocaust survivors are passing away, and antisemitism is moving into the electronic mainstream.

What we should do is put all our efforts in education, not only anti-hate education and education about the Holocaust but also Media literacy; how to assess information on the Internet, how to check for credibility, how to check sources and how to think critical. But we should also advocate for anti-discrimination lessons and for Holocaust education and prejudice reduction modules to be included in all school curricula. That is in my view the only way to –in time- effectively counter hate.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new library of Alexandria, opened 5 years ago and is built next to the location of the antique library. It contains millions of books. It aims to be ‘a center of excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge and a place of dialogue, learning and understanding between cultures and peoples’.

It has Tacitus’ Histories, quoting Apion’s antisemitism. It has The Protocols of the elders of Zion in many translations. The online catalog proudly describes ‘The protocols’ as a ‘Complete plan for world destruction’. This august new institution for knowledge in the Middle East, partly financed by UNESCO, also has the Leuchter report in Arabic, Mein Kampf, and other antisemitic material. Of course it has a complete copy of the Internet Archive containing most hate sites on the Internet. From Alexandria in the year 30 to Alexandria in 2008 - it seems that Apion has come full circle and not only that – antisemitism is now part of the largest library in the world – unquestioned, uncommented antisemitism.

During the 2007 annual INACH conference in Berlin a resolution was adopted which calls upon countries and international bodies like the OSCE and the EU to coordinate measures against cyber hate and to start working on media education. That’s excellent, but we need to do more. When I did one of my usual gloomy speeches last February during the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, people asked me ‘but what can we do?’ Well, we need to engage our schools and our politicians, to make it clear to them that we have to take action now.

After Lunch, some of you will be visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Right after the main entrance, on your left, you will see the flags of the U.S. Army units that liberated the concentration camps. One of those is the flag of the 4th armored division of General Patton’s 3rd army. I have an interest in that since the 4th armored was the division that liberated my father-in-law from Buchenwald.

The motto of the 4th armored was “They shall be known by their deeds alone” and I think that is a fitting message to all of us. Let’s stop talking, and be known by our deeds.

Keynote speech by Ronald Eissens during the INACH/ADL Global Summit on Internet Hate, 17 & 18 November 2008, Washington D.C.

[1] Richard Overy, Interrogations – the Nazi elite in allied hands, 1945. P.196, The Penguin Press, 2001