BNP bases European Parliament election campaign in Wales

Kemp (left) at the Election HQ in Welshpool

The British National Party’s propaganda campaign for next month’s European Parliament election is being run from a Mid Wales warehouse. And among the activists preparing the leaflets for distribution is an author whose book praises the Nazis.

The anti-fascist organisation Searchlight has obtained photographs taken inside a warehouse in Welshpool, showing South African Arthur Kemp with other senior BNP figures and part of a consignment of 29 million leaflets for distribution across Britain.

Searchlight has also passed to the Western Mail the text of an email written to BNP members seeking 50 volunteers a day to prepare the leaflets for transfer to the Royal Mail. Under electoral law, the BNP and other parties are entitled to have leaflets delivered free to every home in Britain, so long as they are properly labelled.

Mr Kemp, whose book March of the Titans: A History of the White Race is published in its entirety on the internet, has been associated with the BNP for several years. Born in Rhodesia (which now is Zimbabwe), he studied in South Africa and became a journalist aligned to the pro-apartheid South African Conservative Party. Mr Kemp moved to Britain in 1996 and later became involved with the BNP.

Today he is responsible for writing the BNP’s education and training manuals, the content of the website and overseeing “Radio RWB”. He also runs the party’s merchandising arm, Excalibur, privately “under an annually renewable licence from the party”.

Searchlight Cymru secretary Darron Dupre said: “It comes as no surprise to us that at the heart of the BNP is a proud white supremacist. We have serious issues in Wales and need serious solutions to make this a better society for all of us. The last thing our nation needs is their politics.”

Regarding the 29 million leaflets, Mr Dupre said: “We may disagree with the BNP’s politics but it would be a great shame to see 29 million leaflets going to waste. If they are short of manpower, all they need to do is give us the word and our team of recyclers will work through the night to reduce their stockpiles.”

But last night Mr Kemp himself told the Western Mail: “I deny outright that I am a white supremacist. I deny outright that I am an apologist for Hitler. And I deny outright that my book denies the Holocaust.”

Mr Kemp said he was merely a BNP volunteer who was helping the party prepare its leaflets for distribution.

The internet version of March of the Titans carries a flyer for the book which states: “From the time of the emergence of the white racial type, their wanderings to the four corners of the globe, and finally into space itself: This remarkable story of human endeavour is without parallel or comparison, and is a story of awe, inspiration and heroism. Most importantly of all, revealed in this work is the one true cause of the rise and fall of the world’s greatest empires – that all civilisations rise and fall according to their racial homogeneity and nothing else – a nation can survive wars, defeats, natural catastrophes, but not racial dissolution.”

The book praises the Nazi regime for taking action to ensure Germany’s economic recovery, saying the standard of living increased dramatically, that the regime was responsible for medical advances, was the first in the world to ban smoking on public transport, discouraged alcohol abuse and outlawed vivisection.

The book states: “The very first declaration of war which led up to the Second World War was in fact made on March 23, 1933, when a meeting of Jewish leaders from around the world formally and publicly declared war on the Hitler government, which at that stage was only two months old and had passed none of its racial laws ... The Second World War broke against Germany, not the Soviet Union, primarily because of Jewish pressure to destroy the anti-Jewish Germany, rather than a genuine concern for the Poles.”

On the Holocaust, the book states: “... certainly far fewer died that what is most often claimed. Increasingly, all the evidence urges a complete revision of this aspect of the history of World War Two.”

The BNP’s choice of Wales to base its campaign was attacked by other parties. Plaid Cymru AM Nerys Evans said: “Although it is highly unlikely that the BNP will come close to winning a seat in Wales, it is vitally important that everyone who opposes their offensive politics turns out and votes, to send a clear message that the BNP are not welcome here in Wales.”

The Welsh Conservatives’ Shadow Social Justice Minister Mark Isherwood said: “I am deeply concerned that Wales is being used as the administrative centre of the BNP’s campaign. While the BNP has been rejected by the electorate at every level of government in Wales, that is no cause for complacency. All political parties and all voters must ensure the BNP is denied the platform of legitimacy it seeks from which to spread its extremist views.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat AM Mike German said: “The discovery of this warehouse acts as a stark reminder to people in Welshpool and across Wales. Every vote for the Welsh Liberal Democrats is a clear opposition to the divisive messages the BNP promotes.”

BNP deputy leader and spokesman Simon Darby said: “As a lawful party which is going to have MEPs elected, it is not surprising that other parties are against us – we are going to be taking jobs off them. We are perfectly entitled to have the Royal Mail deliver leaflets for us.”

Wales Online

Searchlight adds

Yesterday the BNP panicked, believing that the Western Mail was going to publish the exact address of the warehouse, and sent an email to its supporters urging them to protest by email to Martin Shipton and editorial staff at the Western Mail. Typically the BNP wasted their supporters' time by giving out incorrect email addresses for their protests. Those who bothered were rewarded by an inbox full of delivery failure notices.

Earlier the BNP was making out that the warehouse was in the West Midlands, although it is in fact in Welshpool.

Anyone who is familiar with the BNP's hierarchy will not be fooled by Arthur Kemp's assertion that he is not in charge. The Western Mail story proved he was lying about being a white supremacist and Holocaust denier by the simple expedient of quoting from Kemp's own book.

This latest intelligence coup for the Searchlight team came with the help of members of the UK Independence Party, which had its election leaflets printed by the same printshop in Leeds. It is a large and independent commercial company, not Mark Collett's bucket shop, which on the last set of BNP election leaflets failed to include the legally required imprint, making them unusable.

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