September 03, 2009

Griffin throws in the towel

Nick Griffin - fighting a losing battle
Despite all the hysterical rhetoric that it was going to fight the Equality and Human Rights Commission all the way, when push came to shove the British National Party decided to play for time when the case against it came on at London County Court.

The EHCR alleges that the BNP’s “whites only” membership policy is in breach of the Race Relations Act.

At the last moment the BNP changed solicitors, and barrister Jonathan O’Mahony received instructions only the night before the case was due to be heard on September 2nd, forcing Judge Paul Collins to grant an adjournment until October 15th.

The judge told the BNP that it must bear the costs of the delay, which may cost the cash-strapped party thousands of pounds.

The reason for the BNP’s costly delaying tactics at first seemed inexplicable, but suspicions deepened today that Nick Griffin intends to withdraw from a case the BNP has very little chance of winning – in fact there have been suspicions all along in some quarters of the BNP and even the anti-fascist movement that Griffin did not wish to fight the case but was forced to do so due to strength of feeling among his members.

This evening Griffin warned the BNP that the final cost of fighting the EHRC case could be more than a million pounds, and that in any case the forthcoming Equality Bill will “simply and unavoidably ban any political party from discriminating on grounds of ethnicity”.

Disingenuously, a post on the BNP’s website, clearly authored by Griffin, then says: “The entire court case is therefore pointless even from the CEHR’s position, and is clearly designed only to bleed the party of its funding.”

What he means is that the court case is pointless from the BNP’s position.

The post continued to back-pedal, Griffin acknowledging that the BNP constitution will have to be rewritten to comply with the law, which per se means that the party will have to accept non-whites into its membership, should any wish to apply.

Couching what amounts to surrender in a form designed to make the poison pill easier to swallow, Griffin said: “Adapt or die is the only decision left to make, for failure to adapt would lead either to our being bled white through the courts or crushed by new criminal laws. Party unity is priceless, because a party of brothers standing shoulder to shoulder can be persecuted, but it can never be beaten or broken.”

Clearly signalling an intent not to contest the EHRC case further, Griffin continues: “We will be going into legal battle against Trevor Phillips and the rest of the ‘curs’, but it will be fought on ground that we choose, at the time that we appoint, and with our maximum strength directed against their weakest point.”

Cynics have pointed out that Griffin tested the waters on changing the BNP constitution to admit non-whites several years ago, long before any threat of legal action was mooted. Accusations were levelled that Griffin, knowing that the BNP would never take power, and seeing the party, in his own words, as “a business”, was more concerned with preserving the lucrative “business” by opening up its membership to non-whites than he was with upholding the BNP’s core beliefs.

We can’t comment on that, but we do predict that Griffin’s surrender will lead to serious internal ructions within the BNP. In late August hardline racists centred around the Jackson4leader dissident group held a meeting in the Midlands to discuss a leadership challenge to unseat Griffin, and already BNP members are making comments on the internet that they will leave the party rather than accept ethnic minority members. Needless to say, the heavily moderated main party website is filled with comments of a grudging “so be it” variety, many of them seeming to have been posted by the site’s admin under different names to shore up the Griffinite position.

We at Norfolk Unity must admit that at first we believed the EHRC case to have been a hastily cobbled together panic measure, reacting to the election of two BNP MEP’s in June. We still believe that, and continue to have little faith in an organisation that has had years to tackle the BNP – but if the self-surrender of the BNP leads to the demise of organised racism in Great Britain, well, we can live with that.

Norfolk Unity

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Griffin isn't as dumb as a lot of people think - he is accutely aware of political positioning and the need to present the bnp in way that will garner as much suuport as possible. He probably sees the Euro elections in June as the high-water mark of the BNP as it is currently constitued. He is going to use this thing to purge the bnp of the 'traditional' members. I think he sees a probable realignment of the Right in future years (similar to what happened in Italy in the 90's) and may be positioning the BNP for a future merger with UKIP. In order to do this the old, racist bnp members will need ditching.

He could turn out to be a British Fini. In ten years time he could have a minor post in some future British right wing government.

Old Labour Councillor. said...

I don't think anti fascists have aything to celebrate over this. I have a feeling the BNP as usual will win the propaganda war on this one, with an increased vote at the next general election. As someone on the left I never saw our struggle against the far right as just a racial issue, more one of completely opposing world views.

Anonymous said...

Even if the BNP dropped its racial approach to politics there's no guarantee that it would be accepted by the centre-right. It would also face a challenge from whatever new party formed out of those who will leave the BNP when it becomes less overtly racist. Also if the BNP did ally itself with the centre right it would lose votes from people who are alienated from the mainstream parties. The BNP would lose its outsider status.

I sense more that Griffin has been given legal advice that he is onto a loser with the present constitution and is more interested in not losing a costly legal battle. He may also be happy to lose some of those to his right who are opposed to his leadership and he can use the court case to drive them out.

Pencil Case said...

Cyclops wrote the Mindbenders, so he will never be accepted by the establishment who loathe anti-Semitism far more than Islamophobia.

Also, there's sadly a strong far right tradition in Italy. No so the UK, where the likes of Farage will always put Cyclops down like a bad smell, as the BNP have no Etonic middle class appeal, and never will do.

It's the middle classes who decide who governs Britian in this class-ridden society.

Me thinks Cyclops will retire to Croatia, once the scumbag's finishbed in Europe. That is if his life isn't in danger from angry white supremacists who don't appreciate him selling out for money!

Anonymous said...

The OP is right in parts, but the inference at the end of the first paragraph that new BNP members are in some way not racist is a massive overstatement.

Griffin simply doesn't want the aggravation. The BNP is less important to him now he has his Euro meal ticket that it was before. If everything goes tits up he knows he can walk away and find some other niche within the far right which will continue to pay him a wage.

Court cases take time and cost money, neither of which he intends to give to the BNP if he can help it.

PaperBoy said...

Gri££in is only about money. If Uncle and Auntie Toms do join for whatever reason, (maybe self-loathing), this means more membership coins for the greedy fat one-eyed prat.

Of course he's seriously deluded if he believes his sheep will remain firmly in his fold. Anyone who seriously believes in white nationalism will most surely leave the party the moment the BNP ceases to uphold white seperatism. Mark my words!

Anonymous said...

I wander....................

If Gri££ wasnt sitting in europe would he so easily take black and asian members?

He has a lot more to lose now and 'traditional' bnp types aren;t his main concern, looks like he'll jettison them to keep 'hi' party and his financially rewarding position.

Nick Gri££in: Man of prinicples