October 26, 2009

The BNP and UKIP expenses scandals

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

"Punish the pigs" screamed the BNP's expenses scandal European election leaflets, but those leaflets did not point out that Nick Griffin himself is extremely corrupt...

"The party's treasurer, Michael Newland, resigned in disgust after Griffin used party funds to add an extension to his house. West Midlands fascists who complained that calling in interior designers was not the most effective way to create a new fatherland were purged." ("Fist in the kid glove", "The Observer", July 1, 2001)

"The row first broke out in June as Newland received details of Griffin's recent expenditure. Unbeknown to him Griffin had been freely helping himself to the Trafalgar Club fund, the party's slush fund that had replaced the [original BNP leader John] Tyndall-controlled Welling Club. [The Trafalgar Club is bankrolled by the BNP's wealthier members, who currently pay £15 a month into it, as a recent Kirklees Unity / Lancaster Unity article, "Hate comes to Herefordshire" (October 23) revealed]. While Griffin was later to explain this was in lieu of party expenses, Newland had not been consulted. As much as £8,000 was taken from this fund, including a large loan to extend Griffin's house. Although Griffin later said that the extension provided the party with a conference and dining room, Newland was not impressed." ("BNP gripped by cash scandal", "Searchlight", September 2000)

Although UKIP is not a fascist party like the BNP, and although the BNP is of course a much more racist party than UKIP (as my September 13th Lancaster Unity article, "Do the BNP and EFP leadership still believe in the mass slaughter of billions?" explained, Nick Griffin was allegedly a "close ally" of the late American fascist party leader William Pierce, who openly advocated killing all of the world's billions of non-white and Jewish people), I want to talk about both parties' expenses scandals, because Alan Sked, UKIP's now disillusioned founder, who has described the party he started in 1993 as a group of "ageing xenophobes", was reported in the "Mail on Sunday" of June 6, 2004 to have alleged that UKIP leader Nigel Farage had said to him: "We will never win the nigger vote. The nig-nogs will never vote for us."

Moreover, on the same day, Alan Sked was quoted in "The People" as having said: "They [UKIP] are racist and have been infected by the far right", and the day before, the "Daily Mail" quoted Ashok Viswanathan of Operation Black Vote as having said: "We know that a number of candidates who have stood for UKIP have British National Party links - there's no question there are links."

Of course, there is nothing new about links between the essentially right wing of the Conservative Party politics which UKIP is an example of, and fascist politics. Then Conservative politician Enoch Powell's 1968 "Rivers of blood" speech had a lot to do with the subsequent rise of the National Front, a January 30, 1984 "BBC "Panorama" documentary, "Maggie's Militant Tendency", alleged that several Conservative MPs had far right links, and Nick Toczek's pamphlet, "The Bigger Tory Vote: The Covert Sequestration of the Bigotry Vote" (AK Press, Stirling and San Francisco, 1992), discussed similar alleged links between people on the right wing of the Conservative Party and fascists.

More recently, Nick Griffin's father, Edgar, was sacked from the Conservative leadership campaign of Iain Duncan-Smith, who is very much on the right wing of his party, after the "Sunday Express" exposed his dual BNP and Conservative membership.

So as the expenses scandal will no doubt overshadow the next general election, in which the BNP hope to win its first MP(s), anti-fascists ought to use their leaflets and articles to expose the expenses scandals of both the BNP and UKIP, which I will now explain.

They also ought to expose the alleged close alliance between Nick Griffin and the late William Pierce, because of Pierce's kill billions of people views, which were far worse than Hitler's, but the expenses scandal has damaged the mainstream parties, so exposing the expenses scandals of the BNP and UKIP can only have a negative effect on support for those 2 racist parties.

Nick Griffin using his party members' donations to extend his home is not the only example of BNP expenses scandal type financial impropriety. The September 2008 online "Searchlight" article, "BNP accounts don't add up", discusses BNP income tax and national insurance evasion, which is no different to corrupt MPs evading capital gains tax: "...the BNP continued to get away with paying half of its staffing bill in the form of "professional fees" to avoid national insurance and income tax. Staff paid gross include Simon Darby the party's deputy leader, [BNP chief fundraiser Ged] Munns, [regional treasurer Dave] Hannam, Arthur Kemp who runs the party's educational and training department, and a number of the BNP rebels who complained about the policy."

It says a lot about the kind of extremely selfish, and not at all idealistic people who are drawn to mean-minded fascist parties like the BNP, that once those "rebels" who complained about the BNP's tax and national insurance evasion policy were put on the BNP "gravy train", they shut their mouths and took BNP members' cash.

In a March 2008 "Searchlight" online story, "The [Electoral Commission] watchdog that did not bark", you can read about "...a number of irregularities..." in the BNP's annual accounts, to quote the words of former BNP treasurer John Brayshaw, and as the Norfolk Unity site pointed out in its July 31, 2009 article, "Electoral Commission to fine BNP - again", the Electoral Commission has since fined the BNP £500, and its Regional Accounting Unit £100 for sending their annual accounts in late.

Furthermore, in its October 22, 2009 article, "Party faces fine for filing accounts late", "The Independent" revealed that the BNP was facing a fine of between £600 and £5000 for once more sending its accounts in late.

Moreover, on February 12, 2008, BBC Radio 4's "File on 4" programme, which was discussed in the "Tonight 8 pm, Radio 4 - File on 4 investigates the BNP's finances" Norfolk Unity article of the same day, John Brayshaw alleged that the BNP's finances were run in an illegal way: "In his [2005] letter [to the Electoral Commission], Mr Brayshaw said current party treasurer John Walker and his deputy David Hannam visited his home for a week to complete the accounts.
  • "He said he did not help them but claimed he witnessed some unusual activities, namely the shredding of a large number of documents and invoices.
  • "Mr Brayshaw said he was told to burn the shredded documents, but kept them because he felt something improper had taken place.
  • "A black bin bag containing the shredded documents has been handed to File on 4.
  • "It contains fragments of cheques, train tickets, receipts and invoices.
  • "Some of the fragments carry the names of Nick Griffin, his parents and even the Trafalgar Club.
  • "One unshredded item is a petrol receipt with the name Excalibur - the title of the party's merchandising arm.
  • "Under tax regulations all financial records should be kept for six years."
Finally, in a May 29, 2009 "Times" story, "British National Party begs for money in desperate memos", you can read that, "Further questions were raised about the party's funding after Mr Griffin admitted that he paid a £5,000 political donation into his personal bank account without declaring it."

So anyone who voted for the BNP in 2009 because they thought that they were a "clean hands" alternative to the mainstream parties, was as poorly informed as anyone who voted UKIP for the same reason, because, "A close friend of Mr Farage says the Ukip leader uses his [European Parliament] expenses to fund the party..." to quote the "Daily Telegraph" of May 26, 2009; because "The Guardian" reported on June 24, 2009, that Nigel Farage had openly said that he intended to use his European Parliament expenses, "to further the objectives of UKIP back in Britain"; and because in 2000, the European Parliament told UKIP to repay £11,500 of travel expenses which it had used to fund the court cases of the "metric martyrs", who were opposed to Britain being told by the European Union to change its weights and measures system.

Furthermore, in 2007 Ashley Mote, a UKIP MEP in South East England, was jailed for falsely claiming £65,000 in benefits, and UKIP East Anglia MEP Tom Wise was accused of misusing £40,000 of expenses and false accounting, which is why Wise starred in the "Times" articles "UKIP MEP in embezzlement scandal" (February 25, 2007), "MEP 'bought car with taxpayers' funds'" (February 28, 2007), and "UKIP covered up embezzler's trail" (March 4, 2007), which stated: "The UK Independence party deliberately covered up the fact that one of its MEPs embezzled tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money by pretending to be someone else."

Like the BNP, UKIP, whose twelve 2004-2009 MEPs incuded three who have behaved corruptly, has hypocritically moralised about other parties' corruption, as the just cited "Times" article pointed out: "The party has frequently accused the EU of being rife with corruption and criticised other parties' MEPs for enjoying the "gravy train"."

As an already mentioned online "Searchlight" article, "BNP gripped by cash scandal" (September 2000), discussed the then BNP treasurer's opposition to Nick Griffin not keeping receipts for a used car business which he was running, supposedly partly to boost BNP funds, perhaps Tom Wise should in future buy his cars from the BNP's "Arthur Daley" leader, who calls corrupt mainstream politicians "pigs", despite the fact that he appears to be one of the biggest "pigs" in today's British political class.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fraud, incompetence and lies - the truth about the BNP's finances
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/02/fraud-incompetence-and-lies-truth-about.html

Paul said...

Racism begins with our families, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, people we admire, respect and love.

However, as we grow and mature we come to the realization that what we were told by our family when we were children were slanted lies base on their prejudices. We realize that most people are like ourselves and not so different and want the same things, like a home, steady work, a Medicare plan and schools for our children (if you travel you will see this). We realize that most people are of good hearts and goodwill.

This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him.

Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.

Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his fellow man.

You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”

But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

That’s the question before us. The question is not, “If I stop to help our fellow man (immigrant) in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help our fellow man, what will happen to him or her?” That’s the question.

This current climate of blaming others for our woes is not new. We have had this before and we have conquered it.

Remember “Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing”. Raise your voices with those of us who believe we are equal and we can win this battle again.

NewsHound said...

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/English-Defence-League-to-protest.5768116.jp

PLEASE POST THIS LATEST NEWS ON YOUR BLOG, KETLAN!

THE FASCIST EDL ARE MARCHING EARLY AT 1PM INN CITY SQUARE, BEFORE THE LEEDS UNITED MATCH, HOPING TO GET LEEDS UNITED FANS INVOLVED.

LEEDS UNITED BUSES LEAVE CITY SQUARE FOR ELLAND ROAD AT 2PM WHICH MEANS THE EDL WILL CAUSE HAVOC FOR AN HOUR IN CENTRAL LEEDS.

Brummie said...

Following on from your comments Paul, I can remember seeing on the news Michael Howard (former Tory leader on the right of the party) going into a building in his Folkestone constituency and members of the local BNP were outside of which at least one had an upside down Christian cross - a symbol of Satanism, and was waving it about. 'Folkestone BNP' was written on the cross.

So it didn't surprise me that a local BNP candidate here in south Birmingham has '666' in his email address.

Christianity is not about Robert West and his perverted agenda as the BNP is not about Britain.

NewsHound said...

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/10/25/revealed-english-nazis-plot-to-bring-terror-to-streets-of-scotland-78057-21772012/

ANOTHER ARTICLE TO PUBLISH ON THIS BLOG

G said...

ANOTHER ARTICLE TO PUBLISH ON THIS BLOG

You're acting like the PR guy for the EDL. Perhaps LU is trying to stop giving the EDL so much publicity. They already get too much as it is.

Anonymous said...

Why are New Labour allowing train-loads of neo-Nazi football hooligans to descend upon Leeds to make Hitler salutes in public, this Saturday?

What's the world coming to?

Penny Dropz said...

The fascist BNP are now fighting on two fronts - the BNP ballot box and the EDL boot and fist. Both must and will be opposed vigourously like we did at Cable Street.

Anonymous said...

I thought the EDL were finished after Manchester.

For fucks sake are these cretins still marching?

Can't the Home Secretary ban the EDL Casual bastards.

It's not a freedom of speech issue at all.

It's freedom to fight and be only racist in public without getting arrested for such sickening behaviour.

AndyMinion said...

Brilliant article, Roddy. I hope it gets read by the people who matter - the financial authorities and the poor idiots who bankroll these characters.

benny said...

The Animal Rights movement is the latest recruiting ground for the BNP.

http://keepthefascistsoutofanimalrights.blogspot.com/

Keep The Fascists Out of Animal Rights!

The Animal Rights movement is an almost entirely white movement and while this is not in itself an indication necessarily of racism or fascism, it's members include:

*Dave Gardner a BNP member and AR activist.

*Charlotte Lewis a member of SHAC and the BNP

*Matthew Gibbons of the English Defence League and AR activist.

Wasn't Sadie Graham also an animal rights activist? Or am I mistaken?

Anonymous said...

Charlotte Lewis was one of Bob Bailey's geeky-looking fellow BNP candidates at this year's polls.

Brummie said...

I find it more difficult to understand the Labour Party than the EDL/BNP sometimes. We all know what makes the BNP tick - race, Aryan supremacy and inequality. Butwhy are the Government doing sod all about the problem of the EDL, allowing them to gather in our cities, get drunk, march confrontationally down our streets giving Hitler salutes and mouthing anti-Asian abuse when, get this, they only claim to be standing up against terrorists who drag the name of Islam through the shit.

And we have Sir Albert Bore, Labour opposition leader of Birmingham City Council, saying that if his party was in power it would have applied to get the march banned in response to a ruling Tory who said 'why didn't Alan Johnson ban it then'. Political point scoring, whilst the racists run riot in New Street and Bennetts Hill.

Another reason why hypocritical Labour must be buried along with the BNP.

Brummie said...

THE FASCIST EDL ARE MARCHING EARLY AT 1PM INN CITY SQUARE, BEFORE THE LEEDS UNITED MATCH, HOPING TO GET LEEDS UNITED FANS INVOLVED.

I saw Nelson Mandela get his Freedom of the City of Leeds here. All the more reason to oppose the EDL in Leeds.

West Midlands Unity said...

Off Topic:

The wife beaters, drunkards & junkies A.K.A the National Front are planning a March on Sunday 8th in November:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/440679.html

(Apprently they are hoping for turnout of about 500) LMAO!!

Anonymous said...

UKIP public meeting in carlisle tonight at 7.30 auctioneer pub , anyone travelling over to give them a grilling and protest