The family of Guardsman Jimmy Major break down as his coffin is driven past
Smug bastard Griffin grinning for the camerasMr Griffin stood on the high street where hearses carrying the soldiers' Union Flag-draped coffins were due to arrive. Wearing a black coat, adorned with a poppy, the controversial MEP stood with a minder opposite family and friends of the fallen soldiers.
Mr Griffin said: "I wanted to come here today because this is the second worst toll to be coming through and because tomorrow is Remembrance Day. So it's fitting that as many people as possible come here today. It's an absolutely tremendous and very moving display."
Mr Griffin said he had a "friendly" reaction from the public to his presence.
"It's been very low key, I've been talking to many people and it's been very friendly," he said.
When asked for his view on the conflict in Afghanistan after the loss of the five soldiers killed by a rogue Afghan police officer, Mr Griffin said: "This is not the time or the place for political statements - it's for remembrance. I have strong views on Afghanistan but I'm not prepared to discuss them here."
Standing yards from Mr Griffin was veteran Martyn Matthews, 61, a retired warrant officer who served for 27 years with the commando forces. Mr Matthews, from Corsham, Wiltshire, said: "We live in a democracy and everyone has a right to their own views. If people are going to give their lives for that freedom, Mr Griffin has as much right to his views as anyone else does. Although I do not stand by his views, I would encourage him to be here to see the impact extremism can have."
They were among hundreds of people who turned out to pay their respects to six soldiers killed in Afghanistan as their bodies returned to British soil today.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police. They were shot dead by a "rogue" Afghan police officer at a secure checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province on November 3 in an attack claimed by the Taliban. Two days later, Serjeant Phillip Scott, 30, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Sangin in Helmand.
After a private chapel ceremony for families at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, hearses carrying their Union flag-draped coffins were driven to the High Street of nearby Wootton Bassett for a memorial procession.
Under cloudy skies and drizzling rain, soldiers lined the streets of the town alongside Royal British Legion veterans, shopkeepers and residents to pay tribute to the fallen men. As the cortege passed along the High Street, silence fell, broken only by the chiming bells of St Bartholomew and All Saints Church. Standard-bearers from the Royal British Legion lowered their flags as the coffins passed by.
As the procession paused by the war memorial, which was covered in floral tributes, roses and wreaths were placed on the hearses by relatives and friends. Tearful family members wept as the coffins drove by - some wearing T-shirts bearing the name of their fallen loved one.
The procession then continued to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, where post-mortem examinations are completed.
Independent
26 comments:
Even Stormfront isn't impressed.
"Griffin is just using the situation for publicity."
"Smug bastard Griffin grinning for the cameras"
And thats the only reason that fat fuckers there at all!
Why is Griffin smiling smugly at this solemn event?
28 out of 32 comments after the Times article are praising and defending Nick Griffin. If this equated to votes, there would be concentration camps erected after the next eelctions but it doesn't take half a brain to realise the British media have been hoodwinked by Simon Darby and his Stormfront trolling army to start logging on with hundreds of fake identities.
It's about time British newspapers started logging IP addresses, for just a small handful of neo-nazi trolls can pretend they speak for the majority of the British public.
In this technological age it's worrying that our national newspapers can be hoodwinked into allowing public opinion to be deceived by a dishonest group of neo-nazis.
where's wally?
There he is! Yay!
awwww, that's nice. He must really care about the soldiers, unlike the liblabcon marxist alliance...
what a comforting feeling for our troops, knowing that in the event of their death that slime will turn up in a cynical attempt to recruit new members....
Griffin is a disgrace. How dare he smirk at the camera while the whole town is weeping at the deaths of the six soldiers. Vile despicable bastard.
I thought all politicians had agreed not to attend such events to avoid the charge of grandstanding or bandwagon-jumping.
There's a Times article about this same sad occasion that has this in it.
His presence attracted an angry reaction among some members of the crowd lining the streets.
“He should not be here,” said Ira, a 49-year-old woman who works for a charity settling refugees.
“This is about families, not political leaders. He should not be anywhere near here. He is just doing it for the limelight. It takes the focus off the locals and the families.
“There should be a lynch mob for him. There used to be stocks here – I say bring back the stocks for him.”
Griffin has got big teams posting comments on national newspaper websites, this doesn't reflect real support, it's just another con trick.
This photo should be printed in every newspapers up and down the land, then the electorate will see the real disgraceful Griffin?
Shame on Nick Griffin for using an event like this for gain for his racist party.
Anonymous said...
Why is Griffin smiling smugly at this solemn event?
The same reason he chuckled on Question Time when asked about The Holocaust.
He is a piece of shit..
No, Griffin, tomorrow isn't "Remembrance Day". There's no such thing as "Remembrance Day" - BBBC please note.
Nov 11th is Armistice Day.
The nearest Sunday is Remembrance Sunday.
Easy really - but too much for Smug Nick.
How nice of him to smirk while the families of the fallen soldiers are riven with grief. He has no shame.
Last month the former heads of the army, General Sir Mike Jackson and General Sir Richard Dannatt among others, expressed concern that political extremists are using the military "for their own dubious ends".
"We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain's military for their own advantage to cease and desist,"
Sharon Ebanks has written over on the NWN forum "Its quite eerie to see people in sombre mood and Griffin stood there with a smile on his chops"
Even she sees what a fraud he is.
There was an excellent programme on channel 4 yesterday on the non white (and one Irish Nationalist)fighters of WW1 who fought with loyalty fo Britain. Just like the guy in the news the other week Griffin and the NF laying wreaths are pissing on their memory in their presence. I'm sure he and other BNP would just write these fighters off as "mercenaries" and don't think they are worthy of being equally remembered as British soldiers as their white counterparts
Scum. With Gri££in it’s anything that might generate a little free publicity for him.
He couldn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and certainly not the families of fallen servicemen and women in great pain.
He would have been grinning across his fat face when he knew it had actually worked as well. I know the fucker and what he's like.
Begs the questions yet again. When will the media stop giving this vile little zero publicity and just let him wither on the vine, why do they insist on giving him oxygen, can’t they see that he is playing them?
Does the state need a pressure valve that much? If so then it really shows to what extent our governments have fucked up, past and present.
What I don't get is this - Nick Griffin claims British soliders are fighting an illegal war and wants British army generals executed for carrying out their professional duties. So, he condemns their efforts as illegal on the one hand, but then turns up at their funerals. For what? To remind the poor families of these deceased soliders that their sons and daughters were engaged in, from his BNP opportunistic perspective, illegal activities?
We shouldn't forget that Nick Griffin condemned British soldiers who fought against the Nazis in World War II as war criminals and murderers.
The hundreds of troll comments in the Times article make me wanna puke big-time!!!
Someone needs to do a TV investigation on the neo-nazi internet trolls who manage to post over 90% of online comments supportive of Nick Griffin and the BNP, dismissing all opponents (including Tories) as Marxists.
Maybe MacIntire could do a show for telly about the trolls, as they take on their fake identities to try to influence both newspaper and public opinion with their subterfuge.
Maybe there's a former BNP troll reading this who has fallen out with Cyclops who might want to shed light on how Simon Darby's teams of trolls operate.
Nick Gri££in has never done a hard day's work in his stupid little life let alone inlisted for any of the armed services, and yet the uncaring c*nt is willing to exploit the suffering of the brave British soldiers to get more and more press publicity.
Nick Griffin spits on the graves of both Holocaust victims and the graves of British Soldiers fighing in Afganistan, and yet, his internet trolls are painting a picture of Gri££o as some sort of hero.
It's absurd!
If Nick Griffin got into power, he wouldn't just persecute members of other political parties, he'd also lock up, torture and kill members of rival far right groups such as the NF and the EDL, just as Adolf Hitler did.
Everything's a game for Nick Griffin now he's a "Euro Jackpot Millionaire"!
He doesn't have to worry about money now, meaning he can do what he wants without worrying what the rank and file members think.
So much for democracy within an Odin-worshipping neo-fascist organisation.
The Daily Express isn't very impressed with him turning up
"DIGNIFIED HOMECOMINGS CAN DO WITHOUT THE BNP
Wednesday November 11,2009
THOUSANDS turned out at Wootton Bassett again yesterday as more coffins came home from Afghanistan.
Almost everyone lining the streets of the little Wiltshire town was there just to pay sincere respects to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
But Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, must have known his presence would distract from the quiet dignity of the occasion. Yet, accompanied by burly minders, he took a deliberately prominent place in the throng.
It is impossible to conclude that this was anything other than an utterly cynical publicity stunt by an extremist who is determined to exploit any passing opportunity to sow the seeds of dissent. How a man who has denied the Holocaust and thus cast doubt upon the moral basis of the Second World War can seek to associate himself with the heroism of British forces overseas defies understanding.
Neither is it possible to fathom how he can think his abhorrent political views could represent armed forces that contain many Britons from ethnic minority backgrounds as well as lion- hearted soldiers from Nepal, Fiji and many Commonwealth countries.
The good people of Wootton Bassett have turned these homecomings into very moving occasions. Low-life like Griffin should stay away."
SCOTTISH NEWS: -
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19526
While Griffin stands there with his smug sly grin ready to be captured on film, the people to really be held to account for this are the press.
They did not have to run the picture and the story, but of course Griffin knew they would.
The press should be held to account for what could be seen as a promotion of a single political party.
It might be a stand that LU might like to take a lead on, challenging the might and power of the press?????
tulip
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