BNP membership 'higher where people live in overcrowded and private rented housing'

Membership of the British National Party (BNP) is higher where whites and non-whites live separately in segregated areas, research has found.

Oxford University academics used the BNP database posted on WikiLeaks that contained 12,000 members' details and then matched them with census data on more than 200,000 neighbourhoods in Britain to make the findings.

Whites are more likely to belong to the BNP in a highly-segregated city like Bradford where just under a quarter (22%) of the population is non-white, compared to a well-integrated area like Brent in London where over half (55%) of the population is non-white, they found.

The research discovered that whites are less likely to belong to the BNP where they had a substantial proportion of non-white neighbours. When the non-white category was divided into ethnic groups, BNP support was higher in towns and cities where British Asians lived rather than Black British. When religion was analysed, BNP membership responded primarily to Muslim communities.

BNP membership was found to be higher in areas with lower education levels and with more self-employed people and small business owners. Membership was also higher where people live in overcrowded housing and rented from private landlords, rather than owning their own properties or living in council houses. White people were also more likely to belong to the BNP in Labour constituencies, the research claimed.

Whites might perceive a political threat from concentrated non-white communities, with Labour being perceived as favouring minorities, the researchers said.

Dr Michael Biggs, a sociologist at the University of Oxford, carried out the research with a graduate student, Steve Knauss. Dr Biggs suggested that some white people felt threatened by segregated minority communities. Close contact among neighbours, however, broke down racial prejudice. The research, surprisingly, found that higher unemployment actually reduced the probability of BNP membership. This finding suggested that economic competition is less of a threat than cultural difference when people decided to join the party.

"The BNP thrives where the non-white, particularly South Asian or Muslim, population is large, but only if this population is also highly segregated," Dr Biggs explained. "Segregation means that white British people are less likely to have contact with non-whites beyond the immediate neighbourhood. It also creates a greater sense of cultural or even political threat."

Within Britain, the BNP's heartlands were the Pennines, Leicestershire and Essex, the data found.

The researchers noted that BNP voters were not always concentrated in the same areas as its members. The membership database revealed significant levels of support for the party in Wales and even in Scotland, which was not apparent in voting figures. Therefore, membership would not necessarily translate into electoral success.

Support for the BNP has grown ten-fold in the past decade. In 2001, it won 47,000 votes at the general election, the paper said. In 2010, it won over half a million (563,000) votes.

The researchers' paper, called Explaining Membership In The British National Party: A Multilevel Analysis Of Contact And Threat, will be presented at the British Sociological Association conference in London today, and will be published online this month by the European Sociological Review.

24dash

EDL supporters list hits the net

Anyone remember the fun and games that resulted following the publication of the first BNP membership list? If so, you'll also remember the blustering threats of legal action and all kinds of other repercussions from the BNP, despite the well-established fact that senior BNP members had been happily providing Redwatch (a site that exists only to identify and encourage violence against anti-fascists) with pictures and information for years. The hypocrisy of the BNP leadership has no apparent limit.

Nor does that of the English Defence League. Riddled with nazis, football hooligans and BNP members, the EDL has been infesting our town centres for months now, costing those towns a fortune in both protective measures and lost business, while its army of violent thugs rampage through shopping areas throwing bricks and bottles, smashing windows and attacking passers-by while singing 'Allah, Allah, who the fuck is Allah?' and similar pleasant little ditties.

Now the EDL has joined the BNP in having at least some of its supporters named and shamed, following an attack yesterday on its clothing website by hacker's group 'TeaMp0isoN & Mujahideen Hacking Unit'. Readers will recall that the site was temporarily closed recently when it was made apparent that the EDL was suffering from the same disease as the BNP - money was being taken for sales and donations but nobody seemed to know where it went after that. Nicely dressed lad, that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, by the way. Just thought I'd mention it.

Following the attack, the hackers released the names of approximately three hundred and fifty supporters/donators, prompting many EDL members to advise others via the group's Facebook page to avoid purchasing anything from its incompetent online fundraisers until its 'webmasters' learned to encrypt passwords on the server (rather than leaving them laying around unencrypted for any passing hacker to take a look at).

The EDL have responded in the same way that the BNP initially did a couple of years ago - by claiming that the list is made up (though this was immediately contradicted by an admission posted to Facebook stating that the site had 'suffered a breach' and that some supporter's details had been exposed).

Oddly, for an organisation that seems to loathe the police and the legal system, the EDL has stated that 'we intend to seek prosecution for the criminals involved'. Best of luck with that, guys. Wikileaks might be a bit busy at the moment but once the list hits it or one of its many mirrors, it's up there for the world to see. Forever.

Christmas chaos hits BNP (again) as Chris Jackson and Mike Easter resign

As one of our readers commented the other day, Christmas seems to be a difficult time for the BNP. It was pointed out that 2007 saw the end of the then high-flying career of Sadie Graham and many others, while 2008 saw the chaos that followed the release of the full BNP membership list.

This year seemed to be following the same pattern, though in a less focused way, with the sudden resignation of Alby Walker as leader of the BNP group at Stoke Council, Dicky Barnbrook's embarrassingly poor apology for being a liar, the laughably appalling accounts (which earned the party a £1100 slap on the wrist for tardiness) and a threat of future legal action from the Electoral Commission, plus a swathe of dreadful by-election results.

Now however, things seem to be coming to a head with the resignations of former contender for the BNP leadership (in a rigged election that he couldn't possibly win) Chris Jackson (pictured), his former campaign manager Mike Easter and someone named Kev Bryan, who was apparently the Rossendale Branch Organiser. The resignations are announced in an open letter posted on the mostly defunct jackson4leader site:

'Disbandment of reform Group

What is the point of the BNP if you admit foreigners?

Sadly we have come to the conclusion that the BNP is breaking up and there is no practicable likelihood of it recovering.

In our opinion the root cause of the failure is the Constitution of the Party. The Constitution, that is the Party Rules, makes the Party Leader a dictator. The current leader rather than reforming the Constitution toward that of a normal English association has (probably illegally) made alterations to the Constitution making his removal virtually impossible.

The Party is now a nationalist party in name only and has abandoned many of the fundamental principles on which it was founded.

A further major problem is that of money. Under the Constitution, all money is controlled by the Party Leader. The Party Leader appoints the Party Treasurer and Party Auditor. The Leader has carte blanche to dispose of the funds as he pleases.

This has never been a satisfactory situation, and now that the Party is alleged to be turning over a million pounds a year, is nothing short of a scandal. There have been four different Treasurers this year and the 2008 accounts are way overdue. The Party has been fined by the Electoral Commission for late publication of accounts. This is a re-run of last year when the accounts were also late and when published were endorsed by the Auditor as unsatisfactory.

A separate, but related, issue is the Trafalgar Club. This Club raises money directly to support the Party Leader. No accounts for this club have ever been published and they have not been appended to the Party accounts, as clearly they should be.

We recommend that no further money be sent to ‘Head Office’.

Whilst the BNP has been going downhill, the National Front has reformed itself and now is led by a group of reliable people and has the Constitution of a normal democratic association. Consequently, we believe that BNP members should transfer to the National Front.

Mike Easter
Chris Jackson
Kevin Bryan'

Regular readers will no doubt remember Jackson's failed leadership challenge back in the summer of 2007. Although resoundingly beaten, the results were not quite what Nick Griffin apparently expected, with Griffin himself receiving a mandate from only 39% of the party membership. Were I Jackson, I would regard that outcome as something of a success in itself - it showing the lack of confidence in Griffin that truly exists even in the BNP. However, rather than follow-up the one successful aspect of his challenge, Jackson chose to keep his head down and say nothing very much for the next two years.

So why resign now? The main reasons are made pretty clear in the letter above - the action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to force the BNP to open its membership to non-whites and the financial shenanigans of the party leadership, though we suspect the former is the real reason and the latter is just a handy and always-relevant sideswipe at the morally-impaired Griffin.

It was pretty clear from the moment the EHRC began its action, that there would be repercussions from the hardcore racists in the BNP - one of whom is obviously Chris Jackson. There is though a lot of support for Jackson's views within the party and as Searchlight pointed out during his leadership bid, his campaign was backed by some heavy-hitters: five founder-members, two advisory council members, three councillors, eight branch organisers and 20 election candidates came out openly in his support.

There are mixed immediate reactions to the resignations, though I don't doubt we can expect a LOT more. Griffin-loyalists are, naturally, critical of this trio's announcement and stated intention to join the National Front. One surprisingly witty nazi on Stormfront said;

'The NF may have a name, although like a cheap can of Polish beans, they have a fancy label but the product inside is cheap and of little nutritional value.'

The response was less witty, though rather more cogent;

'Ever since June, which was supposed to have been the BNP's moment of greatest triumph, its members and supporters have been simply walking away. Last month, Andrew Brons spoke at a long-planned meeting in Bridlington which attracted fewer than thirty people, even though BNP members had travelled from as far away as Scarborough, Hull and Leeds to attend. If even a MEP and nationalist of AB's calibre can't draw the crowds anymore something is seriously wrong.'

Over at the North West Nationalist blog, the statements were a little more terse;

'The root cause is traitor Griffin !'
'Fingers in the till anyone?'
'Only surprised it took CJ as long as it did to pack it in.'

The NWN forum was a little more informative;

'I rather think that there will be a bit of a deluge over to the National Front here in the North West.'
'Croydon BNP branch has crossed to the NF, and a large group in Southampton joining next week Strong rumours of Stoke BNP and councillors from other branches crossing over to the NF.'
'I do know that both Burnley BNP & Halifax BNP are quite close to Chris Jackson'
'We must leave crook Griffin with the rubbish personnel.'

Like everyone else, I do enjoy a good disaster movie over Christmas - and the BNP generally provides the best. It's a bit late this year but what the hell - I suspect this one will be a biggie and just as much fun to watch as all the others.

Compliments of the season to all our readers and happy viewing. :-)

Union forced to remove BNP link

Staffordshire University's students' union could face legal action after directing its website users to a list of the names and postcodes of British National Party members. The union was forced to remove a link to another site within 24 hours after an outcry from students and claims it could have breached the Data Protection Act.

On Tuesday, union president Assed Baig posted an article containing a link to the names and postcodes of 30 BNP members living within two miles of the university's Stoke campus in College Road. It was removed from the website yesterday hours after The Sentinel contacted the union, which has stressed the statement expressed the views of an individual and not necessarily its other members.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Baig said: "Following concerns raised with the union by some of its members about the ethics of promoting a site that identifies membership of the BNP, the union has removed the direct link from its site. However, the purpose of drawing to students' attention the level of support on the doorstep of their university for the BNP remains. In a university that has built itself an enviable reputation on its diversity and ability to widen participation, having a political party that works against this principle active in the area is an issue for our members."

Sports Journalism student Shaun Staff told The Sentinel that he didn't understand why a link to a list of BNP members' details needed to be published on the union website. The 21-year-old, who lives in Shelton, added: "The list contains names and postcodes – again, focusing on the locality of the members – and directions to their houses via Google Maps, which seems extremely suggestive.

"One of the president's slogans when he was running for the role was 'Beat the BNP', which is fair enough, but I believe he has gone the wrong way about it by publishing these details. What if there are students at the university who support the BNP? The union is supposed to be politically neutral."

Some students posted comments on the union site before the article was removed. Simon Longden said: "To single people out for their political views, no matter what they are, is just as morally indefensible as the racism the union tries so hard to oppose."

Stoke-on-Trent City Council BNP group leader Councillor Alby Walker told The Sentinel that it was his belief that the students' union is breaking the Data Protection Act by publishing details of BNP members. He said: "It's wrong and I will certainly be contacting the BNP's legal department about this. The person responsible for this has either been very naive or politically motivated. If I was the president of the students' union I would be seriously considering my position within the university."

The union will hold a meeting in the Ashley Building in the Leek Road campus at 5pm on Monday to discuss the issues raised. The university declined to comment.

The Sentinel

Keighley BNP membership down

Nearly half the Keighley members of the British National Party have left the organisation since the end of 2007, according to information leaked on the Internet. It is the second list to reveal the names of BNP members in a year, with this one, released on Wikileaks, claiming to be taken from April 2009 records.

The information, which has been analysed by the Guardian newspaper, shows that the BNP has 11,811 members, including doctors and military personnel, and has benefited from a surge in female recruits — with one in eight women now signed up as members. While support for the party has grown in Leicester, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, overall it has reduced in Bradford and significantly so in Keighley.

In a comparison of the leaked figures from last autumn’s list of names from the end of 2007 to the latest list, BNP membership in Keighley has shrunk from 52 to 29 people, overall a decrease of around 44 per cent.

It is the highest decrease in all the Bradford constituencies, with Bradford West losing eight members at a decrease of 38 per cent, Shipley losing eight members at a reduction of 25 per cent and Bradford South losing four members at an overall reduction of 10 per cent. Bradford North has increased by one member.

BNP leader Nick Griffin claimed that the leaked list was a forgery.

Keighley News

Anatomy of a party – what the BNP list says about its members

Typical member is named David or John, has a job, lives in East Midlands and, if married to a BNP member, has a wife called either Patricia, Joanne or Karen

The leak of a British National party membership database provides a detailed anatomy of an organisation whose growing public profile means that this week it will enjoy the most prominent platform in its history when Nick Griffin, its leader, appears on Question Time on BBC1.

The BNP's constitution states it is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948". The party also proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home". Only last week did it agree to alter its overtly racist constitution which bans non-whites from joining. But who are the people who join such an organisation and who does Griffin represent?

This morning, BNP officials began scouring the document, but could not yet confirm or deny if it is genuine or not but according to the Guardian's analysis of the available data a typical supporter is likely to be called David or John, he is likely to have a "standard" membership which means he has a paying job, and he is most likely to lives in Charnwood, a Conservative-controlled East Midlands constituency. If he is married to a BNP member, she is most likely to be called Patricia, Joanne or Karen. His male friends in the BNP are likely to be called Paul, Michael, Peter and Robert, while Jane, Tracey, Valerie and Helen are popular names among the party's 2,034 women members.

If this picture makes the supporter base of the BNP sounds very normal, bland even for a party that concerns so many opponents of far right politics, then that impression will only be reinforced by the different types of membership available, including "family", "family plus", "old age pensioner" and "gold" – a £60 membership for members whom Griffin describes as "the elite of the party".

Not everyone who joins is quite as ordinary as these descriptions suggest. The latest list also reveals that the membership include dozens of doctors, majors, captains and corporals.

BNP spokesman Simon Darby, said today that at first glance the list includes some people who are no longer members and some who have moved abroad. Nick Griffin, the party's leader, said the list could contain people who have shown an interest in the party but have not become members.

The list does not show as many members as the BNP claims to have. Darby said membership had grown recently, partly as a result of anger at the MPs' expenses scandal, and has now reached around 14,000. But the data seen by the Guardian, which appears to be a snapshot at the end of April 2009, shows 11,811 members. It is not clear if it is comprehensive and when the list of the BNP's membership at the end of 2007 list was leaked in November 2008, it showed 12,802 names. Some of those were not full members and had only showed an interest in the party.

But it is the geographical spread of the BNP's members which is most revealing about where the far right's power base comes from. The greatest concentrations of BNP membership are in the East Midlands, in the urban areas around the Pennines and in Essex.

Charnwood in Leicestershire is the parliamentary constituency with the largest number of BNP members with 63. The area borders Leicester, one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. The BNP won 3.4% of the vote and came fourth at the 2005 general election more than trebling the party's share of the vote since 1997. It includes Loughborough's Soar Valley in the suburbs just north of Leicester, villages from the other bank of the Soar river, Thurmaston to the north-east of Leicester and to the city's west it covers Glenfield, Ratby and Leicester Forest East.

The BNP has one councillor on Charnwood borough council, Cathy Duffy, who represents the village of East Goscote. The neighbouring constituency of Loughborough is also home to BNP 46 members.

The next membership hotspot is the Pendle constituency in Lancashire, which includes mill towns and villages where many people of south Asian origin have settled. In 2008, the BNP councillor Brian Norton Parker distributed leaflets which alleged: "Muslims are exclusively responsible for the heroin trade."

Amber Valley in Derbyshire and Ashfield in Nottinghamshire each have 59 members. In a trend that suggests the party's influence is spreading, if not growing in absolute terms, the fastest growing membership – compared with the data leaked last year – are in areas outside the party's current heartlands. The number of members in Salisbury in Wiltshire has trebled to 36, while Barnsley Central in Yorkshire has 48, Hastings and Rye in East Sussex have 32, and Orpington in Kent has 25. There have been significant falls in Leeds and Keighly, in Yorkshire, and Carlisle in Cumbria.

The data also appears to shows a party in a constant state of flux with many supporters allowing their memberships to lapse each year.

"What happens is the membership flow acts like a bath with running water and the plug missing," said Nick Lowles, editor of Searchlight, a magazine which monitors far-right groups. "People join the party, because they're angry, agitated or curious, but they leave in equal numbers out of the bottom. We believe their turnover rate is far higher than any other political party."

He said that moles who operate inside the BNP on behalf of Searchlight have said the party's electoral success in the European elections in June, as well as the recent spurt in media coverage, have not resulted in a surge of support. "My understanding is that their membership hasn't changed in any great way over the last six to eight months," said Lowles.

Analysis after the last year's leak, he continued, showed that the BNP's membership consisted of mainly middle-aged white men who worked in semi-skilled jobs. Membership lists can, however, give a skewed impression of the BNP's supporters and voters. "The fact is a that a lot of BNP supporters wouldn't join a political party," he said.

Lowles said recent falls in the BNP's share of the vote at council byelections, including a seat in Barnsley last week, indicated that party's increased national profile in recent weeks as a result of Griffin's forthcoming appearance on Question Time was not translating into electoral success.

Guardian

BNP hit by second leak of 'members database'

The BNP is bracing itself for potentially fresh embarrassment tomorrow when details of the party's UK-wide rank and file membership are expected to be posted on the internet.

The list, which purports to be a snapshot of the party's support in April this year, includes the names, addresses, postcodes and telephone numbers of people who have signed up to the far-right group, including the grade of membership assigned by the party – Standard, Family, Family Plus, Gold, OAP, and Unwaged.

This list was leaked to a website, which insisted today that it was genuine, and that it intended to publish the information tomorrow.

Today the BNP seemed unaware of the potential disclosure and said it appeared to have been timed to undermine the party ahead of its leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time on Thursday. Today the political row about the BBC's decision to invite him on to the programme intensified, with the corporation refusing to bow to pressure from a cabinet minister to cancel Griffin's appearance.

The apparent disclosure of a membership list will add to the controversy surrounding the party. The Guardian has seen the list but could not verify its authenticity. It appears to show that:

• The BNP had 11,560 members as of April this year, including one peer;
• The party appears to have benefited from a surge in female recruits – one in eight of the party's members are now women;
• The highest concentrations of membership lie in Leicestershire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.

If the document is authentic, it will be the third time the party's internal membership data has been made public in recent years.

In November 2008, a list of members' names, addresses, contact details and sometimes jobs and hobbies was leaked by disgruntled members, who were said to have become frustrated that the party had become too soft under Griffin. That list was widely circulated on the internet and last month 37-year-old former BNP member Matthew Single, appearing before Nottingham magistrates, admitted leaking the data and was fined £200 for breaching the Data Protection Act.

In December 2006, an undercover investigation by the Guardian revealed that the organisation's members included Simone Clarke, then a ballerina for the English National Ballet.

A spokesman for the website which is proposing to publish the list said today it wanted to reveal the membership data in order to provoke a debate in the UK about why people want to become members of the BNP.

A BNP spokesman said it considered any publication of its internal membership data to be a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act.

"This is an example of the perpetual hatred and vilification we face," said BNP deputy chairman Simon Darby. "The public will look at this and think it is another example of persecution of the BNP and wonder what on earth the establishment is frightened of."

Griffin will become the party's first representative to appear on Question Time on Thursday evening, when he will face fellow panellists including justice secretary Jack Straw. The BBC's invitation to Griffin has caused outrage and today the Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, called on the broadcaster to withdraw the invitation because the BNP is currently "an unlawful body" after the party told a court last week it would have to amend its whites-only membership rules to meet discrimination legislation.

The BNP claimed the publication of the list was timed to sabotage the impact of its Question Time appearance. Darby said BNP officials are currently examining ways to capitalise on the platform.

The last time BNP data was published, it emerged that teachers, policemen and former members of the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats had signed up. Several dozen of them admitted to being members and were named in the press. The latest list suggests that at least 19 of those members have now left the party.

The Guardian

Ex-BNP man fined over names leak

A former member of the British National Party has been fined £200 after admitting publishing the details of some 10,000 party members online.

Matthew Single, 37, formerly of Church Lane, Brinsley, Notts, was fined by Nottingham magistrates after admitting disclosing data without consent. The names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of some party supporters were leaked in November.

Judge John Stobart said the fine was "low" because Single was on benefits. District Judge John Stobart also ordered Single to pay £100 towards the cost of the prosecution.

The judge told Single: "Anything that is posted on the internet has the effect of opening a Pandora's box. What you put on the internet can never be taken from it and while there may be some members in this organisation who do not deserve to be protected by the law, they should be able to expect that officers within the organisation will not abuse the information provided to them. The law exists to save people from such revenge attacks."

Judge Stobart added: "It came as a surprise to me, as it will to many members of the party, that to do something as foolish and as criminally dangerous as you did will only incur a financial penalty. It comes as no surprise to me that somebody to do with an organisation that prides itself on Britishness is in fact living off the British people on Job Seeker's Allowance and that is why the fine is so low as to be ridiculous."

The charges were dropped against Single's wife, Sadie Graham-Single. The 30-year-old was not at the court.

BBC

Breaking news: Two charged with leaking BNP membership list

It's that BNP membership list again...

Two people have been charged under the Data Protection Act after a British National Party membership list was leaked on the internet, police said today.

Dyfed-Powys Police said the two people were arrested as part of a joint investigation with the Information Commissioner's Office. They are due to appear in Nottingham Magistrates Court on September 1.

The far-right BNP called for a police investigation last November after the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.

Independent

Dyfed-Powys Police said the pair were arrested under the Data Protection Act as part of a joint investigation with the Information Commissioner's Office. They are due to appear in Nottingham Magistrates Court on September 1.

The far-right BNP called for a police investigation last November after the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online. Party leader Nick Griffin lodged a complaint with Dyfed-Powys, his local force, on the grounds that publishing the list breached human rights and data protection laws. He described the publication as "a disgraceful act of treachery" by former BNP staff members who were subsequently sacked.

At the time the BNP said the leak was based on its 2007 membership list. It featured details of some members' jobs and was reported to include serving and former police officers, as well as members of the armed forces.

In a statement, Dyfed-Powys Police said: "We can confirm that the two people arrested in relation to alleged criminal offences under the Data Protection Act have been charged with Section 55 Data Protection Act offences. The arrests followed an investigation into a complaint received about the unauthorised release of the BNP party membership list."

Sky News

Council ousts 'BNP leak' councillor

A councillor arrested last year in connection with a leaked BNP membership list has lost her seat, it emerged today.

Sadie Graham-Single is no longer councillor for Brinsley after Broxtowe Borough Council announced it is to hold a by-election for her seat. The council has called the election following Mrs Graham-Single's failure to attend the requisite number of meetings during a six-month period.

In a statement, the council said her right to be a councillor ceased at midnight on May 12th - six months after last attending a meeting of the council's Sustainable Communities committee on November 12, 2008.

Mrs Graham-Single has been informed of the council's decision and the date of the by-election will be announced following a full council meeting on June 17.

Mrs Graham-Single was one of two people arrest last December in connection with the unauthorised publication of a BNP membership list on the internet. She was arrested by Notts Police on behalf of Dyfed Powys Police, but was bailed pending further inquiries.

This is Nottingham

Comment: No time to let hatred prosper

A hearty well done to Merseyside Police for their swift and decisive response to the case of PC Steve Bettley. Bettley’s name was on a document which listed 12,000 people who were alleged to be members of the unsavoury British National Party. Over the weekend, Merseyside Police announced PC Bettley had been dismissed from his position.

This is both a sensible and laudable action. PC Bettley’s representation maintains he was not knowingly a member and has tabled its intention to appeal. That is their prerogative and if they have a solid case then an equally solid case for re-instatement is obvious. However, until that point is reached Merseyside Police have taken the only acceptable course, and that is to dismiss.

The BNP’s politics of poison have no place in modern society. Their fundamental bigotry is fuel on the fires of hatred that will bring Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech to reality.

Racial harmony in this country is in an state of uneasy peace. Mass unemployment of the like not seen since the early 1980s may shatter that peace with an immigrant labour force as the focus for malevolence and bitterness.

Two million jobless shows how close that scenario may loom. We must crack down on breeding grounds for hatred and violence. The BNP will bristle with indignation, and claim their opposition to both, but their very existence creates the anti-matter of protesters who will ensure violence whenever the two sides should collide.

We cannot allow the hatred breathing space. Police forces have long been held to be bastions of red-necked intolerance. Merseyside Police’s actions over the weekend have shown it is not an institution to allow those perceptions to linger or fester.

Liverpool Daily Post

'BNP membership' Police Officer sacked

A police constable whose name appeared on a leaked list of British National Party (BNP) members has been sacked, Merseyside Police said.

Pc Steve Bettley's name was on a document listing details of 12,000 BNP people which was published online. Merseyside Police conducted an investigation into the allegation and concluded he had "knowingly been a member of the BNP". Mr Bettley denied being a party member and will appeal against his dismissal. Officers and police staff are banned from joining or promoting the BNP.

The officer, who was briefly the driver for chief constable Bernard Hogan Howe, had been suspended from duty since the list became public last November.

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said: "A police misconduct panel has dismissed Constable Steve Bettley after concluding he had knowingly been a member of the British National Party from March 2007 and up to March 2008."

Constable Bettley would like to place on record that he condemns racism and does not support the views of the British National Party
Merseyside Police Federation spokesman

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson added: "As soon as we were made aware that Mr Bettley had been named on a BNP membership list an investigation was instigated and he was immediately suspended. We have an overriding legal duty to promote race equality and retain public confidence."

Throughout the inquiry Merseyside Police consulted with the Black Police Association and the Independent Advisory Group.

A spokesman for the Merseyside Police Federation, which represented Pc Bettley at the misconduct hearings, said he accepted his name was on the BNP list but he denied being a member of the party. He said he was enrolled in the party by a family member without his knowledge and he planned to appeal against the dismissal.

"We are disappointed with the finding and sanction of the Misconduct Panel and do not believe that there is any evidence presented to the panel which would indicate that he was knowingly a member of the BNP. Consequently the Police Federation believe that their decision that he was a member and can no longer serve with Merseyside Constabulary is flawed," the spokesman said.

The spokesman added: "The Police Federation will be fully supporting Constable Bettley through the appeals process which includes a Chief Constables Review and Police Appeals Panel. Constable Bettley would like to place on record that he condemns racism and does not support the views of the British National Party."

BBC News

Jo Brand in clear over BNP joke

Comedienne Jo Brand will not be prosecuted over her remarks about the British National Party during a BBC comedy programme.

The comments - about the leaking of the BNP's membership on to the internet - were made during the Live At The Apollo show, broadcast on January 16. Miss Brand, 51, told the Hammersmith Apollo: 'Hurrah. Now we know who to send the poo to.'

Following complaints from the BNP, Miss Brand was investigated for allegedly committing an act of incitement to cause racial harassment but the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday: 'We have advised the police to take no further action.'

Mail Online

Church of England General Synod to consider BNP membership ban

The Church of England General Synod will today consider a motion that would ban its clergy and lay staff, from being members of the British National Party (BNP).

The motion points to the policy used by the Association of Chief Police Officers, which prevents police officers from becoming members of the BNP or other organisations whose aims contradict the duty to promote race equality. The BNP campaigns controversially for the voluntary repatriation of immigrants and for the interests of the “indigenous” people of Britain. The party is often charged with being extreme and racist, a charge its leader Nick Griffin denies.

The motion has been put forward by Vasantha Gnanadoss, who works for the Metropolitan police. She claims the motion is needed to prevent parties like the BNP associating themselves with the Church. A ban on membership would also send a clear message against racial prejudice, she claims.

Until now there have been no rules banning membership of any political party for clergy, although in the past Church of England leaders have encouraged voters to stay away from the BNP during elections. The Church of England has also previously passed a resolution against the “sin of racial prejudice”.

Last year, a list of 12,000 BNP members was leaked to the public, which included five members of the Church of England clergy. The Church noted at the time that none of them were serving Anglican priests.

Speaking to the BBC, Canon Ivor Smith Cameron, former chaplain to the Queen, said that "very, very few" members of the clergy had joined the BNP. He said that he supported the current proposal for a ban on membership, saying, "One of the reasons for my existence as a clergyman is to preserve racial and community harmony and the work of the BNP clearly does not do that. Furthermore, in its websites, its blogs ... it is proclaiming itself to be a Christian organisation and I resent that deeply."

Alison Ruoff, a lay member of the Synod, said such a ban was wrong in a “free country”.

"I think it's totally over the top, totally unnecessary. I want to trust clergy. The more you say, 'Thou shalt not,' the more people want to," she said. "And of course, even if you don't join it, anybody, but anybody, including clergy, can vote BNP without anybody knowing."

The Church of England General Synod got underway on Monday at Church House, Westminster, with an address from the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, on the prospects for communion between the two Churches.

In his first and almost certainly last address to Synod before his retirement, the Cardinal said the Anglican and Catholic Churches needed to continue working towards the goal of full communion "even if it still seems so distant". He went on to express his regret over challenges to unity among Anglicans.

"Divisions within any church or eccclesial community impoverish the communion of the whole Church. We Roman Catholics cannot be indifferent to what is happening to our friends in the Anglican Communion and, in particular, in the Church of England,” he said.

In the coming days, Synod will debate the uniqueness of Christ, a draft Covenant to mend rifts in the Anglican Communion, human trafficking, the impact of the financial crisis, and the damaging effect of rising water bills on many parishes.

Christian Today

Now we know who to send the *** to; police probe Jo Brand's anti-BNP joke

Comedienne Jo Brand is at the centre of a police investigation over quips she made on the comedy programme that temporarily replaced Jonathan Ross’s TV chat show. A senior producer on the Friday night Live At The Apollo show has been questioned by the Metropolitan Police about the incident.

Ironically, the six-show series only hit the airwaves as a ‘fill-in’ while Ross served his suspension after the fallout over the lewd messages he and Russell Brand left on the answering machine of Andrew Sachs.

The remarks by Jo Brand concerned the leaking of the British National Party’s membership list. Brand, 51 – who is a staunch Labour Party supporter – joked that as a result of the list becoming public knowledge on the internet, she now knew the addresses where to send the ‘poo’ through the post.

The details of almost 13,000 BNP members were leaked last November – including those of teachers, solicitors, church ministers and even a doctor and a serving policeman. Their names, addresses and phone numbers were published, exposing many to the risk of vilification, disciplinary action and dismissal from their jobs.

Brand’s routine was a hit with the live audience, who laughed and cheered at her remarks. However, the joke, which was broadcast on the late-night BBC1 show from Hammersmith Apollo on January 16, offended members of the BNP. The following day, Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, made an official complaint to Hammersmith police alleging that Brand’s comment had been an act of incitement to cause racial harassment.

A police spokesman last night confirmed: ‘We have received a complaint and officers will be reviewing the programme to see if any offences have occurred.’

But a senior police source said: ‘It is an absurd case and very unlikely to get to court. A lot of police time and money appears to have been wasted investigating what for all intents and purposes is just a TV show joke.’

The offending remarks by Brand have been posted online on YouTube. She is seen telling the audience: ‘Let’s start with some important political news. Did you hear this, right, that BNP members and supporters have had their names and addresses published on the internet, hurrah! Now we know who to send the poo to!’

Further complaints from the BNP followed, to the BBC and the police, and a formal review was launched two weeks ago – at an estimated cost of thousands of pounds to the taxpayer.

Officers spoke with the show’s producer about the programme’s content but did not arrest or formally caution him. Miss Brand is believed to have told officers, through her producer: ‘It was just a joke!’

A file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) last week to determine if there is enough evidence for a successful prosecution to be made against Miss Brand or the BBC. A decision will be made by the CPS in the next few days. But a police source said: ‘The chances of this going further are very remote. The idea that the BNP are claiming they are the victim of a race offence is mildly amusing, to say the least.’

Jo Brand’s agent, Vivienne Clore, said: ‘I have spoken to Jo and she thought all this had gone away. She is co-operating with any investigation.’

The Live At The Apollo series was brought in by the BBC as one of the programmes to replace Ross’s Friday night chat show.

Last night the BNP’s Simon Darby said: ‘The BNP is technically an ethnic group and, under Section 26 of the Race Relations Act, we would suggest there are grounds that an offence of incitement to commit racial harassment has been committed.’

A BBC spokesman said last night: ‘We do not comment on police matters. However, we believe the audience would have understood the satirical nature of the remarks.’

Mail Online

Police constable named in BNP list is back on the beat

A police officer who was named on a leaked list of BNP members is returning to work

Joe Cutting, a constable in Southwark, was suspended in November after he featured on a list of 12,000 members published on the internet. He is now being allowed to return after an internal Metropolitan police investigation found there was no evidence to justify sacking him.

The force said Pc Cutting, who was due back on the beat this week, had been "exonerated" by the inquiry, but declined to explain how his name had come to appear on the BNP membership list.

The decision will raise new concerns about alleged racism within the force following a spate of discrimination claims in recent months and allegations from the National Black Police Association of continuing prejudice. It will also present an immediate challenge for the new Met Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, who was appointed yesterday.

Some of Pc Cutting's fellow officers were reported to have had serious concerns about his return to duty. It is not known if Sir Paul was informed of the decision taken by the Met's directorate of professional standards, which is headed by Commander Moir Stewart. Pc Cutting appeared on the BNP list with a Met volunteer special constable. Fellow officers are said to have marched Pc Cutting out of Southwark police station after stripping him of his warrant card.

It is understood that at least one disciplinary hearing was held at which witnesses for Pc Cutting, who has been in the Met for about four years, managed to convince investigators that he was not involved with the far-Right BNP. One unconfirmed explanation that is thought to have been offered is that his name was added to the membership list after he wrote a cheque on behalf of another person. The Met confirmed that Pc Cutting had been cleared to return to work and said that a full investigation had found "no evidence to prove" that he was a member of the BNP.

A spokesman added that the matter had also been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

In a statement, the Met added: "On 21 November 2008 two serving Metropolitan police officers were suspended following the publication, on the internet, of a membership list for the British National Party. One of these officers was a full-time police constable and the other a volunteer special police constable. The Metropolitan Police's Directorate of Professional Standards commenced an investigation into this matter. Following this investigation both officers have been exonerated and are returning to full duties with immediate effect."

Police officers are banned under the legally-binding 2003 Police Regulations from membership of the BNP, the National Front and Combat 18. They are also prohibited from engaging in activity which is deemed "likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of their police duties".

A separate policy introduced by the Association of Chief Police Officers in 2004 also states that officers cannot be members of the BNP on the grounds that this would conflict with their duty to promote racial equality.

The new controversy follows a series of high-profile discrimination claims against the Met from senior Asian officers, including the former Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur. His claim, which was strongly denied by the Met and former Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, was settled out of court with no admission of liability, while a second, equally prominent case involving Met Commander Shabir Hussain, in which he claimed that there was a "golden circle" of white officers in the force, was ultimately rejected by a tribunal as unfounded.

Despite this, the National Black Police Association last year called for potential ethnic minority recruits to boycott the force, claiming that it was racist and that senior managers were not tackling the problem seriously.

Supporters point out that the Met has significantly increased the number of ethnic minority recruits entering the force and now has one of the best records in the country for improving diversity.

Investigations into other names on the leaked BNP membership list have suggested that some were wrongly included with the total number of more than 12,000 individuals listed on the document thought to be considerably higher than the party's actual membership.

Evening Standard

How landlord was almost duped by BNP

A pub landlord has today told how he was almost duped into allowing the British National Party to use the building for a meeting - after the far-right group used a false name.

Andrew Coleman, 43, who has run The White Horse in Trowse with wife Pam, 45, for 15 years, took a call from a group called the Broadland Historical Society wanting to arrange a meeting at the pub tomorrow. But Mr Coleman only found out about the con this week when he received a call from a member of the public warning him that the Broadland Historical Society - a non-existent group - was in fact a name used by the BNP.

He said: “I had a phone call from some guy warning me what was happening and I phoned the British National Party to cancel the meeting. The meeting had been booked in good faith with the 'Broadland Historical Society' which appears to be an alias for the British National Party. It's not the type of people or group you want your pub to be associated with, so I cancelled the meeting. I was surprised that they had done this and they had booked the meeting under a false name.”

Simon Darby, press officer for the BNP, defended the decision to book the venue under a false name.

He said: “The question people should be asking is why we have to do that? In the past when we have booked a pub for a meeting under our own name, the council has maybe gone around to the establishment, warned them that their license is up for renewal, and then told them they don't want them to hold the meeting. That's why we sometimes have to book under different names. If this happened to one of the other political parties, then people would ask why, but because it's us, nothing's said.”

The meeting of the Norfolk BNP was scheduled to start at 3pm and the speaker was due to be Eddy Butler, a BNP eastern area regional organiser, whose subject would have been the European and county council elections to be held in June.

An email inviting BNP members and friends along to the meeting advises attendees the meeting was booked under the name 'Broadland Historical Society', and warns people to be “discreet” when in the pub's bar area.

Last November, as reported in The Evening News, hundreds of people from Norfolk were named as members of the BNP in a list posted on the internet. The list, which included names, addresses, phone numbers, details of the jobs and in some cases the hobbies and qualifications of about 12,000 members, included a Norwich pub landlord and 219 others from Norfolk.

Nationwide, serving and former police officers teachers and soldiers were listed as members of the BNP in the leaked document.

Last June The Evening news reported that several members of the BNP had their cars vandalised while the group held a meeting in a village near Norwich. Windscreens were smashed, paint was sprayed across vehicles and paint stripper was poured over three cars parked at the Stoke Mill Conference Centre and Restaurant in Stoke Holy Cross. Around 100 supporters and members of the BNP had gathered at the venue for a meeting.

Norwich Evening News

Colwyn Bay, Land of Dreams

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. 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.

Whatever one's view on the 'leaking' of the BNP 'membership' list (it seems more to have been a contact list in fact) nobody can dispute that it gave countless local newspaper editors an opportunity to fill a few column inches, without requiring them to do much work (or thinking).

Headline "Shock at local BNP membership figures"; a few horrified quotes from local political worthies; and phone Simon Darby for a claim that this shows how the BNP is growing to be an unstoppable force in Lincoln/ Ludlow/ or Timbuktu.

I've not given these articles any more attention than they deserve, which is very, very little, but coverage in Colwyn Bay caught my eye (possibly because your scribe was born in the town). It seems that the presence of 18 Colwyn Bay residents on the list got the local paper a bit excited. Six times the number in Rhyl!! To me that underlines the BNP's pathetic showing in Rhyl, rather than indicating great strength in Colwyn Bay.

Anyway, Darby's response was predictably upbeat. News of their local "strength" did not surprise him at all. "We have a very good organiser there", he claimed.

So, let's assess the BNP's recent record in that North Wales seaside town. Firstly, let's consider the place itself, a town which - like so many traditional seaside resorts - has lost its historic role, without finding a new purpose. It has a beautiful bay, but it also has significant deprivation, poor employment opportunities, low incomes, drug and violence issues. Ally all that to a significant influx of retirees from outside the area and the demographic should be quite favourable to elements of the BNP's ideology.

Until about 18 months ago the BNP's profile in the town was pretty low. Then, in September 2007, a member of a local community council [the Welsh equivalent of English parish councils] announced that he (one Pat Pattison) was joining the BNP, having been co-opted in November 2006 without any political affiliation.

His stay with the party was eventful, and brief. By March 2008 he had announced he was leaving the party - shocked by the "intolerable racism" he had found in the party. No surprise there!

For the key May 2008 council elections (Wales only has such elections at four-yearly intervals) three BNP candidates were nominated to the Colwyn Town Council, and found themselves elected unopposed. Just down the road in Kinmel Bay a fourth candidate was nominated.

And then, oh dear ... well, firstly Neil Hughes in Kinmel Bay begged for his nomination to be withdrawn. He had, he claimed, been duped. "I thought I was supporting someone else to stand. I don't want to stand. I'm annoyed about this". And what was his view on immigration? "I don't want to say anything. I'm a bit confused".

Well, I'm not going to argue with that last statement!

So back to Colwyn Bay, where the BNP's Group of Three marched off to the first meeting of the Council ... and promptly announced that they were all now leaving the BNP and would sit as independents, or would resign if the Council preferred ...

So, Mr Darby, this is what goes on in a place where the BNP has "a very good organiser"? One is left wondering what sort of shambles one finds where the local BNP organiser is merely adequate, or even below par?

Oh, and just returning to the question of local membership figures. At the time of Pat Pattison's resignation there were claimed to be "74 members in the Colwyn Bay area" ... or was it 18? Or is it just any figure that comes into a BNP official's head at the time?

Merseyside "BNP" policeman to face misconduct charge

A serving police officer named in a leaked list of British National Party members will face a misconduct panel, his force said today.

Pc Steve Bettley, of Merseyside Police, was included in the list of the far right party’s entire membership register which was leaked on an internet blog. The officer, who was briefly the driver for chief constable Bernard Hogan Howe, has been suspended from duty since the list became public last month.

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said today: “Merseyside Police has completed its investigation of an officer alleged to be a member of the BNP. It has been recommended that the Police Constable face a misconduct panel. The matter is now in the hands of Merseyside Police’s solicitors for further consideration. The Constable remains suspended.”

The leak provoked outrage after members of the BNP were revealed to be current and former servicemen, teachers and doctors.

The list included the names, professions, addresses and telephone numbers of thousands of BNP supporters. When the list was published, BNP leader Nick Griffin pledged to take court action against those behind the leak.

Dyfed-Powys Police is leading a joint investigation with the Information Commissioner’s office into the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act.

Liverpool Echo

Where is ex-BNP councillor Sadie?

A councillor has called on Sadie Graham to clarify her position on Broxtowe Borough Council following her arrest in connection with the unauthorised leak of the BNP party membership list.

Richard Jackson, leader of the Conservative opposition on the council, said no-one there had heard from the independent nationalist councillor since her arrest at her home in Church Lane, Brinsley, on December 4. Coun Graham and a second person, arrested by Notts police officers on behalf of Dyfed Powys Police, have since been bailed pending further inquiries.

Coun Jackson said: "I've heard that she has bought a house down south but it's said that she's not planning to resign as a Broxtowe borough councillor. Brinsley is a one-member council ward and I would argue that someone living hundreds of miles away cannot properly represent its people. They deserve to know where they stand, and so do we."

The Post spoke to a close friend of Coun Graham's last week who revealed how the councillor had received threats prior to her arrest and had been preparing to move with her family to the south of England, where she is believed to be after her release from police custody.

A spokeswoman for Brinsley Parish Council who told the Post they were "unsure" about Coun Graham's membership status said: "She attended our December 3 meeting but we are unsure of what's happening."

Simon Smith, head of legal services and monitoring officer at Broxtowe Borough, said Coun Graham last attended a council meeting in mid-November. He said: "I am not aware of her being anything else than a member of this local authority."

He said that any member who did not attend a committee or full council meeting for six months would be automatically disqualified from being a councillor.

The leaked BNP list was published on an internet blog last month but removed after complaints from the party. The BNP has since obtained a High Court injunction banning publication.

Coun Graham left the BNP in 2007. She was unavailable for comment last night.

Nottingham Evening Post