A-Z of the BNP: Great White Records

Great White Records (GWR) is the BNP's in-house record label, which Griffin once saw as both a lucrative cash cow and a stepping-stone to creating the sort of fascist "counter power" movement he had been harping on about since the 1980s.

Its founding statement was explicit that "the chief benefactors/recipients of money raised by GWR will be the British National Party". The party boasted it would release upwards of 13 albums, which would raise around £100,000 for the party.

It is highly doubtful that GWR has even paid back the initial outlay lavished upon it, however. GWR, which was incorporated in December 2005, has hardly released any records of its own and those it has have been underwhelming to say the least. To put it politely they are unlikely to chart any time soon. The company has only produced one set of accounts, which showed its total net assets at £8, and is currently on notice that it will be struck off. In 2008 its business was merged with the BNP's Excalibur merchandising operation.

It is not only about the money though. As one senior BNP figure observed in an interview about GWR: "People will listen to a song over and over again and take all the words in, in a way that you would be very lucky to get one in 100 of them to listen to a speech. Music is a very effective way of getting our views across." Ian Stuart Donaldson, lead singer of the infamous "white power" band Skrewdriver, said exactly the same thing. The music might have changed but the tune has not.

Despite the initial hopes placed upon it, not least by Griffin himself, GWR has stalled. Its lacklustre performance is largely down to the man placed in charge, Dave Hannam (pictured), the BNP deputy treasurer who was jailed for three months in 2000 for handing out antisemitic leaflets in Hull. Hannam was temporarily demoted in early 2008 to appease irate BNP organisers and activists after a former colleague accused him of being "crassly incompetent". GWR's other director, Nick Cass, who in 2007 was sacked as party manager, appears to be a silent partner.

Ironically Griffin's decision to back Hannam (and Mark Collett) during a damaging split in the BNP precipitated a minor disaster for GWR. Those who sided with the "rebels" included its two leading artists, one of whom was Colin Auty. Despite ridiculing Auty the BNP continues to sell his album Truth Hurts, presumably because GWR has so little else to justify its existence. GWR's next release was by Joey Barber, a BNP activist who records under the name Joey Smith. His "pop" album Not Just About the Music was truly execrable. Griffin loved it. BNP members did not.

GWR once tried to take the rise out of anti-fascists by altering the lyrics of a socialist anthem by the late great Woody Guthrie to reflect the BNP's racist prejudices. It would appear that the joke was on them. Guthrie once penned a song entitled "All You Fascists (Bound To Lose)".

If the performance of GWR is anything to go by they already have.

Hope not hate

One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - July

Even the meanest of the BNP's councillors conform to the party's petty racisms, as was shown in early July when Simon Deacon, a Markyate Parish Councillor and former leading National Front activist, voted against the council's Equal Opportunities Policy, describing it as a waste of time. No great surprise there.

Another non-surprise, was the complete collapse of Colin Auty's leadership challenge: Auty didn't even manage to get the required number of nominating signatures for the challenge to go ahead.

Griffin, clearly nervous of Auty's popularity (not something that the pig farmer has ever experienced), enlisted the help of the big battalions in the dubious forms of fruitcake Lee Barnes and 'election guru' Eddie Butler, both of whom wrote possibly illegal letters to the entire membership warning it to avoid Auty like the plague, Butler referring to Auty as a 'joke candidate' while Barnes stated that anyone who supported the challenge would be 'tried for conspiracy and treason'. Such power.

Meanwhile, Dicky Barnbrook, who takes his politics very seriously indeed, learns to ride a bike with fruit on it...

Dukinfield Labour councillor John Taylor apparently earned the ire of the BNP's Andrew Gatward, the party's West Lindsey organiser, and promptly found himself on Redwatch complete with death threat.

'Congratulations, you're on Redwatch. I am going to take you out. Six .22 rounds in the back of your head should do the trick. I would bring my .38 special but it makes one hell of a mess. I'll be seeing you.'

Whether it was Gatward who put Taylor on Redwatch is impossible to know but the fact that the former writes the occasional hate mail to the latter should give us a clue. As should Hexapla's article about the bizarre and violent fantasy world that Andrew Gatward seems to inhabit.

July saw us asking questions about how closely Nick Griffin and the BNP were working with Patrick Harrington and his micro-party, the National Liberal Party. Certainly there's a strongly incestuous relationship between them which becomes even more intimately entangled when the BNP's fake union Solidarity, its fake PR company Accentuate and Third Way are factored in. More investigation needed, if anyone wants to take it on board.

To no-one's surprise at all, Dewsbury East's BNP councillor Colin Auty quit the party (and eventually his seat) after his failure to get a leadership challenge going, moaning about the lack of democracy in the BNP. Odd how it hadn't bothered him up to this point. His campaign manager Roger Robertson also bit the dust, though in his case he was expelled for bringing the party into disrepute by setting up the challenge to the leadership and having the audacity to talk to the press. Bringing the BNP into disrepute? You couldn't make this stuff up, could you.

Racists and anti-semites Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle are convicted of publishing racially inflammatory material on a website. Both face further charges though mid-July saw them in the news again, this time for not turning up in court. It emerged that the pair had run off to the US, seeking political asylum across the pond.

An old friend reappears in court (albeit briefly), to answer a charge of attacking a pub landlord. Football hooligan, violent thug and former Burnley BNP councillor Luke Smith, hits the news again by doing what he does best - creating havoc. A couple of days later, Smith is found dead, having hanged himself.

Clive Jefferson, who desperately wants to run the BNP's security because he's a tough guy, brought some of his more idiotic pals down from Cumbria to Lancaster just to irritate shoppers by illegally setting up a stall in Market Square and getting in everyone's way. After a kicked-over table, numerous leaflets covered in spilled fizzy and a very noisy spontaneous demo, Jefferson and his morons buggered off - though not before the police nicked him for driving around in a car with an illegal numberplate (for which he was done the statutory £80).

Drifting towards the end of July and we see Nick Griffin writing to the December rebels trying to get them to back off from the forthcoming court case. In his letter, Griffin appears to libel the rebel's barrister Adrian Davies in a number of ways - though Mr Davies doesn't seem too keen to take the pig farmer to court on his own behalf. What Griffin is trying to avoid, of course, is showing the world that he can no longer afford to pay for decent legal representation and may have instead to rely on his own quick wits and those of the party's legal lunatic Lee Barnes. Gawd, I almost feel sorry for him. But not quite.

Too late to make any difference and presumably in angry response to Griffin's letter, Sadie Graham suddenly pops her head over the parapet to declare that

'I truly believe that there has never been a political leader in this country so hated by his own people.'

Her statement, posted on the Voice of Challenge blog, rips into Griffin, calling him a liar and a coward, but the overall effect is that it is too little, too late. Had she issued such a statement six months before, she would have got a massive and positive response. In fact, it comes across as the death knell of the rebellion - which in fact it turns out to be.

Yet another financial scandal within the BNP is uncovered by Searchlight - this one centering on the much-vaunted 'Truth Truck' or Lie Lorry. BNP members were asked to donate towards the purchase of a brand new advertising vehicle, effectively a mobile hoarding, which would help spread the BNP's lies even further. Members were asked to donate a staggering £40,000 to this appeal and many responded though BNP members on its own forum sounded a note of caution, wondering what had happened to the battle bus, a similar idea that was used to obtain donations a few years back.

Eventually, it was discovered that the BNP had conned its membership - again - and that the truck was actually being shared between the UK LifeLeague, an anti-abortion outfit based in Belfast, and the party.

We'll let the late Luke Smith round off July. His funeral seems to have followed the pattern of his life, being marred by vandalism and violence. Around forty drunken so-called 'mourners' were dispersed by police after they were found hurling bricks off a bridge on to a road below, presumably in tribute to Smith being a well-known thug and hooligan throughout his life.

Steve Smith, uncle of Luke, former member of the BNP and now leader of the utterly insignificant England First Party, said of his nephew;

'He was a lovely, lovely lad who, like a lot of people, was just too sensitive to exist in what is effectively an extremely cruel world...'

Whatever.

One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - June

Sexuality and Aids and the concept of a relationship, how does a man and a woman relate, going through history, between Captains Scott and Oates, between Christ and John the Baptist and the Mother Earth walking through carrying the flag...it's almost like a still-born child, how does people relate to each other...it was dealing with the bigotry of attitudes towards people.

Before you conclude that Barnes had been at the funny fags again, the quote was actually Richard Barnbrook speaking to the Independent, as posted by a bemused Antifascist.

Even by the standards of the extreme Right Barnbrook is an exotic oddity. Antifascist noted:

There are certain snippets in the interview that reveal rather more about Barnbrook than the general membership of the BNP might care to know. He presents himself for the interview in a sand-coloured linen suit (with matching socks) and a gold tie. His ex-council house home, we are told, has cream carpets and visitors have to remove their shoes before entering. His television is covered by a cream throw and his mobile ringtone features a chorister singing Jerusalem.

But the oddest thing about Barnbrook (to that date) concerned his claim to have had a relationship with the actress Tilda Swinton, which Ms Swinton - not unnaturally - vehemently denied. Barnbrook's response was: "I've got DNA proof that I went out with her."

What the nature of this proof was, Barnbrook didn't tell - or if he did, the Independent thought it too disgusting the publish. Perhaps future girlfriends should be advised to back off at some speed if approached by a Barnbrook armed with a cotton bud?

Barnbrook's lucky elevation to the Greater London Assembly also elevated him above the BNP's small number of common or garden district and borough councillors, and made him, after Nick Griffin, the BNP's best known personality.

Things like that make Griffin twitchy, and sensing future danger to his position the BNP leader immediately saddled Barnbrook with deputy-leader and toady-in-chief Simon Darby as one of Barnbrook's "researchers". Acting, we believe, more as his Nickship's eyes and ears than as a researcher for Barnbrook, this at least gave former the rubber magnate something approaching real work to do, though we imagine Barnbrook would soon tire of Darby exclaiming "Yes, Nick, superb Nick, marvellous Nick" at least thirty times a day on one of his extensive collection of mobile phones.

Antifascist commented:

Barnbrook has become the BNP's most high profile member - of far more interest to the membership and the media than its leader Nick Griffin. Which really should make Barnbrook nervous. The last time someone became unaccountably more popular than Griffin - the BNP's then 'Cultural Officer' Jonathan Bowden - the attack dogs were set on him and he was forced into resignation. Griffin has never liked competition and will destroy anyone who looks set to usurp his position.

Barnbrook is clearly setting out his stall for both the assault on Parliament and leadership of the BNP. My guess is that if the former doesn't work out in two years time, he'll go full pelt for the latter.

Barnbrook's keen interest in the preservation of DNA is shared by the police, who used it in evidence against BNP supporter Kevin David, of Leytonstone. David was convicted for sending a hate letter to local councillor Maria Pye, who is disabled. DNA from David was found on the envelope. In language not a million miles removed from that found on many BNP blogs, David wildly emoted:

I see you talk a lot about the regeneration of Leytonstone and how there are going to be new shops and businesses. But the whole world can see how these scumbags are pushing the British people out. There are five million of these scumbags wanting to live here and open shops here.

Leytonstone has become a cesspit and ghetto for these scum. I see you walking around with a walking stick. Why don't you f**k **f you f** c**? Now there are 50 million scumbags in the UK. BNP for ever. Don't look for the real cockneys because they have already left. Asians out. Africans out. Europeans out.

Later David, with an existing conviction for ABH, was given an 18-month supervision order, and ordered to attend a six-month rehabilitation course. He was also ordered to pay £100 in compensation to Maria Pye and £70 in court costs.

We had cause to revisit the world of fantasy and fiction inhabited by Patrick Harrington and his tiny band of Third Way/National Liberal Party supporters when this strange confection of old National Front failures and tall-story tellers lighted upon the (stolen, of course) idea of bringing down upon their greying heads the proceeds of a "Money Bomb" for "liberty".

Patrick Harrington (or PA Sharp as he prefers to be known when conducting certain financial transactions) apparently being blessed with the ability to "order" a website into existence at a time of his choosing, a tacky website duly appeared calling upon 10,000 of the internet's most credulous dimwits to donate £10 each in return for a vague promise that "Everything given will go towards promoting a Liberty Party in the UK".

We said:

Exactly what the Third Way/NLP is intended to achieve - aside from cushioning Patrick Harrington from the truth of his own abject irrelevance - is unclear. For an organisation (if so large a word may be employed to describe something so insubstantial) to find itself with only twenty members after eighteen years of existence is the clearest of proofs that its only achievement has been utter failure.

However, even in the fantastically unreal world of Third Way/NLP there persists a belief that there is money to be made from the gullible and the deceived, and Mr Harrington and his colleagues have fixed themselves to make it through the mechanism of an appeal warped into the guise of a "mass donation" for "Liberty" aimed at putting £100,000 into the Third Way/NLP purse.

Or more specifically putting it into the pockets of certain Third Way/NLP individuals via the servicing of regular expenses claims.

After our story went up, something wonderful happened on the hitherto lifeless Third Way/NLP scam website - people began donating. Allegedly.

At the end of play the bogus appeal had supposedly raised £3,510, 10,000 credulous dimwits not being to hand. This was a mere £96,490 short of the extravagant £100,000 target, but we're sure that Mr "PA Sharp" ("it's my married name") and his little troop of fellow fantasists will account for every penny when they file the Third Way/NLP's returns with the Electoral Commission this year.

Also on the scrounge was Mr Sharp's friend Nick Griffin, who also prefers to deal in large sums of money but has a better chance of obtaining it. Nick thought that the British people needed to be told "the truth", and decided that the best way to do it was to haul a terrifying picture of Nick Cass up and down the by-ways of the country on the back of a 7.5 ton lorry. To this end he needed £39,000 sharpish and the begging letters went out. The "Truth Truck", as Nick christened it, would be brand new and would incorporate a state-of-the-art PA system together with light display features. Stormfront cynics with healthier bank-balances than the average appeal-prone BNP member were quick to label Griffin's latest wheeze the "Lie Lorry". As the truck eventually purchased was not new and incorporated neither a state-of-the-art PA system or light display features, the cynics were proved right, and the name "Lie Lorry" has ever since stuck as fast as Nick Cass's grinning face to the mobile propaganda project.

As the campaign to stop the BNP holding its annual Red White and Blue festival at Denby in Derbyshire continued, the one BNP member in the world who had no intention of going got into a strop when the police objected to the festival on public order grounds. This was Paul Morris, better known as the Green Arrow, who - perhaps with an empty whisky bottle rolling around his feet - angrily typed out the following into his blog:

Denby Police, sh*t eaters, who will one day have their pensions stripped from them by a vengeful British Public [read: fascist BNP] who never forget.

The UAF, pathetic sad losers who must blush with shame when they take their pieces of silver from their government pay masters. Rest assured we will not forget them.

The BNP learns the lessons of history and never forgets and will use the same tools against those who assist in the betrayal of the British People. Think about that Plod if you are capable of thought. We are watching you watching us.

Morris illustrated his point with a large picture obtained from a pornographic website catering to those with a deep interest in "scat" activities. This was removed by Blogger following complaints, followed by the entire post when the idiotic Morris realised that the BNP candidate in the Henley by-election was due to hold his press conference, and might be asked awkward questions about his fellow BNP member's blog. A chastened Morris replaced the post with one using an image of a beheaded young Muslim girl, and with his heroic friends resumed a campaign of intimidation and abuse against a young woman of Pakistani extraction who - it was the most curious thing - found herself unable to heap praise on the BNP or to show respect for its members in their ancient online mission to connect their feet with their mouths at every available opportunity.

Financial probity and the BNP having much the same relationship as ships that pass in the night (a very dark night, and at a very great distance), it was never going to be very long before yet another tale of BNP economic woe arrived to fill our pages. This came with the news that treasurer John Walker (left, a suspect in the later membership list leak scandal) had been removed from his post and shifted sideways into the gloriously titled position of National Dispatch and Logistics Manager.

Opening a well-written piece on some strange goings-on, Antifascist reported:

There's more chaos in the British National Party this weekend as branches reel from the news that once again their accounts have been rifled to prop up an incompetent and extravagant party management.

Furious fundholders have been in touch with us to complain that their local accounts have been raided again because head office has disastrously overspent and can no longer manage to balance the books without thieving from the branches. Another fundholder with a direct line to the treasury has revealed that the main BNP account has hit rock-bottom and stood at less than £3000 a few days ago - not a great deal for a so-called 'major' political party.

It's a measure of the distrust endemic within the BNP that many of the party's officials place more confidence in their enemies here at Lancaster Unity than they do in their own organisation, and are prepared to rely upon us getting out truths that would otherwise be buried beneath Griffinite spin and bluster.

In respect of the unpopular raid on BNP branch funds, Antifascist wrote:

Incompetence in the BNP is endemic but nowhere is it more evident than in the treasury. The File on Four programme, broadcast by Radio Four back in February, produced a whole raft of accusations of mismanagement, skullduggery and incompetence against Walker and his merry band of idiots, including the revelation that the BNP is behind with its PAYE payments (that is, the tax it takes from employee's wage packets that it is then supposed to pass on to HM Revenue and Customs). Naturally, the party still hasn't paid the bill and part of the reason for the sudden attack on branch funds was that Her Majesty was getting a tad ratty about the lack of revenue coming from the BNP. Not that the raid helped all that much - last month alone, the party paid out nearly forty thousand pounds on wages, expenses and part of the debt to the Revenue plus a further part-debt to Royal Mail.

Just how rocky the BNP's finances were was revealed in internal documents that fell in our way later in the year.

Walker's sideways shuffle into the post of National Dispatch and Logistics Manager, based at the then secret Deeside Excalibur merchandising operation, attracted the attention of disaffected BNP councillor Colin Auty, whose leadership challenge was clearly failing as Griffinite intimidation deterred members from signing his nomination papers. Antifascist believed that John Walker had been moved rather than sacked to buy his silence. Auty was more forthright:

He has been privy to a great deal of the shady and downright deceitful dealings of Mr Griffin over the last couple of years, so much so in fact that Griffin has been, for sometime, completely perplexed on how he is going to get rid of him without risking John doing the honourable thing and exposing the corruption and pressure that he has himself been compliant with for so long.

Auty wasn't backwards in coming forwards in the matter of Griffin's purging tendencies, either:

'He would merely isolate the victim by concocting lies about them concerning financial ‘irregularities’ (somewhat ironically), aimed carefully at his victim before unleashing his attack-dogs to finish the job with personal attacks and slanderous gossip. Occasionally the victim would then be pulled apart at an Advisory Council meeting in their absence complete with the customary ‘such a shame’ crocodile tears. Without being afforded the opportunity to defend themselves, the victim would be cast out as a leper from the Party. Those sat around the AC table, however shocked or confused that the ‘evidence’ spewed out regarding one of their comrades is entirely unsubstantiated, would very often sit in silence though fear of becoming the next victim. This is a standard Griffin modus operandi, as many of his decent and hardworking victims have been only too happy to confirm and share with us.'

Auty threw in the towel a few days later

With Richard Barnbrook hauling his exalted carcass about the corridors of City Hall, the leadership of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council fell to f-word specialist and megaphone expert Bob Bailey, who was not best pleased with Barking College for hosting a Love Music Hate Racism event. Confronting principal Ted Parker, Bailey darkly warned of "trouble" if the college continued to host such events. Mr Parker told the Barking and Dagenham Recorder:

He was perfectly civil but he was obviously agitated. He seemed to be saying our students were in danger. As he left he said 'you have been warned', which sort of stuck it my mind. I thought it was a little strange. We have been involved with LMHR for a couple of years now. We oppose racism and promote harmony between people of all backgrounds, that's our ethos.

Bailey told the Recorder that "people should be able to speak freely without fear", just as he did when yelling obscenities at the paper's staff.

"Speaking freely without fear" is not a concept readily encouraged within the BNP, where "fear to speak freely" are the usual watchwords to heed unless you are possessed of a pressing urge to attract accusations that you are State, a Searchlight mole, in the pay of Lancaster Unity, Red, Nazi, mad, bad or any permutation thereof.

The scales fell from the eyes of the party's Scottish webmaster Paul Johnson after less than a year of membership. Johnson was shocked when an inquiry he made on behalf of another member was answered with a mixture of contempt and paranoia by Simon Darby. All Johnson's friend had wanted was a copy of the BNP constitution, an item always available to members of other political parties, but in BNP-land wanting to see the much revised and Griffinised constitution is akin to an act of treason.

Johnson said: "His [Darby's] words on the subject were why do you want it? Just tell him to "F*$k Off!" He is only a 'red' trying to wind you up!"

Johnson's resignation statement began:

What have I learned about the BNP in almost a year of being a paid member and as a BNP Scotland official, that a lot of the rumours are true and the party is corrupt, and is not democratic in any shape or form. Infact one might go as far to say that its not necessarily British but more of lets follow Griffin and blow smoke up his arse!

The party is full of a lot of lemmings that think Nick Griffin/ Mark Collett are some sort of 'Gods' in the making. I suppose when you surround yourself with lemmings it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you are the greatest person who walked the earth.

Before jumping to the conclusion that Johnson is a fundamentally decent man, he came to notice again on The Croft blog at the time of the membership list leak:

Paul also has a nice sideline in making cheerful wee button badges extolling such wonderful sentiments as:

England: Love it or leave it!
There Is No Black In The Union Jack!
White Power!

…as well as some fetching SS badges, Enoch Powell Was Right! badges and the ubuiqitous No To Immigration!

Lovely stuff!

Surely Mr J isn’t a white settler himself? Coming over here, taking all our racist badgemaking jobs…

Quite.

To be continued...

One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - May

If the plans we have in place to prevent electoral fraud via the spoiling of ballot boxes works then I expect three BNP officials to be elected in London. If their is fraud then only Richard will get elected.

Around the country I expect 40 new councillors to be elected and us to come second in about 120 other places.

So wrote political genius and legal mastermind Lee John Barnes as polling for the local and GLA elections began on May 1st.

Mocked by many as the BNP's most suitable case for treatment, Barnes's remarks were derided for being hopelessly optimistic and quite in keeping with his usual predictive extravagance, but what shouldn't be forgotten is that - demented though he may be - Barnes is close to the core of the BNP leadership, and would have had a good idea of the party's private expectations.

Keeping their expectations secret was part of the BNP's game in the run up to the elections, but we have a fair idea that Barnes (himself possessing all the political acumen of a brick) was merely passing on what the leadership believed it could achieve in near perfect political and social circumstances for the racist party. The leadership wasn't alone: the BNP's keyboard army continually referred to 2008 as "the year of the BNP" and their hopes at times verged on the stratospheric.

Opinion amongst anti-fascists was divided as to how well (or badly) the BNP would do. As discontent with the Labour government reached new heights, as migration scares broke almost daily in the press, and as the BBC's infamous "White" season climaxed, it did seem to some that May 2008 really could see the BNP make its long-predicted breakthrough. At Lancaster Unity we exercised restraint, keeping in mind the BNP's failure of the previous year (also prematurely hailed as "the year of the BNP"), and having reported on a mostly uninspiring series of BNP local by-election results during the course of 2007 and early 2008. It wasn't that we didn't harbour concerns, but our experience told us not to expect a political earthquake on May 1st.

Following the dud that was the BNP's 2007 local election performance, and coming as another bout of internal feuding rumbled on, Nick Griffin and his inner circle were deeply concerned that another bad BNP performance would see the end of his leadership as the more astute among the membership tired of Griffin's endless "jam tomorrow" promises. Their plan to circumvent dissention and bolster morale was tried, tested, simple - and guaranteed to work on a party membership remarkable for its gullibility and lack of political perception: everything, no matter how trivial, would be claimed as a BNP victory, even if the polar opposite were true.

To that end members were encouraged to stand in the most paltry of parish and town council elections, and especially to stand in obscure parishes where the BNP's candidate could expect to be returned unopposed. This gave the party the opportunity to brag that it had so many councillors "elected" here or there even before a ballot had been cast on May 1st. That these parish councillors had little or no power was never highlighted, and the party was always careful to omit the all-important word "parish" before that of "councillor".

It was simple trickery, mostly designed to fool the BNP membership, and it worked handsomely.

On election day we experimented with "live" blogging, and the Lancaster Unity community rallied round to support us in what proved to be a long and interesting night.

May 1st 2008 represented the culmination of the BNP's biggest push to date, but as the results began to come in it was obvious that all their effort and bluster was bringing in but scant reward. Searchlight later reported:

On election day the BNP predicted it would win 40 new councillors and three seats on the London Assembly. However, when the first results came in, it quickly became clear that this was too optimistic. As the night continued the size of the BNP failure became apparent.

The BNP won three seats in Stoke-on-Trent and two each in Amber Valley, Rotherham and Nuneaton & Bedworth. It also took one seat in Thurrock, Three Rivers, Pendle and Calderdale. It also successfully defended seats in Epping and Burnley. This takes the number of BNP councillors to 55, up from 45 before these elections.

However, it also lost two seats it was defending in Epping and one in Kirklees.

In most areas the BNP share of the vote was well down on last year, which in itself was down on the previous election, particularly in its traditional heartlands.

An increase of ten councillors and a falling vote was hardly a glittering success and certainly not what a nervy Nick Griffin wanted to hear. Barnes quickly backtracked on his "40 new BNP councillors" statement, claiming that he had in fact meant 40 new parish and district councillors, and that was enough to satisfy the majority of BNP troops, who convinced themselves that they had somehow made an historic advance, with one of their better known but more moronic bloggers postulating that in future May 1st might be renamed "BNP Day".

Knowing that the more savvy and rebellious of his members would see straight through the hype, a threatened Griffin desperately hoped to pull a Barnbrook out of the hat in the GLA elections, which were counted on May 2nd.

The BNP could only win seats on the GLA (which, for their purposes, they elevated to something close to the fount of all power) through the party top-up system, and initially believed they were on course to take three GLA seats through these back-door means. As it became increasingly obvious that the party would be lucky to break the 5% barrier necessary to give them a single seat, so the expansive predictions were reined in and an anxious day began for Nick Griffin.

Lancaster Unity again "live blogged" the results with the help of our own loyal community (and as large an audience of BNP lurkers). For much of the night it seemed that the BNP's Richard Barnbrook would not pass the 5% threshold, and while we waited the BNP contented itself with euphoric celebrations on the news that Conservative Boris Johnson had ousted Labour's Ken Livingstone in the mayoral race. Lee Barnes commented incisively:

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

I AM LAUGHING AT YOU

AND I AM GOING TO BE LAUGHING ALL NIGHT YOU PRICK

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

RED KEN GONE

BNP IN THE GLA

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Barnes was more than premature in believing that the BNP had secured a GLA seat, since it was by no means certain at that hour that they had. Richard Barnbrook's appalling performance in the mayoral contest, where he had picked up a derisory 2.9% (not something Barnes dwelled on), suggested caution.

At one in the morning, however, it became clear that Barnbrook had crept into the London Assembly on 5.4%, and the online element of the BNP erupted with jubilation at their victory, egged on by Griffinites determined to gloss over the uncomfortable fact that in the most ideal circumstances possible the party had stalled in the local election polls and failed by a long way to achieve its GLA targets.

Naturally we weren't delighted with Barnbrook's election, but it wasn't the end of the world, given the pre-poll fears of many that London's PR system might provide the BNP with the electoral breakthrough it craved. We were also happy that the BNP's man on the Assembly was Barnbrook, who immediately demonstrated why in an incoherent slurry-shouty (not to say lonely) speech that set the tone for his GLA tenure.


Barnbrook's election was almost certainly the single most important factor in saving Nick Griffin's leadership bacon. The man had, after all, yet again presided over what were a generally uninspiring set of election results, the only real high point being Barnbrook's GLA seat. In consequence, the hyping of Barnbrook continued apace, but just in case any awkward BNP members of rebellious bent should point out that 5.4% wasn't really very good at all, the party came up with a tale of “massive and organised ballot box tampering”, claiming 400,000 votes went west, a lie quickly nailed by Searchlight.

It was at this moment that the most unlikely (and ill-timed) challenge to Nick Griffin's leadership was announced by disaffected Kirklees BNP councillor Colin Auty. Soon after that, an email of disputed provenance was passed on to Lancaster Unity. Allegedly from the irrepressible Lee Barnes in his capacity as Director of the BNP's Legal Department, the missive certainly hit all the usual Barnsian notes:

I have been instructed to inform you of a bogus and illegal leadership challenge and the disciplinary measures we are now putting in place to squash this diversionary and divisive activity in the bud. This is a deceitful and cynical attempt to divert the party’s attention away from the historical victory last week in London and to derail the activist’s attention away from the all important European Elections next June.

This is a sham nothing and more than a forged challenge devised by the liars, thieves and splitters who tried to wreck the party in December 2007 before their unsuccessful coup was successfully thwarted by quick action from the Party’s own security, legal and intelligence departments. The challenger claims is to be Councilor Colin Autty from Kirkless in Yorkshire, a decent man who is known to many of you but he is being used as a puupet by the gang of malcontents who stole party emails, stole party property, stole thousand of pounds of party monies, spread malicious rumours about the Chairman, myself and other senior party officers on bogus Blogs and through a series of bogus bulletins which they prepared using stolen membership lists which they then passed on to our enemies in MI5, The Special Branch, The Labour Party and the Searchlight organisation. They then tried unsuccessfully to set up a rival political party. It is a cylical attempt by our enemies to try and derail the Party and to stop activities to get BNP members electd to the European Parliament.

The dust had hardly settled after the local elections when three of the BNP's newly elected (unopposed) town councillors in Colwyn Bay resigned from the party for reasons not entirely clear, but protestations on the part of one of them, John Oddy, that "I have never been a racist" indicated a belated opening of eyes to what the BNP is really all about. That, however, proved not to be the case. Oddy had just been fined £100 for using a mobile telephone while driving his car, but later still he told the North Wales Daily Post:

“I feel as I have become more high profile I have clashed with the hierarchy in the party and this has now come to a head and led to my resignation. I am at odds with the opinions of the Welsh branch of the BNP, although I have no quarrel with the party nationally.”

Paul Harley, who resigned with Oddy, said: "I have found out more about the party and I am not happy with what I have found out."

Better late than never, but was that the whole truth? Antifascist wasn't convinced:

All three remain members of the local golf club, a place where the Colwyn Bay glitterati meet, confer and make deals which, in the words of one of our correspondents, is full of BNP sympathisers, covert supporters and party members, and none of the three protagonists have showed any sign of feeling the need to disassociate from the club - which leads one to believe that this evolution from BNP to Independent is nothing but a cosmetic change, designed simply to allay the fears of the locals that the Colwyn Bay trio may be too close to the BNP and thus they might get grubby by association.

The BNP met with a humiliating rebuff in Stoke-on-Trent, where Lord Kamlesh Patel was to discuss violent extremism with local community leaders. Refusing to speak to Alby Walker, BNP group leader on Stoke City Council, Lord Patel said:

"I make no apology for refusing to meet with the BNP during my visit to Stoke. My work is focused on looking at what positive actions local communities can take to prevent extremism. I do not believe that any party with extremist views has anything constructive to contribute to this agenda."

With a leadership challenge pending, Griffinite spin on the BNP's election performance reached new heights (or depths, as you will), with the party's website grandstanding the headline: "Tories, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dems trounced in Swansea". The problem was that the BNP had also been trounced, not winning a single seat. A spokesman for the Welsh Tories told the Swansea Evening Post: "These absurd claims fly in the face of the facts. The BNP's divisive, extremist views were rejected by voters in Swansea and every other part of Wales."

At Stafford Crown Court the trial of Stoke-on-Trent man Habib Khan opened. Khan was charged with the murder of Keith Brown, a BNP activist who had subjected the Khan family to "years of racial taunts, threats and violence", as The Times reported:

Mr Brown and his family, none of whom worked, were said to have been jealous of their industrious Pakistani neighbours and to have inflicted a spiral of abuse on them. Habib Khan is accused of stabbing Mr Brown to death with an eight-inch kitchen knife.

Keith Brown's tragic death the previous June was the culmination of a series of violent incidents between the neighbouring Brown and Khan families, one the BNP spun for all it was worth. Nick Griffin, who appears never to have met Keith Brown, cynically turned up at his funeral, which became little more than a BNP propaganda exercise as its leader gave a tearful interview to the risible "BNPtv News". The party shamelessly ignored sub-judice as it "reported" its version of events, which cast Brown in the light of a martyr to Muslim violence.


This was very far from the truth, as Stafford Crown Court heard. Habib Khan, described as a "mild and calm-mannered family man", had taken a knife to threaten Brown, who had hold of one of his sons. The trial judge said that Khan had acted "in the honest belief that he needed to protect his son" but in doing so had killed Mr Brown.

Khan was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and wounding, and later received an eight-year prison sentence.

Nick Griffin and Colin Auty

Meanwhile, alleged BNP elections "guru" and erstwhile Griffinite Eddy Butler waded into Colin Auty's leadership challenge in a strange, hectoring email that spoke in one moment of "our Parties [sic] openness and commitment to democracy" then talked of "anyone who has the temerity to wish to stand for leadership". The "temerity to wish"?

Butler gave out strong hints that the BNP's rules might need to be changed to preserve Nick Griffin's position: "There will be pressure, perhaps unstoppable pressure, to change the rules so that leadership challenges can only take place every four years." No prizes for guessing where the "unstoppable pressure" would originate.

As it later turned out, the Griffin-inspired notion of allowing challenges only every four years was a con being worked on the BNP membership, who would be got - through a bogus compromise - to give Griffin what he really wanted.

Butler, possessed of a very Stalinist idea of "democracy", called on members not to sign Colin Auty's nomination forms, referred to the councillor as a "joke candidate" and recommended that the leadership election "should be carried out in the most rapid manner possible with zero publicity allowed" to Auty.

Paranoic Griffinite attrition on Auty was relentless. The BNP's own secret forum banned any pro-Auty discussion, while its dirty tricks department marched around the internet spreading black propaganda. BNP branches were instructed not to invite Auty to speak at their meetings, and branches which had booked troubadour Auty to sing cancelled.

Auty's campaign manager, Roger Robertson, the BNP's former South-East Regional Organiser, was told that he faced disciplinary proceedings, much as Mike Easter (Chris Jackson's manager the previous year) found himself subject to a Griffinite fit-up.

The intention was clearly to dissuade BNP members from signing Auty's nomination papers, the implied threat being that they, too, would face expulsion. It was a telling measure of the febricity infecting the top of the BNP that this vicious overkill was deployed to protect Nick Griffin from a challenge everybody knew he would walk.

In the meantime Richard Barnbrook made an utter fool of himself when he threatened to stampede into London mayor Boris Johnson's office with "100 young people". The brown-suited one had been to Sidcup, hoping to exploit the murder of Robert Knox. In a since deleted blog post he wrote:

I have invited all of the young people there to come down to City Hall this Tuesday for 9:30 in the morning. This knife crime has to be stopped. If I have to bring a 100 young people into Boris's office then that is what I will do.

Barnbrook and his aides stood waiting outside City Hall at the appointed time, ready to greet the throngs of incensed young militants rallying to his call. He waited, and waited, and waited, vainly scanning the horizon for signs of massed greasy hair and acne on the march, but saw only the familiar face of self-inflicted humiliation grinning directly back at him.

To be continued...

Former BNP councillor brands Griffin greedy, BNP policies as 'foolish and dangerous'

You may remember the curious story of John Oddy, member of Bay of Colwyn Town Council (the equivalent of a parish council) and the former North Wales Organiser for the British National Party.

It was he who, back in May of this year, caused some embarrassment to the BNP when he and his two newly-elected colleagues Paul and Sue Harley, resigned at their very first council meeting less than a week after being co-opted (not elected) to their local council.

Nobody was quite sure why the Harleys had resigned but Oddy seemed to have stood down to avoid being kicked out, as we discovered the day after his resignation when this appeared in his local paper:

'A BNP town councillor was yesterday fined for using his mobile phone while at the wheel of his car.

Last October a police officer spotted John Oddy, 51, driving along the promenade at Colwyn Bay while using his phone, a court heard. Oddy, of West Promenade, Colwyn Bay, did not appear for the hearing before Llandudno magistrates but was found guilty and fined £100 with three penalty points and must pay £75 costs.

Oddy – driving a Jaguar – was “speaking about a media matter to a friend or colleague,” the court heard.'

Jaguars and BNP members are never a good combination - look at Clive Jefferson.

Now Oddy has joined the growing band of former BNP councillors who have chosen to speak out against the leader Nick Griffin. Sadie Graham, you may recall, described Griffin as a 'liar and coward', while Colin Auty referred to him as a ruthless 'crook and liar'. Former BNP town councillor in Oddy's neck of the woods, Pat Pattison, described the BNP as intolerably racist.

Oddy, writing on his blog, has a fair amount to say about the BNP, its not so glorious leader and its policies.

• The party has policies that are not only unworkable but foolish and dangerous.
• Do not forget the roots of the BNP lay in the National Front and so there are causes for concern there
• The present leadership of the party have cut their teeth on scandal and controversy, Nick Griffin, being a prime example.
• Nick Griffin...can no longer lead the party effectively
• [Griffin] carries too much baggage
• [He] has become too greedy
• [He] has scant regard for the real members.
• If the party wishes to loose the “Racist” stigma then they must also loose Nick and a few of his cronies...
• I would like to see a change of Party Leadership...'

Sadly, despite all this, Oddy announces that 'given the opportunity, yes I would vote for them'. Given his comments, we have to ask. Why?

Things can only get...

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.

October 9th saw nine by-elections - though two of these were in the same ward for two overlapping authorities, Cheshire County Council (which ceases to exist next March) and the Cheshire East Unitary (which comes into existence in April).

The BNP fielded candidates in just two of these eight areas - the Herne Bay division of Kent County Council, and the Alexandra ward of the London Borough of Haringey.

In Herne Bay they came a poor fourth (though trailed by UKIP) with 399 votes (7.7% of the vote). The turnout was a low 23.2%, giving them a share of the electorate of just 1.79% which is very poor.

In Haringey they did worse, achieving a result of extraordinary awfulness:

Lib Dem 1,460
Labour 772
Conservative 443
Green 221
BNP 27

That's 0.9% as a share of the vote, and a vanishingly tiny 0.32% as a share of the electorate. In other words one out of every 300 voters on the electoral register went out and voted BNP.

The past couple of weeks suggest something of a crisis for the BNP - they are struggling to find candidates across much of the country, and where they do stand their votes range from poor to appallingly bad! Next week the Dewsbury East by-election, triggered by the resignation of Colin Auty, will give us some indication of how they are faring in an area where they have previously gained significant support. It should be interesting.

Auty quits after BNP leadership bid fails

A former BNP councillor has resigned his Kirklees seat in the wake of his failed party leadership bid.

Colin Auty, who was elected British National Party member for Dewsbury East in 2006, launched a campaign to oust BNP chairman Nick Griffin earlier this year. But his bid collapsed just weeks after it began, with Mr Auty claiming the BNP party machine had rallied against him.

Under the extremist party's rules, he needed to get 100 signatures to challenge Mr Griffin, but failed. He resigned his BNP membership in July, then officially left Kirklees Council at the end of last month.

A council spokesman said: "I can confirm that the chief executive has received a letter from Colin Auty informing him of his resignation with effect from August 31. A by-election will be held in due course."

Mr Auty describes himself as a "moderate," but has said his decision to resign the seat stemmed from the way people in Kirklees have treated him over his far-right activism. He has said: "I can't get involved in projects because of my BNP badge. I get shot down by the establishment. I have met some nice people but they can't afford to be seen standing by my side."

He added that his wife had had a "rough time" for being married to a BNP councillor.

The resignation is the latest blow for the BNP in Kirklees, which it sees as a stronghold. In last May's local elections, a concerted campaign saw trades unionist Steve Hall take a Heckmondwike seat from the BNP, for Labour. Just one BNP councillor remains on the Kirklees authority – Heckmondwike's Roger Roberts.

Unusually, there is no mention of Mr Auty's decision to resign on the Yorkshire and Humberside news section of the BNP's official website.

Yorkshire Evening Post

The democracy dodge and the 4 year rule

Some time ago we remarked that in the 25 year history of the British National Party only two leadership elections had ever taken place, and that only one of them could be described as a relatively fair contest.

That long-plotted election saw Nick Griffin unseat BNP founder John Tyndall in a campaign notable for its rank dishonesty, and during which Griffin (largely responsible for the destruction of the National Front) openly threatened that a Tyndall win would “lead inevitably to a most disastrous split”.

The second leadership election came eight years and several self-serving constitutional changes later - years of ruthless purging and disruption by a leader beset with accusations of financial mismanagement.

It was, as we know, anything but a fair contest, the terms on which it was fought laid down by the incumbent Griffin, who shamelessly appointed his own man as Returning Officer, and then proceeded against challenger Chris Jackson's campaign in his habitually odious style of threat, smear, vilification and disinformation. And when Griffin inevitably won his Mugabe-esque victory the purging began.

In the aftermath Griffin spoke of changes to come in his infamously deranged "vermin, liars and thieves" blog post, but never quite got around to making them - unsurprisingly, with the BNP apparently insolvent at the time according to figures coming into our possession some weeks ago, and the Decembrist revolt brewing in the background.

Two would-be challengers came forward in the spring, Kirklees councillor Colin Auty's doomed campaign perhaps best expressing how widely discontent with Nick Griffin's leadership has spread on the so-called moderate wing of the party; while - incomprehensibly - hard-liner Chris Jackson again threw his hat in the ring.

The BNP's dirty tricks department set out to defuse both men (especially the dangerous Auty) very quickly and their challenges lapsed through lack of support - a lack of support not least engendered by threats that anybody exercising their consitutional right to sign nomination papers would face expulsion.

Early on came Griffinite talk of yet another change to the BNP's (apparently unobtainable) constitution that would allow a leadership challenge just once every four years. This is clearly the change that Griffin never got around to last year.

In light of simmering internal disaffection for Griffin, the existence of well-connected anti-Griffin factions on the moderate and hard-line wings of the party, the abortive challenges and the Decembrist disruption, it would be unwise for Griffin to simply impose the all important change since he would hand his numerous opponents a very thick stick with which to beat him.

To stave off accusations that the intended change is little more than the dictatorial stitch-up it is, the matter has to be dressed up in democratic clothing and presented to the membership as essential to the stability and security of the party.

For some time Griffinites have been busy selling the "stability and security" line, with dark talk about shadowy external forces manipulating leadership challenges against good-guy Griffin. "Stop the challenges and you stop the disruption" is the claim - despite the fact that those making the most noise and behaving in the most disruptive manner were the Griffinites themselves.

Rather ingeniously, Griffin has chosen the forthcoming Red White and Blue event to be the simultaneous venue for an EGM of voting members - ingeniously because the RWB will afford a whole weekend of glad-handing by the man himself and a whole weekend of pro-four year rule propaganda to put the voting members onside when the EGM considers the matter.

Holding an EGM will also have the happy effect of intimidating the more weak-minded and of identifying those prepared to risk openly opposing Griffin's will.

The result will be a foregone conclusion.

Griffin will have his way, as his spokesmen on BNP web hangouts have promised, and no matter that the manipulated and bamboozled membership will have effectively turned the BNP into a one man dictatorship - something even the Nazi Tyndall never attempted - they will leave the EGM having convinced themselves of how very democratic it all was.

To put this in context, Nick Griffin has only ever faced one challenge to his leadership. He won it by a long mile.

Paranoia, anybody?

Exley reveals divisions around Auty and BNP

Former BNP councillor David Exley (left) has lifted the lid on turmoil at the heart of the local party.

Last week The Press revealed how BNP councillor Colin Auty had quit the party and was set to resign his Dewsbury East seat on Kirklees Council. This week Mr Exley, ousted from Heckmondwike at May’s local elections, told The Press of some of the internal strife within the Kirklees BNP.

Mr Exley said he quit as local organiser after he was ordered by the party hierarchy to discipline Coun Auty over comments he made to newspapers when he announced he was to challenge BNP chairman Nick Griffin for the national leadership.

“I was told Colin had to be disciplined, it was more an instruction than a request,” said Mr Exley. “They said he had brought the party into disrepute but I read everything that was in the press and a lot of what he said was unpalatable but you cannot hide the truth.

“I totally refused to discipline him because he had done nothing wrong in my eyes. He stood up for what he believes in and did what he thought was correct.”

Mr Exley said that a few weeks later the national party withdrew the local party’s credit facilities when their account dipped into the red after the local elections.

Mr Exley said he had spoken to Mr Griffin about what had happened and was told he was “100 per cent” behind the decision.

“I feel this was retribution on me for not disciplining Colin Auty. They deny it but I believe it’s true.”

Last week Coun Auty told how he just failed to reach the 100 nominations needed to launch a leadership challenge, and that only two local party members backed him.

Mr Exley said: “The reason I didn’t sign Colin’s nomination was that I felt he was standing for the wrong reasons.

“If he was just standing for the leadership I would have signed but he was standing to force change. The only outcome would have been that Nick Griffin would have won by a big majority and would have a mandate.”

There have been claims that Mr Griffin runs the party in a “dictatorial” style and expelled those who disagreed with him.

Mr Exley said changes were needed in how the party was run nationally.

“Our management structure is geared up for a small party but we are not a small party anymore. Nick Griffin is, in my opinion, a brilliant politician but terrible at man-management. It has been said we are not democratic and we are a one-man dictatorship.

“I have spoken to Nick Griffin about this and put my signature to a letter from Kirklees BNP. We are not just having a gripe, we are making constructive criticisms.”

Mr Exley said he did not believe the BNP was in crisis but added: “Our local group has some serious problems and we need strong leadership. Our group has always been able to sort things out but all this has come about as a result of head office meddling. There’s no falling out within the group. It looks like there’s a massive split but that’s not the case.”

Mr Exley, who led the three-strong BNP group on Kirklees, hailed Coun Auty as “a bloody good councillor” who refused to toe the party line and stood up for local people. He was elected by the people of Dewsbury East and he is their voice. Why he wants to throw that away I don’t know.”

The Press

Discuss this post on the Unity anti-fascist forum.

Sunday snippets from the 'quiet revolution'

Our regular readers will recall the incident of Robert Cottage, the BNP member who was not a member. Once the BNP realised that the mad would-be bomber was one of its own, the party stupidly announced that he was not a member in the vain hope that this assertion would cause us to forget the fact. It didn't work of course, because it was untrue.

Now the BNP is trying it on again. Roger Robertson, the former campaign manager for Colin Auty during the recent leadership almost-challenge, has been kicked out for bringing the party into disrepute (like that's possible) but a post on Stormfront claims that he ceased to be a member of the party in January. When asked why the party would hold a tribunal for a member to be sacked when he isn't even a member, the poster (who is, we believe, owl-spotter Simon Darby) declined to answer. Keep on rewriting history, guys...

Oh, they are. The December rebels who Griffin was taking through the High Court have received letters this week from the pig farmer himself, asking that the case be dropped because 'it's your homes at risk' and 'it's in the best interests of' party unity and so on, apparently forgetting that it was he himself who brought the case.

Only speculation, but could it be that His Porkiness has run out of readies? That his real legal advisors (as opposed to the cretinous Lee Barnes) have yet to be paid and are getting a bit shirty? Oh dear, I can feel another appeal coming on...

Talking of appeals, do you remember those bloody awful begging letters that the BNP send out on a regular basis - the ones that look like they should say 'you're a winner' and look like they might have come from Reader's Digest around 1968? We're told these bits of amateurish tat were designed by some Irish advertising 'gurus' who are among the best in their field. Blimey. I'd hate to see the worst. One of our correspondents speculated on the cost of these 'gurus'. We reckon about £4.50 but we'd be interested in hearing your guesses.

Anyway, these letters - probably because the BNP send them out every other week - are not working any more and emails to us suggest very strongly that the membership of the BNP is heartily sick of being scrounged off all the time. In fact, four out of five of the emails we receive now print the name Griffin as Gri££in - the other one prints it as Gri$$in (there's always one) - just showing that feelings are running deep and that the membership is rapidly losing interest in being treated as a cash cow for the Griffin family business. As one former BNP supporter put it;

'These bloody letters are an embarrassment, I’ll not pay another penny so he can go and waste it or lose another blimp'

Is it St Valentine's Day already? If all the rumours are true, we must congratulate Martin Reynolds, the steroid-saturated head of security and smutty pix at the BNP for his apparent new relationship with, we're told, a Ms Diane Smith, an activist and organiser from Norfolk. Also, we're led to believe that nazi-boy Mark Collett is going after older women these days. We're told a romance is blossoming between him and former clog dancer Simone Clarke, Dicky Barnbrook's ex-fake-fiance. Lovely to see that even the BNP can let a little romance into its tarnished soul from time to time. We look forward to reading of a further fake-engagement in the near future. Or maybe even two.

As the world moves beyond credit cards and online transactions, the BNP is reverting to being a mainly cash organisation. Rather than taking money online or via cheque, which would require some records to be kept, this year's Red, White and Blue piss-up isn't, like previous years, a ticket-only affair. Instead, those attending will be required to pay on entry, cash on the door. One wonders why. In the words of the Challenge for Change blog (formerly the Challenge for Leadership blog);

'...is the fact that cash disappears without a trace very easily that makes this such an attractive change to the RWB set-up? Or is it the blithering incompetence of the Treasury Department that has time and time again fouled up so many branch accounts after the RWB and taken months to clear up the mess?'

We believe we know the reasons for the move to cash only. Membership of the BNP is dropping rapidly and the numbers attending the RWB will reflect this, so the party wants to avoid having a record of attendees. There's also the point about cash being easier to move around - a very valid point that, given the party's dire financial position, is probably the main reason for the change. There is though, the anti-RWB demo that is planned for August 16th. The BNP will want to claim that the RWB was even more 'successful' than last year and every other year since it started, despite the demonstration outside. The only way the party will be able to do this is if there is no proper attendance record. Of course, the party will be found out in its lies (it always is) when people start asking where the money has gone (they always do) and the party management has no answer for them (they never have).

And finally, on a similar subject, a word about the BNP's ludicrous and pointless Summer School for activists, organisers and fundholders. As usual, the creepy Simon Darby hailed it as an enormous success, and between them, the party leadership managed to suggest that there was well over two hundred people in attendance. Not so. Just ninety people attended and most of these thought the whole event so poorly managed that they left early.

The BNP - failure wherever you look.

Dismal results for BNP

A British National Party candidate won just 37 votes in a by-election in Redbridge, east London. Anthony Young, a retired solicitor, came last out of four candidates, with 1.4%, in Cranbrook ward in the south of the borough, which borders onto Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP has 12 councillors.

In the days before the election on 10 July, Redbridge and Epping Forest Together distributed a leaflet to most of the ward telling voters the truth about the BNP and urging them to use their vote to “keep extremists out of Redbridge”. The leaflet received praise from the three main parties, who all mounted active campaigns.

BNP support in Cranbrook was so low that the party had great difficulty finding ten people to sign the nomination form. From the addresses it was clear the BNP had gone down three neighbouring streets knocking on doors of registered electors with English-sounding names. We have so far not been able to investigate an allegation that three of them thought they were signing a petition rather than a nomination form.

The BNP did little better in two other by-elections on 10 July. In Wigan West, where the BNP was hoping to increase its share of the vote from the 14.5% polled in May, Christopher Hilton’s 200 votes gave him only 9.4% and fourth place. In Dalton ward, Kirklees, a borough where in May 2007 the BNP had three councillors, Jonathan Wright managed only 4.5% with 157 votes, coming fourth out of six candidates. Again the BNP had hoped to improve on Wright’s 460 votes in May, which gave him 10.7%.

The BNP now has only one councillor in Kirklees after David Exley lost his seat in May and Colin Auty announced this week that he was leaving the BNP and will sit as an independent. Auty, who failed to collect enough signatures last month to challenge Nick Griffin for the BNP leadership, says he will resign his council seat next month, causing a by-election.

Auty's resignation from the BNP leaves the party with only 54 councillors nationally.

Stop the BNP

Brief review of last night’s election results for the BNP and National Front

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

Last night’s crop of four by-elections produced a set of rather lacklustre results for two of Britain’s leading fascist and racist parties, the BNP and National Front.

In the Cranbrook ward by-election, the BNP came last with just 37 votes or 1.4% of the overall vote:

Con 1,625 (60.0%)
Lab 729 (26.9%)
LD 318 (11.7%)
BNP 37 (1.4%)

The Cranbrook result is highly disappointing for the BNP (even more so as the Conservatives, who won, fielded an Asian candidate). The Cranbrook ward is situated in Redbridge, a key target area for the BNP, on the fringes of east London. Redbridge already has one sitting BNP councillor with neighbouring areas several more (the paucity of BNP votes in Cranbrook has echoes of the December 2007 Canons ward by-election result in Harrow, where the BNP also came last with only 56 votes).

Perhaps the most disappointing result for the BNP was its faltering regression in one of its electoral strongholds, Kirklees. In the Dalton ward by-election the BNP attained only 157 votes or 4.54% of the overall vote, dramatically down from the 460 votes or 10.77% of the vote it achieved earlier in May:

Labour 1397 (40.48%)
Lib Dem 1155 (33.46%)
Con 605 (17.53%)
BNP 157 (4.54%)
Green 103 (2.98%)
Ind 34 (0.98%)

Dalton result in May 2008

Lib Dem 1467 (34.33%)
Lab 1303 (30.50%)
Con 830 (19.43%)
BNP 460 (10.77%)
Green 212 (4.96%)

The Dalton by-election witnessed a lower voter turnout than in May. Traditionally, lower voter turnout favours the BNP, helping it to bolster its share of the vote. However, as the result shows, the BNP, for whatever reason, failed to capitalise on what is normally an inherent advantage for it. What will be a key test of the BNP’s electoral strength in Kirklees is the upcoming Dewsbury East ward by-election, inaugurated by the decision of BNP councillor, Colin Auty, to quit the BNP following his recent failed attempt to remove Nick Griffin as leader of the BNP.

Turning to the Wigan West ward by-election, the BNP came forth with 200 votes or 9.39% of the overall vote, down from the 264 votes or 13.78% of the vote it achieved last September:

Labour 817 (38.3%)
Conservative 528 (24.78%)
Liberal Democrat 344 (16.14%)
BNP 200 (9.39%)
UKIP 124 (5.82%)
Community Action 118 (5.54%)

Wigan West result in September 2007:

Lab 837 (43.68%)
LibDem 464 (24.22%)
BNP 264 (13.78%)
Com Act 219 (11.43%)
Ind 72 (3.76%)
Green 60 (3.13%)

The Haltemprice and Howden by-election, returning David Davis, saw the National Front just managing to beat the one-woman novelty party, Miss Great Britain Party, with 554 votes or 2.19% of the overall vote. Interestingly, the BNP did not field a candidate for this by-election:

David Davis (C) 17,113 (72.06%)
Shan Oakes (Green) 1,758 (7.40%)
Joanne Robinson (Eng Dem) 1,714 (7.22%)
Tess Culnane (NF) 544 (2.29%)
Gemma Garrett (Miss GB Party) 521 (2.19%)
Jill Saward (Ind) 492 (2.07%)
Mad Cow-Girl (Loony) 412 (1.73%)
Walter Sweeney (Ind) 238 (1.00%)
David Craig (Ind) 135 (0.57%)
David Pinder (New Party) 135 (0.57%)
David Icke (ND) 110 (0.46%)
Hamish Howitt (Freedom) 91 (0.38%)
Christopher Talbot (SEP) 84 (0.35%)
Grace Astley (Ind) 77 (0.32%)
George Hargreaves (Ch P) 76 (0.32%)
David Bishop (Elvis) 44 (0.19%)
John Upex (Ind) 38 (0.16%)
Greg Wood (Ind) 32 (0.13%)
Eamonn Fitzpatrick (Ind) 31 (0.13%)
Ronnie Carroll (History) 29 (0.12%)
Thomas Darwood (Ind) 25 (0.11%)
Christopher Foren (Ind) 23 (0.10%)
Herbert Crossman (Ind) 11 (0.05%)
Tony Farnon (Ind) 8 (0.03%)
Norman Scarth (Ind) 8 (0.03%)

For those interested readers, the National Front candidate, Tess Culnane, is a former failed BNP candidate (who recently stood in the London Assembly elections) who lost her libel action against a Liberal Democrat candidate and his agent.

Cllr stands down from 'undemocratic' BNP

A British National Party councillor in West Yorkshire has quit the party after failing to oust party leader Nick Griffin.

Councillor Colin Auty, who has represented Dewsbury East on Kirklees Council since 2006, says he will continue as an independent councillor for another month and then give up the seat. Coun Auty, who quit the far-right party yesterday, said he had become disillusioned with the BNP during his failed leadership bid. He describes himself as a "moderate" and said the party machine had rallied against him.

"One official described me as a joke candidate. It might sound funny coming from a BNP, but I believe in democracy. The process was certainly not democratic."

In the past he has criticised the party's image, saying voters were turned off when they saw Griffin's bodyguards wearing "shades and leather gloves".

Coun Auty failed to get the 100 signatures he needed to mount a challenge to Griffin. His decision to resign his seat, which will prompt a by-election, also stemmed from the way people in Kirklees have treated him.

"I can't get involved in projects because of my BNP badge. I get shot down by the establishment. I have met some nice people but they can't afford to be seen standing by my side."

He added that his wife had had a "rough time" for being married to a BNP councillor.

"It's not nice to live in fear. My wife is fed up with it."

He said he may consider standing as an independent candidate in the near future.

Yorkshire Post

Activist is kicked out of BNP

A senior British National Party activist has been booted out of the far right political group.

Hartley Wintney resident Roger Robertson has been kicked out over his part in a bid to overthrow controversial leader Nick Griffin. Mr Robertson was campaign manager for Colin Auty, who planned a leadership bid. However, Mr Auty did not receive enough backing from party members to go ahead with the challenge. As a result Mr Robertson, who has stood as a BNP candidate at a number of recent Hart District Council elections, was hauled before a disciplinary tribunal.

He branded the hearing, held in Exeter on Sunday, a “sham”.

“It was a foregone conclusion,” Mr Robertson told the Fleet News. “I’d already received an email previous to the tribunal saying I was going to be expelled from the party. The interesting thing is that I don’t feel at all disappointed that I’ve been expelled. The fact is that myself and many other like-minded people are being let down by the leader and his sycophant coterie. He surrounds himself with yes men and people who simply obey his orders.

“It’s a shame but to be honest I feel more sorry for some of the good people who are being duped. At least I can see through them and have made my position clear. It’s just a shame that the others can’t see the wood for the trees.”

The tribunal was chaired by south-west England regional organiser Peter Mullins. National nominating officer Michaela MacKenzie and Torbay area organiser Peter Taylor made up the three-member tribunal. Andy McBride, who has taken over from Mr Robertson as the BNP’s south-east regional organiser, read the charges.

Mr Robertson said: “The biggest charge was that I was bringing the party into disrepute by talking to the press. I thought that was a bit hypocritical as we are supposed to live in a democracy. After the tribunal they said I was expelled from the party forthwith — it was absolutely laughable.”

Mr Robertson, who has lived in Hartley Wintney all his life, believes a lot of good would come from his expulsion. He added: “Quite clearly there’s a need for a party that’s whiter than white. We need a party whose members are above reproach. There’s probably about 20 or 30 of us across the country seriously looking at a new party of the right that is completely transparent and comprising people without baggage.”

In an official statement before his disciplinary tribunal, Mr Robertson told BNP members and supporters that it was with “regret” that he and Mr Auty had decided they would not challenge Nick Griffin’s leadership.

He added: “It is extremely disappointing that the challenge fell short by just a few signatures, a major factor being that many members have failed to renew their subscriptions, plus the fact that the churn rate of the membership precludes many who do not have the requisite two years’ qualification to become a voting member.

“Colin was the ideal candidate to lead our party out of the wilderness after nine years of stultifying slow growth under the present chairman. Both Colin and myself wish to thank most sincerely those nearly 90 people who had the courage to put their names to Colin’s nomination. We may well have lost the first skirmish but the battle for a democratic BNP is far from over.”

Mr Robertson said the names of those that did sign Mr Auty’s nomination would not be disclosed to Mr Griffin “or any of his stooges, as we do not want to see another internal bloodbath of dedicated nationalists”.

He added: “Colin has the nomination forms and they will be staying with him — he will not put them to the sword of the hierarchy. This is a sad day for internal democracy — how can we convince the public that we are committed to democratic elections when internally the current leadership seem allergic to them?”

In a statement, BNP legal director Lee Barnes attacked the leadership challenge as “bogus” and “illegal” and said disciplinary measures would be taken to squash the “diversionary and divisive” activity in the bud. The statement added: “This is a deceitful and cynical attempt to divert the party’s attention away from the historic victory in London and to derail the activists’ attention away from the all-important European elections next June.”

Mr Barnes said Mr Auty was a “decent” man who was being used as a puppet by party members who were trying to set up a rival political party.

He added: “It is a cynical attempt by our enemies to try to derail the party and to stop activities to get BNP members elected to the European parliament. The party is on the edge of a historic victory in Europe next year and nothing must stand in the way of getting the demo-cratically elected chairman and others elected.

“Anyone who has already signed or is thinking of signing the nomination forms for Colin Auty will be suspended from party membership pending an internal disciplinary tribunal where members will be tried for conspiracy and treason. Those found guilty will be expelled from the party and proscribed for life.”

Get Hampshire

Colin Auty's BNP leadership challenge collapses after two months of inertia

Nick Griffin (left) and Colin Auty

Almost two months to the day after announcing that he was to challenge Nick Griffin for the leadership of the British National Party, Colin Auty, councillor for Dewsbury East on Kirklees Council, has finally had to admit defeat after he failed to obtain the required amount of signatures that would enable him to go ahead while conforming with the bizarre rules of the BNP.

Auty, a councillor since 2006, was formerly one of Nick Griffin's blue-eyed boys, particularly after he irritated the Muslim MP for Dewsbury Shahid Malik by singing a song outside his contituency office claiming that the Dewsbury district, mainly populated by the Asian community, was rife with drug dealers and paedophiles. Though he was reported to the Standards Board for England, the Board eventually cleared him, leaving him free to continue singing his rubbish and playing with the ghastly Red Claire, a band that includes the repulsive Bradford BNP councillor Paul Cromie.

Up to this time, Auty had provided much of the 'music' that was sold by the dire Great White Records (GWR), though his popularity with the Griffinites in the BNP was about to be tested when he gave his clear backing to the dissident side in the December 2007 rebellion. Indeed, he was one of more than sixty party members to add his name to a blog set up by a group using the name The Real BNP, which was simply a front for Sadie Graham, Steve Blake, Kenny Smith et al.

Auty announced that he would be challenging Griffin for the leadership of the party on May 2nd and was almost instantly attacked by the lunatic excuse for a legal advisor to the BNP, Lee Barnes. Describing Auty as, among other things, a 'puupet' (a word that has no meaning in any language and apparently only exists inside Barnes' very odd head), Barnes stated in a letter to the membership that the Auty challenge was 'illegal' under party rules and that anyone who supported it would be 'tried for conspiracy and treason'.

That the BNP was desperate to fend off this challenge using any means possible was made clear by this threatening statement in Barnes' letter:

'Anyone who has already signed or is thinking of signing or intending to sign the nomination forms for Colin Autty will be suspended from Party membership pending an internal dispclinary tribunal where members will be tried for conspiracy and treason as per the Constitutition Section 6. (3) Section 7 – failure to use the correct channels to express concerns, 8 - spreading false and malicious rumours about Party officials and members, and behaviour likely to bring the Party into disrepute. Those found guilty of conspiracy and treason will be expelled from the Party and proscibred for life.'

Proscibred?

This appalling missive was followed a week later by another, this time sent out to those the party considered to be activists (branch fundholders, chairs, organisers and so on) from Eddy Butler, the party's National Elections Officer, who described Auty in no uncertain terms as a 'joke candidate' and a 'no-hoper', warning that if the challenge went ahead;

'There will be pressure, perhaps unstoppable pressure, to change the rules so that leadership challenges can only take place every four years.'

By the end of May, it was clear that the Auty campaign was in trouble. Some of the rebels had been expelled while others were backing down under pressure and returning to the fold. Discussion of the challenge was banned on the BNP's own forum and Stormfront, the forum for the many nazis in the BNP's ranks, was awash with anti-Auty propaganda - much of it instigated by a character calling himself 'Walk towards the light' (Lee Barnes).

Auty was denied a platform of any kind at any branch. Even his singing engagements were cancelled (though that might just have been because his songs are crap and he sounds like a cross between Tiny Tim and George Formby). He was even denied access to the membership to campaign for his signatures on the dubious grounds that to allow him access to the list would be a breach of the Data Protection Act, which didn't seem to stop the anti-Auty letters from Barnes and Butler going out.

Since the end of May, virtually nothing much has happened on the three pro-Auty sites except for the odd post that served no purpose - until a week and a half ago, that is, when Auty obviously realised that his campaign was doomed unless he spoke out. This he did, with a vengeance, branding Nick Griffin as ruthless and desperate, and as a crook and a liar. We wouldn't disagree with any of those epithets.

In a spectacular post, which should really have kicked off his campaign for it to have succeeded, Auty ripped into Griffin, referring to his 'shady and downright deceitful dealings', his habit of 'concocting lies about [his enemies] concerning financial irregularities' and how the rest of the Advisory Council (the BNP's toothless ruling body) would 'very often sit in silence through fear of becoming the next victim'.

Auty made it clear that money is Griffin's only driving factor, that 'the books are always cooked' and ended by referring to Griffin as a 'totalitarian'.

Too little, too late.

Late last night, Roger Robertson, Auty's campaign manager, laid it on the line.

'I regret to inform those members and supporters of the BNP that, this evening, 30th June, after consultation with Colin, we have acknowledged that there will not be a challenge to Nick Griffin's leadership in 2008.

It is extremely disappointing that the challenge fell short by just a few signatures; a major factor being that many members have failed to renew their 2008 subscriptions plus the fact that the churn rate of the membership precludes many who do not have the requisite 2 years qualification to become a voting member.

Colin was the ideal candidate to lead our Party out of the wilderness after 9 years of stultifying slow growth under the present Chairman.

I will not here dilate upon the reasons for the challenge to Nick Griffin's leadership. This will come next week after my 'tribunal' on 6th July when I become an ex-member of the BNP.

Suffice it to say that both Colin and myself wish to thank most sincerely those nearly 90 people who had the courage to put their names to Colin's nomination.

We may well have lost the first skirmish but the battle for a democratic BNP is far from over.

Roger Robertson

Ed - The names of those who did sign will not be disclosed to Griffin or any of his stooges, as we do not want to see another internal bloodbath of dedicated nationalists.

Colin Auty has the nomination forms and they will be staying with Colin - he will not put them to the sword of the hierarchy. This is a sad day for internal democracy - how can we convince the public that we are committed to democratic elections when internally the current leadership seem allergic to them?'

No great surprises there but a couple of things pop up out of the letter as being of rather more than passing interest, the main one being the comment regarding the fact that 'many members have failed to renew their 2008 subscriptions'.

This fits in with what we and other anti-fascist groups are being told is the case - that the BNP is haemorrhaging members far faster than it can sign them up, something that might explain the increasing number and increasingly desperate tone of the begging letters that are constantly sent out to a weary membership. I spoke to a former member by phone last night who informed me that he and his partner had received no less than FOUR in the past few days. As he says, no joke when you're only just managing to survive yourself.

The other remarkable comment in this letter is the reason the Auty team will refuse to hand over the nomination forms. As Robertson puts it, 'we do not want to see another internal bloodbath of dedicated nationalists...[Auty] will not put them to the sword of the hierarchy'. Fear, it seems, is a major factor in the modern British National Party - a party that continually (and laughably) claims to be the most democratic party that exists.

We shall watch Colin Auty's continuing career in the BNP and as a BNP councillor with great interest, though not, we suspect, for long.