Woe is Nick - accounts late, Collett charges dropped, Decembrists return from the grave

Despite promise after promise that this year it would be different, the BNP has yet again failed to submit an annual statement of accounts to the Electoral Commission, incurring an automatic minimum £500 fine. The party's Regional Accounting Unit has also failed to submit accounts and will be fined a minimum of £100.

In a statement made earlier today (Thursday) by the Electoral Commission, Chief Executive Peter Wardle said:

Most parties and accounting units submitted their accounts on time; one [the SDLP] made what we hope will prove to be a one-off mistake and will face a fine for late submission. But two parties have repeatedly failed to put information about their income and expenditure into the public domain on time.

That is not acceptable, and as well as fining these two parties for late submission, we will be monitoring them closely to try to ensure they meet the same standards of reporting as the others. The sanctions we currently have available to deal with this sort of non-compliance are limited, but we look forward to Parliament giving final approval to a wider range of sanctions, before the end of this year.

Joining the BNP in the doghouse is the tiny Christian Party.

Should the BNP fail to submit its accounts within the next three months the fines levied on the party will double, as they did last year when the party played fast and loose with the EC's patience (and its own members' subscriptions and donations).

Ever since the spotlight fell firmly on the BNP's finances post-general election, Nick Griffin has been going out of his way to give an impression that all is well and that this year the accounts, now - allegedly - under the management of a professional accountant, would be submitted as required. Griffin must have been aware for some time that this would not be the case.

Cynics dissecting the series of self-serving treatises put out by Griffin post-election, forecast that the BNP accounts would again be late, since Griffin continually harped on about the complexity of the party's financial operations and the difficulties inherent in keeping them in order, and seemed to be laying down an advance trail of plausible excuses.

This may also explain why a clearly uncomfortable David Hannam, the party's national treasurer, has been pushed to the fore in the past week, being chivvied, we strongly suspect, into making a video for the BNP website and issuing a statement on behalf of his treasury department which promises much but clarifies little. The emailed version is "From Chairman Nick Griffin", and while we don't suppose he did more than outline what he expected the statement to contain, it's also difficult to believe that Hannam's is the only hand involved.

Nick Griffin having conveniently departed the country for a holiday, explanations for the lateness of the BNP's accounts will be sought from Hannam, who may be wondering if he hasn't been set up for a fall.

(For a fuller examination of this matter, see Sonia Gable's HNH/Searchlight article, republished here.)

In the meantime...


Humberside Police have dropped charges against sacked BNP publicity director Mark Collett (above, with Griffin), according to a post on leadership challenger Eddy Butler's blog. Collett was arrested on April 1st after Griffin had contacted the police claiming to have received death threats. A police statement made after Collett was bailed said: "This investigation was initiated as a result of a complaint by a member of the British National Party and inquiries are ongoing."

Clearly, no, or insufficient, evidence existed upon which a charge could be sustained.

At the time Nick Griffin sent out a hysterical email linking Collett not only with the utterance of alleged death threats but with financial impropriety and of being part of a "palace coup" about to be staged against his leadership. Despite claiming that he was unable to discuss the matter due to rules of "sub judice" (which was untrue), Griffin (ignoring sub judice as it suited him) instigated a widely ridiculed "inquiry" that was held on Easter Monday (April 5th), in which twelve dupes were sent off to "authenticate" a highly edited recording of the "death threats". Naturally, they gave the required answer.

Along with Collett, Eddy Butler and Emma Colgate were dismissed from their posts, and it is now apparent that the entire saga relates not to "death threats", the misappropriation of BNP monies on Collet's part or to "palace coups" but to allegations of serious financial wrong-doing at the top of the BNP, of which the trio had become aware.

News of Collett's arrest was deliberately leaked to the media from within the BNP just as the party's general and local election campaign was set to launch. How much damage was done to the BNP's vote as a result, and how much it was responsible for the loss of so many BNP councillors is difficult to tell, since we believe the BNP was always on course for a hiding at the ballot box.

It is self-evident to all but the most blind and sycophantic of Griffinites that the dodgy "death threat" episode, played out in the press and on television, was an enormous own goal on the part of the leadership, far more damaging than the fleeting loss of the party's website just before polling day. People may go to political websites in their hundreds, but they read newspapers and watch television in their millions.

With the charges dropped and any loyalties he might have held for Nick Griffin shattered, Mark Collett may well end his prolonged silence on the affair, an eventuality that on the surface can only benefit Eddy Butler. Butler is closer to Collett than he cares to admit, and thus far the Nazi Boy has been a peripheral, almost invisible figure, with very good reason. Collett is so widely reviled within the BNP that any open association between him and Butler would seriously damage Butler's leadership campaign. His open involvement in the campaign would almost certainly kill it. Collett, then, is of limited use to Butler, no matter how innocent he may be of the charges levelled against him by Griffin - though he may yet damage Griffin to the favour of Butler in an apparently independent "off stage" role.

The weight on Griffin's mind has been added to by news that the final part of the case he instigated (and has so far roundly lost) against the December Rebels will be heard at the High Court in Newcastle on November 29th.

Kenny Smith, one of the leading Decembrists, has reactivated the derelict Enough Is Enough website to announce that "Judgement Day is coming!"

Remarking that Griffin and Simon Darby "have tried every trick in the book, and indeed continue to invent new ways of delaying proceedings, to prevent the case they instigated at the Party's expense coming to trial", Smith gleefully adds:

Sadly for them, but happily for those who want to see justice done and the truth finally revealed in full, the trial has been fixed to start on Monday the 29th November 2010 at Newcastle High Court.

Kenny, Nicholla, Steve and Ian are all looking forward to their days in court and finally being able to expose Griffin and his cabal for what they are!

The Decembrists, somewhat pre-empted as Griffinite bugging of their private conversations led to the exposure of their intentions, launched the last serious attempt at unseating Nick Griffin, but the campaign soon floundered through indecision and the want of firm leadership. Then as now, Griffin began expelling or suspending individual Decembrists on eminently challengable grounds. At the time we observed that just one challenge to Griffin's worthless writs of expulsion would stop him in his tracks and galvanise support for the rebels as hesitant individual members lost their fear of the Leader's edicts. It is a lesson Eddy Butler's supporters have failed to learn, as they allow themselves to be picked off one by one.

Griffin's smothering tactics worked at the time but disguised the extent of latent discontent within the party. Seemingly united for the Euro election campaign, the cracks soon began to show as the false foundations on which the Euro success had been built were exposed by ever worsening votes which reflected the BNP's true electoral position, and by Griffin's inept approach to the EHRC case. The awful Question Time appearance, the dislodging of PPCs in favour of party "names", the wild allegations against Collett, thuggish behaviour towards journalists and others, the needless courting of Unilever litigation, the general and local election rout have all done for Griffin what the Decembrists never could.

He did it all himself. And if he really were a leader of vision, the genius of strategy he is so frequently claimed to be, then he would have known that cutting off the Decembrist head while smothering Decembrist sentiment would leave hundreds within the BNP to brood and bide their time.

That they have done, for what else is Eddy Butler's campaign but the second coming of the Decembrists, with new leadership, bigger and badder than ever?

Is Killer Collett back in the BNP?

Like Gary Glitter, he's back again - Killer Collett rejoins the ranks (maybe)

How confusing is it to be a member of the BNP? Just over a week ago, the world was informed that a plot to unseat the leader of the party had been discovered and that a taped telephone conversation between the party's treasurer David Hannam and the its former head of publicity Mark Collett revealed threats of murder and assault and talk of fraud and falsification of accounts, including 'skimming' off printing bills for the party.

Last Monday, party organisers met up and were treated to a ten minute snippet of the tape that apparently included the threats and non-specific mention of the fraud that had taken place, though the whole tape was held back until a committee declared on its authenticity. This committee, led by taxi driver and world-renowned tape authenticity expert [sarcasm] Michael Simpkins, declared that the tape was genuine and, we gather, the shortened version was given to the police.

Why the shortened version? Because the complete tape was almost an hour and a half of Killer Collett slagging off party leader Nick Griffin and fundraiser Jim Dowson, along with a multitude of accusations of theft and complicity in a massive and persistent fraud on the membership of the British National Party. These allegations were, we're told, so detailed that the police would have had at least enough information to begin investigating the party's finances - and that would have been disastrous for Griffin and the party itself.

According to information we have received, the police are not prepared to take any action based upon a tape that has clearly been tampered with, leaving the police with nothing to investigate.

Given that the party is anxious to hide any sign of wrongdoing by its officers - particularly by its leader - for fear that a whole financial can of worms would be opened up, the only thing to do was, in the words of one of our correspondents, 'to take that wanker Collett back at least until after the elections'. Thus, we're informed that Collett is back in the BNP fold though on a much-reduced salary and only on condition that he keeps his mouth firmly shut in future.

It's hard to know what Collett will be doing in the party after his reinstatement because it seems that the design of leaflets has been handed over to the detestable Paul Golding, a Griffin-acolyte who appears to be much-loathed in the party, while printing has been shifted to - surprise - one of Jim Dowson's many companies, leaving Paedo-boy to sit around twiddling his thumbs.

Nevertheless, the man who, just a week ago, was accused of conspiracy to unseat Porky Griffin as leader of the BNP and was said to have uttered threats to kill him, is apparently back because the party leadership is terrified of what havoc he could wreak by exposing the corruption that saturates the party from top to bottom.

It could only happen in the BNP...

BNP officers unite ‘unanimously’ after anti-Collett hate session

The British National Party’s sacked head of publicity set up a series of front companies apparently with the intention of “skimming off” printing bills, yesterday’s special meeting of the British National Party heard.

Party officers and organisers gathering near Coventry were told that a copy of a tape recording of a conversation between Mark Collett and the party treasurer David Hannam was in the hands of the police who “would be able to investigate a number of potential crimes including threats to murder, assault, fraud and falsification of accounts”, according to a BNP statement issued afterwards.

The meeting had not been allowed to hear the tape and draw its own conclusions, however, but appointed a “four man strong subcommittee” to listen to it and report back on its “full contents and implications”. Its spokesman Michael Simpkins, a BNP town councillor in Corsham, Wiltshire, declared the tape was genuine.

The BNP statement left several questions unanswered, above all why Eddy Butler has been replaced as the party’s national organiser and national elections officer by Clive Jefferson, the North West regional organiser. Members were told that Butler was “still very much with the BNP and is set to play a leading role in the party’s attempt to take control of the Barking and Dagenham council”. However Butler has not issued any personal statement.

Last November Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, announced that Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member, would spearhead the party’s Barking and Dagenham council campaign. Presumably he has not been producing the canvassing returns Griffin expects.

Griffin read out a statement from Emma Colgate, who resigned as party manager last week, warning that “fake Facebook and YouTube accounts” were being set up in her name “with the obvious intention of sowing confusion”. Despite her continuing important role, running the BNP’s campaign in Thurrock, she was apparently not at the meeting.

BNP members have clearly not been told the full story about the abrupt departures of Butler and Colgate from national party positions and the party’s EU payroll, and their connection with Collett’s “misdemeanours”.

Another omission from the statement is any reference to Jim Dowson, the BNP’s fundraising and management consultant, whose extensive financial hold over the BNP makes him in effect the party’s owner. Last week’s BNP organisers’ bulletin, which first announced Collett’s suspension, referred to a threat to the “personal safety” of both Griffin and Dowson and there have been suggestions since then that it was Dowson who discovered Collett’s financial irregularities.

Collett has long been accused of making a profit at the party’s expense and of being very poor at the graphic design and leaflet production that are a major part of his role, but Griffin has only listened to the allegations now. That may be because Griffin was in desperate need of a scapegoat to allay dissent in the party following his disastrous performance on Question Time last year, his capitulation to the Equality and Human Rights Commission over changing the party’s racist constitution, accusations from members that the central party apparatus is appropriating branch funds, questions about Dowson’s control over the party and Griffin’s very own EU parliamentary expenses scandal.

After venting their “hate” for Collett, in events reminiscent of Geroge Orwell’s 1984, the party united “unanimously” behind Griffin, according to the BNP’s statement, and will contest 326 constituencies in the general election on 6 May.

As for Collett, he claims to be “completely loyal” to the party and willing to help people with local publicity material in the run-up to the elections. “There is currently a smear campaign against me,” is all he has said publicly so far.

Collett had been lined up to contest the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency against David Blunkett in the general election but has been replaced by John Sheldon, a Sheffield BNP activist.

The events of the past few days are far more than the sort of differences of opinion and personality clashes that any political party suffers. Griffin constantly claims he is the leader of a moderate, non-violent organisation, but it is difficult to see how he can square that assertion with his statement to the police that his own head of publicity has been threatening to kill him. The BNP remains a party full of thugs.

Hope not hate

Headline of the week...BNP Appoints David Hannam as National Treasurer

Naziboy Collett and his moronic sidekick, David Hannam

I almost choked on my cup of tea when I read that on the BNP website. Then I thought maybe I hadn't noticed the time passing and we'd hit April 1st already. But no, it's the truth. Squeaky Dave Hannam, serial-shagger, schoolie-fancier (along with naziboy Collett) and all-round incompetent twat, has been made National Treasurer, presumably because he was the only person moronic enough to take the job.

Although the only people to report this world-shattering news so far, the BNP always likes to give the impression that it is constantly being approached by the media for any tidbits it cares to throw for them. It isn't, but they do like to pretend. Thus, the report says;

Approached for comment, Mr Hannam said he wanted to “see central office accounts run as smoothly as the Regional Accounting Unit.”

Let's be clear about this. The Regional Accounting Unit is an unmitigated disaster. So much money has been stolen from the regions that they have now begun to conceal them from HQ in the hope that funds will be there to be used for whatever the regions want, rather than to support the Griffin/Dowson families in their never-ending striving to join the Sunday Times Rich List.

On behalf of all anti-fascists everywhere, I'd like to say how much we're going to be looking forward to the BNP's next financial disaster which, I have absolutely no doubt at all, will be caused entirely by Hannam. Even if it isn't, he'll get the blame.

BNP faces prosecution for submitting ‘misleading’ accounts

The British National Party may face prosecution after providing accounts to the Electoral Commission that failed to give a “true and fair view” of its financial circumstances.

The far-Right party, which has already been fined for filing its accounts six months late, must produce further details by Friday. The news comes as figures released by the commission yesterday reveal how the party exaggerated its spending during the European elections, in which it won two seats, including that of Nick Griffin, the party leader.

Mr Griffin has often claimed that the BNP spent more than £500,000 during the campaign. In fact, the party spent much less, £282,843 — only £54,000 more than it did during 2004. Mr Griffin’s claims had raised eyebrows, —particularly because the party had declared less than £25,000 in donations since January 2008.

Simon Darby, the BNP deputy leader, yesterday blamed bureaucracy for the errors and said the party needed to exaggerate because “if we had said we wanted to spend 10p, it wouldn’t do us any good. ... there’s a bit of hyperbole with politics”. He refused to comment further on the discrepancy, saying that it was not a “worthy question”.

The BNP was fined £1,000 for filing its 2008 accounts in December — nearly six months after the original deadline. Even then, the commission concluded that the accounts were inadequate and requested further information.

In his report, which prefaced the accounts, Mr Griffin blamed poor accounting on changes in the party’s treasury department. He said that the accounts had become too big for one person to manage, and had since been outsourced to a chartered accountant. He said the changes were made “with the aim of presenting acceptable accounts for the accounting year 2009”. “We recognise that it is not acceptable to present inadequate accounts,” he wrote.

The independent auditor of the accounts concluded that the party’s financial statements did not “give a true and fair view” of its affairs. Silver & Co wrote: “In our opinion it cannot be said that the accounts comply with the requirements of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as adequate records have not been made available.”

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: “We have reviewed the statement of accounts and have concerns about them. We have written back to the party requesting additional information. Until we have received that information we cannot say what further action will be taken.”

TimesOnline

DG adds: You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Other facts that came out of the accounts have already been highlighted on here, but two that deserve further mention concern membership numbers and the extortion of a massive loan from the Regional Accounting Unit - that is, BNP members' hard-earned money, paid over to benefit their local branches and groups.

On the matter of membership, the BNP's own figures for 2007 were 9,784. We all remember the hype about "rocketing membership figures", "hundreds joining", "best year ever" etc., etc. The BNP's figures for 2008 were 9,801 - an increase of just 17!

This begs the question as to how many of the alleged 4,000 apparently wetting themselves as they wait to join the BNP when the membership block is removed will turn out to be real and how many figments of Nick Griffin's fertile imagination.

On the matter of the "loan" made by the BNP's Regional Accounting Unit (RAU) to the central party, it seems that the membership has been well and truly turned over.

One of the most interesting items listed in the RAU's 2007 accounts was an acknowledgement that “During 2007 central office borrowed from the regional accounting unit", borrowings that were to be repaid by monthly standing orders.

The BNP's auditors, Silver and Co., took a dim view of this, saying that at the close of 2007 "... the party owed the Region £42,000 and the reason why this is the case is that it had insufficient funds, which places doubts on the ability of the Party to repay this money.”

These doubts were well founded, and a con had to be worked that would allow the BNP to keep its own branches deprived of their own much needed money. How it was worked came in this glib sentence, which appeared in the RAU's 2008 accounts:

“In 2009 certain costs were incurred on behalf of the Branches, by the Central Office, in connection with the European election. These are to be recharged, and will cover the money due by Central Office to the Branches."

So, "certain costs", unspecified, and "in connection with the European election" - and that cancels the debt owed to the branches on a loan they were never consulted about making?

How many times over did the BNP membership pay for Nick Griffin's Euro-seat? Or did this money really go elsewhere?

The RAU's treasurer (and supposed guardian of the branches' interests) David Hannam and his good friend Nicholas Griffin have some serious questions to answer, and we can but hope that they eventually come to be answered in the proper place, because we are certain sure that the gullible sheeple of the BNP will never have the wits to challenge the parasites who have for so long fed on them with such unalloyed contempt.

Caption Competition

What are these two pillocks up to?

The BNP and UKIP expenses scandals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moreover, on February 12, 2008, BBC Radio 4's "File on 4" programme, which was discussed in the "Tonight 8 pm, Radio 4 - File on 4 investigates the BNP's finances" Norfolk Unity article of the same day, John Brayshaw alleged that the BNP's finances were run in an illegal way: "In his [2005] letter [to the Electoral Commission], Mr Brayshaw said current party treasurer John Walker and his deputy David Hannam visited his home for a week to complete the accounts.

• "He said he did not help them but claimed he witnessed some unusual activities, namely the shredding of a large number of documents and invoices.
• "Mr Brayshaw said he was told to burn the shredded documents, but kept them because he felt something improper had taken place.
• "A black bin bag containing the shredded documents has been handed to File on 4.
• "It contains fragments of cheques, train tickets, receipts and invoices.
• "Some of the fragments carry the names of Nick Griffin, his parents and even the Trafalgar Club.
• "One unshredded item is a petrol receipt with the name Excalibur - the title of the party's merchandising arm.
• "Under tax regulations all financial records should be kept for six years."

Finally, in a May 29, 2009 "Times" story, "British National Party begs for money in desperate memos", you can read that, "Further questions were raised about the party's funding after Mr Griffin admitted that he paid a £5,000 political donation into his personal bank account without declaring it."

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

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

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

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

Scraping the barrel

You always know when the BNP is scraping the barrel for good news: the BNP website begins reporting on the speeches of the likes of David Hannam, the elementary activity of a local branch pushing leaflets through doors is given a prominence way beyond its importance, and the reporting of BNP by-election results is suspended.

David Hannam is the BNP's deputy treasurer and owner of Great White Records. Accused by the Decembrist rebels of financial incompetence and - some years ago - by former Hull BNP organiser Dr David Michael of theft, Hannam (along with Mark Collett) survived serious allegations of improprietry involving under-age girls made by a former member of the BNP security team.

Given his dubious record, Hannam is hardly the first person you'd invite along to give an opinion on the economic crisis currently engulfing the world, and so at a meeting of the BNP's Scarborough and Ryedale branch Hannam failed to provide any cutting insights into the issue that might have escaped the minds of our better known economic commentators, one of his more acute (if slightly tortured) observations, as retold on the BNP website, being, "The truth is that in an economically declining society, the worker is hit, but even in a so-called economically growing society, it is the worker who also gets hit."

According to the syntactically inelegant Hannam, the oncoming recession will "cause people to start looking around for political alternatives", and therefore "the BNP must be ready to take advantage of the mess all of the other parties have made of the economy". Unfortunately for Hannam, as we shall see, "people" just don't seem to see the BNP as one of those "political alternatives".

Having brought our attention to the weighty thoughts of David Hannam, a desperate BNP website editor then casts about for more morale-boosting stories with which to eke out the thin gruel served up on his gadget-strewn browser-scrambling pages, and comes up with the breathtaking news that the BNP has delivered 1000 leaflets (allegedly) in the suburbs of Norwich - located, apparently, in the "region" of Norfolk.

Regular leaflet delivery being the unremarkable staple activity of fascist organisations since the year dot, we were wondering why the fact that six people delivering a small number of leaflets to a small area of Norwich should warrant the attention paid to it. Perhaps the BNP webmaster was as astonished as ourselves to learn that there had been any activity at all on the behalf of Norfolk BNP, a group which notoriously, while the rest of the BNP went to the 2007 local election polls, thought it a far better idea to go out to dinner.

If there is one notable thing those of us who live in the "region" can tell you about Norfolk BNP, it is of the fact of its almost complete invisibility combined with a penchant on the part of some of its tiny band of members for throwing out wildly inaccurate statements (lies, to you and me) on the extent of their activities and intentions. I could add that at least two of its number have a liking for both online and real-world impersonation, but that's a matter for another time.

The long and short of it is that Norfolk BNP has always been pretty useless, not much interested in the bread and butter of political work while there's a pint to be downed or a steak to be chewed on, and until recently anti-fascists in the county were obliged to challenge the threat of the far smaller but much more active National Front. Only in west Norfolk, back in May 2007, did the local BNP - rather despite its own laziness - come close to pulling off an unexpected (and certainly undeserved) success, when it came within an ace of winning the North Lynn ward (King's Lynn) of West Norfolk County Council.

That near-miss most definitely surprised the BNP's King's Lynn activists, who you can count on four of the fingers of one hand, they bringing it about with little, if any, help from the rest of the local BNP organisation.

And that, until Nick Griffin's sneaking visit to Norfolk a few months ago, was all anybody in the "region" ever heard of the BNP.

News, then, that Norfolk BNP has finally got around to doing something is, we suppose, worthy - but worthy of what isn't readily obvious. Perhaps the BNP's web editor felt that the surprise value inherent in Norfolk BNP doing anything at all was enough to propel a tale of six racists taking to the leaflet trail ("one sunny morning") into the party headlines.

Not making the party headlines, naturally, is the recent slew of mostly dire BNP local by-election results, which rather tend to negate David Hannam's belief (if he really believes it) that the BNP is one of the "political alternatives" to which the people will turn.

The people of Dewsbury turned away from the BNP in droves on October 16th, when, in a by-election caused by the resignation of BNP rebel Colin Auty, the party's vote fell by 50% and the BNP lost Dewsbury East. A week later, in East Wittering ward, Chichester, the people signally failed to turn to the BNP, which was breaking new territory and expecting to take 15% of the vote - it took 12.3%, despite the helpful demographic of the ward.

A week later on October 23rd, the gloom continued. In the East Midlands - prime electoral territory for the BNP and a matter of deep concern for anti-fascists - a BNP candidate standing in the (Loughborough) Dishley and Hathern ward of Charnwood Borough Council managed a 3.6% vote loss, while the party's troubles in the West Midlands gathered pace. In Wolverhampton Wednesfield North, which saw the BNP peak at 26% in 2006, the BNP vote fell from May's 15.37% to 11.78%. In Wednesfield South, which the BNP did not contest in May, the BNP vote was 14.4% - but that does represent a 1.2% increase over an outing in 2007, when the party obtained 13.2%. Hardly the stuff of even the quietest revolutions.

On October 30th the BNP obtained its best recent result - and its worst.

In St. John's ward, Workington, the BNP took 20.22%, and beforehand gave every impression that it could win. In the event it came third. Though nobody can afford to ignore the fact that one in five of those voting gave their support to the BNP, the extent of the party's failure can be judged by this posting made on our associated forum:

According to info on the Cumbria BNP site [and I'm certainly not accepting that as gospel!] the BNP threw the kitchen sink at this, along with the fridge/freezer, washing machine and everything else!!

• multiple leaflets
• last election leaflet delivered in a single afternoon with 14 deliverers
• three canvass rounds
• a personally addressed mail-merge letter
• Dicky Barnbrook visited [which might not be exactly a bonus - but does indicate that it was being taken seriously]

They also claim that the other parties ran low-key campaigns.

If the above is even nearly true then 20% is very disappointing for them - if I had that amount of literature and manpower to throw at a council byelection in a small district ward I would be expecting to win - not come third!! [And I've fought umpteen council elections.]

If we can deem the St. John's ward result to be a relative failure on account of the resources poured in and the expectations raised, for pure disaster we need to visit Camden's Kentish Town, where in a six-cornered contest BNP candidate Edith Crowther managed to come 5th, with 62 votes and a miserable 2.4% share, the only crumb of freezing comfort being that the UKIP came last.

All this sobering election news, and more besides, never appeared on the BNP website, showcase of the "serious" political party that thinks the unintelligable musings of its incompetent deputy-treasurer deserving of a wider audience, and which is stunned that something - anything at all, really - happened in Norfolk.

Enjoy the weekend, folks.

Target: Griffin

The following posts appeared on the rebel North-East Scotland Nationalists blog. We are republishing them without amendment to demonstrate that though the BNP rebel faction has (at least on the surface) lost the initiative in the racist party's internal civil war, there is a long way to go yet.

Both posts implicitly acknowledge what was stark-staringly obvious from day one - that whatever the accusations against Collett and Hannam, the real problem in the BNP is Nick Griffin himself. Belatedly, the rebels have shifted the focus to Griffin, but the weeks spent in half-heartedly professing loyalty to the BNP leader have cost them dear. Griffin is a ruthless operator, as the rebels knew full well before beginning their adventure, and nothing was more certain than that he would act aggressively, decisively and without scruple. Nothing less on the part of the rebels was ever going to bring them anywhere near success.

The posts reproduced below contain serious allegations against named individuals that we seek neither to confirm or dispute, and though these allegations have already appeared in the public domain, we disassociate ourselves from them completely.

This post appeared as a comment on the North-East Scotland Nationalists blog. Its apparent author is Chris Telford, previously BNP North East regional organiser, lately active in Glasgow. Telford is a member of the Blood and Honour group, Nemesis. His post contains references some readers may find offensive.

Dear Comrade,

I have 13 years active service as a BNP activist and independent pro-white musician. Many of those I am pleased and honoured to call "Comrade" and "Friend" have served their folk for many more years than that. Until the weekend of 8th/9th December 2007 I have counted Nick Griffin amongst them, but that ended when he ordered the burglary of Sadie Graham and Matt Single, and the foiled burglary of Kenny and Nicholla.

Let me confess a few things to you.

I was a regional organiser when N.G. launched his leadership bid in 1999. I wrote to the local members urging them to cast their votes for him. For many years after, the thought that I had played a small part in a painful but vital operation was a matter of quiet pride, tempered only by the fact I had to oppose people who I respected: Richard Edmonds, JT, Ian Dell, etc.

As Nick's cult of personality geared up I privately applauded it; reasoning, "Human nature being what it is... some people need that and If it helps us advance then so be it".

Sadly in recent years it's become more and more apparent that Nick has been developing the nasty little habit of surrounding himself with sycophants and numpties. However by this time I had made some artificial space between myself and the party to protect it from any criticism stemming from my involvement with the more "hard line" Blood and Honour music scene and secondly to grant myself a little artistic freedom.

As I was no longer a Party official it really wasn't my business anymore.I was happier being a grassroots activist without position or a membership card. Spreading a positive and honest message of racial survival through music is simply incompatible with asking a cowed and conditioned electorate to vote for you. Consequently I limited my BNP activities to leafleting, giving occasional speeches and helping to produce fund raising CD's and playing at concerts. (As well as doing a stand-up comedy set at the BNP's Red, White and Blue festival - a set that I hasten to add that was at Nick Griffin's personal request and one I only agreed to do after I ran some of the naughtier, politically incorrect material by Griffin.)

As time passed, news of one badly handled internal discipline problem after another reached me. I have seen this too many times with my own eyes in my native North-East. For example Darlington fundholder and widely suspected Special Branch errand boy, Trevor Agnew, was caught red-handed stealing Party donations but was then re-instated by NG who seemingly finds this treasonable behaviour acceptable.

Factionalism and deliberate branch sabotage in Sunderland was allowed to fester for years, fed by black propaganda from troublemakers like Agnew and the foaming, religious zealot Dave Guynan.

Action was finally taken when Nick Griffin took the belated step to actually accept the resignation of Guynan after his last orchestrated public screaming fit. (Hysterics which cost the Sunderland-South group its regular meeting place, the Landlord's support and even more members).

This half-hearted decision by Griffin to dispense with Guynan's "services" came at least seven years too late for Sunderland and the BNP. Party Leader Griffin was fully aware of the countless examples of Guynan's sabotage, of his public outbursts, his rampant character assassinations, his theft of the PO Box key, his physical assaults and his ranting speeches at meetings. (Full of truly Hollywood-Nazi "Jews control the weather" wackyness and fundamental Mormon-ism).

Despite nearly a decade of this unnecessary disruption Sunderland was the first-ever BNP branch to stand a full slate of candidates in local elections. This is a feat which simply will not be repeated at the next election where there will only be a handful of compliant, Griffinite candidates standing. This serves all Racial Nationalists as a perfect example of where Griffin's cronyism and aversion to decisive Party discipline leads to. For years Griffin has allowed "shipwreckers" to ply their trade and "take their turn in the barrel" whilst honest, dedicated Racial activists have been forced to walk the plank.

Last year, as a further example of this malaise, we saw the Andrew Spence debacle. Spence, a man who raised the BNP's North East's profile to an all-time high last year in Sedgefield, has been discarded by Griffin in favour of the odious Movement parasite and Fire Exit Inspector, Mark Collett and the tragically inept Real Ale enthusiast John Walker. Farce has followed farce with almost always good people lost.

All of this has convinced me that the BNP will never again be a serious organ of resistance to our people's genocide under this man's stewardship. In fact the dark suspicion that Griffin has turned the party into a private money making machine, providing nothing but a play-ground for the worst elements of our movement, is bearing fruit(sour though it is). By this I do not mean the many good comrades who are still holding their tongues, as well as their faith, in our so-called Leadership but I instead refer to the two degenerate scumbags (Collett and Dave "Lock up your daughters" Hannam), who by their own admission tried to pressurise two underage girls into sex in their conference hotel rooms.

Nick has tried to sweep this fact into the memory-hole but he cannot pretend any longer that it did not happen, neither can I and neither should you.( As a matter of fact at Sunderland BNP's Christmas social in 2005 Mark Collett had to be warned off from a public clinch with an underage girl. At the time we put it down to a drunken lack of judgement, not knowing his penchant for trying to take advantage of impressionable 14 year olds).

Even an establishment Party, whose Leader had tried to keep such a sleazy scandal like this from it's membership, would be forced to act and that "Leaders" feet wouldn't touch the floor on the way out of the door.

By his inaction and ultimate complicity Nick Griffin has betrayed the BNP membership and has forced Party activists and supporters into an impossible position. When this scandal fully breaks, as it will, then how can any of us "go to the people" or go door to door espousing honest family values when those to whom we look to for leadership fail us so miserably.

We must remember that the BNP is far bigger than any one man, no matter how many degenerate parasites, wife-swapping doormen, (ex?)-commie journalists, paid trouble-makers, hit-list provocateurs like Lecomber, as well as the donation stealers, "Yes men" and South-African spooks he surrounds himself with.

I should point out that by "South-African spooks" I mean shady (ex?)-coppers and not Zulu or Xhosa Kaffirs, but that is only a matter of time.

I ask you again in all honesty and with a large degree of sadness; How can we look people in the eye any longer and ask them to vote for a party that is peddling it's much vaunted "Christian values" when some of it's disciples wallow in "last days of Rome" decadence? Although, to be fair, if you study the history of all Middle Eastern religions, then Collett and Hannam could honestly claim to be following many a Christian leader's example by trying to molest the underage.

It is to my eternal shame that I once sat in silence whilst Griffin's wife defamed Warren Bennett; slandering him as a thief of party funds (a lie shamelessly echoed by her husband but now fully exposed as spiteful fabrication). At the time I bit my tongue and told myself that it was best not to cause trouble for the sake of the Party.

I told myself that stability out-weighed truth. I now know that I was guilty of moral cowardice.

My silence now would only help store up trouble in the long run and I ask those activists who seem content to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic to act solely in the interests our children's future and decide today which type of British National Party they want.

The recent bragging to the Daily Mail by Party officials of Richard Barnbrook's decision to make himself a race-mixer by default has also helped to identify the leadership's true yellow colours and shows the real dangers of the course Griffstein has set us on; namely, spew enough **** and eventually you'll start to like the taste.

Do not forget that Our Infallible Leader has caused this crisis. His response to those who have dared to demand internal self-discipline is there for all to see: burglary, spying, intimidation, lies, false accusations, fabricated evidence and disabled goon squads demanding access to good comrades' homes.

The painful truth for me and many others who counted this man as a friend and a true comrade is that he is now plainly neither.He has betrayed the hopes of us all by putting his own selfish motives before honour, loyalty and the BNP -
the best defensive weapon the native British folk have in these darkest of days.

I will never forgive him. More importantly neither will our Ancestors nor the Generations still unborn.

I offer some good advice to those with the wit to heed it:

If you are the type who has only recently raised their head from the goyim feed-trough and in your new-found zeal you find the comforting urge to join in with the herd's fury at those who have dared question Our Glorious Leader-think twice before you do. Your shepherd is revealing himself to be a butcher. He has promised new green pastures if you hold faith but instead there are some of us who already have the stench of the slaughter-house in their nostrils.

Save your anger for farmer Griffin - you'll need it later on.

Yours for Race and Nation

Chris Telford

From Charles Mather, BNP Wigan organiser:

A message to Nick from Wigan BNP

The following letter was sent to Nick Griffin from Wigan BNP:

Wigan BNP Activists: Extraordinary General Meeting

Dear Nick,

As you are aware we have been extremely distressed over the discord in the party during the past month and it has only been our faith in Nationalism and its importance for our future that has kept us from throwing in the towel. We have read both sides of the dispute and have been struck by the difference in tone between them.

The intemperate language employed by Simon Darby in his blog when he first accused the “rebels” of being “Nazis" and the following day “Searchlight moles” does not incline one to believe other statements he makes. A blog full of contradictory statements is to say the least unpersuasive.

By contrast the “enoughisenough” blog is a lesson in restraint with no extreme or unbelievable statements. There is certainly no evidence of an attempt to take over the party. Admittedly it was foolish and wrong to start the blog. It would have been much better to resign in protest over the failings of Mark Collett and Dave Hannam but it was even more foolish to publish details of the dispute on the BNP web site for all to see and to brand those who support Sadie et al as Nazis. To then offer these Nazis an amnesty if they returned to the fold seems to be the height of political naivety and would surely be used against us by our opponents.

The appearance of South African security people in the higher echelons of our party is a certain vote loser and will also be exploited by our opponents.

Why do we need all this security and spying on our neighbours? We are a legitimate party and if we behave as such we should have no fear of the machinations of our opponents and have no secrets worth spying on.

We do NOT believe Sadie, Kenny and matt are Nazis or Searchlight moles, indeed they have been hard working and a credit to the party as have Nick Cass, Jonathan Bowden, Bev Jones, Richard Purdy and many others who are not now with us. We can not afford to lose good people such as these.

The only people who have brought the party in to disrepute are Mark Collett and Dave Hannam but they remain in the party.

On the website it says that no person is above the party and we heartily agree. We can’t see therefore why these two remain an exception to the rule. If they cared about the Party they would take a back seat or are they agents of the state? They have certainly caused more strife than any one from MI5 could have done.

In spite of the above, we remain committed to the Party and you as leader but our enthusiasm is much diminished.

Just think what we could achieve without this dissent.

The feeling of our group and prospective members is that while good workers are being sacked and trouble causers retained we will make no progress. We are losing members because of this and several people who indicated the intention of joining no longer wish to do so.

We resolve therefore to keep our group going on a minimum maintenance basis but feel we are wasting our time in actively campaigning until matters are resolved.

We hope and pray for a speedy, sensible and amicable conclusion to this sorry dispute or our Party and country are doomed.

This will not go away.

Yours sincerely,
Charles Mather,
Wigan BNP Organiser

More entertainment courtesy of our friends at Kirklees Unity:

Griffin and his Nazi salute - the facts

Giddy up, John (John Walker downloads animal pornography)

Something "not very nice" about the BNP says former organiser

British Nationalism "sleazy at the highest level"

Grudges die hard on the ever fractious far-right, where factional in-fighting and petty personal squabbles are a way of life.

Long after his departure from the BNP, former Humberside and Lincolnshire organiser Dr. David Michael continues to nurse grievances first aired at the time of his resignation. Michael has since washed up on the shores of the eccentric Sharon Ebanks's tiny New Nationalist Party, and supplies The Thunderbolt column to its website.

The latest Thunderbolt column, Five easy lessons for British Nationalists, begins with the easiest lesson of all - don't trust Nick Griffin!

We probably don't need a long-standing supporter of various racist organisations to tell us that, but there is something endearingly honest about David Michael - a kind of bemused outrage normally found in very young children just told there is no Father Christmas. Michael seems never to have got over his discovery that Nick Griffin and the BNP top brass work in decidedly mysterious ways.

Michael's 2002 resignation letter was addressed to "BNP national and regional leaders, key BNP activists in Hull and Grimsby" and made not a jot of difference to the BNP, despite containing numerous allegations against leading members of the organisation, including the ubiquitous Tony Lecomber (recently proscribed, as we report elsewhere).

Detailing how he found Humberside and Lincolnshire BNP "a tragic mess", Michael's resignation letter also speaks of "bitter feuding" between leading members Tony Braithwaite and John Brayshaw, then tells of how he (Michael) and others resurrected the unit into something like effectiveness - "Organized nationalism was flourishing in Hull for the first time in 60 years".

But this is the British National Party, and things are never so simple.

Michael claims that "Special Branch and its fellow travellers launched a two-pronged attack on us". The details given by Michael suggest nothing more than a routine information gathering exercise on the part of the Branch such as all small political groups - left and right - are subjected to. That, apparently, constitutes the first prong of the "attack". The second prong seems to have come from within the BNP itself.

According to Michael: "Mr John Brayshaw was undertaking a serious programme of destabilization against our resurgent unit. This consisted at first of petty actions, such as the refusal to release our local funds to East Midlands branch to help in their general election campaign, and petty gossip and tittle tattle, some of which got back to us by various means."

Michael recognises this "as an attempt by the Establishment to cause trouble".

Brayshaw is accused of "working on [Tony] Lecomber", who "was going to go into 'dirty tricks' mode" (no surprise there, then), and as a result Michael stepped down to save Lecomber the bother of forcing him out.

All of this was wrapped up in the tale of David Hannam and (yet again) missing BNP cash, which forms the first part of David Michael's "Five easy lessons..." Thunderbolt essay.

"A few years ago I had the dubious honour of being the Humberside and Lincolnshire organizer of the BNP," writes Michael. "In due course I handed over the job to a young fellow, one David Hannam, giving him my full support. I did not know him particularly well but he appeared keen and very active; ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’ as the saying goes. Hannam subsequently went to live with the then local treasurer, Diane Bridgeman, who is now his wife. The relevance of this will soon become apparent."

Michael relates how he was told that money put aside for the payment of leaflets had not been paid to an aggrieved printer by Hannam and Bridgeman, and asks: "So what had happened to the money? To the hard-working members’ money?" Apparently, Michael was told, the dubious duo had used it to pay their telephone bill.

Incensed, Michael attempted to contact Nick Griffin. Unable to do so, "I telephoned Hannam. He confirmed that he had not paid for the leaflets. He had no coherent explanation. I told him that unless he returned the money to the party and resigned as organizer then I would complain to the police. I gave him a short deadline.... Hannam duly returned the loot and resigned from the position of local organizer. I subsequently received an email from Tony Lecomber, then BNP branch liaison officer, thanking me for my good offices in getting the money back."

But - again - this is, as we so often note, the British National Party, because then "strange things started to happen."

"The gentleman who was the regional organizer for the area at the time made it very clear that he was not happy with my line against Hannam and that he wanted him reinstated. He felt that Hannam had just made ‘a mistake’. I sent Nick Griffin an account of what had happened. It eventually became very clear that Griffin also wanted to accept Hannam’s account of the incident as ‘a mistake’.

"Now, consider this. Hannam had apparently used money intended for leaflets to pay a telephone account – nobody denied this to me when I pointed it out. It is rather difficult to see how this could be done by mistake. When threatened with police action if he didn’t resign as local organizer, Hannam resigned. If he had simply made an innocent mistake (rather than committing a crime) why would he do this? Surely he would only resign in response to such a threat if he knew that prosecution and a possible prison sentence for theft awaited him . . ."

Hannam and Bridgeman's story then changed: "They started putting it about that Hannam had decided that leaflets were a bad idea and a waste of money. The problem with that story, of course, is that not only does it conflict with the earlier version of the incident as ‘a mistake’ but it spectacularly fails to account for why the decision was taken AFTER the leaflets had been ordered and printed, or how the money for the leaflets ended up in Hannam’s personal account!"

These points were put to Griffin, says, Michael, but to no avail. It was then put to Michael that Griffin wanted the local elections contested in Hull, and Diane Bridgeman being the candidate, any action taken against Hannam might scotch that plan.

Michael wasted no time: "My response was swift and sure. It seemed obvious that Hannam had stolen money from the local party – from good, decent, fellow nationalists. Griffin was trying to cover up for him. I was not prepared to go along with such sleaze. How could I criticize the other parties, the Establishment, the system, for being rotten to the core when the leader of the BNP was behaving in a manner that was every bit as damnable? I promptly resigned from the BNP."

The words "sleaze", "Griffin" and "BNP" frequently being found in close proximity, usually in the same sentence, we can only wonder why it took so long for the penny to drop. But more surprises were to follow for David Michael:

"After several months had passed I was saddened to see that Hannam was reinstated as organizer of the local BNP. However, my sadness turned to amazement when I later learned that Hannam had been promoted to the position of deputy treasurer of the BNP. I could only assume that Griffin had permitted this because he wanted a loyal crook in the treasury – perhaps someone who could be trusted to keep dirty secrets."

"Am I telling the truth?" Michael plaintively asks. "I have made very serious allegations against the leader of a political party and against its deputy treasurer. I have accused the deputy treasurer of the BNP of apparently attempting to steal money – of apparently knowingly and deliberately misappropriating party funds for his own personal use. I have accused the chairman of the BNP of knowingly appointing someone who apparently attempted to steal money from his fellow nationalists to the position of deputy treasurer. If those allegations are false then let Mr Griffin or Mr Hannam sue me. In fact, I dare them to do so. Not only that but if they do not do so I assert that the electorate is entitled to wonder why not! (In fact I can tell the electorate what Griffin’s problem is. He knows that numerous emails and other documents were flying around any one of which could prove damning should it surface in court.)"

"How can one be loyal to men who steal from their comrades or who conspire to hide such treachery?" Michael demands. "Let the truth be told and let it be heard far and wide!"

And Sharon Ebanks is one person Michael can rely upon to ensure that the "truth" is indeed heard far and wide - she could barely wait to get the link to Michael's article up on Stormfront.

Michael notes Griffin's credentials as an alleged "moderate" (in far-right terms), but immediately returns to the attack: "But now here’s something strange. As various enemies ranging from the BBC to the Anti-Nazi League have pointed out, Mr Hannam served a prison sentence for putting out some politically incorrect leaflets in June 1999. Normally putting out politically incorrect leaflets would be praiseworthy. The problem is that in this case, the leaflets were so rabid that they made Heinrich Himmler look like the Pink Tooth Fairy in comparison. They tell us, inter alia: ‘Jews are in England unlawfully since the Edict of Expulsion of 1290 has never been repealed.’ (How Pat Richardson, the Jewish BNP councillor for Epping, would love that one if she knew about it! And what would Griffin’s poor little legal beagle, Lee Barnes, think?) It goes on to tell us ‘Now these illegal immigrants completely control our news and TV . . .’ and it continues in similar vein."

Michael is generous enough to pass this off as a "mistake" on Hannam's part, but "...it was the sort of ‘mistake’ that only a complete idiot would make. And only a complete idiot would appoint someone who makes that sort of ‘mistake’ to the position of deputy treasurer of something purporting to be a serious political party.

"Unless, of course, there is some reason why a thief and an idiot might come in handy occupying such a position . . ."

Well, we can only speculate, but this might be the time to draw your attention to certain "unsettling accounts" as provided by the BNP to the Electoral Commission, and dissected here by a disgruntled BNP member (unformatted text document). It makes for extremely interesting reading, and has certainly given many BNP members pause for thought before putting their hands in their pockets.

Tales of dodgy accounting are hardly new to the BNP. Elsewhere we note the case of Sharon Edwards, one-time deputy to Nick Griffin, who, along with husband Steve (West Midlands organiser) and - perhaps more importantly - BNP National Treasurer Mike Newlands, left in disgust after clashing with Griffin over financial irregularities.

Since their departure, Griffin (described by Sharon Ebanks as "a corrupt thief") has greatly strengthened his hold over the party, and there's no room in it for anybody who asks difficult questions - such as why did a "thief and an idiot" come to be Deputy Treasurer of the British National Party?

As David Michael is left to conclude: "British nationalism and white nationalism have become sleazy. Horribly sleazy. And they have become sleazy at the highest level."

Footnote: Ebanks's Stormfront thread linking to David Michael's article has been pulled. Now who would want to do that?