Coventry BNP charity leaflet campaign 'absurd'

The British National Party has defended its decision to leaflet residents in Coventry, asking them to donate scrap metal to help "British" charities.

A BNP spokesman said they were merely addressing the issue of scrap merchants operating in the Coundon area.

Coventry North-West MP Geoffrey Robinson, who was contacted by one of his constituents about the leaflets, called it "an absurd proposition". Help For Heroes, named on the leaflet, said it was "strictly non-political".

Mark Baddrick, a BNP organiser in the city, said: "This is a local issue that concerns a lot of people... that they are really fed up with this trail of scrap vans trawling the streets."

Mr Baddrick admitted the party had not approached Help for Heroes but said they had done benefits for the charity before.

"We will approach them when we have raised some funds and if they decline the offer of a donation, that's entirely up to them."

Responding to the criticism, he added: "If they're really that concerned, why don't they address the issue we're trying to address instead of criticising our efforts."

Labour MP Mr Robinson, said he could "understand people being very upset" about the leaflet.

"What is the BNP trying to do? It's a political party. They should concentrate on those affairs. The idea they can can become conduit to charities is absurd."

Bryn Parry from Help for Heroes said: "We have no affiliation with any political party and do not endorse the use of our name for the promotion of any political viewpoint. The money we raise supports wounded servicemen and women of every colour and creed. We strongly oppose any individual or political party who believes we should act otherwise, and those who seek to use the charity's name for their own political gain."

Councillor Ed Ruane from the Labour-led Coventry City Council, said the authority had joined forces with the police to "see if this is legal and whether the BNP are licensed to trade in this manner".

BBC

Help for Heroes wristband row: investigation completed

Statement from ASDA

We’ve come to the end of our investigation at Asda Rochdale and can’t find any truth in the allegation that one of our colleagues refused to serve a customer for wearing a Help for Heroes wristband.

Our regional operations manager Paul Rowland said: “We’ve completed our investigation and it’s clear this exchange never happened. We’ve interviewed over 400 colleagues in the store, examined over three days worth of CCTV footage and talked to other customers and we can find absolutely no evidence that a colleague said what was alleged.”

The investigation has taken longer than some people expected because of the number of people we had to interview.

“We are disappointed and angry that right-wing groups are using this mythical incident to whip up racial hatred,” said Paul. “Thankfully the people of Rochdale will see straight through that. We remain big supporters of the work our troops do serving our country.”

Your ASDA

BNP exploit Scots heroes to gain votes

The BNP was attacked last night for attempting to exploit Scottish veterans

Speaking to The Sunday Post in a brief visit to Scotland, Nick Griffin, the controversial leader of the far-right party, boasted how he hoped to use former soldiers to bolster his vote. He was in Hamilton to discuss a potential £100,000 donation to veterans’ charity Forward Edge of the Battlefield.

He said, “It’s politically beneficial for us to be seen with these organisations. We are also involved in other veteran organisations such as Help For Heroes and Soldiers Off The Street. It definitely doesn’t hurt the party to be connected to these groups.”

Mr Griffin also offered to pay for veterans to visit World War 1 battlefields in France. However, his efforts were slammed by former SAS Deputy Commander and past president of FEBA, Clive Fairweather.

He said, “It’s distasteful that a racist organisation is targeting veterans. The army is the exact opposite of racists, I would argue it was one of the least racist organisations going. Our soldiers live, fight and work in foreign lands often side by side with foreigners. Veterans charities should not accept funds from any political parties, from the SNP to the BNP.”

However, Tommy Moffat, the founder of FEBA, has said the organisation has turned to the BNP after being rejected from all other avenues. Tommy, a retired corporal in the Queen’s Own Highlanders, said, “We are a non-political organisation and certainly not racist. We have turned to the BNP because all other funding has not materialised despite assurances from various MPs that it would.”

So far FEBA has received a donation of equipment from the political party which had two people, including Mr Griffin, elected to the European Parliament in June. However, FEBA has said members of the BNP hierarchy will travel to Hamilton this week to thrash out firm details on a cash donation believed to be around the £100,000 mark.

The BNP’s infiltration of the veteran community has recently been attacked by a number of senior military figures. Three ex-heads of the Army were among those to put their names to a letter accusing “those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain’s military”. However, the BNP has said it will continue to use military symbols and pictures of Winston Churchill in its campaigns.

You’ll have a BNP MSP at next election

The controversial leader of the BNP claims the party will have at least one MSP at the next Scottish elections.

Nick Griffin believes his party is increasingly “electable” north of the Border. And he revealed he plans to use forces veterans to help bolster the BNP vote, promising one Scottish group a donation of £100,000.

Mr Griffin made a brief visit to Scotland last week as part of an attempt to galvanise support for Charlie Baillie, the BNP’s candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election. Although Mr Griffin concedes the party has little chance of winning the seat, he says its base of support in Scotland means they could easily return an MSP via the list system.

“The sort of turnaround we are looking for is as little as a two per cent rise in support,” he said. “That is highly achievable. We did it last year at the European elections and in Scotland our support is gathering momentum. Realistically we have little chance of winning the Glasgow North East election. We have a good candidate but Labour is too strong in the area. The SNP have a huge support too and it will be contested by those two parties.

“Traditionally we got very little support in Scotland. However, in recent months this has changed. Where once we got perhaps one positive response per 1000 leaflets, we’re now getting 15 to 16. Although anecdotal, this is usually a decent indicator of levels of support.”

During his visit Mr Griffin was accused of “bottling out” of a by-election campaign visit to Springburn, after an interview at a local radio station in Hamilton resulted in an egg-throwing demonstration. Instead, while the press made their way to Springburn, he visited FEBA, a Hamilton-based charity run for and by veterans. The Sunday Post understands this had always been part of his itinerary.

The charity, the brainchild of former soldier Tommy Moffat, has courted the far-right organisation for funding after alleging several prominent members of the Labour government promised to help fund them, only to change their tune.

On arrival, Mr Griffin was flanked by burly minders who guarded the doors of the charity together with a number of police officers. However, the steady stream of elderly women who were visiting the centre’s cafe all failed to recognise the Euro MP. He spoke to veterans and had a go on the punchbags in the gym — Mr Griffin claims to have been a member of the university boxing team at Cambridge.

But Tommy Moffat was keen to pin him down on a specific donation. Party leaders had told the press they would give the charity £50,000, but Tommy says they’ve only had some equipment and a boiler. Tommy also criticised Mr Griffin for “hijacking the Union Jack” which he said belonged to soldiers who had fought and died for the country, not any political organisation.

But Nick Griffin continued his charm offensive, promising to fund a trip for FEBA veterans to the battlefields of World War 1 in France next year. In a private meeting he also offered Tommy £100,000 in funding, with party officials travelling to Hamilton this week to hammer out details.

Eventually his minders let the press know where he was. Earlier he’d been overheard telling veterans that “the press are all scum”. But speaking to this member of the press, he gave his backing to an independence referendum, while warning that any break up of the UK would be “phoney independence”.

He said, “If Salmond wanted real independence he would split from Europe, where power really lies. Democracy is a decentralisation of power and Scotland has this with devolution, as does Wales and Northern Ireland. We believe Scotland is stronger as part of the UK.”

He also claimed he had received widespread support after his controversial appearance on Question Time two weeks ago. He said, “When I landed at Glasgow Airport a member of the public came over and said the way I had been treated was horrible and that it was tantamount to bullying. He told me he had counted how many words I had managed to get out before I was attacked by someone else. That number was eight. It was a shocking personal attack.”

The Sunday Post

Questions over former BNP member's help for ex-soldiers

A former BNP member is facing questions about his political past after setting up an organisation to help homeless ex-soldiers.

Soldiers Off The Street (SOTS) was founded earlier this year by the BNP's former Welsh secretary Bill Murray and his wife Marie. Despite the couple's previous political involvement there is no mention of the party on the SOTS website. SOTS operates out of an office in Wrexham which is owned by the mother of the BNP's lead candidate in the recent European elections.

Ennys Hughes, the BNP member whose mother owns the building, says that the property was applied for in the normal manner through an estate agent, and that SOTS is 'just like any other tenant, anyone could have applied and got it... the building has been in our family for 25 years, I think at one point Plaid Cymru were in there.'

Despite this, local campaigners have expressed concern over the possibility of links between the organisation and the BNP and have raised questions about how money contributed by the public is to be used.

Dan Roberts, a spokesman for the campaign group Wrexham Against Racism and Fascism, said: "There is no mention on the website that this organisation was set up by key BNP personnel. We're concerned that money that's given in good faith by the general public could be used to fund the BNP's own hateful campaigning."

Campaigners from the nothingbritish.com have written to the Charities Commission expressing their concern that SOTS could be the 'latest and possibly most troublesome example of astroturfing'. Astroturfing is the establishment of an artificial grass-roots campaign which claims to be spontaneous but is actually formally planned and disguises its origins.

In response to the allegations Murray says that he left the BNP around a month before the charity was founded. He stated: "I left because I wanted to set this up (SOTS) because I think it's scandalous the way ex-service personnel are treated."

He denies any existing links with the BNP claiming he resigned from the party on the 15th of August this year because 'politics is all dirty' and he'd 'had enough of policies and wanted to help people'.

Murray states that the claim the organisation is a front for the BNP is "rubbish" saying "let them go to the police if they believe that's the case". He also says that on setting up the organisation he was offered support from the BNP but turned it down because "I don't believe any political organisation should be involved with a charity".

Murray says that though no one involved with SOTS is currently a member of the BNP, he would have no objection to party members being involved. The SOTS website contains a prominent advertisement on its front page for FEBA, or Forward Edge of Battle Area, a Scottish organisation that has received support from the BNP. Nick Griffin originally claimed on the BNP website that the party gave £25,000 worth of help to the Scottish charity. It was later discovered that the donation amounted only to £3000.

Tommy Moffat, founder of FEBA said: "If the BNP want to make a difference the door is open. I have been assured by BNP sources that we will not be politically involved with them, it is only a donation."

The BNP is facing continued criticism for promoting members' donations to charities including the Royal British Legion and Help For Heroes.

Independent

Thanks to Wrexham Against Racism and Fascism for the heads-up.

British Legion accepts BNP gift

The Royal British Legion has accepted a donation from a member of the British National Party, after earlier this year seeking to distance itself from the party with a full-page advert in the national press.

The donation illustrates a dilemma faced by a number of ex-servicemen's charities which have been approached by the BNP.

The money was raised by a BNP member called Rachel Firth, who spent 24 hours on the street in a cardboard box to raise it. The problem was that she donated half of her funds to the BNP, and half to the Legion. The Legion says Rachel assured them the donation would not be exploited politically. But it was then splashed on the BNP website. Simon Darby, the BNP spokesman, denies exploiting the story.

"It's funny how when we're involved, campaigning on an issue turns to cynically exploiting. But that's the spin we have to endure, said Mr Darby. "I don't mind being accused of cynically exploiting the issue as long as the issue gets some coverage."

But this is also embarrassing for the Legion, which initially rejected the donation and then had a change of heart. Furthermore, in June it posted a full-page advert in a national newspaper, accusing BNP leader Nick Griffin of politicising the poppy and asking him to stop wearing it. The Legion declined to make anyone available for interview about the donation. But it has said it will not return the money.

The case illustrates a dilemma faced by other service charities approached by the BNP. Tommy Moffat runs FEBA, a charity which is negotiating £50,000 a year from the BNP to keep open its veterans' drop-in centre in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

'We're at the bottom of the darkest pit, where we could close the doors within the next two to three weeks, and it would be a tragedy for our ex-service personnel. We're desperate," he says.

Mr Moffat will discuss the matter further with Nick Griffin, next week. But he is clearly anxious about taking money from the party. "They're a legitimate party. We don't agree with a lot of what they say. But let me put it this way. It's either risking our reputation or risking that there are ex-servicemen wandering the streets wondering where help is coming from."

The BNP is also offering support to Help for Heroes. Nick Griffin said last weekend the party was planning to auction two books signed by Andy McNab, the former SAS member, and donate the proceeds to the charity.

''Help for Heroes is a strictly non-political charity, we are only concerned with providing direct, practical support for our wounded servicemen and women,'' the charity said in a statement. ''We accept donations from all who wish to join us in providing that support and we make grants that will benefit all who are injured in the service of our country, regardless of colour or creed.''

Mr McNab has since said he does not want his books to be used by the BNP.

Other charities feel donations by the party are simply inappropriate. Ron Smith, who is head of Veterans Scotland, an umbrella group for ex-servicemen's charities north of the border, said he did not think his members would welcome donations from the BNP as "many of our veterans fought in a major world war against a fascist regime".

He added: "Look at the armed forces and you have multi-ethnicity. What would you do with BNP money - not spend it on soldiers of Afro-Caribbean descent? It's a complete nonsense. We're very saddened they (other charities) feel they have to take this money, and they obviously have to clear their own consciences."

Of course the BNP is a completely legal party with elected representatives. But its efforts to make donations to charities dealing with the welfare of former servicemen are clearly raising difficult questions.

BBC

Andy McNab goes after the BNP

Andy McNab has told the BNP, “give me my books back”.

The ultimatum comes after Nick Griffin announced that signed copies of Brute Force and Seven Troop would be auctioned to raise money for Help for Heroes.

McNab – ex-SAS hardman, Gulf War veteran and best-selling author – told Nothing British, “When someone called me to say that the BNP was using one of my books in a publicity stunt, I was sick to the stomach. I served with men of all colours and from many nationalities. They were all equal to me. That’s what the army teaches you. Nick Griffin thinks differently. He thinks the British Army should be for whites-only. He thinks heroes like Johnson Beharry, our only living VC, should be sent back to Grenada.

“He doesn’t understand that what makes the British Army great, and what makes this country great. It’s the way we draw together people from all around the world and give them ideals worth believing in: tolerance, fairness, decency, looking out for the little guy. It’s the British way of doing things. That’s why I’ve asked for my books back. Because I don’t want anything to help the BNP promote their poisonous politics of segregation and hatred.”

Biographical note:

Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.

In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol, an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with finding and destroying mobile Scud missile launchers. McNab was held for six weeks and was relentlessly and savagely tortured. By the time he was released he was suffering from nerve damage to both hands, a dislocated shoulder, kidney and liver damage and had contracted hepatitis. After six months of medical treatment he was back on active service.

Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993.

Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK.

McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers.

Nothing British

(Thanks to BB for the heads-up)