BNP activist told he is liable for unpaid debt

Adam Walker - broke as well as weird

A judge has ruled a North- East BNP activist is personally liable for unpaid debts following a county court hearing which could have far reaching consequences for the cash-strapped party.

District Judge David Robertson ruled that Adam Walker, of Spennymoor, County Durham, must pay £21,000 out of his own pocket to the party’s former graphic designer, Mark Adrian Collett.

A case brought by Mr Collett against the BNP itself, thought to be £700,000 in debt, was dismissed, but the judgement against Mr Walker could still spell disaster for the party. It paves the way for other creditors to take action against activists, who could be declared bankrupt and therefore barred or even stopped from holding political office at any level.

Durham County Court heard on Monday that Mr Collett, 30, was employed as the extreme far right party’s principal graphic designer and Mr Walker was a senior officer and staff manager.

The BNP was described as an unincorporated association with no corporate identity which left senior officers responsible for contracts.

An agreement was made on September 9, last year, between Mr Collett and both Mr Walker and the BNP, which Mr Collett said had been breached. Mr Collett said he only received £750 from the BNP, instead of the £7,500 he claimed was due at the time and, as a result, said the full amount of £15,750 was now liable.

District Judge Robertson awarded Mr Collett £14,250 plus £7,333.60 costs against Mr Walker, but dismissed Mr Collett’s claim against the party.

The BNP’s money woes were highlighted last year when former chief fundraiser James Downson wrote letters to creditors, seen by The Northern Echo, offering 20 per cent settlements. Mr Dowson told Newton Press, a printing firm in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, which is owed £16,500 for printing its newsletters, that the finances were like a “shipwreck”.

Newton Press confirmed last night that the debt was still outstanding.

Mr Walker, 42, of Winchester Court, Spennymoor, said last night he respected the judge’s decision and would do his utmost to comply with the judgement.

He added: “The contract was signed in good faith as party manager and at that time that was my job. I’m not the treasurer and I don’t decide where the money goes.”

Mr Walker, who represented himself against a barrister and a senior solicitor, said he was grateful the judge dismissed an application for the senior solicitor’s fees.

The former teacher said: “To anybody else in a similar position, I would say they should be very cautious about legal fees.”

Northern Echo

Loyalists target BNP boss’s girl over £40K debt

The BNP has fallen foul of a gang of loyalist heavies over a £40,000 debt, we can reveal.

Last week a handful of the gang – who come from east Belfast – travelled to England and Wales where they called at a number of addresses connected to BNP leader Nick Griffin. One of those visited was Nick Griffin’s daughter Jenny, who was running the BNP fundraising/membership office in Dundonald until it closed recently.

The Sunday World understands the debt is connected to a printer's firm based in the loyalist heartland. The BNP used the firm to print election leaflets and other promotional stuff in the run-up to the disastrous 2010 General Election. But soon after the BNP went into financial meltdown and today have debts estimated of at least £500,000.

We understand the BNP have been trying to come up with a financial plan which would see their creditors getting a fraction of what they are owed. They have offered a string of Ulster businesses as well as landlords and other people owed money just 5p in every pound.

Staff made redundant when the Belfast office closed are owed thousands in unpaid wages as well. On Tuesday lawyers acting for some ex-BNP staff served papers on the party demanding they be paid in full. And the printer's company is demanding the cash is paid in full as well and we understand they may have sold the debt on.

Last week the gang made an unannounced call at the home of Griffin’s daughter Jenny Matthys. But when she wasn’t in they called at the home of his father in Wales and delivered the message.

“These guys meant business,” said the source. “The printing company wants their money. They are run by a man who has plenty of friends in the loyalist paramilitaries. There were four men. They called at Jenny’s house but she wasn’t there so they went to Nick Griffin’s dad’s house in Welshpool, Powys,Wales. Griffin’s dad has money and bailed his son out before. The message from this gang was very simple - ‘Pay what’s owed or we’ll be back’. The BNP have left a lot of Ulster business’s in the sh*t. They owe hundreds of thousands of pounds but they have no way of paying up because they are practically bankrupt.”

The deal with the printers was secured by Scottish firebrand and convicted criminal Jim Dowson. At the time Dowson was in charge of the BNP nerve centre which was based in an enterprise park in Dundonald. Indeed Dowson had convinced the BNP hierarchy to base their major fundraising in Belfast promising they would be able to operate in peace. But the move was a complete disaster with rising costs not being met by donations and membership dues.

Dowson and the Belfast office were blamed by members in England for the election fiasco which saw the BNP fail to win a single Westminster seat and lose all their council seats in east London. The Belfast office went on a charm offensive in an attempt to persuade BNP members in the UK that things were OK.

This included an excruciating video tour of the Belfast operation, lead by Jenny and her BNP husband Angus, and showed us, amongst other things, how the membership card embossing machine works! But a few short months later and the Belfast operation (sadly including the embossing machine) was shut down.

Dowson sealed his own fate when he landed the BNP in a costly legal mess after they hijacked Marmite for an election campaign advert. Marmite producers Unilever threatened court action and eventually the BNP settled out of court at great expense.

During their short stay in Ulster the BNP was being run by Griffin’s daughter Jenny, who moved into a small flat in Comber, Co. Down. But she has returned to the mainland to work for the trouble-hit far right party.

Last year her father sent an embarrassing begging letter to all BNP members stating, in stark terms, that the party was doomed if they didn’t cough up some extra cash.

Hope not hate

Decline and fall but not the far right’s end

Few will lament the BNP’s travails, says Sonia Gable. But something worse may supersede it

The British National Party came out of the European Parliamentary election in June 2009 with two MEPs, albeit by the slenderest of margins. These gains – which could have been greater, had it not been for a strong anti-fascist campaign – boosted the party’s respectability and finances, and enabled several BNP activists to move onto the European parliamentary staff payroll. They also led to an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time in October last year for BNP leader Nick Griffin and opened the possibility that the party would take control of its first council in May 2010.

Eighteen months on, the BNP is disintegrating. Party officers have been expelled and it cannot pay its bills. It has lost half its district councillors and its London Assembly member, who now sits as an independent. It is contesting few council by-elections and where it fights, it gets few votes. Members are leaving and it faces crippling legal costs if the High Court rules against the party in the action brought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over racial discrimination in its constitution.
The BNP’s collapse is not really surprising and is the result of several factors coming together. A dysfunctional party of bigots and extremists who prefer bickering among themselves to campaigning, led by a man who cannot bear genuine democracy, reason and compromise, and whose only real skill is in political intrigue and playing off one faction against another, could only go so far. Few people with any professional ability or management skills are attracted to the party and any who have been given party positions – which are in the sole gift of Griffin – have been removed as soon as they inevitably clashed with him. Others are promoted far beyond their ability on the back of their unquestioning support for their leader.

Many members were disillusioned after the BNP’s abysmal failure in the general and council elections in May. Right up until polling day, Griffin had held out the hope of taking control of Barking and Dagenham council and winning parliamentary seats. “We stand on the brink of a massive breakthrough”, he emailed supporters on May 3.

The heightened interest in the contest between the three main parties was only partly to blame for the wipe-out of the BNP. A massive campaign by Hope Not Hate dealt a heavy blow, especially in Barking and Dagenham, where the party’s 12 councillors all lost their seats. And Griffin’s mind was not fully on the campaign, as he was preoccupied with laboriously rewriting the party constitution in an attempt to get away with minimum compliance with race relations legislation, while taking the opportunity to insert provisions to consolidate his absolute power in the party and make it near impossible to challenge his leadership. Only a fascist party would give such power to one individual.

Five weeks before the election came the shock revelation that the BNP’s head of publicity had been arrested for threatening to kill Griffin. Mark Collett, who was in charge of producing the BNP’s election literature, was also accused of “financial irregularities and scamming” and of trying to sabotage the party’s campaign. He was suspended from membership and Eddy Butler, the BNP’s national elections officer, accused of conspiring with him, was relieved of his post.

Collett, who notoriously featured in the television documentary Young, Nazi and Proud, in which he said he was inspired by images of German Nazis “sieg heiling” in the streets, was unpopular within the BNP. In accusing him of financial irregularities, Griffin was undoubtedly trying to deflect attention from his own long record of financial mismanagement that would eventually result in the party’s near bankruptcy.

Searchlight has long been on the trail of the BNP’s dodgy finances. For the past few years, BNP national treasurers have lasted only a few months in the job. In 2004, a new treasurer shredded the financial records held by his predecessor. Accounts are delivered late to the Electoral Commission. The 2009 accounts are nearly five months overdue and the 2008 accounts remain under investigation because the auditors were unable to report that they represented a “true and fair view” – a devastating verdict for any organisation.

A major issue in the rebellion within the BNP at the end of 2007 was the incompetence of the treasurer and deputy treasurer. Griffin sided with the treasurers and expelled the rebels. He also brought in James Dowson to kick life into the party’s fundraising ability. Dowson, a man with criminal convictions, who had achieved some success for a militant anti-abortion campaign, made some headway for the BNP. Although many members complained about the constant begging letters, they brought in money.

But Dowson brought with him the seeds of the BNP’s destruction. Searchlight relentlessly exposed every lie, such as the claim that the BNP had bought its own advertising lorry, the misnamed “truth truck”, which remained all the time in Dowson’s ownership. Searchlight also tracked Dowson’s takeover of the bulk of the BNP’s assets and operations, including the leases for party offices and the Belfast call centre, opened before the European elections.

Searchlight’s accusation that Dowson owned the BNP reached the ears of many BNP activists, who were already unhappy at how Dowson, who claimed not even to be a BNP member, had, in effect, become Griffin’s consigliere. Worse, he was being paid £160,000 a year for this. And faster than Dowson brought in the money, Griffin spent it – on long, drawn-out and inept legal battles, unfairly dismissing employees and deliberately provoking Unilever by using a Marmite image in a party election broadcast.

All that might have been forgiven had Griffin brought home the election goods in May. As it was, it sparked an attempt to challenge his leadership. Butler, the sacked elections officer, had no disagreements with Griffin on policy, but condemned his financial and administrative incompetence, his reckless legal actions and Dowson’s excessive power. Griffin pulled out all the stops to prevent Butler getting the almost impossibly high number of signatures needed to require a leadership election, imposing rigid procedural rules and suspending several of Butler’s supporters from party membership.

Inevitably Butler failed and was expelled. He now sits on the sidelines, promoting a new party constitution and exposing Griffin’s continued shortcomings in the belief that he can still rescue the BNP. Some of those who supported Butler’s challenge have formed a new party, the British Freedom Party, largely based in the south-west of England. Ironically, it replaced its first treasurer less than a month after his appointment. With similar policies to the BNP and no charismatic personalities, it is likely to follow the Democratic Nationalists, formed by the rebels of December 2007, into near oblivion.

The BNP continues to lose members rapidly. It has debts that even when Dowson’s fundraising was at its peak, it would have struggled to pay. These debts could cost Griffin his treasured seat in the European Parliament if he is held personally responsible for them and made bankrupt. Dowson appears to have walked out, while Griffin’s dwindling band of henchmen, who now include Patrick Harrington, an old comrade from Griffin’s days as a National Front “political soldier”, are constantly bickering with one another and jockeying for petty positions.

The BNP may limp on, as does the NF, which still insults Britain’s war dead on an annual basis by marching to the Cenotaph on the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday. Few of the BNP’s ex-supporters have joined other far-right parties. The risk is that, disillusioned with electoral politics and with a simplistic outlook on the world, they will be attracted to the English Defence League’s brand of Islamophobia and street violence, fuelled by outrageous and irresponsible daily attacks on Muslims in the right-wing gutter press.

Sonia Gable is deputy editor of Searchlight

Tribune

BNP leader Nick Griffin could lose Euro seat as party faces bankruptcy

Porky Griffin: nearly bankrupt - again!

Griffin could lose Euro seat as party faces bankruptcy

BNP leader Nick Griffin faces being axed as a Euro MP as he fights to avoid bankruptcy over his party's soaring cash crisis. He is among top officials thought to be personally liable for the racist group's £700,000 debts - which it admits it cannot pay. Anyone made bankrupt is legally barred from being an MP or Euro MP.

The BNP's money woes were laid bare by ex-chief fundraiser James Dowson in a letter seen by the Mirror. Mr Dowson told North-East printers who produced its newsletter that the finances were like "a shipwreck".

He added: "Cash is in very short supply... [it is] impossible for the BNP and persons associated with it to pay outstanding bills in anything like a normal timescale, if indeed at all." The "very grave" crisis meant it could only pay 20% of what it owed, he added.

Its money problems have been made worse by having to settle a legal row after illegally using Marmite in an ad and the cost of fighting the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its whites-only admission rules. Meanwhile, electoral chiefs are still probing its 2008 accounts as they contain gaps that breach the law.

The BNP's debt meltdown comes amid a spate of defections and expulsions. Mr Dowson and media officer Paul Golding have left while campaigns chief Eddy Butler and London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook were recently expelled.

Mr Griffin was not responding to our requests for a comment last night.

Mirror

Don't let the maggot off the hook

This article was submitted by one of our readers, The Gremlin. 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.

People are now asking - What will happen to what’s left of the BNP once Griffin has finally been excreted from it? After all, something that falls has to land somewhere, doesn’t it? Another question of course should be - Who deserves the medal for helping to rid us of this saggy-arsed crook?

The last question is of course far easier to tackle. Practically 99.9% of people that have ever had the unfortunate experience of getting to know him personally, including his wife (I also speak personally), hate his guts; so you simply couldn’t make that many medals.

The percentage is probably not much lower for people that are simply aware of what he represents. I’m not talking about racism here, and all the other ‘ism’s and ‘ist’s that are part and parcel of the ammunition thrown at the Far Right; I’m going way beyond that and talking about the person he is.

He is without a doubt a sociopath, we know this; I’ve seen him in action and there is no uncertainty with this. In all his blame-casting, crowing, finger-pointing and two-dimensional speeches, he has proven incapable of exhibiting or formulating even the slightest modicum of empathy. As for the rest of the good stuff – justice (moral or otherwise), sacrifice and hard-graft? These attributes to Griffin are like a good sprinkling of salt on the preverbal slug’s tail. Once again, as I heard his wife say, he has never done a single day's work in his entire life. I believe her.

With Griffin it is about control, cash and a total belief that he is simply better and more intelligent than anyone else and therefore deserves the things he wants. He simply can’t see any wrong in what he does or how he operates. He truly thinks he has a higher calling, a quasi-Napoleonic destiny to do great things and save all us poor plebs from ourselves, however perverted the path to greatness may be.

How ever much opposition groups and parties despise Griffin, that loathing is still at a minuscule level compared with the vast majority of the active Far-Right. Much has been written about Griffin’s ‘alleged’ stealing, lying and general gangsterism within nationalist politics over the years, and now it seems it is all about to finally catch up with him culminating with the ignominious coat-turning of the almost equally vile Jim Dowson – a special second-rate Arthur Daley meets Del Boy meets ‘Penfold’ kind of swindler.

Seriously, did Griffin actually scour these Isles to find someone as bent and unscrupulous as himself? If so, was it so that no questions were likely to be asked by a fellow conman, ‘Thick as thieves’ etc? Or was it so that Griffin could pass the buck quickly onto Dowson should things really get out of hand and the membership start asking serious questions threatening police involvement? The bottom line is, that sooner or just a little later Griffin is going to become completely unstuck, an overweight Hitler in his Welshpool bunker with his unemployed daughter and gob-shite wife.

He is certainly squirreling away as much cash as possible now, in preparation for his re-election campaign into Europe; with or without the BNP. It is here that we (we as in everyone that would like to see him finished) need to concentrate our efforts. I speak for many people when I say that it is not enough that he is simply deposed of his chairmanship of what is left of the ruined BNP, he must be well and truly removed from 'potentially' viable politics for good; cut away like a carbuncle that has sucked people dry for so long.

How do we derail his re-election campaign? There are a hundred different ways, but first we need to see what will happen to him and his relationship with the BNP. It’s true to say that it exists now solely to propagate him, this is what he has inflated it into, but just like anything empty of substance and full of useless gas, it can only be short-lived.

So the pitiful and gaseous foul ramblings of a small splattering of sycophantic followers some of which with literally nothing else in their sad lives, will not be enough to hold him in place. Griffin will however, undoubtedly try to keep this small band of internet warrior-goons together in support as he plans an ‘all or nothing’ type grab at re-election. He’ll use everything and anything if he thinks it will improve his chances; he’ll even throw the kitchen sink at it and sell his mother for medical experiments if he has to.

His ‘Ace in the pack’ of course will be how he spins his first tenure as MEP. He is bound to create a series of lies, a fantasy world about how he has, for the last five years, been waving the flag and only he, and he alone, can save us all, blah, blah, blah. This is where he will expose his jugular.

Each and every one of his wild claims needs to be answered, cleanly and accurately with as much coverage as possible across his North West region, cutting him to bits, making him look a fool and a waste of space. The voters need to know that not only is he a liar, he would also sell them out in a flash. The fact that he pushed himself into being the candidate in Barking and Dagenham in the last general election, hundreds of miles away from their region, because he thought it was there for the taking, is an example of what he really thinks about the people of the North West; everyone in that region should be told about this. The fact, and what a beautiful one it is, that he got utterly annihilated in the general election 2010 and dragged the entire local BNP entity down the plug-hole with him, should also be brought to the fore.

Even if Griffin in his hour of desperation has the temerity to spout that he is no less a useless moron than the assortment of other gravy-train riding, champagne-slurping rubber-stamper’s that make up the European Union, North West voters must be reminded of one other fact. Griffin is the only politician in the EU to my knowledge, that has systematically destroyed his own political party while keeping himself at the top of that crumbling edifice in the name of greed, through intimidation, lies and illegal activity. So what possible use can such a person have when supposedly representing a region of nearly 7 million largely decent tax-paying and law abiding people?

We know that it was only proportional representation that handed him the Euro seat, and that same system can also bury him. What about Brons I hear you ask? I say what about him? He’ll soon disappear in good time with or without Griffin, like Robin without Batman. Oops did I just say Robin, or Robbing? (Allegedly eh, Nick)

Thanks to The Gremlin for the article

Young, nazi and out of a job

Mark Collett: accused of financial irregularities and threatening Nick Griffin

A record number of general election candidates masks a British National Party suffering from internal tensions, a series of embarrassments and continuing questions over its finances

As British National Party members were still taking in the implications of the extensive constitutional changes forced on them by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, they were hit by news of the suspension of the party’s national publicity officer.

A bulletin to party organisers on 31 March accused Mark Collett of “conspiring with a small clique of other party officials to launch a ‘palace coup’” against Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and spreading “lies and unfounded rumours”. He had therefore been “relieved of all positions within the party with immediate effect”.

Collett, 29, was also accused of “financial irregularities and scamming” over printing BNP election material and its Identity magazine, leaking sensitive party information on the internet and feeding “lies” to anti-BNP blog sites. And there had been a “catalogue of recurring and seemingly inexplicable ‘gaffes’ being made at various stages in our preparations for the general election by certain individuals within the party”.

The same bulletin stated that the police had been “made aware of very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety” of Griffin and Jim Dowson, the BNP’s fundraising and management consultant.

The “other party officials” said to ‘have conspired with Collett were not named. However two days after the announcement Emma Colgate resigned as the party’s staff manager saying she wanted to devote herself full-time to the election campaign in Thurrock, where she is standing for parliament and also hoping to get more BNP councillors elected.

“We’re in with a real chance in Thurrock and I want to give it my best shot,” she said. “I cannot properly work fill-time [sic] on the campaign while being paid by EU taxpayers to manage our European staff.”

As it was a party position from which she had resigned, this was a clear admission that the BNP had been ‘using EU taxpayers’ money to fund its party apparatus.

There was also a rapid exit by ‘Eddy Butler from his position as the BNP’s national organiser and national elections officer. His replacement, Clive Jefferson, is a rising star in the party. Appointed as North West regional organiser and national nominating officer last year, he too is on the BNP’s European Parliament payroll.

However 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,” a special meeting of party officers and organisers was told.

The meeting, rapidly convened ‘on Easter Monday, “unanimously” appointed a “four man strong subcommittee” to listen to an alleged tape recording of a conversation between Collett and the party treasurer David Hannam, which the party claims would enable the police 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 committee declared the tape genuine, although the statement did not explain how they arrived at that verdict. However it is understood that the police are unlikely to bring any charges because the tape has been “edited”.

Perhaps the BNP did not really want a prosecution as a court case might reveal a lot more than it wishes to be made public.

Butler’s precise role in the BNP’s Barking and Dagenham campaign is unclear. Last November Griffin anno-unced that Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member, would spearhead the campaign. ‘Perhaps he has not been producing ‘the canvassing returns Griffin expects.

Barnbrook and Butler are both standing for election in Goresbrook ward, where the BNP currently has two councillors. Butler recently put himself on the electoral register in Dagenham, despite remaining on the register at his real home in Loughton, Essex. Barnbrook and Bob Bailey, the BNP’s council group leader, pulled a similar trick at the time of their election in 2006. They got away with it then, but Butler and some other BNP candidates who have suddenly “moved” to Barking and Dagenham are likely to face investigation if elected.

Even so, the BNP has only managed to find 34 candidates for the 51 council seats in the borough, making it near impossible for it to win the 26 councillors needed to gain control.

This is not the BNP’s only problem. Delays have beset the party’s general election manifesto. As we went to press, the BNP said it would be launched in Stoke-on-Trent on 23 April, less than two weeks before polling day. The party has previously announced that its main election themes would be withdrawal from Afghanistan, immigration and “the global warming conspiracy”. ‘On the issue that is near the top in most voters’ minds, the economy, the fascist party has little to say.

Whether the manifesto delay is one of the “gaffes” being blamed on Collett is not known, but Collett would most likely have been responsible for its design and printing.

One huge gaffe unlikely to be Collett’s responsibility, because it occurred on 14 April well after ‘Collett’s departure, was the Normandy veteran fiasco. The previous day HOPE not hate sent an email to supporters asking them to join its big day of action on 17 April. Headed “I fought the Nazis. Will you?” it consisted of a personal message from Kenneth Riley, a Normandy veteran who fought in the Tank Division.

Amazingly the next day the BNP posted a nearly word-for-word identical message on its website, excepted that it implored people to support the party. ‘It was signed off by “Bob Head”, who claimed to have been “attached to the 51st Highland Division”. Instead of asking for volunteers, it solicited ‘£20 donations.

Riley was furious that the BNP had “stolen” his words and put his name to a new email for HOPE not hate to raise money for the anti-BNP campaign. ‘The Normandy Veterans Association said it had never heard of Head and ‘cast doubt on his claimed service record and medals.

Head’s email was one of only a small number appealing for donations for the BNP’s election campaign. Unlike in the run-up to last year’s European election, the BNP’s fundraising effort this year has been lacklustre. No begging letters have been dispatched for some time ‘and appeals on the party’s website and by email have been unambitious. Website donation links go straight to a form without any exhortation to encourage generosity.

The official launch of the BNP’s campaign fund on 10 April claimed ‘that the party had already raised £275,000, including £165,000 in election deposits, and was looking for another £180,000. The party was not being entirely straight. Most general election candidates are expected to pay their own £500 deposits or raise the money locally.

For several weeks the party has been reporting branch meetings around the country that have raised highly unlikely sums, considering that most of its supporters come from the lower socio-economic groups. Revelations that Griffin and Andrew Brons, his fellow MEP, have been misusing their European parliamentary expenses, coupled with the Collett “financial irregularities” accusation, cannot have enhanced the confidence of potential donors that their money would be well spent.

To add to the party’s financial woes, the Electoral Commission announced on 15 April that it had upgraded its review of the British National Party’s accounts to a formal investigation.

The BNP has already been fined £1,000 because its 2008 accounts ‘were submitted nearly six months late. They came with a report from the party’s auditors, Silver & Co, stating that they did not give a true and fair view and did not “comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as adequate records have not been made available”. Even Griffin admitted the accounts were “inadequate”.

The Electoral Commission emphasised that the fact that an investigation had been launched did ‘not mean that electoral rules had ‘been breached. A statement by the commission explained that “no conclusion has been reached and therefore no assumption should be made as to whether a breach of the ‘rules has occurred”.

That did not stop the BNP describing the investigation as “an obviously politically motivated attack” and claiming ludicrously that the party had been assured it would be closed the following week.

Meanwhile the embarrassing leaks of financial information that the BNP tried to blame on Collett appear to be continuing. Earlier this year it emerged that the BNP had paid over £360,000 to businesses connected with Dowson during the first 11 months of 2009, a significant proportion of the party’s budget. This fact and the central position Dowson holds in the BNP’s operations gave rise to our conclusion that Dowson in effect owns the BNP.

The latest leak suggests that Dowson’s hold over the party continues, with more than £51,000 paid to his company Adlorries.com in March alone.

It has been suggested that Dowson was responsible for Collett’s suspension and supporters of Collett have thrown the “financial irregularities” accusation back at Dowson. Many in the BNP are suspicious of the close relationship between Griffin and Dowson, who claims he is not a party member.

Whether Collett’s BNP career is truly over remains to be seen. His Wikipedia page, which was hastily updated to record his suspension, states that his membership was reinstated a week later, though he has not got his old job back.

Collett has bounced back twice before, once after he notoriously starred in the television documentary Young, Nazi and Proud, in which he said he was inspired by images of German Nazis “sieg heiling” in the streets, the second time after the internal rebellion in the BNP in winter 2007-08, when he was widely accused of incompetence. He claims to remain “completely loyal” to the party and has offered to help with local election material.

Searchlight

Mark Collett suspended? April Fool or (very) late Christmas present?

The nazi and so-called nationalist forums are agog with the news that Mark Collett has been, according to a BNP Organisers’ Bulletin, 'relieved of all positions within the Party with immediate effect'.

According to a number of posts on these forums, Collett is embroiled in allegations of corruption, sabotage and possible involvement in a plot 'potentially affecting the personal safety of Party chairman Nick Griffin MEP and senior management/fundraising consultant James Dowson'.

Whether any of this is true is doubtful - particularly when you glance at the date - but we hope so. It seems more likely to be the work of one of the many disgruntled and disenfranchised former BNP members who see Collett as a liability to the party and an all-round arrogant pain in the arse.

The alleged Organiser's Bulletin is below. More info as/when/if we get it.

BNP Organisers’ Bulletin - March 2010

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

For several months the party’s internal security team has been running an extensive and long-running investigation. This was initially tasked to investigate:

1. Alleged financial irregularities and ‘scamming’ concerning the procurement of print, especially large election print run, leaflets and regular publications including Identity magazine.
2. The leaking onto the internet of sensitive party information.
3. The ongoing, co-ordinated and sustained hate campaign, feeding lies to certain anti-BNP blog sites.

More recently, its focus has moved on to the catalogue of recurring and seemingly inexplicable ‘gaffes’ being made at various stages in our preparations for the general election by certain individuals within the party.

As a result of this investigation, a very serious matter has been uncovered.

Earlier this week, the police were made aware of very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety of Party chairman Nick Griffin MEP and senior management/fundraising consultant James Dowson. Formal statements have now been made to the police, including by Mr. Griffin.

We therefore concluded that it was necessary to act on this immediately to ensure the safety of those at risk. Thus the timing of this affair was, from the very beginning, out of our hands.

The entire matter is therefore now in the hands of the police. We are unable to provide any further details in order not to prejudice any resulting legal proceedings.

Since political, as opposed to allegedly criminal, conspiracies are not illegal, we are able to say that Mark Collett was conspiring with a small clique of other party officials to launch a ‘palace coup’ against our twice democratically elected party leader, Nick Griffin, and that in order to create the artificial climate of disillusionment necessary for this to stand any chance of success, lies and unfounded rumours have been spread, and were planned to be spread much further. Mr. Collett has therefore been relieved of all positions within the Party with immediate effect.

All General Election leaflets already with the printers will be unaffected. Alternative measures are already being put into place to ensure that late submissions and local election addresses will be produced. Contact details for this and related operations will be issued shortly.

There is also extensive circumstantial evidence that those involved have been working to sabotage our forthcoming local and national election campaigns. More specific examples and details of such underhand efforts will be presented to an emergency meeting of the Advisory Council and key officials from all over the country, which will take place in the Midlands on Monday 5th April.

All in all, we believe we have uncovered the most serious and dangerous threat to this Party and its officers that we have ever witnessed.

We understand that all the evidence and exhibits are now in the hands of the police who are investigating several serious allegations uncovered by our security operation.

Obviously the safety of those named as the intended victims in this alleged plot and the safety of their families are paramount to this party and the police at present. As a precaution and until the police advise us of the ongoing status of the alleged plot, extra security has been provided to several key party officials and aides.

The timing of this couldn’t be worse but we believe that thanks to the diligent and swift actions of our security apparatus we have prevented a most grievous attack on key individuals and rescued our election campaign from a concerted effort to derail it.

No doubt the media will try to exploit this, but the timing was of course not of our choosing, and we trust that, whatever ‘spin’ our opponents try to put on all this, the public will see that we have employed the proper legal channels and procedures to deal with what many will perceive as just another underhand and deeply shady attack on our Party and the right of the public to an effective democratic choice at election time.

Be assured, this party its officials and ELECTED leader and representatives will never bow down to any form of threat from without or within. The Establishment, our undemocratic opponents and their puppets should take note, that the harder they hit us, the tougher we become. The BNP is still on course for its biggest General Election ever, in the course of which our focus on our opposition to the Afghan War will give millions of our fellow Britons the chance to demand an end to that murderous folly. No wonder the Powers That Be are so worried!

The British National Party: We’re here and we’re here to stay!

Nick Griffin's core values

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Loyalist helps BNP spread race hate message

A Belfast-based loyalist night defended his decision to link up with the extremist BNP.

Former Orangeman James Dowson, who runs Midas Consultancy, told Sunday Life that he had “no problem” providing senior members of the right-wing party with management training and marketing skills. Scots-born Dowson, who is also a hardline anti-abortion campaigner, has been responsible for helping the BNP send letters to businesses throughout the UK in a bid to raise cash.

The loyalist, who makes regular trips to Northern Ireland, helped mastermind the party’s ‘Truth Truck’ campaign [see here and here], which included lorries visiting towns in England to spread the BNP’s ‘nationalist message’. And Dowson, who admitted coming from a “loyalist background”, claimed the BNP’s message would soon be coming to Northern Ireland.

He said: “I specialise in a business pool which includes Belfast and Scotland and I’m proud to describe myself as a loyalist and a unionist. A wide range of organisations come to us because we provide management training and marketing skills. When the BNP contacted us, I had no option but to work with them — it was an exciting business proposal. I understand the truth truck could soon be on its way to Northern Ireland, but that’s nothing to do with me.”

Added Dowson: “The BNP are not an illegal organisation so why shouldn’t I work with them? I don’t think their members are involved in criminal activity. I have worked in Northern Ireland for a long time, but not for any proscribed organisations. The BNP is not a proscribed organisation. It would be wrong for me to pontificate about the views of the BNP and I honestly can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t work with.”

The link between the BNP and Dowson caused concern among anti-racism campaigners in the province. Said one campaigner: “Dowson’s marketing plan is nothing more than a begging letter. The BNP is in very serious financial trouble and this is how they think they can get money. The BNP may not be illegal, but they articulate views which clearly motivate people to commit very serious attacks on minorities.”

Sunday Life revealed last year how Northern Ireland’s only Chinese politician slammed the BNP’s latest attempt at a recruitment drive in the province. The right-wing party published a leaflet — entitled ‘What Now for Northern Ireland?’ — claiming the province was on its way to a “multi-cultural hellhole” and that towns here had become “dumping-grounds” for migrants.

But Alliance MLA Anna Lo said she was “disgusted” by the BNP's intolerant language — and said the party was wasting its time in Northern Ireland “because people are not racist here”.

She added: “There is an element of inciting hatred. There is no attraction in Northern Ireland for this type of politics and I would discourage this party from coming over here. We have always had good race relations in Northern Ireland. There may be the odd incident, but that does not represent the majority of people here.”

In 2006, the BNP’s leader Nick Griffin was cleared by a court of stirring up racial hatred — a move that prompted then-chancellor Gordon Brown to consider changing Britain's race laws.

Belfast Telegraph

Truth truck or lie lorry - Sonia Gable uncovers another BNP financial scandal

“After months of research, we have come up with a better way of spreading the ‘Nationalist Message’ right across this country,” says the message that the British National Party has been sending out to its supporters for several weeks.

“Our very own personal advertising lorry, a ‘Truth Truck’ – brand new and custom-built, complete with a high definition special lighting system for night-time use, and a massive audio system for addressing the public. Can you imagine it?” continues the appeal in terms designed to pull hard at the purse strings of “nationalists”.

There have been personalised letters from Nick Griffin, the party chairman, headed and “last chance to help ‘Operation Truth Truck’”, imploring in underlined type: “Just imagine how you will feel, being part owner of our very own British National Party advertising lorry …”. The party website has carried a picture and online donation form for several weeks.

But behind all the excitement lurks yet another dodgy deal by the BNP to hoodwink its own members.

One appeal letter puts a figure on the cost of buying and equipping the “truth truck” of £39,550, arrived at after Griffin personally “worked very hard researching this project”. It then suggests that “we can knock £13,000 off the amount needed” by opting for a “used lorry in first class condition”. Yet there is no indication on the website appeal that the lorry will be anything other than “brand new and custom built”.

Such a compromise could be explained away as a better use of members’ hard-earned and generously given donations, though that is no excuse for pulling the wool over potential donors’ eyes long after the decision to go for a second-hand vehicle has already been taken. But the lies go further than this.

At first the excitement rubbed off onto BNP members. Posting on the members’ internet forum, one person, who claimed to have “surprised myself by not even hesitating to donate £100 towards the campaign”, said the truck would also “counter commie smear leaflets”.

One discerning poster was more cautious. “Just one thing What happened to Bodicea [sic]?” asked “the benwell hopper”. “Boudica”, as “Captain Black” was quick to correct, was a second-hand “battle bus” and the target of an appeal in 2006 for money to put it on the road. Agreeing that “a few people will be very miffed that it has never been seen by the rank and file”, Captain Black could only plead that “the failings of the Boudica hobby horse should not detract from the ambitions of this new venture”.

Others smelt a rat. Despite Griffin’s claims to have carried out “months of research” before coming up with this “new, innovative” idea, if it comes to fruition the BNP will not be the first organisation in the UK to pin its hopes on a “truth truck”.

Two years ago the anti-abortion UK LifeLeague boldly announced the “Launch of Britain’s first ever ‘Truth Truck’”. A press release on 21 April 2006 thanked supporters who “donated generously to make this project possible” and claimed this would be: “the most innovative and what will possibly be the most effective campaign in UK Pro-life history”. “Operation Truth Truck” would: “enable the pro-life message to reach the unreached across the towns and cities of Britain. These vehicles are wholly owned and operated by LifeLeague activists,” it continued.

There was a picture. And it was no coincidence that the only difference between the LifeLeague’s “truth truck” and the BNP’s one was the particular lie on the billboard, because it was the same vehicle.

The UK LifeLeague and the BNP had milked their gullible supporters twice over for the same truck.

This is not the first time the BNP has had dealings with the UK LifeLeague, and more particularly its founder and national coordinator, James Dowson. Earlier this year many BNP members were angry when they found out that the party was sending key BNP officers on management training courses in Spain. Why could the training not be held in the UK, asked irate, xenophobic party members on a popular nazi internet forum until the site administrators pulled the discussion thread.

The courses were organised by Dowson’s Belfast-based fundraising and management training business, the Midas Consultancy, which has signed a three-year consultancy contract with the BNP. Whether it was because of the BNP’s growing financial difficulties or because Griffin was reacting to criticism of his poor administrative skills, the party has handed over key organisational functions to the self-styled vicar and militant anti-abortion campaigner.

It was Dowson who wrote the “truth truck” appeal letters in professional fundraising style. The Building to Grow appeal at the end of last year was also his work. The BNP claimed that appeal had raised £70,000, which paid for the party to move into the new Excalibur warehouse and buy “a vast array of new equipment” including “an envelope stuffing machine”, which by June had mysteriously disappeared when Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, appealed for volunteers to stuff election leaflets into envelopes by hand.

The involvement of Dowson has already upset some BNP members who do not share his extreme anti-abortion views and think he is a Catholic, which is anathema to many in the nationalist party who view the Battle of the Boyne as one of England’s greatest historical triumphs. In fact Dowson is a Protestant but has been linked to far-right Catholics in Ireland, including Justin Barrett, an anti-EU campaigner and vocal opponent of immigration, which he describes as a “genetic” problem. Back in 2001, when Searchlight first exposed Dowson, Barrett had donated £50,000 so that Dowson’s outfit could produce anti-abortion hate CDs and videos to distribute in schools and churches in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Dowson is a former member of the Orange Lodge in Northern Ireland and has admitted involvement with hardline loyalist groups in the West of Scotland. His tattooed arms are evidence of his extremist hate connections.

The LifeLeague, which is secretive about its finances, uses highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff. Similar actions by anti-abortion groups in the US have resulted in the murder of doctors.

Dowson’s professional “begging letters”, as one disillusioned party member described them, have not been universally welcomed in the BNP. Some see their “tone of desperation” as indicative of the BNP’s “very serious financial trouble”, according to the blogsite set up in support of Colin Auty’s failed attempt to challenge Griffin for the party leadership.

One member is quoted saying: “These bloody letters are an embarrassment, I’ll not pay another penny so he can go and waste it or lose another blimp”, in a reference to the BNP’s helium balloon that slipped its moorings in June because, Darby suggested, David Shapcote failed to secure it properly. The BNP later blamed the loss on a faulty rope.

The letters themselves may have been professional, but Dowson fell down in compiling the mailing lists. Naturally he needed to dispatch the letters to a much wider audience than the BNP’s members, who have little left to give after constant appeals at branch meetings and to support election campaigns. However Searchlight has received a stream of complaints from anti-fascist trade unionists and members of the Jewish community who have received them.

The website appeal for the “truth truck” shows it adorned with the BNP’s ubiquitous election picture of Nick Cass and his family alongside the slogan “Decent people vote British National Party”. The picture, which adorned election leaflets and newspaper advertisements all over the country in this year’s May elections and several by-elections, concealed Cass’s less than decent “tree of life” tattoo.

The symbol, also known as the life rune, is a favourite among nazi groups worldwide and, under Hitler, was used to represent a project that encouraged SS troopers to have children out of wedlock with “Aryan” mothers and kidnapped children of Aryan appearance from the countries of occupied Europe to raise as Germans.

A lying picture for a lying appeal. How appropriate.

This article is from the August edition of Searchlight magazine