Breaking news: BNP loses two more councillors

Paul and Linda Cromie

I've just got news that Paul and Linda Cromie, the two BNP councillors in Bradford, have left the BNP.

I'll write more when I get further information but this is another hammer blow for Griffin as he fights off a leadership challenge from fellow MEP Andrew Brons.

Nick Lowles at Hope not hate

The time for games is over

Paul and Lynda Cromie

Several councillors and media outlets in Bradford have recently received an email from Paul and Lynda Cromie, the two BNP councillors from Queensbury ward, alerting them to a planned National Front activity in Bradford on 20 April, the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth.

Pulled up on their own political allegiance the two councillors claimed that they are not currently BNP members. Have they finally changed their views or simply not got round to renewing their membership? I guess only they can tell us.

You'll forgive me for being slightly sceptical of the Cromies' real motives. Over the past three years there have been a number of occasions when Paul and Lynda looked like they were going to ditch the BNP, only for them to scurry back into the fascists' nest.

I, for one, have had enough of their games. It's time they dropped the BNP publicly or Lynda, who is up for re-election in May, will face a national HOPE not hate campaign to oust her.

Hope not hate

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

Observing the convention that it really is very cruel to mock the afflicted, Lancaster Unity had rarely paid more than passing attention to the ravings of the BNP's most prominent case of spittle-flecked derangement, one Lee John Barnes, the party's foul-mouthed legal advisor, UFO-spotter, scientific researcher, cosmologist, philosopher, composer of E.J. Thribb-style poetry and possible future winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Barnes had long ground and gnashed his teeth in angry tirades against this little outpost of anti-fascism, and probably would have bitten his own tail too, if he had one. All winter Lee smouldered and fumed but what seemed to push him over the edge was the surprise of the Decembrist revolt, which he attacked in interminable screeds of mis-spelled prose so maniacal that we wondered if he wouldn't soon find himself in the guest book of some nearby Happy House.

As Nick Griffin felt that Lee Barnes was sane enough to hold a leading position within the BNP, we forsook convention and opened March 2008 with a post devoted to the antics of the loopy legal advisor, highlighting some of his incisive takes on well-known personalities and even a government ministry:

Jeremy Paxman: "Jeremy Paxman, BBC journalist on a million quid a year and hypocritical liberal arsehole... Paxman your a fucking arsehole mate."

The RMT's Bob Crow: "...retarded Marxist thug... The RMT is run by a clique of political dinosaurs around their own little tin pot Stalin, Comrade Bob."

BBC producer Nasreen Suleaman: "Stupid lieing Taqqiya bitch."

The Home Office: "(for members of the press / government / police reading this I have copyrighted the words THE MYSTERONS to describe the non-Muslim Islamist terrorists who are not motived by Islam/ Islamism. Therefore if any overpaid fifthwit in the Home Office uses my copyrighted phrase to describe Al Qaeda / THE MYSTERONS then I will sue your ass )."

Among other Barnesian treasures we recorded his libelling of journalist (and, apparently, "liberal wanker") Fergal Keane, and noticed the first of his empty threats to take legal action against this site.

One person on the extreme-Right not impressed by Barnes was former BNP member and barrister Adrian Davies, characterised by Barnes as "The Mekon - sad, inadequate dwarf".

This same Adrian Davies, posting on the Nazi Stormfront under a nom-de-plume, had an interesting tale to tell about "an incompetent saddo wannabe lawyer" (Barnes) who took on the case of a BNP member expelled by rail union ASLEF. Davies wrote:

Wannabe had the use of the train driver’s computer to help him to prepare the case. He used it to post grossly libellous attacks on several ASLEF officials on a website called trueaslef.com. These libels were complete inventions of Wannabe’s, but he used the train driver's name when posting, because after all, Wannabe is in his own estimation (though no-one else’s) a very important person indeed, and working class nobodies such as train drivers are expendable.

Barnes had, apparently, posted that the ASLEF officials had stolen union funds and used them to finance five-star Cuban holidays in the company of prostitutes. Davies again:

When the case came to Court, Wannabe went on holiday to Cornwall because he is a coward and a liar, and was afraid to give evidence. The train driver went down for a huge amount despite his barrister's best efforts. The trouble was, the jury wanted to know why Wannabe wasn't there to 'fess up and dig the train driver out of the hole into which he had dropped him.

Another likely candidate for the funny farm was millionaire businessman Paul Cromie, a councillor and then recently appointed Bradford BNP organiser. According to the BNP website, Cromie "is not only a man who talks the talk, but also walks the walk". What this means in BNP terms is anybody's guess, since Cromie had come to the notice of the Standards Board on a number of occasions, notably over allegations of vote-buying and that he had sent pornographic emails via his council email address.

Bradford BNP had been falling apart through 2007, its members openly feuding in a snake-pit atmosphere that brought it to the edge of collapse by the end of the year. In particular there was entrenched hatred between Paul Cromie and former councillor James Lewthwaite, who Cromie wanted expelled from the BNP.

Lewthwaite's siding with the December rebels effectively achieved Cromie's dearest wish, but Cromie was so beside himself with glee that he couldn't resist misusing an internal BNP email list to send out a large number of mails containing a scanned newspaper report of a driving ban earned by Lewthwaite, together with the message that "everything Lewthwaite touches turns to" guano.

Later in the year the BNP would be screaming to the rafters about the Data Protection Act and its leaked membership list, but was curiously silent on the matter of rich donor Cromie's alleged abuse of the same Act. We said:

It's hard to believe that a cretin like Cromie is a retired (and wealthy) businessman and currently a Bradford councillor, and it's difficult to work out why Cromie would apparently breach the Data Protection laws just to cock a snook at Lewthwaite. Perhaps he's just over-excited at having recently been appointed to the organiser role at Bradford, much to the disgust of the rest of Bradford's BNP except for the also-recently-appointed Yorkshire Regional Organiser, ex-Combat 18 thug Adrian Marsden. Marsden and Cromie are friends from way back.

The BBC began its "White" season, a series of programmes allegedly focussing on white working class attitudes. Condemned as "patronising" by some, and as pandering to racism by others, "White" satisfied few and settled nothing. It did, however, provide the flagship Newsnight with an opportunity to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin into the studio and - despite later unconvincing dissembling on the part of the BBC - gave him a perfect and entirely predictable opportunity to vilify Muslims as being responsible for the drug trade in Britain.

The harshest criticism for allowing Griffin on to Newsnight came from the unlikely figure of right-wing former Sun columnist and broadcaster Jon Gaunt, who was appearing on the same programme:

Putting on somebody like that knuckle-dragger. I don't really understand the point. He doesn't represent me and doesn't represent most working class people. He's not a working class guy himself, and the foul things he was coming out with there about the drugs and Islam and the rest if it, and the nonsense about coffee culture just makes me want to puke.

Gaunt, previously idolised by the racist Right, shot to the top of the BNP's hate list in a trice.

With the BNP's campaign for the May local elections well underway the last thing the party of people "just like you" needed was proof positive of "just how unlike you" it really is.

It came with the conviction of would-be London policeman Ellis Hammond, who had lied about his BNP membership on his application to become a Police Community Support Officer. Hammond was convicted of possessing a Tazer gun and CS spray, but according to Searchlight a search of his home turned up the following interesting items:

* 1 CS tear gas canister.
* 1 police-style ASP retractable baton.
* 1 pair of Metropolitan Police issue Handcuffs.
* 1 knuckle duster.
* 8 combat knives.
* DVDs containing hate material.
* Various items of British National Party literature.
* Some obscene material.
* 25-30 mainly imported T-shirts from the USA bearing nazi and white power group symbols and hardline racist and nazi slogans.
* 4 BB guns.
* 1 replica AK47 assault rifle.
* 1 copy of The Turner Diaries, the US publication that has served as a blueprint for nazi terrorism in the USA, written by the late William Pearce, a close friend of the BNP who has played host to them at his National Alliance HQ in the USA and was guest of honour at a BNP annual meeting in east London some years ago.
* And finally, to top it off, a BNP membership card.

Searchlight had deep suspicions about Hammond, who appeared to be doing a stint as a PCSO as a means of easing his way into the Metropolitan Police proper:

It would appear that he was not active in any of the three local BNP branches in Greenwich, Bexley or Croydon, although members of Croydon branch had hinted for several years that they had connections with people serving in the emergency services and possibly the police.

We think that Hammond had been talent spotted by one or more senior BNP officers who were either ex-police or military and groomed to join up and play the long game, acting in spy parlance as a sleeper or deep mole.

In May 2000, 21 year-old Rachel Whitear overdosed on heroin and died in a kneeling position, which, as part of their duties, police photographers at the scene recorded. Later, Rachel's parents bravely authorised the use of one of the distressing police photographs of their dead daughter to be used as part of a nationwide anti-drugs campaign.

The racist BNP, desperate to "prove" Britain's drug problems to be the fault of the Moslem community, shamelessly hi-jacked the photograph to use in its own odious leaflets while never troubling to ask the permission of Rachel's parents, and raining venom down on them when they had the effrontery to object. Rachel's mother, Mrs Pauline Holcroft, branded the BNP's actions "an insult" to her daughter's memory.

This irked the BNP no end, and chief idiot Lee Barnes was quickly on the case with this pop-eyed tirade:

She [Rachel Whitear] was not an angel, she was an accomplice to genocide, terrorism and a funder of the most vicious criminal gangs on the planet as she funded the terrorists and gangsters that cause such misery across the planet. The idea that she should be regarded as a victim is repulsive. Every junkie is a criminal, not a victim. The body of every dead junkie should be photographed and hung on a wall of shame in every community so that young kids can see the real price of heroin. Their lives should be regarded as a disgrace not as victims.

I bet Rachels parents either funded her addiction directly through giving her money for smack (to stop her becoming a prostitue or a dealer) or indirectly when she stole off them. If she didnt steal off of them then she was even worse than a junkie, she was a pathetic heroin tourist who used heroin as a bit of a laugh, a middle class drug culture tourist idiot scumbag. The sort of people who say to other people ' hey man you can dabble a bit with smack and you will be alright' - a facilitator of addicition, a seducer of others into becoming addicts.

The idea we should treat with reverence the image of their dead junkie daughter is repulsive...the idea we should ask your permission to use the image of your dead junkie daughter is not something we need to do.

"The BNP's Lee Barnes: just an arrogant idiot or seriously disturbed?" we asked in our post title on the matter, and our readers were minded that Barnes was seriously "mental".

For the record, the BNP failed to distance itself from Barnes's disgraceful comments, nor did it discipline him or offer any apology to Rachel Whitear's parents.

Lee Barnes's derangement reached new heights shortly after the Whitear debacle, when the Medway Madman began publicly naming fellow Nazi Stormfront posters found guilty of harbouring less than positive thoughts of BNP chairman and friend Nick Griffin. "If you attack us - then we will respond and we will post your name on this site so that the public can see who you really are," Barnes raved about the "gutless cowards", "cockroaches", "red trolls, searchlight spies, scumbags and sectarian filth" he saw under every Stormfront stone.

This was the cue, shortly after, for a night of metaphorical blood-letting on Stormfront Britain, ended only by the intervention of foreign moderators. The upshot was the banning of several Griffinites, and their losing control of SFB's moderation.

Months later the hysterical Barnes would be bleating about the leaking of BNP members' names and addresses, apparently oblivious to his own very similar sins.

A North Wales town councillor who defected to the BNP after swallowing their "we're not racist" lies soon found out differently when an Asian family asked for help in a dispute with their local council. Councillors are, of course, expected to help and represent all their constituents, regardless of political loyalties. The BNP saw things differently and criticised Llysfaen councillor Pat Pattison's actions. Pattison (left, with Griffin) thereupon decided to "dump" the BNP, but the party became aware of his intentions and disowned Pattison first. "The man is a liability," grumbled Simon Darby, "and when you have someone like that carrying your name you have to act."

"Someone like that carrying your name"? This is the party of Lee Barnes!

Shortly afterwards Cllr Pattison contacted Lancaster Unity, saying:

My mistake was joining the BNP. They assured me that they were a non racist party. Well, I can assure you they are racist. They refer to anybody who is non white as 'Pakis'. This shows their ignorance.

At first when racial remarks were made at meetings, I put this down to sheer ignorance and bigotry but in the short time I was a member the situation became intolerable and the last straw came when I tried to help a Pakistani family who are also Muslims.

Now, the BNP hate all Muslims with a vengeance. They don't think that there is good and bad in everyone.

...

The only standards you need in the BNP is to be a racist but people should not under estimate them. They have friends in high places, they are known within the party as 'friendlies'. They are a highly dangerous and misleading organisation and I can assure your readers that I will do my utmost to let everybody I come in contact with, know just what they are up to.

Unwelcome news came when the BNP held Havering Gooshays ward in a self-inflicted by-election. Even the BNP's own pundits, uncertain that the party could retain a seat it thoroughly deserved to lose, tempered their predictions. The BNP had poured resources into Gooshays, and the other parties fought a fierce campaign. In the event, the BNP increased its percentage share of the vote at the expense of the UKIP and (possibly) the Conservative candidate, who stupidly went on holiday when the campaign was underway, allowing the BNP to keep their seat. The turnout was very low at just 22.6%, down from 31% the previous May, indicating that the real winner in Gooshays was apathy, always the BNP's best friend.

The BNP's hatred of Muslims was given an airing in Solihull when the Solihull Muslim Community Association (SMCA) sought planning permission to open a cultural centre. This brought out the worst in the local Nazis, who got up a campaign against the "Islamification" of Solihull and issued dire warnings of "conflict" and "discontentment" to come.

The BNP's pot-stirring fell on deaf ears. A local mother told the Birmingham Mail that BNP leaflets distributed in Solihull could provoke racism. Though objecting to SMCA's plans for perfectly legitimate reasons, she said she was "sickened" by the BNP's leaflet, adding "... for the BNP to seize on these objections and attack the plan on the grounds of race and religion is disgusting. Since that leaflet appeared I've heard people saying property prices will go down, which is ridiculous and dangerous. We all get on really well around here but I'm worried this might stir things up."

The BNP attempted to "stir things up" on Facebook, where they established a page in support of their racist cause, which quickly filled with the usual obscene comments from the party's keyboard army. Hollow man Simon Darby, also as usual, denied that the BNP was racist and fell back on empty threats: "The law stipulates there is a difference between religion and race. If we are accused of incitement by a named person we will sue for libel."

They never have yet. And as if to underline disgust with the BNP, their vote share would tumble yet again all across Birmingham in the close-by local elections.

The Decembrist revolt had by now become all but a memory, but Nick Griffin kicked some life back into their cause when he began a High Court action in Manchester against core rebels Steve Blake, Ian Dawson, Cllr. Sadie Graham, Matt Single, and Kenny and Nichola Smith.

Initial injunctions were granted preventing the six using equipment owned by the BNP, which included its membership list. Of the list, Simon Darby said: "There are thousands of names on the list. They have been using it since December. It upset a lot of people."

This is the very same list that would be leaked in November, when the BNP would hold the rebels responsible for the leaking, then the Labour Party and Searchlight - then deny it was a membership list at all.

A further hearing was scheduled for April, the rebels vowing to contest the injunctions.

Undeserved publicity came the way of dole-scrounger, possible state agent and slug look-a-like Peter "Sid" Williamson (above, with Jill Jerome) when he exhorted the racist legions of Stormfront to join him in opposing a Muslim "march against Easter" in Redhill, Surrey on Easter Sunday. Apart from Williamson himself, only three others turned up - all, like Williamson, associated with the Nutzi British People's Party.

The "march" was in fact a Mawlid procession celebrating the birth of Muhammad, which happened to fall at Easter last year.

Lancaster Unity only noticed Williamson's Redhill adventure as an amusing side-dish to complement our usual fare, Williamson being one of the far-Right's pre-eminent idiots. This Is Surrey Today, online version of local papers Surrey Mirror and The Post, gave rather more credence to the ridiculous Williamson and his three acolytes than they deserved, saying that the 450-strong Muslim procession was "confronted by Union flags".

As always, Williamson's "confronting" took place at a safe distance and on the right side of police lines. Afterwards he raced back to Stormfront to crow about his victory, which the processing Muslims failed even to notice. While Williamson tapped out his words of hate, the procession's organiser, a bemused Mr Mohammed Khalid of Redhill Islamic Centre, said: "I wish a happy Easter to all my Christian fellows."

As the local elections loomed closer and the prospect of losing seats became very real, the BNP attempted to overturn democracy in Kirklees and went to court to have postal voting stopped. The attempt failed, and the BNP member cajoled into making it fell liable to costs. Kirklees council leader Councillor Robert Light said:

"This was simply a gimmick by the BNP to get cheap publicity. Postal voting is part of electoral law that all councils follow. All the BNP has done is waste the time of council officers by going through the process of addressing what was always going to be a futile action by the perpetrators of this bogus case. The judge clearly considered that the application was ill-conceived by not only rejecting the application but also in awarding the council its costs against the BNP. It is an absolute waste of time to challenge statute in this way.”

Also in Kirklees, prominent BNP man Nick Cass spelled out exactly what lies in store for the BNP's opponents should the party ever come to power. In an email to Labour councillor David Sheard Cass fulminated:

This country is falling apart because of the likes of you, but its not finished yet, and let me assure you that like the rest of the people who have sold our people and way of life down the drain for a few shekels, in time when we take control, you and the rest will be facing trial for treason and ultimately the rope.

Not the best advised of messages with important local elections coming up, but nobody ever accused Nick Cass of saying anything intelligent in his whole life.

To be continued...

Of cameraphones, court and Cromie's crap...

Simon Darby breaks the law again...

How intriguing it was to see the public face of the British National Party, its Press Officer Simon Darby, showing his utter contempt for the law by taking snaps on his cameraphone while he zoomed along the motorway back in November and how interesting it was to note that, as far as we know, he was never done for it despite the evidence being on the internet for all to see.

Still, never mind. There's another opportunity for the law to boot this dangerously arrogant driver off the road because he's done the same thing again. Above (the images to left and right of November's illegal picture) are the pictures taken on Darby's mobile while driving - a clear breach of the law that we're going to send directly to the police in the probably forlorn hope that somebody will do something about this idiot before he kills someone.

Another day, yet another court case

The BNP, ever willing to go to court for no reason at all only to lose and have to face the usually disastrous consequences, are to oblige us with yet another courtroom comedy, this time involving five of the party's activists who were nicked while distributing one of their lying leaflets in Swansea.

At least one of the five, who were arrested on suspicion of committing public order offences nearly two years ago, has decided to attempt to make a claim for trauma after being banged up for thirteen hours before being released on bail.

'We sincerely hope that no taxpayers’ money will be provided to a member of this organisation to take action against the police,' said Dominic MacAskill of Searchlight Cymru.

We'd all hope that but it looks like the people concerned have now been awarded legal aid to make their claim. What a pity that the police-despising BNP, which will go out of its way to slag off the force using any pretext, can now attack it in court using the money contributed by taxpayers to keep riff-raff and thugs like the BNP off our streets in the first place.

Paul Cromie and that 'shit' email

Recently-appointed Bradford BNP organiser Paul Cromie, darling of the Standards Board (see here and here), has come under fire from those within the Voice of Change dissident group for sending out 'an unsolicited and illegal email entitled "King Midas in Reverse – LOL"'.

The email, sent out by the man who claimed to be 'computer-illiterate' when investigated by the Standards Board for a number of pornographic emails that were sent from his council email address, was sent to a large number of Voice of Change supporters and BNP members and is a clipping of a newspaper report regarding a six-month driving ban handed down for speeding to James Lewthwaite, a former Bradford councillor and one of the rebels, who has an ongoing conflict with Cromie. The full text of the email, such as it is, is below;

'Here we go again folks, another fine mess "King Midas in Reverse" has got himself into. Unlike the real King Midas,everything Lewthwaite touches turns to (shit) I cant stop laughing. Regards Paul'

It's hard to believe that a cretin like Cromie is a retired (and wealthy) businessman and currently a Bradford councillor, and it's difficult to work out why Cromie would apparently breach the Data Protection laws just to cock a snook at Lewthwaite. Perhaps he's just over-excited at having recently been appointed to the organiser role at Bradford, much to the disgust of the rest of Bradford's BNP except for the also-recently-appointed Yorkshire Regional Organiser, ex-Combat 18 thug Adrian Marsden. Marsden and Cromie are friends from way back.

The Voice of Change mob were not pleased at this unwarranted attack, describing Cromie's childish behaviour as 'disgraceful and shocking' though not entirely surprising. Nor did they let the opportunity pass for a quick sideswipe at Nick Griffin.

'Cromie has been a big donor to the party and therefore is likely to receive no punishment for his recent slanderous comments...this ridiculous appointment by Griffin just shows his total lack of judgement and is another example of the kind of people that Griffin is surrounding himself with nowadays.'

Well, we won't argue with that.

Bradford BNP on the brink

One the British National Party’s most important branches is on the verge of collapse. Electoral defeat, demoralisation and personal infighting has caused the Bradford branch of the BNP to splinter.

It is a far cry from the heady days of 2004 when the BNP gained four councillors in the city and just missed out on several more. That year also saw the branch recruit more members than any other in the country.

Since then it has all been downhill for the BNP. In 2006 the BNP lost three councillors, while gaining only one. The party’s share of the vote dropped substantially in the 2007 local elections and these disappointing results proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There had been deep divisions and suspicions within the BNP branch for several years. The revelation that the local organiser, Andy Sykes, was working for Bradford TUC and Searchlight rocked the party, caused several key activists to drop out and created an atmosphere of paranoia.

There was particular animosity between James Lewthwaite and Paul Cromie. Both became councillors in Bradford South but there was where the connection ended. Their relationship soured as Lewthwaite became close to Angela Clarke, the Keighley councillor who was detested by Cromie and Mark Collett, the party’s national head of publicity.

Cromie was the chairman of Bradford BNP and Lewthwaite was leader of its councillor group, but they both led quite separate groups within the local party.

In February 2006 Angela Clarke walked out of Bradford BNP after Collett publicly abused her at a BNP meeting. At the time she was dating Warren Bennett, the party’s head of security, who was soon to have his own fallout with the party leadership.

Cromie’s relationship with Lewthwaite worsened, with Cromie repeatedly and quite publicly blaming his colleague for the party’s decline in the city. On several occasions he called on the party leadership to discipline or even expel Lewthwaite.

The BNP in Keighley never recovered from Clarke’s resignation. It lost the subsequent by-election and in the most recent council elections slipped to third place in the ward.

Darryn Manby, another Bradford South activist, became the local organiser, supposedly in conjunction with Nick Cass, the Yorkshire regional organiser, who had taken on direct responsibility for the ward. In June 2006 Cass confidently boasted that the BNP was going to put forward a complete slate of 30 candidates across the city and win seven seats.

It never happened and the BNP slipped back further. Cass disappeared from view and Manby accused Collett of “gross incompetence” in a dispute over leaflet designs and subsequently resigned as organiser. He went on to say that Collett was “arrogant and interfering” as the argument, which included accusations about funding, prompted resentment across the wider membership.

A new branch committee was formed in June, with Neil Craig as organiser, Alec Edwards as treasurer, Andrew Clarke as secretary, David Taylor as leaflet and design coordinator and Les Nakonecznyi as sales and publications coordinator.

Cromie was not impressed and refused to get involved. He was furious that Lewthwaite had been appointed group development organiser, and as a result Cromie and his wife Lynda, since May 2007 also a Queensbury councillor, began operating independently of the branch.

The new branch secretary was full of hope that this new committee-led structure would overcome the problems of the past. “The new system is all about a transparent and accountable leadership,” he told members, “a recognised team of six individuals, each with different skills, working for the collective good of the party as we strive to expand membership and increase the size of the BNP vote.”

The BNP operation in Keighley, meanwhile, collapsed. Chris Kirby had taken over the branch and made it clear that he saw it as quite separate than Bradford. But he did not have the stomach for the fight. After a serious falling out with Ian Dawson, then the BNP’s national group support officer, which included refusing to attend a reconciliatory meeting called on the instructions of party leader Nick Griffin, Kirby walked out.

Despite Clarke’s fine words the committee failed, with several people resigning after just one meeting. Frank Brammah pulled out as organiser for Bradford North and Clarke, demoralised at the failure of the local party to work together, quit as secretary.

Craig remains as organiser but has little to organise. The Cromies continue to operate independently and Lewthwaite, who is no longer a councillor, meddles behind the scenes.

As Searchlight watches from the sidelines, it is important to note that these internal disputes are a consequence of political defeat. As we have seen in Oldham, Blackburn and now Sandwell, electoral decline is quickly followed by internal unrest.

Searchlight

Dave Hannam and Mark Collett - the Little and Large of the BNP

In his latest and possibly dreariest-ever blog posting, Nick Griffin mentions the BNP's dream team, Mark Collett and Dave Hannam, peering out of one of the windows of the New Kimberley Hotel at Blackpool during the demonstration we had there while the party's 'annual conference' was taking place.

Despite being ordered not to by the police and the party itself, these two morons chose to stare out at the demonstrators, laughing inanely, rather in the manner of a couple of small children being naughty. According to Griffin, this infantile behaviour earned them 'a verbal wigging', which I presume to mean a pat on the head and a mild demand for them to behave themselves in future or they wouldn't get any pocket money.

In fact, Griffin goes to great lengths to defend their behaviour, claiming that they are both 'very valuable members of our central team', which may come as something of a surprise to the vast number of BNP members who have watched their careers with a growing sense of unreality. The implication is, of course, that they are so essential to the BNP that their misdemeanours can be largely ignored - which should be little comfort to the likes of Geoffrey Wallace.

Mark Collett is in a class of his own, even in a party packed to the rafters with incompetent buffoons, so we'll leave him for a moment and just take a quick look at Dave Hannam.

Hannam runs the disastrous Great White Records (GWR), the alleged musical wing of the BNP, which features such timeless classics as Paul Cromie on the mandolin (comparable, so we've been told, to George Formby on the banjo), and Colin Auty singing rubbishy racist songs about how much he likes to annoy MPs. Most of the songs on GWR's mercifully short list seem to have been penned by Griffin himself, who would do better to stop writing talentless crap and start hassling the party's treasurer to get the accounts in to the Electoral Commission, which has been waiting for them for over six months beyond the due date.

Rumour has it that GWR cost around £50,000 to set up and consumes around £1000/1200 per month in running costs. As it produces hardly any recordings, we can only assume that most of those costs cover rent and wages - something of a sinecure for Hannam at the expense of the membership.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that the accounts for Great White Records are long overdue - in fact as far as we can see from a quick search of records at Companies House, no accounts have ever been submitted (in two years). Hannam is also deputy-treasurer of the BNP, so no real surprise there. For a party that purports to want to run the country, it doesn't seem to be doing a good job of managing itself at the moment.

Dave Hannam is regarded as something of a joke to fascists and anti-fascists alike but it should be remembered that he was convicted a few years back of 'publishing or distributing racially inflammatory material'.

Our low opinion of Hannam is reflected by those members of the BNP who have had to work with him, particularly Ian Dawson, former head of group support. Dawson, in his resignation letter, was scathing about Hannam, describing him variously as completely incompetent and a liar.

Dawson was even more scathing about Collett, who he describes as deceitful, devious, arrogant, spiteful, greedy and a moron. According to the Dawson letter, Collett was directly guilty of causing the resignation of Andrew Spence, which itself led to the resignation of Scott McLean, Griffin's Deputy Chairman. Even without these two high-profile resignations, Collett has caused havoc, repeatedly upsetting Sadie Graham at Advisory Council meetings, deliberately sabotaging Chris Beverley's Excalibur business (which sells overpriced tat to gullible BNP members) and calling Kenny Smith a liar on several occasions.

Collett leads a charmed life - or he has so far. The appalling film Young, Nazi and Proud should have seen him kicked out of the BNP, which has spent the past decade attempting to hide its Nazi leanings. If that didn't do it, his anti-gay comments in Russell Brand's Naziboy (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) should have done it, but sadly didn't.

Not even Ian Dawson's revelation that Collett has said on several occasions and in front of witnesses that 'if I don't get my way I will go Queen's evidence on Nick' has had the desired effect of having this idiot booted out of the party.

Now, however, things might be changing.

Yesterday saw the opening of a new blog entitled 'Enough is enough'. According to its statement, 'it's time to eject Collett and Hannam from the BNP before their arrogance, lies and incompetence brings [sic] us all down. So come on Nick, enough is enough!'

Clearly, there are some members of the party who have reached the end of their tether. A fuller statement on the site says;

'This site is not meant as attack on the BNP. It has come about because of the widespread damage being inflicted by this due on the Party and the shocking lack of action taken by the BNP (or more accurately Nick Griffin) to sort the problem out.

Morale is at an all-time low despite an all-time high number of members and councillors.

EIE believes it is time to start publicly exposing the pair in the hope that action will finally be taken to rid the BNP of these sleazy, lying, incompetent scumbags.

The BNP has lost enough good people already and we don't want to lose any more. It's time they went instead!'

Hannam and Collett have avoided censure for a long time though word has it that they both received written warnings after the 2006 conference when it was alleged by an awful lot of people both inside and out of the BNP that they got a couple of schoolgirls (variously claimed to be between thirteen and fifteen) into the hotel. Since this event, there has been a campaign by disgruntled BNP members to get rid of them, though it has been slow to grind into action.

Whether this event actually happened in the way it is suggested, is debatable. Certainly Hannam and Collett were in a hotel room with a couple of young females - that much is clear from a snippet of film we were sent a few weeks ago, though it's probably best if we say nothing more about that for the moment just in case any criminal charges are in the offing.

Suffice to say that Hannam and Collett, the would-be Little and Large of the BNP, are in for a rough ride over the next few weeks. We look forward to any future revelations about their behaviour with eager anticipation.

BNP cracking the whip to get attendance up at the RWB

News reaches us that senior officers in the BNP are having to hassle the troops to attend the annual booze-fest, the BNP's Red, White and Blue event.

After the refusal of the former landowner to allow it to go ahead on his property (thanks in part to a massive outcry on Indymedia when it became known that the RWB and the Northern Green Gathering had shared the same space, and partly due to the fact that the landowner could make more from a couple of car boot sales than he ever could from the near-bankrupt BNP) the event was moved from its former home at Clitheroe to the field owned by BNP-waster Alan Warner at Denby in Derbyshire.

Obviously none too happy about this, the BNP membership is staying away in droves, meaning that Phil Edwards, the BNP's liar-in-chief (spokesman) is going to have to exaggerate somewhat when reporting on the attendance figures.

The figure of ten thousand has already been suggested and appears to be the baseline upon which the success or failure of the August 4th/5th event will be judged. This seems far from likely - many BNP members despise the whole RWB thing as appealing to the very worst elements in the party, particularly after former BNP councillor and well-known football hooligan Luke Smith glassed a member of Nick Griffin's security team in the face a couple of years back.

Apart from the ever-present possibility of violence breaking out, there are continuous problems with fat drunken nazis wandering around, improperly supervised firework displays, lack of provision for dealing with medical emergencies, no criminal checks on the people the BNP have got looking after the children on site and the possibility of accidentally having to listen to a crap band like Red Claire, led by the utterly-appalling Paul Cromie, Bradford BNP councillor and mandolin-plunker. And as if all this isn't dodgy enough, there's also a risk of having to sit and endure hours of speeches by Hitlerite cretins like Mark Collett.

Naturally people are not finding the prospect all that enticing and our correspondents are telling us that aggressive calls are being made to some local organisers to get their people over to Derbyshire this weekend by hook or by crook or, and the threat is clear though undefined, there will be trouble.

Nick Griffin, ever-paranoid, will be wanting to use the weekend to reassure the troops that all is well at HQ and he will no doubt remind them again and again of his 91% win over Chris Jackson in the recent leadership challenge (no doubt conveniently forgetting to mention that well under half of the voting members in the party could be bothered to return the ballot forms). Perhaps he'll also explain why the accounts haven't yet been submitted to the Electoral Commission, incurring unnecessary fines that the membership have to subsidise out of their fees.

We've had it reported to us again and again that morale in the BNP is at rock-bottom. No by-election wins for years, no new councillors at the last elections (despite a record number of candidates standing), constant accusations of financial chicanery, ludicrous new business ventures popping up like mushrooms, prominent members resigning following deeply offensive but seemingly approved verbal attacks by Griffinite bully-boys and BNP-approved fruitcakes being banged-up for storing bomb-making materials in their houses. And now the membership is being bullied into going to the RWB! It's no wonder morale is a tad on the low side.

We all know the RWB is going to be a disaster - particularly if the rain heads over that way at the weekend - but for Griffin in particular the stormclouds seem to be gathering and looking decidedly ominous.

Outcry as watchdog fails to act on BNP £5 gift to voters

The Standards Board for England has come under fire for failing to take action against a BNP councillor who sent out £5 notes to pensioners in Christmas cards ahead of an election. A probe by the local government watchdog found that the actions of BNP councillor Paul Cromie could be considered an "inducement" for votes – but it failed to act against the member for Queensbury, Bradford.

Bradford Council's leader, Coun Kris Hopkins, told the Yorkshire Post: "Putting five pound notes in envelopes and handing them out to voters seems to be as clear a breach of the rules as you are ever likely to see. It is equally disturbing that it has taken seven months for the Standards Board to reach its conclusion and, even then, I believe the verdict is weak bordering on farcical."

Coun Cromie was reported to the board after he gave the money to more than 200 people living in sheltered housing in his ward, only months before his wife, Lynda, was elected as a BNP councillor for the same ward with a slim 155 majority. The board report states: "As the gifts were directly linked to the name and to the party, they could have also been considered as an inducement to vote for Coun Cromie's wife."

The board ruled that his actions brought his office into disrepute.

Bradford's Liberal Democrat group leader, Coun Jeanette Sunderland, said she was "astonished" at the reaction from the Standards Board for England. Labour group leader for Bradford, Coun Ian Greenwood, echoed the call for stronger action by the board. "I think it sends out a very weak signal," he said.

Coun Cromie has always insisted that the donations were made as a goodwill gesture from his councillor's allowance. He said: "I have been donating to Queensbury charities for 30 years and I am not going to stop now. Obviously I will be careful and make sure it is done within the code."

Yorkshire Post

BNP man's cash gifts broke rules

A BNP councillor breached a strict code of conduct by sending £5 notes in Christmas cards to pensioners, a probe has found.

The Standards Board for England has ruled that Queensbury Councillor Paul Cromie's actions could be considered to be an "inducement" for votes. Coun Cromie was reported to the Board after he gave the cash to more than 200 people living in sheltered housing in his ward last December - only months before his wife Lynda was elected as a BNP councillor for Queensbury with a slim 155 majority.

The Board, which enforces ethical standards, has ruled that Coun Cromie's actions brought his office into disrepute. But its decision to take no further action against him has been criticised by political group leaders in Bradford.

Coun Cromie has always insisted the donations were made as a goodwill gesture from his councillor allowance and was not made aware on any problems when he checked with Council officers.

It follows an incident earlier last year at the same housing complex where Coun Cromie was reported to the police over claims he bought votes by paying £100 for a Christmas party. It led to allegations the Conservative candidate was later turned away from the home during canvassing for last year's local election as a direct result.

Coun Cromie refuted the "votes for treats" allegations and the police later confirmed their probe came to nothing. But the Board referred to these allegations in its report, released yesterday, saying: "The ethical standards officer concluded that an objective member of the public, with knowledge of the relevant facts, could well view Coun Cromie's donation as a reward for turning away the Conservative councillor or an inducement to vote for the BNP in the forthcoming elections."

The Board also said that it was "inappropriate" for Council members to link their continuing position as a councillor to a resident's direct financial gain - Coun Cromie had signed the cards in the second incident using his official title and included his Council business card and the BNP party logo,.

It happened only months before the local elections in May when Coun Cromie's wife Lynda, was standing as a BNP candidate. The board report states: "As the gifts were directly linked to the name and to the party, they could have also been considered as an inducement to vote for Coun Cromie's wife.

"The implication that any member might have been elected because of gifts to voters erodes confidence, not just in that member, but in local democracy."

Mrs Cromie was elected to the same ward earlier this year, polling 1,718 votes and defeating Conservative Councillor Stuart Hanson by 155 votes. The report then refers to a conversation Coun Cromie had in July last year when he told a senior Council officer about giving £500 to a local church. He also promised a donation of £50 a month from his allowance through his term of office. He had asked whether he needed to inform the officer every time he gave money to a worthy cause, the report says. And the officer said this was not necessary - which "contributed to Coun Cromie's confusion about the manner in which a councillor may give gifts".

Councillors are free to make donations to anyone as a private individual.

Today Labour group leader, Councillor Ian Greenwood, said: "I think he's been extremely lucky that the Standards Board has been so lenient when it is clear he breached the code of conduct. My view is that it is totally unacceptable to send money to voters if you are an elected member."

Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: "I am surprised that the Standards Board has not recommended some form of suspension or his removal. I think Coun Cromie has shown extremely poor judgement in terms of his own personal behaviour."

The Council's ruling Conservative group did not want to comment.

Michael Bowness, the Council's interim head of legal services, said: "We note the findings of this report and following this case we are drawing up clear guidelines for members regarding donations, charitable or otherwise."

Responding to the report's findings, Coun Cromie said: "I did e-mail the Council and said I would be making donations throughout my time as councillor and was simply told there is no criteria for notifying them of gifts. Otherwise I would not have done it. I have been donating to Queensbury charities for 30 years and am not going to stop now. Obviously I will be careful and make sure it is done within the code."

It is not Coun Cromie's first brush with the Board. In October last year he was investigated over an e-mail containing pornographic images - and was later cleared of breaching the code.

Telegraph and Argus

Racism row over BNP song

A BNP councillor has been accused of attempting to incite racial hatred in a song he wrote for his Irish band. Dewsbury East councillor Colin Auty wrote the song Savile Town, Where's It Gone? in reference to a mainly-Asian community in the town he serves.

Now Labour MP for Dewsbury Shahid Malik has said Coun Auty is guilty of deplorable behaviour and he has made a complaint to the local authority watchdog, the Standards Board for England.

Coun Auty plays in an Irish band called Red Claire with Bradford BNP councillor Paul Cromie and other BNP members. The song snipes at the perceived loss of British ideals. It also berates the community as a place rife with "smack" and even hints at paedophilia within the town.

Mr Malik, who claimed the councillor's choice of song was akin to that of a preacher of hate, said: "The straightforward message behind the lyrics is that Savile Town is populated by foreigners who do not speak English. That it is a place where residents openly sell heroin and that these people are paedophiles."

He added: "As an elected member, Auty is in a position of responsibility, trust and authority and by writing and performing lyrics such as these he is bringing his position and suitability into disrepute and question. Coun Auty has fallen so far beneath the required mark that I felt it was my duty to refer the matter to the Standards Board to investigate."

But BNP spokesman Nick Cass defended the song.

He said: "It has come to our attention that Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik has contacted the Standards Board and submitted a Press release to newspapers and radio stations about a song which was printed in the BNP's newspaper the Voice of Freedom, written and produced by BNP Coun Colin Auty. The song is a generalisation of what has happened to Dewsbury and the rest of Britain in the wake of mass immigration. It points out how British culture and the British way of life has been replaced in certain areas by another culture from another country. It is about how mass immigration creates a country within our country and replaces our ideals and heritage. We make no apologies for this song as every word in it is true, and can back up with argument any of the points raised within the song. If Mr Malik would like to contact us we will even sing it to him."

Yorkshire Post