BNP: The Fraud Exposed

Nick Griffin's British National Party, already under investigation for breaches of electoral law, is facing fresh allegations of corruption. Panorama uncovers new evidence of financial documents being falsified and fabricated in order to deceive the Electoral Commission. The programme also has evidence of the BNP's failure to declare major donations to the party.

As Darragh MacIntyre reports, the BNP, which is better known for its controversial views on race, is in debt and according to its own published accounts appears to be technically insolvent.

Mon 10 Oct 2011 20:30 BBC One
Thu 13 Oct 2011 04:30 BBC News Channel
Fri 14 Oct 2011 00:25 BBC One (except Northern Ireland, Wales)
Fri 14 Oct 2011 01:25 BBC One (Northern Ireland only)
Sun 16 Oct 2011 20:30 BBC News Channel

BNP: The Fraud Exposed

Nick Griffin's British National Party, already under investigation for breaches of electoral law, is facing fresh allegations of corruption. Panorama uncovers new evidence of financial documents being falsified and fabricated in order to deceive the Electoral Commission. The programme also has evidence of the BNP's failure to declare major donations to the party.

As Darragh MacIntyre reports, the BNP, which is better known for its controversial views on race, is in debt and according to its own published accounts appears to be technically insolvent.

Panorama: Mon 10 Oct 2011 20:30 BBC One

BBC

'Nazi Leaks' And The NPD - Leak Of 60,000 Far-Right E-Mails Reveals Extremist Chaos

A massive leak of internal communications, dubbed "NaziLeaks," has embarrassed Germany's far-right NPD. The roughly 60,000 e-mails which have been obtained by SPIEGEL reveal blatant racism, internal strife and shady financial dealings within the party.

Udo Voigt, the chairman of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), had hoped that 2011 would see the radical right make an important step forward in Germany. On Jan. 1, a merger with its rival far-right party, the German People's Union (DVU), went into effect, thereby combining their numbers just in time for a year that will see parliamentary elections in seven of Germany's 16 federal states. In a New Year's speech, Voigt confidently told his supporters that 2011 would be a "small super-election year."

"State elections, municipal elections -- Germans will finally get a chance to punish those at the top," Voigt said, looking straight into the camera. "We have a chance. We have a program for the future."

Now, less than six weeks later, Voigt's cockiness has given way to disillusionment. For the second time since 2008, tens of thousands of internal party e-mails have been leaked. SPIEGEL, along with other publications, has been given access to more than 60,000 e-mail messages from the accounts of NPD politicians. The party has labeled the people behind the leaks "criminal suppliers." It remains unclear whether the digital information came from a disgruntled individual within the party's headquarters or was obtained by a hacker.

The e-mails lay bare the chaotic internal life of the far-right party. They testify to the problems encountered during the merger with the DVU, shady finances related to state election campaigns and internal wrangling that often degenerated into hateful words and insults toward other party members.

The e-mails also document blatant racism. One senior Bavarian NPD official writes about "Kanacken," a racist term of abuse directed against people of immigrant descent, while a well-known neo-Nazi from the southwestern city of Aschaffenburg reflects on the "National Socialist movement." One NPD official from Hamburg complains about another party member having a "Negress" as a Facebook friend.

Sensitive Details about the NPD-DVU Merger

Still, the most awkward details from the data leak regard Voigt's prestige project, the NPD's merger with its former rival, the DVU. They disclose that there was massive resistance to the move within the DVU. One DVU member wrote in an e-mail sent ahead of Dec. 12, the day of the party convention where the merger was voted on, that DVU chairman Matthias Faust would get to experience his own "Waterloo" -- in other words, a total defeat. In order to help the merger go through, one NPD official from the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg offered the support of a "Kampfgruppe" (a term associated with the Nazi era, referring to a combat unit) from the city of Schwabisch Hall. The unit, the official wrote, could be transported in a rental van to the DVU convention, which was being held in Kirchheim, a small town in the eastern state of Thuringia. "Nine men cost €524 ($710)," he wrote. The fee included €45 for meals, he explained, "as an incentive."

However, it would appear that not all of the van's passengers would be eligible to vote. The NPD official asked Faust to supply him with a "back-dated DVU membership card and a back-dated invitation" for his girlfriend, who would be coming along. When approached by SPIEGEL, Faust denied having supplied a back-dated membership card or invitation. Talk of the "Kampfgruppe" could only have been "a joke," he added, saying that "absolutely no combat units were present" at the convention. What's more, he said, guests wouldn't have been allowed to vote.

A majority of people attending the Dec. 12 convention voted for the merger. Since then, the right-wing extremists have been calling their common party "NPD -- The People's Union." Still, the merger is far from being a done deal. After the vote was held, senior officials representing DVU associations in four states complained of voting improprieties, such as not having been given enough time to properly review and respond to certain documents in the run-up to the vote. In January, a state court in Munich sided with the complaining officials, declaring that the vote did not meet democratic requirements and that a new vote would have to be held before a merger agreement could be signed.

Money Problems and Inflated Ambitions

In addition to such legal troubles, the NPD continues to struggle with financial shortfalls. The NPD is hoping that it will clear the 5 percent hurdle in the March 20 election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt and secure seats in the state parliament. But, to support its campaign, the party has apparently been forced to meet its financial needs with the help of private loans.

According to one of the internal emails, the family of Udo Pastors, the deputy head of the NPD in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, extended a €25,000 loan to the Saxony-Anhalt campaign organization under his wife's name. Ironically, Pastors, an avowed critic of capitalism, is charging the Saxony-Anhalt brethren 3.5 percent interest on the loan and only appears to trust his notoriously cash-strapped party to a certain degree: As collateral for the loan, Pastors demanded a guarantee from the NPD's national organization, which had to be personally signed by the NPD's national leader Udo Voigt.

This, in turn, does not seem to have entirely conformed to Voigt's understanding of loyal camaraderie. In an e-mail to Matthias Heyder, the NPD's lead candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state elections, Voigt grumbled that it was "a joke that, of all people, a man as well-off as Udo (Pastors) still wants a guarantee in this case." Pastors has confirmed the existence of the loan but refuses to provide any additional details. Voigt opted to not respond to questions regarding the loan.

The financial shortages also have something to do with the costly campaign in Saxony-Anhalt as well as with Heyder himself and his at times ambitious campaign plans. For example, although he is just a regional politician, Heyder wanted to have a "documentary" filmed about him in which he flies "from appointment to appointment" in an airplane and is welcomed upon arrival at airports. What's more, as Heyder wrote to the NPD's media relations officer, he wanted to have members of the press accompany him on his flights, who would get to see "real rallies" whenever he landed. The point of all these staged events would be to portray the NPD as a serious party -- despite the fact that recent polls put its support at a meager 3 percent -- and to help it secure the votes it needs to win seats in the state parliament. Heyder has also declined to respond to inquiries.

NPD Struggling to Mobilize Supporters

While the NPD in Saxony-Anhalt have their heads in the clouds, their colleagues in Baden-Wurttemberg are having a hard time mustering enough people on the ground. The NPD in the state is suffering from mobilization problems: The far-right party has to collect 150 valid signatures in each election district in order to be allowed to field their own candidates in the state parliamentary election on March 27.

In December, Janus Nowak, a local party official from the town of Boblingen, wrote an e-mail with "ALARM" in its subject line. In the e-mail, he reported that, despite months of trying, party members were "apparently incapable" of even "getting merely a single signature per day." In order to increase the yield, the NPD official provided the would-be signature-gatherers with detailed suggestions on how they "could address people on the street and be successful." For example, he suggested that every pitch should begin with the words: "Hello, I'm not trying to sell anything. No vacuum cleaners or washing machines or anything."

Once they had gotten that far, campaign workers were instructed to make sure "to look people in the eye," rather than looking at their clipboards, and to avoid saying anything too "complicated." The most important piece of advice regarded what came last: "Say 'Thank you' and don't talk too much." The idea of deploying professional signature collectors, such as an "NPD organizational wizard" from the town of Volklingen, was even considered. But the man in question appeared to lack selfless dedication to the party. Instead, as Nowak complained in an e-mail, he asked for "€1,000 a week" in addition to "meals + additional helpers + information kiosks + accommodation." Nowak also declined to comment on the e-mail exchanges.

'Capitalist' Scheme

Rudolf Schützinger, a member of the NPD's executive committee in Baden-Wurttemberg, also gave some thought to how to increase the number of signatures being collected. He suggested paying €1 to "each collector who turns in an acceptable, unauthenticated signature" and €2 for every authenticated signature.

Schutzinger also had another idea up his sleeve: attracting campaign donors with a sort of "profit-sharing" scheme. He suggested that, if the party succeeded in winning more than 1 percent of the vote, donors would get their "entire donation back within a set time frame + 30 percent." But, if the NPD could "not master" the 1 percent hurdle, donors would get back half of their contribution, while still being able to write the donation off against their taxes. In doing so, they would "have a loss of only 25%." According to Schutzinger, this scenario offered the advantage that the party would not have to assume any "financial risk," while at the same time motivating "the gamblers among our sympathizers" to make donations.

In an e-mail, the NPD official admitted that the scheme had "a capitalist aftertaste" and noted that it would need "legal validation" as far as party finance laws were concerned. In the end, the idea was apparently rejected. Schutzinger also chose not to respond to SPIEGEL's inquiries.

Threat of Legal Action

NPD spokesman Klaus Beier has threatened legal action in response to the publication of the emails. According to Beier, the "e-mail traffic between both party officials and party members, which used encryption technology (was) copied in breach of (Germany's) communication secrecy law" and that "the texts, whose content was probably manipulated" were "provided to the compliant journalists." On Saturday, the news agency DPA reported that the NPD had filed a criminal complaint over the publication of the e-mails.

In any case, Beier refused to say anything about who was behind the data leak or how it came about. He did say, however, that one had to assume that "the system has far-reaching means at its disposal for reading all of the NPD's e-mail communication."

Beier's remarks are reminiscent of the stance that the party took back in 2008, when SPIEGEL published an earlier collection of internal NPD e-mails.

Free Internet Press

A right Nazi mess at the BNP

The BNP is on the brink of insolvency. But instead of its usual tactic of threatening blacks, Jews and Asians, it is threatening its creditors instead in a letter from its money man, Jim Dowson, to its “highly valued suppliers and creditors” with a record of “commitment to the British National Party.”

His letter tells them that it does not value them enough to pay them what it owes. A grave financial crisis was forcing the party to close offices and lay off staff, he says. It was unlikely to “pay its outstanding bills in anything like a normal timescale - if indeed at all.”

‘Good money after bad’

Dowson then tells creditors that “lawyers who have reviewed the underlying contracts to most of the outstanding invoices have advised that most are not enforceable. Many creditors who have supplied good [sic] and services and which were used in connection with the activities of the British National Party may never be paid.”

And it is no use suppliers hiring lawyers, Dowson warns. Legal action against the party would be throwing “good money after bad in the shape of futile lawyers’ costs”. Creditors must accept 20p in the pound or risk getting nothing.

Sex and Marmite: the secrets of their downfall

Dowson blames the deficit – estimated at £500,000 – on the recession and “hugely expensive politically motivated High Court actions by the Commission for Equalities [sic] and Human Rights” to force the party to change its racist constitution. He is too modest.

The party is paralysed by internal disputes. Naïve critics have been shocked to discover that its fuehrer Nick Griffin behaves like, well, a dictator. Meanwhile busty “glamour model” Shelley Rose, who stood as a candidate in Luton, has posted a video on YouTube claiming Dowson made unwanted Ugandan advances to her at a hotel near Euston. “I thought it was safe to stay with him because he was a religious and family man,” the innocent 22-year old says. Alas, this turned out not to be the case, and she says Dowson accused her of being “frigid” when she rejected him.

Dowson does not mention one preposterous reason for the BNP’s indebtedness. In the general election campaign, Griffin ripped off Marmite’s “Love it or Hate it” campaign by putting out a picture of a Marmite jar with the slogan “Love Britain, Vote BNP”. He scoffed when Unilever, Marmite’s owner, protested; but the firm’s lawyers then hit him with a breach of copyright action, which cost the party between £100,000 and £170,000.

Yeast and desist

The BNP operates behind various front companies to place orders without arousing suspicion – the most prominent being Dowson’s adlorries.com. As a limited company adlorries could be sued, which may be why Dowson is offering 20p in the pound on contracts he claims are unenforceable. As a political party, the BNP is an unincorporated association, which cannot technically be declared bankrupt. However, creditors could hold Griffin as its leader and party members who entered into the contracts personally liable for debts.

If senior BNP figures are taken to the cleaners, they will earn a unique place in the history of European fascism: the first neo-Nazi party to have been destroyed by the makers of a yeast-extract sandwich spread.

‘Ratbiter’ at Private Eye

Corsham councillor quits BNP

A longstanding British National Party activist in Corsham, Wiltshire, has quit the fascist party over its failure to pay its creditors, accusing it of committing a possibly criminal act.

Michael Simpkins, who was first elected unopposed to Corsham Town Council in 2007, is the third councillor the party has lost this month.

Announcing his resignation from the party, Simpkins, who works as a self-employed taxi driver, declared: “I am disappointed to hear that The British National Party is not paying its bills. I know from personal experience of two local printers who had to wait six months for payment and that was only after a lot of badgering to Head Office by myself and other officials to get them paid.”

Earlier this month Jim Dowson, who has himself just abandoned his role as the party’s fundraising and management consultant, wrote to the many businesses waiting for payment from the BNP, offering 20p in the pound “by way of debt compromise and in full and final payment of all your outstanding invoices relating to the supply of goods and services” to the party. If they did not accept the offer, explained Dowson, they would “inevitably … end up with nothing at all”.

An outraged Simpkins said: “These are businesses like the two mentioned before that risked all doing business with the BNP and supplied the goods or services on trust that they would be paid. More importantly they will undoubtedly be British businesses, the kind of business we claim to support and encourage.

“These businesses may well suffer financial hardship because the BNP has dried up their cash flow and their families will go without. They may even go out of business and certainly won’t do business with us again. It is not the way I do business.

“As an honourable businessman I cannot stay with any organisation that puts other businessmen out of business or their families in financial hardship. More importantly it is a breach of trust and may even be criminal if the intent to pay was never there in the first place.”

Simpkins, who remained loyal to the BNP leader Nick Griffin through the recent splits, says he will continue to serve on Corsham Town Council until the end of his current term in 2013 and reconsider his options then.

Last week it was reported that Meirion Bowen, a Llandybie community councillor, had left the party in the interests of his family, employment and personal safety. Yesterday it emerged that Paul Golding, a district councillor in Sevenoaks and the party’s communications officer, had quit after a fallout with other senior party staff.

Sonia Gable at HOPE not hate

BNP leaves creditors in the lurch

Any remaining pretence that the BNP is not on the verge of insolvency was blown away when a document headed OFFER OF DEBT COMPROMISE sent by Jim Dowson to the BNP's lengthy list of unpaid creditors surfaced over the weekend.

Dated October 6th (a Wednesday), the document gives the BNP's "preferred" creditors just a few days - until Thursday October 14th - to accept a 20p in the pound settlement, and warns: "Thereafter there is no prospect of your invoices being paid at any time in the forseeable future."

Nakedly attempting to bluff creditors tempted to use the courts to enforce payment, the heavy-handed Dowson claims: "Additionally, the lawyers who have reviewed the underlying contracts to most of the outstanding invoices have advised that most are not enforceable."

This is almost certainly untrue, but it is an admission that the BNP considers any contract entered into with itself is not worth the paper it is written on.

Dowson falsely claims that the "economic downturn" is the cause of the BNP's financial troubles in terminology indicative of how he and Nick Griffin see the party - "The biting economic downturn has made a shipwreck of the financial projections of many businesses, including, it is a regret to say, those of the British National Party."

Later there is a tale (and we suspect that is all it is) of a creditor who took advantage of Dowson's generous offer and then negotiated the same deal with his own creditor, which allegedly "made the difference between his business surviving and going to the wall".

The contents of Dowson's letter are reproduced below (our emphasis added), and a copy of the original may be seen here.

Dear Sir/Madam

OFFER OF DEBT COMPROMISE
Strictly private and confidential,
Not for publication.
Copyright and property title remains with sender
Without prejudice
Subject to contract

I write regarding the matter of payments due on outstanding invoices rendered by you in respect of goods and services utilised in connection with the British National Party.

As you know, today we all find ourselves in an increasingly difficult commercial climate. It is no secret that cash is not only in very short supply for all political parties including the British National Party but in short supply in the wider economy. The British National Party has had to close offices and lay off staff; this is not an easy time for the Party.

The biting economic downturn has made a shipwreck of the financial projections of many businesses, including, it is a regret to say, those of the British National Party. Combined with a massive and still ongoing wave of hugely expensive politically motivated High Court actions by the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, this makes it simply impossible for the BNP or operations and persons associated with it to pay its outstanding bills in anything like a normal timescale - if indeed at all.

Additionally, the lawyers who have reviewed the underlying contracts to most of the outstanding invoices have advised that most are not enforceable. These two factors combined means that many creditors who have supplied good [sic] and services and which were used in connection with the activities of the British National Party may never be paid.

The situation is very grave, and it is a matter of deep regret to us, but I would rather be very open and honest with you than leave you under the illusion either that money will be forthcoming or that legal action will achieve anything other for you than to throw good money after bad in the shape of futile lawyers' costs.

As you are a highly valued supplier and a creditor with a previous track record of commitment to the British National Party, there is a desire to ensure that you are not one of the unfortunate creditors who are inevitably going to end up with nothing at all.

With this in mind I am authorised to do as much as is humanly possible to resolve the matter of your outstanding invoices.

I am in a position, for a very limited period of time, to offer you, by way of debt compromise and in full and final payment of all your outstanding invoices relating to the supply of goods and services in connection with the British National Party the sum of 20p in every pound (20%) due. The offer remains open until 14th October 2010 and is subject to a short written compromise agreement being entered into by you to formally agree and record the settlement.

I know that this is not what you want to hear, and I am very sorry indeed but this genuinely is the best that can be offered you. In the case of one of three creditors who have already concluded such a deal, the receipt of this one-off immediate payment enabled him to make a similar arrangement with a creditor in turn and actually made the difference between his business surviving and going to the wall.

As a 'preferred' supplier I have written to you first in order that you have first claim on this very limited offer. The funds available are limited and will be allocated among creditors on a first come first agreed basis.

Please feel free to call me on 020 7078 8838 or 079 3466 6831 to discuss this at your convenience. Please be reminded that this offer is for a limited time only. Thereafter there is no prospect of your invoices being paid at any time in the forseeable future.

Yours for and on behalf

[PP'd signature]

James Dowson B.T.h. M.A.

Dowson's tactless missive may well prove the prompt needed for one of the BNP's more substantial creditors to begin legal action against the party, which is clearly not a viable financial entity. The endless appeals fronted by Nick Griffin are falling on deaf ears, hundreds have already failed to renew their memberships, and it is expected that several thousand will fail to renew as the old annual cycle looms.

Despite what is for it "good news", the Eddy Butler-led reformist wing of the party is in disarray. The Reform Group itself lost momentum some time ago, Butler being criticised for his apparent inertia (and for the unwise decision to take a holiday as the crisis rumbled on). The decision of some reformers to form what will almost certainly prove a short-lived new party has served only to fragment further opposition to Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson, though Butler cannot be too unhappy at the loss of hysterics like Simon Bennett or foul-mouthed friend-losers like Lee Barnes.

Butler soldiers on for all the world as if he had never been expelled from the BNP and as if he were certain that his proposed constitutional reforms will be carried and Nick Griffin toppled.

On the surface his confidence seems misplaced, but Eddy Butler has many friends among apparent Griffin loyalists, and is clearly privy to more information sourced directly from within Griffin's inner circle than he reveals. As Butler himself likes to imply, he has a few tricks in his bag yet, and Butler watchers have a strong sense that he is waiting for something to happen.

Whether or not Butler and his allies ever do wrest control of the BNP from Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson, the party now has a reputation for being financially unsound and utterly untrustworthy, a reputation that will only grow as the Dowson document disseminates ever more widely, as it is certain to do. It is a reputation that will never be easily shaken off, and we do question why Butler - who has put forward no debt repayment plans of his own - would want to take control of a broke and shrunken BNP.

In fact, is that really Eddy's game at all?

Angry Bennett blows lid on "Laurel and Hardy" BNP leadership

Tensions between BNP webmaster Simon Bennett and the BNP leadership exploded into open hostility yesterday when Bennett - a Nick Griffin loyalist! - briefly pulled the plug on the BNP website before restoring it in response (according to one of his friends) to a flood of calls and emails from BNP members.

Bennett replaced the BNP site with the following message:

The services to this website have been suspended.

It is with regret that I have been forced to pull this website due to several attempts of theft today with regards to design work and content owned by myself.

It is no secret that I have been in dispute with some elements of the management of the party for sometime now, but had hoped to resolve these issues amicably and AFTER the elections.

However, due to several attempts to steal my work today and combined with the recent deliberate copyright infringement I feel I have been left with no alternative to this action and feel wholly justified in doing so.

The background of my dispute with the party can be read here: (link to Bennett's personal website)

Later, posting on the British Democracy Forum, Bennett said:

It was my intention to speak out AFTER the election. However, there was little chance of me being around for much longer than 24 hours after Nick's 'industry experts' made several botched attempts to steal my legally owned designs and work, as opposed to reaching an amicable and fair solution. Rather than pay for my work, they chose to steal it. Blame THEM for the timing, not me!

The website was reinstated upon request from decent people who would have been affected by this (the members). It will remain online until after the election. I have stated on numerous occasions that the party can have the website, domain and their legally owned aspects of it at any time and without cost - they have only to ask. The parts I own were made available to them for a fee. Instead, they started downloading them behind my back and tried to lock me out.

Again, blame that on the incompetence of the leadership, not me!

Bennett confirmed suspicions that the BNP's unauthorised use of the Marmite logo on the web version of the party's general election broadcast was a clumsy attempt on the part of Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson to gain cheap publicity in the run up to election day. According to Bennett, "This whole thing was a very deliberate copyright infringement designed to create publicity and a fund raising opportunity."

On the back of that open provoking of one of the world's richest companies, Griffin began a campaign of lies and vilification against Unilever, claiming that the "Hate party" depicted in recent Marmite television adverts was based on the BNP - when it was self-evidently based on the widely known fact that consumers either love or hate the concoction. The begging letters quickly followed, and the BNP membership swallowed the deception.

The BNP webmaster's problem was that as the "Marmite" broadcast appeared on the BNP website his was the name in the frame when Unilever, owner of the brand, took out an injunction for copyright infringement. According to Bennett:

The case against Nick was "as a representative of the party" and Nick often brags that he has no assets in his own name to be sued for. Also, the BNP is an 'Unincorporated Association, so to my knowledge, those facing the financial costs were myself directly and/or the party members.

Bennett also says: "What's worse, is that I believe I was deliberately put in the frame and left to carry the responsibility whilst those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty."

He added:

Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson deliberately set out to pick this fight with Unilever - not me. I advised strongly against it. Nick proceeded to goad Unilever into action when Unilever wanted a quick settlement and seemed happy with an undertaking not to do it again. That wasn't enough for Nick, he wanted a public fight and a media circus...

Later attempts by Griffin and Dowson to pass the "Marmite" broadcast off as a spoof backfired, and Bennett claims he was expected to go to court and "lie through my teeth":

By now, Unilever's lawyers had their teeth in and they were not going to let go. The excuse Jim Dowson gave for this whole sorry affair was that "a third party joker" had uploaded the video, yet this was clearly contradicted by Nick and Jim Dowson in the evidence Unilever's lawyers had obtained for themselves via conversations from Nick and Jim.

Essentially, I was up the proverbial creek and expected by our Chairman and Jim "The Industry Expert" Dowson to go to court and lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into.

In a long and angry exposition of the BNP leadership's role in the "Marmite" disaster, Simon Bennett gives much incidental information, revealing that during the saga "website traffic hardly increased at all, the online donations and membership applications remained almost non-existent and the real broadcast bought no more traffic to the website than the 2009 EU broadcast."

He also stated that there "are a shocking amount of highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ including threats of violence against good people such as myself and the loss of jobs/contracts/positions if we don't 'Play ball'."

Later, on the BDF forum, Bennett said that he would never have pulled the plug on the BNP website "if it were not for idiotic, erratic, desperate and immoral behavior of the leadership to remove me BEFORE the elections".

Unfortunately, Bennett remains loyal to the BNP, even if it has shown itself to be anything but loyal to him, and we have little sympathy with a man who kept his silence while knowing of the many wrongs and shady dealings of the BNP leadership, and spoke out only when he, personally, was affected.

Below follows the full text of Bennett's statement as it appeared briefly on his own website. Our copy is the rendering which appears on the Vote No To The BNP website.

----------------------------

Marmite-Gate: The Truth behind the Spin.

This will do doubt come as a shock to many of those that read this, particularly those who really don’t want to hear it. However, I have a duty to the members and my conscience, but most of all – to my wife and children to tell the truth behind the spin. The timing of this is also a tragic shame, but I had no say in this matter, its planning, execution or its timing, as you will soon see. So please don’t fall for the old “He must be a red, planted to mess up the election” chestnut. If anyone sabotaged this election, it was Jim Dowson.


Judge that for yourselves by reading on…

This whole thing was a very deliberate copyright infringement designed to create publicity and a fund raising opportunity. What’s worse, is that I believe I was deliberately put in the frame and left to carry the responsibility whilst those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty.

The publicity Nick and Jim were (and still are) hoping for means nothing. What IS important is the NETT BENEFIT of that publicity, and I can show that the nett benefit was next to nothing. The website traffic hardly increased at all, the online donations and membership applications remained almost non-existent and the real broadcast bought no more traffic to the website than the 2009 EU broadcast. In actual fact, the most successful publicity the party has had in my time was without question – Question Time.

Jim Dowson and Nick Griffin will have you believe that this stunt and the repercussions were all finely tuned, worked out and that everything was all under control. The truth is that they had no idea of the severity of the situation. I was served the injunction as a named defendant and the case against me for copyright infringement appeared cut and dry. If I failed to comply with the injunction I could have faced prison. Even if I complied with the injunction I was facing a massive fine and all the legal costs and associated court fees.

The only legal representation provided to me was from the party’s legal advisor on the day she realised things had gone wrong, and she was in a state of panic advising me only to deny everything. Unilever’s own lawyers make reference to how panicky and stressed she was. The case against Nick was “as a representative of the party” and Nick often brags that he has no assets in his own name to be sued for. Also, the BNP is an ‘Unincorporated Association, so to my knowledge, those facing the financial costs were myself directly and / or the party members.

Furthermore, in the judge’s transcript it is stated that the case against me personally is solid as the broadcast was posted under my name.

Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson deliberately set out to pick this fight with Unilever – not me. I advised strongly against it. Nick proceeded to goad Unilever into action when Unilever wanted a quick settlement and seemed happy with an undertaking not to do it again. That wasn’t enough for Nick, he wanted a public fight and a media circus (one that I was never given a choice in). I did not want to run the gauntlet of TV cameras and publicity for the sake of my children and wife, but I was never consulted or asked. It was the “Nick Griffin Show” – fighting the evil capitalist empire single handed in order to save the nation on our behalf, and he was not passing up the opportunity of more publicity and victimhood status. He picked this fight, not me, and certainly not Unilever.

The problem is that you will pay for it now, as could I, if not with my liberty, freedom or possible bankruptcy, but now certainly with my position as your webmaster. What a result this fight has achieved! A bloody disaster. But then it had disaster written all over it from the outset, but the £120,000 p.a. ‘Industry Expert’ knew better.

By now, Unilever’s lawyers had their teeth in and they were not going to let go. The excuse Jim Dowson gave for this whole sorry affair was that “a third party joker” had uploaded the video, yet this was clearly contradicted by Nick and Jim Dowson in the evidence Unilever’s lawyers had obtained for themselves via conversations from Nick and Jim.

Essentially, I was up the proverbial creek and expected by our Chairman and Jim “The Industry Expert” Dowson to go to court and lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into. I had warned them not to proceed, but both were insistent that this is a brilliant publicity stunt deliberately designed to create publicity (and ultimately generate funds) as was proven by the immediate fund raising appeal sent out that day. They were under the impression that it would be a breeze and that Unilever’s lawyers would issue an injunction and writ for copyright infringement and then immediately back off once Nick threatened to eat a jar of Marmite on live TV. How pathetic and desperate. Perhaps if the whole thing was done legally and executed by real experts and not Laurel and Hardy, it may have worked to our political advantage.

After a weekend of worrying myself sick, with my wife in bits and to use Nick’s own words – Unilever’s lawyers crawling all over ME like a rash, I took the only sensible and legal option available. To tell the truth. I was not prepared to spend five years in prison for perjury just to protect the financial interests of fools. To be honest, the truth is long overdue anyway as there are a shocking amount of highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ including threats of violence against good people such as myself and the loss of jobs / contracts /positions if we don’t ‘Play ball’.

In short, with one of the idiots responsible for this expensive little caper laying low and sunning himself in Spain with the £120,000+ per year he is paid from your donations to pull stunts like this, and with the others laying low, I decided to protect myself and family and not carry the can for their sheer greed and incompetence or rely on their incompetent advice or inabilities, so I told Unilever’s lawyers the truth. Lying to the Royal High Courts of Justice was never an option for me.

Jim Dowson constantly makes references to his Loyalist ‘connections’ and ‘Irish murder gangs’ in the hope of intimidating people and just about everyone bar me is terrified of him and lives in fear of losing their income if they cross him or do not ‘put up and shut up’ or turn a blind eye and deaf ear.

Unfortunately for him, I can earn more money outside of the party which renders that particular threat null and void. The physical threats of violence also back-fired on him as I refused to be intimidated, as did the bribes of ‘a slice of the pie’. Jim Dowson now controls just about every aspect of the party structure (including the recently acquired print services) and also the party’s finances with one exception. You’ve guessed it – the website!

Jim has been at loggerheads with me for over a year and has tried every trick in the book to gain control of the website so he can bolt it onto his spam-machine without any idea of how websites work. I have always been against it as I feel it should be first and foremost a political tool, not a money making machine.

He has tried undermining it with his call centre staff informing callers not to donate or join online as the website was insecure and that their £100,000 telephone system was the only secure way to join or donate. He tried bribery and Nick also tried to convince me that I’d be better protected legally from copyright infringements if the website was made into a limited company. When presented with the financial implications and costs and also the lack of protection it actually offered and further presented with the idea of not infringing copyrights in the first place, he backed down.

So, here we are today…

A deliberate copyright infringement mysteriously posted IN MY NAME! Wow, isn’t that a coincidence? On Tuesday this week (27th) I had Nick on my case again insisting that in order to properly ‘protect me’ in future he and Jim will set the website up as a limited company after the election and I should remain just a little anonymous monkey in the background doing all the monkey work whilst they take the very noble burden of risk (and potential profit of course). Naturally, after this scare I’m bound to agree, surely?

Just imagine it… All your web donations and membership fees not just now being carved up in commission between Paul Golding, Jim Dowson, Jenny Griffin and possibly several others, all of whom do virtually or absolutely nothing to generate the funds, but now you may well have to pay legal fees, chartered accountancy fees, salaries and possibly vehicle costs, travel, stationery and no-end of other ‘legitimate’ Ltd. Company’s business expenditure!

Here’s a better idea. Stop acting like amateurs and stop blatantly breaking the law for financial gain with no political advancement. That way I could continue to develop the website at the minimal fee I charge, and apart from every man and his dog taking a ’slice of the pie’, the rest at least goes directly to its intended destination. Furthermore, the website can be developed freely by a decent, honest and experienced web developer and not under the control and dictatorship of a catering-salesman with as much experience in web development as I have in rocket science!

You’re the members and this is YOUR party, YOUR website and I worked for YOU, not Nick, not Jim, not Gerry Gable, not MI5, CI5, MFI or anyone else . Let the smear stories commence. This will probably all be blamed on me being a red, a mole, a spy, a state asset, or work-overload, lack of vitamins, health, state of mind, paranoia, poor diet or just plain old mental instability. Please, let me assure you all that I am none of the above or suffering from any of the above quoted inflictions. If I was it must be highly contagious, as this party has lost so many good people for the above afflictions. Funny that isn’t it? It’s always everyone else being a mole that’s the problem- never Nick’s own incompetence!

Jim Dowson has a history of copyright infringement and is not by any means an “industry expert” in any field whatsoever that I can find, as can be seen by googling his name or the Pro Life League or Precious Life UK. His only industry experience is as a ‘catering salesman’. Many other marketing and fund-raising business ventures he has been involved in have ended up dissolved without ever filing accounts. With a history like that, it doesn’t bode well for the future of the party really. Many of his wild claims of success can be proven as bare faced lies. He has a severe habit of exaggerating figures and then contradicting himself later on. His incompetence is almost as astounding as his arrogance. This I’m afraid to say, is the man in whom our Chairman has invested the future of our party and hopes for our country.

I tried to raise my concerns about Jim Dowson, his past and his continual bad practices and mistakes with the Chairman over a year ago. Myself, Peter Mullins and Mike Howson were subjected to what was a court style hearing in which we were told in no uncertain terms to mind our own business and if anyone picks a fight with Jim they pick a fight with him (Nick Griffin). Unfortunately, the fight was already well under way. Mike Howson, it should be pointed out, has stated since that his “guts turned to water” that day. He has been Jim Dowson’s poodle ever since and with the exception of myself, just about anyone who has ever dared to cross swords with Jim have been removed from their positions, sacked or expelled. We cannot afford to lose any more good quality people only to be replaced by buffoons, morons, yes-men or those too afraid to stand up for what is right and proper.

Both Nick and Jim (and a few other gullible fools) will continuously point to the massive success and growth of the party over the “Dowson Era”, but you need to look a little closer and analyse this claim or even break it down completely. Firstly, to make such a claim is a complete smack in the face for all the decent and honest activists and members that have worked their fingers to the bone and walked the streets until their feet were blistered. It also suggests that my work over the last two and half years, and our army of blogger’s efforts have provided little or no gain.

The simple fact is this; In the current political climate, and with mainstream parties in disarray over immigration, the expenses scandal, global warming scams, economic disaster and a new influx of members from a new and fresh professional website with no-end of social networking you could rightly expect natural rapid growth. The growth to which Jim refers has very little, if anything to do with anything he has implemented whatsoever. All Jim has done is arrive in the right place at the right time and spot an opportunity to fleece money from good people by preying on their hopes and fears. Let’s be honest here, a trained monkey could write a more professional fund raising appeal than the current “1980 Readers Digest” style begging letter we currently all have to cringe over and suffer.

Then we need to question where the money raised is being spent or invested. The vast majority of the “Admin Infrastructure” to which Jim claims to have expertly set-up is nothing more than a basic requirement to any business or organisation and one of which almost anyone with half a brain or business experience would recognise and implement easily, cost effectively and securely. The current way in which this infrastructure is organised relies on and is driven by financial gain, greed and a competitive commission based environment. Just the sort of environment I would expect from any sales-based organisation. This party is now being driven by money – not politics or ideology. This is fundamentally wrong and will prove to be our failure. Of course we need funds to survive, but when our motivations, aspirations and hopes are driven by or dictated by finances, then we are on a collision course with failure.

In the “Real World” of business, turnover means nothing, what matters is profit. Profit stems growth, product development, training and staff development. Ten million pounds of turnover is worthless if our expenditure is eleven million, as are all the offices Jim cares to open in order to impress the sheeple. Jim constantly crows about how much money we turn over, yet fails to address the profit margin, where that profit (which does not exist) is spent, and where it is invested. We are told and expected to believe that all the party finances are funnelled through Jim’s shady business as no-one will deal with the party. This is a nonsense and nothing more than a smokescreen designed to stop inquisitive people questioning or looking deeper into the whole set-up.

If Nick thinks he has secured any party assets or property that has been purchased and held in the name of Jim Dowson’s Adlorries Ltd by appointing his daughter as a director, then I am sorry to point out that he may just have had the wool well and truly pulled over his eyes. Jenny is a director indeed, but has no share capital whatsoever and therefore has no claim to the company’s assets, finances or profits.

This party needs a clean-up if it is EVER to be taken seriously as a political force. I’ve started the ball rolling, it is now in the hands of the good, honest members that have the courage to face up to the facts and reality of what we are faced with. It is also up to the senior members and Advisory Council to stand up and be counted. Failure to face these issues now – and head on, will result in colossal and terminal failure. It is also in the hands of Nick Griffin to do the right thing and allow this party to develop on a solid base built on integrity, skill and transparency.

I think I can assume the Chairman will no longer be requiring my services, so all that is left for me to say is that it has been an absolute honour and a pleasure working with and for the decent and honest members, but an absolute chore, no, nightmare, working with Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson.

Coming Soon on www.SimonBennett.co.uk/Twitter & Facebook:

Jim Dowson and the £10,000 party laptops – you paid for – (£3,499 RRP) – that were also available for free with a mobile phone dongle!

The website donation thermometer appeal for the £22k Truth Truck (book value £8k) that actually raised over £80k.

The website DDoS attack that become ‘The World’s Biggest Cyber Attack known to the Universe’ and which needed more industry experts than NASA to resolve. Funded to the tune of £ thousands by the members. Actual cost: £750 to a 19 year old genius that lives at home with his parents!

Jim Dowson’s fixation with and history of infringing copyrights and breaking the data protections act.

The Jim Dowson £21,000 ’state of the art’ database system paid for by you. Also available from PC World for £156 inc VAT. Superior and FREE database systems were offered by me but were rejected for no logical reasons.

The phone bugging, spyware software, key loggers and paranoia that infects the leadership.

and lots, LOTS more…

Everything I claim in this post can be supported by evidence. I leave you with these tasters to bring you up to speed with Jim “The Industry Expert” Dowson;

From www.123people.co.uk

An Observer investigation today raises serious concerns about the operations of the LifeLeague, the militant anti-abortion group that has hijacked Britain’s pro-life debate.

The concerns come as it emerges that a rival pro-life organisation is considering legal action against the group’s founder, James Dowson, for alleged breach of copyright.

Dowson, 43, is the public face of the league. He regularly appears on television to pronounce abortion a sin. With his hard-hitting campaigns and highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff, he ensures the league is often in the headlines. This weekend its members are out in strength, joining other pro-life organisations at demonstrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act.

Little is known about Dowson. It is reported that he lives in Scotland and is a Protestant minister. Neither, it transpires, is strictly true. Dowson has never been ordained as a minister. And although he claims to live in Glasgow, he spends most of his time in Northern Ireland where land registry records show he owns a buy-to-let property in Comber, a small town in County Down. Dowson, his wife, Anne, and their son, James, 20, who bought a title and calls himself the Laird of Glencairn, actually live at another address in County Down, a four-bedroom semi in Ballygowan. Dowson also has a house in Cumbernauld, Glasgow, where he owns a mission hall.

The LifeLeague’s website pledges to spend donations ‘wisely’ but tracing where the money goes is difficult. Documents at Companies House show Dowson originally set up the league as a private company but it remains dormant and has never filed meaningful accounts. Instead it is run as a society, which means it only has to share its accounts with its members. ‘We do not publish our accounts as that would play into the hands of the pro-abortionists,’ Dowson said.

Nor is it clear where the league is based. Its offices are usually listed at a service address in Piccadilly, London. But the reality is Dowson operates out of an office in east Belfast where he is also involved in a support network for victims of the Troubles.

It has been alleged that Dowson, who has a tattoo bearing the words ‘Abronhill Protestant Boys Flute Band’, produced music cassettes during the 1990s promoting the loyalist cause. ‘I was in a flute band,’ said Dowson, a former member of the hardline Protestant group, the Loyal Orange Lodge of Scotland. ‘But then so were thousands of other people. My enemies have stretched this to suggest I supported the paramilitaries. It’s utter nonsense.’

Dowson has addressed a far-right conference in London and last year he invited Nick Griffin, head of the British National Party, to Belfast. ‘We invited all the parties to Belfast to explain their position on abortion,’ he said. Dowson denies he is a far-right sympathiser. ‘I refuse nobody,’ he said. ‘I am a Christian Socialist. I find the whole of the right-wing utterly ridiculous.’

Despite the league’s claims that it is a large-scale organisation with thousands of members, most of its work is carried out by Dowson, his sister-in-law, Marion, and his wife.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, another pro-life group, is considering legal action against Dowson for allegedly using some of its literature in league campaigns. ‘There is a dispute between us relating to intellectual property and it is in the hands of the lawyers,’ said John Smeaton, SPUC’s director. The Christian Institute also has concerns the LifeLeague has used its literature. Dowson denies the claims.

Daily Telegraph April 2nd 2006:

James Dowson does not concern himself with moral qualms. The consequences of his inflammatory comments, he believes, are not something with which he should be unduly bothered.

His stance, he says, is unequivocal: “I don’t suggest – or ever condone – violence. I advocate nothing that is out with the law. I most certainly do not urge people to send abusive letters or emails to these people.” (But he’s pretty prolific with the abusive emails himself).

The events of the past week, in which Mr Dowson and his UK Life League have been criticised in the media, have buoyed his belief that the end justifies the means. “We have got column inches, our enemies are running scared,” he says.

Mr Dowson sees it all as a triumph. He makes no bones about it: the name of the game is publicity. Yes, he happily acknowledges, as a Glasgow Protestant he once belonged to the Orange Order and, yes, he has two convictions (now spent) for breach of the peace.

In the next few weeks, he also hopes to have a fleet of lorries on the road across the country, which he will use to picket abortion clinics. (One of which he “sold” to the BNP.)

Final Message to Nick:

Do not send your ‘heavies’ or ageing goon-squad to my door (as is standard practice) as I possess no party property or assets, and you know it. If you do, they will be broadcast live on video to several high profile websites. I will post the SQL dump of your website to you, as I am legally obliged to do. I will also release the domain to the TAG of your choice whenever you provide it to me. That is the end of my legal obligation to you as I have always made clear.

----------------------------------

On the BDF forum, Bennett later made this interesting post:

Evidence from the server company alerting me to the illegal downloading of the entire [BNP] site:

I noticed this though which is rather odd:

> May 4 16:25:20 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/alby-walker-nick-griffin-300x186.jpg downloaded (17677
> bytes, 1281.57KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:22 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/alby-walker-nick-griffin.jpg downloaded (34945 bytes, 4
> 3638.63KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:24 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/aleqm5gb8vbh5cpl1xg4axqhh0zs4aftbw.jpg downloaded (1585
> 6 bytes, 966.32KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:26 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/aleqm5gb8vbh5cpl1xg4axqhh0zs4aftbw.thumbnail.jpg downloa
> ded (3679 bytes, 314.96KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:27 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/ali-north-wales-150x150.jpg downloaded (6758 bytes, 355
> .62KB/sec)

It appears someone logged in as 'arthur' is downloading a copy of the whole site from a UK IP address; I hope that's okay?

Leading BNP member resigns stating 'the party is corrupt' and undemocratic

Scottish BNP webmaster Paul Johnson has resigned from the BNP, citing the party's corruption and lack of democracy among his reasons for leaving. His resignation statement (completely unedited) is reproduced below:

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

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

I had a person that wanted some answers with regard to the parties constitution. I didn't have a copy so I thought I would contact other officials for advice or to obtain a copy. The first person I contacted was Mark Collett who said he has never seen a copy and wouldn't know where to get one from. In the end he suggested that I contacted Nick Griffin as at the end of the day he was the one who wrote it.

Before I went that far up the official line I thought I would contact the deputy party leader, Simon Darby. His words on the subject were why do you want it? Just tell him to "F*$k Off!" He is only a 'red' trying to wind you up!"

I could add more to this but I will only be called a 'Red' or a 'Traitor'. Would I reccommend joining the BNP? As it stands with the current lineup It would be a resounding NO! If the party changes its current team leadership and how its run then Yes! Only time will tell if the party changes for the better as currently it is stuck in the dark ages.'

Purged! British National Party councillor Simon Smith forced out

One of the BNP’s better known West Midlands councillors has been forced out of the party as Nick Griffin and his acolytes continue their long predicted purge of the “vermin” who supported Chris Jackson against Griffin in the BNP’s rigged leadership contest.

Ostensibly resigning his membership, a statement issued by Griffin’s deputy Simon Darby leaves little doubt that Smith’s resignation was anything but voluntary.

In a communication that should affront the intelligence of even the dimmest BNP member, Darby says:

It was well known that former Black Country organiser Simon Smith was a supporter of Chris Jackson in the recent leadership challenge. This was of course his democratic right and further to this two senior representatives of the challenger’s campaign spoke openly at a Black Country meeting freely promoting their candidate.

Unfortunately, at this meeting despite being asked to refrain from expressing his personal beliefs, during his own speech Simon Smith once again referred to 9/11 as being “an inside job”. In fact, despite having being told how politically damaging this form of pro-Muslim crankery could be, he emphasised his belief twice stating that “he would stake his life on it”.

Shortly after the Leadership election Simon Smith was made aware that an investigation was to take place concerning how a membership list had made its way to a former Birmingham organiser. This list, although sent to several people, was in fact never actually used. Further to this Simon Smith was told that the list dated back to the time when he was heavily involved in processing Party memberships and at one point during that time scale Simon Smith had actually left his computer at the home of that former Birmingham organiser. At no point however, was it inferred at that time that Simon Smith was actually to blame for the severe breach of security.

On the 27th July, after the leadership election results had been announced, Simon Smith sent an email to several BNP members as well as other people. Unforgiveably, one of the two attachments also contained in this email was an article complete with reader comments copied directly from a UAF site.

Simon Smith was shown a copy of the original email he had sent out early yesterday (August 14) afternoon and asked to explain the very serious implications as to what he had done. Three hours later Simon Smith admitted to having sent the email and announced that he was resigning from the BNP.

There we have the truth of the matter.

The “truth of the matter”?

Today Simon Darby told the Birmingham Post something slightly different:

“We had a leadership election which Nick Griffin won with 91 per cent of the vote. Simon could not accept that.”

Darby’s first statement is, of course, for internal BNP consumption. He brings in Smith’s frequently stated contention that the attack on the Twin Towers was “an inside job” (not exactly an uncommon opinion on the far-Right), and says that Smith was asked to refrain from making such statements having been told “how politically damaging this form of pro-Muslim crankery could be”. How this could be damaging in a meeting open only to BNP members isn’t clear - but that Jackson supporters like Smith were being told by Griffinites what they could and could not say in an internal election meeting speaks volumes for the paranoia at the top of the party.

The deputy chairman’s next trick is to effectively blame Smith for a BNP membership list falling into the hands of Sharon Ebanks, while claiming not to blame him at all. If “At no point… was it inferred at that time that Simon Smith was actually to blame for the severe breach of security” then why does Darby mention it at all? Why does Darby include the strange qualification “at that time”? Is it being inferred now?

Finally there is Simon Smith’s email. Darby does not disclose the contents, which presumably contain the real meat of the subject, but again pandering to his largely gullible BNP audience he lays stress on an attachment that apparently included an article complete with reader comments copied directly from a UAF site. How that could be seen as a crime, even by the standards of the BNP, is anybody’s guess - though we’d hazard a guess as to which site the post and comments came from ;-).

That Smith included such matter with his email gives us a very good idea of how that email must have read - unpleasantly, for Nick Griffin, we must suppose. And whatever it said was clearly used as a pretext to force Smith into jumping before the threat of being pushed was carried out. Reading Darby’s disingenuous words, you can almost see the gun being held to Smith’s head.

The simple fact is that Smith’s resignation has nothing to do with “pro-Muslim crankery”, missing membership lists and email attachments lifted from UAF websites.

It’s about retribution against those who have finally worked out that something is very wrong at the top of the BNP and dared to say so, and it’s about exterminating the last vestiges of internal opposition to Nick Griffin.

With the departure of Simon Smith the BNP has lost yet another councillor. The character of that councillor may leave much to be desired but in BNP terms he was just the ticket - he ungraciously walked out of a council meeting that elected a Sikh as mayor of Sandwell, and has compared Hitler with Christ, among other matters.

That Griffin - and it can only have been Griffin - was prepared to force one of his tiny band of councillors out of the party, risking attendant negative publicity for the BNP and yet another blow to the morale of its members heavily underlines the lesson for so long taught here and at our allied websites: whatever the average BNP member may think the BNP is, Griffin has different ideas. First and foremost it is, as the veteran fascist Martin Webster puts it, the Griffin Family Business.

It’s Griffin’s cash-cow and he’s not going to surrender it lightly, as his insane blog rantings against the “cranks” “Hollywood Nazis” “congenital losers” “thieves” and “vermin” who had the temerity to ask awkward questions and mount a challenge against him have discovered.

It’s only a matter of time before the next victim of Griffin’s paranoia is selected for the chop. Keep watching this space.

Solidarity - police called in

News has reached us that the Executive Committee of the BNP’s fake Solidarity trade union has called in the police to investigate the affairs of the strife-torn organisation. EC members Clive Potter and Tim Hawke have also involved the trade union Certification Officer and sought the help of Leicester MP Peter Soulsby. This confirms comments made on the Nazi Stormfront forum.

This comes in the same week that Solidarity’s 2006 annual return became available, showing that at the beginning of 2007 the union had only 42 members. In May Vice-President Tim Hawke emailed one of our correspondents claiming that the union had around 100 members.

We don’t intend to repeat the entire Solidarity saga here (links to the relevant LUAF articles are provided below), save to reiterate that the farce began at a quorate meeting of Solidarity’s Executive Committee, where allegations of irregular behaviour regarding the union’s funds were put to General Secretary Patrick Harrington, and which at a later Special Executive Meeting resulted in his suspension pending an investigation.

Harrington, an old friend of BNP leader Nick Griffin, refused to accept his suspension and sought Griffin’s support. This seems to have caught the BNP leadership off-balance, as the “rescue plan” they put into operation was badly thought out - completely disregarding Solidarity’s legally agreed constitution - and enacted with typical BNP heavy-handedness.

Any pretence that Solidarity was ever anything other than yet another BNP front was shattered when the union’s host provider, owned by failed South African school-bomber and BNP member Lambertus Nieuwhof, hijacked its website which remains in the control of Harrington’s version of Solidarity. An unconsitutional EGM was quickly called, it being agreed beforehand to expand the number of Executive Committee posts and to carve them up between the BNP and Third Way (the tiny organisation represented by Harrington), which the non-EGM duly ratified.

The BNP’s internal affairs may be conducted in this hole and corner manner, but the affairs of what is a legally constituted trade union are quite a different matter.

Any unbiased perusal of Solidarity’s constitution will show that the Special Executive Meeting which suspended Patrick Harrington was a legal gathering within the scope of that constitution. Whether Harrington was guilty or not of the charges made against him has no bearing on that inescapable fact.

Consequently, we believe that the actions of Harrington and his supporters since that time have been entirely beyond Solidarity’s constitution, that his and the BNP’s version of the union has no real legal existence, and, therefore, no right to utilise the official union’s financial and other resources, including its membership lists - hence the involvement of the police.

Solidarity update - BNP’s Nick Griffin heavily criticised for interference
Where next for the BNP’s amoeba-like Solidarity union?
Solidarity disaster goes critical as criminal investigation is threatened
BNP discards democracy completely to force takeover of 'independent' Solidarity
Solidarity - an email update from the Vice-President Tim Hawke
BNP's Solidarity situation worsens - fake union under threat
BNP's fake union Solidarity already up against the ropes
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