The 'non-racist' EDL 'Dreaming of a White Christmas'.

Click on image for full-size

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Russell Howard reveals his fears over EDL threats

Comedian Russell Howard has revealed how he lived in fear of being beaten up after making jokes about the English Defence League.

The far right group’s supporters posted threats on the internet and protested outside one of his gigs after he made fun of them on his BBC3 show. He showed footage of an EDL march held in Blackburn, where it was reported that because they could not clash with anti-fascist opponents, they ended up fighting each other.

The comic said Russell Howard’s Good News show: “I imagine they were like ‘Oi Terry, You’ve given me a black eye. Now I hate my own eye!’ I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them started a fight with their own shadow. ‘Stop following me, you black b******’.”

A Facebook group sprung up after the programme, urging people to demonstrate outside the funnyman’s gig in Chorley, Lancashire, in May. The EDL also criticised his “three minute rant on how ‘thick’ we all are’, with one supporter adding: “We’re going to be loud and he’s going to know we’re there. Hopefully, next time he’ll think twice before opening his middle class mouth about things he knows nothing about.”

Other supporters used racist terms for Muslims and made threats against him.

Midland-based Russell says: “It was quite hairy. I am an absolute coward, and I admit that for a while I imagined that everyone coming near me was going to beat me up. I had a pretty tough month. Every time we filmed the Mystery Guest section of Good News, where we get someone on and I have to guess who they are, I thought it would be an EDL supporter who was going to hit me. But I think you have to stand by your jokes. They may have been cruel, but they were about people I believe are idiots.”

Russell’s pop at the EDL is unusual for him, as his comedy style is playful and good-natured. Though sitting opposite acerbic Frankie Boyle on Mock The Week made him appear even nicer. He does, however, defend a comic’s right to be cruel in their act.

“Everyone likes a good cruel joke,” insists the 31-year-old. “But you have to stay true to yourself. If you are going out of your way to be vicious, it will just have diminishing returns. Light and shade is good, rather than being unremittingly nasty.”

Russell lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire with his girlfriend Cerys and Jack Russell dog Archie. On December 14 he returns to Birmingham’s LG Arena at the NEC for another of his shows on his Right Here, Right Now tour. Russell moved to Leamington three years ago when Cerys was a medical student at Warwick University, and now she’s qualified as a doctor and working in the region, he expects to live here for at least another two years.

“I love it,” he says. “When I’m recording my TV show I stay in London, but then it’s so nice to come back home. When I’m in Leamington I’m not working. I just walk the dog, play five-a-side with my mates and hang out in the pub.”

Sunday Mercury

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Attack of the EDL zombies

Click on image if you're a masochist

Thanks to Paul for the image

EDL Plan Arson Attack on LSX Camp

The English Defence League are planning an attack on the protesters at Occupy London Stock Exchange this Sunday, outside St Paul's Cathedral. London Division's Greg Bingham put a call out to fellow London racists calling for them to turn up to LSX and 'move' them. Bingham then went on to make threats about burning the tents down on his Facebook wall.

Click on image for full-size

They appear to want them moved because they are 'lefties' as they describes them. Another more sinister message appeared on Bingham's Facebook wall claiming he is going to comit an act of arson on the protester's camp and some threats to kill three people.

Click on image for full-size

Mick Wittman aka Gil Gould, a regular attendee at demonstrations in the South East also plans to attend.

As making threats of arson on the internet is a prosecutable offence, EDL News have informed the Metropolitan Police of his intentions.

EDL News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Tottenham MP warns against racist threat

David Lammy (l) with deputy PM Nick Clegg on the streets of riot-hit Tottenham

Far-right anti-immigration groups are seeking to create "division" over last week's riots, David Lammy has warned.

The Labour MP, whose Tottenham constituency was recovering from the first outbreak of disorder seven days ago, said both the English Defence League and the British National party had been "seeking to stoke resentment" for their own political ends.

"Little more than a week after the first disturbances on the streets of London, one thing is clear: there are those who will use the past week to promote their own prejudices," he wrote in an article for the Independent on Sunday newspaper. He also singled out historian David Starkey as displaying "breathtaking ignorance" for suggesting that "a substantial section of the chavs... have become black".

Mr Lammy wrote: "This talk is as misleading as it is dangerous and divisive. Inconvenient as it may be for Starkey and the EDL, those who engaged in criminal behaviour came from all races. Equally importantly, so too did those who came forward to volunteer their help with the clean-up. In Tottenham, people's response was not to turn on one another but to come together."

There were fears at the height of the riots that tensions in multicultural London, Birmingham and Manchester could undermine community relations. But reports of a racial element in rioting were quickly dismissed as it soon became clear the violence was straightforward criminality.

Mr Lammy said "the cynicism of a prejudiced few" had been "outshone" by the civic pride of a new kind of patriotism.

"Britain's immigrant communities have stood shoulder to shoulder with their neighbours this past week," he concluded. "They, and we, should be deeply proud of that."

politics.co.uk

English Defence League Join Rioters and attack the Police

A two hundred srong mob of middle aged English Defence League members threw bottles and fought with Police in Eltham in south London last night. Many were drinking from cans bought from the supermarket, EDL slogans were chanted and bottles were thrown at Welsh police wjo were draffted in from other parts of south London to deal with the disturbances. The far right organisation has a long history of violence at their demos

Video has emerged on the Telegraph website of EDL members attacked a group of black kids on a bus. We also understand that there have been multiple EDL arrests in Leicester lasst night. Leicestershire Police say they have arrested the EDL's regional organiser.

Today Clive Efford, Labour MP for Eltham, south London asked in a recalled parliament about far right groups using the riots to further their own agenda. Prime Minister David Cameron replied by stating that he spoke of 'sick individuals in society and none are as sick as the English Defence League'.

On the tuesday night, Efford spoke of the people who had spent the day working on operation #riotcleanup and EDL members took to the street of Eltham, the group had been drinking all day and tied up much needed police presence in a time when we needed all the police we can on the street.

The trouble in Eltham comes only two weeks after their Plymouth Division attacked a family-run restaurant and several members were arrested

Further information and more video from the Telegraph.

'Riot police were hit with missiles including bottles as more than 1,000 officers battled with dozens of middle-aged men on the streets Eltham, south-east London.

Witnesses reported that many of the 200 men were chanting in support of the English Defence League, the controversial Right-wing group. The group had promised to defy police orders and mobilise their own forces to protect their families and businesses from mobs of looters.

Last night hundreds of police from eight separate forces tried to restore calm from the mainly white men. Earlier they had claimed they were “protecting” local shops and businesses for a second consecutive night. With shops and pubs in the high street shut, the group brought carrier bags containing beer and drank and sat on benches.

Riot police eventually restored order after charging at the crowd. At least one person was arrested.

Around 60 EDL supporters had gathered in the square in the town drinking cans of beer and chanting "We love you England".

“Officers had missiles thrown at them this evening,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said. “Police have dealt with the disorder and the group has been dispersed. Police remain on the scene.”

Local police denied the group were comprised of EDL members.

But furious locals vented their anger at what they described as “outsider vigilantes” arriving in the area and sparking fights, particularly with police. Over the past few nights, residents in London have taken to the streets with baseball bats, swords and hockey sticks to defend their property after the police lost control.

There have been concerns that far-Right organisations had tried to take advantage of the social tensions by hijacking the “vigilante” armies. The EDL claimed that about 100 of its members were helping to protect the streets of Enfield on Tuesday night.

The league was also encouraging people to join a group of men in Eltham planning to guard their high street.

As many as 1,500 Sikhs, some in their eighties, had patrolled west London neighbourhoods around temples in Southall and Hounslow on Tuesday night, chasing rioters away. In Dalston, east London, Turkish shopkeepers armed with bats and pool cues saw off a gang of masked men. In Hackney, east London, Kingsland High Street was lined with Turkish and Kurdish men on Tuesday night, some carrying sticks. In Enfield, north London, an estimated 300 locals turned out to protect property on Tuesday after two nights of rioting.

Police said anybody taking the law into their own hands, however well intentioned, would divert police resources away from the looters and arsonists.

Steve Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “What I don’t need is these so-called vigilantes, who appeared to have been drinking too much. These are small pockets of people. They’re frustrated, they’re angry, and that’s totally understandable.

“But the support that we need is to allow those officers to prevent looting and crime.” He said it was “ironic” that media pictures showed looting in areas where there were “no police available” while officers were being diverted to stop vigilantes elsewhere.

“That needs to stop,” he said.

Under the 2008 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, home owners who use “reasonable force” to protect themselves should not face prosecution. However, they must not use more force than necessary. Experts say this can come down to a subtle difference, with anyone who chases an attacker likely to be at risk of committing an offence.'

EDL News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Racist vigilantes on the loose

This is terrifying. I did tell you the Right was going crazy. Now, the racists have an opportunity to go on the rampage. In Enfield, dozens of white men aged between 30 and 40 were out earlier, chasing down Hertford Road yelling "Get the pakis". Paul Lewis reports:

"It was only a minor skirmish, but a potentially bad sign for community relations. Police, who have flooded the streets, were quickly on the scene when about 70 men started chasing local youths.

I wouldn't mention their ethnicity, but it seemed to be relevant. The men were white - in their 30s and 40s - and shouting that they wanted to get the "blacks" and "pakis". Lots of them seemed drunk. One man being held back by police shouted: "They're rats, they mugged my Auntie the other night."

Jay Bradley, 30, a witness, told me: "What happened here? What I just saw - everyone from this area aren't gonna have any looting. What I saw was a couple of ethnic lads, if you can call them that, black lads, and they chased them away.

A lot of it is alcohol - I don't think the kids were doing anything. They were just on bikes and in masks.

But no-one around here is going to stand for any looting. What are we supposed to do. The Co-op is closed and we're running out of food."

I don't believe that this is just a spontaneous response to looters. When the BNP membership list was leaked, it emerged that there were a number of members scattered around the lower middle class areas, and I wouldn't be surprised if they, along with local EDL supporters, were among those out tonight. The emergence of racist vigilantism is not unique to Enfield. It's also emerged that racist Millwall fans are supposedly 'protecting' Eltham tonight. Apparently, the EDL have been marching through the area. [Update: local residents and Millwall fans both assure me that this is untrue, and that it's just locals protecting themselves. Which, if true, is a relief - but one is still uneasy about vigilantes in football gear posing as defenders of the community.] This is why we urgently need a political response to these riots that organises communities around the issue of justice for victims of police violence. The IPCC have said tonight that Mark Duggan did not shoot at police officers. This, to me, suggests that his death was an execution, and that the bullet in the police radio may have been post-mortem framing. Either way, the police certainly lied about the circumstances of Mark Duggan's death, and this is a major cause of the anger in black communities, as it should be everywhere. There urgently needs to be an intervention on this by anti-racists and the Left.

Update: Given that there are lots of unsupported rumours flying about, I think it's important to add a couple of important qualifications to this post. A lot of the rumours going about are originating from the far right themselves - part of their propaganda about being men of action, etc. And some of them could result in people getting hurt. Naturally, I have no wish to contribute to either, so I'm just being cautious. First of all, I have heard conflicting things about the far right being involved in Enfield, but as yet no proof of this has emerged. It may well be just local racists. Guardian journalist Paul Lewis is being careful to say he only witnessed a brief skirmish (though, from the footage I've seen, it was a really nasty, scary event). Second, loads of people have been tweeting me to say it's not the EDL in Eltham. (There is some footage of what appear to be EDL being kettled there, but not the 400-strong mob that the casuals were bragging about). I'm still not okay with vigilantism, but there are degrees of danger. I'm not arguing for complacency. There are some real fascist efforts at stirring. Most of it has been kettled by the cops so far, however. So, I would bear these points in mind when you're scanning social media for updates.

Lenin's Tomb

Thanks to NewsHound and others for the heads-up

Sikh Summer Camp of 125 kids in Chigwell attacked by racist idiots

Racist thug attacks a volunteer's car

There is a Sikhi Camp for kids from 7+ currently taking place at the Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College in Chigwell, Essex running up until Sunday. The Camp involves the overnight stay of 120 children. The incident took place yesterday afternoon.

At first around 5 Chavs, thought to be from a nearby estate, walked into Khalsa College and caused a significant level of commotion. They attacked one Singh who approached them asking what they wanted. They were then successfully forced out of the College premises by a group of Camp sewadars and a fight broke out on the road outside the College. The situation was diffused by a passerby (claiming to be a off duty policeman), who drove the chavs off in his 4×4.

Around an hour later the Chavs returned in a larger number of 20 tooled with baseball bats and blocks of wood. A small group of Sikh kids from the camp were out on a nature walk and were verbally abused but managed to get back into the college. One of the elder sewadars had his car damaged as the group jumped on his bumper and bonnet.

Sad racists twats who think it's okay to attack a kid's camp

What mainly happened then was a stand off between the Chavs and the Sewadars around the perimeter of the Khalsa College. The Chavs mainly hurled racial abuse “Pakis, Muslims, razors and other EDL type chants” although they were tooled up to do more. Eventually the Police came and arrested 2 of the Chavs but the remaining were still adamant to carry on. The situation diffused as more Police intervened, however the Chavs still hovered around the area of the Khalsa College.

Around 50 local Singhs turned up last night to provide security to the Kids Camp, something that should have been organised by the sewadars before!!! It is an overnight camp where kids stay on the premises. It’s also concerning as we believe these Chavs must be hovering around the college during the day unchallenged.

There is a very strong chance the local Chavs from the estate will return (in perhaps larger numbers) and it was decided by local Singhs that a strong level of security is to be maintained at the college whilst the Sikhi Camp takes place until Sunday. The sewadars of the Camp should have factored in the security from the beginning even though no previous incidents had taken place in the Camp’s 30 year history.

Global Sikh News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati quits Twitter over race hate abuse

Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati has quit Twitter after receiving racial abuse.

The actress, who plays Sunita Alahan in the ITV soap, has received race hate messages over the last two weeks. Last week she posted a message on the site saying: "Surprised at the racial abuse and desire to try and hurt people for no reason. I think I'm giving twitter a wee rest..gobsmacked."

But the 44-year-old has now apparently decided to quit the site altogether, telling her 18,467 followers: "Thanks for the banter I've enjoyed my time on twitter. Over and out."

Shobna, who is of Indian descent, has campaigned against racism and intolerance and used Twitter to spread information about her campaigns. She set up an account in support of the Sophie Charity, in honour of Sophie Lancaster, 20, who was murdered in Bacup in 2007.

Steve Huison, who played Eddie Windass in the Street, posted a message saying: "Absolutely disgusted to see that my lovely friend Shobna has been driven off Twitter because of racists. Shame on them."

Julie Hesmondhalgh, 41, who plays Hayley Cropper, in the soap has also received abuse via Twitter. Julie Tweeted: "Those who just use this to bandy their own hatred and desperation really need to look at themselves."

Manchester Evening News

Police hunt racist thugs over attack in Manchester

Police are hunting a gang of racist thugs who attacked and robbed a door-to-door salesman in Greater Manchester.

The victim, a 20-year-old Asian man, was working on the Limeside Estate, in Oldham, selling digital television products, on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th January when he was assaulted. He was working around Walkers Road, Oak Road and Firth Avenue but throughout the afternoon, a group of five white men were walking around the estate shouting racial abuse at the victim.

At about 6pm, on Hollins Road, the group approached the victim, grabbed him, racially abused him and demanded his mobile phone and cash. They pushed him against a wall and patted his body for items. As they tried to grab his mobile the victim resisted and he was punched twice to the head by one of the offenders, who then intimated he had a knife. The group ran off with the phone.

The main offender in the group was about 5ft 6in tall of medium build with dark hair. He was wearing a lime green hooded top.

Police Constable Andrew Swettenham said: "This was a horrendous experience for this man, who was simply trying to do his job. The abuse that he suffered culminated in an attack where he was robbed. Someone on this estate will know who these people are and may even have witnessed this incident."

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 856 9577 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Click Manchester

EDL in the toon

Today, Newcastle breathed a sign of relief as EDL "taliban hunters" poured in to rescue us all from terrorists. I was very pleased with this as although I hadn't seen any I heard there were a lot about.

Apparently, the best method of ridding your town of this societal menace is to get pissed and then start on the locals. There was a beautiful moment when one small, older lady (potentially a terrorist!) was being interrogated by a balaclava-wearing bloke (who was twice her size) who kept thrusting an England flag in her face. Nice work, EDL.

The day ended up with loads of EDL on one side and an equally-sized crowd of opposition on the other.

However, the vast majority of the EDL's crowd had to be bussed in from other parts of the country as Newcastle is actually a really tolerant city. Racists - go back were you came from. Newcastle is united.

anna at Indymedia

New BNP? Same old nazis and thugs

The BNP claims it has changed. A quick review of its election candidates shows that they are the same old nazis, thugs and racists that they always were

Tom Gower
Coventry North East

Gower works full-time as the BNP enquiries officer. He is also the Coventry contact for the racist and pagan Woden’s Folk and was involved in the English Heathen Front (EHF), ‘a racist group espousing “blood and soil” ideology. The EHF was the English “chapter” of the Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF), an international network of “tribes” that evolved out of the Norsk Hedensk Front, a group founded in 1993 by Varg Vikernes, the Norwegian black metal musician and murderer whose own brand of heathenism included a heavy dose of national socialism, antisemitism, eugenics and racism.

Shelley Rose
Luton North

A rising star in the BNP, Rose is part of a social group of BNP activists in the East Midlands and an antisemite who wrote on her Facebook page, “I would rather put myself out and pay a bit more at a smaller local shop, than line the pockets of the kikes that run Tesco”. She attended the National Front Remembrance Day parade in 2009 with Chris Hurst, the BNP PPC ‘for Twickenham.

Robin Evans
Blackburn

Evans was once a Blackburn BNP councillor but found the council budget too much to cope with. “It’s all mumbo jumbo, I don’t understand a word of it,” he stated. He resigned from the BNP in 2003 after an internal dispute and joined the openly fascist British National Socialist Party, returning to the BNP.

Ken Booth
Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Booth is the former North East National Front organiser who caused widespread disgust in 2007 when he compared the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz to Disneyland. He refused to believe the “official figures” of those who died in the Holocaust and did not recognise the “authenticity” of the buildings at Auschwitz.

Lynne Mozar
Buckingham

Mozar, who runs the BNP’s Trafalgar Club fundraising group, is notorious for her appearance on the Sky TV documentary BNP Wives in which “in private sometimes” she admitted calling black people “niggers”. ‘She also claimed that “Pakis” was the ‘“legal term for them [Asians]”. While manning a stall opposite a mosque in Fareham, Mozar shouted “fat slag” at a passerby who questioned her views.

Mathew Tait
Milton Keynes South

Tait, the Buckinghamshire BNP organiser, travelled to the cancelled 2010 American Renaissance conference, where he moaned to those who turned up that the Equality and Human Rights Commission court case had forced the BNP to accept “people who we would wish to not have in our country really to be members of our party”.

Mike Shore
Broxtowe

Until 2003 Shore was the National Front’s East Midlands organiser and treasurer. He was also Midlands convener of a British incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. His conversion to the BNP came as a surprise to former colleagues.

Richard Hamilton
Milton Keynes North

A former soldier, Hamilton took part in the mock trial and execution of a gollywog at the 2009 BNP Red, White and Blue festival. The News of the World noted that before the trial, “Hamilton’s ghettoblaster blared out songs supporting Hitler and attacking ‘niggers’”. The BNP claimed his membership had been “suspended” as a result of the affair, though evidently not for very long.

Chris Beverley
Morley and Outwood

Beverley is a leading figure in Yorkshire BNP and a key link with the National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany whose leader believes that Hitler was a “great statesman”. Beverley works as PA and constituency office manager for Andrew Brons, the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, and recently refused to condemn Hitler in a radio broadcast saying that he did not hate him.

Ian Meller
Leicestershire North West

Meller, a BNP councillor in North West Leicestershire, is a former National Front activist who took part in a demonstration against a Gay Pride march in Leicester in August 2000. Meller, then 35, was fined £400 and £55 costs for carrying an offensive weapon, believed to have been a chair leg.

Charlotte Lewis
Carshalton and Wallington

Lewis was jailed for six months in 2001 for sending a series of “chilling” death threats to employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) animal research laboratory in Cambridgeshire. She posts racist comments on social networking sites but claims she is ‘not a racist but a “racial survivalist”. ‘In 2009 Croydon Council considered taking action against her after she boasted of participating in a racist hate campaign against her neighbours.

Barry Bennett
Gosport

Bennett was, until recently, a regular user of the American-based nazi Stormfront website, despite being half Jewish, “from ancestry not religion” he is keen to stress. “I believe in National Socialism, WW2 style, it was best, no other power had anything like it,” ‘he wrote. “The ideology was fantastic. The culture, nothing like it. If it was here now, I’d defect to Germany.”

Eddy Butler
Harlow

Butler has been involved with the far right since the early 1980s when he was the Tower Hamlets organiser for the National Front. After he joined the BNP he and a team of thugs laid into a group of anti-fascists with hammers and other weapons in east London in 1992. In 1993 he organised the “Rights for whites” campaign that won the BNP its first councillor, Derek Beackon, in a Tower Hamlets by-election, though he only held the seat for seven months. Until his sudden demotion Butler was the BNP’s national organiser and elections officer. He is also standing for Barking and Dagenham council, despite still living in Loughton.

Chris Forster
Hayes and Harlington

A National Front supporter in the 1970s and a former treasurer of the Conservative Monday Club, Forster, who is also standing for Barking and Dagenham council, works as a psychic but failed to foresee Searchlight’s exposé of him in the Evening Standard in 2009. Forster helped compile the BNP’s 2009/10 Barking and Dagenham council budget, which attracted great opprobrium. Hypocritically, he is married to a Chinese woman with whom he has a child.

Tess Culnane
Orpington

Tess Culnane was a BNP member until a row with the party after which she stormed off to join the National Front for which she stood in the 2008 London Assembly election. She also addressed meetings of the openly Nazi British People’s Party. The BNP denounced the NF as “neo-fascist” but this has not proved an impediment to Culnane rejoining the BNP and working for Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member.

Edward Sheppard
Coventry North West

Sheppard stood for the BNP in the 2001 general election in Coventry North East, but could not stand in 2005 as he was jailed for three years in 2002 for shooting a man at point blank range. Mold Crown Court heard how Christopher Willans had mistakenly knocked on Sheppard’s window, believing it to be part of a property owned by a close friend. ‘On discovering his mistake, Willans apologised to Sheppard and left the area. While walking home Willans was confronted by Sheppard who shot him at close range with a .22 calibre pistol through his car window.

Marlene Guest
Rotherham

Guest is the Rotherham BNP organiser. Like Mozar she appeared on the Sky TV BNP Wives documentary in which she claimed that the number of deaths in the Holocaust had been exaggerated and that the Jews were putting Germany on a guilt trip. ‘Asked if any good had come out of ‘the Holocaust, she replied: “Well, apparently, didn’t they get a lot of dentistry and plastic surgery”, referring to the Nazis’ barbaric “medical experiments”.

Jeffrey Marshall
Eastbury ward, Barking and Dagenham Council

Marshall, the central London BNP organiser, displayed the poisonous side of the BNP in February 2009 following the death of the six-year-old son of David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader. In a cruel and warped outburst against those who had expressed their condolences at the death of Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, Marshall wrote in an internet politics group: “We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it.”

Marshall continued his sick tirade, stating that although it would be “a kindness” to kill children with disabilities, this was not the same as advocating such a measure as compulsory state policy. “But so what if it is,” he declared. “At least we would all know where we stand. There is actually not a great deal of point in keeping these sort of people alive, after all.”

Sharif Abdel Gawad
Bolton and Undercliffe ward, Bradford Council

Abdel Gawad of Bowling, Bradford, was convicted for possession of heroin by Bradford magistrates in December 2007. He first stood for the BNP in Bradford in May 2006, when his candidacy caused uproar in the party because of his less than Aryan credentials. The party insisted that he was of Armenian descent and most certainly “Christian” not a Muslim. Interviewed by The Independent he said he was “concerned about law and order, particularly the drugs epidemic in Bradford”.

Hope not hate

Logan quits BNP in 'racist' row

A councillor has vowed to stand independently at the next election after walking away from the British National Party for being "a bunch of racists"

Cllr Mark Logan, who has represented Gooshays ward since winning a by-election in March 2008, said he would be "severing all links with the party and the political group of misfits" because he didn't agree with "the calibre of some people" being put forward as candidates for the forthcoming election.

He said: "There's been some really nasty rhetoric directed at coloured people. When I first of all moved in with the party I didn't see a racist element to start off with. But people change. I thought they were a group of patriots not racists."

Jason Douglas, BNP Havering organiser, rejected the racist claims and said: "There are certain people in the branch who didn't see eye-to-eye. Mark comes from a Conservative background and a lot of his influences run contrary to what the party believes in."

He said Cllr Logan had done "some sterling work for Gooshays" but his "presence is causing friction among other members in the branch".

In May, Cllr Logan had been due to stand in the local election for Gooshays again and as a Parliamentary candidate for Upminster in the general election. He announced he was cutting all ties with the BNP last Thursday following a series of disagreements. The BNP argued they had pushed Cllr Logan out by deselecting him as a candidate at both levels prior to his exit from the party due to "continuous squabbles" and concern for his health, but were unable to substantiate their argument.

The last straw for Cllr Logan was with Heaton ward candidate Mick Braun who Cllr Logan branded "an out-and-out complete and utter racist" and a "loose cannon". Cllr Logan, who has been receiving dialysis daily while waiting for a kidney transplant, highlighted a particular incident when he claimed Mr Braun made a foul personal verbal attack on him after a party meeting.

Cllr Logan said: "I am not willing to stay in a party whereupon I'm being threatened and his last tirade of verbal abuse was appalling."

When questioned about it Mr Braun said: "I can't remember what I said. I might remember saying Joe Hunt. It's another term; a bit of rhyming slang."

He called Cllr Logan "arrogant" and "hard to work with" and said: "My son goes out with a Turkish girl. I rent my home from a lovely woman who is a Hindu. I'm not racist at all."

Cllr Logan was also angry at the secret political handshake Mr Douglas made with Graham Williamson of the National Liberal Party to agree to remove BNP candidates from South Hornchurch to give the The National Liberal Party a better chance of election. Cllr Logan has promised to support his constituents till the end of term before continuing his political career as an independent.

A BNP spokesman added: "Mark Logan has issued a number of highly libellous lies about the party. If any of Mr Logan's new allegations were true he would not have tried to rejoin the party so recently. It's sad Mark Logan sees fit to reveal his personal problems in such a manner but the BNP is greater than any one individual and better off without such a disruptive and unstable hanger on."

Fellow BNP member Micky Joyce announced this week he would also no longer stand for election, as he had planned to in the Heaton ward, because he didn't want to get involved with all the rows.

Romford Recorder

I don't know whats worse - a paedo or a BNP teacher

Tory leader David Cameron's pledge to change the law should he become Prime Minister to ensure that members of the racist British National Party are unable to become teachers, is a vote winner for black parents like myself. The surprise, as the head of the teacher's union the NASUWT told me the other day, is that it was a Tory leader and not a Labour prime minister who took the stand.

It wasn't that hard getting Cameron's vow. All I did was ask him whether he would allow any of his children to be taught by school staff who not only negated their existence, but denied their rights to citizenship. Responding to my question at his 'meet the black folk' hustings in south London recently, the Tory leader took a few moments of rhetoric before realising that he had to make that promise there and then because gathered around him were the great and the good of the black middle-classes.

The black middle-classes are the very people he needs to attract to beat Prime Minister Brown at the polls. And for the middle-classes the issue of who your children are taught by, is of paramount importance.

BNP members are banned from joining the police force, the military and the prison service. The idea that they would be acceptable in schools suggests that we protect prisoner's rights against racists better than we protect school children. All children, white or non-white, need to be protected from racists - in the just the same as they are protected from paedophiles. And I don’t know which is worst a BNP or a paedophile teacher.

Labour don't get it. They don't get why a black parent would take such an extreme view. They don't understand that when you make sacrifices for your children's education that it is demoralising to hear the Labour Education Secretary Ed Balls, capitulate to the recommendation by a former chief inspector of schools that it is okay for the BNP to be teachers. That has lost Labour mine and other black votes. Which black parent is going to vote for a political party which says we'll let racists teach your kids?

Mr Balls, would you allow your children to be taught by someone who negates their very existence and denies their rights to citizenship? We need to know before May 6. And after that we need to make sure that Cameron doesn't back down from his promise if he is the incumbent at 10 Downing Street.

VOICE Online

BNP bid to lure lad in school

A dad branded the British National Party "despicable" last night for trying to recruit his son by sending leaflets to his school

Tom Hunter, 13, was targeted by the right-wing extremists after he stood for the UK Youth Parliament. He was shocked when he opened a letter left for him at the school office and found it contained BNP leaflets. Tom said: "I was appalled. They are fascist and racist."

Dad Paul, 47, a lawyer from Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, said: "Targeting anybody so young is despicable. Everything the BNP stands for, I find disgusting."

Ironically, one of Tom's relatives is standing against BNP leader Nick Griffin at the general election. Lib Dem candidate Dominic Carman, married to Tom's cousin, said: "No other party targets children this age - it's outrageous. But the BNP don't operate by normal standards."

A BNP spokesman said Tom's parents were "narrow-minded" for not liking the party, adding: "If he's too young to be sent information, he's too young to take part in a Youth Parliament."

The Sun

Racists routed in BNP by-elections nightmare

The BNP's long, long run of dire local by-election results continued last night when the racist party failed to regain its Camp Hill ward seat on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, losing a third of its vote, and was trounced in Hastings St. Helen's ward on a first outing, netting just 6.2%.

The BNP also lost its Broadway seat on Debden Town Council to a Residents' candidate.

And any hopes the BNP had of salvaging something from another train-wreck night by drawing attention to an obscure town council by-election in Dalston, Cumbria, were dashed when Mick Ashburner, facing opposition only from a Labour candidate, was comprehensively demolished, taking just 15% of the vote.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Camp Hill was another self-inflicted by-election for the BNP, sitting councillor Darren Haywood resigning, according to the BNP, because of work commitments. According to everybody else Haywood had been an "invisible councillor" who had achieved nothing for Camp Hill, and nobody was much surprised when he jumped ship.

Stepping up with hopes of taking Haywood's place was the BNP's West Midlands regional organiser, serial candidate (failed), and mine host of Eliot's Bistro, the ever hopeful Alwyn Deacon.

Eliot's bistro, readers will recall, not only plays host to BNP meetings, but Mr Deacon has been so kind as to extend the hospitality of his premises to the openly Nazi British Freedom Fighters, pictured here enjoying a rousing Seig Heil at the end of a good night out.

While the BNP's Camp Hill campaign was underway its remaining Nuneaton and Bedworth councillor, idiotic Griffin groupie Martyn Findlay, gave updates on the party's progress, referring to HOPE not hate campaigners as the "great unwashed", whose "hate filled sheets" gained votes for the BNP.

Findlay, you may recall, was the BNP's candidate for Nuneaton's Arbury and Stockingford division (Warwickshire County Council) by-election on July 16th - the first post-Euro election in which the BNP vote could be tested against a previous performance. Findlay, expecting a win or a good second in the warm post-Euro glow, was shocked when two thirds of the BNP vote evaporated, its share falling from 25% to 14%.

It was the first sign that something was seriously amiss in BNP-land, and - with one aberration, the rot continues.

No amount of gloss can disguise last night's results as being anything other than a disaster for the BNP - one "real" council seat lost, just 6.2% obtained in another, obliteration in tiny Dalston, and a lost town councillor in Debden.

That'll do nicely.

Results:

Nuneaton & Bedworth Camp Hill ward:

Lab 670 (47.08)
BNP 478 (33.59)
Con 275 (19.33)

27.6% turnout

2008 result

BNP 675 (36.17)
Lab 562 (30.12)
Con 541 (28.99)
Soc 88 (4.72)


Hastings BC St. Helen's ward:

Con 609 (40.65)
Lab 550 (36.72)
LibD 210 (14.02)
BNP 93 (6.21)
EngD 36 (2.40)

2008 result

Con 994 (58.51)
Lab 412 (24.25)
LibD 293 (17.25)

Nazi thugs booted out of Scotland after Glasgow gathering

The Scottish Defence League in, er, action

A rabble of English neo-Nazi thugs were driven out of Scotland yesterday after failing in their bid to stoke race hatred

Hundreds of police hemmed in the pack of racists and BNP thugs - calling themselves the Scottish Defence League - as they gathered at a pub in the centre of Glasgow. The drunken mob left the Cambridge bar on Cambridge Street and moved to the city centre at noon where they were confronted by around 30 protesters shouting, "Nazi scum off our streets".

Speaking to a 1500-strong counter-demonstration, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "These people have no right to be heard. Our right as ordinary, decent citizens is not to have to listen to the vile hatred spouted by these people. Our message to them is clear - we will not have it in Glasgow and we will send you packing from every corner of Scotland.

A police helicopter circled as the SDL mob - many hiding their faces with hoods, masks and scarves - chanted Rule Britannia and No Surrender and brandished Scottish flags, Union Flags and Ban The Burka placards.

The Sunday Mail revealed last month that members of the notorious English Defence League - who have caused violent scenes around the UK - planned to march at Glasgow's Central Mosque under the SDL banner. But their plans were thwarted by a massive operation involving hundreds of officers from Strathclyde Police and British Transport Police.

Three men were arrested - including one for a racially-aggravated breach of the peace.

Daily Record

Nick Griffin’s hidden agenda

Griffin speaks to an audience of hardcore racists - the Ku Klux Klan and friends

I’m surprised that I’ve never seen the above clip before. I’m equally surprised that it’s been viewed less than 9,000 times. This is the kind of evidence that needs to be spread far and wide. Nick Griffin openly declares that the BNP hide behind a soft lexis of propaganda in order to gain popularity. Perhaps more shockingly, he happily reveals his true agenda — a whites-only Britain.

In the video, Griffin imparts BNP spin-tactics. He says:

'There’s a difference between selling out your ideas and selling your ideas. The British National Party isn’t about selling out its ideas — which are your ideas too — but we are determined now to sell them. That means to use saleable words.'

Basically, Griffin has told an audience consisting of David Duke supporters, i.e. racists, that the BNP holds the same views. He categorically says that the BNP has not changed at its core. It’s still the same fascist National Front that it used to be. Yet it is gaining popularity. Some people are starting believe that they aren’t racist, just realist. They’re falling for the softly-softly BNP spin and being lured in by the buzz-words. Griffin sheds light on their new propaganda tactic:

'[selling our ideas] basically means using saleable words… free­dom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable.'

Griffin clearly identifies areas that the BNP can manipulate and distort in order to gain support for the party. The idea that your freedom is at risk from foreign invaders, you should feel insecure because of the risk of terrorism, misrepresent­ing perceptions of political correctness as erosion of identity and heritage. I could go on. Hyperbole, fear-mongering, and scapegoats are the BNP’s most powerful weapons.

The man showed that he is intent on duping the public into thinking the BNP holds legitimate views when he said if the BNP is “subtle enough” then they may find themselves in control of the media, and subsequently in a position to brain­wash the electorate into wanting the removal of all non-whites from Britain. This is abhorrent, scary, and once again highlights that the BNP are not fit to be listed as a political party.

Griffin says:

“If you hold that [fascist policy] out as your sole aim to start with, you’re going to get nowhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity we talk about identity.”

The evidence just comes through thick and fast. The BNP do not want non-whites in Britain, no matter what they say in the press or on their website. They will use the public’s desperation at our current ruling elite to gain popularity and pursue their hidden motives. The truth lies under the surface as has been proven time and time and time again.

Nick Griffin once said:

'Without the white race nothing matters. [Other right-wing parties] believe that the answer to the race question is integration and a futile attempt to create “Black Britons”, while we affirm that non-whites have no place here at all and will not rest until every last one has left our land.'

There’s no room for the BNP in Britain.

The Linc

Four nazis arrested at anti-BNP protest

The image is blurry but you can still see these nazi twats sieg-heiling

North West UAF held a vibrant and noisy protest outside the BNP's 'Victory Rally' today. Exactly how many of their party attended the rally is unclear. But it is interesting that there was no sign of them at the hotel windows, no display of numbers or any celebration.

Just over 100 people from around the region took part in the protest; which was great, given that there were only a few days in which to organise and publicise it. Banners included those from Blackpool Trades Council; Blackpool and Fylde College UCU; Greater Manchester UAF and the local PCS.

Several speakers addressed the crowd and onlookers on the promenade. Points made included: why we say 'no platform for Nazis'; the fact that they are virulently homophobic as well as racist; the level of misogyny within the party and ended with a promise to Griffin that wherever he tries to appear publicly in the North West, we will be there too. Speakers talked about the fact that anti-fascists represent the majority and that UAF will organise protests to outnumber and oppose the Nazi BNP wherever they try to organise.

Andrew Wheatley, from Blackpool Trades Council, emphasised that, despite Griffin winning the North West seat, the BNP do not represent the majority of people in the area. Pete Marsden, of Blackpool UNISON, speaking in a personal capacity, criticised the “British Jobs for British Workers” slogan which had benefited the BNP.

Jain Gawn, of Blackpool and Fleetwood Unite Against Fascism, talked of the legacy of fighting Fascism in Britain, including the Battle of Cable Street and the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Jain also cited the recent attacks in Belfast as an example of where racism leads. Other speakers included Dione Bough of UNISON, Independent Socialist Councillor Michael Lavalette, and others.

Weyman Bennett, joint-national secretary of UAF, called for people to attend the demonstration against the Nazis’ “Red, White and Blue” event in August, while Dave Sewell of Manchester University Students Union spoke about the need to continue a No Platform position against the BNP.

Off to the clink we go...

There was anti-nazi representation from across the North-West, with protestors from Blackpool and Fleetwood, Lancaster, Wigan, Preston, Liverpool, Kendal, Manchester, Barrow, and elsewhere, and representation from the North West’s LGBT community.

A letter was read out from the two Blackpool MP’s, Joan Humble and Gordon Marsden, which had been sent to the New Kimberley Hotel, opposing the Hotel’s hosting of BNP events, stating “The Nazis too deceived, frightened and scapegoated people – just the same as the BNP try to do. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that many BNP activists try to deny the Holocaust.”

Unfortunately, the rally was not entirely free from Nazis. Several of them came out of the hotel to harass people. This is a new development for BNP gatherings in Blackpool and was obviously born out of a new confidence they've gained since the elections. We will have to make sure that that confidence is short lived. While many of their thugs lolling around in gangs were dressed in suits, a small group of skins sauntered over in ‘nationalist’ t-shirts and started sieg-heiling at the crowd (with a wall and cops in between, to protect themselves, obviously). Whilst this was met with fury and much shouting, no on attempted to physically attack them. Instead we slowly moved them on along the prom.

It was quite obvious that the episode was orchestrated purely to provoke us into a violent response. When the old Nazi salute didn't cause anyone to loose control and attack them, they started chanting the names of concentration camps, as a taunt. As they descended into a tirade of racial abuse the police intervened and four of them were arrested. It would be hard to find a clearer example of the fact that the BNP is a haven for hardcore, unreconstructed, Nazis.

Some of the crowd at the demo

As time went on we noticed small groups of thugs strategically positioned down the promenade. Like vultures they were gathering in order to pick people off as they left the protest. It was agreed that the best way to avoid anyone getting hurt was to leave the area outside the hotel together as a group. With the numbers involved, this became a demonstration in its own right. We marched down the prom singing and chanting.

While it was depressing to see them so confident and closer to our demo than in other years it is important to bear the following in mind: anti-fascists are by far the majority; it looks like we had far more people outside that hotel than they had inside it and while we can march through the streets, they can't. It is going to be a long, hard summer making sure that this remains the case. They've got their seats in Europe, but that does not mean we have to allow them the chance to take over our public places. As their 'Victory Rally' was such a flop, they’re likely to try again at the Red, White and Blue gathering. We need to make sure they have nothing to celebrate when they get there!

The shower behind the BNP throne

The henchmen behind vile BNP leader Nick Griffin have their thin veneer of acceptability stripped away today.

His minders and hangers-on wore smart suits and ties as they leaped to shield their party leader from a barrage of eggs and anti-fascist taunts this week. But the News of the World can reveal their respectable image conceals a Nazi-saluting RACIST, a depraved SWINGER and a FAILED wannabe councillor who lives with his mum.

The rotten shower were among sidekicks who jumped in to protect Griffin, 49, from furious protesters in London. Griffin and Andrew Brons, who together had just become MEPs in the Euro elections, had been trying to portray their party as a reasonable voice. But we can reveal that their minders' views are every bit as warped as the BNP's policies.

Take JAY SLAVEN, who was seen on camera roughly pushing a bystander aside as he escorted Griffin and Brons away. A truer picture of Slaven, 25, emerges from another photo of him giving a Nazi salute and posing with a St George's flag draped over his shoulders.

The snap features on a Facebook photo album entitled "Forever Brave, Forever True, Forever England! St George's Day!"

Slaven, from Doddinghurst, Essex, tried to make a name for himself by defending Jade Goody's racist remarks to Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. At the time he claimed the huge row which erupted over comments made towards Indian actress Shilpa was "laughable".

In another rant Slaven, an assistant distribution manager, declared: "I see no possible wrong in wanting to preserve this island race of ours. Racial mixing is not leading to the BNP success, the vast damage done to our nation by successive governments is."

Pictured near Slaven at the egg demo was burly BNP minder MARTIN REYNOLDS, who is Griffin's head of security and a regular feature at his elbow. But Reynolds - married with three kids - is also a regular on the swingers scene and lusts after "big girls". The 41-year- old from Leeds was pictured at the London bust-up in dark glasses. But he wore far less as he watched women indulge in sex acts at a squalid orgy.

Months earlier he had gone on dating website faceparty.com with fellow BNP organisers Mark Collett and Dan Hannam. Reynolds told how he hated stuck-up people and women on diets - and listed his ideal female as "size 16 and above with a good sense of humour and a sex drive to match mine".

Also among Griffin's gang was TONY GLADWIN, who lives with his mum in a 1960s house with a St George's Cross flying from a 6ft flagpole outside. The 25-year-old landscape gardener recently stood as a district councillor but failed miserably to get elected. Gladwin, from Billericay, Essex, has said: "Everyone that knows me knows I am in the BNP. I'm very proud of it. People have made out it's like a secret society, like we should be hiding it."

Another Griffin minder is former London mayoral candidate JULIAN LEPPERT, a postman who is happiest when he is delivering racist scare stories. He said: "We don't want to be a minority in our city, let alone our country. That is what we are going to have by 2055 if current trends continue."

Meanwhile new MEP Andrew Brons, 61, seeks to be the respectable face of the party but 25 years ago he was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. He and another National Front member were shouting slogans including "Death to Jews" and "White Power".

NoTW