Far-Right Talkboards: A Whole Other World Out There...

I wouldn't make a very good spy. In 1985, I thought it would be a good idea to pop along to a pub in Ilkeston and melt into the background during a National Front meeting.

I'd have got away with it, too, if I didn't have long hair, flares and an Afghan coat. If nothing else, the smell would've given me away.

A couple of weeks ago I registered on of the Far-Right Talkboards. Under my own name (I've never really seen the point of pseudonyms), with no hidden agenda, and no motive other than wanting to understand why people think the things they do (and this particular Board seemed to have a few Members who might be able to actually argue the toss, rather than just go for name-calling and dark, sinister – if seemingly never acted upon – threats).

When the World History of Pointless Exercises is written (presumably by Giles Brandreth, with an hilarious forward by Richard Stilgoe), there might be room for a tiny sidebar sandwiched somewhere between a chocolate manufacturer changing the pronunciation of their name from “Nessuls” to “Ness-Lay” and the entire acting career of David Bowie. That's where you'll find My Heroic Foray Into The Alternative Universe Of The Ultra Right.

Ultra Right, I found for starters, isn't so much a political delineation as a philosophical stance: Most people are willing to accept that they've got it wrong occasionally. It's not very nice, but it goes with the whole “Being Human” territory. Not these people, though. On any subject, no matter how trivial. They aren't just “right” they're very, very, very right. All the time. About everything. Loudly. In their own imaginations.

Call me naïve, but I actually believed it may be possible to engage in some debate: A sensible exchange of views, coolly yet cogently expressed, based around a central theme. But waiting for a suitable juncture to drop my two penn'orth in was like hanging around outside a phone booth for a tramp to stop having a dump inside it: The waiting around was unpleasant enough, and I wouldn't have fancied going in afterwards, anyway.

The nature of the “debate” on the Forum often follows a pattern:

A) This is my point of view.

B) Frankly, I disagree with your point of view.

A) Sorry to disappoint you, but I still hold to my original point of view.

B) As do I.

C) Neither of you are True Nationalists, unlike myself, and I have it on good authority that you both enjoy the practise of ____________ , which you are wont to pursue in the company of _________, who likes to ___________ while you both insert ___________ into one another's ___________.

From this point onwards, things tend to go downhill rapidly.

The Lunar Society it ain't.

One of the few interesting things about the Board is the insight it gives into the various splits and factions among the Far-Right. There's the...

BNP Loyalists (“Griffinites”). These are the people, most of whom have joined the Boards only recently, who see their job as being to derail any debate that may be going on as soon as it becomes uncomfortable to their stance. Which is all the time. Their typical tactic, to this end, is to either use distraction, by sending things off on an entirely unrelated (but harmless) tangent (“Has anyone seen any good movies lately?”), or to just take the straightforward “I seen your Mum _________ with a __________!” approach.

There are the BNP Reformers (“Butlerites”). These are still Members, but detest Griffin and genuinely believe that they will somehow be able to wrest control of the dying enterprise from his tightly grasped claw.

Michael Barnbrook (“of the Yard” - I always expect him to end his posts with “Mind how you go” or “Keep 'em peeled”...) is a Reformer (and of the minority on the Board who actually seems to understand the concept of “debate”). He's also someone with form (to dig into my own vast experience of Met' argot: years of watching The Sweeney finally paying off there...) within his Party. Whatever the role he actually played in the Expenses Scandal (which will be debated for years to come), being on the side of the Taxpayer isn't something to be knocked, whatever your politics. He does, however, display a touchingly childlike innocence in his fond belief that, should he become Leader (he intends to stand), there might actually be something to inherit other than a pile of unpayable iou's and a brand name slightly less respected than Enron.

As a sidenote: The Griffinites routinely refer to Butler as “Brothel” Butler, or just “Buttler”. Waggish sophisticates that they are.

Then there are the Unaligned Nationalists. They aren't members of any faction, but they've done more for “Nationalism” over the years than anyone else and they're more patriotic than You. Fact. End Of. Got It?

Unaligned (now, at any rate) is one Jim Dowson, who recently posted (as “The Bruce”) a series of incoherent, grotesque rants and taunts. Aside from their entertainment value (“Griffo is the mighty king and I am his prince!”), they show his mental state to the World better than a team of burly men chasing him with a straitjacket and a butterfly net.

A recent showing on the Board is the BFP. Indeed, the Board is about the only place they exist (yesterday's “Launch” doesn't seem to have happened) and, as their “raft of policies” are distinguishable from the BNP's only with DNA analysis and a Hadron Collider, they've got their work cut out for themselves in making any kind of impact whatsoever.

And then there's (ex-BNP Webmaster) Simon Bennett. To describe him as “a bit of a strange one” is like saying Howard Hughes had the odd "funny little way" about him. In the days and weeks following his defection from the Party (a result of the Marmite fiasco), he was a Very Angry Man. But this was the kind of anger that soon turns into a Crusade For Justice. I have a friend who got a parking ticket in 2003 and has since compiled a dossier on that particular parking space that could rival the Collected Papers and Investigations of the Royal Society for exactitude, detail and pedantry. On the one hand, his Crusade against the Parking Enforcement Department of Nottingham City Council has paid off – no warden will ever mess with him again. On the other hand, he doesn't get invited to many parties anymore.

So with Bennett. At first, he seemed to be an interesting character; knowing where the bodies were buried, and always (it seemed) on the brink of marking them on a big map. But little more has come of it, and he's become yet another “Nationalist”: Albeit the self-proclaimed Guru of the Boards, who will shout down any perceived opponent and endlessly defend his own stance with an obsession (at times he seems to be on there 24/7) bordering on the unwell, and a (self-proclaimed) taste for violence and threats that doesn't so much “border” as “take up residence at the centre of” psychotic (a recent missive to someone who seems to have irked the touchy fellow ran: “Post one more time and my bat will connect with your f*****ng head you c***. I know your IP and your address you f*****g c**t”). As an asset to any emergent party (he's closely associated with the pre-doomed BFP) he can be ranked alongside Lee Barnes (whose rantings have already led to the resignation – after just over a week – of their much-trumpeted, straight-arrow Treasurer, John Savage).

If anything, the Boards demonstrate that the Far-Right are just as good (if not even better) at falling out and fragmenting as the Far-Left ever were. Once upon a time, there were three of us would (attempt to) flog the Socialist Worker (pronounced “Sooooo-Shlist Work-Ah!”) in Derby. If we'd only devoted a fraction of the energy to plotting against Thatcher that we spent planning one another's downfall, the Old Bag would've been finished by 1986.

The Boards will continue to be a useful resource for us. It's on there that the splits, the bickering, the petty squabbles and the (very) occasional useful lead are laid bare.

I think I'll rather just watch from the sidelines from now on, though...

Us (the British) and them (the Muslims)

The front page and main story of Thursday's Daily Express is a clear and unsubtle attempt at maintaining the "us and them" mentality which is so often levelled by that paper against Muslims:

The headline refers to the shouts from "a group of men" (according to the Mail) who were sitting in the public gallery during the trial of Roshonara Choudhry, the woman convicted of stabbing Stephen Timms MP earlier this year.

As the Express reports:

JEERING Muslim fanatics turned an Old Bailey court into a battleground yesterday after an Al Qaeda follower was jailed for stabbing an MP.

In unprecedented scenes the angry mob chanted “British go to hell” as would-be assassin Roshonara Choudhry was handed a sentence of life with a minimum of 15 years.

Rather than leading with the story at hand, the sentencing of Choudhry to "life" imprisonment, the Express has chosen to focus on the deranged rantings of a few nutcases in a courtroom instead. (Both the Daily Mail and The Sun have also gone with this angle, but neither has chosen to put it across in as brazen a way as the Express.)

That there are Muslim extremists who say such things is beyond a doubt. However, the Express' decision to make this the key focus of the story, along with the deliberately ambiguous language used in the headline, is an attempt to imply that these shouts are in some way an expression of what every Muslim thinks about the British.

The Express sees Muslims as a homogeneous mass that is in complete agreement with the ramshackle fanatics at its fringes. The headline is a dog-whistle signal for the idea that "Muslims" disapprove of "us British".

Can you imagine, for example, what the Express would have done if the men who broke into shouts of "Go to hell, Britain" were Christians? Would the Express have replaced "Muslims" with "Christians" in the headline? Would they even have mentioned it so prominently in the first place?

I doubt it.

Continuing the theme of rampant hysteria, the Express' article states that:

The gang, sitting in the public gallery, chanted “Allahu akbar” or “God is great” and another demonstration raged outside the court.

"Raged"? Gosh, that sounds dramatic, doesn't it?

Between the Express, the Daily Mail and The Sun, the "raging" demonstration seems to have comprised of at least three poor souls holding particularly unimaginative print-outs:

In their articles about Thursday's events, the BBC and the Telegraph make no mention of the men holding signs outside or of the shouting from the gallery, and the Guardian makes a passing reference only to

a small demonstration... taking place outside the court.

An examination of The Sun's article reveals the following:

Security men bundled the ranting bigots from Court Seven after the disgraceful scenes.

But the three were allowed to continue their poison rants [sic] in the street - yelling "British soldiers must die."

According to this, the demonstration outside appears to have consisted of the same men who were shouting in the gallery. Therefore the Express' claim that "another demonstration raged outside the court" seems pretty baseless.

Nonetheless, expect the wearisome English Defence League to seize this stormy teacup with both of their grubby hands.

Thanks to Minority Thought, "A blog about bad journalism"

Kidney Stones: A Doctor Explains.

Hello. I'm a Doctor. I've got a Degree and a Stethoscope and everything.

I'm going to talk to you today about Kidney Stones, or “Convenientus Excusii pro Courtius Adjournimentia” to give the little blighters their full, medical name.

These hard, painful concretions are often associated with imminent tasks of an unpleasant nature, say, for instance, an appointment with Officials from the Electoral Commission Accounts Department or an impending Court Date.

In cases such as this, it is typical that the Kidney Stones (or “Attemptus ut Pullus a Fastii Unus” to give the pesky things another medical name) will manifest themselves as late as just three days before the associated unpleasant duty.

I recently diagnosed a severe case of this phenomenon, known as “Ultimo Ditchius Excusii”, in a patient of mine who, to observe medical confidentiality, I shall refer to only as N*** G******.

Mr G******, a slightly overweight 51 year-old Fundraiser, came to me complaining of painful realisations that an upcoming court hearing was not going to go well for him. “Is there anything you can do, Doctor?”, he asked; “The realisations are really very painful and getting worse all the time!”

After a thorough examination of his Constitution, I concluded that Mr G****** was, indeed, going to be in for a very bad time and, this condition being highly contagious among the susceptible, might even spread to those of a similar disposition.

I prescribed a Doctor's Note (or “Gettus ex Incarceratio Gratis Cardus”) to present to the judge, and Mr G****** left my office a happy man.

Follow-up appointments have been made for any dates deemed inconvenient by the Court.

If this course of treatment is followed and everything goes to plan, Mr G****** is expected to make a full recovery by next Wednesday.

English Defence League in threat to county events over ‘Christmas’

A right-wing group has threatened £500,000 action against councils in Shropshire if they hold any festive events that do not contain the word Christmas in the title.

The English Defence League has written to all major councils in the country – including Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin – warning them not to “lose the meaning of Christmas”.

The group is threatening repeat demonstrations in towns and villages it believes to be ignoring its advice. Events that may be deemed to breach the EDL threat include Christmas lights switch-ons, pantomimes and nativity plays.

In the letter, sent from the party head office and seen by the Shropshire Star, the EDL says: “As I’m sure you are aware Christmas is a long-established tradition in British history and indeed other cultures and religions and dates back as far as 400AD.

“Please keep Christmas as Christmas and not let our culture and traditions be eroded and preserve English values.

“Any council that does not keep the word Christmas in the annual celebrations and opts for Winter Festival, out of the politically correct appeasement of others to the detriment of our traditions, will have their town visited by the English Defence League throughout the following year.

“The average cost to the council is £500,000 when the English Defence League demonstrates at any given location and it is hoped this will be avoided by your council keeping the word Christmas alive. Do not lose the meaning of Christmas by changing it to Winter Festival.”

Telford & Wrekin Council confirmed it had received the letter, and had passed it onto the police.

A Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman said: “This is a generalised letter to all local authorities and there is no specific reference to Telford & Wrekin. As a matter of routine procedure, we have passed the letter to West Mercia Police for information. We are happy that Christmas celebrations will proceed in the borough as normal.”

Shropshire Council said it would not be advising county events to alter their titles. A Shropshire Council spokesman said: “Any events held by the council are named whatever is deemed most appropriate and suitable by the organisers.”

Shropshire Star

Fascist fund raiser quits broke party

Nasty right-wing thug Jim Dowson has quit the BNP forcing the party to pull its fundraising wing out of Ulster.

And last night he had the bare-faced cheek to tell the Sunday World he would have ended it sooner if we hadn’t written so much about him!

In a bizarre conference call involving party chief Nick Griffin, he confirmed he was finished with the BNP.

He then added: “I would have ended it sooner if you hadn’t kept writing stories about me.

“What are you gonna write about now that I’ve gone?”

But we can confirm part of the reason Dowson has quit is that his nose was put out of joint by a former National Front leader called Pat Harrington – who was once forced out of Ulster by the UDA for backing the IRA.

Harrington has been interfering in the call centre and is a close pal of Griffin from the old days in the National Front.

Dowson did confirm that the Belfast BNP fundraising operation would be closing and all party fundraising would be carried out on the mainland.

MASSIVE

It’s a massive blow for the BNP and Dowson personally who fought to bring the fundraising wing to the quiet suburbs of Belfast but found it impossible to get local staff to work in the office.

“Most BNP members are glad to see the back of him,” said anti-fascist campaigner Matthew Collins last night.

“The party looks like it’s facing bankruptcy and members are just walking away in disgust.”

Last night Dowson complained that we had been unfair to him as all he ever was, was a contractor for a political party of which he remains adamant he was never a member.

However when we put it to him that his rousing speech at a BNP fundraiser in Blackburn, where he summons up an image of Britain facing destruction due to immigration, showed he was more than a mere contractor – he said he couldn’t remember what he had said!

Instead he did concede: “I am a very strong British patriot who’s sympathetic to the party.

“But I have left the party in a better state than when I joined – certainly administratively – where they now have all the tools at their disposal.”

When we asked Jim about the dire financial situation which had put the future of the BNP in jeopardy he added: “Financially the party is not in a fantastic state.” But controversial leader Nick Griffin chipped in: “At least we’re not in £20m debt like the Labour Party!”

The beleaguered British National Party has been rocked by Dowson’s walk-out amid a bitter split which has ripped the party in two.

Dowson walked away from the party on Friday and has blamed outside interference for his resignation.

SORROW

In a brief statement to a right wing internet blog Dowson announced: “It is with deep sorrow and regret I have to inform you that I’m off when my contract ends.

“This will cost me tens of thousands but my love for my people, this country and the party is worth far more to me.

“I did my level best and remain 100% loyal but I don’t tolerate outside fools. PERIOD!”

The “outside fool” he mentions here is Pat Harrington.

When we asked if this statement was accurate he said to take it “with a pinch of salt”.

But Dowson has form for making drunken phonecalls late at night and the Sunday World understands the statement, made to former BNP man Eddie Butler, is true.

The 45-year-old self-proclaimed ‘Reverend’ – who used to campaign against abortion and gay marriage – had the fundraising contract for the far right party until the end of this year.

He was regarded as a close personal ally of BNP leader Nick Griffin who thanked him personally and publicly for his efforts in getting two BNP members into the European Parliament.

On Monday staff at the BNP’s Belfast bunker – where fundraising and membership are coordinated for the whole of the UK – were left stunned when they couldn’t get into the office.

Locks had been changed at the inconspicuous Dundonald industrial unit which was rented, staffed and organised by Dowson.

The Sunday World understands that the BNP took over the rent of the unit after Dowson had made them aware he was quitting but they then failed to pay the bill to the landlord.

The situation was resolved and it was business as usual by the next day.

The news it will be closing will be music to the ears of BNP members in England who hated Dowson and were disillusioned with the Belfast office.

The Belfast office came under heavy criticism for a string of cock-ups in the run up to the General Election which saw the BNP fail miserably.

Dowson himself came under increasing pressure because of a number of blunders – not least the gaffe with Marmite.

Dowson came up with the idea to use the spread with the famous slogan ‘you either love us or you hate us’ to promote the party in election adverts.

But Unilever, who make Marmite, protested and when Dowson refused to remove the slogan they sued – leaving the BNP no choice but to settle out of court at great cost – although Dowson said last night that all they had paid to Unilever was a “token amount”.



RIGHT WING NUTTER

THIS is the right-wing nutter who forced right wing nutter Jim Dowson out of right wing nutter party, the BNP.

He’s former National Front leader, and IRA fan, Pat Harrington.

Posing in front of an IRA memorial on the Falls Road is not what is usually expected from a right-wing fascist.

The 46-year-old Londoner has been offering support to the staff at Dowson’s Belfast call centre amid rumours, now confirmed, that Dowson was quitting and the office here will soon shut.

There have also been claims that Dowson and Harrington have come to blows about the running of the office.

This week Dowson confirmed he was leaving and blamed “outside fools” for interfering in the call centre he set up last year in Dundonald.

On his Facebook page recently Harrington openly criticised plans to close Belfast saying: “Patrick Antony Harrington is concerned by reckless threats made by Eddy Butler to the jobs of members working for the BNP in Belfast. The rights of our members will be defended.”

But Harrington’s close, and long term, friendship with BNP leader Nick Griffin appears to have won out and on Wednesday night Dowson and Griffin met over a bottle of port to sort out the details of his leaving.

Harrington and Shankill fascist David Kerr are rumoured to want to run the BNP in Ulster.

Harrington’s story is a bizarre one.

Despite being a prominent NF leader 30 years ago he was one of three fascists who made a controversial trip to Libya to meet Colonel Gadaffi.

In a Channel Four documentary, Disciples of Chaos, Harrington refused to condemn the IRA as terrorists.

His support for Irish Republicanism didn’t sit too well with the loyalists of Ulster – especially at a time when the Provos were at their most active – and he was ordered out by the UDA.

In 1984 Harrington, who cuts an extremely camp figure, caused mayhem at the Polytechnic of North London where he was studying philosophy.

Students picketed his lectures to protest that he was allowed to study while being a prominent member of the National Front.

Harrington left the National Front during a bitter split at the end of the 1980s but continued his strange mix of right wing and prorepublican politics.

Several years ago Harrington had hot coffee thrown in his face when he was serving drinks on the London-Edinburgh train after he was identified by an anti-fascist.

Harrington and Shankill fascist David Kerr have been pals for years as they become prominent in the Third Way – although in 2004 the party only had 20 members according to the Electoral Commission.

Thanks to Hope not Hate and Steven Moore at Sunday World

I have edited the article slightly from the original
John P

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

Porky Griffin: nearly bankrupt - again!

Griffin could lose Euro seat as party faces bankruptcy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mirror

BNP members to be barred from teaching

Headteachers are to be given the power to dismiss teachers who are members of the BNP or other groups which have an "extremist tenor".

The pledge by the education secretary, Michael Gove, follows the case of a BNP activist who used a school laptop to post comments describing some immigrants as "filth". Gove said he would allow school heads and governing bodies to sack teachers for membership of the far-right party. Members of the BNP are barred from working as police or prison officers.

The minister told the Guardian: "I don't believe that membership of the BNP is compatible with being a teacher. One of the things I plan to do is to allow headteachers and governing bodies the powers and confidence to be able to dismiss teachers engaging in extremist activity.

"I would extend that to membership of other groups which have an extremist tenor. I cannot see how membership of the British National party can co-exist with shaping young minds."

The crackdown was welcomed by the NASUWT teaching union, which has called for a ban. Its general secretary, Chris Keates, said: "I hope this is something Michael Gove takes forward as quickly as possible. It is an important part of safeguarding the interests of young people."

Adam Walker, a BNP member and teacher at a school near Sunderland, was cleared of racial and religious intolerance by a disciplinary panel in June this year. He wrote in an online forum that Britain was a "dumping ground for the filth of the third world". But while the panel said the comments were troubling, it was not satisfied that they showed intolerance.

Delivering the General Teaching Council's verdict, the chair, Angela Stones, said: "A negative comment about immigration to the UK of itself need not be indicative of racist views or racial intolerance, since the race of immigrants is extremely varied."

The GTC, the profession's watchdog, was abolished a week later. In a Commons statement, Gove cited the decision made on the Walker case as "quite wrong".

The previous government ruled out banning BNP members from teaching after an independent inquiry into racism in schools decided it would be disproportionate. Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said a ban would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut". He also described it as a "profound political act".

The review found that in the past seven years four teachers and two governors had been publicly identified as members of racist organisations, and that only nine incidents of teachers making racist remarks or possessing racist material had been subject to GTC disciplinary sanction.

Critics say this review over-emphasised the number of incidents, rather than their potential impact on a classroom. Keates said: "It's not an issue of scale. That was our biggest criticism of Maurice Smith's report. T the issue is one of making sure that a clear message goes out that membership of the BNP and other extremist groups is incompatible with being a teacher."

Gove outlined plans to ban the BNP from classrooms in an interview in which he also said he would not oppose parents and teachers if they rejected his traditionalist views on the curriculum.

At this year's Conservative party conference, Gove said historian Simon Schama would advise on an overhaul of the history curriculum to ensure that no pupil leaves school without learning "narrative British history". English teaching will also be reformed to ensure that canonical writers such as Pope, Shelley, Dryden, Dickens and Hardy are at the heart of the curriculum.

He said he believed there was an "unfulfilled appetite" for a more classical education. But he insisted teachers could steer their own course. "The idea of the reforms I'm about to bring about is that if the professional wisdom of teachers takes them in a different direction, and the common sense of parents takes that direction, I won't stand in their way."

The Guardian

EDLs "Tommy Robinson" at Luton BNP Meeting ?

Are we mistaken, or is that the English Defence League's Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson pictured on the far left at a 2007 Luton BNP meeting in the King Harry Pub?

Speaking is Richard Edmonds, veteran Holocaust denier and BNP activist with a string of violent convictions. Also present on the top table is the then Beds/Bucks BNP organiser Steve Sherwood as well as John Pater, activist with the BNP as well as the national socialist November 9th Society.

Three Counties Unity

BNP money man quits after model accuses him of groping her in hotel room

THE BNP's chief fundraiser has sensationally quit the party after being accused of groping a blonde activist.

Jim Dowson denies claims by one of the far-right party's Westminster hopefuls that he pawed her after luring her to a hotel room during a party roadshow.

Shelley Rose, who once modelled for lads' mags, posted a dramatic video online claiming she woke to find Dowson, the party's treasurer, on top of her.

The former BNP candidate for Bedfordshire put a video on YouTube in which she claims Dowson lured her to a hotel under false pretences before making unwanted advances.

She said: "I decided it was safer to stay with him, as it was too late to get home, because he was a religious and family man and didn't think there would be a problem.

"We both had on our nightclothes. I felt these clammy, sweaty hands crawling up my leg.

"He was kissing me. Then he got on top of me and I told him to stop.

"I said: 'Jim, please stop.' Eventually he got off but rather than apologise he started to verbally abuse me and told me I was frigid, had emotional issues and was a wreck."

Dowson, 45, who runs a call centre in Dundonald, East Belfast, which processes BNP memberships, yesterday confirmed he no longer worked with the party.

He claimed Shelley was "a daft wee lassie" who invented the story as part of a dirty tricks campaign.

The father of four said: "This woman is talking nonsense. Her pictures show she is far from being the Miss Jean Brodie type at all.

"There was a dirty tricks campaign in the party and this was all part of it. I ended up in the firing line.

"There is a real power struggle between hardliners and people like Nick Griffin who want to open the party to Asians and other groups.

"It has caused a lot of grief. I knew from the start Shelley could not be trusted and suspected her motives. I still have grave doubts about what she was trying to do.

"She was taking part in a stage show but had to be thrown out of that as there were doubts about her. She was very bitter about that."

Dowson, of Cumbernauld, who was Griffin's trusted right-hand man, has a string of convictions, including breach of the peace, possession of a weapon and criminal damage.

He has close links with loyalist groups in Belfast and has produced f lute band tapes which celebrate loyalist Michael Stone, who killed three Catholics at a Belfast funeral.

The BNP is in financial meltdown following a number of legal cases, including a £170,000 pay-out to the makers of Marmite.

Dowson said: "I have not renewed my contract with the party but there has been no acrimonious split. I just want to get away from politics.

"I was in Brussels this week with Nick to discuss arrangements about ending our relationship.

"I was never a member of the party but they have a mandate. One million people voted for them, probably more than voted for Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland or the SNP in Last year, Dowson by police for an employee a photo himsel f apparent armed with a shotgun. He said it was a toy.

A BNP spokesman said: "Mr Dowson's contract with the party expires at the end November. He decided not to seek renewal. Shelley Rose no longer a BNP member."

Daily Record

Christmas Greetings From Nick Griffin!

I don't know about you, but Christmas (or “Winterval”, as we Searchlight-controlled Marxists like to call it. Obviously.) for me wouldn't be the same without mulled wine, good cheer, children singing carols and the sight of Nick Griffin ripping off his hapless Members like some kind of Evil Reverse Santa.

Offered today on the BNP website are “Christian” Christmas Cards. Because, as everyone knows, it simply isn't possible to find such an exotic animal outside the Magical Grotto that is “Excalibur”, the BNP's online tat superstore.

Thanks to the generosity of Alwyn Deacon, Santa Griffin's Chief Elf, a pack of 12 such cards is now available for the astonishing price of just £3.99!

Except, if you go to http://www.davidssales.co.uk/shop/Vprod1.asp?cat=183004045 (see screenshot above) you'll find the same pack of cards (“Retail Price Marked £2.99”) from as little as 59p a pack...

EDL’s Dutch Courage Runs Out!

Well, what a wash-out. After months of trumpeting and blether the English Defence League’s band of hooligans and ‘chav scrotes’ were humiliated in Amsterdam yesterday, attacked by antifascists and Ajax fans and harried by the cops. At least they didn’t have time to fight amongst themselves as they usually do. There is some interesting YouTube footage, involving some shaky camera work, of them running around cluelessly, pursued by Dutch Antifa and plod. At one point there seemed to be more photographers than EDL all believing the hype that this was going to be another Bradford ‘little big one.’ In the end it was ‘the little little one.’ The images show a faintly confused bunch of fat blokes in hoodies wandering about. One of the EDL vans was trashed and there were 34 arrests. They had a little stage and Tommy Robinson AKA Steven Yaxley-Lennon, ex-BNP and jailed for assaulting a copper, gave a ‘rousing speech’ to his mates and then they went home. No surrender? They did. Completely.

According to Hope Not Hate about 60 turned up to ‘support’ Geert Wilders, the anti-Islamic Dutch MP who has publicly distanced himself from the lager swilling, loud mouthed hooligans for obvious reasons. So if that is the case, why did the EDL bother? So they can get their necessary media injection and show their mates in the pub how famous they are. This kind of behaviour shows the EDL as a vanity operation, boosting the egos a of a few nobodies with criminal records.

Battered

A poster on the EDL website said a group of EDL turned up on Friday night and the following day were attacked by Ajax fans who told them to go away in no uncertain terms. The EDL are now making threatening noises about revenge should Ajax come to the UK. We shall see … One hapless EDL got battered and ended up with a shattered leg. He had the misfortune to have no travel insurance either and had to travel back to the UK in considerable discomfort. The ‘Malatestas’ have had a whip round and will be sending 50p to the EDL as fast as possible. The poster admits that the public were also opposed to the EDL presence – which comes as no surprise. The EDL seriously think that ALL the ‘public’ and ALL football fans have the duty to support them. Well, they don’t: lots of people despise them or are merely bored by their posturing. The Dutch authorities didn’t want them there either and throughout the week the demo was moved about and they ended up with an out of town spot at the Western docks. In his ‘rousing speech’ Yaxley-Lennon criticised the mayor for moving the demo – as if a gang of drunk hooligans with a violent reputation should be welcomed with open arms wherever they go. The Dutch will have seen what the EDL have done in place like Stoke, Bradford and Leicester and have the absolute right to move them wherever they want. Would the EDL like the Ajax fans to demonstrate in the middle of Luton?

A Successful Failure

The Gates of Vienna website has declared the event a success but this is difficult to reconcile with the facts. The EDL had a poor turn out. The local football supporters attacked them. The person who they were ‘supporting’ publicly rejected them. The general public were hostile. The media coverage was negative. And the hope of uniting with other anti-Islamic factions and footie fans did not materialise. Well done. They had difficulties in getting the numbers for various reasons, mainly that the DSS won’t pay for ‘chav scrotes’ to go abroad on a jolly. One poster wrote: ‘I’m going, most people will be meeting round the red light district where the bars are next to the canals. I’m going on my own my mates cant afford it or aren’t allowed by there Mrs.’ Which just about sums them up.

What Price Fame?

What is more alarming than the EDL’s ‘international mobilisation’ is the relationship between Tommy Robinson and Katie Price. There was a picture of them schmoozing widely circulated on the net but now Katie is doing a desperate PR job distancing herself from the EDL. Meanwhile on the EDL web forum there is anti-Katie consternation and it is difficult to tell who is disowning whom. Both seem embarrassed by the turn of events. As they should be.

Anyway…

Despite all the photos of the EDL seig-heiling, and the dual membership of fascist groups by key members – Jeff Marsh, Steven White, Luke Pippin (Combat 18) etc. – they are still going on about being non-racist and this process of denial is sounding politically weak. The next ‘big one’ scheduled is in Preston on 27th November but there could be a few flash’ demos on the way.

Malatesta

BNP establishes 'social networking' branch in America

The British National Party has set up a branch in the United States – nine years after it abandoned a fundraising drive across the Atlantic amid controversy over its links with American white supremacists.

The far-right party described its new US "unit" as simply a social networking organisation designed to help expatriate BNP supporters stay in touch with one another, and the party, while working abroad. But the Government last night accused the BNP, which has been hit by internal strife following poor general election results, of looking overseas to promote "hate and intolerance".

The new US branch has signed up 90 sympathisers, while a Canadian branch has 60 members. The party is also trying to boost its presence in Europe and the Far East. The American operation is being co-ordinated by an IT worker from Croydon, Adam McArthur, who recently moved to the US to take up a job. Mr McArthur, a BNP officer since February, lives in Berryville, a small town in rural Virginia just over an hour's drive from Washington DC.

The move follows the collapse of American Friends of the BNP, based in Virginia, which was set up to raise cash for the party and was addressed by Nick Griffin, the party's leader. Members of the group included David Duke, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan at the time, who was photographed with Mr Griffin. James W von Brunn, the white supremacist who shot dead a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington last year, attended two meetings.

The organisation was run by Mark Cotterill, a veteran figure on the far right, who drew inspiration from the IRA's success in raising money in North America in the 1990s. It folded amid claims that its fundraising activities were illegal under American law. Mr Cotterill returned to Britain and has left the BNP.

In January, Mr McArthur registered under American law to reactivate the party's presence in the country. According to US government documents, he said the branch would "organise US-based members, so that we can develop social networking campaigns to increase votes for the BNP in the forthcoming local and general elections".

He also said he would advise the party's supporters on how to vote in British elections. The move was part of efforts co-ordinated by the BNP's overseas liaison officer, Andy McBride, to forge links with sympathisers around the world.

Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities, told The Independent: "This just shows there's nothing British about the BNP. It's a sign of the party's own weakness that it has to look outside Britain to try to peddle their messages of hate and intolerance."

Mr McBride said the new branch would be carefully monitored to prevent extremist sympathisers of organisations such as the KKK from joining.

"People are told that if they come into this party because they hate people, or hate the colour of their skin, it's the wrong party for them," he said. Mr McBride added that the party did not encourage donations from members living abroad because it involved completing "immense" amounts of paperwork.

Meanwhile in Britain

The British National Party is struggling under a weight of debts estimated at more than £500,000 and has suffered a series of resignations of prominent activists. Its cash crisis has arisen because of unpaid bills to suppliers and the cost of fighting legal actions with Unilever over the use of an image of a Marmite jar in an election broadcast and with the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its constitution.

Nick Griffin fought off a challenge to his leadership and has promised to step down in 2013. Last May, he said he wanted to "make way for a younger person" and focus on getting re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014. But infighting has continued to destabilise the party, with Eddy Butler, its former campaigns director, and Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's sole London Assembly member, both recently expelled.

Last week, Wiltshire's only BNP councillor, Michael Simpkins, quit the party over the scale of its debts and said he would sit on Corsham Town Council as an independent. He said he knew of two local printers that waited six months for the BNP to pay its bills. Meanwhile, Jim Dowson has said he will be stepping down as the BNP's chief fundraiser. He has faced accusations of making inappropriate advances to a young female activist. He has denied the claims and said he is the victim of a dirty-tricks campaign.

Independent