It's time for Simon Bennett to stand up and be counted

One of the more entertaining aspects of running a site like Lancaster Unity is seeing the BNP regularly taking chunks out of itself when it comes under serious attack from one of its own, normally as a direct result of mistreating the member concerned.

We can say anything we like while opposing the BNP and to deflect any criticism the party will automatically claim we're lying, that we're paid to attack the BNP and thus not to be trusted or that we're working with MI5 - but there's nothing quite like an angry ex-member to really boot the boot in good and hard.

Remember Sharon Ebanks, the BNP's former Birmingham organiser? She was so angry at the way she was treated that she has spent the three years or so since then attacking Griffin in print and even went to the extreme of starting her own party. Then there was Matt Single, who was so pissed off at the antics of Griffin's gang that he released the BNP membership list into the wild to great hilarity all round, incidentally causing a lot of problems to the party and to quite a few members.

The December rebellion that followed the sackings of Kenny Smith, Sadie Graham and Single from the party produced a host of recriminations from other members and a lot of them sent information to us, which brightened things considerably from our end.

With Simon Bennett however, the party might have bitten off rather more than it can chew. Bennett, the party's former webmaster, seems to have been involved in pretty much every aspect of the BNP's operation from flogging badges to fund-raising, and the information he is revealing is gradually building up into a pretty damning indictment of the leadership. We won't dwell too much on all this because exposure is looming and we wouldn't want to prejudice any future court case. A couple of things have been mentioned of late though, which are worth a comment or two.

One of these concerns donations to the BNP. As you'll probably be aware, political parties are obliged by law to report donations that exceed a certain amount, depending on whether they are donated within or outside the UK. The accounts, which are due into the Electoral Commission shortly, are not expected to show any large donations but according to Bennett, the party has received some that qualify. Here is Bennett's take on this, from a post on the ghastly VNN forum:

'I know of several website donations that were way over £1500 that were made in the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010.

Many were clearly fake, but a good few looked totally legit. These were for £2,500 and appear not to have been declared. I know they are processed in Belfast, but under what company name is anyones guess.

I have records of ALL donations made through the website. I'd be a piss poor webmaster if I didn't. I build websites based on stats and logs. I impliment what works and what doesn't - that's my job!

I have a legal right to hold this information as Adlorries Ltd are trying to squirm out of paying me the commission they promised me, the commission I NEVER asked for or claimed - until now.'

IF this is true and can be proven and IF they are not declared, criminal charges should follow - but ONLY if Bennett provides that proof to the EC and/or the police. But this might very well be the tip of an astonishingly large iceberg. Another of his posts on VNN has this to say:

'I am sat on something that could and almost certainly would finish the BNP in an instant. It would see the party hit with a bill for £1.4m.

If I wanted to sabotage the BNP I could have done a proper job during the EU elections with what I know. The fuck ups made during that were so bad they could of (and still can) finish the party overnight.

Just ask Nick Griffin why £70,000 worth of paper was re-ordered in case the £1.4m cock up came to light...'

Intriguing stuff but I don't particularly like being teased, even with £1.4m. And the problem with dropping teasers around like this without following up pretty swiftly with some hard detail is that it merely gives scum like Griffin and his cohorts the opportunity to cover everything up.

An additional facet of this is that Bennett is, if he is to be believed, knowingly sitting on information that shows the party to have acted illegally - or at the very least, to have acted with supreme incompetence - yet he has kept quiet. If illegality is involved, doesn't that make him an accessory?

Strangely enough, this is suggested to him by a BNP member, Bev Kerry, a nasty piece of work by anyone's standards. Kerry is currently a moderator on the VNN forum, has been one on the Blood and Honour forum and posts regularly on the Stormfront forum - all hardcore nazi - all while openly being in the BNP. Tut-tut.

On his own blog, Bennett has attacked the BNP, apparently going to the extreme of uploading a telephone conversation between him and Griffin, recorded without Griffin's knowledge or consent. Kerry, playing Little Miss Legal Assistant, berates Bennett as having broken the law - even to the extent of listing the relevant laws. Very clever of her - but don't I recall the BNP releasing a recording of a conversation between Kenny Smith, Sadie Graham and Matt Single that was made without their permission or knowledge?

The BNP and Nick Griffin in particular seem to believe that they operate outside the law, largely because they have done so for years and just keep getting away with it because their opponents lack the courage to take that extra step and take the information they have to the relevant authority or even simply to make it completely public. If Bennett wants to see Griffin and his gang of crooks out of the BNP for good, this is the only way it's going to happen. In short, if Bennett wants to win his corner, he has to stop being defensive and go on the attack.

The December rebels lost out because they didn't keep up the attack on Griffin - or at least not sufficiently. By the time they had decided to break out the big guns, most of their supporters had already scuttled back to the party. Colin Auty's leadership challenge was all-round weak and feeble right up until the last minute, by which time, he'd lost any advantage he might have had.

Bennett is in a unique position because he has all the ammunition he needs and he clearly has the ability to make use of it, but if he wants to topple Griffin, he needs to move fast and hard, and if he does so, he could clear out the rest of the crap like Jim Dowson, Arthur Kemp and Clive Jefferson/Aitken along with their boss.

Bennett can take action now and can achieve what he wants to achieve, or he can sit back and ignore all the illegalities and the incompetence, thus becoming openly complicit in the continuing disaster that is Nick Griffin's BNP. The choice is his but it needs making sooner rather than later or he'll end up being yet another forgotten rebel in a very long list of forgotten rebels.