BNP activist banned from party meeting

A veteran British National Party activist has been ordered not to attend a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham on Thursday at which new arrangements for running London BNP and future plans will be announced.

Bob Gertner, a former Croydon BNP organiser, received an email from Mark Walker of the BNP’s “political admin office” telling him that the special organisational meeting was “open only to members and supporters who wish to put recent disputes behind us and move on in a wholly positive fashion”.

Writing on behalf of Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself the party’s acting London regional organiser, Walker continues: “You are one of a small number of individuals whose behaviour or alleged behaviour in recent weeks has led to a large number of people at present viewing you with suspicion. Whether or not this is justified, I therefore judge that your presence at this meeting would not be conducive either to its smooth running or to the moves for the private addressing of genuine concerns and to work towards reconciliation which will be made separately.”

Walker’s explanation is bizarre in that it bans a longstanding activist even if “suspicion” is unjustified and that it appears to suggest that Gertner’s concerns, which led to him supporting Eddy Butler’s challenge to Griffin’s dictatorial leadership of the fascist party and are shared by many, are not to be discussed in a members’ meeting.

Griffin took over as acting London organiser from Chris Roberts, another activist who fell out of favour after voicing concerns about the financial mismanagement in the party, the way Griffin constantly falls out with “hard working dedicated nationalists” and the influence in the party of non-members such as Patrick Harrington, a leader of the tiny Third Way party and a former comrade of Griffin in his National Front “political soldier” days. Roberts too supported Butler’s challenge.

Griffin’s only connection with London is that: “I pass by while on the way to Europe”, as he said on Twitter announcing that he was putting together “a great new London management team” and would be acting as their organiser “while they find their feet”.

Clearly Griffin was unable to identify a single Griffin loyalist in London willing and capable of organising the region, following several suspensions of activists and widespread disillusionment.

“Vital we organise now to maximise chances in 2012 gla election,” Griffin’s tweet continued, hoping party members would forget his statement after the BNP’s defeat in Barking and Dagenham in May, when he wrote off fighting elections in the capital saying that by the next general election London would be “completely unassailable” and “no longer part of Britain”.

Elsewhere the three BNP councillors who have turned independent have left the party with only 24 council seats compared with nearly 60 a year ago. Deidre Gates, who was the organiser of the party’s West Hertfordshire group, had actively supported Butler but resigned from the party on 17 August, not heeding Butler’s call to continue the fight from the inside. She was elected to Hertfordshire County Council last year, one of just three BNP county councillors, of whom only one now remains. Seamus Dunne, who sits on Three Rivers council in Hertfordshire, has resigned the BNP whip but remains in the party.

Sonia Gable at HOPE not hate

Breakfast of the Long Knives

“Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning.”

Oh dear. Things continue to look bad for the Band of Brothers. This morning, the latest round of suspensions began, with Clive “Beria” Jefferson's latest legally dubious letter landing on the doormats of various BNP Members.

Names mentioned so far include Chris Roberts (London Organiser), Rowena Savage (Bromley Organiser), Bob Gertner (London elections officer), John Savage (South West fundholder), Julian Leppert and the fragrant Charlotte “I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants” Lewis, along with “at least 20 others”.

Interestingly, all of those suspended are well-known activists and organisers, rather than Rank-and-File Members (or “plebs” as they're allegedly referred to by the Party Leadership).

Oh, and they share one other thing in common: It's the strangest coincidence, but they're all supporting Eddy Butler in the Leadership Contest!

Given that the letter and the resulting suspensions seem not only to run counter to natural law, but even the BNP's own ramshackle Constitution, it can surely only be a matter of time before someone decides to challenge the Kafkaesque goings-on at Head Office.

Although, the way things are going, the Party will have shut up shop and gone out of business long before it ever gets to court.

The Story is Developing...

Meet the BNP hijacker … or maybe not

As part of our service of keeping BNP members informed about what is going on in their own party, we pass on details of a Hounslow BNP branch meeting featuring the guest speaker Paul Golding, well known in the party as a "London super-activist" and driver of the BNP's lie lorry.

In an attempt to round members up for the meeting on Friday 13 February, Councillor Bob Bailey, the BNP's London organiser and leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham council, says: "Paul is an excellent speaker and leading light in the south east and London. He is the candidate in a by election in Seven Oaks [sic] Kent. Polling day Thursday 12th so with any luck we may be greeting Councillor Paul Golding!"

This may cause consternation among BNP activists being dragged over to Swanley St Mary's ward, Sevenoaks, to carry on canvassing for their candidate right up to the actual polling day on 19 February. This latest blunder by Councillor Bailey follows his glowing endorsement of the BNP's candidate in the Waddon ward, Croydon, by-election on 12 February, Charlotte Lewis. When her animal rights terrorism conviction was revealed, Bailey told the local paper it would increase the BNP's share of the vote.

Why Bailey was acting as as a BNP spokesperson for Croydon, south London, is unclear. Party members are wondering what has happened to Bob Gertner, the south London organiser.

Members and supporters wanting to attend the Hounslow meeting in west London are told to make their way to the rendezvous point at Uxbridge underground station at 7pm and "look for activists with Union flag". Is that the Union Flag Golding claimed to have hijacked in his recent statement, widely publicised by Searchlight: "We have hi-jacked the Union Flag, now we must hi-jack the word ‘British'"?

Confused? Why not give the Hounslow organiser, Dan Finch, a call on 07722 166755?

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