Of turning worms and unusual honesty from the anti-Griffin far-right

It's sometimes worrying to observe the amount of times Nick Griffin can crap on the members of the BNP and continue to get away with it, particularly where money is concerned. It seems that, as far as the membership is concerned, he is golden - as in King Midas - and money disappearing into the ether (such as the Trafalgar Club dosh) doesn't seem to bother any of them, their devotion is so complete.

Even the never-ending late submission of the party's accounts to the Electoral Commission and the consequent fines seem to be ignored by the complacent, gullible or just plain stupid BNP member in the street. In fact, BNP members never seem to worry about having money stolen from them by clearly fraudulent behaviour - witness the 'Truth Truck' scam, the Boudica 'battle bus' scam (almost identical to the Truth Truck fraud) or any number of other schemes that appear to be designed solely to keep Porky Griffin in the manner in which he is determined to become accustomed, which makes one worry about the mental health of BNP members in general. Though not for long.

One issue that does seem to be driving a lot of BNP members bonkers at the moment is that of the opening up of the party to non-whites - though in many cases they will deny it for fear of being labeled racist (too late - being a member of an openly racist party has already proven that much). Instead, they will blame their anger on any number of other problems within the BNP - financial shenanigans usually, though the fact that Nick Griffin runs the party as a support group for himself, his family and his friends occasionally gets an airing too.

One such person is very close to us here at Lancaster Unity. No, not in that way - just because we have the joy of having him living here in Lancaster. Chris Hill, for it is he, is a former star of the BNP, having stood for the party in local elections on no less than five occasions (and won on no occasion). He has, up until now, been a Griffin-loyalist, with a slight hiccup during the Sadie Graham debacle, where he joined the rebellion, was told off by Clive Jefferson and promptly returned to the fold, chastened and ready to do whatever was needed to get Nick Griffin into 10 Downing Street. A couple of weeks later, he recanted (again) and rejoined the rebels, though he remained a member of the party. Clearly not a man to be trusted.

One of his great ideas was to emulate Lancaster Unity and start up his own Lancaster BNP blog. It was a complete washout, as witnessed by the fact that his average readership is currently 3.9 per day, one of whom is me and one (I'd hope) is Hill himself, leaving less than two visitors per day from the real world. Funny but tragic, really.

Maybe it was the realisation that he had failed at everything BNP-related that forced the worm to finally (and publicly) turn. The Lancaster BNP site has been closed and all posts have been shifted to a new site with a very conspicuous lack of 'BNP' in the title. Hill explains himself thus:

'After much soul searching, the author of this blog regrets that he can no longer support the BNP.

This withdrawal of support for the British National Party is in no way connected with the current proposed constitutional change, which will allow non-white members into the party. It is in fact a result (at least in part) of the long-standing and ongoing financial skulduggery of the leadership.

Here is what the party's official accounts auditors said of the most recent set of accounts the party submitted to the electoral commission: (Accounts which were late again for the third year running, costing the party yet another £1000 fine)

"Accordingly in our opinion the financial statements do not:

1.Give a true and fair view of the state of the part's affairs at 31st December 2008.
2.Give a true and fair view of the results for the year the ended.

In our opinion the financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out on pages 18 and 19.

In our opinion it cannot be said the accounts comply with the requirements of the political parties, Election and referendums Act 2000, as adequate record have not been made available."

The full accounts are available from the Electoral Commission here: (Auditors statement is on Pages 11 & 12)

This, along with the totality dictatorial nature of the current leadership, were the causes of this withdrawal of support for the party in its current state.'

If, as Hill states, the removal of his support is 'in no way connected with the current proposed constitutional change, which will allow non-white members into the party', why make the change now? The party has always been a dictatorship and its accounts have always been a disaster. If his statement had any truth to it, Hill would have resigned years ago. Like many others, he is obviously leaving the party for one reason and one reason only - because it will soon be forced to take in non-white members.

Hill's farewell sideswipes at Griffin's dictatorial control of the party and the financial skullduggery are views shared by many of his compatriots on the far-right, though they seem capable of being a tad more brutal than Hill. Here's a quote from a reader of the acerbic GriffinWatch blog:

'Gri££in's judgement has always been incredibly poor, as a party leader he has made one to many cocks ups, 'fundamentally errors in his analysis,' 'childish stunts,' 'ridiculous statements,' 'nonsense written in begging letters,' 'gross hypocrisy,' 'putting people in jobs that they were not up to or were completely incompetent,' 'associating with convicted criminal scum,' 'treacherous u turns,' 'misappropriation of party funds' the list of errors is endless.'

But as they tell us, Hell hath no fury etc. Sharon Ebanks, former leading light of the now more or less moribund Birmingham BNP, has turned out to be one of Nick Griffin's most vociferous opponents after the party dumped on her personally, refuses to beat around the bush. Just a couple of days ago, she came out with this little masterpiece of invective over at the NWN forum:

'Griffins entire management of the BNP is a disgrace. His ego and what he wants goes before all else. We recognise that Griffin cannot be removed, and for me personally that means nationalism as a political force is fucked. He concentrates purely on Muslims and immigration without offering any solutions which makes him look a laughing stock amongst the so called political elite. He won't even form a shadow cabinet out of fear someone might upstage him or prove they have more knowledge on a given subject than he has.

The BNP will not be taken seriously because it does not take itself seriously. Its loaded with people on the payroll and non of them are prepared to sacrifice. £700,000 wage bill for pities sake, where is the sacrifice and the £700,000 spent on elections?

He's a greedy, debauched, self centred, lying, two faced wanker whose real power lies in preying on the uneducated, the working class, and the poor. Griffin isn't there to help them, he's there to help himself, just as he's always done.'

And I defy anyone to put it better than that!

Of eggs, invisible bricks and call centres...

Griffin, tearful and overeggcited (and that's all the egg gags you're getting)

Just a few days ago, the BNP's Lancaster representative, Chris Hill, reported on the result of the new Poulton Ward parish council election in Morecambe. The candidate was one Julie Victoria Blain, who nobody had ever heard of, variously known as either Julie or Vicky. The title of his report was pretty clear;

'First time candidate gets 13% support in Morecambe.'

Pretty clear, but completely untrue. According to the results on the Lancaster City Council website, Blain took 172 votes out of the 4832 cast. I'm no great shakes at maths but even I can work out that her share of the vote is about 3.5%. While 172 votes for the BNP is 172 votes too many, 3.5% is still a damn sight better than 13%, which is presumably why Hill feels the need to lie.

Of course, Hill needs to bullshit all he can in an attempt to weasel his way back into the good books of the party. During 2007's December rebellion, he managed to announce that he was supporting the rebels, promptly backtracked when told off, then decided to stick to his priciples and support them anyway then, when the rebellion failed dismally, placed himself back in the loyalist camp. Clearly, never a man to be trusted.

Which brings us (rather neatly, in my opinion) to Nick Griffin.

Over the past couple of days, the media has been full of the egg incident, where the BNP's crowing 'press conference', called by the fraudster-in-chief Nick Griffin, was ruined by a sudden rain of eggs, one of which hit him in the back of the neck. I'm not too sure of the efficacy of using eggs on recalcitrant politicians, even vermin like Nick Griffin, and I'd be interested in hearing the views of our readers. Personally though, I thought it was bloody funny and it didn't do him any harm so what the hell.

Far from doing him harm in fact, Griffin has been given the opportunity to spout a few more lies to the media - many of which were reported verbatim without any qualification. Take this little gem, from yesterday's Scotsman;

'I think it's very sad that a hostile mob which is partly paid for by taxpayers and backed by Labour and the Conservatives is allowed to get away with mob violence on the streets of Britain in 2009'

Hostile mob? Mob violence? There were forty of them, vastly outnumbered by the media and Nick Griffin's Kray twin-lookalike security team and they threw a sodding egg, for crying out loud. It's hardly the collapse of civilisation as we know it. And paid for by taxpayers? Er, how?

'The police need to get a grip on these people and stop them throwing eggs and bricks.'

Bricks? What bricks? Who threw a brick? This is a particularly stupid thing to say and could have exposed this idiot as a compulsive liar had the statement been questioned. It wasn't, sadly.

'Like us or not we are a democratic party'

No, you're not. You're the least democratic party in the country, run by megalomaniacs and liars for racists and fools. But, like the long-established and well-practised liar that he is, Griffin saves what is arguably the best for last.

'He claimed the party has seen a growth in membership applications and said its call centre received 20,000 phone calls in the first 15 minutes after a BNP party political broadcast was shown on television.'

I watched a tedious puff-piece on the BNP website a week or two ago in which it was claimed that fifteen people were employed in the party's 'call centre' answering the zillions of calls that were pouring in daily. Let's be generous and up the number of call centre staff to twenty. According to my trusty calculator, 20,000 calls in fifteen minutes is 1333 calls per minute. Divide that by twenty call centre staff and they have to field approximately 67 calls each per minute. If there are only fifteen staff, that number goes up to 89 per minute. Each.

Obviously someone is talking bollocks - and that someone would be Nick Griffin. And, it turns out, Tina Wingfield, the BNP's membership secretary, who was also quoted in the Scotsman's unusually fact-free article, claiming that 2,000 people have joined the party in the last six weeks, increasing overall membership by about 25%.

Well, she should know - though this doesn't really tie in with the released BNP membership list, which showed a total of 12724 members, allegedly for 2007 and which was, so the party claimed at the time, inaccurate in that membership was considerably higher when the list became public than it was in 2007. Fair enough, but if that is true, party membership has in fact gone down considerably. A hell of a lot, in fact, because Wingfield's statement indicates that BNP membership just six weeks ago was around 8,000 and now stands at 10,000. Hmm...

The problem with telling porkies is remembering which ones have been told, who they've been told to and precisely what was said. The BNP, while it's happy to lie on any occasion, doesn't seem quite so capable at keeping track of the lies it's told.

The big problem the media has is itself keeping track of these lies and then challenging them at every opportunity - but the lies have to be challenged repeatedly and incessantly and should then be used to embarrass and humiliate the BNP whenever and wherever possible. In just a single article we were given an opportunity to challenge a half-dozen outrageous lies, none of which were questioned at the time. If the BNP is to be shown up for what it truly is, the media - and I include non-traditional media like us, must be ever-alert and ever-ready to demand truth rather than bullshit and bluster.

Lancaster anti-fascists see BNP off again

A cheerful bunch of far-right loons in Lancaster. We know Jefferson (holding his phone up) but IDs on the rest of them would be appreciated.

The fascist BNP were sent packing from Lancaster town centre after they set up a stall. A spontaneous demonstration surrounded the BNP fascists and prevented them from handing out leaflets. They were shouted down and jeered and a passer by emptied two cans of fizzy pop on their stall. Unable to operate they packed up and left town completely demoralised. Thanks to our mate N for the report.

Some good news from Lancaster. The BNP set up a stall today in the town centre. It seems that the small gathering of pond life came from Carlisle. The BNP have no official presence in Lancaster since their previous organiser, Chris Hill, resigned his position following the party split in January. The out of town BNP members set up a small table just near the Museum. It had been kicked over within minutes by a lone woman passing by!

Initially undeterred the fash re-assembled their stall and continued to hand out leaflets. Within half an hour there was a spontaneous response from local concerned people who gathered quickly and surrounded the BNP stall. Standing in front of the stall with anti-fascist leaflets the local people made sure the fascists were unable to distribute their filth. A passer by also emptied two cans of fizzy pop all over the BNP leaflets. People shouted “keep the racists out of Lancaster”, and eventually a mega phone turned up to get the message across!

Clive Jefferson and his car (with illegal numberplate). Under the dodgy number, it says 'Non-compliant and defiant'. See you in court, Clive.

Unable to continue leafleting the pond life got fed up and packed up their stall. The cops arrived to add a bit of extra tension into proceedings. But funnily enough the fascists were in a car with an illegal number plate. Some on our side pointed this out, and the cops spent another ten minutes taking their details. Totally dejected they eventually drove off to cheers and jeers and were told not to come back!

Hopefully the fascists had such a bad day that they won’t return. But if they do let’s make sure they are not given an inch. Fortunately the other market traders were very good at opposing them. The stall holder next to the BNP refused to let anyone in his gazebo with a BNP leaflet! And the fascists were reported for not having a license. However, we can’t just rely on council bureaucracy to see off these fascists. We saw today that it is possible to stop them peddling their hatred in this tolerant town of ours, by taking direct action!! Direct action on a bigger scale can have the same results come the BNP’s “Red White & Blue” racist festival in August.

Late Christmas present for us here at Lancaster UAF - Chris Hill resigns

Christmas Day has come and gone and we thought all the presents had been unwrapped then, surprise-surprise, we find another one buried in among the pine needles at the back of the tree. Yes, Chris Hill, Lancaster's one-man BNP band, has thrown in the towel, resigning his posts as Preston and Lancaster organiser (which he was crap at anyway) and, oddly, as Chorley contact too.

Readers may recall that Hill was one of the first to make a statement supporting Sadie Graham and co when the rebellion began a few weeks back but hurriedly withdrew his support after a stiff talking-to by the burly Clive Jefferson, one of the BNP's more obvious minders. Following this swift and embarrassing reversal, the creepy Griffin-sycophant Green Arrow lavished fulsome praise upon him, no doubt in the mistaken belief that this would cheer Hill up. Apparently it didn't work.

Hill's resignation letter, posted on his tedious and rarely updated blog, follows the formulaic resignation letters of the entire dissident camp, and is partly reprinted below:

'As you know there has, since mid December, been a bitter struggle going on within the party between two groups, one of which wants to continue the modernisation of the party, which has been responsible for the electoral success we have had over the last few years. While the other, at least in my opinion, wants to hold the party back for their own selfish ends.

I will not go into great detail about the dispute, but will just say the first group is led by Cllr Sadie Graham: a hard working district councillor, and much respected & well liked lady, with exactly the sort of image needed if our party is to become truly electable in the eyes of the voting public. While the other camp is backing Mark Collett of ‘Young Nazi and Proud’ fame, as the next leader of the party when our current chairman steps down. Unfortunately Mr Griffin has aligned himself squarely with this last group, and it is alleged that he has been prepared to break the law, by bugging phones and intercepting and altering personal emails, in order to discredit anyone who opposes that group.

Unfortunately it is not only Mark Collett’s image that is holding back the party, although that does hang like a millstone around the necks of all our members, he has also caused chaos within the senior management echelons of the party. And it is this situation, rather than his image, that has led directly to this current crisis...The essence of this dispute is whether the party can prosper without a capable management team, and with a millstone like Mark Collett around the neck of every one of our candidates at election times. How many of us can really say, with our hands on our heart, that the name Mark Collett does not come up whenever we mention the British National Party in a conversation...'

Surprisingly, and presumably to give himself what he thinks is an opt-out clause to allow him back into the hierarchy of the ailing British National Party when the problems are finally resolved one way or the other, Hill then goes on to say;

'I still hope one day to be, once again, the local Chairman of a truly electable British National Party branch, but unless we win this current struggle to modernise our party that will I’m afraid remain just a dream.'

It'll be even more of a dream if Green Arrow has anything to do with it. His hissy-fit response to the resignation was as unequivocal as it was entirely expected.

'Chris, I expected better from you. As far as I am concerned you have deserted your post. Please remove the Green Arrow Links for I shall certainly remove yours.'

Nice to see Green Arrow full of the seasonal spirit. :-)

Griffin in propaganda-overdrive to stop BNP resignations and funding drought

In a desperate attempt to stop the speedy flow of members away from the BNP and into the Graham/Smith camp, taking their money with them, Nick Griffin has stepped up the anti-dissident propaganda to the point where most members - even those loyal to him - are scratching their heads and wondering if he's lost his marbles.

Just the title of the most recent lunatic new post on the BNP's site (Splinter Group Effort Grinds to a Halt) has led to a number of people writing to us here at LUAF wondering whether, in one correspondent's colourful phrase, 'he actually believes the shit he's spouting?' Not altogether surprising really, as it's clear from the supportive posts over at the dissident Enough is Enough (EiE) site that support is not only rising but is growing angrier by the day.

We're assured, by people in the party, that the post is by Griffin himself - not that we doubted that for a minute after reading his ramblings - his total lack of interest in the fact that he is publicly and willingly breaking the law and what's more, announcing it to everyone who visits the site, makes it pretty clear that Griffin himself is the author. He's never been noted for observing laws, which is probably why he only got a third-rate law degree and has brushed up against the legal system on a number of occasions.

Not only does he claim that the dissidents were conspiring against Mark Collett and Dave Hannam, the party's jesters, but he has now extended his attack to claim that they were;

• illegally hacking into the email accounts of BNP members
• illegally hacking into the email account of Nick Griffin himself (who clearly regards himself as above the members in some way), and
• illegally hacking into the email accounts of the party's outside auditors (presumably J. Silver and co)

all of which are illegal and the last of which is not only a new revelation but, if true, could net them a year or two in the slammer.

These allegations would be pretty exciting if Griffin hadn't tried to over-egg the pudding by trying to cover up his own illegal actions - or those of his South African Intelligence Dept or his bully-boy snatch squad - by claiming that the outlaws were found out by 'a Skype conversation, stupidly broadcast over the Internet (presumably either by a Skype setting error on their part, or even sitting on a mobile phone) made its way into the public domain'. I don't know that much about Skype, though I've set it up a few times, but I don't quite see how one could broadcast a conversation to the internet at large (or how it just happened to be picked up by the 'Intelligence' Dept) nor do I understand how one could broadcast a conversation one was having if one's fat arse was on top of the phone. The man's an idiot.

Griffin then meanders off into a curious little diversion about the state of the party, claiming that the rumours of a mass revolt within the party are untrue and produces a barrage of lies to prove it, claiming that there have been virtually no resignations anywhere in the country, all but the odd one or two and they are making their ways back to the fold.

As anyone who has followed this mini-saga will know, this statement is a lie. The resignations, as Griffin knows full well, are from positions in the party, not from the BNP itself - though those who resigned and have been drawn back by cajolery, threat of promise can expect very short shrift in the future (Chris Hill, take note). Griffin's past record shows that he doesn't reward those he considers returning 'traitors', he eventually kicks them out at a time that most suits him.

One look at the EiE blog is enough to show the casual reader that nearly sixty are announced as having resigned, including three borough/city councillors (a massive blow to the party), a whole bunch of organisers and some extremely prominent names who did important jobs and who have long-term friends in the party who will follow them. This is to say nothing of the many hundreds of people who have left comments on the blog - ordinary members, for want of a better phrase - who have had enough of Griffin, Collett and Hannam and are choosing not to renew their membership in the party or donate anything - even if they were in the habit of donating before.

Griffin's arrogant assumption that because he says so, the revolution is over, is typical of a man desperate to convince himself as well as his party but, unless Graham and Smith agree to come back on his terms and work alongside a couple of guys they hate and despise, and unless the party as a whole is prepared to ignore the activities of the Griffin/Collett/Hannam triumverate and their multiple failings even after all this, our guess would be that there is a lot more of this drama to be played out yet.

BNP is linked to petition against new 'mega-mosque'

Right-wing extremists have manipulated a Downing Street petition to stir up racial hatred over the building of a "megamosque" in east London, an investigation can reveal.

More than 270,000 people have signed a petition on the Number 10 website that calls for the scrapping of plans to build Europe's largest mosque close to the main site of the 2012 Olympics. Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic sect behind the mosque, has been accused of having links to Islamist terror groups, prompting a concerted campaign to block the project.

But the Daily Mail's sister paper, the Evening Standard, has learned that the anti-mosque campaign has been infiltrated by the British National Party, which has told its members to sign the Downing Street petition. The petition was originally posted on the No 10 site by a Right-wing extremist called Jill Barham. Ms Barham writes an online blog under the name English Rose, where she has laid claim to being author of the petition. The blog has links to several Right-wing and extremist websites.

Anti-fascist campaigners claim Ms Barham is a close friend of Chris Hill, a notorious BNP activist based in Lancaster. The involvement of fringe extremists from the North-West in what is essentially an east London planning matter has caused alarm and will lead to criticism that Downing Street should have blocked the petition over its use of inflammatory language.

The petition, which closed yesterday with 277,040 signatories, states: "We, the Christian population of this great country England, would like the proposed plan to build a mega-mosque in east London scrapped. This will only cause terrible violence and suffering and more money should go into the NHS."

Mayor Ken Livingstone condemned the petition for stirring up vitriol. "It is quite clear that this piece of vicious BNP propaganda, based as usual on entirely fabricated information, is solely designed to damage good community relations. It is wrong that such invented and falsified petitions provide a platform for those who would like to use them to create tensions among Londoners."

The BNP today admitted orchestrating a campaign to get its members to sign the petition. An email had been sent out to supporters with links to the petition on the Downing Street website. The party used a similar tactic to try to influence a poll on the Evening Standard's website that had simply asked: "Are you in favour of the £100million mosque?" The poll was withdrawn after the discovery of the extremists' attempts to manipulate the outcome.

BNP leader Nick Griffin said: "We have publicised the petition on our website encouraging people to sign and we have had a small part to play in that [reaching 270,000 signatures]. We also had an email campaign to get our people to sign it."

Asked whether he was aware of the English Rose blog or if Ms Barham was a BNP activist, Mr Griffin said: "Even if I knew who she was I wouldn't tell you. She may be involved in the BNP at a local level but I just don't know. I can neither confirm nor deny." The website of Lancaster Unite Against Fascism says that it believes the BNP's local candidate, Chris Hill, is a friend of Ms Barham. The group said today its inquiries indicated Ms Barham ran two websites English Rose and Cry For Freedom, both of them which it described as "rabidly anti-Islamic".

The success of the petition has been seized on by protesters as evidence of the strength of opposition to the mosque.

Newham councillor Alan Craig, a member of the Christian People's Alliance, issued a press release yesterday highlighting the petition's success, although he refused to sign it and admitted he was "wary of the exact wording". He is leading the local campaign against the mosque, planned for an 18-acre site at Abbey Mills next to West Ham Underground station. Mr Craig accused Tablighi Jamaat of being divisive because of its extremist, separatist beliefs.

The French intelligence services have called Tablighi Jamaat "an antechamber of fundamentalism". Two of the 7 July suicide bombers allegedly attended the group's HQ in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Abdul Rashid Bhatti, spokesman for the Abbey Mills Mosque, said today: "Ken Livingstone has exposed the petition for what it is, and we thank him for that. Both in the language used and in the total lack of truth, we are disappointed that people have been so misled for purposes other than genuine public debate. Tablighi Jamaat is a mainstream, non-political Muslim organisation seeking to go about its faith in a peaceful manner."

Daily Mail

Lancaster BNP opens a new dirty tricks department and it's rubbish

Poor old Chris Hill. Possibly the only person to fight for a seat for the BNP five times and lose resoundingly every time, he has had to resort to dirty tricks in an attempt to get back at Lancaster UAF for telling the truth about his glorious leader and his useless party. Hill, of course, is the leading (if not, the only) light in Lancaster BNP.

Hill, the sad sod, gets into trouble wherever he goes - even on the many far-right blogs he inhabits (though he says he's not a nazi). At Battle for Britain he was told to push off in no uncertain terms after making a stupid post about Bernard Manning;

'Anti-gag (Chris Hill) said... It should be remembered that Bernard Manning bottled out of performing at the RWB a few years ago. Giving in to political pressure from the establishment hardly makes him someone we should be looking up to. Bernard Manning was a gutless wonder, and is no loss to this Nation.

Battle For Britain said... Which would explain why he will be sorely missed, whereas your blog (which has an unhealthy pre-occupation with Lancaster UAF) will disappear from this particular blog! Are you another one of those tossers who hated Bernard because he had Jewish roots? Grow up, NAZI!'

Sad or what? Still, there's always the anti-fascist bloggers to attack. They're an easy target - or so Hill thought until he tried to drone on about Simone Clarke. Then he met Duncan Money...

'Anti-gag (Chris Hill) said... I saw you comment on the Fascist Lancaster UAF site, about the intimidation of Simone Clarke. Can I ask you why you do not totally condemn this attempt to intimidate a private citizen for using their democratic right to support, and join, any political party they wish. The fact that Simone Clarke kept her membership of the British National Party to her self, has in fact nothing to do with anyone else. Had she stood in the middle of Hyde Park, and screamed out her membership number, she should still not be subjected to this, or any other, type of intimidation. Every time this type of personal abuse occurs, it make decent people like myself sick, and even more determined to stand up and be counted.

Duncan Money said... Well if it isn’t Chris Hill, the prominent BNP member from Lancaster, masquerading online as ‘anti-gag’. I was wondering when you would get round to commenting on my blog, everyone else in the BNP seems to. There’s nothing like hijacking a thread that has nothing to do with you comment in order to post an infantile rant about events I have nothing to do is there? Why you should be so concerned about my views on this subject I don’t know.

Firstly, full marks for calling Lancaster UAF fascist that’s highly original. Now please demonstrate how Lancaster UAF is anti-Semitic, anti-Communist, espouses corporatist economics, is anti-democratic, highly nationalistic, authoritarian, connects nationality with race and is reminiscent of the movement Mussolini headed in Italy during the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

Can I ask you why you do not totally condemn this attempt to intimidate a private citizen for using their democratic right to support, and join, any political party they wish.

Such a loaded question Mr Hill. In amongst all that rhetoric I assume the question you are asking is why I didn’t condemn the decision by UAF to hold protests outside the English National Ballet following revelations that their principal dancer, Simone Clarke, is a member of the British National Party. I personally think that UAF is right to call protests and condemn this woman for her BNP membership. If you join a racist, fascist political party then you can be termed a racist and a fascist. Anyone has the right to hold whatever political views they want. However, Simone Clarke is not a private citizen is she? She’s the lead dancer at the ENB and the ENB is subsidised by the state as it receives £6 million of public money. Receiving public money means an organisation has to have certain responsibilities. One of the responsibilities of receiving money from the Arts Council is that work you produce contributes to racial equality and good race relations. Having a BNP member as your lead dancer is not contributing to racial equality, in fact it is detrimental. Simone Clarke is free to be a member of the BNP, although you would deport her partner, but she should not make her living in subsidised art.

intimidation… personal abuse

That’s strange I don’t remember anyone from the BNP hurrying to condemn all those on the far right, including BNP members, who threatened and abused me after I held a small anti-BNP meeting which is strange because ‘Dr Phil’ the BNP’s press officer had time to write 2 articles on me and my mate as well as spending 1 ½ hours on the phone to the local press complaining about us asserting we had been brain-washed.

it make decent people like myself

You wouldn’t happen to be a BNP member would you Mr Hill? And someone who has stood as a BNP candidate in elections? The fact that you belong to a party that wants to deport my friends excludes you from the category ‘decent people’. Anyway, since such a prominent BNP member has decided to comment on my blog I’ve a question to ask about another current issue. Following the formation of a far right group in the EU Parliament largely containing neo-fascists and Holocaust deniers the BNP heralded this with delight and called them ‘genuine patriots’ who any future BNP MEP’s would be happy to join. Is this what the BNP thinks patriotism is?'

Oops. No joy there then - but major kudos to Duncan.

As he can't string a reasonable argument together in support of the BNP, Hill has decided to go the other way and play dirty, hence the pointless fake blog he's started here (see picture above). Go and have a laugh at it. It's called 'Lancaster's United Again Fascists', whatever the hell that's meant to mean. Hill is a major embarrassment to the BNP - and given the competition he's got in the party that's no small achievement.

Poor old Hill. His desperation's showing and he's losing his grip. Never mind - there's bound to be a by-election that he can stand in and lose again soon. That might cheer him up.

Oh well, as Chris Hill doesn't apparently want to answer the question (see Comments) as to whether he is responsible for the fake UAF page (and the others he has created), we thought we'd provide the proof ourselves. Above is the Atom feed for the page and as you can clearly see, the post that has come down the feed was made by Chris Hill, using his Blogger log-in, 'anti-gag'.

Actually, we wonder why Chris Hill has a Lancaster BNP blog at all - the readership hardly shows a need for one. The list on the left shows his daily hits.

Our old Redwatch-organiser chum Little Kev reckons we only get fifty hits a day. If we did, we'd be ashamed and frankly, wonder if it was worth all the effort.

Chris Hill's crap blog manages an average of 16.7 a day (but then he only posts about once a month) and you really have to wonder why anyone would bother keeping it going. Oh well, keep on trying Chris.

Lancaster BNP's Chris Hill gets all over-excited at eviction

Eviction from Lancaster University student's SCAM forum, that is!

A couple of years ago, a bunch of Lancaster University students got together to form an online alternative to the worthy but dull Students' Union newspaper Scan, and eventually came up with a forum which they named SCAM. Everything you might expect to find on it is there - discussions on politics, courses, uni life, music, lust, gossip, booze and so on. All the things in fact, in which one would expect students to show an interest.

As expected before long, someone recently asked the question 'Should the BNP be allowed on Campus?' The usual arguments were aired - 'it's a legitimate political party', 'no platform', 'allow a platform then shoot their arguments down', 'they're not welcome on campus' and so on.

The NUS has a very clear 'no platform' policy regarding fascists, generally followed by the Uni and Lancaster University Students' Union (LUSU) except when corporate crooks want to use the facilities, and Scam appears to actively adhere to this policy. So when Lancaster BNP's Chris Hill, who is a grad student, posted in the 'Should the BNP be allowed on Campus?' thread, the forum administrator acted in a way that would make any anti-fascist (in the NUS or not) proud - immediate deletion of all Hill's posts followed by this unequivocal statement:

'As owner of this website I wish to inform Chris Hill that he is specifically not authorised to post messages on this forum, under his own name or otherwise, and that for him to cause this server to carry out the operations required to post a message will therefore be an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

I would further like to inform him that any such messages he posts will be deleted. Now being aware of this, should he continue to post he should take note that the actions he knows I will take will cause me annoyance and inconvenience. Therefore, posting in this knowledge and to this purpose would be an offence under Section 43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984.

Chris Hill may like to remember that it is not necessary for him to be prosecuted for any law breaking to affect him. The University will doubtless wish to avoid their systems being used for acts which are of questionable legality and may reconsider their provision of services to him in this event.

To everyone else: don’t encourage him, don’t debate him, don’t take actions that support him. Ultimately, this is a privately run site and I’ll not have my money going to spread the message of the BNP.'

Bravo to the site admin/s, whoever he, she or they may be. But Chris Hill has taken great exception to being denied a platform to spread his lies and the BNP's racist filth.

Over on his third-rate blog, he has descended into the usual barrage of abuse that the BNP always indulges itself in when denied a space to preach, throwing the word 'fascism' about with reckless abandon, droning on about his 'right to reply' and free speech (something the BNP denies on many of its own sites - the Chairman's own blog and that of the party's Press Officer to name but two).

This is what Hill had to say:

'Fascism (of the left wing sort that is) is alive and thriving on campus at Lancaster University. The National student union organisation has, for a long time now, had a far left slant to its ruling body. A policy called no platform, which basically allows it to deny free speech to anyone they disagree with, has been introduced by some student unions, although not yet by LUSU (Lancaster University's Student Union)...This is of course the only action these left wing fascist can take when faced with reasoned debate, because they know they would lose in a free and open discussion of policies. Today the local student internet discussion forum removed my right of reply to postings made on its site...The no platform policy is supposed to apply to fascists; the irony is they are the very people who impose it...Can I assure the people running Lancaster’s SCAM forum, your fascist censorship will not in any way stop, or hinder, the growth of the British National Party in Lancaster...'

Quite why Hill imagines the BNP is growing in Lancaster is beyond any rational human. As the graph here plainly shows, the BNP's presence in Lancaster is rapidly waning and, pending another Margaret Hodge stupidity, will continue to do so. However, that's all beside the point. As a commentor points out on Hill's blog; 'It's not just the left who hate the BNP. The right don't like them either...'[and the] student body at large regards a chunk of its manifesto to be gravely offensive...prospective students (be they black, white, purple, blue or green) would be put off Lancaster University if they knew that there was an active BNP group.'

Hill's response is atypically BNP. 'As for the activities of a group on campus putting potential students off coming to Lancaster to study, don’t you think that the potential students might be put off knowing they are not allowed free political association on campus, which by the way is guaranteed by the human rights act.'

Which, for what it's worth, the BNP doesn't and wouldn't under any circumstances subscribe to, although naturally they're prepared to make use of it when it suits them.

Hill then states his case on four sections of BNP policy; race, immigration, homosexual rights and Islam.

On race: 'We do not want to see the mongrelisation of any race...'
Which clearly means that he is opposed to mixed-race relationships, diversity and a multi-cultural society.

On immigration: '...along with the vast majority of British people I would stop all immigration tomorrow.'
Obviously not true or Nick Griffin would have his feet tucked under the table at 10 Downing Street right now.

On homosexual rights: 'My own view is that homosexuality is a mental illness.'
My own view is that Chris Hill is a homophobic idiot who needs to get out more.

On Islam: 'This is not a religion, it’s an evil cult.'
Clearly showing that he's spent more time listening to the insane rants of Nick Griffin instead of investigating Islam through one of Lancaster's friendly mosques.

Hill then makes this strange statement; 'I hold no commission to talk for the British National Party on any issues or policies...'

Er, yes you do. You're the local BNP candidate. If you don't have a commission to talk for the party, who the hell does?

All of which goes to show that fascists believe they have a right to go anywhere and spout their ridiculous opinions, no matter who they offend in the process, that anyone who opposes them is automatically either a raving red or a fascist themselves (or preferably both) and that Chris Hill has no idea of the role a candidate plays within a political party - indicating that for all the smart suits and weasel words the BNP is no nearer to being a political party than I am to being a duck.

Third time unlucky - BNP lose in Lancaster yet again

Despite three attempts, the BNP have failed to gain a seat on Lancaster City Council. BNP candidate Chris Hill won 297 votes in Skerton West, which remained a Labour ward. Of the three winners Karen Leytham gained 721 votes; Roger Sherlock and Robert Smith both gained 655 votes.

Total votes cast in the ward were 3616 (33% turnout) which puts Hill (if my abacus is working) on about 8%. It's worth remembering that he took 16% the first time he insulted us by standing and 11% the last time. Pitiful, and another indication that Hill and the BNP are NOT wanted in Lancaster.

Our thanks to many people who campaigned against the BNP in Skerton West. We did it again - and we will continue to keep these fascist BNP scum off our council.

More details here.

BNP's dirty tricks department on pre-election overdrive

The BNP's dirty tricks department must be working overtime during this pre-election fortnight or so because the attempts to disrupt Lancaster UAF and other groups are coming in thick and fast (though mainly thick - well, it is the BNP).

Anyone who opposes the party and has had to post their telephone number on the internet for some reason will have received numerous offensive telephone calls. There have been plenty of cases where the little dears have phoned up, screamed obscenities then slammed the phone down, apparently blissfully unaware that, even if they used 141 to conceal the number they dialled from away from us, the police and BT can overide it. If they weren't so sad, they'd be bloody funny.

Most people are aware of the nazi 'big lie', which, in the words of Adolf Hitler writing in Mein Kampf, consists of telling a lie so 'colossal' that no one would believe anyone 'could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously'. The BNP appear to have taken this a step or two further - perhaps more in line with George Orwell's definition from 1984, 'To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed...'

Lancaster BNP's Chris Hill has demonstrated his ability to go for the big lie on a number of occasions since he decided to stand for the party in a couple of by-elections (and now the May 3rd locals).

When we reported on an attack by fascists on anti-fascists delivering leaflets in Morley, Hill's response was to immediately accuse other anti-fascists of attacking their own people. A colossal lie indeed. More recently - in fact during the current campaign - Hill took exception to a factual report from us in which we mentioned that David Copeland (the Soho nailbomber) was a former member of the BNP, that at the time of his arrest Robert Laidlaw (who shot random people for no apparent reason) claimed to be a BNP member, and that Robert Cottage was definitely a member of the BNP at the time of his arrest for possession of bomb-making materials. Hill's idiotic response? None of it was true. Fortunately for us, we can back up all our statements but the response from Hill was an excellent example of Orwell's definition of the big lie.

But these ridiculous allegations of lying are just minor dirty tricks - little annoying things that the BNP has got good at over the years because the party has had to do it so often to fend off unwelcome truths. With the people who really get on its nerves, the fascist BNP gets a little more aggressive.

As we've seen, this election campaign has produced a phenomenal number of allegations that the BNP has faked signatures on nomination papers. Reports are coming in from all over the country indicating that, if all are true, this is so widespread a practice as to give the distinct impression of being deliberately orchestrated. That wouldn't be any great surprise, though the BNP would deny it 'til the cows come home.

The dirty tricks are clearly getting dirtier though. A particularly vile nazi blog, apparently endorsed by the BNP's Nick Griffin, has threatened to reveal the contents of a Lancaster UAF activist's Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) file on its site. Quite what it expects to find in there is anyone's guess but the threat is clear. A couple of days ago, the same activist received a 1571 phone message, purportedly from the Child Support Agency. Here it is in full...

'Hello [pause] this is Joe calling from the Child Support Agency [pause] regarding your cases. If you'd like to get back to me [pause] my extension number's [pause] 2801 but I'll try contacting you again [pause] in the next day or two. Bye.'

As there are no cases pending between this activist and the Child Support Agency anyway, our man wasn't particularly bothered by the message - though if it actually was from the CSA for some reason, they need to train their staff in how to make a sensible and coherent telephone call. Leaving a number along with the extension might be a good starting point.

When we had the Lancaster UAF blog on our own server, we were naturally very aware of when we were attacked. Denial of Service attacks were growing in both frequency and intensity, and email bombing and spamming were both an overwhelming pain in the butt. Now that we've moved to Google's Blogster space and we've got super-strength email spam killers firmly in place, the method of attack has shifted.

Today we received notification that the blog had been reported as a spam blog. Google has announced that it's cleaning up the blogosphere (sorry) of these blights and takes them seriously enough to act immediately when it receives such a report. However, on reviewing our site, Google had this to say; 'Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam.' Thank you Google, and hard luck to the fascists. You failed again. As you did with Redwatch/Combat 18 and all the implied threats, details and photographs that you posted on those sites that were supposed to terrify us into letting you have your way.

Perhaps we ought to make one or two things clear to the nazi scum who read this blog - and there is a surprising number of them. Whatever dirty tricks you have in mind, whatever shit you think you can throw our way and however you choose to do it - you can take it as read that we're here to stay and no amount of intimidation or lies (big or small) are going to shift us. Get used to it.

Lancaster's fascist BNP fails to impress

Click on image for full size
A pdf file of the poster (28k) can be downloaded from here.

For all Chris Hill's waffling on his rubbishy blog about target 'Gold and Silver' wards, Lancaster's contingent of the British National Party could only muster up a single candidate, despite the local party claiming to have fast-growing support in the city. And who is that candidate? Yep, Chris Hill himself. And where is he standing? Yep, Skerton West ward again - obviously ignoring the fact that his proportion of the vote dropped from 16% on the first occasion he gave us the joy of his company to 11% once voters realised he had nothing to offer except the usual BNP lies and bullshit.

So far, Hill has only been seen on his own while canvassing. No sign of his chum, Bradford BNP councillor, Paul Cromie, under almost constant investigation by the Standards Board for a handful of apparent misdeamours, or ex-Combat 18 thug with a bunch of convictions, Calderdale's Adrian Marsden. In fact, we could say that Hill was remarkably isolated - no-one has even bothered to come over from Blackpool to help him out.

Hill's election agent is not unknown to us though. It's Chris Hill.

This curious isolation grows even more curious when you consider that just up the road in Blackpool, Roy Goodwin, the BNP's North-West regional organiser, claims to run the most successful branch in the country, with regular attendance, he has stated, of up to three hundred people. Yet not one of those three hundred has come over to give Chris Hill a helping hand.

There are two reasons for this. One is that Goodwin, the subject of numerous complaints from his local membership for his bullying and aggressive behaviour, was lying about the numbers. A few weeks ago, he stated to the Blackpool Gazette that the branch saw 'fifty to seventy' attendees - a far cry from three hundred - which might also explain why Blackpool BNP are only standing in seven seats rather than going for a full slate. Too many, of course, but not quite the success story Goodwin would have us believe. Information that we have indicates that the true number is around twenty to twenty-five, which ties in pretty well to the seven candidates. Barrow, which we believe also comes under Roy Goodwin, is an even more disastrous branch (though nowhere near as bad as Lancaster). For weeks, Mike Ashburner, the local BNP mouthpiece has been droning on about how fast the party is growing in the town and how successful they are on the doorstep. How many candidates are standing for the party in Barrow? One. Who is it? Guess. Oh alright, Mike Ashburner.

The BNP always lies about its attendance for some reason. When we have a meeting, we count the people there and that's the number that appears in the records. Anyone involved with the BNP seems to have a problem with counting. According to Chris Hill, there were two hundred and fifty attendees at the BNP 'national' conference in Blackpool and just thirty-five protestors. According to the BBC, us and numerous commentators, there were fifty to sixty at the conference and two hundred of us, give or take half a dozen. An extremely large mistake for engineer Hill to make.

The other reason Blackpool hasn't bothered supporting Hill is that he has the reputation of being foolishly arrogant. Well, he'd have to be, wouldn't he. The one-man-band that Lancaster BNP clearly is, would suit Hill down to the ground. It's only in that way that he can keep himself convinced that everything he says is right. A recent unwanted communication to us proves the point: 'Neither Copeland or Laidlaw were ever BNP members that a facts, live with it!The BNP did not claim Cottage had not been amember, just that he was not a member at the time...' Yes, the mistakes are all his.

Fact: David Copeland (the Soho bomber) was at one point a member of the BNP.
Fact: At the time of his arrest Laidlaw (who shot random people for no apparent reason) claimed to be a BNP member.
Fact: Robert Cottage was definitely a member of the BNP at the time of his arrest for possession of bomb-making materials.

Not that I'd want to get inside the head of anyone who considers the BNP a valid party but one wonders what goes on in there. One of the pledges on Hill's current leaflet states: '...to give the indigenous people of Lancaster a voice on the council'. Just what the hell does that mean? Is that meant to refer to white British people in Lancaster, because they're pretty well represented on the council already. Or is it meant to refer to Lancaster people who have lived here for generations? If that's the case, why should Hill represent them any more than anyone else - he's from Bradford. Not that we care but if that's a central pledge for his campaign, he's on another loser.

Someone asked the other day why Hill keeps sticking his nose into Skerton West and the only answer we heard that made any sense was that he hoped to make capital out of the old and thankfully almost-forgotten problems on Ryelands that involved Mal Hussein. Patently that's not working, hence the pitiful 93 votes he earned at the last by-election, most of which didn't come from Ryelands anyway. But someone speculated on Hill's reception on the estate should it become known that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, once described people who live on housing estates as scum. Yes, indeed.

We've provided a poster which, in our opinion, should be posted on every council estate in Lancaster and Morecambe, but particularly on Ryelands where Hill is currently trying to spread his filth and lies. Let's see what the locals think of Hill after we start spreading the truth around a bit.