“You’ll be found dead on the streets” – the message from a BNP supporter

‘You’ll be found dead on the streets.’ That was the message I received a few weeks ago from an identifiable BNP supporter. Why? Because I was taking a stand against Nick Griffin. When someone writes this to you because you’re fighting as a Lib Dem in a parliamentary campaign against Griffin and the BNP, it makes you think very hard about your political opponent and the campaign they intend to fight. It also makes you think about how you should respond.

I reported the threat immediately to the police. They came to my house and have since referred the matter to SO15 – Counter Terrorism Command. I also urged Nick Griffin to intervene and condemn the culprit. I wrote: “This is London in 2010, not Berlin in 1933.” The response: silence.

The Guardian reported the matter. And that of another death threat – a video put on the web in the name of Wandsworth BNP, featuring Equality and Human Rights Commission chief Trevor Phillips. It suggested he be “dealt with”.

On March 21st, a BNP activist was arrested for threatening to kill Labour peer, Baroness Uddin. His Facebook message read: ‘were (sic) going to hang you one day. Regards the BNP.”

This weekend comes the news that senior BNP official and parliamentary candidate, Mark Collett has been arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill Nick Griffin. Collett was arrested after Griffin made a statement to the police. A Humberside Police spokesman said: “A 29-year-old man has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of threats to kill. We can’t comment further.”

Griffin becomes the fourth person in four weeks to have received a death threat from a BNP member. As BNP chairman, he should not be surprised. His party membership list is full of criminals with convictions for violence. This is the true face of the BNP showing itself in public: a party of violence, committed to violence, using the language of violence.

And Griffin himself uses the language of violence frequently. He once called for a defence of white rights with “well directed boots and fists.” He told me in interview that people “have the right to hurt people to maim and blow things up when they are not allowed any other any way of expressing a legitimate grievance.”

When he had Dominic Kennedy of the Times roughed up and ejected from a BNP meeting in February, Griffin said it proved his party was “not going soft.”

When I asked Nick Griffin who was his political hero, it was not Adolf Hitler or Oswald Mosley. The man he chose was Gerry Adams. Griffin would perhaps do well to remember: ‘Hate begets hate; violence begets violence.’ If he has received death threats from within his own party, then it is perhaps a true reflection of the culture of violence he encourages and supports.

Liberal Democrat Voice

BNP bid to lure lad in school

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

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

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

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

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

The Sun

Elections in London: Nick Griffin declines to appear on BBC Politics Show

Today's Politics Show in London covers the battle for Barking and Dagenham, which in electoral terms mostly means the struggle of the Labour-run Council and Labour MPs Jon Cruddas and Margaret Hodge to keep the BNP at bay. As we know, BNP leader Nick Griffin is contesting the Barking seat. As we also know, he has taken part in BBC television debates before. So why did he turn down an invitation to participate in today's Politics Show discussion with fellow candidates for the Barking seat?

A BNP press release predictably foams on about a "lynch mob set-up" and quotes Griffin being affronted that a local channel covering elections in a particular locality appears to want to ask him questions about local issues. He is also rather rude about the Liberal Democrat candidate, who he describes as:

A failed journalist and plastic candidate...whose sole intention is to lie about me instead of dealing with the national issues.

This candidate, who will be on the show along with Hodge and Tory Simon Marcus, is Dominic Carman. He is not only the son of the late George Carman, a rather famous libel lawyer, but also Griffin's biographer. From The Times's Fiona Hamilton:

Mr Carman said that his only motivation for running was to try to stop Mr Griffin from taking the seat. He intends to use information from his research into the biography to attack his opponent. It was never released because publishers were unwilling to associate their brand with the BNP leader.

"I will put it to good use in exposing Griffin beyond what's already been in the public domain," he said. "It's very important to fight a strong campaign and it will be critical to challenge Nick Griffin every step of the way. I want to make people think long and hard about voting for him in Barking. It's very, very important."

Mr Carman has more than 20 hours of videotaped interviews with Mr Griffin over two years from 2003. He has interviewed Mr Griffin's family and associates, including the National Front leaders who shaped his views, on numerous occasions. "I do not claim to have a silver bullet — one specific piece of info so damaging that Nick Griffin would lose all credibility. But the cumulative information I have can be presented in such a way...it will make him uncomfortable."

Carman's candidacy only become known a week ago. Is it already having the desired effect?

Observer

Dominic Carman to fight Nick Griffin in Barking, East London, at election

The son of George Carman, QC, one of the Britain’s most notable barristers, is to take on Nick Griffin in the fight for Barking at the general election.

The Times has learnt that Dominic Carman, the unauthorised biographer of the British National Party leader, is to stand as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the East London constituency. The BNP hopes to topple Margaret Hodge, the Labour incumbent, to claim its first parliamentary seat.

Mr Carman said that his father, a leading barrister of the 1980s and 1990s who died in 2001, would have approved of his decision to run. He told The Times: “I would love to have seen my father have Nick Griffin in the witness box for two or three days and really take him apart: piece by piece, line by line, speech by speech.

“It would have a been a great pleasure and he would have done an excellent job. I just hope I can do a decent job exposing Nick Griffin to a wider audience than would be the case.”

Mr Carman said that his only motivation for running was to try to stop Mr Griffin from taking the seat. He intends to use information from his research into the biography to attack his opponent. It was never released because publishers were unwilling to associate their brand with the BNP leader.

“I will put it to good use in exposing Griffin beyond what’s already been in the public domain,” he said. “It’s very important to fight a strong campaign and it will be critical to challenge Nick Griffin every step of the way. I want to make people think long and hard about voting for him in Barking. It’s very, very important.”

Mr Carman has more than 20 hours of videotaped interviews with Mr Griffin over two years from 2003. He has interviewed Mr Griffin’s family and associates, including the National Front leaders who shaped his views, on numerous occasions. “I do not claim to have a silver bullet — one specific piece of info so damaging that Nick Griffin would lose all credibility. But the cumulative information I have can be presented in such a way ... it will make him uncomfortable.”

Mr Carman hit the headlines in 2002 when he wrote a biography of his father, who was regarded as one of the country’s best libel barristers. George Carman, QC, was famed for his presence in the courtroom and his ability to captivate a jury. However, his public image changed after his death with the publication of the “warts and all” biography by his son. It detailed the destructive personal side of his father’s life with accounts of a chain-smoking alcoholic who beat his wives.

Mr Carman, who joined the Lib Dems last year, said that he would fight the campaign on local issues such as jobs and housing. “I’m not going to stand and say nothing against the Labour Government, I will argue Liberal Democrat policies in a normal way. But I’m not going to select Margaret Hodge for special criticism. I am going to select Nick Griffin for that.”

He said that his chances of winning the seat were slim. The BNP took almost 17 per cent of the vote in the 2005 general election, just behind the Conservatives, while the Lib Dems achieved 11 per cent. “I have to do what I can,” he said. “This is very important.”

His campaign will start tomorrow morning in Barking.

The Times