Man or a mouse?

BNP MEP Andrew Brons is coming under intense pressure to leave the party and form an alternative. Brons has been considering his options for the past nine months but so far he has failed to make a move. He first toyed with splitting from the BNP back in the spring in the aftermath of poor election results but he hesitated too long and missed his chance. He then challenged Griffin for the party leadership, half expecting to be thrown out of the party or to be given the excuse of obvious electoral fraud to walk away. Again he bottled it.

As Brons has dithered others have walked away. Jim Dowson and Paul Golding went off to form Britain First and then Eddy Butler and Chris Beverley joined the English Democrats. More recently Richard Edmonds and the bulk of Croydon BNP have gone over to the National Front.

Now, in the aftermath of the Panorama programme, he is once again under pressure to leave and form an alternative.

Our guess is that he will continue to pontificate and the opportunity will pass him by. And in the meantime the BNP, under Griffin's leadership, will continue its slow death.

Hope not Hate

Spineless Brons lets Griffin off hook

BNP MEP Andrew Brons has refused to make public a video showing embattled party leader Nick Griffin gatecrashing and abusing BNP members at a meeting addressed by Brons in Brussels on Sunday.

Griffin, variously described by witnesses as "aggressive", "in a real temper" and "abusive", stormed into the meeting to confront Brons, Eddy Butler, leadership challenger Richard Edmonds and others, apparently as Brons addressed the gathering, which had been on a weekend jolly to the European parliament organised by Griffin's enemy-in-chief Butler.

According to Michael Barnbrook, Griffin was "deliberately confrontational", calling Andrew Brons a liar and ordering Richard Edmonds to shut up before attacking Eddy Butler as the meeting broke up prematurely and attendees booed and shouted at Griffin - of whom Butler remarked: "It seems likely that he is having some sort of breakdown."

The meeting was videoed and Griffin's angry outbursts were recorded for posterity. Supporters of Butler and Edmonds had expected it to be released as damning evidence against the BNP leader, but according to Barnbrook Brons is refusing to make the video public because of the "embarrassment that it would cause the British National Party".

The majority opinion of those who witnessed Griffin's extraordinary behaviour is that the video's release would have been a decisive blow in the campaign to oust Griffin and should have been used.

Brons's decision to sit on the video could prove an expensive one for Richard Edmond's leadership hopes, since it is a golden opportunity lost - and not for the first time by the ineffectual Brons, whose record of dither and vacillation is legion in far right circles.

However, let's not jump to hasty conclusions. The BNP is something of a hall of mirrors at the moment, with both sides in the politically deadly dispute generating large amounts of spin and bluff. While Brons may be spineless, neither he nor his allies are stupid.

Brons still has to work with Griffin, though we must assume their relationship is ice cold, and has attempted (or at least attempted to appear) to remain above the worst of the vicious faction fighting, despite coming out in favour of Richard Edmond's challenge. It isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that his allies have every intention of making the video public while allowing Brons the time to publicly distance himself from the decision.

As we and our friends have been repeating for years, Griffin will never be beaten by those who think that playing fair will win the day. Griffin does not operate like that. He will only be beaten by opponents as cunning as he is and as ready as he is to land low blows.

Have the anti-Griffin forces within the BNP finally learned that truth?

BNP leader Nick Griffin isolated after election disasters

Key figures threaten to form breakaway group as party chairman faces second leadership challenge in less than 12 months

The British National party's dominance of far-right politics in the UK is under threat for the first time in a decade after a string of poor election results and a growing rebellion against its leader, Nick Griffin.

The BNP chairman, who has led the party since 1999, is facing a second leadership challenge in less than 12 months, a mass defection of key organisers and the prospect of a new "popular front" made up of other far-right groups and former BNP activists.

Nick Lowles from the antifacist organisation Searchlight, said: "There is a serious split within the leadership of the BNP. After another humiliation at the polls and massive debts, Griffin is isolated and his position is weak. We are likely to see a rival party formed, a BNP mark two, and Griffin will be left with little more than a rump of a party."

This week Richard Barnbrook, who was the BNP's sole representative on the London assembly until he was expelled from the party last year, said it was time for a realignment in "nationalist politics" in the UK..

"The chairman, Nick Griffin, who has been a long-standing friend in the past, has to go," Barnbrook said. "There is no question about it. He is creating more harm than anything else."

Barnbrook, who now sits as an independent on the London assembly, has written to leaders of four other far-right or nationalist organisations – including the English Defence League and the English Democrats – calling for the creation of "one strong, united, cohesive force".

Griffin is also facing an increasingly emboldened rebellion inside the party. Richard Edmonds, seen as a "BNP hardliner", has launched a formal leadership challenge and although it is unlikely he will win, his defeat is expected to trigger another wave of defections.

Andrew Brons, the BNP's second MEP and an increasingly significant figure, has distanced himself from Griffin and this week appeared to back the leadership challenge, prompting speculation that he is preparing to lead a breakaway group.

Griffin has been under growing pressure since the BNP's poor showing in last year's general and council elections, when it lost all but two of the 28 councillors up for re-election and was wiped out in its east London stronghold of Barking and Dagenham. And the rebellion has gathered pace since this month's local elections, when it again performed poorly, losing all but two of the seats it was contesting.

The growing rebellion has seen a growing number of BNP organisers either leave the party or defect to join other rightwing groups. Searchlight says dozens of BNP members – including several key figures – have left and joined the English Democrats recently. Lowles said there appeared to be a "concerted and orchestrated attempt by many of the BNP's most effective and competent former organisers" to establish a foothold in the English Democrats.

Matthew Goodwin, from Nottingham University, who has written a book on the BNP, said: "There are two key questions here. First, can the rebels depose Griffin, which in my view is unlikely given the BNP constitution.

Second, can they then form a credible alliance with other groups which appeals to the large number of voters who are anxious over immigration, insecure about their economic position and dissatisfied with the main parties. Whatever the outcome, it is clear that Griffin's leadership is under sustained fire."

The Guardian

It's still the accounts, stupid

Getting on for three weeks ago all links from the BNP main website to Andrew Brons's blog were removed, an overt signal that in the eyes of Nick Griffin and Patrick Harrington the Yorkshire BNP MEP had become far too dangerous for comfort and was uttering heresies good BNP members and their wallets should not witness.

In late March, ostensibly preserving his alleged neutrality in the BNP's civil war by taking swipes at both sides in an article lumpily entitled "The Unacknowledged Complementarity That Is Destroying The British National Party", Brons decried the litany of expulsions, suspensions, demotions and sackings of the last year and scathingly rounded on old enemy Harrington:

The person who was the architect of using the disciplinary machinery as a weapon of mass destruction in 1986 re-emerged in the middle of 2010 to become a favoured adviser of our Chairman. He is rightly admired as a no-nonsense man who does not waste valuable time learning from his own mistakes. [Our emphasis]

Shortly before the recent round of local and assembly elections Brons again underscored his antipathy to Griffin's continued leadership, claiming that the BNP was "quite deliberately" being dismantled. Brons, all too well acquainted with the machinations of Griffin and Harrington from his 1980s days as sometime chairman and directorate member of the National Front, alluded to a number of points of deep concern, but particularly to

** the constitution;

** the finances of the Party;

** the leadership and/or advisers to the leadership;

all of which were matters of pressing concern a quarter of a century ago, when Griffin and Harrington were trialling their destructive methods in the National Front.

Brons has never liked serial failure, fake trade union boss and renowned fantasist Harrington, never respected his pretensions, despises his vanity and has never trusted him. In that much he is a member of a very large club.

Coincidental with the removal of Brons's links on the BNP website was the appearance, in the "Resources" section, of the single option "Opposition". This contains several articles that are claimed to be a "dossier" (a favourite Griffin/Harrington word) on the external and - more importantly - the internal opposition faced by the BNP. Dubbed by some "Attempted Murder 2" in memory of that gloriously insane Griffin/Harrington original of yore, "Attempted Murder: the State/Reactionary Plot Against the National Front", AM2 bears more the stamp of Harrington than of Griffin.

A melange of fiction and derangement from the borderlands of nuttiness, the "dossier" is mostly an attack on the English Democrats and Eddy Butler, written largely in the groaning but comically quasi-Stalinist style of Harrington, who - despite the decades long evidence that he just isn't very good at it - has always rather fancied himself as a propagandist. Happily smearing the memory of the recently deceased former NF leader Ian Anderson, AM2 accuses Anderson of "incompetence, petty theft and habitual lying" while neglecting to mention the numerous occasions on which the same charges have been made against the living bodies of Griffin and Harrington.

Reaching into the dim and distant National Front past to attack Butler, AM2 is in part a justification and apologia for the terminal ructions Griffin and Harrington visited upon that party in the 1980s, and in that much it demonstrates that the mindsets of its authors have changed little in the twenty five years since the original "Attempted Murder" shrieked its way into far-right history. Indeed, in his March article Andrew Brons charged that "the movements and language of one side seem to come from a script that was written in 1986".

Brons has emphatically stated that he has no ambition to lead the BNP or even to fight for a second term as an MEP, the fact of which leaves him three clear years to continue as a thorn in the side of Griffin and Harrington, neutral on the surface but knowing that every time he kicks the ball Griffin and Harrington reach for their codpieces.

For the majority of what remains of the BNP membership, including many who continue to support Nick Griffin more out of antipathy towards Butler and his reformers than out of love for Griffin, Andrew Brons would be the dream leadership candidate, perhaps the only person of stature remaining in the BNP who retains sufficient goodwill and enough cross-party support to end Griffin's reign.

Ignoring Brons's stated lack of ambition (as we are quite sure Griffin and Harrington do not and can not), Brons, more than anybody else, knows what he would be up against if he ever were to launch a challenge. He knows that Griffin would destroy the BNP much as he did the old National Front rather than step aside; and he must know, in his heart, that Griffin will never allow the access to the BNP's historical accounts that a handover of power would entail.

That, as always, is the bottom line. The accounts.

And that is why BNP founder member Richard Edmond's leadership bid is doomed.

Whereas Richard Edmonds, a close friend of founding leader John Tyndall, could once be looked upon as a fairly typical Nazi-leaning, anti-Semitic Holocaust-denying BNP member, the large intake of unideological "Nu Nats" in recent years has rendered Edmonds and his kind an increasingly rare species. Even so, the fact that he is a founder member, can lay claim to near 40 years of far-right activity, is the keeper of the keys of hardline Tyndallism and is fairly well known makes him the next best prospect as a leadership candidate capable of toppling Griffin.

The problem is that Edmonds's past does not endear him to all Nu Nats and he is eminently smearable. The most unlikely thing about Edmonds's prospective challenge is the fulsome support given him by self-proclaimed "sleazebuster" Michael Barnbrook, who has mixed-race grandchildren and who holds views that a Richard Edmonds must consider well beyond the nationalist pale. I have read Barnbrook's writings and listened to his outpourings at length, and even I cannot think of him as anything other than the same kind of animal I used to meet on the dottier fringes of the Tory Party, the kind you would quietly stifle when sane people came too close.

Regardless of that, assuming this strange alliance of hardliners and Nu Nats does hold togther for the next two months, what are its prospects of success - and by "success" I mean the minimum position of forcing a leadership ballot?

Well, things have moved on a bit since last year's abortive leadership challenge. There has been almost unremitting bad news for Nick Griffin, a continuing exodus of members, the abject failure of the recent elections, former Griffinites defecting to the Butler and non-Butler reform camps or leaving altogether, Andrew Brons's increasingly belligerent disaffection and contempt... all these things are making Griffin and Harrington jittery, knowing that support has ebbed away substantially. They suspect that the jiggery-pokery that worked last summer won't work this, and that even if it did, this time threats of legal action may not be as hollow as those uttered by Butler. They are also nagged about Brons and the slight possibility that he may step in at the last moment while Edmonds pulls out - the very worst of the possibilities running through their minds.

It is no coincidence that this week Griffin is holding a series of "Way Forward" meetings, allegedly for activists but effectively for a chosen few. Dressed up as being to "discuss ways of moving the party forward", the real motive appears to be to guage support for Griffin and to win approval for an early EGM to discuss (if that is the word for something that will be pre-planned down to the last detail) new constitutional arrangements.

Under current arrangements, the period for leadership nominations opens on July 20th, but - crucially - Griffin plans to hold the all-important EGM six days earlier, on July 14th. Any variation in the BNP's constitution would apply from that date.

Exactly what changes Griffin plans are unclear. What we may be certain of is that they will be geared solely to saving his skin. To that end he may risk the continuance of the current nominations process but increase the percentage required to trigger a leadership contest to something he believes cannot be obtained. He may do this in conjunction with a proposal to extend a chairman's term of office to four years.

Another possibility is that he will press for his current term be extended to four or five years, perhaps in return for the "concession" that the existing Byzantine challenge process be ditched or modified.

Whatever, Griffin and Harrington and their inner circle will strive mightily to ensure that no challenge can be mounted on July 20th. Their control of the BNP and their ability to (shall we say?) "influence" vital meetings is the last weapon they have, all that stands between them and defeat.

And all that stands between Griffin and an open analysis of those mysterious BNP accounts - the core and locus of it all.

BNP faces meltdown at local polls after defections and infighting

Party to field 450 fewer candidates than in 2007 as leader Nick Griffin comes under pressure over organisation's finances

The British National party is facing political meltdown in next month's local elections after a string of defections and growing concern over its finances.

Dozens of prominent BNP figures have either been suspended or have resigned and in the past few weeks several former members have announced they are to stand for rival far-right and nationalist organisations.

The BNP is standing around 250 candidates in next month's elections, compared with approximately 700 in the equivalent polls in 2007.

The turmoil comes as the Electoral Commission announced this week that the party had "failed to comply with the legal requirement to keep adequate financial records" for the second year running, further increasing the pressure on the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, who fought off a leadership challenge last year.

"The position of the party is extremely dire," said Professor Matthew Goodwin, from Nottingham University, an expert on far-right politics. "The defections and rebellions are going strong and we have seen a whole host of key figures leave to join other far-right groups … Nick Griffin is becoming increasingly isolated."

The BNP says it is focusing on the elections to the Welsh assembly, where it claims it could secure two seats, but anti-Griffin rebels say the BNP should be making more progress in England as cuts bite and economic instability increases.

"There is growing anger within the party because there was a period when it looked like Nick Griffin may have been able to force the BNP into the political mainstream," said a spokesman for the anti-racist campaign Hope not Hate. "But it is clear Nick Griffin will himself be the BNP's nemesis. His mismanagement, arrogance and dictatorial leadership have dragged his own party off a political cliff."

The BNP's election prospects took a blow earlier this month when it emerged that around 15 former members, including some key figures such as former Yorkshire organiser Chris Beverley, had defected and are standing for the English Democrats in next month's elections. On his blog Beverley said it had been a "huge decision" and blamed the actions of Griffin and his leadership team for the party's problems.

Goodwin said: "There are just over 200 BNP candidates but there are 390 far-right candidates in total so what we are seeing quite clearly is that the far right is splintering, not just among one or two parties but among a whole host of groups and factions … it is the classic case of far-right parties in the UK shooting themselves in the foot."

Analysts say BNP infighting has allowed other far-right and nationalist groups to come to the fore. Organisations such as the English Defence League, the English Democrats and the British Freedom party are now challenging the BNP, but perhaps its biggest threat is a resurgent UK Independence party, which beat both the Conservatives and Lib Dems to come second in a byelection in Barnsley last month.

"The activists that are frustrated with the incompetence of the BNP are going to the EDL or other rightwing factions and many [former voters] are going to Ukip if they want something more respectable," said Goodwin. "The BNP are being outflanked on all sides."

Opponents say the defections and wider splits mean the party is struggling to stand candidates in some of its core areas.

BNP spokesman Simon Darby dismissed the defections, saying: "People have gone, that is it … but wait and see about that, I think they are going to regret that, just wait and see."

He defended Griffin, insisting he was still a popular leader and that it was "a miracle" the party was still operating following what he said was a relentless campaign to undermine it by the media and the state. "I am just pleased we are still here putting up a campaign in seats we may win … we are still in the game and are looking to regroup after all the dust has settled on this election," he said.

Griffin has come under growing pressure since the BNP's poor showing in last year's general and council elections, when it lost all but two of the 28 councillors up for re-election and was wiped out in its east London stronghold of Barking and Dagenham. It now has 23 councillors, compared with 54 a year ago, and several senior figures, including election co-ordinator Eddie Butler and London assembly member Richard Barnbrook, have come out against Griffin.

The rebels' anger is focused on Griffin's leadership style and concern about the party's debts which were exacerbated this week when the Electoral Commission said the BNP had failed to keep adequate financial records for the second year running.

"We have sought an urgent meeting with the party to discuss the steps they need to take to comply with the law," said a spokesman for the commission.

The party is reportedly £500,000 in debt although Darby said that the figure was "coming down".

"We are making good progress on that, that debt will be serviced," he added.

Although a poor showing in next month's elections would increase the pressure on Griffin to stand down, Goodwin said that remains unlikely.

"Griffin will hang on because the BNP constitution means it is almost impossible to oust him... [He] is doing the party in, it is not connecting with voters, they are running out of money but he is not going to go anywhere... they truly are a fading star and it is almost entirely because of Griffin's incompetence."

The Guardian

EPPING FOREST: BNP fielding no candidates in election

IN a dramatic turn of fortune the British National Party will be fielding no candidates in the forthcoming local elections.

Only four years ago the BNP had seven members on Epping District Council, more than at any other time in their recent history.

But this year none of the 18 seats that are up for re-election on May 5 will be contested by the far-right organisation.

Many of the seats are in Epping and Waltham Abbey, and the Liberal Democrats are looking to use the opportunity strengthen their position and oust Loughton Residents Association as opposition to the dominant Conservatives.

District Councillor Stephen Murray, who is an independent, said: “I was pleasantly surprised to see that the BNP are putting forward no candidates this year. It can only be a sign of weakness. Only four years ago there was talk of them being a majority, now their membership on the council is down to one.

He said that internal divisions and campaigning by ant-fascist organisations were the root of the the collapse.

“Eddie Butler, who is married to a former BNP councillor from the area, stood against Nick Griffin a recent leadership contest which has caused fratricidal disputes", said Councillor Murray.

“I also think that Searchlight have done valuable work in the area in waking people up to the true nature of the BNP as a racist organisation.

“However it is very important for people not to become complacent and for us to keep an eye on them.”

Councillor Murray was sceptical about the Lib Dem's chances of becoming district's second most powerful party, saying that their centre-left support could collapse having formed a coalition government with the Conservatives.

The BNP's one remaining District Councillor, Pat Richardson, said: “Sometimes it is hard to find candidates. Most parties are going through difficult times.

“None of the seats in Debden and Alderton where we have most of our support are up for re-election so that is another factor.

“I think at the minute people are more interested in their home lives than in politics.

“It is swings and roundabouts, the game of politics. Recently Labour had strong support now they only have one district councillor.”

Epping Forest News

Nowhere man

On the campaign trial in Barking and Dagenham: Eddy Butler (left) with Richard Barnbrook now an independent member of the London Assembly (centre) and BNP leader Nick GriffinOn the campaign trial in Barking and Dagenham: Eddy Butler (left) with Richard Barnbrook now an independent member of the London Assembly (centre) and BNP leader Nick Griffin

As part of our series looking at the wider British right, Searchlight assesses the prospects for Eddy Butler.

After Eddy Butler failed last summer to surmount the impossibly high hurdles that Nick Griffin placed in the way of anyone hoping to challenge his leadership of the British National Party, the big question among Butler’s supporters was whether to keep on fighting within the BNP or form a new party.

Butler was against a new party. He had been there before and in surprisingly similar circumstances. Shortly after Griffin replaced John Tyndall as BNP leader in 1999, the party’s treasurer and deputy chairman accused Griffin of financial wrongdoing. Griffin responded as he always does, by expelling his accusers. Butler and several others left the BNP in disgust and in December 2000 formed the Freedom Party.

Apart from getting one councillor elected in South Staffordshire in 2003 the Freedom Party made little impact and by 2006 was dead. Butler had already returned to Griffin’s side in 2003 after realising that the BNP, which had won three councillors in Burnley in May 2002, had the better prospects.

Butler’s opposition to forming a new party proved prescient. In October 2010 some of his former supporters, together with others who had fallen foul of Griffin, set up the British Freedom Party. They soon fell out with each other publicly and nastily, its leadership went through a number of changes and although it may field a few candidates in this year’s local elections, it has zero public profile and no attractive personalities.

Butler and many of his supporters believed that the future for the far right remained in the BNP. Whereas many disillusioned members were leaving the party, Butler urged supporters to renew their membership so they could vote in a future leadership election. He went to great trouble to contribute to a “consultation” on changes to the party’s constitution, only to have his effort rejected.

However, if Butler thought he could carry on agitating against Griffin inside the BNP, he must have been very naïve, surprisingly so for someone who has been active on the far right for 30 years and has an honours degree in history and politics. Butler was first suspended from the BNP, then expelled, though he retains his employment on the European Parliament payroll with Andrew Brons MEP, who has maintained a somewhat uncomfortable fence-sitting position between Butler and Griffin.

On 24 December Butler changed his view on whether party members should renew. Reminding his readers of Griffin’s financial mismanagement, which had left the party with debts of over £500,000, Butler declared that members get: “No chance to vote on anything, no chance to decide anything. He [Griffin] will never allow anyone any chance to vote on anything.” Griffin had to be “starved out” said Butler, adding: “This is harsh but it is the only way.”

Since then Butler has continued waging war on Griffin from the comfort of his blog. Many of his articles, and those of a handful of guest writers, contain insightful analysis and plenty of useful information for anti-fascists. But it is unclear quite where Butler hopes to go. Constant calls for Griffin to be removed are not accompanied by any strategy for achieving that aim.

The BNP constitution, which requires a challenger to obtain the support of 20% of all party members of at least two years’ standing, remains in place and it is unclear when changes discussed at last year’s BNP conference might be put to a vote. The first problem a challenger faces is to find out which members to canvass, as the party does not supply a list.

Nevertheless a group of party members grouped under the banner of BNP Reform 2011 has said a leadership challenge will be mounted this summer, although: “To protect the candidate and ensure he/she is not expelled or suspended before the period for leadership nominations we shall not be revealing his/her identity at this time.”

BNP Reform 2011 is independent of Butler, though many of its members supported him last year and Butler has condemned Griffin’s moves against the group. Several prominent party activists have been suspended recently by Griffin’s henchman Adam Walker, the BNP’s national organiser, simply for attending reform meetings.

However whether Griffin will still be party leader in summer and whether the party itself will survive or be salvageable is uncertain. The BNP continues to be saddled with huge debts which it has no prospect or intention of repaying, members are leaving amid sinking morale and fundraising has nearly dried up. Griffin spends most of his time at the European Parliament, adding his daily attendance allowance to his substantial MEP’s salary, and has left the party in the charge of the power-crazed Walker, the moronic Clive Jefferson, laughably acting as the party’s treasurer and national elections officer, and the highly unpopular Patrick Harrington, who is not even a BNP member.

The BNP is an unincorporated association and Griffin is personally responsible for most of its debts. There have been claims for several months that enforcement proceedings are being taken against him, though little seems to have happened. The problem for creditors is that Griffin has made sure he has no property in his name, meaning that it may not be worthwhile to incur the costs of taking action.

The party is in disarray in many parts of the country and Paul Golding, the party’s former communications officer, recently described the BNP brand as “completely toxic”.

Even if Griffin were to be ousted, any new leader would still have to deal with the debts. Prospective challengers might hope that with Griffin gone and the party in more competent hands, supporters’ donations will come flooding in, and it is true that BNP supporters may be stupid enough to throw more money at the dead horse.

At the start of this year Butler raised a third prospect, that of unity between the UK Independence Party, BNP and the various smaller groups “on the patriotic, nationalistic, ‘right-wing’, populist, non-politically correct, identity-related side of the spectrum”. Such a party would “have over 30,000 members” and “instantly be a major force in British politics”.

Butler believed such a union would benefit the BNP as “it would provide respectability and distance from a more violent and hard-line past”. For the UKIP it “would give them relevance” between European elections. The UKIP immediately rejected the idea totally and went on to poll considerably better than the BNP in two parliamentary by-elections.

Butler recognised that “jealous personalities”, the biggest of whom is Griffin, would not let unity happen and that it was just a dream.

On 20 March he came up with a new variation on the unity theme. Claiming that “Griffin’s grasp is faltering” and he saw “unmistakable signs of a sinking tyrant”, Butler called for reconciliation between all those opposed to Griffin, including those who left years ago or never joined the BNP because they were alienated by Griffin. “Nothing must stand in the way of common action to rid the movement of the curse that is Nick Griffin and his regime as quickly as possible,” declared Butler.

To this end he has been speaking at meetings around the country. However it is difficult to see how he might bring reconciliation about. The far right has always been characterised by splits and inadequate individuals all wanting to be big fishes in their own small ponds. Butler’s strength lies in running election campaigns. It was his work in the East End that got the BNP’s first elected councillor in Tower Hamlets in 1993, although the party lost the seat seven months later. However leading a successful political party takes much more than organisational skills and an understanding of campaigning techniques.

And although Butler is an educated man, who held down a finance job with the Corporation of the City of London for many years, he is also a violent one. When Butler was running the BNP’s “rights for whites” campaign in the East End in the early 1990s he and a team of thugs laid into a group of anti-fascists with hammers and other weapons, although he was never charged with any offence. That incident, which he has never denied, would keep coming back to haunt him as a leader. He also does not suffer fools gladly, and there are certainly a lot of fools around on the far right. All in all, it does not look like Butler is going anywhere anytime soon.

Searchlight

BNP’s Brons admits in-fighting set to destroy party ‘by end of year’

British National Party MEP Andrew Brons has admitted that an internal battle could bring the BNP to ‘an ignominious end before the end of this year’.

Brons made his stark admission of the extent of the BNP’s crisis on his EU website – going public on a non-party site – in a significant signal of the desperate straits the party is in.

Internal war

The BNP has been wracked by an internal war between the fascist party’s leader Nick Griffin and would-be challenger Eddy Butler – as well as becoming mired in financial trouble in recent months.

Yorksire and Humber MEP Brons, who is one of the party’s best known figures, warned the fascists that the infighting had ‘moved on from attack websites to what each side sees as a final confrontation’. He describes how Butler has organised a series of anti-Griffin meetings, which are filmed by BNP ‘security’ before the Buttler supporters are expelled by the BNP. Brons admitted:

'If there is no truce, the Party will come to an ignominious end before the end of this year.'

Longstanding Nazi

Brons is a longstanding Nazi. He began his political career in the National Socialist Movement, a fascist organisation founded in the 1960s on Hitler’s birthday. He was later chair of the National Front, before his reincarnation as a BNP politician in a suit. His handwringing over the fate of the BNP is aimed at bolstering the fascists and marks no departure from their politics.

Antifascists campaigning aginst the BNP in the May elections in areas such as Stoke-on-Trent will be heartened by the disarray and demoralisation laid bare by Brons. There is a real chance of kicking the divided BNP Nazis out of key seats.
EDL threat

There is no room for complacency, however. Brons notes that some disaffected BNP members have left to form splinter groups, while others ‘plan to seek membership of establishment safety valve parties’.

But it is clear that BNP members drifting out of the party are also increasingly moving into and around the English Defence League, the racist street thug movement whose leader “Tommy Robinson” is himself a former BNP member. The BNP’s collapse is likely to add to the drain of former members into the EDL.

Fascist elements in the EDL have already been increasing their influence inside the organisation, with growing signs that they are seeking to “harden up” its members and direct them against other traditional fascist targets, such as trade unionists and socialists as well as ethnic minorities.
Step up

Antifascists will be pleased to see the demise of the BNP. But the growth and direction of the EDL are cause for grave concern.

We need to drive home the BNP’s weakness in the election campaign. But we must also step up campaigning against the EDL.

Unite Against Fascism

Griffin’s agent made false election return

The British National Party’s election agent for Barking in last year’s general election could face prosecution for falsely stating a printing bill for election leaflets had been paid after he accepted a brazen lie from the party’s treasurer.

Richard Barnbrook, who at the time was the BNP’s London Assembly member, included bills from Newton Press in the return of election expenses that he submitted to the Barking returning officer on behalf of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and marked them as paid. Election law requires all a candidates’ expenses to be paid within 28 days.

Not only had the bill not been paid within 28 days, but Newton Press, a small printer in County Durham, is still waiting for its money. According to Eddy Butler, a former BNP officer who is campaigning for Griffin’s removal as leader, the BNP has refused to pay the firm around £15,000 that it owes for various printing services, including issues of the party’s paper Voice of Freedom.

Newton Press did not take the BNP’s no for an answer and established that around £6,000 of the bill was for newspapers delivered in Barking and that Barnbrook had accepted responsibility as Griffin’s agent. Making a false election expenses declaration can carry a prison sentence of up to one year or an unlimited fine or both unless the High Court accepts there was “reasonable cause” for the failure.

Barnbrook, who resigned the BNP whip last summer and now sits on the London Assembly as an independent, duly applied to the High Court. Yesterday Mr Justice Tugendhat rejected Barnbrook’s plea that the false return was not his fault because Dave Hannam, the party treasurer, had provided him with invoices falsely stamped “paid”. The agent is expected to be in real and genuine control of election expenditure, Mr Justice Tugendhat ruled, and Barnbrook should have made certain that the invoices had in fact been paid before signing off the return.

Mr Justice Tugendhat, who four years ago threw out a BNP candidate’s vexatious libel claim against Searchlight, has referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, as election law requires, which means Barnbrook is likely to end up with a criminal conviction. According to Butler, Barnbrook, who “demeaned himself by touting himself around to various parties” in an attempt to get onto a London Assembly list that will secure his re-election in 2012, is now trying to return to the BNP.

The DPP could also proceed against Griffin as the candidate and agent are jointly responsible for the accuracy of the expenses return.

The BNP’s problems are unlikely to stop with Newton Press. The party has debts of over £500,000 including to several other printers money. Romac Press, the Belfast firm that printed the party’s main general election leaflets is owed £45,000, which means that election expenses returns in several constituencies were probably false.

After the European election in 2009, it emerged that most of the party’s election bills had been paid by Adlorries.com Ltd, a company owned by Jim Dowson, the party’s fundraising consultant who ended up controlling most of the BNP’s assets. Griffin’s party had to repay the “loan” over several months.

The BNP’s continuing inability to pay its debts and readiness to lie means that any candidate or election agent will be personally at risk if they use election leaflets supplied by the party. Butler has called on BNP members not to stand as a candidate or act as an agent while Griffin is chairman.

Hannam, who was widely derided in the BNP as incompetent, is no longer BNP treasurer, replaced after less than eight months in the job by the moronic Clive Jefferson on his rapid rise through the party. Lying seemed to come naturally to Hannam. Last summer he boasted that the BNP’s financial controls now ensured that “all legally required statement [sic] of accounts are submitted on time”. The next day it emerged that the party had failed to submit its 2009 accounts to the Electoral Commission by the deadline of 7 July, the third time it had been late.

In 2007, when Hannam was deputy treasurer, Ian Dawson wrote in his letter of resignation from his position as the party’s head of group support: “Hannam has messed things up from day one, before he got ‘bogged down’ in an audit, during it, and after it. If he worked in a bank he would not last a week. Not only is he incompetent, he also lies. Again, this can be proved time and time again, yet it seems that no matter how much some people lie, and however big the lies are, they get away with it. I can’t think of one thing that Dave does well – if there is something I have not seen it. That is not an exaggeration or an unnecessary insult, it is a fact.”

Griffin seems unconcerned about the latest blow to his party. In the week when nominations are due for the local elections in May and many party members are already refusing to stand in protest at his leadership, he is sunning himself on holiday in Cyprus. Rumour has it that Griffin, who may be held personally liable for the BNP’s debts, is looking for a bolthole in Northern Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with the UK.

Hope not hate

Eddy Butler: Andrew Brons Speaks?

The following has been posted this evening on the British Democracy Forum by Sharon Ebanks. It's an email purportedly written by Andrew Brons and sent in response to people within the BNP who have been pressuring him to sack Eddy Butler (who's still employed by Brons as one of his European Parliament staff despite having been expelled from the BNP at the behest of Griffin.

We publish it here with no way of knowing its provenance or authenticity and with no further comment.

*******

BDF comment posted by Sharon Ebanks:

I had this message forwarded to me. Apparently it is a statement from Andrew Brons which has been sent to a number of people who have been agitating for Brons to sack Butler. I was forwarded it by someone who was sent it (I won't say who) recently who isn't even a member and doesn't even like Grifin, but also doesn't like Butler. I have checked and the message is genuine. In it Brons isn't totally uncritical of Butler but is clear that he accepts his version of events and it's very critical of Nick Griffins actions. The message is a clear slap in the face to the Griffinites who want to get rid of Butler.

The Employment of Eddy Butler

The question is sometimes asked of me: “Why do I employ Eddy Butler?” The simple answer is that he was on a list of people I was asked to employ by Nick Griffin, our Chairman, when I was elected. He was as unknown to me as most of the others were.

The following question is sometimes then asked: “Why do you continue to employ him?” The immediate answer is that he has been employed for eighteen months and there must be a reason in law to dismiss him. He completes the Euro work that I ask him to do.

I am then asked what I think of his ‘blog’ and whether or not that is a good reason for dismissing him. I do not read it, any more than I read any of the anti-Butler messages on the internet. I find them all too dispiriting to waste my time on. However, I am told about the content and I disapprove of much of it. Why do I disapprove of it? I disapprove of it because it can only reduce morale without having any chance of achieving its objective. What is its objective? It is to bring about the resignation of Nick Griffin as Party Chairman. Is it likely to achieve this objective? No! When I tried to persuade Eddy Butler to remove his blog last September, I asked him a simple question: “Would Nick Griffin resign if asked to do so by the majority of the people who made up our fourteen thousand membership last May? His answer was “No”. I replied that it was therefore having all of its negative effects without having any chance of achieving its objective.

The case against Eddy Butler and his blog seems to be cast iron. His influence is entirely negative; he is the cause of all of our ills; and those whom he attacks are his innocent victims? As with all attempts to apportion blame in disputes, it depends on the position from which you start.

The Causes of the Civil War in Our Party
Who fired the first shots? Even this apparently simple question is not so easy to answer. The ‘first shots’ could be identified as the decision of Eddy Butler and Emma Colgate to seek a vote from the Advisory Council to call an EGM and perhaps seek a leadership election. Without that decision, the rest would not have followed. However, such a vote would have been perfectly constitutional and was prevented by their removal from the Advisory Council, which was also perfectly constitutional. Our Constitution provides for the Chairman being able to manipulate, at will, the membership of the body that advises him.

The first overtly hostile act was the removal of Emma Colgate and Eddy Butler from their employment. Emma Colgate apparently agreed to her removal – after some ‘persuasion’. Eddy Butler did not, although his employer believed that he had done so. Eddy was eventually dismissed from his employment with the Party (20% of his total) and with Nick Griffin (40% of his total) for an alleged wrongdoing while employed by me – accompanying one of my coach trips to the European Parliament, several months earlier. However, little discrepancies like that were not allowed to get in the way of the required decision!

What was the result of Eddy Butler being deprived of 60% of his income? He set up his ‘blog’ on which he criticised the Chairman and the running of the Party and those associated with him. In response, our Chairman’s associates set up a blog on which personal attacks were made against Eddy Butler. Eddy Butler responded by making equally personal attacks against our Chairman and his associates.

The decision to remove Eddy Butler from his paid employment did not only serve to provoke a hostile response from Eddy Butler; it facilitated one. For as long as Eddy was employed by our Chairman, he would have had to consider the real cost of launching any damaging attacks on him. Once he was removed from that employment, he was freed from any such inhibition. It is this fatal mistake that some would like me to replicate.

In the meanwhile, the Chairman devised some rules that required nominations for the leadership election to be submitted by (twenty-four month) members individually and would-be candidates were forbidden from using membership lists to persuade members to nominate. In two regions (the North West and the South East) members seeking nominations for Eddy Butler were suspended from membership without the reason for their suspensions being given. Their suspensions had not been lifted and no disciplinary action had followed several months later. I do not know whether or not they have been lifted since.

In September, an edict was issued against factional ‘blogs’. I tried to persuade Eddy Butler to take his down. He refused. He was then told that he had been expelled. When he demanded a tribunal, he was told that he was only a probationary member and could be expelled without a tribunal. The suggestion that a member of more than a decade might be a probationary member is self-evidently absurd.

There is a very real danger that elements of the media will argue that the way in which we treat each other might provide an insight into how a BNP Government would treat its opponents and the population at large.

We are now in a situation in which significant numbers of our May 2010 activists are alienated from the present leadership and in some cases from the Party. There seems to be a campaign to remove any people suspected of such alienation from positions of authority within the Party. They are being replaced by people whose personal devotion to our Chairman is unquestioned (and unquestioning). This one quality is put before everything else including: ability; suitability; and even geographical location.

Where Do We Go From Here?
It would be tempting to reply (like the apocryphal Irishman in the joke) that, “I would not have started from here!” However, we must start from here. It would be equally tempting to reach out for something that we would like in an ideal world, regardless of its attainability.

I said, at the time of the leadership nominations, that we had fourteen thousand members and between a thousand and two thousand activists in May 2010. This enabled us to contest a credible general election campaign, as a serious minor party. It would have been impossible to do so with many fewer members and activists. It is imperative that we win back the bulk of the alienated and the disaffected, if we are to survive as a serious minor party.

Many of the disaffected are unwilling to return to activity (or even renewed membership) with our present Chairman in his position. However, our present Chairman has shown no sign of resigning voluntarily and, if he did so, there would be no obvious successor. The one possible solution would be a compromise of power-sharing. This is not complete ‘pie-in-the-sky’. The 2010 Annual Conference committed the Party to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting to consider a proposal submitted by Arthur Kemp and supported by our Chairman for a constitutional change that would involve the Chairman sharing power with an indirectly elected body comprising, (mainly) regional organisers elected by branch organisers. This is not an option that the leadership might consider; it is a firm obligation created by the Annual Conference. It is also the only possibility that we might regain some degree of party unity.

In the meanwhile, I am resolved not to allow myself to be used, by either side, in a civil war of which I disapprove. I employ staff with a variety of opinions on the current party civil war. If I start dismissing factionalists on one side of the dispute, I shall end by dismissing factionalists on both sides. Where would we be then?

The Numbers Game.

The talkboards and chatrooms have been busy over the last couple of days with talk of numbers., Specifically, the numbers of those attending meetings held by the rival camps in the BNP.

“70!” Shout Eddy Butler's camp of Monday's meeting in Yorkshire. “40! No – 35!” Yell the Griffin camp - “And we get more than that!”

It's like watching tramps fighting in a puddle over pennies.

The Griffin camp are increasingly cagey these days about claimed numbers for their meetings. Tired of being laughed out of the (chat) room with claims of “a packed hall last night listened with rapt attention to the words of wisdom of our Dear Leader. A collection raised in excess of a quarter of a million pounds.”, they often prefer now to leave the figures out of it and deal in euphemisms: “a lively audience” or “one of the most successful meetings for a long time”.

To hear them brandish their figures you'd think we were talking about Glastonbury-sized events at the very least. But 70 people? From the whole of Yorkshire? 80 to 100 people (at a meeting graced with the presence of their Leader) in London? In Derby, a friend runs a pub that hosts a monthly meeting of a long-established model railway club. He never has less than 90 turn out for it.

Of course, both camps will illustrate their meeting reports with photographs. The Griffin side's pictures now have a familiar mise en scene - a medium close-up of the Speaker with just a handful of the audience visible. A cynic might almost suggest that the framing's kept tight to disguise the acres of empty seats, the tumbleweed blowing through the room and the three people at the back who thought it was quiz night and got the day wrong.

The BFP (both Parties) haggle over whether their Membership is a few dozen or an even fewer dozen. There are “Nationalist” groups out there whose numbers of breeding pairs have fallen so low that the United Nations have them on the special protection register.

As ever, of course, these are the very people who try and present themselves as “The Saviours Of The Nation”. Given the numbers involved, and assuming they're probably not gifted with super powers (in which event 4 would probably do it), we can assume the Nation is quite okay as it is, thanks.

And in the background is the suspicion that they're all desperate to latch onto the sort of numbers the EDL are currently boasting. The BNP for one, despite their public “proscription” of the EDL and all its works early on in their life, continue to cuddle up to them on any number of “Patriot” websites and blogs and, occasionally, in public (most recently in Barnsley). BNP Members are spotted in the crowd whenever the EDL hold one of their drunken rampages (sorry-that should read “demonstrations”), and yet they still remain in Griffin's fold.

My own theory about the EDL is that they aren't so much a “political” force as an unpleasant fad. A bunch of sheep who enjoy being part of a big gang and causing a rumpus. Obviously, they're currently a lovely little earner for the iffy likes of “Tommy Robinson” and his chums (and, in a way, it's a shame they're not a “Party” because their accounts would make as interesting a read as the BNP's), but most of them are about as “political” as toddlers, and as with all trends they'll move on and one day be as hard to find as Kajagoogoo fans.

But everyone - BNP, BFP, NF, BFP, EDP – would love to capture just a fraction of their numbers. And their money, obviously.

One thing about the Anti-Fascists, be they UAF, CARF, or any number of smaller organisations (and surprisingly few Anti's – like myself - are actually paid-up members of any formal group): We're remarkably consistent in the numbers who will turn out for the Cause. Last year, 8000 people turned out on in filthy weather in Barnsley for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival. 8000 people?

The BNP could only boast a fraction of that for their last “Festival”.

“Folk Against Fascism” - formed as a reaction to Griffin's attempts to co-opt folk music as being somehow “theirs” - has grown in a couple of years to a large, lively and professional outfit. Just seeing the amount of people wearing the badge at the recent BBC Folk Awards should send a message to him that he was barking up the wrong tree. Again.

But the bottom line – the only numbers that really matter – are the amount of people who will actually vote for the Far-Right: And those are figures that speak for themselves.

Very few. And even fewer every year.

But now I'm falling into the trap of boasting about numbers; shouting about how we've got more Supporters than they have. Honestly - it's pathetic...

(But we have.)

Waiting in the wings

White van man. From flickr LoopZilla

The crisis engulfing the British National Party opens opportunities for other right-of-centre parties and might perhaps lead to the formation of a new party altogether. Beginning a series of articles on right-wing alternatives to the BNP, Searchlight takes a look at the English Democrats Party.

Robin Tilbrook senses that this might at last be his moment. After several years struggling to get his party, which he has personally bankrolled, noticed he believes that the time for the English Democrats Party (EDP) has arrived.

The EDP was formed in 2002 to call for the establishment of an English Parliament. It positions itself on the right but denies it is racist, though this claim is undermined by the involvement of many leading activists from the English Defence League. It has contested European, parliamentary and local elections but with very little success. Its one moment of glory was when Peter Davies, son of Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, was elected Mayor of Doncaster in 2009.

With some high profile supporters, such as the columnist and TV critic Garry Bushell, the EDP thought the Doncaster result would herald a new chapter for the party. This failed to materialise and it continued its poor run of election results.

In the 2010 general election the EDP fielded 107 candidates, enabling it to qualify for a party election broadcast, but only saved its deposit in Doncaster North, the seat of the Labour leader Ed Miliband. Last month the party stood in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election but despite running a vigorous and expensive campaign it received only 144 votes, one less than the Monster Raving Loony Party. By contrast the BNP received 1,560 votes.

And this is the heart of the EDP’s problem. Whatever its internal and political deficiencies the presence and profile of the BNP has restricted opportunities for the EDP. Tilbrook has long understood that his party would be able to prosper only if the BNP collapsed.

In the run-up to 2009 European election the EDP formed an alliance with the England First Party in the North West region. The EFP, led by Mark Cotterill, is a minuscule hard-right group based in East Lancashire. Its politics are quite different from the EDP, but they share a belief in an English Parliament and a hatred of the BNP.

The two parties worked together, the EFP providing organisational and logistical support for the EDP. It was unclear whether the EDP would have been able to stand without it.

The driving force behind this link-up was Steve Uncles, the EDP’s national membership secretary, and Michael Cassidy, its Yorkshire chairman. Both are on the right of the party and appeared to favour a deeper link with the far right. Tilbrook agreed with the plan but he was driven more by short-term advantage, namely trying to stop Nick Griffin being elected as an MEP, which he believed would massively boost the BNP and end EDP hopes of becoming a major political party.

The plan only narrowly failed, but although Griffin was elected the BNP has not made the expected wider breakthrough and with its current internal problems and financial crisis the EDP senses another opportunity.

Tilbrook appears to have been keen to bring disillusioned BNP members into the EDP. However when former BNP members in Merseyside, Cumbria and Yorkshire began joining the English Democrats, it caused some rumblings of discontent.

It was the courting of Richard Barnbrook that caused most anger. Last November Barnbrook, who resigned from the BNP in August, approached the English Democrats. He knew that to retain his seat on the London Assembly, where he sits as an independent, he needed the financial and organisational support of a political party. Cliff Dixon, the party’s vice chair in London, voiced his concern but was told by Tilbrook to keep an open mind and that the final decision would be taken by the London Committee, chaired by Roger Cooper.

Uncles had other ideas and was keen to push Barnbrook’s application through as fast as possible.

Separately, Tilbrook had been in discussions with Eddy Butler, the former BNP national organiser who was expelled from the party after challenging Griffin for the leadership. However the two had different agendas. Tilbrook was looking to build the EDP while Butler was not convinced that the EDP, particularly in its current form, was the right party for him. Conscious that he had to keep the racial nationalists on board, Butler was unhappy with the EDP’s moderate nationalist programme. Rather, he preferred the idea of uniting the broad nationalist movement, from the racial nationalists to the right-wing populists, around a few shared themes while a longer discussion took place about what kind of party was needed.

Some have argued that Butler was biding time for Andrew Brons to make his move. While the Yorkshire MEP has stayed loyal to the BNP he is increasingly acting independently and separately from Griffin. Butler, though no longer in the BNP, works for Brons.

Dixon became increasingly concerned about the actions of Tilbrook and Uncles. Eventually he decided to speak out after the party hired Jim Dowson to run its fundraising. Not only did the EDP’s appeal letters look remarkably similar to those Dowson wrote for the BNP during the three years he worked for the party, but Dixon believed that Butler now had the EDP’s entire membership list.

After Barnbrook was accepted into the EDP at its January national council meeting, Dixon broke ranks and went public with his outrage.

He was quickly followed by Ed Abrams, a member of the EDP’s national council, who had already resigned from the party in disgust at the courting of BNP members.

“It does not please me one little bit to see the current turmoil that the party that I still consider to be my political home is in but if it is to survive then Tilbrook and Uncles have to go,” Abrams declared.

“I therefore call upon the loyal members of the English Democrats Party to call for a EGM and propose a vote of no confidence in Tilbrook and Uncles.

“Please remember that ENGLAND comes before everything, Uncles and Tilbrook have had there [sic] day, the cause and the good name of your party comes first and only by passing a vote of no confidence in these two will you be able to wipe the slate clean and move forward.”

Also supporting this position was Alistair Barbour, the BNP’s former Carlisle organiser who switched his allegiance to the EDP in protest at the extremism of the BNP. He too resigned from the EDP after other BNP members began to join though claims still to be loyal to the party’s overall aims.

“Do yourselves a favour, stay a progressive moderate party and do not allow the likes of Butler Barnbrook etc to take you to the right,” he wrote. “Tell them to crawl back to Griffin were [sic] they belong and take Uncles with them. Don’t let another so called nationalist party destroy England’s chances of recognition and salvation.”

The EDP is in a state of flux. The crisis in the BNP, which appeared to present an opportunity to the EDP to emerge out of the political margins, now seems to be spreading to the EDP. Whether the party can emerge stronger will be determined partly by what happens to the BNP but also by its own members’ reactions to the arrival of former BNP members in their ranks.

Searchlight

BNP's Griffin Adams Corbett Adams to stand in Oldham East by-election (possibly)

There are times when I worry about Nick Griffin and his happy band of idiots. On the one hand, they claim to be able to run an entire country, while on the other they are clearly unable to organise a piss-up in a pub.

Take the coming Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, called following the eviction of former Labour MP Phil Woolas for telling porkies about one of his opponents. Seeing an opportunity to get his ghastly face before the public again (and seemingly unconcerned at the bewilderment of his Euro-constituents, to whom he is expected to have some commitment) Nick Griffin promptly announced that he was intending to stand at the invitation, he claimed, of the local BNP branch. Though not according to the people in the BNP who communicate with us, who claim that he had parachuted himself in, in the same way that he did in Barking at the General Election, where he won a derisory 4,916 votes despite a full-on campaign in the constituency.

Presumably Griffin has realised that standing and losing in every seat in the country is not likely to enhance whatever credibility he thinks he has, because just a couple of days after the party announced his candidacy, rumour suggested that he had changed his mind and that Derek Adams, a favourite of the idiotic Clive Jefferson and a stooge candidate in the most recent (and most farcical) BNP leadership election, was to stand instead, to the fury of the local group.

Just a day later, long-time activist and liaison to BNP-friendly far-right groups in Germany, Chris Beverley, wrote on his Morley Patriot blog;

'I was in Oldham this afternoon with Andrew Brons and two Leeds activists to help with an activity in the town connected with the upcoming by-election in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency...Our candidate in the election is long-term local activist Anita Corbett who has stood for election in Oldham on a number of occasions.'

Now, a mere two days after this announcement, former BNP elections officer Eddy Butler has further news for us. He writes;

'Clive Jefferson would seem to have got his way and has ran roughshod over the local branch and imposed Derek Adams as the BNP candidate in the forthcoming Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. I expect Derek Adams to be announced as the candidate at the press conference due to be held later today (Monday).

It appears that Clive believes that UKIP will out poll the BNP which is why he persuaded Nick Griffin not to stand. It is also apparent that neither Clive Jefferson nor Nick Griffin trust the local officers and activists in Oldham which is why they are imposing Derek Adams.

Clive Jefferson is busy upsetting everyone who he sees as getting in his way. There are a number of senior officers who he is busy denigrating. That is how he operates.'

Generally speaking, when it comes to having a pop at Griffin or Jefferson, Butler tends to be on target. And if true, how embarrassing for Griffin's fellow BNP Euro MEP Andrew Brons, who was out campaigning on Saturday with Chris Beverley and Anita Corbett in the latter's bid to take the seat.

Personally, I don't think Griffin has backed off from the seat because of any threat by UKIP or anyone else. Rather, it's that the BNP's disastrous financial situation has got in the way and the party can't afford to get a decent campaign up and running. This is more or less confirmed by Butler, who pointed out in a post on his blog yesterday;

'Most printers used to dealing with such orders have not been paid following the last election. Several of our most reliable printers are taking the BNP to court over unpaid invoices involving in total six figure sums...In short there will be a major problem in getting the leaflets printed in time.'

So who is actually going to stand for the BNP in this entirely unwinnable seat? A local candidate with no leaflets or a leafletless stooge parachuted in by a moron? Either way, it should be a laugh for us.

A tough year for the BNP

Griffin has faced challenges to his leadership

The British National Party's annual conference begins on Friday. Leaflets promise a spectacular event but internal rows and financial pressures have raised questions about its future.

All is not well at the BNP. Rebels have tried to unseat the leader Nick Griffin. Legal challenges have come thick and fast. Money has become tight.

Only last year the party had high hopes. It boasted two newly elected MEPs and leading politicians were publicly anxious it might break through at the general election. But come election day the BNP won no seats, despite increasing its national share of the vote, and saw many of its councillors ousted in local polls.

Simon Bennett, who used to run the BNP website, said the party was in disarray. He is one of a number of expelled former members who want Nick Griffin to go.

"When I first got involved with the party I just automatically assumed I was dealing with professionals, people who knew what they were doing," said Mr Bennett. "It took a year for me to realise I was working with complete morons."

He left after a bizarre pre-election stunt that saw a jar of Marmite prominently displayed on a BNP video. The owners of the yeast spread took legal action in which Mr Bennett said he was named. He left. And the BNP had to pay an out-of-court settlement.

That was not the only legal drama to put pressure on the BNP's bank account. It has spent tens of thousands of pounds responding to a challenge by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission that wanted the party to change its constitution.

Nick Griffin said his party had debts of around £250,000 and "very little money" in the bank. But he believed the problem would be resolved in the coming months, and was dismissive of Mr Bennett's criticisms. He said: "It's the oldest problem in the book that any employer or organisation who gets rid of someone for a very, very good and unavoidable reason then has to put up with them coming back and biting their backs to try and get revenge."

Others - with less confidence - have been plotting a rebellion. The former party candidate and former National Front member - Eddy Butler - tried and failed to depose the BNP leader earlier this year. He did not manage to secure the 800 signatures from party members necessary under the BNP constitution to spark a vote. But he maintains a website featuring videos of estranged party members. According to him the BNP's internal culture was cynical, grasping and jealous. He is appealing, having been expelled from the party.

Nick Griffin's personal fortunes will be tested again when he stands as a candidate at the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. He plans to step aside as party leader in 2013. His critics among those on the far right fear for the BNP's future. But those who study the far right say even if it falters, its activists may go on.

Dr Matthew Goodwin from Nottingham University suggested some of its supporters could simply migrate to organisations with similar sympathies. He said: "If the BNP does descend into infighting and doesn't make an election breakthrough we may begin to see BNP activists in far greater number move over to the English Defence League after coming to the conclusion that there will be no breakthrough."

BBC

Decline and fall but not the far right’s end

Few will lament the BNP’s travails, says Sonia Gable. But something worse may supersede it

The British National Party came out of the European Parliamentary election in June 2009 with two MEPs, albeit by the slenderest of margins. These gains – which could have been greater, had it not been for a strong anti-fascist campaign – boosted the party’s respectability and finances, and enabled several BNP activists to move onto the European parliamentary staff payroll. They also led to an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time in October last year for BNP leader Nick Griffin and opened the possibility that the party would take control of its first council in May 2010.

Eighteen months on, the BNP is disintegrating. Party officers have been expelled and it cannot pay its bills. It has lost half its district councillors and its London Assembly member, who now sits as an independent. It is contesting few council by-elections and where it fights, it gets few votes. Members are leaving and it faces crippling legal costs if the High Court rules against the party in the action brought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over racial discrimination in its constitution.
The BNP’s collapse is not really surprising and is the result of several factors coming together. A dysfunctional party of bigots and extremists who prefer bickering among themselves to campaigning, led by a man who cannot bear genuine democracy, reason and compromise, and whose only real skill is in political intrigue and playing off one faction against another, could only go so far. Few people with any professional ability or management skills are attracted to the party and any who have been given party positions – which are in the sole gift of Griffin – have been removed as soon as they inevitably clashed with him. Others are promoted far beyond their ability on the back of their unquestioning support for their leader.

Many members were disillusioned after the BNP’s abysmal failure in the general and council elections in May. Right up until polling day, Griffin had held out the hope of taking control of Barking and Dagenham council and winning parliamentary seats. “We stand on the brink of a massive breakthrough”, he emailed supporters on May 3.

The heightened interest in the contest between the three main parties was only partly to blame for the wipe-out of the BNP. A massive campaign by Hope Not Hate dealt a heavy blow, especially in Barking and Dagenham, where the party’s 12 councillors all lost their seats. And Griffin’s mind was not fully on the campaign, as he was preoccupied with laboriously rewriting the party constitution in an attempt to get away with minimum compliance with race relations legislation, while taking the opportunity to insert provisions to consolidate his absolute power in the party and make it near impossible to challenge his leadership. Only a fascist party would give such power to one individual.

Five weeks before the election came the shock revelation that the BNP’s head of publicity had been arrested for threatening to kill Griffin. Mark Collett, who was in charge of producing the BNP’s election literature, was also accused of “financial irregularities and scamming” and of trying to sabotage the party’s campaign. He was suspended from membership and Eddy Butler, the BNP’s national elections officer, accused of conspiring with him, was relieved of his post.

Collett, who notoriously featured in the television documentary Young, Nazi and Proud, in which he said he was inspired by images of German Nazis “sieg heiling” in the streets, was unpopular within the BNP. In accusing him of financial irregularities, Griffin was undoubtedly trying to deflect attention from his own long record of financial mismanagement that would eventually result in the party’s near bankruptcy.

Searchlight has long been on the trail of the BNP’s dodgy finances. For the past few years, BNP national treasurers have lasted only a few months in the job. In 2004, a new treasurer shredded the financial records held by his predecessor. Accounts are delivered late to the Electoral Commission. The 2009 accounts are nearly five months overdue and the 2008 accounts remain under investigation because the auditors were unable to report that they represented a “true and fair view” – a devastating verdict for any organisation.

A major issue in the rebellion within the BNP at the end of 2007 was the incompetence of the treasurer and deputy treasurer. Griffin sided with the treasurers and expelled the rebels. He also brought in James Dowson to kick life into the party’s fundraising ability. Dowson, a man with criminal convictions, who had achieved some success for a militant anti-abortion campaign, made some headway for the BNP. Although many members complained about the constant begging letters, they brought in money.

But Dowson brought with him the seeds of the BNP’s destruction. Searchlight relentlessly exposed every lie, such as the claim that the BNP had bought its own advertising lorry, the misnamed “truth truck”, which remained all the time in Dowson’s ownership. Searchlight also tracked Dowson’s takeover of the bulk of the BNP’s assets and operations, including the leases for party offices and the Belfast call centre, opened before the European elections.

Searchlight’s accusation that Dowson owned the BNP reached the ears of many BNP activists, who were already unhappy at how Dowson, who claimed not even to be a BNP member, had, in effect, become Griffin’s consigliere. Worse, he was being paid £160,000 a year for this. And faster than Dowson brought in the money, Griffin spent it – on long, drawn-out and inept legal battles, unfairly dismissing employees and deliberately provoking Unilever by using a Marmite image in a party election broadcast.

All that might have been forgiven had Griffin brought home the election goods in May. As it was, it sparked an attempt to challenge his leadership. Butler, the sacked elections officer, had no disagreements with Griffin on policy, but condemned his financial and administrative incompetence, his reckless legal actions and Dowson’s excessive power. Griffin pulled out all the stops to prevent Butler getting the almost impossibly high number of signatures needed to require a leadership election, imposing rigid procedural rules and suspending several of Butler’s supporters from party membership.

Inevitably Butler failed and was expelled. He now sits on the sidelines, promoting a new party constitution and exposing Griffin’s continued shortcomings in the belief that he can still rescue the BNP. Some of those who supported Butler’s challenge have formed a new party, the British Freedom Party, largely based in the south-west of England. Ironically, it replaced its first treasurer less than a month after his appointment. With similar policies to the BNP and no charismatic personalities, it is likely to follow the Democratic Nationalists, formed by the rebels of December 2007, into near oblivion.

The BNP continues to lose members rapidly. It has debts that even when Dowson’s fundraising was at its peak, it would have struggled to pay. These debts could cost Griffin his treasured seat in the European Parliament if he is held personally responsible for them and made bankrupt. Dowson appears to have walked out, while Griffin’s dwindling band of henchmen, who now include Patrick Harrington, an old comrade from Griffin’s days as a National Front “political soldier”, are constantly bickering with one another and jockeying for petty positions.

The BNP may limp on, as does the NF, which still insults Britain’s war dead on an annual basis by marching to the Cenotaph on the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday. Few of the BNP’s ex-supporters have joined other far-right parties. The risk is that, disillusioned with electoral politics and with a simplistic outlook on the world, they will be attracted to the English Defence League’s brand of Islamophobia and street violence, fuelled by outrageous and irresponsible daily attacks on Muslims in the right-wing gutter press.

Sonia Gable is deputy editor of Searchlight

Tribune

New BNP appointments will not stop party sinking

Disillusioned British National Party activists are ignoring most council by-elections and achieving little in the few places they do stand. In October the party fought just two by-elections, obtaining 6.2% and 2.9%.

The party did relatively better with 9.3% in a Walsall by-election on 11 November, but the following week Peter Tierney, who recently completed a sentence of 100 hours of unpaid work for a violent assault, managed only 4.7% for the BNP in Croxteth ward, Liverpool.

With little else to do, BNP activists continue to set up stalls in town centres to gather signatures for its supposed “Bring our boys home” petition, in reality the party’s autumn recruitment drive, as its leader Nick Griffin openly admitted. So far there has been no sign of the campaign moving on to its next stage, which was to include a “whirlwind tour” of the UK by the party’s misnamed “Truth Truck” advertising lorry and a mail shot to “opinion formers” with a special “Bring Our Boys Home” brochure. One can only assume that Griffin’s appeal early in October for £22,000 to fund these activities was either a sham or a failure.

Instead, the BNP leadership is busily shuffling the deck chairs before the party ship sinks and filling posts vacated by the large number of officers who have left or been pushed out. Last month Griffin, an MEP for North West England who made himself London regional organiser in August on the basis that “I pass by while on the way to Europe anyway”, appointed Steve Squire as deputy organiser in the capital.

However, Griffin accident-ally revealed his true plans on Twitter: “He’s now deputy RO but I hope to confirm him as full one in January. In meantime, treat him as being in charge”. Bob Bailey, well known drunk and failed BNP councillor, is the party’s new London elections officer.

Unimpressive

Squire comes with an unimpressive track record. In the council elections in May he stood in Enfield Lock and came tenth out of ten candidates with 6.3%.

In the BNP’s Eastern Region Pat Richardson, the party’s last representative on Epping Forest district council, was appointed membership secretary at her first regional council meeting, which she attended with Rod “Mr Angry” Law, a Loughton town councillor.

Also in a new role is Kieren Trent as Eastern regional press officer. Trent was one of a group of BNP activists who helped Bailey attack three young Asians in Barking and Dagenham just before polling day last May. BBC video footage showed a clearly visible Trent landing blows and kicks to someone on the ground. No charges were brought.

In North Wales a new organiser and fundholder (treasurer) relaunched the party’s Wrexham branch just six months before the Welsh Assembly elections next May. In 2007 the BNP came within 2,580 votes of winning a seat in North Wales in the regional list part of the election, which is fought under proportional representation. Lack of funds and a haemorrhaging membership will make it hard for the party to improve on that result.

Meanwhile Griffin has launched yet another appeal for donations to continue his legal battle with the Equality and Human Rights Commission over whether the party had complied with a court order in March to remove racially discriminatory clauses from the party’s constitution. Griffin absented himself from a High Court hearing on 8 and 9 November after being admitted to hospital with suspected kidney stones, though recovered rapidly to join a large BNP group on a two-night trip to Belgium for Armistice Day.

“Simply lying”

His current barrister, David Reade QC, argued that there was no case for the party to answer as the court order was ambiguous. Robin Allen QC, appearing for the EHRC, accused Griffin of “simply lying” when he said he did not know the terms of the order. He described Griffin as a “persistent offender” who had repeatedly failed to comply with various orders to change the constitution.

Judgement was reserved and there will now be a further two-day hearing in December. If the BNP loses, it is likely to face crippling legal costs, adding to its debts, which are believed to be at least £600,000 so far.

It would appear, however, that Griffin has given up the fight in his failing legal action against four former BNP employees who rebelled against the party leadership in December 2007. His withdrawal from the case against Steve Blake, Kenny and Nicholla Smith and Ian Dawson is expected to leave the party with tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs. The BNP has still not paid the substantial settlement it agreed with Michaela Mackenzie in front of an Employment Tribunal in June.

One piece of better news for the beleaguered party leader is the return to the fold of Richard Edmonds. Griffin booted the veteran nazi off the BNP’s Advisory Council in summer after he revealed the huge sum – £160,000 a year – that the party was paying its unpopular management and fundraising consultant James Dowson.

Edmonds was refused entry to a BNP meeting in Dagenham, east London, in August and in September attended a “Reform Group” conference held by Eddy Butler, the unsuccessful challenger to Griffin’s leadership. But by November Edmonds was the guest speaker at a BNP meeting in Somerset where he urged: “Everyone needs to support the BNP as Britain needs it more than ever and before it’s too late”.

Griffin needs all the support he can get, even that of an old Holocaust denier, and has presumably forgiven Edmonds’s indiscretion since his own big fallout with Dowson, which has meant a rapid exit of the party’s call centre out of Belfast to Nuneaton. Griffin’s closest henchmen are constantly bickering with each other as Clive Jefferson, promoted far beyond his capabilities, struggles to carry out his myriad party roles.

Andrew Brons, Griffin’s fellow MEP, continues to employ Butler on his European Parliamentary staff, while Butler sits on the sidelines exposing and attacking Griffin’s mismanagement of the party. Brons has recently been running a “consultation” on possible changes to the BNP constitution, to which Butler has contributed at length. Brons has put forward options for “fairly modest reforms” and “more far reaching reforms”, but it is not clear whether the proposals will ever be put to the members or whether the exercise is designed only to give the appearance of democracy in the fascist party.

No impact

Although Butler maintains his belief that the BNP can be rescued from Griffin’s deathly grasp, some of his erstwhile supporters launched a new rival party at the end of October. The British Freedom Party has made no impact so far and has distinguished itself only by appointing its second national treasurer in less than a month. John Savage, about whom the BFP boasted it was “probably the first time in decades a nationalist party has a qualified accountant as its treasurer”, resigned “during the early hours” of 6 November after an intem-perate article by Lee Barnes appeared on the BFP website.

Barnes had advocated hanging Abu Hamza, whereas Savage pointed out that under British law he first had to be tried by a court and found guilty. Unlike others in the BFP who are “spellbound” by Barnes, Savage instantly recognised him for the lunatic he is.

“For some strange reason which I am unable to quite fathom,” wrote Savage, “Mr Barnes, who has never joined the British Freedom Party, seems to have a great deal of dominant influence and hold over my former colleagues in the party. However … arguing with him is like trying to push back a tornado with one’s hands. He will not give any quarter nor listen to any other viewpoint or argument other than his own …

“I regret that the British Freedom Party is not at all the party I thought I was involved with in setting up. Mr Barnes seems to have now ensconced himself so deeply into it that no other opinion is possible.”

In true fascist tradition the BFP quickly wrote Savage out of its short history. An announcement praising the appointment of its new treasurer Michelle Marshall, not an accountant but a former assistant adjutant in the Royal Air Force, made no reference to her predecessor.

Sonia Gable in Searchlight

How Griffin turned nasty to oust Barnbrook from Barking

Nick Griffin threatened to ditch the British National Party’s sole London Assembly member last year if he stood in the way of Griffin being the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Barking in the general election, it has been revealed.

Richard Barnbrook, who was also a BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, felt it was his right to stand in what the BNP thought its most winnable constituency, but many in the BNP leadership were concerned at his dismal performances in the London Assembly, his tendency to make “factual errors” that led to appearances in front of council Standards Committees, and his alcoholism that was at the root of all his other problems.

According to Eddy Butler, who failed in his attempt to oust Griffin as BNP leader this summer and has since been expelled from the BNP, it had been agreed in the party that Griffin should not be the Barking candidate as he would look like a carpet-bagger. Instead, the day after Griffin’s Question Time debacle, Griffin went on a walkabout in Thurrock and announced his commitment to standing for Parliament there.

Butler had the job of persuading Barnbrook to stand down, after Barnbrook had already put up billboards in the constituency stating “Barnbrook for Barking”. Barnbrook told Griffin he would not stand down in favour of any lesser candidate than Griffin himself, but apparently prevaricated. So Griffin composed a long press release detailing Barnbrook’s shortcomings, which he threatened to release if Barnbrook did not back down.

The blackmail had the desired effect. According to Butler: “On 14th November in front of the media and a room full of members, Nick Griffin with his faithful onion at the ready, put on one of his stock weepy performances … as he shamelessly announced that Richard Barnbrook, had voluntarily stepped aside to allow Nick Griffin to contest Barking!”

The rest is history. Griffin polled abysmally and Barnbrook, who had been promised the leadership of Barking and Dagenham council, lost his council seat, as did all the other BNP councillors. Clive Jefferson, the BNP’s moronic national elections officer (among several other party positions), persuaded Barnbrook to act as a stalking horse candidate to thwart Butler’s challenge to Griffin’s leadership. Eventually at the end of August Barnbrook showed that despite his “weaknesses” he still had some principles and resigned the BNP whip in the London Assembly until Griffin’s financial mismanagement of the BNP had been tackled. He now sits as an independent and has not updated his blog since that day.

As for the press release, it shows, in case anyone doubted it, the lengths to which Griffin will go to get what he wants, even if it damages his own party. We reproduce it in its entirety so that readers can gain an insight into both the character of Griffin and – as we have no reason to believe the details in it are untrue – the way Barnbrook has represented those who voted him into the London Assembly.

Withdrawal of BNP Whip From London Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook

It is with regret that the British National Party announces the withdrawal of the party whip from Richard Barnbrook, up until now a BNP councillor in Barking and the party s sole Member on the Greater London Assembly.

We are aware that sections of the media will use this as a stick to beat the BNP, and have worked hard to persuade Mr Barnbrook to make the changes to his lifestyle and attitudes which could have avoided this outcome. In the end, however, the party’s short term political convenience has to be put second behind the interests of our voters and the long term need to maintain our reputation for honesty and competence.

We are therefore unable any longer to allow our voters and our members to be abused and let down by a man who, after so much early promise, has let everyone down so badly.

In itself, Richard`s refusal to seek treatment for his alcohol dependency would be his personal problem and tragedy, but this illness is now having a catastrophic impact on Barnbrook the elected politician. The main, but not the only, problems that result are

* His increasingly erratic and poor attendance record at the GLA

* His repeated and personally disloyal attempts to bully and blame staff members and BNP colleagues for his own failings

* His failure to perform his constituency duties, cancelling meetings without warning or valid excuse. The final straw in this regard was his recent decision to go on an Internet blind date rather than take up a request to attend the funeral of a young victim of the London knife crime epidemic on which he was so active when first elected

* His attending meetings and disciplinary hearings, and giving interviews while drunk

* His ignoring repeated warnings and pleas from colleagues not to drink and drive. We make this a matter of public record here in the hope that the resulting possibility of greater police scrutiny will compel him to revert to travelling by public transport and thereby prevent a serious accident that is at present just a matter of time

* His breaking of his personal pledge to give 10 % of his gross salary to the party, giving instead irregular smaller amounts and repeatedly refusing to provide copies of his council pay slip so as to allow a proper assessment of the resulting shortfall

* His repeated approaches to BNP members with requests for donations and 'investments' into private business proposals and unauthorised personal political projects

* His repeated attempts to blackmail the party leadership by threatening to 'go Independent' in the GLA a move which he has actively discussed with senior officials at the GLA and to split the BNP vote in Barking by standing there in the General Election as an Independent under the slogan 'Barnbrook for Barking'

* His underhand efforts to secure BNP staff time and donors' money for his proposed Independent parliamentary campaign by claiming that this is authorised by the party leadership.

* His insistence on acting as an unofficial spokesperson on television and radio. His two most recent performances after his disciplinary hearing and also following Question Time in themselves make it clear that Richard, for all his qualities, would be wholly unsuitable to represent the Party in the highest level of government in Britain and the most demanding debating chamber in the world.

A number of meetings have been held between Mr Barnbrook and members of the BNP leadership in an effort to resolve these and other problems, but it has been impossible to reach a satisfactory outcome. As a result, Richard Barnbrook's status as a BNP councillor and London Assembly Member is revoked with immediate effect. This decision is reversible if he responds to this sacking by seeking and accepting professional help to deal with his alcohol problem, which is clearly the root of all the failings outlined. But failing that he will not be standing as a BNP candidate in any elections for the foreseeable future.

Our council group in Barking and Dagenham will be reduced by one, but will continue to be led by Cllr. Robert Bailey. The two BNP members who are at present working for Mr Barnbrook in the GLA have been informed that it is entirely their own decision as to whether to continue in post should he wish to retain them. As far as we are concerned it is now no different to any civil service job and we wish them well.

We will be announcing our prospective candidate for the Barking constituency following a selection procedure in which Mr Barnbrook will not be considered. We will be going all out to unseat Margaret Hodge and to replace her with a loyal, competent British National Party MP who will serve the electors of Barking with the dedication they deserve.

Hope not hate