When BNP leader Nick Griffin told Yorkshire party activists at the now infamous Leeds meeting that he was willing to dispense with the current regional set-up and start again he was already acutely aware that most branches were already against him. However, it is now clear that these comments, coupled with the manner he abused and humiliated his fellow panel speakers Ian Dawson and Chris Beverley, has widened the chasm between him and local activists.
Now it appears that his opponents are turning the screw on his leadership. The BNP officials in Hull have resigned their positions en masse and are prepared to stand as Independent Nationalists in May’s local elections.
This announcement comes just days after Kirklees BNP voted en masse to back the BNP. In a letter reproduced on the Enough is Enough blog, local BNP councillor Colin Auty added his voice of criticism towards Griffin’s leadership. He ended his letter by saying: “Personally, I am very unhappy about these events. The leadership appears to hold the emotional blackmail of patriotism over many good people who feel like myself. A storm in a teacup Mr G, don't think so!”
It seems that his views are shared by Kirklees’ two other BNP councillors, David Exley and Roger Roberts and the former regional organiser Nick Cass, who until now has remained silent.
Only Halifax branch and Paul Cromie’s small rump in Bradford South now appear loyal to the party leadership so this could spell disaster for the BNP in the run up to May’s local elections.
BNP in crisis
Showing posts with label Enough is Enough. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enough is Enough. Show all posts
January 17, 2008
January 11, 2008
The BNP dissidents grind into action...
The dissidents who have resigned or been sacked from their positions within the BNP have finally started to discuss where they go from here. None too soon really because, as several people have commented on the dissident blog Enough is Enough, the momentum was clearly slowing despite Nick Griffin himself giving the rebels all the help he could by posting his increasingly-lunatic ramblings on the BNP's website and throwing unfounded and unlikely accusations at all and sundry.One surprise immediately shows itself on reading the report of the planning meeting the group had last weekend, and that is that they do not appear to be responsible for the new Alas Smith and Graham blog - a much more aggressive anti-Griffin site than Enough is Enough - or at least the EiE mob aren't owning up to Alas at the moment.
Griffin ought to be worried about a couple of the planned actions the group are planning to undertake, particularly this one;
'Every single individual expelled in recent weeks is determined to have their own membership reinstated through formal grievance procedures, acknowledging that this may involve costly legal action.'
Readers may recall that the founder of the BNP John Tyndall ended up taking the court route to gain his reinstatement to the membership following his expulsion by Nick Griffin. The resulting case and win cost the party thousands.
If the rebel's plans are enacted quickly enough, they could spell disaster for the BNP - in fact, they could lead to bankruptcy for the party, which has been on the edge of the financial precipice for a number of years, thanks largely to the enormous wage bill (which far exceeds the campaigning budget) and the party's habit of subsidising the business interests of the two jesters in King Nick's court, Mark Collett (£70,000 for invisible printing equipment a few years back) and Dave Hannam (£50,000 for setting up the disastrous Great White Records just a couple of years ago).
The new name for the group - intended to be an internal organisation acting within the BNP - is to be Voice of Change, though whether any positive change will come of its inception is debatable when we take a look at the most fundamental changes it hopes to make.
The first action is to get all the eight expelled members back in place as, at the very least, ordinary party members. Frankly we don't see this ever happening. Manufactured or not, the party will state that Graham, Smith, Blake et al brought the party into disrepute by starting up the EiE blog to attack fellow members, and that they have the evidence to 'prove' that the rebel leadership hacked into email accounts of other members for their own nefarious purposes. The veracity of the accusation is irrelevant - if this ever gets to open court, the media will have a field day and what little credibility the BNP has will collapse under the weight of the multiple accusations and counter-accusations.
'...the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months can only lead a rational observer to conclude that Mr. Griffin is now unfit for that position. The internal management of the Party has been revealed to be fundamentally flawed and repeated calls for change have been ignored by the leader. Thus the only possible course of action to save the Party and secure a future for our people is to launch a leadership challenge.'
Nick Griffin has manipulated the challenge process so successfully that it is now virtually impossible to challenge him for the leadership of the party and, even if one was made, the conditions are set by Griffin solely to his advantage. Last year's ludicrous attempt at a challenge by the North West's Chris Jackson showed what a farce the whole process is and how, using the party's rules, deliberately and cynically doomed to failure.
Though the rebels state clearly that, in their opinion, Nick Griffin is, after 'the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months' unfit for the position of party leader, they seem to be carefully avoiding the fact that they have been ignoring his activities since they themselves were placed in positions of trust within the party. Membership money has clearly been siphoned off for years, immorality (Martin Reynolds' threesomes, Hannam and Collett's Blackpool diversion etc) has been rife, incompetence has become something of an art within the party and mismanagement, witch hunts, unconstitutional expulsions and a leadership that has become a tyranny all appear to have only become apparent to Graham and co in the past few months. Unlikely, to say the least.
We, in common with all anti-fascists, are only too pleased to see the dissident group regaining momentum as its increasing activity is bound to stir up more trouble for Griffin and his acolytes in the party but we refuse to believe that Graham and her gang are suddenly taking the moral high ground in any way. Rather, they are exploiting a situation that they can barely control for their own ends; in effect, regaining the initiative - though whether it'll take them as far as they want is doubtful. Whether this ultimately matters as the current fractures in the party open wider is open to debate - after all, the fascist BNP is the fascist BNP whether it's run by a Graham-led cabal or Griffin and his current band of thieves, liars and perverts.
One thing is sure. Griffin will have to take decisive action very swiftly indeed. One wonders what form that action will take as his desperation to hold his personal feifdom grows. We've already seen a barrage of lies and fake evidence posted up on the BNP's website and informants leaking fake information to the police that they 'believed' there was a firearm at Graham's home, prompting a raid on the home she shares with her partner Matt Single. We can expect a good deal more of this nonsense - and perhaps a lot worse - as the battle for control of the BNP hots up.
December 23, 2007
'The fight is far from over'. Sadie Graham dismisses computer claims
Sadie Graham’s camp came out fighting this evening when they rubbished claims that the party bought her the computer and that their rebellion was running out of steam.
Writing on the Enough is Enough blog, they claim that the dates do not add up and so the computer receipt reproduced on the party website must be a forgery. To back up their argument they point to another item on the list, namely a camera bought for Warren Bennett, the one-time head of BNP security. The problem is that Bennett had left two months before the date on the receipt so it was highly unlikely for the party to buy equipment for an ex-employee.
Another plank of the BNP evidence against Sadie Graham’s account of the computer was that the user name on the machine was ‘Saddie’, the same misspelling that was used on the receipt. The Graham camp contend that it is easy to change the settings on a computer and so they claim that the evidence offered by the BNP website is meaningless.
Meanwhile, a few new supporters have come forward to back the rebels, chief amongst them is Councillor Colin Auty, from Dewsbury. With David Exley also privately supporting the opposition any future split in the party could see the BNP losing its foothold in Kirklees.
It seems that the long-awaited Griffin purge has begun. Despite giving people until Monday evening to withdraw from the rebel side a growing number of people have either been issued with expulsion notices or sacked from their positions.
This is a risky strategy by the Griffin camp. While he obviously thinks that the short term damage will easily be overcome with a streamlined party without his critics he is in danger of further alienating great swathes of the BNP. It is already clear that the majority of West Yorkshire activists will walk away from the BNP if the rebel leaders are not reinstated and the same goes for key people in the East Midlands and the less important Scotland region.
Griffin is also playing with fire if it is proved that he is lying over the computer claim. I will end with one posting on the Enough is Enough site this evening: “Griffin is digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. The more ridiculous his lies, the more members will turn against him. Keep up the good work everyone.”
If however he is telling the truth then this, and the alleged intercepting emails claim, could finish off the rebellion.
Stop the BNP
Writing on the Enough is Enough blog, they claim that the dates do not add up and so the computer receipt reproduced on the party website must be a forgery. To back up their argument they point to another item on the list, namely a camera bought for Warren Bennett, the one-time head of BNP security. The problem is that Bennett had left two months before the date on the receipt so it was highly unlikely for the party to buy equipment for an ex-employee.
Another plank of the BNP evidence against Sadie Graham’s account of the computer was that the user name on the machine was ‘Saddie’, the same misspelling that was used on the receipt. The Graham camp contend that it is easy to change the settings on a computer and so they claim that the evidence offered by the BNP website is meaningless.
Meanwhile, a few new supporters have come forward to back the rebels, chief amongst them is Councillor Colin Auty, from Dewsbury. With David Exley also privately supporting the opposition any future split in the party could see the BNP losing its foothold in Kirklees.
It seems that the long-awaited Griffin purge has begun. Despite giving people until Monday evening to withdraw from the rebel side a growing number of people have either been issued with expulsion notices or sacked from their positions.
This is a risky strategy by the Griffin camp. While he obviously thinks that the short term damage will easily be overcome with a streamlined party without his critics he is in danger of further alienating great swathes of the BNP. It is already clear that the majority of West Yorkshire activists will walk away from the BNP if the rebel leaders are not reinstated and the same goes for key people in the East Midlands and the less important Scotland region.
Griffin is also playing with fire if it is proved that he is lying over the computer claim. I will end with one posting on the Enough is Enough site this evening: “Griffin is digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. The more ridiculous his lies, the more members will turn against him. Keep up the good work everyone.”
If however he is telling the truth then this, and the alleged intercepting emails claim, could finish off the rebellion.
Stop the BNP
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December 16, 2007
The Griffin opposition speaks out...
There are two very interesting posts on fascist blogs at the moment, both of which are well worth taking a good look at. The first is on the North-West Nationalist site and was written by Adrian Davies, the second is on the dissident Enough is Enough blog.
Now is the winter of our discontent
As I write these words, it seems increasingly likely that Nick Griffin’s paranoia and unbridled lust for power (I said power, though it seems that he will also have his Gaveston!) are leading to the disintegration of his party.
If that does not happen in the next few weeks, and “the Leader” (as he likes to describe himself, capitalised as in the original German) somehow retains control of a few square miles of rubble strewn wilderness around the Welshpool bunker into 2008, it will happen in the next few months. The financial time bombs ticking away under the bunker are going to detonate soon, and that will be the end. That, however, is not my principal theme for to-day, though I must touch upon it. My good friend E. N. Ronn will be writing in depth about the saga of the BNP accounts shortly, so watch this space!
The immediate crisis has been precipitated by the latest purge of senior members who complained about the indecent influence of Mad King Nick’s (yes, I know that Gerry Gable thought of that title first, but why should the devil have all the best tunes?) current favourite, Mark “Young, Nazi and Proud” Collett, and asked awkward questions about the incompetence of the BNP treasurer John Walker and his deputy, ex-convict Dave Hannam, who are now well over five months late in filing the party’s 2006 accounts.
The real problem is not however the vain juvenile Collett, nor the criminal Hannam, nor the incompetent Walker, nor even the appalling Nick Griffin himself. In part it is the authoritarian constitution bequeathed to Griffin by John Tyndall, which allows Griffin to indulge his whims and caprices at will, and the culture of secrecy in which the members are treated like mushrooms by “the Leader” and his kitchen cabinet, who are not fit to run a whelk stall, let alone an organisation with an income of £672,246 in 2005, the last year for which it troubled to file accounts (not to mention an expenditure of £766,958!). In part however the problem is also the poverty of expectations in the movement, and the easy tolerance of sleaze and criminality by people who should know better, conniving at the arbitrary misuse of power and gross financial malpractice, while prating on about how they will save our country from a corrupt establishment. May heaven preserve England from such “saviours”!
At present, the stated position of the BNP dissidents is that they do not desire a new party, and seek reform from within. I can well understand their feelings. They have given years of their lives to build up the BNP, they have to deal with a membership that has a sentimental attachment to the name, while precedents from the National Party in 1976 to the Freedom Party in 2001 show how hard a task it is to build something new, as I know from personal experience.
The dissidents face two big problems if they persist in that course. The first is that under section 5 of the BNP’s constitution, “General Members’ Meetings may only be called by the National Chairman or by the Advisory Council in accordance with Section 5 of this Constitution”. Somehow I cannot imagine Nick Griffin or the leading light on his rump Advisory Council, his insinuating deputy, Simon Darby (an interesting if unattractive chimaera created by mingling the DNA of Grima Wormtongue, Martin Bormann and the Man who was Thursday in a government laboratory at Porton Down) agreeing to an EGM!
Secondly, the BNP is almost certainly bankrupt. I have said that the state of its accounts is not my principal theme, but I must outline the most glaring features to explain why I have come to that conclusion.
As the BNP’s auditors, Silvers, said in their report annexed to the 2005 accounts (more recent accounts are notoriously not available):
“ . . . for the last two years the party has incurred a deficit . . . the Balance Sheet is now in deficit, there is an element of doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern. There are however funds available within the ‘Regional Accounting Unit’ . . . to rectify the situation.”
Indeed there were. Note 5 to the Regional Accounting Unit’s accounts for2006 (which, unlike the Central Accounting Unit’s, have been filed with the Electoral Commission), prepared by Dave Hannam (who is on the out for the time being) reads:
“At the end of the year, the party owed the regional accounting unit £21,854, and this was repaid by 26th January 2007.”
Put into plain English, head office dipped into branch funds to the tune of £21,854 to pay 2005's bills, then repaid that amount out of 2006's income. A problem with this tactic is that in the next year, you run out of money even sooner. Such practices are redolent of trading while insolvent. I wonder how much has been borrowed from branch funds to meet this year’s deficit? Is that why the 2006 accounts have not been filed?
When, shortly before his resignation from the BNP’s Advisory Council earlier this year, Jonathan Bowden asked Nick Griffin what economies he proposed to make to reduce the carried forward deficit, the answer came back “none”. The deficit would be funded by growth.
The BNP grew rapidly in the early years of this decade. >From a total of some 1,200 when Nick Griffin was elected chairman in 1999, membership rose to 6,008 or 6,502
(it is not clear which: both figures appear at different pages of the 2005 accounts!) in 2005. In passing, while Nick Griffin likes to claim the credit for such growth, it is largely the result of external factors, namely the leftward drift of the Tory party, the failure of UKIP to rebrand itself as a broadly based party of the populist right, and the reaction to massive immigration.
Since audited accounts are not available for any date after 31st December 2005, it is impossible to say what the current membership might be, but after disappointing results in the May 2007 local elections, it seems unlikely that growth will plug the gap.
Put bluntly, the BNP has operated much like a Ponzi scheme for many years, but now the new money is not coming in to pay the accumulated debts. Soon the music will have to stop.
Interesting though I as a lawyer might find the question how far incoming members of the committee of management of an unincorporated association are liable for debts contracted by their predecessors, I somehow doubt that there will be a rush of volunteers to defend a test case brought by disgruntled creditors! Yet that would be the likely position of anyone taking over the leadership of the BNP from Nick Griffin.
It appears therefore to follow that at some point in the not too distant future (though possibly not for so long as Griffin and Walker can avoid filing accounts for 2006) the stark reality of insolvency will compel even the reluctant to consider a fresh start (and even leave them with no practical alternative).
Significant advantages can be obtained from such a scenario, which now seems much more likely than a week ago. Not only will Nick be left to pay the debts that he contracted, as is only fair and right, but also the problematic baggage that the BNP carries can be jettisoned. Never again will sensible patriots have to answer awkward questions about the role in their party of Lecomber or Collett.
Certain measures will have to be taken. The first will be to form a broadly based committee to run a new party till elections to its governing body take place. It would seem sensible to allow six to nine months before holding elections, to build up the membership, and allow a meaningful vote for a representative committee.
The second will be to agree a platform for the party that is neither so bland as to fail to put clear red, white and blue water between us and, say, UKIP or the Cornerstone group of Tory M.P.s, while not being so radical as to lead us into the political wilderness so beloved of purists, fantasists and fanatics of the left and right.
A draft constitution would have to be put to the members at the first general members’ meeting. Such a constitution should provide for the holding once a year of a general
meeting of the members, who alone should have the power to amend the constitution and the statement of aims, and to appoint the members of internal disciplinary tribunals, so that the chairman or governing body cannot pack them. The constitution should also require the officers to lay accounts, prepared by the treasurer, and passed by a registered external auditor before the members in general meeting for approval.
Rid of the albatross legacy of “Young, Nazi and Proud”, “the Secret Agent” etc. ad infinitum et ad nauseam, and committed to a sensible tactical doctrine of building up from the grassroots by engagement in local elections, not fantasies about getting onto the Brussels gravy train, such a party will quickly occupy the large electoral space created by the leftward drift of PC Dave’s Tories, and the abject failure of UKIP to capitalise on the long lost opportunities of 2004.
Now is the time for all true patriots to take a principled yet practical stand. Adherence to the embattled Welshpool clique is not only immoral, it is now also impolitic. Continued support for Griffin amidst accounting scandals and raids by illegal goon squads on the homes of democratically elected councillors equates to moral leprosy, and political suicide.
Over the coming weeks and months, we shall see who does the right thing, who does the wrong thing, and who sits on the fence to see which side will prevail. What will you do?
Wretched and rebellious
Nick Griffin’s latest posting on the website does nothing to enhance his reputation for telling the truth. While the GLA elections are indeed a massive opportunity for the BNP, his attempts to describe the circumstances surrounding the last seven days smack of utter desperation.
To suggest that ‘far-left’ embedded assets have emerged to cause this crisis, when all people have tried to do is awaken you to real and dangerous problems within, is playing a very dangerous political game. It seems that the bigger the crisis, the bigger the smear that has to be told to get yourself out of it. Nonetheless, there is no better response to this than to tell the truth.
In conjunction with the above, some serious questions need to be asked:
The suggestion that ‘the little clique’ wanted to remove power from the leader, the members who elect the leader and the voting members is nothing more than a lie designed to get those said people on board by deceptively suggesting that all of you as Chairman, the Voting Members, and the members in general are all being undermined together. Chris Beverley was voted to be the Councillors Representative at the latest annual Conference, by existing Councillors. This would have given him a place on the AC, which comes with that position. At the latest North West Regional Council meeting (not the stage managed hatchet job last week) Chris Jackson was given overwhelming backing by the North West Officials (no-one voted against him) to be the North West Regional Organiser. However you have not honoured this and you have instead installed yourself as the North West RO. Both Chris Beverley and Chris Jackson can’t exactly be described as Mark Collett fans, yet they are both excellent Organisers and dedicated Nationalists. To suggest that these two people, democratically elected by their peers meant filling the AC with people to undermine you is ludicrous. How then do you explain the fact that Ian Dawson turned down the role of Yorkshire Organiser (and thus a place on the AC) when according to your theory, Ian, as another Collett non-fan, would surely have jumped at the chance to be back on the AC?
Greed? Insecurity? Juvenile arrogance? A secret extremist agenda? Knowing that their own failings are about to catch up with them? A more perfect description of Mark Collett surely does not exist.
A ‘very productive meeting in the North West’? Where three well respected and hard working long term Nationalists, who were also Regional Officials, resigned? Where you had the room to yourself to show off your undoubted skills as a politician and political debater without your scandalous and desperate claims to be properly challenged?
Glasgow – there was no unanimous vote at all, the Organiser and the Fund-Holder have resigned in protest at your handling of a situation that would never have developed had you lanced the Mark Collett boil on the numerous occasions presented to you over the years. No doubt your ‘one side of the story only’ road show will enable you to win over more people who ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’, yet the truth always comes out and you reap what you sow.
Your tale of badgering phone calls is astounding! It is you and your various lieutenants that have been making calls, spreading lies and badgering officials not to resign in protest. To do the deed and then falsely accuse others of doing it is about as low as it gets. When you’re in a hole……
Which activists were turned away from the smart and friendly pub venue (the first pub you went to after being aquitted at Leeds Crown Court) used for the openly advertised social meeting in Bradford? The thirty plus people in the meeting did not include wretched women, in fact there were no wretched women in the pub at all. Those present were men and women who pay their membership fees so that you and your ‘advisers’ can lie about them to 10,000 visitors a day on the BNP website.
Angela Clarke was in the pub at the time, though not as it happens in the ‘rebel meeting room’. The suggestion that Angela is a wretched woman shows the utter hatred you have for anyone who dares to ask the wrong questions about Mark Collett. Angela was an exceptionally brave BNP councillor who literally fought on the front line in the town of Keighley. She endured more than anyone yet you gave such little support. When you sent Mark Collett in to protect her (the sheer irony of it all) all she received was a computer filled with perverse pornography to which when questioned about it, Collett’s reply was “so f***ing what, it is for my own personal viewing”. The fall out that followed was once again handled with the same trusted method – that of smearing Angela and defending Mark Collett.
Mark Collett, while now given the title of ‘Head of Graphic Design’, was never more than this anyway. Martin Wingfield design and produces Voice of Freedom (and does a fantastic job), John Bean is the editor for Identity (and does a fantastic job) – Mark Collett only ever did the layout and pictures. Steve Blake was in charge of the website (and did a fantastic job even though he was never taken on full time and had to fit it around a non-BNP job). You wrote the information for the national leaflets; Mark Collett only did the graphic design for those leaflets. The only Publicity that Mark Collett has ever been head of is ‘Bad Publicity’. Despite the change of title, Mark will be doing exactly as before and more, now that he has been given the role as editor of the British Nationalist bulletin.
We understand the ‘road show’ was in Leicestershire yesterday afternoon – the outcome of the meeting for Sadie to remain as a normal member was far from satisfactory. She has not only lost her job and her income in the run up to Christmas while pregnant, her personal possessions have not been returned (including her personal computer) despite you accepting at the meeting that the BNP computer you thought you had taken is still in Sadie’s possession. Therefore you have been trawling through Sadie’s private computer given to her by her father, when you knew full well that this was the case. You have thus broken the law of the land by the dissemination of (whether true or amended for your own agenda) Sadie’s personal information. You are in boiling hot water and you damn well know it.
Meetings in the New Year won’t be about listening to the BNP answers; they will be about listening to your answers. Yet Nick, this is the British National Party, not the Nick Griffin Party.
You make so many predictions and cover so many angles, that whatever is to happen you can link it in with past predictions to suit your immediate requirements. Great politician, great political speaker and debater, yet that alone will not take us to the finish line.
Now is the winter of our discontent
As I write these words, it seems increasingly likely that Nick Griffin’s paranoia and unbridled lust for power (I said power, though it seems that he will also have his Gaveston!) are leading to the disintegration of his party.
If that does not happen in the next few weeks, and “the Leader” (as he likes to describe himself, capitalised as in the original German) somehow retains control of a few square miles of rubble strewn wilderness around the Welshpool bunker into 2008, it will happen in the next few months. The financial time bombs ticking away under the bunker are going to detonate soon, and that will be the end. That, however, is not my principal theme for to-day, though I must touch upon it. My good friend E. N. Ronn will be writing in depth about the saga of the BNP accounts shortly, so watch this space!
The immediate crisis has been precipitated by the latest purge of senior members who complained about the indecent influence of Mad King Nick’s (yes, I know that Gerry Gable thought of that title first, but why should the devil have all the best tunes?) current favourite, Mark “Young, Nazi and Proud” Collett, and asked awkward questions about the incompetence of the BNP treasurer John Walker and his deputy, ex-convict Dave Hannam, who are now well over five months late in filing the party’s 2006 accounts.
The real problem is not however the vain juvenile Collett, nor the criminal Hannam, nor the incompetent Walker, nor even the appalling Nick Griffin himself. In part it is the authoritarian constitution bequeathed to Griffin by John Tyndall, which allows Griffin to indulge his whims and caprices at will, and the culture of secrecy in which the members are treated like mushrooms by “the Leader” and his kitchen cabinet, who are not fit to run a whelk stall, let alone an organisation with an income of £672,246 in 2005, the last year for which it troubled to file accounts (not to mention an expenditure of £766,958!). In part however the problem is also the poverty of expectations in the movement, and the easy tolerance of sleaze and criminality by people who should know better, conniving at the arbitrary misuse of power and gross financial malpractice, while prating on about how they will save our country from a corrupt establishment. May heaven preserve England from such “saviours”!
At present, the stated position of the BNP dissidents is that they do not desire a new party, and seek reform from within. I can well understand their feelings. They have given years of their lives to build up the BNP, they have to deal with a membership that has a sentimental attachment to the name, while precedents from the National Party in 1976 to the Freedom Party in 2001 show how hard a task it is to build something new, as I know from personal experience.
The dissidents face two big problems if they persist in that course. The first is that under section 5 of the BNP’s constitution, “General Members’ Meetings may only be called by the National Chairman or by the Advisory Council in accordance with Section 5 of this Constitution”. Somehow I cannot imagine Nick Griffin or the leading light on his rump Advisory Council, his insinuating deputy, Simon Darby (an interesting if unattractive chimaera created by mingling the DNA of Grima Wormtongue, Martin Bormann and the Man who was Thursday in a government laboratory at Porton Down) agreeing to an EGM!
Secondly, the BNP is almost certainly bankrupt. I have said that the state of its accounts is not my principal theme, but I must outline the most glaring features to explain why I have come to that conclusion.
As the BNP’s auditors, Silvers, said in their report annexed to the 2005 accounts (more recent accounts are notoriously not available):
“ . . . for the last two years the party has incurred a deficit . . . the Balance Sheet is now in deficit, there is an element of doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern. There are however funds available within the ‘Regional Accounting Unit’ . . . to rectify the situation.”
Indeed there were. Note 5 to the Regional Accounting Unit’s accounts for2006 (which, unlike the Central Accounting Unit’s, have been filed with the Electoral Commission), prepared by Dave Hannam (who is on the out for the time being) reads:
“At the end of the year, the party owed the regional accounting unit £21,854, and this was repaid by 26th January 2007.”
Put into plain English, head office dipped into branch funds to the tune of £21,854 to pay 2005's bills, then repaid that amount out of 2006's income. A problem with this tactic is that in the next year, you run out of money even sooner. Such practices are redolent of trading while insolvent. I wonder how much has been borrowed from branch funds to meet this year’s deficit? Is that why the 2006 accounts have not been filed?
When, shortly before his resignation from the BNP’s Advisory Council earlier this year, Jonathan Bowden asked Nick Griffin what economies he proposed to make to reduce the carried forward deficit, the answer came back “none”. The deficit would be funded by growth.
The BNP grew rapidly in the early years of this decade. >From a total of some 1,200 when Nick Griffin was elected chairman in 1999, membership rose to 6,008 or 6,502
(it is not clear which: both figures appear at different pages of the 2005 accounts!) in 2005. In passing, while Nick Griffin likes to claim the credit for such growth, it is largely the result of external factors, namely the leftward drift of the Tory party, the failure of UKIP to rebrand itself as a broadly based party of the populist right, and the reaction to massive immigration.
Since audited accounts are not available for any date after 31st December 2005, it is impossible to say what the current membership might be, but after disappointing results in the May 2007 local elections, it seems unlikely that growth will plug the gap.
Put bluntly, the BNP has operated much like a Ponzi scheme for many years, but now the new money is not coming in to pay the accumulated debts. Soon the music will have to stop.
Interesting though I as a lawyer might find the question how far incoming members of the committee of management of an unincorporated association are liable for debts contracted by their predecessors, I somehow doubt that there will be a rush of volunteers to defend a test case brought by disgruntled creditors! Yet that would be the likely position of anyone taking over the leadership of the BNP from Nick Griffin.
It appears therefore to follow that at some point in the not too distant future (though possibly not for so long as Griffin and Walker can avoid filing accounts for 2006) the stark reality of insolvency will compel even the reluctant to consider a fresh start (and even leave them with no practical alternative).
Significant advantages can be obtained from such a scenario, which now seems much more likely than a week ago. Not only will Nick be left to pay the debts that he contracted, as is only fair and right, but also the problematic baggage that the BNP carries can be jettisoned. Never again will sensible patriots have to answer awkward questions about the role in their party of Lecomber or Collett.
Certain measures will have to be taken. The first will be to form a broadly based committee to run a new party till elections to its governing body take place. It would seem sensible to allow six to nine months before holding elections, to build up the membership, and allow a meaningful vote for a representative committee.
The second will be to agree a platform for the party that is neither so bland as to fail to put clear red, white and blue water between us and, say, UKIP or the Cornerstone group of Tory M.P.s, while not being so radical as to lead us into the political wilderness so beloved of purists, fantasists and fanatics of the left and right.
A draft constitution would have to be put to the members at the first general members’ meeting. Such a constitution should provide for the holding once a year of a general
meeting of the members, who alone should have the power to amend the constitution and the statement of aims, and to appoint the members of internal disciplinary tribunals, so that the chairman or governing body cannot pack them. The constitution should also require the officers to lay accounts, prepared by the treasurer, and passed by a registered external auditor before the members in general meeting for approval.
Rid of the albatross legacy of “Young, Nazi and Proud”, “the Secret Agent” etc. ad infinitum et ad nauseam, and committed to a sensible tactical doctrine of building up from the grassroots by engagement in local elections, not fantasies about getting onto the Brussels gravy train, such a party will quickly occupy the large electoral space created by the leftward drift of PC Dave’s Tories, and the abject failure of UKIP to capitalise on the long lost opportunities of 2004.
Now is the time for all true patriots to take a principled yet practical stand. Adherence to the embattled Welshpool clique is not only immoral, it is now also impolitic. Continued support for Griffin amidst accounting scandals and raids by illegal goon squads on the homes of democratically elected councillors equates to moral leprosy, and political suicide.
Over the coming weeks and months, we shall see who does the right thing, who does the wrong thing, and who sits on the fence to see which side will prevail. What will you do?
Wretched and rebellious
Nick Griffin’s latest posting on the website does nothing to enhance his reputation for telling the truth. While the GLA elections are indeed a massive opportunity for the BNP, his attempts to describe the circumstances surrounding the last seven days smack of utter desperation.
To suggest that ‘far-left’ embedded assets have emerged to cause this crisis, when all people have tried to do is awaken you to real and dangerous problems within, is playing a very dangerous political game. It seems that the bigger the crisis, the bigger the smear that has to be told to get yourself out of it. Nonetheless, there is no better response to this than to tell the truth.
In conjunction with the above, some serious questions need to be asked:
- Why has Mark Collett been able to cause trouble wherever he has gone, while you have taken his side on every instance which has led to the sacking or smearing of hard working and well respected Nationalists?
- Why has Dave Hannam been allowed to keep his job for such a long time despite clearly not being up to it, and despite serious reservations from many Party officials?
- Why was the expulsion and treatment of Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith broadcast on the website for 10,000 visitors a day to read that the BNP illegally records people’s conversations and enters their homes by deception while stealing personal property?
- Why are extracts from that personal property then added to that website, in full view of the public at large?
- Why are you now going round the country accusing others of being state assets, when you know full well that those you are accusing have literally given years of honest hard graft to the Cause?
The suggestion that ‘the little clique’ wanted to remove power from the leader, the members who elect the leader and the voting members is nothing more than a lie designed to get those said people on board by deceptively suggesting that all of you as Chairman, the Voting Members, and the members in general are all being undermined together. Chris Beverley was voted to be the Councillors Representative at the latest annual Conference, by existing Councillors. This would have given him a place on the AC, which comes with that position. At the latest North West Regional Council meeting (not the stage managed hatchet job last week) Chris Jackson was given overwhelming backing by the North West Officials (no-one voted against him) to be the North West Regional Organiser. However you have not honoured this and you have instead installed yourself as the North West RO. Both Chris Beverley and Chris Jackson can’t exactly be described as Mark Collett fans, yet they are both excellent Organisers and dedicated Nationalists. To suggest that these two people, democratically elected by their peers meant filling the AC with people to undermine you is ludicrous. How then do you explain the fact that Ian Dawson turned down the role of Yorkshire Organiser (and thus a place on the AC) when according to your theory, Ian, as another Collett non-fan, would surely have jumped at the chance to be back on the AC?
Greed? Insecurity? Juvenile arrogance? A secret extremist agenda? Knowing that their own failings are about to catch up with them? A more perfect description of Mark Collett surely does not exist.
A ‘very productive meeting in the North West’? Where three well respected and hard working long term Nationalists, who were also Regional Officials, resigned? Where you had the room to yourself to show off your undoubted skills as a politician and political debater without your scandalous and desperate claims to be properly challenged?
Glasgow – there was no unanimous vote at all, the Organiser and the Fund-Holder have resigned in protest at your handling of a situation that would never have developed had you lanced the Mark Collett boil on the numerous occasions presented to you over the years. No doubt your ‘one side of the story only’ road show will enable you to win over more people who ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’, yet the truth always comes out and you reap what you sow.
Your tale of badgering phone calls is astounding! It is you and your various lieutenants that have been making calls, spreading lies and badgering officials not to resign in protest. To do the deed and then falsely accuse others of doing it is about as low as it gets. When you’re in a hole……
Which activists were turned away from the smart and friendly pub venue (the first pub you went to after being aquitted at Leeds Crown Court) used for the openly advertised social meeting in Bradford? The thirty plus people in the meeting did not include wretched women, in fact there were no wretched women in the pub at all. Those present were men and women who pay their membership fees so that you and your ‘advisers’ can lie about them to 10,000 visitors a day on the BNP website.
Angela Clarke was in the pub at the time, though not as it happens in the ‘rebel meeting room’. The suggestion that Angela is a wretched woman shows the utter hatred you have for anyone who dares to ask the wrong questions about Mark Collett. Angela was an exceptionally brave BNP councillor who literally fought on the front line in the town of Keighley. She endured more than anyone yet you gave such little support. When you sent Mark Collett in to protect her (the sheer irony of it all) all she received was a computer filled with perverse pornography to which when questioned about it, Collett’s reply was “so f***ing what, it is for my own personal viewing”. The fall out that followed was once again handled with the same trusted method – that of smearing Angela and defending Mark Collett.
Mark Collett, while now given the title of ‘Head of Graphic Design’, was never more than this anyway. Martin Wingfield design and produces Voice of Freedom (and does a fantastic job), John Bean is the editor for Identity (and does a fantastic job) – Mark Collett only ever did the layout and pictures. Steve Blake was in charge of the website (and did a fantastic job even though he was never taken on full time and had to fit it around a non-BNP job). You wrote the information for the national leaflets; Mark Collett only did the graphic design for those leaflets. The only Publicity that Mark Collett has ever been head of is ‘Bad Publicity’. Despite the change of title, Mark will be doing exactly as before and more, now that he has been given the role as editor of the British Nationalist bulletin.
We understand the ‘road show’ was in Leicestershire yesterday afternoon – the outcome of the meeting for Sadie to remain as a normal member was far from satisfactory. She has not only lost her job and her income in the run up to Christmas while pregnant, her personal possessions have not been returned (including her personal computer) despite you accepting at the meeting that the BNP computer you thought you had taken is still in Sadie’s possession. Therefore you have been trawling through Sadie’s private computer given to her by her father, when you knew full well that this was the case. You have thus broken the law of the land by the dissemination of (whether true or amended for your own agenda) Sadie’s personal information. You are in boiling hot water and you damn well know it.
Meetings in the New Year won’t be about listening to the BNP answers; they will be about listening to your answers. Yet Nick, this is the British National Party, not the Nick Griffin Party.
You make so many predictions and cover so many angles, that whatever is to happen you can link it in with past predictions to suit your immediate requirements. Great politician, great political speaker and debater, yet that alone will not take us to the finish line.
Labels:
Adrian Davies,
BNP,
Enough is Enough,
Nick Griffin,
NWN
December 14, 2007
Reader article: Nick Griffin's dilemma
This article was submitted by one of our readers, MOT. We welcome any contributions (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste) from our supporters. Please send your articles to us at lancaster.uaf@zen.co.uk
After what has been a pretty dreadful year for the BNP and the other lunatic fringe groups on the far-right comes along a story that is going to have long and deep repercussions on the BNP and in particular Nick Griffin. He really is in a bind and there is no real way out for him. This doesn't seem like a situation where a compromise is either wanted or achievable by both sides and no matter what happens Griffin is badly damaged.
If he holds on to Collett and Hannam he loses a big chunk of his party machinery at a time where members are renewing their membership for next year and with that a large chunk of money when they are 5 months overdue with publishing their accounts. If he gives in and gets rid of Collett and Hannam he shows himself to be weak and his ego won't take that and then he has the problem of whatever this supposed big thing is that Collett has over him. Whether it's real or not I don't know but I am looking forward to finding out.
A post on Stormfront yesterday evening from Purging the Droid (widely regarded to be Griffin) said:
'I see our friends are now using the services on none other than Jon Cruddas in their crusade against our party. Despite our continued efforts to find a solution and patch things up, we get this. It is going to be very difficult now to ever work again with people who make common cause with the enemies of nationalism, there is just no excuse for this at all.'
Now I've only a passing knowledge about Sadie Graham and the others involved in setting up the Enough is Enough blog but even I know one of the last people they would have approached for help is Jon Cruddas and if Griffin is trying to use that as a validation that he has made the right choice with his actions then he must be really rattled and getting desperate.
The reason Jon Cruddas has been brought in to the fray is because Stop the BNP reported that he had been in touch with the police about the alleged criminal actions of last weekend and has raised the issue in the House of Commons. Somehow I don't think he has done this for their benefit.
Now I would have thought a story that involves gaining access by deception and taking person belongings, deliberate breaking of the Data Protection Act, former South African spooks, £17,000 apparently going missing or unaccounted for, alleged illegal bugging (I think it was a setting on Skype myself), the cover-up of alleged paedophiliac behavior by senior BNP management, 60 members of the party structure resigning their posts including several of their councillors and questions asked in Parliament would gain some media interest but up to now there has been very little and nothing with the full details that we seen in the last few days.
Why is that? is it because the BNP were all over the media a couple of weeks ago being forever linked with a holocaust denier in the full glare of the media? Is it because the story doesn't contain any reference to Simone Clarke? Or is it because Griffin is a 'state asset'? Hey he throws the allegation around enough and he has done more than his fair share of damage to far-right groups over the years.
However this thing plays out over the next few days, weeks and months a couple of things are for sure. There is a massive split in the BNP that is going to take a long time to heal and if this is how people who support him are treated (and they still want Griffin to be leader if and when Collett and Hannam go) then what have we got too look forward to if they ever get in to power?
The BNP are in decline and we have to carry on fighting them at every given chance.
MOT
After what has been a pretty dreadful year for the BNP and the other lunatic fringe groups on the far-right comes along a story that is going to have long and deep repercussions on the BNP and in particular Nick Griffin. He really is in a bind and there is no real way out for him. This doesn't seem like a situation where a compromise is either wanted or achievable by both sides and no matter what happens Griffin is badly damaged.
If he holds on to Collett and Hannam he loses a big chunk of his party machinery at a time where members are renewing their membership for next year and with that a large chunk of money when they are 5 months overdue with publishing their accounts. If he gives in and gets rid of Collett and Hannam he shows himself to be weak and his ego won't take that and then he has the problem of whatever this supposed big thing is that Collett has over him. Whether it's real or not I don't know but I am looking forward to finding out.
A post on Stormfront yesterday evening from Purging the Droid (widely regarded to be Griffin) said:
'I see our friends are now using the services on none other than Jon Cruddas in their crusade against our party. Despite our continued efforts to find a solution and patch things up, we get this. It is going to be very difficult now to ever work again with people who make common cause with the enemies of nationalism, there is just no excuse for this at all.'
Now I've only a passing knowledge about Sadie Graham and the others involved in setting up the Enough is Enough blog but even I know one of the last people they would have approached for help is Jon Cruddas and if Griffin is trying to use that as a validation that he has made the right choice with his actions then he must be really rattled and getting desperate.
The reason Jon Cruddas has been brought in to the fray is because Stop the BNP reported that he had been in touch with the police about the alleged criminal actions of last weekend and has raised the issue in the House of Commons. Somehow I don't think he has done this for their benefit.
Now I would have thought a story that involves gaining access by deception and taking person belongings, deliberate breaking of the Data Protection Act, former South African spooks, £17,000 apparently going missing or unaccounted for, alleged illegal bugging (I think it was a setting on Skype myself), the cover-up of alleged paedophiliac behavior by senior BNP management, 60 members of the party structure resigning their posts including several of their councillors and questions asked in Parliament would gain some media interest but up to now there has been very little and nothing with the full details that we seen in the last few days.
Why is that? is it because the BNP were all over the media a couple of weeks ago being forever linked with a holocaust denier in the full glare of the media? Is it because the story doesn't contain any reference to Simone Clarke? Or is it because Griffin is a 'state asset'? Hey he throws the allegation around enough and he has done more than his fair share of damage to far-right groups over the years.
However this thing plays out over the next few days, weeks and months a couple of things are for sure. There is a massive split in the BNP that is going to take a long time to heal and if this is how people who support him are treated (and they still want Griffin to be leader if and when Collett and Hannam go) then what have we got too look forward to if they ever get in to power?
The BNP are in decline and we have to carry on fighting them at every given chance.
MOT
Labels:
Dave Hannam,
Enough is Enough,
Jon Cruddas,
Mark Collett,
MOT,
split
December 10, 2007
BNP in meltdown as Graham and Smith expulsions infuriate membership
- Sadie Graham (Group Development) sacked
- Kenny Smith (Head of Admin) sacked
- Ian Dawson (Yorkshire) resigns
- Danny Lake (YBNP leader) sacked
- Nicholla Smith (Excalibur) sacked
- Councillors, fundholders and organisers quitting
Rather more importantly, news is coming in that a handful of BNP councillors have resigned or are planning to resign the whip and more are expected to follow suit.
Between the Stormfront nazi forum and a number of blogs, including the Enough is Enough blog that got Graham and Smith into so much trouble, we've been able to cobble together something that looks like the correct sequence of events. We're open to correction though, so if anyone has any further information that they would like to share, please let us know either by using the comment facility or by emailing us on lancaster.uaf@zen.co.uk
Officers of the BNP were recently issued with laptops so that they could conduct their business wherever they happened to be (alright for some, isn't it). One of the facilities the officers have been encouraged to use is Skype, which enables those with an internet connection to converse with each other over broadband for free, either one to one or via a conference call - thus avoiding the usual telephone system and any possibility of individual phones being bugged. What the BNP didn't tell its officers was that Skype comes with a 'record all calls' option, and this seems to have been switched on.
The Enough is Enough blog started on December 2nd, a mere week before the instigators were caught and fired, though one would assume the planning for the anti-Collett/Hannam blog to have dated from the pathetic exhibitions of Mark Collett and Dave Hannam at the BNP conference at Blackpool on November 17th.
The story goes that Martin Reynolds (the BNP's chief security goon) and four others gained access to Graham's home by deception (neither Graham nor her partner, Matt Single, being at home at the time), then ransacked the place searching for thumb drives and disks, finally leaving with her laptop and a number of other items. At the same time, it has been said, Clive Jefferson and two males attempted to gain entry to Smith's home but were refused entry.
There are a number of disturbing features about these raids, not the least of which is that they actually happened at all. What precisely does Nick Griffin believe he's running here - the Stasi or the NKVD? The whole thing smacks of fascism at its worst and most frightening. But just as worrying is the suspicion that Griffin had information that led directly to these two as the prime suspects. Okay, it's true that somebody may have talked and if so, that somebody may well have been Matt Single - at least as far as the far-right blogs are concerned, though rumours are starting to emerge that he's been booted too. But there is a simpler and more sinister explanation available - that the party is monitoring the communications of its officers.
It has long been suspected that those members who have foolishly taken on a bnp.org.uk email address (that is, one issued by the party) are having their emails monitored. This was borne out in Griffin's insane Identity article three months ago, in which he more or less admitted that an 'internal intelligence review' mostly amounted to illegally checking through a member's BNP email account for signs that he was an informer or 'agent'. Mad or what?
The report that appears on the BNP website mentions the 'BNP Intelligence Department' that was set up a few months back and that is headed up by Lance Stewart, a long-standing British nationalist and a former high-ranking officer in the South African Police - though he is suspected of being rather more than a simple plod in the past, as are Arthur Kemp and Lambertus Nieuwhof, also South African and also former spooks and colleagues in the Intelligence Department.
This trio of dodgy characters, with the able assistance of the BNP's security mob, appear to have carte blanche when it comes to intelligence-gathering and our suspicion is that each of the laptops provided by the party to its officers is infected with a trojan. For those who don't know, a trojan is a piece of software that feeds information back to its source after being planted on a computer - credit card details, identities and so on. Most trojans are simple key-loggers, meaning all they do is record everything that is typed on the keyboard of the infected computer and pass along the information to a third-party. If the trojan's activity had been allowed through the laptop's firewall before handing it over, chances are that the new owner of the computer would know nothing about it - particularly if, like most people, they have no idea of how vulnerable computers are.
If this is indeed the case, it would go a long way to explaining how the party was able to co-ordinate the raids and how they knew what to look for when they gained entry. No great surprise then, that the BNP was able to provide transcripts of the incriminating phone calls on the party's website.
We discount entirely, the claim that Smith may have been responsible for 'serious breaches of accountancy procedures leaving up to £17,000 unaccounted for in the 2006 Central Audit, and of a wilful neglect of the Excalibur merchandising operation constituting attempted financial sabotage in order to create an artificial ‘crisis’ to which their proposals would be presented as the solution'. This smacks to us of Griffin a) bumping up the evidence against Smith, and b) using this situation to attempt to hide the fact that the party is in financial meltdown. We're not the only ones who don't believe the claim:
'The financial accusation thrown at Smith is a usual Griffin ploy when something like this occurs. He used the same ploy against Warren Bennett (£5000) but later backtracked. He has used the same tactic in the past when involved in factionalism eg against the Solidarity guys and against Wingfield and Brons in the Flag NF days...If the £17000 accusation was true Smith should have been suspended for that, much more serious than having a dig at Collett I would have thought.'
Us too.
The repercussions of all this have been fierce and relentless. Danny Lake was sacked via text message by John Walker. When asked under whose authority Walker had sacked him, the response was apparently; 'Me. You stupid cunt. Fuck off into oblivion'. Lake's mobile is now, not surpisingly, dead.
Claims are being made that Nick Cass is considering resigning, several members have written in to various forums to state that they've had enough and are not renewing their membership, party organisers and fundholders are resigning en masse (Falkirk and Aberdeen are two examples), at least one councillor, Nina Brown, is resigning the whip and it has been suggested that Chris Beverley has either resigned or been expelled along with Steve Blake. We've just received word (15:20) that Ian Dawson has resigned too.
The chaos continues...
Labels:
Danny Lake,
Enough is Enough,
Kenny Smith,
Nick Griffin,
Nina Brown,
Sadie Graham
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