The beating of the BNP in Belfast

Marion Thomas has won her employment tribunal against the BNP. Surprisingly, after three days of public embarrassment and allegations the tribunal did not take the initially quoted six weeks to reach its decision. The tribunal concluded that Mrs Thomas was "automatically unfairly dismissed for non-compliance with the statutory dismissal procedure".

This tribunal was held earlier this month. It had two missing ingredients: the real protagonists. This case was always about Nick Griffin, the increasingly desperate and unpopular leader of the far-right BNP, and his one time financial crutch, guru and indeed ‘consigliere’, Jim Dowson. Both Griffin and his daughter Jennifer Matthys were criticised by the panel for failing to attend.

Instead, the employment tribunal at Killymead House, conveniently sandwiched between Belfast’s Republican Short Strand and Loyalist Donegal Pass, had to make do with second best. It’s a shame really, as this was the perfect geographical location for a no holds barred, all encompassing exploration of how the BNP crushed ideologies, shattered political ambitions and in no small way, descended into acrimonious tribal conflict and civil war.

Both the meteoric rise and the final devastating fall of the BNP were orchestrated here in Belfast in that fateful tie up between Griffin’s BNP and Jim Dowson. The basis of the unfair dismissal claim was as much a case of who is to blame for the failures, and who was to blame for the mountain of debt that has crippled the party. Taking on the BNP was Marion Thomas, Jim Dowson’s softly spoken sister in law. The nervous Scot was as good as on her own at the tribunal, once her nephew in law was quietly paid off before the hearing began on the first day.

Of course, Belfast can be a challenging place. It has an often intimidating geography for outsiders, even to those who purport undying love for the extreme fringes of Irish society. The tribunal panel commented on as much in its ruling but it was also quick to point out “this was, in truth, a banal and ordinary employment tribunal claim alleging unfair dismissal and non-payment of holiday pay, overtime, expenses and notice pay."

For those of us who squeezed into room ten, it was anything other than “banal”.

When having a call centre in Belfast worked for the BNP, it worked exceptionally well. Taking advantage of a low wage economy on an industrial estate in Dundonald, few people felt the desire to trawl across suburban east Belfast to poke around there. Prime and paramount for the BNP was secrecy. We did poke around however, and from almost the very moment we made it our business, we had almost two years of excellent non-stop exclusives detailing almost every squalid and shameful shenanigan going on inside the BNP’s call centre. Some of what we found out was too sensitive to print, some of it was just breathtakingly degenerate.

From the village of Comber where the BNP set themselves up in flats and homes and joined “Kick The Pope” bands and even toyed with the idea of moving the whole party machinery there, we reported how a lonely and insecure Jennifer Matthys (nee Griffin) plotted and schemed against her rivals, namely the Dowson family. We forensically investigated Jim Dowson’s financial dealings, his shady past and dubious political friends. We predicted an acrimonious parting and worked as hard as we could to facilitate one.

And so it came to pass that the very geography that the BNP courted became their undoing. They burnt their bridges in an unforgiving environment either by sheer arrogance, or just stupidity. The cost is not just £2500 for Marion Thomas but also whatever it cost for Nick Griffin to send seven BNP officials to Belfast on his behalf now his business arrangements have turned so sour.

Marion Thomas’s primary complaint was that she was unfairly dismissed and owed eight days holiday pay plus out of pocket expenses. The BNP argued that Thomas was only actually employed by the BNP for six months, excluding her from entitlement to both redundancy payments and any compensation. For good measure, the BNP admitted they would have dismissed her anyway. But just to confuse matters further they claimed that they also offered Thomas the opportunity to discuss a transfer to the “mainland” after the relationship between Griffin and Dowson broke down, which led to the inevitable closure of the Dundonald office. But Thomas had refused to travel to Britain to discuss any prospective move. She claimed she had not believed that the BNP would honour their pledge to pay reasonable expenses as she was already owed money by the party.

Neither side denied there was an absence of formal employment contracts and so, on this issue, it becomes apparent that with the disappointing absence of both Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson from the hearing, Thomas could only claim that Griffin, his daughter Jennifer Matthys and Jim Dowson all gave verbal employment assurances. The BNP’s legal representative could only claim that either Nick Griffin did not make such offers, or that Jim Dowson was not in the position to make such offers. The ins and outs of what date it was that Thomas actually began getting paid by the BNP and not by Dowson’s front company are, of course, not as interesting as what the BBC describes as the “secretive world” of the BNP.

It’s fair to say that no matter what extremism still exists in Northern Ireland, that the BNP was viewed locally as a most unwelcome addition. The case received uncomplimentary cross community coverage, including a front page on the Belfast Telegraph for two consecutive days. The revelations were sensational. “I was sacked by BNP after dispute with Griffin’s daughter”, led the Belfast Telegraph. Thomas, nicknamed the “matron” for her role in overseeing up to thirty employees at the Dundonald office during the 2009 European elections, admitted with some chagrin that she regarded herself as a junior to Jennifer Matthys once the leader’s daughter had moved to Northern Ireland. Thomas, who was never a member of the party also alleged that she was promoted to the BNP’s treasury team with a focus on ringing around creditors to try and make arrangements for the clearing of some initial £275,000 of debt. It was in this capacity that she says she felt obliged to report to Jim Dowson that Jennifer Matthys had “borrowed” some £900 from a BNP account after a mistake by her husband Angus Mathys who worked in the post room. Thomas claims that this money was set aside to pay creditors.

Thomas also repeated the claim that she made to the BBC’s Panorama programme that party treasurer Clive Jefferson demanded that invoices that were unpaid be stamped as “paid”. Jefferson who was in the tribunal room hurriedly approached the BNP’s legal advisor with a written note soon after. The Belfast Telegraph described the atmosphere in the tribunal as “charged” with the “imposing presence of several heavyweights of the BNP lining the back row”. The BNP did not appreciate having somebody from Searchlight recording the proceedings either.

For most of the three days there was a heavy focus on the bizarre and almost comical circumstances surrounding the alleged holding of Thomas against her will. As the split between Dowson and Griffin grew more and more acrimonious last year, Thomas alleged that she was asked to “mediate” between the two sides. In November of last year she met three BNP officials in the car park of Tescos in Comber twice on the same day. On both occasions large amounts of cash exchanged hands, £2500 in the first instance and then, later in the day, a further £5000. It would appear that the BNP was buying back its own membership details and computer server and while waiting for the equipment to arrive Thomas got into a van driven by former Yorkshire Regional Organiser Ian Kitchen with Clive Jefferson and Adam Walker. Thomas alleged that she was told she was not allowed to leave the van and that Jefferson in particular was “agitated”. Upon the arrival of the equipment, Thomas further alleged that Jefferson, the BNP’s treasurer, removed £200 from the £5000 as compensation for his “inconvenience”.

Of further inconvenience to the BNP would appear to be Dowson’s new political venture which Thomas described as a “Nationalist campaigning group”. Interestingly, the group was described by the BNP as a “commercial rival” and not a political rival. The intimation by the BNP appeared to be that Dowson still had access to the BNP’s membership files and was running his organisation with the BNP’s data. Thomas denied this and claimed that Dowson is in fact using the BNP membership list that was leaked on line in 2007. The BNP’s legal advisor said that the BNP has since made a series of “test calls” to the BNP’s old offices in Dundonald and alleged that Thomas was now answering the phones for their bitter “commercial rivals”. Thomas denied this. The Scottish accent she claims the BNP heard was in fact the voice of her sister Anne, Dowson’s wife.

The BNP were represented in Belfast by the mildly competent Patrick Harrington. The faux trade union leader is a former close comrade of Griffin from when they ran the NF together back in the 1980’s. Harrington struggled with some areas of the tribunal’s processes and had to be guided by the Vice president of the panel, Mr Noel Kelly. Harrington has something of a love-hate relationship with Belfast himself. He has been the constant focus for one newspaper there that has printed the allegations, rife in far-right circles, that Harrington holds Republican sympathies. While the rest of the BNP party had to be admonished for their constant whispering and disruptions on the first day, Harrington conducted his defence for the respondent (the BNP) with a modicum of professionalism even if it was slow, monotone and often judged irrelevant by Thomas’s solicitor. If anything, Harrington was revelling in some kind of role as the sadistic schoolmaster, trying to trip up the housewife who has taken to answering every question and counter accusation with “rubbish”. In the week leading up to the hearing the BNP had alleged that Thomas and Dowson were in fact lovers and not just brother and sister in law. When questioned abut her living arrangements, Thomas appeared ready to explode violently to a loaded question. Marion Thomas was being goaded.

On the second day, Harrington woke up to find his features prominent in the Belfast Telegraph. Arriving at the tribunal with his wife “Mish”, (Some of you may know her better by her stage name "Mish Bondage" or if it suits, “Frightening Fanny”!)

He became entangled in an exchange with two Irish trade unionists, one of whom was holding the flag of the International Brigades. Whether he has some kind of post traumatic disorder relating to his controversial days at the Polytechnic of North London or not, I do not know, but Harrington reacted very badly to being called a fascist and so began a lot of pushing and shoving before his wife Mish decided to physically launch herself at people wildly, apparently upset at her husband’s picture having been in the paper that morning.

Sackings and expulsions from the BNP are never straightforward and normally have a heavy hint of intimidation, humiliation or violence. Who can forget one former employee from the Belfast office who claimed that she was threatened with a shot gun, or how the leakers’ of the 2007 membership list had their house ransacked by the BNP’s security team?

In Belfast, the BNP had sent some of their “finest”. They sent men who were not immune to violence and who were in fact, quite adept at it. They also sent Angus Matthys, Nick Griffin’s son in law. How did Angus get to marry the prized daughter of the Fuhrer. Were other suitors too politically ambitious? Angus carried all of the boxes into the tribunal - and out again. When he worked at the offices of the BNP in Northern Ireland his main task appeared to be donning rubber gloves and poking through thousands of letters that contained, among other things, excrement and razor blades in the search for cash. He swept up, made tea and also went to the post office and the supermarket for teabags. He was not known as the “dynamo”. One source we had in the office at the time told us that Angus was called “Trigger”, but only when he was well out of ear shot, because anything he did hear went straight to Jenny and nobody wanted a forty minute ticking off from her!

Giving evidence on the second day, it was clear that Angus achieved a major victory in just getting dressed that day. He reminded me of Frank Spencer. Angus claimed that he and his wife had been “run off the road” in Cumbria (where they had fled to once they decided to leave Northern Ireland), and that, sadly, his wife felt too intimidated to come to Northern Ireland and that there was a court case pending. Of course, being the BNP and this being Northern Ireland, there would have to be an alleged paramilitary angle to it. Across town was also about to begin one of the largest trials of paramilitaries Northern Ireland had ever witnessed, the place is still awash with them. Angus could not remember much else about his time in Northern Ireland, not surprisingly, seems that he spent most of it cooped up in the BNP’s post room or a tiny flat above a service station in Comber.

Throughout the tribunal the BNP gave the impression that Nick Griffin was “out of the country” (I presume they meant England). While Angus was having some quite severe memory loss, Nick Griffin was on the way to Blackpool lamenting on twitter that he was stuck on the M6. Dowson was in Swansea himself, not fancying the glare of publicity in his adopted home town. It was more than apparent too that Griffin did not fancy hot-footing it to Belfast either. He’d tried all kinds of things to avoid coming back. The BNP’s legal advisor Harrington had warned, not two weeks before, that I would be “punished” should I dare mention that Nick Griffin was too scared. Oh well, poor Angus..

On the third and final day, sixty Trade Union activists picketed the tribunal. BNP treasurer Clive Jefferson claimed that the party operated in circumstances of “extreme stress and intimidation”. He denied allegations that he held Thomas against her will and that he also demanded she stamp invoices “paid” when they were not. Bizarrely, he claimed also that an “incendiary device” had been fired at the BNP as they entered Killymead House. Nick Griffin, on twitter, claimed it was a firework.

The media had come however, not to hear Clive “Rodney” Jefferson, not even Adam Walker. They wanted Mark Walker, Adam’s baby brother. The BNP’s European Researcher had sat through two days of the tribunal without a word. There had been some excitement in media land after the second day as news was reaching us that Walker had been banned from the classroom after a hearing in England that day. The Professional Conduct Committee heard that he had used school computers to send a vulnerable 16-year-old former pupil a sexually explicit message. He had used language understood to mean that he wanted to have sex with the girl.

Sadly, Mark did not turn up. He’d apparently had a “bereavement” overnight. The case fizzled out slightly. Ian Kitchen gave some light relief when asked about the alleged holding of Marion Thomas against her will. He became outraged. Kitchen had spent the previous two days chatting away at the back of the tribunal not just to the annoyance of the panel but it would seem also to his racial comrades there with him too. “I’m a family man” he protested and even the BNP members guffawed at that one. Four days later a local paper was to give some prominence to Kitchen’s links to “Granny Porn”.

For the BNP, its Northern Ireland experiment is over. I’d like to think we helped crush it. I know we did. We began by exposing the use of employment agencies by the party to recruit strangers to work on their sensitive documents, to the internal arguments between rivals, even to female escorts working out of their offices.

Marion Thomas, now a 49 year old housewife, described the “utter shame” at having the BNP on her CV. She was never a member. She worked for an advertising company that also did anti-abortion work that then took the BNP on for a client. Her claims for overtime, holiday pay and mobile phone expenses were dismissed.

In its decision the panel referred to some of the colourful testimony during the hearing.

"The tribunal heard allegations of blackmail, threats, cars being forced off the road, information being sought about political rivals, electoral malpractice, paramilitary involvement and that staple of Irish political life, the passing of money-filled envelopes in strange locations and in even stranger circumstances”.

The settlement Thomas will receive is made up of four week's pay, one week's notice pay, postage expenses incurred taking the case and £760 for the failure of Mr Griffin to provide a witness statement to the panel.

For the last two days, the BNP’s Simon Darby has been fighting off another Irish embarrassment which he is desperately trying to pass off as a joke to the journalists going to press with it. Steve Parkes, a BNP candidate at the recent elections wrote on his facebook page last week about going out to harass gypsies and as well as posting a “White Power” symbol on his profile and making disgusting references to black women.

I’m proud to say, we found and passed that on to the media here too.

Matthew Collins at Hope not Hate

I was sacked by BNP after dispute with Nick Griffin's daughter

A FORMER employee of the British National Party (BNP) claimed she was unfairly dismissed by the party in Northern Ireland after a row involving party leader, Nick Griffin’s daughter.

The tribunal opened in Belfast yesterday in which former administrator, Marion Thomas, who worked at the BNP’s call centre in Dundonald, in east Belfast, is claiming unfair dismissal, breach of contract and unauthorised deduction of wages.

At yesterday’s hearing Mrs Thomas, from Comber, Co Down made a number of criminal allegations against her former employers including that:

- she was “held against her will” in a van in Comber on 26 November 2010;
- on the same date she was given a total of £7,500 in cash from the BNP in a Tesco car park;
- she was made to stamp invoices to suppliers as paid when they weren’t.

Her niece’s husband, Neil Kernaghan, also from Comber, had also taken a case against the BNP but settled yesterday for an undisclosed sum.

A barrister for Mrs Thomas, Barry Mulqueen, described how she had been employed with the right-wing party from 20 November 2009 until 21 December 2010.

“She was employed in the position of an administrator in December 2010 when the respondent (the BNP) closed the operations in east Belfast,” Mr Mulqueen said. “We simply allege that the claimant’s dismissal was unfair. Her dismissal was procedurally unfair - she was not given adequate notice. There was no consultation process. There was no effort to offer alternative employment.”

The BNP was represented by Patrick Harrington who argued that Mrs Thomas wasn’t dismissed but was made redundant and that the party tried to offer her a job at one of their offices in Britain.

“We say the procedure that followed was a reasonable one,” Mr Harrington said. “Alternative employment was offered. Employees were asked for alternative suggestions for how redundancies could be avoided.”

Mrs Thomas told the tribunal that she had never been a member of the BNP. She said she worked for a marketing company called Ad Lorries Ltd, owned by Jim Dowson, which had been based on the Upper Newtownards Road. The company took on the BNP as clients in 2009 and moved to new premises in Dundonald. Mrs Thomas described how the Dundonald offices became “the main fundraising centre of the BNP”.

“There were about 30 employees in east Belfast at one time,” she said. “It was the main fundraising centre of the BNP. It sent out appeals. The call centre drummed up more membership. It was very successful.”

Mrs Thomas claimed that none of the BNP employees had a contract.

The panel heard Mrs Thomas was told she had been sacked on 26 October 2010 in a phone call from her original employer, Jim Dowson.

“Mr Griffin had been on to him (Dowson) in relation to his daughter and the outcome of the advisory council meeting in which I asked for an item to be raised,” Mrs Thomas said. Mrs Thomas explained that she had questioned Mr Griffin’s daughter, Jennifer Matthys for covering up a mistake made by her husband, Angus Matthys.

“He had put the wrong postage on mailing which meant it was £900 short,” Mrs Thomas said. “She (Jennifer) has access to the BNP bank account and she did a transfer online.”

Two weeks later Mrs Thomas was reinstated and her “sacking” was put down to a “misunderstanding”.

The panel was told yesterday that Mrs Matthys had declined to attend the hearing, saying she felt intimidated. However, the tribunal later heard there was a major fallout between Jim Dowson and Nick Griffin which led to the BNP being put out of the Dundonald offices last November. As a result of this Mrs Thomas acted as a “mediator” between Mr Dowson and BNP members which culminated in two meetings on November 26 in Comber when computer equipment, including the BNP database, and £7,500 in cash were transferred in a Tesco car park.

Mrs Thomas met Clive Jefferson, BNP national elections officer, in the car park in the morning where she was given £2,500 in cash to give to Mr Dowson.

“I was asked to check certain items of property were delivered to Mr Jefferson,” she said. “The money was agreed between Mr Dowson and Mr Griffin.”

She was then told to return in the afternoon to collect the rest of the money. Mrs Thomas then repeated allegations she made on a recent BBC Panorama programme that she was “held against her will” for an hour in the cab of a van by BNP members until the computers arrived.

She described how Mr Jefferson, Adam Walker, party manager and Ian Kitchen, a security man sat with her in the van and told her she couldn’t leave until the computers arrived.

“I felt uneasy because Mr Jefferson was getting agitated,” she said and described how there were several phone calls between him and Mr Griffin while they waited. When the equipment arrived, she described how Mr Jefferson took £200 from the £5,000 cash and said he was “keeping it for the inconvenience”.

BNP representative, Patrick Harrington told the tribunal these are “very serious criminal allegations” and revealed that Mrs Thomas had never reported the incident to the police.

The tribunal also heard that the BNP was in serious financial difficulty and that the party owed £275,000 to suppliers, including many Northern Ireland firms.

“They were very, very deeply in debt,” Mrs Thomas said. “I was to contact the suppliers to come to a manageable agreement with them.”

Mrs Thomas was asked specifically about an east Belfast printing company called Romac Press.
Mrs Thomas told the tribunal that dates were changed on invoices to show the company had been paid within the specified time for the Electoral Commission.

“Some were stamped ‘paid’ and they were not,” she said, claiming Mr Jefferson authorised this. “I said to Mr Jefferson you can’t do that, you can see they have not been paid. He said just keep on doing it.”

The tribunal heard that a meeting was held in a Newtownards hotel last December in which Mr Harrington argued Mrs Thomas was offered redundancy or a relocation package. However, Mrs Thomas described these suggestions as “rubbish”.

The tribunal heard that a letter from Nick Griffin stated that Mrs Thomas’ employment was only from April to December 2010 and as she had worked for less than a year, was not entitled to bring a claim of unfair dismissal. The BNP representative argued that Mrs Thomas would
have been dismissed anyway for a number of reasons. One of these was for using the BNP’s database for a rival organisation, the nationalist campaigning group, Britain First which Mrs Thomas admitted she works for voluntarily.

The hearing continues today (Tues)

Party's Ulster links and how early success turned sour

The British National Party (BNP) opened a call centre in 2009 in Northern Ireland to raise funds and membership around the UK and was very successful. At its peak it had up to 13,000 members but since then this has fallen dramatically to around 2,000 members.

The employment tribunal taken by the former call centre administrator charts the difficulties the BNP found itself in at the end of last year. The party ran up massive debts during the 2010 general election campaign.

The tribunal in Belfast yesterday heard the party owes £275,000 to many of its suppliers. One of those companies is the small family firm, Romac Press, which went bust recently after being owed £44,000 by the BNP.

BNP chairman Nick Griffin, the party’s most high profile member, recently claimed that the party now owes just £52,000.

A BBC Panorama programme last month explored the shady financial dealings of the party. It obtained evidence that Mr Griffin, elected as an MEP in 2009, ordered then party treasurer David Hannam to inflate fictional costs so that the party could keep as much of the European grant money as possible. Mrs Thomas also appeared on this programme alleging the incident she repeated at the tribunal yesterday that she was “held against her will” in Comber, Co Down.

The BNP is under investigation by both the European Union and the Metropolitan Police following allegations of fraud and breaches of electoral law. The BNP has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Griffin had a close relationship with Belfast-based business man, Jim Dowson, who became a party fundraiser in 2007 and has helped set up BNP offices all over the UK. Mr Dowson helped set up the BNP call centre in Dundonald and appointed his sister-in-law, Marion Thomas as office administrator. Dowson claims to have severed links with the party when he became aware that they were not paying their bills.

Air charged but most famous face is missing

The air was charged as the industrial tribunal got under way in Room 10 of the Gasworks site in Belfast yesterday. The tiny room seemed even smaller with the imposing presence of several heavyweights from the British National Party (BNP) lining the back row.

In the foreground sat the lone figure of Marion Thomas, the BNP’s former administrator at the Dundonald call centre, where she claims she was unfairly dismissed. In a strong Scottish accent, Mrs Thomas, who now lives in Comber, Co Down, gave a gripping account of her dealings with the party in the run-up to her dismissal last year.

Throughout the hearing yesterday she referred to party chairman, Nick Griffin, but the BNP’s most familiar face was not in attendance. Instead Mr Griffin was represented by his best pal and former National Front leader, Patrick Harrington.

Mrs Thomas alleged that she was originally sacked by the party after a row with Mr Griffin’s daughter, Jennifer Matthys. However, the panel was told Mrs Matthys had declined to attend the hearing, saying she felt intimidated.

As Mrs Thomas gave graphic details of BNP fallouts, false invoices and fishy meetings in a Comber car park, the back row began whispering loudly.

Tribunal chair, Noel Kelly, ticked them off as if they were insolent pupils in a classroom. They were in fact five of the BNP’s nine leading organisers. Among them were brothers, Adam and Mark Walker, the party manager and political research officer respectively. National elections officer and treasurer, Clive Jefferson, who hobbled in on a stick.

Ian Kitchen, Yorkshire regional organiser who was present when Mrs Thomas alleges she was “held against her will” in a van in Comber. And Angus Matthys, Griffin’s son-in-law, who worked in the Dundonald call centre before it folded.

An anti-fascist protest had been expected outside the tribunal offices yesterday but demonstrators are expected to appear as the hearing continues over the next two days.

Belfast Telegraph

Here is a BBC News report from last night

Day 2: A summary.

As day two at the employment tribunal draws to an end, I'll try and give a very brief summary of today's proceedings before something a little longer later..

As earlier reported, Mrs and Mrs Patrick Harrington turned up at the hearing in what can only be described as a foul mood. I can only guess that they were a little perturbed to see the front page of the Belfast Telegraph this morning.

First up to give evidence was Angus Matthys, son in law of Nick Griffin and married to Griffin's eldest daughter Jennifer.

Angus sounds like he struggled to get dressed on his own, never mind give evidence in a complicated employment tribunal. To say he struggled would perhaps be an understatement. How he keeps his job must be a mystery to even himself.

Matthys claimed his wife refused to attend the tribunal as she felt intimidated due to the fact the couple had been run off the road in Cumbria and blackmailed. The intimation is of course that this is the work of alleged Northern Irish "Loyalists".

Next up was the rather odd Ian Kitchen. The former Yorkshire organiser who had to stand down after we revealed his wife Linda was a "Granny Porn" star cut an angry witness before the tribunal panel, reacting rather badly under cross examination when he was labelled a liar.

Adam Walker was next to give evidence. Walker seemed to struggle with filling in the gaping holes in the BNP's story.

One question everyone seems to be asking is where is James Dowson?

Dowson, the one time consigliere to Nick Griffin would lend weight to his sister in law Marion Thomas's case against the BNP.

Has Dowson and Griffin agreed before the tribunal not to have a "face off" ?

The case should conclude tomorrow.

Thanks to Matthew Collins at Hope not Hate

Skoda for sale ?

Nick Griffin has had a very bad day it seems.

He received a visit this morning from high court enforcement officers this morning attempting to recuperate some of the large amounts of cash the BNP owes its creditors and former employees.

We have heard that the court officers have seized Nick Griffin’s prized Skoda.

Unless disgraced former Yorkshire organiser Ian Kitchen can prove title to the car, it will be sold next week at auction.

Never mind Nick,walking is very good for the figure we hear.

Hope not Hate

Brewing up in Yorkshire

It's been a pretty devastating couple of months for the BNP in Yorkshire, even more so than the rest of the country. Here are some brief highlights:-

The granny pornmeister Ian Kitchen becoming and then resigning as the Yorks organiser in place of the slightly effectual Chris Beverley -

Jordan "woodteats" Pont laughably becoming the Sheffield organiser -

A very bad result in the recent Barnsley By-Election and the "OMG the other parties have used a graphic designer who knows what they are doing" response -

Nick Griffins' number one bestest fan Tom Holmes is

'staying at the crisis centre for a while, they're helping me with my medication'

Hurry back soon Tom, your political talents are our greatest fear -

The very funny spat between Adam Walker who is the third Yorkshire organiser this year and Nick Cass who set up a "this is not a BNP Reform Meeting" a couple of weeks ago and is now suspended for six months which will rule him out of running for the leadership this year.

Now comes the news that earlier today Chris Beverley, Andy Kershaw (no not that one this is a different one) and Gary Pudsey have been suspended by text message (classy touch) to stop them attending a Yorkshire officials meeting tonight. This in turn has led to the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth from members on various fora, blogs and Facebook pages and the slowly dawning realisation that the BNP is well on it's way to being finished.

Incompetence or design?

Does the British National Party’s leader have a death wish? Nick Griffin has widely been accused of being incompetent or distracted by his role as an MEP, but increasingly members are wondering whether he is destroying the party deliberately.

The party has suffered a run of very poor by-election results since last May, but it is Griffin’s damaging appointments to senior party positions that are causing hitherto loyal supporters finally to desert him and the party’s regional bases to disintegrate.

Just when the BNP’s Yorkshire region should have been throwing everything into the Barnsley Central by-election campaign on 3 March, members were left confused and disillusioned by Griffin’s imposition of Ian Kitchen as the Yorkshire regional organiser and Simon Goodricke, who served an 18-month prison sentence for perverting the course of justice by tipping off fraudsters while a West Midlands Police detective constable, as his deputy.

Inevitably, it did not take long for Kitchen’s wife Linda, who has stood as a BNP candidate and addresses party meetings, to attract the interest of the media – specifically the Sunday Sport – for her starring role in a hard-core porn film.

Nobody doubted that Griffin had been fully aware of her “outside interests” when he replaced the popular Chris Beverley with Mr Kitchen, who brings little organisational ability to the job. Even more embarrassing was that he appointed the couple to organise this summer’s Red, White and Blue so-called family festival this summer.

Even when the Sunday Sport turned the party into a laughing stock, Griffin stuck by the Kitchens and instead suspended the respected Yorkshire activist Nick Cass for committing the sin of inviting party members to a “special private meeting” to discuss Kitchen’s appointment and the party’s dire financial state. It took a full five days for the BNP to announce that the Kitchens had “laid down all their roles in the party with immediate effect”, leaving Adam Walker, the BNP’s national organiser, to assume charge of the Barnsley campaign.

According to Cass, party members in Yorkshire are “leaving in their droves” and “fed up of being treated like skivvies whilst the leadership offers no explanation for the party’s current financial mess and lack of meaningful leadership”.

Barnsley Central contains several wards in which the BNP has polled 20-31% in recent years and in Enis Dalton the party has a local candidate without any known skeletons in her cupboard. After the BNP’s disastrous showing in the Oldham by-election in January, Griffin tried desperately to concoct excuses and blame others. He now seems to be going all out to achieve a similar failure in Barnsley.

Another region where Griffin appears to be scuppering the BNP’s chances is Wales, which faces Welsh Assembly elections in May. In 2007 the BNP took almost 5% of the vote and nearly got a candidate elected in the regional list section of the election, which is fought under proportional representation.

The ‘liar’ and the thug

Differences between BNP members in Wales came to a head at the BNP’s annual organisers’ meeting in Stoke-on-Trent on 12 February. Kevin Edwards, a Llandybie community councillor and Pembrokeshire party organiser, had tendered his resignation from the party the previous Monday after being inundated with calls from “distraught ex and current members” angry at the conviction of a BNP member for a vicious assault at a working men’s club before Christmas.

The assault was not the first time that Roger Phillips had shown his thuggish nature. Last year he posted death threats against Baroness Uddin on Facebook and in December 2009 he made an expletive-filled telephone call threatening to kill a man who posted an anti-BNP video on YouTube. His Patriot Products business sold racist merchandise including golliwog badges with the names and colours of Premier League football clubs and his Facebook photos included one of a cornflakes box with an open-mouthed black minstrel and the doctored logo “Coon flakes”.

Edwards drew all this to Griffin’s attention, describing Phillips as “unstable” and “a ticking bomb”, who has set the BNP back years in Wales. Griffin replied: “He’s got to go. I’m shocked that this was not dealt with in South Wales ages ago”. Relieved, Edwards withdrew his resignation.

Yet when Edwards turned up at the organisers’ meeting Brian Mahoney, the Wales regional organiser and Griffin loyalist, informed him that the party’s Advisory Council had met the previous night and decided that nothing was to be done about Phillips. If the press broke the story a few days before polling day, “then let them do it”, said Mahoney.

This “shattered” Edwards’s belief in Griffin’s “integrity and honesty”. Resigning again, Edwards explained: “Nick is either a blatant liar, politically naïve or just listens to some very bad advise [sic]”.

Edwards is not the only key activist to leave recently. In the North West region, where Griffin sits as an MEP, James Clayton, one of the party’s new younger activists, resigned as Blackpool organiser and West Lancashire coordinator, saying he no longer wished “to hold a position of responsibility in the charade and financial Bermuda Triangle that is the BNP”.

Paul Morris, the Eastern regional organiser, also resigned apparently unable to cope with the job. According to Eddy Butler, who was expelled from the BNP last year after challenging Griffin for the leadership, no BNP meetings or activities have taken place since the general election in Epping Forest, Morris’s own area, where the BNP once had six councillors now down to one. In the entire region there are “only a couple of functioning units now”, says Butler, compared to about 25 before the general election.

Admittedly Morris suffered under the handicap of sharing the same name as a prolific Welsh blogger who posts under the name “Green Arrow”. That Paul Morris has also become disillusioned with the BNP after a long period of sycophantic belief that the party could do no wrong. His hero-worship of Griffin was mostly not reciprocated – Griffin regarded him with contempt – though on one occasion, desperate for all the support he could get, Griffin invited him to speak at a Red, White and Blue festival and was filmed shaking his hand.

Edwards’s resignation and the Kitchen porn scandal resulted in Morris withdrawing his website’s unconditional support for the BNP, though not his belief that there is no better person than Griffin to lead the party, it is only Griffin’s incompetent advisers who are the problem.

Chronic waste and chaos

But Griffin has gone out of his way to appoint unsuitable people to senior party positions. The moronic Clive Jefferson was in quick succession given the jobs of north west regional organiser, national elections officer, national organiser, national nominating officer and party treasurer, as well as retaining his job on Griffin’s constituency staff paid for by the European Parliament. Even the most capable person could not have done all those jobs properly.

Jefferson in effect controls the BNP together with Patrick Harrington, who is not a BNP member but a leader of a rival party. He appears to have performed little better than Jefferson. According to Paul Golding, who resigned as the BNP’s communications officer last autumn but remains a BNP councillor, six months after Harrington’s appointment as party manager, “we still have chronic wastage, staff chaos, inefficiency, no contracts (a legal requirement), no staff training and wages not paid and several NEW employment-related court cases looming. Several staff are even complaining that they are employed but haven’t got any work to do.”

Golding also castigated the party’s failure to make any effort at fighting by-elections. Instead, explains Golding, Griffin has been “completely taken in by the promises and fantasies” of Jefferson, who promoted the “grand dream” of catching up with the mainstream parties’ “amazing online electioneering databases”. That was why Griffin told Golding he was not bothered to fight elections until the new system, named Alfred, came online to solve all the party’s electoral problems.

Griffin has said that would take two years, and no doubt several fundraising appeals, while providing a ready excuse for numerous electoral failures. But, according to Golding, instead of turning to reputable experts to develop a suitable elections database, the BNP “hired an amateur IT guy who downloaded a free piece of software off Google and began to bodge/edit it”.

Golding reveals that “the IT projects manager brought in to make Alfred work has walked away stating it will never work (and hasn’t been paid his wages in the process), so Alfred has been quietly shelved”, leaving the BNP with no election capability at all.

Griffin has said his main aim is to get re-elected as an MEP, yet he has also spoken of turning the BNP into a “civil rights” movement and abandoning elections. The next European election is in 2014 and Griffin may just be using it as an excuse to do nothing much for the next three years, by which time little will remain of his party. Either that or Griffin believes incredibly that people really will vote for him because of his participation in a parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg about which voters know and care little and BNP activists even less.

Thanks to Sonia Gable at Seachlight

Are The BNP Masochists?

Honestly; there are times when even the most vociferous and steadfast opponent of the BNP must feel the tiniest twinge of heartfelt pity for the poor, benighted, embattled “patriots” of Britain's Fastest Shrinking Party.

Like some unfortunate soul with an addiction to self-harm, they just don't know when to stop hurting themselves.

There was Griffin's splendid brainwave of appointing Mr & Mrs Kitchen to a major position within the Party. Unusual in that it was actually one of the few positions not yet recorded on DVD and available to aficionados of esoteric entertainment.

Or the curious decision, at a time when even their most faithful supporters are leaving the fold in droves, to alienate (and, apparently, to “proscribe”) the site of one of their few remaining disciples; the entertainingly disturbed Paul Morris.

They're even bleating about wanting to appear on “Question Time” again, despite the fact that the 2009 audience hadn't been treated to the sight of a man being so conclusively beaten up since Joe Pesci in “Casino”, and mounting evidence that the main people who'd love to see Griffin (or Brons, or Darby – it makes no odds) thrown to the wolves once again are their opponents.

This is a “party” whose leader, at a time when even the few remaining faithful are saying “enough with the begging letters!” outdoes himself with the slimiest, most craven, nakedly grasping and cynical missive yet. (“Monday was Valentine's Day. It got me thinking about love, in different forms”. Which, quite frankly, Nick, is not the language to use at a time when you're trying to make people forget about the Kitchens...)

And now, in an effort to demonstrate that they “aren't just a single-issue party”, they publish a hard-hitting piece on their Site about a scandalous misuse of public money during a time of swingeing cuts (Screen Capture below):



Very impressive journalism, chaps!

Except you don't know what “Pro Rata” means.

(Many thanks to “Wes” for the tip!)

GrannyGate - the saga stops (maybe)...

News just in is that the idiot (Ian Kitchen) and the queen of granny porn (Linda Kitchen) have just resigned or been sacked from their positions in the BNP. More news will be welcomed and updates will be made as and when we feel they are interesting/funny enough.

Does this mean they are no longer organising the BNP's third-rate family booze-fest, the Red, White and Blue? If you know, let us know...

GrannyGate - the saga continues

Ian Kitchen talks to Nick Griffin and Simon Darby about GrannyGate.

Five Go To The Red White & Blue Festival

“By Gum!” announced Julian; “This is going to be a simply topping weekend!”

“You're jolly right there,” added George - “and with no Jews, Moslems or other horrid inferior sorts to spoil things for we properly indigenous youngsters, either!”

“Hurrah!” shouted Anne and Dick, by way of cheery support.

The four chums (and not to forget Timmy, the dog!) walked their bicycles onto the field where their beloved British National Party were holding this year's Red White & Blue Festival.

Julian had only recently persuaded his staunch pals to join the Party, convincing them that it was necessary in order to “stem the tide of non-White immigration, and to prepare for the coming struggle against the dark forces of the Zionist Occupation Government.” “By Jove!” Dick had responded immediately; “that all sounds jolly worthwhile-sign me up!”

Anne and George had long been looking to fill the void in their lives left by the demise of Mr Mosley's Blackshirts. “Can girls join, too?” they asked.

“Yes,” said Julian - “But you'll have to stand at the back with the trays of sandwiches and do the washing up after our meetings.”

“Oh, you boys!” Laughed Anne, fondly.

“Come on!” Said Julian, opening a refreshing bottle of lemonade; “You girls set the tents up and make tea while Dick and myself find the Organisers.”

Although exhausted from the morning's arduous cycle ride, Anne and George set happily about erecting the pair of heavy canvas pavilion-style tents they had been carrying on their backs, along with installing the small-but-sturdy cast iron stove and the prefabricated, galvanised toilet cubicle they had transported on their bicycles.

The two lads strode through the field of flag-bedecked tents – more than twenty of them, they marvelled! - and soon found themselves at the door of a small caravan.

It was rocking, and strange (gasping?) noises came from within.

With some trepidation, Julian knocked.

“Who is it?” came a man's voice from within. “Is it my 11 o-clock gentleman?” called a woman.

“It's Julian and Dick of the Famous Five,” replied Julian, “We've just arrived, and we're wondering if you could show us what's what!”.

There came the sound of raucous laughter from within. “Oh yes, Julian! We can show you what's what, alright!” shouted the woman. “And as for your friend, I've always got time for a bit of ...”

The door opened. The Boys found themselves faced with a pleasant-looking, greyhaired gentleman clad in what looked to be a cardboard breastplate, a helmet fashioned from a rusting colander and a cardboard scabbard bearing a rubber sword. Which turned out, with only a cursory glance, not to be a sword after all.

Behind, in the gloom of the caravan, was an elderly lady surrounded by other, similarly-clad gentlemen; one of whom brandished a Bell & Howell Zoomatic 8mm camera.

“I say!” exclaimed Dick; “What a wizard camera! Are you chaps making a film?!”.

“Aye. Sort of...” replied the Gentleman; “What do you want?”

“We were just wondering what sort of activities you've got lined up for the weekend.”, said Julian.

The woman and her strangely-garbed companions began to laugh heartily. Their Leader stepped outside and closed the door behind him as the muffled giggling continued.

“Well, lads, it's like this...” he explained. “Do you understand what this festival's all about?”

“Oh yes!” said Dick; “There'll be healthy walks, patriotic singsongs around the campfire, hearty comradeship and fascinating talks about the countryside, local history, and the vital importance of retaining racial and idealogical purity in the face of the growing Arabic menace!”

“Aye. Something like that.” Replied the gentleman. “You came alone?”

“Oh no,” said Julian. “We left the girls setting up our tents.”

The old gentleman's manner changed. He smiled broadly.

“In that case, lads,” he said, as he ushered the pair away from the caravan (which was rocking once again - “It must have a broken leaf spring”, thought Dick to himself); “You run along and have fun, and all of you come over to see us at the caravan later tonight...”

“How exciting!” Said Julian as the chums strolled back to see how Anne and George (and not forgetting Timmy, the dog!) had got on with setting up the campsite: “Not only have we found ourselves in the most wizardly monocultural racial enclave in all of our great Nation, but the kindly old camp organisers have invited us to spend the evening sharing the warmth of their company!”

It was, indeed, going to be a topping night of high-jinks and merry laughter: Of that, the Lads were quite sure...

---------------

No-one spoke the next morning.

Silently, and making no eye contact with one another, the four faithful companions returned to their corner of the campsite.

“Going for a shower.” Said George, arming herself with a stiff-bristled scrubbing brush and a bottle of bleach as she headed for the utilities cubicle. “Bags I go next.” Said Anne, still in a daze as she rocked back and forth on the spot, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

Julian tried to sit down, but was still feeling a little too tender.

“Come on, Julian!” Said Dick in as cheery a manner as he could muster; “Let's put our best foot forward and go for a jolly good walk!”

Julian tried to smile in response, but the pictures in his head simply wouldn't -simply wouldn't - go away. He wondered if he would ever be able to forget the events of the previous night...

“Come on, you old stick in the mud!” continued Dick – his voice cracking as the confused, disturbed emotions flooded to the surface once again - “Let's just get Timmy and go for a jolly – good – walk...”

He suppressed a wracking sob as he tried to force a smile for the sake of his dear friend.

But his plea had the opposite effect, as Julian remembered something with a growing, cold horror from the previous night...

“Oh God.” He remembered: “Timmy... TIMMY!”

Next Week: The Chums are invited to join Mr and Mrs Reynolds on a “Security Mission”

BNP plays musical chairs

Nick Griffin has reshuffled several of the top positions in his dysfunctional British National Party in an attempt to maintain control, reward his supporters and sideline any criticism of his dictatorship.

Chris Beverley has been sacked as regional organiser of the big Yorkshire and The Humber region, one of the two that elected BNP representatives to the European Parliament in 2009. His replacement is Ian Kitchen, the party’s Wakefield organiser and Griffin loyalist. The BNP claims this will allow Beverley to spend more time on his European constituency job for Andrew Brons, the region’s BNP MEP.

Eddy Butler, who was expelled from the BNP after unsuccessfully challenging Griffin for the leadership last year, took a more jaundiced view. Claiming the party was desperate for Beverley not to show up Jefferson by achieving a better result in the coming Barnsley by-election than in Oldham, he added: “Chris Beverley was one of the last remaining competent Regional Organisers, one of the last capable election campaigners and one of the last independent voices left on the Advisory Council. As such his replacement was inevitable and long overdue.”

Stephen Squire has taken over as the party’s London organiser after serving a six-month apprenticeship under Griffin himself, who stepped in as the acting London organiser after the party’s May election debacle and the departures of a series of previous organisers.

Clive Jefferson has given up his job as North West regional organiser, to spend more time on the elections department, according to the BNP. The party’s elections function is sorely in need of competent leadership after a string of by-election failures, but whether Jefferson will be able to devote any more time to it is unclear. He also heads the BNP’s failing treasury department, which for three years has failed to maintain anything near adequate financial records, resulting in the party failing to achieve clean audit reports for 2008 and 2009, with 2010 expected to be similar.

In addition Jefferson, who has difficulty writing coherently, has just been appointed editor of the party’s Voice of Freedom newspaper, replacing Martin Wingfield, who Butler says is very “much out of favour”, though he remains communications and campaigns officer for Griffin’s European constituency.

Jefferson’s replacement in the North West region is Mike Whitby, the party’s Liverpool organiser. Whitby became Liverpool organiser at a heated branch meeting last July when Jefferson kicked out all the existing officers in a purge of dissidents. They had committed the crime of supporting Butler’s challenge.

Whitby seems suitably qualified to move the party towards the “increased militancy” that Griffin promised last December. After clashes between BNP activists and anti-fascists in Liverpool, which resulted in an assault conviction for one BNP man, Whitby promised that anti-fascists’ identities would end up on “a website far worse than Red Watch”, the hate site that encourages supporters to attack anti-fascists and their homes and families.

Another post Jefferson has given up is National Organiser, which has gone to Adam Walker, who also regains his job as staff manager. Walker works closely with Patrick Harrington, Griffin’s old mate from their days in the National Front Political Soldiers. Harrington was appointed the BNP’s head of human resources last autumn, but appears to act more as a general manager for Griffin. Many party members resent Harrington’s presence at the helm because he remains leader of a rival political party, albeit a very small one.

Butler claims that Walker was promoted “just to boost his profile in case he is needed as an alternative Chairman, should something ghastly in the realms of the judiciary happen to Nick Griffin”.

Finally, Jennifer Matthys, Griffin’s eldest daughter, is gradually assuming a greater role and now runs all party operations from a small office in Wigton, Cumbria. But according to Butler, “not enough money is coming in each week to cover the basics, via the appeals that Pat Harrington is now tasked with producing”. Perhaps engineering the departure of Jim Dowson, Griffin’s fundraising consultant, and Paul Golding, the party’s former national communications officer, was not one of Harrington’s smartest moves.

After Griffin announced last summer that he would relinquish the leadership of the party in 2013, speculation mounted that he was grooming her as his replacement, following the example of Marine Le Pen, who has just succeeded her father as leader of the National Front in France. However unlike Ms Le Pen, a lawyer who has held senior roles in the party for over 12 years and has built a firm political base as a regional councillor, Matthys has few qualifications for leadership and is unlikely to be accepted by party members in that role for some considerable time.

Searchlight / HOPE not hate by Sonia Gable