Breakfast of the Long Knives

“Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning.”

Oh dear. Things continue to look bad for the Band of Brothers. This morning, the latest round of suspensions began, with Clive “Beria” Jefferson's latest legally dubious letter landing on the doormats of various BNP Members.

Names mentioned so far include Chris Roberts (London Organiser), Rowena Savage (Bromley Organiser), Bob Gertner (London elections officer), John Savage (South West fundholder), Julian Leppert and the fragrant Charlotte “I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants” Lewis, along with “at least 20 others”.

Interestingly, all of those suspended are well-known activists and organisers, rather than Rank-and-File Members (or “plebs” as they're allegedly referred to by the Party Leadership).

Oh, and they share one other thing in common: It's the strangest coincidence, but they're all supporting Eddy Butler in the Leadership Contest!

Given that the letter and the resulting suspensions seem not only to run counter to natural law, but even the BNP's own ramshackle Constitution, it can surely only be a matter of time before someone decides to challenge the Kafkaesque goings-on at Head Office.

Although, the way things are going, the Party will have shut up shop and gone out of business long before it ever gets to court.

The Story is Developing...

A most uncivil war.

The last three months since the General Election have been a fascinating insight into how the BNP functions and it seems like each day since then there has been a major cock up, calamity or act committed under the BNPs and Griffins "interesting" idea of internal democracy.

Todays latest news is that Julian Leppert (former councillor), John Savage (S.W. Fundholder) and Chris Roberts (London Organiser) are amongst about 20 BNP activists at the latest count suspended today. They are being investigated for "serious breaches of the BNP code of conduct" after supporting Eddy Butlers leadership nomination.

With the nominations for leadership closing tomorrow one has to ask if Griffin is so worried about Butler getting close to the amount that he needs, is he purging the people who are Butlers most vocal supporters that can be identified from the various websites and fora?

The timing of the letters is a bit of a surprise with it being the day before the nominations close unless of course this is a total cock up by Griffin & Dowson enterprises and they should have arrived tomorrow.

Edit
This is the full list of the various suspensions including the members suspended over the last few weeks:-
Bob Gertner (London)
Charlotte Lewis (London)
Rowena Savage (London)
John Savage (South West)
Charlie Baillie (Scotland)
Simon Bennett (South West)
Mark Collett - expelled (Yorkshire)
Max Dunbar – resigned (Scotland)
Andrew Emerson (South East)
James Fitton (South West)
Robert Lassen – expelled (West Midlands))
Peter Lucas (South West)
Peter Mullins (South West)
Frank O’Brian - expelled (West Midlands)
Peter Phillips (South East)
Peter Squire (North West)
Peter Stafford (North West)
Richard Trower (South East)
Anthony Ward (North West)
Jeffrey Marshall (London)
Christine Mitchell (Eastern)
Simon Deacon – resigned (Eastern)
Chris Roberts (London)
Bob Gertner (London)
John Savage (South West)
Carl Whelpdale (North East)
Roy Jones (Scotland)
Shelley Rose (Eastern)
Julian Leppert (Eastern)
Lawrence Rustem (London)
Tony Avery (London)
Dennis Boater

Barnbrook bombs in Goresbrook

Barking and Dagenham finally and firmly closed the door on Richard Barnbrook and the BNP yesterday when voters in the borough's Goresbrook ward decisively rejected the racist party in a hard-fought by-election brought about by Barnbrook's objection that May winner Louise Couling had been ineligible to stand, being a lollipop lady employed by the council.

Couling, the Labour Party candidate, had the pleasure of beating Barnbrook all over again, and improved her own vote by 2.5%. The BNP threw everything it had at Goresbrook, the party's bigwigs, including Griffin, out in force last Sunday.

Griffin's presence may have been a mixed blessing for Barnbrook, since he insists on operating from within a cocoon of BNP security goons too moronic to realise that throwing menacing stares at members of the public going about their business in their own streets on a pleasant summer's day is apt to be a vote losing strategy.

The result (taken from Vote UK):

Lab 881 (46.6%)
BNP 642 (34.0%)
LibD 136 (7.2%)
Con 108 (5.7%)
Ind 63 (3.3%)
UKIP 50 (2.6%)
Ind 11 (0.6%)

In May the BNP vote fell from a 2006 high of 42.4% to 26.7%, but even without the big party squeeze brought about when local elections are fought alongside general elections Barnbrook recovered only 7.3% - good news, as many observers had believed the BNP might re-take the seat or come a close second.

The fact that the vote improved by 7.3% over the May result will doubtless be used by the beleaguered BNP leadership to add some much needeed gloss to Barnbrook's performance, and to save face following the sidelining of Barnbrook's election agent Eddy Butler in favour of enthusiastic mobile phone cameraman Clive Jefferson.

As Jefferson has been in charge of the BNP's election efforts for some weeks now, as well as taking responsibility for the Goresbrook result he might like to explain the disasters which occurred in the two other by-elections fought by the BNP on Thursday.

These were:

Chadwell (Redbridge LBC)

Lab 800 (31.5%)
Con 580 (22.9%)
LibD 576 (22.7%)
Grn 413 (16.3%)
BNP 115 (4.5%) Julian Leppert
UKIP 54 (2.1%)

May 2010 - failed to nominate.

May 2006 result:

LibD 1305 (37.60%)
Con 835 (24.08%)
Lab 706 (20.34%)
BNP 624 (17.98%)

and

Cockerton West (Darlington UA)

Lab 388 (45.12%)
LibD 347 (40.35%)
Con 84 (9.77%)
BNP 41 (4.77%) Paul Thompson, ex-jailbird

May 2007 result:

Lab 492 (40.02%) averaged
Con 308 (25.03%)
LibD 263 (21.37%)
BNP 167 (13.57%)

These results will demoralise an already badly demoralised BNP membership, and we somehow doubt that Nick Griffin's distraction tactics in the Euro Parliament (where he has nominated Dutch MEP Geert Wilders for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought) are going to cut much ice.

Councillors at war over BNP vote

A fierce war of words has broken out in Redbridge Town Hall after a BNP councillor was made vice-chairman of a committee.

Tempers have flared since last week's meeting of the cycling liaison group when Labour's Cllr Filly Maravala and new chairman Lib Dem Cllr Gary Staight named British National Party member Cllr Julian Leppert as vice-chairman. They insist no one else would nominate or take the role, but council leader Keith Prince is fuming - and Labour leader Cllr Elaine Norman is "disappointed".

Cllr Prince said: "I am quite shocked - they don't strike me as BNP sympathisers. I am worried about the message this sends, as the BNP should not be given any platform. A lot of people will be angered by this and I would be interested to see what is thought of this nationally. They could have postponed the appointments and no-one had to nominate him."

Cllr Norman said: "Labour's position is not to share a platform with these people and it is not our policy to nominate them for anything."

Group member Cllr Ronald Barden called the decision a "cock-up" and despite fearing he, as a cabinet member, could not stand, put his name forward. He said: "I was disappointed and surprised they chose to nominate the BNP candidate instead of myself."

The councillors in question hit back and said Cllr Barden wanted to postpone the decision while seeking legal advice. Cllr Maravala said: "This is political opportunism. No one would nominate me and Cllr Leppert was the only option. Cllr Prince would be better off using his energies to run this authority properly."

Cllr Staight warned there would be "consequences" if this row dragged on, but refused to go into details. He said: "Keith Prince is being childish. A decision had to be made on the night."

Cllr Leppert admitted he was surprised, adding: "Filly and Gary are good blokes and I am happy to work with them and the group."

Gill James, who sits on the group as part of London Cycling Campaign, argued it didn't matter as cycling is "all inclusive".

Ilford Recorder

Let's play Spot the BNP member!

Click on image to see it full-size

Every now and again, the comments sections to our posts come up with something just as interesting as the post itself, and this happened yesterday.

One of our eagle-eyed readers had been over to David Irving's site and has come up with a real doozie. Just in case you don't know, Irving is the discredited historian who brought an unsuccessful libel case against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in 1996. The case was a disaster for him, with the judge ruling, among other things, that Irving had 'for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence'. Irving is a Holocaust denier (though he attempted to recant on that position during the libel hearing), as well as an antisemite and racist, and has for years associated with far-right extremists who promote neo-Nazism, not the least of which is BNP leader Nick Griffin.

On a visit to Austria in 2005, Irving was apprehended, tried and eventually convicted of 'glorifying and identifying with the German Nazi Party', which is a crime in Austria under the Verbotsgesetz* law. He served a prison sentence from February to December 2006 on the charges.

Nick Griffin and David Irving were invited to speak at a forum on 'free speech' at the Oxford Union on 26 November 2007. The debate took place after Oxford Union members voted in favour of it, but was vigorously disrupted by protesters.

Griffin has repeatedly claimed that the squeaky-clean new BNP is no longer a Holocaust-denying, antisemitic party packed with neo-nazis, which doesn't quite work when you attempt to speak in a debate with the likes of David Irving. Nor does it work when it's discovered that some of your most prominent people attend Irving's garden parties, particularly those that sell tripe like Irving's tedious tome 'Goebbels. Mastermind of the Third Reich' that was 'snapped up' for a mere £125. Quite why anyone would pay such an enormous sum of money for a book written by the likes of Irving is beyond me. It seems to be beyond Publishers Weekly too, who wrote of it;

'This is a repellent book, and not only because of its subject. Irving (Goering) has been increasingly under fire for exploiting seemingly indefatigable research to distort history. In the book in hand, he uses enough pejoratives to sustain the illusion of objectivity regarding Hitler's propaganda chief, yet suggests that the admittedly bad man had a cause not entirely bad in itself. Nazi brutality is almost always retaliation for the plots of international Jewry and the criminality of domestic Jews. Even the books notoriously burned are "decadent and anti-German." The term Redakteur (editor) "to Goebbels' sensitive ear had a Jewish ring." Protesters in Saarbrucken are "a clamoring ragbag of communists, Jews, freemasons and disgruntled emigres." There is always, in Irving's own words, a "Jewish problem" that Goebbels struggles to solve. Much of the book, heavily indebted to the self-serving Goebbels diaries, is in such a vein. There seems always to be an agenda to Irving's documentation, and the language of camouflaged admiration suffuses his pages amidst his ritual scolding of the Nazis for their excesses. The real insidiousness of the biography is that its formidable documentation will gain it acceptance as history.'

The post on Irving's site that describes the garden party also has a couple of revealing comments by the man himself;

'Steve drives Jessica to Burnham station, as she wants to return to London (for the ghastly Notting Hill Gate carnival: Black-rap-crap all day. She'll grow out of it)'

'Devon, the last refuge for the White English from scoundrels.'

Clearly Irving hasn't changed much over the years, remaining antisemitic and racist. All the more shocking (though not entirely surprising) then to see that this garden party was attended by a couple of prominent members of the BNP, Julian Leppert and Jonathan Bowden.

Click on image to see it full-size

Leppert is the famed BNP postie whose car registration is NAZI. Leppert was the BNP’s candidate for mayor of London in 2004 and is currently the councillor for Hainault ward on Redbridge Council. Back in January 2007 Leppert attended a conference in London where he sat through anti-Jewish tirades from a close confidante of David Irving and from one of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Britain. His only other claim to fame is that he once described fellow councillor Lawrence Rustem, a man of mixed race, as having been allowed into the BNP because he is 'only half a wog'.

Bowden resigned back in July 2007 in a major huff following an attack on him by the Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics blog (run by one of Griffin's chums, Tommy Williams), during which he was accused of being a paedophile. The attack was obviously in retaliation for his support of leadership-challenger Chris Jackson in the then-recent BNP leadership challenge. Bowden appears to have made up with the party now and seems to be back in the fold despite his cracklingly good resignation letter from August 2007;

'I am sick and tired of the human scum and vermin which proliferate in such shallows waters. To be accused of being a child abuser is amongst the lowest thing that can possibly be imagined. To even refute such allegations from criminal psychopaths like these is beneath one’s dignity...I will seek to have police action carried out against this vile Internet site [Covert], but I also intend to resign as cultural officer, advisory council member and member of the BNP. I do not wish to associate - even tangentially - with such low-grade lycanthropes and psychotic criminals. Williams [Griffin-ally Tommy Williams], I gather, is a convicted drug dealer and career criminal with a string of convictions.'

Griffin's desperate attempts to portray the BNP as having moved well away from its antisemitic and nazi ancestry looks hollow when two of his finest are attending events at the invitation of one of the best-known antisemitic nazi-lovers in the country. But will he take any action against them? Leppert is definitely in the party and we're assured that Bowden is, too. If Griffin is adamant about the party's shift away from its ignoble past, presumably he'll take action against these two reprobates.

Would you bet your shirt on it?

* Verbotsgesetz

Our readers have spotted three definite BNP members in the pictures and possibly one former member. See who you can spot and let us know via the comments section to this post. :-)

Yeah, Reich...

I bought it by mistake, claims the BNP postie whose car reg is NAZI

A senior BNP member has caused outrage - by driving a car with a number plate that looks like "Nazi". British National Party councillor Julian Leppert has angered political rivals by turning up for meetings in his black Ford Focus, registration NA51 ZCY. And they are now demanding that Leppert, 41, a councillor in Hainault, East London, removes it at once.

Opposition councillor Veronica Cole said`: "When I first saw the number plate on his car I couldn't believe my eyes. It is sickening and appalling. It beggars belief that even a BNP councillor could think this kind of behaviour is acceptable."

Leppert's bizarre decision to drive a car with such a provocative numberplate comes as BNP top brass try to rebrand it as a "serious party". The postman from Loughton, Essex, is seen as a rising star in the far-right organisation. He once won party support after sneering in a speech: "I don't care about being called names or being called politically incorrect. I have to stand up and tell the truth because my country is at stake."

In June he was asked by party leader Nick Griffin to act as a henchman to shield him from eggs and antifascist taunts during a visit to London. And in 2004 he was chosen to stand against Ken Livingstone in the London mayoral elections. He used it as a platform to spout his far-right views on the number of asylum seekers allowed to live in the capital.

He said: "We don't want to be in a minority in our own city, let alone our own country. This is what we are going to have by 2055 if current trends continue. All our cities will be like Leicester. The crime situation will get so bad people won't want to live in London any more."

Yesterday Leppert said he had decided to sell the car but denied choosing the registration deliberately. He said: "This isn't a personalised number plate. I needed to buy a car in a hurry a couple of years ago and found one for sale online. The number plate was blacked out so it wasn't until I arrived to pay that I saw it. Had I known I would probably never have bought it. I am planning to sell the car now as the other councillors seem to want to make a political point. I find that pretty cheap."

Mirror

The shower behind the BNP throne

The henchmen behind vile BNP leader Nick Griffin have their thin veneer of acceptability stripped away today.

His minders and hangers-on wore smart suits and ties as they leaped to shield their party leader from a barrage of eggs and anti-fascist taunts this week. But the News of the World can reveal their respectable image conceals a Nazi-saluting RACIST, a depraved SWINGER and a FAILED wannabe councillor who lives with his mum.

The rotten shower were among sidekicks who jumped in to protect Griffin, 49, from furious protesters in London. Griffin and Andrew Brons, who together had just become MEPs in the Euro elections, had been trying to portray their party as a reasonable voice. But we can reveal that their minders' views are every bit as warped as the BNP's policies.

Take JAY SLAVEN, who was seen on camera roughly pushing a bystander aside as he escorted Griffin and Brons away. A truer picture of Slaven, 25, emerges from another photo of him giving a Nazi salute and posing with a St George's flag draped over his shoulders.

The snap features on a Facebook photo album entitled "Forever Brave, Forever True, Forever England! St George's Day!"

Slaven, from Doddinghurst, Essex, tried to make a name for himself by defending Jade Goody's racist remarks to Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. At the time he claimed the huge row which erupted over comments made towards Indian actress Shilpa was "laughable".

In another rant Slaven, an assistant distribution manager, declared: "I see no possible wrong in wanting to preserve this island race of ours. Racial mixing is not leading to the BNP success, the vast damage done to our nation by successive governments is."

Pictured near Slaven at the egg demo was burly BNP minder MARTIN REYNOLDS, who is Griffin's head of security and a regular feature at his elbow. But Reynolds - married with three kids - is also a regular on the swingers scene and lusts after "big girls". The 41-year- old from Leeds was pictured at the London bust-up in dark glasses. But he wore far less as he watched women indulge in sex acts at a squalid orgy.

Months earlier he had gone on dating website faceparty.com with fellow BNP organisers Mark Collett and Dan Hannam. Reynolds told how he hated stuck-up people and women on diets - and listed his ideal female as "size 16 and above with a good sense of humour and a sex drive to match mine".

Also among Griffin's gang was TONY GLADWIN, who lives with his mum in a 1960s house with a St George's Cross flying from a 6ft flagpole outside. The 25-year-old landscape gardener recently stood as a district councillor but failed miserably to get elected. Gladwin, from Billericay, Essex, has said: "Everyone that knows me knows I am in the BNP. I'm very proud of it. People have made out it's like a secret society, like we should be hiding it."

Another Griffin minder is former London mayoral candidate JULIAN LEPPERT, a postman who is happiest when he is delivering racist scare stories. He said: "We don't want to be a minority in our city, let alone our country. That is what we are going to have by 2055 if current trends continue."

Meanwhile new MEP Andrew Brons, 61, seeks to be the respectable face of the party but 25 years ago he was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. He and another National Front member were shouting slogans including "Death to Jews" and "White Power".

NoTW

BNP describes gay politicians as 'buggers and criminals'

A list on the British National Party's website of politicians from all three main parties describes a number of gay MPs as "buggers" and "criminals", grouping them with convicted paedophiles.

The list, titled "Liars, buggers and thieves", features Labour MP Chris Byrant, who had semi-nude photos of himself from Gaydar published by a tabloid newspaper several years ago.

The website states: "Chris Bryant poses in his pants on the Internet to advertise himself for casual gay sex encounters. Describes himself as 'Horny as buggery' and says, 'I’d love a good long fuck'”.

Another MP listed as a "criminal" is MP Ron Davies, who was mugged at knifepoint after meeting a man on Clapham Common. He had allegedly been cruising for gay sex. Also listed is MP Clive Betts, who was suspended from parliament for seven days in 2003 after breaching the MPs' code of conduct over the employment of his Brazilian assistant.

They are listed beside rapists, paedophiles and murderers. Neither Mr Davies, Mr Bryant or Mr Betts have ever been convicted of any criminal offence.

The list of Labour politicians also includes mass murderer Dennis Nielsen, who was convicted of strangling and dismembering 16 young men. Nielsen was apparently included for his activism in Labour fringe groups such as the Anti-Nazi League. Others are local councillors and activists convicted of sexual offences, assaults and fraud.

The list was compiled by Julian Leppert, the BNP councillor for Redbridge Borough. He wrote: "A favourite trick of liberal-leftwing interviewers when losing an argument with BNP spokesmen is to start banging on about 'BNP criminals'. Well … this really isn’t a very honest thing to do when not mentioning the fact that a very small number of BNP criminal records (mainly the result of political persecution, self-defence against leftist thugs and youthful stupidity now twenty years or more in the past) need to be put into the context of the far worse, more numerous and more recent crimes of many members of the old parties."

Mr Leppert told PinkNews.co.uk that the gay MPs were been included because: "It fits in with the headline, the bugger part, I guess."

On Mr Byrant's Gaydar controversy, he said: "It's not a crime legally, but it's a crime morally. Homosexuality is part of life, it's inevitable. But people should have discretion. They're bringing political life into disrepute, although it might not strictly be criminal."

When asked why Mr Bryant, Mr Davies and Mr Betts, who have not been convicted of any criminal offence, were included as "criminals", he said: "It's probably not strictly true, not in terms of correct English, but it demonstrates what sort of people they are. It's a valid point. It's part of the general behaviour. It's the indiscretion with which [Bryant] promotes his homosexuality.

"The only problem we have with the gay lobby is when people like Peter Tatchell get aggressive about it. What people do in their private lives is their business. But the problem is when they get militant and start promoting it in schools. We're a family party with family values. Someone else at the BNP put the title 'Liars, buggers and thieves' on the story. It's a traditional catch-all term for people of disrepute in politics."

When asked for a comment by PinkNews.co.uk, Mr Bryant said: "The bigots who created this website should be ashamed of themselves. I would just call on the overwhelming majority of people who see the despicable nature of this website to tell their friends to make sure they vote in the European elections. Every vote cast for another party is one against the BNP.”

Mr Davies could not be reached for comment.

Today it was reported that postal workers are refusing to deliver BNP election leaflets because they object to its “right-wing rubbish”. Around 100 workers in the West Country have refused carry the leaflets, which bear an anti-immigration message.

Pink News

BNP badly damaged in Epping Forest election campaign

The Epping Forest Branch of the British National Party were licking their wounds after losing two of the three District Council seats they fought for the elections on 1 May. Their council group leader, Patricia Richardson, known far and wide as the BNP’s Jewish collaborator, only retained a seat on the council after a last-minute shift to a different ward.

Rose Brookes, a popular local figure who has previously served as a councillor, won the Loughton Alderton seat for Loughton Residents Association, with a large lead over the BNP. In a by-election last summer the BNP candidate had defeated her by only 26 votes.

Rejoining Loughton Town Council was the Labour Party veteran Tom Owen. The BNP, standing for Loughton Town Council for the first time, took five seats, far fewer than they had hoped to win.

A week before the election the BNP councillors had shot themselves in the foot by condemning a new multi-faith forum that has been set up in the district. For once the Epping Forest Guardian, noted for its partial support for the BNP and its councillors, was stung into running the headline “BNP ‘shame’ of faith forum snub”.

Local residents were able to listen to the BNP’s nastiness and ignorance as Epping Forest District Council broadcasts council meetings live on the internet. BNP councillor Rod Law, one of three BNP councillors present (the other three of what were then six BNP councillors were absent), speaking against a motion noting the forum’s formation said: “Forums like these are an absolute waste of resources for the council and are only put together to promote diversity and multiculturalism which we feel is absolutely detrimental to the very fabric of society”. Cllr Pat Richardson claimed councillors were being “brow beaten into accepting the concept that the public purse, the taxpayer, has to fund this”.

Deputy council leader Chris Whitbread pointed out that the council was not paying for the forum. He accused the BNP of doing nothing for Loughton, disappearing when the council discusses the needs of the community and turning up only to “talk about dividing our community”. He continued: “You are a disgrace to this council and you are a disgrace to our community”.

Several other councillors, who clearly have the measure of these extremists, stood up to condemn the BNP's “disgraceful” and “disgusting” comments and emphasised the importance of everyone working together as a community.

It has now become clear that the BNP believe religious groups are all part of a big conspiracy against them. The churches in Epping and beyond have gone out of the their way to attack the BNP and what it stands for and they have been joined by other faiths, the Searchlight/Hope not hate campaign and Redbridge and Epping Forest Together.

REFT makes no excuses for this. For once the BNP have got it right: most people do not like them.

The Epping Forest Guardian soon reverted to type with a front page picture of Cllr Richardson and no proper coverage of the election of Rose Brookes and Tom Owen.

Over in Redbridge BNP Cllr Julian Leppert was running true to form by opposing a residents’ campaign to keep open Seven Kings swimming pool, claiming that Seven Kings is like the Third World. We are not sure how he would know as no sooner had he won his seat in Hainault ward he packed his bags and moved to Loughton to be close to the rest of the BNP's motley crew.

On Redbridge Council, harsh words were exchanged between Cllr Harold Moth, a Conservative councillor for Hainault, and council leader Alan Weinberg. Moth was ordered out of a meeting after he labelled Weinberg “a covert member of the BNP”. Weinberg reacted furiously saying, “How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party?”, at which Leppert insisted Weinberg withdraw his remark. Weinberg refused saying: “The BNP are an extreme right wing party with Nazi views and I will not withdraw the comment”.

The BNP have reported Cllr Weinberg to the Standards Board for England, which three years ago ruled on a BNP complaint against the former Epping Forest Liberal Democrat councillor Gavin Stollar that calling the BNP nazi was “within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate”.

On that occasion the BNP had again used Richardson’s Jewishness as the excuse for the complaint, claiming that calling the BNP nazi would hurt her feelings. Surprisingly her feelings do not seem to be hurt by the fact that Tony Lecomber, who has mentored her since she joined the BNP, once served a prison sentence for assaulting a young Jewish teacher.

Cllr Weinberg intends not only to defend his name as both a councillor and a Jew but to expose the national socialist nature of the BNP to the world. REFT and others are more than happy to assist him in this admirable endeavour.

While Cllr Leppert has managed to keep his trap shut over this matter, the same is not true for Jason Douglas, the well known twice-convicted football hooligan and the BNP’s organiser for Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Havering. His letter to the Ilford Recorder, which appeared under the heading “It’s time to get facts straight”, said:

“With reference to Cllr Moth’s ‘covert member of the BNP’ and Cllr Weinberg’s ‘How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party’ comments at the Redbridge council meeting, doesn’t Cllr Weinberg know about the BNP?

“Since Nick Griffin became leader, he has turned the party into an election winner, where its policies have the support of many London voters.

“Epping Forest District councillor, Pat Richardson – who happens to be Jewish – heads the BNP group on the council.”

“The BNP stands for the forgotten voice in multi-racial Britain.”

This is yet another BNP attempt to make use of Richardson’s Jewishness. Douglas should stick to driving his London taxi and try putting his brain into gear before opening his gob. Richardson’s opposition to the Epping Forest multi-faith forum just shows her contempt for any religion.

So there is lots going on and a growing need for all those new volunteers who joined us in the run-up to the elections on 1 May to stay involved when we meet on 8 July at 7pm for a 7.30pm start at the Methodist Church in Loughton High Road, facing the junction of the High Road and Traps Hill.

Nearest station Loughton (Central Line Epping branch), buses 20 and 397 stop outside Morrisons.

Redbridge and Epping Forest Together
Bob Archer and Gerry Gable
Joint Co-ordinators

BNP picks psychic and a gay porn director as candidates

The extraordinary collection of individuals standing for the British National Party in the London Assembly elections can be revealed today.

One candidate, Nick Eriksen, was sacked this month after the Evening Standard reported that he had described rape as a "myth" and said that "some women are like gongs - they need to be struck regularly".

Now further investigations by the Standard show that the far-Right party's 10-strong list of candidates includes:

Chris Forster, a psychic who, according to his website, specialises in the "use of the crystal ball, clairvoyance and mediumship" to "develop opportunities" for businesses and individuals. He promotes himself as "the only qualified internal auditor and accountant working full-time as a psychic".

Roberta Woods, who was recently employed in an important branch of the legal system, despite a conviction for contempt of court. During her attachment to the Legal Services Commission, which distributes legal aid, she complained the legal aid budget was going to too many "aliens".

Lawrence Rustem, a man of mixed race allowed into the BNP because, in the words of one of his fellow candidates, he is "only half a wog".

John Clarke, who was reported to police by a London council after setting up a front address and falsifying his nomination papers to stand in the last borough elections.

Richard Barnbrook, also the BNP's mayoral candidate, who directed a gay porn film, HMS Discovery.

The party has high hopes of winning at least one - and possibly two - of the 11 Assembly seats elected under a London-wide system of proportional representation on 1 May. The party scored 4.7 per cent in the last Assembly elections in 2004 and needs around five per cent for one seat this time or eight per cent for two.

However, revelations about its candidates' backgrounds will undoubtedly damage the BNP's cause. Gerry Gable, publisher of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: "If it wasn't so serious, it would be absolutely hilarious. The candidate list includes lawbreakers, cranks and failed business people and is thus wholly representative of the BNP nationally."

Ms Woods, from Eltham, was convicted of contempt of court in 2004 after walking off a jury in the middle of a trial, claiming she had "lost faith" in British justice. Despite this, she was employed this year by the Legal Services Commission. In a letter published in last month's issue of the BNP magazine Identity, she said: "My previous assignment at UBS [the City bank] shocked me when I found myself surrounded by 'aliens'. The same was true at my Legal Services Commission assignment [and] reflects the real level of 'immigrant saturation' in the capital."

Ms Woods wrote that while working at the commission she objected to legal aid payments to solicitors handling immigration and asylum cases. She added: "Why should 'aliens' who have contributed nothing to this country have recourse to this fund? I can hardly bear to go about my business in London these days, it feels like a living nightmare."

A spokesman for the commission said: "Roberta Woods worked here for a brief period in a junior role. She was employed through an agency and we do not require agency staff to undergo a criminal record check. This policy is under review." Ms Woods refused to comment except to say: "Contempt of court is not a criminal conviction."

The BNP's website describes Mr Forster, 51, from Richmond, as an "events organiser".

But the website for his company, Psychic Events, says he "unlocks the power of the mind" and helps people by the "use of cards, crystal ball, psychometry, clairvoyance and mediumship to identify with important events and stages in their past and present and to develop opportunities and clearer vision for the fulfilment of their future".

It continues: "Chris's speciality is remote viewing of people, property or businesses, i.e. to accurately analyse at a distance."

Mr Forster is also described as "the regular tarot and crystal ball reader on Sky TV's Mystic Challenge", a game show where three mystics try to divine a secret about a hidden mystery guest. When contacted by the Standard, Mr Forster said: "Oh dear, oh dear. I wondered how long it would be before that came out." He added: "If I wanted to predict what would happen on 1 May it would be a gut feeling. I'm not going to use the tarot cards and crystal ball."

Mr Rustem, a BNP councillor in Barking, is half-Turkish and was born Timucin Rustem. His membership has been a sore point for BNP hardliners such as Paul Golding, the then editor of Identity, who was expelled from the party after physically attacking Mr Rustem. Julian Leppert, another BNP Assembly candidate and the party's 2004 candidate for Mayor, said Mr Rustem was "okay" because he was only "half-wog".

Mr Rustem insisted to the Standard that Mr Leppert was "joking" and said: "I'm in the BNP because I'm standing up for what I believe in. My political history is something that serves the party."

Mr Clarke sought election as a BNP candidate in Merton in 2006 but used a false address on his nomination papers to get round the rule that council candidates must live or work in the borough. As his current biography on the BNP website confirms, he actually lives in Croydon. After the Standard exposed the front address used by Mr Clarke, as well as another BNP candidate and the BNP supporter who actually lived there, Merton council called the police. Asked why the BNP was claiming three men and their families lived in the two-bedroom maisonette, a party spokesman said: "People live in all sorts of ways these days."

Mr Barnbrook told the Standard: "HMS Discovery was a film dealing with sexuality; it was not porn. What you write about the BNP in the media makes no difference. We will get one, possibly two, seats on the Assembly."

Asked if Mr Forster had ever foreseen a time in his crystal ball when Britain had no ethnic minorities, he said: "No, I don't think so. He's married to a Chinese woman."

Evening Standard

Give us a lift, Jace

After last weekend’s fiasco in Havering the BNP have turned their attention to Redbridge once again. Yes that’s the borough whose solitary BNP councillor Julian Leppert fled to Loughton soon after he was elected.

The weekend’s effort towards the party’s London Assembly election campaign is being organised by Councillor Robert Bailey, deputy to the BNP’s Mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook on Barking and Dagenham Council. Bailey seems to have trouble finding his way around Redbridge. He has told his minions to assemble outside Snaresbrook tube station in High Street, Redbridge, at 11am on the Saturday and Sunday of the Easter weekend. This is odd as there is no such place as High Street, Redbridge. Well it’s a long way from Algiers, which Bailey knows much better than Redbridge or even Barking and Dagenham.

He personally should not have trouble finding the BNP’s rendezvous point as he can avail himself of the services of Jason Douglas, football thug and cab driver, who has done “the knowledge” so should know his way around. That’s if he still has his cab driver’s licence after last weekend when he used his taxi to stalk two young women. Actually we wonder how he got his licence in the first place, with at least two convictions under his belt for violence connected to football.

Still, the BNP should feel at home in the shadow of Snaresbrook Crown Court, where Tony “the mad bomber” Lecomber received his second three-year prison sentence. That one was not for bombs but for beating up, together with five of his mates, a young Jewish school teacher at another local tube station, Gants Hill.

We expect we’ll be paying more on our council tax bills for the cost of the council washing down the streets after the BNP leaves.

Stop the BNP

A quick look at the BNP's week...

(Not counting large demonstrations against it and its friends)

BNP said nothing about allotments

There's an interesting letter in the Ilford Recorder this week from one William F. Marten, pointing out how the BNP will lie without a qualm to the voters to attempt to con them into believing that the party's councillors actually do something good from time to time (they don't). The letter refers to Julian Leppert, the BNP's last candidate for London Mayor.

'With reference to your article, "Shock as BNP take credit for allotment 'victory'" (Recorder, last week), I was at the town hall with plot-holding friends when the allotment sales matter was referred back to cabinet.

I know that BNP councillor Julian Leppert did not speak on the matter, and I don't think he asked to speak either. He did vote the right way, but that is as far as his support for allotments went.

It isn't unusual for the BNP to claim credit for things that they have done nothing to achieve. Not the behaviour of an honest political party.

Quite a few of my family live in Hainault. Two uncles have allotments there. They aren't left-wingers, but they are disgusted by Cllr Leppert's claims.

To the best of their knowledge he has never visited the allotments nor spoken to anyone on the sites. They are outraged that he is now claiming credit for the allotment "victory".

In any case there is no victory yet. Allotment sales go back to the cabinet in January. I think it highly likely that our out of touch cabinet members, egged on by certain officers with their minds on bigger, prestige projects, will still try to sell New North Road, Goodmayes and Vicarage Lane South allotments. It is a massive threat to the quality of life in Redbridge. But do they care? I fear not.'

Bravo William, for having the decency to point out the truth!

Richard Barnbrook fails to please (as usual)

Talking of Mayoral candidates, there was disappointment for fans of the dancing diva, Dicky Barnbrook, when he turned up at the recent Civic Reception a week or so ago without his usual arm candy (Simone Clarke, the other dancing diva in the BNP) and, not even bothering to hire an escort for the night, sat on his own and downed a hefty three bottles of wine along with his dinner before storming out in a huff at being ignored all night by his so-called comrades in the BNP.

And what was the disappointment? That he didn't give a repeat performance of his exhibition last year, when he took over the entire dance floor a la John Travolta, complete with terrible white suit.

And finally...

The BNP wins an award (at last)

Yes, the party of free speech and accountability (ho-ho) has received an award from the St Albans and Harpenden Review. The Kim Jong-il delusional politician award, to be exact.

'The winner is the British National Party. The BNP and its "army" of keyboard supporters appeared online to support an article about the right wing extremists. They are here to protect us all apparently. They will ensure that England keeps its identity. The same fanatics pop up whenever any article mentioning the party appears anywhere. They all pretend to be local supporters, yet when the by-election comes round, the BNP usually finishes behind the Monster Raving Loonies with four votes.'

How we love sarcasm. Well done to the BNP for the award. It couldn't have gone to a more deserving party.

United on screen in war on racism

Faith groups across Redbridge have joined forces on the TV screen to take a stand against racism. A video entitled Rise and Fall Of Racism has been produced for Redbridge Racial Equality Council (RREC) and was officially launched last week at Redbridge Town Hall.

Satnam Singh, of RREC, said: "Reports of racist incidents were said to have gone up in schools, but recently we've found they've fallen generally. We're not sure if it's because racism itself is falling or whether people just aren't reporting incidents. That's what this film aims to do - raise awareness of the need to report racism. It also provides a chance to hear different views on the problems."

But among the contributors is Hainault British National Party (BNP) Cllr Julian Leppert, who gives his view on racism problems locally. Cllr Leppert said: "The result is pretty much how I expected it to be. People have an obvious agenda. I guess I'm on it to make it more interesting and spice it up a bit. It mentions the Stephen Lawrence case, which is now 14 years old and for which no one was ever caught, yet down the road in Barking a few years ago, a white man called Christopher Yates was killed by three Asian men, yet this doesn't get a mention."

Mr Singh said Cllr Leppert had been approached about appearing in the video in order to ensure it was balanced. Other contributors in the film include Redbridge Council leader Cllr Alan Weinberg, Redbridge Police Chief Insp Carl Lindley as well as members of different faith groups, including Jagdev Purewal of the Punjabi Centre in Ley Street, Ilford.

Mr Purewal said: "I spoke about two things - one was about wearing a turban and being called a Paki. It's youngsters that do it, as they don't know the difference between a Pakistani and an Indian. But I also said about how relations between faiths are improving. I've attended numerous weddings between black and white people as well as mixed-faith weddings."

Raj Channan of Ilford Hindu Centre in Cleveland Road, Ilford, also comments on the video. Footage is shown of Cllr Weinberg saying he "detests" the BNP and of an anti-BNP rally in neighbouring Barking and Dagenham.

The 25-minute film is being made available to community groups and schools, which already look at racism issues through citizenship lessons. Mr Singh said: "We hope to have a web link of the video available by the end of the month, so people can watch it themselves. It's all about raising awareness."

Ilford Recorder