Griffin stuffed

Enough to put ANYONE off their Christmas dinner...

Nick Griffin has today taken a right old stuffing after a judge ruled against him for the unfair dismissal of four former BNP employees. The BNP leader has been ordered to pay £45,000 in court costs within 28 days and pay another £40,000 in compensation to Steve Blake, Kenny Smith, Ian Dawson, and Nichola Smith. Some commentators believe his own legal fees could reach as much as £30,000.

It is also worth remembering that the BNP has still not paid the compensation for unfair dismissal to Michaela McKenzie, despite being ordered to do so last June. The compensation and legal fees is believed to have run into the tens of thousands.

All in all, it's turning out to be a pretty awful Christmas for Griffin.

Hope not hate

Note: The full judgement is here for those who wish to read it. Thanks to all who sent in the link.

Woe is Nick - accounts late, Collett charges dropped, Decembrists return from the grave

Despite promise after promise that this year it would be different, the BNP has yet again failed to submit an annual statement of accounts to the Electoral Commission, incurring an automatic minimum £500 fine. The party's Regional Accounting Unit has also failed to submit accounts and will be fined a minimum of £100.

In a statement made earlier today (Thursday) by the Electoral Commission, Chief Executive Peter Wardle said:

Most parties and accounting units submitted their accounts on time; one [the SDLP] made what we hope will prove to be a one-off mistake and will face a fine for late submission. But two parties have repeatedly failed to put information about their income and expenditure into the public domain on time.

That is not acceptable, and as well as fining these two parties for late submission, we will be monitoring them closely to try to ensure they meet the same standards of reporting as the others. The sanctions we currently have available to deal with this sort of non-compliance are limited, but we look forward to Parliament giving final approval to a wider range of sanctions, before the end of this year.

Joining the BNP in the doghouse is the tiny Christian Party.

Should the BNP fail to submit its accounts within the next three months the fines levied on the party will double, as they did last year when the party played fast and loose with the EC's patience (and its own members' subscriptions and donations).

Ever since the spotlight fell firmly on the BNP's finances post-general election, Nick Griffin has been going out of his way to give an impression that all is well and that this year the accounts, now - allegedly - under the management of a professional accountant, would be submitted as required. Griffin must have been aware for some time that this would not be the case.

Cynics dissecting the series of self-serving treatises put out by Griffin post-election, forecast that the BNP accounts would again be late, since Griffin continually harped on about the complexity of the party's financial operations and the difficulties inherent in keeping them in order, and seemed to be laying down an advance trail of plausible excuses.

This may also explain why a clearly uncomfortable David Hannam, the party's national treasurer, has been pushed to the fore in the past week, being chivvied, we strongly suspect, into making a video for the BNP website and issuing a statement on behalf of his treasury department which promises much but clarifies little. The emailed version is "From Chairman Nick Griffin", and while we don't suppose he did more than outline what he expected the statement to contain, it's also difficult to believe that Hannam's is the only hand involved.

Nick Griffin having conveniently departed the country for a holiday, explanations for the lateness of the BNP's accounts will be sought from Hannam, who may be wondering if he hasn't been set up for a fall.

(For a fuller examination of this matter, see Sonia Gable's HNH/Searchlight article, republished here.)

In the meantime...


Humberside Police have dropped charges against sacked BNP publicity director Mark Collett (above, with Griffin), according to a post on leadership challenger Eddy Butler's blog. Collett was arrested on April 1st after Griffin had contacted the police claiming to have received death threats. A police statement made after Collett was bailed said: "This investigation was initiated as a result of a complaint by a member of the British National Party and inquiries are ongoing."

Clearly, no, or insufficient, evidence existed upon which a charge could be sustained.

At the time Nick Griffin sent out a hysterical email linking Collett not only with the utterance of alleged death threats but with financial impropriety and of being part of a "palace coup" about to be staged against his leadership. Despite claiming that he was unable to discuss the matter due to rules of "sub judice" (which was untrue), Griffin (ignoring sub judice as it suited him) instigated a widely ridiculed "inquiry" that was held on Easter Monday (April 5th), in which twelve dupes were sent off to "authenticate" a highly edited recording of the "death threats". Naturally, they gave the required answer.

Along with Collett, Eddy Butler and Emma Colgate were dismissed from their posts, and it is now apparent that the entire saga relates not to "death threats", the misappropriation of BNP monies on Collet's part or to "palace coups" but to allegations of serious financial wrong-doing at the top of the BNP, of which the trio had become aware.

News of Collett's arrest was deliberately leaked to the media from within the BNP just as the party's general and local election campaign was set to launch. How much damage was done to the BNP's vote as a result, and how much it was responsible for the loss of so many BNP councillors is difficult to tell, since we believe the BNP was always on course for a hiding at the ballot box.

It is self-evident to all but the most blind and sycophantic of Griffinites that the dodgy "death threat" episode, played out in the press and on television, was an enormous own goal on the part of the leadership, far more damaging than the fleeting loss of the party's website just before polling day. People may go to political websites in their hundreds, but they read newspapers and watch television in their millions.

With the charges dropped and any loyalties he might have held for Nick Griffin shattered, Mark Collett may well end his prolonged silence on the affair, an eventuality that on the surface can only benefit Eddy Butler. Butler is closer to Collett than he cares to admit, and thus far the Nazi Boy has been a peripheral, almost invisible figure, with very good reason. Collett is so widely reviled within the BNP that any open association between him and Butler would seriously damage Butler's leadership campaign. His open involvement in the campaign would almost certainly kill it. Collett, then, is of limited use to Butler, no matter how innocent he may be of the charges levelled against him by Griffin - though he may yet damage Griffin to the favour of Butler in an apparently independent "off stage" role.

The weight on Griffin's mind has been added to by news that the final part of the case he instigated (and has so far roundly lost) against the December Rebels will be heard at the High Court in Newcastle on November 29th.

Kenny Smith, one of the leading Decembrists, has reactivated the derelict Enough Is Enough website to announce that "Judgement Day is coming!"

Remarking that Griffin and Simon Darby "have tried every trick in the book, and indeed continue to invent new ways of delaying proceedings, to prevent the case they instigated at the Party's expense coming to trial", Smith gleefully adds:

Sadly for them, but happily for those who want to see justice done and the truth finally revealed in full, the trial has been fixed to start on Monday the 29th November 2010 at Newcastle High Court.

Kenny, Nicholla, Steve and Ian are all looking forward to their days in court and finally being able to expose Griffin and his cabal for what they are!

The Decembrists, somewhat pre-empted as Griffinite bugging of their private conversations led to the exposure of their intentions, launched the last serious attempt at unseating Nick Griffin, but the campaign soon floundered through indecision and the want of firm leadership. Then as now, Griffin began expelling or suspending individual Decembrists on eminently challengable grounds. At the time we observed that just one challenge to Griffin's worthless writs of expulsion would stop him in his tracks and galvanise support for the rebels as hesitant individual members lost their fear of the Leader's edicts. It is a lesson Eddy Butler's supporters have failed to learn, as they allow themselves to be picked off one by one.

Griffin's smothering tactics worked at the time but disguised the extent of latent discontent within the party. Seemingly united for the Euro election campaign, the cracks soon began to show as the false foundations on which the Euro success had been built were exposed by ever worsening votes which reflected the BNP's true electoral position, and by Griffin's inept approach to the EHRC case. The awful Question Time appearance, the dislodging of PPCs in favour of party "names", the wild allegations against Collett, thuggish behaviour towards journalists and others, the needless courting of Unilever litigation, the general and local election rout have all done for Griffin what the Decembrists never could.

He did it all himself. And if he really were a leader of vision, the genius of strategy he is so frequently claimed to be, then he would have known that cutting off the Decembrist head while smothering Decembrist sentiment would leave hundreds within the BNP to brood and bide their time.

That they have done, for what else is Eddy Butler's campaign but the second coming of the Decembrists, with new leadership, bigger and badder than ever?

British National Party required to explain ‘inadequate’ accounts

The British National Party’s former treasurer could face criminal proceedings for delivering “inadequate accounts” to the Electoral Commission

The BNP’s 2008 accounts finally emerged three weeks before the fine for their late submission to the Electoral Commission would have doubled to £2,000.

Like the 2007 accounts, the latest financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the state of the party’s affairs at 31 December 2008 and of the year’s results, in the opinion of Silver & Co, the party’s regular auditors. However this year the BNP had no easy target to blame of the likes of Kenny Smith, one of the leaders of the party’s internal rebellion in winter 2006, who was used as the excuse for failings in both the 2006 and 2007 accounts.

In 2008 the party simply could not get its act together. As Nick Griffin, the party chairman, explained in his introduction to the accounts, soon after June 2008, when Jenny Noble took over as party treasurer from John Walker, it “became apparent that the task of maintaining central office accounts had become too big for any one individual”. So the job was “outsourced” to “an independent Chartered Accountant and Accounts Technician with the aim of presenting acceptable accounts for the accounting year 2009”.

In other words the BNP gave up on the 2008 accounts, though Griffin admitted lamely: “We recognize that it is not acceptable to present inadequate accounts”.

The failure meant that the accounts not only did not give a true and fair view but also did not “comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as adequate records have not been made available”. In 2007 the accounts did comply with the PPERA, despite not giving a true and fair view.

A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission told Searchlight that they had “a number of concerns” about the financial statements and the inadequate records referred to in Griffin’s report and have urgently requested more detailed information about the inadequacies from the party’s auditors. The BNP has until 8 January to reply, after which the Electoral Commission will consider what further action to take.

Under the PPERA 2000 the party’s treasurer on 31 December 2008, the last day of the accounting period concerned, commits a criminal offence by not complying with the regulations governing party accounts. Although the 2008 accounts are presented by Philip Reddall, he was appointed BNP treasurer only in autumn 2009. At the end of 2008 Noble was still the treasurer, until she was shunted out in April 2009 to run the Trafalgar Club, a task she appears to have performed with similar lack of success.

Her only defence, if the Electoral Commission decides to prosecute, would be that she took all reasonable steps and exercised due diligence to ensure the accounts were adequate, or that the failures were attributable to the period before she became treasurer and she did her best to put things right.

Despite the unreliability of the accounts, the figures are very interesting as they prove that the BNP has lied repeatedly to its members and donors.

The BNP started its main fundraising drive at the tail end of 2007 and built it up throughout 2008 with a number of appeals for objectives such as the launch of its provocatively racist Racism Cuts Both Ways booklet, the May 2008 election campaign and the notorious Truth Truck appeal.

The accounts show that the party did indeed raise more money than ever before. Income from donations and fundraising activities (the distinction is unclear) amounted to £688,764 compared to £221,456 in 2007.

Nevertheless the party ended the year with a loss of £82,642, an increase of £32,000 over the previous year’s loss. It was also a far cry from the £100,000 profit claimed in June 2009 by Jim Dowson, the militant anti-abortion campaigner behind the BNP’s fundraising efforts, who controls its Belfast telesales centre and other essential party functions. It was Dowson too who supplied the “independent chartered accountant”, John Thompson, who works for Dowson’s various business interests in Belfast, now charged with getting the BNP’s books into better shape for 2009.

The loss left the BNP bankrupt to the tune of £168,233. While that may not be much compared to some political parties, it is a significant proportion of the party’s turnover of under £1 million and the latest in a trend of growing losses. To stay afloat the party continued to raid the funds of its branches and groups, stayed in arrears with its tax and VAT payments and relied on the advance payment of membership subscriptions for the following year.

Far from spending the increased income on campaigning, most of the money has gone to paying party staff and propping up the party’s lacklustre publications and its failed Excalibur merchandising operation.

The start of 2008 had seen Excalibur’s move, to great acclaim, into new premises with a “vast array of new equipment”. At the end of the year Excalibur was out on its ear after Searchlight, in conjunction with Lancaster Unity and Wales Friends of Searchlight, had tracked it down to a Deeside Industrial Estate (click here for details).

According to the accounts, Excalibur’s stock, consisting of tatty, cringe-making and overpriced goods, including white mugs reading “I’m a white mug”, may have been worth £5,000 to £6,000 at the end of the year, but “the very nature of the stock raises questions as to its realisable value”. In other words, no one wants to buy them – even the BNP doesn’t have enough white mugs to buy its white mugs.

The total cost of the BNP’s “commercial activities”, consisting of Excalibur, Identity, Voice of Freedom and unspecified other printed material, amounted to £285,341 compared to income of £130,526, a loss of £125,000.

Staff wages and “professional fees” – a term that includes staff paid without accounting for income tax and national insurance – grew by over £100,000 compared to 2007. The accounts state there were 13 staff. Management and administration costs rose by £96,000 to £263,000. Rent and associated costs of the short-lived Excalibur unit undoubtedly pushed up this total.

Campaign expenditure was a mere £74,580, of which only £41,095 was on leaflets and £14,325 was the cost of fundraising. Back in March 2008 a BNP appeal letter asked for donations towards the 2008 London and local council election campaigns, promising that the London campaign would cost at least £80,000. That now emerges as another lie.

The party did buy £29,000 of equipment, far less than it made out when it moved into the Excalibur unit. It also spent £19,550 on buying vehicles. The figure does not include the “truth truck”, an advertising vehicle and trailer better known as the lie lorry. Contrary to statements in fundraising appeals that the lorry was “bought and paid for”, Searchlight established that the party was renting it from Dowson’s Adlorries.com business. The accounts do not refer to the “Truth Truck” by name but state that the party leases one vehicle under an agreement that does not give “rights approximating to ownership”.

The accounts also reveal some interesting non-financial details. The Young BNP was “defunct” during the year, “with the failed head being removed at the end of the year and replaced by a new team”. The reference is to the summary dismissal of Danny Lake and his replacement by Mike Howson, a man in his mid-forties, after Lake raised concerns about the “psychopathic” behaviour of Mark Bulman, an erratic and alcoholic teenage YBNP member who was also treasurer of Howson’s BNP branch.

The BNP’s security department is described as responsible for running party events “correctly to ensure the health and safety of all those attending”. This is the bunch of thugs who surround Griffin wherever he goes and have scant concern for the “health and safety” of those on the receiving end of their activities.

The South African influence remained strong, with both Arthur Kemp and Lance Stewart on the party’s 15-strong Advisory Council. Kemp is the BNP’s website editor and during 2008 was also in charge of Excalibur dispatch and “developing Voting Membership educational material”. Stewart, a former high-ranking officer in the South African Police, heads the BNP’s “Intelligence Department”.

BNP members, of whom the accounts state there were 9,801 at 31 December 2008, will not understand or care about the shambolic state of the BNP’s finances revealed in these statements, the potential criminal charges faced by the former treasurer or the proof that the party’s fundraising appeals were a pack of lies. They will not doubt go on pouring money into the bottomless and unaccountable pit that is the racist BNP.

Hope not hate

Army sack cadet officer after he is exposed as leader of BNP in Scotland

An army cadet officer who trained teenagers was drummed out after he was exposed as the leader of the BNP in Scotland.

A shocked mum complained to top brass after learning Company Sergeant Major Gary Raikes was the racist political party's top man. Raikes trained boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 as a part-time officer at the Army Cadet Force's 2nd Battalion C Company in Boddam, Aberdeenshire.

He was accused of abusing his position to peddle the far-right party's vile views.

The mum, from Turriff, said: "I withdrew my son after Raikes tried to use my child for one of his BNP stunts. He had the temerity to use one of the pictures on his sick website. It is disgusting and a misuse of trust. It is deeply worrying given he is making inroads into the vulnerable minds of children."

Raikes works for Scottish Water and lives in a caravan on a farm near Turriff with his wife Samantha. He said: "I have nothing to say about the army issue. It is nonsense to suggest I was trying to indoctrinate young cadets. The mainstream political parties are scared of us. It's a plot against us. I'm not saying any more. You'll say we're all racist anyway."

After the mum's complaint, army bosses asked Raikes to discuss the issue but he repeatedly failed to attend meetings and was eventually sacked.

An Army Scotland spokeswoman said: "We would not stop anyone from joining a political party but if those views do not accord with the views of the Army we would want to ensure that the person involved kept his beliefs to himself while training others, especially children. We wanted to discuss his views with him but he just never turned up again."

Raikes became the BNP's Scottish leader after UK chief Nick Griffin ousted Glasgow-based Kenny Smith in a bitter power struggle. Smith denies he was responsible for last week's leaking of the personal details of around 12,000 members - including Raikes, who is hated by those loyal to Smith

Sunday Mail

BNP's former top Scot denies list leak

A former Scottish secretary of the BNP has denied he is responsible for leaking the membership list which has triggered calls for some members to be sacked from their public sector jobs.

Kenny Smith, who lives in Falkirk, last night said: "There is absolutely no purpose for me in publishing a membership list. I spent my life protecting that information. I value the BNP members and I would never do such a thing. I haven't got the faintest idea who did do it, I honestly don't. I think whoever did it is despicable."

Mr Smith, who was expelled along with several other prominent members of the party last December, said he had been ousted for exposing incompetence and unprofessionalism within the party.

Publication of the 12,000-strong list – which includes around 450 Scots – yesterday led to the departure of Rod Lucas, a TalkSport radio DJ, and an investigation into alleged BNP links of a police constable in Liverpool. In Scotland, the BNP counts a doctor, ex-servicemen, a retired chief inspector and a driving instructor who offers discounts to fellow party members among its supporters.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's own constituency, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has a smattering of activists, while numbers are stronger in Glasgow. Two members of the Black Watch are also named on the year-old list.

The leak will worry those whose names are on the list, regardless of whether they work in the public sector or not. While it is legal to be a supporter of the party, its views ignite strong passions and private firms may be embarrassed to find their staff named as supporters of the party. There were reports that members had received abusive phone calls after the list found its way on to the internet.

The NASUWT teaching union said no member of the BNP should be left in charge of a classroom. Chris Keates, the union's general secretary, said: "I believe that the release of this list is nothing more than a cynical attempt by the BNP to present themselves as victims and to gain publicity for their vile agenda."

A ban is already in place on BNP members joining the police force or prison service, for fear of harming race relations. But Downing Street last night refused to be drawn on the position of public sector workers who had also been revealed as BNP members.

"This is really a matter for the relevant public sector professions. In relation to the police, membership of the BNP is prohibited," the Prime Minister's spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the party said the human rights of its activists had been breached. Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, said dissident former party executives suspected of leaking the organisation's membership risked going to prison. However, the National Union of Journalists accused the BNP of "staggering hypocrisy" over claims that the publication of the list of its members had breached their privacy. Jeremy Dear, the general secretary, said the BNP failed to condemn other websites which sought to intimidate journalists who exposed racist views of BNP members.

"We have never heard a single condemnation of this gross breach of privacy or unlawful harassment and intimidation from Nick Griffin or the BNP," he added.

Scotsman

Griffin wounded in Manchester Court battle?

As usual with any report coming from the BNP - whether it's from current or former members - it's difficult (and sometimes nigh on impossible) to separate the truth from the complete fantasy.

The bizarre Manchester High Court case is an illustration of this. On the one hand we have the leader and deputy leader of the BNP and on the other we have a smattering of six of the most popular and prominent rebel members of the BNP. Who do we believe?

None of them actually. But for your edification (and only because we believe this is closer to the truth than Nick Griffin could get in several lifetimes) we present the report from the Voice of Change website - edited only to insert a pound sign where the VoC idiots couldn't manage it and a slight change to the layout to make the article easier to read.

"Party finances dealt blow from Griffin's gamble

The current BNP leader, Nick Griffin may well have been awarded a boxing blue 25 years old from his Cambridge alma mater but the former Downing College southpaw was on the ropes yesterday at Manchester High Court. Although he was not counted out, his vexatious case against the so called "Young Turks", who had throughout 2007 raised serious misgivings about the way the BNP was being managed, was knocked into reality by the ruling of the Judge.

The six defendants were Steve Blake, former Party web editor, Ian Dawson, former Head of Group Support, Cllr. Sadie Graham, former Head of Group Development, Matt Single, former Security Training Officer, Kenny Smith, former Head of Party Administration and Nicholla Smith, former head of Excalibur merchandising.

The interlocutory hearing on the ninth floor of the modern new glass and steel cube in the heart of Manchester centred around three issues following the issue of Court proceedings by the two claimants, Nick Griffin and Simon Darby in March 2008:

• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny and Nicholla Smith regarding chattels alleged to be in their possession but owned by the British National Party.
• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny Smith relating to monies held in bank accounts in Scotland.
• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny Smith et al relating to an alleged breach of duties of confidence.

Just two weeks ago, the deputy leader (Mr. Darby) broadcast on his bird watching blog a conversation where Mr. Griffin misleads the blog's thoroughly decent listeners by admitting:

'...I think that certainly our counsel were fairly amazed and the judge didn't seem over-impressed when Davies [defendant's counsel] got up and was saying that under the terms of the Act of Union, one of the provisions in that is that an English court doesn't have jurisdiction in Scotland. Now obviously one knows they have a different legal system there, that's fair enough, but the idea that that could be used to prevent an action against a group of defendants when the action is about the same issue, when a couple of those defendants are in Scotland, is really stretching the point.

We could bring a separate action in Scotland, but that, of course, doubles the costs. Now, if that was allowed, what it would mean is a matter of public policy if it was allowed, is that can you imagine any smallish business, any charity, any political party or association, anyone at all, could simply say because of that risk we can't employ someone from north of the border, and conversely, any Scottish business, charity or whatever is going to say well because of the rift the other way round, we can't employ anyone from south of the border.

It would drive a huge wedge in the fundamental economic unity of the British Isles, and it would lead to enormous discrimination against Scots in England, and against people in Scotland being employed in England and vice versa. It would be astounding if that was allowed, to be honest. But Mr Davies is arguing, and what his clients may not realise, is that every hour he takes up arguing on that point, if it's knocked out the costs of that will go directly against them, basically no questions asked. So, it's a very reckless game I think.'

Kapow

The would-be bruiser was a loser on this point. In contrast to Griffin's imagined economic destruction of crossborder Anglo-Scottish trade it took His Honour Judge Pelling several hours of learned discourse and deliberation to rule on the following:

• The English courts have no jurisdiction over chattels held by a Scots defendant (i.e. Kenny and/or Nicholla Smith) domiciled in Scotland where those chattels are located in Scotland.
• The English courts have no jurisdiction over monies held in bank accounts located in branches of multinational banks such as Lloyds-TSB or Scottish incorporated banks such as the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
• The English courts do however have jurisdiction over the defendant Kenny Smith regarding the alleged breach of duty of confidence because the action was brought jointly against English defendants.

It was 2:1 to the defendants and their counsel on this point. In short, Griffin's legal team bungled by failing to observe the special relationship of the Scottish legal system. The Judge ruled that each party (claimant and defendant) should pay their own costs of the day's proceedings. BNP donors may be dismayed and disgusted to learn that the claimant's counsel told the Judge that the cost so far to the BNP membership is the princely sum of £30,000 [Oddly, exactly the equivalent of 1000 membership fees]. Court proceedings are in the public domain and that figure from the claimant's counsel can readily be verified.

It was also a politically damaging decision as it exposes the claimant's fundamental lack of understanding of the make up of the governance of Great Britain, an issue of key importance to any ambitious leader of the foremost British Nationalist party.

Goodwill

In a display of goodwill which one can only expect to come from decent and honourable British nationalists the two Scottish defendants, Nicholla and Kenny Smith freely offered to the Court that to spare the leadership any further embarrassment and further legal actions in Scotland, which the Party could ill afford, the chattels claimed by Mr. Griffin could be uplifted at a mutually convenient time. A date and time has been agreed and the chattels will be collected.

Likewise two of the other defendants offered up chattels in their possession, including offering items that the bungling claimants had either overlooked or failed to account for. The duty of care that the claimants have over assets purchased using BNP donors' money has been exposed in this case to be, at the very least found wanting, at worst a complete and incompetent mess.

In a reciprocal arrangement, items of personal property unlawfully removed during a raid in December 2007 by BNP security personnel from the house of former Group Development Officer, Cllr Sadie Graham have also begun to be returned.

Round Two

Round One has ended with a massive blow to the Party finances, coming at a very bad time in the run up to the all important London Assembly elections and donors are right to express criticism of the Leader's misguided and vexatious course of action.

The bad news for everyone concerned is that yesterday's proceedings were not the end of the matter. Round two of Griffin's petulant action against former officers of the Party is due to take place at some point in the near future and centres around the alleged breach of confidence by some or all of the defendants. The charges are vigourously denied by the defendants but the matter is sub judice so that is all that can be said on the matter.

Hard working BNP members who make donations to the party expect the money to be used to push the Party forward at elections and to develop the internal infrastructure. They have every right to have misgivings about Mr. Griffin's plan to seemingly drag the Party's finances into the red on the back of a personal vendetta against former Party officials. Such a course of destructive action is even more extraordinary in the light of the very real damage to the Party as a result of the joint BBC-Labour Party infiltration of branches in West Yorkshire which led to the Secret Agent programme culminating in two free speech trials. No action was ever taken by Griffin against the infiltrators and their collaborators.

Whether Mr. Griffin will bounce back or be flat on his back on the canvass depends on at least another day in a civil court room in Manchester."

The BNP feud gets messier as it acknowledges a Searchlight mole in its leadership

BNP leader Nick Griffin is reeling under media expose of the feud which is ripping the party apart. After a week of total silence the press appears to be falling over itself to report on the crisis and Griffin is not coming out of it well. Channel Four More news even asked whether this was the end of the road for the BNP leader.

Meanwhile, inside the BNP, accusations and recriminations continue to fly. The rebel faction have sent out a newsletter to every party member while the leadership has reproduced, on the party website, the contents of emails which they claim prove that the rebels were hacking into emails of party officials before they were expelled.

If ordinary members didn’t know about the crisis engulfing the party before then they do now.

Christmas is already a busy time for the police but it more appears that they are going to be diverted from tackling criminals on the street to dealing with illegality within the BNP. A quick summary of the allegations being thrown around include:

·

The BNP illegally recording a telephone conversation between Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith

The BNP gained access to Sadie Graham’s house by deception

BNP security took personal property belonging to Sadie Graham without her consent

The BNP leadership have been trawling through Sadie Graham’s computer, even opening new emails, in contravention of the Data Protection Act

Steve Blake as been illegally accessing email accounts of BNP party officials, including those of Nick Griffin

Scott McLean has forged a BNP disciplinary letter

Kenny Smith has removed £4,000 from the BNP Lottery account after he was removed from his party position

Kenny Smith and Sadie Graham have broken the Data Protection Act by sending out an unauthorised mailing to all BNP members

While Searchlight cannot comment of the validity of all of these claims but merely factually report what has been written, it is clear that the BNP is in trouble.

If that wasn’t enough the BNP has now posted this new claim on its party website: “For well over a year, the BNP has been aware that there has been a mole from the Communist Searchlight Magazine in the Advisory Council.”

Now, on that, I cannot possibly comment.

Nick Lowles, Stop The BNP

Spying claims rock BNP

The British National Party has been engulfed by a bitter internal row with around 50 senior figures resigning the party whip amid claims the leadership has been spying on private emails and telephone calls.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right group, is facing widespread criticism over his handling of the situation, while police confirmed yesterday they were investigating claims that a BNP security team stole files and computer equipment from the home of a regional official.

The Labour MP Jon Cruddas has written to the head of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, calling for an inquiry into what he claims are "criminal activities involving senior members" of the party.

"The BNP leadership is showing us its true colours," said Cruddas, who is expected to raise the matter in the House of Commons today. "They appear to be monitoring phone calls and emails of their members and removing computers from private households. This is not the behaviour of a normal political party and I would like to see the police investigate this."

Simon Derby, the BNP's national spokesman, denied the party had done anything illegal and said the equipment that was taken belonged to the party. He said the situation had been "a bit messy" but the people involved had been plotting a coup against Griffin and needed to be challenged. A line would be drawn under the issue over the coming weeks, he said.

"As far as nationalist politics is concerned there is still only one show in town," he said.

A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire police said: "Nottinghamshire police is investigating the alleged theft of a computer taken from the home of a former BNP councillor. The investigation is ongoing and there is no further information at this time."

Tensions came to a head when two key organisers, Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith, were accused of plotting an inept and ill-timed coup. Graham, who is a BNP councillor in Broxtowe in the east Midlands as well as the BNP's group development officer, claims the party secretly bugged her home. She said the BNP's inner intelligence unit then "tricked" their way into her house when she was out, taking files and computer equipment.

The party's website ran a recording of a conversation between Graham and Smith, who were subsequently sacked for "gross misconduct".

The BNP has insisted Graham's home was not bugged, but rather that she had accidentally dialled a number on her mobile phone that led to the conversation being recorded.

"I think we can call it a catastrophic error on her part," said Derby.

Graham claims she has public support of around 50 officers and councillors, and the private backing of many more BNP members.

According to Nick Lowles, an anti-fascist campaigner from Searchlight, large sections of the party across the north of England and Scotland are now openly hostile to Griffin and the current BNP leadership. "This has become a very serious split and it is difficult to see how the two sides can be reconciled without one group leaving the party," he said.

Guardian

Internal splits threaten BNP's chances in London Assembly poll

The British National Party is gripped by civil war amid bitter personality clashes and claims of dirty tricks by rival factions.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right party, is facing vehement criticism of his stewardship. The party has hopes of winning seats in the London Assembly next year. Tensions within party ranks came to a head when two key organisers were accused of plotting a coup against Mr Griffin and sacked for "gross misconduct". But they have been backed by at least 50 activists and councillors, setting the scene for a struggle for control of the party. The rebels insist they are loyal to the BNP, but some observers suspect another extreme right-wing grouping could emerge to challenge the party.

Activists' anger focuses on two of Mr Griffin's allies – Mark Collett, the party's director of publicity, and Dave Hannam, its regional organiser – and the BNP leader's support for them. The criticism has been led by Sadie Graham, the head of group development, and Kenny Smith, head of administration. The pair were removed from their posts following an investigation by the BNP's "intelligence team" which was alleged to have tricked its way into Ms Graham's home and taken away computers.

She and Mr Smith were dismissed for setting up an "anti-BNP smear blog" and for plotting a "spectacularly ill-timed and amateurish alleged coup attempt". An email written by Ms Smith and a recording of a conversation between the pair have been posted on the BNP website to substantiate the claim.

Simon Darby, the BNP spokesman, said last night: "They have been caught out getting involved in some very unsavoury business. You have to have discipline in a political party or you have chaos."

The exiles have retaliated by calling for a grassroots revolution to take control of the party. They say that, despite record numbers of councillors, BNP morale has hit an all-time low. They are calling on sympathisers to stay in the BNP, but to resign from party positions and not to renew their membership for the moment. Councillors are urged to quit the party whip and describe themselves as "independent Nationalists".

The rebel faction says: "This fight is for our country and our people as much as it is for the party we love."

The BNP was itself born out of a feud when the right-wing National Front imploded in the 1980s. After struggling to make an impact for a decade, it secured its first council seat in 1993 in Tower Hamlets, London. But it languished until 1999 when Mr Griffin became leader and set about modernising the party. It achieved a breakthrough in Burnley in 2003, when it won three council seats.

Its progress has been steady, but not spectacular, over the past four years. Its strategists believe it is now well placed to win seats in the London Assembly and the European Parliament. After last year's local elections the party had 55 councillors, the most in its history but below its expectations before the contest.

Mr Darby insisted that 90 per cent of BNP members were not interested in the in-fighting and that the storm would "blow over".

Nick Lowles, spokesman for the anti-fascist group Searchlight, said: "This is a very serious split and one I cannot see being reconciled. One side or another is going to leave the party."

Independent

J’accuse! Chairman Griffin rails against his detractors

BNP leader Nick Griffin breaks his silence on the split that is tearing his party apart. David Williams looks at his outburst against the plotters:

Griffin’s appalling lack of judgement has precipitated an internal crisis within the BNP, the magnitude of which has already spiralled beyond his control. Having done so he proceeded to make things worse by simply maintaining a monastic silence whilst his minions scurried too and fro silencing internal debate leaving minor members and voters rather bewildered as to what on earth was going on. Griffin’s failure to provide leadership at this vital time has damaged his authority within the BNP further.

However, in yet another wonderfully ill-judged decision Griffin has now gone on the offensive against the “bitter betrayal” he evidently feels he has suffered.

Griffin lays the blame for this “unpardonable sin of running to wash dirty linen” in public on a small clique of “middle management”. This might be some comfort to his internal enemies who only on Sunday were dismissed as “junior members”. Having been sacked Griffin has now promoted them. How odd. The truth is of course that most of them were senior members of the party who sat on its twenty strong advisory committee. Still Griffin has never been one to let true get in the way of a good lie.

Off on a trip down memory lane Griffin opines how only he knows true pain of self-sacrifice for the cause having once felled trees and stacked shelves whilst leading the BNP in 2001. After Jackie Griffin told the world her husband had never done and honest days work in his life we’d had him marked down as a lazy so and so. To give him his due though, trying to promote race riots in Oldham in 2001 whilst stacking shelves must have been more demanding on his time than we had previously thought.

Ever the martyr Griffin whinges that its “tough at the top” but this ungrateful bunch of malefactors who have it easy have been well paid for doing “what was expected”. In other words, you’ve been paid so shut up. Continuing his astonish rant Griffin states categorically that paid party officials have a “soft ride” and have “no proper checks on expenses claims. No mileage forms or activity sheets to complete. No clocking in. No one holding target setting and review sessions. It was taken on trust.” In short Griffin is openly boasting that under his leadership there has been no internal audit of officials expenses. Where the money comes from and where it goes is it seems of no concern to him. With accountancy procedures such as these the BNP could find itself in dire financial trouble. Oh, wait a minute. It is! No wonder Griffin and his minions have been quick to accuse Kenny Smith of responsibility for the sum of £17,000, which appears to have gone missing. Could this explain why the BNP accounts have not been submitted yet?

And yet, and I’m trying not to laugh whilst typing this, Griffin has the chutzpah to accuse his detractors of trying orchestrate a “palace coup” against him because he was trying to bring their cushy little number to a close!

I must be missing something here. I thought that Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith not to mention Ian Dawson were expelled precisely because they had questioned the financial competence of the Treasury team and indeed the honesty of publicity director Mark Collett.

Clearly Griffin still subscribes to Goebbels’ dictum that if you’re going to tell lies tell a Big Lie. And this one, even by his standards of dishonesty is a whopper.

Griffin has the honesty at least to admit that he wasn’t “blameless” for the splits that tore the National Front apart in the 1980s. He even states that he and Martin Wingfield can “laugh” about it now. One wonders if he found it quite so funny at the time when Nick Griffin said some truly appalling things about both Wingfield and his wife. We remember Martin, do you? And if you do one has to ask, where’s your self respect? That’s your wife he was talking about!

In a final lie before returning to the theme of how bright the future looks Griffin remarks on an e-mail Sadie Graham appears to have sent to Steve Blake which he uses as evidence of a conspiracy to “prove” that Sadie is a “wrong ‘un” who sought to paint his beloved Dave Hannam in an unfair light. In truth all she did was to stop taking the flak for his mistakes by covering for his incompetence anymore. Fair enough you might think.

The emerging rival BNP faction – those that Griffin hasn’t already expelled – was appalled by their chairman’s diatribe against them. Ian Dawson responded for them stating that the “betrayal” was his not theirs. It was his utter failure to deal with the real problem i.e. the financial incompetence of the Treasury and the obnoxious wrecking ball personality of Nazi boy Mark Collett that had brought them and the BNP to this impasse.

Dawson threw Griffin’s words back at him. His claim that they were trying to stage a coup was “a fiction of your imagination” when in fact all they had done was to protest against the BNP being run as “a little boys club” for which they were hounded out by “your South African Intelligence Department” led by Lance Stewart.

Far from them giving succour to “Communist thugs” it was Griffin who had done so by allowing Collett the freedom to parade his noxious views and low mentality in front of TV audiences time and time again. He also pointed out Griffin’s hypocrisy for airing his own dirty linen in public. After all shortly after Chris Jackson’s failed leadership challenge didn’t Griffin label the 10% of the BNP that supported Jackson were “vermin”?

Hitting back at Griffin’s “pathetic” claim that his minions were all well paid for their work Dawson stated that he earned £14,000 a year from the party, a rather stingy salary by anyone’s recognisance which precluded incidentals such as mileage etc. Dawson also claimed that working 70 hours a week plus (considerably more than Griffin no doubt) was not a “soft ride”.

Dawson’s parting shot was to ask after Griffin’s henchman gained entry to Sadie Graham’s home by deceiving her friend and fellow BNP organiser Nina Brown to steal her computer “how any BNP member or Official could ever trust you again.” Given his track record of vicious sectarianism, dishonesty and dissimulation we find it hard to believe that any of them believed Griffin in the first place.

Stop the BNP

And the list of BNP resignations just carries on growing...

A bit of a messy post here but I thought an update would be of interest to our readers along with the statement of what happened by Nina Brown (ex-East Mids Regional Secretary & Broxtowe Organiser).

Brian Riley (Glasgow Organiser)
Charlie Baillie (Glasgow Fundholder)
Cllr Chris Beverley (Yorkshire Elections Officer, Leeds Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Cllr Dave Brown (Broxtowe)
Cllr Nina Brown (East Mids Regional Secretary & Broxtowe Organiser)
Cllr Roger Robertson (South East Regional Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Cllr Sadie Graham (Head of Group Development & East Mids Regional Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Danny Lake (YBNP Leader)
Dave Taylor (Bradford Contact)
Ian Dawson (Yorkshire Regional Secretary, Former Head of Group Support & Advisory Council Member)
Kenny Smith (Head of Administration & Scottish Regional Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Kieran Dinsmore (Ulster Regional Organiser)
Malcolm Porter (West Lindsay Fundholder)
Mark Payne (Former Assistant National Treasurer)
Mark Wain (Melton & Rutland Press Officer)
Matt Single (Department of Security Secretary & Training Officer)
Michael Clarke (Ashfield Organiser)
Neil Craig (Bradford Organiser)
Nicholla Smith (Managing Director of Excalibur & Falkirk Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Robert Walker (Huddersfield Organiser)
Sammy Shaw (Falkirk Fundholder)
Scott McLean (Former Deputy Chairman & Scottish Regional Organiser & Advisory Council Member)
Steve Blake (Web Editor & Head of Education & Training & Advisory Council Member)
Steve Thomson (Aberdeen Organiser)
Peter Piling (Burnley fundholder)
Gary Pudsey (Bridlington Organiser)
Stuart Russell (Former National Press Officer & Advisory Council Member)
Doncaster BNP

If you hear of any more, please let us know via the comments section.

Statement from Nina Brown

I wish to clarify the situation that led to the “raid” on Sadies home and the removal of her personal computer and various other items.

For a couple of years I have been a keyholder to Sadie’s house, originally to feed her cat whilst she was away on holiday, but more recently for local organisers to pick up their monthly orders of the Voice of Freedom, Identity, campaign leaflets etc during Sadies absence. On Saturday morning I spotted the Party van, which I recognised from the monthly literature run, parked outside Sadie’s home, with Martin Reynolds in the drivers seat, his wife Lindsey and several other security guys hanging around the front of Sadies home. I found that slightly odd as I knew that Sadie and Matt were away for the weekend. By the time I had turned the car around and pulled up to the house, four guys were walking down the passage that led from the back of the house to the front. I walked up to the van and spoke to Lindsey through the open window, I asked her if she knew that Sadie and Matt were away, inititally thinking that they had arrived for a security meeting and there had been a mix up with dates. I asked why they were there, but they wouldn’t tell me, which in itself is not so unusual as Security has always been just that, Secure and is never questioned, for obvious reasons. Just for the record, but goes without saying, if I knew what was going on, I would never in a million years have let them in.

The reason I did not question further what they were doing there is, because I knew the guys pretty well from several occasions, including the recent Blackpool Conference and had become to regard them as good friends, as they were with Sadie and Matt. These were the Security Team which we had come to like and trust with our well being at high profile meetings, such as the recent local meeting in Kimberley, why would I have reason to question their actions? I did say to Lindsey, “Do you want me to call Sadie or will Martin phone them”, at this point Martin was already on his mobile phone, which I assumed was to either Sadie or Matt, Lindsey then got out of the van, obviously now to make sure I would be out of earshot of Martin’s conversation with, who I now believe to be Nick Griffin.

After 20 minutes or so on the phone, which Lindsey and I laughed about as she said “Martin will have to have that phone surgically removed from his ear these days”. Martin got out of the van and walked up to me, I asked him if everything was sorted with them (meaning with Sadie and Matt), and I said to him “So am I ok to let you in?”. He nodded, it was at this point I opened the door and went inside, I picked up our bundle of newspapers, Voice of Freedom which had been left for me just inside the door, they all followed me inside. I then went straight back outside to carry on the conversation with Lindsey, by this time all the guys were inside, I did not see what they were doing as I was standing outside and away from the door. I did see the large printer being put into the van, but I still thought nothing of it as printers, photocopiers etc were sometimes moved around the regions when new ones were acquired. Also I knew that several senior members of the Party had recently received new mobiles and laptops, as Sadie was a high profile member, I guessed she was simply receiving brand new equipment at some point.

Why on earth would I not trust our Security Team, the lefties had always been the enemy, never our own people!

On finding out the full truth later in the day, to me it had now become personal, this left me with no other option but to hand in my resignation from my positions as Parish Councillor and Local Organiser. For over two years I have put my heart and soul into the Party and like others am deeply saddened at recent events. Sadie and Matt have worked tirelessly for the Party, I consider them fantastic people, they have worked above and beyond the cause with the nation and members interests first and foremost. I could not have fulfilled my prior rold of EM Regional Secretary and Broxtowe Organiser and later becoming a Election Candidate in Kimberley without her full backing and support. I consider Sadie and Matt true friends, I like many others, cannot understand how the Party can function without them.

Cllr Nina Brown
Ex Broxtowe Organiser

BNP in meltdown as Graham and Smith expulsions infuriate membership

• Sadie Graham (Group Development) sacked
• Kenny Smith (Head of Admin) sacked
• Ian Dawson (Yorkshire) resigns
  
• Danny Lake (YBNP leader) sacked
• Nicholla Smith (Excalibur) sacked
• Councillors, fundholders and organisers quitting

Reports are pouring in from all over the place following the expulsions of Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith yesterday. We now have confirmation that Danny Lake, the idiotic leader of the YBNP has been kicked out for supporting Graham and Smith, and many organisers and fundholders are resigning in disgust at the way they've been treated. Others are speaking out in support of the sacked duo including, curiously, the Griffin-loyalist Chris Hill, Lancaster's very own lonely BNP member, who usually concentrates far more on what we have to say than having any opinions himself.

Rather more importantly, news is coming in that a handful of BNP councillors have resigned or are planning to resign the whip and more are expected to follow suit.

Between the Stormfront nazi forum and a number of blogs, including the Enough is Enough blog that got Graham and Smith into so much trouble, we've been able to cobble together something that looks like the correct sequence of events. We're open to correction though, so if anyone has any further information that they would like to share, please let us know either by using the comment facility or by emailing us on lancaster.uaf@zen.co.uk

Officers of the BNP were recently issued with laptops so that they could conduct their business wherever they happened to be (alright for some, isn't it). One of the facilities the officers have been encouraged to use is Skype, which enables those with an internet connection to converse with each other over broadband for free, either one to one or via a conference call - thus avoiding the usual telephone system and any possibility of individual phones being bugged. What the BNP didn't tell its officers was that Skype comes with a 'record all calls' option, and this seems to have been switched on.

The Enough is Enough blog started on December 2nd, a mere week before the instigators were caught and fired, though one would assume the planning for the anti-Collett/Hannam blog to have dated from the pathetic exhibitions of Mark Collett and Dave Hannam at the BNP conference at Blackpool on November 17th.

The story goes that Martin Reynolds (the BNP's chief security goon) and four others gained access to Graham's home by deception (neither Graham nor her partner, Matt Single, being at home at the time), then ransacked the place searching for thumb drives and disks, finally leaving with her laptop and a number of other items. At the same time, it has been said, Clive Jefferson and two males attempted to gain entry to Smith's home but were refused entry.

There are a number of disturbing features about these raids, not the least of which is that they actually happened at all. What precisely does Nick Griffin believe he's running here - the Stasi or the NKVD? The whole thing smacks of fascism at its worst and most frightening. But just as worrying is the suspicion that Griffin had information that led directly to these two as the prime suspects. Okay, it's true that somebody may have talked and if so, that somebody may well have been Matt Single - at least as far as the far-right blogs are concerned, though rumours are starting to emerge that he's been booted too. But there is a simpler and more sinister explanation available - that the party is monitoring the communications of its officers.

It has long been suspected that those members who have foolishly taken on a bnp.org.uk email address (that is, one issued by the party) are having their emails monitored. This was borne out in Griffin's insane Identity article three months ago, in which he more or less admitted that an 'internal intelligence review' mostly amounted to illegally checking through a member's BNP email account for signs that he was an informer or 'agent'. Mad or what?

The report that appears on the BNP website mentions the 'BNP Intelligence Department' that was set up a few months back and that is headed up by Lance Stewart, a long-standing British nationalist and a former high-ranking officer in the South African Police - though he is suspected of being rather more than a simple plod in the past, as are Arthur Kemp and Lambertus Nieuwhof, also South African and also former spooks and colleagues in the Intelligence Department.

This trio of dodgy characters, with the able assistance of the BNP's security mob, appear to have carte blanche when it comes to intelligence-gathering and our suspicion is that each of the laptops provided by the party to its officers is infected with a trojan. For those who don't know, a trojan is a piece of software that feeds information back to its source after being planted on a computer - credit card details, identities and so on. Most trojans are simple key-loggers, meaning all they do is record everything that is typed on the keyboard of the infected computer and pass along the information to a third-party. If the trojan's activity had been allowed through the laptop's firewall before handing it over, chances are that the new owner of the computer would know nothing about it - particularly if, like most people, they have no idea of how vulnerable computers are.

If this is indeed the case, it would go a long way to explaining how the party was able to co-ordinate the raids and how they knew what to look for when they gained entry. No great surprise then, that the BNP was able to provide transcripts of the incriminating phone calls on the party's website.

We discount entirely, the claim that Smith may have been responsible for 'serious breaches of accountancy procedures leaving up to £17,000 unaccounted for in the 2006 Central Audit, and of a wilful neglect of the Excalibur merchandising operation constituting attempted financial sabotage in order to create an artificial ‘crisis’ to which their proposals would be presented as the solution'. This smacks to us of Griffin a) bumping up the evidence against Smith, and b) using this situation to attempt to hide the fact that the party is in financial meltdown. We're not the only ones who don't believe the claim:

'The financial accusation thrown at Smith is a usual Griffin ploy when something like this occurs. He used the same ploy against Warren Bennett (£5000) but later backtracked. He has used the same tactic in the past when involved in factionalism eg against the Solidarity guys and against Wingfield and Brons in the Flag NF days...If the £17000 accusation was true Smith should have been suspended for that, much more serious than having a dig at Collett I would have thought.'

Us too.

The repercussions of all this have been fierce and relentless. Danny Lake was sacked via text message by John Walker. When asked under whose authority Walker had sacked him, the response was apparently; 'Me. You stupid cunt. Fuck off into oblivion'. Lake's mobile is now, not surpisingly, dead.

Claims are being made that Nick Cass is considering resigning, several members have written in to various forums to state that they've had enough and are not renewing their membership, party organisers and fundholders are resigning en masse (Falkirk and Aberdeen are two examples), at least one councillor, Nina Brown, is resigning the whip and it has been suggested that Chris Beverley has either resigned or been expelled along with Steve Blake. We've just received word (15:20) that Ian Dawson has resigned too.

The chaos continues...

Smith and Graham expelled from BNP!

From the BNP website here, and see here too.

Important Announcement: Party Expulsions

This morning, Kenny Smith, Head of Administration and Sadie Graham, Group Development Officer, were expelled from the BNP for, amongst other things, creating and setting up a treasonous blogspot designed to attack and smear fellow party officials.

Below is a transcript of conversation between Sadie Graham, Matt Single and Kenny Smith discussing how they set up the “Enough is Enough” blogspot. Note the references to them using material from the Communist Searchlight organisation and other extreme left wing web sites and sources in their plans to destabilise the party.

The sound file (7 MB) can be found here.

SADIE: Um… that wasn’t that public knowledge was it?

KENNY: Inaudible

SADIE: Ok I’ll have to have a think, um I’ve got stuff in e-mails but we can’t use any of them because it’s all um just e-mails to me and to do with stuff he’s said about people and that we can’t use any of that for this

KENNY: Not really, not unless it’s public domain. Do you think we should go into … inaudible

SADIE: One thing you’ve written is, Mark Collett is, or who ever has written this, Mark Collett makes an arse of himself, um, it sounds like, um not being funny, it sounds like something you would say.

KENNY: I would say?

SADIE: Makes an arse, not, no?

KENNY: Does it? No, I actually used that phrase because it’s phrase I don’t use.

SADIE: Ok, really

KENNY, SADIE: Laughter

SADIE: Shit, I read that and thought INAUDIBLE

KENNY: Inaudible

SADIE: Yeah that is weird

MATT: Inaudible… widely hated by everyone

SADIE: Yeah, um, yeah but then it has got to look like it potentially could be reds.

MATT: It has to look like they’re widely hated

SADIE: You can refer to Ian’s letter in it as that is public knowledge. You can refer to Ian’s letter talking about things Ian mentions in his letter. Like about him being taking money and all that with leaflets. Because well, that is potentially, is potentially libellous.

KENNY: We could reproduce copies of that leaflet thing that went out.

SADIE: Yeah you could say as quoted by Searchlight or something like that, as put in Searchlight, just a replication of what went in Searchlight. Basically, we need back copies of Searchlight, because whatever has been in Searchlight about Mark we could use but lots of our people haven’t even read Searchlight, so how the f**k can we get loads of back copies of Searchlight, that’s what I mean.

KENNY: Ask Laughs

SADIE: It’s true, yeah

KENNY: I asked for the back copy that reproduced the list of BNP branches and groups, do you remember from December last year?

Right, do you guys want access to this site to put stuff up yourselves?

MATT: Yeah Ideally

SADIE: Yeah but we have to be sensible about who has it and who puts what up.

MATT: But Kas….

KENNY: It’s only gonna be us, Ian really isn’t it?

MATT: Kas, at one point you said about linking things to red sites, the only thing is if that happens then they can easily say it’s a red conspiracy or another red attack.

KENNY: Right ok, to clarify that, I’ve used media from left wing sites.

MATT: Oh right

INAUDIBLE

SADIE: Yeah

KENNY: I had to use that because YouTube has only got 5 of the 6 clips, I had to link to Lancaster UAF to get the full clip of er… Young Nazi and Proud.

SADIE: Yep!

KENNY: Inaudible… we’ll have to take stories from left sites as well as other sites.

SADIE: OK, Basically we’ll all have to do a load of digging and loads and loads of searching and stuff. The only thing is we if we do any searching from our computers it’s traceable isn’t it? But then who the f**k is, nobody is going to take our computers and check our searches are they?

KENNY: No. Ok. Have you guys got Google? Can you guys Google names?

SADIE: Google names? I’ve got a Google, I’ve got, when I go on Internet Explorer I’ve got a Google bar to search with.

KENNY: If you go to Google,

SADIE: I’m in it now, yeah

KENNY: Go to the thing at the top that says sign in, can you see that?

SADIE: Yeah!

KENNY: Click sign in

SADIE: Done it!

KENNY: Create a new a account, a new Google account…inaudible… new account

SADIE: Yep.

KENNY: A name that’s not your own…inaudible…Mark Collett’s fan club or something. Laughs.

SADIE: Yeah, I mean yeah what, anything.

KENNY: Create an account what I’d do then, is I’ll go onto this site and I’ll (inaudible) I’ll be able to add you guys to people who are able to post on this site.

SADIE: You have to set up a current e-mail address basically; it says your e-mail address.

KENNY: Have you got, have you got, this again INAUDIBLE this is the thing I worried to Steve about, and he says nobody can see these profiles. They are completely secure, unless you break the law and people go to Google. So use a Hotmail account or whatever you have.

SADIE: I haven’t got a Hotmail account, but you’ve got one Matt, haven’t you? Can we use that one?

KENNY: Hotmail’s not good actually, Hotmail’s definitely not good

SADIE: I’ve got an NTL World one, BUT it’s Sadie Graham.

KENNY: That’s fine

SADIE: So I’ll just use Sadie Graham at NTL World dot com

KENNY: I’ve used my Civil Liberty one LAUGHTER

SADIE: Really?

KENNY: INAUDIBLE

SADIE: Alright, so Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com, ok then I just choose a password

KENNY: Yeah, just think of something yourself

SADIE: Yeah I’m just going to have write something down so I remember it, I’ll make it totally different, one I’ve never used before

KENNY: What’s your e-mail address? Sadie Graham…

SADIE: Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com. Do I say remember me on this computer?

KENNY: Um… it’s up to yourself, but I wouldn’t personally if I were you

SADIE: Ok, enable web history

MATT: INAUDIBLE

SADIE: No, ok. Location United Kingdom. Ok then I accept and create my account.

KENNY: Yep, ok then I’ve sent you an open invitation e-mail to Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com.

SADIE: Yep

KENNY: You log onto that you should be able to then post INAUDIBLE ...

SADIE: You know it says put my user name in, what is my user name

KENNY: Your user name is the one you see next to your INAUDIBLE

SADIE: Did I have one? I didn’t have one! I just put in an e-mail address

KENNY: Did you not create a user name?

SADIE: There wasn’t anything to create a user name. It says user name and in brackets it’s written e-mail. The user name must be my e-mail

INAUDIBLE

SADIE: … And then underneath it says to log in user name and in brackets it says e-mail next to it. So it’s my Google e-mail but I don’t know what that is now.

KENNY: Let me just see… INAUDIBLE then silence and whispers

SADIE: You don’t have a user name! You just put in an e-mail and a password! How odd.

KENNY: Ok, right, put that in there see what happens, if it comes up we’ll change it

SADIE: Ok, hold on.

KENNY: Ah, I’ll tell you why, I’ll tell you why, ‘cause you need to create…

SADIE: See I’m in Google now, I’m in Google and it’s come up at the top right hand corner Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com that’s my log in name.

KENNY: Yeah that’s the same as I’ve got for mine but nobody can see that I’ve got treasurer at Civil Liberty dot org dot UK. But what we need to do is get a blog name for you.

SADIE: Right.

KENNY: So, in that case…

SADIE: Go to my account… er… edit personal information, oh it’s where you type in, you give yourself a nickname, No…. my user name is Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com, that’s what, that’s what it’s come up as, that’s my user name

KENNY: Yep, no no, that’s fine that’s fine, er I’ll just INAUDIBLE See in the Google account

SADIE: Yeah

KENNY: Open my account

SADIE: Yep

KENNY: What do you see on the right hand side in my services

SADIE: Um it says er my services then goes to edit and then underneath try something new, then Google mail, adverts, alerts , groups, web history, igoogle and INAUDIBLE and then personal information and then edit.

KENNY: I’ve got blogger

SADIE: Well I don’t have that in my Google account

KENNY: you go to www dot blogger dot com

SADIE: Yep

KENNY: Ok, my account, create blog

SADIE: Sign into blog with Google account, e-mail, password. Then do you have a Google account, create an account now.

KENNY: Does it not got to our blog?

SADIE: It says sign into blogger with your Google account and then you put in your e-mail and your password.

KENNY: Ok try that

SADIE: So I put in Sadie Graham, ahhh yeah so now it’s come up with sign up for blogger. Once you complete this process you will be able to sign into blogger using your Google account, e-mail and password. Yeah e-mail address Sadie dot Graham blah blah blah and then it comes up with display name and a box that I have to fill in.

KENNY: Good good, give yourself one of them

SADIE: Um, what the f**k shall I be…

MATT: INAUDIBLE

SADIE: what are you? Are you just anything?

KENNY: I’m enough is enough

SADIE: Oh right OK. Um… fed up or something like that.

KENNY: Fed up sounds fine.

SADIE: Fed up, all one word, I won’t put a gap in it, I’ll be fed up, I accept terms of service continue… Ok, you are not a member of any blogs, create one now, start posting, create your blog now.

KENNY: Is there add to blog?

SADIE: Um…

KENNY: See that invite I gave you is there anywhere on that

SADIE: Um… lets have a look… yeah on that invite it says Enough is Enough has invited you to contribute to the blog join this blog and so accept this invitation by signing into your Google account below so I do that, shall I do that now?

KENNY: Yeh

SADIE: Sadie dot Graham at NTL World dot com, and then my password, ok accept invitation. Ok yeah, it’s now saying I can manage my blog which is enough is enough. Is this now available to view for loads of people.

KENNY: yes it is technically, but nobody can see it.

SADIE: right

KENNY: INAUDIBLE

SADIE: I’m in now

KENNY: for admin purposes?

SADIE: OK I’m properly in it now. I’m viewing the blog, I’m in it and it’s got my e-mail at the top right hand corner.

KENNY: Excellent, INAUDIBLE… Click on your fed up name and then go to view blog, see the blog there and right down on the bottom right contributors

SADIE: ooh hang on

KENNY: INAUDIBLE

SADIE: Contributors enough is enough and fed up

KENNY: See fed up, that’s all people can see that

SADIE: Fed up and enough is enough … yeah

KENNY: INAUDIBLE…. Quality

SADIE: OK.

“Coup Attempt Spectacularly Ill-timed”

While 2007 has seen a variety of political advances for the BNP, the party has to an extent been held back and troubled by a string of leaks and misinformation briefings to political opponents, and by internal rumour-mongering designed to damage morale and confidence in the workings of various party departments, and in the leadership generally. Had this continued the result, whether by accident or design, would have been to disrupt, perhaps fatally, our all-important drive to break through with victory in the London Assembly Elections next year.

Some months ago, a BNP Intelligence Department was set up, with one of its key initial targets being to track down the source of these problems and provide the evidence needed to expose those responsible and put an end to their subversion.

Working closely with several other BNP Departments and following discussions with the BNP’s independent auditor, our Intelligence team – headed by Lance Stewart, a long-standing British nationalist and a former high-ranking officer in the South African Police - have now completed the first stage of their investigations.

As a result, two junior level national officials, Administration Officer Kenny Smith and Group Development Officer Sadie Graham, have today been removed from their posts with immediate effect on the grounds of gross misconduct and now face disciplinary charges over alleged offences against the BNP Constitution and Code of Conduct.

Sub judice rules

In order to afford the accused a fair hearing at their forthcoming disciplinary tribunals, it is not proper to rehearse the details of the cases against them here at present. It can, however, be said that the prosecution will produce evidence of their heading a secretive bid to force out of positions, or even out of the Party, individuals who were not on ‘their side’ in a sordid factional power-grab, while attempting to cover up serious failings and inefficiencies by individuals on ‘their side’.

Most shockingly of all – especially when we are in the run-up to the most important electoral opportunities in the history of the BNP - evidence will be put before the tribunals of an alleged plot by Mr Smith and Miss Graham to pack the Advisory Council with their supporters and to change the Party constitution so as to take power away from the elected leader and the Voting Membership, and concentrate it in their own hands.

The prosecution also alleges that there is clear evidence of their direct involvement in setting up a disgraceful anti-BNP smear blog and, in the case of Mr. Smith, of serious breaches of accountancy procedures leaving up to £17,000 unaccounted for in the 2006 Central Audit, and of a wilful neglect of the Excalibur merchandising operation constituting attempted financial sabotage in order to create an artificial ‘crisis’ to which their proposals would be presented as the solution.

Stuck pigs

No doubt our political opponents - who have been passed large amounts of information intended to damage genuine people who have refused to go along with this spectacularly ill-timed and amateurish alleged coup attempt – will immediately swing into deceitful action and squeal like stuck pigs that this is all being made up as “an excuse to get rid of good nationalists who happen to have criticised Nick Griffin”.

In order to scupper such black propaganda, a meeting of our Intelligence, Legal and Security Departments, in consultation with Nick Griffin, has authorised the release of the following audio recording. The prosecution will tell the forthcoming disciplinary tribunals that – having been recorded as a result of an incredibly stupid mistake by Sadie Graham - it provides incontrovertible proof that she and Mr. Smith are guilty as charged. In the meantime, you can hear for yourself and make up your own mind as to if you agree that the BNP leadership are right to take swift action to safeguard the Party.

[This is a holding post - we'll replace it as we get more news. DG]

Will the real dictator please stand up

One of the reasons why the British National Party put forward 32 candidates in the regional list elections for the Scottish Parliament was to get a free television broadcast. Come the big day, Friday 13 April, when the 4 minute 40 second broadcast went out on five Scottish TV channels, and most people wondered why the BNP had bothered.

There was Kenny Smith, the BNP's Scotland organiser, outside the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood spouting about how the other parties had failed Scotland and only the BNP offered a real alternative for "local people", which in BNP-speak means white people. Here is a man who can make even a Scottish lilt sound monotonic. To relieve the boredom a hyperactive director had put in ultra-short snatches of film which flitted about all over the shop. Couldn't the camera operator occasionally have kept the fingers off the zoom button? Shots of the outside walls of Holyrood hinted at desperation over the BNP's prospects of getting in.

Some bits, however, were truly inspired, though perhaps not in the way the BNP had intended.

While Smith was claiming that the BNP's opponents were "pro-immigration", viewers' eyes were drawn to a graphic at the top left corner of the screen in which several black figures danced about. It brought to mind the scene in the television series Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley, in which the slave traders on the ship crossing the Atlantic bring the African slaves out of the cramped hold to exercise them so that not too many would die on the way to America.

But it is Smith holding the globe in the palm of his hand that has to take the prize. Some may remember that Smith is the man who used to sign off his letters "Kaz C18", C18 being Combat 18, the openly nazi terror group. And it was Smith who disgusted his neighbours when he lived on the Isle of Lewis by flying a swastika banner on 20 April, Hitler's birthday.

Perhaps in a subtle attempt to convey his true politics behind the back of the BNP's "respectable image" leader Nick Griffin, Smith may have been trying to emulate an image of his hero Hitler holding a globe in his hand, ambitious to spread the wonders of his Third Reich. But it was not Hitler. It was Charlie Chaplin in his fearless anti-Nazi satire The Great Dictator, in which Chaplin's Adenoid Hynkel, the ruthless dictator of Tomania, obsessed with world domination and wearing his double cross symbol, dances with a large inflatable globe to a theme from Wagner's Lohengrin.

No anti-fascist could have dreamt up such an exquisite scene for a BNP broadcast. Can Smith ever live it down? One wonders whether it is BNP supporters or opponents looking for a laugh who have been viewing the broadcast on the BNP TV website in such large numbers that the site went down within two days of the broadcast for exceeding its bandwidth.

The BNP may yet regret putting up its 32 Scottish Parliament candidates. At least 14 of them live south of the border after Smith, unable to find 32 people in Scotland mug enough to stand for the party, appealed in a BNP membership bulletin for English activists with Scottish sounding names to help out. Scotland on Sunday was quick to expose this and the BNP's other devious methods of pretending it has a presence in Scotland.

The party stands to lose £4,000 in election deposits as none of the regions is likely to return the 5% vote for the BNP needed to retain a deposit, let alone the over 6% required to get a candidate elected.

Stop the BNP