There's unions and then there is Solidarity

Patrick Harrington (far left) looking glum after another disasterous hearing.

Patrick Harrington’s Solidarity “Union” sent out an email yesterday. “Hard Time Ahead-Get Union Protection” it told me.

I agree with the sentiment. However that is about the only advice I would ever take from the faux trade union of the BNP. Their email continues “Apparently, the reason why businesses are not taking on workers is because it is not easy enough to sack them!”

There of course speaks the voice of experience, because Solidarity and its General Secretary Patrick Harrington seem to spend most of its time in employment tribunals defending the BNP against its former employees! Oh, and not very well I might add too.

Harrington and his fake union was recently criticised by the panel at the recent General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) hearing where Harrington was defending disgraced teacher and BNP activist Mark Walker. The hearing was called to discuss the conduct of Walker who used school computers to send a vulnerable 16-year-old former pupil a sexually explicit message via email.

Walker sent the girl emails while working at Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, in 2007. The panel found Walker guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and banned him from teaching indefinitely.

The panel criticised Harrington after he made a statement on the Solidarity website regarding Mark Walker’s suspension and referred to a scheduled investigatory meeting, which should have remained confidential to the school, Walker and Harrington.

The GTCE panel described Harrington’s actions as “inappropriate”.

Hope not hate

The beating of the BNP in Belfast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matthew Collins at Hope not Hate

General Teaching Council ban former Shildon teacher from classroom

A TEACHER and British National Party activist was yesterday banned from the classroom after using school computers to send a vulnerable 16-year-old former pupil a sexually explicit message.

The General Teaching Council found that Mark Walker sent the girl emails while working at Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, in 2007. A Professional Conduct Committee heard that in one email, he used language understood to mean that he wanted to have sex with the girl.

The committee found that after Mr Walker was suspended from the school, he contacted colleagues about the disciplinary process, resulting in a demonstration taking place outside the school.

During the demonstration, his supporters said he was a good teacher who did not take politics into the classroom. However, the committee found him guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and banned him from teaching.

Mr Walker, who stood as BNP candidate for Sedgefield, County Durham, in the 2010 General Election, was suspended by the school in March 2007 and dismissed in December 2008.

Committee chairman Wayne Jones said: “We have heard evidence that the pupil concerned was particularly vulnerable as she had psychological problems and that staff had been made aware of this in April 2006. Mr Walker admits that he engaged in an email exchange with the pupil concerned and that this exchange was inappropriate.

“Mr Walker refers to ‘one suspect email’. However, the committee has noted that the language used in several of the emails was highly inappropriate.”

Mr Jones said the committee also took into consideration that Mr Walker had told the girl he hoped she was deleting the emails which, he said, confirmed that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Mr Walker of Rievaulx, Spennymoor, told The Northern Echo that he accepted his behaviour was inappropriate, but felt that he was being persecuted because of his political beliefs. He said there were cases of teachers behaving worse than him but staying in the profession, and that he never taught the girl or had any physical contact with her.

Mr Walker has 28 days to appeal to the High Court, which he said he was considering.

The Northern Echo

Oh the irony!

Oh dear Adam...

Troubled BNP party manager Adam Walker attended a protest outside Shrewsbury Crown Court on Tuesday to call for the retrial of nine Telford men accused of being involved in sexual exploitation and child prostitution after their initial trail collapsed due to legal issues.

In their own report, the BNP claimed that 40 BNP activists gathered in the pouring rain to mount their protest. A quick look at their finances makes it abundantly clear that the BNP aren’t too hot when it comes to maths but there is a big difference between their figure of forty and the real and actual figure of 18 activists who did actually show up outside court.

No protest would be complete without the obligatory placards.Most of the BNP rabble had one on the day including Adam Walker, but he failed to realise the irony of the message painted on his. On it was painted the legend “Leave our kids alone” a message no right minded person could argue with. In fact, it reminds one of the famous Pink Floyd song, which actually begins with “Hey teacher”.

The difficulty for Walker is that he appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates court in August after allegedly driving his car at a group of youngsters before brandishing a knife and threatening a child. The court heard Walker, a former school teacher, allegedly chased the children who were riding bicycles over a village green in his Land Rover car having asked them to leave a St George’s Day celebration.

Alison Nunn, prosecuting, told the court that in police interview, the children aged 11 and 12, described being “terrified” during the alleged incident and that “One of the children is clear in his police interview that Adam Walker put that knife to his face and made a threat.”

Walker was charged with affray, driving a motor vehicle dangerously and criminal damage and will reappear back in court in October.

In the BNP footage of the event we couldn’t see if Mark Walker, brother of Adam was present in Shrewsbury. Mark Walker, a former teacher was the subject of an enquiry by the NSPCC in 2008 that uncovered a large number of emails indicating a sexual relationship with a former pupil.

The report, produced by the children’s welfare charity says: “Mr Walker was suspended… following allegations that he and a colleague had accessed adult pornography during the school day, using school equipment.”

It continued “A substantial amount of emails indicating a sexual relationship between himself and a 17-year-old former Sunnydale student have been recovered from Mr Walker’s school laptop and the school server”

The report concluded “The NSPCC believes that there is sufficient evidence from the emails and from previous matters concerning his professional conduct to conclude that Mr Walker’s behaviour has resulted in his conduct being less than one would expect of a teacher placed in a position of trust.”

We wonder what his placard might have said?

Hope not hate

BNP teacher accused of sending 'inappropriate' emails to ex-pupil

He faces charges of unprofessional conduct after corresponding with 17-year-old girl

A prominent member of the British National Party faces being banned from the classroom by the General Teaching Council for England (GTC) after it emerged he will face charges of unprofessional conduct.

Mark Walker - whose brother Adam, a fellow BNP member and teacher, also fought a high-profile battle with the disciplinary body - is accused of misusing his school computer. Mr Walker, who now works for the far-right political party, is said to have used a school email account for "inappropriate email exchanges" with a 17-year-old female former pupil. He is expected to be charged with unprofessional conduct when he appears before the GTC this autumn.

The former teacher has already lost an employment tribunal case. He has claimed he was unfairly sacked from Sunnydale Community College in Shildon, County Durham, for his political views and involvement with the BNP.

In September 2007, more than 100 people demonstrated outside the school with placards in support of Mr Walker, claiming he had been suspended because of his membership of the BNP.

Mr Walker's GTC hearing was due to take place last week, but instead the panel held a "case management" meeting about his case. The GTC has not yet released details of the charges he faces.

His representative, Patrick Harrington, general secretary of the Solidarity union, told The TES that Mr Walker had referred himself to the disciplinary body because he wants to "challenge" allegations recorded on his Criminal Records Bureau enhanced disclosure form as a result of his dismissal.

"He is resigned to the fact he won't teach again. He feels there is a vendetta against him but he knows it's unlikely any employer would now give him a job," Mr Harrington said. "The school and local authority have flung huge numbers of charges at him, and he wants them to be tested."

A tribunal rejected Mr Walker's case for unfair dismissal, concluding that the school had been justified in letting him go because of his sickness record at the end of 2008.

Mr Walker, a technology teacher, was first suspended in March 2007 after concerns were raised that he and a teaching assistant had watched video footage of "sexual activity" on a school computer.

The allegations made in September 2007 of using a school email account for "inappropriate email exchanges" with the 17-year-old ex-pupil sparked an investigation by children's charity the NSPCC. It concluded that the correspondence suggested a sexual relationship between Mr Walker and the girl, and questioned whether he should be put in a position of trust.

During the same period, Mr Walker became ill and remained unfit for work.

THE WALKERS - In the family

Mark Walker's brother, Adam Walker, who stood as a BNP candidate at last year's general election, was cleared of religious intolerance by the GTC last year, despite posting comments about "filth from other countries" on a website while he should have been supervising pupils.

The drawn-out case cost the GTC £72,746. Mr Walker, who taught at Houghton Kepier Sports College, County Durham, used a school laptop to post his views.

The GTC said he had not broken any rules to bar him from the profession. Education secretary Michael Gove cited this decision as one of the reasons he decided to axe the disciplinary body.

TES

Revealed: Vile hate-filled backgrounds of BNP candidates standing for election to Holyrood

TWO BNP brothers standing for Holyrood are today exposed as vile hate-mongers. Adam and Mark Walker are disgraced former teachers whose shameful conduct cost them their careers.

The Record can reveal BNP third in command, national organiser Adam, has been arrested twice in the last fortnight. The bigot has referred to immigrants as "filth" and "savage animals". Mark lost his teaching job after bombarding a 16-year-old girl with inappropriate emails.
The English pair will contest regional lists in Fife and South Scotland on Thursday. A spokesman for pressure group Searchlight said: "These brothers are among the leading lights of the BNP but they have been sent up to contest an election where they know they have no chance of winning. "The more you know about them, the more you realise what disarray the BNP are in. They are a bunch of bitter racists."
Adam was quizzed by police over allegations he drove his car at youths before behaving in a threatening manner. The ex-soldier, from Spennymoor, County Durham, was bailed on April 23 in connection with the incidents, said to have happened as a rightwing group marched.
He was arrested three days earlier at a demo in Wakefield, where he had a heated row with police. In the past, Walker, 42 - who answers directly to BNP leader Nick Griffin - referred to immigrants as "filth". He posted the comments online while teaching at Houghton Kepier Sports College. Last year, a General Teaching Council panel cleared him of racial and religious hatred. But Adam had resigned in 2007 shortly after the probe into his conduct.
Brother Mark, 40, lost his job amid a torrent of claims against him. An employment judge described his behaviour as "scandalous" after hearing about the seedy emails to an ex-pupil and how he watched porn on his laptop at work. No illegal content was found on the laptop but Walker was slammed for his conduct towards the girl in 2007.
He was sacked for his absenteeism after claiming stress as a result of the action against him. He lost his appeal against the sacking from Sunnydale Community College, in County Durham. A hearing ruled that Walker's illness was triggered by his own actions.

Daily Record

Incompetents reign as BNP staggers into the new year

An influential far-right activist has called for union between the UK Independence Party and British National Party in an attempt to whitewash the BNP’s racism and nazi past by hiding behind its larger, anti-EU rival.

Eddy Butler, who was expelled from the BNP after trying to challenge Nick Griffin to a leadership election last summer but remains an important figure on the extreme right, said in a message for the new year that a party that united the UKIP, BNP and the various smaller groups “on the patriotic, nationalistic, ‘right-wing’, populist, non-politically correct, identity-related side of the spectrum” would “have over 30,000 members” and “instantly be a major force in British politics”.

He recognises, however, that “it would take compromise” and “putting aside preconceived ideas about each other” – a reference to the BNP’s violence and extremism and the image of the UKIP as “Tory types” – and that “jealous personalities”, the biggest of whom is Griffin, will not let it happen.

Butler believes such a union would benefit the UKIP as it “would give them relevance” between European elections. For the BNP “it would provide respectability and distance form a more violent and hard-line past”.

According to Butler only a “tiny minority” in the UKIP “hate everything to do with the BNP”. However a spokesman for the UKIP told Searchlight “[Unity] is not going to happen. We reject the whole concept completely out of hand”.

The BNP meanwhile continues to demonstrate its incompetence and dictatorial nature. When Butler appealed against his expulsion, which he considers was “irregular” under the terms of the party constitution, he was told an appeal tribunal would be arranged for January.

This has now been denied. Knowing that Butler probably had a strong case, Andy McBride, the BNP’s South East regional organiser, decided that Butler was not entitled to a tribunal because he was only a “probationary member” with less than two years’ membership, despite the party’s earlier acceptance that he had the required five years’ continuous membership to stand for the leadership!

The basis for the decision by McBride, whom Butler describes as “ineffective and semi-literate” – so no different from most other party officers – is that Butler was 18 days late in renewing his membership in 2009. However he retained the same membership number and renewal date.

Griffin law

“I can recall a time in history, in another country, during the last days of a (ahem) controversial regime, when all sorts of decrees were sent forth from ‘ze bunker’ pronouncing severe punishments on those who were deemed to have transgressed”, wrote Butler. “The last twitches of a dying organism.”

Commenting on the way Griffin and the BNP keep changing the rules to suit themselves, Butler continued: I think Mr McBride believes in Griffin Law – that parallel legal system, a bit like Sharia Law. It would seem that I am to be further punished by ‘political admin’ (as opposed to a Sharia court).”

Mark Walker, described as the BNP’s political administration officer, clearly comes from the same stable. Responding to a letter of resignation from the party from Chris Francis, Walker wrote: “Clearly you have very negative feelings towards the Party and our membership and this would, in any case, likely have resulted in actions leading to disciplinary proceedings. Best to jump before you were pushed.”

Francis had done no more than express the widespread view that the party is “a cult dedicated to Nick Griffin … The BNP has lost very many decent people over the last couple of years and there are very few decent people left in the party now. The party is now festering with **** & yes men and I for one am glad to be gone,” he added.

Another demoralised former activist is Roy Jones, who was the party’s North East Scotland organiser until he resigned last month over “King Nick and his rotten corrupt regime”. Among his complaints are Griffin’s waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds in dragging the party through the courts and the party’s inability to conduct a leadership action “without resorting to hatefull [sic] smear campaings [sic] against the challenger (Eddy Butler) and suspending /expelling anyone who supported a challenge (myself included)”.

Jones claims that the BNP in Scotland “has been wrecked by the Sycophantic Mentally unstable liar” Gary Raikes, the party’s Scotland regional organiser. Like Butler, Jones points out that the party has still not produced its 2009 accounts, which were due six months ago. On 31 December Griffin wrote on Twitter: “Just finished my report to go with 2009 accounts which auditor says are now virtually ready”.

As Butler commented: “This person is congratulating himself on almost having the 2009 accounts ready when they should have been handed in before 7th July”. If the national and regional accounts are submitted after 7 January 2011, the party will be liable to £2,500 in fines. The record delay follows several declarations by Griffin and the party’s succession of treasurers that all the party’s financial functions were being run in a professional way with the sort of controls one would find in a multinational company.

Griffin’s statement contrasts with Butler’s revelation that the party’s independent auditors, Silver and Co, were still trying to verify with branch treasurers that the bank and cash balances in their local records were the same as the figures provided by the regional treasurer. Butler claims “they are massively out” and local treasurers are refusing to confirm the figures.

Staff not paid

The accounts are unlikely to reveal the full extent of the BNP’s current dire financial straits as much of Griffin’s reckless spending on legal actions and employment tribunals has occurred since 31 December 2009. The BNP is reported to have closed most of its offices and not paid party staff for two months, apart from Patrick Harrington, Griffin’s comrade from his National Front political soldier days, who now works for the party while still heading a rival group.

Life members are calling for a refund as they did not receive their four free copies of the party’s Identity magazine, which it cannot afford to print. A bequest of £65,000 received in September in the will of a supporter who appeared to have no family and friends probably went straight to lawyers to cover the BNP’s huge legal bills. Unfortunately a further £109,000 was due to follow from the same source.

Last month the Electoral Commission pronounced the BNP guilty of breaching electoral legislation by “failing to keep accounting records sufficient to explain, with reasonable accuracy, the financial position of the party at the time”. The verdict followed a long investigation into the party’s 2008 accounts. However the BNP will suffer no penalty as the legislation, which has since been amended, did not allow for anything less than criminal proceedings against the treasurer at the time, who no longer holds the post.

Butler is calling for members not to fund Griffin by renewing, a turnaround from his previous position. Griffin is clearly feeling the pinch. At the party’s annual conference in December he admitted that the party had made mistakes and lost members. He appealed for them to return, claiming the party had moved on. Where the party has moved was revealed in Griffin’s speech at a dinner on the eve of the conference, in which he called for “increased militancy” against Islam. In attempt to revitalise the beleaguered party he promised it would “start acting as well as talking about protecting Britain”. The party is currently targeting a mosque planned for Bletchley.

The just over 100 people at the conference were also the first to see the BNP’s new logo, a heart-shaped cut-out from the Union flag. “This logo will illustrate exactly what this party is about,” said Griffin, incongruously describing it later as a “combination of innocence and love”. Others pointed out the similarities with a Conservative party emblem and Searchlight dubbed it the “broken heart”.

Some party members felt it was too soft and conflicted with Griffin’s call for street militancy. Griffin’s replied that the party still wanted to win elections and needed an image that would not “frighten the horses”.

© Searchlight Magazine 2011

Mark Walker repeats claims that dismissal was a “hatchet job”

A judge has described the behaviour of a BNP parliamentary candidate sacked from his job as a teacher as “scandalous”

But Mark Walker hit back last night, repeating his claim that the dismissal was a “hatchet job” and branded the leak of a report into the case as “gutter politics” aimed at scuppering his chances of victory on May 6.

A tribunal report leaked to The Northern Echo reveals that Sedgefield candidate Mr Walker would have been sacked by Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, last year regardless of his sickness record. He was suspended as technology teacher in 2007 amid claims he sent inappropriate emails to a 16-year-old former pupil and watched pornography on his laptop at work. No illegal content was found on Mr Walker’s laptop.

The report said: “In October 2007, the headteacher met with the child protection officer of Durham County Council and reported her concerns in relation to the claimant’s conduct and in particular the email correspondence. Durham County Council asked the NSPCC as an independent child protection agency to make inquiries.”

Following a lengthy dispute, he was dismissed because of his sickness record after he became ill following the allegations. He appealed against the decision, saying he had been victimised because of his allegiance to the BNP. His case was thrown out in January after a tribunal hearing in Newcastle, but the details were not made public.

In the report, employment judge Andrew Buchanan said Mr Walker’s illness was triggered by his own actions. He said: “If he had not acted in the way that he did towards that former pupil, he would not have had reason to be stressed and anxious and he would not have become ill.”

He said Mr Walker’s “culpable and blameworthy conduct contributed to his dismissal to the extent of 100 per cent” and that “he was the author of his own unfortunate illness”. He said that joining a demonstration staged outside the school to support him made him eligible for dismissal.

Speaking about the demonstration, held on an induction day for new pupils, Judge Buchanan said: “The claimant’s conduct during the time of his suspension was, frankly, scandalous. For a teacher to be associated with a rowdy demonstration at the school gates on a day when pupils new to the school were being inducted demonstrates a failure to observe professional standards which this tribunal finds breathtaking.”

The tribunal also said failure to agree to a health report in February 2008 amounted to unreasonable conduct.

Judge Buchanan said Mr Walker’s membership of the BNP was “of no relevance”, but said: “The tribunal does not accept that the headteacher herself was motivated by antipathy to the BNP, but recognises that that party does provoke antipathy in many people.”

Judge Buchanan added that Mr Walker’s brother, Adam, a BNP candidate for Bishop Auckland, became embroiled in the dispute. He wrote a letter to 80 Sunnydale staff saying attempts were under way to “destroy his brother’s life”.

Judge Buchanan said: “The claimant clearly was also cognisant of and supportive of the attempts of his brother and others to write to the staff and to seek to undermine the authority of the headteacher.”

Mr Walker said last night that the report was full of unfounded allegations for which dates, times and venues were missing. He rubbished claims he was involved with the former pupil and said emails described in the report as extremely worrying were innocent. He said: “All I was doing was responding out of politeness. Lots of teachers stay in touch with former pupils. I never taught her, she was never in my care. The email was to say ‘hello, how are you doing?’.”

He also said he was being persecuted for being a BNP member and said he planned to take further action against his former employer, Durham County Council. He said: “Any fair-minded person can see there is no substance to support any of those bogus allegations. It is obvious that this is a smear campaign against me and I hope that the public can see through it.”

Northern Echo

Mark Walker loses unfair dismissal case

Mark Walker - sacked at last?

A British National Party activist and former North-East teacher who was sacked for absenteeism has lost his case for unfair dismissal

A judgement against former Sunnydale Community College teacher Mark Walker was issued by an employment tribunal last month. Mr Walker, 39, was suspended from the school, in Shildon, County Durham, in March 2007, and claimed he was the subject of a political witch hunt. Twenty months later, he was officially sacked over his sickness record and took the school’s governing body to an employment tribunal.

The Newcastle tribunal, which was met in January, unanimously dismissed Mr Walker’s case, but has not yet published its reasons. Patrick Harrington, a spokesman for Mr Walker’s union, Solidarity, said there could be further action against his employers, Durham County Council. Mr Harrington said he would be studying the tribunal’s reasons with a view to a potential appeal, but an appeal was not the only option.

He said: “What we would point out is that Mr Walker’s ill health was largely contributed to by the employer and, in particular, the way they handled the disciplinary process. There may be a personal injury claim for the stress caused.”

Mr Harrington also cited an NSPCC report about Mr Walker, who is from Rievaulx, Spennymoor, County Durham, that was leaked to The Northern Echo. The report reveals the disciplinary inquiry uncovered a large number of emails indicating a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old former pupil. It makes it clear that no illegal content was found on Mr Walker’s school laptop or desktop computers.

It concludes: “There is sufficient evidence from the emails, and from previous matters concerning his professional conduct, to conclude that Mr Walker’s behaviour has resulted in his conduct being less than one would expect of a teacher placed in a position of trust.”

Mr Harrington said: “This report was very damaging to Mr Walker and there is a duty of confidentiality and a question of damages for the breach. The report was in the hands of the county council and the NSPCC and has to have been leaked by staff.”

Durham County Council declined to comment because of legal reasons.

* A tribunal into the case of Mr Walker’s brother, Adam Walker, also a BNP activist, has been adjourned until the end of May. The General Teaching Council, in Birmingham, is considering allegations he posted inappropriate comments on the internet. The former teacher at Houghton Kepier School, in Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, was suspended in 2007.

The Northern Echo

Watchdog rejects BNP activist's 'ridiculous' complaint

A ridiculous complaint by a pointless buffoon about a ludicrous 'party'

The Press Complaints Commission has thrown out a complaint by a British National Party activist against a regional daily

Mark Walker, of Spennymoor, County Durham, objected to coverage of BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on the BBC’s Question Time by his local paper, the Northern Echo along with four national titles. He complained that the Echo together with The Times, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, and Guardian, had reported remarks by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain in which he claimed the BNP was an "unlawful body."

Mr Walker described this as a "blatant lie" by the Labour Cabinet minister and former anti-apartheid protester.

Writing on his blog, Echo editor Peter Barron welcomed the decision, describing the complaint as "ridiculous." He said: "The PCC's code of practice states that newspapers are entitled to present individual comment, provided they distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact. The comments were clearly attributed to Mr Hain so there was no breach of the code in any of the papers."

Hold the Front Page

Police cite riot fears to delay case against BNP teacher Adam Walker

Adam Walker shouting his mouth off as usual

The case against a teacher and British National Party member accused of religious intolerance has been postponed because police fear it will cause flare-ups in the community

The unprecedented intervention in the case of Adam Walker, a former soldier and karate expert from Durham, who was due to face the General Teaching Council (GTC) in Birmingham tomorrow, was made because of tensions between far-right activists and the Muslim community. The council will decide if Mr Walker, 39, should be struck off the register after he was alleged to have used a school computer to contribute racist and religiously intolerant views to online discussions during lessons. If found guilty he will be the first teacher to be banned for religious intolerance.

Violent clashes between the right-wing English Defence League and Muslims in Birmingham earlier this month heightened tensions in the community. Ahead of the hearing, Superintendent Matt Ward of West Midlands Police wrote to the GTC expressing “concern about the potential public order consequences of the hearing being convened in Birmingham at this time,” the council said today. Superintedent Ward requested that the hearing be postponed or relocated to prevent further outbreaks of violence.

The council and the parties involved have seven days to find an alternative date and venues to prevent further delays.

Mr Walker, who is president of Solidarity, a trade union closely associated with the BNP, has already been called before the GTC on two previous dates. Both were postponed on different grounds. He left his post as a technology teacher at Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland in 2007 following the allegations.

The alleged incident, in which he is said to have criticised Muslims, homosexuals and asylum-seekers, is said to have happened between February and March 2007.

He was first brought before the teaching watchdog in November 2008 but the hearing was adjourned after Patrick Harrington, representing Mr Walker, successfully argued that the presence of Judy Moorhouse, a former president of the National Union of Teachers and a “known opponent” of the BNP, could prejudice the hearing.

Police officers, some wearing riot gear, were deployed outside that hearing after dozens of BNP supporters and anti-fascist activists gathered in Birmingham’s Victoria Square outside the offices of the GTC.

Mr Walker’s brother, Mark, lost an appeal against his sacking from Sunnydale College, Shildon, County Durham. Mark Walker, also a technology teacher, is accused of accessing the BNP’s website during school hours. Sunnydale Board of Governors upheld a decision to terminate his contract owing to ill health.

Times Online

From Welshpool with love...

Do you remember the ludicrous story the BNP tried to inflict on a weary public back in April 2006 in which Nick Griffin was alleged to have been the target of an assassination attempt? It doesn't really matter if you do or not because the story wasn't true, as we explained here. In the same article, we referred to another work of fantasy - the story that, in February 2007, Griffin had been attacked by a bunch of thugs on his way to a meeting but that his assailants were fought off by his heroic, if steroid-bound, bodyguard, Martin Reynolds. That one also never happened.

We referred to these flights of fantasy as a couple of the top-ten list of classic BNP lies and up until today I personally would have expected the fake assassination attempt to make the number one spot. Now though, we have a new contender...

Simon Bennett, supposedly some kind of computer whiz (though he seems to have made a real dogs dinner of the BNP site), has, it is alleged by the fantasists at BNP HQ, been approached by Special Branch, who not only asked him to provide them with information on what went on at branch level but also offered him £200 in used notes as an incentive.

According to the report on the BNP's website, Bennett had just returned from a 'business trip' to Northern Ireland when he was stopped and held by the police, the offer being apparently made at that point using the pretext that SB was keeping an eye out for potential extremists inside the party.

If this is the case, why on earth would Special Branch approach a known Griffin-loyalist who makes money out of the party (and apparently has his own business) to take him on as an informer and, a rather better question, why would they offer him an amount like £200 which, to the likes of Bennett, who can afford to gallivant to and fro across the Irish Sea, is a pittance?

Although highly improbable, the story isn't that bad so far - or at least until the BNP try being clever in the report and go just a little over the top.

Having told Nick Griffin and several other key officials about the approach, Mr Bennett was given the ‘OK’ to continue and to see how long it took them to get down to their real business. He met them several times over the following few weeks and, once again, they didn’t do anything other than say how much they agreed with large amounts of BNP policy.

When they called him to another meeting in a local pub, however, one of the two handed Mr. Bennett a menu. Inside were several photos of individuals and he was asked if he could identify any of them. He said that he couldn’t and gave the menu back, only to have a roll of twenty pound notes shoved into his hand...the SB men told Mr Bennet that they had prepared a safe house for him because he had to “be protected.” Mr Bennett was given the code name ‘Nicky Price’ and told to text in a message to the agents every night “to let them know he was safe.”

“The safe house story was obviously made up,” Mr Bennet said. “They said they were on their way back down from Windermere, which told me that they had gone up there to carry out surveillance on the premises where the meeting was to be held, and most likely to bug it with a listening device.”

(The meeting went ahead as planned, but the attendees, all warned in advance, were careful to ensure that they did not discuss anything indoors which they did not want the Special Branch to know.)

“That’s far enough for me. I’ve donated their bribe to the party, and am going public so they know that they have no hold on me. I think it’s disgusting that, at a time when they still haven’t caught the Islamic extremists who groomed and duped a Special Needs youngster into trying to bomb the Giraffe restaurant in Plymouth, the secret police are wasting time and taxpayers’ money trying to subvert the British National Party.”

Oh dear. A safe house? A menu with photo's tucked away inside? A fake name? All this on a pay-off worth a measly £200? I suppose we should only be grateful that the whole thing didn't take place on a bench in Kew Gardens. You know the kind of thing. Scene opens with man sitting at bench eating an ice cream, another man sits on bench putting newspaper down beside him, second man leaves a couple of minutes later without newspaper, ice cream man picks up newspaper and wanders off, inside newspaper are plans for secret Russian submarine base in Norway, world is saved from encroaching threat of Communism, play music, roll credits, fade out. Ian Fleming, eat your heart out.

So let's take a quick look at Simon Bennett. Is he the serious kind, who would risk all to play the role of James Bond within SPECTRE SMERSH the BNP? No, because he's a childish idiot. Look at this tosh. And it seems he runs three websites that one would have assumed to be completely independent; those belonging to the BNP, NLP and Third Way. Bennett is a strange and dodgy character and is, I would have thought, a very unlikely candidate for Special Branch to select as an informer. On the other hand, he seems to be trusted by Griffin, as witness his trip over to Northern Ireland where he was, we are told, negotiating a new rental deal for the Lie Lorry - the vehicle the membership of the BNP raised money to purchase, not rent.

Special Branch must be on overtime if the BNP is to be believed, for it claims that there has been a second recruitment attempt, this of one Kieran Dinsmore, the party's Northern Ireland organiser. Dinsmore, it seems, was followed home from work but was not offered a safe house, a false name, a fake moustache or a tiny spy camera the size of a molecule. That'll teach him not to watch James Bond films.

Just to drive the point that we are actually in the middle of a film set and that the BNP is in fiction a good deal more exciting than in real life, the party claims that a further two attempts have been made to recruit for Special Branch.

We can also report that we are already aware of two other BNP members — one of them not even a local official — who have been approached by Special Branch officers under the guise of making inquiries into people’s safety after the List leak, in an attempt to recruit them as informers.

We wondered what had caused this attack of fantasy mania - but the end of the article suddenly makes everything clear.

“In all probability there are other individuals out there right now who have been sucked in completely and are now wracked with guilt over letting down their friends and colleagues. Fortunately, there is no need for anyone to bear that burden...All anyone who has been groomed by the Special Branch into becoming an informer has to do to put it all behind them is to come and tell us...We’re not worried about what Smith’s Snoops have been told, or how long it’s been going on. We want to get their snouts out of our lawful business, and will not hold anything against anyone who comes clean. We’re not even going to shout about it, but we do need to be told.

Nick Griffin, no doubt encouraged by his South African spook-run 'Intelligence Team', is on his annual paranoia kick. Last year it was Searchlight moles and December rebel supporters; before that was the furore over the party's treatment of Sharon Ebanks and its obsession with kicking her and her supporters out, and this year it's Special Branch recruiting wholesale - all of which leads us to the final and most important part of the story.

Finally, for the large numbers of non-member readers who may not have come across this sort of thing before except in novels, please ask yourselves if you are happy living in a country where a politicised police force spies on opposition parties and arrests their activists, MPs and leaders. And, make up your mind to do something to help restore the democracy for which so many of our people have sacrificed so much...You could make up your mind to join the British National Party right now, or at least make a donation to help our fight back against Labour’s creeping tyranny. Persecuted BNP teacher Mark Walker needs £3,000 in legal fees URGENTLY to get his appeal finalised. Civil Liberty has already found £500 but it’s up to us to give him the rest...Mark has a young family to look after this Christmas, so it wouldn’t be fair to leave him to find that money. He’s at the frontline of our fight, at the frontline of the struggle to preserve your freedom. Please hit back by helping him now. Thank you.

Yes, that's what all the James Bond rubbish leads to - yet another piss-poor attempt to screw a load of money out of the BNP membership, by making use of the party's corporate persecution complex and using Mark Walker's case (and a mention of Christmas) as a final twist. Why does Walker need money? Isn't he represented freely by Solidarity? Isn't he taking legal advice freely from legal whiz Lee Barnes?

The truth is he doesn't need the money any more than any of us do - but what's the betting that the next payment for the Lie Lorry is around £2500-3000?

The BNP's stories and lies get more extravagant all the time but it's difficult to know how they'll get better than the rubbish they've used on this occasion. Perhaps next time, the story will involve Batman in some way. Or possibly Jack Bauer. The only thing we can be absolutely sure of is that it won't involve the truth.

Teacher accused of sexual relationship with former student runs for council

A former teacher at a Shildon School, who was officially sacked recently on the grounds of his sickness record, has since been accused of having a sexual relationship with a former pupil.

The details of the conduct between Mark Walker, who lives in Spennymoor, and the 17 year-old in question came to light after elements of an investigation into his behaviour were leaked to a regional newspaper. Mr. Walker has denied the allegations, claiming they are politically motivated. The technology teacher believes his suspension from Sunnydale Community College to be based on accusations that he had visited right-wing websites on a college laptop.

A report produced by the NSPCC, however, claims that he was suspended for viewing adult pornography with a colleague during school hours, using school equipment. The report, which was carried out for the Durham Children and Young People Services, adds that a number of emails were found on his school computer which indicated a sexual relationship between himself and the former pupil. The report finishes by saying, "The NSPCC believes that there is sufficient evidence from the emails and from previous matters concerning his professional conduct to conclude that Mr. Walker's behaviour has resulted in his conduct being less than one would expect of a teacher placed in a position of trust."

Mr Walker commented on this latest allegation, saying, "My former bosses have made a continually shifting set of allegations against me. "Each time an allegation has been answered, more have been advanced. At base their motives are political." Only days after the allegations were made against Mr Walker, he has decided to run for one of two vacant spots on Shildon Town Council. Although he lives in Spennymoor, Mark is eligible to stand in the Sunnydale Ward as he has been employed there for 12 months prior to December 11th, election day. He will also have to have had ten signitures from residents of the Sunnydale Ward.

Mr Walker will be the only British National Party candidate vying for a position, competing against a record number of candidates. Mark's brother, Adam Walker, was involved in a similar situation,quitting his job as a technology teacher in February 2007 after being suspended for accessing right-wing websites during school hours at his school, Houghton Kepier, a foundation school in Houghton-le- Spring.

Adam, 39, has since won an appeal to have an expresident of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) removed from a General Teaching Council committee, who will consider the charge of misconduct brought against him. Mr Walker believed that the presence of Judy Moorhouse could bias the hearing. The meeting, which was due to take place in Birmingham on Monday, November 17th, was therefore adjourned. Police officers were on duty outside of the building where dozens of BNP supporters had gathered to support Mr. Walker.

Original Article

BNP row teacher sacked by school

A teacher suspended for alleged misuse of school equipment has been sacked because of his sickness record.

Technology teacher Mark Walker was suspended from Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, last March pending an internal inquiry. Last week, the school’s board of governors terminated Mr Walker’s contract on the basis of his sickness record. He has until Friday to lodge an appeal against the decision.

Supporters of the former RAF weapons technician, from Spennymoor, County Durham, claim the action against him was politically motivated. They said he was accused of accessing the British National Party’s (BNP) website during school time and described the proceedings as a witch hunt.

The school has never commented on any specific allegations.

Yesterday, headteacher Sue Byrne said: “I can confirm that his contract has been terminated but he has still got a period in which he can appeal. I cannot comment further on an individual case.”

Patrick Harrington, general secretary of Solidarity, a trade union closely associated with the BNP, said: “No one should be victimised because of their political views. To sack him for ill health is despicable, since his health only deteriorated because of the pressures of the disciplinary and sickness process.”

A spokesperson for the local education authority, Durham County Council, said: “The governing body at Sunnydale Community College followed its sickness absence policies correctly and made a determination that a member of staff’s employment should cease because of their continuing health problems.”

Mr Harrington confirmed that the union plans to appeal against Mr Walker’s dismissal.

Mark Walker’s brother, Adam, is due to appear before England’s General Teaching Council in Birmingham next month and faces being struck off the teaching register. He left his job at Houghton Kepier Sports College, Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, last year after using a school computer to join an online discussion forum about the BNP.

Both men stood unsuccessfully for the BNP in Durham County elections.

The Northern Echo

No solidarity with the BNP

People may have read recent events surrounding action being taken by Sunnydale Community College in Shildon, County Durham. The action relates to a teacher who is suspended for "misuse of technical equipment" while at school.

The individual concerned is a member of the far right, racist British National Party and the BNP organised an intimidating demonstration outside the school on Monday, effectively preventing the investigatory hearing from taking place. The TUC condemn this as wholly disgraceful, however, it is a clear indication of how the BNP view rational, legal processes where there is a grievance to be resolved. This is the kind of behaviour we could expect from any violent, anti-democratic organisation.

Any independent trade union would not seek to defend someone guilty of racism, but they would respect a process that ensures a fair hearing. The BNP-Solidarity organisation is not an independent trade union, despite describing itself as one, and its actions clearly show no respect for such processes. BNP-Solidarity should not be permitted to represent any individual in any workplace, though it claims it will consider establishing a picket, which it would expect other trade unions not to cross. As BNP-Solidarity is not an independent trade union, merely a front for a racist political party, I would expect all trade unions to in fact be opposed to any actions they take, especially if they include defending racism.

The statements around this issue indicate that the case seems to revolve around the right to be racist - a right that everyone has. However, it is illegal to incite or promote racial hatred. I very much doubt that any decent parent would want individuals expressing racist views anywhere near their children.

A fair hearing will be held, despite the usual BNP intimidation, but whatever the outcome we certainly don't want racists teaching in our schools.

TUC

BNP supporters disrupt school with demo and picket at gates

Monday morning saw the disruption of the first school day of the new year as the British National Party and two of its many front groups, Civil Liberty and Solidarity, gathered together outside Sunnydale Community College in County Durham to protest at the suspension of teacher Mark Walker.

Walker, BNP election candidate and agent for the former BNP's Andrew Spence in the recent Sedgefield by-election, was suspended from Sunnydale for 'misuse of school computer equipment', rumoured to be related to his visiting far-right websites during lessons while the children were getting on with their work.

The idiotic Phil Edwards, ever available to distort the facts on behalf of the BNP, was quoted in news reports as stating; 'The reason he's had this action against him was because he allegedly looked at the BNP website on the school's computer. It is disgraceful that anyone should be suspended for looking at the website of a perfectly legal political party. We are certain this action would not have been taken against someone who had looked at the websites of the Commission for Racial Equality or the Green Party.'

Well no, but neither the Commission for Racial Equality nor the Green Party attack Muslims using any pretext (or lie if a pretext isn't available), despise our multicultural society, seek the 'repatriation' of people with different skin colours who could be third or fourth generation UK born, oppose sexual diversity, demand the return of both corporal and capital punishment, have a Hitlerite background, a record of anti-semitism, an astonishing collection of criminals, liars and thieves in its ranks nor constantly steal money from its supporters.

Although both Edwards and the General Secretary of the hijacked Solidarity trades union both claimed that Walker's suspension was because of his political views, the school's head teacher, Sue Byrnes, said the claims of political persecution were untrue.

'We are happy to state categorically that Mr Walker has not been suspended because of any political affiliations he may hold. Any suggestion that this is the case is wholly false. Beyond that we cannot comment because of our respect for Mr Walker's rights to confidentiality with regard to the terms of his employment.'

The demonstration and picket only managed to attract 'up to 50 people', according to the BBC, even though it was heavily advertised on the BNP, Solidarity and Civil Liberty websites, and the extreme nazi forums Stormfront and Vanguard News Network (VNN).

BNP's Civil Liberty calls for demonstration and picket at school gates

Last March, Mark Walker, a teacher at the Sunnydale Community College for Maths and Computing in County Durham, was suspended from his job on full pay after it was found that he accessed the website of the BNP during a lesson. At the time, his candidature had been announced for the BNP in the local elections and he was also acting as election agent for the Sedgefield ex-BNP candidate Andrew Spence. His suspension was for 'misuse of school computer equipment'.

Sunnydale is a pretty standard school, a mixed comprehensive for 11-16 year olds, and certainly doesn't deserve a teacher who sees fit to wander around a fascist website whenever the fancy takes him, happy in the knowledge that one of the pupils could see what he's looking at any time they get too close to his screen.

Curiously, just a month before this incident, Walker's brother Adam did exactly the same thing but upon being suspended, resigned, to shouts of 'coward' and general abuse from the Stormfront nazi forum.

Attempting to play on the heartstrings of its audience, the press release from BNP front-group Civil Liberty (duplicated word for word on the Solidarity and BNP's own websites, on the Stormfront nazi forum and the even more hardcore nazi Vanguard forum) points out that much of the 'harrowing' period of Mark Walker's suspension coincided with his wife being pregnant. So did his own election in May and that of Andrew Spence in July but there's no mention of either of those as in any way contributing to his stress levels.

Now, rather than let this be a matter to be dealt with solely through the school's disciplinary procedure, all these BNP-related groups have combined to call for a demonstration and picket of the school on the first day of the new term, next Monday and, just to make sure they disrupt the pupils as much as possible, they're calling for the picket to begin at 8am. They also call for supporters to swamp the mail, email, fax and phone lines - let's hope none of the kids has an accident while the BNP and the other scumbags are taking up the lines with unnecessary calls.

Schoolteacher or not, to involve children in any way in this kind of action is despicable. There can be nothing wrong with Walker being present at his hearing with his union representative - even if it is just some buffoon from the fake union Solidarity - but a demo and a picket at the school gates is going too far. If for nothing else, Walker should be sacked just for encouraging this shameful demonstration to take place.

Union backing for BNP-row teacher

A teacher suspended for accessing right-wing political material on the internet during school time has become the victim of a "kangaroo court", his union has claimed.

Mark Walker may now take legal action against education chiefs after his headteacher allowed a separate teaching union - Unison - to hold an anti-fascist meeting on its premises last Monday. The union sent letters to members of staff urging them to attend in opposition to "fascist infiltration" of schools. Though not naming Mr Walker - a BNP council candidate - he is indirectly referred to as a "teacher currently suspended" and the letter states that teaching unions support "action being taken" against him.

We revealed last week how Mr Walker, 36, was suspended from Sunnydale School in Shildon, County Durham, in February after checks showed he had used school computers to look at right-wing websites during teaching time. No other disciplinary action has been taken and he still hopes to be reinstated to his job.

Meanwhile, his brother Adam, 38, has quit his teaching job at Houghton Kepier foundation school in Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, after he was also found to have accessed right-wing websites on the school's computer.

Last week Mark's union - Solidarity - which has close links with the BNP, slammed the decision to allow the meeting to take place before the internal investigation.

General Secretary Peter Harrington [?] - who revealed that Mr Walker may consider legal action over the anti-fascist meetings - said: "It is ludicrous that a meeting against fascism was held at a school where a teacher has been suspended - we believe - for being a member of the BNP. It is like a kangaroo court, and the decision of the school is outrageous, as is the stand taken by the unions. Whatever one's personal view of the BNP, it is a legal political organisation which has been sanctioned by the state. Under the Human Rights Act he is allowed freedom of political expression. It is no coincidence that computers he had used - and not those of other teachers - were checked by the school authorities."

The National Union of Teachers - which had backed Mr Walker - is understood to have withdrawn its support. Neither the school's headteacher nor Durham County Council were prepared to comment. Our calls to Unison were not returned.

Sunday Sun (Newcastle)