Griffin loses latest court case

I've just heard that a court in London has just found against Nick Griffin and the BNP. We believe that he now has to find another £90,000 to pay off the 'Decembrists' - a group of former members and party employees who challenged his leadership and were subsequently sacked and expelled. They were sacked in February 2008 and the case came to court in December 2010.

This could turn out to be a very expensive day for Nick Griffin. The party is also appearing in a Bristol court for the latest saga in the on-going Employment Tribunal hearing relating to Michaela MacKenzie, another former party employee who was sacked after falling out with the party leadership. She successfully won an Employment Tribunal in June 2010 but Griffin has refused to pay the £25,000 she is believed to have been awarded in the settlement.

Update

Further details are now reaching us regarding the outcome of the "Decembrist" case against Nick Griffin and the BNP.

This morning in the Royal Courts of Justice,Lord Justice Ward dismissed Nick Griffin and Simon Darby's application for leave to appeal in the Decembrist case.

The £45,000 that had previously been paid into the Court Funds Office is today being paid out to the solicitors for the "Decembrists". Costs totalled around £111,000 when they were calculated back in December 2010. In addition to any further costs incurred this year, Griffin and Darby will have to pay 8% interest.

Lord Justice Ward told Griffin & Darby's barrister "You've done very well. I'm unimpressed, I'm afraid. It's not your fault. None of the arguments are substantial enough to give a realistic prospect of success. I see no realistic prospect of success and I dismiss the application."

Nick Lowles at Hope not hate

Here Come The New Lot, Same As The Old Lot

The best thing about Anti Fascism is that it's never dull. Just as things look like they're getting boring and formulaic, something invariably turns up to jolly things along.

Attacking the BNP at the moment, for example, is getting a bit like going out to hunt kittens with a high-powered sniper rifle: The poor, bedraggled old fascists, soundly rejected by the very country they once dreamed of saving, led by the most inept bunch of criminals since the Ant Hill Mob and reduced to begging for pennies from their dwindling band of Supporters, are now the political equivalent of some drooling old wino going on at passers-by that “I'm a respected politician, you know...”

The EDL have settled into their predictable routine of delivering coachloads of hooligans to perfectly nice towns, like some horribly twisted courier service, who then charge around yelling and throwing things at anyone who isn't White before fishing out a suitably Asian spokesman to mumble something for the TV about how “we're not racist, honest.” Not only have they already had their cards marked by everyone from the Home Office to the Local Government Association, but they're about as well-loved and popular with the General Public as Heather Mills and George Osborne driving a Humvee at top speed through a busy children's playground. While playing the jingle from the “WE BUY ANY CAR DOT COM” advert at 200 decibels.

And now, along comes the British Freedom Party. The brainchild of a handful of disaffected ex-BNP stalwarts, it so far exists only as a registration form at the Electoral Commission and a shiny, bland logo above a (stock) photograph of a happy, smiling, multicultural crowd.

Giving an indication of the ineptitude and mayhem that may yet follow is the always-entertaining presence of self-styled guru of the Far-Right, dreadful novelist, worse poet, foul-mouthed blogger and “lawyer”, Lee John Barnes.

Starting a new party with Barnes as an integral part of it is a little like developing a new aircraft which incorporates Ryvita as a structural component. It probably isn't going to get very far.

Headed up by ex-BNP Organiser Peter Mullins and ex-BNP employee Michaela MacKenzie, the new outfit claims to be a “Civic Nationalist” party, who make much play of having a real accountant – John Savage (Please note: That's not the John Savage who had his legs cut off in The Deer Hunter) as their Treasurer, and a promise of ensuring greater financial probity that their last party. Although, next to the likes of Dowson and Griffin, a Pyramid Selling scheme run by Terry-Thomas would look a safe bet.

Predictably, the chatter has already begun on the Far-Right talkboards and chatrooms, with Griffin's trained apes attacking from one side (because it'll mean even fewer donors – sorry - “Supporters”), Butler's Reform Faction taking a different tack (claiming that people should still stick with the BNP because they'll run it one day, they really will) and even their own Supporters banging on about how they should never, under any circumstances, refer to the party by its acronym, because “BFP” is a bit too similar to “BNP”. This last one's a bit of a puzzler.

One might even suggest that someone could've thought that one through a bit more before it was too late.

Or maybe those in charge only noticed it when they proudly logged onto the Electoral Commission website and simultaneously clasped their hands to their foreheads and shouted “Doh!” as they saw it for the first time in black and white.

They are, of course, right; it is a bit similar. In fact, having checked this out with the Campaign for the Deacronymisation of Britain (the CDB), I can confirm that, even now, Anti-Fascists everywhere are preparing to chant “BFP! BNP! They Are All The Same To ME!” whenever they show their (strangely familiar) faces in public.

If they ever get that far.

They've already been nicknamed “Fluffy Fascists”. To judge from what has already appeared by way of “policy discussion” (courtesy of Barnes – and you won't be entirely surprised to learn that the first thing on their agenda is “Immigration”), they're just the same old Fascists the BNP ever were.

With a fluffy logo.

Michaela Mackenzie sticks the boot in once more.

I'm getting the feeling that Griffin & Dowson Enterprises might have made a monumental cock up when they unlawfully sacked Michaela Mackenzie.

A couple of weeks after she released her Employment Tribunal Statement which can be found here she went a step further yesterday in her utter condemnation of Dowson and his business practices within the BNP.

In a speech lasting over 20 minutes at an Eddy Butler leadership campaign meeting she outlined her sacking and the incompetence of Griffin and Dowson and the three videos are worth watching.

All stitched up and nowhere to go

Some time ago a correspondent of mine described the relationship of Patrick Harrington and the BNP as being something like that of a louse to a human head, in that the louse, as nature has programmed it to do, goes about its parasitic business of sucking blood with no appreciable benefits accruing to the unfortunate head, and rather the opposite, since the itching caused as the parasite crawls about while excreting waste products on to the scalp of its host is thought to be an unhealthy state of affairs.

Mr Harrington (or Mr Sharp, as he prefers on the proper occasion to be known) is a past customer of ours, of note not for what he has achieved in the course of his political career, but for what he has failed to achieve. There are no heights to which he has ever risen, nor any depths out of which he has ever climbed - not, of course, that these impediments have ever prevented Mr Harrington from conceiving in his mind a stratospheric opinion of his own intellectual capabilities and apparently sweeping accomplishments.

Like the louse described by my correspondent, Mr Harrington is very difficult to get rid of once contracted. Immune to all known remedies, he relentlessly engages himself in the business of never having to earn his living in the workaday world, this business of never having to earn his living in the workaday world usually involving earning it, in one way or another, from the membership of the BNP - or the "plebs", as BNP councillor Paul Golding so delightfully describes those who worked so hard to bring about his election and who pay his wages.

Mr Harrington, as we know, is very much concerned that the financial rug is about to be pulled from under his feet, his toytown "trade union" being dependent on BNP cash, and he himself now being employed by the BNP in a "human resources" role. Since Eddy Butler is certain to apply a very large boot to Mr Harrington's backside should he, by some miracle, ever come to lead the BNP, Mr Harrington understandably finds his sleep much disturbed of late as support for Butler fails to subside.

He is also desperately worried that whatever the outcome of the BNP's current tribulations, the remaining membership base will be too small to pay the party's bloated wage bill, and that he may be obliged to return to a life funded by state benefits claimed in whichever of his names he represents himself to officialdom. And he is right to be worried. The BNP's income stream has all but dried up, the regular appeals for donations are known to be failing badly, and the party is believed to be close to insolvency, if it is not already insolvent in fact.

The prospects look bleak indeed for Patrick Harrington, but his best and only chance of survival as Nick Griffin's gofer in a somehow revived BNP lies in the survival of Griffin himself, which in turn depends on scotching Eddy Butler's leadership challenge by foul means or fouler means. To that end Mr Harrington has set to work with a mendacious enthusiasm, openly abusing his dubious position as general secretary of the micro-"trade union" Solidarity by using it to issue anti-Butler statements (in a "personal" capacity, you understand) and tweeting in much the same vein to whoever on this planet it is that bothers to follow his self-important musings.

His best service to date is that of successfully (a word we do not normally associate with Mr Harrington) taking the flaky Richard Barnbrook into metaphorical custody, and to turn Barnbrook's dissatisfaction with the Griffin leadership against Griffin's deadly rival Eddy Butler, thus transforming Barnbrook into an active, if unwitting, agent of Nick Griffin. Butler, somewhat subversively, sums the matter up best:

Richard has been all over the place during the last few weeks and in a state of emotional turmoil. In this circumstance he has been preyed upon by Pat Harrington and a few others. Unbelievably, he is unable to see that Harrington is exploiting him as a stooge for Nick Griffin. Richard is distraught as his partner has left him, his house is empty of furniture and basics such as cutlery and crockery. He lost again in Goresbrook ward, he has been replaced as local organiser, his filmed performances in the Greater London Assembly have gone from bad to worse, and in addition to all this his main underlying problem has become more acute. It is actually a rather distasteful spectacle to see Nick Griffin cajole Richard, while in this very vulnerable state, into standing as a leadership contender. Richard has no serious backing apart from loaned false support from Griffinites eager to derail the process.

The problem with bringing Patrick Harrington on board is that he is widely detested even among some of Griffin's closest allies, who are rather more au fait with Mr Harrington's character and history than the average BNP member, who will know him only as the much lauded leader (the Walker brothers notwithstanding) of the stunted Solidarity.

Mr Harrington appears to have been on hand at the employment tribunal hearing the unfair dismissal case brought against Nick Griffin by Michaela Mackenzie, providing us with that rarest of spectacles, an employment tribunal at which a "trade union" general secretary is not on the team of a badly wronged employee, but that of the boss who wronged her. According to Mackenzie, Nick Griffin took the stand and began "venomously spouting the most ridiculous lies about me". We do not know if he did so consequent upon any advice Mr Harrington might have proffered.

A further spectacle is provided by the employment of Mr Harrington and Solidarity president Adam Walker to oversee Human Resources and Staff Management in regard to BNP employees, who are all members of Solidarity - putting BNP employees in the unique position of having as bosses their own "trade union" leaders.

Of this situation Nick Griffin wrote: "We, however, have learned from this [the Mackenzie] case, which is one reason we have now created a dedicated Human Resources/Staff Management team to ensure that from now on everything is done by the book by people who know all the ropes."

By which he means disgruntled BNP employees will find themselves up Harrington Creek without a paddle.

Getting back to Barnbrook, while the romantically challenged GLA member dithered over his initial support for Eddy Butler, his website remained online, the domain being owned by sacked BNP webmaster Simon Bennett. When Harrington "turned" Barnbrook (possibly offering to loan him a knife and fork as a sweetener) Bennett retrieved the richardbarnbrook.com domain, pointing it at his own YourBNP website.

Outraged Griffinites, comically crying that Bennett had sabotaged Barnbrook's Griffin-inspired leadership non-challenge, immediately opened up the ever dripping tap of lies to claim that Bennett had pointed the Barnbrook domain at Eddy Butler's leadership challenge website. In fact, until the change propagated through DNS servers worldwide, those attempting to access richardbarnbrook.com got either the original site or were taken to YourBNP. At no time did the domain point to Butler's challenge website.

However that may be, Barnbrook needed a website and a blogspot was quickly provided to assure him that he was still important, still loved, and still taken seriously. The website has everything but the stricture that "this website was created on the orders of Patrick Harrington", who has rather a fondness for ordering websites into existence.

Barnbrook's self-penned articles are easy to spot - "For the first time a Minister is to scrutanised..... Bob Neil MP (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communitiess and Local Government" - but others ("Richard Barnbrook: Leadership Challenge"), like "his" 150-word statement on the BNP website, are clearly the work of an individual less well-acquainted with the joys of Oddbins.

Who that individual may be, we could not possibly say - but somebody sly, treacherous, and cynically willing to manipulate a man presently in his deepest cups, obviously.

Barnbrook has been played like a violin, as it is perhaps superfluous to state, and finds himself between a rock and a hard place since burning his bridges with Butler. He has nowhere to go, and no obvious future.

He has immediate usefulness to Nick Griffin only in as much as he has allowed himself to become a stooge in the stitched-up nominations process, but he has spoken against Nick Almighty, and for that there will never be forgiveness. If there is a BNP when the current turmoil has subsided, and if that BNP is led by Nick Griffin, then Barnbrook may be tolerated until he comes up for re-election to the GLA in 2010, but his days as an insider (if he ever really was an insider) are over, and - if, as is likely, Griffin refuses to allow him to re-contest for his GLA seat - his days as a BNP member are numbered.

As Barnbrook will sooner or later realise, his "friend" Mr Harrington has interests by far closer to his heart than those of a furniture-free GLA member, and that whatever is good for Nick Griffin and his gofer Mr Harrington will prove to be decidedly toxic to himself.

Of course, we are here factoring out the likelihood - the certitude, if we are to believe Eddy Butler - that the shady antics of Nick Griffin and the symbiotic Mr Harrington are pointing the BNP directly at the High Court - an eventuality (it is my personal opinion) that will throw the BNP back by at least a decade if it survives the experience at all, whatever the outcome.

The great shame of it all for Richard Barnbrook is that he finds himself simultaneously loathed by the Butler camp for his "betrayal", and in the humiliating position of being little more than a patsy breaking on the megalomania of the man who promised him political riches but who effectively killed his political career stone dead.

Just a few weeks ago Barnbrook had it on Griffin's authority that by now he would be leader of the BNP opposition on Barking and Dagenham Council, if not leader of the council itself, but here he finds himself, an object of contempt to both sides in the bitter civil war raging within the BNP, and without so much as a pot to... well, you know. Literally.

Michaela Mackenzie: Employment Tribunal Statement

We don't usually put articles from members of the Far Right verbatim on here, they are usually deconstructed and we add our comments to an article but sometimes they do the work for us and come out with a corker that puts the boot in better than we could.

This is one of those articles:-

At long last, and after a gruelling year of delay, avoidance, non-cooperation and obfuscation from Nick Griffin, the day of my employment tribunal for unfair dismissal finally arrived, although not without a last desperate, oily attempt to extricate himself , however temporarily.

Six days before we were to appear in the Bristol Tribunal Court, Griffin requested an adjournment on the grounds that he had recently undergone a minor throat operation on 28th May and had been issued with a doctor’s certificate until 12th June. Unfortunately this wasn’t quite long enough to carry him past the scheduled tribunal dates of 15/16/17 June, so he pleaded that he ‘fully expected’ to be issued with a further sick note. He also claimed that he had been advised not to go out in public ‘for fear of infection’. Unhappily for him, he had held a party the previous weekend and had also been dumb enough to allow himself to be filmed by BNPtv at a meeting in Stroud on Wednesday 9th for all to see. The judge refused his request for adjournment.

Undaunted, Griffin made a second plea 2 days later, still citing that he mustn’t go out in public ‘for fear of infection’. Somehow, this didn’t seem to tally with his jolly tweet that preparations for the Trafalgar Club dinner were in full swing, an event to be held in a tent in his garden, drinks at 7, dinner at 8. This was followed by a BNPtv video of him surrounded by TC members who looked pretty hacked off that he’d been so lacking in foresight as to plan the event on the very night of England’s first World Cup match. Not surprisingly, the judge denied his second request, having been acquainted of his multiple public appearances whilst claiming that he was in ‘isolation’. Thus, when Griffin took the stand, Bible in hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the judges knew he had already lied to them.

It was obvious from the outset that Griffin really didn’t want this tribunal to go ahead. He wasted the entire first morning of the hearing in sending his very expensive barrister scuttling back and forth like an errand boy to make a series of derisory settlement offers, which were rejected out of hand.

The hearing then began on the judge’s insistence at 1.30pm with an immediate admission from Griffin’s barrister that I had, without question, been unfairly dismissed, procedurally. In layman’s terms, Griffin was admitting that he had not followed the correct procedures under employment law but that he still felt I’d ‘asked for it’. He then spent 3 hours on the stand venomously spouting the most ridiculous lies about me. Fortunately, my solicitor (I couldn’t afford a barrister since unlike Mr. Griffin I’m paying my own legal costs) had her wits about her and gave Griffin a very hard time indeed. This is the advantage of hiring an employment law specialist rather than the conveyancing specialist who had ‘prepared’ Griffin’s case.

On being questioned about the role of Adlorries, Griffin told the court that it had been set up specifically so that the party could transact business since mainstream banks and other suppliers would have nothing to do with the party. My solicitor then suggested that it must have been set up sometime after November 2007 since that was the date on Dowson’s contract. ‘Yes’ said Griffin. ‘Strange’ says my solicitor, ‘..because according to Companies House, Adlorries was registered in October 2004, a full 3 years before Dowson’s involvement with the party.’ Griffin’s face reddened, having been caught out fibbing.

He was also cross examined by the judge who really screwed him into the ground, consistently asking ‘Where is your evidence, Mr. Griffin?’ ‘When did this happen, Mr. Griffin?’, ‘Was this minuted, Mr. Griffin?’, ‘Who exactly told you this, Mr. Griffin?’ to which Griffin replied, ‘I don’t exactly recall’, ‘It must have been sometime in March or April, or even June’, ‘I heard it on the grapevine, the rumour mill, Jim Dowson must have told me’.

Nick Griffin couldn’t give a truthful or even credible answer to anything he was asked because he knew nothing other than the poison Dowson had poured into his ears and had not a single shred of evidence to support anything he said. Unfortunately for Griffin, the gospel according to the Rev. Jim Dowson doesn’t constitute evidence in a court of law. The more he was browbeaten the more vicious he became. At one point I actually thought he might leap across the courtroom to attack me, so frustrated was he. But then, given the sycophantic deference which Griffin has come to expect from his worshippers, I think it came as a devastating shock to him that the judge was totally indifferent to his ‘status’ and treated him as he would any other common or garden respondent being sued.

It should be a matter of interest to members that during the course of his cross examination about the anti abortion database sent to the Stroud office, Griffin said, in defence of Dowson, ‘Jim can hardly work a computer’ and only moments later, ‘Jim is a technical cretin’.

I almost laughed out loud at this description of the man Griffin has consistently touted as our ‘industry expert’ and whose ‘knowledge and skill’ has ‘transformed the party’.
One wonders whether he’d have been quite so uncomplimentary if Dowson had been present in court on that first day. This much is clear, however. Griffin has been lying to the members all along about Dowson’s ‘abilities’. I knew this. Donna and Lee Hancock knew this. Dowson knew we knew this, and it’s no doubt part of the reason he had to get rid of us.

One of the silliest allegations Griffin made was that, while I was very efficient when working from home, managing an office had proved beyond my capabilities. In front of the judges was my witness statement outlining that for 15 years I had managed 25 staff as a senior manager of a well known national publishing company. I think the judges had worked out for themselves that, had I been an incompetent manager, I would not have lasted 15 years in a highly professional and competitive organisation. In addition to this, I had submitted samples of over 60 e.mails from party members and staff attesting to my efficiency. One from Jim Dowson described me as a ‘true professional’ and another from Nick Griffin read, ‘I have the highest regard for your loyalty, work rate and administrative competence which is why you got the thankless task of bringing us firmly within the law on this issue (contracts) in the first place’.

It is incongruous, is it not, that Griffin then sacked me precisely for trying to keep the party within the law? Of course, keeping within the law is inconvenient for some people, as we’ve seen time and time again, at a crippling cost to members.

So ended the first day at 4.30pm. As we were about to leave I got the biggest surprise of the day. Griffin’s beleaguered barrister hastened along to say that Mr. Griffin would like to offer me full reinstatement to my job. At this point I knew that he was a very, very worried man. I thanked his barrister for the offer but asked him to tell Mr. Griffin that, following the lies and vitriol I had just heard directed at me in court, I was at a loss to understand why he would want to re-appoint such a compete incompetent onto his staff, and to forgive me if I was somewhat cynical of his motives.

Day two of the tribunal began with a ‘without prejudice’ doubling of the settlement offer made the previous day. This was politely declined. A further increased offer was made and again declined. It was, by then, obvious that Griffin was desperate to avoid Dowson having to take the stand that day, and even more desperate that neither I nor my witnesses should take the stand. He had read all our witness statements and didn’t want us to be heard, particularly as the press had now turned up. Another increased offer was made PLUS reinstatement to work part time from home. By now I was convinced that Griffin had a real problem in understanding why I wouldn’t want to come back and work for him. Despite assurances from Pat Harrington of Solidarity that Griffin genuinely wanted me back as my skills had been sorely missed, I’m afraid that I’m just not stupid enough or vain enough to fall for the blarney.

A further offer ensued with the admission that I had been unfairly dismissed both procedurally AND substantively. In other words they now admitted that I had not ‘asked for it’. I was also assured that the party would provide me with a ‘glowing reference’. My answer was that any reference from the party would be as valuable in finding a job as a reference from Osama bin Laden. Griffin’s brief was barely able to suppress his laughter.

Griffin’s barrister then approached my solicitor just 2 minutes before the tribunal was due to re-convene and told her that Mr. Griffin wanted to know what I would be prepared to settle for, to name my price. My solicitor was doubtful that they would accept what I asked for but I told her that it was a risk I was prepared to take and that if they refused then we would simply walk back into the court and have our say openly.

Griffin then made the only sensible decision of his life and completely caved in.

I was required to sign an undertaking that I would not ‘publish the terms of the settlement’ and I am prepared to abide by that, but I also insisted that the salacious lies written about me by the author of the misnamed BNP ‘Truth’ Chronicles , be removed immediately otherwise a libel suit would follow. By the time I reached home, all reference to me had been deleted. If members feel they have a right to know what Griffin’s folly and lack of judgement have cost them, I suggest, since he was the party’s representative in court and the person responsible for my dismissal, that they ask him directly.

What serious and responsible members now have to consider is whether a man who makes so many ill judged and rash decisions before considering all the possible consequences, is fit to be their leader or deserves their support. Donations have all but dried up due to the now endemic mistrust of Dowson and Griffin and their lack of financial transparency, and the party is on the brink of bankruptcy. It is very possible that the punitive damages awarded to Unilever for Griffin’s monumentally stupid use of their Marmite logo, will see the party fold.

If anything has become clear to me over the past year, it is that Griffin genuinely believes he is untouchable and above the law – in effect, a dictator.

No man can become a dictator of his own accord. Dictators are created by sychophants who have neither the will nor intelligence to exercise any independent discrimination or moral judgement upon the object of their idolatry, and by craven cowards who cave in to threats and intimidation. Dictators are very skilled at manipulating people, preying on their fears and emotions. One only has to listen to Griffin’s ‘passionate’ speeches or to read Dowson’s melodramatic appeal letters, to know that this is precisely what they are doing in order to prompt you to part with your hard earned cash. And it’s your hard earned cash that is being profligately wasted in defending the party against the expensive consequences of Griffin’s wanton spite and stupidity.

One wonders whether Mr. Griffin would exercise more reason and moderation were he obliged to fund his incessant court costs from his own wallet?

Griffinite members of the party must bear responsibility for what he has become. He is a monster of their own creation. For years they have fawned upon him, bloated his ego out of all proportion to reality, encouraged him to believe he can do no wrong and that he isn’t subject to the laws, restrictions and codes of morality that determine decent conduct for the rest of us mere mortals.

In this respect they do a great disservice to the nationalist cause by continuing to empower a tin pot dictator who will ultimately betray them, as he has betrayed so many good people. That is Griffin’s tragedy. As true nationalists, it is also ours.

I would wish to make it known that I did not proceed against Nick Griffin for monetary gain. I did so to strike back on behalf of all the good nationalists he has betrayed, sacked, suspended, expelled and ill used over many, many years. I did it to deter him from ever again wantonly depriving honest nationalists of their livelihoods and wrecking their lives in the process. I hope, for their sakes, that I’ve succeeded.

July 14th 2010

As a postscript to this statement, I am now able to inform you all that Mr. Nick Griffin MEP, who gave a signed undertaking in court in front of three tribunal judges, his own barrister, my solicitor, two of my witnesses and a journalist, to pay the agreed settlement by 14th July, has reneged on his word. Further legal proceedings against him, and other party officers, to recover the amount of the settlement have now begun.