Christmas chaos hits BNP (again) as Chris Jackson and Mike Easter resign

As one of our readers commented the other day, Christmas seems to be a difficult time for the BNP. It was pointed out that 2007 saw the end of the then high-flying career of Sadie Graham and many others, while 2008 saw the chaos that followed the release of the full BNP membership list.

This year seemed to be following the same pattern, though in a less focused way, with the sudden resignation of Alby Walker as leader of the BNP group at Stoke Council, Dicky Barnbrook's embarrassingly poor apology for being a liar, the laughably appalling accounts (which earned the party a £1100 slap on the wrist for tardiness) and a threat of future legal action from the Electoral Commission, plus a swathe of dreadful by-election results.

Now however, things seem to be coming to a head with the resignations of former contender for the BNP leadership (in a rigged election that he couldn't possibly win) Chris Jackson (pictured), his former campaign manager Mike Easter and someone named Kev Bryan, who was apparently the Rossendale Branch Organiser. The resignations are announced in an open letter posted on the mostly defunct jackson4leader site:

'Disbandment of reform Group

What is the point of the BNP if you admit foreigners?

Sadly we have come to the conclusion that the BNP is breaking up and there is no practicable likelihood of it recovering.

In our opinion the root cause of the failure is the Constitution of the Party. The Constitution, that is the Party Rules, makes the Party Leader a dictator. The current leader rather than reforming the Constitution toward that of a normal English association has (probably illegally) made alterations to the Constitution making his removal virtually impossible.

The Party is now a nationalist party in name only and has abandoned many of the fundamental principles on which it was founded.

A further major problem is that of money. Under the Constitution, all money is controlled by the Party Leader. The Party Leader appoints the Party Treasurer and Party Auditor. The Leader has carte blanche to dispose of the funds as he pleases.

This has never been a satisfactory situation, and now that the Party is alleged to be turning over a million pounds a year, is nothing short of a scandal. There have been four different Treasurers this year and the 2008 accounts are way overdue. The Party has been fined by the Electoral Commission for late publication of accounts. This is a re-run of last year when the accounts were also late and when published were endorsed by the Auditor as unsatisfactory.

A separate, but related, issue is the Trafalgar Club. This Club raises money directly to support the Party Leader. No accounts for this club have ever been published and they have not been appended to the Party accounts, as clearly they should be.

We recommend that no further money be sent to ‘Head Office’.

Whilst the BNP has been going downhill, the National Front has reformed itself and now is led by a group of reliable people and has the Constitution of a normal democratic association. Consequently, we believe that BNP members should transfer to the National Front.

Mike Easter
Chris Jackson
Kevin Bryan'

Regular readers will no doubt remember Jackson's failed leadership challenge back in the summer of 2007. Although resoundingly beaten, the results were not quite what Nick Griffin apparently expected, with Griffin himself receiving a mandate from only 39% of the party membership. Were I Jackson, I would regard that outcome as something of a success in itself - it showing the lack of confidence in Griffin that truly exists even in the BNP. However, rather than follow-up the one successful aspect of his challenge, Jackson chose to keep his head down and say nothing very much for the next two years.

So why resign now? The main reasons are made pretty clear in the letter above - the action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to force the BNP to open its membership to non-whites and the financial shenanigans of the party leadership, though we suspect the former is the real reason and the latter is just a handy and always-relevant sideswipe at the morally-impaired Griffin.

It was pretty clear from the moment the EHRC began its action, that there would be repercussions from the hardcore racists in the BNP - one of whom is obviously Chris Jackson. There is though a lot of support for Jackson's views within the party and as Searchlight pointed out during his leadership bid, his campaign was backed by some heavy-hitters: five founder-members, two advisory council members, three councillors, eight branch organisers and 20 election candidates came out openly in his support.

There are mixed immediate reactions to the resignations, though I don't doubt we can expect a LOT more. Griffin-loyalists are, naturally, critical of this trio's announcement and stated intention to join the National Front. One surprisingly witty nazi on Stormfront said;

'The NF may have a name, although like a cheap can of Polish beans, they have a fancy label but the product inside is cheap and of little nutritional value.'

The response was less witty, though rather more cogent;

'Ever since June, which was supposed to have been the BNP's moment of greatest triumph, its members and supporters have been simply walking away. Last month, Andrew Brons spoke at a long-planned meeting in Bridlington which attracted fewer than thirty people, even though BNP members had travelled from as far away as Scarborough, Hull and Leeds to attend. If even a MEP and nationalist of AB's calibre can't draw the crowds anymore something is seriously wrong.'

Over at the North West Nationalist blog, the statements were a little more terse;

'The root cause is traitor Griffin !'
'Fingers in the till anyone?'
'Only surprised it took CJ as long as it did to pack it in.'

The NWN forum was a little more informative;

'I rather think that there will be a bit of a deluge over to the National Front here in the North West.'
'Croydon BNP branch has crossed to the NF, and a large group in Southampton joining next week Strong rumours of Stoke BNP and councillors from other branches crossing over to the NF.'
'I do know that both Burnley BNP & Halifax BNP are quite close to Chris Jackson'
'We must leave crook Griffin with the rubbish personnel.'

Like everyone else, I do enjoy a good disaster movie over Christmas - and the BNP generally provides the best. It's a bit late this year but what the hell - I suspect this one will be a biggie and just as much fun to watch as all the others.

Compliments of the season to all our readers and happy viewing. :-)

BNP invented excuse to expel Griffin rival

Mike Easter, who acted as agent to Chris Jackson in the challenge to Nick Griffin's leadership of the BNP in July, has appealed against his expulsion from the BNP.

He claims that the reason given, namely that he failed to submit a return of Jackson's expenses in the leadership contest, does not stand up because there was no legal requirement to make such a return. His letter to Tina Wingfield, the party's membership secretary, makes some other interesting observations.

We reproduce the letter, as well as an earlier one to John Walker, the BNP treasurer, in the interests of keeping readers informed about the somewhat paranoid way in which Griffin is running what he claims is Britain's fourth political party, and the accusations that are going back and forth within the party.

Letter from Mike Easter to Tina Wingfield 10th September 2007

Dear Tina,

Re Your letter of 31st August 07.

I am sorry that you have been forced to write the above letter to me. It seems to many of us that Nick Griffin is getting totally unbalanced and believes that no-one should challenge him for the Leadership of the Party, despite the fact that the Constitution allows for such challenges. You will know that the Party has lost, by various means, several key members over the last few weeks. I believe this is due to Nick's refusal to run the Party openly and properly:

Andrew Spence, the very successful Sedgefield parliamentary candidate, praised all over the Party newspaper. He is alleged to have said, "He couldn't get on with the sleazy people close to Griffin."

Simon Smith, Sandwell Councillor and Black Country organiser. Left because he queried BNP accounts and expenses. Are the Party Accounts still overdue with the electoral Commission?

Clive Potter, President of Solidarity union. Expelled because he insisted on receiving the union accounts.

Scott McLean, resigned as Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the disciplinary committee, in particular, because Nick prevented him doing his job and disciplining Mark Collett. I understand that Scott has remained an ordinary member.

Jonathan Bowden, Advisory Council member, for similar reasons to Andrew Spence.

Before answering your letter in detail, I must point out, as any experienced person dealing with personnel matters knows, that proper reasonable procedures must be carried out. In this matter no steps have been taken. The expulsion came out of the blue.

In your letter, no doubt drafted by Nick Griffin, there is a reference to my relationship with John Tyndall.

Presumably, this is meant as a smear. Unfortunately for you that problem was resolved with a handshake between John and myself and the agreement, "That no dispute had occurred." You will need to delete this paragraph if this matter goes to Court.

In our recent Leadership Challenge, we refrained from repeating the very many stories that are around concerning Nick, for example, his relationship with Martin Webster and his continual incompetence with money. It seems to me to be very foolish of Nick to get into a slanging match when he, himself, is so vulnerable!

In your letter you make assertions that I have not complied with a request from John Walker for information concerning the Reform Group of the BNP. This is a blatant lie!

Please see copy letter attached to Mr Walker dated 7th June 06.

No reply to my letter was ever received. Also, I was working with John Walker for over 5 hours on Thursday, 23rd July 07 and he did not mention any problem to me. If there was a problem, "Is this likely?"

The situation has not changed from the 7th June, which is the Reform Group has never raised any money.

Again during the Leadership election, I neither received money nor any invoices.

There is no requirement to report such monies below £1,000. Please see confirmation from Electoral Commission attached.

Consequently, I believe without further comment that the whole basis for your letter collapses.

Please write to me by return that your letter of 31st August has been cancelled.

Please take this letter as formal notice of Appeal against the decision to expel me from the Party.

Yours sincerely,

M.D.S.Easter

Letter from Mike Easter to John Walker 7th June 2006

Dear John,

Thanks for your letter of 30th May enquiring about the "Reform Group" within the BNP. (I have been away and only just read it.)

As you can well imagine, I would need to consult with others before replying to your letter in any detail. However, I can say straightaway that there is no intention to raise cash, if at all, that would come under the Electoral rules.

Generally the Reform Group is concerned with getting the structure of the Party into a normal one for a society or corporate body. We want to get away from the current dictatorship system.

Also, and this is my own special area,* I would like to see the politics of the Party laid out once and for all and not, as now, changed every few minutes. In particular, and just as two examples, the current Party Leader has an obsession with Moslems, just as his predecessor had a similar obsession with Jews.

These obsessions have obscured the real aims of the BNP, one of which is the repatriation of all invading foreigners.

Religion does not come into it.

Again the Party is concentrating almost exclusively on 'grotty' northern towns, or areas closely affected by foreigners, and is making no real headway in the English counties.

Enclosed is a leaflet that has been produced to explore possible approaches to the English electorate outside the rundown northern towns. Why are we not fighting the Orpington byelection?

In my opinion, the current leadership has no idea of how to go about it and by default leaves the field open to UKIP and Cameron.

Remember the current Leader is Welsh and JT was Irish – perhaps we should have an English Leader!

Yours sincerely,

M.D.S.Easter

[As an addendum to this, NWN has posted a copy of a letter to Mike Easter from the Electoral Commission, which provides evidence that Easter has broken no rules at all. Letter reprinted below.]

Email received from the Electoral Commission 9th September 2007

Mr. Easter

I write further to our telephone conversation earlier today.

I can confirm that there are no reporting requirements to the Commission that result from the BNP leadership campaign.

There is a requirement that regulated donees provide details of donations received by them of an amount of over £1,000. Regulated donees include members of political parties that receive donations that relate to political activity, such as an internal party leadership campaign.
From the information discussed today and contained in your email it would appear that this threshold was not reached during the campaign and accordingly there are no reporting requirements arising.

I hope this information is helpful.

Regards

Jon Spillett
Compliance Manager

Stop the BNP

The BNP purge continues: Griffin to discipline/expel Mike Easter?

In a move that is so full of irony that the BNP had better check it for rust, news is emerging that Mike Easter, election agent to leadership-challenger Chris Jackson, is to be disciplined for late submission of the challenger's election expenses to the party treasurer.

One would expect a party that is a couple of months late with its own accounts submission to the Electoral Commission to have had more sense that to make itself a target for ridicule in this way but Nick Griffin is presumably so anxious to punish those who assisted the challenger that he is prepared to ignore the laughs to get his revenge.

Regular readers will no doubt recall his description of Chris Jackson's supporters as cranks, Hollywood Nazis, congenital losers, thieves and vermin - and all this in a single blog post - despite the fact that they included five founder-members, two advisory council members, three councillors, eight branch organisers and 20 election candidates. Not a great deal of respect there then.

The response from other 'nationalists' is predictably angry though as usual the nazi Stormfront forum (run by Griffin's friend, ex-Klansman Don Black and ably assisted by the forum's pro-Griffin UK moderators) is keeping a lid on any discussion by disabling the accounts of anyone who shows any sign of having a go at the BNP leader under any pretext. A couple of other sites are displaying their anger though, one of them with this classic comment posted to it;

'...this comes from a party of THEIVING BASTARDS and INEBRIATE LOSERS who can't even get their accounts IN ON TIME. WHERE ARE THE BNP ACCOUNTS AND WHY ARE BNP MEMBERS SUCH A BUNCH OF BRAIN-DEAD IDIOTS? WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY SCARED OF, EH? Surely they cannot be scared of the one eyed wonder of a sheep farmer and his pervert security chief?'

along with the omnipresent Sharon Ebanks, a former supporter of Griffin, sticking it to him thus;

'Do you think it ok to allow a jumped up twat with a 3rd rate degree and an insecurity complex larger than Snowdonia national park to just go around chopping people willy nilly? When you cease kissing Griffins arse you'll be next. The very idea that such a man even dreams of running this country makes me want to take up shooting practice.'

One angry contributor asks the same two questions that many others have asked;

'What I can't get my head around is why the BNP election process (that's to say the terms imposed by Griffin, etc) weren't challenged legally. It still can be. Likewise all the trumped up expulsions.'

These are reasonable questions though the first one is really only answerable by Mike Easter himself and the challenger Chris Jackson. When Nick Griffin dictated the terms of the election, it was suggested that a legal challenge to the terms was likely. Sadly this never materialised (though it certainly should have). To have completely ignored the ludicrous restrictions placed on campaigning was tantamount to agreeing to lose, and lose Jackson subsequently did.

The second part of the question is far more dangerous to Griffin - that those expelled from the party could legally question their expulsions. This is not only true but has happened a couple of times before, following Griffin's repeated expulsions of the late founder of the British National Party John Tyndall for being a 'disruptive influence'. Tyndall was reinstated by the courts, the embarrassment caused to Griffin was profound and it cost the party a small fortune, also having the distinct advantage of showing Nick Griffin up as the pompous buffoon that he is.

Of course, disciplinary action isn't necessarily the same thing as expulsion and it may be that Easter will just take what's coming and carry on doing whatever he does but judging by Griffin's words above, he's determined to force all of his opposition out of the party by using any means that are available to him. Simon Smith and Jonathan Bowden have already been forced out, Easter's turn has come and we confidentally expect Jackson-supporter Richard Edmonds (another one to have been expelled then reinstated) to be in the firing line before long. One only wonders how long it will take for Griffin to expel all 337 party members who supported Chris Jackson.

Poll result and new poll

So who is going to be kicked out of the BNP next? According to our readers, Sadie Graham, much to our surprise - though we'll assume our readers know more than we do because we would have put our money on Mike Easter. We think the last vote that pushed Sadie in front was cast by Nick Griffin.

The poll missed off a few names that maybe should have been on there and may well have taken the majority vote - Steve Blake and Dave Hannam for example - but what the hell. Hannam would almost certainly have scored high!

The new poll is just to give us an idea of where we should be going with the blog. We're pretty happy with it the way it is and the rising number of both hits and comments show us that our readers tend to agree - but there's always room for improvement and while we could just carry on doing what we do, where we can make the blog better/more useful we're happy to try.

If you have positive ides that we haven't listed but you feel are worth a mention, just make a comment and it'll be noted. :-)

Statement from BNP leadership challenger and supporters

Though doomed to failure due to Nick Griffin's habit of surrounding himself with yes-men and hangers-on (like the worryingly stupid Mark Collett), the much talked about leadership challenge from Chris Jackson does seem to be quietly gaining pace. Far from fading speedily into the background, which is what most commentators expected when the challenge became common knowledge, Jackson appears to have garnered the support of some big names, among them BNP founder members Richard Edmonds and Mike Easter.

Jackson's statement is unequivocal, as can be seen below:

'A proper Party structure and Constitution.'

This challenge to NG’s leadership is made as a start to the process in which the Party gets a recognisable normal Constitution for a corporate body under English law. As a talking point, the current leader has, and the founder leader had, enormous talent in some directions and, it seems, none in others. This has meant the Party has not been developed in a balanced manner.

Currently, the Party is effectively run as a dictatorship. There are no ‘checks and balances’. NG appoints all Party officials and consequently, many are ‘yes’ men. Opinions, other than those of NG, lead to dismissal from Party positions and even dismissal from the Party. Over the years NG has held widely varying political views. This means, in our opinion, that his political judgement is very poor. He has made some serious errors in his appointment of personnel, most particularly the appointment of the unstable character, Tony Lecomber, as his chief regulating officer. Further it should be noted that NG has had a poor history concerning money. No prudent organisation would allow someone with his history to be responsible for Party funds.

In our view, the Party must have a proper structure. It must have a number of the key officials directly elected by the members, in particular, the offices of Vice Chairman and Party Treasurer must be directly elected. The Party Chairman would be bound to discuss and agree with the majority of the other elected officials, matters of policy and discipline.

The Party must adopt a set of basic principles; for example, the Party is a party of the whole United Kingdom. It is not just a party of England, or any other part of the United Kingdom. Again, only the original peoples of the United Kingdom would be eligible for membership of the BNP and eventually citizenship of the UK. (An exception would be for people currently living in the UK of closely related European stock.) No Asians, Africans and so on, including half-castes could be members, or expect to live permanently in the UK. It would be understood that all foreigners would be sent back to their homelands, however gently.

The Party would make an effort to unite genuine nationalists into one party. NG is unable to do this. He is an ex-chairman of the National Front and is now persona non-grata in that direction. Similarly, he is unacceptable to the Freedom Party and the BPP. He is also the ex-leader of the International Third Position.

[snip...]

I pledge myself to see the reform of the Party on the above lines.

Chris Jackson: Challenger
Richard Edmonds: Proposer and BNP founder member
Mike Easter: Seconder and BNP founder member

Surprisingly, the statement is pretty explicit. The reference to the party being run as a dictatorship is frequently mentioned - but generally under the safety blanket of a pseudonym on the Stormfront nazi forum (one wonders why a bunch of nazis see anything wrong in a dictatorship, but there you go). What the party tends to keep to itself though, is Griffin's appalling judgement when it comes to selecting personnel (Tony Lecomber, Mark Collett, Lee Barnes, Warren Bennett, Martin Reynolds et al) and Griffin's doubtful (!) history when it comes to financial matters.

This challenge might also prove to be galvanic to the lost or bewildered hardcore of the party and/or older members, as Jackson promises to haul it back a lot closer to its more extreme roots. A very clear part of the statement reads;

'...only the original peoples of the United Kingdom would be eligible for membership of the BNP and eventually citizenship of the UK. (An exception would be for people currently living in the UK of closely related European stock.) No Asians, Africans and so on, including half-castes could be members, or expect to live permanently in the UK. It would be understood that all foreigners would be sent back to their homelands, however gently.'

So the party would see a clear end to the so-called 'modernisation', where Griffin has allowed a token Jew and a half-Turk not only to join but to become councillors, and would be barred to all but whites - which surely must be a breach of some law or other. Not that the modernisation has ever been regarded as anything except a con-trick by anyone with an ounce of sense.

That final sentence bears re-reading too; 'It would be understood that all foreigners would be sent back to their homelands, however gently.' Forced repatriation appears to be back on the agenda then.

If this is not Jackson's genuine statement, we'll assume it's Tony Lecomber up to his misinformation tricks again but if this really is Chris Jackson's statement of intent, it looks like the BNP is set for interesting times in the near future. The party has always been at internal war between the old hardcore and the new(ish)modernisers (who are much the same as the hardcore but believe the public have to be conned into seeing the BNP as more moderate than in the past), and this statement should polarise some opinions nicely.

We will watch developments with a great deal of interest...