BNP leader praises US Nazi party for funding BNP activities

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Symbol of the National Socialist Movement, the BNP's US-based Nazi allies

In a recent BNP fundraising email, BNP leader and convicted Holocaust denier Nick Griffin gleefully thanks the avowedly US Nazi party, the National Socialist Movement (also called NSM or NSM88), for its help in funding the BNP. In the opening line to the email, Nick Griffin states:

"I am very grateful to .. you - whose generosity and determination allowed us to reach all our targets… and in several cases surpass those targets!".

Nick Griffin goes on to write that the National Socialist Movement's funding support is crucial to enabling the BNP to meet its goals:

"During August we will set even more ambitious targets and I know you will be there to help us reach these goals that are so important for the progress of our movement."

"Your continued participation in our online operation is crucial to the continued success of our Party - without you our capacity to campaign, raise funds and find new members would be severely curtailed!"

Nick Griffin ends the email by thanking the National Socialist Movement for its most recent donation to the BNP:

"Once again thank you for giving so generously during the month of July."

The National Socialist Movement claims to be the largest and most active
Nazi organization in the United States. Responsible for the infamous 2005 Toledo riots, the website of the National Socialist Movement openly carries articles in praise of Hitler and angry, racist diatribes against Jews and non-Whites and support for the BNP. It is therefore not surprising that the BNP and Nick Griffin have sought to maintain active links with the National Socialist Movement. Indeed, there is no hiding the BNP's neo-Nazi proclivities.

For those readers who wish to read the BNP's email to the National Socialist Movement, you can visit the following link:

http://wikileaks.org/leak/nsmfargo-hotmail-emails-2009/msg00617.html

¡No Pasarán!

Kelly Holmes is not fully British, says BNP MEP Andrew Brons

Double Olympic gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes

Mr Brons, who became the first member of the British National Party to be elected to the European Parliament, has said that the athlete's mixed race heritage means she is "only partially from this country".

The BNP – which bars blacks or Asians from joining – rejects the notion of a multicultural society and refuses to consider black and ethnic minorities to be British, even if they or their parents were born here. But until now it has been careful not to single out noted ethnic minority celebrities for fear of provoking a public backlash.

His comments have provoked anger from politicians and sporting bodies.

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey said: “This type of comment reveals the ugly face of the BNP which they try to hide from voters yet is at the heart of their extremism.”

The British Olympic Association added: “Dame Kelly Holmes played an important part in Team GB as a hugely successful British athlete. We are immensely proud of her achievements. Team GB is not about the colour of your skin, it is about performing at the highest level while representing this country at Olympic events.”

Mr Brons, who began his political life as a member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, said he rejected the notion that Black or Asian members of the community could be British, even if they were born here. He said: "I don't accept the term Black British or Asian British. Britons are the indigenous peoples of these isles."

Asked about someone like Dame Kelly, who was born in Kent of a white English mother and Jamaican father, and served for several years in the Army before becoming one of this country's most successful athletes, he said: "Kelly Holmes is only partially from this country, even if she is an integrated member of the community."

Mr Brons, 61, went on to reject the idea that black footballers, such as Emile Heskey and Jermain Defoe, who represented England against Andorra last Wednesday, could be regarded as British. He said: "They are British citizens – which is a legal concept – but not British by identity. That's not a pejorative description, it is just stating a fact about their racial identity."

The BNP's ultimate aim – as laid down in its constitution – is a return to a predominately white Britain that existed before the 1948 Nationality Act. Mr Brons, who well into the 1980s was still praising the NF's skinhead supporters, used to advocate mass forced repatriation of all non-whites. He says he now accepts repatriation would have to be voluntary.

He said: "Compulsory repatriation is not practical now because communities have put down roots. My views have matured and changed."

Police have stepped up security around Mr Brons's home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, after threats against him were posted on a football fans' internet chat room. Harrogate College, where Mr Brons worked as a politics lecturer until recently, is coming under pressure to explain why it continued to employ him despite his views.

Mr Brons says he would have taken up an offer to return to the college in September had he not been elected as MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Telegraph

Andrew Brons: the genteel face of neo-fascism

British National party MEP and former National Front chairman who started political life in group set up in honour of Hitler

It was on Hitler's birthday, deliberately chosen, that the National Socialist Movement was formed in Britain in the 1960s. It was the first political organisation of the far right that Andrew Brons, the newly-elected British National party MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside, was to join – but not the last.

The group that he signed up to as a teenager had been founded in honour of Hitler by the British fascist leader, the late Colin Jordan. No mention of this early political involvement features on the BNP's website celebrating Brons's victory. Instead, Brons is portrayed just as a "veteran British Nationalist".

Brons, 61, comes from what might be described as the genteel wing of British neo-fascism. He lists William Cobbett, the radical journalist and author of Rural Rides, as his favourite historical person, the Pickwick Papers as his favourite book and Zelig as his favourite film. But his early associations with the far right were when it was at its most overtly racist and before it had started to try to present itself as just another political party.

The group he first joined included among its members people responsible for arson attacks on Jewish property and synagogues. According to the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, which has been tracking his career for decades, Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan's wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who "mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues", to which Brons responded that "on this subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point."

By the 1970s, Brons had moved on the National Front, then the leading far-right group in Britain. He was voted on to the NF's national directorate in 1974 and, as the NF's education officer, he hosted seminars on racial nationalism and tried to give its racism a more "scientific" basis.

After the late John Tyndall left the NF in 1980, Brons was promoted to the post of chairman. Among his allies was Richard Verrall, the author of Did Six Million Really Die?, with whom he edited the NF journal, New Nation. In August 1981 he led a rally in Fulham, west London in support of "rights for whites" and concluded his speech with a call for compulsory repatriation, chanting: "If they're black, send them back." According to Searchlight, in 1982 Brons led an NF march through Northfield on which marchers chanted "We've got to get rid of the blacks".

In June 1984, Brons was convicted by Leeds magistrates of using insulting words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. The court was told that when PC John Raj, the area's community constable, who was of Malaysian origin, told the group to disperse, Brons, then 37, responded: "I am aware of my legal rights. Inferior beings like yourself probably do not appreciate the principle of free speech." Brons denied the allegations at the time and continues to deny them, describing them as "absurd". His challenge to Raj's evidence was not, however, accepted at his subsequent appeal at Leeds crown court.

After drifting out of far-right politics, he became a lecturer in politics and law at a further education college in Harrogate. He joined the BNP in its current incarnation three years ago. Divorced, with two grown-up daughters and four granddaughters, his election platform was that he "would work to expose the activities and corruption of the EU to strengthen Britain's case for withdrawal" and "would co-operate with patriots in other countries who seek to bring the EU to an end".

Sonia Gable of Searchlight said that his past made him a strange choice for a BNP seeking to create a "respectable" image for itself.

"Everyone in the BNP is trying to look respectable and Brons is an odd choice because he was in the NF at its most racist," she said.

She added that she thought Brons had been chosen as a candidate because Nick Griffin, the chairman of the BNP, believed that he would have strong links with far-right organisations in Europe.

The BNP denies being an anti-semitic organisation, and when asked about Brons's involvement with the NSM and the NF and his calls for compulsory repatriation, a spokesman for the party said: "That was nearly 30 years ago, times have moved on … You print what you want."

Guardian

Standing up to fascism

The Spiro Ark, Jewish Cultural
and Educational Trust, presents

Standing up to fascism

A celebration of the 43 Group, who fought fascism
in postwar Britain, and those who fight fascism today

The 43 Group consisted of Jewish ex-servicemen and women who stood shoulder to shoulder with non-Jews to halt Oswald Mosley’s attempt to revitalise a fascist movement in postwar Britain.

Between 1946 and 1952 they combined intelligence gathering and street fighting to drive Mosley’s thugs from our streets. In 1948 many supporters of the 43 Group volunteered for MAHAL.

A decade later old 43 Group members and a younger generation formed a new group that fought fascism using similar tactics. The 1962 Committee, better known as the 62 Group, carried on an intelligence-led battle against the remnants of Mosley’s Union Movement, the original British National Party, Colin Jordan’s National Socialist Movement and the emerging National Front.

The internationally famous Searchlight magazine and its campaigning, research and educational arms arose out of this struggle.

And today’s Jewish Community Security Trust grew from these roots, learning from those who had led in earlier years.

Today the largest ever anti-fascist campaign in Britain, HOPE not hate, works together with many of these veterans to defeat the British National Party and defend democracy.

You can meet the veterans of the 43 and 62 Groups and MAHAL, and today’s activists at an evening event on Sunday 15 February. The programme includes short talks, a film about the 43 Group narrated by the late Harold Pinter, an exhibition of unique material, a bookstall with most items free and refreshments.

Bring your family and especially the next generation to an event that will help them hold up their heads in today’s troubled times.

Sunday 15 February 2009, at 6.30 for 7pm
At Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue,
Norrice Lea, London N2 0RE
Nearest Tube East Finchley
(Northern Line Barnet branch). Bus route 102.

The fight goes on

Entrance £10, concessions for senior citizens, children and students.

The Spiro Ark, 25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW
Tel 020 7723 9991, email education@spiroark.org, www.spiroark.org.

Gay pub nailbomber's sick penpal pleas to Scots prisoners

Nazi nail bomber David Copeland has been writing to Scottish prisoners begging them to find him teenage girls as pen pals.

Copeland is serving six life sentences for murdering three people and injuring 139 in a reign of terror nine years ago. The 30-year-old homophobe and racist planted a series of home-made bombs targeting gay and ethnic communities. Now the Brixton Bomber, who admired Hitler and Saddam Hussein, is writing to Scottish inmates, moaning about life in jail.

In one letter, the neo-Nazi begs a Scot accused of attempted murder to find him a pretty young pen pal. In the letter, written before last month's ruling that Copeland will serve at least 50 years before he is considered for parole, he says: "I ain't had a girl for five years, only 25 to go. I wouldn't have to wait that long if the patriotic community got their fingers out and done something."

He then launches into a vile attack on Jews, adding: "Well life's a bitch, trust me to pick the losing side. Sorry to sound such a pessimist but the truth is the truth, the Aryans are finished."

The triple killer then asks his pen pal: "Do you know any attractive girls who would like to write to me?"

Copeland, a member of the National Socialist Movement, was caged in 2000 for a 13-day killing spree across London in 1999. He planted a bomb in Brixton market in South London and, days later, he planted another home-made bomb in Brick Lane, hoping to kill Asians.

His most devastating bomb ripped through a gay pub in Soho, killing pregnant Andrea Dykes, 27, John Light, 32, and Nik Moore, 31. The wounded included a baby whose skull was impaled by a nail.

Copeland was held in the high-security Broadmoor hospital until 2004, where his mental state was assessed. He was moved to London's tough Belmarsh prison in 2004. Last month, it was ruled he will not be released until at least 2049.

Daily Record

Hatewatch for week ending February 16th 2008

Holocaust Center Cancels Anti-Muslim Lecture Organized By Hate Group
The Holocaust Memorial Center canceled a Feb. 26 lecture sponsored by the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group...

Three Men Arrested In Mosque Firebombing
Federal authorities arrested three men, including one who said he was part of the extremist Christian Identity movement, for allegedly firebombing a storefront mosque...

Neo-Nazi Confesses To Desecrating Jewish Graves
National Socialist Movement member Mariusz Wdziekonski, 21, told police that he painted swastikas and slurs including "Aryan Power" on 57 headstones in a Jewish cemetery because he wanted to impress other neo-Nazis...

White Supremacist Sentenced To 17 Years For Assaults
Timothy Michael Caban, 40, pleaded guilty to committing battery with serious bodily injury for beating a black man and a man Caban thought was gay in two separate attacks, leaving one victim brain damaged for life...

Rash Of Hate Crimes Afflicts Seattle Neighborhood
Deputy King County prosecutor Mike Hogan said a spate of crimes targeting gay men in a traditionally gay Seattle neighborhood represents the highest level of hate crimes he's dealt with in 20 years as a prosecutor...

Hatewatch

Hatewatch for the week of September 26th 2007

White Supremacist Exploits Jena, La., Family
Well-known Mississippi white supremacist Richard Barrett, leader of the Nationalist Movement hate group, is working to exploit the family of Justin Barker, a white teenager allegedly beaten by six black youths in Jena, La., who were later charged with attempted murder...

Neo-Nazi Posts Addresses Of Jena Six On 'Lynch' Webpage
Bill White, commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, listed the home addresses of the six black youths known as the "Jena 6" on a webpage that urged readers, "Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."

New Neo-Nazi Group Distributes Leaflets
The Ohio State Hooligans, whose leader recently broke away from the Imperial Klans of America, announced their presence by passing out neo-Nazi literature in five Ohio towns...

Skinheads Plot Rally In Flint, Mich.
The Rollingwood Skins, a racist skinhead crew with ties to the National Socialist Movement, announced plans to hold a rally outside the headquarters of the Flint chapter of the NAACP...

Oregon Town Faces Surge In Racist Activity
Skinheads are staring down Hispanics in a local park and fights between white and non-white high school students are increasing, along with swastika graffiti in the normally quiet town of Butte Falls, Oregon...

Sharing the hate

Video-sharing websites become extremist venue

Los Angeles blacks are destroying property and attacking white people as a soft, pitiful ballad plays in the background. Then, about two minutes into the video, the words "Whose Freedom?" appear as a still frame of a young, smiling German girl at a Third Reich rally suddenly replaces the footage of the 1992 Rodney King riots. A man wearing a swastika armband stands protectively behind her, his head cropped from the frame, while the words, "A paradise lost," scroll down beneath her chin. Finally, a message, "Save the White Race," fills the screen before dissolving into a Celtic cross encircled by the phrase, "White Pride World Wide."

NSM International, a recruiting arm of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, produced this video, probably at a cost of just a few dollars. But despite its amateurish nature, its makers are getting a big bang for their buck, thanks to YouTube, the red-hot video-sharing website that allows anyone with a camera phone or digital camcorder to upload for free their videos. The NSM video is now available to millions of people.

Welcome to the latest medium for the American radical right — one more electronic venue that seems particularly suited for recruitment of the young. Since it was founded in February 2005, YouTube, along with competitors like Flickr and Google Video, has become hugely popular, especially among the young. YouTube alone streams hundreds of millions of clips daily to a global audience, with its users posting more than 65,000 new videos to its swollen archives every day. And while extremist clips like the NSM recruitment video are only a tiny percentage of those posts, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists are close on the heels of the commercial advertisers now rushing to exploit this still-burgeoning medium.

"Increasingly, the Internet is replacing membership groups as the primary way for white supremacists to obtain information and communicate," asserts a January report on the white supremacist movement by Strategic Forecasting Incorporated, an intelligence analysis think tank. "Adherents regularly establish their presence on popular Web destinations such as MySpace and YouTube."

As of mid-January, roughly 12,000 white supremacist propaganda videos, hate rock concert highlight reels, and Holocaust denial pseudo-documentaries, many of them posted anonymously, were openly available on video-sharing websites. (This estimate was derived through keyword searches of the three leading sites and an analysis of how many were extremist, rather than merely mentioning extremism.) One of the most popular videos, "Branik White Power," is a poor-quality depiction of skinheads gone wild, set to roaring hate rock. The high-speed montage depicts Nazi skins dancing violently in the "mosh pit" near the stage, throwing punches, waving "SS" flags, and showing off white-power tattoos. Since it was posted by YouTube user "bulldog88" in May 2006, it has been downloaded more than 40,000 times.

Some of the most noxious videos are more reserved in their approach, such as "The Real David Duke," which has the former Klan leader pontificating on race relations for nine minutes and which has been viewed more than 10,000 times since it was posted last October. Another example, is "David Irving on the Holocaust," a five-and-a-half-minute excerpt of a speech by the notorious Holocaust denier in Britain that's been downloaded over 4,000 times during the same time period.

The Irving video was posted to YouTube last October by "Hadden88" ("88" is neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler"), who has compiled his own YouTube "channel" of 79 videos, most of them anti-Semitic mini-"documentaries" and speeches by hate peddlers like Irving, National Alliance founder William Pierce, and Adolf Hitler.

Other popular YouTube racist videos include a series of six "White Nationalist News" clips, the earliest episode dated last Sept. 8, some of which have been viewed more than 3,000 times; "Ku Klux Klan – A Secret History," posted in September, and its accompaniment "Ku Klux Klan 4-Ever," posted in December, each viewed over 11,000 times; "Nazi KKK," posted in October and viewed 15,000 times; "Russian skinheads. We are here," posted in December and viewed over 45,000 times; and "Skinhead" posted in November and viewed 132,000 times.

Video-sharing may be a particularly effective way for extremist groups, which have long sought ways to find new recruits, to connect with young people. You-Tube and its imitators are immensely popular among children, teenagers and young adults, and sometimes a single video will be downloaded literally millions of times. In addition, compared to direct-mail literature or dead-of-night "literature drops" on people's lawns, posting video footage is vastly less difficult, expensive, risky and time-consuming — and it can be done anonymously with virtually no effort.

Videos can also easily be used to create a false image. While back-country Klan cross-burnings, warehouse hate rock festivals, and neo-Nazi park rallies may draw only a handful of supporters, a crafty amateur filmmaker can edit or exploit camera angles to foster the illusion of a much larger and more dramatic event.

NSM, for example, posted a YouTube video last October depicting their August rally in Madison, Wis. A couple of dozen NSM members, dressed like Nazi storm troopers, seig-heil enthusiastically as the speaker rails: "Pedro go home! White America was founded by white Americans for white Americans! We will not allow our nation to become brown!" The camera lingers lovingly on the snappy accessories and stern gazes of the NSM, creating in the minds of some electronic visitors the impression of a polished, powerful show. But what the footage doesn't show is hundreds of booing, jeering anti-racist protesters right across the street.

Questioned last December by the Intelligence Report about NSM videos on YouTube, NSM Commander Jeff Schoep claimed: "The effectiveness of the NSM and its growth speaks for itself. We use many tools." Schoep also complained that civil rights groups were pressuring YouTube to remove "all so-called racist content."

Actually, YouTube already bans "hate speech," defined as "slurs or the malicious use of stereotypes intended to attack or demean a particular gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality." But the sheer volume of video files posted to the site each day makes it practically impossible to police all content. As a result, particular videos are normally only removed as a result of a user complaint.

"We remove the offending content and send users a warning notice for violating our terms of use," says Jennifer Nielsen, marketing manager for YouTube. "Users who repeatedly violate our terms of use have their accounts terminated, all of their videos removed and they are permanently banned from YouTube."

Racist extremists are hardly likely to be deterred by such mild consequences, particularly because most live in countries with criminal penalties for possession or distribution of such Internet propaganda. By using American video-sharing websites, foreign extremists like Germany's National Democratic Party (NPD) make it vastly more difficult for legal action to be brought against them in their own countries.

The NPD, a neofascist political party, frequently posts newscasts of Hitler memorials and Holocaust-denying speeches on U.S.-based video sharing sites. Last December, for example, after the NPD posted glowing reports on YouTube of a highly publicized conference of Holocaust deniers hosted by Iran, the British paper The Independent described YouTube as "a favorite neo-Nazi website."

While YouTube operators now have scrubbed the site for those NPD videos, more than 350 other NPD clips are still available on YouTube, and the party recently announced plans to launch its own video-sharing website, based in America. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, would be proud.

SPLC

New laws could give BNP members employment rights

New employment laws that came into force today could pave the way for political activists – including members of the British National Party (BNP) - to bring religious discrimination claims in the workplace, experts have warned.

Stuart Chamberlain, an adviser at Consult GEE, an employment consultancy, said that following changes to the Employment Equality (Religious or Belief) Regulations 2003: “Employers need to tread carefully as the potential to discriminate has widened. From today, the regulations will mean that refusing to employ someone or treating an employee differently because of their philosophical beliefs could result in a discrimination claim," he said.

The relevant change concerns the statutory definition of “religion or belief”. Under the previous laws, this was defined as “any religion, religious belief or similar philosophical belief.” However, from today, the word “similar” will be removed with the definition amended to “any religion, or religious or philosophical belief.”

The change means that members of the BNP, such as Mr Baggs, whose religious discrimination claim against a medical practice that refused to interview him failed, could now be successful. Lawyers for Mr Baggs claimed that he was entitled to protection under religious discrimination laws because his membership of the BNP amounted to a “similar philosophical belief” to a religion or other religious belief.

However, the claim was dismissed after the employment tribunal ruled that the word “similar” meant that the philosophical belief in question must be similar in nature to a religious belief and that membership of the BNP did not meet this test. But according to Cath Thorpe, an employment partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain: “Under the amended regulations, the Baggs case may well have been decided differently.”

Other lawyers warned the amendment could extend to cover those with other beliefs.

Audrey Williams, an employment expert at Eversheds, said: “While this is a relatively minor amendment to the regulations, there could be far-reaching consequences. For example, it is possible that due to the changes, people who adhere to any shared, philosophical belief system such as animal rights activism or Marxism could also be protected from workplace discrimination.”

However, Consult GEE’s Mr Chamberlain said there are circumstances where it remains possible for an employer to discriminate on the grounds of belief.

“The regulations include a safety net of genuine occupational requirements to avoid situations where it would be unrealistic to expect an employer to not be able to discriminate on the grounds of religious or other belief. For example, a socialist publication is likely to be able to appoint a columnist with socialist views and not fear a discrimination claim from applicants of other political leanings.”

Times Online

Hatewatch: for the week of April 18th 2007

White supremacist icon was secretly part black
Veteran neo-Nazi William "Wild Bill" Hoff, who died last December at 71, discovered in 1995 that his father's ancestors were black, a secret Hoff then carried to the grave...

Neo-Nazis announce plans for anti-immigration rally
John Taylor Bowles, the South Carolina head of the National Socialist Movement, said the NSM has scheduled a march and rally at the State House for April 21 as part of the neo-Nazi group's three-day national conference...

Klansman's aunt traces roots of his racist beliefs
Imperial Klans of America "grand titan" Jarred Hensley became a racist in high school after he was beaten by blacks and his girlfriend dumped him for a black man...

High school students suspended for anti-gay attack
Six Colorado youths were suspended from school and are under criminal investigation for shouting anti-gay insults and breaking the nose of a 15-year-old classmate as he walked home from school...

Southern Poverty Law Centre

Hatewatch: for the week of March 28th 2007

Gay man’s murder spurs campaign to update laws
Detroit Free Press
March 21, 2007
Prompted by the beating death of 72-year-old Andrew Athos, state and federal lawmakers introduced legislation to expand the definition of hate crimes to include attacks on gays and lesbians.
Read more

Fort Bragg skinhead killer dies in prison
The Fayetteville Observer
March 22, 2007
James Burmeister, 31, one of two racist skinheads convicted in 1997 of randomly murdering a black couple while serving in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, died of natural causes in prison, ten years into a life sentence.
Read more

National Vanguard organizes 'White Pride' rally
East Valley Tribune
March 21, 2007
Several members of the neo-Nazi group National Vanguard's Arizona chapter held "White Pride Worldwide" banners at a busy intersection in observance of a United Nations-designated "Harmony Day."
Read more

White supremacists arrested for murder
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
March 24, 2007
Two members of the Riverside Skins allegedly shot to death a drug dealer they feared would become an informant.
Read more

Neo-Nazi march cost city $32,000
Columbia Tribune
March 20, 2007
City agencies spent more than $32,000 on security for a 45-minute march by two-dozen members of the National Socialist Movement near the University of Missouri-Columbia on March 10.
Read more

SPLC

Race-hate letter link to hoax bridge bomb

Police are linking a hoax bomb found strapped to a bridge by Nazis and race-hate letters sent to schools.

Traffic ground to a halt last month as bomb disposal experts exploded a suspect package on the A27. Detectives found a swastika nearby while a pro-Nazi group is believed to be behind the stunt.

Now it is thought the same culprits are responsible for sending hate letters to faith schools in the area. Police have refused to reveal which schools have been sent the letters on request of the headteachers.

Hampshire police spokesman Neil Miller said: 'I can't say which schools have had letters delivered, but they are all in the Havant area. On the content of the letters, at this time all we can say is that the motive of the content is to provoke racial tension or hatred. It is a very sensitive issue and police investigations are being thoroughly conducted. We will deal with those responsible in a robust manner.'

The A27, near Havant, was brought to a standstill on February 7 after all three lanes were closed in both directions.

A member of the public reported a suspect package on the bridge alongside a 3ft by 2ft cardboard sign with a red swastika on it. Below the Nazi sign was the website address of the far-right extremist American group, the National Socialist Movement.

Police say there is a definite link between the bomb and the letters.

Havant's district commander, Chief Inspector Gary Cooper, said: 'We have had a hate crime reported in the form of letters. Some of the same details left with the hoax bomb also appear on the letters. Some kind of pro-Nazi extremist organisation is behind the letters, which are forming part of the investigation into the fake bomb.'

Investigating officer Detective Constable Rob Lowe, from Waterlooville CID, added: 'We are treating it very seriously. These letters have been getting our full attention.'

The News