Ex BNP councillor condemned for campaign to free woman accused of racist tram rant

Paul Golding, who represented the St Mary's ward in Swanley, is campaigning to free Emma West

A former BNP councillor has been condemned for his calls to free a woman accused of a racist rant on a tram. Paul Golding, who represented the St Mary's ward in Swanley, quit the BNP in March to become chairman of a new group called Britain First.

The far-right movement, which operates from an address in Swanley, has launched an online campaign called Free Emma West. Emma West, aged 34, from New Addington, is charged with a racially aggravated public order offence and has been remanded in custody. Her arrest came after a video appeared on YouTube of a woman making racists comments to passengers on a tram. The alleged rant subsequently hit the headlines in the national media.

In the online campaign, Mr Golding, who is chairman of Britain First, said: "We call upon the Home Secretary, Teresa May, and the prison governors, Helga Swidenbank and Alan Thurlby, to be held personally accountable for any harm Miss West may suffer as a result of her incarceration in an ethnically-dominated prison."

The group emailed more than 70,000 British nationalists and have organised a rally for today (December 2) in support of West outside HMP Bronzefield in Ashford.

Gerry Gable, the publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: "If they are trying to catch headlines they are going for the wrong ones. It just shows there's nothing new about them. They are the same old haters. If they think they can defend somebody like that it says it all."

Speaking about the YouTube video, Mr Gable said: "It says something very very good for this country that nobody actually laid a hand on her."

Labour councillor Mark Fittock, who represents Mr Golding's former ward, said: "I'm outraged that this should be going on. The Labour group would never support such action. We fully support the law as it stands in this country on the issue."

Mr Golding refused to comment.

This is Local London

BNP ratpack hold secret Scots summit as they plan new far-right party

Far-right fanatic Jim Dowson and other BNP ratbags slunk into Scotland yesterday to launch a new party full of hatred.

The former BNP treasurer pitched up in Perth at a secret Scots summit to launch Britain First, clutching a cardboard box crammed with far-right propaganda.

Britain First claim to offer a “new moderate approach for British nationalism”, free from the “toxic brand” of the BNP. But the small band of activists who turned up for the lunchtime talks at Perth’s Grampian Hotel all had key roles in peddling the BNP’s racist message.

Dowson, from Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, was BNP leader Nick Griffin’s right-hand man and chief fundraiser before he quit the party last year after being accused of groping a blonde activist. Previously, Dowson was the public face of the Life League, who published online details of people they believed encouraged abortions. He has convictions including breach of the peace, possession of a weapon and criminal damage.

Britain First campaign manager Paul Golding, who joined Dowson in Perth, is a former communications officer for the BNP. He won a council seat in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 2009 but quit this year after putting in just three appearances in a year. Golding had returned to the party after being expelled in 2004 – for allegedly attacking their only ethnic minority councillor.

Dowson and Golding arrived in Perth first – with Dowson unloading boxes of pamphlets and banners as well as a full Highland dress outfit from the boot of his car.

They were followed by Richard Payne, who fought the Banff and Buchan Westminster seat for the BNP at the last general election – and by black-shirted Gary Raikes, who heads Britain First’s Scottish arm. Raikes was an army cadet officer who trained teenagers. But he was drummed out in 2007 after being exposed as the leader of the BNP in Scotland. He was accused of abusing his position to peddle the BNP’s vile views.

Raikes claims Britain First is the “start of a new moderate approach for British nationalism in Scotland”. And he says party chiefs “carefully vet” all their members – “to ensure that no cranks and unsavoury types encountered in the BNP are allowed to join.”

But Gerry Gable, editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: “There is nothing in Jim Dowson or Paul Golding’s history that shows them as being moderate. They can dress themselves up in new clothes, but in the end it comes down to the same ideology of hate. They will always find someone fresh to hate.”

Dowson quit working for the BNP last year, and claimed in a BBC Panorama documentary this month that BNP treasurer Clive Jefferson asked him to help get fabricated documents to be used against a political opponent. He also claimed Griffin raked in thousands of pounds through fund-raising drives based on lies. Jefferson denied the claim and said Dowson had no credibility within the BNP.

Daily Record

Thanks to Zaahid and others for the heads-up

Former BNP Councillor Paul Golding heads Britain First nationalist movement

A former BNP councillor who was accused of “doing nothing” for his constituents is launching his own nationalist party.

Paul Golding, who stepped down as a Sevenoaks District councillor for the Swanley St Mary’s ward in February, is now director of Britain First. Mr Golding, whose latest venture is run from a Swanley postal address, told News Shopper he left his position as councillor because he had moved out of the area.

Mr Golding said in February: “I’ve moved out of the area. I didn’t think it was morally justified to keep getting the allowance. It’s as simple as that, no drama involved.”

In a campaign for Britain First, Mr Golding makes a swipe at other nationalist parties, asking: “Are you, like me, fed up of enduring the constant bickering, moaning, whinging and name-calling that is at present consuming what is left of the British patriotic movement?”

Mr Golding also accuses other parties of creating: “a constant stream of self inflicted media scandals and embarrassing gaffes that make all of us look ridiculous”.

The group also uses slogans including “if voting changed anything, it would be illegal” and “the voice of the silent majority”.

Mr Golding, who calls the movement “a modern political phenomenon” also says: “Now it is time for all patriots of stout heart to join forces, so that we can, once again, achieve progress and make an impact against the despicable traitors ruining our once green and pleasant land. We want our country back and we shall not rest until our land is free.”

Labour Councillor John Underwood, who still represents the Swanley St Mary’s ward for Sevenoaks District Council, said: “He can do what he likes as far as I’m concerned. I’m just glad he’s gone and out of my way.”

Paul Golding’s timeline of gaffes

February 2009 - Paul Golding is elected, beating Labour candidate Michael Hogg by 408 votes to 332.

August 2009 - He attends a BNP Red White and Blue family festival in Derbyshire - where an undercover News of the World reporter records a 12-year-old burning a gollywog. Mr Golding condemned these actions.

August 2009 - As part of the BNP’s anti-media campaign, Operation Fightback, he made a video to prove that a woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was not a BNP member. Later investigations confirmed that Helen Forster was a member, but had registered under a different name.

September 2009 - St Mary’s constituents accuse Mr Golding of “doing nothing” for them since his election.

October 2009 - The BNP threatens to boycott three News Shopper advertisers unless they pull their adverts, calling the paper “a particularly venomous anti-British left-wing propaganda outlet”.

February 2011 - Steps down as a Sevenoaks District Councillor.

News Shopper

BNP ‘unlikely’ to fight to replace councillor after resignation

The British National Party has lost its only council seat in Kent after Paul Golding resigned from Sevenoaks District Council. And it seems likely there will be no attempt to replace him at the upcoming May local elections.

The far-right party sprang a shock when it comfortably won Swanley St Mary’s ward in a 2009 by-election after a Labour councillor resigned. In doing so [Golding] became the first BNP councillor to be elected outside of London. Mr Golding, who was once expelled from the party for allegedly attacking its only ethnic minority councillor, said he resigned because he had moved out of the area and was no longer able to attend council meetings or work on behalf of residents.

According to the party’s south east regional director, the BNP is unlikely to field a replacement candidate in the May 5 elections.

John Underwood, a Labour councillor for St Mary’s ward, welcomed his decision to resign.

"He only attended three council meetings the whole year," he said. "He has completely disappeared. Yes I’m pleased in a way because we can get on and do our work. He was totally useless, he never accepted any committee posts and he only ever turned up when he felt like it. He was most critical about everyone else and could make offensive comments at times."

Mr Golding resigned on Monday with immediate effect. He said: "Basically I’ve moved out of the area and I can no longer carry out my duties. I cannot carry out the duties of a councillor on behalf of my constituents so I want to allow the seat to go to someone else. I did not want to carry on taking the money, the allowance, while I was not able to do any work."

Asked if he had felt any hostility while at the council because he represented the views of the far-right party, he said: "Not at all, all the council officials were always fair and friendly. The only hostility was from Labour councillors."

Mr Golding, former communication director for the BNP, would not say where he has moved to, but said he would continue as a south east regional fundraiser for the party.

Andy McBride, south east regional director for the BNP, said the party was unlikely to put forward another candidate to fight for the St Mary’s seat in the May 5 elections.

"We don’t have a meeting until Tuesday next week," he said. "County organisations will decide whether it is going to be viable. To win that seat was an anomaly. I’m not aware of any candidate at the moment. We are concentrating on reform and a major reworking of the party, getting rid of people who have caused us problems."

When Mr Golding snatched the St Mary’s seat it, was the first BNP victory in the south east outside London. At the time he said: "Young people in this ward have said they find it almost impossible to get a council house. All the council houses are given to foreigners and asylum seekers – that has got to stop."

Sevenoaks council’s Labour group leader Bryan Harrod said the party would be fighting hard to regain the sewith strong candidates. In response to Mr Golding’s departure, he said: "I don’t think he has been a very effective councillor. He only turns up at full council now and against so I don’t see how he can be putting forward the residents concerns.

Kent News

BNP member Paul Golding resigns as councillor for St Mary’s ward of Swanley

BNP member Paul Golding has resigned as a councillor for the St Mary’s ward of Swanley.

Mr Golding, who was the only British National Party councillor in the south east of England, resigned from Sevenoaks District Council with immediate effect on Monday.

The 29-year-old was elected in February 2009, winning the seat from Labour with 76 more votes than his closest rival.

During his time as councillor he was accused of “doing nothing” for the area by St Mary’s residents.

Mr Golding was one of two councillors for the St Mary’s ward, and his vacated seat will be contested at the District Council elections on May 5.

News Shopper

Departures leave BNP future in doubt

The British National Party’s communications officer has left the party, following the abrupt departure of its fundraising and management guru Jim Dowson.

Paul Golding was the BNP’s sole district councillor in southeast England. His exit leaves the racist party with only 23 councillors compared with the 28 it had after the May elections.

The two walked out following a major fallout between them and senior party staff, in particular its moronic national organiser Clive Jefferson and Patrick Harrington, leader of the rival Third Way party, who has wormed himself into a position of growing influence in the party, upsetting several employees and members in the process.

Golding’s BNP membership had briefly been suspended in summer for writing a nasty blog attacking Eddy Butler, who unsuccessfully challenged Nick Griffin for the party leadership. The move was widely seen as an attempt by Griffin to appear “fair” between his own supporters and those of Butler. But later, when many of Butler’s suspended supporters were expelled, Golding was reinstated.

The departure of Dowson and Golding leaves the BNP with no one capable of writing the begging letters that have brought in large sums in donations during Dowson’s three years at Griffin’s side. The party will also be unable to exploit its “Bring Our Boys Home” recruitment campaign by turning the 25,000 names on petition forms into voters and members. People signed anti-war petitions at the BNP’s stalls in shopping centres around the country, not realising that they were sponsored by the BNP, but despite the party’s claims to use cutting-edge technology, Jefferson is incapable of transferring the information into a usable electronic format.

Butler reports that Dowson rang to tell him that his departure was complete and immediate. Dowson is known to have texted and phoned numerous other people.

Quite where this leaves the BNP’s Belfast call centre and administration centre is unclear. The office is run by Dowson and Griffin’s daughter Jennifer Matthys, who is also a director of Dowson’s main front company, Adlorries.com. Dowson is believed to have alternative Belfast premises for any new venture he undertakes.

Dowson was in charge of obtaining the secret four-star venue for the party’s annual conference to be held somewhere in Derbyshire over the weekend of 10-12 December. Stories are circulating that as he was about to dump the party Griffin offered him £10,000 to complete the arrangements, which he rejected. There must now be doubt over whether it will go ahead. If it is cancelled, members who have already paid the up to £299 cost of attending are likely to lose their money.

Dowson believes the party will not last beyond the end of the year, leaving those who have forked out £395 for life membership in its current special offer receiving very poor value for their money.

Searchlight / HOPE not Hate by Sonia Gable

"Clammy, sweaty hands" - Shelley Rose accuses Dowson - claims "nightmare" at hands of BNP "spy hunters"

Comment superfluous...



... however, we can not substantiate these claims, and republish this video only as a matter of interest and information for anti-fascists studying the current situation within the BNP.

Please ensure that any comments you leave are not libellous and do not contain unsubstantiated accusations, or we won't be able to publish them.

BNP operations centre in office leased by Dowson

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, is hoping to seize back the initiative and regain his members’ confidence by setting up a new campaigns executive.

Headed by Clive Jefferson, the man who replaced Eddy Butler as the party’s national elections officer, it is intended to “coordinate and marshal the entire Party for the purpose of winning elections”.

The new structures are also intended to consolidate the hold of Griffin and his “consultant” Jim Dowson on the party. Paul Golding, another diehard Griffin loyalist, has been put in charge of a new “communications and publicity department” encompassing media and communications, the BNP website, publicity and design. The new department has been “designed and researched by Midas Consultants and Mr Golding”, the party website announ-ced in an attempt to counter the attacks on Jim Dowson, one of whose many businesses is Midas Consultants.

During election campaigns the campaigns executive will “converge on” the BNP’s “operations centre”. A BNP email requesting donations to equip it did not disclose where it was, but Searchlight can reveal its location in Unit 13, Salmon Springs Trading Estate in Stroud.

Three rooms in the unit were leased by Adlorries.com Ltd, one of Dowson’s companies, for three years from spring 2009 at a rent of £5,000 a year. They were to be used as a training centre for the BNP run by Michaela Mackenzie, but have remained empty after the party sacked her from her posts as administration officer and national nominating officer. Like many in the BNP it appears she clashed with Dowson. She has appealed to the employment tribunal, another case that could leave the BNP with a large legal bill.

Mike Howson, a former military trainer and Griffin’s bully boy in the South West, will now run the BNP’s training department there. Howson, the BNP’s ageing national youth officer, took over from Peter Mullins as the BNP’s South West regional organiser and promptly instigated his suspension from the party.

Simon Bennett, the BNP’s former webmaster, claims that Howson was one of those who tried to confront the party leadership over Dowson’s “dodgy dealings and history”, but after they were all “frog-marched to a court style hearing”, Howson folded “like a pack of cards” and is now “a poodle to Jim Dowson”.

Sonia Gable in Searchlight

BNP heavyweight supports Eddy Butler leadership challenge

Eddy Butler, who is challenging Nick Griffin for the BNP leadership this summer, has announced that Nick Cass, the popular former Yorkshire BNP organiser, will be his running mate to become deputy chairman of the BNP in the event of a Butler victory.

In a “BNP TV” video posted on YouTube and some BNP-supporting websites, Cass explains that Griffin does not have the time to be BNP leader because since his election to the European Parliament he is focusing his attention “across the water”. Party members feel that the leadership has become detached from them, he adds.

Cass, 36, says that Butler is asking sensible questions to which members want to know the answers, but the party leadership is ridiculing them. He has been “shocked” by the campaign against Butler. He expected the party, in which he has been an activist for 20 years, to be “straight-talking and honest”, not to come out with smears against Butler.

Cass is helping Butler in the hard task of obtaining the signatures of 20% of BNP members of two years’ standing. He says every senior BNP officer in Yorkshire wants change in the leadership. The BNP’s Liverpool branch, a centre of activity in the region in which Griffin is an MEP, also supports Butler.

It did not take long before Griffin’s supporters went onto the attack on one of the most extreme nazi web forums with a thread –withdrawn after a few hours – titled “Nick Cass Scum Traitor”, in which commenters suggested that Cass might be a Searchlight agent, state asset or, worse from a nazi viewpoint, Jewish.

The insult was ironic. Cass with his wife and three children have appeared on many BNP election leaflets as the typical wholesome white family that votes BNP.

It was also highly unlikely. Cass sports a prominent “tree of life” tattoo on his right arm, between shoulder and elbow. This symbol, also known as the life rune, is a favourite among nazi groups worldwide, several of which have adopted it as their logo. Under Hitler it was the symbol of the SS Lebensborn project, which encouraged SS troopers to have children out of wedlock with “Aryan” mothers and kidnapped children of Aryan appearance from the countries of occupied Europe to raise as Germans. To white supremacists today the tree of life signifies the future of the “white race”.

The tattoo was pictured in Sky TV’s BNP Wives documentary. The same programme revealed that Cass had instructed his wife, Suzy, to insist on a white European midwife when giving birth to their children, which reveals his attitude to women as well as his racism.

This is not the first time that Cass has fallen out with BNP colleagues. It was widely reported in 2007 that Cass was sacked from the job of BNP party manager two minutes before a meeting, after he had been given a role for which he was unsuited. Cass disputes this, saying that he resigned so that he could spend more time with his family.

The announcement of Cass’s support for Butler put paid to malicious rumours from the Griffin camp that Butler was putting forward Lawrence Rustem as deputy leader. Rustem, a former BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, suffers from the fatal flaw in the eyes of the BNP’s racist members that he is of part Turkish Cypriot descent.

Griffin supporters have also tried to link Butler with Sharon Ebanks, a former BNP activist who fell out with the party after Griffin reneged on a promise to meet her legal expenses for a challenge to a council election result in Birmingham that the party encouraged her to mount. She is widely derided in the BNP because of her West Indian father.

Meanwhile the anti-Butler blog run by Paul Golding, the BNP’s national communications officer, has listed reasons why Butler is unsuitable to lead the BNP. Butler is accused of being “bland and boring and grey and colourless”, “rude and arrogant”, having “no intellectual ability whatsoever”, “pure repellent”, “defeatist”, a “raging control freak” and, horror of horrors, “arranging the most disgusting food ever served at a BNP event”, a feat that takes some doing, judging by the reports we have received of typical BNP catering.

Griffin, in contrast, has “heaps of charisma”, is an “accomplished writer and intellectual”, “affable”, a “visionary” and “able to command respect and loyalty”. Unfortunately for Griffin, a growing number of BNP members are rejecting Golding’s sycophancy.

Sonia Gable at HOPE not hate

Is Killer Collett back in the BNP?

Like Gary Glitter, he's back again - Killer Collett rejoins the ranks (maybe)

How confusing is it to be a member of the BNP? Just over a week ago, the world was informed that a plot to unseat the leader of the party had been discovered and that a taped telephone conversation between the party's treasurer David Hannam and the its former head of publicity Mark Collett revealed threats of murder and assault and talk of fraud and falsification of accounts, including 'skimming' off printing bills for the party.

Last Monday, party organisers met up and were treated to a ten minute snippet of the tape that apparently included the threats and non-specific mention of the fraud that had taken place, though the whole tape was held back until a committee declared on its authenticity. This committee, led by taxi driver and world-renowned tape authenticity expert [sarcasm] Michael Simpkins, declared that the tape was genuine and, we gather, the shortened version was given to the police.

Why the shortened version? Because the complete tape was almost an hour and a half of Killer Collett slagging off party leader Nick Griffin and fundraiser Jim Dowson, along with a multitude of accusations of theft and complicity in a massive and persistent fraud on the membership of the British National Party. These allegations were, we're told, so detailed that the police would have had at least enough information to begin investigating the party's finances - and that would have been disastrous for Griffin and the party itself.

According to information we have received, the police are not prepared to take any action based upon a tape that has clearly been tampered with, leaving the police with nothing to investigate.

Given that the party is anxious to hide any sign of wrongdoing by its officers - particularly by its leader - for fear that a whole financial can of worms would be opened up, the only thing to do was, in the words of one of our correspondents, 'to take that wanker Collett back at least until after the elections'. Thus, we're informed that Collett is back in the BNP fold though on a much-reduced salary and only on condition that he keeps his mouth firmly shut in future.

It's hard to know what Collett will be doing in the party after his reinstatement because it seems that the design of leaflets has been handed over to the detestable Paul Golding, a Griffin-acolyte who appears to be much-loathed in the party, while printing has been shifted to - surprise - one of Jim Dowson's many companies, leaving Paedo-boy to sit around twiddling his thumbs.

Nevertheless, the man who, just a week ago, was accused of conspiracy to unseat Porky Griffin as leader of the BNP and was said to have uttered threats to kill him, is apparently back because the party leadership is terrified of what havoc he could wreak by exposing the corruption that saturates the party from top to bottom.

It could only happen in the BNP...

Of infiltrators, liars and cheapskates...

In the latest BNP begging letter - sorry, newsletter - Nick Griffin (or rather, Paul Golding, for it is he who usually writes this rubbish) is still trying to get the party's tired and bored membership irate about the supposed 'sting' by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where the EHRC 'attempted to entrap the BNP by planting fake ethnic recruits and getting them to join our Party'. If they were allowed to.

Regular readers will know that, despite the BNP's continued claim that its meetings are open to all who wish to attend, they suddenly become exclusive (see here and here) if someone who happens to be darker than Griffin himself attempts to walk through the door. BNP members generally have failed to show any real sign that they are indignant about such tactics because, after all, it's one way of seeing how racist the party remains and that is, when you get right down to it, what the Equality and Human Rights Commission is all about. Naturally, that doesn't stop Griffin/Golding fuming about the 'arrogant, anti-British immigrant agitator Trevor Phillips' and seething through gritted teeth 'doesn't it make you absolutely livid with rage!'. Well, no, actually. The party membership doesn't appear to care one way or the other.

As if this isn't enough to make a podgy, Holocaust-denying, racist incandescent with fury, the newsletter goes on to fume about how the EHRC 'forced us into accepting a freeze on our membership list', conveniently forgetting or choosing to ignore the fact that Griffin himself offered to freeze the membership pending the conclusion of the case. Nobody was forced into anything but the truth has never been an important part of Nick Griffin's make-up. One does wonder though, why Griffin should tell such an obvious lie, and the reason is revealed a little further on;

'Before the European Elections, we announced that in the event of victory the BNP would contest every single seat in the entire country in the forthcoming General Election...now, we find ourselves cash strapped and are consequently having to drastically scale back our General Election plans. Gutting as it is, there is nothing we can do about it! If you want to blame someone, blame the tax-guzzling foreigner Trevor Phillips.'

Well, no. We've known when the next election was going to take place for at least a year and even the incompetent accountants of the BNP could have managed to tuck some money away for it, if it hadn't all been spent on getting the pig farmer into Brussels - a complete waste of time if, God help the people of Barking, he wins there and resigns his EU seat. But we're veering away from the subject. According to the quote above, the BNP was going to stand for every seat in the country? I think not. At £500 deposit per seat and 646 seats, that would cost £323,000, to say nothing of the cost of leaflets, posters, ads and God only knows what else goes into a GE campaign. Was the BNP ever likely to have £323,000 plus to throw away on a pointless countrywide full-slate? No, is the simple answer. And considering some of the morons the party puts up at the moment (the useless slob Mike Ashburner and the insane religious freak and liar Robert West spring to mind) it wouldn't be able to find enough candidates who were mentally capable of standing in the seats anyway.

What has become very clear from the machinations around the EHRC court case, is that Griffin has used the membership issue to tell lies to both the public and the membership of the BNP itself. Using the oft-repeated dictum that a lie that's told often enough will eventually be believed, Griffin has repeatedly stated as fact that the EHRC has frozen the BNP's membership - or that it is at least responsible for that freeze, and that the freeze is itself responsible for the BNP being unable to stand in every seat in the coming GE. Complete lies, all from Griffin. Griffin himself proposed the freeze on new members, there was NEVER an intention to stand a full-slate and the first lie is now being used to support the second. For what purpose? Money, what else? Wherever you find Griffin, you find money, and he is only interested in himself and those who can be used to further his own 'career', 99% of which involves getting and staying rich.

Griffin has been able to tack a whole lot of other lies on to these to make his begging letter more acceptable to a weary membership, throwing in a few impressive (though unlikely) numbers to make the whole thing appear authentic;

'To give you an example of the scale of the problem, since the freeze we have had some 6,000 new, fresh people try to join the BNP...if we do a modest calculation and reduce that number to 3,000, that is a potential £105,000 that Phillips and Co have robbed us of...those lost funds would have allowed the BNP to drive its way through the quiet Christmas period and launch an impressive General Election campaign the likes of which have never been seen in Britain.'

Ignoring the bullshit about the General Election, that's a most peculiar paragraph. Are these 6,000 mythical people who tried to join after the freeze began so fickle that 50% of them will go off and join another party? Are they so annoyed at not being able to join up that they churlishly turn away from politics in a fit of pique? Or is it simply that the figures are made up to diguise the fact that the BNP is haemorrhaging members (either to the National Front or simply off into the non-political void according to the rumours we hear) following the news that the party may be forced to accept non-whites into it no matter what the undeniably racist membership thinks, and Griffin is trying desperately to convince the existing members that the party is still growing? The latter, I suspect. The truth will, of course, out. When the freeze is over, these three (or six) thousand can join if they actually exist, giving a tremendous boost to the party's income just before the GE campaign. They won't of course because they don't exist.

And the point of all these lies in a single Chairman's newsletter? I don't really have to tell anyone, do I? Money. Increase your membership to Gold/buy a lifetime membership/send us a donation - it all equates to the same thing - give us your dosh.

Just one question for the BNP membership: where are the accounts? Your hard-earned donations are going to the party to pay for the fines incurred by the leadership's incompetence - if the accounts aren't in by January 1st, the fine could hit £1,000. Is this a good use of your donations?

And while we're on the subject of money, many of you may remember Nick Griffin's promise to donate 10% of his Euro Parliament earnings to the party. As this is illegal, Griffin was forced (though I doubt if he was forced against his will) to rescind his offer and as an alternative has now made a contribution to what the BNP calls the English Fair Fund - a BNP-run fake fund designed to bolster little projects in which the BNP are already involved or from which donation the party can gain some propaganda return. This week saw the FIRST donation from Nick Griffin towards this fund and after six months in the job and taking around £45,000 off the taxpayer for himself, all he could muster up was a measly and Ebenezer Scrooge-like £150. The tight bastard.

YouGov defrauded in BNP poll sting

YouGov - being conned by the BNP

We've all known for ages that the BNP's legions of keyboard warriors are encouraged to vote in online polls where the result, if tilted, is advantageous to the party, but the BNP now appears to have taken this con trick one step further and is supporting a call on its own website to defraud money from YouGov and pay it into the party's coffers.

British Patriot, an administrator on the BNP's own social network, has called on members to join YouGov so that they can be on the list of people to be called when there is a poll to be carried out. As members, these people are given 50p per survey which is paid to them when the amount owed reaches £50. British Patriot suggests;

'Despite recently getting two MEPs elected our support in Yougov polls has recently dropped to 3% (just 1% in Scotland). One of the main reasons people don’t vote for us is because they believe we are a wasted vote, and it’s online polls such as Yougov that give them this impression! If EVERY BNP supporter joined Yougov, we could put our support on a par with the Lib Dems and possibly higher!

On top of this we could actually raise money for the Party via Yougov as you actually get paid for participating in surveys. I have already been sent a £50 cheque by Yougov which I donated to the party. Imagine if every BNP supporter signed up to Yougov and every few weeks, raised £50 which was donated to the party. The party could potentially get £100,000’s per year via Yougov!!!'

British Patriot compounds this suggested fraud by extending it;

'Also if you join Yougov via the referral link below Yougov will send me the equivalent amount in survey credit for each survey they complete during their first three months of membership. Therefore potentially DOUBLING the money raised for the party! You can also send your referral link to your friends and family, and therefore increasing the amount you raise for the party. I’m very close to receiving my second cheque which I would really like to donate towards the legal battle against the treacherous extremist-lefties of the CEHR.'

Regular readers might recall a similar fraud carried out by the BNP on Usborne Books back in April of last year, where the party sold the publishers books illegally via its own tat-flogging Excalibur arm, earning commission on sales despite the breaching of a number of rules. Thanks to swift action by our readers and Usborne, this was stopped in a day or two and the BNP were deprived of any further money from that particular con trick.

With regard to YouGov, the implications are rather more sinister. Apart from the fact that BNP members are being encouraged to obtain money by false pretenses which will then be donated to the party, the party is also deliberately loading the YouGov member base with numerous BNP members, thus skewing any survey or poll result in, where relevant, the BNP's favour. This latter point ties in nicely with a section of YouGov's terms and condition for what they term 'panel members'.

'3.6.6. In the course of using the YouGov WebPages and / or participating in YouGov Activities or YouGov Panels, you agree not to:

h. attempt to submit more than one vote per survey or do any other act that may affect the validity of any result obtained through any YouGov Activity or YouGov Panel.'

Clearly, British Patriot has breached this condition. So who is British Patriot? I've no idea, though I suspect it's that well-known liar and Nick Griffin ghost-writer Paul Golding. But YouGov can find out very easily because whoever it is has helpfully provided us with his referral ID number, which is

5e61b7ea-317c-4005-94d0-fcdd2f2d8b0d

I'm assuming this is all that's needed to identify this fraudster to YouGov but just in case it isn't, here's the full referrer link;

http://my.yougov.com/go.aspx?id=5e61b7ea-317c-4005-94d0-fcdd2f2d8b0d

There's no way of knowing from this end precisely how many people the BNP has fed into this fraud but a quick look at the post on the BNP's social networking set-up (a replacement for its disastrously-managed forum) reveals that around 25 members have joined up to YouGov from that post alone plus an unknown number who have been sent the referral link via those who've joined, their friends and families.

Nor, we discover, is this a new fraud the BNP has set up to raise money. One post from a Stephen Palmer says

'I had already joined YouGov after reading the thread about it on the old BNP forum.'

so it looks like this con has been going on for some time - which makes me wonder about ALL the poll results that place the BNP rather higher than one would expect.

Whether all this is illegal is debatable and I'm no lawyer but it's certainly unethical, definitely skews YouGov's polls which are generally highly-regarded for their accuracy and clearly puts even more money into the Welshpool pig-farmer's already well-stuffed pockets. And we would like to see it stopped.

We'd like you to ring, write to, fax or email YouGov to tell them of this fraud and to let them know who it is being perpetrated by, by referring to the ID number quoted above. If YouGov has any sense, it will close down this fraudster's account and its referrals and demand its money back from the BNP. If not, we can safely assume that it is happy to be funding the racist BNP.

You can contact YouGov in the following ways;

YouGov
50 Featherstone Street,
London, EC1Y 8RT

Tel: +44 (0)20 7012 6000
Fax: +44 (0)20 7012 6001
Email: info@yougov.com

Stay polite (difficult when referring to the BNP, I know) and let us know any results via the comments section. Go for it...

Thanks to NG (no, not that one) for the heads-up.

BNP threatens to boycott News Shopper's advertisers

The BNP is calling on its supporters to threaten to boycott businesses which advertise in News Shopper.

Following an article we ran about Paul Golding, a BNP councillor in Swanley St Mary’s, supporters of the party have contacted three of our advertisers saying they would have no further dealings with them if they continued to use your favourite paper to promote their businesses. The article concerned quoted several residents and councillors saying Councillor Golding had “done nothing” for the community he was elected to represent.

Despite repeated attempts to contact Cllr Golding for him to have his say, he never returned our calls. Yet shortly after the piece went on our website, a comment appeared from a Cllr Paul Golding calling the article “bilge” and suggesting he was always available for a comment.

As part of the BNP’s Operation Fightback, an email was sent to BNP supporters claiming to be from party leader Nick Griffin, called Time to Fight Back Against News Shopper Lies! The message said News Shopper was “a particularly venomous anti-British left-wing propaganda outlet” which had “spewed lies for years”. It then singled out three companies which advertise with us — Wise Bedding in Broadway, Bexleyheath; double glazing suppliers Camelot, based in Maidstone Road, Sidcup, and Wellingtons Electrical, of Bexley Road, Erith, and Westmoreland Road, Bromley.

When News Shopper called Cllr Golding about this, this time he answered his phone and admitted he had created the message. He said: “I am not speaking to the News Shopper as we think you are a bunch of lying scumbags. You are poisoning the minds of south-east London and north Kent with a lot of Labour-created nonsense. You’re a vilifying left-wing gutter newspaper.”

When asked whether urging people to boycott businesses during a recession would be bad for the local economy, Cllr Golding said it was “absolute nonsense”.

We contacted the three companies targeted by the BNP. They had each been inundated with calls and emails from the party’s supporters.

Derek Mountney, managing director of Camelot, says hurting News Shopper would hurt local businesses. He said: “I think it’s bad if they have an issue with the News Shopper and pick on certain companies in the paper to try and stop them advertising. If the BNP does not agree with what was in the paper their issue should be with News Shopper and not with innocent companies which advertise in the paper at a difficult time in all industries.”

The two other businesses declined to comment.

In his comment on our “smear article”, Cllr Golding called Councillor John Underwood who was quoted in the story, a “cretin”. Cllr Underwood, a Labour councillor for the same ward as Cllr Golding, said: “I have been called worse. He's saying I’m a cretin because I have criticised him. It emphasises what sort of person he is. As BNP, that's the sort of people we are dealing with.”

Councillor Philip Roy McGarvey, a Lib Dem councillor for Farningham, Horton Kirby and South Darenth, said: “My personal reaction is it is despicable. This campaign is purely vengeful and I’m sure people would not take it seriously. If the only thing he says is this kind of vengeful attack on your paper and retailers, that speaks volumes for the man. If I was to launch a hate campaign against any company which upset me I would look very foolish. If he's going to enter politics he needs to take the rough with the smooth and he has not learnt to take the knocks yet.”

Gerry Gable, the publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, says the BNP’s “bullying tactics” had “shades of Nazi Germany”. He said: “The BNP is very good at organising people to email local newspapers in protest, but those who do email are largely not from the area. This is typical of far right extremist organisations. The first thing they want to do is silence the media.”

The BNP says the party used a similar method of “fighting back” against the Manchester Evening News (MEN), which it said “worked wonders”. The MEN told News Shopper it ran a series of articles about the BNP during the recent European elections, but the party’s campaign of calling on supporters to boycott the paper’s advertisers did not have any effect.

Hillingdon and Uxbridge Times

Swanley: Residents say BNP councillor has 'done nothing' for the area

A BNP councillor has done nothing for his ward since being elected, residents and councillors say.

Paul Golding was voted in as councillor for the Swanley St Mary’s ward of Sevenoaks District Council in February after being the first ever British National Party member to stand in the area. At the time the 27-year-old said his success was down to a “professional and pro-active campaign knocking on every door in Swanley” and the promise of “change for the area”.

He said: “Native British people are sick of being treated like second-class citizens in their own country. They are bottom of the list for council houses after asylum seekers and foreigners. I will do my best to sort out the problems.”

However, a council spokesman said Cllr Golding has not joined any council committees, which make decisions on key issues in Swanley. And residents of the St Mary’s ward say he has not been in touch with them since the election or championed their concerns to the council.

John Dudley, of St Mary’s Road, said: “The only time I saw him was when he was canvassing - they really put the pressure on and were here every day. But since then we have not heard anything from him.” The 73-year-old added: “He should be doing more to represent the ward and find out what the people want.”

Cherry Avenue resident Ronald Gasson, 76, agreed, saying: “In my opinion he only showed interest in us to get votes and doesn’t care about us now he’s been elected.”

Labour councillor for the Swanley St Mary’s ward John Underwood says he has seen no evidence of Cllr Golding being active in the area. He said: “He is not on any committees, doesn’t say anything at full council meetings and constituents have told me he is hard to reach, so I don’t see how he can be making a difference.”

Conservative councillor for the Swanley Christchurch and Swanley Village ward Robert Brookbank said he has only seen Cllr Golding at full council meetings. He said: “I’m not sure he has done anything.”

Cherry Avenue resident Joan White says she fears people outside of Swanley St Mary’s associate its residents with the BNP and the allegations of racism against the party. The 82-year-old said: “I worry they associate us with the BNP and therefore being racist.”

Cllr Golding was unavailable to respond to the residents’ or councillors’ allegations.

In July News Shopper revealed a Gravesend woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was a member of the BNP, after Cllr Golding made a video stating she was not. Helen Forster, aged 32, of Park Place, denied being a member in the video posted on YouTube and the BNP website, but she was registered under a different surname - Colclough.

Cllr Golding says he was unaware Forster was a member of the party under a different name at the time of making the video.

This Is Local London

Mother in controversial BNP video jailed

A mother of three who was at the centre of a controversial BNP video has been jailed

Helen Forster, of Park Place, Gravesend, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court to 11 months in prison for perverting the course of justice and common assault.

The 32-year-old admitted both charges, which related to an incident in Fort Gardens, Gravesend, on May 23. She was given an additional nine months in jail for breaching a suspended sentence.

In May, Forster was given a 10-month suspended prison term after being convicted of intimidation. In that case the court heard she had encouraged a group of children to throw eggs and fire an airgun at the home of her neighbour Meherjan Miah, who lives there with her young children.

Following Forster’s conviction for intimidation, it was reported in the media she was a member of the British National Party. However, Paul Golding, BNP councillor for the Swanley St Mary’s Ward of Sevenoaks District Council, vigorously denied she had ever been a member of his party, calling the reports “outrageous lies”.

In a video, Cllr Golding said Forster "is not a member of the British National Party and she never has been". He added: “I contacted our membership department and asked them to check all of our records going back many years and she is not on there whatsoever.”

Cllr Golding interviewed Forster in the video and she denied ever being a member of the BNP. However, News Shopper discovered she was registered as a member of the party under a different name - Helen Colclough.

The video was made as part of Cllr Golding’s Operation Fightback campaign, which aims to expose so-called media lies. When asked to explain why his video on Forster contained a lie, he said he was unaware she was a member of his party under a different name at the time of making the video.

News Shopper

BNP councillor defends party after members burn gollywog at festival

A BNP councillor has defended the party after members were filmed burning a gollywog and making racist comments during a festival. Paul Golding (left), British National Party councillor for the St Mary’s ward in Swanley, has condemned members who were shown performing the mock trial of the gollywog.

A News of the World reporter filmed the ritual while undercover at the party’s Red White and Blue family festival in Derbyshire last month. The group, which included a 12-year-old girl, dubbed the stuffed toy ‘Winston’ and charged him with being black before dropping him onto a fire. One member, identified as John Coombes, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, a council candidate for that area, said: “He thinks he's not black. He's charged with being black. Get on there.” The 45-year-old added: “Let's get a real one. In the town we'll find one or two.”

Police in Derbyshire have launched an investigation after seeing the video footage. A spokeswoman said: “Officers will be contacting the newspaper which alleges that an undercover reporter witnessed unlawful activity while at the event.”

Cllr Golding, who was elected in February, says the views of the people involved in the mock trial are not representative of the BNP. He said: “If you subtract these morons from our 13,000 members it is something like 0.01 per cent of the party. They are all being disciplined and it will be very severe, if not being kicked out of the party.”

The News of the World article claims members gave Nazi-style salutes and shouted Sieg Heil, and music with racist lyrics supporting Hitler was played. Cllr Golding said he was at the festival but was not aware of the racist activity, and he says the party is not racist.

Party leader MEP Nick Griffin was also at the event, which was attended by around 1,200 BNP supporters. He said the party will be organised to give non-whites no power if new legislation forces it to allow them to become members, the article alleges. Cllr Golding says the BNP is for white British people, so there would be no reason for non-whites to join other than to cause trouble within the party.

Last month News Shopper revealed that a Gravesend woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was a member of the BNP, after Cllr Golding made a video stating she was not. Helen Forster, aged 32, of Park Place, denied being a member in the video posted on YouTube and the BNP website, but she was registered under a different surname - Colclough. Cllr Golding says he was unaware Forster was a member of the party under a different name at the time of making the video.

News Shopper

Woman who intimidated Asian mother was BNP member despite councillor's denial

Operation Fightback: covering up the lies - with more lies

When a woman convicted of intimidating an Asian mother was branded a ‘BNP mum’ by the media, Councillor Paul Golding made a video vigorously claiming she had never been a member of his party. However, News Shopper has discovered she was registered as a member of the British National Party - under a different name.

The Daily Mirror said Gravesend resident Helen Forster was a member of the BNP after she was found guilty of intimidating her Asian neighbour in May. In response, Paul Golding, councillor for the St Mary’s ward of Swanley, made a video in which he claimed the reports were “outrageous lies”.

The video [above] was posted on the BNP website and YouTube. In the video, Cllr Golding said Forster "is not a member of the British National Party and she never has been". He added: “I contacted our membership department and asked them to check all of our records going back many years and she is not on there whatsoever. I spoke to Andy McBride, the south east regional organiser, and he said that no-one in the whole region had ever heard of her.”

Cllr Golding went to Forster’s home in Park Place and interviewed her on her doorstep, and she too called the reports “lies”. The 32-year-old said: “I was not a paid member, I was just a graphic designer. I produced leaflets.”

However, a woman named Helen Colclough, of the same address as Helen Forster, was registered as a member and activist for the BNP. Last week a Kent Police spokeswoman confirmed that Helen Forster and Helen Colclough are, in fact, the same person.

The video was made as part of Cllr Golding’s Operation Fightback campaign, which aims to expose so-called media lies. But when he was asked to explain why his video on Forster contained a lie, he said he could not comment. After conferring with the BNP legal team, he told us: “I was told data protection stroke litigation rules mean I cannot say anything about the story.”

Following his election in February, Cllr Golding’s political career was brought into question when details of a family member’s criminal past were exposed. His brother Jamie has been convicted of stealing cars and committing more than 150 burglaries in the Bexley and Kent area.

Last Monday (July 27), Forster pleaded guilty to common assault and perverting the course of justice at Maidstone Crown Court. She has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on September 7. The charges relate to an incident in Fort Gardens, Gravesend, on May 23. In May she was given a 10-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of intimidating her neighbour Meherjan Miah, a 30-year-old mother of four. The court heard Forster had encouraged children to throw eggs and fire an air gun at Mrs Miah’s home.

News Shopper

If you tell a lie big enough...

A British National Party claim on Monday that the police are investigating Searchlight for attacking a commercial company’s website is a lie of which Joseph Goebbels would be proud and further evidence of how the party’s election campaign is falling apart.

The BNP website went down for several hours over the holiday weekend. On Sunday evening the party claimed it had suffered a “massive Denial of Service Attack … emanating from Eastern Europe and Russia”.

The statement, which appeared on the blog of Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, continued: “On Friday the servers of Clear Channel, part of a huge conglomerate that provides billboard advertising, suffered a similar attack. Their IT professionals tracked the criminal activity back to a notorious ‘anti-fascist’ organisation.

“This organisation was protesting at the decision by Clear Channel to allow the BNP to display advertising in support of our European Election Campaign.” The statement claimed that Clear Channel’s lawyers were issuing writs against “the perpetrators” that would involve “the possibility of potential criminal charges including racketeering”.

A further statement on Monday claimed that the “Counter Terrorism Unit at Scotland Yard” was investigating the attack on the BNP website and that Searchlight “is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for a similar attack on the servers of Clear Channel”.

Clear Channel denied the BNP’s claims. A spokeswoman for the company told a Searchlight researcher: “I’ve checked with our IT department and we haven’t experienced any denial of service”.

Last week Searchlight asked people to email Clear Channel to protest against its decision to display BNP posters and over 5,300 people responded. So far Clear Channel is standing by its policy of allowing all political parties to advertise at the market rate though the company “does not support them in any way”.

The BNP knows well the difference between a denial of service attack on a website and an email protest campaign. Paul Golding, who runs the BNP’s “Operation Fightback”, has himself often asked supporters to email media outlets that have run anti-BNP stories and anyone else who has upset the fascist party.

We can only assume that the BNP has realised just how hard it is being hit by the constant exposés of its fascism and lies in the media and is desperately trying to divert attention from its difficulties by throwing out wild accusations against its opponents.

Last week the BNP placed on its website an interview with Helen Forster, a party member, that Golding recorded after her conviction for racist intimidation was exposed in the Daily Mirror. Although she had told the Mirror reporter that she was “still in the BNP”, she lied blatantly to Golding that she had never joined the party. The BNP then falsely claimed it had taken the “Daily Mirror’s scalp”. Promised writs from the BNP’s fake “lawyer”, Lee Barnes, failed to materialise.

Searchlight awaits Clear Channel’s writs and Metropolitan Police enquiries about a fictitious attack on Clear Channel’s website with bated breath. The BNP should remember that wasting police time is a serious criminal offence.

Meanwhile, whatever the real reason for the absence of the BNP’s website over the weekend, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, could not let it pass without grabbing another opportunity to milk his supporters for money. Claiming ludicrously that the BNP had suffered the “largest cyber attack in recorded history”, he explained that they had been “forced to hire a Cyber Defence expert” and “need to invest in additional hardware and servers”. The items had to be paid for immediately, but “every penny we possess is allocated to the Euro Election Campaign”.

The party therefore desperately needed £5,000, so much so that Griffin had “personally donated £250 to this appeal to set things in motion”, no doubt yet another of the lies that seem to trip so easily from his mouth.

Hope not hate

Operation Lieback

On Tuesday we carried the Mirror's report of "BNP mum" Helen Forster's conviction for intimidation, earned after she and a mob of children besieged the home of terrified neighbour Mrs Meherjan Miah. Single mother and benefits claimant Forster, who has prior convictions for dishonesty and drug possession, was let off with a 10 month suspended sentence.

The Mirror reported that after her conviction Forster demanded that the local council "move on" Mrs Miah to prevent further incidents and confirmed her membership of the BNP - "And yes, I'm still in the BNP."

The BNP, stung and clearly rattled by a succession of negative press reports, immediately mobilised its farcical (and largely fictitious) "Operation Fightback" to search for holes in the Mirror's story, and was soon claiming to have found the biggest hole of all - that Helen Forster, given address XX Xxxx Place, Gravesend, Kent, was not and never had been a member of the BNP!

Very quickly the party's Operation Fightback dispatched a hysterical email entitled "Fight back against Mirror lies!", saying

BNP South East regional organiser Andy McBride has dismissed the story as nonsense saying that the person in question is NOT a BNP member, either current or in the archives. This has been confirmed by our Membership Department.

This latest smear job is a complete fabrication. We need all our online supporters to take a few minutes to lodge a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission...

Somebody, then, was lying. Was it the Mirror? Was it Helen Forster? Was it the BNP?

This was quickly followed by an email from Nick Griffin, who said:

Today the leftwing Mirror newspaper published an outrageous and vile smear attack on the BNP claiming that a certain Helen Forster was a "BNP mum" and that she incited youngsters into a racial attack.

Operation Fightback immediately hit back with press releases and e-bulletins holding the Mirror to account for one little inaccuracy: Helen Forster is NOT a member of the BNP and NEVER has been!

Operation Fightback has produced a video detailing the whole saga..

And indeed, in suspiciously double-quick time, the BNP had produced a video, in which an indignant Paul Golding allegedly "tracked down" and doorstepped Helen Forster. According to the BNP's website, Golding "tracked down the person named in the Mirror story, Helen Forster" - note the semantic difference made by the qualification "the person named".

That struck a number of BNP watchers as odd, as did the despatch with which Golding arrived on Miss Forster's doorstep.

A post accompanying Golding's video, both appearing ON THE SAME DAY as the Mirror's report, had this to say:

She [Helen Forster] told BNPtv that the Mirror story was a pack of lies, that her family’s safety had been endangered by the story and that she was going to take legal action against that newspaper.

Ms Foster said she was not a member of the BNP, and that the only reason why the Mirror had invented this pack of lies was to try and damage the BNP’s campaign.

Cllr Golding told BNP News that the Press Complaints Commission had been formally notified of this latest set of lies.

“We are not going to sit idly by while the controlled media lie about our party,” Cllr Golding said. “The Mirror can rest assured that we will be proceeding with all legal channels to make sure that they are punished for this outrageous fabrication. They will learn the hard way that we now have the capability to expose their lies.

“This latest story utterly discredits these media rats, and the public will now be able to soberly assess the veracity of all future anti-BNP smears against this background,” he said.

Indeed the public will "be able to soberly assess the veracity of all future anti-BNP smears against this background", since there is now little doubt that both the BNP and "Helen Forster" were lying through their teeth.

Last night an interesting post appeared on UKIP's British Democracy Forum, here reproduced in full:

Posted by Mark Croucher - Another BNP Councillor caught lying

Just thought this little illustration of the depths the BNP are prepared to sink to would be of interest in this section.

This morning, the Daily Mirror reported on a BNP activist convicted of waging a campaign of racial hatred against a neighbour in Gravesend, Kent.

The BNP promptly despatched their 'Rapid Response Unit' to interview her. The unit, headed by Councillor Golding of Sevenoaks District Council, said that the woman named, Helen Forster, had never been a BNP member and was not known to the party. They then interviewed her on her doorstep saying how disgraceful it was that the Mirror was attempting to 'set up' the BNP.

Living locally, seeing the front door rang a bell: I live in Dartford, about 7 miles from Gravesend. It just so happens that that particular front door is just around the corner from where I used to work, and I have friends who live very close. So, on the way home this evening, I took a spin down to Gravesend and, sure enough, the house was the correct one: Snipped, Gravesend. So, I popped into my friends house and asked if they knew who lived there, and imagine my surprise (not) to be told that it was a Helen Colclough, who also calls herself Helen Forster. Naturally, I was even more surprised (not) to discover that she was known locally as a BNP activist and member who - wait for it - likes to tell people that she designs leaflets for the BNP.

So, not only did Cllr Golding lie twice - once about her not being a member, and once about the Mirror story not being true - but Ms Forster/Colclough was also in on the lying act by claiming to have never been a member of the BNP.

Given the amount of copies of the BNPs membership lists which are floating around, I'm sure someone can confirm this.

Now it just so happens that the leaked BNP membership list is freely available at numerous locations which can be accessed by anybody with an internet connection - and guess what?

There, listed as living at XX Xxxx Place, Gravesend, Kent is one Helen Colclough, Activist, who gives her email address as the clearly racist nig5@msn.com.

And so we have an explanation as to how Paul Golding came to arrive on "Forster's" doorstep with such speed, and for that curious qualification "the person named... as Helen Forster".

It's because the BNP knew all along that "Helen Forster" was "Helen Colclough", but - as ever - intent on pulling the wool over the eyes of the public, the Press Complaints Commission, and its own gullible membership, the upper echelons of the BNP decided to concoct a cock-and-bull story and in so doing yet again pointed their own gun firmly at their own temple and smirkingly pulled the trigger.

By what defect of his vision Regional Organiser Andy McBride allegedly failed to notice that the much published Mirror photograph of "Helen Forster" bore an uncannily striking resemblance to his own activist, Helen Colclough, is something we'll have to get back to you on.

Weekend briefing

Sneaking into Wigan following the multiple refusal of other venues in nearby Leigh to host its increasingly fugitive "Battle for Britain" fund-raising roadshow, the BNP is claiming an attendance of "well over one hundred people" for the event - notoriously symbolised by a stolen graphic showing a World War Two Spitfire flown by a Polish fighter ace.

Even giving the BNP the benefit of considerable doubt, "well over one hundred people" seems to us to be a very small number of activists to draw on from the populous North-west region for what was a heavily trailed showcase event, held on Friday night.

It is difficult to see how the BNP can claim the Wigan meeting the success it does, when according to the same party its ordinary branch meetings regularly attract an attendance of around one hundred. The North-west being home to a sizeable number of truculent anti-Griffin BNP dissidents is one possible reason for the derisory regional turnout.

An increasingly active and effective coalition of anti-fascists and concerned locals is very possibly another.

What is clear is that the BNP was seriously wrong-footed in the North-west. Not only was it forced to arrange a number of fall-back venues for its high profile roadshow, but the claim that there was "standing room only" at the final location is also an admission of how small and unsuitable it really was.

Prior to the roadshow a group of Liverpool BNP activists found themselves in an altercation outside the Ellesmere public house in Leigh that led to one person sustaining minor injuries and the arrest of another. There was also damage to BNP vehicles when locals objected to the presence of the BNP and its advertising trailer. We understand that the BNP members got out of their vehicles to confront the locals and had the worst of the ensuing violence.

BNP websites are now claiming that the violence was instigated by "blacks".

As I write, there is a certain amount of online speculation among far-Rightists that the Liverpool BNP contingent was ordered to the Ellesmere pub as a ruse to throw anti-fascist campaigners off the scent. Another way of putting it is that the BNP hung its Liverpool members out to dry, since the group and its advertising trailer could not fail to attract the attention of campaigners. Naturally, BNP Security was safely indoors protecting Nick Griffin from whatever threats to life and limb the party leader risks at the hands of his own members, and the Liverpool members were left to hold their own.

On Thursday, in a blatant attempt to inflame anti-Muslim passions, newly elected BNP councillor Paul Golding (of the dodgy family background) drove the BNP's Lie Lorry to Luton, the scene, earlier in the week, of a confrontation sparked when police allowed 20 Muslim religious extremists to demonstrate against the homecoming parade of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

"BNP’s Truth Truck Faces down Islamist Extremists in Luton" screams a headline on the BNP's website, for all the world as if Golding had single-handedly confronted an army of scimitar-wielding Dervishes.

The truth of Luton is that just 20 isolated lunatics failed to gain any support at all from a local Muslim population numbering 30,000 - since 99.93% of Luton's remaining Muslims managed to ignore the campaign of publicity and recruitment conducted by the extremists in the weeks preceding.

We think that says a lot for Luton's Muslim community - quite a number of whom were in the crowds cheering the Anglians along, as local news footage clearly shows.

The failure of the extremists to attract any support at all is not something you would know about from the subsequent hysterical media coverage of the affair, much of which would have been more at home on the pages of a BNP publication.

While politicians and community leaders in Luton worked hard (and largely uncredited) to repair the damage caused by the twenty extremists the opportunistic BNP worked just as hard to undo it. On the BNP website Golding brags that he took the Lie Lorry to Luton's largest mosque - an action that could only have been intended to provoke, and might well have resulted in violence.

Not being quite the British Lion he likes others to think he is, Golding "faced down" the Muslim faithful by driving off when some of them made unspecified "threatening moves" towards the Lie Lorry - which, translated, means that people were entering and leaving the Mosque as usual and a nervous Golding got cold feet.

Nick Griffin's grasping reaction to Luton was to fire off another in his interminable series of begging emails, hysterically claiming that the 20 isolated lunatics at the root of the trouble constituted a "horde of Muslim extremists". If a grouplet of just 20 can be extrapolated into a "horde" then we're left wondering if the "well over one hundred people" attending the BNP's Wigan roadshow is a product of the same imaginative thinking.

Taken together with a 2.5% vote loss in Rainhill (St. Helens) ward - in the heart of the North-west - in a by-election on Thursday, not the most glorious week in the BNP's history.