Robert West: Still There - Still Pretending to be a Vicar

“And lo! It did come to pass that the Tribe of Griffin did wander in the Political Wilderness for One Score Years and Ten, and were despis'd by the Righteous. And the Griffinites did cry out “Who will send us a Man of God to succour us in our Tribulation?” And their prayers were answered, and out of the land of Holbeach there did arise a wise teacher by the name of the Reverend West. And he did succour them. And succour them good.”
The Book of Racists : Chapter III – Verse IV

The “Reverend Robert West”, (or to give him his full ecclesiastical title - “Robert West”) continues to hang around the BNP like a bad (that is: worse than usual) smell. He's long been one of the most intriguing characters of the Far Right: A shameless charlatan who, in the face of documentary evidence, expert insistence and humiliation on national television, maintains that he is entitled to adopt the style “Reverend”, insists that he is an “Ordained Elder” of the “Apostolic Church of Wales” and acts as Leader (and sole Member?) of the (equally fictitious) “Christian Council of Britain”, a cover organisation set up in association with the BNP and taking its name from the “Muslim Council of Britain” (see what they did there?).

The Apostolic Church in the United Kingdom (there being no “Apostolic Church of Wales”) have denied all knowledge of West saying, some time ago; “I am uncertain about who is the Mr Robert West mentioned ... One thing is certain: he does not speak on behalf of The Apostolic Church. If this person lives in Lincolnshire he does not attend The Apostolic Church. In fact as a denomination we have no churches in Lincolnshire.”

“And the Reverend West did minister unto the Griffinites in their time of Tribulation. And he did tell how the Lord God was like unto a great big racist, too, just like them, and he did minister at their Tribal Gatherings, and he did appear on the telly: Yea, even though the Philistines did mock and did fall about laughing and did hold their sides for fear they would rend asunder.”
The Book of Racists : Chapter IV – Verse II

Robert West first appears on the public radar in around 2005, as a Tory District Councillor in Lincolnshire. He also made the local press by claiming Unfair Dismissal from his post as a teacher of Law and History at Peterborough Regional College.

Suspended from the Conservatives for his part in setting up the Christian Council of Britain, West threw his lot in with the BNP and has been their self – styled Spiritual Leader ever since. Turning up at their shindigs to officiate over “Church Services”, standing for election (with a lack of success remarkable even by his Party's woeful standards) and delivering his dreary, rambling “sermons” to a Grateful Listening Nation via the internet, West continues to cut an odd, almost pathetic figure.

“But lo! There did arise from the Philistines a Great Voice. And it did say “Beware this Man who does style himself a Man of God! For he is an charlatan, and an imposter, and an cheap conman, who does make thou Tribe, O Griffinites, look even more foolish than thou did before!” But their Leader did ignore the wisdom of the Philistines, and did continue to exalt the Reverend West most high.”
The Book of Racists : Chapter IV – Verse VII

On West's theology, which is a predictable cherry - picking of biblical quotes designed to deliver a message of Racial Separatism, I could go on at length. As an Atheist I'm not much of an expert on such matters (something I share in common with Robert West), so I consulted my local vicar for advice. After he had finished laughing at a selection of West's pronouncements, he explained two things to me: That the BNP's take on theology has absolutely no scriptural basis whatsoever, and that cherry – picking the Bible is one of the easiest and laziest exercises around. To prove this point, when I've finished this article I shall go and stone my wife for wearing a cotton skirt with a wool cardie, and rub dung in my son's face for swearing.

He's been written about here before, at length and in far, far better articles. Robert West is just another oddball character in a bunch of oddball characters. A fake vicar for a fake party. Quite fitting, really...

“And the Reverend West did continue to succour the Tribe of Griffin. And they did make themselves appear yet more foolish, and more gullible, and more amateur. Yeah: Even unto the ending of the World. So endeth the lesson.”
The Book of Racists : Chapter IV – Verse X

P.S: This lowering of the tone of L.U over the past few days isn't, in any way, a new direction! I'm only filling in while the A Team are layed low through a combination of illness and scheduling conflicts. Normal service will be resumed very shortly. And mighty grateful you'll be.

BNP candidate sends abusive email to LGBT group

A Leicestershire LGBT support group is seeking advice from police after receiving an abusive email from a BNP candidate

A Leicestershire LGBT support group is seeking advice from police after receiving an abusive email from a BNP candidate. Candidate Reverend West, who hoped to win the Lincoln City seat for the British National Party, responded to a questionnaire which was sent to a number of candidates by the Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre by stating that gays are “dirty and disgusting”.

The questionnaire asked about views and party policies on issues such as civil partnerships, sex education in schools and “fair and compassionate assessment” of those seeking asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation. West’s response stated that minority sexual groups were “perverse” and “wicked”. He also labelled the questioner a “complete and utter pervert”, telling him to “get a life and get it cleaned up”.

The LGBT Centre Support Officer, Dennis Bradley, commented on the fact that the BNP candidate had received the questionnaire in the first place, saying: “Unfortunately, as the candidate is neither in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland. [He] had had our questions forwarded to him from another candidate, most likely in the same political party”

Bradley said that ultimately he was appalled at the response from West, saying: “I laughed and worried at the same time. If he were to win a seat in the General Election or his party were to win nationally and his views were taken up then we could see discrimination against about 25% of the population.

He added: “And if we were to take out the words gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender from the questions and replace them with ‘black’ there would be far worse recriminations.”

West said that when he received the email questionnaire he: “was deeply shocked and offended by its perversity.”

West, who founded the Christian Council of Britain, replied to the survey with a sermon entitled “In condemnation of sodomy”. He wrote: “It is well-known that homosexuals prey on the young, dependent, and impressionable; and that there is a significant overlap between homosexuality and paedophilia.”

Bradley believes the replies go way beyond acceptability and could constitute a hate campaign which, if substantiated, he has vowed to take “to the full extent of the law”. Bradley commented: “I do know he holds these views personally, but when he says them as a political party’s candidate that’s quite a different matter to a belief you are quite entitled to have in your own home.”

Bradley said a satisfactory and speedy outcome to the exchange would be for Rev West to immediately retract his comments. But West told the Spalding Guardian this week there was no chance of that. He said: “If they didn’t want my answers they shouldn’t send me the questions. I’m outraged – how dare they send them out.”

And in a thinly-veiled reference to the popularity of the BNP, he added: “Let’s see how much we have the right to oppose what they stand for.”

Pink Paper

Fake BNP “reverend” doesn’t speak for us, say churches

The FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Churches) issued the folowing statement concerning the British National Party on 23 December 2009.

To all FIEC churches

We would wish you to be aware of a statement being made on a website in the public domain by the Rev Robert West, a parliamentary candidate representing the British National Party (BNP).

Mr West states the following: “I doubt very much that the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches oppose my views or the views of any genuine Christian and patriot, backed-up as they are by the holy Scriptures”.

Mr West has not contacted the FIEC office to find out what the views of the FIEC might be about this issue, and the FIEC regrets that Mr West has seen fit to make public reference to the supposed views of the FIEC without getting in touch with the office.

In fact, the FIEC strongly believes that the churches that make up the Fellowship would repudiate any idea that the Scriptures support the published policies of the BNP. There are elements within the policies of all political parties which are contrary to the Scriptures. In the case of the BNP, it appears to us that its policies seek to create an attitude of racial hierarchy which values people of some ethnic origins more than others. The Scriptures do not support any such policies, and we greatly regret that Mr West has asserted that they do, and in so doing, that he has linked the name of The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches with his own erroneous views. Mr West is not in any way accredited by or associated with the FIEC.

Richard Underwood General Secretary The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches

See also BNP Rev Robert West “Doubts” Fellowship of Independent Churches “Would Oppose My Views”

Norfolk Unity

BNP's three long months (and counting) of by-election misery

There's something of a schizoid feel about the BNP membership's mindset at the moment. Half of them appear to believe that the party's electoral story since the June elections has been one of unremitting glory, while the other half have taken a long cold look at their candidates' dismal post-June local by-election performances and realise that the BNP is in serious trouble.

The leadership has clearly read the runes, and despite repeated claims of on-going progress, has ensured that election reports have largely disappeared from the BNP website. Even Martin Wingfield has been reduced to near silence, while the normally enthusiastic remnants of the party's recently purged blogging army can barely bring themselves to mention the latest embarrassments.

The election of Griffin and Brons, and three county councillors, masked the stark fact that in the middle of what Griffin himself called "the perfect storm" the BNP barely raised its voting percentage. All through the late winter and spring immigration related stories came thick and fast, and to cap it all the expenses scandal broke as the nation geared up to go to the Euro polls.

Conditions in which a fascist and racist party should expect to take mighty electoral strides forward had never been better. What more could the BNP ask for - public concerns about immigration almost continually to the fore and a near universal disillusionment with elected politicians, both intersecting in a notoriously low-turnout election never taken entirely seriously by British voters, and in which electors are prone to give the more esoteric parties the benefit of the doubt.

Yet the BNP did not take mighty electoral strides. Even in the midst of "the perfect storm" it put on less than 2% over its previous performance. By any yardstick that was a dreadful showing, but the unusual circumstances in which the elections were fought masked something even more fundamental, and that is that in anything approaching normal conditions the BNP vote percentage would have gone negative.

Unhappily we are saddled with Griffin and Brons, but that in no way alters the fact that, at the very best, the BNP stalled on June 4th.

Of course, those BNP members thrilled with the election of Griffin and Brons saw nothing but spectacular success, and were in no mood to engage in any sober analysis of events. Certainly, the wiser heads in the leadership were never going to encourage them to look at the disturbing picture behind the apparent triumph, and so the gloating refrains of "Nothing can stop us now" and the perennial "Onwards and upwards" tripped merrily from BNP mouths. So high soared their expectations that many seriously believed the election of the BNP's first MP in Norwich North was a real possibility.

In our report on that by-election we told of how the BNP, clearly having made no impact in the constituency and on course for a thumping defeat, abandoned its cod clerical candidate and his helpers to their fate and ceased to offer any support at all. It was too embarrassing even to mention.

Knocked out in Nuneaton

The week before Norwich North went to the polls the first real indication of the BNP's true electoral position came in a local by-election held in the Arbury and Stockingford (Nuneaton) division of Warwickshire County Council on July 16th.

The candidate was Martyn Findlay, already a sitting councillor on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council. Findlay claims to be an effective local councillor, and certainly doesn't suffer from a shortage of publicity. He had the advantage of having been the BNP's candidate in the Arbury and Stockingford division just six weeks previously, on June 4th, when he scored a respectable 25% share of the vote.

With a 25% launchpad Findlay, buoyed up by the Euro triumph, had every reason to expect an increase in his vote, and the thought must have crossed BNP minds that they were about to celebrate the election of a fourth county councillor.

By now, however, the worst of the expenses storm had abated, and conditions were returning to normal.

Findlay's share crashed from 25% to 14%, two thirds of his vote evaporating.

This was a stunning reverse - surprising if you were a believer in the myth of June's success, not quite so surprising if you weren't.

It was, though, just one by-election out of many to come, and there was still the test of Norwich North on July 23rd.

Scuppered in Stockport

Norwich North sent the wretched reverend packing with a derisory 2.7% vote and a place among the joke candidates, but on the same day that Norwich North went to the polls, so too did the voters of Reddish North in Stockport, and Dormanstown in Redcar and Cleveland,

As in Arbury and Stockingford, in both wards the BNP had a record of standing candidates, and their votes could be directly measured against previous performances, which had been of the middling variety.

Reddish North had been fought in 2008, the BNP coming in third in a field of four, beating the Liberal Democrats into fourth place with 402 votes, or 14.5%.

Faced with a UKIP candidate on July 23rd the BNP was unable to sustain even that modest showing, losing half its vote to come bottom of the poll with 7.9%.

The excuse of a UKIP candidate wasn't available at Dormanstown. This ward had last been contested only three months previously, in April, when in a field of four the BNP came third with 305 votes and a 16% share. On July 23rd they again lost half their vote, their share tumbling to 9.4%.

On the same night a first time BNP candidate in Wellingborough Swanspool struggled to reach 10%.

Bust in Broxtowe

If Martyn Findlay's dreadful performance the week before had given cause for concern, the four results on the 23rd (Norwich North counted on the 24th) confirmed that all was not well with the BNP and the electorate. The bubble seemed to have burst - but never say die, not with Sadie Graham's vacated seat at Broxtowe Brinsley coming up for by-election the following week, on July 30th.

Graham first fought the seat in 2003, where, in a straight battle with Labour she took 43% of the vote. In 2007, in a four horse race (herself, Labour and two independents) she convincingly won the seat with a 43.99% share. What happened next we need not go into, but from early 2008 she sat as an independent, and eventually ceased to sit at all, necessitating her removal.

In fairness, it was always going to be difficult for the BNP to retain Brinsley, which they liked to pretend "isn't really a BNP seat anyway", and the party's electoral sages predicted a close-run contest.

The candidate was the appalling and treacherous Nina Brown, a Brinsley parish councillor who likes to attend German Nazi folk festivals. Whatever her expectations the result showed that the contest had been anything but close-run.

In a field of five Brown came second, but her vote share was 28.3%, a staggering fall of 15.6%, well behind the winning Conservative.

In a mere three weeks then, in four seats previously contested the BNP had suffered four calamities.

August provided no opportunities to compare the BNP's votes, but of note was an unimpressive performance in King's Lynn Gaywood, where the 12.8% BNP share mirrored that gained in the recent county council elections, and the party managed only a lacklustre 9.9% in Blackpool Stanley.

Something else was becoming evident, and that was the BNP's failure to contest some wards previously fought, offering no explanations. On August 13th they failed to contest Scarborough Hertford, and on the 27th failed to appear at Harrogate Starbeck. It was also noticeable that the BNP was failing to stand first time candidates in areas where it claims to be well organised.

Hobbled in Hewarth

As September opened the gloom continued. On the 3rd first time candidates appeared in Medway Luton & Wayfield and Plymouth Ham, respectively obtaining a miserable 6.58% and a joke 2.9%.

September 10th saw the BNP field four candidates, two first timers and two in wards previously fought. The first timers stood in South Tyneside Westoe and Harborough Welland, neither of them impressing with just over 11% of the vote (the absence of a Labour candidate in Welland helped the BNP considerably), but in the two previously contested wards the sorry tale of decline continued.

In York Hewarth the BNP share plunged from 13.2% to just 6.68% as two thirds of their 2007 vote disappeared. In Daventry Drayton matters were even worse, the BNP again losing two thirds of its 2008 vote as its share plunged from 33.11% to 14.35%.

Thus far then, the BNP met with disaster in all six seats it had previously contested.

September 17th should have seen the BNP contest at least three by-elections where it had a record of standing, and arguably two others where it claims to have an organisation - but no BNP candidate stood anywhere on the 17th. The party's beyond-a-joke 2008 showing of 1.5% in Birmingham Sparkbrook was, understandably, something it did not care to repeat, but the failure to stand in Redcar and Cleveland South Bank (15.8% in October 2008) and Amber Valley Ripley (20% in 2008, plus two sitting councillors) is inexplicable.

By now the scales were beginning to fall from even the most optimistic of BNP eyes, and rumours of internal dissatisfaction with a remote and authoritarian leadership, appointments of incompetent cronies to positions of power, lack of organisational support for branches and groups, appeal fatigue, Griffin's craven cowardice in the face of an EHRC inspired court action and the cavalier treatment of individual activists, some of whom appear to have jumped ship, was leading to open dissension, which may have something to do with the BNP's vaporous performance on September 17th.

Five by-elections took place on September 24th, each of them in districts known to have a BNP organisation, but the party fought only two, both of them previously contested.

Broxtowe Toton and Chilwell was never a happy hunting ground for the BNP, the party scraping just over 7% in 2007. It would be difficult to do much worse, but Dave Brown, husband of Nina (see above) somehow contrived to do it, helped on his way to humiliation by the circulation of leaflets depicting his attendance at the same German Nazi folk-fest as his wife.

The idiotic Brown took the BNP down to a 3% share, receiving 58 votes, just a quarter of the 2007 figure.

Three Rivers Hayling held out some prospect for the BNP, inasmuch as the party believed it could hold its 2008 30.3% share and second place (UKIP took 4% in the same election). In the event Labour fought a hard campaign that saw its vote more than double and its percentage rise from 32.3% to 53.4%. With the Conservative and Liberal Democrat votes hardly moving the squeeze was put firmly and painfully on the BNP.

Of all four parties standing it alone lost votes, and derived no benefit from the lack of a UKIP candidate. The BNP dropped to third place, its share crashing to 18.8%. Disbelieving BNP supporters have ever since been demanding to know how Labour "fixed" the election.

Eight attempts to defend its vote to date, eight thumping reverses.

Abandoned in Allestree

Coming right up to date, on October 1st the BNP failed to nominate in Sandwell Wednesbury South, despite claiming to have chosen Terry Lewin as its candidate and allegedly having begun campaigning. In 2008 the BNP took a 15% share in this ward, a very respectable starting point for a party that never tires of telling us that it cannot be stopped.

So why the failure to nominate? Well the BNP isn't saying, but the shambolic condition of the party in the recently "reformed" West Midlands may have something to do with it.

On the same night disappointment fell in the way of a first timer in Kettering Northfield, a grim 8.2% failing to meet with expectations of a minimum 10% in a ward the BNP claims to have worked.

And the misery continued in Derby Allestree, a ward previously contested in 2008 when the party achieved a modest 10.89% and last of four contenders with 563 votes. On October 1st their achievement was even more modest, the BNP share falling to 6.37% and 242 votes.

Allestree was unwinnable for the BNP, to be sure, but in the scheme of things the by-election was significant since it is the ninth consecutive electoral contest in which we can measure current BNP performances against previous outings - and in all nine we have seen the BNP fail not only to make headway, but fail even to maintain their vote share.

The full story:
(* first time fought ** failed to nominate)

July 16th
Derbyshire CC Kirk Hallam 12.0% *
Warks CC Arbury and S'ford 14% (25% -11%)

July 23rd
Wellingborough BC Swanspool 10% *
Stockport MBC Reddish North 7.9% (14.5% -6.6%)
Redcar & Cleveland UA Dorm'stown 9.4 (16% -6.6%)

July 30th
Tameside MBC Denton North 13.6% *
Broxtowe BC Brinsley 28.3% (43.99% -15.6%)

August 13th
K Lynn/W Norfolk DC Gaywood Chase 12.8% *
Scarborough BC Hertford **

August 20th
Blackpool UA Stanley 9.9% *

August 27th
Harrogate BC Starbeck **

September 3rd
Medway UA Luton & Wayfield 6.58% *
Plymouth UA Ham 2.9% *

September 10th
S Tyndeside MBC Westoe 11.74% *
Harborough DC Welland 11.1% *
City of York UA Hewarth 6.68% (13.2% -6.52%)
Daventry BC Drayton 14.35% (33.11% -18.76%)

September 17th
Redcar & Cleveland BC South Bank **
Birmingham MBC Sparkbrook **
Amber Valley DC Ripley & Marhay **

September 24th
Broxtowe BC Toton and Chilwell 3% (7.3% -4.3%)
Three Rivers DC Hayling 18.83 (30.34% -11.5%)

October 1st
Sandwell MBC Wednesbury S **
Kettering BC Northfield 8.2% *
Derby UA Allestree 6.37% (10.89% -4.52%)

Norfolk clergy shun BNP candidate

God-botherer, fraud and all-round fruitloop, His Holiness Saint Robert West

Leading Norfolk clergymen are calling on voters in Norwich North to shun the British National Party at Thursday's by-election. In a statement, the six top churchmen repeated concerns they expressed before last month's European and county council elections - and distanced themselves from BNP candidate Robert West.

“It is important for us to do so since the British National Party candidate styles himself as 'Revd' and is often to be seen dressed as a clergyman,” they said. “He belongs to no known denomination and voters should not be misled by his adoption of clerical dress. The policies he promotes are not shared by any of the Churches we serve and are contrary to the teaching of the New Testament. There we read that in Christ 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female' (Galatians 3.28). Christians in Norfolk and Norwich have had a long tradition of welcoming the stranger. We pray that this generous instinct may continue to be celebrated here.”

The statement is signed by the Rt Revd Graham James, Bishop of Norwich (Church of England); the Rt Revd Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia (Roman Catholic); the Revd Graham Thompson, East Anglia District (Methodist Church); the Revd Richard Lewis, regional minister, Norfolk (Baptist Union); the Revd Paul Whittle, moderator, Eastern Province (United Reformed Church); and John Myhill (Society of Friends).

Eastern Daily Press

BNP to stand in by-election

The controversial British National Party has confirmed that one of its members will bid to become the next Norwich North MP.

Robert West, founder of the Christian Council of Britain and who describes himself as a “reverend” on the BNP website, will officially stand to replace Ian Gibson.

He was the lead candidate for the BNP, which has been condemned for its extreme views, in the East Midlands but did not gain enough votes to win a seat in the European Parliament last month.

Today, MPs and councillors hit out at the party and said their extremism was not welcome.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: “I want voters to reject extremism and if anyone stands for the BNP they should be rejected. They are a racist party and are preying on vulnerable people.

“I believe in treating people equally and this party does not share this view.”

Tim East, a South Norfolk councillor for Costessey, said: “Before anyone has a chance of being elected we need to know their full background. There should be complete transparency into people's pasts before the public can make a valued judgement.”

Mr West caused controversy on BBC1 in February when he said the answer to the recession was for women to “work at home” and he is against all forms of multi-culturalism.

And the 53-year-old, who lives near Spalding in south Lincolnshire, said today: “We are taking a strong anti-immigration line. And we are against the issue of sovereignty to the European community. I believe multi-culturalism is unnecessary and evil.

“I want the people of Norwich to follow this line and realise we have not been tough enough on immigration. I do not want anywhere in this country turning into the Middle East.

“This is Britain and I will fight to keep it that way.”

Mr West said although he does not live in the city he believes he can represent people here because he comes from a “rural community” which is similar to Norfolk and he has lectured for the University of East Anglia (UEA).

He admitted to possessing old fashioned views but said he wants to tell people in Norwich the truth about what he represents and “not a pack of lies”.

He said he believes the market has been flooded with women working and it would be “better if they stayed at home”.

“The domestic sphere is a natural place for a woman to be,” he said. “I honestly think it is woman's right to be at home. Women should get married and their first priority should be the home.

“Recently the home has been abandoned and this modern way does not work. I think many women agree with this, even though they are working themselves.

“This is my view and I hope to get the people of Norwich to listen to this.”

Mr West is one of several candidates poised to try and take the Norwich North seat, which belonged to Ian Gibson before he was forced to step down in the face of the Westminster expenses scandal.

Dr Gibson quit after he was deselected by the Labour Party for claiming for a flat which his daughter and her boyfriend lived in rent free before he sold it to them at a reduced rate.

The BNP failed to win seven Norfolk seats in the county council elections earlier this month, including Sprowston.

Norwich Evening News

BNP bigots are racist AND sexist

The European Election on Thursday could change British politics for the next 50 years. For the first time, the farright BNP has a real chance of electing its candidates - including leader Nick Griffin - to power in Europe. This worries me in many ways.

As a human being, believing that people of all races and backgrounds are equal. As a Briton, enjoying our rich and diverse country. As a mother, wondering what future my children will grow up in. And as a woman, because the BNP isn't just a racist, homophobic, xenophobic party, it's a sexist party too. Whatever they pretend, they just aren't a normal party.

So, where other parties and politicians might have some mildly suspect views on women, their attitude is straight out of the dark ages. As politicians of all parties seek difficult solutions to the current economic crisis, Richard Barnbrook, BNP member on the London Assembly and the [creepy and fake] Rev. Robert West, the BNP lead candidate in the East Midlands for the European Elections, said on BBC1 in February, that the answer to the recession was for women to work at home.

London BNP organiser Nick Eriksen was even more blatant: "For a woman to consider a job or career more important than having children is, quite literally, unnatural," he wrote. "Instead of complaining that nature prevents women from having successful careers women should embrace the career nature has ascribed to them - motherhood." Meanwhile, his views on rape, aired on his blog, are utterly abhorrent.

Eriksen actually believes that rape is like force-feeding women chocolate. He wrote: 'Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal. To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence."

When his comments were exposed, the BNP was forced to withdraw Eriksen as a candidate for the London Mayoral elections. You barely have to scratch the surface of the BNP's own website to find examples of the way they feel as a party about women. And it's not just the men in the party.

On a recent documentary about BNP wives, Suzy Cass, the wife of the party's former manager Nick Cass, told how she was instructed by her husband to insist on a White European midwife when giving birth to their children.

As a mother, I found this perhaps the saddest statement of all. The BNP is now targeting women worried about feeding their families in the economic crisis, and that's why I believe it's time to air some of their views on women as well as their better known views on race. I urge women and men, black and white, to reject this party at the next - and every - election. We need to send the message that however worried or desperate we feel about the recession, we won't turn on our neighbours. As proud British people, we are so much greater than that.They are from the dark ages.

Fiona Phillips: Mirror

Church's anger over BNP claims

A row has broken out between the church and the British National Party in Heanor after a councillor branded the teachings of the Bible "twisted and evil" in his internet blog.

Cllr Lewis Allsebrook, BNP member for Heanor West on Amber Valley Borough Council, was responding in his 'Amber Valley Does Matter' blog to comments made by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, who said that the church must watch verycarefully for any potential BNP gains during the financial crisis.

In reply, Rev Dan Pattimore, of St Lawrence's Church, in Heanor, accused Cllr Allsebrook of lacking even the most basic knowledge of Christian beliefs. Speaking to the Ripley and Heanor News, Cllr Allsebrook said: "The church doesn't welcome us. We still believe in the teachings of the Bible, but we don't believe in their interpretation of it at the moment so we are not welcome. I stand by what I said in my blog and think it's fair comment."

The blog said: "The Archbishop's rants come only weeks after the Church of England decided to specifically exclude the BNP from its flock. Personally I'm not bothered, the CoE teachings of the Bible are normally twisted and evil. For a long time I've thought the way the church has turned it's back on wholesome family values in favour of sick, perverted, PC appeasement is immoral. As far as I'm concerned every BNP member I've met has far higher morals than any Church of England Minister."

He also expressed support for Rev Robert West who has in the past stated that 'God divided nations for their own good and every race needed its space'. Rev West plans to stand in the European elections for the BNP in the East Midlands.

In a letter to the Ripley and Heanor News, Rev Pattimore said: "I for one am very pleased that the true colours of our BNP representatives are at last being shown. Why does he issue this tirade of abuse against the many thousands of ministers in the Church of England and all of those church members who tirelessly give sacrificially to the communities in which they live? I certainly don't remember him attending a service I have conducted.

"Unfortunately for both Mr Allsebrook and his new guru, Rev Robert West, even the most basic knowledge of the message of Jesus Christ shows that Christianity is about inclusivity and service of all, not the segregation of people into different ethnic groups."

Ripley and Heanor News

Barton in the Beans and the BNP Baptist Chapel

After a bit of prodding, I’ve received a response from the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) about the recent hosting of the British National Party’s Rev Robert West at Barton in the Beans Baptist Chapel (also known as Barton Fabis Baptist Chapel or Barton Chapel). West’s appearance at this venue was noted on a BNP blog, but specific details were removed after Seismic Shock drew it to wider attention. The FIEC administrator was keen to point out that each church is independent, that the Fellowship does not support any political party, and that it is working to make member churches aware of the dangers posed by political extremists. I was also directed to a related church body called ”Affinity”, of which the FIEC is a member and where further details about the chapel are listed. The specific entry is here; there is no minister listed, just a certain “Mrs C S Meller” given as the administrator. There are apparently regular services, though.

Mrs Meller is Christine Meller, and according to this site she and her husband Derek Meller maintain a museum at the Chapel, which is of historic significance and regarded fondly by British Baptists. There is no evidence that either of these persons support the BNP, but it just so happens that there is also a local BNP councillor named Ian Derek Meller, who is described as a member of the Chapel on the website of the North West Leicestershire District Council.

A site run by Searchlight magazine notes:

[Ian] Meller is a former member of the NF who in August 2000 was fined £400 with £55 costs for possessing an offensive weapon – believed to have been a chair leg. When he was arrested Meller was with a 15 strong contingent of NF members led by Mick Shore who was involved in the KKK and who is now also in the BNP. The gang of NF thugs of which Meller was a part were intent on attacking a Gay Pride march in Leicester.

Meller’s supporters claim he was carrying a flagpole.

West, meanwhile, believes that multiracialism is sinful, and that this is the lesson of the story of the Tower of Babel. He also shares Meller’s distaste for homosexuality, and in 2007 his Christian Council of Britain brought Paul Cameron to the UK.

Bartholomew's Notes on Religion

Church says boycott 'fascist BNP'

Vicars are urging Christians not to vote for the far-right British National Party in the London mayoral and Assembly elections today (Thursday).

Rev Jonathan Evens of St John's Seven Kings, High Road, Seven Kings, said the Church of England in the Barking Episcopal area believes the BNP's "racist policies and fascist philosophy" are "incompatible" with Christianity.

During a speech to the Redbridge and Epping Forest Together rally, held at Redbridge Town Hall, Mr Evens said: "One trend that is causing great alarm among churches is the tactic of presenting a racist agenda as Christian. This has been done explicitly by an organisation called 'The Christian Council of Great Britain', led by BNP candidate Robert West. We are deeply concerned that such people are appropriating Christian language and symbols for policies that are the very opposite of Christian values."

Mr Evens continued: "The Christian view is that all people are made in the image of God, and this leads us to a vision of a just community where people of all backgrounds live together in equality. The BNP and organisations such as The Christian Council of Great Britain, clearly reject that vision and so, as Christian churches, we oppose the racist policies and fascist philosophy of the BNP, stating clearly that they are incompatible with the Christian faith and calling on all church members to use their vote for democracy and against the BNP."

BNP mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook launched a scathing counter-attack against Mr Evens and the Church of England, accusing them of ignoring the concerns of parishioners.

He said: "One or two people I know actually attend that church and three or four years ago it was quite popular, but now the flock is going back and considering whether the Church of England really does represent the people that go there. Maybe [Mr Evens] will be looking forward to the future when his church is turned into a mosque."

Mr Barnbrook challenged Mr Evens to invite him to a hustings at the church "so his congregation has a better understanding of our policies".

Ilford Recorder

STICKY: A quick quiz for all you BNP members looking in (we know you're there)

As members of a so-called political party, you are expected to know a bit about the party hierarchy, structure and so on. Surprisingly, the BNP chooses not to tell its members very much about what goes on at any level, which is why someone was forced to ask on Stormfront a couple of days ago if Roy Goodwin had been booted out of his job after reading it here first (he has).

Given that your party squeezes as much cash as possible out of you via the high membership fees, the vast amount of tatty merchandise it tries to offload on you, its rubbishy Voice of Freedom 'newspaper' and the Red, White and Blue booze-fest and jumble sale, you might choose to wonder where all your hard-earned pennies are going. Some of these questions are pretty fundamental (like the first one) while others are just interesting (like the questions about Lee Barnes, the party's 'legal advisor').

Seventeen questions, more or less - and we defy you to answer more than two of them without having to knowingly lie.

Nick Griffin

1. How much is Nick Griffin paid per annum and how much are his expenses/travel?
2. Precisely how much does the party pay his wife, daughter, mother and father - and for what?

The rest

3. How much is the leadership team paid, per person?

Mark Collett

4. What exactly does Mark Collett do?
5. And why does the party employ a known Hitlerite and idiot?

Tony Lecomber

6. Is Tony Lecomber a member of the BNP right now?
7. Has he ever been a member of the BNP?
8. Why wasn't he thrown out after he proposed an assassination attempt?

Lee Barnes

9. Is Lee Barnes a member of the BNP?
10. Has he ever been a member of the BNP?
11. Has he really got a law degree?

Phil Edwardes

12. Has Dr Phil Edwardes actually got a doctorate?
13. If so, what is it in and where is it from?
14. And why has he got two names (Stuart Russell being the other one)?

Robert West

15. Has the insane fake-vicar Robert West resigned from the party?

Accounts

16. Where are the full accounts for Great White Records, Excalibur Promotions Ltd and the Trafalgar Club?

Security

17. Martin Reynolds is, we're told, paid more than £500 per week, which is a lot of membership fees. How much is paid for the entire security team including their Kray-twin overcoats, Raybans and bullet-proof vests?

There you go. Now let's see how many answers we get...

Turning right - a review of last week's Radio 4 documentary on the far-right

[In fact, a review of all bar the last few minutes which was missed because the tape ran out. We weren't going to bother using this because of the damn tape but a few people have asked what the programme was like so this is for them.]

A most peculiar programme, as most who listened to it would surely agree. It never quite managed to get to any particular point - something that might possibly be blamed on the constant attacks on the BBC's alleged bias towards the political left or right, depending on who is claiming bias at the time.

It begins in a Hampshire village, complete with duck pond and ex-Tory, ex-UKIP, now BNP organiser Roger Robertson. Robertson's political acumen is astounding. He blames immigrants for all Hampshire's ills (whatever they are), particularly last year's hosepipe ban. As we've pointed out before, the BNP chooses not to look at poor investment by the profit-fixated water companies nor the huge changes that are becoming apparent because of global warming - but immigration as the sole cause of water shortages.

The interviewer asked Robertson to take him to meet a typical BNP-supporter in the village. Robertson, a foot-shooting buffoon surely destined to lead the party in the future, took him to an elderly female supporter who promptly and helpfully announced; 'I suppose in a way I'm racist'.

A Cllr Haffey, who lives in the village next door, is an outspoken opponent of the BNP, pointing out how much damage has been caused by nationalism over the last century or so and how the BNP's leader and most of the officers that surround him have criminal records.

Robertson's unnamed acolyte, when asked about the BNP's reputation for thuggery, said that we had that completely wrong, going on to claim, oddly, that what we must be thinking of is Mosley's Blackshirts. After all, she pointed out, a lot of BNP supporters are Christian. So there.

The 2004 State of the Nation poll, which was the basis of the Joseph Rowntree Trust's assertion that 20-25% of the voting public would consider voting BNP in a future election, which led to Margaret Hodge's highly-damaging statement before last year's local elections, has recently been updated with the 2006 results, showing that the figure has dropped to around 10.3%, which bodes a bit for the BNP.

This ties in rather neatly with the dismal results of the most recent local elections where the BNP's optimistic dream of gaining a further 50-60 seats turned into a gain of just one (now lost thanks to a BNP councillor defection) despite a record-breaking 750 candidates.

The programme then moved to Barking and Dagenham where the leader of the BNP contingent on the council, pornmeister Richard (Dickie to his friends, believe it or not) Barnbrook, was interviewed. Curiously the interviewer chose not to ask Barnbrook about the lies told by the BNP to gain its seats (Africans for Essex, for example) nor to pick him up on his odd assertion that the BNP was there to represent the 'indigenous' population including first and second generation Africans and Asians, nor for his bizarre and unlikely claim that 1 in 5 first and second generation minority groups voted for the racist BNP. Rather the interviewer, in a brief spasm of interviewing prowess, mentioned the poor performance of Barking and Dagenham's BNP councillors.

According to the leader of the council, Charles Fairbrass, the BNP's attendance record is appalling - around 51% - which Fairbrass suggests is a direct result of the fact that they simply didn't expect to win. He also criticised the BNP contingent for not turning up to the training sessions for new councillors.

Barnbrook had no hesitation in accepting the attendance figure of 51% and the non-attendance at training sessions but blamed that on the fact that many of the BNP councillors work and, the training sessions being held during working hours, they simply couldn't get the time off. Curiously, though unsurprisingly, the interviewer allowed this to slide, though he should have pointed out that councillors are legally entitled to time off work to attend to council business (including training sessions) and receive generous payments to make up for any shortfall in wages. Besides that, if anyone has stood for council without checking with their employer first, they're an idiot.

Barnbrook also supervises the councillors for the BNP nationally. Strangely he appeared completely ignorant of all the serious convictions of the councillors he's supposed to be supervising. When asked about a BNP councillor convicted of assaulting his wife and a police officer, racially abusing a group of Asians and being banned from every football ground in the country, Barnbrook claimed to be unaware of him. Also James Lloyd, who left the tenancy of the Blue Lagoon pub at Tipton after a shooting and various other violent incidents and amid police claims that he failed to co-operate with the subsequent investigations. And what about the BNP councillor convicted of three assaults on members of his wife's family (David Enderby)? Again and again, Barnbrook claimed not to know anything of these individuals and, sadly, the interviewer gave up.

The programme then moved to the cosmetic changes that have been made to the BNP. Nick Griffin, busily re-writing history, stated that the BNP evolved out of the old National Front, where there had been a 'neo-fascist strain', a 'racist strain' but not, according to him, a 'thuggish strain', describing any suggestion as 'massively over-exaggerated'. When asked if all this was behind the party, Griffin said yes, but it all takes a long time. It certainly does - the BNP moved away from the NF in 1982, a quarter of a century ago.

Griffin 'accepted' that anti-semitism had been a part of the party ethos but was no longer. When asked if he still believed the Holocaust was the hoax of the 20th Century, he responded;

'No, I do not.'
'What made you change your mind?'
'Primarily European law. If I say that now or believe that now, I'm liable to be extradited to France...I believe what the law says I must believe.'

Startlingly, the interviewer didn't take this any further.

Moving on to the BNP's attempted exploitation of Christianity for its own ends, the programme interviewed former BNP councillor (deservedly ousted in May this year) and fake-vicar Robert West, the leader of the BNP front-group, the Christian Council of Britain.

West, sounding uncannily like Andy Hamilton, was allowed to sermonise on what he perceived to be the evils of multiculturalism, claiming the purity of races as 'God's will', a phrase that certainly made me nervous. Picking selected chunks from the Bible, he spoke against race-mixing, claiming that God's command is that nations should live apart.

The Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, rejected this outright, stating that the claims made by West were similar to those made in South Africa to justify apartheid.

'It's nonsense, it's wrong and it's not at all in the spirit of the Gospel... I think what the BNP is doing is making use of a flag of convenience, namely the Christian heritage of the country. In the past they've spoken about the 'real' religion of the country being pagan worship of the Norse gods.'

From there, the programme went off to Griffin and West's bizarre ideas on Islam, neatly and concisely demolished by Inayat Bunglawala, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, then drifted into apocalypse-mode with a discussion about the possibility of civil war.

Griffin quoted the arguably-insane Rear-Admiral Parry, who claimed last year that Britain would be in the grip of civil war within five years. While acknowledging this and stating that he believed this to be true, Griffin also stated that he expected the BNP to be in government (by which we assume he means would have enough MPs to control the government) by 2040, indicating that he at least has a rich fantasy life.

Finally, the programme wondered if, after its dismal performance in the recent local elections, the BNP can still hope to become a serious political force. Professor Peter John of Manchester University responded:

'I don't think so...Local campaigns maybe - nationally, no.'