BNP reported over Scots leaflets

The BNP has been reported to the Electoral Commission over a campaign leaflet that falsely claims there are more Muslims in the UK than Scots.

A pamphlet was put through letterboxes across Scotland which said the BNP would put an end to mosque-building and warning of a “flood” of Eastern European immigrants about to arrive in Scotland.

Campaign group, Hope Not Hate, has reported the party over its claims. There are an estimated 2.4 million Muslims in Britain and more than five million in Scotland alone, 89% of whom declared themselves Scottish in the last census.

The far-right BNP is planning to field a record number of candidates in the next Holyrood and Westminster elections, but the Sunday Herald can reveal that a shortage of candidates has meant Nick Griffin’s daughter Jenny has been forced to stand in English, Welsh and Scottish elections under her married name, Jennifer Matthys. Opponents said it was damning evidence of the BNP’s lack of support.

A spokesman for Hope Not Hate said: “The BNP’s campaign of hate has been rejected by the Scottish people, which is why they have resorted to a tissue of lies. The BNP is desperate when Nick Griffin is forced to pressgang his own daughter into standing in three separate elections. This makes a mockery of their claims to be building support across the country.”

Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer, said Muslims could be intimidated by the leaflets and they should call the police if they felt threatened. He said: “This could be considered breach of the peace. It’s racist nonsense which is totally inaccurate and trying to play on people’s fears.”

BNP Scottish organiser Gary Raikes said the leaflets were checked before going out and questioned whether the UK’s Muslim population had been accurately measured.

Herald Scotland

Tories' lesbian candidate just beats BNP in race for third place in Glasgow North East by-election

Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives' lesbian candidate in the Glasgow North-East by-election has just beaten British National Party's (BNP) Charlie Baillie in the race for third place. The Labour candidate Willie Bain comfortably won the seat that was previously held by former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin.

The seat became vacant five months ago when the then Speaker, now Lord Martin, Baron Martin of Springburn resigned over his handling of MP's expenses.

The results were as follows:-

1) Willie Bain, (Labour) 12,231 votes
2) David Kerr (SNP) 4,120
3) Ruth Davidson (Conservative Party) 1,075
4) Charlie Baillie (BNP) 1.013
5) Tommy Sheridan (Solidarity) 794
6) Eileen Baxendale (LD) 474
7) David Doherty (Green) 332
8) John Smeaton (Jury Team) 258

There were five other candidates (full result below).

The BNP have never fought a by-election in Scotland before and some commentators credit their relative success at this election to the appearance on the BBC's Question Time by leader Nick Griffin. During the count, the BBC were reporting that the BNP had secured third place.

Willie Bain hailed the result, saying: "It's a great endorsement for Gordon Brown in his efforts to set the economy back on track and it shows the General Election is very much game on."

Later he said: "I want to thank my neighbours, now my constituents. You have placed your trust in me, I promise you that I will never let you down."

Conservative candidate, Ms Davidson just held her deposit for the election securing 5.22% of the vote. She lives with her partner in Partick and had promised that if elected she would not claim for food, furniture or household goods.

Ms Davidson said she does not often speak about her sexuality because "it's not the most interesting part of my life".

According to the Sun, she said: "I don't believe sexuality is an issue now. In terms of the Conservative Party, we saw in July of this year David Cameron standing up in front of Stonewall and saying, 'Look, we apologise for Section 28. We got it wrong'.

"It was an unequivocal apology on the subject.

"In terms of coming out I had my first female partner about four or five years ago. I was open about it at the time and I'm open about it now. But I don't tend to talk about it because it's not the most interesting part of my life, you know? Some people are gay and that's it."

Local police are investigating two alleged cases of voting fraud after the same voters turned up to vote on multiple occasions.

Pink News

By-election SP:

Lab 12231 (59.3%)
SNP 4120 (19.96%)
Con 1075 (5.2%)
---lost deps----
BNP 1013 (4.9%)
Sol 794 (3.8%)
LDM 474 (2.3%)
Grn 332 (1.6%)
JTm 256 (1.3%)
SSP 152 (0.7%)
Hug 54 (0.3%)
SLP 47 (0.2%)
Ind 32 (0.2%)
ILT 13 (0.2%)

Turnout 33.02%

43 spoiled ballots.
20,638 valid votes.

Lab majority 8,111
Con saved deposit by 43 votes

Dowson's empire

Sonia Gable shines a light on Jim Dowson's string of business and campaigning interests

Solas NI

Solas NI, a charity with the registration number XR86269, describes itself on its website as a victim support group set up to help bereaved and injured victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles. It says its aim is "to ensure that those most affected by the Troubles have recourse to a non-political and non-sectarian organisation which caters specifically for their needs". It was formed in 2003 and up to 2007 had received £111,479 of funding under a European Union programme for peace and reconciliation.

Jim Dowson is not known to hold any position in Solas, but its chair is Alex Thomas, a business partner of Dowson and husband of his sister-in-law, who is also involved in Solas. The charity also uses the same address and telephone number as another Dowson organisation, the Christian Youth Fellowship.

Adlorries.com Ltd

Jim Dowson is the sole director of Adlorries.com Ltd, the company that hired the Belfast staff. Incorporated in October 2004 it describes itself as "an independent company providing professional services without prejudice to NGOs, charities and political organisations … We are the complete business solution," its scanty website claims.

The BNP's "truth truck", better known outside the party as the lie lorry

The company owns little of substance. Its latest accounts show fixed assets plus cash of nearly £27,000 against £25,000 owed in debts and long-term loans.

One of its assets is the BNP's "truth truck", better known outside the party as the lie lorry. Last year the BNP claimed to have bought the truck after a successful appeal to supporters to raise the £26,550 needed. However when bailiffs tried to enforce a county court judgement against the BNP, the party's solicitors responded that the vehicle was "registered in the name of another person who … has no connection with the judgement debtors".

In fact the truth truck turned out to be the same vehicle that Dowson had bought two years earlier for the anti-abortion UK LifeLeague, after appealing for donations from supporters. It even had the same name. A press release issued in April 2006 claimed Operation Truth Truck would "enable the pro-life message to reach the unreached across the towns and cities of Britain". The UK LifeLeague and the BNP had milked their gullible supporters twice over for the same "truth truck" which never left the ownership of Adlorries.com.

Albion Logistical Solutions Ltd

Incorporated in February 2009, Albion Logistical Solutions Ltd has an address in Loughborough and one director, Jim Dowson. It was this company that organised the printing of over 28 million glossy BNP European election leaflets earlier this year.

Midas Consultancy

Early in 2008 BNP senior officers and activists were invited to attend "high level management training" arranged by "a professional management consultancy and training company", which "uses a property in Spain as its main training base". Searchlight quickly established that the organiser was a Belfast-based business called the Midas Consultancy, the name under which Jim Dowson marketed his management and fundraising skills, and that the training base was in Valencia on the Costa Blanca.

Christian Youth Fellowship

The Christian Youth Fellowship shares premises with Solas NI and its contact person is listed as J Dowson. Its activities centre around anti-abortion and anti-gay campaigning, though in May it took part in the launch of TIDY Northern Ireland's Clean Coast Programme on Portrush, Whiterocks beach.

UK LifeLeague

Jim Dowson is the main public face of the hardline anti-abortion UK LifeLeague, which uses highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff. Similar actions by anti-abortion groups in the US have resulted in the murder of doctors.

Formed in 1999, the LifeLeague claims to be committed to peaceful campaigning "to end the violence of abortion". Although its website states that "campaigning is an important part of what we do", the organisation appears to have done nothing since early 2008 apart from raising money.

Ultraplumb.com Ltd

Jim Dowson helped his eldest son, James Dowson Jr, to set up Ultraplumb.com Ltd, a company registered at Dowson's address in Cumbernauld, Scotland, in 2007. Dowson Jr, 21, (pictured) is the sole director and Marion Thomas, Dowson Sr's sister-in-law, is the Company Secretary. Ultraplumb styles itself as "Northern Ireland's premier plumbing company" but of the three testimonials on its website, dated 2007, one is from Thomas herself. Its accounts are several months overdue for filing at Companies House.

After the exposé of the BNP's Belfast bunker operation in the Irish press, Dowson Jr painted out the signs on his company's vans, fearing reprisals from the local population.

BNP offices in Stroud and Nuneaton

Stroud: The large grey stone house on a Stroud industrial estate is not the sort of place one might expect the BNP to occupy. Jim Dowson's company Adlorries.com Ltd leased three rooms at Unit 13, Salmon Springs Trading Estate, Painswick Road, Stroud for three years, paying £5,000 a year in rent to the owner, D J Melsome Ltd. 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, but came off second best. Unfortunately for Dowson, the lease has no cancellation clause.

Nuneaton: Alwyn Deacon, the BNP's West Midlands regional organiser, leases Unit 3 Slingsby Close, Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate, Nuneaton from Nuneaton and Bedworth council, where the BNP has one councillor following the resignation of a second last month. Deacon is also the BNP's enquiries secretary and national dispatch manager, a job he carries out at the unit.

Like the unit the BNP secretly occupied on a Deeside industrial estate last year, until the landlords evicted the party following a Searchlight exposé, the Nuneaton premises also houses Excalibur, the BNP's merchandising operation. Since May Excalibur has been run privately by Arthur Kemp, the BNP's foreign affairs spokesman, under an annually renewable licence from the party. Excalibur's range of tatty cringe-making and overpriced goods include golliwogs, Replica Victoria Crosses, condemned by the Ministry of Defence as an insult to British troops' heroism, Enoch Powell t-shirts and copies of Kemp's own dismal books.

The Nuneaton unit also houses a call centre with 20 phone lines, where BNP staff try to solicit as much money as possible in donations and merchandise sales from past Excalibur customers, party members, and anyone else unfortunate enough to be on their phone number list.

Friday: Dissecting the Dowsons The leak of the BNP membership list last month has turned the spotlight on the party’s Belfast call centre, the tensions it has caused in the party, and the links between the man who runs it and a charity that has received a six-figure sum in EU funding. Matthew Collins and Simon Cressy investigate.

Hope not Hate

BNP exploit Scots heroes to gain votes

The BNP was attacked last night for attempting to exploit Scottish veterans

Speaking to The Sunday Post in a brief visit to Scotland, Nick Griffin, the controversial leader of the far-right party, boasted how he hoped to use former soldiers to bolster his vote. He was in Hamilton to discuss a potential £100,000 donation to veterans’ charity Forward Edge of the Battlefield.

He said, “It’s politically beneficial for us to be seen with these organisations. We are also involved in other veteran organisations such as Help For Heroes and Soldiers Off The Street. It definitely doesn’t hurt the party to be connected to these groups.”

Mr Griffin also offered to pay for veterans to visit World War 1 battlefields in France. However, his efforts were slammed by former SAS Deputy Commander and past president of FEBA, Clive Fairweather.

He said, “It’s distasteful that a racist organisation is targeting veterans. The army is the exact opposite of racists, I would argue it was one of the least racist organisations going. Our soldiers live, fight and work in foreign lands often side by side with foreigners. Veterans charities should not accept funds from any political parties, from the SNP to the BNP.”

However, Tommy Moffat, the founder of FEBA, has said the organisation has turned to the BNP after being rejected from all other avenues. Tommy, a retired corporal in the Queen’s Own Highlanders, said, “We are a non-political organisation and certainly not racist. We have turned to the BNP because all other funding has not materialised despite assurances from various MPs that it would.”

So far FEBA has received a donation of equipment from the political party which had two people, including Mr Griffin, elected to the European Parliament in June. However, FEBA has said members of the BNP hierarchy will travel to Hamilton this week to thrash out firm details on a cash donation believed to be around the £100,000 mark.

The BNP’s infiltration of the veteran community has recently been attacked by a number of senior military figures. Three ex-heads of the Army were among those to put their names to a letter accusing “those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain’s military”. However, the BNP has said it will continue to use military symbols and pictures of Winston Churchill in its campaigns.

You’ll have a BNP MSP at next election

The controversial leader of the BNP claims the party will have at least one MSP at the next Scottish elections.

Nick Griffin believes his party is increasingly “electable” north of the Border. And he revealed he plans to use forces veterans to help bolster the BNP vote, promising one Scottish group a donation of £100,000.

Mr Griffin made a brief visit to Scotland last week as part of an attempt to galvanise support for Charlie Baillie, the BNP’s candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election. Although Mr Griffin concedes the party has little chance of winning the seat, he says its base of support in Scotland means they could easily return an MSP via the list system.

“The sort of turnaround we are looking for is as little as a two per cent rise in support,” he said. “That is highly achievable. We did it last year at the European elections and in Scotland our support is gathering momentum. Realistically we have little chance of winning the Glasgow North East election. We have a good candidate but Labour is too strong in the area. The SNP have a huge support too and it will be contested by those two parties.

“Traditionally we got very little support in Scotland. However, in recent months this has changed. Where once we got perhaps one positive response per 1000 leaflets, we’re now getting 15 to 16. Although anecdotal, this is usually a decent indicator of levels of support.”

During his visit Mr Griffin was accused of “bottling out” of a by-election campaign visit to Springburn, after an interview at a local radio station in Hamilton resulted in an egg-throwing demonstration. Instead, while the press made their way to Springburn, he visited FEBA, a Hamilton-based charity run for and by veterans. The Sunday Post understands this had always been part of his itinerary.

The charity, the brainchild of former soldier Tommy Moffat, has courted the far-right organisation for funding after alleging several prominent members of the Labour government promised to help fund them, only to change their tune.

On arrival, Mr Griffin was flanked by burly minders who guarded the doors of the charity together with a number of police officers. However, the steady stream of elderly women who were visiting the centre’s cafe all failed to recognise the Euro MP. He spoke to veterans and had a go on the punchbags in the gym — Mr Griffin claims to have been a member of the university boxing team at Cambridge.

But Tommy Moffat was keen to pin him down on a specific donation. Party leaders had told the press they would give the charity £50,000, but Tommy says they’ve only had some equipment and a boiler. Tommy also criticised Mr Griffin for “hijacking the Union Jack” which he said belonged to soldiers who had fought and died for the country, not any political organisation.

But Nick Griffin continued his charm offensive, promising to fund a trip for FEBA veterans to the battlefields of World War 1 in France next year. In a private meeting he also offered Tommy £100,000 in funding, with party officials travelling to Hamilton this week to hammer out details.

Eventually his minders let the press know where he was. Earlier he’d been overheard telling veterans that “the press are all scum”. But speaking to this member of the press, he gave his backing to an independence referendum, while warning that any break up of the UK would be “phoney independence”.

He said, “If Salmond wanted real independence he would split from Europe, where power really lies. Democracy is a decentralisation of power and Scotland has this with devolution, as does Wales and Northern Ireland. We believe Scotland is stronger as part of the UK.”

He also claimed he had received widespread support after his controversial appearance on Question Time two weeks ago. He said, “When I landed at Glasgow Airport a member of the public came over and said the way I had been treated was horrible and that it was tantamount to bullying. He told me he had counted how many words I had managed to get out before I was attacked by someone else. That number was eight. It was a shocking personal attack.”

The Sunday Post

The respectable face of the BNP?

Nick Griffin didn’t speak to many Scots when he visited Glasgow last week

Two men in crisp suits are standing outside the stylish Corinthian bar, nodding in a string of men and women, chatting to some as old friends. The pair are not bouncers – not any more – but members of the British National Party.

Those entering are not regulars of the bar, but activists who have come to hear a speech by the party’s leader, Nick Griffin, currently enjoying his highest profile thanks to his appearance on BBC’s Question Time.

But in spite of the opportunity for more publicity, it is a low-key affair. If the location leaked out it could attract “undesirables”, admits fundraiser Ian Wilson. So the only outward evidence is a small sign, directing those in the know to an event for “Max Dunbar”, one of the party’s organisers. Even the G1 Group, owners of the Corinthian, said later that they were unaware their venue was booked by the BNP, or that a political meeting had taken place.

Inside the Strong Room on the second floor, however, the pretence ends. A Union Flag and BNP flag are hung over a wall and piles of Freedom newspapers are stacked on a table by a collection plate. The back page of the paper advertises T-shirts with slogans including “Stop Islamic Colonisation: No More Mosques” and “Enoch Powell was Right.” By 7.30pm, around 60 people have squeezed in. True to the BNP’s “suits not boots” rebranding, there are no skinheads, no fixed scowls at the press, and almost no tattoos on show.

Most people are in their 30s and 40s, with women making up about a fifth of the crowd. The main subject of conversation is the ferocious heat, which is making everyone sweat. Then in an incongruous Bristol accent, Gary Raikes, the BNP leader in Scotland, welcomes everyone to the official launch of the Glasgow North East by-election campaign.

The meeting’s focus is on statistics and strategy, and on how the by-election and general election are only stepping stones towards the next Holyrood poll.

“Our overall strategy is to win a regional seat in 2011,” says Raikes. “In Scotland, in the regional seats, we need 5%-6%. If you remember not that long ago, the Scottish Socialist Party had five MSPs [actually it had six]. It shows how it’s possible for a small party like ours to win seats under that system.”

Charlie Baillie, the BNP candidate in Glasgow North East, gleefully picks up the baton.

“Mr Dewar must be spinning in his grave. We are not in favour of Scottish independence, but we have a devolved assembly and it gives the Scotland branch of the BNP a platform. How wonderful! How absolutely wonderful! We have got the best chance in the white working-class areas. We don’t need to say what we stand for: the white working-class who have been deserted by Labour.”

Military metaphors, paranoia, Winston Churchill, and fear of Britain becoming an Islamic republic are also to the fore in the speeches.

“We are clear in this party: this is the second Battle of Britain. We are fighting for our survival as a people,” says Mr Raikes.

After a cryptic warning about the BNP’s “enemies within”, he rounds off by quoting from Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” speech. Mr Baillie quotes Churchill too, and also goes back another 500 years to Agincourt and Henry V’s archers defeating the French.

“We are in a battle. We are the longbowmen. No-one else will save this country,” he exclaims.

Other metaphors are less subtle. Mr Baillie detects a “darkness” threatening Britain. “It’s a darkness everyone must face. That darkness covers everything in sight. It needs a single point of light. The BNP is that single point of light. We alone stand for the survival of this nation and will secure a future for British children,” he says. Most of the rest is a ragbag of Keynesian economic stimulus proposals, letting greedy banks fail, hated liberal elites, and Mr Griffin’s heroic stand against the Question Time “bullies”.

There are also some practical campaign tips. “Generally it’s not a good idea to write to the papers as a BNP supporter,” says one old hand. “They don’t like us. You all know what the issues are. Just write about immigration and crime.”

During a break to escape the heat and set about the buffet, Mr Griffin arrives with an entourage of square giants and heads upstairs for a closed session with his lieutenants. At one point a man pops out to check no-one is listening at the door – that paranoia again.

Mr Griffin is highly media savvy: before his picture is taken he removes the change from his jacket so his suit hangs well in the full-length shots and in profile, he turns his glass eye away from the camera in case it glares in the flash. (Griffin lost his left eye in an accident in France about 20 years ago.) In our interview, he talk up the party’s chances on the Holyrood list system. “A seat in the Scottish Parliament is the first big step. Everything is geared towards that,” he says.

Despite the SNP abhorring his ethnic nationalism, Mr Griffin says the two parties draw support from a common well.

“One has to assume that the jump from Scottish National Party – ie, the concept that our people are something a little bit special and entitled to something – to British National Party, which is very much in favour of Scottish identity and fair treatment for the Scots and so on, it’s not as big a jump as from the Labour Party to the BNP or the Tories to the BNP, and plenty of people make that jump. If people have once voted Nationalist then another form of nationalism is an entirely logical step, especially when it’s from an illogical nationalism to a logical one.”

He denies any link between the BNP and the English and Scottish Defence leagues, the soccer-hooligan led anti-Islamic protestors who are due to meet in Glasgow next month. Mr Griffin says they are “agents provocateurs”, set up by the British state to make the BNP look bad and blame whites “when it all goes bang”.

Asked about his aspirations, he says he can get the BNP 20% of the vote. Some would think that delusional enough, but Griffin reckons he might be in Downing Street one day – “Every politician wants to be Prime Minister,” he says.

And he goes on: “The appalling financial catastrophe that the old elites and their financial system have created, running out of oil, and turning homogenous boring and fundamentally stable Britain into something like the Tower of Babel, makes it entirely possible that the existing political system could be swept aside in a few months of enormously fast-paced change and we could be in government.”

Later, he lets rip in his main speech about immigration, radical Islam, and the elites who have “looted” the public purse while letting down the poor and war veterans. Arguing for a dead halt to immigration, he says Glasgow is overcrowded because it takes longer than 15 minutes to drive across it in the rush hour. What that has to do with immigration is never explained.

Explaining why migrants must understand they are “perpetual guests”, he says: “As long as they’re here obeying our ways, supporting our system, then I have no problem with having significant numbers, say, of Gurkhas in Britain. I would be delighted if we could turn all those restaurants and kebab shops which are at present run by radicalised young Muslims for the purpose of pushing drugs and seducing young girls – all that ungrateful, unloyal, anti-British shower – and replace them with Gurkhas.”

The next day, Mr Griffin ducks out of campaigning in Glasgow North East, suggesting to some a lack of conviction in his own rhetoric. The BNP has promised big before and failed – at every election in recent years, it claimed to be on the cusp of a breakthrough in Scotland. But that may not last forever. The commonly held belief that “it couldn’t happen here” – that Scots are more resistant to racism than other parts of the UK – won’t hold them back. The BNP originally once had miniscule support in England, but now has two MEPs.

Mr Griffin needs poverty, disillusion and fear to prosper, and there is plenty of that to go round. In Glasgow North East, where voting is on November 12, the worst poverty level in Scotland is combined with the highest concentration of asylum seekers.

On the streets of Springburn, it is not difficult to find residents who think the BNP will do well. It’s a small, unscientific sample which may not be typical of the area, but it is troubling nonetheless. By the towering Red Road flats, Mary, 40, who works for the council’s care service, smokes as she watches a steady stream of African tenants at the bus stop. “I think people are getting fed up, I really do, because everywhere you go they’re everywhere,” she says. “A lot of them lack manners. What really annoys me is pensioners not being able to get a seat on the bus and there’s coloured kids sitting on a full seat, whereas our kids don’t.”

She says she loathes Labour, but wouldn’t vote BNP: “No, I think they’re racists. They want this to be a white country, but you can’t have that. It’s good that they’re integrating with us, but there’s far too many of them.”

Morag Simpson, 54, a former nurse out walking her Doberman by the flats, reckons the BNP will get support because new housing, “needless to say”, was given to asylum seekers, adding: “We have a lady here, she’s 94, stays three [storeys] up, she’s blind, and she did not get offered a house.”

She goes on: “I was brought up in the Highlands as a Scottish Nationalist, but the way things are going… I just feel as if we don’t get priority. It’s our country. I think [the BNP] are over the top, but we as a people, the Scots people, have to do something about it ourselves. I feel there’s no-one looking out for the ones that have worked all their lives.”

Outside Springburn shopping centre, Michelle Slane, 32, a social care student at North Glasgow College, also predicts a good result for the BNP because of asylum seekers. “They’re getting everything, f***’s sake. They’re getting everything. Ask anybody about. Everybody hates them. Go into that Post Office now and it’s like the United Nations … I think the local community should come before people who are just coming in.”

Alan Fisher, 47, a single parent, says he’ll vote Labour, but agrees about housing.

“I stay on a scheme that’s all vandalised. They get f***ing brand new fridges, f***ing brand new TVs, they get brand new everything. You can’t even say ‘Get tae f***’ because they don’t know what you’re saying to them.”

Margaret Rodgers, 28, out with her two-year-old son Connor, would vote BNP.

“I’m just out a homeless flat. I was in there 13 months. It was in the East End of the city. It was totally run down. There were murders happening twice a week. I think it’s shocking they’re getting up-and-down-stairs and everything. It’s not fair. I just think the asylum seekers are getting too much, far, far too much.I agree with the BNP: don’t let any more in.”

It’s not all like this, of course.

“They’re fascists,” says one elderly lady of the BNP. “We saw him [Nick Griffin] on Question Time. All he did was smile, he couldn’t answer.”

Craig Dunbar, 21, a music performance student at Glasgow North College, wants the BNP to do badly.

“I don’t approve of anything they stand for. I don’t agree with the guy’s views.”

And Michelle Slane’s friend, Liz, a young mother, is shocked by her pal’s views.

“That’s a sin,” she says of her comments. “I think it’s live and let live. Everyone just jumps on their back all the time. I think we are all just people trying to make do and do the best for our children.”

The 18 months to the Holyrood election will tell just how many people think likewise.

Sunday Herald

Army sack cadet officer after he is exposed as leader of BNP in Scotland

An army cadet officer who trained teenagers was drummed out after he was exposed as the leader of the BNP in Scotland.

A shocked mum complained to top brass after learning Company Sergeant Major Gary Raikes was the racist political party's top man. Raikes trained boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 as a part-time officer at the Army Cadet Force's 2nd Battalion C Company in Boddam, Aberdeenshire.

He was accused of abusing his position to peddle the far-right party's vile views.

The mum, from Turriff, said: "I withdrew my son after Raikes tried to use my child for one of his BNP stunts. He had the temerity to use one of the pictures on his sick website. It is disgusting and a misuse of trust. It is deeply worrying given he is making inroads into the vulnerable minds of children."

Raikes works for Scottish Water and lives in a caravan on a farm near Turriff with his wife Samantha. He said: "I have nothing to say about the army issue. It is nonsense to suggest I was trying to indoctrinate young cadets. The mainstream political parties are scared of us. It's a plot against us. I'm not saying any more. You'll say we're all racist anyway."

After the mum's complaint, army bosses asked Raikes to discuss the issue but he repeatedly failed to attend meetings and was eventually sacked.

An Army Scotland spokeswoman said: "We would not stop anyone from joining a political party but if those views do not accord with the views of the Army we would want to ensure that the person involved kept his beliefs to himself while training others, especially children. We wanted to discuss his views with him but he just never turned up again."

Raikes became the BNP's Scottish leader after UK chief Nick Griffin ousted Glasgow-based Kenny Smith in a bitter power struggle. Smith denies he was responsible for last week's leaking of the personal details of around 12,000 members - including Raikes, who is hated by those loyal to Smith

Sunday Mail

No place for fascism on Glasgow's streets

Buchanan Street in Glasgow has long been a place where political groups of various flavours set up stalls and sell newspapers and political propaganda. Walking down the street on a Saturday afternoon you will find groups such as Glasgow Anarchists, Fight Racism – Fight Imperialism, Socialist Workers Party, Palestinian Solidarity and the Communist Party all distributing political material. The usual place to find these groups is at the junction of Buchanan Street and Gordon Street.

This Saturday, April 5th, however a different political group arrived to hawk their particular message. This group however were not welcome on Buchanan street, or any street for that matter. They are the British National Party, the BNP.

Three of these racist scumbags had decided that they were going to sell the “Voice of Freedom”, the vile hate rag of their party. Word quickly went around the different stalls and a group of ten assorted leftists moved down to surround them and stop them from selling their filth.

The three who were selling papers quickly departed to a slow hand clap from the people of Glasgow. However one particular goon who was talking to them and shaking hands decided to hang around at the junction of Gordon Street and Buchanan Street talking into his mobile phone as if calling for back up, after about ten minutes of glowering at the Anarchist stall and attempting to act menacing he departed to get backup to face the evil lefties. Disappearing into Borders bookstore he shortly returned with backup – his mum.

His mother proceeded to fulfil all the stereotypes of the far right with her ignorance, arrogance, homophobia and blustering. She attempted to pick a fight at the Anarchist stall by tossing leaflets and pamphlets to the floor and calling those on the stall a “bunch of anarchist arse bangers” and other such delightful names. Declaring that her son was not a hooligan and that she was the hooligan. In a show of solidarity people from all the other political stalls quickly came over and proceeded to argue with the woman who claimed that her son was not in the BNP (despite him later saying that he would be putting various peoples pictures on redwatch) and then went on to hit a comrade from the SWP . After about ten minutes of arguing people decided to ignore the scum and get on with the day.

The duo of dimmness hung around for maybe half an hour, threatening to call their lawyer (on a Saturday? Yeah right!) and report the stalls for some undetermined reason that probably made sense to her if not everyone else.

Not long after the gruesome twosome departed news arrived that the three BNP paper sellers had started selling their rags at the junction of Buchanan Street and St. Vincent Street. This time an even larger group of the various left organizations, Anonymous and assorted anti-fascists marched up Buchanan Street and surrounded them.

Chants of “BNP off our streets!” began as various people argued with them and called the BNP out for the scum they are. Having already been moved on once though, they dug their heels in and refused to move, even when the crowd around them swelled with people angered at seeing Nazis on our streets.

Eventually they had their papers taken off them and distributed into the bins. Having no hate rags to sell they then buggered off to a great cheer from all on the street.

We cannot allow these pedlars of hate and bigotry to organize or spread their disease, they must be confronted wherever they rear their ugly, pockmarked heads.

Indymedia (Scotland)

Neo-Nazis jailed in Scotland and Sweden

Nazi thug is jailed

A neo-nazi who failed to carry out community service has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

John Montgomery, of Hillside Road, told Greenock socialist activists a Browning pistol was waiting for them outside his house. He was then caught with a host of material from the banned white supremacist group, Combat 18, including posters tacked up on his walls and business cards which he had tried to hand out in Greenock town centre.

The 20-year-old was caught by police after failing to withhold his number when he made the malicious calls in April last year.

Fiscal deputy Nadine Dormer yesterday told the court how he then shouted and swore at police officers outside Harwoods nightclub, in Dalrymple Street, at 11.20pm. He was sentenced to 250 hours community service, but had only completed 13 when he appeared yesterday.

Sheriff John Herald jailed him for 30 months. He said the material was repulsive and added: “What you did goes beyond any freedom of expression. These two people whose choices of politics you did not like found themselves subjected to threats of violence.”

Greenock Telegraph

Two jailed for Nazi demo attack

Two men with neo-Nazi connections have been given lengthy jail sentences for their involvement in a knife attack during a clash between right and left wing extremists in Stockholm last month, Dagens Nyheter reports.

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder, while a 32-year-old man has been given two years as an accessory to the attack.

The younger man was convicted despite denying that he had stabbed a 20-year-old man in the neck. The 22-year-old is a member of the extreme right-wing group Svenska Motståndsrörelse ('Swedish Resistance Movement'), according to Dagens Nyheter. Fighting broke out when the neo-Nazi group was attacked by left-wing counter-demonstrators.

The 32-year-old man admitted to having a neo-Nazi past but claimed that he had left the ideology behind him. He said that he just happened to be walking through the Slussen area on September 1st when he noticed the demonstration.

He had recently been given granted conditional release from prison, where he was serving a nine year sentence for an attack that resulted in the death of a dark-skinned man on New Year's Eve in 1999. He will now serve the remaining two years of that sentence along with a further two years for encouraging the 22-year-old to stab an anti-fascist demonstrator.

There was no forensic proof tying the men to the crime. The court instead based its verdict on the testimony of a man who claimed to have witnessed the attack and heard the 32-year-old shout at the younger man to stab the victim.

The men have been ordered to pay the 20-year-old 109,000 kronor in damages.

The Local

New Nazi spreads hate in Scotland

A Neo-Nazi mouthpiece who was behind a sickening racist propaganda campaign across Ulster is now spouting his bitter views in Scotland.

Greg Cummings, who Sunday Life exposed four years ago as being behind the distribution of race hate literature in Ulster, is now peddling his extreme views across the Irish Sea

Self-confessed racist Cummings told Sunday Life that he had been booted out of the White Nationalist Party after he attracted too much media scrutiny of members of the shadowy organisation. However, he is now fronting another race hate group. Cummings is now described as a "recruiting officer" for the so-called British People's Party.

The group - which is linked to Ayran Unity, an online cabal of extreme right-wing organisations and which has members in Northern Ireland - boasts that the "veteran nationalist" and "ex-WNP comrade" plans to "revitalise" the organisation in Scotland.

A literature campaign run by Cummings and his cronies in the WNP coincided with a string of terrifying race attacks across Northern Ireland. After we exposed him as the group's mouthpiece, he claimed he was involved in a violent bust up with other members of the WNP and given the order of the jackboot out of the organisation.

Cummings also complained that his mother, who he said was appalled at his extreme views and his involvement in "white power" organisations, had booted him out of the family home.

Belfast Telegraph

UNISON to 'stop racism' in anti-BNP campaign

UNISON is preparing to take its campaign against the BNP and other far-right parties to the streets of Scotland this weekend.

The union's branches are organising a number of initiatives in different parts of the country on Saturday April 28 to take the message out to the public that 'racists have no place in Scotland'. It's part of their UK-wide campaign to prevent the organisation building on its 2006 ballot gains.

UNISON has produced large numbers of leaflets and posters urging its members to be careful with their vote on May 3.

Scottish organiser Dave Watson said: "UNISON members care for the whole community in Scotland; we won't allow racists to wreck Scotland's economic and cultural future. The BNP preach their message of hate, but try to hide it under a veneer of respectability. They use lies and rumour to pedal myths about, migrant workers and asylum seekers. We have been working to expose those myths and welcome much needed workers into Scotland."

He pointed to a recent economic report which found the influx of migrant workers into Scotland had boosted the economy, saying that without them the building trade would collapse, the catering and tourist trade would suffer and the health service would fall apart.

With the new proportional representation system, particularly in the local elections, there is a danger that low turnout could lead to BNP candidates being elected by default, Mr Watson said. "We are urging our members and the general public to get out and ensure they cannot destroy our democracy."

However, Dr Phil Edwards, National Press Officer for the BNP has accused UNISON of hypocrisy.

He said: "Most members do not tell the union what political party they are in. There are many members in the union who support the BNP and they are appalled by this. It is not democratic for them to campaign against us but not stand for election themselves. They get hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding from other people's money - we haven't got any money. How can you define racism? We are not racists - we are race realists."

24dash

Race attack fears as BNP targets Scotland

THE FIRST party political broadcast by the British National Party specifically aimed at Scotland will be aired tonight, prompting fears of an increase in racist attacks.

The far right party are entitled to slots on both STV and BBC because they are putting up enough candidates for the Scottish elections.

However, anti-fascist campaigners hit out at the decision, which comes just days after an asylum seeker and her baby son were attacked in Glasgow.

An anti-BNP rally attended by politicians and backed by Chris Geddes of Scots band Belle and Sebastian and author Iain Banks was held in Glasgow yesterday.

Donna Guthrie, national campaigner for organisers Unite Against Fascism, said further protests will be held outside the BBC today.

She said: "We are appalled that the BNP has a platform paid for by the licence payer. It is a terrible thing for the people of Scotland as racist attacks become more common when the BNP targets an area."

But Kenny Smith of the BNP, said the party were entitled to put their message across.

The Scotsman

18 race crimes every 24 hours in Scotland

Shocking figures have revealed a rising tide of racist crime in Scotland. Police recorded 6439 racist crimes last year - that's 18 a day. The figure was up sharply from 5732 the previous year and 4556 in 2004. More than half of all the victims were of Asian origin.

Offences ranged from "racially aggravated conduct" - usually verbal abuse - to vandalism, fire-raising and serious assault.

The figures were set out in the first Scotland-wide report into racist crime, published by the Executive. Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson admitted that more action was needed to tackle the "sickening" trend. She said: "Crime in Scotland is falling but there remain key issues we need to tackle. Today's figures show that racist crime is one of them.

"All crimes are an affront to the values we hold dear, but crimes committed against someone because of the colour of their skin or their country of origin are particularly sickening."

The main target was Scotland's 32,000 Pakistanis, the biggest ethnic minority. There were more than 1500 racist crimes against Pakistani Scots last year. But there were also more than 1000 racist crimes committed against "white British" people.

Most incidents took place in the street or in a shop. But more than 800 people suffered abuse or attack in their own homes.

There were also 451 incidents in takeaways, 185 in pubs, 71 in schools and colleges, 61 in hospitals or surgeries and 29 at places of worship.

Incidents peaked on Friday and Saturday nights, suggesting some were fuelled by alcohol. The racists were usually male and more than half were under 20. The rising trend did not indicate an "explosion" in racism in Scotland, officials said.

Police have become more rigorous in recording racist crime since new laws came in in 2004. Ethnic minorities have also become more confident about reporting incidents.

But Bashir Mann, president of the Muslim Council in Scotland, said: "I think racism is on the increase in this country and in the UK as a whole. There has been a rise in Islamophobia and this has been aggravated by the anti-terrorism legislation introduced by the Government. There is not much the Muslim community can do about it because we do not have the resources."

Daily Record

Model's 'monkey' jibe fuels race row

Miss Scotland becomes the latest celebrity forced to apologise after an offensive on-air comment about a black singer

The reigning Miss Scotland was embroiled yesterday in the latest racism row to be played out in the media after she called the black singer and actress Samantha Mumba 'a monkey' on a live radio programme. Nicola McLean, 22, later insisted she was 'not racist' and apologised for her remarks. She joins a string of politicians and celebrities who have had to apologise recently for inappropriate language on race.

At the end of a week when Patrick Mercer, the Conservative's homeland security spokesman, was sacked following a furore prompted by his remarks about 'idle and useless' ethnic minority soldiers, McLean's outburst has fuelled the debate around race and language. The beauty queen made the remarks live on Radio Clyde in Glasgow during a conversation about possible new judges for the X Factor talent show on TV. After Mumba, an Irish actress, singer and model, was described as 'attractive' by one of Radio Clyde's presenters, McLean said she thought she 'looked like a monkey'.

Yesterday, McLean admitted the remark was foolish but maintained she is not a racist. 'I am new to this job and have learnt that sometimes flippant remarks can be perceived in a negative manner. There was no malice or premeditated thought here, just a simple mistake and for that I am truly sorry.'

The Observer can also reveal that the Commission for Racial Equality has demanded fans of Tottenham Hotspur stop calling themselves 'Yiddos' or the 'Yid Army' - a reference to the club's strong Jewish links. The CRE says such behaviour could fuel anti-semitism. 'It is clear that in this day and age racist attitudes and comments are not acceptable,' said a spokeswoman. 'It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure regressive comments such as these do not undermine the achievements that have been made in race equality.'

The commission's intervention has given renewed impetus to an issue that has bitterly divided opinion among the club's supporters, Jewish groups and campaigners against racism in football. It comes as the police investigate video footage showing some West Ham fans chanting, 'I'd rather be a Paki than a Jew' during their 4-3 defeat by Spurs last Sunday.

Piara Powar, director of the Kick It Out campaign against racism in football, said: 'We have had complaints from fans that the chant is used regularly at White Hart Lane. One guy was in his seventies, had fought in the war and was Jewish, and he was deeply offended. A young fan went to Spurs with his dad and sang it but then used the word "Yid" inappropriately in the school playground.'

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: 'The term "Yiddo" has always been regarded as abusive. It comes from the Russian "zhid" and means Jew. It is highly offensive and always has been.'

Race awareness campaigners say there is no excuse for those in the public spotlight failing to appreciate how their words will have political repercussions. 'The first time I was called a Paki I didn't even know what it meant,' said Denis Fernando, of the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR). 'It was only when I understood the hatred behind the word and was able to put it into context I realised it was hurtful. People have got to understand the social structure behind words.'

Nevertheless, Britain appears to be much less concerned than New York over the relationship between language and race, according to race awareness campaigners. Last year, Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles had an on-air spat with actress Halle Berry after he adopted a faux black American rapper's accent. 'Are we having a racist moment here?' asked Berry, a suggestion furiously denied by the breakfast presenter.

DC Thomson, publisher of the Dandy, provoked outrage shortly before Christmas when it reissued a 1939 anniversary edition of the comic in which a character - Smarty Grandpa - used the word 'nigger' repeatedly. And the image of reality TV star Jade Goody was severely damaged after what many viewers believed was her racist bullying of a fellow Big Brother housemate, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Yesterday it emerged police have dropped their investigation into the affair. Goody was forced to apologise to Shetty following her remarks. 'I'm not racist, but I can see why it has had the impact it's had,' she said.

More recently, the media have been criticised by some for repeated references to Lord Levy's Jewish background, leading to claims that certain stories about Tony Blair's Middle East envoy and chief fundraiser contain 'a whiff of anti-semitism'.

Race equality campaigners are now starting to express alarm over the number of politicians and celebrities who provoke fury over their allegedly racist comments but issue what are perceived to be only half-hearted retractions in which they deny their racist undertones. 'The relationship between language and race is extremely important,' said Milena Buyum, coordinator for the NAAR. 'In a court of law proving someone used the word "nigger" before an attack can be used to show it was a racist attack, which can add an extra two years on the sentence.'

Such an example is an overt link between race and language, but Buyum is concerned at the increasing preponderance of more subtle behaviour surfacing in popular culture, such as Jade Goody ridiculing Shilpa Shetty over her accent and her food while in the Big Brother house.

This argument, however, is met with a sharp retort from some cultural commentators who complain the Big Brother row was another example of 'political correctness gone mad'. Last week a head teacher accused police of overreacting when eight boys were arrested for chanting, 'Yid army' during a leaving ceremony at Chauncy School, Ware, Hertfordshire. Likewise, Mercer's comments last week drew support from many quarters, not least a number of black soldiers who served under him.

A growing backlash against multiculturalism has made tackling racism increasingly difficult, according to experts. They warn complaints from both liberal and right-wing commentators that multiculturalism hasn't worked and that ethnic communities are failing to integrate is perpetuating the fear of 'otherness'.

Additional reporting by Denis Campbell and Lorna Martin

They said what?

'She should fuck off home'
Former Miss Great Britain Danielle Lloyd talks about Bollywood movie star Shilpa Shetty live on Celebrity Big Brother.

'Shilpa Poppadom'
Jade Goody's name for Shetty.

'A fucking lazy nigger'
Ron Atkinson talking about Marcel Desailly, Chelsea's black defender, believing his TV microphone was off.

[I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers] 'who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for misdemeanours'
Former Conservative spokesman for homeland security Patrick Mercer.

'I'm a black American guy. A big fat black guy'
Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles interviews Halle Berry.

'Suicide bombers and limb amputators'
TV presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk's description of Arabs in a newspaper article.

Observer