BNP leader Nick Griffin banned by Buckingham Palace

BNP leader Nick Griffin will be denied entry to a garden party at Buckingham Palace "due to the fact he has overtly used his personal invitation for party political purpose through the media".

In a statement Buckingham Palace said: "This in turn has increased the security threat and the potential discomfort to the many other guests also attending."

Mr Griffin's personal invitation to the garden party on Thursday was issued to him as an elected member of the European Parliament. The palace statement said: "The decision to deny entry is not intended to show any disrespect to the democratic process by which the invitation was issued. However, we would apply the same rules to anyone who tried to blatantly politicise their attendance in this way."

The BNP leader was set to attend last year as a guest of a BNP London assembly member but pulled out after an outcry. In an e-mail to supporters sent on Wednesday, Mr Griffin said he would be representing "a million British patriots who vote for this party".

"This event shows just how far this party has come in the last few years but I won't be at the Palace for myself or my family. No! I will be there to represent the patriots who made this possible; I'll be there for you."

He asked them to suggest what he should say to the Queen if they spoke at the event.

He was set to attend the party with wife Jackie and fellow BNP MEP Andrew Brons. It is not clear whether Mr Brons will attend. The BNP leader was expected to be among the 8,000 guests at the event which will be hosted by the Queen and also attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Other members of the Royal Family who will be mingling on the Palace's lawns include the Duke of York, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.

BBC

BNP leader NickGriffin defends decision to attend Queen's garden party

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, today defended his decision to accept an invitation to the Queen's garden party despite previously claiming his attendance would "embarrass" the monarch.

The far-right politician is expected to be among the 8,000 guests at the event, which will be hosted by the Queen and also attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Griffin is due to attend this afternoon's event with three family members.

Buckingham Palace said he is automatically eligible for a garden party ticket in his capacity as an elected member of the European parliament, but his invitation has caused outrage among anti-fascists.

Other members of the royal family who will be mingling on the palace's lawns include the Duke of York, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.

Griffin pulled out of the event last year following a public outcry, claiming he had "no wish to embarrass the Queen".

He was due to attend a palace garden party as a guest of his BNP colleague, Richard Barnbrook, who is a member of the London assembly, prompting London mayor Boris Johnson to protest and accuse Griffin of a "political stunt".

The BNP party leader dismissed Johnson's comments as "alarmist, stupid and juvenile" and insisted today that his status as an MEP for the north-west had changed things.

Speaking on GMTV, Griffin said: "Richard was put under immense pressure for me not to go and since I was not there under my own steam and my own elected right I decided to pull out. This time it's totally different – 800,000 people voted for us in the European elections and I was voted an MEP.

He added: "The palace have made it very, very clear that they will not discriminate against any elected MEP and I think that's the proper thing to do, so there's no embarrassment there at all."

He said he was "pretty sure" he would not meet the Queen during the event and had absolutely no intention of trying to speak to her. But he added: "If we happen to meet over the sandwiches, of course I will."

A Unite Against Fascism spokesman said: "We are opposed to Nick Griffin appearing anywhere in public. Events like this help to make Nick Griffin and the BNP seem legitimate in the eyes of racist voters.

"The Queen does not just represent Britain but the Commonwealth. Her staff or whoever invited him really need to take a long, hard look at what this day represents – Nick Griffin and racists or multiculturalism."

The Guardian

Edit:- BNP leader Nick Griffin's invitation to royal garden party withdrawn as he was using it for 'party political purposes'. More details soon.

BNP leader invited to meet Queen at Buckingham Palace garden party

Nick Griffin: off to Buckingham Palace in July

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has been invited to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party hosted by the Queen, The Times has learned.

Mr Griffin has obtained invitations for himself and three guests in his capacity as the North West’s MEP, in a move which last night provoked concern that other guests would boycott the event. His possible attendance plunges the palace into fresh controversy over its attitude to Mr Griffin, who has been convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.

He attempted to attend one of the Queen’s garden parties last year, but withdrew after an eruption of public outrage. It was suggested that his presence would tarnish the Queen’s reputation. Other MEPs and opponents of the far-right party warned that Mr Griffin’s invitation “utterly compromised” the Queen and risked politicising the annual event.

Each year British MEPs are entitled to two tickets to one of the Queen’s three garden parties at Buckingham Palace. It was unclear how Mr Griffin obtained four tickets, which he announced during a BNP supporters’ dinner at the weekend. In a video seen by The Times, Mr Griffin produced the invitations in front of his guests, prompting loud cheers and claps. He told the gathered crowd that he, his wife Jackie and their two daughters, Jennifer and Rhiannon, had been invited to the event on July 22.

“So my guess is the six o’clock news on Thursday, July 22, might have a little bit about the British National Party,” he added. So we’re gonna [sic] be back in the news.”

Last year Mr Griffin sparked anger when he said that he would attend a party as the guest of Richard Barnbrook, who had obtained two tickets in his capacity as the BNP’s representative on the London Assembly. However, Mr Griffin withdrew after the Greater London Authority warned Mr Barnbrook that his nomination would be reconsidered if he continued to exploit it for publicity. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, had expressed concern about Mr Griffin’s attendance.

A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace confirmed that an invitation had been issued this year. She said that Mr Griffin was eligible to nominate himself and the Palace would not discriminate against democratically elected representatives.

Searchlight, the organisation which campaigns against the BNP, said it was “bizarre” that Mr Griffin had received an invitation when his party had been soundly rejected by voters at the general election.

Claude Moraes, a Labour MEP for London, said that the move “deeply politicises and embarrasses the Queen”.

“She has been forced into an extremely difficult situation. I would expect some people to boycott the party. If people knew about this it would clearly spoil the occasion for a lot of them. It has utterly compromised the Queen and she is made to feel that she has to make a political decision.”

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who trounced Mr Griffin in his bid for the seat of Barking and Dagenham, said: “It sickens me that Nick Griffin uses his elected position to gain access to the Royal garden party.”

The BNP’s media spokesman refused to comment.

Times Online

Secrecy row as BNP man attends a party at the Palace

Buckingham Palace and the Greater London Authority are under pressure to explain why a BNP member was last week allowed to attend a garden party hosted by the Queen.

The original invite to Richard Barnbrook, a member of the London Assembly for the far-right group, caused a storm of controversy but he had been expected to attend one of the Queen's annual gatherings next week. Yesterday, however, it emerged he attended last week's party at the Palace, sipping tea on the lawn within feet of the monarch.

Questions were raised yesterday over whether officials had misled the public to avoid further embarrassment, following the scandal that erupted when Barnbrook invited BNP leader Nick Griffin as his guest. Mr Griffin later decided not to attend.

Both the Palace and the Assembly allowed reports giving the incorrect date of Mr Barnbook's visit to be published.

Mr Barnbrook last night expressed surprise the occasion had passed without press interest, saying: 'I can only assume that the GLA and others wanted to try to keep my attendance under wraps.'

A spokesman for anti-fascist group Searchlight said: 'We were surprised to hear Richard Barnbrook's attendance at the garden party was kept so quiet. On a positive note, it appears Barnbrook has been sidelined by the BNP who clearly decided their attempts to make political capital out of the invitation in the first place backfired so heavily on them.'

Mail Online

Feeling unloved, Mr Griffin? Do have a slice of Battenberg

'Of course, if the Queen has any sense of humour at all, she will make sure that every other guest is black. Millions of them. Every black person in Britain, ready to welcome Nick Griffin at the Palace gates.'

It is a common problem with any social occasion. We feel obliged to invite a certain acquaintance or colleague, but their partner is a nightmare. Nothing we can do. Guests must be allowed to bring whomever they like. You can't start being rude to someone's partner. But, oh God, he has to choose that one? Fine. You keep them amused, darling. I'm not making conversation with them. Now, do we have enough napkins?

This, presumably, is what went through the Queen's head when she heard that Richard Barnbrook from the London Assembly wants to bring Nick Griffin to her garden party. And Prince Philip was certainly horrified. "That pinko?"

I, personally, am charmed that two members of the BNP are eager to do something so tremendously gay. Putting on their best suits to stroll around the Queen's garden party together, sipping Pimm's. Will they adjust each other's ties nervously before leaving? Will they whisper: "Not the mauve, sweetheart, it does nothing for you"? Will one of them spot the other being monopolised by a fellow guest and storm off through the choisya in a huff?

I believe that Nick Griffin has denied an episode of man-love in the past and Richard Barnbrook gets very cross if anybody suggests that he made a homosexual porn film in his student days, but whatever the truth of those tales, the latter choosing the former as his date for a royal garden party is certainly the gayest thing that either of them has ever done. It's all a terrifically good sign. I just want them to be happy.

Some people are saying that it's bad of Barnbrook to invite this particular guest. Maybe they should have thought of that before electing him to the London Assembly. It must be exasperating for the voters who plumped for a BNP candidate: they want to see him at his desk, concentrating on the important business of making life hell for the local Asian GP, yet the man wants to go skipping around garden parties, eating cucumber sandwiches and fraternising with the Duke of Kent. As for his party chairman, get on with your work, Griffin! There are Holocausts out there to be denied!

But look at it from Barnbrook's point of view. Even if he were not, himself, an enormous moron, what's he going to do? If you were invited to the Queen's garden party and Nick Griffin was a friend of yours, you'd have to take him. It would just be mean not to. Like getting tickets to the premiere of Wall-E and not taking your child. Like being invited to an orgy at the Playboy mansion and not taking Russell Brand. I would guess that the level of whine in Griffin's voice as he begged to attend, the weight of hand pulling on sleeve, was the same as mine the day my father was invited to Uri Geller's wedding.

It would be the happiest day of Nick Griffin's life. Buckingham Palace! Flags! Royals! Unctuous footmen! Of course, if the Queen has any sense of humour at all, she will make sure that every other guest is black. Millions of them. Every black person in Britain, ready to welcome Nick Griffin at the Palace gates. Don't tell me he doesn't have that recurrent nightmare anyway. Her Majesty has a wonderful opportunity to bring it to life and drive him screaming to an asylum.

But that will not happen. And we need not fear any trouble. Griffin and Barnbrook will be far too happy to misbehave.

The Queen will ask: "Have you come far?"

They will reply: "We have come further than anyone else, but we hold true to our core principles."

And then the Queen will wander off to greet a charity worker, leaving Griffin and Barnbrook to mop the other's trembling brow and have an excited little hug.

We must enjoy the image while it lasts, because Griffin won't really be allowed to go. Barnbrook probably won't either. It isn't fair on the other guests. If you were an invited dignitary, maybe a milkman with a CBE, and found yourself standing next to Nick Griffin in the Queen's urinals, it would be absolutely mandatory to wee down his leg. And one mustn't put guests in the position where they would have no choice other than to wee down people's legs. That is not a polite thing for a hostess to do.

I am assuming that a Buckingham Palace garden party is not like the garden parties I have been to. I am guessing that the assembled councillors, care workers, mayors and gentry do not neck bottles of vodka, vomit in the fish pond, smoke dope, get out acoustic guitars and slump unconscious in a flowerbed halfway through Tears In Heaven. They are nice, hard-working, well-behaved, generous folk. They can't be forced to mix with people they want to wee on.

It is a shame for the Queen, though. It is terribly useful to have someone vile at a party. It adds a bit of buzz. The host feels extremely popular in comparison. And everyone has horrified anecdotes to tell afterwards.

It is also a shame for Nick Griffin and Richard Barnbrook. I say let them go. Look at it this way. If someone is horrible to you, if a friend is cruel, if a relative is cutting, if an employer is insulting, if a passer-by is rude, the only mollification is to remember that they are probably unhappy. People are only nasty when they are unhappy. By that logic, Barnbrook and Griffin must be the most miserable people in Britain.

Let them have their dream day out at the Palace. They'd be so pleased. We should invite them to all our parties, bake them cakes, post them sweets, stroke their hair, give them kittens, bombard them with treats and love. Who knows; they may turn back into quite reasonable people.

Observer