Griffin wounded in Manchester Court battle?

As usual with any report coming from the BNP - whether it's from current or former members - it's difficult (and sometimes nigh on impossible) to separate the truth from the complete fantasy.

The bizarre Manchester High Court case is an illustration of this. On the one hand we have the leader and deputy leader of the BNP and on the other we have a smattering of six of the most popular and prominent rebel members of the BNP. Who do we believe?

None of them actually. But for your edification (and only because we believe this is closer to the truth than Nick Griffin could get in several lifetimes) we present the report from the Voice of Change website - edited only to insert a pound sign where the VoC idiots couldn't manage it and a slight change to the layout to make the article easier to read.

"Party finances dealt blow from Griffin's gamble

The current BNP leader, Nick Griffin may well have been awarded a boxing blue 25 years old from his Cambridge alma mater but the former Downing College southpaw was on the ropes yesterday at Manchester High Court. Although he was not counted out, his vexatious case against the so called "Young Turks", who had throughout 2007 raised serious misgivings about the way the BNP was being managed, was knocked into reality by the ruling of the Judge.

The six defendants were Steve Blake, former Party web editor, Ian Dawson, former Head of Group Support, Cllr. Sadie Graham, former Head of Group Development, Matt Single, former Security Training Officer, Kenny Smith, former Head of Party Administration and Nicholla Smith, former head of Excalibur merchandising.

The interlocutory hearing on the ninth floor of the modern new glass and steel cube in the heart of Manchester centred around three issues following the issue of Court proceedings by the two claimants, Nick Griffin and Simon Darby in March 2008:

• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny and Nicholla Smith regarding chattels alleged to be in their possession but owned by the British National Party.
• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny Smith relating to monies held in bank accounts in Scotland.
• The jurisdiction of the English Courts to hear the case brought by the claimants against Kenny Smith et al relating to an alleged breach of duties of confidence.

Just two weeks ago, the deputy leader (Mr. Darby) broadcast on his bird watching blog a conversation where Mr. Griffin misleads the blog's thoroughly decent listeners by admitting:

'...I think that certainly our counsel were fairly amazed and the judge didn't seem over-impressed when Davies [defendant's counsel] got up and was saying that under the terms of the Act of Union, one of the provisions in that is that an English court doesn't have jurisdiction in Scotland. Now obviously one knows they have a different legal system there, that's fair enough, but the idea that that could be used to prevent an action against a group of defendants when the action is about the same issue, when a couple of those defendants are in Scotland, is really stretching the point.

We could bring a separate action in Scotland, but that, of course, doubles the costs. Now, if that was allowed, what it would mean is a matter of public policy if it was allowed, is that can you imagine any smallish business, any charity, any political party or association, anyone at all, could simply say because of that risk we can't employ someone from north of the border, and conversely, any Scottish business, charity or whatever is going to say well because of the rift the other way round, we can't employ anyone from south of the border.

It would drive a huge wedge in the fundamental economic unity of the British Isles, and it would lead to enormous discrimination against Scots in England, and against people in Scotland being employed in England and vice versa. It would be astounding if that was allowed, to be honest. But Mr Davies is arguing, and what his clients may not realise, is that every hour he takes up arguing on that point, if it's knocked out the costs of that will go directly against them, basically no questions asked. So, it's a very reckless game I think.'

Kapow

The would-be bruiser was a loser on this point. In contrast to Griffin's imagined economic destruction of crossborder Anglo-Scottish trade it took His Honour Judge Pelling several hours of learned discourse and deliberation to rule on the following:

• The English courts have no jurisdiction over chattels held by a Scots defendant (i.e. Kenny and/or Nicholla Smith) domiciled in Scotland where those chattels are located in Scotland.
• The English courts have no jurisdiction over monies held in bank accounts located in branches of multinational banks such as Lloyds-TSB or Scottish incorporated banks such as the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
• The English courts do however have jurisdiction over the defendant Kenny Smith regarding the alleged breach of duty of confidence because the action was brought jointly against English defendants.

It was 2:1 to the defendants and their counsel on this point. In short, Griffin's legal team bungled by failing to observe the special relationship of the Scottish legal system. The Judge ruled that each party (claimant and defendant) should pay their own costs of the day's proceedings. BNP donors may be dismayed and disgusted to learn that the claimant's counsel told the Judge that the cost so far to the BNP membership is the princely sum of £30,000 [Oddly, exactly the equivalent of 1000 membership fees]. Court proceedings are in the public domain and that figure from the claimant's counsel can readily be verified.

It was also a politically damaging decision as it exposes the claimant's fundamental lack of understanding of the make up of the governance of Great Britain, an issue of key importance to any ambitious leader of the foremost British Nationalist party.

Goodwill

In a display of goodwill which one can only expect to come from decent and honourable British nationalists the two Scottish defendants, Nicholla and Kenny Smith freely offered to the Court that to spare the leadership any further embarrassment and further legal actions in Scotland, which the Party could ill afford, the chattels claimed by Mr. Griffin could be uplifted at a mutually convenient time. A date and time has been agreed and the chattels will be collected.

Likewise two of the other defendants offered up chattels in their possession, including offering items that the bungling claimants had either overlooked or failed to account for. The duty of care that the claimants have over assets purchased using BNP donors' money has been exposed in this case to be, at the very least found wanting, at worst a complete and incompetent mess.

In a reciprocal arrangement, items of personal property unlawfully removed during a raid in December 2007 by BNP security personnel from the house of former Group Development Officer, Cllr Sadie Graham have also begun to be returned.

Round Two

Round One has ended with a massive blow to the Party finances, coming at a very bad time in the run up to the all important London Assembly elections and donors are right to express criticism of the Leader's misguided and vexatious course of action.

The bad news for everyone concerned is that yesterday's proceedings were not the end of the matter. Round two of Griffin's petulant action against former officers of the Party is due to take place at some point in the near future and centres around the alleged breach of confidence by some or all of the defendants. The charges are vigourously denied by the defendants but the matter is sub judice so that is all that can be said on the matter.

Hard working BNP members who make donations to the party expect the money to be used to push the Party forward at elections and to develop the internal infrastructure. They have every right to have misgivings about Mr. Griffin's plan to seemingly drag the Party's finances into the red on the back of a personal vendetta against former Party officials. Such a course of destructive action is even more extraordinary in the light of the very real damage to the Party as a result of the joint BBC-Labour Party infiltration of branches in West Yorkshire which led to the Secret Agent programme culminating in two free speech trials. No action was ever taken by Griffin against the infiltrators and their collaborators.

Whether Mr. Griffin will bounce back or be flat on his back on the canvass depends on at least another day in a civil court room in Manchester."

Has Nick Griffin joined Hope not Hate?

Has Griffin surrendered to Hope not Hate in despair?

As if the Voice of Change rebellion were not enough, the BNP leader now faces calls for a division of the North West region, for which he recently appointed himself organiser and top candidate for the European Parliament in 2009 despite living in Wales. Some local activists think it is too big to run as one entity. And Cumbria members are complaining that once again the rest of the region did not support their latest leafleting drive.

Has Griffin surrendered to Hope not Hate in despair? Well it certainly beats jumping off the Tyne Bridge.

HOPE not Hate

Rebel faction still in a state of limbo

The strategy of the rebels faction is no clearer a day after they met to discuss tactics. Nick Lowles reports from inside the rebels’ den.

About 120 rebels, drawn from around the country, met in Brinsley Parish Hall yesterday afternoon. With a police helicopter buzzing overhead they discussed the limited options available to them.

The rebel leaders were clearly boosted by the attendance, coming as it did amid signs that the rebellion was faltering and the leaders were falling out amongst themselves. The upbeat mood amongst many in the audience showed that there was still life left in the troublemakers.

It was clear from the opening speakers that there were disagreements amongst the rebel leadership. Some, like former South East regional organiser Roger Robertson, were keen to form a new party immediately. Others, including Steve Blake and veteran London nazi Richard Edmonds, wanted to remain in the BNP and fight for a change of leadership.

However, even amongst the latter group there were differences. Should Griffin be challenged this year or next? Who had the credibility to be a strong candidate? Who was still a party member?

Some of the old Tyndallites were keen for Chris Jackson to run again. The newer rebels were lukewarm to this idea and even suggested delaying a challenge to 2009 for fear of being seen to disrupt the London elections.

Others, meanwhile, pointed out the shortcomings in a leadership challenge. Declaring a candidate now would likely lead to that person’s expulsion before too long. Waiting until 2009 could allow the Griffin-led BNP to win in London and possibly gain MEPs a year later. Against this background any challenge would be futile.

There was no clearer position about standing in the forthcoming May elections. There was a general consensus that the Griffin camp would block any attempts by the rebels to stand on the BNP ticket so that left standing as ‘Independent nationalists’, as many seem prepared to do. However, surely that would automatically lead to their expulsion from the party and so be at odds with the overall strategy of trying to win it back from within.

There appeared an acceptance that they would eventually be out of the party but few wanted to publicly propose establishing a rival to the BNP immediately. It almost seems as though they wanted to wait to be thrown out, a course many believe is inevitable, but the reality is that this would be a drawn out affair and in the meantime the rebellion would slowly disintegrate and be forgotten.

Griffin would not have been too concerned with the outcome of this meeting. It finished with the rebels being in the worst possible position. They are no longer in the party (or at least in positions of influence) in any real sense yet they have backed away from launching an alternative party at a time when they still have a degree of support around the country. Launching a new party is of course not easy and would alienate some of their key supporters who wanted to remain in the BNP but when is there ever a good time to split. The answer surely has to be when you can achieve your maximum influence and that is certainly now and not after a possible BNP London or European victory.

One day the rebels will surely look back at the meeting as being an opportunity wasted. Massed in the room were many of the BNP’s super activists and surely a nucleus of a new party and if ever they had the momentum to launch an alternative the time is now. Throughout Griffin’s career he has shown himself to be a master of factionalism and spitefulness and as night follows day it is clear that over the next few months he will drive his opponents out of the party one way or another.

In the meantime we can enjoy watching the spectacle of official BNP candidates standing against ‘Independent Nationalists’ in some of their key local authority areas in Yorkshire and the North West.

Stop the BNP

Local anti-fascists condemn British National Party 'Mark II'

Local anti-BNP campaigners have condemned the “Voice of Change” conference held in Brinsley Parish Hall, Brinsley, Nottinghamshire on Sunday.

The conference, which drew an enormous police presence to the area, was organised by a split within the far-right British National Party (BNP), of which local Broxtowe BNP councillor, Sadie Graham, is a major protagonist. The split has seen a bitter feud within the BNP, with claims and counter-claims of nazi sympathies and other accusations being traded between supporters of Sadie Graham’s grouping and BNP members loyal to Nick Griffin, the party’s leader.

Notts Stop the BNP, which held its own conference last Saturday (19 January), with in excess of 100 people in attendance, have been conducting extensive leafleting of the Brinsley and Eastwood areas, despite receiving threats from unknown individuals, alerting local people to the real nature of the BNP.

A spokesperson for Notts Stop the BNP said, “No-one should be fooled by the so-called “Voice of Change” supporters within the BNP. Recent events have only confirmed that they do not represent any softening of the BNP’s extremist policies, but rather it appears to be about individuals within the party locked in a power-grabbing exercise. We appeal to the people of Nottinghamshire not to be taken in by the BNP or whatever guise in which they appear. We need positive solutions to the problems our communities face, not fear and hatred.”

Notts Stop the BNP have pledged to organise against the BNP’s annual Red, White and Blue” event, due to be held near Denby, Derbyshire, later this year.

Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP

BNP activist barred from BNP meeting

A former senior British National Party activist was thrown out of a meeting over his part in a bid to overthrow controversial leader Nick Griffin.

Hartley Wintney resident Roger Robertson (right in picture) tried to attend the BNP meeting in Sandhurst Community Hall on Monday night but was barred.

Mr Robertson, who has stood down as the BNP’s south-east England regional organiser to set up a rival faction, said: “One of the chaps acting as security on the door said ‘sorry Roger, you can’t come in’. I forced my way past him and there was a little shouting match in which I said I was entitled to attend the meeting because I am a fully paid-up member. I thought it would be best if I kept it low key so I said ‘OK I will leave but I’m not happy with this because I am perfectly entitled to be here’.”

Hart district and Hampshire county councillor Jonathan Glen said: “It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that Roger is trying to distance himself from mainstream BNP policy. Roger is now a parish councillor in Hartley Wintney and I am quite sure he wishes to fulfil his duties in an honourable way and not be associated with the extreme politics of the far right BNP.

“I welcome the news that Roger has seen the light on the road to Damascus. Maturity is a wonderful experience. I’m quite certain that Roger was feeling as uncomfortable in the circle of BNP members as the rest of us. There is no place in politics for racist agendas.”

Mr Robertson, who has stood as a BNP candidate at a number of recent Hart District Council elections, has now joined the newly-launched Voice of Change, an independent pressure group trying to bring about a leadership challenge to Mr Griffin. He will chair a meeting of the group in Nottingham on Sunday. Among the items up for discussion will be ways in which it can pressure the leadership into listening to its membership.

Mr Robertson, who has lived in Hartley Wintney all his life, admitted: “We have an internal split within the BNP. There is a group of us who are not happy with the way the party is being run, a lack of transparency in financial terms and the baggage of senior members. A lot of us who are not as out and out as some members have got tainted with the same brush,” he claimed.

“Nick Griffin is proving himself to be not capable of carrying on as party leader so we are looking to remove him.”

The official statement added: “Nick Griffin arrogantly told some of the expelled personnel to get on with their ‘non-political lives’ as if he has a monopoly of nationalist politics. Thankfully for the future of our people and our country Mr Griffin deludes himself. The movement is much bigger than one man’s ego and the Voice of Change will take the nationalist message to new levels of success without the sleaze, immorality and financial corruption of Griffin’s cabal, a message which millions of our beleaguered kinfolk are eager to heed.”

Mr Robertson believes that at least 100 senior party members are unhappy with Mr Griffin’s style of leadership.

He added: “I’ve resigned as the BNP regional organiser because I just cannot be party to various things that have been going on. As a result I am one of the ringleaders of the rebel faction and that is why they barred me from the meeting.”

Mr Robertson believed the Voice of Change could transform the party, which was widely viewed as racist. He said: “I think a lot of people will now sit up and say ‘hold on, this is what we want’. They may have thought the previous leader was a step too far and as a result they may not have been able to vote for the party previously, but they could now.”

The BNP said it expelled two senior members, Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith, who it accused of “gross misconduct” for masterminding a blog site critical of Mr Griffin and demanding the sacking of Mr Collett and Mr Hannam. It also accused the pair of illegally hacking into email accounts of BNP members, including Mr Griffin.

BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said the vast majority of the party’s 10,000 members were behind Mr Griffin’s leadership. He denied the BNP was irrevocably split, claiming it was simply going through a cyclical period of “tension”, the like of which had characterised the party’s history.

Sandhurst News and Mail

BNP in crisis: The BNP has split!

The long awaited split within the British National Party has finally happened. Despite the rebels insisting that their priority was to remain within the party and campaign for the removal of Nick Griffin as leader it now appears that they are making a real break by standing candidates against the BNP.

A few hours ago the rebels launched their Voice of Change website. Hardly the most inspiring site it nevertheless signals a change in tactics. Whilst it continues to claim that they will challenge Griffin in a leadership election in June it is clear that none of the nine sacked party officers believe that a) they will be reinstated and b) that they would stand a chance in any leadership election given that Griffin himself is allowed to decide on the election rules which in last year’s contest included the banning of any campaigning!

Instead, the website makes it clear that they are prepared to stand against Griffin’s BNP. “Voice of Change is an umbrella group to assist candidates who wish to stand as independent nationalists in the local elections in May 2008 and in any local by-elections throughout the year.”

This will badly affect the BNP in Yorkshire, the East Midlands, Scotland and Greater Manchester. In Yorkshire, which has been their most powerful region within the party for some time, there appears only one or two branches which remain loyal to the current leadership. Support for the rebellion is fairly solid across Scotland, though this is a far less important region for the party electorally. The strong East Midlands region will also be affected. While the region is split over support for the rebellion the loss of many of its key organisers, such as Sadie Graham and Wayne McDermott, the region’s competent election organiser, will be a severe blow to BNP in the short term.

The rebels were left with little option but to begin the move towards a separate party. Since announcing their decision to challenge Griffin’s leadership a week ago it is clear that many of their supporters recognised the futility in all this. Over the last 48 hours Searchlight received information from within Yorkshire BNP that many of its key organisers were preparing to make a break. The officers of Hull BNP has been the first to declare themselves as ‘Independent Nationalists’ but we expect others to follow shortly.

The move to support rival candidates will also be music to the ears of Nick Griffin. Whilst he must recognise that the party will suffer in May’s local elections in Yorkshire, and that he is likely to lose the vast majority of the region, he will also know that in the all-important London and European elections, both contested under PR, the internal problems within the BNP is unlikely to affect their vote.

He must also know that any move to support candidates against the BNP will immediately lead to expulsions.

The rebels, now operating under the banner Voice of Change, plan to hold a conference in the East Midlands on Sunday 27 January. Much will become clearer at this event but it is now already evident that the rebels have given up on wrestling control of the BNP away from Griffin and the split has occurred.

BNP in crisis

The BNP dissidents grind into action...

The dissidents who have resigned or been sacked from their positions within the BNP have finally started to discuss where they go from here. None too soon really because, as several people have commented on the dissident blog Enough is Enough, the momentum was clearly slowing despite Nick Griffin himself giving the rebels all the help he could by posting his increasingly-lunatic ramblings on the BNP's website and throwing unfounded and unlikely accusations at all and sundry.

One surprise immediately shows itself on reading the report of the planning meeting the group had last weekend, and that is that they do not appear to be responsible for the new Alas Smith and Graham blog - a much more aggressive anti-Griffin site than Enough is Enough - or at least the EiE mob aren't owning up to Alas at the moment.

Griffin ought to be worried about a couple of the planned actions the group are planning to undertake, particularly this one;

'Every single individual expelled in recent weeks is determined to have their own membership reinstated through formal grievance procedures, acknowledging that this may involve costly legal action.'

Readers may recall that the founder of the BNP John Tyndall ended up taking the court route to gain his reinstatement to the membership following his expulsion by Nick Griffin. The resulting case and win cost the party thousands.

If the rebel's plans are enacted quickly enough, they could spell disaster for the BNP - in fact, they could lead to bankruptcy for the party, which has been on the edge of the financial precipice for a number of years, thanks largely to the enormous wage bill (which far exceeds the campaigning budget) and the party's habit of subsidising the business interests of the two jesters in King Nick's court, Mark Collett (£70,000 for invisible printing equipment a few years back) and Dave Hannam (£50,000 for setting up the disastrous Great White Records just a couple of years ago).

The new name for the group - intended to be an internal organisation acting within the BNP - is to be Voice of Change, though whether any positive change will come of its inception is debatable when we take a look at the most fundamental changes it hopes to make.

The first action is to get all the eight expelled members back in place as, at the very least, ordinary party members. Frankly we don't see this ever happening. Manufactured or not, the party will state that Graham, Smith, Blake et al brought the party into disrepute by starting up the EiE blog to attack fellow members, and that they have the evidence to 'prove' that the rebel leadership hacked into email accounts of other members for their own nefarious purposes. The veracity of the accusation is irrelevant - if this ever gets to open court, the media will have a field day and what little credibility the BNP has will collapse under the weight of the multiple accusations and counter-accusations.

'...the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months can only lead a rational observer to conclude that Mr. Griffin is now unfit for that position. The internal management of the Party has been revealed to be fundamentally flawed and repeated calls for change have been ignored by the leader. Thus the only possible course of action to save the Party and secure a future for our people is to launch a leadership challenge.'

Nick Griffin has manipulated the challenge process so successfully that it is now virtually impossible to challenge him for the leadership of the party and, even if one was made, the conditions are set by Griffin solely to his advantage. Last year's ludicrous attempt at a challenge by the North West's Chris Jackson showed what a farce the whole process is and how, using the party's rules, deliberately and cynically doomed to failure.

Though the rebels state clearly that, in their opinion, Nick Griffin is, after 'the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months' unfit for the position of party leader, they seem to be carefully avoiding the fact that they have been ignoring his activities since they themselves were placed in positions of trust within the party. Membership money has clearly been siphoned off for years, immorality (Martin Reynolds' threesomes, Hannam and Collett's Blackpool diversion etc) has been rife, incompetence has become something of an art within the party and mismanagement, witch hunts, unconstitutional expulsions and a leadership that has become a tyranny all appear to have only become apparent to Graham and co in the past few months. Unlikely, to say the least.

We, in common with all anti-fascists, are only too pleased to see the dissident group regaining momentum as its increasing activity is bound to stir up more trouble for Griffin and his acolytes in the party but we refuse to believe that Graham and her gang are suddenly taking the moral high ground in any way. Rather, they are exploiting a situation that they can barely control for their own ends; in effect, regaining the initiative - though whether it'll take them as far as they want is doubtful. Whether this ultimately matters as the current fractures in the party open wider is open to debate - after all, the fascist BNP is the fascist BNP whether it's run by a Graham-led cabal or Griffin and his current band of thieves, liars and perverts.

One thing is sure. Griffin will have to take decisive action very swiftly indeed. One wonders what form that action will take as his desperation to hold his personal feifdom grows. We've already seen a barrage of lies and fake evidence posted up on the BNP's website and informants leaking fake information to the police that they 'believed' there was a firearm at Graham's home, prompting a raid on the home she shares with her partner Matt Single. We can expect a good deal more of this nonsense - and perhaps a lot worse - as the battle for control of the BNP hots up.