Conference Report: Chairman Vows To Make Party “Even Nastier”

Opening the Annual Conference in Leicester yesterday, the Party Chairman promised that they would strive, in the following year, to become “even more unpleasant”.

Speaking to a capacity audience of more than two dozen confused and misguidedly angry bigots, he addressed the issue of protests at military homecoming parades.

“We can no longer stand by and allow the likes of Anjem Choudary to hold the monopoly on offensive behaviour at these events: We will also begin making an appearance at homecoming parades to show the Nation that we, too, can be utterly arrogant tosspots who would happily exploit the sacrifice of these young men and women for our own shabby, political ends.”

He went on; “Is it fair that we in the Far Right, who have for so long been regarded as the very acme of small-minded petty bias and provincialism, should find ourselves crowded off the front pages by a bunch of wannabes? And non-white wannabes at that?”

To a tumultuous ripple of applause, the Chairman continued to outline his plans for the future direction of the Party.

“With stern determination, a doughty disregard for my own safety and with the aid of your generous donations, I shall personally lead, from my office in Brussels, a series of heroic confrontations against these people who think they can come over here and be every bit as appalling as us. With your support, your determination, your account numbers and your sort codes, I will ensure that we regain our rightful place as the very pinnacle of the nation's misguided dimwits.”

Going on, the Chairman blamed the Party's current misfortunes on complacency. “We – I - have become complacent. For too long, we in the Party have been regarded as the last word in nastiness and barely-sentient arseholery, and we have allowed ourselves to take our eyes – or eye – off the game. And now we find our previously unassailable position under threat from all directions. The English Defence League, for example, have even invited a controversial, truly vile American preacher – of a kind who makes our own Reverend West look merely like a fantasising charlatan with untraceable pseudo qualifications and a grasp of theology somewhere between Atilla the Hun and Father Dougal McGuire – to address one of their meetings, and have captured several front pages (and, no doubt, donations) that should be ours even though he will obviously be barred from entering the country! We may be useless, racist gobshites, but, by God, we're British useless, racist gobshites, dammit!”

“Where before I was merely creepy”, he concluded, “I shall strive to become utterly ghastly. Whereas before I was someone you wouldn't leave alone with a child, I pledge that – come next year – you wouldn't leave a diseased, erotomaniacal alligator in the same room with me. Whereas before I was merely a cheap crook, I solemnly vow that, over the next few months, I shall undergo a transformation into a conniving fraudster and plotter of such viciously low morals that I might even grow a pencil moustache, get gap teeth and start talking like Terry-Thomas!”

Following a collection, and a second collection, and a final collection “to enable us to find your car keys and return them to you...”, the meeting wound up with the Delegates joining the Committee in an impassioned rendition of the new Party Anthem, “You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two”.

Theresa May pressed to halt visit by anti-Muslim US preacher

Pastor Terry Jones at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, where he
had threatened to burn copies of the Koran on church grounds. Photograph: John Raoux/AP

Pastor who threatened to burn Qur'an plans to address far-right English Defence League in February

Home secretary Theresa May is under intense pressure to ban controversial anti-Muslim preacher Terry Jones from Britain after far-right activists said he had agreed to address them at a demonstration about "the evils of Islam".

The English Defence League (EDL) said it was "proud to announce" that the US pastor, who caused outrage with plans to burn the Qur'an on this year's anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, would be attending the event in Luton in early February. Jones confirmed that he would be arriving in the UK. The pastor's website said he intended to visit the EDL's "biggest demonstration to date" in February. The website stated: "During the protest, Dr Terry Jones will speak against the evils and destructiveness of Islam in support of the continued fight against the Islamification of England and Europe."

President Barack Obama warned in September that Jones's planned Qur'an burnings would be a "recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaida and the US state department said it would put the country's citizens at risk across the world.

Tonight the British anti-extremist campaign, Hope Not Hate, launched its own petition urging May to ban Jones from Britain, while MPs demanded immediate action from the home secretary. Hope Not Hate's campaign co-ordinator, Nick Lowles, said: "Pastor Jones's presence in Luton will be incendiary and highly dangerous. He will attract and encourage thousands of English Defence League supporters to take to the streets of Luton.

"Like the EDL, Pastor Jones indiscriminately targets all Muslims and their actions can only lead to increased tensions and racism in our communities. His appearance will rightly cause concern and fear among Muslims across the country."

Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, said he would table an urgent parliamentary motion tomorrow demanding that the pastor be banned from coming into the country.

"We have seen how Pastor Jones, with a very small congregation in Florida, created a firestorm by urging the Qur'an to be burned," Cruddas said. "We should not allow racial hatred to be whipped up in this manner in our country."

The EDL announced Jones's planned visit on its Facebook site today, saying he would attend "our biggest demo to date" and describing it as "the big one". There are fears that copies of the Qur'an could be burned by extremists.

The last time the EDL marched in Luton, 250 of their supporters went on the rampage through an Asian area of the town. Shop windows were smashed, cars overturned and a number of people were attacked. Thirty-five people were arrested as a result of the violence. Eleven people were arrested yesterday as 500 EDL supporters marched in Peterborough.

"The EDL march in February has the potential to be far worse," Lowles said. "Only extremists will benefit from his visit and, as we know, extremism breeds hatred and hatred breeds violence. Pastor Jones, a preacher of hate, must be stopped from entering the UK."

The home secretary has the power to exclude or deport an individual if she thinks their presence in the UK could threaten national security, public order or the safety of citizens. She can also do so if she believes their views glorify terrorism, promote violence or encourage other serious crime.

May has been keen to show that she is tough on extremism. Five weeks after the coalition government came into power, she banned a radical preacher who claimed that "every Muslim should be a terrorist" from entering Britain. Zakir Naik had been due to give a series of lectures at Wembley Arena and in Sheffield in June.

However, visitors from other countries cannot be banned just for having opinions that other people would find offensive. In the past, May has said the powers can only be used in "very serious" cases. She has already acted against the EDL, banning a march in Leicester in November.

News of Jones's planned visit comes as the head of the police intelligence unit on domestic extremism reveals that the EDL and related splinter groups have become his biggest concern.

Adrian Tudway, the national co-ordinator for domestic extremism, told the Observer: "We look at the extreme right and left, but currently our biggest single area of business are the various groups which call themselves defence leagues. These defence leagues can be found across England."

The unit is monitoring a "number of individuals" connected to extreme rightwing groups, details of which are disseminated to local police forces.

At the height of the controversy over Jones's threat to burn the Qur'an, effigies of the pastor were burned in Afghanistan and there was widespread condemnation across the Muslim world. Jones is a Pentecostalist who bases his theology on the literal text of the Bible. He runs the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre, which objects to Islam because it "teaches that Jesus is not the son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus and leading people straight to Hell".

Observer

Leicester UAF stages flash protest at Nazi BNP conference

Leicester UAF gave members of the Nazi British National Party a surprise at the fascists’ annual conference today.

BNP leader Nick Griffin and his cohorts had kept the party’s conference venue secret, but antifascists discovered at 4pm on Friday afternoon that the Nazis were booked into the Best Western Leicester Stage Hotel at Wigston Fields, Leicester.

A speedy mobilisation by Leicester UAF saw around 60 people turn out at 2pm on Saturday, with placards and banners outside the hotel on the main road into Leicester.

Leicester UAF says:

'It was really good. We called it yesterday at about 4pm, and there were 60 people. It was very lively, cars driving past on both sides of the dual carriageway beeped their horns in support. One carload of young lads pulled up and they got out and joined us. We had lots of local support.'

The demonstrators’ chants included “Best Western? Best not!” and antifascists have also sent complaints to the hotel chain’s customer services department asking why they are hosting a fascist organisation.

Unite Against Fascism

Arrests at city protest marches in Peterborough

About 1,000 officers from 18 forces policed the protests in Peterborough town centre

Eleven men have been arrested during an English Defence League (EDL) march and counter-protest in Peterborough. There were a variety of public order offences, including suspicion of assaulting police officers.

About 1,000 officers from 18 forces policed the protests. Cambridgeshire Constabulary said about 500 EDL protesters were involved. They said about 80 people took part in the Peterborough Trades Union Council protest and no arrests were made there. Both groups were escorted by police to and from the city centre.

Supt Paul Fullwood, from Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said the joint police operation had enabled the community to go about "business as usual".

"Peterborough stood firm and the city should be proud of the way it has responded to today's events," he said. "There were some issues of disorder dealt with promptly and professionally to achieve a peaceful outcome. Some arrests have been made, but both protests have been generally peaceful."
'Stir up hatred'

EDL leader Tommy Robinson said: "Militant Islam is probably at its peak in this country. The problem will get worse and worse unless it's tackled, and that's what the English Defence League is trying to do."

Shortly after 1300 GMT he gave a speech via a loudspeaker in Lower Bridge Street. Some supporters chanted "EDL" and "I'm England till I die". Police said most protesters had left the city by 1545 GMT and roads which had been closed ahead of the demonstrations had reopened.

Unite Against Fascism said it and Peterborough TUC had called for a "march for unity" from Bishops Road car park to show local opposition to the "invasion" by the EDL.

"The EDL hope to stir up hatred against the city's Muslim population and the many migrant agricultural workers who travel from across Europe to work on farms during the harvests," a spokesman said.

BBC

Griffin promises 'increased militancy' from British National Party

Nick Griffin has kicked this years BNP conference off with the promise of forthcoming “militancy” from his Party, in the face of protests from groups such as “Muslims Against Crusades”, during parades of returning British troops.

In his speech to a dinner at the Party Conference, Griffin said;

'We are going to start attending homecoming parades of British troops, and when the Islamic militants abuse our troops and threaten them, we are going to physically stand in their way',

But more worrying I think, is the indication that such “protests” will also take place where there [are] efforts to construct Mosques.

The concerns are obvious. Violence between members of the Muslim community, and BNP members trying to ferment racially motivated violence for political advancement, will pose a major threat to social cohesion wherever it happens.

Bizarrely, Griffin also says;

'The British people have already shown that they are willing to start supporting the British National Party in increasing numbers'

Perhaps he’s forgotten about the battering they took in May.

This could be one of two things. It’s entirely possible that this was simply intended as a crowd pleasing rant for members of an increasingly demoralised and fractured Party. A futile attempt at lifting the spirits of a group of people doomed to fail in the near future.

But it could also be an acknowledgment that the BNP’s efforts to legitimise itself, and add a little professionalism to its electoral efforts have failed. In which case this could be the first signs of a change in strategy to something reminiscent of the “National Front's” heyday. Perhaps it is an attempt to tap into what they perceive as an appetite for a more confrontational approach, such as that which has defined the EDL.

They’re changing the logo too. Maybe there’s a full re-branding taking place?

Though Cowards Flinch

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Nick Griffin stages what may be his ‘last hurrah’ in Leicester

Leicester anti-fascists are calling for support for a protest at the Best Western Leicester Stage Hotel in Wigston, on the southern edge of Leicester, where the British National Party is holding its annual conference.

Over the past two days Leicester Police have been alerting leaders of the city’s communities that the racists were coming to town. Despite the BNP’s attempts to head off protests by posting on the party website that the three-day event was in South Derbyshire, all enquiries led to Leicester.

Tonight party members are sitting down to a “black tie dinner”, followed by a speech by Nick Griffin, the party leader, that will probably leave them with a bout of indigestion. Tomorrow will start with a financial report and “questions to panel”. It is unclear whether delegates will learn more about the party’s dodgy finances than the Electoral Commission, which is still waiting for its 2009 accounts and investigating the 2008 accounts that were submitted late.

The session will be followed by debates on “policy motions” submitted by each region and a “constitutional debate”. Andrew Brons, the party’s Yorkshire MEP, has undertaken a “consultation” on proposed changes to the BNP’s mammoth constitution, adopted only at the beginning of this year, which gives dictatorial power to the leader and makes it almost impossible to overthrow him.

Brons announced several weeks ago that the party’s elite “voting members” would get a chance to vote on constitutional changes at this weekend’s conference, but Eddy Butler, who unsuccessfully tried to call a leadership election in summer, has pointed out that no constitutionally binding vote can be taken at the conference because members have not been given the required 14 days’ notice of the proposals.

There will also be training workshops running alongside the conference “in a small room”. Presumably the party does not expect delegates to show much interest in sessions on “make your petition stall work for you” and the party’s fake Solidarity trade union.

The highlight of the event was supposed to be a “Christmas Grand Ball” on Saturday evening “complete with three-course meal, entertainment, music and refreshments”. This has now been demoted to a “Christmas party and late evening sing-along” according to the BNP website this afternoon.

On Sunday the party will yet again wheel out its fake vicar “Reverend” Robert West to hold a half-hour “Sunday Service”.

The day was supposed to continue with a two-course lunch followed by “a BNP Veterans Parade, a leadership Question Time, an audio-visual British history presentation and finally the keynote address from BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP”. Instead the BNP veterans have been relegated to a workshop in the “small room” and the BNP leader has ducked out of facing awkward questions from the members.

The BNP claimed a few days ago that the conference hotel was “fully booked”, despite the whopping £299 cost for a couple, or £189 single, to stay both nights in one of the hotels 79 rooms and attend all events.

The conference was open to all party members except, that is, the “many voting members” who according to Butler have been “suspended without charge” or were expelled several months ago and are still awaiting for their appeals to be heard. The police thought there would be no more than 100 people attending, which would be down on previous years.

Hope not hate

A tough year for the BNP

Griffin has faced challenges to his leadership

The British National Party's annual conference begins on Friday. Leaflets promise a spectacular event but internal rows and financial pressures have raised questions about its future.

All is not well at the BNP. Rebels have tried to unseat the leader Nick Griffin. Legal challenges have come thick and fast. Money has become tight.

Only last year the party had high hopes. It boasted two newly elected MEPs and leading politicians were publicly anxious it might break through at the general election. But come election day the BNP won no seats, despite increasing its national share of the vote, and saw many of its councillors ousted in local polls.

Simon Bennett, who used to run the BNP website, said the party was in disarray. He is one of a number of expelled former members who want Nick Griffin to go.

"When I first got involved with the party I just automatically assumed I was dealing with professionals, people who knew what they were doing," said Mr Bennett. "It took a year for me to realise I was working with complete morons."

He left after a bizarre pre-election stunt that saw a jar of Marmite prominently displayed on a BNP video. The owners of the yeast spread took legal action in which Mr Bennett said he was named. He left. And the BNP had to pay an out-of-court settlement.

That was not the only legal drama to put pressure on the BNP's bank account. It has spent tens of thousands of pounds responding to a challenge by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission that wanted the party to change its constitution.

Nick Griffin said his party had debts of around £250,000 and "very little money" in the bank. But he believed the problem would be resolved in the coming months, and was dismissive of Mr Bennett's criticisms. He said: "It's the oldest problem in the book that any employer or organisation who gets rid of someone for a very, very good and unavoidable reason then has to put up with them coming back and biting their backs to try and get revenge."

Others - with less confidence - have been plotting a rebellion. The former party candidate and former National Front member - Eddy Butler - tried and failed to depose the BNP leader earlier this year. He did not manage to secure the 800 signatures from party members necessary under the BNP constitution to spark a vote. But he maintains a website featuring videos of estranged party members. According to him the BNP's internal culture was cynical, grasping and jealous. He is appealing, having been expelled from the party.

Nick Griffin's personal fortunes will be tested again when he stands as a candidate at the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. He plans to step aside as party leader in 2013. His critics among those on the far right fear for the BNP's future. But those who study the far right say even if it falters, its activists may go on.

Dr Matthew Goodwin from Nottingham University suggested some of its supporters could simply migrate to organisations with similar sympathies. He said: "If the BNP does descend into infighting and doesn't make an election breakthrough we may begin to see BNP activists in far greater number move over to the English Defence League after coming to the conclusion that there will be no breakthrough."

BBC

BNP Conference - The Secret's Out...

According to Hope Not Hate, a few minutes ago, The BNP's Conference is taking place at the Best Western Leicester Stage Hotel. The Address is 299 Leicester Road, Leicester LE18 1JW.

In keeping with the tradition that the only time Griffin doesn't lie is when he's asleep, the “Four Star”, “South Derbyshire” venue is actually a Three Star, Leicestershire hotel.

Who may just lose a bit of trade now that they've thrown their hat in with the BNP.

Best Western can be contacted, to leave your (polite) feedback at admin@bestwestern.co.uk

The Leicester Stage Hotel can be (politely) phoned on 0116 288 6161

BNP 'turning into Ukip'

The British National party (BNP) has become more "dangerous" by toning down its racist rhetoric, experts have warned.

Research analysing the party's manifestos published in the Political Quarterly journal shows that the BNP's emphasis since Nick Griffin became leader in 1999 has focused on protecting Britain's values and institutions, rather than a nationalism based on race. It suggests that Ukip's language has been mirrored by the BNP, especially on Europe, and that its anti-immigration stance has shifted from racial tensions towards broader social and economic problems.

"We are definitely not saying that the BNP is no longer an extreme right racist party," Daphne Halikiopoulou from the LSE's department of government commented. "Indeed its use of more inclusive rhetoric makes it more dangerous because it makes it more difficult to identify it as such."

The civic narrative developed by the BNP has led to mixed results for the party. It has won two seats in the European parliament but, following intense media coverage, lost all its councillors in Barking and Dagenham in May 2010.

Another researcher, Sofia Vasilopoulou, said Mr Griffin's reforms had had a noticeable impact on the far-right party's arguments, however.

"The BNP's post 1999 manifestos are characterised by a rhetoric shift," she explained. "Although race still figures, it is less prominent and no longer forms the premise of its nationalist agenda. Instead, the BNP has increasingly talked about its agenda using elements of British national identity which unite rather than divide, such as 'democracy', 'freedom', and 'liberty' - all values that the party has previously rejected as 'liberal sickness'."

politics.co.uk

Sikhs show opposition to EDL’s march

Muslim and Sikh leaders meet at the Faizan e Madina Mosque [Wednesday] night

Representatives from Peterborough’s Sikh community came out in opposition to the English Defence League (EDL) at a city mosque.

Representatives from the two Gurdwaras in Peterborough met with Muslims from local mosques at the Faizan e Madina Mosque in Gladstone Street last night. Their purpose was to show their support to the city’s Muslim community and to distance themselves from [an] EDL leader Gurmeet Singh, who is also a Sikh.

A statement signed by representatives from Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Budha Sahib Ji said: “On behalf of the Peterborough Sikhs we vehemently oppose the views of the EDL and any of its members. In Peterborough, Sikhs have worked hard to build relationships with other religious communities and have expressed our concern that this demonstration could upset the balance of the wider community.”

Peterborough Today

BNP faces backlash over Oldham threat

Jewish and Muslim communities in the north-west are readying themselves for a new campaign against the BNP if its leader Nick Griffin stands in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

The BNP leader hinted last Friday through the Twitter website that he might contest the seat. This came in the wake of the High Court upholding the decision to strip former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas of his seat, for lying about a rival in last May's general election campaign.

This week Manchester Jewish Representative Council president Lucille Cohen said there had been discussions with the Board of Deputies about running an anti-BNP campaign, similar to that in Barking where Mr Griffin stood against Margaret Hodge in May. Sue Gillett, North West Conservative Party director during the election, said there was speculation that Mr Griffin would be challenged by Conservative parliamentary spokesman Kashif Ali.

Mr Ali said Muslim groups in Oldham would rally against the BNP.

"I met the Jewish council just before the May elections and we discussed all of this. We stood together then because we've all got a common interest against the BNP. There is concern because Griffin stood in Oldham West and Royton in 2001, so he has some knowledge of Oldham."

Griffin gained a record BNP general election result in 2001, coming third on a wave of popularity fuelled by the Oldham riots. But Mike Luft, of Oldham United Against Racism, said the BNP has since been in serious decline.

Jewish Chronicle

Weekend marches: Counter march to ‘celebrate unity’

Leaders from Peterborough Trades Union Council (PTUC) have said they are marching to celebrate the unity and diversity of the city.

More than 40 people attended a public meeting held by the PTUC at the Town Hall last night to hear its reasons for holding a counter-march when the English Defence League (EDL) takes to the streets on Saturday afternoon. It comes as police confirmed that more than 250 local officers will take part in patrols of the city centre on the day.

The meeting heard from guest speakers: Harmesh Lakhanpaul, former Peterborough Racial Equality Council (PREC) director, Ghulam Shabbir, chairman of Peterborough Pakistan Community Association and Richard Rose, Cambridge branch coordinator of Unite Against Fascism.

Mr Lakhanpaul said the EDL were “dangerous”, with 55,000 supporters on social networking website Facebook and some of its previous marches resulting in violence. He said: “The EDL poses the greatest threat to community cohesion in Britain especially in areas that have had problems in the past. By demonstrating in those areas they seek a reaction from the local Muslim community which can lead to a new cycle of violence. It doesn’t take a very large number of people to come and provoke other people.”

He called for the march on Saturday to not be the end of the PTUC’s work, saying members should concentrate on lobbying the Home Office to ban future EDL marches and engage with those who have signed the Interfaith Statement at the Cathedral on Sunday.

Mr Shabbir claimed that consultation undertaken by the police and Peterborough City Council with various groups, including Muslim youths, had in his view portrayed the PTUC as troublemakers and aimed to keep people away from the counter-march. He said: “What they are saying is if you join the demonstration then you are going to cause the EDL to react negatively and if there is any trouble then it is you that is causing it and not the EDL.”

He criticised those who signed the Interfaith Statement, which does not condemn the EDL. He added: “If they are so for community cohesion why are people so afraid of coming out and saying ‘we are getting together against the EDL and condemn what they stand for’?”.

The PTUC march will start at 12 noon at Bishop’s Road car park, move along Rivergate and then arrive at the Key Theatre for its rally of live music and poetry from 1pm to 4pm.

There will also be guest speakers including Labour MEP for East of England Richard Howitt, PTUC president Ron Graves, Labour Parliamentary spokesman for Peterborough Ed Murphy and Adrian Clarke, Fire Brigades Union East of England regional secretary.

Peterborough Today