The British National Party will reportedly be given an interview slot on BBC Radio 4's long-running Today programme following the corporation's televised election debate.
BBC director general Mark Thompson is keen for the corporation to maintain a true sense of political balance during the forthcoming general election campaign. In-line with the agreed format with ITV and Sky, the BBC will run a 90-minute debate programme on April 29 featuring the three main prime ministerial candidates.
To negate any suggestions of bias, the BBC's chief political advisor Ric Bailey believes that the BNP should be permitted to appear on the Today programme after the debate is aired.
"I think there will probably be an interview with the BNP on the Today programme the following morning," he told The Independent.
The right-wing party is also expected to receive a 20-second segment on BBC One's Ten O'clock News for an immediate response to the leader's discussion, which is being held in the Midlands with contributions from Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. However, Bailey said that the BNP would receive less airtime on the BBC than it did after winning seats at the European elections last year, which included a controversial appearance by party leader Nick Griffin on Question Time.
Griffin also appeared on the Today programme, which regularly attracts over six million listeners, after being elected to the European parliament.
"Question Time was being done in the context of the follow up to the European elections when the BNP had got 6% of the vote and for the first time had got representation at a national level," said Bailey. "If you look at the BNP in the context of a general election, the BNP got less than 1% of the vote at the 2005 election. If you can look at how much coverage different parties should get, clearly we don't ignore the European result but it was a different system, a different turnout, and it only gets so much weight."
However, Griffin's appearance on Question Time attracted major protests and it's likely that a further appearance on Radio 4 could prove likewise.
Bailey also pledged that the UK Independence Party (UKIP) will be given "meaty" coverage on the BBC ahead of the election due to its strong level of support.
"UKIP clearly is a party which got a lot of support in the European election, much more than the BNP. It's also clearly established itself as the fourth party in the general election last time, ahead of the Greens, and the Greens are ahead of the BNP," he said. "The BNP is quite a small party, so the level of coverage it will get in the context of the prime ministerial debate will be quite short. It will get some coverage but it won't be enormous. I would expect to see on the Ten O'clock News immediately following the debate you will see an interview with UKIP, they will get something quite meaty."
Digital Spy
April 05, 2010
April 04, 2010
BNP official Mark Collett questioned over alleged threat to kill Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin and Mark Collett after winning a court case in 2006The BNP has been thrown into turmoil weeks ahead of the general election after a senior party member was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Nick Griffin.
Key party officials have been summoned to a meeting tomorrow to discuss "urgent organisational matters" after Griffin and colleagues made statements to police resulting in the BNP's publicity director, Mark Collett, being detained on Thursday. Collett, 29, had been due to contest Labour MP David Blunkett's Sheffield Brightside seat in the election but has been stripped of his position within the party which accused him of conspiring to launch a "palace coup" against Griffin.
The BNP alerted members to the crisis on Wednesday. In a message to party organisers, the party said its internal security team had been investigating "alleged financial irregularities" relating to leaflets and publications, the "leaking on to the internet of sensitive party information" and "feeding lies to certain anti-BNP blog sites" for several months.
"As a result of this investigation, a very serious matter has been uncovered," the memo said. "Earlier this week, the police were made aware of very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety of party chairman Nick Griffin MEP and senior management/fundraising consultant James Dowson. Formal statements have now been made to the police, including by Mr Griffin."
The message said it had been necessary to act immediately "to ensure the safety of those at risk".
The timing of the row is a further blow to the BNP as it looks to build on success in last year's European elections by winning its first seat in the House of Commons. Last month the party's membership policy was ruled to be discriminatory, despite the BNP having removed a whites-only clause in February.
The BNP said it was unable to provide further details of the alleged threat to Griffin – who is standing against Labour's Margaret Hodge in Barking and Dagenham – and Dowson for fear of prejudicing legal proceedings.
The memo continued: "Since political, as opposed to allegedly criminal, conspiracies are not illegal, we are able to say that Mark Collett was conspiring with a small clique of other party officials to launch a 'palace coup' against our twice democratically elected party leader, Nick Griffin, and that in order to create the artificial climate of disillusionment necessary for this to stand any chance of success, lies and unfounded rumours have been spread, and were planned to be spread much further."
Officers asked Collett to attend a Humberside police station last week. A spokeswoman said: "A 29-year-old man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of making threats to kill. He was interviewed by detectives at Humberside police and he has been released on bail pending further inquiries. The investigation was initiated as a result of a complaint by the member of the BNP."
BNP regional organisers and key officials have been asked to attend an "urgent briefing meeting" tomorrow to discuss the events of the last few days and the party's future plans.
A spokesman for the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said rows over finance, particularly Griffin's European expenses, had led to the conflict. Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected to European parliament in June 2009 but have been criticised in recent weeks for failing to publish details of their spending.
"Nick Griffin is constantly claiming he is the leader of a moderate, non-violent organisation," the Searchlight spokesman said. "It is difficult to see how he can square that assertion with his statement to the police that his own head of publicity has been plotting to kill him."
The Guardian attempted to contact senior figures within the British National party, but none were available for comment.
Guardian
Richard Barnbrook: a nasty object of ridicule
The record of the BNP’s London Assembly member is a truly rotten one
It is now almost two years since the British National Party scraped over the 5 per cent hurdle and won a seat on the London Assembly, so this is an appropriate point to examine the BNP’s political record at City Hall.
Over that period, the role of the party’s London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, has been exactly what you would expect from a representative of the BNP. One of his first contributions to Mayor’s Question Time was to demand a ban on the Notting Hill Carnival. On whatever subject he has intervened at MQT, Barnbrook has invariably reduced the issue to the BNP’s obsession with race and immigration.
By way of variety, at last month’s MQT, he treated us to an exposition of his party’s line that human activity is not the primary cause of global warming – despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. But then the BNP spent many years rejecting the equally incontrovertible evidence concerning the Nazi genocide against the Jews. From Holocaust denial, it has now moved on to climate change denial.
Eighteen months ago, I wrote that Barnbrook’s rambling and incoherent interventions at MQT had reduced him to an object of ridicule, which led to the first of three complaints by Barnbrook against me to the GLA Standards Committee. It was rejected, along with another complaint against my colleague John Biggs, who had referred to Barnbrook’s Nazi politics. The decision was reported by Searchlight under the heading “Rambling, incoherent and Nazi to boot”.
A central feature of Nick Griffin’s re-branding of the BNP has been an attempt to publicly dissociate the BNP from its Nazi-sympathising past. This has been seriously undermined by the discovery that veteran far-right activist Tess Culnane is working in Barnbrook’s office. Culnane was forced out of the BNP for several years because of her insistence on speaking at meetings of the British People’s Party, which advertises busts of Hitler on its website at £15 a pop.
As for Barnbrook, it would appear that Griffin has finally lost patience with him and he may well step down from the Assembly next month, to be replaced by Bob Bailey, currently BNP leader on Barking and Dagenham council. Unlike Barnbrook, Bailey does possess the ability to string two meaningful sentences together. But he suffers from a severe anger management problem and an inclination to shoot his mouth off – for example in his recent disgusting outburst against Nigerian churches at a council planning committee meeting.
Some people argue that it is a mistake to give publicity to the BNP. However, in my opinion, the more widely the party’s role on the London Assembly and borough councils is publicised, the better. Now we have to make sure that we throw the BNP out of its local government base in Barking and Dagenham on May 6 by showing voters what you really get when its members attain public office.
Murad Qureshi for Tribune
It is now almost two years since the British National Party scraped over the 5 per cent hurdle and won a seat on the London Assembly, so this is an appropriate point to examine the BNP’s political record at City Hall.
Over that period, the role of the party’s London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, has been exactly what you would expect from a representative of the BNP. One of his first contributions to Mayor’s Question Time was to demand a ban on the Notting Hill Carnival. On whatever subject he has intervened at MQT, Barnbrook has invariably reduced the issue to the BNP’s obsession with race and immigration.
By way of variety, at last month’s MQT, he treated us to an exposition of his party’s line that human activity is not the primary cause of global warming – despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. But then the BNP spent many years rejecting the equally incontrovertible evidence concerning the Nazi genocide against the Jews. From Holocaust denial, it has now moved on to climate change denial.
Eighteen months ago, I wrote that Barnbrook’s rambling and incoherent interventions at MQT had reduced him to an object of ridicule, which led to the first of three complaints by Barnbrook against me to the GLA Standards Committee. It was rejected, along with another complaint against my colleague John Biggs, who had referred to Barnbrook’s Nazi politics. The decision was reported by Searchlight under the heading “Rambling, incoherent and Nazi to boot”.
A central feature of Nick Griffin’s re-branding of the BNP has been an attempt to publicly dissociate the BNP from its Nazi-sympathising past. This has been seriously undermined by the discovery that veteran far-right activist Tess Culnane is working in Barnbrook’s office. Culnane was forced out of the BNP for several years because of her insistence on speaking at meetings of the British People’s Party, which advertises busts of Hitler on its website at £15 a pop.
As for Barnbrook, it would appear that Griffin has finally lost patience with him and he may well step down from the Assembly next month, to be replaced by Bob Bailey, currently BNP leader on Barking and Dagenham council. Unlike Barnbrook, Bailey does possess the ability to string two meaningful sentences together. But he suffers from a severe anger management problem and an inclination to shoot his mouth off – for example in his recent disgusting outburst against Nigerian churches at a council planning committee meeting.
Some people argue that it is a mistake to give publicity to the BNP. However, in my opinion, the more widely the party’s role on the London Assembly and borough councils is publicised, the better. Now we have to make sure that we throw the BNP out of its local government base in Barking and Dagenham on May 6 by showing voters what you really get when its members attain public office.
Murad Qureshi for Tribune
EDL fights itself in Dudley
The EDL goes on the rampage - againA further three people were arrested today on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. Two of them were also arrested for possessing a Class A drug. These all seem to have been EDL.
As the coaches arrived at Dudley and the EDL group swelled to around a thousand, there were chants of 'Who the fuck is Allah?' - pretty well giving the lie (again) to the EDL's oft-repeated statement that they are not anti-Islam. Just to continue the same point, it's reported that the EDL was energised by songs such as 'England Belongs to Me'.
It didn't take long for violence to erupt, with the EDL throwing bottles and coins at photographers, then breaking down police barriers to change the announced 'static' demo into a march. As the EDL was kept well away from the anti-EDL protestors, the EDL started to fight itself and the police, with sporadic fights breaking out at the head of the march between the EDL crowd and its own stewards. If they weren't such a bunch of violent thugs, you'd have to laugh.
The anti-EDL rally started the day peacefully, with music and rousing speeches from various anti-fascist campaigners, trade unionists and leaders of faith groups, among them David Walker, Bishop of Dudley, Khushid Ahmed, chair of Dudley Muslim Association, Steve Bell, Communication Workers Union, Weyman Bennett, Unite Against Fascism, Sheera Johal, Indian Workers Association and Jim Warner, Dudley Trades Council.
Towards the end of the day, some EDL members managed to break away from the main demo and made their way towards the anti-EDL rally, pausing only to throw the odd missile at the police. Order was just about maintained, though a fair number of thugs managed to duck out and into the city centre, presumably in need of more booze at Wetherspoons (who seem to be sponsoring the EDL's demonstrations/piss-ups around the country).
Local reporters estimated the anti-EDL rally as around a thousand strong - not too shabby for a Bank Holiday weekend.
As is usual when the EDL comes to visit, the main sufferers are the people of the home town. Dudley was variously described as deserted, boarded-up and 'a ghost town' for the day - the residents presumably mindful of the damage inflicted by the thugs of the EDL in other towns, and staying away on what should have been one of the busier shopping days of the year.
Quite why these hooligans and thugs are allowed to destroy business and create havoc by descending on random towns every other Saturday is beyond me but things could have been worse. At least nobody was stabbed by the EDL (as far as we know) this time.
White supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche hacked to death after row with farmworkers
Two suspects held over killing of South Africa's Nazi-inspired AWB leader as he slept in his bed
A notorious white supremacist who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule in South Africa was hacked to death at his farm yesterday following an argument with two employees. Eugene Terre'Blanche's mutilated body was found on his bed along with a broad-blade knife and a wooden club, police said.
"He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," one family friend, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.
Local media quoted a member of Terre'Blanche's Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, or AWB) as saying that the 69-year-old had been beaten with pipes and machetes. Police said two males, thought to be workers on the farm, have been arrested and will appear in court on Tuesday.
Terre'Blanche, with striking blue eyes and white beard, was the voice of hardline opposition to the end of racial apartheid in the early 1990s, and the AWB was infamous for its swastika-like symbols and neo-Nazi anthems. But he had been in relative obscurity since his release in 2004 after a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.
Last year he attempted a comeback, announcing plans to rally far-right groups and to apply to the United Nations for a breakaway Afrikaner republic.
His death comes amid heightened racial tension in South Africa, where Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of the governing African National Congress, has caused anger by singing a struggle song with the words, "Shoot the Boer". Terre'Blanche called himself a Boer, which means farmer in Afrikaans.
Civil rights groups say that 3,000 white farmers have been killed since the end of apartheid and accuse Malema of inciting further violence against them. Last week a high court banned Malema from repeating the lyric but he did so yesterday during a visit to Zimbabwe.
Police in South Africa's North West province said last night that Terre'Blanche had been attacked and killed at his farm 10km outside Ventersdorp. Captain Adele Myburgh said Terre'Blanche was attacked by a man and a minor who worked for him after they allegedly had an argument about unpaid wages at around 6pm, the South African Press Association reported.
"Mr Terre'Blanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries," Myburgh said. "There was a panga [broad-blade knife] on him and knobkerrie [wooden club] next to the bed. A 21-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested and charged for his murder. The two told the police that the argument ensued because they were not paid for the work they did on the farm." She added that Terre'Blanche was alone with the two workers at the time of the attack.
The opposition Democratic Alliance expressed "outrage and concern" at Terre'Blanche's murder and cited the recent controversy triggered by Malema.
Terre'Blanche founded the white supremacist AWB in 1970, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then South African leader, John Vorster. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, won by the ANC and Nelson Mandela, who became the country's first black president.
In 1998, Terre'Blanche accepted "political and moral responsibility" before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a bombing campaign to disrupt the 1994 elections in which 21 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Terre'Blanche's credibility as a political leader collapsed after the anti-black threats voiced by the extreme white right proved to be little more than bluster. Revelations of his extramarital affairs also undermined his reputation with religious Afrikaners. He was jailed for assaulting a black petrol attendant and the attempted murder of a black security guard, serving three years of a five-year term before his release in 2004.
He said last year that he had revived the AWB after several years of inactivity and that it would join with like-minded forces to push for secession from South Africa. "The circumstances in the country demanded it," he told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper. "The white man in South Africa is realising that his salvation lies in self-government in territories paid for by his ancestors."
Terre'Blanche said he wanted to organise a referendum for those who wanted an independent homeland, where English would be an accepted language along with Afrikaans. "It's now about the right of a nation that wants to separate itself from a unity state filled with crime, death, murder, rape, lies and fraud."
Political analysts say that white extremists have little support, but more than 21 members of the shadowy Boeremag (Boer Force) remain on trial for treason after being arrested in 2001 and accused of a bombing campaign aimed at overthrowing the government.
President Jacob Zuma, who took office in May, has courted Afrikaners at a series of meetings, assuring them they have nothing to fear from his government. Last week he visited an impoverished white community near Pretoria.
Observer
A notorious white supremacist who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule in South Africa was hacked to death at his farm yesterday following an argument with two employees. Eugene Terre'Blanche's mutilated body was found on his bed along with a broad-blade knife and a wooden club, police said."He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," one family friend, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.
Local media quoted a member of Terre'Blanche's Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, or AWB) as saying that the 69-year-old had been beaten with pipes and machetes. Police said two males, thought to be workers on the farm, have been arrested and will appear in court on Tuesday.
Terre'Blanche, with striking blue eyes and white beard, was the voice of hardline opposition to the end of racial apartheid in the early 1990s, and the AWB was infamous for its swastika-like symbols and neo-Nazi anthems. But he had been in relative obscurity since his release in 2004 after a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.
Last year he attempted a comeback, announcing plans to rally far-right groups and to apply to the United Nations for a breakaway Afrikaner republic.
His death comes amid heightened racial tension in South Africa, where Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of the governing African National Congress, has caused anger by singing a struggle song with the words, "Shoot the Boer". Terre'Blanche called himself a Boer, which means farmer in Afrikaans.
Civil rights groups say that 3,000 white farmers have been killed since the end of apartheid and accuse Malema of inciting further violence against them. Last week a high court banned Malema from repeating the lyric but he did so yesterday during a visit to Zimbabwe.
Police in South Africa's North West province said last night that Terre'Blanche had been attacked and killed at his farm 10km outside Ventersdorp. Captain Adele Myburgh said Terre'Blanche was attacked by a man and a minor who worked for him after they allegedly had an argument about unpaid wages at around 6pm, the South African Press Association reported.
"Mr Terre'Blanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries," Myburgh said. "There was a panga [broad-blade knife] on him and knobkerrie [wooden club] next to the bed. A 21-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested and charged for his murder. The two told the police that the argument ensued because they were not paid for the work they did on the farm." She added that Terre'Blanche was alone with the two workers at the time of the attack.
The opposition Democratic Alliance expressed "outrage and concern" at Terre'Blanche's murder and cited the recent controversy triggered by Malema.
Terre'Blanche founded the white supremacist AWB in 1970, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then South African leader, John Vorster. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, won by the ANC and Nelson Mandela, who became the country's first black president.
In 1998, Terre'Blanche accepted "political and moral responsibility" before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a bombing campaign to disrupt the 1994 elections in which 21 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Terre'Blanche's credibility as a political leader collapsed after the anti-black threats voiced by the extreme white right proved to be little more than bluster. Revelations of his extramarital affairs also undermined his reputation with religious Afrikaners. He was jailed for assaulting a black petrol attendant and the attempted murder of a black security guard, serving three years of a five-year term before his release in 2004.
He said last year that he had revived the AWB after several years of inactivity and that it would join with like-minded forces to push for secession from South Africa. "The circumstances in the country demanded it," he told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper. "The white man in South Africa is realising that his salvation lies in self-government in territories paid for by his ancestors."
Terre'Blanche said he wanted to organise a referendum for those who wanted an independent homeland, where English would be an accepted language along with Afrikaans. "It's now about the right of a nation that wants to separate itself from a unity state filled with crime, death, murder, rape, lies and fraud."
Political analysts say that white extremists have little support, but more than 21 members of the shadowy Boeremag (Boer Force) remain on trial for treason after being arrested in 2001 and accused of a bombing campaign aimed at overthrowing the government.
President Jacob Zuma, who took office in May, has courted Afrikaners at a series of meetings, assuring them they have nothing to fear from his government. Last week he visited an impoverished white community near Pretoria.
Observer
Labels:
AWB,
Eugene Terreblanche,
far-right,
neo-Nazi,
swastika,
white supremacist
April 03, 2010
Exit of three top BNP officers confirmed
Following our report earlier today of the resignation of Emma Colgate from her post as BNP manager, the BNP has amended its national contacts spreadsheet. Absent are Colgate, Eddy Butler, the former national organiser and national elections officer, and Mark Collett, the former head of publicity.
The changes confirm the stories circulating on nazi web forums that the unpopular Collett has finally fallen out of favour. A BNP organisers’ bulletin circulated on 31 March referred to “financial irregularities and ‘scamming’ concerning the procurement of print, especially large election print run, leaflets and regular publications including Identity magazine”. It appears that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, has finally accepted that there is substance to the long-standing accusations that Collett has been making a huge personal profit on the design and print procurement he carries out for the party.
Collett is also accused of leaking “sensitive party information” onto the internet and “feeding lies to certain anti-BNP blog sites”.
The organisers’ bulletin continues: “Earlier this week, the police were made aware of very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety of Party chairman Nick Griffin MEP and senior management/fundraising consultant James Dowson. Formal statements have now been made to the police, including by Mr. Griffin.”
Although the bulletin says it the party is “unable to provide any further details in order not to prejudice any resulting legal proceedings”, it goes on to announce that: “Mark Collett was conspiring with a small clique of other party officials to launch a ‘palace coup’ against our twice democratically elected party leader, Nick Griffin, and that in order to create the artificial climate of disillusionment necessary for this to stand any chance of success, lies and unfounded rumours have been spread, and were planned to be spread much further. Mr. Collett has therefore been relieved of all positions within the Party with immediate effect.”
As a result Collett’s Wikipedia entry was updated with incredible haste to state that he “was Director of Publicity for the Party before being suspended from the party in early April 2010”.
A second organisers’ bulletin calls on “regional organisers and key officials” to attend an “urgent briefing meeting” on Easter Monday, which “will cover recent events, urgent organisational matters, including a crucial update from our new National Elections Officer Clive Jefferson”. Jefferson, who only a few months ago was promoted to North West regional organiser, quietly replaces Butler in the national elections officer role. He is also one of the BNP officers fraudulently on the European Parliament payroll.
All this comes at the worst possible time for the BNP, five weeks before elections in which it hopes to win control of Barking and Dagenham council and get Griffin and Simon Darby, the party's deputy leader, elected to the House of Commons.
Collett stood trial alongside Griffin in 2006 on race hate charges and was acquitted. Although Griffin always stood by him, he knew Collett was a fool. “I constantly have to lecture Mark Collett about all sorts of things,” said Nick Griffin. “He is a pig ignorant man. Often it goes in one ear and straight out of the other.”
A few years ago Collett starred in a Channel 4 documentary called Young, Nazi and Proud, in which he said he would prefer to live in 1930s Nazi Germany than in today’s Britain. He also attacked Winston Churchill and the British Royal Family.
Hope not hate
The changes confirm the stories circulating on nazi web forums that the unpopular Collett has finally fallen out of favour. A BNP organisers’ bulletin circulated on 31 March referred to “financial irregularities and ‘scamming’ concerning the procurement of print, especially large election print run, leaflets and regular publications including Identity magazine”. It appears that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, has finally accepted that there is substance to the long-standing accusations that Collett has been making a huge personal profit on the design and print procurement he carries out for the party.
Collett is also accused of leaking “sensitive party information” onto the internet and “feeding lies to certain anti-BNP blog sites”.
The organisers’ bulletin continues: “Earlier this week, the police were made aware of very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety of Party chairman Nick Griffin MEP and senior management/fundraising consultant James Dowson. Formal statements have now been made to the police, including by Mr. Griffin.”
Although the bulletin says it the party is “unable to provide any further details in order not to prejudice any resulting legal proceedings”, it goes on to announce that: “Mark Collett was conspiring with a small clique of other party officials to launch a ‘palace coup’ against our twice democratically elected party leader, Nick Griffin, and that in order to create the artificial climate of disillusionment necessary for this to stand any chance of success, lies and unfounded rumours have been spread, and were planned to be spread much further. Mr. Collett has therefore been relieved of all positions within the Party with immediate effect.”
As a result Collett’s Wikipedia entry was updated with incredible haste to state that he “was Director of Publicity for the Party before being suspended from the party in early April 2010”.
A second organisers’ bulletin calls on “regional organisers and key officials” to attend an “urgent briefing meeting” on Easter Monday, which “will cover recent events, urgent organisational matters, including a crucial update from our new National Elections Officer Clive Jefferson”. Jefferson, who only a few months ago was promoted to North West regional organiser, quietly replaces Butler in the national elections officer role. He is also one of the BNP officers fraudulently on the European Parliament payroll.
All this comes at the worst possible time for the BNP, five weeks before elections in which it hopes to win control of Barking and Dagenham council and get Griffin and Simon Darby, the party's deputy leader, elected to the House of Commons.
Collett stood trial alongside Griffin in 2006 on race hate charges and was acquitted. Although Griffin always stood by him, he knew Collett was a fool. “I constantly have to lecture Mark Collett about all sorts of things,” said Nick Griffin. “He is a pig ignorant man. Often it goes in one ear and straight out of the other.”
A few years ago Collett starred in a Channel 4 documentary called Young, Nazi and Proud, in which he said he would prefer to live in 1930s Nazi Germany than in today’s Britain. He also attacked Winston Churchill and the British Royal Family.
Hope not hate
Labels:
BNP,
Clive Jefferson,
Eddy Butler,
Emma Colgate,
Jim Dowson,
Mark Collett,
Nick Griffin
April 02, 2010
BNP disasters continue - Jefferson promoted
Clive Jefferson - mad and unpopular'BNP Organisers’ Bulletin - March 2010Keep us informed, folks, and when commenting, beware of libel.
URGENT BRIEFING MEETING
An urgent briefing meeting for Regional Organisers and key officials will take place on this coming Monday 5th of April.
The meeting will cover recent events, urgent organisational matters, including a crucial update from our new National Elections Officer Clive Jefferson, and future plans.
It is expected that every Region will send a minimum of one full car and a maximum of two full cars. It is really important that key personnel from every Region are attend [sic].
Please liaise with your Regional Organiser to ensure a good geographical spread of key officials attending whilst ensuring election activities proceed unhindered...'
Labels:
British National Party,
chaos,
Clive Jefferson,
Eddie Butler
BNP admits EU money pays for party staff
Councillor Emma Colgate has resigned as the British National Party’s staff manager to devote herself full-time to the election campaign in Thurrock, the BNP announced today
Colgate is standing for election to Parliament and also hopes to get more BNP councillors elected to Thurrock council, where she is the party’s sole representative. She told the BNP website: “We’re in with a real chance in Thurrock and I want to give it my best shot. I cannot properly work fill-time [sic] on the campaign while being paid by EU taxpayers to manage our European staff.”
Colgate is one of 11 staff paid by the European Parliament to run constituency offices for the party’s two MEPs and support them in their European roles. All of them also have major roles in the BNP party apparatus.
Searchlight has always accused the BNP of misusing taxpayers’ money to pay for party staff. Despite winning election to the European Parliament on the back of the MPs’ expenses scandal with the slogan “punish the pigs”, the BNP MEPs wasted no time in jumping onto the EU gravy train.
Colgate’s announcement that she has resigned from her party role, described on the current BNP contacts’ spreadsheet as “party manager, party staff manager, staff administration”, on the grounds that she cannot campaign while being paid by EU taxpayers, is a clear admission that the BNP is using EU money fraudulently to fund party staff.
Whether Colgate was truly motivated by a desire not to misuse EU money further is unclear. Several of the nazi web forums have reported that she and Eddy Butler, the BNP’s national organiser, were sacked. As yet the BNP has made no announcement about Butler’s role, nor about the accusations, also doing the rounds of the nazi forums, that there has been a huge falling out between Mark Collett, the BNP’s unpopular head of publicity, and Jim Dowson, its equally unpopular “consultant”, whom Searchlight describes as “owning” the BNP because of his extensive financial hold over the party.
Colgate still likes to quote a Searchlight description of her last year as a “hard-working” councillor, not appreciating that we were only noting that she attends all her council meetings, as any councillor should and in contrast to almost all the BNP’s other councillors throughout the country, who do as little as possible for their councillors’ allowances.
Nevertheless it is surprising that she repays the “compliment” by making wild accusations against Gerry Gable, publisher of Searchlight, most recently on the streets of Thurrock surrounded by a mob of BNP activists trying to prevent the distribution of an anti-BNP HOPE not hate newspaper in Thurrock as part of the democratic election process.
As for her claimed wish not to use EU money to fund her election campaign, we wait with bated breath for the nine other BNP EU-funded officers also standing for Parliament in the general election to follow her lead and resign.
Hope not hate
Colgate is standing for election to Parliament and also hopes to get more BNP councillors elected to Thurrock council, where she is the party’s sole representative. She told the BNP website: “We’re in with a real chance in Thurrock and I want to give it my best shot. I cannot properly work fill-time [sic] on the campaign while being paid by EU taxpayers to manage our European staff.”
Colgate is one of 11 staff paid by the European Parliament to run constituency offices for the party’s two MEPs and support them in their European roles. All of them also have major roles in the BNP party apparatus.
Searchlight has always accused the BNP of misusing taxpayers’ money to pay for party staff. Despite winning election to the European Parliament on the back of the MPs’ expenses scandal with the slogan “punish the pigs”, the BNP MEPs wasted no time in jumping onto the EU gravy train.
Colgate’s announcement that she has resigned from her party role, described on the current BNP contacts’ spreadsheet as “party manager, party staff manager, staff administration”, on the grounds that she cannot campaign while being paid by EU taxpayers, is a clear admission that the BNP is using EU money fraudulently to fund party staff.
Whether Colgate was truly motivated by a desire not to misuse EU money further is unclear. Several of the nazi web forums have reported that she and Eddy Butler, the BNP’s national organiser, were sacked. As yet the BNP has made no announcement about Butler’s role, nor about the accusations, also doing the rounds of the nazi forums, that there has been a huge falling out between Mark Collett, the BNP’s unpopular head of publicity, and Jim Dowson, its equally unpopular “consultant”, whom Searchlight describes as “owning” the BNP because of his extensive financial hold over the party.
Colgate still likes to quote a Searchlight description of her last year as a “hard-working” councillor, not appreciating that we were only noting that she attends all her council meetings, as any councillor should and in contrast to almost all the BNP’s other councillors throughout the country, who do as little as possible for their councillors’ allowances.
Nevertheless it is surprising that she repays the “compliment” by making wild accusations against Gerry Gable, publisher of Searchlight, most recently on the streets of Thurrock surrounded by a mob of BNP activists trying to prevent the distribution of an anti-BNP HOPE not hate newspaper in Thurrock as part of the democratic election process.
As for her claimed wish not to use EU money to fund her election campaign, we wait with bated breath for the nine other BNP EU-funded officers also standing for Parliament in the general election to follow her lead and resign.
Hope not hate
Logan quits BNP in 'racist' row
A councillor has vowed to stand independently at the next election after walking away from the British National Party for being "a bunch of racists"Cllr Mark Logan, who has represented Gooshays ward since winning a by-election in March 2008, said he would be "severing all links with the party and the political group of misfits" because he didn't agree with "the calibre of some people" being put forward as candidates for the forthcoming election.
He said: "There's been some really nasty rhetoric directed at coloured people. When I first of all moved in with the party I didn't see a racist element to start off with. But people change. I thought they were a group of patriots not racists."
Jason Douglas, BNP Havering organiser, rejected the racist claims and said: "There are certain people in the branch who didn't see eye-to-eye. Mark comes from a Conservative background and a lot of his influences run contrary to what the party believes in."
He said Cllr Logan had done "some sterling work for Gooshays" but his "presence is causing friction among other members in the branch".
In May, Cllr Logan had been due to stand in the local election for Gooshays again and as a Parliamentary candidate for Upminster in the general election. He announced he was cutting all ties with the BNP last Thursday following a series of disagreements. The BNP argued they had pushed Cllr Logan out by deselecting him as a candidate at both levels prior to his exit from the party due to "continuous squabbles" and concern for his health, but were unable to substantiate their argument.
The last straw for Cllr Logan was with Heaton ward candidate Mick Braun who Cllr Logan branded "an out-and-out complete and utter racist" and a "loose cannon". Cllr Logan, who has been receiving dialysis daily while waiting for a kidney transplant, highlighted a particular incident when he claimed Mr Braun made a foul personal verbal attack on him after a party meeting.
Cllr Logan said: "I am not willing to stay in a party whereupon I'm being threatened and his last tirade of verbal abuse was appalling."
When questioned about it Mr Braun said: "I can't remember what I said. I might remember saying Joe Hunt. It's another term; a bit of rhyming slang."
He called Cllr Logan "arrogant" and "hard to work with" and said: "My son goes out with a Turkish girl. I rent my home from a lovely woman who is a Hindu. I'm not racist at all."
Cllr Logan was also angry at the secret political handshake Mr Douglas made with Graham Williamson of the National Liberal Party to agree to remove BNP candidates from South Hornchurch to give the The National Liberal Party a better chance of election. Cllr Logan has promised to support his constituents till the end of term before continuing his political career as an independent.
A BNP spokesman added: "Mark Logan has issued a number of highly libellous lies about the party. If any of Mr Logan's new allegations were true he would not have tried to rejoin the party so recently. It's sad Mark Logan sees fit to reveal his personal problems in such a manner but the BNP is greater than any one individual and better off without such a disruptive and unstable hanger on."
Fellow BNP member Micky Joyce announced this week he would also no longer stand for election, as he had planned to in the Heaton ward, because he didn't want to get involved with all the rows.
Romford Recorder
BNP accused of exploiting murder victims in campaign
The British National Party have been accused of exploiting murder victims and their families
The party has run a campaign featuring murders allegedly with a racial element, to call for support for BNP policies. But the families of some of those involved are unhappy at being used in this way. In response, the BNP accused the BBC of indulging in "simplistic and emotive propaganda concerning a campaign that is over two years old".
Freelance journalist Michelle Gribbon, who has worked at the BBC, has this personal report.
BBC
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Racism Cuts Both Ways
April 01, 2010
NF and BNP lose a councillor each
Morgan and Gamble - losers bothThe party's only councillor in Solihull, George Morgan, whose record in office is dire, has decided not to seek re-election this year - probably because he wouldn't get back in.
At the same time, the former BNP and England First Party councillor for Brinsworth and Catcliffe, John Gamble, who decided to switch over to the National Front just a few weeks back, has decided to go back to the EFP after apparently being horrified at the National Front's openly racist and white supremacist views.
Gamble, who became a BNP councillor in 2008, switched to the EFP after an argument with party bosses, then switched to the NF because the EFP was too boring. It seems the NF was just a bit too exciting for the delicate Cllr Gamble, who, while horrified by racism, appears only to have interested himself in belonging to openly racist parties.
One useless BNP councillor down and another useless ex-BNP councillor well on his way out. April 1st is looking up.
The Lefties - A Warning from History
BNP supporters often gloat about what they see as the historical "failure" of left-wing politics in post-war Britain, while, on the other hand, constantly complaining about the huge successes that the liberal left has had in influencing public policy on issues of equality, anti-racism and human rights, in influencing the media and popular culture, and in creating what the right-wing try to misrepresent as "political correctness". In contrast to the successes of liberal leftism, the radical and militant left have been in overall decline since the 1960s, marginalised by mainstream society absorbing the best ideas produced by their ideological experiments, ham-strung by dogmatic beliefs, and defeated in major industrial disputes.
In comparison, since the collapse of the NF in 1979, the racist movement slowly learned from its mistakes, and Nick Griffin used the BNP to re-build British Fascism around the pretense of a more moderate image, with the failure of the militant left creating a vacuum which the BNP now try to exploit. Because militant left dogma insists that the glorious workers must be above criticism, and that therefore Fascism MUST be "middle-class", left-wing and anarchist militants often refuse to acknowledge facts which everyone else knows full well - namely the strong middle-class influence in left-wing movements, and the strongly working-class nature of most support for the BNP. Since a temporary peak in radical activism in the early 1980s, instead of learning from their mistakes like the BNP did, some militant left groups purged their middle-class supporters, successfully alienating millions of potential sympathisers and reducing themselves to the pathetic state they find themselves in now.
Anti-Fascists all talk the talk when it comes to being "united" against the BNP, but not all Anti-Fascists walk the walk. Some militant Anti-Fascists seem to spend nearly as much time insulting other Anti-Fascists as they spend attacking the BNP, and dissipate their energy in Anti-Fascist turf-wars which the BNP covertly encourage. There is no doubt that working people should take control of their own lives, and that militant Anti-Fascists are often very brave and noble people, but left-wing opportunists dividing Anti-Fascism with "class struggle" rhetoric totally misunderstands the aspirations of white working-class and migrant communities, alienates moderates, is disastrous for Anti-BNP campaigning, and is music to the ears of the BNP.
bnpinfo
In comparison, since the collapse of the NF in 1979, the racist movement slowly learned from its mistakes, and Nick Griffin used the BNP to re-build British Fascism around the pretense of a more moderate image, with the failure of the militant left creating a vacuum which the BNP now try to exploit. Because militant left dogma insists that the glorious workers must be above criticism, and that therefore Fascism MUST be "middle-class", left-wing and anarchist militants often refuse to acknowledge facts which everyone else knows full well - namely the strong middle-class influence in left-wing movements, and the strongly working-class nature of most support for the BNP. Since a temporary peak in radical activism in the early 1980s, instead of learning from their mistakes like the BNP did, some militant left groups purged their middle-class supporters, successfully alienating millions of potential sympathisers and reducing themselves to the pathetic state they find themselves in now.
Anti-Fascists all talk the talk when it comes to being "united" against the BNP, but not all Anti-Fascists walk the walk. Some militant Anti-Fascists seem to spend nearly as much time insulting other Anti-Fascists as they spend attacking the BNP, and dissipate their energy in Anti-Fascist turf-wars which the BNP covertly encourage. There is no doubt that working people should take control of their own lives, and that militant Anti-Fascists are often very brave and noble people, but left-wing opportunists dividing Anti-Fascism with "class struggle" rhetoric totally misunderstands the aspirations of white working-class and migrant communities, alienates moderates, is disastrous for Anti-BNP campaigning, and is music to the ears of the BNP.
bnpinfo
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