Edmonds heads out the front door

One of the last remaining founder members of the BNP has quit the party to rejoin the miniscule and almost moribund National Front. Richard Edmonds returns to the NF after leaving them in acrimonious circumstances to help form the British National Party over thirty years ago.

Seventy year old Edmonds, a former school teacher, is one of Britain’s most notorious and hard line Holocaust deniers and one of a number of people now deserting the Andrew Brons faction in the BNP after Brons was narrowly defeated by Nick Griffin in the recent leadership elections. Edmonds had stood aside to allow Brons to challenge to Griffin, and is believed to have grown impatient as the Brons camp dithered over forming a new party.

Edmonds made his reputation as a notorious and controversial orator during the 1980’s when as the right hand man of then BNP leader John Tyndall, the BNP fermented racial hatred and an openly Nazi party saw a number of people including Tyndall, imprisoned under the race relations act. Edmonds also financed the opening of the BNP’s controversial head office in Welling south London and the distribution of the hate sheet Holocaust News that poured scorn on not just the Holocaust, but also the memory and testimonies of victims of the Nazi regime.

In 1993 Edmonds was jailed for a racist attack in Tower Hamlets, east London, when a black man walking with a white woman had the audacity to walk past Edmonds and a group of BNP supporters who had been attending a violent BNP mobilization in the area.

A long time opponent of Nick Griffin, Edmonds had initially been suspended from the party not long after Nick Griffin assumed the leadership of the BNP in 1999. After Tyndall’s death in 2005 Edmonds found his way back into the BNP and even found himself on the party’s advisory committee, described as a “veteran nationalist” which would appear to be BNP vernacular for ‘unreconstructed neo-Nazi on his best behaviour’. Despite his history, Edmonds was one of the “veteran nationalists” who conceded that legally there was little point in the party resisting the legal obligation to allow party membership to non-whites.

In a difficult week for the BNP’s leader, the departure of Edmonds may prove to be one bright spot. Edmonds had over the last year slipped comfortably back into the anti-Griffin camp as a self appointed spokesperson for keeping alive the memory of his mentor and former master John Tyndall. Tyndall died while facing the courts alongside Griffin on charges of inciting racial hatred while at the same time, fighting a battle to be readmitted back into the party he had founded.

With Edmonds goes the bulk of the Croydon branch of the BNP. Once one of the largest and most active BNP branches in the country, it was through Croydon BNP that Nick Griffin made his entry into the BNP. The Croydon branch of the BNP is a potent mix of former NF hardliners who moved into the BNP in the early nineties, former NF “political soldiers” who followed Griffin into the BNP and other long term racists and fascists. The Croydon far-right scene has long been susceptible to the charms of far-right radicals and extremists, from as far back to before even the NF was formed. A large chunk of those moving into the NF appear to be either suspended or ex-BNP members. The branch had been acting independently of the BNP for some time.

On hearing that Edmonds had finally jumped ship, Nick Griffin tweeted "Good that old hardcore cranks leaving with baggage. Shocking they time it to help the BBC though.” It must have been a really bad week of “timing” as far as Griffin is concerned. The party has been rocked by among other things, the death of its former treasurer only a few days from the potential nuclear meltdown for the party that is the Panorama programme on the BBC.

How the NF will accommodate the rabid actions and demands of über-activists like Edmonds and co remains to be seen. They do not even produce a regular mass circulation newspaper or leaflets.

Edmonds and Brons will no doubt have plenty to talk about at the John Tyndall memorial meeting later this month.

Thanks to Matthew Collins at HOPE not Hate

Face of Tory "Become a Councillor" campaign is EDL sympathiser

The face of the Conservative Party’s official “Become a Councillor” campaign is an EDL sympathiser who attended an organising meeting for their controversial Tower Hamlets demonstration, Political Scrapbook can reveal. Cllr Blaine Robin was publicly praised by EDL leader Tommy Robinson for his presence at the meeting in Southend-On-Sea.

The gathering of EDL organisers included leaders of all the group’s so-called “southern divisions” and was designed to build momentum for the action in Tower Hamlets which cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to police and led to sixty arrests for offences including assault on a police office, common assault, drunk and disorderly and affray.

Video footage below shows Tommy Robinson appearing to point to the councillor while saying he was “proud” that he attended the meeting. Robin is prominently featured on the Conservative Party website as part of the Become a Councillor campaign, which encourages people to stand as Tory candidates to “make a difference to their local community”.

“I’m proud that the first politician, I’ve ever met who actually represents his constituents was a man outside … who’s a local politician in Southend [points to person in crowd] … It’s even greater to see that he has heard the free message of the English Defence League not the distorted media attempt [sic]”

While Blaine has denied being an official member of the EDL, the councillor’s sympathies can not be in doubt, having praised the far right group’s “good intentions” on his Facebook page and posted their propaganda on his website. David Cameron has claimed “there’s none sicker than the EDL”.

But it seems that not all Conservative politicians agree.

Political Scrapbook

Thanks to NewsHound and others for the heads-up

1936 anti-fascist London "battle" has resonance today

Max Levitas recalls the electricity in the air as more than 100,000 Jews, Irish workers, communists and residents battled police to stop fascists marching through a Jewish area of east London in 1936.

The protesters threw marbles under the hooves of police horses and residents dumped garbage and chamber pots from their windows in what became known as the "Battle of Cable Street." Dozens were injured in the violent clashes as baton-wielding officers unsuccessfully tried to break their lines. Seventy-five years later, the sprightly 96-year-old is still out on the streets. To Levitas and his fellow anti-fascist campaigners, Cable Street stands as a still-relevant warning for Britain today.

"Look what's happening again. It's a recurrence of the fight which we had against racism," Levitas told Reuters.

With Britain's economy in a downturn and unemployment rising, academics and experts say Britain is witnessing the rise of a new "far right," with the grass-roots English Defense League (EDL) as its more publicly acceptable face.

The group, which describes itself as a nationalist movement that aims to stop Islam overwhelming British culture, says it rejects hate theories and disassociates itself with extremist far-right, neo-Nazi organizations. But for Levitas and others, there are uncomfortable echoes of the past in the EDL's ideology, followers and its protests that frequently turn violent. John Denham, a former cabinet minister, has directly compared the EDL's activities to the fascists' moves of the 1930s.

The crowd that Levitas joined on October 4, 1936, aimed to thwart a march by fascist leader Oswald Mosley and 5,000 uniformed followers by barricading the streets under the Spanish Civil War slogan "No Pasaran" (they shall not pass). Six thousand police officers and London's entire mounted division were sent in to clear the road but ended up battling the protesters until the authorities instructed Mosley to call off his march.

The conflict helped end Mosley's dream of fostering fascism in Britain and led directly to a law banning paramilitary activities and the use of uniforms by political parties.

Fast forward to 2011, when the EDL tried to organize a march through a now-predominantly Muslim area barely a stone's throw from Cable Street. This time the government took the rare step of banning the march. The group held a static protest instead. Levitas was at a counter rally.

"We've got to join together to ensure that on the various issues which affect the Muslim population, whatever color you are, there's got to be unity in the fight against racism," Levitas said.

BREIVIK LINKS

As many as 12,000 people have attended the numerous marches and demonstrations across England organized by the EDL, formed in 2009 after a group of radical Muslims shouted slogans at British soldiers during a homecoming parade. EDL leader Stephen Lennon, 28, says that no-one is addressing the discontent many Britons feel about Muslim extremists and their impact on local communities, and adds it's dangerous to take away people's right to express their anger.

"The whole country's pissed off, a lot of people are pissed off, and when you're pissed off and you're angry like a lot people are, through democracy you protest," he told Reuters. "Now they are trying to take that right away from us, they're trying to tell us we can't protest over these issues. Then what are you going to get? You're going to get people going to blow things up. They will create monsters by doing that."

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed 77 people in July as part of what he claimed was an international mission to counter Islam, claimed to have had regular contact with EDL members and leaders. Lennon has denied any formal links to Breivik and rejects the description of his group as far-right. He argues that real extremists hate him, among other things because of the group's support for Israel. The group also has a Jewish division.

Matthew Feldman, a leading authority on the British far right from the University of Northampton, says the EDL acts as a focal point.

"I see the EDL as the big whale in the right-wing movement. Even if you don't agree with them you might still, like the small barnacles of the Aryan Strike Force, attach yourself to them," he told Reuters.

Experts believe the group, which has about 17,000 Facebook friends, has a core membership of about 1,000.

"There's the football hooligan element which really shouldn't be overlooked and dismissed," Feldman said. Lennon himself was convicted this year over a street brawl involving soccer fans. And just last week he was found guilty of assault during an altercation at an EDL rally in April and could face a ban from future rallies.

"These guys like getting out on a Saturday, having some beers and having their chants," Feldman said.

In that respect, the EDL's members would appear to share some qualities with the white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic organizations they distance themselves from, like the National Front, Blood and Honor or Stormfront.

Former far-right activist Matthew Collins joined the National Front when he was just 15. But he began to question his beliefs and started informing on the group's activities for the anti-fascist Searchlight organization after taking part in an attack on a public meeting at a library where "little old ladies got their heads stamped on."

"I came to the realization that actually these people are really, really evil," said Collins, who has written of his experiences in 'Hate: My Life in the British Far Right'. "I didn't really want to spend the rest of my life stuck in tiny little rooms with these lunatics," he told Reuters. Collins, who fled Britain for 10 years in the early 90s after receiving death threats, said many in the far right would readily use violence to defend their beliefs.

"It's very, very difficult to pick amongst all those extremists, some of whom are very violent, very, very dangerous, who is capable of going over the line."

LONE WOLF

Senior police officers have warned Britain faces a growing threat from far-right "lone wolves" as Breivik appears to be.

About 40 individuals who hold extremist right-wing views have been convicted in Britain for violent or terrorist offences in recent years. They include David Copeland, who killed three in a 13-day bombing campaign in 1999 aimed at ethnic communities and homosexuals, and Ian Davison, described as a leading member of the now defunct Aryan Strike Force (ASF), who last year was the first person in Britain to be convicted of manufacturing a deadly chemical weapon, the poison ricin.

For the time being, right-wing groups remain on the fringes politically, although they are more visible in society than at any time since Mosley in the 1930s. The British National Party, which campaigns on an anti-immigration agenda but says it is not racist, won two seats for the European parliament in 2009, its first success at such a level. It fared less well in national elections the following year, although its support remains strong in some parts of the country.

Lennon revealed that the EDL was in discussions with similar groups across Europe about forming a political party.

"There will be an anti-Islamist political party forming his year," he said with confidence. "Britain's primed for it."

Reuters

My party should end its war on multiculturalism

'Labour isn't burdened with the legacy of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech, which the
Conservatives have never quite shaken off.' Photograph: Channel Four

Tory attacks on multiculturalism send out a confused message – it's time for the party to drop the word from its rhetoric

Theresa May will reply to the home affairs debate at the Conservative conference today in the wake of the publication of The Future of Conservatism, a collection of essays about the party's future edited by David Davis. The hall will resound to familiar Tory calls for stronger immigration controls and longer prisoner sentences. It wouldn't be at all surprising if they were joined by a denunciation of multiculturalism – one which the new Davis-edited book, seen as it doubtless will be as blue meat for the party faithful, will be expected to echo.

For the best part of 10 years, I represented the largest number of Muslim voters of any Conservative MP. During the last parliament, I was the party's spokesman on integration in the Commons. I worked happily with people on the left who took an uncompromising view of Islamist extremism, agreeing with them that since it saw no distinction between religious and secular law it was incompatible with liberal democracy. So my article for Davis's book could reasonably be expected to excoriate the M-word.

I agree with some on the left and most on the right that integration is a good thing and cultural relativism a bad one. For example, female genital mutilation shouldn't be tolerated in Britain simply because it's a cultural custom in parts of Africa and Asia. But I have come to see that the ultimate modernisation for the Conservative party isn't to back gay marriage or promote more women. It's to end the Tory war on multiculturalism. In saying so, my essay for The Future of Conservatism therefore bucks the stereotype, and is based on a simple truth: that multiculturalism means different things to different people.

To some, it means Mohammad Siddique Khan, the British-born 7/7 suicide bomber, a chilling example of what can happen when integration fails (though, blessedly, a very rare one). To others, it means the Notting Hill carnival or Manchester Pride – or the Bible, that meshing of Jewish, Greek and Roman culture. But it's no great mystery to guess what Tory condemnations of multiculturalism mean to many ethic minority voters. When Conservative lips mouth "multiculturalism", they hear multi-racialism – a verbal assault on people of a different ethnicity.

It is no use for the Tory speaker to claim that this is wrong – even though, as it happens, it is – or insist that this isn't what is meant. For this is what is heard, and it's what's heard that matters. In which case, wouldn't the Conservative party be wise to drop the term altogether? No Tory prime minister has ever aped BNP language by promising "British jobs for British workers", as Gordon Brown did, but Labour isn't burdened with the legacy of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech, which the Conservatives have never quite shaken off. All going on and on about multiculturalism achieves is making it even more difficult to do so.

David Cameron knows this only too well. That is why he has been careful only to knock state multiculturalism. But to do so is to build an unstable halfway house. Discussion of what constitutes state and non-state multiculturalism might make an interesting thesis, but it makes a tangled argument. The concept is designed to face two ways at once. To the Tory faithful, it signals opposition to multiculturalism; to ethnic minority voters, only when the state does it. Neither are stupid and both are unpersuaded.

The core Conservative vote is about a third of the electorate. Resistance to the party's message was greatest at the last election in Scotland, among public sector workers – and members of ethnic minorities. The number of the latter is growing faster than that of the majority community. They doubtless contribute significantly to a striking recent poll finding: that 70% of the population would consider voting Labour but only 58% voting Tory. Yet the Conservative message on lower taxes, faith schools and support for marriage might have been crafted for black churchgoers or Britain's young Muslim population, who are set to share a significant part of the tax burden. The reflexive denunciation of multiculturalism is helping to prevent it being heard.

Paul Goodman at Comment is free

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Ex EDL members targeted Hartlepool mosque and Shotton Colliery store

Two former English Defence League (EDL) members daubed “racially offensive” material on a mosque and two Asian-run businesses in revenge for the burning of poppies by an extreme Islamic group.

Steven James Vasey, 32, and 24-year-old Anthony Donald Smith (pictured, left) were yesterday jailed for a year for their attack, which followed incidents at a war memorial in Luton on Armistice Day last November.

Days later, on the eve of the Muslim Eid festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the masked men, along with an accomplice, climbed a fence after dark at the Nasir Mosque, in Brougham Street, Hartlepool. The initials EDL and NEI – North-East Infidels – as well as the words “no surrender”, the cross of St George and figures of red poppies, were sprayed before two figures were seen fleeing the premises.

Chris Baker, prosecuting at Durham Crown Court, said a taxi seen in the area at the time was similar to a vehicle spotted later in Potto Street, Shotton Colliery, County Durham, where an upstairs window at the Milco convenience store was put out with a brick. Similar graffiti to that sprayed at the mosque was daubed at both the shop and the nearby Albert Guest House, in Front Street, both run by an Asian businessman. Mr Baker told the court: “There’s a certain irony in that the targeted store was selling poppies at the time.”

He said Smith, who drove for the taxi company and had links to the EDL, was arrested the following day. Messages found on his phone revealed him planning with Vasey and a third accused, Smith’s girlfriend at the time, Charlotte Christina Davies, who he met at an EDL rally in Amsterdam earlier in the year. Mr Baker said the text messages included claims they were going “Muzzy bashing” and that the mosque was going to be given “a makeover”.

Vasey, formerly of Pittington, near Durham City, but now of Eden Crescent, Darlington; Smith, of Rydale Court, Trimdon Station, County Durham and Davies, 19, of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, all admitted conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.

Shaun Dryden, for Vasey, said it had been a “foolish venture”. Stephen Constantine, for Smith, said he had, “a lack of insight” into the consequences of his actions, which were caused through his outrage at the poppy burning. Jane Waugh, for Davies, said her involvement was merely text messages encouraging Davies’ involvement. Barristers for all three said they have now severed their ties with the EDL.

Jailing Vasey and Davies, Recorder William Lowe told them: “It’s said this was carried out for what some extremists did on Armistice Day in Luton, as seen on TV. It may be that was something these three had in mind, but it does not excuse this conduct. It’s the sort of behaviour from which those who are militant feed.”

Davies was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, with 200-hours’ unpaid work.

Northern Echo

Stephen Lawrence memorial vandalised for fourth time

Stephen Lawrence's memorial plaque on the spot where he was
killed in Eltham, south London, in 1993. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Police release CCTV footage of vandal breaking glass over plaque honouring murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence

A plaque honouring the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has been targeted by vandals for a fourth time, police said. A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that officers were alerted shortly after 8am by members of the public. No arrests have been made.

In previous years vandals have chipped the memorial and poured paint and flammable liquids on the pavement tribute at the spot where the black 18-year-old was killed in Eltham, south London in April 1993. At the time of his death Stephen was studying English, design and technology, craft and physics and was hoping to become an architect.

There was no immediate reaction to the vandalism from either of Stephen's parents, who were at the Old Bailey last week for the pre-trial hearing of two men accused of his murder.

Later, police confirmed that the vandal was caught on CCTV smashing a bottle over the memorial plaque while walking alongside a woman with a pushchair. Police released the footage in an effort to trace the man and woman. Images released by Scotland Yard showed a man in white shorts, white trainers and a blue sleeveless shirt accompanied by a blonde woman pushing a stroller with a child in it.

Detective Sergeant James Bray said: "Anyone with information concerning the incident or who recognises this man and woman are asked to come forward and assist us with their inquiries."

Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, deny murdering Stephen in a racist attack in April 1993. Dobson and Norris, both from south London, go on trial on 14 November. Witnesses are asked to call Plumstead CID on 020 8284 9554 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Six years after Stephen Lawrence's murder, an inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson examined the original police investigation and concluded that the force was "institutionally racist". The Macpherson report has been called "one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain".

Guardian

Jail for child-cruelty bully

A man who smashed a young boy’s head into a dinner plate and shot another with an air rifle has been jailed for 12 months.

Gareth Meanock (pictured, left), who is an avid National Front supporter, subjected the two lads to almost seven years of cruelty. The far right-wing backer was described as a bully in court and Judge Bernard Lever called him an unremorseful man for his violent actions.

One of the boys, now 16 years of age and who cannot be named for legal reason, is damaged according to his father.

He told the Chronicle after sentencing at Manchester Minshull Street Court on Friday: “Meanock’s arrogance was there until the end and he showed no remorse whatsoever. My son is still badly affected by what happened, but he is trying to get his life back on track. I honestly did not think he was going to go to prison at one stage. It’s just a relief he has.”

Meanock, who now lives in Blackpool, was convicted by a trial jury of two counts of child cruelty in July, who unanimously found him guilty. The court also heard how one of the boys was shot at by Meanock with an air rifle once and after missing, he shot him again.

Meanock, who regularly moved house with his wife, lived at a range of addresses in the Oldham area, including Longfellow Crescent, London Road, Lees Road and Kipling Road. It is believed Meanock, who can be seen on social networking site, Facebook, holding a poster to “vote NF”, was first verbally abusive before his behaviour escalated into violence.

Meanock, who does not work due to knee problems, denied any wrongdoing. Eventually one of the children bravely spoke out and the police became involved.

Judge Lever said: “You have not admitted any of it and you have showed no remorse to this regime of cruelty.”

Oldham Evening Chronicle

Hartlepool mosque graffiti trio sentenced

Two men who carried out a graffiti attack on a Teesside mosque have each been sentenced a year in prison.

Anthony Smith, 24, and Steven Vasey, 32, of County Durham, had previously admitted conspiracy to commit racially-aggravated criminal damage.

Charlotte Davies, 19, of Buckinghamshire, who also pleaded guilty to the same charge, was given a 12-week suspended sentence.

They attacked the Nasir Mosque, Hartlepool, in November last year.

Smith, of Neptune Way, Easington Colliery, and Vasey, of Prior's Grange, High Pittington, pleaded guilty during a hearing at Durham Crown Court in August.

Davies, of Irving Path, Aylesbury, admitted the charge earlier.

BBC News

BNP: The Fraud Exposed

Nick Griffin's British National Party, already under investigation for breaches of electoral law, is facing fresh allegations of corruption. Panorama uncovers new evidence of financial documents being falsified and fabricated in order to deceive the Electoral Commission. The programme also has evidence of the BNP's failure to declare major donations to the party.

As Darragh MacIntyre reports, the BNP, which is better known for its controversial views on race, is in debt and according to its own published accounts appears to be technically insolvent.

Panorama: Mon 10 Oct 2011 20:30 BBC One

BBC

Breaking News: Dave Hannam dead

Naziboy (left) and idiot

News reaches us that the former treasurer of the BNP, David Hannam, has died of a heart attack. Sad to hear of anyone dying but in his case I'll make an exception, particularly given this incident. Nick Griffin, naturally, can't resist a dig when reporting the death, despite the fact that Hannam kept all his nasty little financial secrets for him. This, from his Twitter feed:

'Shocking news that Dave Hannam has died of a heart attack. While frankly not a good treasurer, he was a good & sincere nationalist & a singer/song writer of considerable talent.'

Nice.

No ice cream for Nazis on Merseyside

Liverpool turns out against the Nazi BNP (Pic: Tommy Ewing)

Tommy Ewing in Liverpool reports on how local people stood up to the BNP

The British National Party tried demonstrating last night (Thursday) outside Liverpool Arts Centre where this week's BBC Question Time was being recorded. The Nazis were upset that their leader Nick Griffin, who is an MEP for the North West region, had not been invited to participate in the programme. But they were heavily outnumbered by 150 anti-fascists who turned out to oppose them.

There was a real mixture of people on the anti-fascist demonstration—black and white, young and old. There were banners from Unite Against Fascism (UAF), Love Music Hate Racism, the PCS union and many others.

The police tried to keep the anti-fascists in their "designated area". But some of us had approached from a different direction and ended up right next to the Nazis (shudder). We started heckling the BNP, and soon the rest of the anti-fascist demo joined us. At one point anti-fascists even managed to stop the BNP from buying ice cream, chanting "No ice cream for Nazis!" at a nearby van. The BNP looked really depressed. Eventually they folded up their banners and sheepishly scuttled off.

An earlier incident involved BNP heavies trying to set up stall in a skateboard park. But the skateboarders turned on them and told them, "We don't want you Nazis here." The police had to escorted the BNP away.

It was noticeable throughout the demo that we spent most of our time laughing at the Nazis. The humour of local people heckling them was absolutely fantastic. I know the BNP are no joke—but it was uplifting to see them downbeat, demoralised and defeated.

Socialist Worker

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Caption Competition - for 18+ only

Click on image for full-size (if you must)

As it's Saturday and I'm off out for the day while the sun's still around, I thought it might be time for a new caption competition. Have a go at this EDL nutjob pic, provided via our friends over at Everything EDL. Why is it that the EDL brings out the worst in everyone?

Do try not to be too filthy (unless Nick Griffin is mentioned in your caption, naturally).