BNP - the split widens

For several weeks this blog has kept a watchful eye on the BNP and its internal shenanigans since the expulsion of two of is senior members and which led to some 60 officials and BNP councillors resigning their positions. The next six months look to be just as hectic for Britain's favourite neo-nazis, with a leadership challenge on the cards.

By all accounts, things have hotted up since the infamous bun fight in Leeds and widened the chasm between Griffin and the Yorkshire membership in particular. The news is that The BNP officials in Hull have resigned their positions en masse ready to contest the coming local elections as Independent Nationalists.

The rebel leaders have in the past couple of days created a new website entitled Voice of Change, with the by-line “Taking British nationalism to new heights of success.” There’s not much up on this site at the moment, certainly none of the bean-spilling savoury stuff that lefties clamour after – that stuff is still up on the regularly-updated Enough is Enough, Nick website.

In a statement posted on the aformentioned they said:

“We recognise the success which Nick Griffin has achieved for the BNP throughout his tenure of the past seven years, but the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months can only lead a rational observer to conclude that Mr. Griffin is now unfit for that position.

“The internal management of the Party has been revealed to be fundamentally flawed and repeated calls for change have been ignored by the leader. Thus the only possible course of action to save the Party and secure a future for our people is to launch a leadership challenge.

"The foundation of the existing deceitful and corrupt cabal is money and in order to bring about change it is essential to starve Central HQ of funds. Therefore we call on members not to make donations to central office above and beyond the membership fee.

“Everyone has a fundamental choice regarding their own position but individuals who stand on, promote and fund the Griffin BNP by default support the bugging of officials, illegal entry of homes, theft of personal possessions, threats of violence, immorality, perversion, incompetence in staff, lies and smears, witch hunts against members the leadership don't like, mismanagement and wastefulness of funds and personnel, unconstitutional sackings and expulsions, a tyrannical approach and decades of anti-Semitic and Neo-Nazi baggage the Party cannot afford to carry if it aims to be a serious political party."

The new Voice of Change site states how it was formed “as a reaction to the purges of key personnel from the British National Party in December 2007 by tyrannical leader Nick Griffin who seems hell-bent on destroying the Party.”

It goes on to list the nine members who were expelled just before Xmas and “purged for standing up to the tyranny of Nick Griffin and questioning his constant defence of Mark Collett (graphic designer) and Dave Hannam (regional treasury official); two individuals who have done more to wreck the BNP than any former State asset could have hoped for.”

Though the rebels claim that they will challenge Griffin in a leadership election in June, it is apparent that none of the nine sacked party officers believe that they have a chance of being reinstated for the time being or that they would stand a chance in any leadership contest, not least because it is Griffin himself, as party fuehrer, who is allowed to decide on the election rules and which, in last year’s contest, included the banning of any campaigning! How the BNP must love their democracy!

The site, which still announces its loyalty to the ideas of the BNP, claims it is “an umbrella group to assist candidates who wish to stand as independent nationalists in the local elections in May 2008” and “a group which will seek to depose the discredited Nick Griffin in a leadership challenge as well as exposing the truth about the man himself and those coterie of ‘yes men’ who he has surrounded himself with.”

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

As the Stop the BNP site observes:

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile Griffin has also incurred the wrath of the more unsavoury characters in the neo-nazi movement. The Final Conflict website carries a revealing attack upon Griffin written by Steve Cartwright of Blood and Honour. Cartwright not only announces that there is a photo in existence of Griffin making a nazi salute – which, incidentally, every newspaper is desperate to get their hands on - but he outlines Griffin’s former links to Combat 18, the openly nazi Blood and Honour scene and foreign nazis.

This looks to be one interesting six months for BNP watchers and perhaps a little messy, nay a bloody annus horribilis, for Griffin and his loyal entourage. As the left continue to feast on the crap that emerges from the widening split within the BNP, you really have to wonder how any member could put up with the sundry revelations that have arisen, not least being this gem from Matt Single and posted on the Enough is Enough, Nick site:

“One example of the level of contempt he has for his minions, can be realised fully from this quote he made at a recent meeting in Leicester while answering Sadie on the top table ‘Look girl, you’re about to be a mother; so you’re now effectively useless’. A little glimpse of his true colours I believe."

More BNP Shenanigans

Sadie Graham shoots straight (picture courtesy of Indymedia)

Class Warfare has discovered that just before Xmas, the house of Sadie Graham (pictured above) and her boyfriend Matt Single was raided by a large number of police. The couple, recently expelled from the BNP for plotting against Nick Griffin (allegedly!) had their house in Church Lane, Brinsley, near Nottingham turned over by police - looking for weapons! Seems it was only just over three weeks ago that that ex-BNP Group Development Officer Sadie called in the police over the removal of property from her home. Seemingly BNP storm troopers entered her house on Saturday 8th December and seized, without her permission, her laptop and printer (and apparently bugged her phone too). For more info on this saga click here: Poor Sadie should be getting paranoid just about now, wondering who else is gonna raid her home.

Indymedia comments: "It seems that Single (ex BNP security team) rather than Graham was the real target of the raid (Graham must have hidden her rifle somewhere else!).

"Question : Why would anyone be surprised that prominent fascists - whose political strategy depends upon trying to look like any other political party whilst secretly encouraging racist violence - are interested in, and probably possess, weaponry?"

Meanwhile, the BNP finally published its 2006 accounts days before the fine for their late submission to the Electoral Commission would have doubled to £2,000. They make interesting reading, Stop the BNP takes up the story here.

Just before Xmas, a notice was posted on the BNP website demanding that any errant official who had made a posting on the rebel ‘Enough is Enough, Nick’ blog or declared their support on the blog must phone Nick Griffin and pledge their allegiance by the evening of Christmas Eve, December 24th or face expulsion. So far, it would appear none of the 60 rebels made that phone call and offered to kiss arse and neither does it appear that the miscreants have been punished.

Stop the BNP comments: “The failure of Griffin to follow through his threat has left his leadership in a weaken position and this is now being exploited by his rivals. Just when it seemed that the rebellion was running out of steam, the rebels have seized on Griffin’s lack of action as further proof, if proof was needed, of the mismanagement at the top of the party.”

The writers of the “Enough is Enough, Nick” blog, picking up on Griffin’s expulsion threats , say the episode is: "another example of the confusion, muddled thinking and disastrous decision making that is the hallmark of the current administration who have made mistake after mistake in this whole sorry and totally avoidable debacle since day one.”

Its not just Griffin and his loyal entourage who are guuilty of "confused, muddled thinking". The term can be hurled at every BNP supporter who thinks patriotism, nationalism and fascism is the way forward, along with anyone who has ever voted for them in the belief their policies will improve their lives one damned iota.

Hopefully, further shenanigans this coming year will reveal what a sad lot of patheticos the BNP really are.

Jon Cruddas calls for the Electoral Commission to investigate the BNP

Here's the full speech that Jon Cruddas made to Parliament on the 18th December in regards the recent activities of the BNP, accusing it of financial irregularities and the party's leadership of illegal activities. The party is five month behind in making any report on its finances and an estimated £17,000 is unaccounted for. Just a shame this is a Christmas Recess Debate, with the majority of the house on their Chrimbo hols - it might have attracted more attention to the nazi scumbags

Says Cruddas, concluding: "What is being uncovered in the internal workings of the British National Party appears to be illegal in terms of data protection, bugging, theft and the operation of the Political Parties, Elections and referendums Act 2000.

"This is not the behaviour of a mature political party and I would like to see the police and the electoral commission investigate these charges.

"The fact that this is being orchestrated by the leader of a political party is most shocking. The BNP leadership and Nick Griffin in particular, are showing us its true colours."

Fair's fair, however, and I reckon any politico could have made just as damning a speech about the Labour Party and their underhand shenanigans. Not think so? Check out Labour Sleaze then have a look at the Iraqgate files

Update:

But when it comes to in-fighting, the BNP wins hands down. Someone should do a sit com about this bunch of nutters. Check out this report on the recent BNP bun fight in Leeds. What a damned shame nobody secretly video recorded this gem.

Nazis continue to fall out

“Chairman’s Column”, the personal blogsite of BNP leader Nick Griffin has been silent of late. At a time when the BNP is in crisis, with 48 BNP councillors, officials and organisers tendering their resignations since Sunday you’d think King Nick would have stepped forward and made some troop-rallying “once more unto the breach” kind of appeal to the demoralised nazi rank and file of the BNP, but no. The crisis escalates.

Were it not enough that the homes of two BNP members were burgled by the party’s security department – made up of ex-South African police officers – we learn from the ‘enoughisenoughnick’ blogsite – set up by the rebel faction, that Griffin had gloatingly sent Matt Single, fiance of Sadie Graham (see previous post) a personal message informing him of the ghastly deed.

Writes Mr Single on the blogsite today:

“Many people have commented as to why I have been so muted ever since I received a text message from Nick Griffin on the 9^th December at lunchtime, informing me that my home had just been successfully raided by Party Security at his request.

“My immediate reaction of disbelief shortly followed by one of anger still has not diminished today, but has instead been joined with feelings of total betrayal. In retrospect, I am relieved that I have taken some quiet time to reflect on the situation fully and not be drawn into thoughts and words clouded in desires for unconsidered retribution.

“Act in haste, repent at leisure; these are wise words that I have adhered to during this difficult period.”

“…I at the drop of a hat would have given my life for Nick as his personal security, so to realise the vile and horrible way in which he has stabbed Sadie and I in the back leaves me almost speechless.

“Nick Griffin sent under ‘chairman’s orders’, five members of my own Security Department, men I have stood by through thick and thin and helped to train, to steal belongings from Sadie and I while we were away. Her computer has been accessed and Sadie’s private personal account read by dishonourable people paid by Griffin to dig around to publish information in order to hurt her. This level of betrayal by Griffin cannot be understated.”

It gets worse:

“At last years conference in Blackpool, I witnessed Collett and Hannam [the two Nazis at the centre of the split] attempt to have sexual relations with two girls that were obviously under the age of sexual consent. These vile acts and others are not only illegal, they fall completely outside of the very ethos of nationalism that is supposed to represent family values and morality."

Meanwhile, Dagenham’s Labour MP Jon Cruddas has today called on the police to look into possible illegal acts by the British National Party leadership. As previously alluded to on this site, leading officers in the BNP have been secretly recording phone conversations of some of its officials and monitoring their emails.

Saturday gone, 8 December, members of the BNP security team also gained access to the home of BNP official Sadie Graham, one of Nick Griffin’s detractors, and removed personal belongings, including a computer. Sadie Graham is a borough councillor in Broxtowe and much of her council work was on the computer. Nazi hierarchs have subsequently gone through the computer reading emails and documents, including emails that have arrived since the computer was stolen. Griffin has even boasted about reading these emails on the party website.

Cruddas’ call comes as the crisis that is tearing the BNP apart grows. On Sunday the BNP sacked two of its leading officers “on the grounds of gross misconduct.” Sadie Graham, the party’s group development officer, and Kenny Smith, the party’s head of administration, were sacked after they had begun to openly criticise the performance and behaviour of three other full-time party workers. Despite allegations of financial mismanagement, including £17,000 which appears to have gone missing from the BNP 2006 accounts (which have yet to be submitted to the Electoral Commission), Nick Griffin refused to investigate.

Instead, he set his ‘Intelligence Department’, run by former South African police officers, to look for evidence against his critics.

If Griffin thought that the sacking of Graham and Smith would end the rebellion he was deeply mistaken. Almost 50 councillors, branch organisers, regional organisers and party officials have publicly backed the duo.

“The BNP leadership is showing us its true colours,” says Jon Cruddas. “They appear to be monitoring phonecalls and emails of their members and removing computers from private households. This is not the behaviour of a normal political party and I would like to see the police investigate this.”

Cruddas is particularly concerned with the allegation that a computer with private council business and personal correspondence from voters is being scrutinised by the BNP leadership. “This is totally deplorable and must be stopped immediately. These fascistic bullyboy tactics should have no place in our political system.”

Sources:

Stop the BNP

Enoughisenoughnick

The BNP fallout so far

Andrew Gatward (West Lindsey Organiser)

Bev Jones (North West Regional Fund-Raiser, Tameside Secretary, Manchester North Fundraiser and Ex-North West Regional Organiser)

Brian Riley (Glasgow Organiser)

Charlie Baillie (Glasgow Fundholder)

Cllr Chris Beverley (Yorkshire Elections Officer, Leeds Organiser - Mark Collett's local Branch - and Advisory Council Member)

Cllr Dave Brown (Broxtowe)

Cllr Graham Partner (North West Leicestershire Fundholder)

Cllr John Ryde (East Midlands Press Officer and Education & Training Officer)

Cllr Lewis Allsebrook (Amber Valley Organiser)

Cllr Nina Brown (East Mids Regional Secretary and Broxtowe Organiser)

Cllr Roger Robertson (South East Regional Organiser and Advisory Council Member)

Cllr Sadie Graham (Head of Group Development, East Mids Regional Organiser and Advisory Council Member)

Danny Lake (YBNP Leader)

Dave Jones (National Data Protection Officer, North West Regional Secretary, Regional Press Officer and Tameside Fundholder)

Dave Taylor (Bradford Contact)

Gary Pudsey (Bridlington Organiser)

Ian Dawson (Yorkshire Regional Secretary, Former Head of Group Support and Advisory Council Member)

Ivan Winters (Bradford Fundholder)

Kenny Smith (Head of Administration, Scottish Regional Organiser, Scottish Elections Officer and Advisory Council Member)

Kieran Dinsmore (Ulster Regional Organiser)

Lee Haggan (Doncaster Organiser and Great White Records Recording Artist)

Lesley Dathan (Sunderland Fundholder)

Louise Scott (Scarborough Secretary and Northern Regional Voices Correspondent)

Malcolm Porter (West Lindsay Fundholder)

Mark Payne (Former Assistant National Treasurer)

Mark Wain (Melton & Rutland Press Officer)

Mark Westbury (Nottingham Secretary)

Matt Single (Department of Security Secretary and Training Officer)

Michael Clarke (Ashfield Organiser)

Mike Cooper (Hull Fund-Holder - Dave Hannam's local Group)

Neil Craig (Bradford Organiser)

Nicholla Smith (Managing Director of Excalibur, Falkirk Organiser and Advisory Council Member)

Nick Walsh (Hull BNP Organiser - Dave Hannam's local Group)

Paul Harris (Barnsley Organiser)

Peter (Boston, Holbeach & Spalding Fundholder)

Peter Hollings (Yorkshire Regional Fund-Raiser and Leeds Secretary - Mark Collett's local Branch)

Richard Chadfield (North West Regional Fundholder and Former Stockport Organiser)

Rick Foster (Lincoln Organiser)

Rob Walker (Wellingborough Contact)

Robert Walker (Huddersfield Organiser)

Sammy Shaw (Falkirk Fundholder and Forum Moderator)

Scott McLean (Former Deputy Chairman, Scottish Regional Organiser and Advisory Council Member)

Steve Blake (Web Editor, Head of Education & Training and Advisory Council Member)

Steve Thomson (Aberdeen Organiser)

Stuart Russell (Former National Press Officer and Advisory Council Member))

Tom Linden (Harrogate & District Organiser)

Trisha Scott (Scarborough Organiser)

Wendy Russell (East Midlands Regional Fundraiser, Regional Information Officer and Peacock Club Chairman)

BNP begins to fragment

Hearing that the BNP are in crisis, I accessed their website for further info and yup, its true.

One posting from Sunday gone reads: “This morning, Kenny Smith, Head of Administration and Sadie Graham, Group Development Officer, were expelled from the BNP for, amongst other things, creating and setting up a treasonous blogspot designed to attack and smear fellow party officials.”

There then follows the transcript of a lengthy conversation between Smith and Graham which begs the question ‘Is the BNP hierarchy bugging its membership’?

The question is answered when you read another story entitled "Anti BNP Subversion Stopped Dead' from the same day posted on the BNP site:

“Some months ago, a BNP Intelligence Department was set up, with one of its key initial targets being to track down the source of these problems and provide the evidence needed to expose those responsible and put an end to their subversion.”

Leaving aside the contradictory statement “BNP Intelligence Department” – nah, come on, stop laughing - what is this subversion? The story cites “a string of leaks and misinformation briefings to political opponents, and…internal rumour-mongering designed to damage morale and confidence in the workings of various party departments, and in the leadership generally."

The story continues: “In order to afford the accused a fair hearing at their forthcoming disciplinary tribunals, it is not proper to rehearse the details of the cases against them here at present. It can, however, be said that the prosecution will produce evidence of their heading a secretive bid to force out of positions, or even out of the Party, individuals who were not on ‘their side’ in a sordid factional power-grab, while attempting to cover up serious failings and inefficiencies by individuals on ‘their side’.

“…evidence will be put before the tribunals of an alleged plot by Mr Smith and Miss Graham to pack the Advisory Council with their supporters and to change the Party constitution so as to take power away from the elected leader and the Voting Membership, and concentrate it in their own hands.

“The prosecution also alleges that there is clear evidence of their direct involvement in setting up a disgraceful anti-BNP smear blog and, in the case of Mr. Smith, of serious breaches of accountancy procedures leaving up to £17,000 unaccounted for in the 2006 Central Audit, and of a wilful neglect of the Excalibur merchandising operation constituting attempted financial sabotage in order to create an artificial ‘crisis’ to which their proposals would be presented as the solution.”

As the Stop the BNP website reveals, it would appear that a number of other high ranking Nazis, including several organisers and councillors, have also left the BNP As of last night it seems that five of the party’s 13 regional organisers have resigned, four BNP councillors have withdrawn the whip and are now Independent Nationalist councillors, and five Advisory Council members are backing the rebellion as are several other local branch organisers. There are further resignations in the pipeline.

This crisis, predicted by Searchlight, is the result of an increasingly bitter quarrel between rival factions in the BNP. On one side are the younger and more able organisers and officers, led by Graham and Smith and include Leeds councillor Chris Beverley and the party’s former website creator Steve Blake.

On the other side is the brat pack, a ‘laddish sect’ made up of Mark Collett, head of publicity, party treasurer John Walker, his deputy David Hannam, head of security Martin Reynolds and Bradford councillor Paul Cromie.

For his part, leader Nick Griffin has sided with the brats and now taken action against the former group, party apparatchiks, who run the party operation.

Increasingly frustrated at the leadership’s refusal to act against the amateurish performance and general incompetence of Hannan, Walker and Collett, Smith and Graham set up a blog site to build a campaign against the three men, whom they dismiss as “these sleazy, lying, incompetent scumbags”. Unfortunately for them, the BNP leadership obtained a recording of a telephone conversation in which Smith explained to Graham how she could help with the blog site.

But if Griffin thought the strength of his case against the pair would overshadow any fallout, he was wrong. Within hours of the sackings several other prominent BNP members had walked out in sympathy. Among them are Nina Brown, the Boxtowe organiser and a local parish councillor, Danny Lake, the leader of the Young BNP, and Ian Dawson. Every BNP official in Scotland has resigned.

For further information on the shenanigans at the 'Court of Mad King Nick', download the Searchlight special "BNP in Crisis" document here in pdf format.

Let’s just hope this BNP split does not result in the formation of another neo-nazi organisation. Interestingly, in the hour since I commenced this posting, the BNP have changed their main lead story and, in an attempt to deflect attention from this story, have diverted prying eyes to the split in the SWP-led RESPECT organisation.

Update (1):

Griffin increasingly isolated

Date: 11 December 2007 - Yorkshire joins the rebellion

Nick Griffin is now in dire trouble. If his problems weren't serious enough he will have been greeted with news today that most of the West Yorkshire BNP organisers have joined the rebellion. Among them are organisers for Bradford, York and Huddersfield. In addition, Leeds councillor Chris Beverley has resigned the party whip and one can only presume that former party manager Nick Cass is thinking along the same lines. With these latter two will come activists from Leeds, Dewsbury and Wakefield.

With organisers in Scotland, Northern Ireland, East Midlands and now the all-important West Yorkshire region joining the revolt, Griffin must be feeling very isolated.

-----------------------------

Now operating under the name Real BNP, the dissidents have set up their own website (http://www.realbnp.org.uk/) but they have issued guidance to others disillusioned with the current BNP leadership.

Issuing a call to ‘Support the resistance – Save the BNP!’ they suggest the following:

1, Do not renew your membership yet!
2, Do not resign from the Party
3, Resign from any official position you hold - Let's to bring the organisation to a grinding halt and show the strength of feeling amongst the working officials that Griffin needs to sack the three chimps and not hardworking Party loyalists.
4, Do not resign as a councillor - ever!
5, Throw off the party whip and declare yourself an Independent Nationalist Councillor.

It seems that a growing number of people are following their lead.

Update (2)

More underhand tactics

Latest news is that ex-BNP Group Development Officer Sadie Graham has called in the police over the removal of property from her home. Seemingly BNP storm troopers entered her house on Saturday and seized, without her permission, whilst she was away form the weekend, her laptop and printer. On a continuing suicide mission, the BNP Press officer, Simon Darby, no doubt on the nod of leader Nick Griffin, released Graham’s private emails and which can now be found in cyber space (http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/search/label/Data%20Protection%20Act)

Perhaps the police would like to investigate just what the BNP’s “Intelligence Department” has been up to – whether her home had been entered illegally, for instance, so it could be tapped, whether her mobile phone (a recent acquisition from the Party) had been bugged. and whether the release of her private emails into cyber space is in breach of the Data Protection Act.

A statement from BNP Cllr Nina Brown (East Mids Regional Secretary & Broxtowe Organiser) reads:

I wish to clarify the situation that led to the “raid” on Sadies home and the removal of her personal computer and various other items.

For a couple of years I have been a keyholder to Sadie’s house, originally to feed her cat whilst she was away on holiday, but more recently for local organisers to pick up their monthly orders of the Voice of Freedom, Identity, campaign leaflets etc during Sadies absence. On Saturday morning I spotted the Party van, which I recognised from the monthly literature run, parked outside Sadie’s home, with Martin Reynolds in the drivers seat, his wife Lindsey and several other security guys hanging around the front of Sadies home. I found that slightly odd as I knew that Sadie and Matt were away for the weekend. By the time I had turned the car around and pulled up to the house, four guys were walking down the passage that led from the back of the house to the front. I walked up to the van and spoke to Lindsey through the open window, I asked her if she knew that Sadie and Matt were away, inititally thinking that they had arrived for a security meeting and there had been a mix up with dates. I asked why they were there, but they wouldn’t tell me, which in itself is not so unusual as Security has always been just that, Secure and is never questioned, for obvious reasons. Just for the record, but goes without saying, if I knew what was going on, I would never in a million years have let them in.

The reason I did not question further what they were doing there is, because I knew the guys pretty well from several occasions, including the recent Blackpool Conference and had become to regard them as good friends, as they were with Sadie and Matt. These were the Security Team which we had come to like and trust with our well being at high profile meetings, such as the recent local meeting in Kimberley, why would I have reason to question their actions? I did say to Lindsey, “Do you want me to call Sadie or will Martin phone them”, at this point Martin was already on his mobile phone, which I assumed was to either Sadie or Matt, Lindsey then got out of the van, obviously now to make sure I would be out of earshot of Martin’s conversation with, who I now believe to be Nick Griffin.

After 20 minutes or so on the phone, which Lindsey and I laughed about as she said “Martin will have to have that phone surgically removed from his ear these days”. Martin got out of the van and walked up to me, I asked him if everything was sorted with them (meaning with Sadie and Matt), and I said to him “So am I ok to let you in?”. He nodded, it was at this point I opened the door and went inside, I picked up our bundle of newspapers, Voice of Freedom which had been left for me just inside the door, they all followed me inside. I then went straight back outside to carry on the conversation with Lindsey, by this time all the guys were inside, I did not see what they were doing as I was standing outside and away from the door. I did see the large printer being put into the van, but I still thought nothing of it as printers, photocopiers etc were sometimes moved around the regions when new ones were acquired. Also I knew that several senior members of the Party had recently received new mobiles and laptops, as Sadie was a high profile member, I guessed she was simply receiving brand new equipment at some point.

Why on earth would I not trust our Security Team, the lefties had always been the enemy, never our own people!

On finding out the full truth later in the day, to me it had now become personal, this left me with no other option but to hand in my resignation from my positions as Parish Councillor and Local Organiser. For over two years I have put my heart and soul into the Party and like others am deeply saddened at recent events. Sadie and Matt have worked tirelessly for the Party, I consider them fantastic people, they have worked above and beyond the cause with the nation and members interests first and foremost. I could not have fulfilled my prior rold of EM Regional Secretary and Broxtowe Organiser and later becoming a Election Candidate in Kimberley without her full backing and support. I consider Sadie and Matt true friends, I like many others, cannot understand how the Party can function without them.

(statement source: http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/)

Sadie Graham's offending email (below) has been posted on the BNP website here:

"I think you are doing ok and the right thing. Don’t worry this stays private. We are forced to do stuff at moment. Ive been handing out wrong amended bank statements for my region to make sure that hannam gets the flak. On another note please let me have the letter asap.Sadie"

A closer look at the BNP

Sent to the local Shields Gazette

In both the local and the national press of late, the BNP have come in for a hard time. In recent weeks their policies have rightly drawn the disgust of readers of the Gazette, whilst nationally the press has reported the hypocritical condemnation of the mainstream parties who have lost seat after council seat to the BNP. The grievances of "Joe Public" I can sympathise with. What I find nauseating is the moralistic pontificating from the Blair and Cameron camps.

Considering the views of the Labour and Conservative parties on asylum and the former’s part in so overtly upsetting the Islamic world in recent years, their concern for the apparent rising support for the BNP does seem a mite misplaced. Labour and the Tories may well abhor the policies of the BNP, but have been unsuccessful in confronting them where they have made significant political gains because to do so would mean acknowledging the shortcomings of a system they champion and which gives rise to the politics of race and hate.

If anything the BNP are the product of the total failure of all the reformist parties to make capitalism a fit society to live in. And this is not realy the fault of the mainstream parties, for they are controlled by the system and not vice versa, despite their claims and promises. When capitalism fails to deliver, when despondency and shattered hopes arise from the stench of the failed promises and expectations that litter the political landscape, is it any wonder that workers fall for the scapegoating rubbish of fascists and the quick fix they offer?

The hundreds of thousands of misinformed workers who fall for the BNP spiel at election are the products of the demoralising system we know as capitalism, deluded into thinking that neo-nazi solutions to social problems – which they have been led to believe are largely rooted in the colour of a person’s skin – would suddenly improve their miserable lives. In truth, a shortage of council housing and poorly maintained housing estates, low wages and pittance benefits are no more the fault of asylum seekers than, in fact, the mainstream parties who mistakenly believe capitalism can be run in the interests of the workers. At the end of the day the BNP simply put together a better package of lies and, just like the other reformist parties, promise voters little more than extra space at the trough of poverty - and tens of thousands, their minds numbed by the politics of reform fall for the scam.

The coming BNP earthquake

Despite recent claims to the contrary, the vast majority of British voters find the policies of the BNP nauseating. In the run up to the 2004 local and European elections and again during the 2005 general election, all manner of people, organised in their respective groupings, mobilised against them, from the Labour and Conservative Party activists and the myriad left-wing groups, to student bodies, church groups and unions like the CWU who informed members that their “conscience clause” gave postal workers the choice not to deliver BNP material if they found it objectionable. Back in 2004, the anti-Nazi organisation Searchlight even produced 28 versions of a newspaper targeting the BNP election campaign and distributed 1.5 million of them in areas where the BNP were most active.

This time round, by all accounts, the panic is just as big. The BNP is allegedly as strong now than at any time since 1982, when it displaced the National Front as Britain’s favourite bone-head magnet, and is standing 364 candidates in this year’s local elections. A YouGov poll conducted by the Daily Telegraph last week suggests the BNP is set to make “significant gains” in the coming elections. The poll shows that 7 per cent of voters are ready to back the BNP and that some 24 per cent have considered voting BNP in the past or are thinking of doing so now.

In the wake of a huge election push by the BNP, The anti-racist group Searchlight now identiiesy 18 key “battlegrounds” where the neo-Nazis must be confronted. The BNP, capitalising on anti-Muslim feelings, believe they can increase their councillors by a third – they already have 20 councillors across the country. Ever the pessimists, anti-racist organisations believe BNP claims could be an underestimate and suggest that a 5% swing to the BNP could actually see them increase their tally of councillors to 70.

Back in 2004, the mainstream parties, as well as many on the left, panicked at the thought of widespread BNP victories and this clearly afforded the BNP media coverage which was out of all proportion to the size of their organisation. An eve of poll message from Nick Griffin, fuehrer of the BNP, on the BNP website of 9th June 2004, stated that they “were on course for a political earthquake”, that the BNP would be “breaking through with three or four Euro MPs” Yorkshire, the BNP claimed, was to be their "jewel in the crown.”

And so it came to pass that the BNP managed to gain four new councillors in Bradford in four wards. This ‘jewel’ was out of a record 101 candidates they fielded across Yorkshire.
Elsewhere, the BNP made a wee breakthrough in the south of England, taking three seats in Epping Forest in the local elections and gained its first foothold in Bradford. And in Burnley, the BNP gained one seat but managed to lose the other seven in which its candidates were standing. In the North East, where the party stood a full slate of 25 candidates in Sunderland, they failed to make any promised gains. The real winner this time round were the postal workers who, exercising their rights under the conscience clause, were able to take bags full of BNP leaflets home to use as toilet paper for years to come.

Leader Nick Griffin, who in April of that year had invited over the French Nazi Le Pen to plan how they could work as a team (or rather comedy duo) when Griffin became MEP for the north west of England, failed to take the seat he hankered after. No BNP candidate succeeded in getting elected to the European parliament and in the London mayoral elections the BNP ended up in sixth place and failed to secure the votes required to get representation on the London Assembly.

Regardless of how much these smiley-faced fascists claim to have changed their image, supposedly booting out the boneheaded troublemakers of yesteryear, they still represent the politics of hate - and their writings and statements still contradict the respectable shirt-and-tie image they try so hard to project.

Since late 2005, BNP’ literature has been portraying the coming local elections as a “Referendum on Islam”, linking the threat of Islamist terrorism in Britain to the Labour Government’s asylum and immigration policies and the war in Iraq. One BNP leaflet, handed out in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in London, declared: “If only they had listened to the BNP.”

Moreover, The BNP’s anti-Islam position has gained in prominence since Nick Griffin was acquitted of racial hatred charges at Leeds Crown Court back in February. It did not help that the judgment came at the same time as the hullabaloo over the anti-Muslim Danish cartoons and the consequent display by a handful of young Muslims dressed as suicide bombers and demonstrating in London - a coincidence that allowed the BNP to pass itself off as the champion of freedom of speech and all things British.

Overnight, the BNP moved further to the right in its anti-Moslem line of attack. Heartened by what they perceive as a lowering of tolerance for Islam, the BNP has become more obsessive.

Speaking to the Observer, 24th April, Simon Darby, the man BNP leader Nick Griffin has appointed to take over should an appeal to re-convict him go ahead, Said: 'We are giving voice to the concerns of ordinary people, Yes, part of it is still about race.' But particularly after 9/11 and 7/7, he says, 'things have changed: the new issue is Islam'

Two years ago the BNP were fortunate to ride a wave of patriotism—a tool they can use to great effect when it suits—in the run up to the election, with voters going to the polls as the 60th anniversary of D-Day was being commemorated and rammed down our throats every night on TV, and the English football team were gearing up to compete in Euro 2004 and when manufacturers were reporting sales of 4 million St George flags. This time round they can count on the nationalism whipped up by the World Cup taking place in Germany shortly as well as the patriotism created by the Queen’s 80th birthday celebrations. And neither is their raw branch of nationalism that unique in today’s climate where the UKIP and the Conservative Party can make huge gains in the European elections on a “say no to Europe” platform, proclaiming the merits of British sovereignty, and where the Labour Party is all to ready to send British troops off to far away lands to protect the interests of Britain’s ruling elite.

Furthermore, we can only wonder at the mainstream parties’ fears of a surge in support for the BNP. Considering the views of the Labour and Conservative parties on asylum (Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech springs to mind) and the former’s part in upsetting the Islamic world so much recently, their objections to the BNP do seem a little hypocritical. They may genuinely abhor the racists of the BNP but have been unsuccessful in confronting them where they have made political gains because to do so would mean acknowledging the shortcomings of a system they champion and which gives rise to the politics of race.

If anything the BNP are the product of the total failure of all the reformist parties to make capitalism a fit society to live in. And this is not the fault of the mainstream parties, for they are controlled by the system and not vice versa despite their claims and promises. When capitalism fails to deliver, when despondency and shattered hopes arise from the stench of the failed promises and expectations that litter the political landscape, is it any wonder that workers fall for the scapegoating bullshit of fascists and the quick fix they offer?

The hundreds of thousands of misinformed workers who fall for the BNP spiel are the products of the demoralising system we know as capitalism, deluded into thinking that one main issue - a total halt on asylum – would suddenly improve their miserable lives. In truth, a shortage of council housing and poorly maintained housing estates, low wages and pittance benefits are no more the fault of asylum seekers than is the hole in the ozone layer. At the end of the day the BNP promise voters little more than extra space at the trough of poverty and tens of thousands, their minds numbed by the politics of reform, want it.

The BNP and the The Political Earthquake That Wasn’t

Just what is it about the BNP that the vast majority of British workers find so nauseating? In the run up to the 2004 local and European elections, all manner of people, organised in their respective groupings, mobilised against them, from the Labour and Conservative Party activists and the myriad left-wing groups, to student bodies, church groups and unions like the CWU who informed members that their “conscience clause” gave postal workers the choice not to deliver BNP material if they found it objectionable. The anti-nazi organisation Searchlight even produced 28 versions of a newspaper targeting the BNP election campaign and distributed 1.5 million of them in areas where the BNP were most active.


Many were clearly panicked at the thought of widespread BNP victories and this clearly afforded the BNP media coverage which was out of all proportion to the size of their organisation. An eve of poll message from Nick Griffin, fuehrer of the BNP, on the BNP website of 9th June, stated that they “were on course for a political earthquake”, that the BNP would be “breaking through with three or four Euro MPs” Yorkshire, the BNP claimed, was to be their "jewel in the crown.” Two days earlier the same website had this to say: “Today in London a Monk came up to us. He said he had voted for the Conservatives all his life but this year he was voting for the BNP. He informed us that most of the Monks in his monastery were also voting BNP.” One wonders whether the fascists of the BNP had been taking tips in humour from their favourite comedian Bernard Manning.


And so it came to pass that the BNP managed to gain four new councillors in Bradford in four wards. This ‘jewel’ was out of a record 101 candidates they fielded across Yorkshire.


Elsewhere, the BNP made a breakthrough in the south of England, taking three seats in Epping Forest in the local elections and gained its first foothold in Bradford. And in Burnley, the BNP gained one seat but managed to lose the other seven in which its candidates were standing. In the North East, where the party stood a full slate of 25 candidates in Sunderland, they failed to make any promised gains.



Leader Nick Griffin, who in April had invited over the French Nazi Le Pen to plan how they could work as a team (or rather comedy duo) when Griffin became MEP for the north west of England, failed to take the seat he hankered after. No BNP candidate succeeded in getting elected to the European parliament and in the London mayoral elections the BNP ended up in sixth place and failed to secure the votes required to get representation on the London Assembly.


Regardless of how much these smiley-faced fascists claim to have changed their image, booting out the boneheaded troublemakers of yesteryear, they still represent the politics of hate - and their writings and statements still contradict the respectable shirt-and-tie image they try so hard to project. This was much evident from their election manifestoes, moreso that used for their London Assembly campaign and entitled London Needs the BNP.


The manifesto began with a subject the BNP are famous for – the strange obsession with the colour of human skin. It opened: “Within another generation, without political change, London will not even be recognisable as a European city”. Considering the diversity of cultures existing peacefully side by side in most European cities London, in a generation, would very much be like any normal European city. It asserted that the “remaining British people in London are faced with progressive marginalisation” because there are too many non-whites, neglecting to mention the way capitalism itself marginalises, atomises and alienates not just individuals but entire communities .


There then followed the usual rant against asylum seekers, “both legal and illegal” and Ken Livingstone and the Labour Party were said to be responsible for “this new influx that is about to engulf us.” Here again, no mention of the fact that within the EU alone, the UK was recently ranked 10th in number of asylum applications compared to the country's population or that the government has recently brought in measures that make it far more difficult for people from a variety of countries to claim asylum in the UK - together with a reduction of appeal rights for a host of countries. Neither does the BNP acknowledge that the Home Office itself has recognised that asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants have made an huge contribution to the economic and cultural life of the UK, bringing with them a wealth of skills and knowledge.


Law and order, another BNP favourite, was then tackled. Having informed us that recorded crime has risen by 1000% (how they love nice round figures) since the 1950s they go on to cite the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers as claiming that mass immigration had: “brought new levels of organised crime, drug dealing, gun crime, prostitution, fraud and kidnapping,” before advocating the reintroduction of the birch and the death penalty and a policy of zero tolerance. Again, no mention that one BNP London Assembly candidate was a reputable soccer thug, that the BNP National Development Officer, Tony Lecomber, has twice been imprisoned or that BNP leader Nick Griffin was given a suspended sentence for incitement to racial hatred. A visit to the Searchlight website will reveal that the BNP has a membership full of unsavoury characters. Moreover, in the year following the first BNP council victory in Milwall in 1993, racial assaults increased by 300%. It seems crime will only be tolerated when it is the BNP and their supporters who are carrying it out.


Next was the issue of “security” with the BNP promising to “make London safe from the threat of terrorism”, by deporting “Moslem fundamentalists”. Their TV election broadcast, which was edited, though downloadable later from the BNP website, was similarly Islamophobic, blatantly hinting at a hyped threat of Islamic terrorism. Significantly, the last terrorist bombs to go off in London which killed and injured members of the white working class were set off back in 1999 by one-time BNP activist David Copeland, who, when apprehended , said his aim had been to start a race war which would lead to a BNP government being elected. And the BNP National Organiser, has a conviction for setting off a home-made nail bomb and possessing hand-grenades and electronic detonators. Moreover, Griffin’s political mentor is the Italian nazi terrorist Roberto Fiore; the very same Griffin who once went to Libya to gain support from Colonel Gadaffi and who was all too ready to share a platform at a Cambridge seminar in July 2002 with Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, the despicable Muslim fundamentalist, currently awaiting extradition to the USA for alleged terrorist crimes.


And so the manifesto continues, each statement showing the BNP to be the intolerant, narrow-minded, racist bigots they have always successfully presented themselves as, before closing on a subject covered in the May issue of the Socialist Standard (The Beauty Trap), namely the forthcoming erection of the statue of Alison Lapper: “Just as Ken Livingstone dislikes anything English he equally disapproves of anything British, which is why we are now to have a sad limbless body on the vacant fourth plinth rather than a British statesman or woman. A BNP Mayor would have this dreadful thing removed.” In this regard the BNP are in keeping with their beliefs on the white master race. Indeed, their National Organiser considers people with learning difficulties to be "sub-human" and those with disabilities to be "genetically inferior". As true heroes of the white working class they claim to be the BNP have said they will introduce a GM programme to get rid of those they consider "inferior".


The 800,200 misinformed workers who fell for this sort of rubbish across Britain and gave the BNP their votes in the European and Local elections on June 10th are the products of the demoralising system we know as capitalism, deluded into thinking that one main issue - a total halt on asylum – would suddenly improve their miserable lives. In truth, a shortage of council housing and poorly maintained housing estates, low wages and pittance benefits are no more the fault of asylum seekers than is the hole in the ozone layer. At the end of the day the BNP promised voters little more than extra space at the trough of poverty and tens of thousands wanted it.


Of course, the BNP were fortunate to ride a wave of patriotism—a tool they can use to great effect when it suits—in the run up to the election, with voters going to the polls as the 60th anniversary of D-Day was being commemorated and rammed down our throats every night on TV, and the English football team were gearing up to compete in Euro 2004 and when manufacturers were reporting sales of 4 million St George flags. And neither is their raw branch of nationalism that unique in today’s climate where the UKIP and the Conservative Party can make huge gains in the European elections on a “say no to Europe” platform, proclaiming the merits of British sovereignty, and where the Labour Party is all to ready to send British troops off to far away lands to protect the interests of Britain’s ruling elite.

Furthermore, we can only wonder at the mainstream parties fears of a surge in support for the BNP. Considering the views of the Labour and Conservative parties on asylum (Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech springs to mind) and the former’s part in upsetting the Islamic world so much recently, their objections to the BNP do seem a little hypocritical. They may genuinely abhor the racists of the BNP but have been unsuccessful in confronting them where they have made political gains because to do so would mean acknowledging the shortcomings of a system they champion and which gives rise to the politics of race.

If anything the BNP are the product of the total failure of all the reformist parties to make capitalism a fit society to live in. And this is not the fault of the mainstream parties, for they are controlled by the system and not vice versa despite their claims and promises. When capitalism fails to deliver, when despondency and shattered hopes arise from the stench of the failed promises and expectations that litter the political landscape, is it any wonder that workers fall for the scapegoating lies of fascists and the quick fix they offer?