The BNP/Loyalist Crossover Forces Romanians From Their Homes

From Ten Percent

The BNP base their ‘call centre’ in Belfast where Jim Dowson — a top BNP fundraiser and a militant anti-abortion campaigner who has a string of criminal convictions and has had links to mass-murderer Michael Stone (the loyalist terrorist)- runs their operations. Nick Griffin visited there secretly just before the European elections-

BNP leader Nick Griffin made a secret trip to the Belfast base less than two weeks ago to film a propaganda video. Our exclusive picture shows Griffin pictured at the Belfast HQ flanked by two members of staff, whose identity we have protected.

However in most reports the origins of these racist crimes are rather vague, they balk at mentioning it is linked to fringe loyalists let alone the relationship between loyalists and the BNP. While the remnant Loyalist leadership condemn the attacks it appears the younger ones are feeling their oats and turning their hatred temporarily from Catholics onto Romanians and Poles, all of course encouraged by the BNP and Combat 18 Nazism who share the bigotry that includes hatred of Catholics (including insane theories such as the Islamic/Catholic/EU/Sinn Fein/IRA plot to destroy the UK with Catholic immigrants!).

Racists who forced Romanians to flee their homes threatened to cut a baby’s throat, it emerged today. Over 100 men, women and children were this morning taken to the Ozone complex in Belfast after they spent the night in a church hall following sustained attacks by a racist mob claiming to be from the fascist group Combat 18.

Thugs who target migrants in Northern Ireland for racist attack are guilty of ethnic cleansing, a community worker said today. Large parts of south Belfast are in danger of becoming no-go areas after 20 Romanian families were forced to spend the night at a church hall, Patrick Yu added. Bricks have been thrown through windows in the Protestant working-class Village area with increasing frequency in recent weeks.

Now the BNP have two MEP’s I think it is incumbent on the media to ask them directly their views on the attacks and to see if they will condemn them and demand all members and associates cease any activity they may be involved in. Will political journalists on TV have the guts to confront fascism on the air? It should also be asked how the police allowed it to get this bad, given their historic ties to loyalists and their paramilitaries should we deduce they ignored the victimisation of Romanians as those doing it had links to Loyalist groups gangs? Is the bias in British media in favour of Loyalism not allowing the true picture of bigotry to emerge? Many in the community though are far more courageous and if their lead had been followed this refugee crisis could perhaps have been averted, if the hardcore violent fascists had been dealt with by the police-

One family fled from their home in Belgravia Avenue. Another family, with a newborn baby, has been left terrified after their home at Wellesley Avenue came under attack just days after they were forced out of another property.

Their south Belfast homes came under sustained attack from Thursday evening, with their windows smashed and doors kicked in by crowds of thugs gathering outside shouting racist slogans.

A number of local residents last night stood guard outside their new home in a bid to protect them.

One local resident, Paddy Meehan, said: “About 12 of us worked in shifts to defend the house last night. Local residents think these people have to be defended. These thugs have been shouting that they are Combat 18 and they dropped a letter containing text from Hitler’s Mein Kampf through the letterbox of one of the properties.

“This has been going on for several nights. Sometimes there is about 20 of them gathering outside the properties. There is a hardcore of maybe six or seven shouting abuse and kicking doors down.These families are terrified, so are all their young children. They feel very isolated which is why the local community is gathering around them to support them,” he added.

The PSNI said police in south Belfast are investigating a number of racist attacks and criminal damage to properties and a car in Wellesley Avenue and Belgravia Avenue on a number of occasions between June 11 and 14.

A spokeswoman added: “A crowd gathered on each occasion at the properties and a number of windows were smashed. Police have not received reports of any injuries.”

Major hat tip to Lancaster Unity.

The extent to which the true roots of this racist violence are obscured will determine its spread and increase in severity elsewhere. Because of the soft spot for loyalists in the British establishment there is the danger of it not being dealt with and spreading. Or as Dave Osler puts it-

The Six Counties has always been a case apart from the rest of the United Kingdom, if I can be permitted to use the two geographical expressions in the same sentence. Just because something happens in Belfast, that doesn’t mean that it must necessarily happen in Burnley.

But sadly, it does not take too much of a leap of the imagination to see that if bricks can readily fly through immigrant windows in Belfast, the tactic may yet be duplicated in many English towns. If the bricks are one day followed by firebombs, then yes, we will be talking about pogroms.

British Legion tells BNP leader Nick Griffin: Don't wear poppy

From Daily Mirror

The British Legion has demanded that BNP leader Nick Griffin stop wearing poppies in election campaigns.

Yesterday the military veterans charity published an open letter, saying: "The poppy is the symbol of sacrifices made by British armed forces and it has been paid for with blood and valour.

"True valour deserves respect regardless of ethnic origin. Everyone who serves their country deserves nothing less.

"Our chairman appealed to your sense of honour, but you responded by continuing to wear the poppy. So now we're no longer asking you privately. Stop it, Mr Griffin. Just stop it."

Anti-fascism with egg on its face

Let's be clear about Tuesday's 'action' by the SWP-dominated Unite Against Fascism that involved throwing egg at Nick Griffin in front of the world's media: it was a shambles, an embarrassment, completely counter-productive and no way of defeating fascism.

Aggression generally doesn't go down well with the public, particularly a seemingly unprovoked attack. After all, SWP egg-throwing tactics did not defeat John Major in the 1992 election, when his image got a massive boost as he stood on his soapbox braving the taunts and eggs as he fought the election on the streets - in the end, securing more votes than any government in history. Griffin has made great capital out of the SWP/UAF 'action', achieving top billing on television news with his barely concealed smug delight; the press conference may never have made the news otherwise.

These sort of egg-throwing antics come with the territory as far as politicians are concerned - Mandelson, for instance, recently shrugged off a green custard attack. Most take it in their stride, although the idea that in an age of global terrorism a British government minister can be attacked in the street is worrying. So the histrionics by Julian Leppert about an "attack on democracy itself" make the BNP look like a bunch of wimps.

But what does this public temper tantrum achieve and what does it reveal about the UAF? The SWP central committee has, as always, determined the course of action and will not be swayed. Judging by the ineloquent reaction of the amoeba-brained bizarre-looking Martin Smith on Newsnight and his pathetic attack on Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes accusing him of being responsible for the BNP's infamous 1993 Millwall by-election win, they are too arrogant and stupid to consider non-violent, rational debate. It is worthwhile noting that Smith has a reputation for reacting to criticism with violence - notably his violent attack on a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain a couple of years ago.

Simon Hughes made the point that "the protest was a failure because it enabled BNP members to portray themselves as free speech victims – it played right into their hands." Labour MP Ann Cryer, who Griffin failed to beat in the 2005 general election, told the Independent: "At one stage of the campaign. I had to phone a couple of groups to ask them not to come up because I knew the kind of protests they [carry out] would only give the BNP the headlines that it craves."

But one suspects that the SWP doesn't really want to defeat the BNP. It has found something to latch its relentless yet floundering recruitment campaign onto and found a tactic that wins them headlines. Why should they give a damn about the consequences, particularly when it has considerable financial largesse and Establishment clout behind it?

Yes, it was galling to see the BNP win two seats in the European Parliament. But it could have been far worse and it is worth getting things into perspective. The result was far fewer than the five or six the BNP had mooted in the weeks before the election and their number of votes actually fell! In the council elections, they won three seats in the hundreds up for election, none of which were in Essex. So the rise in the BNP vote has stalled and the party has not managed to repeat the performance of the Greens in 1989 or UKIP in 2004 and 2009. In terms of percentage of the vote, it remains in low single figures. The campaign on doorsteps and the media was relatively successful. The BNP could not fully exploit the "perfect storm" and when the recession is over, by this time next year the storm clouds will be clearing and the rationale for the BNP will start to diminish.

The worst thing that could happen now is for the juvenile antics of SWP student politics to monopolise anti-fascist opposition just when there is light at the end of the tunnel. And intimidation and threats of violence will backfire. Not only is it unethical, it tells the nearly 950,000 people who voted for that party that they could also face the same fate if they dare utter a word of support for the BNP. That's a hell of a lot of people to alienate. There's nothing that will consolidate more support behind the fascists than a bunch of amateur Trotskyists going apeshit. In fact, the BNP is loving it, especially since it has a security detail comprised of veteran football hooligans and gangsters that could smash the living daylights out of a bunch of snotty Trots who couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag.

In truth, the SWP/UAF mafia hunger for a re-enactment of the Battle of Cable Street rather than a defeat of fascism. It is a sexual fantasy for many of these armchair cheer-leaders for Hamas and Hezbollah. They want to ensure that there is no way many intelligent opponents of fascism can occur by imposing a "no-platform" doctrine on others - to the extent that these anti-fascists find themselves accused of being bourgeois krypto-Nazis.

It was a disagreement on tactics between the SWP and Searchlight that led to the latter being forced out of the UAF for supposedly being Zionist, pandering to racism and its objection to the SWP's insistence on the concept of black leadership in anti-fascism. Writing in the Independent, Jerome Taylor explains: "Activists from UAF are generally more willing to resort to direct action tactics, while members of Searchlight, which specialises in infiltrating the BNP and publishing exposés of its activities in the group's magazine, are wary of doing anything that hands the BNP extra publicity."

While the BNP likes to conflate the UAF with Searchlight, it is really rather more afraid of the latter's community-oriented, grassroots approach that puts more emphasis on intelligence-gathering than grandstanding. But the SWP are happy to throw that away in their drive to use the UAF as a vehicle for left-wing sectarian recruitment.

The Alliance for Workers Liberty - a left-wing group that is highly critical of the SWP - has noted the lack of internal democracy in the UAF. Pete Radcliff wrote: "For a long time sponsorship of Unite Against Fascism has been the token gesture of the trade union movement. No questions are asked about how decisions are taken in UAF, how democratic local groups are, how open they are to those the SWP doesn’t like and what alliances the SWP make on behalf of UAF ... Of course those actively sought to be a part and to front that alliance are chosen by the SWP and sometimes this causes reaction from trade union sponsors ... [T]he policy of UAF remains to ignore anti-government dissent on low wage employment, welfare services and the issues behind the racism that the BNP cashes in on. UAF does not attempt to build ongoing democratic campaigns in the areas where the BNP exist. In Nottingham, as probably in most places, one-off, haphazard leafleting is announced. Nothing is said about who has organised it. In reality it is arranged by the SWP and largely dealt with as a party building stunt. UAF is essentially an adjunct of the SWP."

The SWP is bullying and alienating people out of anti-fascist activism by refusing to acknowledge common sense. It did the same in the Stop the War Coalition, RESPECT, Globalise Resistance and a number of other left-wing causes it has infiltrated, gutted and destroyed through its bull-headed attitude towards disagreement. It will do the same with anti-fascism if it is given half the chance.

I know that there are many local anti-fascists who have reacted with dismay at the UAF's fake militancy, concerned that if this SWP front turned up in Loughton or Waltham Abbey doing their screaming lunatic act the BNP's fortunes locally will be boosted. The UAF could, in just one day, undo all the progress that has been achieved in beating back the BNP by democratic means and by the written word.

Just as we don't want the BNP in Epping Forest, we don't want their ideological mirror image here stirring up problems for us. So, if there is any member of the UAF reading this, please stay away. You are not welcome. Leave your sectarian brawls to your tawdry Marxism 2009 conference. I know that the local BNP is reading this and is perhaps upset that the UAF bandwagon won't be passing to give it support. But there is not one anti-fascist in this community who has said that aggression is a good way of combatting the BNP. And any stupid egg-throwing, nuisance phone calls or attempts at intimidation or violence are wrong. They are wrong because they don't achieve anything and they are wrong because it is precisely this kind of violent politics that we are meant to be opposing.

And I'll go further. If I or one of my colleagues finds anyone intending to carry out such acts on BNP supporters, we will go straight to the police. You cannot fight fire with fire. You cannot sink into the gutter in order to fight the gutter politics. Anti-fascists are meant to be better than that. Bear this in mind: whoever throws the first punch will lose the fight.

Holocaust museum shooter had links to BNP!

By Sunny Hundal, Pickled Politics

About ten years ago Nick Griffin gave a prominent speech in the United States at a American Friends of the British National Party event. In fact you can watch the speech online, and he says in his speech:

There’s a difference between selling out your ideas and selling your ideas. And the BNP isn’t about selling out its ideas, but we are determined to sell them. Basically that means to use saleable words such as freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobosy can come at you and attack you on those ideas - they are saleable. Perhaps one day, by being rather more subtle, once we’re in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say ‘yes, every last one must go’. Perhaps they will one day. But if you hold that out as your sole aim to start with, you’re not going to get anywhere. So instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity.

So we know the BNP hide behind words like ‘identity’ in order to push racial purity - after all their leader admits it. Anyway, it now turns out that the white supremacist and Holocaust Museum terrorist - James von Brunn - attended those meetings too.
The Washington Post reports:

Von Brunn sometimes spoke of having fought for the wrong side in World War II, Blodgett said, and the two men sometimes attended meetings in Arlington County of the American Friends of the British National Party, which raised funds for the British white supremacist group.

Blodgett said that von Brunn never spoke of violent action in their conversations but that “a lot of these people, when they get toward the end of life, they say they’ve wasted all these years hating, and they want to make a statement somehow.”

Still think there’s no link between the BNP and violence?

via Jerome Taylor at the Independent, who has more:

At the time the BNP were forging close links with a variety of US white supremacists and the party’s leader Nick Griffin remains close friends with powerful American neo-Nazis such as David Duke, a former Klu Klux Klan leader and Don Black, another KKK chap who went on to found Stormfront and was placed on the UK’s banned list two months ago.

According to the Post, Von Brunn and Blodgett would regularly attend meetings in Arlington County of the American Friends of the BNP, which raised funds for the British white supremacist group.

The American Friends was wound up by Coterill in 2001 after the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which investigates American white supremacists, started looking into its fundrasing - but the links between the BNP and their sympathisers stateside remain strong.

Remember, a picture of Nick Griffin speaking alongside former KKK leader David Duke was unearthed recently too. Of course, none of the mainstream broadcasting outlets - who are busy condemning people for throwing eggs at poor Nick Griffin - will raise any of thise. Doing research is too much work these days.

If anyone can find a picture of Griffin alongside Von Brunn I’ll treat you to lunch, I promise.

Who are the people who voted BNP last week?

Anthony Wells, UK Polling Report

Channel 4 have published a huge YouGov poll taken in the days before the European elections, intended largely to examine exactly what drove support for the BNP. The full tables are well worth a look here

Firstly, there is the question of whose vote the BNP takes. The demographics of people who voted BNP in the European elections show they are more likely to be C2DE social class, likely to read the Sun or Star and almost certainly not a broadsheet, they are likely to work in a manual occupation (they are also likely to be male and middle aged, though that has less of a partisan implication). They are also likely to come from a Labour supporting background - 47% of BNP voters say their parents voted Labour.

This fits with the pattern of where the BNP tend to do well - normally seats that were previously strongly Labour - and with other studies of where the BNP get their support.

If BNP supporters are traditional Labour, male working class voters therefore, the natural conclusion that it’s Labour they are taking support from. This falls down, however, on some other questions - asked if they’d rather have Cameron or Brown as PM, BNP voters opt for Cameron by 59% to 17%. Asked to place themselves on the political spectrum they put themselves right of centre, in roughly the same place as they do the Tories. 22% of them think the Tories care about people like themselves, only 6% say the same about Labour. In short, the people the BNP seem to appeal to are actually “working class Tories” - the sort of traditional working class voters who under other circumstances might shift over to the Conservatives.

Asked a series of satisfaction questions, as might be expected, BNP voters were the least content with their lot in life. They were most likely to be dissatisifed with their disposable income, most likely to feel unsafe in their local area, most likely to feel their family had few opportunities to prosper and - along with UKIP voters - were most pessimistic on the economy.

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of BNP supporters wanted all immigration stopped - 94% agreed with the statement. However, this doesn’t strongly differentiate them from the rest of the public, 61% of whom agreed with the statement. Only amongst Green party supporters were a plurality opposed to the statement. BNP supporters were also most likely to put immigration as the top issue facing the country. 87% picked it as a major issue, though again, amongst the public as a whole it was already the second most mentioned issue, chosen by 49% of people. (As an aside, it’s worth noting that UKIP supporters also named immigration as the most important issue. Only 39% of people who voted for UKIP put the issue of Europe as one of the top four facing the UK)

Looking at other statements on race or immigration however, BNP supporters tend to contrast far more strongly with supporters of other parties. The majority of every other party’s voters agreed with the statement that “Non-white British citizens who were born in this country are just as ‘British’ as white citizens born in this country”, only 35% of BNP voters did, with 44% disagreeing. Large majorities of every party’s supporters agreed that there was no difference in intelligence between black and white people…except for BNP supporters, where only 41% agreed. Almost half (49%) of BNP supporters thought employers should discriminate on grounds of race in favour of white people (compared to 11% in the general population), and 58% thought most crime was committed by immigrants (22% in the general population). 72% of BNP supporters wanted the government to encourage voluntary repatriation, compared to 27% of the country as a whole.

At the extremes of conspiracy theory, BNP voters are more likely to believe in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, or that the Holocaust didn’t happen, but not to a great extent - the overwhelming majority reject them. 3% of British people apparently believe it completely true that “there is a major international conspiracy led by Jews and Communists to undermine traditional Christian values in Britain”, compared to 9% of BNP supporters. 9% of British people think the Holocaust is exaggerated, with 1% denying it entirely - the figures amongst BNP supporters are 18% and 2%.

A final interesting point was the question of where people got their political news from. The vast majority of people get their news, as one would expect, from the TV, followed by newspapers, the radio and news websites. There was no great contrast between supporters of one political party or another on any of these. Where there was a contrast was the proportion of people who got their news from “political parties websites” - only 3% of people ticked this, but 12% of BNP voters did, suggesting the BNP have managed to communicate directly with their potential voters across the web.

BNP vandalism in Loughton and Waltham Abbey

Local residents have condemned the BNP's practice of vandalism, which involves plastering BNP stickers and signs over lamp posts and bus shelters.

The BNP is guilty of hypocrisy, according to residents. While BNP councillors complain about vandalism, their party activists have been fly-posting the area over election time.

Lesley Lewis, 47, of Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey, told Epping Forest Guardian: “I first saw them when I opened the bedroom curtains and there was one staring straight into our windows.

“They were pinned up all over Honey Lane. Then when I went into town they were on every set of lampposts and bus-stop you could possibly imagine.”

Mrs Lewis contacted the district council who sent a lorry to remove the posters.

She said: “Their election leaflet said ‘we’re not in it for the money’ but they’re causing public money to be used to clear this up. Who did they think was going to clear it up?"

Loughton mayor Ken Angold-Stephens said: “They have incurred quite a lot of costs in removing them. They were up so high they had to use a ladder to remove them. It’s an illegal act and irresponsible.

“I’m a bit concerned they did break the law against fly-posting, and it’s a law which they proport to strongly support. They’ve been very strong in trying to clampdown on litter, graffiti and fly-posting.”

Local BNP leader Pat Richardson denies that it had anything to do with her party and blamed it on people trying to bring the party into disrepute, although it is unclear how opponents of the BNP would manage to get their hands on dozens of BNP signs and hundreds of party stickers. The problem of BNP vandalism has been ongoing for months. One comment on their website on 2 April, which was left unanswered by Councillor Peter Turpin, said: "Can you stop BNP supporters from sticking BNP stickers on bus stops and other places? In my mind it is as bad as graffiti."

The BNP don't like people removing their stickers either. Sometimes they conceal razor blades underneath the stickers. And notorious BNP thug Tony Lecomber was sentenced to three years imprisonment for unlawful wounding for his part in an attack on a Jewish schoolteacher whom he caught trying to peel off a BNP sticker at an underground station.

Epping Forest District Council has the power to take action against the BNP under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The cost of cleaning up fly-posting and defacement can be charged to the BNP. Government guidance states that:

Under section 224 TCPA 1990 it is immediately an offence to display an advertisement in contravention of regulations made under section 220 TCPA 1990, and a person found guilty of this offence may be fined up to level 4 (currently £2,500) in a magistrates’ court, with the possibility of further daily fines of up to one tenth of that level for each subsequent day in the case of a continuing offence. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 has amended the defence in section 224 so that someone upon whose land an unlawful advertisement is displayed or whose goods or business was the subject of such an advertisement and charged with the offence of displaying an illegal advertisement has to prove either that the advertisement was displayed without his knowledge; or that he took all reasonable steps to prevent the display, or subsequently, to secure its removal. This makes it more difficult for the beneficiaries of fly-posting to avoid prosecution simply by claiming that they never consented to the advertisement.

Hopefully, Epping Forest District Council will be billing Councillor Richardson for the damage her activists have done - something that no other party has indulged in. Why is it that BNP activists just can't stop breaking the law?

More people voted for Diversity than BNP

The BNP may well be celebrating winning the two seats it narrowly missed out on in 2004, with a small increase in its share of vote - although in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber its number of votes actually fell.

But in the East of England, there was no sign of any breakthrough. The BNP secured an unimpressive 1.7 percentage point rise in its vote, which was the equivalent of less than a third of the drop in Labour support. By far the biggest winners of the electoral backlash against the mainstream were the Greens, who increased their share of the vote by nearly twice the level achieved by the BNP, taking well over half of the share of disillusioned Labour and Liberal Democrat voters. UKIP held its own and the Conservatives reported a modest rise in their already dominant position.

Of the 4.2 million people eligible to vote in the East of England, just over 2% bothered to come out and put their cross by the BNP in an election that had a turnout of under 38%. Nick Griffin had put the average BNP vote at 9.8% in the European constituency, but his party's share of the vote was more than a third less than his prediction. Far from heralding the dawn of a new era of white supremacy, the elections demonstrated that the BNP remains a fringe party with little active support among the wider population.

And here is a fact the BNP will find hard to swallow: The mixed-race street dance act Diversity won over one million votes in Britain's Got Talent just days before the election, while the BNP won just under 944,000 votes!

At a local level, in Epping Forest, the BNP poll 10% of the total vote, which was well above the national average. But there were signs that the BNP's vote is faltering. Compared to the district council elections held last year, the BNP's proportion of the vote has diminished, particularly in Loughton Central. This should worry the BNP, although they will not say this publicly. The BNP lost both its district seats in the Loughton Central division in 2008 amid a surge in support for the Loughton Residents Association. With the LRA strengthening its voter further in 2009 at the BNP's expense, Rod Law and Peter Turpin are likely to see their political careers some to an end next May with the LRA taking their seats.

At the same time, BNP election supremo Eddy Butler was unable to push the vote up in Broadway as the Labour vote actually held up and maintained its second place ranking. Having leafletted Broadway and taken up a number of local issues there, the LRA looks set to move onto the BNP's Broadway territory and deal it a major blow next year. With the district elections likely to be held concurrently with a general election, the BNP could see their group reduced to one single councillor - Pat Richardson.

While there was a significant rise in BNP support in the Waltham Abbey and North Weald divisions - mainly due to the LibDem's failure to put up a serious fight - it is unlikely that they will have a chance to break Conservative dominance. The Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district by-election demonstrated the impossible task of winning a seat outside Debden. Despite a decline in their vote, the Conservatives still secured twice the BNP's vote and the BNP could not even achieve the share of vote they received in the 2007 by-election in the ward, when they came within a whisker of winning the seat.

In short, the BNP is facing a wipe-out in Epping Forest.

Mixed results for BNP in Epping Forest

The BNP had mixed results in Epping Forest, with a notable westward shift in the party's vote that was encouraged in large part over anxiety it exploited over the proposed development of permanent Gypsy settlements.

However, there was no spectacular breakthrough and the BNP did not come close to winning a county seat in the district, despite an upturn in its vote in Waltham Abbey and North Weald where it came second. In fact, the BNP's Loughton strongholds now look distinctly vulnerable with its vote in Loughton Central down sharply over its performance in 2008, when it lost two seats it was defending in the county division.

The party's performance in the Chigwell and Loughton Broadway division, which includes its Broadway stronghold, saw a small increase in the BNP's share of the vote over 2008 district results. This must have been a disappointment to candidate Eddy Butler, who serves as the BNP's national organiser and is its lead candidate for the East of England constituency in the European Parliament elections.

Meanwhile, Sue Clapp, BNP councillor for Loughton Broadway, recorded a predictably dismal performance in Saffron Walden, where she had been exiled after being considered too much of a liability to run in Epping Forest district. Clapp trailed the Labour party in last place with 5.1% of the vote; the seat was won by the incumbent Conservative councillor.

Nevertheless, the BNP has held its level of support. But it has not achieved a major breakthrough and did not win a county seat in what is supposed to be its stronghold in Essex. The party also did not come anywhere near winning the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council seat in spite of previous electoral success in the ward.

Overall, the elections were characterised by a collapse in support for the Labour party and continued Conservative dominance in five of seven seats in the district; the Loughton Residents Association consolidated its strong lead in Loughton Central and the Liberal Democrats regained control of Epping and Theydon Bois.

The Conservative vote was hit by the scandal surrounding MP Eleanor Laing's expenses, which led to an average 10 percentage point drop over 2008. The Liberal Democrats also concentrated their resources into two target wards, one that they won and the other - Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South - they secured a small increase in their vote in the swing away from the Conservatives. The BNP had to share the protest vote against the mainstream parties with the Greens, UKIP, the English Democrats and the LRA. But only the Greens were able to improve their vote significantly in all seven county divisions, suggesting that the BNP does not have the monopoly on the backlash against the mainstream locally.

Epping Forest BNP Watch gives its assessment of the electoral performance of the BNP in Epping Forest.

Loughton Central was easily defended by the town's current mayor, the LRA's Chris Pond, with a staggering 55% of the vote. At the same time, former LRA councillor Mitch Cohen failed to reverse the Conservatives' continuing decline in vote share, which dipped below 20% for the first time. The Conservatives' poor performance was a surprise to many who regarded Cohen as a popular local councillor. The BNP's vote in Loughton Central also fell sharply, with its vote now at the lowest level for four years. BNP candidate Rod Law presided over a massive 40%+ decline in the party's vote share. The BNP had always regarded Loughton born and raised Rod Law as a popular local, but he fared far worse than relative newcomers such as Eddy Butler and Julian Leppert. In part this is due to Law's poor image, having a bad reputation for being aggressive and openly racist. But the LRA's ability to demonstrate that it can get things done, while the BNP merely complains from the sidelines, has helped fuel its support at the BNP's expense. The situation does not bode well for the BNP's hopes of defending its marginal Alderton and Fairmead wards - two of the four wards that form the Loughton Central county division - in the 2010 district council elections. Based on the county results and the likelihood that the district elections will be held concurrently with a general election, the odds are stacked against the BNP and we predict it will lose these wards.

The BNP managed to hold up its vote share in the Chigwell and Loughton Broadway ward, but one notable surprise was an overall swing from Conservative to Labour when compared to the combined 2008 district council ward results for the division. It is likely that voters are generally more positive about the Conservatives at a district level than at a county level, although the controversy caused by the redevelopment of the Broadway shopping centre may have had a negative impact on the Conservative vote in the Loughton Broadway part of the division.

Labour came an unexpected second in the ward, with the BNP edging just ahead of the Liberal Democrats to secure third place, up from fourth in 2005. Labour managed to go from fourth place in 2008 to second, thereby bucking the county and national trend. Nevertheless, the BNP improved its position from 2008, with its share of the vote up by 1.7 percentage points, a 16% increase in vote share. While Butler is not free of controversy, as we have noted before he is a highly astute politician and this is why he is able to bolster the BNP vote while Rod Law sheds votes.

As we predicted, the BNP came second place in Waltham Abbey as the Liberal Democrat vote plummeted. With group leader Pat Richardson put forward as their candidate, the BNP has significantly strengthened its position in Waltham Abbey, which could be a secondary or alternative power base for the party outside its three Debden wards in Loughton: Fairmead, Alderton and Broadway. With the party in retreat in Debden, Waltham Abbey represents its best chance of shoring up its position in the district council.

However, while it has improved its position over the county division, the by-election in the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council ward showed no major progress for the party. We had been expecting a tighter race, but the Conservatives achieved twice the vote the BNP managed, despite the extremist party's second place. The Liberal Democrats ran a lacklustre campaign and lost votes, which the BNP capitalised on. Yet, the BNP was unable to repeat the performance of the 2007 by-election, when it came a very close second when Conservative voters stayed at home. It also only secured a four percentage point increase in its vote over 2008 results for the district wards in the division. Having come second, the BNP still remains a threat in Waltham Abbey and the results suggest it may have more support in the Waltham Abbey Paternoster ward

The BNP did not make any headway in Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South division or the Epping and Theydon Bois divisions, where the Liberal Democrats ran a strong campaign. In the former, the BNP have little presence with the vote at little more than 5%, while in the latter the BNP vote share fell. In Ongar and Rural division, Councillor Peter Turpin did poorly and worse than we expected with 8.5% of the vote. However, North Weald was a breakthrough for the BNP in the district, with former London mayoral candidate coming second on the back of public anger over travellers' sites that the BNP felt able to capitalise on. Consequently, the losses and stagnation in some divisions was outweighed by gains in others. Overall, the BNP held its own with 10% of the vote district-wide.

European elections

If repeated across the East of England at the European elections, the BNP has an outside chance of winning a seat in the East of England. The BNP itself has predicted that it will not make the threshold for a seat in the Euro constituency, although its own number-crunching suggests up to four seats nationwide: East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside and North West England. But despite a good showing in urban areas of Essex and Hertfordshire, where its vote varied between 5-15%, the rural counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are likely to see the protest vote swing to the Greens and UKIP.

The Green party fared exceptionally well in these counties where it stood. While the BNP won just one seat in the entire region in Hertfordshire, the Greens managed to notch up 11 seats and UKIP won two seats, despite being primarily focused on Europe rather than local issues. But it is unclear whether the Greens did enough to win a seat and head of a challenge from the BNP. No doubt people voted differently in the local and European elections and it is impossible to make any educated guess in a close-fought campaign by minor parties for the seventh seat in the East of England. We will know for certain when the results are announced tomorrow.

The outcome depends on YOU!

In recent weeks, Epping Forest BNP Watch has examined the BNP's prospects in Epping Forest and the candidates it is putting forward for election to Essex County Council. We have shown that the BNP has no manifesto for Essex and no vision for the county and the ineptitude and dubious backgrounds of some of their candidates.

Here are our guides to the wards up for election:
- Waltham Abbey, contested by Pat Richardson
- Loughton Central, contested by Rod Law
- Ongar and Rural, contested by Peter Turpin
- Chigwell and Loughton Broadway, contested by Eddy Butler

According to reports from canvassers from different parties, the BNP vote is negligible in Epping, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Ongar and the smaller villages; we don't have any reports on North Weald. Where the situation is less certain is in Loughton Broadway and Waltham Abbey. If the BNP gets out its supporters in these wards, it stands a good chance of coming second and, in the case of Waltham Abbey, a close second. As Loughton Broadway is lumped together with solid Conservative Chigwell, the vote there will not change the outcome, which is widely believed to be in the favour of the Tory incumbent.

There are number of factors that will determine the outcome. The 'Laing Factor', with the expenses furore surrounding local MP Eleanor Laing likely to keep Conservatives at home or prompt them to vote for other parties. The competition for these votes will come from the BNP, the Liberal Democrats and, in the case of Loughton South and Buckhurst Hill, the UK Independence Party. At the same time, it is almost inevitable that the Labour vote will fall if not collapse. This could benefit the Liberal Democrats, the BNP and the Greens. Loughton Central is the oddity in the district, being represented by the Loughton Residents Association with the main challenger being a popular LRA defector to the Conservatives. Despite its relatively strong (yet recently declining) vote in two of the district wards that comprise Loughton Central (Alderton and Fairmead), the BNP will find it hard to break into second place amid the competition between the two main competitors.

However, the Liberal Democrats and the BNP are not actively competing for the same votes. Both parties are concentrating their resources in different wards. The Liberals are seeking to win back Loughton South/Buckhurst Hill and Epping/Theydon Bois, while the BNP has focused its efforts on Waltham Abbey, where it has secured a 20-30% vote share in recent years, and keeping up the BNP vote in the three Debden wards - Broadway, Alderton and Fairmead, where it has secured 30-40% of the vote in the past. Neither party wants to stretch their resources too thinly. Consequently, the BNP could pick up the votes of disillusioned voters that could have been swayed to vote Liberal Democrats if they had actively and fully campaigned for these wards.

While the odds are still stacked against the BNP winning the county seat, the by-election for the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council seat could provide the BNP with a surprise win and recover the ground it lost in the 2008 elections when its council group lost two of its six councillors. A win in this seat would also mark the BNP's advance outside its Debden stronghold and the creation of a new power base in the district. The by-election is marked by uncertainties and conflicting reports, which make it too close to call. A lot will depend on turn-out.

Epping Forest BNP Watch urges everyone who opposes racism and neo-Nazi politics to come out and vote, but also to bear in mind how they vote and the impact this could have on our community.

BNP fundraiser is criminal with links to Loyalist killer

From Daily Record

The BNP's top fundraiser is today exposed as a militant anti-abortion campaigner with links to a Loyalist killer and a string of criminal convictions.

Jim Dowson is a former Orangeman who featured on a tape of flute band music supporting murderer Michael Stone.

He was also the face of a hardline pro-life organisation who posted names and addresses of pro-choice MSPs and a family planning group boss on the internet.

Dowson, of Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, is now a key aide to BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Griffin appointed Dowson as the party's money man and campaign organiser for their attempt to win seats in tomorrow's European Parliament election.

Dowson's past activities fly in the face of BNP attempts to paint the group in a more moderate light and be seen as a serious political party.

In a recent blog, Griffin praised Dowson for his help in getting their party political broadcast aired on Channel Five.

Griffin wrote: "This was just one of a huge number of extras that Jim Dowson threw in on top of all his other super-human efforts."

But we can reveal Dowson, 44, as a "rent-a-cause" extremist who was kicked out of the Orange Order.

Dowson formed Precious Life Scotland, later UK LifeLeague, in 1999 after meetings with Ireland's notorious Youth Defence, who had previously stormed buildings in Dublin in their crusade against a woman's right to choose.

He said he joined the antiabortion movement after being approached in the street by activists during a holiday in Belfast and felt disgusted by the aborted foetus images in their leaflets.

Dowson portrayed himself as a staunch Christian and even claimed to be preacher in his own church.

But Dowson has no shame over his sectarian views and violent past.

Possession

He has described himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool Protestant" and said "all options are open" in the fight against abortion.

He admitted: "I have a very chequered past."

Dowson has a list of criminal convictions including breach of the peace in 1986, possession of a weapon and breach of the peace in 1991 and criminal damage in 1992. He was forced out of his local Orange Lodge and took part in demonstrations against fellow Orangemen, attacking them as "atheists and boozers" after he was "born again".

Dowson denied claims he constantly referred to Catholics as "Fenian scum", but did admit to producing flute band tapes which glorified the worst Loyalist atrocities.

The tape of Cumbernauld's Abronhill flute band included a tribute to Michael Stone who murdered three Catholics at a funeral in 1988.

Neighbours in Cumbernauld told how Dowson would fly sectarian flags from the windows of his house.

In 1998, he protested against Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble's role in the Good Friday peace agreement.

But it was his role in the militant pro-life movement which gained him public exposure. Ironically, given his party's denial of the Nazis' hatred of Jews, Dowson held up graphic photographs of an aborted baby with the words "Hitler's Holocaust - Scotland's Holocaust Abortion" during Precious Life's first protest in Edinburgh.

In an interview, he repeated the comparison, saying: "It's like Hitler. He used fancy, flowery language to sanitise what went on in the death camps, didn't he?"

Divorce

Dowson eventually lost his job as sales manager for a catering firm over his continued publicity.

His organisation came under fire for bombarding children as young as 11 with graphic abortion images.

He and wife Anne were also behind Parent Truth, an group threatened with legal action over a planned billboard campaign carrying the phrase "The morning after pill can kill", alongside an image of a girl on a life support machine.

Brown leads fascist fight

Gordon Brown yesterday led a host of celebrities in condemning the BNP.

The PM and stars including actress Thandie Newton and Little Britain's Matt Lucas put their names to an open letter hitting out at the "racist and fascist"party.

The letter said:"We love Britain precisely because of its tolerance and diversity. "The British National Party and their allies are a threat to everything that makes us proud of this country we love.

"The BNP are working hard to conceal their extremism because they know British people reject the politics of racism and hatred."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday warned that Britain faces a "day of shame" if the BNP are elected to the European Parliament.

Miliband, whose Jewish grandparents were forced to flee the Nazis, said: "It would be a day of enormous shame if the country that led the fight against the Nazism in the 1940s ends up with the political descendants of fascism representing Britain."

The BNP stand no real chance of winning a Scottish seat in the European election tomorrow.

But nearly 20,000 Scots voted for the BNP at the last Euro poll in 2004 and the fear is they will increase that total this time.

The sickness at the heart of the BNP

By Edmund Standing

‘Paedophiles against the BNP’ is the title of a post at the ‘Red Squirrel’ blog of the lunatic Elizabeth Walton of Swindon BNP branch. The post refers to the Church of England as a ‘vile perverts organisation’ and refers to C of E Bishops as ‘pompous, self-righteous windbags … renowned for interfering with young boys’.

Walton borrowed from the post from the BNP supporting ‘Britain Awake’ blog, which is filled with crude racist bile and homophobic content.

Here’s how ‘Britain Awake’ covered a racist attack on a black anti-racist activist:

Racial tension leading up to the European and local elections spilled out onto the streets of London this week after a black anti-fascist campaigner was beaten senseless by a pair of white men…

Police were called to Eltham High Street last Saturday afternoon when the volunteer from ‘Unite Against Democracy’ was set upon by two men said to be defending the democratic rights of the British people. Their victim had been handing out anti-democratic leaflets begging people not to vote for the BNP.

Quite frankly this bastard got all he deserved, if he dislikes democracy that much, he should fuck off to Robert Mugabes shit-hole that is better known as Zimbabwe!

Black anti-fascist campaigner… Wouldn’t it be great if it was that Weyman Bennett cunt who received the pasting!

Here’s ‘Britain Awake’ on the dance group ‘Diversity‘, winners of this year’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ competition:

Lack of talent contest BGT crowned negro dance troupe ‘Diversity’ as this years winners. Why would anyone would want to watch a bunch of arrogant bastards poncing about unless it was through the sights of a semi-automatic?

The Queen has to sit through this type of shit every time she visits some remote commonwealth country, we think she deserves a break from this sort of crap!

And the ‘Britain Awake’ blogger also posts a video of an Indian man dying from electrocution with the description ‘Certainly more entertaining than that “Diversity” nonsense that won Britains got talent!’

This is the real BNP on show. Remember that when you hear people talking about ‘protest votes’ and seeing the BNP as potential ‘allies’ against Islamism.

Screen shots (click to enlarge):

Ke

BNP lead candidate: drinking driving without insurance or MoT

A leading candidate for the British National Party in the forthcoming European elections has been charged with failing to provide a specimen and using a vehicle with no insurance or MoT test certificate, Scotland Yard said.

Robert Bailey, 43, of Romford, east London, has been bailed to appear before Havering magistrates on Friday after being charged with failing to provide a specimen and using a vehicle with no insurance and no test certificate, Scotland Yard said.

A spokeswoman said Bailey, who is leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council and is top of the BNP list for London in the Euro elections, was stopped by police at 11.20pm last Thursday in London Road, Romford. A spokesman for the BNP indicated that Bailey would plead not guilty to both charges.

Loughton churches unite against BNP

Loughton Churches Together has leafleted the town in an effort to beat back the BNP.

In a carefully worded letter to local residents, the multi-denominational group that includes all Christian churches encouraged people to vote in the county council and European elections, but warned against the consequences of supporting racist parties.

It said: "We understand that many feel disillusioned with politics with all the current publicity. However, not voting leaves a potentiall dangerous void. This highlights the need for us to vote with care and consideration."

While the group said it did not support any particular party, it gave a strong indication that voters should shun the BNP. The leaflet stated: "We are united in our belief in equality and stand against all racial prejudice longing for messages that unite everone in our community."

It also published the results of the previous county council and European elections. In Epping Forest district, the BNP secured 7.5% of the vote, coming fifth in the poll. Although the BNP regards the district as a stronghold, if the level had been achieved across the European constituency it still would have been well short of a victory. However, it was still way above the 4.3% the party secured regionally.

The Churches Together is a wake-up call for non-voters. If you fail to vote, you could end up being represented by a neo-Nazi party that will embarrass the country at an international level.

BNP rants and raves on Facebook

Epping Forest BNP Watch recently exposed Loughton BNP councillor Rod Law as a close associate of convicted drug-dealing thug Jock Shearer.

The Observer carries more revelations about the ranting racists that control the BNP, including the lunatic Lee Barnes ...

Exposed: ugly face of BNP's leaders

BNP members Barry Bennett (left) and Lee Barnes (right)

Prominent members of the British National party are today revealed as Nazi-sympathisers and racists with abhorrent views on such diverse issues as teenage violence, David Beckham and even David Cameron's deceased son, Ivan.

The revelations undermine the party's attempts to paint itself in a more moderate light before the local and European elections and threaten to derail the electoral ambitions of its leader, Nick Griffin, who is standing as a prospective MEP.

At a time when BNP activists are claiming a surge in support in the polls, a reflection, they say, of mounting public outrage over MPs' expenses, the party has been keen to portray itself as a viable alternative to mainstream political parties.

The BNP website boasts that money is flooding into its campaign headquarters. Its administration consultant, Jim Dowson, claims the party's call centre alone received just under 12,000 calls in the first 15 minutes following the BNP's first national television broadcast. And in emails to supporters - or "patriots" as the BNP calls them - Griffin claims almost £400,000 has been stumped up by supporters to help fund the party's European election campaign.

It claims the apparent groundswell in support is down to the "British public waking from the long, deep sleep". Much of the BNP's recent success has been down to its ability to shake off the patina of far-right extremism that has alienated most voters since its inception. But this month the veneer slipped when it emerged that a Salford-based BNP candidate in the European elections had set his Facebook status to read "Wogs go home". Eddy O'Sullivan, 49, wrote: "They are nice people - oh yeah - but can they not be nice people in the fucking Congo or... bongo land or whatever?" O'Sullivan, who also joined an internet group called "Fuck Islam", denied that the comments were racist and insisted they were made in private conversations between individuals. "I also may have had a drink at the time," he added.

Amid the furore, the BNP's leaders promised an investigation into O'Sullivan's comments. The party's officials also circulated urgent emails urging its members that "particular care should be taken when making comments on chat forums and other sites such as Facebook. Do not make the mistake of thinking that comments posted on these sites are secret or hidden. Making inappropriate comments on these sites will be regarded as a very serious disciplinary offence. Please ensure that this message is passed quickly to all members in your area and that it is acted upon. We are entering a very critical time in our party's history and cannot afford careless and stupid talk that can undermine the hard work of our activists."

But the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight has spent months infiltrating the far right's network of websites and chatrooms and found that many BNP activists share O'Sullivan's views.

They include:

• Jeffrey Marshall, senior organiser for the BNP's London European election campaign. Following the death of David Cameron's disabled son Ivan, Marshall claimed in an internet forum discussion: "We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it."

Later, in response to comments made by others on the site, Marshall is alleged to have written: "There is not a great deal of point in keeping these people alive after all." He said the comments were private and some had been paraphrased and taken out of context. He admitted making the former comment, but said he could not recall making the latter one in an email to the forum, a copy of which is in the Observer's possession.

• Garry Aronsson, Griffin's running mate for the European parliament in the North West, posts an avatar on his personal web page featuring a Nazi SS death's head alongside the statement, "Speak English Or Die!" Aronsson proclaims on the site: "Every time you change your way of life to make immigrants more comfortable you betray OUR future!" He lists his hobbies as "devising slow and terrible ways of paying back the Guardian-reading cunts who have betrayed the British people into poverty and slavery. I AM NOT JOKING."

• Barry Bennett, MEP candidate for the South West, posted several years ago under a pseudonym in a white supremacist forum the bizarre statement that "David Beckham is not white, he's a black man." Bennett, who is half-Jewish according to the BNP's deputy leader, Simon Darby, continued: "Beckham is an insult to Britishness, and I'm glad he's not here." He added: "I know perfectly respectable half-Jews in the BNP... even Hitler had honorary Aryans who were of Jewish descent... so whatever's good enough for Hitler's good enough for me. God rest his soul."

• Russ Green, MEP candidate for the West Midlands, posted recently on Darby's web page: "If we allowed Indians, Africans, etc to join [the BNP], we would become the 'British multi-National party' ... and I really do hope that never happens!" Darby said he echoed Green's sentiments.

• Dave Strickson, a BNP organiser who helps run its eastern region European election campaign, carried on his personal "Thurrock Patriots" blog a recent report of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in east London beneath the words "Another teen stabbed in Coon Town". The site also carried a mock-up racist version of the US dollar entitled "Obama Wog Dollar". Darby said the BNP did not endorse these comments and described them as "beyond the pale".

When confronted in the past about the extreme views of some of its members, the BNP senior hierarchy has often tried to dismiss them as unrepresentative of the party's core membership. But it appears that they run right to the top of the party.

Lee Barnes, the BNP's senior legal officer and one of Griffin's closest allies, has posted a video on his personal blog of a black suspect being beaten by police officers in the US and describes it as "brilliant". Barnes adds: "The beating of Rodney King still makes me laugh."

Barnes told the Observer his comments were "nothing to do with colour" but were merely a reflection of his belief that the police should have more powers to punish perpetrators of crime by "giving them a good thrashing".

But anti-fascist groups said such comments portrayed the BNP in its true light. "This is the face of the modern BNP," said a spokesman for Searchlight. "The comments of Nick Griffin's candidates and officials are sickening beyond belief. They have tried to hide their agenda of racism and hate from the voters, and they have failed."

Separately, concerns exist about the historic links between the BNP and extremist groups. Gary Pudsey, a BNP organiser running the Yorkshire and Humber campaign, was once a regular at National Front meetings. A young Pudsey was also photographed with the late Max Waegg, a Nazi second world war pilot who wrote articles for the white supremacist magazine Spearhead

Martin Page is a BNP treasurer and his wife Kim is a senior fundraiser for the party. Both have been photographed alongside Benny Bullman, the lead singer of Whitelaw, the white supremacist band whose songs include Fetch the Noose, We're Coming for You and For White Pride.

And Dowson, the BNP's senior administrator, who appears on the party's website talking about the success of its call centre's fundraising activities, has also been dogged by allegations that he has enjoyed close relationships with hardline loyalist groups in the past. The 45-year-old has also been the public face of the LifeLeague, the militant anti-abortion group that has hijacked Britain's pro-life debate. He has regularly appeared on television to pronounce terminations a sin and has published the names of abortion clinic staff, placing many in fear for their personal safety.

That the BNP has become a magnet for extreme-right sympathisers is understandable given Griffin's own background. The Cambridge graduate was himself a member of the NF before going on to form the International Third Position, a neo-fascist organisation with links to the Italian far right.

But aware of the party's need to raise funds from middle England, Griffin has repeatedly attempted to portray his party as the "reasonable" face of patriotism in its bid to broaden its appeal. The approach has paid dividends, with the party having gained 55 seats on local councils, including a seat on the Greater London Authority. This June it is contesting every UK seat at the European elections and there have been predictions it could win overall control of Stoke City Council.

Darby, Griffin's deputy and the BNP's spokesman, accused Searchlight of "distorting the BNP's message" in a bid to derail its political ambitions. He accused the organisation of being "merely a front for the Labour party, paid for by National Lottery funds". Darby said: "When you put it in the context of what's been happening at Westminster, a few scribblings on Facebook hardly seems something to get worried about."

Previous convictions

Nick Griffin, convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement to racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Kevin Scott, a BNP supporter and former North East regional organiser, has convictions for assault and threatening behaviour.

Terry Collins, a party member, was jailed for five years after waging a year-long terror campaign against Asian families in Eastbourne.

Joe Owens, a former Merseyside BNP candidate and bodyguard to Nick Griffin, served eight months for sending razor blades to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters.

Colin Smith, former BNP south-east London organiser, has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, stealing cars, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer.

Tony Lecomber, a former BNP propaganda director, was jailed in 1985 after a nail bomb exploded as he carried it to the Workers' Revolutionary party offices. Jailed again in 1991 for assaulting a Jewish teacher on the Underground.

Hitler reacts to BNP membership leak

Ex-BNP Man Turns Back on Racist Past

My name is Chris Brennan and I had the misfortune to be a candidate for the British National Party in the 2007 Luton elections. I joined another racist group, the National Front, when I was just out of school - down on my luck and without too many prospects. I joined the BNP after a couple of years in the NF running around with people that were little more than criminals and bootboys. At first the BNP appeared friendly and offered some simple answers to things that were frustrating me at the time. As I got drawn further in however, it became clear to me that their activists were full of hate - for Jews and black people as well as for each other. When I stood as a candidate I felt I was left all by myself - a young lad - without any support from the older men who were pulling the strings from way off in Milton Keynes. The last straw was when another party member assaulted me in the street - from that point on I decided to make a break. Since then I have made a new career for myself in a new part of the country. Whereas I still have questions about immigration, my views have changed seeing that I have got to know people from all sorts of backgrounds.

My simple message to you is not to trust any leaflet or candidate from the BNP that might land on your doorstep. Behind the gloss lies a message of fear put around by men who have no answers for the issues of Luton today.

From Three Counties Unity

If you tell a lie big enough ...

From Hope Not Hate website

A British National Party claim on Monday that the police are investigating Searchlight for attacking a commercial company’s website is a lie of which Joseph Goebbels would be proud and further evidence of how the party’s election campaign is falling apart.

The BNP website went down for several hours over the holiday weekend. On Sunday evening the party claimed it had suffered a “massive Denial of Service Attack … emanating from Eastern Europe and Russia”.

The statement, which appeared on the blog of Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, continued: “On Friday the servers of Clear Channel, part of a huge conglomerate that provides billboard advertising, suffered a similar attack. Their IT professionals tracked the criminal activity back to a notorious ‘anti-fascist’ organisation.

“This organisation was protesting at the decision by Clear Channel to allow the BNP to display advertising in support of our European Election Campaign.” The statement claimed that Clear Channel’s lawyers were issuing writs against “the perpetrators” that would involve “the possibility of potential criminal charges including racketeering”.

A further statement on Monday claimed that the “Counter Terrorism Unit at Scotland Yard” was investigating the attack on the BNP website and that Searchlight “is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for a similar attack on the servers of Clear Channel”.

Clear Channel denied the BNP’s claims. A spokeswoman for the company told a Searchlight researcher: “I’ve checked with our IT department and we haven’t experienced any denial of service”.

Last week Searchlight asked people to email Clear Channel to protest against its decision to display BNP posters and over 5,300 people responded. So far Clear Channel is standing by its policy of allowing all political parties to advertise at the market rate though the company “does not support them in any way”.

The BNP knows well the difference between a denial of service attack on a website and an email protest campaign. Paul Golding, who runs the BNP’s “Operation Fightback”, has himself often asked supporters to email media outlets that have run anti-BNP stories and anyone else who has upset the fascist party.

We can only assume that the BNP has realised just how hard it is being hit by the constant exposés of its fascism and lies in the media and is desperately trying to divert attention from its difficulties by throwing out wild accusations against its opponents.

Last week the BNP placed on its website an interview with Helen Forster, a party member, that Golding recorded after her conviction for racist intimidation was exposed in the Daily Mirror. Although she had told the Mirror reporter that she was “still in the BNP”, she lied blatantly to Golding that she had never joined the party. The BNP then falsely claimed it had taken the “Daily Mirror’s scalp”. Promised writs from the BNP’s fake “lawyer”, Lee Barnes, failed to materialise.

Searchlight awaits Clear Channel’s writs and Metropolitan Police enquiries about a fictitious attack on Clear Channel’s website with bated breath. The BNP should remember that wasting police time is a serious criminal offence.

Meanwhile, whatever the real reason for the absence of the BNP’s website over the weekend, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, could not let it pass without grabbing another opportunity to milk his supporters for money. Claiming ludicrously that the BNP had suffered the “largest cyber attack in recorded history”, he explained that they had been “forced to hire a Cyber Defence expert” and “need to invest in additional hardware and servers”. The items had to be paid for immediately, but “every penny we possess is allocated to the Euro Election Campaign”.

The party therefore desperately needed £5,000, so much so that Griffin had “personally donated £250 to this appeal to set things in motion”, no doubt yet another of the lies that seem to trip so easily from his mouth.

BNP: A party without policies or vision for Essex

The BNP is contesting all 75 wards at the Essex County Council elections, but has failed to produce a manifesto or outline a single policy for the county. Instead, they have rolled out a national local election manifesto without any specifics for Essex, the problems it faces in a challenging economic environment and the solutions on offer. The generalised manifesto is, unsurprisingly for a racist party, devoted to immigration issues over which local authorities have no control. This is an insult to the electorate and shows that the BNP offers no solutions to the economic downturn in Essex, no vision for local government and no interest in democratic politics.

In contrast to the BNP, all parties contesting wards in Epping Forest district have published comprehensive Essex manifestos to win the support of local voters, even the minor parties like the Green Party and the Loughton Residents Association. For all the malaise in politics at the present time, the BNP have shown they have no interest in your opinion or in the future of Essex. All they have done is march around with the Essex flag - upside down!

So that you, the voter, can make an informed choice, we have listed the manifesto highlights for all parties contesting in the local elections, in alphabetical order.

In the mean time, keep watching this space for new insights into Epping Forest BNP ...!

Conservatives
Manifesto: A Record of Action. A Promise for More

• Keeping Council tax rises below inflation
• Concessionary fares for 14-19 year olds in full time education
• Developing over a thousand apprenticeships across Essex
• Helping local businesses benefit from our groundbreaking Bank of Essex
• £100 million investment in vocational skills training
• Recycling to reach 60% by 2020
• £200 million of tax payers money to be saved through streamlining processes and slashing bureaucracy
• Expansion of popular schools
• Leading the campaign to establish a sustainable and fair social care system in the UK

Green Party
Manifesto for 2009

• The Greens work with others to raise standards in Social Services and Children's Services. There needs to be better integration with NHS services, particularly for continuing care for the elderly.
• Green Councillors will work to improve provision for elderly care, both residential and at home.
  
• Greens oppose further privatisation in public services, especially expensive PFI schemes that cost the taxpayer far more than equivalent public funded projects and unfairly benefit shareholders of private companies at public expense.
• Green Councillors will work to improve library services. There needs to be improved integration with other public information services ie "one stop shops".
• Greens will strongly oppose closure of local fire stations.
• Greens will oppose more development on sports fields.
• Greens will support better youth activities to help cut anti-social behaviour.

Labour
Manifesto: Save Essex County Council

• More resources for footpath/pavement repairs
• More resources for pothole repairs on roads in our towns and villages
• Major investment in our libraries, including substantial new money into the book fund
• Substantial investment into children’s and adult care services
• Greater support for public transport
• To raise standards in our schools
• Reversal of the damaging Tory waste policy
• Huge reduction in consultancy costs
  

Liberal Democrats
Manifesto: Make it Happen

• Proper maintenance of our roads all year round - not just at election time
• Cut the extra cash allowances given to most Conservative county councillors. Invest more in care for the elderly and disabled
• Cut the County Council's massive £200 million in reserves. Give tax-payers their money back.
• Cut the County Council's £5 million per year propaganda budget. Invest in youth services.
• Stop the County Council gambling £50 million of your money on the Bank of Essex. Help businesses create more jobs in Essex.
• Stop chasing headlines. Provide good quality, good value public services.

Loughton Residents Association
Manifesto: An independent voice for Loughton, free of party political interests

• Getting the Debden bus stops back to original position.
• Getting new bus stops to serve College on Borders Lane.
• Pressing for renewal of the pavement near Morrison's.
• A major scheme of resurfacing estate roads in Loughton and Debden.
• Some recognition that Loughton is hilly and its local roads gritting and salting.
• Stopping the absurd idea of switching off all street lights at midnight.
• Getting the High Road enhancement finished. The Conservative-run District Council have washed their hands of it so pressure on ECC has to be maintained.
• Urging action to tackle the failings at Epping Forest College.
  

Family of Winston Churchill slams BNP over far-right party's attempt to hijack wartime leader's legacy

From the Daily Mail

Relatives of Sir Winston Churchill have denounced as ‘monstrous’ an attempt by BNP leader Nick Griffin to cloak himself in the mantle of Britain's greatest wartime leader.

The far-right British National Party’s election broadcast, which is screened nationwide this evening, features Mr Griffin quoting from one of Churchill’s most famous speeches.

The BNP chief uses the broadcast to argue that modern Britain, with its record of welcoming immigrants, has betrayed the ‘the blood, sweat, toil and tears’ of those who fought for freedom in the Second World War.

BNP leader Nick Griffin has provoked fury from Churchill's grandson, Tory MP Nicholas Soames, who claims the racist party is trying to hijack the wartime leader's legacy

The advert, which features footage of Sir Winston and British war graves, provoked fury from descendants of Churchill, who have tried to ban the BNP from appropriating his image.

Tory MP Nicholas Soames, Sir Winston’s grandson, revealed yesterday that he has tried and failed to get election watchdogs to ban the BNP from using Churchill as a vote winner.

Mr Griffin was also accused of ‘sickening hypocrisy’ after it emerged that he once praised the 'limitless courage and sacrifice', of Hitler’s SS, and described the RAF’s bombing of Dresden as 'mass murder'.

Sir Winston Churchill: His family have tried unsuccessfully to stop the BNP using the wartime leader to attract votes

Mr Soames told the Mail he has consulted lawyers and tried to get the Electoral Commission to step in and stop the BNP, but confessed he had been rebuffed.

He said he has received ‘hundreds of letters’ from his grandfather’s generation distressed that the far right group is ‘abusing their memory’ and implying that Sir Winston would have backed the BNP’s racist cause.

‘It’s a monstrous thing to do. Most sensible people will be disgusted by the BNP’s use of Churchill’s face and imagery purporting to claim that my grandfather would have supported their policies.

‘It is such a disgusting and outrageous suggestion. They have no right to use Churchill’s face in this way. It causes tremendous offence to people of the wartime generation.

‘They were a generous generation. They weren’t a mean-spirited generation. It is deeply offensive to his family and if the law were different we would take steps to stop it. To suggest that he would have supported something as wicked as the BNP is beyond the pale.’

Newly uncovered copies of ‘The Rune’, a white supremacist magazine edited by Mr Griffin in the late 1990s, show that far from respecting Britain’s war effort in the 1940s he was a fan of the SS units that committed countless war crimes against the allies.

Mr Griffin published one article stating: ‘The tales of Waffen SS courage and sacrifices are almost limitless.’

Another piece claimed: ‘In an unbiased assessment of war-crimes, the Waffen SS were undoubtedly no worse that the troops of other nations – countless Allied war crimes are simply not publicised.’

In 1996 he organised a demonstration on the steps of Coventry Cathedral in which he claimed RAF pilots who bombed Dresden in World War Two were guilty of ‘mass murder’.

According to Griffin, the leaflets were written by 'veteran German patriot', Manfred Roeder, who fought for Hitler in the defence of Berlin in 1945 then founded a neo-Nazi organisation in the 1980s that was classified as a terrorist group by German authorities after it launched attacks against buildings housing asylum seekers.

A spokesman for the anti-fascist campaign group Searchlight said: ‘Griffin’s hypocrisy is sickening. This man is on record as praising the SS and accusing RAF pilots of committing mass murder.

‘For him to evoke the memory of fallen British serviceman to further his campaign of division and hate is beyond belief.’

Jon Cruddas, the Labour MP for Dagenham, where the BNP hope to make gains, said: ‘This exposes the fact that Nick Griffin is on record praising the SS and attacking the RAF. It’s only because there is an election on that he’s pretending to be a supporter of the Armed Forces. People will see through the sham.’

The Ugly Face of BNP's Politics

The BNP will inevitably deny that its supporters had anything to do with yesterday's anti-Muslim riot in Luton yesterday, which followed the bombing of a mosque in the town. They will also deny that their intensive campaigning in the town featuring the infamous 'truth truck' that recently made a visit to Waltham Abbey had created a poisonous atmosphere that has enabled mindless yobbery to thrive. But this is the ugly face of racist politics, bringing back images of the National Front violence of 1970s and 1980s - a time during which local BNP Councillor Peter Turpin was a National Front activist.

To understand what the BNP will reduce this country to if it is given a little bit of power and state funding (which it will receive if just one BNP MEP is elected), read this article.

If the BNP do make their much-vaunted break-through, expect to see more of this hooliganism on the streets - perhaps even in Loughton or Waltham Abbey. Because this is the "well-directed boots and fists" communalist yobbery that the NF and its successor, the BNP, pursued for years. And the likes of local BNP activists Eddy Butler, Rod Law, Peter Turpin and others were involved in these groups at a time when they openly advanced racist violence, well before their party leader Nick Griffin's superficial cosmetic make-over.

None of this mindless drunken violence honours the soldiers of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who were heckled and barracked by a couple of dozen religious extremists in Luton a few weeks ago. Draping yourself in the English flag while beating up policemen and Asian passers-by just shames our nation. The BNP is not patriotic, it is not Christian, it is not British, it is not decent and it is not democratic. It is a violent neo-Nazi sect.

Don't say we didn't warn you. Vote BNP and the balaclava-clad thugs will follow.

Not quite boring us into submission, the BNP's sad, deluded army of mug punters drone on

By Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail

I have pledged that as long as BNP members continue to target this site with their unresponsive, repetitive, brain-dead bombardment of e-mails, I will not be cowed - or bored - into silence. It is clearly their aim to silence me, so it is one of my aims not give into it. I ask for the patience and tolerance (and, if they feel able, the support) of readers who feel (as I do) that this argument has been concluded to the satisfaction of anyone capable of reasoned thought, and that the BNP is a bigoted and disreputable party. I am grateful for the many, by no means all of them sympathisers with my main positions, who have helped defend this site from this assault.

So let me just repeat here (and believe me, I shall not stop doing this) that no patriotic or Christian person should vote for this disreputable party. Its 'policies' are a changeable salad of borrowed ideas. Its real and unchangeable nature is revealed in its explicitly racially bigoted constitution.

The reason that I am attacked so insistently (and dimly) for saying this is that I am a genuine opponent of British membership of the EU, a genuine opponent of mass immigration, a genuine opponent of multiculturalism and political correctness, a genuine supporter of the punishment of criminals and the deterrence of crime, a genuine enthusiast for rigour and discipline in education, a genuine campaigner for the married family. And yet I am not one of them. By not being one of them, I show that it is quite possible to hold serious conservative views without tumbling into the pit of unreason in which they scrabble and squawk. This truth is unwelcome to them. Oddly enough, it is equally unwelcome to the other people who hate me, the Guardian-reading liberals who likewise believe that all conservatives are bigots, and that to be a conservative is to be a bigot. It isn't true, and it is vital for the future of proper politics in this country that we continue to demonstrate that it is not true.

One of the techniques of the campaign against me, which I must assume is inspired by someone somewhere, is to tell lies about me, suggesting (for instance) that I am a supporter of multiculturalism or mass immigration, or a secret Labour sympathiser.

These falsehoods levelled against me are (I must be forgiving here) presumably caused by the ‘none so blind as will not see’ problem which bedevils so many debates. People become so gripped by an enthusiasm, and enjoy it so much, that they are actively upset by anyone who dares cast doubt upon it. Rather than responding with reason, because secretly they suspect the critic is right, they respond with abuse and misrepresentation. A lot of political activity is, alas, self-indulgent, aimed at making the participant feel happy about himself rather than aimed at doing any manner of good.

They assume that a person who holds these views must also be like them, gullible, inclined for hysterical, oversimplified solutions, assuming everyone is what he appears to be, afraid to look too deeply into the nature of the leaders they have decided, for their own self-indulgent joy, to support. In truth, they're not quite sure about this. They feel, deep down, a little uncomfortable with the company that they keep, and are (as people with doubts invariably are) angered by any outsider who voices the doubts they are trying to suppress. In this, I feel sorry for them.

I note also that none of them offers any argument at all to deal with the unquestionable fact that the BNP's constitution, apparently as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians, is specifically racialist. Why can this not be changed, if the BNP has truly changed? Nor do any of them seem to be able to cope with the idea that any person can, with a good will and the necessary encouragement, become British. I am sorry about this. But in fact this inability to accept this possibility is a perfect example of the racially determinist view, as adopted by such people as Houston Stewart Chamberlain and leading, as all such blasphemous rubbish does lead, to the most terrible injustice and the most contemptible intellectual drivel. Mr Chamberlain, by the way, convinced himself that Jesus Christ was not a Jew, but an Aryan. This was at least preferable to the attitude of the German National Socialists, who came to hate Christ because he was a Jew, but you see where this sort of stuff can get you, and it is not nice.

I am insistently told that there are Jews in prominent positions in the BNP. Somehow (I wonder why not? Don't you?) these persons have never encountered any evidence of Judophobia in the ranks of the BNP. So what? This proves nothing other than that Jews are just as capable of being gullible as anyone else. Have these people never heard the phrase 'Potemkin Village' or understood its meaning? Also I am informed that there are people in the BNP with Japanese or Asian wives, etc.

The important fact, which could not be altered by whole squads of Jewish BNP councillors, or regiments of Japanese or Asian BNP spouses, is that the BNP leadership and membership are still rife with people who are racial determinists, and/or who 'doubt' the truth of the Holocaust, or who seek to belittle it - though these days such people tend to indulge their odd, pathetic little hobby in private rather than in public, just as the BNP leadership wears suits. The change is superficial. I feel as sorry for any Jewish person taken in by it as I do for any non-Jewish person taken in by it.

I am asked (anonymously of course) ‘Why do some people find it so difficult to distinguish between racial bigotry, on the one hand, and an entirely natural desire to prevent one's country being transformed into something unrecognisably alien, on the other?‘

On the contrary, I find it very easy to distinguish between the two. A person who can subscribe to the BNP constitution is clearly a racial bigot. A person who views the BNP constitution with distaste and refuses to have anything to do with it is not. But a person who subscribes to that constitution and then claims to be interested only in defending the national culture is plainly on shaky terms with the truth. Race and culture are two different things.

Yet this nameless contributor dares to assert: ’That is not racism, but good, old-fashioned conservatism. It is remarkable that even highly educated members of the metropolitan elite, as represented by Peter Hitchens, cannot grasp this simple distinction.‘

Highly educated? How kind of him to think so. But I am not, by any standard, a ‘member of the metropolitan elite’, a group of people that rejects and dislikes me. As to grasping the simple distinction, I think I grasp it very well. That is exactly why I have opposed multiculturalism for many years, why I call for the end of mass immigration and why I (and many others with similar views) wish to have nothing to do with the BNP. It is precisely because I think that those here can become British that I think it necessary to fight on both these fronts.

And so I continue to advise all persons of conscience and intelligence to shun it and refuse any temptation to vote for the BNP. The more I am pestered by the logic-free bores of the BNP, the more frequently and the more loudly will I say this. A different posting on an entirely different topic will follow.