Epping Forest, Loughton BNP Watch

The BNP/Loyalist Crossover Forces Romanians From Their Homes

2009-06-20T11:37:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-13T22:28:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-12T00:17:00.006+01:00

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!

2009-06-11T18:45:00.001+01:00

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?

2009-06-10T14:58:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-09T00:29:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-08T16:50:00.005+01:00

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

2009-06-06T00:54:00.016+01:00

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!

2009-06-04T08:01:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-03T09:37:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-02T22:24:00.000+01:00

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):

BNP lead candidate: drinking driving without insurance or MoT

2009-06-02T22:01:00.001+01:00

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

2009-06-02T00:16:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-31T14:57:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-27T14:55:00.001+01:00

Ex-BNP Man Turns Back on Racist Past

2009-05-27T10:52:00.000+01:00

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 ...

2009-05-26T23:21:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-26T12:24:00.007+01:00

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

2009-05-26T11:18:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-25T19:04:00.006+01:00

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

2009-05-25T16:59:00.001+01:00

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.

British Legion: "We are 100% for Joanna Lumley and 0% for the BNP."

2009-05-25T02:02:00.003+01:00

From The Star

Veterans last night blasted a BNP chief who caused outrage by saying Gurkha war heroes should not be allowed to stay in Britain.Simon Darby, deputy leader of the extremist group, was slammed for demanding the Nepalese squaddies be refused entry to the UK.

He sparked fury by saying allowing 100,000 of the soldiers to settle here “isn’t on”, because there was “no room” here.

Darby added: “The British Army is opening itself up to become a mercenary army with so many foreign people in it.

“It’s a bad idea, right. Nowhere in Gurkhas’ contr acts does it say that you have a right to live in this country.

“Yes, within reason some of them can stay. But 100,000 people? For heaven’s sake. It’s not on, is it? No.”

War veterans last night blasted his comments.

Robert Lee, head of campaigns at the Royal British Legion, said they backed actress Joanna Lumley’s victory last week to allow Gurkha warriors the chance to live in Britain after a lifetime defending it.

He said: “We have made it possible for 186 Gurkhas to live here while they campaigned for justice. We are 100% for Joanna Lumley and 0% for the BNP.”

A spokesman for anti-fascist campaigner Searchlight added: “It’s difficult to know what is more nauseating, Darby’s prejudice or his hypocrisy.

“In public he pretends to support the Gurkhas, but in front of his bigoted supporters he attacks them as mercenaries. The Gurkhas fought and died for this country, yet they are not immune from Simon Darby’s vile smears.”

The latest BNP outrage comes just days after one of its candidates, Eddy O’Sullivan, was exposed as a hate-mongering racist after writing on his Facebook page: “W*gs go home.”

The party also uses American models on posters to promote British jobs for British workers.

Setting the record straight

2009-05-24T22:57:00.008+01:00

The BNP have responded to this site by claiming that it is associated with the far-left and Hope Not Hate and inferring that one or two local councillors are involved in Epping Forest BNP Watch as part of a smear campaign.

So, we are setting the record straight. The two (and a half) authors of this blog are not councillors and in fact have never communicated, by email, phone, directly or through the powers of telepathy with Independent Loughton Councillor Stephen Murray. Nor has this anything to do with Hope Not Hate and although we broadly support that campaign, we have differences - in particular, we think that the No Platform policy is counter-productive, and have stated this. The BNP will probably dispute this, but frankly who cares what they say? Their minds are addled with such bizarre conspiracy theories that they may think this is a ZOG operation to mogrelise the white race (that is the default ideological position on planet BNP).

Who are we? We are certainly not loony lefties - far from it, in fact. We are simply a couple of local residents who got sick of BNP lies and hate-mongering and decided to re-register the Epping Forest BNP's blog and use it against them. Like most British people, we are politically moderate, tolerant people who like to live in a vibrant, diverse and peaceful society with people choosing to live the life they want, free of fear.

Initially, we wanted to correct some of the lies their old blog said about our community, namely that there are gangs of violent black kids at Davenant Foundation School (one of the blog's authors has a child at Davenant and is particularly upset at Councillor Rod Law's outrageous claims that the school has gone downhill because of its relatively large ethnic minority intake - in fact, it is one of the best performing in Essex). Another BNP lie to challenge was that most crime in the town was committed by black and Asian students at Epping Forest College. The college may have a bad reputation for its educational standards, but the police have confirmed that it is not a major source of criminality. But these lies are now threatening the future of Debden's library and BNP councillors could not care less. We have also witnessed racist incidents in Loughton and then discovered, to our horror, local racists (possibly connected to the BNP) celebrating attacks on black and Asian people on the neo-Nazi Stormfront website.

Then it became clear that the BNP was intent on running a vindictive and highly personalised campaign against certain local councillors, in particular Rose Brookes (who is not involved in this blog, whatever the BNP may claim) and, to a lesser extent, Stephen Murray. There have also been some insinuations about other councillors, including the mayor of Loughton. The line was truly over-stepped by the atrocious hate attacks on Councillor Brookes, who was traduced as some kind of communist insurgent.

We're now, without any involvement of any political party or councillor, answering this back with a bit of truth-telling about BNP candidates - the obnoxious and arrogant Rod Law who associates with criminals is behind a lot of the BNP's lies, the long-term fascist Walter Mitty character Peter Turpin, the BNP election supremo Eddy Butler who cut his teeth defending "rights for whites" with "well-directed boots and fists" in Millwall, the former BNP London mayor candidate Julian Leppert who finds it hard to suppress his nasty racist opinions, and local BNP leader Pat Richardson, who cavorts with American white supremacists. Then there are the hangers-on, the terminally daft Sue Clapp and the short-tempered, poorly read but well-meaning Garry Martin.

Most BNP voters are, in our experience, ignorant of the facts about the BNP. Most are not racist and certainly would not sign up to its white supremacist ideology. Even some BNP members are deluded and disillusioned, rather than fundamentally bad people. So we are giving them the facts. We are going through the backgrounds of every BNP councillor and candidate and exposing them for what they are. We don't terrorise people, we condemn any violence or threat of violence against any BNP member, whoever they are. And if any member or supporter of the BNP changes their mind, then that's great.

The BNP fights dirty, but for too long local politicians have cowered and sought a civilised exchange, perhaps believing the BNP can be tamed or will at some point fade away. But we won't turn the other cheek. Remember Newton's Law of Motion: "For every force, there is an equal and opposite reaction." It applies to political activism as well.

The BNP can choose to rise above this at any point and stop its poisonous propaganda. It can choose to stop attacking black children and young people in its propaganda. It can choose to stop seeking to blame Muslims in our community for the actions of Islamic extremists elsewhere. It can choose to stop its unfounded personal attacks on elected councillors. But then, without all this nastiness, it would cease to be the BNP!

That's why we will remain relentless and ruthless in exposing the BNP for what it is: a fascist and racist organisation that seeks to divide our community along racial, confessional and class lines. And there is more to come. Much more. It's the fight-back of a couple of people from the silent majority, the 90%+ people who will not vote BNP on June 4th or at any other time in the future and who abhor racism and fascism.

Archbishops urge public not to vote BNP

2009-05-24T14:45:00.001+01:00

From The Independent

The archbishops of Canterbury and York today urge the public not to allow a furore over MPs' expenses to drive them towards the BNP at the forthcoming European elections.

In a joint statement for the Church of England House of Bishops, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu stress they understand the atmosphere of anger and disillusionment following the recent revelations. But they said it would be "tragic" if people chose not to vote, or to register a protest vote, at the European parliamentary and local elections on 4 June.

Their statement says: "This is not a moment for voting in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour...

"The temptation to stay away or register a protest vote in order to send a negative signal to the parties represented at Westminster will be strong," they continue. "In our view, however, it would be tragic if the understandable sense of anger and disillusionment with some MPs over recent revelations led voters to shun the ballot box."

Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu urge "great vigilance" when deciding whom to vote for in the elections. "Those whom we elect to local councils and the European Parliament will represent us and our collective interests for many years to come. It is crucial to elect those who wish to uphold the democratic values and who wish to work for the common good in a spirit of public service."

The Seventh Seat and the BNP in Eastern England

2009-05-24T11:56:00.015+01:00

Q: What would it take for the BNP to win a seat in Eastern England?
A: An average of more than 3,200 votes per constituency in the entire region, which is the equivalent of a 90% increase on the vote it secured in its Epping Forest stronghold in 2005. The BNP threat is therefore minimal.

Q: Which party has the best chance of denying the BNP a seat?
A: If UKIP can secure the same vote as in 2004, it will deny the BNP a seat by taking the region's seventh seat in the European Parliament. But, based on current trends, the Liberal Democrats are best placed. They only need an increase of 300 votes per constituency to win a second seat, thereby winning the seventh seat from UKIP. Yet the Greens also have a chance of winning a seat, if they can double their vote.

The European Parliament elections in the UK are being fought on a proportional representation electoral system called the d'Hondt method. In this system, parties put forward a list of candidates and whichever list has the highest number of votes gets the next seat allocated. The process is repeated until all seats have been allocated.

In the 2004 European Parliament election in Eastern England, the Conservatives won three seats (down one), the UK Independence Party came second with two seats (up one) and Labour and the Liberal Democrats secured one seat each (Labour lost a seat). In 2009, the region will again vote for seven seats in the European Parliament.

European Election 2004: East of England
List		Elected	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey van Orden Robert Sturdy Christopher Beazley	465,526 (155,175.67)	30.8	−11.9
	UK Independence	Jeffrey Titford Tom Wise	296,160 (148,080)	19.6	+10.7
	Labour	Richard Howitt	244,929	16.2	−8.9
	Liberal Democrat	Andrew Duff	211,378	14.0	+2.1
	Independent Martin Bell	No	93,028	6.2	N/A
	Green	None	84,068	5.6	−0.6
	British National	None	65,557	4.3	+3.4
	English Democrats	None	26,807	1.8	N/A
	Respect	None	13,904	0.9	N/A
	Independent Jim Naisbitt	No	5,137	0.3	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	None	3,730	0.3	N/A
Turnout			1,510,224	36.5	+11.8

In order to win the final, seventh seat, in Eastern England a party will have to win at least 9% of the vote - or 150,000 votes based on the 2004 turnout - if not more. To secure a second seat, a party will have to get around 20%. The figures are only approximate due to the nature in which the seats are distributed. It is conceivable that a party could win a seat with just 8% of the vote.

UKIP narrowly won the seventh seat in 2004, denying Labour its second seat in the region. But there are doubts it can repeat this performance in 2009. The party has not been immune from accusations of corruption, with Tom Wise - who was elected as a UKIP MEP for Eastern England but later expelled from the party over allegations concerning his expenses claims - recently charged with false accounting and money laundering. UKIP will be doing very well if it repeats its 2004 performance, but even based on current opinion polls it is unlikely to repeat the 19.6% vote it previously achieved in the region. This throws open the door to other parties.

Given that the BNP secured just 4.3% of the vote in Eastern England in 2004, it faces an uphill battle to win the seventh seat from UKIP. Based on the 2004 turnout, the BNP would have to win an extra 1,800-2,000 votes per constituency in Eastern England in order to win one seat and a 130% increase in its vote overall - in 2004, it increased its vote four-fold, but from a very low base. In contrast, the Greens would have to win another 1,300-1,500 votes per constituency. The Liberal Democrats would need just 200-300 votes per constituency to win the final distributed seat, increasing their number of MEPs in the region to two.

For the Conservatives to increase their number of seats to four, they will need an extra 150,000 votes - or 3,100-3,300 votes per constituency - and bring their level of support to at least 40%. It would appear that they have difficult task, particularly as current opinion polls for the EP elections put them on around 30%. However, all it would take is a return to the vote they achieved in 1999 to win the seventh seat, with the potential for defections from UKIP.

The scenario depends on turnout and voting trends. If the turnout is lower than the 36.5% achieved in 2004, it will be easier for minor parties to win the seventh seat. A drop in turnout to 30% would still mean the BNP needs to double its number of votes over 2004, while the Liberal Democrats would only need to return the same number of votes to win a second seat and the Conservatives would need a modest upturn to win the region's seventh seat.

Conversely, a higher turnout could be achieved if previous non-voters rally behind a minor party with a popular mandate. This seemed to be the case in 2004, when a higher turnout was principally due to previous non-voters casting their vote for UKIP. The BNP will be hoping to make the same kind of breakthrough in 2009. In Epping Forest, the BNP has won seats by encouraging a previously apathetic portion of the electorate to come out and vote for them, thereby raising turnout. However, this appears to be a fairly unique situation, as in many other parts of the country the BNP has won seats as a result of very low turnouts.

Few are under the illusion that the Labour vote will hold up, amid the expenses fiasco and the economic recession. But it would require the Labour vote to fall by 100,000 across the region - or 2,000-2,500 votes per constituency if the turnout remains the same - for the party to lose its seat. If 70% of these votes went to the BNP, the extremists would secure the seat, although it is certain they will pick up votes from across the political spectrum - particularly former UKIP and Conservative supporters - as well as previously apathetic non-voters.

Polling trends show that Labour voters are, on the whole, more likely to vote Liberal Democrat and Green rather than BNP. The Greens have tended to attract support from Labour voters, although they claim that most of their surge in support has come from those who previously voted for the Liberal Democrats. A switch from Liberal Democrat to Greens makes the outcome much harder to predict, although there is also a likelihood of previously Conservative and Labour voters switching to the Liberal Democrats that could offset any drift in the Greens' favour. The key risk factor for the Liberal Democrats is their enthusiasm for the European Union, which goes against the grain of generally Eurosceptic public opinion.

Muddying the waters further is the issue of where high profile Independent candidate Martin Bell's votes will go in 2009. Bell stood against Conservative MPs in the past, famously winning against Neil Hamilton in 1997 and coming second behind Eric Pickles in 2001. Although he has won support across a broad spectrum of voters, the bulk of his support has come from the centre and the left. The main party to benefit from Bell's decision not to contest this years elections appears to be the Liberal Democrats, although the Conservatives could also benefit. Bell himself has thrown his support behind the Greens and in the unlikely scenario that four out of five of his supporters follow him, the party will win the seventh seat.

Other things being equal, the best way to ensure that the BNP has no hope of winning a seat in Eastern England is to vote Liberal Democrat, which could pick up a second seat. While there is a lot of uncertainty over the direction of voting patterns, the threat from the BNP is so remote that voters should feel comfortable voting with their consciences rather than tactically to keep the extremists out.

We have nothing to fear from these British National Party jokers

2009-05-21T20:31:00.001+01:00

By Jasper Gerard,

From The Telegraph

He takes a call on his mobile about his invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party, admires his smooth visage in a car window and strolls up a crunchy drive to charm a housewife into voting for his party. He could be any politician, but this is Richard Barnbrook of the British National Party.

The extreme right used to be confined to the dank, disappointed back alleys of British politics, but television commentators are petrified that the BNP is receiving a polite reception up smarter garden paths, and not merely from the Queen. The housewife who offers support has a gleaming Mercedes, window boxes and comfy slippers. If she jumps into the odorous arms of Nick Griffin's party, how many might follow?

Talking heads such as the BBC's Nick Robinson and guests on the usually exemplary This Week

describe the mood as "febrile". MPs predict "meltdown". Stoking it all is the endlessly repeated orthodoxy that the BNP will benefit from disgust at the MPs' expenses scandal in the forthcoming Euro and local elections.

But what if all this is hot air? When we turned against the main parties in 1989, we voted Green, so might we not back similarly benign fringe parties this time, or stay at home? Or could we even – and this is heretical – be grown up and realise it is not in our interests to vote out often dedicated councillors from the three larger parties who can't be blamed for the misdeeds of their Westminster betters?

The danger is that pundits so demonise a party we hitherto ignored that warnings become self-fulfilling. Did The Andrew Marr Show really contact the BNP, as the party claims, requesting a long interview with Griffin should he win a Euro seat? Do normally responsible figures enjoy the frisson of talking up the threat from the party?

We British have a far cleverer weapon than outrage to deploy against the BNP, the smart bomb all demagogues fear: laughter. It is why PG Wodehouse depicted Spode, his Oswald Mosley caricature, as a closet lingerie salesman. And actually, there is nothing like spending a day with the BNP in their key target county of Essex to see them not as terrifying heavies but as light entertainment. March on Rome? I'm not sure they could march on Romford.

A BNP organiser tells us that canvassers will be in a Brentwood car park from 10am, under a party billboard: "British Jobs For British Workers". It's a powerful slogan, with a new study showing foreign workers retaining jobs more successfully in the downturn than natives. But someone has removed the poster overnight and the BNP is 45 minutes late.

My first reaction when I see its corps lumbering forth with England football flags is, "Oh, here's Dad's Army". Their Capt Mainwaring is Len Heather, an old boy with a bowls club pin to control his faux regimental BNP tie. It takes him several minutes to notice his poster is missing, followed by much tutting about declining standards.

He hands me leaflets harking back obsessively to our "finest hour": the BNP's adopted symbol is the Spitfire, based on, um, a Polish squadron. Eventually, members of Griffin Youth, one with West Ham tattoos, erect a rickety table and drape it with a tattered Union flag. When he remembers, Heather barks into a megaphone at a deserted car park. In two hours – before police arrive to move the BNP for campaigning on council property – the gang of six have talked to precisely one member of the public, who is Italian.

As the BNP hasn't twigged that campaigning tends to involve talking to voters, I try to stop folk hurrying past. Margaret Bush says: "I got their leaflet. It was just preying on fears." James Nolan, retired builder, says: "When I came here from Ireland in the Fifties, there were signs saying: 'No blacks, Irish or dogs'. I'm proud to live in a country that's so different."

But the BNP has long been home to the disappointed and the disgusted, and there are plenty of those about, with fears of foreign labour. I explain to a pretty waitress on her fag break that the BNP would send "foreigners" "home". "Oh yeah," she shrugs, "I agree with that."

BNP support seems to rise in inverse relationship to understanding. Indeed, the three BNP stalwarts I talk to in Brentwood spout absurd "facts", such as "the only foreigners allowed to work in Japan are prostitutes". Curiously, all three have strong foreign connections. Una Rice, with her "Islam is
b------s" key ring, blithely explains her family left "Rhodesia" for a better life here; Jay Slaven admits to being of "northern European" origin; and Heather lauds his Dutch step-mother.

I ask Heather if I can follow his Brentwood division as they canvass. "Ooh, I don't think we'll be doing any of that," he says, contemplating the vile prospect of work. "Who's ready for the pub?" And so the BNP repairs to a beer cellar.

They had boasted of a crack BNP division swarming over Hornchurch. There, I find one council candidate climbing out of a cab driven by a party member, and two others. Michael Joyce wears a dark suit and dark glasses; not quite The Godfather, but The Godfather's shark pool attendant. His leaflet announces he "works in the building industry" but he tells me he can't work due to his eyesight.

Troop leader is Barnbrook, a London Assembly member who has forgone the BNP's traditional Dr Martens for a top hat. There is no mention of the "r" word, racism; he talks of getting the RSPCA office painted and funding a boxing club. It is stealing the Liberal Democrat pavement politics, for darker ends.

Barnbrook, who made a homo-erotic film before engagement to the so-called "BNP ballerina" Simone Clarke, is really in love with himself. His acolytes so lap up his ramblings they forget to canvass. But hey, they can't agree on whether they've already knocked up this road – the BNP doesn't seem to do canvass returns – and they manage four households in an hour.

That said, Barnbrook convinces three of the four. He, at least, has a brain and is the more sinister for it. He tells me the BNP would allow "foreigners" who refuse repatriation to "remain". Pause: "But many wouldn't stay for long under the BNP because of fear and hysteria." And who, I ask, would have created that? He looks at me coldly: "Have you looked in the mirror lately?"

He admits to having trouble spelling but uses as many long words as he can, which go over the head of Eileen Fairs, puffing away in a pink shell suit. But she doesn't mind. "Last time I voted NF," she smiles.

BNP types are often life's victims, deserving pity more than scorn. But Barnbrook and his proposed Buck House date Griffin lack that excuse. I saw the superficiality of Griffin's BNP makeover when I interviewed him not long ago. He admitted Sikhs are actually more law-abiding than "us". But the BNP has simply grown more discriminating about its discrimination; Griffin lauds older immigrants in order to knock young Muslims.

Opposite me were the two faces of the party: Griffin, mastering the argot of the Islington social worker, claiming to approve of "diversity"; and his hired skin-headed muscle. This veritable 300lb whopper took up most of the sofa's Lebensraum, but Griffin did the talking.

What would he do with those he couldn't send "home" because we don't know their nationality? It's the kind of thorny problem real politicians wrestle with, but Griffin looked like his head would explode. Eventually he spluttered: "Drop them out of a plane somewhere over Africa. I don't really care." I realised dialogue was futile.

Despite protests, Griffin may yet munch the Queen's cucumber sarnies, while MPs eat more humble pie. But the BNP are simply too stupid ever to kiss hands and take up the seals of office. It's hard to laugh, but they are just a joke.

BNP's Waltham Abbey bid

2009-05-21T16:08:00.010+01:00

Local anti-fascist activists will be on the streets of Waltham Abbey over the next few days, campaigning to ensure that the BNP's bid for the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council ward is beaten back.

The ward is the BNP's main target in Epping Forest district, outside its Loughton stronghold where it currently has four councillors, having lost two to the Loughton Residents Association last year. A by-election is being held following the resignation of Conservative councillor Jimmy Demetriou, who quit under a cloud after repeated disputes with his own party.

The Honey Lane ward is traditionally a safe Conservative seat, but a by-election held in 2007 saw the BNP come a close second with 28.5% of the vote and just 18 votes behind the Conservative candidate. Although it was beaten back into third place last year with its vote falling to 21.3%, the BNP threat remains.

The BNP clearly believes it has a good chance of victory, having driven its "truth truck" throught the ward earlier this month. Its election campaign is heavily reliant on stirring up communal tensions and racial hatred over government plans for gypsy sites nearby.

The main risk factor is a low turn-out, which is the reason why the party nearly seized the seat in the 2007 by-election when Conservative voters stayed at home. This will be mitigated by the county and European elections, which will take place on the same day. But local activists want to ensure a clear defeat for the BNP in Honey Lane, preferably keeping it in third place.

The BNP is putting up Tony Frankland, who lost his district council seat last year. Frankland was, however, able to win a seat on Loughton Town Council representing Alderton ward. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour are also contesting the seat.

For the Waltham Abbey county seat, the BNP has put up Councillor Pat Richardson, who represents Loughton Broadway on the district council. In 2008, for the district wards that comprise Waltham Abbey, the BNP came third with 8.4% of the vote. However, it only contested the Honey Lane ward and could increase its proportion of the vote at a county level. In the 2007 district elections the BNP secured vote shares of 20% in Honey Lane and 33% in Paternoster.

With the BNP's vote at a high level in the two of the five wards it has contested in Waltham Abbey, a strong challenge by anti-fascists is essential to defeating the extremists. The Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties are also putting up candidates for Waltham Abbey's county seat. In 2005, the ward was easily won by the Conservatives with 56.6% of the vote, followed by Labour on 24.2%, the Liberal Democrats on 14.3% and the Greens on 4.8%; the BNP did not contest the seat.

If you are interested in getting involved with local anti-fascist activism in Waltham Abbey, contact Redbridge and Epping Forest Together: RandETogether(a)aol.com

Rod Law defies BNP National Organiser over Facebook controversy

2009-05-21T12:30:00.005+01:00

Loughton BNP councillor Rod Law has defied orders by the party's National Organiser Eddy Butler that "all responsible officers, councillors and candidates, particularly those more in the public eye, should immediately shut down their Facebook accounts."

The call came after Epping Forest BNP Watch exposed Law's association with convicted drug dealer Jock Shearer, based on information published on his Facebook profile. Law has remained defiant, apparently enraged by the revelations.

It is no secret that Law has little respect for Butler, who he has nicknamed "Eddy Bottler" for his supposed 'soft' handling of the media. Butler is the BNP's lead candidate for the Eastern Region in the European elections as well as its county council candidate for Chigwell and Loughton Broadway, which contains the party's Broadway ward stronghold. He is a veteran BNP campaigner, active in the party back in the days when the party openly stated that its policy was to "defend rights for whites with well-directed boots and fists."

Butler has been instrumental in creating a thin veneer of respectability over a neo-fascist party that has more than its fair share of ex-cons like Shearer. The upstart Law only tolerates this public relations exercise and one gets the impression he'd prefer more "boots and fists" activism, with the support of thugs like Shearer.

Other BNP activists have been exposed for the violent racial hatred they have expressed on Facebook. BNP candidate Eddy O'Sullivan wrote on his Facebook account "W**s go home" and "They are nice people 'oh yeah' but can they not be nice people in the f**king Congo or . . . bongo land or whatever?" The BNP has pledged disciplinary action against him, but such racist sentiments are commonly expressed in party circles and, like O'Sullivan, most activists have no problem with making offensive comments about black people.

Peter Turpin's Bling Medal

2009-05-21T00:01:00.009+01:00

BNP Councillor and disgraced ex-policeman Peter Turpin's favourite photo is of himself posing with chest puffed out with white pride, thrusting a collection of medals on his chest towards the camera.

A decorated Iraq War veteran wrote to Epping Forest BNP Watch, suggesting that Turpin was wearing a Telic medal alongside a Northern Ireland General Service Medal and a UN Cyprus medal, which was very odd as Councillor Turpin could not possibly have fought in the Iraq War. For the sake of accuracy, Epping Forest BNP Watch enquired with the Ministry of Defence on Turpin's record.

Sure enough, he earned his GSM and UNFICYP medals during his five years service. It appears he was a rifleman (private soldier) with the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets from 1976 to 1981. No problems there.

But what about that anomalous medal that looks almost identical to the Iraq War medal (pictured)? He has nothing on his army record to confirm it, so we asked ourselves: is it a bottle top or a bling medal bought on eBay?

Another former soldier explained that it was an "unofficial 'commemorative' Golden Jubilee medal of the type routinely bought and worn by Legion of Frontiersmen members and other assorted Walts [Walter Mittys]. He shouldn't be wearing the fake jubilee medal with two real ones - though it's an offence against military etiquette more than anything else - but the GSM and the UN medal were pretty common for soldiers who served in the 70s and 80s."

Turpin thrusts these medals into people's faces like he's a decorated war hero, so it is only right that we set the record straight. It is notable that another BNP councillor, Garry Martin, has not paraded his medals, although he must have earned some during his 30 years of active service in the army. That marks the difference between a Walter Mitty like Turpin and a professional soldier like Martin, who has not made a song and dance over medals.

Despite our leg-pulling about his short-temper, Martin is a 'good egg' and probably motivated more by patriotism than racism: misguided rather than malevolent. Turpin is a whole different kettle of fish. After serving in the army, he joined the police. He was forced out of the police for his involvement in the National Front. After his failed police career, he attempted to set up a vigilante group in Redbridge, an act that earned him condemnation from the borough commander. Turpin is always going on about law and order but according to the police he seems to have a problem distinguishing truth from fiction.

The trouble is that the BNP is keen to promote the self-aggrandising Walts. Turpin was on the BNP's party list for the Eastern Region during the last European elections and is now running as the BNP's candidate in the solid Conservative seat of Ongar and Rural in the Essex County Council elections. Perhaps the BNP has realised that Turpin is a bit of a loser, putting him in a seat where the BNP's past electoral performance has been nothing short of pathetic.

There are six candidates for the Ongar and Rural ward in the county elections, including the English Democrats which has scored a fairly impressive performance for a minor party in the district seats it has contested. The BNP is likely to win the bulk of its support in Shelley, a Labour-voting ward where the extremists could pick up a few votes from disillusioned ex-Labour voters. The best the BNP fantasist Peter Turpin can hope for is 10%, doubling its performance in the district wards it fought in 2006 and putting it into third place behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. But few doubt that the Conservatives will win the seat. Turpin is a loser fighting a losing seat and hopefully he will lose again when he defends his Loughton Fairmead district council seat in 2010 - if he is reselected.

Click chart for better resolution

Hero's fury at BNP 'fake' pic

2009-05-20T17:07:00.001+01:00

Outrage ... Stuart Walker in flyer

From The Sun

An ex-Guardsman branded the BNP “scumbags” last night for using his photo and faked words on an election flyer.

Former Scots Guards NCO Stuart Walker, 37, was shocked to see a picture of himself in uniform outside Buckingham Palace on a poll leaflet.

Beside it, implying he would back the racist party in the Euro elections, were words criticising kit shortages and soldiers being “abused” by Muslims.

Stuart, who left the Army in 1997, first knew about it when it dropped through a relative’s letterbox. The dad-of-two, now a corporate manager in London, said he rang the BNP’s offices to complain and was told to “f*** off”.

He told The Sun: “I was completely outraged when I saw this leaflet. I think they got the photo off a website and the quote they’ve made up. They are scumbags and I’d never vote for them in a million years.”

The BNP is also reported to have used shots of US actors and Italian OAPs to represent British voters.

Bishop says don't vote BNP

2009-05-19T21:11:00.000+01:00

From East Anglian Daily Times

Rt Revd John Gladwin

THE Bishop of Chelmsford has issued a thinly-veiled attack on the British National Party as part of an appeal for voters to take part in forthcoming county and euro elections.

As well as the county of Essex, the Chelmsford Diocese covers Dagenham and Thurrock - two target areas for the far right party. The recent expenses scandal in the House of Commons has led to some people seeking to elect alternatives from the three main parties, which have each been partly implicated in the crisis.

It is also thought that the expense row will lead to a lower than usual turnout at the ballot box, a factor that generally favours smaller parties.

In his appeal to electors yesterday, Rt Revd John Gladwin said: “Use your vote. There can be no room for complacency.

“Racist parties have put up candidates.

“It will be no good complaining if the wrong people get elected if we do not exercise our democratic right and vote.”

The BNP has put up candidates for all 75 divisions at the Essex County Council elections and is also fielding candidates for the Euro elections.

Both polls are being held on June 4.

Commentators believe that because of the proportional representation system used for the Euro-elections, the party has a greater chance of gaining a seat than with the first-past-the-post system used in general elections.

The BNP has already been condemned by the group leaders of the three main parties at County Hall.

Conservative Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield, said he was concerned at the BNP “incursion” and warned that they stood for intolerance and hatred.

“I hope they do not expect to find Essex to be fertile BNP ground,” he said.

“The BNP trade on peoples' fears rather than facing up to the issues.”

The Liberal Democrat group leader at County Hall, Tom Smith-Hughes, said: “The BNP play on prejudice and fear. They offer simplistic solutions which are dishonest, dangerous, divisive and don't solve anything.

“I just hope and believe the electorate will give them short shrift. I think their brand of politics mitigates against a free, fair tolerant and united society.”

And Labour group leader Paul Kirkman said: “This is very regrettable. I think that people from across the mainstream political spectrum agree on that.

“Theirs is a message of hate and intolerance and blaming people, rather than trying to work things out.”

Zeroes blast hero

2009-05-18T22:29:00.001+01:00

From News of the World

British National Party cowards have launched an outrageous attack on a decorated Iraq war hero - claiming he only got the Victoria Cross because he is BLACK.

The vile BNP denounced brave Johnson Beharry for being "an immigrant" and tried to belittle his heroics - which saved the lives of 30 comrades - as no more than "routine".

In a sick rant on its website the far-right BNP - headed by Nick Griffin - allege Lance Corporal Beharry only got Britain's top military honour because of "positive discrimination by the PC-mad government".

Our revelation comes just days after the extremist group held an Armed Forces Awareness Day in a shameless bid to portray themselves "the only party that supports our troops".

The truth is that Grenada-born Beharry, then a private, was honoured in 2005 after TWICE saving colleagues' lives under enemy fire.

When his Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by rocket- propelled grenades he drove through the ambush and pulled comrades clear of the burning wreckage while a bullet penetrated his helmet.

Weeks later, he was at the wheel again when a grenade detonated inches from him. Despite blood pouring from his head, he reversed out of range before collapsing.

Despite that, the spiteful BNP claim: "All he did was drive away very fast from a combat zone. . . to safety, as have hundreds and hundreds of other British soldiers." Last night a spokesman for the anti-racist Searchlight group said: "The BNP are repulsive. Private Beharry was awarded the highest honour in the land for risking his life in the service of his country.

"When did Nick Griffin last show his face in a war zone?"

Essex in Distress: BNP fly flag upside down

2009-05-16T17:10:00.008+01:00

When BNP activists have nothing meaningful to say, they fly a flag and sing a song. In the Essex County Council election, the BNP has failed to publish any manifesto. They have replaced this tired, old-fashioned politics of informing voters about their policy agenda with waving the flag of Essex. It's a peculiar tactic, since the Essex flag - three "seaxes" on a red field - is not likely to prompt the county's residents to puff out their chest with white pride.

But the BNP can't even do the flag-waving bit correctly. At a BNP meeting in Loughton on 10 May, BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook addressed an audience of local activists in front of the Essex flag, hung upside down! (see picture) In naval terms, flying a flag upside down was traditionally a signal of distress. With the useless Barnbrook visiting the county in his trademark beige suit, no wonder Essex is in distress.

The meeting was chaired by Loughton's BNP Councillor Rod Law. Given that Rod intends to represent Loughton Central at a county level, he may like to get his sole election gimmick correct - alternatively, he could come up with some policies, if it's not too taxing on his brain. For his sake, we've reproduced the flag of Essex here.

As Del Boy would say: "What a plonker, Rodney!"

Rod told his Facebook friends (all 39 of them) that he is "well happy his got a mention on the local red site" [sic] in response to our article on him and the drug peddlers he hangs around with - don't worry, Rod, there's more to follow!

Councillor Rod Law and his Drug-Dealing Friend

2009-05-15T14:49:00.012+01:00

BNP district councillor Rod Law, who is contesting the Loughton Central seat in the Essex County Council elections, is pictured here (circled in pink) with convicted Oldham drug dealer John 'Jock' Shearer (circled in orange), also known as 'John the Mong' by some in the party.

BNP hardliner Rod Law is close friends with the football hooligan turned drug dealer, who once served as party leader Nick Griffin's security chief but quit in one of the BNP's many internal bust-ups. Shearer is just one of many criminals involved in the BNP.

On Facebook, where the picture was uploaded, Law and Shearer engage in hate-fests against black people, Muslims and 'reds', some of the main targets of far-right propagandists. Law also displays his admiration for dead Austrian neo-Nazi Joerg Haider, who praised the policies of Adolf Hitler and played down the persecution of Jews. He also states on the social networking site that he is a fan of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the antisemitic leader of France's National Front. Le Pen has said that the Nazi Holocaust was a 'minor detail' and claims that his opponents are part of a Jewish conspiracy. In January 2007, Law attended a conference in London where he sat through anti-Jewish tirades from a close confidante of the Holocaust denier David Irving and from one of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Britain.

Rod Law (circled in pink, and pictured as part of the BNP 'security team' accompanying Mark 'Young, Nazi and Proud' Collett and party leader Nick Griffin) was expelled from the RMT union in 2006 for threating the General Secretary. As a district councillor, Rod Law has used his position to oppose the creation of a multi-faith group to bring together Christians of all denominations, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and others.

He spends most of his time scaremongering about crime committed by “inner city youths”, although local police have stated that the vast majority of crime is committed by local residents. On one occasion he claimed that Davenant Foundation School, a Christian ecumenical school, was the source of gang violence in Debden due to the relatively high proportion of black pupils. In an attempt to smear the school, he claimed it had been in decline for years due to 'inner-city youths' - a BNP euphemism for black students. Far from "going downhill", it has some of the best GCSE results in Essex and OFSTED has judged it "outstanding" in almost all areas. Desperate to win support for racial segregation and the expulsion of non-white people from Britain, Rod Law turned on schoolchildren and is fighting playground brawls. Waging war on schoolkids - how low can he go?

Loughton Central profile

In recent years, the BNP has displaced Labour as the third largest party in the Loughton Central ward, although it has only had a major presence in two of the four district wards that comprise the county ward - Alderton, Fairmead, St John's and St Mary's. Rod Law one of the two district councillors for Alderton. The BNP lost the other Alderton seat in 2008, when it was won by the Loughton Residents Association. The LRA also won the Fairmead ward, also a former BNP stronghold. In the two other district wards that make up Loughton Central, the competition is between the LRA and the Conservatives, with the BNP failing to make any headway in these seats.

The seat is being defended by the LRA incumbent Chris Pond, who is currently also mayor of Loughton. The LRA has improved its electoral standing in the county ward and in 2008 got a combined vote of 50.7% in the district council wards in Loughton Central, up from 35.2% in the 2005 county council elections. Meanwhile, the Conservatives saw their vote fall from 28.0% to 22.3% and Labour has plunged from 17.2% to 6.7%. The BNP vote has rallied from 9.9% to 17.5%, largely on the back of Labour defections.

To be certain of winning Loughton Central, Rod Law would have to increase the BNP vote by 200% over the level achieved in 2008. This is an almost impossible task, especially if he is planning to rely on remaining disillusioned Labour voters. The best Rod Law can hope for is second place. But the Conservatives have put up the popular ex-LRA councillor Mitch Cohen for the seat, which could see them claw back some of the ground they lost in the district elections. Nevertheless, if the BNP comes second, it would significantly strengthen Rod Law's position. Given his association with the ex-con Jock Shearer, it's a scenario that Loughton residents should fear.

The BNP members with criminal connections

2009-05-15T09:49:00.004+01:00

From "There's Nothing British About the BNP"

The BNP’s criminal past is not unfounded. Activists, members and elected officials of the BNP have been charged with rape, murder, paedophilia, racial harassment and assault. BNP leader, Nick Griffin was convicted on race hate charges in 1998 and received a nine-month suspended sentence. This man could be taking a seat in the European Parliament and representing Britain.

Name	Conviction	Position in the BNP
Ian Hindle	Statutory rape of a minor.	Member.
Andrew Wells	Statutory rape of a minor. Engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a minor.	Member.
Lockhart Kneen	Racially and religiously aggravated harassment. Distributing racist materials.	Ran an operation selling BNP magazines.
Martin Glasgow	Racially aggravated assault.	Chesterfield BNP fund holder.
Anthony Weeks	Racially aggravated assault.	Member (Darlington).
Andrew Kendall	Racially offensive behaviour.	Supporter.
Shaun Jones	Verbal assault.	Supporter (Wales).
Dominic Bugler	Possession of an imitation firearm. Two-year ASBO for violent and drunken behaviour. Eviction.	BNP candidate for Pelsall ward, Walsall.
Robert Bennett	Gang rape. Affray.	Oversaw BNP leafleting campaign in Oldham 2002.
Jamie Sedgewick	Racially aggravated verbal abuse of a police officer.	Member (Morden).
David Copeland	Mass murder.	Active member.
Robert Cottage	Possession of explosives. Conspiracy to cause and explosion (not proven yet).	Member and former council election candidate.
David Enderby	Assault.	BNP Councillor (Redditch).
Richard Mulhall	Four counts of benefit fraud.	BNP Council Group leader. Political agent for winning BNP candidate Adrian Marsden. The BNP won Mixenden ward at Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire in a 2003 by-election.
Robert McGlynn	Shouting racist abuse.	Activist (Swansea).
Allen Boyce	Incitement to possess explosives.	BNP supporter (former National Front Remembrance Day parade bugler).
Angela Clarke	Resisting arrest.	Former BNP councillor.
Luke Smith	Violent disorder and other violent offences.	Former BNP Burnley councillor.
Stephen Bailey	35 charges of criminal damage. 19 charges of arson.	BNP activist (Lincoln).
Roderick Rowley	Making, distributing and possessing obscene images of children.	Former BNP candidate (Coventry).
Karl Hanson	Possessing heroin and crack cocaine.	Former BNP candidate in Huddersfield.
Terry Collins	Year-long campaign of terror against Asian families in Eastbourne. Possession of bullets. Racially aggravated criminal damage.	Member (Eastbourne).
Brian Wainwright	A campaign of hate mail against a local mosque.	BNP Parliamentary candidate for Hull.

Profile: Eddy Butler and Chigwell and Loughton Broadway

2009-05-14T01:28:00.003+01:00

Some lucky Epping Forest residents will have the chance to vote for BNP Election Organiser Eddy Butler not once but twice.

The man who local BNP councillor Rod Law refers to as "Eddy Bottler" is at the top of the BNP list for the European elections for the Eastern region as well as contesting the Chigwell and Loughton Broadway ward for Essex County Council. He is obviously not confident that he will win both and it is likely he won't win either.

Eddy Butler was the victim of a violent attack outside Loughton tube station a couple of years ago. However, it was not an attack by an anti-racist, but the BNP's then Group Development Officer Tony Lecomber, a violent psychopath and convicted terrorist. The BNP like to portray themselves as victims of anti-fascist violents, but more often it is internal disputes that lead to violence. Butler himself is not averse to a bit of argy-bargy.

Butler is very much part of the old guard of the BNP, having pushed the racist 'rights for whites' campaign in Millwall in the early 1990s that led to the election of the party's first ever councillor Dereck Beacon. At the time, the BNP was unrepentently fascist, pushing an explicitly antisemitic and white supremacist agenda. It was during the Millwall election that Richard Edmonds - the party's then second in command and national organiser - attacked a mixed race couple in an East End pub with a broken bottle, which led to a spell in jail. Edmonds proudly declared that the BNP was '100% racist'. He was guest speaker at a fund-raising event organised by Epping Forest BNP earlier this year.

Butler is the long-term partner of Councillor Sue Clapp, although some rumours from various quarters suggest they have broken up, a factor that could have helped freeze her out of being selected for the Chigwell andLoughton Broadway ward, despite being a sitting district councillor for Broadway.

While Butler may be more politically astute than most BNP activists, he is still unknown in Loughton and it is not guaranteed that he will build upon Tom Richardson's vote. If Butler was serious about Loughton, he may achieve a significant improvement in the BNP's share of the vote. However, he has his eyes on the larger prize, a seat in Brussels, and will neglect the BNP's Broadway stronghold for the sake of personal ambition.

British National Party Voters Don't Exist

2009-05-14T01:18:00.000+01:00

In the last few days the British Nationalist Party (BNP) have started to deliver their campaign leaflets. There are at least two varieties but they are both quite similar and their main campaigning point is against immigration. You can see leaflets delivered by the BNP around the UK thanks to The Straight Choice a website dedicated to mapping campaign leaflets. The current leaflets feature a section titled “Why we’re all voting BNP” with photos accompanied by a bit of text, presumably this is to encourage people to think BNP voters are just like you. Unfortunately for the BNP none of these voters are real and you can prove it by using web-based reverse image searches.

The Doctor

“I’m voting BNP because I see what immigration has done to the NHS. As a Doctor I want to see an end to ‘health tourists’ and to make sure British nurses are employed and paid fairly.”

Search for this image on tineye and you’ll quickly find out that this image has been used on a number of websites and that you can buy it to use royalty free from a stock photo website. The image was taken by an American photographer probably in 2006.

The Pensioners

“We’ve seen how this country has declined under the present government and we’re voting BNP because they will put pensioners before asylum seekers and ensure our future.”

“We’re with the British National Party because it’s not fair that people who’ve worked hard and paid in all their lives are pushed to the back of the queue behind bogus asylum seekers.”

Search for this image on tineye and lo and behold it is available from the same stock photo website. Looking at the stock photo website you can find out the models are called Deanna and Mario.

The Soldier

“We’re fed up of being sent ill-equipped into foreign wars. The BNP will bring our troops home and ensure that British soldiers are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslims.”

Again, search using tineye you can find that it’s from a different stock photo website. What’s particularly amusing here is that the photo is of an Irish guardsman, which is funny because the Irish are not British, Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales.

The Mother

“As a mother and wife I want to ensure that our children have a future. Our taxes should be invested in education and job creation, not wasted on paying bureaucrats or bankers’ bonuses.”

Searching tineye once again tells us this photo is entitled “Love my Mommy!” and was taken by another American photographer.

The only conclusion I can make is that no real BNP voters were keen enough to appear on the leaflets.

The BNP are not the first people to send out leaflets with fake people on, when there was a decision to be made on whether Manchester should have city centre congestion charging leaflets were printed encouraging people to vote ‘YES’ with case studies showing how people would be better off, again, none of the people were real (Manchester Evening News: C-charge ‘locals’ don’t exist).

Cross posted with Newspeak

Senior BNP official launches anti-Jewish attack

2009-05-13T23:23:00.001+01:00

Lee Barnes, legal adviser and spokesman for the BNP, as well as all round oddball, managed to toe the new Griffin ‘pro-Israel‘ line for a while, but it seems he’s slipping again. In a rant on Holocaust denial laws (laws I personally disagree with, incidentally), he once again shows the true colours of the BNP:

The fact that the Zionist run political Establishments of the nations of the world, and the political puppets of the media that in reality run our countries, have the power to demand the imprisonment of people because they find their views repugnant proves to me that these people who demand the imprisonment of those they disagree with are the real Nazis we should be afraid of, not the views of the holocaust deniers.

BNP leader Nick Griffin claims that he now has ‘no time for anti-Semites’, so what will he make of the notion that the nations of the world are run by ‘Zionists’ and their media ‘puppets’?

Come on Lee, get with the programme! This is 2009, not 1997.

(In 1997, Griffin wrote a booklet entitled ‘Who Are The Mind-Benders?’ which purported to show that ‘Zionists’ are ‘the people who rule Britain through control of the mass media’.)

By Edmund Standing, cross-posted with Harry's Place

Clapped out and exiled to Uttlesford

2009-05-13T13:47:00.004+01:00

Loughton Broadway's district councillor Sue Clapp's poor performance in the council chamber has prompted the BNP to exile her to a political wilderness for the far-right in the moderate, liberal-minded town of Saffron Walden, where the party has just three members.

Epping Forest BNP Watch had already received insider information suggesting that the BNP was preparing to ditch Clapp in favour of former London mayoral candidate Julian Leppert for the Broadway seat in the next district council elections. Despite desperate efforts to keep up her profile, Clapp failed to impress in the nomination process and instead Eddie Butler was nominated for the Chigwell and Broadway ward.

Clapp has been notable for her numerous blunders. At the last Epping Forest district council meeting, she fluffed the lines that had been written for her, repeatedly referring to local young war hero Georgie Sparks' 'erotic sacrifice' while giggling into her papers. Sitting next to her, BNP Councillor Peter Turpin looked on in embarrassment.

A likely poor electoral performance in Saffron Walden would be the nail in the coffin for Clapp's political 'career'. Speaking to Epping Forest BNP Watch, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Uttlesford said that the BNP is unlikely to achieve any success in the district.

He said: "There's no truck with racist politics here. People don't like extremists. They gravitate to the political centre, even within the Conservative party. In the last European elections the BNP got less than 1% of the vote. It's upsetting when the BNP gets just one vote, but I don't think they will get more than a handful."

Other candidates in Uttlesford are also from Loughton, indicating that the party could not encourage one of its few local members to stand. The candidates include Councillor Turpin's wife and all are regarded as lightweights, revealing that the BNP has little interest in seriously winning over support in this quiet rural district.

MPs' expenses: BNP would be worse

2009-05-13T13:43:00.000+01:00

The BNP is hoping to trade on voters’ disillusionment with politicians following the MPs’ expenses debacle. Nick Griffin highlighted the issue at the official launch of his party’s European election campaign, claiming that everyone except the BNP had “their snouts in the same trough”.

Yet the main reason Griffin, a former bankrupt, is so desperate to gain election to the European Parliament is to get his hands on the generous salary and expenses package paid out MEPs and even a share of official group funding if the BNP can join up with enough fascist MEPs from enough countries. The BNP has no interest in participating in forming European laws – the party objects to the European Parliament’s existence. It’s the money the BNP is after.

And the BNP has no compunction in sponging off public money. Many BNP councillors draw their full allowances but hardly attend any council meetings or do any work. One BNP councillor in Sandwell attended no meetings at all for six months, which got him booted off the council, but he still took his allowance.

Under Griffin’s leadership the BNP has blatantly avoided paying income tax and national insurance contributions by pretending that several of its staff were self-employed. And the party’s latest accounts, for 2007, failed their audit because several thousands of pounds of expenditure was not properly recorded.

Voters are rightly outraged by an expenses arrangement that allowed some MPs to exploit countless loopholes and profit from taxpayers’ money. But the BNP would be far worse, as shown by the party’s long history of financial irregularities, outlined in a Searchlight report presented to the House of Commons in December 2007.

HOPE not hate / Searchlight by Sonia Gable

Taking the BNP seriously

2009-04-19T17:17:00.001+01:00

By Edmund Standing, cross-posted with Harry's Place

What the BNP’s ‘modernisation’ reveals about modern Britain

The BNP’s rebranding strategy reveals something very interesting about Britain, and white British people in particular. For years, by promoting ‘racial nationalism’, the BNP remained an utterly marginal organisation, largely attracting hardcore racists, skinheads, and social misfits. The fact that the BNP now feels the need to tell its activists to cover skinhead haircuts, to not make extreme statements, to avoid any violent rhetoric or acts, and to appear ‘normal’ and ‘respectable’ clearly demonstrates firstly that there are still plenty of extremists in the BNP, but also shows the extent to which Britain has changed - the vast majority of Britons want nothing to do with racist bigots and do not want to be associated with a party that represents hatred. It is also interesting that, as with other far-right groups, as well as with Islamist and pro-Jihadist organisations, the BNP is attempting to tap into the widespread feelings of alienation and atomisation felt by many in a society that is perceived to have poor social cohesion and to lack a sense of ‘old fashioned’ community. The BNP’s activists’ handbook reportedly states:

Millions of people live very lonely and isolated lives. The decline of the family and the break-up of communities mean there is a big gap in [their] lives. Filling that gap, giving people an ‘alternative extended family’, is the most powerful recruiting tool.

Note, therefore, that appeals to racist sentiment are seen as far less likely to succeed than manipulatively offering a superficial form of community and family. The ‘modern’ BNP seeks to appeal to the many people who feel isolated, not just on a personal level, but also detached from a political process that is seen to favour the views and interests of elite groups of politicians and big business, as well as minority groups and foreign workers at the expense of the bulk of the population. When people find themselves agreeing with the BNP now, it is far more likely they fear social degeneration and the marginalisation of ordinary people’s views than that they subscribe to pseudo-scientific racial ideologies or want to see every non-white person in Britain forcibly shipped off to their ‘ancestral lands’. The BNP’s leadership sees this - they know full well after years in the wilderness promoting ‘white nationalism’ and loony ideas such as Holocaust denial and Jewish conspiracy theories (step forward Mr Nick Griffin), which got them nowhere electorally, that they now have to project an image of populist patriotism and opposition to migrants undercutting Britons or minority religious groups (in particular Muslims) being pandered to while white Britons are ignored.

‘White Nationalism’ - a dying and unworkable ideology

At this point, it is worth considering the other parties and groups of the far-right in Britain, who still preach to varying degrees a Nazi-esque racial ideology, in order to demonstrate quite how alien such views are to the vast bulk of British people, and how hard line far-right views are completely dead in the water.

Take the National Front, for example. Once a fairly large organisation (back in the ’70s and ’80s), the NF is now a shadow of its former self, fielding few candidates in elections and gaining a pathetic number of votes when it does so. Even today, the NF still has as one of its key policies the mass repatriation of non-whites from Britain and the creation of a white racial State. According to the NF website:

[T]he National Front would halt all non-white immigration into Britain and introduce a policy of phased and humane repatriation of all coloured people currently resident here. Such a policy would be expected to extend over 10-15 years and its completion would thus depend on the recurrent election of successive NF governments.

However, the NF now realises how implausible and hard to sell this proposal would be:

Repatriation, is of course the most difficult of all political issues, a hard sell even to an open minded population. But almost impossible to justify to a population who have been brainwashed from their earliest years to believe that foreigners have as much right to live in Britain, as native Britons.

The National Front does intend to repatriate, as many as possible to their original countries, this will takes many years to do. Hopefully many can be encouraged to leave voluntarily.

Despite recognising how such a policy would be ‘almost impossible to justify’, they still believe such an idea could be workable and clearly imply that people would be forced out regardless of their wishes.

The NF is not alone in promoting this policy. The British People’s Party (a proud member of the World Union of National Socialists and Aryan Unit y) proposes ‘[t]he ending of all non-European immigration and the introduction of a compulsory, phased, humane policy of repatriation’.

The England First Party claims it would ‘[s]top all further immigration and start a programme of voluntary repatriation of non-European immigrants back to their lands of ancestral origin’. However, how ‘voluntary’ such a programme would be is called into question by their plan for ‘[t]he abolition of all non-European faiths and religions along with the removal of all their mosques and temples’ (they apparently see Christianity as a ‘European’ religion).

The British First Party also promotes repatriation and is a front group for the November 9th Society, which states ‘[t]here’s black or brown or yellow, but to be white in Britain is our stand. The answer is clear, we must throw them from our land’. The N9S website proclaims:

We class ourselves as National Socialist Priests, if you like. The coming times will be hard, not every one will have the strength, nor the courage to take the path we have. We believe it is our sacred duty to carry on the work of Adolf Hitler, whilst remembering that the glorious Third Reich cannot be emulated. The N9s is a British National Socialist Movement that is guided by the immortal teachings of Adolf Hitler.

An 2006 undercover investigation of the N9S by a Jewish Chronicle journalist found them to be a bunch of thugs who engage in violent attacks and hurl racist insults in the streets. An unsurprisingly twisted bunch, the group tries to recruit alienated teenagers and sought new members by hanging around outside a shelter for abused children. So desperate is the group to make up numbers they even (despite nominally supporting a Nazi eugenics philosophy) count a physically and mentally disabled youth among their members.

Other groups promoting Nazi fetishism include Combat 18/Blood & Honour, the Racial Volunteer Force, and the British Freedom Fighters. Even these cranks recognise the reality of modern Britain.

C18, for example, admits that ‘[n]o doubt the odds are against us, and a bookmaker would probably not touch us unless someone put a gun to his head’ and that ‘the situation is indeed desperate’. Their answer? Violence:

As warriors of the political underground we shall thrive on anarchy and chaos! If anybody reading this sitll believes in the phrase of “law and order”, they have understood absolutely nothing and are of absolutely no value to us or our race. The “law” is the Talmudic law and the “order” is the order of ZOG’s zombies - a state of total control through total mind death.

The Racial Volunteer Force states that ‘[t]ime grows short for our Race’ and that it ‘does not believe that ZOG will ever let us win our fight by the use of the so called Democratic system’. Again, violence is seen as some sort of solution.

No longer the swaggering self-confident drum beaters and flag wavers of past decades, the hardcore supporters of organised white racism in Britain are now a ghettoised bunch of infighting sociopathic failures, who know in their hearts that they have no real chance of ever seeing their fantasies become a reality.

The changing face of modern Britain

Britain has changed dramatically since the early days of the National Front, and even the neo-Nazis know it (hence, of course, the BNP’s major rebranding effort in recent years). A bitter comment from the English National Resistance website is very telling of just how far modern Britain has moved on:

Racial mixing is becoming more trendy and widespread especially in the big cities , on any given day you will have the misfortune of seeing some white chav woman with an IQ of about 75 walking down the street hand in hand with a big black negro and more noticably lately white men walking around the city with their ‘prize’ african or chinese woman. So many white girls (and boys) are now going with blacks and producing bastard offspring which do not belong to any race . You seriously have to ask yourself the question what if this continues and gets worse as it is doing , then in 100 years will my great-grand children be white ? who will your children reproduce with ?

Despite the crude way in which the ENR present the changing racial makeup of Britain today, this is not mere paranoid ranting. Earlier this year, Lucinda Platt of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University published a report that examined the growing phenomenon of mixed race relationships in Britain, which found:

One in 10 children in the UK now lives in a mixed-race family … Mixed-race relationships are now so common that some ethnic groups - starting with African-Caribbean - will virtually disappear, the research states. Young people are six times more likely to be mixed-race as adults … Half of all men in Britain who have Caribbean heritage and are in a relationship already have partners of a different race. The same is true of one in five black African men, one in 10 Indian men and women and two out of five Chinese women. One in five children belongs to an ethnic minority - a far higher proportion than among the adult population … Over the past 14 years the number of children of Caribbean heritage with one white parent has risen from 39% to 49%. Among the Indian population it has increased from 3% to 11%, for Pakistanis from 1% to 4%, and for Chinese from 15% to 35%.

Platt predicts that this is a trend that is set to continue:

Early research carried out by the Turquoise Association found that the reason Caribbean men and women were most likely to enter mixed-race relationships was because they had been settled in Britain the longest. Platt agreed, and argued that other groups - from black African to Chinese and Indian - were therefore likely to follow suit in time.

[...]

The shift has been most marked for the Caribbean population, but Platt argued that others would move in the same direction the longer they stayed in Britain. In almost all minority groups, people born in the UK were more likely to have relationships with people of different races.

These facts leave any hope of mass ‘repatriation’ in tatters - after all, how can people born in Britain be repatriated anywhere, and where exactly would a child with a white British parent and a black British parent be sent ‘back’ to? And what about a child with one ethnic minority grandparent? In order to decide who was white and who wasn’t there would have to be a return to the racial categorisation notions and policies last seen in the Third Reich. Then there’s the problem that decades worth of television, films, popular music, literature, sporting achievements, and so on, would have to be erased in order to ‘purify’ British society and culture. After all, you can’t very well ’send back’ all non-white British people but continue to enjoy the fruits of their former presence. Essentially, over forty years of British history would have to be presented in an entirely negative light and culture would have to be ‘ethnically cleansed’ to remove all evidence that there ever was a non-white presence in Britain. Anyone who sees this idea as workable is obviously severely deluded and quite possibly pathological.

For many people in Britain today (especially readers of certain tabloids), Islam is seen to represent a major colonising threat - but the primary objection most people have to the growing visibility of Islam in Britain seems largely to be based around fears of Britons’ freedoms being eroded by a totalitarian ideology espoused by people who refuse to integrate. The problem is not largely seen as one of race, but belief and attitude (of course, the two are sometimes conflated - and the BNP tries very hard to do this). Some on the far-right are all too aware of this. For them, the primary issue is race, and the Final Conflict blog, which represents the remnants of the International Third Position (a Fascist group which once counted Nick Griffin among its leading lights), makes this very clear. Telling its readers not to get over excited by Jihadist attention seekers such as Anjem Choudary’s crew, Final Conflict reminds its readers who the real enemies are:

We have more to fear from the Zionists who embroil us in foreign wars and the Muslims, Sikhs, Jews and African Christians who come here and integrate - than we ever will from a handful of hotheads.

And again:

Even if we look at the barbed issue of Islam, we have to ask who’s more of a threat: the “mad mullahs” who are promoted by a Zionist media eager for an eternal bogeyman, backed up by the CIA’s “Al Qaeda” myth; or the Asians (Muslim, but also Sikh, Hindu etc.) who wish to integrate.

The biggest threat from coloured immigration comes from the move to a coffee-coloured secularised State, something that Communists push for, something the Capitalists like (hey - we’re all consumers!) and something that the Masons approve of as they try to destroy the last vestiges of Christianity.

This melting pot, faggot-ambivalent, ecumenical, social controlling, Big Business led, Masonic State, where the only enemy is “hatred” and “extremism” is our nightmare.

FC is well aware that many immigrants do want to integrate into British society and that more importantly they largely succeed, and this is a ‘nightmare’ from the racist perspective it promotes. For FC and the other racist cultic groupings on the far-right, the presence of a Sir Trevor McDonald or a Dame Kelly Holmes in Britain is a matter of disgust. Fortunately for us, the vast bulk of the British population thinks otherwise, as the far-right knows all too well.

The BNP and ‘Trojan horse’ racism

The reality of many of the old crowd in the BNP is that they feel the same way as Final Conflict and the other social misfits and cranks detailed above. Back before he decided to put on a ‘moderate’ face, the current BNP leader, when asked if his party would ‘force’ all non-whites to leave Britain ‘whether they were born here or not’, answered, ‘Ultimately, yes’.

That underneath the apparent changes in the BNP’s focus and message there is still a strong undercurrent of ideological racism is clear both from the party’s Constitution and the statements and associations of many of its members and supporters online (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, for example).

The current BNP Constitution states that membership of the party is open only to those of ‘the indigenous Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse folk communities of Britain and those we regard as closely related and ethnically assimilated or assimilable aboriginal members of the European race also resident in Britain’ and that the BNP ‘is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples’. In stating this, the BNP is admitting that it still advocates ‘white nationalist’ - i.e. explicitly racist - conceptions of who can and can’t be classed as British and that it desires as an interim measure a kind of Apartheid ideology in which all mingling of white Britons with non-white Britons is minimalised.

The party’s long term goals are also clearly laid out in its Constitution, where we read that the BNP is ‘committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948′. Of course, what this would mean in practice is mass deportations and the introduction of Nazi-style racial laws. One can safely assume, for example, that the kind of ‘race mixing’ that is now increasingly common in Britain would have to be put to an end through legislation and punitive measures, in order to prevent any further ‘form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples’.

In so far as this ideology remains a part of the BNP’s programme, the BNP’s leadership remains almost as delusional as the leadership of any other far-right party or group. However, unlike the NF and co who continue to openly promote a completely unworkable racist ideology, the BNP in recent years has sought to greatly play down the ideological racism that lies at its core and to re-make itself as a party for ordinary patriotic British people who are tired of ‘political correctness’, out of touch political and financial elites, and seemingly unchecked immigration. Looking at the BNP’s leaflets, the racial ideology is now sidelined in favour of Daily Express and Daily Mail style material.

For example, a ‘British Jobs For British Workers’ leaflet states:

NO to migrant workers
NO to factory closures
NO to sending British jobs abroad
YES to putting British workers first!

According to the leaflet, the first three are ‘Labour’s three pronged attack on British jobs’, while the BNP will provide the solution.

Another leaflet, this time on Islam, states:

Nearly half of all Muslims admit to wanting to see Sharia Law forced onto Britain. This would make the Muslim Koran the source of all law. Among other things it bans women from going out in public without wearing headscarves and fully covering their bodies. It turns women and non-believers into second class citizens; forbids alcohol and replaces democracy with the rule of fanatical Imams and Mullahs.

Only the British National Party speaks out against both Muslim extremist terrorism and the threat that ‘mainstream’ Islam poses to our British culture, heritage and ways of life. We are not against individual Muslims, who should not be blamed for the attitudes taught by their religion. We don’t want to force the Islamic world to ‘Westernise’, but we aren’t prepared to stand back and watch as Britain drifts into being an Islamic republic.

The first leaflet doesn’t state who the BNP defines as British workers (the reality is only white Britons) and the second leaflet even states that the party doesn’t oppose ‘individual Muslims’ (it wants to deport them all, in reality).

Based purely on the leaflets they hand out, it’s not hard to see why the BNP has managed to considerably raise its level of support in recent years. After all, who would be opposed to keeping factories open and improving employment levels in Britain? And who, except a tiny fringe, would like to see Britain become an Islamic dictatorship in which most Britons are second class citizens and alcohol is banned? The reality behind virtually every issue raised by the BNP is of course far more complex than how it is presented by them. In the case of Islam, for example, it is utterly absurd to suggest that Britain is on the verge of being over-run by ‘fanatical Imams and Mullahs’, despite the problems in recent years with some Islamist groups.

The problem with the BNP today is that it is increasingly becoming slippery and resourceful in its approach to promoting racism, and is ‘playing to the crowd’ by parroting the kind of paranoid and hyperbolic material seen all too often these days in certain sections of the British media, as well as picking up on genuine social and economic problems and twisting them to suit its purposes. The underlying beliefs remain the same - racism, bigotry, and scapegoating - but the BNP is now successfully making use of a variety of Trojan horse issues to mask its true ideological agenda.

What needs to be done

If, you might ask, ‘white nationalism’ is an unworkable ideology and doomed to failure, and if the BNP still essentially represents this ideology, then why worry about the BNP at all? Despite the fact that the BNP will never win, will never make up a government, and will never see its dreams of mass deportations come to fruition, there are two very good reasons for being concerned about its growth.

Firstly, there is the fact that the BNP wants to divide communities, play up tension that may already exist, and create problems even where none actually exist, all in order to foment the racial and religious conflict that they see as key to their future success.

Secondly, there is clearly something profoundly wrong in modern Britain when a party like the BNP starts picking up support and credibility. Even though the BNP now seeks to appear relatively ‘moderate’ in order to attract mainstream voters, the fact that its simplistic rhetoric holds appeal for normal people (not just the skinhead crowd of old) should act as a serious wake-up call to the major parties.

In terms of solutions, there are two approaches that are needed:

Firstly, we need people from a wide variety of backgrounds and political persuasions to unite in getting the facts out there - both about the BNP’s true agenda and about its distortion and misrepresentation of social and political issues.

Secondly, the major parties need to take the rise of the BNP seriously. The vast majority of British people have no time at all for racism and extremism, but many people have concerns about a variety of complex and thorny issues - the economy, employment, the EU, globalisation, immigration, migrant workers, Islam, social cohesion, law and order, and so on. If increasing numbers of hard working and ‘ordinary’ Brits are turning to the BNP for answers and solutions to major issues, and if many people feel that the major parties are self-serving, out of touch, elitist, and unrealistic, then the major parties need to wake up and find out exactly why it is that people are turning to the BNP or giving up on caring about voting at all. It is simply not enough to make the usual statements about what a bad bunch the BNP are and how no decent person should support racism - it will largely fall on deaf ears. If the major parties don’t want people voting for the BNP they had better get on with addressing their concerns.

BNP cover-up

2009-04-19T11:08:00.002+01:00

From News of the World

Sneaky handbook tells members to wear hats to hide skinheads

By Jamie Lyons, 19/04/2009

AN OFFICIAL handbook for BNP activists reveals how they plan to cover up the LIES and DECEIT behind their election campaigns.

It shows how the far-right party has drawn up schemes to smear Labour and the Tories in June Euro elections.

And it has advised members how to make sure plots to stir up violence stay secret in an attempt to con voters into thinking they are respectable.

The Activists' & Organisers' Handbook tells them to:

USE internet blogs to put out damaging stories about rivals.
NEVER advocate violence in emails-in case they are leaked.
ENSURE supporters wear hats over their skinhead haircuts when out campaigning.

The guide's advice on using the internet suggests setting up blogs that do not appear to be BNP sites to help them collect information for smear campaigns.

Party thugs are told not to even mention violence in emails in case they get out. The guide says: "Don't use it to express extreme views or advocate violence. Your emails are probably less secure than you think."

Activists are also told to refer to the party as the British National Party not the BNP because it sounds "much more reasonable and comfortable".

And members of the party, led by Nick Griffin, must not dress like thugs when campaigning.

The guide states: "No naked torsos in summer, unshaven scruffs or skinhead haircuts (put them in caps or hats)."

A spokesman for anti-racist group Searchlight, which uncovered the book, said: "This booklet exposes the reality behind the BNP mask of respectability.

Hate

"What other political party feels the need to ask its senior organisers to be careful not to get caught discussing their plans for violent behaviour on the internet?

"This shows they are the same old extremists, with the same agenda of hate and division."

The BNP has revealed it is collecting masses of data on its opponents' sexual orientation ready for character assassination campaigns if they criticise the party.

Its official declaration on the Data Protection Register shows information about "relatives, guardians and associates" of any critics is also being gathered.

Shirlene Tobin: a case of racist cyber bullying

2009-04-18T01:12:00.006+01:00

A BNP activist accused by Wanstead resident Shirlene Tobin of racial harrassment was released without charge. The BNP has responded to this as a victory, claiming that Ms Tobin is a lying opportunist who was seeking to undermine the BNP. An alternative theory is that the only other witnesses to the altercation between Ms Tobin and the BNP woman were BNP activists, who closed ranks and swore to defend their comrade against accusations of racial harassment in court, regardless of the reality. In such circumstances, it would be hard for the police to press charges - it is Ms Tobin's word against the BNP and it simply comes down to the strength of numbers.

It is not up to us to judge on this particular incident, although it is worthwhile noting that several leading BNP members - including leader Nick Griffin - have convictions for incitement to racial hatred and violent attacks on members of ethnic minorities.

Regardless of who is right or wrong, the BNP have taken it upon themselves to traduce Ms Tobin and undermine her reputation. One BNP-associated blog, Made in Yorkshire, was deleted by Google-owned Blogger after it published Ms Tobin's address and sent her a "warning" - a development that has led to another police investigation.

The neo-Nazi forum Stormfront has also seen some ugly bullying of Ms Tobin, a nurse and a mother of two who says she is now too afraid to leave her home. Here are a selection of the comments left by extremist BNP supporters:

"Canvasser didn't wan't it back after the ape had touched it. Never know where it's hands have been. yuck"

"I bet she's a subsidy monkey. Let's hope the rest of her tribe also become agraphobic, and stay indoors, and off the streets."

"They are nasty mongrels and deserve what they get."

The BNP have started a letter-writing campaign to local newspaper editor Dominic Yeatman, calling on him to "desist from printing the deranged rantings of bigoted ethnic-minorities ever again." In one BNP-supporting blog, there is mention of a campaign to get her sacked from her job as a nurse. She has also been referred to as "The Screamer" and BNP supporters have claimed that she is "large" so therefore couldn't be a victim of racist abuse by the supposedly "elderly" BNP activists.

Whatever happened in relation to Ms Tobin's altercation with the BNP, the far-right wants to punish her. It seeks to intimidate her and her family and traduce her to the extent that she would not be able to work. All this is despite the fact that the BNP activist at the centre of the controversy has never been identified, so has not suffered as a result.

Spies, Secret Agents, and the BNP

2009-04-17T14:19:00.001+01:00

Cross-posted with Harry's Place

By Edmund Standing

In the minds of Britain’s ‘white nationalists’, their ‘movement’ is so important that it is infested with spies and secret agents. The latest news on the ‘Government plant’ front begins with Arthur Kemp, the BNP’s resident pseudo-historian (and ‘intellectual’ inspiration for last year’s BNP ‘White History Month‘) and Peter Rushton, a pseudo-intellectual crank who is one of the few members of the British People’s Party (formerly the White Nationalist Party and Aryan Unity) who can string a coherent sentence together. Kemp is an interesting fellow, given that he actually does have a history in espionage, being a veteran of Apartheid South Africa’s security services, while Rushton has moved around in various far-Right groups, including the BNP, from which he was eventually expelled.

According to Kemp, Rushton is in fact a ‘hard core Trotskyite’ and ‘Searchlight spy’ who

pretended to be a firm Nick Griffin supporter, but upon his exposure as a spy and expulsion from the BNP, he has since pretended to be a firm anti-Griffin activist, all in accordance with a plan to sow as much discord with British nationalism.

BNP leader Nick Griffin is even more paranoid than Kemp, and in 2007 claimed in a BNP magazine that Rushton is actually none other than Nick Lowles of Searchlight magazine!

Rushton is, unsurprisingly, none too impressed with these allegations and has recently attacked Kemp on the neo-Nazi Stormfront forums and has received a reply, as well as a stinging attack from the boys over at CUNT, who report:

It made funny reading today when homosexual ‘nationalist’ Pete Rushton (using the name Andi Ritchie on Stormfront Britain) made some comments regarding the BNP’s Arthur Kemp only to find himself put on the spot and humiliated when Mr Kemp himself took time out from real politics to toy with Rushton and give him a few minutes of his year to feel like someone actually gives a shit much to the amusement of many of us.

Now the real irony here is that MINCER Pete Rushton was accusing Mr Kemp of being, well a bit ‘Dodgy’. Now thats fucking brilliant coming from a closet homosexual who has had many slaps after being accused of many things including ‘commie’ and it was actually Mr Kemp who exposed Poofy Pete who was posting on a Marxist website/Forum and Poofy Pete never got over that one. Even a STORMFRONT moderator had confirmed seeing Rushtons (National Union Of Journalists) NUJ card prompting even his staunchest supporter at the time to give up hope amid all the accusations of Rushton working for Searchlight.

While nationalism strives upwards and onwards despite the bizarre reason folk even tollerate Poofy Pete Rushton being around, that said though Pete isn’t exactly the star attraction anymore as he hawks his mincing ways at poorly attended ‘fringe party’ meetings to appease the handful of alcoholics, social misfits and sexual devients with nothing better to do who join and attend these ‘meetings’. Usual attendance figures 15 to 20 people on a good day (not including bar staff).

Over at Griffin Watch, the Northwest Nationalists beg to differ. There IS something dodgy about Kemp, they allege. They also raise the very good question of exactly why it is that BNP members still post on the blatantly pro-Nazi Stormfront site, given the ‘new BNP’ is supposed to be opposed to all that:

Oh so Nicks “mates” are allowed to post on Stormfront, no in fact his senior officials are allowed to post on stormfront, yet Nick claims that he has purged the party of white nationalists, 14 word masturbators, dinosuars etc.

Nick Griffin, what a two faced treacherous opportunist you really are.

Quite. And of Kemp, they ask:

Why is Kemp allowed to live in Britain and Geert Wilders not allowed to even visit here?
Wouldn’t you think, with Kemps history and supposed dislike of multiculturalism,(and the control that the establishment have) he would be one of the first to be dissallowed entry to Britain, let alone be allowed to reside here?

Somethings adrift.

And presumably in their minds that ’something’ is that Kemp is some kind of Government ‘plant’, ‘Searchlight spy’, or whatever.

Griffin Watch also revisits the case of former BNP councillor Sadie Graham, who was expelled from the BNP for challenging Griffin on the continuing presence and influence in the BNP of the openly pro-Nazi fan of underage girls, Mark Collett. As Workers’ Liberty reported at the time:

Collett and close associate Dave Hannam have constructed a clique of supporters around them. This group has been at the centre of physical and verbal attacks on fellow party members, the mishandling of party finances and various other allegations of threatening behaviour and incompetence. For example, BNP accounts have still not been submitted for official scrutiny.Nick Griffin has firmly sided with Collett in this dispute. That the leader of the BNP sided with an outspoken Nazi over a covert one suggests something essential in his politics.

Having failed to convince Griffin to act against the Collett clique, Graham and friends set up the ‘Enough is Enough Nick’ web-log detailing their complaints. In taking the issue to the membership and wider public, Graham and Smith were summarily expelled from an organisation that claims to be the ‘most democratic’ party in Britain! On top of this it is alleged that members of the BNP ‘Security Team’ - currently in the hands of former South African Intelligence operatives - have been bugging members phone calls and that on the day of Graham’s expulsion they gained access to her house and removed a number of items including a lap-top and mobile phone.

When Griffin expelled Graham he - true to form - accused her of being an infiltrator working for Searchlight. Griffin Watch is having none of this and raises the issue of phone tapping and bugging again:

Nick Griffin is a liar. The most disurbing fact about this is where did Griffin obtain this recording of a PRIVATE conversation between Kenny Smith and Sadie Graham from?
The rumour is that Arthur Kemp, with his background in espionage , was Lance involved?, illegally tapped Kenny Smiths telephone.
Kenny and Sadie were guilty of nothing more than trying to expose perverts such as Collett and Hannam and rid the party of them, in order that we, as a party could try to fulfill our true potential.

Having established - in their minds anyway - that Graham is not a spy and that actually Kemp was up to his old Apartheid era ways, Griffin Watch have moved on to promoting allegations of their own. For them, not only is Kemp a possible infiltrator but the BNP’s new treasurer (and deputy leader) Simon Darby is actually a ‘superspy‘!

This is a line that Nick Griffin’s former comrades in the International Third Position have been pushing for some time and they allege that the emergence of a photo of Darby being given a Nazi salute at the recent Euro-Fascist convention in Milan is part of a complex plot to discredit the BNP and that Darby is ‘a known MI5 operative’!

Welcome to the lunatic world of British ‘nationalism’…

Police launch probe over new BNP threat

2009-04-16T23:15:00.003+01:00

From This is London

REDBRIDGE Police have launched an investigation after an apparently pro-British National Party (BNP) website published threats against a woman who was allegedly the victim of a racist attack.

The news comes after officers arrested a BNP by-election campaigner in Wanstead on Tuesday after she allegedly called the woman a "n****r." The police have not commented on whether the BNP canvasser has been charged.

The website, which claims to be written by an unnamed "proud BNP member", has published full details of the woman and photographs of her Wanstead home along with the threats.

The website has been taken down within the past hour.

It said: "I intend to publicise your details on as many web sites as possible.

"You will wish you had never lied about the BNP; and that's not a lie, that's a promise."

Despite the police action, Wanstead BNP candidate John Evans said he thought the website was a fake.

He said: "I think it's an absolute fake. I haven't heard of it.

"We don't need to resort to this rubbish. I hope they find who did it. If we can take legal action against the person that did this then we may well do so."

Epping Forest BNP Watch update:

The blog in question is Made in Yorkshire, run by a blogger who describes himself as "Middle-aged, white, Yorkshireman. Think Clarkson, but bald! Proud member of the British National Party." The blog had 123 pro-BNP posts (see Google's cache) before its attack on Shirleen Tobin. who had made a complaint against a BNP activist. The blog includes videos from the BNP TV site and a service to give online donations to the BN. While the party organisation may not be responsible for its content, it is certainly not a fake website, as BNP candidate John Evans claims, but is run by a committed party activist. The threats against Ms Tobin, who has said she fears leaving her house, are typical of the inherently violent nature of BNP activists.

No platform, no challenge?

2009-04-15T18:50:00.004+01:00

Labour candidate Ross Hatfull pulled out of hustings for the Wanstead by-election, organised by Wanstead's Counties Residents Association (CRA), thereby preventing the event from going ahead.

He said: "The party line of the Labour group is not to share a platform with the BNP, but also there are a lot of people concerned there could be trouble if it went ahead."

The candidates from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green and UKIP parties had planned to participate, so Labour was in a minority with its no-platform position.

BNP arguments are not hard to take apart, so why not take them on head-to-head at hustings? In the light of allegations of racism against one BNP campaigner, if there had been trouble from the BNP supporters it could only reflect badly on them.

Responding to the cancellation, Ian Lannigan of Wanstead said: "Fascists must be faced head on. Disengagement doesn't work (see what's happened in Dagenham) and only allows their lies to gain traction. We have to engage and defeat these racist buffoons in debate. The BNP has been handed a a PR victory by the inept Labour machine. The other candidates are denied a chance to present their policies and engage an intelligent and informed electorate.

"To withdraw on the day is cowardly, shameful, counter productive and will infuriate the CRA and Wanstead Historical Society who have worked hard to arrange a fair hustings. The voters will punish Ross Hatful and the BNP will reap the reward."

While being in the presence of a member from a racist party may put a bitter taste in many people's mouths, the BNP will not be defeated by silencing them but by hitting them head on with their hypocrisy, lies and hate-mongering. Labour's unilateral decision to destroy the debate has merely helped to divide rather than unite opposition to the BNP and provided fuel to their propaganda.

Defeating fascism will not be achieved by suppressing debate and attempting to ban fascists from freedom of speech. Democracy is strong enough to resist the BNP's subversive, divisive and nefarious politics.

BNP by-election campaigner arrested over racist attack

2009-04-15T14:43:00.000+01:00

From Waltham Forest Guardian

A FRIGHTENED mum-of-two has been left too scared to leave her home after she was allegedly called a ‘nigger’ by a British National Party (BNP) canvasser during a racist tirade in front of her five year old son.

Shirlene Tobin, of St Margaret’s Road, Wanstead, has refused to leave her house since the incident - on Tuesday evening - during which she alleges the female BNP activist told her to ‘come to me because I don’t come to niggers’ when she tried to hand back a political leaflet that was posted through her front door.

The 43 year-old - who works as a nurse at Whipps Cross University Hospital - called the police immediately after the alleged attack at about 7.30pm - which she said has left her fearing for her family’s safety.

She said: “I couldn’t believe what this woman said to me in the middle of the street in front of my son.

“I walked after her to try and give the leaflet back but got a load of racist abuse.

“She told me to run to her because ‘niggers should be used to running.’ “This is the first time I’ve suffered racist abuse like this. I moved to Wanstead from Stratford because it has a special village community character, and then this happens.

“My neighbour has been brilliant and supported me, but I have been unable to leave the house since this happened. I’m worried about what might happen to me and my children.

“My husband is Irish, and black and Irish people in our parents generation suffered abuse like this, but I didn’t think this would happen to me today, in a place like Wanstead.

“My son is on his Easter holidays from school, and we were going to go out and look at the bluebells in the park, but I don’t feel safe to do that now.”

John Evans - who is standing as the BNP candidate in the upcoming Wanstead ward by-election - played down Mrs Tobin’s claims.

He said: “I am aware of this incident but knowing the BNP members in this area as I do I am sure none of them would have done this.

“As our leader Nick Griffin has made clear - anyone found bringing the name of the British National Party into disrepute will be expelled with immediate affect.”

Credit where it's not due - redux

2009-04-13T19:42:00.006+01:00

Epping Forest BNP has again claimed credit where its not due by saying that its councillors were involved in getting road closure fees waived for the Debden Day celebrations, when they weren't.

Essex County Council had inadvertently charged the organisers of the annual community festivities with a £995 road closure fee. After a letter from the Chairman of the Loughton Broadway Town Centre Partnership Dave Stannard to Councillor Hume, who is in charge of ECC Highways, the West Essex Area Highways manager replied that no charge would be made in respect of the closure. He said that such costs relate to commercial closures and were not intended to cover community events.

In the past, road closure costs were waived by Epping Forest District Council, but responsibility was then passed to ECC in 2008. The £995 road closure charge was simply the result of an administrative error in designating the community event as a commercial operation.

Yet, the BNP is keen to make political capital out of an obvious mistake, although the credit for getting the ECC to realise its mistake belongs to Mr Stannard and volunteers from the community.

The Broadway Partnership and Debden Day are meant to be community activities, devoid of party political arguments. Until now, no councillor has sought to use these activities for their own party's again. But now the BNP shamefully want to politicise it for their own publicity ahead of the county elections and take credit for work they have not done. Debden residents don't want their community festival being caught up in an election campaign.

A few days ago, we revealed that BNP councillor Susan Clapp was trying to claim credit for the resurfacing Jessel Drive, when in fact it was planned months in advance and after campaigns by a number of community activists and councillors from other parties. Instead of claiming credit for others' hard work, why don't BNP councillors actually do something for a change?

Jesus to join Epping Forest BNP?

2009-04-13T16:46:00.005+01:00

Loughton is waiting in eager anticipation over the BNP's final verdict over whether the town will host the party's latest election billboard proclaiming that Jesus would vote BNP.

According to Epping Forest BNP branch, it has been shortlisted by the party to pick a billboard on its patch featuring Jesus. The poster plays on the BNP's paranoid belief that its persecution is as bad than the Roman persecution of Jesus and His disciples. It features a verse from John stating "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. What would Jesus do? Vote BNP."

Jonathan Bartley of leading Christian organisation Ekklesia pointed out that "the verse comes in the context of Jesus' teaching about love, which is of course a long way from the BNP's perspective." Churches have also strongly criticised the election stunt and accused the BNP of scapegoating minorities.

The BNP is incensed that Christian churches are unanimous in their condemnation of the party and its racist ideology, which goes well beyond criticism of immigration policies and actively works towards expulsion of non-white people. Last month, the Synod of the Diocese of Chelmsford condemned the extremist party and urged that all members of the Church of England "take an active part in responding to the challenge posed by the BNP and similar racist political parties."

Some members of the local party have privately voiced their disquiet over the poster, fearing it could bring ridicule and condemnation from the local churches. Loughton Churches Together have been at the forefront of local campaigning against the BNP and more pragmatic party members see the pitfalls of inciting yet more conflict with the churches. The party's campaign against the town's only Christian-denominated secondary school has already raised the hackles of many local Christians and the BNP's Jesus advert will only focus efforts to oppose the racist party.

Garry Martin's hissy fit

2009-04-13T13:45:00.003+01:00

Poor old BNP councillor Garry Martin is struggling to get to grips with the principles of democracy, let alone how to run public projects. Mr Martin ran out of Wednesday night's Loughton town council environment and heritage committee meeting, red-faced and angry after he felt he didn't get his way regarding the restoration of the town's war memorial. He claimed it was a protest, but his fellow BNP councillors were embarrassed by his fit of pique and refused to join him.

Mr Martin claims that the council is refusing to honour the war dead. Councillors had explained to him that there may not have been enough room on the war memorial for all the names that need to be added. Instead, alternatives would have to be considered, but in the mean time they would go ahead with repointing and cleaning up the memorial and resetting the flag stones.

It is somewhat ironic that Mr Martin is so passionate about this, given that local soldiers fought and died fighting those who upheld the ideology that inspires the British National Party. As this picture shows, BNP leader Nick Griffin never had a problem marching alongside those traitors who worship Hitler.

Perhaps Mr Martin has yet to understand the BNP's ideological roots; he is obviously not motivated by a love of Hitler, as some of the party's long-standing members are. Yet, he doesn't even seem to have a grasp of council business.

Clapped out! Credit where it's not due.

2009-04-12T00:02:00.006+01:00

Susan Clapp, Loughton's most unremarkable BNP councillor, is attempting to take credit where none is due in order to rescue her flagging reputation.

Ms Clapp has heralded the recent resurfacing of Jessel Drive as the result of her appeals, just "a few weeks" after she complained. The resurfacing had been planned months in advance, according to the West Essex office of Essex Highways. It had nothing to do with Clapp's supposed appeal. In fact, other parties had long been campaigning against pot holes. The local county councillors - the Loughton Residents Association's Chris Pond and the Conservative party's Michael Tomkins - have been praised by residents for putting consistent pressure on County Hall to repair roads in Debden, while the Liberal Democrats have made it a high priority and launched petitions. The BNP's contribution was precisely zilch.

Susan Clapp came rather late on and probably only to defend her position as local BNP members consider whether to ditch her in favour of Julian Leppert for the 2010 district council elections. By claiming she was responsible for road repairs that were already planned, Ms Clapp perhaps is trying to make a point, having failed to impress anyone with her lacklustre performance in the council chamber. Even her own party recognises Ms Clapp is truly clapped out.

Epping Forest BNP's "scientific racist" links revealed

2009-04-11T23:34:00.005+01:00

The BNP's ex-Jewish poster-girl and Epping Forest councillor Pat Richardson was guest of honour at a recent conference entitled "Preserving Western Civilisation" in the US.

The conference was organised by well-known white supremacists and was heralded as the white nationalist response to the election of US President Barack Obama. The event was organised by Michael Hart, who has advocated a racial partioning of the US, and focused on the need to defend "America's Judeo-Christian heritage and European identity" from immigrants, Muslims and Africans - clearly a racist response to the election of the US's first black president, who was brought up by a Muslim step-father and lived in the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia. Perhaps Pat Richardson would prefer President George W Bush back in power, in which case her opinion is held by an extreme minority on both sides of the Atlantic!

Like Richardson, Hart comes from a Jewish background and he represents what is commonly known as "scientific racism", in which Jews are placed firmly in the European camp (haven't they heard of the Falashas of Ethiopia or the Lemba of Zimbabwe? - never mind, don't let the facts get in the way of white supremacism). The conference promoted the notion that the white man is genetically superior and that the West should not simply defeat Islamic extremism but must fight a war of civilisation with the East. On the issue of Muslims, Richardson remarked: "If they're not plotting and planning unrest, they're planning how to get your money."

Richardson's visit to the US was followed by BNP deputy leader Simon Derby's attendance at a rally of European fascist parties in Italy, at which he was given the Hitler salute. The meeting was organised by Forza Nuova, whose leader Roberto Fiore was convicted in Italy in 1985 for his involvement in the Bologna railway station bombing, which was the biggest postwar terrorist attack in Europe.

In speaking at an event organised by American white supremacists, Richardson has revealed the truth of Epping Forest BNP that they have sought to hide from the local community. While they pretend to be the voice of the common man, they are really part of an international network of shady extremist groups that believe in racial segregation, white supremacism and involved in violent and terrorist acts.

We don't need these traitors to our country sitting on our council and spending our money. And we sure as hell don't need them as school governors.

How the BNP misleads the electorate ...

2009-04-09T22:44:00.007+01:00

... by the man who BNP leader Nick Griffin once hailed as a hero.

BNP: "An insult to our ancestors"
BNP founder John Tyndall, who paraded in Nazi uniform while promoting antisemitic propaganda and Holocaust denial, accuses his opponents of betraying those who died for freedom

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Griffin?

BNP deputy leader addresses international fascist rally

2009-04-06T21:05:00.000+01:00

The deputy leader of the British National Party has spoken at an international fascist rally alongside a man convicted of a terrorism offence and a convicted Holocaust denier.

Simon Darby claims he addressed a 400-strong audience in Milan today (5 April). Representatives of extreme-right parties in Germany, France, Romania, Hungary and Cyprus were expected to take part in the meeting.

Darby, who flew out to Italy this morning, heads the BNP's European election candidates' list for the West Midlands, a region in which the party could win a seat. He has a "Mr Clean" reputation in a party in which many leading activists have criminal convictions, a nazi past or both.

The rally was titled: "Our Europe; Peoples and Traditions Against Banks and Big Powers", a change from the original, "Our Europe; Peoples and Traditions Against Banks and Usury". The term "usury" is traditionally used by Nazis against Jews and it may have been altered to avoid accusations of antisemitism.

Speakers enter the hotel greeted by fascist salutes

It had been booked at a major conference centre in Milan, but widespread protests from MEPs and Italian partisan veterans, as well as a 20,000-strong petition forced its move to a private hotel.

The meeting was organised by Forza Nuova, whose leader Roberto Fiore, was convicted in Italy in 1985 for "subversive association" for his involvement in the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei. Two members of that organisation were convicted for the Bologna railway station bombing in August 1980 which killed 85 people, including two British tourists, Catherine Mitchell and John Kolpinski, and left over 200 wounded. It was the biggest postwar terrorist attack in Europe.

Fiore became an MEP after Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian fascist dictator, resigned her seat to take up a post in the Italian government. He has been a friend, financial supporter and political mentor to BNP leader Nick Griffin since 1980, when Fiore arrived in Britain on the run from justice in Italy.

Fiore helped Griffin run the National Front "political soldiers", described at the time as a "proto-terrorist organisation". When the political soldiers collapsed, they went on to found a new fascist group, the International Third Position.

Alongside his political activities Fiore amassed a huge fortune through business interests in London and later around the world. They included operating as a slum landlord and exploiting people brought in from eastern Europe, Italy and Spain, whom he passed on to gang masters to work on the land and in food processing plants.

Simon Darby (right) with Bruno Gollnisch MEP (left) and Roberto Fiore MEP (second from left)

Fiore was also one of the founders of the extremely violent Hammerskins skinhead movement, part of the nazi music and football hooligan gangs responsible for violence on the terraces. They have strong links with one of the most vicious fascist football hooligan gangs in Europe, the Roma Ultras, who recently attacked English football fans, stabbing one. Their most infamous episode was when they unfurled a banner down one side of their home stadium with the words "Jews to Auschwitz".

Hammerskins members recently marched through Bergamo in northern Italy armed with sticks and metal bars and with helmets on their heads. At their head were Fiore and Father Giulio Tam, a priest revered by Spanish falangistas and Italian fascists, who blessed the FN's new headquarters in the town. Father Tam was in the audience at the Milan rally.

Father Giulio Tam raises his hand in support of fascism

Fiore is closely associated with the Catholic Society of St Pius X, in which Bishop Richard Williamson was a leading light. In January 2009 in a television interview Bishop Williamson denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers, a statement that caused a scandal when the Pope lifted his longstanding excommunication a week later.

Also in prime position on the platform with Darby was Bruno Gollnisch. An MEP for the French National Front, Gollnisch was given a three-month suspended prison sentence in January 2007 for denying the Holocaust. He was also fined €5,000.

The court, in Lyon, found he had "disputed a crime against humanity" in remarks he made during a news conference in the city in October 2004. Gollnisch, who was chair of the Identity Tradition and Sovereignty far-right official group in the European Parliament, had questioned the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust and said the "existence of the gas chambers is for historians to discuss".

In April last year, just three days before polling day in the London Assembly election, in which the BNP won one seat, Griffin brought Gollnisch and other European extremists to a private meeting in a South Kensington hotel.

The meeting took place at a time when Griffin, a long-time Jew-hater who has a conviction for race hate, had approached the Jewish community in a bid to form a united front against Muslims, an invitation that the Jewish community firmly rejected.

Despite the BNP's anti-EU stance, Griffin is keen to build links with European far-right parties, hoping that if he is elected as an MEP, he will be able to join a far-right bloc. If enough far-right MEPs can put aside their nationalist rivalries and form an official group in the European Parliament, they will benefit from a further €1 million a year on top of their salaries and staffing and expenses allowances. They would also be entitled to committee positions and enhanced speaking rights.

In October Griffin addressed an open-air rally of the Hungarian hardline fascist Jobbik party and its private army heavy mob, the Hungarian Guard, in Budapest. Griffin has been flirting with the Hungarian fascists since May when he met the Jobbik representatives Bela Kovacs and Zoltan Fuzessy in London.

Jobbik, also known as the Movement for a Better Hungary, is strongly anti-Jewish. Although the BNP has courted the Jewish community and denies it is antisemitic, Darby said recently on a radio broadcast that BNP MEPs would welcome cooperation with Jobbik.

A few days after his return from Hungary Griffin was cementing his relationship with the tiny anti-immigration, anti-Muslim and anti-Romani Czech National Party (NS) by addressing its rally to celebrate Czech independence. Griffin's trip, accompanied by several BNP activists, followed the visit by the NS leader, Petra Edelmannová, to the BNP's Red White and Blue festival last August.

That Darby has now joined Griffin in linking up with these far-right extremists in Europe shows that the BNP is still an out-and-out fascist and antisemitic party, despite the fine words and smart suits of its leaders.

Hope Not Hate

Another Bishop slams BNP

2009-03-30T20:30:00.001+01:00

The Bishop of Manchester has branded the far-right BNP a party of 'division, fear and hatred'.

In an outspoken attack, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch said the group had 'a racial analysis at the core of its philosophy' that was incompatible with British democracy.

He called for all mainstream parties – and people of all faiths – to reject the BNP in European Parliament elections this summer.

The bishop was speaking at a meeting of the full council at Manchester town hall.

"There are those who do not share our vision of Manchester and who will seek political success by preaching a message of division and hatred," he said. "They will use racism and other prejudice to challenge the very diversity which strengthens our city.

"They will exploit the difficult times which presently face our country, trying to turn one community against the other.

The bishop denied his attack was 'over the top' and simply giving the BNP 'the oxygen of publicity'.

He compared the situation to pre-war Germany, quoting a pastor who regretted failing to speak out against the Nazis.

"I don't need to remind you that the Nazi party was democratically elected by the German population," he added. "That is why a key task for us must be to deliver the maximum possible turnout at the European elections in June."

Bishop Nigel is the first bishop in living memory to address a council meeting in Manchester.

He was speaking in support of the cross-party 'Hope not Hate' campaign, which is seeking to marginalise the BNP and other extremist groups.

The council went on to pass a motion condemning those who 'deliver messages of hate aimed to divide our communities and whip up intolerance and violence against our neighbours'.

FULL STORY HERE: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/article:1134-Bishop-slams-BNP

Students unite against the BNP

2009-03-27T18:44:00.002Z

NUS is an organisation which represents all students. We believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to participate fully in a society that celebrates diversity. It’s one of the great things about being a student in modern Britain – and it’s the reason why I’m so proud to be the President of the NUS.

But this is under threat.

Unless we act it looks likely that the racist BNP will win seats in the European elections in June. I’m sure you know about the BNP - and their campaign for an “all white Britain.” How would you feel about 250k of your money going to the BNP for each seat they win?

I’m writing to tell you how you can take a few easy steps to play a part in stopping them.

I’m signed up to the HOPE not hate campaign – they send me a few emails a month asking me to do a few really simple things. And because there’re so many people involved in the campaign we’ve already had some real results; we’ve stopped BNP fundraising events and even a BNP march – all through people power.

It only take a few moments to sign up – and signing up means you can make a difference by helping stop the BNP in their tracks:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/nus

The threat couldn’t be greater - the BNP believe in a divisive and aggressive form of fear - spreading the politics of hate throughout our communities. Take for example a quote from a post written by the 2008 London BNP organiser on his blog - writing about beating women where he said “some women are like gongs - they need to be struck regularly.”

No matter what they say they haven't changed - they're still the nasty and narrow-minded racists that they’ve always been. This is the real BNP that we’re campaigning against. We’re proud of our diverse and open society. We’re cosmopolitan and committed to tolerance. We enjoy the variety of life. But the BNP oppose all of these values.

We can stop them but we need your help – sign up here to help:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/nus

This is the first time that I’ve written to you about the BNP, and I don’t usually send out emails like this. I’m doing this now because the HOPE not hate team are entering into one of the most important periods in the campaign. We’re building networks across the country - a true grassroots campaign. And we need you to be the next person to join in. You can be involved as much or as little as you like – all you need to get started is to sign up

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/nus

The BNP stands against everything that we stand for. The only question that remains is what are you going to do about it.

We need your help – we can’t do it without you.

Please sign up now:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/nus

With thanks and best wishes,

Wes Streeting, NUS President.

Leppert's Loughton leap

2009-03-24T18:01:00.012Z

A source within the Epping Forest BNP has informed us that Redbridge councillor Julian Leppert is planning to contest Loughton Broadway in the 2010 Epping Forest district council elections.

Former postman, 43 year old Leppert is regarded as a party high-flier, having secured three per cent of first preference votes as the BNP candidate in the 2004 London Mayoral election. Leppert moved to Loughton in November 2006 soon after being elected as councillor for Hainault. He currently lives in the Broadway ward. In 2010, his term in office in Redbridge will expire and he is seriously considering contesting Broadway, possibly in conjunction with the parliamentary election.

Currently, the seat is held by Susan Clapp, who our insider says has failed to impress due to her mediocre performance in the council chamber. She is the long-term partner of Eddy Butler and as a political lightweight she may be reliant on his support. It remains to be seen whether Clapp's support will be sustained up until 2010. However, it has been Leppert rather than Butler who has been accompanying Clapp to official events such as last Friday's Epping Forest District Council's Civic Awards.

Leppert is perhaps less brilliant than he and his supporters claim. The BNP's support in Redbridge has failed to rally in the way the party had hoped. To date, Leppert is the only BNP councillor in Redbridge and no BNP candidate has come close to winning a second seat. In the last by-election the BNP contested in Rebridge, in Cranbrook last year, it secured just 37 votes, or just under 1.4% of the vote. The closest the BNP came to winning a seat in Redbridge was in the Bridge Ward by-election of July 2006, when it came second, 157 votes behind the Conservative winner. Leppert contested the Epping Forest parliamentary seat in 2005, securing 1,728 votes or 3.9% of the total, fewer votes than the total votes the party had won in the 2004 district council elections.

Leppert thinks he can now muscle out the incumbent and secure his future in the party in Essex, riding on others' coat tails in order to retain his prestige within the BNP. However, his election in Broadway ward is not certain. The tide has turned in Broadway with the BNP vote falling 12.7% to 469 votes in 2008 from its peak in 2006. It will be even harder in the likely event that the district elections are held concurrently with the general election, with national trends likely to benefit the Conservatives, the only party able to increase its vote in Broadway in 2006.

Leppert is also one parcel short of a postbag in terms of political thinking. In his mayoral campaign, Leppert vowed to “throw out” all asylum-seekers, whom he blamed for causing traffic congestion. In January 2007, Mr Leppert attended a conference in London organised by the far-right New Right Group. One speaker was Michele Renouf, a Holocaust denier and supporter of David Irving. Leppert sat through anti-Jewish tirades from both Renouf and from one of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Britain.

Like the BNP as a whole, take the suit away and you get the old extremist ideology sneering back at you. An increasing number of local residents are coming to terms with the extreme core of the BNP's ideology and could reject Leppert next year, denting his career within the party.

Jews take on BNP in European elections

2009-03-24T12:17:00.003Z

GET INVOLVED AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS SUMMER

Last week the Your Voice of Theirs group, backed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, launched its response to the BNP European Election campaign. It is distributing 1,000 campaign kits across the country to take some local positive action against the politics of hate advocated by the BNP. Get involved in the campaign, find out what is happening in your area and most importantly ask you friends to join the campaign.

From the Your Voice of Their's website:

On Thursday 4th of June residents across the European Union vote to elect Members of the European Parliament (MEP’s). The UK gets 60 MEP’s from across our 12 regions to represent us in Europe.

2009 marks 70 years since the beginning of the Second World War. 70 years since we united together as British citizens to fight against European fascism. Unfortunately the battle is not over and we are seeing the rise of the far right and their politics of hate across the country.

The British National Party is contesting these elections in every region, in every corner of the country. We must not forget who the BNP are and what they stand for. They are campaigning hard in these elections and so must we. Now is not the time for apathy.

The Board of Deputies has launched a campaign to touch every corner of the community. To mobilise the vote and to defeat the politics of hatred at the ballot box.

Join us and join the campaign because there is only one question – In Europe do you want to hear “Your Voice or Theirs”.

Henry Grunwald QC
President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews

Who are the BNP and why do we need to get involved?

The BNP have a history of racism and antisemitism. Their leader has been arrested and convicted for inciting racial hatred. The rhetoric and views propagated by the BNP promote hatred and disharmony.

In June, the UK votes in the European Elections. The BNP may secure over 1 million votes in these elections and the voting system will allow the BNP to get MEP’s for the first time, unless you use your vote to stop them. A vote for any of the mainstream parties will make it harder for the BNP to succeed.

For each MEP elected the BNP will get over £250,000, through salaries, allowances and expenses, per annum in additional resources from the UK taxpayer.

Every vote counts in these elections. The higher the level of turnout, the harder it is for the BNP to succeed.

The BNP tactic of playing down their hatred of Jews and playing up their hatred of Muslims they will attract support from within the Jewish Community. This attempt to divide communities will not work. The efforts of the BNP can be seen as nothing more than a sham and a cynical attempt to hide their extremism and antisemitism.

Make sure that the BNP aren’t successful by joining the campaign and by using your vote to stop them.

Churchill would never support BNP, says Churchill's grandson

2009-03-21T20:20:00.003Z

Nicholas Soames MP, a grandson of war-time leader Sir Winston Churchill, has spoken of his outrage over BNP leader Nick Griffin's claim that the one-time Loughton MP would have supported the far-right party.

He told the Daily Mail: "I object very strongly to the image of my grandfather being used by the BNP in such a way that it is likely to give the impression that he would have condoned or approved of the BNP platform, which is what this does.

"I can't stop any of that. The law does not allow for Churchill's family to protest against the image being used - if it did, you can rest assured that we would pursue all ends to do so.

"So I am writing to the Electoral Commission to ask them to have a look and see what they can do.

"This isn't about being anti-BNP. I rejoice that we live in a vigorous, splendid democracy where people - however odious - can launch their own political platform and put it before the country. This is about the use of the image ...

"My grandfather died a long time ago, but he would never support a party whose platform is hate. Never."

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reveals that Nick Griffin is seeking close ties with the Austrian far-right FPO. He wrote to the FPO leader: "We in Britain are impressed to see that you have been able to combine principled nationalism with electoral success. We are sure that this gives you a good springboard for the European elections and we hope very much that we will be able to join you in a successful nationalist block in Brussels next year."

The FPO was founded by former SS explosives expert Herbert Schweiger, who continues to be active in the party. The 85 year old, who describes his current activity as educating people in "the fundamentals of Nazism", told the Telegraph that "Our time is coming again and soon we will have another leader like Hitler ... The Jew on Wall Street is responsible for the world’s current economic crisis. It is the same now as in 1929 when 90 per cent of money was in the hands of the Jew. Hitler had the right solutions then."

Nick Soames is therefore right to protest at the misuse of Churchill's name and identity by the BNP, which continues to seek out alliances with the FPO which was founded by those involved in Hitler's Nazi regime.

Church of England's Chelmsford Diocese condemns BNP in Essex

2009-03-19T14:54:00.000Z

This resolution was passed overwhelmingly by Chelmsford Diocesan Synod on 7 March 2009:

That the Synod of the Diocese of Chelmsford calls upon the parishes and people of the diocese to respond to God's call to love our neighbour, to serve all His people and to build His Kingdom. As we live this out, we urge that all take an active part in responding to the challenge posed by the BNP and similar racist political parties.

Church members are reminded to encourage all people of goodwill to register and cast their votes, not least because this reduces the proportion of votes which go a political party whose racist foundation is incompatible with Christian discipleship.

Parishes and people are urged to work with ecumenical and other partners to promote Christian values in all political dialogue and in particular:

To ensure that respect, equality and justice for all people is part of the contribution made by parishes to local dialogue;
To ensure that no literature or promotional material from any racist political party is permitted in any parish building nor placed on any parish notice board;
To make respect for all people a component of regular Christian teaching, including through the observance of Racial Justice Sunday;
To promote participation in public life, including standing for political office, as a vocation for some Christians;
To co-operate with other groups and organisations working towards these goals;
To urge all major political parties to address the issues which draw people to vote for far-right political parties.

This Synod agrees that this motion be circulated to all parishes and shared ecumenically in advance of forthcoming elections in Essex and East London.

Passed overwhelmingly by Chelmsford Diocesan Synod on March 7th 2009.

Source: Hope Not Hate

Local parents reject BNP governor

2009-03-19T11:30:00.002Z

Parents of children at Hereward Primary School have condemned the nomination of local BNP leader Pat Richardson as a school governor.

Richardson put herself forward for the role after no candidates came forward from the local community.

Speaking to the Epping Forest Guardian, Hannah Martin, who lives on the Oakwood estate and whose three year old goes to Hereward, said she was disgusted at the prospect of Richardson becoming governor. She said: "My son is mixed race and I know there are lots of black children at the school. Teachers and staff here have always been brilliant in making everyone feel welcome, and I think there is a danger that this would ruin all that."

Sam Kelly, a mother of two whose 10 year old son is at the school, said: "My son has been here for seven years and I have never known any problems over race. I think the school needs to think what kind of message this would send out."

Local father Lee Thurland said: "I don't know much about the BNP but what I have heard I don't like."

The school, which has been praised by OfSTED for its multi-cultural environment, will have to decide whether to accept the nomination of the councillor from the far-right party, which advocates the "repatriation" of non-white people.

Richardson said: "I would hope to bring some common sense to the decision-making process down there."

"Common sense" is what the BNP commonly refers to its policy of alienating and expelling non-white and mixed race people. Advancing BNP policies in a primary school would be very ominous indeed.

If you think you would make a better school governor than the local leader of an extremist political party, you can submit your nomination via the town council:

Town Clerk : Enid Walsh
Loughton Town Council
Buckingham Court
Rectory Lane
Loughton
Essex, UK.
IG10 2QZ
Tel : +44 (0)20 8508 4200
Fax: +44 (0)20 8508 4400
E-mail: contact@loughton-tc.gov.uk

BNP lies could lead to Debden library closure

2009-03-19T09:48:00.000Z

Debden has a new library in a plush new building, with computers allowing free internet use and subscriptions to a wide variety of publications and newspaper archives. There are DVDs, CDs, children's books, etc. Next door, in the same building, is an excellent cafe with the best bacon butties in Loughton. Its an improvement on the popular but cramped little shop the library used on the Broadway.

What you don't find in Debden library is library users. Why is the place deserted? Because it is located within the newly redeveloped Epping Forest College, which has been the target of a vicious BNP propaganda campaign. The BNP portrays the college as a haven for armed ethnic minority drug-dealers - a lie repeated in this month's edition of "Debden Patriot". No wonder people don't want to enter the college premises.

Yet, located at the EFC's entrance are metal detectors and security guards. There probably isn't anywhere safer in Loughton than Debden library, in stark contrast to the dark alleyways around the Broadway where a minority of local kids sniff glue and get tanked up on Special Brew.

In 2006, the police hit out at BNP lies ahead of the local elections, in which they claimed armed gangs of ethnic minority students from the college were invading Debden and were responsible for most of the violent crime.

Epping Forest District commander Chief Inspector Jon Hill said at the time: "Basically they've been driving up unjustifiably people's fear of crimes which don't exist. You couldn't recognise our area from the picture painted. And it doesn't make the job of police any easier."

Loughton Inspector Denise Morrisey said: "We don't have black and Asian kids coming into the area running riot. It's just not happening ... In fact a lot of the crime is carried out by local youths. Many residents would agree with me on that they know the people doing it. People at the college have been victims of crime like anyone else. There's no suggestion they're responsible. These claims have caused problems for us and problems for the college. People hear this stuff and they're not sure they want to send their kids there. It's unfair."

The BNP's campaign of lies about college students could cost Debden its library. If the library is not used, Essex County Council will probably close it. A public facility will have been taken away as a direct result of the racist fear-mongering the BNP uses to secure votes locally.

Unsurprisingly, the BNP has been silent on the violence at the nearby Football Academy in Langston Road, where a massive gangland fight at the New Year ball led to charges of attempted murder. This is meant to be a facility for local young people to learn football and boxing. Why no complaint from the BNP? Because the thugs attending the Football Academy event were almost all white-skinned and can be glorified as "rough diamonds" in the same way the Kray twins were.

How to defeat the BNP

2009-03-18T21:03:00.000Z

Turnout: 2002 - 26.5%; 2004 - 35.8%; 2006 - 45.0%; 2008 - 37.0%

The 2008 district elections saw local BNP leader Pat Richardson perform an unglamorous chicken run move from Fairmead to Broadway ward, apparently in an effort to stay on the council. Fairmead was lost by the BNP to the Loughton Residents Association, its main challenger and the town's largest political group. Broadway ward, which was created in 2002, has never been contestedby the LRA. As a result, the BNP has managed to build up a solid base of support. But despite Richardson's escape to Broadway, the BNP's vote fell 12.7% to 469 votes from its peak in 2006. This gives us a few clues as to the BNP's rise and fall in Loughton and how to defeat it.

Apathy and Labour's collapse not to blame

Unlike other areas of the country, the BNP's share of the vote in Broadway is not necessarily encouraged by a low turn-out. While the rise of the BNP in Broadway has been blamed on the collapse of the Labour party after the Iraq War, the statistics reveal a more complex situation. In terms of its share of the vote, the BNP had 33.6% in 2004 with turn-out up 9.3 percentage points, 39.3% in 2006 with turn-out up 9.2 percentage points and 40.0% in 2008 with turn-out down 8.0 percentage points. The BNP is able to mobilise people who don't normally vote and its vote has helped increase turn-out. When turn-out fell in 2008, so did the BNP vote in terms of actual vote, although it did manage to secure a 0.7 percentage point increase in its share of the vote.

Meanwhile, the trend in the Labour vote has actually followed the trend in the BNP vote, with the Labour vote increasing by around the same amount as the BNP in 2006 and falling by around the same amount in 2008. The only party to buck this trend is the Conservative party, which was the only party to raise both its number and share of votes in 2008. The Liberal Democrat vote has fared the worst in the ward, fading away almost to nothing. Its vote has fallen by 70% since its peak in 2004 to just 47 votes in 2008, when it came fifth behind the Greens. The gap between the BNP and its nearest rival, Labour, in 2008 was 123 votes, which is less than the 131 combined votes for the LibDems and the Greens. If the Green and LibDem candidates did not stand, 94% of their supporters would have had to have voted Labour to have denied the BNP the seat. However, in a tighter election, the split in the non-BNP vote could make all the difference.

Examining BNP defeats

Click on graphs to enlarge

It is fair to say that politics is not normal in Loughton and this is why a ward-by-ward analysis of the BNP's electoral fortunes has to be carried out. The effort to defeat the BNP in Broadway cannot be compared to the efforts in Oldham, a town that has a quite different history, political landscape and demography. Best examples of anti-BNP activism can be found from recent electoral history in Loughton itself, notably its rout in the Alderton and Fairmead wards which also form the loosely defined Debden area of Loughton.

In 2002, Loughton's Alderton and Fairmead wards were two horse races between Labour and the Conservatives, with Labour always confident of a win. The tide turned in 2004, when both parties were forced into third and fourth place as two new and unconventional political forces entered the election: the far-right British National Party and the doggedly independent and consensus-seeking Loughton Residents Association. The former played on fears and hatred, with deceitful propaganda about the town's imminent influx of African refugees and violent Muslim students at the local FE college - claims that were never backed by facts, but reinforced the rumours being spread locally. The latter group, the residents association, could not have been more different. Seeking to deal with actual local problems, the LRA based its fight on planning issues, refuse collection, environmental concerns and all the other issues that local councils actually have responsibility for.

Both the BNP and the LRA oversaw the collapse of the Tory-Labour duopoly and the efforts of the Liberal Democrats made little impact on the subsequent election results, other than to split the non-BNP vote (this was evident in the 2007 Alderton by-election when the Liberal Democrats increased their share of the vote to the detriment of the LRA).

Both new entrants to local electoral politics were able to increase turn-out, bringing people to the polls who would not otherwise vote in local elections. At the same time, they skimmed votes off the main parties. The theory is that the BNP took most of the Labour defectors, while the LRA took the Tory defectors. However, the reality is probably far more complex (nota bene: the Constituency Labour party, along with its electoral support, collapsed as a direct result of the Iraq War, which began in 2003 and led to popular local Labour councillor and PPC Stephen Murray quitting the party to sit as an independent).

The BNP was triumphant in the 2004 and 2006 district elections, winning both seats in the Alderton and Fairmead wards. However, their majority in Fairmead was always highly marginal, a situation that prompted Richardson's decision to dump the ward and run to Broadway. Her fears were well-founded as the BNP was routed by the LRA in May 2008 following a strong campaign on local issues that would not interest outsiders. The BNP also lost a seat in Alderton by a large margin, having retained it in a by-election by a handful of votes a few months before hand.

The LRA has shown that the BNP can be roundly beaten on the basis of strong, long-term local campaigning, but it also requires the consolidation of the non-BNP vote. The Alderton ward by-election of 2007, which saw the Liberal Democrats put up a strong fight only for the BNP to win by a small margin over the LRA, demonstrated the danger of splitting the BNP vote. The key to defeating the BNP is therefore a greater consolidation within the non-BNP vote - instead of fracturing it between four or five parties - and a strong campaign based on local issues, where the BNP has struggled to perform.

Grassroots politics: key to BNP's defeat

Loughton residents are coming round to the opinion that voting for the BNP in local elections has no effect on national policies in relation to immigration, while it lacks an agenda based on local needs. Few local people appear to identify with its underlying white supremacism and the BNP's main electoral message is predicated on protest voting rather than voting postively for a policy platform. Protest politics wanes as time goes on, particularly if protest parties are unable to have any impact on the status quo.

The LRA's strong track-record on working to improve the town in the long-term, and achieving tangible results, have enabled it to increase its profile. LRA councillors are also seen as non-partisan and having broad-based support within the community. They appeal to both the desire for pragmatism and the dislike of conventional party politics. This has made it more difficult for the others to attack them directly, since the LRA's pragmatic consensus-building and its lack of threat to seats outside Loughton make it relatively non-threatening to the three mainstream parties.

In Debden in general, the LRA has led the way in protecting green spaces from development by seeking to register them as village greens. It is fighting to save the closure of Debden Community Association's sports hall. It is actively seeking residents' opinions on residents parking. It participates in the "Debden Day" activities, runs the farmers market and is involved in the Broadway business partnership. Despite having not contested Broadway, the LRA is visibly doing more than the divisive BNP. And the micro-level issues that bother people on a day-to-day level is ultimately the territory where the BNP can be defeated, as demonstrated in Alderton and Fairmead.

2009 county election: mapping the political landscape

The key test of the BNP's fortunes in Broadway will come in the 2009 county council elections, when Broadway ward will be included with Conservative-voting Chigwell. It is inevitable that the Conservatives will win the Chigwell and Broadway seat. In the last county elections fought in 2005 (simultaneously with the general election), the percentage of the vote stood at 49.6% for the Conservatives, 20.5% for Labour, 17.8% for the Liberal Democrats, 8.2% for the BNP and 3.3% for the Greens. In terms of actual votes, the BNP achieved 623 votes, 180 votes up on the 2004 district election. This was a disappointing result for the BNP given that turn-out was 60.5% and the size of the electorate was 80% larger than Broadway on its own. It is therefore finding it hard to push beyond its dwindling stronghold in Loughton.

If the BNP fails to match its 2005 performance in 2009, it could mark the beginning of the end of the BNP's presence in Broadway. Bearing in mind the disaster in the 2007 Alderton by-election, the LibDems and Greens could also reconsider contesting Broadway in 2010, if they really want the BNP defeated. While Labour is able to count on a core vote of 300-400 and the Conservatives are seeing their vote increase to less than 100 behind Labour, neither Labour nor the Conservatives are likely to bow out of the election race.

Looking to 2010

There is still a sizeable 55-65% of the Broadway electorate that does not vote in local elections. The likelihood of a general election in 2010 - which will probably coincide with the district elections - could change the scenario, with a turn-out of up to 70%, bringing potentially an extra 500 Broadway voters to the polls; no district council election has been fought simultaneously with a general election in Broadway ward since it was created in 2002. It is likely that many of these extra voters will swing to the Conservative and to a lesser extent the Liberal Democrats, whose profile in the ward has diminished. The LRA, which has drawn support from across the party spectrum, is also poised to contest Broadway for the first time, having worked hard on the local issues that concern the ward's voters.

The 2010 district elections will maximise turn-out since they are likely to be held alongside the general election. However, it could also mean that some supporters of mainstream parties will rally behind their parties at a local level and it means that local politics can be eclipsed by national events. Yet, it is not a certainty that Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat general election voters will carry their allegiances to the local elections.

Voters can be fickle and unpredictable, and so they should be - local and national politics are very different. However, the defeat of the BNP in all three Debden wards in 2010 will leave Pat Richardson on her own, leaving Nick Griffin and his ilk with a lot of egg of their faces. And that would be worth seeing, whatever your political allegiance.

We're not Marxists, we're just concerned residents

2009-03-18T20:25:00.000Z

The BNP is keen to portray its opponents - everyone from the Labour and Conservative parties to the residents association, local headmasters and policemen - as politically correct lunatic lefty appeasers of Islamic extremism, as if red-baiting is still a rabble rouser nearly two decades after the Iron Curtain fell.

Epping Forest BNP Watch is no Trotskyist front, as portrayed by desperate BNP activists who realise their time is up in Epping Forest district. Among the first people to support us are the award-winning Harry's Place blog, a leading political blog that not only opposes racism and antisemitism but is known for its confrontations with the Islamist far-right and their sympathisers.

Harry's Place contributor David T writes: "I was born in Epping, and I am a proud Essex boy. Therefore, I can’t begin to tell you how delighted I am to see a new blog on the block - Epping Forest BNP Watch. EFBNPW, as I’m sure it won’t come to be known, provides a first rate and forensic commentary on the activities of the local fascists, in my home country. With the kind permission of the blog, we’ll be running regular items from its pages on Harry’s Place."

Glorification of attack on local Asian

2009-03-17T22:50:00.001Z

The Neo-Nazi internet forum Stormfront, which is frequented by many members of the BNP, has yet again seen celebration of a violent attack on another innocent ethnic minority local. The Asian teenager from Epping has undergone reconstructive surgery on his face following the brutal attack by a black youth, which Stormfront members found hilarious.

A similar violent attack on a 34 year-old black man by white youths in Debden, Loughton, also evoked mirth among the Neo-Nazis, who celebrated attack as an act of 'resistance'.

The recent racist attack took place in Harlow, where the BNP is attempting to set up a local party branch. It is no coincidence that racist violence rises wherever the BNP becomes established and racism is perceived as tolerable and even acceptable.

One Stormfront user said: "The Pakistanis and Hindus serve as racial cover for the Jews hiding out in Britain, so they are immediately protected by the Jewish press."

The BNP likes to portray itself as tough on crime, but it is led by men who have criminal convictions for incitement and violent racist attacks and who are inspired by antisemitic ideology,

Epping Forest BNP have no qualms about this, inviting veteran Nazi and fervent antisemite Richard Edmonds to speak at a branch meeting in February. Among Edmonds' series of convictions is his involvement in a vicious bottle attack on a mixed race couple in a pub in East London in 1993. One-time right-hand man of the openly Nazi John Tyndall and now a member of BNP leader Nick Griffin's inner circle, he has made no secret of his absolute hatred of Jews and contempt for black people.

Broadway ward's BNP councillor Pat Richardson is close friends with convicted thug Tony Lecomber, who was once imprisoned for planning a nail bomb terrorist attack in the 1980s and assaulting a Jewish teacher in the 1990s as well as attacking fellow BNP member Eddy Butler at Loughton tube station and plotting to assassinate a cabinet minister.

The BNP's politics goes well beyond meaningful debate about immigration. Violence and intimidation are the BNP's basic tactics and intimately bound up with their Hitler-inspired racial supremacism. Attacks on Black and Asian locals are privately justified and celebrated. A party that is led by violent criminals and which glorifies in violent criminal acts should not be in local government.

Anjem Choudary: BNP's greatest asset

2009-03-17T11:30:00.000Z

Where would the BNP be without the likes of Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary to justify their Muslim-bating?

BNP attack on unlikely "Marxist agitator"

2009-03-14T23:03:00.000Z

The latest edition of the BNP's irregular (in more ways than one) "Debden Patriot" newsletter is devoted to "revealing" the supposed Marxist conspiracy to impose a communist dictatorship on Loughton's Debden estate.

The attack is particularly aimed at Methodist church-going Loughton Residents Association (LRA) councillor Rose Brookes, dubbed "Red Rose" by the BNP for "her long history of far-left activism with Marxist front-groups" (She lists her activities as "voluntary work for Barnardos and raised funds for a charity for bereaved children" - not activities one normally associates with the workers control of production). The leaflet is a transparent smear campaign against a jovial and hard-working councillor whose only "crime" is her vocal opposition to racism. In the BNP's bizarre little world, anti-racism and Marxism are one and the same, although members of the Conservative party have also been among those to actively campaign locally against the problem of racism. They consider that all opposition to their fascist politics is communist.

Oddly, the leaflet was distributed mainly to residents in the Broadway ward, which is not Rose Brookes' seat and has never been contested by the LRA. She won the Alderton ward seat last year in a massive swing against the BNP (see chart) - another "crime" that the BNP cannot forgive her for.

BNP activists are highly territorial. It seems they would prefer a truce in the style of the Nazi-Soviet Pact: the LRA can have the supposedly middle-class areas of the town, while the BNP can have a monopoly in the working-class areas. No doubt the pressure is on from national HQ to prevent further losses, which could have a negative impact on Nick Griffin's control freakish leadership.

Its losses in Alderton and Fairmead wards last year have shaken the local BNP, demonstrating that the LRA can win votes from across the community. In fact, class differences are dissipating with the Conservatives the only party to actually increase both its share and its number of votes in the BNP's largely working-class Broadway stronghold last year. With council accommodation mostly sold off under right-to-buy, Loughtonians are more aspirational and class/party loyalties have loosened, particularly with the decline of loyalty to the Labour party. This has benefitted the BNP in Broadway and, previously, in Alderton and Fairmead. But they are feeling the possibility of a crunch on their vote and the desperate personal smears are an attempt to warn the LRA off their remaining patch of support.

The LRA has been making in-roads into the Broadway ward with a campaign to register Debden estate's green spaces as village greens and save them from development. The BNP does not have the nous to consider such a move. Now it is nervous that the LRA will contest Broadway and break the BNP vote, in the same way the BNP broke the Labour vote. The attack on Rose Brookes is therefore the rearguard action of a retreating force that can only resort to traducing those who have democratically triumphed over them.

The BNP have so far capitalised on this decline in class-based ideology to advance their race-based ideology. But there is only so far racism can be a vehicle for public support in a town that is 99 per cent white. They are seeking other avenues: attempting to revive class politics with attacks on the LRA as "middle-class nosey parkers" (an ironic twist, given that they accuse the LRA of being Marxist class warriors) and portraying themselves as an alternative residents' voice, although they don't have any track-record of success. These are likely to be far less successful than the racist line they have pushed so far, which has largely focused on black students at Epping Forest College who they accuse of drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour (an accusation that the police have refuted).

The truth is that the BNP in Loughton is a cornered animal fighting for its life. And slowly but surely, other political forces - namely the Conservatives and the LRA - are beating them back on their territory. Desperate accusations of Marxist insurgency are all they have. Yet, McCarthyite red-baiting is likely to be far less successful than black-bashing. The electorate are not fools.

A Swastika on Hereward School?

2009-03-12T19:12:00.000Z

Loughton Town Council has put forward local BNP leader Pat Richardson as a governor of Hereward primary school at its meeting last night.

The school has not endorsed the leader of the BNP, a racial supremacist party that excludes non-white members of the community from membership, as governor and will have to assess whether she is suitable.

The council had been asked to nominate two candidates for the governorship, but Councillor Richardson was the only person to come forward.

Hereward may want to bear in mind Richardson's attempts to stir up ethnic tensions between school children last year when assessing her suitability.

BNP "historians"

2009-03-12T17:18:00.000Z

Councillor Garry Martin is being promoted as Epping Forest BNP's in-house historian, in the same way as the national BNP promoted revisionist historian and Holocaust denier David Irving.

Dear old Councillor Martin is upset with the Loughton Historical Society. However, it's unclear exactly what he's upset about. Apparently, some local historians call a hilly part of Loughton "Little Cornwall", but Mr Martin has "researched" - ie went to the Wikipedia website - and found that the term originates from local novellist Ruth Rendell.

It's unclear whether the Loughton Historical Society would necessarily disagree with him. So what's his beef?

"This is so very wrong," Councillor Martin wails, "especially when most of these people who are trying to alter things are not even locals, but have moved into the area from outside!"

Aha, it's the damned foreigners, destroying our culture by trying to convince everyone they are living in Cornwall!

Doh!

Poor Garry Martin is more Homer Simpson than David Irving.

BNP's playground race war

2009-02-17T21:37:00.000Z

Last October Epping Forest BNP reported a "major racial incident" in Loughton, involving "up to 30 ethnic youths" from Debden Davenant school launching a racial attack on innocent white schoolchildren from nearby Roding Valley School (as reported on this site when it was run by the BNP).

The "ethnic" racists even turned their violence on a policeman, who, according to the BNP, had to fend them off with CS gas. The BNP added that it was not surprised at the attacks since "we have seen this school go down hill for years now. It now resembles something from the inner city areas."

As it turned out, neither group was ethnically homogenous nor was the fight - apparently between just two or three youths, egged on by their friends - anything more than the kind of school gang rivalry that most people can remember from their childhoods. Such fights should be condemned and the pupils disciplined, but the reasons for the extraordinary political intervention by BNP councillors Pat Richardson and Rod Law in what was a playground fight that got out of hand should also be condemned.

Davenant Foundation School is the kind of school that the BNP would normally champion as it excludes those who are not committed Christians from admission and religious assemblies are compulsory. With no chance of being subjected to repugnant politically correct multi-culty rubbish or rubbing shoulders with jihadists who want to prostitute girls to paedophiles, Davenant is the kind of school that upholds "our nation's Christian heritage" that the BNP claims to defend. Far from "going downhill", it has some of the best GCSE results in Essex and OFSTED has judged it "outstanding" in almost all areas.

So why is the BNP waging a war on a highly successful Christian ecumenical school? In its report, OFSTED notes that "about 13% of students are from minority ethnic backgrounds, a percentage which is significantly higher than that for other Essex schools." Roding Valley School has a far lower proportion of non-white students, a proportion that is roughly the same as the 99% racially white town it is situated in. There lies the explanation.

By casting aspersions and telling blatant lies, the BNP is attempting to scale up playground fights into race wars and turn local people against black schoolchildren. It is an example of the racist and white supremacist agenda that is the core of the BNP's ideology. Confessional allegiances are rather irrelevant to the BNP's agenda, particularly as the party has been condemned by Loughton Churches Together, which brings together all Christian denominations.

BNP leader Nick Griffin has repeatedly spoken out against miscegenation, a more polite term for what BNP activists in private call "mongrelising the white race". They hate the idea of race mixing - white and black children and teenagers forming friendships, getting too comfortable with one another and perhaps, when adults, having mixed race children together.

Desperate to win support for racial segregation and the expulsion of non-white people from Britain, the BNP has turned on schoolchildren and is fighting playground brawls. Waging war on schoolkids - how low can they go?

Fortunately, the BNP's racist agenda has been rejected by local young people. A local headmaster told me that, despite the BNP's presence, there was no evidence of racism among pupils at his school and teachers from ethnic minorities, who make up a significant number of the teaching staff, had never complained of racist abuse. Racist politics has been stopped at the school gates by the decency and common sense of the vast majority of local young people.

Whatever happened to Epping Forest BNP?

2009-02-17T11:09:00.000Z

The previous incarnation of this website was run as Epping Forest BNP's only internet presence, but was suddenly deleted - and action that allowed Epping Forest BNP watch to re-register the site.

You may be wondering why the blog has deserted its many loyal readers. Someone with insider knowledge tells us why:

"The BNP HQ sent out a directive last year that all their local blog sites etc should not carry the official BNP logo. It could say its 'The Epping Branch Blog' but the BNP appeared to be running scared over people who were in conflict with the leadership posting anything damaging to Griffin and co or might just be in breach of the Race Relations Laws.
"A couple of weeks or so ago they demanded that this order be carried out so a whole number of existing BNP Blogs vanished and some are being replaced with new ones, some regions/Branches are running both side by side.
"So this is possibly what is taking place in Epping."

Racist laughs at victim of violent racist attack in Debden on KKK forum

2009-02-17T09:00:00.000Z

A local racist celebrated a violent racist attack on a black man in Debden Broadway on Stormfront, a website associated with the notorious Ku Klux Klan.

The attack on the 34 year old black man by a gang of white youths shouting racist taunts occurred in April last year. The BNP supporter boasted that the gang could not have been Asian because "Asians wouldn't have the guts to roam around Loughton at night."

The responses from the Stormfront community were predictable:
"I really hope they were white because that makes me think maybe britian isn't full of castrated men."
"I just cannot bring myself to condemn any white that attacks blacks simply because they are black. Part of me thinks it is wrong if the person is innocent. The growing part of me thinks that we should all be doing this every day."
"I like to think of attacks like this ... as resistance."
"Unless the lives of the ethnic parasites are made 'uncomfortable' ... they're here for keeps. Every little helps ..."
"If they do go around attacking innocent people, white and others, then let's hope they get caught soon and put away. If they are actually only commiting racial attacks then I can't condemn them."

BNP members regularly post to the site, despite leader Nick Griffin's directives to keep away from Stormfront - largely because it has served as a forum for criticism of his leadership by disenchanted BNP activists.

Say it loud: BNP are Nazis

2009-02-16T18:38:00.001Z

Local BNP activists are highly sensitive about the term Nazi, which is odd as the goose-stepping party founder, the late John Tyndall, and his successor Nick Griffin - convicted of inciting racial hatred over his antisemitic pamphlets - were proud to 'seig heil' under the swastika not so long ago. Pictured is a photo of Griffin's personal bodyguard showing off his tattoos to the boys.

In October 2008, Alderton ward BNP councillor Tony Frankland hit out at Broadway ward Labour councillor Tom Owen for referring to the "fascist party". In a letter to the Epping Forest Guardian, Frankland said that "it is time that people like Tom Owen stopped referring to the BNP as fascists, which gave rise to Hitler and his despicable third Reich."

Yet, in June 2005 the Standards Board ruled that it was acceptable to call the BNP "nazi", rejecting a complainted by a BNP councillor against LibDem councillor Gavin Stollar who had said, "We don't want nazis in our town". The Standards Board said that Stollar "expressed his views on a rival political party within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate".

The cross-over between terrorism, football hooliganism and the BNP has been well-documented. Do we want these Nazis operating in our communities and in charge of our taxes?

Which international conspiracy this week? Jews, Gays, Blacks, Communists ...?

2009-02-16T17:44:00.000Z

Back in November, in this blog's previous incarnation as a BNP propaganda site, Epping Forest BNP derided the Loughton Residents Association for not campaigning against travellers sites. They are apparently unaware that there are no travellers sites actually planned for Loughton and therefore no reason for the LRA to take a position, despite the sympathy LRA members may share with potentially affected residents in other parts of the district. Never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy, the BNP accused the LRA of having sinister "Marxist links", a euphemism for the "international communist conspiracy".

One wonders what role LRA cadre will play in the coming workers revolution. Will they be promoting agricultural collectivisation at their next Farmers Market? Will the Hammer and Sickle be flown from Lopping Hall on May Day? Will they unleash a Red Terror on Debden Broadway? Take a look at these apparatchiks and be afraid, be very afraid.

BNP badly damaged in Epping Forest election campaign

2009-02-14T20:34:00.000Z

A bulletin from Redbridge and Epping Forest Together, published on 3 June 2008 - taken from the Stop the BNP website

The Epping Forest Branch of the British National Party were licking their wounds after losing two of the three District Council seats they fought for the elections on 1 May. Their council group leader, Patricia Richardson, known far and wide as the BNP's Jewish collaborator, only retained a seat on the council after a last-minute shift to a different ward.

Rose Brookes, a popular local figure who has previously served as a councillor, won the Loughton Alderton seat for Loughton Residents Association, with a large lead over the BNP. In a by-election last summer the BNP candidate had defeated her by only 26 votes.

Rejoining Loughton Town Council was the Labour Party veteran Tom Owen. The BNP, standing for Loughton Town Council for the first time, took five seats, far fewer than they had hoped to win.

A week before the election the BNP councillors had shot themselves in the foot by condemning a new multi-faith forum that has been set up in the district. For once the Epping Forest Guardian, noted for its partial support for the BNP and its councillors, was stung into running the headline "BNP 'shame'of faith forum snub".

Local residents were able to listen to the BNP's nastiness and ignorance as Epping Forest District Council broadcasts council meetings live on the internet. BNP councillor Rod Law, one of three BNP councillors present (the other three of what were then six BNP councillors were absent), speaking against a motion noting the forum's formation said: "Forums like these are an absolute waste of resources for the council and are only put together to promote diversity and multiculturalism which we feel is absolutely detrimental to the very fabric of society". Cllr Pat Richardson claimed councillors were being "brow beaten into accepting the concept that the public purse, the taxpayer, has to fund this".

Deputy council leader Chris Whitbread pointed out that the council was not paying for the forum. He accused the BNP of doing nothing for Loughton, disappearing when the council discusses the needs of the community and turning up only to "talk about dividing our community". He continued: "You are a disgrace to this council and you are a disgrace to our community".

Several other councillors, who clearly have the measure of these extremists, stood up to condemn the BNP's "disgraceful" and "disgusting" comments and emphasised the importance of everyone working together as a community.

It has now become clear that the BNP believe religious groups are all part of a big conspiracy against them. The churches in Epping and beyond have gone out of the their way to attack the BNP and what it stands for and they have been joined by other faiths, the Searchlight/Hope not hate campaign and Redbridge and Epping Forest Together.

REFT makes no excuses for this. For once the BNP have got it right: most people do not like
them. The Epping Forest Guardian soon reverted to type with a front page picture of Cllr Richardson and no proper coverage of the election of Rose Brookes and Tom Owen.

Over in Redbridge BNP Cllr Julian Leppert was running true to form by opposing a residents' campaign to keep open Seven Kings swimming pool, claiming that Seven Kings is like the Third World. We are not sure how he would know as no sooner had he won his seat in Hainault ward he packed his bags and moved to Loughton to be close to the rest of the BNP's motley crew.

On Redbridge Council, harsh words were exchanged between Cllr Harold Moth, a Conservative councillor for Hainault, and council leader Alan Weinberg. Moth was ordered out of a meeting after he labelled Weinberg “a covert member of the BNP”. Weinberg reacted furiously saying, “How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party?”, at which Leppert insisted Weinberg withdraw his remark. Weinberg refused saying: “The BNP are an extreme right wing party with Nazi views and I will not withdraw the comment”.

The BNP have reported Cllr Weinberg to the Standards Board for England, which three years ago ruled on a BNP complaint against the former Epping Forest Liberal Democrat councillor Gavin Stollar that calling the BNP nazi was “within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate”.

On that occasion the BNP had again used Richardson's Jewishness as the excuse for the complaint, claiming that calling the BNP nazi would hurt her feelings. Surprisingly her feelings do not seem to be hurt by the fact that Tony Lecomber, who has mentored her since she joined the BNP, once served a prison sentence for assaulting a young Jewish teacher.

Cllr Weinberg intends not only to defend his name as both a councillor and a Jew but to expose the national socialist nature of the BNP to the world. REFT and others are more than happy to assist him in this admirable endeavour.

While Cllr Leppert has managed to keep his trap shut over this matter, the same is not true for Jason Douglas, the well known twice-convicted football hooligan and the BNP's organiser for Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Havering. His letter to the Ilford Recorder, which appeared under the heading "It's time to get facts straight", said:

"With reference to Cllr Moth's 'covert member of the BNP' and Cllr Weinberg's 'How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party' comments at the Redbridge council meeting, doesn't Cllr Weinberg know about the BNP?

"Since Nick Griffin became leader, he has turned the party into an election winner, where
its policies have the support of many London voters.

"Epping Forest District councillor, Pat Richardson - who happens to be Jewish - heads the BNP group on the council.

"The BNP stands for the forgotten voice in multi-racial Britain."

This is yet another BNP attempt to make use of Richardson's Jewishness. Douglas should stick to driving his London taxi and try putting his brain into gear before opening his gob. Richardson's opposition to the Epping Forest multi-faith forum just shows her contempt for any religion.