I was, of course, completely right- Brons seeks BNP leadership

Almost exactly two year ago, I predicted the the elevation of Andrew Brons to the top of the BNP's Euro list meant the end of Nick Griffin's leadership. Following a long running civil war and Griffin's 'Do or Die' attempt to win a seat at Westminister in the 2010 election, Brons has finally heeded the call and declared his intention to contest the leadershit [sic] of the BNP.

Make no mistake, Brons is a piece of crap with links to the old National Front. He's - remarkably - a worse human being the Nick Griffin. Fortunately, he will likely lead the party back into crappy obscurity, where it can die a quiet death, starved of funds, publicity and with a membership numbering in the dozens.

1 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2009/06/sympathy-for-little-nicky.html
2 - "Andrew Brons MEP to Stand in BNP Leadership Contest," by Green Arrow. Posted on the British Resistance blog, 10th of June, 2010. (http://www.thebritishresistance.co.uk/pp-news/1006-andrew-brons-mep-to-stand-in-bnp-leadership-contest)

I know not "seems"

The BNP are getting all teary about the cancellation of a 'traditional' London Easter parade:

Council officials have claimed that they banned the procession because they were contacted too late to carry out a “consultation” to close the roads! Of course, in reality, it would seem that this is just an excuse by the council as they seek to further downgrade Christian beliefs, in the hope that they do not offend Muslims. (1)

Never mind that this 'tradition' dates back to all of ten years, what is this dickering about with reality? The report says 'in reality, it would seem ...". Call me old fashioned - maybe even traditional - but can something that is "in reality' also "seem"? If it's in reality, surely it will be so, not "seem" so.

Or, to borrow from peerless Will, '"Seems," madam? Nay, it is; I know not "seems."'(2)

Oh, fuck it, why am I expecting coherence from the BNP news apes?

1 - "Easter Humbug – Christian Parade Banned," by Jennifer Matthys. Published on the BNP website, 16th of April, 2011. (http://bnp.org.uk/news/easter-humbug-%E2%80%93-christian-parade-banned)
2 - Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Act I, scene ii, line 78.

Bad result for the BNP

So, in the interminable court battle between the British National Party (a bunch neo-Nazis and some naive hangers-on) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (a bunch of PC fools who give the aforesaid knuckle-draggers the publicity they crave) has progressed, with thwe EHRC being ordered to pay the BNP's court costs (1).

This might seem like an important victory for the BNP, given it's apparently parlous financial postion. But, if anything, it's a resutl they wouldn't have wanted to go in their favour. They hate it when the system is shown to be even-handed. They rely on being able to pretend to be victims of 'conspiracy,' 'the urban liberal elite,' who are forever foisting their secret 'multicultural agenda' on the long sufferring-but-slowly-awakening people of Great Britain. A court victory like this disperses the miasma of victimhood the BNP belches out. They'd much preferred to get to wail about how the system is always out to get them and pretend they're being martyred.

So while the money will mean they can actually pay their bills for a bit longer, it's a Pyrrhic victory (only, Pyrrhus was shifty foreigner, not a stalwart Anglo-Saxon) that they won't welcome. The more the system is shown to be impartial, the less reason for the BNP to maintain its anti-establishment hollering. And without that justification, one of the fundamental reasons for it to exist disappears.

1 - "EHRC Must Pay British National Party’s Court Costs in Full," posted on the BNP website, 22nd of March, 2011. (http://bnp.org.uk/news/ehrc-must-pay-british-national-party%E2%80%99s-court-costs-full)

Couple more points about that BNP 'breakthrough'

The BNP - or at least Nick Griffin, who may no longer be in control of the party he supposedly heads - have been bragging about how the election was a breakthrough for them:

* Total votes cast 563,743. This compares with 192,746 votes secured by the BNP in 117 seats in 2005. The nearest comparison historically is with 1979, when the National Front fought the now easily broken record of 303 seats, from which it garnered a feeble 191,719 votes

* There were a record number of deposits saved. This would undoubtedly have been even higher were it not for us missing out on crossing this important threshold in a number of seats by the votes that were undoubtedly lost in each constituency thanks to the confusion and concern caused by the unforgiveable sabotage of our website. (1)

Well done, Little Nicky. Well done. You forgot to mention, however, that the tripling of the total vote was achieved through tripling the number of candidates fielded, from 119 in 2005, to 338 in 2010.

In 2005, the BNP won 192,850 votes (2), and in 2010, 563,743 (3) - with, of course, one seat still to go. A few passionate moments with a calculator reveals that in 2005, they won 1619.7 votes per candidate, and in 2010, won 1667.8 votes per candidate. Not much change really, for all the fuss and noise.

Not so much more people supporting the BNP, as BNP supporters getting someone to vote for. The truth, Little Nicky, is that you weren't building more votes, you were just failing in more constituencies.

As for Little Nicky's claim that the party saved more deposits than in 2005, that is even more nonsensical. Remember, they stood almost three times as many candidates than in 2005. Obviously, if you stand more candidates, you'll probably save more deposits. Equally, you could point out that they lost more than ever before.

Here's the maths, based on the BNP's own figures - in 2005, the BNP stood 119 candidates and saved 34 deposits. In 2010, they stood 338 candidates and saved 72 deposits (4). So in 205 they managed to save 29% of their deposits. In 2010, the rate was 21%. So, in fact, their performance was worse than in 2005.

And what is incredible, what is jaw-droppingly unbelievably insane is that the Electoral Administration Act, 2006 changed the rules between 2005 and 2010, reducing the percentage of votes a candidate needs to win back his or her deposit from 5% to 2%.

They MADE IT EASIER to save your deposit; and the BNP managed to save far fewer of them. What does that tell you? In about 80% of the constituencies where they stood, LESS THAT 2% of the voters cast their ballot for the BNP.

This is a breakthrough. Well, something certainly got broken. The BNP.

1 - "Britain Has Entered a New Political Era — Post Election Analysis by BNP Leader Nick Griffin," by BNP News. Posted on the BNP website, 10th of May, 2010. (http://bnp.org.uk/?q=news/britain-has-entered-new-political-era-%E2%80%94-post-election-analysis-bnp-leader-nick-griffin)
2 - "BNP sees increase in total votes," unattributed article. Published by the BBC, 6th of May, 2005.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519347.stm)
3 - "2010 election results," cortesy of the BBC, as of 13th of May, 2010. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/)
4 - "Back up and at them," posted by the BNP's national youth Officer. Published on Young BNP blog, 9th of May, 2010.(http://ybnp.blogspot.com/2010/05/back-up-and-at-them.html)

A song for Nick Griffin

It seems that it can't get much worse for Nick Griffin. not only is his party in turmoil, having been shattered by various scandals, exposes and defections, but his loudly hyped bid to win Barking ended up with him trailing in third (1).

Griffin's excuse? To whine about how Labour had flooded the electorate with immigrants. How many thousands would that be, Nick, to account for the massive vote against you? You got 6620 votes, labour got 24,628. You could half the Labour vote, and they'd still have got about double your total. And that's ignoring the 8,073 people who voted for the Tories. Were they mostly immigrant infiltrators, as well?

Even worse, the BNP were routed in the Barking & Dagenham council elections, losing all twelve of the seats they held (2). It's almost like the people of barking didn't appreciate being singled out as the place in England most likely to vote for a racist, Holocaust denying, Hitler loving slug-in-a-suit. Good on them.

Anyway, while Nick mulls over his future, and Andrew Brons sharpens the knife soon to be plunged into his back, here's a song to cheer him up, about recognising fascist scum for what they are (3):



And here's the words of Bill fishman, who was actually at Cable Street on the day Mosley's Blackshirts were stopped:

"I shall never forget that as long as I live, how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of racism." (4)

And that's what happened in Barking - working class people, from all backgrounds, rejecting the cheap appeals of the racists. Hurrah for bigot free Barking!

1 - "Election 2010: Barking results," by the BBC. Viewed 8th of May, 2010. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a11.stm)
2 - "Griffin's future in doubt as BNP campaign implodes," by Cahal Milmo. Published in The Independent, 8th of May, 2010. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/griffins-future-in-doubt-as-bnp-campaign-implodes-1968206.html)
3 - "The Ghosts off cable Street," performed by the Men They Couldn't Hang. Posted on You tube by anarchy41, 2nd of March, 2007. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzKv5gjOzTA)
4 - "Day the East End said 'No pasaran' to Blackshirts," by Audrey Gillan. Published in The Guardian, 30th of September, 2006. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/sep/30/thefarright.past)

BNP civil war - part IV

The BNP is in full on denial mode, following the publication in the Sunday Mirror of allegations of racism and hypocrisy, made by a former member, Simon Nicholson:

Ex-soldier Simon Nicholson joined the party in 2007, believing leader Griffin's claim that the party was no longer racist and would campaign on local issues.

He was even praised by Griffin when Simon came within 16 votes of overturning a 1,000-vote Labour majority on Cumbria County Council.

But after growing disillusioned with the party's racism, Simon agreed to work with the Sunday Mirror just before and during this General Election campaign. For nearly three months he kept a diary exposing the sickening racist extremism of BNP members and the true face of the party's far-right views.

Simon, 37, got right to the heart of the B N P 's election machine, At one rally in the North West, he watched as Griffin branded women in burkhas "big, black crows".

At a meeting in Cumbria, BNP National Organiser Clive Jefferson hit out at plans for a Muslim school in Burnley, labelling the scheme "a breeding programme".

Other BNP activists criticised mixed marriages and branded an area of London which has a large black community as "C**n City".

Simon also secretly filmed senior figures admitting how Griffin had taken advantage of the generous expenses system for Euro-MPs, bragging that "we play them at their own game". (1)

The BNP's response is quite hysterically funny, as it shows how rattled they are by this latest batch of allegations. I mean, the BNP racist and hypocritical ... how could this be?

The Labour-supporting Mirror rag, which pretends to be a newspaper, has resorted to paying people to lie about the British National Party for the sake of a made-up story, according to BNP national organiser Clive Jefferson.

Responding to a particularly pathetic smear story published in today’s edition of that newspaper, Mr Jefferson dismissed as “outlandish” and “pure lies” the vast majority of the claims made therein.

“The Mirror’s source was a person who had once stormed out of a BNP meeting and then left the party a few months ago,” Mr Jefferson said.

“He then came back a few weeks ago and said that he wanted to help us once again. Now it transpires that he had been paid £6,000 by the Mirror to manufacture a set of lies about the BNP which include things which I know for a fact were never said,” Mr Jefferson added.

“To make matters worse, he sent us a text message this morning from his mobile phone admitting that he had done it for money and asking for forgiveness.

“At least he was honest enough to say that he had made it up for money. It is sad that people can be persuaded to make these sorts of outrageous lies for the sake of money. The BNP will not, however, allow itself to be deflected by attacks of this nature.

“Quite frankly, if this is the worst they can throw at us — a pack of lies generated out of paid liars — then we have nothing to worry about,” Mr Jefferson concluded. (2)

This is grand stuff. If the BNP claim that he was a nobody is correct, it shouldn't be difficult to prove - did he stand for council (He did - Kells & Sandwith ward (3)), did he meet the people he claimed on the dates they claimed, and so on. But Jefferson is very vague on details and doesn't actually refute anything.

That's because it takes time to re-write history properly. Nicholson, like Mark Collett (4), will turn out never to have been important in the BNP, and eventually it may even be discovered he never even joined.

In fact, it will doubtless be revealed, in due course, that neither Collett, nor Nicholson, nor Marc Onion (5), nor Alby Walker (6), were ever so much as paid up members, ever attentded meetings or were ever seen in public with Nick Griffin. Anyone remembering differently will be 'reminded' of the correct truth by large men with very short hair and tattoos, and if they persist in remembering things that just didn't happen, they'll meet with unfortunate accidents, like running into fists in dark alleys, or falling onto knives.

Most unfortunate, but when you are so very stupid as to misremember basic facts like the fact that Collett, Nicholson and Walker were absolutely nothing to do with the BNP, then what can you expect?

Then, of course, will come the day - in about six months, I suspect - when Nick Griffin will be written out of BNP history in favour of Andrew Brons, and quite possibly Mark Collett.

Confusing, eh?

1 - "BNP 'star' Simon Nicholson quits..to expose racist party ," by Gary Anderson. Published in The Sunday Mirror, 2nd of may, 2010. (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/05/02/bnp-star-simon-nicholson-quits-to-expose-racist-party-115875-22227237/)
2 - "Labour Rag Pays Liar to Invent Smears on BNP," posted by BNP News on the BNP blog, 2nd of May, 2010. (http://bnp.org.uk/2010/05/labour-rag-pays-liar-to-invent-smears-on-bnp/)
3 - "Cumbria county council results round up," unattribuuted article published in the Times and Star, 10th of June, 2009. (http://timesandstar.co.uk/news/politics/cumbria-county-council-results-round-up-1.564433?referrerPath=news/politics)
4 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-was-of-course-completely-right-bnp.html
5 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2010/04/bnp-civil-war-part-iii.html
6 - "Former Stoke-on-Trent BNP man criticises party," unattributed BBC article, published 21st of March, 2010. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8579023.stm)

BNP civil war - part III

As if death threats and exclusions were not enough, the BNP has now been forced to expel a potential councillor, alleging that he was a mole who had infiltrated the party to discredit it:

The British National Party has expelled a UKIP mole standing for the BNP in Thurrock after discovering that his aunt was the UKIP candidate and that he had been sent into the party to discredit it, Thurrock organiser Emma Colgate has announced.

“Mark Onions appeared out of the blue a short while ago and became very active,” Ms Colgate said.

“We never dreamed for a minute that his aunt was the UKIP candidate standing against us, and he gained our confidence enough to volunteer to be our candidate in the local ward against his aunt.

“When we discovered the link, our suspicions were alerted that something was amiss.

“Further research showed that he had posed for prank pictures in pubs and had written things on the Internet which could be used against the BNP, and Mr Onions was formally expelled from the party on Tuesday 13 April,” she continued. (1)

First of all, one wonders why anyone felt the need to discredit the BNP. They do a perfectly good job of that themselves, and I suspect the BNP's chances have not been significantly damaged by this. Read into that what you like.

The obvious uselessness of the BNP's candidate vetting - or perhaps their desperation to find any candiates at all - deserves passing acknowledgement. But the news that the BNP aren't very competent shouldn't com as any surprise.

Of greater interest is the reference to Onions' alleged behaviour. There's a photo of him giving a Nazi salute, reproduced on the anti-BNP website, nothingbritish.com, which also describes some of the comments he is alleged to havee made, which lead to his expulsion:

Mark Onion is the BNP candidate fighting the Orsett Ward in Thurrock’s council elections on May 6th. This picture is taken from his Facebook page and features the candidate offering a Nazi salute while wearing aHelp for Heroes wristband. Onion has said on his Facebook page that he finds films about the Holocaust and Slave Trade “amusing and funny”. He lists “Mein Kampf” and the “Final Solution” as his favourite books. He has publicly joked about violence and rape against women amongst friends on his Facebook wall. (2)

Now, what's interesting is that nothing british published this on the 9th of April. According to Colgate, the BNP expelled Onions on the 13th of that month - presumably, a damage limitation exercise in response to the nothingbritish story.

Which begs the question - what would they have done if nothing British hadn't broken this? And why weren't the BNP's leadership more active in dealing with this? Either, they didn't know, or they didn't care enough to do anything until they thought it would make them look bad.

If they didn't know, then it just changes the question - why didn't the BNP membership alert them to Onion's behaviour?

After all, if he was a genuine plant, his wwhole purpose would be to make as big a stir as possible. So, if he was making as big a display of being a nasty little racist Hitler loving gimp as possible, it would, presumably have been noticed by the party membership, if not by the leadership, and condoned.

The logical deduction being that the membership of the BNP see nothing outrageous or repulsive in displays of nasty little racist Hitler loving gimpery. Which would mean that they are also ...

1 - "BNP expells UKIP mole for trying to discredit party," by BNP News. Published on the BNP blog, 14th of April, 2010. (http://bnp.org.uk/2010/04/bnp-expels-ukip-mole-for-trying-to-discredit-party/)
2 - "Time to hold Nick Griffin and BNP candidates to account," by Maurice Cousins. Published on There Is Nothing British About the BNP, 9th of April, 2010. (http://www.nothingbritish.com/04/time-to-hold-nick-griffin-and-bnp-candidates-to-account/)

BNP civil war - part II

Will the history books have to be re-written, Stalin-Beria style, to exclude all mention of the traitor Collett? And if so, once Brons ousts Griffin, and Collett is welcomed back into the fold and the BNP and the NF merge, they'll have to be re-written again.

Collett has put out a statement that is notably long on profusions of loyalty to the BNP, and protestations about how he would never do anything to hurt the party but doesn't seems to include any statement of personal loyalty to Nick Griffin, or any direct denial of the allegations against him:

Mr Collett, 29, had been planning to stand in Sheffield at the election against David Blunkett, the former home secretary. He said yesterday: "I don't intend to say anything bad about the party that would compromise it in the run-up to an election. If I've been wronged, which I believe I have, I've still got no intention to undermine the party. I'm not someone who goes running to the press when I've got problems. I'm not going to say anything more, even about if I've been arrested." (1)

Note, also, the scramble to attain the moral high ground - a position which almost requires someone else to be lurking on the moral low ground.

It's almost like his statement is incomplete, and should contain some further comments that it is up to us to discern. Here's what I think he's really saying:

"I don't intend to say anything bad about the party that would compromise it in the run-up to an election - unlike Nick Griffin."
"I've still got no intention to undermine the party - unlike Nick Griffin."
"I'm not someone who goes running to the press when I've got problems - unlike Nick Griffin."
"I'm not going to say anything more, even about if I've been arrested - unlike Nick Griffin."

Pretty clear sub-text to Collett's statement is that he isn't the one betraying the party and its values - Griffin is, with his Euro gravy train and weakening of the membership requirements.

Expect to see Collett fronting a 'Real BNP' splinter group inside six months - unless Griffin is knifed (metaphorically) after the election, having failed to win any seats. In which case Collett gets welcomed back by the BNP, 2nd in command to Brons, and Griffin gets to lead the 'Real BNP' splinter group.

1 - "BNP official arrested over claims he threatened to kill Nick Griffin," by Nigel Morris and Tom Peck. Published in The Independent, 5th of April, 2010. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-official-arrested-over-claims-he-threatened-to-kill-nick-griffin-1936014.html)

I was, of course, completely right - BNP civil war

Well, by competely right, at least mostly right. I had suggested, previously, that BNP leader Nick griffin would be rolled by Andrew Brons - who had already humiliated his 'leader' by bagging the top spot on the party's Euro elections list - and who is old school National front (1).

Time will tell. Meanwhile, Mark Collett, the BNP publicity director, has had his membership of the party suspended following suggestions that he was plotting against the Dear Leader:

The party confirmed that the BNP publicity director Mark Collett, who had been lined up to stand against David Blunkett in Sheffield, had been "suspended pending a disciplinary tribunal", after a leaked memo accused him of plotting a "palace coup".

And, as the party was gripped by claims that insiders were trying to "sabotage" its election preparations, it emerged that two more officials had left head office.

Emma Colgate, a staff manager, has "stepped down from her position to concentrate fully on fighting the Thurrock parliamentary seat for the party". Eddy Butler, the party's head of elections, is also understood to have stepped down, and his name has been removed from the list of national BNP contacts.

The BNP has also told activists it had called in police after an internal leak inquiry uncovered "very serious allegations potentially affecting the personal safety" of Mr Griffin and his colleague James Dowson. (2)

This follows a comment in the Indie the day before, about cracks in the BNP's facade of unity at the local council level, where it actually has managed to make some progress and win some significant representation:

With nine local councillors the BNP, led by Alby Walker, had become the third-biggest force on the council. Until January – when Mr Walker and his wife, also a councillor, dramatically quit the BNP and he announced his intention to stand against Simon Darby as an independent for the Parliamentary seat. Since then Mr Walker has claimed to be the victim of a BNP smear campaign. He has denounced the party for holocaust denial and accused its leader Nick Griffin of surrounding himself with "sycophants". The party, he said, was beset with "drunks, misfits and oddballs hanging around the fringes". He added: "I came in from the wrong direction for people to accept me. I hope they can forgive me. I have quite a lot of support." (3)

This is probably the true face of the BNP - that is to say, the National Front - manifesting itself. For all that Griffin's moves on the whites 'indigenous' only membership policy is just a bit of window dressing to make his ugly little band of racists look less troglodytic, it is obviously too much for some.

Griffin will probably survive in the short term - and I wouldn't be surprised to see Collett come cringing back into the party, for it isn't like the BNP has a very large or deep pool of talent to draw upon - but I suspect this is the beginning of the end for Griffin, and the BNP's flirtation with mainstream respectability. Some people just aren't comfortable playing nicely by the rules, and would be happier shoving crap through Muslims's letterboxes.

While Collet may have made the first moves, I suspect Brons will be the one who profits from it in the longer term. Once he's ousted Griffin - and Collett has been brought to heel with the promise of the succession, shades of Blair and Brown - Brons will be able to 'reunite' the BNP and the National Front.

Not that anyone with any intelligence was ever able to discern an iota of real difference between them.

1 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2009/06/sympathy-for-little-nicky.html
2 - "BNP official ousted after claims of coup bid against Griffin," by Brian Brady and Jane Merrick. Published in The Independent, 4th of April, 2010. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-official-ousted-after-claims-of-coup-bid-against-griffin-1935427.html)
3 - " Hunt's selection sets up battle with former belly dancer for Stoke seat," by Jonathan Brown. Published in The Independent, 3rd of April, 2010. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hunts-selection-sets-up-battle-with-former-belly-dancer-for-stoke-seat-1934720.html)

Good day for the BNP

Nick Griffin has lost his court cas against Tauriq Khalid, a taxi driver Griffin accused of making racially abusive comments and threats towards Griffin (1).

This is precisely what Griffin would have wanted, and expected to happen. It's unlikely he'd have bothered to pursue sucha trivial prosecution if he actually thought he would win.

The BNP's main tactic is victimhood. They target people who feel marginalised and ignored. To appeal to these people, they BNP sets its self up as the party that the other paries try to ignore and marginalise. One of their standard refrains is that the authorities don't listen and don't care about what is happening to everyday white British people. Here's a fairly typical bleat, from a couple of days ago:

Of course, the authorities, both locally and nationally, are adhering to their accustomed policy of studied denial about the scale and prevalence of anti-white racist attacks. (2)

Winning his case would have shown that the BNP could be treated fairly by the system.

Griffin has lost his case, but I doubt he'll be at all upset about it - the BNP has gained another example of supposed politically correct racism against whites. He gets some publicity, and, much more importantly, gets to bang the "PC Authorities Ignore Racism Against Whites" drum a bit.

1 - "Man cleared of BNP racial abuse," unattributed BC article, published 4th of November, 2009. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8342591.stm)
2 - "Is Savile Town Becoming Yet Another ‘No-Go Area’ for British People," by George Fanning. Publsihed on the BNP website, 1st of November, 2009. (http://bnp.org.uk/2009/11/is-savile-town-becoming-yet-another-no-go-area-for-british-people/)

BNP tactics

How stupid do you have to be to support the BNP and doe sit run in families?

The answers might be 'very' and 'probably' but I can't help but wonder if the furore surrounding Adam Walker, a teacher and BNP member, facing diciplinary action for accessing far right sites while he was meant to be teaching a class, is not the result of congenital stupidity, but a ploy by the BNP.

Remarkably, Mr Walker is not the only member of his family to have come to grief in this manner. While the Klitschkos featured two remarkbale boxers, and the Williams family produced two outstanding tennis players, and Scottish rugby boasts a range of families where talent seems to run in families- Gavin and Scott Hastings, John and Martin Leslie, Sean and Rory Lamont. The defining characteristic of the Walker boys seems to be stupidity and far right politics. According to the Times:

Mr Walker’s brother, Mark, lost an appeal against his sacking from Sunnydale College, Shildon, County Durham. Mark Walker, also a technology teacher, is accused of accessing the BNP’s website during school hours. Sunnydale Board of Governors upheld a decision to terminate his contract owing to ill health.

Frankly, with this apparent genetic idiocy, I think Mr Walker was probably making a more valid contribution to the education of his students by pissing about on the internet, posting hate filled rants on Stormfront or whatever he did, than he would have if he actually tried to do any teaching.

The incident took place in 2007, but has been delayed due to various tactics. The latest attempt to hold the hearing has been delayed due to worries about social disturbance. The case itself is fairly straight forward - Walker breached his terms of employment, and in a way that could bring his employer into disrepute, so he will lose. But a couple of things interest me in this.

First, it all seems a bit too pat. Both brothers making the same mistake? It seems unlikely. Both also have stood as cndidates for the BNP at council level (Mark mustering a remarkable 513 votes for the Sedgefield council in 2007 - way to go, Mark!), which is the year this story broke. The BNP make a lot of noise about being victimised and oppressed and bullied by the 'PC liberal elite.' It strkes me as a ploy designed to allow them to perpetuate that image and raise the candidates' profiles in the far right circles.

Which means they must be almost tumescent with excitement about how it has been dragged out over several years now, with escalating media attention and now demonstrations and the threat of violence.

1 - "Police cite riot fears to delay case against BNP teacher Adam Walker," by Joanna Sugden, published in The Times, 22nd of September, 2009. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6842824.ece)
2 - "Demo over BNP teacher suspension," unattributed BBC artcile, 3rd of September, 2007. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/6976135.stm)

Ye Gods!

Someone has gone out and asked a bunch of dim doxies, generously described as the babes of the BNP, what they think about stuff (1).

As far as I can tell, this is not a piss take.

WARNING!! The interviews made me want to shoot myself. Reading this might be akin to incautiously perusing a page of the Necronomicon of the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred.

You have been warned.

1 - "Babes of the BNP," posted by Gavin Haynes on Viceland Blog, 6th of July, 2009. (http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/07/babes-of-the-bnp/)

Sympathy for Little Nicky?

Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, has been very busy blowing his trumpet over the 'success' of his party in the Euro elections.

(Note to Nicky - two seats is not success, particulalry when you were claiming you might get eight.)

His bluster serves to distract from one point worth consideration. Griffin was not the first on the BNP list. That spot went to and ex-member of the National Socialist Network (An organisation founded on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday, though I'm sure that, lik the coincidence of nomenclature with Hitler's party, is entirely coincidental) and former National Front chairman, Andrew Brons.

Why is this interesting? Because it suggests that a shift has orccured in the BNP. What party puts its official leader second on the list? One that doesn't really think he is the leader anymore.

Griffin has worked hard to shift the BNP away from the National Front 'racist lout' image. He's been partly successful, but it looks like that success is his undoing. The old guard of the far right - Brons is very much one of them - seem to have been attracted to the BNP as the best means to electoral success. A post on the neo-Nazi webste suggests that the National Front are trying t colonise their more politically acceptable sibling. A member of Stormfront identifying him/herself as 'Candidate,' posted:

... speaking to AB a few weeks ago he said that at the moment the BNP was the only viable option (2)

Which is interesting.

So it looks like Nick Griffin's 'victory' will prove to have been Pyhrric. He might have gained a 'breakthrough' and garnered some headlines, but it looks like he's lost control of his party to the old school, less media savvy racists.

I predict that Brons will sideline Griffin. Possibly he will split entirely, announcing that the BNP has "lost its way" or some such. Or maybe Griffin will mount a counter insurgency and try to drive out the National Front elements that have infiltrated his party. Because the far right, like the far left, likes nothing more than a good schism.

Or perhaps Little Nicky will accept what happens and accept his role in the Brons BNP. Perhaps Avuncular ANdrew will find his a position with true weight - maybe giving him the responsibility for promoting the BNP's stated policy of retaining Britain's "traditional weights and measures" (3).

n.b. The headline of this post is disingenous. I feel no sympathy for Little Nicky. He's a fat, slimy, racist turd-in-a-suit.

1 - As described previosuly on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2009/06/very-good-article.html.
2 Posted by Candidate on Stormfront, in a disccusion titled, "BNP PPB," dated 27th of May, 2009. (http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=6889289)
3 - From the BNP's manifesto, viewed 12th of June, 2009. (http://bnp.org.uk/policies/)

A very good article

This analysis, from Labour MP Jon Cruddas, and Nick Lowles, is pretty much spot on. Reproduced in full (almost) from The Guardian:

First, some facts. The BNP polled 948,598 votes across the country, a 6.2% share. In Yorkshire it received 9.8% and in the North West 8.0%, both enough to secure seats. In other areas they did equally well without getting elected. In the East Midlands they polled 8.7% and in West Midlands 8.6%.

Yet it could have been far worse, much worse. At the outset of the campaign the BNP confidently predicted six or seven seats; or even 12 when hyperventilating about how their perfect political storm had emerged. Economic anxiety, job insecurity and hostility to migrant workers combined as the credit crunch kicked in. The long term legacy of "Middle England" politics, free market economics, mass immigration and a housing crisis all helped create this sense of inevitable electoral success. The absence of local elections meant turnout was always going to be low. Throw in the expenses scandal and the implosion of the Labour party – even before anyone had voted – and they thought their time had come.

Before we see this as a watershed, and again ensure that the liberal press play right into their hands, let's retain some perspective. Put simply, the BNP's support hardly increased. Its 6.2% share of the vote is only slightly up on the 4.9% it gained in the good times of 2004. In the North West Nick Griffin only increased his vote from 6.4% to 8.0%. It was the collapse in support for the Labour party that allowed the BNP in.

Their failure to exploit these unique circumstances was in no small part due the mass mobilisation of opposition to them on the ground; a new politics of "Hope not Hate" forged beyond the Westminster beltway with unions, churches, voluntary groups, students and sometimes local political parties. The volume of literature distributed outstripped that of the main parties. Local "Hope not Hate" groups distributed 3,400,000 newspapers and leaflets; 1.6 million being hand-delivered in the North West alone, 850,000 leaflets in Yorkshire and Humber. On one day, 48 hours before the election, we held 180 simultaneous activities and hand-delivered 500,000 leaflets.

Over 50,000 people volunteered for our online campaign and 1,500 people donated. We placed anti-BNP articles in the national newspapers on a daily basis and our eve-of-poll email was sent to 600,000 people, the biggest single email in British domestic political history. We estimate that 5,000 people took part in the on-the-ground campaigns around the country, many for the first time in their lives.

The campaign made a difference; they gained seats but nothing compared to what they expected and it almost stopped Griffin scraping in by just 1,200 votes. The fightback has already started. In the early hours of Monday morning we launched a "Not in our name" petition. Over 25,000 people have already signed it, a testament to the anger that has followed the BNP successes.

Yet the campaign cannot build houses and reduce waiting lists; it cannot prevent undercutting and the abuse of migrant workers. Local anti-fascist movements cannot get resources into communities, often the poorest, dealing with extraordinary levels of migration. Without such resources access to public services is racialised and politics becomes more tribal. The "Hope not Hate" campaign cannot reduce health inequalities or enduring poverty and immobility. It cannot overcome political disenfranchisement and alienation from interchangeable Westminster politicians. In short, it cannot substitute for what a radical Labour government should be doing and a language that it should be using that could inspire hope. (1)

If you want to add your name to the petition mentioned, it can be done online (2).

1 - "The myth of the BNP 'protest' vote," by Jon Cruddas, and Nick Lowles, published in The Guardian, 8th of June, 2009. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/08/bnp-protest-vote-success)
2 - The website is: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/.

When did Britain become so stupid?

Almost a million Britons voted fro the BNP in the recent European elections, sending two of their candidates - avuncular neo-Nazi and right former National Front chairman Andrew Brons, and the repugnant Nick Griffin - to Brussels to serve as Euro MPs.

When did Briton become so stupid, and so moiserable, that voting for the BNP - a miserable bunch of fascists-in-suits - seems like a reasonable course of action?

Ian Birrel provides some basic analysis in The Independent:

Some would argue that the reason is simple: there is too much immigration, upsetting the delicate balance of society, and our politicians talk too little about a core concern. They are wrong. The problem is not that there has been too much discussion, but that it is unashamedly hostile to newcomers. Just as it is little wonder support for the European Union is wilting when it is never publicly defended, so it is little surprise that a racist party can rise when there seems to be only hostility to immigrants and asylum-seekers.

By talking of schools being "swamped" by immigrants, or demanding "British jobs for British workers", or even by constantly trying to define "Britishness", politicians like David Blunkett and Gordon Brown – in tandem with elements of the populist press, the net and radio talkshows – have coarsened the public discourse. Instead of cool discussion of an incendiary issue, such loose talk has sanctioned race-based politics, contributing to a situation in which politicans are terrified of tackling urban myths on issues such as housing and education.

The result is that, on the same day as Britain elected two racist MEPs, a revelatory report was published by the Red Cross, which showed how skewed British perceptions are on asylum-seekers. It revealed, for example, that people believed the UK is home to one in four of the world's asylum-seekers; the true figure is about one in 33. In such a climate, is it any wonder that sections of a confused electorate, angry with its politicians, turn to a party based on race hatred? (1)

I think that is half right, but no more.

If it was just an issue of immigration, London would be a BNP stronghold, run by a BNP mayor. It isn'tThe other reson people turned to the BNP is because Labour no longer seemed to represent them. The BNP's vote was strongest in areas which have been traditionally Labour, and which have been taken for granted for too long.

The BNP suceeded in the North of England because the Labour party didn't think it needed to do anything to maintain its vote - falling into the old trap that because the BNP is a far right party, its supporters would be disillusioned Tories. The BNP, of course, advocates a Hitlerian combination of racial supremacy, cultural chauvanism and a veneer of bargain basic socialist populism. Which worked for Hitler, and worked - to a rather meagre, but still concerning extent - for Griffin and his knuckle dragging cohorts.

So it is understandable that the British working class - seeing 'their' party acting just like the TOries - would be susecptible to the slimy advances of the fascists. It's symptomatic of the lazy self-centredness that afflicts Britain (I blame Thatcher) - "I feel unhappy, it must be the fault of the effi' immies, taking the jobs and the good houses and getting preferential treatment all the time, I'm not going to stand for this, I'm proud to be British, I'm voting BNP."

Understandable, but still stupid.

1 - "How our politicians failed to stop the rise of the far right," bu Ian Birrel, published in The Independent, 9th of June, 2009. (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ian-birrell-how-our-politicians-failed-to-stop-the-rise-of-the-far-right-1700206.html)

Hilarious. Insanely hilarious II

The British National Party are trying to introduce youngsters to the delights of racial supremicist bullshit Hitler worshipping ignorance and philistinism through the wonders of cutting edge multi-media technology. Or, at least, some troglodyte has filmed a sock puppet and stuck it up on You Tube (1) in an effort to win over the youth to the cause of Aryan advancement:



So woeful is this in all ways I don't think the youth of today have anything to fear from it. Those that don't immediately turn away to look at more interesting stuff, like paint drying or moss growing, won't be able to make out the lyrics, delivered in a piping voice which confirms suspicions that one of the membership requirements for the BNP is a set of undescended testes.

The lyrics are stupendously stuped, vis the first verse, featured on Have I Got News For You the other night. Bear in mind this is as an 'Educational poem':

In AD 20 was born a queen,
Boadicea was her name,
But then one day from across the sea,
Some mean old Romans came.

They took her land and beat her kids,
And that just was not right,
So she fought and died for freedom,
And Boadicea was white!

And, fuck me, that's just 45 seconds of a five minute video. I didn't feel it necessary to watch any more.

Putting to one side the small matter that the Romans were as white as the inhabitants of the island they invaded, the BNP moron who composed this masterpiece, this latter day Triumph of the Will, refers to the rebellious queen as Boadicea. That name derives from Tacitus, and the correct name of the Celtic queen was Boudica (2).

So the staunch defenders of all things Anglo Saxon (never mind Boudica pre-dated the Anglo Saxons by about 600 years) are using the name given to her by the fascist oppressor invaders. Which isn't suprising, given their admiration for fascist oppressor invaders of more recent vintage.

And on purely aesthetic grounds, the four syllable Boadicea does not scan as well as the three syllable Boudicca.

1 - "Heroes by Billy the Brit," produced by BillyBrit Puppet, hosted by youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKuGrkBPf-s)
2 - 'Boudica's Name,' courtesy of Wikipedia, viewed 24rd of May, 2009. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica#Boudica.27s_name)

Hilarious. Insanely hilarious.

When I first saw this picture I thought it was a joke, but it is a genuine poster put up by the British National Party, a collection of Hitlerite goons with enough PR nous to make themselves seem semi-respectable (1).

The question is wrong. Instead of asking "what would Jesus do?" we need to ask, "what would the BNP do to Jesus"?

The answer is made clear in on their website:

... we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of criminal and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question.

We will abolish the ‘positive discrimination’ schemes that have made white Britons second-class citizens. We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries. (2)

If Jesus had tried to emigrate to Britain (presummably to vote for the BNP), he'd have been refused as a shifty foreigner. If he had been living in Britain and the BNP had come to power (presumably with his support, the poster implies) they would have sought to 'resettle' him elsewhere, with 'generous financial incentives' (Thirty pieces of silver?). If Joseph and Mary, with the infant Jesus, had sought asylum in Britain, while Herod was butchering the innocents, the BNP would have told them to go to Hell.

So I don't think Jesus would have been voting BNP, really.

Tossers.

1 - If the BNP have a problem with me reproducing their poster and images, they can fuck off.
2 - "Immigration: time to say enough," policy statement of the BNP regards immigration. Policy details correct as of 19th of May, 2009. (http://bnp.org.uk/policies/immigration/)

Anachronism to host irrelevance

The leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, has managed to gain an invite to the Queen's summer Garden Party. Okay, he's had to cadge a ticket off a mate, the complimentary second string spot usually reserved for the important person's partner, but he's still getting to go, which will be nice for him:

Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National party, is planning to attend a garden party in June hosted by the Queen at Buckingham palace, according to an associate.

Richard Barnbrook, a BNP member of the London assembly, said he was taking Griffin to next month's event as his guest. "I imagine there will be a to-do and a hoot. These things are going to happen more and more as the [BNP] goes forward," he said.

A BNP spokesman said that for Barnbrook to "snub an invite from the Queen would be absurd", adding: "If we get elected MEPs this is the kind of thing we are going to be doing on a regular basis." The event will take place after the European elections next month. (1)

I can't help but wonder if - in the unlikely event that he gets any where near the Queen - he'll have the guts to tell her to haul her Germanic arse back to Bavaria, and to take her Johnny foreigner husband with her? Or does the BNP's policy of resettlement only apply to the hoi-polloi, not to the aristocracy? And Germans, after all, are a special case. Griffin, after all, presides over a party full of people with a strong admiration for Germanic rulers with Bavarian connections.

I'm actually looking forwards to the pictures from the garden party, Nick Griffin trying to look ebullient and like he's having a fine old time, hob-nobbing with the great and the good. Expect the BNP to post lots of pictures of him gurning and grasping unwilling hands, while everyone he tries to talk to desperately attempting to maintain a safe, probably upwind, distance from him, with glassy fixed smiles plastered acrsoss their faces ...

1 - "BNP leader Nick Griffin to attend Queen's summer garden party," by Matthew Taylor, published in the Guardian, 20th of May, 2009. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/20/bnp-griffin-queen-garden)

Hilariously weird rightwing media squabble unfolding in Britain

The British National Party - the semi-respectable and semi-literate face of British far right politics - and the The Sun - the semi-respectable and semi-literate face of British far right journalism - are locked in a desperate turf war. Both espouse similar values and ideals - St George, whiteness, bring-back-the-birch and cast out the bleedin' immies and so on - and inevitably have turned on each other in a battle for their shared demographic.

The BNP has claimed that the Sun has libelled it by publishing a story containing an image of a phoney BNP leaflet. Reluctantly, I'll quote from their website:

The British National Party has called in the police and laid charges over the latest media lie about the party which has included a completely forged leaflet condemning the Gurkhas.

BNP lead North East candidate Adam Walker has this morning laid an official complaint against The Sun for incitement to racial hatred. The Sun story consists of a poor quality black and white leaflet which attacks the Gurkhas and which was not issued by the BNP.

“We have never issued such a leaflet,” Mr Walker said, adding that he had been contacted by the Northern Echo newspaper on Sunday and asked about the leaflet then.

“I told that newspaper that the leaflet was not ours, and that we would never issue such a thing,” Mr Walker said. “The newspaper would not tell me when or where it had been distributed, which made me highly suspicious. (1)

Hilariously, Walker goes on to identify the source of the smear:

“It is clear that this is just another ‘black operations’ trick drawn up by the local Communist Party front organisations who make a living out of spreading anti-BNP lies.

[snip]

Mr Walker pointed out that the BNP have “members who fought alongside the Gurkhas and ex-forces who have served alongside them in garrisons. They are as disgusted and appalled as I am that The Sun and its Communist Party allies can resort to such tactics ..." (2)

Get that? The Sun, a rightwing rag that still lionises Margaret Thatcher and is owned by Rupert Murdoch, is in fact a communist fellow traveller. Topless birds, footie and Marx - no wonder it is so popular.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time I've encountered this paranoid obssession that the BNP and their ilk have with the baleful influence of the CPGB. The other day, LiveLeak.com published a bit of a rant about hordes of Roumanian's emigrating to Britain, and it rounded the diatribe off as follows:

The destruction of the Romanian economy took place under the Soviet Communist era - when that party was supported in Britain by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

Today, the CPGB is the organisation which coordinates anti-BNP propaganda in the media. That Communist front organisation’s leader actually stood as an election candidate for the CPGB in 1962, at the time when the Soviet Communist Empire was at its height. (3)

Which is fantastically potty and suggests the BNP is actually serious about this Red Menace nonsense. So much the better. The more time they waste running from shadows, the better. Also serves to reveal their Nazi roots, as well. Hitler was fervently anti-Communist. They're just following the example and teachings of their spiritual leader.

Meanwhile, the Sun has hit back with a story of its own, complaining about how the BNP has produced an image of a British soldier with falsely attributed words. Again, with some regret:

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. (4)

It looks like the Sun has caved in and pulled the Gurkha story - I can't see it on their website. Which might mean that the leaflet really is a forgery - though the sentiments expressed in the leaflet are in line with the BNP's stance on immigration - which calls for

an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of criminal and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin ... (5)

You'll note, if you peruse the BNP press release, that Adam Walker doesn't actually say the BNP want the Gurkhas here, or condemn the contents of the leaflet - an indirect admission that the leaflet, while not actually a BNP publication, was an accurate enough sumamry of their position.

My hunch is that it was put out, unauthorised, by a member of the BNP. A few weeks ago, a leaked internal memo from the BNP warned members not to do their own propaganda work (6). This is probably the sort of thing they were worried about - unruly members not being able to keep their inner racist thug hidden up until election day.

1 - "BNP Calls in Police over Latest Media Gurkha Lie," press release by the British National Party, 18th of May, 2009. (http://bnp.org.uk/2009/05/bnp-calls-in-police-over-latest-media-ghurkha-lie/)
2 - ibid.
3 - "Paying the Price for EU Madness: Millions of Unemployed Romanians on Their Way to the UK," by anonymous poster 24038462, published on LiveLeak.com, 16th of May, 2009. (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad9_1242483244&c=1)
4 - "Hero's fury at BNP 'fake' pic," by Tom Newton-Dunn and Andy Crick, published in The Sun, 19th of May, 2009. (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2436087.ece)
5 - "Immigration: time to say enough," policy statement of the BNP regards immigration. Policy details correct as of 19th of May, 2009. (http://bnp.org.uk/policies/immigration/)
6 - As described previously on lefthandpalm: http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2009/04/bnp-bigwigs-battle-burnout-blues.html