BNP - the truth about immigration

BNP leader Nick Griffin wants Bolton-born Olympic boxing hero Amir Khan to leave Britain.

Griffin - whose party wants to create 'firm incentives' for non-white Britons to leave their homeland - dismissed claims that the policy would strip the country of talent.

Referring to Khan, he added: "Perhaps we will lose one good boxer but there are more important things."

Khan - who has spoken out against Islamic extremism and walked out behind the Union Flag for his professional debut - was born and raised in Bolton.

His cousin, Saj Mahmood, plays cricket for Lancashire and England.

The 22-year-old boxer once said: "I've always felt completely British. I loved making the British people happy in Athens [where he won Olympic silver], and I still do.

"Those of us from different ethnic backgrounds, like Lewis Hamilton and myself, are carrying the flag for Britain by doing our thing, being ourselves and wanting to become world champions."

His dad, Shah Khan, said: "At the end of the day I think everyone should be treated equally - regardless of the colour of their skin."

The BNP is targeting the north west of England as it seeks to win a seat in the European elections next month.

Griffin - who was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred - is the party's top candidate in our region.

During his trial he dismissed the Holocaust as 'Allied wartime propaganda' - a view he claims to have recanted.

In a broadcast put on the BNP's website this week, Griffin told supporters he had 'no problem' breaking race laws.

"We don't break the law," he said. "We never have, we never will, on financial things.

"Don't mind breaking the odd race law, or being accused of it, you know, inadvertently."

The BNP's policies would not just see 'one good boxer' pushed out of the country.

Football stars such as Rio Ferdinand and Shaun Wright-Phillips would also be 'encouraged' to leave - along with thousands of successful Black and Asian Britons from all walks of life.

Labour MP Frank Field and Conservative Nicholas Soames have teamed up to encourage the mainstream parties to tackle legitimate concerns about immigration.

The two men are spearheading a campaign for a 'balanced' policy. That would mean the total number of people allowed to settle in the country would be brought into line with the numbers leaving.

In a letter to the MEN, the MPs said: "Our concern is that the issue that is bothering many people right across the country, and especially in England, is immigration - and the beneficiaries will be the BNP.

"On immigration, there is now a dangerous political vacuum. Terrified of being accused as 'racists', politicians from the main political parties have shied away from talking honestly about what is happening to our country. And so enters, stage right, the loathsome BNP, hissing hate.

"People are deeply and justifiably concerned about how immigration is changing our country.

"Does this mean that immigration is a bad thing? Of course not. For centuries immigrants, arriving in small numbers, have made a disproportionate contribution to our society, and many thousands continue to do so.

"But making the case for immigration becomes much harder as immigration on today's enormous scale puts increasing pressure on our public services and - more worryingly - on our society.

"The time has come for the main party leaders to wake up to this challenge, and say how they will stop our population hitting 70 million and even 80 million in mid century.

"The British public are deeply concerned about the impact of uncontrolled immigration: millions of people live with the consequences every day.

"Many are anxious, fearful and ready to send a signal in June's elections. Silence from Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg is not an option - simply a recruiting sergeant for the BNP."

Manchester Evening News

Exposed: ugly face of BNP's leaders

Gary Aronsson: Nazi SS death's head avatar on Facebook

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.

The Observer

BNP election hopes marred by dodgy fascist pals of leader Nick Griffin

Convicted criminals, Nazi skinheads, violent thugs... not exactly the type of people you'd want to be pals with. But this motley crew of racists and fascists are Nick Griffin's closest European buddies.

The BNP leader is trying his best to project the image of a respectable, well dressed politician in the run-up to the European elections on Thursday. And he knows that, if people find out who he likes to hang out with, his chances will be ruined.

Here we expose the truth about the BNP's European friends...

AUSTRIA

Andreas Molzer - once booted out of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) for being too extreme - is one of Griffin's closest European allies.

The Austrian MEP runs a newspaper, renowned for spouting racist, xenophonic and anti-Semitic views. The rag - Zur Zeit - has even questioned accepted accounts of the Holocaust and recently featured a fawning interview with Griffin.

Molzer, 57, who is married with five children, was expelled from the FPO in 2005 after he accused it of being too soft on immigration. He was only let back in last year when fellow hard-liner Heinz-Christian Strache, 50, took over the leadership. Strache, 50, has demanded the repeal of Austrian laws banning the swastika and once branded women wearing Islamic dress as "female ninjas".

ITALY

Italian MEP Roberto Fiore is leader of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party, which has campaigned for the expulsion of an estimated 150,000 Roma gipsies from Italy.

He has been a political mentor, financial supporter and close friend of BNP leader Griffin since 1980, when he moved to Britain in the wake of the fascist Bologna railway station bombing which killed 85 people, including two British tourists.

While here, he helped Griffin - who hadn't yet joined the BNP - set up his Political Soldiers group after it split from the National Front.

Fiore was convicted in Italy in his absence in 1985 as a result of his involvement in the terrorist Armed Revolutionary Nuclei, whose members had taken part in the Bologna terrorist outrage. His nine year prison sentence was later reduced to five and a half on appeal.

HUNGARY

Zoltan Fuzessy is vice president of Hungary's ultra right-wing Jobbik party - but lives in the UK and has fostered close links with the BNP. The father-of-two ran an anti-Jewish hate website until last year and has spoken at BNP meetings.

Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary - uses Nazi insignia and has been linked to a deadly series of grenade, petrol bomb and gun attacks on Hungarian gipsies. But all that did not stop Griffin speaking in front of 5,000 Jobbik supporters last year at a rally in Budapest, where he shared a stage with notorious Hungarian racist Gyorgy Budahazy.

When a bunch of fascist yobs were arrested after going on the rampage Griffin toured the police stations where they were being held. The BNP leader insisted he was trying to ensure they were given "due process" and decent treatment.

Last year Budahazy showed his true colours when issuing a joint communique with another fascist leader, Laszlo Toroczkai, calling on Hungarian racists to disrupt the annual Budapest gay parade.

"We will not permit aberrant foreigners of this or that colour to force their alien and sick world on Hungary," it said.

GERMANY

Nick Griffin's BNP aligns itself with the pro-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany whose chairman, Udo Voigt, praises Hitler as a "great statesman".

In August 2002 Griffin attended a festival put on by the NPD's newspaper Deutsche Stimme (German Voice), where he was photographed with Voigt and the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. That month he took part in an NPD summer school with Mahler and Voigt.

Another German ally of BNP is Nazi skinhead leader Jens Puhse, who was recently acquitted of producing and distributing racist CDs. A member of the National Front until it was banned in 1997, he is now leader of the German National Democratic Party and a leading figure in the European National Front (ENF), an umbrella group for some of Europe's most extreme and openly facist organisations.

They include groups that deny the Holocaust, worship Adolf Hitler and other wartime fascist leaders, and have been linked to terrorism.

FRANCE

The BNP admires the National Front and has modelled much of its own modernisation on the resurgent French fascist party. Its leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, served in Algeria in the 1950s and has been accused of torturing prisoners there.

A convicted Holocaust denier, Penn - who is divorced with three daughters - has also been convicted of racism or inciting racial hatred at least six times. In June 1999 he was fined for stating that the Holocaust was "just a detail in the history of the Second World War" and in April 2000 he was fined again and suspended from the European Parliament for assaulting a female candidate from a rival party during an election campaign.

Le Pen was Griffin's star guest during the BNP's European campaign in April 2004. After he claimed that Britain was being "invaded" by the Third World at a press conference in Manchester, protesters hurled rocks and eggs at his car.

Griffin's attention has now turned to Bruno Gollnisch, Le Pen's deputy, who is challenging Le Pen's daughter for leadership of the FN. Gollnisch, who is married with three children, has also been convicted for denying the Holocaust, for which he spent three months in prison in 2007.

Griffin brought Gollnisch over to Britain in April last year, where he addressed a private gathering of BNP supporters in London.

SWEDEN

The leader of Sweden's fascist National Democrats (ND) party was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2003 for assault and rioting after he and a fascist mob attacked a Gay Pride festival in Stockholm.

Marc Abramsson also runs the socalled Action Group (AKG), which provides security for Swedish fascist meetings and visiting fascists such as Griffin. This heavy mob is largely composed of members of the nazi Blood and Honour network.

Griffin has forged a close relationship with the ND leader, helping the party in European election campaigns. Abramsson was ND candidate in the 2004 European election.

BELGIUM

Filip Dewinter leads Belgium's far-right nationalist party Vlaams Belang (Flemmish Interest), which took over from the Vlaams Blok party after it was found in contempt of the law on racism and xenophobia and banned.

At a meeting of Vlaams Blok in 1991, former journalist Dewinter proclaimed: "Our own people first! And yes, Vlaams Blok chooses a Flemish Flanders. And yes, Vlaams Blok chooses a white Europe!" Griffin's most recent public contact with VB was in December 2006 when he went to Belgium to attend the "Euro-Rus Congress", a pan-European event organised by VB's Kris Romain.

CZECH

Republic Leader of the far-right National Party (Narodni Strana), which has its own paramilitary squad, Petra Edelmannova was the brains behind a racist TV ad aired in the Czech Republic last month which called for a "final solution" to the issue of gipsies in her country.

In the broadcast, accompanied by the slogan "Stop Favouring Gipsies", she stresses the case for "repatriating the Czech Republic's entire Roma community to India".

An avid racist, she was arrested in October 2006 following a demonstration in Prague's Wenceslas Square under a banner reading "Let's incinerate Muslim hatred". She had handed out leaflets illustrated with caricatures of Muslim figures and the caption "Let's Burn Hatred".

Last August Edelmannova, who is married with a daughter, gave a speech at the BNP's Red, White and Blue festival in Codnor, Derbys. Two months later, Griffin repaid the favour by addressing a National Party rally where he railed against the accession of Turkey to the EU, saying that the introduction of millions of Muslims into the EU would "drive down wages, living standards and increase taxes".

Daily Mirror

BNP in racist rant to win votes

BNP leader Nick Griffin has launched a “sickening” bid to exploit the racist murder of a black teenager at this week’s European Parliament elections.

In a shocking four-minute video rant, the far-right leader claims the notorious murder of Liverpool teenager Anthony Walker was not racially motivated.

Michael Barton and Paul Taylor were convicted of the hate-fuelled killing in 2005. A court was told they racially taunted Anthony at a bus stop before chasing him to a park where he was attacked with an ice pick. The deadly assault left a two-inch hole in his skull.

The trial judge said he was “sure this attack was racially-motivated and pre-meditated”.

The BNP video, released to party sympathisers and posted on YouTube, was filmed on the exact spot in Huyton’s McGoldrick Park where Anthony died.

Speaking to camera Mr Griffin claims Anthony “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time”. He claimed the media conspired to portray “a racist murder by a racist white estate and people from it, against an innocent black youth”.

He goes on: “The truth is, you talk to anyone round here and they will tell you that wasn’t the case.”

Mr Griffin also brands the decision to install CCTV cameras at the park as “ridiculous, politically-correct expenditure”.

A spokesman for the anti-fascist group Searchlight said: “Nick Griffin’s sickening attempt to smear the memory of Anthony Walker, an innocent boy killed because of the colour of his skin, for his own political purposes, reveals the BNP for what they are: Racist thugs.”

Sunday Express

Black anti-fascist campaigner beaten by 'BNP thugs'

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 by a pair of white 'BNP' thugs.

Cops were called to Eltham High Street last Saturday afternoon when the volunteer from Unite Against Fascism was set upon by two men said to be "defending" the British National Party.

Their victim had been handing out leaflets urging people not to vote for the controversial far-right party, widely tipped to make an electoral breakthrough on June 4.

Man said "I am British too" then fight started

Speaking to the News Shopper, fellow UAF volunteer Michael Coulston, 43, from Lewisham, saw the argument start, he said:

"A couple of guys kept walking past and shouting stuff which defended the BNP. They said the BNP acts to protect the British people.

But then a black guy shouted out that he was British too. An argument started and then the two white men started punching and kicking him."


No arrests, no CCTV

The attackers fled before police arrived and the investigation closed as the attackers were not captured on CCTV - The victim escaped without serious injury.

A spokeswoman for Greenwich police said:

"We take incidents of this nature very seriously.

This kind of aggressive behaviour will simply not be tolerated and anyone arrested will be thoroughly investigated."

The London Daily News

BNP activist Clive Courtney held over assault claim

A British National Party activist who has run for council and to be an MP was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his deaf wife.

Clive Courtney, 55, was yesterday being questioned by Avon and Somerset police for alleged violence against his spouse, Julie, at their home in Pensford.

Mr Courtney has been a local organiser of the right-wing party for Bristol and has been active during the current local election campaigns.

A police spokesman told the Bristol Evening Post: "I can confirm that last night, at about 11.25pm, we were called to a disturbance at a Hillcrest address in Pensford.

"Subsequently, a 55-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and is being questioned at Bath police station."
Click here for more

It is thought construction engineer Mr Courtney's teenage step-daughter was also at home during the alleged assault on Wednesday night. As of yesterday evening, he had not been charged with any offence

This is Bristol

Holocaust survivor warns Britain not to give power to BNP

A Holocaust survivor and Second World War veteran last night begged Britain: "Don't give power to the Nazis."

Gisela Feldman, 84, and Ken Reilly, 83, joined the Daily Mirror Hope Not Hate bus in Manchester to ask people to vote against the BNP in next week's European elections. Jewish Gisela was 15 when she fled Germany in 1938 as the Nazis killed her father.

She said: "We cannot allow the fascist BNP into our politics no matter what they promise. "I lived through the Nazi regime and remember the Brown Shirts marching through Berlin.

We didn't know of the hatred flourishing beneath."

Ken fought in the Royal Armoured Corps during D-Day and the Battle of Arnhem. He said: "We must look through the BNP's false brandishments. Hatred is an abomination and we must vote for hope not hate."

Comic Eddie Izzard, who joined us at the Imperial War Museum North, said: "Meeting Gisela and Ken reminds us of the sacrifices their generation made so we can live in a hate-free society. But now, 60 years on, we've got the BNP dragging us back in time.

"Voting against the BNP is to vote for hope against hate."

The Mirror

The rise of British racism may be horribly close

As the June elections draw close, Fraser Nelson goes on the stump with the BNP and is struck by a troubling paradox: the less racist Britain is, the more popular this racist party becomes. As Westminster implodes, far Right politicians are posturing as the tribunes of working people

Angela Wallace is one of a new breed of wavering voter. ‘I’m disgusted with all of the parties,’ she says, peering suspiciously at the men with clipboards on her doorstep. ‘MPs are not like they used to be. Now they’re all as bad as each other.’ The political activists I am accompanying have a ready response. ‘Well, why not make a protest vote?’ asks the candidate. ‘We’re the BNP.’ They have a leaflet ready: ‘Punish the Pigs’, it says. The BNP, it continues, is ‘the only party that makes them squeal. We’re NOT in it for the money.’ She promises to think about it.

In these deliberations, she will be very far from alone. In next week’s European and local elections, some 800,000 people are projected to vote BNP if the party continues its steady, menacing and (since 1987) unbroken advance. This time it is on the cusp of a breakthrough. All it needs is 8.5 per cent of the vote in the North West and Nick Griffin, its leader, will be on his way to Strasbourg as an MEP. If so, he will achieve what the National Front and the British Union of Fascists could only dream of: a legitimate seat in a legislature.

Just ten years ago, obituaries were being written for British racial nationalism. Oswald Mosley may have filled the Albert Hall in 1940, but he never won so much as a council ward at the ballot box. The National Front won two such contests, but was crushed by Thatcher in 1979 and never recovered. The British National Party had a brief victory in Isle of Dogs in 1993 but then seemed to perish. To hawk its racism in a country as tolerant as Britain seemed as futile as trying to start a coconut farm in Yorkshire. It just didn’t seem to take root.

In recent years, however, under the very noses of the apparently triumphant mainstream political class, the BNP has suddenly started to grow again — and its rise is exponential. Nine years ago it scored just 3,020 votes in England’s local elections. Last year its total was 235,000, giving the BNP 56 incumbent councillors. One such is Seamus Dunne, whom I meet outside the Dick Whittington pub in South Oxhey, a Hertfordshire housing estate built after the war. He has agreed to let me tag along with him and his fellow campaigners, to see what he calls the ‘real BNP’ — not what he regards as the caricature invented by the media.

Certainly, Mr Dunne could scarcely be more different from the stereotype of the tattooed thug. Besuited and softly spoken, he talks about taking his family to Kew Gardens and says that he wants to serve locals — ‘black or white’ — as best he can. It is a racially mixed estate, and there is no telling what the ethnicity of the voter opening the door will be. But the first, a young white man in his thirties, is a quick success. ‘You’re the guy who sorted out the rat infestation for us,’ he tells Mr Dunne. ‘You’ll get my vote. I’m BNP, and so is everyone I know.’

This is the first important point to note: there is no explicit talk of race, immigration or the death penalty (which the BNP supports). Just rats. This chap had a problem; his councillor fixed it and secured at least one vote. This is a significant and new aspect of the BNP’s strategy. Just as Lib Dems talk about holes in the road, not holes in the nation’s finances, the BNP (in spite of its nationalist identity) focuses relentlessly on the local. It targets councils with huge (normally Labour) majorities which have, for whatever reason, lost the will or capacity to campaign and govern well. The BNP then seeks to make itself useful: most recently, by sending squads to clear litter in strategic locations. It is a devious ploy: distracting public attention from the racist reality of the BNP by presenting itself as the ‘helpful party’.

As Mr Dunne continues down the road, this is his pledge. ‘I’ll work for you, the Lib-Lab con will not.’ In itself, it’s a bland and unremarkable democratic proposition. But what strikes me is that the letters BNP are not in themselves off-putting. I wonder why until we meet a lady in the next house. ‘Only ignorant or illiterate people think the BNP is about black vs white,’ she says. ‘The BNP principles are absolutely fine. The issue is about immigration — and this government is soft in letting everyone in.’ To hear this from a swing voter is disarming, to say the least. But what makes the remark so staggering is that the woman who utters it is black.

She immigrated from Jamaica aged three, and proudly considers herself British, ‘which is why I wasn’t happy when they sprayed “NF” on my car.’ Mr Dunne sympathises. ‘My parents came here when they said “no dogs, no Irish,”’ he said. ‘But you work your way up, obey the laws.’ The lady nods. The question of racism and anxiety about immigration — so often conflated in Westminster — are totally separate matters in her mind. Not only does she not regard the BNP as racist, she believes this to be a slur.

That the BNP is racist is, of course, not a matter of opinion. It has a whites-only membership policy, for example, and while it no longer supports compulsory repatriation, there are no prizes for guessing its definition of ‘indigenous population’. But there is no hint of this on the campaign trail. The letters BNP are, to me, hatefully synonymous with racism and all its sickening implications. But the people who have BNP posters in their windows regard this primarily as a gesture of defiance, a protest, a means of throwing stones at the glass of the Palace of Westminster.

Some people approach Mr Dunne and ask him for posters — like Mary Higham, 72, who was moved from Notting Hill to South Oxhey after the war and says she is voting BNP because of teenagers who roam the streets at night and leave smashed bottles. I ask if the youths are black. ‘Oh, no. The blacks don’t go in for that sort of behaviour,’ she says. As we speak, a black teenager wearing an England top comes up and joins us. ‘He’s a lovely boy,’ Ms Higham says, clutching her BNP leaflet.

I ask what she thinks about the main parties. ‘I won’t vote Labour. Gordon Brown is not for us. Well, he is...’ — she looks at me apologetically — ‘Scottish. And that Cameron doesn’t have what it takes. I adored Thatcher, she was for us. But there’s no one this time. That’s why I’m BNP.’

Thus does history repeat itself: Mosley’s Blackshirts used to pose as social avengers, making a great show of standing up for people being evicted. He campaigned against what he called the failed ‘old gangs’ of Westminster. The BNP is using the same decades-old techniques — only this time, depressingly, they seem to be working.

The far Right’s historic mistake was to advertise its racism — a prejudice which does not much animate the British working class in the early 21st century. Research shows just 20 per cent of working-class Brits believe that being white is an ‘important factor’ in being British; among the young, the suggestion that national identity is dependent upon a particular ethnicity is regarded as simply bizarre rather than obnoxious. Studies show that the BNP derives no electoral advantage from an influx of Indian settlers to a neighbourhood, and do badly in areas where there are many Britons of Afro-Caribbean descent. It is in places with Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities — that is, Muslim areas — that the BNP does well. Its focus there is not how people look, but how some act.

The trick is to take the minority of veiled or bearded Muslims as a proxy for Islam as a whole. If a (mainly white) local authority bans Christmas lights, so much the better for the BNP. This is why the mill towns of the North are now proving more fertile ground than the London suburbs — and this is why Griffin has chosen the North West to stand in. A seat in the European parliament could be his passport to the mainstream media: it would be much harder to deny the BNP a slot on regular television broadcasts (such as the BBC’s Question Time) that routinely feature representatives of Ukip.

That Griffin has come this far suggests that the old strategy deployed against Sinn Fein — denying objectionable politicians the oxygen of publicity — has failed. Indeed, it has allowed the BNP to take on multiple identities. The more the party is seen to be excluded by the Westminster village and the mainstream media, the more easily it can pose as the voice of the plucky outsider: one of the favourite postures of the campaigning fascist (Hitler himself loved to pose as David raging against the decadent Goliath of the German establishment). When Harriet Harman summoned Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems to a joint platform against the BNP last month, it was publicity that Griffin could not have bought.

The BNP presents a conundrum for the Conservatives. They argue that the BNP prospers in neglected Labour fiefdoms and is best regarded as the beneficiary of a left-wing splinter vote. Yet there is no denying that Margaret Thatcher destroyed the National Front by showing herself sensitive to the cultural anxieties of whites who felt ‘swamped’, never coming close to the incendiary rhetoric of Enoch Powell but using plain language which spoke directly to working-class voters. Suddenly, people like Mrs Higham in her council house felt they had a tribune — and no need of the far Right parties.

Thirty years on from Mrs Thatcher’s first general election victory, Tory strategists argue that for Mr Cameron to make immigration a key election issue would scare away the Liberal Democrat voters he has so carefully wooed. They do not believe that the loss of such voters could be balanced out by winning working-class support; in their view, the great mistake of the 2005 Conservative election campaign was to make this wrong assumption. ‘We’re way ahead of Labour on immigration anyway,’ says one senior Cameroon, ‘so we don’t need to shout.’ Thus, the BNP is granted an effective monopoly on public discussion of immigration — an issue which the polls show, again and again, troubles the public more than any other except the economy.

Regrettably, the climate is likely to grow even more favourable to the BNP. Its levels of support tends to track net migration to Britain, which is forecast to keep on increasing. Add that to the million more jobs expected to be lost, and the public’s rage with Westminster in the wake of the expenses scandal, and you have an alarmingly fertile political Petri dish for the incubation of BNP support.

So here is the BNP paradox. Britain has never been less racist. Yet support for the main racist party has never been higher. This contradiction is driven home as I listen to Reg Norgan, the BNP’s Northamptonshire organiser, give his spiel about racial purity. ‘It’s not racist to defend your people, your culture and identity when it is [under] attack,’ he says. But he has to speak up because a pop song is being blasted out by the white kids from a nearby house. It is ‘Jai Ho’, a Hindi song which has reigned in the British charts for weeks. With the backing track, Norgan’s rhetoric seems comically crackpot rather than sinister. But that should not distract us from its poisonous content, or make us sanguine about the potential social and political implications if the BNP does well next week.

The sudden death of the National Front — which had more members than the 10,000 presently on the BNP’s books — underlines the vulnerability of all far Right parties. But the economic forecast and the almighty mess at Westminster mean that, for the foreseeable future, the context will be worryingly auspicious for Griffin and his lieutenants. The BNP is moving on to prime political real estate that has been vacated by the mainstream parties which, when they are not frantically occupied by the expenses scandal, are busily fighting a three-way battle over the centre ground. The BNP cannot believe its luck.

In his definitive History of Fascism, Stanley Payne concludes that the British Union of Fascists was a ‘contradiction in terms’. Writing in 1995, he seemed to consider fascism extinct here. The attention given to the Mosley phenomenon, he said, was ‘inversely proportional to its significance’. But the opposite has proved to be true of the BNP. While the Westminster parties were looking the other way, the far Right has mutated by harvesting votes its established rivals seem no longer to seek. And this is why the most significant electoral breakthrough in the history of British fascism could be just days away.

The Spectator

Green Party steps-up election campaign against racists

New briefing published on threat from "racist, extremist, fanatical" BNP

Some major UK national media outlets are failing to properly challenge the racist British National Party, said a leading Green Party Euro-candidate today - so the Greens are stepping up their campaign to raise awareness of the true nature of the BNP and defeat the racists at the ballot box on 4th June.

Peter Cranie, the Green Party candidate squaring up against BNP leader Nick Griffin, said today:

"Some media outlets are doing a good job of exposing the criminal backgrounds of leading BNP politicians, and their links with neo-Nazis in other countries.

"But other outlets are practically giving the BNP a free ride. Sometimes interviewers are asking a BNP spokesman if he's racist, and then just giving him airtime to deny everything. This is not good enough. Racism is completely unacceptable and it must be exposed at every opportunity."

To help counter the apparent lack of awareness in some quarters, the Green Party will tomorrow (Thursday 28 May) publish a new briefing based entirely on official BNP statements. The Greens say their briefing proves beyond doubt that the BNP is not just fundamentally racist and extremist, but fanatical as well.

BNP doesn't just want to end immigration - it's a lot worse than that

The BNP: Racist Extremist Fanatics in their own words quotes one major British newspaper as describing the BNP as “a party whose only real, substantive issue is an immediate halt to immigration.”

But Peter Cranie explained: "Wanting to stop all immigration sounds bad enough, but in fact it grossly understates the BNP’s extremism. The BNP wants 'voluntary repatriation' of non-white people including those born in UK. But the BNP also wants to dismantle race equality legislation so that non-white people can be actively disadvantaged with impunity. Nick Griffin has said explicitly that a BNP government would put white people first for jobs, housing 'and anything else' - and he has referred to immigrants as 'foreign invaders'.

"The BNP says it has changed. But it represents hatred and disrespect as it always did, and it's important that everyone understands this. It's not just that some of the BNP's leading lights have criminal records - it's that their policy is absolutely vicious."

Mobilising the anti-BNP vote

To help him defeat Nick Griffin, Peter Cranie's campaign team have made a short cartoon film explaining how the complicated Euro-election system works - and why, if people want to vote tactically to stop the racist party's leader getting elected, it will be more effective to vote Green than to vote for one of the bigger parties. As Peter explains, "It sounds odd, but it's how the maths works out. The big three parties will win most of the seats in each region anyway. But the last seat is almost always won by a smaller party - that's why we need to make sure the Greens finish ahead of the BNP."

The Greens have also raised cash for ads in newspapers and online, and have published leaflets specifically warning about the BNP threat and how to beat it.

Peter's candidacy has also been endorsed by Salma Yaqoob, chair of Respect and a leading anti-war campaigner.

The film can be viewed on Peter Cranie's campaign website: www.stopnickgriffin.org.uk.

The report The BNP: Racist, Extremist, Fanatical in its own words see be downloaded from http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/reports/BNP.pdf.

BNP's dark past

THE British National Party has poured huge resources into trying to disguise its neo-Nazi roots.

The BNP was an off-shoot of the New National Front, itself a breakaway group from the National Front.

It was founded by John Tyndall, who used slogans like 'Hitler was right' and 'What we need is a few machine guns'.

He was one of a number of men prosecuted in the 1960s for setting up and running a private army based on the `brownshirts' of Nazi Germany.

Tyndall - who once described Adolf Hitler's autobiography as `my bible' and called for `medical measures' to prevent those with `heredity defects, either racial, mental or physical' from having children - was jailed for six months.
He went on to set up the BNP in 1989.

Under Tyndall, the party made no secret of its belief in racial discrimination and it developed its policy of compulsory 'repatriation' - essentially forcing non-white British people out of their home country.

Tyndall was ousted by Nick Griffin in 1999 in a leadership election. Griffin had previously been more than happy to toe the party line on race, telling a newspaper in 1996: "All black people will be repatriated, even if they were born here.

"We must preserve the white race, because it has been responsible for all the good things in civilisation."

As party leader, however, Griffin began trying to `modernise' the party's image. The immigration policy was changed to state only that non-white Britons would be given `firm' incentives to leave their homeland.

The BNP now issues reams of guidance to party members and officers on what they should and should not say in public.

Secrecy and deception

In one document - called 'language discipline' - organisers are told that racial and ethnic epithets and insults should never be used'.

In December 2006 a reporter from the MEN's sister newspaper, the Guardian, infiltrated the party and worked as the BNP's central London organiser. He revealed how the party used 'techniques of secrecy and deception' to 'conceal its activities and intentions'.

His report detailed how activists used false names, employed counter-surveillance techniques to conceal the locations of their meetings and used encryption software to protect email messages.

Yet beneath the sophisticated and disciplined surface, the same attitudes keep resurfacing.

In 2004, an undercover reporter infiltrated the BNP and filmed party activists saying things they would never dare say in public.

One council candidate was taped saying 'all I want to do is shoot P***s', while Tyndall was caught describing the then leader of the Tory party - Michael Howard, whose Jewish parents fled to Britain during the Holocaust - as 'an interloper'.

Other senior BNP officers have been caught admitting to deeply unsavoury attitudes.

Mark Collett, the former chairman of Young BNP, described Aids as a `friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it'.

Then there are the former and active party members caught committing serious criminal acts.

In 1999, David Copeland - a former BNP member once pictured with party founder John Tyndall - gained infamy as the `nail bomber' who terrorised London.

His first two bombs were let off in Brixton, which has a large Black community, and Brick Lane, which has a large Asian population.

The last one was planted in a Soho pub, at the heart of London's gay community. Three people died, including a pregnant woman, and more than 100 were injured.

There is no doubt Copeland acted alone. But there is also no doubt that it was while he was in the BNP - between 1997 and 1998 - that he used the internet to read up on how to make bombs and to access anti-Semitic texts from extreme right-wing groups in America.

Conspiracy

In August 2007, former BNP council candidate Robert Cottage was jailed for two-and-a-half years after stockpiling explosive chemicals.

Cottage, of Colne in Lancashire, was cleared after two trials of conspiracy to cause explosions, but pleaded guilty to possession.

Mrs Justice Swift, sentencing, said Cottage held views that `veered towards the apocalyptic'.

And Griffin himself was convicted of incitement to racial hatred in 1998, for distributing material denying the Holocaust.

The BNP leader says his views on the matter have changed. Those looking closely at his party's history might be forgiven for harbouring doubts.

Manchester Evening News

Hungary`s Far Right Set To Enter EU Parliament

Hungary's radical right looks likely to win at least one seat in the European Parliament, capitalising on discontent over the country's deep economic crisis and resentment of its large Roma minority.

Based on recent poll readings the Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party would also get a group into the Hungarian parliament if elections were held now. They are due next year.

Jobbik says it wants to preserve Hungary's national heritage, to tie welfare benefits to work and create a special police unit to tackle "Gypsy crime".

It backs the Hungarian Guard, a radical nationalist organisation which has been criticised for staging intimidating marches nationwide to protest against the spread of petty crime it says is mostly committed by Roma.

On the European stage, Jobbik seeks to renegotiate the part of the treaty that took Hungary into the European Union in 2004 that allows foreigners to buy land from 2011.

It also backs controversial autonomy claims by ethnic Hungarians in other EU countries such as Romania and Slovakia.

Jobbik works across Hungary, but in places like Miskolc, an industrial town in the north where unemployment is at 16 percent and the Roma population is large, it is especially strong.

"It does look like Jobbik will send at least one representative to Brussels," said Levente Boros Bank, a political scientist at the University of Miskolc. "Maybe more."

"That could strengthen them further," Boros Bank added. "People will no longer look at votes for them as lost ballots."

TENSIONS

Formally launched in 2003, Jobbik scored 5 percent and 6 percent in two recent opinion polls, which Peter Kreko, an analyst at think tank Political Capital said would translate into 12 to 15 seats in the 386-seat Hungarian parliament.

Hungary's minority Socialist government scored just 11 percent and more than 40 percent of voters are still undecided.

"We want a parliament group nobody can ignore," Csanad Szegedi, Jobbik's vice president, told Reuters.

Szegedi said family support rules amounted to a "publicly financed Gypsy breeding programme". "The state treats Gypsies as animals right now," he said. "Instead of being encouraged to work, they get money to procreate."

Hungary has one of the largest Roma communities in eastern Europe, making up 5 to 7 percent of the population of 10 million, and they have remained on the margins for decades.

Roma leaders say Jobbik's agenda is dangerous.

"There is no Gypsy crime, there is just crime. It's not a question of ethnicity," said Gabor Varadi, Roma minority representative in Miskolc. "It's very dangerous to seek popularity with such slogans. You generate tensions that way."

Experts say a wave of anti-Gypsy attacks in the past two years which killed several people was fuelled by far-right rhetoric.

"Jobbik and the Guard did not create these sentiments, but contributed to their being expressed this explicitly," said Kreko from Political Capital.

Robert Kovacs, 23, a student in Miskolc who will vote for Jobbik, said their programme fills gaps in Hungarian politics. "They articulate things everyone else shies away from," he said.

But some right-wing voters are uneasy about voting for them.

"They are a small, young, aggressive party," said Miklos Kiss, a 65 year-old retiree. "We need to choose a serious party. We don't need petty little games."

Javno

Russian Neo-Nazis Publish 'Death List'

A Russian neo-Nazi group in February published a "death list" naming dozens of journalists, scholars and human rights activists. Members of the group that calls itself BTO have vowed to murder everyone on the list by the end of the year. "They said they were going to kill me and my colleagues for the work we are doing," said Galina Kozhevnikova, the head of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, a Russian human rights watchdog group.

The death list was posted on Feb. 8 on the Internet and E-mailed to most of BTO's targets. Kozhevnikova and others told interviewers they're taking the threats seriously. And they have good reason to do so. In just the single month before the list arrived in their inboxes, 14 people in Russia were murdered in racist hate crimes or assassinated by neo-Nazis for political reasons.

Two of the victims — reporter Anastasiya Baburova, 25, and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, 34 — were shot to death in broad daylight on a busy street in downtown Moscow, less than a mile from the Kremlin. Baburova was a writer for the magazine Novaya Gazeta and specialized in investigating Russian neo-Nazi gangs. Markelov was the publication's volunteer legal counsel.

Baburova was the fourth journalist working at Novaya Gazeta to be killed in recent months. The paper has asked Russian authorities to allow its reporters to carry handguns for self-protection. A message from BTO leaders that accompanied its E-mailed threats said journalists were being targeted because their murders receive the most press coverage.

Online, Russian neo-Nazis celebrated the double murder, calling the killer a hero and saying they would toast the murders with champagne. A week later, Novaya Gazeta published information from Russian neo-Nazi websites reflecting the rise of Russian neofascist groups and the impunity with which they operate. In 2008, at least 113 immigrants were murdered in racially motivated attacks.

"In Russia, there is fascism," the Novaya Gazeta editors wrote on Jan. 26, just two weeks before the BTO threats were received. "This is not underground, they are no longer hiding and they openly take to the streets of cities."

SPLCenter.org

BNP councillor Barnbrook faces London Assembly ban

BNP Cllr Richard Barnbrook has admitted he knew his claim that there had been three murders in Barking and Dagenham last year, was incorrect when he made it in a video posted on YouTube.

The London Assembly member could be suspended for up to six months after City Hall investigators found he had brought his office, as well as the Greater London Authority and Barking and Dagenham Council, into disrepute and breached their respective codes.

He told them he knew there had been no fatalities when he stated a young girl had been murdered inside an educational institute and two people had died in knife attacks in the borough in the video clip in September.

On Tuesday, the Goresbrook ward councillor declined to comment after receiving "legal advice".

When interviewed by City Hall investigators, he "expressed regret" over the misleading claim but refused to issue an unequivocal apology.

He told investigators he had meant to say the young girl was from Barking and Dagenham but murdered in Newham and that it "came out wrong" because of the "speed of delivery".

But the investigation showed the video had not been a live recording and he had refused to take it down, despite a BNP party suggestion as he believed the "overall tenor still stood regardless of the misstatement".

He also told investigators he knew the knife victims had not died and were on life support when he made the statement.

City Hall has said Cllr Barnbrook could be forced to apologise, undergo training, or be suspended for up to six months.

A spokesman said last week sanctions would be taken at date to be fixed.

A GLA report on the murder claims stated: "We find that Mr Barnbrook has failed to comply with the code of conduct of both the GLA and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, by bringing his office and the respective authorities into disrepute.

Barking and Dagenham Recorder

Don't dance to the BNP's tune

Dave Rowntree

Don't dance to the BNP's tune

The BNP has appropriated music to raise funds, which is worrying enough – and it is growing in popularity, which is worse

In a letter to the Times today, I and a group of other musicians called for the right to stop our music being used to finance the BNP, which is selling compilation CDs on its website.

The letter called for a "moral right" to allow performers and writers to prevent such abuse. Of course there are already various moral rights protected by UK copyright law. In fact Chapter 4 of the 1988 Copyright Act is titled Moral Rights, so you might be forgiven for thinking that musicians were already able to do this, but unfortunately not. I can prosecute if someone says they wrote my songs, or indeed if someone says that I wrote theirs. Other than that I can only stop "derogatory" treatment of my work, which means changing it in a way that distorts or mutilates it, or is prejudicial to my "honour or reputation". Given that I'm both a drummer and a political activist, I probably have too little of either to be worth protecting.

On the face of it then, this seems like a prime candidate for legislative reform, but as ever there are problems. The main one is the drastic shift in music industry economics it would entail. If I could object on moral grounds to the BNP using my work, then why not to other organisations? I might convert to some obscure religion and object to the sale of Blur CDs in any shop run by those who don't share my views. I might stop sales in HMV or iTunes over some real or imagined sharp business practice, or impose all kinds of conditions on the sale or use of my work. In other words, I would be able to do all the things the copyright owners currently can. At a stroke of the legislator's pen, the copyrights would have effectively returned to the creators, and the record industry would find itself neutered. The industry has millions to spend lobbying to defend its position, and won't give an inch. In fact right now it is pushing extremely hard in the other direction, pouring money into EU legislation that restricts artist and consumer rights even further.

However, I did think it was worth making the point that just because you see someone's music on sale by the BNP, it doesn't mean they are a supporter, but I have met a lot of supporters in recent campaigning work for the Labour party, and they have a fresh new image. In the past, a Labour candidate knocking on a BNP supporter's door could usually expect a punch in the mouth, but recently I have been greeted by smiles and handshakes. This weekend I had a letter from a resident saying he had voted Labour all his life, but would now be voting BNP. There was no return address, but he had included his phone number so I gave him a call, and we had a long talk. He was very personable, but underneath it all he was extremely angry.

While I don't support his racist views or voting intentions in any way, I can understand his anger. Outside the narrow political circles, where exchanging bon mots over the dispatch box is still seen as a valuable use of taxpayers' money, mainstream political parties, including mine, have managed to alienate and sideline virtually the whole country. In my constituency, voters aren't angry about the expenses scandal, they are just bloody angry, and expenses are simply the last straw. As far as I can tell, the new BNP voters are really at breaking point and are lashing out, trying to kick the mainstream politicians where it hurts the most. If Gordon Brown and David Cameron think they can fix this with a few sticking plaster reforms, they need to think again. Nothing short of a constitutional revolution will do.

David Rowntree | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Minority view

The BNP cannot pick and choose the laws it will obey

Robert Frost once defined a liberal as a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. And a liberal society does indeed make space for all manner of views. But it has to draw the line at upholding the rule of law.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), has tried very hard to throw off the image of his party as a band of licensed hooligans. Then, in an online broadcast on a BNP blog late on Tuesday night, he completely gave the game away: “As you know,” he said, “we don't break the law. We never have, we never will, you know, on financial things. Don't mind breaking the odd race law, or being accused of it, you know, inadvertently.”

Clearly, Mr Griffin's conviction in 1998 for distributing material likely to incite racial hatred is a matter of some pride to him. It is nasty enough that any party leader should seek to use the platform he has to incite racial hatred. But to be so cavalier about the rule of law disqualifies Mr Griffin from serious consideration.

It is remarkable, given how wretched are his views and how grave his errors, that anyone should wish to waste money on him. But it seems that somebody does. The BNP has pledged to spend £500,000 on its campaign for the European elections even though it declared only £21,132 in donations in the first quarter of this year. Mr Griffin has also revealed that he paid a £5,000 donation into his own bank account in order to protect the anonymity of a donor and to avoid the requirement that donations over £1,000 be declared.

Contempt for other people and contempt for the law - not much has changed with the BNP.

Times Online

ELTHAM: Black man attacked by thugs 'defending' BNP

POLICE were called to Eltham High Street when a black man was attacked by two white thugs said to be defending the British National Party.

Volunteers from campaign group Unite Against Fascism were handing out leaflets on May 23 when an argument broke out between the victim and two white men who were passing by.

The row escalated until the two thugs began punching and kicking the black man.

Michael Coulston, 43, from Lewisham, saw the argument start while he was handing out flyers urging shoppers not to vote for the BNP at the European elections.

He said: "A couple of guys kept walking past and shouting stuff which defended the BNP. They said the BNP acts to protect the British people.

"But then a black guy shouted out that he was British too. An argument started and then the two white men started punching and kicking him."

Officers from Greenwich police were called at 1.22pm but the attackers fled before they arrived.

The investigation was later closed as the violent pair were not captured on CCTV, and none of the witnesses could describe them. The victim was not seriously injured.

A spokeswoman for Greenwich police said: "We take incidents of this nature very seriously.

"This kind of aggressive behaviour will simply not be tolerated and anyone arrested will be thoroughly investigated."

This Is Local London

BNP confirm Red, White and Blue festival will be held in Derbyshire for a third time

Alan Warner

The BNP has confirmed it will hold its Red, White and Blue festival in Derbyshire for the third consecutive year, despite fears of violent protests.

At last year's event, 36 anti-BNP protesters were arrested outside the site in Codnor-Denby Lane, Denby, after clashes with police. People living nearby have said they do not want the event to return and police have written to Alan Warner (pictured, left), who owns the fields used for the event, to tell him they believe the site is unsuitable for the festival. But the BNP said it could see no reason to change venues because there has been no previous trouble on the site itself. The party has now confirmed that the festival will take place in Denby on August 13, 14 and 15.

Mr Warner predicted that up to 6,000 people could come to the event. He said: "I don't know why the police think the site is unsuitable. It's near the motorway and the A38 so people can just drive straight there without going through towns. They said the site was too open to be protected from violent opponents but I don't see what that has to do with anything, because no-one was trying to get on the site last year."

Superintendent Howard Veigas had told Mr Warner the police would object if the BNP applied for a licence to sell alcohol and play music. But the BNP has said it would not be doing this and that people could bring their own alcohol if they wished.

Mr Warner said guests at the festival would again include party leader Nick Griffin as well as a number of "speakers from abroad".

A nearby resident, Brian Bentley, of Codnor-Denby Lane, said he was unhappy the BNP would be returning but doubted how many would attend. Mr Bentley, 77, said: "Noise is one of my main concerns. I think the BNP believe they are going to make gains in the coming elections because of the expenses scandal and that will mean they get more people at the festival. But the increase in visitors they are talking about is highly unlikely. I don't see how they would fit on the site."

Last year, about 400 anti-BNP protesters took part in a peaceful protest march, organised in Codnor by Unite Against Fascism, Stop the BNP and Derby's Racial Equality Council.

Council executive director Kirit Mistry said: "We are disappointed the BNP are coming back. We need to speak to police and groups such as the UAF to decide on our response."

A police spokeswoman said officers' concerns about the festival were "based on intelligence we have received and the risk that was caused by last year's violence in the area surrounding the festival".

Police only have powers to object to a music and alcohol licence being granted. They cannot object to the festival itself as it is on private land.

Derby Telegraph

BNP are 'Nazi thugs' - Cameron

David Cameron has launched a scathing attack on the British National Party, calling them "Nazi thugs" and a "bunch of fascists".

The Tory leader admitted that many people will be angry at the main two parties over the MPs' expenses scandal, but urged them not to react by voting for the BNP.

Fielding questions from the public at an agricultural show, he said: "If you vote for the BNP you are voting for a bunch of fascists who want to divide this country over the issues of race and the colour of skin."

His response turned to anger when a member of the audience at the Bath and West Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, argued that the BNP "have a point when it comes to immigration". Cameron told him: "Go and have a look at what the BNP have said. Do not be naive about what these people stand for. They dress up in a suit and knock on your door in a nice way but they are still Nazi thugs".

He told the audience: "There is a proper national debate that we should have about immigration. I want us to limit the number of people coming to Britain, but do not believe that the way to beat the BNP is to half agree with them. These people are not pleasant people."

ITN

British National Party begs for money in desperate memos

The British National Party has sent out a series of memos appealing for donations in a move that raises further questions about the finances of the party.

Political organisers as well as its leader, Nick Griffin, have sent “desperate” pleas for relatively small sums of money, despite claims by the BNP that it has £500,000 for the European and county council elections.

Mr Griffin sent an e-mail this week saying that the party needed to raise £5,000 to pay for hardware for its website that it “simply could not afford”.

“I have personally donated £250 to this appeal to set things in motion,” he wrote.

Another memo from Bob Bailey, the London organiser for the party, said that it had been unable to raise enough funds to produce an A4 leaflet. “We desperately need donations no matter how small,” he wrote.

The party has declared donations of £21,132 for the first quarter of this year. Only those of more than £5,000 must be submitted to the Electoral Commission and Mr Griffin said that the remainder of its funding for the campaign came from “ordinary” Britons.

However Searchlight, the organisation that campaigns against the BNP, claimed that the party had exaggerated its resources and was “essentially running a paper campaign”.

The accusation was denied by Mr Griffin, who told The Times: “The leaflets have gone out, the election broadcasts have been made. It’s everywhere. It’s a huge campaign.”

Further questions were raised about the party’s funding after Mr Griffin admitted that he paid a £5,000 political donation into his personal bank account without declaring it.

The Electoral Commission confirmed that it was reviewing the donation, which appeared to come from an elderly woman who wished to remain anonymous. Mr Griffin said that he had passed the money to Solidarity, a trade union, because it would have been declared if given to the party.

The Times

Musicians demand legal right to stop BNP selling their CDs on its website

Pink Floyd's Nick Mason

A group of leading musicians, including band members from Blur and Pink Floyd, have demanded the right to prevent their music being used or sold for profit by the British National Party.

The far-right party raises money by selling a selection of nostalgic folk albums on its website - but many of the musicians featured have discovered that they are powerless to stop their work financing the party. In a letter to The Times tomorrow, members of the Featured Artists’ Coalition and Musicians’ Union have called for legally enshrined moral rights over the reproduction and sale of their material.

“We would, on behalf of our joint membership of over 31,000 members, like to have our opposition to the BNP’s politics and morals formally noted,” read the letter signed by artists including Dave Rowntree, from Blur, Nick Mason, of Pink Floyd, and singer-songwriter Billy Bragg.

“In the lead up to the European elections, it has come to our attention that the BNP is selling compilation CDs through its website in order to raise funds for campaigning. Many of the musicians featured on these . . . have no legal right to object to their music being used in this way.”

The BNP's commercial partner, Excalibur, sells a range of CDs including Proud Heritage, Rule Britannia and an album called West Wind, written by party leader Nick Griffin, which claims “to incorporate folk and more upbeat tempos to deliver a powerful message of how British people have been disposed”.

Paddy Gordon, bass guitarist for an Ulster band called Brier, was furious to find that his music was helping to fund the BNP’s campaign for next week’s European election.

“I got an e-mail from a friend saying: ‘have you seen where your music is for sale?’ My initial reaction was shock, now I am very angry,” he said.

“These BNP people are taking the proceeds from other people’s work. We don’t want any connection with such a party but we seem to be powerless to do anything about it.” Mr Gordon said the songs included on A Feast of Irish Folk were love songs with no political links.

Dame Vera Lyne, 91, threatened to take legal action against the BNP earlier this year when she discovered that her work, including the White Cliffs of Dover, was available to buy on the Excalibur website. Under current law, however, musical performers or composers have little or no ability to prevent retailers selling their work once it is sold by a wholesaler to a particular distributor.

Nigel McCune, national organiser at the Musicians’ Union, said that a moral right should be enacted in law to give musicians a safeguard against this kind of association.

“There is nothing as it stands to stop the BNP from acting in this way and there is nothing that the performers can do to prevent it. If a moral right came in you would then be able to test how far you could stretch it,” he said. “Billy Bragg, for example, could find his track New England for sale on a BNP website raising money for something that he has spent his entire musical life campaigning against. We would like to think that there should be a framework in this country sufficient to prevent something like that happening.”

The BNP made it clear today that they did not intend to remove the work of artists who did not want to be linked the party. A BNP spokesman said: “They’ve already made there money haven’t they? Once that music’s gone through a distributor. They’re politicising themselves to a high degree by doing this and we wouldn’t really be concerned by that. It’s up to us what we sell - we’re not changing. There’s no suggestion through this that artists support the BNP or otherwise. They’re barking up the wrong tree to be honest.”

Times Online

BNP 'wife' hits out at TV show

A British National Party Euro election candidate from South Yorkshire has been condemned by Jewish leaders for remarks made about the Holocaust in a television documentary.

Marlene Guest, of Kimberworth Park, Rotherham, claimed 'dentistry and plastic surgery' were positives to come out of the genocide, while being filmed for Sky One documentary 'BNP Wives'. Mrs Guest, standing for the far-right party as a candidate in next week's European Parliament elections, also questioned the scale of the atrocity, saying: "I've read a thing called 'Did Six Million Jews Really Die?'. If they'd have kept the crematorium going 24/7 for 50 years, they still couldn't have burnt that amount of bodies."

Afterwards she claimed her comments had been 'twisted' and said that before the offensive remarks she had told film-makers: "You can't say anything good came out of the Holocaust."

But leading Jewish figures from Sheffield, former Hallam MP Sir Irvine Patnick, vice president of the Orthodox Synagogue, and John Speyer, chair of the Reform Synagogue, said: "In a normal democratic party a candidate who quoted such material would surely be expelled. The BNP, on its website, congratulated Marlene Guest on her TV appearance. We think the electorate should understand that this party remains a fascist organisation, in the tradition of Oswald Mosley."

In a letter signed by other leading Jews from across Yorkshire, Sir Irvine and Mr Speyer added: "We believe a party which is so comfortable with neo-Nazi material and denial of the truth of the Holocaust, which decimated Jewish families and communities, is not fit to represent the people of Yorkshire. We call on everyone to go out and vote. A high turnout will ensure the BNP's message of division and hate is rejected."

Mrs Guest said: "I am not anti-semitic and never have been. I have grandfathers who fought in both World Wars and I think the Holocaust was a horrible, evil thing. I am sick of people going on about this film."

She added she had asked the makers to remove her from the documentary after she caught them looking at her correspondence but they refused to edit her out and she said she 'couldn't afford a lawyer to stop them'.

The Star

Don't vote for me, says BNP candidate

A BNP candidate has tried to pull out of next week’s local elections because she “doesn’t want people thinking I’m racist” – and is now asking Worcester people NOT to vote for her.

Corinne Tovey-Jones told your Worcester News she wants to withdraw her candidacy for the far-right British National Party in next Thursday’sWorcestershire County Council elections, but has discovered it is now too late to have her name taken off the ballot papers.

Mrs Tovey-Jones, who is standing in Nunnery division in Worcester, said she had been convinced to stand for the BNP by a neighbour after her husband was made redundant.

But she decided she wanted to pull out of the poll this week after comments from family and friends.

She said: “I don’t want people thinking I’m racist when I’m not. My sister’s married to an Italian – how could I be? My mum and dad are religious – they don’t need the upset.”

Mrs Tovey-Jones, who could not remember who the BNP’s national leader was while speaking to your Worcester News, said things came to a head when we printed her candidate statement on Monday as part of our election coverage.

She said the statement she submitted to the party – extolling her own “Christian values” – had been rewritten by BNP officials to include comments about the “anti-social behaviour” of “an unruly minority”.

She said: “I read nothing I said. I come from a Christian family, with church values. I’ve had a couple of comments off my father. His friends had seen it. A lot of people link them with the National Front – though they’re not.”

The BNP was formed in 1982 after splits in the racist National Front movement. It now claims to have forgone all links.

But Mrs Tovey-Jones, who lives in Dines Green, Worcester, said: “I had other people say to me, ‘you know what they’re about?’ I don’t want the hassle. I haven’t got a racist bone in my body.”

Asked how she got involved with the extremist party – of which she is a member – she said: “My neighbour is very involved in it, and my husband was made redundant after 10 years and they say things like you can’t get a job at the moment, they’re just taking Polish people.”

Worcester City Council solicitor Doreen Porter – who is helping organise the election – said that with ballot papers printed and postal votes already being returned, candidates cannot now formally pull out.

She said: “There’s no procedure for withdrawing once the statement of candidates is published.”

A spokesperson for the BNP said: “We will speak to Corinne to find out what her position is before we give any statement.”

Berrows Journal

BNP leader: I’m happy to break race laws

Nick Griffin: Always prepared to break race laws

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has told members in an online broadcast that he has no problem with breaking race laws.

In a recording that was broadcast on a BNP blog late on Tuesday night, and was later placed on the party’s website, Mr Griffin said: “As you know, we don’t break the law. We never have, we never will, you know, on financial things. Don’t mind breaking the odd race law, or being accused of it, you know, inadvertently.”

Mr Griffin was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred and his party is often accused of racism, in part because of its whites-only membership policy. His latest comments were condemned last night by anti-racism groups.

A spokeswoman for Searchlight, which campaigns against fascism, said: “It’s disgusting after a man has been convicted of a hate crime to treat it so lightly. But it’s not surprising, knowing his history.”

In the same broadcast, Mr Griffin revealed that he had paid a £5,000 donation into his own bank account and later transferred it to Solidarity, a trade union with BNP links. He told The Times yesterday that it was appropriate not to have declared the money. Donations to individual party members over £1,000 must be declared if they are for political use.

Mr Griffin said: “If it can’t be received by the party but it’s been given for general purpose, it can be used for a general purpose which is non-party political.”

However, he said that he did not clarify the donor’s intention for the money and a contradictory posting on the BNP’s website said that the donor had wanted it to go to the party.

In a second contradiction, Mr Griffin said that he was suspicious that the donation was a sting operation by either The Times or The Sunday Times but had kept the money anyway because it was not “particularly attractive” to give it away.

His accusation is denied by both newspapers.

Mr Griffin passed the money to Solidarity, which has denied being a front for the BNP but which acts for people who have been dismissed from their jobs because of their association with the party.

Speaking to The Times yesterday he said: “Defending our members is as much a part of our political work as getting people elected.”

In light of the revelations, MPs called for a “forensic investigation” into the BNP’s practices concerning its donations. Martin Salter, a Labour MP, said: “Transparency in party political funding is not only essential, it’s now a legal requirement.”

The BNP is spending an unprecedented amount in its campaign to win European seats on June 4, but it declared only £21,132 in donations in the first quarter of this year.

The Electoral Commission revealed yesterday that it forfeited a further £4,100 from four donors because they were not permissible — usually either people not registered to vote in Britain or foreign residents.A group of musicians, including members of Blur and Pink Floyd, are demanding the right to prevent the BNP from using their work or selling it for profit. The party sells a selection of folk albums on its website.

In a letter to The Times today, members of the Featured Artists’ Coalition and the Musicians’ Union say: “It has come to our attention that the BNP is selling compilation CDs . . . to raise funds. Many musicians featured on these . . . have no legal right to object to their music being used in this way.”

The Times