Leading BNP member quits Cumbria party

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Barbour with Griffin

One of the leading lights in the British National Party in Cumbria has quit saying he is 'sick of defending them.'

Alistair Barbour, 44, of Southwaite, was expected to be the BNP’s General Election candidate in Carlisle.

He says he has become disillusioned with party politics and says he may stand as an Independent in local authority elections.

He is already a parish councillor in Southwaite.

Mr Barbour said: “I joined the BNP two years ago and was perhaps a little bit naive.

“I don’t agree with everything they stand for and I’m sick of defending them.”

Mr Barbour, a gas fitter, stood for the BNP in the Penrith West by-election on Eden Council in October and in Currock, Carlisle, at the county council elections in June.

He has also been a candidate at Carlisle City Council elections in Castle and Upperby. He says he is not a racist and that he disagrees with some BNP policies.

For example, he believes the party was wrong to bar non-whites from joining.

“We are where we are in 21st century Britain,” he said.“You can’t turn the clock back. You need to make the best of what you’ve got.

“The BNP should take a long, hard look at themselves and how people see them.

“I realise now that you don’t have to belong to a party. You can have your own thoughts.”

News and Star

Racist graffiti outrage after BNP slogan daubed on Church Fenton Railway Station

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Church Fenton Railway Station

Offensive BNP graffiti daubed on walls at Church Fenton Railway Station has been condemned as "racist bigotry" by the area's Conservative party candidate.

Tory candidate for Selby and Ainsty Nigel Adams said he was "appalled" at the scrawlings on the railway entrance hall after it was reported to him by a commuter who regularly uses the line. He said this kind of bigotry had no place in the district, and termed it "offensive".

He added: "This graffiti was daubed in an area very close to an Indian restaurant/takeaway. If anyone daubs BNP in big red letters near such an eaterie – the only one within 20 miles – you can only draw one conclusion. The mindless idiots who did this were trying to make a statement about race, so in that case it's racist. Any vandalism is abhorrent, but to daub BNP in big red paint outside an Indian restaurant/takeaway is clearly designed to upset the owner."

He said it was also offensive to commuters travelling to and from work, adding: "We found this so offensive, myself, my assistant and a volunteer have gone to the station and we've removed the graffiti ourselves."

Selby Rail Users' Group secretary Reg French said he had reported the graffiti to Northern Rail as soon as his group became aware of it. He added: "Any graffiti like this is appalling. The group reported this to Northern Rail on Monday as soon as we were informed of it. This is their property so we thought it best to let them deal with its removal."

Selby Times

Climate change denier Nick Griffin to represent EU at Copenhagen

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BNP leader who believes climate change activists are 'cranks' will be member of European parliament's delegation

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, is to represent the European parliament at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, which opens next week. Last night politicians and scientists reacted furiously to news that the far-right politician and climate change denier should be attending the summit on behalf of the EU.

Griffin, who was elected to the European parliament in June, confirmed last night that he would attend as the representative of the parliament's environmental committee. World leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, are hoping to forge a new global agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

Without such a deal, scientists warn that world temperatures will increase by more than 2C by the end of the century, triggering ice cap melting, sea-level rises, widespread flooding, the spread of deserts and devastating storms.

In a speech in the parliament last week, Griffin denounced those who warn of the consequences of climate change as "cranks". He said they had reached "an Orwellian consensus" that was "based not on scientific agreement, but on bullying, censorship and fraudulent statistics".

"The anti-western intellectual cranks of the left suffered a collective breakdown when communism collapsed. Climate change is their new theology… But the heretics will have a voice in Copenhagen and the truth will out. Climate change is being used to impose an anti-human utopia as deadly as anything conceived by Stalin or Mao."

Griffin will be one of 15 representatives chosen to speak on behalf of the EU in Copenhagen. The shadow climate change secretary, Greg Clark, condemned the move last night. "It is utterly ridiculous that someone who doesn't even believe in climate change should be seeking to represent Europe in Copenhagen. The BNP does not command the support of the people of Britain, let alone of the rest of Europe," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "Membership of the European parliament's delegation to Copenhagen is a matter for the European parliament. Its delegates do not represent the UK government or its views. Nick Griffin will not be part of the UK delegation."

Tim Yeo, chairman of the Commons environmental audit committee, said the decision to choose Griffin showed the "bizarre way" the parliament operated. He added: "If the future prosperity of the human race, in the face of climate change, depends on the contributions of people like Nick Griffin, there is little hope for any of us."

Professor Alan Thorpe, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, said Griffin's claim that thousands of scientists dispute the existence of man-made global warming was simply not true. "The intergovernmental panel on climate change draws on the views of most of the world's leading climate scientists and they have been quite clear that the evidence shows, with a high degree of certainty, that human activities are now having a substantial effect on the climate. It is simply not the case that there is a substantial number who do not accept a link."

Bob Ward, of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "Griffin denies the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. This appears to be driven by a dogmatic strand of right-wing ideology that opposes any form of environmental regulation, usually hidden behind the dishonest claim that climate change is a left-wing conspiracy."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman and a former MEP, said the European parliament always divided up positions on such delegations according to the parliament's political balance. "Griffin was bound to get something at some stage. It is just a shame they didn't send him to Iceland instead."

Critics say Griffin addresses environmental issues when he believes he can use them to advance anti-immigration policies. His party claims that it would improve Britain's transport infrastructure and reduce carbon dioxide levels by reducing the number of immigrants in Britain using roads, cars, trains and buses.

Gerry Gable, publisher of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said Griffin once tried to win over environmentalists in the 1980s. "His core beliefs – that the white race is being threatened by an invading minority – are the so-called principles that have run through his nasty career."

Observer

BNP: Give Gibraltar back

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THE BNP would hand the key outpost of Gibraltar to Spain in an astonishing betrayal of its 30,000 British citizens.

The move would also deprive the UK of a naval base - defended bitterly for more than 300 years - of huge strategic importance.

Party leader Nick Griffin, elected as an MEP in June, made the offer at a fascist rally in Madrid last week to suck up to European extremists.

His bizarre reasoning is that it would help the Spanish combat radicals in nearby northern Africa.

Deceitful Griffin told fellow fanatics: "Taking into account the geographical situation of Gibraltar and the Muslim threat on its door, I would prefer to see a Spanish flag fly in Gibraltar before an Islamic one." He added: "It would be much easier to sort it out if we had nationalist governments in Britain and Spain because it would then be an agreement between equals."

The gaffe was exposed by James Bethell, founder of anti-BNP pressure group Nothing British.

Mr Bethell - favourite to be selected by the Tories to fight for the seat of Gosport, Hants - said: "Nick Griffin talks about protecting our national interest but he would surrender our sovereignty to Spanish fascists in a heartbeat.

"The only flag that should be flying over the Rock is the Union Jack."

A recent referendum on the island, off the southern tip of Spain, saw 99.64 per cent vote to remain British.

The Sun

BNP row teacher in bid to save his career

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A NORTH East teacher who is facing allegations of religious intolerance says he will take the case to the “highest level” if found guilty.

Adam Walker, who is a member of the British National Party, is alleged to have posted critical comments against asylum seekers, immigrants and the “promotion” of homosexuality on the party’s website during a lesson using a school laptop.

The former teacher at Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, now faces being struck off the teaching register for unacceptable professional conduct.

Mr Walker, 40, now working as campaigns coordinator for newly-elected BNP MEP Andrew Brons, has instructed his representatives to appeal in the European legal system if he loses his case.

His representatives from union Solidarity, of which he is president, are also studying punishments handed out by the General Teaching Council so they can take action if any sanction he is given is more severe than usual.

His defence team believes Mr Walker should have faced computer misuse charges and claim the GTC was wrong to “politicise” the case.

Mr Walker has previously admitted posting criticisms of immigrants and Muslims, but he claims he has been victimised.

Patrick Harrington, general secretary of Solidarity who is representing Mr Walker in the case, said he would use European human rights legislation, which guarantees freedom of speech in the hearing. He said: “A professional body is not the right level of society to deal with this case and to use this kind of argument. This is the fault of the GTC for introducing this political and religious element.”

The hearing at the GTC has already been postponed because police feared clashes between BNP members and protesters. It will take place in the new year at a location still to be decided.

Mr Harrington tried to use a European directive earlier in the proceedings but could not find the right one. Now, the delay in the case has enabled him to identify the legal information required.

He added: “My instructions are to take this to the highest level.”

Mr Walker, who resigned from Houghton Kepier in 2007, has already won a fight to remove Judy Moorhouse, then chair of the GTC, from his disciplinary panel after he claimed that, as a known critic of the BNP, she would have been biased.

Journal Live

Beauty And The Beast, the remake

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Eileen Sheridan-Price, a former winner of Miss UK, has given £5,000 to Nick Griffin’s BNP, one of only two major donors to the party, according to a new official report.

Ms Sheridan-Price, a close friend of convicted killers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, says London’s East End was ‘a much nicer, safer place’ when the Kray twins were around.

Law and order, BNP-style.

Daily Mail

Swiss voters 'back ban on building of minarets'

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Swiss voters defied their Government and clerics yesterday and approved a ban on building minarets — reflecting an alarming hostility to a rising Muslim minority.

Fifty-seven per cent of voters in a referendum supported the direct democracy initiative, which ensured international embarrassment for Switzerland and a backlash in the Muslim world, upon which the country depends for exports.

A large majority of the 27 cantons supported the move, inspired by the Right, with opposition strongest in the German-speaking part of the country. In Geneva, home to United Nations agencies, the voters rejected the initiative by nearly 60 per cent.

Overall turnout was 53 per cent, a relatively low figure by the standards of Swiss democracy. Opponents of the measure saw this as a reflection of apathy among many voters who would not have approved the ban.

The referendum was initiated by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest group in the federal parliament, after residents opposed the construction of a minaret in Langenthal, north of Berne.

The “yes” is the latest act by European voters in support of anti-immigrant parties after electoral successes over the past decade by far-right groups in Austria, the Netherlands and France. A jubilant SVP insisted that the vote had nothing to do with intolerance, only with the imposition of Islamic politics and culture.

“In no case does this impinge on religious freedom,” Oskar Freysinger, a prominent SVP politician, said. “This has nothing to do with the practice of religion.”

The populist vote appalled the Swiss Establishment, which had assumed on the basis of opinion polls that a substantial majority would reject the ban. “This is another blow to the world’s view of Switzerland as a nation of tolerance and civilisation,” a senior Swiss diplomat said.

The Government, the business world and most churches had urged voters to turn down the minaret ban, which they said breached the Swiss Constitution and its guarantees of freedom of religion. The proposal, which is to include a sentence in the Constitution prohibiting the construction of minarets, would only “serve the interests of extremist circles”, the Government said.

After the vote it pledged to respect the outcome. “Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before,” a statement said.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Justice Minister, said that the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was “not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies”. “I am assuming our trade relations with other countries will become more difficult,” she said.

The vote reflected the strong feeling against Muslims, whose numbers have grown over the past 20 years to about 350,000 or 4 per cent of the population. Most are from Turkey and the Balkans. Only four modest-sized or small minarets exist in Switzerland, where there are about 150 prayer houses. None is used to call the faithful to prayer.

Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss President, had sought to reassure the nation before the vote. “Muslims should be able to practise their religion, and have access to minarets in Switzerland too, but the call of the muezzin will not sound here,” he said.

The SVP used the issue as an assault on what it depicts as the inroads of political Islam in Switzerland, including Sharia practices and oppression of women. “We just want to stop further Islamisation in Switzerland,” Walter Wobmann, head of a committee backing the initiative, said after the vote.

The SVP’s campaign used posters that depicted a burka-clad woman and a Swiss flag bristling with menacing minarets. The party also exploited heavily in its campaign a remark by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, describing minarets as the “bayonets of Islam”.

The vote was in sharp contrast to opinion polls, which predicted that between 53 per cent and 54 per cent would reject the proposal.

Ulrich Schlüer, an SVP parliamentarian who drafted the initiative, told The Times that he had been certain of victory. “We are still at the beginning of the process. We compare our situation to Germany, France or England — the problems they have in their suburbs,” he said. “That is what we do not want here.”

The SVP rejects the Government’s view that a ban would breach the law on freedom of religion. “This is not against Islam. The minaret is a symbol of political power,” Mr Schlüer said.

The Swiss political world is worried at the prospects of a worldwide Muslim backlash of the kind that hit Denmark after a newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

“Swiss-made”, the most trusted brand in the world, is at stake, business leaders said. Gerold Bührer, president of the Swiss Business Federation, reminded the country that it earned £10 billion a year from Muslim countries and that Geneva alone received 174,500 visits from the Gulf last year.

Last night about 300 people protested outside the Parliament building in Berne. In front of a model of a minaret they held up signs saying: “This is not my Switzerland”. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying: “Swiss passport for sale”.

Amnesty International said that the vote would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.


The Times

Nick Griffin stands alone over 'dodgy' climate change science

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The British National party says its leader Nick Griffin, who denies the existence of global warming, will "be the only politician prepared to say that the science is somewhat dodgy" when joins a European parliament delegation to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The BNP said: "It is a global Marxist mantra that is going to be used to beat people around the head, tax us to the hilt, smash nations and impose a one-world government." Griffin would show the BNP was not "a one-trick ponyonly interested in race and immigration", the party said. Political opponents dismissed the power of Griffin, the MEP for north-west England, who sits on the parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee.

Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said Griffin's views were "irresponsible and wrong." He would not be part of the formal negotiations "and rightly he will not be listened to by anyone with any credibility who is part of the negotiations."

Green party leader and MEP Caroline Lucas told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "He is one of a number of members of the European parliament who will go on a delegation. He won't get the right to speak. The parliament sadly doesn't even get the right to really influence the decisions at all. This idea that somehow Nick Griffin is going to have any real influence on what happens at Copenhagen is a myth."

Former MEP Chris Huhne, now the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Nick Griffin was always going to get some role in the parliament because jobs are divvied up fairly. The crying shame is that he is representing Europe at a key summit for the future of humanity, when he does not even concede that man-made climate change exists."


The Guardian

Hate crime fears over new London Colney mosque

Vicious leaflets aimed at keeping a mosque out of London Colney have been referred to the police's harm reduction unit. Police are now examining the British National Party (BNP) leaflets headed up "Do you want to live under an oppressive Islamic Sharia government?" as a possible incitement to racial hatred.

The leaflets were delivered to homes in London Colney claiming a planning application to turn Cemex House in Barnet Road into a mosque was part of a wider plot to turn St Albans into an Islamic city. The large site - around 1,900 square metres - with provision for 33 car parking spaces consists of two separate parcels of land on either side of Lowbell Lane.

The man behind the leaflets is Danny Seabrook, 36, a divorced self-employed builder who lives in London Colney. He stood as a county council candidate for the BNP recently in Watford. He denies incitement to racial hatred saying the leaflets are "factual and to the point". He went on: "A mosque would be out of keeping in the village. St Albans is a Christian city. You give an inch and they take a mile. They'll have minarets up there next."

Some of the propagandist language used in the leaflet includes accusations that politicians pander to Islamists' every demand and the majority of residents want to keep the area as it is now.

County Cllr for London Colney, Chris Brazier, said: "This is detestable and I don't think there would have been this reaction if the plan was to turn it into a Christian church. The BNP do seem to be targeting London Colney since they picked up 200 votes in the recent county council elections."

Cllr Brazier conceded that he had received almost 100 letters from residents opposing the plans on legitimate planning grounds including traffic fears, narrowness of the access road, insufficient parking and noise. He maintained there was no suggestion of racism in any of the moderately-worded letters. He said the application had aroused fears that such a large mosque would attract significant numbers of visitors from outside the area, raising traffic and parking issues for residents.

But Peter Trevelyan, acting for the London Colney Islamic Group which has submitted the application, said: "Having been frustrated in its search for suitable premises, the local community currently uses the parish meeting room on White Horse Lane once a week for Friday prayers. The main hall is small and inconvenient in shape and, with 50 people present, is cramped and over-crowded."

He said prayers would take place five times a day but the principal focus for prayer would be at 1pm on Fridays when attendance varied between 40 and 50 men and a handful of women. The majority would walk to the site from homes and employment nearby. But council officers have recommended to a planning meeting on Monday that the scheme should be approved because there would be adequate off street parking and no acceptable harm to highway safety or the free and safe flow of traffic.

The Herts Advertiser

Kirklees BNP member admits to terrorism charges

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The Bomb Disposal Team move into Terry Gavan's house in Batley

A member of the British National Party is facing a long spell in prison after admitting to keeping an arsenal of homemade weapons at his home.

Terence Gavan, 38, made and stockpiled 54 nail and ball-bearing bombs between May 1999 and May this year.

He also manufactured shotguns, pen guns and pistols at his home in Batley, West Yorkshire.

Gavan was also found in possession of ammunition, a manual on boobytraps, an improvised munitions handbook and a copy of the Anarchists’ Cookbook.

He admitted 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, when he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on 26 November 2009.

The Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith QC, adjourned sentence until 15 January and remanded Gavan in custody.

Gavan was arrested at his home in Colbeck Terrace on 21 May following a West Yorkshire police operation.

He admitted four counts of making explosives and four counts of possessing explosives over a ten-year period.

They consisted of four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) incorporating ball-bearings, 21 IEDs with nails, two “victim-operated” IEDs with nails and a further 28 explosives classified as IEDs.

He also pleaded guilty three counts of manufacturing prohibited weapons, four counts of possession of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of ammunition without a certificate. In all, police found nine homemade or converted firearms at the property.

These were a .22 ME9 para air-cartridge pistol, an 8mm blank-cartridge, pistol, a home-made .22 rimfire single shotgun, two homemade .22 rimfire pen gun, a .22 single shot pistol.

There were also two homemade pistols and one homemade shotgun, fitted with silencers or sound moderators.

Between 31 December 2005 and 22 February this year Gavan reactivated a British Service No 4 Mark I rifle. Also found in his home were two Brocock revolver gas guns.

Gavan further admitted six charges of possession of documents containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

These were books with the titles Boobytraps, Improvised Weapons Manual and Guerilla Warfare and Special Forces Operations 1961, and two electronic PDF files including the Anarchists’ Cookbook volume 4.

No doubt the BNP will say Gavan was not and never has been a BNP member. However Searchlight has been monitoring this case for some time and we can reveal that Gavan not only was a BNP member, he also held gold membership.

Just to help the BNP administration team find details of their latest villain, we are reliably informed Terry Gavan has the membership number 130757

Hope not Hate

Pope Gives Audience to Croatian Fascist Musician

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Pope Benedict XVI has received Marko Perkovic “Thompson”, a far-right Croatian singer.

Thompson, whose performances use symbols of Croatia's pro-Nazi government during the Second World War, is not allowed to travel to Switzerland because of his inflammatory use of Ustaša regalia, and a concert in Austria also had to be cancelled after protests.

Amongst protests from numerous Jewish organisations, they have grounded bans from the Netherlands due to suspected fascism within their music. They have also drawn accusations of Neo Nazism, with their performances being constantly protested.

In response, Perković said, "I have nothing against the Jews, but neither did Jesus Christ, yet still they crucified Him". This statement caused an outcry in the Croatian media.




Thompson became popular with their 1991 hit song "Bojna Čavoglave", which was released during the Croatian War of Independence.The song depicts a battle involving a battalion of Croat soldiers from the Dalmatian rural hinterland. The song includes the "Za dom - Spremni!" slogan which was used by the Ustaše in World War II.

For Perkovic, it is a routine part of his performance: He shouts "Za dom - Spremni!" and his fans respond with the Nazi salute.

Photographs from their concerts show youths wearing the black caps of the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that ruled Croatia, and which was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, gypsies and Jews to their deaths in concentration camps.

Perković has on numerous occasions expressed sympathies to the Ustaša movement , which ruled the Axis controlled Independent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center posted a letter to Croatian President Stipe Mesić in June 2007 and expressed "its sense of outrage and disgust in the wake of a massive show of fascist salutes, symbols and uniforms at Thompson’s concerts.
"They just don't seem to get it," said Efraim Zuroff, the Israel Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who called on the president to ban future concerts and help outlaw the use of extremist symbols and slogans.

Some press have accused Perković for publicly expressing controversial pro-Ustaše beliefs:

In 2002 he told the Jutarnji list newspaper

"There is nothing wrong with my voicing right-wing, Ustaše, beliefs."

And in 2004 he told the same newspaper

"Displaying Ustaše symbols in public should not be illegal."

Perkovic's public affairs manager, Albino Ursic has a large poster entitled "Final Solution" that adorns the wall of his office.

Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy in January 2009 for the rehabilitatation of British bishop Richard Williamson who denies that millions of Jews died in Nazi gas chambers.

Appeal after BNP Graffiti Appears Across Tamworth

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A recent spate of BNP graffiti is currently being investigated by police in Tamworth. The BNP slogan has been sprayed in several places around the town centre and Bolehall area over the last couple of weeks.

If you have any information about who is responsible for this graffiti you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

UPDATE – 24/11 – 3.30pm

The graffiti in the underpasses has now been cleaned returning the underpasses to their former state.

Tamworth Blog

Mussolini's brain 'stolen for sale on eBay'

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Benito Mussolini's granddaughter demanded a police investigation on Friday after the late Italian dictator's blood and brain were reportedly offered for sale on eBay, the online auction website.

Alessandra Mussolini, a right-wing MP, said she was outraged and upset when she heard reports that the remains of her grandfather were being sold online.

The initial asking price was 15,000 euros, or £13,000, but nobody had had a chance to bid, eBay said.

The online auctioneer does not permit the sale of body parts on its website and removed the listing hours after it was posted.

Miss Mussolini said the remains, which were reportedly contained in three glass vials, could have been stolen from a hospital in Milan where an autopsy was carried out on the dictator's body after he was killed and strung up by partisans at the end of the Second World War.

"I was advised this morning that pieces of my grandfather's brain and some of his blood were being sold on eBay for 15,000 euros.

"This is very serious, these are the kinds of things we have to guard against," the Right-wing politician and former showgirl said.

But the Policlinico hospital said the samples it took from Mussolini's body were destroyed in 1947, two years after his death.

After being shot alongside his young mistress, Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's body was dangled from a petrol station outside Milan in a grisly display of summary justice by anti-fascist partisans.

It was then taken to the hospital for an autopsy. The dictator's remains were not returned to his family until 1957, when they were interred in his birthplace, the northern Italian town of Predappio.

It has become a shrine to the fascist leader and does a roaring trade in Mussolini-themed souvenirs, from key rings with fascist insignia to imitation weapons and bottles of wine bearing Mussolini's glowering profile.

Telegraph

HOPE not hate leaflets help defeat BNP

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A Hope not hate weekend of action helped ensure a derisory result for a BNP candidate at a local election last week. Dave Owen, who was contesting a Doncaster council by-election in Rossington ward on 19 November, received only 101 votes, coming fifth with 4.3%.

Local Methodists, supported by members of Doncaster Racial Equality Council, distributed anti-BNP leaflets in the ward as part of the national HOPE not hate weekend of activity on 7-8 November. Activists reported a good reception from residents, who had no time for the BNP. They also leafleted extensively in Doncaster town centre and Bentley.

Owen, 59, who lives in Stainforth, has contested local elections for the BNP on several occasions and last June stood for mayor of Doncaster, coming fifth with 10.9%. The mayoral election was won by Peter Davies standing for the English Democrats, which opposes immigration, the EU and “political correctness” and wants to “put England First”. The English Democrats came second (to Labour) in Rossington and undoubtedly captured potential BNP votes – though that is not to minimise the importance of HOPE not hate’s activity.

Hope not hate

Prey for the BNP

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Fat Failure Nick Cass with Rajinder Singh

The Sikhs who join in the hatred of Muslims are deluded if they expect to avoid racial exclusion

Rajinder Singh, a British Sikh with an extreme dislike of Muslims, is, according to the BNP, "the kind of immigrant you want if you're going to have them". And if, as expected, the party members vote to allow ethnic minorities to join, Singh will be the first to be conferred this "honour".

Sikh organisations have dismissed him – and fellow BNP wannabe "Ammo Singh" (a pseudonym) – as unrepresentative, and it is easy to write them off as self-hating lunatics or pranksters. But to do so is to obscure the larger realities of how race, religion and hate operate.

What has been lost in the storm over Nick Griffin's BBC appearance and the debate over the freedom to voice hatred in the guise of "white rights" is that modern racism survives through a parasitical alliance of vicious groups and ideologies, each of which thinks it is superior to and more entitled to preservation and growth than the others. What they share is a commitment to delusions of absolute racial or religious grandeur and purity even as they compete for victim status.

The two Sikhs' hostility to Islam is strong enough for them to overlook the contempt in which the BNP ultimately holds all racial minorities. Communities in Britain with links to the Indian subcontinent have, over time, seceded from their rich shared heritage and the assertive "Asian" banner under which they fought successfully for their rights in the 1960s and 1970s. Dispersed into the sectarian religious identities of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim, they have all but forgotten how to mobilise together against the threat of an opportunistic ethnic majoritarianism that does not, ultimately, make fine distinctions among those it perceives as outsiders.

Generalising labels like "Asian" may have their drawbacks but, as Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations notes of Sunrise Radio's bizarre decision to drop "Asian" from its banner under sustained pressure from extremist groups like the World Hindu Council, the hope underlying such disaffiliation is that "racist whites could be persuaded to exclude Hindus and Sikhs from their hatred, and focus instead solely on Muslims". A 2006 Runnymede Trust survey claims that as many as 80% of Hindus and Sikhs in Britain wished to be seen as specifically distinct from Muslims. "Don't Freak, I'm a Sikh", urged T-shirts printed after the 7 July bombings.

Griffin's assertion that "many" Hindus and Sikhs support the BNP is a wild exaggeration. But we need to face up to the messy reality of a society where ethno-religious fragmentation and tensions between minority groups work to the advantage of majority chauvinism. Kundnani points out that as early as 2002 the BNP was able to persuade a tiny Sikh faction called the Shere-e-Punjab to participate in its anti-Muslim campaign. Even if such collaborators are a tiny fringe, minority communities need to be aware of the ways in which their participation in divisive categories and separatist communal warfare only strengthens the positions of the racists who seek to subordinate them entirely.

Anti-immigrant views among migrants are not new, but what extremisms also share is an exaggerated fear that other groups are numerically overwhelming theirs. When Sikh-Muslim gang fights broke out in Slough, the language used mimicked the defensive territorial language of the BNP. "Muslims run Slough," one gang member insisted at the time. "Why are Sikhs coming from outside?"

Ammo Singh told the BBC, which has made a habit of using fringe groups as representatives of entire communities, that Islam was planning to take over Britain through "a combination of immigration, high birth rate and conversion".

Rajinder Singh, like many Hindus and Sikhs, has invoked the 1947 partition of India, in which he lost his father, as the cause of his enmity towards Muslims. This selective emphasis conveniently obscures two facts. The first is that it was the British empire and its policies of divide and rule which culminated in the partition that was its last official act. The second is that all three communities are fully responsible for the horrific butchery, bloodletting and rape that followed. Rather than mourning the tragedy of partition, men like Rajinder Singh seek to re-enact it in Britain, once again under the aegis of British racial supremacism.

The time has come for us to recognise racial and religious hatred in all its manifestations for what it is and take a stand against it – alongside right-thinking whites – not only when it is directed at us, but also when it is undertaken in our name. The colour line hasn't disappeared yet, but the real struggle is between fascist hatreds and humane solidarity.

The Guardian

Taxpayers' £143k bill to protect BNP leader Nick Griffin during Question Time appearance

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Nick Griffin's disastrous appearance on Question Time landed taxpayers with a £143,000 security bill for protecting the BNP leader.

That's how much police spent dealing with angry protesters outside BBC Television Centre, closing roads and using a helicopter to keep the far-right boss safe.

Furious critics have demanded Beeb chiefs cough up the cash out of the £17.5million they pocketed in bonuses last year.

Labour MP Andy Slaughter, whose constituency covers TV Centre at White City, West London, said: "It was a decision by managers to put him on the programme so maybe they should put their money where their mouth is.

"People will be horrified to find out that so much public money has been spent giving a fascist party their best-ever publicity."

The decision to invite Griffin on to Question Time sparked a furious backlash.

Police had to draft in thousands of officers after anti-fascist groups called a demonstration. Diverting cops who should have been fighting crime in other areas cost £109,000 alone. Another £13,000 was spent on overtime pay for extra officers.

The helicopter, transport costs, barriers and sign posting road closures added a further £21,000 to the bill.

Bbc heads refused to say how much it spent on extra security for Griffin, claiming freedom of information laws didn't apply because staff may be put in danger.

But Mr Slaughter branded the notion "ludicrous".

He added: said: "If the police can tell you how much it cost why can't the BBC? They should come clean about how much money they have wasted."

Mr Slaughter had tried to persuade the BBC to film Question Time at another location where Griffin's appearance wouldn't cause as much disruption.

And he argued that allowing the racist BNP a platform in such a diverse area of the country was an insult to locals.

Before the show Beeb staff went around removing signs so any protesters who did break in would not be able to find senior managers' offices.

Griffin was humiliated when the audience and fellow panellists exposed and ridiculed his vile views. But he later presented himself as a victim in a bid to win sympathy.

The Mirror

388 officers from 6 forces policed Wrexham during far-right protest

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NEARLY 400 officers from six different police forces were on duty for a protest march in Wrexham the Leader has learned.

The cost to taxpayers of policing Saturday's event, which was organised by far-right group the Welsh Defence League has been described as a “very heavy cost for democracy.”

A total of 388 officers from North Wales and the neighbouring forces of Dyfed Powys, Gwent, Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester were on duty for the demonstration in the town centre, which resulted in four arrests for public order offences.

North Wales Police has not yet put a figure on the cost of the operation but has said that it is likely to be a “substantial”.

North Wales Conservative AM Mark Isherwood said: “It is unacceptable that these thugs and hooligans are exploiting liberal democracy to push their views across.

“It is because of them that we, the taxpayer, are having to pay for this.

“We do not want this waste of taxpayers’ money but we can’t criticise the police who have been forced to spend money they can’t afford, leaving less for all of us.

“We need to tackle the basis of the serious threat which are the fascists.”

North Wales Lib Dem AM, Eleanor Burnham, who lives in Wrexham, said: “This is likely to be a very heavy cost for democracy.

“Those who were in Wrexham on Saturday were extreme people with extreme views but, although I dislike what they had to say, I realise that the police had to ensure they had freedom of speech.

“However, it does bother me that we had to give them so much protection.”

The demonstration by an estimated 80 protesters, who came in from other parts of Wales and England, was organised by the Welsh Defence League, which claims to be against Muslim “extremism”.

North Wales’ temporary deputy chief constable for North Wales Police, Ian Shannon, said: “Although we are not yet able to give a final figure, clearly there has been a substantial financial cost to North Wales Police and the other organisations who worked with us.

“Public safety was our priority and a substantial and visible police operation was needed.

“Our response was considered and proportionate and we were able to deal with the protest in a controlled way.”

Protesters congregated outside the Elihu Yale pub in Regent Street before marching through the town.

Groups opposed to the Welsh Defence League organised a counter event at Queen’s Square, called Wrexham Communities Festival.

It featured a range of attractions and promoted the message that the town was against racists.

Police closed Regent Street for a period to make sure that two groups were kept apart.

Two people arrested for breaches of the peace were released without charge and another two people arrested for public order offences were given fixed penalty fines.

Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths said: “The prime consideration for the police will have been public safety and upholding law and order at a crucial time for Wrexham town centre, just as the Christmas shopping period began.

“Given the experience of other towns and cities in which fascist protests have taken place in recent months, I am confident that North Wales Police took the right decision in relation to policing levels.

“Ultimately, of course, the chief constable would make his calculations on the numbers of police that should be deployed based on the intelligence he was receiving at the time.”


Wrexham Leader

EasyJet apologises for trivialising the Holocaust in in-flight magazine

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Berlin's Field of Stelae Holocaust Memorial which
commemorates the six million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide

EasyJet yesterday withdrew all copies of its in-flight magazine after it published pictures of designer-clad models posing in Berlin's Field of Stelae Holocaust Memorial which commemorates the six million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide. After Jewish campaigners accused the airline of 'trivialising the genocidal massacre of Jews', easyJet withdrew all copies - estimated at 250,000 - and issued a 'profuse apology'.

Labour MP Denis MacShane, who heads the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, said: 'This is further evidence of the banalisation of anti-Semitism.'

The Field of Stelae Memorial is a 19,000 square metre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or 'stelae' arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It is designed to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. It is run by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which said it does not permit commercial shoots and 'grants permission only to projects which are related to the memorial, the Holocaust or some aspect of commemoration'. The Foundation Memorial said it will be contacting the airline 'in order to clarify the circumstances of the photo shoot'.

A spokesman for easyJet said it 'profusely apologises to anyone who may be offended by the inappropriate fashion photo shoot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin featured in this month's issue of the in-flight magazine.

'The magazine is produced by INK, an external publishing house, and easyJet were not aware of the images until they appeared in print. As a consequence we are now reviewing our relationship with the publisher and are withdrawing this month's issue from all flights.'

The airline said it was 'appalled by this insensitive and inconsiderate photo- shoot, the aim of which was to highlight some of Berlin's iconic landmarks and certainly no offence was meant'. The memorial, which cost £22million, was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, 60 years after the end of the Second World War.

Daily Mail

War veteran blasts Griffin for hijacking repatriation

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A DORSET war veteran has accused British National Party leader Nick Griffin of hijacking last week's repatriation of six soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

William Davis-Sellick, aged 75, was among a number of Devonshire and Dorset Regiment veterans who joined the grieving families of the soldiers to fly the regimental standard at the ceremony last Tuesday.

Five of the soldiers were those shot dead by an Afghan policeman they were training, while the sixth was killed in an explosion.

Mr Davis-Sellick and his comrades were incensed to see the BNP leader with a contingent of party members at the solemn occasion at Wootton Bassett. Mr Griffin said he was at the ceremony to pay his respects. But Mr Davis-Sellick, of Shaftesbury believes he was courting publicity.

He said: "I understand it was the first time he has ever been to one of these ceremonies. I think for him to be there on this occasion was totally wrong and it caused a lot of disruption. You could see that some people were very upset to see him there and there were some people who wanted to duff him up.

"The police were having to protect him. As an ex-serviceman I have spoken to quite a lot of other servicemen and they were not happy to see him there at the repatriation of our lads. He was just there to have his photograph taken."

Mr Davis-Sellick served as a cook in the Dorset Regiment in the early 1950s before its merger with the Devonshire Regiment, and was deployed to the Korean War. He is now an active member of the Gillingham branch of the Devonshire and Dorset Regimental Association, which has its main headquarters in Exeter.

He said: "We send as many men as we can muster to each repatriation service to fly our standards and they are very emotional occasions. To see the parents throwing flowers on the hearses is very hard. Although I was only a cook in the Army, I had some very good friends that I lost out there and these ceremonies bring those memories back."

Tony Coombes, secretary of the Gillingham branch, who spent his national service in the Dorset Regiment between 1955-57, said that crowds were unhappy with Mr Griffin's presence.

He said: "There were a lot of people in the crowd who were concerned by that gentleman's presence and found it somewhat disturbing. However, I would suppose he would say that it is his right to be there."

The Devon and Dorsets were amalgamated into the Rifles which was formed in 2007 and is the largest infantry regiment in the British Army. The Rifles has been hit hard by the recent upsurge in violence in Afghanistan. It has suffered 29 fatalities so far this year. The latest was killed by small arms fire on Sunday. On Monday this week, both Mr Davis-Sellick and Mr Coombes were again in Wootton Bassett with representatives of the Devonshire and Dorset Regimental Association to pay their respects as former Dorchester schoolboy Philip Allen, 20, of the 2nd Battalion the Rifles and Samuel Bassett, 20, of 4th Battalion the Rifles, who was from Plymouth.

This is Dorset

BNP bigot using stolen DC Comics artwork

Artist Mark Simpson got a nasty surprise when he googled “Green Arrow”, the name of a left-leaning DC Comics hero for which Simpson supplied artwork in 2006, for there, right at the top of the listings, were links to the blog of bigotted BNP coward Paul Morris, who had ripped off not only the “Green Arrow” name but also Simpson’s distinctive artwork.

Simpson, usually known as Jock, was aghast to find his graphics adorning drunken ranter Morris’s blog and emailed the caravan-piss-up-againster to object.

Morris replied that “…the origins of the Green Arrow name had nothing to do with some pathetic socialist comic hero”.

Yeah, well, of course not. It’s all a co-incidence that right from the off, when Morris’s bilefull blog was first hosted by Blogger, that he used the Green Arrow name and ripped-off copyrighted Green Arrow artwork.

Simpson tweeted that Morris’s use of his images was “leaving a horrible taste in my mouth”, and said that he had informed DC Comics’ legal department – “heads are gonna roll”, he said. Shortly after that, Simpson added that “They’re going to take it down”, but nearly 24 hours later Morris continues to infringe DC Comics’ copyright.

Norfolk Unity

28 arrests at Spanish event attended by BNP's Griffin

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Spanish police Saturday detained 28 members of a far-right party who tried to disrupt an event held by a rival far-right group attended by British National Party leader Nick Griffin at a Madrid hotel.

The detained are all members of Spain's far-right Patriotic Socialist Movement and they were arrested after they attacked doormen at the hotel who were trying to prevent them from entering, a police spokesman said.

Four people were lightly injured in the scuffle but did not require medical care, he added.

The National Democracy Party which staged the event said it had requested police protection because of fears that far-left groups might try to disrupt it as has happened in the past.

It was not immediately clear why members of the Patriotic Socialist Movement tried to disrupt the event, which featured in addition to Griffin, the leader of Italian far-right party Forza Nuova, Roberto Fiore, and National Democracy leader Manuel Canduela.

In June Griffin and another BNP member won seats in the European Parliament elections, a first for the party which advocates the voluntary repatriation of immigrants. It has no seats in the national parliament.

Yahoo

Cash-strapped NPD uses 0900 phone lines to raise funds

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The neo-Nazi NPD party is resorting to prime-rate phone lines to raise money, using the same 0900-code system employed by sex phone services and quiz hotlines.

The Berlin party headquarters has two such numbers, Der Spiegel reported this weekend, enabling supporters to donate money anonymously just by picking up the phone.

Each call raises either €5 or €10, the magazine reported.

An attempt to enable those who want to give even more while maintaining their anonymity by adding a PayPal button to the NPD website has failed though.

The party, which is facing bankruptcy, followed other smaller parties such as the Christian Social Union, Free Democratic Party, The Left and the Greens by using the PayPal system to enable supporters to donate up to €500.

But a spokesman for PayPal said the company would be removing its service from the NPD as soon as possible, and donating the fees it had charged the party since the start of the month, to charity.

The Local

More intimidation tactics by Peter Tierney and Merseyside BNP

Peter Tierney, owner of the Quiggins AttiQue in Aigburth and "super activist" for the BNP

Today, activists from Liverpool Antifascists delivered leaflets in Halewood. The event was an overall success, but once again Merseyside BNP revealed that they rely more on intimidation tactics than on politics to get their point across.

As we set off from the Summerfield on Hillfoot Avenue, there was a brief encounter with a BNP supporter. Mistaking the antifascists for the BNP, he had joined us and asked whether Peter Tierney would be turning up soon. One activist explained to him that he was in the wrong group, whilst grabbing the opportunity to offer him a leaflet and explain why the BNP were not the party for anybody genuinely concerned with the plight of the working class. Events later in the day suggested that an antifascist making a similar mistake would have gotten more than a leaflet.

Despite the gloomy weather, there was a good turnout of activists, who managed to cover a significant area and deliver 500 leaflets in the surrounding working class estates. The event was extremely succesful and, as with a leafleting session around the shops the previous week, the response from the public was an overwhelmingly positive one.

On the way back to the original meeting point, however, we encountered Peter and Andrew Tierney. The brothers, along with an unidentified third fascist, had been delivering leaflets of their own and were just about to leave in Peter’s Land Rover. When they recognised several of the antifascists, however, they were quick to grab their cameras and start taking pictures.

Within moments, they were circling around the tired group of leafleters, taking photos as close as they could and chasing around those who tried to turn their face away. Their clear aim was to intimidate and provoke a small group of passers-by (at this point, they had distributed all their material and had nothing on them to identify their allegiances) which included two women, one of them elderly. At one point Peter, still awaiting trial for assaulting an antifascist back in April, referred to one man as a “shithouse” for not rising to the provocation. His brother Andrew, whose photographs and videos have emerged on Redwatch and various other neo-Nazi hate sites, suggested instigating a third-party assault. “Let’s get some local lads in, nothing to do with us, of course,” were his exact words, after feigning gangster-status by declaring that the leafleters should leave because “this is our territory.”

However, Liverpool Antifascists held our ground. If we had left, we risked being followed, which left individuals particularly vulnerable once they had to part ways. And if we had arisen to the provocation, it looked as though more BNP supporters would have emerged from the nearby pub to support the Tierney brothers. Instead, we stayed where we were until the two thugs got bored, seeing they weren’t getting a rise, and scuttled off.

To those familiar with the BNP, or indeed the Tierneys, this incident will come as no surprise. It also serves as a timely reminder that the party remain, despite their propaganda line, violent goons willing to threaten and intimidate anybody who dares oppose their fascist politics.

We must make sure, no matter what, that these thugs are not allowed to gain ground in Liverpool, Knowsley, or elsewhere.

¡No Pasarán!

Liverpool Antifascists

Bishop of Leicester attacks BNP intolerance

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The Right Rev Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester

The Bishop of Leicester has attacked the BNP's intolerance after a party member claimed he was bullied by the Church.
David North said he was pressured into stepping down as a churchwarden at St Thomas of Canterbury Church in Frisby when his membership of the right-wing party came to light.

The Diocese of Leicester denied any bullying and said Mr North's views were simply challenged but the BNP has attacked the Church of England and claimed Mr North is a 'martyr'.

In response, The Right Rev Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, said: "The Christian gospel is about all people being equal in the eyes of God regardless of wealth, status, intelligence colour or creed.

"The Christian Church will therefore find itself opposed to any ideology that seeks to separate or divide communities, especially on the basis of colour.

"The BNP explicitly espouses policies and agendas which include the deportation of immigrants on the grounds of colour and is accordingly in direct confrontation with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

"It is not acceptable for the BNP to claim to be a Christian party. It is therefore very difficult to see how any individual could be, at the same time, a credible representative of the Christian Church and the BNP."

Mr North is the father of Asfordby Parish Councillor James North who was defeated in his bid to become a BNP county councillor earlier this year.

Mr North said: "After 60 years service to my church at Frisby, I feel very let down to be asked to resign as churchwarden of some 15 years in two stints, having done nothing illegal whatsoever, only to be asked to resign because I'm a member of the BNP.

"As far as I can tell, I have done nothing wrong. To be asked to resign reasonably forcefully after 60 years' service - it hurts."

But a spokeswoman from the Diocese said it was a moral issue and had nothing to do with a legal one.

Melton Times

No Barking for Barnbrook

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(Click on image to see image full-size)