Football hooligans to launch 'European Defence League' in Amsterdam

English Defence League protest in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK earlier this year (Photo: Gavin Lynn )

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The English Defence League (EDL), the anti-Muslim 'street army' composed largely of football hooligans that burst onto the front pages of British newspapers in the last year as a result of its often violent protests, is to hold a rally in Amsterdam in October, EUobserver has learnt.

The EDL is to demonstrate in support of Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigrant firebrand, with a recently launched French Defence League and Dutch Defence League, modelled on the English group, to join them along with other anti-Islamic militants from across Europe.

Formed in 2009, the EDL has held over a dozen often rowdy marches and demonstrations in cities across Britain over the last year. Protests that attracted only a couple hundred militants at the end of last year are now bringing thousands out. On Saturday (28 August) a rally in Bradford, West Yorkshire, home to the second-largest community of south Asians in the UK, turned ugly when members clashed with police and pelted anti-racist activists with bricks, bottles and smoke bombs. Thirteen were arrested, according to media reports.

Anti-racist watchdogs call the EDL one of the most worrying developments on the far-right scene in the UK since the 1970s and the days of the National Front, an openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi political party. The group now appears to be meeting with some success in exporting its novel brand of nativism to the continent, a combination of anti-Muslim vitriol, agressive street marches and attempts to rope in football hooligan gangs by holding rallies around the same time as matches.

Graeme Atkinson, European editor of Searchlight magazine, a UK anti-fascist journal, says that the group is "tapping into a widespread and growing Islamophobia in society," in a way that other far-right groups, weighed down with explicitly fascist iconography and discourse, have not been able to.

He warns against panic regarding the new group, but says authorities should not be blind to the growth of such moevements, describing the new formation as "an utterly socially divisive, politically toxic ideology."

New kind of far-right outfit

Distinct from the traditional far right, the EDL, which originally grew out of the "football casual" subculture, claims to be multi-ethnic, to target "jihadism" rather than Muslims, and employs a rhetoric more in keeping with the fringes of neo-conservative anti-Islamism than the nostalgia for Nazism of other far-right formations.

The group's mission statement declares that anyone is welcome, so long as they are "integrated:" "We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life."

"English Defence League members recognise that this threat is one that must be stopped at all costs. Our Christian, Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu friends all have tales to tell with regard to Islamic Imperialism," the group's "Exposing the myths" page reads.

One of its leaders is Guramit Singh, a Sikh born in Britain, and it says it is, like Mr Wilders, strongly pro-Israel and maintains both Jewish and LGBT "divisions" while backing a ban on the building of mosques and seeking the burqa to be outlawed. Its LGBT wing was set up after the Dutchman visited the UK in March when he had been invited to show his short anti-Islam film, Fitna, in the House of Lords. At a demonstration in Bolton in March, a man held up a pink triangle alongside anti-Islam placards and banners. Its LGBT division has 107 members at the time of writing.

In what would normally be anathema to traditional, antisemitic far-right outfits, the group has taken to brandishing the Israeli flag at rallies and, according to the Jewish Chronicle, its Jewish division had signed up hundreds of members on its Facebook page until the page was recently deleted, though Jewish leaders in the UK actively discourage young people from joining, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews describing the organisation as "built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely."

Links to BNP, Swedish Democrats

As with other formations in Europe that far-right monitoring organisations describe as "far-right-lite," notably Mr Wilders, Denmark's People's Party and the late Pim Fortuyn, some in the EDL try to distance themselves from, in the words of the group's website, the "Adolf-worhipping neanderthals."

But these same monitors say that while the EDL is not an outright "fascist" or neo-Nazi formation, links with the traditional far right remain, with many leaders being ex-members of the British National Party. Its leader, Tommy Robinson, is an ex-BNP activist. One of the organisation's main strategists is 45-year-old IT consultant Alan Lake, who has advised the far-right Swedish Democrats on tactics.

Meanwhile, at every demonstration but two in the last year, dozens have been arrested. The group's marches regularly involve anti-Muslim sloganeering and frequently descend into violence. At a rally in Dudley in July, a Hindu Temple was attacked as well as a number of shops, restaurants, cars and homes.

Figures for the size of the organisation and its supporters are hard to pin down and no figures have emerged for the new continental franchises. The group claims it has "thousands" of supporters and has spawned a Scottish Defence League and a Welsh Defence League, both of which have held rallies in their respective countries, as well as an Ulster Defence League. Police meanwhile reckoned that 1,500 to 2,000 EDL demonstrators marched in Newcastle upon Tyne in May this year, one of its bigger rallies.

Ground Zero 'Mosque'

The EDL has received endorsements from Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, two of the main agitators behind the right-wing movement opposed to a Muslim community centre being built two blocks away from the site of Al Qaeda's attacks on New York in 2001, the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. Geert Wilders, for his part, is scheduled to speak at a protest in Manhattan on 11 September this year by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) against the building of the community centre.

Although Mr Wilders is not thought to have direct links with the EDL, SIOA is an affiliate organisation of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), which has marched alongside the English hooligan movement. SIOE itself was founded in 2007 by Anders Gravers, previously the leader of a tiny Danish party called Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark), in reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoon controversy. On 11 September 2007, the SIOE staged a demonstration in Brussels.

Other affiliate organisations have been created in 10 European countries including Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden and the United States of America. Mr Gravers is reportedly on friendly terms with Mr Wilders, is his "friend" on Facebook and will be speaking alongside him at the anti-Mosque rally in New York.

The demonstration in Amsterdam is due to take place on 30 October, according to the EDL website. Mr Wilders heads to court at the end of next month on charges of inciting racism. The case begins 5 October, with a verdict expected 2 November.

Joining them there will be members of the recently formed Dutch Defence League' and French Defence League, both modelled on the EDL. The latter draws its members from the ranks of far-right supporters of the Paris Saint Germain football club, known in France for long harbouring a far-right element among the club's supporters, although elsewhere on the continent, according to EDL spokesman Steve Simmons, not all the defence-league-linked groups have their origins in football hooliganism.

Paris Saint Germain supporters

The French Defence League, which employs both an anglophone version of its name and "Ligue Francaise de Defense," founded in May and more latterly takes the name Ligue 732, after a group of Paris Saint Germain supporters, that, according the outfit, "tries to unify all French Casuals, Ultras and French Fans to fight against Radical Islam."

The 732 figure references the year that the French king Charles the Hammer, the grandfather of Charlemagne, won a victory at the Battle of Tours halting Islamic expansion in western Europe.

Mr Simmons told EUobserver that militants from the "anti-Jihad movement" in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and "other European states" will join them in Amsterdam for the launch of what is termed the "European Defence League" or, alternately, the much cuddlier "European Friendship Initiative."

"I would also like to take this opportunity to announce a new demonstration that is to take the English Defence League global," Tommy Robinson, the pseudonym of the group's leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a former member of the BNP, wrote on the EDL website in a missive in July.

"You may be aware that the great man Geert Wilders is in court for race hate charges," he continued. "The EDL has been in contact with our European brothers and sisters and we have decided that on Saturday, 30 October the European Defence League will be demonstrating in Amsterdam in support of Geert. We hope that all of you will be able to join us for this, what promises to be a landmark demonstration for the future of the defence leagues."

"We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him," the group's spokesman, Steve Simmons, told EUobserver.

Counter-Jihad conferences

In June this year, the EDL sent two representatives to Counter-Jihad 2010 - a conference in Zurich held by the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which does not focus on civil liberties at all but is instead an anti-Muslim movement. It was the fourth such pan-European conference in as many years.

The Zurich conference may have been where the idea for a European Defence League originated. According to an EDL report back from the meeting, which attracted "counter-Jihad" activists from Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, the UK and the US, the conference "built on the important work that had already been done as well as doing the groundwork for new initiatives and the inclusion of new organisations and activists in the work of the global counter jihad."

Mr Simmons for his part in a slight detour from the announcement of Mr Robinson, told EUobserver that the Amsterdam rally will see the launch of the "European Friendship Initiative," and that a "European Defence League" will be just part of this broader alliance of "Defence-League"-branded movements.

He said that talks are ongoing with in particular German, Dutch, Belgian and French groups ahead of the Amsterdam demonstration. Already, in April this year, the EDL took part in a small pro-Wilders rally of 100 people in Berlin outside the Dutch embassy, organised by the Burger Bewegung Pax Europa (Pax Europa Citizens' Movement).

He also explained why the EDL and allied groups are heading to the Netherlands: "We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and there is a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him."

He downplayed the group's rowdy reputation: "We want to turn it into a sort of celebration rather than a protest, with food, drink and entertainment."

He claimed that off-duty serving UK, Dutch and German soldiers which had joined "Armed Forces Unite," (which grew out of "Armed Forces Defence League," a Facebook group for EDL-supporting soldiers and sailors) have offered to help Dutch police to steward the event.

The city of Amsterdam government for its part is aware of the plans for a demonstration and is tracking developments, but will not discuss details of preparations due to "security considerations."

In Bradford over the weekend, in what was a massive police operation, some 1,600 officers from 13 forces took part.

EUobserver

EDL Bradford - Far-right Protesters Clash with Police

Far-right protesters hurled missiles at riot police and anti-racism demonstrators on Saturday in Bradford city centre.
Bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were thrown by around 1,000 members of the English Defence League (EDL) who were staging an anti-Islam protest.
Trouble flared at the city's Urban Gardens where a large crowd of EDL supporters had gathered chanting "Allah is a pedo" and other anti-Muslim slogans.
EDL supporters arrived on buses from cities around the north of England. They were kept away from groups of anti-racism demonstrators by a large force of riot police.

Three injured at anti-fascist demo in Brighton

Two officers and a protester were injured when violence broke out at an anti-fascist demonstration in Brighton, police said.

The protest organised by the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group took place at the same time as a demonstration by the English Nationalists Alliance.

A Sussex Police spokesman said members of the UAF march clashed with police.

Fourteen arrests were made for public order offences, assault and to prevent a breach of the peace.

Two police officers and a protester were treated for minor injuries.

The force spokesman said: "Police attempted to ensure that both protests took place in a safe location, but close enough to one another to enable them to make their points peacefully.

"Unfortunately a small group from the counter-demonstration resisted this and threw missiles at the police.

"At no time did either group have the opportunity to physically confront one another, the only disorder being directed towards the police."

Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett said: "It is our aim to allow protesters the freedom of speech to express their views safely, without causing disruption and disorder to residents, visitors and businesses in the city."

BBC

EDL Abdul is a Vicious Bigot

EDL poster-boy Abdul Hussain is a Glasgow Rangers fan, filmed here at an EDL demo, singing sectarian hate songs which celebrate knee-capping and beating Taigs (meaning Catholics). Just as Islamophobic bigotry assumes all Muslims are terrorists, sectarian bigotry assumes all Catholics are Fenians and Provos (pro-IRA), and both are as stupid as black-power bigots who assume all white people must be racist because a few nutters join groups like the BNP and KKK. I despise the IRA, but sectarian hatred is disgusting, no matter where or who it comes from.

The EDL has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook, but only THREE non-white people regularly attend EDL protests. The 1st (Guramit Singh) is a proven racist. The 2nd (Joel Titus) says he's anti-BNP but has been filmed travelling to EDL demos with BNP activist Chris Renton (let's just say Joel seems VERY confused). The 3rd (Abdul Hussain) is a vicious bigot. In contrast, hundreds of EDL supporters show themselves on You Tube and Facebook to be BNP supporters and/or either Nazis or friends of Nazis.

Bradford: Smoke bombs thrown at English Defence League protest

EDL supporters and police clash in Bradford

More than 1,600 officers on horseback and in riot gear pen in 700 activists, including BNP members and soccer thugs

Far-right activists threw smoke bombs and missiles and fought with the police as trouble flared in a protest organised by the English Defence League.

Bricks and bottles and smoke bombs were thrown at anti-racist supporters and police as around 700 EDL activists – including known football hooligans and BNP members – held a "static protest" in Bradford city centre. Mounted officers and others in riot gear were attacked as they pushed the EDL into a penned area. Skirmishes continued as EDL speakers addressed the crowd and there was more violence as its supporters were put back on coaches.

More than 1,600 officers from 13 forces were involved in the police operation amid fears the demonstration would descend into violence. Police said there had been five arrests.

The EDL, which has held demonstrations in towns and cities across the country over the past 12 months, had predicted that thousands of its supporters would turn out in Bradford for what was dubbed "the big one", but police said there were around 700 people.

Earlier in the afternoon coachloads of EDL activists had chanted "Allah, Allah who the fuck is Allah?" and "Muslim bombers off our streets". One of the coach drivers said: "I didn't expect a job like this when I came to work this morning. We're a five-star firm. We don't usually take scumbags like these."

Thousands of anti-racists and local residents joined counter-protests and events organised around the city. Mohammed Khan, 29, said: "We want to show the people of the UK that Bradford is a united and peaceful place, where Asians, white people – everyone – gets along. Nobody here wants these people. They are just trying to divide this city and provoke trouble."

Several hundred people gathered at a community celebration at Infirmary Fields near Manningham, where running battles between youths and police took place in 2001. "Everyone wanted to join in to tell people how good this city is," said Surhra Bibi from Bradford's Fairbank Road. Hundreds of other demonstrators joined an event organised by Unite Against Fascism in the city centre.

Earlier this month Theresa May, the home secretary, authorised a ban on the march but police and politicians claimed that they were powerless to prevent the far-right group holding a "static protest".

Yesterday, as the demonstration came to an end, fights broke out among rival gangs within the EDL and local teenagers and anti racist campaigners were kept back by mounted police. A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "Missiles have been thrown in the area around the Bradford Urban Gardens; however, this has been contained and the police are utilising their resources to manage the current situation."

The decision by Bradford council to seek a marching ban followed a formal request by West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison, made after his force carried out a risk assessment of the proposed event. Bettison said he was taking the action after considering the "understandable concerns of the community".

David Ward the local Liberal Democrat MP, who attended the event in Infirmary Fields, said the city had moved on in the past nine years.

"This is a celebration of all that is good about Bradford. We're not so much a big city as a collection of villages – communities which get along and today have got along. I want no part of the hatred some people are showing in our city centre. We have moved on from 2001. I hope today is the day that is made clear."

The EDL, formed last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after supporters became involved in violence and racist and Islamophobic chanting.

In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign, targeting Bradford and Tower Hamlets in London.

Guardian

Make Bradford proud by standing TOGETHER

There is a defiant mood in Bradford today as the city braces itself for the English Defence League protest tomorrow afternoon. The local newspaper, the Telegraph and Argus, has run a front page editorial calling on the people of Bradford to shun both the EDL and opposing UAF protests tomorrow. Entitled, Let’s make it a day to be proud of, the editorial goes on to explain why Bradfordians should turn a deaf ear to both protests.

It concludes: “Tomorrow Bradford can show the world how little these people know about Bradford and about decency and respect for others and their beliefs and cultures.

“The best thing we citizens can do is leave the EDL and UAF to it. Leave them to let off steam, shout their slogans, exercise their freedom of speech and have the say they are entitled to in a democratic society.

“However unpleasant the EDL’s words may be, their message will only have an impact if it is listened to.

“So Bradford can do itself – and this country – a big favour by turning a deaf ear.

“And if we all do that, we can make tomorrow a day that Bradford can be proud of forever.”

This approach is also being adopted by all the political parties, faith leaders and the trade union movement. In a letter to affiliate unions, Yorkshire & Humber TUC Regional Secretary Bill Adams wrote: “The TUC anti-fascist committee decided to persuade the authorities to have the march banned and to advise our members to avoid the area on the grounds of public safety.

“This decision was not taken lightly, it was taken, taking into account many factors including the history of the City including previous riots sparked off by a fascist presence in the city.

“The main reason however, was that local activists, trade unionists, and the people of Bradford were against any confrontations.”

The EDL had intended to march down Manchester Road, through the streets of West Bowling, a part of Bradford with a large Asian population. The chances of disorder would have been considerable so the fact that the EDL was stopped was a real triumph.

This march was banned after HOPE not hate launched a huge campaign in the city which saw 10,700 Bradfordians sign our petition in just three weeks. When West Yorkshire police asked the council to apply for a ban they cited the strength of feeling in the city. When the Home Secretary signed the ban she too made reference to the views of Bradfordians.

The HOPE not hate campaign, and myself in particular, have been attacked from some quarters for our approach but I would like to think we have been vindicated. The memory of the 2001 riots still hangs over the city and there is palpable fear of a repeat of the trouble. Everywhere you go people are talking about the weekend and the threat of trouble. There was simply no appetite for anything that could have led to further disorder and it is for this reason we opposed a counter demonstration. Almost everyone calling for a protest has no connection to Bradford or understanding of the place. Mobilising on the streets is a tactic not a dogma and on this occasion the risks of disorder and subsequent consequences were such that we did not consider it wise. It is a position that we hold even more strongly now than we did at the outset of the campaign.

The EDL will still be coming to Bradford but, we believe, in much smaller numbers. Having been in Bradford for almost a week I have seen the measures being put in place to prevent the EDL causing trouble. They will be gathering on a piece of land almost totally surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence, so largely isolating them from the general public. Coaches will be escorted in by police and parked immediately to the side of the meeting point. Those arriving by train into Forster Square, although only 100 metres away, will be put on buses, with police officers on board, and driven the short distance. Any groups of EDL seen wandering around town will immediately be picked up by the police and all pubs in the city centre will be closed. In total, there will 1,600 police officers on duty.

The UAF, meanwhile, have been equally isolated from the general public, having been given a car park out of sight of the EDL protest and surrounded on all sides by tall buildings. When the claim is made that a counter-protest is needed to defend the streets or protect the Muslim community it might be useful for people to recognise just how out of the way the counter-protest is being held.

There is always the chance of trouble but given the official interpretation of the law we believe the council and the police have done everything possible to prevent disorder from EDL thugs.

As we count down to the EDL protest it is worth remembering what has been achieved over the past few weeks. In mid-July we were told by virtually everyone that a ban was impossible. On the day we handed our petition into the Home Office word reached us that the Government was totally opposed to a ban for fear of the precedent it might set. But the strength of feeling of the people of Bradford proved the doubters wrong and the authorities were forced to act.

And the ban really did mean something. The EDL is now unable to march through a heavily Asian neighbourhood and instead has been boxed in, out of sight, in the city centre. More importantly, however, the networks of locals and community groups the Bradford Together initiative has developed put us in a good position to continue the fight against racism and hatred in the city beyond this weekend. This afternoon we shall be beginning this new phase of our campaign by holding a peace vigil in the city centre.

Let us hope, for the sake of Bradford, that this weekend passes off peacefully and the city can move forward TOGETHER.

---

Watch our English Defence League video

Watch the Bradford Together video

Hope not Hate

Ellie Walker: 'Joining the BNP was misguided and it's a racist party'

Ellie Walker: 'misguided' to have ever been a member of the racist BNP

The wife of the city's former BNP leader has launched a scathing attack on the "racist" organisation after joining another political party.

Councillor Ellie Walker has become a member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new Community Voice group after several months spent as a non-aligned councillor. Mrs Walker quit the British National Party in March, along with husband, and former group leader, Alby Walker. But Community Voice leaders told Mrs Walker they would only accept her if she issued a public statement distancing herself from the far-right party.

And the Abbey Green ward member, who was elected as a BNP councillor in May 2007, has now said: "I was misguided to have ever been a member of the BNP and admit that I was part of an organisation that held racist views and that my association with the BNP reflected badly on me personally. During my time as a councillor, working closely with the community and all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I have come to realise that the views of the BNP are wrong."

Mrs Walker also revealed her daughter-in-law is Sri Lankan, and that her grandchildren are of mixed race. She added: "While a member of the BNP, I realised that it was not what I thought it was, with many individuals only interested in hate and lies. Stoke-on-Trent is a fantastic, diverse and tolerant place to live and represent [and], if it is to move forward, it must continue to be so."

Community Voice's lead spokesman, Councillor Mick Salih, said he had no problem accepting Mrs Walker's application to become the party's sixth member. He added: "Community Voice despise and is totally opposed to the BNP and everything it stands for. Racism, indeed any discrimination, has no place in a modern, tolerant city like Stoke-on-Trent. Ellie has put all that behind her and earned admiration from all political parties across the city council when she not only left the BNP but exposed the hidden extremism."

The addition of Mrs Walker to the fledgling party makes it the fourth largest group on the council. It is behind 26-member Labour, the nine-strong City Independent Group and the eight-member Conservative and Independent Alliance. It is also now one place ahead of the five-member BNP group and the four-strong Liberal Democrats.

Current BNP group leader Councillor Michael Coleman said he was aware of Mrs Walker's move to Community Voice, but was sceptical about her denunciation of her former far-right connections. He said: "This has to be the biggest political conversion in the history of Stoke-on-Trent – to go from hard right to hard left. I have known Ellie a long time and all I can say is that her views fitted in well with the BNP and she was an outstanding councillor for us. I wish her well in her new group, but I don't accept any of her accusations about our party. She was elected on a BNP ticket, and I do wonder whether voters in her ward will accept her conversion or feel betrayed by it. I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."

This is Staffordshire

NEVER SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW

In September 1940 the Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany was at its height in the skies above southern England.

Aircrew who had escaped occupied Europe joined the RAF with many others from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and all parts of what was then the British Empire, In India ordinary people collected much needed funds to finance the building of Spitfires to join the battle, in tribute many RAF squadrons were named after Indian cities.

But of all the nations that joined the RAF it was Polish pilots who in particular distinguished themselves, losing more lives proportionate to their numbers than any single other nationality in the Battle.

United for freedom, against fascism. Philosophy Football have produced a commemorative shirt to honour the Polish contribution, listing the Poles who gave their lives to join the 'few' with the Polish roundel they carried on theor Spitfires and Hurricanes and their cause 'For Freedom'

Available from www.philosophyfootball.com.

Ex-councillor arrested in firearms raid

David Lucas

A BNP activist and former parish councillor has been arrested by police on suspicion of a firearms offence.

Tactical firearms officers were involved in the arrest earlier this week of 50-year-old David Lucas, of Lakenheath – just two months after he admitted possessing ammunition and gunpowder at Ipswich Crown Court.

Mr Lucas was arrested on Wednesday after police officers executed warrants at properties in the Mildenhall and Thetford areas.

A police spokeswoman said the arrest was made on “suspicion of possession of firearms without a licence”.

She said he had since been released on police bail until September 28.

Speaking about the involvement of firearms officers, she said: “Officers from the tactical firearms unit were involved, but for their skills in gaining entry to properties and searching rather than firearms deployment.”

Last month, Mr Lucas quit his role as a member of Lakenheath Parish Council.

Marilyn Banks, clerk to the council, confirmed a letter of thanks had been sent to Mr Lucas, who last year stood as a candidate for the BNP in the European elections.

No by-election for his parish council seat will be held.

Mr Lucas was given a 12-month prison 
sentence suspended for 12 months in June in connection with an incident in April 2009, when police visited a static caravan at Black Dyke Farm, near Lakenheath.

Police found a plastic tub containing a small amount of gunpowder and 2,500 rounds of ammunition that Mr Lucas was not authorised to possess, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Mr Lucas, of South Road in Lakenheath, admitted possessing gunpowder without an explosives licence, two offences of possessing prohibited ammunition and one offence of possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.

Sentencing Lucas, Judge David Goodin said the offences crossed the custody threshold but agreed to pass a 12-month sentence suspended for 12 months after coming to the conclusion that Lucas was eccentric rather than a danger to the public.

He ordered Lucas to pay £250 towards prosecution costs and ordered him to reside for 13 weeks at his mother’s house.

At the time, Jonathan Davies, for Mr Lucas, said his client’s attitude had been “negligent and indifferent” rather than a flagrant disregard for the law.

EADT24

BNP leader interferes in independent’s work

Chris Roberts

The leader of the British National Party is trying to interfere in the work of an independent member of the London Assembly.

Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself acting London regional organiser for the racist party, visited Chris Roberts at his City Hall office on Friday to discuss “GLA work” according to a report on the BNP’s London Patriot website. Roberts is employed by the Greater London Authority as an assistant to Richard Barnbrook, who earlier this month resigned the BNP whip until “allegations of serious wrong doing concerning senior British National Party officials” are investigated.

Griffin’s attempt to influence Roberts to work in the interests of the BNP rather than for the member he is paid to assist is highly irregular. The previous night Griffin told a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham, from which many dissident longstanding activists had been excluded, that he himself would be taking charge of the party’s campaign for the London Assembly and mayoral elections in 2012.

“To be successful, the BNP need a high profile candidate who can generate the publicity needed to mobilise the capital’s remaining demoralised traditional British population to come out and vote,” wrote Martin Wingfield, Griffin’s communications officer following the meeting.

“But that’s not all, once elected the BNP representative must be influential within the Assembly chamber and make sure that the patriotic voice of British Nationalism is heard at every opportunity,” an implied criticism of Barnbrook’s failure to do so.

London Patriot also reports that Griffin had a long meeting on Friday with solicitors to prepare for the next round of the Equality and Human Rights Commission court case over the party’s racist constitution.

“Mr Griffin will be representing himself in court against a renewed attack from the EHRC which has included a request to have the BNP leader imprisoned,” according to London Patriot. Whether this is because the impecunious BNP cannot afford a barrister or because no barrister is prepared to act for the dictatorial BNP leader is not stated.

The Barking and Dagenham meeting was treated to more of Griffin’s lies in response to questions about serious irregularities in the party that have emerged during the course of Eddy Butler’s unsuccessful leadership challenge.

The raising of the nominations threshold for a leadership challenge – to 20% of members of at least two years’ standing – was, he claimed, not his decision but that of the members at a party general meeting on 14 February this year, which adopted the new party constitution.

In fact members were only shown those parts of the constitution that had been amended in response to the Equality Commission legal action. Griffin slipped in the new rules on leadership challenges without even showing those clauses to members expected to vote for them and the amended constitution could only be accepted or rejected as a whole.

He said he would now ask for changes to the constitution to give the party leader a longer term of office, in other words abolishing the right to challenge him each year.

Griffin was cagey in response to questions about the party’s contract with Jim Dowson, the fundraising consultant with a string of criminal convictions whom Griffin brought in at great expense at the start of 2008. One questioner pointed out that the contract Dowson produced at an employment tribunal hearing over the sacked BNP employee Michaela Mackenzie had ended at December 2009. Griffin said that was not true. He claimed that Dowson’s help had been “invaluable” and said he would extend the contract with him if he felt it was in the party’s interests to do so.

Many in the BNP believe that Griffin will extend Dowson’s contract if it is in Griffin’s and Dowson’s personal financial interests to do so, but those who might say that openly had been kept out of the meeting.

Griffin also blamed the BNP’s current dire financial state on those who had called for members to stop giving money to the party until there was greater financial transparency, claiming this had cost the party around £300,000, an unlikely figure, and an attempt to divert attention from the fact that it is Griffin’s reckless pursuit of hopeless legal actions and Dowson’s huge salary and commission that are the largest contributing factors to the BNP’s debt mountain, now believed to be around £600,000.

Hope not Hate

RACIST THUGS URGED TO HURL PORK AT MUSLIMS

RACIST thugs are threatening to attack Muslims with pork in an attempt to “de-Islamise” the UK.

The yobs have drawn up a detailed guide on how to taunt Muslims – including using water pistols to spray them with ham soup.

The hatemongers also advise people to “throw raw strips of bacon” and “cat and dog crap” at followers of Islam, believing it will force them out of Britain.

They suggest touching shop door handles, bus seats and taxis with pork and announcing on Facebook where this has been done.

And they advise fellow sickos to hand Muslims cards that say: “You have just been tainted with a FILTH product. See you in HELL!”

The vile “How To” guide has been posted on a host of right-wing websites and blogs, including those of the English Defence League (EDL) and the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA).

The thugs reckon this tactic will push many Muslims to leave the UK, believing they go to hell if they make contact with pork. But a spokesman for anti-fascist group One Million United said their plan is as flawed as it is sick. He said: “Muslims do not go to hell if they touch pork products. We can only suspect this bizarre idea came from EDL assumptions and guesswork.

“There is nothing stated anywhere that they will face Allah’s wrath if they touch pork products. If the EDL are expecting Muslims to scuttle off, panicking the second a trotter lands near them, they will be disappointed.”

It is not the first time right-wing extremists have used pork in a bid to taunt Muslims. Pigs’ heads were recently placed on the gates of several UK mosques. Billy Baker, spokesman for the ENA – which marched on Westminster on August 1 against Sharia Law – said his group does not condone such threats.

He said: “We do not advocate racism or violence. Our site is visited by extremists who post inflammatory comments.

“Our site moderators do our best to get rid of them as soon as we can.”

Daily Star

Home Office bans Bradford marches

A 10,000-signature petition opposing the EDL march was handed in to the Home Office

Home Secretary Theresa May has authorised a blanket ban on marches in Bradford on the day of a planned protest by a right-wing campaign group.

The English Defence League (EDL) had intended to demonstrate in Bradford on Saturday 28 August.

Unite Against Fascism has planned a protest in the city on the same day.

Despite the ban, groups could still hold static demonstrations. The move follows a high-profile campaign to stop the EDL march in Bradford.

A 10,000-signature petition opposing the EDL march was handed in to the Home Office earlier this month.

'Balanced rights'

The Home Secretary was asked to authorise the ban by Bradford Council which submitted a written application.

It came after West Yorkshire Police's chief constable Sir Norman Bettison wrote to the council requesting an order to prohibit any public processions over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary gave her consent to a Bradford Council order banning any marches in the city over the bank holiday weekend.

"West Yorkshire Police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and property are protected and we encourage all local people to work with the police to ensure community cohesion is not undermined by public disorder."

BBC

Jobless teen stuck BNP stickers on takeaway window and assaulted worker

A jobless teenager stuck British National Party (BNP) stickers on a pizza shop window before verbally and physically abusing its staff, a court heard.

Stephen Gary Paul Elstob admitted racially aggravated assault and criminal damage following the incident in Darlington on May 5.

Jonathan Bambro, prosecuting, told magistrates that Hakim Kadir was at work at Godfather's, in Cockerton, when he noticed a drunken Elstob at the window.

Mr Bambro said Elstob then shouted a string of racial abuse and as he did so he began to stick BNP stickers on the window.

Mr Kadir, who works as a delivery driver was later confronted by Elstob after he got in his car.

The 18-year-old opened the door of the Nissan Micra and punched Mr Kadir and then kicked and punched the car, causing £500 worth of damage.

He was later arrested and in interview gave no reply until he admitted to officers he had a problem with black and Asian people working in the UK. Elstob, of Eggleston View, Darlington, also admitted being in breach of a 12 month conditional discharge for possession of cannabis.

Mike Clarke, mitigating, said Elstob claimed there had been an injustice when his stepbrother was hit with a rolling pin by one of the take-away workers.

He said Elstob was also having difficulty after his mother had been given a "substantial" prison sentence for drugs offences.

Elstob was given 26 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, with a 12 month supervision order and 150 hours unpaid work.

He was also handed a restraining order stopping him from approaching or entering the shop, or molesting its staff.

He was also ordered to pay Mr Kadir £250 compensation.

The Northern Echo

BNP activist banned from party meeting

Bob Gertner

A veteran British National Party activist has been ordered not to attend a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham on Thursday at which new arrangements for running London BNP and future plans will be announced.

Bob Gertner, a former Croydon BNP organiser, received an email from Mark Walker of the BNP’s “political admin office” telling him that the special organisational meeting was “open only to members and supporters who wish to put recent disputes behind us and move on in a wholly positive fashion”.

Writing on behalf of Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself the party’s acting London regional organiser, Walker continues: “You are one of a small number of individuals whose behaviour or alleged behaviour in recent weeks has led to a large number of people at present viewing you with suspicion. Whether or not this is justified, I therefore judge that your presence at this meeting would not be conducive either to its smooth running or to the moves for the private addressing of genuine concerns and to work towards reconciliation which will be made separately.”

Walker’s explanation is bizarre in that it bans a longstanding activist even if “suspicion” is unjustified and that it appears to suggest that Gertner’s concerns, which led to him supporting Eddy Butler’s challenge to Griffin’s dictatorial leadership of the fascist party and are shared by many, are not to be discussed in a members’ meeting.

Griffin took over as acting London organiser from Chris Roberts, another activist who fell out of favour after voicing concerns about the financial mismanagement in the party, the way Griffin constantly falls out with “hard working dedicated nationalists” and the influence in the party of non-members such as Patrick Harrington, a leader of the tiny Third Way party and a former comrade of Griffin in his National Front “political soldier” days. Roberts too supported Butler’s challenge.

Griffin’s only connection with London is that: “I pass by while on the way to Europe”, as he said on Twitter announcing that he was putting together “a great new London management team” and would be acting as their organiser “while they find their feet”.

Clearly Griffin was unable to identify a single Griffin loyalist in London willing and capable of organising the region, following several suspensions of activists and widespread disillusionment.

“Vital we organise now to maximise chances in 2012 gla election,” Griffin’s tweet continued, hoping party members would forget his statement after the BNP’s defeat in Barking and Dagenham in May, when he wrote off fighting elections in the capital saying that by the next general election London would be “completely unassailable” and “no longer part of Britain”.

Elsewhere the three BNP councillors who have turned independent have left the party with only 24 council seats compared with nearly 60 a year ago. Deidre Gates, who was the organiser of the party’s West Hertfordshire group, had actively supported Butler but resigned from the party on 17 August, not heeding Butler’s call to continue the fight from the inside. She was elected to Hertfordshire County Council last year, one of just three BNP county councillors, of whom only one now remains. Seamus Dunne, who sits on Three Rivers council in Hertfordshire, has resigned the BNP whip but remains in the party.

Hope not Hate

Neo-Nazi gunman in Alan Berg's murder dies in prison

Bruce Pierce

The neo-Nazi gunman who authorities said fired 13 bullets into Denver talk-show host Alan Berg has died of natural causes in the federal penitentiary where he was serving a 252-year sentence.

Bruce Pierce, 56, died about 2:45 p.m. Monday at the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex. He was incarcerated in the high security section of the facility located near Allenwood, Pa.

Prison spokesman Mike Castagnola said Pierce was "an average inmate" who held a full-time job and participated in recreational activities.

Castagnola said Pierce had been at the prison for about five years and was in a two-person cell. He had previously spent time at the federal prisons in Leavenworth and Marion, Ill.

Pierce, who lived in Troy, Mont., prior to Berg's assassination, was a member of The Order, a group that had plotted to kill the outspoken Jewish talk-show host.

Berg died June 18, 1984. He was working for KOA radio at the time.

When he sentenced Pierce in December 1987, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch said that Pierce had forfeited his right to live in society:

"The man (Berg) was killed for who he was, what he believed in, and what he said and did, and that crime strikes at the very core of the Constitution."

Matsch gave Pierce a 150-year term, which he added to the sentence imposed on Pierce for participating in an Order-directed crime spree aimed at establishing an Aryan bastion in the Northwest. Pierce's sentence totaled 252 years.

Anath White, now a writer working in the film and television industry in California, was Berg's producer at KOA.

"Alan derided them for their ridiculous beliefs that the Jews were mud people and the spawn of Satan," White recalled.

The Order believed in "killing all the Jews and sending all the blacks back to Africa," a theme of hatred Berg spoke against, said White.

She said that the members of The Order listened to tapes of Berg tangling on-air with people who held neo-Nazi beliefs and anti-semitic beliefs.

The Order put Berg in the top three of their hit list, which included TV producer Norman Lear and Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"They figured Norman Lear would be hard to get and Morris Dees lived too far away," said White.

Berg was an easier target.

White said she thought Berg's murder was a "flash point" in U.S. history. Subsequently, Timothy McVeigh said the The Order and the Turner Diaries, a novel about the overthrow of the federal government, were his inspirations for the Oklahoma City bombing.

White noted that from prison, Pierce continued to spew hatred.

"It's left me to wonder what makes somebody like this," said White. "I think these people didn't have much opportunity in their lives and scapegoat. They blame others for not making it."

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said The Order was "the most professional white supremacist organization since reconstruction" based on the complexity of their conspiracy and the crimes the group committed.

Pierce was a key member of The Order, he added.

"I think Pierce has a similarity to Tim McVeigh - caring out an assassination without breaking a sweat," Potok said. "They were both 'good soldiers'."

Denver Post

English Defence League march should be banned, say police chiefs

Police chiefs have called on the home secretary, Theresa May to ban a march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) due to take place in Bradford later this month.

West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison said that because of the "understandable concerns of the community", police would be backing a campaign to ban the march that is due to take place on 28 August.

Bettison said: "Having carefully considered the issues arising from any planned or unplanned march by protesters in Bradford, I have decided to apply to Bradford council for an order prohibiting the holding of a public procession on that day."

The move follows a campaign that saw more than 10,000 people in Bradford sign a petition, while community, religious and anti-racist groups joined local politicians in calling for the march to be banned.

Paul Meszaros, who co-ordinated the Bradford Together initiative, said: "It is nice that the people of Bradford have been listened to.

It is a victory for the campaign that saw thousands of Bradfordians come together and say clearly that we do not want these people coming to cause divisions and violence."

The council is expected to make a formal application to May who will decide whether to grant a ban.

However, police say that even if May agrees, there are no powers to prevent the EDL holding a "static demonstration", as they have done in other towns over the past year. Bettison said: "If the home secretary agrees to a ban, it does not prevent static, visible demonstrations taking place. But I believe that this would be less disruptive to residents of Bradford and would enable the force to better manage the operation."

Tonight a spokesman for the EDL said that although it may have to "modify its plans slightly" its demonstration on 28 August would "most definitely still go ahead".

Nick Lowles from Hope not Hate, which organised the anti-EDL campaign along with Bradford council, said the police decision was a victory for "people power". He added that a ban would stop the EDL marching through predominantly Asian areas of the city.

"While the EDL threat hasn't completely gone away our campaign has contributed to the racists being kept away from Muslim communities in Bradford," said Lowles. "This is a victory for the people of city and especially the 10,700 who signed our petition."

The EDL started in Luton last year and has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after some supporters became involved in violence, as well as racist and Islamophobic chanting. In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign targeting Bradford and Tower Hamlets in London.

The Guardian

West Yorkshire Police call for ban on EDL demo in Bradford

West Yorkshire Police have today asked Bradford City Council to submit a request to the Home Secretary to ban the proposed English Defence League march on Saturday 28 August.

In a strongly worded statement, the police say they believe the risk to public order is enough to warrant a ban on the racist march. This will be the first time any police force has applied for a ban since the EDL tried to march in Luton in summer 2009.

Bradford City Council will now formally request a ban from the Home Secretary and a decision will be announced early next week. However, Home Office officials told HOPE not hate last week that it was highly unlikely the Home Secretary would ignore a request if one were made by the police and council and the stringent criteria for a ban were met.

While there is still a possibility that the EDL might hold a static protest in Bradford, a ban on a demonstration is a major success. The EDL had hoped to march down Manchester Road, a predominantly Muslim area of the city. It is also likely that as news of the ban spreads support for an EDL static protest will dampen.

The decision by West Yorkshire Police is a victory for the HOPE not hate campaign and the thousands of people who signed its Bradford Together petition. “Some people said that a petition was fruitless but we have proved that, when mobilised, ordinary people can exert pressure on the authorities,” said HOPE not hate co-ordinator Nick Lowles.

“While the EDL threat hasn’t completely gone away our campaign has contributed to the racists being kept away from Muslim communities in Bradford. This is a victory for the people of city and especially the 10,700 who signed our petition.”

The HOPE not hate campaign and its Bradford Together initiative will not stop here. If the EDL reapplies for a static protest then we will hold a peace vigil in Bradford City Centre on Friday 27 August. But even if the EDL stays away altogether we shall seek to build on this fantastic campaign to make Bradford Together a lasting initiative.

“I would like to thank everyone who has supported us,” added Paul Meszaros, who ran the campaign in Bradford. “Over 10,000 local people signed our petition. That’s over 10,000 successful conversations we have had with ordinary local people.

“We still might face a static EDL protest but this is a significant victory and one we should all be proud of.”

Hope not Hate

BUST-ED Sexy ex-candidate claims that sleazy BNP boss lured her to hotel to trick her into bed

ALLEGATIONS: Ex-BNP candidate Shelley Rose says that one of the racist party’s bosses tried to trick her into bed

THIS is the buxom blonde who’s trying to destroy Belfast-based BNP boss Jim Dowson.

She’s 22-year-old lads mag favourite Shelley Rose and she claims married Dowson tried it on with her.

The former BNP candidate has posted a truly shocking video on YouTube where she claims – in minute detail – how Dowson allegedly lured her to a hotel under false pretences before making unwanted advances.

And pretty Shelley – who posed in her underwear for lads mag Zoo last year – also claims Dowson accused her of being an MI5 agent for turning him down.

And a separate crisis has engulfed Dowson for we can also reveal he made a midnight phone call to the BNP’s former legal advisor this week and threatened him.

A recording of the message has been posted on the blog run by Lee Barnes who quit the BNP on Tuesday after falling out with both Dowson and party leader MEP Nick Griffin.

During the call he called Barnes a “f**king idiot” and says he hopes to meet him soon.

Dire

The two crises for the far-right party come at a time when the BNP is facing a threat to its very existence.

The party is in financial meltdown following a number of legal cases including a costly £170,000 pay-out to the makers of sandwich spread Marmite.

And last week the Sunday World revealed that Nick Griffin had been forced into putting out an embarrassing begging letter to BNP members telling them if they didn’t put their hands in their pocket the party is doomed.

Dowson, who has a string of criminal convictions, is Griffin’s trusted right-hand man though others in the party believe he’s been a dire influence.

Last week Shelley, who stood unsuccessfully for the BNP in Luton North in the recent General Election, posted a jawdropping video on YouTube.

She claims Dowson invited her to stay at a London hotel on the pretence of a business meeting.

Shelley says at a previous meeting Jim had told her he wanted her to use her musical talent to put on a show during a fundraising road show.

At the second meeting she says Jim wanted to take her to a show so they could get some inspiration and told her they would have separate rooms in the Russell Square Hotel.

Shelley claims things became uncomfortable at the show: “During the theatre Jim started to hold my hand which I thought was a bit strange as I thought we were here for a business meeting.

“But then after the show Jim informed me there was nothing to it.”

But she alleges things took a turn for the worse back at the hotel when Dowson told her they had to share a bed together.

“I decided it was safer to stay with him (as it was too late to get home) because he was a religious and family man and didn’t think there would be a problem,” says Shelley.

The BNP girl claims that Dowson made it clear that he wanted to go further but Shelley rebuffed him.

“After that rather than apologise he started to verbally abuse me and told me I was frigid and that I had emotional issues and I was a wreck.”

Shelley says Dowson changed his manner and apologised and she says she decided to accept his apology.

But two months later – when Shelley thought the alleged incident was history – she says she was confronted by Dowson and other senior BNP members who grilled her.

Interrogate

At a hotel in Chester in January she says: “They sat me down and they started to interrogate me and they started calling me a spy and an MI5 agent and I was just really confused and upset.”

Shelley says she was then told to make a video for Nick Griffin – denying that she was an MI5 spy.

She left the meeting in tears and added later: “I realise that Jim was just getting his own back on me for the hotel incident like some grubby boss who gets rid of his secretary because he tried it on with her.”

Following the posting of the video Shelley was expelled from the BNP.

Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight have been following the BNP for years.

Matthew Collins from the magazine said last night: “Time after time we hear from within the BNP about this sort of behaviour. From swingers clubs to wifeswapping parties, these ‘defenders’ of traditional family values have very little respect for the institutions they so often prattle on about”.

The Sunday World contacted Jim Dowson’s BNP office in Dundonald on Friday afternoon and told a member of staff we needed to speak to him about the video but despite claims that someone would get back to us nobody did.

Resigned

At around 7pm on Friday we received an email from a Belfast solicitor, acting for Dowson, threatening to take legal action if we published allegations made in the video, but which did not answer the allegations

Meanwhile we can reveal that Dowson made a threatening late night call to the BNP’s former legal advisor Lee Barnes on Thursday.

Barnes had resigned as legal advisor two days earlier and had claimed Dowson had threatened before.

He put a recording of the call on his blog on the internet.

In the recorded message Dowson is heard saying: “You always were a f**king idiot and you know that and a t**t. Next time I see you we can discuss this closer – you’re a big lad so it shouldn’t be any bother to you but as usual with big lads like you you’re all mouth and no trousers – cos you’re a f**king t**t and I genuinely hope we keep in touch.

Sunday World via Hope not Hate

Two more gone

Deidre Gates

It seems that two more BNP councillors have resigned from the party and become Independents. County Councillor Deidre Gates, who represents South Oxhey on Hertfordshire council, and Seamus Dunne, Three Rivers district councillor for Ashbridge, have both become Independents out of disgust at how the BNP is being run.

This brings the number of BNP councillors who have resigned in the past week to four, the most high profile of whom is Richard Barnbrook.

It is yet more miserable news for Nick Griffin and the BNP.

Hope not Hate

City of York Council tells BNP to stop using its coat of arms

Council tells BNP to stop using its coat of arms

COUNCIL bosses have asked York supporters of a far-right political party to stop using the city’s coat of arms on its website.

Backers of the British National Party (BNP) have placed York’s crest at the head of a blog page promoting the organisation in the city, but have now been told using it without permission is breaking the law.

The coat of arms, which is made up of a shield bearing the Cross of St George and five lions, is the official symbol of local government in York and is a prominent part of City of York Council’s public and corporate image.

But its use by supporters of the BNP, which has been condemned in many quarters for its views on race and immigration, on a webpage entitled York Nationalists was brought to the attention of the authority’s legal teams, and the council has now written to the local party asking for it to be removed.

“City of York Council wrote to the organisation concerned regarding the use of the registered council crest of arms being used on their website,” said a council spokeswoman.

“They have been advised that the coat of arms is registered with the College of Arms [the body which regulates the use of such crests] and that it is unlawful for anybody else to use it without our permission.”

The website is run by “an independent group in York that supports the British National Party”, including contact details for the organisation at a local level.

Coun James Alexander, who leads the council’s Labour group and brought the matter to the authority’s attention, said: “The BNP have been continually rejected by the people of York and their politics of hate have no place here.

“It is shameful for them to steal symbols of York’s civic pride for their own personal gain, and they have no right to do so.”

The Press tried to contact local BNP representatives before going to print, but they were unavailable.

The York Press

Scrutiny committee appointed to protect BNP treasurer

Feckless,Gormless and Clueless: David Hannam

A national scrutiny committee has been appointed to examine the British National Party’s treasury department, according to a report of the party’s Advisory Council meeting on 14 August posted on the BNP website.

The committee “has been tasked with examining the structure of the treasury department and making concrete moves to ensure that there is a clear division between those who manage the accounts and those who authorise outlays,” according to the party.

The establishment of this committee is clearly an attempt to dispel the widespread accusations of financial impropriety in the BNP. As well as the party’s incompetent treasurer, Dave Hannam, its members include the party’s East Midlands regional organiser Geoff Dickens, the Wales regional organiser Brian Mahoney and the East Midlands regional treasurer James Mole.

According to Nick Griffin, the party leader, Dickens and Mahoney have “decades of experience in managing business with bigger turnovers with the BNP and will bring their expertise to bear on the committee”. Mole has also been appointed as the BNP’s new “regional treasurer”, whose job will be to act as treasurer for those regions (most of them) that cannot run their own finances.

However the very limited role of the scrutiny committee means it is unlikely to restore party members’ shaken confidence in the BNP’s dire finances. In fact Griffin himself gave away its true purpose: to protect Hannam. “This committee has been given the mission to transparently study everything so that the national treasurer can be completely protected from malicious allegations,” Griffin said.

Although Griffin stated that the party’s finances were the main focus of the Advisory Council meeting, it does not appear that Hannam made the party’s detailed financial records available for inspection, as Ken Booth, the North East regional organiser had requested before being peremptorily sacked by Griffin.

Interestingly Griffin ascribed the party’s serious financial situation to the party growing faster than its systems could cope with, an excuse he has used before but which differs from what he puts in his begging letters, in which he blames the legal action against the party’s racist constitution brought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The true cause, which Griffin never admits, is that he has brought the party to insolvency by pursuing reckless legal actions and making idiotic decisions with expensive consequences such as to use the image of a jar of Marmite on the party’s general election broadcast.

Rumours continue to circulate that the party is about to be put into liquidation by its numerous creditors, which include HM Revenue and Customs, various firms of solicitors and Michaela Mackenzie, a former employee to whom Griffin agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of compensation for unfair dismissal but failed to do so by the due date of 14 July.

The meeting also heard that its new member dropout rate – people who join the party but fail to renew their membership after the first year – was critically low. According to Griffin the party’s Belfast call centre had ascertained that the main reason was the lack of contact after joining the party.

Griffin blamed this on local units. However many of his critics have said that the call centre has failed to pass on details of many inquiries to the call centre and where information is passed on it is inaccurate and unusable.

The party had previously said that the establishment of the Belfast call centre, under the control of the convicted criminal Jim Dowson, who controls most of the BNP’s operations and assets, had successfully increased the membership renewal rate, but this now appears to have been a lie.

The revelation casts doubt on the party’s claimed membership figure of 14,000. The party’s 2009 accounts, which would include a statement of the number of members at 31 December 2009, remain unavailable.

The Advisory Council meeting also heard that the party intends to relaunch its campaign against the Afghanistan war in the autumn with “leaflets, petitions and online campaigning”, in a bid to “start recruiting again in earnest”.

Hope not Hate

The last victim of Treblinka

Tormented: Henry Sperling with his wife and fellow Holocaust survivor, Yaja at their wedding in 1947

He was just another down-and out, one of the winos who routinely slept out on the perilous granite piers and iron girders of the railway bridge spanning the Clyde in the centre of Glasgow.

There was a possibility that, befuddled by whisky, he accidentally tumbled into the waters swirling below - that he didn't intend to die.

But the more likely scenario was that he had deliberately jumped from his grim perch. Either way, when he was hauled out of the river, the grey-haired old man was dead.

At one level, Henry Sperling's suicide was not surprising, and explicable. His devoted wife had died and he had let himself go. He wouldn't look after himself, he drank too much and he wouldn't let anyone help him - not even the two sons who loved him and had reported him missing days before his death.

But there was something deeply puzzling about his death, because Sperling, a Polish Jew, was a survivor by nature who had endured unspeakable horrors.

As a teenager, he had been an inmate of not just one, but seven Nazi concentration camps - including the horrific extermination complexes of Treblinka and Auschwitz, where two million men, women and children were gassed and incinerated.

He lived in hell for years and came alive through the very worst of the Holocaust. Yet, 44 years after his ordeal miraculously ended in liberation and a new life, he could take no more.

He had witnessed the extremes of man's inhumanity. For all his efforts to leave the past behind, the memories of slaughter would never release their grip.

As 62-year-old Hershl Sperling - his real name - sank beneath the murky waters of the Clyde in September 1989, the death camp of Treblinka claimed its final victim.

His story has now been told in a remarkable and moving new book by Mark Smith, who lived round the corner from Sperling in Glasgow and was a close friend of his sons.

Saved: Children liberated from Auschwitz by the Soviet army

He knew him as a cheery, slightly crazy figure, his eyes full of mischief. The number tattooed on his arm was a visible sign of what he had endured but, though his eyes were often moistened with tears and he sometimes howled in his sleep, he seemed to have dealt with the horrors of his past.

Only after his death, when Smith began to piece together the details of Sperling's past, did he come to realise that he was haunted and tormented every day of his life - and for very good reason. His story was one of unremitting horror from the day the Germans overran Poland in 1939 and began their systematic elimination of the country's Jews.

He and his family were among 50,000 Jews confined in the squalid ghetto at a town called Czestochowa until, in September 1942, SS troops drove them en masse to the railway to be herded like cattle into trucks.

They were told they were to be re-settled in the east, but most realised this was a lie. They duly arrived at Treblinka - its pretty station with a clock and fake ticket window a cover for its barbarity.

Within 90 minutes, after being stripped of possessions, clothes and all human dignity, they were prodded naked down what the SS laughingly called Himmelstrasse - 'the road to heaven' - to the 'showers'.

Just before he reached the door of one of the camp's ten gas chambers, a hand reached out and grabbed 15-year- old Sperling, pulling him roughly to one side while the rest, his own family among them, stumbled onwards to their deaths.

He was one of 30 men out of the thousands in his batch selected to join the Sonderkommando, slave squads of prisoners who kept the wheels of the gruesome machine turning.

'For the meantime, we are safe,' he noted in the 20-page testimony he wrote shortly after the war, a crucial, long-lost document which Smith uncovered and used as the basis of his book.

'Crucial' because Treblinka, which had opened just two months earlier, so thoroughly fulfilled its purpose as a death camp that very few witnesses survived to tell its awful tale - just 60 or so out of close to a million victims.

Almost all the Sonderkommando perished, too, once they had outlived their usefulness in disposing of corpses or, in Sperling's case, sorting the vast piles of clothes, watches, gold, hair and all the other incidental detritus of mass-murder.

'Death is constantly before our eyes,' he wrote. 'New transports arrive all the time. On average, 10,000 people per day are murdered. There was one day when the human transport reached 24,000.'

In memoriam An elderly Jewish Canadian weeps as he leans against a symbolic tombstone near the Treblinka monument

As if this industrial-scale slaughter was not bad enough, those who ran the genocidal camp indulged in unfathomable sadism.

One SS officer delighted in choosing children from the newly arrived transports and splitting their heads with a spade, Sperling recalled. Another liked to beat prisoners to death with a riding crop. The deputy camp commander would unleash his ferocious dog, called Barry, to tear off their testicles.

For 10 months, the young man worked hard, learning quickly not to draw attention to himself.

He never lost the skill of becoming invisible.

'He was always capable of being inconspicuous,' his son Sam recalled.

But, with hangings and shootings of the 1,000-strong slave force for the smallest of infractions, or just on a whim, his life always hung by a thread - and always at the price of his conscience as he connived with the oppressor in the killing of his own people.

Sometimes, he envied the dead that their suffering was over - but the desire to live was stronger.

As time went by, he came to realise, as did many of the other Sonderkommando, that they too were doomed.

The number of transports was falling. Treblinka's murderous job was almost done. But the Germans were not about to leave witnesses behind. The Sonderkommando's only hope of avoiding the same fate as the victims was to fight back.

In great secrecy and in constant danger of discovery, an uprising and escape were planned.

Prisoners in the workshops sharpened knives and axes. A duplicate key was made for the door of the German weapons store and two boxes of hand grenades and 37 rifles and pistols were spirited away.

The break-out from Treblinka on the afternoon of August 2, 1943, was an astonishing event. There had been small rebellions and attempted escapes before, punished with extreme cruelty, but nothing as organised or on this scale.

Horror: The main gate of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, which was liberated by the Russians in January 1945

That morning, an inmate with a spray for disinfecting the huts filled it with stolen petrol instead. Others made up Molotov cocktails. The small cache of weapons was distributed by handcart, hidden under potatoes or rubbish.

The agreed password was an affirmation of their determination. 'Death,' the man handing them out would whisper. 'Life,' the recipient would reply as he quickly smuggled a gun or grenade out of sight.

As the hour for the uprising approached, tension was at fever-pitch.

But with the first shot - fired 45 minutes earlier than intended after a known informer was seen blabbing to an SS commander - the 800 inmates poured out of their workshops and, armed with whatever they could lay their hands on, rushed the SS barracks and set them alight.

As they swarmed through the camp, many were cut down by rifle fire from the watchtowers - but the rest fought on with all the courage of men with nothing to lose.

'The Jews remain firm,' Sperling wrote proudly in his account.

'They throw hand grenades and position their machine guns.'

Two of the inmates seized an armoured truck with a machine gun mounted on the back and turned it on the guards.

Before they themselves were killed, they managed to switch their aim to a petrol dump, which exploded in flames. Clouds of black smoke filled the sky. The block of gas chambers went up in flames, too.

There were many acts of heroism and self-sacrifice that day as the leaders of the revolt ran among the prisoners, rallying them to keep fighting in the hope that some at least would get away.

One lay on a roof sniping at the SS with a rifle. With each shot, he was heard calling: 'This for my wife and my child who never saw the world!'

His pregnant wife had gone to the gas chamber 10 months earlier.

Those who made it to the fence hacked a way out and dashed for the forest. But many got snagged and were mercilessly gunned down as they struggled to free themselves.

The fighting went on for two hours, leaving 400 prisoners dead. But almost as many got away. Sperling was one of them, running furiously with a small group of friends into the cover of the trees.

He ran without stopping for three hours, his hand gripping a small sack of diamonds and gold coins he had accumulated during his work - essential if he was to have any chance of getting to the safety of Switzerland.

Meanwhile, having retaken control of the camp, the SS launched a manhunt. The sound of dogs, gunfire and screams echoed through the forest as 200 escapers were tracked down and butchered. Sperling hid high in a tree until nightfall and then continued his flight.

Free: Some of the prisoners who survived the Auschwitz death camp in Poland - some 7,000 prisoners were still alive when the camp was liberated

After five days on the run, he took a chance, bought a train ticket and made it to Warsaw. From there he attempted to travel on, but was arrested two days later.

He was not identified as a Treblinka escaper - which would have cost him his life - but taken first to a penal camp and then, on October 2, to Auschwitz, where, for some unknown reason, the records described him not as Jewish but as a Pole.

It was a distinction that kept him alive.

Years later, he would bewilder family, friends and therapists who treated him by insisting that 'Auschwitz was nothing, a walk in the park'. It sounded unhinged - except to someone who had experienced Treblinka.

As prisoner 154356 in Auschwitz, he committed an infraction that had him sent to the punishment block at nearby Birkenau.

On his return to Auschwitz, he was assigned to Josef Mengele's special work detail, known as 'the zoo', where the doctor was carrying out gruesome medical experiments on human guinea pigs, including castration.

Friends suffered this fate, but Sperling was lucky - he was inspected by the mad doctor more than once, but not selected. His 'invisibility' had saved him.

After a year at Auschwitz, he was transferred to another concentration camp, Sachsenhausen, and then another, Kaufering, as a slave labourer, before being marched to Dachau in April 1945 ahead of the advancing Allied forces.

It was there, malnourished, exhausted and suffering from typhoid, that he was liberated by the Americans shortly after his 18th birthday.

But where to go? He spent time in a camp for dispossessed persons, making a living dealing on the black market. Two years later, he turned up in Glasgow at the home of a distant relation his mother had once told him about.

A new life began, which he shared with his wife, Yaja, another Holocaust survivor, whom he met by chance on a railway platform in Czechoslovakia when the two of them were caught up in the chaos following the end of the war.

A new life it was, but rarely a settled one.

He went from job to job. The family moved to Israel, but that didn't work out either. He tried a spell in Canada, with the same result.

Sperling was doomed, says author Mark Smith, 'to taste and smell the evil he had seen for the rest of his life'. Not for him the serenity of the survivor, but a never-ending nightmare.

His behaviour was often bizarre. He would put himself at risk, driving at high speed with no hands on the steering wheel.

He shoplifted. He was volatile and unpredictable, 'like sitting on top of a volcano', according to his son Sam.

He had a nervous breakdown and was treated with electroconvulsive therapy. But not even that could erase the memories.

'Even when he was calm, he was disturbed,' said his other son, Alan.

'We would be watching television, something entirely unrelated to his experiences, and he would turn and say: "You know, I still can't believe what happened to me." '

In the Sixties, his sons believe he made a secret pilgrimage to Treblinka to pay his respects and to say sorry to the people he could not save.

But peace of mind still eluded him. Yaja was the only one who could soothe him, and her death from cancer was a terrible blow. He took to his bed with cocktails of whisky and valium.

He had a heart attack. He made numerous suicide attempts and had his stomach pumped five times after overdosing.

He began to disappear inside his own head. He wanted to die.

'This is worse than Treblinka,' he whispered one day. Sam Sperling believes that what drained his father of hope - the spark that had kept him going through the camps - was when, in a lucid interval, he saw the film The Killing Fields about the slaughter of millions of Cambodians under Pol Pot's communist dictatorship.

He was deeply moved by it. From the age of 15 he had seen first hand how truly terrible and murderous the human race could be.

The film showed that nothing had changed. The unspeakable evil that Treblinka stood for was still with us. His final solution lay in the beckoning waters of the Clyde.

Treblinka Survivor: The Life And Death Of Hershl Sperling is published by The History Press at £20. To order a copy at £18 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720.

Daily Mail