What on earth is going on in the BNP? A rough guide
For the last decade, working out what’s going on internally in the BNP has been pretty simple. A low level of friction has been generated by the ongoing conflict between two well-defined groups. On the one side, the people in charge were a core group of members who had been prominent fascists for decades but had been convinced of a strategy based on getting involved in community politics and putting serious work into standing in elections.
Opposed to them were a coalition of the dwindling band of hardliners nostalgic for the days of John Tyndall, people who think Griffin and co have their hand in the till and individuals who are quite obviously working for Searchlight.¹
This time it’s not so simple and so the following is a rough guide to the confusing events of the last few months that will attempt to do justice to the rich tapestry of mayhem going on inside the BNP at present.
The short answer to what’s going on is that Nick Griffin has announced he’s finally standing down as BNP leader in 2013 and that veteran fascist Eddy Butler is attempting to oust him before then.
Eddy Butler has long been on the modernising wing of the far right and was one of several prominent individuals who realised that his vision of the future involved more than the occasional ritual of a city centre demo to antagonise the local Asian population and the reds. His political CV stretches back to the late 1970′s and he has been a key player in most of the major events on the far right during the last 30 odd years.
The longer tale starts before the General Election, when Butler was sacked allegedly because he raised issues of financial mismanagement. Butler has previous with this sort of stuff, he was part of the Freedom Party which split from the BNP in the year 2000 over similar issues.
Fun and games
This was one of a number of strange things that happened inside the BNP around that time to cheer up anti-fascists.
Butler wasn’t the only one sacked from his position. Mark Collett, ironically publicity director for the party at the time, got his name in the papers again after being removed for his position for apparently threatening to kill Nick Griffin and having dodgy expenses claims (something the people over at Lancaster Unity have been going on about for years).
Emma Colgate, then staff manager in the party, was also given the boot for unknown reasons. Colgate is a controversial figure in the party after she voted to install a minority Labour administation in Thurrock when the general line of the BNP is that Labour are Muslim-loving Marxists intent on flooding the country with benefit-claiming, job-stealing migrants. Collett is close to Colgate and was welcome at her election count in Thurrock, despite apparently wanting to kill her boss.
Interestingly, unlike most people unceremoniously booted from the party Collett and Colgate have kept their months firmly shut.
The opposite example is Simon Bennett. He really provided the icing on the cake by suspending the main BNP website days before the General Election and replacing it with a rant about money he was owed.
Simon Bennett is either a transparent grass or has totally lost his marbles. His posts on various far right forums where he tries to explain his actions and simultaneously threatening his critics like an extra from a crap Guy Ritchie movie may point to the latter. He’s also promising explosive revelations that will end Griffin’s political career (readers with good memories may remember Sharon Ebanks offering similar tantalising and non-existent information). He is a bit part in the rest of the ongoing saga.
Rum, sodomy and the fash
The initial response to Butler’s challenge from the BNP leadership was an anonymous blog entitled ‘Eddy Butler Exposed’ which accused him of lying, being a drunk, gay, using black prostitutes and hinted that he was a long-term Searchlight agent who had helped stall progress in the old National Front by switching his influential Tower Hamlets branch to the BNP in the late 1980′s. This caused long-term disruption in the movement until saviour Nick Griffin rescued things in the late 1990′s. The other evidence for the prosecution is that Butler’s well paid job in the Corporation of the City of London has been curiously overlooked by the BNP’s opponents.
This begs the question: what saviour Nick Griffin was doing in the earlier period? (Clue: making unintentionally hilarious videos about how he is an eco-pagan who wants to work with Muslims. Seriously)
The other problem with this line of argument is that it could be equally applied to the man repeatedly praised on the attack blog: Clive Jefferson. More on him in a minute.
Disappointingly, the blog has now been suspended. This is no gesture of goodwill. Griffin and co eventually realised that the lurid allegations were making them look like the bad guys.
Butler’s campaign has been gaining momentum and this has unnerved the BNP leadership. The decision of Nick Cass, former Yorkshire organiser, to run alongside Butler as his deputy prompted Simon Darby to resign as Deputy Leader after he suddenly, conveniently remembered it was only a temporary measure put in place during Griffin’s trial in 2006 that lasted, er, four years.
Other prominent figures in the BNP now backing Butler include Richard Edmonds, a former hardliner and ally of John Tyndall, and Michael Barnbrook, a delusional man who genuinely believes that he is responsible for kickstarting the parliamentary expenses scandal, who alludes to the blog ‘Eddy Butler Exposed’ as a reason why he’s backing the man.
Trouble in the East End
Michael Barnbrook was a parliamentary candidate in East London and since Butler has been active in the area for decades it’s not surprising he has support there.
What’s more surprising is the recent fate of another Barnbrook, Richard (no relation) the BNP’s only representative on the Greater London Assembly who has been sacked as Barking & Dagenham Organiser and hinted at more revelations to come.
Richard Barnbrook has been recovering from a failed attempt to be re-elected to Barking & Dagenham in the Goresbrook by-election. Eddy Butler was supposed to be his election agent but was sidelined by Clive Jefferson. Barnbrook’s discontent may be connected to this.
Eddy Butler doesn’t like Clive Jefferson and accuses him of covertly filming him, stealing his job and changing the rules of the leadership contest to stop him entering.
Trouble up north
Clive Jefferson is a local boy made good. He lives near where I used and I wouldn’t want to begrudge a local lad who has found success in the big wide world, far from it, but his rapid promotion does look a bit suspect.
From a lowly branch organiser who didn’t even contest a by-election held on the estate where he lives in 2008, he was promoted to North-West organiser in 2009 and then replaced Butler as National Elections Officer in 2010. He is now regularly praised as a genius elections guru despite having never won an election.
This career success hasn’t passed unobserved. Over on the far right forum Vanguard News Network veteran Scouse fascist Joey Owens has a mega-thread where he accuses virtually everyone he’s ever met of either working for Searchlight, being a grass or a policy spy but in particular Clive Jefferson and Jim Dowson. Owens has been quick to spot wrong ‘uns in the past (notably Sadie ‘Shady’ Graham), has he finally lost it?
There are rumours that Clive Jefferson (who I’m sure had a perfectly legitimate reason to change is surname from Aitken) has a serious criminal past and the overlooking of this is suspicious in the same way that it’s unusual Eddy Butler’s employment is never mentioned. Usually people like Searchlight will happily publicise convictions of BNP members for relatively minor offences, why has Jefferson gone unnoticed? He has also been in the thick of it during earlier internal troubles was accused of breaking and entering to relieve Sadie Graham’s allies of computers and documents.
That’s a reasonable summary of events so far. Stay tuned for more details though, I suspect this one is going to run and run as with the exception of Voice of Freedom editor Martin Wingfield and Yorkshire MEP Andrew Brons, virtually every senior member of the BNP is embroiled in this mess.
Long may this continue.
1. Anyone who doesn’t think Searchlight recruit members of the far right to inform on their activities and generally undermine them should ask Ray Hill, Andy Carmichael, Matthew Collins, Darren Wells or Andy Sykes exactly what they were up to.
It’s one way of looking at it !
What on earth do you leftist maniacs have a problem with? Is it that the BNP dont fit into the new world orders plans for a one world coffee coloured state or is it just that you are against the English preserving England for the English, after all, we actually built the place to what it was (not is) over 1500 years at least, blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors went into insuring a land of freedom and decency, only for global marxists to dismantle it brick by brick. I just cant get my head round it, whats your next move after the UK is in anarchy? Do you think the new world order will put up with your crap? You are useful idiots to them.
I just cant get my head round it, whats your next move after the UK is in anarchy?
Steal a Ferrari. Haven’t thought about much past that.
LOL!!!! Wow, you are a complete nutter! New World Order? Wow, it’s people like you that PROVE that the world needs a singular government because apparently humans are to stupid to think logically or for themselves. I love how the BNP always calls the people against it Commies. Guess what pal? I hate the BNP AND the Commies! The only difference between you people is that their governments horde all the countries money, and they killed 108 million more people then you! And listen to you go on about the “English”. What is English, really? Probably half of the people that call themselves English are descended from Germanic peoples, like the people from Normandy, or other places on continental Europe. And what about the Scots, Irish and Welsh? Aren’t they British as well? You aren’t a British Nationalist, your an English nationalist, and therefore an enemy of Britain who wishes to break her apart. Ahh, I can’t wait for a revolution. A revolution where actually INTELLIGENT people pull you Fascist morons and your Commie counterparts out into the streets and publicly execute you. I still feel sad though that most people are too lazy to do anything. Still, I guess that’s why killing you freaks and getting guns into Britain won’t be much of a challenge. Oh, and I also find it funny how your leader is an Eco-Pagan. Did you know that Hitler was said to be that as well? Not to mention though, Hitler also claimed to be a follower of Christ, something I believe Nicky has also said. And lest we forget, Hitler was quite spiteful of the Jews, much like how Griffin is spiteful of the Muslims. Interesting, very interesting.
I agree, the BNP look as though they’re in a mess. That’s been their problem since Griffin took over. They have the right policies but lack the intellectual muscle to deliver. However, I must take issue with your routine lefty dishing out of the word ‘fascist’ – it’s so late 70s my dear.
If you really want to find fascists in the UK, look no further than the Labour Party, which lied to drag the UK into an illegal war which killed over half a million people.
I have left the UK before the war with the Muslims starts. (although with 7/7 you could say it’s already started).
I really should delete comments like the above as spam, perhaps leave a comment of my own at the bottom of every article on the BNP reciting standard far-right tropes that Labour is fascist, that everyone’s a Marxist dupe of the New World Order etc.
It would be amusing if it wasn’t ridiculous.
Might have been laughable once, a look at where we are today makes it all too plausible.
That’s not a bad idea actually, a quick disclaimer to cover the points made by the usual nutters.
Cheers to whoever added the image btw!
The reason everyone everywhere is a bit confused, is that the developed world is falling victim to the kind of tectonic plate movements described by Amy Chua in 2003 (in “World On Fire”) – though she confined herself to the developing world. She has a formula – “Market Plus Democracy Equals Ethnic Confiscation” – which she reiterates in very clear and stylish English as she works her way through actual examples of this throughout the world.
“This book is about a phenomenon …. that of market-dominant minorities: ethnic minorities who, for widely varying reasons, tend under market conditions to dominate economically, often to a startling extent, the “indigenous” majorities around them.”
She says this inevitably causes more or less violent ethno-nationalism, in every corner of the developing world. Sometimes the nationalism wears a cloak of Marxism, or socialism, and this causes confusion – the colour and nature of the cloak or uniform worn is irrelevant.
Amy says that when markets concentrate enormous wealth in the hands of an “outsider” minority, they foment ethnic envy and hatred among often chronically poor majorities. Democracy in these circumstances merely adds fuel to the flames, giving furious native majorities a say which – if it is not heeded – then turns to violence. How many of us knew, for instance, that Romania’s 2001 presidential candidate claimed “I’m Vlad the Impaler” and said he would hang the dominant Hungarian minority? – Amy can find examples like this in almost every country in the world, it seems.
Every developing country, that is. But we can see that “markets plus democracy”, or what some call “globalization”, has precisely the same effect in the post-industrial world too. Why wouldn’t it? – we are all human, after all. Beautifully diverse, yet similar in some important respects.
Amy is a wise and efficient observer – but at the end of the book she feels obliged to supply a solution, and with respect I think the usual call for more economic and social justice and more kindness towards other ethnic groups is not realistic in a world where many countries are obliged to seek not only raw materials but LAND FOR FOOD and WATER outside their borders in a new form of imperialism, and where many other countries with both raw materials and land for food/water are so overpopulated that they are obliged to spill over by their millions into already crowded countries where – unseen by cameras or anyone “educated” – great masses of white natives are actually finding it hard to survive themselves and have either been caught in that trap for generations or have been chucked back into the very same trap which their fathers or grandfathers escaped from.
In short, as the maligned ecologists used to plaintively cry in the early 1970s, we need another 4 planet Earths. In such a world, there is only one certain thing: charity begins at home, and your neighbours start in your neighbourhood first and then move out across the borders and across the seas as and when resources permit. Anyway, far-off lands are in danger of being homogenised into something like Muzak as consumer culture mushrooms across the globe and hordes of intrepid tourists, charity workers, and business people arrive and like mosquitoes inject disruptive matter into communities bound together by tradition and SLOW change.
What has this to with alleged turmoil in the BNP? Just that like most groupings, associations, parties, unions, etc., it contains realists and fantasists. I haven’t counted, but in my opinion it contains the highest proportion of realists of any national grouping I know of – higher even than Green associations, which tend to think they can apply a technical fix to things. Every now and then, fantasists kick up a fuss and complain that the truth hurts, is not popular, will not in any case be a solution, etc. The fantasists might triumph in the end if they jump up and down enough – they certainly have won in all the other political parties. It is not something anyone can predict, really. Hope is our Anchor that is all, as storms gather. I do hope for a realist hand on the tiller, for once – but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, and they never do seem to ride do they? – or if they do, they get on a high horse and start trampling over all the people who trampled over them, which is not much of an improvement.
Still no answer to my point just a load of verbal excrement, thats the thing you can never pin the liberal left down, very slippery customers, always hiding behind some long winded explanation that actually makes no sense at all.
Ive come to the conclusion that liberals, marxists, leninists, trotskeyites, socialists, lefties, multiculturalists, progressives and any other mask they want to use are just diluded at best and mentally ill at worst. Im gonna stick to my own people, English/British patriots who want to preserve Nations and countries and fight the one world super state. No surrender!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uh-huh. My conclusion based on your posts is that people shouldn’t trust the political judgment of internet trolls who can’t spell and who excessively punctuate.
“What on earth do you leftist maniacs have a problem with? Is it that the BNP dont fit into the new world orders plans for a one world coffee coloured state or is it just that you are against the English preserving England for the English, after all, we actually built the place to what it was (not is) over 1500 years at least, blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors went into insuring a land of freedom and decency, only for global marxists to dismantle it brick by brick. I just cant get my head round it, whats your next move after the UK is in anarchy? Do you think the new world order will put up with your crap? You are useful idiots to them.”
Ok. Point by point.
1. There isn’t a new world order.
2. I guess leftists don’t see it as a matter of preserving England. They probably think that England will survive just fine.
3. They may also think that nationality is funny variable on which to discriminate between people.
4. It is not immediately clear why immigration threathens the historical freedoms of this country. Nor is it clear that its ‘decency’ is threatened either.
5. Who on earth are the global Marxists? How are they destroying this brick by brick?
6. The UK isn’t heading towards anarchy.
7. Dave, Duncan etc aren’t idiots.
Eval: your ‘points’ consisted of a series of assertions with no argument or evidence. So it’s quite difficult to meaningfully respond to them.
Lethe you are one of the ‘head in the sand’ type of people, you arent as much of a threat to this country but your apathy and ignorance is partly to blame for the state of our once beautiful land.
The point everyone is missing is im talking about ethnicity, i believe in protectionism, i also believe in the UK withdrawing from the EU and becoming self sufficient, a halt to immigration and a reversal of its effects over the last 40 years, i also know for a fact after lots of research that there IS a new world order. Maybe thats too much of a cliche name for them. What im talking about is the Global Elite. They are engineering a new world, a world without borders, they are aggressive and are rapidly transforming all the once powerful and proud European nations. Mass immigration and TV brainwashing is the main weapon, diluting the once strong indigenous communities of cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, and if you have been to Slough or Rochdale and you still dont believe there is some sort of Social Engineering project going on then god help you, as you deserve to live amongst it. But Englishmen like me, my dad, (who grew up in an England that hadnt been submitted to mass immigration) lots of my friends and millions of people all over the country who cant believe whats happening to THEIR land in front of their eyes, are waking up. Whether you like it or not, we have had enough.
Onto the TV brainwashing, if multiculturalism is so natural and organic then why does it need to be rammed down our throat all the time on TV? Every advert, every show, all have a them, and some of us dont fall for the crap. Anyone who opposes it is ‘racist’, that word is so pathetic, and so obviously designed to keep people from speaking out against the rapid colonisation of Britain by the third world and the middle east.
The things i believe in ARE natural, and organic. Indigenous communities with shared histories, a shared future, shared religion and common values and beliefs. Basically the UK pre war and just post war, because 1948 saw the Empire Windrush arrive at our shores, the first of a mass colonisation of these lands that has resulted in devistation to towns and cities, and NO financial benefits, or skills shortages being filled. Drugs are now a HUGE problem in the UK, AIDS from african immigrants, also tuburculosis has reammerged after being completely wiped out at one point. Knife crime, gun crime, muggings, rape, all problems that virtually didnt exist before mass immigration. Despite all this the controlled media glorify immigration, calling it ‘enrichment’, they sensor news reports to conceal racial identity, portray immigrants as victims and tell every white English person they are already racist and must spend their whole lives apologising for slavery and colonialism.
All these ideologies come from an aggressive global elite with communist/socialist beliefs of a classless society. A fiction that can never work as human nature always ensures the cream rises to the top.
I am not alone with my observations and beliefs. Im confidently assured of that, especially with forces for good like the BNP and EDL. Millions are waking up to these facts so all lefties will have to be prepared for the backlash of their social experimenting and deluded dreams of a multiracial utopia that can and will never happen.
Read what i have written, actually READ it and digest it, as it is the truth.
Theres no point in replying to my post with claims of racist, bigot, fascist, right winger, nazi, xenophobe or any daft labels you can think of as i dont acknowledge those words.
Hear this though, people like me will never rest, we will never be still and quiet. One day the traitors of the successive governments of this great land will be on trial for what they have done. The English will prevail, and once they do, the Scots the Welsh and Ulster folk will follow, because WE are the natives of these islands, and we will always be here.
Down with Brussells, down with the LIB-LAB-CON elite, back to basics, England for the English!!!!!!!!!!!
No surrender!
I have definately had too much coffee.
Crikey, if I congratulate Stu we have the really weird phenomenon of one ethno-nationalist patting another on the back in a socialist blogspot. Perhaps I could limit my remarks to “No, you haven’t had too much coffee” (though I cannot prove this).
The thing is, everyone like us, from both ends of the social spectrum and everything in between, is thinking the same – and while these thoughts still need justification, books like World On Fire and others, do help to explain exactly how and why they are not only justified but correct.
There is another BNP – the Bangladesh National Party, it has a few MPs but otherwise a “Spot the Difference” exercise between the two BNPs could be both interesting and entertaining. I keep meaning to do a list, but have not got around to it and of course I am wary that a minority within both BNPs might not welcome being likened to the other BNP! No point in upsetting people unnecessarily – just wait for the penny to drop, then they won’t get upset.
You accuse me of being ignorant and then advocate policies of protectionism and self-sufficiency! I take it you haven’t even a basic knowledge of economics.
Changing the name to “Global Elite” doesn’t get you off the hook of actually identifying who you mean.
The TV argument is a non sequitur.
On the immigration not being natural and organic…
First: So the mass immigrations we see across history – the Slavic western migration, the pull of peoples to Rome, the migrations within the Persian Empire etc etc, they were presumably some artificial policy of government? Je ne pense pas.
Second: it does seem a pretty natural mechanism. People want to better their lives, so they move to a country where they think they will have a greater opportunity to do so.
Third: given your preference for things natural, I take it you don’t take paracetamol when you have a headache.
AIDs from African immigrants! Any evidence to back this up? Actually, the majority of people get AIDs from sex on holidays abroad. The original spread through Europe can actually be charted to a single European trade ship. TB? Again, more down to the decrease in vaccination take-up. As for the idea that there was no rape, knife crime etc before 1948. Seriously? Gun crime perhaps – but just maybe that was to do with other factors. I have also noticed that since 1948 fewer people wear ties to lunch – correlation is not causation.
I am in no way a socialist or a communist. I’m pretty much a J.S. Mill liberal with a free market economics streak. I believe in low taxes, the current level of worker protections and minimal regulation.
I have never called you “racist, bigot, fascist, right winger, nazi, xenophobe”. I have only ever engaged with your points.
But these are all side issues. What underlies your argument is the belief that in order to peacefully co-exist people need to have extremely homogenous religion, values and history. This is dubious, firstly in its truth as a proposition, second in its application to the current state. I see no particular evidence that my values are so different from many immigrants. A good friend of mine is Greek. She believes in hard work, doing to your neighbour as you would have them do unto you and so forth. So does my Chinese friend. And my Morrocan friend. And etc. People may worship different gods, have different religious festivals, different clothes and foods, but as far as I can see most people share the beliefs of not harming others, of working hard to achieve their goals, of charity etc. Most people are decent people. Country of birth makes no difference to that. Unless you think the fact that I celebrate Christmas and my friend Hannukah makes us incompatible then I really can’t see where your argument runs.
Ps. as may be deducible from that list of people, I do actually live in a relatively multicultural environment. Not Rochdale or Slough, I will admit, but I have seen the results of some of immigration and they seem to me utterly benign. In fact better than that. It is fascinating talking to people with a different cultural background. Because although we most of us share similar values, we express them in different ways and with reference to different traditions. New insights are important and wonderful.
Fair enough Lethe, some good points there. I dont believe in racial superiority or any of that rubbish, just preserving our differences. You cant blame me for wanting my country to still be here in 50 years, (not just the geographical country but the nation) if you change the people you will change the culture.
I am just worried about the England that my kids and grandkids will inherit, unfortunately it wont be the merry old England that i grew up in and can still enjoy in most areas, with the village pub selling English ale, not some mass produced fizzy rubbish, the cricket green, church bells on a sunday, the English breakfast and a good sunday roast, a secure family unit with good values and a strict upbringing, walking the streets at night and feeling safe, neighbourhood chats over the garden wall, football on a saturday (and actually having some english players to watch), a proud heritage, manners and respect for one another, saying good morning to a complete stranger, Christmas, Easter, Church weddings, (christianity is under threat), good education system that was once the envy of the world, a police force that isnt undermined by political correctness and paperwork and is actually respected, a feeling of national identity, jobs available for most people who will work hard, an NHS that isnt overwhelmed by third world immigrants and muslim nurses who refuse to wash their hands because of religious beliefs, a strong pound, a government who doesnt appease terrorists and criminals, a trip to the seaside and fish and chips, respect for the armed forces and a pride in them, having a kick about in the park with mates and a few beers without being harrassed by some hoody gang, who probably carry knives.
I could go on and on, all the things listed above are either what i love or loath about MY country, ENGLAND, ive travelled a lot and theres nothing like it, i may be biased because im from England but so be it, i dont want it to disappear, can you blame me for that?
Im gonna leave this blog now but just remember the things i have posted and ask yourself, is he right?
All the best.
Stu
There are too many on the left, that would hate to see the BNP disappear, it is their reason for existing, for all too many of them. Just imagine if they had to move towards taking on the banks or the financial masters of the universes in the City. Would the kids from the UAF turn up then?, or worse, what if they had to start campaigning around issues like Social deprivation and poverty – shudders. Racism and Palestine have become trendy issues, is it any wonder that the white Working class are starting to push back against those that claim to be “Working Class” orientated. While no doubt that Palestine etc, are pressing issues, a family living in a squalid council flat, might feel that they have issues of their owm, not as sever, but nevertheless their own. Too many on the left do not seem to understand this, or respect that.
There is more than just ideology that has united Eddy Butler and Emma Colgate. They have been sexual partners for some time. Meanwhile, Eddy Butler’s partner Susan Clapp has been having it off with another BNP supremo Julian Leppert. BNP inter-personal ties are seemingly built on sexual favours. And Griffin’s homosexual past is well known.