Tag Archives: BNP legal cases

Get your popcorn ready: is the BNP self destructing?

9:06am Sat August 14th

It’s looking increasingly possible that either finances or fratricide will see the BNP destroy itself as a functioning political force. With a steady flow of bad news for Nick Griffin growing to a torrent this week, it seems there may be significant momentum behind events which could bring the party to its knees by next year’s local elections.

The period since the party’s May 6th decimation in its Barking and Dagenham heartland has not been a happy one for the ever-shrinking coterie around the Führer Griffin. To recap in reverse chronological order:

As the BNP’s sole representative on the London Assembly, Richard Barnbrook is arguably the party’s second most high-profile figure. One month after being sacked as an organiser in Barking he went independent yesterday along with their only councillor on Leicestershire County Council.
Figures cited by Nick Griffin at a meeting in Manchester on Wednesday would put the party’s debt at £500,000. Their true position could be much worse given the BNP’s track record on financial transparency: auditors refused to endorse their 2008 accounts, which are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Electoral Commission.
On Tuesday the party’s legal officer resigned, saying that he could not remain in “a party that acts unlawfully towards its own members, that rewards years of party loyalty with unlawful suspensions and expulsions” of those supporting leadership challenger Eddy Butler. More than 30 people are known to have been ostracised in this way.
As he begged members for more donations, Nick Griffin confirmed the party has been unable to pay invoices.
In the latest of a string of disastrous legal cases, the use of a Marmite jar in a party advert costs the party up to £170,000 after they were sued by Unilever.
The BNP fails to pay its staff on time in June while a crony “consultant” brought in by Nick Griffin continues to rake in £3,000 per week.

While a chicken census is premature, 98.1% of the country can permit themselves a wry smile.

Quote of the day: resignation edition

9:17am Wed August 11th

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Fare thee well Good riddance, Lee John Barnes LLB (Hons). The BNP’s legal officer has resigned, offering up a rambling 3,000-word tirade by way of a parting shot. Calamitous court cases cited by Barnes and further highlights are available at Liberal Conspiracy and Harry’s Place, but this paragraph encapsulates the state of paranoia at the top of the party:

I cannot remain as the Legal Officer of a party that acts unlawfully towards its own members, that rewards years of party loyalty with unlawful suspensions and expulsions, that covers up serious allegations of sexual abuse by senior officers, that expels long standing members who ask for financial transparency within the party and that refuses to act to protect its own officers when they are threatened with violence by other senior officers – Lee John Barnes

This blogger would liken the recent spate of resignations, sackings and expulsions to rats fleeing a sinking ship …

But that would be unfair to rats.

Hat-tip: Raincoat Optimism

Nick Griffin confesses BNP is "cash struck" as party fails to pay invoices

2:26pm Sat August 7th

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Those BNP-watchers signed up to Griffenfurher’s email list will be familiar with the hallmarks of a message from the Great Leader, notably the (multiple) appeals for donations.

But with court cases threatening to tip the party over the edge, Griffin’s latest missive to his “fellow British patriots” ranks as the most desperate yet. As already reported by Scrapbook last month, Griffin himself describes the existential threat to the party, confessing to supporters for the first time that the party has been unable to honour outstanding invoices:

The party is now suffering acute legal and financial pressure … The impact of [court cases] on our finances is severe … Some of the money we had allocated to pay other pressing bills had to be diverted to this most urgent fight. In short, we are cash struck … We need to raise £150,000 to keep the wolves at bay and to ensure our survival.

Help to shove Griffin and company into the abyss:

Readers can donate to Hope Not Hate here.

BNP hit with £170,000 bill for Marmite legal case

11:47am Sun July 18th

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The Sunday Mirror reports today that Unilever have reached an out of court settlement with the British National Party over the unauthorised use of the Marmite brand in an election advertisement, understood to be worth up to £170,000. Given the party’s extant financial troubles, what led Griffinfurher on the kamikaze course of a legal dispute with a multinational corporation?

It seems the oiks were obsessed with revenge against Unilever, whose advertising campaign (video) featuring the leader of a fictional “Hate Party” bore, it was claimed, a remarkable resemblance to Mr. Griffin.

Scrapbook wonders what gave him that impression?

A clasped-hand pose surrounded by the book shelf and desk stand, the flag and the war medals. Just where have we seen that before?

Déjà vu!

BNP finances in disarray as party "fails to pay staff"

2:37pm Wed July 14th

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The finances of the British National Party are lurching from bad to worse following reports its staff were not paid last month, sparking speculation on nationalist websites that the party could go bankrupt. With the leadership struggling to manage a ballooning turnover, profligacy and calamitous legal cases have laid waste to a reported income of £1.9 million. While BNP staffers work out how to get by without any money, a fundraising consultant brought in by Führer Griffin is still being paid £162,000 per year.

The string of cock-ups that have brought the party to the precipice have been reported elsewhere but are worth recapping. The party faced a bill of up to £100,000 after its legal struggle with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Even after members voted to ditch whites-only membership in February, the equalities body claims the party has not gone far enough. If the High Court finds the BNP in breach of the EHRC’s order then it faces having its assets seized. The costs the party would face until it complies are eye watering: up to £1,000 per day for a legal commissioner and £3,000 per day for its assets to be held. A settlement for an unfair dismissal case brought by former staffer Michaela Mackenzie has still not been paid.

With his organisation up financial sh*t creek, what was the Great Leaders’s masterplan? Nick Griffin’s next move was to deliberately start another legal dispute with a multinational corporation! The unauthorised use of Marmite branding in a party advert, a reference to the party’s supposed “love them or hate them” appeal, cost the BNP a reported £168,000 [The Mirror mow report that a settlement, between £70,000 and £170,000 has now been reached] after legal action by Unilever. The party first claimed the advert was a spoof before – realising the financial implications of their stunt – denying responsibility for adding a jar of yeast extract to the video:

Legal action over the BNP's use of Marmite in a party ad cost the party £168,000

The tale of the BNP’s financial troubles has been given added piquancy by the emergence of the head of the party’s elections department as a leadership challenger to Nick Griffin. Eddy Butler has the backing of heavyweights such as Nick Cass, described as the “face of the party”owing to the use of his family in leaflets and their appearance on the documentary BNP Wives. The insurgency against Griffin raises the hilarious prospect of disgruntled oiks doing the job of anti-fascists such as Searchlight for them by washing the BNP’s dirty linen in public.

Butler has already likened the party’s finances to “the Bermuda Triangle, where all this money goes into it and nothing comes out again”!