Sep/10
13:38 14
The legal notice which could send Nick Griffin to jail
The BNP have released copies of a legal notice and letter in their battle with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. The documents set in chain processes that could culminate in the imprisonment of Nick Griffin along with BNP Deputy Chairman Simon Darby and party officer Tanya Lumby.
The July letter follows a visit by the EHRC’s legal team to Nick Griffin’s home in Welshpool. The Great Leader has since been served with the notice to “show good reason why an order for your committal to prison should not be made”.
Would you like porridge with that, Nick?
Aug/10
18:40 8
Nick Griffin spins for his life as fellow MEP Andrew Brons fails to back him
Regular readers will be familiar with the recurrent comedy provided by Nick Griffin’s emails to his “fellow British patriots”. Perhaps party bosses have been struggling with the internets since their web designer quit in May (taking their entire online presence with him) but for some reason they thought mocking up their leader in a jail cell using Photoshop was a good idea:
The reprisal of the legal battle with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission could see Griffin and other party officials jailed for contempt or court. Text of the “Urgent appeal by Andrew Brons MEP” sheds more light on the desperate state of mind amongst the shrinking cabal leading the party. At first appearances, Brons’ email would suggest he is opposed to the ongoing insurgency against the party leadership:
“Splinter groups have been trying unsuccessfully to win over those of our members who were unhappy about the changes in the membership criteria. However, the changes were passed at an Extraordinary General Meeting almost unanimously … The issue did not divide us.”
However the BNP’s second parliamentarian appeared to distance himself from the remarks yesterday. The statement, written “some time ago”, was reportedly released now to suggest that Brons was backing Griffin in the party’s internal struggles. For him to row back from the email in public is plain embarrassing.
“The reference I made to ‘splinter groups’ in the appeal letter for money did not refer to individuals or factions within the BNP but to outside organisations who were seeking to poach our members on the basis of the membership criteria issue.”
As Scrapbook pointed out to him this afternoon, Führer Griffin should probably start getting used to confined spaces.
From the looks of him a hunger strike wouldn’t be unwelcome either.
Aug/10
09:06 9
Get your popcorn ready: is the BNP self destructing?
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.
Aug/10
14:26 10
Nick Griffin confesses BNP is “cash struck” as party fails to pay invoices
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.
Jul/10
09:23 5
French jobs for British workers: Nick Griffin’s irony free holiday
So it appears the MEP we just love to hate has been having a little time off with his family in France. And who can blame him, what with the stress of his party wanting to boot him out, pending legal cases and Her Majesty the Queen telling him to f*** off when he’d already rented a morning suit for her garden party. Apologising for his lack of Twitter posts, Griffin had this to say about his time abroad:
“Ex pat Brit in car hire place very pro Bnp and so upgraded my pre booked car to a convertable [sic] for free.”
Notwithstanding the fact that the BNP leader is setting himself up for a possible breach of European Parliament gift rules, it would appear Mr Griffin is a firm supporter of “French jobs for British workers”. These racist “indigenous” Britons working as car hire clerks in France.
Just where are they flocking from?
Jul/10
18:06 7
Nick Griffin ambushed by Peter Tatchell
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has confronted BNP leader Nick Griffin, calling him a “gutless coward”. Mr. Griffin was emerging from BBC studios in Westminster when Mr. Tatchell approached him, asking “Isn’t it about time you apologised to the British people for your party’s long history of anti-Semitism, homophobia and attacks on the Muslim community?” Two of Mr. Griffin’s entourage then grabbed and pushed Mr. Tatchell as the BNP leader left the building.
The presence of camera lenses has never deterred BNP thugs.
Jul/10
11:47 12
BNP hit with £170,000 bill for Marmite legal case
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!
Jul/10
14:37 8
BNP finances in disarray as party “fails to pay staff”
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”!
Jul/10
09:23 7
Pressure mounts on Nick Griffin to resign
Nathan Trout reports on the growing threats to the BNP leader
After Mark “Nazi boy” Collett’s fantastic assassination plots turned into a public relations nightmare, senior members of the BNP are seeking a more traditional route to oust Chairman Nick Griffin. In numerous articles on his website, BNP elections officer Eddy Butler is urging fellow oiks to call for Führer Griffin’s resignation, clearing his own path to the leadership.
Eddy Butler
Butler is sniping for Griffin following an abysmal performance in this year’s local and national elections and legal struggles which have left the party up financial shit creek without a paddle. He also claims the BNP has effectively been out of action for a year, which does seem a little unfair. After all, they beat up an Asian boy on the campaign trail and threw a reporter out of a press conference in February because he wrote mean things about them.
As the party’s so-called “Election guru”, for Butler to blame someone else for the BNP’s trouncing is for the pot to call the kettle coloured black. He should reflect on a defeat grounded in the vast majority of British people finding his party’s policies to be utterly abhorrent.
Thankfully, Britains Nazi’s seem to hate each other as much as they hate immigrants.
Feb/10
09:19 152
Media relations the BNP way
Moments after receiving a personal invitation into a BNP press conference from Deputy Chairman Simon Darby, a reporter for The Times was promptly set upon by party enforcers, one of whom “tried to remove [the reporter's nose] from [his] face”:
“I’ve just looked in the mirror at the Burger King where I am filing this story and spotted the blood drying on my face. I never thought I would actually get my nose bloodied trying to cover a press conference for a British political party — but that is the true face of Nick Griffin and his BNP.” – Dominic Kennedy
Kennedy was assaulted as London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook took exception to an article by one of the reporter’s Times colleagues. The item in question quotes Barking MP Margaret Hodge, the target of an election challenge by Nick Griffin, as saying: “I am really fearful that if they get a hold here, Barking would become a no-go area for the rest of Britain. They bring division and violence.”
Way to prove her wrong, eh Nick?
UPDATE 14:41 Just found this video showing the incident:
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