BNP leader calls for white people to "maim and blow things up"

If you want a reason not to vote BNP in May, this is it.
From the excellent anti-racist group Expose the BNP:

Nick Griffin, British National Party leader and election candidate for Barking and Dagenham, says white people "with a legitimate grievance" have the right "to hurt people, to maim and blow things up".

BNP supporters "have a right to take up arms, arguably in fact a duty to take up arms", using "physical force" against their enemies, he says.
Griffin's chilling words were caught on film by the journalist Dominic Carman, who spent days interviewing and videotaping the racist leader.
Given the news yesterday of the death threats bandied about by BNP leaders, the findings from this investigation provide further evidence that violence is at the core of the party's politics.

The revelations of Griffin's call for armed resistance follow the jailing of BNP member Terence Gavan in January for terrorist offences after he accumulated a stockpile of bombs and weapons. Next week [12 April], white supremacist Ian Davison is on trial for producing the deadly poison ricin.

Posted today in the New Statesman

BBC plunged into BNP election row (UK)

Senior BBC journalists are furious that the BNP leader Nick Griffin is being guaranteed prime time interview slots in compensation for his omission from the first ever televised prime ministerial debates.

A new directive issued by corporation executives forces the editors of flagship news programmes to give airtime to minority parties, including the BNP, immediately after the live debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Insiders have revealed they are deeply unhappy and believe that the edict – overseen by the BBC's deputy director general and head of journalism Mark Byford – could wreck proper reporting of the debates.

The editors and presenters on Radio 4's Today programme have been told they must interview representatives of the BNP, Ukip, the Green party, SNP and Plaid Cymru on the same show, the morning after the debates.

Sources said this will leave almost no room for serious discussion of how the mainstream leaders performed.
One source said: "We're all spitting feathers here. This is further proof that the BBC's obsession with 'compliance' is destroying its news coverage and journalism.
"The only result of this directive from Mark Byford and the rest of the overpaid detached senior management is that listeners will simply switch off in droves.
"The idea of having to interview the Ukip leader Nigel Farage – let alone Nick Griffin – is turning people's stomachs."

Another senior source added: "People are very angry indeed. The Today programme has an audience of 6.5 million people and everybody knows it is easily the most important of the BBC's morning news programmes.

"And yet it is being treated like the man at the Lord Mayor's Show who has to walk behind the main parade sweeping up the muck with a bucket and a shovel. "The Today programme is being used to assuage the minority parties rather than doing what it is meant to which is analysing the performance of the three main party leaders."
In addition to the Today Programme slot, the minority parties, including the BNP, will be given air time immediately after the debate on BBC One's News at Ten as well as on Newsnight on BBC Two – both of which will inevitably attract large audiences.

The directive will infuriate campaigners who believe the BBC has already pandered to Mr Griffin by allowing him to appear on Question Time last year.
The BBC was accused of needlessly giving Mr Griffin the oxygen of publicity to boost ratings.
Under the new rules, the nationalist parties will also get their own local television leadership debates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
There will be three, 90-minute televised debates, each taking place a week apart in the run up to the election expected on 6 May.
The first will be broadcast on ITV1, the second on Sky News and the third on BBC One, each on different topics.
The BBC will screen the debates on rival channels later that evening 'as live' which will then be followed by further discussion with the fringe parties.
BBC insiders fear they will have to give the minority parties compensatory airtime after each of the three debates – not just following the BBC contest, although that has been denied by the corporation.

The BBC defended its decision to give slots to the minority parties, saying it was necessary to maintain impartiality.
Ric Bailey, the BBC's chief political adviser, said: "This [row] is a complete nonsense. This is about the BBC ensuring due impartiality to make sure the other parties get fair representation."
"During an election we have a very high threshold for making sure that minority parties – based on their electoral support – get appropriate coverage.
"Because this [debate] is so new and different we are trying to plan this ahead. In the past it would have been a judgment for each programme. This time we are making sure in advance where and when these parties will get coverage."

Sky News sources said the channel would also have to accommodate the minority parties in the wake of the debates but since it has 24 hours of rolling news, little in the way of analysis will be sacrificed to make space for them.
The source said: “We have a lot of airtime – 24 hours a day in fact – so it’s relatively easy for us to reflect the views of the minority parties.”

ITV was unavailable for comment.

The Telegraph

BNP members have foothold in schools, say teachers

NUT delegates say BNP members should be banned from becoming teachers or governors

British National Party members have gained a foothold in schools across some parts of the country, teachers warned today.
Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) – the biggest classroom union – argued that teachers or parent governors who sympathised with the BNP should be banned from schools.
Last month, ministers ruled out banning members of the far right party from the teaching profession, after an independent inquiry into racism in schools decided such a move would be disproportionate.

But Jason Hill, a teacher in Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, which has eight BNP councillors, told the NUT's annual conference in Liverpool that there were "a number" of school governors from the far right party in his area and he believed they should be stripped of their posts.
"We haven't succeeded in removing a single one," he said. "Members of the BNP should be barred from this position."
Prison officers are not allowed to be members of the BNP; the same should be the case for those who work in education, he said. "There is a duty on governors and teachers to promote positive community relations. Those who can't accept these values should be banned."

Teachers from Derby, in the East Midlands, and Dudley, in the West Midlands, said they knew of BNP sympathisers working in education.
Jayne Sinden, a teacher from Dudley, said she came into teaching to "make the world a better place" and was "not going to let those Nazis stop me doing that".
But Jean Roberts, a teacher from Hammersmith and Fulham, in west London, said, while she detested the BNP's views, it was a legal party. "I don't believe the NUT should call on the state to bar teachers from joining a presently legal political party.
"To remove such a basic civil right, the right of association, something trade unionists find especially precious, is in my view a grossly disproportionate response. But more importantly, it gives the BNP a credibility it does not deserve."

The union was debating a resolution stating that the BNP, and other similar organisations, posed a threat to community relations. It called on the union to "reaffirm its belief" that being a member of an organisation like the BNP "is incompatible with the role of a teacher, or other member of a school staff, in a democratic and multiracial society".
An amendment to the motion called for the NUT to lobby the government to enact legislation to ban members of parties like the BNP from working in teaching.
The NUT did not pass the resolution or the amendment, after running out of time for the debate.
Last month, ministers said the issue of whether those who belong to racist organisations should be prevented from teaching – as they are from working as police or prison officers – would be reviewed annually.
But a separate inquiry has been announced into whether measures to stop racism being promoted in independent schools are adequate, provoking an angry response from representatives of the private sector.

In his review for the government, Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said he had decided banning teachers from being BNP members would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut".
Paul Golding, BNP communications officer, said: "It's a dangerous road to go down: once you start banning based on political beliefs where does it end? Isn't that the sort of thing always lambasted by democratic politicians, banning people based on political beliefs?"

The Guardian

BNP officers unite ‘unanimously’ after anti-Collett hate session

The British National Party’s sacked head of publicity set up a series of front companies apparently with the intention of “skimming off” printing bills, yesterday’s special meeting of the British National Party heard.

Party officers and organisers gathering near Coventry were told that a copy of a tape recording of a conversation between Mark Collett and the party treasurer David Hannam was in the hands of the police who “would be able to investigate a number of potential crimes including threats to murder, assault, fraud and falsification of accounts”, according to a BNP statement issued afterwards.
The meeting had not been allowed to hear the tape and draw its own conclusions, however, but appointed a “four man strong subcommittee” to listen to it and report back on its “full contents and implications”. Its spokesman Michael Simpkins, a BNP town councillor in Corsham, Wiltshire, declared the tape was genuine.

The BNP statement left several questions unanswered, above all why Eddy Butler has been replaced as the party’s national organiser and national elections officer by Clive Jefferson, the North West regional organiser. Members were told that Butler was “still very much with the BNP and is set to play a leading role in the party’s attempt to take control of the Barking and Dagenham council”. However Butler has not issued any personal statement.
Last November Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, announced that Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member, would spearhead the party’s Barking and Dagenham council campaign. Presumably he has not been producing the canvassing returns Griffin expects.
Griffin read out a statement from Emma Colgate, who resigned as party manager last week, warning that “fake Facebook and YouTube accounts” were being set up in her name “with the obvious intention of sowing confusion”. Despite her continuing important role, running the BNP’s campaign in Thurrock, she was apparently not at the meeting.
BNP members have clearly not been told the full story about the abrupt departures of Butler and Colgate from national party positions and the party’s EU payroll, and their connection with Collett’s “misdemeanours”.
Another omission from the statement is any reference to Jim Dowson, the BNP’s fundraising and management consultant, whose extensive financial hold over the BNP makes him in effect the party’s owner. Last week’s BNP organisers’ bulletin, which first announced Collett’s suspension, referred to a threat to the “personal safety” of both Griffin and Dowson and there have been suggestions since then that it was Dowson who discovered Collett’s financial irregularities.
Collett has long been accused of making a profit at the party’s expense and of being very poor at the graphic design and leaflet production that are a major part of his role, but Griffin has only listened to the allegations now. That may be because Griffin was in desperate need of a scapegoat to allay dissent in the party following his disastrous performance on Question Time last year, his capitulation to the Equality and Human Rights Commission over changing the party’s racist constitution, accusations from members that the central party apparatus is appropriating branch funds, questions about Dowson’s control over the party and Griffin’s very own EU parliamentary expenses scandal.
After venting their “hate” for Collett, in events reminiscent of Geroge Orwell’s 1984, the party united “unanimously” behind Griffin, according to the BNP’s statement, and will contest 326 constituencies in the general election on 6 May.

As for Collett, he claims to be “completely loyal” to the party and willing to help people with local publicity material in the run-up to the elections. “There is currently a smear campaign against me,” is all he has said publicly so far.
Collett had been lined up to contest the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency against David Blunkett in the general election but has been replaced by John Sheldon, a Sheffield BNP activist.

The events of the past few days are far more than the sort of differences of opinion and personality clashes that any political party suffers. Griffin constantly claims he is the leader of a moderate, non-violent organisation, but it is difficult to see how he can square that assertion with his statement to the police that his own head of publicity has been threatening to kill him. The BNP remains a party full of thugs.

Hope Not Hate

Politician lodges complaint over BNP using wife's photograph

THE former leader of the British National Party in Stoke-on-Trent has lodged a formal complaint against four party members.

Councillor Alby Walker, who quit the BNP in February, made the complaint to Stoke-on-Trent City Council's top legal officer.
Mr Walker, pictured, alleges that current BNP group leader councillor Michael Coleman and BNP councillors Philip Sandland, Steve Batkin and Anthony Simmonds breached the members' code of conduct.

The allegation relates to recent campaigning ahead of elections.
It states party activists distributed a newspaper, with a picture of Mr Walker's wife without permission.
Councillor Ellie Walker left the party last month to join her husband as a non-aligned councillor.

She said at the time that the BNP leadership had mounted a smear campaign against her husband, who is running against the far-right party's national deputy leader, Simon Darby, for the Stoke-on-Trent Central Parliamentary seat in the General Election.
Mr Walker said: "This complaint arises from the BNP distributing 18,000 newspapers with Ellie's photograph prominently displayed on the front page, promoting BNP policy, even though at the time she was not part of the BNP group.
"The four BNP councillors were identified as delivering this newspaper by several residents and two serving city councillors."
Mr Coleman told The Sentinel the BNP distributed the newspapers at the end of March, and he was not aware at the time Mrs Walker had left the party.
This is Staffordshire

David Cameron's Prague spring (UK Politics)

Chris Grayling would fit in well with David Cameron's new allies in eastern Europe. On the Radio 4 Today programme yesterday morning, Michael Heseltine airily dismissed a question about the Conservatives breaking links with their sister parties in eastern Europe as something that no voter was interested in. Maybe, but the judgment call of David Cameron in crawling into bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner with weird rightwing nationalist populists does deserve greater scrutiny.
We know about the dubious record on the Holocaust of Michal Kaminski, who leads the Tory MEPs in the European parliament. We know that Cameron's Latvian allies join in the annual commemoration of the Waffen-SS in Vilnius. Now, the latest example of the unpleasant nature of the Conservatives' new chums in Europe comes from Prague.

There, Mirek Topolanek has been forced to stand down as leader of his party (ODS in Czech) just ahead of crucial elections. The reason? Like Grayling, he made unacceptable remarks about a gay transport minister in the current Czech government. He also sneered at the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, as "the Jew". Fischer's son has reacted furiously to the antisemitic tone of Cameron's Czech mate.
David and Mirek are close buddies. Last spring, Cameron went to Prague to stand side by side with Topolanek to launch their breakaway Movement for European Reform. The ODS hero is the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus. He is a climate change denier and virulently anti-EU. During the communist era, unlike the other Vaclav – Havel, who led the resistance against totalitarianism – Klaus worked for the communist regime.

Klaus discovered his rightwing anti-European views once Havel had helped bring down communism. For William Hague, who was instructed by Cameron to destroy the Tory alliance with Germany's ruling CDU party or France's ruling UMP party, the ODS, whose hero is the Eurosceptic Thatcher-admiring Klaus, was a natural partner. When Angela Merkel came to London last weekend, she refused to meet Cameron. Before May 1997, every European leader wanted to be seen with Tony Blair. In 2010, no one want to know Cameron, who will poison Britain's business and trade relations with Europe if he becomes prime minister.
Cameron's friend in Prague is exposed as someone with views on gays and Jews that should put him beyond the pale in decent European politics. But the massive shift to the right in European politics – evidenced by the racist and anti-Jewish BNP and xenophobic Ukip wins in the European parliamentary elections last June is altering the British political landscape.
The PiS party in Poland is the main ally of the Conservatives. But whenever PiS politicians have gained power, they have targeted gays. As mayor of Warsaw, the PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, banned Gay Pride marches and the PiS MEP Kaminski uses the term "paed " – a homophobic Polish slang word that needs no translation – to denigrate opponents.

Like Jean-Marie Le Pen, who first coined the word "federaste" to attack supporters of the European Union in France, the right in Europe lurches from nationalist populism, via homophobia, to hate of Muslims and unacceptable language about Jews; it indulges in a constant rant against the EU and Brussels to create a witches' brew of intolerance and political nihilism.
One can understand why Lord Heseltine wishes to see all this brushed under the carpet, and why Cameron prays every morning to the British news editors who refuse to examine and expose the Tory links to the new hard right in Europe with its rampant xeno- and homophobia.
Tory MEPs also refuse to support measures in the European parliament aimed at supporting gay rights and other equality measures. Again, there is simply no coverage of what is said and done in the European parliament and what would cause uproar if spoken on the floor of the House of Commons passes unnoticed in Strasbourg.

Whereas Topolanek's homophobia has forced his resignation there is no inkling that Cameron is willing to take action against Grayling. But someone should dig up the pictures of David and Mirket as they toasted the launch of their new party. The Czech ODS members have forced Topolanek to go ahead of their election. Are there any decent Tories out there who will say it is also time for Grayling to be removed from the frontbench? And will Chris Patten, who is now attacking Gordon Brown, say anything, but anything, about his party leader's alliance with some of the nastiest extremists operating in European politics?
The Guardian

Homophobia ‘endemic’ in Merseyside schools warn teachers (UK)

HOMOPHOBIC bullying has become “endemic” in Merseyside’s secondary schools teachers admitted last night.

And the Daily Post can exclusively reveal that almost one in three teaching staff working in Wirral, Liverpool and Warrington schools claim to hear pupils openly using homophobic language on a daily basis and 15% witness a pupil being abused every day just for being gay.
Last night union chiefs called for more training and teaching resources to be devoted to tackling homophobia which they claim is being made worse by some teachers’ watered down use of the word “gay”.
The claims comes as we exclusively reveal the findings of a North West survey of the National Union Of Teachers – around of third of which hailed from high schools in Liverpool, Wirral and Warrington.

The individual results of the three areas will be released in May and last night NUT officials said they will mirror the shocking results of the collective North West survey which found homophobic bullying is rife.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Post, Jeff Evans, the NUT’s North West lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advisor said the figures made a mockery of findings from Liverpool council’s annual anti-bullying audit of five to 19-year-olds.

The council’s audit showed the number of people citing their sexuality as a reason for being singled out has dropped from 6% to 4% and bullies admitting picking on a pupil because they are gay falling from 7% to 3%.
He applauded council-backed measures to tackle the problem but he said it was clear teachers needed more resources to combat the problem in a region reeling from the murder of gay teenager Michael Causer in Huyton two years ago and the brutal homophobic city-centre attack last October on PC James Parkes.

He said: “The results will show that like the North West, in Liverpool, Wirral and Warrington homophobia is endemic in schools. To suggest the problem is actually falling when every piece of evidence we have suggests the opposite is ill founded.”
The homophobia Liverpool, Wirral and Warrington teachers complained of he said “covered the whole spectrum” ranging from name calling to “assault”.


The survey of 740 teachers found that 31% of teachers overheard derogatory homophobic language coming from pupils’ every day, while nearly one in seven saw a child suffering homophobic abuse on a daily basis.
Teachers are also being abused due to their sexuality, with 3% complaining they are targeted every day.

Almost 70% agreed homophobia must not be allowed to go unchallenged but less than half felt confident enough to tackle a pupil on the issue.
Mr Evans added: “Teachers by definition address ignorance and are crying out to be given the tools to tackle this issue. If you don’t address the fear it festers in the tragic way it has been seen on the streets of your city.”
He called on schools to “celebrate difference” such as ensuring events like February’s annual LGBT History Month were marked in the classroom.

Liverpool council has received plaudits for tackling homophobia.
Gordon Brown earlier this year gave particular praise for the work it has commissioned educational charity Ariel Trust to do on its behalf – specifically its Denial learning pack addressing the issue of homophobic bullying and a vehicle for debate in English lessons.
The film and lesson plan charts the tragic story of a pupil targeted by bullies in the mistaken belief he is gay.
Ariel Trust director, Paul Ainsworth said the anti-bullying audit homophobia figures should be seen in context.
“Things like Denial are a positive case of making it easier for teachers to teach these issues. I don’t think anyone at the council is trying to argue homophobia has been sorted but what their statistics show is the positive start made and the local authority are saying ‘let’s build on that’.”

Liverpool Daily Post

Eugene Terreblanche 'killers' in South Africa court

Two South Africans are due to be formally charged with the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche.

The two farm workers, aged 28 and 15, have admitted beating him to death in a dispute over unpaid wages, police say.
There is a heavy police presence outside the court in the north-western town of Ventersdorp, after the killing raised racial tensions in the country.
Members of Terreblanche's paramilitary AWB organisation are also there. They refuse to speak to black journalists.
The AWB - Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or Afrikaner Resistance Movement - on Monday retracted its initial threat to take revenge for Mr Terreblanche's killing.

However, it blames ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for contributing to the killing by recently singing a song from the anti-apartheid struggle called "Shoot the Boer".

Boer is an Afrikaans word for farmer, which has become a derogatory term for all white people.
Mr Malema has denied any responsibility for Mr Terreblanche's death and the ANC argues that the song does not incite people to kill but is part of the country's history and the fight against white minority rule.

It is planning to appeal against a court judgement banning the song as hate speech.
The authorities are keen to stress that the killing appears to be a criminal, rather than a politically motivated, act.
President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm and condemned the killing.
Mr Terreblanche, 69, was fiercely opposed to the end of apartheid in South Africa, which led to the ANC winning the country's first democratic elections in 1994 and Nelson Mandela becoming the country's first black president.
He served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.

He is due to be buried on Friday.

BBC News

Racist thugs sent to jail at long last (Scotland, UK)

TWO racist thugs who were sentenced to five years in prison for a brutal racist attack on an Asian man in 2006 are finally behind bars – but only after their sentence was reduced.

John Anderson and Ryan Wickstead were found guilty of punching, kicking and stamping on Khalid Iqbal, leaving the innocent victim permanently disfigured.

The pair launched a marathon appeal against their convictions, which they lost in December, but remained free as lawyers appealed the length of their sentences.
The five-year terms originally imposed on them were cut to 45 months by judges at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
Lord Eassie, sitting with Lord Hardie, said they were cutting the jail time "with some hesitation" as it "was a serious and vicious attack which was racially aggravated".

Ethnic community leaders today welcomed the move to finally jail the men despite the sentences being cut.
Anderson, 24, of Cathcart Place, Dalry, and Wickstead, 23, of Robertson Avenue, Gorgie, were released on bail in spring 2007 while they waited for an appeal.

The men served less than nine months of their five-year sentences from August 2006, after lawyers argued they should be free while the appeal was ongoing.
Jalal Chaudry, the Edinburgh and East of Scotland representative on the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "I am pleased that these two men are finally behind bars. The sentence has been reduced but the time spent outside waiting for the results of their appeal and worrying about it was no doubt difficult for them. So the 45-month sentence along with this long wait is probably the same as a five-year sentence.

"It's still a concern that two people found guilty were free for so long as they may have offended again during that time."
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: "I'm pleased that this case has finally been disposed of, but I'm seriously concerned that the appeal process took such an inordinate length of time."

Solicitor advocate John Scott, pleading for leniency at court yesterday, said Wickstead had been in no further trouble and had a new partner suffering from postnatal depression following the birth of their child seven months ago.
But, ruling that prison was inevitable, Lord Eassie said: "This was a serious and vicious attack which was racially aggravated."
The attack in May 2005 was described by the sheriff who jailed them as "an affront to civilised society". Anderson and Wickstead, along with Bradley McLennan, were found guilty of attacking Mr Iqbal in Wardlaw Street in May 2005 to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
McLennan, who has already served his sentence in a young offender's unit, also lost his appeal against conviction in December.

Mr Iqbal, then 23, had been walking in Gorgie with his white girlfriend when Anderson and McLennan began hurling abuse.
Joined by Wickstead, the drunken trio followed him to a flat before kicking in the common stair door and attacking the victim, leaving him lying in a pool of blood.

As they left, Anderson told Mr Iqbal's girlfriend: "Ha ha, your P*** boyfriend is dead.
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