Norfolk Unity

Footage used to raise money

Grieving Jessica Deans has blasted the BNP for using a photo of her fiancé’s coffin to plug their hateful policies. The picture – taken at the funeral of marine Liam Elms – appears in an online video to drum up election support for the far-right party. But Jessica branded it an outrage – and his family insist the fallen hero would have raged against the BNP’s loathsome views.

Corporal Liam, 26, was killed by a roadside bomb while battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Jessica, a 22-year-old nurse, said: “I find it an outrage that an image of Liam’s coffin on the day of his funeral is being used as propaganda for the BNP’s personal gain.”

And Liam’s father Michael, 51, said: “We haven’t give our permission for them to use any coverage of Liam’s funeral on this video. It’s out of order that the picture has been put in the public domain and for the BNP to use it for political gain is not on. It feels like an easy way for the BNP to get people involved in their party and to make money.”

The video has been watched thousands of times since it was put on the BNP website and YouTube last week. Party leader Nick Griffin shamelessly uses it in a plea for cash to bolster his election fund. The photo shows Liam’s coffin – draped in a Union Flag – being carried by three comrades.

Griffin, who was filmed in front of a portrait of Winston Churchill, describes the Afghan conflict as “a ludicrous no-win war” and pledges to end British involvement. And as Liam’s coffin flashes on screen, he says: “We need our coffers filled so we can afford to fight every single seat we should be fighting up and down the country.”

But Liam’s dad – who also served in the forces – said: “I’m angry with the BNP because what they are saying is the complete opposite of what Liam wanted. Liam’s last words to me were, ‘I’m where I want to be, doing what I want to do with the people I want to be with. Don’t worry’.”

Michael added: “Any party that says the troops should be brought out without any power being in place to look after local Afghans is going against what our boys are fighting for.”

Liam died on New Year’s Eve 2008 on patrol in Helmand with 45 Commando and Afghan troops. The photo used by the BNP was taken at his funeral last January – when he was hailed a “true patriot”. Hundreds of mourners packed St Joseph’s church in his home town of Wrightington, Lancs, and more than 150 had to wait outside.

Liam’s mum Maureen, 52, said: “I would love all the soldiers in Afghanistan to come home safe. But they have chosen to do a job out there and they will stay until the Afghans are safe.”

Liam’s family are asking people who want to help British troops to support legitimate charities such as Help For Heroes, the Royal Marine Benevolent Fund and the British Legion – not the BNP. His sister Rachael, 28, has raised £20,000 for Help For Heroes by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. And she plans to raise more in a 900-mile London-Geneva bike ride – www.justgiving.com/rachael-elms – this year.

The BNP tried to play down the row over Liam’s coffin. An official said: “The picture was intended to be representative of a problem we’re trying to give our view on – it is not homing in on an individual. No offence was intended to the family.”

People

A student debate featuring two BNP politicians has been cancelled amid fears of violence.

Durham Union Society (DUS) abandoned plans for a multiculturalism debate after urgent talks with police. The Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group had vowed to stop the event, and DUS president Anna Birley said the National Union of Students (NUS) planned to send coachloads of students into Durham, putting them between the rival groups.

She said she was confident the debate would have been intelligent, responsible and an opportunity for students to challenge offensive views; and was disappointed the focus had become the threatened confrontation outside.

Simon Assas, from the UAF, called it a victory for common sense and for people who wanted to stand up against racism and fascism. He said a Jewish student had reported a changed atmosphere on campus since the debate was announced.

However, a BNP spokesman said the enemies of free speech had won the day and that students would not like the “book-burners of the UAF dictating what they can and cannot listen to”.

Police said they did not ask for the debate to be cancelled.

Many students are angry it has been called off. A Facebook group called Durham University Students for Freedom of Speech quickly gained more than 1,900 members. Co-founder Paul Nicholls called for a peaceful protest against what he said was the NUS betrayal of students outside the chamber on the day the debate would have been held.

NUS president Wes Streeting said the NUS believed there was no place on university campuses for the BNP; and that the idea the NUS, rather than the BNP, had caused a welfare and public order issue was preposterous.

University registrar Carolyn Fowler said the university was not prepared to provide an occasion for extremist groups to engage in provocative and intimidating demonstrations, and that it supported the DUS decision.

The debate was due to take place this Friday. Speakers were to be Kulveer Ranger, an advisor to Boris Johnson, Conservative MP Edward Leigh, BNP MEP Andrew Brons and Chris Beverley, a BNP councillor in Leeds.

Northern Echo

A British poll suggests one-third of adults in the country confuse the leader of the British National Party with the protagonist from TV’s “Family Guy.”

Money saving Web site MyVoucherCodes.com said its survey of 1,498 people found one-third of respondents identified a picture of party leader Nick Griffin with the name of animated TV character Peter Griffin, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

The Web site said Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the most recognized politician, with 81 percent of respondents matching his name to his face, but his recognition rate fell short of the 84 percent claimed by cage fighter Alex Reid.

“The fact that Katia Ivanova, who is famous for having slept with a Rolling Stone, is better known that (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice) Jack Straw and (Home Secretary) Alan Johnson put together is indicative of the fact that the public are heavily influenced by the media,” said Mark Pearson, managing director of the Web site. “It isn’t for us to judge whether or not this is right or wrong, but put forward the facts: one of which being that a third of people think that Peter Griffin is the leader of the BNP.”

UPI

A grandmother working for the BNP at City Hall is feared to be behind plans to unite far-Right activists in advance of the general election. Tess Culnane, dubbed a “neo-Nazi granny” by her rivals after being a member of the BNP and National Front, has been recruited as an aide by London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.

Opponents of the BNP believe this suggests that factional infighting has ended, allowing the party to focus on the general election and borough elections. BNP leader Nick Griffin is challenging Labour minister Margaret Hodge for the Barking seat, while the party aims to build on its councillors in boroughs such as Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge.

Mrs Culnane, a grandmother of 12 from Mottingham, who is believed to be in her seventies, is working part-time at City Hall as an agency worker.

She was a strong supporter of former BNP leader John Tyndall and has stood in London Assembly, European and council elections. She was the National Front candidate in the Haltemprice and Howden, Yorkshire, by-election in 2008 that was called after then shadow home secretary David Davis quit and then retained his seat.

In a pre-Euro election speech last year, she said she and her family had suffered vandalism and crime at the hands of black neighbours since 1969 and railed against “the tragedy that has hit my family through multiculturalism”. She added: “Many British families are suffering the scourge of multiculturalism. The British bulldog has had its nose rubbed in the dirt long enough.”

Speaking of Mrs Culnane’s role, Labour assembly member Murad Qureshi said: “In this instance the BNP has revealed its fascist underbelly, and voters should not be fooled by the party’s attempts to present a more moderate image.”

Former mayor Ken Livingstone, who headed an anti-BNP conference at the weekend, said: “It is a travesty that the BNP has a seat on the London Assembly to give platform to its toxic propaganda.”

Mrs Culnane declined to answer questions but said: “I’m certainly not a Nazi* — I’m a true blue patriot. If anybody called me a traitor I would be upset.”

This is London

*Our photograph shows Culnane addressing the openly Nazi British People’s Party.

Anti-racist campaigners have organised a series of counter demonstration tactics for next month’s Scottish Defence League (SDL) protest in Edinburgh. The controversial anti-Islam group is planning a demonstration in the capital on 20 February.

Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance have asked central pubs and bars in Edinburgh to ban the SDL from their premises before the demonstration.

The SDL is a sister organization of the English Defense League who describe themselves as anti-Jihadist and anti-Islam extremists.

“We are ordinary, non-racist citizens of England and supporters who have had enough of being treated as second-class citizens to the Jihadis in our own country,” the English Defense League (EDL) state on their website.

Opposing parties, such as the UAF (Unite Against Fascism), disagree. In a statement released on 20 December 2009, the UAF describes the Scottish Defence League as “a racist group with links to the fascist British National Party (BNP). The SDL is an offshoot of the English Defence League, which has a track record of whipping up race hatred against Muslims and against Asian people in general.”

In response to such classifications, Mickey Smith, who is the Cardiff Organiser of Casuals United (the online web portal of the English, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Defense Leagues) says: “SDL has been set up as a non-sectarian protest group to protest against militant Islam in partnership with our English, Welsh and Irish partners.

“The people who have launched their vile accusations or racism at us are hardcore Communists, enemies of Britain. We are non-racist, non-political, we are simply against radical violent Islamists, and we demand that the government protect us from these people.”

The SDL held a demonstration in Glasgow on 14 November 2009 (picture, above), which they reported to be a success. However, Unite Against Fascism, a campaign against the BNP and other far-right groups, reported that the attempted demonstration in Glasgow was a failure as the SDL “was heavily outnumbered by anti-fascist protesters taking to the streets.”

Among these protesters was Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who spoke at the Glasgow SDL counter-rally and said: “To the BNP, to the Scottish Defense League, to the English Defense League, to any racist Defense League, you are not welcome in Glasgow. You are not welcome anywhere in Scotland.”

The UAF invite the public to email or text in to add their signatures to the statement, which further reads: “There is no place for racists or fascists in Edinburgh’s multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious community. That is why we stand in solidarity with Edinburgh’s Muslim community and against the poisonous bigotry of the SDL.”

The EDL and SDL alike have recently opposed groups such as Islam4UK which is led by Anjem Choudary.

Recently on their website, “UK Casuals United,” the English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Defense Leagues posted an open letter to Anjem Choudary and the members of Islam4UK, offering to fund his relocation to a Middle Eastern country where Sharia Law is practiced and urging him to give up his British passport and citizenship.

The EDL further insists that they are not a fascist or racist organization, however video tapes from past marches and demonstrations show EDL protesters making Nazi salutes.

The Journal

British National Party candidates should not be invited to election hustings in church halls, the Church of England has told clergy.

Vicars have also been warned to avoid talking to members of the far-right party or being caught photographed with them, in case the images are used in their campaign leaflets. The Church fears the BNP, which won two seats in the European Parliament last year, is trying to shrug off its extremist image by portraying itself as a “guardian of British Christian heritage”.

In response, the Archbishops’ Council has issued detailed guidance on how clergy should deal with “far right political parties, extremist groups and racist politics”. It comes after the Church’s governing body, the General Synod, voted a year ago to ban clergy and lay workers from joining organisations that “contradict the duty to promote race equality”.

The Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs, said: “The note is advisory and seeks to enable church leaders to discern an appropriate course of action within areas where community relations are often fragile or fragmented. Our faith calls us to develop and sustain the hope and vision that things can be different.”

The guidance, first published in 2007 but now expanded ahead of the general election and council polls in May, tells clergy that they do not have to invite BNP candidates for election hustings held in church halls as long as the other parties’ representatives declare the fact.

It states: “Churches are under no legal obligation to include the BNP in election hustings meetings, or give space to such parties for public meetings, if they consider this ‘association’ could have detrimental affect on their reputation and activities (as charities).

“If candidates participate in an event that does not include all candidates in a constituency they need to declare this on their election returns.”

The document says that if BNP candidates are elected to a local authority, priests in the area should not contact them personally and refuse any requests to hire church halls.

It says: “Church leaders need to take care when attending functions at which councillors from far-right parties may be present (not least such events as Remembrance Day services). For example: photographs of conversations can be used to imply church support for such councillors and their policies.

“It is not advisable to meet groups promoting racist policies as this gives them credibility and publicity. It is advisable not to give them a platform in churches or church buildings, as this can be used to suggest support for their policies (even by implication).”

However it adds that public sector staff have no choice who they work with and “need your prayers”.

The guidance advises clergy on how to deal with a new wave of protests by the English Defence League, which organises marches against radical Islam but which is accused of hostility to all Muslims. Its events, often attended by football hooligans, have descended into race riots.

It says: “Direct confrontation is inadvisable. Church leaders need to coordinate with police and other community leaders (particularly those being targeted) when a local demonstration is advertised. A prayer vigil followed by the advice to avoid the location of the demonstration has enabled the damage of potentially incendiary situations to be limited.”

Telegraph

British National Party supporters in Sheffield have said they will not vote for a Nazi sympathiser standing for parliament. Senior BNP figure Mark Collett, aged 29, has been parachuted into Sheffield to contest David Blunkett’s Brightside and Hillsborough seat.

The party polled well in the area in the 2008 council elections, pulling up to a quarter of votes in some wards such as Southey and Firth Park.

But readers reacted with horror when The Star revealed the Leeds-based BNP publicity director had previously expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler – even saying on tape “Hitler will live forever”, and that people in 1930s Germany were happier than in the “inner-city hell of Britain today”.

By lunchtime yesterday 50 people had commented on The Star website – with many readers arguing Labour’s failure to control immigration had led to the rise of the far-right party.

One reader from Rotherham said: “I am a BNP supporter – I have been for the last couple of years and I am not ashamed to admit it either – but I am glad I have not stayed in Sheffield if this is the sort of man we will have standing for the next election.”

A Crystal Peaks resident said: “I have voted BNP before but I won’t do again if this individual is standing in the Sheffield area. His views of Hitler are wrong, and he is not a local person so how can he know what the voters round here want?”

A Sheffield man said: “I would vote for anyone against Blunkett – but the BNP have shot themselves in the foot here. They should have had someone local with knowledge of local problems. Not this man.”

Defending his comments, Mr Collett told The Star: “That all happened a long time ago. We all say things when we are younger that we look back on and think ‘Why did I say that?’ The issues have moved on and people aren’t interested in what I may have said or not said seven or eight years ago.”

The BNP is contesting four parliamentary seats and putting up candidates for 16 Sheffield Council wards.

Council leader Paul Scriven said: “I would urge people to think very carefully at the forthcoming election before putting a cross next to the BNP because the party offers no real solutions to Sheffield’s issues and will only cause greater division.”

Sheffield Telegraph

See also: The snowball that rolled into Hell, and other notes on mental health

Simon Assaf (centre) is dragged away by two of Griffin’s group (Pic: Fil Kaler)

An anti-fascist was assaulted outside the central London county court on Thursday while protesting against Nazi British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin. Griffin was in court because he had missed the deadline to scrap the fascist BNP’s “whites only” membership policy.

Two of Griffin’s group grabbed anti-fascist demonstrator Simon Assaf around the throat and head. His glasses were crushed into his face and he was left with cuts around his eyes. Simon was part of a protest organised by Unite Against Fascism outside the court.

Simon Assaf had to go to hospital to have cuts around his eyes attended to (Pic: Fil Kaler)

He told Socialist Worker, “We wanted to show our contempt for Griffin’s racist views. He came out of the court to make a statement to the press. I moved forward shouting ‘You dirty racist’. Some of Griffin’s group went for me. They tried to drag me away so that Griffin could speak to the press uninterrupted. But protesters managed to drown him out.”

Griffin scuttled away quickly by car.

Simon had to go to hospital to have the cuts around his eyes attended to. He added, “We did nothing wrong. Griffin has been found guilty of Holocaust denial and has been tried for inciting race hatred. The BNP thinks it can attack and injure people who are exercising their right to protest. If it does this in front of the press, I hate to think what it when no one is watching.”

The judge gave the BNP a further two weeks to amend its constitution before facing a possible court injunction.

Socialist Worker

Report blames ‘Islamophobic, negative and unwarranted portrayals of Muslim London’ for increase in attacks in the capital.

A rise in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in London is being encouraged by mainstream politicians and sections of the media, a study written by a former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officer, published yesterday, says.

Attacks ranging from death threats and murder to persistent low-level assaults, such as spitting and name-calling, are in part whipped up by extremists and sections of mainstream society, the study says.

The document – from the University of Exeter’s European Muslim research centre – was written by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer and former special branch detective Dr Robert Lambert.

“The report provides prima facie and empirical evidence to demonstrate that assailants of Muslims are invariably motivated by a negative view of Muslims they have acquired from either mainstream or extremist nationalist reports or commentaries in the media,” it says.

Lambert headed Scotland Yard’s Muslim contact unit, which helped improve relations between the police and Britain’s Islamic communities.

The unit won praise from even long-standing critics of the police, and Lambert was awarded an MBE.

The study mentions no newspapers or writers by name, but alleges that the book Londonistan, by the Mail writer Melanie Phillips, played a part in triggering hate crimes.

“Islamophobic, negative and unwarranted portrayals of Muslim London as Londonistan and Muslim Londoners as terrorists, sympathisers and subversives in sections of the media appear to provide the motivation for a significant number of anti-Muslim hate crimes,” it says.

In his foreword, the rightwing journalist Peter Oborne writes: “The constant assault on Muslims from certain politicians, and above all in the mainstream media, has created an atmosphere where hate crimes, ranging from casual abuse to arson and even murder, are bound to occur and are even in a sense encouraged by mainstream society.”

The report is based on interviews with witnesses to and victims of hate crimes, as well as police officers and former members of extremist organisations such as the British National Party.

The report cites interviews with rightwing extremists to try to prove a link between what is published in the mainstream media and the anti-Muslim views held by extremists.

It says: “An experienced BNP activist in London explains that he believes that most BNP supporters simply followed the lead set by their favourite tabloid commentators that they read every day.

“When these commentators singled out Muslims as threats to security and social cohesion, he says that it was perfectly natural for BNP supporters to adopt the same thinking.”

The report says the extreme right are directing their violence more against Muslims than black or Asian Britons.

“Interviewees with long experience of extremist nationalist street violence in London are unequivocal in their assessment that Muslim Londoners are now a prime target for serious violence and intimidation in the way that Londoners from minority ethnic communities once were,” it says.

“Similarly, interviewees with experience of London street gangs that have no connection or affinity with extremist nationalist politics are adamant that Muslims have become prime targets for serious attacks.

“In addition, well-informed interviewees are clear that the main perpetrators of low-level anti-Muslim hate crimes are not gangs but rather simply individuals from a wide range of backgrounds who feel licensed to abuse, assault and intimidate Muslims in terms that mirror elements of mainstream media and political comment that became commonplace during the last decade.”

The report says the attacks come in part from street gangs targeting Muslims as punishment for members who have embraced Islam and left gang culture.

“Often, they know someone who has left their scene and become a devout Muslim,” the document, which also drew on interviews with youth workers dealing with gangs, says.

“That is like a defection. And whether they do or don’t, they say they know this or that terrorist who used to be a great person till he joined the Muslims.”

The report also says gang members believe Muslims values “oppose everything these kids aspire to. Flash cars, nightclubs, expensive clothes, jewellery, drugs, alcohol, casual sex, glamour, dancing, music …”.

The study says the majority of hate crimes involve low-level incidentsand are not reported to police.

Most officers are committed to tackling anti-Muslim hate crimes seriously, but are undermined by a few colleagues who are not. But the study warns: “Anti-Muslim hate crimes have not been afforded the same priority attention [that] government and police have invested in racist hate crimes.”

The report is dedicated to Yasir Abdelmouttalib, a PhD student who was left brain-damaged after a gang of youths attacked him in London, striking him over the head with a stick, as he made his way to a mosque while wearing Islamic clothing.

It cites other cases of rightwing extremists preparing hate campaigns and of serious attacks on Muslims in Britain.

These included: “Neil Lewington, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in July 2009 of a bomb plot; Terence Gavan, a violent extremist nationalist convicted in January 2010 of manufacturing nail bombs and other explosives, firearms and weapons; a gang attack in November 2009 on Muslim students at City University; the murder in September 2009 of Muslim pensioner, Ikram Syed ul-Haq; a serious assault in August 2007 on the Imam at London Central Mosque; and an arson attack in June 2009 on Greenwich Islamic Centre.”

The study focuses on anti-Muslim violence in London, with its authors saying they will produce one covering the whole of the UK by this summer.

Guardian

A runaway Birmingham soldier condemned as a “Nazi” broke his silence to insist he would give himself up within days.

BNP member Anthony Phipps, aged 21 and from Stechford, went on the run after being accused of having a tattoo in honour of the Third Reich and of making Sieg Heil-style salutes in internet pictures.

Despite criticism of his political views, Phipps insisted: “I’m not a racist or a Nazi.”

Speaking as he laid low in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Iraq veteran added: “I do follow the BNP, that I don’t deny. But I didn’t join it to be racist. I can’t go back to the Army because I feel threatened.”

Phipps, a member of 3 Mercian Regiment (Staffs), said he fled his barracks in Fallingbostel, Germany, last weekend after a Sunday newspaper revealed pictures of his “Nazi tattoo”, which was originally posted on social networking website Facebook.

He was also being hunted by Military Police officers and the Ministry of Defence urged him to give himself up. Phipps said he would hand himself over to the authorities within days. But he claimed the coverage he had received had made it “impossible” to return to his military duties.

“They’ve put me at risk and my family,” he said.

Phipps’s sister Andrea, a 24-year-old mum-of-two, said the picture of him appearing to make Nazi salutes was taken out of context. She said: “He’s far from a Nazi. The photo was taken at his grandma’s funeral. They were pointing to a picture of his grandma. So what if he is a member of the BNP? He has every right to express his views. He’s a soldier fighting for his country and people are stabbing him in the back. It’s not fair.”

But Hall Green Labour MP Steve McCabe said: “Membership of the BNP is inconsistent with the values of the British Armed Forces. Army personnel are supposed to uphold the values of the Crown and the BNP’s views conflict with those.”

An MoD spokesman said Army personnel were allowed to join political parties as long as their membership did not “conflict with core values and standards”.

The spokesman added: “Members of the Armed Forces are entitled to their beliefs provided their practice does not conflict with the Services’ core values and standards. Soldiers who are AWOL are urged to contact their units and to make arrangements to return to military service of their own accord.

“Advice is available from the Services Confidential Support Line – 0800 731 4880.

“Safeguards have been put in place to ensure those arrested are treated in a sensitive manner. There are many reasons why service personnel go absent and all absentees are afforded Army welfare and duty of care provisions upon return.”

Birmingham Mail