Norfolk Unity

One of the leading lights in the British National Party in Cumbria has quit saying he is ’sick of defending them.’

Alistair Barbour, 44, of Southwaite, was expected to be the BNP’s General Election candidate in Carlisle. He says he has become disillusioned with party politics and says he may stand as an Independent in local authority elections. He is already a parish councillor in Southwaite.

Mr Barbour said: “I joined the BNP two years ago and was perhaps a little bit naive. I don’t agree with everything they stand for and I’m sick of defending them.”

Mr Barbour, a gas fitter, stood for the BNP in the Penrith West by-election on Eden Council in October and in Currock, Carlisle, at the county council elections in June. He has also been a candidate at Carlisle City Council elections in Castle and Upperby. He says he is not a racist and that he disagrees with some BNP policies. For example, he believes the party was wrong to bar non-whites from joining.

“We are where we are in 21st century Britain,” he said.“You can’t turn the clock back. You need to make the best of what you’ve got. The BNP should take a long, hard look at themselves and how people see them. I realise now that you don’t have to belong to a party. You can have your own thoughts.”

News and Star

Vicious leaflets aimed at keeping a mosque out of London Colney have been referred to the police’s harm reduction unit. Police are now examining the British National Party (BNP) leaflets headed up “Do you want to live under an oppressive Islamic Sharia government?” as a possible incitement to racial hatred.

The leaflets were delivered to homes in London Colney claiming a planning application to turn Cemex House in Barnet Road into a mosque ousewas part of a wider plot to turn St Albans into an Islamic city.

The large site – around 1,900 square metres – with provision for 33 car parking spaces consists of two separate parcels of land on either side of Lowbell Lane.

The man behind the leaflets is Danny Seabrook, 36, a divorced self-employed builder who lives in London Colney. He stood as a county council candidate for the BNP recently in Watford. He denies incitement to racial hatred saying the leaflets are “factual and to the point”.

He went on: “A mosque would be out of keeping in the village. St Albans is a Christian city. You give an inch and they take a mile. They’ll have minarets up there next.”

Some of the propagandist language used in the leaflet includes accusations that politicians pander to Islamists’ every demand and the majority of residents want to keep the area as it is now.

County Cllr for London Colney, Chris Brazier, said: “This is detestable and I don’t think there would have been this reaction if the plan was to turn it into a Christian church. The BNP do seem to be targeting London Colney since they picked up 200 votes in the recent county council elections.”

Cllr Brazier conceded that he had received almost 100 letters from residents opposing the plans on legitimate planning grounds including traffic fears, narrowness of the access road, insufficient parking and noise. He maintained there was no suggestion of racism in any of the moderately-worded letters.

He said the application had aroused fears that such a large mosque would attract significant numbers of visitors from outside the area, raising traffic and parking issues for residents.

But Peter Trevelyan, acting for the London Colney Islamic Group which has submitted the application, said: “Having been frustrated in its search for suitable premises, the local community currently uses the parish meeting room on White Horse Lane once a week for Friday prayers. The main hall is small and inconvenient in shape and, with 50 people present, is cramped and over-crowded.”

He said prayers would take place five times a day but the principal focus for prayer would be at 1pm on Fridays when attendance varied between 40 and 50 men and a handful of women. The majority would walk to the site from homes and employment nearby.

But council officers have recommended to a planning meeting on Monday that the scheme should be approved because there would be adequate off street parking and no acceptable harm to highway safety or the free and safe flow of traffic.

Herts Advertiser

A member of the British National Party is facing a long spell in prison after admitting to keeping an arsenal of homemade weapons at his home.

Terence Gavan, 38, made and stockpiled 54 nail and ball-bearing bombs between May 1999 and May this year. He also manufactured shotguns, pen guns and pistols at his home in Batley, West Yorkshire. Gavan was also found in possession of ammunition, a manual on boobytraps, an improvised munitions handbook and a copy of the Anarchists’ Cookbook.

He admitted 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, when he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on 26 November 2009.

The Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith QC, adjourned sentence until 15 January and remanded Gavan in custody.

Gavan was arrested at his home in Colbeck Terrace on 21 May following a West Yorkshire police operation. He admitted four counts of making explosives and four counts of possessing explosives over a ten-year period.

They consisted of four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) incorporating ball-bearings, 21 IEDs with nails, two “victim-operated” IEDs with nails and a further 28 explosives classified as IEDs.

He also pleaded guilty three counts of manufacturing prohibited weapons, four counts of possession of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of ammunition without a certificate. In all, police found nine homemade or converted firearms at the property.

These were a .22 ME9 para air-cartridge pistol, an 8mm blank-cartridge, pistol, a home-made .22 rimfire single shotgun, two homemade .22 rimfire pen gun, a .22 single shot pistol. There were also two homemade pistols and one homemade shotgun, fitted with silencers or sound moderators.

Between 31 December 2005 and 22 February this year Gavan reactivated a British Service No 4 Mark I rifle. Also found in his home were two Brocock revolver gas guns.

Gavan further admitted six charges of possession of documents containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

These were books with the titles Boobytraps, Improvised Weapons Manual and Guerilla Warfare and Special Forces Operations 1961, and two electronic PDF files including the Anarchists’ Cookbook volume 4.

No doubt the BNP will say Gavan was not and never has been a BNP member. However Searchlight has been monitoring this case for some time and we can reveal that Gavan not only was a BNP member, he also held gold membership.

Just to help the BNP administration team find details of their latest villain, we are reliably informed Terry Gavan has the membership number 130757.

HOPE not hate

BNP and Labour candidates to fight it out in Dalton Town Council by-election

Two parties are going head to head in a town council by-election. Labour and the British National Party are to fight for a seat on Dalton Town Council.

Dan Martin, for Labour, and Mike Ashburner, Furness and South Lakeland BNP organiser, were the only two nominations received by last Friday’s closing date.

The by-election is set to take place on December 10. The vacancy arose when former Dalton mayor Dermot O’Connor left the town to be nearer his family in Wigan.

Dalton town councillor Bill Bleasdale – who represents the Tories on the borough and county councils – says the town council is usually apolitical. He said: “Normally someone is co-opted straight onto the town council but ten voters can declare a by-election. Anybody from any political party can stand in a democracy.

“It is disappointing that there aren’t any more candidates showing an interest. The public has got disillusioned with politics nationally which is why the BNP got representation on the European Parliament. They are a protest party.”

Mr Martin, who lives in Dalton and teaches at George Hastwell School on Walney, urged voters to send a message to the BNP that “their nasty brand of politics is not welcome in this town.”

The Ulverston-born 33-year-old, whose father was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Cartmel, said: “Like everyone here, I am very proud of Dalton – and I want to fight for a fair deal for the residents here. Dalton needs a hardworking town councillor who lives here and cares about the issues that matter to families. I think the last thing we need is someone coming here and trying to use our town council to stir up trouble.

“The British National Party care nothing about the concerns of people here – they just want to whip up tension and division. Huge damage would be done to our community if we elected a member of a party that judges people because of what they are and not who they are. I believe that I can represent your interests, and send a message that says Dalton is still a welcoming town.”

Mr Ashburner, from Barrow, who admitted he has no links with Dalton, said it was the BNP’s policy to go for any vacancies that come up.

He denied the party was out to cause trouble. Mr Ashburner said: “My main aims are to tackle anti-social behaviour and clean up the streets. I noticed walking around just how much rubbish there was. My other main problem I aim to tackle is the Islamification of Dalton.

“There are proposals to build a mosque in the area and they are currently looking for plots. I am going to make sure there is not a mosque built in Dalton.”

Cumbria County Council spokesman Gareth Cosslett said the council knows of no current plans to build a new place of worship in Dalton.

He said : “Nothing is being built locally. The only thing that happens every Friday afternoon is one room in the Multicultural Centre in Barrow is used by Muslims as a prayer room. The rest of the week it’s used to teach English and a variety of other things. The whole point of the centre is to connect people and help them with social issues.

“The county council isn’t aware of anyone wanting to build a mosque in Dalton or anywhere nearby – but we’re not the planning authority. Our view would be that if they did, they would have as much right to build it as anyone would to build a church.”

Beat BNP at ballot box

British National Party candidate Michael Ashburner seems to be getting Dalton mixed up with somewhere else,presumably because he has no connection with the old market town.

In his election “promise” he aims to, “ . . . tackle anti-social behaviour and clean up the streets”.

Commendable, albeit standard fare for politicking at town council level.

However, his other promise is, if elected, to, “. . . tackle the Islamification of Dalton” will come as something of a surprise to the good citizens of the ancient capital of Furness.

Not content with this assertion, Mr Ashburner also says there are proposals to; “ . . . build a mosque” and “ . . . they (presumably moslems) are currently looking for plots.”

Despite grandly stating, somehwat pointlessly, that he will, “. . . make sure there is not a mosque built in Dalton, ” the BNP’s presence in Dalton is not to be underestimated.

However let’s not get misled or distracted by theses wild and unsubstantiated allegations.

The only reason the Mr Ashburner and his fellow extremists have an opportunity of standing and, in some cases winning elections, in any part of the country, is as a direct result of voter apathy. We are a democratic country and everybody has right to their views.

It is up to those of us who oppose racism and extremism anywhere, to make our presence felt where it really matters – at the ballot box.

North West Evening Mail

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Atlanta police over a September raid at a gay club, on behalf of 19 patrons who say they were forcibly searched and detained.

The suit, filed by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, names Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 officers who were at the Atlanta Eagle bar the night of September 10.

“The Atlanta Police Department dispatched about 20 to 30 officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its ‘Red Dog’ unit dressed in SWAT team gear,” according to a statement from Lambda Legal. “But inside the bar, the APD found no public sex, no drugs or illegal weapons.” No patrons were charged with any crime, the organization said.

During the raid, patrons were made to lie facedown on the floor while background checks were run on everyone, the statement said. “Eagle bar patrons heard antigay slurs; were forced to lay in spilled beer and broken glass; and one was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War.”

Some of the patrons were retained with handcuffs, and officers used excessive force, including shoving some people to the floor and kicking others on the floor, the lawsuit says. Authorities searched everyone on the property, seizing their driver’s licenses or other identification, the suit says.

“These actions were taken without particularized reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that any individual patron, let alone every person at the establishment, was involved in criminal activity whatsoever,” said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Atlanta City Attorney Roger Bhandari said in a statement Monday that the city had not been served with the suit or had an opportunity to review it, so he would not comment. Bhandari’s office told CNN on Tuesday that its response was the same, as it had not seen the suit.

The only charges filed were against Eagle employees, for allegedly violating the city’s law about unlicensed adult entertainment “because four dancers were observed, in the words of the arresting officers, allegedly ‘wearing underwear’ and ‘dancing,’ ” the lawsuit said.

“Imagine if the police walked into a Walmart and see someone shoplifting, and because they see what they think is a crime taking place in Walmart, they take everyone at Walmart, throw them on the floor, spread their legs, put their hands in their pockets, take their IDs, put their name in the computer, simply because they’re out of place or someone else may or may not be doing something wrong,” co-counsel Daniel Grossman said at a news conference Tuesday.

The suit seeks damages and alleges that police violated the patrons’ constitutional rights and that the individual officers committed false imprisonment, assault, battery and trespassing. It also requests a jury trial.

“The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD,” Greg Nevins, supervising senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s southern regional office, based in Atlanta, said in the statement. “If it is APD procedure for elderly men and wounded veterans to be thrown to the floor and harassed simply for being in a bar having a drink after work, then APD should change its procedures.”

“People have asked me why I’m doing this,” plaintiff Geoffrey Calhoun told reporters. “I’m not doing it because I have a vendetta against the police. I work for a police department. I’m an emergency communications officer. I do my part to make sure these officers go home. I don’t work for the city of Atlanta.

“I was in the bar drinking beer, playing a video game, and I was dehumanized and humiliated and laid on the floor for no reason,” he said. “That’s why I’m doing it.”

The suit alleges undercover officers entered the bar before 11 p.m. and had a drink, then later “began screaming at patrons and employees to ‘hit the floor’ and get down on the ground.

“Several plaintiffs were in terror and feared for their lives, believing that the Eagle was being robbed or invaded by criminals or gay-bashers who might kill or injure them,” the suit continues.

Other officers came in, including the “Red Dog Unit,” a special force that provides “aggressive police presence” in areas with high drug use, the suit said, citing the Atlanta police Web site. Many of the officers in that unit were wearing black, paramilitary-style clothing not immediately recognizable as police uniforms, the suit says.

While lying on the floor, some people asked permission to move away from the broken glass and were told to “stay down and shut the [expletive] up,” the suit alleges. In all, they lay on the floor for 30 minutes to more than two hours, as they were released one by one or in small groups, the suit says.

Those who asked questions were also told to shut up, threatened with arrest for disorderly conduct or “threatened with violence and physical harm,” the suit says. “Some were retaliated against by being forced to remain at the Eagle long after they had been searched.

“All persons at the Eagle complied fully, promptly and peacefully with all demands made by the officers, no person at the Eagle offered any physical resistance to the officers whatsoever, and none was charged with obstructing the officers in any way,” the suit says.

Police have said that if they go into a bar, it is procedure to have patrons lie on the floor and be searched, and everyone’s identification is taken and checked, Nevins told reporters.

“They didn’t say this the night of the Eagle raid … this happened like a month later,” he said of the police comments. “They had plenty of time to figure out all the facts, and they knew they were going to be meeting with the media, and it was ultimately recorded, and they specifically went on record and said, ‘This is what we always do, this is standard operating procedure,’ and that’s what makes this case so outlandish.”

CNN

An extreme right-wing group sparked anti-fascist protests after it was revealed it had been holding meetings in a Humanist Society hall in inner Sydney. The Public Information Forum – also known as Klub Nation or Klub Naziya – was prevented from meeting on November 6 after about 50 protesters gathered at the Shepherd Street address in Chippendale.

Police were called to an earlier demonstration in October when protesters yelling “Nazis out” attempted to disrupt the meeting by banging on doors and windows.

“If they get the message that they are not welcome in Chippendale and move somewhere else we will follow them,” an online post from one protester read.

The group was banned from using the hall by the Humanist Society once before because of alleged racist associations.

David Duffy, the Humanist Society member responsible for bookings at the hall, said the group of about 30 young men had been meeting peacefully there for about eight years. He conceded the group was “right of centre” but said he did not believe it was a neo-Nazi group.

“The sort of people who attend [Mr Rafty's] meetings would be considered conspiracy theorists to a certain extent,” he said. “They run a series of discussion groups on political and geopolitical themes. It’s invitation-only. It’s not a thing where they advertise publicly. They don’t do any interface with the community in any way.”

An anonymous letterbox drop of the area calling on residents to “do something about” Australia’s high level of immigration coincided with last week’s protest.

Darrin Hodges (left) from the Australian Protectionist Party said his group stopped using the hall after hearing meetings there were “getting out of hand and rowdy”.

Mr Hodges denied any knowledge of the leaflet drop in the area, but said: “[It] sounds like there’s some funny things going on around town.”

Humanist Society president John August said it had planned a review of its hall hiring policy, but would allow the group to continue meeting at the hall until a decision was made.

“I do not wish to defend any right-wing groups, but equally there is an issue of free speech and free expression,” he said. “How you reconcile those two goals is a complicated issue.”

Mr August said he was disappointed some of the protesters were prepared to resort to violence.

“I have been involved with discussions with Redfern police over this. They are very concerned. We are as much the victims in this situation as anyone,” Mr August said.

Sydney Morning Herald

Support for the National Democratic Party of Germany is sliding, and it’s resorting to premium-rate phone lines to stay afloat

When the Berlin wall fell apart, back in November 1989, fears that Germany’s forthcoming reunification would lead to the revival of violent nationalism and bitter revisionism were looming all over Europe. Were those anticipating the Third Reich spirit’s renaissance right? Looking at the reunified Germany 20 years on, they surely were not.

Ever since the wall came down, Germany’s political establishment has made efforts to ease the anxieties of its neighbours to the east, namely Poland and the Czech Republic. Critics of Germany’s détente with both countries have been marginalised and deprived of any tangible influence on German politics.

Evidence of this tendency was visible this week, when foreign minister Guido Westerwelle intervened to stop a figure unpopular with Poles being appointment to a museum post. The Federation of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen) had been trying to place its chairwoman, Erika Steinbach, on the board of a planned museum about the ethnic Germans expelled from countries in central Europe after the second world war. Steinbach’s candidature was unacceptable to many Poles, as back in 1991, she was one of the Bundestag members who voted against the recognition of the German-Polish border. By blocking her bid, Germany’s incumbent government has once again proved its commitment to the reconciliation process.

Still, German nationalism is not quite dead, and if it has a face, it is that of the BNP’s sister organisation, the NPD (National Democratic party of Germany). There was a time when the neo-Nazi party was on the ascendancy. In 2004, the NPD managed to break into Saxony’s state parliament with a 9.2% share of the vote, followed by its success in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two years later. Prior to 1989, both states were part of East Germany, and since the reunification they have suffered from soaring unemployment, deindustrialisation and migration to the west. The NPD has managed to spin political capital from the eastern Germans’ dissatisfaction, just like the BNP has seduced a section of British society.

But the similarities end right there. While the BNP’s leader rejoices in his Question Time debut, and his party benefits from two recently gained seats at the European parliament, his fellow travellers in Germany are making desperate attempts to save their own party from imminent bankruptcy. The NPD has found itself in financial dire straits owing to a series of accounting irregularities, for which it was fined a total of €2.5m in April. Last year the party’s treasurer was arrested on suspicion of transferring €627,000 from the party’s accounts to his own company. Perhaps the best measure of the NPD’s desperation is that it launched a 0900 prefix phone line, mostly employed by German sex-line operators, through which its supporters can donate much-needed euros. “Every phone call counts!”, encourages the NPD’s website.

In the most recent Bundestag elections, the nationalists pulled a meagre 1.5% share of the vote, overtaken by the German Pirate party, who received 2%. In the light of all these setbacks, it seems that, after years of rising fortunes, the BNP’s German allies have found themselves at the edge of a steep political slope. This rise-and-fall scenario could very well repeat itself in the UK.

UTV

One of two suspects wanted in connection with the detonation of homemade bombs at a northeast apartment complex has been arrested.

Mounties in Portage la Prairie, Man., have arrested a 17-year-old youth, on warrants for attempted murder, possessing, making or controlling explosives, and possession of a weapon or imitation for a dangerous purpose, say Calgary police.

The teen, who can’t be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was nabbed while getting off a bus in the Manitoba town last night at 6:15 p.m.

Saturday’s detonation of two homemade bombs is thought to be linked to infighting between associates of a neo-Nazi group active in Calgary.

The founder of hate group Aryan Guard, 24-year-old Kyle Robert McKee (photo), is the second suspect in the bombing and remains at large with warrants on the same charges.

He is described as 5-ft.-9, 140 lbs., with a slim build, blue eyes and shaved head.

Calgary Sun

The original…

… and the spoof…

Thanks to Weezil of FightDemBack

Violence broke out a far-Right rally attended by Nick Griffin at the weekend on the anniversary of the death of Fascist dictator General Francisco Franco.

The MEP and British national Party leader was a special guest at the meeting held by the Spanish far-Right National Democracy Party at a central Madrid hotel on Saturday.

Spanish police detained 28 people when a riot started between youth members of the rival ultra-right Patriotic Socialist Movement after they were denied access to the event.

Police were on high alert in the capital on Saturday as demonstrators marched through the streets to commemorate the death of Gen Franco, who died on November 20 1975.

Several hundred supporters of the regime gathered in Calle Genova, the birthplace of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange party, before taking buses to the Valle de los Caidos, Valley of the Fallen, where both he and Gen Franco are buried.

This year, for the first time since the death of the dictator, who ruled the country with an iron-fist for 36 years, there was no mass held at the mausoleum in the hills to the west of Madrid to mark his death.

Spain’s fascists traditionally gather at the vast basilica, which took 19 years to build using forced labour by Republican prisoners, to pay homage to the late dictator on the Saturday following the date of his death.

But political demonstrations at the monument have been banned under the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, brought in by the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero in an attempt to recognise the Republican victims of the civil war and dictatorship.

A spokesman for the BNP confirmed that Mr Griffin had attended a political rally in Madrid.

“He may also have made a private visit to Franco’s tomb on his trip to Spain,” a spokesman said.

In June the BNP won two seats in the European parliament. Mr Griffin has announced plans to run against Labour’s Margaret Hodge in Barking, East London in next year’s general election.

Telegraph