Norfolk Unity

Their aim? To drive out Islamic extremism. Their weapon? The thugs of Britain’s most violent football gangs

On Platform One at Bolton station a mob of around 100 men punch the air in unison. The chant goes up: ‘Muslim bombers, off our streets, Muslim bombers off our streets…’

Their voices echo loudly and more men suddenly appear; startled passengers move aside. The group march forward waving St George Cross flags and holding up placards. The throng of men around me applaud. A train heading for Glasgow draws up on the opposite platform and the men turn as one, bursting into song: ‘Engelaand, Engelaand, Engelaand.’

Some of the men hide behind balaclavas, others wear black hoodies. A few speak on mobile phones, their hands pressed against their ears to block out the cacophony.

‘It’s already kicking off in Manchester. This could be tasty,’ shouts one. These are some of the most violent football hooligans in Britain and today they have joined together in an unprecedented show of strength. Standing shoulder to shoulder are notorious gangs – or ‘firms’ as they are known – such as Cardiff City’s Soul Crew, Bolton Wanderers’ Cuckoo Boys and Luton Town’s Men In Gear.

The gathering is remarkable, as on a match day these men would be fighting each other. But it is politics that has drawn them together. They are headed for Manchester to support a march by the burgeoning English Defence League.

The police are here in force, too. ‘Take that mask off,’ barks a sergeant to one young man. He does so immediately but protests: ‘Why are they allowed to wear burkas in public but we’re not allowed to cover our faces?’

‘Just do what you’re told,’ the policeman snaps back.

‘It’s always the same these days. One rule for them and another for us. I’m sick of this country,’ a man standing next to me says in a West Country accent.

He draws on a cigarette then flicks it to the ground in disgust. He starts to complain again but when the tannoy announces the arrival of the train to Manchester Piccadilly he raises his hands above his head and starts another favourite.

‘Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves… Britons never, never, never…’ His companions join in. As the train comes to a halt the crowd surges forward.

The carriages are almost full so the men pack themselves into the aisles followed by policemen speaking into radios. A group of lads drinking beer at a table eye the new contingent warily.

One man wearing a baseball cap clocks their fear and reassures them.

‘It’s all right lads, nothing to worry about. We’re protesting against radical Islam. Come and join us.’

Further up the carriage another bursts into song.

‘We had joy, we had fun, we had Muslims on the run,’ he starts up. Nobody joins in and a couple of his mates tell him to ’shut up’ as they point to a woman dressed in a black hijab sitting at a table.

A man standing close to her is masked and holds a placard. It has a picture of a Muslim woman crying with red blood streaming down her face. ‘Sharia law oppresses women!’ the slogan reads.

The rise of the English Defence League has been rapid. Since its formation at the start of the summer the group has organised nearly 20 major protests in Britain’s cities, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Luton, Nottingham, Glasgow and Swansea.

Its leaders are professional and articulate and they claim that the EDL is a peaceful, non-racist organisation. But having spent time with them, there is evidence that this movement has a more disturbing side. There is talk of the need for a ’street army’, and there are links with football hooligans and evidence that violent neo-Nazi groups including Combat 18, Blood and Honour and the British Freedom Fighters have been attending demos.

Violence has erupted at most of the EDL’s demonstrations. In total, nearly 200 people have been arrested and an array of weapons has been seized, including knuckledusters, a hammer, a chisel and a bottle of bleach.

As the EDL gains support across the UK, Muslims have already been targeted in unprovoked attacks. In the worst incident, a mob of 30 white and black youths is said to have surrounded Asian students near City University in central London and attacked them with metal poles, bricks and sticks while shouting racist abuse. Three people – two students and a passer-by who tried to intervene – were stabbed.

Following the Manchester protest, when 48 people were arrested during street violence, the Bolton Interfaith Council Executive issued a stark warning that race relations were under threat and Communities Secretary John Denham compared the EDL to Oswald Mosley’s Union of British Fascists, who ran amok in the Thirties. In response to these fears, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, a countrywide police team set up to combat domestic extremism, has been investigating the EDL.

‘The concern to me is how groups like this, either willingly or unwillingly, allow themselves to be exploited by very extreme right-wing groups like the National Front and the British Freedom Fighters,’ Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson has said.

I had met the English Defence League for the first time in Luton three weeks before the Manchester demonstration. After several calls, key members agreed to talk on the condition that I did not identify them. We met at a derelict building close to Luton town centre. Eleven men turned up. All wore balaclavas, as they often do to hide their identities, and most had black EDL hoodies with ‘Luton Division’ written on the back. They’d made placards bearing slogans such as ‘Ban the Burka’.

The group’s self-proclaimed leader, who goes by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, did most of the talking. A father of two, Robinson explained the background to the rise of the movement.

‘For more than a decade now there’s been tension in Luton between Muslim youths and whites. We all get on fine – black, white, Indian, Chinese… Everyone does, in fact, apart from these Muslim youths who’ve become extremely radicalised since the first Gulf War. This is because preachers of hate live in Luton and have been recruiting for radical Islamist groups for years. Our Government does nothing about them so we decided that we’d start protesting.’

Robinson could barely conceal his anger as he explained that the spark for him had been the sight of radical Muslims protesting when soldiers paraded through the town on their regiment’s return from Afghanistan in May.

Following the incident Robinson set up a group called United People of Luton and, after linking up with a Birmingham-based organisation called British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists and another called Casuals United (largely made up of former football hooligans), they realised there was potential for a national movement.

‘We have nothing against Muslims, only those who preach hatred. They are traitors who should be hanged and we’ll keep taking to the streets until the Government kicks them out.’

More than 100 divisions have been set up across Britain and a careful co-ordination means the EDL is becoming efficient and a potential catch-all for every far-right organisation in Britain.

Robinson admits that he has attended BNP meetings in the past. Another prominent member and administrator of Luton EDL’s Facebook group is Davy Cooling, a BNP member. Sean Walsh, an activist for the EDL in Luton, is a member of the BNP’s Bedfordshire Facebook group.

Even within the EDL there are concerns over links to extremists. A former member called Paul Ray recently claimed that the group had been hijacked by BNP activists, including a man from Weston-super-Mare, Chris Renton, who helped set up the EDL website. Ironically, Ray himself has extremist contacts, including a German former neo-Nazi who is friends with Northern Ireland Loyalist Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair.

Casuals United was the brainchild of Jeff Marsh, a convicted football hooligan from Cardiff City’s Soul Crew, one of the most feared gangs in Britain. Marsh operates behind the scenes, orchestrating activities with both Casuals United and the Welsh Defence League, a sister group of the EDL.

The public face of Casuals United is another Welshman called Mickey Smith. An avowed football hooligan, he is banned from Cardiff City’s football ground. Together, Marsh and Smith organise the 50 or so gangs actively recruiting members across the UK.

The EDL insists it is separate from Casuals United, but dig a little and it becomes clear they operate hand-in-hand. Joel Titus is a cocky but politically naive 18-year-old Arsenal fan of mixed race. He tells me that the EDL youth division he runs has over 300 members across the UK.

‘We want to hit every town and city in Britain,’ he says.

Titus became involved with the movement through Casuals United. And according to anti-fascism magazine Searchlight, his role is to recruit football hooligans.

He sticks to the ‘peaceful movement’ mantra but a text I later receive from him ahead of an EDL demo in London reveals his involvement with the hooligans. It reads: ‘Right lads, the “unofficial” meet for the 31st (London) is going to be 12 o’clock at The Hole In The Wall pub just outside Waterloo Station. I will be there just before that. Remember lads were (sic) going as Casuals Utd and if you could obtain a poppy to wear it would make us look good even if we are kicking off. lol. Cheers lads. Joel “Arsenal” Titus.’

Alarmingly, the EDL is becoming more sophisticated and those orchestrating its activities at the top are far more astute than its foot soldiers. I meet two of the EDL’s key figures in a Covent Garden pub – a respectable looking man called Alan Lake, and a man who goes by the moniker ‘Kinana’.

Lake is a 45-year-old computer expert from Highgate, north London who runs a far-right website called Four Freedoms. This summer he contacted the EDL and offered to both fund and advise the movement.

‘Our leaders in this country no longer represent us,’ he says.

Lake’s aim is to unite the ‘thinkers’ and those prepared to take to the streets. He describes this marriage as ‘the perfect storm coming together’. Lake says that street violence is not desirable but sometimes inevitable.

‘There are issues when you are dealing with football thugs but what can we do?’

He criticises fascist organisations, however, and says he will only support the EDL so long as it doesn’t associate with the BNP. When I ask about extremists hijacking the movement, he says: ‘There are different groups infiltrating and trying to cause rifts by one means or another, or trying to waylay the organisation to different agendas. The intention is to exclude those groups and individuals.’

These men are outwardly intelligent and their political nous combined with the brawn of the casuals makes them a quasi-political force.

Britain’s neo-Nazis realise this. For Kevin Watmough, leader of the neo-Nazi British People’s Party and a former member of the National Front, the rise of the EDL is reminiscent of the Seventies.

‘The protests remind me of the National Front marches, but I wouldn’t march with the EDL because they have blacks as supporters,’ he told me.

But other neo-Nazis have joined EDL demos. These include members of Combat 18 and the British Freedom Fighters, who later posted videos of themselves on the internet.

Watmough lives in Bradford and can recall the 2001 riots, which came about as a result of tensions between whites and Muslims. Bradford, along with Oldham, another tinderbox northern city that witnessed riots in 2001, is a stated target for the EDL and Casuals United in 2010. Tension is likely here and in other towns where the EDL is also promoting spontaneous flash demos and the occupation of building sites for new mosques.

Professor Matthew Goodwin, an expert on far-right organisations who has advised the Home Office, says that the police are right to monitor the EDL and to take them seriously.

‘(The EDL) is now well-organised and not just a minor irritant. It has become a rallying point for a number of different groups and to have them marching through sensitive areas is a major concern.’

Communities Minister John Denham has also condemned the rise of the EDL: ‘If you look at the types of demonstrations they have organised, the language used and the targets chosen, it looks clear that it’s a tactic designed to provoke, to get a response. It’s designed to create violence. And we must all make sure this doesn’t happen.’

MailOnline

The FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Churches) issued the folowing statement concerning the British National Party on 23 December 2009.

To all FIEC churches

We would wish you to be aware of a statement being made on a website in the public domain by the Rev Robert West, a parliamentary candidate representing the British National Party (BNP).

Mr West states the following: “I doubt very much that the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches oppose my views or the views of any genuine Christian and patriot, backed-up as they are by the holy Scriptures”.

Mr West has not contacted the FIEC office to find out what the views of the FIEC might be about this issue, and the FIEC regrets that Mr West has seen fit to make public reference to the supposed views of the FIEC without getting in touch with the office.

In fact, the FIEC strongly believes that the churches that make up the Fellowship would repudiate any idea that the Scriptures support the published policies of the BNP. There are elements within the policies of all political parties which are contrary to the Scriptures. In the case of the BNP, it appears to us that its policies seek to create an attitude of racial hierarchy which values people of some ethnic origins more than others. The Scriptures do not support any such policies, and we greatly regret that Mr West has asserted that they do, and in so doing, that he has linked the name of The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches with his own erroneous views. Mr West is not in any way accredited by or associated with the FIEC.

Richard Underwood
General Secretary
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches

See also BNP Rev Robert West “Doubts” Fellowship of Independent Churches “Would Oppose My Views”

The British National Party did not create the political earthquake its devotees yearned for in 2009. But there is no doubt that it sent tremors through the political establishment during the most successful year in its relatively short history. The far-right party won two seats in the European Parliament to add to its toehold on the London Assembly and on councils across England.

Nick Griffin enjoyed unprecedented visibility after he appeared on BBC1’s Question Time – an invitation that supporters and detractors alike said conferred respectability on the BNP leader. Above all, his party received more column inches of newspaper coverage, and more minutes of television bulletin time, than at any time since its creation in 1982.

The BNP picked up 6.2 per cent of the vote in June’s elections, a modest rise from 4.9 per cent five years earlier.

But it was enough under the proportional electoral system to win seats in North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber for Mr Griffin and the former National Front activist Andrew Brons.

It also demonstrated its ability to target potentially fertile territory, such as Swanley in Kent, where the party pulled off a surprise council by-election victory in February. Four months later, it gained its first three county council seats – in Lancashire, Leicestershire and Hertfordshire.

The BNP can rely on a hard core of support – polls put it at just 2 per cent of the vote – but it tends to prosper when the turn-out is low and support for mainstream parties evenly divided.

Next year, its hopes will rest on its east London heartland of Barking, where Mr Griffin will need a formidable 15.5 per cent swing to oust Labour’s Margaret Hodge.

The BNP leader will have the advantage of being better known than ever. The frenzy of publicity accompanying his Question Time appearance has seen to that.

The moot point is whether the exposure benefited Mr Griffin, who was nervous and rambling in the face of an onslaught from panellists and the studio audience. Although there were mutterings on the far-right blogosphere about his performance, the BNP insists many will have seen him as a victim, with Mr Griffin protesting he was subjected to a “lynch mob”.

In the meantime, he faces two tricky problems. Following a House of Lords ruling, he needs to win approval from his membership next month for a rule change that would allow non-whites to join the party. The BNP, which spent nearly £600,000 during the European contests, also faces a considerable challenge in raising cash for the general election. In August, Mr Griffin appealed to members: “We need £150,000 to keep the wolves at bay and to ensure our survival!”

The question now is whether the party peaked in 2009 after riding the wave of public hostility to politicians, or whether it has the groundswell of popular support – and resources – to repeat its success in election year.

The Independent

(According to Mark a subtitled version will appear later)

And the hunt for Roger Phillips and his campervan continues…

Support Mark Watson

A planned National Front “Day of Action” in King’s Lynn on Saturday December 19th turned into another “Day of Invisibilty”. Five antifascists scoured a bitterly cold snow-swept Lynn town centre continuously between 10am and 2.30pm, keeping in touch by mobile phone. Not a fascist was there to be seen.

Independently of ourselves other antifascists were also out in Lynn looking for the elusive Fronters, only to come up fascistless – putting this National Front “Day of Action” on a par with last month’s, in which the NF (or Eddy Morrison’s faction) claimed eight “newly recruited” members handed out 1000 leaflets in an hour to a citizenry “who were happily surprised to see the NF back on the streets of their town”. A likely story!

Checking with our contacts in West Norfolk, which included a number of people who had been in the town centre over the course of that day, we drew a complete blank. Eight fascists aren’t going to go unnoticed in a place like Lynn, but somehow the eight “new recruits” managed it. November 21st was a wet, windy miserable day in Lynn, and the crowds were thin on the ground. Not the best day on which to hand out “1000 leaflets”.

In his write up of the November 21st fairy tale event, Morrison claimed that the local UAF had threatened to demonstrate after the NF issued a press release. Just two things wrong with that: the local UAF weren’t aware of any NF “Day of Action” and so issued no “threats”. And the local newspapers just couldn’t seem to lay their hands on the NF’s press release.

That’s probably because there was no press release and no “Day of Action”, other than in drunken Eddy’s booze soaked brain.

Atreus

Introduction

Despite the threat of the BNP making headway in the forthcoming general election, there appears to be ructions afoot in the weird world of nationalism. Lovable rogue Eddy Morrison is a long term fascist and alcoholic (a condition which he refers to as a ‘disability’ but is more like an ‘inability’) and held in suspicion by many on the far right. His relationships with various ‘players’ on the scene have been turbulent to say the least, joining any or all of the grupuscules that emerge from round the s-bend of far right politics and which often dissolve at best in acrimony and tears (Nationalist Alliance), at worst, in internecine murder (Combat 18, Wolf’s Hook White Brotherhood). He is currently involved in the splitting the NF in two.

The NF

The NF have recently been trying to reinvigorate the glory days of the 1970s when convicted Nazi John Tyndall and Martin Webster (close, err… ‘associate’ of Nick Griffin) were creating a viable alternative to state politics until usurped by Thatcher’s canny misappropriation of their xenophobic rhetoric. Simultaneously, the dissatisfaction of many BNP supporters is increasing: with Griffin’s abysmal TV appearance widely ridiculed; his disappearance to the EU with his clique and then reappearance to challenge for the Barking seat; his bowing to pressure to include non-white members in the party; and not least, the unaccountability of the party’s funds. Defections are rife. The NF is hoping to absorb these dissatisfied punters and bring them into a more extremist fascist party.

Until recently, the NF were presided over by ageing racist and technophobe Tom Holmes who has been involved in fascism for over 40 years and put a lot of time and money into what is proving to be a mainly fruitless venture. Morrison only joined the National Front recently and is still a probationary member but this has not stopped him from participating in, if not initiating, a coup. His appalling history of splinter groups and factionalism bodes ill for the Fronters as he has always managed to leave chaos in his wake.

Given that much activity in far right circles is done through the internet Holmes’ technophobic tendencies have done him few favours. He does have a mobile though. His side of the story has been propagated by sympathisers who actually know what a modem is. Morrison may be a dipsomaniac oaf but at least he is vaguely computer literate. With the emerging split any possible members are going to be faced with confusion and diverted into either Morrison’s faction or that of the loyalists. Other dissatisfied (and not so dissatisfied) BNP members have also been diverted into the EDL. Despite Griffin’s claim that they are a ‘proscribed organisation’ links and dual membership have been exposed.

History Repeats … Eddy’s Past

Morrison has a long history of splits, factionalising and general malfeasance with even John Tyndall warning about him. He has a few trusty followers but many on the far right are cautious of him, if only because of his chronic alcoholism. In April 1983, Tyndall wrote a piece entitled The Wanderings and Posturings of the Pathetic Eddy Morrison in Spearhead. In it he cited many of Morrison’s moves and called him “a specimen who has constantly ratted on everyone who has posed trust in him, and always in an atmosphere of shady plotting and intrigue.” Don’t just take ‘JT’s’ word for it: the good folks over at VNN helpfully supplied us with Eddy’s at times hilarious resume.
1982 – National Action Party but expelled “after a drunken Morrison falls into a swastika emblazoned cake.” Then hangs out with Tim Hepple, Searchlight spy. Oops!

1987 – National Workers Party.
1988 to mid 1990s: BNP.
1999 – National Front again.
2000 –leaves NF again.
2001 – Movement for National Unity.
2002 – Aryan Unity online.
2002 -White Nationalist Party
2003 – ‘retirement from politics’.
2003 – Spearhead Group
2004 – Nationalist Alliance
2005 – British People’s Party.
2006 – BPP leader then drunk most of the time.
2008 – Resigns from BPP.
2009 – NF again.

Engineering The Split

In September a Bradford meeting not attended by Holmes or his crony Bernard Franklin acted somewhat ‘unconstitutionally.’ The members at the meeting, eager for (small) change and perhaps realising the possibility of attracting disaffected BNP supporters and their subsidies, voted in a new directorate which ousted Franklin as deputy chairman and voted in Ian Edwards, who is more sympathetic to Morrison’s faction. The rebels allowed Holmes to keep his position as leader but perhaps this is because he is the main signature on the bank accounts and holds the membership list. Maybe not. Holmes reacted to these moves with what appears to be a typewritten and photocopied letter to the membership contesting the legitimacy of the vote. A split between Holmes loyalists and Morrison’s cronies appeared.

Leeds Argy Bargy

However, there is more to this saga. Morrison, like many of his ilk, has a tendency to spout off on the various far right forums and gets more and more vitriolic as the booze takes hold. Tommy Williams, who is BNP, claimed he had the NF’s membership list, something which Morrison denied. As the row over the list intensified, Morrison got more mouthy and Tommy took offence. Morrison and Williams exchanged more words so Tommy went round to Morrison’s flat to prove it. Williams arrived with Dave Howard who filmed Williams banging on the door in an attempt to confront him. Morrison, wisely, chose not to venture too far outdoors and waited until Williams and Howard got bored and left having made their ‘point.’ From here on accounts vary. Morrison is alleged to have contacted the police, something which irked various forum members who said he had ‘grassed.’

Morrison has been accused of being a grass in the past, of passing information on to the left and working for Special Branch/MI5. However, this is an accusation levelled by many fascists against rivals, so the truth of this, short of a full confession, is hard to ascertain. Morrison allegedly said that Williams was tooled up, something which he denies. Williams said he was only armed with the membership list which he intended to return to prove that he had had it all along. Williams and Howard documented the whole incident with a video camera and so the transcripts should reveal who is telling the truth. Whilst Tommy was visiting Eddy, and this really irked Tommy, someone popped round to Chez Williams and put an NF sticker on his door. And you know how hard they are to get off!

Williams and Howard were quick to put their story up on VNNuk which was supported by Bev Kerry, VNN moderator: VNN members, being pro-BNP, were obviously on the side of Williams and Howard who post as Sir Rolf Of Harris and The Truth At Last and run the Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics website. The fallout was inevitable: the anti-Griffinites on the Northwest Nationalists condemned the incident as faction fighting whilst eagerly publishing Tyndall’s attack on Morrison’s credibility. Other sites sided with Morrison and his NF faction.

Web Fascists

The role of these assorted fascist forums is interesting and revealing and makes these fallouts easier to monitor. Many of the posters, some seemingly intoxicated, are often clumsy and details leak out over identities in their haste to either slag people off or put their opinions forward. When they are not outing each other on rival websites that is. Revealing adversaries names and addresses is a common tactic like calling people ‘grass’, ‘nonce’ or ‘red.’ On their Covert site, Williams and Howard have been slagging various NF members off in somewhat excessive terms lately. This is something that they specialise in and they use the site as an attack on anti-Griffin/BNP strains in far-right politics. They are particularly unpleasant about key members of the Northwest Nationalists who in turn have set up various websites in retaliation (Williamson Watch on fellow alcoholic and splitter Sid Williamson, Griffin Watch on the ‘glorious leader’) and spend much of their time firing equal amounts of bile and frustration at each other. Which can be very entertaining.

Is It The Readies, Eddy?

Currently the NF website features Eddy’s statement on the NF website and discusses how the “thorough and much overdue reorganisation of the National Front got under way earlier this year, the NF Leadership team have overcome all obstacles thrown in their way and made some great steps forward.” That is by usurping Franklin and attempting to marginalise Holmes. Morrison then goes on to list his plans for the new NF, including the new magazine which will “be like the late and much missed Spearhead.” This is presumably the Spearhead that slagged Eddy off in on uncertain terms. There then follows the usual crackpot ambitions and offers of NF yuletide cards at a tenner a pop, all wishing you a White Supremacist Christmas no doubt. Eddy is not an adherent to the concept of employment so there is clearly the attraction of membership fees and merchandise at stake. However, Holmes is on to this and, via a web intermediary, sent out this plea: “Can anyone thinking of donating to the NF or sending cheque’s or ordering from the NF please ignore ALL PO Box’s or postal address’s apart from NF Chairman Tom Holmes.” This has precedent: when Eddy quit the BPP the tiny party were quick to transfer their cash to a new account, presumably before Eddy could drink it.

Conclusion

What is of interest here is how anyone given Morrison’s history would actually follow or support him in the NF? He has been a member of dozens of factions and parties, been accused of grassing, has a history of disruption and a serious drink problem: his apparent untrustworthiness is exceptional even for the most extreme fascist loser. The situation is down to both ego and the numbers game as well as a social desperation. To be the ‘Führer’ of a party, however tiny, gives people a sense of purpose in an otherwise bleak and marginalised existence. These obscure fascist groups are stuck for numbers and rather than opting for quality they go for quantity, taking on anyone who shows a vague interest despite their questionable history. With inevitable results. As they hold views that the vast majority of people think are either repulsive or demented, they can only congregate with likeminded people and remain socially ostracised. The membership of an obscure fascist clique helps remedy this isolation. And characters like Morrison will continue to thrive there. We can maybe take solace in this fact, that alcohol and egomania have done more to damage fascism than anything else.

Libcom.org

He is the 71-year-old Right-wing historian who was jailed for ‘glorifying’ Hitler’s Nazi Party. She is a 24-year-old statuesque blonde singer who works as his personal assistant. Now intimate emails between the pair – in which David Irving declares his affection for the young American – have been leaked on the internet.

The messages, written during a book tour of America last month, also reveal an embarrassing tiff between the historian and Jaenelle Antas, who has been travelling with him. Ms Antas, whom Irving refers to as ‘J’, is from Minnesota and has been working for him while also trying to launch herself as an opera singer.

The emails show divorcee Irving is clearly taken with his young helper, who has become a neo-Nazi pin-up after posting pictures of herself on Stormfront, an internet discussion site for ‘pro-White activists and anyone else interested in White survival’.

The photographs, which feature the blonde on a shooting range with an automatic weapon and posing with handguns with her friends, also show her taking a trip with Irving to feed the swans on the River Thames near his Windsor home.

While the precise nature of the relationship between Irving and Ms Antas is a mystery, Irving is keen to shower her with affection, telling her: ‘You are pure Gold.’ And in an email to a friend, Irving reveals he has been asked about the ‘blonde bombshell’ by a journalist and writes: ‘I emphasise . . . that there is nothing going on between us.’

Irving’s email account and website were hacked by ‘anti-racist activists’ who then posted his credit-card accounts, mobile phone number, private correspondence and email address book on the web. The most intriguing emails feature Irving’s relationship with Ms Antas, who at one point threatens to leave the tour.

On November 7, she complains about the way he has been treating her and about being forced to miss a date with one of her friends. Irving replies: ‘Get over it.’ In another email to Ms Antas, he adds: ‘If you want to quit, I can’t stop you. It will not be the first time I have been let down at the last moment.’

Last night Irving said that the hacking came at the end of a campaign of violence and intimidation against him and Ms Antas on the US tour. At one point she was attacked with pepper spray. Masked men armed with baseball bats tried to force their way into another meeting.

Irving said: ‘The FBI has asked for my assistance in tracking down the hackers. They have done tens of thousands of pounds of damage. Effectively they drove a truck bomb into my online bookstore.’

Asked about the publication of the personal emails between him and Ms Antas, he said: ‘When I told her she went bright red.’ And asked about their relationship, he said: ‘She is 24. She is a comely maiden. She is my personal assistant, nothing more.’

In 1996 Irving brought an unsuccessful libel case against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books. The court found that he was an active Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and racist. Irving was arrested during a visit to Austria three years ago and convicted of ‘glorifying and identifying with the German Nazi Party’ and served ten months in jail.

MailOnline

As one of our readers commented the other day, Christmas seems to be a difficult time for the BNP. It was pointed out that 2007 saw the end of the then high-flying career of Sadie Graham and many others, while 2008 saw the chaos that followed the release of the full BNP membership list.

This year seemed to be following the same pattern, though in a less focused way, with the sudden resignation of Alby Walker as leader of the BNP group at Stoke Council, Dicky Barnbrook’s embarrassingly poor apology for being a liar, the laughably appalling accounts (which earned the party a £1100 slap on the wrist for tardiness) and a threat of future legal action from the Electoral Commission, plus a swathe of dreadful by-election results.

Now however, things seem to be coming to a head with the resignations of former contender for the BNP leadership (in a rigged election that he couldn’t possibly win) Chris Jackson (pictured), his former campaign manager Mike Easter and someone named Kev Bryan, who was apparently the Rossendale Branch Organiser. The resignations are announced in an open letter posted on the mostly defunct jackson4leader site:

‘Disbandment of reform Group

What is the point of the BNP if you admit foreigners?

Sadly we have come to the conclusion that the BNP is breaking up and there is no practicable likelihood of it recovering.

In our opinion the root cause of the failure is the Constitution of the Party. The Constitution, that is the Party Rules, makes the Party Leader a dictator. The current leader rather than reforming the Constitution toward that of a normal English association has (probably illegally) made alterations to the Constitution making his removal virtually impossible.

The Party is now a nationalist party in name only and has abandoned many of the fundamental principles on which it was founded.

A further major problem is that of money. Under the Constitution, all money is controlled by the Party Leader. The Party Leader appoints the Party Treasurer and Party Auditor. The Leader has carte blanche to dispose of the funds as he pleases.

This has never been a satisfactory situation, and now that the Party is alleged to be turning over a million pounds a year, is nothing short of a scandal. There have been four different Treasurers this year and the 2008 accounts are way overdue. The Party has been fined by the Electoral Commission for late publication of accounts. This is a re-run of last year when the accounts were also late and when published were endorsed by the Auditor as unsatisfactory.

A separate, but related, issue is the Trafalgar Club. This Club raises money directly to support the Party Leader. No accounts for this club have ever been published and they have not been appended to the Party accounts, as clearly they should be.

We recommend that no further money be sent to ‘Head Office’.

Whilst the BNP has been going downhill, the National Front has reformed itself and now is led by a group of reliable people and has the Constitution of a normal democratic association. Consequently, we believe that BNP members should transfer to the National Front.

Mike Easter
Chris Jackson
Kevin Bryan‘

Regular readers will no doubt remember Jackson’s failed leadership challenge back in the summer of 2007. Although resoundingly beaten, the results were not quite what Nick Griffin apparently expected, with Griffin himself receiving a mandate from only 39% of the party membership. Were I Jackson, I would regard that outcome as something of a success in itself – it showing the lack of confidence in Griffin that truly exists even in the BNP. However, rather than follow-up the one successful aspect of his challenge, Jackson chose to keep his head down and say nothing very much for the next two years.

So why resign now? The main reasons are made pretty clear in the letter above – the action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to force the BNP to open its membership to non-whites and the financial shenanigans of the party leadership, though we suspect the former is the real reason and the latter is just a handy and always-relevant sideswipe at the morally-impaired Griffin.

It was pretty clear from the moment the EHRC began its action, that there would be repercussions from the hardcore racists in the BNP – one of whom is obviously Chris Jackson. There is though a lot of support for Jackson’s views within the party and as Searchlight pointed out during his leadership bid, his campaign was backed by some heavy-hitters: five founder-members, two advisory council members, three councillors, eight branch organisers and 20 election candidates came out openly in his support.

There are mixed immediate reactions to the resignations, though I don’t doubt we can expect a LOT more. Griffin-loyalists are, naturally, critical of this trio’s announcement and stated intention to join the National Front. One surprisingly witty nazi on Stormfront said;

‘The NF may have a name, although like a cheap can of Polish beans, they have a fancy label but the product inside is cheap and of little nutritional value.’

The response was less witty, though rather more cogent;

‘Ever since June, which was supposed to have been the BNP’s moment of greatest triumph, its members and supporters have been simply walking away. Last month, Andrew Brons spoke at a long-planned meeting in Bridlington which attracted fewer than thirty people, even though BNP members had travelled from as far away as Scarborough, Hull and Leeds to attend. If even a MEP and nationalist of AB’s calibre can’t draw the crowds anymore something is seriously wrong.’

Over at the North West Nationalist blog, the statements were a little more terse;

‘The root cause is traitor Griffin !’
‘Fingers in the till anyone?’
‘Only surprised it took CJ as long as it did to pack it in.’

The NWN forum was a little more informative;

‘I rather think that there will be a bit of a deluge over to the National Front here in the North West.’
‘Croydon BNP branch has crossed to the NF, and a large group in Southampton joining next week Strong rumours of Stoke BNP and councillors from other branches crossing over to the NF.’
‘I do know that both Burnley BNP & Halifax BNP are quite close to Chris Jackson’
‘We must leave crook Griffin with the rubbish personnel.’

Like everyone else, I do enjoy a good disaster movie over Christmas – and the BNP generally provides the best. It’s a bit late this year but what the hell – I suspect this one will be a biggie and just as much fun to watch as all the others.

Compliments of the season to all our readers and happy viewing.

Lancaster Unity

Rob Hallett wants his “Festival of Britain” to promote national pride and challenge the extreme Right’s definition of patriotism — “I’m fed up with the British National Party stealing the Union Jack.”

He said the line-up could include Annie Lennox, Rod Stewart, Jarvis Cocker and Lily Allen, and that there would be a fashion show with British designers such as Vivienne Westwood.

“There will be no Stella, no Carlsberg, no horrible fizzy German stuff, only British ales,” he said. “No hot dogs, but bangers and fish and chips. I want to celebrate everything that’s British culturally and musically. I’m going to get great British singers singing with the BBC Concert Hall Orchestra — just British songs, written by British people.”

The event will be held on Clapham Common because “the man on the Clapham omnibus symbolises Middle England. It will be a family event, from noon to 9 o’clock, more civilised [than Glastonbury], it won’t be too loud and there will be no profanities.”

Times Online