A BRITISH National Party activist drives around with the word “Nazi” written on the back of his car, it has been revealed.
Robin Evans, the BNP’s Blackburn organiser, said he had not tried to remove the word as he did not find it offensive.
The former councillor for Mill Hill in Blackburn, who now lives in Darwen, said he did not know who had stuck the letters on his metallic green Volkswagen Golf, but thought it was “quite funny”, adding: “It doesn’t bother me”
Blackburn MP Jack Straw said the sticker “exposed the true colours of the BNP”.
Party leader Nick Griffin, who was recently elected as a Euro MP for the North West, advised Mr Evans to remove the term.
When asked about it by the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Evans, who stood for the BNP at this month’s Darwen Town Council elections, said: “You know what people are like. Everyone calls me a Nazi.
“Someone put it on there 12 months ago. It was in silver letters. What you see there is the wreckage. I haven’t a clue who tried to take it off but I couldn’t be bothered.
“To be honest I thought it was quite funny. It’s better than them putting my windows through or smashing bottles on my head which I’ve had before.
“The car is on its last legs. I would rather be driving around in a big Porsche. But my car and whatever it looks like does its job and I am OK with it.”
Asked whether he found the term ‘Nazi’ offensive, Mr Evans added: “Everyone is individual. My personal interpretation, not the BNP’s, is that it means a nationalist, which is where the word has come from. If someone’s in the street screaming ‘Nazi, Nazi’, that is offensive. It is not offensive against other people.”
Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “It’s very offensive, especially to people who are Jewish, but also to virtually everyone else in society.
“This exposes the BNP’s true colours.”
Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen Party leader and deputy council leader, said: “If someone put that on my car I would have it taken down instantly. It is absolutely tasteless.”
Mr Griffin said: “I would advise him to take it off. It was obviously put there by some crank. He may be putting a brave face on it.”
Asked whether he found the term offensive, he added: “I don’t know if it’s offensive per se, you see all sorts of swastikas on news stands and history books.
“But used against us it is highly offensive, because we believe in British values like free speech.”
Source: www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk, 17th June 2009
Yorkshire MEP Andrew Brons drew up some of the National Front’s most inflammatory policies
British National party MEP Andrew Brons. Photograph: BNP/PA
One of the British National party’s first MEPs’ attempts to play down his past links to the extreme right as “silly” teenage posturing are today exposed as a sham after it emerged that for many years he played a crucial role in shaping the National Front’s most overtly racist policies.
In 1983, when he was in his late twenties, Andrew Brons edited the National Front’s general election manifesto that called for a global apartheid to prevent the “extinction” of whites everywhere.
The Let Britain Live! manifesto was prepared by the party’s policy department, chaired by Brons. It outlined a series of hugely controversial positions, crystallised in one of its opening statements:“The National Front rejects the whole concept of multiracialism. We recognise inherent racial differences in Man. The races of Man are profoundly unequal in their characteristics, potential and abilities.”
The manifesto claimed the UK had been “swamped” by “racially incompatible Afro-Asians” and that “Black muggings of White people, especially elderly ladies, occurs regularly”.
It continued: “The eruptions in Bristol in 1980 and Brixton in 1981 were just two examples of the ‘cultural enrichment’ promised to us by the multiracialists.” And it claimed: “We believe the gradual dismantlement of the Apartheid system over the last 17 years to be retrograde … The alternative to Apartheid, multiracialism, envisages an extinction of the White man.”
Brons was also an enthusiastic contributor in the 1970s and 1980s to Spearhead, a far-right magazine considered so extreme even the BNP tried to distance itself from it. In two lengthy polemics for the magazine, Brons outlined the supposed importance of nationalism and interpreted genetic studies to suggest Europeans had a “greater cognitive ability” than non-whites. He attacked the influence of “people of Jewish ethnic origin” and peddled the myth that a number of predominantly Zionist organisations were controlling the world.
The now retired college lecturer wrote: “One ethnic, national and religious group whose power and influence has undoubtedly increased has been the Jews. It can be no mere coincidence that the number of people of Jewish ethnic origin to be found in internationalist and multiracialist schools of thought and organisations of action is out of all proportion to their numbers in the population.”
Brons, who was elected as the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber this month, has tried to distance himself from his National Front days. “People do silly things when they are 17,” he said recently. “Peter Mandelson was once a member of the Young Communist League but we don’t continue to call him a communist.”
But his critics say his relationship with the National Front was more than a youthful dalliance and question the extent to which he has left his past behind. A 1980 edition of National Front News, the party newspaper, carried an article about Brons saying he was prepared to go to jail for his beliefs.It noted that Brons refused a “Negro reporter permission to attend two National Front ticket-only meetings”and explains that Brons, then 29, has “campaigned against Coloured Immigration since he was a teenager” – suggesting his extremist views have been a feature as much of his adult as his teenage life.
Brons seized the NF chairmanship in 1980 when John Tyndall quit to form the BNP. In 1984 Brons was convicted of using insulting behaviour towards an ethnic-minority police officer and left the party, citing family problems.
At the National Front, Brons was a close ally of Richard Verrall, the author of the Holocaust-denial tract Did Six Million Really Die?, who was vice-chairman. In 1981, while Brons was chairman, the NF endorsed We are National Front, a pamphlet carrying an introduction from Verrall.It had photographs of Brons and Verrall as well as a picture of a gorilla and a black man stating: “These two creatures look the same, don’t they?”
Anti-racism and Jewish support groups yesterday described Brons’s failure to condemn his past activities as disturbing. “From a young man until well into his middle age, Andrew Brons was very much involved in a series of viciously antisemitic and racist far-right movements,” said a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which monitors attacks on the UK’s Jewish community. “It’s hard to believe he has undergone a serious conversion since then.”
Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, said Brons was influential in shaping the NF and it was important that those voting for him should be aware of his past views. “The fact that Brons is an intellectual fascist and bigot rather than an ignorant fascist and bigot cuts little ice,” a spokesman said. “We are unimpressed by his claims that his prejudice was a result of youthful exuberance.”
Attempts to contact Brons through the BNP were unsuccessful.
LONDON (Reuters) – Scores of protesters throwing eggs and shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets” broke up a news conference on Tuesday by the British National Party which has just won its first seats in the European Parliament.
BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, who both won European Parliament seats in the north of England in last week’s vote, had just started giving an open-air news conference outside parliament when they were charged by protesters.
They threw eggs which broke on Griffin’s shoulder and at least one protester hit him with the stick of a placard, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.
Chased by the protesters, Griffin and Brons fled in waiting cars. Demonstrators struck the cars with placards, which bore the slogan “Stop the Fascist BNP,” as they accelerated away.
A police spokeswoman said two people had been taken to hospital after the protest, but she had no more information about them or their injuries.
Police were looking into an allegation of assault on a woman at the protest and investigating reports of a road collision linked to the demonstration, she said. No one had been arrested.
Police guarding parliament did not intervene in the protest.
The BNP, which campaigns for a halt to immigration, voluntary repatriation of immigrants and British withdrawal from the European Union, has won local council seats but is not represented in the British parliament.
It is shunned by mainstream parties which regard its policies as racist. But it has gathered support in urban areas among a working class hurt by the worst recession in decades and competing for jobs and services with immigrants.
It won more than 940,000 votes in last week’s European elections, enough to give it its first two deputies under a proportional representation system.
Griffin said the protesters were a “mob for hire” that included supporters of the Labour Party.
“This is a mob of students, lecturers, probably a few civil service parasites … and hardcore activists and supporters primarily of the Labour Party,” he told the BBC.
An official of Unite Against Fascism, set up in response to what it sees as the rising threat from the extreme right in Britain and which organised the protest, was unrepentant.
“I say to all those people that voted for them: They voted for the wrong thing. They voted for civil war, destruction and conflict in communities and surely that is a terrible thing to happen,” Weyman Bennett, the group’s national secretary, told reporters.
The BNP was helped in last week’s election by a low turnout and protest voting after the major parties were tarred by a scandal over politicians’ perks.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Hird; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Richard Balmforth)
The UK’s international reputation has suffered “real damage” as a result of the British National Party gaining their first seats in the European Parliament, politicians, unions and race relations groups said.
Labour MEP for London Claude Moraes said that a threshold had been crossed after the far-right party won two seats.
BNP leader Nick Griffin picked up the seat in the North West of England region and Andrew Brons won a seat in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
Peter Hain, the newly-appointed Welsh Secretary, released a statement via United Against Fascism which read: “It’s a shameful stain on Britain that we now have racists and fascists representing our country.
“It is vital that everyone now isolates and confronts the BNP and works with United Against Fascism to defeat them.”
At a Unite Against Fascism press conference in Westminster, Mr Moraes went on to acknowledge that the BNP had “jumped upon” Gordon Brown’s slogan “British jobs for British workers” during the election.
He explained: “That phrase was jumped upon by the BNP, they are trying increasingly to look at what mainstream politicians say to embarrass the politicians as a way of getting support.
He added: “There is real damage here to Britain because we have never elected fascists in a national election. Fascists in the European Parliament where I sit have long wanted members from Britain to join this transnational group so for those reasons there is deep concern that we have now crossed that threshold.”
He said that many people would be viewing Britain as a “nastier” place than they had prior to the election. The BNP wins came as the party appeared to attract significant numbers of disaffected Labour voters.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people voiced their anger at the election of the two BNP members to the European Parliament. Simultaneous protests took place in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Preston and York in the wake of the far-right party’s propulsion up the political ladder.
LONDON (AFP) — The British National Party on Monday won its first seats in the European Parliament, in a major breakthrough for a party reviled by mainstream politicians for its anti-immigration stance.
Party chairman Nick Griffin was elected an MEP in the northwest of England region with eight percent of the vote, hours after Andrew Brons won the BNP’s first ever European seat in the nearby Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Griffin had earlier hailed Brons’ win — with almost 10 percent of the vote — as “a huge breakthrough” for his party, and used the victory to reiterate his party’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam stance.
He denied his party was racist, but said: “We do say this country is full up. The key thing is to shut the door.”
Griffin told Sky News television: “This is a Christian country and Islam is not welcome, because Islam and Christianity, Islam and democracy, Islam and women’s rights do not mix.
“That’s a simple fact that the elites of Europe are going to have to get their heads round and deal with over the next few years.”
The result is a vindication of efforts by Griffin, who was educated at the prestigious Cambridge University, to recast the party since taking over in 1999, emphasising its grassroots activism over extreme-right ideology.
Amid concerns about soaring unemployment and a deep recession and in particular the demise of the country’s manufacturing base, the BNP has pledged British jobs for British workers.
It is opposed to European integration and wants to pull Britain out of the European Union and halt all immigration to the country.
In recent weeks it has also capitalised on public anger over the row over lawmakers’ expenses, which has severely damaged the reputation of parliament and the mainstream Labour and Conservative parties.
Health minister Andrew Burnham described the BNP’s first MEP victory as a “sad moment“, and following Griffin’s success in the northwest, local Labour MP Tony Lloyd said he was ashamed at how some people had voted.
“I am genuinely not just disappointed, I think it is a matter of shame, this country has a deserved reputation for a tolerant society,” said Lloyd, the Labour MP for Manchester Central.
“Their (the BNP) vision for Britain is a nightmare for Britain. I think many people will wake up with some sense of shame.”
Government ministers and the Conservative party had sought to remind voters of the BNP’s policies, which include calls for the immediate halt to all immigration to Britain and the “voluntary resettlement” of all immigrants.
There is nothing new here. We knew what Sarkozy’s vision of the future was: an “Islam of France”, “métissage” between races and ethnic groups, dissolution of nationalist, regional, and ethnic identities, subjugation to Brussels, openness to socialism, and a Turkey as closely aligned with Europe as possible, etc…
But it’s always sobering to hear it again, from one who knows Sarkozy personally. Philippe de Villiers was interviewed by the weekly Famille Chrétienne. The Catholic blogLe Salon Beige relates part of the interview:
– Why are you so focused on the theme of Turkey and Islamization?
– Quite simply because we will see the first transformations of churches into mosques in the coming three years. At any rate, that is what Nicolas Sarkozy told me.
– When?
– I had an in depth discussion with him at Elysée at the end of last year. He said to me: “You have intuition, I have the figures. And your intuition is confirmed by my figures. The Islamization of Europe is inevitable.” Careful: it’s a process that will not occur overnight, but will take decades.
–Why does this issue appear to be of central importance to you?
– Most politicians have a comforting ignorance of what Islam is and propose transforming Europe into a supermarket of competing religions. Unaware that Islam is not only a religion since, by melding the temporal and the spiritual, it imposes a law. But behind this comforting ignorance of politicians, there are those who know. (…) The reality is that we are headed for a criss-cross [chassé-croisé] with, on one side, Europe and its en masse abortions, its promotion of gay marriage, and on the other, immigration en masse (…)
“Chassé-croisé” is virtually impossible to translate. Originally a choreographic term, it usually refers to a crowded movement in one direction that passes but never encounters a crowded movement in another direction. Sometimes it is just kept as is in English.
– Aren’t you exaggerating the dimensions of the phenomenon?
– No. The crux of the issue is simple: Europe is refusing its own demographic future. And it is working with a fearsome weapon towards this end, written into the Charter of fundamental rights appended to the treaty of Lisbon: the promotion of gay marriage. This in turn is accomplished through the principle of non-discrimination and the disassociation of marriage from the sex of the spouses (which appears in article 7 of the Charter of fundamental rights). In reality, there are two weapons being used by European leaders to kill Europe demographically: the promotion of gay marriage and en masse abortions. And a third: the recourse to immigration that is 80% Islamic in order to replace the people who are no longer there (…)
As usual there are LSB readers who question Villiers’ sincerity and motives. But this time, there are also many who applaud his courage. He is certainly putting more muscle into his words on the eve of the election.
A spokesman for Elysée protested saying: “Philippe de Villiers is not the spokesman for Elysée. He makes multiple declarations on this topic, declarations that obviously need to be regarded with caution.”
The lead BNP candidate for Yorkshire in tomorrow’s European elections was once convicted of abusive chanting that included calling a ethnic minority police officer an “inferior being”, it can be revealed.
Andrew Brons was fined £50 by Leeds magistrates in 1984 for using insulting words and behaviour after a confrontation with police when he was leader of the far-right group the National Front.The 61-year-old, who was 37 at the time, was also found guilty of acting in a manner calculated to blemish the peace.
Mr Brons, then a politics lecturer at Harrogate College, was leading a group of supporters leafleting in Leeds city centre in October 1983. A shop assistant heard them shouting “National Front” and saw clenched-fist salutes, while a policeman heard other slogans including “white power” and “death to Jews”.
PC John Raj, the area’s community constable and of Malaysian-origin, told the group to disperse after elderly shoppers voiced their fears. But when he asked Mr Brons to leave, the politician said: “I am aware of my legal rights. Inferior beings like yourself probably do not appreciate the principle of free speech.”
Since being chosen as the BNP’s lead candidate in this week’s elections, Mr Brons has attempted to skirt over his controversial past. He denied the allegations at the time and last night continued to claim he had not made any abusive statements.
But Mr Raj’s evidence was accepted over that of Mr Brons by both Leeds magistrates and a Leeds Crown Court judge who heard an appeal.
Last night Mr Brons said: “I would not have said anything that would have jeopardised my employment at Harrogate College, which lasted from 1970 to 2005. “I categorically denied the allegations at the time which were clearly absurd.”
But Denis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham and author of a recent book on anti-semitism, said: “How much more proof is needed of the Nazi antecedents of the BNP?
“The obsession of BNP candidates with Jews and the denial of the Holocaust should not be rewarded on Thursday.”
