Tag: Nick Griffin

BNP leader Nick Griffin could lose Euro seat as party faces bankruptcy

By Tom Mctague

Griffin could lose Euro seat as party faces bankruptcy

BNP leader Nick Griffin faces being axed as a Euro MP as he fights to avoid bankruptcy over his party’s soaring cash crisis.

He is among top officials thought to be personally liable for the racist group’s £700,000 debts – which it admits it cannot pay.

Anyone made bankrupt is legally barred from being an MP or Euro MP.

The BNP’s money woes were laid bare by ex-chief fundraiser James Dowson in a letter seen by the Mirror.

Mr Dowson told North-East printers who produced its newsletter that the finances were like “a shipwreck”

He added: “Cash is in very short supply… [it is] impossible for the BNP and persons associated with it to pay outstanding bills in anything like a normal timescale, if indeed at all.” The “very grave” crisis meant it could only pay 20% of what it owed, he added.

Its money problems have been made worse by having to settle a legal row after illegally using Marmite in an ad and the cost of fighting the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its whites-only admission rules.

Meanwhile, electoral chiefs are still probing its 2008 accounts as they contain gaps that breach the law.

The BNP’s debt meltdown comes amid a spate of defections and expulsions.

Mr Dowson and media officer Paul Golding have left while campaigns chief Eddy Butler and London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook were recently expelled.

Mr Griffin was not responding to our requests for a comment last night.

, 3/11/2010

November 5, 2010
‘Christians should reject BNP’

Published Date: 24 October 2009

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has called on Christians to “stand shoulder to shoulder” in rejecting the British National Party and its leader Nick Griffin, who he branded a “squalid racist”.Lord Carey said it was “chilling” to hear Mr Griffin claim to represent “Christian Britain” in his appearance on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday, and accused the BNP leader of trying to “hijack one of the world’s great religions”.

His comments came as a poll suggested that a number of controversial BNP policies on immigration, sex education and Islam have resonance with significant numbers of voters.

The survey in the News of the World found that almost two-thirds of voters feel the mainstream parties have no credible policies on immigration. But only 6% said the BNP had the best policies on the issue and just 10% agreed with the far-right party that there should be a halt to all future immigration.

The ICM research follows a YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph which suggested that 22% of voters would consider backing the BNP in a local, European or general election in the wake of Mr Griffin’s controversial TV appearance.

Numbers saying they intend to vote BNP had increased from 2% to 3% since September.

The poll provoked a furious response from Labour’s long-time anti-racism campaigner Peter Hain, who fought to keep Mr Griffin off the airwaves. “The BBC has handed the BNP the gift of the century on a plate and now we see the consequences. I’m very angry about this,” said Mr Hain.

Lord Carey said the decision to invite Mr Griffin on to the BBC’s flagship political discussion programme was “a mistake”.

The former archbishop told the News of the World: “The BBC’s director-general errs in arguing that in a democracy all views should be heard. The views of the BNP are not simply false, they are dangerous, indeed irredeemably evil.”

During his appearance on Thursday, Mr Griffin said if Muslims wanted to remain in Britain they had to accept that it was “a fundamentally British and Christian country”. But Lord Carey responded: “This squalid racist must not be allowed to hijack one of the world’s great religions.”

Yorkshire Post

October 24, 2009
BNP on Question Time: Nick Griffin uses BBC to attack Islam and defend the Ku Klux Klan

The BBC was under siege last night after the leader of the BNP used his appearance on Question Time to attack Muslims and homosexuals while defending the Ku Klux Klan.

By Robert Winnett and Rosa Prince

Nick Griffin said Islam was not compatible with life in Britain, while describing homosexuals as “creepy”.

However, he admitted sharing a platform with the Ku Klux Klan, which has carried out racist attacks across America’s Deep South, and defended leaders in the organisation as “non-violent”.

The remarks provoked indignation from other members of the BBC panel and hostile parts of the audience, some of whom booed, calling him “a disgrace”.

The BNP leader said he could not explain for legal reasons why he had previously sought to play down the Holocaust and had now changed his mind. He was challenged by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary and a fellow panellist, who said there was no such law.

Mr Griffin defended his use of Sir Winston Churchill on BNP literature on the basis that his father had fought in the Second World War. He claimed that Churchill would have been a member of the BNP and was “Islamophobic” by “today’s standard”.

Asked whether he denied that millions of Jews and other minorities had been killed by the Nazis, Mr Griffin would only reply: “I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial.”

He was then chastised by David Dimbleby, the host of the programme, for smiling.

The controversial statements were made in response to intense questioning by members of the audience from ethnic minorities.

BBC Television Centre in west London came under siege as filming took place, with MPs joining hundreds of protesters behind lines of police. There were six arrests as dozens of protesters attempted to storm the studio.

BBC studios in Hull, Scotland and Wales were also targeted by demonstrators. The cost of the police operation was estimated to have been more than £100,000.

The BBC was certain to be questioned over why it allowed Mr Griffin to air such controversial views but executives were hoping that the intensive questioning that he faced would justify their decision to invite him on the Question Time panel for the first time.

The BBC, which Mr Griffin denounced on the programme as “ultra-Leftist”, had claimed that impartiality rules meant that it had little choice but to invite him on to the programme after the BNP won seats in the European Parliament in elections this year.

He was joined on the panel by Mr Straw, Baroness Warsi, the Tory spokesman on community cohesion, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, and Bonnie Greer, a black American playwright.

Mr Griffin was seated next to Miss Greer.

One of the most controversial moments came when Mr Dimbleby asked the BNP leader why he had been pictured with David Duke, the former leader of the Klan. Mr Griffin claimed that parts of the racist group, officially classed as a “hate organisation” in America, were “non-violent”.

However, he insisted: “I’m not a Nazi and never have been.” He claimed that he was “the most loathed man in Britain” among British fascists.

He was questioned over his views on Islam and said it had “good points” but “does not fit in with the fundamental values of British society”.

He described white Britons as “aboriginals here”. “The indigenous people of these islands, the English, the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the people who have been here for the last 17,000 years, are the aboriginals. The majority of British people are descended from people who have been here since time immemorial.

“You people wouldn’t allow us to have our name on the census form — that’s racism.”

Amid angry scenes, one Asian member of the audience asked Mr Griffin where he would like him to be sent, and added: “You’d be surprised how many people would have a whip round to buy you and your supporters a ticket to go to the South Pole — that’s a colourless landscape, it’ll suit you fine.”

Questioned over whether he believed that British people had suffered genocide at the hands of successive governments, Mr Griffin said: “That is the case. It’s about destroying a culture.”

On the subject of homosexuality he said “a lot of people find the sight of two men kissing in public really creepy”. “That is how a lot of us feel, a lot of Christians, a lot of Muslims,” he said. “I don’t know why, that’s just the way it is.”

Speaking after filming had finished, Mr Griffin claimed that he had been able to “land some punches” and acknowledged that his appearance would “polarise normal opinion” but expressed confidence that it would have an impact.

“A huge swath of British people will remember some of the things I said and say to themselves they’ve never heard anyone on Question Time say that before,” he said. “Millions of people will think, ‘That man speaks what I feel.’ ”

About one million people voted for the BNP at the European elections, leading to Mr Griffin taking up one of its two seats in the European Parliament. As a result, the BBC said impartiality rules effectively forced it to include the party in Question Time.

Mark Thompson, the director-general, said the Government should ban the BNP if it felt that Mr Griffin should not have been allowed to take part in the broadcast.

“If there is a case for censorship, it should be decided in Parliament,” he said. “Political censorship cannot be outsourced to the BBC or anyone else.”

He said the BNP had “demonstrated a level of support that would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on Question Time”.

Politicians from minor parties, including George Galloway, the Respect MP, and Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green party, regularly appeared on Question Time.

Mr Thompson insisted that Mr Griffin had been invited so that the public could challenge his views, rather than any “misguided desire to be controversial”.

Speaking before the programme, Gordon Brown said the BNP’s appearance was a matter for the BBC and that he was confident that Mr Griffin would be exposed for his “unacceptable” views.

“I hope that the exposure of the BNP will make people see what they are really like,” the Prime Minister said.

However, there were fears that Mr Griffin’s appearance would lead to an increase in support. He had said he was hopeful his party would be propelled into “the big time” as a result of the broadcast.

The Telegraph

October 23, 2009
‘Bigoted’ BNP will be exposed on TV, says Gordon Brown

British National Party leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time wil expose his “unacceptable” views, Gordon Brown said.

The Prime Minister said the decision to invite Mr Griffin, who was elected as an MEP earlier this year, on to the show was a matter for the BBC and he did not want to interfere with it.

But he described the party as “racist and bigoted,” and urged anyone tempted to cast a protest vote against the mainstream parties not to turn to the BNP.

Speaking on Real Radio in Yorkshire before the recording of today’s episode of Question Time, Mr Brown said: “If on Question Time, they are asked about their racist and bigoted views that are damaging to good community relations, it will be a good opportunity to expose what they are about.

“In a recession, people are tempted to vote against their traditional voting patterns like voting Labour, which we regret. But I want to persuade people that voting for the BNP is not the right thing to do.”

Mr Brown also defended the decision to allow Justice Secretary Jack Straw to appear on the show alongside Mr Griffin, in contrast with Labour’s previous refusal to share a platform with the BNP.

He said: “The issue is: should we have someone there? Jack Straw is a very experienced person who has had to deal with the BNP and their awful politics over a period of time.

“At every point, I believe we have got a duty to expose the BNP for what are racist and sectarian politics.”

Last week, the BNP was ordered by the courts to change its membership rules, which only allowed “indigenously Caucasian” people to join, said Mr Brown.

He said: “For a political party to exclude people on the grounds of race is completely unacceptable.

“Their views about mixed marriages and everything else are unacceptable for the modern world.”

In a message to voters considering a protest vote in the forthcoming general election, Mr Brown asked: “Do you really want to vote for, support or give succour to a party that wanted to exclude people from their party on the grounds of race and colour in the way that they did for many years?

“Do you want to support a party that has some of the most bigoted views in our country?”

The Telegraph

October 22, 2009
DARK FAMILY SECRETS OF BNP LEADER NICK GRIFFIN

By David Jarvis

SURPRISE: The 1871 Census has Griffin’s great-grandfather George as a hawker living in a van

BNP leader Nick Griffin, who last week branded gypsies “anti social and criminal”, can trace his roots to travellers hawking cheap goods from a horse and cart.

The controversial MEP’s great-grandfather George Griffin roamed from town to town in a horse-drawn caravan with his wife Esther and their children, selling china and crockery.

Census reports show he spent years living the gypsy life, never settling in one place because as an impoverished traveller he was on the margins of society and never fully accepted anywhere.

Last week Griffin, 50, who condemned attacks on Romanian gypsies in Northern Ireland, said: “We have to bear in mind that the gypsy community is notorious for its extremely high rate of criminality and antisocial behaviour.

“Everyone in Romania and eastern Europe knows this and it is one reason why their governments are so keen to encourage them to come over here.”

Yet between 1868 and 1874 records show his great-grandfather represented just such a minority. He travelled in one caravan with his while his business partner, Mary Ann Hollis, travelled in another.

George habitually lied about his age, describing himself as 25 in the 1871 Census, 41 a decade later, 47 in the 1891 Census and 58 in 1901. He plied his precarious trade in Devon and Cornwall and could often be found parked outside the London Inn pub in Liskeard.

The 1871 Census shows the caravans were parked next to the Cornish pub, noting: “Six persons not in houses”. In the column marked “Houses” it reports them as living in vans.

While George lived with Esther, 22, and his 10-month-old son George Junior in one, Mary Ann Hollis, 37, was in the second with George’s three-year-old daughter Mary Ann Griffi n and a William Huxham, 16.

He is described as a servant but probably earned his keep selling wares. In the Census column marked “Rank, profession or occupation” George is a “licensed hawker dealing in china and crockery ware”.

His lifestyle would not have fitted with the intolerant views of Mr Griffin and the British National Party which does not accept black people as members.

“Griffin has called for an immediate halt to immigration, and voluntary resettlement of immigrants legally living in Britain.

When told this week of Mr Griffin’s heritage, shocked BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “That will please him.” Genealogy expert Nick Barratt added: “George Griffin travelled around, scratching a living. His group will have roamed from street to street like ragtag travellers trying to survive on their wits and selling their wares.

“And it is highly likely he spent many more years living the life of a traveller before he married.

“Today we would call his group travellers and just like today they would have been marginalised on the edge of society and seen as outsiders.

“They will have been treated with a degree of suspicion and as a minority.”

Source: www.express.co.uk, June 21, 2009

June 21, 2009
Devils United

The leader of the far-right British National Party wept as he saluted party members for helping win two seats in the European parliament.

Nick Griffin was addressing delegates in a Blackpool hotel as part of the BNP’s “summer school” and Victory 09 celebrations.

After listening to speeches by party bosses Mr Griffin was applauded to the stage.

He managed just a “Thank you,” before he broke down. He thanked individuals and the collective membership for enabling two MEPs to be elected – himself in the North West and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Speaking amid St George’s Cross bunting and sepia photographs of war veterans and impish little children, Mr Griffin applauded senior member Mark Collet, with whom he was cleared of inciting racial hatred in 2006.

“The propaganda was exceptional,” he said of the BNP literature produced ahead of the local and Euro elections.

Mr Griffin attacked the media for what he described as a smear campaign the likes of which he had never seen before. He attacked the three main parties for turning the country into a “multicultural bankrupt slum” and “organising and funding” the protesters against him.

“Like a new boy at school,” was how he described visiting Brussels for the first time. But he said he had joined forces with other right-wing parties, forming “Devils United”.

Outside The New Kimberley Hotel on the south promenade some 80 Unite Against Fascism members protested against the BNP.

Four people were arrested near the protest, which police said was peaceful. The four were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

Press Association

June 20, 2009