Griffin would rather see the flag of Spain over the Rock
The cowardly remarks made by BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP to Spanish media officials has sparked fury in Gibraltar, says the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The peninsula’s newspaper reports how “Griffin would abandon 30,000 Gibraltarians” to Spanish fascists. The paper also informs its readers how the BNP leader spent the June 2009 European elections campaigning for votes on the Rock. This stab in the back by the nationalist leader has touched a raw nerve as representatives queue up to hit back.
A furious Graham Watson MEP, representative for Gibraltar in the European Parliament, told the Chronicle, “Griffin hoped to make a quiet sop to Spanish extremists, but was exposed by anti-BNP campaigners”.
“Griffin’s words show the complete lack of respect that the BNP hold towards freedom and democracy. Far from defending the British people, he has shown that his party would betray the trust of thousands in order to please his fascist friends,” said Mr Watson.
“As long as the people of Gibraltar wish to remain British citizens, they should be guaranteed protection by the British government. The BNP may wish abandon British subjects, but I will never support it.”
Griffin with Roberto Fiore and Spanish nationalist leader Manuel Canduela
This bungling betrayal by the BNP leader will have caused him immense damage. During the Euro elections, Griffin carefully crafted a “Churchillian” / “British Bull Dog” image and yet as this episode has shown he capitulated to Spanish fascists when under pressure from the media. Griffin may think he is the heir to Winston Churchill but he would never have sold out British interests to fascists.
Roberto Fiore is a close friend of Nick Griffin and a convicted terrorist
A rally attended by Nick GriffinMEP got ugly as Spanish police detained 28 members of a neo-fascist party who tried to disrupt an event held by a rival extremist group attended by British National Party leader at a Madrid hotel.
Those arrested were all members of Spain’s ultra-nationalist Patriotic Socialist Movement and they were arrested after they attacked doormen at the hotel who were trying to prevent them from entering. Four people were lightly injured in the scuffle but did not require medical care, a police spokesman said.
The National Democracy Party which staged the event said it had requested police protection because of fears that far-left groups might try to disrupt it as has happened in the past.
It was not immediately clear why members of the Patriotic Socialist Movement tried to disrupt the event, which also featured Griffin’s close friend and former business partner, Roberto Fiore, the leader of Italian neo-fascist party Forza Nuova and a convicted terrorist.
The presence of people like Roberto Fiore within the BNP, and Griffin’s refusal to distance himself from him, is only further proof that the party’s change is only cosmetic and that beneath there still exists a thoroughly dangerous element to it.
Does rising electoral support for racist parties like the BNP lead to more racial violence?
The conviction earlier this week of Neil Lewington, a neo-Nazi who planned a terror campaign in Britain, certainly raises that question.
Lewington is one of the nastiest (if crack-pot) potential neo-Nazi terrorists in recent history. In his summing up, the Judge said Lewington’s terrorist actions were “designed to intimidate non-white people … for the purpose of pursuing the ideological cause of white supremacy and neo-fascism, albeit in a rather unsophisticated way.” In Lewington’s bedroom police found a nail bomb factory and a notebook entitled “Waffen SS UK Members’ Handbook”.
During the trial the court heard about one of Lewington’s inspirations, David Copeland, the Soho nail bomber and former member of the BNP. (Another was Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber).
Despite there being no evidence of Lewington’s involvement with the BNP (he appears to have been a lone wolf), his attempt to emulate the likes of Copeland raises the question: does the electoral success of the BNP lead to violent extremism?
The BNP is legitimate political party operating within the law. For that we should be thankful.
It does, however, hold many white supremacist and neo-fascist views which have direct lineage to Oswald Mosley, the German Nazi Party, the American KKK, Roberto Fiore and modern East European extremists like Jobbik. This is particularly true of leadership figures like Nick Griffin MEP, Andrew Brons MEP, Lee Barnes (Legal Director) and Mark Collett (Head of Publicity).
Whilst all parties have their rotten eggs, the BNP has more than its fair share of violent racists. Some like Robert Cottage (who stood as a BNP candidate three times) and Tony Lecomber were BNP activists. Others like Copeland and Mark Bullman (who used a BNP leaflet to light his firebomb) were on the fringe. (More details here).
Certainly the pool of candidates is likely to grow. The election and consequent media promotion of Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons gives a certain level of legitimacy to the BNP and its ideals. This means disaffected people trying to find answers to their worries are more likely to turn to the politics of racism, segregation and intolerance and follow the examples set by the BNP’s high profile leaders and violent members.
And the temperature is likely to increase, particularly if politicians refuse to debate the issues that leave some of the population feeling angry, frustrated and dispossessed. Those issues include immigration, Britishness and joblessness.
Experts on Irish Republicanism and Islamism call this the “conveyor belt” to violence. It is too early for any clear evidence either way. But we fear that the election of a small number of weird, nutty and inadequate politicians legitimises the politics of racism and that, in turn, introduces an element of violence and intimidation to British society that changes the way we do politics forever.
Nick Griffin was on Australian television network SBS this weekend. “We are the Sex Pistols of British politics and we’ve got a number one,” he said.
My eye was caught by a UAF poster with this dubious slogan, “Unemployment and housing is not caused by immigration”. For further details on this statement, see the government’s Migration Advisory Panel report on workers being displaced by migrant workers.
In July Nothing British wrote about the BNP’s tribute to Harry Patch. We said that the BNP were using this tactic to counter claims that they are not patriotic because of the admiration for Nazis.
This week the Chairman of the Royal British Legion’s Wells branch in Somerset, Robin White, said, “Knowing Harry as I did, he would have no truck with the BNP … (it) is in no way related to peace and reconciliation.”
Mr White also accused Mr Griffin of trying to politicise “one of the nation’s most treasured and beloved symbols”.
In a video posted on the BNP’s online TV channel the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, praises convicted Italian terrorist Roberto Fiore and worryingly claims he has been one of the greatest influences on his political outlook.
Fiore is an Italian neo-fascist with a 10 year conviction for being a member of the neo-fascist terrorist group the “Armed Revolutionary Nuclei”. According to The Times, the group was implicated in the Bologna bombing of 1980, which killed 85 people. Fiore went on the run and he was sentenced in absentia. His jail term was eventually “timed out” under Italy’s statute of limitation laws and he was able to return to his homeland in April 1999.
Nothing British believes that Fiore’s presence within the BNP – and their refusal to distance themselves from him – proves how they have not progressed since their more thuggish days during the 1970s and 80s.
Oxford University Conservative Association racism row
It’s far-fetched to suggest that the success of the BNP is any way related to the recent telling of a racist joke by a bunch of berks at the Oxford University Conservative Association hustings. However, we do believe that continued presence of a neo-fascist party in British politics does lead to a greater tolerance of racism in mainstream society.
Nothing British thinks that this sort of behaviour from OUCA – who aspire to be potential leaders of our country – is a disgrace. There is no place for racism in any part of British society in the 21st Century.
The decision by the Conservative Party to run candidates wherever possible against the BNP is a laudable one. There is little/no electoral gain for the party becuase at present the BNP is sweeping up mainly ex-Labour voters, but it sends an important moral signal.
It’s a shame they haven’t found a candidate in the Billericay by-election later this month but we hope that in the run-up to the 2010 council elections the Conservatives will try their hardest to find candidates to stand against the BNP and prevent them from picking up easy votes.
Another interesting development this weekend was the alleged sighting of Nick Griffin’s mate, Roberto Fiore. Fiore’s return to the BNP scene is further evidence of how the party’s recent changes are only cosmetic and that beneath it is still the same as its National Front days of the 1970s and 80s.
Fiore is an Italian neo-fascist with a 10 year conviction for being a member of the neo-fascist terrorist group the “Armed Revolutionary Nuclei”. According to The Times, the group was implicated in the Bologna bombing of 1980, which killed 85 people.
Fiore went on the run and he was sentenced in absentia. His jail term was eventually “timed out” under Italy’s statute of limitation laws and he was able to return to his homeland in April 1999. During Griffin’s National Front days, Fiore encouraged the future BNP leader to model the NF on the Romanian Iron Guard (see video below). The Iron Guard were allies of the Nazis during the 1930’s and 40’s they believed, however, Hitler was “too soft” on the Jews (see Time magazine article from 1941 here).
