Almost a month after he vowed to make a complaint to the BBC about his controversial appearance on QT, BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP has still to make an official objection.
The Guardian reports that despite Griffin promising to lodge a complaint at what he claimed was the “unfair” way the Question Time programme was produced, the BBC has not received a formal complaint.
Simon Darby also said at the time that the BNP planned to put in a freedom of information request to the BBC and programme-makers to ask about the process of changing the format of the whole programme. “[We want to know] why they felt they had to break with the usual format,” the Darby added.
A concerning story has emerged and reminds us about the risk posed by the BNP as acting as a ”conveyor belt” to extreme violence. David Lucas, a Suffolk based BNP farmer, was charged with firearms and explosives offences this week.
He has been charged with:
“possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances, possession of an explosives substance without an explosives licence, possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life, possession of ammunition without a firearms certificate and two counts of possession of prohibited ammunition.”
Simon Darby has this explanation:
“I think the police have got it in for him. I would imagine that it is to do with his capacity as an agricultural rural chap. It is just one of the many things that ordinary rural people have to deal with when you have got a politically motivated police force.”
The BNP are excusing this story by claiming that this sort of behaviour is quite common in the farming community. This is not tue and it maligns a community that takes arms control extremely seriously.
After our successful veterans campaign last week, the row with the BNP continues to rumble on. Welsh VE Day families add their voices to the debate and demand the BNP to apologise for using their image. The BNP have said they will not.
When the BNP announced that the media circus from last week had helped them find 25,000 new members we thought it a little far-fetched and blog explains why.
But this story isn’t exactly pleasing. The EHRC have got to start to understand that only by addressing ordinary peoples concerns will the BNP dissappear.
This morning’s article in the Times which says that BNP supporters are calling for Nick Griffin MEP to go after his much-maligned performance on QT last week should be treated with caution.
NG’s performance last week was certainly under-whelming for someone who had shown promise in recent appearances such as Andrew Marr and Adam Boulton. Many members will feel disappointed. However, NB doesn’t think a leadership contest is on the cards:
1. The panel for The Times’s poll was recruited from Stormfront, a well-known and notoriously wacky white supremacist forum where many members regard Griffin as a “sell-out”. It is not reprsentative of BNP members, informal supporters or voters. In fact, in our experience the membership/supporters are very committed to Griffin.
2. The BNP rules largely support Griffin’s hold on the party.
3. There is no obvious successor or agititator for change. Lee Barnes, the BNP’s legal officer is a senior, officeholder in the BNP, but his political judgement is regarded as suspect, even by the BNP leadership. His blog, 21st Century British Nationalism, regularly embarrasses the party with its anti-Semetic, homophonic, Nazi-sympathising articles.
Richard Barnbrook is apparently a leadership contender. Barnbrook is popular, particularly in the South, but he is not regarded as able to grasp a brief (his performances in the London Assembly are regarded as unimpressive). He is accused by his enemies of having a drink problem (this is a funny video of Barnbrook dancing at a wedding).
Andrew Brons MEP, a man with a history of neo-Nazism and racial hygiene theory, is also being muted as a possible contender. But his age and lack of mainstream appeal count against him.
Simon Darby, BNP deputy chairman and head of press, is probably the strongest performer in the BNP hierarchy. In 2006, Darby was lined up by Griffin to take control of the day-to-day running of the BNP if he was found guilty of incitement to racial hatred. But he is currently a Griffin loyalist and lacks any visibility outside the party.
