tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377744732024-03-13T08:05:48.511-07:00Chairman's ColumnNick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-25839193790962772932007-12-03T02:56:00.000-08:002007-12-03T02:57:51.899-08:00Blackpool, Oxford and a studio visitTime flies. I don’t know how Simon Darby and Martin Wingfield manage to keep up their daily blog entries – better self-discipline than me I guess. There again, I do a lot more travelling. Yes, that’s my excuse and I’ll stick to it.<br /><br />One slight correction from my last entry: The Sardinian photo captioned ‘wildlife haven near the coast’ was actually a Roman bridge. Amazing that more than half of it is still there after 2,000 years. Mind you, there are records of significantly intact Roman building shells in Britain too (including an entire roofless temple near to Hadrian’s Wall) surviving until the 18th century, when profit-hungry landlords set about using the ultra cheap labour that became available as the Machine Age got under steam to rip them down for scraps of extra farmland.<br /><br />I’ve just finished reading Michael Dames’ fascinating ‘The Avebury Cycle (the companion volume to his ‘The Silbury Treasure’). At Avebury too, whole avenues of Neolithic monuments – almost certainly a vast sculpture to the Earth Goddess of our first farming ancestors – were destroyed at the same time. Even as the gifted and far-sighted antiquarian Stukeley was recording what was there in minute detail in the 1740s, local farmers and hardline Christians were busy destroying them. <br /><br />So much of our past has been lost, but so much survives. The giant twin henges at Avebury remain a very special place – far superior to fenced-in, tourist-swallowed, uglified Stonehenge. If you’ve never been to Avebury and to nearby Silbury Hill (the biggest prehistoric structure in Europe) then put it a visit to Wiltshire on your ‘to do’ list.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Book going begging</span><br /><br />Back on the subject of books, the ‘serious’ one I’ve had on the go recently was Tim May’s ‘The Mongol Art of War.’ Study of the mighty empire built from nomadic Asiatic tribes by Ghengis Khan has been a key factor in the development of modern warfare. The Mongols were the first military force to develop a General Staff system – at a time when Chinese and European armies were generally led by hereditary nobles (typically, brave but clueless), their Mongol opponents were organised as a strict meritocracy, with the promising leaders of each generation picked out early and intensively trained in theory and manoeuvre as well as in actual combat. Thus they learnt from history and the mistakes of others, rather than through costly errors of their own.<br /><br />The Mongols’ war machine was studied by the Prussians (who made such good use of the General Staff system that Germany was forbidden to have one after the First World War). They were later rediscovered by the Soviet Marshal Tukhachevsky, the British military theoreticians J.F.C. Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart, and of course the German generals who put into practice the theories and experiments conducted by Tukhachevsky (unfortunately but typically for the Russians, purged and shot by Stalin) and by Fuller and Hart (unfortunately but typically for the British, ignored by the military Establishment and condemned for their sympathies with Oswald Mosley).<br /><br />Despite their pivotal importance and their unbeaten record against European forces, the Mongols have been so ignored that this was billed as the first book-length study of their military organisation. I was therefore – as a firm believer in the dictum that politics is warfare by other means - particularly looking forward to reading it, So I was substantially disappointed to find very little new to me, other than the details of names and battles, which add nothing to one’s understanding of the overall picture, still less of the reasons for the impact of Ghengis Khan and his successors.<br /><br />The book is therefore not one I’ll be keeping. It’s a good introduction to its subject, and I suppose quite fun for anyone interested in military history, but it’s not going on a required reading list for BNP cadres. Tell you what, I’ll sling it in the back of the car and give it to the first blog reader who asks me for it at a meeting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Big progress in Barnsley</span><br /><br />Spoke at one of the biggest local branch meetings ever the other week. A few years ago Barnsley, in the heart of what used to be Arthur Scargill’s ‘People’s Republic of South Yorkshire’, had just a handful of BNP members. One damp evening last month more than 200 people - the vast majority from Barnsley itself, although stalwart Marlene Guest had brought a coach from nearby Rotherham – packed into a meeting that surely outdid anything seen in the area since the end of the Miners’ Strike.<br /><br />As I speak about Labour’s serial betrayal of their traditional working class base it becomes clear that many of the audience have come – consciously - precisely for that reason. There’s a real angry radicalism about this meeting; the atmosphere is electric, the enthusiasm palpable. Paul Harris and his team plan to fight every seat on the council next year, and everyone knows that it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a real BNP breakthrough area. Blair’s and Brown’s addiction to globalisation has sown political dragon’s teeth all across South Yorkshire. By the time the coming economic downturn has hit, the crop will be ripe, and Labour will get very badly bitten indeed. All we have to do is keep on course. Steady as she goes!<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Last reflections on Blackpool</span><br /><br />Despite all the usual bluster from the far-left, our third Annual Conference went ahead in Blackpool without a hitch. It’s been widely covered online already, and features heavily in the new Freedom and ID (both being delivered around the country right now) so I won’t go into any details.<br /><br />But it was good to see the culture of debate growing further roots in the party. In a strange way I was pleased to see people getting up to speak against a motion I proposed, not because I didn’t want to see it passed (had I not wanted to offer Conference the chance to appoint an extra level of scrutiny of our finances over and above that already in place with the Advisory Council, the independent auditors and the fine-toothed comb of the Electoral Commission, I would not have put the idea forward), but because it’s a sign of growing maturity that a large majority thought things through and didn’t just follow because their leader said ‘walk this way’. <br /><br />The majority seemed swayed by warnings about the potential for problems at some stage in the future if a small group (most likely liberal civic nationalists) decided to push themselves onto the suggested scrutiny panel and then use the position to make trouble. Of course, guarding against power grabs by small self-chosen groups is a major part of the raison d’etre for the Voting Membership system and our moves to vest power in the hands of a combination of popularly elected leader and highly motivated and educated activist hardcore. The experience of the old National Front, wrecked by endless squabbles on its Directorate rightly put all of the genuine old hands who went through those disasters off the idea of Committee rule.<br /><br />Whether motions were accepted or defeated, all were debated very sensibly and extensively. Simon Darby, chairing the conference day itself, somehow managed to let literally everyone who wanted to speak have their say, and still got through all the business spot on time (Mark Clutterbuck from Bristol chaired the Saturday training day with the same seemingly effortless quiet ease).<br /><br />The far-left had pledged to stop the event, but failed yet again. In the place of ‘hundreds’ or even ‘thousands’ of demonstrators they managed a paltry seventy. They are, however, playing an interesting game online, making much of a photograph of Mark Collett and Dave Hannam looking out of a window. They shouldn’t have been, because our security team had told people not to do so, and they’ve both had a verbal wigging for doing so. But the interesting point is that several dozen other people looked out too, and also had to be right by security. But their photos are remarkable by their absence. For that matter, even I looked out briefly while upstairs in my room preparing material for one session. I’d completely forgotten about the by now somewhat damp and windblown demonstrators, but I’m pretty sure I was caught on film by them before I closed the blinds.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A Useful Rule of Thumb</span><br /><br />Needless to say, if we were to criticise or discipline someone who the opposition knew were no use to us, or even some kind of troublemaker, then it would be a still of me at the window that they’d be crowing over (“Griffin the Hypocrite” . But both Mark and Dave are very valuable members of our central team (Mark’s work on things such as Identity, recruitment booklets, full colour election addresses, CD booklets, etc, and Dave’s with Great White Records alongside Alan Smith, involve very special skills which just don’t grow on trees). Hence the relentless efforts of the opposition to demonise them. Here’s a general Rule of Thumb: While people shouldn’t do things they’ve been told not to, if our opponents attack someone on our side, you can be pretty sure we’d be very much poorer without them. The time to worry is when our opponents start to praise people!<br /><br />This Rule was also demonstrated in Oxford, where several hundred violent freaks from all over the country joined up with a collection of silly overgrown schoolgirls (of both sexes) and a gang of Muslim thugs (armed with iron bars) to try to stop my appearance at the Union Debating Society to speak and answer questions of freedom of speech and whether it should have any limits.<br /><br />Here too, the event itself has already been extensively reported (all around the world, in fact) so I won’t go over it again. But did you notice how I have been extensively criticised by the liberal-left for having had the audacity to be escorted by a BNP security team that was not made up of ballet dancers and a fluffy-haired Boyband? ‘BNP Security’ – it does what it says on the label, and I don’t mind telling you that I was damned glad to have Martin and his team with me. True, some of them aren’t exactly oil-paintings, but what use is an oil-painting when a gang of Marxist fanatics in balaclavas want to beat you to pulp?<br /><br />No-one who has not attended a ‘proper’ university like Oxford can have the faintest idea of just how cut off in their own world of glittering spires and upper class isolation most students are. It is in fact impossible to ‘debate’ with people who simply refuse to believe that things such as racial attacks on white people, or Muslim grooming of other communities’ girls, occur. It’s like trying to discuss basic physics with people who refuse to accept the existence of gravity. Oh well, they’ll most of them find out about such things when they grow up, and various apples fall on their heads.<br /><br />Still, the public reaction to all the fuss around the debate has been excellent. Our enquiry lines were red hot, the breaking of the 40 year ‘No Platform’ policy of the hard-left has won the BNP even more support and recognition among free speech lovers than ever, and we were in the public eye in a positive (not least because most Brits do instinctively side with the underdog) sense in one last burst of political awareness before the Christmas Political Closed Season kicks in. A great way to end the political year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">New talent at Great White Records</span><br /><br />Returning to the subject of Great White Records, I spent an interesting evening in their Yorkshire studios the other night. Alan wanted a ‘chorus’ to drop into a specially done Christmas song that’s being put together as a sample/advertisement for a forthcoming album by new young talent Joe Smith (no relation to Alan). Several hours of takes and overlays later, we actually sound rather good. It just shows what a good sound engineer with a big bank of highly sophisticated equipment can do, because when we started it sounded truly awful. <br /><br />Joe’s album will be a welcome new departure for Great White, as it’s very much Britpop, a really ‘young’ sound very different to the folk/folk rock/country sound of the early CDs.<br /><br />Personally, as you’ll already know if you’re a long-term reader of my ramblings, I’m ‘into’ traditional folk and country music in a big way. But I’m also very well aware that 99.7% of youngsters are not, and that it’s them that we need to reach out to with music more than anybody else.<br /><br />Joe’s got bags of talent and character, but happily doesn’t come over as self-obsessed or arrogant like some lads his age when they suddenly discover they have a special talent. Alan and Dave at GWR are very excited about what he can do, and are keen to get his debut album out as quickly as possible. In the meantime (though all concerned readily admit that it’s as ‘cheesy’ as Christmas songs always are) watch out for the online Christmas release (complete with video footage of my meagre contribution) shortly, and have listen to what Joe’s getting up to here: www.myspace.com/joeysmith.ukNick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-10365562746672624212007-11-15T10:04:00.000-08:002008-12-08T23:31:03.136-08:00Free speech party and a 3000 year old houseWhat have I been doing since coming back from the successful USA trip? First a day and a half off (wouldn’t be much use anyway without that, this thing has to be paced – people who don’t take a break, at every level of the party, ‘burn out’ way too soon). Then a mountain range of emails and phone calls and even some snail mail (though, as a rule, that’s so slow and inefficient that I have no choice but to neglect it as a rule – apologies to any readers who’ve experienced this.<br /><br />Then a very useful visit up here at home from Eddy Butler, head of our Elections Dept and an absolutely key player in the development of our election-winning capabilities. He’s come up to work on a team-building weekend which we intend to try out on HQ personnel first, and then perhaps roll out more widely if it works well.<br /><br />We spend an enjoyable evening brainstorming ideas for it, and sadly discarding some which we conclude are too imaginatively cruel. Up early the following day to visit several places we intend to use. A bit to my surprise Eddy, who I’d always thought of as a bit of a townie, is raring to go and take in as much Welsh countryside as possible. <br /><br />We start off by walking the dogs (once I’ve persuaded them that he’s not to be eaten when he commits the ‘crime’ of walking next to me) to the top of the hill/mountain ridge across the valley. Even though the weather’s good the clear potential of the place to be drastically inhospitable for a bunch of amateurs in winter is clear enough to persuade us to tone down our plans for the winter-time event somewhat more. We want team-building, not hypothermia.<br /><br />Then we head off to inspect our choice of venues and visit several sites of historic interest we may build in to the session, talking and planning all the time. I think that, when the event comes off, it will have been time very well spent. Eddy is something of an unsung hero, as commitments like this and playing a key role in so much by-election planning and work is all done in holiday time from a conventional job. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Record attendance in Liverpool</span><br /><br />Next day there’s a meeting in Liverpool. Organiser Steve Greenhalgh and his team are doing a great job. It’s another record meeting in terms of numbers and the collection. During the break I talk with a retired lady teacher who is an expert on using proper phonic reading techniques to deal with the illiteracy epidemic which has resulted from the leftist egalitarian demolition job of our education system (with a little help from moronic TV and a generation of young parents who have been systematically deprived of the skills and attitudes they need to rear a family of disciplined competents). <br /><br />Steve goes through recent election results in the city, and introduces all the candidates who were ready to ensure that we would have stood in every parliamentary seat in the city had Brown not lost his bottle. Our support level over that of the Tories in virtually all the council elections over the last year has been so great that there has to be a possibility that we could beat them – the official parliamentary opposition – in terms of the votes we get in Liverpool next time. Cameron’s Torylite ‘revival’ doesn’t show any sign of happening in this great city.<br /><br />Bev Jones is also present, drumming up support and interest for her inventive and energetic campaign to raise the £40,000 and a bit more that the North West will need to pay for a top quality election address for every home in the region in June 2009’s European Election. A daunting task, but Bev is going at it in a big way, both setting an example and providing help for other regions with the same challenge ahead of them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Free Speech Day – a new fixture on the BNP calendar</span><br /><br />Come Saturday and Jackie and I head off to Leicestershire, where Carol Collett has had the great idea of organising a Free Speech Day celebration on the first anniversary of the final acquittal of her son Mark and me on Race Law charges at Leeds Crown Court. The event’s an outstanding success, with several hundred people there (including many of those who most loyally came to support us outside court day after day, in some vile weather. Liverpool bring 14, there’s a carload from the North East, a good group from Birmingham, and loads of locals from the East Midlands, which Sadie Graham and several great local teams (particularly in Leics, where there’s a wonderful mix of experienced ‘old hands’ and hard working newcomers) have turned from a backwater into a BNP local politics powerhouse in just a few years.<br /><br />Also present as Guests of Honour on the free speech front are teacher brothers Adam and Mark Walker, and ‘BNP Ballerina’ Simone Clarke. Each gives a short, powerful speech, as does Mark Collett. An audience like this is a joy to speak to, and my brief speech goes down well too.<br /><br />All money raised at tonight’s social will be well spent in the end, for it’s going to the East Mids Euro Election Fund. The fact that there’s entertainment from a very talented young magician, from Dave Hannam doing an acoustic set, a disco (run well enough to get loads of people dancing) helps to enthuse the crowd. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnb-6fC9fobg2kdzk8WJufsM7hdfOI9wzTyYVwmEaDHa_0K1jPJOwEY482v1cgHzc3tFdU49ADorASAg1XU9dotXWNpefkpVw7ICphNz1PlKk96SyMlxpwEYDizcYcPqaiSiz/s1600-h/leics1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnb-6fC9fobg2kdzk8WJufsM7hdfOI9wzTyYVwmEaDHa_0K1jPJOwEY482v1cgHzc3tFdU49ADorASAg1XU9dotXWNpefkpVw7ICphNz1PlKk96SyMlxpwEYDizcYcPqaiSiz/s400/leics1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133130285298967106" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0IILh_5dQq7RtDDsDNtFsqNcWHcu9-p-o8zspcveEhaCtqYYaX7lzfGOB7dsbbXcGRDwEUF858sPKWrYMTX_b_7Mal3YY4Hn3a2iHHep6eJ9kzmrc_ToOa2kWi27fmfx0YiOp/s1600-h/leics2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0IILh_5dQq7RtDDsDNtFsqNcWHcu9-p-o8zspcveEhaCtqYYaX7lzfGOB7dsbbXcGRDwEUF858sPKWrYMTX_b_7Mal3YY4Hn3a2iHHep6eJ9kzmrc_ToOa2kWi27fmfx0YiOp/s400/leics2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133130942428963410" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The end result is a magnificent profit of just over £3,000, a staggering £1,000 of which comes from Dave Bell, father of our hard-working South Birmingham organiser, Mike (he who organised the football competition at the RWB this year) as the top bid for a single lot that I auction off: Two different enlarged and signed photos from the court steps after our acquittal, a bottle of decent champagne and three empty champagne bottles.<br /><br />These are the matching red, white and blue set that Mark and I and Jackie opened in front of all the media cameras and a rapturous crowd a year ago in Leeds. They are the best quality and the smartest of the range that comes from a vineyard co-owned by Jean-Marie Le Pen, and given to me for such an event. I’m actually a bit reluctant to let them go, because there’s real sentimental value in them, especially the white bottle which is the one that (having shared it with several of our crowd, and with some of our security team – if they can’t break our ‘no drink’ on duty rule then it’s a bad job) I am a bit attached to. <br /><br /><br />I finished it off during the last media scrum interview session of that momentous day, happily getting soaked by the rain and positively buzzing. I knew as it was going on that the multiply filmed interview was – though I say it myself – a great piece of work, and I hoped that the calculated arrogance of swigging champagne in between shooting down out-of-their-depth journalists would get the moment on TV. Just how well it must have come across for us must be judged from the fact that not one second of the footage was ever shown, despite it being captured by every main TV channel in Britain. Happy days!<br /><br />Still, it’s not every day one can get a grand for two pictures and four bottles, three of them empty, and I’ve always enjoyed auctions. We’re clearly headed for more than a hundred pounds in risk bidding before Mr. Bell wades in with his bid. “I’ve never seen Nick lost for words before,” quips Mark, showing that special talent he has for sizing up people and events in an instant – I was indeed dumbfounded as well as delighted.<br /><br />So thanks Dave Bell, and to Carol and Maurice Collett for such a good idea and a great evening.<br /><br />We head home late that evening. A puncture on the M54 near Telford holds us up and leaves me fairly grubby after putting on the spindly temporary spare that Fords, like so many car-makers these days, insist on putting in the boot in place of a real tyre. Then, of course, the rest of the journey has to be at 50 mph – snail’s pace at two in the morning. <br /><br />The only good thing is that this allows us to hear the whole of the brilliant Joe Calzaghe world title defence and unification fight on Radio Five Live. He’s a great boxer and a true sportsman. There’s not a pop singer or soap idol fit to clean his boxing boots, and only a few footballers fit to lace them up. The Italians who settled in South Wales in the first part of the last century are an example of immigration as a neutral and even a good thing – unlike the tsunami of unassimilable types, creeds, attitudes and numbers we face today. I hope Joe succeeds in his dream up winning the world title after moving up a weight, and then retires while he’s on top – a giant of British boxing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9taY4nluFx_1UJzpQyf78CwgEXHu0CHb2nzRzDdf2_-ZwYZ592A2bpNt_h3SZjrfU_xhsg7XvB0d7FxpLYBpP4RxJwW0EYNsjVAPRlZ-Ro05_qoHzNVM2FjfWo2lVI60U2x_/s1600-h/a_calzaghe_195.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9taY4nluFx_1UJzpQyf78CwgEXHu0CHb2nzRzDdf2_-ZwYZ592A2bpNt_h3SZjrfU_xhsg7XvB0d7FxpLYBpP4RxJwW0EYNsjVAPRlZ-Ro05_qoHzNVM2FjfWo2lVI60U2x_/s400/a_calzaghe_195.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133131217306870370" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sunday is spent mainly at the computer, finishing off various things that just have to be done before Jackie and I head off for four days holiday (the only one we’re getting this year). With the help of Ryanair tickets at 1p each on one leg of the journey, even after paying one or two of Gordon Brown’s stealth taxes we’re flying to Sardinia and back for £64 between us. Amazing, and if it melts another iceberg I’m sorry, but the planes were flying anyway and we don’t have a patio heater.<br /><br />We fly to Alghero, an airport which sounds rather ugly, but turns out to be named after a splendid medieval Catalonian walled seaport, with a harbour full of pleasure boats and working fishing boats, and a holiday resort sprawl that doesn’t even stretch to a mile. We stay in a self-catering B&B in the middle of olive groves about two miles out of town. After getting a taxi there we spend the next two days walking everywhere. When we can walk no further we hire bikes. After a day of that we can’t sit on the saddles any more or walk, so on the last day we hire a Smart car (which I’ve always been inclined to mock, but are better on the inside than they appear from the outside) and drive off much relieved to catch a glimpse of this huge island’s ancient history and wild coastline.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKGC4r_YIQi6xeiMiccKdoYMVk1pVPDwXlCHq-cx7MSxQIJVhGWcLrU_cZF56x7lqSP-VHSOWfzrqHA9dOfimEsE9ZO9ota6hL6hffHNE8ZFtrFLGOO5EZa1oYP2TI4okKkwj/s1600-h/portside.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKGC4r_YIQi6xeiMiccKdoYMVk1pVPDwXlCHq-cx7MSxQIJVhGWcLrU_cZF56x7lqSP-VHSOWfzrqHA9dOfimEsE9ZO9ota6hL6hffHNE8ZFtrFLGOO5EZa1oYP2TI4okKkwj/s400/portside.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133131449235104370" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Part of the ancient city fortress of Alghero</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasa5NDyaChHiAKf3FeDFNqiixc60AAnw6SmRo8Bpc2mVYmQf5clqnM3L-5d2gTF58hlPk3gHCmbhObHqDBNpcAkKlxvJ-toxOIQ73TO4oJx66iMmkB9JE4g-fn5QmArPQ5xLR/s1600-h/housingcomplex.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasa5NDyaChHiAKf3FeDFNqiixc60AAnw6SmRo8Bpc2mVYmQf5clqnM3L-5d2gTF58hlPk3gHCmbhObHqDBNpcAkKlxvJ-toxOIQ73TO4oJx66iMmkB9JE4g-fn5QmArPQ5xLR/s400/housingcomplex.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133132183674512002" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Prehistoric monument from Sardinia’s deepest past – about 3,000 years old</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b981T-LKMZ3foyNsiepMMdiWTha933H6Kr1HNlYX6NxBXfF8nhFXim2IQm0pDqp9cxjkmYZdzpTaAb3VbK5ox4yEtKopURyjGcFUQyYMC9zZvLnC3auruSyjdjtKUT-pN0_l/s1600-h/romanbridge.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b981T-LKMZ3foyNsiepMMdiWTha933H6Kr1HNlYX6NxBXfF8nhFXim2IQm0pDqp9cxjkmYZdzpTaAb3VbK5ox4yEtKopURyjGcFUQyYMC9zZvLnC3auruSyjdjtKUT-pN0_l/s400/romanbridge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133132359768171154" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Wildlife haven near the coast</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7u86tOC79dSPc5s8Tqgq43ofgLEMeyCC8MaFCCOlo1W-3-CESs6Gyhna7yCRWBrxYxnkrFMlvGtyPWFzHp-0n1nKqZ0gjRcVbo6mbTvhyphenhyphenXfMX6H9KpLaSZcnlbtFXhlGWC5M1/s1600-h/hellskitchen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7u86tOC79dSPc5s8Tqgq43ofgLEMeyCC8MaFCCOlo1W-3-CESs6Gyhna7yCRWBrxYxnkrFMlvGtyPWFzHp-0n1nKqZ0gjRcVbo6mbTvhyphenhyphenXfMX6H9KpLaSZcnlbtFXhlGWC5M1/s400/hellskitchen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133132707660522146" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Hell’s Bay in a stiff wind<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br />I’d recommend it to anyone wanting a cheap but thoroughly different and relaxing break somewhere in which tourists are welcomed because – at this time of year at least – not too dominant. Many of the locals speak no English, but my five or six words of Spanish added to perhaps fifty of Italian, plus liberal use of the ‘posh’ and hence Latin-based end of the English vocabulary and we get along fine.<br /><br />On the way home we stop in at a big supermarket (yes, I know…) on the edge of Shrewsbury for essential provisions. Two ladies are selling poppies in the entrance and one of them turns out to be one of our best activists in Shrewsbury. In a way it’s a small world, but, there again, we’ve been pushing the idea of our people helping the dwindling number of British Legion collectors, and the idea is really catching on. Brilliant.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">More progress for Solidarity</span><br /><br />Among the post when we get back is the ballot paper for the Solidarity trade union elections, which has arrived from the chartered accountant who is running the independently scrutinised election as required by law (disgracefully, the Electoral Reform Society refused to provide this service, on account of the union’s fraternal links with the BNP and its nationalist stance). <br /><br />Solidarity now has more than 200 members, which means that there are several well-established minor unions significantly smaller than it is. The completion of its first internal election will mark a further step in its development. <br /><br />Just in time too, for the new Labour law allowing unions to kick out people for alleged political incorrectness means that there is no point at all in any member of the BNP paying in to any other union, because if one of our people needs union backing it simply won’t be forthcoming from the leftist time-servers who have hijacked most of them. Solidarity is different, a real union, with real union status, rights and powers, but run by decent people committed to free speech, democracy and the well-being of British workers. You can take a look at the quality of the people who have put themselves forward for its Executive <a href="http://solidaritytradeunion.com/images/solidarity/solidarityelectionaddresslockedversion.pdf">here.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Remembrance Sunday</span> <br /><br />Remembrance Sunday falls on the 11th itself this year. I head up to Connors Quay in North Wales, to meet up with John Walker at the local parade he attends every year. We need to talk about several national treasury matters anyway, plus it’s a bit of a social occasion and a chance to annoy the Labour Party bigwigs even more than John usually does.<br /><br />His dad is there too, with a chestful of medals from his time as a Royal Navy gunner seconded to convoy merchantmen. Sunk five times, by Germans and Japs, Bill’s a remarkable old chap with a twinkle in his eye and a great sense of humour. He’s got nothing against the Germans, whose crews in moments both of victory and defeat behaved just as the British did. But the Japs – well, he and several mates sunk while supplying the Chindits in Burma had to take their chance with the sharks while hiding under their life raft while fast Japanese gunboats machine-gunned survivors in the water.<br /><br />The parade is several hundred strong, and John is greeted by various NCOs who he served with in the TA. Having stayed on when he left they now have almost as many active service medals as the increasingly frail and few World War Two veterans – and they keep on being posted back to Blair’s deadly adventures despite their having nothing to do with us.<br /><br />The band plays ‘Abide With Me’ as the wreaths are laid. The name of the ‘local’ Labour MP is called, but he hasn’t even turned up. Saddest of all is the young woman in black who lays a wreath on behalf of the Iraq Families Group. Wife or girlfriend of an RAF man killed by a mortar attack on his barracks out in that pointless desert. It really brings home what the poppies are all about – not just for those who have been unwithered in faithful memories for half a century, but dads and husbands and lovers who are still half-expected to walk through the door and end a nightmare.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTXrOWdVLUZTAmn1u1-ae5ZmfERTtetOEl327DHmlA8LLyF44vEVBJGl9GcSawoPqmr21AWTiJrFfoVI4UYP6njYIHWw4wMTenYKUOvLkD8p0Lw8OlcPB4etQqP_yHeFtoUHv/s1600-h/mr_walker_snr.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTXrOWdVLUZTAmn1u1-ae5ZmfERTtetOEl327DHmlA8LLyF44vEVBJGl9GcSawoPqmr21AWTiJrFfoVI4UYP6njYIHWw4wMTenYKUOvLkD8p0Lw8OlcPB4etQqP_yHeFtoUHv/s400/mr_walker_snr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133133364790518450" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A chestful of medals</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />After the service John and I spend several constructive hours in discussion at the Treasury office. He’s been doing the job for four years now – the longest tour of duty in the job with the biggest burden of responsibility in the entire party. Few people appreciate just how much we owe John Walker for his work under pressure that would break (indeed has broken) other men.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Conference coming up</span><br /><br />All systems go for the BNP’s annual conference in Blackpool this weekend. Treasury are still taking bookings, Sadie Graham is positively deluged with the thousand and one matters that fall to the overall organiser of such a major and complicated event. All the signs are it’s going to be the best one yet. Mark Collett has produced the best ever delegates’ pack – something that only the handful of people who have done top level Desk Top Publishing work can begin to appreciate in terms of the amount of work and skill involved. <br /><br />The main hotel is still receiving all sorts of threats from the far-left. It seems they’re particularly upset now because the ultra-left Respect have been thrown out of a venue in the same resort this coming weekend having booked it under a false name. This richly deserved blow comes on top of a catastrophic split in Respect between the blustering tyrant-loving wind-bag and the Bangladeshi wing on the one hand, and the SWP and the Bengali wing on the other. <br /><br />The SWP stand accused of rigging the list of student delegates (surely not?!), and in turn condemn Galloway as a ‘communalist’ on account of his allegedly favouring the Bangladeshis (note that neither side could justly, indeed even possibly, be accused of favouring the English). Apparently membership numbers are now down to little more than 2,000 – a mere fifth of ours (though, of course, their ‘spokespersons’ still get on the BBC far more than we do – licenced rebellion and special treatment for the liberal’s pet minorities).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Common Purpose – a menace to our freedom</span><br /><br />Monday evening and a rare treat – a BNP meeting with a non-BNP speaker who I really want to hear. It’s near Worcester, organised by Martin Roberts, one of the friendly and helpful voices on our inquiry lines who has been the first BNP person that many of our newer members spoke to when they first got in touch (one recently, was an old friend of mine who’s been following us for several years and has just decided to join up).<br /><br />The main guest speaker is Brian Gerrish, formerly a key figure in South West UKIP, but now out of favour with that party’s thoroughly seedy leadership and doing amazing work exposing the sinister pro-EU political mind-control cult Common Purpose. BNPtv have a two-man team down to film the event, and we’ll have Mr. Gerrish’s thoroughly documented and well-delivered presentation up on line for the far wider audience it needs to reach as quickly as possible.<br /><br />The existence of this body, its subversive pro-multi cult agenda, the vast amounts of taxpayers’ money spent on its brainwashing courses, and its rapid cancerous growth through local government, the police, education services and the NHS – all these are a matter of record. Precisely what it’s aims are is more a matter of interpretation, but in truth you can make an informed judgement that this is a menace to our culture, society and freedoms simply on knowing the Marxist ‘past’ of so many of its key figures, its incestuous relationship with the Prescott-led push for the undemocratic breaking up of England through regionalisation, and the number of names of left-liberal tax-eating ne’er-do-wells involved.<br /><br />More on this many headed hydra from me and the BNP in due course. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Another deadline met</span><br /><br />At just gone eleven on Tuesday I’m speaking to Richard Barnbrook about a big English Partnerships meeting about housing in Central London for which he has three tickets tomorrow. We decide that, in order to make it impossible for the organisers to avoid the key questions that we want to put to them on behalf of those priced out of homes by speculating developers, greedy banks and mass immigration, we need a special leaflet putting together as well.<br /><br />It takes me about twenty five minutes to write it, leaving Mark Collett about half an hour to lay it out, get it back to me for proofing, tweak it and get it off to Richard in time for him to print it before he has to leave for a series of meetings today. We manage by the skin of our teeth. No room for a picture, but as it’s aimed at a high-powered and serious audience that won’t matter. Mark breaks it up very well in any case, and Richard gets 500 copies printed off within the deadline. Good work all round.<br /><br />Well over 3,000 words here now. In about three hours late at night while Jackie’s away lecturing at a big medical conference. Time for bed though, because tomorrow I’ve got to pick Simon Darby up and head off to support our newest councillor in North Wales in court as he contests an outrageous attempt by the council to bar him from all council premises. More of that on Simon’s multi-media blog.<br /><br />PS<br /><br />The appearance of a BNP team at the big English Partnerships events was a triumph. Despite Yvette Cooper having a copy of our leaflet half an hour before she spoke, Richard Barnbrook’s question about the three-year limit on planning permission floored her. One eye-witness tells me it was like watching a torpedo smack into a ship and explode; her pitiful attempt at an answer only added to the contempt that even many of the Great & Good there for the junket felt towards this lightweight New Labour hackette.<br /><br />What’s more, word is that the policy proposal is so straightforward, attractive and obviously right that the Brown regime is now seen to have a serious problem on its hands: Does Gordon implement a BNP policy, or does he continue to back his FTSE 100 cronies and be seen by everyone in the sector as a phoney? If I were a betting man, I’d have a punt.Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-45231138967863166732007-11-06T03:21:00.000-08:002007-11-06T09:29:17.332-08:00American journey<span style="font-weight:bold;">Monday – the trek begins</span><br /><br />After a busy day in the office, broken briefly to cut some wood so Jackie and the girls can light the Rayburn each evening to keep the autumn chill off, Jackie drives me to meet security at our usual RV. Martin has been held up by a two hour traffic jam caused by a serious accident – and by the fact that the country is desperately overcrowded. Bad as things are now, just imagine them with another ten or twenty million people, as several leading demographers forecast today will result in due course on present trends. Unbearable!<br /><br />Then it’s down to the second half of a well attended and determined Black Country meeting. South Birmingham organiser Mike Bell is just finishing a short speech when we arrive, and local organiser Ken Griffiths introduces me almost straight away.<br /><br />I keep my speech pretty short, explaining how all the public apathy, “I’m alright Jack” consumerism, and “I’ve voted Labour all my life” moronicism of recent decades is going to be swept away by the harsh winds of economic pain. Distressed home-owners (or rather, people who didn’t realise that the banks owned their homes) in parts of the USA are now being offered just 50 per cent of their nominal value of a few months ago by venture capitalist sharks drawn by the blood spilt by those already crushed by the credit crunch.<br /><br />There are plenty more set to join them, including on this side of the water. We’re in the earliest stages of perhaps the biggest forced (by economic circumstances, of course, the robber barons of today don’t ‘do’ swords or bayonets, though in not so many years time they may well use paramilitary police in a new form of feudalism) transfer of wealth from the actual and aspiring middle and taxpaying working classes, into the hands of the super rich since the theft of the English commons and the Lowland and Highland Clearances. <br /><br />This new wealth grab will of course be cloaked in socialist legitimacy by tossing a few threadbare rags and stale crusts to the spongers – homegrown and imported – whose votes may allow their system to maintain a fictional democratic legitimacy)<br /><br />The comfortable times are gone; the only question yet to be answered is whether the damage done to our society and the nations of the West under cover of “you’ve never had it so good” hedonism has already gone so far as to be irreparable? That liberalism and the multi-cult are finished is beyond any doubt, but the moment is yet to come that will decide if they are replaced by national rebirth or by lawless feudalism that merges into an Islamic Dark Age.<br /><br />Leave the meeting dead on half-past ten and head for a hotel near Heathrow. One of the side effects of the Bush/Blair/bin Laden Clash of Civilisations is that the old “get there forty minutes” before your flight routine has now been replaced by a three hour wait. Hence a mid-morning flight from Heathrow really can’t be caught with an early morning start from home.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Breath of fresh air on the radio</span><br /><br />Typing up this section of the blog on the M40, Radio Two has a slot with Kate Rusby – she claims to be getting on a bit now, but truthfully she’s still very young for such a big folk-singing talent. As usual, her set mixes her own material with traditional songs delivered in her unmistakable southern Yorkshire accent. It’s a welcome contrast to the multi-cult junk played incessantly on Radio One – not so much entertainment as an instrument of torture.<br /><br />If any readers are involved in any of the pub Christmas concerts she says that the area is noted for then let me know and I’ll try and get to one. Years ago in Suffolk we used to sing sometimes in the back room of the Laxfield Low House (a pub with no bar, which is much better than it sounds, go and find out for yourself) and in the now gentrified Scole Inn near Diss – one of the great character pubs of England until bought up by a hotel chain and ‘renovated’ to the point of soullessness. If you ever went there when it had tile floors and smelt of wood smoke, real ale and good cheer, keep those memories and never go back to see how they’ve murdered the place. <br /><br />Best of all back then (circa 1978) was carol evening in the Butley Oyster, complete with Mummers Play and pints of Old mulled with a poker straight from the fire. I hope it’s still like that and not a yuppie bar with carpets and over-priced South African wine. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tuesday - Eight hours on the plane</span><br /><br />After four hours sleep in a motel near Heathrow, the flight to Chicago takes eight hours. The clear skies on take-off last for the whole time we’re over England. With a window seat I spot various landmarks in central and then North London, then we cross the M25 and after that it’s a bit of a guessing game. A motor racing track below our starboard wing must be Silverstone. Over the north Midlands we pass a fair size place with a big sports stadium just south of a river. Nottingham? I’m not sure we’d be that far east. The layout of Derby I scarcely know at all, but I guess it could be, because not long after that we fly first over some fairly wild hill country and then pass Manchester to head out to sea over Morecombe Bay.<br /><br />It’s cloudy as we pass Belfast and then there’s nothing to see anyway. Until, that is, we cross the southern tip of Greenland. I’ve been re-reading Bruce Bawer’s book While Europe Slept, which deals in a slightly PC way with the threat of Islamicist aggression. But now I stop for a while. Fortunately the sky is clear again and there’s a stunning view from 38,000 feet of the enormous ice sheet to the north, and several glaciers snaking down valleys to the sea. One in particular is ‘calving’ icebergs, dozens of bright white specks which must be huge down there.<br /><br />Another hour and we’re over Canada and the clouds are back until we cross the Great Lakes and then Michigan. It is impossible to fly over North America when the sky is clear without being stunned by the sheer size and space of the place, and by the achievements of the mainly English, Scots and Scots-Irish who first pioneered it (though of course the French played a major role in Canada).<br /><br />Coming down to land in at Chicago’s massive O’Hare Airport the city suburbs stretch as far as the eye can see out of both port and starboard windows. It’s a giant example of how our civilisation revolves around the internal combustion engine and the fuel that powers it. <br /><br />There’s no doubt that late industrial capitalism has been unbelievably ‘efficient’, and the last couple of generations of Westerners have been extraordinarily fortunate, at least in material terms. But when ultra efficiency spills over into the hyper-consumption of finite fossil fuels, there must inevitably come a time when those unfortunate enough to be in the chair at the time get to pick up the mother of all bills. It’s been one hell of a party, and it’s going to be one hell of a hangover.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">They don’t know what’s about to hit them</span><br /><br />The business pages of the Daily Mail I pick up on leaving the plane include a brief reference to the German Energy Watch Group report that the Guardian covered the other day. It is described as ‘startling’, which shows just how out of touch with the real fundamentals of the world economy supposedly well-informed journalists can be. Frankly, it’s terrifying. <br /><br />Especially this bit: “EWG sees world production slumping from 81 million a day to 39m by 2030. It does not predict prices, but if it is right they could double.” Where do they get this rubbish? The 1973 oil shock was caused by a gap between global supply and demand of les than 5%, and that led to prices quadrupling almost overnight. America’s so far minor steps towards serious bio-fuel production have led to a doubling in the price of grain and animal feeds as food production is cut in order to produce alternative transport energy. A 50% drop in global oil output, combined with the growth in demand from China and India, wouldn’t lead to a simple doubling of prices. <br /><br />We’re not talking about you not being able to afford long drives to the seaside quite so often – this is about the likely collapse of the modern world, mass starvation among the world’s poor, and a contest between the decentralising effects of technological simplification and the crudely centralising efforts of scavenger capitalist police states. Unless, of course, someone comes up with a solution so effective and so cheap that we can collectively afford the astronomical cost of writing off the infrastructure of the Oil Age. Don’t hold your breath!<br /><br />About the only consolation is that, after a period of even greater wealth and power when the Muslim OPEC states literally have us over a barrel as scarcity sends oil prices trough the roof, there will come a time when inexorably declining oil output sends Saudi Arabia in particular into a tailspin of social unrest. And once the Mad Mullahs take over they’ll turn the place into an economic and social basket case – which would severely curtail both the prestige and the world-changing clout of Salafist/Wahhabi Islam.<br /><br />From Chicago we take a connecting flight to Charlotte, in the old Confederate state of South Carolina. Our host and the organiser of the whole tour, Preston Wigington, is there to pick us up for the two hour drive to Clemson, which is the first university at which I’m speaking.<br /><br />We arrive in the late evening their time, which means that by the time we’ve finally had something to east other than in-flight pap, our British-set bodyclocks are convinced that it’s actually time to get up. Not a great night’s sleep.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Wednesday (I think!)</span><br /><br />At least Wednesday is a fairly light day. I do three radio interviews over the phone, write my lecture, deal with a few calls from the UK and meet with members of the conservative student group that invited me to their campus. <br /><br />One of the interviews is with a big Southern radio talkshow host – a way OTT near-caricature of his type, loud, self-opinionated and extremely politically incorrect and proud of it. The others, one of them a big Christian station, are much more restrained, but still very friendly. All are shocked when I tell them that one of the reasons I’m speaking at American universities is that I’m banned from doing so at British ones. The fact that the four 7/7 London bombers had between them collected more than half a million dollars in welfare benefits courtesy of the British taxpayer also caused a fair bit of justifiable incredulity.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">An old friend and a first</span><br /><br />The university buildings are an architectural cut above the cultural-Marxist boxes that disgrace many modern British university campuses. We pass a magnificent multiple fountain to enter the six storey library and the auditorium where I’m to give my first ever lecture in a university (on account of the ‘No Platform’ policy imposed by the Marxist cranks and bigots who still manage to deny British students the right to listen and make up their own minds on certain taboo subjects).<br /><br />Among those students and guests already waiting are Bob Whittaker, an old friend from previous visits and late-night Bourbon sessions, and author of, among other things, the brilliant critique of the liberal indoctrination system ‘Why Johnny Can’t Think’. The opposition is represented by little group of leftists and Afro-Americans on one side of the room, and a bearded Muslim of clearly North African origin on the other.<br /><br />To be honest, I really don’t feel like speaking and answering questions for well over an hour as scheduled – my body is now convinced that it’s two or three in the morning and that I’m part way through some experiment in sleep deprivation. Still, the anticipation of some barracking or awkward questions from the leftists produces a little shot of adrenaline and I get to work.<br /><br />In the event, they all listen attentively and politely for a while. About halfway through my forty five minute main talk, the group of blacks and white feminist types get up and leave quietly. My guess is that they’ve come expecting to hear rabid hardcore racism and anti-Semitism, and are somewhat confused by a message that includes the threat posed by radical Islam to some of the causes dearest to their own hearts.<br /><br />See the video on Google <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8336123906443296275&hl=en-GB">here.</a><br /><br />At the end of the event we find that they’ve left a message on one of the question cards that were left on the seats: “This is bullshit. Hope you enjoyed tonight. Your reception at Michigan will be rather different.” They’ve also drawn a Peace sign, which is a little odd given that the Reds up at Michigan have already vowed to stop the lecture there by force.<br /><br />When I finish – with a warning that, with 100,000 ‘legal’ Muslim immigrants a year, the USA is merely not a far down the road to Islamisation as Europe – the Muslim does not applaud. Strange really, because I don’t think I’ve said anything to belittle or insult his Faith but have simply pointed out its incompatibility with Western values, the rapid rate at which it is advancing in Europe, and the role of our own liberal ‘elites’ in the process.<br /><br />The questions are wide ranging, from sympathetic and politically astute gifts to polite but hostile ones which are supposed to be awkward. At the end of the event we say our goodbyes and are escorted by a very round and jovial policeman to a police car waiting to drive us back to our car on the other side of the campus.<br /><br />It’s now eleven in the evening local time, 4 or 5 a.m. Griffin body time. And we’ve got to get up at just gone four local time in order to drive back to the airport and our flight to Houston, Texas. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Thursday</span><br /><br />By the time we get to Houston the grey skies have cleared. Below us as we come into land are the meanders and textbook oxbow lakes (the remains of ancient loops in the river which have been cut off by its change of course) of a river on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The huge refineries and chemical plants down near the sea are visible in the distance.<br /><br />Houston Airport is magnificent – one of the most strikingly designed but still practical modern building complexes I’ve ever visited. We pick up our luggage within minutes (so far, on this visit, we’ve been spared the mayhem created last time I visited the USA for a conference in Louisiana, when our bags all ended up thousands of miles away somewhere on the West Coast) and pass gleaming stainless steel, plate glass and plain rendered pillars to board an ultra modern monorail to the car park where Preston left his vehicle a couple of days earlier. <br /><br />The whole place is very nearly futuristic and truly impressive. Will the huge revamp at Heathrow produce something to match it? Knowing the chronic botching, skimping and addiction to Bauhaus-influenced concrete that afflicts so many major building projects in Britain, the more likely answer is ‘no’. There again, we might get something as dramatic and eye-pleasing as the magnificent (though nearly bankrupt) Millennium Theatre in Cardiff – now there’s a building!<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A fine studio in a fine cause</span><br /><br />First stop is the HQ and studio of one of the most influential and respected Christian TV companies in the USA – indeed, worldwide – DayStar TV. We step into an ornately decorated foyer and are warmly welcomed by both the receptionist and an enthusiastic young producer. I’m actually due live on air in twelve minutes, which presents a potential problem as I’m wearing a travel-creased T-shirt and haven’t yet shaved this morning.<br /><br />The moment I explain the problem I’m whisked upstairs and through another ornate-to-the-point-of excessive Italianate sitting room to a washroom. Once shaved and changed, it’s off to see a make-up artist in a room of a way higher standard than any I’ve seen in a mainstream British TV studio – this really is a big operation.<br /><br />It’s nearly half past eleven and we’ve had nothing to eat all morning. I emerge to find that Martin and Preston have been shown the snacks we’d been told would be available on our arrival. Martin’s face is a study of misery as he picks at a small plate of raw celery, carrot and broccoli! Personally any earlier hunger has now been replaced by slight butterflies in the stomach. I’ve been interviewed on US Christian radio shows a fair few times before, but this is a full half-hour live TV slot to an enormous audience on the same lines.<br /><br />The studio itself again outdoes anything I’ve seen outside of the main London news studios of the BBC and ITN. I’m the guest on a comfy sofa with the husband and wife presenter team. We chat briefly and into the opening credits to give them a better idea of what I can bring to their huge audience this morning, and he checks our web and PO Box addresses as these will be read out and flashed up on screen.<br /><br />Fortuitously, he’s got the splendidly Christian sounding Waltham Cross address, but as he’s asked if he’s got it right I point out that his ‘Hertz’ pronunciation of the ‘Herts’ abbreviation of Hertfordshire should in fact be ‘Harts’. He tries it out and instantly reminds me of Trevor McDonald. Preston later tells me that the couple are absolutely typical of the best of the old fashioned but still very common Southern black Baptists, as sincere, genuine and generous of spirit as their white neighbours.<br /><br />I tell him he’s got it so perfect he actually sounds English, but he laughs and says that he’ll stick to the pronunciation that his viewers would expect. This one’s a good example of how in many cases modern American actually preserves long-gone snippets of the English of Shakespeare’s time. The ‘e’ in words like Hertfordshire and Derby only mutated into an ‘a’ sound in late Georgian and Victorian times as the result of an upper class affectation – people trying to sound posh.<br /><br />I gather that the actual programme – or at least clips from it – will be on You Tube soon, if not already, so won’t go through what was said here. Suffice it to say that we agree on all points, from the dangers posed by radical Islam through to the fact that mass immigration is a threat to the existence of the separate nations that all pre-liberalisation Christians knew were ordained as such by God.<br /><br />Many black Americans are particularly concerned about Mexican and other Third World immigration on working class jobs and on social cohesion. Add in the natural worries that true Christians have about the seemingly relentless spread of the Arabic moon cult, our common belief in the importance of traditional values – including the ‘minor’ ones like good manners and human respect that comes naturally rather than being extracted by intimidation - and our getting along is really not the surprise the clips will be to left-liberals who simply haven’t got the faintest idea what makes people like me tick.<br /><br />We finish the programme and chat for a few more minutes. The efficiency and thoughtfulness of the whole operation is epitomised by the fact that we’re handed two DVD copies of the live broadcast as we walk out of the studio. Then it’s back to the car park in the bright sunlight, and the two hour drive to College Station, home of the next University on the list.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Deep in the heart of Texas</span><br /><br />The scenery out of Houston isn’t worthy of the name. Flat sprawling suburbia<br />gives way to miles of shopping malls, giant used car lots and a vast array of places where already fat Americans can eat their way to full-blown medically registered obesity and thus welfare handouts. The waffle shops are particularly good examples: <br /><br />A waffle is really only a pancake – I know, because I made one from a pre-mixed cupful for yesterday as our hotel had only self-service continental breakfast available. But while a French crepe or an English pancake could well have maple syrup poured on it, there is a strict limit to how much liquid obesity one can get to stay on a flat circle of cooked flour, egg and milk. So the Americans hit on the idea of turning it into a three dimensional set of open top boxes – each one of which can then hold a sickening quantity of syrup, a miniature reservoir of calories.<br /><br />It’s more than an hour’s drive before we start to see woods rather than featureless scrub and billboards, then gently rolling hills and some lakes. It’s much greener than I expected, apparently the Texas that springs to our mind is much further west in a state which would comfortably swallow England twice.<br /><br />Texas A&M, like Clemson, is renowned for its faculties of agriculture and engineering, and is also well known as a generally conservative university. Not so many decades ago their strict honour code even extended to ensuring that students kept their rooms ultra clean and tidy. Any student who dared to let the side down was liable to be beaten up and thrown out of the university! Standards have slipped since then, but the place still looks spick and span.<br /><br />We meet up with the ‘Aggie Independents’, an organisation of free-thinking students who believe that people should be able to hear all points of view and then make up their own minds. We’re in a big coffee and pastries shop with settees and armchairs as well as tables and a bar. Some students are using it to study, others to sit and chat. It’s got a great atmosphere and we sit and talk about all sorts of current affairs and historical issues for a couple of hours.<br /><br />A&M is a major army officer training corps university and several of the lads will be off to Iraq or Afghanistan or even – they suspect – Iran. They are all agreed that they’d gladly go off to fight and, if necessary, die, in a war in which genuine American interests were at stake. But they know that this current wave of foreign adventures don’t fit that bill. Oil, the big corporations, the Israeli lobby, the Sunni Saudi fear of Shia military superiority, and the vanity of individual politicians – all these factors come into play, and I’m impressed by their grasp of the real picture. The ignorant ‘gung-ho’ image often shown on our TV is way off beam.<br /><br />The lecture this evening is in a normal classroom. It’s packed with more than a hundred people despite the fact that some leftist clown had earlier put a ‘Cancelled’ sign on the door. The crowd ranges from committed nationalists through to conservative and Christian sympathisers, through genuinely liberal free-thinkers to libertarians, and thence on to Mexican and black racists and to a couple of Muslims and a handful of Marxist cranks. Plus a few dark horses that emerge during question time.<br /><br />This is an intelligent and adult audience. Even the oppo are influenced by the Aggie and Southern tradition of good manners; they listen intently, laugh at my jokes and recommendation not to trust any politician, present company included, and applaud when my hour-long talk ends<br /><br />Then we have an hour plus of Q&As and debate. The Muslim in traditional garb tries to convince people I’ve taken things out of context, several of the leftists try to sidetrack the debate down the Holocaust road although that does at least allow me to set the record straight and deal with the combination of Wikipedia lies and out-of-context propaganda and to put on record the fact that – while I used to be very angry at (and rude about) the way the left-liberals use the Holocaust as a moral club to silence debate on the key issues of our time – I have never denied the fact that the Nazis murdered huge numbers of Jews in one of the great crimes of a century of terrible inhumanity.<br /><br />One asks me how my demonisation of Muslims differs from Hitler’s demonisation of the Jews? The answer is simple: The Nazi critique was largely based on a hoax – The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. It was this work of fiction, combined with the fact that the Bolsheviks carrying out mass murder on an unprecedented scale all over Eastern Europe included a disproportionate number of radicalised secular Jews (itself a reaction to Czarist anti-Semitism), that set the scene for the tragedy of European Jewry.<br /><br />The Koran and Hadith, on the other hand, and their inspiration for hatred, violence and oppression of Unbelievers, are not forgeries. The threat to our civilisation is not a myth but a clear and present danger.<br /><br />A middle aged Mexican is the darkest of the horses. Far from being a La Raza type, he is a passionate opponent of mass Mexican immigration. He fought in Vietnam, and his dad served in World War Two. His son introduces himself too, an intense, wiry young man with flashing dark eyes and a huge knowledge of European history and philosophy, and a fierce attachment to our culture and freedom. Apparently a number of freedom-loving Mexicans fought with the Texans against Santa Anna’s corruption and tyranny back in Alamo days. You learn something new every day.<br /><br />One of the non-student guests is a British expat who has driven five hours to meet me. He’s a great character, formerly from Stoke (and still missing the oatcakes). We find several ways in which he can help advance the Cause in Britain and I think he heads off for home happy that his long journey was worthwhile.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Friday – strange things on a plane</span><br /><br />For us, there’s just a few hours clock-watching sleep before having to get up at four in order to drive back to Houston for a three hour early morning flight north to Chicago, a wait in O’Hare airport (during which time I do yet another radio interview over the mobile) and then a shorter connecting flight on to Detroit. Every time, thanks to Richard Reid, we all have to take our shoes off as we go through the security check.<br /><br />In the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me is a Sky Mall magazine, 280 pages of mail order advertising for a huge array of obscure gadgets, must-haves, things you wouldn’t give house-room and the plain eccentric. There is, for example, a snow flurry generating snowman (works in cold or hot weather, snowflakes evaporate without residue); a mobile alarm clock that rolls away and hides so that you have to get up to turn it off; a laser-guided pool cue ($79); the fish finder watch sonar sensor (detects fish in a 75’ radius and to a depth of 120’).<br /><br />This could be used to find your two foot long remote controlled robotic shark if it goes beyond the 40’ radius at which its submersible remote can control it. Or you could leave the water behind and relax in your total body massage lounger (total 800 square inches of massage area) while listening to your life-sized Elvis Animatronic Robot bust (real leather jacket, curling lip, sings eight songs including Heartbreak Hotel and relates key moments from his life. $299).<br /><br />You can get a vendor-style hot dog cart or a machine and the mixes to make a gallon of margaritas; a remote-controlled mouse for your cat ($25); a solar-powered talking Bible (English or Spanish), or a personalized branding iron for your barbeque steaks ($90). Only in America!<br /><br />We’re already being promised a lively reception much later today at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Various far-left and ‘minority’ racist groups have announced their plan to bus people in from all over this vast northern state and to close down the lecture by force.<br /><br />At Detroit’s rather down-at-heel airport we pick up a rental jeep and head north west for about 120 miles. At a retail park halfway I take a look around a big electronic store and buy the camcorder that is the key to the further improvement of Simon Darby’s multi-media blog and our Internet rapid response capability. The saving over buying at home is massive, and as they’re all imported from Japan anyway, there’s no moral dilemma over not buying British.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Young Americans for Freedom</span><br /><br />In East Lansing we meet another group of very well informed patriotic students. They’ve formed an organisation called Young Americans for Freedom and, in addition to having YAF button badges (routine stuff), have developed a habit of suing the university over its occasional failures to uphold their civil rights to meeting halls and security (unusually advanced).<br /><br />Here too we talk about various subjects including, again, the woeful failure of Americans to develop even the embryo of an effective political response to the multi-cult, anti-human, globalising treason of their liberal capitalist elite. Yet again, however, I get the feeling that this need not be the case for much longer. This group too have realised that the neo-Nazi crankery and ‘This World is Ours’ racial supremacy nonsense have got to be faced down and driven into gutter of defeat a negativity where they belong.<br /><br />Since the days of Ancient Rome it has been a good and proper policy to say nothing of the dead unless good, but in the interests of future generations of our kind it is essential that genuine nationalists throughout the English-speaking world understand that – well-intentioned and honourable though they my have been as individual men – the Leese/Rockwell/Tyndall/Jordan/Pierce strain that polluted our Cause for half a century was a political, strategic, tactical, moral and practical disaster. <br /><br />Still, those pernicious influences are wearing off rapidly throughout the English speaking world. These youngsters are not alone.<br /><br />We head for the auditorium we’re using tonight and, on the way, pass the antis ‘marching’ in the same direction. They assemble in front of the main entrance, but as we’re already inside and the police ensure that other people can get in, their promised blockade comes to naught.<br /><br />By the time they come to the large, sloping lecture theatre, our team have already moved out of the lecture theatre every chair or bin capable of being thrown if things turn as ugly as they might. We end up with about thirty supporters and a few neutrals, and some seventy chanting, F***-banner-waving leftists and minorities.<br /><br />Kyle from YAF explains that this is a free speech issue, asks that everyone displays good manners, then calls on the audience to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Stars & Stripes behind us. Thirty rise and recite; seventy sit and hurl abuse at the land whose bounty has made them the most spoilt and pampered brats in history.<br /><br />I begin my speech to howls of protest and a barrage of hostile questions every couple of sentences. The mob is the all-too-familiar mixture of truly hideous lesbians, semi-dwarves of indeterminate sex, full-sized freaks, chip-on-shoulder anti-white racist minorities, angry Muslims, a half-handy looking lad who acts really hard and a couple of strikingly attractive blondes – typical of the people descended from the Swedish farmers who did so much to settle this part of the USA. <br /><br />There are just two police officers in the hall, but Martin and Preston (a tough, lean winner of strongman competitions) take a seat on either flank. Fortunately too I have a clip on microphone linked to a good PA system. I begin with quotes from historian Niall Ferguson and Muammar Gaddafi, in order to show that both the British Establishment and key figures in the Muslim world agree that the looming future of Europe is to fall to Islam. The mob howl their approval.<br /><br />I’m determined to get through the first section of my speech, which lays out just what Islamisation would mean for several of the groups and concepts which the far-left claim to hold so dear. Widespread female genital mutilation, universal chattel status for women, the religiously determined apartheid of the dhimmi system, and the spread of the crude racist contempt and exploitation displayed in Saudi Arabia against ‘lesser breeds’ such as converts, Pakistani and black labourers, and Filipina sex slaves.<br /><br />There’s a continual barrage of awkward questions (like their British counter-parts, this crowd of oddballs and ultra-conformists seem unaware that the real art of devastating heckling is to pick up on things your opponent says and shoot them down with ridicule and quick-fire put-downs. Simply trying to shout down a confident speaker who has the advantage of a powerful PA system leads those who attempt it first looking like bigoted loudmouths and then losing their voices).<br /><br />This in fact happens very quickly to the most striking of the blondes, who by now is going horse (some of the others already look like horses). I offer her a drink of water, which is actually a bit risky because if she takes me up on my considerate gesture she could throw it at me. But, as I expected, she’s too angry to think straight.<br /><br />Still, by now it’s clear that there is no chance of my being able to talk to this audience about the scale of immigration into Europe, nor any point trying to do so; the moment I get off subjects on which I can actually play on their concerns to make them think a bit (wimmin’s and gay rights, and animal welfare, for example), the oppo will go berserk.<br /><br />So I decide instead to sucker them into a rolling debate by answering their questions. When they try to derail me by asking more while I’m answering the current one, I am able very often to appeal to their inverted racism by pointing out that the minority member who asked the question is surely entitled to an answer? A modicum of quiet descends each time.<br /><br />When I tell them that I’m going to explain why I’m a racist pig, and go on to relate the facts of the current, capitalist globalism-fueled extinction of the vast majority of the 5,000 unique cultural and ethnic groups that make up the truly wonderful tapestry of human diversity, their confusion actually shows in some of their faces. They even agree that European cultures and identities are also worth preserving. The would-be hardnut ruefully admits to supporting Celtic.<br /><br />Naturally, the spell doesn’t last long, and the long battle of voiceboxes and wits continues. Since one of our supporters videoed it, you can take a look for yourself <a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ve2wFBMzfE>here</a> and also <a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziphTnsfy6w>here</a>. Anyone who doesn’t quite understand why we have a security team who can look a little ‘heavy’ for polite society may get a glimpse of reality here. Our opponents are not polite and if it hadn’t been for the deterrent value of Martin on one side and Preston on the other the footage would inevitably have included unedifying shots of me and our young student hosts rolling around on the floor with the rest of the audience.<br /><br />As it is, the mob leaves after about an hour when they realise they’re not going to break me, and then set off the fire alarm. We ignore it and after a while the black janitor turns it off, leaving us to finish off with a more sensible discussion among the supporters and true liberals who remain.<br /><br />When we finally decide to call it a day, we head off to a bar/restaurant to celebrate a job well done (bear in mind that the antis had pledged to stop the event going ahead at all). The others eat, but by now I’m bouncing off the walls with adrenaline and I can’t stomach anything. A few bottles of Sam Adams (one of the few reliably drinkable beers in a continent dominated by tasteless iced lager) are a different matter.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Saturday – and a trip in a time machine</span><br /><br />We would have been heading home today but a Saturday flight would have cost our host an extra $700 so we’re going to kill a day doing not a lot. Just as well as what isn’t far off sleep deprivation has caught up and I don’t even wake up until well gone ten.<br /><br />Even now there are several more press interviews to do, and I spend more time typing up this now huge blog entry (I had intended to send it in sections, but the pen drive I use to transfer the files refuses to work).<br /><br />Later we meet some of our local hosts and take a look around their huge university campus; a mixture of Victorian philanthropist grandeur and modern giantism. Then we pile into the biggest, toughest jeep available and head in the late afternoon to Detroit – once one of the great industrial cities of the world.<br /><br />On the freeway into the centre we see block after block of late 1960s project housing lying burnt out and derelict, then pass older factories and modern high-rise flats which are also boarded up at ground level and a mass of broken windows higher up. <br /><br />This continues until the very centre of the city, where there is an abrupt change to the magnificent gleaming steel and glass General Motors tower and its surrounding ultra-modern complex. It has to be said that this is impressive – or at least it would be if one didn’t know that GM shares are now officially rated as Junk Bonds. The survival of one of the last century’s truly great industrial companies is no in serious doubt.<br /><br />Driving on just a couple of blocks, we are suddenly thrown from the peak of modern urban civilisation into what could easily be a movie set for a film about life ten years after a nuclear war or the return of the Black Death. As I describe the scene to Simon Darby for his audio blog file the next day, the sight beggars belief. Whole factories lie derelict. Block after block of once smart suburban homes lie shattered; perhaps eight out of ten houses have simply gone in some parts, leaving one derelict and boarded up or burnt out, and another still lived in but with steel cages on doors or squalor outside.<br /><br />In the gaps where whole streets of houses have virtually disappeared, sapling trees and scrub are springing up as Detroit begins to return to the forest that once covered the east and centre of this continent. We don’t see any of the deer that apparently now roam where, during the 1950s, the young families of well-paid, proud skilled workers and foremen lived out the post-war American Dream.<br /><br />And it goes on, and on, and on; miles of dereliction, collapse, despair and spaced out drug addicts shambling aimlessly along. What happened? First Afro-American migration from the Deep South broke up the Anglo/Irish/Polish communities which built the place. Then the race riots of 1968. Then decades of more immigration and white flight from schools and neighbourhoods that just weren’t safe any more.<br /><br />Then the US political and corporate elite decided that there were bigger profits to be made shipping jobs and plant to the Far East than could be earned by reinvesting in home industries and skills. Then the outnumbered middle class blacks fled too, and the decent, God-fearing, hard working ones, who got out any way they could (most have moved back down South). <br /><br />Finally, even the lively young criminals seem to have gone, for we drive around for at least an hour (our hosts on tenterhooks) without the slightest sign of aggression or even recognition that we are very definitely in the wrong place. There is none of the “what you looking at” aggression that you would get in the backstreets of vast ‘ethnic’ areas of most big British cities. The few people left here seem to be past that; past anything except their drugs and their despair. <br /><br />It’s more like something from the later chapters of Ayn Rand’s brilliant (though ideologically and realistically deeply flawed) novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ than anything I have ever seen (though parts of Hartlepool, Sunderland and Liverpool I’ve been taken to aren’t exactly candidates for Britain in Bloom). Every bastard politician who’s ever waxed lyrical about the wonders of multi-culturalism and globalism should be brought here, and dumped in the middle of the future their policies are creating in other cities, on both sides of the Atlantic. <br /><br />Apparently it gets worse each Halloween, known in places like this as Devil Night, as those youths who remain make a special point of burning down a few more of the empty houses. I don’t know if they stone the firemen if they turn up to dowse the flames, as is the custom in many enriched British cities. Perhaps here no-one even bothers.<br /><br />We go off to a different Halloween – a party at a country town bar owned by the sister of one of our guides. The contrast is amazing. Instantly we’re back in our time, with our people, where the worst behaviour involves having drunk one or two beers too many, and the phenomenal friendliness of the real Americans is still on show.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Sunday – and homeward bound</span><br /><br />Next day I have a couple of hours writing on the laptop on various things as well as bringing this blog up to date (difficult with such a packed schedule and the tendency of the battery to die). Then we’re picked up and head for Flint airport, from which we’re to fly to Chicago and thence Heathrow overnight.<br /><br />We’re talking politics and so our driver misses the turn on the freeway, so what started as a leisurely drive ends up a mad rush. Which means that we don’t have time to stop to buy an extra bag for various items obtained in the last few days. Which in turn means that I have to cadge a couple of clear plastic bags from the check-in staff and put the bits and pieces in there. <br /><br />As the extra baggage disappears along the conveyor belt, I can’t help wondering if it wouldn’t perhaps be better if the rather unorthodox package doesn’t make it to Heathrow anyway. How, after all, would I explain to Customs what I’m planning to do with: A hobby-horse style reindeer complete with about 28” of red velvet handle and bells on his antlers, which waggles its nose and sings ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ (he’s going clubbing with various daughters just before Christmas – honest); a telescopic camcorder stand; two collapsible umbrellas (in fact ideal for fending off eggs and bags of unspeakableness if thrown by Red mobs), and a bottle of highly spoken-of sensual massage oil (unopened til I get home, which is all I have to say on the subject)?<br /><br />On the plane, I get to watch ‘Blue Blood’, a brilliant if limited interest British film about the Oxford squad training for the 2005 Varsity Boxing match against Cambridge. It’s highly accurate and, to someone who went through it all several decades ago strangely moving. I’d write more about it but simply don’t have time to do it justice right now, so I’ll probably return to that subject later. For now, all I can say is, if you enjoy boxing, or want an insight into what it takes to get a sporting ‘Blue’, and what it means to those of us who’ve been lucky enough to do it, watch ‘Blue Blood’. It’s so good I could even forgive the heroes of it for having gone to the Wrong Place!Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-41464849448302348802007-10-23T03:34:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:03.244-08:00Trafalgar Club dinnerI must begin this entry with an apology. In my blog of 17th Oct I included the following photo and caption:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn8YntagsHu27LJgfn2y0Fb2cemtbGRs4WRnm2GfO49KJL1FjwGOE658JqH-0LsO4nVv4HVtfp5q1zBJmsTBJZ3fRJ0CGTUE9BEu5Z6UcA0lU6qY29FkeKdNZfcce8QoVSC1F0/s1600-h/griffin_farm_smoker.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn8YntagsHu27LJgfn2y0Fb2cemtbGRs4WRnm2GfO49KJL1FjwGOE658JqH-0LsO4nVv4HVtfp5q1zBJmsTBJZ3fRJ0CGTUE9BEu5Z6UcA0lU6qY29FkeKdNZfcce8QoVSC1F0/s400/griffin_farm_smoker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124481137262058434" /></a><br /><br />My home-made smoker. Still looking like something the gypsies left behind!<br /><br />It has been pointed out to me that this constitutes an outrageous slur on the gypsy community, and I apologise unreservedly. The suggestion that any gypsy, traveller, tinker or didicoy would leave behind a piece of aluminium, a cast iron box, a length of flexible steel pipe and part of a set of scaffolding is, I now accept, utterly ridiculous. They’d have pinched the whole lot.<br /> <br />Having said which, I have worked alongside real Anglicised Romanies of the George Borrow type in the fields of Norfolk and Lincolnshire (in the days before East Europeans took all their jobs), I once spent a summer tatting a household waste landfill with a lad who was recognised by every proper gypsy he met as one of their own, and I remember well Romany Oggi (Chief) and poet Tom Odley, who was a generous and popular member of the British Nationalist movement in the 1970s. <br /><br />And I used to be an enthusiastic amateur poacher. So I’ve got nothing at all against real gypsies (excepting their eating of hedgehogs, which is going too far even for my serious carnivore tendencies). But there’s no comparison between them – scrupulously clean, proud and willing to lose on a deal to which they’ve agreed rather than lose face, and the Asiatic thieves from Slovakia and Romania or the lowlife scum who the decent Irish very sensibly threw out and who now ruin common land, playing fields and open spaces around most of our major towns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Another Leftist Lie Exposed</span><br /><br />This weekend including Trafalgar Day, it was the time of year for the Eighth Trafalgar Club Dinner. This year’s gathering of our elite fund-raising and dining club was booked into a lovely hotel and country club venue in the heart of rural Warwickshire.<br /><br />This was a first for new TC secretary Jenny Noble, who I know went to great lengths to find exactly the right place. And her hard work really paid off. With more than 100 members and guests attending the largest Trafalgar Club Dinner so far, the black tie event was a spectacular success, with great food in elegant surroundings, wonderful company and a great deal of satisfaction over another year of progress under our belts.<br /><br />Everything passed off without a single hitch, despite the unfortunate manager and receptionists having to put up with some two dozen threatening phone calls from the same couple of far-left cowards. Their usual sordid and lie-filled websites went into overdrive trying to get other morons to join in the pressure to get the event cancelled. Indeed, by the Saturday morning they were claiming to have succeeded.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, no-one was fooled (in fact, the vast majority of our members were totally unaware of the nasty little campaign). The far-left’s recent policy of Crying Wolf about “BNP disasters” is, fortunately, rebounding on them and undermining what very little credibility they had in the first place.<br /><br />In the event, the only thing to mar an otherwise perfect evening was that disallowed try. If that had gone on the score board then the last fifteen minutes of the game would have centred on getting the ball to Mr. Wilkinson for a drop goal effort, rather than striving for the far harder option of a try. It could all have been so different!<br /><br />Still, England had nothing to be ashamed of. Our rugby players really are an example to us all, and especially the young – such a contrast to the overpaid, spoilt, sissified, prancing ‘celebs’ who regularly fail so pathetically on the football field, and then blame everyone except themselves and the very real handicap of having the top teams stuffed with foreigners.<br /><br />Fortunately the game was over by the time I came to speak. The TC Dinner is one event that really deserves a keynote speech so I am pleased that those present respond enthusiastically to my review of the external circumstances now moving things so quickly in our direction, and of our forthcoming steps to increase even further our readiness for the times of great potential ahead.<br /><br />On the Sunday morning we drive to nearby Stratford on Avon and divide into two groups, each with our own tourist guide. The interest of the walk through the town – in glorious autumn sunshine - is greatly added to by having so many of the minor details of Shakespeare’s association with the place pointed out.<br /><br />Even once the tours finish and we’ve dispersed to head for lunch or home, there are BNP stalwarts around every corner as people do their own individual explorations of this splendid piece of England’s literary and architectural heritage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Off to the USA</span><br /><br />Monday passes with a rash of deadlines and desk clearing. I finish my article for November’s Identity (about our plans for the newly created BNP Education & Training Department, which will be further unveiled at the Conference in Blackpool on November 17th – 18th. And dash off this – for me – unusually short blog entry.<br /><br />I’m tempted to give my own (typically more gruesome!) take on the problem of injured rabbits first aired by Simon Darby in his very varied and well-disciplined blog a few days ago, but that will have to wait. It was sad to read about the injured fawn he tried to save. A mark of just what a fundamentally kind and decent man he is can be taken from the fact that the creature’s parents, uncles, aunts and cousins have over the last year systematically devoured every single vegetable that Simon and Donna have tried to grow on their otherwise perfect south-facing patch. Not just beans and lettuces, but even potatoes, onions and garlic. If I was Simon I’d probably be a deerocidal maniac by now.<br /><br />But I’ve no time for such things at present as I’ve got to clear the decks before heading over to a Black Country meeting this evening and thence to the airport. I’m booked to give several lectures at US Universities on “The Islamification of Europe”, plus various radio and possibly TV interviews on the same subject. It seems that America’s Christians are waking up fast to the long-term threat posed by Islamism and multi-culturalism.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Two important articles</span><br /><br />Over here too the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks pens a remarkable piece in the <a href=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2697772.ece>Times</a>. <br /><br />Headed, Wanted: a national culture. Multiculturalism is a disaster, the only shame is that it wasn’t written by the head of the Church of England. A very important and welcome piece at various levels.<br /><br />Also an important breakthrough in its own way is an article entitled Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study, which appears in the Guardian <a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html>today</a>.<br /><br />This is a report of a study being released in London today by an energy study group headed by a German MP. According to this survey, Peak Oil actually hit last year, and global oil production is now set to fall by a staggering 7% per year. Predictably, the British Government’s response to this civilisation-shattering threat is to turn a blind eye.<br /><br />The report presents a bleak view of the future unless a radically different approach is adopted. It quotes the British energy economist David Fleming as saying: "Anticipated supply shortages could lead easily to disturbing scenes of mass unrest as witnessed in Burma this month. For government, industry and the wider public, just muddling through is not an option any more as this situation could spin out of control and turn into a complete meltdown of society."<br /><br />The article confirms that Britain’s own oil production peaked in 1999 and has already dropped by half. With giants like Mexico’s Cantarell and Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oil fields also probably past peak production, it really does look as if an energy crisis almost beyond human comprehension is right on the doorstep. Teeming Mexico with crashing oil revenues should be an interesting sight.<br /><br />Still, the oil won’t run out before I get back from the USA, so details of how things go next time.Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-26005327759961149392007-10-17T11:04:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:03.373-08:00MARKET CARNAGE – AND A ‘RED’ MOBThe usual round of speeches: Good meetings in places as far afield as Birmingham (two meetings on the same night, first East and then South), Manchester, Bradford, Cannock and Rotherham since my last entry. At the ones before Brown bottled it, everyone was raring to go for a General Election.<br /><br />Of course, that was not to be. As I predicted in an earlier blog session, Gordon, while not a moron, is a serial coward. Had he called the contest at the end of the Labour conference he would probably have won, perhaps albeit with a reduced majority. But now he faces having to go to the country some time after the financial catastrophe still building up in the USA and world financial markets lets loose a tsunami of economic destruction on Britain. Brown just lost the election.<br /><br />Despite the continuing and growing carnage in the American housing market, there are signs that the final bursting of the US consumer boom may take a little longer yet. Vast amounts of the inflationary credit injections made by the Fed into the economy over there in a desperate effort to stop a housing-bust led collapse are now washing up as cheap and easy money in sub-prime credit card lending. <br /><br />Basically, once you’re stuffed on your house and are expecting to default and be bankrupted, living it up on credit card purchases that you never have the slightest intention of paying becomes a serious temptation. The signs are already there that huge numbers of Americans are now embarking on this road, which Bush will certainly not discourage in the hope that it will ease the Republican’s expected pain in the next elections over there.<br /><br />If another big mortgage lender collapse doesn’t wreck the whole Fed boom thing first, then this credit card bubble will be the thing that finishes it – not that you’ll read that in any ‘serious’ press economic columns (except perhaps something by Ambrose Pritchard-Evans, who does often have his finger on the real pulse) for months to come.<br /><br />My advice? Don’t buy a house, rent one. Don’t ‘invest’ in buy-to-let. Don’t put any more home improvements or holidays on the mortgage. Oh yes, and buy a car that has better fuel efficiency, because the Peak Oil phenomenon is now striking so hard that even quite significant economic pain in the West won’t offset the impact of growing demand from China and India. <br /><br />We’re already seeing other commodity prices head the same way as oil – grain, and hence bread, meat and milk, are also going through the roof. The Biblical cycle of lean years following fat ones was something that the older generation of Brits probably thought had gone forever. Their children and grandchildren are all too likely to find out that the baby-bombers were an almost unique exception, a golden generation, uniquely lucky, uniquely spoilt, and uniquely guilty of handing the next generation not a poisoned chalice (they gave such things away or smelted them down for consumer baubles) but a polystyrene cup of excrement.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Thinking global, acting local</span><br /><br />Still, life, and the work of building the only Movement with the ‘think global, act local’ nationalist logic that alone can mitigate the coming Convergence of Catastrophies, must go on. So there’s also a very civilised Yorkshire Black Tie fund-raising dinner in Bradford and a fun but uncivilised (to give you a clue, both Elvis Presley and I are among the singers – though the King is far better than me) ‘Supper Theatre’ in Stockport. Both get good collections and it’s good to see two of our most promising Euro seat areas already taking fund-raising for June 2009 so seriously. Special thanks to Nick Cass, Peter Hollings and Ian Dawson in Yorkshire and Bev Jones in Lancashire.<br /><br />At the Bradford meeting a member comes up to me during the break. To my initial surprise he hands me a large bag of sawdust. All becomes clear when he explains that, having started out in catering, he has diversified into the luxury smoked foods market. He had taken an amused professional interest in my description of my hit-and-miss home-smoking experiment, and had come along with the oak sawdust and some good advice.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUEoeGLPMSwDc6YSJwBdJ2CB-KHBb1COb5hRyeECf1teF0QRaLAFTM-Ku1uPJj_BWIDqFI2nctm5GTnoZM3I_1msUkf0so2rgDxVtXtKwYCGKiNEmIPYq6QPiKqVj6kJmVhO__/s1600-h/griffin_farm_smoker.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUEoeGLPMSwDc6YSJwBdJ2CB-KHBb1COb5hRyeECf1teF0QRaLAFTM-Ku1uPJj_BWIDqFI2nctm5GTnoZM3I_1msUkf0so2rgDxVtXtKwYCGKiNEmIPYq6QPiKqVj6kJmVhO__/s400/griffin_farm_smoker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122369001194904482" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">My home-made smoker. Still looking like something the gypsies left behind!</span><br /><br /><br /><br />Such a change from the usual ‘shop talk’ at meetings! A few minutes later I’d been given a whole list of valuable tips. As soon as I get the time and a dry day in which to try out the sawdust and my newly acquired grasp of the process I’ll continue the experiment and let you know how it goes.<br /><br />On the subject of updates (and, for that matter, thinking locally), the fly-struck lamb here made a full recovery and is now looking pretty much as plump as the other two. If we had more grazing I’d be sorely tempted to keep them until the late Spring, because young mutton has more flavour than lamb. But with animal feed prices going through the roof, it’s not worth risking a hard winter, so after a little longer to fatten they’ll have to go.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/newsarchive25/three_lambs.jpg" alt="Spring lambs" width="420" height="315"><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The three lambs earlier this year </span><br /><br /><br />And now – not so cute, and no way of telling now that the one in the middle nearly died of fly-strike <br /><img src="http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/newsarchive25/adult_sheep.jpg" alt="Spring lambs now fully grown" width="420" height="315"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">An evening with Rent-a-Mob</span><br /><br />An interesting and enjoyable evening last night! It started out as a normal meeting as guest speaker at a meeting in Broxstowe to celebrate the local unit’s advance from Group to Branch status, and ended up with high drama with the usual far-left Rent-a-Mob.<br /><br />The meeting was organised by local BNP councillor and Group Development officer Sadie Graham in the East Midlands town of Kimberley. Our candidate there back in May secured more than 200 votes with a paper campaign (the activists were busy helping Sadie win in our target ward nearby) and on the back of that the independent majority on the parish council bravely defied the bullies from the Labour minority who pulled all sorts of dirty tricks to get the meeting – in the parish hall – banned.<br /><br />25 of our people managed to get into the hall before the combination of about100 bourgeois town hall parasites and middle class Student Gwant types (only one of the obscenity-screamers had a remotely local and working class accent) and politically correct policing by a seriously useless Inspector prevented any more BNP supporters getting in. <br /><br />Not only did the police stand by as the brave leftist stormtroopers jostled and abused a couple of Octogenarian pensioners, but they then threatened to arrest our security team if they moved to help get our other people in. As always, the far-left are only actually brave when pretending to be trying to break through the feeble police line. A group of real locals gathered opposite to jeer at them.<br /><br />A flavour of the drama may be got from the video still here:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/newsarchive25/left_wing_thugs.jpg" alt="Left wing thugs" width="420" height="315"><br /><br /><br />The meeting itself went well, with a collection of more than £200. Sadie, local organiser Nina Brown and I all spoke. I covered mainly the irony of the fact that people who call themselves socialists and defenders of the working class and decent public services were outside trying to disrupt a meeting of the only serious party opposed to the privatisation of the postal service. That particular New Labour/Old Tory globalisation scam is proceeding apace, heralded by a new advert for “The People’s Post Office”. <br /><br />Clearly this neo-Marxist replacement for the idea of the Royal Mail is supposed to con the left into overlooking the fact that behind the republican slogan there lurks a scheme to privatise the whole damn thing (as demanded by WTO and EU rules). As I point out, if the postal service was properly capable of being run privately, then the Victorians would have created it that way in the first place. But it is not, the Royal Mail is a natural state monopoly, one of the markers of a properly ordered national community, just like such as water, electricity and sewage.<br /><br />So it is deeply ironic that the silly students shouting ‘fascist’ at us are in fact implicitly backing the genuinely fascist New Labour project to turn public services into private profit centres for giant corporations, and to demonise and marginalise anyone who opposes this massive theft of our national Common Wealth.<br /><br />The high-spirited meeting, in a high ceilinged hall with nearly church-style acoustics, finishes with one of the loudest and heart-felt renditions of ‘Jerusalem’ I’ve ever heard and taken part in. Everyone belts it out, especially when one of the security team opens the front door so that the red mob outside can hear.<br /><br />Sadie and I leave promptly, with security, at the end of the meeting so as to draw the cowardly mob off so that the other meeting-goers can leave in peace and safety. Two or three carloads of would-be thugs follow us and for a minute or two it looks as though things may get more interesting still but, just as we’re arranging to meet up with a back-up team and to persuade our pursuers to go home, a police car that had in turn followed them pulls them over. <br /><br />While I’m over in the East Midlands, Sadie and I spend some time going over the plans for our Winter School and Annual Conference in Blackpool in November. A lot is being done to build on the success of last year’s event, and on lessons from this year’s successful Summer School. A great deal of emphasis is being laid on strengthening our education and training capabilities, the aim being to create a system which allows for rapid and sustainable expansion. Everyone can feel that we’re just one more turn of the screw away from a further leap in our public popularity. The time to organise for that is now, so that we’re ready for it, instead of having to play catch-up. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Other blogs worth a look</span><br /><br />We then do a handy little piece about the evening’s events more or less life via telephone for Simon Darby’s increasingly popular and increasingly multi-media blog. Well worth a listen <a href=http://www.bnpscotland.org/simondarbyblogspot.com/sadienick161007.mp3>here</a>.<br /><br />Simon’s blog is of particular note for nature-watchers, with all sorts of titbits about different local flora and fauna. We’ve had some of the Big Cat sightings and rumours he mentioned the other day around here as well. An exiled Black Countryman living locally - one of that old breed with their really in-depth passion for and knowledge of ‘gardins’ and every sort of country pursuit – showed me the huge and unmistakably alien paw marks of one such beast in a patch of mud near his hen house a couple of years ago.<br /><br />I know far less about birds and fish than Simon, but I can snap something of the beauty of our country from time to time. Here’s a shot of a woodland track on the edge of Exmoor I took a month or so ago. This is your country you’re looking at here – what are you doing to preserve it for your grandchildren?<br /><br /><img src="http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/newsarchive25/exmoor_wood.jpg" alt="Summer in Exmoor" width="420" height="315"><br /><br />Also worth making a note of when it comes to political blogs are Lee Barnes’ and Martin Wingfield’s regularly updated offerings. Lee’s, predictably, is an intensely argued, intellectually inventive thing with plenty of heavy political meat and blunt rhetoric. Here (and in two subsequent sections) is his take on the unholy alliance of Sharia Socialists and Hollywood Nazis attacking the BNP - <a href=http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2007/10/enemy-within-part-1.html target="_blank">here</a>.<br /> <br />Martin’s, equally predictably, for the best popular nationalist journalist this Movement has ever had, covers current political news with his hallmark mixture of incisive analysis and simple, elegant prose. He has an interesting theory that the decline of the LibDems in the polls is largely down to public shock at the way the ‘nice’ party turned on and tore apart the unfortunate Kennedy over his drink problem. You can read more <a href=http://www.martinwingfield.blogspot.com>here</a>.<br /><br />Should everyone have a blog then? Yes and no! The only overtly political ones which are either justified or effective are a limited number from individuals who are so well known that any attempt to avoid a BNP ‘tag’ would be absurd and evasive. But for everyone else, the proper way to use the blogosphere is to draw in readers interested in a certain geographical area (“Yourtown Blog, by Fred the Whistleblower”) or in a certain hobby (“Eel Fishing Blog”, for example – and if by chance you’re into catching those amazing and still mysterious creatures I want to try smoking one) and then drip, drip the politics in as an ordinary Joe with no party axe to grind. That’s where the real power of this medium lies – not the naked politics that turns off most of the population, but subtle ‘independent’ popular validation of our views and our party. <br /><br />Turning on the phone this morning I get several texts from people from Sedgefield and Sunderland to tell me of a hugely successful meeting in Spennymoor last night. Chaired by Solidarity Exec member Adam Walker, Mark Collett was the guest speaker and apparently gave a gripping account of the history of the BNP and its present progress. The meeting was packed out and Mark got a standing ovation from an enthusiastic crowd. <br /><br />Here, as in Kimberly, pressure from the opposition gave an added ‘edge’ to the proceedings. The Northern Echo and a local Labour MP are running a week-long campaign against the BNP. To be fair to the Echo, they did print several very good letters defending the party yesterday. Sometimes I wonder if such operations are really about opposing us and not more a matter of using our name to sell newspapers? In media terms, this is a ‘sexy’ party, and every editor worth his salt (the phrase comes from the ancient Roman habit of paying soldiers part of their pay in salt) knows it.Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-23156044448321181932007-09-23T04:52:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:04.280-08:00Ancient horn dance and an eye on the futureFirst, for regular readers, the promised brief update on my home-made cold smoker. Here it is in all its wife-offending Heath Robinson/Stig of the Dump simplicity. An ancient cast iron boiler back holds a slow-burning fire of hardwood. Once this has die down saw dust is piled on top and a sheet of thin metal (in this case an old aluminium offset litho printing plate cut and bent to fit) is put over to keep in most of the smoke. This then finds it way up a length of old flexible steel flue pipe and into a hole roughly cut in the back of a defunct upright deep freeze, where the motor used to sit. The gaps where the pipe goes in are stuffed with moss. Holes drilled in the sides at the top help draw the smoke up. <br /><br />I spread my garlic bulbs - already dried for several weeks - on the three top freezer shelves and watch with satisfaction as smoke starts to puff out of the holes at the top.<br /><br />I relight the fire several times over the next couple of days, peering every now and then with satisfaction into the increasingly garlicky and smoky freezer. A single bulb taken out early makes the entire kitchen smell like something you'd encounter in a back-water village in rural France (not everyone's cup of tea, I am aware. Personally, though I object to be ruled by - inter alia - French bureaucrats, I’m very fond of the true, deep France and the customs, sights, tastes and aromas of our great ancient rival. <br /><br />Another bulb stinks out the car when I take it to give it to Simon Darby, who also has an appreciation of organic home-grown veg and eccentric experiments.<br /><br />But what of the result? There's a problem. Quite a big one in fact. Despite the heat-losing capability of the thin steel flue, on the last firing the smoke entering the smoking chamber clearly gets too hot. As a result the garlic bulbs - several hundred juicy cloves in all - are actually not cold smoked but hot smoked. i.e. partly cooked. Which wouldn't matter if I was going to use them over the next day or two, but no good as I wanted them to keep in the cool, dry pantry for the whole Autumn and ideally into the winter.<br /><br />It's not a disaster, but I have to split them up into bulbs and freeze the whole lot. The whole freezer now reeks of smoked garlic but, never mind, the cloves defrost in minutes when taken out and are perfect in anything that needs garlic.<br /><br />Next on the smoking agenda is some fish, and having seen the unbelievable price of smoked duck I'm planning on trying to produce my own. But first I've got to put in either a longer length of flue pipe or/and some kind of metal baffle system between the fire and the start of the chimney so as to reduce amount of heat gettingt to whatever is being smoked. Which means that the monstrosity will have to stay in the yard for a bit longer. In the meantime, any experienced-based home-smoking tips from readers would be much appreciated.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Meetings and Great White Record news</span><br /><br />As always, the number of meetings dips in August. I do travel up to a very good one in York, where Ian Dawson and his team have built up a very effective branch. Nearly one hundred people are there, a mixture of committed members and new enquiries, including a group of local UKIP activists who are - like so many of their fellow patriots - 'thinking the unthinkable' (switching to the BNP).<br /><br />I speak about the convergence of four destabilising catastrophes: The bursting debt bubble (this several weeks before the Northern Rock debacle); Peak Oil (now rapidly becoming mainstream as newspapers, oil companies and Cameron's green guru Zac Goldsmith alike playing catch-up with the independent geologists and the BNP); the destruction of popular trust in the political class thanks to betrayals such as Europe and the blatant push towards a police state, and the mass immigration and Islamism that the Ministry of Defence's main think-tank last year warned threatens the destruction of our civilisation within five to seven years.<br /><br />Any one of these crises would go a long way towards discrediting an individual Government, their convergence will demolish the credibility of the entire political Establishment. It's not a light-weight speech but, as is always the case when one treats an adult audience as adults, instead of patronising them with simplistic soundbites as is the Lib-Lab-Con way, it is very well received. Some of the newcomers join up on the spot, and the landlady and staff all say how impressed they are. The collection, literature stall and raffle together raise nearly £1,000.<br /><br />While in Yorkshire I meet with Alan Smith from Great White Records. Councillor Colin Auty's 'Truth Hurts' album is now out and selling well (as it deserves to, because Colin's passionate honesty and anger at what has been inflicted on the white working class in the former Heavy Woolen District of West Yorkshire has produced some very powerful lyrics and some great tunes. Freedom's Road will echo through the hearts and heads of BNP activists up and down the country, Where Has My Country Gone? will send a shiver down your spine, and the non-political Book By Its Cover is a classic every bit as good as the best songs written by any mainstream modern folk singer).<br /><br />So Alan and Dave Hannam are now working on no fewer than four forthcoming albums, with the target of releasing them by Christmas. This next wave will significantly broaden the GW genre, including as it does Country and heavy rock albums. Alan is hoping that this first broadening will lead on to others; he's particularly keen to find some younger bands who want to produce material that sounds very much like the types of music listened to by the majority of youngsters, but with a rebellious nationalist 'edge' to it. If you understand the importance of this project - and if you also want some enjoyable listening - you can help by buying Great White's first releases, and by keeping your eyes and ears open for up-and-coming young bands who might be willing to sign up.<br /><br />A few days later I'm Shrewsbury, my first time speaking here as a year ago there were only a handful of members and supporters. Tonight there are more than fifty, and I meet keen new organisers and activists who have travelled from several of this lovely county's smaller towns, including Ludlow, Market Drayton and Oswestry. Shrewsbury organiser Carl Foulkes chairs the meeting and gives a really effective opening speech, followed by a particularly passionate and efective call to action from Wolverhampton's dynamic Steve Haddon (who I recommend as a speaker for any West Midlands branch than can grab him).<br /><br />After the break I decide they've had enough solid speeches and do a Q&A session instead. Unusually, the audience keeps coming back to different aspects of the immigration problem, though we do also look at subjects as varied as nuclear power, restoring our education system and dealing with crime. Another very successful meeting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A day at the show - and an historic victory</span><br /><br />The first Saturday in September sees a day off, and a visit to our local area agricultural show. The Llanfair Show has been going since 1948 and is, like all such events, an understated but great way to spend a few hours. It helps when you know so many people there, but even stray tourists clearly enjoy the mixture of arena displays such as falconry, steam-driven machinery, horses, fox hounds, side-shows, trade stands, craft and vegetable competitions, hog roasts, beer tent, etc. Sadly this year there are no sheep or cattle - the unbelievable incompetence of Government agencies having been summed up this year by the leak of the foot-and-mouth virus from a broken pipe at the Research Centre which makes the FMD vaccine that is never even allowed to be used in Britain. Millions of pounds worth of damage to a vital industry already on its knees, hundreds of animals slaughtered, and not a single tax-eater gets the sack. Typical.<br /><br />I've heard this year of several BNP branches that have taken stalls at rural and small town shows. All have been well received, with outstanding levels of interest, ranging from curiousity to enthusiastic support, from the typical representatives of Middle England and Wales who attend such events. These forays into new territory are absolutely vital preparation work for the European Elections of June 2009, and I hope that even more will see a BNP presence next year.<br /><br />The month also sees another bit of very welcome BNP history. Alderton ward in Epping Forest produces our first by-election win in three years, and our first ever successful defence of a ward in a by-election caused by the resignation of one of our councillors. A hard-fought campaign masterminded by Eddy Butler and helped by a first class candidate who both wanted and worked to win, and by the tireless work of our other sitting local councillor Rod Law, led to a BNP victory over the well-established Local Residents Association.<br /><br />A little unnoticed in the euphoria (and the now routine humiliation of the unfortunate UKIP victim, who scrapped up just 28 votes) was the really Big Picture message sent out by the fact that the BNP and LRA - in other words the anti-System candidates - took twice as many votes as the Tories, Labour and LibDems combined. When the anti-Establishment earthquake which is steadily building up finally occurs, such events will be belatedly understood for the early warning signs they truly are.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Referendum Call</span><br /><br />For several weeks it’s been well nigh impossible to read a day’s emails without finding among the adverts for Viagra and penis extensions a call to sign a petition for a referendum on the new EU Treaty/Constitution. I have signed it, and we have called on our activists to get involved with the push to get people to the proposed Referendum Rally in Central London on 27th October.<br /><br />But both are done with reservations. For a start, the realistic view of that rally is that, despite its professed aim of 500,000 attendees, it will be a surprise if the organisers can get 5,000 there. Of course the issue is more important than the hunting ban, but the Countryside Alliance was working with a network of extraordinarily powerful local social grapevines and on an issue that stirs far deeper passions in most of its enthusiasts than opposition to the EU does in the majority even of Euro-realists.<br /><br />More important still is the fact that I remember all too well the Common Market referendum of 1975, in which I was involved as a teenage activist for the ‘No’ campaign. We never stood a chance: the question was loaded; the ‘Yes’ campaign was backed by all the main parties; our side had one booklet sent to each household, while the lie-filled ‘Yes’ booklet was seconded by the Government’s ‘recommendation’ document; Big Business and the BBC; worst of all the other side was able to outspend us by a factor of eleven to one.<br /><br />There cannot be the slightest doubt that any fresh referendum would be just as rigged. Naturally we in the BNP would do our best to help the anti-EU campaign overcome the drastically sloping playing field, but the chances of success would be very slim. Basically, Governments don’t call referenda that they are not confident of winning.<br /><br />It gets worse: That means that a successful call for a referendum on this life-or-death question of national freedom would in all probability merely give the Europhiles a popular democratic mandate for their treason. The fact that any such vote would be secured by essentially dishonest means wouldn’t make much difference; once ‘the people’ vote ‘in favour’ of the Treaty that looks like a Constitutional duck, walks like a Constitutional duck and quacks like a Constitutional duck, then the political elite can claim that their nation-wrecking spree was done by permission of the Great British Public. Which would a) legitimise what they’ve done; b) make it harder to undo, and c) give them some defence when we put them on trial for treason – under the old rules, complete with the traditional penalties.<br /><br />So we can only shake our heads in bewilderment at the well-meaning naivety of the good-hearted souls calling for a referendum. And we are only going along with their October 27th protest in order to reinforce our right – as the party with far more popular support than UKIP (since their MEPs’ decision to vote in favour of a Europe-wide school curriculum to oppose ‘xenophobia’, some now spell that EuKIP, by the way) – to lead the battle to free Britain from Europe. <br /><br />We will be there to recruit, to try to save good activists wasting their time in one or other of the plethora of anti-EU groups going nowhere, among which UKIP is now undoubtedly the worst. It reminds me of the slogan the Socialist Workers Party used to roll out at election times: “Vote Labour, But With No Illusions”.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">An Ancient Festival</span><br /><br />11th September. I’m tempted to nip over to Brussels to take part in the banned anti-Islamic protest outside the European Parliament, but it’s unclear what’s going to happen and, in any case, we’ve got an Advisory Council meeting booked and as we haven’t had one for more than three months and there’s a General Election threat, it really shouldn’t be put back.<br /><br />Plus, the 11th this year also just happens to be the first Monday after the first Sunday after the 4th September – the obscure formula that sets the date for the annual Horn Dance Festival in the Staffordshire village of Abbots Bromley.<br /><br />Each year, six local men each take a set of ancient reindeer antlers which are kept for the rest of the year in the church and carry them along a route through the village and to various outlying farms that it takes most of the day to complete. They are accompanied by several other strangely attired individuals, including a Fool and Maid Marion.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieGr5gn4UxDanW1guZa6cLsWSatbLlNQpO6P8bqNUupHeSlTKhm43LtzaoB2VR6IIdGkv_ivpD7yka4JtcyDvWJOcClUhCaGw-scHbcz31ZPivh436klxkBEtpO-u4phmRXNk/s1600-h/abbots_bromley_horn_dance.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieGr5gn4UxDanW1guZa6cLsWSatbLlNQpO6P8bqNUupHeSlTKhm43LtzaoB2VR6IIdGkv_ivpD7yka4JtcyDvWJOcClUhCaGw-scHbcz31ZPivh436klxkBEtpO-u4phmRXNk/s400/abbots_bromley_horn_dance.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113366569353861938" /></a><br /><br />Every now and again they stop to dance, always the same dance, to tunes from an accordion player. It’s actually indescribable, so as well as giving you several photographs there’s also a short video clip HERE (first time I’ve used video in this blog, let’s hear if you like it). <br /><br />We arrive just before eight in the morning, in order to attend the short church service that marks the start of the day. Several of the dancers pay moving tributes to one of their number who died earlier this year, after taking part in more than fifty years of Horn Dances. It is quite literally in their blood, with several families traditionally providing the majority of recruits, generation after generation.<br /><br />How many generations? No one knows, but all the evidence is that this is not a romantic Victorian cultural nationalist ‘revival’. A fragment from a broken horn was carbon-dated some years ago, producing the remarkable date of approximately 1065 – the year before the Norman Conquest. And local tradition is that the horns now in use are in turn replacements for an earlier set.<br /><br />Which raises the serious possibility that the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is a genuine survival, in an unbroken line, of a pre-Christian, pre-historic tradition, presumably a piece of sympathetic magic at the start of the hunting season. And, given what we now know about how DNA evidence shows that the modern natives of this land are largely descended from the First People who settled this land at the end of the last Ice Age, this makes it conceivable that this celebration has taken place at the end of every summer since Palaeolithic times. Perhaps 15,000 years old – and it’s ours.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QPJW_FltI74"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QPJW_FltI74" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />After bacon butties provided by the WI and the local vicar, we head on our way, leaving two of our party to spend the day there while Simon Darby and I head on to the AC meeting, which conveniently is less than fifty miles away.<br /><br />At the meeting we start with working out our plans for a snap General Election. How many seats should we fight? What criteria should we use? Is there a realistic possibility that the number of votes secured in the next General Election will subsequently be used to decide the amount of state funds to be given to each political party, and could we also cross whatever threshold is set? How much should we spend? Where should the money come from? What publicity material should we use? So many questions, and all have to be debated and answered one by one.<br /><br />The answers that emerge will be given in detail in our Organisers’ Bulletin, in the British Nationalist BNP members’ bulletin, in Identity and online. But in simple terms, our plan is as follows:<br /><br />Mindful of the need to build up our reserves for the more winnable London Assembly (May 2008) and European Parliamentary elections (June 2009), we will not be funding a snap General Election centrally. If units or individuals who are suitable candidates want to fight their local seats, then they must raise the money;<br /><br />We are expecting a significant increase in the number of seats being fought, well up from the 111 contested in 2005. The key reason for aiming to fight more seats is the need to get our core supporters in as many places as is practicably possible used to the idea that we are always on the ballot paper, so as to maximise our vote in the proportional representation European elections;<br /><br />There will be two levels of campaign: The Standard Campaign will involve a full colour A4 leaflet, personalised to the constituency in several ways, delivered by the Post Office to every home. Plus back-up standardised leaflets for hand delivery, posters and a limited amount of advertising. Including the £500 deposit, this will cost £2,000;<br /><br />A Basic Campaign will simply consist of a limited amount of local advertising, posters and standardised leaflets for hand delivery. Including the £500 deposit, this will cost £800;<br /><br />All monies to cover these costs must be paid in to units’ regional accounts with time to clear before the printing deadline, which will be set as soon as an election is called. There will be no credit.<br /><br />It is anticipated that units which are short of cash will set themselves the £800 target to start with and, if they have reached that before the election is called, give serious consideration to moving on to raise funds for the more expensive Standard Campaign.<br /><br />Of course, by modern standards, and on an individual unit basis, the sums of money we’re talking about here are not a particularly big deal. But multiplied by – for example – an extra 50 seats, they add up at an alarming rate. Particularly when we also have to raise at least £50,000 by the start of April in order to fight even the most basic campaign in the crucial proportional representation London Assembly elections next May. And when we need to raise half a million pounds by the Spring of 2009 if we are to begin to do justice to our chances in the European Elections of June that year.<br /><br />Tempting though it is to show how important we are by splashing out in the General Election, the plain truth is that – outside of a tiny number of very special places – we do not a snowball’s chance in hell of winning seats in that first-past-the-post contest. All that over-extending ourselves in it would achieve is to leave us without enough money to pay for serious campaigns in the next two year’s PR elections in which we can win.<br /><br />Thus, while giving the green light for a significant increase in our General Election tally where local units are keen to fight and comfortably able to raise the money, we are also stressing that every single BNP region is required to collect a monthly levy from every branch and group. Not after the money for a possible snap General Election has been raised, but while it is being raised. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Conference Motions</span><br /><br />Having worked out the strategy and mechanics of our electioneering schedule over the next couple of years, we then move on to review the motions for this autumn’s Conference. These have been put forward by the Voting Members from regional meetings. Each region is allowed to put forward three motions on party policy, with one from each area going through as of right.<br /><br />As expected, there is a wide range of proposals. A few are automatically disqualified because they relate to tactical and organisational matters and it would clearly be madness to tie the hands of the party leadership and administrative staff by creating the precedent that decisions that need to be made ‘on-the-hoof’ in order to deal with problems or opportunities as soon as they arise, have to left until they can be debated by Conference.<br /><br />The policy motions, on the other hand, are gone through methodically, not least with a view to variety of subjects and a balance between motions which should tend to promote a sense of enthusiastic unity, and several which are sure to create the lively debate and disagreements that a serious party needs to learn to hold without rancour and subsequent fallings out.<br /><br />The process takes several hours, but we end up with an agreed list of motions that will be circulated shortly so that they can be discussed locally. It is particularly important that Voting Members who wish to oppose any particular motion (naturally enough all of them already have proposers and seconders) have the chance to do their homework and present the most effective case.<br /><br />The only other business at the AC is a brief explanation of how our new Central Management Team is going to work. This is a panel of three volunteer long-standing party activists, each of whom has literally decades of business management experience, who will from now on be handling internal staff management affairs such as contracts, the setting of targets and the holding of reviews, rates of pay, dispute resolutions and such like.<br /><br />While it is assumed that the CMT will change and evolve over the years, the initial three are Tony Brewer, Michaela McKenzie and Mark Clutterbuck. Their CVs – both political and professional – are impressive, and their work should go a long way to creating the internal systems and controls we need to ensure that the members whose generosity pays for our growing staff get value for money. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dusk falls on the dawn of time<br /></span><br />After the meeting we head back to Abbots Bromley to pick up the two of our party we left there in the morning. The main street is now pretty much packed with people. Half a dozen Morris sides are by now largely mixed up, each dance involving a different combination of uniforms as those who still have the energy (or sobriety) to take part perform for the enthusiastic, beery crowd.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLw6yNvfcQznm4W9ZHuNifnq3PxTmsdjwAovSVkgOtNeb05XSOHRa4TxlCqbFBTQF3C_QOJrLZJ0cl_FV9lRLcgtIHkRfBon9RW_nsbWUTvHCTkKQhPJzhCsaWraHYeBbg9S3/s1600-h/abbots_bromley_horn_dance2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLw6yNvfcQznm4W9ZHuNifnq3PxTmsdjwAovSVkgOtNeb05XSOHRa4TxlCqbFBTQF3C_QOJrLZJ0cl_FV9lRLcgtIHkRfBon9RW_nsbWUTvHCTkKQhPJzhCsaWraHYeBbg9S3/s400/abbots_bromley_horn_dance2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113366895771376450" /></a><br /><br />The Horn Dancers themselves return to the village for one last dance set before returning their antlers to the church for another year. The sun has set; the combination of the gathering dusk and the larger crowd adds even more to the atmosphere. The horns are briefly silhouetted against the darkening sky – it’s a breath-stopping image and I curse myself for being too slow with the camera because the same effect with the Morris Dancers sticks is something special. Reluctantly, we leave for home and return to the modern world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJoogOz3-WkrPvE_WsJpBsCFUyp0TG39nOIN3uHSpP9wFKL3wfmq2on_ZlLY7q6VA48rbn-dDCse9auJbyF1ibItkKrlZOgbyFBg_qjR1Y0vhEsURagx6Rf3Y6TwQ53XqmPbWx/s1600-h/abbots_bromley_horn_dance_dusk.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJoogOz3-WkrPvE_WsJpBsCFUyp0TG39nOIN3uHSpP9wFKL3wfmq2on_ZlLY7q6VA48rbn-dDCse9auJbyF1ibItkKrlZOgbyFBg_qjR1Y0vhEsURagx6Rf3Y6TwQ53XqmPbWx/s400/abbots_bromley_horn_dance_dusk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113367106224773970" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tory Party Suicide Watch</span><br /><br />David Cameron is at it again. His unfortunate party followers are subjected to another set of drastically mixed messages. <br /><br />First he produces one of the watered-down BNP policies that his massively taxpayer-funded research department steals off our website from time to time. He tries to grab the headlines with a ‘National Service (Very) Lite’ proposal, under which teenagers would be paid £500 each in return for six weeks ‘community service’ during the Summer Holidays. <br /><br />As it happens, he’s suggested dafter things, though the idea that a mere six weeks of feather-bedded pretence at discipline and service would actually make any real impression on your average Lesser Hooded Sloath is almost touchingly naïve. Two years, on the other hand, starting with a crash course in drill, fitness, accepting orders and citizenship, would be a different matter. <br /><br />Still, Cameron’s glimmer of a real Idea probably would have earned him a few Brownie Points with large numbers of patriotic voters. Fortunately, however, he promptly goes on to throw it all away. He gets himself on prime-time TV with the latest heavily promoted Muslim boxer, Amir Khan. <br /><br />That’s several hundred more right-wing Tory activists who will never lift a finger for or pay their subscriptions to the Conservative party again. And another tranche of voters reminded that today’s Tory party is a New Labour clone when it comes to professed enthusiasm for the Brave New Multi-Culti World that they’ve foisted on those of us who pay their inflated wages without so much as a “by your leave”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Conference Season</span><br /><br />Talking of Labour, Brown promises at the TUC conference to 'eliminate' the BNP from the council chambers of Britain. How quaintly Stalinist! Still, together with his quasi-religious display of faith in ‘diversity’, it all helps to drum into the public’s collective consciousness the fact that we’re really different: The political party that all the political elite they hate love to hate.<br /><br />Next in the public eye in conference season are the LibDems. More hari kiri politics as they put forward their Big Idea to deal with the problem of illegal mass immigration – legalise it by granting hundreds of thousands of unwanted lawbreakers amnesty and the ‘right’ to live here – either taking our taxes or our jobs – permanently.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Economic mayhem</span><br /><br />While Tory, Labour and LibDem leaders alike continue to dig their parties’ political graves on the immigration issue, the first fall-out from the American sub-prime mortgage crisis drifts like a poisonous smog over the Atlantic and engulfs Northern Rock.<br /><br />The scenes of desperate savers queuing round the block to withdraw their money are something that haven’t been seen in this country almost within living adult memory. <br /><br />The bosses of the stricken bank deserve to be locked in sets of stocks outside their biggest branches, so that they can be pelted with rotten vegetables, eggs and house-bricks by the small savers and shareholders whose retirement plans are thrown into chaos by the consequences of their criminally bad management and short-sighted greed. <br /><br />If the company threatened with collapse was in what remains of our manufacturing sector, if the livelihoods at risk were in farming or fishing, if the jobs on the line involved making something useful or helping to preserve our economic and national sovereignty, then we all know what would happen:<br /><br />The Westminster Gang, and their friends in the City and in the pro-Big Business press would all shake their heads sadly and tell the sacked workers, the betrayed pensioners and the small investors that “we can’t interfere with the market” and that “failing companies must be allowed to go to the wall”.<br /><br />But this is different, of course. The threat here isn’t primarily to ordinary people – the kind who Brown allowed to lose everything when the Provident sank without trace with their savings on board – but to a parasitic elite of professional gamblers and to the entire system of institutionalised usury, short-termism and greed that they operate.<br /><br />So, predictably, Gordon Brown – cunningly disguised as the ‘independent’ Bank of England – rides to the rescue with vast amounts of tax-payers’ cash and inflation-boosting fiat money.<br /><br />The Stock Market promptly ‘recovers’ somewhat, but no-one watching the continued and accelerating financial and economic meltdown in the USA can believe that Northern Rock will be the last we hear and see of economic dislocation. Nor of its impact on the poor, the over-stretched home ‘owner’ and on the future credibility of the politicians whose shallow idolatry of the ‘free market’. Crisis over? It’s scarcely even begun!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">London Launch </span><br /><br />Finally, for now, the briefest mention of the launch of our London Mayoral Campaign. On three successive nights our candidate, Barking & Dagenham Council Group leader Richard Barnbrook, London regional organiser Nick Erickson and I speak at big meetings (never less than one hundred at each) in East, South East and South West London.<br /><br />During the daytimes I meet several key people for one-to-one party business discussions. Except on the Tuesday when I meet up with activists in Barking & Dagenham on a local day of action. While our Deputy Group leader Bob Bailey leads the leafleting team, Richard and I get busy painting out graffiti on walls and fences.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxjiM1ccFV_nXvNIvUY5AgJbup0qLtAtFGvzb5vdvpQ_HWAE0DIPWZIly-zNAA-5Qk6DCbZExZoNDEpZcwvPaDlzpWdoiiufrCkXqiIgKLRIPk675grJvbrXxvqckshWIMfCt/s1600-h/barking_cleanup.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxjiM1ccFV_nXvNIvUY5AgJbup0qLtAtFGvzb5vdvpQ_HWAE0DIPWZIly-zNAA-5Qk6DCbZExZoNDEpZcwvPaDlzpWdoiiufrCkXqiIgKLRIPk675grJvbrXxvqckshWIMfCt/s400/barking_cleanup.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113367415462419298" /></a><br /><br />An hour ago these walls were covered in graffiti. Two coats later Richard and I have sorted the problem out.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxueUI3FE3l6uhipaPC5ZOBdtrKYs0bAlMVcnrFUlP2FRmHOUYLn03xu5nF-Uf0skuExp8zNQI4RIGySSxa5yZXmbXicbhCQc6zg5Ksbn3JGNl90PHo9j9pkjNQZEIfXlEddpO/s1600-h/barking_leaflet_team.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxueUI3FE3l6uhipaPC5ZOBdtrKYs0bAlMVcnrFUlP2FRmHOUYLn03xu5nF-Uf0skuExp8zNQI4RIGySSxa5yZXmbXicbhCQc6zg5Ksbn3JGNl90PHo9j9pkjNQZEIfXlEddpO/s400/barking_leaflet_team.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113367574376209266" /></a><br /><br />Leafleting later that day. <br /> <br />There’s a real buzz about the place, especially in the third meeting, with the newly launched Wandsworth and Merton Branch, where at least 130 people pack into a noisy, good-humoured, passionate meeting in a Wine Bar in once-Liberal Cheam.<br /><br />At each meeting, in addition to established BNP members and new recruits straight from the public, I meet old hands and old friends from the British nationalist movement in the 1970s, and also refugees from the imploding mayhem of UKIP.<br /><br />Helped by a magnificent donation of more than £5,000 by BNP old hand and recent council candidate Steve Johnson (he’s been saving it up for years for the ‘right time’, and judges this to be it), we raise £12,000 in just three nights. This instantly gives us the money needed to pay for half a million big ‘warm-up’/recruitment leaflets, which will stat going out all over our capital city next month. Battle stations! <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkq4vA5ZfKV2GwOrM4ZWBUhPnR7Yj59B1vKuYunIPZjO4vE3n_I_fv-zw7rFzyK4MXRRO_dJxpF3gDC8nIGG43rqIXmkp5S2oyoRp9tvLwKAkcuxYWcHjtpM2RebuiyplCTJR/s1600-h/steve_johnson_nick_griffin.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkq4vA5ZfKV2GwOrM4ZWBUhPnR7Yj59B1vKuYunIPZjO4vE3n_I_fv-zw7rFzyK4MXRRO_dJxpF3gDC8nIGG43rqIXmkp5S2oyoRp9tvLwKAkcuxYWcHjtpM2RebuiyplCTJR/s400/steve_johnson_nick_griffin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113367724700064642" /></a><br /><br />With Steve Johnson just after he gets our GLA fund off to a flying start in Barking.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LrIA8aRKD4c2ANFGMfu-RbJbU-SWGlKvMK3Nn3R-hcYS8wySAO6UVfXIsnggu1ojAdpOKQiW9H62FbboWOhQ0Cb4KLOKPuut0POAOLO1bBl2ZSgZrR89o4CLnx1ybwXR_Ql1/s1600-h/gla_building.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LrIA8aRKD4c2ANFGMfu-RbJbU-SWGlKvMK3Nn3R-hcYS8wySAO6UVfXIsnggu1ojAdpOKQiW9H62FbboWOhQ0Cb4KLOKPuut0POAOLO1bBl2ZSgZrR89o4CLnx1ybwXR_Ql1/s400/gla_building.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113367866433985426" /></a><br /><br />The Greater London Assembly building. Just over the Thames from the Tower of London and our big target for next year.Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-70431155309527119982007-08-21T06:50:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:05.468-08:00Back to the West CountryThree good days in Wessex, the ancient English kingdom of the West Saxons and still one of the loveliest parts of England, typified even today by traditional villages and mellow stone market towns, set among the greenest (this wet summer at least) of rolling hills and lush pastureland.<br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The drive from </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Wales</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB"> to </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bournemouth</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> is, despite the scenery, a long haul, but we arrive in good time for the evening’s meeting. I’ve not been down here for about three years, and last time there were scarcely twenty of us. Barry Bennett hadn’t long taken over as ‘temporary’ organiser and was only just learning the ropes. He’s still ‘temporary’ organiser, but now knows the ropes. He and his local activists had a good crack at four local seats back in May, and now there are more than sixty people, nearly all from </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Dorset</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">, eager to hear the BNP message.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Barry also runs our Land & People rural affairs/animal welfare website and circle. He and one or two other regular contributors have been working away quietly on this project for some time now, and Barry tells me that a surprising number of Greens now visit the site regularly, expressing far more sympathy than he’d have thought possible just a couple of years ago. Deep beneath the apparently settled surface of British politics the shifting of the plates of old allegiances and preconceptions are steadily creating a future earthquake.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Barry isn’t just a theoretically ‘green’ nationalist, he’s also leading by example. The enclosed back garden of his suburban semi is home (apart from to half a dozen gigantic rabbits who have given up living in hutches and dug themselves a proper warren) to two wind turbines, an array of solar panels, a battery bank and an inverter to turn the power back into the free 240v supply that powers all his lights, computer equipment, phone chargers and TV.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-m4kZGLImQne29jizni0yYMV6D5S5QJE8L3NHYEpq_gEwdRugx8ezVuHv76_TmBhJATzx-RTcDfREf2MAo-wIFA_U_D5oYITymwOXlrPSQDi-vlPHKOoPX24Ik-HGmUGaagP/s1600-h/solarpanels_barry.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-m4kZGLImQne29jizni0yYMV6D5S5QJE8L3NHYEpq_gEwdRugx8ezVuHv76_TmBhJATzx-RTcDfREf2MAo-wIFA_U_D5oYITymwOXlrPSQDi-vlPHKOoPX24Ik-HGmUGaagP/s400/solarpanels_barry.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101154736922530994" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Barry with his solar panels<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Barry tells me that most of the equipment came from ebay bit by bit and that he’s put it altogether as an amateur. What would now cost more than £5,000 has probably taken about £2,000. He doesn’t know in detail how the economics work out, though his electricity bill has dropped very substantially. The biggest benefit, he reckons, is the satisfaction of being independent, the clean conscience of knowing that if more people followed his lead our country would be more independent and our world would be a cleaner place, and the fulfilment that comes from meeting a challenge.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He also shows me a sheaf of letters from the Jobsworths and tax-eaters at the council planning department. Despite all the New Labour waffle about global warming and energy efficiency, he has been forced to reduce the height of the pole for his tiny 50 watt turbine to ‘a maximum of 3 metres’ and to bring the bigger 500 watt one down below the level of his roof, thereby drastically cutting its efficiency.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQaOkenpRD67U1mZGjrYoLEVIqxxxl40R_53RozQjF1sGGOLuWMrm2TjjndoQVzSkIfTDDSpxqeYNPyv0xRl5iy7aN6b80eAFh-LD0fPdo40ektpNV40r0Qp3u_Aw7mzBXM9I0/s1600-h/windturbine_barry.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQaOkenpRD67U1mZGjrYoLEVIqxxxl40R_53RozQjF1sGGOLuWMrm2TjjndoQVzSkIfTDDSpxqeYNPyv0xRl5iy7aN6b80eAFh-LD0fPdo40ektpNV40r0Qp3u_Aw7mzBXM9I0/s400/windturbine_barry.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101155127764554946" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">500w turbine – output cut by council planning red tape<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">For much of Tuesday I write the bulk of my next Identity article on Barry’s wind-powered computer, in between all the usual party business phone calls. Later in the afternoon, though, we head off further along the coast for something really different. Another of our local members with an interest in alternative power has a sympathetic friend who is in the final stages of building a real windmill in his back garden.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Our inventive host lets us in through his garage, which he has turned into the best equipped private workshop I’ve ever seen. Unbelievably neat, it’s packed with every kind of metal lathe, pillar drill, compressor, welder and such like you could imagine. Laid out on the floor of the equally impressive workshop behind are the shining steel arms of the four sails, each at least fifteen feet long. This is going to be a serious piece of engineering.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnkV-ET1Ov_C4TKmvYtrUd3M1kydEsMyrxjCSAQUsLRX4CuJUVaz6odLNvWdK5D1TBlvISnJVpW1TIjUnHEw-l1Iw0wQpV7Au1dtQHTTmqUpJscHnBXWkDb2xNCf2gSCBMNanQ/s1600-h/workshop_barry.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnkV-ET1Ov_C4TKmvYtrUd3M1kydEsMyrxjCSAQUsLRX4CuJUVaz6odLNvWdK5D1TBlvISnJVpW1TIjUnHEw-l1Iw0wQpV7Au1dtQHTTmqUpJscHnBXWkDb2xNCf2gSCBMNanQ/s400/workshop_barry.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101155475656905938" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Just part of the spick and span workshop<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He leads us into the back garden and we see immediately just how serious. This isn’t the enlarged domestic turbine I’d envisaged, but a full size (though not giant) windmill. The brick base must be eight feet tall, and above that rises a tower of steel, wood and skilfully dressed lead flashing. It is truly a work not just of engineering but of passion and of art. Magnificent.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8kFJ2B5QWEBuJadXp2uIKNCJypW3wBNFQ3DbzkwzPg2-mLlEcGDkMr5pwbpFKgOpRtSEN2Fpq8VRpWVjZESe0NHIAc2H8eoq4gTsjl3lYnqAemNPCT0Qq9Ww1tLZ5wQA-XCR/s1600-h/windmill_dorset.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8kFJ2B5QWEBuJadXp2uIKNCJypW3wBNFQ3DbzkwzPg2-mLlEcGDkMr5pwbpFKgOpRtSEN2Fpq8VRpWVjZESe0NHIAc2H8eoq4gTsjl3lYnqAemNPCT0Qq9Ww1tLZ5wQA-XCR/s400/windmill_dorset.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101157034730034402" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">A real windmill! Amazing project.<o:p></o:p></span></b> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Inside, we climb up an almost fully extended thirty foot ladder into the chamber which already houses the drive shaft. The whole thing is self-designed, taking as its starting point a detailed study of a traditional working mill in rural </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Dorset</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">. How much power will it produce? The proud maker doesn’t yet know, though his cannibalised diesel generator parts are ready to be installed and connected up once the sails are in place, so he hopes to know by the autumn.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXZKfgm01shZEl-XXTQXb414BpQ7luM8_g-m6rU5OgIhAGxb4VCvEJhouSHM9Bn2ahrvqYMCbNLiSRO6kIvY2aiM7YVpxCqaiy0nhuvBe5yaA4b611U6a_OxGc8nWwYLKDFNG/s1600-h/windmill_shaft.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXZKfgm01shZEl-XXTQXb414BpQ7luM8_g-m6rU5OgIhAGxb4VCvEJhouSHM9Bn2ahrvqYMCbNLiSRO6kIvY2aiM7YVpxCqaiy0nhuvBe5yaA4b611U6a_OxGc8nWwYLKDFNG/s400/windmill_shaft.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101157537241208050" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Up in the top of the windmill, the main drive shaft is already in place<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is a sad angle to all this. All the gleaming engineering equipment is British-made, but it all dates back to the 1950s or earlier. None of the companies that made them still produces anything in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">. And all the engineering firms which he worked with in a lifetime of productive work have shut in the last fifteen or so years.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GJ5TaDmgl4m1IF8_u6ngasmSm9YQvoFnxsNfpmF7iQPaafmV7-WZC8GdmmOAeCrokhPkP-G5rHCYD8ZSCBYzSS1OQmEJXMyVvW-CymcH0xX3XuGUwUNrSPDMCubEAu9tKq4S/s1600-h/british_made.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GJ5TaDmgl4m1IF8_u6ngasmSm9YQvoFnxsNfpmF7iQPaafmV7-WZC8GdmmOAeCrokhPkP-G5rHCYD8ZSCBYzSS1OQmEJXMyVvW-CymcH0xX3XuGUwUNrSPDMCubEAu9tKq4S/s400/british_made.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101158078407087362" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"></p><br /><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">The British companies that made the best engineering equipment in the world are mainly long gone, but their pride in their products still shows<o:p></o:p></span></b> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As a result the skills and the problem-solving abilities of men like this are also in danger of dying of. Inventiveness which should be harnessed to make this country the fount of a new ‘post’-industrial revolution of effective renewable energy in the post-Peak Oil world are in danger of being lost forever. Madness.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As evening falls we drive through the </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">New Forest</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">, one of the places where Old England is at her deepest. Ironic that, for it was effectively made when William the Bastard expelled entire villages of defeated </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">West Saxons</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> in order to make himself and his Norman/French usurper heirs a huge hunting reserve. The meeting tonight is with another new group. New Forest BNP is only a few months old and organised by Ian Johnson, one of those persecuted by the PC leftists in the Fire Brigades Union, hounded from membership of his union after decades of honourable service in one of the most honourable and bravest of professions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Even in this thinly-populated area a band of more than twenty members and keen supporters has been gathered together in just a few months by Ian and his expanding team. One of the newcomers is a singer-songwriter who seems to know pretty much everyone who is anyone in the southern English folk music scene. We talk about him doing an album with Great White Records and about his songs, several of which were emailed to me at Barry’s earlier in the day. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One, ‘Sometimes On Rainy Days’, tells of when he was a boy and would sit at the kitchen table as his grandfather “an Englishman, so definitely English” would tell him of times long gone, and the empty darkness he felt when the “man of the blood red cross …. my hero and my friend” died. I wish I’d written the song, for I know exactly the experience and the feelings. But I don’t think I’d have done as well, and I look forward to hearing it and Barry’s others once they’re out on CD.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Among the other interesting and talented people at the meeting is a keen archer and longbow expert. He is a recent recruit but already, having heard a bit about the RWB, he’s hoping to bring some bows and other equipment and do a display at next year’s Family Festival. If only half of the improvements already being planned for next year come off the Ninth RWB is going to continue our tradition of perpetual improvement in style.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Next day we leave Hampshire and Dorset behind us, heading through the fine old market town of </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Dorchester</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> and past the huge earth ramparts of the Iron Age hill fort of </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB">Maiden</span></st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB">Castle</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> to head north to Somerset. Apart from the rain, why anyone would want to par-boil on a beach holiday in Spain when they could spend the time discovering the hidden gems of a county like Somerset<span style=""> </span>I cannot begin to comprehend.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Our host for this evening, Bernard, has an equestrian centre and is fund-holder for the new Bridgwater and </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">South Somerset</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> group. The farmhouse kitchen is bedecked with trophies, rosettes and photos of his daughter show-jumping.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Also heavily involved at the well-attended inaugural meeting is an old hand, Bruce Cowd, and the anti-road protester and Tinker’s Bubble rural collective co-founder <span style=""> </span>Robert Baehr, who gives a quiet but passionate speech about how we each must strive to be worthy of this ancient and delicate land of ours. This is nationalism at its deepest level, almost of religious intensity and profoundly moving.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Regional organiser Mike Howson is also present (in a superbly restored Elizabethan farmhouse, now a smart inn, restaurant and meeting venue. Our room is dominated by an ornate plaster sculpture on the wall behind us). He and I have a brief talk about his continuing research on positive things to take to youngsters in areas where Community Observation Patrols of the type pioneered by his team are operating.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This project would be revolutionised – and would probably revolutionise us – with a ‘spare’ £30,000. There is so much we could do with even quite a small lump sum. The Telegraph recently referred to the £5,000,000 blown by UKIP in thoroughly futile election campaigns (£80,000 in one by-election alone) – over the last few years. Most of it given by a handful of well-meaning, patriotic millionaires and all of it down the drain. When oh when will one of these individuals – whose wealth would insulate them from any consequences other than a frisson of excited gossip in the </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB">County</span></st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB">Set</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> – put their money behind what they really believe and get themselves a place in the history books for having really made a difference?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The following morning we head for home, though only after a short detour to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Glastonbury</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">. No-one with a soul or the faintest glimmering of a sense of the other dimensions from which we mortals are excluded can fail to find something magical in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Glastonbury</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB"> and on the short steep walk up the Tor which is the defining sight of the Somerset Levels. Not even the occasional dreadlocked crusty hippy and the Americanised busker can spoil the atmosphere.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">That atmosphere, furthermore, is changing subtly in our favour. When I first came here, some thirty years ago, the bookshops were full of Karl Marx – his dogmatic materialism at drastic odds with </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Glastonbury</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">’s innate spirituality and Otherworldliness. Twenty years ago, the bloodstained creed of Marx was being washed away by Buddism and Native American shamanism. Ten years ago the shift was towards Earth Goddess feminism and Celtic mysticism. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">These two are both still very strong, but the Anglo-Saxons are now creeping in among the New Age mumbo-jumbo. One of the shops has a big pile of the newly reprinted and still superb ‘Way of Wyrd’ by Brian Bates. One of the girls already in the shop is enthusing about it, though she rightly notes that the cover isn’t a patch on the first printing. Anyone who hasn’t read the ‘Way of Wyrd’, set in still mainly pagan Saxon England, won’t grasp just how important it is that trendy middle class ‘alternative’ types like this have discovered and love this book. But take it from me that it’s about ‘roots’ – and get hold of a copy while it’s still in print. The call of the blood can – and will – be stronger than globalist ideology.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">More straws in the wind can be seen among the plethora of ‘alternative’ magazines on sale in the shops. The current Nexus, for example, has among the usual New Age crankery and Islamophile 9/11 conspiracy theories two serious political articles, ‘Economic hit men & the corporatocracy’ and one on the Bilderbergers. Namaste, meanwhile, contains articles by David Noakes and Brian Gerrish, the former UKIP high-flyers who have done more than anyone else to uncover and publicise the working of the sinister pro-EU Common Purpose cult.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The free-thinking ideological incoherence of New Ageism is becoming ever more pronounced, and much of what passes for analysis in its publications is in fact uncritically reproduced garbage. But once people get as far as being alive to issues such as the key role of the banks in modern capitalism, the essentially conspiratorial nature of the federal European project, and the reality of ‘elite’ organisations such as the Bilderbergers, and the evils of globalism in general, then they are just one more revelation away from becoming nationalists. The core Green slogan “think global, act local” is pregnant with principled and positive nationalism, not least because only the nation state has the power to resist the corporate takeover and rape of our cultures and our planet.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The slow, sub-conscious shift among sincere ‘green’ types towards the fundamentals of our nationalism is even further highlighted by the CDs from the brilliant West Country folk/folk rock band ‘Show of Hands’ that are on sale. I’ve been meaning to buy a copy of their album ‘Witness’ since being given a bootleg copy by an enthusiast some months back. Pirate CDs may help to build a band’s support base, but it isn’t fair – especially to the smaller groups which don’t get plugged on repulsive stations such as Radio One – to deny them the money they’ve earned with their time, effort and talent.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So I buy a copy and play it on the way </span><st1:state><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">north west</span></st1:place></st1:state><span lang="EN-GB"> over the Levels and towards the M5 (Steve Knightley, singer-songwriter extraordinaire, surely knows the road). Most of the tracks are non-political, my favourite, for those who already know the album and are curious, is ‘Undertow’. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Track 2, ‘Roots’, is one of the most powerfully politicising, nationalist tracks ever written. It’s politely put, but this is genuine ethnic English nationalism put over in a very accessible, modern way. It bemoans the way in which the English know no songs to sing when the professional music has been switched off at the end of a celebration, and it lays into the deracinated liberal elite who think that’s just great:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“And a Minister said his vision of Hell</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Is three folk singers in a pub near Wells.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We’ll I’ve got a vision of urban sprawl</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s pubs where no one ever sings at all,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And everyone stares at a great big screen – </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Overpaid soccer stars and prancing teens,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Australian soap, American rap, estuary English, baseball caps.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And we learn to be ashamed before we walk</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Of the way we look and the way we talk.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Without our stories or our songs</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">How will we know where we’ve come from?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Indeed, which is why Great White Records and the Red-White-and-Blue may one day be understood to have been at least as important at this stage of our struggle as winning elections. These are early days on a long, long road and we’ll be more than glad of those songs and reviving traditions before we reach the end of it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And then, to the right of the car on a sharp left bend a few miles away from </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Glastonbury</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">, is a picturesque and slightly oddly proportioned medieval building, standing on its own in a lush green meadow on the edge of a village. Turn around, drive back, and stop for a proper look. The chance to discover little gems like this in out of the way places is really the only worthwhile ‘perk’ of this job.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8nIgIwEyWUamTrwZ5e99JCgQTawhC_ZjTI0QNamdLzzjcb8B7N_Dah50mwXXCvKS9Cis9vjheP31J86BxSGjlg-gpVwh8I80vIqvLQaIlduQZb_f_Po26ca3-2A72D5AMd6m/s1600-h/meare_fishhouse.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8nIgIwEyWUamTrwZ5e99JCgQTawhC_ZjTI0QNamdLzzjcb8B7N_Dah50mwXXCvKS9Cis9vjheP31J86BxSGjlg-gpVwh8I80vIqvLQaIlduQZb_f_Po26ca3-2A72D5AMd6m/s400/meare_fishhouse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101158636752835858" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Meare Fish House<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The sign by the gate explains that this is Meare Fish House, built in the early 14<sup>th</sup> century (just a couple of hundred years after the Norman Conquest, and well before the so-called Peasant’s Revolt - in fact a national rebellion in which the natives of south east England rose against their French-speaking overlords, and their lawyers, tax-eaters and imported labour - and began the long fight back for freedom and English identity). It housed the head fisherman overseeing Meare Pool, a huge shallow lake, up to five miles in circumference, which provided huge numbers of fish to Glastonbury Abbey. There was also a vineyard (but I must resist diversion into the problems with the man-made global warming theory).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">5,000 eels were caught here each year, along with many other species. The fishery was recorded as long ago as 670 A.D., and King Alfred the Great must have enjoyed its produce, and indeed known it well, for the lake stretched almost to Wedmore, where he signed his Treaty with the defeated Danes after his long comeback from what at one time seemed like endless defeat.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Meare was drained in the 17<sup>th</sup> century and is now ‘just’ another part of the Somerset Levels, beautiful, especially when the distant hills are dappled with a mixture of sunshine, blue skies and clouds as they are today.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHORTt8JXTZFygqQv2lM3gpBRfejmsnSSrnycp60F3AyItqsvLVMKl4v3nCR41oaPaCn5Jld1c35xBaBiplvIsM1a2KGFzZF8S1se6ZHCOhrXgbO59-5PwcItP8gRHURXG7rl/s1600-h/drained_meare.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHORTt8JXTZFygqQv2lM3gpBRfejmsnSSrnycp60F3AyItqsvLVMKl4v3nCR41oaPaCn5Jld1c35xBaBiplvIsM1a2KGFzZF8S1se6ZHCOhrXgbO59-5PwcItP8gRHURXG7rl/s400/drained_meare.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101159014709957922" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Looking north from the Fish House, across the site of the drained Meare.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The journey home then takes us onto the M5 and past the giant display of imported unemployment and industrial decline at the car import parks at Avonmouth docks. Then past </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bristol</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB"> and up to Malvern. I’ve arrange to meet Jackie there so that Martin can head on up to Leeds early and so we can spend some time together as she’s got a day off too.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We have a really well-made burger and salad on the terrace of a town pub (plus a pint of well-worth-trying White Bear, a wheat beer from a local brewery), over-looking miles and miles of Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Then we climb up onto the lower of the hills that overlook this quaint spa town. The view is even better from there, although we don’t have time to go to the higher point where a view pointer would show us which of the distant hills gave its name to Edgehill, the first battle of the English Civil War, or to look westwards into Wales.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Walking down with an icecream from the Victorian spring at St. Anne’s Well, a young dad also returning from the hilltop with his son greets me and shakes my hand. A Scot, he was a member of the party back in the nineties, when he lived in Islington. Now he’s a porter at a threatened cottage hospital in the country, and takes his lad walking during the summer holidays. He says that he keeps up with our progress on the Internet and I hope as we say goodbye that our meeting will kick him over into being a participant again, instead of merely a sympathetic spectator. (If you’re reading this, well met in any case, and well done for making the effort to bring the next generation up to appreciate this land of ours. Hope to see you and your family at next year’s RWB).<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8BgRRxFJbqW2HXPpBHMALJjxui83IGsk0gb94b9y8Z9f8ZQefTdMdUp7gHVckElSGSzK9vJjsoyNDPPq95-MC-rICzSuZZiParttEYCIi-Xi0XeoDkYV3nfe5EphTLDXj4I6/s1600-h/new_wall.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8BgRRxFJbqW2HXPpBHMALJjxui83IGsk0gb94b9y8Z9f8ZQefTdMdUp7gHVckElSGSzK9vJjsoyNDPPq95-MC-rICzSuZZiParttEYCIi-Xi0XeoDkYV3nfe5EphTLDXj4I6/s400/new_wall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101159487156360498" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">Home – my new wall and weather typical of this ‘summer’<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then it’s home, just as evening falls and another shower cloud skuds across the sky. About the only positive thing to say about this rotten summer is that the seemingly endless rain has helped to establish the plants (such as houseleek, red valerian and Welsh poppy) I built in or planted in pockets of soil on top of the dry stone wall that Richard and I built over a long weekend back in the Spring. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The latest such relaxation project (a change being as good as a rest) is an experimental cold-smoker. This truly hideous Heath Robinson contraption is at present smoking bulbs of home-grown garlic. Whether it works or not, I’ll tell you next time how it goes on – and show you the pictures that will explain why in either case I’m threatened with divorce if I make it a permanent fixture on the front yard!</span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-66052370350459813952007-08-11T07:35:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:06.119-08:00Catching up<div style="text-align: justify;">First, my sincere apologies for the long gap since a previous blog entry. There are three main reasons for this: First, things have been exceptionally busy in recent months and I really haven’t had time; second, during the BNP leadership election I felt that it might be unfair to exploit my access through the blog to so many members; third, I enjoy writing the blog too much. While it is undoubtedly a very effective communication tool, there is also a risk of it becoming time-consuming chatter and vanity, so I am very wary of making it too regular.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Dealing with the BNP Leadership election first, now that it is over I can say what could not decently be said during the contest: The challenge was not a genuinely legitimate one from a candidate with the genuine ability to run this party as it is, let alone take it further forward. It was a pathetic, pitiful, desperate attempt to cause trouble for the most modernised and most successful nationalist party in British history by a handful of cranks left over from the BNP’s most sterile past, aided and abetted by a gaggle of Hollywood Nazis, congenital losers and thieves.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not blame the candidate himself, save that he should have known better than to allow himself to be wound up and manipulated by such vermin. I’m certainly not going to kick him out for standing against me (for one thing, by giving the membership the chance to give me a 91% mandate to continue with our current direction, he’s unwittingly done the party a favour. For another, it was his democratic right to stand, and the right of others to sign his nomination papers, and no one can have any quarrel with that).<br /><br />Why did the people pushing for the Charge of the Light Brigade challenge do so? A brief look at the different tendencies that came together is a valuable way of understanding what is going to happen over the next few months.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The first element was the handful of old John Tyndall loyalists who have never forgiven me for beating him in the leadership race of 1999. I respect their loyalty to their old friend, but he’s been dead several years now, the party he founded has never been stronger, and they must now either accept the status quo fully and get on board fully and constructively, or they must leave.<br /><br />If they sincerely believe that the old Tyndall tactics and attitudes would be more successful than the way things have been done in recent years, then the proper home for them now is in the National Front. The NF has never given up marches, confrontations with the ‘Reds’ or demanding compulsory repatriation. It’s still ‘loyal’ to the old ways and still going nowhere, so it’s the right home for anyone who refuses to accept that the leadership election has given me and my team a huge mandate to carry on doing things differently.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The second element is even smaller – the handful of Tory nationalists whose call for an organisationally suicidal system by which party policies would be decided by vote of the entire membership (including bar-room patriots and the latest wave of naïve new recruits) was overwhelmingly rejected by our first Annual Conference of 2005, implicitly rejected again by the adoption of the Voting Membership system by our Conference of 2006, and now rejected again, this time by 91% of all our members voting on the issue.<br /><br />This group must now accept that their scheme to put the destiny of the BNP in the hands of anyone who deigns to pay their membership has been comprehensively and permanently rejected, in favour of a system that gives power only to those who have earned it, and who continue to earn it. The argument is over, and anyone trying to raise it again against the repeatedly expressed will of the vast majority of the party will mark themselves out as a would-be saboteur and a candidate for expulsion.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another element is best described as the conspiracy theory cranks. Yes, sadly we’ve still got a few of them and, thanks to the power of the Internet and selective observation to make strange theories appear superficially convincing, the odds are that we’ll always find a few of them cropping up. I declared war on these people and their insane and politically disastrous obsession with “the Jews” in a <a href="http://www.bnp.org.uk/columnists/chairman2.php?ngId=30">major article</a> on the BNP site back in March 2006. Much of the mud-slinging directed against me in the run up to and during the leadership election has come from this small but Internet-noisy group.<br /><br />There are two reasons for this hostility. First, my actual arguments in that article were incontrovertible – not one of the Judeo-Obsessives was able to produce an intellectually coherent response – but they are unable to adapt to real life and so are particularly full of hate towards me for pointing out the weakness of their position. Conspiracy theories are, by their very nature, more akin to religious faith than anything else, hence True Believers are prone to getting very upset when their Faith is challenged.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By the way, let me make it clear that I am not saying that conspiracies never occur, that Jewish and Christian Zionists around President Bush have not played a role in pushing for war in the Middle East, or that very powerful people do not engage in quasi-conspiratorial events such as Bilderberg meetings and Common Purpose cadre creation. I am merely challenging the belief that history and current events can be genuinely explained by all-powerful conspiracies, whether by Learned Elders, the Masons or giant lizards disguised as members of the Royal Family. It’s mostly hogwash, the paranoia of the powerless.<br /><br />The second reason for the Judeo-Obsessive attack on me and the modern BNP is that their small and incestuous circles of crackpots are absolutely riddled with the paid informants and provocateurs of hard-left organisations such as Searchlight. And these sad traitors are continually pressed by their paymasters to feed as much politically suicidal anti-Semitism and crankery into the bloodstream of the nationalist movement, because it makes it so much easier for the liberal-left to demonise us and frighten off the general public.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A wooly aside</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I had to break off at this point to deal with one of those eccentric crises that don’t happen in ‘normal’ families. Elen had been to feed our three cade lambs (with commercial feed nuts, the orphans have been weaned off their bottles for months now). Only two appeared so she went in search of the missing one, only to find it slumped in a corner, very sorry for itself. I go to take a look and, as I expected, the problem is fly-strike.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a truly revolting and, unless treated promptly, fatal problem. Blow-flies lay their eggs around the tail of the unfortunate sheep, which is then literally eaten alive. This one isn’t too bad yet, so Richard and I catch him and clip off some of the wool with hand shears (slowly and badly, I have to admit). We soon decide that too big an area of wool is full of eggs just waiting to hatch and join the maggots already eating their way through our future Sunday lunches and winter stews.<br /><br />So we drive the patient to a neighbouring farmer, who shears the rear third of the sheep (first year lambs are not big enough for cold nights to be shorn) to clear all the fly-struck area. Then we pour on a good dose of a particularly unpleasant insecticide – I’d rather be organic in this, but nothing ‘natural’ will work anything like as well against one of Nature’s more cruel ways.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then we catch and lightly hand-clip the other two, as a precaution. The patient proper looks confused and indignant, so should survive with a bit of luck. A good job we were home, as another day and that would have been that.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Back to politics</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Returning to the political thread above, the deliberate manipulation and encouragement of extremism and anti-Semitism is a theme which always emerges whenever a Searchlight mole is exposed. The latest of these is a young BNP candidate in Luton by the name of Chris Brennan, who was for months at the centre of various attempts to set good local activists against each other, to spread lies about the party leadership, and to encourage ‘hard line’ rhetoric. Fortunately Brennan made the mistake of corresponding with Gerry Gable & Co from an email account set up for him by a BNP loyalist, so we were able to see precisely what he was doing, and to put an end to his little game.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I accept that a fair few conspiracy mongers do so in all sincerity, but that doesn’t make them any the less potentially damaging to our Cause. Hence this tendency also must either leave or accept the position as it will be from henceforth:<br /><br />They are perfectly entitled to believe whatever they want to believe, and to discuss their beliefs privately with others already of like mind. But they are not to go posting their fancies online where every hostile journalist in the world can harvest their rantings and use them as sticks with which to beat the BNP. They are not to spout their theories at meetings, either as officials or from the floor. They are not to write to local newspapers about how Muslim terror bombings are ‘really’ the work of MI5 or the Mossad. And they are not to pour their personal opinions into the ears of new or young activists.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There certainly are strange and unpleasant things that go on in the realms of big business, high finance and world politics, but I’ve seen conspiracy theories drive good people almost literally mad, and have seen far too many potentially good new recruits driven away altogether by well-meaning individuals who make themselves – and us - look ridiculous to normal people.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As a matter of fact, even if the Queen and Prince Philip really were eight foot high alien lizards in disguise, that little known ‘fact’ would be so unacceptably bizarre to the 99.9% of the population that we would still have to ignore it and pretend that everything in the world is as the mainstream media says it is, since to do otherwise – even when in possession of incontrovertible truth, is a recipe for marginalisation and impotence. An effective political alternative always has to lead the more alert sections of the masses, but to lead effectively it is essential not to get too far ahead of those whom one would lead.<br /></div><br />So that’s enough conspiracy talk – both in this blog and in our Movement as a whole.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tall tales laid to rest</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">One final point about the leadership election, and then we’ll move on. Even the relatively short campaign unleashed a tidal wave of anti-Griffin fantasy tales and black propaganda. The two particularly big lies which hit the mainstream media are therefore worth dealing with:<br /><br />Sadly, neither the BNP, nor me, have – or ever were going to have – any land in Croatia. We were offered a share in the profits for the party if we could provide the contacts needed to develop land there inherited by a long-term party supporter, and on that basis myself and several others made a brief exploratory visit. As it happens, for various reasons we concluded that the project was probably a non-starter, so that’s the end of that.<br /><br />I do recommend Croatia as a cheap and friendly holiday destination, but when I retire (early, I hope) I’m after a cottage with a large vegetable garden in Wales or England.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Second, the allegation that the income and expenditure of the Trafalgar Club does not appear in the BNP’s accounts. Of course it does, every single penny, and those who say otherwise are either deliberately lying or are woefully ignorant of the workings and rules of the Electoral Commission, which would quite legitimately and properly have hung us out to dry several years ago if the T.C. wasn’t whiter than white and firmly in the sights of our own treasury department, the independent auditors, their professional scrutiny body and the Commission itself. The Trafalgar Club is simply one of the very useful, wholly integral, parts of the BNP’s central fund-raising machine, and all its financial transactions, both in and out, are therefore included in the central accounts.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A few people believe that it is possible to be a loyal BNP member and still associate with the proscribed extremist fringe who spread such lies. It is not. So now is the time to decide between the party and the cranks. We only have a few proscriptions against association with dangerous groups or deeply unsavoury individuals, but those proscriptions will be enforced. If that leads to squeals about a ‘purge’ that’s fine by me. Whenever something nasty drops into the toilet, it’s going to get flushed away.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cohesion, principles and the future</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A copy of the latest ‘Notes From the Borderland’ arrives through the post. This is roughly an annual magazine, produced by a hardcore, but generally honest (though often confused!) leftist/green named Larry O’Hara. A good two-thirds of it is always taken up with the left-wing version of conspiracy mania (everything’s the work of CIA and MI5 spooks) but the rest contains a few good points.<br /><br />O’Hara regards himself as diametrically opposed to the BNP, though the truth is that if he only work out that mass immigration is more than anything else a capitalist ‘conspiracy’ to import cheap labour and extra consumers, he’d actually make quite a useful recruit.<br /><br />I am reliably informed that he is an avid reader of my articles, and he has certainly taken careful note of what is being written and done within the BNP to move it from being a one-man dictatorship into a cadre-based movement. As he writes:<br /><br />“Creating ideologically committed BNP members, thereby guarding against swamping by Tory populists, is behind the recent changes in BNP membership structure. Griffin doesn’t want a party full of Tory populists because BNP strategy is predicated on seizing opportunities that may be provided by economic and social collapse, prior to which organisational cohesion is more important than popular support. If such integrity is not maintained then the ‘unique selling point’ distinguishing the BNP from right-wing Tories will have collapsed. While Griffin’s critics on the right think this has already happened, as somebody who has been following his career for 25 years I can assure you it hasn’t.”<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed! And what neither he nor anyone else has been told up until now is that the move to put the party in the hands of a Voting Membership activist elite is only just beginning, and due to take several steps further forward this Autumn. The next stage will be centred on three points:<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">1. To create for the Voting Membership at Annual Conference effective powers of scrutiny over all central party finances. While the oversight imposed by the Electoral Commission and their auditing requirements already makes the BNP the most financially transparent and properly regulated nationalist organisation in British political history, creating scrutiny powers for the Voting Membership will reinforce this position;<br /><br />2. To transfer to the Voting Members the key failsafe powers over the leader and leadership elections at present vested in the Advisory Council and deputy Chairman. When I created those powers they were a first step away from the primitive and dictatorial constitution that I had inherited, but having failsafe powers to deal with an insane or corrupt leader vested in the hands of people effectively appointed by that leader was always far from perfect.<br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The maturity shown by the Voting Membership at the Blackpool conference last year has, however, proven that the time has now come to entrust that body with more power. It is therefore my intention to propose, as part of a constitutional revamp, the abolition of the post of Deputy Chairman, and the transfer of that position’s power to the VMs, and the transfer or duplication of the Advisory Council’s oversight powers likewise to the Voting Membership.<br /><br />By one of those strange coincidences that is probably nothing of the sort, Scott McLean, who has held the Deputy Chairmanship responsibility as a steady rock for seven years now, called me a week before the RWB and told me that he is stepping down from the position, and from the Advisory Council. He explained that he needs to concentrate on with a very hectic business and family life without the BNP Sword of Damocles poised to fall on his head at a moment’s notice without any warning.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I thank Scott for his loyalty, patience and trust and wish him all the very best for the future. But while I am very sorry to see him take such a back seat, I am glad that the proposed constitutional change which will (if approved in due course by the membership) abolish the post of Deputy Chairman, will not involve stripping a position from someone who wants it and might take being removed badly.<br /><br />3. To step up the level of ideological training for VMs. Those who have read his magnum opus, The March of the Titans, or who joined the well deserved standing ovation he received for his speech at this year’s Red-White-and-Blue, will be pleased to hear that this is one of the jobs entrusted to Arthur Kemp. A Rhodesian by birth, he served in the South African military for four years, before going on to work as a journalist, political organiser and risk consultant, Arthur is a highly skilled and very welcome addition to our central team. I am delighted to have been able to bring him on board and hope he will be with us throughout the years of decision ahead of us.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The daily grind</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Working out a role for Arthur is only one of a host of pretty much behind-the-scenes organisational jobs that have helped to keep me busy in recent months. I’ll return to the subject to look at what’s being done with independent nationalist groups such as the Association of British Ex-Service Personnel (ABEX), the Christian Council of Britain and Solidarity in a future blog. Suffice it for now to say that a lot of good foundation work is getting done. An explanation of the rational behind such bodies is provided in my article in August’s Identity, which several subscribers have already told me they consider to be a particularly important piece.<br /><br />On top of such work there have been the usual meetings, both one-off evening events and full-scale tours of the North East, South West and Essex. The North East trip was the busiest, the South West perhaps the most enjoyable. Walking through a small Cornish fishing port I was stopped by a delighted BNP member on holiday from Birmingham, and the proprietor of the B&B we stayed in on the one night when we weren’t in members’ homes announced that he’d voted for us in the last European elections.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">One of several south West trips in recent months also produced an interesting and publicity-grabbing session in Bath, where an invitation to speak to a group of university students was in the end withdrawn after pressure from 1968-vintage leftist lecturers. A small open-air meeting with nearly a dozen students nevertheless did go ahead, despite a belated appearance by a group of ultra-left freaks. The pink haired lesbian was frankly a little scary, but problems were avoided and the opposition presence merely added to our profile.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYuuK-lNlr3X0GjYusqDDu4SylJgzIBwZZlgrsDy6dp4K86WABX4GwDy-E3EBDZoHUML2sXf_7c37Y6oMJxh303QYcf4qJUVJtVvK81N8yzZBPhPUyE5lqHOvEh-ffpgrBwCH/s1600-h/nicks_blog_192.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYuuK-lNlr3X0GjYusqDDu4SylJgzIBwZZlgrsDy6dp4K86WABX4GwDy-E3EBDZoHUML2sXf_7c37Y6oMJxh303QYcf4qJUVJtVvK81N8yzZBPhPUyE5lqHOvEh-ffpgrBwCH/s400/nicks_blog_192.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5097462483927991826" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I also had to make a flying visit to the North East to plan and work on our campaign in the Sedgefield by-election. Eddy Butler and Mark Collett joined me and local activists to plan the campaign, which we explained right from the start was partly being run in a not particularly promising seat with the intention of ‘debugging’ our parliamentary by-election plans. Several bugs did indeed emerge, and hence will not bother us again. To have achieved that, and secured the highest ever BNP parliamentary by-election result to date was a major achievement. The Elections, Publicity and Treasury Departments did everything they could in a very short space of time and all the activists who helped as well can be very well pleased with the result.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">While in the constituency we popped round to see if Tony Blair was at home. The answer was ‘no’, and none of the locals we talked to believe that he (or more to the point, Cherie) will want to set foot in the place again now there’s no money in it for them. Nevertheless, the unfortunate British taxpayer is still paying for the permanent armed police guards based in the gatehouse. Adam Walker, one of the newly expanded Solidarity Executive and a very hard-working BNP activist, is shown here being his usual cheeky self.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKnHdIxMD1WOTO4_VSxkaZI2UqD9vOAiLo_zCmzd4YwhXyPV-jEnQ2d9A9w-CYdjgOjTPud62d2IX646VMZlMiCjjh3bwgBk-o94nk_TT919SB-G-L3W9VT2131encRyxfAWhQ/s1600-h/nicks_blog_256.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKnHdIxMD1WOTO4_VSxkaZI2UqD9vOAiLo_zCmzd4YwhXyPV-jEnQ2d9A9w-CYdjgOjTPud62d2IX646VMZlMiCjjh3bwgBk-o94nk_TT919SB-G-L3W9VT2131encRyxfAWhQ/s400/nicks_blog_256.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5097462329309169154" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A bit of time off</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Just before the early summer rains started, Jackie and I snatched a couple of days away. We spent a whole day in Stratford-on-Avon, doing all the tourist sites associated with William Shakespeare.<br /><br />Interestingly (and frankly irritatingly, when the idea is to get away from it all) the Griffin recognition factor is higher than usual – among the Brits, that is, the gaggles of elderly Americans and young Japanese don’t count in such matters). I guess that it’s because the kind of person who makes an implicitly English nationalist cultural pilgrimage to such a place is unusually aware of the value of our heritage and, as a direct result, on average more aware of the threats to that heritage against which we warn and strive.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This theory was heartily endorsed at a meeting in the South West a month or so later, when a chap from |Plymouth came up to me and reminded me that he had been one of the several sympathisers who had said hello to us in Stratford that day. It’s a small world.<br /><br />Incidentally, one of the exhibits in Stratford highlights the way in which the Victorians sought to fillet out of Shakespeare much of the bawdy sexual humour. The vicar mainly responsible, a Rev. Bowdler, even gave his name to the concept of a safely neutered work of art – it is described as “Bowdlerised”.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyone who believes that such pettiness and censorship are now in the past will be disabused of such a happy notion by a walk through the sculpture field behind Ann Hathaway’s cottage. There you will find a section of one of Shakespeare’s classic speeches – by John Of Gaunt in Richard II. Take a look at the photo of the stone here, and then compare it with the original to see a classic example of modern Bowdlerisation as un-PC sentiments vanish down the Memory Hole:<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2s6bBBeJjvf5e7Oao0nfpMnmaXBIk0v9fOJUCaArskkNHndIq1g4x7HkclmmTy6vgSYMmQJ_pHKhWDPHAtquc1n9lSVadeo7pY5nOVg2KsJKs04oFV9f7KJvhRzw14nPAdoqi/s1600-h/nicks_blog_233.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2s6bBBeJjvf5e7Oao0nfpMnmaXBIk0v9fOJUCaArskkNHndIq1g4x7HkclmmTy6vgSYMmQJ_pHKhWDPHAtquc1n9lSVadeo7pY5nOVg2KsJKs04oFV9f7KJvhRzw14nPAdoqi/s400/nicks_blog_233.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5097462110265837042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,<br />This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,<br />This other Eden, demi-paradise,<br />This fortress built by Nature for herself<br />Against infection and the hand of war,<br />This happy breed of men, this little world,<br />This precious stone set in the silver sea,<br />Which serves it in the office of a wall,<br />Or as a moat defensive to a house,<br />Against the envy of less happier lands,<br />This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,<br />This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,<br />Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">“There wasn’t enough space for the whole speech”, would no doubt be the excuse, but look again at line ten in particular for the real reason. Ann’s cottage itself was in the final stages of being rethatched. I took the picture across the vegetables and flowers of the lovingly recreated garden, just as the thatchers were trimming the edges of the new roof. Thatching is always a pleasure to watch, the more so when on such a deeply historic building. This is the real, deep England at its best. The foreign visitors clearly appreciate it, but I don not for one moment believe that it speaks to them as it does to us. As I say in my RWB speech, we made this land, and it made us.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivRd08wY6g_awxuJYlCImVwpMJsmPPqQH3fAJkxm3dH2t9rWWizJHlMoR63JhheihpP625STxwkTTW0vEWmi8EYKl4n0MoBktF0p4Nd7egkveaAzNRVdhZu0Qaa2pcqnA6sDlc/s1600-h/nicks_blog_227.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivRd08wY6g_awxuJYlCImVwpMJsmPPqQH3fAJkxm3dH2t9rWWizJHlMoR63JhheihpP625STxwkTTW0vEWmi8EYKl4n0MoBktF0p4Nd7egkveaAzNRVdhZu0Qaa2pcqnA6sDlc/s400/nicks_blog_227.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5097461878337603042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Another great RWB </span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another year, another Red-White-and-Blue. As those who joined the crowds with us at the charmingly English new site in Derbyshire found out, the summer finally turned up right on time. A glorious weekend and a triumph of organisation by Dave Shapcott and his planning and build up team.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The overseas guests in attendance – from Sweden, Germany and the USA – were all ‘gobsmacked’ by the sheer scale and professionalism of the event, and by the huge number of babies, children and teenagers joining in and making the fun. The boss of the fairground rides also commented on our youngsters, describing them as the best behaved and most polite they’ve ever come across anywhere in Britain. One of the senior police officers involved gave another welcome compliment as well, describing the whole event as “the best organised festival I’ve ever seen.” Praise indeed.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, we’re well aware that there are still many things to be improved or introduced, and the RWB planning team are already working on these. The date for RWB 2008 has already been set: Friday 15th to Sunday 17th August, the nearest weekend to the full moon which both adds something to the evenings and also provides townies and especially their young children with some background light for their couple of country nights. Please make a note of the date when booking holidays, weddings and the like. With next year being the 9th RWB Family Festival it will be a dress rehearsal for the Tenth, which is going to be something really special. I hope very much to see you all at both.<br /></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-11532450660103773592007-03-28T01:27:00.000-07:002008-12-08T23:31:06.251-08:00Scottish journey<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">It’s been a largely Celtic week, spent either in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Scotland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> or </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Wales</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> – and driving through </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Cumbria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> between them. At least that’s the simplistic way of looking at it, though in fact my first trip to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Scotland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> is to the east of the country, to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Aberdeen</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and beyond. This was heavily settled by the Angles, with the result that the local Scots-English dialect is reckoned to be the closest living tongue to the English written down by Chaucer. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Lowlands</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and North East Scotland have always been very different to the </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Highlands</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, although both parts of the country suffered the Clearances when ‘improving’ lairds threw the poor among their own kinsmen off their ancestral land and into the Industrial Revolution cities or ships bound for the colonies. The earlier Lowland Clearances are far less well known – as is the fact that the Enclosures movement in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> involved precisely the same state-sanctioned theft and brutality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">But while the east of Scotland is in fact far less ‘Celtic’ than the neo-Marxist anti-English bigots of the SNP believe, the Lake District of Cumbria, generally assumed to be quintessentially ‘English’, isn’t. Its native population was largely untouched by Saxon invasion, although significant numbers of Vikings did settle there somewhat later. As in some other parts of rural England, however (even including Sussex) local shepherds until the middle of the 19<sup>th</sup> century still counted their sheep in the remnants of an ancient Celtic tongue far closer to Welsh and Cornish than to English.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Anyway, the first port of call was </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Aberdeen</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> (the name is Celtic, ‘Aber’ meaning the mouth of a river) where I had to take Richard to a University engineering course open day. It’s a big, granite-built, imposing but chilly city; still clearly benefiting from several decades of spectacular oil wealth. What’s going to happen now that one-off natural bounty has effectively been ‘blown’ by a succession of short-termist Tory and Labour chancellors?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I leave him to it and head off up the coast looking for somewhere to kill a few hours. I find it at </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Cruden</span></st1:placename><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Bay</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, a little fishing village tucked down among high sand dunes. The lady at the village shop sells me a pork pie laced with pickle and a bottle of water, and I climb the cliff path to see where it goes. There’s a stiff breeze and the place is deserted. From the top, I see to the north the ruins of a castle or stately home of some sort. It appears to be not much over half a mile away so I set off to have a look. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">En route I make a detour to a cluster of ruined brick and concrete buildings – clearly the remnants of a Second World War radar station or similar installation. I think of how the operators and mechanics in the RAF at the time (my own father was a radio engineer, although he spent most of the war on barrage balloon warning signals around </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and then on communications equipment in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB">) must have hated being posted up here in the long dark days of winter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The path to the castle is not as easy as it looks, for a deep sea inlet gashes the landscape – spectacular but impassable. A wide detour inland is necessary before I find a farm bridge across the stream and a track back up to the plateau that ends in such spectacular cliffs over the cold, grey, foam-flecked </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">North Sea</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. How many ships have been wrecked along these wind shores?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The castle is, frankly, monstrous; spectacular but a backdrop for nightmares. The dark, brooding grandeur of the place is given an added sad twist by the memorial stone that warns visitors that the cliffs are dangerous by telling them of little Nicholas French, who fell to his death nearby, aged seven, on </span><st1:date year="1999" day="3" month="3"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">March 3<sup>rd</sup> 1999</span></st1:date><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. Surely no parent can see such a thing without a mental shudder and feeling a dark cloud taking the edge off the brightest day?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The main tower, perched right on the edge of the cliff, has a stone staircase which still goes up three storeys. I climb up, wondering all the time just how old the place is; some of the stonework looks really ancient, but some of the bricks are quite wide, placing their part of the building much later that medieval castle building times. Plus, the remnants of wooden joists – and even one piece of flooring – can be seen jutting out from the walls; clearly the place had a roof until relatively recently. The view from the top is stunning but, with the warning of death on the cliffs, also slightly unsettling.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I tread gingerly down, hurry through the maze of roofless, windowless walls and carry on about a mile northwards, until stopped by the sheer, seagull covered cliffs of another inlet and a spectacular bay. Although there’s only a breeze the waves crash onto the rocks far below. So I turn back past the castle and head back to the car.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rehab</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">As I go I fall to thinking that a big fence of just a few hundred years would join the two inlets, shutting off the castle and some acres of the windswsept but clearly fertile farmland on its landward side. All it would then need would be some ex-army instructors and tradesmen-teachers, some portacabins and a huge store of building materials – and it would make the perfect place for cleaning up young drug addicts and turning them back into human beings with skills, self-respect and a purpose in life. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Within a few minutes I’ve sketched out the whole plan, complete with sticks and carrots to encourage real effort to get off the P*k* Poison (as it’s known in places like Keighley). The ones making most progress would be moved into successively better accommodation in the steadily rebuilt castle. Privileges would include being taught sea-fishing from the tiny natural harbour nearby, and working and social trips outside the fenced headland for those who are ‘clean’ and about to ‘graduate’. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Failures? Well, they’re going to die anyway so nothing more would need to be done for them except to keep them away from innocent people, because smackheads wreck every family and community unlucky enough to be within thieving distance. But at least such places would give them all one real chance – something at present only available to the junkie children of the rich and famous, but not to those of the taxpaying herd.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I decide to look the place up online when I get home and find out more about it. When I do, I’m struck by several slightly eerie close parallels between the reality of the place and my own ignorant thoughts about it.</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlrUXwWE4WMkRdgkk-0aKeZZxgXlN43xp9ZiqfFTjUbrq02bhasV21CabZD7jB7dxtqzMUdRZpMBJRaREyV9ZY0Zh3SPXgR6MULDGQ2zDh7AL8RKCGAjmBePi4VhUTvxl2Gc64/s1600-h/slains_castle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlrUXwWE4WMkRdgkk-0aKeZZxgXlN43xp9ZiqfFTjUbrq02bhasV21CabZD7jB7dxtqzMUdRZpMBJRaREyV9ZY0Zh3SPXgR6MULDGQ2zDh7AL8RKCGAjmBePi4VhUTvxl2Gc64/s400/slains_castle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5046889657147416034" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Slains Castle</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">“</span><st1:place><st1:placename>Slains</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Castle</st1:placetype></st1:place> was built on the edge of a cliff-top in 1597 by the ninth Earl of Erroll but really became famous because of its association with Bram Stoker and Dracula. The author often visited the area and is believed to have been inspired to write the horror classic by the castle and the cliffs. While not a particularly attractive castle, it has lots of visitors because of the Dracula connection.<span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext">“The pretty </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext">village</span></st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext"> of </span><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">Cruden</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span class="centerbodytext"> Bay, along the rugged Scottish coast between </span><st1:city><st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">Aberdeen</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="centerbodytext"> and Peterhead, was once considered the finest resort in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">Scotland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="centerbodytext">. In 1893 Stoker took a walking tour around the Scottish coast, ending in </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">Cruden</span></st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext"> </span><st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext">Bay</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">. He had visited this fishing village five years earlier while researching an </span><st1:city><st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">Irving</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="centerbodytext"> production of <i>Hamlet</i>. The impressive ruins of 16th-century </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">New</span></st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext"> </span><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">Slains</span></st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext"> </span><st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext">Castle</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="centerbodytext"> overlooking the Bay might very well have provided the model for Castle Dracula. A footpath leads from the car park on </span><st1:street><st1:address><span class="centerbodytext">Main Street</span></st1:address></st1:street><span class="centerbodytext"> to the Castle, but visitors should mind the perilous cliffs. One mile north of </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">Cruden</span></st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext"> </span><st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext">Bay</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">, another dramatic clifftop path winds past Bullers of Buchan, a superbly beautiful natural area. </span><br /><br />”<span class="centerbodytext">In his later years, Stoker returned summer after summer to Whinnyfold, a village within walking distance south of Cruden Bay. According to a village legend, at certain times of the year the bodies of those who have perished during the previous year come out of the sea to join their spirits in Heaven or Hell. This legend inspired Stoker to write <i>Mystery of the Sea</i> in 1902. Earlier, in 1895, he wrote <i>The Watter's Mou</i> based on local characters in </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext">Cruden</span></st1:placename><span class="centerbodytext"> </span><st1:placetype><span class="centerbodytext">Bay</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="centerbodytext">.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext">And as well as the dark, brooding past, there’s a possible rebuilding in the future. Another internet entry tells how there is at present a planning application to restore the place into a 35-apartment luxury holiday centre, apparently widely supported locally on account of the jobs it would create, but opposed by many visitors and Dracula fans.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext">Given that the place was fully roofed when Stoker wrote about it, and was only turned into a ruin after the First World War, there is to my mind no reason to leave it empty and wasted. I still think that a truly ‘tough love’ rehabilitation centre for the lost and tortured souls of our torn society would be a better use for the place than turning it into yet another yuppy playground, but the odds are strongly in favour of Money in ‘modern’ Britain, so I recommend you take a look at the old Slains Castle soon, before you have to pay an arm and a leg to go there, and the cawing of jackdaws, the whistling wind and the crash of the breakers are replaced by Barry Manilow in the air conditioned corridors of privilege.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="centerbodytext"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I pick ‘the Boy’ up at just gone four and we decide to head for </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Edinburgh</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> by way of a detour through Braemar and the </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Grampian</span></st1:placename><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="" lang="EN-GB">National Park</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. There is still a blanket of snow lying beneath the birch and pine trees, and even more so on the wild, bare moors and mountains. As dusk falls we pass several big herds of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">red deer</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. Magnificent beasts, although even with profitable deer-stalking there are too many of them to allow the great Highland Forests to regenerate as it should now that there are fewer sheep around to keep the place as a green desert. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wildlife</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Wolves! That’s what they need around here. Reintroduced to provide the top of the food chain predation to keep the deer down to a reasonable and healthy population. There have been a number of such proposals, but sheep farmers have been distinctly unimpressed. The problem here is that the plans so far involve the wolves going into competition with the farmers. Just a bit more vision could involve the farmers in ‘farming’ wolves – or, more accurately, the tourists who would flock all year round to go on ‘Highland Wolf Safaris’. Totally wild wolves could be watched from hides, even spied on in their dens thanks to hidden TV cameras and the like. It would be magical.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">As a matter of fact the wolf packs would generally only take sick or injured sheep or deer, so there would still be the income from more traditional farming anyway. And since there is no genuine record of a wolf attack on any human being, returning a bit of the wild world - and one of our most magnificent native totem/folklore animals – to our countryside would enrich the lives of untold numbers of people and help the local economy, with no ‘downside’ in sight..<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">We reach </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Edinburgh</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> in the middle evening and meet up with Pat Harrington. Pat made international headlines back in the early 1980s when he combined being a student in North London with heavy involvement in the then National Front (in the days before it descended to being little more than a gang of skinheads). He had to brave demonstrations, sometimes involving several thousand screaming far-leftists, and even had to go to the High Court to secure his right to tuition and to sit his exams. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">It was an outstanding display of moral and physical courage, on top of Pat’s considerable talents as a strategist, organiser and writer. Although we subsequently parted company (not on particular good terms, as is often the way in such things) I’m very glad that all that is now water under the bridge. Although he is not a member of the BNP he is doing very valuable work in, among other things, the independent nationalist trade union, Solidarity. (Take a look at <a href="http://www.solidaritytradeunion.org/">www.solidaritytradeunion.org</a><a href="http://www.solidaritytradeunion.org/"> </a>and join!)<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">We get through a fair bit of red wine discussing not so much the past as ideas for the future. It’s very useful to see our organisation through sympathetically critical outside eyes, and stimulating to talk to someone with a talent for “thinking outside the box”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">On the long drive home Radios Four and Five both run stories on the 200<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">British Empire</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. All too predictably, this is an excuse for an orgy of PC ethno-masochistic self-flagellation. Instead of glorying in the key role of Britain in providing the lead in ending an international evil, and reflecting on the fact that, without our guiding hand, slavery has returned to Africa and Asia, particularly in Muslim countries, all the programmes are about white guilt. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Again and again we are told the wicked lie that the Industrial Revolution and the foundations of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB">’s wealth and power all rest on the profits of the slave trade. I say ‘wicked’ quite deliberately, and on three grounds:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">First, such anti-white fantasies actively encourages the racial hatred and deep resentment that turns many young blacks living in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> into racist bigots with chips on their shoulder. Innocent white people in places like London and Birmingham will still be being mugged, abused, stabbed and raped by ‘hit back at whitey’ thugs a decade from now as a direct result of this propaganda. The ultimate irony is that if the understandably angry ones’ ancestors hadn’t been sold as slaves to white, Arab and Jewish slave-traders then most of them would have died in Africa’s endless round of plagues, famine, tribal wars and cannibalism, so they wouldn’t even have descendants to feel aggrieved;<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Second, because wall-to-wall Victim Status allows many black people to evade responsibility for the failings of their own communities and families. Whatever blacks do wrong can be blamed on slavery, so there is no need – or even internal pressure – to strive to put things right themselves. Teaching an entire community always to blame others for an inescapably stultifying history guarantees further conflict and endemic failure. White left-liberals, in pursuit of their own ideological fantasy Utopia, thus condemn the very people they claim to regard as special and worthy of help to a continued cycle of powerless victimhood. Black failure starts with Roots and ends with black teenagers gunned down at the ice-rink;<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Third, because it is a total distortion of history. Slavery certainly did make large sums of money for a handful of British slavers, for the captains of their ships, and for the owners of the plantations of the </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">West Indies</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. Some of the fine Georgian houses in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Bristol</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span>and </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Liverpool</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, and even a few stately homes, were indeed built on this human misery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">But there are hundreds of stately homes and thousands of rich town houses all over </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> that owe nothing to the African slave trade. The money for them, and for the horrible, pretentious, snobbish lifestyle captured in such excruciating detail by Jane Austen, came from the exploitation of OUR people. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The Georgian pillars, chandeliers and paintings of your average National Trust pile were made possible not by the slave trade but by little English, Scottish and Welsh children dragging carts in coal mines, by boys forced up chimneys and girls herded into mills and match factories until the poisons in such jobs gave them cancer. Irish ‘navvies’ crushed to death digging canal and railway tunnels or falling from the scaffolding while laying the bricks that built our Victorian cities. Generations of men and boys who followed the shoals of herring and whose wives and mothers mourned them with no graves when the sea claimed its due. The arthritic, half-starved English ploughmen plodding through the cold mud behind a million horses for generations, condemned to death or transportation if they took one of the hares that would devastate their own tiny vegetable patches behind their collapsing ‘tied’ hovels. The generations of orphan children and broken families who went to paupers’ graves at the workhouses that loomed over every poor family in the land.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Don’t let any snivelling, self-hating liberal tell you otherwise: The grandeur and wealth of this country was sweated, beaten, starved and stolen from our ancestors, not from anybody else. And whenever some foreign tyrant or ideology of change threatened to overturn that status quo, those same ancestors provided the cannon-fodder to die to defend it on a thousand battlefields by land and sea.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In denying all these historical facts, the present white-guilt slavery orgy coldly and deliberately shoves the far worse (wage slaves cost nothing, don’t have to be looked after, and are replaced for free by volunteers once they’re worked to death) suffering of the white working class. It’s the PC version of Holocaust Denial – our own people never suffered, were never exploited, in fact may as well never even have existed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">And since none of that happened to our ancestors, us native Brits have no special, first-nation claim to this land. Which clears the way for the liberal elite’s Genetically Modified population transformation and cultural destruction ethnocide of the British and general and the English in particular. My God, how I hate these vermin!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:city style="font-weight: bold;"><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Glasgow</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> meeting</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">No sooner home from </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Edinburgh</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> than it’s time to head back to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Glasgow</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. Security with me this time so we can stop anywhere for fuel instead of having to avoid service stations likely to be ‘enriched’. Jackie is also with us, sharing the driving and having a quiet word with key players in the party to help bring some feminine intuition to various leadership considerations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Glasgow</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> meeting goes very well indeed. There are several splendidly effective and inspiring speeches from some relatively new local organisers, and morale is sky-high. I speak about the long-term strategy of sinking deep community roots and putting together a “coalition of the excluded” – by which I mean the genuinely excluded, not scrotes, low-lives and spongers – Christians whose core values are derided by the BBC and turned into crimes by our Masters; Tories whose party has deserted them to become a New Labour clone; council house tenants who are set to be sold along with their Residents’ Associations to the highest bidding giant corporation; and white youth in places like Pollockshields.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I conclude by touching on Scotland’s first two Clearances, when the elite of the day stole first the commons and small peasant farms of the Lowlands and then the clan lands of the Highlands from the people of Scotland, and urging all present to strive to resist a Third Clearance – the one that will come all too soon in the form of White Flight in a country with a population so much smaller than England but now facing a tide of mass immigration every bit as large. The message clearly strikes home, not just with those from </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Glasgow</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> (“the asylum capital of </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Europe</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">”), but also with people who have travelled down from small towns where East European economic migrants are pricing locals out of jobs and homes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The collection is stunning: £12,000 there and then, plus a further £2,000 previously pledged but now handed in. This will help to pay for a leaflet for every home in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Scotland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, plus a TV broadcast, and is I believe guaranteed to bring the BNP the highest ever vote north of the border.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Back home to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Wales</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and half a day in the garden. Because we’re so high up (1,000 feet) in such a generally wet area and with thin soil, growing things here isn’t easy. So I’m part way through turning the front garden over to raised beds made of old railway sleepers. This should help drainage, productivity, pest control and even the length of the growing season in the vegetable section, and make the flowers part easier to manage with rather limited time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Then on Monday evening it’s off to </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">North Wales</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and a meeting of Bill Murray’s fast-growing Prestatyn group. There are some seventy people present, all bar a couple from </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">North Wales</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> (some Welsh, some English incomers). There are four councillors present, including quite a senior LibDem, and all are apparently impressed. I do one of the Question & Answer session meetings, which helps an audience as varied as this one (all ages, all walks of life) get a full picture of the BNP. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">It also highlights the fact that this is the one party that avoids spin and pre-prepared speeches to hand-picked audiences. Direct contact between politicians and the people. That’s the way democracy used to work, the way it works in the BNP, and the way - one day - it will work again, once the grip of the media moguls, the moneybags and the union bosses has been broken for good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-77897881145398607402007-03-19T04:25:00.000-07:002007-09-21T10:31:21.815-07:00Norfolk and Suffolk<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><o:p>W</o:p>ednesday (14th)<o:p></o:p> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">Again it’s a bright blue early spring morning. So bright in fact that when I try to do so work as we drive through the Fens towards Kings Lynn I can only see the cursor on my laptop screen by putting my jacket over my head. This is OK on an ordinary road, but it would surely attract some attention on a motorway. By the way, for the avoidance of doubt, I wasn’t driving.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Kings Lynn used to be Bishops Lynn, until Henry VIII had different ideas. During the English Civil War (in due course, it will of course have to be called the First English Civil War, in order to differentiate it from the one to come) the town declared for Charles, and was besieged by and surrendered to troops from Cromwell’s Eastern Association. Now filling up with Chinese and Eastern European cheap labour, it’s a fine old town, though with considerable poverty among the local people.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We meet outside Kings Lynn station with our local organizer, Dave – a jovial Ulsterman – and a journalist and photographer from the local paper. The questions are sensible and the coverage later turns out to be fair. We hope to stand candidates here so this is good news.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Then we head off to a typical Victorian street corner pub in a terraced part of town. I’m expecting to meet half a dozen of the keenest local activists, for weekday lunchtimes are never a good time to pull people together. To my amazement, however, Dave has pulled together more than thirty people. One carload have come over from Norwich to support their fellow Norfolk comrades, and a few are from smaller neighbouring towns like Dereham, but the vast majority are local. Some are regular activists, others are recent enquirers. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">One of the latter is a lady who was present at the first nationalist meeting I ever attended, in Norwich in 1974. She was at that time a former significant defector from the Monday Club, in which she had played a part in the struggle to defend the traditional identity of Southall from mass immigration. Later she dropped out after the general election disaster of 1979. She tells me she’s been following our progress in recent years with increasing enthusiasm, and has just got back involved. She’s not the only one, and such experienced old hands can be particularly valuable.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">I speak briefly but mainly talk to people as individuals or in tiny groups over the buffet lunch. Several young men are present who are also involved in the independent nationalist trade union Solidarity. One has some years of union activism experience and is originally from an anarchist background. Having seen the extent to which mass immigration is promoted and facilitated by global capitalism, however, he’s now found a better use for his efforts.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We leave early enough to make a short detour to visit an elderly gentleman who, having been a keen member for years, is now pretty much housebound. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We have to be in Norwich by early evening, so drive on through the gently rolling Norfolk countryside. Fields full of free-range pigs have become a notable feature of the farming landscape around here. To keep such intelligent beasts in battery factories is particularly cruel and it’s great to see them enjoying the early spring sunshine – rolling in dust bowls, fossicking in the earth for roots or worms and, in the case of the piglets, playing ‘catch’. And no, this is not anthropomorphic sentimentality, they very clearly do.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The SatNav takes us to the postcode for another Good Beer Guide entry – this one specifically chosen for its entry specifying good value food – but it seems there’s been a typo on the postcode, for we end up being told “You have reached your destination” in the middle of nowhere. When these things work they are a really useful tool – particularly when trying to find private houses in unfamiliar suburbs – but when something goes wrong they can be a menace. Really it’s our fault for being lazy and relying on the SatNav instead of checking things out on a proper map.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Still, not long after we pass a sign to The Ratcatchers (about ten miles north north east of Norwich) which turns out to be an entirely suitable substitute. They do interesting things with local pork, which is really the only thing to eat when one’s been admiring Norfolk pigs. A pint of Wherry, courtesy of the small and relatively new Woodford Ferry brewery, goes down equally well. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">It’s all a million times better than the industrialised, processed pap served up at places such as Little Chef, and only marginally more expensive. There really is no excuse for adult nationalists to patronise and help fund the anti-food, anti-culture fast food industry when so many independent businesses have done so much to raise the standard of ‘pub grub’ to a level which is often of better quality and value than that generally available in European countries with serious reputations for culinary excellence.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The Norfolk meeting is attended by some eighty people. I’m delighted to see Bill Fitt, still in his Marines blazer, as he was when he was Norwich organiser way back in 1974. The (relatively) new organiser, Chris, is a businessman who moved to Norfolk from Northampton a few years ago. Strangely, he comes from exactly the same part of that town as Adie, who’s with us on security this week. Later that evening they exchange reminiscences on old Northampton and its people, before it was multiculturalised into a foreign place. The meeting is filmed with a broadcast quality camera and it is such a good example of a local BNP meeting that the resulting DVD should deserve to be more widely circulated than in Norfolk alone. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">As well as reminders about the regular leafleting operations in Norwich, Kings Lynn and Yarmouth, we also hear of plans for the first Norfolk St. George’s Day dinner on April 21<sup>st</sup>. I speak about the way in which the current headlines about the Government’s betrayal of the wounded squaddies from Iraq and Afghanistan is nothing new at all; it merely mirrors the betrayal of the promises and implied promises made by our ‘elite’ to the lads doing the fighting and dying in the two World Wars.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday</span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We skirt the edge of the Norfolk Broads on our way from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. The Broads – one of the loveliest ‘natural’ areas in England – are in fact flooded peat workings; the pits left as generations of early mediaeval locals dug their winter fuel filling up with water as a period of above recent average sunspot activity caused several centuries of global warming before the Little Ice Age that followed.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We’re due in Yarmouth for another lunchtime meeting. Again I’m frankly surprised by the turnout. About twenty people are present. This is another hitherto ‘unenriched’ town which is being transformed by a torrent of immigrant scab labour. We desperately need to stand candidates here for the first time, and I work as hard as I can to convince the still doubt-filled local ‘possibles’ to make a firm commitment to stand. The little meeting may just have done the trick. Certainly all present seem well pleased as we leave to head south for Suffolk and the last stretch of the tour.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We kill a surplus hour by making a slight detour to see the little house in Beccles where Jackie and I lived for a couple of years when we first got married (we went to the town to look to buy a boat to live on, as we couldn’t afford anything in the area even back then; except – we discovered – a tiny semi-derelict former almshouse down near the river. Our recollection is that it cost us the then staggering sum on just under fourteen thousand pounds. How we got a mortgage on something in such a state neither of us can remember, but we did, and the front door and windows we had put in are still there. The price tag wouldn’t be the same nowadays though.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Driving through many miles of familiar countryside, we arrive in Bury St. Edmunds and meet BNP web editor Steve Blake by the town’s huge abbey gatehouse, before hooking up with another local newspaper reporter for an interview. Again I have the pleasure of a sensible, searching but essentially neutral interview. Steve I’ve known since he first got involved in the Cause in Ipswich at the age of 14 in the late seventies – a great asset and a good friend.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Then we’re off to a village hall a few miles out of town for the Suffolk meeting. Sue, the local organiser, is slightly disappointed that ‘only’ forty people are present, but this has been a difficult area for us up until now and at least there is now regular activity in a number of towns, Ipswich included, and enquirers are being visited promptly. There’s plenty of growth to come here if they just keep at it.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Steve speaks before me – it’s the first time I’ve heard his ‘time machine/alternative futures’ speech, and I quickly understand why it’s been so well received at various branch meetings up and down the country. I decide not to follow such a good talk with another one, so instead I do an extended Questions & Answers session. A good collection and successful raffle raise a tidy sum and, again, we finish with enthusiasm and optimism. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Later into the evening there’s a chance to discuss several matters relating to the Internet with Steve. Such opportunities for personal discussions with key national and regional figures, and with individuals who could play such roles in the future, are among the less high profile ‘pluses’ of this system of monthly extended speaking tours.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We leave Suffolk next morning in, once again, bright sunshine. As we head for the main A14 back towards the Midlands and home there are two cock pheasants fighting quite near in a field of young corn shoots. As with boxing hares this is quite a spectacle, with the arrogant feathered fools leaping and fluttering into the air and kicking at each other with their spurs.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago we had a young cock pheasant living near us in Wales. Clearly reared at the big shoot a few miles away, he was virtually without fear of humans, following us for a good half mile on several walks and clearly hoping for food. I threw him several handfuls of dried, cereal-based, dog food and he got even bolder. I decided to see if he would eat out of my hand and he did indeed pluck up courage to snatch a piece from between my fingers. I put more on my palm and held it out to him, only to have to leap up and strike my hand with one of his spurs. The resulting hole was deep enough to pour blood for several minutes, so the mating display in the field today cannot be without risk to the pair of rivals. The pheasant near us has since vanished – probably into a fox.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The journey home is via Shrewsbury, where a garage has tracked down a more economical diesel I’m interested in. My average party mileage is consistently nearly 40,000 per year and the petrol vehicle I’ve been running for some months is not cheap to run. It drives well and I’ll probably have it.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">So then it’s shopping – to the independent butcher and greengrocer, and to the inevitable Morrisons for the rest – in Y Trallwng (Welshpool to most of you) to replenish the pantry, fridge and freezer, which we know from long experience will in our absence have been stripped bare by a near Biblical plague of hungry teenagers.<o:p></o:p></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-85882578425924814502007-03-14T02:59:00.000-07:002007-03-14T03:02:01.283-07:00East Anglia visit<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span>We start the week with an early morning journey to <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>, via a brief rendevous in <st1:city><st1:place>Northampton</st1:place></st1:City>. We meet Richard Foster, the city’s tireless and ultra efficient BNP organiser on the edge of town, then hook up with a reporter and camera girl from BBC Look North before heading straight off to meet some local activists and candidates.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The street where we stop has a big spread of fading bouquets near one end, tributes to a popular young local man who was – allegedly, as we have to say - stabbed to death with a Samurai sword by a piece of white trash who was moved onto the same street from somewhere down south not so long before. The accused’s house is boarded up – angry locals forced his family to move within twenty four hours of the killing. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Further along the street there are BNP posters up in windows of a good quarter of the houses. Our candidate here caused a degree of excitement in the local press when they heard that he’s Jamaican. Indeed he is, in terms of where he was born and his accent. But what they forgot was that Jamaica always had a small white population – some descended from Cavaliers deported after Cromwell’s victory in the English Civil War, others from white indentured slaves, more still from the West Country men who rebelled against James ll in support of the Duke of Monmouth in the 1680s, and finally more as managers and administrators when the islands were part of the Empire.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">So they were astounded to find that Michael Watts and his family are all as white as you and me. It’s like the Duke of Wellington said when he was called ‘Irish’ on account of having been born in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> to a family which was part of the Protestant Anglo Aristocracy: “If a cat has kittens in a stable it doesn’t make them horses.” Politically incorrect of course, but none the less true for that.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">So what’s he doing in <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>? After independence, life for <st1:country-region><st1:place>Jamaica</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s white minority became harder and harder (one of those lessons of history that always comes as a shock to those who refuse to learn from the past), and Michael’s entire family returned to their English homeland in 1979. He’s clearly a popular character on his estate, and I was pleased to be able to put a few leaflets out for him and chat with sympathetic neighbours. We hope to be standing candidates in all eleven of <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>’s wards and there will be some good votes.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mistaken identity</span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />We go round the corner to do the TV interview. A group of young teenagers stand watching us from across the road. One of their mothers comes out of a nearby house and yells at them: “Get away from those weirdos, we’re Catholics.” Blank looks all round. What on earth is she on about? Looking at our suits and ties – in the middle of the day on a clinging-to-decency-by-its-fingernails estate -one of the local supporters with us suddenly twigs. “She thinks we’re Jehovah’s Witnesses!” The misunderstanding is duly cleared up and one of the young lads duly comes over and politely asks for a ‘flyer’. Ghastly Americanism, over here it’s a leaflet, but we let him off as his heart’s in the right place.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Then it’s off to one of <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>’s huge Victorian industrial complexes down by the city’s waterside. The engineering jobs have long been globalised away of course, but among the non-wealth producing replacements is the office of the local independent radio station. A thoroughly sensible interview there is followed by another with a pretty but ludicrously brainwashed and guilt-ridden upper class young blonde from the generally hostile Lincoln Echo. She has all the right questions - Islamophobia, 'gay' adoption, badly 'needed' Poles – who turn out to include one dentist and thousands of potato pickers, whose presence allows the supermarkets and gangmasters to get even more out of the farmers and public. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Fortunately the photographer is much more normal. We cross the busy road and canal next to a fine Victorian brick warehouse with modern extensions in steel and smoked glass - for once it works. Next door is a huge modern glass building which catches sunset in a spectacular blaze of orange and red. It’s a stunning backdrop and the pictures in the viewfinder look really atmospheric and arty. I tell him it's a shame the editor will probably crop off all the background and print it in <span style=""> </span>black and white and he ruefully agrees. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The evening’s meeting is very well organised. Behind the table hangs a large hand-sewn, non-imported Union Flag, a donation from a lady who felt it wrong for a nationalist party to use tacky imported flags from <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>. A good literature and merchandise table, and a raffle take care of the background fundraising needs.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Sadie Graham, the <st1:place>East Midlands</st1:place> regional organiser speaks first. She is doing a great job as our first ever full-time Group Development officer. She has already clocked up 30,000 miles in this role – in her own car, which is something that is clearly unsustainable and we’re going to have to put right pretty soon. Such are the hidden costs of running a party as effective and professional as this one. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Among the enthusiastic audience are several refugees from UKIP. These are serious level local officials and we’re pleased to hear at the end of the meeting that they have made up their minds to join us.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We stay in a fine old Victorian farmhouse in a lovely part of the Lincolnshire Wolds. We arrive at gone <st1:time minute="0" hour="0">midnight</st1:time> and turn in pretty promptly as it’s been a long day.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday</span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />Wake to glorious sun and birdsong. There are a black <st1:place>Labrador</st1:place> and a ginger cat in the farmhouse kitchen – very traditional. After breakfast the cat sits in the sun outside, rocking to and fro and he nods off. I take him a piece of bacon rind and the ginger cat is well content with life. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />Heading back to <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City> we pass miles of tiny new hedgeplants in protective plastic sleeves. For decades we’ve wasted millions in taxpayers' money for farmers to rip up two hundred year old (minimum) hedges. Now we're paying them millions to put them back. Still, in ten years time they'll be a decent size and the landscape in this part of <st1:country-region><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country-region> at least will begin to recover from the disaster of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (as uniquely badly applied in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> thanks to the anti-family farm agribusiness faction that has dominated the National Farmers' <st1:place>Union</st1:place> since the end of World War Two).<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>The Times has picked up on the story in the Independent about my being seen at the 100<sup>th</sup> <st1:city><st1:place>Cambridge</st1:place></st1:City> v Oxford Varsity Boxing Match in York Hall, the spiritual home of <st1:place>East London</st1:place>’s great boxing tradition. Unfortunately the Light Blues lost 5-4, but I ran into several contemporaries, and one of our <st1:place>Liverpool</st1:place> activists who also fought and won for <st1:city><st1:place>Cambridge</st1:place></st1:City> in this fixture a few years after me. It’s a small world. A number of gentlemen I’ve never even met before made a point of coming over and shaking my hand at some point in the gripping evening.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />The boxers, on average, seem to be slightly fitter than we were (and we trained three hours a day, six days a week) but there doesn’t seem quite so much aggression – there is not a single knockdown in the entire night, although the referees repeatedly leap in to give standing counts. I suppose it beats the risk of brain damage, but it really isn’t the same as it was thirty years ago, when the Varsity Match was such a grudge fixture that some of the heavier weights especially fought each other through a haze of blood and nothing less than a knockdown ever produced a count.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>I have a feeling that, as well as the headguards that we never used, amateurs these days use heavier gloves. We used to be able to feel our knuckles through our fighting gloves – a truly terrifying experience when you put them on for the first time just moments before stepping into the ring. The difference of a couple of ounces of padding would surely explain how I put two of my three Oxford opponents down on the canvass a total of five times, each in the first round, before those fights were stopped. Bear in mind that, compared to some of our team (and <st1:city><st1:place>Oxford</st1:place></st1:City>’s, for that matter, I was inexperienced and very much a novice).<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">If I’m wrong on that then we’re in trouble; a nation that has lost the ability to teach its boxers to use every ounce of their weight when punching is decadent beyond redemption. Anyone who knows the answer to this one, please drop me an email.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The prizes were presented by, among others, Barry McGuigan and Dave ‘Boy’ Green. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">A student journalist from <st1:city><st1:place>Oxford</st1:place></st1:City> collars me for a brief interview. His final question is both apposite and different: “Have I ever had occasion to use my boxing skills outside the ring?” I reply with a smile and the words ‘No Comment’, although on reflection I suppose it wouldn’t have hurt to have told him the truth: Exactly two weeks ago in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Sussex</st1:place></st1:country-region> – and this is the first day since that my knuckles haven’t felt sore!<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The post-match gathering was in the Blind Beggar – the pub where Jack the Hat found that it didn’t pay to cross the Krays. To be honest it’s rather ordinary now, although friendly enough. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Back in <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City> I’ve got another radio interview. A probing but professional journalist from BBC Radio Lincoln asks awkward questions but allows me to answer them fully. This is proper, adult journalism the way it should be, and would clearly interest a lot of readers, whether they are for or against us.<span style=""> </span>– I only hope the editor follows suit and broadcasts a representative cross-section of our discussion.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Then it’s round the corner to a daffodil-filled old graveyard with one of the ancient city wall gateways in the background, where another TV camera is waiting. This is for an interview with a specialist in local government, Richard Orange, who runs a website on the subject as well as providing footage and programmes to broadcast channels as a freelancer.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">He asks about the Standards Board and monitoring officers and I explain the BNP’s concern that the growing power of appointed bureaucrats over elected councilors is another nail in the coffin of democratic local government. It’s all of a piece with the removal of so much financial power under Maggie Thatcher, and more recent attacks by John Prescott’s deputy PM<span style=""> </span>office on the right of councilors even to speak on issues on which they have already expressed an opinion.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">This has led – as it was intended to by a regime hell-bent on abolishing what remains of effective local democracy and replacing it with artificial Euro regions – to the ridiculous position where councilors elected on a certain campaign ticket (typically for voicing popular local opposition to greenfield building development) are then forbidden by unelected bureaucrats from speaking or voting on the issue on behalf of their constituents once they are elected.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Next we head to a local repairs garage, owned by one of our members, where one of the main men has agreed to be one of <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>’s eleven BNP candidates in May. He is standing in the surrounding ward, where a key issue is the proposed conversion of an historic corrugated iron clad church (known as the ‘Tin Tabernacle’, and one of only a handful in the country) into – you guessed it – a mosque. Local people are furious that the church did the deal, selling the site to the leaders of <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>’s 1,500 strong Muslim community, for way below its market value – without saying a word to local residents. Our candidate was 26 years in the army and a sensible, head-screwed on sort of chap. <st1:city><st1:place>Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>’s political elite are going to have a nervous April.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Model citizens</span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />As we say our goodbyes I get a call from the <st1:city><st1:place>Edinburgh</st1:place></st1:City> student newspaper. This was arranged yesterday. I did a telephone interview with a desperately brainwashed posh-spoken English girl from there a couple of weeks ago, but was told yesterday that she was so shaken by the experience that she hasn’t felt able to write about it! <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Hence the rescheduled interview is with two equally brainwashed lads. One English middle class, one a Scot so upper class that his accent has all but vanished. Oh dear! These are the types who would make perfect, unquestioning, model citizens in any society in which they were brought up. Young Pioneers, Hitler Youth, Red Guards, whatever, just spoonfeed them the State pap of the day and they’d regurgitate it.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">They are, predictably, fixated on the rights of gays and Muslims, and are simply incapable of seeing the impossible incoherence of such a position. Being taught by teachers taught by lecturers who have all abandoned genuine notions of right and wrong, their moral compasses spin wildly, settling only on their own pet issues. <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">They seem genuinely incapable of seeing that the right of homosexuals to do what they want in private needs to be balanced by the right of the heterosexual majority to send their children to primary schools where they will not have homosexuality forced down their throats at the age of four or five. They sincerely think that our policy of gently but firmly putting homosexuals back in the closet to do whatever they want to each other in private is ‘hate-filled’, whereas the mainstream Islamic penalty of stoning to death is somehow no threat to homosexuals. Perhaps, strangely enough, it’s a form of subliminated racism, I suggest; do they expect ‘brown’ people to behave less decorously than hideously white ones? Student Grant and his mate are not impressed and quickly change the subject.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">They say they found one thing on our website “particularly risible.” I ask what they found so funny and am told that it is our ‘claim’ that scores of young white girls in northern English towns have been ‘groomed’ for sex and gang raped by racist Muslim paedophiles.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Do we really say ‘scores’? I ask them incredulously. They scent a retraction and gleefully confirm the figure. “Well, I’m sorry”, I say, “That’s badly wrong.” I pause and can almost hear them drooling on the floor. “It should say thousands” I tell them, “It’s an epidemic in places like Keighley, Blackburn, Bradford and Oldham.”<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">“Where are the statistics to support such a claim?” they demand. I explain, quite patiently at first, that there are none, because the police and local authorities try desperately to turn blind eyes to the problem.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">“Why would they do that?” one of them asks. “Because the last time the police upset the Muslims in Bradford the resulting riot cost more than twenty million quid. And the police know they just couldn’t control another one.”<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">But they are still, I think, genuinely incapable of grasping the problem. In the end their constant excuse-making and willful blindness becomes annoying and I put the verbal boot into their most tender intellectual parts: “Stop believing what your teachers and the BBC have told you. Get your middle class arses down to Bradford and talk to some real people about the real problems on working class estates.” Again, they move swiftly on.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">There is the same comprehension gap, and specious fifth form debating society logic, when it comes to the contrast between Islam and Christianity. Because some Christians some hundreds of years ago killed non-Christians and burned witches, it follows to them that it is unfair to condemn modern day Islam in any way because Christianity is just as bad.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Because I’m being driven and have nothing better to do for a few minutes I take them through the various points that rebut this nonsense. Among these is the fact that, if a powerful and growing Christian sect was threatening to create a theocracy where old ladies living alone with their cats would be burnt to death, and where democracy and free speech would be replaced by the rule of a handful of clerics, I would be at the forefront of the campaign to warn of the dangers and restrict their powers.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">But they are not, so it is not an issue. Unlike the position with Islam. Again, they are either incapable of understanding the point, or pretend to be.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beer bible</span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />Still, we get to the end of the interview and they thank me politely enough. Then it’s grab the BNP speaking tour Good Book (the CAMRA Good Beer Guide) and find somewhere en route to Holbeach for lunch. We pass two hares in adjacent fields. We don’t get them in our part of Wales and I haven’t seen one for years. Unfortunately they’re not together and boxing as Mad March Hares really do when fighting for the favours of a female.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />Years ago at home we used to eat them occasionally – jugged hare is one of the great dishes of English yeoman cookery - but I wouldn’t do so now; there just don’t seem to be enough of them around and they’re too elegant and inspirational to watch.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><br />Exactly halfway is the village of Ewerby – about a mile off the A17. The Finch Hatton Arms is described as “retaining the charm of its past”. And that’s exactly what it does. The best English pubs are either plain rustic or town spit-and-sawdust, or mildly eccentric. This is one of the latter. Old farm implements and hunting prints adorn the walls alongside a row of brass hares. The heavily beamed ceiling is clearly a flight of fancy by some long-dead architect, large parts of it definitely have no structural value but it does look the part. The heavy glass paned front door is engraved with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest of tastes – I only like the best.” Thinking of Oscar – beware of the strange hidden step on the way to the toilet.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>The guest beer is Summer Lightning, from Salisbury’s Hopback Brewery. The distinctive green man on a yellow label marks an unusually good bottled beer, but it’s absolutely superb on draught. Still, it’s lunchtime so I stick to one. Plus a fine locally made steak and kidney pie. Sometimes the fight to preserve our native culture and traditions is an onerous one!<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">All too soon we have to head on to Holbeach, where we’ve got another local paper photoshoot and interview booked. This is another young lady reporter, but this interview turns out to be a sensible one – purely about our policies and local issues.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">That completes the work until the evening so we tuck ourselves away at the home of a local activist. I do some urgent paperwork I’ve had to bring away with me and then settle down to some work on the laptop, first tidying up and expanding the current blog entries, then carrying on with my article for April’s Identity.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The evening meeting is again a success. A good crowd in a small town like Holbeach, although I’m pleased to learn that people have traveled up from Peterborough and the Fens, where Sadie’s Group Development work is bearing fruit. Local BNP councillor the Rev. Robert West is one of several local speakers. I forego a formal speech and instead take questions, which makes a change and gives everyone a chance to find out what they want to about the party rather than what I want them to. People seem to appreciate such an open approach, in such stark contrast to the defensive spin of pre-prepared speeches employed by Blair, Cameron and Co.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The venue has a bar but it only has nasty fizzy chemical ‘beer’ so I stick to Diet Coke. Now that is a hardship!<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">Our host tonight is a highly qualified weather station systems analyst. The first real expert on the weather who I’ve had the chance to question about global warming. He installs, and manages over the Internet, weather stations as far away as Indonesia. So is global warming happening? If so is it man-made or a natural cycle? <o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">He isn’t doctrinaire about it but on balance believes that we’re just in a natural warming phase and that various people have simply seized on it as an excuse for internationalising government and screwing yet more taxes out of us.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">I’d already come to the same tentative conclusion, although I think it best to assume that the jury is still out and to avoid upsetting people who are genuinely convinced that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. BNP policies designed to meet the challenge of fossil fuel depletion would, in any case, tend to cut pollution and carbon emissions, so we don’t need to pick fights or fall out on this contentious issue.<o:p></o:p></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-55677882487064497182007-02-12T05:12:00.000-08:002008-12-08T23:31:06.628-08:00At last, some real snow!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family:georgia;">At last, some real snow! We haven’t had a decent snowfall ever since we moved here to mid-Wales seventeen years ago. Before that we had a couple of real winters in the Shropshire Hills; when we (just three of us in those days) were living in a tiny caravan while I renovated our derelict farmhouse near Bishops Castle it so cold one winter that the gas froze, and snow drifts a couple of foot deep were expected.<br /><br /></span></span></div><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8gTi6g45OQuHmcCWdrlGOQ0W5Jvx7wrmdRdCl6gYAbF9CuAeN5X5y5z1rKy-kMZQuet5X_afspRHhh1cCPZNa4FDkuJ5rh-tRwc7JLYY2uU2ggZ3DPbMwl-Z2inf4psqOCyG/s1600-h/workinsnow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8gTi6g45OQuHmcCWdrlGOQ0W5Jvx7wrmdRdCl6gYAbF9CuAeN5X5y5z1rKy-kMZQuet5X_afspRHhh1cCPZNa4FDkuJ5rh-tRwc7JLYY2uU2ggZ3DPbMwl-Z2inf4psqOCyG/s400/workinsnow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030639301996322834" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">A seventeen year gap tends to make one a bit complacent so unfortunately this lot caught us somewhat unprepared, leaving us running out of spuds, dog food and milk. Up until last year this would have been no problem at all because we would just have enjoyed the walk through the winter wonderland lanes down to the village shop and Post Office two miles away. But now, like so many other rural lifelines, it’s been shut. The nearest shop is now five miles away. Not usually a problem to us with three cars and four drivers in the family, not to mention two deep freezes (one still with plenty of joints of last year’s cade lambs in it) but a nightmare to the elderly and the really poor.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The whole family (bar the eldest, who’s away at uni) sets to try to clear the bad points on the lane at least enough to get a car out to get shopping and to bring it back within walking distance. But the snow is coming down too hard and even the grit and salt we spread from the heaps left by the council at strategic points doesn’t make any impression. After a while the dogs – who started the working walk in a state of high excitement, rolling in and biting the snow - start to limp, holding alternate feet off the ground to keep them away from the cold.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8IweUoXaNlVHyJVpeTrC9qhVJUFIn1vZ5Sydybo9sjm5EXuA3GRk8f4FhJbNCsTVPafPwvsPQvnvPFads5yTzMKIUNezmxNjIMxCsE7k4hX_LoUvVzVLlDOpBfasv835TXqx/s1600-h/dogsinsnow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8IweUoXaNlVHyJVpeTrC9qhVJUFIn1vZ5Sydybo9sjm5EXuA3GRk8f4FhJbNCsTVPafPwvsPQvnvPFads5yTzMKIUNezmxNjIMxCsE7k4hX_LoUvVzVLlDOpBfasv835TXqx/s400/dogsinsnow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030638211074629618" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I am also forced to miss a branch meeting in </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Blackburn</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> where I was due to speak. I hate letting people down but have no choice at all, there are several impassable hills on the first couple of miles of the journey and a hard frost is forecast that night so even if I got past them to go there I most definitely wouldn’t get back up the long slow hill at the end of the evening. Still, I hear later that it goes well without me and I’ll try to fit in their next meeting in March instead.</span></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1TCtaOKqd9STzrXqDgt-Yy-0vFVkov96uFCXyUyAlr64bJ9HWIPcGgokjl6VOLWP0PwlmRzMaMYDjE0fCks3LDvTAib6SRRIhyphenhyphenBXLSuDelmiBMtiKl_kCVmNmCOC-SVkfC6OU/s1600-h/funinsnow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1TCtaOKqd9STzrXqDgt-Yy-0vFVkov96uFCXyUyAlr64bJ9HWIPcGgokjl6VOLWP0PwlmRzMaMYDjE0fCks3LDvTAib6SRRIhyphenhyphenBXLSuDelmiBMtiKl_kCVmNmCOC-SVkfC6OU/s400/funinsnow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030638743650574338" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br /><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br /><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br /><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br /><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">So here in our snowbound hills we have several days going nowhere except on foot. I make use of some of the time working on the overall layout plan of the soon-to-be-revamped website. Several long conference calls with Steve Blake and Mark Collett in particular. We use Skype, which considering it is free, easy to download and install, and totally free to use (as long as one is on broadband), is a wonderful system.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><br /><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">On Friday morning comes the news of our splendid by-election result in Bede Ward, Bedworth. This very ordinary English town is between </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Nuneaton</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Coventry</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, but while they are both heavily ‘enriched’, Bedworth has so far largely escaped such a fate. According to the liberal theories explaining BNP successes in places like </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Burnley</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, Barking and Dewsbury, we shouldn’t have a prayer in Bedworth.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Plus, several of the other parties put in serious campaigns. The Tories in particular started the by-election believing that they could win it, and even had MPs out canvassing. In the last ten days the Labour party raised their game too, and the LibDems and far left got up to all sorts of dirty tricks. UKIP paid for a big advert in the local paper and put out one leaflet to every house (a good campaign by the pathetic standards established by their leaders, who don’t seem to care about repeatedly sending their unfortunate foot soldiers to repeated crushing defeats and humiliation) and the English Dems do a lot more.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">This bunch are hopelessly naïve civic nationalists, mainly disaffected Tories with the one track approach of believing that establishing an English parliament is more important than preserving the English people. The BNP, of course, also believes that establishing an English parliament to balance those in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Scotland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Wales</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Ulster</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> is the way to end the wranglings and injustice caused by Blair’s half-baked devolution operation. But we can also see very clearly that it would only have a good effect as part of a huge programme of radical changes in other fields.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;" lang="EN-GB">The English Democrats would be happy to be swallowed up completely by the federal European monster if it would give them a little parish council ‘parliament’. They would be happy to see radicalised Islam growing ever stronger provided the Islamic Party sent its representatives to push for Sharia law through their ‘English’ parliament. They would be happy to see the indigenous English become a minority in our own land as long as the new majority called themselves ‘English’ and flew St. George’s Cross over a latter-day Tower of Babel – provided its official title was ‘English Parliament’.</span></p><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;" lang="EN-GB">But despite the very vigorous efforts of all these different parties we wipe the floor with them all except Labour, with our hard-working candidate Alwyn Deacon getting precisely as many votes as all the other opposition candidates combined. It is a crushing blow to the Tories who really expected to win, the humiliation for the LibDems will pile behind-the-scenes pressure on Ming Campbell to go, the Eng Dems yet again have the experience of wasting large amounts of effort and money to get absolutely nowhere, and UKIP – with just eight (8) votes must be wondering whether Nigel Farage’s botched attempt to change their name to the ‘Independence Party’ wouldn’t be electorally better turned into a merger with the Monster Raving Loonies. Rare indeed is the party that gets fewer votes than the ten local signatories it needs even to be allowed to stand. It appears that the BBC attempt to turn Mr. Farage into a harmless safety valve for the rumbling discontent of overtaxed, contemptuously ignored Middle England isn’t going according to plan.</span></p><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;" lang="EN-GB"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;" lang="EN-GB">Late on Friday night I give in to the kids’ demands that I go sledging with them (to be honest, it doesn’t take much persuasion!) Wrapped up and carrying sheets of builders’ plastic (left over from when Richard and I replaced the hideous old concrete kitchen floor with slate slabs last year) we head over the field to the best slope. Within a few slides the amount of snow means that it’s the fastest we’ve ever had it. The downside of this becomes apparent when Richard and I – being the two heaviest – shoot right down to the bottom and take to the air, landing with bone-jarring thuds on the lane below. The snow cushions the fall to an extent, but thereafter we both ensure that we bale out of the icy run before it’s too late.</span></p><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" lang="EN-GB">As Saturday evening arrives a final flurry of big snowflakes is abruptly replaced by damp fog. Then it rains overnight and by Sunday morning the sun is out. The fields are still white but all the snow has already gone from the branches of the trees and hedges. The lane is still all ice and slush but it should be possible to get out shortly. Which is just as well because I’m supposed to be in </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" lang="EN-GB"> on party business by </span><st1:time style="font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" minute="0" hour="14" ><span style="" lang="EN-GB">2 p.m.</span></st1:time><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-80739584859008146782007-02-02T07:38:00.000-08:002007-02-05T04:08:16.380-08:00North East tour blog<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Monday (15th). Head from </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Leeds</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> up to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Newcastle</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">. The A1/M up here is a horrible, inadequate road that just 'feels' dangerous and we use the A19 instead. The scenery's far better and it's fast smooth dual carriageway all the way. We meet up just after lunch with North East regional organiser Ken Booth, who briefs us in full on the hectic schedule that he and his officials have worked out for the next few days. We check out the venue for the evening's first meeting and meet up with a small team of local activists. We head off into a nearby estate which forms part of the ward contested last year by Gordon Steel, who last year earned the distinction of being the oldest BNP candidate. At 84 the D-Day veteran and lifelong member of the Labour party (until a couple of years ago) just has the edge, I believe, on Sid Chaney in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Essex</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">. George obviously can't do as much legwork as our 'average' candidate and so we give him a headstart by blitzing two whole estates in the ward in a couple of hours.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">One of the local leafleters is Jonathan Keys, who I've already been told has a proposal for me about setting up an online photo-library to provide BNP national publications and local leaflet designers with a wide range of potentially useful copyright free photographs. We make a point of teaming up for a while and discussing the idea as we leaflet alternate doors. I arrange to put Jonathan in touch with our cyberspace team and we agree that once the system is in place for emailing in, archiving and downloading photos, we'll strive to find a volunteer photographer with a decent digital camera in each region. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Another member of the team is a former member of the left-anarchist Class War organisation, who saw the light a year or so ago and is now a keen BNP activist. He is also involved in the independent nationalist trade union Solidarity. We too chat as we work; he is particularly struck by the more than a hint of syndicalism in Solidarity's subtitle 'One Big Union'. "When working men defend their rights, Joe Hill is by their side" goes the old song. To be honest, he's more likely to be spinning in his grave. Oh dear, how sad, never mind!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">We knock off to head to the home of Dr. Alan Patterson to change and get a bite to eat. Alan joined us from UKIP some years ago now and was our lead candidate in the North East in the last European elections. Although it's getting dark by the time we arrive, his two teenage sons are in the front garden logging up a tree felled by the recent high winds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The first meeting of the tour is in the ward we were leafleting earlier. It's one of Ken's 'subsidiary meetings', intended to reach people, particularly new enquirers or regular Freedom buyers who might not travel a longer way to just one or two bigger meetings. Old George also speaks, and says that although he is willing to stand again if needs be, he would really rather hand over to a younger candidate who could be more active in getting things done for local residents and boosting the party's profile.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The local business of the meeting is being conducted in the second half, so once my speech is finished I chat to various people for a few minutes and then have to head off with security to the second half of the next meeting. We move on to a smart pub in Walbottle, on the north east edge of Newcastle. Kev Scott is chairing this one and we arrive on schedule during the break. An unexpected speaker in the first half was Andrew Spence, the farmer and haulier who played a key role in sparking off and leading the 2001 Fuel Protest, which won overwhelming public support and came close to bringing down the Blair government.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fuel protestor is new recruit</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Mr. Spence went on to join UKIP and stood for them in the 2001 general election in a high profile challenge to Tony Blair in Sedgefield. How he became disillusioned with that party's money-grabbing, incompetent, unprincipled leadership is a story that emerges in an interview I later did with him for Identity, so I'll say no more about that for now. We speak together for a few minutes at the end of the meeting and he says that he is impressed by what he has seen tonight and that he is going home to consider whether and or when to join the party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Instead of a set speech I give a brief introduction about how falling turnouts and popular resentment against the political elite result in part from the way in which the old politicians have withdrawn from contact with real people<span style=""> </span>questions<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The meeting clashed with a remarkable Dispatches on Channel 4 – all about how Islamic ‘extremism’ is not confined to a handful of small and unrepresentative mosques, but permeates the largest and supposedly ‘moderate’ mosques in England. We pick up a copy of the programme on way back to our billet for the week. Then we settle down to watch it – an hour-long vindication of the speech that nearly got me sent to prison.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Tuesday Morning. Should have been activity but I have to call off that in order to watch the Dispatches tape again and then write a detailed letter to the police in London and the West Midlands demanding action. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blair’s local</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Then it’s off to a lunchtime interview with a reporter from the Northern Echo. We meet in the Dun Cow, the thoroughly traditional ‘local’ where Blair had fish and chips with Bush a couple of years back. Apparently the pub had terrible trouble getting the bill paid - it took them months to get their money! <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Leafleting in our Tone’s constituency home </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">village</span></st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> of </span><st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Trimdon</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> we come across a chap repairing a wall. He spots the leaflets as we draw near: "If it's owt to do with Labour I'm not interested." He’s delighted to find it’s the BNP and take several extra leaflets for mates.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">After several hours of solid leafleting in a chilly breeze we head to Spennymoor for the evening meeting. Andrew Spence comes along again, and this time speaks on his decision actually to join the BNP. He hands his £30 over to the organiser there and then.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Instead of making a speech as such I tell the audience that, unlike the old party politicians, we in the BNP don’t hide ourselves away from the voters, behind pre-prepared soundbites and televised ‘meetings’ with children or hand-picked supporters. The whole meeting is therefore run as one big questions and answers session. This goes down very well, and we cover all sorts of subjects, only realising at the end that the question of immigration and closely related topics has not even arisen. A local Independent councillor has come along and tells me after the meeting that he knows virtually everyone there (it’s only a small town) and that he never thought he’d every see them applauding any politician, let alone giving me the enthusiastic reception he’d just witnessed. “You’re nothing like what I expected from the television reports,” he tells me. Indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Wednesday. Leafleting and knocking on doors of regular paper round customers in South Shields. We start in a street of historic Mariners' Cottages where nearly a quarter of the residents are repeat Freedom buyers. A reporter and photographer from the Shields Gazette spend a few minutes with us. Then we move on to an area once known as ‘Little Aberdeen’ on account of all the Scots who moved there in the nineteenth century to work in a shipyard founded by the son of a destitute Scottish crofter. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The shipyard is now earmarked as a ‘ship recycling centre’ – i.e. scrapyard – and the locals are worried by the threat of pollution and the job losses and cheap labour influx that even the yard manager has admitted will result from the change of roles. We put out a very good local leaflet on this issue, and get a great response from the few people we meet as we hurry from door to door on an even colder day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Moving from Hebburn on to </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Sunderland</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> for a lunchtime interview with another local paper we turn on the car radio and Jeremy Vine is discussing the latest pitiful government/policing failure. The Home Office is a complete shambles, with perverts and drug dealers on the loose, the prisons overflowing, assorted criminal foreigners making everything worse, etc, etc. Vine ends the session on all this with an interesting choice of record: Chris Rea’s Road to Hell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Men only</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">In </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Sunderland</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> we are due to meet a reporter and photographer in a Working Men’s club in one of our target wards. The photographer turns up first and is immediately stopped <span style=""> </span>- politely but with no question of any debate about it - by the club doorman. Not because of her camera as I first assume, but because there are still a few places left where local choice prevails. The bar is for men only! I honestly had no idea that such places still existed – the Land that Time and the Social Worker Society Forgot! Incidentally, we in turn told that we couldn't go in the adjacent bar as the ladies were entitled to play bingo in there without masculine interference. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">While there I get a call from a local radio station. The presenter, a Kiwi or Aussie, only really wants to talk about the storm in a teacup over the Big Brother ‘racism’ row. I keep trying to get on to the serious problems of racism – such as the fact that a teenager is lying in hospital in Swindon with his head caved in after a hammer attack by eight ‘Asian’ men – but all he wants to talk about is the anger that the hideous Jade Goody has sparked off in India, and the evils of calling people names. It strikes me that this is a fine example of the Gods making mad those whom they would destroy. To so trivialise ‘racism’ is to destroy the impact of decades of Pavlovian mental conditioning whereby millions of our people have been taught to regard it as the ultimate sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Two meetings this evening. The first is a small – about 30 local guests – affair that is the first ever held in Jarrow. Symbolically this is perhaps the most important Old Labour town in the country, but here too the audience’s detestation for all things about the modern Labour party is almost palpable. More questions and answers on all sorts of subjects before I leave them working out plans for May’s elections as I head off to Sunderland.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">This second meeting is a fair bit bigger, in a venue I’ve been to several times before. The Q&As bring up the question of Englishness and Britishness (I run a show of hands straw poll to see who has Scottish, Welsh or Irish ancestry as well as English. Scottish comes out the biggest<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">indigenous ‘minority’ but the total number of ‘mixed British’ shows clearly that a total breakup of the UK would be as absurd as the present arrangement is unfair on the English who pay more tax than anyone else but don’t have the right to control their own affairs as the Scots and Welsh do. The BNP answer of an English parliament within a UK where an overall parliament deals with foreign affairs, defence, etc is the obvious solution for all present).<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Tax question<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Andrew Spence attends and speaks again. During questions he asks how the BNP would square the circle between popular desire for lower fuel taxes and the need to address the problems of climate change/reliance on diminishing oil reserves. He says that he’s asked the leaders of the other parties the same question and has never had a coherent answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">I tell him that while the BNP supported the fuel protest, we have concluded since that high fuel duties are justifiable. The problem isn’t high fuel taxes, but rather high taxes in total. A massive cutback in government meddling, power and bureaucracy under the BNP would allow for a big overall tax reduction without hacking back essential services. We would then shift much of the remaining tax burden onto indirect taxation (not on core basics such as food and heating) which would see people mainly paying tax when they spend, instead of when they earn and save. This would be fairer and economically and morally superior than taxing people’s sweat and productivity as at present.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The tax which would remain high enough on fuel to deter its waste would therefore be far more bearable, and would be made even more so by being hypothecated – clearly earmarked only for use in improving the transport system and development of non-fossil energy sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Andrew is clearly delighted with the answer. Perhaps the other politicians will catch up in ten or fifteen years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Thursday. In Stockton. We meet another local paper journalist and photographer in the town centre and then head off to go leafleting in a tightly packed terraced housing area. Moving on to some newer flats we meet a lady who knows one of our team as a result of his leading role some years ago in fighting the Labour party’s disgraceful demolition of hundreds of perfectly sound terraced houses and smashing up of the community into hideous flats. The fight was lost and no doubt Labour councillors pocketed the backhanders from the developers, but our man’s past efforts are still remembered. Combined with good local community work in the here and now, such recruits are going to become councillors in the North East before too long.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">This evening we start with a meeting in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Hartlepool</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> meeting. This is another ‘first’, under a keen new organiser. We get twenty from the town and from neighbouring Easington. My speech starts by assuring them that far smaller inaugural meetings have led to establishment of really successful branches and winning seats. Then I explain why it matters, and the importance of what we're doing. Focus on immigration and tell them what things such as grooming really mean to families. Individuals can make a difference. I tell them that we would have to try even if it was too late in order to hold head up when asked in years to come what we did when there was still at least some hope. And, as a matter of fact, I don't believe it is too late, the BNP crusade is only just beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Then on to Teesside via the transporter bridge. <span style=""> </span>This was used in programmes such as <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Aufwiedersehen Pet and Billy Elliot.<span style=""> </span>Adam, our host, guide and additional security for the week, has never been over it despite being born and bred just a county away. Unfortunately the ferry platform is over on the other side of the river and the operator seems to be reluctant to venture out of his presumably snug nightwatch cabin for some time, so we lose the best part of twenty minutes off our schedule. Still, when he does arrive he quickly turns out to be sympathetic and he waves us off happily clutching a copy of Freedom to pass the time on the rest of the evening shift.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">I’ve been to this venue before, perhaps two years ago. Tonight though the attendance is much bigger, well over 100 people, a complete cross-section of the population. I make a short speech and then again switch to Q&As. These are lively, good humoured and wide ranging. First meeting where questions about immigration issues are raised - Islam, halal slaughter, anti-white discrimination, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">In fact it’s all too wide ranging, so much so that, combined with the late start of my second half stint, and then photo opportunities at the end, we don't leave until much before half eleven. This is an hour later than hoped. It’s a long drive back home.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Overall though, this new system of one regional tour per month, with meetings close to home going on as normal as stand alone events, works well. It cuts the driving drastically, gives time to spend with organisationally important people locally, boosts media coverage and even gives me a chance to get out and get some exercise leafleting. Hopefully my presence on a few such sessions will also help organisers to shame a few armchair nationalists into getting off their backsides and becoming active.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">This week I’ve done seven separate meetings. Total attendance some 350 with only a handful of cross-overs. Resounding success, but it is a long time away from home. For the sake of the family and to keep it genuinely sustainable I need to sandwich such a week between two weekends at home not two weekends with a chunk taken out of each. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Naturally there’s a pile of things to deal with once back home, so | don’t get a chance to finish off this blog entry for some time. The second issue of the redesigned Identity has to be proof-read, and held up to allow us to replace two held-over articles with an excellent interview with Andrew Spence. Mark Collett, who does all the design and layout work in this top quality production, doesn’t like such delays as he fears he’ll get the blame for missed deadlines but, as usual, it’s not his fault – just political necessity. There is already a good article exposing the way in which New Labour has manipulated UKIP as a block against the BNP, so with the fuel protester interview in as well it will be an excellent issue to send to potential UKIP waverers. Accordingly we run an overprint to give the extra supplies needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bad ‘science’</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Several newspapers run the story of how a number of Yorkshiremen with a surname beginning with ‘R’ have a rare ‘West African’ Y-chromosome. This fact emerges from a study done at Leicester University. Various multi-cult ‘research scientists’ (sociologists, mainly) queue up to crow about how this discover “debunks the idea of race”. Then the Mail on Sunday gives us a bit more detail: The surname is Revis, and seven men sharing it also have the unusual bit of DNA.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Then, in the small print, comes the fact which debunks the ‘African Yorkshiremen’ nonsense – the imported chromosome is in fact found not among black Africans as implied in all the other reports, but among the Berber tribesmen who live between the </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Sahara</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> and the </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Mediterranean</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Thus, despite excited claims by Leicester Uni researcher Turi King that Africans helped defend Hadrians Wall and poured into the country during the slave trade, there is still no evidence whatsoever of African Y-chromosome lineage in Britain. For the Berbers are not ‘African’ at all in the way that the multi-cultists use the term. We’re back here to those ridiculous white liberal ‘Black Pride’ posters showing Cleopatra and Hannibal as black, when in reality virtually the only black people in their societies were slaves and both of them would easily have passed in modern </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Europe</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> as Italians or Spaniards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Many Berbers were early converts to Islam and their part of </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">North Africa</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> produced generations of Corsair pirates and slavers whose raids terrorised fishermen and villages also much of the coast of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Ireland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although something like a million of their victims vanished without trace into the slave markets, some thousands of lucky ones were rescued or bought out of slavery and came home. The researchers could if they wished speculate that one of these female captives returned home pregnant by a slaver and later gave birth to the son who sired this tiny and wholly unique genetic cluster.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">But, of course, they don’t, because to draw public attention to the huge but virtually unknown historical injustice of the white slave trade (well covered in the book <a href="http://www.bnp.org.uk/shopping/excalibur/item.php?id=465">White Gold</a>, sold by Excalibur) would not suit their real purpose at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">As a matter of fact, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest if a few of my fellow countrymen have minute traces of ancestry from </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Africa</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> or </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Asia</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">. Given the long history of the British Empire the real surprise is surely that such elements are not in fact more evident. The very fact that they are so submerged, however, is an indication of how thoroughly homogeneous the native peoples of these islands are and, in any case, the country is full. For environmental reasons alone further immigration is unsustainable madness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">So it does concern me, and the BNP, when neo-Marxist excuses for ‘scientists’ falsely extrapolate from such tiny shreds the mendacious claim that the British/English are “a mongrel race” who therefore have no identity to preserve or right to preserve it even if we did, and who use such specious ‘scientific’ reductio ad absurdam fantasies to push for unlimited immigration and to deny our children their fundamental human right and need to feel part of a unique and special ethno-cultural extended family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The fallacy of this leftist propaganda line is easily understood by reversing the argument: Generations of wicked white slave owners and brutal colonial oppressors will certainly have left traces of their own genetic contribution in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Africa</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">, Asian and the </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">West Indies</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">. ‘Therefore’ there is no such thing as the black race or an Afro-Caribbean identity, and ‘Black Pride’ is nothing but false consciousness at best or ‘racism’ at worst. As a result, no black nation has any right to object if millions of us Brits decide to move en masse to colonise their homeland. An ‘African’ is anyone who settles in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Africa</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">, and any black person who dares to say otherwise is a racist bigot who wants to herd no-blacks into gas chambers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Utter tosh, of course, but no more than the tosh that passes for science in </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Leicester</span></st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> </span><st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">University</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"> and in the addled brains of liberal newspaper editors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-70395963145848901872007-01-07T10:13:00.000-08:002008-12-08T23:31:06.788-08:00Fall out of Guardian "expose"<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">A lot of time is taken up over the Christmas/New Year break dealing with the aftermath of the two-day Guardian 'expose' of the BNP's ever-increasing appeal to 'Middle England'. The Doc and I both do interviews with several other papers and media outlets, but far more important is the work with Lee Barnes from our Legal Dept. Lee spends hours on end digging through statutes and case law, including cases from the </span><st1:street><st1:address><span style="" lang="EN-GB">European Court</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. We don't approve of EU rules taking precedence over English law, of course, but since it does we must use it whenever we can.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In short order we whack in detailed complaints about the Guardian's McCarthyite bullying (actually that's a bit unfair on McCarthy, who was at least opposing a genuine Communist threat to freedom and democracy) to the Press Complaints Commission, the far more powerful Data Protection Commissioner and the police. We believe that the law is actually pretty clear: The editor and the journalist Ian Cobain (I wonder in passing when his family managed to forget the proper spelling of their fine Gaelic surname, Cobhain?) have broken the Data Protection Act, Theft Act (obtaining goods and services by deception) and Human Rights legislation. </span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The Guardian's legal department claim that they haven't, but do confirm that the information Cobain collected will not be passed to any third parties, and offer to hand it all back if we agree to take no further action. No way! There is here a chance to slam shut the door on decades of 'liberal' intimidation of nationalists. Of course, we have to expect that we will expect an uphill battle in any resulting court action, because the same kind of people also have enormous influence in the legal system, but we will have a serious crack at it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The Guardian coverage - and material which followed from it - has already worked in our favour in terms of image improvement and public perception. If we can get a result in legal terms as well then the worry, stress and problems which the paper caused to some of our people individually will, from an organisational point of view at least, have been worth it. We take other steps to ensure that those most effected know that they're not alone. Thanks to readers who have taken action on their own account.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A man of principle</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">One person, ideologically and organisationally definitely not one of us, who takes such action is Dr. Sean Gabb, Director of the <a href="http://www.libertarian.co.uk/"><span style="color:navy;">Libertarian Alliance</span></a>, who writes a big and thoughtful piece about his duty "to defend the right to free expression of people whose views I do not share" and proceeds to do just that, with particular regard to Simone Clarke, the BNP member who is also lead dancer with the English National Ballet. Dr. Gabb's piece is very well worth reading in its entirety, particularly for its quiet but damning critique of the attitude of the Muslim Council of Britain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Even in part, however, Dr. Gabb draws the big picture perfectly: <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">"We have in this country a ruling class committed to political, economic and social globalisation. While some parts of this are consistent with libertarianism, others are not. Much of the consequent association of peoples takes place in a market systematically rigged by taxes and regulations. Much is nakedly coerced through equal opportunity laws and censorship. But whatever libertarians might think of what is going on, large and increasing numbers of people dislike it all.<br /><br />"Since both main political parties are agreed, opponents have a choice between not voting at all and voting for one of the smaller parties. Many are voting for the BNP. There is a chance that many who do not vote will also vote BNP once it can prove that it is a credible political force. Therefore, the BNP must be destroyed.</span><br /><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB">”The gentler forms of destruction involve lies. Undoubtedly, the BNP grew out of a national socialist movement. But it does not appear now to be a national socialist organisation. So far as I can tell from <a href="http://www.bnp.org.uk/"><span style="color:gray;">its website</span></a>, the BNP believes in a mixed economy welfare state, with some regard for traditional civil liberties. It also believes that the alleged benefits of this should be largely reserved for English-speaking white people. This is not something that I find particularly attractive. Nor however is it the same as wanting a totalitarian police state plus gas chambers."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In addition to the lies, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-GB">'s best known libertarian spokesman complains about the less subtle means by which the Powers That Be try to obstruct our party, including pressure on printers, political show trials and the denial of banking facilities.<span style=""> </span>He then concludes:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">"Now, I am able to say this from a position of safety. Neither I nor the Libertarian Alliance expect to suffer in any measurable degree from this shutting down of debate. We live in a potemkin democracy, where only limited diversity of opinion is tolerated. But even so, there must be some opposition.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB">"I am fortunate enough to find myself in the licensed opposition. I face no official discrimination that I can see. I am allowed to work in state universities. I am allowed regular appearances in the media. I am not obviously under surveillance. This may be because our ruling class does not regard libertarians as much of a threat. It may be because someone outside the ruling class has to be tolerated, for the sake of keeping up the pretence of liberal democracy. Whatever the reason, we do not operate under any of the disadvantages that the real dissidents of the BNP must take as facts of life.<br /><br /></span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">"This imposes a duty on me and my friends to speak up in defence of the dissidents. Unlike the other “rights” organisations, we believe in freedom of speech with no exceptions. We do not enquire into the substance of a person’s views before defending his right to express them."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">By way of a gesture of thanks for his principled stand, though I think that some of Dr. Gabb's libertarian ideas are barking mad, I recommend that anyone who enjoys a good historical novel makes a point of buying, or requesting from their library, a copy of his 'Dark Ages' detective novel, The Column of Phocas. Set in post-Roman Britain and the decaying ruins of imperial Rome, it's a gripping piece of fiction. I shall certainly make a point of getting the sequel when it appears.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;">Buy it online from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954103246?tag=bnpwebsite-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0954103246&adid=1K1SQS3E95ZNDE51B85J&%5C%22">Amazon.</a><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kicked upstairs?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Dr. Gabb's thesis that there is ubiquitous Establishment pressure to frighten potential middle class and highly educated backers away from the BNP suffered a welcome blow with the appointment of my wonderfully effective QC in last year's Free Speech trials, Mr. Timothy King, to the High Court. According to the solicitor who first put us in touch, Tim's promotion to the ranks of our senior judges is long overdue as well as very well-deserved. While I'm delighted for him, the cynic in me can't help but wonder if his preferment just now isn't in fact a way to deny us his services as a barrister in future? </span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Still, even if that was a factor, at least the fact that Mr. King is now Mr. Justice King - and that I must now call him 'Sir' - goes to show that even top-flight professionals can act for the British National Party and still advance their careers. So congratulations, Sir Tim!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Gordon Brown's intemperate and intolerant knee-jerk reaction to the </span><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Leeds</span></st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> acquittals in which Tim King played such a crucial part prompts a supporter to create and email me a spoof poster image.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAQcrP9htOq-Uhd5XkzM75I2jPDPl3ujFymDaG0etmJUlwvuYlQkyynVdsYKbC8V1y_vRUbse0Pgvl9fLiqHH_O-wzVXxKN9UnZdYVGPkAfJyAf8Juq4MjRJohGpffR0HbfPu/s1600-h/brown_nose.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAQcrP9htOq-Uhd5XkzM75I2jPDPl3ujFymDaG0etmJUlwvuYlQkyynVdsYKbC8V1y_vRUbse0Pgvl9fLiqHH_O-wzVXxKN9UnZdYVGPkAfJyAf8Juq4MjRJohGpffR0HbfPu/s400/brown_nose.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5017355578348396322" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqX3xkqnqDbcwAEv87oUKwwi2VRyOkct_eH2NQEZSkOvU0Tw9SFT0EPgkx_ErcCM9cVEDRjlV1oPdZJpxM5wm77Oc-fK22wd0hoWGn8cSGoTO498he3XzQ1OXmFG6efy-acIGx/s1600-h/brown_nose.jpg"><br /></a></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br />Personally I believe that pictures and satire are immensely powerful weapons politically, and that we should constantly be on the look-out to use them more. Once one or two more generations of mobile phone/miniaturised TV and wireless technology are rolled out and combined, short and funny video clips and animations passed from friend to friend on mobiles will make or break elections. This is a key reason why we must strive to keep and hopefully even extend our current lead over all the other parties with BNPtv. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Another spoof which is drawn to my attention is a very effective bogus 'Labour party' website. www.thelabourparty.org.uk relentless ridicules the pompous self-righteousness of New Labour bullying and ethno-masochism. I was also intrigued to find in their 'banned jokes' section a link to a home-made video on Youtube which uses the asylum seeker song 'Brand New Leather Jacket' which I wrote for a laugh a couple of years ago. The way that this very hastily recorded song (no names, no pack drill!) has acquired a life of its own - it's turned up being played on various mainstream local radio stations as well as in things like this - is another illustration of the power of satire.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">On the subject of recording, Alan and Dave at Great White Records are now on the final mixing stages of the album using poems/songs of mine, all set to music by various singers and bands. Dave sent me about half of the tracks the other day and I have to say that the artists and recording staff have done a fantastic job. There's a big range of styles, from folk through to heavy rock, and the sound quality is superb. The album title is now settled on - The West Wind - and we should have a firm release date in just a matter of weeks now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">News from Kevin - and more from Keighley</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Also arriving in the post the other day was a long and very positive letter from Kevin Hughes, still in Featherstone prison on the word of a bogus asylum seeker. In addition to relating his pleasure at receiving that staggering 1,377 Christmas cards and his determination to rejoin our struggle as soon as possible, he also writes of how he stepped in to stop the morons and losers on his wing from bullying a slight and frightened young Asian lad who he "took under his wing." Nothing could show better how Kevin really is not the racist thug portrayed in the disgraceful police and prosecution case against him. As a result of his decency, Kevin himself became a target for the scum, though all ended well when they were moved off the wing after a couple of days of tension.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Talking of racism, another press cutting from the Bradford Telegraph & Argos arrives in the post. It is in fact not so much a cutting as the entire front page. "Boy, 10, hurt in race hate attack" screams the headline over a story about how a young Pakistani boy was cut by flying glass when a paving slab was thrown through the window of his house, allegedly by a white racist gang. Now, naturally we in the BNP join with all decent-minded people like us in condemning this nasty little attack, and those responsible for it. But then I get out the cutting from the same newspaper, just the day before, to which I referred in my final blog entry of last year. This is an inside page account of a vicious racial attack on a 16-year-old white lad, who was hospitalised after being smashed over the head with an iron bar by a gang of 'Asian youths' just after being racially abused by another such group.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">This report appeared on 14th December, and the front page one about the broken window was published the following day. Between them, the two pieces perfectly sum up the point I made in that previous blog about the disgusting disparity between media coverage of racist attacks on ethnic minorities and those on whites. To illustrate the point I pick up a ruler and measure the two respective articles, including the headlines and three photos (Muslim victims only, who's interested in white lads with broken heads?) The story about what could very easily have been yet another iron bar attack racist murder gets just under seven column inches on an inside page. The one about the broken window and the accidental cut that resulted gets 58 column inches, 28 of them on the front page and<span style=""> </span>30"<span style=""> </span>prominently on page 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">So criminal damage against a Muslim property, and its accidental knock-on effect, is more than eight times more newsworthy than a white boy being beaten over the head with an iron bar. And the liberal-left still can't understand why so much hatred is festering in places like Keighley and Bradford! <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">By pure chance, our chap who sends the press cuttings was in the A&E dept. in Airdale Hospital (the staff call it Scare Dale) on the same night that the young iron bar attack victim was there. He describes a school-age girl, in floods of tears, propping up her boyfriend, who was holding his head. Both dressed in Goth style and clearly middle class. "They were neither of them your stereotypical violent nutter types. If they had been, they would not have been within a mile of Lawkholme, the feral variety know better. These quiet types seriously believe - until they get whacked over the turnip that is - what they are taught at school."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">And so it goes on. Day after day the national and local media of virtually the entire country (there are a few honourable exceptions) twist and distort both facts and public opinions in a desperate attempt to keep the full scale of the disaster caused by mass immigration from the public at large. Not only desperate, but foolish to boot. Because every time the great suffering of white victims is downplayed compared to the lesser suffering of non-white ones, another white family or group of friends see through the Establishment Big Lie, and some of those come to blame and to hate not the journalists, editors and politicians, but perfectly innocent members of ethnic minorities. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">At the same time - an even bigger threat to the stability of coiled spring 'enriched' Britain - every time the suffering of non-white victims is talked up in this way amid wild allegations of 'Islamophobia', another group or three of young Muslims make the mental leap from unfocussed alienation to self-identification as wannabe British Intifada freedom fighters organising the heroic defence of their community against non-existent threats. What will they and their ilk do with that mentality and those defence groups? Well, as the saying goes, the devil makes work for idle hands, and my hunch is that we'll get a preview of where all this is leading if the lead article in this week's Spectator magazine - which claims that Israel has no choice but to nuke Iran within the next few weeks - turns out to be based on fact rather than a push to boost sales figures.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">UKIP Hypocrisy</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The BBC appear to have realised that Nigel Farage's UKIP is a dual purpose tool - both a stick with which to beat the Tories and a safety valve to syphon off popular sentiment which might otherwise benefit the BNP. It's hard to turn on a TV or radio current affairs programme these days without hearing him. His soundbites on the EU, taxation and East European economic migration are all very well crafted and must be helping to further break up the old Tory logjam in the way of a flood of genuine nationalism, and fortunately from our point of view he also repeatedly expresses UKIP's wholehearted support for mass immigration from the Third World and its 'enriching' effect on Britain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The utterly unprincipled PC cowardice of this man and his party is highlighted again this week by their attack on EU propaganda aimed at school-kids. Their message is splendid, but the problem is that Farage and his fellow UKIP MEPs themselves voted in favour of this EU indoctrination programme. On </span><st1:date year="2005" day="27" month="1"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Jan 27th 2005</span></st1:date><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, Farage and Co. voted in the European Parliament against their own Constitution to call on the European Commission to implement brainwashing propaganda in British schools by making <b>"European citizenship standard elements in school curricula throughout the EU." </b>Beneath the article, I reproduce the relevant text from the Resolution on 27.1.05:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 18pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">"The European Parliament...having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure: <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 18pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">F. Whereas <b>there needs to be an ongoing dialogue with the media about the<br />way their reporting and commentary can contribute both positively and<br />negatively to the perception and understanding of religious, ethnic and<br />racial issues, and to the presentation of historical truth...</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 18pt; text-align: left;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">5. Reaffirms its conviction that...<b>education</b> are vital<br />components of the effort <b>to make intolerance</b>, discrimination and racism a<br />thing of the past, and urges the Council, Commission and Member States to<br />strengthen the fight against...racism through promoting awareness, especially among young people...by:<br /><br />- <b>making...European citizenship standard elements in school curricula throughout the EU"</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 18pt; text-align: left;font-family:georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>The BBC and assorted New Labour spin doctors must think that they're very clever to have hit on the wheeze of building up this phoney 'nationalist' splinter, especially as they know that its leadership couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery (though champagne binges in European brothels are another matter). History will one day record whether, from their point of view, it was such a good idea after all. I suspect that the Law of Unintended Consequences may yet come into play.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1167487110732199102006-12-30T05:56:00.000-08:002006-12-30T05:58:30.760-08:00Post Christmas observations<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Splendid couple of days doing not much. A shame the weather's been grey - 'grismal' at times in fact - and not enticing for a walk. Today was an exception but, Sod's Law, I had to finish off my contribution to January’s Identity and so was stuck in the office. Still, having done that and while in writing mode, may as well do a bit more blogging.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">All the Yuletide menu arrangements went according to plan. We habitually avoid turkey on Christmas Day as the factory-reared things are a thoroughly disappointing meat as well as being nearly as inhumanely reared as battery hens and eggs (no-one who eats factory-farm eggs has the faintest right to criticise fox-hunting, most healthy foxes always stood a fair chance of getting away, and those that don't live free until the moment they die which is a luxury denied to millions of chickens). This Boxing Day though we had a free-range bird from a fairly local farm, as recommended by one of the two pukka butchers in Welshpool - take a look at Langford's Food Hall in particular if you're passing through Welshpool at some time. To add to the traditional nature of the day, and on the hunting theme, Rhiannon, Elen and I went down to see the Boxing Day hunt meet outside the </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Royal Oak</span></st1:place></st1:City><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> in town.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Local Tory Assembly Member Glynn Davies was there trying to shore up his vote. He's not particularly popular though, as word has gone around of his smug comment to a well-known farmer a few years back when the latter offered him a bit of advice on how to do things better: "I've done very well for myself". Where do they get these greedy second-raters? Apparently the hunt was one of about 300 happily defying New Labour's purported hunt ban, and very fine they looked too. I spoke to several people who were proudly sporting 'I was there' badges from the Countryside Marches. While I appreciate that some people are as deeply opposed to hunting as the hunts and their supporters are to carrying on, I do believe that people who are genuinely concerned with animal welfare would do better to direct their efforts against the grotesquely unnecessary and wholly alien practice of halal ritual slaughter of literally millions of helpless farm animals, rather than bothering about a couple of thousand often elderly or injured foxes a year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The best present as far as I'm concerned is, of course, simply being at home this Christmas, even more so without a looming court case (as far as I know!) In strictly material terms, though, my best this year has got to be a double CD, 'The Legendary Johnny Cash'. It features many of his best songs, all of which were re-recorded in the early 1990s when Cash signed to Rick Rubin's American Recordings label. His voice is amazingly strong for a man of his age, and his versatility shown by his ability not just with his own old classics but also on new covers of material such as Cat's In the Cradle, Wanted Man and even two by Elvis Costello. I'm pleased to say that I was a Cash fan some time before the recent film 'I Walk The Line' sparked a revival which has made him a musical icon even to many teenagers (if the music-playing ones around here are anything to go by, which they might not be of course). If all you know of Johnny Cash is a vague memory of one or two of his cheesier 1980s Country or Born Again Christian tracks, then I recommend you to get hold of this album. Brilliant stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Local celebrities</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Back on the subject of local celebrities, Richard and Rhiannon, out with separate gangs of mates in Newtown, were amused to have seen - several days before the story of their relationship broke in the press - Lembit Opick in relaxed mood in the Grapes and the Exchange pubs near to his constituency home, and his half of the Cheeky Girls out without him in the Castle Vaults on 'Mad Friday'. Say nothing, even the walls have BNP ears! Still, it's good to hear that at least one LibDem is hetero, I hope his colleagues won't persecute him to much over this shocking deviation from LibDem orthodoxy. At least by the time he splits up with Ms Cheeky there'll be a whole queue of Romanian (or, to be more precise, Roma) lasses available to anyone who has mastered a few basic phrases in their language.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">My guess on the impact of EU expansion to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Bulgaria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Romania</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> is that tales of coachloads of sturdy beggars and pick-pockets piling into </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt;">London</span></st1:City><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Victoria</span></st1:State></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> will feature heavily in the tabloids for the first week or so of January. Thereafter, when it becomes clear that </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> hasn't immediately sunk beneath the added weight of south east Europeans, the story will fade away for a few months. This is simply a matter of practicality - it takes a while for the first arrivals, the bridgehead if you will, to get themselves dug in, to learn the ropes of false IDs and benefit fraud, to locate the greedy employers who'll turn a blind eye to bogus NI numbers, to find spare flats and ways they can make money by bringing in friends and relatives. The 'pull' effect of mass immigration always takes some time to kick in, and the same will be true with this lot. The flood proper will take until Summer, but then watch the place go several more stages down the tubes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A new wage war</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Paradoxically, the people who will be hardest hit may actually be the Poles who've arrived over the last year or so. They've already dragged wages down so low that hundreds of thousands more native Brits are already out of the labour market, so the latest arrivals won't make any difference to our people. It's the Poles who'll now find themselves being undercut, by people who can work every bit as hard as they do (I mean Bulgarians and Romanians when I write this, the Roma's idea of work is stealing anything heavier than a purse). As the song goes, I predict a riot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Yesterday's Daily Mail had an editorial which put part a large part of the blame for this flood on lazy British workers. There is of course a shred of truth in this, but that's all. The reality is that, on top of the impact of decades of increasing 'dependency culture', the killing blow as far as the natives are concerned is that the East Europeans are able to undercut anything they can work for. There are two key reasons for this, neither of which is yet understood, let alone talked about by ignorant editors or shock-jock hacks like Peter Hitchens in their well-paid ivory towers: First, the newcomers often live eight or ten to a flat, dossing on floors or sharing beds in shifts. Second, the ones paying taxes are willing to live hand-to-mouth for ten months of the year (a combination of cheap supermarket special offers, eating at work, shoplifting and frugal peasant cookery of a sort that our pathetic school 'cookery' lessons dropped decades ago), with the savings they're after accruing in their tax and National Insurance contributions. Because, when they then go home at the end of nearly a year here, the British government kindly gives them all their tax back. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tax refund</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That's right, whether it's the initial emergency tax rate or the flat 22%, it's all paid over to them when they go home on holiday. All they've got to do is to use a fraction of the resulting handout to buy false ID and they're back taking another low paid British job a couple of weeks later. How can any native workers, with families to keep, homes to pay for, and Gordon Brown's tax-habit to pay for, possibly compete against that? What a shame it is that just about the only job that a bright East European immigrant can't take is one working as a journalist - the hacks might drop their condescending attacks on 'lazy' British workers if they could only get a taste of their own medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">One can't say quite the same for MPs, of course, because a fair few of them are already of East European ancestry. I was particularly amused to see Denis 'MacShane', Labour MP for the economic basket case known as Rotherham, and hence to more than his fair share of Islamic 'groomers', praising the Guardian for exposing the 'secrecy' of the BNP. For Denis was blessed at birth with an utterly unspellable Polish surname. Why did he change it? What sinister secret is he trying to hide? Not because having a strange name is an impediment to getting elected in tolerant, for if it was then Lembit Opick would be representing Riga East.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Guardian article</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Grauniad feature was one of the strangest pieces of journalism I've seen in a long time. As one reporter who called the Doc and me on the first day to see what we thought of it asked: "What did you have to pay the Guardian for that three page advert?" And the second day was even better. True, their wholly gratuitous 'unmasking' of several upper middle class type members was a nasty piece of McCarthyism, and something about which we will be talking to a senior barrister very early in the New Year, but the rest was a wonderful piece of 'repositioning' propaganda. Either the journalist and editor are both secret BNP supporters or, perhaps slightly less incredibly, this is part of a desperate New Labour/Joseph Rowntree Trust scheme designed to rouse the Grauniad's 400,000 readership into getting off their self-satisfied bourgeois liberal bottoms and opposing the BNP before it is completely too late.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">My hunch is that these people are privy to some truly (for them) shocking opinion poll and focus group data which shows the few little BNP snowballs we've already seen rolling down apparently solid rock and ice hillsides are in fact on the verge of triggering a BNP avalanche. Near panic, that's what we're seeing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And if they think it's bad now, have they any idea what might happen when one of those Islamist terror attacks that Dr. Reid and various top cops keep on warning about gets through? Of course, they are probably exaggerating the risk in order to justify their moves to abolish even more traditional freedoms, but saying that civilian Brits now face a greater danger than even during World War Two. That suggests 60,000 deaths in five years - around about 240 7/7 attacks a year for the next five years! <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Either our Masters' arithmetic is deeply flawed, or they know nothing about World War Two, or their lust for all that extra power as driven them mad, or they know something they're not telling us (think Captain Hook with a supply of suitcase nukes and a group of spotty seventeen year old Asifs). None of the above options is particularly good news if you're a Guardian reader who thinks </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;">'s just great as it is and doesn't want anyone to come along and make a mess of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Sooner or later, of course, even if the Powers That Be are over-egging the threat by a factor of a hundred, the unexaggerated Islamic threat is going to do enough damage. The latest Establishment organ to display some faint inkling into what's coming our way is the Independent, with its revelation that at least 23,000 British-based Muslims are among the three million pilgrims travelling to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mecca</span></st1:place></st1:City><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> for this year's Haj, and that an extraordinary number of them are much younger than is normal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Indie frets that it is 'alienation' and 'Islamophobia' that are radicalising young Muslims in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> - it's all going to our fault, you see! is, of course, a bit to polite to point out the obvious - that since going to Mecca for the Haj is obligatory for all Muslims once in their lifetime, it might be a good idea for the security services to pay particular attention to those young 'radicalised' ones who've just fulfilled that requirement while still in their late teens or early twenties. In fact, if they're that keen on being Islamic, it might be a good idea simply to stop them at Gatwick and stick them on the first plane to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Islamabad</span></st1:place></st1:City><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, because that would relieve them of their Koranic duty to strive mightily against their Unbeliever neighbours.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Spy unmasked</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">At the very least they need watching like hawks, and most certainly barred from certain jobs. One of the bullets that the British Establishment is going to have to bite sooner or later is the problem that all proper Muslims owe their primary allegiance to their religion and their co-religionists, rather than to an adopted kuffir country like the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt;">United Kingdom</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt;">. It is this that makes it entirely feasible that Corporal 'Daniel James' - the 41-year-old British army interpreter now accused of spying for the Iranians - could be 'guilty' of treason. For his real name is Esmail Gamasai and he is an Iranian Muslim. As a matter of fact, I can't help wondering who will be the more guilty if he is convicted as a result of the allegations against him - the Iranian Muslim who, when the chips are down, sides with his blood brothers, or the elegant fools who thought it would be a good idea to let such people into the British Army at a time when Blair's criminal regime has effectively declared war on Islam?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It's not a mistake that the British army made for a hundred years after the shock of the Indian Mutiny, and it requires serious ignorance of history to run the same risks again, especially when the trouble that will result will be on our own soil this time around. Kipling, as so often, tried to warn us of the danger:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"The Stranger within my gates,<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">He may be evil or good, But I cannot tell what powers control -<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">What reasons sway his mood;<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Nor when the Gods of his far-off land<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Shall repossess his blood."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Not 'if'', but 'when'.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1167049516365904242006-12-25T04:20:00.000-08:002006-12-25T04:25:16.423-08:00Christmas Day posting<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: georgia;"><o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Off on a brief trip down south. First stop is home of our dynamic South East regional organiser, Roger Robertson, who is doing a great job building on the earlier sterling work of ex-UKIP stalwart Brian Galloway, who had to step down due to family illness but who is still very much 'onside'. There I do an interview with a journalist who's working on what is supposed to be a big piece for the Telegraph. He's an amiable enough lad, but what on earth is the paper that used to provide a platform to the brilliant 'reactionary' satirist Michael Wharton ('Peter Simple') doing employing such dripping wet liberals? The questions are no more useful or incisive than those provided by sixth formers at the very occasional school visit that we get, and he seems genuinely to believe in the multicult Tooth Fairy. Over a month later, the 'big piece' has still not appeared.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Together with Financial Times columnist Gordon C. Tether, 'Peter Simple' provided much the only glimmer of genuine patriotism and talent among all the prostitute hacks of the 1970s, which was when the monstrous project which is approaching fruition under Bliar really took off. His death was a sad loss to honest journalism, for he combined the natural talent with words that he inherited from the East European Jewish side of his family with the love of the real Britain that came from the Olde English half of his ancestry. Wharton wrote me a short but kind and supportive letter after my first Race Act trial back in 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The neo-Nutzi and clerico-fascist cranks who infest cyberspace always have to overlook people like Wharton in order to 'prove' their thesis that "the Jews are the Spawn of Satan" and so diabolically clever that to show them anything less than 100% hostility is to be fooled into becoming a "Zionist puppet". John Amery, the half-Jewish leader of the tiny British contingent of the Waffen SS is another one whose ancestry goes down the neo-Nazi memory-hole (all totalitarianisms have one). The same mentality also points to the very obvious Jewish links of the 'American' neo-conservative movement and concludes that the US/Blairite invasion of Iraq was a 'war for Israel'.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Well, if that's the case, these people aren't so diabolically clever after all, are they? Is Israel really 'safer' now that looming defeat in Iraq means that it would be virtually impossible for the most slavishly pro-Zionist US President (and all of them since Nixon have been) to do anything serious and effective either about Hizbollah rockets or an Iranian Bomb? The neo-con project to "remake the Middle East" has been a grotesque failure - if its real aim was to aid the establishment of Eretz Israel (the Israel-uber-alles-from-the-Nile-to-the-Euphrates scheme of the most ardent Zionists), or even to make Israelis safer within their existing borders.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Unless, of course, the neo-con project was actually something very different. Might not the plan to take out Iraq, to break Hizbollah and - coming soon - Iran, be someone else's scheme at root, even if some rather short-sighted Jewish fascists felt that it could be to their benefit too? Look at the victims of this 'American/Zionist' aggression: Shi'ite Iraq, Shi'ite Iran, Shi'ite Hezbollah. Look at who could have stopped the American war machine in its tracks with a single word and the turning off of the West's key oil supply, but who does nothing - Sunni Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom could grind the dollar and the imperial pretensions of the USA into dust within a week if wanted to - which it does, but not yet, for these people play a very long game, measured in decades or even centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Ever since the end of the Turkish Caliphate in 1922 there has been a power vacuum at the heart of Islam. Who will fill the gap? For the first time in more than a thousand years it could be the Shi'ites, since the bulk of the remaining oil reserves in the Middle East are now in Iran and southern Iraq, and Iran is closer than any other Islamic state<span style=""> </span>to having an Islamic Bomb (the hybrid military dictatorship in Pakinstan doesn't count - they've even banned Hizb ut Tahrir, unlike Britain under Tony Blair). The Wahhabi fanatics who control Saudi Arabia have spent two hundred years fighting and plotting to spread their ultra-puritanical version of Islam over the whole world, and they're not going to take kindly to being pipped at the post for the revived Caliphate by a bunch of Iranian heretics.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">So just as they used the 'New Byzantium' (the USA) to help them defeat the 'New Persia' (the USSR) once the Russians foolishly blundered into Afghanistan, so now it would suit them to use the USA to beat down the Shi'ites. Once that's done, of course, they can switch their main attention back to their last outstanding Big Project - the Islamisation of Europe (time-scale 20 - 40 years) and the subsequent assault on the USA (time-scale 50 - 100 years).<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">One thing is certain - there is no point looking to the writings and public utterences of the neo-cons themselves, for their great ideological and strategic guru Leo Strauss (an elitist German Jew who maintained friendly relations with the Nazi regime even after fleeing to New York and worming his way into the American Establishment) taught them that their Great Scheme for a neo-Platonic elite to dominate the rest of Mankind must be advanced mainly through deception - in particular never revealing one's true objectives. So the self-confessed intentions of the likes of Pearl and Wolfovitz shouldn't be given too much weight. 'The Jews' haven't been blameless throughout history, but they've also been convenient scapegoats throughout history. Medieval kings used to farm out tax collection to them so that the peasants would kick back at unfortunate and wholly innocent Jewish tailors and not at their ultimate oppressors in their royal families. How convenient to have all the conspiracy freaks in the world fixated exclusively on 'the Jews' (whose past disproportionate role in assorted civilisational wrecking sprees such as Bolshevism and multi-racialism has, to be honest, not been particularly good PR) while the Muslim Conquest machine rolls on and the super-rich think it is another odd mass superstition that they can control like so many others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I<span style="font-family: georgia;">n the end, all conspiracy theories are matters of faith and not of rational interpretation of facts. Hence they are best taken with fairly large pinches of salt and even more commonsense. Is it good for Britain to have our troops dying in distant dusty lands where no genuine British interest is served? Clearly not. So whether the 'reason' they are there is Tony Blair's vanity, Tony Blair's pro-Israeli 'tennis partner' moneybags, or the fact that Bush & Co are in the pockets of the Saudis, we should bring them home immediately. That is all there is to say and know for sure.</span><br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--><o:p style="font-family: georgia;"></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Unexpected</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After the interview we head off to a local meeting near Basingstoke. This is, by old rights, prime Tory and more recently UKIP territory, but Roger and his team are making big inroads. Around 100 people pack the function room of a centuries'-old local pub. A couple of local journalists have been invited (we get very fair write-ups subsequently) and all goes well. The landlord is quoted as saying we weren't what he expected (in a good way!) After the meeting one of our Surrey characters, 'Mark ye Morris' gets out his squeezebox and rattles off a few traditional tunes. I'm told that a mobile video of him and me doing "The Man Who Waters The Workers' Beer" will go up on You-tube. The growth of this instant, do-it-yourself media has to be this year's technological surprise and, yet again, shows new technologies undermining old monopolies.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The next day I fill in with a couple of private meetings, then it's off to the BBC headquarters at Portland Place to appear as a 'witness' on The Moral Maze, where the evening's Radio 4 discussion is on free speech. I'm first on, with Michael Buerk's panel being Michael Portillo, Claire Fox (ex-Living Marxism), the Catholic affairs correspondent of The Times and a leftist former BBC political bigwig. My security team are waiting on the other side of a plate glass screen in the same room as the producer and sound engineer. They watch in amazement as the producer signals to the panelists to verbally rough me up and to be even more aggressive. I like these kind of confrontations though and, after a few minutes, his gestures are to Michael Buerk - 'cut', 'get him off' are the hand gestures now. Accused of wanting ethnic cleansing, I finish my appearance by telling them that ethnic cleansing attacks are going on at that very moment in towns all over the north of England, but that as the victims are 'only' working class whites people like the panel simply don't want to know.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After the programme we head to the Millennium Hotel in nearby Grosvenor Square to meet someone else I need to see. Strange this, because I've never even heard of the place before but it emerges a couple of weeks later that if we'd gone there ten days earlier we'd have got a dose of radiation poisoning, and if we'd gone two weeks earlier I'd probably have been a suspect in the 'murder' of Litvenenko!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">More meetings, organisational matters to sort and things to write, then it's off to the Annual Conference at Blackpool. This has been well-publicised elsewhere so little needs to be said about it, other than the fact that it is another step on the long road to move the BNP away from being at base a "one man band" and turn it into a sensibly revolutionary movement in which the overall direction is determined by an experienced body of officials and activists, such that it can withstand whatever hardships and tragedies may be thrown in its way before we reach our final objective.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The debates go well, with a great deal of maturity and generous attention to different points of view. The first thing that everybody has to learn is the importance of collective responsibility - even if the majority vote the opposite way to what some would prefer, the 'defeated' minority must accept the decision and work with it, while retaining the right to work by constructive persuasion and personal example to get the decision reversed at a future conference. On the Saturday evening everyone is eating out as the hotel venue, although large, cannot cope with food for so many people. To avoid placing an extra burden on security (there has been a far-left demo of a hundred or so in town earlier in the day) a small group of us slip away a few miles south to Lytham St. Annes. We find a quiet restaurant - modern English with French and Italian influence - where the owner/chef is very pleased to see us and sends various complimentary bits to our table. Sympathy, mind you, was the experience of all our conference attendees; we've 'cracked' Blackpool and have held a two-day event with extensive advance notice without more than a feeble token demo against us. This is another very significant advance on the road to normalisation; a few years ago it would have been unthinkable. Another resounding success.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Non-Dutch Holland and non-Belgian Flanders</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The following weekend starts early with another trip 'down south'. This time it is to a big meeting in Barking. I share a platform with Chris Roberts, one of our 'old hands' and a very good media performer when he gets the chance, and with Cllr Richard Barnbrook. Richard gives another outstanding speech and then it's my turn. It turns out to be a lengthy speech, one of my more-than-an-hour ones, but it's a deeply political audience and it goes down well. Nearly all of our local councillors are there and the atmosphere is electric. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Our Barking councillors are now throwing all sorts of motions and verbal brickbats at Labour in the council chamber, and we're getting some remarkably fair publicity. It seems that there often comes a local tipping point when even a previously relentlessly hostile local press realises that our support is so strong that the pretence that we are wicked or incompetent 'outsiders' can no longer be kept up. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I leave the meeting a little earlier than usual as we have to get to an inn in Kent where we've booked two twin rooms for the night; we have to be in Dover early the following morning in order to get a ferry to a weekend conference in Flanders. We arrive as the locals are leaving but the landlord not only recognises me immediately but shakes my hand warmly and keeps on serving. The bitter is a bit disappointing but he has a fabulous draught Somerset cider which goes down very well.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">To our suprise we find that we can still get an evening meal at nearly midnight - apparently the kitchen is still open as another late group of guests are due. So a little after us Jools Holland and Ruby Turner walk into the pub. The former front man of the late seventies group 'Squeeze' is now widely and justly recognised as a genuinely talented musician and entertainer, while Ruby Turner has the powerful voice of many black lady singers. Not really my cup of tea but good for all that. They eat their steaks and Ruby and a couple of others leave fairly quickly. Jools stays talking to the landlady and a couple of other late locals. He bids us a cheery goodnight as he leaves and, not much later, we turn in as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The event in Flanders is billed as the 'Euro-Rus Conference' and is organised by an independent group linked to the Altermedia nationalist news website (if you're not familiar with it, take a look). Even though I don't necessary see eye-to-eye with all those present, I've agreed to speak for several reasons: Russia's huge energy supplies and the fact that our own North Sea bonanza was blown by the Thatcher and Blair/Brown regimes as a way of covering up our catastrophic industrial decline, mean that we are going to be more and more reliant on Mr. Putin and his successors in the years to come. Accordingly it behoves us as far-sighted nationalists to learn as much about Russia as possible and to forge friendly links with Russian nationalists as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Second, I suspect that some of the other speakers will concentrate on the danger posed to Russia and her enigmatic President by the Oligarchs - including those living in exile in England and Israel - who are clearly not inclined to forgive Putin for curbing at least the worst excesses of their grand privatisation smash and grab raid at the expense of the long-suffering Russian people. I want to balance a potentially one-sided approach by drawing attention to Russia's own problems with militant Islam, and the still unresolved tensions between Germans and Slavs over historically disputed territories in Eastern Europe. Predictably, there are indeed criticisms of 'Jewish oligarchs', which I respond to by pointing out that the core of the problem is not that the oligarchs are Jewish (it's a simpe fact that all this lot are), but that there are oligarchs at all. Would it really be any better for the Russians to be looted by a clique of mega-rich Russians? Of course not, which makes the problem economic and social, rather than racial, for as long as there is a system which allows the super-rich to accrue ever-larger amounts of wealth and influence, then whichever is on average the most intelligent section of the population will exploit that system and lord it over the rest. The answer is to change the system, not to persecute innocent people who have something in common with the handful of exploiters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">My third reason for attending is that the other speakers include the long-term 'New Right' theorists Guillaume Faye and Robert Steuckers. The charming Frenchman Faye I have met before and want to meet again, Steuckers is new to me but we hit it off straight away. As part of the long-term programme of broadening BNP support and influence we need to engage in a War of Ideas with the liberal-left, especially at university level. Pragmatic England is particularly backwards in this field and I hope in due course to bring Faye and Steuckers over to a conference here at which we can pull together the various strands of 'New Right' and traditionalist thought which do exist in Britain. We'll see.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A number of attendees are from the Vlaams Belang and afterwards we end up at a local VB post-election victory celebration in a nearby leisure centre. Also present are members of a traditional Flemish folk dance troupe, who seem quite keen on attending the RWB. Still later we end up back where we've been billetted for the weekend and in turns out that our host and a friend of his are keen folk singers. Since I have nothing to do the next day save sit in the back of a car on the long journey home, I indulge myself my singing alternate songs with them until nearly five in the morning. Ridiculous behaviour, but we enjoy it at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">After the multicult - even greater madness</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Back home in Britain (though some pretty wild seas and an extra delay outside Dover as it's too rough to put into harbour) there is some strange rhetoric in the air. Tony Blair comes out with a speech on multi-culturalism which confirms the Labour government's drastic shift from the Balkanisation-everyone-(except the English)-can-let-it-all-hang-out model to a One-Phoney-British-Fits-All system. On paper, at least. It's unconvincing stuff though, with Blair's attempt to steal Jean-Marie Le Pen's "France, Love It, Or Leave It" sentiments coming over as particularly unconvincing. In our more populist moments at elections it's a slogan we've adapted, so his tactical genius think-tank artists and speech writers have probably pinched it off us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">But making noises about veils and extremists while at the same time leaving Britain's front gates open and allowing creeping Sharia law in everything from halal school meals to tax-break polygamy is illogical nonsense. Still, everything the Establishment does to legitimise our message and to raise and then dash public hopes that something will get done will rebound in our favour in due course.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The more so because the Establishment alternative to voluntary multiculturalism is going to be enforced integration. The recently announced rebuilding programme for all secondary schools in the country is to be a key part of this, with no stone unterned in the drive to create racial harmony by forcibly mixing schoolkids. Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Days later the same strange confused liberal-left reaction to the collapse of so many old certainties is visible in the announcement by the BBC that it has been too focussed on conventional middle-of-the-road liberalism. It's got to stop, says Auntie, so viewers can expect to see "more of the Taliban and the BNP on interviews from now on." Yes, of course, we're one-and-the same, and it's surely only reasonable that foreign terrorists who used to hang idolatrous TV sets and pull out the fingernails of women wearing nail varnish (though, strangely, Taliban males often wear it) are put in the same bracket as a legal British political party that is now showing more support in opinion polls than the Liberals used to register when I was first interested in politics.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This matter of growing BNP support is confirmed just a couple of days after noting the point above when we take more than 12% of the vote in ultra-posh Horsham, in Sussex. We easily beat the Labour party and absolutely thrash UKIP in what would, if they really had a heart, would be their heartland. This very significant result was well-worked for by local canvassing teams and gets a surprising amount of attention from the political and chattering classes. The BBC is still trying to talk up UKIP and Nigel Farage, but UKIP is losing activists to us as fast as the Cameroons are losing members to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Unusually, I go down with some kind of virus. Jackie says it's my own fault for staying up singing all night. Yes, nurse. I have to call off two meetings which I hate doing as I don't like to let people down. I hear they go well for all that though. There is so much demand on my time these days that in the New Year I'm going in normal circumstances to stop doing long journies to individual meetings altogether. I will still do so for venues within three hours' drive, which covers all Wales, the West Midlands, most of the East Midlands, and the core parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. But for places further off than that I'll be doing a tour a month, with a number of back to back meetings on the same and adjacent nights, in one region per month.<span style=""> </span>So in January I'll be in the North East, and in February it'll be East Anglia. March and April will probably see a mad rush around our main potential May election breakthrough areas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lots of hot air?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"Cows generate more greenhouse gases than all forms of transport combined, a United Nations report has revealed." So begins a short report carried in several newspapers. The study, entitled 'Livestock's Long shadow', warns that drastic action is needed if the methane and carbon dioxide produced by ruminants is not to turn Earth into a pressure cooker. Author Henning Steinfeld claims that "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Hmmm. Having had a small holding and seen how goats will stop at nothing to munch on young trees, I have no doubt at all that livestock play a big part in creating deserts, both the dry sandy type and the cold green ones of upland Britain. But as for farting cows destroying the world, I have grave reservations. Yes, in all probability there are more domesticated animals around these days; the growing demand for meat from China's burgeoning middle class alone almost guarantees that. But have the UN not given a little thought as to whether the resulting increase in domesticated bovine flatulence over the last century or so might not be offset by an even more drastic decline in the number of wild methane-machines?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Remember the endless herds of bison that used to thunder over the Great Plains of North America? The torrents of wildebeast and rhinos that used to pour over the landscape of Africa? The elephants of India and Africa and, going back just a blink of an eye in geological terms, their wooly cousins who used to dominate the tundra near the great ice sheets? Why didn't the farting of all those mammouths and wild aurochs stop the last Ice Age before it even got started?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Are today's livestock herds and flocks really doing more damage to the atmosphere than all the cars, lorries, planes and supertankers in the world? Or is this a dodgy piece of 'science' that is in reality a mere figleaf for ideologically motivated opinions and prescriptions for the future? In fact, how much of the whole man-made global warming scare is based on genuine empirical science, and how much is created by the Watermelon (green outside, red inside) tendencies of the post-1989 left? Are cows really going to kill the world, or is the tale merely useful to political activists who want to spread vegetarianism, encourage neo-Hindu meatless egalitarianism and to destroy capitalist farming techniques?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">While we in the BNP also have strong objections to agribusiness industrial farming, we know enough about the devious nature of the regrouped Marxian left to be suspicious about the current global warming mania. Global carbon credit trading could be intended to save the planet, but it could equally be a crucial stepping stone towards One World Government and, more practically, a massive rip-off mechanism designed to fleece the productive nations of the world in favour of the basket cases and the World Bank.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">On balance, it does appear that the world is going through a warming phase (though plenty of independent scientists whose research grants are not reliant on their finding evidence of global warming are not so sure). But when I hear that the Alpine glaciers are now back to where they were 1,000 years ago I have to wonder at the credulity of those who allow tax-guzzlers like Gordon Brown to blame the impact of Man (Dark Age Europe, of course, was well known for its huge polluting industries and traffic-choked ten-lane motorways). <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Even more curious is the evidence from those remarkable NASA photos of Mars which show that water from melting ice has changed that planet's surface in the last five or ten years. So the climate of Mars has recently warmed up, and indeed may still be doing so. Is this due to larger herds of cattle in Brazil, or to China's new generation of coal-fired power stations, or to all those 4x4s on the school run in Surbiton? Or might it - and similar swings in the climate of our planet too - not just be down to cyclical changes in the rather ordinary star at the heart of our solar system, about which we still know so little?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Of course we need to cut pollution, for it's bad for us. Of course we need to stop wiping out tigers and whales, for they are part of the wonder of our world. Of course we need to move away from producing low quality meat packed with carcinogenic chemicals. And of course we need a massive R&D programme to end our addiction to finite fossil fuels - global warming or not, relying on the Iranians and Saudis for the energy that underpins our civilisation is insane. But let's not get carried away with global warming, because in a few years it might be as outdated as the idea that acid rain was about to kill off the last tree. Remember that one?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cowardly cops and a 16-year-old "man"</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A friend in Keighley sends me several cuttings from the local rag. "Youth hit over head on way to concert" is the headline on a 6" piece tucked away on page 9 (14/12/06). It relates how "A 16-year-old youth was hospitalised after being hit over the head with an iron bar, in Lawkholme Lane, on Friday night. The youngster, who was walking with friends to a concert at Victoria Hall, Keighley, was racially abused by one gang of youths before being assaulted by another group."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The attack was sufficiently serious that the lad had to be kept in hospital overnight. Local police spokesman Det Insp John Moutain said he believed the attackers were young Asian men and from the local area.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"It's the sword arm, the fighting arm, the arm you hit a white lad over the head with a baseball bat with" was one of the parts of the speech in Keighley for which West Yorkshire Police recently tried to send me to prison. The prosecution complained bitterly at my timerity in actually daring to mention the unmentionable in the town - that racist violence against young white males, and racist sexual abuse of young white girls, is largely the product of the 'culture' created by Islam. While two juries upheld my right to say such things, and to urge peaceful political action to bring them to an end, the very fact of the prosecution will have helped - as was intended - to place such discussions beyond the Pale. And, thereby, to have made it inevitable that there will be more victims in future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">One would hope that the police would have learnt their lesson by now, but sadly not. In the same report the Det Insp is at it again, using weasel words to downplay and minimise the incident: "The man was clearly shaken by the incident and kept in for observation."<span style=""> </span>"Man"? The boy was just sixteen. If it had been the other way around, with two different white racist gangs abusing and beating teenage Asians, this dispicable excuse for a policeman would not have dared to play it down by calling the victim a "man", and, for that matter, the report wouldn't have been confined to the local paper. Keighley police are particularly bad - they STILL haven't even asked us for the name of the racist murderer of Sean Whyte, which they know we have on a video clip shot by BNPtv in their own police station in the town. Instead they, and the pathetic Ann Cryer, turn blind eyes again while a Muslim murderer and his gang swagger through their town intimidating not just local people but also law-abiding members of the Asian Muslim community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This is what I was getting at near the end of that appearance on The Moral Maze - low-level ethnic cleansing attacks are going on against I(mainly young) whites every single night across a huge swathe of our country, and the police and the media and the politicians turn blind eyes or downplay it at every possible opportunity. Loathesome people. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The real trouble is that every time our Establishment fails to take effective action, the racist/religionist aggression and confidence of these Muslim gangs grows. "You can beat a white boy and no-one really cares," "if you get caught all you have to do is say he racially abused you," "White girls are easy meat, and their society is so rotten that you can do whatever you want to them and the kaffir police won't even admit anything's happening." These are the sort of messages throbbing along the Islamic bush telegraph in Britain today. As long as they continue to do so without a proper response from the Powers that Be then more white lads will be brained with iron bars and baseball bats, and more young girls will be seduced or dragged into short brutal lives of sexual exploitation and heroin addiction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Truly, there is no place in hell hot enough for the editors, police bosses and politicians who know what is going on and cover it all up, thus dooming even more victims to the same sad fate. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Another one bites the dust</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And so it's Christmas Eve. The BNP Christmas message, shot on location in the stunning Western Isles of Scotland so as to draw attention to our very serious efforts to break through with a parliamentary seat in Scotland next May, is done and dusted and being downloaded by the thousand. On the road across the Island of Mull we were treated to the finest double rainbow I've ever seen, one complete rainbow bridge arc in intense colours, and a second, almost complete, outside it. The road we were were on appeared to pass between the two. Wonderful. As I say in the piece near the start of the message, why on earth do so many people insist on all the hassle of travelling abroad when there is so much scenery, history and human interest and kindness to be found in our own country?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We stop in the little port of Oban on the way back. Even there I'm recognised - with comments by a dappy but slightly inebriated old gent who assures me that he is going to be world famous soon and that he has already screwed the Royal Bank of Scotland for a very large sum of money. He is very pro-BNP, unlike the barman's student-type mate, who hisses 'fascists' as I pay the bill. The silly thing is that if he actually took the trouble to find out what we really stand for he'd probably agree with most of it. Still, for now he'll have to make do with telling all his mates who he shouted 'fascist' at Nick Griffin and his 'minders' and lived to tell the tale!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Family preparations for Christmas are pretty much complete and the house looks stunning as ever. If and when I get time to write my autobiography thus far I'll have to include a picture of the poor place when it was a derelict shell - no roof and three and a half walls, no doors or windows, just gaping holes and piles of rubble - before years of on and off work transformed it. The shame is that young families in Britain today can no longer afford the wrecks that come up for sale. We were among the last ones to get on the ladder that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">For us, though, it will be wonderful to be able to enjoy Christmas without the unspoken of spectre of trial and prison hanging over us. It's fine for me, I'm a volunteer, but Jackie and the children are conscripts in such matters. Thanks once more to everyone who helped out in any way while all that was still going on, and apologies to anyone I seemed to ignore, snub or snap at while somewhat preoccupied.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">By way of one of those 'personal touches' that unaccountably do seem to be so important in blogs, herewith our Christmas menu, complete with who's doing what. Jackie's getting the main day off, although she's got to do the traditional bit on Boxing Day, when parents come round as well:</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial;">YULETIDE MENU<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Rhiannon's Birthday Tea - 23rd December</span></u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Mussels in cream and white wine (Dad)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Lamb chops, cous cous, mediterranean vegetables (Mum)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Mince pies and brandy butter<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Christmas Eve<o:p></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Homemade pizzas and salad (Mum)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Christmas Day<o:p></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Breakfast:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Seared scallops and sweet chilli sauce. Fresh baked bread (Rhiannon)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Lunch:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Carpaccio of beef (Richard)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Medallions of pork, colcannon and calvados sauce (Dad)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Self-saucing chocolate pudding and vanilla icecream (Elen)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Supper:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Paella (Dad)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Boxing Day</span></u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Breakfast:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (Jennifer)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Lunch (all Mum):<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Cauliflower and bacon soup<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Roast mincemeat turkey and all the trimmings<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Christmas Puddings flaming and frozen <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Supper:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Jacket potatoes, cold turkey and pickles (Dad)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Key dates for next year are all set - the Organisers' Conference, Summer School, Red-White-and-Blue, National Conference. When the Electoral Commission publishes our accounts for 2006 next summer they will show that, in the dying days of old 2006, we are to all intents and purposes blessed with a clean financial slate. A fair few assets and no significant debts. John Walker and Dave Hannam deserve the credit for doing a fine job at Treasury and keeping firm, steady hands on the rudder in that department. Meanwhile the Membership Department is straining under but coping with a record number of early membership renewals and new members. A staggering seventeen thousand pounds was banked in membership payments last week alone.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So the Labour party goes into the New Year owing twenty seven million, and the Tories stagger in effectively bankrupt and a shocking thirty five million quid in the red. We, on the other hand, look forward to 2007 in the black and with enormous confidence. With two great court victories, a record council seat breakthrough and the collapse of the multicult myth, 2006 has seen fortune shine on the British National Party. What will 2007 bring? Well, a few more of our predictions will come true, but more than that no man can say. Only one thing is sure: It won't be boring, for this is the party that keeps British politics awake.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1167329161927629132006-12-22T10:03:00.000-08:002006-12-28T10:11:36.916-08:00Friday November 10th<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is the long awaited post from Nick and Simon about the activities of the last day of the Free Speech Retrial last month. Better late than never!<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Simon Darby’s notes:</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Up at just gone </span><st1:time minute="0" hour="5"><span lang="EN-GB">5 a.m.</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> to be sure to get to </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Leeds</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> on time. Some activists will already have been on the road for an hour or more – people are coming from all over for what looks certain to be a day of suspense and drama. History in the making.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The headlines on most of the papers could hardly be better. The head of MI5 has warned of a huge numbers of active Islamist terror cells, with 30 known mass casualty plots. “Vicious, wicked faith” indeed. A good day for the verdict, even if it’s a bad one.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Queue to get in at court once again. Nick and Mark’s families are let in to the public gallery first and I sit in the row in front of them. Jackie is with three of their four – Richard, now a strapping young man who looks more like one of the security team than a worried son, Rhiannon and Elen. Jennifer can’t get time off university. Mark’s parents, sister and girlfriend are here too.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Also in court are Emmanuel from the independent European nationalist Internet network Altermedia, and the Doc, who is braced for a flood of media calls starting the moment the verdict is announced. Even now, journalists keep calling him to try to find out when a result is expected.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:time minute="30" hour="10"><span lang="EN-GB">10.30 a.m.</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> The jury are called back into court. Their half hour out yesterday afternoon was time to elect a foreman – a big chap perhaps in his late forties. Could easily be a builder. Clearly there is no decision yet. They leave court to carry on deliberating, we all head for the canteen.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Scarcely twenty minutes later and a call comes over the tannoy “All parties in the case of Collett and </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Griffin</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB"> please go to Court 8 immediately”. <span style=""> </span>Surely no verdict already? If so it can only be Not Guilty. We return to the court, only to find that Mark has vanished. He returns just as we’re starting to have visions of the Judge coming in before him and going berserk! But Mark arrives in the nick of time and things get under way again. Nick has already told us that he’s been informed that there is no verdict yet.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So why are we there? It turns out that the jury wanting to see speeches again. A brief flurry between the lawyers and the judge and it is decided that they will do so in open court once more. The videos themselves effectively are the prosecution case. The Judge says that he believes that the defence case has been summed up so recently that there is no need to reiterate it. I am unhappy about this as we’d do far better to finish on the highnote of the defence case, but there you go.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We all watch the videos yet again. For the jury it’s the second time only, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen them. It’s hard to see through the smoked glass between the public gallery and the jury box, but those members I can see seem utterly unaffected by the films. The foreman makes a few notes during Mark’s first speech, then just watches it all with the others. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Once the DVDs are finished (it takes about an hour) the jury and then we all leave once again. I go outside to speak to people in our crowd. I don’t use the megaphone in order to avoid any risk of inadvertently committing contempt of court. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Everyone is asking what I think and my answer is the same: “They’d have to be a really hard-nosed jury to convict either of them.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I go back in. Mark is worried, telling us that “I’m going down”. Various people reassure him that it doesn’t look like that to people who are not so uncomfortably close to the action. Nick is stoic, a bit quieter than usual but otherwise unaffected.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Judge had said come back at 2.15 as he wouldn’t take a verdict over lunch. We return and the Jury come in a few minutes later – it appears that they reached their decisions either just before or over lunch. Quite a short time for six separate charges, which is perhaps a good sign.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The foreman is asked if they have reached verdicts on which they are all agreed, he nods almost imperceptibly as he says ‘yes’. The tension is unbelievable, for the defendants, their families and for me – perhaps a minute away from having the worst job in the country!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Charges one and two relate to Mark’s first speech. Charge one? No one breathes as we wait for the first syllable of his answer. While it be ‘N..’ or ‘G...’? </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty”. There is a sigh or gasp from the females in Mark’s life.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Charge two?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty”. One of them begins to sob with relief.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Charge three?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I glance back at Nick’s family. All are deadly still, except that Rhiannon and Richard are shaking. Pale.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The answer to this one, though, has to be a foregone conclusion. For a jury to find Mark’s first speech legal but to say that Nick’s was intended to stir up hatred would be unbelievably perverse.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty”. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Each verdict is now producing a gasp and sobs of relief from their relatives.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Charge four?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">For me, poised to have to go down and face the battery of media cameras and to try to keep our people calm and positive if the worst comes to the worst, this is the crunch one.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty!”<span style=""> </span>The crying behind me is now uncontrolled and clearly uncontrollable.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Charge five, Mark’s second ‘intended’ charge, is almost lost in the relief as there’s really no chance of a different verdict on this one.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty”.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Which leaves Mark’s final ‘likely’ charge. This is the moment where we find out if the jury members worked out some kind of ‘plea bargain’ among themselves – rather than a hung jury on a couple of charges a ‘not guilty’ on one and a ‘guilty’ on another.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Not guilty!”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The biggest sigh of relief; desperate, racking sobs of relief from Mark’s loved ones. The Sky news reporter leaps from her seat and bolts out of the door. We suppress a cheer but the public gallery is noisy. The judge demands quiet and gets it, except for the crying.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick and Mark are released immediately. Some of the jury are smiling – for the first time – clearly in response to the smiles and nodded thanks from the two men they have just vindicated. They look pleased with themselves, as well they should.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The moment Nick is out of the dock he puts his head and arm over the glass barrier and tells and gestures us all to be silent. He does the same – a huge grin on his face, has he comes round the smoked glass and into the public gallery section of the court. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mark is a pace behind him and they head for the door like horses or greyhounds out of the trap! The usher tells everyone else to stay where they are. As the court door swings shut behind the two now ex-defendants, a huge cheer from the people waiting in the foyer outside rings through the court.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The judge ignores it, perhaps because it’s cut short, and I guess he knows by now that Nick not only can control our people but also is doing so. Then he discharges the jury, telling them that they have tried a sensitive case carefully and fairly. They file out back to their day-to-day lives and out of history, no doubt to tell dozens of people at home or in pubs what they’ve just seen and done. Some will drink out on this for many a time!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“All stand,” says the usher for the last time, Judge Norman Jones bows slightly to the court for the last time, turns and walks out of the door to his left. Nick and Mark’s families dash out, and we all follow.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s chaos outside in the foyer. Everyone hugging, tears streaming down faces. Once the family embracing and kissing is over, I grab Nick: “You’re too clever for them, Nick” and then shake Mark’s hand “I told you you’d be OK.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">An elated calm descends. The supporters go out to join the rest of the crowd, leaving the families and security team. Nick and Mark both sit on the padded seats in the corner to work briefly on what to say outside. I fire a few daft jourrnalists’ questions at Nick by way of practice and suggest that Mark has a go at the BBC. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Sky reporter comes back in and asks me what’s happening next. Then the Doc gets a call, one of the TV stations want them on live for the </span><st1:time minute="0" hour="3"><span lang="EN-GB">three o’clock</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> news if possible.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick thanks the cops who are still standing near us in their high-vis jackets. They smile and nod in reply. All are friendly. We head downstairs past more smiling police officers. In the entrance hall Danny Warville and Nick discuss the arrangements outside with the senior police officer, who is clearly on top of the job and keen to let us have our moment outside. “It’s your show”, he tells Nick – and it’s going to be!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Danny pulls his security team together and gives them one final briefing: “Job’s nearly done, but it’s not over yet. Keep it tight. Let’s keep the box (the positioning of security personnel around the ‘principles’) and keep discipline.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then it’s outside to the huge BNP crowd going mad with joy and victory, the dozen reds screaming with frustration and hate, and the biggest bank of press cameras I’ve ever seen at any BNP event. A thicket of TV and radio microphones have been set up just our side of the police crash barrier and the two heroes of the moment speak standing next to them. You’ve seen the rest on TV. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I see Emmanuel fliming with the small but very serviceable camcorder he uses for AltermediaTV. He’s grinning insanely, bowled over by the enthusiasm of our crowd and the skilled, effortless way that both Mark and Nick are handling the media. “I love </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB"> and I you English,” he enthuses, and we have to forgive him – a foreigner after all! – for not noticing the Scottish, Welsh and Irish flags and accents among our crowd.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It starts to pour with rain, but none of us minds. Nearly half an hour later Nick and Mark have finished the media interviews at the lower end of the precinct and shaking hands and kissing their way up the line of our crowd. <span style=""> </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then we find a fresh scrum of TV cameras and radio mikes at the top end. Nick gives an interview to ITN resting his right arm, and hand holding a white champagne bottle, on a car. Soaking wet, he parries silly questions with practiced ease, and pauses between points to take a mouthful of champagne. (He tells me later that he was getting dry by this time, but that also he wanted to give them shots of insolent victorious defiance, “if they’re honest or daft enough to use them” – they weren’t!)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The two event stewards, both </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Leeds</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> chaps who’ve worked incredibly hard at both trials, help see the cars away, while maps are given out to our people showing them how to reach the pro-BNP pub that we’re heading back to <span style=""> </span>continue our celebrations.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The atmosphere there is electric too, with Nick thanking various notables, principally the brilliant security team, and with a special mention to Paul and Linda Cromie for their warm hospitality to so many people throughout both trials. We’d beaten ‘them’; as the rain came down outside we watched the early news reports on a giant pub TV, cheering each new bit of coverage. It was like some victorious tribe celebrating the defeat of a mortal enemy. I hope that some of the atmosphere at this will come over in the BPtv coverage to be released shortly. No one who was there will ever forget it.<br /><br /><!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><!--[endif]--></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Final word from Nick:</span> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is little more to say. The legal argument sections of my blog, which could not be published for legal reasons during the trial, will have to be published, not least so at to provide guidance for future victims of similar State repression.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As for this last day, I was truly pretty sure that we’d get a hung jury, perhaps with one or two majority decison ‘Not guilty’ verdicts, but didn’t dare let myself hope that the sea-change in public opinion since January, which we all knew had taken place, would actually extend to an entire jury to give ‘Not Guilty’ verdicts all round.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jackie went out to see our crowd at lunchtime (as is normal in all cases, Mark and I were not allowed out once the jury had retired) in order to reassure them that the decision to watch the videos again was from the jury and not something imposed by the prosecution. Apparently she also told people that, even if we went down, it was still “win, win”. Politically, that is. Elen danced around in front of the crowd in the drizzle – another exhibitionist </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Griffin</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Actually, as we watched the DVDs in the light of all that had been said, I felt that they clearly bore out what we had said in our defence, rather than the highly selective and strained interpretation that the prosecution was inviting. They were much more comfortably viewing this time around – and clearly the jury decided the same.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The worst thing by far of the whole day was when I phoned Roy Goodwin at lunchtime, to suggest an activity in his </span><st1:state><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">North West</span></st1:place></st1:state><span lang="EN-GB"> region in response to something in a newspaper. I knew that Sheila, his wife, had been taken into hospital for tests, but it hadn’t sounded too serious. Now he told me that he’d just been told she was dying. What a blow.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But, to be honest, no external news could compete for our attention once we stood to hear the verdict. Would we get the best result politically possible – to be martyrs for free speech on the twin issues, asylum and Islam, where the vast majority of the public agree with us – or the second best result, walking free?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I’ve had a ‘Guilty’ verdict in the past, as well as a ‘Not Guilty’ one and a hung jury in January, so at least I’d done it all before. Mark was a bundle of tension next to me. The security staff in the dock with us were relaxed and reassuring. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Each successive ‘Not Guilty’ was another weight lifted from us. The last was beyond description. The security staff congratulated us as we left. Members of the jury finally made real eye contact and smiled broadly. I stopped for a moment before turning to leave the main court area until the judge gestured slightly for us to leave. I bowed my head to him, tried to take in my family and our supporters in the public gallery with a single glance, and got out of there as quickly as I possibly could! </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Outside, the only point to add to what you already know is that the police had earlier told our event organisers that we would be arrested if we drank the champagne in Oxford Row precinct, so they’d had to put away the plastic but still passable glasses that had been brought along together with the red, white and blue bottles of best Jean-Marie Le Pen champagne. We were just supposed to spray the bubbly, but not to drink any of it.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I told whoever it was told me this, and any police officer within earshot, that they could arrest me for drinking in a public place if they were stupid enough to make a scene, but that I was going to drink it come what may. And I did, and so did Mark, several security lads (drinking on duty, whatever next?!), Jackie and I don’t know or care who else. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I could write a whole chapter about how it felt, and about the wonderful people in the crowd there to congratulate and thank us. Don’t thank us, thank the anonymous members of an ordinary jury – ‘ordinary’ </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> men and women who refused to accept the would-be diktats of an out-of-touch, would be over-mighty State.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One other point about people in all this saga who might otherwise be forgotten. Much though John Tyndall and I disagreed and clashed on various matters, it should not be forgotten that he too was charged along with Mark and me, and that he died of a heart attack just days before an earlier hearing. Despite our differences, I want to record my belief that the Blair regime hounded him to death out of sheer malice and spite, and that his death is another stain on their revolting record of crimes.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But that’s enough for now. It remains only for me to thank our families for standing by us, our supporters – especially the loyal band who came every day and endured some bitterly cold weather to do so – who provided such a wonderful backdrop for media coverage of our trials and our triumph. Thanks too to the readers and uninvolved members of the public who sent us those heart-warming cards that came in piles each morning as we went into the dock.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Thanks too to Steve Blake and Emmanuel with the unspellable aristocratic French surname (do bookmark his Altermedia site if you haven’t already done so) for all their work in checking, posting and maintaining the blog, the excellent BNPtv footage (cheers Derek and Rod), and for fending off the various cyberspace attacks on our site.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Finally, a well-deserved mention to Martin, Danny and all the rest of the security team – pulled together almost from scratch back in January to a good standard, but a wonderful, supportive, professional team through the second trial. Thanks for everything, lads.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And thanks to you, the readers and donors who support this site. It gave us encouragement, a focus for our attention during the trial, and the knowledge that – whatever the outcome of the trial and ‘mainstream’ media coverage – the Blair regime could not lock us up without the truth of what had happened going out to a huge number of our people in Britain and indeed over the whole world. No wonder the enemies of freedom hate the Internet so much!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Oh yes, and special thanks to the BBC and David Blunkett for the best publicity we’ve ever had. Millions of ‘ordinary’ Brits who loath all your PC works now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that, even if others occasionally talk the talk, we’re the ones willing to walk the walk. It will, I suspect, be a long time before we can see just how much the Leeds Two Free Speech Trial has done for our party and our Cause.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1164586200991951572006-11-26T16:06:00.000-08:002006-11-26T16:10:01.026-08:00Thursday November 9th<p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This morning’s notes are taken by BNP Press Officer Dr. Phil Edwards. Nick is having the final day off, simply sitting in the witness box next to Mark and following every word without having to scribble down notes.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">10.45 - jury came in - Mr King commenced by saying "they are not here to defend a Party, but the right of the defendant to speak his views as long as they don't break the law.<br /><br />"NG is on trial for a criminal offence - for words, not actions, not behaviour. We must not criminalise words."<br /><br />Mr King said the European Human Rights convention enshrines a "golden principle" i.e. free speech - art 10 [which he read out to the jury]. He says that he makes no apology for repeating what his learned friend Lawson-Rogers said the day before, because these points about free speech are so fundamental.<br /><br />He quoted a senior Judge - Lord Seddon who in 1999 had said that free speech should include the irritable, the offensive etc.<br /><br />The European court of Human Rights says that freedom of expression applies to ideas which offend, shock and disturb.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is accepted that it is necessary to establish restrictions, but they are to be very <span style=""> </span>strictly limited.<br /><br />Mr King said we cannot take NG's speech and look at odd words - so look at the speech as a whole, not just words in order to misinterpret the speech.<br /><br />He said the Jury must have NO DOUBT about NG's meaning, adding " NG is NOT an advocate of the bomb or the bullet, but the ballot box. He is raising issues of concern to an audience who feel left out of the political process, providing a democratic outlet for frustration".<br /><br />The prosecution must establish "racial hatred" - will be difficult to do. The speech is trying to show the evil [or was the word "effect"?]of the Islamic faith as it bears on Asians in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">.<br /><br />To say it was a "cloak" to hide a desire to whip up racial hatred was "absurd".<br /><br />This is a private speech of a politician.<br /><br />It was shown to 4.5m people by the BBC but NG did not know that at the time. Neither did NG use notes and the prosecution are "too analytical" of the speech. It is not a legal document capable of detailed analysis.<br /><br />Mr King went on to say that the BNP is a lawful, legitimate political party.<br /><br />NG is on trial for one speech only, and NOT for applauding Mark Collett's speech. Whether he applauded or not is irrelevant.<br /><br />The jury have to decide if the words of NG were likely to stir up racial hatred adding "the proof of the pudding." i.e. what did happen as a result of this speech? Despite the passage of time, i.e. 2 years, the Crown has NO evidence of any incidence of disorder of any kind attributed to this speech.<br /><br />NB: Must be precise in respect of the charge ie NOT a charge about speaking about RACIAL matters, the speech WAS an attack on multiculturalism and the problems of "white" people. Just because NG voices fears of "white" community does NOT equal racial hatred.<br /><br />We may or may not like a person's opinion, but does not turn it into a race hate issue.<br /><br />Everyone - and politicians - are terrified about discussing issues "which are on everyone's lips" - Political Correctness.<br /><br />NG refers to "white" but this is not race hate - describing as a matter of fact the background, ethnicity, is NOT a criminal offence - the media do it regularly..<br /><br />He says how he turned the TV on in his hotel room last evening and watched the coverage of the Kriss Donald murder trial - for the first time the media spoke of a "racial" attack by "Asians" - but you would not accuse the media of whipping up racism, said Mr King..<br /><br />He added "Look at the speech as a whole, not cherry picking - it is not a critical academic thesis. Any fair reading of the speech would be the speech of a politician, to put over a political proposition".<br /><br />He then moves through the speech itself. It is about a serious issue, the grooming and rape of children, and NG makes his comments about this important issue in good faith.<br /><br />Mr Griffin makes a link between the Koran and the behaviour of the groomers. Then NG develops the Koranic theme. clearly none of this is capable of breaking a law against racial hatred.<br /><br />He points out that here's nothing in the speech which says "go out and do something nasty to the opposition."<br /><br />"Paki" is not a "bad" word. This is shown clearly by the evidence.<br /><br />Mr King then said to the jury: "you might think multiracialism is good, but that's not what I'm here to defend, just the right of NG to debate it.<br /><br />He then said it crucial to give weight to Nick’s comment towards the end of his speech that "It’s not a racial thing in a town like this, it's a cultural, a religious thing"<br /><br />The whole speech, our campaign and the election were, he concluded, an archetypal example of democracy in action. This is what politicians are supposed to do, and it would be wholly wrong to convict his client for doing it.<br /><br />The Judge then summed up by stating that his directions of law must be followed and accepted by the jury. There must be a logical weighing of the evidence leading to a logical conclusion and no speculation. The Jury must be SURE they are guilty. He also directed them to judge the overall effect of the speeches and not individual words. There was no room for bias or prejudice about politics.<br /><br />He judge also repeated the points that free speech must include unpleasant, unpalatable views and duties not to abuse those rights, whatever their race, and however their [the BNP] views are.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">[Subsequent note from Nick Griffin:</span> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Tim King’s speech was in parts very similar to the one he made last time, though obviously slightly shorter on account of having to defend only one speech instead of two. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He was clearly more comfortable dealing with my strident criticism of Islam than he was last time with my comments about the disparity between the treatment of white and non-white victims of racist crime. He defended my right to say those things (so well that I was acquitted on those counts back in January) but not with the passion that he brought to bear this time.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One of the solicitors from Messrs Brian Jackson’s (the unsung heroes of this case, it’s always the barristers who get the glory, but they’re nothing without the solicitors) told me before we left court that this was probably the finest closing<span style=""> </span>speech she has ever heard Mr. King make. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I can believe it, for it was a mesmerising performance. The cause of British freedom was served exceptionally well by our entire legal team. Admittedly, like Mr. Jameson, they were at one level merely doing the job for which they were paid by the unfortunate taxpayers, but this was a heart and soul defence and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One other thing worth mentioning was a strange incident at the start of this morning’s proceedings. I had walked into the court proper before I realised that I still had my laptop bag over my shoulder.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span>I was of course barred by the judge from having my laptop earlier in the trial – the point at which the ’til then daily blog stopped – after the prosecution launched a petty ambush just before I was due to start my stint in the witness box.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Their complaint – justified as it happens – was that I had speculated on the possibility of one juror being a leftist, and had referred to Mark and Mr. Jameson verbally circling each other like a pair of weasels (Mark in the witness box, you will remember, had accused Mr. J. of being a weasel), something which was felt could prejudice Mark’s case. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I told Tim King that I had already taken steps to shut the blog down for the duration of the trial, thereby avoiding the judge so ordering in any case, but he also denied me the chance to keep on making laptop notes, hence the delay in posting this blog post-trial as everything had to be typed up from various peoples’ hand-written notes.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Accordingly, when I remembered the bag I leant over the smoked glass screen at the point where Jackie had sat throughout the trial in order to pass it to her. In haste, I put the bag over before my own head, with the result that I thrust the thing over not to her as expected, but on top of a rather startled Weyman Bennett. Bennett is I believe clearly a refugee from the destruction of Sauron’s forces at Mordor, but has disguised himself as a spokesperson for Unite Against Fascism.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I retrieved the laptop and passed it to Jackie, who had been forced to sit in front of the hate-filled creature and a delicately featured youth from Liverpool University who was there to hold his hand and – no doubt – to see if they could bring in a bigger squad of juvenile would-be thugs to kick off when the verdict came through.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The position was put right after the next break, when the two found themselves screened from our relatives by members of our security team, and later on kept out of court altogether by a relay of BNP supporters who came in from the demo outside to keep our places in the queue outside the court on the occasions when we went down to the canteen]<br /><o:p></o:p><br /><br /></span><st1:time style="font-weight: bold;" minute="9" hour="12"><span lang="EN-GB">12:09</span></st1:time><span style="font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB"> Simon Darby’s notes:</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Judge enters courtroom 8. Public gallery once again packed with Usher having to remove people wanting to sit on the floor.<br /><br />Judge emphasises that the prosecution case was short and that no live witnesses had been called. "Take into account the arguments made to you by counsel" he urges – that has to be good for Nick and Mark.<br /><br />"The cardinal principle of law is for the prosecution to prove the case - the burden of proof is with the prosecution. You must be sure - if you are less than sure you must find them not guilty".</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />"Consider the speeches in their entirety, not just odd phrases.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />The judge then described how the jury should deal with each of the six counts and emphasised that religious groups were not covered by any of the indictments. He stated that Mark Collett was a man of good character and that this supported his credibility as a witness. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />"You must not hold the fact that both men refused to answer police questions against them - they were perfectly entitled not to".<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">"This case was not about the politics of the BNP and it was a classic case requiring the good and balanced judgement of an English jury".<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">"We live in a democratic society which entitles people to freedom of expression”.<span style=""> </span>Judge then mentioned the importance of article 10 of the European Convention and how it was entwined with English law (two specific refs 1979 and one later).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />"This case is not about silencing the views of a recognised political party".</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />He reminded the jury that in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bradford</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> 80% of Muslims are Asian with the figure in Keighley being 88%. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />Break for lunch.<br /><br /></span><st1:time style="font-weight: bold;" minute="10" hour="14"><span lang="EN-GB">14:10</span></st1:time><span style="font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB"> Judge resumes his summing up:</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />Of the 5 speeches made by Mr Griffin only one had been brought before the court as the CPS had found them completely legitimate. He specifically invited the jury to draw inference from this. He said they were political speeches. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is a small mention of the police intelligence report about guns in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bradford</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> mosque. Last time the prosecution had tried to challenge Mark’s claim about this, but this time around they had thought better of it.<br /><br />The jury must decide whether the speeches made by Mr Collett were attacking Asians or Asian criminals.<br /><br />He goes on to refer the jury to the revised tenancy agreement which is also included in the jury bundle, [and which Mark relies upon a) to show the jury that he was telling the truth and b) – we hope – to rekindle the annoyance that some of them must have felt against our Masters at times in the past when they’ve read asylum stories in the papers] .<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr Collett had used the word ‘cockroaches’, had only once used the term "Muslim" but he insisted that it was the white politicians he hated as they had sold us down the line.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />He told the jury that "twat some Pakis" drew applause but in fact he was wrong as this was shouted during the applause. Reminded the jury of Mark’s claim that he could have been paid for by the BBC to spice it up and improve ratings. [The way in which this idiotic comment was chewed over by the prosecution so much shows very clearly why such outbursts from angry newcomers who don’t grasp what we’re about must NEVER be tolerated at any BNP meetings].</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />He goes on to remind them that the BNP got more votes in Dewsbury than any other party but told jury that our claim that it was a political prosecution because it was authorised by the Attorney General was wrong in that Goldsmith was called upon in all such cases in his role as head of the legal system, and would have made his decision on purely legal and not political grounds. Well, he can tell the jury that, but whether they believe that of a Labour crony is another matter!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />The fact that Nick and Mark had been previously acquitted by another jury was mentioned.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr Griffin, he says, claims that his speech was about religion not race and was designed to stir his audience to political activity. He mentions Nick’s evidence about the man in the meeting with the older daughter being a heroin addict and his younger being groomed by Muslims. [This is good stuff for the jury, especially those who are parents]<br /><br />Then he refers to the Newsnight Paxman interview in which Nick said it was a Muslim problem not an Asian problem.<br /><br />The judge then stated that Nick had added that Islam gives a low status to women and in particular non-believer women. He then added that the examples of Islamic fundamentalists dealt with in the court had indeed displayed a horrendous and sickening philosophy.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He mentions Nick’s discourse into the nature of Islam, and refers to his use of the word ‘fluffy’ to describe the ‘moderate’ wing which he has said is inconsequential.<br /><br />He asked the jury whether or not a large proportion of Nick's speech deals with non-inflammatory subjects temper down the effect of the speech overall. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Before sending the jury out consider its verdict, Judge Norman Jones stressed to the jury that the BNP was not on trial and that the crime the defendants stood accused of was racial, not religious, hatred.<br /><br />"This is not about whether the political beliefs of the BNP are right or wrong," he told them.<br /><br />"It's not about whether assertions made about Islam are right or wrong. Those are issues to be debated in different arenas."<br /><br />He added: "We live in a democratic society which jealously protects the rights of its citizens to freedom of expression, to free speech.<br /><br />"That does not mean it is limited to speaking only the acceptable, popular or politically correct things. It extends to the unpopular, to those which many people may find unacceptable, unpalatable and sensitive."<br /><br />Stirring up racial hatred was not the same as creating racial hatred, but related to inflaming or exciting it, he added.<br /><br />"This case is about allegations of the commitment of a crime."<br /><br /></span><st1:time minute="44" hour="15"><span lang="EN-GB">15:44</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> judge finishes his summing up and two bailiffs are worn in. Their job is to keep the jurors in a safe and convenient place and to make sure that no-one speaks to them. The jury then retires and we leave the court yet again.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The summing up was very different this time around. So much so that I think that the Judge’s nose must have been seriously put out of joint at the end of the first trial when Jameson said that he had received an email from the Attorney-General that the Judge had concluded was an attempt to interfere with the proper running of his court. His comment then, that the Government “did not, yet, have such power” was cutting in the extreme, and he clearly doesn’t want to see a conviction.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He is much fairer this time, stressing several times that the jury must<span style=""> </span>be absolutely sure, the law has been broken before they convict, if they are not then it must be not guilty. Particularly in Nick’s case he made a point of referring to the “very interesting” part about the struggle for justice in the 19<sup>th</sup> century and invited the jury to consider that this “tempered” the rest of the speech.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I go home as confident as I can be that both Nick and Mark will walk from court free men tomorrow – albeit perhaps with the threat of another retrial hanging over them unless the CPS see sense.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">[Subsequent note from Nick Griffin:</span> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Last time around I was unhappy with a number of the points made by the Judge in his summing up. Particularly when he dealt with the permitted restrictions on Article 10 and free speech, he laboured the idea that ethnic minorities were entitled to go about their lives without being attacked or harassed or abused. This time was significantly different. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He stressed the way in which free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy, and that legitimate restrictions must therefore be interpreted very narrowly indeed. It was proper to prevent people from inciting violence against anyone else, he said, and since we had clearly not done so the implication was that what we had to say should not be silenced. He even gave as an example of the things that people (this time unspecified, with no mention of ethnic minorities) have a right to enjoy is for their children to go to school without fear.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Added together with the very considerable extra latitude that he gave me this time around when I was in the witness box, I can only conclude that his position towards us either changed as part of the general public mood swing and the shifting parameters of political debate since January, or reflected his annoyance that the CPS had refused to accept his advice at the end of the first trial that they should not hold a retrial, and his determination to ensure that the whole waste of public money and political bonus for the BNP should not be repeated again.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Occasionally the Judge refers to Mark simply as ‘Collett’, I keep a record of what he calls us, as it indicates how he views us and may well be intended as a very subtle but deliberate signal of his opinion to the jury. He uses ‘</span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Griffin</span></st1:place></st1:City><span lang="EN-GB">’ only once. More often it’s ‘Mr. Collett’ and it’s almost always ‘Mr. Griffin’, once even ‘Nick Griffin’, which is presumably an unintentional recognition of my high public profile, but perhaps a subconscious acceptance of legitimacy.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In any case, having heard the summings up by all the barristers and by Mr Justice Norman Jones, I was left as confident as I could be that only a totally rigged jury would convict us. I still went home that night believing that a hung jury was by far the most likely result.]</span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1164365541863500872006-11-24T02:51:00.000-08:002006-11-24T02:52:21.940-08:00Wednesday Nov 7th<p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is Mark’s day taking notes.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:time minute="40" hour="10"><span lang="EN-GB">10.40 a.m.</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> The Judge enters the court, the jury are brought in, and Nick is called back to the witness box to begin his cross examination.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson begins by asking Nick if he still believes that the BNP used to be ‘racist’ but isn’t now. Nick points out that ‘racism’ is a cant Politically Correct concept invented by Leon Trotsky to demonise opponents, then goes on to confirm the question.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span>(He is doing this partly to ‘close the door’ on the possibility of some later implicit assertion of his ‘good character’ otherwise opening the door to the prosecution to raise the matter of his previous Race Act conviction. The prosecution worked hard to be allowed to tell the jury about this last time around, and Nick’s lawyers worked equally hard to keep it out of court. While they were successful, Nick had to remain alert to the possibility of inadvertently opening a window through which Jameson could try to reintroduce it in the course of the case).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson moves on to establish the fact that the BNP does not have non-white members, and then asks if the changes and details of the party’s modern position are in the manifesto.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick goes through the changes in the manifesto, explaining in some detail where we stand and why. Within minutes Nick has turned the courtroom into the political arena he wanted. Fantastic! Though the Judge steps in gently to remind Nick not to make long political answers. Nick got five such warnings while in the witness box back in January, I wonder how many he’ll get this time?!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson’s aim in opening this can of worms becomes clear when he refers Nick to my speech at the Reservoir Tavern. Where he’d said ‘Muslims’, I had said ‘Asians’ and the prosecution tries to use this to force Nick either into condemning me as a possible inciter of racial hatred, or into defending me in such a way as to undermine his own defence. Nick deftly avoids the pitfall but his opponent comes back to try again.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson begins nitpicking about the date of the changes in the BNP, and questions why, if we really had refined much of our criticism of ‘Asian’ wrong-doing into a more accurate condemnation of things done by Muslims for religiously-inspired reasons, more hadn’t been done to get this point over internally. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick answers perfectly, including by pointing out that we address far more subjects than just race, immigration and Islam. He points out that such matters cover only about 10% of our manifesto, and briefly details some of the other subjects we address, mentioning for the benefit of the jury things such as our opposition to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">’s membership of the EU, and our critique of the shattering effects of globalisation on blue and now white collar workers. The jury are getting a political education.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson tries again, describing the switch in emphasis from ‘Asian’ to ‘Islam’ as the great change in BNP presentation as part of our modernisation programme. Nick rebuts this, pointing out that the really important point was the change from a policy of compulsory repatriation in favour of a policy of shutting the door, ending all ‘positive discrimination’ schemes, the deportation of illegals, criminals and bogus asylum seekers, and a huge programme to encourage voluntary resettlement. Surely some members of the jury at least must agree that this all makes good sense.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Prosecution error</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p><br />Returning to our joint meeting In Keighley, Jameson makes the unfortunate slip of referring to the meeting chairman, Paul Cromie, as ‘Lee Massey’. Nick punishes him with a great shot, reminding the jury that Lee Massey wasn’t there as he was the lad who had nearly been beaten to death by Iraqi asylum seekers.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p><br />Jameson picks himself up and goes on the attack over what I said at the meeting. Nick explains that he felt that not everything I’d said was as he would have said it, or was even strictly accurate, but he says firmly that I was doing it for a good reason – seeking to win over an angry audience to peaceful political action. He also says that he believes in free speech, with the only proper limit being to stop people inciting illegal acts.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p><br />In any case, Nick responds to the idea that I was somehow in the wrong to say ‘Asian’ or that our speeches were contradictory: “Everyone else uses the word ‘Asian’. The papers, the police, the courts. Why should Nick Griffin and Mark Collett be the only people in the country who can’t use the A-word?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We move on: Does Nick think there is a moderate majority of Muslims in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">? Jameson says that he’d like ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to this batch of questions if possible. Somehow I think that’s unlikely!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Nick says there are broadly three types of Muslims to consider in answering this. The peaceful, other-wordly Sufis, who he characterises as being so unIslamic and unusual as to be regarded as heretics and persecution targets by mainstream Islam; those he describes as ‘heritage Muslims’ – those whose religion is on a par with Mr Jameson’s when he probably buried his granny in church – and the genuine Muslims.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This latter block is in turn divided in two, between those who want it all now, like Abu Hamza, and those who are cleverer and more willing to bide their time. To be careful is not to be moderate, so the one-word answer to Jameson’s question is ‘no’.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The prosecution asks if racial violence and racial/religious intolerance is common among most young Muslims? Nick answers by recalling that some 20,000 Muslims from </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">West Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> protested in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bradford</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> against Salman Rushdie. Only a minority at present use direct physical violence, but clearly this population is not assimilated into our way of life.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Do you accept that Islam has a strong moderate thread?” “No”.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Do you accept that there are passages in the Koran that can be misinterpreted?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Koran interpretation</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick explains the Islamic term ‘Nashk’, which means that the moderate - ‘fluffy’ as he puts it – verses, written while Mohammed was weak and had little support while based in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Mecca</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">, are overruled or abrogated by the much harsher and aggressive ones he recorded once based in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Medina</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB"> with the backing of an army.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So the way in which verses are misinterpreted is to make the Koran appear softer than it really is to Muslims.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick states that he did several years before write to the Muslim Council of Britain to ask their ‘experts’ to explain what the verses meant, but they did not reply.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Is it a duty for a politician to try to encourage ‘moderate’ Muslims to speak out against the violent ones? Nick gives a clever answer about a fire in a theatre – if there is no fire it has always been an offence to shout ‘fire’, but when there is a real fire then the proper thing to do is to warn people, not to waste time discussing the physics and properties of fire. We have a duty to talk about problems, not one to cover them up.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is a rustling of paper among the lawyers and at </span><st1:time minute="17" hour="11"><span lang="EN-GB">11.17 am</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> the Judge retires the jury while a matter of law is discussed. This is the production by the prosecution of a document which the prosecution say was retrieved from Nick’s computer, and about which Jameson wishes to question him. The judge and defence counsel are given copies and read through it. Nick stands impassively in the dock. An initial look of concern on his face has now been replaced by what is either amusement or contempt. My guess is that he’s worked out what the document is and isn’t in the least bit bothered.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Tim King for the defence says that having read the document he has no objection to it being used in court, provided it can be confirmed that it was indeed Nick’s. The Judge asks him if it is. Nick smiles and says that it may well be, but that he is at a disadvantage as he hasn’t been given a copy. Mr. Jameson puts this right, Nick skim reads it and confirms not just that he wrote it, but also puts a rough date on it – “July 2003”.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Open letter</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The jury returns at 11.41 and are given copies of the document. It is several sheets, being partly a set of layout instructions to me, then the text of a double-sided A4 leaflet entitled ‘An Open Letter to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">’s Muslims’.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson works his way through the letter. This explains why he let Nick run amok with his explanation of the essentially extreme nature of Islam earlier in the morning, for he now draws attention to the way that Nick wrote otherwise in the open letter, which was an appeal to ‘moderates’ to explain the verses that are said to be misinterpreted by ‘extremists’. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The aim of this ambush is clearly to make the jury think that Nick is a liar, and/or that we say one thing in private and one in public. This is Mr.J. on top weaseling form.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick deals with it all easily. First, he says, he was simply being polite, as we English are. Furthermore, he explains that this was a leaflet and was deliberately softly worded so as to be well within the law against ‘religious hatred’ that we erroneously thought had become law back in 2001. It wasn’t just a matter of Nick avoiding trouble, he didn’t want to give repressive police forces any excuse to arrest our activists – a particular danger in places such as West Yorkshire, he says, getting in a sideways dig at Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson clearly thought that he’d be able to stitch Nick up with this, but he falls flat on his face. Nick rips him to shreds in an icy cool manner – it was contempt I spotted a few minutes earlier.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson moves back onto the ground that Nick was cloaking his views and Nick seizes the opportunity to make a telling point: He says that, although he doesn’t approve of any laws that restrict freedom of speech beyond what is necessary to ban incitement to violence, he would still be very concerned at doing anything that could be said to incite racial hatred for the simple reason that people cannot change their race. A law, on the other hand, that prevented criticism of a bad religion could be broken because everybody had the chance to change their religion.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson suggests again and again that the differences in tone between the letter and what Nick said in Keighley and in court indicates that he has some kind of hidden agenda. Nick says no, save that he wanted to lure the MCB into answering his challenge, and felt it best done by posing as naive and ill-informed. “It was a propaganda leaflet”, he says with blunt honesty, “a verbal trap.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Also, he says, “I wanted an answer, not a fatwa,” pointing out the tendency of “these people” to issue death threats at the drop of a hat. This is a good way to reinforce his rebuttal of the prosecution claim that he is hiding behind criticism of Islam to avoid the Race Laws – hardly realistic given the fate of Theo Van Gogh and Salman Rushdie.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Phoney moderates</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The fact that the MCB didn’t even bother to reply only further convinced him that their ‘moderation’ was phoney. Nick then uses the opportunity to make further propaganda points, describing the so-called ‘anti-terror’ booklet that the MCB sent to every Muslim home in the country after 7/7 (“at taxpayers’ expense, because it’s all subsidised by the government with our money” – the Judge is letting Nick get away with much more than he did in January, and it’s great to watch). </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He explains how almost all the booklet was about Muslim victimhood, the rights of Muslins if arrested and so on, with only two pages being devoted to a mealy-mouthed condemnation of terrorism against ‘innocent people’. This is why, Nick says, he has given up completely on the so-called ‘moderates’. What was meant as a trap for him has given him a platform to put across views which can only influence the jury in our favour, reminding them of the carnage of 7/7, for instance, is subtle but powerful stuff.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson tries to make something of the contrast between the tone of the letter/leaflet</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The fact that Nick mentioned this letter earlier in the morning adds to the credibility of his answers. Jameson tells the court that he would be perfectly happy to put his own name to the letter – which is a stunning indication of how far public opinion and the debate on this subject has shifted in the last few years, since I can remember squeals in the press about how ‘extreme’ and ‘Islamophobic’ the leaflet was. If Jameson thought this was going to help his argument, he has in fact presented the man in the witness box/pulpit with a vulnerable balloon. “Splendid. Thank you, Mr. Jameson,” smiles Nick, and nearly everyone in the court bursts out laughing as another prosecution bubble is burst.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But the prosecution have clearly decided that this letter ambush is their trump card, so Jameson plays it yet again. Nick counters by saying that the letter was in some ways really nothing more or less than the kind of verbal trick that lawyers use – “like you’re trying to use against me now, Mr. Jameson” – all he wanted was an answer he could use to further his argument. He also notes that back in 2003 it was very radical. The fact that it is not now is due to a sea change in popular opinion. Is it right, muses Nick, that he should be jailed simply for being a couple of years ahead of everyone else?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The final shot of this series of exchanges comes when Nick responds to the ‘cloak’ claim. Bringing the jury’s attention back to the speech itself, he points out that, by his own admission at the very start and end of the speech, he clearly didn’t know he was being filmed, and hence had no reason whatsoever to ‘cloak’ any of his views. The prosecution argument is totally illogical. Jameson shifts from one foot to the other and moves on.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Back to attacking me. Did Nick consider my speech to be a criticism of Asians? No, I was talking about criminality in the Asian community.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But couldn’t he see that what I said could be abusive or insulting to Asians? Nick launches a blistering attack on Jameson and accuses him of being a snob. You’ve totally misunderstood the dynamics of such meetings, Nick tells him. He describes the makeup of the meeting and ridicules the idea that “middle class southern graduates” could go and ‘stir up’ a working class </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> audience as the product of a snobbish view of such people sitting there with slack jaws and cloth caps.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Chattering classes</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">People up here say worse things than Mark or I said about their mates when they’re having a laugh, Nick tells him, contrasting the commonsense world of working class Yorkshire with “Crown Prosecution World” and its upper class chatterers down in London:</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“In CPS World you think it’s abusive to give someone the wrong coloured jelly babies,” jibes Nick, referring to an absurd and abortive ‘Race Hate’ case that made the front page of The Sun near the start of the trial. Everybody laughs, even the judge, and Nick presses home his advantage: “And in CPS World you think it’s sensible to spend a quarter of a million pounds trying to send someone to prison for giving someone the wrong coloured jelly babies!”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson retreats and starts talking about Nick attacking Muslims. Nick corrects him, he doesn’t attack Muslims, but the evil at the heart of their faith. He doesn’t need to elaborate on what he means by that, the evidence he presented while being questioned by Mr. King yesterday was brutally conclusive.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr. Jameson brings us back to the “seven years” comments in Nick’s speech. The first time, Nick said it “could” land him in prison, but at the close of the speech he said “would”. Nick rips apart the attempt to make a big thing of this tiny difference. He takes Jameson and the jury to a passage in his speech where he criticised WestYorkshire police for being “politically incorrect”, when he clearly meant “Politically Correct.” Only in CPS World, he said, would so much time be wasted analysing minute textual differences from a speech that was delivered off the cuff to an audience in a pub. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick is asked if it wasn’t vitally important to get across to the audience that the problem in their town was Islam rather than Asians? Not at all, he says, again seeing the threat to me, the vitally important thing was to find local people willing to stand in the election and to campaign to win the political influence needed to get the problem of grooming addressed and dealt with through the democratic process.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick again takes Jameson, the jury and the Judge to a piece of his speech, where he said he wanted to come back in a few months time and congratulate everyone on getting candidates elected in Bradford in general and Keighley in particular. His emphasis on how he got exactly what he predicted, and that this was because he knew his audience and he knew the circumstances is convincing stuff, but earns him his second rebuke from the Judge for making political speeches. Nick apologises and then carries on doing pretty much the same.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson mentions that Nick uses the word ‘Asian’ as well as ‘Muslim’ and Nick again goes on the attack. Having again defended the right to use the word, he points out that the only time he used ‘Asian’ by itself was in reported speech. It was where he was describing what the audience might think. “If the CPS transcribers weren’t semi-literate the phrase would have inverted commas around it,” he says coldly, before instructing all concerned where they should be.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The prosecution’s opening claim that he used the words interchangeably wasn’t worth a lot anyway, but now it lies in tatters.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick presses on. It’s hard at times to tell who is being prosecuted. He talks of the other speeches he made. Only one out of five secretly recorded is indicted. He suggests that if it had been his intention to incite hatred then he would surely have tried to do so at each meeting, and he proposes to Mr. Jameson that he is sufficiently articulate to have found the words to do so had he wished. The question answers itself.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then he turns to the ‘likely’ charge and tears that apart too. He draws an imaginary line across the front of the witness box and says that one end represents ‘Certainly not’ and the other ‘Definitely’. He suggests that ‘likely’ must be well over towards the ‘Definitely’ side. The Judge steps in and says that he will instruct that ‘likely’ means ‘probable’, which supports Nick’s analysis.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">No consequences</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then Nick points out that the speech was heard by about 60 people, with by the Crown’s own admission no evidence of any disorder or problems. And that the selected, bluntest parts had been seen by 4.5 million people, again with no evidence of any incidents arising. And that the whole speech had been downloaded from our website and seen by around 20,000 people since January, again with no reported consequences.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So, given that the speech had no effect whatsoever save to help get two candidates elected in Keighley, how ‘likely’ was it that it was ever going to incite anything? Ace!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson tries another tack, taking Nick back to his description of the meeting as ‘emotionally charged’. Didn’t a responsible politician have a duty to work to calm things down? Nick agrees, and says that he and I were discharging that responsibility by giving angry people a way in which to voice their concerns legitimately through the political process. We were behaving responsibly, as he has said earlier, our giving politically correct sermons as the prosecution seems to think we should have done would have solved nothing.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Again, Jameson attacks us for having used the word ‘Asian’. Nick asks him and the court to turn to a page in the blue file of defence evidence, which is a copy of an editorial from the desperately anti-white Keighley newspaper. It refers to Labour MP Ann Cryer using the words “Asian sex-ring”. “If either Mark or I had used that phrase, Mr. Jameson, you’d have been all over us like a rash,” Nick slams the unfortunate prosecutor.<span style=""> </span>I feel the point goes home.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then we come to Nick’s reference to ‘</span><st1:street><st1:address><span lang="EN-GB">Paki street</span></st1:address></st1:street><span lang="EN-GB"> thugs’. Again, Nick explains that he is talking about a particular type of youth, not the entire community from which they come. “It’s no different to when people talk about ‘white trash’; it doesn’t mean that they’re saying that all white people are trash.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He reminds the court of the masked youths rapping out anti-kuffar hatred while brandishing a Koran and a handgun, and says that this was precisely the sort he was talking about, and that his Keighley audience would have known exactly what he meant.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“They drive around Keighley, in fact all over </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">West Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">, pointing their fingers at people like that” he says, turning his hand into the imaginary gun that at least some of the jurors must have seen or heard of in such circumstances. Nick adds to the drama by turning his hand upside down, as the rapper had held his gun: “I don’t know why they think that a gun can only work if it’s upside down,” he says, “but they all seem to.” Yes, that sums up the ‘</span><st1:street><st1:address><span lang="EN-GB">Paki street</span></st1:address></st1:street><span lang="EN-GB"> thugs’ and buries another part of the ‘case’ against him.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick throws another couple of shovelfuls on for good measure: As we’ve seen from the short clips from Edge of the City, “even the Pakis call themselves Pakis”, and it’s no surprise, because it simply means “Pure”, it isn’t capable of being an insult to them. As for white community, “pop round the Paki shop for a pint of milk” is entirely normal terminology in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">West Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick explains that he would not use the word himself because its use is capable of being misinterpreted by white liberals as implying things that are meant, but for all that its use is normal in the real world as carries no hatred or incitement.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nick is asked whether, by using the word ‘white’ to describe the victims of grooming and racial attacks, he isn’t accepting that all the trouble is racial? He walks easily round this trap by stating that, yes, in Keighley the victims are indeed all white, and he’s as entitled to use the description as the police and newspapers, and it’s how his audience class themselves. So the victims are chosen on a racial basis, but the attackers’ motivation has a religious and cultural base rather than a racial one.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr. Jameson must realise that he’s not going to make any headway here, so at seven minutes to one to sits down. The Judge thanks Nick and tells him he may leave the witness box. That was a morning of hard work. Hard work well done.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Lunch break</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">2.10 p.m. Nick Griffin is back in the dock and taking notes again.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is another brief legal discussion, mainly about the directions the Judge intends to give the jury. There is concern as to how best to present Mark’s good character without making it too obvious that I can’t rely on this on account of my 1997 Race Act conviction. The jury are called back in at </span><st1:time minute="30" hour="14"><span lang="EN-GB">2.30 p.m.</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB"> and Mr. Jameson sums up for the Crown, with the jury members looking intently at him across the court room.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson says that he won’t be long, as they’ve heard a lot from him today, or rather, they’ve seen a lot of him today – a good-humoured reference to the fact that I did the bulk of the talking this morning.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is, he says, not a difficult case. There are just three speeches, and they need to be considered according to the law. The main complexity is in the defences.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He says the Crown accepts that our motive may well be good – to get support for legitimate political action (by stating this he effectively jettisons the ‘intent’ charges right from the beginning, although this point may be too subtle for some to pick up). the problem, he says, is in our methods.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He draws a whacky parallel: Gordon Brown can’t shoot Tony Blair and rely on the defence that “I only wanted to make sure that I took over as Prime Minister, and that’s not a crime, is it?”<span style=""> </span>Hmm!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Politicians have a responsibility to be careful and positive about sensitive subjects, did we discharge that responsibility?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The real issue in Mark’s case is the question of whether, when he said what ‘the Asians’ were doing, did he confine this critique to Asian criminals or was he deliberately implying that all Asians were to blame? He says it’s easy to read the transcripts and to decide – he picks out some points and submits that “it’s pretty damn clear.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He points out a passage from Mark’s Keighley speech about press reports from </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Bradford</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">:</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“In the space of a week there’s always at least two rapes of girls, white girls, between the ages of fifteen and sixteen by gangs of Asians. And it’s always white girls by Asian males.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He moves down a couple of paragraphs to where Mark points out the difference between these gang rapes of young girls and “what happens to the young white lad, where a twenty or twenty-two year old can go into a night club. There’ll be a young girl in dressed up who’s snuck in there and she’s fifteen but all dressed up and he’ll end up dating her in a totally decent way believing that she’s over sixteen or over eighteen. We’re talking about gangs of Asian males going to all white schools and soliciting white children for sex and we’re saying ‘enough is enough’ and we’re the only party saying that.” </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Why did Mr. Collett use the example of a white lad, instead of saying that it could be a lone Asian lad falling for a dressed up fifteen year old instead? Mark’s ‘failure’ to produce a fantasy example is held against him.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Another piece has Mark amusing the audience by recounting how a letter in the local paper in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Blackburn</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> from a Muslim after we won a seat there said that he and “all my Asian pals are going to move out of the ward”. Instead of accepting this as a casual joke intended to help ‘hold’ the audience, this is presented as evidence of hardcore ‘hate’. It shows, says Jameson, that Mark was seeking to attack all Asians and asylum seekers, not just criminals.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He moves to Mark’s second speech. There is, he says, not a lot to say, just take the thing as a whole.<span style=""> </span>Then he alleges again that Mark was really seeking to attack all Asians by highlighting the wrong-doings of Asian criminals. It’s a huge leap of ‘logic’, but it sounds passably convincing – if the jury want to be convinced.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Another prosecution slip up</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jameson makes a meal of the fact that Mark’s second speech said that none of the Keighley paedophile rape gang had been jailed, when he must have heard in my first speech that I’d said that they had been. He talks of Mark’s “utter contempt for the literal truth”. It sounds good, but it’s wickedly dishonest, for Jameson knows perfectly well that the real truth is that I was mistaken, that none of that gang was in fact jailed, and that one individual had been jailed for his part in a similar but unrelated incident in the town. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He deliberately avoided raising this subject during cross-examination, as he knew we would explain the discrepancy, so now he can try to jail Mark. With the final shot being a claim that Mark’s speeches are both “overtly racist” (by which, more than anything, members of the liberal elite mean recognition that the white race exists and that white people can be victims of racism and injustice too) Jameson moves on to my speech.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He describes me as “a very different and more complex character than Mark Collett. Entertaining and engaging..” and, somewhat bizarrely, says that I’m the sort of chap the jurors may well think it would be interesting and fun to have a pint or two with one evening. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then he begins his pitch, saying that issues of race and religion overlap and are not “hermetically separate”. While this is true in practical terms, it is untrue in legal ones, but Jameson has no choice but to use this weak argument, for it is all he really has. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Most Asians in the Keighley area, he says, are Muslims, and vice versa. I knew this, and that the audience regarded it (he squirms desperately to avoid reminding the jury of what ‘it’ is) as a racial problem. He says that I admitted this, which indeed I did, but specifically in terms of the victims, not perpetrators.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He reminds the jury to take the speech as a whole, and accepts that plenty of it is wholly unobjectionable. He cites the section about the way in which local working people organised trade unions to defend their rights in the 19<sup>th</sup> century as something which would bother no-one – “not even the thought Police that Mr Griffin seems to think I am here to represent.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">What on earth is he thinking of putting such a thought back into the minds of the jury? Is this a guilty conscience breaking to the surface, or a misjudged attempt to discount the possibility by raising it openly? </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then he mentions my open letter to Muslims, and again says that everybody there would probably sign it. But while the letter was, he says, reasonable, under cross-examination I had had to say I didn’t believe it because if I did believe that there was a significant Muslim strand and that the Koran has been misinterpreted then my speech would have been unreasonable and aimed to cause trouble. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">School debate</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is Upper VI school debating society stuff, especially as it wouldn’t have been illegal to incite religious hatred even if I had been. <span style=""> </span>I can see what he’s trying to get at, but several of the jurors are either bored or confused. That though may not be good, for they may miss the fact that I answered all these points under cross-examination. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If he’s got them switched off enough to overlook that then this speech is actually a fairly decent silk purse out of a rotten sow’s ear of a case. It is, of course, difficult for partisan readers to remember that Mr. Jameson is simply doing his job.<span style=""> </span>O’Connor, the Crown Silk who was rapidly replaced right at the beginning of this whole persecution, was clearly ideologically motivated and unable to keep his personal anti-racist/anti-English passion under control; but Jameson I think is doing the job just because it is his job. I doubt if there is any malice there.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">You can see my racial motivation, he goes on to say, by the way in which, despite describing the attackers as ‘Muslims’, I describe the victims as ‘white’ instead of as ‘Unbelievers’. Desperate stuff.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The biggest block of all to getting a conviction against me for racial hatred is a phrase in my speech: “It’s not a racial thing in a town like this, it’s a cultural, religious thing.” Jameson knows that, if the jury are fair, his case is utterly demolished by this and by my differentiation between Mr Aktar, whose door you wouldn’t canvass, and Mr. Singh, who may well vote for us.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He tries to deal with the problem by drawing the jury’s attention to the “not a racial thing” passage – he knows from last time that my defence will make a meal of it even if he doesn’t mention it – and inviting them to believe that my just making the point once wasn’t enough. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As he winds up, he throws in one very dishonest point aimed at a subconscious level, changing my phrase warning of events in the future “as the whites find their way to the sea” into “as the whites fight their way to the sea.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then he contrasts my blunt answers to his many probing attacks with what he terms were Mark’s ‘evasive’ responses, and effectively asks the jury to condemn us simultaneously for being either blunt or evasive. Like suspected witches thrown into the village pond we can’t win. In fact, we’re even worse off, for the CPS regards us as guilty even if we sink.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He sits down at </span><st1:time minute="15" hour="15"><span lang="EN-GB">3.15 pm</span></st1:time><span lang="EN-GB">, and I suspect that he’s glad that, come what may, this case is over for him.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The judge gives the jury a ten minute break. The summing up they’ve just heard, while intellectually and legally threadbare, sounded at least half-convincing and Mark is plunged briefly into Private Fraser mode. Since I regard the prospect of acquittal or a hung jury as a personal triumph and relief, and conviction as a political jackpot, I’m not fussed either way, so I’ve tended to take the rougher bits of the trial more in my stride than he has. I’ve been here before, but it’s undoubtedly tougher on someone much younger for whom this is a baptism of fire. I tell him to wait until he’s heard our defence barristers respond, because they’ve got much more to make their cases with than Jameson had.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Defence summing up</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The jury are called back in at 3.25 and Stuart Lawson-Rogers rises to his feet to sum up Mark’s defence. He speaks in a stronger voice than Jameson, who has a tendency to speak without opening his mouth very wide and so to muffle his own points. Furthermore, the defence team sit nearer the jury, and Lawson-Rogers is a taller, more imposing figure, so straight away we have an advantage.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He calls Jameson’s effort an “eloquent speech,” but says that it presents the case as the Crown (this is lawyer-speak, I tried throughout my evidence to refer to ‘the prosecution’, so as not to lend to this Blairite Showtrial the dignity of association with the Monarchy) as they would like it to be, not as it really is.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The facts have been blown up out of all proportion, he says. The prosecution is “misconceived and inappropriate” and has totally failed to discharge its duty to prove the case. Some of the prosecution (he’s doing the same as me now) speech “lost touch with the reality of our world.” What a blistering opening! The jurors are hanging on his every word as he tells them that they have a heavy responsibility.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He reminds them that they are not sitting in judgement on the BNP. Issues of race are, he accepts, sensitive, but they must be debated. Political Correctness intends by the use of some words and the prohibition of others to prevent debate. (This is actually hardcore radical understanding and critique of PC, way above the Daily Mail level ‘PC gone mad’ stuff with which the jury will already be familiar).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“You can think what you like but be very careful when you open your mouth” is how he describes the PC assault on freedom of speech. It’s all about ‘spin’, he says, using a term which is guaranteed to prejudice 99% of people against those doing the spinning.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We all feel the pressure being applied in this case, he says, even Mr. Jameson used the phrase “tarred with the same brush” and felt the need to apologise if he was being up-PC. “Did the world collapse? Did the world stop spinning?” Brilliant!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s very easy to pick apart a speech in hindsight and in print, but an off the cuff political speech is not a legal document.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Cornerstone of democracy</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Furthermore, free speech was a cornerstone of our democracy, but “today our rights and liberties are under attack as never before” by the Government. He cites all sorts of things, including the NuLab push for ID cards “to ‘protect us’” he sneers at their deceit and Big Brother mentality.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">George Orwell appears in the courtroom “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people things that they do not want to hear.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If you conclude that this is a political prosecution, he tells the enthralled jury, you know where to consign it.<span style=""> </span>And here the State is prosecuting a legal political party over election campaign speeches.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He reminds the jury that the Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith had to give permission for this prosecution, and that charges were laid on 6<sup>th</sup> May 2005 “coincidentally or not the day after the announcement by the Prime Minister of the General Election.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">When you look at Mark Collett’s two speeches in totality, the prosecution case is simply not made out to the legitimate standard; it is just an attempt to criminalise free speech.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He moves on to talk about the European Convention on Human Rights, how it is now the law and how government and the courts are obliged to act in accord with it. He repeats what he said at the end of our January trial about Article 10, and about the very limited reasons for which free speech may legitimately be restricted. The law protects not just popular ideas that also those that offend, shock or disturb any section of the population.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Lord Justice Sedley’s binding opinion, that freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having, is quoted in full (too fast for me to write, but look back at the tail end of the January blog record to find this noble piece of English law in full). And Lawson Rogers reiterates that the jury system can still check abuse of power by the State, just as it did hundreds of years ago in the famous Quaker case cited by Sedley. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">History in the making</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This must be amazing stuff for someone who thought that their jury service would probably see them trying some scrote for twocking cars. The court official who told me on the quiet a day or so before that this case was history in the making certainly got it right.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The TV programme that started the case was the brainchild of people antipathetic to the BNP. Would there have been a programme at all if the comments had been made by two people not in the BNP? If not, he says, then the whole thing is political. (Superb rhetorical logic, although perhaps a little flimsy legally. Good stuff though. From time to time, he makes his points almost in a whisper, so that the jury have to lean forward and strain on his every word. He’s a showman, and this is some show.)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There were private meetings, with security to keep out people not likeminded. The recordings were obtained through devious methods and it took a year before the decision was made to prosecute. Did </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">West yorkshire</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> police feel the need to investigate Mr. Collett of their own volition? No. Was there trouble aftet the meetings or the programme? No.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Going to the primary allegation, of intention to stir up hatred, the BNP is striving to establish itself as a legitimate political party, so it is not at all in our interest to cause any kind of trouble. The real aim of the speeches is easy to see – it is to stir up political activity, and this is clear if you don’t cherry pick the speech (everyone has adopted the phrase that Mark threw at the prosecution during cross-examination in the first trial).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">L-R gestures as he speaks and at 3.55 has only lost the rapt attention of a couple of the jurors for brief moments throughout this tour de force.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Crown, he tells them, is only paying lipservice to the idea that we all have the right to discuss problems. Since 1958 and later the time of Enoch Powell, those who have criticised established policy on racial matters have been castigated as ‘racists’. But these things are big issues now “the great issues of our time, and they need to be addressed.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Furthermore, Mark has provided samples of press coverage to show that he wasn’t making the problems up. He believed it all to be true, which goes to his intention.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">“Mr Collett is criticised for the use of the word ‘Asians’. This is absolute nonsense, absolute nonsense. It is perfectly proper to use it.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Burning issues</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr Collett talks of multi-culturalism – so long approved of by our leaders. Now it is being challenged as divisive. The Government itself has provoked – deliberately – a debate about the veil. They can’t criticise the BNP for wanting to discuss it, and for recognising these issues a long time ago. The burning issues of our time.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">(What a shame that court cases aren’t televised as they are in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">USA</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">. This highly political and superbly presented defence would blow the whole apparatus of PC repression out of the water).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mark is not on trial for the use of inelegant language. He is not on trial for being a racist – even if he were. He was seeking to address concerns that the audience already had and trying to mobilise his listeners to political activity.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There are a wealth of unpleasant words to describe all races. You know them. Mark is not using them, but if he had wanted to stir up hatred he would have done. There is nothing racist in using the word ‘white’ to describe victims who are white.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If we had wanted hatred and violence, wouldn’t we have advertised the meetings so as to spark trouble from opponents?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Then he moves on to examine the alternative charge of ‘likely to incite racial hatred.’ The jury have to be sure that his speeches were likely or probable to incite. But his words were tested on 4.5 million people! </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is not abusive or insulting to say “A hates B”. What does ‘racial hatred’ mean? Hate is strong stuff.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">He draws attention to the part of Mark’s speech where he said he didn’t hate anyone except the white politicians who have sold our people out. He had no reason to say this if it wasn’t true, and the point would tend to dampen any feelings of racial hatred that some listeners might have.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mark did want to stir something up – enthusiasm for legitimate political action.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The case should never have come to court, and it never would have done, if it hadn’t been for politically motivated journalists at the BBC. It’s not even a borderline case, and the prosecution haven’t proven it to the necessary high standard, sure of all the components, on the basis of evidence. They should acquit his client.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mr. Lawson-Rogers concludes at 4.25. As he sweeps his black gown to one side to sit down I find m hands quite literally move involuntarily to applaud. I stop myself in time, but later find out that a number of people in the public gallery had the same spontaneous reaction. He was very good last time, but this was outstanding. I’d be happy if that was the only defence, but we’ve still got Tim King to speak on my behalf tomorrow morning, and I am confident that he’ll be working on it tonight and will provide another barnstormer.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mark too is happy now. If he had a tail it’d be wagging nineteen to the dozen.</span></p>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1167487909265298632006-11-06T18:09:00.000-08:002006-12-30T06:11:49.376-08:00Monday 6th November<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Monday 6th - Mark in the dock</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We're due on at 10.15 so we arrive just before ten and have time to chat briefly with the loyal hardcore band standing with their flags and placards in the precinct (yet again it's cold but clear and dry). We have to go in as it wouldn't do for us to be late. But, of course, it's a different matter for the Great and Good and the Establishment, and by half ten one of the barristers still hasn't arrived and got 'robed' so Mark and I are still chatting with the security guards in the dock.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mark is a bit nervous as he's going to be giving his evidence today. I tell him that he's much better placed relative to his adversary today, because last time around Mark had never even been in a Magistrates Court for a speeding fine before, let alone stood in the witness box in a Crown Court, so he is now 100% more prepared than he was last time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The judge enters Court Number 8 at 10.36 and the jury are brought in straight away. Mark is called to the witness box by his Silk, Stuart Lawson-Rogers. He swears on the Bible and we're off.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">He is briefly taken through his education, then how he got involved with the BNP as a result of meeting Chris Beverley, who was also at Leeds University, in the Leeds Uni Free Speech Society. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">By a quarter to eleven Mark is being questioned about how and why we have to hold our meetings in private, usually through re-direction points, so as to avoid confrontation with the far-left. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A member of the public wanders into the public gallery and, spotting an empty seat at the far end of a row of seats proceeds to excuse himself and chatter as he squeezes past people. Just as with the way that no jurors bother to wear ties or really smart clothes, there is an amazing lack of respect for the legal process among the general public these days. Despite my deep loathing of the essentially parasitic and unproductive legal system, I find this a shame - just another example of the collapse of civility and proper standards which is proceeding at Gaderene speed throughout British society. From a personal point of view being in the dock, I get very uncomfortable when individuals can't behave themselves and stay dead quiet while in the public gallery, lest in some way their disrespectful attitude rubs off on me and Mark.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Within a few minutes the man in question, who I've never seen before in my life, says 'yes' in a very loud voice when Mark, being questioned about the problem of 'grooming' in Keighley, says that we were working in the area to try to get the issue addressed because it is a very serious one. The judge orders him to leave the court and he does so, saying as he does so that it's time that something was said and done and that there's "no point all sitting there being quiet about it." I'd guess that he's come as a member of the public who has personal family experience of the scandal of sex/drugs/violence/police blind eye anti-white racism that we were addressing in our speeches and campaign, and is just too angry to control himself. How would you feel if your daughter had been turned into a heroin-addict prostitute?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That, of course, is no excuse. Again, it's a sign of the collapse of our society that a grown man can't be bothered to, or doesn't understand the reason why he should, control himself in a court of law. Of course, we get the same thing at our own meetings sometimes, and the prosecution in cases like this dishonestly use them as 'examples' of us 'winding up' otherwise calm and rational people, whereas the truth is that there's a lot of anger among ordinary people out there anyway. We believe it is better channelled positively, rather than brushing it under the carpet to fester.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p>Systematic grooming </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mark now looks relaxed in the dock. He explains how 'grooming'<span style=""> </span>is systematic, controlled and deliberate, taking the jury through how it is done stage by stage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Lawson-Rogers takes Mark through the two speeches, repeatedly bringing out the theme of how he was seeking not to incite 'hate' but to persuade new members and enquirers to get actively involved and to help advance our cause through the democratic political process. There are, of course, no fireworks at this stage, but between them Mark and his defence QC lay down some good material for the jury to think about and for the defence summing up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"Has the party grown in the way you said you wanted it to at those meetings?" asks the QC. Yes, certainly, replies Mark, giving as a particularly good example the way in which the BNP got more votes in the last council elections in the whole of Kirklees than any other party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">By 11.35 a.m. they are going through Mark's jury bundle. The jury peer closely at the first document, a copy of a cutting about the Bradford riots from the institutionally anti-white Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Lawson-Rogers skims through cuttings such as one from the Dewsbury Free Press about Lee Massey (the near murder of this young dad by a gang of Iraqi asylum-seekers wasn't covered anywhere else), asking the jury to study them more carefully later. Mark says very little through this stage. An account of a brutual attack on an elderly man tending the grave of his wife in a Bradford cemetery, by a gang described by the police and local paper as involving "six Asian teenagers" is particularly shocking.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The jury, among other things, are talked through the Home Office Joint Tenancy Agreement, which shows the huge list of handouts and luxuries given to asylum seekers in private accommodation (at taxpayers' expense). Hopefully this raised a few hackles against Establishment folly among the jurors, although it's hard to tell because a large TV is positioned between them and me in the dock at the back of the court, so I can't see them all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">By 12.15 Mr Lawson-Rogers has finished going through the source material, and sits down. Mr Jameson takes over for the Prosecution and offers Mark a short break as he's been in the witness box quite a long time. Mark declines and says we can just get on with it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jameson tries to get Mark to accept his proposition that if someone says that "all Asians are criminals" it would be abusing or insulting. Mark says it might be, but he wouldn't regard it as such. He points out that he has been called a criminal by various media outlets and demonstrators, but isn't abused or insulted, "it's just one of those things."<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Jameson admits that Mark's motive is to get support for political action and to get elected, but then says he accepts that, but "what was the point?" Mark responds that he thought that the motive was the point, and Jameson moves on. Once again Jameson tries to make something significant about the fact that Mark talks about the problems of Bradford, rather than Keighley. Mark points out that Keighley is simply part of Bradford in political boundary terms and the point is dropped. This is all moving along at a fair bit faster than last time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The two joust over the press cuttings, with Jameson trying to use the most sickeningly PC propaganda tale parts of them as 'evidence' that Mark has somehow got it all wrong. "Did you speak to the mothers quoted in the paper who say it's not a racial issue but a child protection one?" Mark is asked. "No, but I talked to the mothers of victims who came to our meetings and they had a very different opinion; they thought it was racial." A scoring point!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"Do you suggest that the police weren't doing everything they should?" Mark is asked in an incredulous tone. Jameson has just dropped his guard and walks on to a cracking right hook: "When you've got carloads of young Asian men aged between 18 and their mid twenties sat outside schools waiting for young white schoolgirls, to get them onto drink, drugs and rape them, and the police do nothing to stop these perverts, then of course the police aren't doing everything they should." <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mark stops Jameson and accuses him - rightly - of cherry-picking instead of taking the speech as a whole. Jameson asks his forgiveness and says that he doesn't want to gloss over Mark's overall political aims. Mark says he forgives him!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mark starts to make a point, Jameson interrupts him and gets him to answer the question. The judge then interrupts Jameson and gives Mark the opportunity to say what he wanted to. Very fair.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Adjourn</span><br /></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">At one p.m. precisely we adjourn for lunch, expecting a few questions still to come.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We start again at 2.15 prompt, with a brief discussion on the timing of the rest of the case. A piece of extra evidence that I have found should have been viewed by my team during the lunch break, but one of them had to go to the A&E Department of the local hospital with something in her eye. It is therefore agreed that today will finish at the end of Mark's evidence, with me starting tomorrow morning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mark had been advised by his counsel to be defensive and non-aggressive in his responses. Over lunch we've concluded that, while he's done fine under a much tighter cross-examination than last time (Jameson has dropped all the weak points that got him such a comprehensive hiding from Mark last time around) he does better when taking the fight to the 'enemy'.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We're right. Mark comes out fighting. We're going through his second speech now. Jameson tries to make something out an idiotic (or planted?) comment from the audience and Mark uses it to condemn such morons and say we don't want them, but that there is righteous anger over what is going on in places such as Keighley, and that it is far better that this is brought out through sensible and peaceful channels. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mr Jameson now (rightly) gets accused of worming his way around and using weasel words. Mark, on occasion, however, can be weasley too (he knows that and happily admits it) and the pair verbally circle each other warily.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">At one point in my speech in Keighley I said that the members of the paedophile rape gang that had been exposed (just once) on Channel 4 were all in prison. Mark had later said that none had been jailed. Why, Mark was now asked, had he not given my answer. Had he not listened to what I was saying. "No", said Mark, grinning boyshly as he said of me that "he does go on a bit." The judge and jury and almost the entirely court laugh or smile; I'm not able to see if Rodney Jameson joins in the brief merriment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Asked a question on his use of the word 'pride' and why it's important that white people especially should have pride, Mark launches a powerful response that "when there are Asian Pride Melas or Black History Month it all gets a round of applause from the Guardian and leftists, but when we talk of pride among white peope we're 'racist'." The blow goes home and Jameson moves swiftly on.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In fact, he moves swiftly on to the end. Mark has got his teeth into him and doesn't want to let go. Jameson's final question is about press coverage of the kind of incidents which our speeches were about, but he doesn't even stay on his feet until the end of Mark's reply, which concludes by asking him "Mr. Jameson, if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it fall, does it make a noise?" "I'm not answering your questions" he grumbles as he sits down, distinctly deflated once again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"Spot on. That was brilliant," says one of our guards as Mark picks up his files and steps down from the witness box - the typical position, I'd reckon of virtually the whole of honest, hard-working, taxpaying Leeds if they could but have heard the exchanges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That's it, we're done for the day by 2.55 p.m. At one level I'm glad, because I want to have one more look through my own material before taking the stand. But, at another, I'd love to be able to get straight on with it. My defence team, security chaps and a couple of members of the court staff stay behind after everyone else has left. We are now able to play and watch the last minute piece of evidence I want to produce, a DVD of a Jihadi rap video in which I feature and am recommended for death. Charmers!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">While the lawyers discuss the material one of the court staff asks for my autograph on a court document. Actually we've found that they're pretty much all on our side, although not all as blatantly as that. I take the opportunity to step into the witness box for a moment, just for the fun of it and by way of practice for the morning. A severe adrenaline rush - I'm going to tear the unfortunate Mr. J. to pieces tomorrow. Of course, I know he's only doing his job, and I'm not one to hold grudges, but he did try to rough young Mark up this morning and I'm looking forward to repaying him in kind. We'll see, I'm all too well aware that it doesn't pay to count your chickens before they're hatched, and given my tendency to "go on a bit" M'Lud may well keep me on a much tighter leash than he has Mark.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Come what may, Mark will be your reporter from the dock of Court Number Eight tomorrow so I, like you, will look forward to reading what he makes of it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37774473.post-1167491724686385352006-11-02T19:13:00.000-08:002006-12-30T07:16:06.633-08:00Thursday 2nd November<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:10;">Thurs 2nd Blog<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:10;">With today off, Jackie and I drove home yesterday evening after filming a short interview with the Altermedia nationalist internet news agency. This operation is based in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size:10;">Belgium</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size:10;"> but with sub-section sites in various languages including is, in addition to English, French and German, pretty much all the European languages. Its network of correspondents all over the continent gives it a reach and depth far superior to the juvenile neo-Nazi rantings and agent provocateur extremism that dominate most 'nationalist' websites and forums in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size:10;">USA</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size:10;">. It really is worth bookmarking as a web favourite. With nationalists now beginning to develop our use of the Internet more and more effectively, it's no surprise that the Eurocrats and left-liberals recently tried (and failed, but no doubt they'll try again) to make it illegal to post home videos online with a licence (to be issued - or more to the point withheld - by them!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:10;" >It really is shocking just how backwards the movement for our peoples' ethnic and cultural survival is in </span><st1:country-region style="font-family:georgia;"><st1:place><span style="font-size:10;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">. Only Eire is worse off, and the Irish at least have the excuse that the Marxist multicult fanatics of Sinn Fein/IRA have for years beaten and threatened anyone who tried to build a political resistance to the rapid 'browning' of the Emerald Isle. In Northern reland, the unionists, Orange Lodge and the leftist loyalist paramilitaries have also come down firmly on the side of mass immigration and 'anti-racism'. </span><br /><!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">One of the songs on the album of my poems set to (other artists') music, which is scheduled for release by Great White Records before Christmas, is called 'Different Drums'. It uses the motif of the loyalist lambeg wardrum and the hand-held Irish folk bodran drum competing to be heard, and expresses the hope that the two will one day soon realise that thay have far more in common than they do with the new wave of non-European sounds, cultures and religions which are on present trends going to swamp Ireland, on both sides of the border, even faster than they will England. There are so hopeful signs, not least a growing mood among grassroots Republican activists against thier Marxist leadership's slavish and self-genocidal devotion to the multicult. "We didn't spend 700 years trying to get rid of the Brits," they complain, "to see Cathleen Hoolaghan (I hope the spelling of the female archetype representing Mother Ireland is right) forced to wear a burqa." Indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Family of nations</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">We had an Irish tricolour on the demonstration yesterday. A little futher along the crowd a Red Hand of Ulster flapped proudly in the chilly Yorkshire breeze. To have the two flying side by side, for the same cause, must be a first for any party which stands for the British Family of Nations, or perhaps for anywhere else for that matter. I'm delighted to see it, because the indigenous folk of these islands don't have the time for the deadly luxury of sectarianism any more.</span><o:p style="font-family: georgia;"></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">Thinking of Ireland (you'll see why in a moment, for blogs naturally tend to be written on stream of consciousness lines) last night's crystal clear sky was dominated by a more than half moon that illuminated all the outlines of the countryside around us once we got home. That brought back, from the depths of nowhere, as memories will, a recollection of a fleeting glimpse, just over 18 years ago, of a 'moonbow'. This is the nighttime equivalent of a rainbow, and it appeared - as I'm sure it only could - on a night with a full moon and a gentle drizzle from clouds covering much of the rest of the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">This was when we lived in an old farmhouse that I was renovating in the wild and beautiful South Shropshire hills. Amazed by the sight of this huge silvery arc - far less colour than a common or garden rainbow - I called Jackie out to see it. She came out of the house a little slowly, on account of being nine months pregnant with Richard at the time. As she came out to see the moonbow a frog made her jump as she came out of the door it went in. We stood and watched until the silver semi-circle faded, and a couple of hours later she went into labour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">I asked everyone I could think of about the phenomenon, but no one else had ever seen a moonbow, or even heard of one or of any folklore connected to it. The only exception was a neighbouring smallholder, a tall gentle Irishman with grown up children still living in Eire. He mentioned it to one of them and they sent him a cutting from their local newspaper, in which a little girl had written that she had seen a moonbow and did anyone know anything about them. So we know we didn't dream it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">So I thought I'd take a couple of minutes of your time in the hope that a reader somewhere in the world will be able to email me with some information about moonbows, their scarcity and their symbolic/mystical/folklore meaning. Or, if you're quick and a postcard is likely to get to Leeds Crown Court (full address in yesterday's entry) by Wednesday, how about a card?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">Today wasn't far from being what the Welsh used to call A Day for the Queen (because when fulfilling the parish duty to repair the roads, no one worked very hard). Got up late. Pottered about. Proof-read the next Identity and gave Mark the corrections. Did a few emails. Made a few important organisational phone calls. Cooked a risotto for family tea and to use up the remains of a lamb joint. Then in the car to head back to Yorkshire, typing this as Jackie drives. A few hours' sleep tonight after a quiet pint, before returning to court and full-on politics. More tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;"> </div>Nick Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02661631911207439226noreply@blogger.com