Wednesday 14 July 2010

The End Of The BNP Is Nigh!

News that an undisclosed sum was agreed in settlement of the recent Employment Tribunal, as brought by Michaela Mackenzie against Nick Griffin, adds to the recent list of avoidable costs that the BNP is liable for such that bankruptcy is all but inevitable and the party forced to fold as a result.

Hopefully the many ex-members, myself included, who having left because of how the party has been mis-managed will join together and form a replacement party from the ashes, but excluding Nick Griffin and his toadies.

I support Eddy Butler in his leadership challenge but having had many years of experience of how the party rules are created and varied to suit Nick Griffin surely means that Eddy’s challenge is doomed to failure.

There was a time that many of us looked upon Nick as being the saviour of British Nationalism and despite Ms Mackenzie’s statement that:-

“Griffinite members of the party must bear responsibility for what he has become. He is a monster of their own creation. For years they have fawned upon him, bloated his ego out of all proportion to reality, encouraged him to believe he can do no wrong and that he isn’t subject to the laws, restrictions and codes of morality that determine decent conduct for the rest of us mere mortals.” - she must also accept that she is as guilty as the rest of us for the current situation.

In fact, I once thought of Nick Griffin as a friend and worked with him on a couple of projects at his home and shared meals at his table with his family. He also thought highly of me for a while saying in one of his emails to me, in response to mine when resigning from all but my membership as a result of the expulsion of the so-called “Voice of Change Rebels” in early 2008, that “I'm glad you're remaining a member, and hope that after due time you'll get back involved at the level at which your considerable talents actually make it your duty so to be”.

I recognize, however, that any of us, when attaining a certain status amongst like-minded people, can suffer from the feeling of invincibility related to the power and control associated with such status and therefore neglecting the real purpose we are there for. Having been a member of the Advisory Council and Master of Ceremonies at several Red, White and Blue festivals gave me an insight into the dangers of this, albeit at a lower level. This nevertheless resulted in receiving a lecture from that half-witted, failed South West Regional Organiser, Mike Howson, that “the party couldn’t afford to support those with ego’s….. “. I think Howson was simply envious of the profile I had attained, but this was not as a result of egotism, but simply a belief in doing what I believed was right and taking the occasional risk (see Baggs v Fudge) as a result. Such risks as Howson would not have taken being so scared of his own shadow that he referred to himself as Mike Howsman until 2007!

It is obvious to those with just a passing interest in human psychology that Nick Griffin is insecure and relishes the power and attention that his position brings him hence the venom when anyone challenges or crosses him. I vividly recall an Advisory Council meeting at which he openly described the then recently departed Warren Bennett as a “c**t”. Just as well his mother Jean wasn’t taking the minutes on this occasion then.

The appearance of Jim Dowson in the party marked the time from when the mismanagement of the BNP went from bad to worse. Admittedly Dowson made the party a lot of money for the party but at a high cost. Also at a time when the BNP should have been capitalising on the issues resulting from all of the social problems and the worst Prime Minister ever, they never did. The Question Time fiasco is a prime example of that!

Is the situation retrievable? I don’t think it is, the BNP has had their chance and blown it. However, there is just enough time for those many good people I worked with over the near 20 years of involvement in Nationalism, to regroup and start again under a new banner, perhaps with the financial backing of Ms Mackenzie.

Whatever happens, things need to move quickly, come Christmas Eddy Butler may or may not be the new leader of the BNP, if he is then I wish him well with the reformation, if not then the BNP is most definitely history.