The End of the BNP
Posted by admin978 on September 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Just two years ago the British National Party celebrated the election of two Members of the European Parliament. In September 2011 the party collapsed and headed for “administration”, the fate of many a failed company and bankrupt football club. Present and former BNP members will gather in Lancashire on 8th October to commemorate the party’s founder John Tyndall. Speakers including Andrew Brons, BNP MEP for Yorkshire & Humber, will assess the BNP’s rise and fall, and look towards the future renaissance of our movement. Click here for details.
The blame for the BNP’s failure lies squarely with the party chairman Nick Griffin, who took over the party just before a series of events created unparalleled opportunities for nationalists. He has wasted these opportunities through his own greed and megalomania.
As a consequence the BNP has suffered frequent splits and purges, one of which has led to the financial and legal cataclysm that has now destroyed the party. In December 2007 a group of senior party officials rebelled against Griffin and his then right-hand man Mark Collett (who ironically was to be purged himself in a later schism at the end of March 2010). Leading dissidents were then dismissed from their positions in the party, including former webmaster Steve Blake, former head of admin Kenny Smith, and his wife Nicholla Smith who then ran the BNP merchandising arm Excalibur.
Griffinite security goons raided the rebels’ homes, and the party leadership, in the persons of Griffin and his deputy Simon Darby, began a complicated legal action against their former comrades in March 2008. After the first hearing of this action in Manchester, Simon Darby issued a statement which will no doubt feature in future histories of political hubris:
“We have got everything we asked for…. I believe such moves will be seen as having been crucial for the continuing growth, discipline and structure of our movement.”
Almost three years later the case ended in catastrophic defeat for Darby and his master. At the end of 2010 they dropped their action, but typically sought to wriggle out of paying the costs. On 21st December 2010 they lost this argument as well: Griffin and Darby were ordered to pay all of their opponents’ costs. An initial £45,000 was ordered to be paid by 18th January 2011.
There then began a long drawn out appeal process. Not that Nick Griffin expected to win any appeal, merely that he hoped to drag out the process long enough for something to turn up, such as a legacy from some deluded millionaire supporter, or a devastating terrorist attack.
By now the courts were beginning to realise that Nick Griffin MEP was a man of straw, so Darby was required to make a deposit of £20,000 with his solicitors so that (if/when the appeal process was exhausted) the courts could be confident that at least some of the bill would be paid.
In August one of England’s most senior judges, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, ruled that Griffin and Darby had no reasonable grounds to pursue a further appeal. By now the stay of execution delaying demand for payment of the £45,000 had expired, so on the morning of 2nd September 2011 High Court Enforcement Officers turned up at Griffin’s home to seize any possessions of value, including his Skoda car, which they planned to sell at auction.
The desperate Welshpool cabal sought yet another stay of execution to delay their inevitable doom. Yet again it was granted, this time by Lord Justice Rix, but this time on the strict condition that:
(a) Darby’s £20,000 was handed over within three days; and
(b) the remaining £25,000 was produced within a fortnight.
Needless to say, even this £45,000 was only the first instalment of this particular legal bill, set to total more than £150,000, and the party’s total debts add up to well over £500,000.
But even this first hurdle proved too high for the crippled BNP. Simon Darby and his solicitors failed to hand over the £20,000 and on the expiry of this deadline, on Wednesday afternoon, 14th September, the BNP lost any right to further appeals in this case. Having realised that the trigger was about to be pulled, Griffin and Darby rustled up £20,000 and paid it into the Court account two days late.
The stay of execution will still be lifted if they fail to meet the 28th September deadline for payment of a further £25,000, in which case the party’s creditors will begin the process of putting the BNP into administration.
Future control of the party would pass into the hands of the Administrator appointed by the court, so Nick Griffin’s much touted election victory and his new constitution, giving him unchallenged dictatorial power for the next four years, would become worthless. The final step will be to determine whether Nick Griffin should face not merely bankruptcy (in his case for the second time) but a more serious bankruptcy restrictions order, which would result in his removal from the European Parliament.
In that case his replacement would be decided by the Administrator in charge of the wreck of the BNP. Meanwhile a full scale salvage operation to rescue nationalism in our country is now under way. As a first stage of that rescue, many old nationalist comrades from across party divides will meet in Lancashire on 8th October. Click here to join them!
