Oh happy purge: BNP experience difficulties

For some time the far right British National Party have been, to put it mildly, stalled in their project to become a genuinely national force in British politics. Despite the help of the media turning them into the bogey man to respectable politics, something that could only legitimise them in the eyes of every disenfranchised (non) voter in the country, they've not been able to win a real foothold above a handful of council seats here and there.

The loony vote has been split for some time between the BNP, other fascist groups like the National Front and eclectic odd ball rightists like UKIP and the English Democrats. It should also be admitted that anti-fascist forces have been somewhat directionless too, although the recent demonstration against Griffin and Irving speaking at the Oxford Union showed, in impressive fashion, that it is still possible to mobilise when necessary against the far right.

Searchlight reports that "Sadie Graham, the party’s hard-working group development officer, and Kenny Smith, in charge of administration, have been “removed from their posts with immediate effect" and "it seems that five of the party’s regional organisers have resigned, four BNP councillors have withdrawn the whip and are now Independent Nationalist councillors, five Advisory Council members are backing the rebellion as are several other local branch organisers."

Internal problems, which can be ignored or bypassed when a party is making headway, often become far sharper when parties are treading water. Over the last few years the BNP has failed to recruit substantial numbers of activists, and as a result have suffered financial difficulties. Where they have managed to get councillors elected they've not made gains because their representatives have, by and large, been useless boobs.

It might be possible to get elected by saying that career politicians don't adequately represent us (which they don't) but it's not possible to stay elected if you then do sod all yourself. This kind of incompetence recently led to a councillor losing their seat for non-attendance at council meetings and the BNP then losing that seat coming third in an area that they won decisively not long before.

Sustained rhetoric about being on the verge of a breakthrough has failed to materialise for BNP activists and it is in the way of these things that people start to look around for reasons why they are not making gains. Activists frustrated that seeing councillors elected was not the breakthrough they had been told it was have begun to blame a leadership clique made up of those who have done little to warrant what passes for high office in a small party.

This far right blog has the inside info on the spiralling crisis which includes the breaking in to activists houses and a campaign of smears against those not in the favoured circle. The leader of the Young BNP Mark Collett is one such charmless nerk. He's gone on record to say that "Hitler will live on forever and maybe I will too", "Honestly now, would you prefer your kid growing up in Oldham and Burnley or 1930s Germany? It would be better for your child to grow up there" and "When people say that I am evil, yeah I am. But it all depends. I'm either the sweetest angel or the most evil being you've ever encountered. It just depends which side you push me. Never kill people. Push them to the point of despair where they do it themselves because that's when you've really won." Whilst Griffin's supporters are expelling one group of loons they have seen fit, as Peter points out, to keep this Anti-Semitic loon as part of the leadership faction.

The BNP website says that a "BNP Intelligence Department" (fill your own joke in here) was set up, headed by the charming "Lance Stewart, a long-standing British nationalist and a former high-ranking officer in the South African Police", and that these expulsions were part of an investigation aimed at preventing leaks from the organisation. Odd how the ones expelled happen to be the ones arguing the case to make the BNP more electable and professional in its approach - which seems to be an odd kind of sabotage in my book. Odd how they happen to be the ones making life difficult for Griffin at the moment too over his favourite goon Collett. Life's full of coincidences I guess.

Ironically, one of the charges brought against these near do wells was the very fact that they thought Collett was off his rocker and a liability for the party, which he clearly is. That doesn't make them "reds" and those who defend them are not victims of "black propaganda" (that phrase takes on a whole new, chilling, meaning on a racist website don't you think?) but politically minded people who understand that the BNP have only been able to make the gains they had by leaving behind the jack boots and braces image of the past and appear more politically savey.

It seems that the phones at BNP central office are in over drive at the moment ringing round the party ensuring everyone is loyal to the leader. They are attempting to stem the ever increasing flow of those who oppose this increasingly heavy handed leadership style from the fuhrer. Smears, threats and unpleasantness are bread and butter for party splits and this case is no exception it seems. Jolly good.