Election fever is sweeping the BNP as we head towards June and it is pulling out all the stops to maximise support. Nick Griffin loves a stunt, and the latest is the revelation that the fascist party intends to stand a Jewish woman in the council elections in June. By Steve Silver

Pat Richardson, who lives in Loughton, is set to represent the nazi party in the Epping Forest district council election. Her husband is also involved in the BNP. Defending her actions in The Jewish News, Richardson, 58, claimed she had a Jewish upbringing and that members of her family had fought Mosley’s fascists. In response to revelations of the BNP’s Holocaust denial and antisemitism she said she believed that the "present party is different to the old party".

As incredible as her involvement seems, she is hardly the only person to be fooled by the BNP’s image change and to become a dupe for its propaganda.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, should have been cock-a-hoop at his latest coup: a Jewish candidate for a nazi party. Surely this would take the sting out of the charges of antisemitism that the BNP finds so damaging.

But it seems Griffin can’t get anything right these days. Because the BNP is a nazi party he has caused an internal furore that shows no signs of abating. The hardcore nazis are in uproar that a “racial enemy” can be admitted to the party, let alone stand for election. Only a couple of months ago Griffin was trying to ameliorate the hardliners by telling them in the BNP house magazine Identity that changes in BNP policy to make the nazi party appear more mainstream had gone as far as they would go and no further. It seems that BNP members don’t mind lying to the public, but having it done to themselves is just too much.

BNP policy changes for public consumption

While the news that the BNP have a Jewish woman involved in their organisation might surprise many of its opponents, it is in fact the logical conclusion of a trajectory that the BNP has been on for some time. Firstly, Griffin was instrumental in ditching the BNP’s longstanding policy of compulsory repatriation of non-white immigrants. Then in June 2001 the BNP launched the “ethnic liaison committee” which sought out “publicity activity with non-whites”. What this meant in practice among other things was finding black people who also believe in racial segregation – apartheid.

For some BNP supporters the introduction of an anti-Muslim Sikh columnist to the pages of Identity was the final straw. Indeed, what forced Griffin to put fingers to keyboard in Identity defending his position was because for a couple of year’s now there have been rumours that the BNP is going to accept black people into membership. This was fuelled by the fact that Lawrence Rustem – who is half Turkish – was given membership.

Ms Richardson was going to stand for election last year but internal opposition at the time put paid to that. Griffin obviously thinks he can get away with it this time but he has underestimated the depth of feeling inside his party.

Tyndall gets uppity

There has been much infighting in the BNP over its policy changes. This led to the expulsion of its former leader John Tyndall (he has since been reinstated after legal proce-edings). At the time he attacked Griffin in no uncertain terms saying that the party had “now abandoned its commitment to the eventual achievement of an all-white Britain, that it accepts the multi-cultural society as an unchangeable fact, and that we must now just grin and bear it and make the best of it”.

The idea that the BNP is selling out its core principles for electoral advantage is eating away at the organisation from the inside. After all isn’t that what the “old gang parties” do?

But Griffin has a problem. If the BNP went to the electorate openly with what it stood for it would be decisively rejected. After all, since fascism was first imported to British soil, the British public has rejected it time and again.

Griffinism

Some in the BNP are enthusiastic about the changes and are prepared to defend them. In response to a message on the nazi Stormfront website forum quoting Ms Richardson as saying the BNP would not completely halt immigration a Griffin loyalist responded, “I don’t think this comment should be taken too seriously. She obviously has no say in central BNP policy. But if it would mislead liberalish people to vote for the BNP, then it is good. We also need our own propaganda to win votes.”

As the debate raged another person posting on the nazi Stormfront site wrote, “Let’s see how this development unfolds … I mean there are [sic] honestly committed leadership in the BNP – they are sincerely fighting for Britain. If this little publicity stunt of theirs convince [sic] more people to vote for them, why not? If there ever is a BNP victory, I can assure you a BNP leadership won’t be dictated to by Jews on how to run the country.”

Another contributor added that they believed members of ethnic minority groups should be allowed to get involved in the BNP through the ethnic liaison committee effectively as party supporters: “Not as full voting members of the main BNP party structure – that would ALWAYS be reserved only for pure blood Europeans, but as associate mem-bers of the Ethnic Liason [sic] Group that would be a satellite group connected to the BNP. Le pen does it, Haider does it, the Vlams [sic] Blok do it.

“Even Hitler had islamics, Ukranians, Turkmenistanis, georgians, chenyans, Indians, sikhs and many others. When the hard core bang on about ‘purity’ they always seem to forget that their hero had more foreigners fighting for him than he did germans.”

It all makes interesting, if somewhat illiterate, reading because in the mid 1990s before Griffin was leader of the BNP he condemned people who wanted to make the party more mainstream. He wrote one article in The Rune, the magazine that he edited, in which he said that the kind of politics he is now advocating would be a sellout and would make the BNP no different from the Tories.

Griffin’s ability to carry out a complete about-turn in his views knows no bounds. In the late 1980s he was instrumental in expelling his longstanding comrade Patrick Harrington from the “political soldier wing” of the National Front. His crime? Harrington had gone to the Jewish Chronicle and said the NF was no longer anti-Jewish and wanted to seek a rapprochement with the Jewish community.

The backlash

While some BNP members are prepared to give Griffin the benefit of the doubt, many believe that a “Jew candidate” is a step too far. Some complain that BNP rules that require a member to be of “European stock” should preclude Ms Richardson from membership, let alone representing the party as an election candidate.

The lack of democracy inside the BNP has led to members turning to forums outside the party structure to debate the party’s new direction. As the debate unfolded on the internet one BNP member announced on the Stormfront site, “Each must deal with this development according to his or her own conscience.

“For me it is a compromise too far and I have resigned from the BNP.

“I still wish them well in June but feel that they no longer represent my core values as a British nationalist.”

The visceral antisemitism displayed by BNP members and supporters as they try to come to terms with a Jewish candidate is probably a shock only to Griffin. Perhaps he started to believe his own lie that the BNP is not an antisemitic party, though this is hardly likely for the man who wrote Who are the Mindbenders. This key BNP antisemitic text, a conspiracy theory classic, purports to show how the BBC is controlled by Jews. Perhaps he believes that every party member can be just as two-faced as he is.

Of course other nazis outside the BNP cannot resist a bit of Schadenfreude by throwing their few pfennigs worth in. As we go to press there are nearly 250 postings on Stormfront on this one issue alone, which shows the level of feeling it has aroused.

As with all things nazi the debate is not without its comic moments. One person who uses the name “Odin’s Eye” calls for the singing of “Onward Christian Soldiers” at BNP meetings. Those who refuse to sing it would void their membership. This advocacy of Christianity is all the more amusing from someone who writes in the name of a Norse god.

That discussion inside the BNP will continue on this issue is beyond doubt. One Stormfront contributor makes clear what needs to be done: “People should not start resigning from the BNP if you are BNP members. You need to, and some non-members have suggested, work from the inside and tell your branch organiser and above that you are not in agreement with this current move. You BNP members, foot soldiers of the movement are the true warriors of our Cause and now you have a mission to make your feelings heard, not only for the BNP, but to make sure the Cause of Nationalism does not get humiliated any more. We don’t want another councillor Stowe episode [the Burnley BNP councillor who publicly left in disgust] …”

It is within the hands of anti-fascists to ensure that the BNP does worse than it expects in the coming elections because of the massive barrage of propaganda it faces. If we can achieve that then things will start to go rapidly downhill for the nazis. While they can claim to be moving on an upward trajectory Griffin is in a stronger position to hold his party together. As soon as things start to go awry the BNP’s internal contradiction of trying to appear hardline to hardliners and moderate to potential voters will be its final undoing. Roll on that day.

This article appeared in Searchlight Magazine April 2004.

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