BNP Christmas Message

There's been a bit of a hiatus recently on this space but hopefully this will change in the New Year. I've had a few technological problems but they now seem solved.

I also aim to move host next year and I've a few ideas about what the blog should be.

No football today as our match at Oldham has been postponed. I'll have to settle for watching one of the lesser known Mersey teams. Liverpool or Everton?

The blog does sometimes get bogged down with the moronic happenings in the BNP and other far right nutjobs but I think that it is important to document them; their level of support may not deserve this but I don't think they should be ignored.

The BNP still maintains it is not a nasty bunch of Neanderthals and racist thugs. Their online outpourings throw cold water over this.

Even their 'intellectual' deputy leader, eyebrow gardener Simon Darby shows his true colours with his Christmas Message:

"As you can see my early morning shopping expedition to M&S, in order to obtain all my Christmas food and drink, was a total success. Even the sight of an asylum beggar/Big Issue sales person scrounging outside the store at 7am didn't distract me from my mission."

For readers not familiar with the Big Issue concept here are a few facts which bigoted Darby seeks to ignore:

1. It is a charitable foundation with support across the political spectrum.

2. Sellers buy copies of the magazine for 75p and sell it for £1.50. Therefore, they are just as legitimate as a newsagent.

3. Sellers do not have to be homeless at the time they are selling the mag. They will have encountered problems with housing and homelessness but could be in the transition from living on the streets to obtaining accommodation.

4. The magazine is professionally produced with exclusive content. By way of example Paul McCartney is featured in the latest issue.

5. Sellers are vetted by the organization and can have selling privileges withdrawn. They will have badges accreditation. Just remember that when a BNP-ite rattles a tin when collecting on behalf of 'our boys'.

The fact that Darby lumps Asylum Seekers (who cannot earn money under Home Office rules) with Big Issue Sellers shows why this party will never change.

The use of the word 'scrounger' is symptomatic of what the BNP think about underprivileged people. For all they talk about supporting soldiers and veterans this is clearly just a way of jumping on a bandwagon.

Research shows that many ex-forces personnel encounter problems back on civvy street and can end up on the street.

Same old Fascists.

All Front, No Back

I suppose you finally know you've hit a nerve when the White Supremacist and BNP loved site Stormfront starts linking to you. I posted about the EDL and its campaign to stop an application for a building to be used as a mosque in Weston-Super-Mare.

The application was actually turned down for what appear to be legitimate planning concerns. What is interesting is that the Weston Mercury reports that 97% of the objections had to be discarded due to them having an apparent racist element. Now, who would have thought that? When the EDL - which claims to be anti-extremism rather than anti-Islam - openly stoked the flames and asked followers (most of whom who had no connection with the town) to protest against this proposal, they knew full well what people would say.

The Weston Mercury reports, "North Somerset Council this week revealed it had to discard 97 per cent of 157 letters of objection to a proposed Muslim Centre in Orchard Street because of their racist nature.

It's indicative of the nature of the beast that one of the lobotomised souls frequenting Dante's new division has the charming quote "Give a negro a fish, and he will eat for a day.
Give a negro a fishing rod, and he will snap it and use it for firewood."

The Stormfront bod who linked to me is also a man of intellect and incredibly, seems to have attracted a mate:

• Me and my gf spent the afternoon at Southend today - half the population of africa was there and that is no exageration. Seems like they prefer Southend to Notting Hill now.

The EDL still wishes us to believe it is non-racist and speaks for the nation. The EDL seeks to distance itself from the BNP and other far-right thugs. This will not wash. There are clear links as a cursory search of Facebook groupings will prove. Even regular blog reader and ego-Googler Liam Pinkham turns up at these protests. (There, Liam another mention to tell your skin mates about).

Let me make this clear to the EDL and BNP: you do not speak for me. Both organisations are racist. Fact.

Multimedia message

I tend to know Xmas is approaching when either of 2 things happen - the PC madness banning Xmas myths appear and my electrical goods start to pack up just in time for the sales. In the past week I had problems with my laptop and my camera. Fortunately both are still protected that wonderful John Lewis warranty.

This precludes the need to have the usual conversation I used to have at Dixons type box sellers.
'Sorry, but you should have signed up for a 3 year warranty'

'Well actually you were only trying to flog an extra 2 years warranty as I was already covered for 1.'

Pause while gears begin to whir. The realisation comes slower than the movement of the Arctic tundra.

'yeh but it's not covered no more as it expired in February. Now is April.

'So you're aware of my rights under the Sale of Goods Act?'

Pause. 'Not sure if this applies to us. I'll check. '

After a 10 minute wait which feels like I'm the office junior being sent to the DIY store for a long stand, he returns and confirms that Sue has told him to tell me that I was correct.

This is going to be painful.
'Right now we've established that English law has not been circumvented by you, what can you do about the said item?'
I'd be happy with a repair but Namebadgeman trumps me. We'll just replace it. Easier paperwork. Perhaps he spotted my court file. Perhaps Sue knew a nark when she heard about one.

You see what consumers (and assistants) sometimes forget is that the 12 months guarantee is just a handy starting point. The concept of reasonableness is one that troubles every law student at some point.

What is firmly established is that we have a reasonable expectation that our goods should last some time. This is the case notwithstanding our increasingly built-in obsolescence society and the eagerness of poorly paid assistants to flog commission-gaining warranties for half the price of replacement.

In some respects this obsolescence is a natural progression of technology. Having begun life as a Luddite I quickly discovered gadget addiction. Whilst I'm not an early adopter freak I've lost count of the mobile phones I've had; my first one was bought by employers and people used to stare when it rang on the train. Now my mother has last year's model and I'm writing this from my iPhone.

I bought a microwave oven with my first student grant cheque and I'm reliably informed that this is still working and on its fourth owner - some 20+ years on. Similarly, most of my hi-fi I had as a teenager forms part of my sound system.

So don't be fobbed off this Winterval, make sure you know your rights. Try to dress like a Solicitor and look menacing. Tell them Eric The Fish sent you.

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Keeping Off The Grass

I travelled to Vienna during the week and took in the Rapid Wien v Sturm Graz football match. There were about 17,000 spectators in the 20,000 capacity Hanappi Stadium so were a bit surprised to see so many police outside the ground in full riot gear. The home side had played the derby match with rivals Austria Vienna on the previous weekend but this seemed to be overkill.

Upon arriving in our seats we witnessed a bizarre example of OTT policing. A small number of fans had managed to get onto the pitch and they were then chased by the Polizei stormtroopers. Whether this is a way to justify the overtime bill is open to conjecture but this was just crazy. Indeed, from our standpoint we would have thought that this was more likely to incite a riot than solve any problems.

Certainly, the police were not dealing with the numerous flares deployed by the fans (though none were thrown) so this aspect of continental football supporting appears to be the norm. A great spectacle but you wouldn't want to be next to the guy holsding the firecracker whilst he gyrated up and down like a demented West Brom fan.

In stark contrast to this reaction comes the news of the abandonment of the game at Chester City. It is sad to see what has happened to this club over the years; they have rolled from one disaster to another. On Monday, they could possibly be expelled from the league for financial irregularities.

According to the BBC report, the police made the decision to call the game off -with Chester leading Eastbourne 3-2 - despite the fact that there appears to have only been a handful of protestors on the pitch. (Youtube video)

Perhaps Cheshire Constabulary need a fact-finding junket to Austria to see how to deal with these matters. Or maybe an exchange visit.

Steven Boote RIP

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Some photos of the funeral of Corporal Steven Boote who died on November 3rd in Helmond Province, Afghanistan. He was one of five soldiers killed by an Afghani police trainee. Political statements are unnecessary at this time.

The funeral took place at Christ Church, Port Sunlight Village. The church itself is featured on Songs of Praise on Sunday 29th November.

Liverpool Echo coverage here and a lengthy tribute from the MOD here.

Collett's Ghosts Come Back

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Sky News today reports on the Mark Collett Pacman motif I mentioned on 5th November. Ah well, after spending the last few days retuning digi boxes for people, it's good to see that they weren't missing anything.

Collett , predictably, dismisses this as a joke:

• Collett told Sky News his spoof Pac-Man picture was "simply a joke" and said he did not want to "sort out" Muslims.

  He said: "The Pac-Man character eats ghosts, but to suggest that anyone in the BNP wants anyone to eat women in burqas is laughable.

  "It's not suggesting that anyone needs sorting out, it was simply a joke."

Given how ridiculous this man is, the rumours that Collett has something over Griffin seem more than plausible.

Collett is not apologetic. Indeed he has a follow up:

Not So Plain, Janes

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I thought I'd wander over to the Mail online site as I was feeling lazy and knew I would be pushing at an open door. There was bound to be an endless supply of spelling and grammar mistakes in the comments on the Brown Letter. Imagine my surprise at finding a sympathetic hearing for our flailing PM. What's going on? Is this a sign of compassion breaking out, or just an indication that Mail readers see themselves as a cut above The Sun?

• What kind of society are we becoming? I am not a labour supporter but stop kicking a man when he's down. He made the effort to hand write a letter at least, nothing he does seems to be right.
  
  The man lost a baby and his second child has cystic fibrosis, he's not exactly had an easy time of it. I feel people are being excessively cruel and need to lay off a bit.

  - Kelly, Cheam, Surrey, 9/11/2009 12:37

  Click to rate Rating 1668

  I am not a supporter of Gordon Brown and suspect I never will be. But... However badly the letter was written, it was written by hand. It would be oh so easy to write a template or two and insert the appropriate names. The letter would be well written, gramatically perfect and with and with flawless spelling. But it would be meaningless. The man put his own pen to his own paper. And for that, deserves some credit.

  - Allan P, Plymouth Devon, 9/11/2009 18:01

These are heavily supported in the ratings whilst the worst rated are these:

• I don't understand all the apologists for Gordon Brown. This man has wrecked our country, where is the sympathy for the jobless and all those losing their homes and businesses? The letter is an insult to the memory of a brave man, no wonder Mrs Janes was upset.

  - Caroline, England, 9/11/2009 12:34

  Click to rate Rating -482
• and we wonder why we are a global laughing stock!!!!

  - Danny Boy, lancs England, 9/11/2009 12:37

On the face of it, the letter does look shabby and anyone who has redrafted a covering letter to accompany an application form will be aware of the time it can take to attain perfection. However, this was clearly a personal matter. Given that the Government has access to highly paid spinmeisters and advisers, one may have felt that someone had dropped the executive stress ball, but this is surely symptomatic of Brown's modus operandi.

That Ms Janes should choose to make this public via the offices of The Sun shows her in a less than perfect light. That she should then compound that by allowing her telephone conversation to be recorded (without consent) and a transcript published in this disgraceful rag, does her son's memory more harm than good.

Perhaps - just perhaps - even Mail readers consider that to be a step too far.

9/11

Part of the Berlin Wall taken during my visit in 2001

Hate Actually

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As The Guardian reports, actress Emma Thompson has declared that Exeter University would be a place where Griffin and the BNP would feel at home. This comes in the light of the treatment she claims her adopted son, Tindy suffered whilst a student there.

• (She) urged a university to work to stamp out racism after her adopted son endured "unpleasant" experiences while studying there. Thompson says Rwandan-born Tindyebwa Agaba suffered because of the colour of his skin during his first year studying politics at Exeter University.

  Speaking at a diversity event at the university, Thompson claimed the leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin, would "love" the area because of its relative lack of racial diversity. She urged staff and students to carry on trying to drive out prejudice.

This is how BNP Deputy Leader Simon Darby reports this:

• Switching to the Daily Telegraph which reports that the vile trade in African children appears to be spreading. Self-loathing white liberal and actress Emma Thompson even goes so far as to utilise this inverted form of people trafficking to advocate the replacement of the white population of Exeter. Notice how the report emits the statistics for the percentage of white people currently resident in Rwanda:

People trafficking? Apparently Tindy was only informally adopted by Thompson so the inference that this is a Madonna type shopping excursion is totally wrong. Indeed (according to Wiki) he was fighting deportation up until last year. For once we'll rely upon a report in The Mail on asylum (though notably he's referred to as a refugee in the positive article):

• Tindy came into Miss Thompson's life when he was only 16, after being introduced to the actress and her second husband, actor Greg Wise, at a Refugee Council party in London.

  Tindy's father had died of Aids when he was nine and his mother and sister were listed as missing after the 1994 Rwandan genocide - they were raped by soldiers and abducted, never to be seen again.

  He has nightmares about it to this day. Tindy had been forced to serve as a boy soldier, and had escaped the country thanks to the charity Care International.

  "He didn't have much English, but we just got talking," says Emma. "His experience had been awful and when he finally got to Britain after tremendous suffering, he told us the Home Office didn't believe him.

  "He spent two nights sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square before they finally did. It was the only time he considered suicide.

Darby continues his contemptuous piece with this:

• She will turn 51 next April and perhaps we should rise to the challenge and show how kind and considerate us BNP people are when faced with such a chronic case of ethnomasochism. If we all club together, perhaps we put the poor girl out of her misery and arrange for some of her organs and limbs to be replaced by those from donors from Africa. Having been suitably modified and enriched she could then lead a more fulfilling and purposeful life, happy knowing that she had become a living embodiment of the anti-racist cause. A perfect and thoughtful gift.

All good patriotic stuff from Darby. Note the dog whistle term 'enriched'. This is what passes for nationalist humour and perhaps gives us an insight into why Darby felt that the video on the BNP site entitled 'Spot The White Man' featuring a walk through Peckham in London and includes the commentary "“Ever felt like a foreigner in your own country?”

A speech bubble has an Asian man saying: “Please don’t film me – I’m illegal and I’m working for cash in hand, innit.”

Darby defends the vile video by saying, “It’s a hard-hitting, topical thing that people will find funny. We are linking to it on our website.”

The Mail also picks up on the story today. In keeping with their symbiotic love affair with the BNP, the article is fairly neutral but the comments are mostly pro-BNP. Of note is this one from a fellow immigrant:

• If she wants to live in a more diverse area, why not move him to Peckham or Wembley or one of many majority ethnic areas instead of constantly complaining about how white Britain is.

  - Stephen, Vancouver, Canada., 7/11/2009
  

I wonder where Stephen of Canada got that Peckham bit from?

Tindy is a young man who has suffered so much yet has managed to achieve so much. Yet many people believe he should be so thankful for being allowed to stay here that he should turn a blind eye to naked racism. Maybe he should just smile and buy a golliwog from the BNP site. As Emma's father might have said, 'Boing!'


Hat tip to Noxi (@June4th)

Mark Collett: More Puerile Muslim Bashing

BNP man-child Mark Collett has been showing the party's true colours again. The Hitler admirer, who seems to exist in a cartoon world, and who came to fame in Young Nazi and Proud and in the recent BBC interview, wants his online fans to vote for his latest graphics effort.

If you click on the screenshot you'll see that the picture is of Pacman chasing burkah-clad aliens with the strapline 'Pacman - sortin' out Muslims since 1980'. Class.

Düsseldorf Photos - August 2009 -

Hooters Sports Bar

Party on the Rhine

Rhine Cruise

Rheinturm and bridge

Stag and Hen Party Merchandise

Street entertainment in the old town

Uerige Brewpub (featured in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet)

Uerige again. I was given a pen and post-it notes by a CDU canvasser despite telling him I would support the SPD if I could vote in German elections. Put them to good use across the city though it didn't affect the final result.

Market Place

Duesseldorf webcams