BNP: hate will tear them apart, again

Following the well documented events of last Saturday, when the BNP were smashed out of Glasgow by a flash mobilisation of anti-fascists, the reverberations on the wider party have not taken long to become clear.

With the national party in disarray over reported financial irregularities and widespread anti-Griffin sentiment, this has been played out in spectacular fashion in Glasgow over recent months, where only a year ago they looked to be on the cusp of a major breakthrough, finishing within a few votes of saving their deposit in the Glasgow North East by-election last November. Earlier this year, three leading Glasgow members, for reasons which never became very clear, then walked out on the party, throwing their general election plans into chaos.

Over the past week, it’s emerged that the BNP in Glasgow have suffered another damaging split, with Walter Hamilton – the party’s organiser in the city until about a month ago – publicly issuing a lengthy diatribe against his replacement as organiser, the one and only ‘Big Joe’ Finnie, a man who SSY have had more than one run-in with over the past year.

In the statement, reproduced in full here, Walter lists off a series of accusations against ‘Big Joe’. It’s unclear where this fits into the wider picture of the BNP civil war; Hamilton is a firm Griffinite, and as for where Finnie stands, the less said the better (if it wasn’t so funny, that is).

BIG JOE FINNIE: "will never be able to lead and will only cause trouble wherever he goes"

The accusations themselves amount to a hilarious tragi-comedic character assassination, involving various anecdotes and stories involving our man Joe. There’s the time he got pissed and ran around Dennistoun shouting about the BNP ‘being worse than the KKK’, or the occasion when he tried to show Nick Griffin his collection of Nazi DVDs (don’t worry, Hamilton helpfully informs us that Griffin, obviously, wasn’t the slightest bit interested, what with him categorically not being a Nazi and that.). Turns out Joe has also been continually trying to make links with the Scottish Defence League – to the extent of issuing press releases claiming that the two organisations are working together. As you might recall, the SDL is supposedly ‘proscribed’ for BNP members, but this new evidence suggests that Joe’s stall in Glasgow on the same day as the SDL’s demo last Saturday perhaps wasn’t as big a coincidence as we first thought.

It also brings to light what anti-fascists have known for ages: that the BNP in central Scotland are a disorganised mess, barely capable of mounting any sort of activity without it descending into farce. Hamilton reveals that since taking over, Joe hasn’t managed to organise any meetings, suggesting that the only thing he has actually arranged was last Saturday’s disastrous stall in the centre of Glasgow, which seems to have brought matters to a head.

Elsewhere, on more, ahem, murkier sections of the internet, Hamilton’s statement ‘exposing’ Finnie has opened the Nazi floodgates on him, with accusations flying about that he’s a “race mixer” with “cravings for some of the creatures of that continent”, meaning Africa where apparently he spent “his time as a young man”. Which is all pretty funny for a massive racist.

So far there’s been no official word from BNP Scotland on any of this. We can only speculate, but presumably all the resources at their disposal are currently preoccupied with pursuing their criminal proceedings against SSY to bother with minor matters like their own party falling to bits. Or they might just be too busy blogging about how they want to give me a good spanking and writing emails ‘to my parents and others’ to alert them of my criminal activities. Boo fucking hoo.

Meanwhile down south, senior party activist and all round idiot Richard Barnbrook was expelled on Monday, following his decision last month to resign the BNP whip on the London Assembly, where he was their sole representative and now sits as an independent. Barnbrook is a figure who’s provided much light relief over the years, from when it came out that he once directed a “gay porn” film, to his dancing skillz ( which I’m very sad to report appear to have been deleted from youtube since the last time I checked. Damn it!)

Where would we be without the BNP?

But don’t speak too soon. A world without the ‘BNP’  as we know it may be about to become reality much sooner than first thought. Following the elections in May, which were disastrous for the BNP with them being wiped out on Barking council among other upsets, and six months fraught by internal strife since then, Nick Griffin has announced that the BNP need to ‘rebrand’ their image. And he wants help from YOU in coming up with a new branding for the party! Because if there’s one thing wrong with the BNP, it’s definitely not the fact that they’re a bunch of fascists, or the endemic corruption, or the party being full of misfits and losers arguing among themselves. The main thing holding the BNP back is their logo, and you can help sort this out! Please email your suggestions and new designs to logo@bnp.org.uk. The closing date for submissions is 28 October, so get moving quickly…. there might not be much of a party left to rebrand if you don’t act quick…