Unlike some on the Left I’m not a strident ‘no platform’ person when it comes to the Far Right. But equally I’m passionately against treating neo-Nazis like any other politician. If they are granted an interview it must go all-out to expose them for the Hitler-loving, Holocaust-denying hate mongers they are. So I was dismayed that when Premier Christian Radio interviewed Nick Griffin they failed to ask him the relevant questions.
For a station with at least half its’ listenership from Black communities you would not imagine they would be falling over themselves to give airtime to the British National Party leader who still believes in ‘voluntary’ deportation of Black people and who does not believe Black footballers should play for England regardless of how many generations their family have lived here. Sadly neither of these issues were explored in the interview.
Journalists that give Griffin an easy ride are guilty of dereliction of duty to the truth. For this to come from a Christian station is even more shameful. The producers probably hadn’t dwelt on the question of whether the BNP’s beliefs are incompatible with Leviticus 19:34 which states: ”The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Nor, I suspect, did they consider that Adolf Hilter drew many of his ideas from the occult.
Griffin was invited onto Premier Christian radio to discuss his Twitter attack on the gay couple who won a legal battle against a B&B for refusing them a room. The BNP leader posted the home address of the couple and threatened them, writing: “A British Justice team will come … & give you a bit of drama … Say No to heterophobia!” The stunt drew widespread condemnation and has led to a police investigation. The neo-Nazi used his radio platform to declare that he would “be prepared to go to jail for Christians.” The interview was reported uncritically on Christian Today.
It was some of the most positive media coverage the BNP has received for some time. Regrettably some Christians have allowed their anti-gay beliefs to get in the way of judgement and logic. By appearing to make common cause with the Far Right leader the radio journalists have junked a century of experience of Fascism and its’ bloody consequences, all because they share Griffin’s views on homosexuality.
Griffin has long tried to use Christianity to promote his party. In 2009 the BNP launched a billboard advertising campaign linking the persecution of Jesus with their own paranoia and using an anti-Islamic agenda to curry favour with the churches.
Thankfully this tactic hasn’t got the BNP very far although this debate on talkgod.com shows that some Christians are not adverse to publicly agreeing with some of Griffin’s views. While the majority of Christians would no doubt distance themselves from Griffin and the Far Right there is a worrying tendency among a minority of believers to disregard the reality of Fascism and racial hatred.
The BNP are fundamentally anti-democratic, just as all Fascists have been once they win power, and unlike other political parties they use democracy to promote race hatred. For this reason alone they should not be offered the courtesies and respect afforded to other politicians.
As I’ve said, I am not against giving them a media platform so long as it is used to subject them to a serious grilling. Too often in the past the national media has failed to do so, just asking the obligatory question ‘are you a racist?’ to which Griffin replies ‘no’, and then onto the next question. In these scenarios the BNP should not be given a platform.
However Griffin’s appearance on BBC Questiontime showed that shining a genuine investigative spotlight on the party to drill through the BNP’s public veneer of ‘respectability’ and expose them for who they are can be good for democracy. Questiontime didn’t get far below the surface but it was heading in the right direction.
Sadly Premier Christian Radio did not make any serious effort to inform their listeners who Griffin really is, what he stands for and who he associates himself with. Here are just some of the questions they could have asked:
1. On what basis can the BNP, specifically Nick Griffin, credibly insist that it is not actually a white supremacist organisation, when non-white British citizens are barred from joining it despite the fact that no such restrictions apply to white/Caucasian people originating from outside Britain?
2. Specifically which policies of the National Front in relation to non-white British citizens do the BNP renounce or support?
3. Specifically which policies and ideology of the historical German Nazi party does the BNP as a whole renounce or support, considering the confirmed admiration for Hitler and his organisation amongst several senior members of the BNP?
4. Specifically which aspects of Hitler’s book Mein Kampf does Nick Griffin agree with, considering that he is on record as stating that he has “learned a lot” from it?
5. How does the BNP reconcile historical and ongoing admiration of the Nazis and their policies with a) the fact that Britain went to war to destroy the Nazis, including subsequently supporting the prosecution and execution of various senior Nazis and other captured members of Nazi Germany for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and b) the fact that the BNP has been declaring the actions of Britain during WW2, including several major victories, as “examples of British greatness”?
6. How does the BNP reconcile the above with a) Nick Griffin praising the Waffen SS and simultaneously attacking the RAF for its bombing of Nazi Germany during his time as editor of The Rune between 1995 and 1997, b) the fact that, during a demonstration at Coventry Cathedral in 1998, Nick Griffin accused British airmen involved in the wartime effort of having engaged in “mass murder” , and c) the fact that Nick Griffin has been on record as claiming that the Holocaust is a “hoax” perpetrated by the victorious Allied powers, making the following statement in 1998: “I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the Earth was flat…..I have reached the conclusion that the “extermination” tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter witch-hysteria”?
7. Under a BNP government, would other non-white members of the British armed forces currently possessing British citizenship be afforded identical legal rights and protections as white/Caucasian British citizens?
8. During its various references to Britain’s historical participation in the two World Wars of the 20th century, why does the BNP never mention the fact that millions of non-white soldiers from the former British Empire fought alongside white/Caucasian soldiers on the side of the Allied powers in both World Wars, including 2.5 million soldiers from the Indian subcontinent during WW2 (comprising the largest volunteer army in recorded history), and including numerous non-white soldiers who were awarded medals for their military service and performance by the British authorities of the time?
9. To what extent does the BNP renounce or support the policies and ideologies of modern-day Neo-Nazi organisations across Europe, especially considering Nick Griffin’s ongoing efforts to build a pan-European alliance with organisations similar to the BNP based on the European mainland?
10. To what extent does the BNP renounce or support the policies and ideology of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, considering Nick Griffin’s confirmed links with the organisation?
11. What percentage of BNP members, especially those at the senior levels of the organisation, are currently or have historically been active in participating on the white supremacist Stormfront internet forum and agree with the primary ethos of the website and its founder?
12. As public figures seeking high political office, would the BNP be willing to release the names of senior party members who are currently or have historically been active in participating on the Stormfront internet forum?
13. How will a BNP government ensure the safety of Britain’s female population, considering that a senior member of the BNP has been on record as stating that he believes “‘rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal?”
14. How will a BNP government ensure the safety, protection and welfare of Britain’s current and future disabled population, considering that a senior member of the BNP has been on record as stating that he supports forced euthanasia of the handicapped, saying that “we live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it,” in response to the death of David Cameron’s son in spring 2009?
15. Exactly how much of Britain’s current GDP, in terms of gross, net, and overall percentage figures, is a result of the non-white British population? And what would be the estimated financial loss to Britain’s GDP upon the withdrawal of all domestic assets by non-white British citizens submitting to “voluntary repatriation” or involved in pre-emptive emigration upon the election of a BNP government?
17. Exactly what kind of organised nationwide “re-education programme” would a BNP government initiate in order to bring the views of the British civilian population into line with the BNP’s policies and ideology?
18. What will be the standard BNP procedure in order to deal with non-white British citizens who refuse voluntary repatriation and do not submit to compulsory repatriation?
19. Specifically what procedures will a BNP government implement in order to “encourage” non-white British citizens to accept voluntary repatriation?
20. What will be the status of British citizens (both minors and legal adults) who are the children of one white/Caucasian parent and one non-white parent, specifically taking into consideration Nick Griffin’s recent response “I don’t care, drop them all over Africa”?
21. What will be the status of white/Caucasian British citizens married to non-white British citizens at the time of the election of a BNP government? And what will be the legal status of the marriages? Will they be declared void/illegal?
22. Exactly how will a BNP government “discourage” relationships between white/Caucasian British citizens and non-white British citizens?
23. Exactly how will a BNP government “discourage” British citizens involved in mixed-race relationships from having children?
24. Exactly what level of governmental monitoring and involvement in the private lives of British citizens does the BNP foresee in order to enforce the policies referenced in points 22 and 23?
25. Will a BNP government implement forced, mandatory abortions in cases where a white/Caucasian British woman is pregnant and the father of the child is non-white, or in cases where a non-white British woman is pregnant and the father of the child is white/Caucasian?
26. What legal rights and protections will non-white British citizens not have, in comparison with the white/Caucasian British population? And will non-white British citizens be subject to any special taxation?
27. What voting rights in local & national British elections will non-white British citizens have, if any?
28. What percentage of a non-white British citizen’s legal testimony will be deemed equal to the testimony of one white/Caucasian British citizen?
29. Will non-white British citizens have the legal right to prosecute white/Caucasian British citizens, and if so, under what specific conditions / restrictions?
30. Will non-white British citizens have the legal right to defend themselves against prosecution by white/Caucasian British citizens, and if so, under what specific conditions/restrictions?
31. Exactly how would a BNP government enforce first preference being given to white/Caucasian candidates over non-white candidates for job vacancies in the private sector?
32. Exactly how would a BNP government enforce first preference being given to white/Caucasian employees over non-white employees when individuals are being assessed for promotion, team composition, or workload assignment in the private sector?
33. Will a BNP government impose a pre-emptive or retaliatory ban on the viewing, import or acquisition of any literature, films, music, or other media from the United States and other countries hostile to the BNP’s policies and ideology?
34. Upon the election of a BNP government, will any existing material in the private possession of British citizens which falls within the categories need to be compulsorily surrendered to the government and related authorities, and will a BNP government destroy any existing material currently in the public & private spheres and/or archived documents, artefacts and/or evidence if the aforementioned items are deemed to contradict or undermine the BNP’s policies and ideology?
35. Will a BNP government re-write any historical, academic and/or scientific material deemed to contradict or undermine the BNP’s policies and ideology, specifically in relation to a) British, European and global history during the recent, medieval, classical and ancient periods, b) race, and c) genetics?
36. Will a BNP government declare any literary, artistic, journalistic, academic, scientific, or corporate material produced by non-white people in Britain, the United States or other countries prior to the election of a BNP government as being intrinsically without merit in its respective fields, and if the answer is “Yes”, will this material subsequently be destroyed?
37. Would Nick Griffin be willing to submit to multiple independent DNA tests in order to confirm that none of them have any non-European ancestry within a particular time-frame (the last 1,000 years) which they define as the requirement to be British?
If that is not enough for any broadcast journalist to be getting on with, when it comes to questioning Nick Griffin, I reproduce below an article by Roddy Newman which highlights the BNP’s links with hardcore European and American Fascists. This article alone could prompt many more questions to Griffin.
QUESTIONTIME FOR BNP’S FASCIST LINKS
In November 1995, the guest speaker at the BNP’s annual rally in London, was the most extreme fascist party leader that the world has ever produced since Hitler, the late William Pierce (1933-2002), who led the National Alliance splinter group from the American Nazi Party.
In Pierce’s 1978 novel, “The Turner Diaries”, which he wrote under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald, fascists use nuclear weapons, terrorist bombings, and other methods to wipe out all of the world’s Jews and non-white people, or, in other words, billions of people.
The novel can be read online though if you want to read it, you’ll have to find it yourself because we’re not linking to it.
Not surprisingly, when the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, found out about Pierce’s 1995 visit to London, he banned him from visiting the UK for life.
See an obituary of Pierce here, which was written by the late John Tyndall (1934-2005), the BNP leader who invited him to London, to read about Howard’s lifetime ban.
Pierce also wanted to kill many white people. In his July 26, 2002 obituary in “The Independent” newspaper, you can read:
When writing The Turner Diaries, he recounted in a radio broadcast in 1997: “I wanted to take all of the feminist agitators and propagandists and all of the race-mixing fanatics and all of the mass media bosses and all of the bureaucrats and politicians who were collaborating with them, and I wanted to put them up against a wall, in batches of a thousand or so at a time, and machine-gun them.”
Pierce’s novel, which is very well known in international far right circles, has sold nearly 500,000 copies, which is why the FBI has described it as “the bible of the racist right” (see an April 3, 2000 article on the website of “The Guardian”, “Gospels of hate that slip through the net”, to see how many copies the novel has sold, and the FBI quote), and which is why a prominent American Jewish anti-fascist group, the Anti-Defamation League, has described the novel as:
“One of the most widely read and cited books on the far-right”.
So, is it conceivable that John Tyndall did not know about Pierce’s pro-murdering billions of people views when he asked him to be the guest speaker at the BNP’s November 1995 annual rally, seventeen years after Pierce’s novel had been published? And did Tyndall also secretly wish that he could kill billions of Jews and non-white people?
Pierce’s National Alliance does not stand in elections like the BNP, so Pierce did not have to worry about his insane ideas putting voters off his party, but the BNP does stand in elections, which may explain why Tyndall never openly said that he shared Pierce’s views.
The British anti-fascist magazine “Searchlight” has said of the popularity of “The Turner Diaries” in Tyndall era BNP circles:
“The growing influence of US nazi ideas was illustrated in November 1995 when William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance, addressed the BNP annual rally. Pierce was also the author of The Turner Diaries, a fictional account of a race war which, it has been claimed, inspired Timothy McVeigh to carry out the Oklahoma bombing. By the mid-1990s The Turner Diaries was better known on the British right than Mein Kampf.”
In the earlier mentioned ‘Independent’ obituary of Pierce, you can read:
“His influence on Britain was incendiary: after reading another novel of his called Hunter [in which the hero travels around killing various types of people who fascists do not like, for example, interracial couples, journalists, and politicians]…[Tyndall era] British National Party members began a sticker campaign against “mongrelisation”, and attacked a mixed-race couple in a London pub.”
“Hunter” was dedicated to an American racist serial killer, Joseph Paul Franklin, a former American Nazi Party and Ku Klux Klan member who has been accused of 20 racist murders. Franklin also confessed to shooting the American pornographer Larry Flynt, plotted to assassinate the African American politician Jesse Jackson, and threatened to assassinate US President Jimmy Carter because of his pro-black civil rights views.
Nick Griffin, who was famously convicted for inciting racial hatred after he denied the Holocaust in a 1998 article for the BNP magazine “The Rune”, claims that the BNP has become a respectable democratic political party since he took over its leadership from its hardline pro-Nazi founder, John “Mein Kampf is my bible” Tyndall, who led the BNP from when he founded it in 1982 until 1999, but I will show in a moment that respectable Holocaust-denier Nick Griffin’s claim may be as incorrect as his view of the Holocaust.
See the ConservativeHome blog webpage here to see a picture of Tyndall in a Nazi uniform, and to see the “Mein Kampf is my bible” quote.
Tyndall stayed at Pierce’s home in 1979 when he was in the US, and put Pierce up at his home when he visited Britain in 1995, as Tyndall admitted in his 2002 Pierce obituary, “A Great Man Passes On”, so personally I really do not have much doubt that Tyndall secretly shared William “Great Man” Pierce’s wish to kill billions of people.
If Holocaust denier Nick Griffin’s claim that the BNP has become respectable since the Tyndall era is correct, he must have at least distanced himself from Pierce, because of his murderous views, but a “Searchlight” webpage has alleged that Griffin was close to Pierce: “Dr. William Pierce, who before his recent death was one of the world’s foremost neo-Nazis and [allegedly] a close ally of Nick Griffin.”
That webpage also states that Griffin’s pamphlet, “Who Are the Mindbenders?”, which listed Jews in the British media, was inspired by a Pierce article and pamphlet about Jews in the American media, “Who Runs America?”
A Northamptonshire Racial Equality article also alleges that Griffin based his pamphlet on Pierce’s article and pamphlet: “Mindbenders is [allegedly] based on Who Rules America?, a similar pamphlet written by Dr. William Pierce, one of the world’s foremost neo-Nazis and a self-confessed ally of Nick Griffin.”
The same article also said: “The BNP has a long relationship with William Pierce…In August 1999, Pierce addressed an American Friends of the BNP meeting in Arlington, Virginia…Pierce’s articles regularly appeared in Spearhead when it was the official BNP magazine, and in 1995 he addressed a BNP rally in London.”
So, does Nick Griffin secretly wish that he could also kill billions? He became the BNP leader in September 1999, the month after Pierce spoke to the AFBNP meeting, but he was allegedly a “close ally” of Pierce, and allegedly based his pamphlet on an article and pamphlet which was written by Pierce.
Does Nick Griffin also have the same kind of kill mass media owners fantasies that Pierce had, because on August 11, 1996, Griffin was quoted in the “Wales on Sunday” newspaper as having said: “The politicians, those in charge of the mass media, police chiefs and others responsible for creating this multi-racial hell hole must face trial and pay the ultimate penalty.”? That quote is also in the just cited Nothamptonshire Racial Equality Council article noted above.
What about Mark Cotterill, the founder, and original leader of the England First Party splinter group from the BNP, who was an EFP councillor in Blackburn from 2006 to 2007, and an EFP candidate for Preston City Council in 2009? He went to see William Pierce, and said that he spent three of the most enjoyable and interesting days of his life talking to him, so does Cotterill secretly wish that he too could kill billions of people?
In “Hands Across the Water”, an article about the American Friends of the BNP group which was published in the Fall 2001 issue of “Intelligence Report”, the quarterly magazine of the American civil rights law firm the Southern Poverty Law Center, you can read:
“His [Cotterill's] networking in the United States began in 1993, when he visited neo-Nazi William Pierce at his National Alliance headquarters in West Virginia.
“‘I managed to talk to Dr. Pierce in depth”, he wrote later. ‘I had three of the most interesting and enjoyable days of my life there, and I hope to make a return visit in the near future.’
“In 1995, Cotterill moved to the United States. He was the U.S. distributor of the British far right publication Right Now! and corresponded with future BNP leader Nick Griffin.”
Go here to read the full article about the AFBNP, which was founded by Cotterill. As the article points out, Pierce’s “The Turner Diaries” was sold at AFBNP meetings.
According to an Anti-Defamation League in 1999, Pierce gave a speech in Thessaloniki, Greece to members of far right parties from Greece, Portugal, Romania, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Austria, and South Africa, and given how well known “The Turner Diaries” is in far right circles, is it conceivable that the leaders of those parties also did not know about Pierce advocating multiple genocides, 21 years after his “bible of the racist right” novel had been published? Do the leaders of those far right parties secretly wish that they too could kill billions of people?
Pierce’s novel is not simply a far right fantasy which will never inspire violence, because it is no secret that a number of fascist terrorists were inspired by it (Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, London nail bomber David Copeland, and three American terrorist groups, the Order, the New Order, and the Aryan Republican Army). See the already cited “Guardian” and “Independent” articles, a webpage of the already mentioned and highly respected American civil rights law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and especially the already cited Anti-Defamation League webpage, to read about “The Turner Diaries” inspiring those terrorists.
The SPLC is highly respected because of its tolerance education, because of its informative quarterly magazine about hate groups, “Intelligence Report”, which is widely read in American law enforcement circles, and because its compensation for racist violence lawsuits have bankrupted a number of American fascist organisations and leaders in recent decades.
For example, after the White Aryan Resistance skinhead gang killed an Ethiopian student, an SPLC lawsuit against the group and its leader, forced it to pay over $12 million compensation to the student’s son, which led to the seizure of all of the assets of the group and its leader.
Another SPLC lawsuit bankrupted the Aryan Nations group by forcing it to pay over $6 milion to a woman and her son who AN members had shot at and beaten up. AN was forced to sell its famous compound to pay the compensation award.
It would be a good idea if European lawyers began using SPLC type lawsuits to bankrupt the BNP, Nick Griffin, and other European fascist organisations and leaders. No doubt the SPLC would be happy to tell European lawyers how to sue fascist groups and leaders, who could also be sued after homophobic violence, or after other types of violence. This SPLC webpage which discusses some of their lawsuits might be helpful.
It is also no secret that “The Turner Diaries” inspired the most notorious American racist murderers of modern times, John William King, Shawn Allen Berry, and Lawrence Russell Brewer, who battered a black man, James Byrd, Jr., and then shackled him to a truck and drove off. When he was shackling Byrd to the truck, King allegedly said: “We’re starting “The Turner Diaries” early.”
David Copeland said that he planted his three nail bombs in London to spark off a race war which would make white Britons vote BNP, and more “Turner Diaries” inspired fascist terrorism could be round the corner, because if you go to the website of the “Searchlight” magazine, and put the word “terrorism” into its search engine, you will find articles which discuss a number of British would-be terrorists who were members of the BNP, or other British far right groups.
See a HOPE Not Hate anti-fascist group webpage at to read more about former BNP member David Copeland and his attempt to create a race war to make white Britons vote BNP. The HOPE not hate page has a link to a BBC News profile of Copeland which discusses his BNP membership, and his involvement with them.
This article first appeared on the Lancaster UAF website
