BNP - "The Party of Love" - My Arse!
Date: 1st Sept '02
Name: Jim
THE LEADER
Nick Griffin is a Cambridge graduate, and the current leader of the BNP. He
has been involved in far right politics for the past twenty-seven years. For most of that time he was
in the National Front. He was a firm believer in racial separation and in the Jewish global conspiracy.
Griffin, like others in the National Front, claimed the Holocaust did not happen. He joined
the British National Party in 1995. Three years later he was given a two-year suspended sentence
for distributing material likely to incite racial hatred. He became BNP leader in October 1999
and since then he claims to have transformed the Party and its image.
Name: Tony Lecomber
Position: Group Development Organiser, and branch organiser for Redbridge
1980s - Two convictions for criminal damage.
1985 - Convicted on five counts for offences under the Explosives Act.
1991 - Sentenced to three years' imprisonment for an attack on a Jewish teacher.
Involved in fascist politics since the early eighties.
Ex-member of the National Front and the New National Front. Inaugural member
of the BNP.
Previously edited the journal Young Nationalist, a heavily racist and anti-Semitic
magazine.
Name: Andy McLorie
Position: Regional organiser for Ulster
1986 - Sentenced to two years in jail following a petrol bomb attack on the
home of an RUC officer.
Name: Colin Smith
Position: Regional organiser for South East London
Has multiple convictions, including possession of an offensive weapon, driving
whilst disqualified, and possession of a controlled drug. Involved in far right politics since the
early 1980s. Ex-member of the openly nazi British Movement before leaving to join the BNP in the early
1990s. 1981 - photographed wearing a British Movement jacket with a swastika armband at a
British Movement rally.
Name: Stephen Belshaw
Position: Regional organiser for the East Midlands
1993 - Convicted of violent disorder for an attack on a Mansfield solicitor.
1992 and 1993 - C18 activist.
Name: Warren Bennett
Position: Chief Steward and branch organiser for Edinburgh
1990 - Conviction for public disorder.
Was among 58 Scottish supporters prevented from attending the Scotland match
with Norway in Bordeaux, France during the 1998 World Cup. Scottish and French police feared
they would commit violence. The group had been followed by police from Spain.
1992-5 - Attended several C18 events in London, including protection of David
Irving meetings (1992) and Loyalist parades (March 1995).
Paul Golding
Position: Director of Publicity
Though only 20 years old, Golding produces the bulk of BNP propaganda and designs
the monthly magazine, Identity.
August 2000 - Attended the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge festival in France held by the
right-wing Front National. Golding has been pictured with FN leader Jean Marie Le Pen.
Name: Simon Darby
Position: Director of Technology, and regional organiser for the West Midlands
Ex-member of National Democrats (previously the National Front) Spring 1998
- joined the BNP. 2000 - Addressed an AFBNP meeting in the United States. He was photographed during
this trip wearing a National Alliance T-shirt. This photograph later appeared in a BNP publication.(The
National Alliance is America's most hardline nazi group led by William Pierce, author
of The Turner Diaries, the book that inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and London nail
bomber David Copeland.)
Scott McLean
Position: Deputy Chairman, and regional organiser for Scotland
Attended Blood and Honour nazi skinhead festival in Scotland.
Chris Jackson
Position: Regional organiser for the North West
November 2000 - travelled to Spain to celebrate the birth of Spanish fascist
dictator, General Franco.
David Hannam
Position: Branch organiser for Hull
2000 - Three months custody for his part in the production and distribution
of a racist and anti- Semitic leaflet during the 1999 European election campaign.
Graham Tasker
Position: Branch organiser for Chesterfield
1989 - Six months custody for an attack on a black woman.
1993 - Convicted of violent disorder for an attack on a Mansfield solicitor.
1992 - Active in the Ku Klux Klan, burning crosses in the Derbyshire countryside.
1992-1993 - Activist with C18 both in the East Midlands and in London.
Paul Ballard
Position: Branch organiser for Croydon & Surrey
1998 - Convicted along with Nick Griffin at Harrow Crown Court for producing
material likely to incite racial hatred. Formerly the National Front organiser for Croydon.
1992-1995 - Attended several Combat 18 events, including meetings and loyalist
marches.
1992 - Joined the BNP while at the same time being active with Combat 18. He
attended C18 meetings, joined C18 members on Loyalist demonstrations and provided security with C18
for Holocaust denial meetings. Published the anti-Semitic magazine, The Rune, with Nick Griffin during
the 90s.
Kevin Scott
Position: Regional organiser for the North East and branch organiser for Newcastle
1987 - Conviction for assault.
1993 - Conviction for using threatening words and behaviour.
2001 - Wrote an article in the International Third Position newspaper, "The
Final Conflict".
Paul Thompson
Position: Branch organiser for County Durham
February 2001 - Attended a meeting of the American Friends of the BNP.
1994 - Found guilty of criminal damage after participating in an attack with
C18 activists in Durham. Sentenced to a year's conditional discharge and made to pay 237 compensation.
July 1998 - Convicted for violence and jailed for six months.
July 1998 - Convicted for violence after attacking football fans in Darlington
town centre.
Terry Cavill
Position: Regional organiser for South Wales and branch organiser for Cardiff
and the Valleys Runs the South African Friends of the BNP. A contributor to its newsletter is a leading
South African advocate of Holocaust denial.
Name: Chris Green
Position: Administration Officer and branch organiser for Peterborough
Former Conservative council candidate (1999).
Mick Treacy
Position: Branch organiser for Oldham
Has five convictions including handling stolen goods, deception, theft from
an employer and public order.
Name: Ian Edwards
Position: Regional organiser for North West London
A former Labour Party member, Edwards joined the BNP in 1998.
Allan Payne
Position: Branch organiser for Manchester and Salford
1987 - Admitted to an undercover newspaper reporter that he was involved in
a plot to kidnap Viraj Mendis, a Sri Lankan anti-racist, who was fighting a Home Office deportation
order. 1990 - Exposed in an undercover newspaper report for distributing 10,000 copies of Holocaust
News, a newssheet that denied the Holocaust occurred. November 2000 - travelled to Spain to celebrate
the birth of Spanish fascist dictator, General Franco.
Tony McDonnell
Position: Branch organiser for Leeds and part of the BNP's security team at
the "Red, White and Blue" event.
Five convictions including:
1988 - Actual Bodily Harm
1989 - Grievous Bodily Harm
1998 - Assaulting a police officer and failing to provide a breath test.
Adrian Marsden
Position: Branch organiser for Halifax
Has been active in Combat 18 and the International Third Position.
March 1999 - Raided by Special Branch as part of a nationwide swoop on C18 supporters
around the country. 1999 - His PO Box and address was used as the regional contact point
for the International Third Position (ITP).
Name: Dave Hill
Position: Branch organiser for the East End of London, London co-ordinator of
F.A.I.R. - Families against Immigrant Racism
Became active in the BNP in the mid-1990s
1997-1999 - Active in National Front. He attended NF anti-refugee demonstrations
in Dover. Attended a NF protest demo against the 1998 Bloody Sunday demo along Holloway Road.
Has links to the British Ulster Alliance, a London-based support group for the
Ulster Defence Association.
Name: Mark Matthews
originally known as Mark Payne
Position: Branch organiser for Coventry
Runs Fourteen Words (UK), a nazi bookclub set up in the memory of Robert J.
Matthews, the US nazi terrorist who was killed in a shootout with the FBI in 1984.
He signs letters 88 - for Heil Hitler.His PO Box is used for the West Midlands
chapter of Blood and Honour, Britain's nazi skinhead group.
Name: Steve Smith
Position: Branch organiser for Burnley
Had to withdraw his candidature, along with five other BNP candidates, for the
2001 Lancashire County Council elections after names on their nomination forms were alleged
to have been forged. A police investigation is on-going.
Name: Dave Bleazard ('Binman')
Position: Branch organiser for Blackpool
Chris 'Chubby' Henderson's book on the Chelsea Headhunters, the notorious football
gang that attaches itself to Chelsea FC, refers to Bleazard's football trips abroad with
the Chelsea Headhunters.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/default.stm
Back to discussion page RA home page