Hope Not Hate Campaign

For the last few days the Daily Mirror have had a Hope Not Hate campaign going. Today they have an ex BNP official on their bus telling untrue propaganda about the BNP. Let’s see what he says…

Andy knows the British National Party's agenda well. For three years he was the Bradford and Keighley organiser for the far-right party and witnessed at first hand the hate at its heart.

"There were a few things that attracted me to the BNP," Andy, 38, says. "It was 2001. I didn't agree with the war in Afghanistan. The BNP was putting out leaflets saying that the council was taking up to 3,500 asylum seekers.

"I knew nothing about asylum seekers, but the BNP was saying there were drug dealers, rapists, murderers and paedophiles coming."

Andy, if you knew nothing about asylum seekers why did you join the BNP which has an aim of stopping asylum seekers. It can’t have been the war in Afghanistan that lead you to the BNP could it? Why didn’t you try the liberal democrats? They don’t exactly know anything about asylum seekers either and were against the war in Afghanistan.

"I did have a feeling inside that it was wrong to listen to them. I'd had black and Asian friends growing up but the BNP seemed to answer concerns that I had."

You mean your concerns about the war in Afghanistan…

Now onto the meetings…

"There were Nazi salutes and talk about violence against anti-BNP leaf letters and trade unionists. There was so much outright racism and anti-semitism. Beyond the respectable veneer, it was a nasty party."

Andy became so worried he went to speak to his union.

You became worried so you talked to your union? Ever heard of the police, those people that will arrest you for being politically incorrect?

"I ended up talking to Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation. They asked if I would stay inside and pass them information."

Andy intended to leave after a few weeks working undercover, but then the BNP promoted him to Organiser, placing him at the heart of the organisation at national level.

For those members who aren’t aware in the BNP you are only promoted if you want to be promoted. If you were going to leave after 3 weeks it’s probably not very likely you would accept the position is it?

The party's strategy was chillingly simple.

"The BNP would focus on a single issue. In Keighley it was a supposed Asian paedophile ring. In fact the ring was comprised of white and Asian people and wasn't a race issue at all, but the BNP would exploit it.

Errrmmmm not according to Keighley’s own MP Ann Cryer who has even admitted that it was Asian gangs. Maybe he knows something that the MP and the police don’t?

"They look at the electoral registers and target areas that are 90 per cent or more white and then knock on doors talking about mass immigration and asylum seekers.

So we campaign in areas where we are more likely to win? How is this chilling?

"One of the things I'll never forget was being at a meeting with John Tyndall, the founder of the BNP and listening to him ranting - a racist, anti-semitic attack on Asians, blacks and Jews."

Have you got any examples? Anyway this was the reason Nick Griffin tried to get rid of him but he sued and got back in.

During his time inside the BNP, Andy was able to get warnings out to people the BNP was planning violence against.

The BNP don’t plan violence. Seeing as you were the organiser for about a year if the BNP were organising violence it would actually be you that was organising it, or am I wrong about who should be the leader here? The only ones that can order members to do anything is the branch leader and you were the branch leader.