Muammar Al Khadafi

Here at SWN we're more than happy to respond to views received from our readers, so with that in mind, here's a response to "MB" who emailed us with some concerns about the advice posted on SWN regarding leaflets, our not linking a Nick Griffin video, and making a number of strong statements and allegations.

Here's the email in full :

Dear sirs the polls have spoken despite all the gruff against Griffin which was at least 90 per cent lies and hyperbole the members of the BNP have reelected him.

As for your opinion about the leaflets you have not made it clear which you are talking about.

If it is the picture leaflet?? Prey tell just who is going to proceed against whom for what.?? They are pictures taken in the riots. They are of actual occurrences. You may be offended that Blacks forced whites to strip off, but that is what they did. and not just two times but many times

Griffin was careful in his broadcast to which you almost alone of the BNP sites have not linked,. to mention white as well as Black rioters.

IMHO Griffin set exactly the right tone.

But you cannot admit Griffin did anything right can you?? you hypocrite !! THAT would put the spotlight on the VALIDITY OF Y0OUR OWN HARSH CRITICISM OF THE MAN!!

You are a BNP official if you have real concerns about the legality of the leaflets ask a solicitor. otherwise you have a DUTY to order and print them.

Just as you have a duty just as Brons has done and Tyndal did, despite any differences with Griffin, to promote party unity.

It is that straight forward and simple.

Received from "MB".

Many thanks for your email MB, I've reprinted it in full here - we've certainly no objection to airing criticism and alternative opinions.

To open I'm not an official by the way, just a writer/activist who does what little he can, and who happens to be a part of the small team at SWN, so I'll make that clear before composing a response.

The criticism against Nick was lies and the polls have spoken?

9 votes. And 90% lies (according to your email) - which 10% was not lies? And is it acceptable that a leader remains in place because of 10% lies when he won by far less than 1% of the vote?

Or, if each 1% of lies bought just one single vote then is it therefore true to say that lies stole the election?

What has happened to the blackmail case to which Nick referred during the leadership? How about the recent lost appeal? The debts owed to the Inland Revenue? The failure to submit election accounts - yet again? And so on.

Duty is a very strong word. Perhaps - since we are all paying members who put in our time, effort, and money into making the BNP work, who do so not for want of a salary, who enjoy no perks or expenses - those in charge have a duty to us, to let us know exactly what state our party finances are in and not just post some meaningless refutation that has already been proved to be false on numerous points?

Duty cuts both ways - the party has a duty to us and to Britain. Is it delivering on that?

I certainly fail in what I see as my duty to readers and nationalism should I not point out what I see as serious shortcomings in the current structure and administration of the party. People can agree or disagree, but if they want some fawning sycophant who always writes the official line then they'd best go and read the tabloids or the official BNP site.

Officials could have refuted the allegations, indeed on numerous occasions we asked them to do just that, offered to publish a response totally unedited and....nothing. If the allegations are false it would be easy to prove so, in the interests of party unity it would be in every ones interest that they did just that.

They have not, and it is pointless using excuses such as not dignifying it with a response - silence is not golden when the party is hemorrhaging members, councillors, and votes.

We can be united all the way to oblivion if many fundamental questions and issues are not answered and resolved.

How do you ever achieve party unity when the main website is often used as a platform for a liberal, paid party employee who is not even a member of the party - how many are comfortable with a liberal member of a rival political party which has stood minority candidates against the BNP having *any* involvement whatsoever, let alone the seemingly dominant position which he now has?

I have on many occasions written articles here in which I do say Nick has done some things right, and am certainly not ashamed to say so.

Good or bad, I'll call it as I see it, and I'd admit something I'd said was totally wrong if I believed it to be. Nationalism first, I have no interest in personalities and egos whether it be my own or anyone else's.

Hypocrisy is defined as "The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness".

Blind support for Nick and the questionable people around him, telling people that there is no problem, putting on a public face designed to convince our fellow nationalists that all was well even when we knew it was not? That would be hypocrisy.

The advice regarding leaflets posted here (not penned by myself) nowhere says do not use these leaflets - it clearly states that individuals are free to use them and merely expressed concerns, including that of their effectiveness in the SW region.

Personally, since most news outlets refer to those photos as not being verified, and they first began to appear on Twitter, one would worry about the authenticity and about presenting them as fact. Intent under hate crimes laws is a tricky area - even if 100% verified these images could cause legal issues under that, wrong agreed, but that's the law we face and activists ending up criminalised is something best avoided - made far worse should these images turn out to be some kind of hoax.

Quoting the Daily Mail as a good example, "Several people on Twitter claimed there have been incidents of victims being stripped naked in Deptford, South London and Birmingham but, because of the very nature of the alleged incidents, the reports remain unsubstantiated".

Or, in the same article, "The image appeared on Twitter as internet rumours claimed that, on top of widespread violence and looting across London, thugs were even removing clothing from their victims"

Note the unsubstantiated. The use of the term internet rumours. They covered themselves, they did not present it as absolute fact. Our leaflets do nothing of the sort.

Reporting on the images yes, bringing them to the attention of people most certainly, but using them in a political leaflet intended for non party members and public consumption could indeed backfire badly.

That's just my opinion though - I'd not want to risk members and friends being made into martyrs over some images which may or may not be accurate. After all, give any of us an hour or two, we could post images - faces blurred out - of, for example, a Muslim man forcing a white woman to strip.

They'd have visual impact, they'd be powerful images - they'd also end in a pit of trouble.

Personally, I mean to imply no wrongdoing from head office on it in this instance, but I'd certainly say it is ill considered given the obvious questions that will be raised about the images authenticity and the potential for what seems a windfall of powerful illustration of racial violence and exploitation to turn into a very poisonous chalice.

As to Nicks video, well, the main BNP site couldn't even manage to link the leadership videos properly whilst the leadership challenge was underway!.

But, don't read some political decision into our not linking Nicks video. We link very few videos here at all, other than the odd embed in the course of an article.

Both BNP TV and the BNP main site are linked in the sidebar, we don't provide a feed of single articles or broadcasts from any other site, merely reproduce or link the very occasional item from elsewhere if it catches our eye.

Hopefully that answers a few questions for you, even if not the answers you likely desired.

At least we printed your message and had the courage to respond - not something that happens often on the BNP site if you happen to have a differing opinion or say anything negative about officialdom.

*I should make clear here this is all solely my opinion, not intended to represent site, SW, or party policy or any kind of official statement. As I said to open, I'm just one of the writers and a concerned BNP member.