Statement by Nick Griffin - Chairman of the BNP
Fellow Patriot
Yesterday was the opening salvo in our showdown with the Equalities Commission. The barrister representing our Party was at court on our behalf and got what we wanted - a seven week adjournment. This gives us the time and space we need to continue the urgent debate on our membership policy which opened with the very constructive and mature discussion meeting at the Red, White and Blue.
But most important of all, we have established two crucial points that had to be made, and could only be made by taking this as far as court, despite the inevitable cost.
The first is that the CEHR move, although motivated by their own internal political feuds as much as anything else, is a deadly serious threat to our very existence.
This is neither a game nor a phantom concern conjured up in order to push through changes to the constitution - which might well be electorally advantageous - but would stick in the craw of us dedicated nationalists.
Either we shift our position on our "British-only" membership policy or we will be utterly crushed - simple. That fact was established beyond any possible doubt when the judge ruled that we must pay the thousands of pounds of costs of today's hearing.
How much that bill will be, we cannot tell, because part of the grotesque unfairness of this is that we will be forced to hire the services of a very good legal firm simply to argue that the figure which will be proposed by Trevor Phillips and Co will be far too high and has to be reduced to something sensible and proportionate.
For us to take this case to the next hearing would mean raising and risking at least £80,000. To take it all the way to the House of Lords would swallow up well over a million pounds.
Even if we were likely to win, we could only afford this with a super human effort which would involve, among other sacrifices, virtually abandoning the next general election.
What makes that course of action even more of a Charge of the Light Brigade gesture is, that whatever the court decides in October, the forthcoming Equality Bill will, in any case, simply and unavoidably ban any political party from discriminating on grounds of ethnicity.
By taking this as far as a court hearing, we have ensured that party unity will be maintained, because whatever steps we take, it is now crystal clear to all concerned that we simply do not have a choice but to change our membership policy.
Adapt or die is the only decision left to make, for failure to adapt would lead either to our being bled white through the courts or crushed by new criminal laws. Party unity is priceless, because a party of brothers standing shoulder to shoulder can be persecuted, but it can never be beaten or broken.
The second vital point we've made clear by letting this get all the way to court is that traditional British justice - indeed, the very essence of 'Britishness' - is dead, murdered as part of New Labour´s creeping coup d'état. Two of the great and ancient cornerstones of our true British identity are fairness and the unbreakable rule that institutions of the state must be bound by the rule of law.
The creation of CEHR and this persecution shattered both of those cornerstones. It is grotesquely unfair that a state-funded bureaucracy with 70 top lawyers and £70 million to burn, can decide, without showing a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing, to persecute a group of twelve and a half thousand mainly working class volunteers.
When the CEHR was established, it was originally intended to be bound by the kind of restrictions that are rightly imposed on all state bodies. The Labour government and the political elite have scrapped the safeguards. The CEHR is an autocratic power block which can go before any court and follow the maxim of Humpty Dumpty in Alice through the Looking Glass that "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
Our lawyers' highly compelling argument that the principle of Equality of Arms means that CEHR should fund our defence (as they would indeed assist any organisation representing literally any other ethnic group) was simply brushed aside by CEHR's own lawyers, and thus not even considered by the court. The shocking truth is that not even the Inland Revenue has this amount of power. The tax-grabbers are at least required to be, and to show, that they are fair. The CEHR are empowered to do whatever they think fit. This is not British; it isn't cricket. It is a fundamental change not just in our law but in our entire culture.
The scale of CEHR's power and monstrous arrogance is best shown by the fact that their lawyers seriously proposed to the court to settle in a mere two hours the fundamental question raised by this case: namely whether indigenous groups recognised in law as having their ethnic origins in these islands (Eilias v MoD) and covered by the liberal-left's own Race Relations Act are entitled to form associations of their own kind.
Of course, they know perfectly well that we are. They know that we are, hence the brutal use of their legal steamroller to ensure that we cannot afford to make this particular case the Cause Celebre that would bring the point home to untold numbers more who are at present in blissful ignorance of our rights and duties as the first peoples of these, our islands.
So where do we go from here? The starting point for the debate has to be an understanding that the new law being brought in shortly by Harriet Harman will ban ethnically defined parties anyway, which makes CEHR`s waste of public money so disgraceful, and their attempt to bleed us to death by a totally unnecessary legal action, so cynical and despicable.
We could still fight it all the way on a point of stubborn principle - I think that most party old hands have worked out some time ago that I can be pretty damn stubborn when the time is right. The decision as to whether this is the right time to stand and go down in a blaze of glory, or to evolve and live to fight another day, is one that is not just mine to make. It is yours as well.
If the party collectively wants to fight, then we have to raise £80,000 extra in the next four weeks. If the party collectively wants to guarantee its survival, then we need £20,000 this week to buy in more top lawyers' time to triple check and hone to perfection the changes we would have to make to our constitution and organisation. I apologise for making yet more funds appeals - but we have no choice. I didn't want this to happen, neither did you, but it is happening.
I have no doubt that it is possible to redraft our constitution so as to ensure we comply with the new law while at the same time holding true to our core principles and most important of all to our purpose - to secure a future for the true children of our islands.
And I promise you one thing beyond this: That once we have moved to a truly defensible position we will go on the attack. Not just politically, so that our enemies quickly rue the day when they broke the very stick with which they have beaten us for so long, but also legally.
We will be going into legal battle against Trevor Phillips and the rest of the 'curs', but it will be fought on ground that we choose, at the time that we appoint, and with our maximum strength directed against their weakest point. Our time will come - and sooner than they think.
In the meantime, please dig deep and send a gift of whatever amount you can spare so we can continue the fight:
To send an urgent gift online: https://secure.bnp.org.uk/donate/
To send an urgent gift by telephone ring: 0871 0500 234
Footnote By The Green Arrow
This is my personal opinion. My first instinct was to say fight and fight and fight no matter the cost. What the BNP is being forced into goes against my core beliefs. I DO NOT LIKE IT.
Then my brain kicked in. Now is not the time for noble gestures that would destroy us - all be it in a blaze of glory. That Glory would soon be forgotten and wiped from memory as our people were exterminated. We have a greater duty now - the survival of Our Children and their Children.
We must be pragmatic. We must learn to bend in the wind without breaking then spring back and smash back in the face those who forced us to bend. All real nationalists will understand this. If they do not or say they they do not, I would doubt their claim to be Nationalists.
Unity is everything now - those who seek to change and disrupt the Party whilst in the middle of a war for survival are to me nothing more short than traitors no matter what noble reason they might give.
Our day will come. But now we must rally behind Our Country's only hope and despite our financial fatigue of donating, donating and donating we must bite the bullet, melt down our pots and pans and keep donating.
There is a very lively debate going on over on the BNP Main site. Please go read what others are saying about this statement and whilst there why not leave your thoughts also.
Long live the BNP