Credibility: zero

Here we see Mr Griffin where he now feels most at home, among the pampered fat cats of the European 'parliament'.

Mr Griffin feels he has now 'arrived'. He holds forth, reading his one-minute speech to the chamber, for all the world as if he believed what he said could have any effect on the lives of his constituents in the north west of England. The bored and languid manner of the session chairman, in itself, tells one all one needs to know about this stage- managed shadow play.

Yet Griffin wants to believe that it is all for real. He has gone native with a vengeance. He "loves" being there.

While Griffin play-acts the statesman in five-star foreign luxury, the real, the crucial, fight here in Britain is allowed to go by default.

While Griffin lords it, as an MEP in Brussels and Strasbourg, the British National Party's finances are allowed to go to pot. Despite Griffin's claims that all was well, the BNP's 2009 accounts, which have now belatedly been submitted to the Electoral Commission, and published by them, tell a very different story.

They tell a truly shocking story of negligence, of incompetence. They tell a story, indeed, of dereliction of duty, by Mr Griffin.

Mr Griffin's words, at the beginning of his speech, have a tragic irony to them.

He says "The most important priority of any budget should be only to spend your own money. Spending someone else's without their permission is not budgetting, it's theft."

Can anyone seriously be expected to take lessons on economy from a former bankrupt, and incorrigibly prodigal spendthrift, such as Mr Griffin, who has bid fair to bury the BNP under a mountain of avoidable debt, and who has welshed on the party's debts to its friendly suppliers?

Griffin's credibility as a nationalist politician is now zero. He would fit in better with those MPs of the Establishment parties who 'decided' not to seek re-election, under a cloud, before the 2010 general election, than with the crusading white knights of a genuine party of the people: which is what the candidates of a British National Party ought to be, if they condemn the status quo, without hypocrisy.

Will Griffin draw the necessary conclusion, and fall on his sword? His entire record sadly suggests otherwise.

Indeed, the traitor-parties of the Establishment, as well as Griffin's hireling flunkeys, have a vested interest in keeping this man without honour or decency exactly where he is, as the lame duck leader of a party which, were it not for him, might be led to the glory it deserves.

Nevertheless, the BNP will rid itself of this incubus.

No-one should feel faint-hearted at the prospect of a political fight to the finish with Griffin. Having joined a party whose raison d'etre was to reform the rotten old order of society, and re-establish patriotic decency in our land, settling accounts with a corrupt and incompetent sell-out like Griffin should be regarded as on-the-job training.