Manners maketh man

Acknowledgements to the British Resistance site for the following article

So the race is on - BNP Leadership Challenge - Part 1 of N

Written by Green Arrow

Tuesday, 5 July 2011 

So the race to the leadership of the fractured British National Party is on, but this race is an handicap race - or rather it is for the challenger Andrew Brons MEP, who will have to jump a number of fences that Nick Griffin can simply by pass by nature of being the incumbent. This will be article number one in a series of articles concerning the leadership challenge.

In an article on the website of the BNP - that is now edited by the "de facto" leader of the party, Patrick Harrington - the rules for the race are laid out along with the dates of Leadership Election Hustings meetings around the country.

Adam Walker, the National Organiser says in the article: "I trust this is going to be a good clean fight between two Party heavyweights. Once the members have made their decision, I expect everyone to unite behind that." Nice sentiments but that just is not going to happen, already the attack dogs of the chairman have started their campaign to smear Andrew - this site will counter their lies and give you the truth. I might have got some things wrong in the past but I have never lied to you and never will.

But first a story that you may or may not find interesting and it concerns the first time I met and spoke to Adam Walker. It was at the 2009 Red, White and Blue and I and a cameraman were about to pay £10 each for the "privilege" of going into a tent where we could "mingle" with the chairman and other party "names".

Prior to entering the marquee, I watched as Adam Walker literally stuffed the notes he was receiving from the members into his pockets without issuing any tickets or making any notes on the numbers (quite a few) paying for entrance. I thought at the time that this was a tad unacceptable but figured that if you could not trust Adam Walker who could you trust? I must confess that despite my age, I can be a bit too trusting. But on with the story.

Well, I wasn't just paying £20 for myself and the cameraman to have a glass of warm mediocre champagne in a tent. I was there to talk to people and photograph them and so asked Adam, if I might take a photo. To be honest I was quite surprised by Adam's response to a request from someone he must have thought at the time was just an "ordinary" member.

He struck a series of silly poses and was quite sarcastic until I introduced myself as the owner of the Green Arrow blog upon which he became serious and let the cameraman take a "decent" image saying "will this be acceptable" to which I replied that he should not worry about the photo I used in any article but rather worry more about the words I wrote. Well I have written them now Adam.

Now I should not have been surprised at Adam's cavalier treatment of BNP members money, because earlier in the day I saw Simon Darby who was then the Deputy Leader of the Party, taking cash from the people manning the entrance gate without giving a receipt in return. Slap dash to say the least.

As a former Constitutional Club Secretary, I was appalled by the way members money was just passed around without any audit trail but again figured that if you could not trust the Deputy Leader, who could you trust? Now I realise, that not even the chairman could or should be trusted. Boy was I naive.

Shortly after this, a BNP councillor attempted to introduce me to Simon, who just sort of shrugged and walked by until the former councillor said something like, "you might know him better as the Green Arrow." Simon, who was by now about 3 or 4 yards away spun on his heel and returned, where his attitude had become a little more civil (but not much) but he did say that he considered the Green Arrow site to be "too extreme".

Now then, whilst I was not annoyed by either Adam or Simon's initial reaction on meeting me, I was not impressed by how their attitude changed on being informed that I was the editor of a widely read patriotic website. I believed then, as I do now that all members and supporters of the BNP should be treated with respect, in fact I believed then and still do, that members of the party should be treated as close family.

Well loaded up with images and experiences, I returned to base and wrote the linked to article. Remember, these were my "first impressions" of some of the people I met at the 2009 RWB and I intended to write several articles about the officers of the BNP I had met, they would not all have been as favourable that is for sure.

In fact, so disgusted was I with the abruptness, arrogance and superiority in which Party Officers spoke to "lesser" members, I informed someone close to the party top of my intentions to write about both Adam and Simon but was begged not to for the good of the party. You will notice that "for the good of the party" is usually used when "they" do not want you to know something that you probably should. Shamefully I did not write those articles.

Now sadly I am away for the rest of the day and so will be unable to write Article Two until either late this evening or early tomorrow.