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The truth about Spence and the RWB punch-up - McLean to resign?

Lancaster UAF | 09.08.2007 12:00 | Anti-racism | Repression | Social Struggles | Liverpool

The fiasco never ends...

It's a good job there are some people in the British National Party with integrity or we would never get to hear the truth about anything. Let's hope they've let someone who can look at them honestly to take a look at the accounts before they're submitted to the Electoral Commission. The membership might actually get a true picture of the state of the party then.

But this article isn't about the accounts - it's about Andrew Spence, the BNP's ex-poster boy, who, to trumpets from on high, joined the party just six months ago only to resign in a huff last Saturday night.

The gist of the incident has already been reported here but until now we've been stuck for the detail - until, that is, a couple of angry BNP members got in touch to put this situation right. These kind people both pointed out that discussion on this subject has been censored dramatically on the BNP's own forum, with threads being closed as soon as they were started. We have also observed severe censorship over at the Stormfront nazi forum - the BNP member's favourite alternative to its own despite it having been proscribed by the control-freaks at BNP HQ. When will the BNP learn that the membership at least, deserve honesty and openness?

Anyway, back to Saturday night. This is the story as we have it...

Allegedly, BNP Head of Publicity and chief dork Mark Collett spent twenty minutes goading and picking at Andrew Spence about money that was promised to him by the party over some damage that occurred to his car during the recent by-election campaign. Party Treasurer John Walker refused point blank to hand over the cash (shades of the Sharon Ebanks' fiasco there) and even refused to accept that the party was in any way liable, telling Spence to go see his insurance company about it. Eventually, we're told, tempers got frayed and Spence pushed (rather than punched) Walker. Collett, ever the coward, slapped Spence around the back of the head then did a runner pushing people aside, including the Norfolk Organiser and her young daughter.

Spence, as you already know, has resigned from the party while Collett - who appears to have played a key role in provoking the incident - faces no action, as usual, despite having himself assaulted another party member.

This incident has caused fury in the ranks, so much so that Scott McLean, Griffin's Deputy Chairman and the person responsible for maintaining discipline in the party, has clearly stated that he is resigning, having told all his long-time pals in the party that his position has been undermined again and again by Griffin's constant refusal to take action against Collett. We're informed that McLean gave Griffin an ultimatum a few days ago - him or Collett - and Griffin is sticking to Collett. So much for loyalty then...

More here:  http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2007/08/truth-about-spence-and-rwb-punch-up.html

Lancaster UAF
- e-mail: lancaster.uaf@zen.co.uk
- Homepage: http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/