Is the BNP Insolvent?
The press have finally jumped on the story that the British National Party agreed to settle up with Unilever over the Marmitegate fiasco.
The article on the Mirror website claimed that the figure was between £70k and £170k – the former being the party’s claim, the latter figure was touted by a solicitor who worked on the case.
On top of this blow to the party’s financial situation, Nick Griffin has failed to pay the agreed settlement sum to Michaela Mackenzie, the unfairly dismissed former head of party administration. Griffin was supposed to pay up by the 14th of this month, so it seems that he’ll be back in court again.
The party’s debts are now starting to mount up, and the fact is this: the party cannot meet its current liabilities, therefore, by definition - it is insolvent.
This is partly due to Mr Dowson’s and Mr Griffin’s “rapid expansion plan”.
Rapid expansion (it’s a business term, what a surprise) is a very delicate process, overstretch yourself, and you will implode. One of the problems with this process is that it eats up a vast amount of resources, so it’s possible to facilitate rapid expansion if you envisage your resources keeping pace with your expansion – the fact is, the BNP’s funding levels are directly linked to it’s level of electoral success. Barking was a disaster, and people have simply grown tired of getting very little bang for their buck.
Now the party is left with a bloated administration at the headquarters, without the funds to maintain it. Somebody calculated that the party’s financial commitments amount to somewhere in the region of £800,000 per year, which may explain why the party only spends 10% of its budget on electioneering.
Another interesting note, the party claims to have raised huge amounts of money (in excess of £1 million), and yet, it only spent £300,000 on the general election – £250,000 came from the branches, not central funds. You may be wondering where the surplus ended up, well, they’re not surplus funds. The party has been fund-raising to finance its fund-raising schemes and staff payroll – there is nothing left, no surplus.
The hierarchy has deliberately led the party into litigation so they can squeeze the membership for more donations – that is a fund-raising scheme. Marmitegate was completely avoidable, yet Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson thought they could cast Unilever as a bogeyman, to provoke the membership into opening their wallets. This stunt has cost the party dearly – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the death-blow.
It is an absolute disgrace – whatever you think of John Tyndall, I can’t imagine the man ever abandoning his principles in pursuit of money.
I’ll say it again, the BNP is finished, and I hope its downfall destroys those who wrought it.
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