Last Thursday several newspapers carried a story regarding £389,000 left by a British man named Joseph Robson-who had been living in Spain, to the British National Party (BNP) in his will.
For quite a while now the BNP has cared more about dead supporters than it has its living members and supporters. Hardly a week goes by without an email or begging letter from the party reminding their members and supporters not to drop dead without leaving the party a few quid first. Just lately it has been also carrying a warning that if we do not leave the BNP our worldly goods, the government may get their grubby hands on them instead.
I tend to read those sort of warnings from the BNP as code for “Jews” getting hold of my money. Despite being a “family” party, there is no instruction from the BNP to leave one’s wordly possessions of two 1990 FA Cup final replay tickets and a signed Billy Bragg poster to my family; I guess the BNP would probably flog those on Ebay too.
So, the story of Mr Robson’s bequest being challenged by his two sons is one of interest. The legal facts and arguments can be read here.
Of greater interest is that having left the money to the BNP, it appears it has instead now been diverted (if that is the term) to a trust set up by three senior BNP members and one non-member, the non-entity that is the party’s current estranged legal begal.
Nick Griffin and his daughter Jennfier, Party Treasurer Clive Jefferson and the aforementioned Patrick Harrington, are the directors of a charitable trust that executed a deed of variation to the will which would see the money paid into a specially set up charitable trust, rather then to the party directly.
News of this story when it broke in the party was met with the usual grunts and sighs. Some queried if the £389,000 had been or would ever be declared to the membership or the electoral commission. Others wondered why Adam Walker, the increasingly disloyal henchman, was left out of this charitable trust.
Harrington appeared before the court hearing into the bequest claiming that it would be “utterly unjust” if the party did not get the money.
This hearing comes at a crucial time for the BNP. Up to six of their full time staff face losing their jobs should Nick Griffin lose his seat in the European Parliament next year and with former BNP MEP Andrew Brons retiring. Guaranteed to keep their jobs come what may, are of course Griffin’s daughter Jennifer and her husband Angus Matthys. Many of the office staff are prepared or preparing to return to their former jobs. That is of course, except for Adam Walker, who has rightly been banned from teaching.
One does wonder how the charitable trust would get around funding either the BNP or pay the salaries of its staff. Insiders in the party tells us that the party is already being “divided up”.
A little digging today turned up that Mr Jefferson is not just part of this “charitable trust” with the intent of minding this money for the party, but since July of this year he has also owned 51% of a company called Heritage Content Management (HCM).
HCM, by all accounts, actually own the BNP website. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the other 49% of shares in HCM are owned by Griffin’s son in law Angus Matthys.
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