The Lost Leader: a poem by Robert Browning (A Tale of Modern Leadership)

By Nemesis

I recently found this poem by the nineteenth-century poet Robert Browning. It is bizarrely premonitional of the disgraced BNP Chairman Nick Griffin and our own current relationship with him that it could even be suggested that it was written specially for Griffin.

The Lost Leader by Robert Browning

Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat –
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!
Rags – were they purple, his heart had been proud!
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die!
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Burns, Shelley, were with us – they watch from their graves!
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,-
He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

We shall march prospering – not through his presence;
Songs may inspirit us, – not from his lyre;
Deeds will be done, – while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils’-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life’s night begins: let him never come back to us!
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,
Forced praise on our part – the glimmer of twilight,
Never glad confident morning again!
Best fight on well, for we taught him – strike gallantly,
Menace our heart ere we master his own;
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!

The following lines are so relevent for Griffin and how many of the BNP membership relate to the current regime:

"Just for a handful of silver he left us,"


(Griffin's intention is to get a lucrative job as a Euro MP and leave the BNP with his guilt-edge pension. Apart from his ransacking of the BNP for personal and family gain).


"They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,So much was theirs who so little allowed:"

(BNP members are known for their self-sacrfice with their hard-earned money given to the BNP cause yet in return they are treated with contempt and what little democracy they have within the party is increasingly being removed from them by Griffin).


"We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,Made him our pattern to live and to die!Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,Burns, Shelley, were with us – they watch from their graves!He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,– He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

(Many BNP members had such great faith in Griffin and his leadership and believed his lies for so long. A loyalty towards Griffin that knew few bounds has been rewarded by being bitterly twisted against them to save his own financial empire. Browning must have also known that Griffin only possesses one eye!)


"We shall march prospering – not through his presence;Songs may inspirit us, – not from his lyre;"

(However, BNP members shall continue fighting the cause long after their traitorous leader has abandoned them in the struggle, its members leading from the grassroots rather than from the 'vision' and 'inspiration' of its crooked leader Griffin who regards as critics as 'vermin').

"Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,"

(This refers to the erasure of Griffin's traitorous leadership regime, marked by the notable fact that Griffin tended to refuse fighting the real enemy and always fought his own people first. He always baulked at financing and organising the BNP as a fully-fledged political fighting machine, perferring to accumulate wealth and despotic power first and foremost).

"Life’s night begins: let him never come back to us!There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,Forced praise on our part – the glimmer of twilight,Never glad confident morning again!"

(These four lines of Browning's poem says it all succinctly about Griffin and his leadership. Although the darkness of betrayal is a hard thing to take, BNP members will strive to continue the struggle and to rebuild a new party without the stigma of the rotten and corrupt Griffin regime. Despite the setbacks the darkness will soon be replaced by the light of a new dawn of hope and of victory!)

With revelation after revelation coming out that demonstrate the corruption and despotic nature at the heart of the 'Griffin Project' it is now harder for this man to survive long at the heart of the BNP machine.

Nick Griffin must now fall on his sword.

However, that man has no honour and no moral compulsion to do so.

He will only be removed by force in four ways:. Either an 'Ides of March' coup by disgruntled officials and senior members working together to unseat him. Or a Police investigation into financial corruption.

Or a mass reaction by the membership resigning or not paying contributing financially or working for the party.

Or a legal challenge into his constitutional rigging of the party.

The time for change is now.

Whatever is decided at Griffin's already fixed Special Conference to revise the timescale for leadership challenges the fight must go on.

All those opposed to Griffin must sooner or later organise.

There has been precious little of that in recent months and no co-ordination.

Without co-ordination and a concerted focussing of strength at Griffin's weakest points the chances of success are low.

Since we are dealing with an individual whose megalomania is apparent and who will stop at nothing the fight must be relentless and unforgiving.

It must be backed up by serious money and a serious framework of legal challenges ready to be mounted against the regime if Griffin changes the rules at any time.

Those at the top of the regime who continue to support and aid Griffin and the rest of the Mugabesque cabal must be aware that blood will be unleashed when the Real BNP take back its party.

There must be no mercy and no hesitation. This time the stakes are too high.

The only viable political vehicle of British nationalism is under threat of self-destruction by an irresponsible and mad Dr Frankenstein who wishes to recreate the BNP into a monster of his own image.

Without a secure and effective BNP the survival of our race and nation is at stake. This is Survival of the Fittest.

Are you ready to stand up and be counted?