BNP Leadership Challenge

The Leadership contest is ON!

Following a series of meetings and discussions involving members of the British National Party who believe that we must have a change in the leadership of the Party, it has been decided that Eddy Butler should stand against the current Chairman Nick Griffin MEP this summer.

It is hoped that the campaign will be conducted in a clean manner with honest and open debate on the issues at hand.
Teams will be organised in all regions to get the required number of signatures in order to be nominated as a candidate.

If you would like to be part of one of these teams please send you details to:

Details of the team working with Eddy Butler and his candidate for Deputy Chairman will be announced shortly.

This will be a very exciting campaign and a chance for the British National Party to re-launch itself. It is vital that there be new leadership for the BNP for the following reasons:

1. It is essential that we have financial transparency and competence, so that the membership and our donors have faith in how their money is being accounted for and spent.

2. It is essential that spending is kept under tight control. We are facing hard financial times and vast amounts are thrown away on avoidable litigation and on wasteful internal projects. The Party is facing insolvency over the next few months due to a series of imprudent decisions by the leadership.

3. Our resources must be targeted at our ‘front end’ activities – elections, councillor support, local recruitment and organisation.

4. The Constitution must be revised to ensure we have both strong leadership and accountability. At present all power is vested in one man, the Chairman, with virtually no checks, and the Constitution is skewed to make it almost impossible to remove him.

5. There must be a careful separation of powers between the Political Chairman and the Party Administration.

6. The Party has got stale and needs a total revamp. The authoritarian leadership style inhibits new ideas and stifles debate.

7. A new draft Constitution will be written up and publicised and an EGM called within six months of a successful leadership challenge.

8. The aim is to stabilise the Party – to enter the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections rejuvenated, and with proper local support for the vital round of local elections next year.

9. The Party must be given room to breath internally in order to find new longer term leadership. Next year we will have a full new leadership election under the new fairer Constitution with several fresh candidates who we can choose between in a civilised debate. That new leadership can take us on with confidence to contest the 2012 London Assembly elections and we can face the future with renewed vigour.

Most members agree that Nick Griffin MEP has done a tremendous job these past eleven years in promoting the BNP. This will always be remembered with gratitude. However it is now clear that we need a re-launch.

• Funding has dried up.
• Our financial liabilities are mounting.
• Enquiries to the Party from the public have plummeted.
• Our electoral progress has all but halted.
• Our activist base has lost its enthusiasm.
• There are no new ideas or initiatives from the centre.
• The central machinery of the Party is failing and not functioning properly.
• The local organisation needs rebuilding with a fresh set of eyes.

We do not have the luxury of waiting for several years before the current Chairman feels it is time to leave. After eleven long years Nick has accumulated a massive amount of baggage which makes him less popular with the public than the Party. In bringing the Party forward Nick has become more of a public liability than an asset. It may be unfair but it is nevertheless true. It is inevitable that after eleven long years, the old Chairman will have run out of steam, particularly when due to his European commitments he commutes by car every other week to Brussels or Strasbourg.

Now is the time for change. It has to be now as the Party must be able to revitalise itself ready for the next rounds of elections. Eddy Butler has the experience to do this and to build a team that can bring in stability and unity. Under a new team:

• Many who have left our Party will rejoin.
• Many who enquired but didn’t feel the Party was quite right, will re-enquire and get involved.
• Many people who have felt the Party isn’t quite right and have instead got involved with other parties will join.
• Our donors will have confidence provide the funding necessary for growth.
• By removing the harmful influences and the alien Corporate consultancy culture that infests the upper reaches of the Party, our activist base will be re-enthused.
• By opening up the Party and allowing the talent we have within our ranks to express itself, we will get new ideas and new approaches to old problems.

Eddy Butler has stepped forward to bring in these changes now – to help the Party find its way to a better and more ultimately victorious future. We must have change.

NWN: Butler's details have been removed from this article due to the behaviour of one of his supporters Sharon Ebanks and her actions against NWN.