John Tyndall Memorial Meeting report

NWN: Report with thanks to the EFP website

Over 70 Nationalists from a variety of political formations and tendencies gathered in the old English city of Preston, Lancashire, on 8th October for the Sixth Annual John Tyndall Memorial Meeting. The commemoration was hosted by Heritage & Destiny magazine.


‘JT’, as he was affectionately known by his many followers and admirers, was a former chairman of the National Front, the founder of the British National Party, and the foremost racial nationalist leader of the modern era.

Among the organizations represented at the memorial were (in alphabetical order): British National Party, British Movement, Democratic Nationalists, England First Party, National Front, National Socialist Movement-Britannia, North West Nationalists and the AK Chesterton Trust (sorry if I’ve missed any out).

The meeting was chaired by long-time movement activist and assistant editor of Heritage and Destiny magazine Peter Rushton. Mr. Rushton, a Nationalist ‘old-fighter’, was a good friend and comrade of John Tyndall, and he spoke movingly of JT’s dedication to the cause and of his soul-stirring abilities as an orator.

The meeting started with a minutes silence in memory of JT, his wife Valerie, Ian Hague, Les Andrews and Dave Hannan (and all other nationalist comrades who had passed away since last year’s meeting).

Peter Rushton then read out a letter from Andrew Brons MEP, who unfortunately backed out of attending the meeting.

The first speaker was Dr. James Lewthwaite, an Orangeman and former archaeology lecturer, who was an elected BNP councillor from Bradford City Council (2004-2007) and was a co-founder of the Democratic Nationalists (2008). Dr. Lewthwaite spoke on the continuing potential for nationalist politics from voters who have lost faith with mainstream politics, but who have not been reached by nationalist electoral strategies so far. He argued that it would be no bad thing for post-Griffin nationalism to move away from the cult of the leader. So long as different nationalist parties do not stand against each other, it will even be possible in the short term for different parties to be standing in local elections in different regions, provided their approach is tuned to the political wavelength of those areas.

Second up was Dave Jones, the Campaigns Officer and Nominating Officer of the British People’s Party (BPP). Dave has been BPP local election candidate for Todmoreden ward on Calderdale Borough Council for the last two years. Dave Jones spoke about his success in promoting an honest appeal to local voters in his town, on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. “Anti-fascists” who sought to mobilise against him had been swiftly sent packing, since they were seen by locals as outsiders trying to impose an alien political agenda. Dave was pleased to announce that he was now co-operating with Chris Jackson, former BNP regional organiser and now an official of the National Front, in producing propaganda for Todmorden voters. This example of cross-party nationalist cooperation was warmly applauded by the meeting audience.

The third speaker was Paul Ballard, former organizer for the Croydon NF and BNP, former publisher of The Rune magazine and co-defendant in the infamous Harrow Race Trial, in the 1990s. Mr. Ballard is a leading campaigner for jailed ‘thought criminals’ across the UK and Europe. He spoke on the continuing persecution of Bishop Richard Willamson, who was thrown out of Argentina and is still being prosecuted in the German courts after being set up by Swedish television journalists at the end of 2008. Bishop Williamson has promoted traditional Catholic teaching, following the example of the founder of the Society of St Pius X, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but has found that modern Europe seeks to demonise, marginalise and criminalise those traditional values and ideas which were central to European civilisation for almost two millennia.

Next up was Tony Justice a last minute replacement speaker for Andrew Brons MEP. Tony – a former squaddie who served in both the British Army and Ulster Defence Regiment – spoke on his experiences in Ulster and of his support for the Loyalist cause. He explained about being fooled by the English Democrats – whom he had joined three years ago – and whom he thought were genuine nationalists. He quit the EDs earlier this year after discovering their links and support for the Republican movement in general and IRA/Sinn Fein in particular. Tony spoke from the heart and without notes and was very well received by the audience.

After Tony Justice’s talk, Chairman Peter Rushton announced a break, during which the audience enjoyed a generous buffet (provided courtesy of the H&D editor’s girlfriend) and browsed the many nationalist literature and merchandise stalls including Candour/AK Chesterton Trust; British People’s Party; British Movement; Bradford Nationalists; Historical Review Press and Heritage and Destiny.

Peter Barker was the first speaker up after the break. An ex-soldier with the Royal Engineers, Peter served in Ulster and Germany. He was the former BNP regional press officer for the North West and was an NF and BNP organizer for Rochdale. He is also the founder of the North West Nationalists website and later blog (http://northwestnationalists.blogspot.com/). Like others at the meeting, he has been expelled from the BNP for opposing the policies of Nick Griffin. He began by speaking of his memories of dealing with Gerry Adams at the Maze Prison in the mid-1970s. It was after Mr Barker’s experiences in Ulster that he had become an active nationalist, and he reminded the meeting of the great work of Ken Henderson in building up the BNP in the North West region – at great cost to his health, in those days of militant “anti-fascist” opposition. Mr Barker believed that the attendance at today’s meeting of so many representatives from different tendencies in the nationalist movement was a very positive indication of the progress that is possible for post-Griffin nationalism.

The next speaker was meeting chairman Peter Rushton, who in 2002 became one of the first BNP members purged by Griffin. Mr. Rushton is an assistant editor of Heritage and Destiny, a co-founder of the England First Party, and founder and editor of www.jailingopinions.com. Mr. Rushton began with a tribute to John Tyndall, who had faced both triumph and disaster during his decades of nationalist leadership. The present crisis of the movement is worse than anything that has gone before, since the BNP leadership is about to be exposed for gross dishonesty – not political “thought crimes” but fraud and financial malpractice on a huge scale. Mr Rushton insisted however that none of this changed the fundamental political realities, especially the betrayal of our race and nation by the unscrupulous establishment parties. A large secton of his speech was devoted to exposing the traditional lie that our nation had always been a “mongrel nation” built on immigration. The full text will be availabl on this site later today. He ended with an appeal for all leading nationalists to commit themselves to the reunification of the post-Griffin movement, since the real divide in nationalism is not between different ideological positions or personal rivals, but between a tiny gang of crooks in the leadership of the BNP and the vast majority of decent and committed nationalists in the ranks of the BNP and many other parties and groups.

The keynote speaker of the day was former BNP national organiser Richard Edmonds. Richard was one of John Tyndall’s most loyal friends and supporters over 30 years. He was proprietor of the famous BNP bookshop in Welling from 1989 to 1999 and served on the national advisory council of the BNP from 2008 to 2010. Mr Edmonds remains a member of the BNP, but has also recently joined the National Front, where he will work towards nationalist unity following the self-destruction of the BNP leadership clique. He told the meeting of the appalling decline of our nation, reminding the audience that as early as 1959 the Conservative Party had pledged to halt immigration, but had treacherously presided over half a century of racial transformation that has left our towns and cities unrecognisable. Five teenagers each day are now stabbed or shot on the streets of London. The answer was to stop immigration and start repatriation. Mr Edmonds concluded that today’s meeting had produced a determined spirit of unity, in contrast to the poison that has dominated the higher echelons of the BNP for the last decade.

After Mr. Edmonds’ impressive speech, there was a “booze and book” Raffle. Twenty items had been donated to the meeting by various comrades and were raffled off. The lucky winners received both a bottle and a book. Finally, a football scratch card was won by Liverpool Nationalist activist Peter Tierney.

At the conclusion, meeting steward Ken Shapcott of Burnley spoke from the audience, thanking the speakers and the meeting chairman for making this year’s memorial a success. H&D editor and EFP leader Mark Cotterill spoke last, and thanked everyone for their participation and attendance – including two serving members of the British Armed Forces just back from Afghanistan – and said that he hoped to see them again at future gatherings.

Heritage and Destiny produced a special Souvenir Programme for the occasion, expertly printed on quality paper, which is still available post-paid for £5.00 or $10.00 from Heritage and Destiny, 40 Birkett Drive, Preston, PR2 6HE. Or by PayPal from –heritageanddestiny@yahoo.com to place your order).

http://efp.org.uk/john-tyndall-memorial-meeting-report-2/