Spot the difference

springer protestors

Has the BNP taken over the anti-JS:TO protests? Above left is a photo from the Leicester Mercury showing a group of protestors outside the de Montfort Hall. On the right is a group of BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court in January, during the trial of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.

The “Defend Christian Values” banners they are holding are from the self-styled Christian Council of Britain, one of several new BNP offshoots.

From Lancaster Unite Against Fascism blog:

The Christian Council of Britain, replete with one or two hundred rabid members of the BNP (who also happen to be Christians), was set up by the BNP as a so-called balance to the Muslim Council of Britain. They claim to represent the Christians of Britain, which of course, they don’t. They actually represent a racist though supposedly Christian offshoot of the BNP formed solely so that the party could almost-legitimately jump on the back of the anti-‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’ campaign. The real Christian group who actually are organising the campaign have stated clearly that the BNP is unwelcome.

Stephen Green did indeed come out and speak against the BNP involvement in the anti-Springer campaign, eventually. But if the Leicester Mercury photo is representative, the very least we can deduce is that they are good at distributing their banners.

UPDATE: Bartholomew has more on the CCB.


22 Responses to “Spot the difference”

  1. Marc Draco says:

    One extremist is pretty much the same as another to me. In fact, I can see how the BNP would attract a certain brand of Christian – even if Stephen Green doesn’t like it.

    What’s worse for Green is it’s groups like his that actually encourage this kind of behaviour! LOL!

  2. martyn says:

    A bigots a bigot really. I wonder what the real problem is with these people, just what is lacking from their lives to make them need to identify with such loathsome groups. I really don’t see that much difference between religion and extreme political groups, after all isn’t that where religion comes from any way?

  3. Marcus says:

    Lancaster Unite Against Fascism (incorporating Barrow)… Ha that says a lot … Barrow in Furness … born there … done that … had the sense to leave and live somewhere else before my brain turned to mush … LOL

  4. Sam Hayes says:

    I wonder if either the BNP or the MCB can see how similar they are to each other.

  5. Bartholomew says:

    Well-spotted (I’m jealous). From the Mercury report:

    Wayne McDermott, 31, a Christian from Coalville, carried a placard stating “Defend Christian Values”. He said…

    “Wayne McDermott” + “BNP” on Google reveal him to be a BNP activist.

  6. David says:

    To be honest, it is quite questionable how ‘Christian’ these people are if they are supporters of the BNP. As the Bible clearly says, the greatest commandment is to love one another. This really does mean everyone, no matter of race, colour or creed. I do clearly not know the full background to the story, but I would like to point out cases such as N. Ireland where the problem is still attributed to religion, despite it no longer having anything to do with it.

  7. Clive Potter says:

    What’s the problem about this – only if you are an ardent secularist/atheist or liberal authoritarian who cannot accept that the BNP has a right to express it’s opinions, as long as they not inciting violence. As regards “Christianbelifs” that the Bible says “love thy enemy blah, blah, blah, it was Jesus who said “love the sinner, not the sin”. Would the secularists and liberal authoritarians get angry (did they at all I wonder???) over the Sikhs stoppping the showing of the play “Behzti” in Birmingham or the Muslims inciting hatred and violence against white British people on our streets, whilst killing many across the world in their protests against the Danish cartoons? I think not…

  8. Monitor says:

    Would the secularists and liberal authoritarians get angry (did they at all I wonder???) over the Sikhs stoppping the showing of the play “Behzti” in Birmingham or the Muslims inciting hatred and violence against white British people on our streets, whilst killing many across the world in their protests against the Danish cartoons? I think not…

    You think wrong. As a few minutes reading this website will demonstrate.

  9. Bron says:

    that is rather scary

  10. […] Shamelessly lifted from the Melon Farmers who shamelessly lifted it from MediaWatchWatch […]

  11. […] Mediawatchwatch has reported on the Christian Council of Britain and their links with the BNP before. Now Bartholomew reports that the founder of the organisation, the Reverend Robert West, has been suspended from the Conservative Party after addressing a BNP meeting in Huddersfield. A Tory party spokesman commented on the suspension, saying “The BNP is an odious and abhorrent organisation. The councillor has been suspended from the council’s Conservative group and local association pending an investigation.” […]

  12. andrew says:

    This post has been linked in the latest NSS newsline, with an excellent quote from NSS vice-president Terry Sanderson:

    Mr Green is beyond parody. He is obviously peeved at being humiliated on TV and radio programmes so often by representatives of the NSS and other secularists. Whenever we are up against him, he turns into a kind of ranting cartoon televangelist and appears to have no insight into how he is perceived by his audience. The usual reception he gets when speaking in public is derisive laughter as an example, his dire performance on Question Time, when each answer was preceded by a Bible quotation and then a lot of ill-informed gobbledygook.

  13. Panzerpapst says:

    Is Stephen Green anything other than a rather foolish man with no sense of humour whose egoism won’t allow him to see himself as others see him? On the other hand, maybe he thinks he is a nobody and feels he has to turn himself into a somebody (a messenger of God, a prophet etc…no less!!) to feel better about himself. I almost felt sorry for him at that Question Time fiasco…but then I saw that he is a typical bully who needs to demean others to make himself feel better…and my sympathy evaporated.

  14. sue shenton says:

    I’m quite surprised; both pictures appear to be of normal, ordinary people. Where are the skinhead thugs screaming hate? Both pictures show quiet, orderly demonstrators, very different from some rioters we’ve seen recently.

  15. John B says:

    Taken from Lancaster UAF blog eh!! They are the only extremist freaks mentioned as far as I can see.

  16. […] While the BNP are ignorant scumballs, the court’s decision was entirely correct. Religion and race are not synonymous, and if anyone thinks the Islam is a wicked and vicious faith they are perfectly within their rights to say so. Griffen and Collett’s triumphalist cries of “freedom” are hollow and hypocritical, however, as the BNP were vocal in calling for the “blasphemous” musical Jerry Springer: The Opera to be banned. […]

  17. jen says:

    Jonh B….The Lancaster UAF are hypocrites. They absolutly do not encourage debate or free speech. I started posting on there for a week or so. Never used any bad language but I did condem the Halal custom of ritual slaughter.They deleted my post then banned me rom any further blogs. Apparantly this is common practice I have been told. Any challange that makem look like hypocrits is wiped out. The word doublethink springs to mind, as they are Fascists in red colours. Jen

  18. […] Christian Council of Britain also tried to hijack conservative Christian protests against Jerry Springer: The Opera, although the group leading the […]

  19. […] gain much of its publicity by hijacking protests against Jerry Springer: The Opera (as revealed on MediaWatchWatch), but that’s just the least of West’s dishonesty: BNP thuggery is very well attested, […]

  20. […] Far-Right Infiltrates Christian Protests Posted on March 12, 2006 by Richard Bartholomew MediaWatchWatch draws attention to the latest protest by the “Christian Council of Britain” – a […]

  21. […] National Party’s new Christian Council of Britain. Ekklesia noted my efforts (and those of MediaWatchWatch) a few of days ago; now it provides some more information (link and correction added): A clergyman […]

  22. […] “media-watch organisation” which first noted BNP hijacking of the Opera protests was MediaWatchWatch; further details were provided by (ahem) me, and the story then got picked up and developed by […]