Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit


by Carl Packman    
11:11 pm - August 10th 2010

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Lee John Barnes, the subject of much fun for many anti-fascist bloggers, will no longer act as legal director for the British National Party.

In his resignation letter he despairs at the “avoidable court cases” the BNP have become involved in under the orders of “Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson [who] have repeatedly chosen to break the most obvious of laws”.

Those cases, LJB cites as:

  • The Marmite Case
  • The use of stock images from a photoshop company during the European Elections
  • The EHRC court cases
  • The sacking of Michaela Mackenzie
  • The suspension of Peter Mullins and many others

LJB has accused Griffin of ignoring his advice, then later referring to him in an Employment Tribunal as a ‘crank’.

During the conclusion of his rambling resignation (3000 words in length), LJB admits that he:

cannot remain as the Legal Officer of a party that acts unlawfully towards its own members, that rewards years of party loyalty with unlawful suspensions and expulsions, that covers up serious allegations of sexual abuse by senior officers, that expels long standing members who ask for financial transparency within the party and that refuses to act to protect its own officers when they are threatened with violence by other senior officers.

He finishes up by saying: “[s]uch a political party cannot be trusted with political power in our society.”

On his blog, LJB accuses BNP officers such as Griffin, Andrew Brons, Simon Darby and Andrew Moffat, of “going around telling people [he] was ‘expelled’ and that [he] did not resign.” He goes on to explain how “[t]hey are paid to lie – to the members and the public” and that he does “so despise liars and idiots” and who he calls “the Griffinite idiot squad.”

Clues of an unsteady relationship between LBJ and other members of the BNP hierarchy had been present for some time. Griffin, notably uncomfortable talking about LJB, told Iain Dale during an interview for Total Politics, that he is “a very strange and complex character”.

Dale wondered why Griffin continues to employ “someone obsessed by Jewish issues to hold national office in the BNP” to which Griffin replied:

As I say, if you look at his blogs and his arguments with people in the round, you will see that he’s one of the people who’s taken the obsession with Jews out of the BNP. It was there. But he’s one of the ones who’ve taken it out by putting it in context.

Reading what LJB has said before about Jewish conspiracies, it is difficult to place what “context” Griffin is talking of here; but then this is a man who thinks the English Defence League are run by Zionists and who has authored a book called Who are the Mindbenders? about the Jewish dominated media – perhaps not the greatest authority on the subject.

We all have our favourite LJB moments, whether here or here, and now that he has stopped pulling his hair out over the stupid BNP, no doubt he will have more time to appeal to his Norse Gods and troll websites seeking out undercover Jewish plots – though he will not be welcomed.

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About the author
Carl is a regular contributor. He is a policy and research analyst and he blogs at Though Cowards Flinch.
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Reader comments


1. James Rathbone

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Yet another rat leaves the sinking ship.

2. Watchman

Can I query the use of ‘legal eagle’ in the headline, as that tends to imply the person in question is a good lawyer. Although Mr Barnes may be an excellent lawyer, his ability to misunderstand evidence as shown by his views of Jews is tremendous, which leads me to question whether I’d want him defending me (aside from his political views, obviously).

3. Carl

@Watchamn

yeah it is mostly his political view surely right

4. Mr S. Pill

@2

Sarcasm rarely work on the web…


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit http://bit.ly/9XdWz1

  2. ani brooker

    RT @libcon: Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit http://bit.ly/9XdWz1

  3. Raincoat Optimism

    RT @libcon Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit http://bit.ly/aMqGsV

  4. Richard Ashcroft

    RT @libcon: Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit http://bit.ly/9XdWz1

  5. BNP legal officer Lee John Barnes resigns | Political Scrapbook

    [...] offering up a rambling 3,000-word tirade by way of a parting shot. Calamitous court cases cited by Barnes and further highlights are available at Liberal Conspiracy and Harry’s Place, but this [...]

  6. Nicholas Stewart

    Gone! BNP legal eagle tells Griffin he quit http://j.mp/bIPG2S





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