Jim Dowson: A place in the sun
Searchlight Magazine December 2009 by Gerry Gable | Sunday, 20 December 2009
Jim Dowson, Ulster loyalist, militant anti-abortionist and the man who bought the British National Party, has been at the centre of allegations from within and outside the party about his property dealings.
Jim Dowson (pictured), Ulster loyalist, militant anti-abortionist and the man who bought the British National Party, has been at the centre of allegations from within and outside the party about his property dealings.
Nearly two years ago Searchlight revealed that a property acquired in the village of Estubeny, near the City of Valencia in Spain, was being hired out to the BNP as a management training centre for party officers. At least two courses were organised there by Dowson’s Belfast-based fundraising and management training business, the Midas Consultancy, with which the BNP signed a three-year consultancy contract.
Local people were surprised to see a bunch of British fascists wandering around their village instead of the mothers and babies they had been told were being sheltered there through Dowson’s charitable activities.
Rumours abound that Dowson acquired the property with the help of his milch-cow, the supporters of his extremist anti-abortion UK LifeLeague. The organisation, which is secretive about its finances, uses highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff.
It would not be the only time Dowson had not told the whole truth to donors. Last year the BNP claimed to have bought an advertising lorry, which it called the truth truck, after Dowson ran an appeal for the party to raise the £26,550 needed.
The vehicle turned out to be the same “truth truck” that Dowson had bought two years earlier for the UK LifeLeague, after appealing for donations from supporters. A press release in April 2006 claimed Operation Truth Truck would “enable the pro-life message to reach the unreached across the towns and cities of Britain”. The UK LifeLeague and the BNP had milked their gullible supporters twice over for the same “truth truck”, which the BNP in fact leases from Adlorries.com Ltd, one of Dowson’s businesses.
The Midas Consultancy boasts offices in London, Belfast, Dublin, Valencia, Budapest, Dubai, Atlanta and most recently Warsaw. It is now understood to be eying up Turkey for another mother and baby home scam.
Our investigators are still looking for an ex-pat South African who has set himself up as a property developer in Anna, another village near Valencia, and is said have links with Dowson’s local dealings.
