BNP campaign derailed as webmaster withdraws services

Searchlight / HOPE not hate by Hope not Hate | Thursday, 6 May 2010

The British National Party website remains moribund following a dispute between the party and its webmaster. Simon Bennett removed the website on Tuesday evening alleging “theft” by the party of his design work and content. Although he restored the site shortly afterwards, no new editorial content or user comments have been posted since.

He has also taken action to close the BNP’s Twitter feed and Facebook pages to the public.

In a longer statement Bennett complained he had been left to carry the can over a misconceived publicity stunt by Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, in which an image of a jar of Marmite was added to a version of the party’s election broadcast placed on the BNP website. Bennett was served an injunction by Unilever, while, he claims, “those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty”.

Bennett reveals that Jim Dowson was behind the misconceived attempt to generate publicity and funds and that Griffin and Dowson now expected him to “lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into”, something he refused to do.

He also confirmed what Searchlight has been saying for over a year, namely that Dowson has worked himself into a position in which he “owns” the BNP, claiming that Dowson is paid “£120,000+ per year … from your donations”.

Dowson had alternately threatened Bennett with violence and tried to bribe him in an attempt to gain control of the one part of the party outside his grasp, namely the website.

“Jim Dowson constantly makes references to his Loyalist ‘connections’ and ‘Irish murder gangs’ in the hope of intimidating people and just about everyone bar me is terrified of him and lives in fear of losing their income if they cross him or do not ‘put up and shut up’ or turn a blind eye and deaf ear.

“Unfortunately for him, I can earn more money outside of the party which renders that particular threat null and void. The physical threats of violence also back-fired on him as I refused to be intimidated, as did the bribes of ‘a slice of the pie’. Jim Dowson now controls just about every aspect of the party structure (including the recently acquired print services) and also the party’s finances with one exception. You’ve guessed it – the website!

“Jim has been at loggerheads with me for over a year and has tried every trick in the book to gain control of the website so he can bolt it onto his spam-machine without any idea of how websites work. I have always been against it as I feel it should be first and foremost a political tool, not a money making machine.”

Bennett also confirmed that Dowson had been encouraging supporters to make from making donations via the website. “He has tried undermining it with his call centre staff informing callers not to donate or join online as the website was insecure and that their £100,000 telephone system was the only secure way to join or donate. He tried bribery and Nick also tried to convince me that I'd be better protected legally from copyright infringements if the website was made into a limited company. When presented with the financial implications and costs and also the lack of protection it actually offered and further presented with the idea of not infringing copyrights in the first place, he backed down.”

Bennett has promised only to keep the BNP website up until the election. Searchlight is following developments keenly. A full analysis will appear in the next issue of Searchlight.