Belfast’s BNP staff keep it in the family

Sunday World by Steven Moore | Sunday, 13 June 2010 | Click here for original article

THIS is the ‘glitzy’ tour of the British National Party’s Belfast base – but right wing boss Jim Dowson is nowhere to be seen.

The promotional video tour is given by the daughter of racist party leader Nick Griffin MEP.

And we find that the Belfast BNP office, which collects membership funds from all over the UK, is a real family affair.

During the tour we meet several members of staff which include Griffin’s daughter, Jenny, her husband Angus as well as Jim Dowson’s 16-year-old daughter Alice.

All but one of the staff are from either Scotland, Wales or England with only person from Ulster in the office – and she refused to be filmed.

Secret

It marks a big change from last year when the BNP were desperate to keep the office a secret.

Jenny Matthys leads the ‘fascinating’ seven minute tour which was hastily arranged to try and deflect the mass of criticism the office has received for cocking up the election campaign.

And anyone who thought working for the BNP would be exciting and risky should think again!

The most exciting thing at the Belfast office, apparently, is the new state-of-the-art membership card embossing machine!

Jenny takes us on a ‘whirlwind’ adventure which starts in the ‘printing section of the mailroom’ and weaves its way through to the warehouse and then straight on to the hub of the operation – the call centre – where four people are busy beavering away on the phones.

Interestingly Jenny’s husband Angus appears in the first three scenes in the background, first working in the mail-room, then working in the warehouse on a forklift and then back in another section of the mailroom.

Indeed he appears to be everywhere (who says men can’t multi-task) and probably deserves a raise.

And in case you ever wondered how a mail-room operates, here’s Jenny: “At the very back you can see the mailing machine. It’s one of three that we have (ooh). The letters get all put through that, stuck into envelopes, bagged up and they’re ready to go to the Post Office.”

You should skip the next minute or so of the video because it’s really dull but make sure you don’t miss the call centre or “the hub of the Belfast office”, according to our host.

There we meet the staff – there appears to be three or four of them, and they tell us how great business has been.

Jenny says the staff have strict targets to meet including they must make £7,500 every week.

Then, without a chance to even get your breath back, Jenny takes us to the Administration Office.

There we meet Tom Gower, who cuts a very respectable figure as the Subscriptions and Enquiries Secretary.

But here’s an exclusive picture of Tom Gower posing, rather pensively, in front of the German Iron Cross, which was synonymous with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Offence

In a recent speech to BNP members in Blackburn Jim Dowson, who set up the office last year, tells us there are too many people in the UK that are too afraid to join the BNP.

He calls for people to stand and be counted blah, blah, blah, which is a bit of a cheek seeing as he took such offence at us calling him a BNP member he made an official complaint to the Press Complaints Commission!

But for some reason he chose not to be in this video – however his 16-year-old daughter Alice is put on camera.

She’s the new membership secretary and among other mundane roles she reveals it’s her job to send out the birthday cards to members which have a nice subtle picture of a bulldog and a Union Jack on them.

She also livens things up by taking us to see the new “state-of-the-art” membership card embossing machine!

And Tom ‘Iron Cross’ Gower is on hand to explain how it works: “Alice saves the members on a database and then on to the hard drive, then I locate the file … and then all I have to do is press a simple button …”

The riveting video has just been posted on the BNP’s internet TV site and is designed to convince disgruntled members that the Belfast base is providing a successful service.

As revealed last month in the Sunday World, BNP members in England have been pointing the finger at the Belfast office after the party got wiped out at the general and council elections.

Scottish self-proclaimed Reverend Jim Dowson came in for particular criticism for messing up the election leaflets, which arrived in England late and with the wrong contact numbers on them.

Apparently he used a local printing firm which couldn’t cope.

Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight say the enlightening tour poses a few questions.

“The BNP leadership import hatred to Belfast by hiding the fact they are only employing family members or people drafted in from England,” says Matthew Collins.

“Griffin’s daughter revealed that they get a lot of money in the post in donations.

“We would like the electoral commission to take a closer look at how much the BNP receives in its Belfast office in cash donations through the post.”

BUSY BOY: Angus Matthys is the husband of Jenny

VIDEO TOUR: Jenny Matthys, who is in fact Nick Griffin’s daughter

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: It’s Alice, the daughter of Jim Dowson