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Anti-Catholicism?
One of our favourite BNP Walter Mitty characters, the erudite BNP candidate Alan Girvan from Dewsbury has made some very strange legal claims: that Catholic emancipation in Britain is illegal and it is also illegal for all non-Protestants to hold public office!
If it wasn’t for the sheer and utter strangeness of Alan Girvan’s somewhat nuanced legal pronouncement (God knows what provoked it), under ordinary conditions one would normally be filled with admiration for a chap who attempts to single handily overturn roughly 330 years of continuous law through the medium of a solitary internet posting.
On the Archbishop Cranmer blog, Alan Girvan, posting as ‘cromwell316’, makes the following anti-emancipation argument:
“The Bill of Rights 1689 was not an ordinary act of Parliament it was an act of settlement which actually sets up the legality for the present state and give Parliament its power in the first place. It also clearly states that changes to it, were themselves illegal. The Catholic Relief Act implied (not explicit) repeal of the Bill of Rights so my point being that the Bill of Rights was superceded by an unlawful bill, which emancipated Catholics as long as they swore an Oath (even that Act has been repealed since) so all these individuals who are now determined to break what is by LAW a Protestant Kingdom whether they be Catholic, Muslim, Atheist or even Marxists' are not even lawfully in office”.
Now for those of you who were asleep during GSCE History class, the Catholic Relief Act 1778 (culminating in the Catholic Relief Act 1829) initiated a process in Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the discriminatory restrictions on Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the Penal Laws. However, Alan Girvan argues that the Catholic Relief Acts are illegal and by extension so is the resultant emancipation of Catholics. Seemingly, Alan Girvan wants to turn the clock back and re-inaugurate discriminatory measures that once made Catholics second-class citizens in their own country. Not only this, but from his subterranean perspective, any British person who is a non-Protestant i.e. a Catholic, Orthodox (Christian), Atheist, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. is wilfully breaking the law by holding public office in the United Kingdom! Beat that for logic!
BNP’s tainted image amongst Catholics
In the past, the BNP’s appeal to Ulster Catholics has been undermined by its open association with anti-Catholic and anti-Irish Loyalist terrorist groups. Nor will it help that, for example, John Oddy, when he was the BNP’s north-west Wales organiser, allegedly boasted of killing innocent civilians in northern Ireland whilst as a serving soldier, or that its northern Ireland organiser, Andy McLorie (who recently joined a breakaway BNP faction dedicated to removing the current BNP leader Nick Griffin), was jailed for his participation in a Loyalist bomb attack on a Belfast home. When interviewed by the police over the bomb attack, Andy McLorie allegedly made use of the term ‘Taig’, a racist term used to denigrate Catholics. If it weren’t for the lack of space we would list more incidences of anti-Catholic sectarianism and anti-Irish racism committed by BNP members (perhaps to be covered in a separate article).
One can’t help but feel that Alan Girvan is motivated by an antiquated sectarian apathy towards especially Catholics. After all, why the need to specifically doubt the legal freedoms of Catholics, freedoms that are benignly enjoyed by the rest of us? I thought that the BNP was supposed to be concentrating on attacking Muslims (codeword for ‘Asians’) as its current choice of hapless victim. Alan Girvan’s views on Catholic emancipation can only embarrass and impede the BNP’s efforts to cultivate support amongst Catholics in northern Ireland (as well as damage its image amongst Catholics on the mainland).
The strange world of Alan Girvan
Alan Girvan is one of many BNP members who, despite their opposition to the anti-fascist movement, periodically takes to posting on anti-fascist sites. Quite recently Alan Girvan indulged us with a posting on the anti-fascist blog, Kirklees Unity, attacking the pro-Nick Griffin wing of the BNP as “malevolent”. This was Alan Girvan expressing this support for Colin Auty, the BNP councillor from Kirklees, in his attempt to displace Nick Griffin as leader of the BNP. But, what was most strange was Alan Girvan’s claim in his posting that his is an “ex-BNP member since Jan 2008”. Seizing on this, Kirklees Unity pointed out the following to Alan Girvan: “Please explain why you still felt the need to stand as a BNP candidate in a winnable seat if you had quit the party back in January?”
Kirklees Unity is 100% correct. In the recent May 2008 local council elections Alan Girvan stood as the BNP’s candidate in the Dewsbury East ward. Strange. Even stranger was Alan Girvan’s claim several years ago, when he stood as an independent candidate in Dewsbury, that he was being manipulated by larger forces as part of some grand anti-BNP conspiracy!
But, what was perhaps Alan Girvan’s finest Walter Mitty moment was his claims to the Yorkshire Post newspaper that he was a “former advisor to American president George W Bush”! How the mighty have fallen, going from having the ear of the world’s most powerful man to being a lowly BNP underling in Dewsbury.
Nor has Alan Girvan had much luck of late in either of his BNP or romantic endeavours! Earlier on in May 2008, Alan Girvan was caught out breaching copyright laws when he used images from the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in his BNP literature. At the time, 2waytraffic, the company that owns the copyright to the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? images threatened Alan Girvan with legal action unless the BNP leaflets were withdrawn from circulation.
Shortly before that, Alan Girvan failed in his BNP legal bid to have postal voting banned in Kirklees. Naturally, the court resisted the BNP’s anti-democratic bid and awarded costs against Alan Girvan (if Alan Girvan truly cares about democracy, then he should launch a court case trying to ban BNP candidates registered at fake addresses from standing for election or to have the BNP’s ban on its members joining certain political parties lifted).
Though we understand from rumours that Alan Girvan is currently dating a stripper, we hope that this means Alan Girvan is no longer posting ‘adult’ adverts on various internet dating sites or on popular sites such as FaceParty (quite popular with certain senior BNP officials and their swinger sex parties). We feel that despite his divorce and his dating a stripper, Alan Girvan very much exemplifies the BNP’s much touted family values.
Lastly, we’re contemplating holding a whip-round for hapless old Alan - it seems he’s having difficulty paying his TV licence. I recently came across Alan Girvan complaining on a yahoo forum about having to purchase a TV license and asking fellow contributors on ways he could get round having to buy one! Sorry, Alan but we’ve all got to have one.
Anyway, below are some links for those of you who are interested in learning more about BNP candidate Alan Girvan:
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/05/bnp-in-hot-water-over-millionaire.html
http://norfolkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/bnps-alan-girvan-suitable-case-for.html
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/03/have-you-heard-one-about.html
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/03/bnp-fail-in-bid-to-stop-postal-votes.html?showComment=1206816720000
http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2007/03/only-lonely-its-alan-girvan.html
http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/is-girvan-unhinged.html
http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-here-is-good-one.html
http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-quiz-time.html
¡No Pasarán!
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