Question Time 2. Dave Hannam

The Britain Forward Lie: “Why has Dave Hannam been promoted beyond his competence? . . . But when he came out he was soon in a position of financial responsibility.

The Truth: David Hannam is the BNP's Deputy Treasurer, responsible for handling hundreds of group accounts, every single day. He also completes the regional accounts audit, as well as the central office audit. A few years ago, the BNP treasury team consisted of four workers. It now consists of two!

This hardly indicates “incompetence” – actually the direct opposite.

The Britain Forward Lie: “Then a wealthy donor complained that the money he had given had never reached the party but Hannam used it to pay his phone bills. The donor stopped giving. Why did Nick Griffin ignored this complaint and then insult our intelligence by promoting Hannam to Deputy Treasurer?”

The Truth: This old chestnut originated with an unstable individual named David Michael.

This is the same David Michael (now a self-professed “National Anarchist” whatever that may mean) who descended into a deep depression and resigned in a mad rage when the BNP had its Annual College in 2001 because he did not want to travel.

At the time, John Brayshaw was the party treasurer, and personally investigated the claims against David Hannam.

John Brayshaw demanded of David Hannam to show him the branch accounts (where the donation had been recorded) and then also show him the branch cash. From this, it was obvious that there was nothing missing and that the allegations by David Michael were utterly fictitious.

Nonetheless, Britain Forward is quite happy to resuscitate this blatant lie, even trying to imply that David Michael no longer “donates to the BNP” because of it, when it is clear from his Web site (no longer online, but still mirrored on the Internet Archive at the link above) that he had had “(A) decisive break with 'far right' ideology.”

The Britain Forward Lie: “We thought he had been removed from all party positions after being jailed alongside the seriously deranged Simon Sheppard.”

The Truth: The actual events David Hannam's arrest and subsequent imprisonment in 2000 under the Race Relations Act are as follows:

Simon Sheppard wrote, published and distributed a leaflet, using David Hannam’s name and P.O. Box as the originating address. This was done without David knowing, and in fact, he had nothing to do with the writing or publication of this leaflet. Psychopathic Sheppard had no qualms about doing this to the then 17-year old David (yes, 17 years-old) and as a result, David was arrested and convicted.

David went to prison for a leaflet with which he had nothing to do.

Understanding this – and after expelling the real cause of the trouble, namely Sheppard, the BNP welcomed David straight back into activism upon his release.

Britain Forward is unlikely to have been as active as David has – it is much easier, it seems just to attack people over the Internet.