| Hateland -
Articles |
17/06/99
- Britain's Right-wing racist who's squeezing BNP funds
out of Americans
Evening Standard
Mark Cotterill learned the art of fund-raising from Torquay
Conservatives until they expelled him. Now he's touting
for dollars from the American Friends of the British National
Party. ANDREW HOSKEN reports from Washington
MARK Cotterill has a wistful look in his eye. He's talking
about England, the country he left five years ago. He's
remembering green, leafy lanes, country cottages. He's
recalling "old ladies on their way to church".
He enjoys describing this picture of England to his American
friends. It's useful. For then he can get down to real
business.
Tell them how the country has altered. Tell them how it
has changed for the worse. And tell them they should write
put a cheque in favour of the organisation he founded
just a few months ago, the American Friends of the British
National Party. He needs their dollars to help finance
the work of the BNP on the streets of London.
"The pitch is mainly racial," explains the 38-year-old
former timber merchant from Worcester, a stocky man with
jet-black hair and a perfectly defined moustache. "They
don't realise that British cities have huge amounts of
blacks and Asians in them now." The potential for
extra money may be substantial.
It may not be. But the mere existence of Cotterill's organisation
is a sign of growing sophistication within a political
party that now talks of having "fewer boots, more
suits". Since its birth in January, Cotterill's group
has held several fund-raising dinners; another is planned
for next month. One event was attended by nearly 100 people,
says Cotterill.
That equates to about a tenth of the BNP's entire UK membership.
Extraordinarily, most of those who attended were not British
expats but Americans. Tyler McNight, an accountancy clerk,
typifies the sort who is attracted to the cause. When
we meet in the Dubliners bar, Washington, Cotterill proudly
introduces the local accountancy clerk as his "right-hand
man" in the BNP's US fund-raising arm.
"Britain has too much immigration," says McNight.
"Eventually ... there might not be enough room for
the Britons any more." He prefers the BNP's "emphasis
on traditional British things as opposed to the cool Britannia
that Blair seems to promote. The BNP seems to be an organisation
which is standing tip for the right thing."
McNight is deadly serious when he announces his opposition
to an attempt - so far unheard of in the UK - by the Prime
Minister to "get rid of the Beefeaters". Where
he heard this is anyone's guess. But there's no question
that the BNP is seducing American supporters such as him
by harking back to some form of a "merry old England"
that has never really existed.
Cotterill, who is able to live in America because his
wife was born there, has big plans for the American Friends
of the BNP. "This is just the start. At the moment
we've asked people whose roots go back to the UK if they
will give money. So far the amounts have been quite small.
Most people have given $20, $30, $50... so no real big
bucks have come in at the moment.
But we hope that will change in the future." Cotterills
involvement with the far Right goes back to the time he
left school, aged 17, at the peak of the popularity of
the National Front When the racist Right split, Cotterill
moved over to the BNP. For a short while, in 1993, he
was a member of the Torquay Conservative Party, where
he learned about traditional party fund-raising techniques,
helping to organise cheese-and-wine parties and raffles.
This relatively gentle party activity came to an abrupt
end with the exposure of his past in The Sunday Times.
"A lot of Tories stuck by me for a while," he
says now. "But in the end they had to let me go."
Two years later he moved to Washington with his American
fiancee. In 1995, Cotterill moved to Washington and now
has two part-time jobs, working for a doctor's surgery,
and the far-Right magazine, Spotlight, not to be confused
with the British anti-fascist publication Searchlight.
PERHAPS a move to the US should have surprised no one.
A few years ago, it was reported that he had told a reporter
from The Guardian: "What about New York, eh? Kikes
and nigs killing each other? Can't be bad." Not that
you'd catch this man uttering such indiscretions in public
these days. For Cotterill, with his eye for "respectable"
fund-raising, has become an important figure in the attempted
revival of the BNP.
Street marches and skinheads are out; its language is
changing subtly, moving away from the glaringly obvious
message of hatred. Forced repatriation has become "voluntary".
The anti-Semitism and belief in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy
is hidden. Outright Holocaust denial is replaced by a
Jesuitical approach to the numbers of people who died
in the gas chambers.
Cotterill believes the party needs to clean up its image
further. He talks openly about the forthcoming attempt
to topple John Tyndall as head of the BNP and replace
him with his friend Nick Griffin. "John Tyndall does
things the way he's always done them," he says. "We
need a younger leader with new ideas.
The BNP is no electoral threat at the moment. But we have
to get into the modern world and I am sure its time will
come." Cotterill believes that if he can track down
enough Americans who are proud of their British ancestry
and unclear about what the BNP is really about that time
will draw closer. "The BNP is a long way off from
making any impact," he says candidly.
"But the potential in America is huge. Other parties
have raised a lot of money by appealing to Americans'
well-known pride in their ancestry. Why can't we?"
Andrew Hosken is a reporter for BBC Radio 4's Today program |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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