Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Life insurance business fails so BNP moves into double-glazing

Lancaster UAF | 03.10.2006 06:17 | Anti-racism | Repression | Social Struggles

Yet another new business venture for the near-bankrupt BNP

The BNP has GOT to be getting desperate. For months now - in fact since the Electoral Commission published the financial records of the party to almost universal laughter at the looming shadow of bankruptcy - the BNP has been devising more and more bizarre ways to generate income.

First there was the foray into the music biz with Great White Records, which Nick Griffin must have thought was a licence to print money. Unfortunately for him, it just turned out to be a licence to produce really badly written and appallingly sung folk tunes (mainly sung by the ghastly Griffin himself). Then there was the foray into life insurance with Albion Life. That's collapsed in just about a month after the insurance brokers with whom the BNP was working pulled out. Now there's a new venture that's no doubt as doomed to failure as all the other crappy ideas Nick Griffin and his hangers-on have come up with. Yes, Nick Griffin has finally found a spiritual home that suits him, for he has become a double-glazing salesman.

If you can bear to look at the BNP's dreadful Albion Life page or, even worse, its Project Iona pages (a misty-eyed gaze into the far-distant past when England was occupied only by nine white men and a dog) you'll see an advert for Brightahomes. If you click on the link, you're taken to a page which claims to be 'the UK's premier site for conservatories and window suppliers'. Not bad for a page that's only been registered since January 31st of this year.

Curiously, this 'premier site' chooses to hide its registrant. Do a WHOIS check on the domain name and you're told; 'The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service'. Very odd.

The site itself seems to be a simple conservatory and double-glazing company locator, presumably taking a cut for any sales that are clinched through its site - operating much in the same way that Albion Life was supposed to.

On the Brightahomes site, there is a link to 'Other Services', which has a single link to a page named Skip Hire Register. Both pages appear to follow precisely the same template and exactly the same thing happens on this one; the site is simply a locator for skip hire companies. It also has a link to 'Other Services' and what do we find here? Surprise - just one link, to Brightahomes. Skip Hire Register is also a 'premier site', although in this case it has only been registered since July 31st 2006.

A WHOIS check on the Skip Hire Register domain name finally gives the game away. The site registrant is Steve Blake, the registrant of the web sites of the BNP itself, the Christian Council of Britain, Albion Life and a host of others. What a busy chap he is.

So what precisely IS the British National Party? We know it's a pseudo-political party packed with liars, thieves, con-men, thugs and racists but now it seems it isn't just a political party at all. It appears to have evolved into some bizarre amalgam of dubious political party, company, broker, church and double-glazing salesman as it gets more and more desperate to raise cash, and one wonders where it's likely to go from here. The world will be watching - if only for the laughs.

Lancaster UAF
- Homepage: http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

GRAVY TRAIN

03.10.2006 08:50

The same electoral commission states that the BNP have put down in their accounts that £52K a year is spent on entertainment and over £120K a year is spent on wages. No wonder Grffin's farm keeps getting new extensions. 'All aboard the Gravy Train.'

Rupert


comment

03.10.2006 09:11

sounds just like the labour party and the conservative party.so what else is new?

reader


Like Labour?

03.10.2006 10:13

I wasn't aware that any of the other parties had moved into selling double-glazing or skip hire. Perhaps Griffin will move on to selling secondhand cars next - oh no, he's already failed at that one. Encyclopedias, perhaps?

Can you imagine??? The BNPdia (sorry).

JohnC
- Homepage: http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/


Some Who is rulings

03.10.2006 11:50

In the past ICANN, Nominet and so forth have made it clear that businesses should not hide their registrants.
If they trade then they should do so honestly and openly. This is
in line with the approach taken by the Office of Fair Trading. It also
smacks of cybersquatting - which is also dimly viewed.

tech ref


BNP lies again...

03.10.2006 13:07

'...ICANN, Nominet and so forth have made it clear that businesses should not hide their registrants.'

Blake seems to have got around that by simply lying. Part of the Whois info for both domains reads; 'The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service.'

Non-trading individual? Isn't that a breach of some regulation or other? Here's the whole Whois return for SHR:

'Domain name:
skiphireregister.co.uk

Registrant:
steve blake

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrant's agent:
Pipex Communications UK Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL:  http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 31-Jul-2006
Renewal date: 31-Jul-2008
Last updated: 15-Aug-2006

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns.heimdall-scot.co.uk
ns1.split-infinity.net

WHOIS lookup made at 05:12:25 03-Oct-2006'

KO
- Homepage: http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/


Any old iron (crosses)?

03.10.2006 14:46

Perhaps Griffin and Collett will turn up as a latter day version of Steptoe & Son - The two rag n bone men of fascist politics.

Jimbo


I wonder if google know

03.10.2006 17:30

That Britahomes.co.uk is purely an advertising site. The entire prupose seems to be to obain cash from click through. Wonder how that will come out in the Electoral Register Accounts. It could very well be viewed as improper. You know. Open to abuse by the unscrupulous. Which would be against Googles policies of use:

"Incentives (monetary or point-based) to users or third-party beneficiaries for online activity including, but not limited to, clicking on ads or links, performing searches, surfing websites, reading emails, or completing surveys "

This also means you can complain to Google as the site is against Google's terms and conditions. The BNP would effectively be Google ad Client

pub-1829831079782101

Google do make it clear what the policies are:

 https://www.google.com/adsense/policies

and you can join the adsense program simply to complain about their activities.

It also contains a lot of freely available telephone numbers. Freephone numbers. If you had the time you could look at some of the numbers, find the 0800-ish ones telephone and ask if they knew they were financing a fascist organisation. Companies with freephone numbers are paying for the privilege. Which would be adverts. Which, again, would be against Googles best interests. Google cover this in the FAQ:

"Communications Solely With Google. You agree to direct to Google, and not to any advertiser, any communication regarding any Ad(s) or Link(s) displayed in connection with Your Site(s). "

So anybody who complains to google that they wer not directed to google over the advert to the skip hire would be reasonably certain of getting a response.

Or you could just go and click like crazy and tell google that you wer told to do so by the BNP. It would be a lie. But it would be a white lie.

You could look here:
 http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help

Disgruntled Double Glazing Salesman


Like Labour?

03.10.2006 21:03

Yes this article says alot about the BNP doesnt it. They havent a pot to piss in, dont get any dodgy investors, or cooked buisnessmen backing them, and they are 50 grand in debt, and you claim this is worthy of a mention.

Standards please. This forum is filled with cheap shots, which dont hold much water in the real political world.

Not like labour of course, which is not mentioned for some reason. I do beleive they have taken cash for bribes, they love crooked buisnessmen and they always bring on board dodgy investors. And yes they are 23 plus million in debt.

And they run the country!

Shouldnt the so called well meaning people on this site be more concerned by this than the tiny BNP.

What are you afraid of? The BNP by the looks of it. Do you honestly think the BNP is a threat to anything, that Labour isnt?

I remind people on this site about the numerous wars Labour have engaged us in over the last number of years.

Rick O'hara


Not this again!

03.10.2006 21:20

The fascist trolls on here are so thick they think everyone supports the Labour Party!

Tony Allen


It seems the fascists always troll these articles

05.10.2006 01:12

Especially when they point out that the BNP raises money over the internet. Through Paypal or (In this case, according to Google) through clicks on links to bona fide businesses. If the BNP can afford to pay for multiple web sites while financially in the red, it might lead the uncharitable to suggest theses sites are merely phishing. But for what? Is there a deeper financial scandal?

Certainly the Skip Hire and Conservatory businesses could be used for spamming. The very detailed DNS report obtainable shows that the mail server for the businesses are specifically opened for use as spam servers:


"Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF records on 01 Oct 2004). "

Which could be used as a source of spam for the benefit of either the BNP or others. It would simply require the use of the following piece of information:

"Your SOA record [TTL=43200] is:
Primary nameserver: ns1.livedns.co.uk.
Hostmaster E-mail address: administrator.brightahomes.co.uk.
Serial #: 20061051"

To allow pornographers or criminals to use the name of brightahomes.co.uk in order to circulate whatever they saw fit.

It points to some very bad technical advice or to some deeply scandalous behaviour. Would the BNP be thinking of spamming and phishing? Surely not, both are illegal activities. It does seem that there is bad technical advice as further DNS data shows that other aspect of implementation are sloppy:

"NOTE: You only have 1 MX record. If your primary mail server is down or unreachable, there is a chance that mail may have troubles reaching you. In the past, mailservers would usually re-try E-mail for up to 48 hours. But many now only re-try for a couple of hours. If your primary mailserver is very reliable (or can be fixed quickly if it goes down), having just one mailserver may be acceptable. And mailserver.brightahomes.co.uk claims to be host smtpin115.livemail.co.uk [but that host is at 213.171.216.115 (may be cached), not 213.171.216.65] So there is some attempt to hide the true identity of the machines involved."

This could be corrected by a simple not to the postmaster:  postmaster@Brightahomes.co.uk

The technical implementation points to a single point of failure in the name servers. There are apparently two but only one exists. This again detracts from the BNP's capacity to publicise itself.

Underlying is the question: why? The Sites have both been created using the same software, most likely by the same person. The code may simply be used to seek to defraud google of click payments - for every adsense advert that is clicked on Google pay out to the hosting site. There are specific terms and conditions that forbid repetitive clicking. It would portray the BNP as fraudsters if it were to be widely known that Google check for multiple clicks from the same machine.

All of the listings are Unpaid. Which essentially means that Google collects the cash for the Site Owner. The site owner is registered as an individual, yet the nature of the site is as a business. Someone, it would seem, is out to portray the BNP as duplicitous at best and fraudulent at worst. Someone is seeking to make Google put cash into Party Coffers. Regardless of the current state of Party funds, will this be accounted for in an open way.

As Google is an American Company, it is bound by Sarbanes-Oxley Legislaion. The kind of legislation designed to stop fraud on the scale of Enron. Is this some deeply secret attempt to bring Google down by implying it is riven with improper practices. This entire article has only scraped the surface of this scandal.

Then there is the scandal of the BNP being funded by an American Company. Is this simply a rehash of the failed funding through Paypal - which was going to rescue the party? Or the Illegal American Friends of the BNP? The U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938 specifies that any "agent" or "representative" of a "foreign political party" who "solicits ... money, or other things of value for" that foreign political party must register with the Department of Justice and provide detailed records of income and expenses. Penalties for noncompliance are five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. As the sentence is five years, whoever is ultimately in charge of Brightahomes or the Skip List might need to consider if they realy wish to be extradited to the US. It would be a provocative way to stand up for British Judicial Rights against the American Bully tendency. But just who is in charge at the BNP? And Just what kind of financial structure do they have?







Or the Premium rate Telephone Line as examined by ICTIS?

Another Unhappy Customer


Nice...

05.10.2006 19:58

Lots of interesting (and potentially useful) iformation there, Another Unhappy Customer. Thanks. If you have any more ideas feel free to contact us direct on  lancaster.uaf@zen.co.uk

Lancaster UAF
- Homepage: http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech