The UK’s far right British National Party is to lose its last elected councillor in the country, making its demise official and complete.
Brian Parker, who sits on Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire, will not contest his seat in next month’s local elections, and there is no BNP candidate to replace him.
Mr Parker's announcement marks the culmination of a near decade-long downfall for a party that once appeared poised to break into mainstream British politics in the late 2000s.
The BNP's first councillor was elected in 1993. Under former leader Nick Griffin it reached its high point in popularity in 2008 and 2009, gaining a seat on the London Assembly and more than a million votes in the European elections. The latter allowed it to send two members to the European Parliament.
In October of 2009, the BNP was invited on to Question Time, the BBC's flagship political debate programme amid controversy about the its racist links. The party had a whites-only membership policy but this was banned by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2009.
The BNP largely stood on an anti-immigration, anti-Islam platform. In 2010, a party activist was cleared of hate speech after distributing leaflets blaming Muslims for the heroin trade. The leaflets claimed followers of Islam should "apologise and pay compensation".
However, Mr Griffin was expelled from the party in 2014 after being accused of trying to destabilise the party, and by 2015 its membership had dwindled to just 500 from more than 10,000 in 2010.
A BNP spokesperson said: “Brian Parker is the most successful BNP councillor ever, serving three terms. We wish him well in his retirement."
But the spokesperson said that the party still had a number of councillors in unpaid positions on town and parish councils — the lowest elected offices in the UK.
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“Because our members are true patriots, they are honoured to serve their communities in the much underappreciated positions as community, parish and town councillors.
“Over the years we have found that other political parties, and indeed the media, disgracefully discount these essential unpaid roles and are obsessed with paid positions only.”
Nick Lowles, of Hope not Hate, an advocacy group that campaigns against fascist groups, said: “The BNP as a force died a while ago, and we face new threats from an increasingly online and violent far right. But it's good to take a breath, to celebrate the official end of the BNP.
“I remember how shocked people were when the first BNP councillor was elected in 1993. Things were really grim from 2002, first in Burnley and then in Barking and elsewhere. Two-thousand and six was their breakthrough with 33 councillors and strong results in another 80-plus wards.
“The BNP was cocky, it thought it was its time. But we fought them at every step.”
As Mr Lowles indicates, there are concerns that the downfall of the BNP is partly due to the rise of other far-right movements in the UK.
Figures released last month showed a big increase in the number of far-right referrals to the UK government's counter-extremism programme Prevent. Police also warned that they had foiled four major far-right terrorist plots in the past year.
One of the group’s thought to have aspirations to the BNP’s mantle on the far-right of UK fringe groups is Britain First. Although unsuccessful in elections, it managed to garner more than 2 million "likes" on Facebook before being banned from the social network this year.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
