Singer Edwyn Collins takes on the BNP and wins

Published on Saturday 4 September 2010 09:28

CITY rocker Edwyn Collins demanded that the BNP remove his song from a "bizarre" party website that is being investigated by police.

&#149 Edwyn Collins

The Edinburgh-born star's hit A Girl Like You featured on a Lothians British National Party website behind images of Asian men burning a union flag and veiled women waving banners saying "God Bless Hitler".

The "Lothians BNP Video" site has now been taken off-line and its creator, BNP Central Scotland organiser Mike Coyle, has resigned from the party.

Police are investigating whether any action can be taken against the site. Edwyn Collins' wife and manager, Grace Maxwell, warned the BNP against using copyrighted material on their websites.

Ms Maxwell said: "There are many iffy videos on YouTube using A Girl Like You without permission and we are normally very relaxed about it.

"Whilst we don't believe that viewers would imagine for a moment that Edwyn has sanctioned the use of his track in this bizarre setting, for the removal of any doubt, we will require it to be deleted and will take the necessary steps to ensure that this happens."

The site, which was accessed via a link on the BNP Scotland website, also featured Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World with a montage calling the founder of Islam a "murderer" and "a paedophile", and several original songs by a Whitburn-based heavy metal band called Mott & Bailey.

The tracks railed against "invaders marching through our land, coming in like the night" and "darkness bringing down the walls". Videos accompanying the tracks featured images of 9/11, the London bombings and processions of coffins being carried through Wootton Bassett intermixed with images of British mosques and protesting Muslims.

Mr Coyle initially defended the site, stating that he saw nothing criminal in its content and claiming that "the BNP are not in the business of upsetting people". However, within hours of being contacted by the News, copyrighted content had been removed and the site had been re-branded "The Unofficial BNP Video Site". Mr Coyle then resigned.

The father-of-four said: "My last act as a BNP member was to dismantle this site. I put my head above the parapet and ended up being lied to. I set up this website with the full approval of the Scottish party, but now that my name stands to be dragged through the newspapers they have failed to show me any support.

"When I stood as a candidate in the last election my children were subjected to death threats, but I stood firm. They have lied to me for the last time."

The BNP Scotland website carries contact details for party members, party news and a page of material written by BNP Scotland leader Gary Raikes. But Mr Raikes described it as "an unofficial blog". A line has been added to the site stating, "This is an unofficial BNP site".

He said Mr Coyle's site was set up with his support but was not officially sanctioned by the party.

He said: "We are sorry to lose Mr Coyle over this. Many sites support the BNP and we are glad for that support but cannot be held responsible for content. This would appear to be yet another witch hunt by the left-wing press."

BNP national leader Nick Griffin declined to comment.

Muslim activist Osama Saeed, founder of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said: "The videos show the BNP are stuck in a time warp, laden with images from the Crusades. The far-right always try to isolate and stigmatise particular groups and the latest is Muslims."

A police spokesman said: "Inquiries will be made in order to establish whether any further action can be taken."