'Burnley BNP Bombers' Update
A FORMER British National Party election candidate and a dentist face trial today accused of conspiring to cause an explosion.
Robert Cottage (49), of Talbot Street, Colne, and David Jackson (62), of Trent Road, Nelson, are charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883 after chemical components were allegedly found at Cottage's house in September. Both men deny conspiracy to cause an explosion with intent to harm life or property and possession of an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose. Cottage stood for the BNP in May's local elections in Colne last year. The trial at Manchester Crown Court is expected to last up to 10 days.
This story was picked up by several bloggers last year ,although the MSM seemed to miss it. I chased the BBC, C4 news and the Mirror, at the time, who all said, ooops, they'd be on it at trial stage. I'll check, and chase again if necessary. UPDATE: One of the men has pleased guilty. The media are on it.
UPDATE AGAIN: Blimey. Conspiraloon-tastic. BBC News
Ex-BNP man 'wanted to shoot PM'
A former British National Party (BNP) candidate who held explosive chemicals in anticipation of a civil war wanted to shoot Tony Blair, a court heard.
Robert Cottage, 49, from Colne, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to possession of explosives at the start of his trial at Manchester Crown Court.
His wife said he often boasted of wanting to shoot Mr Blair and Lib Dem peer Lord Greaves, the court was told.
Mr Cottage denies conspiracy to cause an explosion.
A second man, David Jackson, 62, of Nelson, Lancashire, denies both charges under the Explosive Substances Act.
Alistair Webster QC, defending, said Mr Cottage, of Talbot Street, was a former BNP candidate and had been the subject of threats.
He explained that his client believed the "political and financial condition of the country" would lead to civil war within the coming years.
Mr Cottage accepted the possession charge on the basis that the explosives were designed to deter attacks on his property, Mr Webster said.
The explanation was not accepted by the prosecution.
Louise Blackwell, prosecuting , said the case had come to light after Mr Cottage's wife became increasingly concerned about his behaviour. Kerena Cottage suffered mental health problems and told her social worker that her husband had several crossbows and chemicals stored in his home.
She also revealed he wanted to shoot Mr Blair and local peer Lord Greaves, Miss Blackwell told the court.
When police raided his house on 28 September 2006 they discovered 21 types of chemicals which, when combined, could form explosives.
Miss Blackwell said they also uncovered a document called the Anarchy Cookbook, which detailed how to make different types of bombs.
Ball bearings - which the prosecution claim could be used as shrapnel for explosive devices - were also found, along with four air pistols.
After interviewing Mr Cottage, detectives raided Mr Jackson's home on 1 October and found a bow and arrow and two nuclear protection suits.
Miss Blackwell said: "The prosecution say these two men together agreed to order these chemicals... and they intended to make a bomb with them.
"The bomb they intended to make would have had the ability to cause damage or cause serious injuries."
Miss Blackwell also read out a statement on behalf of Mrs Cottage, who was unfit to attend court because of her mental health problems.
"Rob believes there will be a civil war and the emergence of a new world order," the statement said.
"Rob has also started stockpiling supplies," the statement added.
The trial continues
It certainly ticks all the right boxes as a news story...big haul of explosives found, links to extreme organisations, political terror, sinister plots...eek...etc. The only missing ingredient is that the men were English extremists, not Islamist extremists. Should this make a difference? No, it absolutely should not. I am glad the story is now being belatedly covered. I expect it to be headline news in the tabloids tomorrow, and hmm, we seem to be missing another key ingredient of a typical terror tale...
...Dr. John Reid popped up and pontificated several times last year when similar stories about conspiracy to cause explosions/acts of terrorism broke, talking about the deadly threat and the need for constant vigilance. You could hardly get hom off the telly. The Home Secretary has been strangely quiet this time around. I wonder why? Answers on a postcard...
Also of interest: Forest Gate fallout - a BBC investigation. See BBC news tonight.
UPDATE ( again) : Iain Dale ( posted soon after this post went up). For the avoidance of conspiraloonery, I chased several news outfits up about why they missed it the first time around, speaking to people I know personally, and they all explained why, and they all came out with pretty much the same reasons about how they missed it, and the reasons made sense to me. (I chased the BBC Online team, the Sunday Times, and the Mirror just to get a general spread of broadhseet, tabloid, weekly/daily and TV.) Today I spoke to C4 news, the Mirror and the Sunday Times. All of them were already on it. It was on BBC lunchtime news, and it's on the 5pm BBC news now, it's also on the Telegraph online as the lead story. So I do not think there is a media conspiracy; I believe them when they say they cocked up and missed it. Bloggers should be proud of themselves for forcing the issue, though, as several people I spoke to said they were aware they had missed a trick and the blogs got on it much more thoroughly than the MSM, and one said he picked up on it via blogs. Well done blogs. Especially Ministry of Truth who I think got there first...Another UPDATE: Blairwatch is on it with some thoughts
I am still very interested as to why the Home Office is not making its usual song and dance, however. Perhaps they haven't got any eye-catching initiatives or 90 day internment packages to push today...
Labels: BNP, Burnley, explosives, trial
posted by Rachel at 11:21 am
Its cos they is white Yes?
/sascha cohen mode
If they were Muslims all hell would have broken loose and it would be Number one story. Its cos they is white and working class.
Double standards cafe
a cafe au lait for me and a cup of hypocrisy coffee for John my five foot four mate over there.
I suspect that two white blokes with "weapons of mass destruction" don't fit the governments "murderous war on terror on an unimaginable scale" paradigm as a justification for their murderous actions (based on a pack of lies) in another country...
But surely, that wouldn't be the reason would it?
The story was on both the ITV and Channel 4 news last night.
How many bloggers does it take to get a new word into the dictionary ?
Conspiraloony (n) aka Conspiraloon (n). Conspiracy theorist (qv) whose views amount to insanity or lunacy. Especially applied to internet weblog (Blog, qv) contributors or Bloggers (qv). Plural: Conspiraloonies. See also Conspiraloonery.
IainC
The difference is that this 'plot' seems defensive, rather than offensive, as are the muslim terror plots.
Also, if you know that area of the North West, you would be stockpiling food and stuff.
Wow, he said he wanted to shoot Tony Blair. Join the queue!
Well I can certainly join PC buster in his sentiment.
It's a bit like homosexuals getting caught wanting to blow up an Islamist Mosque that calls for homosexuals to be thrown from tall buildings.
It's not really something as outrageously motivated or as deranged as Islamic terrorism,especially if seen from a wider perspective.
Clearly there is a massive movement of Muslims in the world who desire to destroy the liberties and freedoms enjoyed in the West.In Britain alone one third of young Muslims indicated they desired Sharia law to be instituted in Britain.
Similar figures emerge in other European countries who have sizable Muslim minorities.
I think that the media use of 'BNP' to link that party to this crime is both mendacious and very tenuous, to say the least.
This individual was not a member at the time and was not acting on any mandate from anyone other then himself.
The use of former or even current political membership to maliciously brand an organisation is quite selectively used in the media.
Dennis Nilsen (the notorious serial killer) was a member of the SWP, for instance, but no mention was made of that, nor link made that it may involve authorisation or blanket approval from other members of that party.
I am not a BNP member but I can see that this is underhanded, hypocritical smear tactics.
The man was also a conservative voter for many years.
His stock pile of explosives apparantly included 1 litre of hydrogen peroxide(hair colouring) and some rice and sugar.
I think its time to clear out my pantry before the old bill turn up.
Apparantly there were no plans for an attack and as for shooting Tony Blair he will have to take a ticket like everyone else.
This man is not a terrorist he is a loony.
But hey, he WAS in the BNP so lets have a BBC program about it.
It is quite depressing for me to see that Rachel now has "Burnley" as a tag. Although I have never lived there, it is still upsetting to read a nearby town in the news for such things.
People in the rest of the country often do not realise how racially-tense some of the mill towns are. It goes in peaks and troughs, but I do not think that it is going away just yet sadly. I think that the low publicity of the story may have been an attempt to keep law and order in Burnley.
There are extremists on both sides. The two populations have been divided ever since the Asians first arrived to work the nightshift in the mills; they lived in different areas, worked at different times, and spoke different languages.
This man should be prosecuted and punished just as bad as any Islamist. I have no doubt that this will happen, and am very glad that no-one will get hurt. What I am not looking forward to is journalists and commentators acting as if they understand Burnley when hardly any of them do.
The State no doubt would have liked him to get 20 years to demonstrate "even-handedness" with Islamic terrorists. But the case was so feeble that was too shamefaced a course even for them.
1) As one of the arresting officers said, he isn't a terrorist, and that has been borne out by these proceedings.
2) It had been claimed that he had "rocket launchers" and the largest stash of explosive chemicals ever found in a domestic dwelling. The rocket launchers, which are merely empty tubes quite useless without the rocket and are the sort of thing people interested in militaria collect, slipped off the radar screen of course. Whatever happened to them? As for these "explosives" we are not talking HMTD, the kind of thing terrorists use - but at most material that could be used in thunderflashes. One expert witness said that these were "touch explosives", used in jump jacks. In other words hardly capable of doing anyone much harm.
3) When it was put to a jury on a charge of conspiracy to cause explosions, he was acquitted
4) Mrs Justice Swift admitted that the "explosives" were intended to make thunderflashes for "deterrent" purposes but claimed that his ideas were "over-valued". Really? Admiral West has said that Britain faces, thanks to mass immigration, a 15 year war against Islamic extremism. Here, given the increase in their numbers, there is of course no guarantee who is going to win, and, as is their wont -the elective dictatorship and its liberal hangers-on, have effectively co-opted the indigenous people of this country into this conflict. We are told that there are 200 terror cells and 2/3000 suspects. We are told that there may be chemical, biological, radiological attack. Muslims rioted quite extensively in 2001.
So therefore on what basis can it be claimed that Rob Cottage's ideas are "over-valued"? If he is indeed paranoid then who has made him so?
5) Mrs Justice Swift gave, as her view, the possibility that "innocent" people could have been harmed. Rob Cottage sought to defend himself and his property. If there was a screaming Muslim mob underneath his bedroom window trying to batter down his front door and he lobbed a thunderflash into the middle of them the chance of innocent suffering would have been exceedingly small.
6) In view of the threat level the state has admitted to maybe they would like to say when it is permissible to take a few "deterrent" measures in advance. Or is everything to be left to them, in which case it will probably be all just-too-late. Terribly sorry old chap!
7) Rob Cottage had a cross-bow, that's a far more lethal weapon than these ridiculous "explosives", but that's apparently ok.
8) This case was essentially a crock of shxt, and the state has fallen flat on its face.