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As The BNP Leader Departs, Here Are 12 Times Nick Griffin Utterly Embarassed Himself

12 Times Nick Griffin Utterly Embarassed Himself
Jessica Elgot
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And so the political sphere bids farewell to Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader who occupied relatively meagre space, but shouted louder than most.

The resignation of the man who has been the face of the BNP for 14 years is the last in a catalogue of humiliations, which led up to the BNP's ignominious defeat in May. After voters in the northwest ousted him as an MEP in May, Griffin accepted the BNP - which now has only two local councillors - would be correctly described as a "racist" outfit.

Griffin had a aptitude for embarrassing himself and his party which went far beyond to comparing the Holocaust to the world being flat, defending the Ku Klux Klan as "non-violent", saying there was "no such thing as a black Welshman", and calling Islam a "wicked, vicious faith".

It would be the longest list that the Huffington Post had ever endeavoured to collate were we to list each one of his outrageous outbursts, and he'd probably be proud of it, so instead, here's the 12 most cringe-worthy moments.

Nick Griffin's most embarrassing moments
Getting hammered by pretty much everyone on Question Time(01 of10)
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With protests outside and a exceptionally hostile audience, Griffin spent the evening unable to recall his own manifesto, being dubbed the "Dr Strangelove" of British politics, comparing himself to Winston Churchill and being unable to respond to repeated accusations that he denied the Holocaust.
Insisting it was he that stopped war in Syria (the war that's still going on)(02 of10)
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British National Party leader Nick Griffin "literally prevented a war in Syria," party spokesman Simon Darby has claimed. "He flew out to Damascus and prevented a war. He was instrumental in putting that letter across to the UK Parliament before that vote when we decided we wouldn't quite rightly interfere in Syria." While in the war-torn country, Griffin posted videos of swimming pools, and said that Damascus seemed pretty peaceful to him.
The time he admitting eating roadkill(03 of10)
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Casting dignity aside like well... roadkill, Griffin said in a speech to party faithful that it was a lack of hope, not food, which was killing people. "Nobody starves to death in this country. You can scrape a dead rabbit off the road, if you have to. I've done it with our kids when they were young. When we were really skint, we've eaten roadkill. Yeah, that's what you have to do."
And encouraged party members to sell scrap metal to fund their activities(04 of10)
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In the same speech, he said: "People have been experimenting with scrap, it's great fun, something I've done in the past. Collecting broken fridges etc. Any idea of the price of copper? It's phenomenal. Bring copper along to the branch meeting, put them together and you can get a £1 per pound. That's good money. We should be doing that. We're doing experiments with an eBay account, we used to have jumble sales, but every branch should have an eBay officer, bring something I can sell on eBay to the branch meetings. The eBay officer should be the most important person in the branch, that's hundreds of pounds a year." (credit:Dan Kitwood via Getty Images)
Getting 'uninvited' by the Queen(05 of10)
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The Queen withdrew an invitation for Nick Griffin to attend a party at Buckingham Palace because he "exploited it for political reasons". He and fellow BNP member Andrew Brons were automatically eligible for a garden party ticket as elected members of the European parliament. He also waved his invite to photographers, inadvertently revealing his home address. (credit:LEON NEAL via Getty Images)
Starting a cookery show(06 of10)
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Perhaps he suspected a career change was on the horizon. Griffin began posting the cookery show on YouTube in January (though it doesn't cover roadkill). Many British "wives" don't know how to cook cheap food, he said, swigging a beer and looking sombre. So he would teach them how to cook fayre to "beat the Tory blues".
Starting a 'whites-only' foodbank(07 of10)
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'For the avoidance of doubt, our BNP food banks are for indigenous Brits only. 'Minorities' all have their own (taxpayer-funded) charities,' Griffin tweeted at the time. Weyman Bennett, the general secretary of Unite Against Fascism, who Griffin called an "orc" said the offers of free food were reminiscent of “Hitler’s soup kitchens."
Tweeting the address of a gay couple who won a legal fight(08 of10)
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Michael Black and John Morgan won their high-profile civil case against a Christian B&B owner who had told them they could not stay in one of her double rooms due to her religion. Griffin posted the following tweet: "A British Justice team will come up to [their Huntington address] & give you [Black and Morgan] a … bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple's home is their castle. Say No to heterophobia!" Police investigated but did not take further action. (credit:Handout/PA Archive)
Going bankrupt(09 of10)
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He was declared bankrupt in January, but said it would not affect his election campaign (he lost). "I am now turning the experience to the benefit of hard-up constituents by producing a booklet on dealing with debt. No surrender!" he tweeted afterwards. (credit:Christopher Furlong via Getty Images)
Spectacularly losing almost every seat in the 2014 elections(10 of10)
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Griffin lost his seat in the European parliament and retained only one council seat in the whole country. (credit:Christopher Furlong via Getty Images)
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