The British National Party — which was the first political party to publicly point out the lies behind the Iraq war — will organise a protest outside Tony Blair’s memoir book-signing launch at the Piccadilly, London branch of Waterstone's on 8 September, Nick Griffin MEP has announced.

Speaking at the close of the BNP’s highly successful Summer School 2010 official training weekend, Mr Griffin said the BNP properly owned the issue and would not let the far left hijack the political anti-war platform.

“The BNP was the first to oppose this war, and it has become our issue,” Mr Griffin said. “We need to step up pressure on the establishment to end this unwinnable and pointless conflict.”

Further details of this protest will be made available shortly.

Mr Griffin’s speech came at the end of one-and-a-half days of intensive training for BNP officials. Just under 70 senior officials and several dozen staff, security and logistics personnel attended the event on the Welsh borders.

Most of the delegates took part in a group photograph at the end of the event after receiving their certificates.

The BNP’s Summer School is supposed to be an annual event but has not been held for the past two years because of numerous issues related to the failure of former officials tasked with arranging the programmes.

This year, RAF trainer Mike Howson was charged with organising the event. Mr Howson ensured that the weekend ran like clockwork, with the delegates circulating from tent to tent to hear lectures on topics ranging from nationalist ideology to the new online electioneering strategy and system which was unveiled at the event.

National Organiser Clive Jefferson took delegates through a real time display of the new BNP election and canvassing website, which will revolutionise the way the party fights elections.

“We are going to take this party’s election fighting strategy which was hopelessly out-of-date and bring it up to speed so that we will lead the pack once again,” Mr Jefferson told his astonished audiences as he showed how the newly developed website offers electronic canvass recording-keeping, data sheet preparation and an online customisable leaflet development system.

Other sessions included a well-attended media training session, election day procedures, how the party must exploit the postal voting system, a “training the trainers” course, and how to be a fund holder at local and regional levels.

In addition, the party’s national treasurer and a member of the new National Scrutiny Committee were on hand with a full copy of the party’s accounts which were open for any delegate to inspect.

Despite initial rain, the weather quickly cleared up. Here Nick Griffin guides workers and delegates in moving a marquee around in preparation for next weekend’s Indigenous Family Forum.The full agenda was as follows:

Training for a professional BNP — Mike Howson

- The role of the training officer

- Providing training for BNP officials

- Online training

Treasury and bookkeeping — David Hannam

- Overview of the Regional Accounting Unit

- How to maintain your books

- Structure for regionalising treasury

Media Skills training — Arthur Kemp & John Walker

- Principles of communication

- Interview techniques

- Crisis management

- Press releases & writing skills

The need for a nationalist trade union — Adam Walker

- Protecting our rights

- Solidarity employment issues

- Growing solidarity in your area

Exposing your rotten council — Marlene Guest

- Your council has dirty secrets

- How to dig them out

- How to use them

Postal votes and electoral security — Paul Stafford & Clive Jefferson

- Maximising the use of postal votes to win

- Changes in the electoral system

- Working between elections

Organising for polling day — Alwyn Deacon

- How to organise a polling day operation

- Maximising our vote using new methods

- The all-important ‘whipping in’

Our new elections system — Clive Jefferson & Chris Barnett

- Using accumulated data to our advantage for long-term success

- The new elections department database system

- Demonstration of the new system

The event was marked with a highly successful social evening on the Saturday which featured a number of superb folk singers and much camaraderie.

* Radio RWB has an excellent report from the Summer School recorded on the terrain which includes a number of interviews with delegates. Click here to listen to the show online. Click on the RWB player button on the right-hand side of the page which opens in that link.