By Martin Graham
SINGER Edwyn Collins is caught up in a row with the BNP over the illegal use of a song on a party website.
The former Orange Juice front man was outraged to discover that his hit solo song ‘A Girl Like You’ was featured on a website showing images of Asian men burning the union flag and veiled women waving a banner saying ‘God Bless Hitler’.
Under the title of ‘Lothians BNP Video’, the website also had tracks by a heavy metal band called Mott and Bailey playing along with images of coffins at Wootton Bassett.
Now Mr Collins has demanded that the song be removed.
Collins’ wife Grace Maxwell acts as his manager and she says that the song was used without permission.
She 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 for a moment that viewers would imagine 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 this happens.”
The row has led to the resignation of BNP Central Scotland organiser Mike Coyle, who created the site.
He defended the site, saying: “The BNP are not in the habit of upsetting people” but later removed the copyrighted material and resigned from his position in the party.
Explaining his actions, Mr Coyle 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 ‘Lothians BNP Video’ site was linked from the main BNP Scotland website, which carries news and articles written by the party’s Scottish leader Gary Raikes.
The party now claims that this site is an unofficial blog.
Speaking about Mike Coyle’s resignation, Gary Raikes 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.”
Osama Saeed, founder of the Scottish Islamic Foundation said: “The videos show that the BNP is 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 spokesman for the police said: “Inquiries will be made in order to establish whether any further action can be taken.”
