33 Facts About Jim Dowson

James Dowson was born on 25 September 1964 and is a far-right political activist from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Jim Dowson has been active across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States and has been described by The Times as "the invisible man of Britain's far right".

Jim Dowson joined the far-right British National Party and was in charge of the party's financial affairs.

Jim Dowson later helped found and worked as the main source of funding for Britain First from which he resigned in 2014.

Jim Dowson was arrested for his participation in the Belfast City Hall flag protests in late-2012 and was involved in the Protestant Coalition, a party formed by some involved in the protests.

Jim Dowson was for a time a member of the Orange Order and was associated with a controversial flute band accused of glorifying loyalist murderer Michael Stone during parades.

Jim Dowson subsequently fell out with the Orange Order after he was forced to leave the movement, even taking part in protests against it where he denounced the group as being filled with "atheists and boozers".

Jim Dowson came to wider attention for his campaigning against abortion, establishing his own group, the UK Life League, in 1999 after meeting with the leaders of Youth Defence, a militant anti-abortion group active in the Republic of Ireland.

Jim Dowson has stated that he worked as part of the United States anti-abortion movement and used much of what he learned there as part of his career in public relations.

Jim Dowson has denied all of these claims apart from the conviction for breach of the peace, which he insisted was for an incident in his youth.

Jim Dowson has raised money for extreme right-wing, anti-abortion or anti-gay groups, has protested outside abortion clinics, and made a living from heaping misery on people in desperate circumstances.

Jim Dowson joined the British National Party at an unspecified date and became a leading figure within the group, rising to take charge of the BNP's financial affairs.

Jim Dowson announced his departure from the BNP in 2010 and stated that he intended to start an anti-Islamic Christian group.

In 2014, it was publicly revealed that Jim Dowson was the main source of funding behind the group.

Jim Dowson had been a founder of the group in 2010 but did not take a public role.

Jim Dowson announced his resignation from Britain First in July 2014 after the group, under a policy initiated by Golding, started launching "invasions" of mosques.

Jim Dowson described the initiative as "provocative and counterproductive" as well as "unacceptable and unchristian".

Jim Dowson became a leading figure in the Belfast City Hall flag protests that broke out in late 2012 after Belfast City Council voted to only fly the Union Flag from Belfast City Hall on seventeen designated days a year rather than all the time as had previously been the practice.

Jim Dowson was charged with encouraging or assisting offenders and five counts of taking part in an unnotified public procession due to his part in the protests.

In 2015, Jim Dowson was given a three-month suspended sentence for taking part in unlawful public processions in relation to offences during January and February 2013.

Jim Dowson pleaded guilty to three counts of participating in un-notified public processions.

Jim Dowson joined Willie Frazer at the 2013 LaMon Hotel press conference at which the Protestant Coalition, a political party launched on the back of the flag protests, was officially established.

Jim Dowson subsequently claimed that he left the party to Frazer and Rab McKee after a few months and bemoaned the failure of the group to make any impact on local politics.

Jim Dowson relocated to Budapest, Hungary, and has been observed in several eastern European countries with his latest venture, the counter-jihad Knights Templar International, along with the former BNP leader Nick Griffin and a Hungarian anti-abortion campaigner Imre Teglasy.

Jim Dowson was reported as having developed close links with the Russian extremist Aleksandr Dugin, with Dugin aiding Jim Dowson in the establishment of a Belgrade office for his internet activity in support of the "alt-right".

In May 2017, it was reported by Hope not Hate that Jim Dowson had been stopped from entering Hungary after the Hungarian Immigration Authority declared him an "undesirable individual" and barred him from entering the country in future.

In May 2018, BBC News reported that Jim Dowson has been fronting the Knights Templar International company with Jim Dowson's sister-in-law Marion Thomas named as one of its directors.

In July 2016, Jim Dowson established the "Patriot News Agency" to help elect Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Jim Dowson described his strategy as spreading "devastating anti-Clinton, pro-Trump memes and sound bites into sections of the population too disillusioned with politics to have taken any notice of conventional campaigning".

Whilst attending a far-right conference in Budapest in March 2017, Jim Dowson announced his support for Scottish independence, despite his earlier unionist stances.

Jim Dowson stated "England is stuffed, England is stuffed totally" and advanced his belief that an independent Scotland "would protect us from the excesses of Muslim domination".

Jim Dowson has been heavily associated with the Irish Catholic nationalist group, especially the group's founder Niall McConnell.

In 2019, Jim Dowson appeared regularly alongside McConnell on his YouTube channel, the two travelling to the European Parliament together with the former BNP leader Nick Griffin.