Portsmouth pub landlord to take anti-Nazi group to court for website allegations

18-Apr-2012 - Last updated on 19-Apr-2012 at 08:23 GMT

Alma Arms: a “patriotic pub”, says licensee Barry Smith

A Portsmouth licensee has said he will take an anti-fascist organisation “all the way to the courts” after threats were made against his family for his alleged links to right-wing extremism.

Barry Malcolm Smith, Enterprise Inns licensee of the Alma Arms, Southsea, dismisses claims made on the Portsmouth Nazi Watch website that he is “an active member of both the neo-nazi British National Party (BNP) and the racist English Defence League (EDL)”.

It adds: “He is also an open and vocal supporter of the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a designated terrorist organisation in the UK and US and a proscribed organisation in the Republic of Ireland.”

However, Smith has slammed the group behind the website as “left-wing extremists” and stressed that the Alma Arms is “not a Nazi pub”, nor is he a member of any of the organisations mentioned on the website. He told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser that the matter is now with his solicitors.

Smith said: “I was shocked because we’re not a Nazi pub, we’re a patriotic pub. I am not a member of either of them [BNP or EDL]; we welcome people from all walks of life.

“It has forced my family out of the pub because people came in and threatened us, and I am now having to pay £1,000 per month to put them in another house. I’ll be taking this all the way to the courts.”

The Portsmouth Nazi Watch website also shows two pictures and a video of BNP leader Nick Griffin in the Alma Arms, after he made use of the pub’s function room for a BNP event.

Commenting on the visit, Smith said: “We have got a hall through the back that we use for functions and I took the booking over the phone. I said they could use the side entrance and it was not until I saw who it was that I realised what was going on.”

barry.smith.alma.arms — Accused: Barry Smith denies right-wing links

He added: “They [Portsmouth Nazi Watch] disagree with our soldiers who go to war and call them killers — they support left-wing extremism in our country. We are a patriotic pub that supports Help For Heroes.”

A spokesman for Portsmouth Nazi Watch said: "We understand that he (Smith) wants to take legal action against us which is quite laughable, as everything we publish is true, we stand by everything that we have published, we have evidence to back everything up, and we are quite happy to see him wasting money taking legal action.

"If he wants to bring it on, he will lose a lot of money, and be proven in court to be a neo-Nazi."

Smith said his two area managers were aware of the situation. Enterprise Inns did not wish to comment.