Failed fuel protestor joins the BNP

Nick Griffin, writing in his Chairman's Column, makes much of the fact that farmer and haulier, Andrew Spence, one of the architects of the fuel protests of 2001 and on, has finally made the move from UKIP to the BNP, where he's more or less guaranteed a chance at a seat in the North of England during the next council elections in May.

Spence, who is known for his right-wing views and for being sympathetic to the BNP, was fairly high profile during the protests and ever ready to run off at the mouth about fuel duty charges despite knowing next to nothing about them. Curious really - you'd expect a haulier to know the subject inside-out. Here's part of a farcical interview with Andrew Spence, made at the height of the fuel protests:

PETER ALLAN: Why are you protesting then?

ANDREW SPENCE: Because the government has put the tax up which has pushed prices past £1 a litre.

PA: No they haven't, duty is less than it was the last time you protested.

AS: yes they have, prices have gone up 20p this year.

PA: Thats not the government's fault though, they haven't put the tax up.

AS: We're still paying 67p a litre in tax because they've put it up.

PA: Except that they haven't have they?

AS: Yes they have, Brown's made £10bn in VAT this year!

PA: Thats not the tax though is it.

AS: Look, none of us know how much tax we're paying! He won't tell us. And the prices have gone up 20p a litre because of the tax.

and so on.

Following the fuel protests, Spence went on to join UKIP and stood for them in the Sedgefield constituency against the PM, Tony Blair. According to Griffin, Spence and his protests came close to bringing down the Blair government in 2001. Strange then that when he stood against Blair in the same year, Spence could only manage a pitiful 2.4% of the vote - or 974 votes against the PM's 26,110. After this dismal showing, it was no great surprise that Spence eventually edged his way out of UKIP (after failing to be selected by the party for a Hartlepool by-election in 2004) and slowly moved over to a party that's happy to accept any loser that's going - the BNP. Naturally, Griffin claims that Spence became disillusioned with UKIP's money-grabbing, incompetent, unprincipled leadership - so one wonders why he's moved into another organisation with a money-grabbing, incompetent, unprincipled leadership.

Spence's history during the fuel protests will no doubt be trumpeted by Griffin from the rooftops as the attempt of one man to right all the wrongs of society. Nick Griffin and the BNP are always trying to create heroes out of nothing - witness the endless column inches they've wasted on the thug, Kevin Hughes, currently inside for an attack on an Iraqi asylum-seeker, in an attempt to convince anyone stupid to listen that he's in line for canonisation - but it's well worth remembering that the last of the fuel protests were an abject failure.

In an article sarcastically entitled 'Protest? What protest?', the Mirror pointed out that the last of the fuel protests in September 2005 flopped spectacularly. The report read; 'Britain's fuel demo ran spectacularly out of gas yesterday with barely two dozen protesters nationwide. Andrew Spence, the man behind the People's Fuel Lobby, arrived at dawn with nine men to stand forlornly outside a refinery in Jarrow, South Tyneside. By midday, they had been joined by one man with a placard, five empty buses, 29 traffic cones and five policemen...'

Spectacularly rejected by the people of Sedgefield, rejected by UKIP, rejected by hauliers all over the country - yes, there's really only one place left for Andrew Spence to go - the party that's jam-packed with rejects, Nick Griffin's BNP.