December 08, 2008

Hypocrisy, lies and Lee 'Bonkers' Barnes

Two extremely bad poets, neither of which is a qualified lawyer
If there's ever been a better anti-fascist asset within the British National Party who consistently does more good for our side by his sheer stupidity and apparent insanity than the party's legal beagle Lee Barnes, I've yet to hear of it. There are very few days that go by without Barnes' lunacy running wild, his hypocrisy reaching ever-dizzier heights or his furious arrogance leaving him foaming at the mouth because the world doesn't quite see him as the undoubted genius that he is. Even on the days when his medication is stopping the raving, he still manages to irritate fascists and anti-fascists alike by talking crap about psychology or writing extremely bad poetry. Anyone remember Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz? Barnes' poetry is worse.

Despite the fact that, like Mark Collett, Barnes is almost universally despised inside the BNP, he seems to have a curious hold over Nick Griffin. Barnes' insane rantings over the Rachel Whitear disaster had complaints coming in from all directions, even from hardened BNP supporters and nazis, who found his violent verbal attacks on the tragic Rachel far beyond the pale. His email attack on the Auty leadership campaign also earned him a good deal of angry and well-deserved criticism, though he deflected some of that anger by claiming (as they all do when in a corner) that the email was a forgery.

However, redemption has come in the form of the release of the BNP membership list (don't bother asking - everyone knows it's on WikiLeaks) and Bonkers Barnes is suddenly seen by the myopic Nick Griffin as the source of all legal wisdom, despite the fact that he has never actually got around to acquiring any kind of legal qualification. Still, lack of competence has never stopped anyone in the BNP reaching the top - look at Dave Hannam.

Barnes has (allegedly) been slinging legal-looking letters around the universe at large since the list hit the public domain, each of them containing numerous threatening-sounding phrases that appear to put the leak on a equivalent footing with terrorism, clearly invoking the Terrorism Act in one of his emails to Indymedia. He claims that bandying member's addresses and other details around the internet puts them at risk of attack - though nearly three weeks after the leak there are yet to be any verified attacks at all.

Barnes really seems to have a blind spot when it comes to hypocrisy. This from Indymedia:
'Most incredibly Mr Barnes then explains, “I will also be issuing a request to our internal investigations team to initiate actions to collect your home addresses, contact details and financial details relating to you personally as persons running or hosting the Indymedia website”. Internal Investigations? Once the BNP has this information, it “will be used to initiate legal actions upon yourselves, to initiate financial sanctions against your company and also will be publicised on various websites so that people may contact you and address any legal issues they may have”. Pot, kettle, black?'
Yes, while threatening people for showing sections of the list with personal details, Barnes threatens to publish their personal details. Clearly, the man is an idiot - though Indymedia seems to have him pretty well tagged:
'Mr Barnes’s threat to post personal information about Indymedia participants may in itself be illegal – it certainly would cause a registered legal practitioner to lose his credentials. Perhaps then, it comes as no surprise that the Law Society confirms that Barnes is NOT a qualified lawyer at all. In fact, Mr Lee John Barnes LLB (hons) is an incoherent, buffoonish windbag who could well be charged with incitement himself.'
But anti-fascists are not the only target of Barnes' list-making lunacy. Last night, he rounded on his chums at the Stormfront nazi forum and the anti-Griffin North West Nationalist blog. Why is he complaining about Stormfront? Because;
'...rather than having a rule that the activists and posters on the site have to use a real name and a real identity, so we can all see who they are, what organisations they represent and find out what their real pasts are - the site allowed anyone to post on the site using a fake name. This has allowed Reds, agent provocateurs and the State to take advantage of the internet and use it against the interests of nationalism itself. It has allowed the flamers, the malcontents and the red scum to hide behind fake names and denigrate not just those that they have some sort of issue with, but to attack and undermine the entire cause of nationalism itself. This ability to hide behind a fake name and post rubbish online has allowed nationalist internet sites to be taken advantage of by the most loathsome creatures to ever infect and infest the Nationalist movement - the Key Board Warriors...The Key Board warrior that hides behind a fake name is a coward. They do nothing but talk rubbish'
Funny he should mention keyboard warriors - because he's largely regarded as one of the worst. Frequently in tandem with the creepiest young nazi ever, who lavishes praise on Barnes at every opportunity (using the fake name Jacob Cobain though he's generally assumed to be Barnes' partner), he wanders the rapidly-emptying corridors of the Stormfront forum attacking people at random like some demented drink-addled tramp. Anyone who dares to criticise the BNP or Nick Griffin is fair game and will be 'outed' by Lee Barnes. And he somehow sees this as different from BNP members being outed? How exactly?

He is prepared to make the rare exception though, as he states here:
'To his credit Jack Black [who Barnes outed on his blog a few months back] has gone from being just a presence on the internet and on stormfront to becoming an nationalist activist for the BPP [British People's Party]. That means I can now respect the real man himself as a true nationalist who is working for the nationalist movement and standing up for what he believes in, and not just see him as another key board warrior.'
Fine, so a keyboard warrior who has now joined a party led by a well-known police informer who runs the Redwatch site - which specifically exists to encourage attacks on anti-fascists - is okay now because he's an activist? He belongs to a party well known for its flirtations with hardcore nazis and Holocaust-deniers and that is famed for its terrorist links, but that's okay because he's now an activist? And this is the BNP's so-called legal director saying this? Do we assume that, because these statements were made in the public arena, they are acceptable to the BNP and Nick Griffin? If not, then isn't the BNP being hypocritical allowing Barnes to come out with this rubbish in public - particularly his threats to print personal details on the net while the party screams about breaches of its member's human rights?

Barnes generally gets an easy ride from the moderators at Stormfront, particularly from Jock Oldham (John 'Jock' Shearer, one of Griffin's former heavies and BNP-loyalist) who is frequently described as 'an illiterate drug dealing arsehole' on the North West Nationalist blog. It's interesting that Barnes should be cosy with Shearer but at the same moment so distant from another Stormfront moderator who closed down all the Barnes-related threads last night with this terse statement:
'I have closed down all threads on the subjects of NWN, Covert or any blog in which Lee Barnes posts his deranged ramblings.'
Oh, that one could shut him up so easily.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which is which?

Anonymous said...

"an incoherent, buffoonish windbag who could well be charged with incitement himself."

I suddenly REALLY like Indymedia!

Anonymous said...

"Still, lack of competence has never stopped anyone in the BNP reaching the top - look at Dave Hannam."

Naughty. LOL

Anonymous said...

He's surely have a hell of a job in court attempting to state why the list shouldn't have been published by indymedia when he is threatening to publish a list of their names, addresses and financial details? How does he seriously believe a court will react to that kind of threat? Mind you, Barnes will probably claim it wasn't him who sent the email in the first place.

Anonymous said...

One wonders why Nick Griffin tolerates Bonkers Barnes? Is it his legal wizardly or something more prosaic like an ambiguous sexuality (I'm being careful here. After all, Lee Barnes is the Rumpole of the BNP).

Anonymous said...

Hey I just noticed that thing on the left has a barristers wig on. Is that Lee Barnes?

Anonymous said...

"Anyone remember Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz?"

I do. I didn't think his poetry was that bad actually. I've heard worse.

Anonymous said...

Jacob Cobain IS Lee Barnes.

Anonymous said...

"our internal investigations team"

Somehow that conjures up a mixture of images of South Africa's BOSS and the Gestapo. Who the fuck do these people think they are???

Anonymous said...

Sooo said...

"Hey I just noticed that thing on the left has a barristers wig on. Is that Lee Barnes?"

Yes. Definitely.

Anonymous said...

"Mind you, Barnes will probably claim it wasn't him who sent the email in the first place."

haha! and blame it on the Decembrist rebels as he blames everything else from global warming to the fact he is an idel benefit scrounger.

Anonymous said...

"Somehow that conjures up a mixture of images of South Africa's BOSS and the Gestapo. Who the fuck do these people think they are???

That is much of the problem. They do think that they are members of the Gestapo and BOSS, and are untouchable.

I must confess I am rapidley comming to the conclusion that the leadership of the British Nonces Party is protected by the security services.

Old Sailor

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ, that's one ugly bastard. And the Vogon's not too cute either!

Anonymous said...

I've no idea if any of this is true but it appears on your favorite nazi blog

"Keep rattling that Kent twat's cage! He exploded with uncontrollable rage which caused the BNP a lot of embarrasment on Radio 4 when he ranted against Melanie Philips so he will rage against anyone he thinks is having a go at him. He will explode once too often and many will hope it will bring on a fatal heart attack or he rages against a 18 stone negro who beats the crap out of him.

But wait a minute.....isnt there a documented report that some very nice Christian gentleman of African origin took exception to the "sinful act" that "Lily" (his pet name) Lee Barnes was conducting with his boyfriend in the grounds of Kent Polytechnic back in 1999 - OK so they were just holding hands but that was enough for the outraged Kenyan Christian who takes the word of the Bible very seriously to confront them and make his case ...er...very forcefully. Come on Lily old girl tell us what you did next? Did you really poo your pants (as one of your former classmates claims) or did you try and charm the enraged and very muscular African with your enviable diplomatic skills?

As you are reading this and still glowing with pride at being invited onto a Radio 4 chat show perhaps you could enlighten us here. After all this blog gets somthing like 1000 times more readers every day than your pretentious drivel. If you dont answer we'll take that as a "no comment" answer and we can make our own assumptions.

"Lily" such a sweet name for a complete tosser."

Anonymous said...

"I must confess I am rapidley comming to the conclusion that the leadership of the British Nonces Party is protected by the security services."

Its amazing how often that's said nowdays.

Anonymous said...

"But wait a minute.....isnt there a documented report that some very nice Christian gentleman of African origin took exception to the "sinful act" that "Lily" (his pet name) Lee Barnes was conducting with his boyfriend in the grounds of Kent Polytechnic back in 1999 - OK so they were just holding hands but that was enough for the outraged Kenyan Christian who takes the word of the Bible very seriously to confront them and make his case ...er...very forcefully. Come on Lily old girl tell us what you did next? Did you really poo your pants (as one of your former classmates claims) or did you try and charm the enraged and very muscular African with your enviable diplomatic skills?"

I wonder if any of that is true?

"haha! and blame it on the Decembrist rebels"

That's probably what will happen.

"Jesus Christ, that's one ugly bastard. And the Vogon's not too cute either!"

I bet that took you ages to think up didn't it. Funny though.

You lot really should stop reading what Barnes the wanker writes. He talks shite, he writes shite and he is shite. Don't let him wind you up. I'm not in the BNP and never have been but I know a couple of people in it and they see Lee Barnes as an idiot who should be banged up. Take no notice of him.

Anonymous said...

Great article.

Anonymous said...

"Bonkers" Barnes? Yep, that works for me. :)

Anonymous said...

Jacob Cobain IS Lee Barnes.

12:47 PM, December 08, 2008


No it isn't, Its Tina Humpage from Solihull.

Anonymous said...

Identifying the tools of persuasion used by the British National Party
We need to understand the tools of persuasion used by members of the far-right British National Party (BNP) if we are to combat the messages of prejudice they spread. That's according to Mick Finlay and C Wood, who analysed articles published on the BNP website after the terrorist bombings in London in July 2005, written by party leader Nick Griffin and the party's legal director Lee Barnes. Publication of this study is timely, coming as it does when the BNP are enjoying increased electoral success.

Quoting extracts from the BNP articles, Finlay and Wood say the arguments resemble a conspiracy theory and they identify the use of two tools of persuasion in relation to Muslims in Britain: the "accentuation effect", which is the attempt to portray outgroups as homogeneous and distinct from ingroups; and "essentialism", which is the idea that members of a given group all share important, essential qualities.

Griffin, for example, argues that there is a consensus among Muslims that the later, more violent verses of the Koran (the Muslim holy text) override the more peaceful, earlier verses. In reality, according to Finlay and Wood, there are clear, ongoing disagreements between fundamentalist and classical interpretations of the Koran.

Elsewhere, Barnes writes that all Muslims are in pursuit of the same aim - destruction of the British way of life - even if some of them seek to do it through violence, while others do so through peaceful preaching.

This practice of painting an "outgroup" as homogeneous has a long and dangerous history. The Nazis, for example, claimed that all Jews were part of a global conspiracy, and Hutu extremists in Rwanda claimed that all Tutsis were accomplices of the rebel forces.

Another theme of the BNP writings is to blame the London bombings on multi-culturalism and its liberal supporters.

Further tricks employed by the BNP writers include labelling Muslims and liberals as fascist and Nazi - labels usually directed at the BNP themselves. Griffin also uses what the researchers describe as a "show concession" - making an apparent admission (e.g. "yes, we're politically-incorrect") before invoking a morally superior motive (e.g. "but at least we're telling the truth"). Both BNP writers also use esoteric detail and scholarly references to increase the apparent validity of their claims. Barnes, meanwhile, makes use of rhetorical flourishes including making biblical references, invoking the symbolism of the flag and deploying alliteration (a poetic device that involves using a string of words that all start with the same letter).

"If social psychology is to offer suggestions as to how to reduce prejudice, it must also look at how to upset these malign sources of social influence," the researchers said. "As many anti-racist campaigners have pointed out, opposing right-wing extremism requires us to have a detailed knowledge of their arguments, so that effective counter-arguments can be made."

Barbara Suzuki said...

To Anonymous posting at 1:08 AM, December 09, 2008:

This is excellent material and I look forward to reading more.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/yourwrite/messages?msg=405.1

Anonymous said...

Is it true that Lee Barnes likes to dress up for Tommy Williams.
he likes the big butch boys.