Young, angry and on the rise

The Young BNP, followed by the short-lived “BNP Crusaders” and now “Resistance” are intended to represent Nick Griffin’s personal ideological legacy to the “movement”.

Having temporarily succeeded in masking elements of his own dubious political history, Griffin is trying to forge the future of his party on a quasi-paramilitary outfit for people aged 18 to 30 with lashings of hearty, white Britishness thrown in. These new “Young Turks” are presented as driven by the wholesome love of their country and untainted like so many of their peers by Nazism and racial hatred.

Since its inception, the BNP’s youth wing has been surrounded by older gun nuts and heavy drinkers. The YBNP with its Nazi volk imagery was supposed to encourage teenage party members to adopt a healthy outdoor lifestyle by playing with knives and airguns while dressed in paramilitary costumes. Around camp fires junior nazis got drunk and engaged in “healthy” teenage debauchery.

After a series of national newspaper exposés, the YBNP morphed into the BNP Crusaders as the party continued to search for a long-term replacement for Griffin. Because of that wider context, a position in the leadership of the youth, or now “young adult”, wing of the BNP is an honour for young white patriots who can thereby present themselves as the future leaders of the BNP.

Among the alumni of the BNP’s youth leadership are Mark Collett, who disgraced himself on national television (more than once), Griffin’s daughter Jennifer, the argumentative Danny Lake, who was sacked by a text message telling him to “p*** off”, and the party’s appalling karaoke recording “artist” Joey Smith. But now, raise your right arms for the fiery star of Channel 4’s 2010 documentary Young, Angry and White, Kieren Trent.

Trent, who is articulate and working class, was seen as something of a boutique acquisition for the party. Certainly angry and white, Trent had been filmed contemplating the temptations of the rival National Front and “autonomous nationalists” of the now-defunct English National Resistance.

Trent’s personal life was a bit of a gift to amateur psychologists. His mother had fled two abusive relationships with Kieren in tow while his father made a new life with a new wife and family elsewhere in the country. Trent, 20, also exhibited a puritan view on sex and relationships, castigating open-mouthed friends as “degenerate”, in particular on the issues of homosexuality and inter-racial relationships, courting unchallenged controversy in a bid for further attention. He even went as far as to check his girlfriend’s ethnicity.

Someone so young with so many insecurities and hang-ups was ideal to head the BNP’s youth section. In February, Trent was named as the leader of the latest incarnation of the young BNP, Resistance, at its launch in a London pub.

His elevation came despite a strange incident the previous month. An interest in European fascism and trips to Europe with other BNP officers and members had stirred Trent’s interest in his own Irish ancestry, always a tricky subject in the BNP. In January he tried to attend a Bloody Sunday commemoration meeting in Conway Hall, London, held jointly by the Republican Network for Unity and the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Support Group, both of which campaign, among other things, for recognition of dissident Irish republican prisoners.


Recognised by the stewards and barred, Trent entered into a long and pained discussion in which he portrayed his membership of the BNP as his own struggle for national liberation, likening it to membership of Irish republican groups. Not only could he reconcile the two, he claimed their interests were mutual. He also offered up some less than complimentary opinions about members of his party, but was still given short shrift.

However Trent has developed other new and potentially dangerous interests.

It seems the girlfriend whose ethnicity Trent doubted has been kicked to the kerb to be replaced by an older woman well known to BNP watchers. The new belle on Trent’s arm is none other than the North East organiser Cheryl Dunn from Hartlepool. This “love match” has caused no end of problems for Trent and the BNP as Dunn already had a partner, the one-time Hartlepool BNP organiser Peter King.

King was convicted last year for racially aggravated harassment and possessing an offensive weapon. Dunn described her relationship with King, a man blessed by a notoriously short fuse, as “violent and abusive” on an internet forum.

With Dunn at Northumbria University and King working in London, opportunity knocked and Dunn and Trent started an affair, sharing as much time together at BNP events as possible.

Eventually the inevitable happened and King found out.

When Trent and Dunn attended a recent BNP event in London together, King confronted the couple, violently assaulting Trent in front of several BNP members. The police were called and King was arrested and remanded in custody. Trent’s injuries were so bad that he was taken to hospital.

Another rising young star is Jordan Pont from Sheffield, the Yorkshire organiser of Resistance. Pont, 21, is known for his Facebook rants against people he feels are holding him back from achieving his ambitions in the party. In a high risk strategy, he even described some of Griffin’s most trusted lieutenants as “useless” when he was demanding last year that he be imposed on the BNP’s Sheffield branch as its organiser.

Now safely ensconced in this role, Jordan has become a loyal Griffinite, but initially toyed with joining the BNP Reform group, which wants to depose Griffin as leader. After a change of heart he dramatically stormed out of a meeting addressed by the party renegade Eddy Butler who is touring the country trying to organise the anti-Griffin movement.

Keen on self promotion, Pont filmed and posted on YouTube his own (dreadful) party political broadcast in support of his campaign to get elected to Sheffield council in East Ecclesfield. He is also a keener participant on internet forums, where he drives home his extreme dislike of Muslims and Islam. In one attack on a critic of the party, Pont rounded on an accusation that the BNP admired Adolf Hitler. Exploding into another of his semiliterate rants, he raged. “How can you say we admire Hitler. Hitler enjoyed having muslims [sic] in his SS, He loved the Islamic Faith! The BNP aren’t to [sic] fond on Muslims and i [sic] for one is against the Islamic Faith.”

Pont’s rise up the BNP ladder has cost him one friendship. Tom Holmes, another young party member with a rather colourful online persona, has taken to posting articles attacking Pont on the internet in a bid to draw unwelcome attention to Pont and thwart his ambitions.

Holmes and Pont initially fell out when Pont accused Holmes of grooming a young girl. Holmes did not deny it but said he had been duped. Holmes now spends time on the British Democracy Forum, Facebook and Indymedia website, posting messages against Pont and the BNP generally, which he feels has overlooked his own brilliant leadership potential. Their dispute could rumble on for a while yet.

Thanks to Searchlight

Of perverts and idiots...

A couple of interesting emails have arrived over the past two days, one of which asked what proof we have that Tom Holmes attempted to get off with a fourteen year old girl, the other of which is supposedly from someone close to Clive (sniff-sniff) Jefferson, who allegedly overheard Nick Griffin's pet moron on his mobile whining to either Mark Walker or Pat Harrington.

The former is pretty clear so we'll deal with that one first. Twenty-six year old Holmes has just been booted out of the BNP after evidence was revealed that showed he was grooming an underage girl. Quite why Holmes got the boot when the likes of Paedo Collett and his idiot chum David Hannam were allowed to get away with their little attempt at underage sex, who knows. However, Holmes is still going on about his innocence, claiming both that he wasn't interested in having sex with the girl even if she was sixteen and that he acted appropriately at all times. Holmes has tried this one over at the British Democracy Forum, too, stating very clearly,

'Never mentioned anything about getting her to have sex with me when she's 16, actually.'

Oh dear, what a terrible liar Tom has become. And here's the proof, from his Facebook page...

Click on image for full-size

Tom's remark "Awww :( 2 years" shows pretty clearly that he's perfectly well aware of the girl's age, the pervert.

Holmes is apparently still claiming that he intends to stand as an Independent in his next local election, handing the seat over to the BNP if he wins. He won't, of course. The public doesn't take too well to men approaching thirty making remarks about fourteen year olds opening their legs for him, even if he is only hoping it will happen two years hence. As far as I recall, that's referred to as grooming.

Talking of perverts, we hear that Clive Jefferson, the stupidest man in the BNP, has apparently begun to bow under pressure from increasingly angry party members (and a hostile media) and has been begging Mark Walker or Pat Harrington to support him in persuading Porky Griffin to give the Kitchens the boot ASAP, preferably before even more information about Granny Kitchen's porn hits the media. Quite what anything in the BNP has to do with Harrington, we don't know, but he seems to have an uncommonly tight hold on both Griffin and the party. Perhaps Mrs K has been giving him lessons.

The interesting thing about this, assuming it's true, is that Jefferson wants to kick the Kitchens out but appears to be unable to. Why? As far as we know, he's been booting people out of the party wholesale for months - what makes the Kitchens so special?

Our correspondent suggests that the Kitchens will be gone by this weekend. Maybe but we doubt it. Martin Reynolds has been involved in porn and all kinds of shit (literally) for years and he's still around. Still, things could hot up in more ways than one as Spring approaches - we're told that there are quite a few more BNP-related revelations on their way. Can't wait.

Meanwhile, GrannyGate has claimed a victim. Paul Morris (not that one), the BNP's Eastern regional organiser, has jacked in his job in disgust at the adverse publicity that the Kitchens have spawned and the party's apparent unwillingness to get rid of them post haste. I doubt very much that he'll be the last to go - this story seems set to carry on a while yet.

Griffinite Tom Holmes thrown out of far-right British National Party

The Rotherham Fascist, 26 year old Tom Holmes, has been thrown out of the BNP due to controversy surrounding his personal life. Tom Holmes has been notorious for his reign of terror online. He is a staunch Islamophobe and fiercely aggressive towards who he sees as "Commies". Now, thrown out of his party and disowned by even his closest friends, the far-right loner's career in politics has ended.

Controversy has surrounded the deeply disturbed Holmes recently since he discovered that his 20 year old girlfriend was infact just 14. Holmes received a barrage of abuse, threats and angry criticism when personal friend and BNP 'pretty boy' Joey Smith took screenshots showing that Holmes did not delete or cut contact with the girl after he found out her age.

Confiding in his 'followers' on Facebook he stated "I fell inlove with her when I thought she was 20! I can't just turn my feelings off, what do you expect me to do? Break her heart and pretend she doesn't exist?"

Hitting back at criticism on DemoracyForum Holmes declared "You're the sick ones to me. We haven't done anything sexual, nor would I. You're the ones who thought that, you're the ones who are degrading it. It's not about waiting for sex, it's about waiting for love. All I've done is promised someone who loves me that I'll stay single for a year, until we can be together. I told her I wouldn't meet her while she's not 16."

Many posts and threads referring to the downfall of egotistical Tom Holmes have since been removed, but references to his situation can easily be found within other topics on the forum, which is frequented by other far-right Nazi thugs.

Sources close to Holmes have informed us that he lost his NE Derbyshire fund-holder status, on the same day he received it, and has been cast aside from the Party. Most of his colleagues have blocked all contact with Holmes, viewing him as a liability. After investigating his circumstances we can confirm that Holmes has been removed from the BNP's brainwashing youth wing 'the Crusaders', currently being led by an equally disturbed and lost young man, Kieran Trent.

Responding to the very few supporters and followers he has left on his Facebook, feeling sorry for himself he publicly stated "My friends have backstabbed me. My colleagues want nothing to do with me. My Party that I love and have been loyal to since I was 16 has abandoned me. Just because I made a mistake, a simple mistake. I am far from malicious, and I would never do anything to damage the party. I fell inlove with someone I thought was 20!"

All this of course is great news for the people of Sheffield, as there is now one less Fascist to stand in the area.

Hearing the news that he would not be standing at this May's elections for the far-right, the well known alcoholic and opiate addict posted "I'll just stand as an independent. I have a good chance of winning in this area, the locals love me, and they know I'm the only person who can end the local Labour council's corruption; and when I win; I'll offer to transfer my seat to the party. The rumours and Chinese whispers would soon fall silent then when I win them a seat. All I want to do is keep my head down, work hard, and put this horrible, horrible mistake behind me."

This has not deterred him from posting foul and offensive statements in the public domain, though, or blaming everything on non-whites. Speaking of Rotherham Council Holmes sneers "Hmmm, "there's no flats available at the moment" - yeah? Then why is there one at the bottom of my road EMPTY?! More like "sorry, you're the wrong colour for a flat". Morons."

The sources close to Holmes, who wish to remain anonymous (I'll post the initial of their name only) as to protect their cover ID's, have described the disgraced BNP representative of Aston-cum-Aughton as "a bit of a loner. He's not one for crowds, as far as I know he spends most of his time in his bedroom fiddling with website design". - "D"

Another said of him "The guy belongs in a mental institution. It's surprising he's still alive the amount of drink and pills he pours down himself. He's claimed that he suffers from bi-polar. I know he suffered from clinical depression ever since his fiancée left him last year, rumour has it he was arrested for trying to jump off a bridge on St. George's day after she left, but don't quote me on that". - "R"

The final quote simply states "He's just lost and misguided. He clings to the party because he has no life. The party is his life. In a post recently he even put that the party got him while he was young. It'll be interesting to see what he does now the party don't want him. We'll keep an eye on his internet blog and his Facebook and keep you updated, the boy's a self confessed megalomaniac, and seems to love attention. So I don't think we've seen the last of him. He's already posted that he has some plans up his sleeve." - "F"

The internet post Tom posted that "F" refers to is the following:

"I joined the BNP when I was young, and lost. I enjoy confrontation, and I love gaining a bad rep - joining Britain's most controversial political party was the greatest wind up of all. I did it as a laugh at first. But I went to a meeting, got involved, and actually started to enjoy the company of fellow activists, and they really enjoyed my company. I was taken under their wing and was moulded into a little flag waving Nationalist."

The apparently self-confessed 'megalomaniac', who often accuses anyone that criticises him of having a crush on him, has posted on his Facebook, as "F" referred to "Ohhh, just come up with a great idea. That'll A) satisfy my own urge to protect. B) Redeem myself and prove people wrong. And C) if it takes off, will be very good for the party and our cause. For now will keep politics out of it until it does take off. Hmm, going to need a few weeks to work on it. Won't say what the project is yet, but once it's published and off the ground I'll post it !"

It is not actually known what Holmes does as a living. He has on occasion claimed to be self-employed. The private marketing firm (CCL Solutions, Sheffield) promoting TalkTalk sacked him last year thanks to a well organised internet campaign by the SheffieldLib after his bosses saw the article about him.

Just when will this boy learn that the far-right does not have the answers he seeks? That he cannot fill his empty shell of a life with the far-right. His fiancée left him over his views on immigration, his employers sacked him, and even his own party colleagues have disowned him - yet he still remains a large and loud presence on numerous sites around the net promoting his idol Nick Griffin, and the vile party that is the BNP.

Speaking of Mr. Griffin, he affectionately posted "I love Mr. Griffin, he's my idol. How do you repay a man that saves your life, and doesn't even know it? Before I knew of Mr. Griffin I was running around in boots & braces on the streets. Thanks to his speeches I grew my hair back and put on a suit, changed my language and acted more responsible. For that, I will always be grateful to him, and he forever has my loyalty. If Mr. Griffin is forced out of the party, I'll leave too".

Ironically, sources close to Holmes stress that party 'management' view the young loose cannon as a liability and thus have cut him loose.

What do you think? One less Fascist for the area can only be a good thing, right? Is Tom a monster, or a deluded mentally ill little boy? Will this be the last we see of him? We can only hope so, and wait.

Sources here and here.

sheffieldlib at Indymedia

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Of letters pages, sneaky fascists, great films and chubby Griffinites...

As expected, the World Cup has given BNP supporters and their ilk any number of excuses for throwing about some casual racism, from hanging out the flags in a sudden frenzy of hitherto-unexpected patriotism to writing crap like that shown in the image above. Believe it or not, it's a genuine letter to a newspaper (purportedly the Daily Mail, unsurprisingly). Cheers to Anon, who sent us the link.

Wigan Patriot, a BNP-supporting blog, is nothing if not optimistic. According to a breathless article on the apparent competition between Ed Balls and David Cameron over which of them can be more anti-immigration, the writer pants;

'The INDIGENOUS POPULATION are getting angry, slowly but surely and that anger will build into resentment, hatred and rage. And what do you think will happen then? They will flock to us in their MILLIONS.'

Not based on the evidence so far, they won't. Fifty years of pretty steady immigration has seen the BNP with a few thousand members, no MPs and just twenty-eight local government councillors. The 'indigenous population' is hardly flocking to sign up to Porky Griffin's pension scheme. Millions, indeed.

The BNP is nothing if not devious though, and Wigan Patriot has obviously learned his lessons well.

'Get into local housing groups or neighbourhood committees etc now. Get active and involved in any associations which work in parternship with councils and have residents as board members . Use your influence within these groups to get things done. Then we have results to show the electors that we ,BNP, get things done even when not in power'

Interesting idea because they get fuck all done when they're actually councillors and they do nothing worthwhile at parish level (except not turn up for meetings).

The only reason Wigan Idiot (and Griffin) are promoting the idea that BNP members should join independent bodies is that they've realised the futility of trying to elect people on to councils where they either have no idea what's going on or simply don't bother taking part in the decision-making process that they are there for. Barking and Dagenham Council is a fine example. The BNP were handed an ideal opportunity back in 2006 when they won twelve seats on the council but their councillors were so utterly, laughably useless that they lost every single seat in the most embarrassing election failure in decades.

Never seen 'Who Shot the Sheriff?' Now's your chance...

Directed by Alan Miles and featuring the 1978 Rock Against Racism Carnival in East London's Victoria Park, 'Who Shot The Sheriff?' tells the story of one of the most exciting mass movements in British history. The film features interviews and unseen footage from the Rock Against Racism movement of the 1970's including The Clash, X-Ray Spex, The Specials, Misty In Roots, and Sham 69. The documentary tracks the rise of racism and the National Front in Britain during the 70's and shows how a generation, black and white, fought back against the Nazi threat.

Who Shot The Sheriff? PART 1 from Alan Miles on Vimeo.

Who Shot The Sheriff? PART 2 from Alan Miles on Vimeo.

Who Shot The Sheriff? PART 3 from Alan Miles on Vimeo.

Regarding Porky Griffin-lookalike Tom Holmes, who we reported on here, several of our readers have forwarded the replies they have received from TalkTalk and they are, not surprisingly, identical. Here it is;

'Thank you for your email of your yesterday regarding Tom Holmes. We take these allegations seriously and can confirm that the individual concerned is not an employee of TalkTalk Group. The person in question is an employee of a third party acting on our behalf and we¹ve informed this company of the information we¹ve received. TalkTalk Group expects its employees to adhere to our equality policies and we do not tolerate behaviour which is racist or discriminatory.'

It's a good reply and rather more than I expected, to be honest. I'll write back to TalkTalk today to ask them for the name of this third party company, on the grounds that I would like to give them information about Holmes directly, and I'd ask that readers do the same. Let us know how you get on...

Thanks to JS and AB for the heads-up.

Rotherham fascist leads secret double life

A BNP activist is living a secret double life, desperate to prevent his employers from finding out about his extremist views – despite having stood as a candidate in last month’s election.

Tom Holmes (25) received 715 votes in the recent elections for Rotherham Council but has managed to keep his politics a secret from his work colleagues.

Holmes brags online that he is a “gold member of the British National Party” and models himself on his idol, Nick Griffin. However, he has hidden his political beliefs from employers TalkTalk, where he works as a field representative. In one online post he confessed: “I’m done for if my boss decides to look my name up as I was in the local papers. I told a ickle porkie and said I stood as an independent. Half of the office staff I work with are foreign…I don’t believe they’d be too understanding of my BNP loyalties.”

Holmes has even discussed online with pals measures he would take against his company if they discovered his true identity and tried to take action against him.

The self-styled “loyal Griffinite” was left running scared when one local nearly revealed his identity and BNP links. “One day I’m gonna run into someone that knows me and out me as a BNP candidate in front of one of my colleagues,” he explained in an online posting. “Only just started this job not quite ready to get the sack yet. Someone in Dinnington recognized me whilst I was with a colleague but thankfully couldn’t put his finger on where from.”

The far-right loner has become obsessed with online chats since his girlfriend left him over his views on immigration. He now uses his Facebook profile to vent his anger and regularly posts rants in support of Griffin, the EDL, and even conspiracy theorist David Icke. He says: “The BNP is in no-way affiliated with the EDL. But I admire them for standing up for their country. We’re doing it by the ballot box, they’re doing it the old fashioned way – a visual presence. Either way we’re both standing the same fight.”

He also uses his profile to discuss his contempt for co-workers “the people (at work) are a bit gay…who the fuck high fives in this day and age?” he declared in a rant. “Whoo wheyy we have to try and prove to ourselves that we’re a fun office so we’re going to go wheyyy then hand-slap each other whoo! – grow up ya gang of twats”

Holmes uses his page to discuss his “black book” of people to be “put up against the wall” as well as his anticipation for the coming “race war”. He also spends much of his spare time chatting online on his own personal adult chatsite – friendlychatrooms.co.uk

Expose the BNP

Waltham Abbey, Sefton Manor and Nelson, Great Yarmouth by-elections

Two local by-elections occupy us this week, both in coastal districts on either side of the country, One involves the BNP, the other not-the-National Front.

[To pre-empt comments that the BNP also contested a seat at Waltham Abbey, we are aware of this, but the election at Waltham Abbey was for a town ward seat on a council with few responsibilities, and was essentially the same as a parish council election, which we do not usually cover in these reports. However, the odd result merits a few words.

Con 299 (30.4%, -27.4%)
BNP 281 (28.5%, +8.1%)
LD 274 (27.8%, +6.0%)
Lab 131 (13.3%, +13.3%)

As you can see, just 25 votes separate the top three, with the BNP just 19 votes short of a win. If it hadn't been for the Hope not Hate campaign in the area , the BNP may well have scraped through to yet another town/parish council seat. While politically, these seats are of little value, strategically they are well worth keeping an eye on. A councillor's career frequently begins at town/parish level. We ignore them at our peril.]

Sefton Manor

Stretched out along the Irish Sea north of Liverpool, the area covered by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council incorporates Southport, Formby, Crosby, Bootle, Litherland and Maghull, from which it draws 66 councillors. The council is unusually well-balanced politically, with 26 Liberal Democrats, 21 Labour, 18 Conservatives, and one vacancy (Conservative) in Manor ward, a
part of Crosby and scene of last night's by-election. No party has had overall control since 1986,

In May the BNP fielded just five candidates in Sefton (by contrast the UKIP fought nine seats - the UKIP coming off best in two of the three seats where a BNP candidate also stood). The BNP's performance in all five wards was unconvincing. Their best result came in Ford ward (10.27% and third place, beating the Conservatives and UKIP), the worst in Park ward (5.6% and last). In the other three wards, they scored 7.22% and last in Litherland, 7.18% and fifth of six (beating a Communist) in Church, and 6.8% and last in
Norwood (beaten by the Southport Party).

The BNP did not contest Manor ward in May, and so - again - we are unable to measure their performance against a previous outing. Even a comparison with nearby wards they did contest in May is rendered almost meaningless since these were Liberal Democrat and Labour held wards with entrenched majorities where the Conservative vote fell amongst the also-rans, while Manor ward returned a 48.09% vote share for the Conservatives in May:

Sefton Manor Ward May 3rd:

Lab 1082 (31.50)
Con 1652 (48.09)
LibDem 701 (20.41)

What is immediately obvious is that there was a sizeable Labour vote for the BNP to tap into in a ward Labour would find impossible to win unless Liberal Democrat voters were to switch support in large numbers.

Con 922 (40.52)
LibDem 769 (33.80)
Lab 419 (18.41)
BNP 94 (4.13)
UKIP 71 (3.12)

Total 2275
Turnout 22.8%

The result for Sefton shows the expected drop for Labour but a similarly large drop for the Conservatives too, despite the troubles on the council. The LibDems came out best with a hefty increase of 13% in their vote. The BNP trailed a long way behind with a little over 4%, a fair bit short of the 10% some were expecting. A dismal result for both the BNP and the increasingly disastrous UKIP.

Nelson, Great Yarmouth

On the opposite side of the country to Sefton is the Norfolk resort of Great Yarmouth, served by a Borough Council made up of 22 Conservatives and 16 Labour.

Despite the Norfolk location, and despite the handsome seafront, Great Yarmouth is not all that it seems, hiding pockets of deprivation that have seen it placed amongst the worst in the country and boasting the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Eastern England. Economic and social changes during the 80's and 90's brought serious crime and drug problems to the town.

In the late 90's London boroughs took to decanting asylum-seekers into Yarmouth, which caused great resentment as some landlords transformed hotels that were going concerns into refugee hostels, which impacted badly on a tourist trade that had been in steady decline for years and prompted one well-known tour company to temporarily sever its links with the town.

Despite it all, and despite much talk of the BNP coming to Great Yarmouth (which has never happened), there was very little friction between asylum-seeker and local.

In recent years, in common with most Norfolk towns, Yarmouth has seen a huge influx of Portuguese and East European migrant workers. Given that jobs are hard to come by in Yarmouth, and given that accomodation of any kind is at a premium, this settlement has passed off remarkably peacefully, though there have been low-level incidents, with fault attaching to local and incomer alike.

Nelson ward encompasses most of the seafront and the parallel streets reaching west to the River Yare. It is also amongst the most deprived wards in the country which alone makes it a prime target for racist organisations eager to capitalise on its social problems and to throw the focus of blame on to immigrants and migrant workers.

Tom Holmes, sometime chairman of the National Front, lives in nearby Caister-on-sea, and has regularly fought Nelson ward on behalf of the NF. His behaviour in the 2006 council elections saw him charged and found guilty of racially-aggravated harassment but Holmes was back to re-fight Nelson ward last May and took another shot in last night's by-election.

Old Tom's results in Nelson ward show why the BNP can hardly wait for him to pop his clogs so that they can move in. On his first outing in May 2006 Holmes scored a surprising 25.9% (with 345 votes), coming last in a three-cornered (Con/Lab/NF) contest. At the May local elections Holmes and the NF fell back slightly to 22.85% (with 298 votes) coming third out of four - a Green candidate brought up the rear.

Last night's by-election was very different from previous contests for a number of reasons. Though the ward had always been a Labour-Tory battleground, the Conservatives did not run a candidate, while the previously absent Liberal Democrats did. While the Greens stood again, so too did an independent. And there was a second "independent" - Tom Holmes, forced to fight without a party label as the National Front had neglected to register itself as a political party. However, Holmes fought a National Front campaign, and as the NF will broadcast any success he has we should judge Holmes's candidature accordingly.

Lab 329 (42.39)
LibDem 96 (12.37)
Green 43 (5.54)
Ind 259 (33.37)
Ind-NF 49 (6.31)

Total 776

Which, no matter how you look at it, has the appearance of a disastrous night for Holmes. Labour still has it but there is clearly room for an Independent in the seat - though not, by the looks of it, if he or she is linked (officially or not) with the National Front.

Conclusion

Another bad night, though not unexpectedly, for the BNP, a very bad night for Tom Holmes and another warning from us that if we carry on ignoring the signals from parish-level politics, we could be in for a few nasty surprises in a couple of years when the BNP suddenly produce a (small) handful of councillors who have been gathering experience at the parish pump. Lower-level politics are all part of Griffin's long-term game plan for the BNP, as we stated here and here. To ignore the importance of that plan is to badly underestimate the enemy.

Posted by Denise G and Antifascist

Addendum

BNP full-scale campaign defeated in Waltham Abbey

A major by-election effort by the BNP failed to bring the party victory after an anti-fascist community group leafleted the whole ward. But a very close result left the BNP just 18 votes behind the winning Conservative candidate with the Liberal Democrats a further seven votes behind.

This was a seat on Waltham Abbey Town Council, despite the insistence of Martin Wingfield, editor of the BNP's magazine Identity, that if Peter Cooper (whom Wingfield called Peter Copper) won, he would join the BNP's six councillors on Epping Forest District Council. He would not have, but as it is he goes nowhere.

Although town councils have minimal powers and are only concerned with essentially non-political very local issues, the BNP pulled out all the stops and ran a campaign with several leaflets and a full canvass of the nearly 3,000 homes in the ward, which lies just to the north of London. The BNP's main campaign theme was, of course, immigration, as if a town councillor could have any influence on it.

The by-election on 25 October 2007 was the result of the resignation of a Conservative councillor just six months after he had been elected. This put the Conservatives at an immediate disadvantage.

Redbridge and Epping Forest Together, determined to stop the BNP gaining any foothold even on a town council, produced a leaflet explaining how the BNP is a party of hate and fails local people by blaming all problems on migrants instead of promoting real solutions. A dedicated band of activists distributed it throughout the ward in the final week of the campaign together with an updated version of Searchlight's popular national Hope not Hate leaflet.

It did the trick, alongside campaigning by the three main parties. The BNP had expected to win especially after a higher than usual turnout in the party's strongest polling district. At the count BNP activists stormed out in disgust before the official declaration of the result. A crowd of them were spotted in a pub looking depressed afterwards.

No doubt the BNP will crow about its near victory and 8% increase in its share of the vote. For us the result shows that the BNP can be defeated even where it pulls out all the stops in a campaign in what is mainly a "white flight" area with plenty of scope to stoke up fears about migrants and crime. But the BNP remains a clear danger and we need to keep working hard to show people what the BNP is really about.

The BNP also contested a by-election on the same day for Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council in Manor ward, which covers part of Crosby, north of Liverpool. The BNP had not stood there in May 2007 and should not have bothered this time. The party persuaded only 94 people to vote for it, giving it just 4.1% of the vote, though will probably try to take some comfort by going on ad nauseam about the UK Independence Party's even worse 3.1%.

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