BFP links up with Australian far-right racists

Having formalised its alliance with the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party is now keen to reinforce its international links. The BFP has posted an extended interview with Andrew J. Philips, chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, who claims that the APP is a "sensible, moderate but uncompromising nationalist party". It is in fact a far-right group specialising in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim propaganda.

The APP's politics can be judged by the fact that their website has reproduced material by the British National Party and featured a video of a speech by South African white supremacist Arthur Kemp, author of March of the Titans: a History of the White Race, at a time when Kemp was a leading figure in the BNP ("Another one of Arthur Kemp's excellent speeches…not to be missed").

You can understand why the BFP and APP might enjoy a warm relationship, because the two organisations certainly have a lot in common. The BFP's new chairman Paul Weston has written an article entitled "The ethnic cleansing of the English", which warns that due to "mass immigration" the "indigenous race" will be reduced to "ethnic minority status in their homeland within twenty years".

Could EDL leader Stephen Lennon have been aware of this article when he told EDL members that Weston "has charisma, can speak well, and is a jolly good bloke"? After all, Lennon recently assured his local paper that the EDL leadership's response to racists is that "we find out who they are and we kick them out". When Lennon joins the BFP next year will he be calling for the expulsion of Paul Weston?

Islamophobia Watch

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

EDL/BFP and the Leaked Phone Calls

The English Defence League's alliance with the British Freedom Party is close to falling apart today after a telephone conference between senior BFP officials was leaked on the internet.

The EDL and the BFP have recently announced that they are forming an alliance together. The reasons are mainly thought to be the fact that the BFP need people to vote for them and the EDL need to go political in order to survive and lose their 'toxic' reputation, a reputation gained by the fact that many of their demonstrations end up in violence and their Facebook page and membership in general are overun with hard core racists who are more interested in targeting the Muslim community than Islamic extremists.

Simon Bennett (pictured, left), Lee Barnes, Peter Mullins and Gary Marshall were recorded discussing how they can use the English Defence League to their own advantage and Barnes instructs Bennet to keep hold of the EDL's membership database.

Click here to see the video

The leaked recording, which has turned into a massive embarrassment for BFP leadership and Simon Bennett is thought to have been recorded ten months ago when the they were first started talks with the EDL.

In a Facebook status update, an admin thought to be either Bennett or Weston, is currently undergoing a damage limitation exercise and claiming that the recorded conversation took place ten months ago. The update is full of conspiracy theories about leaked members addresses and a plot by the Muslim Defence League to murder him and gang rape his children. We are unaware of any complaints being made to the police about this.

In response to the recent audio file 'leaked' by the Muslim Extremist Hackers of the EDL Facebook page, British Freedom wish to clarify a few points:Simon Bennett, British Freedom Party

Firstly, the leaker of this ten month old Skype recording is an expelled member of British Freedom that has been waging a hate campaign against British Freedom ever since.

So much so that they have conspired with the BNP and the Muslim Defence League in order to release the name and address of the EDL webmaster to the Muslim Defence League and MAC in order to have him (and his young family) murdered. This can all be substantiated with facts and hard evidence if need be. These are the people (just some of them) that Simon Bennett traced via IP addresses cross referenced against other data that have threatened to have his children ‘gang raped’ and murdered.

Now, the fact that this 'leaked' Skype conference was recorded by these people in the first place ought to raise the question WHY it was recorded. The reason is obvious, they had every intention of releasing it at a time which they felt would cause British Freedom and the EDL the most damage.

Bearing in mind that this conversation was recorded over ten months ago and at an early stage of ‘negotiations’ between British Freedom and the EDL two questions have to be asked:

1. Why record it.
2. Why release it now.

The answer is of course obvious. To try in a desperate attempt to break the alliance the two groups have worked so damned hard to create. This ‘alliance’ was no spur of the moment idea. It was 18 months in the planning. A huge amount of discussion, planning, brain storming and thought went in to it.

If Skype conversations did not take place discussing the issues then you have cause for concern. Take another listen to the ‘leaked’ audio. Nothing untoward was said or discussed that either party would be afraid to repeat today.
The simple fact is this;

The opposition are terrified, absolutely mortified by the fact that a credible, non racist, non nazi political organisation in its embryonic stages is about to render all other party’s below the Lib-Dems null and void. It is in their interests (and that of Islamic Extremists) to ensure that this alliance fails.

Don’t be sucked in by this amateur attempt to derail us. The very fact they are trying so hard to do just that speaks volumes.

EDL members are naturally suspicious of the alliance and not all are happy with it. Simon Bennett is failing to win hearts and minds, mainly due to the stitch up of the British National Party when he took their website down the day before the last general election.

Yorkie Pudd

re the alliance with bfp ......all sounds dodgy as fuck to me @simon your a public figure? you sound like a spoilt brat mate ...eddy makes a good point " if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP?" ...and as for 30 quid to join your having a laugh ... i could go on but as it as been proved so many times there is no point ..are you sure your not related to weyman the cunt bennet?

Alan Furniss

if the bfp think im having anything to do with them after the way they chatted about edl members they,v gotta another thing coming id rather be natfront

Kevin Layzell ‎

The opposition are terrified? no ones terrified no ones heard of British freedom.

• "credible" as a purely Facebook political group its very hard to be non credible as there's little you can do to make yourself non credible
• "amateur attempt" this amateurs keep hacking the page.. they have brought down the EDL without even leaving their houses.
• What evidence do you have that they conspired with the BNP (I highly doubt the BNP wants to see him and his family murdered)
• " Simon Bennett traced via IP addresses" Simon Bennett seems good at tracking people down and handing out information... didn't he betray the BNP to try to bring them down? what a honourable fella.
• why did it take 18 months for British freedom and EDL to form an alliance it doesn't seem like anything has changed?

Lee Collins

No no no no no! Don't you see? it gives us NO credibility. It makes us a laughing stock. If the EDL wanted to be more political it should have either formed a political party called the English Defence Party or had discussions with other parties, come to a decision an then those who didn't or couldn't support that party would leave. Having 'secret' discussions behind our backs to stitch up a deal with any political party just makes mugs of us all. And this is not a BNP vs BFP thing either. It could be UKIP it could be anyone. And stop saying we can vote for who we like! How can we vote for one party and belong to a movement which is actively helping another party

Chris Bangtidy Belsher

Tell you what Simon- how about you and this British Freedom Party get to fuck and when you get there you fuck off some more. You think that I've stood on the streets up and down this great country in freezing conditions, endured police giving me fuck and run the gauntlet of mad muslims throwing rocks and threatening to kill me just to be used to bolster some weak as fuck political parties numbers? You seriously think anyone is seriously going to vote for a party with no financial manifesto? no employment manifesto? Etc etc etc, you haven't got a clue.

Eddy Stevens

Simon, if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP? ANSWER: Took BNP website offline the day before a major election. I ask, would a genuine patriot have done that?

Yorkie Pudd

all sounds dodgy as fuck to me @simon your a public figure? you sound like a spoilt brat mate ...eddy makes a good point " if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP?" ...and as for 30 quid to join your having a laugh ... i could go on but as it as been proved so many times there is no point ..are you sure your not related to weyman bennet?

Chris Bangtidy Belsher

British Freedom Party- bit of an oxymoron really. You won't be getting my vote, you won't be getting my money and you'll definitely won't be getting my support. I'm EDL not BFP and if this so called freedom Party is made up of semi literate halfwits like Simon then they're doomed.

EDL News

Does the new EDL/BFP merger mean the end for the BNP?

As the EDL/BFP merger of fascists gathers pace, does it spell the end for the decaying carcass of the BNP?

The last week has been an interesting one for the far right. The EDL has merged (to a point) with the British Freedom Party. Whilst the idea of having a ‘street wing’ and a ‘political wing’ appeals to many EDL supporters, for some it is abhorrent. The far right blogs, discussion forums, and social networking sites have been a hotbed for debate and discussion about this issue over the last few days. Well, they start off that way, but the in a typically fascist fashion, people are blocked or thrown off forums for disagreeing.

The British Freedom Party is reporting that they are struggling to cope with sheer volume of membership applications they are receiving from EDL members. With the BNP’s plummeting membership, due to Nick Griffins idiocy, the watering down of their policies, and financial shenanigans, there really is a gap in the market for the BFP/EDL. I suspect that many BNP followers will now drift over to the BFP as they see numbers rising from EDL members having dual membership. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that in a year’s time it will be the BFP that is the leading far right group in the UK? With membership numbers going in polar opposite directions fast, the perilous financial situation at the BNP, as opposed to the very successful merchandise thievery by Robinson, anything is possible.

EDL members are viewing this as a direct challenge to the BNP, and therefore do not support it, whilst others are pleased because the see the BNP as finished, and are looking for something new.

One of the other big issues seems to be the concern that they will split the far right vote if the BNP and BFP stand in the same area. They should not be overly concerned with this, as they would only be splitting 1.8% two ways in each constituency.

Many are welcoming being part of a ‘legitimate’ political party whilst still being able to participate in their favourite pastime of getting full of ale and threatening people in the street. This is a pastime which the BNP have tried to move away from over the last decade.

I can imagine Fuhrer Griffin fuming at this. He has brought his party too close to the centre ground for most UK Nazi’s, and he may well pay with the death of his party. Or I may be wrong, and the BFP just turn out to be a flash in the pan. Either way, I will enjoy seeing them stabbing each other in the back as only fascists can.

As a side issue, have you noticed that as well as Pepsi, the BFP logo has striking similarities with that of the British Union of Fascists?

libcom

The Numbers Game.

The talkboards and chatrooms have been busy over the last couple of days with talk of numbers., Specifically, the numbers of those attending meetings held by the rival camps in the BNP.

“70!” Shout Eddy Butler's camp of Monday's meeting in Yorkshire. “40! No – 35!” Yell the Griffin camp - “And we get more than that!”

It's like watching tramps fighting in a puddle over pennies.

The Griffin camp are increasingly cagey these days about claimed numbers for their meetings. Tired of being laughed out of the (chat) room with claims of “a packed hall last night listened with rapt attention to the words of wisdom of our Dear Leader. A collection raised in excess of a quarter of a million pounds.”, they often prefer now to leave the figures out of it and deal in euphemisms: “a lively audience” or “one of the most successful meetings for a long time”.

To hear them brandish their figures you'd think we were talking about Glastonbury-sized events at the very least. But 70 people? From the whole of Yorkshire? 80 to 100 people (at a meeting graced with the presence of their Leader) in London? In Derby, a friend runs a pub that hosts a monthly meeting of a long-established model railway club. He never has less than 90 turn out for it.

Of course, both camps will illustrate their meeting reports with photographs. The Griffin side's pictures now have a familiar mise en scene - a medium close-up of the Speaker with just a handful of the audience visible. A cynic might almost suggest that the framing's kept tight to disguise the acres of empty seats, the tumbleweed blowing through the room and the three people at the back who thought it was quiz night and got the day wrong.

The BFP (both Parties) haggle over whether their Membership is a few dozen or an even fewer dozen. There are “Nationalist” groups out there whose numbers of breeding pairs have fallen so low that the United Nations have them on the special protection register.

As ever, of course, these are the very people who try and present themselves as “The Saviours Of The Nation”. Given the numbers involved, and assuming they're probably not gifted with super powers (in which event 4 would probably do it), we can assume the Nation is quite okay as it is, thanks.

And in the background is the suspicion that they're all desperate to latch onto the sort of numbers the EDL are currently boasting. The BNP for one, despite their public “proscription” of the EDL and all its works early on in their life, continue to cuddle up to them on any number of “Patriot” websites and blogs and, occasionally, in public (most recently in Barnsley). BNP Members are spotted in the crowd whenever the EDL hold one of their drunken rampages (sorry-that should read “demonstrations”), and yet they still remain in Griffin's fold.

My own theory about the EDL is that they aren't so much a “political” force as an unpleasant fad. A bunch of sheep who enjoy being part of a big gang and causing a rumpus. Obviously, they're currently a lovely little earner for the iffy likes of “Tommy Robinson” and his chums (and, in a way, it's a shame they're not a “Party” because their accounts would make as interesting a read as the BNP's), but most of them are about as “political” as toddlers, and as with all trends they'll move on and one day be as hard to find as Kajagoogoo fans.

But everyone - BNP, BFP, NF, BFP, EDP – would love to capture just a fraction of their numbers. And their money, obviously.

One thing about the Anti-Fascists, be they UAF, CARF, or any number of smaller organisations (and surprisingly few Anti's – like myself - are actually paid-up members of any formal group): We're remarkably consistent in the numbers who will turn out for the Cause. Last year, 8000 people turned out on in filthy weather in Barnsley for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival. 8000 people?

The BNP could only boast a fraction of that for their last “Festival”.

“Folk Against Fascism” - formed as a reaction to Griffin's attempts to co-opt folk music as being somehow “theirs” - has grown in a couple of years to a large, lively and professional outfit. Just seeing the amount of people wearing the badge at the recent BBC Folk Awards should send a message to him that he was barking up the wrong tree. Again.

But the bottom line – the only numbers that really matter – are the amount of people who will actually vote for the Far-Right: And those are figures that speak for themselves.

Very few. And even fewer every year.

But now I'm falling into the trap of boasting about numbers; shouting about how we've got more Supporters than they have. Honestly - it's pathetic...

(But we have.)

Here Come The New Lot, Same As The Old Lot

The best thing about Anti Fascism is that it's never dull. Just as things look like they're getting boring and formulaic, something invariably turns up to jolly things along.

Attacking the BNP at the moment, for example, is getting a bit like going out to hunt kittens with a high-powered sniper rifle: The poor, bedraggled old fascists, soundly rejected by the very country they once dreamed of saving, led by the most inept bunch of criminals since the Ant Hill Mob and reduced to begging for pennies from their dwindling band of Supporters, are now the political equivalent of some drooling old wino going on at passers-by that “I'm a respected politician, you know...”

The EDL have settled into their predictable routine of delivering coachloads of hooligans to perfectly nice towns, like some horribly twisted courier service, who then charge around yelling and throwing things at anyone who isn't White before fishing out a suitably Asian spokesman to mumble something for the TV about how “we're not racist, honest.” Not only have they already had their cards marked by everyone from the Home Office to the Local Government Association, but they're about as well-loved and popular with the General Public as Heather Mills and George Osborne driving a Humvee at top speed through a busy children's playground. While playing the jingle from the “WE BUY ANY CAR DOT COM” advert at 200 decibels.

And now, along comes the British Freedom Party. The brainchild of a handful of disaffected ex-BNP stalwarts, it so far exists only as a registration form at the Electoral Commission and a shiny, bland logo above a (stock) photograph of a happy, smiling, multicultural crowd.

Giving an indication of the ineptitude and mayhem that may yet follow is the always-entertaining presence of self-styled guru of the Far-Right, dreadful novelist, worse poet, foul-mouthed blogger and “lawyer”, Lee John Barnes.

Starting a new party with Barnes as an integral part of it is a little like developing a new aircraft which incorporates Ryvita as a structural component. It probably isn't going to get very far.

Headed up by ex-BNP Organiser Peter Mullins and ex-BNP employee Michaela MacKenzie, the new outfit claims to be a “Civic Nationalist” party, who make much play of having a real accountant – John Savage (Please note: That's not the John Savage who had his legs cut off in The Deer Hunter) as their Treasurer, and a promise of ensuring greater financial probity that their last party. Although, next to the likes of Dowson and Griffin, a Pyramid Selling scheme run by Terry-Thomas would look a safe bet.

Predictably, the chatter has already begun on the Far-Right talkboards and chatrooms, with Griffin's trained apes attacking from one side (because it'll mean even fewer donors – sorry - “Supporters”), Butler's Reform Faction taking a different tack (claiming that people should still stick with the BNP because they'll run it one day, they really will) and even their own Supporters banging on about how they should never, under any circumstances, refer to the party by its acronym, because “BFP” is a bit too similar to “BNP”. This last one's a bit of a puzzler.

One might even suggest that someone could've thought that one through a bit more before it was too late.

Or maybe those in charge only noticed it when they proudly logged onto the Electoral Commission website and simultaneously clasped their hands to their foreheads and shouted “Doh!” as they saw it for the first time in black and white.

They are, of course, right; it is a bit similar. In fact, having checked this out with the Campaign for the Deacronymisation of Britain (the CDB), I can confirm that, even now, Anti-Fascists everywhere are preparing to chant “BFP! BNP! They Are All The Same To ME!” whenever they show their (strangely familiar) faces in public.

If they ever get that far.

They've already been nicknamed “Fluffy Fascists”. To judge from what has already appeared by way of “policy discussion” (courtesy of Barnes – and you won't be entirely surprised to learn that the first thing on their agenda is “Immigration”), they're just the same old Fascists the BNP ever were.

With a fluffy logo.