Anyone remember Charlotte Lewis?

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Does anyone remember the ghastly Charlotte Lewis, former BNP and now doyen of the even smaller British Freedom mob? As you can see, she's still as bad as ever.

Unmasked: wealthy backers behind far-right league

A property tycoon and a City-based financier quizzed by police over his links to the gunman who slaughtered 69 people in Norway are exposed today as key figures behind the rise of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that Ann Marchini, a mother from Highgate, north London, and Alan Ayling, a former director of an investment fund, have sought to mould the thuggish anti-Muslim group into a credible political force.

They are both linked to the murky world of the online "counter-jihad" movement from which Anders Behring Breivik drew ideological inspiration before committing his massacre in Norway in July. They have remained in the shadows until now by using aliases on the internet to mask their true identities.

Breivik repeatedly mentioned the EDL in his 1,600-page "manifesto" and once belonged to an Oslo-based offshoot called the Norwegian Defence League.

The EDL, whose support has mushroomed since it was formed in Luton in 2009, has organised a string of protests against what it perceives as the growing "Islamisation" of Britain.

Many have descended into violence perpetrated by a hard core of football hooligans.

However, the "brains" behind the group — which plans to field candidates at the next council elections — come from a different background.

Marchini, who is thought to be in her fifties, runs a buy-to-let property empire from her £1.6m mock-Tudor home in Highgate, a leafy suburb usually associated with liberals.

Marchini, who is believed to be divorced from an Italian banker, operates under at least two aliases: "Gaia", the Earth goddess from Greek mythology, and "Dominique Devaux".

She is said to have helped organise a "pivotal" meeting between EDL figures and anti-jihad thinkers in July 2009 and recently attended a discussion where the EDL agreed to consider an electoral pact with the right-wing British Freedom party (BFP).

A report by Gaia on the BFP website states that Stephen Lennon, the EDL leader, "explained that the EDL need to move up a notch — they cannot go on forever staging street demos. They are still widely perceived as a rabble, and as such cannot possibly obtain funding or be taken seriously by the political class".

Marchini was photographed alongside Lennon, 28, at a far-right demonstration this year and the image was posted on the website of Hope Not Hate, an anti-fascist group. Her name and address also appeared on a leaked list of EDL donors.

The 2009 EDL meeting took place at the £500,000 flat of Ayling in the Barbican in central London. Lennon attended with two relatives from Luton.

Paul Ray, who claims to be a founder of the EDL, was also there. He says he travelled to the venue from Highgate with Marchini, whom he knew at the time as "Ann", "Gaia" or "Dominique". He says he had previously stayed for "a few months" at one of her rental flats on British Street in Bow, east London.

Ray regards the Barbican meeting as "pivotal". "It was the key people being brought together," he said. "It was bringing together the ideological and political side with the boots on the ground."

Two days after the meeting, Ray received an email from "Dominique Devaux", using the account "gaia2600@hotmail.com". "Still very interested in helping EDF [sic] grow as a movement," it stated. It was signed off by "Ann".

Another email, seen by The Sunday Times, gives a mobile number used by Marchini for letting her properties.

Ayling, 57, has been operating under the alias "Alan Lake". He is an IT expert and was a director of Pacific Capital Investment Management until January this year. The fund was dissolved in August.

Last month Ayling was interviewed by officers from Scotland Yard at the behest of Norwegian police who were investigating whether he was a possible "mentor" of Breivik.

Paal-Fredrik Kraby, an Oslo police prosecutor, confirmed that "the man known as Alan Lake" had been questioned. "But his real name is not for us to give to the press," he said.

In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper nine days ago, Lake denied having any contact with Breivik. However, he admitted to having met a prolific anti-Islam blogger called "Fjordman". "People ought to read him, he is good," Lake said. Breivik named Fjordman 111 times in his manifesto.

In the same interview, Lake said Breivik was "wrong", but added the following about Norway's immigration policies: "You let in dangerous people who do not share your values, who will destroy your society and take your freedom. You will have to pay the price for that."

When shown a photograph of Lake last week, two separate sources at the Barbican confirmed that the man in the picture was Ayling. A man inside his flat denied he was Ayling when contacted over the intercom and refused to step outside. Ayling did not respond to a written list of questions.

Norwegian police say Lake was interviewed in London as a "witness". They have also spoken at length to Ray, 35, who voluntarily flew to Oslo to try to clear his name after speculation that he could have unwittingly inspired Breivik.

The Norwegian gunman, 32, who has been declared insane by psychiatrists, claimed in his manifesto that he once had an English mentor called "Richard (the Lionhearted)". Ray, a born-again Christian who subsequently fell out with the EDL, runs a blog called Lionheart.

When The Sunday Times first approached Marchini about her EDL links on November 30, she slammed the door shut on a reporter. Last week, she and her son, Paolo, hung up at least three times when contacted by telephone.

On Friday, a lawyer for Marchini said: "Ann Marchini does not operate under the alias of either Dominique Devaux or Gaia. She is a member of British Freedom, but joined only to show support for her personal friend Paul Weston [the chairman]."

Two names on Dominique Devaux's list of Facebook friends — Paolo and Bianca Marchini — disappeared on the same day.

Weston, a former UK Independence party candidate, said he could not recall befriending Devaux on Facebook. He described Breivik as "a psychopathic lunatic".

Lennon admitted knowing Marchini under the Devaux alias, but denied she was influential. He said Lake was a "nutjob" and had not been involved with the EDL "for ages". Lennon, a former member of the British National party, denied the EDL was racist and said Breivik was "a monster".

The Sunday Times

British Freedom make themselves look stupid

Paul Weston (right)

At Christmas time the far right aided by some sections of the right wing tabloid press traditionally cook up a “Christmas is being banned “story that inevitably turns out to be untrue.

This year’s Yuletide award for stupidity goes to the miniscule BNP splinter British Freedom led by UKIP reject Paul Weston. British Freedom announced a link up with the thuggish EDL just last month with the possibility of EDL members standing as election candidates under the British Freedom umbrella.

It seems the victim of this year’s made up Christmas story is the much loved charity The British Red Cross with British Freedom announcing on their Facebook page “The British Red Cross has again banned overt reference to Christmas from its 430 fundraising shops to avoid “cultural insensitivity” Do not donate to them.”

However The British Red Cross are old hands at this having dealt with this kind of nonsense since The Daily Mail printed an incorrect story about them back in 2002. On their website The British Red Cross under an article entitled “How the Red Cross didn’t ban Christmas” quickly demolished the untrue story.

“To reiterate: this story is now nine years old. Many of our shops and offices are decked out in Christmas decorations, and our online Christmas gift shop is open for business. We have in no way “banned Christmas” nor have we discussed doing so.”

They continued “It’s true that you won’t find explicitly religious items or displays, relating to any faith, in any of our shops, at Christmas or any other time. But this certainly doesn’t amount to a ban on us celebrating or mentioning Christmas, or any other holiday. And it’s absolutely nothing to do with “offending non-Christians” or to serve any other sort of politically correct agenda.

The point is that the Red Cross is not a political or religious organisation. This neutrality is one of our fundamental principles and governs everything we do in the whole Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. We can’t let people in need down by compromising our neutrality. That is why we do not align ourselves with any particular political cause or religious creed anywhere in the world. And that’s why we don’t have any items of a religious nature in our shops.”

Red faced British Freedom administrators quickly deleted the posting from Facebook when it was pointed out to them that what they had claimed was nonsense and are now pretending the whole incident didn’t happen.

Good job we managed to get hold of this screen grab.

Hope not Hate

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

It’s The EDL & British Fluffies Love-In!

Well, well, well, the EDL leadership have finally surrendered and admitted that their demos have been a complete waste of time and are now making a bid for political respectability by linking up with the fluffy fascist British Freedom. The recent demos have dwindled in numbers and many ‘members’ have left in disgust over the constant violence and overt racism of this ‘not racist, not violent, but violently racist’ peaceful protest movement.

The EDL have lost a lot of credibility in the last 6 months. After all their blether about ‘taking’ Tower Hamlets they were humiliated, massively outnumbered and unable to get to where they wanted to go – ‘we go where we want, when we want!’ Not really! The whole of Nottingham EDL were attacked and arrested and their pin-up, Joanne ‘Bus Stop Pole Dancer’ Dickens, fell off the coach and got a kick up the drainpipe. Their Birmingham demo attracted even less and ended up in a drunken brawl with a great many Facebook posters expressing disgust or resigning en masse. The Remembrance day round-up was even more embarrassing and disgraceful and since then Napoleon Lennon has desperately been looking for an out. Tiny Tom was lucky to not get sent down at his last court appearance for the Blackburn headbutt and he certainly wasn’t looking forward to another ‘hunger strike.’ Mrs. Tommy told him that he wasn’t to get into trouble anymore and his recent self-pitying video diary really took the Garibaldi! ‘Me Nan’s ill, me business is stuck, me assets are frozen and I’m having to sleep in the spare room with the unsold hoodies (still available! £10 discount!).’ So he needed a face-saving alternative and the very desperate and tiny British Fluffy Party offered him one: you bring in possible votes, we will give you an exit so you can concentrate on your ‘political career’ before rapidly fading out to ‘concentrate on the family.’

Many EDL are also bothered over Tommy being a prima donna and getting all that publicity: when Tommy is nicked, it’s demos outside the courthouse or prison and ‘Tommy Robinson Defence Fund’ collections (make all cheques payable to the EDL royal couple, Stella and Charlie). When the regular arse clowns are nicked, it’s tough luck boys, you’re on your own. And these cases are frequent let me tell you! Don’t take our word for it, check out the postings on the various court cases on Everything EDL:

Unbelievable.

So Tommy, all too aware of his waning popularity with the EDL and his wife, asked Mrs. Tommy if he could meet up with his chumleys for a ‘Way Backwards’ meeting somewhere in the Midlands on Saturday for an hour after teatime. There was a rumour buzzing about that he was going to stand-down as leader but he realised that this would lose him what little credibility he has left and instead he retained his position whilst offering his support to the British Fluffies. The meeting location was secret and consequently loads of EDL were wandering around confused in Brum which was probably a good thing as one who finally got there was less than impressed:

‘i was at the meeting i traveled a long way the meeting sarted very late was hold in public house so yes thats right by time meeting sarted several edl members had been drinking meeting was a shambles and not many members were even listing to busy having a dring there was very little respect couldlnt even hear quiestions and answers over drunken rabble (Sic!).'

Tommy also successfully ducked any questions over the Zionist connections and the Star of David flags. There is still discord in the EDL however and the North/South divide remains.

Fluffy Fascism

So who are the British Fluffies (BFP) then? Well, they are one of the smallest ones in the alphabetti spaghetti of the far right parties: so far we have BNP (Griffinites), BNP (Bronsites), UKIP, ED, NF, BPP, and the NPP. All are fairly interchangeable policy wise, operate on the cult of leadership principle and have too many Morecambe’s and not enough Wisdom. They all stand in the few places where votes are likely, in direct competition with each other, as the NF and BNP have always done, and split the far right vote. Despite calls for unity, it never happens.

The Fluffies were formed as yet another offshoot of the BNP and feature Simon Bennett, Peter Mullins, Peter Stafford and exUKIP Paul Weston. They have recently purged their leadership clique in a ‘Night of the Pen Knives’ and sidelined the likes of Batty Lee Barnes who has too much holocaust denial baggage and is mental anyway. He is now ‘writing a novel’ about a magic dog that talks. Bennett was the BNP webmeister who famously pulled the plug the day before the General Election and has since been reviled by a great many bitter Nazis. Peter Stafford was hounded out of Liverpool BNP for being gay and having a gay dad and so sought refuge amidst the Fluffies. I Googled Peter Mullins but just got a blank screen. As far as purging well-known Nazis the head Fluffies have operated with some political acumen. However, the Fluffies are now in cahoots with a violent football hooligan who has served time for assaulting a policeman and is under investigation for fraud. Nice one! Suddenly holocaust-denying, magic dog writers sound remarkably tame! This is clearly going to bite the Fluffies on the arse and it is only a matter of time before the usual recriminations start. The Fluffies have clearly been dazzled by the popular support of the EDL although they have come in a bit late as EDL numbers have never been so low and there are a great many EDLers who are unhappy over Tommy, Fluffy endorsement and the fact they are stalwart BNP voters. The EDL clearly haven’t read the Fluffies 20 Point Plan as one reads that they will ‘Ensure that a no class-A drugs policy is enforced.’ Some cheeky wee rascal on Urban75 said that ‘it’s a typo and they meant to say ‘Ensure that no class-A drugs policy is enforced.’ Naughty!

Factions

Apart from deserting members there are other splinter factions which include the 6 or so Liverpool EDL who are too incompetent to change their Facebook page and so are Infidels in all but name. They have been involved in scab activity such as attacking union offices and threatening people who were on strike. To make matters worse, Tiny Tommy’s PA Hel ‘Stomach Band’ Gower, who is 70, has fallen out with Paul Pitt in the Kent Division and they look seriously rocky. Other divisions have folded completely. Some of the more excitable elements have been threatening Occupy sites and attacked a pro-Palestinian group in Glasgow at the weekend. They have also been making noises about attacking workers’ organizations during the strike on November 30th! Scabs by any other name and acting like the fascists in the 1926 General Strike. Oh, and the Combined ExForces imploded rather publicly and spectacularly last week with the CO firing the 2nd in command and the 2nd in command firing the CO. The remaining 3 members are very confused indeed.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/edl-watch.262722/page-198

Post 5928 onwards.

Conclusion

So, despite the initial bloom of romance will the Fluffy/EDL partnership flourish? Tommy has way too much ‘legal history’ to stand a chance in any election so this is clearly a way of backing out nobly whilst he can. The Fluffies have had the ‘Night of the Pen Knives’ and have ‘cleansed’ the ranks of those who were in ‘previously disreputable organizations.’ The EDL are split over those still enjoying the days out on the demos and the gradual realization that they have got smaller and smaller and the only media attention they get is wholly negative. We shall see...

Malatesta's Blog

British Freedom Party secretly discuss EDL

This is an audio recording of Simon Bennett, Lee Barnes, Peter Mullins and Gary Marshall discussing how they can use the EDL. Listen how Barnes tells Bennett to keep hold of the data base he (Bennett) has on EDL members...

...And they thought they wiped this Skype conference off the web? Suckers!

Live Leak

Thanks to LeakMeister for the heads-up

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

If You Blinked, You Probably Missed It: The Rise & Fall Of The BFP

Once upon a time, there was Oswald Mosley's Hitler-loving “British Union of Fascists”. Following a World War against Hitler, which somewhat dented their electoral popularity (although their vote probably still holds up in rural pockets of North Yorkshire and the Home Counties), Mosley founded the “Union Movement”. Figures from the UM, led by Arch-Nazi A K Chesterton, later split and went on to give it another go with the “League of Empire Loyalists”.

Following more splits, disagreements (and still not a sniff of electoral success) in the LEL, the “National Front” came into being.

The NF, under the rancid leadership of the purple-necked John Tyndall (and by associating itself with the rabble-rousing racism of Enoch Powell), managed to mobilise a brief resurgence of the Far-Right during the 1970's, but were soon shown the door by a massively bigger, broadly-based campaign in the form of the Anti Nazi League and it's hugely successful offshoot, “Rock Against Racism”.

Internal squabbles (and plotting by young leader Nick Griffin) led, in a now-familiar pattern, to the birth of the BNP.

Years of financial mismanagement, despotic behaviour and yet more plotting (this is, after all, a man who probably wakes up, tells Jackie he'd like cereal for breakfast and then spends the next half-hour working behind her back, starting online smear campaigns and forming various short-lived alliances to ensure that he gets eggy bread...) finally, and inevitably, led to the mother of all splits.

And so, in 2010, amid great fanfare, with a shiny, friendly logo, a stock library photo that made its membership look exactly 300% more attractive and pleasant than they actually are and powered by the hopes, dreams and Paypal clicks of slight-witted racists (but not TOO racist – that's their USP, you see...) across the nation, the “British Freedom Party” was born, helped into the world by midwives Simon Bennett and Lee Barnes.

Oh dear.

Sweeping all asunder as it powered its way to the heart of British politics, the BFP soon boasted a staggering (well, at least a couple of them enjoy a drink) 30+ Members. (There are those who say it could be twice that. Tremble, o ye Lefties!) The new force in Nationalism hit the ground running and wasted no time at all in fomenting discord within its ranks and having splits of its own.

Given that the Left has a reputation (albeit somewhat deserved) for splits and divisions (which, I might add, are entirely the fault of the Fabian Society. All the rest of us – especially me and people I happen to like – are completely blameless, you understand...), it's nice to see that our fallings-out pale into insignificance compared to the Permanent State Of Total War that exists at the other end of the spectrum.

Simon Bennett, self-styled hero of the Far Right, has (as has been pointed out before) a few funny little ways about him. In much the same way as the man who used to live in Derby (name of “Cosmic” Ray) and wore a skullcap fashioned from copper wire that enabled him, he claimed, to communicate with the Aliens who lived beneath Stonehenge, had his own “funny little ways”.

Aside from paranoia (a current concern is that he could be subject to attacks from Cornish Jihadists. Of which there are, in his own imagination, many.) , an obsessive nature and a very thin skin, Bennett has something of a temper on him. In fact, if politics were run in the real world like they are in the parallel dimension of the Bennettverse, we might get Hansard recording exchanges like:

Mr Edward Miliband (Lab Doncaster North): Does the Prime Minister not feel that more should be done to ease the burden of the less fortunate of our country, and that it is the rich who should pay?

Mr David Cameron (Con Witney): I thank the Honourable Member for his question, and would remind the **** that I know where he lives and he'll be getting a ******* visit from me and my ******* housebrick if he don't button it. I done it before, I did, and he should see the state I left the **** in that time.

On his own, Simon Bennett (like Griffin before him) is enough to spell doom for any outfit he latches onto. Team him with Barnes, however, and it's as though someone just hit a fresh, rich vein of new chuckles in a comedy goldmine that just opened in your back garden.

(He recently claimed to have "Some people very worried!" No-one's "worried", as yet, by the mighty army of the BFP. Very, very amused, maybe, but not exactly "worried".)

Barnes, with his background of wonderfully inept poetry, execrable attempts at novels and Tourettes-like swearing, sees himself as the intellectual wing of the Party, and he's long argued the case for the Far Right to “reach out” to the electorate by presenting as friendly and approachable a face as possible.

A notable example of Barnes p.r manner was this friendly, approachable post:

“Now shut the **** up you pathetic whining maggots.”

Or how about “Just shut the **** up you boring gobshite ****.”

Gosh. It's like Kofi Annan, reborn.

With this pair beavering away behind the scenes, it's little wonder that the BFP have been shedding personnel (Chairs, Treasurers, etc) like there's no tomorrow. Or like the BNP. Which actually amounts to much the same thing.

The Holy Grail, of course, for all of the movers behind any of these short-lived, shabby little outfits, is to draw a salary and make a living from their followers. Griffin has set the benchmark here, as the first “Nationalist” since the days of Mosley to make a (very) comfortable living off the backs of racists and, as the BNP ship sinks there are sure to be plenty of others looking to take up where Griffin left off...

Born from splits, and they're dying the same way. In the case of the BFP, however, as they get ever smaller, there's at least the consolation that scientists will possibly use the phenomenon as the impetus to develop ever more powerful detection equipment; machines that can detect particles tinier that hitherto dreamt of...

Personally, my money's on a “relaunch” sometime soon before finally imploding at some point in 2011.

On the plus side: Once the BFP are out of the way, we can at least get back to taking the piss out of the Green Arrow.

The webmaster, the thugs and BNP-Lite

Simon Bennett, the BNP's former and now much-loathed webmaster, has always had a strange and manic desperation for recognition. Several weeks ago, when the British Freedom Party (or BNP-Lite) had only existed for about twenty minutes and had less than ten members, he appeared on TV as a representative of the BFP pontificating about whatever the current disaster was in the British National Party, which he had only recently left. As is common with many on the far-right, his complete devotion to his former party and its crooked leader turned to an all-consuming hatred almost overnight, and he found himself unable even to mention the BNP without exploding in all directions in his fury.

Having completely fallen out with the BNP, he then joined the BFP, a tiny far-right grouplet made up solely of BNP rejects and swivel-eyed lunatics like Lee Barnes, the BNP's former legal officer and resident fruitloop.

The BFP is a curious entity: it has done nothing of any consequence, has no real policies, has stood in no elections and has a membership that currently stands at around thirty, all of whom are committed losers, yet it seems to be sneaking around behind everyone's backs, trying quietly to gain some indefinable power from somewhere. Anywhere, in fact. And now it has bumped up against (and linked up with, if our correspondents are correct) the English Defence League.

Bennett's only claim to fame (apart from being a rabid fantasist - remember the BNP's very own James Bond plot?) is that he can put together a website that appears to work relatively well, even though it only runs as fast as Martin Reynolds after a heavy lunch. This talent appears to be much-valued on the far-right and Bennett therefore has a skill that others want to exploit - which one imagines is why the Islamophobic EDL is suddenly interested in Bennett and his little gang, and why Bennett is now running the EDL's website.

Rumour has it that the EDL is planning, in the near future, on moving more into politics and away from incessant street confrontations. The group's leaders can hardly have failed to notice that attendance at their numerous rallies is trending downwards (though the Luton demo this coming weekend is expected to be a biggie) and it is said that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and the other twats who lead the EDL would like to gain some political recognition before it loses any more of its momentum.

Thus, they are seeking advice on how to break into politics. And who are they seeking this advice from? Yes, the barely-visible British Freedom Party, that doesn't have a clue about politics and couldn't break into a wet tissue with a chainsaw.

Political realities aside, the BFP has its own troubles to deal with at the moment in any case, having split over a suggestion that Bennett may have walked off with £752 from one of its bank accounts. One half appears to believe he has already paid the money back while the other seems to think he's nicked it. It's not the first time Bennett has been caught up in money troubles - one of the accusations that followed him after his separation from the BNP was that he had walked off with a pile of money earned by badge sales. In fact, the far-right is and always has been rife with accusations of theft and fraud - all the way from Porky Griffin's spectacularly sticky fingers right down to Yaxley-Lennon and co being accused of diverting money from T-shirt sales.

Missing dosh aside, it's easy to see why the BFP wants to jump on the current EDL bandwagon but it's hard to see what's in it for the EDL apart from the embarrassment of being associated with the likes of Simon Bennett and the BFP. Rumour suggests that the EDL is also involved in talks with another far-right group, the English Democrats. Though just as crap as the BFP, the ED at least have had the experience of standing in the occasional election (readers may recall that in the recent Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election they scooped up a staggering 0.4% of the vote).

Asking the likes of the BFP and the English Democrats for political advice is about as currently sensible and completely pointless as entering Nick Clegg into a popularity contest - and having Simon Bennett involved in anything at all is a disaster waiting to happen.

Hmm, maybe Bennett's lot and the EDL could be a marriage made in heaven, after all - for us, anyway.