New party, same old politics? - Investigation

HOPE not hate has recently criticised the English Democrats (ED) for allowing dozens of former BNP members to get involved in the party without any public denunciation of their former political allegiances. ED leader Robin Tilbrook has insisted that all those coming over have left their former racist views behind. He even told a recent English Democrat conference: “They [the former BNP members] will help us become an electorally credible party. We need to be sure they ascribe to civic or cultural nationalism and that they will be an asset to our party, but we do not need to be too defensive”.

The most prominent of the former BNP members in the English Democrats is Chris Beverley. Here, HOPE not hate researchers cast an eye on the validity of Beverley's political conversation.

Chris Beverley, the former Yorkshire BNP organiser and councillor has detached himself from all things BNP and extremist, or at least that is what he would like you to believe. In a speech made to the English Democrats conference held last month, Beverley stated “I endorse the EDP’s opposition to extremism. I oppose all forms of extremism.”

Referring to his former membership of the BNP he continued “We all make mistakes in our lives and we all have ideas that we hold that we change over time but I believe and have come to the realisation that the English Democrats' approach to politics is the only hope that our people have."

Some people will welcome Beverley’s rejection of the BNP and extremism in general, however when the surface is scratched we reveal that the mask of respectability is paper thin.

Beverley recently wrote on his blog about a Leeds English Democrat meeting being held in his home town of Morley. He appealed for people to join the party and as the Leeds branch had recently opened a bank account, suggested prospective members send their membership fees and donations there, circumventing the party’s national office in Norwich.

The Leeds address for membership fees and donations is a familiar one. It’s the same PO Box that Beverley has operated for years. For much of the time it was the contact address for Leeds BNP. It appears to have shifted over to the English Democrats with Beverley too.

Further inspection however, shows that this is still the same PO Box that the BNP’s erstwhile MEP Andrew Brons also uses for his European work. If Beverley is so appalled by the politics of the BNP then why does he still work for one of its MEPs? If Beverley’s politics had changed so much then why has a BNP MEP allowed him to continue to work for him? If there is such a wide difference in political attitudes then why do both the English Democrats and the BNP share a PO Box?

To say the least, it is rather unusual to have two supposed rival political parties sharing the same address. But it does not end there. Along with his wife Joanna who is also an ex BNP councillor, Chris Beverley is listed with Joanna to the very same PO Box for something else, this time called “The Morley Community Trust.” The trust is an organisation set up with the intention of enabling local schools to switch to trust status. Both Chris and Joanna Beverley are listed as directors of the trust.

On his blog, Beverley sells a well known right wing book on English nationalism, instructing potential buyers to send their payments made out to “The Morley Community Trust.”

What sort of trust status the Beverley’s envisage for schools in Morley and Leeds remains a mystery. But as part of his conference speech to the English Democrats, Beverley discussed the notion of large numbers of BNP members jumping ship from the BNP to join both he and his wife in the English Democrats. He told the conference “Only a fraction of those people leaving the BNP will be interested in the English Democrats - only a fraction. The good news for us is that it is only the best people in that party that will have any interest in us. The most intelligent, rational, enlightened decent people - that's the good news for us.”

One of Beverley’s ex-BNP companions at the conference was Andrew Kershaw, an ex BNP official from Kirklees. Kershaw, the ex-secretary and treasurer of Yorkshire BNP has a conviction for racially abusing a police officer during a drunken night out several years ago.

Also photographed with Beverley, this time at a recent English Democrat meeting in Bridlington is the ex BNP organiser for the town Gary Pudsey.

Pudsey who has also previously been a National Front, Blood and Honour and Combat 18 activist was arrested along with 15 others in 1994 for their part in an attack on a bookshop in Nottingham which caused £10,000 worth of damage.

Pudsey displays a number of far right tattoos on his forearms. Pudsey has also previously been photographed with Magnus “Max” Wagegg, an unapologetic ex- Luftwaffe pilot and Nazi, who lived in the West Midlands after the war and became a beacon to far right groups including Combat 18, Blood and Honour and the tiny Aryan Resistance Movement who were active in the area.

Perhaps Kershaw and Pudsey are some of the “intelligent, rational, enlightened decent people” that Chris Beverley refers to?

We certainly wouldn’t use the term “enlightened” when we look at some of the European far right links Chris Beverley has.

Fluent in German, Beverley was a regular guest of the German far right political party the NPD. So close was Beverley to the NPD that he wrote a bi monthly column in the NPD’s newspaper “Deutsche Stimme”.

Beverley also has had ties with the European National Front, an umbrella organisation for some of Europe’s most extreme and openly fascist organisations. They include groups that deny the Holocaust, worship Adolf Hitler and other wartime fascist leaders, and have been linked to terrorism.

Beverley spoke at a European National Front meeting in Feb 2007 hosted by the NPD. The meeting, held in Reisa, Germany was organised by the German skinhead leader Jens Puhse, who ran one of Europe’s largest nazi music mail order businesses.

The ENF brings together some of the most hard line anti-Semitic organisations from Europe. They include La Falange (Spain), Noua Dreapta (Romania), Forza Nuova (Italy), Nationale Alliantie (Holland) along with the Nordiska Förbundet (Sweden).

One of Beverley’s closest German friends is Andreas Heine. Heine is a hard-core Neo Nazi originating from Hamburg and was one of leaders of the Hamburger Sturm group, a group linked to the notorious German Neo Nazi Christian Worch and his Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland.

Hamburger Sturm was banned after police suspected the group of issuing death threats against a German trade union leader in April 2000.

Beverley is also a huge admirer of the Hungarian Neo Fascist party Jobbik and has met with various dignitaries from the party including Jobbik MEP Krisztina Morvai. Jobbik has gained notoriety when it formed its own uniformed militia the “Magyar Garda” often compared to the Hungarian Arrow Cross, the National Socialist party that led Hungary for part of World War Two.

His admiration for Jobbik is to such an extent that he gives away free copies of the parties manifesto to anyone prepared to ask for one, via his personal blog. All Beverley asks is that you cover the postage, by sending in stamps to the same Leeds PO Box Beverley uses for the English Democrats.


Thanks to Nick Lowles at Hope not Hate

English Democrats could become 'electorally credible' as BNP decline

Party has already claimed some defectors, but leader Robin Tilbrook warns new members must be 'genuine converts'

The red and white of the cross of St George was omnipresent, merchandise for sale included t-shirts emblazoned with the demand: 'Justice for the 50 million' and the prizes at an evening raffle included a box set of films by Shane Meadows. It could only be this year's annual conference of the English Democrats — a party whose handful of councillors and one elected mayor count as its achievements to date in its 10-year campaign for an English parliament.

Yet, as around 60 overwhelmingly white male delegates gathered at a hotel function room just outside Leicester at the weekend, a party long used to propping up the lower reaches of election ballots is suddenly being looked at in a new light by many beyond its self-professed membership of 3,500.

Thanks to a combination of factors, the most important of which being the implosion of the British National Party, serious political commentators now suggest the door is open for the EDs to exploit the supposedly significant gap in the electoral market for an anti-immigration, radical right party.

A trickle of disillusioned BNP activists have already defected to the party, which despite its motto of "Not Left, Not Right – Just English" is significantly more hardline on immigration than any at Westminster. They also want to pull out of the EU, ensure that the "public culture" of England should be that of the "indigenous English" and condemn "political correctness" as an "evil ideology".

Indeed, as party leader Robin Tilbrook said on Saturday, a new opportunity for the English Democrats was that "some of the people who wanted to do their honest best for our country but made the mistake of joining the BNP are now joining us and will help us become that electorally credible party. We need to be sure that such people are genuine converts to a more civic or cultural nationalism and that they will be an asset to our party, but we do not need to be too defensive."

The conference was addressed by one such convert, former BNP councilor Chris Beverley, who sought to address concerns that the English Democrats would be "deluged" by ex-BNP members, insisting instead that the importance of those coming over was that they tended to be "quality" activists who could make a difference.

"To me, the English Democrats are the real exciting new hope for us and there is huge potential for the party to do well," the Guardian was told by Beverley, who spoke glowingly of his new political home after spending 14 years – "my entire adult life" – in the BNP, which he likened to a cult. Even so, observers note that Beverley remains the constituency officer of Andrew Brons, one of the BNP's two MEPs, who recently challenged Nick Griffin for the leadership of that party.

In addition, another key figure who is awaiting a decision on his application to join the English Democrats is Eddy Butler, the BNP's former national organiser, an architect of past local election successes and a major rival to Griffin's leadership within the divided party.

"People like Butler and Beverley, who is important because he can run and win elections, have been flirting with the English Democrats as an alternative vehicle because in their minds, and in the minds of political commentators, there is significant potential in British politics for a radical rightwing party," according to Matthew Goodwin, author of New British Fascism: Rise of the BNP.

While Goodwin doesn't count English nationalism by itself as a vote winner, he suggests that a new radical right force could grow by tapping into public anxiety over immigration, law and order and hostility towards established parties.

"The test for the English Democrats will come if more people shift over. There might be awkward questions in the party among those who want it to remain BNP-free and those who would want to open up the door to all of these renegades on the right, much like what the NF was in the late 1960s. If it really starts to suck in BNP members and organisers, then you have something that is potentially very interesting - because there is unquestionably still a great deal of potential for a radical anti-establishment rightwing party."

Guardian

Gotcha

I don't often read the Sun newspaper, but whilst waiting for a short back and sides this morning I did happen to catch their front page: No-one here was surprised to see a senior BNP figure Nazi saluting, but it is good to see that something like eight million people who read that paper now get a real glimpse of what the BNP is really like when they think nobody can see or hear them.

I may even go as far as to say it was a very good piece of journalism by the paper, going all the way to Hungary to capture the BNP's true face.

As they always do, the BNP will now claim they are expelling or at least suspending their former rising star from West London. They also do this when their members (who are quickly described by the BNP as "former members") are arrested when guns and bombs are found under their beds.

For some, having another one of their leading lights exposed is just too much to handle. Claudia Dalgleish, who the partner of BNP's London Organiser Steve Squire is probably worried how this will effect her successful modeling business.

We hear that her and partner are seriously thinking of joining the English Democrats now.

What with the current state of the BNP and the fact that a large number of their senior people appear to be going to ground, one suspects there are a few more skeletons due an airing very soon..


Thanks to Nick Lowles at HOPE not Hate/Searchlight

The original article by The Sun can be found here

BNP faces meltdown at local polls after defections and infighting

Party to field 450 fewer candidates than in 2007 as leader Nick Griffin comes under pressure over organisation's finances

The British National party is facing political meltdown in next month's local elections after a string of defections and growing concern over its finances.

Dozens of prominent BNP figures have either been suspended or have resigned and in the past few weeks several former members have announced they are to stand for rival far-right and nationalist organisations.

The BNP is standing around 250 candidates in next month's elections, compared with approximately 700 in the equivalent polls in 2007.

The turmoil comes as the Electoral Commission announced this week that the party had "failed to comply with the legal requirement to keep adequate financial records" for the second year running, further increasing the pressure on the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, who fought off a leadership challenge last year.

"The position of the party is extremely dire," said Professor Matthew Goodwin, from Nottingham University, an expert on far-right politics. "The defections and rebellions are going strong and we have seen a whole host of key figures leave to join other far-right groups … Nick Griffin is becoming increasingly isolated."

The BNP says it is focusing on the elections to the Welsh assembly, where it claims it could secure two seats, but anti-Griffin rebels say the BNP should be making more progress in England as cuts bite and economic instability increases.

"There is growing anger within the party because there was a period when it looked like Nick Griffin may have been able to force the BNP into the political mainstream," said a spokesman for the anti-racist campaign Hope not Hate. "But it is clear Nick Griffin will himself be the BNP's nemesis. His mismanagement, arrogance and dictatorial leadership have dragged his own party off a political cliff."

The BNP's election prospects took a blow earlier this month when it emerged that around 15 former members, including some key figures such as former Yorkshire organiser Chris Beverley, had defected and are standing for the English Democrats in next month's elections. On his blog Beverley said it had been a "huge decision" and blamed the actions of Griffin and his leadership team for the party's problems.

Goodwin said: "There are just over 200 BNP candidates but there are 390 far-right candidates in total so what we are seeing quite clearly is that the far right is splintering, not just among one or two parties but among a whole host of groups and factions … it is the classic case of far-right parties in the UK shooting themselves in the foot."

Analysts say BNP infighting has allowed other far-right and nationalist groups to come to the fore. Organisations such as the English Defence League, the English Democrats and the British Freedom party are now challenging the BNP, but perhaps its biggest threat is a resurgent UK Independence party, which beat both the Conservatives and Lib Dems to come second in a byelection in Barnsley last month.

"The activists that are frustrated with the incompetence of the BNP are going to the EDL or other rightwing factions and many [former voters] are going to Ukip if they want something more respectable," said Goodwin. "The BNP are being outflanked on all sides."

Opponents say the defections and wider splits mean the party is struggling to stand candidates in some of its core areas.

BNP spokesman Simon Darby dismissed the defections, saying: "People have gone, that is it … but wait and see about that, I think they are going to regret that, just wait and see."

He defended Griffin, insisting he was still a popular leader and that it was "a miracle" the party was still operating following what he said was a relentless campaign to undermine it by the media and the state. "I am just pleased we are still here putting up a campaign in seats we may win … we are still in the game and are looking to regroup after all the dust has settled on this election," he said.

Griffin has come under growing pressure since the BNP's poor showing in last year's general and council elections, when it lost all but two of the 28 councillors up for re-election and was wiped out in its east London stronghold of Barking and Dagenham. It now has 23 councillors, compared with 54 a year ago, and several senior figures, including election co-ordinator Eddie Butler and London assembly member Richard Barnbrook, have come out against Griffin.

The rebels' anger is focused on Griffin's leadership style and concern about the party's debts which were exacerbated this week when the Electoral Commission said the BNP had failed to keep adequate financial records for the second year running.

"We have sought an urgent meeting with the party to discuss the steps they need to take to comply with the law," said a spokesman for the commission.

The party is reportedly £500,000 in debt although Darby said that the figure was "coming down".

"We are making good progress on that, that debt will be serviced," he added.

Although a poor showing in next month's elections would increase the pressure on Griffin to stand down, Goodwin said that remains unlikely.

"Griffin will hang on because the BNP constitution means it is almost impossible to oust him... [He] is doing the party in, it is not connecting with voters, they are running out of money but he is not going to go anywhere... they truly are a fading star and it is almost entirely because of Griffin's incompetence."

The Guardian

Kirklees BNP members defect to English Democrats after comparing Nick Griffin to Robert Mugabe

Activists in Huddersfield last night announced they have left the British National Party (BNP) – and compared leader Nick Griffin with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.

A group of former Kirklees Council candidates yesterday told the Examiner they had joined the English Democrats because of their “cleaner” image. Former BNP Colne Valley Parliamentary candidate Barry Fowler and ex-Heckmondwike councillor Roger Roberts issued a statement announcing their breakaway.

They said: “The BNP has been in turmoil for the last 12-plus months with the majority of active members seeking a change of leader and a new cleaner less confrontational approach to getting our ideas across.

“This has been met with contempt by leader Nick Griffin who has gone out of his way to bring the party into disrepute. He has suspended some of the best local activists simply for asking legitimate questions over finance.

“The BNP is currently well over £500,000 in debt and its submitted accounts for the last two years have been classed as poor and incomplete by the Electoral Commission. We believe it is a member’s right to ask legitimate questions about party finance, yet Mr Griffin has met people’s concerns by suspending and expelling them.

“These are not the actions of a leader of a democratic party, but that of a dictator.

“In Kirklees we have worked very hard to improve our image as a party and dispel any negative stereotypes of the party. But the BNP has been held back by Nick Griffin for so long and the new constitution, which could have been written by Mr Mugabe, ensures Mr Griffin will be leader for as long as he chooses.”

The BNP is running just four candidates in this year’s Kirklees Council election – compared with 21 last year. Rachel Firth, the party’s new organiser in south Kirklees, will stand in Denby Dale.

“In every party you get people disagreeing with things,” she said yesterday. “Quite a few of our members in south Kirklees have left. People are going their separate ways, and that’s fair enough, but I’m concentrating on the future not the past.”

Mr Fowler and Mr Roberts said most of the party’s top activists in Kirklees will join the English Democrats.

They said: “The majority of ex-candidates and local BNP officials will be taking our ideas, talents and energy into a new party. We are working to help establish a new hope for England with a party with a good clean image, good policies and sensible decent people at the heart promoting them.

“The English Democrats are a democratic party, concerned with the way English identity and culture is being eroded. But unlike the BNP, which has a terrible image, it has a very clean image and is based on promoting our way of life as opposed to the BNP’s obsession on race.”

Paul McEnhill is the only English Democrat standing in the Kirklees elections on May 5. The Denby Dale candidate welcomed the ex-BNP members yesterday.

“I’ve met Barry Fowler and Roger Roberts and they seem like decent people,” he said. “We are a broad church, we have former members from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberals.”

But Mr McEnhill added: “We won’t just let in any Tom, Dick or Harry in off the street, new members will be vetted extremely well.”

University of Huddersfield politics lecturer Dr Andrew Mycock predicted that former BNP members may have some problems in the English Democrats.

He said yesterday: “In one sense it’s a logical move because the two parties have a very similar position in many areas like Europe and political correctness. But the English Democrats have accepted that multi-cultural Britain has some value, a view which the BNP has never held.”

VOTERS in Huddersfield have moved away from the British National Party in the past five years.

The party took one in five votes in the Kirklees Council election of 2006, gaining two seats. But by last year’s poll the BNP won just 7.6% and lost its only councillor.

Five years ago the party secured 22,914 votes – 18.5% – across the 23 wards of Kirklees. The party won in Heckmondwike and Dewsbury East, to add to the seat it took at the 2003 Heckmondwike by-election. The BNP also polled strongly in Mirfield and Cleckheaton. Robert Walker won 1,100 votes in Golcar, just 300 behind the winning Lib Dem candidate.

The BNP also performed well in the 2007 election, taking 19,891 votes, which equals 16.2%. The party failed to win any seats that year, but finished a strong second in Dewsbury East and Heckmondwike.

However, the following year the party went into steep decline, taking 15,090 votes – some 12.6% of the total.

David Exley lost his seat in Heckmondwike, finishing nearly 200 votes behind Labour. A few months later Colin Auty resigned his Dewsbury East seat after a disagreement with party leader Nick Griffin. Labour won the by-election.

Last year the BNP’s support in Kirklees slumped to just 7.6%, with the party’s only remaining councillor Roger Roberts losing his seat in Heckmondwike.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Newsflash – Chris Beverley defects to the English Democrats

Chris Beverley, a Leeds BNP stalwart and personal assistant to Andrew Brons, the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber has defected to the English Democrats Party (EDP) and is standing for them as a candidate in the forthcoming local elections in Leeds.

Beverley, who is also Brons Constituency Officer manager and the BNP’s long term link-man with the openly neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany is standing for the EDP in Morley South on 5 May. Beverley was also responsible for posting photographs of anti-BNP campaigners to Redwatch together with his then sidekick Mark Collett whose pronouncements on the virtues of the Hitler and the Third Reich became widely known as a result of the undercover television documentary Young, Nazi and Proud.

The move comes after Beverley, who is well liked and respected within the BNP, was recently suspended by the party chairman Nick Griffin as part of his on-going war on internal dissent within the party which has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of his lacklustre leadership.

Beverely who describes his decision to defect to the EDP as “huge” has promised to reveal his reasons to for defecting from the BNP tomorrow morning. “I am very excited about the coming campaign,” said Beverley, “and am proud to have been selected as a candidate for the English Democrats”.

Quite how EDP members themselves will react when news filters down that the party leadership have allowed a hard line fascist to join their ranks will be of interest.

Hope not hate

Ex-preacher condemned for links with 'terrible' EDL

This photograph shows Adrian Ratcliffe being licensed to serve in one of the most caring positions in our community – assistant chaplain at Pembury Hospital.

But groups across the community were this week moving to distance themselves – and condemn – the former preacher-turned-politician, whom the Courier can reveal is an activist with the far-right anti-Islamic English Defence League. On Facebook Mr Ratcliffe, of Greggswood Road, Tunbridge Wells, had a link to an offensive joke about strapping pork on to oneself and running into a mosque. The page also contains a picture depicting the Koran in a highly offensive light.

Mr Ratcliffe is the chairman of the Tunbridge Wells branch of the English Democrats party and told the Courier last year that he planned to stand for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in the elections this May .

Elsewhere on his home page, the 61-year-old grandfather made reference to "sending all Muslims back" and endorsed extremely insulting remarks made by others about the prophet Mohammed. The former preacher at St Philip's Church in Sherwood also made inflammatory remarks that English girls needed to be on the lookout for gangs of Islamic rapists.

Nasir Jamil, the first Muslim councillor on Southborough Town Council and president of the West Kent Muslim Association, said: "This is absolutely concerning for all Muslims in this area. We believe in Christianity as well. The church always teaches people to love one another and they spread love and that people should love their neighbours."

Mr Jamil added he understood Mr Ratcliffe was no longer linked to St Philip's but said the Church of England should review its policy in order to "screen" the views of any people holding positions within its ranks.

"If they are spreading hate instead of love then it is very shocking for the whole community and not just the Muslims," said Mr Jamil. "We are a very thin minority in this area and we live very peacefully and we don't interfere with other people's matters. We are very much part of the community. Most of the people who live here are doctors saving people's lives."

He said: "But for the last year and few months there have been some events happening that are really disturbing us and we certainly condemn them. We are very shocked. There was a very offensive article in Hildenborough village magazine and that was very shocking for us here and a second event was some graffiti saying "Kill Muslims" on a bridge in Maidstone.

"We have not taken any action apart from letting the police know. We don't want any conflict in this area because it is very peaceful. It is very hurtful and they are not helping community coherence. We are trying to integrate.

"I have set up a group Christian and Muslim friendship group and we try to understand each other and we meet together and eat together and talk. It is going very well from a Muslim side and a Christian side. I am trying to bring the communities together and these things are damaging my work."

Meanwhile, the vicar of St Philip's, the Rev Brian Senior said Mr Ratcliffe was a licensed reader, a volunteer lay position, from 2001 until 2007. He added: "I wish to completely disassociate myself and St Philip's from those of the English Defence League. Mr Ratcliffe expressed none of these views during the time when he was a member of the church."

Paul Bentley, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust's director of strategy and workforce confirmed Mr Ratcliffe had been assistant chaplain. He added: "We exist to serve every member of our communities. The trust abhors racist, sexist or religious discrimination. Any member of staff expressing such views would be subject to stringent disciplinary procedures."

Diocese of Rochester spokesman Louise Whiffin added: "We have nothing further to add to the Rev Brian Senior's comments regarding Adrian Ratcliffe. We would, however, wish to give assurances that the Diocese of Rochester values its good interfaith relationships and we welcome opportunities to build on these links. The new Bishop of Rochester has begun to meet with leaders of different faith communities to strengthen these relationships."

This is Kent

Thanks to NewsHound and Zaahid for the heads-up

Waiting in the wings

White van man. From flickr LoopZilla

The crisis engulfing the British National Party opens opportunities for other right-of-centre parties and might perhaps lead to the formation of a new party altogether. Beginning a series of articles on right-wing alternatives to the BNP, Searchlight takes a look at the English Democrats Party.

Robin Tilbrook senses that this might at last be his moment. After several years struggling to get his party, which he has personally bankrolled, noticed he believes that the time for the English Democrats Party (EDP) has arrived.

The EDP was formed in 2002 to call for the establishment of an English Parliament. It positions itself on the right but denies it is racist, though this claim is undermined by the involvement of many leading activists from the English Defence League. It has contested European, parliamentary and local elections but with very little success. Its one moment of glory was when Peter Davies, son of Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, was elected Mayor of Doncaster in 2009.

With some high profile supporters, such as the columnist and TV critic Garry Bushell, the EDP thought the Doncaster result would herald a new chapter for the party. This failed to materialise and it continued its poor run of election results.

In the 2010 general election the EDP fielded 107 candidates, enabling it to qualify for a party election broadcast, but only saved its deposit in Doncaster North, the seat of the Labour leader Ed Miliband. Last month the party stood in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election but despite running a vigorous and expensive campaign it received only 144 votes, one less than the Monster Raving Loony Party. By contrast the BNP received 1,560 votes.

And this is the heart of the EDP’s problem. Whatever its internal and political deficiencies the presence and profile of the BNP has restricted opportunities for the EDP. Tilbrook has long understood that his party would be able to prosper only if the BNP collapsed.

In the run-up to 2009 European election the EDP formed an alliance with the England First Party in the North West region. The EFP, led by Mark Cotterill, is a minuscule hard-right group based in East Lancashire. Its politics are quite different from the EDP, but they share a belief in an English Parliament and a hatred of the BNP.

The two parties worked together, the EFP providing organisational and logistical support for the EDP. It was unclear whether the EDP would have been able to stand without it.

The driving force behind this link-up was Steve Uncles, the EDP’s national membership secretary, and Michael Cassidy, its Yorkshire chairman. Both are on the right of the party and appeared to favour a deeper link with the far right. Tilbrook agreed with the plan but he was driven more by short-term advantage, namely trying to stop Nick Griffin being elected as an MEP, which he believed would massively boost the BNP and end EDP hopes of becoming a major political party.

The plan only narrowly failed, but although Griffin was elected the BNP has not made the expected wider breakthrough and with its current internal problems and financial crisis the EDP senses another opportunity.

Tilbrook appears to have been keen to bring disillusioned BNP members into the EDP. However when former BNP members in Merseyside, Cumbria and Yorkshire began joining the English Democrats, it caused some rumblings of discontent.

It was the courting of Richard Barnbrook that caused most anger. Last November Barnbrook, who resigned from the BNP in August, approached the English Democrats. He knew that to retain his seat on the London Assembly, where he sits as an independent, he needed the financial and organisational support of a political party. Cliff Dixon, the party’s vice chair in London, voiced his concern but was told by Tilbrook to keep an open mind and that the final decision would be taken by the London Committee, chaired by Roger Cooper.

Uncles had other ideas and was keen to push Barnbrook’s application through as fast as possible.

Separately, Tilbrook had been in discussions with Eddy Butler, the former BNP national organiser who was expelled from the party after challenging Griffin for the leadership. However the two had different agendas. Tilbrook was looking to build the EDP while Butler was not convinced that the EDP, particularly in its current form, was the right party for him. Conscious that he had to keep the racial nationalists on board, Butler was unhappy with the EDP’s moderate nationalist programme. Rather, he preferred the idea of uniting the broad nationalist movement, from the racial nationalists to the right-wing populists, around a few shared themes while a longer discussion took place about what kind of party was needed.

Some have argued that Butler was biding time for Andrew Brons to make his move. While the Yorkshire MEP has stayed loyal to the BNP he is increasingly acting independently and separately from Griffin. Butler, though no longer in the BNP, works for Brons.

Dixon became increasingly concerned about the actions of Tilbrook and Uncles. Eventually he decided to speak out after the party hired Jim Dowson to run its fundraising. Not only did the EDP’s appeal letters look remarkably similar to those Dowson wrote for the BNP during the three years he worked for the party, but Dixon believed that Butler now had the EDP’s entire membership list.

After Barnbrook was accepted into the EDP at its January national council meeting, Dixon broke ranks and went public with his outrage.

He was quickly followed by Ed Abrams, a member of the EDP’s national council, who had already resigned from the party in disgust at the courting of BNP members.

“It does not please me one little bit to see the current turmoil that the party that I still consider to be my political home is in but if it is to survive then Tilbrook and Uncles have to go,” Abrams declared.

“I therefore call upon the loyal members of the English Democrats Party to call for a EGM and propose a vote of no confidence in Tilbrook and Uncles.

“Please remember that ENGLAND comes before everything, Uncles and Tilbrook have had there [sic] day, the cause and the good name of your party comes first and only by passing a vote of no confidence in these two will you be able to wipe the slate clean and move forward.”

Also supporting this position was Alistair Barbour, the BNP’s former Carlisle organiser who switched his allegiance to the EDP in protest at the extremism of the BNP. He too resigned from the EDP after other BNP members began to join though claims still to be loyal to the party’s overall aims.

“Do yourselves a favour, stay a progressive moderate party and do not allow the likes of Butler Barnbrook etc to take you to the right,” he wrote. “Tell them to crawl back to Griffin were [sic] they belong and take Uncles with them. Don’t let another so called nationalist party destroy England’s chances of recognition and salvation.”

The EDP is in a state of flux. The crisis in the BNP, which appeared to present an opportunity to the EDP to emerge out of the political margins, now seems to be spreading to the EDP. Whether the party can emerge stronger will be determined partly by what happens to the BNP but also by its own members’ reactions to the arrival of former BNP members in their ranks.

Searchlight

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.

English Teabaggers: The EDL vs “COMMUNISM!!!!”

A couple of left-wing websites have noted the English Defence League’s new target: union power and Communism. A couple of days ago the EDL’s site told us that

The EDL know that unions have a part to play to protect workers’ rights, to ensure that employees are treated fairly in the workplace. However it would seem that these unions have become more powerful, more influential and more militant in the political sphere, this is where vested interests infringe upon a democratic political platform, so much so that democracy seems to be ebbing away right before our eyes and its replacement………COMMUNISM!!!!

Great Britain doesn’t do Communism, it never has, yet Communists are afforded more influence and more power as the Labour party look to fund its upcoming election campaign.

Lenin’s Tomb and Barrykade suggest that this is the organisation’s “true colours”, and this is shows that the EDL has an agenda beyond simply opposing “Islamic extremism” – attention is drawn to the fact that the EDL has a millionaire businessman sugar-daddy.

There are, though, a couple of other factors: It’s clear that the EDL would rather people support parties such as UKIP or the English Democrats over mainstream parties, and Labour’s association with the Unite union is a topical knocking-point. Perhaps we are also seeing the importing of rhetoric from the USA, where the crudest 1950s-style anti-Communist posturing has enjoyed a renewed lease of life over the past year or so. I recently noted Pamela Geller’s reference to Obama as the “mad Commie clown”, and this kind of thing is now commonplace among the “teabaggers” – Geller has written posts commending the EDL to American conservatives, and the EDL in turn has directed traffic to her site.

More widely, Communist groups have shown up at Unite Against Fascism anti-EDL events waving around hammer-and-sickle iconography, and the Trotskyist SWP looms large within the UAF. Naturally, just as the UAF denounces the EDL of having semi-hidden far-right links (a subject I have also written on), so the EDL will point to the UAF’s far-left links, as a matter of tit-for-tat. There are also, of course, actual links between far-left groups and Islamists.

Meanwhile, EDL members are also planning a rally on a “Not Compatible with Britain” theme, attacking the BNP along with neo-Nazis and Communists. Anarchists don’t get off lightly, either…

Bartholomew's Notes on Religion

BNP barred from election debate

The British National Party has sensationally been barred from attending an election debate this evening

A row had broken out locally after Hastings MP Michael Foster refused to share the stage with his BNP rival Nick Prince at the hustings at the Crown House, Marina, St Leonards. This led to Tory hopeful Amber Rudd and Lib Dem candidate Nick Perry also pulling out of the event. This would have left just representatives of the BNP, United Kingdon Independence Party and the English Democrats.

However, the organiser of the event confirmed to the Observer this afternoon that the BNP candidate had had his invitation taken away. Brett McLean arranged the debate in his role as head of the local Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and described Mr Foster's stance as "a nail in the coffin for democracy".

However, he has been left facing an embarrassing climb-down after the national heads of the FSB ordered him to exclude the far-right party. He explained to the Observer: "I was told that the FSB wants nothing at all to do with the British National Party."

The Observer was unable to contact Mr Foster to ask whether he would now reconsider appearing. However, the MP had previously said he would turn up to the hustings - which gets underway at 6pm - and leave if the BNP were present.

Anti-fascists have also planned a series of demonstrations outside the venue and everyone going in will have to agree to be searched.

Bexhill Observer

The Iliacometer - What happened in November

On 24th November I posted a taster of some of the Iliacometer ratings for the month. With all byelection results now in I can offer a full review of the month, which was rather pathetic for the BNP. How sad.

Those who have been following my posts will know that I have created six 'performance indicators' (PIs) by which the BNP's performance can be assessed objectively. An earler article set out the basis of these PIs - so I will content myself with giving you the figures, and any relevant observations.

PI.1 Percentage of byelections contested in month: 12%
The lowest figure for some time, well down on the 35% of July, and 33% in September. Put bluntly, the BNP contested just two seats out of seventeen! (During the same month the Greens contested four seats - the Lib Dems sixteen!)

PI.2 Percentage of byelection contested over previous two months : 18%
The purpose of this rolling average is to 'smooth out' the effects of one particularly good or bad month. There is a clear trend over the past few months:
End-August 31% September 30% October 26% November 18%

PI.3 Rate of contesting previously-contested wards : not applicable in Nov

PI.4 Percentage share of the vote retained : not applicable in Nov
None of the seats up in November had been contested at the preceding election, so these PIs do not apply for the month. (The October figures were 50% and 59%).

PI.5 Rolling average percentage vote in 'new' wards : 7.5%
At the end of July this figure was 10.5%; end-October 9.3%. Their performance in 'new' areas seems to be on a downward trend. The days when the BNP could put up a candidate in 'virgin' territory and get 20%+ seem - at least for the moment - to have passed.

PI.6 Rolling average percentage vote in 'abandoned' wards : n/a in Nov
Again, as there were no such cases in November no figure can be calculated.

Summary. Only 17 byelections in the month; none in wards recently contested by the BNP. Where they did stand - Doncaster and Knowsley - they polled 4.3% and 8.6% (average 6.45%). In Doncaster their share may have been reduced by the presence of an English Democrat. And although they had not previously contested the Knowsley seat (Halewood South), they had polled 20% in a neighbouring ward (Halewood North) in 2008 so a very poor result.

They are fielding fewer candidates, who are then polling worse results. That's why I have described November as 'pathetic' for the BNP. Let's hope December follows the trend!

HOPE not hate leaflets help defeat BNP

A Hope not hate weekend of action helped ensure a derisory result for a BNP candidate at a local election last week. Dave Owen, who was contesting a Doncaster council by-election in Rossington ward on 19 November, received only 101 votes, coming fifth with 4.3%.

Local Methodists, supported by members of Doncaster Racial Equality Council, distributed anti-BNP leaflets in the ward as part of the national HOPE not hate weekend of activity on 7-8 November. Activists reported a good reception from residents, who had no time for the BNP. They also leafleted extensively in Doncaster town centre and Bentley.

Owen, 59, who lives in Stainforth, has contested local elections for the BNP on several occasions and last June stood for mayor of Doncaster, coming fifth with 10.9%. The mayoral election was won by Peter Davies standing for the English Democrats, which opposes immigration, the EU and “political correctness” and wants to “put England First”. The English Democrats came second (to Labour) in Rossington and undoubtedly captured potential BNP votes – though that is not to minimise the importance of HOPE not hate’s activity.

Hope not hate

Blackburn councillor joins English Democrats to stand against BNP

A Blackburn with Darwen councillor is taking on a national role for the English Democrats Party.

Michael Johnson, who has represented the far-right England First Party, the For Darwen Party, and is the Fernhurst ward councillor on Blackburn with Darwen Council, has taken over the role of chairman of the North West English Democrats.

He said he joined the party to stop the British National Party getting a foothold in the area. BNP leader Nick Griffin is standing for a North West seat in the European Parliament elections in June.

The English Democrats are a Euro-sceptic party which campaigns for England to be recognised and treated as a nation in its own right, as is the case with Scotland and Wales. The party also wants England to leave the European Union and to rejoin the European Free Trade Association.

Mr Johnson, 48, of Dean Street, Darwen, said: “Nick Griffin stands a very good chance of getting in. Him getting into Europe on a Lancashire ticket will be a nightmare and will spark a BNP revival.

Lancashire Telegraph

BNP attempts to poach English Democrat's Mayoral candidate

Terrified at the thought that the ridiculous and insignificant English Democrats may pinch one or two of its votes, the British National Party has decided to attempt to solve the problem by stealing the ED's Mayoral candidate Matt O'Connor.

O'Connor, famed for his 'work' with Fathers for Justice, is being appropriately targeted. One part of the email to him (leaked earlier this evening to blogger Iain Dale) describes the BNP as the most 'father-friendly' party in Britain. This from a party containing gang-rapists and potential child molesters.

Mind you, the English Democrat's don't have much too offer an aspiring politician either. They recently polled an astonishing eight votes in a by-election - two less than signed the nomination paper.

The full text of the email is below:

Dear Matt,

I am surprised, and disappointed, to see that you are considering standing as London Mayoral candidate for the English Democrats. In view of your concern for justice for fathers when it comes to family separation and the custody of children, you must surely be aware that the British National Party is the ONLY party to clearly state, in its national manifesto, that "Divorce and family laws and maintenance arrangements discriminate against men" and to have the policy pledge to "make joint custody of children the norm in divorce cases"...

...The BNP is the most 'father-friendly' party in Britain. Of course I know that there are loads of lies and smears directed towards us, but if you read our manifesto you will see that the modern BNP is a sensible, democratic and non-racist party and one which I am sure you could support.

The English Democrats are, frankly, a miniscule fringe group who are using you. You will know that last year they received fewer votes in a parliamentary by-election that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, and the other week in a by-election in Lambeth the EDs received a mere 8 votes - less than the number of people required to fill in the nomination form!

If you are genuinely concerned about England's representation within the Union, then you will see from our manifesto that it is the BNP's policy to "introduce an English parliament within the United Kingdom". As you can see the BNP is the party which best represents the views you are seeking to promote. Instead of allowing yourself to be used by the English Democrats for their own ends you should come over to the party which genuinely cares about families, fathers and children. The BNP is growing at a tremendous rate. While the EDs were obtaining a mere 8 votes in Lambeth the BNP won a council seat in Havering. People are realising that the BNP is not as it has been misrepresented by our opponents in other parties and in the media. We are a friendly party with the best interests of the British people at heart. Our policies are based on traditional values and commonsense.

Please do contact me if you would like to discuss this or if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Nick Eriksen
BNP London Organiser