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.

My New Year Resolutions...

Hello again.

A bit late, I know, but it's that time, once again, when we're supposed to come up with New Year's Resolutions.

Given that I've generally given up on such bold pledges by the 5th, and have shamefacedly reverted to smoking/ drinking too much coffee/ eating junk food/ paying good money to see 200 million dollar movies with a “2” or a “3” after the title, I worked out that by applying the simple method of launching my Resolutions a few days later at least they'll make it a touch further into 2011 before being ditched.

(God, I need a fag.)

Those Resolutions in Full...

I Will Not Pick On Easy Targets

The likes of Green Arrow and his dwindling bunch of “Kinsmen” have given the world more innocent laughter at their hilarious hi-jinks and idiotic tomfoolery than the combined efforts of Boris Johnson, the England Football Team and anyone who's ever been on the X Factor.

They recently even took to debating the identity of the Antichrist, for (Anti) Christ's sake. (And of course they were all entirely wrong: Any scholar worth their salt will tell you that Biblical, Talmudic, Apocryphal and astrological references all point clearly to the ancient prophecy of George Osborne as being He Who Is Destined To Hold Sway Over The Hellish Realm.)

The steady decline in Morris' fortunes, as his old coterie of writers desert him to be replaced by a succession of escapees from the Acute Ward, is to be welcomed, sure; but it's not like he's regarded as anything other than a joke by anyone, on either side of the debate.

And it's not just him: I hereby resolve to lay off other easy targets. I will even lay off my local idiot – Maria ("Shaydee_Lady") Riley-Ward – whose contribution to her Party's cause is a dismal cut n' paste of Daily Mail articles, undiluted white supremacy and barking mad, tinfoil helmeted paranoia about flouride. I won't even bother pointing out that her recent idea of "helping" the BNP's public image (she's been a regular candidate, after all) was to post a video of “Hitler's Political Testament”. Much like being saddled with having Michael Gove as your spokesman for Education (or, in fact, anything), there are some people you just wouldn't want on your side in an argument.

(Anyone got a fag?)

I Will No Longer Read The British Democracy Forum

Of course, this one may last about as long as Simon (“The Man Who Cost The BNP The General Election Landslide That Surely Would Have Been Theirs”) Bennett, who recently made great show of “resigning” from the Forum having been caught out making a typically bizarre series of threats to another Member, only to return, under a cunning new identity, a short while later. (Note to Self: Include Bennett in the one about Easy Targets. Just about the only way to get an easier laugh than mentioning the self-styled Cornish Sage would be to sing an amusing song about Gillian McKeith while dressed as a clown. And then fall over.)

I Will Continue To Ignore The BFP

As will everyone.

(Hang on-there's half a pack of Gitanes around here somewhere...)

I Will Get Up To Oldham For A Day Of Leafleting

That way, when the BNP are (inevitably) humiliated on the 13th, I'll be able to imagine that it was all down to me. In much the same way as I've always held the fond belief that it was the two hours I spent on a picket outside South Africa House in 1988 that later caused Apartheid to crumble. (And the really galling part is that I never got so much as a thankyou card from Nelson Mandela...)

I Will Stop Using Griffin's Disability For Cheap Laughs

Why refer to his having one eye? There have, after all, been some terrific people with one eye: Nelson, Claude Rains, Sammy Davies Jr, James Thurber, Hannibal, Tex Avery, Peter Falk, John Ford... No. It cannot stand. No more on the “one eye” stuff.

Not when there's the begging letters, the weight, the lying, the cheating, the begging letters, the finances, the accounts, the nervous tics, the begging letters, the Pooterish image and the general fact that the man is so relentlessly full of shit that he normally resembles a septic tank with a haircut.

So. Those are my Resolutions.

And this time I'll stick to them.

Expect normal service to be resumed by this time next week.

(Ahh – Sweet, sweet, French tobacco...)

A tough year for the BNP

Griffin has faced challenges to his leadership

The British National Party's annual conference begins on Friday. Leaflets promise a spectacular event but internal rows and financial pressures have raised questions about its future.

All is not well at the BNP. Rebels have tried to unseat the leader Nick Griffin. Legal challenges have come thick and fast. Money has become tight.

Only last year the party had high hopes. It boasted two newly elected MEPs and leading politicians were publicly anxious it might break through at the general election. But come election day the BNP won no seats, despite increasing its national share of the vote, and saw many of its councillors ousted in local polls.

Simon Bennett, who used to run the BNP website, said the party was in disarray. He is one of a number of expelled former members who want Nick Griffin to go.

"When I first got involved with the party I just automatically assumed I was dealing with professionals, people who knew what they were doing," said Mr Bennett. "It took a year for me to realise I was working with complete morons."

He left after a bizarre pre-election stunt that saw a jar of Marmite prominently displayed on a BNP video. The owners of the yeast spread took legal action in which Mr Bennett said he was named. He left. And the BNP had to pay an out-of-court settlement.

That was not the only legal drama to put pressure on the BNP's bank account. It has spent tens of thousands of pounds responding to a challenge by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission that wanted the party to change its constitution.

Nick Griffin said his party had debts of around £250,000 and "very little money" in the bank. But he believed the problem would be resolved in the coming months, and was dismissive of Mr Bennett's criticisms. He said: "It's the oldest problem in the book that any employer or organisation who gets rid of someone for a very, very good and unavoidable reason then has to put up with them coming back and biting their backs to try and get revenge."

Others - with less confidence - have been plotting a rebellion. The former party candidate and former National Front member - Eddy Butler - tried and failed to depose the BNP leader earlier this year. He did not manage to secure the 800 signatures from party members necessary under the BNP constitution to spark a vote. But he maintains a website featuring videos of estranged party members. According to him the BNP's internal culture was cynical, grasping and jealous. He is appealing, having been expelled from the party.

Nick Griffin's personal fortunes will be tested again when he stands as a candidate at the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. He plans to step aside as party leader in 2013. His critics among those on the far right fear for the BNP's future. But those who study the far right say even if it falters, its activists may go on.

Dr Matthew Goodwin from Nottingham University suggested some of its supporters could simply migrate to organisations with similar sympathies. He said: "If the BNP does descend into infighting and doesn't make an election breakthrough we may begin to see BNP activists in far greater number move over to the English Defence League after coming to the conclusion that there will be no breakthrough."

BBC