Monthly Archives: January 2013

Nottingham EDL moonlighting with EVF

Clearly realising that the EDL now offers less opportunities for excitement than a soggy chip wrapper, several former Nottingham EDL activists signed up to go to the EVF’s demo in Birmingham yesterday. Adam Bilyk, Adam Repton, Ian Firmstone and Jack Stevens all said they were going on the event’s Facebook page.

Adam Bilyk at EVF demo

Adam Bilyk at EVF demo

Adam Repton

Adam Repton

Ian Firmstone

Ian Firmstone

Jack Stevens

Jack Stevens

It’s no particular surprise that they have jumped ship. Nottingham EDL hasn’t been active for a long time. Their website has gone, the Facebook site is being trolled by anti-fascists and has been abandoned and their last tweet (from October) is about the weakness of the East Midlands divisions.

Casuals United caught out lying again

Casuals United caught out lying again

They will have been disappointed by the EVF demo though which was small and completely pointless. Despite mouthing off on the internet about how they were going to steal the EDL’s crown, only 50 racists turned up to stand around in a deserted square for 30 minutes talking to themselves. A few deluded fans have been claiming this as a success and inflating the numbers by fantasy proportions but the fact is they hoped for better. Seems like another tiny far right splinter doomed to failure.

The actual turnout

The actual turnout


Pig’s head man had links to EDL

Liam Ferrar has admitted religiously aggravated harassment of the Muslim community after he left a pig’s head at the door of a community centre on Christmas Day.  Much was made of his drunkenness in court, although the act seems to have been premeditated – he acquired the pig’s head during the summer and kept it in his freezer and the As Salaam group’s imam, Mohammed Lockhat had received “malicious communications in relation to pig’s heads and blood” before the head was left.

Ferrar is clearly none too bright. He played a police liaison role during the Thurnby Lodge protests so was well known by police. He carried out the act in full view of CCTV and was easy to identify by officers.

Ferrar was described as a member of the Forgotten Estates group, a group led by EDL activist Chris Hopewell. As if to further underline the central role the EDL have played in the protest movement, well known EDL drunkard James Elliott has also been arrested on charges relating to unauthorised protests against As Salaam this week. Members of the Muslim group have claimed that protestors have been intimidating and used racist language against them.

Unfortunately, Forgotten Estates have been rewarded for their threatening behaviour. Earlier this month, Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby agreed  to give Forgotten Estates the lease on the disused Scout hut that had been promised to As Salaam without paying rent for 2 and a half years. The idea that an EDL-run organisation will provide a centre that welcomes the whole community is laughable.


Unite the shite

Derbyshire based far right kingpin, Tony Curtis, never ceases to give us a good laugh. When he’s not in his bedroom playing computer games or collecting ghost stories (usually about “the muslamic menace”), Curtis assures his handful of loyal worshippers that he’s working behind the scenes on a top secret plan to “unite the right”. Any day now, he keeps saying, he will achieve unity of the tribes and crush the evil multicultural empire.

Seeing as it was precisely these kind of shady deals that got him kicked out of the EDL in the first place, we’re a wee bit sceptical about whether Tiny Tone can really pull it off. But if he did, who would be the key players?

EVF

The English Volunteer Force seems to be the destination of choice for those leaving the EDL in droves at the moment, although their first outing in London drew less than 10. They’ve got a demo about something in Birmingham at the weekend and Tony will be guest of honour, so they are obviously close to his heart.

The EVF is run by Chris Renton AKA”John Sheridan”, a former member of the EDL leadership and former BNP activist from Weston-Super-Mare. Renton tried to make links between the EDL and neo-Nazi bootboys, Combat 18 and was an enforcer on the EDL’s web pages. Former EDL leader Paul Ray described how a 57-year old grandmother emailed the EDL leadership offering support and was “met with a barrage of hate mail including messages from the Sheridan alias himself, many of which had a crude sexual twist to them”. EVF “number 2” and organiser on the ground is Will Anderson AKA “Jason Lock”, also from Weston-Super-Mare. He has made a name for himself by posing with a pair of pants on his head on the internet.

EVFMerseyside 091112

SmashBrowns 301212e

It is slightly surprising that Curtis is so keen on the EVF because he refused to work with Bill Baker’s New Patriot Alliance because they were “racist”. The EVF are as racist as any other far right group. To give two examples, a recent Merseyside EVF post compared black people to monkeys and Andy “EVF” Robinson, organiser of the Birmingham demo, has suggested that the EVF go smash some “browns”. The EVF has invited the openly racist West Midlands Infidels to their Birmingham demo. It would seem that, like most far right leaders, Curtis is an opportunist who will never hesitate to sell out in order to get more power for himself and his pet projects.

DayoutinLondon

EVF in London: Nothing to write home about

NPA

The New Patriot Alliance in basically just Bill Baker. Baker is another far right chancer who’s been in every group going and been kicked out of them all as well. He has been in the BNP and the English Democrats and was booted out of the EDL in 2011 because of his links to Combat 18 and Redwatch. Because no one else wants the loser, he has had to set up his own group, the English Nationalist Alliance, whose latest incarnation is the NPA.

Bill Baker: No one wants him

Bill Baker: No one wants him

Baker has said “Sooner we start killing Muslims the Better and their socialist pals” and has claimed he “used to kill for a living”, threatening that Muslims “can all be buried in your black flags when we finish with you”. As usual with these fascist muppets, Bill is all talk and no trousers. His biggest “achievement” in recent years has been taking his tiny band of keyboard warriors on an annual trip to Brighton to get battered by the locals.

Casuals United

Led by the ultimate keyboard warrior, Jeff Marsh, Casuals United are another group who like to talk a good game but never seem to actually turn up on the day. Their slogan, “We go where we want”, usually seems to involve a pub on the other side of town or just staying at home. They have a habit of being so undercover that we have a sneaky feeling that they don’t even exist. The latest example of this was their notable failure to turn up to “smash the reds” or whatever it is they pretend they’re going to do at a protest against Greek neo-Nazis, Golden Dawn. Once they’d had time to cook up a story, they claimed there’d been 500 of them in a pub in Paddington. Yeah right Jeff.

Jeff Marsh: the British Joseph Goebbels or just a very naughty boy?

Jeff Marsh: the British Joseph Goebbels or just a very naughty boy?

“Marshole” divides his time between producing badly photoshopped pictures of Weyman Bennett, making up lunatic conspiracy theories about how the Crown Prosecution Service is a “commie”, anti-white organisation and flogging ghost-written books about his made-up hard man past to gullible supporters.

Most of the right wing football casuals who supported the EDL in their heyday have moved on with their lives. Sadly Jeff hasn’t.

Infidels

Probably the least likely bedfellows with Curtis, because of their open links with the National Front and other explicitly fascist groups, the Infidels are led by crack head and llama abuser, John “Snowy” Shaw. Snowy is none too bright, as shown by his recent outing of himself as organiser of a loyalist demo in Manchester and his belief that the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is true. The Infidels’ second in command is Shane Overton AKA “Diddyman” who was recently up on domestic abuse charges against his pregnant girlfriend.

John "Snowy" Shaw: will dance for cash

John “Snowy” Shaw: will dance for cash

Unsurprisingly, with losers like these in charge, the Infidels’ demos have been a string of disappointments. Most recently they had a very public falling out over the fact that only a tiny handful of them bothered to turn up to protest a proposed mosque in London. This was another attempt to “unite the right” that backfired. The possibilities aren’t looking good.

Unite the shite?

The possibility of gathering this bunch of bitching, narcissistic losers together in one organisation looks slim. They’ve all got past grudges with each other and their leaders all want to be Führer. Tony Curtis seems to be the latest in a string of far right figures who think that they can “unite the right” but it is just a fantasy.

Even if he succeeds, these groups combined are pitiful compared to the holy grail that all of these fascist failures chase after – the EDL at their peak. Tommy and Kev have squandered their support and sold their followers down the river and most of the footsoldiers have moved on with their lives. Only the most pathetic and incompetent are left.


Links between UKIP and the BNP

The last few desolate years at the BNP have prompted masses of defections. Many tiny hopeless extreme right parties were formed but activists also tried their luck by swapping to other far right parties. So many ex-BNP activists signed up to the English Democrats, for example, that almost half of their candidates in the 2012 elections were ex-BNP. What is less well documented, though, is that ex-BNPers also defected to the (allegedly) more mainstream UKIP.

In a recent post on his Northants patriot blog, recent BNP-to-English Democrats convert, Rob Walker, has exploded UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s myth that “[UKIP] are the only UK political party that bars you from becoming a member, let alone an officer or candidate, if you have ever been involved with the BNP.”:

I know for a fact that there are members of UKIP who have been past members of the BNP, I also know of three people in Northamptonshire alone that held memberships simultaneously of both Parties!

The truth is that many on the far right, including those in street movements like the EDL, admire UKIP and see them as a less “toxic” (and more likely to succeed) version of the BNP. UKIP’s extreme authoritarian policies on immigration and anti-crime crusades as well as their hysterical fear of multiculturalism mean they are not so far removed from their openly racist bedfellows on the far right. It is no surprise that they attract former BNP members craving the possibility of actually getting some votes.

As fascist parties like the BNP implode we might expect to see UKIP slide further to the right in a bid to mop up their supporters.


BNP fight amongst themselves in Skegness

They may have been hailing their miserable demo as a success in public but privately Lincolnshire Coastal branch of the BNP were fuming. A number of activists were so angry with the mismanagement of the branch and poor advertising of the demo that they handed their membership cards in on the spot!

Posting on the Boston Protest Group page, Dean Everitt moaned about the “crap turnout”. Various explanations were offered such as “People were probably put off by the weather and the BNP” because “BNP means violence to alot of people” and “the BMP [sic] and mismanagement go hand in hand”. The result was that “the bnp who organised it lost a couple of supporters today as they werent happy at all”.

DeanEveritt 120113h

Former BNP member Stu Green was one of those who left in disgust: “after the farce in skegness i handed back my B N P membership card and i wasent the only 1”.

Commenting on the demo, branch organiser Robert Ashton said “it shows we are together of this issue”. As usual, the BNP are lying through their teeth.


Skegness demo attracts 30 fascists

Despite not managing to attract as many people as the even more lunatic National Front did in September, the BNP are hailing their halal demo in Skegness as a success. Their photo depicts just under 30 fascists outside a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

BNPSkegness Jan13

Unfortunately, the local paper, the Skegness Standard, is helping them along by giving their efforts a feature article. Perhaps this is because a few days ago they decided to publish a letter from an equally unreliable source, the owner of the slaughterhouse, who claimed the BNP’s publicity was helping him find trade. This is probably some hack’s idea of “balance” although of course no anti-fascists or genuine animal rights activists have been quoted.

According to the branch organiser Robert Ashton, the meet-up was intended “to send a coherent message to the community regarding the party’s campaign against ritually slaughtered animals”, something he seems unable to do:

The photograph will document our visit and show we were here at the abattoir in Skegness, it shows we are together of this issue

…whatever that means. Maybe that they don’t agree on much else?

However pathetic their demo, it is a major success for the BNP that they were able to semi-publicly organise a demonstration and leafleting session unopposed. In the absence of a non-racist animal rights campaign, the BNP are being able to lead the campaign against the slaughterhouse. In the absence of an organised local anti-fascist movement, they are able to take their poisonous message to the streets freely.

The branch say the party will be back for another demo in Feb or March to “gain strength for its party locally”. Let’s hope that next time they do not have such an easy ride.


BNP demo re-direction point revealed

The BNP will be meeting at The Victoria on Wainfleet Road for their Day of Action against Skegness’ Muslims from 11.30-12.00 this Saturday. According to our source, the landlord knows about the event and is supportive. The pub is not far from the halal slaughterhouse on Heath Road.

The Victoria can be contacted on 01754 765124.

Don’t forget to let the BNP know you’re coming: 07714009285.


BNP to hold Day of Action in Skegness

Lincolnshire Coastal branch of the BNP have announced that they will be holding a “Day of Action” against the Skegness halal abattoir this weekend. They are meeting at 11.30am on Saturday 12th and advise interested parties to call 0771 4009285 to receive re direction point details.

The local BNP have been trying to exploit objections to the opening of a halal slaughterhouse for their own racist agenda since the summer and party leader Nick Griffin popped over for a demo in October. The BNP do not protest similarly cruel processes routinely carried out in factory farming or kosher slaughter, which is essentially the same as halal, choosing to focus solely on Muslims. They are not genuinely interested in animal welfare; they are just jumping on a bandwagon in the hope of getting support.

The Lincolnshire Coastal Branch is run by Robert Ashton, a “sales and marketing executive” who runs UK Indoor Cycling in his hometown of Holton-le-clay, Grimsby. He reckons the local BNP have had record numbers of enquiries since the news of the slaughterhouse’s opening was announced. We will see what this translates into on the street on Saturday.

Robert Ashton gets the Griffin treatment

Robert Ashton gets the Griffin treatment

The BNP are not the only fascist group to have a go at latching onto the issue. The National Front went as far as holding a poorly attended national demo of has-been Nazis while confined to a park in September. Other campaigns against the slaughterhouse have distanced themselves from the far right’s fake concern, which is clearly seen as a major setback and embarrassment to their cause.


2012: Lessons for anti-fascists

Taking the piss out of the fascists is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel and because they are so good at making of mess of what they do it often seems that there isn’t much for anti-fascists to do. However, thanks to the support of the popular media and political discourse for increasingly authoritarian and reactionary politics on immigration, the “undeserving” poor and ethnic and cultural minorities, fertile ground for far right recruitment has been created. It only takes the far right to stop screwing up for a little while for them to find something that works and take off with it. For example:

Thurnby Lodge

The chameleon-like ability of the far right to infiltrate local politics with their own brand of fascist politics is one of the major threats that they pose. The biggest success for the EDL and the BNP in the East Midlands this year was the Thurnby Lodge protests in Leicester against the takeover of a disused scout hut by a local Muslim group.

Nick Griffin is parachuted in to Thurnby Lodge

Nick Griffin is parachuted in to Thurnby Lodge

The BNP and EDL exploited existing community tensions and a well-founded distrust of the local council to spin a dispute over community resources into an anti-Muslim crusade. At times, hundreds of local residents were involved in nightly pickets of a community centre where the As Salaam group had their prayer meetings. The crowds were addressed by BNP leader, Nick Griffin, on one occasion, although some residents distanced themselves from far right groups in public. The far right helped the process along by making up a story about Christians being forced to cover up a cross whilst Muslim prayers were being held. The story was discovered to have been made up but not before additional hysteria had been whipped up.

The pickets have now been going on for many months under the leadership of EDL activist Chris Hopewell, who has been photographed shaking hands with Leicester’s mayor. Members of As Salaam have complained of intimidation by protestors at the nightly pickets and in response the police have started imposing S.14 restrictions on numbers present at and the location of protests. They have also arrested several people they suspect of being organisers of unauthorised protests, including BNP members. A pigs head has been left at the doors of the community centre in an attempt to insult the Muslim group in response to the crackdown and now 4 people have been arrested for religiously-aggravated public order offences.

While the state crackdown will almost certainly drive a wedge between the extreme racist hardcore and most local residents, the fact that the far right have been subverting this campaign for so long (and doubtless recruiting and spreading their poisonous ideas) is a failure for anti-fascists. These kind of successes are the sort of thing we should be nipping in the bud, not by accusing everyone involved of being a racist, but by separating the legitimate concerns from divisive and paranoid ones.

Anti-immigration protests

Whilst not explicitly far right in nature, Dean Everitt’s anti-immigration demo in Boston was relatively successful and left some of the far right supporters who turned up eager for more. Again, the issue is one where many local people have legitimate concerns – the latest census results showed that Boston has seen a higher level of immigration than anywhere else over the last decade and local resources are clearly stretched. The issue undoubtedly plays on racist fears as well though. Given that Everitt himself is a supporter of far right groups and many of the people who were invited were from the EDL and BNP, it is fair to say the far right has some influence on this movement.

There has been talk of a future anti-immigration demo in Spalding in the new year. We need to make sure we continue to expose the involvement of the far right in this movement.

Racist attacks

As the organised far right fragments it can be predicted that there will be more incidents of fascists acting on their own, without any restrictions imposed by a larger organisation. Indeed, the number of racist attacks, particularly against Muslims, appears to be on the rise. Lincolnshire police have reported a sharp rise in racist incidents as have schools in Derbyshire. There have also been some high profile attacks on Muslims in Leicester, Northants, Lincoln and Bingham, often involving people with links to far right organisations.

Many people wrongly think that the police will deal with these isolated incidents. In reality, Notts police were criticised for their extremely racist stop and search profiling and Leicestershire cops were were highlighted for the racist way in which they policed the EDL demo in February.

Anti-fascism will only succeed if the wider struggle against racial and religious divisions within society is also strong. There is no point in beating off organised fascism while the seeds of its rebirth are being sown all around us.

Anti-fascism

2012 saw a long-awaited resurgence of confidence in street-level anti-fascism. This was in no small part due to an increased militancy of UAF in tackling the EDL but also thanks to the growth of the decentralised Anti-Fascist Network. Anti-fascists had a number of victories over the fading EDL, most notably in Walthamstow where they blocked the EDL’s march and the fascists had to be kettled for their own safety.

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That said, there is still a lot of poor analysis in the broader anti-fascist movement which tends to see fascism as one element of “extremism”, a label which is as likely to include people fighting for freedom as fascists. This can lead to our movement being appropriated by populist politicians for their own ends. If anti-fascism is not also against our authoritarian, racist state then it doesn’t deserve the name.

There is also a tendency towards anti-working class prejudice in some quarters, with the EDL and co being mocked as thick simply because they don’t express themselves in a suitably Guardian-reading manner. Anti-fascism should be a grassroots movement welcoming of all those who are sick of the divisions in our communities not an elitist sneering club.

Locally, anti-fascists had a relatively low profile although a successful benefit gig for anti-fascist prisoners was held in Nottingham, the Lincoln Underground Collective hosted a discussion on anti-fascism and Leicester anti-fascists took action against a coach company used by the EDL. It is harder to mobilise against the fascists when they are weak and don’t seem to pose much of a threat but that is exactly what we need to do to if we really want to stamp them out. If we can’t beat them when they are weak we will have no chance by the time they are strong again.

There is a lot to be done so support your local anti-fascist group and help build the Anti-Fascist Network.

¡No pasarán!


2012: Not the year of the infidel!

We’ve had an interesting first year here monitoring fascists across the East Midlands. In many ways it’s been a dreadful year for the far right with the EDL and BNP in dire straits and none of the smaller groups looking capable of “uniting the right” either. There have been many enjoyable fascist misadventures, failures and outright catastrophes making 2012 a year they’ll want to forget. The far right will be trying to start 2013 on a more positive note and it is up to anti-fascists to make sure they don’t even leave the starting blocks.

EDL

The EDL started 2012 with a demo in Leicester against a “two-tier justice system” that is prejudiced against whites apparently. Funnily enough, their claims that the Crown Prosecution Service is a left-wing conspiracy to let Muslims off fell to shreds on closer inspection. On the day, an estimated 400 turned up to trudge around the deserted streets in the snow. Although they can only dream of getting those numbers now, at the time it was their lowest turnout for years and EDL activists were overheard complaining that “We can’t organise shit anymore”.

The dwindling numbers have meant that only hardcore lunatics and racists are left in the flagging street movement. We exposed EDL members advocating nuclear war and genocide (Lee Tams, Leicester EDL), calling all Muslims “stinky dirty goat shagging bastards” (Ian Humphries, Leicester EDL), stringing up George Galloway by his bollocks and smashing his head in with a nailed baseball bat (Mark Dunn, Leicester EDL), calling Abu Hamza a “paki” who deserves waterboarding (Andy Catchpole, Hinckley EDL), threatening to “wipe out” an independent media site (Jay Clarke, Nottingham EDL), calling Leicester a town full of Pakis (Jack Stevens and Richard Carroll, Nottingham EDL) and making jokes about leaving dead pigs in a swimming pool running Muslim swimming sessions (Keith Finch & Ed Coates, Leicester EDL). We exposed nasty pieces of work like Newark EDL organiser Chris Conroy, a violent racist misogynist, EDL poster boy Glen Warren and Northants EDL’s love of Nazism.

One of the most tragic figures we’ve come across is Nottingham’s Tony Curtis, formerly big buddies with the EDL leadership and a regular speaker at demonstrations (although not known for accuracy or truthfulness),  he was unceremoniously booted out in September after a misguided attempt to “unite the right” backfired. Curtis had been getting cosy with Bill Baker’s New Patriot Alliance but then decided they were racists. When he was then kicked out of the EDL as well he was left in the wilderness with only his Facebook “plastic patriot” friends for company. How the mighty have fallen!

Local EDLers managed to rack up an impressive number of convictions for racist attacks and violence in 2012. Two Derby EDL fans were sent to prison for their part in a racist attack on a taxi driver, a Northants EDL member was remanded for racist abuse, a Lincoln EDL member was banned from football games for 3 years after involvement in violence at Lincoln City games and being photographed giving a Nazi salute, two Bulwell EDL supporters were jailed for racially abusing an Asian family and Leicester EDL activist, James Elliot was convicted of drunkenly assaulting an anti-fascist.

The EDL spent the year desperate to find a cause that would get some traction with followers who were rapidly abandoning them. They tried to latch onto the manufactured phenomenon of Muslim grooming gangs in a bid to “save” (white) girls, but failed to ditch their own misogyny and casual sexism, making us think they were only in it for the racism. They made a late bid to “defend the gays” against a phantom army of Muslim homophobes, without ever questioning their own homophobia. Most recently they have been attempting to insinuate themselves into anti-immigration protests in Boston and the Fens, evidently having given up on “peacefully protesting Islamic extremism” and going for a more old school racist vibe. None of these efforts has done much to save their failing organisation.

At the end of 2012, the EDL is in a desperate position. Their leader is on remand in the nonce wing, looking at some considerable jail time for charges of mortgage fraud, assault and travelling with false documents, the numbers at their demos have dwindled to a tiny handful and Kev Carroll, who is flailing at the helm for now, has been doing a good job of alienating the few remaining activists who have stayed loyal. Only a miracle will bring back their former strength.

BNP

The BNP began the year still reeling from the mass exodus of activists caused by Nick Griffin’s chronic mismanagement, abuse of finances and absolute dictator leadership style. More major splits have occurred since then, most recently Andrew Brons and his supporters leaving, but it does look as though the worst may be over for the severely battered BNP ship. All the more reason to give them a hard time in 2013.

Derbyshire BNP’s Blackshirt Buggy

Locally, the BNP began the year with a hilarious personality clash in Derbyshire between rival factions of the Heanor group. Councillor Lewis Allsebrook threw his toys out of the pram, leaving the party whilst using various blogs that no one reads to slag off Heanor’s other BNP councillor, Cliff Roper, and his hapless Mrs, Emma. Ironically, not long before Roper had resigned the party whip in protest against Griffin whilst Allsebrook remained loyal, but Roper is still clinging in there in true opportunistic fascist fashion. The infighting didn’t do the Heanor Hitlers much good, resulting in them losing both their seats in the local elections.

Perhaps even more of a joker than those two was the Dictator of Derbyshire, Paul Hilliard. Clearly seeing himself as a bit of a player in nationalist politics, Hilliard spent the year engaging in activities he clearly saw as statesmanlike. He tidied up the atrocious fashion sense of his comrades by getting them all kitted out in black shirts, admitting a admiration for Mussolini’s fascist foot soldiers, and invested in the local answer to the BNP’s Lie Lorry, the Blackshirt Buggy. But funniest of all, he started a Facebook group called “Nationalists Must Unite as One to Achieve Victory” in yet another thwarted attempt to unite the right. Infighting between rival fascist groups and factions within the BNP has been rife on his page leading to some very Stalinist purging of his rivals by Hilliard. One of his main beefs seems to be any suspected support for the Jews, which he smothers with paranoid conspiracy theories.

Even Hilliard doesn’t win the crown for most crazed local activist. Nottingham’s organiser, Bob Brindley, must surely win that title with his barmy Twitter feed barking out paranoid rants and racist nonsense. Brindley seems to hate everyone who isn’t white, but has a particular hatred of anti-racist campaigner Doreen Lawrence and Nelson Mandela. He is quite keen on Jimmy Savile though. Brindley sometimes attempts a lone leafletting session in Nottingham city centre but has been chased out of town by locals.

With this bunch of lunatics as his local organisers, it’s no surprise that East Midlands organiser, Geoff Dickens, had a hard time pressing the dwindling band of pensioners that still turn up to BNP meetings for more cash for Griffin this year. Even his spine-chilling ghost stories about cultural Marxism haven’t been enough to keep the party going.

As a result, the BNP have faced the mass defection of former stronghold, North-West Leicestershire, to the English Democrats, as well as Wellingborough organiser and author of the Northants Patriot, Rob Walker, in the same direction. Indeed, there has been an extremely high drop-out rate of former activists and organisers within the local party over the past few years. They have not contested many elections in the region this year, but did badly in Towcester, Sileby and Corby.

Like the EDL, the BNP have had their share of censure for racism. Lincoln BNP candidate, Dean Lowther, was investigated by the police after racist and fascist posts from his Facebook site came to light. Former BNP councillor for Coalville, Graham Partner, was censured “in the strongest possible terms” by Leicestershire County Council after writing a racist leaflet. And Lincolnshire’s BNP’s “Reverend” Robert West had a hissy fit when the Church of England banned its clergy from joining racist organisations such as the BNP.

Like the EDL, the BNP have been eager to latch onto what they think will be populist causes in order to recruit and spread their fascist ideas. They expressed crocodile tears over child abuse, but only when Muslims were the perpetrators and suddenly became animal welfare advocates when locals expressed their anger over a halal slaughterhouse in Skegness (whilst munching on factory farmed sausages).

2012 was another bad year for the BNP, without a doubt, and locally they are relying on the dregs of the barrel to keep the party running. However, with the demise of the EDL there are a lot of new far right activists looking for a home whose energy the BNP could leech off. There are signs that the party is getting more confident again, and will be looking to revive itself in the new year. It is our job to turn them back.

Small parties and groups

Divisions on the far right have multiplied during 2012 which has seen yet more splits from the BNP form, defections to the English Democrats and the emergence of the English Volunteer Force and New Patriot Alliance from the corpse of the EDL. Not many of them have managed to do anything though!

Derbyshire Infidels: Scary as fuck!

The English Democrats earned themselves a reputation of being a half-fascist party when it emerged that almost 50% of their candidates in the May local elections had been members of the BNP. In the end they did moderately well in Daventry getting 20% of the vote in the Long Buckby ward, and far right rosette collector, Kevin Sills, got 14% of the vote in Desborough town council elections in July. The party has generally done well in Northants this year even though David Wickam only got 1.2% in the Corby by-election.

That’s far better than they’ve managed in Lincolnshire in the shaky grasp of all-round buffoon and neo-Nazi supporter, Elliott Fountain. Fountain did desperately badly in two local elections and despite talking up his candidacy for the Lincolnshire Police & Crime Commissioner post up to a few weeks before the election he was mysteriously withdrawn from the ballot after we exposed his links to far right groups, racist comments and love of class A drugs. He also treated us to some cracking far right infighting with anti-immigration protest organiser and fellow Boston bigot, Dean Everitt.

Veteran Nazis, the National Front, raised their heads out of their perpetual slumber on a couple of occasions during the year. Tim Knowles, who managed to fuck up getting himself elected unopposed a few years back, stood again in the Amber Valley local elections and came last with 99 votes. Then the NF tried to jump on the Skegness anti-halal slaughterhouse bandwagon by holding a poorly attended demo there in September featuring a mugs gallery of past-it fascists. They weren’t too pleased about us releasing the details of their re-direction point the night before. The Front have essentially no local backing in the East Midlands and it looks likely to stay that way.

As the EDL falls apart all manner of pompous little groups have been setting themselves up, each vying for the crown of being “the next EDL”. We’ve got bad news for them – there ain’t going to be one. The EDL’s one-trick pony was dragged as far as it could be and everyone got bored. It’s over lads!

2012 saw the emergence of the English Volunteer Force, run by a former EDL and BNP activist and trying to emulate a loyalist group responsible for murdering hundreds of Catholic civilians in Ireland. The organisation has miniscule support across the East Midlands and is yet to do anything although its front man does like posing with his pants on his head. We also saw the birth of our favourite pointless group, Leicester’s 212 Poison, who like to meet up for a drink and fantasise about beating up Muslims before going home to their mam.

Still hanging around like a bad smell are the infidels, teenage boys who are frustrated by the fact that the EDL isn’t racist enough and like tattooing the 14 words onto each others’ arses. Not to forget Leicester Casuals United who like to lie about how they’re going to kick off at UAF meetings and run the “muzzies” out of Leicester not to mention making up stories about poppy sellers being attacked. We did enjoy them slating the EDL though!

Our conclusion

Year of the infidels? Pffft!

The far right is floundering, riven by infighting and held back by the incompetence of its leaders. It will take a long time for them to regroup and do anything of consequence again and we will see them trying to start that process over the next few months. But make no mistake, the rise of the EDL and BNP drew thousands of people towards reactionary politics. The organisations may be collapsing but racist and divisive attitudes remain for many of those whom they blighted and those people could get behind a more successful fascist organisation in the future. There is a lot of work ahead for anti-fascists.