The contest for the St Helens ward situated in the Barnsley Central constituency is unlikely to be one that fires the imagination of hardcore political pundits let alone that of ordinary prospective voters. Nonetheless, it could be of some interest because both the English Democrats and the BNP are fielding candidates. The English Democrats are a small and growing civic nationalist party, whilst the BNP is a fast-shrinking and discredited ethno-nationalist party. However, whereas my awareness of the BNP’s terminal downward trajectory has been acquired from a number of years closely following events associated with the party, it is unlikely that many electors in Barnsley will be aware of such goings on (although that may change once the BBC Panorama programme on the BNP is aired).
Compared to the English Democrats, the BNP possesses a high profile and significant level of voter brand awareness. That said, this ‘brand awareness’ is generally speaking about as positive as that enjoyed by Ratners immediately after the infamous speech delivered by its Chief Executive in 1991. The BNP brand is toxic and the party is way past its peak in terms of performance having reached its natural electoral ceiling in the EU elections of 2009. Most seasoned activists have left, as have a significant proportion of the BNP’s more competent and high-profile personnel. Some of these – the most notable being Eddy Butler – have sought to join the English Democrats. Former BNP councillor Chris Beverly has already done so and become Leeds English Democrat Chairman. On the other hand, a number of long-established members of the English Democrats have been uncomfortable about this influx of former BNP members and a number of them have left as a consequence.
There have been rumours that Mark Collett either has joined the English Democrats or is about to do so. If indeed it transpires that he is or does become a member of the party, this in itself will be sufficient to destroy its chances of projecting a credible image to the electorate and making a breakthrough. Whatever his talents may be in the field of graphic design, few former members of the BNP are freighted with as much toxic baggage as Collett. Watch the following footage -‘Nazi Boy’, ‘Young, Nazi and Proud’ and Collett’s encounter with Combat 18 founder member Tony White - and take into account his remarks about enjoying “crushing people”, his stupid ‘children’s story’ about a malign Jew and inviting underage girls to his hotel room at the BNP’s AGM in 2006. Make up your own mind about the man, but in my opinion he’s not an asset to himself, let alone to anyone else. His views are as repellent as his character. If he worms his way into the English Democrats and they don’t eject him quickly, their hopes of electoral growth are finished.
Until there has been confirmation that Collett will not be permitted to join the English Democrats I am holding back from becoming a member. If Collett is admitted, the English Democrats must prepare themselves to be reviled as a pariah party and to lose any prospect of attracting decent professionals, for after all, why would the latter wish to have their reputations sullied by association – no matter how distant - with creatures such as Collett? It is precisely because of individuals of Collett’s ilk that Britain, and England in particular, lacks a credible nationalist party of the type seen flourishing elsewhere in Europe in the form of the PVV, Front National and others.
Returning to Barnsley, Kevin Riddiough from Hoyland has been announced as the English Democrat candidate for the St Helens ward. He has stood as a candidate twice previously, including at the Barnsley Central By-Election earlier this year. Another South Yorkshire borough - Doncaster - is something of a 'stronghold' for the English Democrats, as one of their members - Peter Davies - is Mayor of the town and their performance across the borough in the recent local elections was serviceable, with them narrowly missing out on gaining councillors in a number of wards. Barnsley is similar to Doncaster in terms of its socio-demographic composition, and should therefore constitute natural territory for the English Democrats.
Quite how Riddiough and his party will fare in the months and years ahead very much depends upon how successful they are in reaching out to the large disenfranchised section of the indigenous electorate, which of course is predicated upon them ensuring that their reputation does not get tarnished by the presence of neo-Nazi narcissists such as Mark Collett. Furthermore, Steve Uncles appears to be something of a loose cannon, for his contact with Sinn Féin did the party no favours.
With UKIP having recently adopted the policy of campaigning for an English parliament, the English Democrats need to get their act together quickly and increase their public visibility in a positive fashion. One encouraging sign which distinguishes them from UKIP (Lord Pearson excepted) and puts them more in tune with the concerns of a large percentage of English electors, is that the English Democrats website recently chose to highlight the issue of Islamisation through drawing attention to the aims and actions of the Association of Muslim Police (AMP), which seeks not only to display sectarian favouritism towards Muslims within the force, which in itself is bad enough, but to proselytise on behalf of Islam within the police and society at large. The AMP should be outlawed as an organisation hostile towards and subversive of the English way of life, and it is to the credit of the English Democrats that they have chosen to draw attention to the poisonous intent of this body.
With UKIP having recently adopted the policy of campaigning for an English parliament, the English Democrats need to get their act together quickly and increase their public visibility in a positive fashion. One encouraging sign which distinguishes them from UKIP (Lord Pearson excepted) and puts them more in tune with the concerns of a large percentage of English electors, is that the English Democrats website recently chose to highlight the issue of Islamisation through drawing attention to the aims and actions of the Association of Muslim Police (AMP), which seeks not only to display sectarian favouritism towards Muslims within the force, which in itself is bad enough, but to proselytise on behalf of Islam within the police and society at large. The AMP should be outlawed as an organisation hostile towards and subversive of the English way of life, and it is to the credit of the English Democrats that they have chosen to draw attention to the poisonous intent of this body.
The Guardian ran a half-favourable article on the English Democrats Annual Conference last weekend, but it strikes me that the strategy of this paper and of the so-called ‘anti-fascist’ movement will be to allow the party to grow until within a year or two of the next General Election, and then put the boot in. How? It’s quite straightforward really, yet completely avoidable if the party is sensible with respect to which BNP members it admits. This precise strategy is already being aired on the self-styled anti-fascist ‘Lancaster Unity’ blog as displayed in this comment by someone calling themselves ‘UK Fightback’:
To be honest the English Democrats have done a great job of splitting the "Nationalist" (ie - racist) vote where they've stood against the BNP in the past, and with outright Nazis like Chris Beverly in their ranks in the long term they don't stand a chance. At the risk of provoking an angry reaction here I suggest going easy-ish on these goons for awhile at least because there's nothing quite like the damage Nationalists do to each other. If they look like making serious progress we can reel out "that video" of Beverly talking about Hitler and wave it around a bit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MSHq5f3TWs
