A MAN has been cautioned after signatures on the nomination forms of a defeated BNP candidate in the General Election were found to have been forged.

South Wales Police received a number of complaints from members of the public concerned that their details had been used on Richard Barnes’ nomination form.

Mr Barnes stood for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney in the recent election, but received only 1,173 votes.

Before a prospective candidate is allowed to stand, he or she must obtain 10 signatures: a proposer, a seconder and those who signed the nomination papers.

Police investigated the claims and as a result a 30-year-old man was arrested and later cautioned for tampering with ballot nomination papers after he was found to be responsible for forging signatures.

A South Wales Police spokesman said: “Mr Barnes was unaware of the actions and the man was cautioned on May 16.”

Ronald Fealey, of Penydarren, was one of those who had his name used to forge a signature.

He said: “Someone told me my name was on the nomination form and I thought they were taking the Mick about it.

“My son downloaded the nomination form and there my name was. I reported it to the returning officer and they informed the police.

“I don’t know why my name was chosen, it possibly could have been out of a hat for all I know.”

Katy Meredith, of Church Street, Penydarren, was also a victim of the deception. She did not sign the nomination papers and said she did not vote BNP.

The Echo contacted the BNP but received no response.

Merthyr Tydfil Council was unable to help the Echo contact Richard Barnes, but did say: “Fraudulently signing election nomination papers is a criminal offence.

“Therefore, when Merthyr council was officially made aware that there was a potential issue with one of the candidates’ nomination papers the week after the election, the matter was referred directly to South Wales Police for investigation. Merthyr council has no further role.”

From Wales Online

The British National Party (BNP) will never really get itself into any kind of position whereby it could realistically form any Government in the UK. This is not for the reasons people may think, but for reasons of its own making.

Over the last few days I have spent a fair bit of time reading through the Nationalist websites, and to watch the conversations BNP members and supporters have with each other explains a lot about the way the BNP operate. There is a constant stream of accusation and fear mongering, accusing members of being spies, government agents and the like.

An example of the this can clearly be seen on the Vanguard News Network forum (click here), where various topics are being discussed including the latest developments regarding the current potential BNP leadership crisis.

There is a specific thread that has been running since November 2009 entitled Searchlight Spies where you will see a long stream of people they think are either paid by Searchlight or the state to destroy or infiltrate the BNP. It seems the latest “spy” that has been identified is Simon Bennett the now former BNP website designer and manager, who as I’m sure your all aware has been involved in a very public fallout with the BNP leader and its fund raising man Jim Dowson in the last week, which concluded in the taking offline of the BNP’s website.

It is this culture of fear of spies and moles etc that will keep the British National Party from making any serious headway into the British political scene. The culture of fear that runs right to the top of the BNP with its leader Nick Griffin who can often be heard to mention such things.

It would seem from an outsiders perspective that many of those people that have been involved with the BNP for any length of time are all drawn into these conspiracy theories and fears, it would seem that many senior BNP leaders and senior members of the party are constantly looking over their shoulders for the next spy or traitor, yet the BNP itself still try to convince the public that it is a serious political party.

The BNP are also well known fro using ‘covert tactics’ themselves to the point where there is actually a group called ‘Covert Tactics’ that operates to discredit any former BNP member that may leave the party and subsequently try to go public with any information they have about the BNP and its leaders.

A culture of threats of violence also seems to exist within the BNP, if someone leaves who may have some information the BNP don’t want to be made public, the BNP machine goes into overdrive putting out stories of mental health, instability etc, as in the case of Alby Walker who quit the BNP to stand as an independent against the BNP Deputy Leader Simon Darby in Stoke Central during the 2010 General Election Campaign.

Whilst reading the Nationalist Forums I was considering taking a series of screen captures to show the types of comments being made, but decided against the idea as there would be so many that this article would go on and on and take hours to read, so I suggest you read the links above and see for yourself just how engulfed the BNP and its supporters/members are in the constant round of conspiracy and spy theories, and I have only provided a link to one such forum, there are MANY others that contain very similar styles of conversation.

I never really considered the BNP to be a serious political force, which has been born out over the course of the 2010 General Elections where the BNP have been reduced to nothing more than an extremely minor party in the grand scheme of things. But if you have ever considered thinking about a vote for the BNP I would suggest you read some of these forums first and see just how the party operates.

You join up and they have you attending meetings whereby your are indoctrinated into the fold of Nationalism BNP style, where fear and threat seem to be very much the norm. And it certainly seems that is doesn’t take long for the new members to be pulled into this constant stream of looking over their shoulders for the next spy, watching and listening to everyone and anyone and reporting them to the leadership.

Just how would a party that runs in this manner be able to effectively manage a country? the self destructive nature of the party as a whole would prevent any decisive choices ever being made, they would clearly as they do now be constantly looking at their own people for the next spy, which would mean a constant change of Government positions within any BNP Government (not that they actually have any people capable of running any Government department as it is), but this type structure would leave the country in a constant state of destableisation therefore no effective decisions ever being made, which would naturally lead to the destruction of the countries economy etc.

In order for the BNP to ever be in any serious position to be able to take any real part in serious Government the party pretty much needs to be stripped back and start again, which if we are to believe the current happenings it won’t be too much longer before the next implosion happens within the ranks, as it did in the late 70′s with the National Front.

The British National Party arose from a faction of the National Front after one of its many splits and all indications are that the BNP is heading that way, I see one of a few things happening over the next few months:

1. Nick Griffin will survive the constant stream of calls for him to step down, but the BNP will split into two factions from which another Nationalist Party will emerge.

2. The split (that seems inevitable) will see many of the leaving members heading back to the National Front.

3. Someone within the current set-up of the BNP will come forward with a lot of damning evidence concerning the BNP which will effectively destroy the party once and for all.

We already have a political party who see the only way to get things done is to threatens the life of the leader Nick Griffin and the fundraiser Jim Dowson, threats which allegedly came from the nor former publicity director Mark Collett, and normal party would have mounted a leadership challenge not death threats.

We only have to look at the current list of court cases and costs against the BNP to see that the management structure of the party makes basic mistakes, and takes on fights it clearly cannot win. For instance Unilever where if you believe Simon Bennett’s version (and frankly one that almost everyone apart from the BNP members saw right through), where the BNP used the Marmite Trademark in its online version of the 2010 General Election Broadcast. An obvious attempt to gain some extra free publicity right before the General Election.

Which has since backfired in what could be a very expensive way for the BNP if Simon Bennett is correct when he said in his statement that he had spoken to Unilevers lawyers and told them the truth about the online broadcast, which is according to Simon Bennett was done on purpose by Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson to provoke Unilever into taking the court action in order to cease the opportunity to a. get some more national publicity and b. use it as another method of getting the membership to hand over as much money as possible to “fight the corporate empire” who’s are attacking the mighty British National Party.

Then we had the EHRC case which has been pointed out so many times by the EHRC thay the only reason the case was taken to court was simply because Nick Griffin forced the issue, it could have been kept out of the courts and therefore saving the BNP in the region of £175,000 (when you take into account the costs the BNP were ordered to pay the EHRC plus there own legal costs), a case which is now coming back to the courts, with the EHRC’s lawyers having a case for contempt of court against Nick Griffin and the BNP.

Then we also have the ongoing investigation by the Electoral Commission into the BNP’s 2008 submitted accounts, plus the ongoing stream of civil penalties the BNP receive for not submitting there accounts on time or there quarterly donations records, so we also have a party that cannot even manage to stick by the basic rules of being a registered political party.

It also seems that the BNP are going to sue their now former website designer Simon Bennett, who if he does have the evidence to support the claims he made in his statement will be another expensive and fruitless legal battle for the BNP to enter into. But if we look at the from the BNP tactical methods point of view, they view all these court cases as political and publicity coups, thinking they will make themselves look like a more presentable mainstream party with the voting public by portraying an air of victim to the press.

These really are not the tactics of a political party who can by any stretch of the imagination be considered a serious political party with the ability to run councils or even a country, they don;t seem to have the basic ability to even run the party.

It seems that the now former webmaster of the British National Party (BNP) website has started to reveal more information on the disagreement that lead to Simon Bennett taking the BNP website offline, whilst reading through DemocracyForum.co.uk I came across this thread (click here), the posts made by a user using the name Simon Bennett.

I obviously cannot vouch for the person using the name Simon Bennett as being the real person, but if you read through the above thread on Democracy Forum you’ll be able to read all the associated posts and make up your own mind.

Anyway he has posted the following onto the above forum, which he says is an email sent out by Jim Dowson the BNP fund raising manager for the BNP, in which (if this is 100% authentic), we can see the implied threat made at the end of this email towards Simon Bennett.

(please excuse the full caps in this, but I am reproducing this exactly as is)

” Sod it, it’s out now anyway:
Subject: MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!!

Not bad but no need for update just get them focused on giving. Needs emotive language like:

PARTY IN GRAVE PERIL! YOUR DONATION IS OUR WEAPON: HELP US SAVE THE PARTY FROM DESTRUCTION , DON’T LET THE BIGOTED , ANTI BRITISH EQUALITIES COMMISSION SHUT US DOWN. FIGHT BACK! DONATE NOW!

CLICK HERE OR TEL THE ‘RESISTANCE HOTLINE’ ON 0207 078 3286 NOW!

COLOURS ARE VITALLY IMPORTANT, WERE NOT TRYING TO MAKE PRETTY FECKING PICTURES HERE, WERE TRYING TO MAKE MONEY: THE STUFF THAT PAYS ALL OUR WAGES. GUYS WE HAVE 8 DAYS TO MAKE THE CASH, THEN THAT’S IT! SO COME ON ,ALL HANDS ON DECK AND LETS GET THE DOUGH IN !!!!

SIMON, I NEED YOUR COOPERATION ON THIS OLD BOY, AND AS A TOKEN OF MY APPRECIATION IN ANTICIPATION ,( OR A BRIBE/INCENTIVE) YOU WILL EARN 2.5% OF EVERYTHING THAT COMES THROUGH THE WEB DONATIONS. £40K= £1,000 TO YOU £75= £1875. IN A YEAR THIS COULD (IF YOU USE ME PROPERLY) EARN YOU A SHED LOAD OF MONEY.

SO, RATHER THAN THREATEN TO BEAT YOU WITH A NAIL ENCRUSTED CLUB I AM OFFERING YOU A PIECE OF THE PIE AS A FAIR AND JUST REWARD FOR YOUR ENDEAVOUR’S. IF YOU MAKE MONEY THE PARTY MAKES EVEN MORE. SADLY , MY EARNINGS ARE PEGGED. TIME IS SHORT WE NEED TO HARVEST AS MUCH ,AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN. LETS GO AND DO IT!!

JIM”

There we have it, the latest release from Simon Bennett, he claims there is more to come, so I will obviously keep an eye on the many forums and post any new items I come across, but please remember that just by me posting this here doesn’t make it 100% evidence, you will need to read the whole thread (linked above) and decide for yourself, but if you are a follower of the way the BNP works or have read any of the money raising emails they send out the you’ll clearly see the similarities with the way this email is written and the wording used in many of the emails sent out by the BNP to raise money.

The similarities are far too close to ignore or just pass off as a fake, it would certainly seem there is far more credence to the original statement released by Simon Bennett now this one has also come to light, you can read the original statement here.

In the wake of the dismal results of both the 2010 General Election and the Local Council Elections for the British National Party (BNP) the calls for it’s leader Nick Griffin to go are growing louder.

Mark Collett the BNP’s former publicity director has allwed his Facebook friends to openly call for Nick Griffin to be replaced, not only that Mark Collett himself is calling for Nick Griffins replacement as party leader. Here are a few screen captures from Mark Collett’s public Facebook page (taken today).

This first one proves two things, firstly that it is in fact the Facebook page of Mark Collett, and 2nd that Mark Collett far from being kicked out of the BNP is still very active within the party, having attended the count with Emma Colgate the parties candidate for Thurrock.

Here we can clearly see Mark Collett calling for Nick Griffin to be replaced, and Collett admitting that the election results were the fault of the party and NOT the voters.

Here we can see just what Mark Collett thinks of the parties image under it’s current leader Nick Griffin, he clearly thinks the same way as a lot of people, including the majority of the voting public. He understands the reality of the situation the BNP will NEVER be a seriously electable force under its current leadership and management team.

The following screen captures also taken from Mark Collett’s page today clearly show other people have the exact same opinions and also want to see Griffin gone.

You can clearly see from the above people know that Nick Griffin will not take the BNP any further than it has come already, the results of this weeks elections have proven that with the BNP being all but wiped out right across the country. There are many of the other far-right forums all making the same types of comments and demands.

From an anti-BNP perspective Nick Griffin is the ideal man to stay at the head of the British National Party, as the reality is that him and the team which he surrounds himself with continue to perpetuate the ideal image of the Nazi Party flanked by his storm trooper security squad.

As long as Griffin remains at the head of the BNP it will NEVER be a seriously electable force in British politics, the anti-BNP campaigners will always have Nick Griffin to help them ensure the BNP never gets elected, so from my point of view I say keep Nick Griffin as your leader, as it means a lot less work for the anti-BNP campaign to do as Nick Griffin does that for us every time he appears on TV, on the streets, on radio or in the newspapers he continues to add weight to the anti-BNP campaign and he continues to add to the growing number of people that would NEVER consider the BNP as a serious party.

It’s all settled down, we’ve all caught up on a bit of lost sleep after the mad rush of Thursday and Friday, the final results have all but been announced and the political landscape of the United Kingdom has changed in a number of ways. Negotiations are going on to try and form the first coalition government since the 70′s.

But the best news to come out of the 2010 General Election is the voters of Great Britain have sent an extremely clear and loud message to the British National Party (BNP), and that message could be stated in any clearer words than those used by Margaret Hodge during her speech at the Barking count in the very early hours of Friday morning.

“Get Out and Stay Out”

“Pack Your Bags and Go”

All across the United Kingdom this message was repeated time after time, with every result that came through where the BNP had stood there were clear and loud messages being sent, with the BNP polling well under 10% of the popular vote in over 95% of the seats they stood candidates, the loss of 263 of the 338 deposits because they polled under the 5% of the popular vote required, this in financial terms cost the BNP £131,500, a cost the already suffering party can ill afford, the overall result being a destructed party on the political map of the United Kingdom.

The BNP were resoundingly kicked out of Barking and Dagenham council failing to make any new gains and most importantly failing to retain any of the 12 seats they had already held since 2006, a clear and loud message was sent to the BNP by the voters of Barking and Dagenham “Get Out and Stay Out“.

The story continued across the country with elected BNP councillors dropping like flies, from the numbers available so far the British National Party only have 12 elected councillors remaining and that is down to the fact that 11 of them were not up for re-election this time around, only one councillor managed to get himself re-elected.

From the euphoria of the European Elections where the BNP made it’s biggest political gains polling just over 943,000 votes, having over 100 elected councillors and two MEPs, to the reality of 2010 after people have been given the chance to examine the BNP close up, they have taken that opportunity to see their record in elected positions, to see what the face of the BNP is in the media, had the chance to see how the BNP members/supporters and elected officials behave in public, the British voting public sent a resounding and clear message to the BNP.

The BNP and it’s leader Nick Griffin has been trying to claim the 2010 round of elections as some sort of victory for the BNP claiming the vote share rise from a little over 192,000 in the 2005 General Election to 563,743 they received in 2010 as an enormous leap forward for the party, but the reality is this, it really isn’t such an enormous leap forward when we consider the numbers, in 2005 the BNP stood 119 candidates in the General Election, this time they stood 338 candidates so it really isn’t a leap forward in the grand scheme of things.

But then again Nick Griffin really does at this point need something to hold onto, something to spin to take to the membership so that he can try to cling on to his position inside the party that is openly falling apart as was clearly demonstrated at the Barking and Dagenham count with Richard Barnbrook and Eddie Butler being openly heard talking about ways to oust Griffin from the leadership of the BNP as they left the count on Friday.

The dismay and decent is openly there for all to see, the online forums normally steadfast and loyal to Nick Griffin are voicing the concerns and in many quarters demanding his removal. The recent very public internal battles also clearly show the BNP are in a serious state of internal collapse, with the recent and very public publicity of the former BNP publicity officer having allegedly made death threats towards Nick Griffin and the BNP fund raiser Jim Dowson.

This was followed up just this week with the head of the BNP’s online propaganda machine Simon Bennett who turned off the BNP’s website just days before the General Election and also made a very clear and open sets of statements of internal dealings regarding the parties money dealings alongside admitting the BNP used the Marmite trademark on purpose in some daft attempt at attracting publicity right before the elections.

Where are we today? the answer to that very simple question is also very simple, the BNP are in a state of disarray and have been decimated at the polls, the British voting public has given the BNP it’s chance, and have clearly decided it doesn’t want them based on what they have seen. All the power the BNP held is all but gone.

As things stand at the time of writing this with the information available all the BNP have left in terms of representation on the political scene is 2 MEP’s and 12 councillors, effectively pushing the BNP back to the outer fringes of the politics scene in the United Kingdom.

I will leave the final words on this subject to Margaret Hodge from her speech after the Barking count.