Far-Right Candidates in Beds, Bucks, Herts

Bedfordshire
Given the BNP's strategy of trying sneaking onto parish councils elected, South Beds BNP thought they could emulate Simon Deacon in Markyate by putting 2 candidates up in Slip End and Caddington. With activists (pictured, 2010 General Election count) down to a bare minimum, organiser Peter Fehr was forced to put himself up for candidature in Slip End with Houghton Regis' Stephen Bridgeman taking the ward of Caddington, where the party has a good number of its (paper) supporters. Local anti-fascists have already completed 2 drops in the area - one with the Hope not Hate tabloid and another with UAF literature. The BNP are so strapped for cash that they have been forced to put out left-over leaflets from the Barnsley parliamentary by-election. Interestingly, Fehr gives a High Town address for this election, whereas he lived in Leagrave acting as an agent for last year's general election. Of course Fehr was well-known previously as an activist in the Farley area - gets around, this guy.With former North Beds organiser Phill Carter moved away from Shefford with her fiancee and Bedford organiser Robin Johnstone disillusioned and inactive, there are no candidates at in the Central Bedfordshire council elections.

Luton
In 2007 it was Steve Sherwood, Barry Taylor and the rest of the Milton Keynes BNP crew who poked their nose into the Luton Council election, standing Rob Sherrat and our friend Chris Brennan in Round Green and Farley respectively. Four years later and they can only muster a single candidate - Stephen Bridgeman again. Fehr only had to wander into the living room to get his son Damien to propose the nomination.Ageing skinhead Michael Bluestone (pictured) is seconder.Unfortunately, Farley English Defence League activist Kevin Carroll was not one of the nominees this time round, unlike in 2007 ......

Hertfordshire
Whereas Simon Deacon is pictured here shaking hands with Eddie Butler, the BNP's one-time Eastern Organiser, he fell out with the BNP leadership a year ago. Along with the core of the BNP Broxbourne activists, Deacon has moved over to the English Democrats. Deacon is standing to be re-elected on the Markyate Parish Council (there will be an election this time,) as well as in the Bennetts End ward of Dacorum Borough Council. Four BNP stalwarts stand in Broxbourne, including former councillor Ramon Johns and sub-regional organiser for the East of England, Steve McCole. North Herts activist Reg Norgan has hung up his snooker cue and so, unlike previous years, there are no BNP candidates in Hitchin, Letchworth or Stevenage.

Buckinghamshire
The very active BNP group in Milton Keynes decided not to stand for election this year - instead they decided to campaign against the building of a mosque on the site of the Plough pub, Bletchley. They have shown their intention of standing next year, however. An old face from the past - Anna Seymour (pictured) - has decided to stand for the Stantonbury - Bradville parish council seat, however. Anna is a former BNP activist associated with the dreaded Barry Taylor and key organiser of memorial meetings for the late John Tyndall for the past few years. in 2008 she broke ranks with the national BNP and stood for the English First Party in the Whaddon Ward bye-election. Interestingly, Anna has mixed-race children through her marriage to a black American. She is not standing under a party banner for this forthcoming election, preferring to describe herself as "Bradville Resident for Twenty Six Years."

Milton Keynes BNP Youth Leader Arrested

Kieren Trent, leader of the British National Party’s “young adults” organisation Resistance, was arrested by Thames Valley Police yesterday (Sunday), according to a report on a far-right activist’s blog. His computer equipment was seized.

The arrest followed a demonstration in Wolverton, Milton Keynes, against a local councillor who voted in favour of granting planning permission to Bletchley mosque. Councillor Mike Galloway, a Liberal Democrat, is a member of the Milton Keynes Development Control Committee, which deals with planning applications, and chair of the Local Development Framework Advisory Group.

Bletchley mosque has been the target of BNP opposition since last autumn, with Trent leading several protests.

Trent and another person were held in custody on suspicion of committing an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act – disorderly behaviour, the report said. If convicted he could be fined.

The report says the demonstration forms part of a new approach to activism consisting of “explaining the failures of an individual councillor to their immediate neighbours and ensuring that the community realise who is responsible for the changes that are coming about”.

It seems more a new excuse for harassment than anything else. Trent, who has stood unsuccessfully for election to Milton Keynes council, was one of a group of BNP activists involved in a violent confrontation with Asian youths in Barking a few days before last year’s general election. The incident was caught on film, posted on YouTube, but Trent was not charged despite being clearly visible landing blows and kicks to someone on the ground.

Trent is pictured posing with a gun in front of a UDA flag on page 91 of Lone wolves: myth or reality? in “chapter 6, these people are dangerous”, downloadable at http://www.lonewolfproject.org.uk/resources/LW-complete-final.pdf (pdf file 8mb).