A change is coming

Golding and Fransen

We have reported twice of late how the far-right has finally woken up to its perilous state. The British National Party (BNP) is almost dead, the National Front (NF) has split again and the English Defence League (EDL) is split, hungover, divided and split again.

There’s reports this morning that Britain First (BF) has sent out another begging email foretelling its own demise as their leadership duo face High Court next month. The High Court is likely to put an end finally, to Golding and Fransen’s unannounced trips to Mosques.

Stephen Lennon, the man that founded the EDL and helped hasten the demise of the far-right in this country, has found little to cheer about in his UK version of the Germany extremist group Pegida. That uneasy alliance has cancelled demonstrations, expelled dissenters and suffered a quiet split behind the scenes in recent weeks. The threats are continuing between the minor players and the host of secret dinners and upmarket meetings have ground to a halt.

The London Forum’s decision to host a leadership meeting, to bring together far-right leaders, has hastened an underlying panic. Those not on the invite list will include Lennon and most of those associated with his failings and as the clock ticks others are wondering which way to jump.

Weston: needs reminding where and who he is

Britain First’s Paul Golding has a decision to make. BF is a wholly undemocratic organisation that operates in relative secrecy and fulsome stupidity. It is however, the only active and organised group on the far-right. Its membership however, is smaller than it was last year. The massive mailing list it has no longer responds to emails begging for help to pay for large cooked breakfasts, diet pills and vodka. The electorate shuns it.

Golding is now floating the idea that Britain First undergoes a name change and merges with another group. He has been keen for a while on a merger of sorts with Paul Weston and Liberty GB. Weston may be a wally, but he has never been publicly laughed at in a posh restaurant. He never licks the peas off his knife to be precise.

In preparation for some kind of merger, Golding recruited Lee Cooper from Liberty GB a couple of months ago. Cooper was actually a BF member previously but left feeling uncomfortable with biblical bother about his lifestyle.

Golding it seems, for the moment, has pinned his hopes on a more liberal future than the sort of neo-nazi far-right movement or party the London Forum is keen to rebuild. He’s pinning his hopes on some sort of BNP-lite like the BNP became after Nick Griffin took over from John Tyndall. Everyone knows it will be an iron first in a velvet glove- Golding is promising as much, but there is one problem with Golding reinventing Britain First as a mainstream electoral fascist party; Golding himself.

Lennon: Not going well

If Golding wants to mirror the success of the BNP (where Golding was an unintelligible in-house magazine editor for a while) Golding may have to fall on his sword. Lennon’s Pegida failed to materialise into the commercial rival Golding feared it would be and Weston has grown tired of Hel Gower in the background of Pegida issuing instructions to what are really, despite being posh, Lennon’s now unwilling minions.

Ann Marie Waters is now away from both groups and organising her own anti-Islam protest as life for her without the cash-cow Lennon begins. Weston, who never likes to be alone, is very keen on the binbags, cheap vodka and uniform appeal of Britain First. He and Waters fought a nasty battle behind the scenes with EDL and English Democrat types in Pegida and this is how we have ended up with both Liberty GB and the English Dems joining a UKIP member in standing in Jo Cox’s former constituency. Britain First, for obvious reasons, decided not to stand.

Other than table manners, Weston offers Golding and Britain First another crack at North America. Although Weston’s tour there earlier this year was hardly a success, he was certainly afforded greater hospitality than Golding and Fransen would receive. But there is another problem.

At last year’s Britain First conference Jayda Fransen was elected as Britain First deputy leader for five years. That puts her on par with Alan Pardew shortly before he left Newcastle. Golding is proposing that Fransen leads any new party as co-leader and with a casting vote. Golding at least, feels she has some kind of Marine Le Pen appeal. She also has the undivided loyalty of the Britain First foot-soldiers- unlike Golding. Weston is himself, not so convinced.

Either way, one should expect the binbags to be binned finally in the near future.