When Lee Barnes Wanted to Suspend All Leadership Challenger Nomination Signatories and Put Them on Trial for “Conspiracy and Treason”

It is funny how the wheel turns within the ranks of the BNP. Only two years ago, in May 2008 to be exact, Lee Barnes issued a formal statement as “Director of [sic] BNP Legal Department” announcing that anyone who even dared to sign the perfectly legitimate nomination forms of then would-be-leadership challenger Colin Auty would be suspended from the party for “conspiracy and treason.”

Now of course suspending anyone for signing a perfectly legal nomination form would have been highly irregular, and charges of “conspiracy and treason” would have been preposterous, to say the least.

But the strange thing is that nowadays, Mr Barnes has spent voluminous blog posts attacking Nick Griffin and spreading the most astonishing made-up stories about the “dictator Griffin”  yet, as his own email from May 2008 reveals, Mr Barnes was far more of a “fascist” than anyone else when it came to dissidents.

Mr Barnes’s full email is as follows:

Dear Fellow Nationalist Activist

Following a senior high level conference between senior high level BNP officials earlier today to discuss among other issues the security of our new MP Richard Barnbrook in the wake of serious threats to his person by far leftist cowards as he travels to and from the London Assembly I have been instructed to inform you of a bogus and illegal leadership challenge and the disciplinary measures we are now putting in place to squash this diversionary and divisive activity in the bud. This is a deceitful and cynical attempt to divert the party’s attention away from the historical victory last week in London and to derail the activist’s attention away from the all important European Elections next June.

This is a sham nothing and more than a forged challenge devised by the liars, thieves and splitters who tried to wreck the party in December 2007 before their unsuccessful coup was successfully thwarted by quick action from the Party’s own security, legal and intelligence departments. The challenger claims is to be Councilor [sic] Colin Autty [sic] from Kirkless in Yorkshire, a decent man who is known to many of you but he is being used as a puupet [sic] by the gang of malcontents who stole party emails, stole party property, stole thousand [sic] of pounds of party monies, spread malicious rumours about the Chairman, myself and other senior party officers on bogus Blogs and through a series of bogus bulletins which they prepared using stolen membership lists which they then passed on to our enemies in MI5, The Special Branch, The Labour Party and the Searchlight organisation. They then tried unsuccessfully to set up a rival political party. It is a cylical [sic] attempt by our enemies to try and derail the Party and to stop activities to get BNP members electd [sic] to the European Parliament.

The Party is on the edge of a historical victory in Europe next year. Nothing must stand in the way of getting the democractically [sic] elected Chairman and others elected to the European Parliament in Europe next year.

Aiding and abeting [sic] these people is an offence under the Party Constitution 10th edition.

Anyone who has already signed or is thinking of signing or intending to sign the nomination forms for Colin Autty [sic] will be suspended from Party membership pending an internal dispclinary [sic] tribunal where members will be tried for conspiracy and treason as per the Constitutition [sic] Section 6. (3) Section 7 – failure to use the correct channels to express concerns, 8 - spreading false and malicious rumours about Party officials and members, and behaviour likely to bring the Party into disrepute. Those found guilty of conspiracy and treason will be expelled from the Party and proscibred [sic] for life.

The laugable [sic] attempt to portray themselves as trying to 'save the party' is directly contradicted by the fact that they have spent since Christmas undermining the party, attacking the party, spreading lies about the Chairman, myself and other party activists, inciting dissent in the party and actively encouraging party activists not to stand in elections or assist party candidates in the elections.

This is not a game we are playing, this is a war and in times of war unquestionable obedience and loyalty to the commander in the field must come first, The 'First Law Of Nationalism' is - If you work with the enemy, then you are the enemy.

Yours for the greater good

Lee John Barnes (LLB Hons)

Director of BNP Legal Department

Now this raises some interesting questions.

Firstly, it has not gone unnoticed that a number of people involved in the Eddy Butler leadership challenge have been suspended from the BNP.  Has this action been taken in terms of Mr Barnes’s master plan for dealing with dissidents?

I suppose only the fullness of time will tell, but I strongly suspect that everyone who has been suspended has suffered that fate not for supporting a leadership challenge, but for actually doing something which was quite genuinely contrary to the BNP’s code of conduct (rather than Mr Barnes’s astonishing “treason and conspiracy” fantasies.)

What would these actions have been?  Maybe the abuse of party data to send out partisan material?  Possibly the deliberate dissemination of false information?  We shall see in due course, and I, and many others, will wait with anticipation to see.

On another related issue, I think I have also solved the ongoing question of whether Mr Barnes was ever a member of the BNP.  It seems not, at least according to Mr Barnes himself.

In a particularly typical foul-mouthed rant against someone on his blog, Mr Barnes made it quite clear he was not a member: