Mark Collett

Mark Collett is a British neo-NaziMark Collett, Stormfront and Facebook: Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century. Nouse. 23 Jan 2008. and prominent figure involved in the online alt-right who hosts the podcast This Week on the Alt Right. Collett is one of the most active white supremacists from UK and is a former head of publicity for the BNP. In 2019, Collett founded the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative. In recent years, Collett's Patriotic Alternative group has experienced serious disputes amongst its own members leading to split-off organizations such as The Homeland Party.PATRIOTIC ALTERNATIVE AND ITS SPLINTER GROUPS. hopenothate.org.uk.
==Political background==
===British National Party===
He joined the far-right British National Party as a teenager and was first chairman of the Young BNP until 2002. Collett was always a hardliner opposed to the modernisers in the party who wanted to moderate the BNP's policies and soften its public image to attract more voters as part of Nick Griffin's strategy to win local council seats. Collett in 2002 was exposed on camera (as part of a documentary ) making pro-Hitler, racist and anti-Semitic comments and even describing himself as a "Nazi sympathiser". While he was disciplined by the BNP (Griffin removed him as chairman of the YBNP after Collett himself offered his resignation), he was not expelled and remained a member, although was sidelined. At the time, the BNP were trying to distance themselves, at least cosmetically, from their fascist past to gain popular appeal and Collett proved to be an embarrassment:
In 2005, Collett and Griffin were charged with multiple offences of inciting racial hatred.BNP leader charged with race hate. BBC News. 6 Apr 2005. However, the following year both were acquitted of all charges after a retrial.BNP duo to face race hate retrial BNP duo to face race hate retrial. BBC News. 3 Feb 2006.BNP leader cleared of race hate. BBC News. 10 Nov 2006. That same year saw the BNP win 33 local councilors, averaging a record 18% of the vote in contested seats; despite Collett's hardline white nationalist, virulent anti-Semitic views and his admiration for Adolf Hitler — he was promoted within the party becoming head of publicity. Collett stood as a BNP candidate in local elections but was not elected; in the 2005 general election for the BNP, he polled 4.1% of the vote in Leeds.
In May 2009 when the BNP were campaigning for the European election, Collett was involved in printing leaflets with Winston Churchill on them. This backfired after it was pointed out Collett had said on camera: "He [Churchill] was a f***ing c*** who led us into a pointless war with other whites standing up for their race."An economy in chaos and now those expenses. BNP leaders hope it's the 'perfect storm' that will sweep them to power. Daily Mail. 18 May 2009. Collett later sparked a racism row after appearing on Radio 1 as a young member of the BNP and making racist comments about the black England footballer, Ashley Cole.BBC in Ashley Cole racism row. The Telegraph. 11 Oct 2009. In February 2010, the BNP as part of Griffin's moderation strategy agreed to amend their constitution to allow ethnic minorities (including black and Asian people) to join, with Griffin proclaiming: "We recognise legal reality… they can't call us racist anymore."BNP votes to ditch whites-only membership rule. BBC News. February, 2010. This upset Collett and other hardline white nationalists in the party who wished to keep party membership for whites only; Collett led a "palace coup" of hardliners against Griffin for leadership but was sacked and then expelled from the BNP.BNP publicity chief sacked amid claims of 'palace coup' against leader. Daily Mail. 4 Apr 2010. In April 2010, Collett was investigated by police for sending death threats to Nick Griffin.BNP official arrested over claims he threatened to kill Nick Griffin. Independent. 4 Apr 2010. David Modell, who made the documentary Young, Nazi and Proud, offers another reason why Collett and Griffin came to dislike each other; they quarreled over money since Collett didn't receive a paid salary. Instead, Griffin only allowed him to sell white-power music to BNP members (under the label "Great White Records"), and these apparently didn't sell well.
===English Democrats===
After being expelled from the BNP, Collett looked for a new political party to support and found the English Democrats. In 2011 and 2012, hundreds of ex-BNP members joined the English Democrats after the BNP collapsed electorally; former prominent BNP members who joined the EDs with Collett included Lawrence Rustem, Deirdre Gates, Chris Beverley, and Michael Barnbrook. This led the English Democrats to be criticized as "BNP mark 2" and infiltrated by the far-right.See this blog comment about ex-BNP members joined the English Democrats.English Democrats in Our Sights. Hope not Hate. 7 Apr 2012. Shortly after ex-BNP activists joined the EDs, the party collapsed like the BNP by losing its few elected councilors and its mayor; Peter Davies, the mayor of Doncaster who was elected as an English Democrat candidate in 2009, resigned in 2013, claiming there was a big influx of former BNP members and that this risked changing the public image of the party into something unacceptable and racist.Doncaster mayor quits English Democrats 'because of BNP'. BBC News. 5 Feb 2013.
===United Kingdom Independence Party===
Collett at some point in 2013 was attracted to the United Kingdom Independence Party despite Nigel Farage imposing a ban on former BNP members from joining. While Collett couldn't join UKIP, he now claimed to vote for them and encouraged white nationalists on his social media profiles to support UKIP. For PR purposes, Collett took a 180 degrees turn from his hardline white nationalist views and now claimed to support more moderate electorally-palatable populist parties like UKIP, writing on his Facebook profile in August, 2013:
In the 2015 and 2017 general elections, Collett claims to have voted for UKIP; in the 2018 local elections, Collett on Twitter wrote: "I have just been & voted, in Leeds we have three votes, so I voted for UKIP and For Britain."https://twitter.com/MarkACollett/status/992096991499898880 Collett is a fan of Gerrard Batten and supports the islamophobic and pro-Tommy Robinson direction of UKIP under his leadership.https://twitter.com/MarkACollett/status/1018443809615728641
===2016 EU referendum===
Collett with his girlfriend were spotted giving out Vote Leave leaflets in Leeds city centre during the EU membership referendum. Vote Leave told Collett they wanted nothing to do with him and told him to stop giving out their leaflets because he was negative publicity for his ex-BNP membership and Collett's girlfriend had visible Nazi-Swastika tattoos.Vote Leave tell ex-BNP official Mark Collett to stop using their material. BBC News. 27 May 2016.Extremists including a neo-Nazi with a swastika tattoo on her breast have infiltrated the Brexit campaign. The Sun. 5 Jun 2016.Neo-Nazis and far-right extremists are hijacking Vote Leave. Metro. 5 Jun 2016.
==Alt-right==
According to the ADL, Collett is a major alt-right social media propagandist and is associated with David Duke:
===The Fall of Western Man===
Collett is the author of the book The Fall of Western Man that argues for the white genocide conspiracy theory and that western civilization is in decline because of low fertility levels, feminism and non-western immigration. Like alt-righters in general (e.g. Tara McCarthy, Emil Kirkegaard and Michael Coombs) Collett is particularly obsessed with promoting the "White people need to increase their fertility rate above sub-replacement fertility" message and have at least two children, despite being 39 years old and only has one child. Collett's poorly written book is also filled with anti-Semitism and homophobia.
==See also==
* Jack Buckby - another batshit neo-Nazi
* Michael Coombs - another sad neo-Nazi
==External links==
* Mark Collett on Twitter (suspended)
* Mark Collett on YouTube (suspended)
* The Fall of Western Man
==References==
Category:Alt-right
Category:Antisemites
Category:British people
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:Fascists
Category:Holocaust denialists
Category:Homophobes
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Living people
Category:Nationalism in the UK
Category:Neo-Nazis
Category:Racists
Category:Transphobes
Category:YouTube
Category:Great Replacement conspiracy theorists