I worked as a senior journalist on Cardiff's evening paper, the South Wales Echo, and I was all too familiar with the odious, ugly and repugnant policies of Nick Griffin. Griffin used to live in Penarth, the seaside resort adjoining Csrdiff, and later he ended up moving to a cottage near to Welshpool, Powys.

The BNP had its roots in the National Front, the proto-fascist gang of thugs and hooligans. As a young reporter working in Ilford, I was only too aware of the shady criminal groups the NF fed on - for example, one notorious NF leader, Ron Tear, had a shrine glorifying Hitler is his council flat (front page lead, the Ilford Recorder) and another NF leader, postal worker John Cook, was sentenced for stealing loads of valuable mail.

The BNP may have played down their fascist connections to lure and net the gullible public, but their leadership is out-and-out fascist and racist all the same, and they don't care who is trampled on in their crazed lust for power.

I signed up with FAF, and I'm proud to stand up and be counted. I dearly love Welsh traditional music, its practices and ceremonies, too much to see it hijacked by rightist thuggery.

Mick Tems