Mark Adrian Cotterill (born 1960) is a far right political figure who has been involved in a number of movements throughout his career. He is noted for activity to establish links between the far right in Britain and America, by founding the American Friends of the British National Party.
NF/Patriotic Forum years
Cotterill was a member of the National Front (NF) from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and was the South West England organiser from 1978 to 1992. He “helped promulgate the New Atlantic Charter, signed between The National Front and The Nationalist Movement, pledging Anglo-American solidarity” and was “instrumental in arranging the exchange visit of (Nick) Griffin to America.”
Cotterill left the NF in 1992 and formed the Patriotic Forum and edited its magazine British Patriot. The Patriotic Forum was largely composed of ex-NF members, such as Alan Harvey, Keith Jowsey, John Samuel, and Kelvin Sanderson the former National Front Overseas' Liaison officer. Cotterill and Harvey also formed the short-lived White Rhino Club which supported apartheid in South Africa[citation needed]. Harvey would later accuse Cotterill of sabotaging the Club's activities, but without substantiating the claim.
Cotterill was for a short time a member of the Conservative Party in Torquay in 1993, and was active in the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus.
In 1994 he was the victim of a "potentially fatal attack" from two left-wing activists after he was featured in the November 1993 issue of Searchlight magazine.
He stood as an Independent in the local elections in 1995.
Cotterill wound up the Patriotic Forum and ceased publication of British Patriot, in 1995.
BNP years
Cotterill then moved over to the British National Party (BNP). In 1998, when he lived just outside Washington DC, he formed and ran the American Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP), which aimed to raise funds for the BNP. The “AFBNP was extremely successful.
While living in the U.S. he campaigned for David Duke in his bid to be elected to the United States Congress in 1999, as well as working for Pat Buchanan's bid to be elected President of the United States in 2000.
Cotterill became an associate of Dr. William Pierce, editing his Resistance magazine in 1999. Cotterill was also the US distributor for Right Now! magazine.
Cotterill was by now defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “key British neofascist”. Cotterill was later deported from the U.S. in 2002
EFP years
Back in England, Cotterill broke with the BNP and joined the "openly fascist" White Nationalist Party (WNP) until he broke with them too.
In 2004, Cotterill founded the England First Party. He publishes and edits a quarterly magazine called Heritage and Destiny, which he describes as the "radical voice of racial nationalism".
He was elected councillor for Meadowhead on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council in the 2006 local elections as a member of the England First Party, which he then led. However, Cotterill resigned the seat in May 2007 and also stood down from the party leadership.
In 2008, Cotterill stood as the EFP candidate at Preston's council elections and came fourth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cotterill