Latest news with #AllanJones
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Tributes to Wakefield's 'Chestnut Man' billed 'local legend'
There are plans for a permanent memorial to a street vendor from Wakefield after an "unprecendented" reaction to his death. Allan Jones, better known as The Chestnut Man, passed away last month, having been a regular fixture in the city centre for decades, most recently trading on who was 71, inherited the stall from his father Jonah in 1980 and, accompanied by his beloved dog Albert, was trading until shortly before his Riley, who described himself as one of Allan's closest friends, said he was "a character and a half". Austin, 54, said he was 13 when he first met Allan at Thornes Park Fun Fair and began working as his assistant."We would travel up and down the country in the summer and be back in Wakefield in winter selling chestnuts."Allan's father opened the stall in 1959, trading underneath the famous clock tower at the old bus station and the former Ahmed, a Wakefield councillor born and bred in the city, said the stall was known to several generations of reaction to Allan's death locally had been "unprecedented", he added."A lot of people won't know him as Allan, they would have known him as The Chestnut Man."He was the reason kids tried chestnuts in the first place." Austin said: "He was a people's person. He liked to know all the gossip."He was always laughing and joking. I'll miss him truly deeply."A spokesperson for Wakefield Council described Allan as a "local legend".A fundraising page set up for a permanent memorial to him had raised almost £500 by Saturday afternoon."I'm hoping that he's recognised," said Ahmed."It's right that Wakefield recognises some of the people that were famous in their own way." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The National
04-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Financial firm urged to ban far-right Homeland Party
Stripe, which allows organisations to take money through its websites, has been warned that allowing the Homeland Party – which calls for non-white people to be removed from Britain – the services helps them 'finance fascism'. The activist group Red Flare has written to Stripe, headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, urging the firm to block the far-right group from using its systems. In an email to company bosses, seen by the Sunday National, spokesperson Allan Jones said: 'Stripe is helping the Homeland Party process membership payments, donations, event tickets and merchandise sales via its website.' They pointed out that this included tickets for the party's 2025 'remigration conference' in April, which featured far-right French author Renaud Camus, the originator of the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory. Camus is notorious for his 2011 work Le Grand Remplacement, which argues that European rulers are systematically replacing white people with Muslims from the Middle East and Africa. Homeland revealed on their Facebook page last month that Camus had been 'shamefully banned from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Office, on the grounds that his views on mass migration were deemed politically inconvenient', though he delivered a speech through a video link. Jones, of Red Flare, said: 'Stripe is helping Britain's largest fascist party build its infrastructure – processing payments for membership, merchandise and events where speakers push racist conspiracy theories. 'Homeland's leadership includes Holocaust deniers, Hitler admirers and men with deep roots in Britain's neo-Nazi scene. This is a party that wants to deport millions of people based on the colour of their skin. 'Stripe has policies against hate and harmful political fundraising. If those mean anything, Homeland should be dropped immediately. Tech platforms shouldn't be neutral when it comes to fascism, they should draw a line.' (Image: Newsquest) The company was sent a dossier on the Homeland Party showing how they had formed as a breakaway sect from far-right group Patriotic Alternative. Party chair Kenny Smith was a member of Patriotic Alternative's leadership team in 2022, when the organisation hosted Andreas Johansson, of the Nordic Resistance Movement, at its conference. The Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi group from Sweden, was designated a terrorist organisation by the US State Department in 2024. A Homeland spokesperson said: 'This is guilt by association at its most dishonest. Red Flare is recycling old headlines and smearing the Homeland Party with individuals and events that have no connection to us. 'We are a lawful political party. We reject these lies and this ideological blackmail, and we will not lie down and accept it. Enough is enough.' Stripe was approached for comment.
