Use your vote, stop the BNP says Tatchell

The far right British National party (BNP) is fighting a record 800-plus seats in today’s elections – fielding more than twice as many candidates as in previous votes. At stake are seats in the Scottish parliament, the Welsh assembly and local councils in most parts of England outside London.

The BNP is aiming to double its number of councillors. This is the biggest electoral push the party has ever mounted. There are widespread fears that the BNP will make significant electoral gains and strengthen its foothold in dozens of local authorities – unless voters turn out to block its advance.

The BNP tends to do well when there is a low turnout. Voter apathy allows its candidates to come through the middle and snatch seats.

That is why it is so important for you to vote today, if you live in a constituency where elections are being held. Make sure your family, friends and neighbours vote, too. A high turnout will reduce the BNP’s share of the vote and lessen its chance of winning seats.

The BNP is, sadly, no longer entirely insignificant. Its recent growth in places like Barking and Dagenham, where it won 11 council seats last year, is a serious worry. There is no room for complacency. The BNP is a racist, anti-semitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic party. It is a threat to democracy and human rights – and needs to be stopped.

A disturbing number of past and present BNP members are on record as denying the holocaust. Some have criminal convictions, including for racist hatred, threats and violence.

Realising that this thuggery turns off the voters, the BNP is moderating its image. Its game-plan is to copy the tactics of successful European far right and neo-Nazi parties, such as the Front National in France, the Vlaams Blok in Belgium and the National Democratic Party in Germany.

In the last year or so, the BNP has undergone a major make-over in a bid to widen its popular appeal. Slick city suits have replaced the old bovver-boot image. Moving away from overt neo-Nazism, the BNP is attempting to reposition itself as a mainstream nationalist patriotic party, defending the rights and culture of what it calls the “indigenous” British people.

Ex-BNP activist turned anti-fascist campaigner Matthew Collins is a director of Searchlight’s Operation Wedge. He says the new-look BNP is nearly all spin and PR. The party may have toned down its open racism and street violence, but behind the smiling face of its leader, Nick Griffin lurks a hateful Islamophobia, racism and homophobia. The BNP is a menace to democracy and to minority communities, posing a particular threat to the welfare and security of black, Asian, Jewish, Muslim and gay people.

For all these reasons, it is important that we make Nick Griffin a loser. Use your vote today.

While I would personally prefer you to vote Green, in this instance I don’t care who you vote for, as long as you vote for a non-BNP party. In constituencies where the BNP is strong, vote tactically for the candidate most likely to defeat the BNP. Together, united, we can block the rise of the far right.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/05/use_your_vote_stop_the_bnp.html

Watch out for the slime

An excellent and well written article taken from our friends “The Hard Sell”

http://thehardsell.wordpress.com/

As you may know, there’s an election on and I’ve just received a massive pack of election communications through my door. Unfortunately amongst these was one for the BNP (oddly hidden inside one of the other leaflets, indicating that this was their one free Election Commission mailout.) I felt dirty just touching the thing.

The fact is of course that they have no chance of getting anywhere in Scotland, but they try: commendably the parents of Kriss Donald told Griffin and co. exactly where they could stick their anti-Asian propaganda when they tried to hijack their tragedy, and hardly anyone up here has ever voted for them.

But what of the leaflet? Well, it’s typical BNP propaganda. Home printer quality, twenty years outdated styling, crap about how they’re Scotland’s “fastest growing political party” (maybe from two members to four), grammar errors, almost all in bold fonts, randomly changing font sizes, self-aggrandisation (”likely to be elected to Holyrood” my arse) and much reference to the BNP national 0870 number (whilst printing their Scottish phone number in very small print elsewhere).

Interestingly, the amateurishness of the design of the one-sheet is in itself an indication of why the BNP will probably never have any serious power – it’s aimed at the true believers rather than Mr and Mrs. Nimby, which would be the most dangerous demographic for a group of fascists to get hold of. Le Pen and many others of the like are experts at dog-whistling, the art of saying something that sounds innocuous and “safe” to the ears of someone not attuned to the code whilst being a call to arms to anyone clued in – a good example is the phrase “international bankers” in the context of world domination (meaning of course “Jews”). The thing is, most British die-hard fascists are of the sort that the dog-whistle codes basically have to be spelled out in very big letters, which makes their true nature obvious to all those except the exceedingly dense.

And what of the policy? The usual bullshit: a combination of racism, philistinism and populism. There’s the usual bashing of the “flood” of “immigrants from the EU” (it’s only 32,000 in a 5m population, excluding the self-employed, mostly in the service sector) who apparently in their tiny minds “squeeze” jobs out of locals and “push down” wages. The Poles and so on come here and generally end up getting pushed into menial jobs that no Scots actually want to do; are usually paid minimum wage; work entirely legally so contributing to our economy in NI, income tax, rent, food purchase and so on just like anyone else; plus unlike a lot of young Scots they actually want to be here. For one, I welcome them.

(What’s funny about Pole-bashing is that not only are Poles white, which should normally make them very amenable, Poland has a number of political groups which would be the BNP’s best mates if they ever got any European power – Wiki “League of Polish Families” and “All-Polish Youth” sometime. By the way, Googling for “Polish immigration Scotland statistics” gets you a neo-Nazi news aggregator as the top hit right now and a sane Times blog article with the real story at #7. Ugh. Hint hint.)

And then there’s their other policies. Motoring and police policy ripped straight from the populist “stop persecuting motorists” and “filling in paperwork” handbook. “Discipline” and “traditional teaching methods” (read corporal punishment and rote-learning) in education over “trendy PC nonsense” like actual learning. Bollocks about protecting companies (”and employees”, ooh sinister) from foreign imports. Some trad-socialist policies dressed up in fascist clothing: council housing in particular. No mention of course of some of the BNP’s more dodgy policies – oddly even their usual Muslim-baiting is absent from this one, obviously they think the Poles are a more acceptable target up here – plus no references to Nick Griffin or even the Scottish leader. Can’t imagine why.

What do I think of it? Well, put it this way, I’ve already ripped it up and stuck it in the recycler along with the rest of my political junk mail, a place where it can at least go on to hopefully do something useful. You can’t be too careful, but I think the evil has been pretty much vanquished for now.

Celebrities call for vote for HOPE

Searchlight has once again teamed up with the Daily Mirror to urge people to vote for HOPE not hate tomorrow.

In an open letter to readers in today’s Mirror, celebrities such as footballers John Terry and Frank Lampard, singers Beverley Knight and Corinne Bailey Rae, businessmen Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, boxer Amir Khan and chef Jamie Oliver urge everyone not to vote for the BNP.

Click here to view the Mirror’s HOPE not hate website.

Searchlight has also produced a six-minute film of our HOPE not Hate bus tour of Britain. Covering 1,700 miles and visiting 30 towns and cities over 14 days, the tour combined celebrities and local community projects. The film includes messages from the Proclaimers, Sugarbabes and Amir Khan, music from Billy Bragg and short interviews with stars from EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

Visit the HOPE not hate website here to view the film.

Searchlight has also produced a 12-page magazine on our HOPE not hate tour.

This is available free by clicking here.

The BNP is standing 878 candidates across the UK. We know that the majority of people are opposed to the BNP’s politics of hate but this means nothing if people do not get out and vote. We also know that not everything is perfect in Britain and many people are disillusioned with the political parties, but we urge you all to vote to stop the racists from winning. The BNP can only bring further division to our communities through their racism and lies and no one can benefit from that.

To understand the true politics of the BNP click here.

BNP man on firearm charge

A British National Party candidate standing for election to Walsall Council has been charged with possessing an imitation firearm.

Dominic Bugler, 38, of Avon Crescent, Pelsall, appeared at the town’s magistrates court on Monday.

Mr Bugler is the BNP’s candidate in the Pelsall ward for the local elections taking place on Thursday.

He has been remanded in custody to appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 8 May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/black_country/6612833.stm

BNPs Secret Plan for ‘Apartheid’ in UK

Former British Nationalist Party activist, turned anti-fascist campaigner, Matthew Collins, Director of Searchlight’s Operation Wedge, has revealed the inside truth about the BNP’s plans for apartheid in Britain, and how to defeat the far right.

He was interviewed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, on his weekly TV programme, Talking With Tatchell at the weekend.

The neo-Nazi British National Party is fighting a record number of seats in the May 3 local, Scottish and Welsh elections – over 800 seats in total. It is aiming to double its number of councillors.

Mr. Collins reveals that the BNP’s makeover as an ostensibly respectable British patriotic party is a con.

The BNP may have discarded its ‘bovver boot’ image in favour of slick city suits, and toned down its street thuggery, but behind the smiling face of its leader Nick Griffin lurks a hateful Islamophobia, racism and homophobia, Mr. Tatchell said.

The BNP is a menace to democracy and to minority communities; posing a particular threat to the security of Black, Asian, Jewish, Muslim and gay people, he suggested.

Mr. Collins explained the BNP’s strategy: it preys on deprived white working class communities; exploiting and manipulating their grievances – often fabricating claims of preferential treatment for immigrants and asylum seekers, in order to stir up a white racist backlash that it can then take advantage of.

The key to defeating the BNP is youth education in diversity and tolerance, the promotion of multicultural projects where people of all races work together to benefit all sections of the community, and government action to address the neglect and deprivation that prompts some alienated white working class people to turn to the far right, the programme suggested.

Mr. Collins also warns that in order to win broader electoral appeal the BNP has, at least publicly, dumped its more extreme policies, such as the repatriation of non-white people.

Now, he revealed, it has a more subtle, covert strategy to drive black people out of Britain – a secret plan for a regime of de facto apartheid, whereby non-white people will face gradually ever-increasing restrictions, exclusions and deprivations.

The BNP’s aim, Mr. Collins suggested, is to make life in Britain so unbearable for black people that they will want to return to the countries from which their forebears migrated.

http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/07/April/3001.htm

BNP Candidate Pleads Innocence

BNP Candidate Pleads Innocence-We dont believe him

A MIDLAND BNP candidate who likes to dress up as a German trooper to re-enact World War Two battles, has denied having any sympathy with Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.

Double glazing boss Karl Newman, aged 48, who is standing as a BNP candidate for Redditch in Thursday’s local elections, collects and sells Nazi memorabilia on his website.

“If I thought there was any link between the BNP and Nazis, I would resign tomorrow,” said Mr Newman, who is standing in Redditch’s Greenlands ward.

“I don’t agree with what the Nazis did and the Holocaust was appalling. I used to take part in battle re-enactments but I haven’t done much of that lately. I have only been in the BNP for a year. I am not a racist. I have Jamaican and Asian friends and a Polish employee.”

Mr Newman, who runs Redditch-based Mount Pleasant Windows Ltd, has now removed several photographs bearing swastikas from his website and erased Nazi memorabilia.

But a spokesman for the group Unite Against Fascism, said: “Karl Newman’s Nazi obsession is sickening.”

And Jaqui Smith, Labour MP for Redditch, said: “Redditch people are decent and tolerant. I am shocked that someone seeking to be an elected representative celebrates the Nazis.”

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/news/tm_headline=bnp-candidate%2D-i%2Dm-no-nazi%26method=full%26objectid=18988715%26siteid=50002-name_page.html

Auty to face new probe

A BNP councillor who wrote a controversial song about Savile Town will face an investigation after all following a fresh complaint from Labour MP Shahid Malik.

Coun Colin Auty escaped censure from the councillors’ watchdog body the Standards Board for England after Malik took exception to his lyrics.

Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Malik complained that the lyrics – which he claimed referred to drug dealers and the sexual grooming of 12-year-olds – stirred up racial tensions.

However the Standards Board ruled that because Coun Auty, who performs in an Irish band called Red Claire, was not acting as a councillor at the time they could not intervene.

Coun Auty (Dewsbury East) hit back by giving a brief rendition of the song outside Malik’s office in Daisy Hill, Dewsbury. Malik was furious and threatened to seek a change in the law to give the Standards Board more powers.

Now it has been revealed that Malik has made a fresh complaint claiming that Coun Auty’s antics intimidated members of his staff.

Coun Auty, who played a guitar, turned up with Dewsbury South BNP candidate Frank Atack, also a member of the group, and Burnley councillor Derek Dawson.

Coun Dawson filmed Coun Auty’s performance and the video was later added to a DVD which was made available on the BNP website.

Malik, who was not at his office, claimed to the Standards Board that Coun Dawson went inside the building to film.

Staff were intimidated, particularly two who lived in Savile Town and felt they were being targeted.

According to the Standards Board decision notice, one man “locked the door in fear of his safety” and a Muslim woman ran from the main office and hid in a back room. Police were informed.

The Standards Board said Coun Auty had “failed to comply with a number of areas of the Code of Conduct” and the matter would be investigated by the ethical standards officer. Coun Dawson faces the same allegations.

Coun Auty said he had been on the other side of the road and Coun Dawson had not set foot inside Malik’s office. All they saw were silhouettes of people inside.

“It was just meant as a poke in the eye for him,” said Coun Auty.

“He has kept this rolling along because he wants to make himself a victim.

“It may have been a bit foolish but then I am a bit cavalier. It is the first time I have been accused of intimidating anyone.

“All three of us are no bigger than Lester Piggott.”

http://www.thepressnewspaper.co.uk/

EXCLUSIVE: BNP CANDIDATE’S NAZI SHAME

A BRITISH National Party activist who claims he is a respectable businessman is really a Nazi fanatic who dresses in German uniform and flies a swastika flag.

Window firm boss Karl Newman, 47, a candidate for the far-right BNP in Thursday’s local elections, denies he is a racist or Nazi sympathiser in campaign leaflets.

But, in fact, he dresses in World War Two Wehrmacht uniforms and has a sick fascination with Hitler.

He has spent years restoring two wartime troop carriers built by Jewish concentration camp labour.

One has a giant swastika on the bonnet and he flies another of the Nazi flags from the back. Newman even takes out six-year-old son William in the vehicle at weekends.

Pictures on his website show him in Nazi uniform. In one a cardboard cut-out of Hitler is driving one of the vehicles, called Kubelwagens.

Confronted by the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I am aware they were built by slave labour – but I can’t do anything about that.”

Newman, standing in Greenlands ward of Redditch Council in the West Midlands, added: “OK – so the BNP is only for white people, but that does not mean I am a racist.” Claiming to be a Christian, he said his Nazi obsession was “just fun”.

Labour councillor Mark Shurmer said: “These pictures are disgusting.”

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/tm_headline=exclusive%2D-bnp-candidate%2Ds-nazi-shame%26method=full%26objectid=18983162%26siteid=98487-name_page.html

Fraudster stands as BNP candidate

Thanks to Searchlight

AS IF THE BNP did not have enough councillors with criminal convictions, one of the partys candidates in Barnslev South Yorkshire, turns out to be a disgraced former magistrate with a conviction for fraud.

Nick Parker, who is contesting Dodworth ward, was fined £450 by Wakefield magistrates for forging a document from a financial firm which stated an insurance policy was worth less than its true value.

The matter came to light during an acrimonious divorce. As a result of the conviction the Department of Constitutional Affairs threw him off the bench.

Parker was an independent councillor in Dodworth at the time of his conviction but stood down from the Barnslev Independent Group shortly afterwards, blaming town hall political games for his resignation, and did not defend his seat in 2006.

He told the Barnsley Chronicle that he agrees with every single part of the BNP manifesto, adding: “My views haven’t changed in many a year. There wasn’t a party that could agree with in Barnsley, but then the BNP came along.”

No doubt the BNP welcomed this fraudster with open arms.

Plaid Cymru to hang if BNP win power

Taken from http://ted-jones.blogspot.com/

If there was ever a clearer sign of the psychotic nature of the BNP, link to the website below.

http://isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/2007/04/swansea-city-enhanced-by-immigrants.html

What this BNP activist is effectively saying is that if they ever win power they will re-introduce capital punishment and execute those who do not share their fascist bigotry.

I was fortunate enough to meet Plaid star Adam Price MP the other day; he said if I can remember correctly:

“Young men from the South Wales Valleys fought and died against fascism in Spain and the Second World War. We have to remember what these people stand for and the lessons of history.”

I am personally amazed that fascism is being given such generous coverage during this campaign. The Glamorgan Gazette in its wisdom even provided Nick Griffin with a full profile, whilst refusing at any point to print hardly any legitimate local political stories by Plaid (despite countless press notices by local candidates), the official opposition in the Assembly. That paper and Celtic Press should be ashamed of themselves. The BNP have been given air time on radio programmes and even a party election broadcast. All this just legitimises the fascist movement.

I don’t believe that democratic parties should share a political platform with these people. I never refer to fascist replies on this blog. How can you debate sensibly with people who are so fundamentally warped in their thinking?

Journalists tell me that they have a duty to report everything no matter how uncomfortable, and that all political movements have a right to freedom of speech. I vehemently disagree; any political movement which fundamentally disagrees with the values of a democratic society should be exempt from the benefits afforded by democracy to political movements.

The threat to execute members of Plaid Cymru in a BNP blog is not an idle threat. This is what these people will do if they assume power. Whilst some members of the London political class might snigger at such a prospect – this is a very serious threat which all democratic political parties need to unite to combat and to build a consensus to ensure that fascism has no place in Wales.