The BNP's very quiet revolution

The far-right BNP's incursion into the roots of British politics - parish councils

Following the successes of the British National Party in the local elections last May, new instructions were sent out from the BNP bunker in preparation for the next round - the local government elections that will be upon us in three weeks time.

These instructions were simple and to the point - to conquer the media by overwhelming it with constant letters, emails and pro-BNP reports and to fight the council elections that very few people would bother to oppose and most don't even seem to know exist, the parish council elections.

Commentators (including us) have written about the former offensive on a number of occasions - pointing out how nazi forums are used to spread the word when there is an anti-Islam petition to be signed online and when email responses to anti-BNP articles are required, these being two of the simpler ways the BNP's increasingly sophisticated propaganda machine makes use of new technology.

We've pondered on the BNP's grasp of using the likes of Altermedia (a right-wing alternative to Indymedia) and other news sources to spread the far-right word. But everyone seems to have managed to miss or ignore the way the far-right party has sneaked in through the back door and begun very quietly to undermine us from within. Thus the BNP was able to report on April 5th that SIX new BNP councillors have been added to its list 'without a single ballot paper being marked'. So much for the party that purports to stand for democracy then. One of those new parish councillors, by the way, is Carol Collett, mother of the Hitler-admirer Mark Collett.

So, what precisely are parish councils? The National Association of Local Councils has this to say:

Parish councils are statutory bodies. Members are elected for a term of four years and councils are funded principally by an annual precept. Income and expenditure for the next financial year are calculated in the form of estimates. The net amount (the precept) is added to council tax, collected by the county, borough or district council (principal authorities) and paid to parishes in two six-monthly instalments. Parish and town councils can apply for other funding such as grant and funding awards, but they do not receive funds direct from central government, as principal authorities do.'

Nevertheless, they do receive funds and they do have a certain amount of power. One of their powers, for example, is to create or initiate local by-laws. And here we have six BNP parish councillors walking into office completely unopposed...

Another considerable power given to parish councillors is to be the first (though not final) arbiters in locally-based planning applications. One wonders how far an application for the conversion of, for example, a dairy to a mosque, would get when a parish councillor representing the rabidly anti-Islam BNP was thrown into the equation. Although parish councillors are intended to be apolitical, any councillor who has attended a parish council meeting will tell you that politics is just as much a part of parish life as it is in the city.

There is however, a Code of Conduct to which parish councillors supposedly have to adhere. According to The Parish Councils (Model Code of Conduct) Order 2001: Section 2, a member must:

(a) promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person;
(b) treat others with respect; and
(c) not do anything which compromises or which is likely to compromise the impartiality of those who work for, or on behalf of, the authority.

We'd be willing to bet the new influx of BNP parish councillors ground their teeth at those.

Anyone who works at ground-level in any form of politics will tell you that there is where the real work is done. Certainly it's where previously unknown faces can make their mark and spread their names around, and parish councils are frequently the springboard on to district or city authorities. The fact that opposition to the BNP becomes apparent the moment a candidate stands in a district council election and that any opposition has an inevitable effect on the results of elections has obviously not been lost on the BNP. Nor can the party have avoided noticing that a huge percentage of its councillors are a complete washout in the job. Perhaps it sees the lower-stress parish council, with its general lack of opposition and more informal approach to business, as a training ground for its district councillors of the future - they certainly need some training in being useful and worthwhile.

Whether that's the case or not, the BNP is sneaking in by the back door, and will use any method it can find to worm its way into mainstream political life in the UK. It's up to us to stop it, whether it's at parliamentary level, district or parish. For the safety and security of all of us, we have to keep an eye on the back door as well as the front. If we don't, we might find Nick Griffin's mother (a former National Front parliamentary candidate) our next parish councillor. Wouldn't that be fun.