The Red White And Blue Lagoon

THE LAGOON PUB in Tipton offers an insight into how the British National Party run their affairs.

Cllr Jamie Lloyd: dodged a bullet fired by a man in his pub. Sandwell Council stripped the landlord of his licence to run the drinking den recently after a spate of violent incidents, including beatings. The landlord, Jamie Lloyd, is also a BNP Sandwell councillor, former parliamentary candidate in West Bromwich West, and local leader of the far-right party. On one occasion a man entered the establishment brandishing a machete, and on another a man fired a semi-automatic weapon, reportedly at councillor Lloyd. Police eventually lost patience with the Lagoon, which is situated in Princes End, the ward represented by Councillor Lloyd, and in January the Council's licencing committee closed the pub. Cllr Lloyd is reported to have failed to report the incident to police, and hampered their enquires by failing to give a statement and delaying the handing over of CCTV footage. Until its' closure, the Lagoon served effectively as the BNP's local "headquarters", and a regular drinking hole for BNP foot soldiers, and the pub football team - the Tipton Boilers - played in a strip sponsored by the party. The Football Association later ruled that soccer teams are forbidden from wearing a strip that displayed a political message. The Lagoon was also noted for hanging effigies of three Tipton terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, who were later released without charge. If this is how the BNP run a pub, some locals have mused, what horrors lie in wait should they get their hands on political power. BLACK INFORMATION LINK