The National Front and its supporters are currently making much of the fact that they have just acquired their very first councillor. To much praise, no doubt for all his hard work during the bitterly-fought campaign, Simon Deacon is currently being overwhelmed with congratulations from all sections of the far-right. Over on the increasingly stupid Stormfront nazi forum, cries of 'Well done' and 'Congratulations' are being shouted from the cyber equivalent of the rooftops. A tickertape parade would seem to be in order.
Just a couple of snags. Deacon was not elected to his St Alban's seat, there was no bitterly-fought campaign and there was certainly no hard work. Quite simply, Deacon walked into his parish councillor role by default because no-one stood against him.
Without a single vote being cast - which is the only way the National Front would get anywhere politically - Simon Deacon has walked into a position (from May 4th) as parish councillor for St Alban's Markyate ward.
The NF has obviously learned its electoral lessons from the British National Party. Only a couple of weeks ago the BNP was crowing over the fact that it had managed to get another six (parish) councillors, including Carol Collett, mother of the despicable Hitler-worshipper Mark Collett, 'without a single ballot paper being marked'. Democracy, huh?
As we pointed out in our article about the BNP's very quiet parish council infestation, there are a number of rules to which parish councillors are expected to adhere. One is to 'promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person' while another is to 'treat others with respect'. We confidently expect the National Front's Simon Beacon to fail miserably on both fronts.
Curiously, considering the sneaky way Deacon managed to get a seat on his parish council, the National Front has a lot to say about democracy on one of its introductory pages. It even makes a veiled sideswipe at the BNP's highly undemocratic structure;
'...The policies of the party are determined by the members at Annual Conferences and unlike some other parties, such decisions are binding upon the party.'
Unfortunately it goes on;
'The National Front is a party of genuine democracy...The NF seeks to promote in Britain a genuinely democratic political system...'
One wonders then, why the NF has allowed Deacon to bypass the democratic process completely despite never having been voted in. Could it be that all this waffle about democracy is worth about as much as that espoused by the BNP - a party that has blatantly and on numerous occasions attempted to subvert the democratic process?
April 24, 2007
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8 comments:
It's taken them forty years to get onto a Parish Council.
By this rate, I predict the NF coming to power in 2967AD.
LOL That soon, huh?
This parish council business seems a bit dodgy to me. Isn't there some way to avoid this nonsense? You can't just have the nazis walking in and taking seats willy nilly just because other people can't be bothered to stand.
For fuck sake why didn't someone stand against this shit. We put out millions of fuckin leaflets telling people to to vote BNP then we let a shit like this walk into office unchallenged.
I know that the tories are shit.
I know that Labour are shit.
I know the Lib-Dems are shit.
But couldn't the Greens (not quite as shit as the rest) put a candidate up against him. NF or BNP I don't give a shit lets stop them all.
That's the problem - other people are NOT willing to stand.
The fact that the NF won without a vote being cast is not, this time, their fault, and they cannot really be called 'anti-democratic' because they stood and nobody else did.
The NF won, fair and square, and that is all there is to this particular result, no matter how much the result leaves a bitter taste.
The same with the six BNP parish councillors - now seven, as, according to their website, one Tory withdrew from a two-party fight after nomination closed, giving them their seventh non-elected councillor (this election) making, I think, a total nationwide of 60 BNP, 1 NF and 1 each for EFP and Freedom Party, although both of these are retiring and not fighting for their seats again this time. Plus one EFP who now calls himself 'New Darwen', an unknown number of UKIP, and four for the English Democrats (three of whom were elected standing for other parties).
Let's see how many there are on May 5th, after the CONTESTED wards have been declared!
Parish councils are very much the poor relations, with no great responsibilites. Ours meets in the local pub. Both the NF and BNP are latching on to the word "councillor" and fudging the distinction between Borough/District/City and parish councillors as a ploy to boost their apparent totals. We should deduct the number of BNP parish councillors from the total number of councillors the BNP claims - they aren't in the same league.
Just to add a bit of clarity to this story.
Deacon stood for Markyate Parish Council.
There was 10 vacancies
Only 9 candidates stood.
All will become Parish Councillors
I agree with Denise. I mean really, the Parish Council is little more than what is portrayed by the Vicar of Dibley.
The NF could never contest and be elected to a proper functioning body.
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