The Epping Forest Branch of the British National Party were licking their wounds after losing two of the three District Council seats they fought for the elections on 1 May. Their council group leader, Patricia Richardson, known far and wide as the BNP’s Jewish collaborator, only retained a seat on the council after a last-minute shift to a different ward.
Rose Brookes, a popular local figure who has previously served as a councillor, won the Loughton Alderton seat for Loughton Residents Association, with a large lead over the BNP. In a by-election last summer the BNP candidate had defeated her by only 26 votes.
Rejoining Loughton Town Council was the Labour Party veteran Tom Owen. The BNP, standing for Loughton Town Council for the first time, took five seats, far fewer than they had hoped to win.
A week before the election the BNP councillors had shot themselves in the foot by condemning a new multi-faith forum that has been set up in the district. For once the Epping Forest Guardian, noted for its partial support for the BNP and its councillors, was stung into running the headline “BNP ‘shame’ of faith forum snub”.
Local residents were able to listen to the BNP’s nastiness and ignorance as Epping Forest District Council broadcasts council meetings live on the internet. BNP councillor Rod Law, one of three BNP councillors present (the other three of what were then six BNP councillors were absent), speaking against a motion noting the forum’s formation said: “Forums like these are an absolute waste of resources for the council and are only put together to promote diversity and multiculturalism which we feel is absolutely detrimental to the very fabric of society”. Cllr Pat Richardson claimed councillors were being “brow beaten into accepting the concept that the public purse, the taxpayer, has to fund this”.
Deputy council leader Chris Whitbread pointed out that the council was not paying for the forum. He accused the BNP of doing nothing for Loughton, disappearing when the council discusses the needs of the community and turning up only to “talk about dividing our community”. He continued: “You are a disgrace to this council and you are a disgrace to our community”.
Several other councillors, who clearly have the measure of these extremists, stood up to condemn the BNP's “disgraceful” and “disgusting” comments and emphasised the importance of everyone working together as a community.
It has now become clear that the BNP believe religious groups are all part of a big conspiracy against them. The churches in Epping and beyond have gone out of the their way to attack the BNP and what it stands for and they have been joined by other faiths, the Searchlight/Hope not hate campaign and Redbridge and Epping Forest Together.
REFT makes no excuses for this. For once the BNP have got it right: most people do not like them.
The Epping Forest Guardian soon reverted to type with a front page picture of Cllr Richardson and no proper coverage of the election of Rose Brookes and Tom Owen.
Over in Redbridge BNP Cllr Julian Leppert was running true to form by opposing a residents’ campaign to keep open Seven Kings swimming pool, claiming that Seven Kings is like the Third World. We are not sure how he would know as no sooner had he won his seat in Hainault ward he packed his bags and moved to Loughton to be close to the rest of the BNP's motley crew.
On Redbridge Council, harsh words were exchanged between Cllr Harold Moth, a Conservative councillor for Hainault, and council leader Alan Weinberg. Moth was ordered out of a meeting after he labelled Weinberg “a covert member of the BNP”. Weinberg reacted furiously saying, “How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party?”, at which Leppert insisted Weinberg withdraw his remark. Weinberg refused saying: “The BNP are an extreme right wing party with Nazi views and I will not withdraw the comment”.
The BNP have reported Cllr Weinberg to the Standards Board for England, which three years ago ruled on a BNP complaint against the former Epping Forest Liberal Democrat councillor Gavin Stollar that calling the BNP nazi was “within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate”.
On that occasion the BNP had again used Richardson’s Jewishness as the excuse for the complaint, claiming that calling the BNP nazi would hurt her feelings. Surprisingly her feelings do not seem to be hurt by the fact that Tony Lecomber, who has mentored her since she joined the BNP, once served a prison sentence for assaulting a young Jewish teacher.
Cllr Weinberg intends not only to defend his name as both a councillor and a Jew but to expose the national socialist nature of the BNP to the world. REFT and others are more than happy to assist him in this admirable endeavour.
While Cllr Leppert has managed to keep his trap shut over this matter, the same is not true for Jason Douglas, the well known twice-convicted football hooligan and the BNP’s organiser for Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Havering. His letter to the Ilford Recorder, which appeared under the heading “It’s time to get facts straight”, said:
“With reference to Cllr Moth’s ‘covert member of the BNP’ and Cllr Weinberg’s ‘How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party’ comments at the Redbridge council meeting, doesn’t Cllr Weinberg know about the BNP?
“Since Nick Griffin became leader, he has turned the party into an election winner, where its policies have the support of many London voters.
“Epping Forest District councillor, Pat Richardson – who happens to be Jewish – heads the BNP group on the council.”
“The BNP stands for the forgotten voice in multi-racial Britain.”
This is yet another BNP attempt to make use of Richardson’s Jewishness. Douglas should stick to driving his London taxi and try putting his brain into gear before opening his gob. Richardson’s opposition to the Epping Forest multi-faith forum just shows her contempt for any religion.
So there is lots going on and a growing need for all those new volunteers who joined us in the run-up to the elections on 1 May to stay involved when we meet on 8 July at 7pm for a 7.30pm start at the Methodist Church in Loughton High Road, facing the junction of the High Road and Traps Hill.
Nearest station Loughton (Central Line Epping branch), buses 20 and 397 stop outside Morrisons.
Redbridge and Epping Forest Together
Bob Archer and Gerry Gable
Joint Co-ordinators
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