April 23, 2009

URGENT KIRKLEES UNITY NEWS

Richard Edmonds - Holocaust-denier and racist
It has been brought to our attention that the BNP in Kirklees intend again to hold another meeting in the Heckmondwike area on Thursday 23rd April

The meeting which is due to start at 8pm is to be held at The Royal Hotel public house which is located on High Street Heckmondwike WF16 0AL. The guest speaker for the night once again is Richard Edmonds the former deputy leader of the party under the John Tyndall regime.

Former teacher Edmonds has a string of criminal convictions. In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed The Holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by Edmonds, on behalf of a BNP front organisation, the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by members. The theme was returned to on 8th April 1991 edition of Panorama where Edmonds described the publication as 'a wonderful statement of the truth'

Edmonds also spent time in custody over a racial attack in 1993 and had previously been convicted for smashing a statue of Nelson Mandela on London's South Bank. Further controversy came in 1993 when he told The Guardian that 'we [the BNP] are 100% racist'.

Surprisingly to some, Edmonds was co-opted by Nick Griffin onto the BNP's Advisory Council in September 2008, thereby returning him to the top tier of the party and ending his period of apparent dissidence.

Edmonds was due to address a North Kirklees meeting at the Royal Hotel back in November 2008, however down to pressure from antifascists the meeting was called off. Because of the meeting cancellation the North Kirklees organiser at the time Ian Roper was sacked by Yorkshire organiser Adrian Marsden.

As The Royal is a Free House we are asking people to ring the pub and POLITELY lodge their complaint with the management. The Royal Hotel's telephone number is 01924 403265

We have proven already what can be done in November.

For more information on Richard Edmonds see here.

Kirklees Unity

9 comments:

alister said...

I live in Yorkshire, and the Royal pub in Hecky has a long history of putting on fascist fundraising events, not just for the BNP but for the BPP and other sick fascist groups. It's probably the most notorious neo-nazi watering hole in the North of England, and there should be regular protests against the venue until the manager leaves behind the premises, or the business shuts down. Plenty of its customers are thugs who listen to the likes of Skrewdriver, and in this day and age, pubs like this should not be licensed by the local council (Kirklees Council).

music not racism said...

The Royal Hotel is a live music venue, and have hosted band contests and subsidised events as part of the local arts festival sponsored by Kirklees Council, using rate-payers money.

Disgraceful!

John P said...

I've phoned a couple of time this evening and not got through but I will try again tomorrow

Unknown said...

Just a note that BNP troll comments of the "let's go down and smash the fash" variety won't be appearing in this thread any time soon.

Anonymous said...

Just rang from London at 13.30 and they have an answering machine on, i have left a very polite complaint message.

tulip

winxsta said...

It will be hard for anyone to spak to the management, as they are neo-nazis themselves, rather than mere free speech fans. They actively want to spread racism to kirklees, and are using this high street pub to spread the message of hate far and wide.

Glad the trolls have been banned. Indymedia isn't sharp enough getting rid of such crap.

pat said...

It's like that fleapit Blackpool hotel, a venue owned and run by members of the far right, thus the lack of response on the phone.

Some far right pubs are managed by apathy and greed, but this one is purely managed to foster hate in the local community. Hecky might have lost David Exley but it's not lost its fash pub.

How I wish the road junction would be extended, so the building could be knocked down as part of a compulsary purchase order to build a new Tescos or the like, lol!

The Green Arrow said...

Richard Edmonds would have been an excellent companion when I was on the salty seas.

Anonymous said...

I rang this evening. The woman who answered the phone claimed to be the Manager. She said the BNP had asked for the function room but didn't get it because it was already booked. Kirklees Unity, please check this. If the meeting is going ahead despite what I was told, then I, and I expect others, will ring again.