Ellie Walker: 'misguided' to have ever been a member of the racist BNPCouncillor Ellie Walker has become a member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new Community Voice group after several months spent as a non-aligned councillor. Mrs Walker quit the British National Party in March, along with husband, and former group leader, Alby Walker. But Community Voice leaders told Mrs Walker they would only accept her if she issued a public statement distancing herself from the far-right party.
And the Abbey Green ward member, who was elected as a BNP councillor in May 2007, has now said: "I was misguided to have ever been a member of the BNP and admit that I was part of an organisation that held racist views and that my association with the BNP reflected badly on me personally. During my time as a councillor, working closely with the community and all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I have come to realise that the views of the BNP are wrong."
Mrs Walker also revealed her daughter-in-law is Sri Lankan, and that her grandchildren are of mixed race. She added: "While a member of the BNP, I realised that it was not what I thought it was, with many individuals only interested in hate and lies. Stoke-on-Trent is a fantastic, diverse and tolerant place to live and represent [and], if it is to move forward, it must continue to be so."
Community Voice's lead spokesman, Councillor Mick Salih, said he had no problem accepting Mrs Walker's application to become the party's sixth member. He added: "Community Voice despise and is totally opposed to the BNP and everything it stands for. Racism, indeed any discrimination, has no place in a modern, tolerant city like Stoke-on-Trent. Ellie has put all that behind her and earned admiration from all political parties across the city council when she not only left the BNP but exposed the hidden extremism."
The addition of Mrs Walker to the fledgling party makes it the fourth largest group on the council. It is behind 26-member Labour, the nine-strong City Independent Group and the eight-member Conservative and Independent Alliance. It is also now one place ahead of the five-member BNP group and the four-strong Liberal Democrats.
Current BNP group leader Councillor Michael Coleman said he was aware of Mrs Walker's move to Community Voice, but was sceptical about her denunciation of her former far-right connections. He said: "This has to be the biggest political conversion in the history of Stoke-on-Trent – to go from hard right to hard left. I have known Ellie a long time and all I can say is that her views fitted in well with the BNP and she was an outstanding councillor for us. I wish her well in her new group, but I don't accept any of her accusations about our party. She was elected on a BNP ticket, and I do wonder whether voters in her ward will accept her conversion or feel betrayed by it. I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."
This is Staffordshire
11 comments:
Translation: I tried to ride a media backed Zeitgeist that turned out to be run by fantasists, criminals and general loons.
Now it's all gone hilariously wrong, please let me keep my seat and expense account.
"it's a racist party"
And she couldn't work that out before she joined it? Bollox.
So why did she join it in the first place instead of joining a mainstream party or none at all? She obviously knew it was racist or hadn't she read its manifesto and just stuck a pin in a list? She joined the BNP because at the time the BNP best represented her views. Her husband seems to have had the same problem too despite also having been in the NF. Lying two-faced bastards. Who's paying them?
Coleman: "I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."
How fucking deluded is that? Coleman is certainly a "glass half full" kinda guy, eh.
Yeah, after a decade, and with the BNP on it's heels, we're all coming around to finally accepting you.
There are a few former fascists who have become an asset to our movement. Sonia Gable and Matthew Collins being notable examples.
Maybe we should reserve judgement on the Walkers.
There is more joy in heaven etc.
Old Sailor
Ms Walker will attract more hostility from the major parties, particularly Labour, as a member of Community Voice than she ever did as a member of the BNP.
Whilst her political history will be the stick they beat her (and her CV colleagues) with, the truth is that many of these control-freak politicos have a bigger problem with residents making their own decisions than they have with racism and fascism.
Once again the wrong message will be sent to hesitant ex-fascists looking for a way out of the far-right and back into the human race, all in the cause of tribal party self-interest.
I don't know this woman and have no idea whether her retreat from fascist and racist politics is genuine or opportunistic, but anybody who is an anti-fascist before a slave to a coloured rosette would give her a chance and watch her closely.
"There are a few former fascists who have become an asset to our movement. Sonia Gable and Matthew Collins being notable examples"
There's a bit of a difference between seeing the light and hanging your politics from Hate to Hope, and claiming that you never realised a racist party was racist until you joined. The first is understandable, the second shows incredible stupidity. Did this woman really think she was joining a grown-up version of the Brownies?
"There are a few former fascists who have become an asset to our movement."
True but I doubt if joining a bunch of independent councillors is going to rehabilitate her with anti-fascists. She could spill the whole beans about the BNP - all the racism, Hitler-worshipping, etc. If she does that I'll look on her with a lot less cynicism. But merely joining up with a bunch of misfits isn't going to convince anyone.
"True but I doubt if joining a bunch of independent councillors is going to rehabilitate her with anti-fascists. She could spill the whole beans about the BNP - all the racism, Hitler-worshipping, etc. If she does that I'll look on her with a lot less cynicism. But merely joining up with a bunch of misfits isn't going to convince anyone."
I think this just emphasises my point, doesn't it?
Yes, I agree that she needs to spill the beans and share any information she has on the BNP with anti-fascists (although in my experience they tend not to even want it).
However the problem seems to be that she has chosen to join a residents' group rather than one of the tribes.
Some "anti-fascists" need to descend from their high horses and try to understand that the object of the exercise isn't to "rehabilitate themselves" with them, but rather to expose the BNP as the racist and fascist party it is through whatever means serves that object best.
She hasn't joined a "residents group"; she has joined a political party made up, principally, of ex-Labour people who have - for various reasons - fallen out with Labour.
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