The hatred sickness

The BNP leader Nick Griffin has tweeted how he hopes a visitor to the House of Commons tonight blows himself up in what would presumably be, some sort of suicide bombing.

A controversial Muslim cleric is due to address a meeting at the House of Commons this evening. Griffin wrote: "..they've invited a banned Islamist to speak in House of Commons this evening. Hope he blows himself up there! "

Griffin, who has failed in a number of attempts to get elected to the house himself, shows his bitter and vile disregard not just to the democratic institution itself, but to the loss of innocent lives that would follow such an outrage.

Time and time again we warn people about the vulgar, true nature of the BNP and having as good as smashed his tiny Nazi party to pieces by his own vulgar egotism, the truth about Griffin, his policies and his hatreds is becoming more and more obvious to everyone.

Who on earth would want to benefit for instance, from a suicide bombing at the House of Commons or indeed anywhere in a country that they purport to love so much?

After the dreadful 7th July suicide bombings in central London back in 2005, the BNP took images of the carnage and distress and turned them into a vile leaflet which the BNP delivered three days later in Barking and Dagenham during a council by election there. The candidate standing against the BNP was a Muslim, something that the BNP tried to make a great deal of. The BNP were hammered by the electorate, who were rightly disgusted.

This disgusting party will be trying to get itself elected back on to the Greater London Assembly (GLA) again next year. The people of London have long memories. We will make sure they do not forget the BNP leader’s vulgar cynicism and hatred.

Thanks to Nick Lowles at HOPE not Hate.

Pub landlady warned by police

Barking and Dagenham police have visited the landlady of an east London pub where Nick Griffin is due to speak tonight and told her that she risks losing her licence if the meeting goes ahead, according to the British National Party spokesman Simon Darby. Darby claims an alternative venue has been arranged for the party leader’s visit.

HOPE not hate does not know exactly what the police told Leigh Friend but Redbridge and Epping Forest Together, a local HOPE not hate supporting group, has long campaigned for an end to a variety of fascist and nazi activities at the Cherry Tree pub in Wood Lane, Dagenham, and has been in contact with Barking and Dagenham police about tonight’s event.

REFT, Searchlight and members of the public have made several complaints to Barking and Dagenham council’s licensing and regulatory board, so far to no avail.

Unusually for the BNP the meeting venue was advertised openly, probably because the pub is already so well known as a nazi haunt. Mrs Friend herself supports the BNP to the extent that she was one of the BNP’s 34 candidates for Barking and Dagenham council last year. All of them failed to get elected.

Earlier this year Blood and Honour, the nazi skinhead music organisation, held an international gig at the pub which was attended by nazis from a number of European countries.

Tonight’s meeting is due to start at 7.30pm. This is Griffin’s second visit to the south east in under a fortnight. Last week he spoke to party officers and activists at the second in a series of “Way Forward” meetings aimed at boosting Griffin’s flagging support in the party and countering growing dissent.

Thanks to Searchlight/HOPE not Hate

"The Battle for Barking": A Complaint

So. We've all seen it now. Was Cyclops treated unfairly?

To: Ofcom / Audience Complaints Department

Dear Sir,

I wish to register my complaint about the wholly biased, partisan and unpatriotic documentary “The Battle of Barking” broadcast on More 4 at 10pm on Tuesday November 30th.

When I was initially approached by the Production Company, Dartmouth Films, with a view to allowing television access to the British National Party's finely-honed election organisation, I was assured that any resulting film would be fair and unbiased.

How wrong I was!

My complaints are as follows:

1) Although the clear favourite to win the Election, I was repeatedly undermined in the film by unfavourable comparison to my rival, Mrs Margaret Hodge. For example, I was described as “Chairman of the BNP”, while she was repeatedly given the attribution “MP for Barking”. I was also, incidentally, described as someone who had previously shown no commitment to Barking, while Mrs Hodge was allowed to make an entirely unjustified claim to somehow “care” about the constituency on the spurious grounds that she has somehow “represented” it since 1994.

2) At one point in the (so-called!!) “documentary”, the highly respected local politician, elder statesman and scion of the London BNP, Mr Bob Bailey, is portrayed as someone who would beat an opponent to the ground and kick him repeatedly while he was down. I ask you, in all seriousness: If a similarly senior politician from the Labour Party – say Mrs Hodge, or John Prescott - had thrown a punch during an election campaign, do you think the Mainstream Media Elite would have shown any interest whatsoever? Of course they wouldn't – it would be swept under the carpet and conveniently forgotten about!!

3) Although the British National Party, as any fool can see, triumphed in Barking and Dagenham, and emerged from the fight fitter, wealthier, bigger and more beloved than ever before, this tissue-of-falsehoods-masquerading-as-fact has chosen instead to concentrate on a few selective (so-called!!) “facts” such as my failing to win our best chance of a Parliamentary seat, and our losing every one of our Borough Councillors in the Ward. No. Instead, the (so-called!!) “filmmaker” (a certain Laura Fairrie – who certainly seemed to be telling a “Fairrie-Tale” here!!) made the somewhat bizarre editorial decision to concentrate on Mrs Hodge's “winning” the Seat. Something I suspect will have been of very little interest to her Viewers!!

4) A Mr Richard Barnbrook is shown claiming to somehow “represent” the BNP in Barking and Dagenham. As even the most cursory reading of our Party's recent history will tell you, Mr Barnbrook is, in the opinion of many, a drunken, mentally-deranged, traitorous fifth columnist long known to have been in the pay of the secretive and all-powerful Searchlight Cult. I hardly think it likely that a sagacious and vigilant Leader such as myself would ever have allowed a dangerous lunatic like that within a day's march of our party. To suggest otherwise is clearly misrepresentation.

5) The Eating. I am portrayed, more often than not, as someone who eats all the time. I am constantly portrayed, in the (so-called!!) “Film” as tucking into enormous plates of cake, bacon cobs and assorted comfort food. As anyone who spends any amount of time with me at all will know, there are, in fact, several minutes each week when I am not eating. Did Ms Fairrie choose to show this? She did not!!

6) Repeatedly, I am shown as a somewhat lonely, even pathetic figure. Such a portrayal is nothing but pure fiction! In fact, it can be noted that, throughout our enormously successful and ultimately triumphant Campaign, I was surrounded by close allies and firm, lifelong friends: Eddie Butler, Lawrence Rustem, Charlotte Lewis, Michael Barnbrook, Simon Darby and many, many others. All of whom continue to regard me as a dear, dear friend and mentor.

These, then, are my complaints. I trust you will investigate and swiftly find in my favour. I look forward to being awarded a substantial sum by way of compensation.

Cash would be handy.

Yours Sincerely...

The Battle for Barking & Dagenham

Thanks to Hope not Hate

Spot the arse, the Jefferson/Aitken touch and the missing courtroom

Spot the arse - yes, Dicky's in there somewhere

Dear old Dicky. How many times since he was ignominously thrown out of office on May 6th have we realised how much we missed the hilarious antics of former Barking and Dagenham councillor, Dicky Barnbrook, the bumbling, piss-headed clown of the far-right?

Well, none actually, because while he may give us the odd laugh by acting the fool, he's still an incoherent, racist, right-wing loon who shouldn't be allowed to infect our democracy with his lies and venom.

Not satisfied with having been thrashed once, he's decided to come back for another hammering, standing in his old seat of Goresbrook, following the resignation of lollipop lady Louise Couling, who was actually ineligible to stand because she worked for the local authority while a candidate. Quite why pornmeister Dicky thinks the electorate will change their minds a mere four weeks after booting him out, God alone knows, particularly after he ended up in fourth place, but Dicky always was delusional, especially after an extended liquid lunch.

Perhaps Dicky might like to stop gloating over Ms Couling's resignation long enough to give a thought to the current investigation that is taking place over the illegal use of addresses within the local authority area for candidates who in fact lived outside and were therefore ineligible to stand - including Jeffrey Marshall, the BNP’s central London organiser, Eddy Butler, a key organiser of the party’s local campaign, and Chris Roberts, a paid aide to the BNP’s London Assembly member Dicky Barnbrook. Yes, that one.

Meanwhile, the havoc in the BNP continues, with escalating calls for the dismissal of Jim Dowson, the man who seems to own both Nick Griffin and the party, and rather louder calls for Griffin to go or at least allow a proper leadership challenge, and incidentally the opportunity for members to have a quick peek at the accounts whenever they choose.

Griffin's response has been entirely as expected - instant claims of Searchlight spies in the ranks, the setting-up of attack sites to slag off those who threaten his position and suspension letters winging their way all over the country like the fallout from a sudden explosion in a confetti factory.

He is also ably served by his new hit-man, the muscle-brained Clive Jefferson/Aitken (there's some doubt about his real name), the newish national organiser who, even though he was standing for Parliament, didn't have the balls to take part in a live chat interview for fear that news of his highly unsavoury past would leak out.

The suspension letters that have been sent out are as stupid as the writer and have about as much sense of legality about them, too.

'Membership Suspended With Immediate Effect

Your membership of the British National Party had been suspended, pending an investigation into an alleged serious breach of the BNP Code of Conduct.

While suspended you may not take part in any Party event, attend meetings or send circulars that give the impression that you hold any position in the Party.

You will be informed of the outcome of the investigation in due course.'

No reason for the suspension? And don't you love that last line? Good ol' British justice, eh? Absolute bloody rubbish and any court would treat any termination as a result of such an investigation as illegal without any qualms at all. You'd think even the puny legal brains of Porky Griffin (third-rate degree in jurisprudence) and Lunatic Lee Barnes (no real legal qualification at all) could do better than that. But I may be being unfair. Perhaps the letters were actually written by Jefferson/Aitken, in which case, well done, Clive - you can almost write coherent English!

While on the subject of National Organisers, Eddy Butler (the one before Jefferson/Aitken), has decided to spill the beans on a lot of background activity in the BNP. He's busily positioning himself as a challenger to Griffin (though surely he doesn't seriously believe Griffin will allow it) and has been quietly stirring things over on his blog.

I don't believe half the things even ex-BNP people come out with but in this case I'll make an exception because it seems so, well, so Griffin-like. Here, according to Butler, is what happened on a recent trip to court.

'I decided that I would also go to court to observe the [EHRC] proceedings. I was told it was to start at 10.30 am at the High Court in the Strand. I made my own way there and found Nick and various people from his security team waiting in the main entrance hall of this impressive building. It was 10.10 am so I asked what court number we would be in. Nick replied that he was not sure as the case wasn’t listed. I asked whether he was certain we were in the right court as all cases are listed. He said yes, of course we were. I checked the listings and we weren’t there. I asked if he had checked with the information desk, he said that wasn’t necessary as our barrister would be there at any minute as he was just parking up. Soon after the barrister rang to ask where we were. We were in the wrong court. The court we should have attended was the Central London County Court, about four miles away across the busiest streets in the country and we were already five minutes late. We piled into various vehicles and eventually got to the right court over 45 minutes late. Our embarrassment was compounded by the fact that Croydon activist Bob Gertner had privately made his own way to the correct building on his own initiative.'

And these idiots want to run the country...

BNP try to sneak back into Barking

Richard Barnbrook - desperate and useless

After losing every seat that they held in the borough, the BNP are now trying to sneak back into Barking and Dagenham.

Defeated candidate Richard Barnbrook has forced his successor's resignation after discovering that she was working for the Council during the elections. The BNP will now attempt to usher Richard back into his old seat on a low turnout.

So what great conflict of interest and public corruption was Ms Couling involved in? And what evil deed has Richard Barnbrook bravely revealed? Oh yes that's right, she was a lollipop lady.

Great work there Richard. Your former constituents must really miss you.

Tory Troll

Thanks to GW for the heads-up

How to beat the BNP – and make sure they don't come back

It is only through open debate that we can expose the BNP's false prospectus and vile intentions, argues Margaret Hodge

Several symbolic victories lightened the gloom for Labour at the election, but none more so than the trouncing of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham. I doubled my majority; the BNP was driven into third place by the Tories; and all of its councillors lost their seats. In short, the politics of hatred and racism were decisively rejected.

Four years ago, I warned of the dangers of the rise of the extreme Right, after a surge in BNP support in my area. Some believed that by raising the problem, I was creating it. But I remain convinced that we cannot deal with the issue by ignoring it. All that does is add to the alienation of those who believe that politicians don't listen to their grievances, and haven't a clue about their concerns.

The argument about whether we should share platforms with the BNP is redundant. It is only through open debate that we can expose its false prospectus and vile intentions. That is why, in Barking and Dagenham, the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, consistently refused to debate with me, or the other candidates. He knew he'd lose the argument – on immigration, on the BNP's hideous heritage, and on local concerns and priorities.

The people here looked to the BNP because they have legitimate grievances. They have experienced the most rapid demographic change in the country. All of us would feel some unease if our neighbours suddenly seemed foreign, and the produce in the shops became unfamiliar. The traditional employer, Ford, has cut back from 40,000 workers to 4,000. The sale of council houses created a lack of decent affordable homes. The local Labour Party became too complacent, and there was no mainstream opposition.

The result was a cocktail of circumstances that the BNP could exploit. In 2006, they put forward 13 candidates in the local elections and won 12 seats. With more candidates, they might well have taken control of the council. Our voters felt we had completely lost touch with them.

Our response was to do everything we could to reconnect with people, and give them a positive reason for voting Labour. In our coffee afternoons, street meetings and door-to-door visits, we didn't talk about national issues. Instead, we listened to what voters were concerned about – from potholes, to the resiting of bus stops, to anti-social behaviour. And, of course, they talked about immigration and the impact they felt it was having on housing, jobs, schools and crime.

First, we always tried to deliver on the local concerns, to show people we were listening. Second, we worked hard to stay in touch with those we met, so people got to know their MP and local activists. Finally, we talked about immigration. Voters of every race share the same concerns about the way housing and welfare benefits are allocated. We didn't promise to turn the clock back. But just by listening and showing understanding, we began to restore confidence and trust.

Since 2006, we have almost doubled our party membership, and are now truly representative of our community. In the council wards where the BNP was strongest, we put forward African and Asian candidates – and they won with handsome majorities.

Yet this is the beginning, not the end of the campaign. The BNP retained its deposit in 72 constituencies, and remains a threat to tolerant, democratic politics across Britain. In particular, we still have to find our way through the issue of immigration. To this end, we need a better system for rationing housing and benefits, with priority for those who have lived in an area for longest. This would immediately lance the toxic perception that the allocation systems are unfair. In that way, we could start to change people's attitudes to immigration, and relegate the BNP to the dustbin, where it belongs.

Margaret Hodge is the MP for Barking & Dagenham

Telegraph

Bob Bailey resigns as head of London BNP

Bob Bailey putting the boot in

Bob "it's all a conspiracy" Bailey has resigned as head of London BNP after losing his seat and getting arrested for assault. According to to a statement by London BNP, Bob stood down in order to:

"concentrate on clearing his name following unfounded allegations of assault during the recent London Elections"

Before claiming that:

"Bob leaves London BNP in good shape"

Under his leadership the BNP lost every single seat they held in the capital. These included his own and the council seat of the BNP's only London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook. Barnbrook has so far failed to mention this defeat, although he does admit that:

"We didn’t do nearly as well as we’d hoped."

However, all is not lost. As he puts it on his blog:

"the result, disappointing as it was, doesn’t actually change anything"

Oh dear. I think we're stuck in the first stage of grief here Richard.

Tory Troll

General election 2010: the defeat of the BNP

The BNP had promised a 'political earthquake' in east London. Instead, unexpectedly, it was wiped out. Matthew Taylor and Hugh Muir report on the forces that came together to defeat it, and ask: is this the end for Nick Griffin's party?

At two minutes past six last Friday morning, Nick Griffin walked to the front of the makeshift stage at the Goresbrook leisure centre in Barking, east London, and tried to make his voice heard above a braying crowd. The BNP leader had just suffered a humiliating defeat, beaten into third place by Labour MP Margaret Hodge in the constituency where he had promised to create a "political earthquake".

But as he began a flustered and angry speech, Griffin already knew that worse was to come. Rumours had been circulating round the east London count for more than an hour that the party had not only failed to get its first MP, it was on the verge of an electoral disaster in the area Griffin had once described as the party's "jewel in the crown".

"Within the next five years, the indigenous people of London will be a minority," barked Griffin, as jubilant Labour supporters taunted him with shouts of "Out, out, out!" "It is going to be too late for Barking, but it is not too late for Britain." By then, though, no one was listening.

In the next 12 hours, Griffin's worst fears were realised – and even exceeded. The party was thrashed in its two key parliamentary constituencies of Barking and Stoke Central. Its record number of council and parliamentary candidates failed to make a single breakthrough; and of the 28 BNP councillors standing for re-election, all but two were beaten.

But the Barking and Dagenham council election result was the most dramatic. The BNP had plans to take control of the authority – instead, it lost every one of its councillors there. Twelve elected in 2006. Twelve thrown out in 2010. A ruthless purge, more shocking because they didn't see it coming. Neither, for that matter, did their opponents. It was the miracle of Barking.

"This really was a disastrous result for the BNP," said Nick Lowles, who led the anti-BNP campaign Hope Not Hate. "It will have long-term consequences – particularly for Nick Griffin."

This week, those predictions are beginning to be realised, as senior BNP figures break ranks to question Griffin's leadership and, again, raise concerns about the party's finances. Griffin has been all but untouchable since he took control of the party in 1999, but now he seems increasingly isolated: mocked on far-right internet forums, forced to defend himself from the criticism of one his chief lieutenants.

"The BNP looks set to implode," says Matthew Goodwin, a specialist in far-right politics at the University of Manchester. "Griffin may hang on but, if he does, it will only be because there is no easy way to oust him and no obvious successor. He had plans to expand his reach. Now he is fighting to survive."

Walking amid the shops and bustle of central Barking this week, Zain Achtar, a 19-year-old student, could hardly stop smiling as he basked in a borough free of the BNP. "It feels like something has been lifted from the place. We can get on and go forward again."

Karena Johnson, who works in Barking's Broadway Theatre, agreed: "Having them here was an embarrassment. What happened last week means the story of Barking has changed."

Or perhaps the story of the BNP has changed. Twelve months ago, the party was celebrating its big breakthrough after winning two seats in the Euro elections. So why did that momentum stall in Barking?

The answer is a tale of determined activism by Griffin's opponents, aided by the antics of his self-harming party. That activism began to develop a sharp focus two weeks after those Euro elections, when Lowles chaired a meeting of MPs, anti-BNP campaigners, church groups and trade unionists. He gave them a detailed breakdown of the BNP's support. The message was stark.

"A decision was made to draw a line in the sand," says one Labour party figure who was at the meeting. "The coming general election was going to be the defining moment. Everyone knew that if they won then, it would be almost impossible to remove them in the future."

There was never a single anti-BNP campaign in Barking. There were meetings, events, leafleting initiatives run by Hope Not Hate – which coordinated much of the activity – and also by Labour and Unite Against Fascism. Hope Not Hate set up a base in derelict premises, and volunteers travelled across the country to prepare it for the coming battle; putting up a new ceiling, plumbing in toilets and setting up a print room. Some slept on the floors.

"The response was truly overwhelming," says Lowles. "On one day of action, we had 541 people; on another, 385; and even on election day itself, 176 people came out to help get the vote out." Many of the volunteers had not been involved in political activity before. "We had teenagers travelling up from Kent, old ladies from the other side of London turning out. It felt like a liberating experience for people who felt like we were doing something politically important."

The Hope Not Hate campaign was supported by Joe Rospars, chief digital strategist for Barack Obama from 2007 until his inauguration, who said it was the "best example" of a British organisation applying the lessons of the US presidential elections. "We are seeing a genuine community-based organisation, with people coming together around a common purpose," he said.

Campaigners were able to identify the key groups least likely to vote for the BNP – women, pensioners and people from ethnic minorities. They built up an online volunteer force of 140,000 people, and Rospars advised on how to use them for maximum impact. In the month before election day, Lowles says more than 1,000 volunteers descended on Barking, delivering 350,000 specially tailored leaflets and newsletters.

At the same time, the Dagenham MP John Cruddas, and his neighbour who seemed most under threat, Barking MP Margaret Hodge, were fighting a parallel ground war against the BNP. Hodge escalated the effort she had begun some four years earlier to reconnect with voters Labour had lost to the BNP. Their rise in Barking had seen the then culture secretary heavily criticised by many inside her own party. For her, this election result represents a triumph for decency, and personal redemption.

"When Griffin announced in September that he would stand, that gave me a real scare," Hodge says. "My husband had not long died, and I was still in grief. It was a tough period. I was quietly confident that I would win, but I really wanted to smash him. And I was really concerned about the prospects for the council."

Hodge, with the help of volunteers from Unite Against Fascism, turned to the politics of shoe leather, knocking on doors and listening to people's concerns. "'What do you want to talk about?' I would ask. It was up to them."

Most talked about street cleaning, wheelie bins and antisocial behaviour, but inevitably many raised the BNP trump card of immigration. Even black residents raised the issue with Hodge. "I would say to them: 'I can't turn the clock back, but this is why the borough has changed, and we must make it work for all of us.' Some people hated that. Some would understand. But they came to feel I was listening."

The more so, perhaps, because the BNP was itself struggling to cope under a harsher spotlight. Griffin's Question Time appearance last October, with its gurning and yammering, shocked his supporters within the BNP and appeared to weaken his authority. The decision by the Equalities Commission to challenge the party's racist membership rules occupied too much of his attention, and drained the party's meagre resources. Indiscipline, heightened by personal rivalries, created a string of difficulties for the party and its leader.

At the beginning of the campaign, the BNP's publicity director Mark Collett – once a firm ally of Griffin – was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him. In Stoke, Alby Walker, a senior BNP councillor, said he would stand as an independent because of a "vein of Holocaust-denying" within the party. Then, a few days before the election, the party's website was closed. It was replaced with a posting from Simon Bennett, the website manager, who accused Griffin and James Dowson, the BNP election fundraiser, of being "pathetic, desperate and incompetent".

But the incident that might have had most impact on the voters of Barking concerned Bob Bailey, the BNP's London organiser and one of Griffin's closest confidants. On the eve of the election, Bailey was caught on camera throwing punches and kicks at a group of teenagers. Earlier this week, he was arrested and bailed on suspicion of assaulting two men (an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old man have also been arrested and bailed, on suspicion of assault and affray).

"That caught the attention of voters," says Hodge. "One of the fears many people had was that a BNP win would result in violence on the street. That seemed to confirm it."

It is impossible to say how much of the Barking miracle can be explained by the efforts of the forces ranged against the BNP, and how much of the wound was self-inflicted, but after a shaky start at the Goresbrook leisure centre – before postal votes confirmed the landslide – the outcome was certainly decisive. Each confirmed result elicited whoops and backslapping, and by the end of the purge, only Richard Barnbrook, one of Griffin's senior lieutenants and himself a casualty of the wipeout, remained. He smiled a smile that at first seemed defiant, but eventually gave the impression that he was feeling queasy.

Around Barnbrook, officials – joyous at having the stain on the authority so ruthlessly removed – were quick to share the good news with friends and loved ones. One texted as each far-righter was shown the door. The last text read: "Bye bye, Nazis."

A widely shared thought is that the BNP was overwhelmed by the sort of grassroots activism that must now become a template if there is to be resurgence for the Labour party. In fact, Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, says it was all about Labour.

"It would appear that the vote for the BNP in 2006 was some kind of political cry of anguish, based on the perception that the Labour party simply didn't understand the concerns of that part of the electorate. The fact that the BNP has been dropped in 2010 heavily suggests this section of the electorate now believes it has got the attention of the Labour party." Back in 2006, the morality of supporting an intrinsically racist party wasn't an issue, says Travers. "The voters simply used the most shocking mechanism they could to get Labour's attention."

But there is good and bad in that conclusion. Good because it suggests people in Barking voted BNP for reasons other than racism and antisemitism. Bad because if it was all a means to an end, did no one consider the impact on community relations of voting for the far right?

In any event, Dan Hodges, a strategist and spokesman for Hope Not Hate, says the safest conclusion to draw is that wider society should never again be so complacent. "We were lucky this time. People realised the threat just in time, we mobilised just in time. But we may not be so lucky next."

What is the future for the BNP now? Griffin doesn't know. He can point to the fact that the BNP won more than half a million votes, but his mood is changeable. Yesterday he sent another email, brimming with anger. "The old east London is dead," he wrote.

His party is at a crossroads. A Tory-led administration may worsen social divisions, providing the far right with new opportunities. But it might also clamp down on immigration, rendering the BNP irrelevant. Even if opportunities come his way, Griffin's party has so many problems that he may not be able to take advantage. The BNP is not dead, but it took a mortal blow in Barking. It will be hard-pushed to find its feet again.

Guardian

BNP - Nick Griffin Humiliated in Barking!

Click here to watch the video of the result being announced

Because of the involvement of the BNP, the 2009 European elections were effectively a referundum on British attitudes to immigration and multi-culturalism. In the Euro 2009 election, 94% of British voters actively voted against the BNP! Despite this, the BNP still chose to run over 300 candidates in the General Election on May 6th, 2010. All the BNP candidates failed, nearly 90% lost their deposits, and the BNP were even defeated in their strong-holds of Barking and Stoke, failing to achieve the historic breakthrough they'd predicted and failing to gain any elected MPs. In fact, the historic breakthrough went to the Green Party, who successfully achieved their 1st MP.

British people rejected Oswald Mosley's Fascism before, during and after World War 2, and rejected the National Front in the General Election of 1979. British voters have now conclusively rejected the BNP - twice; and there is no doubt that the BNP's defeat is a huge victory for the complementary strategies employed by modern Anti-Fascists.

Respect is due to Hope not Hate, One Million United Against the BNP, Nothing British About the BNP, Love Music Hate Racism, Unite Against Fascism, the Centre for Social Cohesion, Scotland United, Lancaster Unity, Antifa, Liverpool Antifascists, Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance, Unity Web Ring and MANY others, to all Interfaith and liberal religious groups, to all Anti-Fascist campaigners on Facebook and You Tube, and to the millions of decent people who lend their support to Anti-Fascist campaigns.

Non-aligned, freelance, no-budget and DIY web activism played an important (largely unacknowledged) role in informing a new generation of voters about the dangers of supporting the BNP. As someone who dedicated 2 years to doing exactly this, for the record I don't vote Labour, I'm highly Euro-sceptic, and while respecting and learning from other cultures is important, I believe UNITY is more important than diversity, and would not support any extreme form of multi-culturalism where different races live side-by-side without any form of reciprocal integration. I also agree some sensible immigration controls are necessary in modern society.

Nick Griffin pretends "the establishment" only acknowledged the need to debate immigration because the BNP placed this issue on the agenda. In fact immigration has been hotly debated for decades before the BNP existed, and the BNP's direct forerunner - the NF - was formed by Nazis to EXPLOIT fears about immigration, to cynically sneak Nazi racism into mainstream politics. The BNP are right that some people are reluctant to discuss immigration for fear of being branded "racist", but the reason people have that fear is because of the decades of violence that NF and BNP thugs inflicted on immigrants. In other words if debate about sensible, non-racist immigration controls is lacking in the UK it is because of the disgusting actions of the NF and BNP!

bnpinfo

BNP wipe out - THANK YOU

It is almost unbelievable. But the stain of far-right politics has been wiped off the face of Barking and Dagenham. Not only was the BNP thoroughly beaten in the general election, the council lost 12 councillors. This means the number of councillors left on Barking & Dagenham council went from 12 to 0 overnight.

We cannot thank those who made this possible enough. Huge respect goes to Nick Lowles, Matthew Collins, Sam Tarry, Caroline Alabi and all those who have worked so tirelessly organising activists against the BNP in the Borough for many months. And huge thanks to almost 1,300 people who have volunteered valuable time over the course of the election - in Barking & Dagenham (where we put out 130,000 pieces of literature), and in Stoke-on-Trent - where the BNP were also humiliated.

We have had brilliant support from pensioners, black and Asian voters, white voters, young voters, women and men. On Monday 385 people delivered 55,000 leaflets and even on polling day we had 175 people out knocking up the vote. We also had huge moral and financial support from hundreds of thousands of people across the country, and fantastic support from the Mirror which kept us all going.

As ever our celebrity supporters have been magnificent, from Billy Bragg, Eddie Izzard and Speech Debelle, to the casts of The Bill, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, plus too many more to mention. Thank you one and all - you've done a wonderful thing.

Mirror

Breaking - BNP meltdown continues - annihilation in Barking and Dagenham

Completely obliterated in the general election, the BNP's rout continued today as the party lost councillors wholesale in the simultaneous local elections.

On the BNP's showcase BARKING AND DAGENHAM council, where the BNP, with 12 councillors, formed the official opposition and expected to increase its presence, voters removed every councillor belonging to the racist party, making Barking and Dagenham BNP-free for the first time in years.

In Stoke on Trent, where the BNP had nine councillors and also formed the official opposition, two sitting councillors were ousted (two others defected from the racist party earlier this year), reducing their presence to five.

The party's two remaining councillors in SANDWELL were removed, as were its sole representatives in SOLIHULL and LEEDS. Other losses have been recorded in BURNLEY and still others are being reported even as we post.

Nick Griffin's failed strategy has left him exposed as an incompetent leader even to the most gullible among the slavishly pro-Griffin membership and efforts to topple him are gathering pace. Richard Barnbrook and ousted elections organiser Eddy Butler left the Barking and Dagenham count today openly discussing ways and means of deposing Griffin, who has completely lost control of events.

Whipped and humiliated from one end of the country to the other, disbelieving BNP members are wildly casting about for scapegoats on which to fix the blame for their political demise. The favourite seems to be the old "ballot rigging by the State" saw. Some, like the idiotic Paul Morris/Green Arrow, won't have Griffin blamed at all for the expensive catastrophe into which he led his easily deceived admirers, with the active conivance of political illiterates like Morris, who we presume is hitting the Tesco lager with a vengeance.

There are interesting times to come for Nick Griffin and an increasingly disaffected BNP membership - and we'll bring you every moment of them, with the greatest pleasure!

LIVE election and results blog

What a great night of live election blogging we had last night. Loads of people on, up to the minute results and analysis, lots of laughs and the odd bit of verbal abuse. Great fun! Thanks to all who spent the night with us and made the General Election tolerable. :-)

BNP leaflet to black Christian voters branded 'obscene'

Far-right party mails 24,000 'black' electors in Barking and Dagenham urging them to vote against 'unchristian' Labour

A BNP leaflet designed to woo the black Christian vote in Barking and Dagenham has been branded "obscene" by one of its recipients.

The targeted leaflet, which accuses Labour of undermining Christian values and promoting "ungodly lifestyles", was sent to 24,000 people in the borough. It features a picture of Nick Griffin next to the Rev George Hargreaves, the leader of the Christian party, and was sent out last week after the BNP trawled the electoral register looking for people with "African names".

In it, Griffin says: "I am writing to you personally to set your mind at rest. A lot of rubbish is being written and talked about how the BNP is supposed to be some kind of 'threat' to black and ethnic minority groups in Barking … I want to reassure you that, as a Christian and a man who believes passionately in core British values including democracy and freedom, I am not standing in this election to persecute or hurt anybody, or any race and religion."

After berating the government for damaging Christian values and encouraging "the spread of Islam", he adds: "Surely, no believer can vote Labour and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ."

A BNP spokesman said: "Our campaigners trawled through the electoral register and identified 24,000 African names. They have each received a personal letter from Nick Griffin to counteract the alarmist claims being made by [Labour MP] Margaret Hodge that if the British National party are elected the borough will descend into chaos."

Hargreaves told the Guardian there was nothing his party could do about his image appearing on the leaflet.

"I haven't seen the leaflet, so I can't comment on it, but we're taking legal advice," he said. "[But] they haven't defamed us, so there's nothing we can do."

He said that although there was a "politics of fear stalking Barking", the Christian party was urging people to vote on principles rather than prejudice.

"Our message is faith, not fear," he said. "Our scriptures tell us that we should not go to the polls because we are frightened of anybody, but because we believe in the values of those people who are standing."

One Barking and Dagenham resident – a British citizen with Indian Caribbean heritage – described the BNP leaflet campaign as "obscene". The resident, who did not want to be identified, does not have an African first or second name and expressed surprise at receiving the leaflet.

"I was extremely concerned to receive direct mail from the BNP, particularly as it was sent to me on the basis of my ethnicity," said the resident. "I find it disturbing that a political party with far-right links and extreme views is keeping lists of people categorised by ethnicity. Ethnic profiling is not an acceptable means of polling and I am very scared."

The leaflet, the resident added, had stirred fears that the BNP would "consider repatriation of me and my mixed-heritage child to several countries that I no longer have links to … It is obscene."

The BNP did not respond to the Guardian's questions about how it had obtained data on Barking and Dagenham residents who do not have African names.

Although the party had predicted it would create a "political earthquake", claiming it was on course to win two parliamentary seats and take control of Barking and Dagenham council, its campaign has been beset by problems, and it is floundering in the polls.

Internal criticism over Nick Griffin's leadership came to a head last month when the publicity director, Mark Collett, was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him. In Stoke, the party's number two electoral target, Alby Walker, who led the BNP on the local council for four years, is standing as an independent.

Yesterday, a new row erupted when the BNP's website was closed down and replaced with a posting from the webmaster Simon Bennett, stating he had been "in dispute with some elements of the management of the party" and claiming there had been "several attempts to steal" his work. The website was later reinstated but on his own blog Bennett added that there had been a number of "highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ" with which he was unhappy.

The letter can be read here.

Guardian

Keep the BNP out of Barking and Dagenham, say religious leaders

A collective of religious leaders made a last-ditch plea yesterday to keep the British National Party out of Barking and Dagenham, warning that the far-right group would bring only division

The BNP has focused its general election campaign on the East London borough, where it hopes that Nick Griffin, its leader, will win its first parliamentary seat. It is also hoping to make gains in the local council, where it holds its largest presence in the country. It is struggling, however, to capitalise on its success in last year’s European elections, where it won two seats. Turmoil within the party and a lack of funds have resulted in a low-visibility campaign.

The religious leaders gathered with activists from Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against the BNP. The Bishop of Barking, the Right Rev David Hawkins, said: ”People of faith are united in recognising there is no place for racism in politics. We want to encourage as many people as possible to vote in spite of the background of disillusionment they feel about politics. It is supremely important to ensure that far-right parties don’t make any more electoral gains.”

Rabbi David Hulbert, of the Barking synagogue, said that the BNP’s message was profoundly negative. “It is very dangerous to divide the community according to religion and race and ignorance and prejudice,” he said.

Mr Griffin looks unlikely to unseat Margaret Hodge in Barking, who held the seat for Labour with a majority of nearly 9,000 in 2005. The BNP performed strongly at the last council elections, winning eight of the nine seats it contested. Its hopes of gaining overall control look increasingly forlorn, however, unless the Labour vote collapses, after it was able to field candidates in only 34 of the 51 seats.

Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said that there was “no evidence of a great BNP surge”.

Times Online

Multi-tasking the BNP way

The Sunday Telegraph at the weekend mentioned in passing - Chris Robert's one of the BNP's candidates in next month's local council elections in the borough. Chris isn't from the borough. In fact he lives in Benfleet, near Southend, around 20 miles from Barking. However, in his nomination form, Mr Roberts gives an address in Arden Crescent, Dagenham — which just happens to be the home of the BNP’s London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.

Now Chris is going to have an interesting few weeks between now and polling day because in addition to standing for Barking and Dagenham council and seeking the support of the good people of Valance ward, he's also, as it happens, the BNP's prospective parliamentary candidate for South Basildon and East Thurrock.

Basildon, Barking and Dagenham - same thing really.....Would be interesting to know how Mr Robert's plans to campaign. Is it one day in the borough, the next in Basildon and Thurrock? Or does he shuttle back and forward kissing babies and canvassing in both?

This is the same Chris Roberts incidentally who on 09 October 2009 said: "Any tom, dick or harry can pitch up to help deliver leaflets."

One's things for sure as far as Barking and Dagenham is considered, he's standing at a time when the BNP group on the council is at a low ebb. So impressive has been the leadership of messrs Bailey and Barnbrook - that half their current colleagues have decided to quit - so the Doncaster's (x3) Steed, Tuffs and Jarvis aren't standing for re-election next month. Now if one wanted to be unkind, one could say that this is no great loss given their total failure to (turn-up) or to do any casework on behalf of local residents. But it's quite a turnover of personnel.

Here's hoping that councillors Bailey and Barnbrook encourage the BNP's new council candidates to actually take their responsibilties seriously if they are successful at the ballot box on May 6th.

I wouldn't put money on it however.

News from Barking and Dagenham

How exciting! I've never met proper racists before...

He's got a nice complexion, but Nick Griffin could do with a history lesson. Deborah Ross gets under the BNP leader's skin on the campaign trail in Essex

So, I'm off to spend the day with the British National Party which appals almost everyone I know – "Poor you"; "Say you're busy"; "Can't you pull a sickie?" – but I find I'm peculiarly thrilled and excited.

Perhaps I've always lived in some kind of bubble, but I've never met proper racists before. Once, when I was a kid, a girl down the road called me a "dirty yid" but my mum punched her and that was that, pretty much, and I've never witnessed or been involved in any instances since. Might they wear uniforms? March? Say Auschwitz was all one big, fat, stonking lie? As days out go, it has to be better than a stately home. (Although Blenheim Palace is said to be good, with a more than decent café).

I find the BNP in Barking and Dagenham, which basically means going east on the District line until you fall off at the end. This is where they already have 12 councillors (they need 14 more to gain control of the council), and where Nick Griffin, the leader, is standing as an MP against Labour's Margaret Hodge (majority: 8,883). They are all out canvassing today, and have gathered on a street on the vast Becontree Estate, which is comprised of 27,000 council homes and, apparently, houses 167,000 people. As I tip up, an altercation is already taking place – oh, joy of joys – between a BNP man in a sandy-coloured suit and a fat, white tattooed fellow with a neck thicker than his head and a Staffordshire bull terrier snarling at his side. "You got a problem with my bird, looking over the fence," the tattooed man is shouting, while jabbing the sandy-suited man in the chest. "Next time you come over, I'll hit you with a shovel!"

My God, you don't get this at Blenheim! Hit him with the shovel! Quick, someone find him a shovel! But, disappointingly, the minders manage to talk the tattooed man down. What was that all about? I ask. "That," says one of the minders, "was because Richard Barnbrook [the sandy-suited man, a BNP councillor] looked over the other fellow's fence where his girlfriend was having a bonfire, and he got cross about it." The minder is friendly and later updates me on where dog-fighting is at these days. "They use them Japanese akita dogs now. They can pick up a Staffie and it's gone." He also says: "I can't give you my real name, love, for security reasons, but it's Terry."

Back to work, pounding the streets, along with Nick and some of the other candidates – "I have two mixed-race grandchildren," says one happily, "but that's all right, because we never talk politics at home" – and the minder who would be nameless, if only he weren't Terry. Nick is not wearing a uniform, alas, and does not march. He just sort of pootles along. But he does have a glass eye, which is something. The eye is blue and spookily opaque, giving him the look of a dead fish that's been rather too long on the slab. He lost it while doing up a derelict house in France. He'd been burning rubbish on the fire when a shotgun cartridge, concealed in the rubbish, exploded in his face. "Ouch!" I say. "Didn't hurt at all," he says. What? Your eye is blown out and there is no pain? Pull the other one, although, I should warn you, it is just as Jewish as the first. He says: "It's like when someone has been stabbed, and they don't feel it. I guess it's a natural reaction when you've been injured. You've got more chance of getting away and surviving if you don't initially feel pain or whatever." A car passes. A young black woman sticks her head out the window, shouts "racist bastard" and speeds off. Is that painful? I ask. "No," he says. "You have to have the skin of a rhinoceros, doing this job." Actually, Nick has rather nice skin; he's 52, but possibly looks younger. Your beauty regime, Nick? Clinique? Clarins? Eve Lom? "I've never smoked ... I don't know actually ... it's just the way things are." Clinique, I'm thinking.

The job, today, is to press the flesh and distribute flyers. The flyers come with the headline "New Labour Have Changed The Face of Barking & Dagenham" and juxtapose two photographs. One shows pretty, white young women in tea-dresses, lining a street on what appears to be VE Day, and has a "From this..." arrow on it. The other, meanwhile, has a "To this..." arrow on it, and shows three women in burkhas, one of whom is giving the finger. I confess I have never personally seen a woman in a burkha give the finger but, like I said, perhaps I've lived in some kind of bubble.

Anyway, Nick's shtick, if you'll excuse my Yiddish, which you better had, or my mum will punch you, is that Hodge has been moving Labour-voting immigrants into the borough "on a huge scale" to see off the BNP threat. Some residents certainly believe this. "See that turning? Hodge has filled it with Africans," says one. The BNP even have a leaflet, "Africans for Essex" , which claims that the Government has paid Africans up to £50,000 to move here and "ensure safe majority seats in the future". However, as it turns out, the incentive scheme was open to everyone, not just immigrants, and how many took advantage? Just 39, of which six were white, 15 Asian, 13 black and five not recorded. Just 39, then, in a population of 167,000 which, as far as I can work out, represents an uptake of 0.02 per cent. Come on, Nick, I say. You're a Cambridge graduate. Surely you can see an uptake of 0.02 per cent isn't exactly the worry of the century, or even the week. You couldn't even brush your teeth and make that worry last. It's not a leaflet-worthy worry, is it? "It's symptomatic," he says. Of what? "In the last few years 5,000 natives have moved out of Barking and Dagenham and they've been replaced by Africans. The Labour Party hasn't had a programme by that name, but there has been deliberate gerrymandering."

Richard Barnbrook interrupts. "Nick," he says, "there is a man round the corner who is very angry with the BNP. He says you're the cause of bringing in all the immigrants." We go to see this man, who lives in a house with rotting windows and, for some reason, two lampposts lying horizontally across the concrete out front. "Nick," says the man, "I'll be straight with ya. Because you've got in here, they've [Labour] given 'em [immigrants] incentives from Hackney and every other borough ... That's what's happened." And this is what happens, I suppose, when gerrymandering accusations come back to bite you on the bum. I ask the man: are you blaming Nick? "I am," says the man. Might you want to hit him with a shovel? I haven't seen anyone hit with a shovel all day. Nick says: "Labour are bringing them [immigrants] in to deal with BNP votes, but if you go back to Hackney and Tower Hamlets in the Seventies, when the BNP wasn't there, and the National Front weren't a threat, the Labour Party still swamped them with immigrants, and they'll do the same here in Barking, whether we are here or not. Immigrants are cheap labour, and that's what it's really about, isn't it...?" Whoa, Nick, I say. I'm only here for the crack. I'm only here because I thought it would be more fun than Blenheim. I don't want to get involved. But to say the population is being deliberately manipulated, and to then say, actually, it's all down to the free market... It's manifestly contradictory, Nick. "I'm not a racist," says Nick, by way of reply. And neither is the man on the doorstep. "In 1964," he says, "my best friend was a black man." I say: Nick, why do you always use the world "swamped"? Nobody likes it. "The people round here do," he replies.

What is a racist? If you are worried that this country is becoming over-crowded, is that racism? I don't know. I put it to Nick. Nick, what is a racist? "It's a phrase that was invented by Leon Trotsky, who was a mass murderer, to demonise his political opponents. That's the first thing," he says. "But I think the definition that the ethnic minorities use is prejudice plus power. If that definition is used then, self-evidently, the BNP cannot be racist because we do not have any power."

And if you did have power, what's the first thing you would do? "Get out of Europe." Has there ever been an ideal time to live in Britain? "I think being a member of a yeoman's family under Elizabeth I would have been pretty good, before the theft of Parliament. The people were free. There was Shakespeare," Do you like Shakespeare? "I do, yes." Do you read Shakespeare? "I don't get that much time."

Barking actually has a lower proportion of people from ethnic minorities than most other London boroughs, so perhaps what's happening here isn't about a rise in immigration, but a rise in the fear of immigration. A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research even revealed that support for the BNP is actually weaker in areas of high immigration rather than stronger. It seems the less you have to do with immigrants, the more you will take against them. Nick himself lives in mid-Wales, which isn't the most mixed of areas. In fact, my husband is from mid-Wales and I was the first Jew my mother-in-law had ever met. ("What is a Jew exactly?" she asked. "I suppose," I replied, "Jews don't believe Christ was the Messiah." "I see," she said, before going to lie down for the afternoon).

I ask Nick if immigration has had a direct impact on his life. "I'll give you an example," he says. "I was campaigning in Birmingham, three or four years ago, and I put a leaflet though a letterbox and a boxer dog stood the other side and ripped the top off my finger. I went off to get a tetanus jab and get it sorted out, and the doctor there was a south Indian, and everyone else in A&E thought it was hilarious, but I was grateful to him for the treatment." But Nick, you big silly, that's a positive anecdote! He looks crestfallen, then continues: "Britain steals health workers from countries that are far poorer than us and need those health workers far more. I've got nothing against someone working in our health service from abroad, the shame is they were trained somewhere else and we've pinched them." Anyone would think he was making it up as he goes along.

Terry, meanwhile, is wondering why all we journalists ever want to talk about is immigration. Terry, I say, have you seen your own flyers? Terry, I add, why do you go to dog-fights, anyhow? You should be ashamed of yourself. "You can't avoid them where I live, love." he says. I ask Nick about John Tyndall, the founder of the National Front. What are your memories of him? "He was ideologically a fascist," he says, "but a gentle person." He insists that the BNP is not just the National Front in new clothes. What's the main difference? "We're electable." And who is an "indigenous Brit?" "You can see it at a DNA level," he says. "The fact is, if your maternal grandmother was born in this country before 1948, you are about 80 per cent likely to be descended from people who came here when the last ice melted 18,000 years ago. Until very recently, the last wave of invasion we had was in 1066." So is someone descended from a Norman an indigenous Brit? "Yes, as a matter of fact, because one of the phrases is 'before legal memory', which is the time of Edward I."

Am I an indigenous Brit, Nick? "Yes, because Jews were here before legal memory. There will always be a blurring of populations around the edges but the idea we are a nation of mongrels is most bizarre. It's almost a form of inverse Nazi race science." Inverse Nazi race science? Can you study that anywhere? The LSE? "If you have a mongrel race you must be able to have a pure race. As a matter of fact, you can't really have either. You wouldn't dream of going up to a Maori, whose people have only been in New Zealand for a thousand years, and saying: 'You're not indigenous,' whereas we've been here for 18,000 years." Well, the fact is we "swamped" the Maoris, and the Aborigines and the Native Americans. We did more than "swamp". We stole their land. If countries belong to their indigenous populations, as you say, shouldn't we now give those lands back? "That colonisation of other countries was wrong, but I'm not going to let it happen to mine," he says.

We end up in a pub on the Goresbrook Road, where we drink beer outside in the sun. Have you seen Shane Meadows's film, This Is England, I ask Nick. "Yes," he says. And? "It wasn't particularly good. It was shallow propaganda." A black fella walks by with one of those old-fashioned, Victorian bulldogs. It's a lovely dog, if called Razor, so Terry and I get up to make a big fuss of it. "Great dog," says Terry, to the owner. "Cheers," says the owner. Terry, who would still be nameless if only he were, then says: "See? We're not so bad. We talk to darkies."

I think it's probably Blenheim next weekend. Leeds Castle is also said to be good.

Independent

Survey on the BNP in Barking and Dagenham

A survey of NUT members in Barking and Dagenham showed an overwhelming majority (94 %) of teachers would not want to work for a BNP led council and 75% would consider no longer working in the borough.

The survey, done in conjunction with Hope not Hate, highlighted teachers' concerns that a BNP gain would impact negatively on the morale of teachers and have a detrimental effect on the education of children in the area.

Teachers' comments warned that "I think it would be the worst thing in the world. I would be frightened for people's safety. I see the ethnic mix of this borough as a positive thing for me and my children. Please stop them." Another simply said 'Disaster!' Others spoke of the need to stay on in the borough and continue to fight against the BNP.

Christine Blower General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said;

"This survey shows that teachers have a genuine fear of the consequences that a BNP-led council would bring to schools in Barking and Dagenham and the threat it will pose to ensuring our schools are protected as havens of tolerance and community cohesion.

"The growth of far-right organisations in recent years is of grave concern to the NUT, particularly when this means they could have influence on schools, and the lives of our members and the pupils they teach. That is why we are using our political fund to campaign vigorously against the BNP during the election period."

A spokesman for the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate said:

"This poll graphically illustrates the danger of the BNP. Would you want your child's education in the hands of a party that praises the Nazis and claims the Holocaust never happened? Their politics of division, extremism and hate have no place in our classrooms."

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NUT

Billy Bragg clashes with BNP's Richard Barnbrook

Billy Bragg confronts Richard Barnbrook in Dagenham

Singer and activist engages in finger-pointing row with the BNP's London assembly member in east London

Billy Bragg was engaged in a finger-pointing row with a senior member of the British National party during a day of action in London, telling him his "racist fascist" politics offered no help to voters. Bragg was leafleting in Barking and Dagenham, one of the BNP's top target areas in next month's elections, when he bumped into the BNP's London assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, who has attacked the singer on his blog.

Bragg, who was born and raised in Barking, told Barnbrook: "You do not represent the people of Barking and Dagenham," as the pair became embroiled in a heated argument. "You are exploiting the genuine concerns of people here and you are making the problems worse."

Barnbrook, who was elected to the London assembly in 2008, accused Bragg of "mouthing away" and said the "ballot box will determine what happens".

The exchange came during a day of action against the BNP which saw 541 volunteers deliver 91,000 Hope Not Hate newspapers.

The BNP is due to launch its manifesto this week and has claimed it is on the verge of causing a "political earthquake". It claims it has a chance of taking control of Barking and Dagenham council and of gaining two MPs – in Stoke Central and Barking.

However, the far-right party's campaign has been beset by problems, and it appears to be floundering in the polls. Internal criticism over Nick Griffin's leadership came to a head earlier this month when publicity director Mark Collett was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him. In Stoke, the party's number two target, Alby Walker, who led the BNP on the local council for four years, is standing as an independent in the general election.

Walker said he was leaving the BNP because of a "vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with."

Meanwhile Griffin, who is standing in Barking, has been forced to change the BNP's whites-only membership policy following a legal battle with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Last week the Electoral Commission announced it was launching a formal investigation into the party's 2008 accounts. These difficulties appear to have hit the party's ability to stand candidates in next month's local elections.

Guardian

Immigration is not fuel for BNP support – IPPR study

Social exclusion factors such as lack of qualifications and weak social cohesion far more important

Higher immigration to an area is not to blame for driving the voters into the arms of the BNP, according to a study exploring the roots of its support published today. In fact, the analysis by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) finds that nine out of the top 10 areas for BNP votes actually has a lower than average proportion of recent migrants.

Instead the study which looked at the roots of BNP support across 150 local authority areas suggests that social exclusion, such as lack of qualifications, weak social cohesion and low levels of voter turnout are far more important.

The IPPR researchers say findings show that the idea that politicians need to adopt ever-tougher immigration controls to undermine the BNP is misleading. Instead they need to work harder to build strong communities, strong education systems and rebuild trust in democratic politics so that "marginalised and isolated" people do not feel so disconnected.

The researchers say that the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, argues that in many working-class and lower middle-class areas immigration has brought in so many people that they "totally swamp the existing people …destroying their communities" and leading them to support his party.

"The findings suggest that areas which have higher levels of recent immigration are not more likely to vote for the BNP," says the study. "In fact the more immigration an area has experienced, the lower its support for the far right. It seems that direct contact with migrants dissuades people from supporting the BNP. For example, of the 10 local authorities where the BNP gained most support in the 2009 European elections, nine had lower than average immigration," says the study.

Barking and Dagenham, which has had significantly higher levels of recent migration, is the exception rather than the rule, say the researchers. The study found however that Stoke-on-Trent, Thurrock and Barnsley, which are ranked second, third and fourth in the list of the top 10 BNP share of the vote areas, all have lower than average immigration.

By contrast the three local areas with the lowest levels of social "resilience" in the country, Sandwell, Barking and Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent, are all found in the top 10 for BNP votes.

The researchers' analysis suggests that the more "resilient" a community is the less likely it is to vote BNP. They measure social resilience of communities by their ability to withstand and adapt in response to shocks and include indicators such as unemployment, level of skills and qualifications, ability to influence local decisions, crime, health, business survival rate and voter turnout. As examples they name Richmond-upon-Thames and Wokingham as the two most resilient communities in the country.

The IPPR calculates that, based on the 2009 European election results, the top 10 most resilient communities in the UK cast fewer votes for the BNP put together than the average UK local authority.

The study acknowledges that immigration is a matter of concern to the British people and has had some negative effects on parts of the UK but say that where people have had significant direct contact with migrants, most are not concerned enough with immigration to vote for the BNP.

The researchers say the implication of their finding that isolation and dejection rather than immigration is driving voters into the hands of the BNP should give politicians and commentators the confidence to resist the idea that much tougher border controls must be introduced in order to regain public support.

"Mainstream politicians need to work harder to build strong communities and strong education systems, and to rebuild trust and confidence in democratic politics so marginalised and vulnerable people do not feel so disconnected," it concludes. "Doing so should allow them to serve the interests of these communities more effectively, and in the process, undercut support for the BNP."

Guardian