BNP Kirklees candidate poses with gun at Yorkshire campsite

A COUNCIL candidate has been pictured brandishing a gun.

Rachel Firth, who is standing for the British National Party (BNP) in Thursday’s Kirklees Council elections, was photographed holding a handgun.

The Skelmanthorpe mother-of-two was pictured along with other senior party activists at a campsite.

Mrs Firth, who is the BNP’s Kirklees organiser, was snapped standing next to a Renault aiming a black handgun.

The weapon is believed to be a replica.

Mrs Firth’s boyfriend Danny Cooke, BNP organiser in Barnsley, is also pictured brandishing a gun.

Salford candidates Gary Tumulty and Keith Fairhurst were snapped posing with replica automatic weapons.

The photos were taken at a BNP St George’s Day celebration at Hooton Lodge Country Inn campsite near Rotherham.

The manager of the campsite is believed to have been unaware of the fact the get-together was organised by the BNP and that replica guns would be used.

Mrs Firth, who is standing for the BNP in Denby Dale in Thursday’s Kirklees election, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The pictures are believed to have appeared on Facebook last weekend before being reproduced on the Hope Not Hate website run by anti-fascist group Searchlight.

The pictures include a snap of three men mooning to the camera.

Earlier this month the Examiner revealed that many BNP activists in Kirklees had left the party in protest at the leadership of Nick Griffin.

The defectors, who have joined the English Democrats, complained of the BNP’s “terrible image”.

David Exley, a former BNP councillor for Heckmondwike, is among those who have quit the party.

He said yesterday that the pictures of party members brandishing guns vindicated his decision to leave.
Mr Exley said: “When I joined the BNP, I joined what I thought was a serious political party with serious aims and people who wanted to achieve those aims by democratic means.

“But all the people who have tried to do that have been got rid of by Nick Griffin.

“All the quality people have now gone and, as you can see in these pictures, we’re left with a bunch of idiots.

“I’m glad I’m out of the BNP.”

Clr Andrew Cooper, who leads the four-strong Green group on Kirklees Council, also condemned the pictures yesterday. The Newsome man said: “If this is how the BNP celebrate St George’s Day, then they are out-of-touch with what it means to be English.

“We’re not the sort of country like the US where lots of people have guns.

“We’re a civilised country which doesn’t use guns as common currency.

“I think this is part of the culture of the BNP, it’s a party which believes in allowing large-scale gun ownership.

“I’m very suspicious of any politician who uses guns as an acceptable photo opportunity.”

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BNP man quits party

Former Heckmondwike councillor David Exley, pictured leaving
Batley Town Hall as the first BNP councillor in Kirklees in 2003

Former Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley has quit the party, saying leader Nick Griffin is taking the party in the ‘wrong direction’.

Mr Exley, who was the first BNP councillor to be elected onto Kirklees in 2003, lost his seat in the 2008 elections but stood again as the party’s candidate in Cleckheaton in the Kirklees poll and for Batley and Spen in the general election earlier this year.

But the one time leader of the group in Kirklees said he was worried the BNP was not representing the views of the electorate. “We can’t go on as we are under the present leadership,” said Mr Exley. “Nick is taking the party in the wrong direction. The BNP is not representing the views of the people and I don’t want to be a part of that. At the moment, Nick is fighting lots of legal cases and it is costing the party hundreds of thousands of pounds. We should not be doing that. We should be concentrating on the issues affecting people.”

Mr Exley, who is chairman of Heckmondwike’s chamber of trade, said he thought Mr Griffin’s leadership had dwindled since he was elected into the European Parliament.

“We can’t have a man who is doing everything - party administration, political leader and a member of the European parliament,” he added. “He should have delegated the roles and resigned as party leader. We are 12 months down the line from him being elected and we are suffering the consequences.”

Mr Exley said he would never ruling out standing an independent or under the banner of a different party.

Spenborough Guardian

Row erupts over BNP wreath note

A row has broken out over a note of remembrance left at Cleckheaton's Memorial Park on Sunday.

A wreath was laid by the BNP during the ceremony to mark Remembrance Sunday. An attached note read ‘Your sacrifice will never be forgotten!! But as you look down on today’s England you may wonder why you and your comrades bothered. Respect forever, The British National Party’.

A member of the public tore the note from the wreath shortly after the conclusion of the ceremony, with several onlookers angered by its political message. However David Exley, BNP organiser for Kirklees, said the note did not come from anyone in his party and claimed someone was trying to ‘stitch up’ the BNP on an important day.

“The wreath was presented by Richard Brown, in his capacity as a representative of the party and also as an ex-member of the parachute regiment who has seen active service. On that wreath, he wrote ‘you will never be forgotten, Kirklees BNP’,” Mr Exley said, adding that someone must have taken the original note and substituted it with a different one.

“All our representatives have been told that it’s a non-political event and should not be politicised in any way. We have always recognised this. In my view, someone has criminally damaged and stolen part of the wreath, which was a personal message to those who have given their lives in conflicts for this country.”

He added that the incident had been reported to the police and he believed someone was trying to cause trouble for the party.

Eddie Morton, chairman of the Spenborough branch of the Royal British Legion, agreed that the event should be non-political.

“As a political party with an elected representative in the area, they have a right to parade along with other political parties. The note that was left with the wreath could have been more sensitive to the dignity of the occasion and should not have tried to make political gains from a non-political event,” he said.

Spenborough Guardian

Sticky: Barnbrook to speak at the Royal

This is a sticky post. Newer posts appear below this one.

News again reaches us that The Royal Public House in Heckmondwike intends to hold a BNP meeting.

This follows the aborted meeting that the BNP intended to hold there back in November last year where the intended guest of honour was Richard Edmonds the former deputy leader of the party under the John Tyndall regime.

The Edmonds meeting was cancelled due to a massive response by anti fascists who telephoned The Royal and registered their disgust at the BNP being allowed to meet on their premises. The cancellation of the meeting led to the sacking of the then North Kirklees organiser Ian Roper. However, it seems that the BNP and The Royal have decided to give it another go.

David Exley the new North Kirklees organiser has arranged a meeting to take place in The Royal on Thursday 5th February and the guest of honour this time is to be Richard Barnbrook, Barking councillor and the BNP’s only representative on the GLA.

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

Once again as The Royal is a Free House we are asking people to ring the pub itself and POLITELY lodge their complaint with the management.

The Royal Hotel's telephone number is 01924 403265

Exley reveals divisions around Auty and BNP

Former BNP councillor David Exley (left) has lifted the lid on turmoil at the heart of the local party.

Last week The Press revealed how BNP councillor Colin Auty had quit the party and was set to resign his Dewsbury East seat on Kirklees Council. This week Mr Exley, ousted from Heckmondwike at May’s local elections, told The Press of some of the internal strife within the Kirklees BNP.

Mr Exley said he quit as local organiser after he was ordered by the party hierarchy to discipline Coun Auty over comments he made to newspapers when he announced he was to challenge BNP chairman Nick Griffin for the national leadership.

“I was told Colin had to be disciplined, it was more an instruction than a request,” said Mr Exley. “They said he had brought the party into disrepute but I read everything that was in the press and a lot of what he said was unpalatable but you cannot hide the truth.

“I totally refused to discipline him because he had done nothing wrong in my eyes. He stood up for what he believes in and did what he thought was correct.”

Mr Exley said that a few weeks later the national party withdrew the local party’s credit facilities when their account dipped into the red after the local elections.

Mr Exley said he had spoken to Mr Griffin about what had happened and was told he was “100 per cent” behind the decision.

“I feel this was retribution on me for not disciplining Colin Auty. They deny it but I believe it’s true.”

Last week Coun Auty told how he just failed to reach the 100 nominations needed to launch a leadership challenge, and that only two local party members backed him.

Mr Exley said: “The reason I didn’t sign Colin’s nomination was that I felt he was standing for the wrong reasons.

“If he was just standing for the leadership I would have signed but he was standing to force change. The only outcome would have been that Nick Griffin would have won by a big majority and would have a mandate.”

There have been claims that Mr Griffin runs the party in a “dictatorial” style and expelled those who disagreed with him.

Mr Exley said changes were needed in how the party was run nationally.

“Our management structure is geared up for a small party but we are not a small party anymore. Nick Griffin is, in my opinion, a brilliant politician but terrible at man-management. It has been said we are not democratic and we are a one-man dictatorship.

“I have spoken to Nick Griffin about this and put my signature to a letter from Kirklees BNP. We are not just having a gripe, we are making constructive criticisms.”

Mr Exley said he did not believe the BNP was in crisis but added: “Our local group has some serious problems and we need strong leadership. Our group has always been able to sort things out but all this has come about as a result of head office meddling. There’s no falling out within the group. It looks like there’s a massive split but that’s not the case.”

Mr Exley, who led the three-strong BNP group on Kirklees, hailed Coun Auty as “a bloody good councillor” who refused to toe the party line and stood up for local people. He was elected by the people of Dewsbury East and he is their voice. Why he wants to throw that away I don’t know.”

The Press

Discuss this post on the Unity anti-fascist forum.

Dismal results for BNP

A British National Party candidate won just 37 votes in a by-election in Redbridge, east London. Anthony Young, a retired solicitor, came last out of four candidates, with 1.4%, in Cranbrook ward in the south of the borough, which borders onto Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP has 12 councillors.

In the days before the election on 10 July, Redbridge and Epping Forest Together distributed a leaflet to most of the ward telling voters the truth about the BNP and urging them to use their vote to “keep extremists out of Redbridge”. The leaflet received praise from the three main parties, who all mounted active campaigns.

BNP support in Cranbrook was so low that the party had great difficulty finding ten people to sign the nomination form. From the addresses it was clear the BNP had gone down three neighbouring streets knocking on doors of registered electors with English-sounding names. We have so far not been able to investigate an allegation that three of them thought they were signing a petition rather than a nomination form.

The BNP did little better in two other by-elections on 10 July. In Wigan West, where the BNP was hoping to increase its share of the vote from the 14.5% polled in May, Christopher Hilton’s 200 votes gave him only 9.4% and fourth place. In Dalton ward, Kirklees, a borough where in May 2007 the BNP had three councillors, Jonathan Wright managed only 4.5% with 157 votes, coming fourth out of six candidates. Again the BNP had hoped to improve on Wright’s 460 votes in May, which gave him 10.7%.

The BNP now has only one councillor in Kirklees after David Exley lost his seat in May and Colin Auty announced this week that he was leaving the BNP and will sit as an independent. Auty, who failed to collect enough signatures last month to challenge Nick Griffin for the BNP leadership, says he will resign his council seat next month, causing a by-election.

Auty's resignation from the BNP leaves the party with only 54 councillors nationally.

Stop the BNP

The Fearless Moderate

Painter and decorator and part-time BNP councillor Colin Auty shocked his party last week when announcing he would challenge Nick Griffin for the leadership. It's caused a rift in the local and national BNP, but does it signify high ambition from the candidate or frustration at a fading political movement? DANNY LOCKWOOD spoke to him.

On the Friday lunchtime, two years ago, when the returning officer for Kirklees Council announced Colin Auty as the duly elected BNP councillor for Dewsbury East in the main hall of the town's Sports Centre, there were various reactions.

Nick Cass and his hard core of BNP activists danced in jubilation: here was proof positive that their extremist party was inexorably on the rise. Or so they thought.

Eric Firth, the deposed long-serving Labour man, stood stunned, as grey as his beard. Colin Auty looked up at me, standing among the journalists on the sports hall balcony, with a bemused look on his face and shrugged his shoulders as though to say 'crikey, what next?'

Crikey indeed. The only leaflets Colin had distributed during his election 'campaign' had belonged to his Labour rival Firth. He'd found them so hilariously and (he thought) hypocritically targeted at working class parts of Chickenley, that he took Eric's leaflets and shoved them through letter boxes in the posher Bennett Lane area.

Three days after his election, Colin, dressed in his painter and decorator's overalls, stopped for a chat in Dewsbury town centre.

I told him I'd never painted him as a BNP type. He described how he'd got fed up of being the bloke at the end of the bar, moaning and complaining and doing nothing about it. How he was sickened at what was happening to the town of his birth, with his perceived 'British' way of life being diluted by the day, washed away down the Calder.

He spoke of a new breed of ordinary people flocking to the BNP flag. How even then, he found some of the party's hardliners 'distasteful'. (That probably wasn't quite the word he used in hindsight.)

Two years on lots of things have changed. Colin among them, though that's not an observation he might recognise. At the age of 57 he has found a new articulation; there's a confidence born of public speaking, though as a sometime musician he's always been comfortable on a stage. But there's also been a closer forming of his political convictions - and that's unfortunate for the British National Party, depending on how you care (or otherwise) for their fortunes.

Dewsbury was the "jewel in the BNP crown" as their adored/reviled leader Nick Griffin described it after the 2005 General Election, and the district was again the centrepiece of their march on Kirklees Council in 2006 when they polled almost 20,000 votes and boasted three councillors. But 2008 paints a very different totem.

The election results of just two weeks ago defined a political party in as much of a local decline as Labour was nationally.

Their group leader, David Exley, lost his Heckmondwicke seat to the clinically mobilised Labour vote. In Auty's own Dewsbury East ward any shenanigans involving the Tories fielding an Asian candidate failed to either dent Paul Kane's dominant position or rally voters to the BNP flag.

Their performance in Dewsbury South, where Thornhill has always been a stronghold without quite yielding a seat, summed up the BNP's declining fortunes. Their vote dropped by a third, as the Tories wiped the floor with all comers.

It was a result generally mirrored across Kirklees, and perhaps unsurprising given that the local party is in turmoil.

High profile boss Nick Cass has barely been seen since the execrable 'BNP Wives' documentary aired on national television - a massive embarrassment to the party, with Cass and his pretty wife Suzy front and centre.

There is a schism generally between the new generation of moderates and, not to put too fine a description on it, the 'Paki haters'. It translates onto the national BNP stage with Colin Auty fronting up the moderate BNP membership's assault on the hardliners, challenging Nick Griffin for the party leadership.

Is he serious? A two-year councillor, a BNP member for only five years? Best known for writing an insulting ditty about Saville Town and performing it outside MP Shahid Malik's office in Daisy Hill?

Colin is pragmatic about his challenge:

"I don't think I will be allowed to win. I won't be allowed to address party meetings. I've had one cancel already and I was only going along with my guitar to sing a song.

His challenge has certainly ruffled feathers across the BNP. Their national election officer, Eddie Butler, has said members should refuse to sign Auty's nomination, describing his challenge as "pitiful and moronic", him as a "joke candidate" and saying that if a leadership challenge must be staged it should be "quickly, quietly and with no publicity".

So much for good old British democracy, but then again democracy has very little to do with the British National Party's traditional way of doing things. And that is why Colin Auty has chosen a bloody collision course and may or may not have a future in the party by the end of the summer.

The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, has an advisory panel but can override them. He has a virtual dictatorship - which the BNP's many critics will nod sagely at. Ring any 1930-ish bells?

"I will not follow a dictatorship," said Cllr Auty. "I don't want to see the party accountable to one man. I want to see the one man answerable to the party."

At a meeting in Leeds a few months ago, Griffin called BNP councillor Chris Beverley "vermin". Beverley, like Auty, is one of the new breed of BNP members calling for a more reasoned approach to politics.

"I find that abhorrent," Auty continues. "Just because the man is a moderate who wants to promote change? He is called vermin by his own party leader?

"I'm a councillor. I've stood in the firing line. I know what it's like to have the spears chucked at me. Nick Griffin comes out of his fort in mid-Wales to preach to the faithful every now and again.

"People see the media dwelling on the negatives, and it all surrounds people like Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.

"My voters say to me 'it's the image'. Nick Griffin is causing the stagnation of the party, with his holocaust denial, saying Islam is a wicked religion. It stops people voting for people like me and David Exley."

It would be interesting to hear Griffin's view of Colin Auty enjoying hospitality in the homes of Muslim politicians. To hear Colin describing how he gives respect to Labour councillor Shabir Pandor, the Lib Dems' Karam Hussain, the Tories Mohammed Mahroof and Khizar Iqbal - and they him.

"They are all due my respect. Everyone is worth respect. I never hurt and I never hate. I sail through life and I try to have a pleasant attitude to things."

It's ironic that the most hate and bile he has endured has been from white politicians. At the election count a fortnight ago a senior Labour figure threatened to punch his lights out - and got a real surprise when his bluff was called. There's not much fear flowing in Auty's veins. But then again like so many of his generation, he grew up in the school of hard knocks. Bullying, and attempts at it, receive short shrift.

The Kirklees Council learning curve has been steep.

"I remember my first time at a planning meeting. It was like the first day at a new school. I was sat on the bus on my own."

But it wasn't all cold shoulder. One councillor came up and offered him a sweet.

"Some individuals have managed to separate the badge from the person. They see that I'm a moderate kind of guy. They don't see me as a Nick Griffin type. I don't live in a fort, and only come out surrounded by bodyguards wearing shades."

After two years the experience of being a councillor has witnessed changes to the way he sees both politics and his party - though not his town, or his own beliefs.

"I've never been afraid of losing votes or even my council badge over what I say. This just gave me a chance to give a voice to the average people I meet on the street. But I don't have to hold onto the 'voice', because I really don't have any personal ambition at all.

"It seems to have created a vacuum for me though, in so much as although people are listening and agreeing and saying 'that's right Colin' and 'we agree with you Colin', they aren't necessarily behind me. It doesn't show itself in the vote. And I end up feeling a lone voice.

"Some people vote for me, but others cannot because of the image of the BNP. I'm trying to sell a new car with a scratched bonnet.

"My attitude has changed towards the BNP. It's changed locally as well because you get a better insight when you are involved within the council. You see issues differently on the inside.

"It's about power - the council. It's certainly not about people. Whether it's the parties or the individual politicians whatever they believe is right and just, they would relinquish it for a vote. That's probably my naivete, but I could not tell someone something wrong or go against what I believe, just to further my own ends. There aren't enough people out there telling it like it is.

"I got into politics to do something, achieve something. To see issues addressed, issues debated honestly, and then a positive outcome. That's not the reality, I'm afraid."

He enjoys to healthy debate of the closed room, trying to get things done for the district.

"But it's not the same in public. In a non-public arena we will get more people willing to talk. Once in public they feel the (BNP) badge comes to the fore and they are tainted if they at all acquaint themselves with me."

He speaks bitterly of credit for his work being claimed by political rivals, of seeing his contributions to local stories edited out of the Dewsbury Reporter, of local projects being schemed to suit political ends. But beyond that he gets great satisfaction out of simply being an effective ward councillor. "I like helping people, and you get to help lots of people in this job. Isn't that what it's about? It should be."

For now Colin Auty's political future is defined starkly by the next two months, when the BNP will be expected to stage manage the cursory dismissal of his leadership challenge. He knows that, but hopes his effort might begin a process of democratic change within the party. He is guarded about what the outcome will mean to him personally.

Certainly the way feral elements of the local BNP have turned on him have left a mark that won't be soon forgotten. Steve Cass, father of Nick, a regular Press letter writer and very much a Griffin acolyte, has been violently insulting of Colin Auty's leadership challenge.

But the core beliefs of the bloke no longer just moaning at the end of the bar endure still.

"Our children's children have to have a country that they can call their own. If you're from Hungary or Pakistan you can go back to your roots and they are there, your culture and heritage and traditions. But we are eradicating our own heritage, our own children's heritage, to accomodate all these people. It is sheer madness and there isn't another nation on earth would do it.

"Wherever they come to this country from, they still have their history and roots. And we won't have any in 20 or 30 years. That's a good enough reason in itself for me to stand as a politician, all by itself. To fight for our children's right to have a country still theirs.

"It's not because you don't like the colour of someone's skin or their religion. It's because they have their culture guaranteed and we have a country of white politicians trying to give away ours."

And after the Griffin challenge?

"I'll face that when I come to it. I'm stuck between the left-wing elements of the established parties and the right wing of the BNP, but I'm straight down the middle. And I think that's where the people are."

The Press (no link to this story)

Town split as Labour enjoy victory over BNP

When David Exley became Kirklees's first BNP councillor in 2003 his appointment was shrouded in controversy. Five years later and he has been ousted from Heckmondwike by 194 votes and, for some, the surprise is almost as great.

Only last year, before the 2007 local elections, BNP leader Nick Griffin visited the town and spoke of his hopes for it to be the first all BNP ward in the county.

Now only one BNP councillor, Roger Roberts, represents Heckmondwike with two Labour men David Sheard and Steve Hall.

As a councillor Mr Exley was a regular attendee of the Heckmondwike Chamber of Trade and Commerce meetings. The group's chairman, Tony Rider, said they hoped he could still attend in an advisory capacity.

Mr Rider said: "I was very surprised he didn't keep his seat. I thought he'd have got a lot more support after all the effort he put into the town. I'd like to express my disappointment that he's got voted out in this election. He's probably been more involved in Heckmondwike issues than any other councillor we've got, or have had. It's a great loss to both the chamber and the town."

Mr Rider said the chamber would invite Coun Hall to its meetings, but added:"He's going to have something on to match what David has done for the town."

However some are welcoming Heckmondwike's council result. Carl Morphett from Kirklees Unity – an anti far-right pressure group – said: "This is great news for the people of Heckmondwike and Kirklees. Heckmondwike has seen the BNP for what they really are and David Exley has been given the boot for it. The BNP were complacent and didn't put in the graft they needed, but Labour put a lot of hard work in and it paid off."

Mr Morphett also commented on the large Asian community in Heckmondwike.

He said: "A BNP councillor can't represent the Asian community. They have no interest in doing that and the Asian population has no desire to be represented by a BNP councillor."

But Mr Exley denied his party did not represent the whole community. He said: "I have helped Asian people as well as a lot of other people. Whoever has come to me and asked for help, no matter who they are, I have done my best to help them."

He added that the party had done three leaflet drops and spoken to locals prior to the election and that his dedication to the election campaign had meant he had hardly worked during the past four weeks.

Mr Morphett said this year's election in Heckmondwike had been a straight race as opposed to previous years where the vote had been split.

He said: "When David Exley first got in, it was because Tim Crowther stood down from Labour and stood as an independent. Last time the Lib Dems stood an Asian candidate, and that understandably split the Asian vote. But this time there was no split vote. The Asian community was only going to vote one way, and it wasn't for the BNP. It's the beginning of the end for the BNP in Kirklees."

Mr Exley agreed his party had lost a large percentage of the vote. He said: "There is no doubt that Labour got the Asian vote. They spent a lot of time working on the mosques and getting the Asians to vote against the BNP."

Spenborough Guardian

Harassment and bullying claim against BNP's Exley

A councillor who resigned from his job blamed a campaign of "bullying and harassment" by political opponents including Heckmondwike councillor David Exley.

Robert Finnigan, who is leader of Morley Borough Independents and a Leeds councillor for Morley North, quit his role as a senior local government officer based at Cleckheaton's town hall. His resignation emerged following a row with the BNP councillor, with each man lodging a complaint against the other.

Coun Exley complained to Kirklees Council after he discovered that Coun Finnigan was using his work telephone number on literature relating to his business as a councillor. Coun Finnigan counter-attacked with a complaint against Coun Exley, who he said was making political mischief out of an innocent mistake.

Coun Finnigan admitted that the wrong telephone number appeared on a newsletter. He said this was the result of an administrative error by an officer, and produced a letter from the Leeds South Area Management confirming that this was the case.

After 22 years with Kirklees he is stepping down to work full-time as a councillor. He said: "The harassment I have received from Coun Exley and others have made my ability to do both jobs untenable. There's been a systematic campaign of harassment and bullying, including by Coun Exley."

But Coun Exley said taxpayers in Kirklees had a right to know if Coun Finnigan was using resources at work for his business as a councillor. He said: "If pointing out what I feel is improper use of council facilities is harassment then I'm guilty of it. All complaints have to be investigated. I would welcome them to look into it because I will be exonerated. If Robert Finnigan made an innocent mistake, that's different – we all make mistakes. But I don't believe this is one," he added.

Morley Observer

Giving the BNP the runaround

A plan by Kirklees BNP to intimidate local anti-fascists on the weekend of 8-9 March failed miserably, leaving copious amounts of egg on the face of Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley.

Hope not Hate Yorkshire in conjunction with Kirklees Unity had called a day of action on Sunday 9 March for Heckmondwike ward in Kirklees. Heckmondwike has two sitting BNP councillors, Roger Roberts who defected from the Conservatives after repeated failures under the Tory ticket and Exley. It seems Exley took particular exception to the event as he is up for re-election this year and is obviously worried about losing his seat.

Local intelligence revealed that the BNP intended to harass the anti-fascists and leaflet the ward themselves at the same time. This would not be the first time the BNP in Kirklees have done this, with a number of photographs taken by the BNP appearing on the nazi Redwatch website.

Exley’s plan failed miserably.The GMB and Kirklees Unity/Hope not Hate Yorkshire mobilised 30 activists on the previous day and covered the entire ward very quickly. They also laid on a fantastic buffet which the hungry activists deservedly demolished.

But this wasn’t the end of our campaign.

On the Sunday around 20 activists turned up for the advertised day of action. Because the Heckmondwike ward had already been covered activists went to neighbouring Cleckheaton and leafleted the whole ward.Observers spotted the BNP driving frantically around the ward on Sunday looking none too happy.

Thanks to the BNP and Exley our day of action became a weekend of action.Many thanks to the GMB and their team. We look forward to seeing you next time.

Kirklees Unity

BNP man demands apology from taxi association chief

A councillor whose appointment to the taxi licensing panel last year caused uproar has demanded an apology from protesters.

Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley said he had now served more than 12 months on the committee and had dealt with every case fairly.

When he was appointed, Akooji Badat, joint chairman of the Kirklees Hackney Carriage Association, said taxi drivers were unhappy with a BNP councillor on the panel, as most drivers were Asian. But now, more than a year on, Coun Exley said he had proved himself to be fair to everyone and said Mr Badat should take his comments back.

"I said at the time that people should judge me on my record," said Coun Exley. "I feel that over the last 12 months I have done my job properly and been fair. I'm sure if I hadn't everyone would have heard about it by now. In my opinion Mr Badat jumped on the bandwagon and it is only right that he now withdraws his original comments."

But Mr Badat said he still did not think it was right for someone who represented a party with racist policies to be on the licensing panel for taxi drivers when 97 or 98 per cent of drivers were from an Asian ethnic minority. He said he had complained to Kirklees recently because he felt more drivers were now being turned down for licences. And he said that although there were 15 elected members on the regulatory panel, Asian councillors rarely got the chance to sit at meetings, but he claimed Coun Exley was always selected.

Coun Exley said the panel always tried to find the best person to do the job, regardless of their ethnic background. He said members now had more background information on drivers because more thorough Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks were carried out.

"I have had people before me who have convictions for carrying guns or knives or for drugs offences and no one would want them to be taxi drivers," said Coun Exley. "We have to make an informed decision from the information we are given. It is never made on religion or the colour of their skin. We've had lots of white people who have had their licences taken off them or not given, but the majority of applicants are Asian so more will get turned down."

Coun Exley said more thorough CRB checks meant some drivers who had been given licences in the past were now being turned down because of information that was not available to the panel when their licence was granted. And he said councillors who were chosen to sit at meetings were usually the first ones to say they were available to attend the meetings as places were allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Spenborough Guardian

Note: This is the same David Exley who managed to sit through an entire six-hour budget meeting, along with two BNP colleagues on Kirklees Council, and said absolutely nothing.

Red Card for BNP as party fails to make gains

Fears that Heckmondwike could become the first all-BNP ward in Yorkshire were quashed at last week's elections. The far-right party failed to make any gains at the Kirklees elections – despite standing 23 candidates.

Had BNP candidate Steve Cass been elected in Heckmondwike he would have served with BNP councillors David Exley and Roger Roberts – a situation the party’s leader Nick Griffin anticipated.

Mr Griffin visited Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton last month. At the time he said: “I’m hoping we’ll get the third seat in Heckmondwike. If we can get a few more seats then we can start to make a difference in council chambers as well as in the wards. I think you’ll see a difference in the council landscape after the elections.”

But despite a strong campaign the party lost out to David Sheard, who has been a Labour councillor for more than 20 years. Coun Sheard said it would have been bad news for Heckmondwike had the BNP taken his seat. He added: “I thought I would beat the BNP, but I knew it would be close and I didn’t think it would be by so much. Now I can get cracking and carry on with the work I’ve started.”

But Kirklees BNP leader Coun Exley said he was surprised by the result.

“I thought we’d done enough, but David Sheard is a very strong candidate and he hasn’t been a councillor for 23 years for nothing. We’ve had a wake-up call, but we’ll carry on with the work we’ve been doing in our wards.”

Coun Exley acknowledged Heckmondwike’s large Asian community could have stopped the party winning the seat, but said any worries about the BNP were unfounded.

“Asian people have nothing to fear from the BNP. I’ve been in for three-and-a-half years now and Roger Roberts for one. People from the Asian community come to me for help and I help them as I would anyone else. If there was any reason for them to fear us, then that would have been an issue by now.”

In Cleckheaton Liberal Democrat Andrew Pinnock was pleased to keep his seat of 12 years.

Lib Dem leader Coun Kath Pinnock (Cleck) said the 2006 result was the closest in Cleckheaton for many years and this time the party was keen that “people in Cleckheaton would show the BNP the red card”. She added: “People in Cleckheaton have seen through the BNP’s promises. We want to put into effect what we’ve said will be done now.”

The Lib Dems hope to make safe and develop the derelict Westgate site, improve the empty Co-op in Scholes and get a route confirmed for the Hopper service bus which has been granted funding.

Coun Derrick Yates (Con, Liversedge and Gomersal) said of his re-election: “It’s a great result for the Spen Valley, not just in Liversedge but especially in Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton where the councillors have increased their vote majority. We’ve sent a clear message that north Kirklees do not want the views of the BNP. It’s a fantastic result. I will build on my work of the last three years, I’ve made a good start and am very happy to be able to continue to work for the people of Liversedge and Gomersal.”

Although Tory leader Coun Robert Light (Birstall and Birkenshaw) was also re-elected, his position as council leader could be in doubt as Labour now has 22 seats to the Tories’ 20. Coun Light said: “I’m delighted to keep the seat. It’s a great honour to represent and help my home villages and to be part of Kirklees Council.”

He added that an administration change for the council would be a disaster as the Tories only took over from the Lib Dems last June. “I think everyone agrees that three administrations in three years is not in the interest of the council.”

Coun Light said the Tories would be looking for support from other parties but ruled out any form of shared administration with the minor parties.

Spenborough Guardian