BNP councillor set to stand against council

A BNP councillor will stand against a policy to promote equality within Markyate Parish Council at a council meeting tonight.

Simon Deacon, BNP councillor and former leading National Front activist, called the Equal Opportunities Policy a waste of time and vowed not to support it.

Speaking before the meeting he said: "I'm totally against it. Why do we have to have all this bureaucracy? "People come here with work permits and they are supposed to be put on an equal footing. Therefore somebody goes for a job and those other people who have been here for a matter of months can apply for the same job - that is what the Equal Opportunities Policy is all about. It is unfair.

"I have gone against things before with the council - that is democracy, that is politics. "I have to do what I think is right. I am sorry if that offends others but I have to go with my gut instinct and go with what I believe in, otherwise I'm a hypocrite."

But campaigners argue Deacon should resign from the council if he does not agree with the policy. Jon Berry, of Three Counties Unite Against Facism, said: "He purports to be a representative of the community and it is absolutely clear that he regards some members of the community more important than others."

This is Hertfordshire

BNP Parish Councillor Faces The Crunch

Deacon (facing camera, to the left of the person giving salute)
on a National Front activity before his election

Bedfordshire campaigners are organising to confront the racist politics of British National Party Parish Councillor Simon Deacon and will be scrutinising his response to the Equal Opportunities Policy being laid before the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 1st July.

On Tuesday 1st July Simon Deacon, British National Party (BNP) councillor for Markyate Parish Council, will be asked to give his assent to the body’s Equal Opportunities Policy. This will create an impossible situation for Deacon, the former leading National Front activist who told the St Albans Observer (25.4.07) on his election

'England was a white country – we think it should be returned to that.'

The Equal Opportunities Policy contains many statements that stand totally opposed to his racist ideology, particularly the clause on cultural diversity that states:

'the council recognises that we live in a multicultural society and believes that cultural diversity should be viewed positively.'

Apart from Deacon’s personal prejudice, this very mild and reasonable statement stands against the policy of the national BNP, which calls for “an immediate halt to all further immigration...and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here.”

You can hardly value another culture if you want it moved out of town.

The Policy sets very high standards for councillors, stating that “the principle behind the statement must be reflected in all of our behaviours and practices.” Three Counties UAF feel that belonging to a Party that undermines a policy in its everyday business is a practice that is incompatible with being a Parish Councillor.

It is Deacon’s declared intent to get the BNP active in Hemel Hempstead and campaigners feel that his activity on the parish council is merely a smokescreen to further his wider electoral ambitions.

Markyate has shown itself to be a village free of prejudice in the manner that it returned an Asian woman, Jayshree Patel, onto the Parish Council long before Deacon walked into the post last May.

Three Counties UAF say that if Deacon agrees to the Policy then he should resign from the BNP, but if he disagrees then he should resign from the Parish Council. This action is the first in a campaign of action by Three Counties UAF to raise awareness of the threat posed by the BNP to the well-being of the village.

Notes:

1. The attached photo shows Deacon (facing camera, to the left of the person giving salute) on a National Front activity before his election. The person doing the salute is Stuart Hollingsdale, an NF member who was jailed in 1998 for smashing up the Stephen Lawrence memorial plaque in Eltham, South London.

2. Deacon was elected unopposed to the seat in May 2007 when only 9 nominations were made for the 10 vacancies on the parish council.

Three Counties UAF

When is an elected councillor not an elected councillor? When he's not elected.

The National Front and its supporters are currently making much of the fact that they have just acquired their very first councillor. To much praise, no doubt for all his hard work during the bitterly-fought campaign, Simon Deacon is currently being overwhelmed with congratulations from all sections of the far-right. Over on the increasingly stupid Stormfront nazi forum, cries of 'Well done' and 'Congratulations' are being shouted from the cyber equivalent of the rooftops. A tickertape parade would seem to be in order.

Just a couple of snags. Deacon was not elected to his St Alban's seat, there was no bitterly-fought campaign and there was certainly no hard work. Quite simply, Deacon walked into his parish councillor role by default because no-one stood against him.

Without a single vote being cast - which is the only way the National Front would get anywhere politically - Simon Deacon has walked into a position (from May 4th) as parish councillor for St Alban's Markyate ward.

The NF has obviously learned its electoral lessons from the British National Party. Only a couple of weeks ago the BNP was crowing over the fact that it had managed to get another six (parish) councillors, including Carol Collett, mother of the despicable Hitler-worshipper Mark Collett, 'without a single ballot paper being marked'. Democracy, huh?

As we pointed out in our article about the BNP's very quiet parish council infestation, there are a number of rules to which parish councillors are expected to adhere. One is to 'promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person' while another is to 'treat others with respect'. We confidently expect the National Front's Simon Beacon to fail miserably on both fronts.

Curiously, considering the sneaky way Deacon managed to get a seat on his parish council, the National Front has a lot to say about democracy on one of its introductory pages. It even makes a veiled sideswipe at the BNP's highly undemocratic structure;

'...The policies of the party are determined by the members at Annual Conferences and unlike some other parties, such decisions are binding upon the party.'

Unfortunately it goes on;

'The National Front is a party of genuine democracy...The NF seeks to promote in Britain a genuinely democratic political system...'

One wonders then, why the NF has allowed Deacon to bypass the democratic process completely despite never having been voted in. Could it be that all this waffle about democracy is worth about as much as that espoused by the BNP - a party that has blatantly and on numerous occasions attempted to subvert the democratic process?