BNP and Labour candidates to fight it out in Dalton town council by-election

Two parties are going head to head in a town council by-election

Labour and the British National Party are to fight for a seat on Dalton Town Council. Dan Martin, for Labour, and Mike Ashburner (pictured left, in the sexy T-shirt), Furness and South Lakeland BNP organiser, were the only two nominations received by last Friday’s closing date. The by-election is set to take place on December 10. The vacancy arose when former Dalton mayor Dermot O’Connor left the town to be nearer his family in Wigan.

Dalton town councillor Bill Bleasdale – who represents the Tories on the borough and county councils – says the town council is usually apolitical. He said: “Normally someone is co-opted straight onto the town council but ten voters can declare a by-election. Anybody from any political party can stand in a democracy. It is disappointing that there aren’t any more candidates showing an interest. The public has got disillusioned with politics nationally which is why the BNP got representation on the European Parliament. They are a protest party.”

Mr Martin, who lives in Dalton and teaches at George Hastwell School on Walney, urged voters to send a message to the BNP that “their nasty brand of politics is not welcome in this town.”

The Ulverston-born 33-year-old, whose father was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Cartmel, said: “Like everyone here, I am very proud of Dalton – and I want to fight for a fair deal for the residents here. Dalton needs a hardworking town councillor who lives here and cares about the issues that matter to families. I think the last thing we need is someone coming here and trying to use our town council to stir up trouble.

“The British National Party care nothing about the concerns of people here – they just want to whip up tension and division. Huge damage would be done to our community if we elected a member of a party that judges people because of what they are and not who they are. I believe that I can represent your interests, and send a message that says Dalton is still a welcoming town.”

Mr Ashburner, from Barrow, who admitted he has no links with Dalton, said it was the BNP’s policy to go for any vacancies that come up. He denied the party was out to cause trouble. Mr Ashburner said: “My main aims are to tackle anti-social behaviour and clean up the streets. I noticed walking around just how much rubbish there was. My other main problem I aim to tackle is the Islamification of Dalton. There are proposals to build a mosque in the area and they are currently looking for plots. I am going to make sure there is not a mosque built in Dalton.”

Cumbria County Council spokesman Gareth Cosslett said the council knows of no current plans to build a new place of worship in Dalton. He said : “Nothing is being built locally. The only thing that happens every Friday afternoon is one room in the Multicultural Centre in Barrow is used by Muslims as a prayer room. The rest of the week it’s used to teach English and a variety of other things. The whole point of the centre is to connect people and help them with social issues.

“The county council isn’t aware of anyone wanting to build a mosque in Dalton or anywhere nearby – but we’re not the planning authority. Our view would be that if they did, they would have as much right to build it as anyone would to build a church.”

North-West Evening Mail

Hamezeian cleared of breaking council rules

A councillor accused by a political rival of breaking town hall rules has been cleared.

Jim Hamezeian, leader of the Peoples Party on Barrow Borough Council, was alleged to have breached the code of conduct at the election count last May. Complainant Mike Ashburner, a British National Party candidate who stood against Cllr Hamezeian for the Ormsgill ward, claimed he was verbally attacked by Cllr Hamezeian after the result of the ballot was read out.

“He (Jim Hamezeian) held up to me a poster which read: ‘Down with the racist and fascist scumbags’ and then subjected me to a torrent of vile abuse,” Mr Ashburner told the Evening Mail.

Cllr Hamezeian admitted holding up the poster and chanting the words on it. But he said: “I didn’t subject anyone to any sort of abuse or whatever they’re accusing me of, absolutely not.”

Now the council’s standards committee has looked into the matter and cleared Cllr Hamezeian. In a statement, Ola Oduwole, corporate services director and monitoring officer for the council, said: “It had been alleged that after the count at the council elections in May 2008 for the Ormsgill ward, where he stood as a candidate, Cllr J Hamezeian thrust a poster in the complainant’s face with some words written on it and subjected him to incomprehensible abuse. The committee found that Cllr J Hamezeian was not acting in his official capacity when the incident occurred and therefore did not fail to comply with the code of conduct.”

Mr Ashburner has complained about Cllr Hamezeian before. Mr Ashburner reported Cllr Hamezeian to local government watchdog, the Standards Board for England, claiming the Iranian-born councillor was breaching the 1689 Bill of Rights. But the Standards Board for England decided not to investigate the complaint.

On Friday, following the standards committee’s decision, Cllr Hamezeian said: “I’m very annoyed that these people have got nothing better to do than constantly complaining and pestering me. They are wasting taxpayers’ money and they should be the ones penalised. As far as the result of the investigation is concerned, I knew there was nothing to investigate, I knew I had done nothing wrong and there was no reason for the complaint or the investigation.”

Mr Ashburner said of the standards committee’s ruling: “I think the decision is perverse and I will be challenging it.”

North-West Evening Mail

Fascist BNP hammered in Barrow by-election

The fascist BNP came last in the Newbarns ward by-election, Barrow-in-Furness on Thursday 4th September. The outcome was a poor result for the Nazi British National Party, who had put in work from an early stage for this election.

The results were:

1st : Conservatives 478
2nd : Labour 177
3rd : Socialist Peoples Party 155
Last: Fascist BNP 104

Barrow Unite Against Fascism carried out successful anti-fascist campaigning in the ward. As elsewhere in Barrow, it was evident during the campaign that there is a a lot of anger against the Fascists in the area.

The campaign outlined the real Nazi nature of the BNP, and once again helped mobilise the anti-fascist vote against the fascist candidate in the ward.

In this by-election, a highly successful Love Music Hate Racism gig was held in Barrow Park, attended by 200 people, to highlight the need for voters to use their vote to stop the fascists on polling day.

Musicians playing included Gwen Hechle, The Relics, Isolhate and Codejak. It was organised jointly with Unity In Music.

At a protest on election night, over 20 anti-fascists outnumbered the 4 nazis going into the count, who were clearly rattled at being exposed as Nazis by a broad-based movement which showed once again that anti-racists are the majority. Their usual attempts at fake smiles quickly slipped, as they were humiliated by the demo and humiliated - once again in Barrow - by the result.

By exposing the BNP as nazis, by anti-fascist campaigning, and events such as LMHR gigs, this by-election shows again that it is possible to beat the Nazis whenever they rear their heads by mobilising the majority anti-fascist vote against them.

Barrow and South Cumbria Unite Against Fascism

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

There were four byelections due to be held on September 4th. One was unopposed (Conservative), and one in deepest West Sussex seems to have vanished (perhaps they're still counting !!).

Two results are to hand; and both featured BNP candidates. The first was in a Melton Mowbray ward of Melton District Council in East Leicestershire, an urban - and relatively deprived - area in a broadly affluent and rural part of Britain. It was a ward with some history of BNP activity, their having taken a share of around 28-29% of the vote in May 2007 (precise figures are difficult in multi-member elections). And of course the East Midlands has probably been the BNP's most effective region electorally in recent times, even after the purging of Graham and her Decembrist allies.

My initial reaction to the result was one of shock - Labour 314, BNP 236, Conservative 177. That is too, too close for comfort. However, the figures repay closer attention. The percentages were 43.2%, 32.5% and 24.3%. If Labour can poll 43.2%, even in their present state of national unpopularity, then they will take some beating. For the BNP to overtake that figure the Conservative share would need to fall to 13.5% or lower. Equally, if just 30 BNP voters switched to the Tories then the BNP would fall to third place!

Sources close to the far-right suggest that Labour ran an effective polling day organisation. Good! Now, if the Conservatives could be persuaded to up their game in the ward as well the BNP could find themselves increasingly marginalised.

Oh, and the change in share of the vote from May 2007 is also significant, if difficult to calculate (!) because of the multiple candidacies that time round. Basically the Labour share dropped by around 4.5%, BNP up 4%, Conservatives up around 0.5%. Given what has happened to Labour over the past 18 months, and that this was one of the key BNP byelection prospects this year, the far-right must be disappointed that their advance was so limited.

To summarise - a worrying and depressing result, BUT even so with results like this it's becoming hard to see where the next BNP byelection gain is going to appear!

The other byelection was in Barrow, and again offered an opportunity for the BNP. A ward with a strong Independent tradition (36% in May) and no Lib Dem candidate. What happened? The Conservatives held the seat with an increased majority and 50% of the vote; the Labour share dipped a little (--2.5%), the Peoples Party came third, and the BNP came last with 15.1%. Not the derisory vote we prefer to see, but a long, long, long way from any prospect of power or influence.

Abusive phone call slams councillor’s anti-BNP stance

A councillor was the victim of an abusive phone call which slammed her for criticising the British National Party. Mary Irwin, Labour councillor for Central ward, was sworn at in the anonymous phone call. Councillor Irwin said: “He used a lot of bad language. He called me an f***ing commie bitch and ended up by saying ‘you have been having a go at the BNP for a lot of years’.”

When Cllr Irwin tried to trace the call, she found it had been made from a call box in Leicestershire. Cllr Irwin, of Eamont Close, said she felt shaken after the call, but is determined not to be intimidated. She said: “I’m not going to let it get to me. I won’t be going ex-directory. As a councillor people need to be able to get in touch with me.”

In the past Cllr Irwin has spoken out against the British National Party, and she told the Evening Mail last year: “They’re a racist party. I am totally against racism of any kind.”

BNP election candidate for Barrow, Mike Ashburner, denied that the call had anything to do with his party. He said: “That’s absolutely nothing to do with the BNP. That’s probably one of our opponents trying to cause trouble. We don’t do that and we stamp down on that sort of thing.”

Cllr Irwin has informed the police of the call, but has been told there is little they can do as it was from a call box and outside the area.

Sergeant Keith Healey, of Barrow police, said: “It is an offence to make a malicious or abusive phone call. It is difficult in these cases where it is a one-off event, but if the caller can be identified then positive action would be taken.”

North-West Evening Mail

[Oddly enough, we had a call too - probably from the same callbox in Hinckley (01455 209206) at 1646 on July 24th. Probably the same moron.]