Might UKIP succeed where the BNP has failed?

By Dr Robert Ford of the University of Manchester and and Dr Matthew Goodwin of the University of Nottingham, co-editor of The New Extremism in 21st Century Britain. The authors would like to thank Joe Twyman at YouGov for assistance with the data.

The BNP’s attempt to become a ‘modernized’ radical right party has failed. The party is in turmoil, and Nick Griffin faces a growing grassroots rebellion. A disappointing general election, empty war chests and costly legal battles have left its foot soldiers demoralized and divided: some demand a re-launched (and Griffin-free) BNP; others have deserted to establish a rival party; and some are even calling for a merger with their arch rival, UKIP. Even Griffin concedes they are ‘sick and tired of losing’ and, in an attempt to quell the rebels, has announced he will step down by 2015.

To add to his problems, at the recent by-election in Oldham the party saw its support slump to 4.5% (down from 11% in 2001), even losing its deposit in an area it once described as “our territory”. The party was also pushed into fifth place by UKIP, a particularly hard pill for BNP activists to swallow. Despite a decade-long effort by Griffin to rehabilitate his party, upwards of 80% of Britons continue to express negative feelings toward the BNP. Put simply, the BNP will never be seen as an acceptable option by most voters. As one BNP blogger urged his fellow members, ‘it’s time to wake up’.

But if the BNP declines, the causes which propelled its rise – public anxiety about Islam and immigration and hostility to the political mainstream – remain in place. Since 2001, they have also been joined by a financial crisis, parliamentary expenses scandal and, more recently, seemingly ‘new’ issues such as ‘Muslim sex gangs’. These issues look set to remain salient. Will public concern over them find a new outlet if the BNP falls apart?
Analysts of British politics have long suspected (though never proven) that UKIP is the ‘second home’ for far right voters, and is seen by a larger portion of the electorate as a ‘polite alternative’ to the toxic BNP. Academics suggest that while both parties share a mutual hatred of each other, they are ‘part of the same phenomenon’, and recruit supporters who share a similar profile and are concerned about the same cluster of issues.

Nigel Farage rejects the ‘BNP in Blazers’ tag, but has recently ‘cautiously welcomed’ comparisons with the far more successful radical right model of the French National Front (FN), now led by Marine Le Pen. But is UKIP really all that different from the BNP, and could it join the successful radical right family?

As we show in our study, despite Farage’s protestations the reality is that both UKIP and the BNP are drawing on remarkably similar bases of support. Not only is UKIP well positioned to hoover up the BNP vote, but it is also well placed to attract a broad and relatively diverse coalition of voters, like those mobilised by radical right parties in Austria, France and the Netherlands.

UKIP draws its strongest support from middle-aged, financially insecure men who formerly identified with the Conservatives. While these voters are of course very hostile to the EU, UKIP is not simply a haven for Eurosceptics. Contrary to what many Conservatives might like to believe, UKIP is not a single-issue party. It is also successful attracting to its banner Britons who are hostile toward immigration, feel threatened by Islam, and disaffected with the mainstream parties.

Indeed, we find two very different kinds of UKIP supporters. On one side are ‘strategic defectors’, who vote UKIP at European elections, but then return to the Conservatives at domestic general elections where more is at stake. These voters tend to be more economically secure, more middle class and motivated mainly by their Euroscepticism. On the other side, however, are the ‘core loyalists’ who vote UKIP in Westminster elections as well as European Parliament polls. It is the ‘core loyalists’ who have most in common with BNP supporters: they are poorer, more working class and more dissatisfied with the main parties. This electorate resembles those voting for far more successful radical right parties elsewhere in Europe.

UKIP also has an important advantage over the BNP – it is not tainted by a violent, fascist past. Free of extremist baggage, it is able to appeal to groups of voters such as women who regard the BNP as unacceptably extreme. Evidence of UKIP’s broader appeal can already be seen: it won nearly twice as many votes as the BNP at the 2010 general election; and nearly three times as many votes at the 2009 European elections.

So what does all this mean for the Conservatives? It suggests UKIP has now emerged as a potent competitor on two very different fronts. On the one hand, UKIP is tapping into widespread Conservative scepticism about Europe to win over large numbers of Tory voters at European Parliament elections. But in Westminster elections, UKIP is also attracting a very different following. The party is becoming an outlet for the frustrations of voters who are angry about rising immigration, anxious over the presence of ‘threatening’ Muslim communities, and cynical about mainstream politics, but repelled by the BNP’s reputation for racism and fascism. For example, more than seven out of every ten UKIP voters in our sample agreed councils allow immigrants to jump the queue for social housing, believe immigration has not helped the economy, and do not trust their local MP. Also, almost two thirds think Islam poses a serious danger to Western civilization.

If UKIP chooses to embrace this electorate, its future looks bright: continued public concern over immigration, growing anxiety over settled Muslim communities; and continuing popular outrage over issues like bankers’ bonuses provide a rich array of domestic issues to capitalise upon. Clearly, UKIP is aware of the potential appeal of radical right messages: like the BNP, at the general election it advocated a halt on immigration (via a five year freeze), the ending of policies to promote multiculturalism and bans on the burka and niqab. It also invited the Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders over to show an anti-Islam film in the House of Lords.

UKIP has already demonstrated the electoral power of Euroscepticism in the last European Parliament elections, where it overtook Labour to secure second place. If the party chooses to focus on a broader populist agenda - embracing the concerns of voters buffeted by economic insecurity, alarmed by the challenges of immigration and Islam and hostile to a Westminster elite they see as complacent and out of touch - they could also prove a potent competitor to the mainstream parties in domestic elections.

The established parties ignore this challenge at the peril – in recent years populist right wing parties have pulled off dramatic victories across Europe, dramatically altering the political landscape in longstanding bastions of moderation such as the Netherlands and Sweden. One day soon, UKIP might pull off the same trick here.

Conservative Home Comment

Police hunt racist thugs over attack in Manchester

Police are hunting a gang of racist thugs who attacked and robbed a door-to-door salesman in Greater Manchester.

The victim, a 20-year-old Asian man, was working on the Limeside Estate, in Oldham, selling digital television products, on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th January when he was assaulted. He was working around Walkers Road, Oak Road and Firth Avenue but throughout the afternoon, a group of five white men were walking around the estate shouting racial abuse at the victim.

At about 6pm, on Hollins Road, the group approached the victim, grabbed him, racially abused him and demanded his mobile phone and cash. They pushed him against a wall and patted his body for items. As they tried to grab his mobile the victim resisted and he was punched twice to the head by one of the offenders, who then intimated he had a knife. The group ran off with the phone.

The main offender in the group was about 5ft 6in tall of medium build with dark hair. He was wearing a lime green hooded top.

Police Constable Andrew Swettenham said: "This was a horrendous experience for this man, who was simply trying to do his job. The abuse that he suffered culminated in an attack where he was robbed. Someone on this estate will know who these people are and may even have witnessed this incident."

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 856 9577 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Click Manchester

BNP faces backlash over Oldham threat

Jewish and Muslim communities in the north-west are readying themselves for a new campaign against the BNP if its leader Nick Griffin stands in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

The BNP leader hinted last Friday through the Twitter website that he might contest the seat. This came in the wake of the High Court upholding the decision to strip former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas of his seat, for lying about a rival in last May's general election campaign.

This week Manchester Jewish Representative Council president Lucille Cohen said there had been discussions with the Board of Deputies about running an anti-BNP campaign, similar to that in Barking where Mr Griffin stood against Margaret Hodge in May. Sue Gillett, North West Conservative Party director during the election, said there was speculation that Mr Griffin would be challenged by Conservative parliamentary spokesman Kashif Ali.

Mr Ali said Muslim groups in Oldham would rally against the BNP.

"I met the Jewish council just before the May elections and we discussed all of this. We stood together then because we've all got a common interest against the BNP. There is concern because Griffin stood in Oldham West and Royton in 2001, so he has some knowledge of Oldham."

Griffin gained a record BNP general election result in 2001, coming third on a wave of popularity fuelled by the Oldham riots. But Mike Luft, of Oldham United Against Racism, said the BNP has since been in serious decline.

Jewish Chronicle

Rise of UK far right could lead to poll violence

A resident walks past a burnt-out car on Waterloo Road
in Oldham after riots between police and youths May 27, 2001

A resurgence of far right groups is likely to fuel abuse, violence and even riots in the run-up to Britain's next parliamentary elections, community relations experts warn.

In the last few months, Britain has seen disturbances in London and in Birmingham, with police coming under attack after far right protesters clashed with Muslims and anti-fascist groups. So far the trouble has been minor, with few serious injuries or major damage. But mainstream politicians are worried.

Following trouble outside a mosque in north London, Communities Secretary John Denham warned that far right extremists were using the same tactics as fascist groups before World War Two to provoke British Muslims. Denham likened the disorder at the mosque to that employed by the black-shirted supporters of the British Union of Fascists who generated fear and violence when they marched though Jewish areas of London's east end in the 1930s.

Community relations experts fear the situation could deteriorate as Britain heads towards an election due by next June, even raising fears of a repeat of race riots that engulfed towns across northern England in 2001.

"We have got a much bigger and more determined far right than in 2001, which has been emboldened by recent successes," said Professor Ted Cantle, who led the government review into the 2001 riots, Britain's worst disturbances in recent times.

"Clearly any community can be provoked and the far right is taking more action, and some of its provocation is nastier and more sophisticated. The provocation is serious and it could lead to some forms of disorder," Cantle, Executive Chairman of the Institute of Community Cohesion, set up by the government following the London bombings in 2005, told Reuters.

The far right is certainly more popular and high profile than it has been for decades. This summer saw the British National Party (BNP) enjoy its greatest success at the ballot box, winning two seats for the European Parliament.

Although the BNP remains at the fringes of British politics, other extreme groups, such as The English Defence League (EDL) and Casuals United have sprung up promising more direct action. They emerged after a small group of Muslim militants staged a protest in Luton in March against soldiers returning from Iraq.

While the government sees building better relations with the Muslim community as essential following the 2005 London suicide attacks by four British Islamists, the right-wing groups accuse ministers of pandering to militants.

"The government and police need to decide whether they want to carry on turning a blind eye to killers in our midst, a small minority, or whether they want to listen to the concerns of the ignored majority, and deal with the Jihadists before widespread disorder breaks out," the Casuals Utd website says.

Critics dismiss the groups as being a small number of racist, former soccer hooligans. But Muhammad Abul Kalam, spokesman for the police advisory body the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), said there was great concern at the groups' impact.

"There is a genuine fear that their message is becoming more acceptable to mainstream British indigenous people because of various reasons, including the economic downturn," he said.

He agreed the rise of the far right combined with tensions generated by the elections could be an explosive combination, leading to serious public disorder.

"It happened in London in Harrow," he told Reuters, saying Muslims were being incited to react both by the far right and anti-fascist organisations.

"There are certain hot-headed Muslims out there looking to protect their community in a criminal way who want to engage in street fights and demonstrations, and hurl bottles and bricks, and we want to contain that."

Earlier this year, a senior counter terrorism officer told an MSF meeting that police feared right-wing extremists could be planning a "spectacular" attack. The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, which monitors such issues, said at the moment there was no specific intelligence to suggest extremists were planning any campaign of violence, or to generate trouble before the polls.

But a spokesman added: "Whenever people have strongly held views and express them, there is always going to be risk of public disorder."

The MSF said in recent months there had been increased reports of attacks on mosques, and Cantle said individual racial hate crimes -- such as Muslim women being abused, having their headscarves pulled off, or more serious incidents -- would rise.

"Where they (far right groups) are putting out their propaganda, because of elections or because of particular campaigns, then it will stir up hatred and we do see an increase in hate crimes," he said. "We may not see a repeat of 2001 where communities go out on to the street and take part in wholesale disturbances and riots, but that doesn't mean that they're not having an effect. The tensions do get greatly increased around elections."

The next flashpoint is expected on October 10 in Manchester, when the EDL holds a march and the Unite Against Fascist organisation stages a counter protest.

"Inevitably if there is any violence and it involves young Muslims that's going to be headline news," said Kalam. "We don't need, and don't want that."

Reuters

What YOU think about the BNP vote

The Advertiser took to the streets of Oldham to ask the public what they think about the European Elections and the BNP’s success:

Julie Williams, who works for Oldham Adult Learning Disability Service, did not vote. "I am ashamed of myself, and anyone who didn’t vote should be as well," she said. "When I found out the BNP had won I was absolutely incredulous. I will never not vote again."

Randy Arthurs, 41, from Alt, a father of one who is half Jamaican, fears of a repeat of what happened in 2001. "I am so angry and worried," he said. "I remember seeing the cars on fire and the bad feeling around Oldham. I would hate us to go back to those dark days. We’ve moved on so much."

Damian Hall, 41, from Moorside, said the BNP success is a backwards step for Oldham. "If people disagree with the current Government they should use their vote constructively. This is an ethnically diverse town. There are a lot of organisations and groups that work towards ethnic cohesion. I don’t think Oldham can move forwards with a BNP MEP. You can’t call yourself British or nationalist if you won’t let someone join your party because of the colour of their skin."

Anthony Bromiley, 21, and Jamie Whittleworth, 26, from Shaw, welcomed the BNP victory and said it was a wake up call to the Government. "The country at the moment has gone to the dogs," Anthony said. "Me and my mates feel like our rights and our jobs have been taken off us by immigrants. The Government need to get its priorities sorted and look after those here first who need help."

Jamie said: "I have mates who have left the army because they don’t believe this country is worth fighting for anymore."

Mauaz Ahmad, 23, from Coppice, voted Conservative and is offended that Oldham helped the BNP win. "The BNP is a party which doesn’t acknowledge what the thousands of soldiers who died on D-Day were fighting for," he said, "These men died so we could all be free. The BNP will now have a platform to spread their ‘Nazi’ policies and ideology. It worries me what may happen in Oldham. We have spent the last few years really getting on."

Kirsty Khan, 17, from Shaw, said Oldham will only improve if people become more intergrated. "If you are to live together in a community, you have to contribute to its success. My experience of volunteering for the Princes Trust at Groundwork opened my eyes to the diversity in Oldham. It gave me a different point of view which I will build upon for the rest of my life. If you have a problem with immigrants, you need to remember that these people came here to build a better life for themselves – many escaped torture and war."

Shama Arif, who runs a newsagents on Yorkshire Street said she was scared of the BNP. "There are still issues between people of different backgrounds but it is improving," she said. "I have to agree that the way the Government has handled immigration is appalling and, as a result, all those from different backgrounds are being tarred with the same brush. I’d hate for us to go back to the bad days, but must remember, it is a minority of people that hold such views."

Emma Milligan, 23, from Derker, said: "The political system may be shocking and a lot of people have steered clear of voting, but the BNP is not a serious option for this borough or the country."

Oldham Advertiser

Where now?

The British National Party’s success in the London Assembly elections coupled with its small but continued progress across the country provides an ideal opportunity critically to assess where the campaign against the British National Party is going.

For the past few years we have successfully limited the advance of the BNP in local elections, even reversing its fortunes in some of its traditional heartlands such as Sandwell, Oldham and Bradford. Even Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, has publicly admitted that we have developed an election operation that can beat the BNP almost everywhere.

But the truth is that as each year goes by our job is getting harder. There is an ever-growing list of wards at risk to the BNP, it’s becoming more difficult to turn out our voters and even when we do prevent the BNP from winning we do so by increasing turnout rather than necessarily reducing the BNP’s support. In today’s political climate we can sometimes feel a sense of relief just by keeping the BNP down to 30% support in key wards.

It is perfectly feasible to continue this approach over the next couple of years. We will defeat the BNP in many more wards than they win and perhaps we can hold them at bay long enough for wider external factors to fundamentally undercut the BNP’s support.

Or we can perhaps try a radically different approach.

This essay will look at possible approaches. It is the opening of a discussion about where we go now. There are no simple or easy solutions of course, no one anti-fascist strategy can defeat the BNP on its own. However, as I shall try to explain, unless we do something radically different the situation will get a lot worse before it gets better.

To do that we need to really understand what is going on.

We are currently witnessing a tangible change in British politics. The old traditional voting patterns are fragmenting as voters increasingly shop around for a party that best articulates their concerns and even prejudices.

The emergence of the BNP is just one consequence of the change under way, and it is a change far more fundamental than many political commentators and politicians appear to register. It is also primarily an issue affecting the Labour Party.

Labour’s support among its traditional working-class voters has been shrinking for many years and this goes well beyond the current decline in fortunes for the Brown Government. In many core Labour heartlands the party’s support among social groups C2 and DE was at a lower level in 2005, when it won a general election, than in 1983 at the height of its electoral unpopularity during the Thatcher years. It is a point graphically made in the excellent book by Alexander Lee and Timothy Stanley, The End of Politics: Triangulation, Realignment and the Battle for the Centre Ground.

In 1997, 50% of C2 voters and 59% of DE voters supported Labour. By 2005 this had dropped to 40% and 48% respectively.

This drop has been even more pronounced in many core Labour areas. In Sheffield Central Labour polled over 60% of the vote in every election between 1983 and 2001, yet in 2005 its vote fell to 49.9%. In Burnley, Labour’s share of the vote dropped 38.5% during the same period.
“In Yorkshire and Humberside, the North and the North West the swing may have not significantly affected the return of Labour MPs to Westminster but majorities have been seriously diminished and the party’s share of the vote dramatically reduced,” say the authors of The End of Politics.

Some of these disappearing voters switched to other parties and in local elections this was often the Liberal Democrats, but far greater numbers simply stayed at home. A declining turnout and general lack of interest in mainstream political parties was the key winner.

For the Labour leadership this long-term shift has not mattered. In the current political system general elections are not won or lost in the Labour heartlands but in the swing marginals, where a few votes can turn success into defeat. It is these voters towards whom all the main parties increasingly gravitate.

Labour has relied on the fact that its traditional support, although declining, has had nowhere else to go. Many of these voters, whose communities were decimated under Thatcher, would never countenance voting Conservative. A few switched to the Liberal Democrats, others stayed at home but the bulk of those who did vote continued to support Labour.

But this is now changing. The BNP is emerging as the voice of this forgotten working class. A survey of the wards that produced the 25 best BNP votes in May shows plainly the profile of BNP supporting areas. All but one rank well below average in the Indices of Deprivation and the one exception, Queensbury in Bradford, is roughly average. Nearly all are among the top 10% most deprived areas.

In every single one of these wards, including Queensbury, the proportion of the population with no qualifications at all is well below the national average. Likewise, the proportion of people with a level 4/5 qualification (degree or teaching/social work qualification) is a fraction of the national average.

The result is that the BNP is now challenging Labour in many of its heartlands and the effect is startling. As we show elsewhere in this magazine, the BNP received more votes than Labour in the redrawn Dagenham and Rainham constituency. And it was not the only one. As table 1 illustrates, the BNP received more votes than both Labour and the Conservatives in the new Morley and Outwood constit-uency, which will be contested by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

The BNP also beat Labour in one of the two new Havering constituencies and would probably have polled more votes than Labour in Stoke-on-Trent South and Central if it had put forward more candidates.

It is also important not to view the BNP in isolation. Its rising support is just the most visible element of this changing political scene. Other areas, such as South and West Yorkshire and South Wales, have seen a rise in local independent groups.

Who would have thought that Labour could have lost the heartlands of Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent in South Wales to independents? In Stoke-on-Trent, a city where ten years ago Labour held all 60 seats, the party could only win four seats this year. In Barnsley, where the BNP polled 21%, the Barnsley Independent Group holds one third of the seats on the council.

Fundamental shift

The breaking with Labour reflects a far more fundamental shift than mid-term blues. For an increasing number of traditional Labour voters the party no longer reflects their interests. Lee and Stanley in The End of Politics blame New Labour’s triangulation policy under which it has moved into the centre ground of politics in order to win the key marginals.

This view is echoed by Labour MP Jon Cruddas. “The politics of middle England become even more dominant in the minds of our political leadership. The danger is that we ignore the reasons for the strength of the BNP, and in so doing reinforce the conditions that have created this situation.”

Many of the people now turning their back on the Labour Party have not shared the economic prosperity of recent years. Many in areas such as Stoke-on-Trent and Dagenham now find themselves in a worse economic position than a few years ago. Great swathes of these traditional Labour voters not only feel ignored but are increasingly seeing in the BNP a party that articulates their interests. This degree of alienation with the mainstream parties was clearly demonstrated in the BBC polling that accompanied its White Season.

A number of studies, such as those conducted by Vision 21 and more recently by Democratic Audit, show clearly that a reoccurring theme among BNP voters is the sense that no one listens to them any more. Labour is increasingly seen as a middle-class party that prioritises minority groups and the interests of more affluent voters over themselves.

This is an international phenomenon. In the United States the phenomenon of Middle American Nationalism has emerged over the past 30 years, which despises the corporate elites above and the “undeserving” poor below.

Across Western Europe we have seen working-class voters turn towards far-right and populist parties. In Denmark working-class voters have shifted from the Labour Party to the Danish People’s Party (DPP). In France the Front National remains dominant in many traditional working-class communities. In Norway, the Progress Party has become the country’s main opposition.

“Workers’ support for the socialist parties has fallen away,” say researchers from the Danish Valgprojektet (Election Project). “There is a class-defined demobilisation … an almost total loss of support for the worker parties among the younger part of the working class, especially among skilled workers.”

Writing in this month’s Red Pepper, the Norwegian writer Magnus Marsdal argues that class politics still exists but these far-right parties are “in effect the new Labour party”. He points to Denmark where in the 2001 elections 61% of the DPP’s support came from working-class voters, nearly three times as many worker voters as the Social Democrats.

In an interesting parallel with England, almost all of these voters were from poorer and less educated sections of society.

All this represents a fundamental shift in British politics and the real fear is that we are heading the way of so many other European countries where large segments of the working class have broken with their traditional centre-left parties and moved to the right.

The root of BNP support

The BNP is a racist party fuelled by a leadership that draws its political roots from fascism. That much is clear. However, its appeal goes far wider than the issue of race. The BNP is tapping into political alienation and economic deprivation. It is providing a voice for those who increasingly feel ignored and cast aside by Labour. The BNP is articulating their concerns, grievances and even prejudices.

Race is obviously a key factor but it is not the only issue. Race was a defining factor in the initial rise of the BNP in 2001. Riots, growing racial tensions and international terrorism conspired to build support for the BNP. But this is less so now.

A cursory look at where the BNP is gaining support shows that race is not necessarily the dominant issue that it was in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. There are very small non-white communities in Stoke-on-Trent, Barnsley and Nuneaton and Bedworth. These are traditional working-class areas where people feel abandoned and ignored. It is into this alienation that the BNP moves. Yes, race is certainly a central key, but more because it provides a prism through which people can see and understand the world and, more importantly, an easy scapegoat to blame for their own situation.

But the BNP provides far more than a racist scapegoat. It gives some voters a sense of belonging, an articulation of their own frustration – even a new white identity.

This point was graphically illustrated in the BBC White Season, particularly the film set in a working men’s club in Wibsey, Bradford. “I wish I could be happy again,” said Graham Anderson. In an increasingly complicated and disorientated world it is easy to see how the BNP can point the finger of blame while simultaneously offering a new sense of white community.

Whatever the merits of the Season as a whole it did reflect the sense of loss, political abandonment and a search for identity and belonging of a minority of people in this country.

In an increasingly complex world, in which Britain’s place has changed, Britain itself is fragmenting and the old economic certainties provided by traditional employment are long gone. It is no coincidence that the BNP has emerged in those communities that have experienced most economic decline and change, principally in the former coalfields and car producing areas.

Why does all this matter for anti-fascists? Unless we can understand why the BNP is growing we have little chance of defeating it.

Anti-fascism has to continue to focus around elections. After all, this is how BNP support is measured and nothing helps the BNP grow more than substantial electoral victories.

However, it is clear that our message also has to develop. Yes, we still have to identify and turn out the anti-BNP vote, as we have successfully done in so many areas, but we must also have something to say to potential BNP voters.

A simple “Don’t vote nazi” is an irrelevant slogan that needs to be discarded immediately. That is not to say that we should not highlight the real politics of the BNP and its leadership but we must address people where they currently are. And in terms of that, very few people see the BNP as a nazi party.

It is also clear that a simple Hope not Hate message is insufficient. “You tell us to vote for Hope not hate but there is no hope round here,” one voter told me in Dagenham. Similar reports came in from Stoke-on-Trent and Nuneaton.

We need to replace empty slogans with substance, and that means involving ourselves in the community as never before. If the BNP support is driven by racial prejudice, often whipped up by the national media, economic deprivation and a loss of identity, then these are the three issues we need to contest.

Nationally, we must challenge and expose the racist lies and myths peddled in the media while also ending the muscular bidding war between the political parties over race and immigration. Not only is this politically damaging (Labour will never appease its opponents on immigration), it is also quite dishonest. The economic boom of recent years has been built on the influx of migrant workers, our public services would collapse without its non-white workforce and the pensions crisis would be even more severe without newcomers replacing those British people moving abroad in record numbers.

But it is locally that anti-fascists must focus their energies. Searchlight has long argued for a localised strategy to defeat the BNP and the need for this is even greater now. Each area is different and requires a slightly different solution.

Thinking nationally, acting locally

In the recent election we found that our general Hope not hate leaflets worked in some places but less well in others. The general trend was that they were more effective where the BNP was standing for the first time. In other places, such as Stoke-on-Trent and Dagenham, where support for the BNP is deeply entrenched, we need a different approach and one that addresses local issues and concerns.

Where we produced more localised leaflets, in Burnley, West Yorkshire and Sandwell, our material appears to have gone down a lot better.

Of course there is a limit to how much localised material we can physically produce during a short election campaign. Over the past few years we have tried to prioritise the most high risk areas and those where we have the best local contacts. Two ways of overcoming this are to widen the pool of people who can produce leaflets, and to produce more localised material at other times of the year outside election periods.

To achieve this we need more local groups – and building groups with an ability to intervene locally must be our key priority over the next two years. A good functioning local group is likely to achieve far more success. It needs to be community-orientated, broad-based and non-dogmatic.

It needs to be able to address local issues and concerns while having roots within the community. It needs to be able to form partnerships with other local groups to address issues and improve the area, while also gaining credibility within the community to break down barriers and promote cohesion.

Two good examples of community campaigning are Keighley and Epping. In Keighley the local TUC and Bradford anti-fascists confronted BNP lies over grooming, where others had ignored what was going on, while simultaneously assisting local community groups through good old fashioned community development work.

The Redbridge and Epping Forest Together group has adopted a slightly different approach but it too has been successful. It has sought to build a broad coalition of political parties and the non-aligned, and has involved residents’ and faith groups. While it has not done the community development work of Keighley, it has helped alter the political climate enough to defeat the BNP in two of the three seats it was defending.

Forming local Hope not hate groups would also be an excellent way of involving trade unionists, many of whom refuse to do any direct campaigning for the Labour Party any more. In addition to bringing extra people into activity it strengthens the relationship between unions and the local community.

There are other groups that need to be included from the start. Among them are faith groups, residents’ associations, community groups and the voluntary sector – people who care enough about their local community to be active while also having the respect of others.

It some places, such as Barking and Dagenham, one of the fundamental problems is the absence of any mainstream alternative to Labour, so the BNP is the sole beneficiary of the anti-Labour vote. For anti-fascists, this is a problem as it is hard to build a political coalition in an area where there is no one other than Labour to work with.

In these areas community work is even more important. In addition to the basic anti-BNP material to dispel the party’s lies and highlight the inadequacies of its councillors, we must collaborate with existing community and faith groups to help rebuild civic society and create an alternative pole of attraction to the BNP. It is often the lack of local positive institutions and community organisers that contributes to the feeling of despair and inability to change things for the better.

Empowering local communities to improve their local area in a positive fashion through working with and mobilising local people is essential. This includes developing a leadership programme that can provide basic organising skills and give confidence to local people.

Searchlight is not opposed to concerts and large city-centre activities but these cannot be the main focus. Large concerts, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to stage, do not deliver leaflets in the key areas nor do they address the concerns and grievances of the people likely to vote BNP. They certainly have a place in mobilising and organising activists but the important work has got to be done at a more local level. It might not be glamorous and it might not be easy but it is vital.

Political solution

Of course on a wider level the BNP needs to be defeated politically. While much of this is outside the remit and capability of Searchlight we will strive to argue that the rise of the BNP is the consequence of the shift to the centre of all the mainstream parties. There can be no disguising this fact.

There will be some who argue for a solely class-based approach to anti-fascism but a refusal to work with the mainstream parties will only hand dozens of seats to the BNP and quicken its electoral advance.

The majority of people are still opposed to the racist message of the BNP and while it is important that we mobilise these voters we must also begin to address, at a local level, the grievances and insecurities that are giving rise to the BNP in the first place.

The clock is ticking and time is running out. The economic downturn, the credit crunch, the housing collapse and rising living costs are only going to increase insecurities over the next year or two. The political parties, and in particular Labour, are letting down a large section of the British population. Without radical and immediate change, Britain could experience the political earthquake that is engulfing much of Europe.

Searchlight

Oldham criminal falls out with Griffin

Nick Griffin received more bad news yesterday when Oldham thug Jock Shearer resigned as head of the North West security team and added his name to the rebellion.

Shearer, in case new Searchlight supporters do not know, is a well known Oldham criminal with at least one conviction for drug dealing. He starred in many of the Searchlight's leaflets in 2002 and 2003 which helped undermined the BNP and prevent them from winning any council seats in the town.

So, if anyone thought that the rebels somehow reflected a new clean cut alternative to Griffin and 'Nazi Boy' Collett, they were badly mistaken.

Here is what Shearer had to say to Nick Griffin:

Jock Shearer,
BNP Security Dep,
Senior moderator BNP forum,
Oldham BNP.
Nick/Party Manager,
It`s with great regret that I submit my resignation on the grounds
of sever gross misconduct by senior party officials of the BNP.To enter a members house by frudulant deception is beyond belive,as you know Nick I would have done anything you asked and have after all we dont wear bullet prove vests for nothing.

but I would never enter another members house and steal from them that is not on.and you ordered that Nick to enter a party officials house and steal from them

Would you send Martin to my house Nick and steal from me if I did a blog on
Collete and hannam ?

I beg you Nick get rid of Collete and hannam they have done this party no favours.
You know it and so do many good members do you really believe Sadie is a state asset?
I dont and I know Matt or Kenny arnt.

I have served you for many years Nick long before we had a security Dep,
On the Streets of Oldham,Out side the Britannia pub in Hollinwood when a certain cockney
put his face in, it was me that put myself in there with you.You didnt really know me then Nick but that was the first time I put myself on the line for you and Im glad I did for you were worth every minute of it then.The times Ive stood by your side and felt nothing but pride with reds screaming and coppers snarling and government stitch ups
and all the rest of the crap that comes with this game.

Not now Nick you have lost my respect.

with deepest regrets

Jock Shearer
No 2 BNP North West Security Dep
Oldham BNP always

Stop the BNP

BNP spreading myths to sow division — Graham Stringer MP

Stories that asylum-seekers are being given money to buy cars are all part of a BNP bid to create division, an MP is claiming.

Graham Stringer, who represents Blackley, said it was time to dispel some of the myths that have been spread by the party and other far-right bodies. He told fellow members that race relations had improved but on occasions, when there had been waves of immigrants, the nasty bottom-feeding racists had exploited the situation to spread myths.

Mr Stringer said: “One is that Oldham Council provides asylum-seekers with cheques for second-hand cars. If I have heard that once, I have heard it 10 times. It is unusual and ridiculous, but it creates resentment if people are gullible enough to believe it.”

Oldham Council said there was absolutely no truth in the myth.

Mr Stringer said people also believed that asylum seekers were being given free bus travel across Greater Manchester. He said the matter was constantly brought up at meetings he attended, adding: “A number of councillors in the area have heard the same myths and, with me, have investigated the cause of the misconception.”

The Labour MP said he had spoken to the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive which had assured him that no such scheme operated although it was aware of the stories that were circulating.

It is believed some of the myths started after people saw an asylum-seeker with special bus tickets which are not available to the public. These were issued for travel on days when the asylum-seekers had to report to one of the government centres. Transport Minister Tom Harris said payment of travel expenses was a fundamental part of the Government’s policy to encourage asylum-seekers to comply with requirements and keep in touch with the immigration and nationality directorate. It is part of national policy that people living three miles away from a centre are given help.

Mr Harris said: “Asylum-seekers are not being provided with bus passes as some people are claiming. However, it is sadly typical of the extremists of the British National Party to try to exploit the fears of ordinary people and to whip up resentment and hatred against a vulnerable group of people purely for political gain. Frankly, that is a disgraceful attitude. Given the record of the British National Party on fact and truth, I am not optimistic that the myths will stop being circulated.”

Oldham Evening Chronicle

BNP gang-rape dad in BBQ fight

A dad who brutally attacked his next-door neighbours after they asked his teenage son to leave a barbecue is today exposed as a convicted gang rapist.

Robert Bennett and his son David set upon Sarah and Gary Simister after a row over racist language. Bennett, 64, a former BNP activist, was convicted of the gang rape of two 17-year-old girls in 1976 and jailed for five years. He was in charge of dishing out leaflets for the BNP during the 2002 elections in Oldham.

His 19-year-old son had been invited to join the couple for a drink last June at their home in Staley Road, Mossley, Manchester Crown Court heard. But the neighbourly gesture backfired when the summer barbecue descended into violence.

Prosecutor Charlotte Crangle said: “An argument erupted after David began using racist language. He was asked to leave but refused and threw a punch at Mr Simister before headbutting him. Mr Simister retaliated and the pair began fighting but it was quickly broken up and David ran home.”

Seconds later he reappeared with his father, Robert. Mrs Simister was manhandled by the pair and her husband, who had gone upstairs to clean up, came racing down. They threw him on a pile of rubble in the yard and began punching and kicking him until he curled up in a ball. Mrs Simister tried to grab Robert Bennett but was punched and slapped. After a neighbour shouted she had phoned police the attack stopped and the pair fled.

Mr and Mrs Simister were treated for a broken finger and cuts and bruises.

Defending, Richard Vardon said: “Since the conviction in 1976 he has nothing of a violent nature on his record. Although it is extensive and at times troubling, one would hope the court will want to ignore that and deal with the merits of this case on its own.”

Anthony Longworth, defending David Bennett, said: “The offences were committed at a time of life he was finding difficult. He was drinking heavily after the breakdown of a relationship.”

After both men admitted affray on Tuesday, Miss Recorder Jones sentenced Robert Bennett to 150 hours unpaid work with £250 compensation. David Bennett was handed 250 hours unpaid work and told to pay £500 compensation.

Tameside Advertiser

Seeds of amity

Promoting community cohesion among the voters of tomorrow has become a priority in towns where fringe political groups are taking root

When Noma Moyo, a refugee from Zimbabwe, stands in front of a school assembly to tell her story, she always asks pupils what they think about asylum seekers. At Tong high school in Bradford, the general consensus seems to be that the words "asylum seeker" and "illegal" automatically go together.

It's a misapprehension that teacher Hayley Clacey is keen to debunk, which is one of the reasons why she has invited local charity Retas (Refugee Training and Advisory Service) to the school. Throughout the day, refugees from Russia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon will work with children and class teachers to explain why people have to flee their own countries and what life is really like for those seeking refuge in the UK.

Bradford has two BNP councillors and 17 more candidates from the party seeking election next week. This political climate is something of which the school is keenly aware. With a catchment drawn primarily from two poor, predominantly white council estates, teachers are using the freedom of their hour-a-week tutorial programme to combat racism. The workshop offered by Retas gives children who have limited experience of other cultures a chance to interact with people whom they might otherwise only learn about via the headlines of their local paper.

As the class gradually begins to realise that asylum seekers tend not to live in big fancy houses, are prohibited from getting a job rather than being workshy, live off shopping vouchers and have often had to leave their families behind or even seen relatives killed, 30-odd pairs of eyes widen and there is the occasional audible gasp.

This is the kind of initiative now being promoted in towns across the north west of England where the BNP has gained a foothold and is now seeking to expand.

Influencing the voters of tomorrow while they're still young has also become a priority in Burnley, which, together with Oldham, experienced violent race-related disturbances in the summer of 2001. Around £250m has been spent on a total overhaul of Burnley's education system, with entire schools being closed, demolished, restructured and rebuilt.

"There was definitely a problem with the way that schools were organised in this town," says Labour councillor Mark Townsend. Of three councillors in his ward, Gannow, two are BNP - including the longest serving BNP councillor in the country - and he is keenly aware of the threat to his own seat.

Because of the way school catchment areas had been set historically, he explains, Burnley's secondary schools had been either overwhelmingly white or overwhelmingly black. The white schools got good results and were oversubscribed, and the minority ethnic schools got poor ones. All this is changing, partly as a result of a report published last summer on the reasons for the disturbances.

"The county council is completely reorganising the schools, including the catchment areas, so there is a better mix of pupils," says Townsend. "Five new schools have just opened and we've got rid of all the old ones so the kids now have the chance to grow up together. The BNP are latching on to that and calling it forced integration. Of course you can never force integration, but you have to give people who would be open to that the chance to experience it."

There are also community and interfaith events being held on a regular basis to bring people together and foster understanding between various factions in the Burnley population. But as Townsend points out, "to be honest, the people who vote BNP don't go to events like that, so you've really got to start in the schools".

In Stoke-on-Trent, where the BNP has five councillors and 10 candidates standing for election this time round, Labour councillor Pervez Mohammed, who holds the community cohesion portfolio, says the council has joined forces with organisations such as NorScarf (North Staffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism) to encourage more people to make their voice heard in local elections and so dilute the effects of fringe party candidates.

"We are doing a lot of work to encourage people to vote," he explains. "We need to get the message out that not voting will not bring solutions to people's problems." In fact, he suggests, things could get worse if more members of the fringe parties get elected.

"It's also about getting people to realise what fringe parties stand for. They play on fears about issues such as housing, jobs and immigration, send out misleading information and contribute absolutely nothing. Meetings are sometimes attended but they do not normally speak at these or make any positive contribution."

A NorScarf spokesperson says that despite their door-to-door anti-racist literature drops, community meetings, awareness-raising street stalls in town centres and a variety of schools activities illustrating the evils of fasism and racism, he's concerned for Stoke's future.

"I'm not terribly optimistic at the moment. They [the BNP] have five councillors already, and the risk is there'll be more. The worry is that we'll end up like Barking and Dagenham, with a BNP opposition. I don't see any easy answers at the moment, else we'd be doing it."

It might be a long-term strategy, but back at Tong high school in Bradford, it's clear from the children's faces that the refugees' stories have sunk in. Starting to challenge opinions when children are young, before fears and misconceptions have been reinforced by prejudiced media messages, appears to be working.

Guardian

From race riots to civil war: What is the BNP preparing for?

“Welcome to Oldham, the front line of the race war,” a BNP officer told a party rally a few weeks before rioting broke out in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in summer 2001. After the riots the cover of BNP’s magazine Identity sported a map of Britain with flames indicating towns where BNP-instigated race riots had already taken place and those where the BNP was still working on it.

Since those days there has been a growing belief that the BNP was working to a secret agenda as well as its public one. Even party members are concerned at the build-up of the BNP’s private army of security guards and the large sums of money spent on their training.

After the European elections in 2004 when the BNP got 800,000 votes but no MEPs, Nick Griffin said that the party might have to consider alternatives to the ballot box. At the time this attracted no more than a ripple of interest. Clearly the BNP leader was harking back to his days running the National Front Political Soldiers faction, when he was happy to rub shoulders with extremists including terrorists of many political hues.

More recent developments add to the evidence about where the BNP might be heading if it fails to make any real breakthrough at the ballot box.

Last autumn the BNP organised its first clay pigeon shoot in Yorkshire, attended by Griffin and BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook as a fundraising and social event but also to build up a core of party members who know how to handle guns.

Then Matthew Single, a regular BNP election candidate in Essex, boasted to the local press that he had been promoted to third in Griffin’s personal security detail and claimed that he had undergone “intensive training”. He has also started training BNP activists in “anti-hijack evasive driving”. Single has twice escaped justice in the courts and was in hot water over a false entry on his election papers last May.

And last month Griffin made an interesting remark as an aside in his blog about his speaking tour of East Anglia, writing: “During the English Civil War (in due course, it will of course have to be called the First English Civil War, in order to differentiate it from the one to come) …”. Was it Griffin who inspired Robert Cottage to stockpile explosives for what he told Manchester Crown Court in February were preparation for the coming race war?

Finally, why has the BNP stated that it is especially keen to recruit serving and recently retired police and army officers?

Searchlight

Hope not Hate blog: Football healing Oldham's divisions

What a privilege to see Manchester in sunshine! A really beautiful day - great washes of sun across a bright blue sky as we headed up to the Oldham Athletic stadium at Boundary Park early this morning.

We were met by dozens of kids from a local primary school who are taking part in a special Football in the Community project and took a stadium tour with them.

Oldham's problems with racial tensions have been well covered and don't need re-hashing here, but these were a group of children from all different ethnic backgrounds, and the guy running the project, James Mwale, explained that football was a brilliant way to get different messages across.

If kids play together in teams they tend to stop noticing each others' skin colour, and once they get to know young people from other backgrounds they realise what they have in common. It challenges their ideas (or more importantly their parents' ideas). Their school is in an area where substantial numbers of votes go to the BNP in local elections which is why this work is so important. A couple of the kids said they had experienced racist bullying, but said the project was helping them to integrate with the other kids.

Anyway, the kids loved the stadium tour, and even the Man City and United supporters enjoyed meeting Oldham Athletic Centreback Neil Trottman - an FA cup goalscorer no less...!

It was fascinating to see what a football club looks like behind the scenes, the kitchens and TV rooms and a faint whiff of Eighties' aftershave lingering in the air.

After Oldham I wanted to go to Bernard Manning's Embassy Club with the loudhailer, but we were short of time and had to get right across Manchester to Salford by 11.45 to meet champion boxer and Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan at the gym he trains at. It was a much bigger gym than yesterday's and the air was thick with fresh sweat, deep heat and adrenaline. There's something good about boxing gyms though, and I think it's the contrast to posey sort of London healthclubs, which are all lycra bodysuits, blonde wood and hairdryers. These were men and women in ordinary unfancy kit sweating their guts out on battered equipment.

Amir's workout was phenomenal: the skipping alone deserved an Olympic medal. His concentration was absolute and his feet seemed to bounce in perfect time like a metronome. He has an amazing manner about him, a very direct honesty. He leapt up into the driver's cab of the bus and signed our Hope not Hate flag and spoke brilliantly to our film crew about why racism made no sense. Even racists must have cheered when he won that silver medal. He's a one-man pint-sized retort to bigotry.

After Amir, we screeched off (well crawled) to Granada Studios, home of Coronation Street, where the bus was honoured to receive such luminaries as Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh), Kelly Crabtree (Tupele Dorgu) and Jerrry Morton (Michael Starke, or, frankly, Sinbad), household favourites one and all.

Each person spoke movingly and articulately about racism, about standing up for what you believe is right. As Tony the driver said: "Who needs a script if you can talk like that?"

Brilliant end to a top day out - thank you Manchester!

Hero of the day: Amir Khan. Beautiful boy, beautiful soul, astonishing ambassador for Britain.

Observation of the day: Among anti-racists it seems the rule is that every third man must have a beard.

Beard of the day: We're not sure if it was a beard or a cat.

Revelation of the day: The Corrie stars.... soapstars should get on their soapbox more often instead of those endless bloody clipshows of the world's 7,000 worst cop shows....

Smell of the day: Deep heat at Amir Khan's gym in Salford. It was as if the walls were drenched in it.

Tune of the day: Theme from Corrie... altogether now... "duuuh, duh, duh, duh-duh, duuuuur..."

Mirror