Crime and offence

Kieron Trent and Matt Tait, part of the BNP mob
that brought violence to the streets of Barking and Dagenham

The wheels of justice often grind very slowly. A few days before polling day, David Clarke, a thuggish BNP activist, failed election fraudster and would-be Croydon councillor, was convicted on four counts of assault on anti-fascist leafleters in May last year. He had repeatedly pushed and grabbed at two campaigners and then returned two days later to swear at two others, push them and grab their leaflets.

Released on bail awaiting sentencing, he made the local press again when a female companion allegedly performed a sex act on him in full view in The George pub in Croydon, a regular BNP watering hole.

An eyewitness also connected him to a threat by a gang of local BNP activists earlier this year to cut the throat of an anti-fascist campaigner.

Election fraud is a habitual weapon in the BNP armoury. The Sunday Telegraph revealed that a number of BNP candidates for Barking and Dagenham council had placed themselves on the Electoral Register at “front” addresses in the borough when they were really living elsewhere. They included Jeffrey Marshall, the BNP’s central London organiser, Eddy Butler, a key organiser of the party’s local campaign, and Chris Roberts, a paid aide to the BNP’s London Assembly member. All three also stood in the general election, Marshall in Bethnal Green and Bow, Butler in Harlow and Roberts in Basildon South and Thurrock East.

HOPE not hate has produced many leaflets quoting the vile remarks by Marshall, who welcomed the death of David Cameron’s disabled son. That did not stop Tony Gladwin, the BNP’s parliamentary candidate in Southend West and a council candidate in Basildon. Gladwin, a regular on the East of England BNP security team, posted offensive jokes on his Facebook page ridiculing victims of the thalidomide tragedy, who suffered severe birth defects as a result of the drug.

The election campaign brought reports from several parts of the country of BNP thugs trying to run off HOPE not hate activists. Mostly they failed either because of a police presence or because trade unionists and others on the HOPE not hate teams refused to be intimidated.

The most serious incident took place in Barking the day before the election. Nick Griffin, the BNP leader and Barking parliamentary candidate, protected by car loads of Essex “BNP Security” and other thugs from further afield, clashed with local people in front of a BBC film crew. Young black and white kids shouted down the would-be MP and some Asian lads were more explicit in their threats but limited their action to lobbing a few tomatoes in his direction.

The BNP heavies responded by bundling Griffin out of the line of fruity fire and then piling into two cars to hunt the Asian youths.

BBC video footage shows the well known foulmouthed drunk and failed BNP councillor Robert Bailey leading the confrontation. They tracked down the three Asian youngsters, called them over and shouted abuse. The smallest youth faced down Bailey at which point it is clear that Bailey’s touched him twice with his hands and the youth backed away. After more shouting and Bailey telling them to get on their fucking way, the smallest youth spat at Bailey.

At this Bailey went berserk, threw him to the ground and aimed a series of kicks at him. Bailey is a former Royal Marine commando, but has clearly lost his fighting skills, probably as a result of his predilection for strong drink. He fell backwards to the ground after tripping over his victim and the kerb and his BNP colleagues rushed into battle as the two other Asian youths tried to protect their friend.


(above) BNP former councillor Robert Bailey confronts Asian youths just before viciously assaulting one of the men. (below) Questioned by Searchlight editor Nick Lowles, Nick Griffin defends Bailey’s conduct


Among the BNP group were Matt Tait, the BNP’s rich brat parliamentary candidate in Milton Keynes South, and Kieron Trent, the BNP’s only candidate for Milton Keynes council and a keen kick boxer. Both had been imported for the rough stuff and Trent is clearly visible landing blows and kicks to someone on the ground joined by a fourth BNP heavy.

As Searchlight went to press two Asian youths have been charged with assault and affray and Bailey only with assault. All have been released on police bail. It is unclear why only the Asian youths attracted the more serious charge.

There were at least two independent witnesses on the BBC film, who could help identify Trent and Tait, whose photographs we reproduce here. We will be happy to pass on their addresses if the police ask us.

At the local election count, Searchlight’s editor Nick Lowles asked Griffin whether he was happy with Bailey kicking the lad in the head. Griffin, surrounded by some of his thugs including one of those who seriously assaulted a reporter from The Times in February, tried to evade the issue, saying the young man had threatened to kill him earlier in the day. Put on the spot and in front of the media, Griffin eventually admitted that in his view kicking a man in the head while on the ground was acceptable self-defence.

In south London Cormac Hollingsworth, a HOPE not hate activist and Labour Party council candidate was leafleting when he was assaulted by a man screaming “f***ing Labour bastard”. As the thug, well known from National Front marches, rained blows on Cormac and kicked him while on the ground, Cormac captured a photo of his attacker on his mobile phone, enabling us to find a better photo of the same man. The matter is in the hands of the police.

Like rats with their backs to the wall, BNP activists, in-between fighting each other, are likely to seek more revenge for their abject failure at the ballot box.

Searchlight

Multi-tasking the BNP way

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

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

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

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

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

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

I wouldn't put money on it however.

News from Barking and Dagenham

Who’s ugly and nasty?

ONE FOR THE ROAD: Boozy Bailey beers it up with his mates at a fascist festival last year

Robert Bailey, leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham council, thinks that Times journalists are "ugly and nasty".

Speaking to the Romford and Havering Post to defend the violent ejection of a Times reporter from a BNP meeting on 14 February, Bailey said: "A lot of people that work for The Times are very ugly and nasty".

The meeting, in an insalubrious pub in Elm Park, Hornchurch, voted to allow non-whites to join the BNP, but made other constitutional changes to ensure that they could never gain any power in the organisation.

Bailey, who is also the BNP's London organiser and has a drink driving conviction, is known for shouting abuse at a woman journalist through a loud hailer outside the offices of the Ilford Recorder.

Hope not hate

Griffin ditches North West to launch parliamentary campaign

Nick Griffin has lost interest in being a Member of the European Parliament and has abandoned the people of North West England who voted for him

Speaking a few days after the British National Party leader announced he would be standing in Barking in the general election, Simon Darby, the BNP deputy leader, said: “Nick believes he should be an MP in Westminster and not in the European Parliament”.

Darby was only confirming what was already clear: that Griffin has little concern for his North West of England constituency. While the people of Cumbria were suffering the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in England and even Griffin’s own publicly funded staff were worried that the roof of their new constituency office might blow off, Griffin went on a walkabout in his east London target seat, followed by a trip to Spain.

His actions have exposed him as the same type of power-hungry politician that he always accuses MPs from the three main parties of being.

Griffin claimed he had chosen Barking because it was the party’s best chance of winning a parliamentary seat. Yet only a few days before he announced his candidacy, at the party’s annual conference in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on 15 November, he had appealed for donations to launch the party’s “run-up campaign to the general election” with the promise: “In this next General Election I will be standing in Thurrock where the split vote between the old parties means we could win a Parliamentary seat with just 27% of the vote”.

Griffin had launched his campaign on a lie, as Searchlight quickly pointed out. Perhaps he thought donors were more likely to fund a campaign where the party’s target was 27% – and would overlook the improbability that such a low percentage could win them the seat – than an attempt to oust a government minister in a safe Labour seat.

Excuses followed in an attempt to cover up the blunder. Both Griffin and Darby claimed Griffin had been lured to Barking at the request of the party’s local councillors and members. Griffin also linked his decision with the party’s attempt to take over Barking and Dagenham in the May 2010 council election, which is likely to coincide with the general election, claiming his parliamentary campaign would enhance the council campaign.

And the party quickly issued a second fundraising letter from which all references to Thurrock had been expunged.

The BNP has 12 councillors in Barking and Dagenham, the largest BNP council group in the country. They have largely been ineffective against the huge Labour majority and many of them rarely attend meetings.

According to Griffin, the council campaign will be spearheaded by Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member, who is currently appealing against his suspension from Barking and Dagenham council for bringing his office into disrepute by inventing a series of murders in the borough. Robert Bailey, the BNP’s leader on Barking and Dagenham council and the party’s London organiser, appears to have been sidelined.

Barnbrook’s wider ambitions have also been swept aside. At the end of September he rented a huge billboard by the side of the A406 in Barking, at great expense, to announce that it was “Barnbrook for Barking”. On his blog he proclaimed: “I, Richard Barnbrook am going to be Barking’s next MP! I’m the candidate for the British National Party …”. Lying that he had lived in the constituency for six years, he pleaded: “Back me, Richard Barnbrook, Barking’s next MP”.

Announcing his takeover of the Barking candidacy, Griffin paid tribute to Barnbrook. Acknowledging that Barnbrook had been the BNP’s prospective candidate – in an attempt to quash a widespread rumour that Barnbrook had claimed the role unilaterally – Griffin said: “You have made a most noble gesture Richard, and on behalf of the membership of our Party I would like to thank you”.

Barnbrook has not gone away without a consolation prize: he will be leader of Barking and Dagenham council if the BNP takes control of the borough. The fact that it would be up to the BNP councillors to choose the leader is presumably no barrier. If the new councillors are anything like the present lot, they will play little part in any council business.

Bailey too will not go away empty-handed. Griffin said that Barnbrook would give up his post as a London Assembly member if the party seized control of the borough. It would pass to Bailey, who was second on the BNP’s list of candidates in the 2008 election.

Before turning up in Barking on 19 November, Griffin had spent the morning in Grays, Essex, where he announced that he was handing the candidacy for Thurrock to Emma Colgate, the BNP’s local councillor. Colgate holds the balance of power on Thurrock council, which is split between Labour and the Conservatives, and used it to keep what another councillor described as a “dysfunctional Tory group” in power.

Colgate has been the BNP’s national administration officer since June. Before that she was Barnbrook’s researcher, employed at London taxpayers’ expense. She remains on the public payroll, however, as she is one of several BNP senior officers on the EU gravy train as staff for the two MEPs.

Despite Griffin’s optimism about the party’s prospects in Thurrock, she faces a difficult job. In the 2005 general election, the BNP candidate, Nick Geri, came fourth with 5.8% of the vote. Colgate herself stood in Basildon in 2005, where she came fourth with 4.8%.

Barking too will be a hard nut for the BNP to crack, which is why Griffin has said the party will spend the maximum legally allowed – several times more than it has ever spent in a single constituency.

Griffin will not have helped his campaign with his disparaging remarks about London after his disastrous performance on the BBC’s Question Time on 22 October, when he claimed the programme should not have been filmed in London because the city was “no longer British”.

Nor will his abandonment of his MEP’s role endear him to voters, who will think Griffin will only stick around until something better comes along.

Griffin’s Spanish jaunt on 21 November was also hardly how an aspiring MP should behave. Griffin was in Madrid as a special guest speaker at a rally of the far-right National Democracy party held to commemorate the death on 20 November 1975 of the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco. Also there was Griffin’s old friend and political mentor Roberto Fiore, the convicted former leader of the terrorist Armed Revolutionary Nuclei, the Italian group involved in the 1980 Bologna bombing.

The event resulted in 28 arrests of members of a rival far-right group, the Patriotic Socialist Movement, after they attacked doormen who were trying to stop them entering the hotel where the rally was taking place.

Not only did Griffin attend the fascist rally, “he may also have made a private visit to Franco’s tomb on his trip to Spain,” according to a BNP spokesman though Griffin later denied it.

Griffin has not, however, totally ignored the flooding in Cumbria. Between his trips to Barking and Madrid he asked Martin Wingfield, his constituency communications and campaigns officer, for a briefing. Griffin wants to help, said Wingfield, who would be offered Griffin’s seat as an MEP were Griffin to get elected in Barking. Griffin would consider offering his “English Fair Fund to support any local projects helping the stricken community,” Wingfield added.

Residents, at least the “indigenous ones”, will be relieved. Griffin’s so-called English Fair Fund is the 10% of his MEP’s salary that he promised during his European election campaign to give for “local community use”. That’s around £700 a month starting from 14 July, Griffin’s first day of work as an MEP, plus the income from selling Nick Griffin MEP commemorative cards printed for the BNP’s Red, White and Blue summer festival for £4.50 each.

That will go a long way. At the same time the BNP has poured scorn on the government’s announcement of £1 million in flood aid to Cumbria and cynically exploited people’s suffering as a means of attacking the government’s foreign aid budget.

Griffin’s candidacy in Barking and the BNP’s previous success in Barking and Dagenham have put the borough in the front line in HOPE not hate’s campaign against the BNP in the coming elections. The campaign will concentrate on getting voters to know exactly who Griffin is and persuading them to come out and vote against him.

Searchlight

British National Party launches general election campaign with a lie

Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, revealed [yesterday] that he would be contesting the Barking constituency, east London, in the next general election. He made his announcement in front of television cameras on the last day of his party’s annual conference in Wigan, Greater Manchester, over the weekend of 14-15 November.

Yet a few days ago, in an appeal for donations to launch the party’s “run-up campaign to the general election”, he wrote: “In this next General Election I will be standing in Thurrock where the split vote between the old parties means we could win a Parliamentary seat with just 27% of the vote”.

No candidate may stand in more than one constituency at a general election. So Griffin must have been lying, either in the begging letter or at the party’s conference.

Potential donors to the fascist party should note that this would not be the first time the BNP has lied in a fundraising appeal. The party claimed to have bought its “truth truck”, an advertising lorry, last year after a successful appeal to supporters to raise the £26,550 needed. Yet when bailiffs tried to enforce a county court judgment against the BNP, the party claimed it did not own the vehicle.

It was in Thurrock that Griffin held his first press conference after his disastrous performance in Question Time on 22 October. Claiming that the programme should not have been filmed in London, because the city was “no longer British”, he said: “Why not come down and do it in Thurrock …?”

Griffin linked his new choice of Barking for the general election with the party’s attempt to take over Barking and Dagenham council in the May 2010 elections. The party currently has 12 councillors there, the largest BNP council group in the country. The party has largely been ineffective against the huge Labour majority and many of its representatives rarely attend meetings.

According to Griffin, the council campaign will be spearheaded by Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s sole London Assembly member, who is currently appealing against his suspension from the council for bringing his office into disrepute by inventing a series of murders in the borough. Robert Bailey, the BNP’s leader on Barking and Dagenham council and the party’s London organiser, appears to have been sidelined.

Barnbrook’s wider ambitions have also been swept aside. At the end of September he rented a huge billboard by the side of the A406 in Barking, at great expense, to announce that it was “Barnbrook for Barking”. On his blog he explained in no uncertain terms: “I, Richard Barnbrook am going to be Barking’s next MP! I’m the candidate for the British National Party …”. Lying that he had lived in the constituency for six years, he proclaimed: “Back me, Richard Barnbrook, Barking’s next MP”.

Griffin and Barnbook campaigned side by side apparently without animosity in the recent Glasgow North East parliamentary by-election. How Griffin bought Barnbrook out is not known.

Nick Lowles, editor of Searchlight, said Griffin’s decision to stand, coupled with the BNP’s prior local success in the area, made Barking “the front line” of efforts to combat the party’s rise. “It’s going to be difficult for him to win, but they have got a lot of councillors so we can’t be complacent,” he said.

“There have been some demographic changes since the last election which could limit the BNP’s success in Barking. But a lot depends on getting people out to vote, so it’s vital we let the people of Barking know exactly who Nick Griffin is.”

Hope not hate

BNP candidate banned from driving after refusing breath test

A senior British National Party member was disqualified from driving today after being found guilty of refusing to take a police breathalyser test.

Robert Bailey, 43, of Chadwell Heath, Essex, said he refused to cooperate with officers because he believed they were part of a politically inspired conspiracy acting upon "a higher order".

Havering Magistrates Court, in Romford, Essex, heard Bailey was arrested after being spotted by officers driving along London Road in the town without his lights on at around 11.15pm on May 28. He twice failed to give a proper breath sample at the roadside and then when taken back to Romford Police Station he refused to make another attempt, the court was told. Traffic officers reported smelling drink on his breath and CCTV footage from the station was shown to the court.

Bailey, who was a BNP candidate for London in this year's European elections, refused to speak when asked if he had had a drink. He was warned that refusing to take the breath test could lead to prosecution and was seen on the footage replying: "I'm not going to do that."

The former Royal Marine, originally from Scunthorpe, told the court he believed he was being set up because of his political beliefs. He said: "Well, I spent 14 years in the Marines and spent a good part of this working with the security forces and I know how the system operates."

He added that he believed he was under surveillance because of his political activities and that his phone and house had been bugged. He said: "It adds to my belief it is a conspiracy against me, my party and the indigenous people of this country."

Prosecutor Adebayor Kareem accused him of refusing to take a breath test because it would have shown up that he was drunk behind the wheel. Bailey told the court he had only had one drink earlier in the day but was tired from his election work and had been taking tablets to help him sleep. He said he normally drove a Volvo whose lights come on automatically and he had not realised he was driving without lights. He said: "I dispute strongly that my speech was slurred, that I was drunk and I was unsteady on my feet."

Chris Sweetman, defending Bailey, said his client had a possible personality disorder which made him suspicious of the police and refuse to cooperate with them. He added that Bailey had suffered from depression in the past as well, which may have made him paranoid.

District Judge John Wollard said: "I have heard nothing which establishes in my view that this defendant had a reasonable excuse on medical grounds."

He found him guilty of failing to provide a specimen and fined him £275, ordered him to pay costs of £200, a victim's surcharge of £15 and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.

The Independent

Note: According to those in the know it was the court-appointed doctor who stated that Bailey was suffering from paranoid delusions and possibly a personality disorder and not, as the Independent states, Bailey's defence team.

BNP councillor's 'fascist' outburst at vicar

The leader of Barking and Dagenham's BNP group has made a new outburst, this time against one of the borough's most respected clergymen.

Cllr Bob Bailey called Rev Roger Gayler, vicar of St Mark's, Rose Lane, Marks Gate, a fascist for getting involved in politics. Mr Gayler took the unusual step of having 2,000 anti-BNP leaflets printed ahead of Thursday's council by-election in Chadwell Heath.

Cllr Bailey - who last month warned Barking College principal Ted Parker against hosting anti-racism events and before May's London Assembly elections, launched a tirade of abuse at Recorder staff - argued with the vicar three days before the by-election.

Mr Gayler, who received Barking and Dagenham's highest distinction, the Freedom of the Borough, last year, told the Recorder: "He said this is against the democratic process. I said, 'No, this is about the democratic process - we're all free to express our opinion'. Then he called me a fascist and threw the leaflet. I find it rather amazing he called me a fascist. I thought it was interesting. It shows, as far as I'm concerned, the man was rattled and what we were doing was reasonably effective."

Cllr Bailey said he had had a conversation with Mr Gayler on his doorstep and did not deny he had referred to him as "a fascist".

He told the Recorder: "He shouldn't interfere with politics. He should concentrate on what his church is there for, which is ministering to his people. There are enough people that need help, without delving into politics.

Barking and Dagenham Recorder

It's no surprise that the BNP's rise and New Labour's demise are linked

The ruling party failed to make the case against racism and xenophobia, pandering instead of standing on principle

On Wednesday evening around 7pm, the Reverend Roger Gayler, vicar of St Marks parish, went to answer a knock on the door. It was the night before the Chadwell Heath byelection for Barking and Dagenham council in Greater London, and Gayler had recently written an open letter to his flock.

"I rarely enter the party political arena and do so very reluctantly, but as a matter of Christian principle I feel this time I must," he wrote. "The [British National party] would divide our community, spread fear through lies, and reduce services to those in our community who most need them (they proposed huge cuts in services for the elderly and young people in their budget). They preach the politics of hate."

The man at the door was Robert Bailey, BNP leader on the council. He was clearly agitated. "He asked me whether I'd written it," recalls Gayler. "I said 'yes'."

"This goes against the democratic process," said Bailey.

"It's all part of the democratic process," replied Gayler.

"You're just a fascist," said Bailey, and then scrumpled the letter and threw it at the vicar.

"There was no shouting or screaming but it was obviously a visit from a very rattled person," says Gayler.

The next evening, in Dagenham's council chamber, a multiracial team of council workers tallied the votes. The BNP had 12 seats on the council and was hoping this would be their 13th. In the end, a seat vacated by Labour was won by the Tories by a comfortable margin. Nothing strange there. The BNP candidate came third with 25% of the vote in a ward the party had never contested before. Sadly, there seemed to be nothing strange there either.

Terry Justice, the Tory victor, said he looked forward to working with all his fellow councillors. When I asked Margaret Mullane, the Labour candidate, what she made of the size of the BNP vote, she said: "You'll have to ask the BNP about that really." Leaving Dagenham civic centre, with the clock nudging closer to midnight, I felt I was heading back to the 30s.

Bailey is not the only one who should be feeling rattled. True, under the circumstances, the fact that they didn't win could be regarded as a victory. But those circumstances are dire.

The BNP's advances have been spotty - still limited to particular towns and regions. But over the last decade those spots have become larger and more widespread. Back in 1993, its gain of a single council seat in London's Tower Hamlets produced a brief, but intense, moment of national introspection. Today it has more than 50 councillors in around 20 councils plus a member of the London assembly. By increments it has become an accepted, if contested, fact of British municipal life.

For all the talk of Islamo-fascism - that desperately belligerent phrase that some hurl about in the hope that it may one day land on a coherent meaning - plain old-fashioned fascism is the force truly making gains. Elsewhere in Europe, where the far right runs councils and holds cabinet seats, things are far worse. In Italy, the state recently started fingerprinting Gypsies, along with a promise to take Gypsy children not attending school into custody. In Switzerland, the far right is in government. In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy, hard-right, nationalist and anti-immigrant parties regularly receive more than 10% of the vote. In Norway, it is more than twice that; in Switzerland, the figure it is almost three times as much.

If our Enlightenment values really are under threat, then the primary challenge seems to be domestic - and far more familiar and entrenched than some would have us believe. This is not a handful of young, nihilist men with backpacks - it is marginalised communities with ballot papers.
None of this denies or excuses the rise in jihadism. Indeed, it is not only possible to make an effective stand against either by recognising the potency of both. The "tolerant, liberal" society that immigrants - particularly Muslims - are being told to join has long been eroding. While multiculturalism has been under assault, nostalgic visions of a mythological monoculture have been given a new lease of life.

Just as there is more to racism in Britain than the BNP, the BNP's rise tells us more about Britain than just racism. It is a canary in the mine - an early warning system signalling the complacency of our political culture in which our political class has been complicit. Trapped in a hopeless spiral of negativity, people will vote against anything - immigration, the Tories, Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Scottish nationalism, Gordon Brown or Europe, to name a few. But it seems a long time since large numbers of people voted for anything.

So the fact that the BNP has performed best in Labour strongholds should come as no surprise. Its rise and New Labour's demise are linked. The government is failing even on its own modest terms. Child poverty and pensioner poverty are up. Economic inequality is now greater than under the Tories. Inflation is rising, house prices falling, and last week workers were again asked to tighten their belts. Never mind no return to boom and bust - many feel like they are about to crash and burn. People are desperate.

There is nothing inevitable about this shift from despondency to demagoguery. Black and Asian people are overrepresented among the poor and vulnerable, and they aren't voting for the BNP. Nor are the overwhelming majority of white working-class people. Nonetheless, the trend has always been likely and logical. A party that has its historical roots and electoral base in the working class and then fails to advance the interests of that class will engender cynicism. New Labour's electoral project is based in no small measure on the calculation that the poor have nowhere else to go. A small but determined minority have retreated into their laagers in search of solutions and solace.

However, New Labour's decision to follow them there made no sense, either morally or strategically. Following the strong showing of the BNP in Burnley, Anthony Giddens, the architect of the third way, spoke of being "tough on immigration and tough on the causes of hostility to immigrants". Tony Blair prioritised "crime and social behaviour" and "immigration and asylum".

But these populist responses hold no sustainable answers to the particular and urgent material needs of the white working class. Incarcerating asylum seekers or bashing the niqab built no houses, created no jobs and educated no children. That does not, in itself, necessarily make them wrong - but as a response to the concerns of Labour's base they were worse than useless. New Labour's legislative shortcomings made a BNP revival possible; the government's rhetorical excesses made it electorally palatable.

Given its huge majority, Labour could have made the case against racism and xenophobia. But rather than stand on principle, it has preferred to pander. Having ducked the major challenges, it has left it to the likes of Rev Roger Gayler to literally face the consequences of the failure head on.

Comment is free

BNP councillor threatens college

A top BNP councillor warned a college principal "there would be trouble" if he continued hosting anti-racism events, it has been claimed.

Robert Bailey, leader of the BNP on Barking and Dagenham Council - who, in the run-up to the London Assembly elections launched a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse at Recorder staff - had a face-off with Barking College principal Ted Parker on Monday, just hours before the college held a Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) event at its Dagenham Road, Dagenham campus.

According to Mr Parker, the Alibon ward councillor ordered him to stop hosting such events, or there would be "problems" from BNP members at the college.

Mr Parker told the Recorder: "He was perfectly civil but he was obviously agitated. He seemed to be saying our students were in danger. As he left he said 'you have been warned', which sort of stuck it my mind. I thought it was a little strange. We have been involved with LMHR for a couple of years now. We oppose racism and promote harmony between people of all backgrounds, that's our ethos."

Mr Bailey denied he had threatened the college principal with possible trouble.

He said: "There will be no trouble from BNP people. We don't cause problems. They come from the far-left. I would urge the college to stop holding these events. LMHR stir up trouble and hatred and animosity wherever they go, that's what they do. They are a front group for the Labour Party and the far-left. I respect the college as a place of learning and people should be able to speak freely without fear. But once you start bringing in groups with a political agenda, it causes divisions and problems."

Mr Parker, who is retiring from his post in August, said he told the BNP councillor during their impromptu 15-minute discussion that the college would continue to host events with LMHR.

Weyman Bennett, LMHR organiser and national joint secretary for Unite Against Fascism, said: "I think that it should be investigated. It's bully boy tactics. We see this as an insult to the students who have been holding anti-fascist events in the college for years."

LMHR members visited the college to gather support for a rally being held today (Thurs) at City Hall, central London, against the BNP's London Assembly member, Cllr Richard Barnbrook - who is Cllr Bailey's deputy on Barking and Dagenham Council.

Bunny La Roche, of LMHR, said: "We feel the BNP doesn't represent London at all. The reason we have a demo is that there's an absolute anger in London and the country about the fact the BNP have got a seat.

Barking and Dagenham Recorder

'Nazi' jibe BNP man says sorry

A senior BNP councillor issued a grovelling apology today after he had launched a foul mouthed attack on a Recorder reporter, branding her a "Nazi".

Cllr Robert Bailey, deputy leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council, yesterday launched the unprovoked verbal assault on news editor Sally Lowe, complaining that the Recorder had not given the party a fair crack of the whip in its coverage of the London Assembly elections.

The phone call, peppered with four letter words and in which Cllr Bailey called Miss Lowe a "jobsworth", was followed by the councillor turning up at the Recorder's High Road, Ilford offices with a group of party colleagues. After spending 20 minutes shouting incomprehensively through a megaphone, the far right party members were moved on by a police community support officer.

Despite a BNP spokesman defending Cllr Bailey's outburst saying they "wouldn't blame him because of the way that paper behaved", he contacted the news desk this morning and profusely apologised to Miss Lowe.

"He said he had seen the article on the internet yesterday and said he wanted to apologise for some of what he said," said Miss Lowe.

"He added: 'I am not a yob, I'm not a thug or anything barely resembling anything like that. I was a little bit disappointed and I'm sorry for some of the things I said to you. We all have our moments sometimes, I'm sure you agree."

Recorder editor Chris Carter also spoke to Cllr Bailey - who is a candidate for the London Assembly - and accepted his apology, but insisted he may still pursue the complaint to the Standards Board of England.

"I cannot ignore the fact Robert Bailey is supposed to be an elected member of the council, and yet when he doesn't get things his own way he behaves like a yob."

The incident was followed by Barking and Dagenham BNP leader Cllr Richard Barnbrook failing to turn up for an interview yesterday evening with BBC Radio London.

Ilford Recorder

Give us a lift, Jace

After last weekend’s fiasco in Havering the BNP have turned their attention to Redbridge once again. Yes that’s the borough whose solitary BNP councillor Julian Leppert fled to Loughton soon after he was elected.

The weekend’s effort towards the party’s London Assembly election campaign is being organised by Councillor Robert Bailey, deputy to the BNP’s Mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook on Barking and Dagenham Council. Bailey seems to have trouble finding his way around Redbridge. He has told his minions to assemble outside Snaresbrook tube station in High Street, Redbridge, at 11am on the Saturday and Sunday of the Easter weekend. This is odd as there is no such place as High Street, Redbridge. Well it’s a long way from Algiers, which Bailey knows much better than Redbridge or even Barking and Dagenham.

He personally should not have trouble finding the BNP’s rendezvous point as he can avail himself of the services of Jason Douglas, football thug and cab driver, who has done “the knowledge” so should know his way around. That’s if he still has his cab driver’s licence after last weekend when he used his taxi to stalk two young women. Actually we wonder how he got his licence in the first place, with at least two convictions under his belt for violence connected to football.

Still, the BNP should feel at home in the shadow of Snaresbrook Crown Court, where Tony “the mad bomber” Lecomber received his second three-year prison sentence. That one was not for bombs but for beating up, together with five of his mates, a young Jewish school teacher at another local tube station, Gants Hill.

We expect we’ll be paying more on our council tax bills for the cost of the council washing down the streets after the BNP leaves.

Stop the BNP

More embarrassment for the Barking barnstormer

Richard Barnbrook, the British National Party’s leader on Barking and Dagenham Council, seems to think that incurable and often fatal industrial diseases are a bit of a joke.

Councillors at last month’s full council meeting were asked to approve a site for a permanent memorial to the many local victims of asbestos. Barking and Dagenham has one of the country’s highest incidences of asbestos-related diseases because of the former Cape Asbestos factory in the borough. Many of the people who contracted asbestosis or mesothelioma were wives of workers who washed their husbands’ overalls.

The proposal for a memorial arose from a petition from local people, led by the Barking and Dagenham Asbestosis Victims’ Support Group and the trade union Unison. Councillors had been given a report in advance of the meeting and at the meeting the council’s Corporate Director of Customer Services outlined the background explaining that it had cost £1.2 million to make the area safe and that a memorial would cost £3,500 to £5,000.

Up jumped Barnbrook, who has ambitions to become the BNP’s first London Assembly member. Admitting he had not read the report he asked, 'How much exactly has it cost to make safe the area and how much would the memorial cost?'

Being reminded that he had just been told this angered him and he continued: 'This factory was demolished in 1968. I was born in 1961 so it closed when I was nine years of age'. He went on to make some insensitive and uninformed remarks about how long the project had taken, finally adding, 'If you’re going to make it one of those dancing lady memorials, may I suggest it is in the image of Simone Clarke [his girl friend who became known as the BNP ballerina last December] as she is a dancing lady too...erm, um, er, that was a joke by the way...'.

This prompted Labour Councillor Jean Alexander, who has relatives who contracted asbestosis, to explode with rage. Her taunts that the BNP councillors were 'Johnny come latelys' in turn angered BNP Councillor Robert Bailey, which led to Labour’s Liam Smith telling him to 'sit down and shut up'. Bailey then erupted with personal insults.

Bailey and Smith, standing in as Leader of the Council, clashed again during question time after Bailey asked whether the Labour Party thought it was a good thing that 'the white indigenous British people of Barking and Dagenham' would be a minority in ten years’ time.

Pressed on the meaning of 'indigenous' Bailey eventually responded, 'White and British', at which Smith reeled off a list of famous Irish people – Lord Kitchener, Montgomery and Nelson – who 'came to defend England in her hour of need'.

Moving on to another of the BNP’s obsessions, crime, Barnbrook claimed that knife crime in his ward was up six-fold this year. 'I refer you to the stabbings at Becontree station'.

'Becontree station is not in your ward', retorted Smith. 'Oh' said Barnbrook.

With this sort of performance perhaps it is just as well that the BNP’s Barking and Dagenham councillors do not turn up very often. The best are Barnbrook and Lawrence Rustem, who attended 69% of their allocated meetings between 16 May and 27 September according to council records. Among the others, Councillor Jamie Jarvis turned up at just three of the 12 meetings he should have attended and Councillors Ronald Doncaster and Darren Tuffs went to three out of nine expected meetings.

Although Barnbrook attends more meetings than his colleague Councillor Robert Buckley, it is Buckley who puts in the most time on ward casework. There is growing acrimony between the two and many BNP members in London were surprised and annoyed when Barnbrook was selected as the BNP’s candidate in next year’s London mayoral election. They were prepared to put up with it on the basis that a BNP mayoral candidate could achieve little more than show the party’s face in the election, that is until it emerged that Barnbrook would also head the BNP’s list for the London Assembly. All he needs is 5% of the vote across London to become the BNP’s first Assembly member, a percentage that the party nearly achieved last time round in 2004.