Another Thursday

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

There were eight by-elections on October 2nd, and once again they brought little cheer for the BNP's increasingly downhearted and empty-pocketed membership.

In Oswestry, Swale (Kent), Taunton and Leominster the electorate were happily spared the attentions of the BNP. In the Witham West ward of Braintree Council they had a lucky escape when the newest BNP celebrity candidate, "somebody whose late father used to be on the telly", decided not to fly their flag after all.

Their headline performance was in Bourne, Lincolnshire. This was a ward in which they probably entertained some hopes of a good performance for several reasons:

1. their Lincolnshire organisation seems (by their own pretty low standards!) to be a reasonably active and almost competent operation;
2. as a small market town, with a strong local civic tradition now subsumed into a larger district and even larger county authority, it might be expected to have a demographic that might be favourable (as seen in places like Melton Mowbray or Leek - which elected a BNP councillor this May);
3. when last contested (2005) it was a straight Tory-Labour fight, with only a moderate Conservative majority. This time there were seven candidates, and the prospect of even a modest share of the vote being enough for victory;
4. there was an energetic BNP campaign effort with three leaflets being delivered to most properties. The Conservatives aside, it is unlikely that any of the other parties saw this as a winnable seat, and their campaigns were probably limited.

But the BNP performance saw them gain just 13% of the vote (239 votes). The Conservatives held comfortably (760), with an Independent second (355). The BNP will make much of their having beaten (just) Labour and the Lib Dems (202 & 198), and of UKIP trailing in last with 41 votes - just 2.2%. But given the circumstances of the by-election this really wasn't a good result from their perspective.

Elsewhere they did even worse. In the Kirkleatham ward of Redcar & Cleveland Unitary Authority they took just 5.8% as the Lib Dems gained the seat from Labour with a huge swing. And in the West Ruislip ward of Hillingdon London Borough we saw the BNP and the National Front going head to head. The former took 4.3%, the latter 2.0%.

Another bad day at the office for the BNP.

There's one other point worth making. Turnouts in local by-elections can vary enormously, sometimes above 50% in keenly-contested bouts and dropping to around 10% on other occasions. Under such circumstances it can be instructive to calculate percentage share of the electorate in addition to percentage share of the vote. Applying this to this week's results (and combining the far-right vote in Ruislip) gives:

Bourne 2.73%
Kirkleatham 2.13%
Ruislip 2.03%

It seems to me (and further research may be worthwhile) that across much of the country there is a 2-3% share of the electorate which inclines to the far-right. This is in accord with such polling as manages to identify BNP support at all! And this "core vote" of far-right support will generally turn out if a BNP candidate is offered. If this is correct, and if the figures aren't skewed by the media/commentators "talking up" the BNP in 2009 in the way that UKIP was "talked up" in 2004, then there is a stark message for next year's Euro elections.

If the BNP's core vote is 3% of the electorate, and the turnout is 40% - they get 7.5% of the vote and MEPs are very unlikely.

But if the turnout is only 30% they get 10% - and a BNP MEP or two becomes a distinct possibility.

If the turnout falls to 25% - they get 12%...

BNP could win Euro seat, warns Cruddas

The far-right BNP is exploiting the economic crisis and is close to winning seats in the European Parliament for the first time, Labour's Jon Cruddas warned today.

In his first interview since being appointed by Gordon Brown to lead Labour's campaign against the extremist fringe, he said there was a real danger of the BNP getting an MEP elected in next June's elections.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, the Dagenham MP said there was also a danger the BNP could make major gains in local elections on the back of public anxiety about the economy.

"They feed off a sense of alienation and exploit any policy vacuum," he said. "Their appeal is strongest whenever there is a sense of a scramble around limited resources. There is a real fear the credit crunch will bear down on jobs and pay, push up unemployment and intensify competition for scarce resources, and that that will create a more fertile ground for the BNP to operate in."

Mr Cruddas was so concerned about the BNP threat that he turned down a ministerial job offered to him by the Prime Minister on Saturday. His decision surprised some MPs and some have speculated that he is keeping his distance from Mr Brown in order to stand in future as a Labour leadership candidate. Asked if he could rule himself out of a leadership contest, he replied: "There was all sorts of speculation about leadership a few weeks ago but I think it has been put to bed now. The underlying theme after conference, and because of the economy, is unity. Any speculation is more unfounded than usual though no one can anticipate what will happen down the line."

Keeping his options firmly open, he added: "I think that speculation has gone away for quite a while."

Mr Cruddas also claimed the party was content with the reshuffle - including the return of Peter Mandelson. "I do not detect a great deal of hostility to Peter Mandelson coming in," he said. "He has a lot of experience and there's quite a lot of support for bringing back some of the old hands."

The weekend reshuffle was the second time he has turned down a frontbench job since coming third in last year's Labour deputy leadership contest.

Mr Cruddas has won the Prime Minister's backing for a campaign to fight back against the far-Right in areas such as his own where the BNP has made gains that culminated in Richard Barnbrook winning the first BNP seat on the London Assembly.

Mr Cruddas is this week meeting deputy leader Harriet Harman to discuss how Labour should react and is planning strategy talks with the trade unions. The regional list system introduced for the European elections give all smaller parties a bigger chance of winning seats, including the BNP.

Evening Standard

Fascist meeting disrupted

East London BNP - not welcome in East London

News reaches us that the re-launch of the East London BNP group got off to a less than successful start today. After what can only be described as a gathering of the Darby and Joan club, the assembled geriatrics met at the Salmon and Ball pub on the corner of Bethnal Green Road. This it turns out was just the re-direction point as it soon became clear that the grey-haired security team we're shepherding the old folk a mere one hundred meters away to a church hall opposite! Well done on the planning there people!

A quick call to the church uncovered that the poor old vicar had no idea his hall was being used by the fascist filth as it had been booked by a 'book club', that old chestnut! The 'Vic' assured the concerned caller that he had spoken to the encamped knuckle draggers and told them that they would have to leave as God was none too happy with their choice of politics. The police arrived soon after and encouraged the somewhat downhearted oldies to leave as they were no longer welcome. They had been inside for little over an hour which we believe would have given them very little time to re-launch their sad little group.

As the gaunt and the grey hoard Shuffled out from the hall in single file the anti fascist gathering (that had by now swelled to twice the size) decided to let the fascists know how welcome they really were. As one group followed the main body of fascists up the road, closely followed by the police, a smaller group went over to have a 'chat' with five or six 'men' still stood outside the hall.

They were told in no uncertain terms that they were not wanted in East London and that they would be hounded at every opportunity. The aryan brothers were strangely quiet and the look on their faces said it all.

All in all a pretty good day for anti-fascists with plenty of photo opportunities and a fascist meeting stopped! The old heads of the East London BNP including the likes of Derek Beacon and Richard Edmonds must tonight be scratching their shiney domes wondering what went wrong. Maybe stick to taking the old folk out to bingo in future eh chaps!

Thanks to apple123 at Indymedia

Armed racist Ellis Hammond's police links 'kept from court'

The Metropolitan police have been accused of withholding the fact that a racist fanatic prosecuted for stockpiling illegal weapons was one of their own officers.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), officers failed to disclose in a prosecution dossier that Ellis Hammond was a serving police community support officer (PCSO) after he had been found with a cache of arms including a CS spray, a stun gun, combat knives, a knuckleduster and a replica AK-47. He was also a member of the far-right British National party (BNP) and had a collection of racist literature.

Hammond, who had lied about his BNP membership on joining the police, was given a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to two firearms charges when he appeared at Bexley magistrates’ court in March. After his arrest in December last year he was also permitted to resign his post rather than face disciplinary procedures.

Largely because Hammond’s connections with the police were not publicised, the court case was not attended by any media. The Sunday Times did, however, report on the case shortly afterwards and the lightness of the sentence given out to Hammond led to further inquiries being made by the Independent Advisory Group, which oversees the force’s handling of race issues.

In a letter to an IAG member, Nazir Afzal, the director of the CPS for south London, confirmed: “The prosecutor presented all the relevant information available at the time to the magistrates’ court. This did not include any reference to the fact that the defendant was a PCSO at the time of the offences as those details were not disclosed on the prosecution file when submitted to the CPS by the police.”

A CPS spokeswoman added: “We would have used the information if we had had it. It is fair to say it would have been helpful.”

A member of Hammond’s family said: “The Met have been very good about this. They gave Ellis the option to resign, which was good because if he had been dismissed it would have been on his CV. There were people from the Met at court to support him, which was nice too.”

The matter has now become the subject of an internal police investigation. Although a CPS lawyer was told of Hammond’s police role at the time of his being charged, that fact was apparently later omitted from the prosecution file, which was processed by a different CPS official. A Met spokesman said: “We are aware of the CPS’s comments and are looking at the issues involved. But we did inform them prior to the trial that he [Hammond] had been a PCSO at the time of the offences being committed.”

Sunday Times

Academic Senate Condemns Professor Kevin MacDonald’s Anti-Semitic Research

In an important decision, the Academic Senate representing the faculty of California State University, Long Beach, voted overwhelmingly Oct. 2 in favor of a resolution to disassociate the university from the anti-Semitic and racist views of Psychology Professor Kevin MacDonald. This decision follows the posting of similar statements of disassociation from MacDonald’s work by CSULB’s Jewish Studies, History and Psychology departments. Though his research has never been publicly condemned by CSULB’s President F. King Alexander, in early 2008 MacDonald was removed from teaching undergraduate courses.

The resolution was discussed during a Sept. 18 meeting whose unapproved minutes read, “Dr. Kevin MacDonald of the Department of Psychology has made public statements and produced publications with a highly prejudicial view of Jews and non whites. His ideas have been taken up by white separatists who use MacDonald’s academic credentials to legitimize their agenda. Dr. MacDonald has done little to distance himself from these groups.” The final resolution has yet to be posted to the CSULB Academic Senate website.

The Sept. 18 minutes also state that there “had been no recent evidence of [MacDonald teaching his controversial ideas in class] though another member of the Psychology Faculty said that a former student had reported that MacDonald had done so about ten years ago.”

MacDonald, who is beloved by major American anti-Semites including former Klan leader David Duke, believes that Jews are impelled by genetic factors to undermine the majority populations of the societies they live in. In fact, MacDonald put it like this in journalist Jon Entine’s recent book, Abraham’s Children: “Jews do not act in the best interest of society. We need to systematically put in place some controls, call it discrimination if you will, to restore parity with other groups.” Since the turn of the millennium, MacDonald has also become a white supremacist activist. He has held leadership positions in several white supremacist groups, and in 2004 he was honored with a $10,000 prize for his work on the Jews by The Occidental Quarterly, a white supremacist publication on whose editorial advisory board he sits.

Regardless of these resolutions, MacDonald continues to crank out more anti-Semitic research. In April, his new book, Cultural Insurrections: Essays on Western Civilization, Jewish Influence, and Anti-Semitism, was published by the Occidental Press, the white nationalist hate group that also publishes The Occidental Quarterly. In one indication of the work’s extremism, the book’s forward was written by Virginia Abernethy, a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University who is a self-described “white separatist.”

Hatewatch

Cop resigns over BNP badge

A policeman has been forced to resign after wearing a British National Party badge at an England football match.

Stuart Janaway, 36, wore the badge while off duty at a game against Hungary at Old Trafford two years ago. He had also worn it at a charity England versus `the rest of the world' celebrity match held a few days earlier at the same ground.

An investigation began after Greater Manchester Police received information that Mr Janaway had items relating to the extreme right-wing party at his home. Badges were recovered after a search of his house and photographs showed him wearing them at the matches. A misconduct hearing into claims that Mr Janaway was wearing an `inappropriate' badge while off duty was held last week. Following the hearing he was asked to resign and did so.

Mr Janaway, of Rixtonleys Drive, Irlam, had served in GMP for 14 years and worked as a Pc based at Longsight. He joined the police after first training to be a priest. A police spokesman said there was no evidence that he was a member of the BNP.

Acting Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney, head of the Professional Standards Branch, said: "The Chief Constable's Order of 2004 makes it clear officers are banned from being members of the BNP. This requirement extends into the private lives of officers.

"All officers and staff are aware that non-compliance will likely result in dismissal. The officer failed to live up to the high standards we demand."

One source said: "The swiftness with which this matter was dealt with indicates that GMP will not tolerate such breach of police regulations."

In 1998 Mr Janaway hit the headlines when he helped treat a shooting victim. He also saved a number people intent on committing suicide.

Manchester Evening News

Far right rising

In order to defeat the BNP, we have to tackle the disillusionment and disaffection the party feeds off

Change appears to be political buzzword of the times. Labour MP Jon Cruddas ran on the slogan "Choose Change"; Barack Obama went with "The Change we Need", while this week even David Cameron finished his conference speech on the theme of change.

But there is another "change" taking place, at present below the mainstream political radar, but it is a change that could sweep through the political establishment if not quickly addressed. This change is reactionary – it is the rise of the British National party.

The BNP is a growing force in Britain. In May's local elections it averaged 13.9% in the 612 wards it contested across the country, while in London it polled 130,714 votes in the London assembly elections. Locally, its results have been even more startling. It averaged 41% in the wards it contested in Barking and Dagenham in 2006, and this year it averaged 28% in Rotherham and 27% in Stoke-on-Trent.

Next year the BNP could win the Stoke-on-Trent mayoral election and has a strong chance of gaining several MEPs in the European elections, particularly in the North West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber constituencies. Victory here, with the respectability and finances the job carries, will transform the BNP into a major political force.

Why is this happening? The BNP is growing for several reasons, including the poor quality of some existing councillors and political parties taking voters for granted. Then there is concern among some over rising immigration and the changing face of Britain. The BNP itself has had a facelift. It has publicly diluted its policies to appear more moderate and mainstream and it has adopted increasingly sophisticated campaign techniques and in its internet operation it has the most visited party political website in Britain.

However, the BNP's growing appeal is more than simply a product of rising racism, though of course this remains at the heart of its politics. 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 as it chases the mythical "middle England". It is a consequence of a political system that concentrates resources and activism to a few key swing marginals.

The BNP is articulating the concerns, grievances and even prejudices of these forgotten voters. It provides them with a sense of belonging, an articulation of their own frustration – even a new white identity.

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.

This is a phenomenon occurring across Europe and North America. In the United States, 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 at the expense of centre-left parties. Only a few days ago, two far right parties polled a combined 29% in the Austrian elections.

Antifascism has to change to meet this new threat. Unless we understand why the BNP is growing – and that entails accepting that its appeal is built on more than simple racism – we have little chance of defeating it.

A simple "Don't vote Nazi" slogan is no longer enough. Of course we need to expose the true politics of the BNP leaders but we also need to address the issues on which the BNP campaign.

There is a limit to what traditional antifascism can deliver. We can certainly organise a turnout campaign to defeat the BNP in an election and through focused and localised leaflets we can undermine and expose the racism and ineffectiveness of BNP councillors and candidates. We must also get involved in the very communities where the BNP is most active, something progressives have increasingly failed to do over recent years.

However, if we accept the BNP is filling a void in British politics then it is a political response to these underlying issues of disengagement and disillusionment that ultimately needs addressing.

The political climate is certainly changing, but unless we act now then the change might not be to our liking.

Nick Lowles
Comment is free

Councillor met with BNP leader

An Independent Havering councillor is facing fresh accusations of right-wing links after it emerged he recently entertained the leader of the British National Party at his business in Rainham.

Local Residents' Association leader, Cllr Jeffrey Tucker, met leader of the BNP Nick Griffin last Wednesday at his jewellery business - Tucker's Goldmine - in Upminster Road South. Refusing to reveal any details of the meeting, Cllr Tucker maintained he is still a left-wing politician and will work with anyone interested in helping the community he represents.

He said: "If someone wants to see me I do not care who they are. If they can help with assisting the residents of this area my door is open to them - and they'll get a cup of tea too. As an independent politician I can listen to anybody, as long as it is for the good of the community."

The meeting came only weeks after Cllr Tucker was condemned by other councillors for his affiliations with the right-wing National Liberal Party (NLP) - which has its roots in the National Front.

Leader of Havering Council, Cllr Michael White, previously dubbed Cllr Tucker "a dangerous person" for his work with the NLP. He said: "What he is actually doing is conning the public. He's pretending to be something he isn't.

Romford Recorder

Evans Easyspace ignoring concerns about the BNP's Excalibur - time for Stage Two

Some of the rubbish sold via Excalibur, the BNP's tatty merchandising arm

As regular readers will know, we printed the excellent Searchlight exposé about the location of the British National Party's Excalibur operation - the place from which it distributes its 'tatty, cringe-making and overpriced goods' - back in early September. We followed this article up with one of our own in mid-September, when we asked our readers to do their bit in the fight against the BNP - in this case by emailing to inform the owners of the premises in which Excalibur is based precisely what they are allowing to be stored in and distributed from their premises.

In that article, we listed a few of the more offensive items that we know are stocked and sold by Excalibur. The list is here:

• Deeply offensive 'Golly' Pens and badges
• Books by pro-eugenics author Roger Pearson, promoting an all-white society
• Books that make the unfounded claim that immigrants are responsible for TB and HIV
• The truly appalling, racist, anti-semitic and white supremacist March of the Titans by Arthur Kemp, who currently works at Excalibur
• The fake Victoria Cross which was so recently the subject of much controversy in several newspapers, and many more fake medals
• Badges with 'Enoch Powell was right', 'Say no to asylum' and 'No immigrants, no bombs' - presumably forgetting the IRA's visits of a few years back, the three bombs set off by the BNP's very own David Copeland in Soho and Mark Bulman, a BNP activist who set fire to a mosque, to say nothing of the various members of the BNP (including Robert Cottage) who stockpiled bomb-making equipment but got caught before they made use of it, and Tony Lecomber, who blew himself up accidentally while on his way to bomb the offices of a rival political party. Lecomber worked for the BNP for a further ten years after this, finally getting the sack after attempting to recruit another ex-BNP member, gangland hitman Joe Owens, to assassinate a leading politician.
• T-shirts glorifying Enoch Powell, with slogans such as 'It's cool to be white' and 'BNP - It's a white thing'.

Lots of our readers emailed the company, Evans Easyspace Ltd of Millshaw, Leeds, but as far as we know not a single one got even so much as an acknowledgment that their email had been received.

That's not on. When people are showing their concern by contacting a company about a perceived problem, the very least they should expect is a courteous response. Any less is ignorance and doesn't say a great deal about the company's view of public relations - particularly where the complaint, as in this case, deals largely with racism - and implies that the company concerned is okay with what its clients are doing.

Time then, to step up the campaign a little.

The last time we asked you to contact the company, we suggested the single email address of the general office. This time, we're asking you to either phone and speak to one of the people listed below (the phone and fax numbers are down there, too) or to email them directly. If you have the time, it would be best to send an individual email to each of the people on the list. If not, we've included a single line of email addresses that can be placed in the CC (copy to) or BCC (blind copy to) box of your email client. That way, everyone at the Evans' Head Office will receive the email.

It's up to us to stop Excalibur churning out this offensive racist crap and it's up to Evans to do what it can do to stop this garbage being spread around. Let's get emailing, phoning and faxing so that Evans are shown in no uncertain terms that there are a lot of people out here who are getting angry at being ignored and who are demanding that action is taken against Excalibur. Remember though that we are trying to get Evans Easyspace on our side, so please remain calm and polite at all times - you can always throw darts at a picture of Nick Griffin later, to wind down. ;-)

Any responses received can go into the comments section of this post.

Evans Easyspace Ltd
Millshaw, Leeds
LS11 8EG
Tel: 0113 271 1888
Fax: 0113 223 1239

Note: The space occupied by Excalibur is unit B2 on the Deeside Industrial Estate.

Tom Stokes, Managing Director
tomstokes@evanseasyspace.com

Bradley Cooper, Finance Director
bradleycooper@evanseasyspace.com

Simon Bottomley, Projects Director
simonbottomley@evanseasyspace.com

Ian Frostwick, Operations Director
Mobile: 07818 075131
ianfrostwick@evanseasyspace.com

Sarah Cooney, PA to MD and FD
sarahcooney@evanseasyspace.com

Terry Boytler, Projects Manager
Tel: 0870 876 8000
Mobile: 07884 118823
terryboytler@evanseasyspace.com

Maxine Nathan, PR & Marketing Manager
maxinenathan@evanseasyspace.com

Rob Catton, Business Services Technical Manager
Mobile: 07824 452854
robcatton@evanseasyspace.com

Karen Ely, Business Services Operations Manager
karenely@evanseasyspace.com

CC or BCC list: (double-click the line below to copy and paste it into your email client)

tomstokes@evanseasyspace.com,bradleycooper@evanseasyspace.com,simonbottomley@evanseasyspace.com,ianfrostwick@evanseasyspace.com,sarahcooney@evanseasyspace.com,terryboytler@evanseasyspace.com,maxinenathan@evanseasyspace.com,robcatton@evanseasyspace.com,karenely@evanseasyspace.com

Holocaust revisionist held at Heathrow

Hutton Gibson (father of actor Mel Gibson) with Fredrick Töben (right)

Australian wanted in Germany for website that disputes historical facts

A holocaust revisionist will appear before a British court on Friday after being arrested at the request of the German authorities.

Gerald Fredrick Töben was detained at Heathrow yesterday by officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit as he stepped off a plane from America. Last night, he was remanded in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court to reappear on Friday.

The 64-year-old Australian is wanted in Germany, accused of publishing material on the internet "of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist nature deliberately contrary to historical truth", that denies, approves of or plays down the "mass murder of Jews planned and implemented by the Nationalist Socialist party". He was detained yesterday under an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities, which accuses him of committing the offence in their country, his native land and others.

The former teacher, who was born in northern Germany in 1944 but emigrated to Australia as a 10-year-old, set up the Adelaide Institute in 1994, an internet site that questions the "story, legend, myth" behind the Holocaust. It also doubts whether HIV causes Aids.

While he denies being anti-Semitic or calling the Holocaust a lie, Dr Töben, a doctor of philosophy, has previously insisted killings took place on a much smaller scale. In 2006, he met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and dismissed as "mere puffery" evidence of the Nazis' mass killings of Jews.

In 1999, his fellow revisionists declared him a "martyr" after he was sentenced to 10 months in prison for breaching Germany's holocaust law. The Mannheim court cleared him of the more serious charge of incitement to racial hatred because the material was written outside Germany. In 2000, Germany's Supreme Court made foreigners liable for internet crimes.

In 2002, a judge in the Federal Court of Australia found that his website "vilified Jewish people" and ordered him to remove offensive material from it. However, it did not enforce an earlier order made by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that the site be closed down and that he issue a written apology to the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry.

On the website, Dr Töben lists the "victims imprisoned for refusing to believe in the Holocaust". He adds: "If you wish to doubt the Holocaust-Shoah narrative, be prepared for sacrifice, marriage and family break-up, loss of career, and to go to prison. This is because Revisionists are... dismantling a massive multibillion dollar industry that the Holocaust-Shoah enforcers are defending, as well as the survival of Zionist-racist Israel.

Independent

'BNP' vandals embark on spree of wreckage

Police are investigating after vandals smashed windows and daubed walls and road signs with racist graffiti.

Offensive messages claiming to support the British National Party were painted on the outside wall of the home of Howard and Barbara Oakes in Newcastle Street in Burslem. Two days later, while they were away on holiday, someone tried to smash their front window before scrawling racist messages on the glass.

The couple returned to find the windows of a neighbouring shop, Kwik Communications, had been broken and more graffiti had been painted on road signs at Trubshaw Cross roundabout.

Stoke-on-Trent's BNP group has condemned those responsible and urged the culprits to stop carrying out vandalism in the party's name.

Mrs Oakes, aged 56, said: "Last Wednesday my husband went out to work at 6.30am and saw the graffiti on the wall. We tried to clean it off but we couldn't, so we painted over it. I haven't been well so we went away for a few days and on Friday my friend called to say someone had tried to put our window through and there was more graffiti on the window."

On Monday, when Mrs Oakes had returned home, she reported the incident to the police and Stoke-on-Trent City Council. She also contacted the city council's BNP group to tell them what had happened, and they were quick to condemn those responsible.

Group leader councillor Alby Walker said he hoped the vandals were brought to justice.

"This is nothing to do with the BNP, it's just idiots latching on to our name and I would urge them to stop," he said. "No bona fide member of the BNP would contemplate this behaviour. I hope the police catch whoever is responsible and throw the book at them."

Owner of Kwik Communications, Ishfaq Shar, aged 50, said: "I came in to work and found the windows smashed – it was upsetting to arrive and have that damage. I saw the graffiti, it was very bad."

Mr and Mrs Oakes moved into their property 20 years ago, when it was a fish and chip shop. They closed the shop in 2000 due to a downturn in business, but continued to live there.

Mrs Oakes said: "I don't know why they have done this to our house, I think we might've got caught up in something by mistake. We've been here for 20 years and I've never seen anything like this before. I hope it's just a one-off. I believe people should live and let live – we were all put on this earth for a reason and we should be able to live together."

Following the incident, council workers boarded up the damaged windows and are in the process of removing the last of the graffiti.

Councillor Mohammed Pervez, city council portfolio holder for community engagement and equalities, said: "We condemn any type of racist graffiti in the city and we always work closely with the police and our neighbourhood management teams to ensure anything like this is removed quickly. The council continues to remain vigilant against activities of this kind and would encourage anyone who sees any examples of this to contact the police or ourselves as quickly as possible."

Staffordshire Police have confirmed they are investigating the vandalism. Inspector Martin Brereton said: "We are treating this incident as a hate crime. We do not accept this kind of behaviour in the city. Anyone with information on the graffiti or criminal damage is asked to contact Staffordshire Police."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the police on 0300 123 4455.

The Sentinel

Cameron hits out over BNP

David Cameron has launched a stunning attack on the British National Party in Stoke-on-Trent.

Speaking from his party's conference in Birmingham the Conservative leader branded the BNP as "a threat to our country" and said the Tories intended to win votes from the far-right party.

He said: " It is incumbent on all parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberals – to make sure that we campaign so hard and represent people so well, that we work our streets, housing estates and council terraces so well, that we don't leave any room for people to feel disaffected and turn to the BNP. In Stoke we will do everything to stand up for local people to help them and represent them so we can make sure that these people have absolutely no part to play in our politics."

The comments come the day before Mr Cameron is to make a key-note speech to thousands of delegates at the party conference.

The Sentinel