Hundreds of protesters lined the streets of Corsham tonight to vent their anger at recently elected BNP councillor Michael Simpkins as he arrived for a town council meeting. Men, women and children travelled from across the south west to take part in the anti-facist rally outide Corsham Town Hall.Residents were outraged when Coun Simpkins managed to gain a seat on the town council - after standing unopposed in last month's elections.
More than 300 ant-facist campaigners packed the streets waving banners and balloons and blowing whistles. In a small pen on the opposite side of the road about 25 BNP supporters gathered in support of Coun Simpkins. A dozen police officers were also on patrol to keep the factions apart. Local businesses stepped in to offer free food, drink and white roses to the protesters.
Coun Simpkins arrived for the meeting just after 7pm to a rapturous applause from his group of supporters and a deafening roar of "out facist, out" from those opposed to his political views. They brandished placards reading "Stop the facist BNP", "No facists here" and "Neo facist no". Among the groups protesting were Respect, the Bristol branch of the National Union of Teachers and Defend The Asylum Seekers Campaign.
Helen Kaye, one of the protest organisers, who lives in Corsham, vowed to introduce a host of multicultural events to show the town is a tolerant place. She said: "I was absolutely horrified when I realised Corsham had a BNP councillor. He slipped in througn the back door and we must warn other towns before it is too late."
Corsham builder Andrew King, 21, turned up in support of Coun Simpkins. He said: "I voted BNP because I am fed up with immigrants coming over here and taking our jobs. I'm glad there's finally someone here to represent us."
Coun Simpkins, in his speech to his supporters, said: "Anyone who actually knows me will tell you, you couldn't find a more non-racist person than me. The BNP forced the elections in Corsham - that is democracy."
He added: "Being tolerant also means sometimes having to tolerate intolerance."
The event passed off without any arrests.
Gazette and Herald
"Being tolerant also means sometimes having to tolerate intolerance."
ReplyDeleteThe mans a fuckwit.
Excellent turnout - though the bnp were a bit ambarassed by their poor turnout.
ReplyDeleteGreen Arrow could not make it.
ReplyDeleteHe got stuck in the lavatory praying for Griffin's eye to heal.
This is our country get them all out
ReplyDelete'This is our country get them all out'
ReplyDeleteAll who? Do you mean we should get rid of everyone except the 'indigenous' population who, in Nick Griffin's stupid phrase, can trace their families back to the Stone Age? Or do you mean we should get rid of those who can't trace their Englishness back even a century (like Sadie Graham)? Or do you just mean non-whites?
I think "get them all out" refers to the unmasking of Mark Collett's bisexuality, and many other BNP members who are secretly gay or bisexual.
ReplyDeleteWhere exactly does Nick Griffin's homophobia stem from, if he has had gay affairs?
If you'd had an affair with Martin Webster, YOU'D probably end up homophobic!
ReplyDeleteBack to the demo. It was great and the BNPs response was pitiful!!!
ReplyDelete300 protesters mainly from the rent-a-commie school of ill-education...............hardly a "Town vents...." is it? The idea of local politics is to campaign BEFORE elections, not afterwards because you dont like the results. Ho Hum
ReplyDeleteAs you'd know if you weren't so stupid, there was no election. If there was, the racist Simpkins wouldn't have got in at all.
ReplyDeleteAntifascist - the reason(you notice i dont resort to a personal attack by calling YOU stupid) is because no one stood to challenge, so effectively leaving an uncontested seat. Anyone switched on to local politics would have known. Obviously none of you are.
ReplyDeleteHow many seats has the BNP gained at by-elections in the last three years. None. How many seats did the party gain at the last election? A big fat zero. No, the only way the BNP can grab seats now is by walking into them where they can avoid an election - at parish and town council level where there is no opposition.
ReplyDeleteOh and if you'd read this blog properly, you'd have seen that we're perfectly au fait with the situation re' the BNP grabbing unopposed seats and we've referred to this a number of times over the last few months. We also know that this last ditch attempt to pretend the BNP is a growing party is a directive straight from Griffin himself, shaking in his boots in the knowledge that his party is on its way out and his easy source of income (the BNP membership) is soon to dry up.
Oh, and the reason I referred to you as stupid is for making the dumb assumption that we wouldn't be aware of the facts before we carried a report.
Don't bebate with a fascist when you can quite as easily kick their fucking head in
ReplyDeleteYeah I know. I just find it hard to resist though. :-)
ReplyDeleteThee BNP will have to work harder to get more councilors next year and by-elections, that is a lesson that they have learned in May.But the vote held, at 14.7% nationally.This means there could be BNP MEP's in 2009 Euro Election.You write them off too early.
ReplyDelete