April 15, 2008

Bishop’s warning over threat of BNP

One of the Church of England's most senior clergymen last night issued a hard-hitting warning about the growing threat of far-right extremism resulting from voters "giving up hope" in mainstream politics.

In a rare move, the Bishop of Durham issued a rallying cry to North-East churches to join forces to thwart the British National Party (BNP) in the forthcoming local elections. The Right Reverend Tom Wright, called for more to be done by political parties to stop the rise of the BNP. In an open letter, the bishop said people could not afford to become complacent.

Last night, his warning was endorsed by all the major political parties. But the bishop's comments were criticised by the BNP, which claimed it was only meeting the needs of ordinary people.

Dr Wright's warning came as the BNP prepared to field a record 30 candidates in the elections for a new County Durham authority. In his letter, he writes: "The reason the BNP can even gain a foothold in people's affections is because many people in our region feel so disaffected after the last 30 years of national politics that they are in danger of giving up hope in our regular main parties."

Dr Wright has said the parties need to ask: "Why is there a vacuum there that the other parties aren't filling? What frustrations are there that the BNP are exploiting, and what are the wise ways of reacting to, or even meeting, those needs?"

He adds: "It is one thing to point out, as many have already done, the neo-Nazi tendencies of the BNP, and to warn with a shudder against our society even taking a small step in any such direction. It is another to say 'How can we drain the swamp so that this kind of ideology won't breed again?' None of us can be complacent. Opposing the BNP isn't simply a matter of saying the status quo is working fine, so please reject these idiots'. It should be a matter of saying What does a healthy society look like and how can we make it clear to our whole population that we are working in the best ways towards that goal?"

Last night, Ken Booth, the North-East organiser for the BNP, said: "This is not his place at all. He should be trying to regain his flock. While the bishop's banging on about how evil the BNP is, he is going to find out one day that there will be more practising Muslims going to mosques than any practising churches in Britain."

Phil Wilson, the Labour MP for Sedgefield, County Durham, said: "The mainstream political parties do have a job to do to connect to the people we represent in a better way. We have a duty to get out there in our communities and talk to people and explain how we are working to address their concerns. It's incumbent on all of us - political parties, the churches and community groups - to maintain a united front against the extremists and to show their politics up for what it is - the politics of hate."

Michael Bates, vice-chairman of the Conservative Party in the North, said: "The bishop has raised an important issue, not just for our region, but for the country as a whole."

Tommy Taylor, the leader of the Lib Dems on Wear Valley District Council, said: "With the greatest respect to the Bishop of Durham, his job is to deal with religion, and politics should be left to politicians. It is very rare that the BNP get many votes, and in my opinion, they will never, ever be a major threat."

The Northern Echo

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reading this jolted my memory. Does anyone know what happened to the Co. Durham teacher, Mark Walker? He was suspended in March 2007 from his post for viewing the BNP website on his school computer and/or standing as a BNP candidate in the local elections.

Strange. How could he remain suspended for 13 months for viewing the website of a legally registered political party? Equally strange is the notion that his suspension resulted from his candidacy when nominations hadn't even opened.

Something fishy about this one!

Anonymous said...

Tommy Taylor, the leader of the Lib Dems on Wear Valley District Council, said: "With the greatest respect to the Bishop of Durham, his job is to deal with religion, and politics should be left to politicians. It is very rare that the BNP get many votes, and in my opinion, they will never, ever be a major threat."

He is right that the BNP rarely get many votes and he is right that they could never ever become a major threat. However there should be no BNP councillors at all There should be no discussions about this vile disgusting party and the mainstream politicians need to wake up and recognise the void they are creating.

Complacency is possibly the worst course of action..

The BNP need to be exposed at every possible opportunity

Anonymous said...

He's right to point this out. Given the general level of dissatisfaction with the main parties, I suspect the local elections will see a pretty low average turnout - an ideal backdrop for the BNP. On that basis alone, they may well make some surprising gains.

The best way to combat the BNP electorally is for the main parties to actually show some competence. I have attended only one local Council meeting over the past twelve months. At that meeting, there were a number of unhappy people due to some traffic problems in their area. From what I could ascertain, this problem had been going on for ages yet the Council continued to dither. The arrogance of the Councillors in dealing with the public at that meeting was extraordinary. Basically, after little discussion, the Chairman simply said, "Well, that's enough on that, we won't take any more questions or comments". As that was the main topic of concern for most of the people there, there was understandably much anger in the room at that point. Just who do these elected representives think they are there to represent?

Fortunately, there are no BNP candidates in my area. If there were, I could quite easily see a lot of the people from that meeting voting for them purely because of the attitude of the present councillors.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN2YNpLr1ZM

Sexy Sadie Graham lol

Antifascist said...

'How could he remain suspended for 13 months for viewing the website of a legally registered political party?'

I don't quite see what Mark Walker has to do with this article but perhaps this might jog your memory (particularly the bit in bold).

'We revealed last week how Mr Walker, 36, was suspended from Sunnydale School in Shildon, County Durham, in February after checks showed he had used school computers to look at right-wing websites during teaching time.'

http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2007/06/union-backing-for-bnp-row-teacher.html

For all we know, 'right-wing sites' might include Stormfront, Vanguard and/or the Ku Klux Klan. In any case, the matter is awaiting the hearing (for which he was advised to push off and find a solicitor by the third-rate Solidarity), and this item is not about Mark Walker.

Anonymous said...

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tulip

Anonymous said...

Sexy Sadie Graham lol

She doesn’t look sexy – she just looks like another BNP mug with a mini-Führer ego-complex. I also think that Sadist Sadie ate all the pies at the last BNP Red, White and Blue piss up.

Anonymous said...

@ listening2020

Is that Sadie Graham doing those porn photos in your YouTube vid??? It seems that Sadie Graham is a fascist star of the BBW fetish scene – another fine BNP pinup lol lol