Archbishop backs Lancaster BNP debate ban

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed a decision to ban the British National Party (BNP) from a hustings in a Lancaster church

All candidates in the Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency - except the BNP - have been invited to the event at St Thomas's Church on Tuesday. A party spokesman described the snub as an "affront to democracy". But Dr Rowan Williams said the party had often exploited events "to say inflammatory and silly things".

The archbishop said bishops all over the country were writing letters to their congregation urging people to organise such events.

Asked whether he supported the decision to ban the BNP, the archbishop told BBC Radio Lancashire: "Personally, I think if that's the decision I'd be happy to go with it. I find it very difficult to see the BNP as part of a serious political discussion and very often people will exploit the platform to say inflammatory and silly things. So I can understand why people don't want to see the BNP as part of that discussion, as if they were to be taken as seriously as the other parties."

The debate in Lancaster has been arranged by Lancaster Churches Together, an organisation representing a number of Christian denominations. But organisers declined to invited BNP candidate Debra Kent, saying that a church was not the place to allow what they described as "racist views" to be promoted.

Steve Greenhalgh, a spokesman for the BNP, questioned the validity of the debate without his party's candidate.

"I think if you are going to hold a debate you have all the democratically put forward candidates - or none at all," he said. "I would say the church should be really more concerned with the falling numbers of their congregations and not the views of the British National Party. It's pointless challenging it because if you challenge it then you become an extremist, and you become a person who is trying to cause hassle."

Candidates standing in Lancaster and Fleetwood are: Gina Dowding: Green; Clive Grunshaw: Labour; Debra Kent: British National Party; Stuart Langhorn: Liberal Democrat; Fred McGlade: UK Independence Party; Eric Ollerenshaw: Conservative; Keith Riley: Independent.

BBC

Of storm trooper street thugs, Jefferson enobled and leaflet cock-ups (again)

The 'establishment’s storm trooper street thugs' terrify Debra Kent

Cowardice seems to be spreading through the ranks of the BNP locally. First we had Lord Clive Jefferson running away from a newspaper-sponsored web-chat for fear that he would be asked awkward questions relating to his extremely dodgy past (and present), then Debra Kent, a lady (allegedly), running away from a confrontation with the opposition in the form of a small demo outside a venue where a hustings was being held in Fleetwood on Monday evening.

If the BNP website is to be believed (and it isn't) the demo was set to be the beginning of World War Three, and Debs was right to fear the demonstrators. With its usual mixture of over the top rhetoric and lies, it made the demo sound so frightening that even we were terrified to attend.

'Labour and Tory-supported UAF storm troopers...in Blackpool threatened so much violence that police were forced to call a female British National Party candidate out of concerns for her safety...in Blackpool, BNP candidate Debra Kent withdrew from a hustings...after the UAF announced its intention to attack that meeting as well.'

James Clayton, Deb's dopey partner and the BNP's Blackpool organiser, leapt to her defence - in print, at least.

'Given that Debra is a lady and also my girlfriend I am not prepared to risk her being assaulted.'

By which we assume that if she was neither a 'lady' nor his 'girlfriend', he really wouldn't give a toss. But the BNP hasn't finished yet. The article continues thus;

'Miss Kent told BNP News that a number of threats had been against her personally on UAF forums and blogs...“The police finally called me up, concerned for my safety and asked if I was going to attend the hustings,” Miss Kent said. “The threat of violence had reached such levels that the police felt driven to intervene.”'

And finishes by describing the demonstrators as

'the establishment’s storm trooper street thugs.'

Here's a challenge for Debs, if she's looking in. Provide us with the name of the officer who rang you up with concerns about your safety, so we can check that it happened, or provide us with a single threat posted on a UAF forum or blog. We know you can't because you're a liar and your party is full of shit. And given the demonstrators - at most twenty, at least two of whom were disabled, and four kids - we find all your bullshit about threats of violence and comments about street thugs both laughable and contemptuous. Oh, and we spotted the BNP car hidden around the corner, just in case you thought we'd missed it.

Face it, Debs, just like Clive Jefferson, you're a coward. Talking of whom...

There are three tiers of councillors in this country. Parish or town councillors, city or borough councillors and county councillors. City and county councillors have to be elected and receive payment in the form of an overall allowance or some form of attendance allowance. Parish councillors are frequently unelected, walking into the job because nobody else wants to do it. Parish councillors have no real power, which might explain why nobody wants to do the job.

But there's another difference between parish councillors and the others - they do not refer to themselves as Councillor Whatever, except for magalomaniac idiots like Clive Jefferson who, having reached the giddy height of parish councillor for Broughton Community Council in Cumbria, titled one of his posts 'Cllr Jefferson' in celebration. Sad or what?

And that brings us along nicely to Mr Jefferson's latest disaster.

Apparently, countless thousands of election leaflets are sitting in a warehouse somewhere which still have 'Insert candidates name' and 'Insert place name' printed on them because the moronic Jefferson, it is alleged, didn't realise that the files hadn't been completed before having them printed up.

Jefferson is now blaming 'Lady' James Clayton for this latest leaflet fiasco.

It's great to see the BNP operating with its usual efficiency. God help us all if they ever get given the country to run.

BNP back down over demo fear

A BNP candidate pulled out of a public meeting in Fleetwood last night after threats of a demonstration by anti-fascists.

Election runner Debra Kent should have taken part in an election forum with other candidates at the Marine Hall in a debate organised by Fleetwood Churches Together but said she feared violence. The decision was welcomed by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) but regret was
expressed by the event organisers.

Miss Kent's partner, James Clayton, said: "This is the same group (UAF) that last year attacked one of our members with a claw hammer in Leigh and also attacked a BNP campaign launch in Croydon last week.

"Given that Debra is a lady and also my girlfriend I am not prepared to risk her being assaulted. As our security team are also busy during this period and cannot provide cover for her at short notice, I have decided to pull her out of this debate for her own safety."

Paul Jenkins, north-west organiser for UAF, denied they had carried out violent acts. He said: "This is good news. We are saying there should not be a platform for fascists. These people should not be allowed to come in and destroy democracy."

Fr Paul Benfield of Churches Together said: "Whatever one's views about any of the parties, it's our job to give an open platform. I don't approve of the BNP's policies but I think it's better people are allowed to express what they are standing for rather than being censored by their not being invited or threats from another group."

Blackpool Gazette

Primary school governor is BNP candidate

The head teacher at a Latchford primary school has slammed reports that one of the school’s governors will be running as a BNP parliamentary candidate

Latchford St James C of E Aided parent governor Debra Kent has been listed on the BNP’s website as contesting the Lancaster and Fleetwood seat and described as a ‘dedicated BNP activist’.

Head teacher Jacqui Wightman said: “The views of the British National Party go against all those we hold dear at our school. We have a clear community cohesion policy that underpins our promotion of equality and excellence.

“It states that we will help all to belong and feel equally valued as members of our school and citizens of the United Kingdom. All governors without exception agreed to this.”

Miss Kent has joined groups called 'Stop the ethnic cleansing of Britain, I don’t want to live in an Islamic country' and 'Keep British football British' discouraging foreign players playing in Britain, on a social networking site. She is also pictured with BNP leader Nick Griffin in her profile photograph.

It has not yet been confirmed if she has been kicked off the school’s board of governors. Rev Tom McNaughtan-Owen, who is also on the board of governors, said: “It is a very happy school and we don’t want anything to change that.”

Warrington Guardian

'I live and breathe the BNP!!!' - School governor's vile boast

Debra Kent with Porky Griffin and Kent's partner James Clayton

Primary school governor Debra Kent is facing the axe after The People unmasked her as a racist. Kent - standing as an MP for the BNP - peddles her vile views on far-right websites. She even brags: "I live and breathe the BNP!!!!" A People probe found mum-of-one Kent, 30, has branded Britain a "multicultural hellhole" and said immigrants act "like savages".

She is part of an online group called "Stop the ethnic cleansing of Britain", has joined a campaign to ban non-white British footballers and another calling for halal meat to be outlawed. She supports a group named "If you don't like our country GET OUT" and another called "NO MORE MOSQUES". And we can reveal she went to a British National Party rally where racists torched a gollywog. Writing on Facebook, Kent later dubbed the rally "fab".

We launched our probe after parents at Latchford C of E Aided Primary School in Kent's hometown of Warrington, Cheshire, voiced alarm when she was chosen as BNP candidate for the new constituency of Lancaster and Fleetwood at the General Election. Partner James Clayton will fight Blackpool North and Cleveleys.

Education chiefs pledged Kent will be booted out because by law school governors have a duty to work for racial harmony. School head Jacqui Wightman said: "The views of the BNP go against all those we hold dear."

And Warrington education boss Pinaki Ghoshal said: "We would not support the continued presence of a BNP candidate on a school's board of governors."

Kent, who has a seven-year-old son, bragged: "I'm young, I'm successful, I'm a woman and I'm standing up for Christian values by standing as a BNP candidate. Get over it."

Sunday People

Fun and games with the BNP...

Eaton, Witheridge, Clayton and Kent - acrostically-challenged

There used to be a time when Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) were responsible citizens, anxious to show the public that they were moral, intelligent and upstanding, and possessed of all those other attributes that we think we deserve from our MPs. That seems to have changed though since the BNP put so many people up for the General Election. Having had to scrape an already well-scraped barrel, the BNP appears to have selected a bunch of morons who have nothing better to do than play silly games here at Lancaster Unity. What a great investment of £500 each (donated by a cash-strapped BNP membership).

Instead of working to secure the votes of any stray racists who might be persuaded to vote BNP, the PPC for Lancaster and Fleetwood Debra Kent has been spending her time posting acrostics to the comments section of the blog (yes, Debs, they're called acrostics). Here's the explanatory note from her Facebook page (reprinted, left - click on image for full-size):

'Competition going on, who can get the funniest cryptic message on to lancaster unity's piece about the EDL. If you look at the comments near the bottom you will see that Craig has managed to spell out UAF Scum with the first letter of every sentence. I managed to get the word tw*t through too :-) Have a look and have a go lol'

The Craig she mentions is the BNP's probable PPC for South Lakeland, while Debs herself is not only a PPC, she is also the Warrington organiser and the partner of James Clayton (Blackpool North Candidate, Blackpool BNP organiser and the Party's West Lancashire Coordinator).

You don't even have to be a BNP thickie from the North-West to play this exciting game because Debs is joined by Sean Witheridge, the BNP's PPC for Salisbury, who gets terribly excited because he thinks his acrostic for 'unwashed' might appear for a moment or two. Sadly for him, it doesn't.

'oooooooooooh [shades of Frankie Howerd there, Sean] The unwashed soapdodgers didn't even post mine up'

Bless. So for Debs and her friends who were busy playing games when they should have been busy justifying the party's large investment in them, here's an acrostic from us.

Four thousand in Bolton today. Usually busy but this was insane. Came back on the coach. Ketlan wasn't arrested (for a change). Only fifteen hundred of the EDL at most. Fifty arrests though - what a shame. Five injuries, too. You had to be there. One officer grabbed someone's throat for shouting. Useless or what? Still, we wouldn't have missed it. And we'll go to the next demo against the EDL. Despite the police protection they seem to have. Then we get home to find Dopey Debs and her mates playing silly buggers on the blog. What a bunch of idiots. Acrostics, of all things. Though Debs doesn't appear to know the word. Sad, huh.