BNP man quits party

Former Heckmondwike councillor David Exley, pictured leaving
Batley Town Hall as the first BNP councillor in Kirklees in 2003

Former Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley has quit the party, saying leader Nick Griffin is taking the party in the ‘wrong direction’.

Mr Exley, who was the first BNP councillor to be elected onto Kirklees in 2003, lost his seat in the 2008 elections but stood again as the party’s candidate in Cleckheaton in the Kirklees poll and for Batley and Spen in the general election earlier this year.

But the one time leader of the group in Kirklees said he was worried the BNP was not representing the views of the electorate. “We can’t go on as we are under the present leadership,” said Mr Exley. “Nick is taking the party in the wrong direction. The BNP is not representing the views of the people and I don’t want to be a part of that. At the moment, Nick is fighting lots of legal cases and it is costing the party hundreds of thousands of pounds. We should not be doing that. We should be concentrating on the issues affecting people.”

Mr Exley, who is chairman of Heckmondwike’s chamber of trade, said he thought Mr Griffin’s leadership had dwindled since he was elected into the European Parliament.

“We can’t have a man who is doing everything - party administration, political leader and a member of the European parliament,” he added. “He should have delegated the roles and resigned as party leader. We are 12 months down the line from him being elected and we are suffering the consequences.”

Mr Exley said he would never ruling out standing an independent or under the banner of a different party.

Spenborough Guardian

URGENT KIRKLEES UNITY NEWS

Richard Edmonds - Holocaust-denier and racist

It has been brought to our attention that the BNP in Kirklees intend again to hold another meeting in the Heckmondwike area on Thursday 23rd April

The meeting which is due to start at 8pm is to be held at The Royal Hotel public house which is located on High Street Heckmondwike WF16 0AL. The guest speaker for the night once again is Richard Edmonds the former deputy leader of the party under the John Tyndall regime.

Former teacher Edmonds has a string of criminal convictions. In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed The Holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by Edmonds, on behalf of a BNP front organisation, the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by members. The theme was returned to on 8th April 1991 edition of Panorama where Edmonds described the publication as 'a wonderful statement of the truth'

Edmonds also spent time in custody over a racial attack in 1993 and had previously been convicted for smashing a statue of Nelson Mandela on London's South Bank. Further controversy came in 1993 when he told The Guardian that 'we [the BNP] are 100% racist'.

Surprisingly to some, Edmonds was co-opted by Nick Griffin onto the BNP's Advisory Council in September 2008, thereby returning him to the top tier of the party and ending his period of apparent dissidence.

Edmonds was due to address a North Kirklees meeting at the Royal Hotel back in November 2008, however down to pressure from antifascists the meeting was called off. Because of the meeting cancellation the North Kirklees organiser at the time Ian Roper was sacked by Yorkshire organiser Adrian Marsden.

As The Royal is a Free House we are asking people to ring the pub and POLITELY lodge their complaint with the management. The Royal Hotel's telephone number is 01924 403265

We have proven already what can be done in November.

For more information on Richard Edmonds see here.

Kirklees Unity

Sticky: Barnbrook to speak at the Royal

This is a sticky post. Newer posts appear below this one.

News again reaches us that The Royal Public House in Heckmondwike intends to hold a BNP meeting.

This follows the aborted meeting that the BNP intended to hold there back in November last year where the intended guest of honour was Richard Edmonds the former deputy leader of the party under the John Tyndall regime.

The Edmonds meeting was cancelled due to a massive response by anti fascists who telephoned The Royal and registered their disgust at the BNP being allowed to meet on their premises. The cancellation of the meeting led to the sacking of the then North Kirklees organiser Ian Roper. However, it seems that the BNP and The Royal have decided to give it another go.

David Exley the new North Kirklees organiser has arranged a meeting to take place in The Royal on Thursday 5th February and the guest of honour this time is to be Richard Barnbrook, Barking councillor and the BNP’s only representative on the GLA.

The meeting which is due to start at 8pm is to be held at The Royal Hotel public house which is located on High Street Heckmondwike WF16 0AL

Once again as The Royal is a Free House we are asking people to ring the pub itself and POLITELY lodge their complaint with the management.

The Royal Hotel's telephone number is 01924 403265

BNP attempt to meet in Heckmondwike

It has been brought to our attention that the BNP in Kirklees intend to hold a meeting in the Heckmondwike area on Wednesday 12th November.

The meeting which is due to start at 7.30pm is to be held at The Royal Hotel public house which is located on High Street Heckmondwike WF16 0AL. The guest speaker for the night is Richard Edmonds the former deputy leader of the party under the John Tyndall regime.

Former teacher Edmonds has a string of criminal convictions:

In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed The Holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by Edmonds, on behalf of a BNP front organisation, the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by members. The theme was returned to on 8th April 1991 edition of Panorama where Edmonds described the publication as 'a wonderful statement of the truth'

Edmonds also spent time in custody over a racial attack in 1993 and had previously been convicted for smashing a statue of Nelson Mandela on London's South Bank. Further controversy came in 1993 when he told The Guardian that 'we [the BNP] are 100% racist'.

Surprisingly to some, Edmonds was co-opted by Nick Griffin onto the BNP's Advisory Council in September 2008, thereby returning him to the top tier of the party and ending his period of apparent dissidence.

As The Royal is a Free House we are asking people to ring the pub and POLITELY lodge their complaint with the management.

The Royal Hotel's telephone number is 01924 403265.

Kirklees Unity

BNP man demands apology from taxi association chief

A councillor whose appointment to the taxi licensing panel last year caused uproar has demanded an apology from protesters.

Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley said he had now served more than 12 months on the committee and had dealt with every case fairly.

When he was appointed, Akooji Badat, joint chairman of the Kirklees Hackney Carriage Association, said taxi drivers were unhappy with a BNP councillor on the panel, as most drivers were Asian. But now, more than a year on, Coun Exley said he had proved himself to be fair to everyone and said Mr Badat should take his comments back.

"I said at the time that people should judge me on my record," said Coun Exley. "I feel that over the last 12 months I have done my job properly and been fair. I'm sure if I hadn't everyone would have heard about it by now. In my opinion Mr Badat jumped on the bandwagon and it is only right that he now withdraws his original comments."

But Mr Badat said he still did not think it was right for someone who represented a party with racist policies to be on the licensing panel for taxi drivers when 97 or 98 per cent of drivers were from an Asian ethnic minority. He said he had complained to Kirklees recently because he felt more drivers were now being turned down for licences. And he said that although there were 15 elected members on the regulatory panel, Asian councillors rarely got the chance to sit at meetings, but he claimed Coun Exley was always selected.

Coun Exley said the panel always tried to find the best person to do the job, regardless of their ethnic background. He said members now had more background information on drivers because more thorough Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks were carried out.

"I have had people before me who have convictions for carrying guns or knives or for drugs offences and no one would want them to be taxi drivers," said Coun Exley. "We have to make an informed decision from the information we are given. It is never made on religion or the colour of their skin. We've had lots of white people who have had their licences taken off them or not given, but the majority of applicants are Asian so more will get turned down."

Coun Exley said more thorough CRB checks meant some drivers who had been given licences in the past were now being turned down because of information that was not available to the panel when their licence was granted. And he said councillors who were chosen to sit at meetings were usually the first ones to say they were available to attend the meetings as places were allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Spenborough Guardian

Note: This is the same David Exley who managed to sit through an entire six-hour budget meeting, along with two BNP colleagues on Kirklees Council, and said absolutely nothing.

Red Card for BNP as party fails to make gains

Fears that Heckmondwike could become the first all-BNP ward in Yorkshire were quashed at last week's elections. The far-right party failed to make any gains at the Kirklees elections – despite standing 23 candidates.

Had BNP candidate Steve Cass been elected in Heckmondwike he would have served with BNP councillors David Exley and Roger Roberts – a situation the party’s leader Nick Griffin anticipated.

Mr Griffin visited Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton last month. At the time he said: “I’m hoping we’ll get the third seat in Heckmondwike. If we can get a few more seats then we can start to make a difference in council chambers as well as in the wards. I think you’ll see a difference in the council landscape after the elections.”

But despite a strong campaign the party lost out to David Sheard, who has been a Labour councillor for more than 20 years. Coun Sheard said it would have been bad news for Heckmondwike had the BNP taken his seat. He added: “I thought I would beat the BNP, but I knew it would be close and I didn’t think it would be by so much. Now I can get cracking and carry on with the work I’ve started.”

But Kirklees BNP leader Coun Exley said he was surprised by the result.

“I thought we’d done enough, but David Sheard is a very strong candidate and he hasn’t been a councillor for 23 years for nothing. We’ve had a wake-up call, but we’ll carry on with the work we’ve been doing in our wards.”

Coun Exley acknowledged Heckmondwike’s large Asian community could have stopped the party winning the seat, but said any worries about the BNP were unfounded.

“Asian people have nothing to fear from the BNP. I’ve been in for three-and-a-half years now and Roger Roberts for one. People from the Asian community come to me for help and I help them as I would anyone else. If there was any reason for them to fear us, then that would have been an issue by now.”

In Cleckheaton Liberal Democrat Andrew Pinnock was pleased to keep his seat of 12 years.

Lib Dem leader Coun Kath Pinnock (Cleck) said the 2006 result was the closest in Cleckheaton for many years and this time the party was keen that “people in Cleckheaton would show the BNP the red card”. She added: “People in Cleckheaton have seen through the BNP’s promises. We want to put into effect what we’ve said will be done now.”

The Lib Dems hope to make safe and develop the derelict Westgate site, improve the empty Co-op in Scholes and get a route confirmed for the Hopper service bus which has been granted funding.

Coun Derrick Yates (Con, Liversedge and Gomersal) said of his re-election: “It’s a great result for the Spen Valley, not just in Liversedge but especially in Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton where the councillors have increased their vote majority. We’ve sent a clear message that north Kirklees do not want the views of the BNP. It’s a fantastic result. I will build on my work of the last three years, I’ve made a good start and am very happy to be able to continue to work for the people of Liversedge and Gomersal.”

Although Tory leader Coun Robert Light (Birstall and Birkenshaw) was also re-elected, his position as council leader could be in doubt as Labour now has 22 seats to the Tories’ 20. Coun Light said: “I’m delighted to keep the seat. It’s a great honour to represent and help my home villages and to be part of Kirklees Council.”

He added that an administration change for the council would be a disaster as the Tories only took over from the Lib Dems last June. “I think everyone agrees that three administrations in three years is not in the interest of the council.”

Coun Light said the Tories would be looking for support from other parties but ruled out any form of shared administration with the minor parties.

Spenborough Guardian

BNP speak up over silence row

Angry BNP councillors have hit back at claims they are failing local people by not speaking at important meetings.

The three party members on Kirklees council came under fire for not speaking up at last week’s budget session. A senior Lib-Dem said their promises to voters had been exposed as empty. Coun Kath Pinnock, leader of the Lib Dem group, compared them to the three Green councillors who succeeded in influencing the authority’s budget.

The BNP say there is no point in them speaking because they have no sway with any other party. But one Dewsbury BNP councillor said it was a different matter outside the council chamber.

"They daren’t say anything to support us at meetings - but they do elsewhere," said Colin Auty (BNP, Dewsbury East). "They are our best friends on the outside but they fear being tainted and are scared of public reaction."

And group leader David Exley (BNP, Heckmondwike) said: "All this will change in May. Our numbers will rise to such a level they will have no choice but to include us and then we will take part in the budget-setting process."

Coun Pinnock said: "The budget meeting is the best opportunity any councillor has to speak up for local people and get changes in the way the council spends funds. But the three BNP councillors sat for six hours and none of them, not even their leader, said anything. So all the changes they say they want have been exposed as empty promises. Given the chance, they choose to say and do absolutely nothing. What is so pathetic is that they have failed on three counts. They failed to make any suggestions to change the budget; they failed to speak during the debate; and then they even failed to vote, even to abstain, on any of the five proposals put to the meeting.

"They can’t claim it is because there are only three BNP councillors. The three Green councillors proposed, and succeeded in making, major changes to the budget. What is the point of the BNP if, when they have the chance, they do absolutely nothing?"

Coun Auty said: "It makes no difference what we say or do. The Greens sway with the Lib Dems but no party is going to stand with us on any issue. We have no clout at all and that’s frustrating for us. We serve people by being on the area committee, by helping people in any way at all and by bringing things to the fore."

He also predicted major changes ahead. "It will hit them hard when we do have a voice," he said. "We hope to get seven or eight councillors in at the May elections and that will really shake things up. This will be a reality in areas such as Dewsbury, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Gomersal. You had better believe it. Come May it will be different. There will be no one with a clear majority."

Coun Exley labelled the budget meeting ’a sham.’ "Everything had been decided beforehand through deals," he said. "There was no point us saying anything. We help people on a day to day basis with a hands-on approach but we can’t take part in the bigger picture."

The Press