Bob Bailey resigns as head of London BNP

Bob Bailey putting the boot in

Bob "it's all a conspiracy" Bailey has resigned as head of London BNP after losing his seat and getting arrested for assault. According to to a statement by London BNP, Bob stood down in order to:

"concentrate on clearing his name following unfounded allegations of assault during the recent London Elections"

Before claiming that:

"Bob leaves London BNP in good shape"

Under his leadership the BNP lost every single seat they held in the capital. These included his own and the council seat of the BNP's only London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook. Barnbrook has so far failed to mention this defeat, although he does admit that:

"We didn’t do nearly as well as we’d hoped."

However, all is not lost. As he puts it on his blog:

"the result, disappointing as it was, doesn’t actually change anything"

Oh dear. I think we're stuck in the first stage of grief here Richard.

Tory Troll

The BNP are like Monty Python's Gumbys

A boringly serious election campaign is immeasurably brightened by the performances of the BNP. On the Today programme this morning, Nick “Cuddly” Griffin was stumped by an evidently wholly unexpected question about immigration. Since the BNP proposed “shutting the doors” of Britain “to everybody”, Sarah Montague politely asked whether other countries re-patariating Brits would be a price that Griffin was happy to pay. His reply could be paraphrased as “Oh, hadn’t thought of that”, though his best riposte was that not many French people wanted to come to Britain. Wonder why, Nick?

But he’s not as amusing as the hilarious Richard “Chuckles” Barnbrook, the BNP representative on the London Assembly, who did a fantastic imitation of John Cleese’s member of the Gumby family on the television news. All he needed was a knotted hanky on his head, as he was asked how his proposed ban on schoolchildren visiting mosques would work. He managed a very slow answer in which he said that no child would be allowed to visit places of worship that were not of their own denomination. It was like something had exploded in his head.

Telegraph

Richard Barnbrook: a nasty object of ridicule

The record of the BNP’s London Assembly member is a truly rotten one

It is now almost two years since the British National Party scraped over the 5 per cent hurdle and won a seat on the London Assembly, so this is an appropriate point to examine the BNP’s political record at City Hall.

Over that period, the role of the party’s London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, has been exactly what you would expect from a representative of the BNP. One of his first contributions to Mayor’s Question Time was to demand a ban on the Notting Hill Carnival. On whatever subject he has intervened at MQT, Barnbrook has invariably reduced the issue to the BNP’s obsession with race and immigration.

By way of variety, at last month’s MQT, he treated us to an exposition of his party’s line that human activity is not the primary cause of global warming – despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. But then the BNP spent many years rejecting the equally incontrovertible evidence concerning the Nazi genocide against the Jews. From Holocaust denial, it has now moved on to climate change denial.

Eighteen months ago, I wrote that Barnbrook’s rambling and incoherent interventions at MQT had reduced him to an object of ridicule, which led to the first of three complaints by Barnbrook against me to the GLA Standards Committee. It was rejected, along with another complaint against my colleague John Biggs, who had referred to Barnbrook’s Nazi politics. The decision was reported by Searchlight under the heading “Rambling, incoherent and Nazi to boot”.

A central feature of Nick Griffin’s re-branding of the BNP has been an attempt to publicly dissociate the BNP from its Nazi-sympathising past. This has been seriously undermined by the discovery that veteran far-right activist Tess Culnane is working in Barnbrook’s office. Culnane was forced out of the BNP for several years because of her insistence on speaking at meetings of the British People’s Party, which advertises busts of Hitler on its website at £15 a pop.

As for Barnbrook, it would appear that Griffin has finally lost patience with him and he may well step down from the Assembly next month, to be replaced by Bob Bailey, currently BNP leader on Barking and Dagenham council. Unlike Barnbrook, Bailey does possess the ability to string two meaningful sentences together. But he suffers from a severe anger management problem and an inclination to shoot his mouth off – for example in his recent disgusting outburst against Nigerian churches at a council planning committee meeting.

Some people argue that it is a mistake to give publicity to the BNP. However, in my opinion, the more widely the party’s role on the London Assembly and borough councils is publicised, the better. Now we have to make sure that we throw the BNP out of its local government base in Barking and Dagenham on May 6 by showing voters what you really get when its members attain public office.

Murad Qureshi for Tribune

Decline of a BNP Great White Hope

Since Richard Barnbrook was elected as a BNP member of the London Assembly last year, his impact has been almost nil

Those worried about the raised platform now being given to Nick Griffin would do well to take a look at the case of his colleague on the London Assembly, Richard Barnbrook.

When he was elected amid much hand-wringing last year, we were repeatedly warned of the threat that he would bring to the democratic process in London. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside City Hall to mark his arrival and politicians and members of staff all warned of a boycott of the BNP man. Boris Johnson said that he would not speak to him directly, and even reportedly drew up a "coping strategy" to deal with the Barnbrook threat. So overblown did it become, that for his first meeting in the assembly, a one-chair gap was placed between him and the other members.

Yet for all the media fuss kicked up in those first few weeks, Barnbrook's political impact since then has been remarkably close to nil. He entered City Hall with big promises to sweep the "nonsense of political correctness" from London politics. Yet apart from being told off for eating a banana, taking photographs of himself in silly outfits, and being suspended for inventing murders, Barnbrook's year has been a complete non-event.

At Mayor's Question Time he is reliably useless. His questions are so long-winded, and his wit so slow, that he will often use up all of his allotted time before the mayor is even able to answer him. His press releases (all three of them) have been completely ignored by London's media, and his one attempt to organise a rally of the city's youth resulted in not a single young person turning up. Like Griffin, he has appeared on BBC discussion shows but, unlike Griffin, his appearances have all gone completely unremarked. And after all that hard work, the BNP's vote in London actually went down at this year's European elections, from the level needed to elect him to City Hall.

And as the hopelessness of their Great White Hope has dawned on BNP supporters, they too have gradually drifted away from their one-time star. His assistant and cameraman Simon Darby has now left him for Brussels, and his band of supporters are now rarely to be seen within City Hall. His once-regular YouTube videos appear to have finished, and his campaign to become MP seems highly unlikely to take off.

So, as the nation rises in indignation after Griffin's appearance on Question Time, we should all think again of the sad case of Richard Barnbrook. Because, ultimately, there is a reason why the BNP still only gets 6% of the vote nationally, and it has very little to do with the lack of publicity for the party and its views.

Adam Bienkov
Comment is free

Nick Griffin Hears About the Barnbrook Case

Oh blimey, it's that bloody film again...

BNP caught lying - let's spread the word

Richard Barnbrook - the BNP's third highest elected official - has been exposed fabricating three murders in a high profile BNP campaign. He has been found guilty of bringing both the Greater London Authority and the Barking and Dagenham Council into disrepute - his lies show the depths the BNP are willing to stoop to in their vile propaganda war.

Over the last four years the BNP has made substantial gains in East London by whipping up fears and telling lies.

Now they have been caught out and we must make them pay. We have raised an appeal to raise £5,000 to print 150,000 leaflets to distribute around London. We want every household in Barking & Dagenham to know the truth about the lying BNP. We also want to warn the voters in other key areas of London exactly how low the BNP will go in order to win votes and stoke up fears within commnunities.

With the London elections now only just over seven months away there is really no time to lose. Please help us produce the leaflets we need:

https://action.hopenothate.org.uk/truthwillout

Hope not hate

Murder claim BNP politician suspended

A BNP politician has been suspended by one authority and censured by another after a probe found he made up details about murders in east London.

London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook [pictured left] said in a video three people had been murdered in three weeks. But figures revealed there were no serious attacks weeks before the video.

The council where he sits, Barking and Dagenham, has suspended him for October and the Assembly has censured him and told him to receive ethics training. The Greater London Authority said he should be censured for his behaviour, make a written apology which should appear on the Assembly's website and his personal blog and take the training in ethics and standards in public office.

Barking and Dagenham Council decided he must repeat the apology on his blog or risk the suspension being extended and can conduct no formal business at the authority during October or use its facilities.

In the video he said: "In Barking and Dagenham alone three weeks ago, there was a murder of a young girl. We don't know who's done it, her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute. Again, two weeks ago there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where two people were murdered."

The video of Mr Barnbrook was also posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.

In his defence, Mr Barnbrook said that in the first claim the person was killed outside the area in Newham and details had "come out wrong". He also said he spoke "too soon" about the other two "murders", as the victims were on life support at the time.

BBC

Murad stands down from Barnbrook hearing

London Assembly Member, Murad Qureshi, has announced that he is withdrawing from the Standards Sub-Committee that is considering a complaint against the British National Party's London Assembly Member, Richard Barnbrook.

In a statement issued today, Murad said: "I have agreed, with some reluctance, to withdraw from the Hearing Sub-Committee of the London Assembly Standards Committee that is considering a complaint against BNP London Assembly Member and Barking & Dagenham councillor Richard Barnbrook.

"This is the result of an objection to my membership of the Sub-Committee by Mr Barnbrook, on the grounds that I am 'a consistent, forthright and bitter critic of the BNP' and have attacked him personally on my blog. He implies that I am not able to hear the case without prejudging its outcome.

"The complaint against Mr Barnbrook does not however concern his membership of a fascist party or its racist politics, both of which I have publicly condemned. It arises from his statement in September 2008 that two people had been murdered on the streets of Barking & Dagenham, when this was not in fact true. I am of course capable of judging this case on its merits, regardless of his or my other views.

"However, I have received legal advice that because of comments I have previously made about Mr Barnbrook, there may be legal grounds for an appeal if the Sub-Committee were to uphold the complaint against Mr Barnbrook. For that reason I have decided to stand down from the Sub-Committee."

London Assembly

What happened to the BNP's Great White Hope?

And about time, too!

Last month BNP London Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook failed to turn up at his Standards Hearing because of a "stress related illness"

He's due to appear again next week, but has so far failed to submit any evidence, or to confirm that he will attend. Doubts therefore remain about whether he will ever face the committee.

Since his non-apearance in Dagenham last month, he has been absent from all Assembly meetings, and all entries on his personal website have been removed. Meanwhile, his suspended assistant Simon Darby seems likely to stay with Nick Griffin in Brussels, and his other assistant Emma Colgate has already taken up another role within the BNP.

Rumours of a fallout with Griffin are doing the rounds, as many BNP members lose patience with their self-styled "Richard The Lionheart".

This is all a long way from his victory speech a year ago, where he railed against the 'corruption' of his critics and promised to sweep aside the 'nonsense of political correctness in City Hall'. So far this has involved little more that putting out three press releases (all within one ten-day period last October) and... well not much else really.

Aside from being told off for eating a banana, wearing silly outfits, and lying in a youtube video, his year has been a total non-event.

Yet if Richard Barnbrook is suspended next week, there is a danger that he could become the BNP's first ever political martyr. With the very real possibility of a six month suspension hanging above his head, Barnbrook could pose as the noble victim of a political witch hunt. Or he could just make a fool of himself as usual.

We'll all find out for ourselves next Wednesday afternoon. If he turns up.

The Tory Troll

Pressure grows to withdraw BNP leader's Palace invite

Richard Barnbrook accused of exploiting situation for publicity and told to change invitation - or be barred from royal event

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has been effectively barred from attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

The right-wing politician had been invited to the social event by his BNP colleague Richard Barnbrook who, as a London Assembly member, was nominated for two tickets by the Greater London Authority. But Jeff Jacobs, the GLA's deputy chief executive, has tonight written to Barnbrook telling him to change his controversial guest and stop exploiting the situation for "publicity", or his nomination would be "reviewed".

In recent days London Mayor Boris Johnson and Darren Johnson, chairman of the London Assembly, have both spoken of their concern about Barnbrook's chosen guest. In his letter Jacobs said: "While elected representatives may and do attend, the event is a social occasion hosted by Her Majesty and it is inappropriate to exploit this privilege for party political purposes."

He added: "However, in the light of the views expressed by the Mayor and chair of the assembly, reinforced at yesterday's assembly meeting, I am writing to say that the authority may need to review its position in relation to your nomination unless you revisit the selection of your guest with a view to avoiding further controversy and desist from any further publicity."

The London Paper

BNP councillor attends England World Cup bid launch

Barking London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook invited as a representative of Greater London Authority

A member of the far-right British National Party was among the guests at the launch of England’s bid to host the World Cup.

The BNP said that Richard Barnbrook, an elected member of the Greater London Authority, was officially invited to the launch of the campaign to hold the competition in this country in 2018 or 2022. The event was also attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and England star David Beckham. Brown and Lord Triesman spoke at the event, putting an emphasis on diversity.

One eyewitness said: "I found it shocking and it undermined the tone of the launch and ran counter to it. They were making all the right sounds during the presentation, phrases like making England a home from home, and here was someone sitting there from the BNP. Why would you invite him?"

A spokesman for the BNP said people must "get used" to party members attending official events. He said: "He was officially invited as a member of the London Assembly. He was there, he wasn't doing anything wrong. It would have been rude not to go. People had better get used to BNP politicians being elected because we are going to see more and more of this."

The spokesman said Barnbrook, the GLA member for Barking, has also been invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

But an England 2018 spokesman said the politician will not be asked to any future events. He said: "All elected members of the GLA were invited to today's launch. We recognise that the presence of one elected member, who is playing no part in the England 2018 bid, has caused offence and we apologise. He should not have been present at today's event and will not be at any in the future."

Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: "We think it's disgraceful that Richard Barnbrook, who represents a party that didn't support the English football team because it had black players and doesn't believe that any black English-born footballer can ever be British, should want to muscle his way in on an event like this. It's shameful."

The London Paper

Dicky hits the cider after week of chaos

We spotted Dicky in the Canden's Head yesterday lunchtime, knocking back the Magner's Cider like it was going out of fashion, pissed out of his brains and trying to locate a dye house so he could change the colour of his suit and thus give the impression that the Oxfam rubbish bin shop had once again received his custom this decade.

Poor old Dicky. Chaos in Barking and Dagenham council chamber, caught out telling porkies about knife crime in the borough and back on the booze again.

He might be a crap councillor and Assembly member but a least he's always good for a laugh, bless him.

BNP London assembly member under investigation for YouTube murder allegations

Greater London authority investigates allegation that Richard Barnbrook wrongly claimed that three murders had taken place in his borough

Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's only member in the London assembly, is under investigation by the Greater London authority after he was accused of wrongly alleging that three murders had taken place in his borough.

Barnbrook, GLA member for Barking and Dagenham, claimed in September that a girl was killed within the borough three weeks before. He also claimed that within the same timeframe, two other people were murdered in knife attacks.

He made the claims while accusing Boris Johnson, the London mayor, and councils of failing to do enough to tackle knife crime in the capital.

Barnbrook made the allegations on a YouTube video, posted on his website as part of an attack on local authorities' action against knife crime

The GLA's standards subcommittee decided last month to refer the allegation to the monitoring officer for further investigation after viewing the broadcast. Under section five of the code, London assembly members are warned they must not conduct themselves in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing their office or authority into disrepute.

Barnbrook, also a member of the 11-strong BNP group at Barking and Dagenham council, could be suspended by the GLA for up to six months if the complaint is upheld against him, or face tougher sanctions at the hands of the adjudication panel for England.

Valerie Rush, executive member of Barking and Dagenham with responsibility for safer neighbourhoods and policing, lodged the complaint against Barnbrook with the standards committees of both her own council and the GLA for allegedly bringing his position as an assembly member into "disrepute" and seeking to "damage the reputation of the GLA and its elected members as well as Barking & Dagenham council".

Rush alleged in her complaint that Barnbrook's claim over the murder of a young girl was "an absolute lie".

"He also goes on to claim a further two murders in the borough in the last two weeks, which is also a lie," she added.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, is a member of the standards committee which will be responsible for deciding Barnbrook's fate if the allegations against the BNP are proven.

Though GLA sanctions are limited up to six months' suspension, the committee has the option from next month to refer the matter directly to an independent judicial tribunal, the adjudication panel for England, which could lead to tougher sanctions up to and including being disbarred for five years.

Barnbrook was discussing knife crime fatalities and the failure of both Johnson and local authorities to "do more" to tackle the scourge of knife crime, when he said: "This year alone, up until now there has been 27 murders of youths between 13 and 17 by knife crimes with several thousand more being attacked by knives," said Barnbrook.

"In Barking and Dagenham alone three weeks ago there was a murder of a young girl, we don't know who's done it; her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute. Again two weeks ago there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham and two people were murdered."

Barnbrook told guardian.co.uk he had been advised by the GLA not to comment while the investigation was still under way. But blogger Adam Bienkov, who first broke the story, said Barnbrook had told him that his dyslexia may have led him to have "muddled" his account.

"He also said that one of the three murders he had referred to in the video, had actually taken place 'just over the river' from Barking and Dagenham."

Barking and Dagenham police were unavailable for comment.

Guardian

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

Last chance to apply for a job with London's BNP member

There are only two days left to get your application in for a job with the BNP's lone London Assembly member.

Richard Barnbrook won a seat in the May elections, and now the City Hall website is carrying adverts for a PA and a researcher to join his staff. The closing date for applications is Friday. The BNP presence on the Assembly sparked protests just after election day.

The jobs are advertised by the Greater London Authority. In its notes for job applicants it states:

"The GLA ensures it serves the interests of all Londoners and communities equally, regardless of their religion, race, gender, age, disability or sexuality. The GLA wants to ensure that the people who work for us are truly representative of Londoners. We have therefore set ourselves the target of having a workforce which is 52% female, 25% from black and ethnic minority communities, and 10% with a disability. We have set these targets for all levels of our workforce, and we positively encourage applications from people from within these groups."

The GLA target fails to mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities.

The BNP is outspoken in its opposition to a multi-cultural society and to gay equality. The party, which has more than 50 councillors in England and Wales, has at times maintained that homosexual acts should be recriminalised. During his campaign for Mayor of London Mr Barnbrook, who is a Barking and Dagenham councillor, along with eleven BNP colleagues, said:

"You can be gay behind closed doors, you can be heterosexual behind closed doors, but you don't bring it onto the streets, demanding more rights for it."

He also denied the party is racist.

"It's not immigrants that are at fault here, never has been, it's the establishment, our own governing powers and their greed or their ignorance or their simple gutlessness to do anything about it," he told the BBC. "They feel if they try to look at immigration they will have the finger pointed at them - 'racist'. This is an easy get out clause - this is bullying people. We're not racist at all. We do not perceive one person's religion, identity, culture or way of life as being better or worse than our own, we are simply different."

Mr Barnbrook was ridiculed in 2006 when the Evening Standard newspaper publicised a copy of a film produced and directed by him described as "Marxist gay cinema." The film, HMS Discovery, A Love Story, contains scenes of men undressing and touching each other, coupled with nudity and sexual activities. Mr Barnbrook told the Standard:

"It was an art film, not a bloody porn film. The only nudity in it is a couple of guys running in a river. This was done when I was a student. It was part of my extra education, part of my studies and that was it. Anything to do with my past politics or my past work, I am not interested in commenting on."

The BNP has previously told PinkNews.co.uk that homosexuality should not be promoted as equal to a straight lifestyle.

"The word gay means happy, we have no problem with being happy," a spokesman said. "Some unfortunate people suffer from homosexuality so we will just have to tolerate them. If I was one I would be ashamed and would remain celibate."

Pink News

The rise of the far right - Jon Cruddas and Nick Lowles

The New Labour project relied on the assumption that its traditional support had nowhere else to go. But this is now changing, and the BNP has emerged as one beneficiary

Media coverage of the London elections focused, inevitably, on the victory of Mayor Boris. But even with a close-fought race pushing up turnout to a new high, the slow rise of the BNP continued as they gained a foothold in the London Assembly. This should not merely be a cause for concern, but for us to reflect on how our own party can respond.

The BNP polled 5.3 per cent across London and averaged 13.9 per cent in the 642 council wards it contested around the country. It now has 55 councillors and poses a serious threat across several regions in next year's European elections, not to mention the mayoral election taking place in Stoke-on-Trent next year.

There are some who still think that the BNP is a flash in the pan that will disappear as quickly as it emerged. But we are facing a shift in British politics. Traditional voting patterns are fragmenting as voters shop around for a party that best articulates their concerns and even prejudices. The emergence of the BNP is just one consequence of this change.

Labour's support among its working-class electoral base has been shrinking for many years, and this goes well beyond the recent decline in the government's fortunes. In many areas, Labour's support among the working-class C2DE demographics was at a lower level in the 2005 general election victory than in the crushing defeat of 1983. Since then, support among these groups has further disintegrated.

Some of these disappearing voters switched to other parties. In local elections this was often the Liberal Democrats, but far greater numbers simply stayed at home.

For the Labour leadership, this long-term shift caused only moderate concern. It is a truism that general elections are not won or lost in the Labour heartlands but in the swing marginals, where a few votes can turn success into defeat. It is towards these voters that the major parties have calibrated their language, tactics and policy.

The New Labour project relied on the assumption that its traditional support, although declining, had nowhere else to go. But this is now changing, and the BNP has emerged as one beneficiary. The party received more votes last month than Labour in seats such as Dagenham and Rainham in east London and the new Morley and Outwood constituency in West Yorkshire.

But we cannot view the BNP in isolation. In other areas, such as south Yorkshire and South Wales, it has become represented by the rise of local independents. Who would have thought that Labour could have lost the former heartlands of Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent? In Stoke-on-Trent, a city where ten years ago Labour held all 60 seats, it was this year able to win only four wards. In Barnsley, where the BNP polled 21 per cent, the Barnsley Independent Group holds a third of the seats on the council.

This trend reflects a more fundamental shift than midterm blues. An increasing number of traditional Labour voters believe that the party no longer reflects their interests. This is in no small measure a result of new Labour's triangulation tactic - a deliberate shift to what the political class thinks is the "centre ground". It is also a symptom of a failure to prioritise grass-roots activism at the local level, instead flirting with the "virtual party" and delivering messages through centralised marketing. The danger is not only that we ignore the reasons for the strength of the BNP, but that in so doing we reinforce the very conditions that have created it.

Despite the generally benign economic climate of recent years, many of the people now turning their back on Labour have not shared in this economic prosperity. Swaths of these voters not only feel ignored but have been persuaded that the BNP articulates their interests.

Race is obviously the vehicle through which the BNP galvanises support but the party also articulates the frustration of many voters and seeks to provide them with a new sense of belonging. As politicians remove class as a social, economic and political category, the BNP seeks to insert race.

It is no coincidence that the BNP is doing best in those communities, often overwhelmingly white, where there has been the greatest economic change, such as the former coalfields and car manufacturing areas. For too long a basic formula has underscored much New Labour thinking - a counterbalancing of so-called aspirational, Middle-England swing voters with our traditional supporters. Its adherents have remained tone deaf to both the aspirations and insecurities of those who fall outside this tight political calculus.

Ministers' rhetoric of "aspiration" fails to address the real aspirations of voters across huge tracts of the political landscape, where even decent housing or good jobs are in too short supply. So our language, policies and tactics all fail to hit the mark.

All this represents a fundamental shift in British politics, and the real danger is that we are heading the way of many continental countries where large segments of the working class have broken with their traditional centre-left parties and moved to the right, often the far right.

The Labour Party always had a mission of emancipatory economic and social change but to many it feels like we have lost our traditional purpose or even identity. The economic downturn, the credit crunch, the housing collapse and rising living costs will only increase material insecurities over the next few years.

There is still time to move in a different direction but without a radical and immediate change Britain, and in particular Labour, could fall victim to the same political rupture that has already shaken much of modern Europe.

Jon Cruddas is MP for Dagenham
Nick Lowles is editor of Searchlight

New Statesman

Boris, Barnbrook and the Prosopography of bananas

Boris Johnson was accused of turning the Mayoralty into an 'empty vessel' today, after delegating most of his powers to unelected advisors and deputies.

At an ill-tempered and repetitive session of Question Time, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green members of the Assembly all questioned an increasingly frustrated Boris as he repeated his time-worn response that Londoners would care more about results than procedures

But as his questioners refused to be fobbed off, he lost all patience and accused them of being 'pompous' and obsessed with the 'prosopography' of his administration. And as if that language wasn't 'clear and unambiguous' enough, he went on to deny any comparison between himself and a 'potemkin figure' pitched to conceal the real source of power. No such comparison had been made.

However, with no translator or historian to hand, Assembly members were forced to ask their questions all over again.

And frustrated as he was with the assembly's apparent ignorance of medieval and Crimean military history and their relevance to London government, Boris switched instead to his ever-trusty stock of Latin proverbs, none of which seemed to do the trick.

Eric Wimp or Bananaman

But as both the assembly and the audience started to drift off, the BNP's Richard Barnbrook pulled out a banana and began to chomp away. But unlike Eric Wimp, this act of defiance did not appear to have any visible transformative effect.

In fact when a City Hall official politely asked him to put the fruit away, he rose not like Bananaman to battle, but sank Wimp-like into a pliant concession.

But when his turn finally came to ask his questions, London's favourite fascist didn't disappoint. Due to ask a question on 'black cab drivers' (he wants more white ones) Barnbrook instead decided to thank Boris for having 'taken race out of the Rise festival'.

The Chair Jeanette Arnold, who has become a figure of hatred on far right bulletin boards since Barnbrook's election, ruled the point out of order and the assembly moved on. But when Barnbrook got his second chance to speak, he completely lost his rag.

His question on crime rates and Afro-Caribbeans was initially more third rate than Third Reich as he attempted to frame it as being asked out of concern for his 'black constituents'.

But when Boris replied that 'Londoners will be thoroughly dismayed by this racist breakdown' Barnbrook suddenly turned red and began to shout and thump the table.

And as he continued to rage and ignore the ruling of the Chair, all pretence of him being a serious politician peeled away. And as the session slipped by, the audience were left with little more than the off-colour sight of the BNP's very own Mr. Bananaman.

Tory Troll

Barnbrook shunned by London's youth

The British National Party's most powerful serving politician was stood up today by 100 young people he had arranged to meet at City Hall.

Last Sunday Richard Barnbrook visited Sidcup to recruit young people affected by the murder of Robert Knox. After returning from the visit he wrote on his Telegraph hosted blog that:

'I have invited all of the young people there to come down to City Hall this Tuesday for 9:30 in the morning. This knife crime has to be stopped. If I have to bring a 100 young people into Boris's office then that is what I will do.'

Yet as I stood waiting for the legions of Nazi youth to turn up, it soon became clear that nobody had taken him up on the offer. In fact from when I arrived at just before 9.00 until when I left at just after 10.00, not a single young person came to join Barnbrook and his aides outside City Hall.

Because the BNP have boasted that Barnbrook's election is the latest step of a 'quiet revolution' that will bring them to power. But as I saw Dick shuffle silently back into City Hall, it became clear that this quiet revolution had just got that little bit quieter.

The Tory Troll

Barnbrook stokes fears after teen murder

BNP assembly member Richard Barnbrook travelled to the scene of a teenager's murder on Sunday, to exploit racial tensions within the community.

Speaking to camera next to friends of the murdered teenager Robert Knox in Sidcup, South London, Barnbrook said that:

"This is a sickening situation and it is primarily down to people coming to this country... the majority 75% (of murders) are done by ethnic minorities and when only 33% come from ethnic minorities, the figures speak for themselves."

After his visit Barnbrook wrote on his Telegraph hosted blog:

"Well let me tell you that times are changing. This is our city and we are going to take it back. We are going to take all the weapons of (sic) the streets even if that means sending in the Army to do it... if immigrants don't like it then they know where the airport is."

At the end of a half-crazed ramble that takes in everything from therapists to the SAS, Barnbrook writes that he will be holding a meeting at City Hall of '100 young people' today at 9.30am and that 'if I have to bring (them) into Boris's office then that is what I will do."

He then gives out what is presumably his own mobile phone number and asks readers to contact him if they want to attend.

So do you want to meet Richard Barnbrook? Do you want to Watch the Wally at work? If so, you can call him any time of day or night on 07869 243129 and he will try and get back to you.

Thanks to The Tory Troll for the heads-up

City fool: Barnbrook carries BNP baton into the London Assembly

Richard Barnbrook is the hero of the moment in the BNP. Party members are waxing lyrical about “Richard the Lionheart” in an attempt to draw a veil over their patchy electoral performance in the rest of the country. But he is a man of many failings and destined to disappoint those who put him in the London Assembly.

Richard Barnbrook was never going to get very far as the British National Party candidate for mayor of London. The only reason he stood was to enhance the party’s chances in the London Assembly, where it only needed 5% of the London-wide vote to win a seat.

In doing so he came to personify the BNP, a status he intends to maintain. Interviewed on the Monday after the results were announced, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, revealed that Barnbrook’s ambition now was to make sure that the two people everyone at City Hall knew were Boris Johnson (the new mayor) and himself.

He nearly came unstuck. During the campaign he pumped for all it was worth the glamour of his engagement to a principal dancer with the English National Ballet, though he had to explain that Simone Clarke did not wear the diamond engagement ring he claimed to have given her because it had been stolen in a burglary, and was never seen at his side because she was spending time with her four-year-old daughter in Leeds after being away on tour.

The truth was that she had already departed from both the ENB and Barnbrook. Their relationship, and his campaign, cannot have been helped by the revelation in the News of the World the Sunday before polling day that at the same time he was proposing to Clarke, he was telling a Finnish nurse that he would like to marry her and have children.

Annika Tavilampi claimed that Barnbrook spotted her on an online dating site. He started sending her sexual texts and pictures of his private parts right away and asked her to send explicit pictures back. She fell for him but drew the line at appearing on a BNP election leaflet as an example of an NHS nurse who supported him.

Then two days before election day, the Daily Mail revealed that Barnbrook, 47, already had a wife to whom he had been married for ten years. Their marriage had broken down because of his “rotten politics” and she had then joined the Metropolitan Police to do some good in the world and, in part, to make amends for him.

She told the Daily Mail that they had married in early 1998 when she saw the sculptor, who had trained at the Royal College of Art, as “a great artist”, but his views had become very extreme around 1999. They eventually separated four years ago, though their divorce is not yet absolute. “He used me and he has admitted it and apologised,” she said. “He owes me a lot of money and is just starting to pay me back.”

Barnbrook always insists he is not a racist, although there was apparently an “awkward scene” when his brother invited his black girlfriend and her daughter to his parents’ house one Christmas. The relationship with Clarke gave Barnbrook the opportunity to demonstrate his tolerance. Her daughter is of mixed ethnicity, the result of a relationship with a Cuban-Chinese dancer. Even after they split up Barnbrook was keen to tell journalists that he would fully accept the child when they got married, despite the BNP’s policy of opposing interracial families. Yet he already knew full well he would never be the girl’s stepfather – which was a lucky escape for her.

Barnbrook’s place on the London Assembly comes two years after he was elected to Barking and Dagenham Council and became the BNP’s group leader, a position he has now relinquished to his deputy, Robert Bailey. But he should never have been there.

Before the 2006 local elections the BNP realised it had enough support to win seats on the council but no willing candidates. So Barnbrook and Bailey, who recently admitted that he had lied in claiming that the BNP secured 5,000 new homes in the borough, rented an uninhabitable flat above a cake shop to get an address in the borough. They then put their names on the electoral register days before electoral nominations closed. This was illegal because they were not actually living there.

It was only at the end of 2007 that Barnbrook admitted that he had been living in Lewisham, southeast London, all the time when, in response to jeers of “get back to Lewisham” at a council meeting, he announced that he had handed the keys to the property back the previous week. According to the News of the World Ms Tavilampi helped him with the move to Dagenham last December and found a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf under his bed.

It turned out that Barnbrook’s reluctance to move from Lewisham was because he was occupying a council property. The BNP always feigns concern about the lack of council homes but his duplicity had deprived a Lewisham family of accommodation.

Barnbrook was quick to gain a reputation for incompetence and lies in Barking and Dagenham. The 12 BNP councillors form the official opposition yet nearly a year after they were elected, they not only failed to put forward any budget suggestions but boycotted the Assembly meeting at which the Labour budget was to be considered.

Challenged, they claimed they were not given time to go through a bulky budget report or the chance to ask questions. In fact they were offered every assistance from council staff and the chance to attend a briefing session. They then spread misinformation in a leaflet to residents.

This year they did put forward a minority party budget, which proposed millions of pounds of cuts to council services, targeted mainly at old people, children and the staff of the borough’s human resources department.

Challenged at the Assembly meeting to explain how he would achieve his cuts and the effect they would have on services, he was completely unable to do so. Nor did he do any better in the written replies he offered to save him further embarrassment on his feet. It became evident that he knew next to nothing about how the council was structured and how services were provided. Nor did he have any concern for council employees or employment law, declaring: “the BNP is not going to burden taxpayers with redundancy payments”.

When it all got too much for him he retorted stupidly: “the Director of Finance permitted this to be presented, therefore, given his Accountancy qualifications, we trust that these are figures and proposals that can be worked with”, and in similar vein: “I suggest you ask the Chief Executive to help you if you want to compile figures so that you can copy the BNP’s good ideas and claim them as yours”.

In fact the borough’s Chief Financial Officer had previously expressed concern in writing that the BNP’s budget would compromise the council’s ability to deliver services it was legally obliged to provide. Barnbrook had failed to understand or deliberately ignored this.

One of the main powers of the London Assembly is that it can amend the Mayor’s annual budget. Barnbrook has shown that he hasn’t the faintest idea of council finance or how a council functions.

That did not stop Griffin saying “As Richard has already been a council group leader he already understands how councils work”.

Griffin wasted no time in explaining how the BNP would use Barnbrook’s position. Referring to City Hall, where the Assembly is housed, Griffin claimed: “I can walk in there when I like” (no doubt with his indispensable “minder” – security please note) and said they were working on getting several BNP members onto the staff to support Barnbrook.

He was especially impressed with the “enormous research library” where he hoped to find out all about the “discrimination” against “our people” – the “indigenous” people of Britain.

Griffin dismissed concern that City Hall staff would boycott his man, saying they have so far been friendly and professional. Nevertheless Lee Barnes, the BNP’s “legal adviser”, has already dashed off a rambling letter under Barnbrook’s name to the Standards Board for England, which regulates councillors’ conduct, complaining that the Labour and Conservative leaders in the Assembly had warned him to expect no cooperation from other parties and a possible staff boycott.

Richard Barnes, the Conservative Assembly leader, declared: “The BNP will have problems finding secretaries and getting support from the staff here, and I will totally support people’s right to say they don’t want to serve them. Len Duvall, the Labour leader, said: “Richard Barnbrook will have pariah status”.

That decent people do not want to be seen near him was apparent at the announcement of the results of the mayoral election, in which he polled a mere 2.8%. When it was his turn to speak, several other candidates walked off, leaving an obviously tired and emotional Barnbrook to slur his way through a belligerent speech quite inappropriate for the occasion. People who have the misfortune to come up against Barnbrook in Barking and Dagenham say that this is his usual condition.

Naturally the BNP was full of praise for the speech, a video of which appears on the party website.

As an Assembly member Barnbrook, who celebrates St George’s Day by parading around Barking on a horse dressed in armour and accompanied by a green fluffy dragon, will receive a salary of £50,582. No doubt he will come under pressure to make substantial donations to the BNP, something the party has previously said it would expect of anyone elected as a BNP MEP. His soon-to-be-ex wife will look for payment of his debts, but he may have enough left to indulge his polygamous interests and hone his appearance, which is noticeably modelled on Hitler.

A bigger waste of public money is hard to imagine.

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