Anti-BNP work earns award

Teaching union official Jason Hill has won a national award for his efforts in campaigning against the rise of the BNP and other far-right groups in Stoke-on-Trent.

He has been presented with the inaugural Blair Peach award, named after a National Union of Teachers (NUT) member who died during an anti-racist demonstration in London on April 23, 1979.

Jason organised a vigil against an English Defence League demo in the Potteries last year and also campaigned to stop the BNP gaining a Parliamentary seat locally. He is the president of both the Stoke-on-Trent division of the NUT and of North Staffordshire TUC.

Jason, who used to teach visually impaired pupils, was presented with the award at the NUT's annual conference in Harrogate.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: "It is right and proper that the NUT should pay tribute to the vital contribution being made by our members in combating prejudice and discrimination. We are proud of the work our members do and delighted that Jason Hill has won this year's award."

This is Staffordshire

Cloak-and-dagger day with the BNP – a party in crisis

This year was a far cry from 2008 when 300
BNP members, including Nick Griffin, held a rally in Stoke

Deserted manifesto launch signals election disaster

The low-key launch of the BNP's English manifesto in a deserted Stoke-on-Trent shopping street yesterday was in marked contrast to previous events held by the group in the area. In 2008 the city played host to a 300-strong BNP rally; only around 30 members turned up yesterday.

With three volunteers holding up modest Union flag backdrops to ensure they did not blow over during the speech by the deputy leader Simon Darby, and press interviews held in the corner of a giant retail centre car park, the event was notably different from last year's general election campaign launch. Then, a man dressed as St George appeared with the leader Nick Griffin in Stoke to begin the party's ill-fated push for a Westminster seat. Mr Griffin was unable to attend this time due to poor health, leaving the floor – or rather pavement – for Mr Darby to address his small gaggle of followers.

He called the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband an "alien", a "reptile" and a thoroughly "odd-looking bloke", and accused Labour of gerrymandering the council ward boundaries to reduce the BNP's presence.

Michael Coleman, one of five BNP councillors in Stoke, said its nine-page policy document was intended to stop an "invasion and occupation by a foreign body of people", lauding it as "exciting, positive and uplifting".

All members present denied they were racist, but anti-Islamic rhetoric dominated the short affair, with Mr Coleman claiming white folk will flee the area because they are intimidated by the building of a mosque. "They've got no right to be in this country and everybody knows it," he said.

Mr Darby portrayed the BNP as the underdogs and claimed some of its supporters faced prison for their beliefs. He professed his delight to be out campaigning on a "sunny English day", but it appeared yesterday that the BNP's moment in the sun could be coming to an end.

It is expected to field about 200 candidates in next month's elections, compared with more than 700 in the comparable campaign in 2007, and faces losing all the seats that it is defending. Following its relatively poor general election showing, the BNP has been riven by internal strife, including a failed challenge to Mr Griffin's leadership. Some disaffected former BNP members have defected to the English Democrats, while others have set up a breakaway party, British Freedom.

Matthew Goodwin, of Nottingham University, an analyst of far-right politics said "Their situation is very grave. Even in their core areas, the BNP are struggling to find candidates."

Independent

Funding blow for Stoke-on-Trent community project

A community project aimed at uniting people from different backgrounds across Stoke-on-Trent could be axed because of a lack of funding.

The One World Project educates young people against the prejudices associated with asylum seekers and refugees. It was set up by Stoke-on-Trent’s Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) following racist incidents in schools. But the Migration Impact Fund which covers its costs has now been scrapped, leaving the future of the initiative in doubt.

Charlotte Laws, Children’s Cohesion Worker at Stoke-on-Trent Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB), said: “With the BNP on our local councils and even boards of school governors and the EDL gaining momentum throughout the area, the loss of this project can only lead to a return to a culture of fear of and antagonism towards these groups of people.”

Chou-Chou, a refugee from Africa, visited Silverdale Community Primary School in Newcastle-under-Lyme this month and shared his story with the children.

Deputy headteacher of Silverdale Community Primary School, Mrs Blaney told Staffslive: “It was really useful because it enabled our children to meet someone who had suffered from war and fled their country to escape persecution. After hearing his story the children can form their own opinions instead of listening to the news or reading newspapers.”

The One World Project was given an Award for Bridging Cultures (ABC) from the Institute of Community Cohesion.

Ms Laws said: “We create a way in which young people can encounter asylum seekers and refugees and hear their experiences in the hope that the stereotype associated with them can be changed. Telling others their stories is more valued than what people read or hear in the media.”

Now it’s in jeopardy after the Conservatives scrapped the Migration Impact Fund which provided the scheme’s funding. They are set to visit five more local schools by the end of the month thanks to temporary funding from Newcastle Partnership.

Ms Laws is hoping to restart the project at the beginning of next year as a standalone not for profit venture.

Staffs Live

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Teenagers arrested after Stoke mosque set on fire

Police detain three men and a woman and describe arson attack as racially-motivated crime

Four teenagers were arrested yesterday after an arson attack on a Staffordshire mosque – described by police as a racially-motivated crime. The fire began at a newly-built mosque in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, at 6.30am. Police detained three men and a woman in their late teens. Firefighters were called after smoke was seen coming from the mosque. Police said they were investigating a link between the attack and damage to a nearby gas main.

The mosque was not seriously damaged. Chief inspector Wayne Jones said: "We are treating this as a racist attack on a religious building."

He added: "I am sure the community are as appalled as we are at this behaviour. I would appeal for anyone with information to come forward. Local neighbourhood police officers are meeting with members of the community to keep them informed and to address their concerns and obvious anger about this criminal incident."

A police spokesman said that the four people who were in custody were to be questioned by detectives and police were reviewing CCTV footage from the area as well as making house-to-house inquiries. Mohammed Pervez, leader of Stoke-on-Trent council, called the attack an "irresponsible and reckless" act. "This is a very serious incident," he said. "City council officers are working closely with the police to assist them in their inquiries."

Pervez urged anyone with information about the incident to come forward as soon as possible.

Racial tensions in Stoke-on-Trent were inflamed after the city became one of two key battlegrounds for the British National Party during local council elections in May. The party currently has five city councillors. Ethnic minorities make up around 7% of the city's population.

Guardian

Ellie Walker: 'Joining the BNP was misguided and it's a racist party'

Ellie Walker: 'misguided' to have ever been a member of the racist BNP

The wife of the city's former BNP leader has launched a scathing attack on the "racist" organisation after joining another political party.

Councillor Ellie Walker has become a member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new Community Voice group after several months spent as a non-aligned councillor. Mrs Walker quit the British National Party in March, along with husband, and former group leader, Alby Walker. But Community Voice leaders told Mrs Walker they would only accept her if she issued a public statement distancing herself from the far-right party.

And the Abbey Green ward member, who was elected as a BNP councillor in May 2007, has now said: "I was misguided to have ever been a member of the BNP and admit that I was part of an organisation that held racist views and that my association with the BNP reflected badly on me personally. During my time as a councillor, working closely with the community and all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I have come to realise that the views of the BNP are wrong."

Mrs Walker also revealed her daughter-in-law is Sri Lankan, and that her grandchildren are of mixed race. She added: "While a member of the BNP, I realised that it was not what I thought it was, with many individuals only interested in hate and lies. Stoke-on-Trent is a fantastic, diverse and tolerant place to live and represent [and], if it is to move forward, it must continue to be so."

Community Voice's lead spokesman, Councillor Mick Salih, said he had no problem accepting Mrs Walker's application to become the party's sixth member. He added: "Community Voice despise and is totally opposed to the BNP and everything it stands for. Racism, indeed any discrimination, has no place in a modern, tolerant city like Stoke-on-Trent. Ellie has put all that behind her and earned admiration from all political parties across the city council when she not only left the BNP but exposed the hidden extremism."

The addition of Mrs Walker to the fledgling party makes it the fourth largest group on the council. It is behind 26-member Labour, the nine-strong City Independent Group and the eight-member Conservative and Independent Alliance. It is also now one place ahead of the five-member BNP group and the four-strong Liberal Democrats.

Current BNP group leader Councillor Michael Coleman said he was aware of Mrs Walker's move to Community Voice, but was sceptical about her denunciation of her former far-right connections. He said: "This has to be the biggest political conversion in the history of Stoke-on-Trent – to go from hard right to hard left. I have known Ellie a long time and all I can say is that her views fitted in well with the BNP and she was an outstanding councillor for us. I wish her well in her new group, but I don't accept any of her accusations about our party. She was elected on a BNP ticket, and I do wonder whether voters in her ward will accept her conversion or feel betrayed by it. I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."

This is Staffordshire

BNP husband avoids jail after growing cannabis

The husband of BNP city councillor Melanie Baddeley and his nephew have avoided being sent to prison after admitting growing cannabis in rooms concealed in a lock-up garage.

Four mature and 20 young plants were found by police executing a search warrant at the premises at the back of Park Avenue, Wolstanton. The street value of the potential yield of the drugs grown by Clifford Mark Baddeley and Simon Peters was estimated to be between £5,540 and £23,740.

Yesterday North Staffordshire Magistrates' Court heard that when officers went to the lock-up they noticed a strong smell of the Class B drug. Lynn Warrington, prosecuting, told the court: "During the search officers found a door inside the lock-up cleverly concealed behind a bookcase. When the door was opened they discovered three rooms, including a growing room and a drying room. Also there were fans, filters, plant food and transformers."

The premises had been used originally by Baddeley to fix washing machines to sell on, but that came to an end following a burglary there. Baddeley told police both he and Peters liked to smoke cannabis but had recently been receiving poor quality drugs. Both defendants told officers that they never intended to sell any of the drugs.

Baddeley, aged 49, of Holehouse Road, Abbey Hulton, and Peters, aged 36, of Aegean Close, Trentham, both pleaded guilty to producing four mature and 20 young plants between November 1 last year and January 21.

They were both given a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months, with a six month curfew order from 9pm to 6am. Magistrates ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the plants and equipment and told each defendant to pay £85 costs.

Andrew Bennett, defending both men, said: "The defendants are uncle and nephew. They grew cannabis for their own use. Baddeley had arthritis, he could not work and used the drug for pain relief."

Mr Bennett said as a result of this matter and a previous conviction of cultivating cannabis in 2002 his client had now stopped taking cannabis and was being prescribed pain relief. Mr Bennett added: "He (Baddeley) said the case was of concern to him because his wife was a parliamentary candidate. Peters used the drug primarily as a relaxant. They both now wish to move on without it."

After the hearing Baddeley's wife, BNP city councillor Melanie - who contested the Stoke North seat - in the General Election, told The Sentinel she had no comment to make.

The Sentinel

Stoke-on-Trent BNP councillor in Nazi salute row

Steve Batkin (pictured above on the far-right, so to speak)

A BNP councillor has appeared on an anti-BNP website holding a Union Jack flag – standing next to three men doing a Nazi salute on a War Memorial in Stone. Cllr Steve Batkin, who has served the Bentilee ward since 2003, has said he was attending a funeral and he has not had contact with the men since.

Maurice Cousins is the Deputy Editor of ‘Nothing British’, where the image is currently appearing: “We thought this was disgraceful considering the British National Party dresses itself up in the flag and in the honour of those who have given their lives in this country. This man was elected in 2003, what is this man still doing there?”

Cllr Batkin defended his actions – saying it was down to the other men’s “drunken youth”. “You’ve got a few seconds to think and when someone just puts their hands up in a few seconds and a fascist salute, basically you’re trapped. We’ve all said things in the past, including Nick Griffin himself, where we regret some of the things we’ve said and some of the situations we’ve been in. Nevertheless I do not condone right wing people doing right wing salutes and dressing in a cult. It’s counter-productive and it doesn’t help the BNP one bit. That’s how drunken youth react at times when they’re rebellious, they might do silly things.”

Stoke BNP leader Michael Coleman does not condone Batkin’s actions and doubts that the matter will be taken further within the party. “I’d like to denounce it, it’s not part of the BNPs philosophy. I don’t want to represent those ideas, but it was 8 years ago and it was a different world back then.”

Ex-BNP councillor Alby Walker, who left the BNP to stand as Independent, said that Cllr Batkin is not an exception and this is why he left the BNP: “I shall make it my job now to expose to the public what the true face of the BNP is, what’s behind the scenes rather than the public persona they’re putting on at the moment. The true face of the BNP behind closed doors is quite different to what you will see publicly and that’s coming from the horses mouth. These are some of the reasons I had to move away from the BNP. I did try to change the image but obviously it’s still lurking in the background.”

Staffs Live

BNP - Nick Griffin Humiliated in Barking!

Click here to watch the video of the result being announced

Because of the involvement of the BNP, the 2009 European elections were effectively a referundum on British attitudes to immigration and multi-culturalism. In the Euro 2009 election, 94% of British voters actively voted against the BNP! Despite this, the BNP still chose to run over 300 candidates in the General Election on May 6th, 2010. All the BNP candidates failed, nearly 90% lost their deposits, and the BNP were even defeated in their strong-holds of Barking and Stoke, failing to achieve the historic breakthrough they'd predicted and failing to gain any elected MPs. In fact, the historic breakthrough went to the Green Party, who successfully achieved their 1st MP.

British people rejected Oswald Mosley's Fascism before, during and after World War 2, and rejected the National Front in the General Election of 1979. British voters have now conclusively rejected the BNP - twice; and there is no doubt that the BNP's defeat is a huge victory for the complementary strategies employed by modern Anti-Fascists.

Respect is due to Hope not Hate, One Million United Against the BNP, Nothing British About the BNP, Love Music Hate Racism, Unite Against Fascism, the Centre for Social Cohesion, Scotland United, Lancaster Unity, Antifa, Liverpool Antifascists, Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance, Unity Web Ring and MANY others, to all Interfaith and liberal religious groups, to all Anti-Fascist campaigners on Facebook and You Tube, and to the millions of decent people who lend their support to Anti-Fascist campaigns.

Non-aligned, freelance, no-budget and DIY web activism played an important (largely unacknowledged) role in informing a new generation of voters about the dangers of supporting the BNP. As someone who dedicated 2 years to doing exactly this, for the record I don't vote Labour, I'm highly Euro-sceptic, and while respecting and learning from other cultures is important, I believe UNITY is more important than diversity, and would not support any extreme form of multi-culturalism where different races live side-by-side without any form of reciprocal integration. I also agree some sensible immigration controls are necessary in modern society.

Nick Griffin pretends "the establishment" only acknowledged the need to debate immigration because the BNP placed this issue on the agenda. In fact immigration has been hotly debated for decades before the BNP existed, and the BNP's direct forerunner - the NF - was formed by Nazis to EXPLOIT fears about immigration, to cynically sneak Nazi racism into mainstream politics. The BNP are right that some people are reluctant to discuss immigration for fear of being branded "racist", but the reason people have that fear is because of the decades of violence that NF and BNP thugs inflicted on immigrants. In other words if debate about sensible, non-racist immigration controls is lacking in the UK it is because of the disgusting actions of the NF and BNP!

bnpinfo

BNP wipe out - THANK YOU

It is almost unbelievable. But the stain of far-right politics has been wiped off the face of Barking and Dagenham. Not only was the BNP thoroughly beaten in the general election, the council lost 12 councillors. This means the number of councillors left on Barking & Dagenham council went from 12 to 0 overnight.

We cannot thank those who made this possible enough. Huge respect goes to Nick Lowles, Matthew Collins, Sam Tarry, Caroline Alabi and all those who have worked so tirelessly organising activists against the BNP in the Borough for many months. And huge thanks to almost 1,300 people who have volunteered valuable time over the course of the election - in Barking & Dagenham (where we put out 130,000 pieces of literature), and in Stoke-on-Trent - where the BNP were also humiliated.

We have had brilliant support from pensioners, black and Asian voters, white voters, young voters, women and men. On Monday 385 people delivered 55,000 leaflets and even on polling day we had 175 people out knocking up the vote. We also had huge moral and financial support from hundreds of thousands of people across the country, and fantastic support from the Mirror which kept us all going.

As ever our celebrity supporters have been magnificent, from Billy Bragg, Eddie Izzard and Speech Debelle, to the casts of The Bill, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, plus too many more to mention. Thank you one and all - you've done a wonderful thing.

Mirror

Dissent derails Stoke BNP election campaign

Alby Walker: could not stand the BNP’s nazis and Holocaust deniers

Simon Darby, the deputy BNP leader, once promised that he would never desert the people of Dudley North, where he had stood in previous elections. In January he did just that.

He had set his sights on the more winnable constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central. Over the past few years Alby Walker, the Stoke BNP council group leader, had given the BNP a measure of respectability, gradually gaining nine council seats and ‘setting the party on the road to ‘taking control. This steady progress has now been derailed. Darby and Nick Griffin, the party leader, in their rush for glory pushed Walker aside and declared Darby the candidate. Walker stood down as branch organiser shortly before Christmas causing the local party to fracture.

Wary of Walker’s popularity in the local BNP and the local community, the BNP cautioned its followers not to attack him. Darby damned him with faint praise on his blog, claiming that Walker had endorsed his campaign and would act as his election agent. However, on the day Darby launched his campaign Walker threw a spanner in the works with an announcement that he had left the BNP and would stand against Darby as an independent. The gloves came off. Darby began impugning Walker’s reputation, insinuating that the local Labour party had bought him off.

On a regional BBC programme Walker stated, “there’s a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They’ve still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have nazi, naziesque sympathies.”

He also accused Griffin of using the BNP “as some kind of vehicle to make himself rich and famous”. He added later that the BNP insisted its candidates undergo training on how to answer questions about the Holocaust, aware that its antisemitism was its Achilles heel.

The BNP responded viciously, stating that Walker had jumped ‘before he was pushed because of his “pressing mental health issues”, an accusation that is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes the world over. ‘It also insinuated that Walker was a former football hooligan. The statement was quickly removed from the party website but the damage was done. Ellie Walker, Alby’s wife who was also a BNP councillor, declared herself independent. It was to be expected, stated Simon Darby though gritted teeth.

Walker’s resignation has seriously affected Stoke BNP. In 2008 the party fielded a record 11 council candidates; this year it has only six, two of whom are councillors seeking re-election. Michael Coleman, who took over ‘from Walker, conceded that he had approached 25 people to contest the 20 available city council seats for the BNP but most declined.

“I have had a bit of a falling-out with people over this and it has caused a rift within the group,” Coleman admitted. “We thought we would be able to ‘put up about 14 candidates this year. The Alby Walker situation has also damaged us to a degree, as some of the people who would have stood for us have left because they feel he has been treated badly.”

Only a few months ago the BNP looked likely to emerge as the dominant force on a fractured city council. Instead, having found only four new candidates, Coleman is squandering one in an act of petty spite by putting him up against ‘Alby Walker in Abbey Green in an attempt to damage Walker’s chances of re-election. The remaining BNP councillor in Abbey Green, Melanie Baddley, enters the general election, in which she is contesting Stoke North, with her reputation tarnished following the arrest of her husband over an alleged drugs offence. He is currently on police bail.

Stoke BNP also has to contend with the emergence of the England First Party (EFP) in the city, which is giving disgruntled former BNP activists a vehicle for their discontent. Coleman dismissed it as “just vengeful hatred” from former members “directed against myself and possibly a few others in the BNP”. No doubt he is incensed that Spencer Cartlidge, once a regular BNP candidate who left before the 2008 elections, is challenging BNP councillor Anthony Simmonds in Weston and Meir North.

Another EFP candidate, Mark Leat, is a former BNP councillor for Longton North who was sacked from the BNP and subsequently defeated, but is contesting the ward again. The BNP could not find anyone to stand ‘against him. The EFP is also contesting Fenton, where the BNP polled 36.1% ‘in 2006 but is not standing this time. This, perhaps more than anything else, is indicative of the turmoil within the BNP in Stoke.

Searchlight

Shit Through My Letterbox

It's not everyday Nick Griffin writes to me begging for cash, but that's exactly what he's done. This morning thousands of BNP leaflets polluted Stokie letter boxes with their usual mix of lies and hate.

As most readers will be aware, the posties' union, the CWU has agreed a conscience clause with Royal Mail management that allows postal workers the right to refuse delivery of offensive material. As a racist, fascist organisation that would like nothing better than to see "Marxist" trade unions ground beneath the jack boot, the BNP have always fallen foul of the conscience clause. To get round this, the BNP have bundled their pathetic pleas for cash in an unbranded envelope featuring a glum, elderly couple and the legend "Ay up duck, thar's sum rate gud stuff fer Stokies in 'ere" (pictured). Don't be surprised if they use a repurposed envelope elsewhere.

There's no need to dwell on the begging letter itself, except to say Nazi Nick must think Stokies are as thick as his minions if he wants us to swallow the whopper that "tens of thousands of pensioners freeze to death in winter, even here in Stoke" (underlining theirs).

NB: The BNP have provided a free post envelope with their material. I'm only sayin'.

A Very Public Sociologist

BNP members 'hold Nazi principles'

As the BNP launches its London election campaign, a former party activist tells Channel 4 News some of the party's members have Nazi-esque tendencies.

The BNP faced protest this week as it launched its electoral campaign at the Home Office's main immigration centre in Croydon, in south London. The BNP activists stood their ground despite the anti-fascist demonstration, and delivered their message.

Councillor Bob Bailey, the London campaign manager for the BNP, said: "Immigration is the second biggest issues facing the politicians and government of this country. We are here to day to break the silence."

This is a crucial time for a party trying to capitalise on winning two seats in last year's European elections. But allegations of inner-party feuding have threatened to hit the party in areas such as Stoke on Trent and Barking which is seen as central to the BNP's campaign. The working class majority in Stoke on Trent are disillusioned by the old political order - in the mid 90s all 60 councillors here were Labour, now they number just 14.

Which is why it mattered when Alby Walker - former group leaded for BNP councillors in Stoke on Trent - resigned four months ago. He is now standing as an independent in this election.

"There's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP," Mr Walker told Channel 4 News. "There are people with Nazi-esque tendencies that do support Nazi principles."

Mr Walker said that he was aware of the controversy sounding the party when he joined but said he was "assured from the highest level by Nick Griffin and Simon Darby, the deputy leader… that the BNP was taking a new direction and people like that wouldn't be tolerated."

"But after being there for seven years I noticed that the same people were still there or hanging round in the background.

A BNP official has described Alby Walker as a disillusioned individual who's struck out for himself. But in London in recent weeks another BNP councillor has split from the party after a dispute with a fellow activist.

"It is the same old racist, right-wing party," former BNP councillor for Havering, Mark Logan, told Channel 4 News. "I'm not going to be used as a political vehicle to make Nick Griffin rich and famous."

Nick Griffin is hoping to gain a seat in Barking in east London, where the party polled 17 per cent at the last election. If they do not win a seat at Westminster, it is not inconceivable they could take control of the council in Barking, as its proclamations on immigration strike a chord with many in the area. The party is quick to reject any claims of Holocaust denial and racism, and has little time for talk of inner-party turmoil.

"Out house is very much in order," Cllr Bob Bailey told Channel 4 News. "The party's funding is increasing year by year. The membership is increasing year by year. The amount of people we put forward at every level at elections is increasing year by year. The mainstream parties are adopting out policies now. We are shaping the political conversation of Britain now."

The BNP is due to publish its manifesto next week.

Channel 4

Struggling in Stoke

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

Stoke-on-Trent is meant to be a jewel in the crown for the BNP - why else would they parachute Simon 'Stoke - is that near Barking?' Darby into the Stoke Central constituency?

However, with the publication of the nominations for the City Council elections (also on May 6th) we can see that the wheels are not so much coming off, as bouncing through the hedge at the side of the road!

All twenty City Council seats have a single seat up for re-election. Labour and the Conservatives are fighting all 20. Liberal Democrats 19. Independents (Stoke has lots of different Independents) 18. UKIP 10.

And the BNP? Six candidates. Six. Three of whom are existing sitting councillors. Hardly a sign of strength.

And in Darby's 'target' seat of Stoke Central, supposedly the second-best BNP prospect in the whole of Britain, they are contesting just three of the seven wards. No normal political party would consider failing to field a full slate of local election candidates in what is supposedly a key target constituency. But then, as we all know, the BNP is not normal.

There's a further interesting detail. One of the six towns which make up the City of Stoke-on-Trent is Longton. Its two wards (North and South) have long been considered the BNP's heartland in the area. It elected the first BNP councillor in 2002. In 2007 Griffin himself attended the Stoke count because he expected Longton North to become the first ward in Britain to elect a full slate of BNP members in three consecutive elections (they didn't). In 2008 they polled 25.8% in North; 19.4% in South.

And in 2010 they are contesting neither seat!

Meanwhile, in the Abbey Green ward of Central they face their own former group leader (Alby Walker); in Weston & Meir North (South constituency) they face an EFP candidate. The local elections are going to be rather overshadowed by the general election, but the results in Stoke-on-Trent could prove to be very interesting on May 7th.

'There is real risk from BNP here'

Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP, claims
his election in Stoke-on-Trent 'would send shock waves'

A statue of Josiah Wedgwood one of the titans of the industrial revolution and a prominent anti slavery campaigner stands guard at the entrance to Stoke-on-Trent train station.

The brooding figure is a reminder of the city's industrial past when its name was synonymous with pottery and ceramics. But Stoke's industrial might is a distant memory and the constituency is at the centre of one of the most fascinating contests of the election.

The British National party, which says it is fielding a record 326 candidates, is focusing most of its resources on two seats - Barking in east London and Stoke Central, where the party's deputy leader, Simon Darby, is standing.

"There is a real threat from the BNP here," says Nick Lowles from the anti-fascist Searchlight as he puts the finishing touches to one of 80,000 Hope Not Hate newspapers to be distributed across the city. "The stakes could not be higher. Four weeks from today we could be looking at our first BNP run council and there is the possibility that the party could gain an MP here and in Barking."

The BNP has seven councillors in Stoke and its campaign has been helped by a local Labour organisation beset by infighting. Last week the television historian and Guardian columnist Tristram Hunt was parachuted in as Labour's candidate - reportedly at the behest of Lord Mandelson. Local activists were horrified and one, Gary Elsby, announced that he is to stand as an independent.

That, combined with the social and economic fallout - unemployment is running at almost 9% and the number of people with no qualifications is twice the national average - has helped create what one Labour activist said should represent a "perfect storm" for the BNP.

"A city in long term economic decline, a Labour party in disarray and the BNP already an established force on the local council - it should be a gift," he said.

However there are signs that the far right party is struggling. Last weekend the rumblings over Nick Griffin's leadership burst into the open when the publicity director Mark Collett was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him.

The BNP said Collett, a long term confidant of Griffin, had been kicked out for attempting to launch a "palace coup" and on Monday a meeting was hastily convened to discuss the party's future.

In Stoke the sense of a party at war with itself is not helped by Alby Walker, who led the BNP on Stoke council for four years before suddenly announcing his resignation earlier this year.

Walker said he had decided to stand as an independent in the general election because of a "vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They've still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have Nazi, Nazi-esque sympathies".

Since then another BNP councillor - Walker's wife - has left and the National Front, long a thorn in Griffin's side, has announced it is planning to stand a candidate in the city.

But Darby denied that the party was floundering. He said Walker had "been got at" and described the arrest of Collett as an internal matter. "It is either going to be Labour or me," said Darby, who was pictured arriving at a right wing conference in Milan last year greeted by men giving a one-armed fascist salute. "This is a second front we have opened up and we think that we have a chance of causing a shock here."

As he delivered leaflets on a pre-war housing estate in Blurton area, Darby said the main issue in the city - where 93.5% of the population are white - is the influx of immigrants.

"They are genetically modifying this area, they are bringing in people with a different genetic make-up," he says stuffing another leaflet through a letterbox. "My election would send shock waves and would stop these people coming in," he said.

In the Jumpz cafe in the shadow of Stoke town hall, Alby Walker says it is this sort of attitude that persuaded him to leave the party he joined in 2002. "They are obsessed with race and are good at stirring up trouble but don't really have any answers. I couldn't even say a black football player had played well for fear of being ridiculed. As I went along I realised I was more interested in the community side of politics - getting things done - I just wish I had come to my senses a couple of years ago."

Tony Walley, managing director of an aluminium company, has been following the twists and turns of politics in Stoke on his blog Pits n Pots. He says Walker's decision to leave the BNP will hurt them. "He was the one who did on the real bread and butter community politics - helping pensioners on the estate, getting people's gardens sorted that sort of thing. There was never any talk about race or immigration."

Walley says Labour will also be hit by the defection of Elsby, others suggest he may squeeze the BNP vote by giving another option to disillusioned Labour supporters.

However things fall in this fractured political landscape, where up to 11 people are expected to stand, Walley is adamant that it will be New Labour's fault if the BNP do get in. "Come election night I think this constituency is going to be one of the most interesting to watch."

Among those paying close attention will be the volunteers and political activists who make up the Hope not Hate campaign based in east London.

From its base in a vast "war room", the organisation has built up an email list of 142,000 people, 20,000 who are actively involved in campaign against the BNP - delivering leaflets and manning phone banks. "A lot of people are disillusioned with the party politics but we have found - particularly among younger people - a real desire to get involved and do something to stand up to the BNP," said Lowles who is heading up the campaign. "But it is all about what happens in the next four weeks and how many people we can get out to take the fight to the BNP."

Back in Stoke, Tristram Hunt is getting to grips with the realities of a general election campaign. Armed with bananas and a take-away sandwich he listens in a cramped campaign office as Rob Flello, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, gives a frank explanation of where Labour has gone wrong in the city.

"A lot of our councillors let down the communities that they were supposed to represent," said Flello. "As a party we took our eye off the ball in Stoke ... We have had a period of naval gazing but now we have got huge energy here now and we are getting out there and taking the fight to the BNP."

Hunt, who has been criticised for being an outsider with a public school background that may alienate the core Labour vote, nods in agreement. When Flello leaves to start another round of canvassing Hunt says that it is only the "political commentators and blogs" that are interested in his background.

"On the doorstep you can get through to people and they are not concerned about all that - it is simply about jobs and getting investment and permanent, secure employment."

And how will he take on the BNP? "By pointing out what a disaster it would be for the city. What teacher will want to come and teach here, what lawyer will want to come and work, what company will want to come and invest?"

Guardian

Politician lodges complaint over BNP using wife's photograph

The former leader of the British National Party in Stoke-on-Trent has lodged a formal complaint against four party members

Councillor Alby Walker, who quit the BNP in February, made the complaint to Stoke-on-Trent City Council's top legal officer.

Mr Walker alleges that current BNP group leader councillor Michael Coleman and BNP councillors Philip Sandland, Steve Batkin and Anthony Simmonds breached the members' code of conduct. The allegation relates to recent campaigning ahead of elections. It states party activists distributed a newspaper, with a picture of Mr Walker's wife without permission.

Councillor Ellie Walker left the party last month to join her husband as a non-aligned councillor. She said at the time that the BNP leadership had mounted a smear campaign against her husband, who is running against the far-right party's national deputy leader, Simon Darby, for the Stoke-on-Trent Central Parliamentary seat in the General Election.

Mr Walker said: "This complaint arises from the BNP distributing 18,000 newspapers with Ellie's photograph prominently displayed on the front page, promoting BNP policy, even though at the time she was not part of the BNP group. The four BNP councillors were identified as delivering this newspaper by several residents and two serving city councillors."

Mr Coleman told The Sentinel the BNP distributed the newspapers at the end of March, and he was not aware at the time Mrs Walker had left the party.

The Sentinel

BNP councillor admits BNP Nazism

Former BNP Stoke councillor Alby Walker was widely acknowledged to be a popular and relatively capable councillor in the BNP strong-hold of Stoke on Trent. After several years involvement right inside the BNP, Alby Walker gained detailed insights into the internal workings of Nick Griffin's party, and into the true motives of the BNP leaders. In this video Alby Walker speaks openly about what he found in the BNP, and he should be congratulated for having the courage and dignity to share what he learned.

Thanks to UKfightback for the heads-up

Former Stoke-on-Trent British National Party man criticises party

Alby Walker and Porky Griffin in happier times

A former leader of the British National Party (BNP) in Stoke-on-Trent has criticised his old party as he prepares to fight it in the general election. Alby Walker said "there's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP".

Mr Walker will stand as an independent parliamentary candidate in Stoke-on-Trent Central and face the BNP's national deputy leader, Simon Darby. Mr Darby said the chances of Mr Walker becoming an independent MP for Stoke-on-Trent "are zero".

Mr Darby said: "It should be obvious to everybody that this is somebody who's a bit disillusioned with the party, as many people within other parties become disillusioned, struck out for themselves and want to become an independent candidate."

Mr Walker told the BBC's Politics Show in the West Midlands: "There's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They've still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have Nazi, Nazi-esque sympathies."

Mr Walker had been in the BNP for eight years and was leader of the group of nine BNP councillors on Stoke-on-Trent City Council until he quit in January.

BBC

BNP 'blocked' Asian man's membership

The BNP have told an Asian businessman that his application to join the party will be blocked, he said today

Mo Chaudry, 49, had wanted to join the far-right party to "fight them from the inside". The businessman, from Newcastle-Under-Lyme in Staffordshire, said he was seeking to take advantage of the enforced change to the party’s constitution to expose them.

BNP members voted to admit black and Asian people last month when the party was threatened with an injunction by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Pakistan-born Mr Chaudry, who is worth £60 million, runs a string of businesses around Stoke-on-Trent, which has eight BNP members on the city council. He is a star of the Channel 4 programme The Secret Millionaire, in which rich benefactors go undercover to find good ways of using their money.

He said today: "I debated with the BNP’s deputy leader Simon Darby on BBC Radio 5 Live and he told me that my application would be blocked. How can you be more discriminatory than that?"

He added: "People are not racist in Stoke-on-Trent and I have never experienced racism in my time here but the city council has eight BNP members. The good people that don’t vote need to get off their backside and change things."

The EHRC is considering the changes the BNP have made to their membership rules and will be back in court on March 9. EHRC has threatened legal action if the rules are still considered discriminatory.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

EDL rally bill £200k so far

Taxpayers have been left with a £200,000 police bill from last month's English Defence League demonstration in the centre of Hanley. And the Staffordshire force has warned the figure will rise further when all the bills are paid.

The estimated price of policing the demonstration currently stands at £196,631, but that is expected to rise once overtime hours are calculated and invoices from outside forces are totted up. The cost of bussing protesters from Stoke Station to Hanley has alone been put at £3,700.

Six hundred officers, including some from other forces, were used on January 23 to contain an estimated 1,300 EDL protesters and 400 counter-demonstrators. Subsequent scenes saw 17 EDL members arrested and six police officers injured.

But Chief Inspector Peter Hall from Stoke-on-Trent division, said: "Our intelligence-led approach to this operation ensured we utilised only the minimum resources necessary to deal safely with what was the most significant of events of this type."

By comparison, football clubs contribute towards crowd control and last year Port Vale paid £50,000 towards its policing bill. Government figures show that it cost £3.2 million to police 13 Premier League clubs in the 2007/2008 season. Staffordshire Police Authority member, and Stoke-on-Trent city councillor, Clive Brian said: "Policing is expensive and, on that particular day, the resources were needed."

Mr Brian said the cost would be met from cash reserves. He added: "Ultimately, the bill will be with the taxpayer."

The EDL protests also left businesses out of pocket. The Sentinel has reported how some experts claim £100,000 of trade could have been lost after shoppers avoided the area. Phil Ball, from Bucknall, believes the Reginald Mitchell pub should help pay the bill after it became the official gathering point for EDL members. The 49-year-old, who queried the cost of the operation with Staffordshire Police, said: "I'm surprised it cost so much, but the police did very well and must be given credit."

A spokesman for pub chain JD Wetherspoon, which runs The Reginald Mitchell, said at the time they were told the EDL intended to meet at the pub and plans were made accordingly.

The Sentinel

Violent English Defence League thugs attack lone Police Officer

The EDL constantly say immigrants should respect "our laws", and, guess what... they're right! Why is it then that the EDL refuse to respect our laws themselves?

This video shows a copper (in the yellow hi-vis tunic) being knocked over during a surge of EDL protestors in Stoke on Jan 23. That might have been a genuine accident, but how did these brave law-abiding patriots respond? They punched, kicked and stamped on someone when he was down. One protestor (in the brown jacket) defended the copper while other EDL supporters steamed in to continue the attack - an attack on someone who happens to be a member of the same police force we rely on to protect us from the terrorists the EDL set themselves up to "oppose".

If these idiots had been defending themselves against an unprovoked police attack that might have been fair, but in fact the EDL draw their core support from networks of football hooligans who define their lifestyles around a love of violent crime, so it's hardly surprising people who sing songs celebrating 1960s cop-killer Harry Roberts are totally hypocritical when they talk about respecting British law. No surprise then that EDL co-founder Paul Ray praises the terrorist and mass-murderer Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair and that EDL protestor "Wigan Mike" Heaton was arrested for inciting the murder of Jews in a major police anti-terror sting.

What did the EDL Stoke protest achieve? It tied-up 600 police officers for an entire shift, who could have spent those 4,000-odd man-hours being deployed against terrorism and fighting crime!

Video courtesy of The43Group
Text courtesy of bnpinfo

Thanks to CY2290 for the heads-up.