BNP leader "infiltrates" West Bromwich St George's Day parade

Nick Griffin surrounded by his usual entourage of thugs

The appearance of BNP leader Nick Griffin at a St George’s Day parade proved the event was being infiltrated by right wing extremists, it was claimed today.

Mr Griffin and his deputy leader Simon Darby were among up to 20,000 people who turned up at the parade through West Bromwich yesterday. The far-right politicians claimed to be there in non-party political capacity and were without any party paraphernalia, but they both attacked Sandwell’s Labour council for severing its ties with the event over fears it had been hijacked by extremists.

Councillor Derek Rowley, Sandwell’s cabinet member for safer communities, said the pair’s attendance proved the council right in its decision to cut funding for the march, which last year stood at around £10,000. Instead, the authority organised its own fun day this year in Dartmouth Park with Keith Chegwin top of the celebrity billing on Saturday.

He said: “Clearly the parade has been infiltrated by right wing extremists and they were bound to say they weren’t being political.”

Mr Griffin said: “I’m here as an Englishman, not to be party political.”

The attendance of the far right politicians came after an alleged leak of a BNP “war book” calling on extremist skinheads to cover-up their shaven heads in a bid to look more respectable.

Trevor Collins, from parade organisers the Stone Cross St George’s Association, said he couldn’t prevent Mr Griffin from attending the march.

“We couldn’t say to Tony Blair ‘you can come’ and then say to someone else ‘you can’t’ - because then we’d be being political,” he said. “If they come without being party political, then there’s nothing we can do - it’s a democracy.”

He added: “It doesn’t matter what colour you are or where you’re from, what matters today is what’s in your heart. It’s about being English.”

The parade was rescued after local businessman Chris Kelly, from Keltruck, stepped forward with a promise of cash to fund the parade’s legal requirements such as insurance, security and road closures.

Celebrity guests on the march, which started at around 10.30am in Westminster Road, included journalist Adrian Goldberg, former West Bromwich Albion footballer Bob Taylor and marathon runner “Blind” Dave Heeley. Heading the march were armed forces veterans including retired parachute regiment soldier Gordon Griffiths, from Walsall.

The 83-year-old, who served in Italy, Palestine and Egypt among others between 1945 and 1950, said: “It’s been smashing - I marched all the way. Everybody’s been cheering and had their flags out.”

Inspector Howard Lewis-Jones was drafted in from the West Midlands Police HQ in Birmingham to oversee more than 40 officers keeping law and order on the day, which ended with a fair in Dartmouth Park. He said: “It’s gone extremely well. It’s been very well organised right from the speeches at the start to the march itself.”

He added that a small number of cans of alcohol had been confiscated.

Birmingham Post

Hope not Hate update: Day nine

This was the big one. A staggering 221 people delivered over 45,000 newspapers in the BNP's strongest area outside Barking & Dagenham. It was a truly inspiring day and an excellent start to the election campaign.

The Sandwell anti-BNP day of action might have been scheduled for Sunday 1 April but the work for this event had begun much earlier in the week. Over the last few days teams of activists had been bagging up the 50,000 newspapers into street walks, preparing food and information sheets. When we arrived at the African-Caribbean Resource Centre in West Bromwich we were greeted by the fruits of this work. Ten tables had been laid out, each containing newspapers for a specific ward. Everyone was signed in and a minibus ferried people across the borough.

It was a model of organisation.

The Mirror's Hope not Hate bus arrived at the centre at 10.15, a quarter of an hour before the day was advertised to start. However, by now, 61 people had already arrived and were off out leafleting. The All Nations Steel band, from the Albion estate in West Bromwich, set up in the hall and created a great atmosphere as more people poured in.

The bus moved off to the Great Bridge market where the steel band and Billy Bragg performed to shoppers while other people distributed newspapers. Several shoppers remarked that they had already received the newspaper through the door that morning. It was good to know that people were at least registering our material.

We knew the BNP would not be happy with our newspaper. While all our other editions carried a positive front page the people in Sandwell decided to have a more aggressive approach. 'Gangland Sandwell – what is the BNP councillor hiding' was the frontpage headline. The story went on to explain how the leader of the BNP council group, Jamie Lloyd, had his pub closed after a series of violent incidents, including a shooting and a machete attack, yet he refused to cooperate with the police, even withholding vital CCTV footage. What was more strange was that Lloyd had been the target of these attacks.

As the band played in the market the BNP began to arrive. First two women, then a 4x4 full of blokes. They sneered and stared, paraded their dogs and glared, but there was simply nothing they could do.

Back at the centre food was being served. Unfortunately the vegetarian chilli had been forgotten, which caused a bit of consternation amongst the vegetarians who were offered a plate of salad. However, Gurinder, a long-time friend of Searchlight, came to the rescue, ringing around the local Sikh temples and restaurants and soon pan loads of vegetable curry appeared.

Over 100 people went out for a second leafleting session and soon we were able to dismantle the tables. It was a great feeling seeing the huge piles of stuffed plastic bags disappear. To round off the day the Steel Band performed again and then Billy Bragg, who had been out leafleting twice, did a turn. The audience was fired up and dozens of people offered their help for the forthcoming campaign.

It is days like these that make all the hard work worthwhile.

Hope not Hate