The local election campaign in West Cumbria has been one of the most underhand in the areas history and this is almost entirely due to the presence of the British National Party who have simply lied and lied and lied during the course of the campaign.
At this time last year, before I was really involved in anti-fascism, I would probably have agreed if someone had told me that the BNP were a party that used dodgy tactics against opponents and during election but I underestimated this. I have been amazed at the dishonest, deceitful tactics the BNP have used in what is essentially an unimportant local council election they admit they have no chance of winning.
Let's examine the various smears, outright lies put out by the party as well as their tactics.
First came an email from a guy called Nigel Williamson who said he had read the leaflet we put out in Cockermouth and wanted to get involved in campaigning against the BNP. He wanted information on leaflets, meetings and the general activities we do. This sounded a bit suspicious so we asked to meet him before giving him any information and he agreed to meet us straight away. Apparently, he was keen to get involved and gave us his mobile number so we could keep in touch.
Funnily enough though, he cancelled the meeting at the last moment and stopped answering our emails. A few days later the list of candidates for the local election were announced. Surprise, surprise, guess who the candidate for Great Broughton is? Nigel Williamson, a man who is in the running for the worst attempt at infiltration since a guy turned up at the Kremlin wrapped in an American flag asking if he could join the KGB.
Not bothering with trying to take on Maryport Against Racism politically and having failed to infiltrate the campaign the BNP decided to start lying. In Ewanrigg, Elbra and Netherton they put out a leaflet telling voters that Maryport Against Racism is a front for the Labour Party because the co-ordinator of the group is standing as a candidate for the Labour Party, in an area the BNP aren't standing in, and because another Labour councillor is a member of the group.
What they didn't mention is that the secretary of the group is standing for the Green Party in these council elections, that one of the people who helped set up the group (me) is a member of the Socialist Party who are standing candidates against Labour all across the country and that the treasurer of the group supports the Liberal Democrats. In addition to that, most of the groups members aren't a member of any political party.
Why let the truth get in the way of a good smear though?
Then came the claims about the Cumbria Seafoods factory. I've posted on this before but the main point was that the BNP were saying that since the fish factory employed migrant workers it was taking away jobs from local people. Shortly after this claim it emerged the factory was closing and shifting production to the North-East. And why were they doing this? Because there are not enough workers locally to expand the factory. So much for migrant workers taking away jobs, in reality there weren't enough workers to justify the town's largest employer staying in Maryport.
Finally, came the disgusting smears about the co-ordinator of Maryport Against Racism Jonathan Wood. These have been spread around the town and posted up their national website.
Not only is the article illustrated with pictures nicked from Woody's website and the Times and Star, (wonder if they'll end up on Redwatch), but it contains a lot of info about Woody that I never knew at all even though I've known him almost 16 years. Apparently, he has been arrested 3 times since 2004 for drug offences, arrested in 2006 for stealing a car, joy riding under the influence of drugs and alcohol then vandalising a fence at Jennings Brewery. This information came from a former school-mate of his at Netherhall School. All news to me.
Maybe though, it was news to me because it isn't true. Woody was never at Netherhall School, he went to Cockermouth School. I was there for 7 years so I would have noticed if he was. So much for the source of their information. It's all news to the local police as well who will confirm that Woody doesn't have a criminal record. Funny that, isn't it. They also neglect to mention that the only time he ever went to court the prosecution dropped the case because they felt there was 'no case for him to answer'. The whole article is simply one big lie.
Oddly enough, they neglect to mention in the same article that Martin Wingfield has been arrested and has a criminal record.
The BNP even contacted the local papers to try and get this nonsense printed and have complained when they 'refused to report it'. Maybe they refused to report it because it wasn't true? Much as the BNP would like the local papers to repeat their lies, the Times and Star are too smart for them.
However, they don't want the truth to get in the way of a good smear. BNP members and supporters have been busy spreading the news all over the internet, desperate to try and discredit a campaign that has gathered around 40 registered supporters in 6 months.
It hasn't taken very long for the local BNP to show their true face.
There are a few interesting things I've learnt about Martin and Tina Wingfield over the course of the election campaign but I won't stoop to their level and post them online.
The Nation of Duncan
Showing posts with label Wingfield. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wingfield. Show all posts
May 03, 2007
May 01, 2007
Catching up with the latest BNP news snippets
South Wales Evening Post accepts paid ad from BNP
Journalists at the South Wales Evening Post were incensed today when they found out that the paper had accepted a paid for election advert from the BNP. Protests were lodged with senior management and questions were asked about why it had been accepted. The journalists were told that as it was legal and paid for as part of the election it could not be stopped and that anyone who wanted to complain should take it up with the editor - who returns from a foreign trip today.
Everyone is incensed that we only found out about it only a few hours before publication - close to the end of a shift for many people and after much of the paper had been laid out - and had no effective means of challenging it at that stage. However, journalists are looking at ways of taking this issue up with management, including the idea of taking out an advert from journalists and staff on the paper on election day itself.
In the meantime, we would ask people in Swansea to assist us in showing Post management that accepting adverts from the BNP will not be welcomed by staff at the Post. In particular many journalists rightly feel that it undermines their journalistic credibility and reporting of these issues. It will certainly lower the standing of the paper in the eyes of many people in Swansea.
As well as the acceptance of the advert can give credibility to the BNP's claim that they are somehow legitimate by standing in elections like any other political party.
Could as many people as possible do the following to assist the journalists in the Post who are campaigning against this advert being placed.
Write a letter to the paper taking up the BNP and arguing against them. Although the paper is no longer taking letters about election issues, enough letters going in could force the paper to print them after the election. email: HaveYourSay@swwmedia.co.uk or to Have Your Say, Evening Post, Adelaide Street, Swansea SA1 1QT
Send letters of protest to the editor Spencer Feeney on spencer.feeney@swwmedia.co.uk or to the Post's address which is Evening Post, Adelaide Street, Swansea SA1 1QT - This can also be done directly by the website. Other senior editorial staff such as the news editor can be emailed via this site as well.
Send copies of any letters of protest to Mike Witchell at witchglen@btinternet.com
The switchboard number is (01792) 510000 and the Swansea newsdesk is (01792) 514606. Their website is www.thisissouthwales.co.uk
UAF
BNP hoists distress signal
BNP members are becoming increasingly dejected at the success of the Hope not Hate campaign. An article on the BNP website by Martin Wingfield, editor of the BNP's newspaper The Voice of Freedom, reveals that in Maryport where he and his wife Tina are standing for election, "Labour have successully [sic] worked all the nursing homes and sheltered housing in the wards for their postal votes and this has probably given them an unassailable lead".
He goes on to warn: "To all those working so hard in preparation for Thursday's big poll, please don't be unrealistically over-optimistic about your results".
Hard work is what it is all about. Where we have distributed our Hope not Hate leaflet, we have had a good reception from voters. Local Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, and others, who work their wards properly, as Labour has done in Maryport, can defeat the BNP. Thursday – polling day – is nearly here but every hour of campaigning still counts.
The Wingfields demonstrated their pessimism to voters. Their literature stall placed in front of scaffolding in Maryport was adorned with a large Union Flag. It was upside-down. Flying the flag upside down is "lese-majesty", which means insulting the Crown, and is theoretically still a crime in the UK. It can however be flown upside-down as a distress signal.
Hope not hate
BNP man on false firearm charge
A British National Party candidate standing for election to Walsall Council has been charged with possessing an imitation firearm.
Dominic Bugler, 38, of Avon Crescent, Pelsall, appeared at the town's magistrates court on Monday. Mr Bugler is the BNP's candidate in the Pelsall ward for the local elections taking place on Thursday.
He has been remanded in custody to appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 8 May. More as (or when) we get it.
BBC
Journalists at the South Wales Evening Post were incensed today when they found out that the paper had accepted a paid for election advert from the BNP. Protests were lodged with senior management and questions were asked about why it had been accepted. The journalists were told that as it was legal and paid for as part of the election it could not be stopped and that anyone who wanted to complain should take it up with the editor - who returns from a foreign trip today.
Everyone is incensed that we only found out about it only a few hours before publication - close to the end of a shift for many people and after much of the paper had been laid out - and had no effective means of challenging it at that stage. However, journalists are looking at ways of taking this issue up with management, including the idea of taking out an advert from journalists and staff on the paper on election day itself.
In the meantime, we would ask people in Swansea to assist us in showing Post management that accepting adverts from the BNP will not be welcomed by staff at the Post. In particular many journalists rightly feel that it undermines their journalistic credibility and reporting of these issues. It will certainly lower the standing of the paper in the eyes of many people in Swansea.
As well as the acceptance of the advert can give credibility to the BNP's claim that they are somehow legitimate by standing in elections like any other political party.
Could as many people as possible do the following to assist the journalists in the Post who are campaigning against this advert being placed.
Write a letter to the paper taking up the BNP and arguing against them. Although the paper is no longer taking letters about election issues, enough letters going in could force the paper to print them after the election. email: HaveYourSay@swwmedia.co.uk or to Have Your Say, Evening Post, Adelaide Street, Swansea SA1 1QT
Send letters of protest to the editor Spencer Feeney on spencer.feeney@swwmedia.co.uk or to the Post's address which is Evening Post, Adelaide Street, Swansea SA1 1QT - This can also be done directly by the website. Other senior editorial staff such as the news editor can be emailed via this site as well.
Send copies of any letters of protest to Mike Witchell at witchglen@btinternet.com
The switchboard number is (01792) 510000 and the Swansea newsdesk is (01792) 514606. Their website is www.thisissouthwales.co.uk
UAF
BNP hoists distress signal
BNP members are becoming increasingly dejected at the success of the Hope not Hate campaign. An article on the BNP website by Martin Wingfield, editor of the BNP's newspaper The Voice of Freedom, reveals that in Maryport where he and his wife Tina are standing for election, "Labour have successully [sic] worked all the nursing homes and sheltered housing in the wards for their postal votes and this has probably given them an unassailable lead".
He goes on to warn: "To all those working so hard in preparation for Thursday's big poll, please don't be unrealistically over-optimistic about your results".
Hard work is what it is all about. Where we have distributed our Hope not Hate leaflet, we have had a good reception from voters. Local Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, and others, who work their wards properly, as Labour has done in Maryport, can defeat the BNP. Thursday – polling day – is nearly here but every hour of campaigning still counts.
The Wingfields demonstrated their pessimism to voters. Their literature stall placed in front of scaffolding in Maryport was adorned with a large Union Flag. It was upside-down. Flying the flag upside down is "lese-majesty", which means insulting the Crown, and is theoretically still a crime in the UK. It can however be flown upside-down as a distress signal.
Hope not hate
BNP man on false firearm charge
A British National Party candidate standing for election to Walsall Council has been charged with possessing an imitation firearm.
Dominic Bugler, 38, of Avon Crescent, Pelsall, appeared at the town's magistrates court on Monday. Mr Bugler is the BNP's candidate in the Pelsall ward for the local elections taking place on Thursday.
He has been remanded in custody to appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 8 May. More as (or when) we get it.
BBC
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April 05, 2007
BNP targets Maryport in elections
Concerns that the British National Party was intending to target Maryport in next month's local elections have been confirmed.
BNP candidates will contest two Allerdale council wards in the town, including Ellenborough, which is held by husband and wife Martin and Janice Wood - the parents of teenage anti-BNP fighter Jonathan Wood.
They are being challenged by former town resident Martin Wingfield, who edits the BNP magazine, Freedom.
His wife, Tina Dorothy-Rose Wingfield, will fight the Ewanrigg ward, standing against sitting member Carni McCarron-Holmes and Carl John Holding, a Labour candidate who wants to replace retiring councillor, Pat McCracken.
The BNP is also fielding a candidate at Broughton-St Bridget’s, which takes in Great and Little Broughton, Brigham and villages around Cockermouth.
Nigel Williamson, a Great Broughton resident, will stand there against Tory hopefuls Adrian Paul Davis-Johnston and Eric Nicholson and Labour candidates John Ardron and Kenneth John McDonald.
Last month the BNP claimed it would not be standing in any Cumbrian constituency.
Paul Stafford, the BNP's Cumbria chairman, is to contest the Wigton seat. He is standing against Labour's John Crouch, independents George Scott and John Armstrong and Alan Hortin.
Times and Star
BNP candidates will contest two Allerdale council wards in the town, including Ellenborough, which is held by husband and wife Martin and Janice Wood - the parents of teenage anti-BNP fighter Jonathan Wood.
They are being challenged by former town resident Martin Wingfield, who edits the BNP magazine, Freedom.
His wife, Tina Dorothy-Rose Wingfield, will fight the Ewanrigg ward, standing against sitting member Carni McCarron-Holmes and Carl John Holding, a Labour candidate who wants to replace retiring councillor, Pat McCracken.
The BNP is also fielding a candidate at Broughton-St Bridget’s, which takes in Great and Little Broughton, Brigham and villages around Cockermouth.
Nigel Williamson, a Great Broughton resident, will stand there against Tory hopefuls Adrian Paul Davis-Johnston and Eric Nicholson and Labour candidates John Ardron and Kenneth John McDonald.
Last month the BNP claimed it would not be standing in any Cumbrian constituency.
Paul Stafford, the BNP's Cumbria chairman, is to contest the Wigton seat. He is standing against Labour's John Crouch, independents George Scott and John Armstrong and Alan Hortin.
Times and Star
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