Hope Not Hate: Our journey begins

Hope not Hate Daily Mirror anti-racism bus is back on the road

From the cobbles of Corrie to the corridors of power, the Daily Mirror's Hope Not Hate bus is hitting the nation's towns and cities to spread the message of anti-racism.

Following last year's successful celeb-backed campaign (check out the pictures from 2007 on the right), today we're revving up our bus for another 14-day national tour aimed at celebrating modern Britain. And where better to start than Liverpool, the European Capital of Culture?

This year's campaign has the backing of an array of big names, including Jamie Oliver, Joe Cole, Sir Alan Sugar, Sir Trevor McDonald and Amir Khan. As Sir Alan says: "Racism is bad for business and bad for Britain and that's that's why I'm supporting the Daily Mirror's Hope Not Hate campaign."

Over the next two weeks, our open-top Bristol Lodekker will visit many towns and cities, ending up in London on the day before the council elections on May 1. Along the way we'll drop in on soap stars, sporting heroes and politicians. And there will be exciting events to celebrate our country's rich culture - every thing from carnival dancers to brass bands, tikka masala to Lancashire hotpot.

We will carry the same message as last year - that modern Britain is a place of tolerance and diversity, where people of all races and religions can live and work together peacefully. As TV presenter Paul O'Grady says: "Support the Mirror's Hope Not Hate campaign - diversity is what makes this country special."

Every day a three-minute film will appear on the Mirror's website and on YouTube showing what we've been up to the previous day. You can also join our Facebook group to register your support. Never has that been more important than in the run up to the council elections. The far-right wants to divide us, spreading suspicion, fear and violence. The BNP - which doesn't even support the England football team because it has black players - wants to persuade people it is the patriotic party!

If you're proud to be British and to live in a diverse country that is the envy of other nations, come along and support our bus.

Daily Mirror

BNP's near-miss in East Midland by-election a warning to anti-fascists

Our local by-election reports have regularly stressed that despite entering into a long period of electoral stagnation, the BNP is still capable of pulling off some nasty surprises, and this week we have to report a very nasty surprise.

The sole by-election contested by the BNP last night was at Church Gresley, Swadlincote, which elects to South Derbyshire District Council. South Derbyshire is currently controlled by the Conservatives, who have a majority of seven over Labour (there is one Independent and no Liberal Democrat representation).

Swadlincote sits squarely within an area of the Midlands noted for delivering high BNP votes, as we discussed in our report on the Charnwood District Council Shepshed by-election and for this reason we must take a particular interest in the Church Gresley contest.

The ward itself, on the south side of Swadlincote, is held by Labour. At the May elections two Labour candidates contested against two Conservatives in a straight fight. The combined voting percentages were a mathematically neat 66.6% Labour, 33.3% Conservative. There was, then, a danger of the intervening BNP candidate feeding off the Labour vote, and that some Conservative voters, knowing that the Tories could not win Church Gresley, might be tempted to switch to the BNP.

Though the BNP has never previously fought Church Gresley, in May the party fielded two candidates for South Derbyshire DC seats. Because he BNP stood single candidates in multiple vacancy wards where the other parties ran two or more candidates, their results are open to interpretation.

Contiguous to Church Gresley is Swadlincote, contested in May by last night's candidate Richard Fallows. The BNP averaged vote came in at 22.7%, placing Fallows fourth ahead of three Conservatives and three Liberal Democrats. In next door Newhall and Stanton, the BNP's Paula Bailey took an averaged vote of 23.4%, and despite coming seventh of seven (three Labour candidates convincingly beat the three Conservatives) obtained the better result of the two BNP candidates.

The closeness of the BNP's May votes and the linear contiguity of Church Gresley with Swadlincote and Newhall and Stanton gives us some idea of the yardstick by which last night's result can be judged. The BNP will have aimed at 23% of the vote or better in a three-cornered (Lab/Con/BNP) contest in a Labour-held ward.

There is, as we must concede, no avoiding the fact that the racist party did very much better than that.

South Derbyshire D.C. Church Gresley ward result:

Lab	639	43.80
Con	304	20.84
BNP	516	35.37
Total	1459

Though the BNP clearly ate substantially into the Conservative vote, it was the Labour vote which suffered most from the BNP's intervention. Had the Liberal Democrats stood to further split the mainstream vote in Church Gresley we could very easily be reporting a BNP gain.

Exactly why the BNP in the East Midlands has been able to buck the trend of its own performances elsewhere is not readily obvious. The wards in which it has been doing well are little different demographically and socially from those in other parts of the country where it has failed to make headway. However that may be, there can be no doubt at all now that anti-fascists and the legitimate political parties have some serious work to do if the BNP is to be prevented from launching an East Midland-led revival.

One good result does not a summer make for the BNP - but we have been warned.

Don't look now - it's London BNP!

In ancient days of yore (the 1990s to you and me) the World Wide Web was awash with garish websites created by 15 year-old boys who had little to say but who wanted to say it VERY LOUDLY, and to that end in their thousands they downloaded their free copies of Netscape Navigator, which came with an inbuilt WYSIWYG HTML editor called Composer. Not loved at all by professionals, Composer had the quirk that it never closed paragraph tags, so there was always a gap between the main body of a paragraph and its last line. But with Composer you could create frames and nested tables to your heart's delight, and fill them out with ultra-bright colours and thick blocky text - et voila! there you were on Geocities with your own glaring web atrocity sitting at the end of a long and unmemorable URL that took forever to load.

Things moved on, of course - CSS and standards such as PHP came along to revolutionise web design, and coding in HTML alone became old hat, but thousands of those early abominations remain, hanging lifeless and forgotten on the Internet, relics of a by-gone era, testaments to rotten design and over-enthusiastic coding.

Unless you're the Old Major knocking up the online village newsletter on an obsolete copy of Frontpage you really wouldn't code that way today, not unless you had a real yearning for the 1990s and were determined to achieve that so not-in-vogue retro look - tables, frames, blocky text, screaming colours and all.

Or unless you're the clueless London BNP, which has managed - despite great obstacles (taste being one of them) - to come up with a website so dreadful that it really wouldn't look out of place amongst the worst of Geocities circa 1996. And that is saying something!

Now I'll let you into a little secret. Antifascist didn't want to write this up because he's colour blind. Unfortunately, so am I! It seems, however, that the person responsible for the London BNP's website suffers the affliction to a degree so unusual that even our enfeebled eyes watered uncontrollably as his melange of gaudy colour and stone-age design rendered on our monitors like a plateful of melting Smarties. A real blast from the Internet past, we speculated at length on whether or not the author of this dog's dinner was wearing a shell-suit as he tapped out his TDs, TRs, DIVs and non-breaking spacess, bolstered by the conviction that London BNP's website would proudly take its place alongside London Conservatives, London Labour and London Liberal Democrats and blow away their amateurish efforts.

Alas, the result of all that toil is a tawdry website that is an object lesson in irredeemably bad design and execution, the anithesis of everything a political website should be, striking only for its nausea-inducing effect upon the hapless visitor. With content (a word we use loosely) presented in thick black Times New Roman and written in the BNP's proprietory brand of mangled syntax ("There was several lefty-liberal types and local Muslims present..."), London BNP has come up with a website that is an instant museum piece, definitely one for the connoisseurs of all things tacky to pore over for hours at a stretch (maybe asking themselves, Why?).

Perhaps the only good thing to say about it is that in true retro fashion it has links to non-existent items, including a video of Dickie Barnbrooke addressing the London electorate. Mercifully, you don't get to see the video (it's non-existent, remember?) but you can ring Dickie to make a donation (not so retro there, then!), or you can click a link to make a donation. Or not, because the link leads to an empty page - not quite the thing you want when you've got an urgent £200,000 campaign appeal on the go.

The kindest response to the London BNP website that we've seen so far was posted on the nazi Stormfront forum: "Oh my Lord! My eyes! My eyes!"

It's hard to have sympathy with a Nazi, but we really do feel his pain...

Stalled - no by-election joy for BNP

A crop of local by-elections in the north-west of England and north Wales last night brought no cheer to the British National Party, which voters decisively rejected in four out of the five wards where it stood candidates.

So dire was the BNP's performance that at the time of posting nothing has been published on its main news webpage. Presumably its so-called news team are having problems working out how to spin the bad tidings. While the wait goes on the party faithful have been thrown a bone in the form of a gloating "analysis" of the UKIP's dismal performance on Thursday night. Tucked away on its "Regional Voices" page the article is entitled "UKIP’s week of unremitting woe" and speaks of a "hat-trick of disasters" for the anti-Europe party - epithets which might equally well be applied to the BNP's own showing, which the article (unsurprisingly) manages never to mention!

The only vaguely bright spot for the BNP came in Rossendale Irwell ward, where the party's percentage vote rose slightly over last May's. Irwell was the scene of the BNP's greatest efforts in Rossendale, where it also fought Goodshaw and Whitewell wards. From a base of 26.25% of the vote in May, the vote in Irwell rose to 27.55% - an increase of only 1.3%, giving the racist party third place and disappointing many members who believed the BNP could take the seat or at least come second.

Elsewhere in Rossendale, the BNP scored 7.52% in Goodshaw and 7.29% in Whitewell, where it has not fought previously.

In Liverpool Warbreck ward the party lost ground, having scored 4.72% in May, falling slightly to 4.47% on Thursday. While the BNP will plead that Warbreck is not suitable territory for a party of its type, the fact remains that Warbreck is exactly the kind of ward in which it should be making an impression if its claims to electoral progress are to have any validity. As it is the 146 votes and 4.47% garnered is little different from that obtained by racist parties in Liverpool in the 1970's.

The BNP's attempt to establish itself in Wales saw it contest Conwy Borough Council's Mochdre ward, to very little effect. Out of 663 votes cast the BNP gained a measly 35, or 5.28% of the vote.

While we accept the local factors and local personalities play an important part in local elections, what is abundantly clear from the latest crop of results is that the BNP's electoral stall - readily evident in the May elections - has become part of a fixed trend.

Earlier this month we reported on the Loughton Alderton ward by-election, where the BNP retained the ward by the skin of its teeth but suffered a 5% loss of votes, pointing out that though the party might crow about its "success" a 5% fall-off was a serious matter that could not be avoided or explained away.

The party's propagandists will have a harder time explaining away Thursday's poor performance, in which the only crumb of comfort was a 1.3% increase in a seat where they hoped for more. We have no doubt, however, that Griffin's men will come up with something plausible enough to reassure the BNP faithful in their continuing belief that, somehow or other, only with Nick Griffin at the helm will the BNP make electoral progress - despite the fact that by any standards, what Nick Griffin is presiding over can hardly be called "progress".

Results (percentages in brackets):

Goodshaw (Rossendale)

Lab 632 (59.40)
Con 300 (28.20)
LibDem 52 (4.89)
BNP 80 (7.52)

Total 1064

Whitewell (Rossendale)

Lab 399 (31.97)
Con 152 (12.18)
LibDem 606 (48.56)
BNP 91 (7.29)

Total 1248

Irwell (Rossendale)

Lab 379 (37.16)
Con 312 (30.59)
LibDem 48 (4.71)
BNP 281 (27.55)

Total 1020

Liverpool Warbreck

Lab 1796 (54.99)
Con 40 (1.22)
LibDem 1024 (31.35)
BNP 146 (4.47)
Ind 131 (4.01)
Green 45 (1.38)
LLCP 32 (0.98)
UKIP 52 (1.59)

Total 3266

Conwy Mochdre

Lab 303 (45.70)
Con 159 (23.98)
BNP 35 (5.28)
Plaid 166 (25.04)

Total 663

Swiss party accused of racist campaigning

Switzerland's biggest political party has come under fire for racist and xenophobic campaigning after its posters featured black sheep and its proposals to deport immigrants were likened by anti-racism campaigners to Nazi practices.

The nationalist People's party, which controls the lower house of the Swiss parliament, has run an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption "For more security".

The party, which controls the justice ministry and is part of Switzerland's coalition, is proposing a scheme to deport immigrant families if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offences or benefit fraud. It claims immigrants, which make up 20% of the population, are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals.

The party is trying to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on the scheme. If approved, the law would be the only one of its kind in Europe. The party is also preparing for October elections, in which it is likely to retain its position as Switzerland's leading party.

Üli Maurer, the party's president, said: "As soon as the first 10 families and their children have been expelled from the country, then things will get better at a stroke."

Ronnie Bernheim, of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism, said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft, or kin liability, whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally. He said the majority of Switzerland's immigrants were law-abiding. "If you don't treat a complicated issue with the necessary nuance and care, you won't do it justice," he said.

The UN special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, asked the Swiss government for an explanation over the adverts. Earlier this year, Mr Diène published a report criticising the "racist and xenophobic dynamic" in Switzerland and warning that political parties were taking advantage of tensions over national identity.

The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Social Democrat, called the posters "irresponsible" and liable to incite racial hatred.

The city authority in Geneva, where the UN has its European headquarters, has also protested. But the People's party's hardline stance on crime and immigration is likely to boost its vote.

Guardian

'Racist' letter sent to church

A racist letter has been sent to members of a Lancashire church.

The vicar and several parishioners at St Leonard's Church in Penwortham have been contacted by a group calling themselves the Preston Pals, which has links to the far right BNP. The letter asks the church to support their "cause" and stand up for Preston's Christian population. They have previously leafleted residents in the Watling Street Road area of Fulwood peddling their opinions over proposals to replace the local mosque.

Vicar Nick Mansfield said he was shocked and upset that the church in Marshalls Brow had been targeted by the group, which has links to the British National Party. He told the Evening Post that the group – based in Plungington – may have obtained their addresses from a parish newsletter or from the Blackburn Diocese directory. He condemned the senders of the letter as having "not a very Christian attitude".

He added: "To target people of another faith in this way is ludicrous. This letter has the potential to stir up a lot of ill-feeling in the community. We are at a loss as to why they picked this church. One of the people who received this letter has been left very upset by its contents. It is evil and we will definitely not be supporting this."

Fr Timothy Lipscomb, vicar of Preston Minster, added: "It's totally incredible that people should write letters like this believing them to be true. The letter is racist. But, unfortunately, some people are ignorant and still hold these views."

The Preston Pals was the name given to 7th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment which fought and died on the Somme in July, 1916, during the First World War.

Lancashire Evening Post

Top Tory's blog on BNP is cleared

More than 180 complaints against Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne's blog criticism of the British National Party (BNP) have been officially rejected. The Mid and West Wales AM was cleared by a Welsh assembly standards committee inquiry after a post in February. More than 180 complaints were registered about the comments.

Mr Bourne, who believed the complaints were politically orchestrated, called it a "victory for common sense and a victory for the right of free speech".

"I stand by every word I made about this organisation and its supporters. I have no intention of apologising for making them. I am delighted that the standards committee rejected these complaints out of hand. To condemn the language I used against this organisation would have sent out totally the wrong message from the National Assembly. I believe the National Assembly has today sent out a strong message that it will not tolerate such prejudice as we seek to build a fair and tolerant society."

During the recent assembly election campaign Mr Bourne joined a cross-party campaign to promote tolerance and diversity in Wales.

AMs and candidates backed the Wales Friends of Searchlight's Hope not Hate campaign against discrimination.

BBC News website

Uefa tells referee to abandon U-21 final if racist abuse erupts

Uefa is willing to have the European Under-21 Championship final abandoned if there is a repeat of the racist behaviour from Serbian supporters which marred their group match against England.

The referee Damir Skomina has been reminded that he has the power to call an instant halt to tonight's match between Serbia and Holland, while European football's governing body has warned that it will operate a policy of zero tolerance against racist behaviour.

Uefa was forced to make an anti-racism announcement during England's 2-0 win against Serbia last Sunday, when the Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha was subjected to racist chanting and gestures from a section of supporters.

Serbia have now contacted their supporters to warn them of the possible consequences if any of Holland's black players are abused.

"They [Serbia] have gone out of their way to ensure a few idiots don't spoil the final," said Uefa's director of communications, William Gaillard. "Our president has made it clear that zero tolerance applies to the final. There is no problem for the referee to stop the game and there would be sanctions as well. We are prepared to take drastic measures. We hope it won't come to that but we are ready. This is supposed to be a celebration of football and we will not tolerate any racism."

The Dutch are concerned that the tournament could be overshadowed by the issue of racism while their coach, Foppe de Haan, has been quoted as describing Serbians as "a bit racist". The president of the Serbian Football Association, Zvezdan Terzic, has urged Serbian supporters to "control themselves".

Speaking to the Serbian TV station B92, he said: "For all their enthusiasm and patriotism, our fans must understand that outbursts of nationalism and racism will only cause damage to our football and our country's reputation."

Holland's captain, Ron Vlaar, will miss the final after a knee ligament strain and is likely to be replaced by Arnold Kruiswijk. The defender limped off during Wednesday's semi-final against England which ended in a 13-12 penalty shoot-out win.

Guardian

Anti-racism music festival moves to Finsbury Park

The anti-racism music festival, 'Rise: London United', which going to take place on Clapham Common in South London on Sunday July 15, will now take place in Finsbury Park, North London.

The decision to the change the venue was taken in order to ensure the scale and range of activities at Europe's largest anti-racist festival could be maintained.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "Although we wanted Clapham Common to host this year's Rise: London United, it would have been necessary to reduce the number of stages and the event would have been smaller.

"I hope we can stage the festival on Clapham Common in the future. In the meantime, in a period when even greater numbers need to show they are opposed to racism, I would like to invite people living in south London, as well as across London to come Finsbury Park on 15 July, to reinforce the message that all Londoners stand together and will not accept racism in the most diverse city in the world."

Cllr Lib Peck, Cabinet member for environment and culture on Lambeth Council, said: "We fully endorse the Rise festival and while it is a shame that it’s not possible to hold it in Lambeth this year, the council supports the decision to move it to Finsbury Park.

"It became clear that the festival was too large to be held safely on Clapham Common without scaling it down, so the decision to move it was sensible and the right one.

"I hope as many people as possible from Lambeth will still attend the festival to show, as Londoners, their support for harmony and diversity and abhorrence of racism in all its forms."

Rise: London United is a free event backed by the Mayor of London, Trades Union Congress, National Assembly Against Racism and diverse community organisations.

This year's festival will feature a wide range of music, performance and other activities. Past performers include De La Soul, Graham Coxon, Common, Buzzcocks, Roy Ayers, Sway and the Wailers, with stages featuring African, Asian and Cuban music, Dub and hip hop DJs, comedy acts and the annual Poetry Slam organised in conjunction with the Poetry Society.

24dash

Anti-fascists targeting BNP campaign

Voters are to be targeted by an anti-fascist group working to keep the British National Party at bay. Members of the Bridgend Unite Against Fascism group will be handing out leaflets in the town during next weekend's continental market.

Spokesman Jeff Hurford said they wanted to raise awareness about the far-right BNP's bid for National Assembly seats. They also want to encourage residents to use their vote for one of the other parties because they fear apathy may gift the BNP a win.

A charity concert held in Bridgend Recreation Centre last weekend called Love Music, Hate Racism, raised £1,200 for the Unite group. The money will be put towards the cost of distributing anti-racism leaflets to every home in the Bridgend and Ogmore constituencies ahead of the May 3 election.

The BNP is putting up a record 20 candidates this year, with leader Nick Griffin making a bid for the South Wales West constituency seat.

At a meeting in Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, earlier this month, members of parties including Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, gave a commitment to fight the threat posed by the BNP.

icWales

LMHR compilation CD and new music video for schools

LMHR has teamed up with teachers’ unions and with musicians, campaigners, individual teachers and students, to develop accessible and engaging activities for schools which address and explore the issues of racism and fascism, and encourage those taking part to get involved in the movement to combat fascist organisations like the BNP.

This Spring we are launching two exciting and linked initiatives in schools and colleges. Both will help boost UAF & LMHR’s Don’t Vote BNP message in the run up to May’s local council elections. A new LMHR compilation album, compiled by Drew McConnell of Babyshambles, Lisa Moorish, and LMHR, will be produced and distributed free in schools across the UK. Those contributing exclusive tracks include The View, Roll Deep, Albert Hammond Jr., and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. The CD, which willl also carry anti-racism education resources in CD-ROM format will also be available from April. See also this story in last week’s NME about the LMHR CD.

One of the tracks on the CD, “Racist People” by Roll Deep, was specially written by the group following their experience of playing at LMHR’s Anthony Walker Tribute show in Liverpool. A music video for the track, aimed at promoting the LMHR message, is being produced by top music video directors PTE (Roll Deep, The View), and will be shot on location with young people and artists in Barking & Dagenham, Eltham, West Yorkshire and Stoke-on-Trent. The video has already been promised heavy airplay on music video channels MTV Base and Channel U, and will be shown at all LMHR school events.

If you’re a teacher or school/FE college student who’d like to do something to spread the LMHR message in your school, contact us using the form at the top of the page.

These initiatives build on existing successful LMHR schools work. Last year, we commissioned a 20-minute DVD, narrated by UN goodwill ambassador and Mercury Prize-winning musician Ms Dynamite and directed by Alan Miles, containing a potted history of anti-racism and anti-fascism in the UK over the last 30 or so years, along with artist interviews and exciting footage from LMHR concerts featuring major artists such as Hard-Fi, Kano, and The Clash. The DVD has been shown in scores of schools, colleges, workplaces and public meetings to great acclaim and has inspired many people to get actively involved in campaigning against racism and fascism. In the words of one teacher who organised a LMHR event at her school last year: “…the kids positively floated out of school that day. The anti-racist message was loud and clear within some of the lyrics written by our kids which was backed up in the judges comments. Also one member of Roll Deep gave a really lovely speech about what he felt racism was which I thought was really articulate and to the point. He put it into words that students could relate to..”.

We can provide campaign speakers and musicians to come into school to introduce the DVD and lead a discussion with pupils following viewing. We can also, in association with our sister campaign Unite Against Fascism, organise for expert witnesses such as Holocaust survivors and victims of racism to come in to speak with pupils about their experiences. We have also worked with many schools in organising their own Love Music Hate Racism concerts.

For excellent examples of LMHR events in schools, including press coverage and video footage, please see the following:-

National anti-racism campaign launched in schools
LMHR/NASUWT Schools Initiative Launch in Yorkshire at King James’s School, Knaresborough
LMHR Barking and Dagenham schools launch big success

LMHR

Hope not hate Update: Stop the race hate

The Sugababes on the bus of hope

The Sugababes broke away from their sell-out tour at the weekend to back the Daily Mirror Hope not Hate anti-racism bus campaign. The night before performing at Coleen McLoughlin's 21st birthday party in Cheshire the girls boarded the bus backstage at Birmingham's NEC.

Amelle Berrabah, the newest member of the group, said: "We were all always brought up by our parents not to judge people by their religion or the colour of their skin."

As a mixed-race band the girls are a great example of a modern multi-cultural Britain. Keisha Buchanan added: "To discriminate against someone because of the colour of their skin is completely unacceptable. There's enough hate in this world."

The bus was in the Midlands and the Potteries all weekend, visiting the NEC, Birmingham City Centre, Dudley and Stoke-on-Trent on its journey from London to Glasgow. Yesterday a special Hope not Hate action day was held at West Bromwich African-Caribbean Centre with food stalls, steel bands and a guest appearance by singer-song-writer Billy Bragg.

Local boys UB40 also lent their support to the campaign. The band, formed in Moseley, in 1978, still have the original eight-man line-up. They were one of Britain's first multi-cultural bands and represent a wide ethnic mix - Yemeni, Welsh, Scottish, West Indian and Irish. UB40 vocalist Astro said: "I've experienced racism - more so when I was a teenager. You kind of expected it."

But he warned: "In some respects it's better these days but years ago everyone used to mix in together, which was good. Nowadays everyone has become insular. Jamaicans won't go out of Jamaican areas, Asians are sticking with the Asians. There are no-go areas now. From that respect it's got worse and it worries me."

Mirror

...and from Ros Wynne-Jones' blog

On to Stoke...

Saturday morning - it turns out there's no more racism in Britain and we can all go home!!!Oh, April Fool...

The bus went to Stoke today for a children's fun day. I spent most of the day hiding from oversize vehicles, planning for next week, answering emails and getting some washing done.

Two things:

1) who should I see in the lift at the hotel but two freshly scrubbed Sugababes in fluffy dressing gowns, showercaps and no makeup, on the way up from the spa downstairs.... (We stayed posh on Saturday to cheer ourselves up). "How embarrassing," mutters Keisha, hiding behind her hands. In flat spa slippers, the Babes are miniscule. They were still nice enough to wish us well with the bus though... And they were getting ready for Colleen McLoughlin's 21st birthday bash. Now that's going to be a party - like three series of Footballers' Wives rolled into one episode of Shameless as photographed by Hello...

2) On Friday night we had a bus night out in West Bromwich. Nick Lowles, the man without whom this trip would never have happened, had told us about a fantastic Sikh pub on the high street. None of us had ever been to a Sikh pub, and in the interests of exploring Britain's cultural diversity (and scoring a couple of pints of Guinness) it was an irresistable proposition...

We got there late (we get everywhere late) and the pub looked a bit dodgy from the outside, but inside it was rocking with Guinness-soaked Sikhs on a Friday night out. Better still, there was a hatch at the back where you could order every type of curry, kind of like Christmas and birthday rolled into one....

Hero of the day: Chefs at the back of the Sportsman pub in West Bromwich

Observation of the day: You think people are different and then you go into a Sikh pub and you find everyone's the same.

Quote of the day: "The biggest arsehole in two shoes..." (Another Forest of Deanism from Tony the driver)

Smell of the day: Freshly scrubbed Sugababe..

Tune of the day: Anything by Robbie Williams (not current album), as the bus visited his home pub, the Red Lion, in Stoke...

Mirror

Maryport will be rocking against racism this Sunday

Anti-racism concert for local bands

Jonathan Wood, 17, and Duncan Money, 18, who set up a group opposed to racism in the town, have organised the concert, which will feature local bands. It is due to start at Grasslot Working Men’s Club just after 5pm.

The concert will be opened by Workington punks Band, Substance, followed by Six String Revolution, who are influenced by protest singers. Next in line is Maryport rock band AWOL, who have appeared at the Maryport Blues Festival and the Silloth Beer Festival.

Ionian is a Maryport and Keswick band who played at the Maryport Blues Festival and Solfest in 2006, and were regional winners for Cumbria and Lancashire in the Rockidol 2006 competition. Next is Speeding Bee, from County Durham.

Duncan, who is studying at Oxford, will talk about the group he and Jonathan set up – Maryport Against Racism – and the reasons behind the gig.

News and Star

Hope not Hate: Bill aboard!

Hope not Hate 2007: Sun Hill and Eastenders stars on the Mirror's anti-racism battlebus

The stars have been turning out to back the Daily Mirror Hope Not Hate bus as it continued its journey around Britain. Cast from The Bill stood on the open top and waved to crowds when the anti-racism battlebus arrived at an estate where they were filming.

Roberta Taylor, who plays Inspector Gina Gold, said: "We're really proud to support the Hope not Hate campaign if it helps spread the message across the country. Racism is caused by a culture of ignorance and is totally outdated."

Andrew Lancel, Det Insp Neil Manson in the show, added: "There's absolutely no excuse for racism in this day and age."

Bill colleagues John Bowler and Daniel Flynn, who play PC Roger Valentine and Supt John Heaton also added messages of support at the scene in Merton, South London.

The bus began its round-Britain journey from London to Scotland on Friday - launching an anti-racism fortnight that runs until Easter. It visited communities in London, Essex and Northampton. Yesterday it arrived in Leicester's golden mile, renowned for its Indian restaurants.

EastEnders star Petra Letang, who plays Naomi Julien, boarded the bus and said: "This campaign is very close to my heart. We have to make a difference for the young people coming up. I grew up in East London and I'm proud to be from here."

Hope not Hate is aimed at spreading a message of goodwill in the build-up to the local elections in May - www.mirror.co.uk/hopenothate. The 1964 Leyland Titan bus, emblazoned with the Hope not Hate message, has been welcomed everywhere.

Former boxing champ Lloyd Honeyghan met it in Dagenham, Essex. He told the crowds: "We should deal in love not hate. There's only one race, and that's the human race."

MP Andrew Mackinlay said: "Community relations owe a great to deal to the Mirror for this campaign. It's allowing local people to make a powerful stand against racism."

Messages of support have come in from celebrities including Corinne Bailey Rae, Goldie Lookin Chain, the Sugababes, Sir Alan Sugar, Beverley Knight, Just Jack, Shilpa Shetty, and Brian Harvey. Singer Ms Dynamite added: "Racism is about greed, money and fear."

Mirror

Soul diva Bev joins our anti-racism drive

People spat at my mum in the street because she was black...we have to teach Britain not to hate

She's Britain's Queen of Soul who wowed the crowds on a recent tour with comeback kings Take That. But life hasn't always been as good for singer Beverley Knight. The 34-year-old still bears the scars of racist abuse she suffered as a little girl growing up in Wolverhampton.

The star, who has a string of chart-topping hits and an MBE, is speaking out for the first time about how she and her family were targeted because of the colour of their skin. And she is urging everybody to support the Daily Mirror's Hope Not Hate anti-racism campaign, which was launched yesterday.

Our two-week bus tour across the country aims to celebrate all that is great about Britain. And spread the message - hope not hate...

'I'm the first generation of my family to be born in Britain - my parents were born and raised in Jamaica. Living in Wolverhampton was very diverse and mixed, and most people got along pretty well most of the time. But from a very early age I was aware of hostility towards people like me and my family. Of course, back then I didn't know it was racism, I was too young to understand. It was a dodgy time. The National Front had its headquarters just down the road in Walsall and they did their best to stir up trouble.

'School could be awful at times. I remember being in maths class when I was seven and I was the only black person in the top stream. Other kids would say things like: "Your skin's black because you haven't washed" and "your hair's like a Brillo pad". I did my best to ignore them, but it just got worse. Until one day the teacher went out of the class and this girl starting chanting: "Blackie, blackie." And soon the whole class caught on.

'I got very upset because I felt horribly isolated - I still remember that feeling now. I knew they picked on me because I was black. They were listening to their parents, that's the problem. When I told the teacher she just said: "Oh sit down, you're causing trouble." So I said: "But they're calling me names." And she replied: "Well just call them whities then." I went home and sobbed to my mum and she went straight down there and said this was unacceptable. The next day, in the middle of the lesson, I was removed from the class and sent to the lower stream where there were other black people. That was their way of dealing with it.

'But what happened to me as a child was so trivial in comparison to what my parents suffered. My dad came to Britain in 1959, Mum in 1962. She says it was November, it was freezing and she'd never seen snow before. Once, shortly after my dad arrived in the country, he had to defend himself against a gang of about 20 men. It was Dad and three of his brothers and they were only young.

'Wolverhampton was a different place back then. My mother was spat at, called names and shouted at in the street. People would make excuses not to serve you or let you on to public transport. Buses would drive past or kick you off. I think we have made astonishing progress but we still have a way to go.

'My parents went through hell. Those days may have gone but you still get comments from people. People still say to my mum: "Oh those black people, they're always fighting with knives, they're lazy and they don't want to work." When my mum makes a comment back, they say: "Oh not you! You're different!"

'Some people will ask daft questions and just not realise, like: "Where did you learn to speak English like that?" They're not racist, they're just not engaging their brain. They look at you and see that you're black and think you can't be from here, even though your accent is from Wolverhampton. Some people speak innocently out of ignorance and some people speak with racial intent. Most of the time you can completely see the difference. The race row on Celebrity Big Brother was shocking. I was so disappointed with Jo O'Meara. I had worked with her on Just The Two Of Us, and we had a laugh together.

'Jade Goody is not a clever girl. The reason she got the brunt of the criticism is probably because she was the mouthiest of the lot. She was daft enough to put her mouth into action far too many times. But the comments that cut to the core came from Danielle Lloyd. With Jade, to a certain extent, you have to ignore the ignorant rantings of someone who's not very clever. But Danielle said: "F**k off home." I remember those comments when I was a child, and they still hurt.

'Once in Italy, two of my band members, Carlos and Joe, went into the bank for some money. The woman took one look at these two black guys, one of them pretty big and powerful, and she pushed the panic button. I couldn't believe it.

'Carlos said the next thing he knew he was being hauled out and told to spread against the wall with a gun aimed at him. It was awful for them. Sadly it doesn't surprise me that people can still behave like this. Not everywhere is Britain. As we've seen in very recent cases, Britain isn't perfect, but we're doing a lot better than our European cousins.

'There are far-right parties in other countries that have much more of a foothold than the BNP has here. But we can't be complacent where racism is concerned and, in some parts of the UK, the BNP is on the rise. This has got to stop! I was lucky because my parents taught me to be proud of my heritage and of being British. They would say: "You are a child of Britain, you were born in Wolverhampton, raised in Wolverhampton, and we want you to be proud of that." And I was not the kind of person to cower, ever. I was proud of me and who I was, I always had an inner confidence. But stereotypes are so deeply entrenched and people hold on to them.

People must learn not to hate someone because of where they're from. The reality is that no matter what the colour of your skin, or where you're from, we're all going through the same struggle - just trying to get through life the best we can.'

CATCH OUR CAMPAIGN BUS

Tomorrow the Hope Not Hate bus leaves London for Glasgow on its mission to celebrate modern Britain. Over the next fortnight our red double-decker bus will be coming to you, bringing a message of hope to communities across the country. Our bus will be visiting Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus in London tomorrow afternoon.

And from 10am on Saturday we will be at Dagenham Civic Centre in Rainham Road North. Then at Kilverts Field in Grays, Thurrock, from 12.30am-2.30pm.

By Sunday lunchtime, we'll have reached the Golden Mile in Leicester.

Here's a list of our planned stops...

Fri 23 March: Trafalgar Square, London

Sat 24 March: Dagenham & Thurrock

Sun 25 March: Leicester

Mon 26 March: Nottingham & Lincoln

Tues 27 March: Sheffield

Weds 28 March: Oldham & Manchester

Thurs 29 March: Liverpool & Wrexham

Fri 30 March: Dudley & Birmingham

Sat 31 March: Stoke-on-Trent

Sun 1 April: Sandwell, West Bromwich

Mon 2 April: Blackburn & Burnley

Tues 3 April: Keighley, Bradford & Batley

Weds 4 April: Leeds

Thurs 5 April: Sunderland & Newcastle

Fri 6 April: Glasgow

Mirror