Live Nation drawn into BNP billboard row

BECTU has written to venue and theatre operator Live Nation criticising its parent company for selling advertising space to the British National Party.

Live Nation, which is now Britain's largest theatre group, was four years ago spun off from ClearChannel, the multi-national communications giant which owns more than 200 steet-side advertising hoardings in the UK, and runs LED screens in London's Picadilly Circus.

ClearChannel has caused a political storm by agreeing to sell advertising space to the British National Party in the runup to the European and council elections on June 4th. Anti-facist group Searchlight has organised a postal protest against the move which it says has prompted thousands of complaints to the company, although ClearChannel disputes the actual numbers.

Live Nation owns many landmark UK theatres, including the Edinburgh Playhouse, Liverpool Empire, Torquay Princess, and several West End venues.

In a letter to Live Nation's UK President, BECTU's General Secretary outlines the concerns of members in many of the company's venues that their employer could be accused of being indirectly linked to the British National Party.

The sale of advertising space by ClearChannel runs counter to a cross-party condemnation of the BNP, with parties like UKIP and the Conservatives making strenuous efforts to distance themselves from the BNP's racist policies.

The union has called for ClearChannel to cancel the BNP's planned billboard advertising campaign, and join BECTU in condemning the party's activites.

This is not the first time that the BNP has caused controversy in the arts world. In 2007 the English National Ballet's principal dancer Simone Clarke was outed as a BNP member, leading to protests from numerous civil groups including BECTU.

Text of letter from BECTU to Live Nation:

28 May 2009

Paul Latham
President
Live Nation UK

Dear Paul

RE: British National Party Advertising

It has been brought to BECTU’s attention that the British National Party has, apparently, recently been sold substantial advertising space on Clear Channel Billboards around the UK. I am sure you will appreciate that the activities of the BNP are abhorrent to BECTU members, and, like a great many decent people everywhere, they would be deeply concerned at the prospect of commercial companies making profits on the back of such activities.

Equally, I am sure you will also appreciate that, given the recent corporate history of Live Nation and Clear Channel, there will be particular concern amongst those of our members employed by you. I have no doubt that they would wish to be reassured that their employer is in no way associated with, or condones any promotion of, the BNP.

I would therefore invite you to reassure our members on this, by joining with BECTU in condemning the activities of the BNP, and expressing your opposition to Clear Channel selling advertising space to them. I would hope that you would also call upon Clear Channel’s owners to condemn the BNP, and to withdraw from this arrangement immediately.

Yours sincerely

GERRY MORRISSEY
General Secretary

BECTU

The lies of the BNP exposed

Has anyone even seen one of these mythical billboards?

With the announcement that the BNP had sold billboard space by Clear Channel, Hope Not Hate launched a campaign "asking all our supporters to send a message to Clear Channel – demanding that they take down the BNPs racist propaganda." Not too long afterward, the official BNP website issued the following story in response;

Two British National Party election advertisement billboards in different parts of the country came under threat from mobs of Islamists this afternoon. One billboard was covered up after the mob intimidated the police by threatening to attack.

The first sign of trouble came in the West Midlands where an Islamist mob emerged from a local mosque after Friday prayers - where they had possibly been stirred up during the sermon - and threatened a BNP billboard advertising ‘British jobs for British workers,’ according to BNP press officer Simon Darby.

“The police were called in to protect the billboard, which they did, despite the mob taunting them, threatening Jihad and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and other such militant Islamist slogans,” Mr Darby said.

“The outbreak of militancy appears to have been coordinated, because at almost the same time, a BNP advertising billboard in Luton was surrounded by a similar mob. They were also shouting Islamist slogans and carrying items which were clearly intended to be used to set fire to it,” he continued.

“The billboards do not even mention Islam or Islamism, and merely call for British people to be given jobs, so the cause of the Islamist militancy obviously lies elsewhere,” he said.

According to Mr Darby, the local police in Luton then ordered that the billboard be covered up “for public safety.”

“In other words, mobs can threaten violence in the street and instead of being arrested, the police and authorities cower down and submit to whatever these mobs want,” Mr Darby said.

“Forcing the BNP to cover up its billboard underlines the fact that Britain is being colonised by Islam and that this is leading to the suppression of democracy.

“This is what the immigration policies of successive Tory and Labour governments have created: A situation where a violent mob of Islamists can dictate to the public which party they have a right to hear.”

Mr Darby said the BNP was not going to be intimidated into backing down. “We have too much at stake,” he said. “We are the only party which opposes the Islamification of Britain and we will not be put off by threats of violence from these people.

“The BNP will never stop until it has reclaimed this land for its indigenous people, so those who seek to destroy Britain had better accept this or leave.”

However, the BNP report contains absolutely no pictures or documentary evidence of this supposed event, and quotes nobody but press officer Simon Darby. More than that, a quick search on Google turns up no source on this besides BNP and 'white nationalist' sites, citing the official BNP site as the origin of the tale.

Especially given the fact that the party has been so quick to denounced supposed lies about them by the press, "lies" which I have revealed elsewhere to actually contain considerable truth to them, one might have thought they would have been more careful. I'd suggest, with more than a hint of glee, that this leaves them open to exactly the same kind of "Operation Fightback" from the Muslim community as they have been running against the corporate media.

Truth, Reason and Liberty

Take down the BNP billboards

A couple of hours ago I sent out an email asking you to join me in complaining to Clear Channel for hosting BNP billboards.

In 90 minutes 1,000 people have sent messages of complaint to the company.

Our target is 2,000 so if you haven't sent a complaint please do so here.

Nick Lowles
Hope not hate

The target is about to be reached but let's see if LU readers can push the total up to 3000. :-)