BNP clash over Moston unity day

A community day held to unite residents around Moston Lane has been branded a "propaganda event" by the British National Party after its representatives were asked to leave by Moston councillor Paul Murphy.

The criticisms follow a scathing attack by the BNP in which they posted an article on their website describing the council's recent 'rumour desk' initiative – aimed at tackling unfounded gossip on the Lane – as a "desperate attempt to persuade local residents that multi-culturalism is wonderfully beneficial."

Council chiefs estimate around 400 people turned up to the bash on Saturday at Simpson Memorial Hall, which was held to bring locals together for a day of entertainment and announce future plans for the area.

But BNP representative Derek Adams criticised the event as an exercise in 'propaganda.'

"We thought it would be a public meeting that local people were encouraged to go down to and have a say at, but it was just a propaganda event for the council," he said.

"If you weren't in 100 per cent agreement with the council, you weren't welcome, and we were asked to leave.

"We were leafleting in the area early that day and people told us their concerns. Local people do not recognise Moston as their own any more."

In response, Moston councillor Paul Murphy, said: "It wasn't a public meeting, the event was for Moston, Harpurhey and Charlestown residents who have contributed to the community.

"I asked the BNP to leave because they were not from any of the three areas and they were filming the event. There were children attending, and they hadn't been given clearance to film them."

Despite the furore, the response from some of the locals in attendance suggests that the event was a success.

Stephen Holt, chairman of the Trinity and District Residents' Association, said: "I think the event served its purpose of uniting the community – it was very well attended by people from across the community.

"If many of the people who have arrived on Moston Lane were to leave, then half the shops that are open now would be boarded up.

"As long as newcomers abide by the laws, we will welcome them."

Stephen Chandler, who runs Chandler's Hairdressing on Moston Lane, said: "The event was enjoyable and a good move to get people together - if people don't know each other then there's bound to be distrust.

"I think the diversity is a good thing. There's a lot of different cultures on the lane and you can shop 'til late at night.

"There's a little bit of racism round here, but most people are community spirited and quite happy to mingle with the newcomers. There's just a few loudmouthed bigots."

Harpurhey councillor Paul Fairweather chose the occasion to announce the first 'Moston Day' next summer, aimed at celebrating the area and its residents.

"We want local people to look at June, July and August next year and see if there is a significant date in Moston's history that we could base our celebration on," he said.

Residents can contact Andrew Jones in the Regeneration Team on 655 7875 or email him at a.jones8@manchester. gov.uk with their choice of date for Moston Day.

East Manchester Advertiser

The curious case of Councillor Chris

Critics are calling for the resignation of Tamworth councillor Chris Cooke – who despite holding the Glascote seat as an independent, recently issued a leaflet supporting a BNP candidate in a by-election.

Cooke has been interesting anti-fascist researchers for some time after posting right wing comments on local newspaper websites.

He also has a link to the BNP on his website, arguing that the party is the victim of “smears, lies and disinformation.”

During a by-election in the in Castle Ward in November, Cooke then leapt to the defence of the far-right party’s candidate Lynne Smith, who had been targeted by the Unite Against Fascism pressure group.

UAF were encouraging people to turn out and vote to defeat the BNP – a campaign that was ultimately successful as the party trailed in third (with Labour snatching the seat from the Tories by just six votes).

In the run up to voting, Cooke – who had no direct interest in the election - took exception to what he regarded as interference by outsiders. So, in support of Lynne Smith, he distributed a defence of the BNP to 1,000 homes and attempted to rubbish the UAF.

That’s provoked a lively correspondence in the Tamworth Herald, with the Conservative Andrew James calling on Cooke to resign and stand under his “true colours”.

Cooke admits, “I did help the BNP's Lynne Smith in her recent by-election campaign. I know Lynne as a long standing and respected Tamworth resident.

“Three years or more ago I thought much the same as anybody else about the BNP - nasty, racist, fascist thugs.

“Therefore it was a shock to me to find a couple of people I respected as sincere and intellectual telling me that they were BNP members.”

But he insists that he won’t resign and stand for them in a by-election, insisting that after spells in the SDP and UKIP, he has “had enough” of political parties.

(To see more about the debate check out Chris Cooke’s website here).

The Stirrer.

Neo-Nazis jailed in Scotland and Sweden

Nazi thug is jailed

A neo-nazi who failed to carry out community service has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

John Montgomery, of Hillside Road, told Greenock socialist activists a Browning pistol was waiting for them outside his house. He was then caught with a host of material from the banned white supremacist group, Combat 18, including posters tacked up on his walls and business cards which he had tried to hand out in Greenock town centre.

The 20-year-old was caught by police after failing to withhold his number when he made the malicious calls in April last year.

Fiscal deputy Nadine Dormer yesterday told the court how he then shouted and swore at police officers outside Harwoods nightclub, in Dalrymple Street, at 11.20pm. He was sentenced to 250 hours community service, but had only completed 13 when he appeared yesterday.

Sheriff John Herald jailed him for 30 months. He said the material was repulsive and added: “What you did goes beyond any freedom of expression. These two people whose choices of politics you did not like found themselves subjected to threats of violence.”

Greenock Telegraph

Two jailed for Nazi demo attack

Two men with neo-Nazi connections have been given lengthy jail sentences for their involvement in a knife attack during a clash between right and left wing extremists in Stockholm last month, Dagens Nyheter reports.

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder, while a 32-year-old man has been given two years as an accessory to the attack.

The younger man was convicted despite denying that he had stabbed a 20-year-old man in the neck. The 22-year-old is a member of the extreme right-wing group Svenska Motståndsrörelse ('Swedish Resistance Movement'), according to Dagens Nyheter. Fighting broke out when the neo-Nazi group was attacked by left-wing counter-demonstrators.

The 32-year-old man admitted to having a neo-Nazi past but claimed that he had left the ideology behind him. He said that he just happened to be walking through the Slussen area on September 1st when he noticed the demonstration.

He had recently been given granted conditional release from prison, where he was serving a nine year sentence for an attack that resulted in the death of a dark-skinned man on New Year's Eve in 1999. He will now serve the remaining two years of that sentence along with a further two years for encouraging the 22-year-old to stab an anti-fascist demonstrator.

There was no forensic proof tying the men to the crime. The court instead based its verdict on the testimony of a man who claimed to have witnessed the attack and heard the 32-year-old shout at the younger man to stab the victim.

The men have been ordered to pay the 20-year-old 109,000 kronor in damages.

The Local

Discredited Irving plans comeback tour

· Historian blames Himmler, but not Hitler
· Writer freed from jail says views have 'crystallised'

Ten months ago he was languishing in an Austrian jail, less than halfway through a three-year sentence with his career - and professional reputation - in tatters.

This week David Irving, the discredited British historian who was described by a high court judge as a Holocaust denier and a racist, says he is launching a comeback with a speaking tour of British cities and a series of new books. "I have kept a low profile for several months because I have had to sort out where to live and to address my financial situation," said Mr Irving, who was declared bankrupt in 2002 after an unsuccessful libel action over claims he was a Holocaust denier. " But now I am ready to start again."

Mr Irving's career has been littered with controversy, culminating with his arrest in Austria in 2005. He was sentenced to three years in jail after a judge ruled that two speeches he made in 1989, dismissing the Auschwitz gas chambers as a "fairy tale" and questioning the existence of extermination camps, breached Austrian law. His appeal was upheld, with the judge saying the crimes were a long time ago and that Mr Irving had undergone an "impeccable conversion".

However, drinking tea on the sofa of a 10-bedroom house he has begun renting near Windsor, Mr Irving says that his views on the Holocaust have crystallised rather than changed. He says that he believes the Jews were responsible for what happened to them during the second world war and that the "Jewish problem" was responsible for nearly all the wars of the past 100 years: "The Jews are the architects of their own misfortune, but that is the short version A-Z. Between A-Z there are then 24 other characters in intervening steps." Mr Irving was due to address a meeting in Coventry last Friday - although that event was disrupted by protesters - and held another meeting at his home on Saturday. He plans to speak in Halifax and Birmingham as well as at several unnamed universities.

Last night, news of his attempts to kickstart his career were met with disbelief and anger from Jewish groups and political opponents. Lord Foulkes, of the Labour Friends of Israel, said: "It is a frightening thought that he is still pursuing his agenda." Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, said Mr Irving no longer had any legitimate claim to be a serious historian. However, Mr Irving still insists he is a respected academic. He says that a document, which he is 80% sure is genuine, suggests that 2.4 million Jews were killed in Poland, but goes on to claim that the gas chamber at Auschwitz was fake. "It was not the centre of the killing operations - it has only become a focus because it is the site that is best preserved. Much of what is shown the tourists there is faked postwar - watchtowers, even the famous gas chamber."

He added: "In my opinion now the real killing operations took place at the Reinhardt camps west of the Bug river. In the three camps here [Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka] Heinrich Himmler's men (mostly Ukrainian mercenaries) killed possibly as many as 2.4 million in the two years up to October 1943. There is now nothing to be seen of the Reinhardt camps, neither stick nor stone, so few tourists go there. I have visited all four sites earlier this year."

Pressed as to whether this change undermined his previous stance, Mr Irving replied: "It is a crystallisation of my view." Asked if he now accepts there had been a Holocaust against the Jewish people he said he was "not going to use their trade name". He added: "I do accept that the Nazis quite definitely, that Heinrich Himmler, organised and directed a programme, a clandestine programme, for the liquidation of European Jews ... and that in 1942-43 alone over 2.5 million Jews were killed in those three camps." He added that Hitler was "completely in the dark" about the programme.

Last night Gerry Gable, of the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, said: "This man is a hardened rightwing extremist and this latest development proves he is determined to pursue his agenda."

The Guardian.

Thursday's by-elections - nondescript performance by BNP

There are just three local council by-elections on which to comment this week, the British National Party contesting two of them but failing to put in a promised appearance in a third.

Both seats the BNP did contest were virgin territory for them, leaving us unable to measure their performance against previous outings.

Chester-le-Street Central ward saw a strong Labour vote on May 3rd, its two candidates garnering 42.07% and 39.52% respectively, leaving a lone Local Conservative to scrape a meagre 18.12%. Thursday's contest was more straightforward. In a dismal 25% turnout a single Labour candidate took nearly 60%, and while the Conservatives lost 2% on May, the intervention of LibDem and BNP candidates sucked enough votes from Labour to give them 14.89% and 9.38% each.

Chester-le-Street Central ward result (percentages on right):

Lab	324	59.56
Con	88	16.18
LibDem	81	14.89
BNP	51	9.38
Total	544

With nothing to compare the BNP's Central ward vote against, it is difficult to assess its importance. Their 9.38% does not begin to approach the 20%-plus gained in similar first-time outings in Nuneaton and Whitehaven last week, however the pitiful turnout and that fact that the party did not contest the nearby Washington East ward by-election - allowing it to concentrate its resources - worked in the BNP's favour.

The BNP did contest Washington East in May, receiving only 6.29% of the vote. Reasons for not contesting this time were that the party missed the nominations deadline, and that it wanted to concentrate on Chester-le-Street Central. Either excuse could be true - or it might be that the party was worried that on current trends even May's 6.29% would be eroded down to something even more embarrassing.

Whatever the reason, the abandonment of Washington East can only mean that the BNP believed it could do very much better in Chester-le-Street Central - if an improvement of slightly over 3% in a very low poll can be said to be anything of the kind. Though the outcome is hardly pleasing to us, this nondescript result can hardly be pleasing to the BNP, particularly as the local party organisation was able to concentrate resources into the ward.

BNP hopes in Lloyd's ward (Corby), an electoral division of Northamptonshire County Council, were for a 20% vote. As with Chester-le-Street Central, Lloyd's ward was virgin territory for the BNP, and we know (because they have told us) that a half-way professional campaign was mounted, which included some determined canvassing. As we noted last week in our remarks on Nuneaton Abbey ward, there must be something amiss with the BNP's electoral machine, since whatever the party's canvass returns were telling it, less than 13% of Lloyd's ward's electors (on a 30.7% turnout) voted for the BNP.

Northants CC Lloyd's ward (Corby) result:

Lab	1093	53.47
Con	375	18.35
LibDem	311	15.22
BNP	265	12.96
Total	2044

Neither the Chester-le-Street Central nor Northants CC Lloyd's ward results are particularly instructive, though we can note with a certain amount of satisfaction that the BNP expected to do better. Washington East would have given us a more realistic indication of the party's fortunes, but we must wait until next week when the BNP will be contesting some previously fought wards for a more productive analysis of its ongoing electoral performance.