Hate crimes soar in BNP areas

Hate crimes have soared in nearly every part of the country over the last decade.

Ugly incidents have increased by up to 27 times in regions with higher numbers of British National Party members.

Racist and religiously motivated offences totalled 39,643 in 2007 to 2008, the last year for which UK statistics are available. Ten years ago, there were 21,750.

The near doubling of the national average hides alarming hotspots.

Yorkshire and Essex, where the racist BNP have spread, are among the worst hit. The number of offences across Yorkshire shot up from 338 to 3,592. North Yorks had a 2,767% rise. Essex saw a 949% increase - to 913 from only 87.

The BNP, which stops non-whites joining, has 1,600 members in Yorkshire and 670 in Essex, according to a recent leaked list.

London bucked the trend sharply. The Met police still handle the most hate crimes but they almost halved from 13,850 to 7,353. The Lib Dems' Chris Huhne, who unearthed the figures, said: "Ministers must examine what the Met are doing and ensure best practice is spread nationally.

"The alarming rise in these crimes will be of huge concern to anyone who values this country's proud record as a tolerant and diverse nation."

The Mirror

Now who lives in a house like this?

From some of our Welsh friends.

Ever wonder why the intellectual dwarf that is Green Arrow, is so extremely vile, more so than most BNP bloggers?

Well, it could be that Paul Morris, who is the “man” behind the Green Arrow blog site thought he lived in such an impenetrable community and a remote village that nobody would bother come looking for him.

Unfortunately for Morris, having broken every boundary of good taste, including suggesting that young gay people were not trying hard enough to commit suicide, we thought we’d remind Mr Morris that there ain’t no mountain high enough and ain’t no valley low enough to expose Morris, the man who begs £35 per month to write his shite blog insulting and telling lies about decent people.

Race watchdog threatens BNP with injunction

The British National party is facing the threat of an injunction from the official body on race discrimination in the first such action taken against a political party.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to the far-right party today saying that it believes the BNP is in breach of the Race Relations Act on three counts.

"The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National party's constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold," said the commission's legal director, John Wadham.

The letter gives the BNP until 20 July to provide written undertakings in response to the allegations, including a statement that it will not discriminate in party recruitment.

"This letter is the first stage in the beginning of a legal action", said Wadham. "We have concerns that the BNP have acted illegally … and it's for the courts to make the decision as to whether they think our assessment is correct."

Anti-racism campaigners welcomed the move but questioned why the authorities had waited until now to act.

"I am astonished that successive governments have allowed the BNP to get away with the exclusion of non-white people," said the human rights activist Peter Tatchell. "Many people who voted for them as a protest may not have done so if they had known."

BNP recruitment is open to members of the party who, according to its constitution, are of "'indigenous Caucasian' and defined 'ethnic groups' emanating from that race".

The commission said the policy was "contrary to the Race Relations Act, which outlaws the refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation. The commission is therefore concerned that the BNP may … be acting, illegally."

The statement also said the party's website asked job applicants to supply a membership number, which appeared to be in breach of legislation banning the "refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation". Other potential breaches of the law raised in the letter include concerns that the BNP's elected representatives may not intend to offer or provide services on an equal basis to all their constituents irrespective of race.

The BNP won two seats in the European parliament earlier this month when its leader, Nick Griffin, was elected in the north-west and a former National Front chairman, Andrew Brons, was elected in Yorkshire and the Humber.

After the election lawyers said there were numerous grounds for legal challenge against the party.

A number of BNP members already have criminal convictions for race-related offences, including Griffin, who was given a two-year suspended sentence for incitement to racial hatred after publishing material denying the Holocaust in 1998.

In 2006 Griffin and a party activist, Mark Collett, were cleared of race-hate charges relating to speeches the BNP leader made describing Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith", but last month he told party members in an online broadcast that he had no problem breaking race laws.

"As you know, we don't break the law. We never have … you know, on financial things. Don't mind breaking the odd race law, or being accused of it," he said.

A spokesman for the BNP said it had passed the letter on to its legal team. "We were expecting something like this but we are not too bothered," he said.

The commission said it had received around 50 calls from members of the public about the BNP's membership policy in recent weeks.

The allegations

Membership criteria

The party's constitution says membership is "within the terms of … 'indigenous Caucasian' and defined ethnic groups emanating from that Race"

Employment and recruitment

Its website says that membership is required to apply for jobs. This could amount to discrimination in recruitment

Provision of services

The Race Relations Act and the local authority model code of conduct require elected representatives to provide services on an equal basis

The Guardian

Row over BNP man's taxi contract

Council chiefs have admitted that they would make the parents of a black or Asian child with special needs to travel to school in a taxi driven by a firm run by BNP supporters.

In a move anti-fascist campaigners described as 'outrageous', council chiefs said they had awarded the family taxi firm run by Corsham town councillor Mick Simpkins a renewed school run contract, and said that they would not fund an alternative if a black or ethnic minority parent objected to their child being transported to school.

Other white parents who have already objected to their children being transported to school by the firm were refused council funding for an alternative, and the council said it would be no different for an ethnic minority family.

Cllr Simpkins said he would treat all children transported by his firm, be they 'black, Asian or anything in between' exactly the same, and said parents who protested were attempting 'to put us out of business'.

The row blew up after the Simpkins family, who all work for the firm, stood as candidates for the British National Party in and around Corsham earlier this month. Cllr Simpkins is also standing as the party's parliamentary candidate at the next general election.

The firm was awarded a council contract to ferry children with special needs to school in nearby Chippenham, often without chaperones. Some 18 months ago, one parent, Cheryl Walker, objected to her daughter, who has special needs, being taken to school by the firm.

"I was told that it was a BNP taxi or nothing, basically. I asked if they could just give me the money they would pay them but they said no to that, or to providing a different taxi firm.

"I'm not the only one who won't put their child in those taxis. It's not just the racist thing, it's the BNP's policies towards children with special needs as well. There aren't any children from ethnic minorities that need this transport at the moment, but it could happen. I really don't think the council would say the same to a black parent as they said to me, but there's no way we'd no unless it happened," she added.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said there was no problem with the firm transporting children, and that their membership of the BNP was not an issue. "We have a duty to the people of Wiltshire to get the best value services across the whole of the council. We have a rigorous process to ensure all drivers who transport children on behalf of Wiltshire council have satisfactorily completed all the relevant checks," he said.

"Our strict, open tendering process allows all contracts to be carefully chosen based on a number of criteria.

"These criteria include value for money and quality, but take no account of race, religion, gender or political leaning. Should we have any complaints about the delivery of any of our services, we would of course investigate them fully."

Cllr Simpkins said his firm provided a valuable service to special needs children, and was a service provided regardless of ethnic background.

He described the objections by Cheryl Walker and others last year as 'an attempt to put us out of business'. "Well, mum now has to take her child to school herself while we still have our council contracts for the other school children," he said.

"The fact is the council, the school and we are only concerned with getting the children to and from school safely and because they all have different special needs, each one is treated specially. There is no room for playing politics with the children.

"I'm surprised no one has asked the obvious. Yes, they are all white but would be treated exactly the same if they were black, Asian or anything in between," he added.

A spokesman for Unite Against Fascism, which organised a demonstration after Cllr Simpkins was elected unopposed to Corsham Town Council two years ago, said the situation was 'outrageous'.

"This is quite shocking."

This is Bath

BNP supporters cheer Nazi military medal winner

Charlotte Lewis

British National Party supporters cheered for one of their candidates to be awarded a Nazi military medal at a Euro election after-party.

A member of the crowd made the call after learning that Charlotte Lewis had travelled to Calais to lead a protest against the refugee camp there, taking placards reading "Britain's full up" and "Asylum seekers don't unpack, you're going back".

The ex-jailbird was telling the meeting about her exploits when a supporter shouted she should be given an Iron Cross - strongly associated with the Nazis and an emblem of the German army during World War Two.

Undercover Sunday Mirror investigators infiltrated the event on Thursday night in the back room of a pub in Dagenham, East London.

London Assembly member and local councillor Richard Barnbrook appeared briefly at the event, billed as a celebration of the party's "success" in the Euro election where they won two seats.

But the evening turned into nothing more than another opportunity for activists to express racist views. Bob Bailey, 43, a BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, gave two talks at the event, with Lewis - a candidate for Waddon, South London - giving a third.

Although the BNP, led by new Euro MP Nick Griffin, have tried to reinvent themselves as a serious political party, it soon became clear that many party members still harbour extremely offensive views. Lewis - who was jailed for six months in 2001 for making death threats against workers at a drugs company - made no effort to hide her contempt for immigrants.

Talking about her trip to Calais, she said: "The invaders are dangerous and they are not people we want in England or Europe or anywhere in the civilised world." She claimed they "swaggered" around Calais before recounting a story about her Afghan neighbour. She said: "The Afghan who lives in the flat above me... well, I say that, he hasn't been seen for two weeks, so I'm hoping him, Fatima and the brat have moved out." After a pause, and to raucous laughter, she added: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal music at 1am. It's wishful thinking that they have gone back to Afghanistan, but it's more than likely they have been allocated one of numerous brand-new housing association flats in the area."

Lewis then described people who work in soup kitchens to provide food for refugees as "idiotic dim-witted liberals". It was after this that Bailey made his ridiculous pledge to give Lewis a medal if the BNP get into government.

Sipping a pint, he said: "Under the BNP people like Charlotte would get a medal... there is no doubt." Someone in the crowd then shouted out "the Iron Cross". The German medal is closely associated with the Nazis - Hitler reintroduced it and added a swastika.

Bailey then went into an antiMuslim rant. He said: "We do not need Islam in Europe and we do not need it in the UK. In London we know the stark realities of Islam more than anywhere else. They bomb buses, they bomb trains, they have created terror here."

Bnp spokesman Simon Darby said yesterday: "It was a joke. People in this country are famous for their sense of humour. We are quite open that we don't regard the mass importation of Afghans and replacement of the native population as a good thing."

Sunday Mirror

FAMILY SECRETS OF BNP LEADER NICK GRIFFIN

BNP leader Nick Griffin, who last week branded gypsies “anti social and criminal”, can trace his roots to travellers hawking cheap goods from a horse and cart.

The controversial MEP’s great-grandfather George Griffin roamed from town to town in a horse-drawn caravan with his wife Esther and their children, selling china and crockery.

Census reports show he spent years living the gypsy life, never settling in one place because as an impoverished traveller he was on the margins of society and never fully accepted anywhere.

Last week Griffin, 50, who condemned attacks on Romanian gypsies in Northern Ireland, said: “We have to bear in mind that the gypsy community is notorious for its extremely high rate of criminality and antisocial behaviour.

“Everyone in Romania and eastern Europe knows this and it is one reason why their governments are so keen to encourage them to come over here.”

Yet between 1868 and 1874 records show his great-grandfather represented just such a minority. He travelled in one caravan with his family while his business partner, Mary Ann Hollis, travelled in another.

George habitually lied about his age, describing himself as 25 in the 1871 Census, 41 a decade later, 47 in the 1891 Census and 58 in 1901. He plied his precarious trade in Devon and Cornwall and could often be found parked outside the London Inn pub in Liskeard.

The 1871 Census shows the caravans were parked next to the Cornish pub, noting: “Six persons not in houses”. In the column marked “Houses” it reports them as living in vans.

While George lived with Esther, 22, and his 10-month-old son George Junior in one, Mary Ann Hollis, 37, was in the second with George’s three-year-old daughter Mary Ann Griffi n and a William Huxham, 16.

He is described as a servant but probably earned his keep selling wares. In the Census column marked “Rank, profession or occupation” George is a “licensed hawker dealing in china and crockery ware”.

His lifestyle would not have fitted with the intolerant views of Mr Griffi n and the British National Party which does not accept black people as members.

"Griffin has called for an immediate halt to immigration, and voluntary resettlement of immigrants legally living in Britain.

When told this week of Mr Griffin’s heritage, shocked BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “That will please him.” Genealogy expert Nick Barratt added: “George Griffin travelled around, scratching a living. His group will have roamed from street to street like ragtag travellers trying to survive on their wits and selling their wares.

“And it is highly likely he spent many more years living the life of a traveller before he married.

“Today we would call his group travellers and just like today they would have been marginalised on the edge of society and seen as outsiders.

“They will have been treated with a degree of suspicion and as a minority.”

Sunday Express

Hodge accused over Barking selection battle

Barking MP Margaret Hodge was accused this week of involvement in alleged dirty tricks over selections to her local council. The row threatens to tear Labour apart locally and help the British National Party take over the council in next year’s elections.

Speaking to Tribune, Labour activists, councillors and community representatives have accused Ms Hodge of being a “control freak” who has engineered the deselection of Labour members of Barking and Dagenham Council in a bid to exercise personal control over her constituency Labour party. For personal family reasons, Ms Hodge was unable to respond before Tribune went to press.

Eight Labour councillors have been struck off the candidate list since March this year, including Val Rush, cabinet member for the environment, and planning chair John Denyer. A ninth, deputy mayor Fred Barns, was also deselected but reinstated on appeal. Barking and Dagenham has 12 BNP councillors, more than any other borough in Britain.

Asked what linked the councillors together, one activist said: “They’re all people who didn’t like Margaret”. Another declared: “She is a control freak and she wants total control… I can see the BNP controlling the council”.

Barking Labour Party has been riven with factionalism since 2006, when Ms Hodge was attacked over her remark that eight out of ten white households were tempted to vote BNP in the local elections.

One deselected councillor said of the events: “I felt it gave the BNP the oxygen it needed and I wasn’t alone in speaking out. I think that I’m now paying for that”. They had suffered “bullying and intimidation” including silent phone calls, they added.

Some deselected councillors were discriminated against for their disabilities, a well-placed source said: “John Denyer can’t walk the streets, but there was always something for him to do… Fred Barnes has a disability but he would drive everybody around, pick leaflets up, but he had a hip replacement. That was given as one of the reasons.”

Various sources complained that the selection panels had been fed misleading information about councillors. At least three councillors heard of their deselection before being officially told, and one said: “The BNP seems to know a lot more about what’s going on in Barking Labour Party… They told me before I even had my interview”.

Ms Hodge is said to have announced the deselection of two councillors in Barking’s Thames ward at a coffee morning on 13 March – the same day one of them, Cllr Barnes, received the letter informing him.

The MP is also blamed for alleged misconduct at Barking CLP’s annual general meeting of 2007, branded a “shambles” by two separate sources. They say that non-Labour Party members were allowed into the meeting but other Labour members were barred and that Ms Hodge’s staff instructed delegates how to vote. Delegates complained to London Labour Party.

A London Labour Party spokesperson said its selections had been “fair” and denied any impropriety, including any contact with the BNP over deselections. It was “totally spurious” that disability had been used against councillors, they added. Laila Butt, Ms Hodge’s CLP secretary, said Ms Hodge had no involvement in selections.

Tribune

Kirklees Unity is a friend of Val Rush. She fights fascism. Margaret Hodge helps it.

Labour candidate for Southend West receives BNP death threat

Tom Flynn

Tom Flynn, the Labour party PPC for Southend West, was told he was “going to die” by a leading member of the BNP last Tuesday.

On 9^th June, BNP leader Nick Griffin was forced to abandon a press conference on College Green in Westminster when protestors organised by Unite Against Fascism pelted him with eggs and chanted “Off our streets, Nazi scum.”

Mr Flynn was involved in another, non-violent demonstration taking place at the same time against the BNP press conference.

Later that day, Mr Flynn was confronted by a group of BNP activists, in the presence of the deputy BNP leader.

A member of the group said to Mr Flynn that they knew where he lived, and that the next time he set foot in Southend he was “going to die.”

In response to criticism that the demonstration against the BNP was stifling free speech, Mr Flynn wrote on the LabourList blog:

“I will engage with the BNP in the normal spirit of political debate once they offer me the same courtesy.

“I will never share a platform with the BNP when doing so risks more of the same death threats I have already received.

“I won’t be intimidated by you and your thugs Mr Griffin.”

Mr Flynn said he gave a statement to the police yesterday, and said that they were taking the matter “quite seriously.”

Council Bust

BNP fails to find support among European far-Right parties

The BNP leader Nick Griffin, centre, and the party's other MEP, Andrew Brons, right, were shunned by Italy's Northern League and the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party

The BNP leader Nick Griffin, centre, and the party's other MEP, Andrew Brons, right, were shunned by Italy's Northern League and the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party

The British National Party’s first foray into Brussels ended in failure yesterday after it was unable find enough allies on the far-Right to form an official group in the European Parliament.

Nick Griffin, the party leader and one of its two newly elected MEPs, has agreed instead to work informally with a loose group of five ultra-nationalist parties, notably the Front National of the veteran French racist Jean-Marie le Pen.

Mr Griffin had pinned his hopes on persuading the nine MEPs of Italy’s Northern League to ally themselves with the smaller far-right parties, but was shunned by the party, led by Umberto Bossi and part of Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition.

The failure to meet the threshold of 25 MEPs from at least seven countries to form a parliamentary group means the loss of up to a million euros a year for the far-right parties which could have been spent on staff, offices and publications in Brussels, Strasbourg and their home countries.

“It appears at present we are below the threshold,” said Mr Griffin, after talks at the European Parliament in Brussels with its key allies from France. He spent two days there with fellow Andrew Brons, his fellow party MEP.

“We have to see how the other political groups get on with their negotiations and if they cannot do a deal whether they will deal with us.”

Mr Griffin said that he had had a friendly response from other MEPs and added: “Virtually everyone is here to do the best by their constituents and on that basis we will work with anybody.”

The ultra-nationalist parties interested in working together informally included Jobbik — the Movement for a Better Hungary — Vlaams Belang from Belgium (the Flemish Interest) and Attack from Bulgaria, he said. But despite the increased number of MEPs elected this month from the far-right end of the political spectrum, the BNP grouping could attract only 12.

Besides the Northern League’s nine MEPs, the putative group was also shunned by the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, which won four seats. Although banned from Britain for his outspoken views, Mr Wilders has also expressed his dislike of the Front National and Flemish Interest as he attempts to appeal to mainstream voters in Holland.

Similarly, the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party, regarded as right-wing nationalist, will not sit with the BNP or Mr Le Pen, who repeated his denial of the Holocaust in the last parliamentary session. The DPP, which has two MEPs, regards itself as more centrist and has been a coalition partner in the Danish Government.

Nobody, however, seems prepared to touch the Greater Romania Party, whose MEPs were involved in the break-up of the far-right Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group in the last Parliament. They broke up the group after only 11 months in a row with Alessandro Mussolini, the daughter of Il Duce, after she called all Romanians criminals.

The Northern League has been vetoed by David Cameron from joining the new anti-federalist group being formed by the Conservatives with Czech and Polish MEPs. The Italian party may now link with the UK Independence Party as it tries to find at least six allies to meet the threshold for a formal group.

Parties are expected to declare their groupings in time for the European Parliament’s inaugural sitting on July 14.

The Times

Budaházy, key far-right activist, taken into custody on terrorism charges

György Budaházy

Far-right activist György Budaházy was arrested on suspicion of committing a terrorist act and on two counts of planning a manslaughter on Wednesday afternoon, Central Investigative Prosecutor General's Office spokesman Géza Fazekas announced.

Police had originally planned to arrest Budaházy on Thursday morning but detained him when he appeared at the Budapest Police headquarters to announce a weekend demonstration, Inforádió reported.

The arrest was made after the National Bureau of Investigation found a link between Budaházy and the Molotov cocktail attacks for which a group calling itself Hungarian Arrows claimed responsibility, HírTV reported.

The group earlier assumed responsibility for launching a Molotov cocktail attack against a Socialist politician's house, beating up HírTV host Sándor Csintalan and attacking a ticket office on Hollán Ernõ utca in Budapest's 13th District.

The National Bureau of Investigation is in possession of video recordings that show Budaházy leading a target practice exercise at a former military shooting range and instructing unidentified people how to make and use Molotov cocktails.

Budaházy first gained notoriety for occupying Erzsébet híd in 2002 and has since been linked to numerous extremist acts. Detectives conducted a search at Budaházy's house in Diósd, MTI reported.

Politics.Hu

Combat 18 graffiti daubed on graves

Racist and sectarian slogans were daubed overnight on Wednesday on a number of graves, causing a considerable amount of damage.

Sinn Fein's Paul Maskey has branded those responsible "complete and utter thugs".

He added: "People have to remember that there are families who have loved ones within these graves which have had paint put all over them.

"I think it's absolutely disgusting - family members have been saying to me that they are shocked to see this happening."

Mr Maskey is also challenging unionist politicians to condemn the vandalism.

UTV

BNP event may move to Dales

A landowner who has hosted the British National Party's controversial Red, White and Blue event since 2007 is considering moving to the Peak District – and says the festival may come too.

BNP member Alan Warner wants to move after repeated vandalism at his home at Codnor Denby Lane near Denby, and violent clashes between anti-BNP protesters and police at the last festival.

Mr Warner said: "We go walking at Youlgrave and like it up round that area and have friends there, so that's one place we are considering.

"I can't say yet about the festival – it depends what sort of place I buy and how much land there is."

Over 30 anti-fascist protesters were arrested at last year's Red, White and Blue festival and police objected to it being granted live music and alcohol licences this year.

Mr Warner said: "People round here have given me a lot of grief for the sake of two or three days a year.

"But I'm not moving because I'm being driven out.

"Travellers have approached me, offered a good price and it's food for thought."

Mr Warner denied he was a racist or a fascist, adding he did not know the meaning of the word fascist.

District councillor Andrew McCloy, who is also Youlgrave Parish Council chairman, said the festival would meet with widespread opposition.

Mr McCloy said: "Youlgrave is a tolerant and friendly place and bigots and racists like the BNP go against everything we stand for.

"It would be inflammatory and I'm sure the police would have a lot to say. It sends shivers down my spine to think of BNP thugs turning up here," he added.

Derbyshire Dales District Council said it was unaware of any plans to hold the festival in the Dales and could not comment without more details.

But a spokeswoman added councillors would consider whether it undermined licensing objectives, including public safety and prevention of public nuisance, crime and disorder.

Matlock Mercury

Mosque petrol bombed twice in a week

A BRAVE caretaker was hurt as he risked his life to save a mosque torched by arsonists in the second petrol bomb attack in a week.

Mohamed Koheeallee, 62, raced to tackle 7ft flames at the Greenwich Islamic Centre in Plumstead Road at 12.15am on Tuesday.

Grabbing a bucket of water, he extinguished the fire as it spread inside but when he opened a fire exit, he was engulfed by flames burning his arm and his face.

Choking with smoke inhalation and despite his injuries, he carried on dousing the fire until the mosque was safe but when he tried to tackle the source of the blaze he was pushed back by its intensity.

Holy texts, including the most sacred in Islam - the Koran - were burned.

Mr Koheeallee, who believes the attack was racially motivated, was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital by ambulance to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns and was later discharged.

He said: "It makes me feel really bad to see the burnt holy scriptures. If these people have a problem they should be brave enough to say it to my face, but not like this."

The caretaker had also dealt with another arson attack at the mosque which had been less serious but had taken place a week before at approximately the same time of night.

A chain that locks two heavy duty metal gates at the rear of the centre - which were put in place after the London 7/7 bombings - had been cut.

In March 2006, Mr Koheeallee was attacked in the mosque with a hammer, as reported in the Times.

The centre's director, Dr Tariq Abbasi, said "enough is enough," and has called on the new Greenwich borough commander Richard Wood to take action.

Dr Abbasi said: "This is as bad as it can get. Nobody deserves this. Seeing burnt copies of the Koran, the emotional impact has been devastating.

"Monetary loss is one thing, the building can be re-built, but the emotional scars can last for years.

"The Muslim community see this as a racist attack on a place of worship.

"If something like this happens anywhere in the world the reaction is not a good one.

"We want the borough commander to take action and for council leaders to understand that we are not prepared to accept it."

He said a racist minority may have been encouraged after BNP members won seats in the European elections.

The latest attacks come after Romanians in Belfast this week had to seek sanctuary in a church after being targeted by mobs believed to have links to racist group Combat 18.

Plumstead councillor, Sajid Jawaid praised the bravery of Mr Koheeallee, and called for the community to unite against the "mindless cowards" who attacked the mosque.

Mr Jawaid said: "These people are trying to divide the communities and sow the seeds of hate.

"We must work together to create a stronger and diverse community in the borough."

A spokesperson for Greenwich Police said: "Officers attended the scene and the cause of the fire is being investigated by the London Fire Brigade.

"A man suffering minor burns was taken by ambulance to a local hospital."

Enquiries into the circumstances of the fire continue. There have been no arrests.

Bexley Times

Royal College of Midwives attacks BNP maternity claims

The Royal College of Midwives has hit out at claims by the BNP that it blames immigration for increased pressure on maternity services.

An article on the BNP website said: ‘According to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives issued in 2008, the quality of NHS care has plummeted because ministers failed to predict a massive rise in the birth rate among immigrant mothers.’

According to the article, ‘several maternity wards at NHS hospitals in areas which serve largely white areas of the country, have been forced to shut their doors for months at a time because staff were needed elsewhere to deliver babies from foreign-born mothers in immigrant-dense areas.’

But the RCM denied that it considered immigration to be a problem.

General secretary Cathy Warwick pointed out that many midwives were born outside of the UK and without them, NHS maternity care would be ‘on its knees’.

Instead, Ms Warwick said the pressure on maternity units was caused by increasing fertility rates in older women.
Ms Warwick said: ‘We have seen an almost 50 percent rise in the fertility rate for women aged 40 or over, for example, and these women place more demands on the service than younger women. ‘Every year, the amount of medical intervention in maternity care increases and the number of babies delivered by caesarean section rises, both of which place extra demands on those providing maternity care.

‘The growing complexity and quality of maternity care are therefore the main reasons why pressures on the service are growing.

‘Thankfully, all mainstream parties recognise this and there is cross-party support for more resources for maternity care to deliver the first-class service we all want. That is the approach that responsible political parties should be taking, not scapegoating foreign-born mothers for a failure to invest in more midwives and better facilities and choice for all women.’

Nursing Times

Nazi sticker on Blackburn BNP man's car

Two Nazis together Evans with Griffin

A British National Party activist drives around with the word “Nazi” written on the back of his car, it has been revealed.

Robin Evans, the BNP’s Blackburn organiser, said he had not tried to remove the word as he did not find it offensive. The former councillor for Mill Hill in Blackburn, who now lives in Darwen, said he did not know who had stuck the letters on his metallic green Volkswagen Golf, but thought it was “quite funny”, adding: “It doesn’t bother me”

Blackburn MP Jack Straw said the sticker “exposed the true colours of the BNP”.

Party leader Nick Griffin, who was recently elected as a Euro MP for the North West, advised Mr Evans to remove the term.

When asked about it by the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Evans, who stood for the BNP at this month’s Darwen Town Council elections, said: “You know what people are like. Everyone calls me a Nazi. Someone put it on there 12 months ago. It was in silver letters. What you see there is the wreckage. I haven’t a clue who tried to take it off but I couldn’t be bothered. To be honest I thought it was quite funny. It’s better than them putting my windows through or smashing bottles on my head which I’ve had before. The car is on its last legs. I would rather be driving around in a big Porsche. But my car and whatever it looks like does its job and I am OK with it.”

Asked whether he found the term ‘Nazi’ offensive, Mr Evans added: “Everyone is individual. My personal interpretation, not the BNP’s, is that it means a nationalist, which is where the word has come from. If someone’s in the street screaming ‘Nazi, Nazi’, that is offensive. It is not offensive against other people.”

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “It’s very offensive, especially to people who are Jewish, but also to virtually everyone else in society. This exposes the BNP’s true colours.”

Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen Party leader and deputy council leader, said: “If someone put that on my car I would have it taken down instantly. It is absolutely tasteless.”

Mr Griffin said: “I would advise him to take it off. It was obviously put there by some crank. He may be putting a brave face on it.”

Asked whether he found the term offensive, he added: “I don’t know if it’s offensive per se, you see all sorts of swastikas on news stands and history books. But used against us it is highly offensive, because we believe in British values like free speech.”

Lancashire Telegraph

Romanians flee homes after attack

A Romanian man helps to move belongings

A five-day-old girl is among 115 Romanian people being put up in a church hall overnight after fleeing their homes in south Belfast.

They said they left their homes in the Lisburn Road area after suffering racist attacks for almost a week.

The church offered to help after about 20 families tried to take refuge in a house at Wellesley Avenue.

Church officers said the Romanians may stay as long as they need to and police are patrolling the area.

'Threatened verbally'

The families said they were tired and frightened but that the help of the church had shown them a positive side to the people of Belfast.

Jolena Flett, Racial Harassment Adviser for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, said they had been threatened verbally and then three properties were attacked on the same day.

"There has been an issue about the families feeling unsafe in the properties they were attacked in. What we are trying to do is provide them with alternative accommodation," she said.

Malcolm Morgan, pastor at the church, said they were happy to help.

"It's a sad indictment of our society, but hopefully we can show them a different side to Northern Ireland and a caring side of Northern Ireland," he said.

BBC NEWS:

Families flee after attacks by racist mob

A number of Romanian families have been been forced from their homes in Belfast in recent days by a racist mob claiming to be from the fascist group Combat 18, it can be revealed.

Their south Belfast homes came under sustained attack from Thursday evening, with their windows smashed and doors kicked in by crowds of thugs gathering outside shouting racist slogans.

One family fled from their home in Belgravia Avenue. Another family, with a newborn baby, has been left terrified after their home at Wellesley Avenue came under attack just days after they were forced out of another property.

A number of local residents last night stood guard outside their new home in a bid to protect them.

One local resident, Paddy Meehan, said: “About 12 of us worked in shifts to defend the house last night.

“Local residents think these people have to be defended.

“These thugs have been shouting that they are Combat 18 and they dropped a letter containing text from Hitler’s Mein Kampf through the letterbox of one of the properties.

“This has been going on for several nights. Sometimes there is about 20 of them gathering outside the properties.

“There is a hardcore of maybe six or seven shouting abuse and kicking doors down.

“These families are terrified, so are all their young children. They feel very isolated which is why the local community is gathering around them to support them,” he added.

The PSNI said police in south Belfast are investigating a number of racist attacks and criminal damage to properties and a car in Wellesley Avenue and Belgravia Avenue on a number of occasions between June 11 and 14.

A spokeswoman added: “A crowd gathered on each occasion at the properties and a number of windows were smashed. Police have not received reports of any injuries.”

Residents in south Belfast are planning to stage a protest outside the Mace shop on the Lisburn Road this evening to show their support for the Romanian families and to call for an end to the racist attacks. These attacks come at a time of increased racial tensions in Northern Ireland.

The PSNI’s annual crime statistics have shown that incidents of racism, which range from verbal abuse to physical attacks, are |continuing to rise across the province.

Almost 1,000 incidents were reported to police within the space of 12 months.

Earlier this year more than 40 foreign nationals were intimidated out of their homes in Belfast over a two-week period.

The Polish Association said in April that, following violent clashes between Northern Ireland and Polish football fans before a World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park, 46 people fled the Village area of south Belfast and Albertbridge Road area in the east of the city because of physical abuse and attacks on property.

Belfast Telegraph

The shower behind the BNP throne

The henchmen behind vile BNP leader Nick Griffin have their thin veneer of acceptability stripped away today.

His minders and hangers-on wore smart suits and ties as they leaped to shield their party leader from a barrage of eggs and anti-fascist taunts this week. But the News of the World can reveal their respectable image conceals a Nazi-saluting RACIST, a depraved SWINGER and a FAILED wannabe councillor who lives with his mum.

The rotten shower were among sidekicks who jumped in to protect Griffin, 49, from furious protesters in London. Griffin and Andrew Brons, who together had just become MEPs in the Euro elections, had been trying to portray their party as a reasonable voice. But we can reveal that their minders' views are every bit as warped as the BNP's policies.

Take JAY SLAVEN, who was seen on camera roughly pushing a bystander aside as he escorted Griffin and Brons away. A truer picture of Slaven, 25, emerges from another photo of him giving a Nazi salute and posing with a St George's flag draped over his shoulders.

The snap features on a Facebook photo album entitled "Forever Brave, Forever True, Forever England! St George's Day!"

Slaven, from Doddinghurst, Essex, tried to make a name for himself by defending Jade Goody's racist remarks to Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. At the time he claimed the huge row which erupted over comments made towards Indian actress Shilpa was "laughable".

In another rant Slaven, an assistant distribution manager, declared: "I see no possible wrong in wanting to preserve this island race of ours. Racial mixing is not leading to the BNP success, the vast damage done to our nation by successive governments is."

Pictured near Slaven at the egg demo was burly BNP minder MARTIN REYNOLDS, who is Griffin's head of security and a regular feature at his elbow. But Reynolds - married with three kids - is also a regular on the swingers scene and lusts after "big girls". The 41-year- old from Leeds was pictured at the London bust-up in dark glasses. But he wore far less as he watched women indulge in sex acts at a squalid orgy.

Months earlier he had gone on dating website faceparty.com with fellow BNP organisers Mark Collett and Dan Hannam. Reynolds told how he hated stuck-up people and women on diets - and listed his ideal female as "size 16 and above with a good sense of humour and a sex drive to match mine".

Also among Griffin's gang was TONY GLADWIN, who lives with his mum in a 1960s house with a St George's Cross flying from a 6ft flagpole outside. The 25-year-old landscape gardener recently stood as a district councillor but failed miserably to get elected. Gladwin, from Billericay, Essex, has said: "Everyone that knows me knows I am in the BNP. I'm very proud of it. People have made out it's like a secret society, like we should be hiding it."

Another Griffin minder is former London mayoral candidate JULIAN LEPPERT, a postman who is happiest when he is delivering racist scare stories. He said: "We don't want to be a minority in our city, let alone our country. That is what we are going to have by 2055 if current trends continue."

Meanwhile new MEP Andrew Brons, 61, seeks to be the respectable face of the party but 25 years ago he was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. He and another National Front member were shouting slogans including "Death to Jews" and "White Power".

NoTW

BNP’s secret belfast lair

Jim Dowson

The British National Party is peddling its vile fascist propaganda from a secret Belfast bunker. The BNP’s national call centre is tucked away in an industrial estate in Dundonald — right under the nose of First Minister Peter Robinson, who lives just minutes away.

The man who runs it is Ballygowan-based Jim Dowson — a top BNP fundraiser and a militant anti-abortion campaigner who has a string of criminal convictions and has had links to mass-murderer Michael Stone.

In online BNPtv footage filmed at the Belfast HQ, Scotsman Dowson brags that the Belfast base is raking in £1,500 per day — more than £500,000 per year — and has 12 staff.

Visitors to Carrowreagh Business Centre are blissfully unaware that work is being carried out for the BNP at Unit 5 — there are no signs to advertise their existence.

And even staff at the Dundonald base — who had innocently replied to call centre job ads — do not have their wages paid directly by the BNP.

Staff wages come from Dowson’s company Adlorr-ies.com Ltd, which has registered address in Leicestershire. Dowson is the only named director of the firm.

Adlorries.com keeps a low profile — its website lists no phone numbers or address, you can only contact them by email.

A former worker at the centre told Sunday Life that one man at the centre enjoyed dishing out verbal abuse to anti-fascists when they call to complain about the BNP. The source said: “There is one bloke who will literally run across the room to take over a call if he knows it’s someone giving out about the BNP.

“I was shocked and decided there and then I wasn’t working in a place like that.”

The outraged ex-worker also said that the sackloads of mail to the Belfast HQ would often include hatemail — some with human excrement and vomit inside.

The insider added: “I couldn’t believe that, it was disgusting but obviously it shows the extent to which people hate the BNP.”

Dowson is the man who has masterminded the set-up of the BNP’s nerve centre in Belfast.

In a BNPtv News broadcast which can be found on YouTube, he brags: “I’m speaking to you from the reception of the British National Party’s latest plant to open.

“The British National Party is now mainstream and is growing so incredibly quickly that these plants are absolutely necessary to keep the party running and to cope with the growth.”

The footage then cuts to BNP leader Nick Griffin in the ‘distribution warehouse’ who boasts that they have 29million BNP leaflets there and states “it’s a huge operation here”.

It then cuts back to Dowson at the ‘political headquarters’ —which is in fact the Belfast office, which Dowson says is the “adminsitrative hub for the party”.

He says: “Here we’ve recruited staff of the highest calibre to take the party to the next level.”

Later in the video he says there are 12 staff at the call centre dealing with 35,000 calls over the election period.

Dowson says the operation cost £100,000 to set up — but boasts that the centre is taking in £1,500 per day.

He adds: “It’s a very worthwhile and intense operation and certainly no other political party in the United Kingdom has anything like this, it’s going very well.

“There is no other political party in Britain or Europe that has anything like this, it’s very

modern and very efficient.” Workers are handed a ‘British heritage script’ which provides a template and information to promote the BNP and products to callers to boost the party’s coffers.

Among the ‘pointers to mention’ in the script it says “mention the trouble with the Muslims and our troops”. Staff at the Belfast HQ handle incoming enquiries and mail, post out BNP propaganda, take donations and pester lapsed members to try and get them back in the BNP fold.

The office used to be occupied by Alphagraphics, a firm which has no association to the BNP.

But outside Dowson’s home in Ballygowan is an advert for a plumbing business called ultraplumb.com and vehicles with the company logos were parked both at his home and at the BNP’s east Belfast hideaway.

Dowson’s son James is listed as a director of ultraplumb.com and also works at the BNP office.

When Sunday Life called at Dowson’s home yesterday to ask him about his BNP work, he said: “This is private property, get off my land or I’ll call the police.”

BNP leader Nick Griffin made a secret trip to the Belfast base less than two weeks ago to film a propaganda video.

Our exclusive picture shows Griffin pictured at the Belfast HQ flanked by two members of staff, whose identity we have protected.

His victory at the polls has been met with outrage and the 50-year-old and colleague Andrew Brons were besieged by protesters and pelted with eggs at Westminster last week.

Belfast Telegraph

Racist rants of elected BNP man, Andrew Brons, revealed

Yorkshire MEP Andrew Brons drew up some of the National Front's most inflammatory policies

One of the British National party's first MEPs' attempts to play down his past links to the extreme right as "silly" teenage posturing are today exposed as a sham after it emerged that for many years he played a crucial role in shaping the National Front's most overtly racist policies.

In 1983, when he was in his late twenties, Andrew Brons edited the National Front's general election manifesto that called for a global apartheid to prevent the "extinction" of whites everywhere.

The Let Britain Live! manifesto was prepared by the party's policy department, chaired by Brons. It outlined a series of hugely controversial positions, crystallised in one of its opening statements: "The National Front rejects the whole concept of multiracialism. We recognise inherent racial differences in Man. The races of Man are profoundly unequal in their characteristics, potential and abilities."

The manifesto claimed the UK had been "swamped" by "racially incompatible Afro-Asians" and that "Black muggings of White people, especially elderly ladies, occurs regularly".

It continued: "The eruptions in Bristol in 1980 and Brixton in 1981 were just two examples of the 'cultural enrichment' promised to us by the multiracialists." And it claimed: "We believe the gradual dismantlement of the Apartheid system over the last 17 years to be retrograde ... The alternative to Apartheid, multiracialism, envisages an extinction of the White man."

Brons was also an enthusiastic contributor in the 1970s and 1980s to Spearhead, a far-right magazine considered so extreme even the BNP tried to distance itself from it. In two lengthy polemics for the magazine, Brons outlined the supposed importance of nationalism and interpreted genetic studies to suggest Europeans had a "greater cognitive ability" than non-whites. He attacked the influence of "people of Jewish ethnic origin" and peddled the myth that a number of predominantly Zionist organisations were controlling the world.

The now retired college lecturer wrote: "One ethnic, national and religious group whose power and influence has undoubtedly increased has been the Jews. It can be no mere coincidence that the number of people of Jewish ethnic origin to be found in internationalist and multiracialist schools of thought and organisations of action is out of all proportion to their numbers in the population."

Brons, who was elected as the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber this month, has tried to distance himself from his National Front days. "People do silly things when they are 17," he said recently. "Peter Mandelson was once a member of the Young Communist League but we don't continue to call him a communist."

But his critics say his relationship with the National Front was more than a youthful dalliance and question the extent to which he has left his past behind. A 1980 edition of National Front News, the party newspaper, carried an article about Brons saying he was prepared to go to jail for his beliefs. It noted that Brons refused a "Negro reporter permission to attend two National Front ticket-only meetings" and explains that Brons, then 29, has "campaigned against Coloured Immigration since he was a teenager" - suggesting his extremist views have been a feature as much of his adult as his teenage life.

Brons seized the NF chairmanship in 1980 when John Tyndall quit to form the BNP. In 1984 Brons was convicted of using insulting behaviour towards an ethnic-minority police officer and left the party, citing family problems.

At the National Front, Brons was a close ally of Richard Verrall, the author of the Holocaust-denial tract Did Six Million Really Die?, who was vice-chairman. In 1981, while Brons was chairman, the NF endorsed We are National Front, a pamphlet carrying an introduction from Verrall. It had photographs of Brons and Verrall as well as a picture of a gorilla and a black man stating: "These two creatures look the same, don't they?"

Anti-racism and Jewish support groups yesterday described Brons's failure to condemn his past activities as disturbing. "From a young man until well into his middle age, Andrew Brons was very much involved in a series of viciously antisemitic and racist far-right movements," said a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which monitors attacks on the UK's Jewish community. "It's hard to believe he has undergone a serious conversion since then."

Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, said Brons was influential in shaping the NF and it was important that those voting for him should be aware of his past views. "The fact that Brons is an intellectual fascist and bigot rather than an ignorant fascist and bigot cuts little ice," a spokesman said. "We are unimpressed by his claims that his prejudice was a result of youthful exuberance."

Attempts to contact Brons through the BNP were unsuccessful.

The Guardian

British Legion tells BNP leader Nick Griffin: Don't wear poppy

The British Legion has demanded that BNP leader Nick Griffin stop wearing poppies in election campaigns.

Yesterday the military veterans charity published an open letter, saying: "The poppy is the symbol of sacrifices made by British armed forces and it has been paid for with blood and valour.

"True valour deserves respect regardless of ethnic origin. Everyone who serves their country deserves nothing less.

"Our chairman appealed to your sense of honour, but you responded by continuing to wear the poppy. So now we're no longer asking you privately. Stop it, Mr Griffin. Just stop it."

The Mirror

Kelly Holmes is not fully British, says BNP MEP Andrew Brons

Andrew Brons, the BNP's first MEP, sparked outrage on Saturday after he said double Olympic gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes cannot be regarded as fully British.

Mr Brons, who became the first member of the British National Party to be elected to the European Parliament, has said that the athlete's mixed race heritage means she is "only partially from this country".

The BNP – which bars blacks or Asians from joining – rejects the notion of a multicultural society and refuses to consider black and ethnic minorities to be British, even if they or their parents were born here.

But until now it has been careful not to single out noted ethnic minority celebrities for fear of provoking a public backlash.

His comments have provoked anger from politicians and sporting bodies.

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey said: “This type of comment reveals the ugly face of the BNP which they try to hide from voters yet is at the heart of their extremism.”

The British Olympic Association added: “Dame Kelly Holmes played an important part in Team GB as a hugely successful British athlete. We are immensely proud of her achievements.

"Team GB is not about the colour of your skin, it is about performing at the highest level while representing this country at Olympic events.”

Mr Brons, who began his political life as a member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, said he rejected the notion that Black or Asian members of the community could be British, even if they were born here.

He said: "I don't accept the term Black British or Asian British. Britons are the indigenous peoples of these isles."

Asked about someone like Dame Kelly, who was born in Kent of a white English mother and Jamaican father, and served for several years in the Army before becoming one of this country's most successful athletes, he said: "Kelly Holmes is only partially from this country, even if she is an integrated member of the community."

Mr Brons, 61, went on to reject the idea that black footballers, such as Emile Heskey and Jermain Defoe, who represented England against Andorra last Wednesday, could be regarded as British.

He said: "They are British citizens – which is a legal concept – but not British by identity. That's not a pejorative description, it is just stating a fact about their racial identity."

The BNP's ultimate aim – as laid down in its constitution – is a return to a predominately white Britain that existed before the 1948 Nationality Act.

Mr Brons, who well into the 1980s was still praising the NF's skinhead supporters, used to advocate mass forced repatriation of all non-whites. He says he now accepts repatriation would have to be voluntary.

He said: "Compulsory repatriation is not practical now because communities have put down roots. My views have matured and changed."

Police have stepped up security around Mr Brons's home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, after threats against him were posted on a football fans' internet chat room.

Harrogate College, where Mr Brons worked as a politics lecturer until recently, is coming under pressure to explain why it continued to employ him despite his views.

Mr Brons says he would have taken up an offer to return to the college in September had he not been elected as MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Telegraph

ANdrew Brons said double Olympic gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes cannot be regarded as fully British Photo: JANE MINGAY

Peter Davies. The New Mayor of Dumbcaster

Newly elected English Democrat Mayor Peter Davies outlines his policies on Toby Foster's BBC Radio Sheffield Show.

We have known for some time that The English Democrats are slightly barking, and aren't particularly picky on who they select for a candidate.

However Peter Davies is dafter then the rest.

The worrying thing is that Peter Davies is the father of Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies.

Hull City councillors united against BNP

FORTY-ONE city councillors have signed an open letter condemning the election of a BNP activist to European Parliament to represent the Yorkshire and Humber region.

The unprecedented move comes after Harrogate-based retired lecturer Andrew Brons took the sixth and final regional seat on behalf of the BNP party, following last week's elections.
He will be joined in Brussels by BNP leader Nick Griffin, who won a seat in the North West region.
The open letter, which is published by the Mail today, has been signed by councillors from across the political divide at the Guildhall.
The councillors' letter describes the two men as "harbingers of hate" and says just one vote for the BNP is "one vote too many".
It said: "We often disagree in our daily politics, we insult and undermine each other, we passionately believe in different things but in this we have common cause.
"As a threat to our democracy and freedom, it outweighs any moat or duck house, phantom mortgage or second home, even whilst those things may have helped its rise.
"We pledge to resist its further rise, the lies and distortions which support it and the hatred and prejudice which underlies it.
"We have learned the lessons of history, we do not need to repeat them."
Across the Yorkshire region, the BNP polled just over 120,000 votes.
Most of its support came from areas of west and south Yorkshire although the party polled 5,729 votes in the East Riding and 3,715 votes in Hull.
Mr Brons ducked eggs thrown by protesters as he and Mr Griffin attempted to stage a press conference outside the House of Commons earlier this week.

This is Hull and East Riding

North Yorkshire racists Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle to be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court

TWO racists who fled to America after being found guilty of publishing inflammatory material are to be returned to Britain to face justice.

Simon Sheppard, 52, of Brook Street in Selby, and 42-year-old University of York graduate Stephen Whittle, fled to America in the hope of claiming political asylum after being found guilty of running an internet race-hate campaign.

Sheppard was found guilty of 16 charges relating to the possession, publication and distribution of racist material. Whittle, who is from Preston, Lancashire, was found guilty of five counts of publishing racially inflammatory material.

The pair fled to the US last July before they could be sentenced, expecting America’s free speech laws to protect them.

Unfortunately for them they have spent the last 11 months locked up after becoming embroiled in the country’s asylum process.

They are now due to be flown back to Britain, after Judge Rose Peters ruled they had not been persecuted in Britain in the past and were unlikely to face persecution in the future.

Ironically, if they had not claimed asylum with an airport official and instead walked off into the country and then found themselves an asylum lawyer, the pair may today have been living free in California.

In a prison interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sheppard said: “We thought they’d hold us for a day or so. We couldn’t see how they wouldn’t grant us asylum. The things we supposedly had done in Britain aren’t illegal in America.

“We came to the beacon of free speech in the western world, which turned out to be a complete fantasy. We’re not cowed and we’re not repentant.

“We have the right even to make mistakes. We could be wrong, it’s not inconceivable. We have a right to be wrong. All we’re doing is speaking our minds.”

The investigation into Sheppard and Whittle began when a complaint about a leaflet called Tales Of The Holohoax was reported to police in 2004, after being pushed through the door of a Blackpool synagogue.

It was subsequently traced back to a post office box in Hull registered to Sheppard.

The pair are expected to be put on a plane for England next Tuesday, and to be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court the following day. Both are expected to be jailed.

The Press

BNP deputy suspended for blog attack

British National Party deputy leader Simon Darby has been suspended by City Hall for attacking the Archbishop of York as "anti-British".

Mr Darby now faces a disciplinary hearing and could be issued with a warning or even be dismissed by the Greater London Authority for bringing it into disrepute.

Mr Darby, whose part-time job at City Hall is funded by Londoners, came under fire last month when he hit back at criticism of his party by Archbishop Sentamu.

He said in a blog that the cleric "deserved to be attacked" and then went on to suggest that Ugandans "threw spears" at enemies.

A disciplinary investigation has found that there are grounds for action and Mr Darby has been suspended on full pay pending the hearing.

The BNP were today trying to stage a press conference but had to keep details secret over fears of a repeat of yesterday's ambush by anti-fascist groups, when party leader Nick Griffin had eggs thrown at him in Parliament Square.

This is London

White supremacist who opened fire at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 'has links to the BNP'

A white supremacist who killed a security guard after opening fire at Washington's Holocaust Museum had links to the far-Right British National Party, a former associate has said.

James von Brunn, described as a 'hard core neo-Nazi', attended meetings of the American Friends of the British National Party, which raised funds for the white supremacist group.

Todd Blodgett, a former Reagan White House Aide, attended meetings at the Arlington County branch of the group with von Brunn, he told the Washington Post.

He did not elaborate on how often von Brunn attended the meetings or whether he donated any funds to the party, which just this week saw the election of its first MEPs, including leader Nick Griffin.

Von Brunn fatally shot security guard Stephen T. Johns in the attack in the busy tourist attraction located just off the National Mall near the Washington Monument.

But before he could cause any more bloodshed, Brunn was critically injured himself in a gun battle with two other guards.

The quick action of the security guards was praised for preventing any further injuries at the museum, which was packed with 2,000 visitors at the time of the attack, including hundreds of schoolchildren.

The shooting comes just a week after President Obama visited the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany during a trip to Europe.

Mr Obama said that he was 'saddened' by the shooting.

Brunn is said to have long-term ties to anti-Semitic and race hate groups in the US and served six years behind bars after walking into Washington's Federal Reserve building with a shotgun in a protest over interest rates in 1981.

US Park Police spokesman David Schlosser said the gunman walked into the museum at about 1pm armed with 'a long gun'.

He reportedly started shooting after security guards confronted him by the metal detectors at the entrance. All visitors have to pass through the detectors and bags are screened.

One eyewitness said she saw the injured security guard as she tried to flee from the gunfire.

'We were in the Remember the Children exhibit and we heard shooting.

'I ran out and I could see the shooter and the guard was laying on the floor with blood all around him,' she said.

Mark Lippert said he heard several 'pops' and saw several schoolchildren running towards him with horrified looks on their faces.

Brunn is well known to US watchdog groups monitoring white supremacy organisations.

It is not known how strong his links were to the American Friends of the BNP.

The group was headed by British expatriate Mark Cotterill. He has united a significant number of American extremist factions, all in the name of raising funds for the BNP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, claimed in a 2001 report.

Searchlight magazine claimed the group channelled tens of thousands of dollars into the BNP before a change in UK electoral law made it illegal to raise money abroad.

Cotterill later left the group to form the England First Party, or EFP, in 2004, a rival to the BNP.

It is not known if von Brunn ever met Cotterill or Griffin, or for how long he attended meetings of the American Friends of the BNP.

He met regularly with Blodgett in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Blodgett worked as a paid informer for federal investigators in the early 2000s, he told the Washington Post.

He said he never filed reports on von Brunn to the FBI but that he was probably around while was wired.

'It's only an opinion, but my suspicion is that he was nearing the end of his life and he saw that Barack Obama was in the White House and he decided that America was going to hell in a handbasket and thought he would go out with a hell of a bang,' claimed Mark Potok, of the Southern Poverty Law Centre.

The suspect once tried to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve board, a 'caper' thwarted when a guard captured him outside a board meeting carrying a bag stuffed with weapons.

Von Brunn describes the assault with apparent pride on his website, the source of fulmination against Jews and races other than his own.

He was sentenced in 1983 to more than four years in prison for attempted armed kidnapping and other charges in his Fed assault. He was released in 1989.

'The subject resides in my memory like old road-kill,' he wrote. 'What could have been a slam-bang victory turned into ignoble failure. Recalling all of this presents an onerous task. I am getting near the end of the diving board.'

Despite the revolver, sawed-off shotgun and knife found in his bag that day, von Brunn insisted he was trying to place the board under 'legal, non-violent citizens-arrest.'

A self-described artist, advertising man and author living in Annapolis, Maryland, von Brunn wrote an anti-Semitic treatise, 'Kill the Best Gentiles,' that he said no one would publish.

He decries 'the browning of America' and claims to expose a Jewish conspiracy 'to destroy the White gene-pool.'

Von Brunn also wrote, 'The 'Holocaust' Religion is destroying Western Civilization. The Aryan gene-pool dies, 'unwept, unhonored and unsung.''

His lengthy, often rambling online biography aside, law enforcement officials are trying to piece together details of von Brunn's life.

Navy records show that he enlisted in 1942, accepted an appointment as a naval midshipman in the volunteer reserves in 1943, and served until 1956.

Two law enforcement officials said investigators are trying to better understand time he spent in Idaho, and how he acquired the .22-caliber rifle used in Wednesday's attack.

At the request of the U.S. Park Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is tracing the weapon. Under federal law, convicted felons cannot purchase firearms.

A third law enforcement official said when von Brunn was captured he had a list he had made of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress. The purpose of the list was not immediately clear, the official said.

Public records show that in 2004 and 2005 he lived briefly in Hayden, Idaho, which for years was home to the Aryan Nations, a racist group run by neo-Nazi Richard Butler.

In his account of his 'Federal Reserve caper,' the St. Louis native relates his 'character shapers' - among them a schoolyard bully who beat him up, vacation days on the Mississippi River, his service on a PT boat in World War II, and what he said was his first trouble with the law - a year in jail for tussling with a sheriff on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1968, the year he moved to the area from New York City.

Von Brunn applied to have his art shown at the Troika Gallery in Easton, Maryland, around the time the gallery opened about 12 years ago, two of the owners, Laura Era and Jennifer Wharton explained.

They said they turned him down because it was not up to their quality and that made von Brunn angry.

'He stomped out,' Wharton said. 'You don't normally get that reaction from artists.'

They say his work was not strange or violent, but the artists they show have many years of professional experience. They said von Brunn's work depicted images such as horses and buffalo in the American West or an eagle with the U.S. flag.

Von Brunn's accounts of what shaped his character as a boy and young man are heavy with dark episodes blamed on Jews and other minorities.

Daily Mail

BNP can't keep me out

The British National Party held a victory rally in a Manchester pub amid chaotic scenes yesterday. Leader Nick Griffin was celebrating his election as an MEP to represent the North West in this week's Euro elections.

He told journalists that the Manchester Evening News was barred from the meeting because he objected to some of our reporting about his party. However, MEN reporter Yakub Qureshi managed to get into the press conference. Here is his report:

Nick Griffin claims to be the only man voters can trust to police Britain's borders - but perhaps he should start by looking at his own party meetings. The BNP put up a wall of burly minders to provide security at the dingy pub where newly-elected Mr Griffin was holding a victory rally, and also to exclude the Manchester Evening News.

As they monitored the credentials of journalists, the minders said that the M.E.N. was barred and they quickly turned away a crew from our sister television station Channel M on the grounds that they were guilty by association. But when I reached the front, I simply showed my card and walked in. I wasn't exactly difficult to pick-out - I was the only non-white person in the room.

The meeting began with a short speech from the party's werewolf-eyebrowed deputy leader Simon Darby, who complained that his party had been told they couldn't use Manchester town hall.

Party leader Nick Griffin stood metres away as he crowed how he had withdrawn the M.E.N's 'privileges' after we highlighted his policies on Ghurkha veterans.

Mr Griffin's party wants 'non-indigenous' Brits - people like me - to leave the country. The party's manifesto says black and Asian families who have been living in Britain for decades should be offered money as an incentive to leave. I was genuinely worried when I heard this. Being Scottish-Pakistani I might only get half the cash.

Mr Griffin, who has denied the Holocaust and who has a criminal conviction for publishing material likely to incite racial hatred, was asked directly if there was the slightest chance that his party, which only signs white people up as members, could be just a tiny, tiny, little bit... racist.

Surrounded by bunting and limp balloons, his answer was emphatic. Every newspaper, radio and TV station in the country, along with political rivals, church and charity leaders, trade unions, had got it wrong and were deliberately distorting his policies.

During an hour-long question and answer session, he continued to refer to the 'mass media conspiracy' but seemed to falter when asked if he would mind living next door to a Muslim family - eventually responding he wouldn't be 'particularly bothered'. However, he caught everyone off guard with the extraordinary claim that the BNP were the natural choice for Asian women suffering domestic violence.

"Asian women come to the BNP for help because no-one else will touch the subject," he claimed.

He was also taken to task by one journalist who asked him to explain a BNP poster which contrasted 1950s schoolchildren looking happy with a recent picture of two grimacing coloured boys.

"It's not racist. It's factual," he said. "It's not a matter of immigration. It's a matter of colonisation. Places like Blackpool and Preston have been smashed up by the liberal elite."

The party do have other policies apart from race - but they seem a bit woolly. The BNP's website describes the party as 'Britain's only true green party'. However, Mr Griffin told reporters one of his first priorities in Europe would be an urgent campaign for more nuclear power stations.

He also cast doubt on evidence that human activity has caused global warming, saying: "They say the icecaps are melting. The ice has melted on Mars and there are no 4x4s there."

After being pelted with eggs in London the previous day, Mr Griffin and his party had adopted a cloak-and-dagger approach to the Manchester meeting. Party organisers had originally told journalists to meet outside the nearby Sheridan Suite - a well known venue for Asian weddings and other multi-culture events - where they were told they would receive further instructions. But this approach failed when BNP activists were chased off by managers at the Sheridan Suite, who took exception to their car park being used as a staging area.

Unsurprisingly the 'secret location' for the meeting turned out to be the Ace of Diamonds pub some 200 yards away, which is owned by BNP candidate Derek Adams and currently fighting a closure notice. Around 50 anti- BNP protesters chanted slogans outside the Miles Platting boozer as police tried to prevent the egg-pelting scenes which marked Mr Griffin's ill-fated visit to London on Tuesday.

Yesterday, one passer-by was arrested for apparently verbally abusing Mr Griffin as he left the meeting. Minutes before, the newly-elected MEP had told reporters: "There are far more controversial people than me in Europe."

Manchester Evening News

Holocaust museum security guard shot and killed in Washington

A suspected white supremacist opened fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington today, killing a security guard who stopped him in the entrance before being wounded by return gunfire.

The museum that commemorates the victims of genocide in the second world war became the scene of bloodshed and panic today, when an elderly man suspected of writing racist anti-Semitic internet tracts entered the building brandishing a rifle and opened fire on two guards who confronted him.

The killing of security guard Stephen Johns, whose quick action officials credited with saving perhaps dozens of lives, came just five days after Barack Obama visited the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany and implored the world never to forget those who perished in the Holocaust.

"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum," Obama said in a statement. "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honour those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world."

"The security guards performed exceptionally well and exactly as they were supposed to," Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters. "In these days and times you never know when someone is going to grab a gun and use it in an inappropriate way."

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman appeared to have acted alone, though the FBI was investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism.

Police officials suspected James Von Brunn in the shooting and found his car blocks from the museum. Von Brunn, 89, was in critical condition at a Washington hospital tonight. On a racist, anti-Semitic website purportedly written by Von Brunn, he says he was a lieutenant in the US navy during the second world war and lived in Maryland, about two hours away from Washington, and worked as an artist.

In 1983 Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the US federal reserve board. At the time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation's economic difficulties. On the website, Von Brunn blames his six-year imprisonment on "a Jew judge" and "Negro jury".

After the shooting, about 2,000 stunned visitors fled onto the pavement outside and police established a wide perimeter around the museum, snarling traffic across downtown Washington. The museum, a US government body, lies within blocks of the White House, the US capitol building and several major monuments, along a heavily policed corridor of government office buildings.

Eyewitnesses standing outside the police cordon reported hearing about four to six gunshots just inside the entryway to the museum, near the x-ray machine and magnetometer visitors must walk through to enter.

David Unruh, 66, from Wichita, Kansas, said he was in the lobby when he heard shots and somebody yell "hit the floor". He was roughly 30 feet from where the shots were fired. He, his wife and two grandsons dropped to the floor and a man shielded them. "We were scared to death," he said. He said the evacuation was orderly but people were visibly upset.

"You feel pretty secure," he said. "You've gone through security. You don't expect that to happen at a place like this. It's a place of dignity and respect."

The shooting was the third in the US in recent weeks that appear to have been motivated by political hatred. Last week a man opened fire outside an Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing one soldier and wounding another. Late last month, an anti-abortion extremist killed Kansas physician George Tiller at his church.

Guardian

Don't be fooled by the 'respectable' mask of the BNP

IT'S a really, really sad day in British politics when the BNP are able to grab so many votes.

It just shows how disengaged the main parties are from some British people who are feeling marginalised.

This is obviously a protest vote, and I think it has happened for two reasons.

Firstly, people do worry about immigration, and the BNP (led by Nick Griffin) capitalise on their fears and exaggerate what is happening in this country.

The other reason is the scandal over MPs' expenses.

And it wasn't BNP MPs doing the claiming - so you can see why some believe the party's claims they are more trustworthy.

I think it's time we started tackling the issue of immigration urgently. The main parties have been pussyfooting around for far too long, being politically correct and not sorting out the concerns.

The fact is that in Britain we don't talk about race well.

We make people feel guilty if they say something remotely non-PC.

If we were able to alleviate their fears, the BNP wouldn't even exist. Let's just talk! When we put aside cultural differences and the way we look, we'll find we have a lot more in common than we realised.

The main parties make the electorate feel so bad about being anti-immigration or for worrying that Britain is changing.

The leaders of these parties, together with leaders of ethnic groups, need to have an honest dialogue in communities.

Otherwise we risk losing what is so great about Britain.

As a second-generation immigrant myself, I know that we cannot in any way underestimate the great value we have brought here.

Britain would not be Britain without that great melting pot of different cultures.

I'm spending most of my time in the US at the moment.

Yes, they have recently elected their first black president but I have found that people stay within their ethnic group.

In the UK they do mix, and diversity works. It adds such vibrancy to society.

Fears

It's so sad that the BNP are able to manipulate people's fears.

A small percentage feel they are not being listened to and that, if you're working class and British, your needs are met last.

And they feel so strongly about it that they are willing to vote for the BNP.

What's really frightening is the successful Yorkshire and Humberside candidate, Andrew Brons, appears to be an articulate, civilised person.

If you have a candidate like that as the face of the BNP, you can see how they attract votes.

The BNP don't have the same lunatics they had before - they've rebranded themselves very well.

Happily, 99 per cent of British people still find the BNP and what they stand for totally unacceptable.

But two seats in the European Parliament is still two seats too many.

June Sarpong

The Sun

Far-right having difficulty clubbing together in EU parliament

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Like chocolate and mustard, or orange juice and toothpaste, the various flavours of far right in the new European Parliament just don't seem to go together and are already having trouble cooking up a united bloc in the chamber, despite the gains the extremists made in the European elections on the weekend.

The ‘softer' far-right parties so far seem more interested in jumping aboard the UK Tories' proposed European Conservatives grouping than cobbling together a nationalist bloc, but it is an open question whether the attraction will be requited.

The European elections on the weekend delivered a moderate advance of eight seats on the number of MEPs in the last parliament, eliciting fears that they might club together in a political grouping in the parliament, a move that would open a tap to thousands of euros in EU funds.

However, while it is still too early to make any definitive predictions, there seems to be an unbreachable antagonism between the more moderate parties and their cousins further to the right.

Some of the new MEPs from the likes of Dutchman Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) or the Danish People's Party may well be opposed to migrants, Muslims and minorities, but they are reluctant to embrace the militant nationalism of the more classically ‘fascistic' parties such as the British National Party, France's Front National or newcomer Jobbik from Hungary, with its paramilitary Hungarian Guard straight out of the 1930s.

At the same time, even such a division - the far-right ‘classic' and far-right ‘lite' as Glyn Ford, centre-left MEP and longtime monitor of parties to the right of the conservative mainstream, describes the two rough wings of European extremism - simplifies a situation that is further complicated by personal rivalries, competing nationalist narratives and in some cases just an inability to play together nicely.

DPP in talks with Tories

On Tuesday (9 June), freshly elected MEP Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People's Party was in Brussels meeting on Tuesday the Tories, who have announced they are to split with the European People's Party (EPP), the centre-right - and largest - grouping in the parliament.

"We're definitely looking more towards the new European Conservatives grouping than the other[parties on the far right]," DPP spokesperson Nina Lusty told EUobserver.

"It depends on whether they agree to our agenda," she said. "It's not that we'd be uncomfortable with sitting with other parties, it's just that we'd be most comfortable with the Tories."

Another DPP official told this paper that the party would prefer to remain in the Union for a Europe of the Nations - the other main right-wing grouping in the European Parliament, which is expected to disintegrate after the defection of Ireland's centre-right Fianna Fail for the Liberal grouping and the folding of self-styled post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale of Italy into the EPP.

"But, as you know, we don't know if there'll still be a UEN."

Nevertheless, the DPP says negotiations with the Tories have been "tough".

The Lijst Dedecker, a brand-new Flemish populist group that has attracted a number of MPs, local councillors and party members from the hard-right Flemish separatist Vlaams Belang, has also reportedly talked to the Conservatives.

A source close to discussions confirmed the talks with the DPP but said: "I'd be very surprised if the Danes join with the Conservatives. The Tories are trying to build a mainstream anti-federalist grouping.

James Holton, spokesperson for the Conservatives in the parliament said he expected the discussions on the forming of the group with a wide number of parties to take at least another few weeks.

So far the soft eurosceptic governing coalition senior partner in the former Czech government, the Civic Democrats (ODS), has officially signed up.

Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party of President Lech Kaczynski are also on board, although no announcements have yet been made.

A source close to the UEN told EUobserver that the grouping will be wrapped up and "totally consumed into the European Conservative grouping, apart from those parties that the Tories don't want in."

Andreas Moelzer of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) - which won 13 percent of the country's votes, more than doubling its share since the last European Parliament elections in 2004 - told this paper that they are hoping to join either the UEN or the eurosceptic Ind/Dem groupings in the parliament.

In February, the FPO invited the Danish People's Party, the Vlaams Belang, France's Front National and Bulgaria's Ataka (National Union Attack) to a conference on the Lisbon Treaty.

According to the UEN source, "the Freedom Party wouldn't be welcomed into the UEN, let alone the new Conservative grouping."

"No way. Not under any circumstances," he said twice.

Northern League: ‘No anti-semites'

Mario Borghezio, the head of Italy's Lega Nord, or Northern League, delegation in the parliament believed that the UEN group would continue, despite its defections, and was surprised to hear the Poland's PiS had committed to joining the European Conservatives.

"We have a meeting next week with the Poles to discuss the future of the group," he said, adding nevertheless that the possibility of joining the Conservatives was "not excluded."

"It would depend on whether they adopt acceptable positions. It's possible," he continued.

The Tories for their part are believed to be opposed to the entry of the xenophobic Northern League into their new club.

"The only parties that would absolutely be excluded would be those that are too extreme, anti-semitic," he said, declining to name which parties he would define as too extreme.

The League also has very good relations with the Flemish separatist Vlaams Belang.

"We will examine the terrain in Brussels in the coming weeks."

Far-right ‘dream team

The Vlaams Belang for its part has not had any discussions with any other parties to the right of the conservative mainstream and does not expect to do so for a few weeks.

"We're waiting a bit to get involved in talks," said spokesperson Philip Claeys, "Many of the parties we would like to work with are currently in discussions with the UK Conservatives."

The Vlaams Belang is not however looking to join the Conservative grouping because of its support for Turkish entry into the EU.

"That for us is a red line."

The VB's ‘dream team', he said, would involve a core of themselves and Italy's Northern League, the Danish People's Party, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. This core would deliver only 19 seats from five countries, short of the 25 MEPs from seven member states that the parliament's rules require.

"So we would have to add some other parties as well," he said, such as Greece's Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), the Slovak National Party or the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK from Latvia.

The Flemish separatists are reluctant to work with parties further to the right, the Greater Romania Party in particular.

"We worked with them in the past. We know them and we don't have very good memories of that time."

"At the same time, we're not saying we don't want to work with them, but they have caused us a lot of problems. They're not our first choice."

Geert Wilders won't play with the others

Mr Claeys said the party would be particularly happy to work with the PVV of Geert Wilders. The Austrian Freedom Party also quickly congratulated its Dutch namesake, after its shock election of four MEPs, which pushed the junior partner in the country's coalition government, the Labour Party, into third place.

"They don't quite realise yet what it means to be unattached."

A spokesperson for the PVV however, told the EUobsercer said that ahead of the elections, the party would sit independently in the chamber.

"We refuse to sit with anyone else, including the Vlaams Belang," he told EUobserver, "Anyone can congratulate us all they want, but we are going in a different direction."

The VB's Mr Claeys said he expected the PVV to come around in the future, once they realise what sort of isolation is involved with being ‘non-inscrit' in the parliament - the term for MEPs that do not belong to any political grouping.

Far right ‘Classic'

Meanwhile, BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said that the party is to meet with the Front National next Tuesday in Brussels.

"As yet we don't know if anyone else will be there, but we're willing to sit down with anyone and listen, whatever their beliefs," he told EUobserver.

Catherine Savagnac, a Front National spokeswoman, told this website that they continue to work with the Austrian Freedom Party, the Vlaams Belang, Bulgaria's Ataka and the newly elected BNP, and have contacts with Hungary's Jobbik.

"But together we're not enough to form a group in the parliament."

Such a formation would total 14 MEPs from six member states, still well below the cut-off for group funding.

She added that relations with the Greater Romania Party (which has just elected three MEPs) "did not end well. So it is not probable that we will work with them again. But everything's possible."

The Front National also refuses to work with the Movement pour la France of national sovereignist Philippe de Villiers, whose party ran under the Libertas banner during the elections. "There are contacts between individual MEPs, but not at the political level. There was a rupture with Mr de Villiers."

"Much depends on what happens with whether the UEN and Ind/Dem are able to form a group and what sort of groups are attracted to the new Conservative group."

"It's all their fault. They've scrambled everything."

Identity, Sovereignty, Tradition Mark II?

Graeme Atkinson of Searchlight underscored that despite the growth of the far right in the new parliament, it was lower than might have expected given the scale of the economic crisis and that it was important to neither scaremonger nor dismiss the MEPs simply because they are not explicit neo-Nazis.

"While they've made real gains, we shouldn't exaggerate, and really, it looks like they won't be able to forge a group once again."

In 2007, 23 MEPs clubbed together to form the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty political grouping in the parliament. It only lasted a few months before it exploded as a result of remarks by member Alessandra Mussolini about Romanian ‘criminals' in Italy that the Romanian members of the group found insulting.

"There were major set-backs in the elections for the Front National in France and the Vlaams Belang in Belgium, the two slickest, most professional of the far-right outfits," Graeme Atkinson said.

The Front National dropped from seven seats won in 2004 to just three on Sunday. The VB dropped from three to two.

"Without them forming a backbone, I don't know whether they'll be able to co-ordinate much in the parliament."

"Nick Griffin supposedly has influence amongst some of the European far right groups, but he's just not very smart. It'll be very hard to glue anything together."

He explained that the Front National has been riven with faction fighting, notably over the issue of succession following the presumed departure of the ageing Jean-Marie Le Pen, and is virtually bankrupt, having been forced to sell their headquarters.

In the June EP elections, former FN MEP Carl Lang ran a dissident far-right list under the 'Parti de France' banner against the official FN list led by Marine Le Pen in the North-West constituency.

"They are incapable of presenting a united image," Mr Atkinson said.

EU Observer

CHUCK A CHAPATTI TIME!

A BIZARRE campaign has been launched offering cash to those who bombard BNP nasty Nick Griffin with ETHNIC food.

The far-right chief had to abort his Euro MP success speech outside Parliament this week when he was pelted with eggs by political opponents.

Now a website is offering a £200 reward to those that dare to chuck a chow mein, fling a fajita, launch a lamb tikka or hit him with a volley of vindaloo.

A spokesman for the site – www.bragster.com – said: “He will be out and about a lot in the coming days, so now is the time to strike.

“Let’s show him just how much fun international diversity can be.”

The dare, which must be supported by video or photo proof, came as Griffin showed signs of cracking under the political strain yesterday by clutching a box of eggs.

It was supposed to be a dig at the protesters who targeted him.

Instead of raising a chuckle, the 50-year old was once again hit by a deafening barrage of chants including “Nick Griffin Is Fascist Scum” and “Nazi Scum Off Our Streets”.

Griffin was throwing a press conference after winning a North-West seat to become a Euro MP for the BNP.

He was barred from staging the conference at Manchester Town Hall, so he picked the nearby Ace of Diamonds pub, run by Derek Adams, who stood unsuccessfully to become a BNP councillor.

Union flags were strewn around the bar room as police kept around 50 protesters waving Unite Against Fascism banners at bay.

Sipping half a pint of bitter, Griffin tore into all the mainstream political parties and said: “I think it’s very sad to see that hostile mob.

"They are allowed to register a protest but should not be allowed to get away with this level of violence and abuse on the streets of Britain.”

Griffin was one of two BNP candidates elected as an MEP last weekend.

Andrew Brons, 61, won the other for Yorkshire and Humber.

Griffin won his seat despite his party polling only 8% of the North-West vote.

The Star

EPPING FOREST: BNP accused of hypocrisy over fly-posting

Residents Lesley and Terence Lewis

BNP activists have been accused of irresponsible littering and hypocrisy after scores of their party’s election banners were fly-posted across two towns.

Epping Forest District’s BNP councillors have been among the loudest in their demands to clamp down on fly-tipping and graffiti and recently enthusiastically supported the council’s Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act.

But overnight on election day last week scores of their posters appeared on lampposts and bus-stops across Loughton and Waltham Abbey.

Lesley Lewis, 47, of Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey, said: “I first saw them when I opened the bedroom curtains and there was one staring straight into our windows.

“They were pinned up all over Honey Lane. Then when I went into town they were on every set of lampposts and bus-stop you could possibly imagine.”

Mrs Lewis contacted the district council who sent a lorry to remove the posters.

She said: “Their election leaflet said ‘we’re not in it for the money’ but they’re causing public money to be used to clear this up. Who did they think was going to clear it up?”

Posters also appeared all over Loughton to the annoyance of local residents.

Loughton mayor Ken Angold-Stephens said: “They have incurred quite a lot of costs in removing them. They were up so high they had to use a ladder to remove them. It’s an illegal act and irresponsible.

“I’m a bit concerned they did break the law against fly-posting, and it’s a law which they proport to strongly support. They’ve been very strong in trying to clampdown on litter, graffiti and fly-posting.”

Epping Forest’s BNP group leader Pat Richardson said the fly-posting had nothing to do with party members.

She said: “They weren’t official and where they came from no-one knows. Then again we sometimes get [pro-BNP] graffiti and stuff done by non-members of the party.

“Some were on places they shouldn’t have been. It’s either people trying to cause trouble or people with a misguided sense of enthusiasm. We don’t need it really.

Epping Forest Guardian

Nick Griffin: profile of BNP leader

Nick Griffin has led the British National Party to controversial victories in the European elections, winning its first two seats.

Cambridge University-educated Mr Griffin cuts a figure which at first sight appears far removed from the skinhead stereotype of the 1970s far-right activist.

Articulate and always in a suit, Mr Griffin embodies the BNP's controversial attempts to legitimise itself as a credible political force since he took the helm in 1999.

Over the past decade he has tried to portray himself as a mainstream political leader, apparently modelling his party's image on the successes of Jean-Marie Le Pen in France and the late Jorg Haider in Austria.

The strategy apparently proved successful, with BNP candidate Richard Barnbrook elected to the Greater London Assembly last year and Mr Griffin winning one of the party's first two seats in the European Parliament today.

But only last month, Mr Griffin was forced to bow out of attending a Buckingham Palace garden party, after the controversial invitation led to London Mayor Boris Johnson and senior members of the GLA accusing the BNP of exploiting the situation for publicity.

Those who claim the party's image makeover simply masks its old-style thuggish core say you need look no further than the hulking bouncers who surround him everywhere he goes.

One commentator called him "the most dangerous figure on the far right of British politics since Sir Oswald Mosley". Mosley was the founder of the British Union of Fascists in 1932.

Mr Griffin, who was born in 1959, has a long history in British politics dating back to the height of the National Front (NF) as a feared organisation in the 1970s.

He was reportedly first exposed to the far right when he was taken to an NF meeting by his Tory councillor father when he was 15.

Mr Griffin became an activist while he was studying law at Cambridge and had a long involvement with the organisation during its most notorious period. He is alleged to have once travelled to Libya on a fundraising mission.

He left the NF in 1989 and joined the BNP in 1995, soon editing its magazine. Mr Griffin became known as Holocaust Denier, once describing the Holocaust as "the hoax of the 20th century".

In 1997 he co-authored a pamphlet about Jewish conspiracies to brainwash people in Britain and was found guilty of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.

He was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.

In 1999 he ousted the far-right stalwart and BNP founder John Tyndall from the leadership and set about his attempts to portray the organisation as a haven for the disaffected working populations of Britain's cities.

In 2006, Mr Griffin, along with party activist Mark Collett, was cleared of race hate charges relating to speeches he made describing Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith".

Last year, the BNP asked police to investigate after its entire party membership list was published on the internet.

Mr Griffin, who is a father of four, was brought up in north London and rural Suffolk.

As a teenager he won a sixth-form scholarship to a public school in Southwold, where he was one of only a handful of boys, before taking a law degree at Cambridge, where he also gained a boxing blue.

He now lives in a isolated house on a smallholding near Welshpool in mid-Wales with his district nurse wife Jackie.

The couple have been together for more than 20 years and their older children are now also heavily involved with the BNP.

The Telegraph

BNP bodyguard attacked me, says protester

Anna Heath, left, moments before a clash with one of Nick Griffin's bodyguards.

A woman who says she was left with injuries to her neck and face after being thrown to the floor by one of Nick Griffin's bodyguards is to press charges for assault.

Anna Heath, 23, was one of about 100 protesters who forced the leader of the British National party to abandon a press briefing on College Green in Westminster yesterday.

Pictures from the event appear to show Heath, who is 168cm in height, being hit in the throat by one of Griffin's minders as the BNP leader was bundled into a waiting car.

"I got there a bit late and there was a big group of them coming towards me with Griffin in the middle and this huge man half-grabbed me, half-pushed me in the neck and threw me backwards," said Heath, an artist who lives in London.

"I hit my head hard on the ground and my neck was all swollen – I am still finding it difficult to talk."

Heath was taken to hospital by ambulance and released later the same day.

"All the bouncers around Griffin were huge – I mean really big," she said. "But I wasn't intimidated, I just wanted to make the point that I find the racism and fascism of the BNP unacceptable ... With other political parties you can demonstrate and disagree but with the BNP this is what happens."

The protesters disrupted the press conference by throwing eggs and chanting: "Off our streets, Nazi scum." There were a series of tussles involving Griffin's bodyguards and other demonstrators. One protester said he was run over by a vehicle driven by a BNP supporter.

Speaking from a meeting in a pub in Manchester today, Griffin said the police had let "the mob run wild".

Weyman Bennett, from Unite Against Fascism, which organised the demonstration, said protesters would gather wherever Griffin or the BNP appeared. "The BNP only got elected because the turnout was so low," he said.

"We will stand up with other people and say that the politics of fascism and nazism have no place in the 21st century. These types of politics don't represent the majority of this country and the majority of people have to speak up for a decent society."

The Metropolitan police said it was investigating reports of a road collision as well as one allegation of common assault and allegations of egg throwing.

Guardian

Lily socks it to the BNP

Pop diva Lily Allen launched a vitriolic attack against the racist British National Party in Sydney last night.

Appearing before more than 6,000 in the city’s Hordern Pavilion, the 24-year-old singing sensation told her fans: “The British National Party, who are a bunch of racist motherf******* and homophobic c**** managed to win seats in the European Parliament which is really, really twisted and sad and I hope it’s not a sign of our times. I hope it’s not the same in Oz as where I come from.”

Although the BNP claims on its website that the “Jews are their natural allies”, the British Board of Deputies has denounced the Party as being extremely anti-Semitic.

33-year-old Londoner Nick Williamson was in the audience with his Asian girlfriend. He told J-Wire: “Lily is well-known for supporting the right causes and her feelings for them are often reflected in her lyrics. She always uses strong words and I enjoy experiencing her spirit. The crowd went wild in support of her statement.”

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly stunned an audience at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago when he used similar expletives in attacking the Swiss, claiming they were sitting on millions of dollars of Jewish money from World War II…and that if the rightful owners are not known, it should go to Israel.

J-Wire

Nick Griffin Under Siege At Condemned Pub

Not making the national bulletins at the moment but having been told to GTF by the Town Hall over a room booking, and turned away by the Sheridan Suite on Oldham Road, Nick Griffin MEPpet is holed up in a fascist pub nearby. The Ace of Diamonds, landlord one Derek Adams, a repeat offender as council, Westminster and Strasbourg candidate. Making his money selling cooking lager and White Lightning to racists and fascists. Plus hiring out dodgy "security teams" from round the back.

In theory the pub is blighted by a Compulsory Purchase Order. But it seems unlikely that the political classes would enact that. Unless the price was very depressed indeed. This could be done by putting a Blue Plaque on it, revealing that the cowardly hate-job Griffin had skulked there. And more than once.

Who but an idiot would want to give a six-figure sum to a fascist landlord? The social housing immediately around the pub is of course throughly blighted by having BNP thugs hanging about the place. "Hard to let" is not close. Derek Adams pretends that he lives above the shop, for electoral lie purposes, in fact he lives miles away.

The juke box is allegedly chocka with "national songs". Though "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" and "Fulsom Prison Blues" seem the thing. For "Going Away" and "Home Coming" parties of the seedier lower orders of the criminal communities.

Both the Town Hall and the Sheridan were not up for a Griffin Press Conference. Because they value the diversity of Manchester, with the latter venue regularly hosting Caribbean and Asian and Irish and Church and Political events, as well as conferences and auctions.

The Sheridan was one of the overseas ballot stations for the Iraqi General Elections. Gordon Brown himself spoke there in Spring 2007, on a Make Poverty History tip. I had a short chat with him at that in fact.

No business or community building will want to host this MEPpet and his thuggish hordes, many of them said to have been recruited on the corridors of Strangeways Prison.

Don't get me wrong, these released prisoner "white folkers" are not BNP members. Not as such. They are the be-suited paramilitary steroidal guard to the Prince of Darkness. Ballot Box plus the Ballot Boot. It's traditional.



FOOTNOTE: At the time of writing there is no evidence that any groceries were harmed in the making of this blogpost. But Cllrs Flanagan, O'Connor and Smith had been scrambled from the Town Hall to egg the crowd on.

Labour of Love

BNP MAN IN COURT OVER £400 DEBT, £3M WINNER WHO BLEW THE LOT

A LOTTERY winner who scooped a £2.8million jackpot was convicted ­yesterday of viciously attacking a ­shopkeeper – over a £400 debt.

Michael Antonucci, 60 – a former BNP council candidate – was one of the first people in Britain to win the National Lottery.

He pocketed the prize 14 years ago after borrowing £10 from his mother for the ticket, but he blew the lot on a 12-year spending spree that included a brief marriage to a glamour model.

He bought a £750,000 estate, a £250,000 harbour-side apartment and a £200,000 speedboat.

But he refused to pay fully for a “gigantic” ceiling mirror he had fitted above a £5,500 Jacuzzi at the height of his spending spree in 2002, Plymouth magistrates were told.

Six years later, when plumbing ­supplier John Langman challenged him in a pub about the debt, Antonucci punched him in the head, leaving him with cuts and a split lip.

He then followed his victim to another pub – where he assaulted him again.

Prosecutor Nigel Hall said: “This is a case of two assaults.

“Mr Langman asked for the money. Words were exchanged but Mr Langman turned away, not wanting to get into an argument.

“Mr Antonucci then punched him to the head, in the mouth area, which caused him to drop his glass.”

The court heard Antonucci bought both the mirror and the Jacuzzi from Mr Langman.

He then claimed the whirlpool bath was not working properly, and withheld an outstanding £400 payment for the mirror in protest.

Mr Langman told the court: “Because it had all gone wrong he said he couldn’t pay me. He screamed ‘I don’t owe you’. I cowed away and then he punched me. His ring hit me on the mouth. It split my lip and I had bruises to the chin and cuts to the side of my mouth. I was really shocked.”

Describing the second attack he said: “He ran from the bar and hit a flurry of punches on me.

“Lots of people do not pay for things, it’s in my line of business.”

Antonucci, of Plymouth, was ordered to pay his victim £100 and fined £150.

He told the court: “I have had ­situations in my life in the last 15 years. When you go through certain experiences these things happen to you.”

Summing up, presiding magistrate Sarah Martin said: “Mr Antonucci ­displayed inconsistencies in his ­evidence.

“We find he acted aggressively to the mention of a debt and punched Mr Langman in the head.

“The punch was an assault and not self-defence.”

Antonucci, who stood for the ­far-Right party on Plymouth City ­Council, shot to fame as one of Britain’s first lottery winners.

He had a string of businesses and wed model Kelly Arkins in a £10,000 ceremony. The marriage ended after three months.

Daily Express

More protests before BNP meeting

Protesters have gathered outside a pub in Manchester where the BNP leader Nick Griffin is to hold a news conference.

Mr Griffin was forced to abandon a similar event outside Parliament on Tuesday after he was pelted with eggs.

Mr Griffin, who has been elected to the European Parliament for the North-West region, called on other political leaders to condemn the attacks on him.

But Gordon Brown told MPs that mainstream parties needed to expose the BNP's "racist and bigoted" policies.

At prime minister's questions, he called on all parties to "unite" to fight the BNP by showing they had solutions to pressing issues such as employment and housing.

And Conservative leader David Cameron said the battle against the BNP must be fought "doorstep to doorstep".

About 50 protesters have congregated outside the Manchester pub where Mr Griffin is planning to speak.

There is a heavy police presence there after Tuesday's chaotic scenes in London, when a BNP briefing broke up soon after starting in the face of angry demonstrators.

Mr Griffin said the fact that he was being prevented from speaking was a threat to democracy.

As well as Mr Griffin, a second member of the BNP was elected to the European Parliament on Sunday, for the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

BBC

Police get extra time to question father of terror suspect

Mike Heaton: The founder of The Aryan Strike Force

POLICE have been granted a further seven days to question the father of a suspected member of a white supremacist group which has alleged links to Northern Ireland paramilitary “Mad Dog” Johnny Adair.

Ian Davison, 41, a wagon driver and former pub DJ who was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000, remains in custody at a West Yorkshire Police Station following a successful application by Durham Police to a judge in chambers.

Police wearing protective clothing continued to search Davison’s terraced home in Myrtle Grove, Burnopfield, near Stanley, County Durham, yesterday after what police believe to be traces of the deadly poison ricin were found in a jam jar in a kitchen cupboard.

Meanwhile Davison’s son Nicky, 18, a milkman who was charged under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, was bailed to return to his home in Grampian Way, Annfield Plain, Stanley, a property he shares with his mother and three siblings.

Bail conditions included that he observes an overnight curfew, reports to his local police station and wears an electronic tag. The conditions also ban him from contacting his father, using a mobile phone, the internet or a camera, or contacting members of a racist group known as the Aryan Strike Force.

The Aryan Strike Force has close links to the Racial Volunteer Force, which describes itself on its website as “an international militant pro-white organisation”.

The Racial Volunteer Force (RVF) is described on Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, as “the a violent splinter group of the British neo-Nazi group Combat 18 with close ties to far right paramilitary group, British Freedom Fighters.

“The RVF has also maintained links with Ulster loyalism and it has been claimed that supporters of the group were involved in sheltering the notorious Johnny Adair in Bolton, Greater Manchester.”

Belfast-born Adair, a feared former paramilitary boss, fled to the British mainland on release from prison in Northern Ireland, where he had been serving a 16-year sentence for directing a campaign of terror in Belfast.

Adair has been warned that he was on the hit-list of the Ulster Defence Organisation (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary organisation, after an internal feud which saw Adair’s family and allies driven out of Belfast.

Combat 18 was formed in the early 1990s from a British National Party breakaway group composed largely of former members of the party’s security team who were disillusioned with its change of policies and image and increasing focus on electoral politics.

Combat 18’s involvement has been suspected in numerous deaths of immigrants and other members involved in a bloody civil war inside the group. The “18” in its name is commonly used by neo-Nazi groups, and is derived from the initials of Adolf Hitler; A and H are the first and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet.

Anindya Bhattacharyya of the campaigning organisation Unite Against Fascism, said the Aryan Strike Force was a group he had not come across, but added: “There are always far-right splinter groups forming amongst people disaffected by the British National Party’s (BNP) attempts to adopt a cloak of respectability.

“This sounds like one of these.”

There are always far-right splinter groups forming amongst people disaffected by the (BNP)

Journal Live

Kirklees Unity Note: The Aryan Strike Force was formed by well known violent fascist idiot Mike Heaton, better known as Wigan Mike. Heaton quickly fell out with some of those involved in the ASF and then formed the breakaway organisation The British Freedom Fighters.

Neo-Nazis take council seats in cities across Germany as march of the Far Right continues through Europe

The German government is alarmed at a weekend of local elections which saw neo-Nazis propelled into power in towns and cities across the country.

Right-wingers seized council seats in many major urban centres as the recession bites and anti-foreigner sentiment increases.

Berlin, acutely aware of Germany’s past when the world’s last major recession opened the window for Adolf Hitler and his supporters, is thrashing around for a solution to the burgeoning allure of the extremists, particularly among the young.

Sympathisers and members of the rightist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) wave flags during a demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (file photo). The NPD gained seats in local elections across Germany this weekend

In the east German cities of Leipzig, Dresden, Weimar, Schwerin, Rostock and Erfurt the main neo-Nazi party the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) won seats in all councils. In Parthenstein in Saxony the NPD candidate tied with his centre-left social democratic opponent – but then won the vacant seat by drawing straws with his rival.

In the state of Thuringia the NPD seized 21 seats, in Saxony 73, trebling their numbers from the last elections in 2004. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it now has representatives in most local councils.

In the wealthy western Saarland the NPD won seats in the city councils of Saarbruecken and Völklingen. In Saarbücken the party won 1.9 per cent of the votes, in Völklingen 4.6 per cent, and in the ancient Roman city of Trier they won their first seat in the city parliament.

'The local elections of 2009 are a signal that the NPD, at least in most of eastern Germany, is now a fixture on the landscape,' said the Der Spiegel news magazine.

A far-Right defector earlier this year told how neo-Nazi recruitment was spiking among the young as unemployment went up and they saw their families struggling in the downturn.

Former NPD official Uwe Luthardt painted a chilling picture of them attempting to build a ‘Fourth Reich’ from the grassroots upwards as experts fear that the worsening conditions are worryingly similar to those of the late 1920s and early 1930s which propelled Hitler's Nazi regime - the Third Reich - to power.

He went on: 'The simple aim is the restoration of the Reich in which a new stormtrooper organisation takes revenge on anyone who disagrees with them.

'In Jena in East Germany in the NPD HQ there are a load of SS pictures in the cellar. And there's a room with weapons.

'The basic concept the NPD talks about is, "Let's kick out all the foreigners, then the Germans will have jobs again".

'The dream is of the German Reich. They're totally convinced that they'll win an election one day and that things will really get going.

'Everyone can imagine what would happen then.'

The democracy watchdog Network for Democratic Culture said the far-right had been busy recruiting and throwing dozens of candidates into the elections as they fed off fears and insecurities related to the economic crisis.

Opponents are pleased that their victories were not greater and that a sprinkling of seats in most places will not give the extremists authority over funding, immigration issues and other sensitive areas such as policing.

But long-term solutions to the far-right menace continue to evade policy makers. The number of far-Right attacks last year rose to 20,422, with violent crimes up 5.6 per cent at 1,113 cases, including two killings.

Far-Right crimes accounted for two thirds of all "politically motivated" crimes last year, which reached 31,801 - an increase of 11.4 per cent and the highest level since 2001

Mail Online

The truth about fascist National Front past of Britain's two new BNP members in Europe

Newly-elected BNP Euro MPs Andrew Brons and Nick Griffin like to present themselves as plain-speaking politicians eager to put across the ordinary man and woman's point of view.

But this chilling picture exposes them for what they truly are, vile prophets who preach a Nazi-style doctrine of racial hatred.

It shows Brons and Griffins doing their utmost to incite prejudice at a National Front rally in 1981.

Brons, holding the microphone, and Griffin, the scowling man on his left, were prominent members of the NF, which was notorious for extreme racism and violence.

Three years after this picture was taken in Fulham, Brons was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.

He and another NF member were in Leeds shouting slogans such as "death to Jews", "white power" and "National Front".

Brons, who as education officer hosted seminars claiming racism had a "scientific basis", resigned as NF chairman in 1984. He has been a BNP member for at least four years.

Griffin, now 50, also later left the NF and joined the BNP, becoming its leader.

Nowadays, their racism is more subtle - but it is no less revolting. In the Euro elections Griffin picked up a seat in the North West and Brons got one in Yorkshire and Humber . But their party's share of the vote in those regions was actually down on the 2004 Euro elections. Griffin and Brons sneaked in only because Labour's vote collapsed disastrously in two of its traditional heartlands.

In the wake of their election, more examples of their past emerged yesterday. Brons, 61, once said bombing British Jews would be "well intentioned" in a letter to a fellow extremist.

He said his only concern was the attacks might hurt their cause. After meeting another fascist, Brons wrote: "He mentioned bombing synagogues. Although he is well-intentioned I feel our public image may suffer."

He sent the letter in 1965 to facist Francoise Dior. She was later convicted of arson attacks on Jewish buildings. One attack left a student dead and a second seriously injured.

Brons also wrote he was sending cash for a black swastika badge and other Nazi material.

He said he hoped to recruit by "exhibiting stickers, posters and slogans."

Griffin yesterday tried to play down Brons' sick past as they gloated over their triumph.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "He was a member of some crazy little far-right sect when he was a 17-year-old. He is now in his early 60s. That is an awful long time ago."

Griffin added: "You can only talk about that if every time you talk to someone in the Labour Party you also talk about Peter Hain's record spreading tacks and broken glass on rugby pitches decades ago." He was referring to Hain's anti-apartheid campaigning in the 1970s.

But Gerry Gable, of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, which obtained his letter to Dior, said: "He has been a bad boy for a long time and I don't believe he has changed his spots."

Preening Griffin yesterday declared the BNP wins, coming on a night when Labour suffered it worst performance at the ballot box since 1910, meant a "huge change in British politics".

Hundreds of people protested during anti-BNP rallies in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Preston and York last night.

Student Natasha Lasham, 20, at the Manchester rally said: "It's a big shock."

Brons Exposed:

1 He joined the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement aged 17.

2 He became a prominent member of the National Front, famed for its extreme racism and violence. 3 Brons became a member of the NF's "national directorate" in 1974.

4 As NF education officer he ran sessions on racial nationalism, in which he claimed that racism had a scientific basis.

5 He edited the NF's New Nation magazine with Richard Verrall, author of Did Six Million Really Die?

6 Brons led a 1982 NF demo in Northfield. Fellow marchers chanted "We've got to get rid of the blacks."

7 He was arrested selling papers in Leeds two years later with a group heard shouting "Death to the Jews" and "White Power".

8 Brons was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace and fined £50.

9 He finally quit as NF chairman later that year but was lured back into the BNP in 2005.

10 He claimed to be an ex-university lecturer in a speech but actually was at a Further Ed college.

Griffin Exposed:

1 He has boasted about reading Hitler's autobiography at just 13.

2 He got involved in far-right politics two years later when his dad Edgar took him to NF meetings. 3 Griffin went on to become an ally of Roberto Fiore, a convicted Italian terrorist.

4 Fiore was involved with the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei who helped bomb a train station, killing 85. 5 In the UK Griffin emerged as leader of a core of activists calling themselves "political soldiers".

6 Joined the BNP in 1995, editing The Rune which praised German wartime Waffen SS.

7 He's attacked the Royal Airforce for bombing Nazi Germany.

8 At a demo at Coventry cathedral he accused British airmen of "mass murder".

9 Convicted of behaviour likely to incite racial hatred for publishing claims the Holocaust never happened, he received a £2,300 fine and suspended jail sentence. 10 At trial he claimed the extermination of Jews and others was "a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and a latter witch-hysteria".

The Mirror

BNP to get Commons passes

Newly elected BNP Euro MPs Andrew Brons and Nick Griffin will both get high-security passes to the Houses of Parliament, it has been revealed. Lewis Hannam reports.

As a perk of being MEPs, the duo will get the Westminster passes, which are sure to create further embarrassment to British MPs who have condemned the right-wing party’s success in the recent European elections.

Last week Brown warned that the BNP practised policies of “persecution, discrimination, racism, and anti-Semitism”, but the prime minister now faces the prospect of bumping into Griffin or Brons in the corridors of power.

Chris Davies, MEP for the North West of England, told Channel 4 News: “They’ll both get a full Commons pass – all MEPs get them. It has a few restrictions but it is effectively a full pass.

“It’s a disappointing by-product but it’s no more disappointing than the fact they are going to be in the European Parliament in the first place.

“In fact, I’d rather they spent some time walking around Westminster as it means they’ll spend less time near me.

“Some MEPs only use them two or three times a year, but others use them every week. It’s horses for courses, so it would depend how much they want to use them.”

The extra perk of a Commons pass, which will also allow access to Portcullis House, comes on top of the £80,000-a-year salaries both BNP members will enjoy, combined with hundreds of thousands of pounds available in extra staffing, travel and subsistence allowances.

Another embarrassment for the establishment could be on the agenda too; over invites for the BNP to Buckingham palace.

Last month Nick Griffin pulled out of the Royal garden party following a public outcry over his invitation, but there’s a chance the row will be revisited in the future.

Mr Davies told Channel 4 News: “MEPs routinely get an invitation to the Buckingham palace garden party, I’ve had quite a few invitations to it. So unless they change the qualifications it will be the same for the BNP.”

Channel 4

Bogus voter arrested in Cannock

A man has been arrested on suspicion of impersonating a voter during elections in Cannock Chase.

He allegedly cast a vote in another person’s name at the Staffordshire County Council and European Parliament elections last Thursday .

Two hours later the real voter arrived at the polling station to cast his vote, which raised the alarm with election officials.

On Thursday night as the votes were being counted at Cannock Chase Leisure Centre, the man was recognised wearing a BNP rosette. He was taken out of the count and arrested.

He was then questioned by police and bailed.

The incident was de-scribed as “deeply concerning” by district council leader Neil Stanley.

Councillor Stanley, whose Liberal Democrats were beaten into fourth place in Etchinghill Ward, Rugeley, added: “I will be speaking to the council chief executive and returning officer, Stephen Brown, to see if measures can be taken to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.

“This raises questions. It would be difficult to check the vote unless the council wrote to every voter to ask if they did actually vote.”

Mr Brown said: “I would like to thank the presiding officer, whose vigilance ensured that this alleged fraud was swiftly brought to the attention of the police.

“During the county and European elections on Thursday the man allegedly cast a vote in another voter’s name. This came to light when the real voter arrived at the polling station.”

“We want every voter to be confident that their vote is safe and secure.”

Emma Stanley, spokes-man for Staffordshire Police said: “Officers attended Chase Leisure Centre in Cannock on Friday, where they arrested a 39-year-old man from Cannock on suspicion of impersonating a voter.

“He is currently on conditional bail until July 13.”

Simon Darby, West Midlands spokesman for the BNP, said: “If this is one of our chaps he will have to face court.

“We have just had two MEPs elected and beaten Labour in South Staffordshire, so we don’t really need to impersonate voters.”

Express and Star

British veterans of Spanish Civil War warn over rise of BNP

British members of the International Brigades from the Spanish Civil War attend a reception to celebrate the granting of Spanish nationality at the Spanish Embassy in London

Sitting proudly in wheelchairs or with walking sticks, the surviving British veterans of Spain’s civil war have finally been given Spanish citizenship in recognition of their fight against General Franco seven decades ago.

Three of the former soldiers warned, however, that fascism is on the rise again after the success of the British National Party (BNP) in the European elections.

In a ceremony at the Spainish Embassy in London, Carles Casajuana, the Spanish Ambassador, presented each of the six men and one woman, aged between 94 and 101, with a passport. “This is an act of gratitude, an act of recognition,” he said. “We wish to pay homage to a group of extraordinary men and women who, 70 years ago, decided to give up their comfortable life and go to Spain to fight for democracy and freedom.”

The veterans were among 2,300 socialists from Britain and Ireland who joined tens of thousands of like-minded people from across the world to form the International Brigades. From 1936 to 1938, they fought alongside the Spanish Government against the forces of Franco, which were better equipped. Thousands died, many more were injured and Franco ultimately won in a bloody conflict that is widely regarded as the precursor to the Second World War.

Sam Lesser, 95, was shot in the leg and left to die in no man’s land in December 1936. A colleague came back to rescue him.

“I didn’t know where I was wounded at first,” he told The Times. “All I knew was that when I tried to get up I couldn't.”

Mr Lesser, like most of his compatriots, was spurred to travel to Spain by his hatred of fascism — an animus that has not waned with age. He fears the recent success of the BNP, which claimed two seats in the European Parliament.

“This is no joke,” Mr Lesser said. “For all their protestations that they are not the same as they were, they have the same filthy policy of racism, which started off in Germany with Hitler’s campaign against the Jews.”

Paddy Cochrane, 96, from Ireland, and Jack Edwards, 95, who grew up in Liverpool, agree. “I am very worried about it because what will happen is you will have nation against nation,” said Mr Edwards. “At the moment we are working together to a certain extent but once you get nationalised people like that coming in you get them trying to isolate people.”

Politics aside, the veterans celebrated their new, dual Spanish nationalities.

“I cannot find the words,” said Lou Kenton, 101, who first visited the Spanish Embassy in 1937 to get a visa so that he could drive his motorbike to Spain.

Thomas Watters, 96, originally from Scotland, is the only veteran who did not join to fight fascism. He wanted to put his first-aid skills to good use to help the wounded as an ambulance driver. “I feel great — elated,” he said. “This is one of the greatest days of my life.”

Joseph Khan, 94 and Penny Feiwel, 100, also received passports, while the son of Jack Jones, who died in April , received one on behalf of his late father.

The Times

Exactly how well did the BNP do where you live?

COUNTING AREA	BNP %	CON %	GREEN %	LD %	LAB %	UKIP %
Darlington	7.6	28.4	6.1	14.8	20.1	16.1
Durham	9.4	16.4	5.7	17.5	28.9	14.7
Gateshead	9.2	13.0	5.5	20.1	29.9	14.4
Hartlepool	10.3	18.1	4.4	11.5	22.9	25.3
Middlesbrough	10.7	19.8	5.1	11.7	25.8	18.8
Newcastle upon Tyne	8.7	14.7	7.5	26.4	23.9	11.6
North Tyneside	7.2	26.6	5.3	14.6	27.0	13.2
Northumberland	6.1	23.4	6.9	24.9	17.6	14.8
Redcar and Cleveland	9.5	21.7	5.5	15.8	19.3	20.0
South Tyneside	13.0	15.1	5.9	12.6	27.1	16.0
Stockton-on-Tees	8.6	25.2	4.9	14.1	20.1	18.7
Sunderland	10.7	20.5	4.6	11.5	30.0	14.0
Babergh	4.6	30.5	9.4	14.8	7.3	23.6
Basildon	10.5	29.6	5.4	7.9	11.8	22.7
Bedford	4.5	29.9	7.1	15.9	14.8	16.1
Braintree	5.6	32.2	9.4	9.4	10.4	21.7
Breckland	6.1	32.0	9.0	9.0	8.7	24.6
Brentwood	6.1	34.5	6.9	14.2	5.7	21.1
Broadland	5.0	31.5	9.6	13.9	8.8	21.9
Broxbourne	10.8	35.1	5.4	7.1	9.2	21.3
Cambridge	2.3	19.3	17.9	26.4	16.1	8.2
Castle Point	9.7	30.0	4.9	5.3	9.7	27.9
Central Bedfordshire	6.7	33.9	7.5	12.8	8.0	18.6
Chelmsford	4.8	32.2	7.5	17.8	7.4	20.7
Colchester	4.5	27.1	10.4	19.9	8.8	19.5
Dacorum Borough	5.2	35.4	8.4	14.7	10.7	16.0
East Cambridgeshire	4.4	33.2	9.2	17.9	6.0	17.3
East Hertfordshire	5.0	36.2	10.0	11.9	7.4	19.7
Epping Forest	7.9	35.4	6.5	11.3	7.0	21.3
Fenland	7.5	33.8	5.1	9.7	7.3	24.5
Forest Heath	5.9	33.6	5.6	10.6	6.9	25.0
Great Yarmouth	7.7	28.4	6.4	6.2	15.1	25.1
Harlow	9.5	23.8	6.0	10.0	19.2	19.0
Hertsmere	5.6	40.8	6.5	10.2	10.7	16.5
Huntingdonshire	5.1	35.2	7.1	13.8	5.1	22.2
Ipswich	7.1	24.9	9.2	11.7	18.2	16.8
King's Lynn & West Norfolk	7.1	34.9	7.6	9.4	9.7	20.9
Luton	7.2	21.7	5.3	16.4	24.0	15.2
Maldon	6.5	34.6	8.8	9.2	7.0	23.7
Mid Suffolk	4.6	31.2	14.0	13.7	6.0	20.1
North Hertfordshire	3.6	33.9	10.2	14.5	11.7	15.5
North Norfolk	3.8	27.5	7.6	26.0	4.9	21.4
Norwich	4.6	17.4	24.9	14.9	16.6	12.2
Peterborough	7.4	31.0	6.7	9.9	14.4	20.2
Rochford	7.7	33.5	6.2	9.2	6.5	22.2
South Cambridgeshire	3.1	33.1	10.4	20.1	7.1	14.2
South Norfolk	4.1	33.8	11.3	16.3	6.6	18.6
Southend-on-Sea	8.4	29.9	7.3	12.1	9.7	21.7
St Albans	2.9	32.7	11.2	20.9	9.5	13.0
St Edmundsbury	5.4	31.9	9.3	12.0	8.1	21.1
Stevenage	6.3	24.0	6.3	11.1	21.7	18.3
Suffolk Coastal	4.4	32.0	10.7	14.0	7.5	20.2
Tendring	7.3	28.7	6.2	9.0	9.4	27.7
Three Rivers	5.9	34.2	7.1	19.5	7.8	15.4
Thurrock	17.5	22.7	4.2	5.2	18.2	21.6
Uttlesford	4.0	38.1	9.6	15.4	5.1	17.8
Watford	4.8	22.0	9.1	24.5	16.4	12.3
Waveney	5.3	26.8	10.0	8.8	13.9	23.9
Welwyn Hatfield	5.1	36.5	8.4	12.5	12.3	15.0
Cheshire East	5.5	36.3	7.9	14.5	11.7	16.6
Cheshire West	5.9	34.1	7.8	12.2	15.5	17.5
Halton	9.5	18.9	7.0	11.2	26.3	17.7
Warrington	7.3	24.7	6.5	17.7	20.2	15.5
Allerdale	8.8	27.4	6.9	10.4	22.0	15.5
Barrow in Furness	7.0	26.3	5.5	10.1	22.2	17.3
Carlisle	6.9	31.3	6.8	11.3	18.7	15.2
Copeland	12.4	26.2	4.3	7.6	27.1	14.7
Eden	4.9	36.4	9.3	19.4	6.5	15.5
South Lakeland	3.2	30.5	6.9	36.8	5.2	11.2
Bolton	8.8	26.9	6.4	9.2	24.0	16.5
Bury	8.2	29.4	7.1	11.8	19.2	15.2
Manchester	7.6	13.2	13.6	18.3	30.6	8.9
Oldham	11.6	19.5	5.8	18.7	20.9	15.7
Rochdale	11.1	20.2	5.9	18.8	19.2	16.2
Salford	10.5	21.3	7.0	11.9	23.5	15.7
Stockport	6.2	24.2	8.0	26.0	12.3	16.0
Tameside	13.2	20.5	7.3	8.5	25.0	16.4
Trafford	5.2	31.7	10.4	12.9	18.2	13.1
Wigan	11.8	17.8	6.0	9.3	26.7	18.3
Blackburn with Darwe	9.2	24.6	5.7	12.8	26.7	12.3
Blackpool	10.0	29.4	4.8	8.7	19.8	18.4
Burnley	14.6	17.0	4.3	22.7	17.8	14.8
Chorley	6.5	31.6	6.5	8.6	20.2	17.8
Fylde	5.4	37.4	6.5	12.3	8.8	20.5
Hyndburn	12.2	27.0	5.1	5.7	22.5	17.5
Lancaster	4.6	28.3	14.2	12.4	16.2	16.3
Pendle	12.2	28.6	5.2	13.9	17.9	14.3
Preston	6.8	27.0	7.0	12.9	23.1	14.2
Ribble Valley	6.7	40.4	7.4	12.7	6.8	19.0
Rossendale	9.8	28.4	6.7	10.6	17.3	16.6
South Ribble	6.9	34.1	6.2	10.7	15.9	17.9
West Lancashire	5.6	30.9	7.2	7.2	19.4	20.4
Wyre	7.5	37.0	6.3	7.5	13.8	20.1
Knowsley	10.7	9.5	6.0	10.7	38.4	13.1
Liverpool	6.9	9.6	11.5	17.2	31.2	12.1
Sefton	5.4	22.6	7.2	17.4	18.7	20.2
St. Helens	10.1	15.6	5.6	15.0	28.0	14.8
Wirral	6.1	27.1	9.0	11.7	19.9	16.9
Aberdeen City	2.1	16.9	6.6	12.6	20.1	5.0
Aberdeenshire	2.2	23.0	6.1	14.6	7.2	6.2
Angus	2.2	23.6	5.5	7.1	8.9	5.7
Argyll & Bute	2.0	19.5	6.6	22.0	9.2	6.1
Clackmannanshire	2.8	13.2	6.5	7.4	25.2	4.7
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	1.7	8.3	4.7	4.7	18.3	5.2
Dumfries & Galloway	2.8	32.3	5.7	7.7	15.1	9.0
Dundee City	2.7	11.3	5.1	6.0	22.1	4.1
East Ayrshire	2.9	14.6	4.4	5.3	27.2	4.8
East Dunbartonshire	1.9	16.8	7.0	17.1	20.9	4.8
East Lothian	2.0	20.8	8.4	10.9	21.7	4.7
East Renfrewshire	1.8	28.5	6.5	8.9	20.7	5.0
City Of Edinburgh	1.6	19.1	13.6	17.3	17.8	3.6
Falkirk	3.8	11.2	6.1	6.1	23.6	5.6
Fife	2.2	12.7	5.8	13.3	26.7	5.7
City Of Glasgow	3.2	8.5	9.9	7.1	30.6	3.8
Highland	1.8	12.7	7.2	27.5	10.1	6.5
Inverclyde	2.3	13.9	5.2	9.2	27.3	4.8
Midlothian	2.7	12.4	7.5	10.5	25.5	4.8
Moray	2.7	21.3	6.5	9.1	9.2	8.0
North Ayrshire	3.1	16.4	4.5	6.3	21.6	5.6
North Lanarkshire	3.6	8.4	4.3	4.6	33.8	4.5
Orkney Islands	2.4	15.2	9.2	31.8	7.0	8.5
Perth & Kinross	1.7	28.3	6.7	9.7	8.3	6.0
Renfrewshire	3.0	12.4	5.5	7.5	27.9	4.4
Scottish Borders	1.9	29.9	7.4	23.4	6.7	7.4
Shetland Islands	2.2	13.1	10.2	33.8	8.5	6.8
South Ayrshire	2.2	29.6	4.8	6.4	18.7	5.6
South Lanarkshire	2.9	13.1	6.3	7.6	26.9	5.1
Stirling	1.5	22.1	9.4	10.6	18.1	4.5
West Dunbartonshire	2.8	8.2	5.7	5.3	31.8	4.5
West Lothian	3.3	11.4	6.7	7.1	24.5	5.1
Bath & North East Somerset	3.6	27.7	13.6	19.1	9.5	16.6
Poole	4.5	32.3	6.7	16.1	5.7	24.7
Bournemouth	4.2	31.7	8.3	12.4	7.1	25.8
Bristol City	5.7	19.4	15.7	18.6	16.2	13.7
Cheltenham	2.7	31.4	9.4	25.5	5.3	16.1
Christchurch	3.4	34.0	5.8	12.9	4.5	29.4
Cornwall	3.0	27.5	7.9	17.4	5.0	23.6
Cotswold	2.8	42.1	9.1	15.5	4.8	17.1
Isles of Scilly	1.9	29.9	11.7	18.5	6.9	14.7
East Devon	2.8	32.0	8.3	16.0	4.0	27.5
East Dorset	2.9	36.9	6.0	15.3	3.3	26.5
Exeter City	3.3	22.4	12.0	15.5	15.9	21.1
Forest of Dean	4.4	28.6	9.6	10.4	13.3	21.6
Gibraltar Parliament	1.3	51.9	3.1	17.7	18.5	1.4
Gloucester City	5.3	27.5	6.6	14.3	14.2	20.1
Mendip	3.5	31.5	11.9	21.0	4.9	18.9
Mid Devon	3.2	33.6	9.6	16.8	4.5	23.1
North Devon	2.9	25.9	9.8	18.2	3.4	29.9
North Dorset	3.1	35.2	8.4	20.0	3.2	22.1
North Somerset	4.1	32.9	9.6	15.6	7.0	21.8
Plymouth City	6.0	26.2	6.9	11.0	12.7	26.2
Purbeck	3.4	30.6	7.5	20.3	5.7	23.8
Sedgemoor	4.6	32.5	7.8	15.0	7.4	22.2
South Gloucestershire	6.6	28.2	7.0	18.2	10.4	20.2
South Hams	2.3	30.1	14.2	16.2	4.6	24.8
South Somerset	4.0	31.3	6.6	27.2	3.1	19.6
Stroud	3.1	30.9	15.6	12.6	11.7	17.0
Swindon	6.0	28.7	7.2	10.1	15.4	22.9
Taunton Deane	3.0	31.9	7.8	23.0	5.5	19.7
Teignbridge	3.0	29.9	9.4	18.4	4.8	25.6
Tewkesbury	3.6	34.3	8.1	17.9	6.2	19.7
Torbay	4.2	27.0	6.4	13.5	5.2	34.4
Torridge	3.1	28.8	8.7	15.0	3.6	30.8
West Devon	2.4	32.9	9.9	16.2	3.7	25.5
West Dorset	2.6	33.2	9.8	20.3	5.1	20.5
West Somerset	3.4	37.9	8.7	13.2	5.3	21.0
Weymouth & Portland	4.4	25.1	8.1	13.3	11.0	24.8
Wiltshire	3.7	34.8	8.7	17.9	5.4	20.0
Blaenau Gwent	7.9	8.5	3.6	6.7	34.8	14.6
Bridgend	5.5	24.3	5.3	11.0	20.6	13.5
Ogmore	6.5	12.2	3.9	8.1	33.3	11.0
Caerphilly	7.7	14.0	4.8	6.7	24.9	12.0
Islwyn	7.9	10.9	4.6	5.6	29.2	13.8
Cardiff Central	3.4	18.1	9.3	27.8	17.0	9.6
Cardiff North	4.2	34.1	7.1	10.3	17.5	12.0
Cardiff South & Penarth	5.7	22.6	6.9	13.9	21.9	11.3
Cardiff West	4.7	21.8	7.8	9.4	23.0	10.7
Carm East & Dinefwr	3.9	16.1	5.7	5.5	15.1	10.4
Llanelli	4.8	11.8	3.6	5.4	23.2	10.6
Ceredigion	2.7	15.0	7.7	19.0	6.9	9.2
Clwyd West	4.6	30.9	4.3	7.3	12.3	14.3
Conwy	4.1	25.1	5.7	8.7	14.6	11.6
Vale of Clwyd	5.2	31.7	4.0	6.8	17.9	14.7
Alyn & Deeside	6.9	24.8	4.8	9.5	20.5	19.3
Delyn	5.7	27.3	4.2	10.4	18.8	14.4
Caernarfon	3.2	12.9	5.8	6.3	10.9	7.9
Meirionnydd Nant Conwy	3.4	17.2	6.0	6.4	7.4	10.9
Ynys Mon	4.5	21.2	4.2	5.8	12.8	12.3
Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney	7.3	8.5	3.5	10.7	33.7	12.4
Monmouthshire	3.7	38.0	7.8	11.3	13.6	14.1
Aberavon	6.7	11.2	4.1	7.6	34.9	10.7
Neath	6.8	10.9	4.2	7.0	29.9	10.8
Newport East	6.6	19.2	3.9	19.5	20.7	16.0
Newport West	6.4	26.6	5.3	9.4	24.1	13.6
Carm West & South Pembs	4.1	29.4	5.7	8.6	15.2	12.6
Preseli Pembrokeshire	3.8	30.0	6.6	8.8	15.5	12.4
Montgomeryshire	5.6	26.7	8.6	17.4	6.3	18.8
Brecon & Radnorshire	3.0	30.2	7.4	23.9	9.7	13.8
Rhondda	6.0	5.2	3.4	4.6	34.7	9.4
Cynon	6.4	9.1	4.5	6.4	32.7	9.8
Pontypridd	5.3	15.3	6.0	11.3	24.1	13.1
Gower	4.9	24.4	6.7	10.5	19.9	12.4
Swansea West	5.6	17.8	6.8	19.4	21.4	11.6
Swansea East	9.5	11.3	4.4	11.8	28.7	13.1
Torfaen	7.7	16.6	5.2	9.5	24.7	16.0
Vale of Glamorgan	4.8	31.2	5.6	8.2	16.5	15.2
Wrexham	7.6	22.3	3.7	14.5	18.9	14.2
Clwyd South	6.5	24.5	4.5	9.1	18.7	13.8
Adur	4.7	30.3	13.0	10.5	7.7	25.0
Arun	5.0	33.8	9.2	12.5	5.5	26.3
Ashford	5.0	37.8	10.8	10.9	7.6	19.8
Aylesbury Vale	4.1	36.7	9.8	16.4	5.8	20.1
Basingstoke & Dean	4.6	37.4	10.0	13.5	8.2	17.7
Bracknell Forest	5.6	36.1	10.5	10.8	8.7	20.9
Brighton & Hove	2.9	22.1	31.4	10.2	14.5	12.1
Canterbury	3.9	31.2	15.7	15.2	8.0	18.6
Cherwell	4.8	39.4	9.4	11.9	9.3	16.7
Chichester	3.3	39.0	13.2	13.0	4.5	20.7
Chiltern	3.1	40.9	11.6	16.1	4.2	17.3
Crawley	7.2	30.4	7.4	8.0	20.0	17.0
Dartford	7.8	28.8	7.7	6.9	14.8	18.9
Dover	5.0	30.1	11.2	10.2	14.4	19.4
East Hampshire	3.3	40.0	11.6	16.8	3.7	16.5
Eastbourne	4.1	29.6	10.5	21.5	4.6	20.8
Eastleigh	4.0	27.8	8.8	24.9	5.6	21.3
Elmbridge	3.1	42.1	12.1	13.5	5.7	16.9
Epsom & Ewell	3.7	34.6	11.0	14.2	7.2	21.0
Fareham	4.2	36.6	9.8	13.8	5.5	21.3
Gosport	5.5	32.4	10.0	9.9	7.8	23.2
Gravesham	6.8	30.0	8.2	7.3	18.5	19.8
Guildford	2.9	39.2	10.1	20.7	4.9	15.0
Hart	3.6	39.8	10.4	15.4	4.2	18.2
Hastings	6.6	24.2	13.3	9.0	17.7	19.5
Havant	5.5	34.3	9.5	12.6	6.8	21.2
Horsham	3.6	37.0	11.2	16.0	4.2	20.6
Isle of Wight	5.2	32.9	12.5	11.9	6.1	22.3
Lewes	3.1	27.2	15.7	23.2	5.0	18.9
Maidstone	4.2	35.7	9.7	16.5	6.3	19.8
Medway	7.9	31.0	7.2	9.1	14.7	21.5
Mid Sussex	3.3	36.6	11.9	18.7	4.6	17.5
Milton Keynes	6.6	29.1	10.5	12.0	15.0	18.0
Mole Valley	2.5	37.4	11.6	18.7	4.0	19.0
New Forest	4.1	36.7	10.3	14.4	4.1	22.8
Oxford	2.8	17.6	26.1	17.8	20.3	8.0
Portsmouth	6.7	27.2	11.1	16.4	10.1	19.1
Reading	4.0	28.8	14.5	13.4	18.9	12.8
Reigate & Banstead	5.2	37.6	12.2	12.0	5.8	19.8
Rother	4.0	34.1	11.7	13.0	5.4	23.3
Runnymede	3.9	36.4	10.1	10.3	7.5	24.2
Rushmoor	7.4	32.3	8.5	13.6	8.0	20.1
Sevenoaks	4.6	38.0	10.6	10.8	6.7	18.6
Shepway	5.4	34.6	10.1	13.7	5.4	22.7
Slough	5.1	23.8	6.2	8.9	31.9	15.0
South Bucks	3.9	44.3	8.9	10.4	5.1	20.0
South Oxfordshire	4.0	38.8	14.1	14.3	6.4	15.1
Southampton	6.0	26.6	12.2	11.5	17.4	17.2
Spelthorne	5.0	31.6	7.8	14.2	8.5	25.4
Surrey Heath	3.7	41.5	8.1	14.1	4.8	20.8
Swale	7.0	31.7	9.7	9.0	11.9	21.4
Tandridge	3.5	39.6	8.8	13.9	5.0	20.4
Test Valley	3.4	39.4	9.2	18.7	4.5	18.0
Thanet	5.5	30.2	9.3	7.7	13.9	24.2
Tonbridge & Malling	4.2	38.8	10.3	11.5	7.0	19.2
Tunbridge Wells	2.8	39.6	13.0	13.3	5.8	18.1
Vale of White Horse	3.4	34.7	14.6	19.7	6.1	14.5
Waverley	2.2	45.0	12.5	14.9	3.7	15.4
Wealden	3.3	37.1	12.6	13.0	3.8	22.6
West Berkshire	3.9	43.3	10.9	16.9	4.8	14.5
West Oxfordshire	3.5	43.4	12.3	10.6	6.5	16.6
Winchester	2.5	37.1	12.9	23.6	3.9	13.7
Windsor & Maidenhead	4.0	43.1	9.6	14.6	5.8	17.0
Woking	3.1	37.0	8.6	22.5	5.8	15.1
Wokingham	2.8	41.1	10.7	15.1	6.3	17.5
Worthing	3.9	29.0	12.3	16.5	4.8	24.1
Wycombe	3.8	39.6	10.0	13.1	7.7	18.4
Barking and Dagenham	19.4	13.9	3.8	4.6	31.5	14.8
Barnet	2.8	39.0	9.9	11.1	19.0	9.4
Bexley	12.4	30.7	5.5	7.4	13.8	20.7
Brent	7.6	28.4	6.1	14.8	20.1	16.1
Bromley	5.5	37.8	9.5	12.3	8.1	18.9
Camden	2.8	22.2	17.2	21.7	23.8	5.8
Croydon	4.8	31.7	8.8	9.8	18.3	13.5
Ealing	3.0	25.5	10.3	12.1	25.7	8.0
Enfield	4.8	31.3	9.0	8.3	23.6	12.2
Greenwich	8.4	20.5	11.0	9.9	26.5	12.9
Hackney	2.2	15.0	22.8	11.7	34.1	4.5
Hammersmith and Fulham	2.9	37.9	12.0	12.6	19.8	7.2
Haringey	2.0	15.1	17.4	23.6	28.8	4.4
Harrow	2.9	33.3	6.7	9.7	19.5	9.4
Havering	14.8	29.6	6.0	6.7	6.2	26.9
Hillingdon	7.6	32.3	6.5	9.3	15.7	16.3
Hounslow	5.3	27.7	9.3	10.9	25.0	11.3
Islington	3.5	14.4	20.0	19.1	29.1	6.2
Kensington and Chelsea	2.2	48.3	10.3	11.6	11.9	8.3
Kingston upon Thames	3.5	28.5	9.2	28.0	7.4	11.5
Lambeth	2.0	18.3	18.0	19.7	27.8	5.4
Lewisham	3.9	15.9	17.8	13.6	26.3	8.9
Merton	4.4	28.9	9.9	11.7	20.1	9.8
Newham	4.5	16.5	7.0	5.8	40.3	5.7
Redbridge	4.7	28.1	7.8	9.2	22.8	11.7
Richmond Upon Thames	2.6	33.3	12.1	30.8	6.7	9.1
Southwark	4.1	14.9	14.2	23.1	28.0	6.8
Sutton	6.0	26.8	6.4	26.3	6.5	16.9
Tower Hamlets	4.7	22.8	11.9	11.1	35.4	6.1
Waltham Forest	4.9	19.7	12.8	13.6	25.3	10.6
Wandsworth	2.3	39.0	13.2	12.0	19.0	6.5
City of Westminster and City of London	2.6	41.8	10.6	11.9	18.0	7.8
Amber Valley	12.4	29.9	6.8	9.0	18.7	14.2
Ashfield	13.5	18.7	4.5	16.4	20.7	15.6
Bassetlaw	7.9	29.7	5.1	8.0	23.1	17.0
Blaby	11.2	32.5	6.2	11.9	10.9	18.2
Bolsover	14.0	16.2	4.6	8.1	31.4	14.8
Boston	10.4	35.2	4.6	7.4	8.7	25.2
Broxtowe	8.5	29.8	6.9	15.6	17.3	13.7
Charnwood	11.8	31.6	6.8	11.3	16.1	14.6
Chsterfield	7.7	13.1	6.1	24.9	24.6	14.4
Corby	9.7	22.2	4.9	10.0	27.9	16.1
Daventry	6.6	41.8	7.7	10.4	7.9	17.8
Derby City	8.6	25.9	6.0	14.7	21.4	14.2
Derbyshire Dales	5.0	37.6	10.4	14.6	10.4	14.5
East Lindsey	8.2	33.4	5.9	10.0	9.3	24.5
East Northamptonshire	6.7	38.6	7.2	9.2