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