Posted on 04/30/2004 8:01:40 AM PDT by MegaSilver
BRITAIN'S extreme right-wing party has promised to field more local election candidates in Cheshire and Merseyside than ever before.
Up to nine BNP candidates will target some of the poorest areas of the region in the hope of gaining seats in the June local elections.
Widnes, Kirkby, Runcorn, Ellesmere Port, Southport, Norris Green in Liverpool and Rock Ferry in Wirral will all see BNP candidates on the ballot sheets. Candidates may also be fielded in St Helens and Birkenhead, Wirral.
Meanwhile, BNP leader Nick Griffin and Martin Wingfield, editor of the far right newspaper The Voice of Freedom, will stand as North West candidates in the European Parliament elections, which are held on the same day.
If successful, either could be one of the North West ten representives in Brussels and Strasbourg speaking on behalf of Merseyside for a number of key issues.
Convicted criminal Joseph Owens, who will stand in Norris Green, last night said he had not been put off by the party's devastating defeat at last year's elections.
He said: "We will be fielding candidates this year and there will be more than last year.
"I am born and bred in Norris Green and know every issue here. On something like anti-social behaviour I know everyone and, if I don't, I know their parents."
On the issue of asylum seekers, he added: "We haven't got them in Norris Green and we want to keep it that way."
Owens, 42, served eight months in jail for sending razor blades to members of the city's Jewish community in 1982. He was also jailed in 1994 for carrying CS gas and knuckle dusters when he worked as a club-land bouncer.
And in 1998, he was charged with the contract murder of 33-year-old George Bromley. He denied the charge and it was dropped before the case went to trial.
In November 2002, Owens was shot in Muir-head Avenue East, Norris Green. It is believed the gun misfired and Owens received only bruising on his back and refused to go to hospital.
Alec McFadden, president of the Merseyside Coalition Against Fascism, last night urged voters to cast the BNP into political oblivion.
"No fascist has ever been elected here because the people of Merseyside refuse to take heed of their views.
"There are members of that party with criminal records, including the member who intends to stand in Norris Green." Last weekend, Owens was the chauffeur for the most hated politician in Europe.
Owens said he owned the Vauxhall Astra which was pelted with eggs and bin bags after a press conference in Manchester attended by French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
At last year's local elections, Owens stood in Anfield ward but he only received 150 votes.
How I do worry about my distant cousins now and then...
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