BNP takes Essex council seat

The Gruniad ^ | Friday September 5, 2003 | Matthew Tempest and agencies

[ijcr]

The openly racist British National party won a fresh council seat last night, bringing its tally of councillors to 18 so far in England.

Caretaker Nicholas Geri, 47, took the Grays Riverside ward in Thurrock, Essex last night, in a byelection caused by the death of a Labour councillor.

He said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the result.

"We bring common sense," he said, despite being the grandson of Italian immigrants himself.

"Things have gone the wrong way and the way that people don't want them to go, that is why they voted for us.

"Asylum problems, NHS problems, crime and the causes of crime."

Labour has an overall majority of 21 on the council.

He beat his Conservative rival by 170 votes and the Labour candidate by 178 votes in an election which saw a 22% turnout.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats said the BNP's victory should act as a wake-up call.

Alan Olive, regional director of the Eastern Region Labour party, said; "We will now redouble our efforts in this community and work on behalf of local people to prove the value of a hard-working Labour team and we will work hard to expose the BNP for what they really are."

He added: "Nasty, extremist and racist, the BNP got in narrowly on the back of empty promises, low turnout and bogus respectability.

"The truth is they have absolutely nothing to offer and will let local people down."

Earnshaw Palmer, the only Liberal Democrat councillor in Thurrock and one of three black councillors on the local authority, added: "This is a sad day for democracy and a sad day for the people of Thurrock.

"It is a wake-up call to the voters and the major political parties."

But he added: "It is not a national mood swing it is an aberration. It is what happens when the silent majority stay at home.

"There is no racial problem in this area and the BNP have nothing to offer the people of Thurrock."

Eric Pickles MP, the Conservative local government spokesman, said: "As a former councillor and council leader myself, I am saddened and angry that they have won a seat in Essex.

"The BNP contribute nothing to society nor do they attempt to bring answers to the issues facing our local communities.

"The reality is, they are the problem and not the solution."

Mr Geri's win makes him the BNP's 18th local councillor in England, following in the footsteps of David Exley who won a seat on Kirklees council, West Yorkshire in a byelection last month.

However, that minuscule electoral success has brought them media coverage way out of proportion to their strength. There are, for example, three times as many Green councillors in England and Wales, and many thousands of independents.

In the May local elections the BNP made unprecedented gains, winning 11 new council seats across England.

Its main success came when it took five seats in the Lancashire mill town of Burnley, where riots broke out amid racial tension in 2001, bringing its total to eight out of 45 seats on the council,

But a BNP councillor, who was suspended from the party last month, has since resigned from Burnley borough council.

Other gains came with two seats in Sandwell in the West Midlands and one in Stoke-on-Trent.

In the south it took a seat at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, a small, rural, Tory-controlled council.

The BNP also made gains in Calderdale and Dudley in the May elections but party leader Nick Griffin failed in his bid to win a seat on Oldham council.

The Labour MEP for Thurrock, Richard Howitt, voiced his dismay today at the BNP victory.

He said: "I am deeply dismayed that the BNP has got their first toe-hold in Essex, given the very serious threat of the far right I witness in the European parliament and for next year's European elections."

"It is clear that the BNP deliberately and flagrantly misled voters about asylum in their leaflets and on the doorsteps. "I am absolutely certain that local voters in Thurrock are not racist but I am ashamed and frightened that they have been misled."

Labour's other defeat came when Liberal Democrat Robert Wheatley took a seat on north London's Waltham Forest borough.

The only advance for Labour was at Drumry, Glasgow where Lawrence O'Neill held on in a contest caused by his mother's death.

[ijcr]

The Labour and the Conservative parties still do not get it.An open door and benefits program to "Asylum"(illegal) immigrants is splitting the nation.

What the Guardian does not say is that in some other districts the BNP are coming in second.

If all the politicians can do is heap scorn on the BNP and not address the issue then the ugly face of a racist party gains public support.

It happened in the Weimar and I hate to see it happening in the Old Dart.

[MikalM]

Agreed. When mainstream politicians won't address unpopular, dysfunctional and dangerous policies, the fringe groups and fanatics will gain ground.

[GiveEmDubya]

It sounds like you might be British, so if you are, I'd just like to ask something off-topic: do you have any idea what the political sentiment of the country is now (i.e. how the major parties are doing, etc.)?

But seriously, how big of an issue is immigration in the UK? I assume pretty large. I just hope the Tories figure that out and seize the issue.

[widgysoft]

The one thing that the BNP do is, tell it like it is. They don't restrict themselves to politically correct terms and ways of thinking.

The average Brit (older generation) likes this.

[rmlew]

If only the BNP could get members elected to Parliament.

[ijcr]

I have not been back for some time,but e-mail,phone calls home and the British media keeps me relatively up to speed.

1.There is an overwhelming drumbeat of anti-Americanism in the UK media designed to drive a wedge between the old alliance.The media elites especially the BBC want a Federal Europe so bad they go all to pieces just at the thought of it.

2.The schools are producing some of the dumbest students in the world.

3.The universities not to be out done, utilising a patented process, are merrily converting these vegetables into bricks.

4.Asylum seekers are granted an apartment or house on arrival and are paid unemployment wages until their case is heard.With an estimated 50,000 assylum seekers per year,all
protected by the European Court of Human Rights, go figure the tax bill.

5.In major cities the streets are filthy,gun crime is rampant,homeowners are not permitted to protect themselves or their families.Trains do not run on time and gas is about
$6 a gallon.

6.Police response to a burglary can take up to seven days.

7.You cannot buy British beer in the pubs,Australian,German,American,Belgian,and French but British no.

8. New Labour still remains the party in power and the Conservatives (under Ian Duncan Smith) have become Labour Lite and are destined to become the third party behind the Liberals.

The tears just keep flowing.

[GiveEmDubya]

SO much for the new and improved Labour Party. But did the Tories really go that far left? To think IDS campaigned as a Thatcherite. Dammit, we should have just cloned Maggie already! Wait, we still have time! There's so many conservative planks they could be taking and they could be providing credible opposition, but they don't seem up to it. While I don't really expect it at all, an upset victory/big swing in Brent East later this month might put some life into them, but who knows.

My father's friend recently (last year) remarried a British ex-pat, very nice lady who's lived here for several years. Seems like it would be a different country if she went back (and she won't)--I think she left while Major was still stinking up the joint.

The mother country needs a swift kick in the backside it seems, but who can do it? No one good on the bench. But I'm glad that IDS won it as opposed to all-out lefty Clarke and mushy moderate Portillo.

[Big Bad Bob]

Don't worry, the people are beginning to rise up against the government. It's going to happen. In a few months there are plans for an anti-EU march in Central London. This is where it's all going to begin to happen. Blair can survive without listening to the Mirror, he can't survive if The Telegraph, Mail and the Sun begin to flex their muscles against the march towards a Federal Europe