Blair Peach: After 31 years Met police say 'sorry' for their role in his killing

A former police inspector tonight denied involvement in the notorious killing of the anti-racist protester Blair Peach, after a report released earlier in the day suggested he may have been the officer who struck the "fatal blow".

Alan Murray, who is now a university lecturer but was a 29-year-old Metropolitan police inspector in 1979, said he was the victim of a bungled investigation into Peach's death. "I did not kill Blair Peach. Of that I am certain," he said.
Murray was speaking after the release of more than 3,000 previously secret documents that shed new light on the death of Peach, a 33-year-old teacher from New Zealand whose skull was crushed by a single blow to the head during a protest against the National Front in Southall, west London, on the evening of 23 April 1979.
The documents appeared to confirm the long-held suspicion that Peach was likely to have been killed by an officer from the Met's riot squad, the special patrol group (SPG).

The key document was produced by Commander John Cass, who ran the Met's internal complaints bureau and led the inquiry into Peach's death. He concluded that Peach was "almost certainly" killed by one of six SPG officers, some of whom then lied to cover up the actions of their colleague.

No officers were ever charged over Peach's death, although the event marked one of the darkest moments in Scotland Yard's history. Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner, recognised as much when he said the report made "uncomfortable reading". He unequivocally accepted the finding that a Met officer was likely to have been responsible for the death and, in an unusual move, expressed his regret.

"I have to say, really, that I am sorry that in over 31 years since Blair Peach's death we have been unable to provide his family and friends with the definitive answer regarding the terrible circumstances in which he met his death," he said.

Asked if he was apologising for the death of Peach, he replied: "I am sorry that officers behaved that way, according to Mr Cass."
Murray, who retired from the Met soon after the death and now lectures in corporate social responsibility at Sheffield University, was not named in the documents that were made public. But he accepted that from evidence given at Peach's inquest and other material, he was easily identifiable. The former inspector is among dozens of police officers questioned over the death more than 30 years ago who can now be identified.

They include Tony Lake, who attended the Southall demonstration as an SPG sergeant, and later rose through the highest ranks of the constabulary, becoming the chief constable of Lincolnshire police.

Lake, who once chaired the national DNA database and was awarded an OBE when he retired two years ago, declined to comment last night on Peach's death but said that a 1981 newspaper report linking him to the officers identified in the Cass report was "fundamentally wrong".

The Met agreed to release the documents last year in the aftermath of the death of Ian Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller who died after being attacked by police at the G20 protests in London. The officer filmed striking Tomlinson was a member of the territorial support group, which replaced the disbanded SPG in 1987. The Crown Prosecution Service is still considering whether to charge the officer with manslaughter.

Yesterday's publication marked the culmination of a 31-year campaign by friends and family of Peach for full disclosure of the Met's inquiry into the death. The Cass report was suppressed in 1980 by the late Dr John Burton, the coroner who oversaw the inquest into Peach's death.

The inquest controversially returned a verdict of "death by misadventure", but recently disclosed documents suggest Burton was biased in favour of the police. He wrote to ministers before the end of the inquest, dismissing the belief that Peach was killed by an officer as political "fabrication".

After the inquest, Burton penned an "unpublished story" about the Peach death which railed against what the coroner saw as a leftwing campaign to destabilise the legal establishment. Senior civil servants managed to persuade him not to publish his account. One official wrote: "An article like this would be a heaven-sent opportunity to those who wish to get maximum publicity out of this incident to argue that the coroner was biased and for this reason the inquest was unsound."

Peach's long-term partner, Celia Stubbs, said yesterday she felt totally vindicated by the Cass report. She described its released as "the beginning of the end" of her campaign for answers.

She repeated her long-held belief that Peach would not have wanted to be known as a political martyr, but accepted that the search for answers over his death had for many become a political cause in itself, galvanising concern over what were considered the brutal actions of corrupt and unaccountable police.

When Peach's body was finally buried – 51 days after his death – thousands of activists marched across London. Around 8,000 mainly Sikhs from Southall had already paid their respects at his open coffin, which lay in a nearby theatre the previous night.
The suspicions of most of those mourners – that a police officer killed Peach – were all but confirmed in yesterday's report.

Stubbs said: "It is fantastic after 31 years. I have only read 200 pages of the report but I feel that we have really been vindicated because we have always said that Blair had been killed by a policeman. It says in the report that it was an officer that struck Blair.

"I never really expected a prosecution. I don't regret that, I am just pleased that we have the report so we can see what happened on the day."

The Cass report was written at the end of the summer of 1979, following months of inquiries.

In laying out his terms of reference he said: "My brief is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death, so I do not propose to enlarge much further on the events of that day except to emphasise that it was an extremely violent volatile and ugly situation where there was serious disturbance by what can be classed as a 'rebellious crowd'.

"The legal definition 'unlawful assembly' is justified and the event should be viewed with that kind of atmosphere prevailing. Without condoning the death I refer to Archbold [Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice] 38th edition para 2528: "In case of riot or rebellious assembly the officers endeavouring to disperse the riot are justified in killing them at common law if the riot cannot otherwise be suppressed."

If Cass was seeking to exonerate his men, it was an endeavour he found difficult in the face of more than 3,000 pages of witness testimony, forensic evidence and tense interviews with officers. After reviewing hundreds of pages of evidence, he reached his conclusion: that it could "reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow". Despite this, he said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges of unlawful killing.

Cass had narrowed his investigation down to six SPG officers in carrier U11, the first vehicle to arrive in Beachcroft Avenue, the suburban street where Peach was found stumbling around, barely able to talk. Moments earlier, 14 witnesses had seen "a police officer hit the deceased on the head" but, according to Cass, there were discrepancies in their evidence and most could not identify an officer from repeated identity parades.
Although he did not recommend charges over the death, Cass did name three officers he proposed should be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, believing they had lied to his investigators to cover up the actions of their colleague.
Analysing their statements, he found some had been engaged in a "deliberate attempt to conceal the presence of the carrier at the scene at that time".

In a key passage, he wrote: "It is now clear that [carrier] U11 was at the scene and almost certainly the officer who struck the blow had come from that carrier. It will be appreciated that the explanation given by the crew of the carrier would be of paramount importance to the investigation." He went on to express concern over the "attitude and untruthfulness" of some of the officers in the van, and found their responses "seriously lacking".
His recommendation that three officers be prosecuted for lying to their seniors was apparently overruled by the then director of public prosecutions, Sir Thomas Hetherington, who within weeks of receiving the Cass report announced there was insufficient evidence to bring any charge against any officer. After the Met reviewed the conduct of the officers, it was felt that none should be disciplined.

Of the six SPG officers, Cass said there was an "indication" that one officer in particular – the first to emerge from the carrier – struck the "fatal blow", but emphasised that there was "no evidence of a conclusive nature". The name of that officer was redacted from today's published version of the report, but last night Murray acknowledged that it was a reference to him. He accepted he was the first out of the van and said he was aware at the time that Cass had made him a "prime suspect" in the inquiry. But he criticised the investigation, and accused Cass of turning to him in the absence of more concrete evidence.

"In a report like that, that man [Cass] can write anything he likes," he said. "So he is pursuing me and trying to fit me up for a murder that I didn't commit, and then he tells people that I am stressed."

Claiming he had been a "hostage to fortune", Murray accused Cass of bungling the investigation.

Cass, 85, who retired 20 years ago, said last night he was unwilling to comment on the allegations being made by Murray. But the Met stood by Cass, saying his findings were the result of an extensive and robust inquiry. Commander Mark Simmons, the officer who now runs the Met's complaints department and oversaw the release of his predecessor's report, said "a significant amount of resources" had been put into the investigation. "I've got no reason to disagree with Commander Cass's conclusions," he added.

Cass's findings were also welcomed yesterday by Deborah Coles, a co-director of Inquest, an organisation that was set up in 1981 partly in response to Peach's death and provides advice on contentious deaths. However, she raised questions about the institutions that hold police to account. "The whole police investigation into what happened on 23 April 1979 was clearly designed as an exercise in managing the fallout from the events of that iconic day in Southall, to exonerate police violence in the face of legitimate public protest," she said. "The echoes of that exercise sound across the decades to the events of the G20 protest and the death of Ian Tomlinson in 2009."

The history
April 23 1979 Blair Peach dies at a protest against the National Front in London. Scotland Yard announces an investigation and interrogates police officers. It finds 14 witnesses who say they saw Peach attacked by a police officer. In July, tens of thousands attend Peach's funeral.

October 1979 After reviewing the Metropolitan police's internal investigation, the director of public prosecutions, Sir Thomas Hetherington, says there is insufficient evidence to charge any officer. We now know that the Met inquiry, by Commander John Cass, said three officers should be charged with perverting the course of justice.

May 1980 An inquest into Peach's death returns a verdict of death by misadventure. Campaigners accuse the coroner, Dr John Burton, of being biased in favour of police and leaning on the jury. Burton refused lawyers acting on behalf of Peach's friends and family access to the Cass report.

July 1988 In an out of court settlement, the Met agrees to pay Peach's relatives in New Zealand £75,000 in compensation. His partner Celia Stubbs was not entitled to a payout.

April 2009 Newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson dies during G20 protests in London after being struck by police. Parallels are drawn with Peach's death. A motion is put to Scotland Yard's watchdog for release of the Cass report, which is published almost a year later.

The Guardian

The BNP Want To Censor Eastenders And OK Magazine

The 2010 BNP Manifesto released this week contains the following statement:

Alien Cultural Influences
The BNP disapproves of the malign influences of the international media and their promulgation, for example, of ‘celebrity culture’ which is often of a nature that is both pernicious and subversive.

Television should strive to depict improved standards of conduct rather than reducing much within its remit to the lowest common denominator.

Often, the media portrays the white working class in the most negative, unattractive and unacceptable light. This practice must stop.

What does that mean in real terms for their potential voters? Well, they disapprove of ‘Celebrity Culture’, for example OK and Hello Magazines. So we can’t read about who has lost or gained weight, who is dating who, who has been snapped out and about with a ‘mystery companion’. They certainly won’t like Celebrity Big Brother, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, What Katie Did Next or even Celebrity ‘The Apprentice’.

So all celebrity magazines and celebrity ‘reality’ TV shows are out under the BNP.

But that isn’t going far enough for the country’s self-appointed moral guardians.

‘White working class’ people must not be portrayed in a ‘negative and unacceptable light’. Note there is no mention of how non-white Brits are portrayed on popular TV. They can be portrayed as negatively and unattractively as possible, and the BNP are fine with that.

So no more Eastenders, Emmerdale or Coronation Street, or at least no more of the villains we love! No Dirty Den under the BNP, no Les Battersby, no Richard Hillman. No Cindy Beale, no Phil Mitchell battling with alcoholism. And the Dingle family in Emerdale?? No chance! Imagine popular TV soaps with no affairs, murders, double-crossing, lies, secrets, vices… in other words all the things that make them interesting to the British people. If anything bad happened - you'd know the black family did it!

And all because the BNP want to portray white people as ‘good’ and non-white people as ‘bad’.

No matter how you feel about trashy TV and magazines, they are hugely popular in the UK. Do you really want a political party telling you that you can’t watch your choice of TV programs or read your choice of magazines? Do you want even more censorship of popular entertainment?

Don’t vote for the BNP – they will ruin your leisure time as well as the country.

Read the full manifesto here

And here is a response from the excellent Nothing British About the BNP

Number of accused extremists rose by half in 2009 (Czech Rep)

The number of people accused in connection with extremism in the Czech Republic last year rose by a half against 2008, according to a report Interior Minister Martin Pecina will submit to the government on Tuesday.

The number of extremist crimes rose by more than one fifth last year, but the share of this type of crime in overall criminality is still minimal and constitutes a mere 0.07 percent, the report says.

The police uncovered 265 criminal offences with an extremist subtext last year, compared with 217 in 2008.

The number of prosecuted persons also rose, from 195 to 293.
The police presidium said previously the higher figures may be due to that the police more focus on these crimes of late.
The perpetrators of these crimes were mainly people aged 21 to 39.

Last year, the police registered a higher number of secondary school and university graduates among the perpetrators for the first time last year, the report says.

It adds, however, that it is not possible to speak about any trends on the basis of the figures.

The report says the activities of leftist extremists unlike rights extremists were only marginal.
The most visible groupings last year were the unregistered National Resistance and the Autonomous Nationalists, the civic association Workers' Youth, and the Workers' Party political party.

The report says the most serious case last year was the arson attack on the house of a Romany family in Vitkov, north Moravia, in which three people were injured.

The most serious injuries were received by a two-year-old girl who suffered third-degree burns to 80 percent of her body.

The four perpetrators of the attack go on trial on May 1.

Prague Monitor

UK 'BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW'

The UK is among several European countries defying international rules by returning asylum seekers to Iraq despite continuing violence, a human rights group said.

Amnesty International accused Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden of forcibly repatriating Iraqis to "extremely dangerous" parts of the country - in breach of United Nations guidelines.

The campaign body said there have been more than 100 civilian deaths in the first week of April alone - with religious and ethnic minorities, females and gay men being particularly targeted.

Amnesty is calling for the return of failed asylum-seekers only when the security situation in the whole country has "stabilised".
Its report claims hundreds of thousands of people in minority communities have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the continuing insecurity more than seven years after the US-led invasion. These include thousands of Christians, as well as members of the Sabean-Mandaean religion, Yazidis and women and girls targeted for "un-Islamic" behaviour.

Amnesty said many of those at risk had been killed - including dozens of women murdered in Basra on "moral" grounds, at least 25 men and boys thought to be gay who were killed in February last year, and at least eight Christians killed in Mosul in February during apparent sectarian attacks.

The campaign group said the uncertainty over when a new Iraqi government would be formed had led to the recent increase in attacks.
Amnesty's Middle East director Malcolm Smart said: "Iraqis are still living in a climate of fear seven years after the US-led invasion. The Iraqi authorities could do much more to keep them safe, but over and over they are failing to help the most vulnerable in society.

"The continuing uncertainty as to when a new government will be formed following last month's election could well contribute to a further increase of violent incidents of which civilians are the main victims. The uncertainty is threatening to make a bad situation even worse. Both the Iraqi authorities and the international community must act now to prevent more unnecessary deaths."

In October last year the UK deported 44 failed Iraqi asylum seekers to Baghdad, but the Iraqi authorities allowed only 10 of them to enter the country.

Daily Express

THREE PROSECUTED FOR NAZI PROPAGANDA (Czech Rep.)

The police have accused three men of having shouted neo-Nazi slogans and making the Nazi salute while drunk in a night club last night, regional police spokeswoman Jana Vaclavova told CTK yesterday.The police were tipped by an anonymous witness at about one o'clock after midnight, Jana Vaclavova said.The police did not say whether they were participants in the Saturday march of ultra rightist radicals in Plzen, west Bohemia, dissolved by the local mayor.The men, aged 40, 34 and 19, were accused of the establishment, support to and dissemination of a movement seeking the suppression of rights and freedoms and of breach of the peace.The man aged 34 has also been accused of defamation of nation, race and ethnic group."The police have found that he verbally and later physically attacked a woman, aged 24. He hit her with his fist in her right ear," Vaclavova said.The police detained six persons in connection with the Saturday march in Plzen. They have been accused of effort to curtail the rights and freedoms of other people.They wore or had tattooed forbidden symbols.


Prague Monitor

POLICE ACCUSE NEIGHBOURS OF ATTACK ON ROMA IN OSTRAVA (Czech Rep.)

The Czech police Friday officially confirmed that they have accused a woman and her underage son of an attempted murder in connection with an arson attack on a house inhabited by Romanies in the Bedriska neighbourhood of Ostrava. Both the mother and the son, who live next to the attacked house, have been taken into custody, the police said, adding that the attack was motivated by neighbourly disputes. The woman faces up to life sentence, the son five to ten years in prison, if found guilty, the police said. "We have not proved a racial motive, and I think we will not in the future either," state attorney Brigita Bilikova said. She said the police have enough proofs to qualify the act as an attempted murder, adding that the accused persons were well aware of the consequences of their conduct. The arsonists attacked the house in a Romany settlement in the night of Sunday, March 14. They threw a Molotov cocktail through a window into a child room in which a 13-year-old girl was sleeping. The bottle did not break fortunately and the ether it contained did not start to burn. The girl, who was woken by the sound of the broken window, managed to extinguish a piece of carpet that caught fire from the wick. One year ago arsonists attacked the house of a Romany family in Vitkov, north Moravia. They threw three Molotov cocktails into the house. Three people were injured in the subsequent fire. The most severely injured girl Natalka, then aged two years, suffered third-degree burns to 80 percent of the body. She has survived, but she has undergone many operations and more are ahead of her. The attackers, four rightist extremists, have been ascertained and will go on trial on May 11.

Prague Monitor

ABSENCE OF ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN THE NETHERLANDS EXPLAINED

How has the Netherlands managed to escaped large-scale ethnic riots, researcher Otto Adang and two of his colleagues wondered. On Monday, Adang, who teaches public order and threat control at the Apeldoorn police academy,presented his findings to the acting minister of home affairs, Ernst Hirsch Ballin. The report titled Are we different? tries to explain why the rise in immigration and tensions accompanying it hasn’t led to an explosion. The importance of knowing what lies behind the absence of ethnic riots in the Netherlands is important, said Adang, because some have warned they could happen any moment. "With reason," Adang said about this alarm. "In a heavily polarised society, riots can easily break out." Other Western countries have already seen their share of race riots. As recently as 2005, heavy rioting gripped the outer neighbourhoods of France’s major cities, but the first ethnic riots there took place in the 1970s. The UK, Belgium and the US have also been the scene of some violent ethnic rioting.

Many incidents
The Netherlands has some ethnical tensions of its own. In recent years, incidents could have easily escalated into more serious turmoil. A neighbourhood in the city of Gouda remained a hotbed of unrest long after a bus driver had been threatened and his colleagues refused to traverse the neighbourhood in 2008. In Amsterdam's Slotervaart neighbourhood, emotions ran high after a Moroccan-Dutch man was shot and killed by a police officer in the same year after he had stabbed both her and a colleague. Earlier this year, confrontations between youths of Moroccan and Moluccan descent rocked the rural town of Culemborg. The list of ethnic incidents goes on. "The reason for these ethnic riots lies largely in segregation and social-economic deprivation," Adang said. “Large scale immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon. We have ethnic neighbourhoods of course, but we don’t have ghettos like the US or the UK do. The Dutch social security system prevents extreme poverty." But that is not the only reason ethnic tensions may be milder in the Netherlands. Based on his research, Adang has concluded the police also plays an important part. Grosso modo, two models for police action exist. In the repressive model, the police simply upholds the law by cracking down on violations. This type of police action is mainly directed at symptoms, not at underlying causes. The police force is an outsider in neighbourhoods and it approaches residents as a group. In the second model of police action, police officers are familiar with a certain neighbourhood. Officers invest time and effort in their contacts with local residents and social organisations. They get in touch with mosques and social workers; they know the local priest and participate in neighbourhood meetings occasionally. In this model, police officers also uphold the law, but only through targeted action. Police officers are familiar with the peculiarities of ethnic groups, allowing police to respond adequately to problems.

No dumb luck
In the Netherlands, the police adopted the latter, network-oriented, approach as early as the 1980s. This helps to quell incipient riots, said Adang. "When trouble arises, they can fall back on their relationshipsAs a police officer, you have your sensors out in society. You can prevent escalation by using your network. It was more than dumb luck that we have avoided ethnic riots." According to Adang, investing in local work is the way to go. He wants this to get more attention both within the police and from politicians. Some experts he interviewed study said they could not rule out ethnic riots from taking place in the Netherlands in the future. At the same time, the tendency in recent years has been to emphasise repression and upholding the law, Adang said. "Upholding the law is good. The police has cracked down on crime and anti-social behaviour. Nobody is against that,” he said in favour of this policy. “But addressing people based on their group-membership instead of their behaviour doesn't work well. A police officer busy writing tickets and meeting targets can only spend part of this time maintaining relationships. The sense of balance is lost." The problem here, Adang said, is that there is no direct pay-off. "Connections only become valuable when trouble arises."

NRC

BNP manifesto seeks more than votes

Nick Griffin's manifesto reveals a party keen to turn voters into supporters of a racially 'pure'  Britain, 'bound together by blood'

What does the BNP manifesto tell us about the party?

Nick Griffin's manifesto feigns engagement with widespread popular concerns over the economy, public sector cuts and war, while ignoring others, like climate change – which is presented as a myth. Above all, it seeks to profit from the current high profile of the immigration debate.

The party wants to make immigrants, and in particular Muslims, the scapegoats for everything – falling living and educational standards, rising crime, terrorist activities, even traffic congestion. This allows the BNP to address real issues such as poverty and social decay, without identifying any of their causes, like disparities of wealth and income. Its targets are not those who make huge profits from social inequality, but those who suffer from it most.
The party has won a degree of legitimacy thanks to the acceptance by mainstream politicians that there is indeed an immigration "problem". But this is not enough for the BNP. It is not like UKIP – happy to whip up xenophobia for electoral purposes. The BNP seeks more than an electorate, it wants to turn voters into supporters – committed, hardline, racist authoritarians. This involves winning "soft" racists to a more ideological identification with the party's core beliefs, centred on notions of racial purity.

The BNP manifesto therefore claims being British "is to belong to a special chain of unique people who have the natural law right to remain a majority in their ancestral homeland". It presents "white British" people as a community of destiny, "bound together by blood", whose "ability to create and sustain social and political structures … is an expression of innate genetic nature". Sound familiar?

The extent of social engineering that would be required to realise this biological fantasy is downplayed in the manifesto. Opposition to mixed-race relationships, for example, is implicit but not stated, presumably for legal reasons. Instead the party vows simply to abolish multiculturalism.

Having identified the primary "cause" of society's problems, the BNP proposes "straightforward" solutions: a halt to immigration and asylum, the introduction of a voluntary repatriation scheme, the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Discrimination against ethnic minorities would be enshrined in housing, immigration and education policies. Like Pétain's Vichy regime, a BNP government would introduce retrospective legislation to review all citizenship granted over the past 13 years.

BNP authoritarianism is social – the reintroduction of capital punishment for murder and drug dealing, the establishment of a penal colony in South Georgia for repeat offenders – but it is also political – the criminalisation of journalists who "knowingly" publish "falsehoods", the sacking of "politically correct" senior police officers, prison sentences for political "intimidation".

This manifesto asserts the supremacy of one "dominant ethnic, cultural and political group". The BNP is attempting to create deep social divisions by scapegoating those who do not belong to this group. The party's economic outlook, meanwhile, champions small businesses and the nation state against "international profit" and "a rootless, amorphous globalist philosophy". Once in power, the party would use repression against opponents.
These are features of a political current that has existed before. It has a name. The BNP has simply adapted its legacy to contemporary conditions. Its name is fascism. Those who dispute this should take a closer look at the BNP manifesto.

 The Guardian

Labour man's BNP refusal leads to debate cancellation

The three main parties have been accused of "destroying an opportunity for free speech" by withdrawing from a public meeting in West Sussex.

Labour candidate Michael Jones decided he could not share a platform with the British National Party (BNP).
It led to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates also pulling out.

The BNP said it was a "disgrace". Bognor Regis Civic Society said the audience on Saturday night voted to send a letter of rebuke to all three.
Mr Jones said: "I could not in all good conscience share a platform with the BNP and provide them with respectability and credibility for their racist views which they crave.

"Since my very beginnings in politics, I have always believed in no platform for fascists and I could not betray that."
A Conservative Party spokesman said its candidate Nick Gibb had wanted to take part in the debate, to explain how the BNP was exploiting immigration.

He said: "He was disappointed the Labour candidate withdrew at the last moment.

"Our policy nationally is not to debate when the major parties are not present."
He added that Mr Gibb was now trying to arrange other public meetings which might not involve the BNP.

'Gross bad manners'
Liberal Democrat candidate Simon McDougall said that once the other two main parties had withdrawn, he felt the event had lost any value.
"I believed the Conservative MP should have sat on the platform and defended his record, but he followed his party protocol and withdrew.
"I was outside the event on Saturday night. I spoke to several members of the public that came out, and I explained the situation
"I did turn up. I took some of the flak. I did take flak, but I had many people who respected the decision."


BNP candidate Andrew Moffat said all three candidates had snubbed the electorate, displayed "gross bad manners" and treated voters with contempt.
"It's about the right of the electorate to meet their candidates and to cross-examine them and put them under scrutiny, but these people didn't have the courage.

"They didn't want to discuss multiculturalism, the Afghan war or the EU.

"It's not racist to say we are full up. We were never consulted about immigration by the Labour Party.
"And if that's true, why didn't they debate it? We are very cross. We are very annoyed."

'Anger and upset'
Hugh Coster, deputy chairman of Bognor Regis Civic Society, said: "We are are fiercely non-political, so when we invited the candidates, we invited all six."
After the three main candidates withdrew, the event went ahead with the three other parties fielding candidates in the constituency.

Mr Coster added: "There were 270 people in the audience who were very angry and upset.

"We pride ourselves on being the voice of the people. We arrange public meetings to enable them to question people in authority.
"The actions of these candidates have destroyed the opportunity for free speech."

The candidates for Bognor Regis & Littlehampton are: Independent: Melissa Briggs; UK Independence Party: Douglas Denny; Conservative: Nick Gibb; Labour: Michael Jones; Liberal Democrats: Simon McDougall; British National Party: Andrew Moffat

BBC news

Internet 'racist' group targets Bristol mosque

Extreme right supporters are part of an internet group opposing plans for a new mosque in Barton Hill.

More than 700 people have joined a Facebook group against a planning application to convert a disused building in Aiken Street into a place of worship and community centre.
Many of the messages on "No we do not want a mosque in Barton Hill" are from white people who claim they are being "pushed out" of their community.
Some are too offensive to be printed in a family newspaper, with claims that mosques are "breeding grounds for terrorists" and calls to vote BNP.
A number of messages of support are given by the far-right English Defence League, whose members were removed from Harbourside by police in riot gear shortly before the political leader's debate last week. Comments on the website have been branded as racist by other people who have posted in response to their views.
One referred to the commentators as "racist uneducated idiots", while another said "What's wrong with you lot? The world is changing, why can't you see that? People like you just make the English look like horrible people".

The proposal to convert the former Weston White factory into a mosque has been submitted to the council by Khalif Abdirahman, a parent governor at Barton Hill Primary School.

He hoped the mosque would help bring the community together and argued many of the messages from the site are from people outside of the area.
One post that supports his theory reads: "Even though I don't live in Somerset anymore, I don't want this! This is England! I have sent this to friends in the US too, invited 110 people and filled in the petition form to Bristol City Council."
Other comments included: "Why is there such a high demand for mosques ? Because in there [sic] twisted religion they believe all of the Earth is Allah's and they plan to dominate, no thanks **** off to the Middle East or some other Muslim hole."
Another said: "What can we do to stop this I live 2 mins away from it I don't want to walk up the street and fill [sic] like I am out numbered in my own country bring on the BNP."

Mr Abdirahman said he had taken his own petition around the area to canvass opinion and when the Evening Post spoke to people in Barton Hill, they were broadly supportive of the plans. The applicant said: "I took a petition and was amazed by how many supported it.

"We didn't go to the whole area but we had 100 signatures.

"It was a very positive reaction. One was from an 85-year-old white lady, that was very moving.

"The way I see it there are a few people, most coming from outside the area, who are doing it because of the election.
"It's not my job to respond to everything they say, it's my job to see that this project goes ahead.

It is in a secluded area, not adjacent to any houses, and will help the community engage."
Batook Pandya, director of Bristol Support Against Racist Incidents, condemned the racist comments but said people with genuine concerns should be listened to.
He said: "We all want controls on immigration but this is a community that has settled here and have a right to be able to feel safe and contribute to society.
"I don't believe the whole white Barton Hill community is racist, they are good, working class people. Hopefully the community centre will help remove fears and stereotypes, it is private property so it won't cost rate payers.
"I think people who do object on racist grounds should not be tolerated but if there are genuine objections, they should be addressed."
The protest site has echoes of a similar group that was set up when plans were submitted to North Somerset Council for a mosque in Weston-super-Mare. Although the plans were eventually rejected due to concerns about noise, planners had to discard 97 per cent of 157 letters of objection because they were racist.

The Barton Hill application, for external alterations and change of use for the former factory, is due to be heard by committee on a date to be set.
A Bristol City Council spokeswoman said: "The council will always discount abusive consultation responses whether or not they relate to planning applications.

"Comments on planning consultations must relate to relevant issues."

This is Bristol

Austrian president re-elected, bitter pill for extreme-right

Austrian President Heinz Fischer won a widely anticipated second term Sunday, in a result that proved a bitter pill for the country's extreme right after it had become accustomed to better results.

Fischer, a former Social Democrat whose position is mostly ceremonial, romped home with 78.94 percent of the vote, final results showed, following a lacklustre campaign marred by a low turnout on election day.

Barbara Rosenkranz, the far-right Freedom Party's candidate and the most controversial player in the campaign, only received 15.62 percent.
"I am not happy (with the result), but I am generally satisfied," Rosenkranz said after the vote, complaining however of an aggressive media campaign against her and blaming her result on the limited turnout.

Rudolf Gehring, an anti-abortionist from the small Christian Party was third with 5.44 percent.

Turnout was particularly low at just 49.17 percent, compared with 71.6 percent in the last presidential elections in 2004.

Rosenkranz, 51, was the most visible figure during this year's campaign, having sparked controversy by questioning Austria's strict law banning Nazi ideology and Holocaust denial.

The stern-looking mother of 10, married to a former member of the now-banned neo-Nazi NDP party, argued the law was "an unnecessary restriction" on freedom of opinion, although she was later forced to make a statement clearly saying she did not deny Nazi crimes.

She also campaigned on an anti-European Union, anti-immigrant platform, while promoting family values and traditional gender roles.

The far-right had been on the upswing in 2008 general elections, with the Freedom Party and its rival Alliance for the Future of Austria winning a combined 27.9 percent of votes.

Even in European Union elections last year, the two parties together took17.74 percent.Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who is running for mayor of Vienna in October and was counting on the presidential vote to kickstart his campaign, also cited the low turnout for the negative result.

In Vienna, Rosenkranz did even worse than the national average with just 14.1 percent.

"This is no occasion for joy," said Strache, who had initially predicted 35 percent for his candidate.

"This was a defeat for Rosenkranz, for the FPOe (Freedom Party), and for Strache," political analyst Peter Hajek said Sunday.

Commentators had warned of the damage to Austria's reputation if Rosenkranz was elected as president and if Horst Jakob Rosenkranz became "first husband".

"I'm happy for him (Fischer) and for Austria. It's a good day," Chancellor Werner Faymann said after the vote.

In Austria, the president has a mostly ceremonial but highly representative role.

Gehring, 61, meanwhile campaigned against abortion and promoted Christian values, presenting himself as "a committed and staunch protector of life" and a "mouthpiece for unborn children."

With such divisive rivals, the soft-spoken Fischer, who took office in 2004 and has hardly caused a stir since, was always favoured to win re-election.

The fact that the conservative People's Party, partner of the Social Democrats in the ruling coalition, decided against fielding a candidate, further secured his position.

In 2004, Fischer defeated the People's Party's Benita Ferrero-Waldner, later an EU Commissioner for external relations, by 52.39 percent to 47.61 percent.

A largely dull campaign and Fischer's near-certain win meant many of the 6.35 million eligible voters stayed at home on Sunday, analysts said.

ejpress

Singer KT Tunstall's embarrassment as picture shows mother cuddling up to BNP leader Nick Griffin

SINGER KT Tunstall's mum smiles happily as she cuddles up to the most odious man in British politics - BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Carol-Ann Orr, the popular rocker's birth mum, happily posed for photos with racist Griffin at a BNP bash she attended with husband David Orr, who is standing as a candidate for them in the general election.

And the Record acquired the photo just hours after KT publicly disowned former Edinburgh cabbie Orr after discovering he was a candidate.
Her spokesman said: "She abhors the BNP and all they stand for."

But the singer will today be crushed to find the family embarrassment goes way beyond Orr's role as would-be BNP MP for Livingston.
The photograph, taken at the BNP's Scottish conference in March last year, shows her own half-Chinese mother socialising with the man who peddles racist filth in the name of politics.

It will be a major blow to the singer, who was reunited in 1996 with Carol-Ann, who gave her up for adoption as a baby.
Our source said that far from being embarrassed by her husband's extreme views, Hong Kong-born Carol-Ann happily attended the BNP conference and was openly bragging about her famous daughter.

The source said: "It was the BNP's annual Scottish bash in a hotel in Perth. There were loads of party guys up from England and they were all having a few drinks.
"Carol-Ann had had a few drinks and didn't make any secret of who she was. She was quite happy to brag about it, so someone said she should have her photo taken with Nick.
"You can see for yourself that they are both beaming. She had no problem at all having her photo taken next to Griffin and enjoyed it.
"There were a few people taking pictures on the night. It must be a real coup for Griffin to be photographed with KT Tunstall's mum, especially given her background."
Because of her ethnic background, 57-year-old Carol-Ann would not be welcome in the UK if the BNP ever came to power.
The party back "a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question."

One family friend said: "It would seem short-sighted to say the least for Carol-Ann to be publicly getting cosy with the leader of a party which would be determined to kick her out the country."
Carol-Ann became pregnant during a fling with an Irish barman in Edinburgh. But she gave up her baby because of fears she would not be able to raise her properly.

KT was adopted days after she was born in June 1975 by lecturer David Tunstall and his wife Rosemary, a primary teacher.
The future Brit award winner was brought up in St Andrews, Fife.

She and Carol-Ann spoke publicly in 2006 about how they had first been reunited 10 years earlier in an Edinburgh pub.
David Orr, 61, whom Carol-Ann married in 1989, is also understood to have been at the reunion.

Carol-Ann was not invited to the singer's wedding to Luke Bullen in 2008, but the pair are understood to keep in touch.
KT said of her birth mothe r: "It's a completely different relationship to the one which I have with my family but I am glad she is there."
Carol-Ann said then: "Despite having three other lovely kids and a great husband, I still never felt at peace because I didn't know my eldest child. Now I feel content."

Her husband has been a BNP member for around 10 years and was confirmed as an election candidate last week, with Carol-Ann signing his nomination papers.
Orr yesterday admitted to the Record's sister paper, the Sunday Mail, that his candidature had caused problems in the family.
He said: "I've had Katie's people on the phone saying that she won't have anything further to do with me and doesn't want to see me ever again."
At her home in Livingston last night, Carol-Ann denied the Griffin picture was embarrassing.

She said: "I have no interest in politics. I don't support the BNP but I support my husband and I was at a function as a guest.
"We have an illness in the family just now and that is our priority. I have not seen the Sunday papers although I have heard plenty and I would not want to comment further."

daily record

Archbishop of Canterbury backs Lancaster BNP debate ban

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed a decision to ban the British National Party (BNP) from a hustings in a Lancaster church.

All candidates in the Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency - except the BNP - have been invited to the event at St Thomas's Church on Tuesday.

A party spokesman described the snub as an "affront to democracy".

But Dr Rowan Williams said the party had often exploited events "to say inflammatory and silly things".

The archbishop said bishops all over the country were writing letters to their congregation urging people to organise such events.
Asked whether he supported the decision to ban the BNP, the archbishop told BBC Radio Lancashire: "Personally, I think if that's the decision I'd be happy to go with it.

"I find it very difficult to see the BNP as part of a serious political discussion and very often people will exploit the platform to say inflammatory and silly things.

"So I can understand why people don't want to see the BNP as part of that discussion, as if they were to be taken as seriously as the other parties."
The debate in Lancaster has been arranged by Lancaster Churches Together, an organisation representing a number of Christian denominations.
But organisers declined to invited BNP candidate Debra Kent, saying that a church was not the place to allow what they described as "racist views" to be promoted.

Falling congregations
Steve Greenhalgh, a spokesman for the BNP, questioned the validity of the debate without his party's candidate.
"I think if you are going to hold a debate you have all the democratically put forward candidates - or none at all," he said.
"I would say the church should be really more concerned with the falling numbers of their congregations and not the views of the British National Party.
"It's pointless challenging it because if you challenge it then you become an extremist, and you become a person who is trying to cause hassle."

Candidates standing in Lancaster and Fleetwood are: Gina Dowding: Green; Clive Grunshaw: Labour; Debra Kent: British National Party; Stuart Langhorn: Liberal Democrat; Fred McGlade: UK Independence Party; Eric Ollerenshaw: Conservative; Keith Riley: Independent.

BBC News

Protesters to gather outside BBC as BNP broadcast aired

Protesters are to gather outside BBC headquarters in central London as the British National Party's election broadcast is aired.

The BBC is accused by campaign group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) of giving "unwarranted and uncritical coverage" of the BNP during the run-up to the election. The BNP's five-minute party election broadcast (PEB) is set to be aired on BBC1 at 6.55pm on Monday.

UAF's protest at Broadcasting House will be supported by the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (Bectu), as well as the Muslim Council of Britain and Jewish Council for Racial Equality.

A BBC spokesman said the Corporation was "obliged to treat political parties contesting the election with due impartiality", as set out in its charter. He added: "Over the course of the election, we will ensure appropriate scrutiny as we would with any party."
But UAF joint secretary Sabby Dhalu said: "The BBC has given unwarranted and uncritical coverage of the BNP during this election campaign, particularly on TV news and Radio 4, which has failed to challenge its racist scapegoating of immigrants and Islamophobia.

"The BBC's justification for giving the BNP more coverage is the election of two BNP MEPs last year. This is misguided. Giving the BNP a platform and failing to expose and challenge it gives the BNP a veneer of legitimacy.
"The BNP is a fascist organisation, not a normal political party, and the public does not pay its licence fee to see fascists broadcast their politics of hate."
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu, said the BNP's policies were "abhorrent to the vast majority of hard working people". He said: "The BNP would like to scare people to believing they have something to fear from multiculturalism, and their policies of hatred and racism should not be given airtime by our broadcasters."
BNP leader Nick Griffin's controversial appearance on Question Time in October led to the BBC Television Centre in west London being "locked down" due to a surge of protesters. Campaigners brought traffic to a standstill as they demonstrated against the decision to invite him on the flagship current affairs programme.

Launching the party's 90-page election manifesto last week, Mr Griffin said: "We say Britain is full. It is the most overcrowded country in Europe and it is time to shut the doors."

peterborough today

National Front turn up in Birmingham for St George's Day march

The National Front turned out on the streets of Birmingham yesterday to hold a St George’s Day march through the north of the city.

It was the first time that the far-right party, which describes itself as a ‘racial nationalist’ party, has turned up on the streets since it was last banned from doing so in 2001.
Up to 40 men and women marched through the streets of Kingstanding to raise awareness about candidates standing in the upcoming local and general elections.

But they were also there to commemorate the death of local man Jason Spence, who they described as one of “The Fallen”.
Father-of-three Jason was gunned down at point-blank range as he left a Birmingham pub with friends in 2002.
It is believed that Jason, 31, regularly attended National Front meetings and rallies, and was known across the Midlands.
Within hours of the shooting on November 19, messages of remembrance and threats of revenge were posted on extremist websites.
But nobody has ever been charged with his murder and his widow Jacqui, 32, claims the police have “left her in the dark” about the investigation.
Jason’s three children – Tammy, 14, Cherree, 19, and Jason, 21 – still have no clue why their father was murdered shortly after leaving the New Bell pub.
A lack of police contact has frustrated the family and has left them feeling forgotten, with nowhere to turn to.

Jacqui said she supported the National Front march and denied claims that its members were exploiting her late husband’s memory.
“I was not upset about them commemorating Jason’s death, I thought it was a nice gesture,” she said. “But I was upset by a number of press reports which claimed they were hijacking his memory.

“They were only ever friends of his. It just happened they were promoting election candidates in the area yesterday and thought it would be nice to remember Jason.
“To be honest I’m more upset by the police investigation into Jason’s death. We have heard nothing from them at all and it seems like they are not interested.

“I have told them the information they need lots of times. They know exactly what they need to do and who they need to question but they just don’t seem interested. It is a terrible situation to be in.”

The NF will be putting forward candidates in the local election in Kingstanding and Oscott, as well as in the General Election in Erdington.
Oscott candidate Keith Axon, 63, a retired salesman said he doubts that he can win the Oscott seat but claimed more people are supporting the NF because of Labour’s immigration policies.

“The white working class in places like Kingstanding feel alienated and let down by the political process,” he said. “People have had enough of feeling like second-class citizens in their own country.”

Sunday Mercury

Faiths unite against BNP (UK)

STOP the BNP was the message from South Yorkshire’s religious leaders today.

Representatives of the county’s many faith communities gathered in Sheffield to urge voters: “use your vote to stop the BNP.”
Some of the 74 signatories to the statement gathered in front of Sheffield Town Hall to show their support for Britain’s multi-faith society.
“It is our responsibility to celebrate our multi-faith community and defend the values of unity and respect that we have worked so hard to accomplish. We need to make sure that racists cannot destroy what we have achieved,” said Abdool Gooljar, President of the Islamic Society of Britain (South Yorkshire).

“If we don’t vote and the BNP get elected, we have no-one to blame but ourselves.”

The Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, said:“We must stand together as different faiths and say to the whole community: ‘get involved and help shape your future’”.

“Cast your vote for love, hope, good neighbourliness and a cohesive community. We have no time for racism in politics.”

rotherham advertiser

CAMPAIGNERS BATTLE FAR-RIGHT ELECTION CANDIDATES (uk)

Anti-fascist campaigners are hitting the streets to warn people against voting for far-right parties at the General Election. The British National Party (BNP) is contesting 15 of the county’s 26 seats next month – compared to just four in 2005 – while the National Front is fielding two candidates, in Faversham and Maidstone. Fighting to see both parties’ election dreams crushed are members of the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group, who are leafleting constituencies targeted by far-right groups in the run-up to polling day. Last Saturday they held a stall near the Priestfield Stadium home of Gillingham FC, whose supporters are rumoured to be the target of a recruitment drive by the English Defence League.

UAF member Steve Wilkins said: “The BNP has candidates in two of the three Medway seats, and our position is to ask people to use their vote for anyone other than them. “Although there have been many TV exposes over the years, there are still many people who don’t realise what the BNP truly stands for. Its members ferociously deny everything but the evidence is there for all to see. “I don’t think any BNP candidates stand a chance of winning any of the Kent seats, but support for the party is growing and it’s important we put a stop to that.” Seven of the Kent seats being targeted by the BNP are on the outskirts of London, but constituencies including Dover, Tunbridge Wells, and Folkestone and Hythe, are also being contested.

The National Front candidates are Graham Kemp in Faversham and Mid Kent, and Gary Butler in Maidstone and the Weald. Almost immediately after announcing his decision to stand on Monday, Mr Butler was made subject to a campaign by his Labour opponent Rav Seeruthun. Dr Seeruthun said: “The National Front is a fascist party and given that both [Tory candidate] Helen Grant and I are from [minority] ethnic backgrounds, I fear this is the reason they have put a candidate up. “We must attack them head-on with a cross-party approach.” Dr Seeruthun’s campaign has been supported by fellow Maidstone candidates Stuart Jeffery (Greens) and Peter Carroll (Lib Dem), but Mrs Grant said she did not want to give the National Front the publicity “on which they thrive”. Mr Butler denied claims that he was racist, adding: “I’m not saying kick every non-white person out, not at all. “We have [minority] ethnic people who have lived and worked here in the country for generations and they have a right to be here. “I want to see British jobs for British people, but it has nothing to do with race.”


Kent News

SPAIN PROTESTS AGAINST FRANCO-ERA IMMUNITY

Thousands of demonstrators took to streets across Spain on Saturday to protest against immunity for Civil War crimes and charges against a prominent judge for investigating deaths under Francisco Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship. Protesters in support of High Court judge Baltasar Garzon, say charges against him are an assault on judicial independence. He is accused by far-right parties of abusing his judicial powers by attempting to launch the first comprehensive investigation into Spain's 1936-1939 Civil War. Garzon came to the world's attention in 1998 when he issued an international arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for the alleged deaths and torture of Spanish citizens. Demonstrations were staged in 20 Spanish cities on Saturday, as well as at Spanish embassies in London, Dublin, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris, Mexico and Buenos Aires. Crowds in central Madrid included human rights activists, actors, intellectuals and family members of victims. "There's still a big open wound in our democracy that needs to be healed," actor Antonio de la Torre, one of the event's organizers told Reuters by telephone. A falangist demonstration a few blocks away drew a crowd of about 300 carrying a banner reading "Proud of our History."


Garzon appeals
Garzon filed an appeal against the charges on Friday, claiming partiality by the Supreme Court justice in charge of the case, Luciano Varela, for allegedly helping the far-right groups with their accusations against him. Garzon, who also investigated abuses under Latin American military governments and at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, is facing three separate Supreme Court inquiries that could end his judicial career. He faces ten years in prison and a ban as a judge if found guilty of abusing his powers in the Civil War investigation. Human rights activists around the world have praised him for pioneering the principle of universal jurisdiction, according to which perpetrators of crimes such as genocide can be tried anywhere if the courts of their own country fail to prosecute.

reuters

Former Nazi corporal dies in jail (USA)

Paul Schaefer, the former Nazi corporal who founded a secretive German colony in Chile in the 1960s, has died in a prison hospital in Santiago, the country's capital.

The 88-year-old was serving a 20-year sentence after being jailed in 2006 for sexually abusing and torturing children and settlers.

He died of heart disease on Saturday, prison officials said.

Schaefer established Colonia Dignidad, a large, armed, self-sufficient German colony, in an isolated region south of Santiago in 1961 after fleeing Germany to escape child abuse charges.

The mountain colony was home to about 300 refugees from Nazi Germany and their descendants. It was equipped with a hospital and an airport, and became a "state-within-a-state".

But Schaefer left Chile for Argentina in August 1996 when new child abuse allegations came to light.

The colony was seized in 2005 by Chilean authorities. The same year, Schaefer was arrested in Argentina and extradited back to Chile to face child abuse charges.

Human rights abuse
Schaefer was also charged with collaborating in human rights violations commited by the regime of Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled Chile between 1973 and 1990.
He was accused of allowing Chilean military agents to use Colonia Dignidad to torture political prisoners. Many of the prisoners later disappeared.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights organisation which helps track down Nazi war criminals, had suspected Schaefer of connections with Nazi fugitives such as Walter Rauff, who the centre said escaped to Chile and was protected by Pinochet's regime. Rauff died in Chile in 1984.

Residents of Colonia Dignidad lived an austere life until Schaefer's arrest. They have now renamed it "Bavarian Village" and opened it to the tourist trade.

aljazeera

Indians campaign against UK's BNP fascist party

The leader of the British National Party (BNP) Nick Griffin, who is contesting the Barking constituency in London for the UK election on May 6, is the biggest threat to Indians and other non-white people in Britain.

His politics threatens their (Indians/non-whites) very existence in Britain. In an area where poor white people live around poor migrants, tensions run high and BNP aims are clear.

Councilor Bailey of BNP said, "A lot of people have come from India to this country to make a better life for themselves. But a lot of those people have still got Indian passports, they retire back in India, and they send a lot of money, which they earn in this country back to India as well. Now remittances alone are in billions, and it affects the British economy."

This is just the kind of politics his opponents are uniting to stop in this Barking and Dagenham constituency.

Councilor Tariq Saeed said, "They are leftover Nazi party, they are leftover Hitler, they are Hitler's followers."
Challenging BNP's Nick Griffin is the Labour Party and local Indians led by the local gurdwara have been campaigning actively against the BNP.

Councilor N S Gill said, “We have been campaigning for three years for people to use their vote, which is essential to keep the BNP out.”
A vote in the Barking constituency could be very telling how far a lot of white working class people think that Indians and other immigrants should simply pack their bags and head home - this late in the day. Indians of course are doing their bit to see that the BNP is kept away, on principle, and for themselves

bnlive

BNP Leader: 'East London Is Like Nairobi'

BNP leader Nick Griffin has been secretly filmed out on the far-right party's campaign trail, where he compared east London to Nairobi.
The BNP is well known for having controversial policies, but it would appear the party also has controversial opinions when it comes to canvassing voters.

An undercover reporter from the People tabloid recorded what happened when senior party member Richard Edmonds was out leafleting in Dagenham.

When a woman told him she would not vote BNP, Mr Edmonds' response as he walked away was: "Silly ******* aren't they? Maybe she's got a black kid you see?

"Or maybe her sister's got a black kid? That I think is always the explanation around here.

"Once they go with blacks, they're part of the black tribe.

"Wicked, horrible, stupid. I've seen it many, many times."

Mr Griffin was also filmed talking about canvassing in Barking, where he is trying to oust Labour's Margaret Hodge.

"Yes, it's something like leafleting central Nairobi isn't it, I'm afraid," he said.

A spokesman for the BNP said the remarks were made after Mr Edmonds had been verbally abused in the street.
They party did not want to comment further on the filming.

At its manifesto launch last week, the BNP insisted it was not a single-issue party.

Sky News

Hungary votes in second round of parliamentary election

Hungary is preparing to vote in the second round of a parliamentary election which conservative opposition party Fidesz has already won.

But the second round will decide the fate of almost one-third of the seats in the next parliament.

Fidesz trounced the Socialists by 53% to 19% in the first round, followed by the far-right Jobbik, and a new Green party called Politics Can be Different.

Its leader, Viktor Orban, is set to become prime minister.

The second round of this election is being fought in 57 constituencies nationwide - all those where no single candidate won more than 50% of the votes in the first round.
Seats in Parliament are distributed according to three lists - individual, territorial and national - so 121 seats out of 386 will be decided in this second round of the election.
Mr Orban has promised the creation of a million jobs in the next 10 years, sweeping tax cuts, and reform of central and local government.
Fidesz hope to win a two-thirds majority in the new Parliament, which would give them the chance to change the constitution.
The Socialists, who have governed for the past eight years, say they created 100,000 jobs, navigated the ship safely through a serious economic crisis, and improved law and order.

BBC News

KT Tunstall disowns mother's BNP husband

ROCK star KT Tunstall has broken all ties with her mother's husband after he decided to stand as candidate for the BNP at the General Election.

David Orr is married to Tunstall's biological mother, Carol-Ann, who gave up the St Andrews-born singer for adoption when she was born.
He says his decision to stand for the far right party as Westminster candidate in his home town of Livingston
has prompted Tunstall to sever all contact with him. "This has caused huge problems in my family, it's really put the cat amongst the pigeons," he said.
"I've had KT's people on the phone basically saying that she won't have anything further to do with me and doesn't want to see me ever again."
The 61-year-old former taxi driver added: "I've never used the family connection for political gain, it was a big no-no from the start.

"She's still in touch with my wife Carol-Ann, mainly through texts.

"It has caused huge problems but I've had these political views all of my life and Carol-Ann knows that. It doesn't bother me that KT won't speak to me. I've nothing to be ashamed of.

"I am bothered for Carol-Ann though. She just wants to keep out of it all and stay in touch with her daughter."
A spokesperson for Tunstall confirmed the estrangement, saying: "KT abhors the BNP and all they stand for. She now has no contact with David Orr."
The 34-year-old star regularly campaigns on environmental issues such as climate change and endorsed the Democratic Party in the US presidential election.
Scotland On Sunday

Indonesians riot in 'race' clash

Thousands of Indonesian workers have rioted at a foreign-owned shipyard on the western island of Batam, torching buildings and cars.

The workers were protesting against an alleged racial slur by an Indian manager, a national police spokesman was quoted as saying by AP news agency.
Several people were injured and Indonesian police say they had to evacuate dozens of Indian employees.

The manager had repeatedly called the workers "stupid", local media say.

The riots took place at PT Drydock, the shipbuilding arm of Dubai World conglomerate.

"This problem has to be solved with the help of the immigration and other departments involved. Foreigners that insult Indonesians will have to leave the country," local police chief Leonidas Braksan was quoted as saying by the country's offical news agency Antara.
Mr Braksan has asked the Indian manager accused of the insult, to leave the country, Antara reports.

Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower is sending a fact-finding team to PT Drydock to investigate the rioting, Antara adds.

BBC News

PAY-DAY FOR RACIST PAPER PUTS SUBSIDIES UNDER FIRE (Sweden)

Opinion has been split on how best to handle state press subsidies ever since the Press Subsidies Council (Presstödsnämnden) agreed on Wednesday to award 2.3 million kronor ($321,000) in operational support to Nationell Idag ('National Today'), a weekly newspaper run by the extreme right-wing National Democrat party. Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, herself formerly a delegate on the subsidies council, said a review was needed of guidelines prohibiting the council from taking a publication's political views into consideration. "Even if this is about freedom of expression, that's not the same thing as using taxpayers' money to support this type of media," Adelsohn Liljeroth told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. But the minister's view was countered by Jan Strid, a media professor at Gothenburg University. "What opinions should we pay for then? This is one small way of restricting the liberty of the press, which is under enough threat today as things stand. Either we change the press support system and get rid of it completely or we give it to everybody," he told Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter. Strid was also critical of Fokus magazine's editor-in-chief Martin Ahlquist, who "must have known" before stepping down from his post on the council in protest that existing regulations prevented the council from taking a political stand. Madeleine Sjöstedt, the Liberal Party head of Stockholm's Culture and Sports Division, exhorted the culture minster to abolish Sweden's system of press subsidies. "I call on culture minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth (Moderate) to go to the ministry and draft new legislation abolishing press subsidies, rather than distancing herself from those whose job it is to put her decisions into practice," Sjöstedt said in a statement. "Press subsidies should have ended a long time ago. They've served their purpose. It's almost ridiculously out of step with the times to believe, in our digitalized age, that citizens require a daily paper from each of the blocs in every town," she added.

The European Commission gave Sweden a rap on the knuckles last June for maintaining a system of press subsidies that "distorts competition", calling on the country to gradually cut back its support for large circulation metropolitan newspapers. "The commission recognises the importance of media pluralism for the cultural, democratic and public debate in member states and the importance of newspapers in this context," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at the time. "However, running a newspaper is also a commercial activity and the commission has a duty to prevent undue distortions of competition and trade resulting from public subsidies," she added. In its decision on Wednesday, the Press Subsidies Council ruled that Nationell Idag fulfilled the criteria necessary to qualify for operational press subsidies. For example, the council found that the newspaper publishes more than 1,500 copies, is primarily sold to subscribers, and publishes at least 1,000 column metres of editorial material per year. Nationell Idag was granted 699,583 kronor for August to December last year, as well as 1.679 million kronor for 2010. The decision did not enjoy unanimous support, with one of the nine council representatives present calling for a further examination of whether Nationell Idag can be considered a "general newspaper that has the publication of regular general news as its primary function." On its website the Press Subsidies Council explains that it is "a governmental organisation whose task is to safeguard the diversity of the daily newspaper market. It carries out its function by distributing the state's subsidy to the daily press." The council disburses operational subsidies totalling 483 million kronor a year to around 80 newspapers.
The Local Sweden

POLICE PROBE AFTER THE BNP PARADES FAKE SOLDIER WALKER

A controversial  BNP election candidate is being investigated by police after he posed as a soldier.

Adam Walker wore desert fatigues while campaigning alongside the far-right party’s leader, Nick Griffin.
But Walker, 41 – who is standing in Bishop Auckland, County Durham – is no longer a serving member of the Armed Forces and might have broken the law by dressing as one.

Police were alerted when a member of the public made a complaint.Walker, who was a member of the Royal Armoured Corps from 1985 to 1990, claims he has done nothing wrong.


At the rally in Barking, Essex, last weekend, he was asked if he was a real soldier and admitted he wasn’t.
But he said: “I’m wearing this uniform in solidarity with our boys in Afghanistan.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We have received a complaint and officers will now decide what action, if any, is required.”
Walker could be charged with a breach of the 1894 Uniforms Act which says that wearing a military uniform without permission can “bring contempt” on the Army. If convicted, he could face up to a month in prison or a hefty fine.
His appearance at the rally was labelled “disgraceful” by serving soldiers and Forces’ organisations.

A spokesman for the ABF soldiers’ charity said: “There is no place in the Army for racism or politics. Nick Griffin should know better.” One soldier using an online forum said: “This is disgraceful. The scumbag should be prosecuted.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Neither serving nor retired military personnel are permitted to wear uniform in support of political activities as this could undermine the impartiality of the Armed Forces.”

It is not the first time that former teacher Walker, of Spennymoor, County Durham, has attracted controversy. In 2007, he was caught posting alleged slurs against asylum seekers, immigrants and homosexuality on the BNP’s website during lesson time at the sports college where he worked.

He left the college shortly after the scandal broke but claimed the comments had no link to his work. He is awaiting a General Teacher Council hearing.

Daily Star

POLICE TO PUBLISH PEACH DEATH FILE (UK)

Scotland Yard is preparing to finally publish a report into the death of anti-racism activist Blair Peach more than three decades ago.

Prosecutors have completed a review of the document and passed their findings back to the London force.

Relatives of the dead man have been campaigning to obtain a secret internal review of the killing for many years.

Last year Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said he was willing to publish the document but only after it had been checked by solicitors.

A CPS spokeswoman confirmed officials have completed their work and given their findings back to officers. It is understood a copy of the report has already been passed to solicitors representing Mr Peach's partner, Celia Stubbs.

The decision to publish was made after public pressure to reveal the almost forgotten review in the months after the death of Ian Tomlinson during G20 protests.

A shadow hung over the death of Mr Peach, 33, since he was hit over the head at a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, west London, in 1979.

Members of the force's Special Patrol Group were suspected of hitting him with a rubberised police radio or a lead-filled cosh.

The report written by Commander John Cass, a former senior officer at the Met's internal complaints department, examined his death. He is believed to have recommended the prosecution of police officers, although no charges were ever brought.

Speaking last June, Sir Paul said the report should be published, possibly by the end of the year, with some details censored. The Metropolitan Police Authority unanimously supported a decision to review the documents with a view to publishing them.

Daily Express

COURT ALLOWS HOLOCAUST CARTOON AS FREE SPEECH (Netherlands)

The sketch was published last year in response to the infamous Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The AEL, a Pan-Arab organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands, hoped its counter cartoon would demonstrate the "hypocrisy" that it felt was commonplace in public debate. The cartoon shows two figures standing beside a stack of corpses marked with a sign that says ‘Auswitch’ [sic]. "We have to get to 6,000,000 somehow," one character exclaims. The other responds by saying: "I don’t think they are Jews". The AEL wanted to prove that, while cartoons offensive to Muslims are accepted in the Christian West, drawings depicting religious themes that are deemed controversial are not. In its ruling, the court called the AEL drawing grievous, insulting and bad taste. The context in which the cartoon was created however, convinced the judge that its publication punishable. In its ruling, the court took into account that the AEL believes the genocide of the Jewish people is an historical fact. The AEL pointed this out in both a press release and a disclaimer it printed beside the cartoon. The public prosecutor had proposed a plea bargain that required the AEL to take the cartoon off its website. After the AEL failed to comply, charges were brought against it. The prosecutor sought only minor fines. In his ruling, the judge took into account that Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights also guarantees the right to shock, offend or insult others through public expression. Governments are only allowed to prohibit this type of expression if specific laws exist to govern it and as long as the restriction is "necessary for a democratic society" to function. The context of an expression as well as the proportionality of censorship are important considerations in this respect. The judge found that the AEL drawing was part of a "cartoon campaign" conducted by the AEL against the perceived double standard prevalent in the West. "In this case, freedom of speech weighs more heavily than the right of others not to be discriminated against," the court stated. The AEL's right to publish an offensive cartoon "should be guaranteed" in light of the specific context and the AEL's intent, the court ruled.


The NRC

FAR-RIGHT PARTY BARRED FROM TRIAL OF SPANISH JUDGE

A Spanish magistrate trying high-profile judge Baltasar Garzon over his probe into Franco-era abuses barred Friday a far-right party from the trial, dismissing its complaints. The facist Falange party was one of three far-right groups that had levelled charges against Gazon that prompted Supreme Court judge Luciano Varela to put him on trial, a decision condemned by rights groups. Varela's exlcusion of the Falange means the trial could only go ahead if the judge accepts the charges from the two other complainants, media said. A member of the Falange Espanola de las Jons, confirmed to AFP it had been excluded from court. A judicial source said Varela ruled that the party could not be among the plaintiffs because the charges it had presented against Garzon contained ideological and personal elements and the party had not removed these elements from its complaint before a deadline to do so. Falange said on its website that it would appeal Varela's decision to expel it from the legal proceedings. Falange Espanola de los Jons is one of several offshoots of the Falange, the party that provided the ideological basis for the rule of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship which lasted from the end of Spain's 1936-39 civil war and his death in 1975. Varela has indicted Garzon for abuse of power for opening an investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during the civil war and Franco's subsequent right-wing dictatorship, which last until his death in 1975. The judge argued that Garzon had "consciously ignored" a 1977 amnesty law with the launch of the probe. Garzon dropped his probe into Franco-era crimes within months of launching it after state prosecutors and conservative politicians questioned his jurisdiction. Garzon made world headlines in October 1998 when he ordered the arrest of Chile's former strongman Augusto Pinochet in London, under the principle of "universal jurisdiction" which held that heinous crimes like torture or terrorism can be tried in Spain even if they had no link to the country. Garzon also indicted Osama bin Laden in 2003 for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and looked into the deaths of Spaniards in Argentina during the military regime of 1976-83.


AFP

BNP under fire in Redbridge over anti-Islamic leaflet

A RABBI has branded an election leaflet put out by the British National Party as "blatantly Islamaphobic".

The leaflets have been sent to Jewish voters showing people dressed in Islamic clothing performing Nazi salutes and holding banners bearing anti-Semitic claims such as "God Bless Hitler".

Dr Mohammed Fahim, Imam of South Woodford Mosque, Mulberry Way, said: "What they are putting in their leaflets they are just making up to gain votes.

"An average person with average intelligence would recognise it as fictional."

Bashir Chaudhry, chairman of the League of British Muslims and the Ilford Muslim Community Centre, said: "There are issues they should be tackling, not turning a community against another community."

Rabbi David Hulbert, of Bet Tikvah Synagogue, Newbury Park, and a member of the borough's Three Faiths Forum, which is a coalition between Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, said: "It's blatantly Islamaphobic.
"I really don't think they will be picking up many votes from the Jewish community here."

Gerry Gable, joint co-ordinator of Redbridge and Epping Forest Together Now and publisher of the anti-racism magazine Spotlight, urged anyone who receives a leaflet to hand it over to the police.

He said: "It's intended to cause trouble between the two communities.

"I think they are going to have a bit of a job around here."

BNP Cllr Julian Leppert, who is hoping to regain his council seat for Hainault and is also standing as an MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said the images on the leaflet were designed to be attention grabbing.

He said: "We're using this election to bury some of the myths about the British National Party.

"If you read the Jewish press, they are still banging on about the same old rubbish, saying we're Nazis.

"Some of those images on the front are to remind people of a few home truths.

"They're all pictures taken from genuine news stories."

A police spokesman said: "It is the policy of the Metropolitan Police Service not to comment on party political literature. If it is alleged that any party has transgressed the law, then any allegation will be investigated at that time.

Illford Recorder

BNP call for end to immigration from Muslim nations

The British National Party (BNP) are calling for an end to immigration from Muslim nations, saying this presents a "deadly threat" to the UK.

The pledge is contained in the party's election manifesto, launched by party leader Nick Griffin in Stoke.

The BNP also plan to give grants to encourage some UK residents to return to "their lands of ethnic origin".

The BNP recently changed their whites-only membership policy after it was ruled unlawful by the courts.

Their opponents say they are extreme and their policies divisive.
The BNP is targeting Stoke, where they currently have a number of city councillors, and a number of other constituencies as they seek to get their first MP elected to Westminster.

'Full-up'
Although they got two MEPs elected to Brussels in last year's European Parliament elections, they received less than 1% of the national vote in the 2005 UK general election.
The BNP are campaigning on a platform of curbing immigration, only allowing new migrants in "exceptional circumstances" and pledging to deport all illegal immigrants.

Mr Griffin said there was only one new commitment on immigration in the manifesto - which would see all citizenship grants approved since 1997 reviewed to see whether they are still "appropriate".

Mr Griffin said the UK was "full-up" and it was time to "close the doors".

The manifesto states "there should be absolutely no further immigration from any Muslim countries, as it presents one of the most deadly threats yet to the survival of our nation".

The party has previously said Islam is incompatible with modern secular democracy.
Mr Griffin said his party would support "decent settled minorities who accept that Britain should remain British".
But Mr Griffin said the manifesto had a "wholly new emphasis" - accusing the media of being "fixated" with immigration - and was focused on rebuilding the economy and employment.

Among other pledges, the BNP wants to leave the European Union, withdraw British troops from Afghanistan and abolish regional development agencies and other quangos.
It calls for restrictions on imports from China to help protect jobs in British manufacturing and avert "economic disaster".

BBC News

BNP council candidate denies assault charges

A BNP council candidate is due to appear in court days before the May 6 local elections charged with attacking two women at East Croydon train station.
Dave Clarke, who hopes to win a seat in the Heathfield ward, is accused of punching and shoving the two women, who were anti-fascist protesters, after spotting them handing out anti-BNP leaflets.

The 41-year-old is also charged with another two counts of assault in relation to the alleged scuffle.

Clarke, of Dunley Drive, New Addington, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to the alleged incident on May 27 last year.

He will face trial just eight days before the local elections.

Clarke is one of 13 candidates the party is putting forward in the local elections for Croydon and Sutton.

Clarke's agent Charlotte Lewis told the Advertiser he had pushed leaflets out of the protesters' hands but maintains he did not hit anyone.

She said: "Dave completely denies these allegations and, although as a party we have little confidence in the British justice system, he did not assault these people.

"These types of people [the alleged victims] are against the BNP.

"Dave just introduced himself to them and did throw their leaflets into the street but if anything they pushed him.

"He is adamant that he had nothing to do with this.

"The Crown Prosecution Service is politically motivated and I am sure if it was the other way round there would not be a prosecution."

Prospective parliamentary candidate for Wallington and Carshalton at the general election, Miss Lewis hit the headlines two weeks ago when pictures of her dressed in a burkha and fishneck stockings clutching an alcopop emerged.

She explained that Clarke's reluctance to speak to the Advertiser directly was because of his "shy and retiring nature".

Clarke, whose brother John is also running as a council candidate in Fieldway, denied four counts of assault by beating when he appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court on April 7.

He will face trial next Wednesday.

This is Croydon Today

BNP v Marmite : Hitler is not Happy

Austria spooked by Nazi past in election

The far-right contender in Austria's presidential election on Sunday has stirred up debate about the country's anti-Nazi legislation, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports.

A brass band in traditional Austrian costume played oompah music in a baroque cobbled square in the town of St Poelten.

A rally for Barbara Rosenkranz, the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) candidate for president, was under way.
There was a visible police presence. In the neighbouring square, a counter-demonstration by left-wing protesters was taking place.
Barbara Rosenkranz, a 51-year-old mother of 10, is a controversial figure. She is married to a man who belonged to a banned extreme right-wing party.
And she has criticised parts of Austria's strict anti-Nazi legislation, known as the Verbotsgesetz.

In an interview on Austrian television in 2007 she talked about the Verbotsgesetz, saying "the way lawyers interpret it is wishy-washy, open to abuse and isn't in line with our constitution, which protects freedom of opinion."

No whitewashing of past
Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany in 1938 and was deeply involved in the crimes of the Third Reich. Now it is illegal to deny the Holocaust or to make statements which glorify the Nazi regime.
There is a debate in Austria about whether the anti-Nazi legislation is too strict. But the political analyst Thomas Hofer says Mrs Rosenkranz's motives are questionable.

"There are liberals in Austria who want to do away with those laws because they are obviously going against freedom of speech. But if she comes from a far-right background - and she does come from that background - it is a different story."
Thomas Hofer says Mrs Rosenkranz is trying to appeal to an extreme right-wing minority.
"There are some people in Austria who still think that not everything was bad during the Nazi era, so she tried to secure the small base, in terms of revisionists, for the Freedom Party and thought there wouldn't be a big fuss - but there was."

International image
Mrs Rosenkranz is not expected to win the election on Sunday. Opinion polls say up to 80% of the vote will go to the current president, Heinz Fischer of the Social Democrats (SPOe).
But her nomination as the Freedom Party's presidential candidate has caused outrage among Jewish groups, and politicians from the centre-left and centre-right.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial post but it involves frequent international visits.
Over the past few weeks, Mrs Rosenkranz has denied ever wanting to get rid of the anti-Nazi legislation.

She told Austrian television that she "accepts the law, in the form that it is in".

Many of her supporters at the rally in St Poelten insisted that she does not have extreme right views.
Kathi, a young FPOe worker who said she knew the Rosenkranz family, said Mrs Rosenkranz was "misrepresented by the media".

"She was led into a trap. That's not fair. I think Barbara Rosenkranz is a very good woman."

Maximilian, wearing a bright blue FPOe jacket, said he was a fan. "I think she was misinterpreted. She has ten children and I also have three siblings so I understand her. She is against immigration. She has the right political views."
But many other Austrians disagree. At the counter-demonstration in St Poelten, feelings against her candidacy were running high.
One protester, Martin, said it was "a scandal for Austria" that someone with her background was running for the highest position in the state.
"Austria was part of Nazi Germany and Barbara Rosenkranz is definitely a sign that this country did not learn from its history."
Roman, another protester, said freedom of speech was important, but some lines had to be drawn. "Horrible things happened in that time. If she wants to be president in Austria she shouldn't say such things. Someone like this shouldn't be the representative of our country."

Sensitivities about Austria's past still run deep.

BBC News

Hustings event in Corsham split over BNP

A Question Time-style evening in Corsham will go ahead after an 11th hour agreement following a dispute over the attendance of a BNP candidate.

The hustings for the Chippenham seat will take place tonight from 7pm at Corsham Community Centre, but the session will be split into two halves because of a row over the attendance of BNP candidate Michael Simpkins.
Conservative candidate Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones and Labour candidate Greg Lovell had both refused to share a stage with Mr Simpkins.
Lib Dem candidate Duncan Hames said he would have to deal with the fact the BNP were there as they had been invited by the event organisers.
Kevin Gaskin, administrator for event organisers Corsham Community Area Network (CCAN), said: “The first half will be for everyone, excluding the BNP. In the second half, the BNP will be invited to take their place on the stage and this means that candidates who want to stay can. I am happy with the outcome because we have an opportunity to hear from all of the candidates.”

The meeting will be led by Corsham Town Council chairman Allan Bosley and organisers are asking for residents to submit questions in advance by email to kevingaskin ccan@hotmail.co.uk.

It will be followed by a further hustings in Melksham at George Ward School on Sunday. The event, chaired by Brigadier Dougie Rowlinson, sees all candidates invited, but those who wish to decline may do so.
Wiltshire Times