The leader of a Buckinghamshire union has put out a call for help from activists.
Steve Bell, branch secretary for the Bucks Health Branch of Unison, will hold a meeting a week before a planned protest by the English Defence League in Aylesbury.
Mr Bell said: "The EDL, whileclaiming not to be racist or fascist, has on previous demonstrations been giving Nazi salutes and shouting slogans that could be considered racist.
"BNP (British National Party) and other fascist activists have also been witnessed at these events.
"It is also clear that if their ideas are not challenged then the local community in which they are active, will see a rise in racist incidents.
"That is why the Bucks Health branch of Unison believes that we need to challenge their ideas and organise to defeat them, so that the ideas they represent do not get a toehold in the Aylesbury area.
"These ideas are not welcome and are divisive and will set back our struggle to defend the public sector and the terms and conditions of our members."
Mr Bell has invited members of the Labour movement and the local community to work out how to challenge EDL's ideas.
The meeting will take place on April 26 at 7.30pm at the Multicultural Centre
bucksherald
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
BNP candidate calls gay Tory MP 'immoral'
East Sussex BNP leader Nick Prince criticised Greg Barker for coming out after he had won a seat in the 2005 general election.
Mr Prince added that he believe the BNP could topple Mr Barker, who has a majority of 13,449 votes. The Rother area has only 36 BNP members.
The candidate who will challenge the sitting Tory MP is Neil Jackson, 51. He was named as the BNP candidate for the seat last week.
Mr Prince, who is contesting the nearby Hastings seat, told the Bexhill Observer that his party would not allow men to kiss in public or gay couples to adopt children.
He then criticised Mr Barker, who was married with children when he came out in 2006
Mr Prince said: "In the case of Greg Barker, it is a question of morals and honesty. He went to the electorate a married man with a nice young family – now he goes to his electorate five years later a homosexual man.
"I don't believe it to be homophobic to raise this issue when we are talking about a guy in his early forties – it is a little late in life to be confused."
Mr Barker told the newspaper he did not intend to enter a slanging match with the BNP. He said: "The BNP is completely beyond the pale and I have no intention in entering into a debate with that sort of people."
Last week, BNP leader Nick Griffin suggested that he had made his party more gay-friendly.
Speaking to Total Politics magazine in extracts published by PinkNews.co.uk, he said that he knew the party had gay members but that it was a "don't ask, don't tell situation".
Mr Griffin said the party had moved away from wanting to re-criminalise homosexuality but would scrap civil partnerships if it got into power.
Pink News
More must be done to protect young net users (UK)
MORE work must be done to keep abreast of changes in modern technology, according to an internet safety expert.
Dr Tanya Byron said the United Kingdom was the world leader in online safety, but that more can still be done.
Professor Byron, the Government’s internet safety advisor, has carried out a progress review into her report, Safer Children in A Digital World, which was published in 2008.
She has highlighted a number of key successes which have been implemented since the report was published.
One of these was the announcement in December last year of a Government internet safety strategy which will see all over-fives taught e-safety in schools.
The legislation was brought in following The Northern Echo’s Safety Net campaign, launched in the wake of the murder of Darlington teenager Ashleigh Hall.
Seventeen-year-old Ashleigh was killed after befriending a man she met on Facebook.
However, he turned out not to be a 19-year-old youth, but instead 32-year-old convicted rapist Peter Chapman.
When the internet safety strategy was launched, Schools Minister Ed Balls wrote in The Northern Echo that the Safety Net campaign was important as there are “dangers lurking behind computer screens”.
In her review announced yesterday, Prof Byron also praised the creation of the Zip it, Block it, Flag it public awareness campaign and the creation of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, a coalition of government, charities and industry.
She said: “Raising awareness of, and improving education in, the way in which children and young people deal with risks online is an important first step. The UK has taken this first step but there is more to be done.”
She has made a number of recommendations including more work done to prevent underage children accessing social networking sites and pornography, an industry wide self-regulated code of practice and work with mobile phone and games console companies to improve standards for parental controls.
A response to the review is to be completed by July.
Mr Balls said: “I’m glad Professor Byron has made it clear that industry and Government need to redouble their efforts to provide support to parents to help them keep their children safe online.”
The Northern Echo
Dr Tanya Byron said the United Kingdom was the world leader in online safety, but that more can still be done.
Professor Byron, the Government’s internet safety advisor, has carried out a progress review into her report, Safer Children in A Digital World, which was published in 2008.
She has highlighted a number of key successes which have been implemented since the report was published.
One of these was the announcement in December last year of a Government internet safety strategy which will see all over-fives taught e-safety in schools.
The legislation was brought in following The Northern Echo’s Safety Net campaign, launched in the wake of the murder of Darlington teenager Ashleigh Hall.
Seventeen-year-old Ashleigh was killed after befriending a man she met on Facebook.
However, he turned out not to be a 19-year-old youth, but instead 32-year-old convicted rapist Peter Chapman.
When the internet safety strategy was launched, Schools Minister Ed Balls wrote in The Northern Echo that the Safety Net campaign was important as there are “dangers lurking behind computer screens”.
In her review announced yesterday, Prof Byron also praised the creation of the Zip it, Block it, Flag it public awareness campaign and the creation of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, a coalition of government, charities and industry.
She said: “Raising awareness of, and improving education in, the way in which children and young people deal with risks online is an important first step. The UK has taken this first step but there is more to be done.”
She has made a number of recommendations including more work done to prevent underage children accessing social networking sites and pornography, an industry wide self-regulated code of practice and work with mobile phone and games console companies to improve standards for parental controls.
A response to the review is to be completed by July.
Mr Balls said: “I’m glad Professor Byron has made it clear that industry and Government need to redouble their efforts to provide support to parents to help them keep their children safe online.”
The Northern Echo
Three Jews brutally attacked in Berlin
According to a statement from the Jewish community of Berlin, a man of "Mediterranean" appearance on Friday night demanded to know if the three were Jewish. After they said they were, the man "obviously went to get some friends," who then beat the three, all in their mid-20s, in an underground train and on the platform in the Wilmersdorf section of Berlin.
Police are investigating the incident as an anti-Semitic and racist attack, as it allegedly began with the attackers cursing the victims. The youths then beat and kicked the two women and one attacker smashed a bottle over the man's head.
Police said they had no information about the identity of the attackers, according to news reports. But Levi Solomon, head of the Jewish community's department for combating anti-Semitism, said in a statement that "violent attacks on Jews or presumed Jews were increasingly committed by youths from immigrant circles."
"We urgently need to grasp the causes and affects of anti-Semitism, especially among young Turks and Arabs, and to fight vigorously against this problem."
In another incident over the weekend, police arrested four of the 18 youths who attacked three pedestrians in the Wedding district of Berlin, beating and kicking them. One attacker used a knife to tear a victim's clothing. The victims were treated on the scene for injuries.
Police are searching for the remaining suspects.
There also has been a spate of violent attacks allegedly by right-wing extremist youths in the Neukoln section of Berlin.
FAR-RIGHT GAINS COULD PUT HUNGARY REFORMS AT RISK (Hungary)
The scenario is classic. Hungary's economy is in crisis, its large Roma minority is an easy scapegoat, and a far-right party blaming "Gypsy crooks" and "welfare spongers" is set to be the big winner.
If opinion polls are right, the nationalist Jobbik party has a chance of becoming the second biggest party in parliament after an election on April 11 and 25, denying the center-right favorites Fidesz a possible two-thirds majority. "With its extreme populist rhetoric, Jobbik could put the next government's policy moves under pressure," said political analyst Andras Giro-Szasz. "Jobbik can limit the popular mandate of the next government." The Roma make up between 5 and 7 percent of Hungary's population and vilifying them has proved Jobbik's most successful tactic as an economic slump of more than 6 percent last year has left more than one in 10 Hungarians unemployed. Its biggest gains will be in places such as Ozd in Hungary's poor northeast, a steel town fallen on hard times, where it looks set to defeat the Socialists who have held the seat for 16 years.
Unemployment has grown
Unemployment has been above 20 percent in Ozd for years, and one-third of the population is Roma. Jobbik (Movement For a Better Hungary) nearly beat Fidesz there in the 2009 European Parliament election, and its popularity has only grown since. "Many of us are sick of the way Gypsies think of welfare as a way of life," said Andras Kemacs, a 27-year-old mechanic in Ozd. "Jobbik impresses me with its openness about that." Jobbik has also capitalized on popular resentment toward the political elite, including Fidesz, which it calls corrupt. It has demonized the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which insisted on painful spending cuts as a condition of bailing out Hungary's public finances. And it is media savvy, using the Internet so effectively that its appeal among young people, including college students, surpasses that of any other party except Fidesz. Polls show national support for Jobbik nearing 20 percent among all decided voters. That puts it neck-and-neck with the ruling Socialists, while Fidesz has about 60 percent of the projected vote. Those gains, splitting the right-wing vote as well as stealing votes from the left, have eroded Fidesz's chances of winning the two-thirds majority that would be a platform for the broad reforms that economists say Hungary needs. Hungary has struggled for years to streamline its bloated government sector and trim public expenditure. The spending cuts have brought the budget deficit under control, but most public sector structural reform has lagged behind. The key reform requiring a two-thirds majority is a rationalization of Hungary's 3,200 local governments, which run hospitals and schools and are major drag on the state budget. Fidesz could also attempt a reform of notoriously corrupt party financing.
Decay and despair
In Ozd, the problems besetting Hungary, and especially its Roma, are painfully evident. The collapse of communism after 1989 led to the closure of Ozd's steel plant, the town's number one employer, throwing 14,000 people out of work. Unskilled Roma were laid off first; most have not worked in the 20 years since. Decay and despair in nearby villages drove thousands more to Ozd. Today, one-third of the 39,000 residents are Roma, says Lajos Berki, leader of the Gypsy Community Council. "About 1,000 of us have more or less regular work," Berki said. "The rest live on welfare. There are problems, there is no denying that. A few thousand Gypsies have caused real problems." The Roma shantytown on the outskirts of Ozd, known as Hetes, bustles with activity, but not paid work. Boys play soccer in the dirt outside the dilapidated homes, while adults chop illegally collected firewood or mill about idly. "I'm not fixated on welfare," said Gyula Budai, standing near the only working tap that 500 Roma share. "Take it away, give us work, then you'll see who wants to work and who doesn't."
Prolonged tension
Ozd's Fidesz candidate, Gabor Riz, acknowledged problems in an interview, but refrained from calling them Roma issues. "There are no grounds to fear a Roma-Hungarian ethnic conflict," he said. "But there could be prolonged tension between wage earners and welfare beneficiaries." However, Ozd's Socialist member of parliament, Istvan Toth, says the politicians have been avoiding the issues. "We have sensed the problems, but pretended that they might go away if we don't talk about them," he told Reuters. "We just tried to divide (Roma) along party lines, and now we suddenly realize that ... Jobbik played the Gypsy card." Ozd's Jobbik candidate, Andras Kisgergely, had no problem filling the region's largest theater to capacity with a rally. "For 500 years, Gypsies have not been able to adopt the cultural norms to live in peace with the majority," he told his audience. "Nine out of 10 criminals are Gypsies ... We need to end that. We need to improve public safety, and create jobs. Make them work. We need to tie welfare to community work." The 800 supporters in the room cheered each point wildly. Peter Borbas, a 40 year-old office clerk, was one of them. "We need to talk about Gypsy crime at long last," he said. "People have had enough. No method is too radical to end Gypsy crime."
Reuters
Unemployment has grown
Unemployment has been above 20 percent in Ozd for years, and one-third of the population is Roma. Jobbik (Movement For a Better Hungary) nearly beat Fidesz there in the 2009 European Parliament election, and its popularity has only grown since. "Many of us are sick of the way Gypsies think of welfare as a way of life," said Andras Kemacs, a 27-year-old mechanic in Ozd. "Jobbik impresses me with its openness about that." Jobbik has also capitalized on popular resentment toward the political elite, including Fidesz, which it calls corrupt. It has demonized the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which insisted on painful spending cuts as a condition of bailing out Hungary's public finances. And it is media savvy, using the Internet so effectively that its appeal among young people, including college students, surpasses that of any other party except Fidesz. Polls show national support for Jobbik nearing 20 percent among all decided voters. That puts it neck-and-neck with the ruling Socialists, while Fidesz has about 60 percent of the projected vote. Those gains, splitting the right-wing vote as well as stealing votes from the left, have eroded Fidesz's chances of winning the two-thirds majority that would be a platform for the broad reforms that economists say Hungary needs. Hungary has struggled for years to streamline its bloated government sector and trim public expenditure. The spending cuts have brought the budget deficit under control, but most public sector structural reform has lagged behind. The key reform requiring a two-thirds majority is a rationalization of Hungary's 3,200 local governments, which run hospitals and schools and are major drag on the state budget. Fidesz could also attempt a reform of notoriously corrupt party financing.
Decay and despair
In Ozd, the problems besetting Hungary, and especially its Roma, are painfully evident. The collapse of communism after 1989 led to the closure of Ozd's steel plant, the town's number one employer, throwing 14,000 people out of work. Unskilled Roma were laid off first; most have not worked in the 20 years since. Decay and despair in nearby villages drove thousands more to Ozd. Today, one-third of the 39,000 residents are Roma, says Lajos Berki, leader of the Gypsy Community Council. "About 1,000 of us have more or less regular work," Berki said. "The rest live on welfare. There are problems, there is no denying that. A few thousand Gypsies have caused real problems." The Roma shantytown on the outskirts of Ozd, known as Hetes, bustles with activity, but not paid work. Boys play soccer in the dirt outside the dilapidated homes, while adults chop illegally collected firewood or mill about idly. "I'm not fixated on welfare," said Gyula Budai, standing near the only working tap that 500 Roma share. "Take it away, give us work, then you'll see who wants to work and who doesn't."
Prolonged tension
Ozd's Fidesz candidate, Gabor Riz, acknowledged problems in an interview, but refrained from calling them Roma issues. "There are no grounds to fear a Roma-Hungarian ethnic conflict," he said. "But there could be prolonged tension between wage earners and welfare beneficiaries." However, Ozd's Socialist member of parliament, Istvan Toth, says the politicians have been avoiding the issues. "We have sensed the problems, but pretended that they might go away if we don't talk about them," he told Reuters. "We just tried to divide (Roma) along party lines, and now we suddenly realize that ... Jobbik played the Gypsy card." Ozd's Jobbik candidate, Andras Kisgergely, had no problem filling the region's largest theater to capacity with a rally. "For 500 years, Gypsies have not been able to adopt the cultural norms to live in peace with the majority," he told his audience. "Nine out of 10 criminals are Gypsies ... We need to end that. We need to improve public safety, and create jobs. Make them work. We need to tie welfare to community work." The 800 supporters in the room cheered each point wildly. Peter Borbas, a 40 year-old office clerk, was one of them. "We need to talk about Gypsy crime at long last," he said. "People have had enough. No method is too radical to end Gypsy crime."
Reuters
Help The Daily Telegraph trace these models pictured 'endorsing' the BNP's anti-immigration policies
Originally published in the Daily Telegraph. Please support this.
In the next few weeks it’s more than likely that a leaflet carrying this image will appear on your doormat. The BNP have printed tens of thousands ahead of the general election and its activists are now busy stuffing them through letter boxes.
The leaflet, Putting British People First, is less immigrant-obsessed than might be expected from the far-right party. Pledges to reduce crime, EU interference and high taxes sit alongside the “No to Immigration” cry on the front cover, and the party’s promise to bring British troops back from Afghanistan is given prominence.
But the most striking thing about the leaflet is the photo on the reverse: three generations of a smiling, prosperous, attractive family beneath the headline “Why People Like You Voted BNP
The endorsements offered in the accompanying text (Islamification of Britain, declining NHS, British jobs for British workers) appear in quotation marks just millimetres from the heads of the people in the picture. While the quotes are not directly attributed, a casual reader could be forgiven for assuming that the Attractive Family vote BNP.
But, let’s be honest, they don’t look very British. The flawless smiles, schmaltzy pose and sunny perfection of the scene owe more to US corporate photography than British electioneering.
If you have any information, please email matthew.moore@telegraph.co.uk
For the full story Daily Telegraph
Credit: The BNP leaflet image was taken from The Straight Choice website, which allows voters across Britain to upload election pamphlets to aid monitoring of parties’ claims and promises.
The leaflet, Putting British People First, is less immigrant-obsessed than might be expected from the far-right party. Pledges to reduce crime, EU interference and high taxes sit alongside the “No to Immigration” cry on the front cover, and the party’s promise to bring British troops back from Afghanistan is given prominence.
But the most striking thing about the leaflet is the photo on the reverse: three generations of a smiling, prosperous, attractive family beneath the headline “Why People Like You Voted BNP
The endorsements offered in the accompanying text (Islamification of Britain, declining NHS, British jobs for British workers) appear in quotation marks just millimetres from the heads of the people in the picture. While the quotes are not directly attributed, a casual reader could be forgiven for assuming that the Attractive Family vote BNP.
But, let’s be honest, they don’t look very British. The flawless smiles, schmaltzy pose and sunny perfection of the scene owe more to US corporate photography than British electioneering.
If you have any information, please email matthew.moore@telegraph.co.uk
For the full story Daily Telegraph
Credit: The BNP leaflet image was taken from The Straight Choice website, which allows voters across Britain to upload election pamphlets to aid monitoring of parties’ claims and promises.
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