Setting the record straight

The BNP have responded to this site by claiming that it is associated with the far-left and Hope Not Hate and inferring that one or two local councillors are involved in Epping Forest BNP Watch as part of a smear campaign.

So, we are setting the record straight. The two (and a half) authors of this blog are not councillors and in fact have never communicated, by email, phone, directly or through the powers of telepathy with Independent Loughton Councillor Stephen Murray. Nor has this anything to do with Hope Not Hate and although we broadly support that campaign, we have differences - in particular, we think that the No Platform policy is counter-productive, and have stated this. The BNP will probably dispute this, but frankly who cares what they say? Their minds are addled with such bizarre conspiracy theories that they may think this is a ZOG operation to mogrelise the white race (that is the default ideological position on planet BNP).

Who are we? We are certainly not loony lefties - far from it, in fact. We are simply a couple of local residents who got sick of BNP lies and hate-mongering and decided to re-register the Epping Forest BNP's blog and use it against them. Like most British people, we are politically moderate, tolerant people who like to live in a vibrant, diverse and peaceful society with people choosing to live the life they want, free of fear.

Initially, we wanted to correct some of the lies their old blog said about our community, namely that there are gangs of violent black kids at Davenant Foundation School (one of the blog's authors has a child at Davenant and is particularly upset at Councillor Rod Law's outrageous claims that the school has gone downhill because of its relatively large ethnic minority intake - in fact, it is one of the best performing in Essex). Another BNP lie to challenge was that most crime in the town was committed by black and Asian students at Epping Forest College. The college may have a bad reputation for its educational standards, but the police have confirmed that it is not a major source of criminality. But these lies are now threatening the future of Debden's library and BNP councillors could not care less. We have also witnessed racist incidents in Loughton and then discovered, to our horror, local racists (possibly connected to the BNP) celebrating attacks on black and Asian people on the neo-Nazi Stormfront website.

Then it became clear that the BNP was intent on running a vindictive and highly personalised campaign against certain local councillors, in particular Rose Brookes (who is not involved in this blog, whatever the BNP may claim) and, to a lesser extent, Stephen Murray. There have also been some insinuations about other councillors, including the mayor of Loughton. The line was truly over-stepped by the atrocious hate attacks on Councillor Brookes, who was traduced as some kind of communist insurgent.

We're now, without any involvement of any political party or councillor, answering this back with a bit of truth-telling about BNP candidates - the obnoxious and arrogant Rod Law who associates with criminals is behind a lot of the BNP's lies, the long-term fascist Walter Mitty character Peter Turpin, the BNP election supremo Eddy Butler who cut his teeth defending "rights for whites" with "well-directed boots and fists" in Millwall, the former BNP London mayor candidate Julian Leppert who finds it hard to suppress his nasty racist opinions, and local BNP leader Pat Richardson, who cavorts with American white supremacists. Then there are the hangers-on, the terminally daft Sue Clapp and the short-tempered, poorly read but well-meaning Garry Martin.

Most BNP voters are, in our experience, ignorant of the facts about the BNP. Most are not racist and certainly would not sign up to its white supremacist ideology. Even some BNP members are deluded and disillusioned, rather than fundamentally bad people. So we are giving them the facts. We are going through the backgrounds of every BNP councillor and candidate and exposing them for what they are. We don't terrorise people, we condemn any violence or threat of violence against any BNP member, whoever they are. And if any member or supporter of the BNP changes their mind, then that's great.

The BNP fights dirty, but for too long local politicians have cowered and sought a civilised exchange, perhaps believing the BNP can be tamed or will at some point fade away. But we won't turn the other cheek. Remember Newton's Law of Motion: "For every force, there is an equal and opposite reaction." It applies to political activism as well.

The BNP can choose to rise above this at any point and stop its poisonous propaganda. It can choose to stop attacking black children and young people in its propaganda. It can choose to stop seeking to blame Muslims in our community for the actions of Islamic extremists elsewhere. It can choose to stop its unfounded personal attacks on elected councillors. But then, without all this nastiness, it would cease to be the BNP!

That's why we will remain relentless and ruthless in exposing the BNP for what it is: a fascist and racist organisation that seeks to divide our community along racial, confessional and class lines. And there is more to come. Much more. It's the fight-back of a couple of people from the silent majority, the 90%+ people who will not vote BNP on June 4th or at any other time in the future and who abhor racism and fascism.