BNP vandalism in Loughton and Waltham Abbey

Local residents have condemned the BNP's practice of vandalism, which involves plastering BNP stickers and signs over lamp posts and bus shelters.

The BNP is guilty of hypocrisy, according to residents. While BNP councillors complain about vandalism, their party activists have been fly-posting the area over election time.

Lesley Lewis, 47, of Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey, told Epping Forest Guardian: “I first saw them when I opened the bedroom curtains and there was one staring straight into our windows.

“They were pinned up all over Honey Lane. Then when I went into town they were on every set of lampposts and bus-stop you could possibly imagine.”

Mrs Lewis contacted the district council who sent a lorry to remove the posters.

She said: “Their election leaflet said ‘we’re not in it for the money’ but they’re causing public money to be used to clear this up. Who did they think was going to clear it up?"

Loughton mayor Ken Angold-Stephens said: “They have incurred quite a lot of costs in removing them. They were up so high they had to use a ladder to remove them. It’s an illegal act and irresponsible.

“I’m a bit concerned they did break the law against fly-posting, and it’s a law which they proport to strongly support. They’ve been very strong in trying to clampdown on litter, graffiti and fly-posting.”

Local BNP leader Pat Richardson denies that it had anything to do with her party and blamed it on people trying to bring the party into disrepute, although it is unclear how opponents of the BNP would manage to get their hands on dozens of BNP signs and hundreds of party stickers. The problem of BNP vandalism has been ongoing for months. One comment on their website on 2 April, which was left unanswered by Councillor Peter Turpin, said: "Can you stop BNP supporters from sticking BNP stickers on bus stops and other places? In my mind it is as bad as graffiti."

The BNP don't like people removing their stickers either. Sometimes they conceal razor blades underneath the stickers. And notorious BNP thug Tony Lecomber was sentenced to three years imprisonment for unlawful wounding for his part in an attack on a Jewish schoolteacher whom he caught trying to peel off a BNP sticker at an underground station.

Epping Forest District Council has the power to take action against the BNP under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The cost of cleaning up fly-posting and defacement can be charged to the BNP. Government guidance states that:

Under section 224 TCPA 1990 it is immediately an offence to display an advertisement in contravention of regulations made under section 220 TCPA 1990, and a person found guilty of this offence may be fined up to level 4 (currently £2,500) in a magistrates’ court, with the possibility of further daily fines of up to one tenth of that level for each subsequent day in the case of a continuing offence. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 has amended the defence in section 224 so that someone upon whose land an unlawful advertisement is displayed or whose goods or business was the subject of such an advertisement and charged with the offence of displaying an illegal advertisement has to prove either that the advertisement was displayed without his knowledge; or that he took all reasonable steps to prevent the display, or subsequently, to secure its removal. This makes it more difficult for the beneficiaries of fly-posting to avoid prosecution simply by claiming that they never consented to the advertisement.

Hopefully, Epping Forest District Council will be billing Councillor Richardson for the damage her activists have done - something that no other party has indulged in. Why is it that BNP activists just can't stop breaking the law?

More people voted for Diversity than BNP

The BNP may well be celebrating winning the two seats it narrowly missed out on in 2004, with a small increase in its share of vote - although in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber its number of votes actually fell.

But in the East of England, there was no sign of any breakthrough. The BNP secured an unimpressive 1.7 percentage point rise in its vote, which was the equivalent of less than a third of the drop in Labour support. By far the biggest winners of the electoral backlash against the mainstream were the Greens, who increased their share of the vote by nearly twice the level achieved by the BNP, taking well over half of the share of disillusioned Labour and Liberal Democrat voters. UKIP held its own and the Conservatives reported a modest rise in their already dominant position.

Of the 4.2 million people eligible to vote in the East of England, just over 2% bothered to come out and put their cross by the BNP in an election that had a turnout of under 38%. Nick Griffin had put the average BNP vote at 9.8% in the European constituency, but his party's share of the vote was more than a third less than his prediction. Far from heralding the dawn of a new era of white supremacy, the elections demonstrated that the BNP remains a fringe party with little active support among the wider population.

And here is a fact the BNP will find hard to swallow: The mixed-race street dance act Diversity won over one million votes in Britain's Got Talent just days before the election, while the BNP won just under 944,000 votes!

At a local level, in Epping Forest, the BNP poll 10% of the total vote, which was well above the national average. But there were signs that the BNP's vote is faltering. Compared to the district council elections held last year, the BNP's proportion of the vote has diminished, particularly in Loughton Central. This should worry the BNP, although they will not say this publicly. The BNP lost both its district seats in the Loughton Central division in 2008 amid a surge in support for the Loughton Residents Association. With the LRA strengthening its voter further in 2009 at the BNP's expense, Rod Law and Peter Turpin are likely to see their political careers some to an end next May with the LRA taking their seats.

At the same time, BNP election supremo Eddy Butler was unable to push the vote up in Broadway as the Labour vote actually held up and maintained its second place ranking. Having leafletted Broadway and taken up a number of local issues there, the LRA looks set to move onto the BNP's Broadway territory and deal it a major blow next year. With the district elections likely to be held concurrently with a general election, the BNP could see their group reduced to one single councillor - Pat Richardson.

While there was a significant rise in BNP support in the Waltham Abbey and North Weald divisions - mainly due to the LibDem's failure to put up a serious fight - it is unlikely that they will have a chance to break Conservative dominance. The Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district by-election demonstrated the impossible task of winning a seat outside Debden. Despite a decline in their vote, the Conservatives still secured twice the BNP's vote and the BNP could not even achieve the share of vote they received in the 2007 by-election in the ward, when they came within a whisker of winning the seat.

In short, the BNP is facing a wipe-out in Epping Forest.

Mixed results for BNP in Epping Forest

The BNP had mixed results in Epping Forest, with a notable westward shift in the party's vote that was encouraged in large part over anxiety it exploited over the proposed development of permanent Gypsy settlements.

However, there was no spectacular breakthrough and the BNP did not come close to winning a county seat in the district, despite an upturn in its vote in Waltham Abbey and North Weald where it came second. In fact, the BNP's Loughton strongholds now look distinctly vulnerable with its vote in Loughton Central down sharply over its performance in 2008, when it lost two seats it was defending in the county division.

The party's performance in the Chigwell and Loughton Broadway division, which includes its Broadway stronghold, saw a small increase in the BNP's share of the vote over 2008 district results. This must have been a disappointment to candidate Eddy Butler, who serves as the BNP's national organiser and is its lead candidate for the East of England constituency in the European Parliament elections.

Meanwhile, Sue Clapp, BNP councillor for Loughton Broadway, recorded a predictably dismal performance in Saffron Walden, where she had been exiled after being considered too much of a liability to run in Epping Forest district. Clapp trailed the Labour party in last place with 5.1% of the vote; the seat was won by the incumbent Conservative councillor.

Nevertheless, the BNP has held its level of support. But it has not achieved a major breakthrough and did not win a county seat in what is supposed to be its stronghold in Essex. The party also did not come anywhere near winning the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council seat in spite of previous electoral success in the ward.

Overall, the elections were characterised by a collapse in support for the Labour party and continued Conservative dominance in five of seven seats in the district; the Loughton Residents Association consolidated its strong lead in Loughton Central and the Liberal Democrats regained control of Epping and Theydon Bois.

The Conservative vote was hit by the scandal surrounding MP Eleanor Laing's expenses, which led to an average 10 percentage point drop over 2008. The Liberal Democrats also concentrated their resources into two target wards, one that they won and the other - Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South - they secured a small increase in their vote in the swing away from the Conservatives. The BNP had to share the protest vote against the mainstream parties with the Greens, UKIP, the English Democrats and the LRA. But only the Greens were able to improve their vote significantly in all seven county divisions, suggesting that the BNP does not have the monopoly on the backlash against the mainstream locally.

Epping Forest BNP Watch gives its assessment of the electoral performance of the BNP in Epping Forest.

Loughton Central was easily defended by the town's current mayor, the LRA's Chris Pond, with a staggering 55% of the vote. At the same time, former LRA councillor Mitch Cohen failed to reverse the Conservatives' continuing decline in vote share, which dipped below 20% for the first time. The Conservatives' poor performance was a surprise to many who regarded Cohen as a popular local councillor. The BNP's vote in Loughton Central also fell sharply, with its vote now at the lowest level for four years. BNP candidate Rod Law presided over a massive 40%+ decline in the party's vote share. The BNP had always regarded Loughton born and raised Rod Law as a popular local, but he fared far worse than relative newcomers such as Eddy Butler and Julian Leppert. In part this is due to Law's poor image, having a bad reputation for being aggressive and openly racist. But the LRA's ability to demonstrate that it can get things done, while the BNP merely complains from the sidelines, has helped fuel its support at the BNP's expense. The situation does not bode well for the BNP's hopes of defending its marginal Alderton and Fairmead wards - two of the four wards that form the Loughton Central county division - in the 2010 district council elections. Based on the county results and the likelihood that the district elections will be held concurrently with a general election, the odds are stacked against the BNP and we predict it will lose these wards.

The BNP managed to hold up its vote share in the Chigwell and Loughton Broadway ward, but one notable surprise was an overall swing from Conservative to Labour when compared to the combined 2008 district council ward results for the division. It is likely that voters are generally more positive about the Conservatives at a district level than at a county level, although the controversy caused by the redevelopment of the Broadway shopping centre may have had a negative impact on the Conservative vote in the Loughton Broadway part of the division.

Labour came an unexpected second in the ward, with the BNP edging just ahead of the Liberal Democrats to secure third place, up from fourth in 2005. Labour managed to go from fourth place in 2008 to second, thereby bucking the county and national trend. Nevertheless, the BNP improved its position from 2008, with its share of the vote up by 1.7 percentage points, a 16% increase in vote share. While Butler is not free of controversy, as we have noted before he is a highly astute politician and this is why he is able to bolster the BNP vote while Rod Law sheds votes.

As we predicted, the BNP came second place in Waltham Abbey as the Liberal Democrat vote plummeted. With group leader Pat Richardson put forward as their candidate, the BNP has significantly strengthened its position in Waltham Abbey, which could be a secondary or alternative power base for the party outside its three Debden wards in Loughton: Fairmead, Alderton and Broadway. With the party in retreat in Debden, Waltham Abbey represents its best chance of shoring up its position in the district council.

However, while it has improved its position over the county division, the by-election in the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council ward showed no major progress for the party. We had been expecting a tighter race, but the Conservatives achieved twice the vote the BNP managed, despite the extremist party's second place. The Liberal Democrats ran a lacklustre campaign and lost votes, which the BNP capitalised on. Yet, the BNP was unable to repeat the performance of the 2007 by-election, when it came a very close second when Conservative voters stayed at home. It also only secured a four percentage point increase in its vote over 2008 results for the district wards in the division. Having come second, the BNP still remains a threat in Waltham Abbey and the results suggest it may have more support in the Waltham Abbey Paternoster ward

The BNP did not make any headway in Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South division or the Epping and Theydon Bois divisions, where the Liberal Democrats ran a strong campaign. In the former, the BNP have little presence with the vote at little more than 5%, while in the latter the BNP vote share fell. In Ongar and Rural division, Councillor Peter Turpin did poorly and worse than we expected with 8.5% of the vote. However, North Weald was a breakthrough for the BNP in the district, with former London mayoral candidate coming second on the back of public anger over travellers' sites that the BNP felt able to capitalise on. Consequently, the losses and stagnation in some divisions was outweighed by gains in others. Overall, the BNP held its own with 10% of the vote district-wide.

European elections

If repeated across the East of England at the European elections, the BNP has an outside chance of winning a seat in the East of England. The BNP itself has predicted that it will not make the threshold for a seat in the Euro constituency, although its own number-crunching suggests up to four seats nationwide: East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside and North West England. But despite a good showing in urban areas of Essex and Hertfordshire, where its vote varied between 5-15%, the rural counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are likely to see the protest vote swing to the Greens and UKIP.

The Green party fared exceptionally well in these counties where it stood. While the BNP won just one seat in the entire region in Hertfordshire, the Greens managed to notch up 11 seats and UKIP won two seats, despite being primarily focused on Europe rather than local issues. But it is unclear whether the Greens did enough to win a seat and head of a challenge from the BNP. No doubt people voted differently in the local and European elections and it is impossible to make any educated guess in a close-fought campaign by minor parties for the seventh seat in the East of England. We will know for certain when the results are announced tomorrow.

BNP: A party without policies or vision for Essex

The BNP is contesting all 75 wards at the Essex County Council elections, but has failed to produce a manifesto or outline a single policy for the county. Instead, they have rolled out a national local election manifesto without any specifics for Essex, the problems it faces in a challenging economic environment and the solutions on offer. The generalised manifesto is, unsurprisingly for a racist party, devoted to immigration issues over which local authorities have no control. This is an insult to the electorate and shows that the BNP offers no solutions to the economic downturn in Essex, no vision for local government and no interest in democratic politics.

In contrast to the BNP, all parties contesting wards in Epping Forest district have published comprehensive Essex manifestos to win the support of local voters, even the minor parties like the Green Party and the Loughton Residents Association. For all the malaise in politics at the present time, the BNP have shown they have no interest in your opinion or in the future of Essex. All they have done is march around with the Essex flag - upside down!

So that you, the voter, can make an informed choice, we have listed the manifesto highlights for all parties contesting in the local elections, in alphabetical order.

In the mean time, keep watching this space for new insights into Epping Forest BNP ...!

Conservatives
Manifesto: A Record of Action. A Promise for More

• Keeping Council tax rises below inflation
• Concessionary fares for 14-19 year olds in full time education
• Developing over a thousand apprenticeships across Essex
• Helping local businesses benefit from our groundbreaking Bank of Essex
• £100 million investment in vocational skills training
• Recycling to reach 60% by 2020
• £200 million of tax payers money to be saved through streamlining processes and slashing bureaucracy
• Expansion of popular schools
• Leading the campaign to establish a sustainable and fair social care system in the UK

Green Party
Manifesto for 2009

• The Greens work with others to raise standards in Social Services and Children's Services. There needs to be better integration with NHS services, particularly for continuing care for the elderly.
• Green Councillors will work to improve provision for elderly care, both residential and at home.
  
• Greens oppose further privatisation in public services, especially expensive PFI schemes that cost the taxpayer far more than equivalent public funded projects and unfairly benefit shareholders of private companies at public expense.
• Green Councillors will work to improve library services. There needs to be improved integration with other public information services ie "one stop shops".
• Greens will strongly oppose closure of local fire stations.
• Greens will oppose more development on sports fields.
• Greens will support better youth activities to help cut anti-social behaviour.

Labour
Manifesto: Save Essex County Council

• More resources for footpath/pavement repairs
• More resources for pothole repairs on roads in our towns and villages
• Major investment in our libraries, including substantial new money into the book fund
• Substantial investment into children’s and adult care services
• Greater support for public transport
• To raise standards in our schools
• Reversal of the damaging Tory waste policy
• Huge reduction in consultancy costs
  

Liberal Democrats
Manifesto: Make it Happen

• Proper maintenance of our roads all year round - not just at election time
• Cut the extra cash allowances given to most Conservative county councillors. Invest more in care for the elderly and disabled
• Cut the County Council's massive £200 million in reserves. Give tax-payers their money back.
• Cut the County Council's £5 million per year propaganda budget. Invest in youth services.
• Stop the County Council gambling £50 million of your money on the Bank of Essex. Help businesses create more jobs in Essex.
• Stop chasing headlines. Provide good quality, good value public services.

Loughton Residents Association
Manifesto: An independent voice for Loughton, free of party political interests

• Getting the Debden bus stops back to original position.
• Getting new bus stops to serve College on Borders Lane.
• Pressing for renewal of the pavement near Morrison's.
• A major scheme of resurfacing estate roads in Loughton and Debden.
• Some recognition that Loughton is hilly and its local roads gritting and salting.
• Stopping the absurd idea of switching off all street lights at midnight.
• Getting the High Road enhancement finished. The Conservative-run District Council have washed their hands of it so pressure on ECC has to be maintained.
• Urging action to tackle the failings at Epping Forest College.
  

Councillor Rod Law and his Drug-Dealing Friend

BNP district councillor Rod Law, who is contesting the Loughton Central seat in the Essex County Council elections, is pictured here (circled in pink) with convicted Oldham drug dealer John 'Jock' Shearer (circled in orange), also known as 'John the Mong' by some in the party.

BNP hardliner Rod Law is close friends with the football hooligan turned drug dealer, who once served as party leader Nick Griffin's security chief but quit in one of the BNP's many internal bust-ups. Shearer is just one of many criminals involved in the BNP.

On Facebook, where the picture was uploaded, Law and Shearer engage in hate-fests against black people, Muslims and 'reds', some of the main targets of far-right propagandists. Law also displays his admiration for dead Austrian neo-Nazi Joerg Haider, who praised the policies of Adolf Hitler and played down the persecution of Jews. He also states on the social networking site that he is a fan of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the antisemitic leader of France's National Front. Le Pen has said that the Nazi Holocaust was a 'minor detail' and claims that his opponents are part of a Jewish conspiracy. In January 2007, Law attended a conference in London where he sat through anti-Jewish tirades from a close confidante of the Holocaust denier David Irving and from one of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Britain.

Rod Law (circled in pink, and pictured as part of the BNP 'security team' accompanying Mark 'Young, Nazi and Proud' Collett and party leader Nick Griffin) was expelled from the RMT union in 2006 for threating the General Secretary. As a district councillor, Rod Law has used his position to oppose the creation of a multi-faith group to bring together Christians of all denominations, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and others.

He spends most of his time scaremongering about crime committed by “inner city youths”, although local police have stated that the vast majority of crime is committed by local residents. On one occasion he claimed that Davenant Foundation School, a Christian ecumenical school, was the source of gang violence in Debden due to the relatively high proportion of black pupils. In an attempt to smear the school, he claimed it had been in decline for years due to 'inner-city youths' - a BNP euphemism for black students. Far from "going downhill", it has some of the best GCSE results in Essex and OFSTED has judged it "outstanding" in almost all areas. Desperate to win support for racial segregation and the expulsion of non-white people from Britain, Rod Law turned on schoolchildren and is fighting playground brawls. Waging war on schoolkids - how low can he go?

Loughton Central profile

In recent years, the BNP has displaced Labour as the third largest party in the Loughton Central ward, although it has only had a major presence in two of the four district wards that comprise the county ward - Alderton, Fairmead, St John's and St Mary's. Rod Law one of the two district councillors for Alderton. The BNP lost the other Alderton seat in 2008, when it was won by the Loughton Residents Association. The LRA also won the Fairmead ward, also a former BNP stronghold. In the two other district wards that make up Loughton Central, the competition is between the LRA and the Conservatives, with the BNP failing to make any headway in these seats.

The seat is being defended by the LRA incumbent Chris Pond, who is currently also mayor of Loughton. The LRA has improved its electoral standing in the county ward and in 2008 got a combined vote of 50.7% in the district council wards in Loughton Central, up from 35.2% in the 2005 county council elections. Meanwhile, the Conservatives saw their vote fall from 28.0% to 22.3% and Labour has plunged from 17.2% to 6.7%. The BNP vote has rallied from 9.9% to 17.5%, largely on the back of Labour defections.

To be certain of winning Loughton Central, Rod Law would have to increase the BNP vote by 200% over the level achieved in 2008. This is an almost impossible task, especially if he is planning to rely on remaining disillusioned Labour voters. The best Rod Law can hope for is second place. But the Conservatives have put up the popular ex-LRA councillor Mitch Cohen for the seat, which could see them claw back some of the ground they lost in the district elections. Nevertheless, if the BNP comes second, it would significantly strengthen Rod Law's position. Given his association with the ex-con Jock Shearer, it's a scenario that Loughton residents should fear.

Clapped out! Credit where it's not due.

Susan Clapp, Loughton's most unremarkable BNP councillor, is attempting to take credit where none is due in order to rescue her flagging reputation.

Ms Clapp has heralded the recent resurfacing of Jessel Drive as the result of her appeals, just "a few weeks" after she complained. The resurfacing had been planned months in advance, according to the West Essex office of Essex Highways. It had nothing to do with Clapp's supposed appeal. In fact, other parties had long been campaigning against pot holes. The local county councillors - the Loughton Residents Association's Chris Pond and the Conservative party's Michael Tomkins - have been praised by residents for putting consistent pressure on County Hall to repair roads in Debden, while the Liberal Democrats have made it a high priority and launched petitions. The BNP's contribution was precisely zilch.

Susan Clapp came rather late on and probably only to defend her position as local BNP members consider whether to ditch her in favour of Julian Leppert for the 2010 district council elections. By claiming she was responsible for road repairs that were already planned, Ms Clapp perhaps is trying to make a point, having failed to impress anyone with her lacklustre performance in the council chamber. Even her own party recognises Ms Clapp is truly clapped out.

BNP badly damaged in Epping Forest election campaign

A bulletin from Redbridge and Epping Forest Together, published on 3 June 2008 - taken from the Stop the BNP website

The Epping Forest Branch of the British National Party were licking their wounds after losing two of the three District Council seats they fought for the elections on 1 May. Their council group leader, Patricia Richardson, known far and wide as the BNP's Jewish collaborator, only retained a seat on the council after a last-minute shift to a different ward.

Rose Brookes, a popular local figure who has previously served as a councillor, won the Loughton Alderton seat for Loughton Residents Association, with a large lead over the BNP. In a by-election last summer the BNP candidate had defeated her by only 26 votes.

Rejoining Loughton Town Council was the Labour Party veteran Tom Owen. The BNP, standing for Loughton Town Council for the first time, took five seats, far fewer than they had hoped to win.

A week before the election the BNP councillors had shot themselves in the foot by condemning a new multi-faith forum that has been set up in the district. For once the Epping Forest Guardian, noted for its partial support for the BNP and its councillors, was stung into running the headline "BNP 'shame'of faith forum snub".

Local residents were able to listen to the BNP's nastiness and ignorance as Epping Forest District Council broadcasts council meetings live on the internet. BNP councillor Rod Law, one of three BNP councillors present (the other three of what were then six BNP councillors were absent), speaking against a motion noting the forum's formation said: "Forums like these are an absolute waste of resources for the council and are only put together to promote diversity and multiculturalism which we feel is absolutely detrimental to the very fabric of society". Cllr Pat Richardson claimed councillors were being "brow beaten into accepting the concept that the public purse, the taxpayer, has to fund this".

Deputy council leader Chris Whitbread pointed out that the council was not paying for the forum. He accused the BNP of doing nothing for Loughton, disappearing when the council discusses the needs of the community and turning up only to "talk about dividing our community". He continued: "You are a disgrace to this council and you are a disgrace to our community".

Several other councillors, who clearly have the measure of these extremists, stood up to condemn the BNP's "disgraceful" and "disgusting" comments and emphasised the importance of everyone working together as a community.

It has now become clear that the BNP believe religious groups are all part of a big conspiracy against them. The churches in Epping and beyond have gone out of the their way to attack the BNP and what it stands for and they have been joined by other faiths, the Searchlight/Hope not hate campaign and Redbridge and Epping Forest Together.

REFT makes no excuses for this. For once the BNP have got it right: most people do not like
them. The Epping Forest Guardian soon reverted to type with a front page picture of Cllr Richardson and no proper coverage of the election of Rose Brookes and Tom Owen.

Over in Redbridge BNP Cllr Julian Leppert was running true to form by opposing a residents' campaign to keep open Seven Kings swimming pool, claiming that Seven Kings is like the Third World. We are not sure how he would know as no sooner had he won his seat in Hainault ward he packed his bags and moved to Loughton to be close to the rest of the BNP's motley crew.

On Redbridge Council, harsh words were exchanged between Cllr Harold Moth, a Conservative councillor for Hainault, and council leader Alan Weinberg. Moth was ordered out of a meeting after he labelled Weinberg “a covert member of the BNP”. Weinberg reacted furiously saying, “How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party?”, at which Leppert insisted Weinberg withdraw his remark. Weinberg refused saying: “The BNP are an extreme right wing party with Nazi views and I will not withdraw the comment”.

The BNP have reported Cllr Weinberg to the Standards Board for England, which three years ago ruled on a BNP complaint against the former Epping Forest Liberal Democrat councillor Gavin Stollar that calling the BNP nazi was “within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate”.

On that occasion the BNP had again used Richardson's Jewishness as the excuse for the complaint, claiming that calling the BNP nazi would hurt her feelings. Surprisingly her feelings do not seem to be hurt by the fact that Tony Lecomber, who has mentored her since she joined the BNP, once served a prison sentence for assaulting a young Jewish teacher.

Cllr Weinberg intends not only to defend his name as both a councillor and a Jew but to expose the national socialist nature of the BNP to the world. REFT and others are more than happy to assist him in this admirable endeavour.

While Cllr Leppert has managed to keep his trap shut over this matter, the same is not true for Jason Douglas, the well known twice-convicted football hooligan and the BNP's organiser for Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Havering. His letter to the Ilford Recorder, which appeared under the heading "It's time to get facts straight", said:

"With reference to Cllr Moth's 'covert member of the BNP' and Cllr Weinberg's 'How can you accuse a Jew of being a member of the Nazi party' comments at the Redbridge council meeting, doesn't Cllr Weinberg know about the BNP?

"Since Nick Griffin became leader, he has turned the party into an election winner, where
its policies have the support of many London voters.

"Epping Forest District councillor, Pat Richardson - who happens to be Jewish - heads the BNP group on the council.

"The BNP stands for the forgotten voice in multi-racial Britain."

This is yet another BNP attempt to make use of Richardson's Jewishness. Douglas should stick to driving his London taxi and try putting his brain into gear before opening his gob. Richardson's opposition to the Epping Forest multi-faith forum just shows her contempt for any religion.