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.

The outcome depends on YOU!

In recent weeks, Epping Forest BNP Watch has examined the BNP's prospects in Epping Forest and the candidates it is putting forward for election to Essex County Council. We have shown that the BNP has no manifesto for Essex and no vision for the county and the ineptitude and dubious backgrounds of some of their candidates.

Here are our guides to the wards up for election:
- Waltham Abbey, contested by Pat Richardson
- Loughton Central, contested by Rod Law
- Ongar and Rural, contested by Peter Turpin
- Chigwell and Loughton Broadway, contested by Eddy Butler

According to reports from canvassers from different parties, the BNP vote is negligible in Epping, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Ongar and the smaller villages; we don't have any reports on North Weald. Where the situation is less certain is in Loughton Broadway and Waltham Abbey. If the BNP gets out its supporters in these wards, it stands a good chance of coming second and, in the case of Waltham Abbey, a close second. As Loughton Broadway is lumped together with solid Conservative Chigwell, the vote there will not change the outcome, which is widely believed to be in the favour of the Tory incumbent.

There are number of factors that will determine the outcome. The 'Laing Factor', with the expenses furore surrounding local MP Eleanor Laing likely to keep Conservatives at home or prompt them to vote for other parties. The competition for these votes will come from the BNP, the Liberal Democrats and, in the case of Loughton South and Buckhurst Hill, the UK Independence Party. At the same time, it is almost inevitable that the Labour vote will fall if not collapse. This could benefit the Liberal Democrats, the BNP and the Greens. Loughton Central is the oddity in the district, being represented by the Loughton Residents Association with the main challenger being a popular LRA defector to the Conservatives. Despite its relatively strong (yet recently declining) vote in two of the district wards that comprise Loughton Central (Alderton and Fairmead), the BNP will find it hard to break into second place amid the competition between the two main competitors.

However, the Liberal Democrats and the BNP are not actively competing for the same votes. Both parties are concentrating their resources in different wards. The Liberals are seeking to win back Loughton South/Buckhurst Hill and Epping/Theydon Bois, while the BNP has focused its efforts on Waltham Abbey, where it has secured a 20-30% vote share in recent years, and keeping up the BNP vote in the three Debden wards - Broadway, Alderton and Fairmead, where it has secured 30-40% of the vote in the past. Neither party wants to stretch their resources too thinly. Consequently, the BNP could pick up the votes of disillusioned voters that could have been swayed to vote Liberal Democrats if they had actively and fully campaigned for these wards.

While the odds are still stacked against the BNP winning the county seat, the by-election for the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council seat could provide the BNP with a surprise win and recover the ground it lost in the 2008 elections when its council group lost two of its six councillors. A win in this seat would also mark the BNP's advance outside its Debden stronghold and the creation of a new power base in the district. The by-election is marked by uncertainties and conflicting reports, which make it too close to call. A lot will depend on turn-out.

Epping Forest BNP Watch urges everyone who opposes racism and neo-Nazi politics to come out and vote, but also to bear in mind how they vote and the impact this could have on our community.

Loughton churches unite against BNP

Loughton Churches Together has leafleted the town in an effort to beat back the BNP.

In a carefully worded letter to local residents, the multi-denominational group that includes all Christian churches encouraged people to vote in the county council and European elections, but warned against the consequences of supporting racist parties.

It said: "We understand that many feel disillusioned with politics with all the current publicity. However, not voting leaves a potentiall dangerous void. This highlights the need for us to vote with care and consideration."

While the group said it did not support any particular party, it gave a strong indication that voters should shun the BNP. The leaflet stated: "We are united in our belief in equality and stand against all racial prejudice longing for messages that unite everone in our community."

It also published the results of the previous county council and European elections. In Epping Forest district, the BNP secured 7.5% of the vote, coming fifth in the poll. Although the BNP regards the district as a stronghold, if the level had been achieved across the European constituency it still would have been well short of a victory. However, it was still way above the 4.3% the party secured regionally.

The Churches Together is a wake-up call for non-voters. If you fail to vote, you could end up being represented by a neo-Nazi party that will embarrass the country at an international level.

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.
  

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.

BNP's Waltham Abbey bid

Local anti-fascist activists will be on the streets of Waltham Abbey over the next few days, campaigning to ensure that the BNP's bid for the Waltham Abbey Honey Lane district council ward is beaten back.

The ward is the BNP's main target in Epping Forest district, outside its Loughton stronghold where it currently has four councillors, having lost two to the Loughton Residents Association last year. A by-election is being held following the resignation of Conservative councillor Jimmy Demetriou, who quit under a cloud after repeated disputes with his own party.


The Honey Lane ward is traditionally a safe Conservative seat, but a by-election held in 2007 saw the BNP come a close second with 28.5% of the vote and just 18 votes behind the Conservative candidate. Although it was beaten back into third place last year with its vote falling to 21.3%, the BNP threat remains.

The BNP clearly believes it has a good chance of victory, having driven its "truth truck" throught the ward earlier this month. Its election campaign is heavily reliant on stirring up communal tensions and racial hatred over government plans for gypsy sites nearby.

The main risk factor is a low turn-out, which is the reason why the party nearly seized the seat in the 2007 by-election when Conservative voters stayed at home. This will be mitigated by the county and European elections, which will take place on the same day. But local activists want to ensure a clear defeat for the BNP in Honey Lane, preferably keeping it in third place.

The BNP is putting up Tony Frankland, who lost his district council seat last year. Frankland was, however, able to win a seat on Loughton Town Council representing Alderton ward. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour are also contesting the seat.

For the Waltham Abbey county seat, the BNP has put up Councillor Pat Richardson, who represents Loughton Broadway on the district council. In 2008, for the district wards that comprise Waltham Abbey, the BNP came third with 8.4% of the vote. However, it only contested the Honey Lane ward and could increase its proportion of the vote at a county level. In the 2007 district elections the BNP secured vote shares of 20% in Honey Lane and 33% in Paternoster.

With the BNP's vote at a high level in the two of the five wards it has contested in Waltham Abbey, a strong challenge by anti-fascists is essential to defeating the extremists. The Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties are also putting up candidates for Waltham Abbey's county seat. In 2005, the ward was easily won by the Conservatives with 56.6% of the vote, followed by Labour on 24.2%, the Liberal Democrats on 14.3% and the Greens on 4.8%; the BNP did not contest the seat.


If you are interested in getting involved with local anti-fascist activism in Waltham Abbey, contact Redbridge and Epping Forest Together: RandETogether(a)aol.com

Rod Law defies BNP National Organiser over Facebook controversy

Loughton BNP councillor Rod Law has defied orders by the party's National Organiser Eddy Butler that "all responsible officers, councillors and candidates, particularly those more in the public eye, should immediately shut down their Facebook accounts."

The call came after Epping Forest BNP Watch exposed Law's association with convicted drug dealer Jock Shearer, based on information published on his Facebook profile. Law has remained defiant, apparently enraged by the revelations.

It is no secret that Law has little respect for Butler, who he has nicknamed "Eddy Bottler" for his supposed 'soft' handling of the media. Butler is the BNP's lead candidate for the Eastern Region in the European elections as well as its county council candidate for Chigwell and Loughton Broadway, which contains the party's Broadway ward stronghold. He is a veteran BNP campaigner, active in the party back in the days when the party openly stated that its policy was to "defend rights for whites with well-directed boots and fists."

Butler has been instrumental in creating a thin veneer of respectability over a neo-fascist party that has more than its fair share of ex-cons like Shearer. The upstart Law only tolerates this public relations exercise and one gets the impression he'd prefer more "boots and fists" activism, with the support of thugs like Shearer.

Other BNP activists have been exposed for the violent racial hatred they have expressed on Facebook. BNP candidate Eddy O'Sullivan wrote on his Facebook account "W**s go home" and "They are nice people 'oh yeah' but can they not be nice people in the f**king Congo or . . . bongo land or whatever?" The BNP has pledged disciplinary action against him, but such racist sentiments are commonly expressed in party circles and, like O'Sullivan, most activists have no problem with making offensive comments about black people.

Peter Turpin's Bling Medal

BNP Councillor and disgraced ex-policeman Peter Turpin's favourite photo is of himself posing with chest puffed out with white pride, thrusting a collection of medals on his chest towards the camera.

A decorated Iraq War veteran wrote to Epping Forest BNP Watch, suggesting that Turpin was wearing a Telic medal alongside a Northern Ireland General Service Medal and a UN Cyprus medal, which was very odd as Councillor Turpin could not possibly have fought in the Iraq War. For the sake of accuracy, Epping Forest BNP Watch enquired with the Ministry of Defence on Turpin's record.

Sure enough, he earned his GSM and UNFICYP medals during his five years service. It appears he was a rifleman (private soldier) with the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets from 1976 to 1981. No problems there.

But what about that anomalous medal that looks almost identical to the Iraq War medal (pictured)? He has nothing on his army record to confirm it, so we asked ourselves: is it a bottle top or a bling medal bought on eBay?

Another former soldier explained that it was an "unofficial 'commemorative' Golden Jubilee medal of the type routinely bought and worn by Legion of Frontiersmen members and other assorted Walts [Walter Mittys]. He shouldn't be wearing the fake jubilee medal with two real ones - though it's an offence against military etiquette more than anything else - but the GSM and the UN medal were pretty common for soldiers who served in the 70s and 80s."

Turpin thrusts these medals into people's faces like he's a decorated war hero, so it is only right that we set the record straight. It is notable that another BNP councillor, Garry Martin, has not paraded his medals, although he must have earned some during his 30 years of active service in the army. That marks the difference between a Walter Mitty like Turpin and a professional soldier like Martin, who has not made a song and dance over medals.

Despite our leg-pulling about his short-temper, Martin is a 'good egg' and probably motivated more by patriotism than racism: misguided rather than malevolent. Turpin is a whole different kettle of fish. After serving in the army, he joined the police. He was forced out of the police for his involvement in the National Front. After his failed police career, he attempted to set up a vigilante group in Redbridge, an act that earned him condemnation from the borough commander. Turpin is always going on about law and order but according to the police he seems to have a problem distinguishing truth from fiction.

The trouble is that the BNP is keen to promote the self-aggrandising Walts. Turpin was on the BNP's party list for the Eastern Region during the last European elections and is now running as the BNP's candidate in the solid Conservative seat of Ongar and Rural in the Essex County Council elections. Perhaps the BNP has realised that Turpin is a bit of a loser, putting him in a seat where the BNP's past electoral performance has been nothing short of pathetic.

There are six candidates for the Ongar and Rural ward in the county elections, including the English Democrats which has scored a fairly impressive performance for a minor party in the district seats it has contested. The BNP is likely to win the bulk of its support in Shelley, a Labour-voting ward where the extremists could pick up a few votes from disillusioned ex-Labour voters. The best the BNP fantasist Peter Turpin can hope for is 10%, doubling its performance in the district wards it fought in 2006 and putting it into third place behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. But few doubt that the Conservatives will win the seat. Turpin is a loser fighting a losing seat and hopefully he will lose again when he defends his Loughton Fairmead district council seat in 2010 - if he is reselected.

Click chart for better resolution

Essex in Distress: BNP fly flag upside down

When BNP activists have nothing meaningful to say, they fly a flag and sing a song. In the Essex County Council election, the BNP has failed to publish any manifesto. They have replaced this tired, old-fashioned politics of informing voters about their policy agenda with waving the flag of Essex. It's a peculiar tactic, since the Essex flag - three "seaxes" on a red field - is not likely to prompt the county's residents to puff out their chest with white pride.

But the BNP can't even do the flag-waving bit correctly. At a BNP meeting in Loughton on 10 May, BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook addressed an audience of local activists in front of the Essex flag, hung upside down! (see picture) In naval terms, flying a flag upside down was traditionally a signal of distress. With the useless Barnbrook visiting the county in his trademark beige suit, no wonder Essex is in distress.

The meeting was chaired by Loughton's BNP Councillor Rod Law. Given that Rod intends to represent Loughton Central at a county level, he may like to get his sole election gimmick correct - alternatively, he could come up with some policies, if it's not too taxing on his brain. For his sake, we've reproduced the flag of Essex here.

As Del Boy would say: "What a plonker, Rodney!"

Rod told his Facebook friends (all 39 of them) that he is "well happy his got a mention on the local red site" [sic] in response to our article on him and the drug peddlers he hangs around with - don't worry, Rod, there's more to follow!

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.

Police launch probe over new BNP threat

From This is London

REDBRIDGE Police have launched an investigation after an apparently pro-British National Party (BNP) website published threats against a woman who was allegedly the victim of a racist attack.

The news comes after officers arrested a BNP by-election campaigner in Wanstead on Tuesday after she allegedly called the woman a "n****r." The police have not commented on whether the BNP canvasser has been charged.

The website, which claims to be written by an unnamed "proud BNP member", has published full details of the woman and photographs of her Wanstead home along with the threats.

The website has been taken down within the past hour.

It said: "I intend to publicise your details on as many web sites as possible.

"You will wish you had never lied about the BNP; and that's not a lie, that's a promise."

Despite the police action, Wanstead BNP candidate John Evans said he thought the website was a fake.

He said: "I think it's an absolute fake. I haven't heard of it.

"We don't need to resort to this rubbish. I hope they find who did it. If we can take legal action against the person that did this then we may well do so."

Epping Forest BNP Watch update:

The blog in question is Made in Yorkshire, run by a blogger who describes himself as "Middle-aged, white, Yorkshireman. Think Clarkson, but bald! Proud member of the British National Party." The blog had 123 pro-BNP posts (see Google's cache) before its attack on Shirleen Tobin. who had made a complaint against a BNP activist. The blog includes videos from the BNP TV site and a service to give online donations to the BN. While the party organisation may not be responsible for its content, it is certainly not a fake website, as BNP candidate John Evans claims, but is run by a committed party activist. The threats against Ms Tobin, who has said she fears leaving her house, are typical of the inherently violent nature of BNP activists.

Credit where it's not due - redux

Epping Forest BNP has again claimed credit where its not due by saying that its councillors were involved in getting road closure fees waived for the Debden Day celebrations, when they weren't.

Essex County Council had inadvertently charged the organisers of the annual community festivities with a £995 road closure fee. After a letter from the Chairman of the Loughton Broadway Town Centre Partnership Dave Stannard to Councillor Hume, who is in charge of ECC Highways, the West Essex Area Highways manager replied that no charge would be made in respect of the closure. He said that such costs relate to commercial closures and were not intended to cover community events.

In the past, road closure costs were waived by Epping Forest District Council, but responsibility was then passed to ECC in 2008. The £995 road closure charge was simply the result of an administrative error in designating the community event as a commercial operation.

Yet, the BNP is keen to make political capital out of an obvious mistake, although the credit for getting the ECC to realise its mistake belongs to Mr Stannard and volunteers from the community.

The Broadway Partnership and Debden Day are meant to be community activities, devoid of party political arguments. Until now, no councillor has sought to use these activities for their own party's again. But now the BNP shamefully want to politicise it for their own publicity ahead of the county elections and take credit for work they have not done. Debden residents don't want their community festival being caught up in an election campaign.

A few days ago, we revealed that BNP councillor Susan Clapp was trying to claim credit for the resurfacing Jessel Drive, when in fact it was planned months in advance and after campaigns by a number of community activists and councillors from other parties. Instead of claiming credit for others' hard work, why don't BNP councillors actually do something for a change?

Jesus to join Epping Forest BNP?

Loughton is waiting in eager anticipation over the BNP's final verdict over whether the town will host the party's latest election billboard proclaiming that Jesus would vote BNP.

According to Epping Forest BNP branch, it has been shortlisted by the party to pick a billboard on its patch featuring Jesus. The poster plays on the BNP's paranoid belief that its persecution is as bad than the Roman persecution of Jesus and His disciples. It features a verse from John stating "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. What would Jesus do? Vote BNP."

Jonathan Bartley of leading Christian organisation Ekklesia pointed out that "the verse comes in the context of Jesus' teaching about love, which is of course a long way from the BNP's perspective." Churches have also strongly criticised the election stunt and accused the BNP of scapegoating minorities.

The BNP is incensed that Christian churches are unanimous in their condemnation of the party and its racist ideology, which goes well beyond criticism of immigration policies and actively works towards expulsion of non-white people. Last month, the Synod of the Diocese of Chelmsford condemned the extremist party and urged that all members of the Church of England "take an active part in responding to the challenge posed by the BNP and similar racist political parties."

Some members of the local party have privately voiced their disquiet over the poster, fearing it could bring ridicule and condemnation from the local churches. Loughton Churches Together have been at the forefront of local campaigning against the BNP and more pragmatic party members see the pitfalls of inciting yet more conflict with the churches. The party's campaign against the town's only Christian-denominated secondary school has already raised the hackles of many local Christians and the BNP's Jesus advert will only focus efforts to oppose the racist party.

Garry Martin's hissy fit

Poor old BNP councillor Garry Martin is struggling to get to grips with the principles of democracy, let alone how to run public projects. Mr Martin ran out of Wednesday night's Loughton town council environment and heritage committee meeting, red-faced and angry after he felt he didn't get his way regarding the restoration of the town's war memorial. He claimed it was a protest, but his fellow BNP councillors were embarrassed by his fit of pique and refused to join him.

Mr Martin claims that the council is refusing to honour the war dead. Councillors had explained to him that there may not have been enough room on the war memorial for all the names that need to be added. Instead, alternatives would have to be considered, but in the mean time they would go ahead with repointing and cleaning up the memorial and resetting the flag stones.

It is somewhat ironic that Mr Martin is so passionate about this, given that local soldiers fought and died fighting those who upheld the ideology that inspires the British National Party. As this picture shows, BNP leader Nick Griffin never had a problem marching alongside those traitors who worship Hitler.

Perhaps Mr Martin has yet to understand the BNP's ideological roots; he is obviously not motivated by a love of Hitler, as some of the party's long-standing members are. Yet, he doesn't even seem to have a grasp of council business.

Epping Forest BNP's "scientific racist" links revealed

The BNP's ex-Jewish poster-girl and Epping Forest councillor Pat Richardson was guest of honour at a recent conference entitled "Preserving Western Civilisation" in the US.

The conference was organised by well-known white supremacists and was heralded as the white nationalist response to the election of US President Barack Obama. The event was organised by Michael Hart, who has advocated a racial partioning of the US, and focused on the need to defend "America's Judeo-Christian heritage and European identity" from immigrants, Muslims and Africans - clearly a racist response to the election of the US's first black president, who was brought up by a Muslim step-father and lived in the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia. Perhaps Pat Richardson would prefer President George W Bush back in power, in which case her opinion is held by an extreme minority on both sides of the Atlantic!

Like Richardson, Hart comes from a Jewish background and he represents what is commonly known as "scientific racism", in which Jews are placed firmly in the European camp (haven't they heard of the Falashas of Ethiopia or the Lemba of Zimbabwe? - never mind, don't let the facts get in the way of white supremacism). The conference promoted the notion that the white man is genetically superior and that the West should not simply defeat Islamic extremism but must fight a war of civilisation with the East. On the issue of Muslims, Richardson remarked: "If they're not plotting and planning unrest, they're planning how to get your money."

Richardson's visit to the US was followed by BNP deputy leader Simon Derby's attendance at a rally of European fascist parties in Italy, at which he was given the Hitler salute. The meeting was organised by Forza Nuova, whose leader Roberto Fiore was convicted in Italy in 1985 for his involvement in the Bologna railway station bombing, which was the biggest postwar terrorist attack in Europe.

In speaking at an event organised by American white supremacists, Richardson has revealed the truth of Epping Forest BNP that they have sought to hide from the local community. While they pretend to be the voice of the common man, they are really part of an international network of shady extremist groups that believe in racial segregation, white supremacism and involved in violent and terrorist acts.

We don't need these traitors to our country sitting on our council and spending our money. And we sure as hell don't need them as school governors.

Leppert's Loughton leap

A source within the Epping Forest BNP has informed us that Redbridge councillor Julian Leppert is planning to contest Loughton Broadway in the 2010 Epping Forest district council elections.

Former postman, 43 year old Leppert is regarded as a party high-flier, having secured three per cent of first preference votes as the BNP candidate in the 2004 London Mayoral election. Leppert moved to Loughton in November 2006 soon after being elected as councillor for Hainault. He currently lives in the Broadway ward. In 2010, his term in office in Redbridge will expire and he is seriously considering contesting Broadway, possibly in conjunction with the parliamentary election.

Currently, the seat is held by Susan Clapp, who our insider says has failed to impress due to her mediocre performance in the council chamber. She is the long-term partner of Eddy Butler and as a political lightweight she may be reliant on his support. It remains to be seen whether Clapp's support will be sustained up until 2010. However, it has been Leppert rather than Butler who has been accompanying Clapp to official events such as last Friday's Epping Forest District Council's Civic Awards.

Leppert is perhaps less brilliant than he and his supporters claim. The BNP's support in Redbridge has failed to rally in the way the party had hoped. To date, Leppert is the only BNP councillor in Redbridge and no BNP candidate has come close to winning a second seat. In the last by-election the BNP contested in Rebridge, in Cranbrook last year, it secured just 37 votes, or just under 1.4% of the vote. The closest the BNP came to winning a seat in Redbridge was in the Bridge Ward by-election of July 2006, when it came second, 157 votes behind the Conservative winner. Leppert contested the Epping Forest parliamentary seat in 2005, securing 1,728 votes or 3.9% of the total, fewer votes than the total votes the party had won in the 2004 district council elections.

Leppert thinks he can now muscle out the incumbent and secure his future in the party in Essex, riding on others' coat tails in order to retain his prestige within the BNP. However, his election in Broadway ward is not certain. The tide has turned in Broadway with the BNP vote falling 12.7% to 469 votes in 2008 from its peak in 2006. It will be even harder in the likely event that the district elections are held concurrently with the general election, with national trends likely to benefit the Conservatives, the only party able to increase its vote in Broadway in 2006.

Leppert is also one parcel short of a postbag in terms of political thinking. In his mayoral campaign, Leppert vowed to “throw out” all asylum-seekers, whom he blamed for causing traffic congestion. In January 2007, Mr Leppert attended a conference in London organised by the far-right New Right Group. One speaker was Michele Renouf, a Holocaust denier and supporter of David Irving. Leppert sat through anti-Jewish tirades from both Renouf and from one of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Britain.

Like the BNP as a whole, take the suit away and you get the old extremist ideology sneering back at you. An increasing number of local residents are coming to terms with the extreme core of the BNP's ideology and could reject Leppert next year, denting his career within the party.

Church of England's Chelmsford Diocese condemns BNP in Essex

This resolution was passed overwhelmingly by Chelmsford Diocesan Synod on 7 March 2009:

That the Synod of the Diocese of Chelmsford calls upon the parishes and people of the diocese to respond to God's call to love our neighbour, to serve all His people and to build His Kingdom. As we live this out, we urge that all take an active part in responding to the challenge posed by the BNP and similar racist political parties.

Church members are reminded to encourage all people of goodwill to register and cast their votes, not least because this reduces the proportion of votes which go a political party whose racist foundation is incompatible with Christian discipleship.

Parishes and people are urged to work with ecumenical and other partners to promote Christian values in all political dialogue and in particular:

• To ensure that respect, equality and justice for all people is part of the contribution made by parishes to local dialogue;
• To ensure that no literature or promotional material from any racist political party is permitted in any parish building nor placed on any parish notice board;
• To make respect for all people a component of regular Christian teaching, including through the observance of Racial Justice Sunday;
• To promote participation in public life, including standing for political office, as a vocation for some Christians;
• To co-operate with other groups and organisations working towards these goals;
• To urge all major political parties to address the issues which draw people to vote for far-right political parties.

This Synod agrees that this motion be circulated to all parishes and shared ecumenically in advance of forthcoming elections in Essex and East London.

Passed overwhelmingly by Chelmsford Diocesan Synod on March 7th 2009.

Source: Hope Not Hate

Local parents reject BNP governor

Parents of children at Hereward Primary School have condemned the nomination of local BNP leader Pat Richardson as a school governor.

Richardson put herself forward for the role after no candidates came forward from the local community.

Speaking to the Epping Forest Guardian, Hannah Martin, who lives on the Oakwood estate and whose three year old goes to Hereward, said she was disgusted at the prospect of Richardson becoming governor. She said: "My son is mixed race and I know there are lots of black children at the school. Teachers and staff here have always been brilliant in making everyone feel welcome, and I think there is a danger that this would ruin all that."

Sam Kelly, a mother of two whose 10 year old son is at the school, said: "My son has been here for seven years and I have never known any problems over race. I think the school needs to think what kind of message this would send out."

Local father Lee Thurland said: "I don't know much about the BNP but what I have heard I don't like."

The school, which has been praised by OfSTED for its multi-cultural environment, will have to decide whether to accept the nomination of the councillor from the far-right party, which advocates the "repatriation" of non-white people.

Richardson said: "I would hope to bring some common sense to the decision-making process down there."

"Common sense" is what the BNP commonly refers to its policy of alienating and expelling non-white and mixed race people. Advancing BNP policies in a primary school would be very ominous indeed.

If you think you would make a better school governor than the local leader of an extremist political party, you can submit your nomination via the town council:

Town Clerk : Enid Walsh
Loughton Town Council
Buckingham Court
Rectory Lane
Loughton
Essex, UK.
IG10 2QZ
Tel : +44 (0)20 8508 4200
Fax: +44 (0)20 8508 4400
E-mail: contact@loughton-tc.gov.uk