A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

BNP to contest Mayor of Hackney

The BNP says it will contest the Mayoral election in Hackney this May (and the ones in Newham and Lewisham): http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23803640-bnp-to-contest-borough-mayoral-elections.do

I'm the Labour agent for incumbent Mayor Jules Pipe and whilst I'm not blase about this threat I can't say that I am trembling in my boots given the BNP got only 1409 votes (2.3%) in Hackney in the 2008 GLA elections.

The BNP hasn't managed to field a council candidate in Hackney since 1998. The last time their membership list was leaked to the national press they had only seven members in the borough. I have my doubts that they will find a candidate who is qualified to stand (i.e. lives or works or is on the electoral register in Hackney) and willing to do it.

This is obviously an attempt to disrupt community cohesion in a harmoniously multi-cultural borough. It is particularly sick for the far right to run in an area with a huge Orthodox Jewish population, a community that originally came to Stamford Hill as refugees from the Nazis. I think it will backfire and is likely to increase the turnout of voters for mainstream democratic parties.

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't assume things and be complacent?

A lot of Jewish people are very right wing and the BNP could appeal to them, as there have been Jewish BNP candidates running and the BNP is anti Muslim and are pro Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine!

Yjis time the Nazi's may very well be on the side of the Jews!

3:00 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Blogger colonel_hackney said...

No-body wants the BNP in Hackney and I don’t think they will be able to get a toe hold in here.
Although as Norman Tebbit pointed out they are basically socialists with racism.
I agree that complacency is not appropriate but it is hard to understand where in the borough the support would come from.

I think there is a factual inaccuracy in your post however.The large Hasidic Jewish community predates Hitler by many years. Of course there will be refugees from Hitler who joined relatives here but the community’s roots go deep.

4:11 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wake up smell the coffee!

Hitler's grandmother had worked in the town of Graz as a servant in the home of a Jewish family named Frankenberger. He further claimed that she was seduced by the head of the household and that Hitler's grandfather was the result of that liaison.

Hitler was part Jewish was he not?

Your forgetting they have far right parties just like the BNP in Israel!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article420930.ece


A Jewish woman has won a council seat in Essex for the far right British National Party.

6:12 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Bravo said...

Fantastic news for democracy. They deserve a medal. Maybe they will shake up the One party state called the Peoples Republic of Hackney. I think most of the Hackney electorate may be tempted Opus. After so many years of total domination and no opposition name one decent thing the local Labour Party have done for Hackney and I don't mean filling the pockets of property developers. Time to pull your socks up Luke and earn your generous expenses

8:50 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Dalston Squared said...

"harmoniously multi-cultural borough"

Yeah right Kurds and Turks at eachothers throats in SN and Dalston, Jews living in their enclave in Stamford Hill, Africans in Homerton and English working class in Hoxton and the well to do young trustafarians living in a parallel Hackney universe to the vast majority of the people in the borough. You talk about MPs being out of touch but it's you who needs to get out more

8:57 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"...the BNP is anti Muslim and are pro Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine!"

Sounds very much like the BNP are in agreement with you on this policy!

10:33 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Dirty Euro said...

The BNP are not socialists. The BNP say redistribution is wrong. So how would the right wing BNP policies fund a health service, pensions and benefits for the working and lower middle class without taxing the rich.

QUESTION TO BNP?
HOW CAN YOU FIND PENSIONS AND HEALTH SERVICES AND EDUCATION WITHOUT TAXING THE RICH?

The BNP would destroy life for the working and lower middle class even more than for the tories.

The BNP leader denied the holocaust and called it the holohoax.
The founder of the BNP has been pictured standing in front of a nazi flag in uniform.

There is no sane or moral reason for Hackney to vote for a BNP Mayor, other than to make some sort of evil satanic point.

11:19 pm, February 10, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The BNP will win in hackney!

On April 10th the Guardian carried a news story ‘BNP seeks to bury antisemitism and gain Jewish votes in Islamophobic campaign’.· Ruth Smeed of the Board of Deputies of British Jews revealed that ‘The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web - it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel’. Yet, in fact, there is nothing at all strange about the BNP being pro-Zionist and dropping anti-Semitism.

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2184

4:00 pm, February 11, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't get complacent open your eyes and listen.

The BNP could easily get a Zionist Orthodox Candidate in Hackney and win!

10:13 pm, February 11, 2010

 
Blogger Ravi Gopaul said...

"Although as Norman Tebbit pointed out they are basically socialists with racism."

And Norman is a basically a polecat who has been semi house trained!!

5:32 pm, February 12, 2010

 
Anonymous PEPE said...

I like polecats. Better than that skunk Brown

6:36 pm, February 12, 2010

 
Anonymous Ben said...

"the BNP is anti Muslim and are pro Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine!"

In the nicest possible way, Anonymous, you are exactly the sort of Trotty sub-human filth that gave Labour a bad name in the 80s.

You probably need to be spayed or neutered.

Good day to you.

2:43 am, February 13, 2010

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just want immigration laws to be more strict! I want the UK to keep its British traditions and not get lost. An I think that the BNP party can help this!

12:58 pm, March 09, 2010

 
Anonymous Scott said...

Such a great article it was which The BNP hasn't managed to field a council candidate in Hackney since 1998. The last time their membership list was leaked to the national press they had only seven members in the borough. Thanks for sharing this article.

3:08 pm, February 08, 2012

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

 
Free Hit Counters
OfficeDepot Discount