Electoral Commission shares stage with BNP 'racists' in North Wales
Sunday, February 04, 2007
If there's one party this blog has so far neglected to scrutinise ahead of the next Assembly elections, it's the BNP.
Most people assume they're not much of a force in Wales. So the news that they are intending to put forward a record number of candidates on May 3rd is alarming.
Perhaps more worrying, though, is their claim to be solidifying their status as a political party in Wales. A news article from their website says that Heulyn Gwyn of the Electoral Commission recently gave 70 BNP members a special presentation, and that he told them it was the "best presentation he has ever given to so many people with so many intelligent and valid questions."
It's Sunday, so I haven't had the opportunity to check this out with the Electoral Commission, but it would be interesting to know the circumstances under which this event was held.
For instance, the article states that the Electoral Commission were followed that evening by a speech from Jonathan Bowden, BNP cultural officer, who received a standing ovation. Videos of Bowden addressing a BNP gathering in North Wales have since appeared on youtube. This is his RANT against immigration and this is his ATTACK on public sympathy for Big Brother star Shilpa Shetty.
On immigration he says: "I was in Handsworth recently in the middle of Birmingham. Handsworth is 99.7% non-white. And the only whites who are left are very elderly people who are going to die soon, the mentally ill and people who can't get out."
He then goes on to defend the Big Brother racists, saying: "An Indian millionairess has been slightly abused on a trashy TV programme and the media is convulsed with this for day after day... They're all milking it because it's yet another thing about which the indigenous community are made to feel 'guilty'... When in actual fact this crude 'bitchy' girl has the sort of attitudes, expressed in a vulgar way, which most people, including Indians, have about other groups."
It seems likely that the Electoral Commission were in fact addressing the same crowd later whipped-up by Jonathan Bowden - whose oratory style bears an ironic resemblance to that of Jade Goody herself.
I would like to know why they agreed to appear at the event in the first place, and whether they were aware of the nature of the speakers that followed them. Because on the surface, it's surely not helpful for a public body to associate with the BNP in this way.
Labels: Big Brother, BNP, electoral commission, Immigartion, Jonathan Bowden, Shilpa Shetty, Wales, Welsh Assembly Election 2007
posted by Blamerbell @ 12:12 pm,
3 Comments:
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At 5:38 pm,
Martin Eaglestone said...
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If true this is an extraordinary story - I hope you get urgent clarificatiion from the Commission.
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At 5:55 pm,
Normal Mouth said...
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Regardless of what you, I or anyone else thinks of the BNP they are a registered political party. Do you say the Electoral Commission should deny them that which they offer or provide to other such parties?
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At 8:16 pm,
Blamerbell said...
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"Do you say the Electoral Commission should deny them that which they offer or provide to other such parties?"
No.
But they should be careful not to share a stage with inflammatory orators and not to appear as if they are endorsing those views.
