BNP identifies some 'potential' within the county's electorate

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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This is Exeter

THE British National Party has announced it will be "targeting Devon" in the run-up to next year's European elections.

The party's deputy leader, Simon Darby, said he hoped the party would win a seat in the South West.

It comes after the Echo revealed a secret BNP rally was held in Broadclyst, near Exeter, attended by around 100 members as well as party leader Nick Griffin.

The story sparked a huge public debate and the Echo was inundated with calls and messages from people on the subject.

Policies of the right- wing BNP include calling a halt to all immigration; deporting all those who commit crimes and whose original nationality is not British; withdrawing from the European Union; restoring corporal punishment; and abolishing anti- discrimination laws.

Mr Darby said: "The European elections are coming up in June. The Westcountry isn't our strongest region but we're hopeful that we can do well. A poor performance from Labour could help us considerably.

"Multiculturalism is affecting people who never thought it would and people are struggling with money at the moment.

"We've got a Government giving away money to the Third World and it's not a sustainable option.

"This time round there should be 73 UK seats in the European Parliament and in the South West there should be about five or six.

"Everybody in Devon and Cornwall will receive a BNP leaflet in June and have the opportunity to vote for us and we're looking forward to that. We're going to get a lot of new recruits and a considerable amount of interest.

"Nick Griffin had a very successful tour and there's an increasing market from our viewpoint.

"There's definitely potential in Devon, we've got some really good people there.

"We're looking forward to this election and we hope to pick up the last seat."

But the announcement that the BNP is targeting Devon has infuriated those who opposed the meeting held by the party in Broadclyst.

Peter Bowden, East Devon district councillor for Broadclyst, said he "distrusted BNP politics".

Derek Button, Lib Dem county councillor for Broadclyst, was reluctant to comment as he did not want to give the party publicity but said he found it an "abhorrent organisation".

A Broadclyst villager, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was dubious the BNP was targeting Devon and believes the party is concentrating its activities in the village.

He said: "I wasn't aware of the BNP actively campaigning elsewhere in the county. I would have thought it was mainly targeting Broadclyst as it has connections here.

"It is deeply worrying that it is targeting anywhere in the region.

"Whenever there is economic downturn, the BNP pops up, using the ethnic minorities as a scapegoat.

"It is deeply alarming and having it in my village is appalling."

But Michael Turner, the BNP's Exeter organiser, said there were about 350 party members in the city and surrounding areas.

He said: "We've got members all over the place. We talk to people and go leafleting everywhere — we have people who specifically do that — and we've got our own magazine.

"I think we've got a very good chance of getting a seat because we're going to really work hard at it. People are joining the BNP who never would have thought about it before."

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  • Profile image for This is Exeter

    by Colin Fribbens, Broadclyst

    Wednesday, August 27 2008, 3:53PM

    “I remember seeing a programme on UKIP in the European parliment where Kilroy Silk ( Remember him) and the others were swaning around enjoying their expensies and doing little else. The BNP if and when elected to europe will represent me and the majority of my wishes. I suggest that everyone who has entered a comment and they have all been interesting ( thank god for democracy) looks at the BNP web site and i am sure you will find many things you agree with. I look forward to the BNP in Europe.”

  • Profile image for This is Exeter

    by Peter Mullins, Liskeard, Cornwall

    Wednesday, August 27 2008, 3:25PM

    “Most of us can remember the "Ministry of Silly Walks" featured hilariously in Monty Python's Flying Circus. This organisation was a parody as well as being an impossibility. There were no circumstances whatever in which such a "Ministry" could evolve and flourish. Let us now consider The British National Party. If there was no demand, support, empathy towards the policies that the party espouses , enormous interest in their website and publications then, as with the "Silly Walks", it would be a dead duck and would, therefore be on a one-way trip to no-where.
    This is patently not the case as, whenever any newspaper or other medium print or publish in any way the dreaded incantation, "BNP" the volume of interest expressed goes through the roof. Witness the number of comments in these columns of late.
    If the British National Party did not exist, like God, we would have to invent it as a people. We NEED a Nationalist entity to articulate for us what is a very deep and fundamental characteristic of human nature developed over many thousands of years. It 's called Tribalism and it is not unique to we Britons but is common to ALL ethnic groups from Amazonian Indians, Kalahari Bushmen to aristocratic Sikhs and Chinese mandarins. Once it is accepted that a Nationalist Party is not only desirable but necessary in Britain then one can decide how to to engage or not with such a party. Organisations such as Unite Against Fascism who wish to "Stop the BNP," are on a hiding to nothing as there is and will always be a considerable proportion of Britons who are very happy to associate themselves with Ethno-nationalism in common with millions of other people of different ethnicity around the globe. What is there to deny in the B.N.P.'s position that it is a noble and desirable aim to allow the cultural and ethnic integrity of ALL racially different people throughout the world to cherish and celebrate their differences? We do this with plants, birds, animals and fish and take great joy in their differences and infinite variety. How can anyone seriously want to "melt down" all humanity into a homogeneous mass for the sake of some nightmarish social and genetic engineering experiment?
    Let us accept that ALL races should have a part of the world that they can call "Home." Some land or region where their roots are to be found and the bones of their ancestors are at rest. Not too much to ask, is it? The white, British people that identify themselves as a large, extended family have been in these small islands off the European coast since the last ice-age and scientific analysis show that if you are white and that your grandparents were born here chances are that your genes will be 99 percent identical with the folk that crossed the Land Bridge some 18,000 years ago after the ice melted. This seems to me to be a pretty good reason to regard this handful of islands to be the natural home of what we call "The British." By the same token the Japanese should be regarded as the natural inhabitants of their islands, the Iraqis and Afghans should be allowed to get on with sorting out their own problems with no interference from Neo-Colonialists Hell bent on forcing democracy down their throats. These and other fundamental policies can be found on the British National Party's superb website at bnp.org.uk

    Have a browse. Who knows, you may approve of what you learn there.
    Yes, The British National Party will be contesting the European elections and yes we do hope to gain a West Country seat. Once we have a toehold in the Fourth Reich, known as the E.U., our MEP's will be as much of a thorn in the side to these unelected Commissars as Richard Barnbrook, our London Assembly Member is to Boris Johnson and the other Tough Hogs in our capital city!”

  • Profile image for This is Exeter

    by John, Heavitree

    Wednesday, August 27 2008, 12:54PM

    “Well Mike Parsons, other than your childish " burning babies at the stake" comment how are the BNP stories "scaremongering"? Have you read their constitution? I doubt it because until very recently it was secret even from members! They clearly state that the BNP will repatriate non "English" people living in Britain and will bring Ireland back into Great Britain. Not scaremongering. Policy. The only scaremongering that goes on is that expounded by the BNP about immigrants!”

  • Profile image for This is Exeter

    by Mike Parsons, Exeter

    Wednesday, August 27 2008, 11:10AM

    “And here we have it, more publicity than the BNP could ever have hoped for. There are always more replies to any BNP letter or feature and they get more publicity than other legitimate parties could ever dream of. Instead of believing scaremongering stories about the BNP and how they will forcibly reclaim southern Ireland and how all non-white babies will be burned at the stake etc., try looking on their website and find out exactly why so many people are turning to the BNP, Britain's fastest growing political party.”

  • Profile image for This is Exeter

    by Steve, Heavitree

    Wednesday, August 27 2008, 11:08AM

    “I would be glad to see the BNP target this area and hopefully even gain a seat.

    So many people moaning about this and that - whatever happened to free speech?

    At the end of the day if the government had any sense we wouldn't be in this position.”

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