For reasons not yet explained, Cllr. Jones signed the nomination papers of BNP candidate Daniel Brown, who is also standing in the town's North Road ward. As Cllr. Jones also signed the nomination papers of fellow LibDem candidates Mike Barker and Fred Lawton, he was effectively placing his own candidacy in a very curious position!Perhaps not surprisingly, Cllr. Jones has been ousted as the LibDem Group Leader as their first response to the crisis, and the local party has put out a very terse statement which leaves more questions unanswered. Principally, how on earth can an experienced councillor like Steven Jones claim that he signed the nomination papers "as a mistake?"What local LibDems want everyone to forget is that their party has been involved in shady involvement with the BNP in this part of town before. It was only Labour's exposure of the cosying-up between the LibDems, the Tories and the BNP in the short-lived Harrowgate Hill Community Group (sic) in 2003 which caused that venture to collapse. The tragedy is that when the three main democratic parties in Darlington should have maintained a united front against racist politics in the town during this election, the LibDem's Leader has blown away
that front with the stroke of his pen. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of this story by any means.
The LibDems have THIS to say on their local Darlington website. In case you think I am making this up click HERE to see the official nomination record on Darlington Council website.
Maybe the normal LibDem slogan “Only the Lib Dems can defeat [Party name here] should be replaced by "Only the Lib Dems can get the BNP onto the ballot paper”. Just a thought. Only trying to be helpful.
Tory Party chairman Francis Maude has respondend in trenchant fashion...
There can be no excuse for a mainstream political party promoting extremism
and racism. The evidence is there for all to see. Menzies Campbell
must get off the fence and sack Steve Jones. He must send a clear message
to the rest of his Party that racism will not be tolerated by expelling this
councillor from the Liberal Democrats. It’s also alarming that, of
the three main political parties, the Liberal Democrats have the worst record in
local elections of fielding candidates against the BNP. It is time that
they woke up to the danger posed by this extremist party.
28 comments:
We're the smallest of the three parties. Of course we have a worse record of putting people up against the BNP..
That's just spin.
No it isn't. You put candidates up in 60% of the seats in which the BNP does. We do in more than 80%.
"the danger posed by this extremist party" is that perfectly normal, thinking people are considering voting for them.
The reason is simple. Whilst the excesses of the BNP are distasteful there is a growing number of white middle class and working class people who are genuinely concerned about immigration and asylum, enforced propaganda about sexual perversion, about how we should think and what we should say and the wearing down of our way of life through our entanglement with Europe and a hijacking of the media by a liberal elite.
There is an article in the Times today with an interview with Nick Griffin.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1672185.ece
The main parties must understand there is a groundswell of discontent about the British way of life and its erosion by cultures who have no interest in assimilating that way of life.
Since it is now obvious that the Tories won't touch the issues with a barge pole there is nowhere else to go.
I think the Classic Cabinet Minister's Defence applies here.
"I may very well have signed those papers, but I didn't understand what they were, Signor il Procuratore"
Am I missing something here Iain? The Lib Dem candidate is listed as Stephen John Jones. Whereas the assentor for the BNP candidate is Steven Jones.
Is he confused about the spelling of his own name? Is it the same man?
Anonymous said:
"We're the smallest of the three parties. Of course we have a worse record of putting people up against the BNP.."
The Lib Dems have more candidates standing than Labour
Is it possible that he was hoping to deliberately spike the BNP's nomination?
On the grounds that no person can sign more than one set of papers and the second set of papers that get submitted with the same elector should be ruled ineligible by the returning officer.
Just a thought...
Apparently it is.
I have had the misfortune to have encountered a number of Lib Dems with BNP sympathies. One such person slandered and libeled me and my family for years at university. Another person tried the same trick, but gave him such a fright, he kept a low profile for months after I gave him a few dirty looks.
The Lib Dems also helped to elect BNP member Sharon Willkinson onto an Economic Development Committee in Burnley earlier this year. When Labour blogger Don Paskini and myself exposed this development, we were threatened with legal action by Burnley Lib Dem Cllr Gavin Darling. We called his bluff and have not heard from him since.
truly amazing, we can understand a member of the public not fully understanding what it means to sign nomination papers, but a Councillor fully knows what the score is.
If I signed the nomination papers of any other political party, i would expect to be thrown out of the party.
I do like the notion of a Cartel of the Three Oligopolistic Parties putting out an advertising offensive......
it sort of confirms that we live in an Adminstrative Democracy - we can vote but they decide....
THe BNP looks like it is the grit in the oyster...if only the others could make pearls
so what?
Nobody is forced to vote BNP , actually, we are as the three main parties are now one and the same political body, a self perpetuating "we know best" elite that represents anybody other than indigenous productive Brits.
Bye Bye Con party
bye bye Lab
bye bye lib dems.
Hi Iain - this reminds me of the curious incident where the UKIP candidate in a by-election was nominated by his BNP opponent - as reported on your Blog:
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2006/07/ukip-bnp-in-pact-of-mutual-destruction.html
Maybe they're personal friends?
Why should anyone need to be "nominated"?
Let anyone who wants to be elected stand.
The LibLabCon cartel don't like competition.
How liberal of you Iain.
The BNP need to be defeated democratically not hounded as extremists. Shunning them only shows that they're different from the three main parties and grows their support.
Iain, I completely deplore anyone who supports the BNP. Read my blog and you will see. As for tumbleweed, I've not red your blog today until now.
"On the grounds that no person can sign more than one set of papers and the second set of papers that get submitted with the same elector should be ruled ineligible by the returning officer."
He can nominated 3 candidates and he signed the nomination papers of the other 2 Libdems + the BNP candidate one
Norfolk blogger , why would you "deplore" a member of the BNP?
Has the BNP stolen your pension?
Has the BNP flooded your country with undesirables?
Has the BNP destroyed this countries education system?
Wanker!
But Iain, the LibDems have really got quite a lot in common with the BNP; both are dishonest, unprincipled, opportunists with a track record of anti semitism. Since both are also statist big government parties whose membership are largely thick as two short planks they actually make excellent bedfellows.
Liberal Review say this guy has already been dropped as a party candidate (although it is too late to withdraw or change teh ballot paper.
On Tories fighting 80% of the same seats as the BNP, surely this just tells us that BNP have chosen to fight Tory wards?
Typical of Labour and Lib Dems to bolster the BNP. Remember last year when Margaret Hodge handed the BNP tons of free publicity?
Political Advertising is the very worst in terms of payback but the means by which political spendthrifts lubricate their way to a job with an Ad agency.
70 years of Communist AgitProp never convinced the Russians there was meat in the shops or fresh vegetables
Is there not more to this than meets the eye?
The Lib Dem's own nomination is as STEPHEN Jones, the assentor for the BNP is recorded as being STEVEN Jones.
Both sets of papers could/should not have been validly accepted.
If I put the wrong name on a BNP nomination form, if the ERO staff were half awake, that would be a fine way of STOPPING his nomination papers being accepted.
The fact that he now seems to have resigned indicates that this is indeed the same person...
Personally I dislike most of what the BNP stands for.
BUT on the other hand, the 3 main parties don't stand for anything (relevant and effective ) on many issues .. and their MPs - on expenses, Freedom of Information Issues on MPs - look like unreconstructed Stalinists.
SO I would welcome the BNP putting the cat amongst the pigeons and blowing the cosy cabal to bits...
I totally agree madasafish and I suspect that is where the BNP may make gains simply to force the issues of immigration, a politically muscular Islam and the Status Quo into the public arena.
Cameron has chosen to hang his coat on the environment, very worthy but when ones immediate environment is threatened people tend to look for more meat on the bones.
The internet has alerted many of the riots across Europe where the Religion of Peace has settled in large numbers and the safety of Britain as an island nation is no longer taken for granted.
The main parties wont touch these issues as they twirl rightly or wrongly for the immigrant/Islamic vote.
A vote for the BNP no longer seems unthinkable to the middle classes but a blow for the survival of Britain as we know and want to keep it.
Dismissing them as cranks and Nazi's alienates an increasingly sizeable number of people banned from voicing legitimate fears.
ww said "Since it is now obvious that the Tories won't touch the issues with a barge pole there is nowhere else to go. "
Which kind of sums the problems up in a nutshell.
We have a Gov't which believes that passing a law solves a problem. So taking it to its LOGICAL extension they pass as many laws as possible.
And we have an Opposition so supine, it cannot raise the issue sensibly enough to get the electorate on its side.
I'm all for Green issues.. I recycle an awful lot of things. But frankly the Conservatives are not a Green Party in the sense of practising what they preach (nor are the other two).
Political Parties have disenfranchised the electorate by refusing to discuss relevant issues in a grownup manner...when they discuss them at all.
See the success of this blog.
Far more sensible discussions here than by politicos.
Says it all really.
Post a Comment