Public pay for race hate
Article published: Thursday, April 8th 2010
Taxpayers are to foot the bill for 250,000 British National Party leaflets to be distributed throughout the North West over the coming weeks.
According to Hope not Hate the BNP are refusing to publish the full details of their expenses and are now under investigation by the Electoral Commission.
In total the BNP will send out 500,000 leaflets and it is estimated that at least half of these are to be posted by the Royal Mail at the taxpayer’s expense, rekindling concerns about public money funding the racist group’s campaign materials.
Counter Action
Last week the anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate launched a letter-writing campaign to protest the BNP’s misuse of taxpayers’ money, which saw over 25,000 letters sent to members of the European Union over two weeks.
“The BNP have been stepping up their activities across constituencies throughout Greater Manchester. Unite Against Fascism will be delivering a counter-leaflet without the aid of taxpayers money and will encourage everyone to do what they can to get people to use their vote to any party that opposes the Nazi ideology of the BNP. It is also especially important in Stoke where the BNP face a very real chance of winning a council seat,” said local Unite Against Fascism activist Mike Killian.
Workers say no
In 2009, postal workers refused to deliver BNP election leaflets, citing a ‘conscience clause’ which allows workers to object to delivering material they deem offensive, despite pressure from depot management to fulfill the contradictory legal obligation under the ‘Representation of the People Act’ to deliver all election material.
A spokesperson for the Communications Workers Union told MULE: “There have been instances in the past whereby Royal Mail staff have been chased down the street or spat at when delivering this election material and the conscience clause has been invoked to ensure the safety of staff and to allow workers to refuse to deliver material they find offensive. This is not just the case with the BNP literature and workers can refuse to deliver any material that they believe could be interpreted as offensive.”
Exploiting loopholes
Past BNP literature has sparked controversy by making false claims attributing the heroin trade to the Muslim community and accusations of unsubstantiated “Muslim gang-rapes”, as well as frequently using stock images of non-BNP members to illustrate fake endorsements. Despite consistently publishing lies to support its own agenda, UK law currently offers no protection against the publication of inaccurate or false information in campaign literature, something Griffin is keen to exploit.
Misuse of EU money?
It has also been revealed that 14 members of the far-right group are being paid by EU money, several of whom live outside of the jurisdiction of the two elected MEPs.
This is not the first time that the party has faced scrutiny for using taxpayers’ money. In July it was reported that the two MEPs Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were using a portion of their £80,000 salary and expenses to fund a party-controlled “community chest”, against the guidelines set by the European Parliament.
Joe Beech
More: Election, Manchester, News
Comments
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So you are camapigning for Labour…and hate democracy…why dont you say that..
Comment by I hate labour on April 8, 2010 at 10:59 am -
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Trackback by uberVU - social comments on April 8, 2010 at 12:18 pm -
If Mule hated democracy why would they campaign for Labour. You managed to contradict yourself in one sentence, that’s well impressive.
Comment by dave on April 9, 2010 at 4:18 pm -
[…] Original Article Online at the Mule here […]
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