democracy.........

[Bazeye]

....... Oldham style.

Remind me again, who are the fascists?


The British National Party’s candidate in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, Derek Adams, was physically removed from his seat at a public election hustings today by police after Labour Party fascists objected to his presence.

Derek Adams sitting in his seat at the Oldham Hustings table -- before the Labour Party objected.Mr Adams, accompanied by party manager Adam Walker and a small group of activists, attended the Millgate Arts Centre in Oldham, which was scheduled to start at 2.30 pm.
“Mr Adams had booked into the hustings and had tickets for himself and the team,” Clive Jefferson, British National Party national organiser reported.
“Mr Adams and his team went as planned and they were allowed entry without any trouble at all.
“Everything appeared to be going normally and the venue was full with a large media contingent present,” Mr Jefferson said.
As can be seen in the picture alongside, Mr Adams took his seat at the table and several of the other candidates came in and sat down next to him.
“It was then that a Labour Councillor told Mr Adams he could not sit with the other candidates and that he had to leave,” Mr Jefferson continued.
“Mr Adams is not a man to be bullied or ordered about during his election campaign by anyone, and certainly not the Labour Party.
“He quite rightly told the Labour lackey that he was a candidate in the by-election, this was a hustings and he was going nowhere.”
The hustings start was then held up as the Labour councillor called the police who then told Mr Adams that the "event organiser" wanted him to leave.
“Mr Adams very calmly said that he was not prepared to leave just because the Labour Party objected, and said that it was an ‘absolute outrage.’
“The police officer then went outside and came back with six of his colleagues. They surrounded Mr Adams, physically dragged him from his seat and marched him out,” Mr Jefferson said.
Mr Walker then stood up and told the hustings crowd that “democracy is clearly dead in Oldham.

Adam Walker and Derek Adams outside the hustings hall.“Outside the police apologised to Mr Adams, saying that they ‘were just doing their job.’
“The reality is of course that they had just destroyed the democratic right of the elections hustings crowd to hear all the candidates,” Mr Jefferson added.

[northener]

I'm no fan of the BNP, Baz. As I'm sure you've sussed out by now.

But he's the member of a legitimate political party going about his legitimate business. He should be allowed the same access as everyone else. All the Labour monkey has achieved is more sympathy for ther BNP, he's shot himself in the head IMO.

But I wonder how the Hustings stand regarding giving a 'level' platform? I would suggest the Labour monkey has been a clever monkey, done his homework and realised that as an organiser he can allow/disallow who he pleases. Not fair, not clever...but not illegal? I dunno.

[theone]

The BNP will only benefit from this.

[Gronnuck]

Maybe the Labour candidate/organiser wanted to follow the party line and avoid any talk, discussion or debate on subjects like immigration, asylum, the war in Afghanistan or UK civil rights.

[ducati]

Didn't labour declare that they would not sit at the same table as the BNP? Or am I havering?

[squidge]

I was wondering whether this was going to appear here! Bazeye you did not disappoint.

I grew up in Oldham - Shaw to be precise for anyone who knows it or cares. My friend Jason was in the audience for this hustings - he lives in Delph where the meeting took place. We were chatting online about it last night.

Firstly the BNP were not invited to this event. I think the three main parties plus two others. Derek Adams and his pals had booked to attend as members of the audience and just went up and took seats allocated to either UKIP or the Green Party and then refused to move. They were asked several times to do so and made aware that the police would be called if they didnt vacate the seats and they refused.

Jason also said that there was a lot of jeering by the candidates colleagues and that it was said that one of the entourage verbally abused a pakistani candidate but Jason said he didnt hear that himself. They were eventually forcibly removed by the police in order for the event to take place. The Hustings themselves were arranged by the Delph Community Association and Delph is a sleepy wee village at the edge of the saddleworth moors - not as big as Castletown. The issues that they discussed included parking in the village and the NHS. Jason said that the feeling in the village is that they were targetted for a publicity stunt by the BNP cos its a wee village. Apparently the Oldham Chron ran hustings and didnt invite the BNP either but they never bothered about that. Perhaps cos its a bit tougher than the villagers of Delph.

Had they been invited to the event and then thrown out because one of the candidates refused to debate with them that would not be acceptable but can you really complain when you are thrown out of somewhere you werent invited to int he first place? Also they werent the only ones not invited.... Including the BNP there were five candidates that werent invited. They invited the ones people in the Community Association wanted to hear from. Nothing more, nothing less.

[theone]

Thanks for that Squidge.

As is normally the case in these stories, the truth is quite far from what will be reported by the press and even the "impartial" BBC chasing ratings.

Excellent publicity stunt by the BNP though.

[northener]

Thanks for that Squidge, it would appear that I've been pointing my gun in the wrong direction......

[golach]

It looks as if the Electorate of Oldham were very democratic in the way they voted yesterday, where did the BNP come?

[squidge]

They came fifth golach. Polled 1500 votes or thereabouts. The labour candidate won with 15 000 votes.

[crayola]

I find it unbelievable that the owner, admin and moderators of this forum are happy to see users cut and paste hateful political propaganda from the BNP website without accreditation.

To Bill Fernie.....

Do you really allow hateful untrue BNP propaganda and lies to be published uncut on your forum? Do your colleagues on the council know this?

The original story is on the BNP website here

[Corrie 3]

I find it unbelievable that the owner, admin and moderators of this forum are happy to see users cut and paste hateful political propaganda from the BNP website without accreditation.

To Bill Fernie.....

Do you really allow hateful untrue BNP propaganda and lies to be published uncut on your forum? Do your colleagues on the council know this?

The original story is here

And why not Crayola? This happens on here with every political party so why single out the BNP, thats what this thread is all about...Democracy!!!!.....Let people make up their own minds about the BNP will you, if its one thing I cant stand is people wanting to hide and sweep under the carpet everything and anything that they dont want others to see or read!!!

I salute the owners of the site for letting such stories as this get published, there is no harm in it whatsover. The BNP have a voice and should not be hushed up just because a few dont like it!!! I dont like what I hear from the ConDems but I would never try and shut them up!!!!

C3....

[billmoseley]

I find it unbelievable that the owner, admin and moderators of this forum are happy to see users cut and paste hateful political propaganda from the BNP website without accreditation.

To Bill Fernie.....

Do you really allow hateful untrue BNP propaganda and lies to be published uncut on your forum? Do your colleagues on the council know this?

The original story is on the BNP website here

but as we see the truth usually comes out so i see no harm

[squidge]

To be fair to bazeye crayola, he didn't know it wasn't true. He saw it and was outraged at the unfairness of the actions taken against the BNP. People believe what they read and they should be allowed to post it here. That way racist, unfair, unpalatable and fascist views can be challenged.

Look at the thread about the grooming of vulnerable women by Pakistani men, if that hadn't run it's course then poor corrie3 would have still thought that Pakistani men were genetically programmed to do such things.

[Bazeye]

I find it unbelievable that the owner, admin and moderators of this forum are happy to see users cut and paste hateful political propaganda from the BNP website without accreditation.

To Bill Fernie.....

Do you really allow hateful untrue BNP propaganda and lies to be published uncut on your forum? Do your colleagues on the council know this?

The original story is on the BNP website here

How was it propaganda? How is it lies and hateful if it happened? And I think youre confusing the council with the Gestapo.. Like them or hate them they have every right to speak, unless you want them banned like Hitler did with the communists. Btw. A belated Happy New year.

[squidge]

They only have the right to speak at ANY meeting if they are invited to do so bazeye. They were not invited. Delph community association were not interested in what they had to say. They behaved at the least in a rude and antagonistic manner and at worst in a bullying and intimidating manner and then they refused to leave when asked. This was not an"open meeting" where people could just turn up...either audience or speakers.

They are clever with the way they publicised this but what you posted was not what happened.

[squidge]

This is a copy of the letter sent to the BNP by Delph Community Association copied fromthe BNP website.


Setting the record straight.

No hustings or candidates question time in this constituency has EVER had all the candidates on the platform and there is no legal requirement to do so. On Thursday night the Oldham Chronicle organised a question time with just three candidates on the platform.

It is simply not practicable to hold a question time with more than 5 speakers and with 10 candidates a choice has to be made. On Sunday the three main candidates were joined by the Green candidate Peter Allen whose party has a councillor on Oldham Council and Paul Nuttall the UKIP candidate who is also an elected member of the European Parliament for the North West.

The BNP candidate asked for and was given tickets to be part of the audience at the event. Unfortunately the candidate and his supporters organised a 'sit in' protest which disrupted the start of the meeting, their behaviour threatening a breach of the peace. Having repeatedly refused polite requests from the organisers to end their 'sit in' protest on the platform and return to their seats in the audience , the organisers had no alternative but to ask the police to escort the BNP candidate and his entourage from the building.

The organisers would like to thank the police for the calm and professional way they dealt with a difficult situation.

Delph proceeded to have a cracking election meeting which was lively, entertaining and informative.

We have to wonder why the BNP picked on a small village community group when as far as we know the Oldham Chronicle received no complaints from them about the candidates meeting they organised in Denshaw last Thursday night.'

Delph Community Association and Delph Traffic Group are non-political community organisations. No Councillor from any political party was involved in the organisation of this event.