Faces as red as Liverpool's shirts

THE Saturday morning distribution of notices by Merseyside Police informing the BNP's 'Liverpool 13' that they would not be facing any charges must have caused some red faces amongst that force's senior officers - not only red with embarrassment, but also red with fury that they had been forced to take such an action.

Embarrassment because they had been bragging to local Labour Party councillors and officials on Monday 24th November that anyone distributing the BNP leaflet 'Racism Cuts Both Ways' would be arrested and prosecuted. Then came the news on Tuesday 25th November that the Crown Prosecution Service had ruled that the leaflet "was unlikely to increase racial hatred" and could quite legally be distributed. Apparently police chiefs were livid and immediately appealed against the decision, sending in a huge list of objections to the ruling. But it was all to no avail and on Friday their appeal was rejected, which meant they had to inform the local Labour Party that the British National Party were quite at liberty to put their leaflets out in Liverpool after all.

It is interesting to see that the anti-BNP groups have started their annual vying for financial backing early this year. It's a lucrative contact to be the standard bearer of the anti-BNP flag with floods of money coming in from the Labour Party and Trade Unions. In recent years Gerry and Sonia Gable and their Searchlight organisation have scooped the jackpot much to the annoyance of the Socialist Workers Party-run UAF.

This rather unseemly scrum for money only goes to show that those who oppose us are not solely motivated on ideological grounds - financial reward has a major influence on how enthusiastic their opposition will be. The Anti-Nazi League was the SWP's baby prior to UAF, but after some terrible publicity, funds were withdrawn and its collapse was instant. The ANL website, which had been updated every day for over a year, was just left and never touched again, as if frozen in time. That's because the money stopped and without being paid, the web editor just couldn't be bothered to do the job.

So don't be surprised if you read of anti-BNP organisations at each other's throats and criticising each other loudly in the press. It's just a show for the Labour Party and the Trade Unions in the scramble to get their hands on the bulging anti-BNP purse both provide.

It is good to see that employers have been warned not to act against staff who are members of the British National Party.
Legal experts have told employers that they face unfair dismissal or discrimination claims if they try to persecute someone for their political beliefs.
An employment law partner at law firm Ralli said:
“No one has the right to dismiss an employee for membership of a political party.”
An associate practice lawyer at legal firm Eversheds added that staff with a year’s service or more would be protected against being unfairly dismissed.
“Dismissing someone simply because they are a member of a political party such as the BNP will difficult to justify. This is an extremely tricky legal area. Legislation prohibits discrimination on grounds of belief, and data protection laws mean there are restrictions on how employers use any information taken from the leaked BNP list."
Of course, what we really need is for someone who has been unfairly dismissed to receive a court ruling in their favour and a huge compensation package which would in itself deter employers from persecuting BNP members. Just like employers now are frightened of sacking anyone from the ethnic minorities because they know they will almost certainly face a race relations challenge. And again, we need a police officer to challenge the illegal policy now in place in Britain's police forces. One of Britain's leading employment barristers says that any challenge in the European Court would almost certainly be successful.

In the Membership Office, things are now at last beginning to quieten down and yesterday there were another two BNP members who decided they were Sparticus after all and I expect there will be more in the coming weeks. One interesting spin off from the leaked list has been the fact that many 2007 members who hadn't bothered to renew for 2008 have suddenly come back on board. Time and time again they have said on the telephone, "Well I'm being called a paid-up member of the British National Party, so I might as well really be one."