Thugs are still out there

Amid the financial doom and gloom, and the ubiquitous focus on recession statistics, it's easy to forget there are dangers elsewhere. The government's higher education minister, David Lammy, warned last week that unless there's a sustained and organised fight against the British National Party, there's a real risk that, come the European elections next year, the BNP could win enough votes to become the British equivalent of Jean Marie Le Pen's Front National in France.

Lammy doesn't have a decent profile and it's no surprise, therefore, that his warning went largely unnoticed. Even claiming that Labour had to wise-up and copy the "grass-roots" strategy of Barack Obama's US presidential campaign, whilst emphasising that the would-be president and himself share Harvard credentials, Lammy's message was a tangential whisper in the party political clamour for economic credibility.

All of which must be delighting the manipulative thugs that continue to try to pass themselves off as a credible party. The BNP's latest bilge attempts to link the claimed reduction in high-level thinking among 14-year-olds to the rise in the ethnic make-up of British teenagers. There's no point in analysing the BNP's failure to understand simple mathematical correlations. Racist dunces often resort to statistics to "prove" their prejudices.

This time it's numbers from the Office of National Statistics on the Third World origins of immigrant children, linked by the BNP school-of-infant-adding-up to a study of teenage mental aptitude by Professor Michael Sayer of King's College London.

The BNP's conclusion? Because "white" pupils are now outnumbered (total junk maths) by Asian and black children, our precious imperial standards are falling.

Lammy saying Labour have "failed" to address white working-class concerns, I can understand. What I can't comprehend is why Professor Sayer isn't hugely outraged at the way the BNP have kidnapped his work, woven selective lifts from his study into its own numerical diarrhoea and, Goebbels-like, conjured up a racist myth.

So where is the measure of more short-attention television programming, computer games and the rest? Where is the multivariate analysis, the simulations and surrogate models that accommodate the dimensionality of what's being looked at? Hell, that sounds like a tough night in for the wooden tops at BNP headquarters.

So let's be careful out there. In between the FTSE and Dow Jones, there's the BNP. As Lammy says, pay attention.

Sunday Herald (Scotland)

Victim is punched after row over BNP

A fight erupted between two men after an argument about the British National Party, Swindon Magistrates’ Court heard. Philip Owen, 42, from Albion Street in the town centre, pleaded guilty to hitting Sean Enwright at a Swindon working men’s club on June 6 last year.

The actual bodily harm charge came about after Owen had been talking about the BNP to his friends when he asked Mr Enwright, a former military man, if he would join the group. He did not like the content of the conversation so Mr Enwright, 59, said the Second World War was meant to stop people behaving in the way Owen was acting. Owen saw red, saying “I’m going to hurt you,” before attacking him.

Mr Enwright suffered a cut to his left ear and was unable to remember how he got to the Great Western Hospital when he regained consciousness. Owen, who has a history of ABH incidents on his record stretching back to 1983, did not make any comment to police during his first interview. But he later pleaded guilty to the charge.

“You hit him and he is a lot older than you,” said Judge Simon Cooper. “You were fired up and shouldn’t have allowed yourself to punch him. But there were no serious injuries and they has been no record of violence for 15 years. I believe this was an isolated incident.”

CCTV footage captured the incident unfolding, although the judge said viewing the tape would not expand on the facts of the case.

Owen apologised for the incident and for wasting the courts’ time. He was given a 12-month community order, which will be supervised for the first nine months, in a conflict resolution programme. He also will carry out 100 hours of community service in unpaid work.

Owen was ordered to pay £200 in compensation for the injury and suffering to Mr Enwright and £60 court costs. It will be paid in two instalments over the next two months.

Swindon Advertiser

Huddersfield attack press release

Kirklees Unity

Press Release
31st May 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

The fascist BNP and their far right friends have stepped up their intimidation of trade unionists and political activists in Kirklees.

On Friday morning a young female student was attacked on her way to work by three armed members of the far right.

They pulled her to the ground, kicked her repeatedly in the ribs and slashed at her head with a knife. Whilst attacking her they called her “A Dirty Red” and “Filthy Lesbo” the latter being a reference to the victims sexuality. She suffered a fractured rib and severe bruising, but given the severity of the assault the injuries could have been far worse.

The attackers singled out this student because she campaigns on her campus to drive out the BNP.The victim is also a member of Unison and the NUS.
They knew her name and route to work, and deliberately targeted her to intimidate her and others campaigning against the far right.

The incident has been reported to West Yorkshire Police and they are currently investigating the attack.

The victim may be available for comment but will require anonymity in the media for fear of reprisal.

For further information regarding this press release you can contact Kirklees Unity at the following email address.

kirkleesunity@yahoo.co.uk

END