Andrew Norfolk
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In the Victorian spa town of Harrogate, there are ladies at lunch who would appear to regard the very mention of party politics as an act of unseemly vulgarity.
Utter the name of the British National Party and they turn pale. It is as though an unwelcome guest has suddenly belched during afternoon tea at Bettys.
Yet it is to Harrogate — and other communities scattered across the hills and dales of North Yorkshire — that the BNP has turned as it seeks to spread its gospel of discontent beyond the urban heartlands of its past election victories.
This year, the target is rural England. The BNP is fielding a record 746 candidates, more than twice its previous efforts, and claims to be confident of building significantly on the 49 seats currently held.
In affluent Harrogate, where last year it had fielded only one — unsuccessful — candidate, the BNP is contesting fifteen of the twenty seats. Labour, by contrast, has put up only nine candidates.
Most wards will see a straight fight between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Each is defending nine seats; the remaining two are held by independents.
It would be a shock of some magnitude if the BNP won even a single seat here, but close attention is being paid to its overall share of the poll. Last year, the party received 19.2 per cent of the votes cast in the 356 local authority wards it contested. If it achieves a similar mark in Harrogate, so the argument goes, then nowhere would be safe from the far Right.
The antiimmigration message might seem to have little chance of success in Harrogate, where black and Asian faces are a rarity. Until recently, the town’s largest ethnic minority group was its handful of Chinese residents.
Since 2004, however, North Yorkshire has become home to thousands of migrant workers from eastern Europe, the majority of them young Poles who have found jobs in employment sectors ranging from farms and factories to hotels, restaurants and care homes. Tom Linden, the BNP organiser for North Yorkshire, says their willingness to accept relatively low rates of pay is driving down wages, undercutting British workers and leading to reduced investment in training.
“Why would an employer put British teenagers through apprenticeships when he can advertise for some workers in Poland and get them the next day? The BNP, he said, saw “a massive untapped potential in North Yorkshire”.
“Local people are suffering every day, not just because the country is being taken over by nonnative British people, but because of things like crime and antisocial behaviour.
“We need to channel this resentment, not against the Polish community but against the people who are making the decisions at Westminster.” Last year, there were 1,160 migrant workers in Harrogate, a town with a population of 60,000.
Mr Linden would have been disappointed, however, had he listened to the overwhelmingly positive language used this week by Harrogate locals to describe their experience of the new arrivals.
At the Old Swan Hotel, where Agatha Christie found refuge after she famously vanished for 11 days in 1926, more than half of the 60 full-time staff are eastern Europeans, most of them from Poland.
Sandi Brown, the hotel’s human resources manager, said they were “an absolute pleasure” to work with. “They have a good work ethic, they’re very flexible and they are respectful, polite and reliable.
“We have had people with doctorates working here as porters, but they never complain. The guests like them because they are friendly and helpful and we rarely have any disciplinary problems.”
Jacek Kaleta, 27, taught maths at a secondary school in Poland but has spent the past year as a carer at a Harrogate residential home. He said that he had been “made to feel very welcome” in the town and would have “only good memories” of his time in North Yorkshire.
It took five minutes of, as she later put it, “pussyfooting around” the subject before one expensively groomed woman on James Street was ready to suggest why Poles in Harrogate may have been accepted more readily than Pakistanis in Halifax: only one group is white and predominantly Christian.
“The eastern Europeans are so polite and so easy to get on with. I was trying to find a nice way of saying this, but it’s the Muslims that people are getting alarmed about,” she said.
“There aren’t many here, but Leeds and Bradford are not far away. People feel quite strongly about immigration and there’s definitely less of a stigma about voting BNP these days. I think they might do quite well in Harrogate.” She would not give her name and nor would the 85-year-old man, immaculate in tweed jacket and tie, who later confessed that he “wouldn’t be averse to voting for the BNP”. A former radio officer who started working at Bletchley Park in 1940 and was flown out of occupied France two weeks after the fall of Dunkirk, he was ready to see most politicians consigned to hell in a handcart.
“There was a time when we were all proud to be British, but we seem to have lost that. The BNP are not racist; they’re patriotic and they’ve got it right — looking after our own people should be this country’s first priority.”
Mike Gardner, the Tory leader of the council, was “very surprised” by the BNP’s assault on Harrogate but thought it “virtually impossible” that they would win a seat.
More pressing concerns for most voters in a town which, he pointed out, was declared the fourth best place to live in the UK by a Channel 4 programme last year, were “the state of the roads, dog fouling and litter”.
Phil Willis, the town’s Liberal Democrat MP for the past 10 years, is less sanguine about the BNP threat.
“They’re targeting a middle-class, affluent community as part of a long-term strategy to build up their voter base before the next European elections,” he said.
“The major parties have got to address this. This is no longer a party which can be disregarded. If places like Harrogate are going to attract BNP voters, then we’ve all got to ask ourselves what we’re doing wrong.” Mr Willis does not find it inconceivable that the BNP might win a seat on the council come May 3.
He points to nearby Ripon, a proud cathedral city which complains of being Harrogate’s poor relation and was visited last week by Nick Griffin, the BNP leader.
“We have a disredited Government and people are turning to parties which offer a very simple message. People in Ripon have always had a major chip on their shoulder and the BNP are there to exploit that.”
Record numbers
–– The BNP has 746 candidates in the local elections in England, including 174
in Yorkshire
–– It is fielding a full slate of 32 candidates for the Scottish Parliament
and 20 for the Welsh Assembly
–– Last year it received 19.2 per cent of the vote in the 356 English local
authority wards it contested
–– The BNP has 49 councillors, including Barking & Dagenham
(12), Burnley (7), Epping Forest (6), Stoke-on-Trent (5), Sandwell (4),
Kirklees (3) and Bradford and Calderdale (2 each)
–– It has candidates for the first time in Cornwall, Dorset, Staffordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk
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I was so relieved that the BNP had so few votes in Ripon. Phill Willis appears to have underestimated Ripon residents. It is a shame that in his own Harrogate town, two areas had 10% and 12% of BNP voters. It is hoped he addresses this issue
Lisa, Ripon, UK
the first priority of any government should be the safety and well being of its people.The present lot have forgotten this , and concentrate on spending our taxes on newcomers,third world countries , and futile wars, i see no future here for my children , and urge them to emigrate We have forgotten who we are,the English
phil jackson, brighton, England
Good article that shows the BNP have support from middle class areas as well. I am beginning to think that the liberal elitists in conjunction with Labour and the BBC want to destroy our whole British culture. I recomend everyone reads the book Londistan by Melanie Phillips which starkly illustrates how our way of life is being undermined. I would myself also vote for the BNP but alas they are not running in my area so Tory it will be.
Janice Livings, Watford,
The key issue here is mass immigration, who CARES what colour the immigates are? British people like other people everywhere want to preserve a common culture and heritage. I am a BNP supporter but I am not a racist. I don't believe most Brits are racists. I feel sorry for non-ethnic british whites reading the comments on here, and getting offended/scared- but its not about them!
All people in the UK (and in particular the poor) have had enough, of being hammered by the insideous unlimited immigration policy of this government.
The only viable altenative to the political status quo is a party like the BNP which will shake things up!!
The woolly political arguements between the main three parties mean absolutely NOTHING in the scheme of things..
Rock on BNP!
steve, northants, uk
I am a Chinese and shouldn't support the BNP. However, I can understand the indigenous people's rage. What the political elites in the past 50 years have been doing is plain contempt to their own people, working class at first and lately the middle class. Britain is not really a democratic country if the majority does not prevail. Britain is no longer British if she loses her culture and identity to the unwanted and uncontrolled immigration.
James Wong, Macau,
All you people who say you're not allowed to feel pride in your country...... who's stopping you? Learn some history. Tell us the specific things that can make England proud - cos they're there but you have to look for them and they are not the british empire. You need to find out who England's true heroes were. The reason you are afraid is because you want the big boys to come along and tell you what a good boy you are, that you're in the top gang. Because you have no real rebelliousness in you and just want to be told what to think by the hardest boys in the playground you will always be manipulated by authoritarians and bullies and half wits like the BNP.
Scottish Nationalist.
anja, edinburgh,
Wow an unbiased report on the BNP for a change,thankyou.Things are looking up.Good luck to all the BNP candidates in the forthcoming elections.
John, Bristol,
I would certainly vote BNP if we had a candidate where I live.
Madge, Tunbridge Wells,
Only 10% of the population are immigrants. Directly, they make £2.5b net contribution and indirectly, because they spend money in local shops, restaurants, pubs and cinemas etc., they help not only with the local economy, but also tax revenue by paying VAT. Employers who might have gone under are not only surviving, but are expanding their businesses and paying more council and national taxes. Many immigrants are self-employed (corner shops, take-ways and restaurants) so they not only pay personal tax, but also business taxes.
Ernst and Young item club say immigrants add 0.5%-1% to economic growth, interest rates would be half percentage point higher without immigrants and have reduced trade deficit by £1billion every year. PricewaterhouseCoopers comes to similar conclusions.
Wages have increased on average 4% this year not lowered.
In the future, who will pay the increasing ageing populations health and home care costs? Our children and employers will be taxed up to the hilt.
sasaha gill, london, engand
If I were living in an area where a lot of public money was being spent to buy the vote of the ethnic minorities I would vote BNP in a local election, but not in a general election for the simple reson that it will take away votes from the Tories and we don't want another Labour G'ment. However, I agree with what they stand for & I want to see some action taken to stop the influx of immigrants to the country particuarly, non Christians. I believe that the subject of immigration is one of the top topics that most people talk about - not always openly - but certainly, behind closed doors, as it effects everyone. The BNP is bringing it out into the open & with candidates walking the streets who have an articulate & personable demeanor who do not appear racist, but factual they will indeed win more local seats & possibly, in middle England. Perhaps, they should consider Hampshire especially, Southhampton where the influx of 25,000 Poles is begining to have an effect on our social services
James, Winchester,
I now see no mainline party that gives me and my family any representation and since I do not fit into any of the pressure groups ( gay,black,Asian etc ) then I will be voting for them as well.
raymond, epsom, england
As a little boy I was in my Sunday school class listening to a missionary from Africa. At the time in Bromley High Street on Saturday evening's by the train station one would pay for ones newspaper by leaving cash in an open tin and take your change with honesty as the driving ethic. The missionary from Africa said that if this was Africa someone would steal all the money and all the newspapers. As children we looked around at each other in awe that such a place could exist.
I mourn for the past. I mourn for the days of singular authority structures and a culture where people knew who they were and how they fit in. I mourn for a nation that no longer exists.
Bob Hitching
Varazdin, Croatia
Bob Hitching, Varazdin, Croatia
Oh dear.
What have you lost from 'your country'?
This fallacious notion that immigrants have removed aspects of British culture is nonsense. What is British culture anyway?
The BNP are merely making it acceptable for people to air their senseless prejudices. It used to be that people moaned that immigrants came here to sponge off the state.. now the main complaint is that they come here to do the jobs our feckless natives sneer at! And as for this driving down wages rubbish, most of the jobs mentioned are minimum wage anyway, so the only way the wages could go down is if sneaky BRITISH employers decided to cheat the system!
I arrogance of some people astounds me. We live in a country where we made our wealth and standing (and in many respects continue to do so) from the exploitation and colonisation of other peoples' lands. Yet when people come here simply wanting to work, we act like it's the blitz or something.
Ugh.
milton, glasgow,
Furthermore, when we speak of British democracy' we do so in an ethnic as well as a civic sense. We do not accept the absurd superstition of human equality. Whether the now totally discredited feminist argument that men and women are innately the same, to the partly refuted egalitarian claim that everyone within a given population is born as a blank slate with the same innate potential, or to the still dominant Politically Correct denial of the existence of differences on average between members of different races we reject all these irrational myths.
BNP General Election Manifesto 2005.
R Twose, London,
All British governments have, for the past half-century, conducted a policy of mass immigration of unassimilable settlers in the British homeland against the wishes of the British people, yet Phil Willis, LibDem MP, pathetically whines The major parties have got to address this weve all got to ask ourselves what were doing wrong, and Mike Gardner, Tory council leader, seems to think dog fouling and litter are more important than the survival of the nation. And these people are surprised that voters are turning to the BNP?
IM Archer, Alton, England
What's wrong with voting BNP then Jesse ? If you or anybody else think the old gang parties can change then you're only deluding yourself
stephen stone, east london, england
Only 10% of the population are immigrants. Directly, they make £2.5b net contribution and indirectly, because they spend money in local shops, restaurants, pubs and cinemas etc., they help not only with the local economy, but also tax revenue by paying VAT. Employers who might have gone under are not only surviving, but are expanding their businesses and paying more council and national taxes. Many immigrants are self-employed (corner shops, take-ways and restaurants) so they not only pay personal tax, but also business taxes.
Ernst and Young item club say immigrants add 0.5%-1% to economic growth, interest rates would be half percentage point higher without immigrants and have reduced trade deficit by £1billion every year. PricewaterhouseCoopers comes to similar conclusions.
Wages have increased on average 4% this year not lowered.
In the future, who will pay the increasing ageing populations health and home care costs? Our children and employers will be taxed up to the hilt.
sasaha gill, london, uk
I certainly do not want to see the BNP get into power. I do like so many people want to see the main parties shocked into delivering decent policies on immigration and integration. We are the laughing stock of the world with our porous borders, hand-outs and human rights legislation that seems to protect everyone but the tax payer.
Labour has done nothing but undermine the entire fabirc, structure and culture of English life and I think they may begin to see fight back coming.
marc, London,
I am an Indian looking woman who was born and raised in England. Recently I was eating a bacon sandwich at my local market when I was surrounded by 5 women wearing the all encompassing jilbab and wailing. Apparentely they were offended by an Asian looking woman eating a bacon sandwich.
I am fed up with these people who feel we should fit into their culture rather than them into English culture. I have always voted Tory but this time round if there is a BNP candidate standing in my Chelsea ward I may well vote for them. Cameron needs to realise the country wants more direct action, not fluffy talk about huggies hoodies or being green.
Stephanie, London, England
There was a time when we were all proud to be British, but we seem to have lost that. The BNP are not racist; theyre patriotic and theyve got it right looking after our own people should be this countrys first priority.
This 85-year old gentleman has it exactly right, he can remember how it used to be, whereas so many younger people have no idea and have been socially engineered to think the opposite. National Pride is coming back!
D.Wood, Bolton, England
This Government has given people enough concern to vote BNP. If trouble comes from this, they only have themselves to blame. The problem is that, down in London, in their Ivory towers, the reality of the immigrant situation, with overwhelming numbers in some places, escapes politicians. The lack of civilised behaviour in some of our northern cities is now abhorrent and the feeling is that the BNP cannot do any worse than the mainstream parties on this issue.
judy, Liverpool, england
As a white, middle-class female the 'establishment' parties have nothing to offer me but discrimination (due to my ethnicity and sex). I live in central Leeds and have witnessed the rapid and frightening changes which have transformed the city into yet another multi-cultural mish-mash of third-world immigrants and an underclass of benefit dependent whites. The British National Party has my vote.
Caroline Ashley, Leeds, England
I will be voting BNP in the local elections
Give them a go for Britain!
John Merritt, Oxted, Surrey
Wether your for or against imagration...1 question...When is enough,enough, were does the goverment draw the line and say "sorry the country is full"
Im far from racist,but in Blackburn,Burnley,Nelson etc,and most other towns and cities in the north of England, you can drive or walk through the town center without seeing a single white person,how can this be multicultural....its not working.
Why does this bother me?...simply because the countries of,England,Wales and Scotland are losing their identity in exhange for what? Not what i want for my children.
Its sad that this is the only country on earth were its unacceptable for me as a man to be proud of the country, heritage and way of life i was born into.
Will the BNP ever get in number 10, probably never,but if they gain enough support,perhaps,maybe,the goverment,whichever goverment might start to take an interest in this country instead of spending so much time and money involved in other nations buisness
VOTE BNP.
S farmer, Blackburn, Lancashire
Another new BNP voter here because the other parties aren't willing to do anything
John, Salford, England
The thing about Polish people coming is that the BNP doesn't even realise what it's getting. Polish people are very honest and are about 100 times more ready to assimilate and respect British Culture than Muslims will.
moose, manchester,
Not something I would admit to anyone who asked, but I have voted BNP in the last few elections when they appear on the ballot.
Not because I personally dislike asian or black people, but because white people deserve a bit of pride as well.
It seems these days that we are the only ethnic group in the U.K that does not have the right to feel pride about our background and history.
Add to that the almost laughable Labour and the quite puzzling modern tories and there really isnt anyone left to vote for.
Personally I hope the major parties get the hint and start giving a damn about what the voters think and feel rather than simply mouthing Politically correct platitudes and perhaps I will not have to vote BNP anymore.
Jesse, London,
I dont believe the label right wing is correct for the BNP, their policies are more like the old labour party. However If you drop the label rubbish, it seems like the BNP are BRITISH Nationalists, who are more concerned with the lot of British people above all other issues. Everything else falls into place after you grasp that basic concept.
Give me back my country, way of life, and the things I hold dear for my grandchildren ant their children. lets get out of the EU and have a political party with some spine and the guts to stand for the downtrodden people of this once great land.
I WILL be voting BNP, and I'm proud to say it !!!!
Rusty, Bradford,
I dont want england to be an islamic country, in 2060 we will have a tipping point. the bnp are the only party who have what it takes to stop this otherwise fact.
JOHN SMITH, thornton heath, england