Does the BNP have a future in Kirklees?
Dec 29 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
The party ran candidates in every Kirklees ward except Greenhead at May’s council elections.
But Mr Roberts revealed that most voters in Huddersfield and the Valleys will not have the chance to vote for the party in next year’s council elections.
He said: “I’ve always said it was silly contesting every ward and I think we should concentrate on half a dozen wards – most of them in north Kirklees – where we have a chance.”
The party’s opponents agree with Mr Roberts on one thing – the BNP is not finished in Kirklees.
Council leader Clr Mehboob Khan said: “I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them. They are still around, still active and still exploiting issues in the local community.”
Clr Khan believes the party’s three Kirklees councillors were unseated because they failed to deliver for their voters.
The Greenhead Labour man said: “The party’s honeymoon was over very quickly because people saw they weren’t offering an alternative.
“Their wicked lies and myths designed to divide communities weren’t appealing to local people. Therefore, they suffered at the ballot box.”
Clr Andrew Cooper, who leads the Green Party on Kirklees Council, agrees.
The Newsome man said: “The BNP had a high watermark of three councillors which fell away very quickly.
“We’ve always got to be vigilant about these sort of far-right organisations. The views they put forward do not reflect the values we have as a country.”
Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman believes his party can take credit for the BNP’s downturn.
He said: “We did get it wrong in areas where we are strong because we weren’t listening to people.
“But we’ve learned the lesson that if you don’t talk to people about issues which concern them – like immigration – you leave space for the BNP.
“That doesn’t mean we must take on the BNP’s policies, but we mustn’t exclude people who have concerns.”
University of Huddersfield politics lecturer Dr Andrew Mycock believes the party risks losing out to the English Defence League (EDL) which has held marches in cities across the country against the so-called Islamification of Britain.
He said: “Internally the party has started to collapse into huge schisms and there are a lot of questions about Nick Griffin’s style of leadership.
“But the thing that’s really undermined them is the EDL which has outflanked them.
“The BNP became more mainstream and had to change its constitution to let non-white members join. Many of those on the extremes don’t see it as a party they adhere to any more.
“The EDL is a far more radical challenge. The BNP has tried to change things through democracy while the EDL is a return to the streets which is deliberately trying to promote conflict.”
