The Barnet BNP Bugle?

This is the 352'nd blog I've posted on Blogspot. In a different world, it may well have been the 1st. I originally had a blog on the Barnet Times website. They asked me to be a community blogger. When I started, the plan was to write about music mostly with a few sidelines about local issues. It didn't work out like that. As I scoured for inspiration, I found that there were far more local issues that required covering than music stories. All sorts of people would track me down & tip me off. I felt duty bound to cover these issues & take up their fight. During the course of the blog I rattled the cages of the local Tory ruling elite many times. They were not happy. In my final blog, I drew attention to a Youtube clip, posted by Barnet Council, which featured some inflammatory & anti semitic comments. The elite went mad. Pressure was brought to bear on the then editor and I was sacked as a blogger. The reason? The then editor of the Times felt that the tone of my coverage was "over the top". He felt that I may one day get a press complaint. He said that he didn't object to the blog, just the title "Barnet Council uses taxpayers money to put Nazi propoganda on YouTube". The council soon removed the clip, vindicating my stance.

In a parallel universe, just suppose I'd stayed there? I was quite happy blogging for the Times. Today I would have resigned. Why you may ask? Well the owners of the Times are Newsquest group. Today I read this story in the Tory Troll blog. Newsquest are taking money from the BNP to place adverts at the top of the page in the Stourbridge News, one of their local papers (recognise the familiar layout).

What in effect this means is that bosses of the group are having their pockets lined by an organisation which said on National TV that no black person is British. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP told Andrew Neil that even Johnson Beharry VC, one of the bravest people alive today on this Island CANNOT consider himself British.

There is another serious point to be made here. When dealing with organisations such as the BNP in a country with free speech, we have difficult dilemmas. Should they be allowed to advertise on a local paper? I view their politics rather like I view cigarettes. The are toxic, so you can't advertise them. I'd allow them access to debates where their views can be challenged, but I'd not let them peddle their dangerous wares unopposed. They sell the lie that they are patriotic, but British values are ones of freedom, tolerance and honesty. The BNP oppose all of these.

I don't want my writings to appear under a BNP masthead or ever be associated with them. That is why I would have resigned. Rather strangely, this blog is the opposite of the one I thought I would be writing today. As you will have read in the Barnet Eye over the weekend, the Barnet Times has dropped it's pro-Tory policy. There was further evidence of this today, with the publication of two letters supporting the Campaign to stop warden cuts. I was going to say well done to the Times. I'm sorry to say that, given who is paying the wages there, I can't.

I am not saying Rebecca, Elizabeth or Tom or any of the rest of our crew locally are BNP supporters, far from it, they are probably unaware of these adverts at the moment. I must say that if I was a journalist on the group, I'd go on strike until the adverts stopped. I am sure that they are all in the NUJ and would get supported. I know that even journalists have to pay the rent, so it's not easy, but sometimes you have to do wth right thing.

I personally would never ever knowingly allow the BNP to be promoted by my efforts.