Barking With Barnbrook

I am in receipt of a missive from Richard Barnbrook, the Barking BNP councillor for Dagenham, husband-to-be of Simone Clarke and would-be British National Party mayor of London. The missive, a folded A3 page saturated in red, white and blue, is a good deal slicker than Andrew Mennear's bumph for the general election three years ago, which ranged from lacklustre through incoherent to inane, and could have done with the attentions of Richard Barnbrook's proofreader - and this in a marginal constituency.

Barnbrook's bumph presents itself as a newsletter (The Londoner - Putting London First!) and, in its Mosleyan patriotic fervour and paranoid squealing about immigration, resembles nothing so much as a Daily Mail colour supplement. Richard Barnbrook himself appears on the inside, in a babyshit-brown suit and a pensive expression. He advocates "scrapping the congestion charge" and "removing speed cameras", thereby "improving traffic flow". He also intends improving public transport, reducing the council tax, improving hospitals, stopping health tourists, campaigning for more council houses and working for a stop to all further immigration. He will also "free the police from the handcuffs of political correctness" which got so many of them sacked a while ago over a couple of shot foreigners; and wishes to "make sure that local people are housed first and that overseas spongers don't just jump the queue". The reasoning behind all this appears to be "because it's not racist to oppose mass immigration and political correctness - it's commonsense!"

Also on the inside are ten "People Like You Voting British National Party", few of whom appear to be much like me. Builder Ken Seager votes BNP "because I'm proud of my country and its heritage. We should celebrate things like St George's Day and other British festivals like St Andrew's Day instead of Ramadan and Eid." I have no idea who is forcing Ken Seager to celebrate Ramadan and Eid; indeed, since Ramadan involves a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset, I am not sure many Muslims would regard it as a "celebration", either. Carer Tracey Lansdown supports the BNP because she is "appalled at the lack of cleanliness in our hospitals, leading to MRSA and other deadly diseases. There are many doctors and nurses employed who can't even speak English!" If there's one thing that causes lack of cleanliness, it's a lot of dirty foreigners. That's not racist - it's commonsense.

There are, of course, other Daily Mail issues besides immigration. Lawyer Tony Young supports the BNP because of the poor persecuted motorists. The BNP are "the only party who want to abolish the congestion charge as it has been a disaster for businesses" whose employees cannot walk or use public transport. Housewife Lorraine Henry supports the BNP because "Knife and gun crimes are out of control and paedophiles are released back into the community". Businessman Chris Forster supports the BNP because "they are the only party that wants to get us out of Europe", which will come as a surprise to all the foaming Atlanticists in the two Thatcherite parties. Designer Simone Clarke supports the BNP because "they're the only party who have the guts to speak out on the issues that count", such as immigration. "There are over one million illegal immigrants in London already, and many more flood in each year", thanks to New New Labour's political correctness. Councillor Pat Richardson is a BNP member because "no one else speaks out against the Islamification of our country" which has so traumatised the builder Ken Seager. Councillor Pat Richardson is Jewish, which "only adds to my concern about this aggressive creed [Islam, that is, not British nationalist non-racist commonsense] that also threatens our secular values and Christian traditions". Apparently our secular values and Christian traditions do not threaten each other; or if they do, the BNP has yet to indicate which side it considers the less aggressive creed and which would get its face walked over. According to student Samantha White, the BNP are also "the only party that cares about the Irish", whose "jobs are under threat from economic migrants". The BNP "value the Irish community and will defend our interests", much as the BNP values the business community, the working community and the Jewish community - everyone who isn't black or Muslim. That's not racist - it's commonsense.

The front cover presents two photographs showing "The Changing Face of London". The first is a monochrome depiction of some street celebration with Union Jacks flying overhead. All the people in it are women and children, evidently gathered together in plucky British defiance of rabid Islamic rules about sexual segregation. Everyone in the picture is white. Judging from the hairstyles and the skirt length, it could be VE Day - or perhaps VJ Day, since it is no doubt less racist to celebrate defeating the yellowbellies than it is to celebrate defeating fellow Aryans. This is "the way London used to be. At ease with itself, friendly, happy and secure. A capital city with a sense of community values and social inclusiveness", except when it came to including the wrong sort of people, of course. The second photograph is a colour picture of three people with dark skins and covered faces. One of them has two fingers up at the camera. This is the price we pay for immigration. Inside, above the caption "We need to clamp down on gangs and make our streets safe again", is a picture of five black boys and one who is either a traitor to his kind or a product of miscegenation. On the back, next to yet another "NO" to immigration, is a picture of a demonstration with placards reading "Slay those who insult Islam" and "Butcher those who mock Islam". Perhaps they're the ones who have been bullying poor Ken Seager. Kicking such people out is commonsense, not racist.