In a shock result which rendered the previously vociferous Labour Twitterati silent last night, City Independent candidate Jackie Barnes won the Springfields and Trent Vale by-election.
The seat formerly held by Sarah Hill until her resignation from the cabinet & the city council was thought to be a safe Labour seat. Continue reading
Well we are in to the final week of campaigning for the much sought after seat of Springfields and Trent Vale, all the main parties have been up here pounding the streets over the past few days. Everything but the kitchen sink & PCC Candidate Joy Garner has been thrown at S&TV by Labour, even Council Leader ‘part time’ Pervez has been leafletting. Continue reading
I would like to make known my views on two vital issues affecting Stoke-on-Trent.
1 – It’s transparently clear to me that the hate-filled powers that be (the political establishment of London) are imposing a terrible programme of social change upon us. This change, the enforced multi-racialising of Stoke-on-Trent, has never been discussed on the public stage by the Lib/Lab/Con front organisations. This ‘population replacement’ policy has never been put to the people of this city for their consideration, never has this vile plan ever been promoted as part of an election campaign, it does not appear in any of the ‘establishment parties’ manifestos! I put it to the people of Stoke-on-Trent that this city is the subject of a diabolical plot to permanently change this city from being the proud, English industrial city that we know and love and into being a multi-culti dump where foreigners outnumber the indigenous Stokies!
Continue reading
Ever keen to promote democracy, Eye Spy feels it is his duty to bring residents’ attention to the candidates for the upcoming Springfields and Trent Vale byelection, seeing as the Council PR Department haven’t.
Anyone searching for the Statement of Persons Nominated at the end of last week could be forgiven for not finding it, tucked well away from the homepage (alongside the Masterplan for Stoke town centre no doubt…). Continue reading
Those who thought all out elections would bring some stability to our Council must be feeling embarrassed this week as Council Leader Mohammed Pervez took a scalpel to his cabinet, cutting out the disobedient Gratton and challenger Hill, and carving up the other portfolios in what is quite clearly more than the ‘tweaking’ he described it as.
The introduction of Platt and Dutton is seen as a nod to the left wingers in the group, who re-emerged in 2011 to rival the modernisers who were in danger of taking over Labour. Continue reading
Former Stoke-on-Trent BNP councillor Michael Coleman will go on trial accused of causing racial harassment over a seven-month period.
Coleman who denied two charges against him when he appeared at North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court requested a crown court trial. Continue reading
The BNP Roadshow hit Stoke-on-Trent today [Sunday] to launch their local election manifesto.
In a very low key affair, National Media Spokesman Simon Darby, National Organiser Adam Walker and Stoke BNP Leader Michael Coleman addressed a small number of party activists, security and local councillors in Bennett Precinct in Longton town Centre. Continue reading
The BNP will be rolling back into town again on Sunday with the launch of their English Manifesto. This time, Longton hosts the launch. It will be interesting to see if support for the BNP is as diminished as it was in last May’s elections, or whether they have done enough to regroup and revive this time around.
I have never been a fan of the BNP. Being of mixed race myself, I have always been suspicious of their motives. Being accosted by National Front Skinheads as a boy will certainly make you suspicious, if not angry and fearful. However, since working on PnP I have tried to put my personal prejudices aside and report on what I see, as opposed to what I might be feeling due to external influence.
Having met the BNP senior leadership last year, I’d at least had the opportunity to talk and interact with them in a normal way, without having my judgement swayed by what I’d read in the papers.
I really don’t know what the BNP would do to people like me, if they were to ever gain power in a general election. They say that there would be no forced repatriation. They do however say, that ethnic minorities would be offered money to leave the country. Both Nick Griffin and Simon Darby were at pains to point out that this was an old Labour Policy. No one from Labour ever came round to my house asking me to leave and waving a one way ticket to Barbados though.
I ‘ve heard from multiple sources that Stoke BNP has some good councillors. I have also heard that they have got some or had some pretty useless ones too. The results last may showed that the BNP were losing popularity within the city. However, The recession has really begun to bite now, and I’m sure the BNP will be really looking to capitalise on that fact.
Some of the noises the BNP have been making abut Mosques worry me. If an immigrant comes to this country legally, and he/she is a Muslim, then I have no issue with them whatsoever in letting them use their money to purchase buildings to be used as Mosques. So long as there is adequate parking and facilities and that all the proper planning procedures have been followed. Like many though I do have reservations about the addition of Domes and Minarets being added. I’m a Derbyshire lad and grew up in an area where the planning laws were very strict. Driving around Stoke-on-Trent I’m regularly surprised with some of the building alterations that have been allowed. I personally think that Domes and Minarets would change the character of the town. I’ve seen them in Birmingham, and very pretty they are too but im my mind they look out of place because this is Britain. It should be noted though that Britain has many Sikh temples, with Domes and I haven’t heard the BNP moaning about those, the opposite in-fact, regularly claiming Sikhs as allies.
Of course Britain is changing all the time and always has been so perhaps I’m behind step in my thinking? I would challenge any unusual building project though not just ones pertaining to religious buildings.
There will be many who say that they are shocked by my article, and some will say I’m even defending the BNP. I say that they are a political party, a legal party. If we want to be fair, and to live in a fair society then we must allow them to speak. If we don’t like what they say then we all have the option of not voting for them.
That’s why I’m writing this blog, and it’s the same reason I wrote the blog post “The day I met the BNP” . Because I don’t approve of the constant lampooning the mainstream press give the BNP. Last May, the mainstream press pushed past PNP to get at the BNP, yet not a one of the broadsheets or tabloids wrote anything worthy of reading when it came to the policy. That’s just pathetic. If the owners of the papers want to work against the BNP then the fairest way would be to write independent articles that detail policy and lay out their argument against it allowing the public to make up their mind.
Nick Griffin told us that the Press had been involved in smear campaign against the BNP, I’d read that before and didn’t believe it really. Until I read the papers the next day. PitsnPots were the only media outlet that told it as it was. the papers just made daft jokes about the bloke dressed as St George.
When I met with Councillor Steven Batkin last year, regarding the Nazi Salute Photo, he was a pleasant and polite man, we treated each other with dignity. Some of his rhetoric was, in my opinion, incorrect and distasteful, but I allowed him to speak and he allowed me to publish.
Politics has become muddied by spin in the last decade. We need to hear all voices and clearly. Let the people decide what they think of the BNP. Regardless of whether the British National Party are cast aside, or increase their seats, I think politics in Britain will be improved for the greater transparency. One could be forgiven for thinking that the larger parties don’t want any more transparency for the BNP, because it will, sooner or later be demanded of them also.
After doing some further investigation in to the Enhanced Recycling trial we have turned up yet another anomaly with the blue bins that leads us to believe the Elected Members were not furnished with the full facts when scrutinising the results of the Enhanced Recycling trial.
The EMB appear to have nodded the Enhanced Recycling Scheme through at the meeting 3 December 2008 only to have it called in by the Improving Communities Overview & Scrutiny committee on 24 December.
The O&S Committee approved the recycling trail with the following recommendations
On 21 May 2009 the O&S Committee sat and heard the the detailed evidence based evaluation of the trial (all 6 pages of it) from Interim Assistant Chief Executive Mike Maunder and other officers.
that he had concerns with regard to the Executive Summary of the report and questioned whether the recyclable value was being maximised and why we needed to wait until the end of the year in order to ascertain the financial aspects of the scheme as he felt that an independent assessment should be carried out immediately. He felt that the decision to go down this route had been decided before the trial was even undertaken and that, even though there was no going back from this position, he was still not convinced that it was the most appropriate way to deal with the issue. He felt that a number of issues had not been given due consideration such as the cost of kerbside versus co-mingled collection and that no detailed analysis of cost had been undertaken. He asked what independent assessment of the current system had taken place and asked whether it was proposed to have one in the future.
Indicated that details of the savings etc. had been set out in the report which had been considered as part of the call-in. He indicated that it had been understood at the start of the trial that there would be a large take up but what was uncertain was the subsequent level of “tail off” that would occur. At the end of the year it would be possible to give members a better feel for that in terms of the trial areas. In addition, the other uncertainty was regarding the value of recyclables, which had therefore not been incorporated into the budget arrangements.
In response to a previous question about the costs associated with the provision of bins etc., he indicated that this had been part of a leasing arrangement and that it had been clear that as part of this agreement that, if we did not make this provision we would not have been in a position to proceed with enhanced recycling this year. If the trial had not been successful, we would have been able to recover the money for the bins because of the current national demand for them.
So the question is, were to O&S committee able to make a qualified decision on the Enhanced Recycling trial without being aware of the full facts?
The O&S Committee members at the meeting were:
The WRAP report commissioned in 2007 which was as far as we can tell ignored and not put before the EMB at the time was also mentioned in the meeting by one of the officers present.
In terms of the independent report, the national organisation WRAP had carried out a review.
The Deputy Leader of the British National Party has resigned with immediate effect.
Simon Darby fought the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat for the far right party at the recent General Election.
He finished a disappointing 4th with just 2502 votes, way behind Labour, Lib Dems and the Conservatives.
The catastrophic performances in the both the Local and General Elections forced BNP Leader Nick Griffin to announce that he is to step down from his role by 2013.
Simon Darby’s decision is seen as a show of loyalty to Griffin and a warning to his potential successors.
He wrote on his blog:
“Quite simply, the post of Deputy Leader has absolutely no constitutional standing, with it being a discretionary appointment being made or not by the duly elected Leader. For anyone to seek to make it an issue in a BNP Leadership election is therefore misguided at best, or insincere at worst.As a result, and wishing to avoid a descent into personality-orientated factionalism, I am going to set an example. I have therefore decided to resign as Deputy Leader of this Party with immediate effect. My purpose in this decision is not only to take this distraction out of the election. Also, if I can endure self-imposed demotion for the greater good of this Party, then I have the moral right to ask that others at least exercise responsibility and restraint.
In particular, that means running a contest that sticks to the real issues, avoids red-herrings such as constitutionally irrelevant positions, and promotes would-be candidates on their own merits rather than setting nationalist brothers and sisters against each other by repeating enemy lies and black propaganda about the current leader and his team.”
He went on to give Nick Griffin this ringing endorsement:
“This Party would be nothing if it wasn’t for Nick Griffin’s total and unreserved commitment to the nationalist cause. It would be a sad, contained creature for contempt and ridicule, rather than the snarling, fighting, in-their-face beast that it is today ““ a constant rebuke and reminder to the Establishment of their treason, betrayal of our people, and the price they will one day have to pay for their crimes.That is why they are trying so hard to destroy the British National Party ““ and the man who, more than any other, has made it what it is, and who remains, in my now humble but still extremely well informed opinion, the only man who can take us forward on the next stage of our epic, just and historic journey.”
He finished his resignation article by formally issuing the following warning to the grass roots BNP membership:
“There is an old saying, “Ëœyou never know what you’ve lost until it’s gone.’ Don’t wake up one morning later this year to find that we’ve lost Nick Griffin and his team, and replaced them with a jostling, squabbling, unstable, untested and indecisive coalition. We elect a Leader to lead, that’s Nick’s job, and he’s the best man to do it.”
Simon Darby’s decision has not only come as a shock to Stoke BNP Leader Cllr Michael Coleman, but as a huge disappointment too.
Cllr Coleman, who is tipped as a possible main player in the BNP at some time in the future, has appealed for the party to move more to the middle ground of politics.
He is calling for the BNP to adopt a strategy which would call for ethnic groups to be left to follow their own culture and religions whilst allowing the indigenous population the freedom to pursue their tradition and lifestyle.
You can hear more from Michael Coleman in the Audio Interview below.
Potential candidates are jockeying for position to take over the national leadership of the British National Party.
The man described as the BNP “ËœElection Guru’ Eddy Butler is mounting a leadership challenge to Nick Griffin this summer.
Butler claims that Griffin cannot combine his duties as an MEP with the effective running of the BNP. He claims the evidence lies in the disastrous election results in May.
His campaign has been boosted with the news that Nick Cass the Yorkshire BNP Organiser has announced that he supports Butler’s campaign and will be his running mate in the election.
Cass has stated that he intends to stand for Deputy Leader, a move that prompted Simon Darby to resign with immediate effect.
Whether Butler and Cass will become the BNP’s new Batman & Robin remains to be seen but reports suggest that the membership want a clear new dynamic direction and as yet they are the only credible alternative.
Their path to the leadership is one full of obstructions however. They are required to obtain the support of 20% of the BNP membership of two years standing.
They are known to have the support of some regions including Yorkshire & Liverpool.