BNP meetings
I would like to correct the article in the Post (red BNP Bar Non-whites October 28) as well as reports in the wider media as this is not even half the story. Firstly, when I was approached by the group of apparent students, who showed no direct affiliati
I would like to correct the article in the Post (red BNP Bar Non-whites October 28) as well as reports in the wider media as this is not even half the story.
Firstly, when I was approached by the group of apparent students, who showed no direct affiliation to the Borough, in the main public bar which was away from the meeting room, it was coming to the end of the Barking and Dagenham Branch meeting.
A few of the students approached me with membership forms, requesting to come to the meeting and to join up. They were not personally invited and I had been given no prior indication by anyone to state that they had been invited. I clearly explained to them that the reason for this meeting was that it was a private members meeting to discuss the changing of the party constitution on membership. Also, it should be made clear to all, that party membership applications have been frozen until after the party conference in mid-November, when the amendments to the constitution will be put to the membership and voted on democratically.
With regards to their being asked to leave, it was the bar staff who did not want the students filming inside the premises. By the time that Cllr Bailey spoke to the group of students, who were obviously there to create publicity and confrontation, the meeting had closed.
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Not only that, out of courtesy, we brought out some sandwiches for them to eat and explained that if they wished to join, they would have to wait until after the vote.
The court finding that day stated that the Chairman is permitted to consult the membership by democratic process to request a change to the constitution regarding membership. The only non member who did attend the meeting was a guest speaker who addressed the meeting on the subject of education, and a journalist invited by Cllr Bailey.
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The Swedish woman may have been allowed to stay in the bar but this was a public area and nothing to do with our meeting which was in a private meeting room and to which she did not gain access.
Cllr Richard Barnbrook AM
