NEWS FROM THE GREEN PARTY of England and Wales LGBT GROUP
http://www.lgbtgreens.org.uk/
Delight with strengthened Green Vote
Wake-up call to all who oppose racism and homophobia!
LGBT Community: Deepen resistance to fascists
For Immediate Release
8.6.9
In the European elections, the Green Party Greens held seats in London and south-east England vote while the vote increased by 44% compared with 2004.[1]
Party leader Caroline Lucas was re-elected comfortably, with the South East Green Party vote up by half, from 8% to 12%, finishing ahead of Labour. Jean Lambert successfully defended her London seat, overtaking UKIP with a vote of nearly 18%.
Dr Lucas's bid for election to the Westminster Parliament received a huge boost from Brighton and Hove, where the Greens came first- almost 6,000 votes ahead of the Conservatives. Caroline Lucas will be contesting the Brighton Pavilion seat in the general election.
Phelim Mac Cafferty, Joint National Spokesperson for LGBTGreens stated:
“We are delighted with the significant up-turn in Green votes, especially in areas like Brighton and Hove where we pushed the Tories into 2nd place. However we are horrified by the success of the BNP in winning 2 seats. Andrew Brons narrowly took the final MEP place in the Yorkshire & the Humber region BNP leader Nick Griffin took the final MEP place in North West England.[2]
“Nick Griffin, who has a 1998 criminal conviction for incitement to racial hatred, for distributing material denying the Holocaust polled 132,094 across the NW region. BNP candidate Andrew Brons, started his fascist career in the National Socialist Movement, an organisation that was consciously established on Hitler’s birthday. He is a former activist in the National Front- so much for the BNP not being a fascist party any more. [3]
“This is a turning point in British politics. This is the biggest electoral success of fascism in the UK ’s history. The BNP have managed to do what Mosley's Blackshirts in the 1930’s could not: gain seats in national elections.
“Our greatest worry is that the BNP vote threatens to ‘normalise’ their place in politics like Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France and the Freedom Party in Austria . The cash, increased public profile and confidence will all help the BNP try to show themselves as a reasonable party.
“However, behind the suits and upcoming appearances on Question Time, the real face of the BNP will be unveiled. Behind the sharp suits there are criminal convictions[4], fists and boots.[5] We know already that where BNP members are elected and where they have a public profile, racist and homophobic violence increase.
“Figures from the Metropolitan Police in London, where the BNP have an assembly member, indicate a substantial rise in racist (+8.8%) and homophobic (+15.9%) hate crimes to April 2009[6]. Figures from the North West where the BNP have a number of councillors and where their campaigning has deepened are more shocking still. With Griffin sitting in Brussels they could yet get much worse: Greater Manchester Police reported a 63% increase in homophobic crime in the last year.[7]
“This must be a warning call: LGBTGreens now call on the community to exercise vigilance about the BNP’s activities to ensure that this is the BNP’s highest point in politics. It is vital that the LGBT community help in mobilising the largest possible national movement to drive the BNP out of the political mainstream. The BNP should be prevented from having any more oxygen to peddle their racist lies and holocaust denial.
“Further we must ensure that the Nazi death camps, where hundreds of thousands of LGBT people were ritually tortured and gassed and shot to death, serve as a warning from history that we can never forget.”
ENDS
http://www.lgbtgreens.org.uk/
Delight with strengthened Green Vote
Wake-up call to all who oppose racism and homophobia!
LGBT Community: Deepen resistance to fascists
For Immediate Release
8.6.9
In the European elections, the Green Party Greens held seats in London and south-east England vote while the vote increased by 44% compared with 2004.[1]
Party leader Caroline Lucas was re-elected comfortably, with the South East Green Party vote up by half, from 8% to 12%, finishing ahead of Labour. Jean Lambert successfully defended her London seat, overtaking UKIP with a vote of nearly 18%.
Dr Lucas's bid for election to the Westminster Parliament received a huge boost from Brighton and Hove, where the Greens came first- almost 6,000 votes ahead of the Conservatives. Caroline Lucas will be contesting the Brighton Pavilion seat in the general election.
Phelim Mac Cafferty, Joint National Spokesperson for LGBTGreens stated:
“We are delighted with the significant up-turn in Green votes, especially in areas like Brighton and Hove where we pushed the Tories into 2nd place. However we are horrified by the success of the BNP in winning 2 seats. Andrew Brons narrowly took the final MEP place in the Yorkshire & the Humber region BNP leader Nick Griffin took the final MEP place in North West England.[2]
“Nick Griffin, who has a 1998 criminal conviction for incitement to racial hatred, for distributing material denying the Holocaust polled 132,094 across the NW region. BNP candidate Andrew Brons, started his fascist career in the National Socialist Movement, an organisation that was consciously established on Hitler’s birthday. He is a former activist in the National Front- so much for the BNP not being a fascist party any more. [3]
“This is a turning point in British politics. This is the biggest electoral success of fascism in the UK ’s history. The BNP have managed to do what Mosley's Blackshirts in the 1930’s could not: gain seats in national elections.
“Our greatest worry is that the BNP vote threatens to ‘normalise’ their place in politics like Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France and the Freedom Party in Austria . The cash, increased public profile and confidence will all help the BNP try to show themselves as a reasonable party.
“However, behind the suits and upcoming appearances on Question Time, the real face of the BNP will be unveiled. Behind the sharp suits there are criminal convictions[4], fists and boots.[5] We know already that where BNP members are elected and where they have a public profile, racist and homophobic violence increase.
“Figures from the Metropolitan Police in London, where the BNP have an assembly member, indicate a substantial rise in racist (+8.8%) and homophobic (+15.9%) hate crimes to April 2009[6]. Figures from the North West where the BNP have a number of councillors and where their campaigning has deepened are more shocking still. With Griffin sitting in Brussels they could yet get much worse: Greater Manchester Police reported a 63% increase in homophobic crime in the last year.[7]
“This must be a warning call: LGBTGreens now call on the community to exercise vigilance about the BNP’s activities to ensure that this is the BNP’s highest point in politics. It is vital that the LGBT community help in mobilising the largest possible national movement to drive the BNP out of the political mainstream. The BNP should be prevented from having any more oxygen to peddle their racist lies and holocaust denial.
“Further we must ensure that the Nazi death camps, where hundreds of thousands of LGBT people were ritually tortured and gassed and shot to death, serve as a warning from history that we can never forget.”
ENDS
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