Racism in Leeds City Centre

Racism is not just confined to Leeds City Centre though is it... It tends to be more prevalent in places like Keighley and Oldham.

It should also be noted that Hope Not Hate have also been giving out flyers in Central Leeds, not just the BNP.

That sucks... You should have said you were a BNP voter.

Where were they? And did they look like official BNP campaigners or just some unnecessarily racist BNP voters with too much time on their hands?

"not a nice sight."

No, and the fact that the BNP have had alarmingly high percentages of the vote in recent elections, while not actually gaining a seat in the city of Leeds proper, is a cause for concern.

The BNP got 3x as many votes as Labour in a by-election this year in a ward near me.

I think Morley & Rothwell is most vulnerable to the BNP rather than Leeds Central.

The BNP are likely to win a seat in Y&H in the EU elections on June 4th, Due to the voting system unless there is a high turnout for the other parties.
hno:

Leeds No.1 said:

The BNP got 3x as many votes as Labour in a by-election this year in a ward near me.

I think Morley & Rothwell is most vulnerable to the BNP rather than Leeds Central.

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Morley South has a (and the only) BNP cllr. and the By-Election in Question is Temple Newsam. in which the Labour Vote turned to the BNP.

I'm not referring to that by-election, I'm referring to one in my area in Feb.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

I was in Leeds to other day, and some BNP people were handing out leaflets, and when they saw me they swore at me and told me to,'**** off back to Pakiland'.

I've seen it happen to other people aswell, not a nice sight.

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That is disgusting behaviour City of Bradford. When and where abouts in Leeds City Centre was this then and was there no sight of any police (keeping an eye out for any potential public order offences considering the clear controversity over the BNP) or Anti Nazi League type campaigners to counter this BNP leafleting? It would certainly give a bad impression to first time visitors to Leeds though although surely they would have been campaigning in other cities as well i'd have thought in and around Yorkshire and beyond. hno: I also noticed some "Vote BNP" banners have gone up on lampposts in the Middleton area too clearly at such a height to make removal difficult.

Yeah, it's not a nice thing to happen and I'm truly sorry it did, but did this really warrant a whole thread - something like this could happen anywhere, Leeds is no worse for it than anywhere else.

The thread should be renamed something like 'Extremism in Leeds City Region'- something like the similar one on the Manchester forum.

Gherkin said:

Where were they? And did they look like official BNP campaigners or just some unnecessarily racist BNP voters with too much time on their hands?

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Just this man and women handing out BNP leaflets.

Leeds No.1 said:

The BNP got 3x as many votes as Labour in a by-election this year in a ward near me.

I think Morley & Rothwell is most vulnerable to the BNP rather than Leeds Central.

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Morley & Rothwell is one of the constituencies being dissolved by the Boundary Commission at the next election. The area that was Morley and Rothwell is being split into 'Elmet and Rothwell', 'Morley and Outwood' and 'Leeds Central'.

If you look at the 2005 election results, the BNP got just over 5% of the vote.

As someone who lives in the Morley & Rothwell / Elmet & Rothwell area, I would be ashamed if we ever delivered a BNP councillor, MP or MEP.

Even if you're upset about the whole MP expenses thing, i'd encourage you to still vote on Thursday, as with they way the European elections work, the more people that vote, the less chance extremist parties like the BNP have of getting a seat in European Parliament.

I know but the demographics don't change. 5% is pretty large for an extremist party.

I have already voted, did it by post.

Rothwell use to be tied in with Normington as a constituency at one time. I think it will always be a labour stronghold, though the gap is closing at every election.

Val Verde said:

I also noticed some "Vote BNP" banners have gone up on lampposts in the Middleton area too clearly at such a height to make removal difficult.

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when driving home from work at 2am last year, i saw a car parking up and putting big bnp banners in the central green part of the dual carriage way that runs from the white rose centre towards tingey roundabout, and towards cottingley. He had stuck about 20 banner/flag type things in the mud, at 10 metre intervals - i think it was the actual candidate for the area. When i got to the mini roundabout for churwell, i went right round, went back up and removed them all :nuts:

In hindsight i would have left them there.. as all the traffic seeing such repulsive things in the ground would have made people realise the seriousness of the threat of the bnp - rather than nonchalantly thinking 'oh, they wont get in here' - which they did in morley.

:applause: Nice one Wiggley.

I got vote BNP flyers through my door. The flyer suggests that you can also 'use the flyer as a window poster.' Friend of mine in Pudsey also got the same flyer. Disgrace.

STOPGO said:

Rothwell use to be tied in with Normington as a constituency at one time. I think it will always be a labour stronghold, though the gap is closing at every election.

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A few years ago i'd probably agree with you, but Rothwell returned 3 Lib Dem councillors at the last city council election, and since the boundary changes, Elmet and Rothwell now encompasses some areas which are Conservative strongholds, so it could be anyones games there.

Leeds No.1 said:

I know but the demographics don't change. 5% is pretty large for an extremist party.

I have already voted, did it by post.

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I think there is a risk that people are so disillusioned with politics that the extremist parties could a fair bit of support.

There's a line to how much you want to protest against the major parties though. Why are some people in the public saying they're having to vote for the BNP because Labour/Conservative/LD have failed them? Well there's plenty of other non-racist minor parties they could vote for...