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The election of three BNP councillors to Burnley Borough Council made the headlines across the country and it cannot be ignored.
We live in a democracy and have to live with the results however distasteful we may find them but to put the result in perspective the BNP vote amounted to around 10% of the people of Burnley who were entitled to vote. It should also be remembered that as a whole new council was being elected everyone had three votes making it far easier for people to use one of them as a protest vote. The message from those that openly admitted voting for the BNP was that it is not a racist party but that is clearly not the case and it does affect Burnley Football Club.If you don't believe that the BNP is a racist party then just have a look at its number one policy: ‘The introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentive.'
So how could we ignore the election of a party that advocates the ‘voluntary resettlement' of Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, and Nik Michopoulos as its central policy? Presumably they would also like to have seen ‘immigrants' such as John Francis and Ian Wright sent back to whatever country they originated from long before they were able to help gain vital promotions for the Clarets.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that ALL true supporters of Burnley Football Club would like to see David Johnson sign a permanent deal at Turf Moor such was his impact towards the end of the season but I wonder what he thinks about joining Burnley now.
The three elected councillors in Burnley have said they do not believe in ‘voluntary resettlement'. They are either lying or are ashamed of their party's main policy. There is good reason for them to lie as a new code for councillors means they will have to pledge to treat all constituents equally and fairly. Do you really believe that members of a party whose own leader has said that their ultimate aim is for ‘an all white Britain' will really treat all people fairly? The ‘all white Britain' is an interesting concept. Presumably it would be OK for Arthur Gnohere to stay if he was white. And they say they're not racist.
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Even though only a very small proportion of the town's population voted for them it is almost inevitable that there will be a perception from some quarters that supporters of Burnley Football Club are supporters of the BNP. We are concerned that this might be used by the BNP as a further weapon in its attempts to misleadingly portray an impression of legitimacy. For that reason we believe that we cannot stay silent on the subject in case that silence is taken as an implication of acceptance on our part of the BNP in Burnley and of any perceived connection with the supporters of Burnley Football Club.
Whilst we do not claim to represent supporters of Burnley Football Club we believe a very significant majority broadly agree with our views, which are these:
We are British and we are proud of it. We are loyal supporters of Burnley Football Club. The BNP is a racist party whose true policies such as ‘voluntary resettlement' are centred on division and hatred rather than togetherness and peace. It has no place in Burnley whilst work goes on to build bridges rather than destroy them. It has no place being in any way connected with Burnley Football Club.