#1 of an occasional series.

From Stop The BNP (with thanks to Bob Piper for bringing this to a wider audience - welcome back Bob!)

BNP councillor to be removed for non-attendance

The British National Party is about to lose yet another councillor, Searchlight can exclusively reveal.

James Lloyd, BNP councillor for Princes End ward on Sandwell council, has not attended a meeting in six months, which means that he will be removed from office. We hope the council will not delay in writing to Lloyd to inform him of the situation. The usual procedure would be to give him seven days to prove that he has in fact attended a meeting. If he cannot, and Searchlight, which monitors BNP attendance and performance, believes that is the case, then he will lose his seat.

Not a single meeting in six months…  so much for representing the people.  It is almost a dictionary definition of "wasted vote". 

Lloyd has been a major embarrassment to the BNP in the Black Country. He stood on a platform of insisting that parents be held responsible for the bad behaviour of their children. However, his two sons have regularly been in trouble with the law. One was named and shamed by the police as one of the worst young offenders in the area.

Is the BNP motto "Do as I say, not as I do"?  A typical trait of totalitarian regimes throughout history.

Earlier this year Searchlight revealed that police had objected to the renewal of Lloyd's pub licence after a series of violent incidents at his premises. They including a shooting incident in which Lloyd himself was the target. The BNP councillor had repeatedly refused to cooperate with the police.

A relevant quote from the BNP literature in the recent Holbrook West by-election "Anti-social behaviour - zero tolerance. BNP councillors will ensure the Police increase their patrols to stop anti-social behaviour and drug-related crime. Let's make the criminals live in fear - not law-abiding citizens"

They did not take the time to explain how running the sort of pub most citizens, law-abiding or otherwise, would live in fear of helps in the fight against either crime or fear of crime.  Was the repeated refusal to co-operate with the Police their roundabout way of ensuring the Police increase their patrols?

"Say anything to get elected. Do nothing after getting elected"  That would be a better headline in the leaflets.

And then there were two …

Last week Simon Smith, a councillor in neighbouring Great Bridge ward, formally acknowledged that he is no longer part of the BNP group on the council. Smith, who was the BNP group leader until he resigned from the party two months ago, had been elected in 2006 with the highest BNP vote in the country.

This leaves the BNP with only two councillors in the borough and 47 in the country, down from 50 immediately after the May elections.

Three down, forty-seven to go!