Friday 31 August 2007

Barking and Dagenham Borough Council Meeting, 25th July 2007

The minutes of this meeting have finally been uploaded to the borough council website for public viewing.

British National Party members put forward two motions and asked four questions.

Councillor Barnbrook and Councillor Bailey put forward a motion (again) demanding that the St. George's Flag and the Union Flag should be flown from all council buildings. The motion was rejected by the majority Labour council and as such the council will only display flags on days recommended by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. They agreed to fly the St. George Cross on St. George's Day. This is a positive step forward: there is no reason why Socialists should feel ashamed of belonging to one of the main ethnic groups which form the United Kingdom.

The second motion (proposed once again by Councillor Barnbrook) demanded an immediate census of the borough similar to those in surrounding areas. The motion was amended by the Labour majority and passed as follows:

"Agreed, that this Council recognises the inadequacy of the existing approach to assessing the population changes within the borough and the consequent negative impact on funding to the area. The Council welcomes the work being undertaken by London Councils to address this issue, and notes the success of the London Council’s campaign in getting the Office for National statistics (ONS) to review the way census data is adjusted to reflect more rapid population changes. Also the Council notes that this work is recognised by government and will be used to inform grant settlements. The work of the ONS already starts to recognise that the population is underestimated by the census data, but not by the amount that we believe to be the case based on more local information. Lastly, the Council agrees to continue to support this campaign as the most effective means of getting proper recognition for the impact of population changes in the borough."

If the BNP really cared about the white working class in Barking and Dagenham, they would ask sensible questions about the shocking state of the roads in the borough (like other non-BNP councillors) and what can be done to improve the existing housing stock and to build more homes. Instead of this, they use issues like housing as a means to push forward their racist agenda (see minutes for previous council meetings about the 'Africans for Essex' controversy).

Interestingly, more BNP councillors are beginning to ask questions in full council meetings. Since the BNP became the official opposition in 2006, Richard Barnbrook has been asking the majority of questions. I have been proved wrong: I never used to think they had minds of their own. I thought Richard Barnbrook had string tied to his hands which were linked to the arms of all the other BNP councillors so that whenever he raised his hand to vote, all the others followed suit. If Cllr. Barnbrook is not careful, his councillors might actually start thinking for themselves!

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