Roy West on the Denton Traitors

Denton North East Matters

The first quality leaflet from the Conservatives for the Denton NE by-election. It is a good leaflet - the best so far, and so much more pleasing on the eye than the predictable Labour Rose.

Police checkpoint in Denton

I passed this checkpoint on Hyde Road on the way home an hour ago. I thought back to first time I ever encountered anything like this which was when I was student in Leningrad (St Petersburg) in the dying days of the Soviet Union. We were based close to the Technical Institute and we used to watch in amazement as the Police pulled in cars using a large lollypop wand. It seemed so alien to us because our police were so different - but now they operate similar tactics, which surely says something about the direction our country is heading!

Denton North East by-election 30/07/09

This election should prove interesting. On paper the Conservatives should be in with a good chance of winning, however unless they have resolved their internal differences this is likely to be another Tameside Labour by-election win. I have only been back a few hours but people I have spoken who live in Denton NE say only Labour have been running a ‘full on’ campaign. The leaflet attached is a Labour ‘By-Election Special’. Someone should tell them the war memorial they refer to when trying to smear the BNP is from the ‘wrong’ war. I cannot workout if they are deliberately trying to deceive the electorate with reference to the Victoria Park war memorial or if they are really so thick they do not understand the 1914-18 war was not the war in which Fascism featured as a contributing factor.

The competing parties are:

Labour
Conservative
BNP
UKIP
Green

A blast from the past

The images above are from a 1970’s left wing publication known as the New Manchester Review. It makes fascinating reading (click on the individual images to enlarge). It is interesting to note the then leader of the council was Conservative stalwart Colin Grantham, also of interest was the fact that the Tories then held the majority on Tameside Council. What about the passage from Bert Ellicott - very interest when put into historical context. As for the immigrant population totalling just 1200; I would hazard a guess at saying more than that attend Hyde Mosque for Friday prayers these days. There is a further piece to this feature, a suggestion was made a certain boisterous individual appearing in one of the photographs is now a well known councillor. I cannot verify this to be true so I will keep that until the authenticity of the claim can be verified.

Roy West on his travels - again!

Denton Woods has a new tawny owl

Isn’t it cute? I could have taken a brilliant close up of this little owl - had I had my camera with me when I found it perched on a branch less than six feet off the ground. I tried to capture a photo of it on my phone - but it was useless. By the time I returned with my camera it had relocated to a higher branch. It is obviously a baby and I know where it sits most nights. No sign of mummy or daddy owl, maybe they make their chicks leave the nest at an early age?

The investment arm of Tameside MBC criticised over high rents and lack of investment in Essex shopping centre

Desperate shopkeepers are pleading for help to boost trade in an ailing Canvey shopping centre. There are currently four empty shops in Knightswick Centre, and when Penn Sports closes at the end of the month it will be five. Storeholders have claimed aging facilities and high rents are crippling them, while also discouraging new firms from openening there. The mall, in Furtherwick Road, is owned by the property investment arm of Manchester authority, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Relations between tenants and the authority have deteriorated to such an extent some shopkeepers contacting the Echo were unwilling to be named in case it affected the renegotiation of leases. John Green, manager of Body's opticians in the Knightswick centre, said: “We have had a few meetings with the owners and every time we go over the same old problems and they promise something will be done, but it never happens. All these empty shops are making the place look like a ghost town.” Another shopkeeper, who did not want to be named, said improvements as simple as providing adequate public toilets had never been done. He said: “The current toilets are a disgrace. There aren’t even any baby changing facilities. “Where are people supposed to go if they’ve got young children with them?” Canvey councillor Peter May said the owner’s lack of investment was killing the town centre. He added: “The shopping centre is the heart of our town and the owners are doing nothing to work with the people here.” Louise Martin, a spokeswoman for Tameside council, said the recession was making it difficult to find new leaseholders and a new agent had been appointed to speed up the process. She added: “We maintain and repair the centre in accordance with our responsibility as a landlord, while also endeavouring to keep the service charge to a level that is affordable by tenants.”

So I wake up to find out our region has a BNP MEP

I look out the window – everything appears normal, the birds are still singing in the trees, the sun is still shining, people are still going about their daily business, but make no mistake; an earthquake, a political earthquake of monumental proportions did take place last night. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the BNP could succeed in making a breakthrough after the unrelenting media barrage of negativity directed towards them.

I knew the BNP were strong in certain areas locally, but to gain over 130,000 votes across the NW region is barely believable. This victory will move the BNP into the political mainstream in a way the minor council victories never could. When election time comes, will the extra credibility gained for the BNP by this victory lead them to get the extra boost they need in the local elections to dislodge the Labour troughmeisters from their tax payer funded feeding frenzy?

I make no apologies for giving this hype to the BNP because I am genuinely shocked by last night’s results. The Conservative’s and UKIP easily outpolled the BNP, but that was always expected to happen. The big news surely has to be that in an ironic twist; the Labour collapse has lead directly to the BNP victory. I can imagine a certain Dukinfield Labour councillor being non too pleased over that twist to the story. And then if we analyse the results on a local level; the combined UKIP and BNP vote was I believe greater than the ruling Labour clique’s? Interesting times!

Please try and keep debate as civil as possible because I will be away from now until Sunday and it is unlikely I will be able to get internet connection to delete any offensive posts.

Exclusive: The Pope is Catholic

Racist campaigning for BNP. A convicted racist is boasting about his leading role in the British National Party's campaign to win votes in this week's European elections. Roy West, from Dukinfield, pleaded guilty to racial harassment at Tameside Magistrates' Court in February after telling his German next-door neighbour to 'go back to Krautland and kill some more Jews.' Now West, who has stood for the BNP in council elections, in bragging about how he has handed out 10,000 BNP leaflets in Rochdale in one of his internet postings. He claims to be the 'elections co-ordinator for the North' although senior BNP figures have denied the party has such a post. The campaigner has also driven a promotional truck which he calls the 'BNP truth truck' around Dukinfield and Hyde. He has been promoting the extremist party - which bans Black and Asian people becoming members and campaigns to make non-white Britons leave the country - in the run-up to Thursday's ballot. After he was convicted of racial harassment in February, he was fined £125 and ordered to pay £215 costs and £50 compensation to the victim, Bernd Kugow. Mr West launched into the tirade after attempting to put a Union Jack flag on Mr Kugow's shed. During sentencing the judge described his behaviour as 'wholly unacceptable, vile, offensive and distasteful'. Manchester Evening News.

Seriously – this is what you call scrapping the bottom of the barrel. To run a story saying the BNP has a ‘racist’ campaigning for them is utterly pathetic and smacks of desperation on behalf of the M.E.N. What next, Shock as we expose how the Vegetarian Society has been infiltrated by non meat eating fanatics? Tameside Citizen

Councillor Martin Wareing MBE passes away

One of Tameside's longest serving and most distinguished councillors has died following a short illness. Councillor Martin Wareing MBE passed away on Wednesday night at Willow Wood Hospice after spending more than 50 years representing the Denton area. He was 89. For the last 30 years Councillor Wareing represented Denton North East on Tameside Council, but began representing the area in 1956 to 1965 on the Denton Urban District Council. The widower, who has one daughter, was one of the borough's most senior councillors - highlighted by his position as the Aide-de-Camp and his loyal years representing Tameside brought official recognition in 2003 when he was made Freeman of the Borough.
Tameside Advertiser

Fan mail sent to Roy West

Sorry about the lack of recent updates. I have been away on holiday and by all accounts the weather has been as good in good old blighty as it was in Luxor. The humorous leaflet posted above was sent to Roy West via Royal Mail. I think it is very good. Mr West suspects one of his local councillors is behind it - but I personally think it is somebody from a younger generation. 　

Roy West brings the BNP campaign to Bury

Yet more from Roy West. This boy sure does travel. Roy, does the BNP pay you for all this work?

Roy West takes the BNP Euro campaign to Rochdale

More from Roy West

Roy West brings the BNP's Euro election campaign to Merseyside

Dukinfield's very own Roy West takes control of the BNP European election campaign for the north of England

Anti homophobia march in Tameside

I never realised homophobia was a big problem in Tameside, maybe it is - or why else would all these people decide to March about the issue as they did this afternoon? 　

If you’re not getting the flak - you’re not above the target

Is what bomber crews in WWII were told. Leader of the opposition in Tameside, Cllr Bell is certainly getting a lot of ‘political flak’ in the Tameside Advertiser this week, not only from council leader Roy Oldham, but also from Cllr Kitchen. He must be doing something right to provoke such a response. I eagerly await his reply to Cllr’s Oldham and Kitchen in next weeks paper. On a separate note it was again noticeable that the Advertiser gave great prominence to the local Labour hierarchy - all in a positive light and on many pages throughout the paper. They should at least try and use a veil of impartiality and at least run a token feature on some of the other parties involved in Tameside’s political scene.