The Guardian Saturday July 15 2000 The suburb where one in four voted BNP Campaign targeting a handful of asylum seekers creates poll 'triumph' for far right in a deprived corner of south-east London Special report Paul Kelso Saturday July 15, 2000 For a loser, Colin Smith is a happy man. He has every right to be. Representing a minority party campaigning on a single local issue with only a handful of activists to help get his message across, he last week pulled off an electoral coup. In a council byelection in the North End ward of Bexley, south-east London, Mr Smith lost - but came second behind the Labour candidate and pushed the Tories into third place in the process. It was, his party newspaper trumpeted, a triumph. It was also a triumph for fear, hatred and racism. Mr Smith represents the British National party, and campaigned on a single issue: asylum seekers. In election literature and on the ward's 4,000-odd doorsteps, Mr Smith played on fear and prejudice. North End was a "dumping ground" for "undeserving scroungers", he said; asylum seekers were housed as a priority while homeless local people stayed on waiting lists and illegal immigrants "milk the benefit system" while "British children are in poverty". The literature did not mention that Bexley has 390 asylum seekers - fewer than all but two of London's 33 boroughs. Just 17 families seeking asylum live within the ward. None the less, it was a persuasive message. The BNP took 26.2% of the vote. "British people have sent a message to Tony Blair - democracy is coming home," Mr Smith said this week. Forlorn North End lies just south of Erith at the eastern edge of Greater London - a cluster of low-rise estates centred on a forlorn precinct of shops and Slade Green railway station. It shares none of the leafy desirability of nearby Bexleyheath or Upper Belvedere. Unemployment runs at 8%, twice the national average; around half the housing is owned by the council or housing associations; teenage pregnancy rates are higher than elsewhere in Bexley, as is the incidence of poor health. Vandalism, burglary and drugs blight the lives of residents, 96% of whom are white. For the BNP a deprived area such as North End is fertile ground. "On the doorsteps it is made for us," said Mr Smith. But while he sees political opportunity, Linda Taylor's experience is very different. She runs the Howbury Park hostel in North End, an emergency housing facility with room for nine families. It is available to anyone with an acute housing need, but in the past two years has accommodated asylum seekers from the Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Serbia, Latvia and Dubai. It has come under attack as a result. "We have had lots of harassment. Much of it is not reported to the police because people are scared, but it got to the stage where the children couldn't play in the garden because of the abuse," she said. Until recently local youths would gather and throw bricks over the garden wall, shouting racist abuse and spitting at the foreign children. White children living at the hostel were left in peace. In response Bexley council installed CCTV cameras and replaced the wall with railings so that the youths could no longer hurl bricks without being seen. "We've seen improvement here but the assaults, name calling, and abuse all continue outside," said Ms Taylor. One Romany family from Poland returned home after their daughters were attacked at Slade Green fair, while another Polish man was attacked with a bottle on his way to the shops. Neither incident was reported to the police. "What people misunderstand is that this centre is for all people, not just asylum seekers. Anyone who comes here is at rock bottom, black or white. Within the hostel their children play together with no problem," said Ms Taylor. "The other kids, 'the baseball hat brigade', are different. Their parents encourage them to racism. But the majority of people are decent, honest and not racist." Debbie Lee, Ms Taylor's neighbour, is typical of that majority. Her husband Dave, a lorry driver, has twice been attacked by asylum seekers trying to get into his vehicle on the continent, but she still feels asylum seekers deserve sympathy. "If they are genuine then fair enough. I don't agree with the bogus ones, but real ones deserve a chance. I told the BNP where to go when they knocked on my door. They are using asylum to bring up racism, and that is wrong." English nationalism has long been strong south of the Thames estuary, and the BNP's strength lies in harnessing lo cal disaffection to antipathy towards asylum seekers, who are no more than a convenient scapegoats in an area with profound problems. The North End result sent shock waves beyond Bexley. Most tellingly, it raised concerns within Conservative central office that immoderate language employed by the Tories on asylum might have been partly responsible for the improving fortunes of the BNP. The Tory candidate for London mayor, Steven Norris, went further. "It looks as if the BNP is on the up. I don't believe a politician in any party can afford to relax their guard. If you just appeal to your core vote, it can be very satisfying, but it is not going to win a general election," he said. Perhaps not, but in this deprived corner of the greater London hinterland, race in politics is a matter of degrees. No mainstream candidate can ignore it here and hope to win popular support. Tory election literature was in some respects indistinguishable from the that of the BNP. "For bogus asylum seekers ... Britain is the biggest soft touch in the world," it read. Nationalist The local Labour MP, Nigel Beard, is mindful that nationalist feelings run deep in Bexley. "I do have to take into account that this is an area with a long tradition of English patriotism. There is a deep feeling of identification with the country's tradition and history which is perfectly acceptable and valid," he said. "I walk into pubs and people shout, 'when are you going to do something for the English?' That is not racist, it is a feeling of being bypassed, left in the queue for services while others go to the front. The area is almost exclusively white working class. It is an understandable reaction." Drinking in the Cross Keys at nearby Erith, Del and Ken bear out Mr Beard's point. Ken says the town is "bursting with Bosnians", that they are "scumbags, no asset to anyone". He says the council saves all the money for the middle class wards, and dumps the asylum seekers on his doorstep. Del agrees, and says an anti-racism festival planned for September will cause trouble. "They spend money on all that, but not on me and my family." The BNP knocked on Ken and Del's doors, but neither of them could be bothered to vote. Apathy may yet halt the racists' progress. . North End ward byelection Labour: 772 (44.4%) BNP: 456 (26.2%) Conservative: 413 (23.8%) Lib Dem: 99 (5.7%) Turnout: 19.34%
