BNP leaflet condemned

by Claire Hart | Thursday, 27 May 2004 Source: Ynys Mon Chronicle

A Bangor student of traveller origin has expressed his concern at a BNP leaflet which condemns Gypsy immigration.

Andrew Wilson, a final year student at the University of Wales, Bangor, said: "I received the leaflet through my door at the weekend, and several things about it frustrated me.

"There is a paragraph which reads, 'Since May 1, 75m potential migrants from Eastern Europe - including hundreds of thousands of gypsies - can now walk into Britain and live here at our expense'.

If it had said 'hundreds of thousands of black people' or 'hundreds of thousands of Jews', straight away the CRE would have stopped this from being printed and it wouldn't have been allowed."

Andrew says that the majority of his travelling relatives have their own trades and do not reap the benefits of working in salaried positions such as sick pay.

"If my father doesn't work, he doesn't earn - end of story," he said.

"My experience is that although there are those travellers that try and make a quick buck, most of them work hard for a living because they don't rely on state benefits; they have to fend for themselves."

Andrew believes that the BNP literature perpetuates the negative stereotypes of travellers, which he himself is keen to dispel.

"The important thing to travellers is their family, which tends to be very large," he said.

"Because people move around a lot, family members are the people that you tend to keep in contact with.

"You don't tend to build up any outside links; I think that's why people have misconceptions because they don't have time to get to know them."

Andrew, who is the former president of the UWB student's union, will soon take on the role of Deputy President of NUS Wales in Cardiff.

He said: "I'd like to think that I can be a role model for travellers.

"My family can see that with me doing well, there is a positive story - there are so many negatives all the time, such as this leaflet."

He added: "Nobody wins by inciting hatred.

"There are legitimate problems with the way things are working, but you solve them through consultation, communication and negotiation, not by simply getting rid of the problem."

BNP national press officer, Dr Phil Edwards, said: "This student says that we are perpetuating the negative image of travellers, but nobody cares about the fact that the media perpetuates the negative image of the BNP.

"We are mainly concerned with the gypsies from Czechoslovakia, not English travellers - we are not talking about him.

"What's on the leaflet is true; everybody knows that in Czechoslovakia there are large numbers of people who are generally seen as living outside the law, as a criminal underclass.

"He's not a member of an ethnic community, so what's he complaining about?".

He added: "We get thousands of calls to our call centre praising us for our leaflet."