Stoke councillor loses school governor vote

by Sonia Gable | Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Councillors in Stoke-on-Trent have successfully blocked one of the city’s BNP councillors from becoming a governor of a school in his ward. The nine-strong BNP group had put forward councillor Anthony Simmonds (pictured) to join the governing body of Park Hall Primary School in Weston and Meir North.

The coalition of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors proposed an alternative candidate, former councillor Derek Bamford. On a full council vote Simmonds lost by 37 votes to 16, incidentally demonstrating the support the BNP councillors have among the many independents on Stoke council.

Councillor Simmonds said his nomination had been blocked on purpose. "At the last minute the coalition parties put Bamford forward. I would have liked to have been governor because my two nephews go to that school. But because I’m a member of the BNP I get tarred with the same brush as other people."

Yes, well, if you sit as a BNP councillor, people treat you like the member of a racist and thuggish party that you are. And people might well think that a racist is not a suitable person to monitor and set the strategic direction of a school that has to provide the best possible education for all pupils, not just the white "indigenous" ones that the BNP keep going on about.