Racist graffiti shock

| Thursday, 17 March 2005 Source: Source icTheWharf.co.uk (Trinity Mirror plc)

RACIST graffiti inciting hatred against the Pakistani community has blighted an Isle of Dogs estate with residents now fearing that it may result in violence.

The slogan "Kill all Pakis", written under a swastika and the initials BNP, has been scrawled in the stairwell of Tower Hamlets Council's Quarterdeck housing estate, off Westferry Road.

The British National Party has distanced itself from the racist remarks that have left residents shocked and angry.

Local activist and Millwall resident John Cray alerted The Wharf to the graffiti.

He said: "It's anti-social behaviour at its worst. What we're seeing hopefully isn't the beginning of the British National Party coming back onto Millwall. I've got no problems being a white English person, but the community suffers because everyone blames everyone else."

BNP national press officer Dr Phil Edwards [real name Stuart Russell – Searchlight] said: "Instead of going through democratic channels, some people have to resort to this sort of awful behaviour".

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Searchlight comment on the news item:

Millwall, of course, is where the Derek Beackon got elected as the BNP's first local councillor in a by-election back in 1993. Beackon, who lost his seat seven months later, no longer features in the BNP's election plans but remains an active nazi.

In February Beackon turned up at a rally of the Spearhead Support Group, which brings together supporters of John Tyndall, the BNP's founder and former leader, in his power struggle against the BNP's current chairman Nick Griffin. At the rally Beackon was presented with an award for his long-time services to the extreme right.

During his stint as a councillor Beackon achieved precisely nothing for the residents of his ward – no different from today's BNP councillors. Asked once by a radio interviewer about the BNP's housing policy, he hesitated, then famously muttered that the BNP does have a housing policy but he would have to find out what it was.

Richard Edmonds, Jew-baiter and former national organiser in Tyndall's BNP, is still managing to combine addressing BNP branch meetings and helping in election activities, with being at Tyndall's right hand in his fight against Griffin.