Down among the trash cans

Sonia Gable | Friday, 13 October 2006 Source: Searchlight

Down among the trash cans

Chris Beverley, the BNP's lone councillor in Leeds, hasn't had much to say for himself after being elected to Leeds Metropolitan District Council in May. In fact his verbal contribution to full meetings of the council has been zero.

Beverley's attempts to wheedle his way onto the council's licensing body have also failed, scuppering any hopes of him pushing the BNP's racist policy on the issuing of permits to people such as taxi and private hire drivers. The BNP wants to allocate licences on a proportional basis based on race. As in many other cities and towns, people of Asian origin make up a high percentage of taxi and private hire drivers in Leeds – something over 60%. If licences were issued in proportion to the number of people of Asian origin living in the city as the BNP wants, this would fall to less than 10%, throwing the vast majority taxi and private hire drivers of Asian origin out of work.

The BNP wants to apply the same policy to off-licence shops, hitting Asian families who run many of the city's late-opening corner shops.

Sadly for Beverley the other councillors' decision to deprive him of a place on the licensing body means he won't have the chance to peddle this poisonous policy.

The councillors did however allocate him a place on the City Services group. Among the group's responsibilities is rubbish collection, a subject far more in keeping with Beverley's experience. As a BNP member he knows all there is to know about trash.