Barnbrook’s ego searches for glory

Sonia Gable | Monday, 7 May 2007 Source: Searchlight

Richard Barnbrook, the BNP leader on Barking and Dagenham Council, thinks a lot of himself, which is why he got his tame reporter Bob Gertner to write a long fawning report for the BNP website about what Barnbrook and his minions did at the last Council Assembly on 4 April, and how the terrible Labour councillors defeated all the sensible motions put forward to "the packed council chamber" (well it would be for a full Assembly) by the "hard working BNP councillors".

As it is a BNP report, one has to read between the lines to get anywhere near the truth. What it reveals more than anything is the BNP's attempts to court cheap popularity by exploiting the sort of issues beloved of the right-wing tabloids, with a good dash of racism thrown in. So it was no surprise that BNP councillor Christine Knight (note how Barnbrook got a woman to do this) called for the introduction of a "Sarah's law" to make it as difficult as possible for the Probation Service to supervise sex offenders after their release – though admittedly the BNP did not explain this.

Next Lawrence Rustem opposed a proposed closure of two residential care homes in Dagenham. This is a common BNP theme, because for social and demographic reasons most residents of such homes are white.

Having warmed up, the BNP returned to its favourite subject, council housing. It fell to Bob Buckley to propose that people who live outside the borough (a BNP code phrase for non-whites) should be excluded from applying for council homes. The motion was defeated after it was pointed out that this would exclude former Barking and Dagenham residents wishing to return, something that Gertner's report described as "pathetic".

Barnbrook's personal intervention seems to have been limited to asking whether children aged 5 to 7 could be exempt from "receiving lessons on sexual matters", revealing his ignorance about how carefully and appropriately the topic is covered in the infant school curriculum. And when at the end of the meeting Councillor Charlie Fairbrass, the council leader, asked the BNP to apologise for its lies about "Africans for Essex" during last year's election campaign, it fell to Barnbrook to refuse point blank and repeat all the lies for good measure.

No doubt Barnbrook was trying to repair his damaged ego when he was spotted three days later wandering around Dagenham and Redbridge FC's packed Victoria Road ground in a suit wearing a Barking and Dagenham council badge with his name on. Presumably he was hoping to bask in the reflected glory of Daggers's Conference Championship win.