UNISON ORDSLEY THREE months after Derek Beackon, the only BNP councillor in Britain, was booted out from his Millwall seat, the BP are attempting to make comeback in the neighbouring ward of Shadwell. Ironically Cable Street, site of the famous anti-Mosley battle in 1936, runs through the ward.
The council by-election, caused by the death of a Labour councillor, takes place on September 15.
The BNP have little record of activity in the ward and little proven support. However, Shadwell shares many of the same social problems as the neighbouring Isle of Dogs where Beackon was elected. Shadwell borders on the Canary Wharf complex, with its affluent offices and luxury homes, but its population is poor with 25 per cent unemployment. Despite chronic housing problems there are 700 empty homes, 100 of them "second" homes for City business people.
Forty-seven percent of the population are from ethnic minorities, the majority of them Bangladeshis, but because of the age profile of the immigrant population only 30 per cent of the voters are immigrants. This is therefore classic territory for the BNP to try to make a comeback by peddling racist answers to the poverty of the borough.
Terror group
The BNP campaign has been hit by rumours of a rapprochement between the BNP leadership and the psychopathic thugs of the Combat 18 Nazi terror group - rumours not denied by the BNP hierarchy, which refers to Combat 18 as "a legitimate part of the nationalist movement".
The Tower Hamlets Labour council, which won back power from the Liberal Democrats in May, shows little signs of responding to the needs of working people in the borough, starting off its period in office by sacking 100 teachers.