How Barking & Dagenham saw off the BNP

Well justified celebrations here from Hope not hate:

"It's official: the BNP suffered a humiliating defeat in yesterday's election.Not only did the BNP fail to elect Nick Griffin or Simon Darby to Parliament, they also failed to take any council seats in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent. The BNP is divided and defeated - and it's all thanks to you ... this ... victory ... belongs to all of us who stood for hope, not hate."

Billy Bragg explains how Barking and Dagenham saw off the BNP here:

"This is a huge victory for the antifascist movement. Hundreds of activists have made the trip up the District Line to Barking and Dagenham in the past few weeks. Hope Not Hate, a non-partisan organisation led by Searchlight magazine and supported by trade unions, organised a forensic campaign that identified and then got out the anti-BNP vote.

Almost 1,000 volunteers came through the doors of the Hope Not Hate HQ, distributing 130,000 leaflets aimed at pensioners, black and Asian voters, young voters, women voters and male voters who had been identified as opposing the BNP. The results of this massive effort were visible when Barking's Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, defied all the night's trends and the laws of gravity by increasing her majority.

The people of Barking and Dagenham have resoundingly rejected the fascism of the BNP. Now the Labour party needs to begin to address the genuine concerns of the local population, white and black, about jobs, housing, education and health care. It was these issues – and the pressure put on them by incomers looking for the cheapest housing in London – that allowed the BNP to gain a foothold in the borough."

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Switchfoot - Mess Of Me.

Faiths together for Hope not hate (3)

Yesterday I went leafleting with the Hope not hate campaign in Barking & Dagenham. Eddie Izzard was also there to meet local faith leaders, including the Bishop of Barking, and introduce a gig by Billy Bragg held at St Patrick's Barking for all the people who worked so hard this morning on the doorsteps of Barking and Dagenham. More than 300 people came out campaigning in the sun and rain, all volunteers who gave up their bank holiday monday to show the true spirit of Barking.

Today's Times has a piece about the local faith leaders who gathered yesterday to campaign against the BNP. The Bishop of Barking, the Right Rev David Hawkins, said: ”People of faith are united in recognising there is no place for racism in politics. We want to encourage as many people as possible to vote in spite of the background of disillusionment they feel about politics. It is supremely important to ensure that far-right parties don’t make any more electoral gains.”

Click here to see film from the day.

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Billy Bragg - Waiting For The Great Leap Forward.

Gallery info

Here are a couple of interesting items from arts newsletters:

Wallspace will be holding an evening with Ana Maria Pacheco on Thursday 23rd October from 7.00pm. Ana Maria will take participants around the Memória Roubada exhibition and talk about her work, its background and inspiration. RSVP to info@wallspace.org.uk. Pacheco is featured artist in Melvyn Bragg's Faith in The Frame ITV 1 series broadcast on 2 November 2008.

Veritasse are featured on the Brits at their Best website. Sculptor and writer Shawn Williamson put the site in touch with Veritasse and their entry includes the news that St. Andrew's bookshop in Maidenhead has teamed up with Veritasse to create a new gallery in a refurbished area of the bookshop bringing Christian art onto the high street.

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Nu Colours - Yes, I Will.

'Body & Soul' review

Here is a link to my review of Juginder Lamba's Body & Soul exhibition at Birmingham's Waterhall Gallery of Modern Art, which has been published this week in the Church Times.

On Tuesday I will be at the private view of Ana Maria Pacheco's Memória Roubada, the new exhibition at the wallspace gallery which I will also be reviewing. In my previous blog on this exhibition I mentioned that Melvyn Bragg's Faith in the Frame series on ITV will feature Pacheco. Malcolm Doney, from wallspace, informs me that this programme can be seen on 2nd November.

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Violent Femmes - It's Gonna Rain.