For a Better Bradford: After the Election
Stop Press! Report Published on the Bradford Riot Sentencing
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and here for the
An Urdu translation of the Executive Summary is being printed, and will be available shortly.
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Alan Carling's campaign as an Independent candidate in Heaton Ward attracted 342 votes in the Local Elections of June 10 2004.
Alan would like to thank all those who voted for him, or supported his campaign in other ways. The campaign documents are included on the website.
This result was overshadowed however by the returns in other wards for the British National Party. The BNP's 10 candidates in 9 different wards polled 13,338 votes, with 4 councillors elected in Keighley West, Wibsey, Worth Valley and Wyke. The full results for Bradford are available on the Council website.
It is a sorry commentary on the state of the District that the 60th Anniversary of D-Day should be greeted by the election of the first-ever fascists onto the City Council. The Thirteen Thousand BNP voters have brought shame on themselves, harmed everyone else in Bradford by damaging the reputation of the District, and made our problems even more difficult to resolve. They have given the BNP a life-line nationally, because Bradford is one of the few areas in the country in which the number of far right councillors has increased. And there are grave risks that the election results will give another twist to Bradford's spiral of decline.
But it is not enough simply to condemn the BNP and its supporters. More than ever, it is necessary to defeat them politically, by showing that they have no solutions to offer, and by facing up to the range of problems they have exploited in order to peddle their extreme message. This was one of the concerns that led Alan to stand for election in the first place. The results of the election have unfortunately made the approach suggested during the campaign even more relevant to the future.
All those who reject extremist solutions need to get together across party lines, and across cultural and religious divides, in order to work constructively towards a common future. The Better Bradford website is now offered as an accessible forum in which some of the necessary debates can take place.
After the Election .... more than ever, you are invited to
Towards a Better Bradford
©2003
Better Bradford -