Examples of Democracy in Rochdale 1992 General Election

This is part 1 of a possible 3 part document that was distributed in 1992. Today we have more efficient methods of distribution. The next part(s) will appear next week.

Part 1:

27th.November 1992

1992 General Election & Local Elections
Extremist Examples of Democracy in Rochdale

Some disgraceful occurences became evident in Rochdale over the Election period.
Fair minded people, who insist on calling themselves ‘Democrats’ should feel a sense of outrage.

Why were these occurrences allowed ?

Even more outrageous still , is, why was there no account of these transgressions ?
Well there aren’t many politicians of the voltairean mold in Rochdale .

To put it in a nutshell what are we saying ? We are saying this .

To try and prevent us from as a lawful and legal political party in Rochdale our duly nominated Election Candidates faced a concerted attempt by various authorities on the one hand, and left-wing terrorism on the other. Some including from both ‘hands’ actually broke the Law to prevent us from campaigning.

Of the legal Authorities that acted against us , and in some instances broke the Law against us , we include ;
Rochdale Police (Greater Manchester Police) P Division
Mr.John Pierce, Rochdale Borough’s Chief Executive
A High Court Judge at Manchester
Rochdale Magistrates

1). Rochdale Police broke the Law by physically preventing our local election candidates canvassers from leafletting in support of their election campaign, by the use of threats from large numbers of riot Police.

2). Mr.John Pierce, the Town’s Chief Executive broke the law by refusing to allow Mr Ken Henderson , the British National Party Candidate at the 1992 General Election in Rochdale, from hiring a Public hall under the Representation of the People Act.

3). A High Court Judge , Justice McKinnon, sitting in chambers, refused to make a decision in support of Mr.Hendersons attempt to force John Pierce and Rochdale Council to hire him a hall under the Representation of the People Act mentioned above.

These are our main accusations towards the legal authorities , particularly in Rochdale. In tandem with
this , various criminal left wing groups mobilised against us in Rochdale over the Election period exacting physical violence against our members and property. These people were allowed and indeed even encouraged by the legal authorities to go on the streets and in their terms "SMASH THE BNP".

What is sinister is the role of the Rochdale Labour party in this whole affair.

Why have we taken a while to compile this document ? The reason is twofold.

a). Rochdale Police are still fudging over our formal complaints to Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Constable against Rochdale police .

b). Rochdale Magistrates in effect ‘let off’ the left wing thugs who, in a mob of some 150 + wrecked a local pub physically attacked some of our members injuring some, and attacked local Police Officers outside a local pub and Rochdale Town hall. These magistrates thus are giving the ‘green light’ to attack our members/activities, even if that also means physically attacking the Police .

We demand that the magistrates concerned should explain their decisions or be sacked !

We invite you to look at our evidence . You may be an opponent of our party, that is your right. After reading this report you may continue to oppose our party, that is also your right. But we feel that you would want to distance yourselves from this concerted and in many examples the crimina; effort to deny us our right to function in Rochdale as a political party.

We believe that the facts contained herein should be discussed soberly and openly .

We intend to distribute this report widely in Rochdale. We will distribute it to Sir Cyril Smith and other leading opinion makers. To our MP Liz Lynne, and a number of Councillors, to leading Churchmen and to other interested parties including the ROCHDALE OBSERVER newspaper.

We are not going to go away. British nationalists have been fighting elections continually in Rochdale for some 20 years now and we have the facilities to reply to our critics.

If you wish to gain any further detail from us about the information contained herein please do not hesitate to contact either;

Ken Henderson or Pete Barker .



May 1992 General Election & Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Local Elections

This report will be split up into two main areas of we would say unfair treatment and in some cases deliberate law-breaking meted out to us by;
So called responsible and impartial State Authorities
the criminal activities of the far-left groups that organised nationally against us , including the links between these far left groups and very senior local labour party politicians including ex-Council leader Richard Farnell and Cllr.David Williams.

15th.February 1992 - Adoption meeting of the BNP Parliamentary Candidate

Mr.Ken Henderson was due to hold his adoption meeting held by the local Branch of the British National Party(BNP) at the Castle Inn, Manchester Road, Rochdale. The meeting was to have been addressed by Mr.Henderson whose adoption meeting it was, and by Mr.Richard Edmonds the BNP National Organiser.
Various left wing groups mobilised on this day from all over the Country ranging from the Labour party to the criminal 'Red Action' . On the day around 500 of these people came with the sole purpose of , in their words, ‘ Smashing the BNP’.

The local Police were aware of this mobilisation by these people through their own information gaining techniques including from the Polices 'Special Branch'.

Mr. Henderson was contacted by Rochdale Police with the view that due to these left wing demonstrations, would Mr.Henderson help the Police by keeping our people away from the Town centre, as it was a Saturday afternoon and would have been very busy.

Mr.Henderson agreed , because the left wing people thought that the meeting was to have been held, quite wrongly, at the Brunswick Hotel, Baillie Street. Therefore Mr.Henderson replied in the affirmative, our members would keep clear of the Town Centre.

Rochdale Police had earlier at the private meeting on the 13th. February 1992 indicated that they had no objections to the meeting going ahead. The meeting for Mr.Hendersons candidacy was, after all, a private members only meeting on private property.

Our meeting was to have commenced at 1pm., at the Castle Inn and we belive that a Police van was in attendance from 9 am on that day.

Unknown to us Rochdale Police had ordered the landlady to lock its doors - in effect banning our meeting. A most disgraceful act but worse was to come.

By 11.30 am. A crowd of approximately 40 - 50 assorted Labour/Socialist Worker (SWP) members had assembled on the car park outside the Castle Inn with the obvious intention of intimidating our people from attending the meeting.

At 12.30 pm two fairly senior Police Officers from Rochdale ascertained at Mr.Hendersons home that he was indeed going to the Castle Inn.

At 1pm Mr.Henderson, Mr Hendersons girlfriend, Richard Edmonds and one other person (Dave Taylor), parked their car just away from the mob who had assembled outside the front door of the Castle Inn. The group of four made their way to the front door of the pub and knocked on it, as previously arranged with the Police. Mr.Henderson was told by a Police officer , after the Police Officer ascertained who he was, that if he did not go away he would be arrested. The Police Officer also said there would be no meeting that day.

The left-wing people had now found out who Mr.Hendersons group were , whereupon they were then attacked and chased down the street. They were punched, kicked and spat on. Stones were thrown at them and a bottle narrowly missed Mr.Edmonds head. (All this was reported on Greater Manchester Radio(GMR) at 5pm and 6pm on their newsbulletins for the 15th.February 1992).

Mr.Hendersons group being chased had to slow down from running near their car , to get into their vehicle. The left wing thugs now numbering only about 12 - 15 had caught up with Mr.Henderson . They therefore had to ‘square up’ to these thugs whereupon the Police van mentioned earlier who had watched Mr.Hendersons group get attacked and chased, actually threatened Mr.Hendersons group with arrest !

In view of this several questions need to be asked.

Why did the Police Officers who were of Inspector rank , and were at Mr.Hendersons home only 30 minutes before the meeting not tell Mr.Henderson that the meeting at the Castle Inn had been ordered to close, instead of having his small group of four to be subject to physical attack ?

Also, why did Rochdale police stand back while his group was kicked and punched , had bricks and bottles thrown at them , and chased down the street . Then, when they could not run any further , due to their car being parked - the Police actually threatening Mr.Henderson with arrest .

If you remember back to the 1991 BNP Public Election meeting held at Greenbank school, Rochdale. Just prior to this meeting , the then Inspector David Sykes of Rochdale Police stated in the Rochdale Observer that "the BNP would never hold a meeting in Rochdale" - this shows the intention of the Police in Rochdale. Different rules apply at Election times.

(Just as an aside this note has been added August 2006: Former Police Inspector David Sykes was one of the most corrupt and incompetent of the then new anti-BNP ‘fast tracked coppers’ who were being pushed for promotions. Not because they were good coppers, but because they were very politically correct coppers .

Sykes was named by the SHIPMAN INQUIRY as being totally useless and he was named by Dame Janet Smith, the High Court Judge, as failing in his duty and bungling (Daily Mail : Tuesday 15th July 2003).

Sykes had retired early knowing this was coming with a full index linked pension which would give him about £36,500 per annum three years ago.

Sykes became a Chief Superintendant........I kid you not . )

Ex-anti BNP Chief Superintendent who took early retirement, David Sykes; called a failure by the SHIPMAN INQUIRY.

After this action of intimidating the acting landlady at the Castle Inn , one can only come to the conclusion that there does appear to be some degree of malevolence from Greater Manchester Police, Rochdale P Division, senior Officers . We make the great distinction between the senior ranks and the Constables on the beat.
Note: Cllr.David Williams mentioned earlier , Rochdale’s Labour party candidate appeared on a platform for the Anti-nazi league (ANAL) . A photo of Williams appeared in the Rochdale Express free newspaper dated 20th.February 1992. People who watch the political scene are well aware of the criminality of ANAL who have had literally thouands of members arrested by the Police, for example; almost 300 arrested at Lewisham alone on 13th.August 1977.

All this information contained formed a part of a formal complaint to the Chief Constable of GMP dated 31st.May 1992, a complaint that has still not been acted on or treated in a fair or appropriate manner. [As of 2006 these complaints were still never investigated. Says rather a lot about the Police doesn’t it ?]

Just a personal note here: I thought it was 1993 and not 1992 the last time I spoke with Ian Stuart. He did a gig at Littleborough Conservative Club near to the Railway station. We had a chat and a pint. How life is so fragile. The SKREWDRIVER gig was a fundraiser for Ken Henderson's BNP election challenges.