The reason I was trying to look up governors is this:  I was reading this story in a local paper about Three Bridges Junior School being put into special measures after getting the lowest possible rating from Ofsted. The latest report gives an overall rating of 4.

It seemed like a very rapid decline, since the previous report in July 2008 was nowhere near as bad – getting either ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ in every category.  OK, there were no ‘outstandings’ at all but then there were no ‘inadequate’ s either.

While looking at that I noticed that the chair of governors was somebody called Martin Grice and the name Grice rang a bit of a bell because Ryan Grice is a serial BNP candidate in Crawley elections.  It turns out that a Martin Grice from Three Bridges appeared on the BNP membership list that appeared on Wikileaks a couple of years back.

It may just be a coincidence. There may well be two Martin Grices in Three Bridges but it is very difficult to establish one way or the other. The address for the school’s own website does not work: it just gives a ‘Directory listing denied’ error message.  I can’t even see if the chair is a parent governor, staff representative or an appointment by the LEA, or when they first became a governor.

I suppose I could go through every set of council minutes on the WSCC website and maybe get somewhere, but I don’t fancy that, so how can I (and the parents of pupils at the school) know whether there is indeed a BNP member in charge or just somebody with the same name?

What is confusing me a bit is how smebody who is a party’s only member on an elected body can resign the party whip and stay in the party.   Surely if you are the only member yo must be the whip as well?    Presumably Richard Barnbrook is the same person, with the same views, who could already vote however he wanted so the impact on the London Assembly must be minimal.

The impact on the BNP is another matter.

Whispers are circulating this morning about the alleged sacking of yet another British National Party councillor, just three weeks before the general election they had such high hopes for.

Daniel McDonald, a BNP councillor for Horsham, is thought to have been sacked for failing to declare a pending assualt charge on his application to stand.

On April 16th politics.co.uk reported:

Speaking to politics.co.uk South East regional organiser for the BNP Andy McBride said: “I can confirm Daniel McDonald is standing down for personal and private reasons.

“We have no problem with his candidature and he remains a member of the BNP. We will not standing a replacement candidate, which means unfortunately we cannot contest the seat.”

I’m not sure how reliable One Million United is.  On the one had it described McDonald as a Horsham councillor, which as far as I know he is not.  On the other hand it said he would not be standing and three days later that was confirmed, even if the reasons given were different.

Only the BNP could manage to make Hoon and Hewitt look good!

One small consolation for Griffin though: his party may be out to kill him but at least he can keep his degree after all.

These ladies want you to make Horsham greener

I was out in Horsham town centre this morning doing some anti-BNP campaigning and met these lovely people from Greening Horsham. Their objective is to get as many residents of Horsham to make commitments to make small changes in their behaviour, and display a card in their window to show that they are doing it.

The actions they are suggesting are small in themselves, but would make an impact if enough people took them – why not have a look?As for my own activities…  there were three parliamentary candidates there: me, Francis Maude and Jim Duggan.  Godfrey Newman would probably have joined us, but unfortunately he was out of town for the weekend.   The aim was to persuade people who might otherwise stay at home to get out and vote to register their opposition to the BNP.

I’m sure I will be bumping into Francis & Jim several times in the next month or so at hustings and similar events and I’m sure we will disagree vigorously with each other, but this first encounter was very much on friendly terms as disgust at the BNP and a desire to see a higher turnout are two of the few things we will agree on.  And Greening Horsham is probably a third.

While the Haiti earthquake is terrible, the winter death toll in Britain will be similar. No aid here though.

Hmm… from the Times on Jan 7th

Weather-related death toll rises to 22 as Britain braces for coldest night yet

From the BBC web site

Tuesday’s earthquake has left as many as 45,000-50,000 people dead.

45,000 to 50,000 is about the smallest estimate I have seen.

Of course, it is possible that Dick-I-beg-your-pardon-Nick Griffin is unable to distinguish between large numbers; he may have a counting system like several remote tribes are reputed to have that goes “1, 2, 3, many”.

[Thought I posted this the other day, but it ended up in the drafts.  Must have done it just when my internet connection went down.]

The BNP denies that increases in hate crime are related to its activities and blames the rises on increased immigration. Bob Bailey, the party’s London organiser said: “This is due to an increase in the ethnic [sic] population. There are more people who are prepared to go to the police complaining they are victims.”

He stops short of saying “if only they would all bugger off back to where they came from there would be nobody to hate any more” which is just as well because

1. Most of ‘them’ come from here anyway
2. The BNP will always find someone to hate.  It is part of their nature to always find a scapegoat.  If the non-whites magically disappeared it would be gays in the firing line, and then trade unions, then the disabled, and so on.

That would be hilarious, and I think I would be up for that, but isn’t the BNP HQ miles away in Wrexham or somewhere like that?

Griffin shot himself in the foot so many times he probably had to be carried home afterwards.

I don’t think I have enjoyed Question Time so much since Robin Day was in the chair, although to be honest I haven’t really watched it much since Robin Day was in the chair, and hardly at all since the panel was increased to five.

And then something stopped me in mid laugh: the realisation that this idiot managed to get enough votes to be elected and represents Britain in the EU parliament.  There might be foreigners seeing him speak somewhere who think he actually speaks for us.  Its a bit like the feeling I got when Boris Johnson was at the Olympics handover ceremony, but more sinister.

Spare a thought for the casualty departments in the North, which are probably creaking at the seams with injuries from people kicking themselves and slapping their foreheads that they stayed at home on polling day and let it happen.