It is sad to say that there will be a BNP candidate in the Hexham election: I hope we get a chance to debate because their extremism needs to be exposed in a proper debate.
The likely nominations are all reported in the Courant this week
http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk/news/news-at-a-glance/candidates-named-in-race-for-hexham-seat-1.696701?referrerPath=home
So far I have run into four BNP voters - 3 in Prudhoe and 1 in Haydon Bridge.
One lives in or around Highfield in South Prudhoe; I canvassed him and he refused my leaflet, said he was a BNP, and then loudly proclaimed to my back as I walked away, "all of you candidates, all you politicans, are corrupt." Normally, I do not get involved when someone is so directly opposed but maybe it was the long day on the hills of Prudhoe or the malicious comment to my back that made me see red but I turned and a fairly robust conversation ensued.
I tried to explain that I was leaving my job to do this, and that my fellow candidates were all fighting this campaign unsupported and unpaid in any way, and that whilst I disagreed with their politics, they were not corrupt. Again I pointed out that the candidates I knew were actually motivated by a desire to serve, to contribute to a country they loved and to try, in their own small way, to make things better. He tried immigration at length. I asked him if I was all right as an Englishman? He agreed. I left by pointing out that I was actually a descendant of immigrants who came to this land in search of a better life, and left.
Thats why we need to debate with the BNP - if you argue the case with them extremism will not win.
