London, Thursday, April 29, 2004 BNP Euro
candidate suspended as teacher Rebecca Smithers, Matthew Taylor and David
Ward A WEST Midlands teacher was last
night suspended from his job at a Catholic
secondary school after declaring his candidacy in
the June European elections for the far-right
British National Party. Simon Smith, a maths teacher at St
Peter's Roman Catholic secondary school in
Solihull, has posted his details on the BNP website
for public scrutiny. His personal website, offline
after a dispute, included an inflammatory denial of
the Holocaust. After initially insisting that teachers were
eligible to stand for election on behalf of a legal
political party without it affecting their
employment, the local education authority later
backed the decision by the school and the
Birmingham Diocesan Schools Commission to suspend
Mr Smith. The development came as church leaders in West
Yorkshire united yesterday to condemn the BNP and
to urge congregations not to support its candidates
in June's local and European elections. Bishops,
priests and ministers gathered in Leeds to sign a
statement drawn up by the West Yorkshire Ecumenical
Council. Mr Smith, of Smethwick, is number two on the
BNP's list of European candidates in the West
Midlands. He is understood to be working at the
school on a one-year contract, and is a member of
the National Association of School Masters/Union of
Women Teachers. NASUWT deputy general secretary Chris
Keates said: "NASUWT abhors and condemns the
policies of the BNP. It has been a long-standing
rule that disciplinary procedures will follow the
linking of NASUWT with disreputable
organisations." At its annual conference in Llandudno at Easter,
the union called for a change in rules to allow it
to expel members from racist groups without fear of
compensation claims for discrimination. Phil Edwards, national spokesman for the
BNP, said: "This is absolutely deplorable and
amounts to unreasonable intimidation and hypocrisy.
This is a good teacher who has done nothing wrong
and the head teacher has made it clear she is very
happy with him. This is high-level intimidation to
try and stop people use the democratic process.
We're no longer a free country." On Mr Smith's personal website, which was closed
after a contractual dispute last year, he wrote of
the Holocaust: "The 'six million' and 'gas
chambers' story is a lie - this sounds delusional
when you first hear it - but investigate the matter
for yourself." The site was shut down in March after the search
engine Yahoo claimed the domain name,
www.yahho.co.uk was too close to its own. An independent expert who ruled in the case said
Mr Smith's site consisted "of inflammatory
political materials espousing
racist/anti-semitic/white supremacist views". The
website included links to far- right groups as well
as revisionist historian David Irving,
Hitler's Mein Kampf and eugenics
websites. Last night Mr Smith was
not available for comment, but the BNP's West
Midlands spokesman said: "The internet is a
broad conduit of information and websites can
have links to all kinds of things without
necessarily supporting them." Solihull council said in a statement yesterday:
"It has become clear that, whatever the
circumstances, the disruption to pupils' education
has become far too great, especially at this time
of year when many are preparing for exams. In these
circumstances it is deemed appropriate to suspend
the teacher to allow the school to return to
normal." The document from the West Yorkshire Ecumenical
Council - a response to the BNP's growing political
activity in parts of the north - deplores the
party's racist policies and calls on Christian
people to use their vote. The leaders also urge Christians to follow the
example of Christ and love their neighbours. "We feel the BNP is a deeply worrying movement
and its policies are racist and fascist," said
Stephanie Rybak, the council's executive secretary.
"We are concerned at the level of voter apathy,
which means people won't vote. If they don't,
there's a real danger that extremist parties might
get elected." © Guardian
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