More on Morley Together

A few weeks back, I asked the Town Council ofice to dig out all relevant correspondence on this Morley Together business. Being a Member of the Council, it wasn't necessary for me to make this a Freedom of Information request but I did ask that it be treated as such as regards content and timescales.

This was in response to the total lack of response from Colin Challen MP since March 8th when I emailed him the day after the Motion was hastily approved (via his dormant Website).

The pack yields two interesting details.

Firstly, the Mayor wrote to Colin Challen on February 19th that the Council support the principles of Morley Together, based on it being agreed by the Strategic, Policy and Constitutional Committee. On this basis, CCMP rightly assumed (and went to Press) that the Council had signed up to it. This was denied in Full Council, however, by Cllr Grayshon, when I asked for clarification.

I don't think this was deliberate per se, but more a case of backtracking when they realised that it would need to go to Full Council.

(With hindsight, I suspect many Councillors were rather worried about getting this motion agreed, preferably unanimously, before the spectre of twelve possible BNP Councillors at the May meeting.

The second interesting detail is the correspondance from CCMP himself. The main letter is fairly much as expected from the press report, however a specimen certificate has a Hope not Hate logo on it.

Take a look at http://hopenothate.org.uk/. It is the website of Searchlight, which describes itself as the "Anti-Fascist Community". From my brief perusal, it is rather like the BNP- surface respectability, extreme views, shades of obsessive compulsive behaviour, not very pleasant under the rock.

Lots of others (& not just the BNP) describe it in less glowing terms, however. (and here and here).

I liked this quote;

There's something rather sinister and undemocratic, however, about an organisation which doesn't put up candidates itself but devotes itself to attacking people who do submit themselves to the democratic process.

Someone replied to this as follows:


There's something sinister and undemocratic about the BNP. Other parties don't have an equivalent of RedWatch, where if you criticise the BNP, someone will come in the dead of night and firebomb your car.

Really? I thought Labour had outsourced it to Searchlight. Tell that to Chris Beverley, who experienced a bit of RedWhite&BlueWatch at his house.