And it is not just Suburbia that has spoken.
Others have expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo by voting Richard Barnbrook of the BNP onto the London assembly.
I am well known here for my dislike of the BNP for their racist roots.
But I know people who voted for them who are not racist in themselves but who do not feel considered by the mainstream parties.
Apparently protests are planned today at City Hall against the BNP member.
The BNP are a party. They were democratically elected. What bit of democratically elected do these protestors not understand?
I was gibbering with rage last week. My union telephoned me at home with a recorded message – “Keep the BNP out” That’s my union that didn’t bother to fight for my job, when I begged and pleaded with them to come to our unit which was being restructured, code for job loss, and talk to us and hear our concerns. The union that was happy for my colleagues and I to take the redundancy “voluntarily” because that meant their jobs in the department were not threatened for a little bit longer. The union that has funds and energy to support Palestinians, and campaign against the BNP but no time for members and activists of 30 years standing.
I have just read an interview with Richard Barnbrook (who lives in and represents a ward in Dagenham about a quarter of a mile from my house, when I lived there) in The Times.
He intends to propose that St George's Day be officially celebrated, that the Union flag fliexs over City Hall, and that burkas and other head coverings be banned from London's public buildings.
He opposes the Olympic Games because Londoners are footing so much of the bill- "If they are going to benefit the whole nation why is the whole nation not paying for them?"
He will also vigorously oppose the building a huge new mosque in Newham, East London. "This is a British culture," he said. "If I was to go to Iran or Iraq and say I wanted to build St Paul's Cathedral smack in the middle of their capitals they would say 'no way'. I'm terribly sorry but the same thing applies here. Next we'll have Sharia law."
I say the same things myself.
My husband, who is an admirer of Tony Benn who he has met a few times, says that Tony Benn commented on the television last night that “When people are scared they turn to the right”. He is correct.
The protestors and the professional anti BNP campaigners and the politicians need to start thinking about why people are scared, and why they feel that the existing parties are doing nothing to protect us.
You didn’t listen when Derek Beacon won a seat on the Isle of Dogs (which you call “Docklands”) back in 1993.
You didn’t listen when the BNP became the opposition party on Barking and Dagenham council.
Will you listen now?
Or will it take BNP Members of Parliament before you wake up from your cosy world boogieing down "wit der kidz" at rap concerts celebrating “diversity”?
