A few days ago the Times reported on election campaigning in Barking, concentrating on the efforts of the BNP. However, it also told us that:
A greater concern for Labour is the candidacy of the Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party, who has strong links to the big Pentecostalist churches proliferating in the area and who may shave away significant numbers of black voters from Labour.
Hargreaves had been planning to stand in the Western Isles of Scotland, but earlier this month he withdrew due to his wife’s ill-health. I’ve blogged on Hargreaves previously; in the 1980s, before his religious conversion, he wrote the successful camp pop songs So Macho and Cruising, but he has since become better-known in 2007 for his activism against the Sexual Orientation Regulations. He has also stated that environmental protections against overfishing should be scrapped because there is “a supernatural element in the restoration of fish to our seas”.
Hargreaves is also Deputy Leader of the Alliance for Democracy, which describes itself as
an Anglo-Christian Democratic Alliance of Political Parties in England, Scotland & Wales, set up to fight the corrupt and incompetent “Traditional” UK Political parties in the 2010 General Election.
Its website gives some background:
…Finally it was agreed that the Alliance for Democracy would be led by the English Democrats & Jury Team, the Christian Party and Veritas would have associate/electoral pact status to the Alliance, and United Kingdom First & Popular Alliance decided to withdraw as they would be unlikely to be fielding candidates in the 2010 General Election and were unable to contribute any time or finance to the Alliance.
The Press Release to formally announce the Alliance for Democracy was issued by the English Democrats & Jury Team on Monday 15 February 2010.
The Leader is Sir Paul Judge, a businessman who has formerly made donations to the Conservative Party and who runs an organisation named “Jury Team”, which encourages independent candidates to run as MPs. Hargreaves used to have a profile listed on the Alliance’s “National Council” page, although he is currently absent; perhaps he has stepped down due to his wife’s illness, but no explanation is given. Private Eye recently had fun comparing Judge with Hargreaves:
Sir Paul is the leader and Rev Hargreaves deputy leader of the new Alliance – a curious combination. Hargreaves’s party argues for tighter divorce laws, promising to “uphold marriage between one man and one woman for life”. Sir Paul divorced his first wife in 2001…
His conduct in the divorce trampled on another Christian virtue, charity…
… But there are other contradictions in the new marriage of convenience between God and Mammon. Judge claimed last year that his Jury Team represented “politics without parties”, but he is now leading an alliance of not one but six political parties. The only policies on which they seem to agree are withdrawal from the EU, army-style “boot camps” for convicted criminals and an end to immigration.
Details of Judge’s “conduct” during his divorce can be read about in this Daily Mail article.
Ironically, Judge’s Jury Team is endorsed by Martin Bell – who, it might be recalled, in 2001 stood for Parliament in opposition to Eric Pickles. This was because Pickles’ constituency Conservative Party in Brentwood was thought by some to have been too close to a local neo-Pentecostal mega-church run by a man with political views much like those of Hargreaves (this was the since-disgraced Michael Reid, now known to tabloid readers as the “Bonking Bishop of Brentwood”).
One man who is unimpressed with the Alliance for Democracy is Bill Baker, a one-time activist in the English Democrats Party. Blogger Ted Pugh of The Canvey Beat noted in December a comment left by Baker on a news website:
The English Democrats have formed an Alliance with Black Christian groups and have sold out the English voters anyhow. The Idiot Steve Uncles [of the EDP] has told George Hargreaves that they will not contest in Barking and Dagenham area, if the Black Christian party do not contest in Dartford area. very English values indeed and their motto of :Putting England First; seems a bit shot in the foot wouldn’t you say. The English democrat national executive is like any other party executive leadership and all in it for themselves and not to be trusted. Come election time if anyone wants more information of how this alliance was formed please feel free to contact me and I will assist you in exposing the English Democrats for the lie they truly are…
…[Uncles] is clearly abandoning the English voters to the Black Christian party in Barking and Dagenham as he thinks they are stronger in Dartford.
A further quote is attributed to Baker on the Democracy Forum, although it is not sourced:
I have resigned from the English Democrats and will be standing as an independent in Barking and Dagenham. I am not in agreement that as an English party the English Democrats should make way for the Christian alliance which is a black church organisation and one of the contentious issues in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. By standing down and making alliances with immigrant led parties, the English Democrats in my view have reneged on their values to put English culture first and are pandering to foriegn influences, in the same manner as the current Lib/Lab/Con. They are also abandoning the English Electorate of Barking and Dagenham who would have no choice other than to vote for the BNP. my intention to stand as an independent is to offer the English voters a non racist alternative, but with strong English values and the promoted values of one law for all. Steve Uncles has done a deal with Black Christians in Barking and Dagenham region that I am in total disagreement with as there are around 200 Nigerian and Black churches in the constituency of Barking and Dagenham and people are concerned about this issue. His deal was they could have free run in the area as long as they left his Dartford constituency alone and I feel this is totally wrong and think his personal ambitions are inhibiting the rest of the party members and activists to work as a team in uniting the electorate behind a single cause. I still believe in the English cause and will not now go back on my promise to the people of Barking that a patriotic non racist alternative to the fascist BNP will be available for them to consider, once the elections come around.
Baker was in the news in August, when he announced plans for a protest outside a mosque in Harrow – which he then called off when he was satisfied that no “shariah court” was being planned for the site (a protest did, though, go ahead, although organised by another group). He also hangs out with Charlie Flowers and his gang of “Cheerleader” cyber-bullies; a few days ago he left a message on their Facebook page with a jocular “hello and hope you aint terrorising everyone to badly”, although this of course does not mean that he knows about their campaigns of harassment. Baker was also recently interviewed by Sunny Hundal here.
UPDATE: A reader directs me to this Facebook page, where Baker rails against Hargreaves as a “foreign interloper” (when in fact there’s no reason to think Hargreaves wasn’t born in the UK; he was was certainly raised in London) and his church as “colonial” because it is supposedly “African funded”. He also explains that the European Union is a conspiracy by “the Soviets” and complains about “Kraut wankers”. He also discusses his past with the BNP:
…Yes there was a leadership challenge on Nick, but I was no part of it although I agreed with the principals of the challenge on democratic principals. After the ;heavy handling of some members and councillors of the BNP, many of us walked away as we knew the radical racist elements and hidden agenda could not be challenged and if you look at the BNP constitution you will see that Nick has written himself in that he can no longer be challenged for the BNP leadership. Since my split and stance on behalf of Barking and Dagenham I have been asked back into the BNP of which I flatly refused due to the unchangeable racist principals. most BNP supporters are not racist and merely seeking alternatives to the current political elite that have ruined the community harmony of our social structures. Some of the hierarchy of the BNP however have intentions that will never allow social cohesion in this country and that is why in its current form the BNP can never be allowed access to political power of any kind. If they do achieve a few seats in the coming elections they will be of no value politically and ostracised by other MP’s, which is why a vote for the BNP will be a wasted vote of protest, no more. I can cite several incidents of political bullying by the BNP of its membership and elected officers but I wont bother as most of them are common knowledge if you go and seek them out yourself.
He also likes to share a joke:
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