Racists target Dad on the net

Barrie Hudson

 
A PEACE campaigner has had his home address posted on a white extremist website by people claiming to be from the British National Party's Swindon branch.

And the BNP says it couldn't care less.

Andy Newman fears the entry on the British page of the American Stormfront site could provoke a terrorist attack on his young family.

And he was disgusted to see someone calling himself White Terror had posted a comment asking whether his name was Newman or Neumann  the Jewish spelling.

Mr Newman, 43, chairs the Swindon Stop the War Coalition and is secretary of the local Socialist Alliance branch.

He said: "As I have a young family, including a newborn baby, I take it very seriously that an organisation which has been linked with violence has posted my home address on a fascist webpage."

Another unidentified writer, who calls himself Steve 219, talks of recently leafleting the Swindon area. He says: "The Marxist group the Socialist Alliance has also been out with their smear [sic] and lies.

"If you would like to express your views, write to Andy Newman."

Mr Newman is married to fellow activist Sarah, a teacher.

He said: "If it was just me who was affected, I would not be worried at all, but I have a family  I have a four-year-old and a baby of three weeks.

"Having my address on this website could be very unpleasant. My wife is very concerned."

But Mr Newman defiantly added: "I'm not going to be intimidated. I have political beliefs that not everybody agrees with, and they are entitled to disagree because that is democracy.

"But people are not entitled to intimidate others for being politically active.

"What has happened will not deter me, because then they will have won."

The Evening Advertiser contacted the BNP's press officer, who calls himself Dr Phill Edwards but is in fact called Dr Stuart Russell.

He said the party did not condone the placing of political opponents' personal details on such websites and added: "We do not tell them to do this. They do it spontaneously."

He also accused left wing parties of employing similar tactics against right wing activists but was unable to cite examples.

He then accused successive governments of having allowed the country to be populated by immigrants who brought disease and social problems and renewed his attack on the media.

He said: "All you can do in the media is phone up and waste my time about a man who's had his name and address published on a website. I couldn't care less."

The BNP has been hitting the national headlines in recent weeks. In a recent documentary, a party member boasted to an undercover BBC reporter of kicking and punching a man during the 2001 Bradford riots.

Another member spoke of his desire to attack mosques with a rocket launcher, and another claimed to have put dog excrement though the letterbox of an Asian-owned takeaway.

Party leader Nick Griffin sparked widespread protest by describing Islam as vicious and wicked and suggesting it had been spread through rape and other violent means.