NAZIS IN NORTH DEVON

devon | peace | news report Monday March 10, 2003 20:29 by Jimmy The Fish

Forget about Foot'n'Mouth – there's a new disease spreading through the South West, in the form of the BNP and it's sick attempts to try and win seats on our local councils. This time the 'disease' will be snuffed out early – before it's get any hold. See below for info on Nazis in North Devon - and make sure you read this weeks BIG ISSUE

North Devon Journal - 27 February 2003

Peter Chantler has just thrown his hat into the ring as a candidate for May's district council elections. Mr Chantler is a Devon farmer campaigning for the future of the farming industry.

He is totally opposed to war in Iraq and is calling for a freeze on council tax rises which he said were crippling pensioners. He joined the Conservative Party aged 19, and was one of the volunteers who recently got his hands dirty to scrub away the graffiti in South Molton.

But the well spoken, former chartered accountant, who worked in the City and now lives in rural South Molton, is also the newly elected British National Party representative for North Devon in May's district council elections.

Mr Chantler will stand in the North Molton ward which is currently held by Independent Herbie Geen.

He admitted the BNP was not a party he would have joined 10 years ago but did not call himself racist. He said: "The BNP has no controversial policies any more, perhaps the only one is opposition to multiculturalism, but all that means is stop trying to mix people artificially."

The 39-year-old is opposed to "forced multiculturalism," same sex marriages and is in favour of the return of capital and corporal punishment.

He left London because he was frightened to go out due to rising crime levels, and added: "It is a fact that in London most muggings and crimes are carried out by blacks and that is a fact."

He talked of "White Flight" Londoners moving to the West Country, among other destinations, to escape the problems and said one person of ethnic origin in a community who blended in was fine but warned that if the number grew, so the community and its culture changed.

He argues he was simply filling a gap in a political vacuum, which he claimed has been left by the Conservative and Labour Parties - and he is keen to stand in the next General Election.

Until last year Mr Chantler, who was awarded a diploma in Mediaeval Art History in 1995 by the Royal Society of Arts, was a Tory.

But last year he turned his back on the Tory Party and took a stand against what he argued, was the threatened erosion of the traditional British way of life, and joined the BNP.

His party campaigns under the heading, "Building a future for British Children," and Mr Chantler said the traditions of the country were what he was fighting for, along with a halt in council tax rises and an end to spending on unnecessary "grandiose" projects by local councils.

He said the failure by Labour and the Tories to voice the real views of the people are what drove him, and had enabled his party to grow.

He said the BNP's leaders had simply listened to what people wanted and adapted their views to voice the fears and concerns of the "grass roots" of communities such as his own near South Molton.

He said: "The Tories are too timid to voice the opinion of their members - that is why the BNP is growing so quickly.

"None of the main political parties has the will to be tough enough."

Mr Chantler wants tough action on drugs and picks up on Devon chief constable Maria Wallis's warnings about crack cocaine headed for Barnstaple.

He was angry that "political correctness" meant organisations had to have ethical representation in staffing quotas and said companies should be allowed to do what they wanted to do, and if that was to employ purely white workers, so be it.

He commented: "I have been to lots of meetings in Barnstaple and people do not want multiculturalism forced down their throats, they don't want gay marriages or sodomy legalised in public toilets.

"Iain Duncan Smith has said to people like me, we don't want you in the Tory party, but it was people like me that voted for him, so in effect he has left me with no voice at all, that is why I am taking a stand.

"People I have spoken to do not want asylum centres in North Devon, but you only have to look at Mr Blunkett who at the moment is desperately seeking somewhere to put these centres.

"Wherever he goes, he meets protests, and you have to wonder if he won't think of trying an area where he feels nobody will kick up a fuss and if North Devon is the place he chooses, I want to make sure people who want to resist it have a voice."

Now he is giving the people of North Devon the chance to have their say and voice their views.

Asked how he thinks he will fare in May he said: "Well that is up to the people to decide, but at least I am giving them an alternative view to vote for."

For more info on this Nazi - see this weeks BIG ISSUE