May 15th, 2010 | 
Author: 
A photograph has emerged of a BNP councillor pictured with three men giving a Nazi salute standing next to a war memorial.
Steve Batkin is a councillor at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and is also a governor at two secondary schools.
The image, taken in 2002 in Stone, shows Mr Batkin and saluting far-right activists with a Union Jack flag.
Mr Batkin said the men were expressing their “rebelliousness” but admitted the image was “regrettable”.
The BNP said it rejected fascists and the “fascist cultists” who for many years had tried to take over control of the party.
The photograph was recently given to the BBC.
Smiling pose
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called for Mr Batkin to resign his school governorships and stand down from his council post.
South Staffordshire Royal British Legion manager Peter Smith said he viewed the photograph with “revulsion”.
“Three-hundred-and-twenty-six thousand servicemen and women died in World War II so that we wouldn’t have Nazi salutes on the streets of Britain.”
The picture was taken while Mr Batkin was campaigning to win a seat on the city council.
Mr Batkin told the BBC the men were members of a “blood and honour” group sympathetic to the BNP but not officially linked.
Two of the men are now dead, he said.
“When the picture was shot, I don’t know exactly whether they’re going to do a fascist salute or not,” Mr Batkin explained.
“It would have been better they didn’t. But the fact is they did express their rebelliousness.”
Asked about his smiling pose, Mr Batkin added: “Yes, they are good, sound patriotic people.”
Mr Batkin is a governor at Edensor Technology College and Mitchell High School, both in Stoke-on-Trent.
A council spokesman said: “Schools have their own code of conduct for their governors, and the decision whether or not to suspend a governor rests with the school.”
Michael Coleman, a spokesman for the Stoke-On-Trent BNP branch, said: “Membership conditions of the BNP bar association with people who behave in a way that our people, the British people, would find offensive.
“This includes wearing fascist emblems or behaving in a way that would harm the reputation of the party.”
Because of the age of the photograph, Mr Coleman said he thought it would be sufficient to remind members at the next meeting that fascist associations were unwelcome, but to take no further action.
From: BBC News
Working Against The Politics of Hatred & Division
Posted in BNP Election Candidates, BNP General, Uncategorized | 
Tags: Anti-BNP, BNP, British National Party, Steve Batkin BNP, Stoke BNP, Vote No To BNP
do these 4 redneck trailor trash inbreed BOYS not realise they most definently would have been wiped off the face of planet earth if HITLER had succeded in his quest for world domination.seriously LOOK AT THEM SAD PATHETIC SPECIMEN OF (WO)MEN!this rag n tail bunch would have ran a mile if they’d meet my/our HONOURABLE 1LOVE FAMILY ARMY.i laugh at them because if we have aliens and they land here and meet these 1st the aliens would say EXTERMIN(h)ATE,EXTERMIN(h)ATE.LETS HOPE NOT HATE THE ALIENS DONT LAND.JAH KNOW.9XZULUG
ALSO IN GERMANY ITS ILLEGAL TO ACT IN THIS DISRESPECTFUL ARROGANT FASHION.BUT STILL IN THE LAND THAT FOUGHT AND WON WE ALLOW THEM TO EXPRESS SUCH GUT RENCHING,PROVOCATIVE EXTREME NON SENSICAL STANCE.DO THEY NOT REMEMBER THE SOLDIERS FROM UK AND BEYOND FOUGHT AND DIED FOR THIS TO BE AGAIN FRONTED ON THEIR DOORSTEP.moseley black ties did the same back in the wars days and they weren’t legally stopped either.makes me wonder why we or should i say those BRAVE SOLDIERS,INNOCENT PUBLIC PERISHED FOR WHAT.LETS PERTITION PARLIAMENT AHVE THIS NASTINESS OUTLAWED ONCE N FOR ALL.PEACE N LOVE N UNITY LEADS TO HARMONY.9XZULUG