Make your views clear at the ballot box, says TUC leader

Although I was completely opposed to your decision to accept an advert from the BNP, I do entirely agree with your subsequent editorial (Keep BNP at bay, H&H April 17). The BNP is a fact of political life – a very unpleasant one – and they will not go aw

Although I was completely opposed to your decision to accept an advert from the BNP, I do entirely agree with your subsequent editorial (Keep BNP at bay, H&H April 17).

The BNP is a fact of political life - a very unpleasant one - and they will not go away by simply being ignored and certainly not by being banned.

It is up to ordinary people to make clear their opposition. Again in this sense you are right that voter turn-out in the Assembly elections is the key.

The only real hope the BNP has of winning a seat is on the top-up list, but it is a genuine hope because they almost secured the five per cent needed in 2004. As you note, the more people who vote, the more votes are needed to get to five per cent of the total and the less likely the BNP is to succeed.

Trade unionists will be out again on Tuesday, April 29, leafletting voters to remind them to get to the polling stations on May 1, and I hope that if Ham& High readers spot us, they'll stop and help for a few minutes.

Now is the time to do your bit for democracy, not after May 1.

Keith Flett

President, Haringey TUC