Letter: British National Party's campaign on the Isle of Dogs

Sir: Your correspondents (letters, 31 March) who criticise John Torode's article about the British National Party on the Isle of Dogs have little to offer but a minor reworking of last year's left-wing Easter Parade of evasions and half- truths.

Councillor Derek Beackon won the September by-election on an unusually high turnout for a local poll, yet it is suggested that the result was in some way unfair or unrepresentative because Mr Beackon did not receive votes from a majority of those living on the island. Your trade union correspondents should be advised that British elections work that way. The Labour Party has, for instance, never managed to win even a majority of the votes cast in any general election, despite being in government many times - not even in 1945.

The issue on the Isle of Dogs is a simple one. The residents wish to see local resources used for their community. The chattering classes, who now make policy in all three major parties, have other ideas. The islanders' needs are a low priority in their great scheme to build a society in Britain that no one wants - especially themselves.

If the great architects of the left had their children sleeping in the living room, like many islanders, while local housing is allocated to people from the other side of the world, and attracted epithets such as 'Nazis' if they objected, they would sing from a very different hymn book.

Yours faithfully,

MICHAEL NEWLAND

Press Officer

British National Party

Welling, Kent

31 March