Richard Barnbrook

I must admit that I prefer politics at street level far more than the other facets that the job entails. Not that I needed to be reminded of this, but if I did, yesterday would have proved to be ideal.

Friday afternoon was spent in Romford handing out my London’s Mothers Against Knives leaflets to busy shoppers and traders at the town’s splendid market. I was completely taken aback by how well they were received and how positive everybody was. British people do have a tendency to stray towards cynicism, but I found none of it here.

Instead there was nothing but positiveness, a high recognition factor and a real sense of a united community. Initially I wasn’t sure whether or not I could fit my trip to Romford in, but I am so glad I did, the only regret I have is cutting short my activity to prepare to take part in Radio Four’s Any Questions later in the evening.

Rushing back home the clock seemed to be ticking at double time and with Friday’s traffic made worse by a bank holiday my journey can only be described as stressful. However, a BNP delegation had been specifically invited by BBC Radio Four to Emmanuel Church in Billericay from where Jonathan Dimbleby was to act as host and that was certainly an appointment we intended to keep.

As it turned out, the two and a half hours we spent in the company of Mr Dimbleby turned out to be a complete waste of time. The audience was initially asked to each put forward a question from which ten would be put to the panel Naturally enough the questions provided by ourselves, ones which really effect the community here such as immigration and knife crime, didn’t make it past the first fence. On top of this I was extremely disappointed to find out that there is hardly any chance at all for the audience to interact with either the panel or the host.

In the end it all felt rather sanitised and I spent much of the evening wondering what on earth somebody like Bob Crow was doing on the panel in the first place. Here was a man that last weekend was speaking at a violent, Labour inspired demonstration to try to physically stop our Summer festival in Derbyshire. Now, as a democratically elected member of the London Assembly I find myself searching for crumbs from the table of a man who would seem to be against the democratic process itself. Next time I’ll stick to the streets.