Anger over BNP leaflet delivery
Friday, 29 May 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
The ongoing row between the British National Party (BNP) and the Royal Mail took a new turn this week with residents across the country complaining BNP leaflets were delivered with council newsletters.
Royal Mail guidelines state political leaflets should not be combined with other customers' mail yet several local publications have allegedly been distributed with the far-right party's literature tucked inside, even including a police newsletter.
Anger over Royal Mail's apparent oversight has led to at least one newsletter's circulation being suspended and Aylesbury town council, in Buckinghamshire, threatening the company with legal action.
Council newsletters in Aylesbury, Chelmsford and Oxford have all reportedly been delivered with the leaflets inside while in Northamptonshire they were included the police's Home Beat publication.
"I don't know whether this was a conscious decision of the borough council but even if it wasn't, the council is now tainted by association," William Seymour, a Chelmsford solicitor, told the Essex Chronicle.
"The other worrying point about the BNP leaflet being tucked inside the council's newsletter is that it removed the choice of the individual postal workers to refuse to deliver it, as they have done in other parts of the country."
The controversy surrounding Royal Mail delivery of BNP leaflets arose due to an apparent 'conscience clause' for members of the Communication Workers' Union which allows them to refuse to deliver mail they find offensive.
Several postal workers around the country have apparently chosen to use this option, in a move which has angered the BNP, despite the fact Royal Mail are legally obliged to deliver election material.
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