By Chris Thornton South Tyneside Organiser -After our huge success in reversing the decision by Subway in South Shields selling halal meat, myself and South Tyneside fund holder Martin Vaughan decided to organise a similar demo outside the Subway in Sunderland.

By Chris Thornton South Tyneside Organiser -After our huge success in reversing the decision by Subway in South Shields selling halal meat, myself and South Tyneside fund holder Martin Vaughan decided to organise a similar demo outside the Subway in Sunderland.

We informed the Sunderland Echo, who then wrote an article covering four pages.

Although they quoted Martin Vaughan's statement correctly, that we are demonstrating about the unnecessary pain and suffering of animals that are killed barbarically in halal ritual slaughter and that it was not an attack on Muslims, but to bring awareness to the public what halal is about.

It was also to shame the RSPCA and so called animal welfare groups who will not act because of fear of upsetting the Muslims.

However, they still tried to put their on twist on the matter suggesting it was a racist attack on Muslims but judging by the support we received from the public they saw through it and the article helped our cause no end.

We would have been more than happy to have around 20 activists but we were both pleasantly overjoyed by the massive turnout of over a hundred people who were very vocal, especially when the Truth Truck went past continuously throughout the demo.

The huge support we had was made up of local members, David Orr and fellow Scottish members, ex-members, the general public, and members of the farming community shocked at what they had read in the Sunderland Echo.

One Northumberland farmer Mr Henderson voiced his concerns that the RSPCA bombarded farmers, and rightly so with legislation rules and regulations on animal welfare from when the live stock is born until it is taken to auction.

His concern is that he and the farming community have seen a massive increase in Asian buyers at these auctions and through our Stop Halal Campaign he is disgusted with the RSPCA and government for then abandoning these animals and letting them endure a painful, frightening death.

I then repeated Mr Henderson's concerns in an interview with Sky News but the chance of any positive interviews by the British National Party being shown on National TV is very remote.

I understand why the Muslims want to support the selling of ritually slaughtered halal meat, however misguided I believe they are, but what I fail to understand is the two dozen UAF who turned up on a counter-demo and came to support ritual slaughter, they have travelled miles to support Muslim paedophiles in the past.

I put it to the UAF and the Muslim’s to please explain why they think animals should be slaughtered barbarically in this way and although many of them had travelled far and wide to be there, none would or could answer my question.
I would like to thank everyone who came and those that went on to help us with a table top paper sale in Jarrow later that day. We always receive a warm welcome in Jarrow and yesterday was no exception.

The day was rounded off with around 60 members attending The South Tyneside BNP meeting in Hebburn with the main guest speaker our Chairman Nick Griffin and the introduction of our new Regional Organiser Peter Molloy.

Peter has agreed to take over my old role, and I am looking forward to working alongside him to continue to help the North East British National Party grow.

This is not the end of the matter.

We will continue to protest at this shop until Subway change its policies on this sickening practice.

Martin Vaughan then continues; where do I start?
The media spin and lies never cease to amaze.I will start with what I think the vital points are.

1. We knew our leader and MEP Nick Griffin, which the Sunderland Echo failed to print, was not attending this demo, but that was for us to know and them to find out.

2. The 200 people The Echo stated were on the street was about right, but it failed to say that at least 150 of those were on our side.

3. None of the left wing comments in the paper even attempted to address the issue of Halal meat.

4. The Echo stated the day before the protest, that no one from Subway was available for comment, well at the protest I myself invited them to address the crowd, but still no comment.

Dare I say this was because, what can they say, you cannot justify this barbaric practice.
I have today called The Echo to tell them that it does not matter how much spin they put on it, the public can see right through it.

I also told them the BNP will not stop until this shop withdraws the sale of Halal meat, I went on to say that this protest was the tip of the iceberg, and there will be many more protests.

The day could not have started better. We turned up at our RV point to be met by at least 5 police vans, taxpayer’s money no object.
We handed out hundreds of leaflets and we had 100% support from the public.

No one went into the shop when we were there, but Greggs next door was packed out.
We spent about an hour there and then as a climax to our day, our Truth Truck turned up all sounds blaring, it was a proud moment for all of us.

We should warn the local rag (Echo) that it won’t win the public over on this one and that it should never underestimate its buyers.

We should also warn Subway that this problem will never go away until all Halal outlets stop serving the terrible food.

Today I am writing to Subway CEO to get his response to this, I will keep you posted. I also warned him we will be having lots more flash protests at this store, and when we are done there we will move to the next store.

I would especially like to thank David Orr and his team from Scotland for travelling down to support us. We will return the favour by supporting his team in Glasgow very soon.

We still have car space if anyone wishes to travel to Glasgow with us they can contact myself on 07944841659.

After the protest we all moved on to Jarrow shopping centre and held a table top, the public response was tremendous, they were so glad to see us back.
The evening function went very well, we were very organised throughout the whole day, we had members out doing the business and members in doing the catering for the evening buffet.