{"id":12571,"date":"2009-05-22T07:28:16","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T05:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=12571"},"modified":"2013-10-12T22:47:54","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T19:47:54","slug":"bnp-candidate-faces-sack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/05\/22\/bnp-candidate-faces-sack\/","title":{"rendered":"BNP candidate faces sack"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12572\" style=\"width: 298px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12572\" title=\"eddyosullivan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/eddyosullivan.jpg\" alt=\"Eddy O'Sullivan\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/eddyosullivan.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/eddyosullivan-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddy O&#39;Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A CANDIDATE standing in the European election for the extremist right wing British National Party has posted racist comments on the internet.<\/p>\n<p>Eddy O&#8217;Sullivan, the Salford organiser of the BNP, wrote a series of offensive comments about non-white people on his Facebook profile.<\/p>\n<p>Party bosses are now investigating the statements on the social networking site and say he could face disciplinary action, including suspension and deselection.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Sullivan, 49, who is fourth on the BNP&#8217;s north west list for Euro candidates, admitted making the comments on the website but denied they were racist.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;It was supposed to be a private conversation between individuals. I also may have had a drink at the time. I don&#8217;t believe those comments are racist. I&#8217;m not a racist and that is that. I don&#8217;t regret saying anything because it was a private conversation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His Facebook profile was publicly viewable, which meant it was accessible to anyone on the site, but it has since been taken down. Last night Mr O&#8217;Sullivan&#8217;s details had been removed from the BNP&#8217;s website.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years the BNP has attempted to change its image as a racist party. However, it still allows only white people to become members and has a policy of demanding that non-white British people leave the country.<\/p>\n<p>Clive Jefferson, north west organiser of the BNP, said if the allegations were proved Mr O&#8217;Sullivan would be suspended from the BNP in Salford.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;That is unacceptable and I&#8217;m going to suspend him from the party and from the European candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s freedom of speech and there is unacceptable language and I think this is unacceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Simon Darby, deputy leader of the party, said: &#8220;We will have an investigation and we will take disciplinary action if we find he has posted the comments. If he has made these comments on a public website then it is a serious matter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Sullivan, a driving instructor, came third earlier this year in a by-election in Pendlebury. In the run-up to the vote Mr O&#8217;Sullivan also made disparaging comments about Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Cooke on his website.<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0 <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/s\/1116560_bnp_candidate_faces_sack\">www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk<\/span>,\u00a0 May 22, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A CANDIDATE standing in the European election for the extremist right wing British National Party has posted racist comments on the internet. Eddy O&#8217;Sullivan, the Salford organiser of the BNP, wrote a series of offensive comments about non-white people on his Facebook profile. Party bosses are now investigating the statements on the social networking site [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":12572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[1467,1525,550,1524],"class_list":["post-12571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-bnp","tag-british-national-party","tag-racism","tag-the-extremist-right"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}