More free publicity for the BNP

From The Evening Standard:

A prominent BNP councillor has escaped suspension after a disciplinary hearing was postponed at the 11th hour.

Today's hearing had been set up by City Hall and Barking and Dagenham council after Richard Barnbrook falsely claimed on YouTube that three people were murdered in three weeks in the borough. But last night officials were forced to delay the hearing after the BNP member of the London Assembly presented a dossier of new evidence denying that he had brought the Greater London Authority and council into disrepute.

Mr Barnbrook, who was elected to Barking and Dagenham council in 2006 and is one of 12 BNP councillors in the borough, was due to face a hearing three weeks ago but claimed he was too stressed to attend*. In the YouTube clip he posted last September, he claimed the borough had seen three murders in as many weeks. There had been one killing in the neighbouring borough of Newham, and no evidence of two other attacks, despite Mr Barnbrook insisting two victims died after being placed on life support machines.

OK, he's a politician and he said something that turned out to be untrue. Shock, horror, dismay, outrage, quick fetch my smelling salts. Perhaps he knew it to be untrue. And maybe, just maybe, being a member of the BNP whose stock-in-trade is making inflammatory comments about crime and immigration, preferably in the same sentence, he was merely reinforcing the prejudices of his electors.

But so what? Politicians of other parties are perfectly free to point out his inaccuracies, and assuming that anybody still listens to them - seeing as they are nearly all pathological liars, the overall effect would be to bring the BNP into disrepute rather than anything else, yes?

* Aw diddums! Poor little Dicky!