Unemployment, health and housing are the focus for political parties fighting May's local elections. The BNP will be no exception but, for many, their solutions will not make comfortable reading. Sarah Probert reports...
 At first glance, Simon Darby (pictured) comes across as the perfectly-polished politician who wouldn't look out of place in any of the main parties fighting next month's local elections. Throw in all the right phrases, a few key issues and plenty of pauses for effect and you have a fully-trained-up member of the political brigade. He mentions the Iraq war, something many voters are concerned about, along with the cash-for-peerages row - a hot topic destined to throw many into a mild stupor. There is also the issue of unemployment, housing and hospitals, the staple diet most politicians will thrive on as the election campaigning hots up. But after a few minutes of spin, the former Dudley councillor finally nails his true colours firmly to the mast. "A lot of people are waking up to find a deliberate replacement of British people," he states quite matter of factly.
We're willing to talk to party - mosque leader
The head of Birmingham's Central Mosque last night said he would like to have a meeting with the British National Party to talk about its views.
Dr Mohammed Naseem, chairman of the mosque, dismissed the far right party's fear of Birmingham becoming an Islamic state and encouraged talks to discuss its policies.
He said: "I have tried to talk to them and they agreed at one time but the meeting never took place. It [the party] has some kind of inferiority complex."
Referring to a planned new mosque in Dudley, he added: "I don't see how a building of worship can cause a threat to anybody. We have churches, temples and mosques here.
"They are for people who believe in God and humanity and that doesn't become a problem."
His comments were echoed by Maxi Hales, from the Birmingham Racial Attacks Monitoring Unit.
He said: "They are quite right to predict Birmingham will become an ethnic majority city by 2020. That is inevitable and therefore we have to live with it, whether we like it or not.
"What we have to do is to create harmony and work with all communities and cultures together. Yes, it is true there are a large number of Muslims in Birmingham - that again is the reality, it doesn't mean that people can't live together. But the sentiment from the BNP is one of resentment. There is enough to go around. People should try to live together."
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There is the "Islamic problem", he explains and then there is the issue of Birmingham becoming an ethnic majority by 2020. "Our first aim is to draw this to people's attention. At the moment we are celebrating the fact we are eradicating the white population. We are supposed to be celebrating diversity, but we are actually celebrating the removal of white people and we want to make people aware of this," he adds. When asked why this would be a problem he doesn't elaborate, continuing: "It would be like a large white population moving into Jamaica or trying to socially engineer the Black African population." Whether it be the BNP's plan to prevent Birmingham from becoming an Islamic city or the BNP's attack on the loss of "indigenous people", Mr Darby's comments will spark distaste in many. "There is the Islamic problem in Dudley where they are trying to build a huge mosque, or rather an Islamic village," he explains. "Dudley is a historic English town, and it is not the kind of thing you put in the centre of such a town. When their culture impacts on us we are in retreat. Dudley becomes less of an English town. "In Sandwell there is a large problem with Eastern European migrants working and taking away jobs from brickies and carpenters. There is the average British craftsman who has got a wife and kids to support and is trying to pay a mortgage, and then there are four Polish workers living in one house spending £25 on rent who can afford to live on low wages." Mr Darby, who won and very quickly lost his seat on Dudley Council after only one year, claimed the BNP was targeting the West Midlands to tackle problems other politicians had largely ignored. "There are a lot of problems in the West Midlands - high immigration, high unemployment and we are looking at the kind of problems that other parties have ignored. "One interesting fact came out of the Lozells riots was the fact that only 17 per cent of the population is white - and that is from a few decades when 98 per cent where white. "Is it wise to replace the indigenous people?" he adds. As deputy leader of the BNP party, Mr Darby is already poised to take over if anything should happen to his leader Nick Griffin, who is facing a trial for race hate offences in October. And so he is not contesting any seats in the Midlands, but has opted for local candidates instead. In the meantime, many people will find his description of his party as non racist, just pro-white, not totally convincing. "Even the established migrant community, the West Indians, are coming to us to say they can't get jobs. This is not just disaffected white voters, it is the established migrant communities, a lot of West Indian Christians who are worried about the spread of Islam. There is certainly an air of some great deal of dissatisfaction," he claims. He even says the BNP had the chance to put up some black candidates for the local elections in the West Midlands, but turned them down because the BNP was "about white people". "We could have put about five Afro-Caribbean candidates up if we had wanted to, but this is a party that is for white people and they understand that in the same way I couldn't join the Black Police Officers Association if I was a policeman," he says. | 
