Grave and present danger

I'm not being funny (as scousers say) but I wouldn't let my daughter marry one of them.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not racialist. I'm friendly with many people who look like that.

In fact, some of my best friends look just like them. But they're not like the rest of us, are they?

They're almost always surrounded by filth and scum. Only a few years ago, there were only a few of them, but they kept themselves to themselves. Now, they represent a whole quarter of the population!

I refer of course to the population of 12 white men who would be mayor of my adopted home city of Liverpool, and who include three representing far-right parties.

The National Front and the BNP have been joined by a group called the English Democrats in fielding candidates in tomorrow's elections.

They smile out of the council's mayoral election pamphlet, presenting their policies.

"Remove public funding from all divisive self-serving so-called 'diversity festivals' ... (and) ... promote British family & youth festivals," says one, who praises the "outstanding friendliness" of Liverpool.

"Stop costly translation services. Immigrants should be encouraged to learn English ... tax money to be used for essential front line services, NOT on costly politically correct projects," says a committed Christian with a first in history and politics from Cambridge.

"British people must be housed first ... British jobs for British workers" from one who promises to "expose Labour Party policy of mass immigration" and cites the support of a reverend who sees the BNP as providing the "strong leadership to protect our national identity from the threat of Islam."

It is therefore incumbent upon me as a concerned citizen to warn my fellow Merseysiders and Brits of the dangers that face us if these people's numbers are allowed to continue their uncontrolled growth.

Otherwise the blood shed decades ago by anti-fascists - from the streets of London's East End to the battlefields of the Spanish civil war - would have been shed in vain.

We must be vigilant. We must stand up and make our votes count.

It was our failure to do so in sufficient numbers that led to Merseyside ending up with BNP leader Nick Griffin as one of our MEPs.

And make no mistake - behind each MEP stand a dozen or so councillors and would-be councillors who could easily take their place.

We cannot be complacent - a victory for a far-right mayor cannot be assumed to be an impossibility in this city.

What would that mean for Liverpool? We can make a few assumptions.

First, he would revoke the apology that Liverpool made in 1999 for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, and with that, the council's pledge to ensure that all its citizens, regardless of race, have equal opportunities.

Forget whether or not those words have ever been translated into action, bin the whole document!

Then there's the internationally renowned Africa Oye Festival which draws musicians and revellers of every colour from literally every part of the world every summer.

Bin that too - let's celebrate only British culture, and forget that even the Beatles were influenced by black music.

And while we're at it, the conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic must go too. He may be white, but he's still a bloody foreigner!

And talking of foreigners, they will be immediately thrown out of all housing, all jobs. An exception will be made for NHS workers, of course.

The thousands of "multicultural" nurses, doctors and other staff will not be made to leave en-masse immediately - that would be problematic - but will be replaced gradually by white workers from the US, who would love to experience what's left of a "socialised medicine" system before it is finally killed off by this government of toffs.

I won't go on, but you've been warned.

If you, my fellow Liverpudlians don't vote on May 3, you may be nudging us down the slippery slope that will mark the flowering of fascism, like a deadly weed, sprouting all over this green and pleasant land.

Look at the US with right-wing nutters bringing government to a standstill. Look at France, with the Front National polling close to 20 per cent.

Look at Norway, where a man who proudly claims links with British and other European far-right groups can cold-bloodedly murder scores of youths at a summer festival, protecting his country, he says, from multiculturalism.

Yes, I look ahead, Liverpool, and am filled with foreboding. I see the River Mersey foaming with much blood.

(With apologies to Enoch Powell)

Nigerian-born Tayo Aluko is a former architect, and now writer and performer of the award-winning Call Mr. Robeson - A Life With Songs at the Warehoiuse Theatre, Croydon CR0 2NF. Box office (020) 8680-4060.