Tensions rise as right wing plans march

ABERDEEN’S three Labour MPs yesterday united in a direct call to Grampian’s Chief Constable to oppose a planned march by the extreme right-wing National Front in the city.

They told Chief Constable Colin McKerracher that the march, scheduled for 28 November, represented a threat to public order by "neo-Nazi thugs".

And they called on the police chief to intervene and prevent the march going ahead in the interests of public safety.

Mr McKerracher is due to brief councillors on the public safety implications of the march at a meeting of Aberdeen City Council's licensing committee on 25 October.

The members of the council’s licensing committee called for a report from the Chief Constable after being warned in August that they could be left facing financial surcharges and disqualification from public office if they voted against the National Front application, unless they had solid legal grounds for banning the march.

The city’s three Labour MPs, Malcolm Savidge, Anne Begg and Frank Doran, accompanied by Lewis Macdonald, the Labour MSP for Aberdeen Central, yesterday pressed Mr McKerracher to lodge a formal objection to the farright group’s controversial march application.

Mr Savidge, the MP for Aberdeen North, said: "We asked the Chief Constable to take account of the fact that the organiser of the march has advertised in the National Front newsletter, The Flame, asking for National Front supporters and fellow travellers to come from all over Britain to demonstrate."

The National Front has applied to stage the march along Union Street as part of a "family fun day".

David MacDonald, the National Front’s Scotland organiser, dismissed those opposed to the march as "left-wing idiots".