Plaid Cymru have once again being doing their homework. Apparently the BNP cannot find individuals in the UK willing to pose for photos. The story ran in the Mirror yesterday under BNP poster campaign for British workers uses American actors. Here is the Plaid Press Release:-
Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price has today called on the Royal Mail to stop distributing an illegal BNP leaflet. Research by Plaid Cymru has shown that the BNP “supporters” quoted on their election address are in fact stock photos from istockphoto.com.
The leaflet that is in the process of being delivered to millions of homes in the UK, includes pictures of a Doctor, a group of "British" workers and an elderly couple. The
individuals are quoted as giving their support to the BNP. However, the Doctor who is quoted as saying he will be “voting BNP” is a model whose picture was taken by a US based photographer. The elderly couple who are quoted as saying they want to see pensioners put before asylum seekers are the Italian parents of another photographer, and the “British” workers are actually worker on US building site. None of the photographed individuals are British or supporters of the
BNP.
As well as deliberately misrepresented people’s opinions and being in breach of copyright rules, the BNP leaflet is also a breach of Royal Mail's rules on the distribution of election material. As a result, Plaid Cymru is calling on the Royal Mail to immediately halt the free distribution of this leaflet.
Plaid Cymru’s Director of Election, Adam Price MP commented:
“The BNP has attempted to hide their racism behind a veneer of respectability with professional leaflets and well presented candidates. But the truth is that they rely on lies and deceits to get their message across. On their leaflets they use a series of photos of supposed BNP supporters. However the truth is that the ‘British’ workers in front of the union jack are actually American builders on a site in the USA. The ‘Doctor’ who says ‘he’s voting BNP’ is actually a stock photo of an American actor, who probably has never heard of the BNP and I would be very surprised if he was eligible to vote here. The Pensioners featured in the leaflet were totally unaware that their photo has been used on this leaflet in such a way.
"It is a sick irony that the people photographed, and indeed the photographers are from other countries - the very people that the BNP seeks to demonize.
"These leaflets hideously misrepresent the views of the people photographed. I believe that they have breached the guidelines set out for electoral communications and I call on the Royal Mail to stop there distribution immediately.”
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