Neo-Nazi canalside stickers disgrace

STICKERS purportedly affiliated to a neo-Nazi group have been removed from a canalside information board in Runcorn.

A picture of the flyers accompanied by the sarcastic message ‘I live in such a lovely area’ and a disappointed ‘Really Runcorn?’ were tweeted by Twitter user Skott/@ naturestemper.

The flyers had been stuck to a historic Runcorn walks tourism information board by the Bridgewater Canal near Halton Road.

Imagery on the stickers featured swastikas, a figure with the lower part of its face obscured by a snood and doing a fascist salute, the slogan ‘White Zone: National Action’ and signs depicting bans on cannabis, heroin, gay sex, and Communism.

Another had the slogan ‘anti-pederast action’, in reference to child sexual abuse committed against boys.

The stickers were scraped off by the resident who found them, and Halton Labour councillor Andrea Wall reported the matter to the local authority’s open spaces division, which dispatched a team to clean them up the following day.

There were also reports on Twitter of the stickers on the Silver Jubilee Bridge and in Widnes.

It was not clear whether more than one person had fixed the flyers in place.

The stickers appeared to be affiliated to the group National Action, which made headlines in August last year when it cancelled an attempted ‘White Man March’ in Liverpool due to counterdemonstrations from anti-fascists, leading to the neo-Nazi members being locked in a lost luggage depot for their safety as police separated opposing groups.

In 2014, police found National Action flags at the home of a 21-year-old man jailed for sending an anti-semitic tweet to Wavertree MP Luciana Berger.

Cllr Wall said that she was not aware of any substantial National Action presence in Runcorn or Widnes.

She said the stickers were ‘ absolutely disgusting’ and ‘offensive’.

She said: “I reported it to our open spaces division and the information I got is they were removed the day after.

“The council isn’t responsible but due to the severe offensive nature of the stickers they went out the next morning.

“People shouldn’t be having to see offensive, nasty fascist messages.”

She added: “I’m not aware of any National Action group in Halton whatsoever, let’s hope it stays like that.”