Councillor reports homophobic graffiti plastered over St Helens footbridge

The graffiti, which said “I hate gays”, was spotted on Central Station’s pedestrian footbridge by Moss Bank councillor John Fulham.

Cllr Fulham tweeted the picture earlier this week prior to him presenting a scrutiny report on hate crime to St Helens Council’s cabinet.

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“Tomorrow I’m presenting a safer communities’ report to St Helens’ cabinet on hate speech,” Cllr Fulham said.

“You may ask why it’s relevant. But today I’ve have to report this graffiti on the Parr St bridge over the railway by Matalan.

“A minority of bigots no doubt, but it’s important we’re alert.”

Speaking at cabinet on Wednesday, Cllr Fulham said the hateful graffiti was swiftly removed after reporting it to the council.

The former cabinet member was invited to the meeting to discuss a scrutiny review into hate crimes, which he led as chairman of the safer communities overview and scrutiny panel.

Cllr Fulham spoke about the rise in extremism, pointing to the failed assassination plot of West Lancashire Labour MP Rosie Cooper by the banned neo-Nazi group National Action, which he called an “absolute attack on democracy”.

“Extremism is starting to express itself in much more extreme ways, whether that be a hate based on sexuality, on sex, gender, race, religion, it’s all part, in my mind, of the same continuum,” Cllr Fulham said.

“Living in a democracy we’re supposed to have quite robust differences of opinion and have quite civil ways of expressing those differences.

“I think most do really, but sadly some people don’t and the harm that they cause can have quite lasting impacts on victims and on society at large.”

Currently there are five centrally-monitored strands of hate crime: race or ethnicity; religion or beliefs; sexual orientation; disability and transgender identity.

The council scrutiny review found that, between November 2017 and November 2018, there were 222 hate crimes reported in St Helens.

The vast majority of these – 127 – were race related, followed by homophobic hate crimes (53) reported and disability hate crimes (41).

The review says the increase in figures is thought to be due to improvements in police recording, raising awareness and different methods of reporting.

Cllr Fulham said some people in society have been used to “turning the other cheek”, but stressed the importance of engaging with those who hold intolerant views.

“Hopefully this will shine a light on those with intolerant views and help ostracise them as people on the edges,” Cllr Fulham said.

“But also, we need to be a bit more engaging with them to make sure they don’t resort to non-democratic means to prove their point.”

Council leader Derek Long compared the current rise of the far-right seen in the UK and other parts of the world to that of the rise of fascism in the 30s and 70s.

Cllr Long said: “We had Nazi marches through the 70s. National Front as it was in those days. We had to stand up against that.

“It’s all about choices and how we kind of address that.

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“Then we roll ourselves forward and we get to this point in our society, and again, we’ve made enormous progress, and are confronted by the same sorts of hate crimes and same sorts of antagonism to minorities of whatever source and also attacks on the democratic process.

“I’m proud that as a borough we continue to stand up against this sort of unpleasant, criminal and diabolical set of thoughts, which takes us to some terrible places.”