BURNLEY (BRITAIN): At first glance it looks like any ordinary English street. But the brightly coloured election posters plastered in the windows carry a starkly different message: ‘Vote British National Party - People Like You.’

In this corner of the industrial Midlands town of Burnley, the posters, displayed from living rooms and bedrooms, are becoming common. They outnumber Labour placards and are displayed openly from living rooms and bedrooms. This is a trend that could next month earn Burnley an unwanted reputation as the racist capital of Britain.

Local elections are less than three weeks away and the BNP, which campaigns for voluntary repatriation of ethnic minorities, is on the threshold of winning council seats.

Relations between white people and the Asian community, already fragile after a riot last summer, would degenerate yet further.

“If they win, this will be seen as the most racist town in Britain. It will become a magnet for the BNP. That will be a catastrophe for Burnley, its economy and its people,” said Shahid Malik, a Burnley native and a commissioner on the government’s national Commission for Racial Equality.

The party’s message has struck a chord with many disaffected white people. “People feel like they have had enough. It is like a volcano waiting to erupt,” said Philomena Smith, 61. A lifelong Labour voter, she has switched to the BNP.

So has Colin Green, a father-of-three who has just graduated with a degree in computer design. He says he won’t vote Labour again. ‘What bothers me is the fact that so much is discriminated in their (Asians’) favour,’ he said.

The BNP is careful to hide its racist face. National leader Nick Griffin, once convicted of distributing hate literature, has sought to present the party as the modern face of nationalism. But criminality and racism lurk under the surface.

In Burnley, the Asian community, which numbers just under 5,000 in a town of 90,000, is feeling vulnerable. No one doubts that a BNP victory could see a repeat of last year’s riots - which lasted for three days and caused millions of pounds of damage.

In the Asian part of Burnley some are afraid to go into the town centre at night. The sense of segregation is as acute as ever. Local youths are ready to defend themselves. “I am not looking for a fight, but if they come into our area and threaten my family, then we will do something about it,” said Abdul, 20.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.