Lessons in hatred Worried teachers say that the BNP is recruiting children as young as nine to its cause Ian Herbert reports on the rise of the right in schools 06 May 2004 It is hard to extract much conversation from Emma Dunn, 12, as she leans against the railings outside Ling Bob Junior School in the run-down Pellon district of Halifax, west Yorkshire. But she is forthcoming about certain things - like what the letters BNP stand for, and how she thinks it's trying to 'save' her old school. The source of this information is her father, Frank, 40, who rolls a cigarette as they wait for another of his four children to emerge from school. He talks of how he wants to put one of the three local British National Party councillors back in power again at June's council elections. 'They're the only party that wants to keep Mixenden primary open,' he says. Mr Dunn is wrong. Calderdale council's Liberal Democrat members have also been campaigning to save the school, which has been threatened with closure because of its poor results. To say that no one else cares about its fate is a classic piece of BNP scaremongering to win votes. (In its last successful campaign, the BNP reignited memories of the Ridings disaster, when the nearby high school was branded the worst in the country.)