LOYALIST flags glorifying the British National Party and controversial English MP Enoch Powell have been put up in west Belfast.
One 'Ulster' flag, which carries the words "Enoch Powell was right" was put up close to a bonfire site in at Lanark Way in recent days. The flag also features a picture of the far right politician Powell and the words "Shankill Road".
A similar flag is dedicated to the memory of Lee Rigby, a British solder killed by Islamic extremists in London last year.
A former Conservative Party and Ulster unionist MP, Powell caused controversy in 1968 when he made what many regard as a racist speech on the subject of immigration.
The move comes amid a series of attacks on migrant workers and foreign nationals in loyalist areas across Belfast.
Earlier this week members of the Polish community were warned to be on "high alert" in the run up to the Twelfth after two polish men were attacked close to a loyalist bonfire site in Lisburn. Controversy erupted at the same bonfire last year after a stolen statue of the
Virgin Mary was placed on the bonfire but was later returned to Catholic Church authorities.
West Belfast Republican Network for Unity representative Tommy Doherty condemned the flags. "We condemn this neo nazi propaganda in any working-class area," he said. "We call for the flags to be removed and working-class Protestants to turn their back on this ideology of ignorance and hate. "Racism and nazism offer northing to the working-class people of the Shankill."
* CALL FOR REMOVAL: A flag glorifying the BNP and Enoch Powell near the Lanark Way bonfire in the Shankill area of Belfast PICTURE: Mal McCann