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MARTIN SAMUEL: Racism may not be inside Burnley FC, but it is building up all around it

Steven Smith runs a dry stone-wall business out of Cliviger in Lancashire.

He once chained himself to the railings at Burnley town hall in protest at a twinning project with a location in Pakistan, and took to walking the streets in a wooden sandwich board displaying his views on immigration, Islam and political correctness.

Sometimes he would attach it to his car and drive around town instead. He sounds a bit of a crank, and not in that lovable English eccentric way, either.

The banner flown over the Etihad stadium ahead of Burnley's game against Manchester City

However, at the 2001 general election, standing as a candidate for the British National Party, Smith earned the support of more than one in 10 Burnley voters, 11.