An end of media bias in Cumbria?

I have my fingers crossed this morning. They are crossed in the hope that after a near five year campaign of peddling a deceitful anti-BNP campaign within their pages, our local newspapers in Cumbria are at last reporting on the British National Party as they should do - fairly, truthfully and without political bias.

The reason for this guarded optimism is this report published online yesterday:

http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/unknown/viewarticle.aspx?id=558720

I must stress that it is just an online report which might not appear in this form, or at all, in Friday's actual newspaper.

My only quibble with the report is the paragraph:

"At the Allerdale council elections earlier this year, he failed in his bid to be elected to the Broughton St Bridget's ward, when he came fifth out of five candidates. He polled 137 votes, 386 behind the fourth placed man."

It's a strange way to report the result and the only purpose of the "386 votes behind the fourth placed man" is to try to imply that Nigel had little or no support in the ward when he in fact polled a commendable 10% of the vote at his first attempt.

The full result in Broughton St Bridgets was John Ardron, Lab, 638, Eric Nicholson, Con, 659, Adrian Davis-Johnston, Con, 637, Kenneth McDonald, Lab, 523, Nigel Williamson, BNP, 137.

Any journalist trying to give their readers a true picture of the impact of Nigel's effort would have reported that he finished 501 votes behind the winner. By saying he finished 386 votes behind the fourth man is deliberately misleading and an attempt to give the impression that he must have been a mile behind the winner.

OK, it's a minor point, but I see similar doctored reporting to denigrate the BNP day-in, day-out, and it just makes me cross.

Back in May 2003 when Paul Stafford was the first and only BNP local election candidate, on the day before polling day there was an editorial in the News & Star, north and west Cumbria's evening newspaper, telling its readers not to vote for the BNP. The then editor started his leader with, "I wouldn't dream of telling you how to vote . . . " and finished it by saying, "vote for any party but the BNP". What was significant about the editorial was that on that Thursday there must have been nearly 100 candidates standing for election across the circulation area of that newspaper, yet the editor used his immense influence in a community newspaper to pick on one candidate because he personally didn't support the Party he was standing for.

That was bad enough but it wasn't the lowest point for the newspapers in Cumbria.

The following story appeared on the front page of the Cumberland News in its final edition before voters were due to go to the polls in the European Elections in June 2004.

http://www.cumberland-news.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=102546

Shock, horror, Nick Griffin coming to Carlisle and there's going to mayhem! The words "BNP" and "HATE" were big and bold. The report was a non-story and the whole front page was designed around putting its readers off voting for the BNP list of candidates for the Euro Poll by indicating that the threat of Nick Griffin coming to Carlisle would in some way cause trouble.

Now some might think I'm being over-sensitive and although the report was hostile, it does have news value especially if Nick Griffin was going to visit Carlisle. Well , Nick wasn't going to visit Carlisle, so the story was based on a lie, but what is worse is the newspaper's deceit over the whole episode.

Just five weeks earlier Nick Griffin HAD VISITED and spoken in Carlisle at a Saturday afternoon meeting in a city centre pub to an audience of over 50. Before the meeting I had spoken to the political editor at the Cumberland News and invited him along. He said he couldn't come because he was watching Carlisle United play!! After the meeting I sent a press release with three photos to the Cumberland News which they completely ignored.

Why was an actual visit to the city by Nick Griffin not considered newsworthy at all, yet an imaginary visit from the BNP chairman just five weeks later made front page headlines?
The answer has something to do with polling day and influencing voters.

The newspaper's pre-election front page story was completely fabricated just so the editor could use the words BNP and HATE in a banner headline to influence voters.

Nearly four years on I still feel anger recounting the story because of the blatant misuse of the power of a community newspaper for a party political purpose. It's a shocking example of the manipulation that a handful of editors can exert over a large readership and yet who are never called to account for it. And that's not the end of it, I have another two dozen examples of disgraceful anti-BNP bias at election time from the same newspapers, but I shall be here all day if I get started and December's issue of Freedom will never make the news stands.

I am an editor of a newspaper and I do try to influence my readers in party politics. But the difference is that my newspaper clearly states that it is the newspaper of the British National Party, so readers will know what to expect when they read its content. The newspapers in Cumbria are meant to be regional and community based and should be straight-forward in their reporting and certainly have no party political axe to grind. Sadly, for the past four years that hasn't been the case.

But I'm hopeful that there might finally have been a change in policy by one of the county's newspapers. I shall keep you posted.

BNP's consistency will appeal to voters

The Times this morning in its lead article informs us that books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britain’s leading mosques.

Some of the fundamentalist works were found at the bookshop in the London Central mosque in Regent’s Park, which is funded by the Saudi regime and is regularly visited by government ministers. Its director, Ahmad al-Dubayan, is also a Saudi diplomat and was among those greeting King Abdullah when he arrived in Britain last night for his official state visit.

Extremist literature, including passages supporting the stoning of adulterers and waging violent jihad, was also found on sale at many other mosques regarded as mainstream institutions.
More than 80 books and pamphlets were collected during a year-long project in which researchers visited 100 mosques across Britain.

Today's Daily Telegraph reports that the Government has been forced to apologise after admitting that false information about the number of immigrant workers in Britain was given to the Commons. Peter Hain admitted that 300,000 foreign workers were left out of official statistics.

The Guardian, on its front page, tells us that the Labour Government will close the door to Bulgarians and Romanians hoping to live and work in Britain in the hope of deflecting criticism that it has lost control of the immigration system. The move, which maintains the tight controls introduced last year, means they are still being refused the rights given to migrants from six other eastern European accession countries.

And all this follows on from the Tories playing the immigration card just 24 hours earlier.

The fact that the issues of immigration and radical Islam just won't go away however much the establishment tries to stifle the debate, only goes to show that these are the issues that the British people are concerned about the most. While Labour and the Tories chop and change their policies and turn somersaults in their efforts to sound as though they intend to do something to keep Briton's happy (of course, dressing up their statements so as not to alienate the immigrant and Muslim vote) - the British National Party stays resolute, promoting the same policies it has advocated since 1999.

And it is this consistency that will set us head and shoulders above the old gang parties in the minds of voters, with Gordon Brown and David Cameron appearing more and more disingenuous with their meaningless slogans in the desperate scramble to win votes.

On Sunday I reported on the drama unfolding in the West Cumbrian town of Maryport, where the local Labour Party rehabilitated a disgraced councillor in order to keep the BNP's Steve Harris off the town council. Initially the story was only reported in the local West Cumberland Times and Star newspaper, so many people in Maryport might have been unaware of what was taking place . . . but not anymore!

Last night the first of 10,000 Maryport Patriot leaflets were delivered in the town to make sure that Labour's disgraceful manoeuvring is well and truly exposed. Such instant response on important issues like this is what local politics is all about and Cumbrian Press Officer Clive Jefferson, must be mentioned in dispatches for his swift and sterling work in this department.

News from the Sutton-in-Ashfield West Ward by-election is that Labour was out in force over the weekend delivering Trade Union leaflets attacking the BNP. Many of those leafleting were the same thugs that tried to prevent the public attending a British National Party meeting in Kimberley in Nottinghamshire a couple of weeks ago.

And finally congratulations to Derek Dawson, a British National Party councillor from Burnley who has been cleared by the Standards Board after a complaint by Shahid Malik

Derek filmed Colin Auty singing the song Where's it all gone? outside Malik's office in Dewsbury. But the MP, who is Britain's first Muslim minister, had claimed that filming had taken place inside his offices. There followed an investigation by the Standards Board which has now cleared both Derek and Colin, a member of Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, of bringing their authority or office into disrepute.

A Freedom of Information request over the cost of the six-month investigation has now been made by the two councillors.

Derek told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph:
"I had no doubt about the outcome of the inquiry. Anyone with any common sense could see that there was no malice intended. It was all harmless.
"All of the words in the song are true - it is the reality of what is happening."
"The video was just a publicity exercise which came about because Shahid Malik had reported Colin to the Standard's Board after reading the words of the song in the BNP's newspaper, Freedom."

In its official ruling the Standards Board of England adjudicated:
"The ethical standards officer concluded that councillor Dawson was not acting in his official capacity or performing his functions as a councillor when he filmed outside Mr Malik's office for BNPtv.
"Consequently, the ethical standards officer could not examine councillor Dawson's conduct any further in relation to this incident, and so could only find that there was no evidence of a breach of the code of conduct."

The inquiry also ruled that there had been no attempt to film inside the premises. Similar findings were made in respect of the separate complaint against Colin Auty.
Police did attend the filming, following a complaint, but no statements were taken and no further action taken, according to the Standards Board.

Sutton-in-Ashfield, Cameron's card & the system

Micheal Clarke campaigning in Sutton-in-Ashfield earlier this month.

There's just the one local council by-election involving us this week as far as I can see and that is for Sutton-in-Ashfield West Ward for Ashfield District Council. Representing the British National Party is Michael Clarke.


The full details are:
Ashfield District Council
Sutton-in-Ashfield West Ward
Thursday 1st November 2007
Fiona Asbury (Lib-Dems)
Kier Barsby (Lab)
Michael Clarke (BNP)
Michael Halls (Con)
Mark Harrison (Green)
John Ross (Ind)


There was originally, and could well still be on the ballot paper, another Independent candidate, David Shooter who polled 845 votes in May but he has now withdrawn. This confuses further an already confusing ward because Independent candidates won all three seats up for grabs in May. The average votes last time were: Ind 1161, Lab 713, Con 619.


The vacancy has occurred because one of the Independent councillors was forced to resign after "shouting aggressively" and accusing a police chief of lying at a public meeting. Roy Adkins was suspended for three months after accusing Chief Superintendent Nick Holmes of lying at a debate on the 'State of Ashfield' last year. An adjudication panel found Coun Adkins treated Chief Supt Holmes disrespectfully and this was in breach of a councillors' code of conduct. It was the second time Adkins had been before the Standards Board for being abusive, In 2005 he upset council officers at a meeting of the Licence Committee and was reprimanded.


How all this will play with voters remains to be seen. Our candidate Michael Clarke, stood in the neighbouring ward of Kirkby-in-Ashfield West in May and polled a respectable 14.9% of the vote. The votes in the two seat ward were Ind 861, Lab 472, BNP 372, Ind 348, Ind 232, Lib-Dems 213. I have no up-to-date news on the election but did report that the campaign was under way in the latest issue of Freedom.


Feedback from our election guru Eddy Butler on last week's Waltham Abbey confirmed what was said on this blog on Friday, that with a full campaign the BNP would have "won the seat comfortably". Now thoughts on the result can be two-fold. Bitter disappointment that a full campaign wasn't mounted and that we don't have another councillor, or encouragement that without fighting a full campaign we can still come within 18 votes of taking a rock solid Tory seat. It was good to see a Conservative election analyst commenting on our election vote on the Political Betting website.


David Cameron will play the immigration card in a speech today in an effort to try to bring an increasing number of disillusioned traditional Tories back into the fold. In the past, this would have worried the BNP, but not any more. Looking at the text of Cameron's speech it is so full of waffle that its meaning will be lost on most voters. As I said in a posting last week, let them tinker with their terminology on tackling immigration. We want them to raise the issue up the agenda so that voters will come to expect some action on it. It is then that the BNP's "Not one more - Britain is full" stance will win the day.


I have had a few messages regarding my day on Betfair on Friday and can confirm that it was highly successful. In fact, I am delighted to say that I have recouped in full my stake from the ill-fated wager on a November 2007 General Election. As I indicated, in the main I like to lay horses rather than back them which means I select a horse, from the first four in the betting, that I expect to lose. On Friday I had an interest in 13 races on At The Races and laid 11 losers and just two winners. My strategy is to look for a weakness in my selected statistics for those four horses which are:

Trainer's strike rate with runners of age and distance
Sire's strike rate with runners of age and distance
Official rating over distance
Dam's progeny rating (for 2/3 year-olds on the flat. Novice hurdlers and novice chasers).

I am looking for a weak performance in one of these. As I indicated in my blog on Friday I was going to lay the first two favourites at Doncaster. This was because trainer Barry Hills had a weak strike rate for two year-olds over 7-8 furlongs compared to the other trainers. With regard to Slam, the Dam's progeny rating was very low compared to the other three market leaders.


Well I find it interesting, if nobody else does. For the record I get my stats from the Racing Post's excellent website.

Labour split in Maryport

Steve Harris with me in Maryport back in May and Nigel Williamson.

There's an interesting little drama unfolding in Maryport in West Cumbria. I'll give you some background.

Maryport is the second largest population centre in the Workington constituency where I am the British National Party's prospective parliamentary candidate. In May my wife Tina, and I stood as BNP candidates in two of the town's three wards polling over 600 votes between us which was over 30% of the vote. Maryport was once solid Labour with no elections for 12 years prior to this year because there were never any other candidates to stand against them.

The man behind our successful campaign was our agent Steve Harris. Now he is a Maryport lad, born and bred, and has a high local profile. He was with us every day of the four week campaign and when we were out doing the rounds he seemed to know everyone. We often saw Labour campaigning and it quickly became clear that there were two different groups within that Party. One group would stop and chat and we would exchange leaflets while the other put their heads down and totally ignored us. In fact, we heard that they had a meeting where all the helpers were told not to speak to the BNP under any circumstances. The group that broke the rules was the Old Labour one. Traditional Labour councillors and campaigners who admitted that they were dismayed at the changes in their Party of the past ten years and who read our leaflets and said they couldn't argue against any of our policies.

Steve Harris has done a great job for us in the town setting up a substantial Freedom newspaper round and securing a variety of venues for our meetings. He's got together a smashing team of helpers, all estate based, so that when someone gets a BNP leaflet through their door, they can look out their window and in most cases will know or at least recognise the leafleter.

Well that's the background, now here's the story. After the May elections Steve was asked whether he would like to be co-opted on to Maryport town council. One-in-three people at the May elections had voted BNP so it seemed only right that they should be represented, even though the council was non-political. Steve was delighted and agreed but when he turned up for the meeting he suddenly found that the Labour Party had four of their own up for co-option to the four places on offer. I'll let the West Cumberland Times & Star tell you the rest of the story.

Sex-surf councillor gets his seat back

A MAN forced to resign from Allerdale and Maryport councils for using council computers to surf sex sites has been co-opted back on to Maryport Town Council.

It has been alleged by a former town mayor that Kevin Smith was voted back by councillors trying to keep out a BNP candidate. As a result, ex-mayor Tony Johnstone has resigned from the Labour group in protest and is now sitting as an Independent councillor.

Mr Smith, of Camp Road, Maryport, quit Allerdale after being confronted with a list of adult website pages he had visited. He had signed a code of conduct which stipulated that the council’s computers were not for personal use. Mr Smith, 42 at the time, had represented Maryport on Allerdale’s Netherhall Ward for 10 years and had been a councillor for 18 years. He quit both positions and also resigned as secretary of Labour’s Solway branch. Mr Smith could not be contacted this week but at the time of the incident he said he had gone on to the websites to see what the internet was all about. He said: “It was just the curiosity of a red-blooded male.”

Keith Little, leader of Maryport’s Labour group, said: “He had been looking up sites with material you can see on television after 9pm any day of the week.” Coun Little denied that Mr Smith had been readmitted to council to keep out a BNP candidate. He said: “We had four vacancies to fill on the council. We advertised them and we received nominations, including one from a BNP candidate. When the council voted on the nominations, Mr Smith was among the winners. “It is a long time since he broke council rules. He was a good councillor and, from what I understand, he still gets people approaching him on council business.”

But Coun Johnstone said he believed that Labour members had chosen Mr Smith over Stephen Harris, a BNP candidate, because they were concerned about having a BNP councillor. He said: “Stephen is a local lad. He was not standing for council because of any interest in national politics but because he wanted to serve Maryport.”


I have just this minute spoken to Steve Harris, catching him before he was off to sell poppies for the British Legion in Maryport town centre. He told me:

"I have been told that there is disquiet within the ranks of the Labour Party over what is going on. The split between the councillors and activists who are just for New Labour and those who are more interested in looking after the interests of Maryport is growing bigger by the day. Yesterday I was stopped in the street by another former Labour councillor who said that for the next elections he would be campaigning for the BNP."


A disgraced Labour councillor suddenly rehabilitated. A Labour Party councillor and mayor crossing the floor to become an Independent. Old Labour Party activists letting Steve Harris know they are unhappy with the treatment he has received. Former Labour councillors offering to campaign for the BNP at election time. This drama is set to run and run.


Congratulations to Nigel Williamson, another one of our dedicated band of BNP activists here in Cumbria, who has been co-opted on to Broughton Moor Parish Council. Nigel has been a tireless campaigner for the BNP over the past 12 months and he will be a great asset to the local community.


And finally to football. The FA Cup dream for Workington Reds lives on. Yesterday we beat Boston United 1-0 at Borough Park and have been drawn away to Division Two side Bury, in the First Round Proper. Reds received a very welcome £10,000 for the victory yesterday, and it was a good job they did, because Boston presented us with a massive 'transport' bill. The home side in the FA Cup competition pay the transport costs of the away side. Now a coach for the four hour trip from Boston to Workington and back again, I'm told would be around £800. Yet Boston claimed the trip was five and a half hours and too much to do in one day so they stayed overnight in one of the most expensive hotels in the area. Looking after their entourage cost the Reds £3,200. With gate receipts of around £5,000 and half of this too going to Boston, Reds would have made a loss on the day if they had not won the game. OK, Boston have got their money worries too, but that sort of behaviour is not in the spirit of the FA Cup.

Beaten a neck by the Tories

Hell's teeth! There are times when even an excellent election result makes you want to spit!

BNP candidate Peter Cooper, was just 18 votes behind the Tories in an election in Waltham Abbey last night, where the Tories, who are meant to be running away with things in all the opinion polls, saw their vote crash.

The Conservative vote was down by nearly 28%, while the BNP vote was up 8.5%, Lib-Dems up 7%. Labour who didn't contest the ward last time, secured 13% of the total vote.

But as with the Church Gresley vote last week, there is no back-slapping going on in the BNP camp in Epping, just a reflection on what might have been. "If only there had been some more help in the final week we could have won this," rues one poster on a forum, while another was more hard-hitting on a different debating site,"those who sat in doors watching football on TV on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of helping with the final sweep, should hang their heads in shame." Strong words, but as I said last week it is a sign that there is a real desire and hunger for victory in many of our activists which hopefully will spread to others in the run-up to the all important elections next May.

It was much harder, as predicted, in Manor Ward for Sefton Council where Michael McDermott scored 4.1% of the vote. But on the forums there were no recriminations, just some satisfaction that the UK Independence Party had been beaten. Now this is surprising because the BNP always trounces UKIP at the polls these days. But apparently here, UKIP fought a very strong campaign in what was once a very good area for the Party, and our activists on the ground were told by them that they were expecting around 20% of the vote. In the end that didn't happen in the contest dominated by stories concerning the disgraced Labour councillor the election was called to replace. Understandably it was the Labour vote that collapsed this time.

Last night's results

Epping Forest District Council
Waltham Abbey Honey Lane
Thursday 25th October 2007
Jonathon Collier (Con) 299
Peter Cooper (BNP) 281
Christine Akers (Lib-Dem) 274
Patricia Sumner (Lab) 131
BNP Percentage: 28.5%
Last Time: Con 636, Lib-Dem 240, BNP 225.


Sefton Council
Manor Ward
Thursday 25th October 2007
David McIvor (Con) 922
John Gibson (Lib-Dem) 769
Sue Hanley (Lab) 419
Michael McDermott (BNP) 94
Peter Harpe (UKIP) 71
BNP Percentage: 4.1%
May 2007: Con 1651, Lab1082, Lib-Dems 701.

Still on the subject of UKIP, the Freedom Office in the past has received pleas from well meaning people that the BNP should try to co-operate more with UKIP. In the past I have just directed these correspondents to UKIP's Democracy Forum website where they can read first hand what the hard-core UKIP member actually thinks of the BNP. It always works and I'm never bothered by them again. Yesterday in my inbox was an email concerning a bulletin put out by UKIP East Midlands official Don Ransome.

Under a heading of "Not so good for BNP - read, smile, enjoy," he posted a report that had been lifted from a Labour Party website concerning the BNP meeting in Kimberley where Labour Party thugs had managed to stop members of the public attending a British National Party meeting. At the end of the missive, Ransome wrote "Don't you just love it when a British Nazi Party plan doesn't come together!"

I think examples of internal correspondence like this tells us all we need to know about UKIP. I'm afraid that Party was dispatched to my 'useless' bin a long time ago, along with shock jocks Jon Gaunt and Richard Littlejohn. Yes, it's that phrase I'm going to use again I'm afraid . . . establishment safety valves . . all designed to let voters blow off steam about the state of the country without intending to do anything about it.

The elephant was in the room on Radio 4's Today programme this morning and yet again no one dare mention it. A property expert was on, informing us that house prices in the South West, South East and East Anglia will continue to rise. He said that people were leaving London in their droves to move to the outlying areas even though there were more and more jobs being created in the capital. He said that 270,000 new houses a year had to be built in these areas just to meet demand.

Now if I had been John Humphrys I would have put him on the spot. "Isn't this White Flight?" I would have asked him. "Aren't these jobs just low paid ones in the service sector, which are being filled by newly arrived migrant workers?". "Isn't it because of immigration that we need to build all these new houses on greenbelt land?" But sadly I didn't have the opportunity to ask these pertinent questions and any listeners were probably left confused as to why if more and more jobs were being created in London, people were leaving the capital in their droves.

Freedom is at the printers . . hurrah! I'm having a well earned day off at Fakenham and Doncaster courtesy of At The Races and shall be lifting my self-imposed Betfair ban for the afternoon. Initial form study indicates I shall be looking for the favourites Slam and Tourist to get beaten in the first two races at Donny.

Ever thought about stopping immigration?

When we get a ruling from the Royal Courts of Justice on the re-count of Burnley Council's Rosegrove with Lowerhouse ward, and if the outcome vindicates the BNP for taking the action to overturn the result, I hope visitors to this blog will post a comment on the 'Politic Site' which advertises on this page. (See link on left).

Its administrators are highly sanctimonious and cannot believe that the BNP might be victims of election fraud, so let's hope, if the result is in our favour, their forum gets swamped by posts setting the record straight. Someone should also tell them about the vote in Barking last year when one of our successful candidates had his vote announced wrongly by the Returning Officer and the seat was given to Labour. The BNP had to go to the High Court again to get that result overturned and give the BNP its 12th councillor on Barking and Dagenham Council.

Best of luck today for our BNP candidates, Peter Copper in Waltham Abbey Honey Lane Ward for Epping District Council and Michael McDermott in Manor Ward for Sefton Council. Whereas last week I had been informed that a good result was expected in Church Gresley, this week I have heard absolutely nothing. I know it will be hard for us in a big ward in Sefton with only a small unit there, but in Epping, if our elections guru Eddy Butler is involved, I know it will be a thoroughly professional campaign so hopefully we might be able to improve on our 20% vote in the ward last May. On the plus side, immigration and Britain's rising population has been in the news this week and if voters in these two wards are worried about it they will have the chance to vote for a political party that will stop immigration.

And talking of stopping immigration, no one did so this morning on Radio 4's Today programme. It was reporting that councils, police forces and fire services have raised concerns that they are being short-changed by inaccurate population estimates - which lead to smaller grant settlements from Whitehall. The authorities say the imbalance between funding and actual migration is placing a huge pressure on basic services such as transport, schooling and health.
In the past, only councils at the forefront of migration pressure, such as Slough and Westminster, have spoken out about the controversial figures. But now the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has revealed that 41 councils, two police forces and two fire services have "made specific representations regarding population data".

The leader of Slough council was interviewed and she talked about how the figures for her borough were wrong back in 2001 even before the latest tidal wave of immigrants, refugees and bogus asylum seekers swamped Slough. She said that back then there had been a miscalculation by the Office for National Statistics on the borough's birth rate! Anyone who has been to Slough will know what she is talking about, but anyone not in the loop about the demographics of that town would be mystified as to why population experts could get its birth rate so horribly wrong. Sadly, the council leader did not elaborate on it. She could have mentioned that it was the immigrant population that was responsible for the birth rate boom in Slough, but she didn't. Neither did she mention stopping immigration. She acknowledged that the services within her borough were close to breaking point because of the huge number of immigrants arriving there, but all she wanted was more money from the taxpayer to help cope with this.

It seems nowadays no one is prepared to say on the national media that there must be a complete stop to any further immigration - no one expect for the British National Party. And that is where our strength lies. Let the other parties and the establishment 'safety valve' pressure groups talk about their points systems, their managed migration, and their 'strict' limits. To an increasingly frustrated British public such terminology is becoming meaningless. Our simple message will be 'Not one more', and I'm certain that is what they want to here.

Blogging and the BNP

Quite often when I turn on my computer in the morning and my home page of British National Party 'news' searches springs up, there's a diary story from The Guardian at the top of the pile. The diarists on this newspaper seem to have a growing fascination with the BNP which is quite surprising since they purport to abhor everything we stand for - maybe it's our policy to nationalise all essential services and the railways that might be winning a few of them over?

This morning it's Hugh Muir who bemoans the fact that the BNP is using blogs to recruit supporters. He writes:
"At all ends of the political spectrum, the problem is the same. How to convey the message; how to engage. The problem is more acute for the far-right shock troops of the BNP, who know that most will refuse to read their unsavoury internet ramblings unless they are disguised to make them palatable."

Hugh goes on to quote Nick Griffin apparently lecturing potential bloggers on how to make the most of the service . . . ' the real power of this medium lies - not (in) the naked politics that turns off most of the population, but subtle 'independent' popular validation of our views and our party'.

Well if that's the case, I'm obviously off beam with the BNP Chairman's thinking on this. My blog is 'naked politics' under my handle of 'the editor of the British National Party's newspaper, Freedom.' I suppose I could have been not quite so 'in the face' with who I am, but I'm not keen on hiding my political light under a bushel.

I'm new to blogging, putting one's thoughts down on your own personal page, but I have been publishing my viewpoint, as such, for the last two years. First job in the morning was to trawl all the media outlets online looking for the sort of stories that I could comment on. National newspapers, local newspapers, magazines, news sites, nearly all of them provide some sort of comment facility to express your views on. I had great success with this, making sure that the BNP was mentioned and our policy on the relevant issues.

Then at the beginning of this year someone started 'tailing' me. They must have been using a similar search engine code. Whenever I posted a comment, they would be right behind with their posting which stated "Martin Wingfield edits the BNP newspaper and is being disingenuous in not stating this". Even when I dropped the 'Wingfield' and just used 'Martin from Carlisle', they were there stating who I was. The outcome of this was that suddenly my posts to the national newspapers didn't get published any more and then the larger regional newspapers followed suit.

So that's why I've started blogging. I like to start the day getting some views 'down on paper'.

When I was running my Books on Vietnam website I met hundreds of people online and debated the various issues concerning that country's history. The name Martin Wingfield didn't mean anything to most of them so I could have made that 'subtle 'independent' popular validation of our views and our party' and probably did. There was a lecturer at the London School of Economics who sussed me out straight away but despite differing viewpoints we had a long and interesting correspondence for nearly a year. And then there was a UNICEF official in Australia. We debated long into the night the merits and shortcomings of the Ngo Dinh Diem Government and at the end of our exchange of emails he wrote . . "You are either a geography teacher from Sussex University or a leading light in the British National Party. I hope it is the former, but I suspect it is the latter."

No independent popular validation achieved there then!

Reaching new readers is the key

I have just seen a contact sheet of photographs from the Trafalgar Club Dinner and they look stunning. I had originally left half a page in Freedom for this annual event, but this morning I shall try to 'jig' reports around to give it extra space so that more photographs can be included.

This black tie dinner shows the BNP in its true light and makes a nonsense of the media's 'knuckledragging skinhead' smears. When such events are reported in Freedom with a host of positive images of the membership of the British National Party, it makes the newspaper a particularly powerful propaganda tool. When people see a copy of Freedom for the first time it immediately blows away the media's distorted view of us. I know, because over the years I have received hundreds of emails from first-time readers that say exactly that. And that is why it is so important for BNP branches and groups, and individuals who have their own door-to-door rounds, to keep pushing to get the newspaper into the hands of people who haven't seen it before.

Of course, selling Freedom at branch meetings to our members is as important as servicing existing door-to-door rounds to keep our supporters and voters up-to-date with what is happening and what we think. This also provides a vital stream of income. But getting Freedom out to a new readership is the priority, to spread our message even further so as to bring on board a whole new raft of members. And this is happening. In November's issue there are a host of reports of Freedom sales stalls being set up in town centres up and down the country and a roaring trade being done.

Talking of making space in Freedom for reports, I am leaving some for what I hope will be a positive result from the Royal Courts of Justice with regard to the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward election last May. You may remember that our excellent candidate John Rowe, won the contest by two votes before two previously rejected ballots were added to the Labour vote to make it a tie. Labour then won the seat on the drawing of straws.

John and his fellow councillors in Burnley were outraged by the decision and took their case to the High Court where it was agreed that another count should take place and the rejected ballot papers be re-scrutinised. That re-count took place over FOUR weeks ago and there still has to be a decision on it. Maybe it will come today.

First job for me this morning after posting this blog, is Freedom's Letter's Page. There's room for just 6 to 8 letters, yet there are over twenty that have been put on the short list for publication. Unfortunately for me, some of the best letters are hand-written and sent in by snail mail which means that they have to be re-typed if they are to be included. In an ideal world they should all be emailed letters which I could 'cut, paste & edit' in a matter of minutes, but sadly life is not that easy. The sort of letter I particularly like tends to come from Freedom's older readers who are not computer literate which gives me extra work. Still if it's a good letter the effort is worth it.

And finally, I am always delighted when our opponents end up with egg on their faces. In Kendal in Cumbria, the Westmoreland Gazette tried to do a hatchet job on the BNP after a papersale was held in the town. Together with a front page story and editorial attacking the Party, there was a cartoon about a man having to pull out his own teeth because the BNP had stopped all the Spanish and Polish dentists entering Britain. But the 'joke' misfired and only went to stimulate a debate on why this country wasn't training its own dentists instead of having to recruit them from abroad. Sometimes the anti-BNP brigade can be too clever for their own good.

Burning the midnight oil

It's going to be a very busy week in the Freedom office with the newspaper needing to be ready to go to the printers on Thursday evening.

I leave the front page until the final week in an effort to get the most relevant and up-to-date story, but unless something dramatic happens in the next four days I shall probably be running with a topical report from Steve Johnson on the European 'Constitution'. Opposition to the European Union has been the key policy platform of the British National Party since its inception. It has to be because you cannot be a political party that campaigns on upholding the national interest when decisions regarding the future of our country are made by foreign politicians in a foreign parliament.

The formation of the one issue anti-EU pressure group, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), managed to attract the support of many of those who opposed Britain being part of a Federal Europe and thanks to a high media profile, it achieved some electoral success at the expense of the BNP, particularly in the 2004 European Election. But now UKIP has completely collapsed and their candidates have been humiliated at both local and parliamentary elections by derisory votes. This has led to a membership surge for the BNP with former UKIP members and supporters joining in significant numbers, especially over the past six months in the light of a string of excellent election results for the British National Party. With many of these new recruits from UKIP still in contact with others who have not yet jumped ship, an anti-EU front page in Freedom will help underline our Euro-skeptic credentials.

My colleague Sadie Graham, provides me with some extra work this morning but I am delighted that she has. Last night Sadie sent me a photo of her recent community forum meeting, showing her sitting next to Labour MP Geoff Hoon, on the top table. Now I have covered this story on Page 2 of Freedom under the headline "Labour concedes defeat after 20 years of boycotting BNP", which refers to Labour's 'No Platform' policy. This was a scam used to deny the BNP media coverage by refusing to appear on any platform with our representatives. Hoon turning up at this BNP organised meeting and even sitting next to Sadie seems to be signalling an end to this anti-democratic practice. Unfortunately for me, Page 2 was already completed and will now have to be changed around, with a report moved further inside to create some space for what can be regarded as an historic photo.

Producing an effective Freedom nowadays is greatly helped by BNP groups and branches contesting so many local council elections and being able to achieve such significant results. Part of the newspaper's remit is to try to encourage the public to join the BNP and showing just how much progress the Party is currently making certainly helps to attract new recruits.

There are two local council elections involving British National Party candidates this week in Epping Forest and on Merseyside. The BNP already has six councillors on Epping Council but it will be something of a political earthquake if Peter Cooper becomes the seventh. Last time the ward was contested we polled just over 20% coming third behind the Tories and Lib-Dems. It might be difficult to actually improve on that percentage with a Labour candidate standing this time around but the local BNP group will be hoping to put the squeeze on the Lib-Dems in what looks the main focus of the campaign - the battle for second place.

I know very little about the Sefton poll, save that Michael McDermott is an excellent candidate. The ward seems now to be a Tory stronghold although it is the resignation of a Labour councillor that has caused the by-election. It's a big ward, so our small group there will certainly have their work cut out.

The candidates

Epping Forest District Council
Waltham Abbey Honey Lane
Thursday 25th October 2007
Christine Akers ((Lib-Dem)
Jonathon Collier (Con)
Peter Cooper (BNP)
Patricia Sumner (Lab)
Last Time: Con 636, Lib-Dem 240, BNP 225.

Sefton Council
Manor Ward
Thursday 25th October 2007
David McIvor (Con)
John Gibson (Lib-Dem)
Peter Harpe (UKIP)
Michael McDermott (BNP)
Sue Hanley (Lab)
May 2007: Con 1651, Lab1082, Lib-Dems 701.

The excitement of the FA Cup will be in the back of my mind as I burn the midnight oil to finish Freedom. Workington Reds have a home tie against Boston United on Saturday. Should be a crowd of over 1,000 at Borough Park and I believe there's £7,500 on offer for the winners in prize money. Boston are also a Conference North side, at present one place above us in the table. Win this one and we will be in the First Round proper and will face the possibility of a tie against arch rivals Carlisle United.

30 years of campaigning & 3 months in prison

Two stories from today's newspapers vindicate my political campaigning of the past 30 years, but I get little satisfaction from this. In fact, it just adds to the depression of a rather gloomy Sunday here in the far north of Cumbria.

In the Sunday Telegraph we are informed that increased immigration and a high immigrant birthrate will push the population of the British Isles to 75 million by 2051. That's up from last year's total of 60 million and more than double the recommended population for the UK as suggested by population experts at the Optimum Trust. This increase will be the equivalent of building two new cities the size of London in our countryside. The demand generated will push housing, transport and public services to breaking point and our present predominantly White society will have been lost forever.

What irritates me is that our experts claim that it is a 'baby boom', among immigrant women that has forced the statisticians to raise their estimate for the birthrate of the entire population.
"Foreign-born women living in the UK have, on average, 2.2 children. Pakistani-born women living here have an average of 4.7, whereas British-born women have only 1.6. Last year, 22% of UK births were to foreign-born women," reports the newspaper.

"It's not a baby boom", I feel like shouting. "It's just the normal birthrate for immigrant women, and back in their own countries it is even higher!" Most people knew this back in 1972 when immigration from Asia started with a vengeance, only our Labour and Conservative politicians have seemed unable to grasp that fact.

In The Observer today, senior police officers have warned that there must be more 'stop and search' of people from ethnic minorities if the fight against inner-city gun and knife crime is to succeed. Now how often have we heard that!

Police were getting on top of immigrant crime back in 1981 in Brixton. But when the criminal elements in that part of South London rioted to show their disquiet at such effective policing, officers were forced to back off and even ended up being accused of 'racism'. In 1985, after a resurgence of Black crime in our inner cities, Police clamped down again. The criminal elements, this time in Handsworth in Birmingham, didn't like it and rioted again forcing the police to back off once more.

But this time it is very much a softly, softly approach with the leader of the Black Police Association being trotted out to call for a return of stop and search. Now this is very surprising because this organisation had previously questioned the high proportion of black people being stopped and searched by police. In fact, senior black and Asian officers had publicly stated that stop and search risked criminalising and alienating ethnic minorities and even in the wake of the 7/7 suicide bombings by Islamic extremists, they had complained that counter-terrorism laws, including an increased incidence of stop and search, had indirectly discriminated against Asians!

Back in 1983, in an election address to voters. I warned that immigration would ultimately destroy the British way of life and drew the electorate's attention to the rising crime rates within some immigrant communities. Margaret Thatcher and her gang apparently didn't like my comments and I was charged with inciting racial hatred. At Lewes Crown Court I was found guilty and fined £1,000.

I refused to pay the fine on a matter of principle and ended up spending three months in Pentonville Prison, including Christmas, at the end of 1985. It was a shocking ordeal for me and my family and a pretty futile exercise, as my principled stand got little or no press coverage and only my political colleagues knew anything much about it.

I expect that's why, when I read reports like those in today's newspapers, I feel angry that more than 20 years down the line, Britain is still struggling to cope with the same problems that I had highlighted. And it is even more depressing that the electorate has still to switch on to the fact that there must be a complete end to any further immigration into this country and the removal of those immigrants who arrived here illegally, to ever solve these population and crime issues.

As you might have guessed, there's another reason behind my depression. Workington Reds got beaten 2-0 at Alfreton yesterday and dropped to 9th in the Conference North. I was hoping that the England team would be able to lift my spirits, but despite a stirring performance that was not to be either. For the Reds, it will be a recovery mission at Burscough on Tuesday evening.

White men are just as fast & Cameron Mark2

So Dr James Watson, the veteran Nobel scientist who helped to unravel the structure of DNA in 1953 has been forced to cancel his booked tour in Britain and return home to the United States. His research institute has suspended him from administrative duties as Chancellor pending further investigations into his comments suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than white people.

Yesterday Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, who lays claim to an 'O'-Level in science, attacked Dr Watson, saying that the comments were racist propaganda masquerading as scientific fact. "Such discredited racist theories seek to establish a genetically based racial hierarchy of the human race and have been condemned by leading scientists throughout the world," Mr Livingstone said.
"Such views are not welcome in a city like London, a diverse city whose very success demonstrates the racist and nonsensical nature of Dr Watson's comments," he said.

Now many people might take issue with Ken on that and claim that London today actually goes to prove the reverse. But I was pleased to see some support for the beleaguered academic.

Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council and a professor of neuroscience at Oxford University said: "It would be a sad world if such a distinguished scientist was silenced because of his more unpalatable views."

Professor Richard Dawkins, who was due to conduct a public interview with Dr Watson next week in Oxford, condemned what he called " . . the hounding, by what can only be described as an illiberal and intolerant 'thought police', of one of the most distinguished scientists of our time, out of the Science Museum, and maybe even out of the laboratory, despite him having devoted much of his life to building up a world-class reputation."

The 'illiberal and intolerant hounding' of Dr James Watson is as much about warning other scientists not to research racial differences as it is about punishing the Nobel Prize winner for his remarks. In the world of the likes of Ken Livingstone everyone must believe that all races are the same and that black people are as intelligent as white people and that white people can run as fast as black people. Once those living in a multi-racial society start thinking otherwise, that society will start to fragment.

Now if I didn't have a self-imposed ban on speculating on Betfair after my disastrous November General Election wager I would be having a few bob on Nick Clegg to be the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. My take on this leadership contest is that it will follow the same line as the Conservative one where the long time favourite David Davis was pipped at the post by the political lightweight but media friendly David Cameron. This time Chris Huhne, the long time favourite looks like being pipped by Clegg who looks even more media friendly than Cameron.

If Nick Clegg wins the contest, then the Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party will not only have policies that look and sound the same but they will have leaders that look and sound the same. These two media darlings are guaranteed to suffer from over exposure and voters will end up hating the sight of them. With the dour and morose Gordon Brown sinking deeper into depression as Cameron and Clegg grab all the headlines, voters will start looking for an alternative - and that will be good news for the British National Party. The scarcity of Nick Griffin's appearances on television will make it something of an occasion when he does appear and people will be more inclined to listen to what he has to say. Next to Cameron and Clegg, Nick will look like a political heavyweight and the fact that what he says resonates with the electorate will ensure that those already increasing BNP votes start being enough to change the political make-up of numerous local councils.

The compilation of the November issue of Freedom is entering its final phase so that means it's a working weekend, but hopefully if the weather holds there might be a chance for a walk in the Lakes tomorrow which always provides a bit of inspiration.

Workington Reds are way down in deepest Derbyshire this afternoon at Alfreton for a Conference North fixture. The team coach left Borough Park at 8.00am, much too early for me even if I had been able to go, so I shall have to listen to the game on Radio Cumbria.

Closing in on Labour in Derbyshire

And so the Quiet Revolution continues apace.

Throughout the four weeks of the Church Gresley by-election campaign, the media has been full of news of Labour and the Tories. Hours of detailed discussion on their policies and the personalities that lead them. You would have thought with all this focus on the two parties, and the fact that just the two of them contested the last election for the South Derbyshire seat, that Church Gresley would have been a two horse race. The BNP, which doesn't get a mention in the media unless it's a smear story, shouldn't have had a look in!

But this was last night's result.
South Derbyshire Council
Church Gresley Ward
Thursday 18th October 2007
Gordon Rhind (Lab) 639
Richard Fallows (BNP) 516
Beatrice Eaton (Con) 304
BNP Percentage: 35.4%

The Labour vote was down 24% and the Tories down 12% from what it was just four months ago.

Now that's quite an incredible result for the BNP in a ward never fought before and it maintains a run of excellent election results for the Party since the May 2007 local elections. Something is shifting in British politics, it might be slow but it's sure and it is being built on firm foundations.

I call it the Quiet Revolution because it is being deliberately ignored by the media for fear of fanning the flames of our progress. As I have mentioned in previous postings, our opponents are petrified of the BNP Bounce. But this 'head in the sand' media approach suits us at the moment. The British National Party is still laying foundations in many parts of the country, built by strong and dedicated activists who have seen through the anti-BNP propaganda and joined our campaign. These are people who really care about our country whether to do so is fashionable or not. Once the BNP gets promoted in the media, and becomes 'fashionable', we will be swamped by the opportunists and careerists who are only interested in what the BNP can do for them and not what they can do for the BNP.

One of those strong and dedicated activists is Wayne McDermott who organised the Church Gresley campaign. When I heard the result late last night I was elated, 'What a great performance', I thought. But not our Wayne. He was disappointed we hadn't won.

"We had them worried," he told me in the early hours. "If the Lib-Dem candidate that was selected to stand had actually stood, then maybe we would have won. If we had managed to complete all our canvassing, we might have won."

Always striving to win and never being satisfied with second best is a new motivation that is prevalent amongst a growing number of our election campaigners. It's a great attitude to have but even these young turks must acknowledge a good second place when it comes along, and Wayne was grudgingly able to do this.

"Still three sweeps, a lot of interest on the doorstep and quite a few new members will help us build on this. It's another ward to add to the growing list of seats where we are the only real alterative to Labour," he said.

I'm still getting a lot of stick over my remarks concerning Andrew Green of Migrationwatch. In a previous posting I called him a Government safety valve and included him in the Fab Four of Government safety valves along with John Gaunt, Richard Littlejohn and Peter Hitchens. Well I'm afraid I stand by my comments. On Wednesday he was trotted out again on all TV channels to offer his thoughts on the consequences of immigration. Lots of useful quotes from him but what has he actually done to further the cause of those campaigning to stop the immigration that he sees as so detrimental to this country? As the Capital One credit card advertisement says "A big fat nothing". Once he has said his bit, that's it - end of story. But if Andrew Green wasn't there, then Nick Griffin might have been invited on the programmes and he could have told viewers what the British National Party would do about immigration and provide the public with an opportunity to stop what Green is so critical of.

I'm delighted to report that there was a successful day of action in Kendal yesterday, organised by another one of our strong and dedicated activists, Clive Jefferson. 400 leaflets handed out and 40 copies of Freedom sold in the high street of a south Cumbrian town which has never seen the BNP before. You can read a full report on Clive Jefferson's blog at http://www.cumbrianpatriotbnp.blogspot.com/

Interesting piece from John Harris in The Guardian this morning. He is worried that the Labour Party is too concerned with those 100 marginal seats in Middle England that will decide the next election and ignoring its traditional heartland. He writes:

"When the election finally arrives, beware. Given its talent for issuing leaflets that read more like Socialist Worker than Mein Kampf, the British National Party is making hay with the issue of casual labour, as I was recently reminded while reading The Triumph of the Political Class, a new book by the Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne. An elegant tirade against a cross-party cabal either in thrall to vested interests or so lost in the woods of electoral arithmetic that the stuff of real lives scares them, one of its most sobering sections deals with the rise of the BNP "in Barking, Dagenham, Dewsbury, Leeds and Burnley" and its place in what he sees as an "insurgency against the political class".

There should be an advert for Peter Oborne's book on this page if anyone is interested.

And finally to Tony Blair. In a speech in New York last night he likened the growth of Islamic extremism to the growth of fascism in the 1930's. In fact that was the main theme of the speech. Now that's going to upset both the Labour Party and the Trade Unions who have spent a lot of money setting up an organisation called 'Unite Against Fascism (UAF)' to try to stem the growth of the BNP. If Blair's analogy takes hold within people's minds then UAF will be thought of as a group that campaigns against Islamic Extremism rather than the BNP. Now that might muddy the waters come election time!

Media silent on Government thugs

When Robert Mugabe's Government thugs stopped supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader in Zimbabwe from attending a political rally, the media in this country were up in arms. "Democracy under attack" ran all the headlines. There was also an outcry that the police had stood around and done nothing to stop the intimidation.

When Gordon Brown's Government thugs stopped supporters of Nick Griffin attending a British National Party meeting near Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, the media in this country apparently couldn't care less. Not one national newspaper or television outlet reported this attack on democracy in our own country and no one seemed worried that the police had stood around and done nothing to stop the intimidation.

Thankfully the British National Party has its own media outlets and a report of the disgraceful scenes outside Kimberley Town Hall can be viewed on the BNP website. Also visit the website of Simon Darby, the Deputy Leader of the British National Party, who has posted a telephone conversation with Nick Griffin and Sadie Graham received just after they had got out of the besieged hall.

My gripe is not with those pathetic Labour Party thugs for trying to stop residents of Kimberley listening to the BNP leader and their local BNP councillors. By resorting to such tactics they are as good as admitting defeat. The British people won't tolerate such bullying and the more they use confrontation and violence to stop the message of the BNP being heard the more the British people will want to hear what we have to say. And my gripe is not with the police, no doubt acting under the orders of a politically correct senior officer who knows he will be out of a job once there's a return to proper policing.

No, my gripe is with the media and those editor's and journalists who are deliberately doctoring the news for their own political ends. The treatment the BNP receives at the hands of these individuals is a disgrace. What especially disappoints me is that in this profession there doesn't seem to be a single fair-minded editor or journalist prepared to stand up and say that this orchestrated vilification of the BNP is wrong and the fact that it is allowed to take place serves to undermine democracy in this country.

Yesterday I listened to a member of the NUJ bemoaning the fact that 300 journalists working for BBC News programmes will lose their jobs. He admitted that the actual reporting of news as it happens and as it is delivered by programmes like BBC News 24 won't be affected, but the more detailed and in-depth analysis of news items will suffer. I expect he is talking about reports such as last week's £250,000 giro fraud court case. When the story broke, 'instant' news informed us that the culprits were 'four African asylum seekers'. But by the time the report had made its way on to the BBC News Ceefax pages, 'African asylum seekers' had been removed - probably by one of those NUJ toads whose job is now under threat. I'm afraid I won't be shedding any tears over these particular job losses.

As predicted, they were queuing up yesterday to condemn Dr James Watson, the Nobel prize-winning scientist. Pressure from 'equality campaigners' ensured that his 'sold-out' lecture at the London's Science Museum was cancelled, and his visit to the UK now looks in doubt. The fact that this fellow co-discovered DNA doesn't seem to matter any more. He is now beyond redemption just because he dared to suggest that Africans and Europeans might not share the same brain power.

Nick Griffin's invitation to address the Oxford Union has ruffled feathers in that university city. The BNP leader is taken to task by a columnist in the Oxford Mail who writes:
"Nick Griffin, the largely despised leader of the British National Party, has caused a rumpus - again - by being invited to speak at the Oxford Union next month." So it is the BNP leader who is to blame for receiving an invitation issued by the Oxford Union! What did he do - hold a gun to the head of the Union's president? But the columnist does interestingly reveal that Andrew Smith, the Labour MP for Oxford East, was so worried that Nick Griffin might be allowed to address students uncensored that he wrote to the Parliamentary Labour Party urging them to lobby the student debating body and force a change of heart.

And that is something that should boost every BNP supporter in the country. Labour - the Government Party - in such a state of fright over students being able to hear the British National Party message, that they are forced to lobby the Oxford Union to get the event cancelled.

Spin, witch-hunt and quote of the week

A report published today tells us just how much better migrant workers are than British workers and how they have boosted the economy by £6 billion . . . well it would wouldn't it, because it comes from the very same Government that has flooded this country with a million migrant workers over the last three years.

But the positive spin on the headlines of the joint Treasury, Home Office and Work and Pensions study on migrant workers is undermined when the report's small print is read and the social cost of this immigration is revealed.

* It acknowledges that the impact of Eastern European migrants has increased pressure on housing and seen a rise in crime, health and education problems.

* It acknowledges that now one-in-eight workers in Britain's labour force is born overseas.

* It acknowledges that British workers are being passed over by employers because migrants from Eastern Europe will work for noticeably less and the Low Pay Commission confirms that migration has led to a "dampening of wage growth for native workers".

* It acknowledges that in the East Midlands and Scotland there is now a serious housing shortage with pressure on affordable private housing and rent levels rising due to migrant workers filling accommodation.

* It acknowledges that our schools are having to change timetables to provide extra lessons for the children of migrant workers who can't speak English.

* It acknowledges that local councils are seeing translation costs spiral out of control in order to provide services for the newcomers.

* It acknowledges increased pressure on A&E departments and a higher incidence of HIV and TB among non-EU migrants.

* It acknowledges increases in low-level crime such as anti-social behaviour.

The £6 billion economic boost is also not as it seems. Western Union reports that many Polish workers send up to 60% of the money they earn in Britain back to their families in Poland so these earning don't boost the British economy. The Government is also vague as to who actually benefits from the £6 billion, so I shall shed some light on this - it is greedy bosses who are increasing their profits by using cheap labour, and private landlords who are buying up the homes that should be going to British first time buyers and filling them with migrant workers.

And finally the Government claims we benefit because of the tax that migrant workers pay. That is nonsense. Most migrant workers end up not paying any tax at all because they work here for nine months, then go back home and claim their tax back through firms that specialise solely in securing tax rebates for migrant workers. They then return and do it all over again.

Let's just hope the British people see through the Government and media's "£6 billion boost" spin and realise the real cost to this country of allowing unrestricted immigration.

There's going to be a witch hunt! And the unfortunate fellow being targeted will be one of the world's most eminent scientists.

James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling of DNA who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, has said that Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when "testing" suggested the contrary.

Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

The scientist is going be in BIG trouble over these remarks. The anti-racist lobby will not allow him to expound further on these views and his talk at the Science Museum is bound to be disrupted.

But his findings are not new. Back in the 1960s the same IQ testing was carried out in America and produced the same results. In the 1980s I worked at a small printers in East Sussex that dared to re-publish this research. One morning we turned up to work to find the factory reduced to a pile of charred rubble. It had been burnt down overnight by those who couldn't allow such opinions to reach the public domain.

Dr Watson is in for a difficult time - just watch the hate spewing out from the laughably named 'Hope Not Hate' anti-racist brigade.

A campaign has been launched in North-East by the Labour Party and TUC to try to stem the growth of the BNP and we must be grateful to Linda Hughes, the TUC's regional development worker who is heading the campaign, for providing the Quote of the Week.

Hughes told the Northern Echo:
"In several areas of the region, we've had the BNP fielding candidates at the local elections and they've come quite close to getting elected, especially in Chilton.
"I spent time in Chilton and I was shocked to see how many good, working-class families were displaying BNP posters in their windows."

Now doesn't that news give you a boost and spur you to go out leafleting? Many thanks Linda!

The end of the 'Nice' Party

My theory of what is behind the demise of the Liberal Democrats over the past 18 months is that it has had nothing to do with the leadership of Ming Campbell. I believe the reason that voters turned away from the Party, causing their poll ratings to nearly half from 22% to 12%, was because of the way that Charles Kennedy was treated when he was removed from the leadership.

Support for the Lib-Dems comes from many different strands. There is a hard of core of old-fashioned liberals who actually support liberal policies. There are those who vote for the Party because they don't support either of the other two parties. There's the protest vote of those who want to make their voice heard and see voting Lib-Dem as making that statement, and then there are the votes it attracts because people believe that it is the 'nice' party in the world of hard-nosed politics.

This was very much the case in Burnley where Labour and the BNP were fighting out a series of by-elections after the 2002 and 2003 local council elections. Labour were unpopular but still held the lion's share of the votes in these wards, the BNP were the challengers along with the Lib-Dems. Labour's campaign against the BNP was quite ferocious with as many as eight anti-BNP leaflets being distributed, and as Labour and the BNP slugged it out, the Lib-Dems picked up support from those people who were alienated by the intensity of the contest.

"The Lib-Dems are okay, they seem to care" one chap told me on the doorstep. He probably couldn't name one Lib-Dem policy but the Party's 'gentle and nice' facade had temporarily won him over.

But that image was undermined by the way Charles Kennedy was hounded out of office. People with a drink problem do seem to attract some public sympathy, probably because we have all over indulged at one time or another. Kennedy was quite a popular figure and to see him treated in such a way by people who were meant to be his colleagues left a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who had followed the saga on TV. In the eyes of many, after treating one of their own in such a manner, the Liberal Democrats were not the nice party any more.

And now it has happened all over again, this time with an old and respected politician. Who needs enemies with friends like Vince Cable, the Party's deputy leader. His interview on the World at One yesterday was the signal for the jackals to stop their circling of the prey and to go in for the kill. Within a matter of hours Ming was gone, so devastated by his treatment that he was unable to face the press.

Politics used to be about political parties with different policies. Now it's about political parties with the same policies. The only difference between Labour, the Tories and the Lib-Dems will be the media savvy and celebrity status of their leaders. That's why the Lib-Dems ditched Ming Campbell, because to compete they need someone more charismatic for the media.

And all the while, out of the spotlight, there's a silent revolution going on. There's not a day goes by without the British National Party recruiting another, ten, twenty or even fifty new members. On most Thursdays over the past two months, voters have been turning to the BNP in increasing numbers. As Britain's fourth political party, our current target is to become its third, and the continued exposure of the Liberal Democrats as being anything but a 'nice' party will help towards that end.

There's some news from the frontline in the council by-elections the BNP is contesting on Thursday. Wayne McDermott, who is involved in our campaign in South Derbyshire in Church Gresley ward, says he was disappointed that the United Kingdom Independence Party candidate had his nomination papers refused because of duplicated signatures.
" We were gutted they didn't stand because we would have thrashed them, and that would have increased the number of UKIP people now joining the BNP. I can't believe they didn't have a spare set of nomination papers. We had three sets ready just in case there might be a problem."

Wayne reports that the campaign is going well with the response on the doorstep very favourable. Labour have been out in force for the past two weeks and the battle looks to be for second place between the Tories and the BNP.

There was a mistake on yesterday's blog. The Waltham Abbey by-election is not this Thursday but next, 25th October 2007. Apologies for the error and I can quite honestly shift the blame to www.votewise.co.uk which is still showing the contest as taking place on the 18th.

A loser, methane & Thursday's elections

It's been a bad week for Gordon Brown and the footage shown of him on last night's Bremner, Bird and Fortune indicates that the setbacks have taken their toll on him. The Prime Minister, unlike his predecessor, isn't particularly photogenic at the best of times but the clips of him at Prime Minister's Question Time when not at the dispatch box, showed a man who know he's in trouble . . he looked like a loser.

Having spent ten years in the shadow of Tony Blair, suddenly all this limelight doesn't suit Brown. His shortcomings are going to be ruthlessly exposed and with the media pack already on his trail, he could be in for a torrid time in the coming months. There was an inkling that Brown might not be as cautious and clear thinking as he likes to portray back in February when commenting within minutes of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett's acquittal on race charges at Leeds Crown Court. He was on the TV news bulletins advocating reviewing again the just reviewed and strengthened Race Laws while Nick and Mark were still being interviewed outside of the court. It was an ill-thoughtout soundbite to placate the ethnic minorities and this lack of judgment was even seized upon by one of the establishment newspapers which pointed out that Brown couldn't yet have seen the transcript of the trial, didn't know the particular points of law that the jury had seen fit to clear the defendants on, and that his instant call for a change in the law sounded like 'if we couldn't get them this time, we'll get them next time' sour grapes.

I would like to bet that the European Union is behind the latest move by the Labour Government to phase out fresh milk and replace it with UHT milk. According to a discussion paper, the move is in our best interests because of global warming caused by the carbon emissions from our dairy herds and the refrigerators that keep our milk cold. Almost all of the rest of Europe drinks only UHT, which lasts forever in vacuum packs, so the discussion paper wants to see a cull of Britain's dairy herds reducing them by 50%.

It is not only bad timing to announce such a scheme when our farmers are suffering with foot and mouth and bluetongue, but the whole idea smacks of the EU wanting to snuff out Britain's milk drinking habits because they happen to be different from the rest of the member states. And to claim it's all about global warming is a despicable con-trick typical of this Government. Our cattle herds have been pumping out methane for centuries and haven't caused any climate change, so why should it be different now? If Brown and Co are really worried about Britain's carbon footprint they should place an immediate ban on all flights to and from India & Pakistan. Maybe we should put an e-petition on the Downing Street website . . . "We the undersigned would like to cut carbon emission by banning flights that take 'British' Asians to and from their home country and adopted one, and not by culling our dairy herds'.

There are two local council elections involving British National Party candidates this week in Epping Forest and South Derbyshire. The BNP already has six councillors on Epping Council but it will be something of a political earthquake if Peter Cooper becomes the seventh. Last time the ward was contested we polled just over 20% coming third behind the Tories and Lib-Dems. It might be difficult to actually improve on that percentage with a Labour candidate standing this time around but the local BNP group will be hoping to put the squeeze on the Lib-Dems in what looks the main focus of the campaign - the battle for second place.

Father of four Richard Fallows, is the British National Party's candidate in the Church Gresley ward by-election for South Derbyshire Council. Last time this ward was contested it was a straight fight between Labour and the Tories, but with the added choice of the BNP this time for voters, it could provide an interesting result. Labour candidate Gordon Rhind, is focusing his campaign on saving the local Post Office. What his election leaflets conveniently forget to mention is that it is his Party - the Labour Party - that is actually closing the Post Offices down across the country. Hopefully voters will see this as another example of Labour treating voters with contempt, just like Gordon Brown's 'British Jobs for British Workers' quote at the Labour Party conference. I'm going to stick my neck out on this one and predict that we can come from nowhere and push the Tories into third place in Church Gresley.

The candidates

South Derbyshire Council
Church Gresley Ward
Thursday 18th October 2007
Beatrice Eaton (Con)
Richard Fallows (BNP)
Gordon Rhind (Lab)
Last Time: Lab 798, 770, Con 397, 389.

Epping Forest District Council
Waltham Abbey Honey Lane
Thursday 18th October 2007
Christine Akers ((Lib-Dem)
Jonathon Collier (Con)
Peter Cooper (BNP)
Patricia Sumner (Lab)
Last Time: Con 636, Lib-Dem 240, BNP 225.

The Magic of the FA Cup

I WAS THERE! Bower Fold, Stalybridge, Saturday 13th October 2007

Daisy, our cat, woke me at 4.00am yesterday morning. I don't know why she does this but it is happening more often and especially on a Saturday when it would be nice to have a little bit of a lie in. I got up, made a cup of tea and read the newspapers online. But I can't settle. I have this idea in the back of my mind and it just won't go away.

On Friday evening I was talking with my father-in-law about the FA Cup and the games we remembered. I recalled my first Cup Final - Nottingham Forest against Luton Town in 1959 when Forest won 2-1 with ten men (having lost Elton John's uncle Roy Dwight, who was carried off with a broken leg after scoring the opening goal). So I have had 48 years of enjoying the excitement of the FA Cup and as Brian and I exchanged memories, the thought crossed my mind as to how many more FA Cup competitions we might be able to see.

In the early hours of the morning I didn't want to start going over this again but the idea that had been in the back of my mind all week suddenly took centre stage and there and then I decided. I would go to Stalybridge after all!

Back in the early 1990's, I wrote a series of books on the History of Workington Reds, a team I had supported since my time back at boarding school in Steyning in Sussex in the 1960s. The books charted the progress of the Reds season by season from 1951 to 1965 and in its field the series was a best seller. A copy of So Sad, So Very Sad - Book One was recently sold on ebay for £15, three times its cover price. Researching the books and familiarising myself with the record of the club strengthened my attachment to the Cumbrian football outpost and not only secured me for life as a club supporter, but also led to my family moving the length of the country to make Cumbria our home.

Yesterday's FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round at Stalybridge Celtic was a one o'clock kick-off. I left Silloth at 8.30am, picked up Ron Scott in Maryport (Ron ran the Workington Reds Soccer Shop in the club's Football League days) and then it was the A66, M6, M61 and M60 junction 23, through Ashton on the A635 to Stalybridge and we were enjoying a pre-match drink in the Bower Fold social club just after mid-day.

It was the right decision to go. One of those days I will always remember. Reds won 5-0 and I was back home, celebrating with a glass of Cava even before the rest of the family had returned from shopping in Carlisle.

And yesterday evening the sport just went on. At 7.30 I mentioned that I would like to watch the rugby. There were cries of anguish but I pulled rank as a 'veteran' and the England vs France game was on. Two hours later no one had left the room - apart for a cup of tea at half-time. Everyone had been rivetted to the TV. It was disappointing for me that I was unable to answer some of questions asked regarding the rules of the game, but the fact that four people, three of them ladies, watched a game they initially said they didn't want to does pose a question. Was it the rugby that held their interest or was it support for the English, those down-trodden and much maligned people that we are hardly allowed to mention nowadays in fear of causing offence to others. The huge cheer at the end of the game indicated it was the latter.

Helping the evening along was a vegetarian meal for a change. When I got back from Stalybridge, I par-boiled some potatoes and then sliced and layered them with grated cheese in an ovenproof dish. Each layer was seasoned and topped with mixed herbs and crushed garlic. Three layers in all, before a pint of cream was poured over. In a hot oven for about an hour and served with a tomato and red onion salad with a mustard and honey dressing.

On Friday I was forced to start moderating comments on this site because Labour Party supporters were targetting it with their anti-BNP nonsense. I had hoped that the comment boards could have provided a reasonable debate forum but obviously that was just wishful thinking. This morning there were 12 comments for moderation and I did start to try to edit them to allow points to be made. But it's too much work and I just haven't got the time, so comments making personal attacks on other forum posters have been rejected as have any posts with language or terminology that has no place in political debate.

Labour demolition in Horsham

Brave Donna Bailey. Brian Allan opens the BNP meeting in Carlisle last night.

Congratulations to Donna Bailey and Horsham & Crawley BNP on an excellent result in the Holbrook West By-Election last night.

Full Result:

Belinda Walters (Lib-Dem) 602

Ronald Wimpany (Con) 554

Donna Bailey (BNP) 163

Raymond Chapman (Lab) 52

Turnout 32.2%

BNP Percentage 11.9%

It was the first time the BNP had contested the ward which last night became a Lib-Dem gain from the Tories. What was especially pleasing for the hard-working BNP team, was their comprehensive demolition of Labour. Its candidate devoted the whole of his campaign to attacking the BNP and even held an anti-BNP rally in the ward last Saturday.

Last night I attended a very good meeting in Carlisle. A city centre pub gave over its public bar to the local BNP and an attendance of over 40 made sure that it was a worthwhile exercise for the landlord.

The May elections quite rightly dominated the proceedings and it was very encouraging to hear that campaigns are already underway in the key wards. Last May saw the BNP fight elections for Carlisle City Council for the first time and the results were quite impressive in the six wards contested:
Currock 24%
Botcherby 18%
Harraby 15%
St Aidans 14%
Upperby 12%
Belah 5%

Organiser Brian Allan, who stood in Currock and pushed the Tories into 3rd place, is working hard in his ward to overturn a 262 Labour majority, and both Karl Chappell and Tony Carvell are quietly confident of improving their share of the vote in Botcherby and St Aidans respectively. What was rewarding for me was to see the development of the personnel running the branch. I've known them all for around 18 months now and in that time they have acquired the knowledge of what is expected of them as branch officials and conduct their business in an assured and professional manner.

Daniel Finkelstein writing in the Jewish Chronicle informs us that he got himself into a bit of trouble with 10 Downing Street last week for some posts on his blog about Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Party conference and the British National Party. Daniel expands on this to his JC readers:

"Brown said he was in favour of 'British Jobs for British Workers'. Rather naughtily, I fished out a British National Party leaflet, created in August, with exactly this slogan and allowed readers to play spot the difference. That was when the phone rang. The problem, an aggrieved adviser informed me, is that I was implying that Mr Brown had copied the words from the BNP. He had done nothing of the sort, I was told. This was a phrase the Prime Minister had used, for instance, in June, weeks before the leaflet was printed. “So you want me to point out,” I asked, trying to suppress my, erm, mild surprise, “that they copied you rather than the other way round?” Apparently, the answer was yes."

It's just further evidence confirming the contempt that Gordon Brown feels for the British people. Thankfully there are a growing number of journalists within the establishment media that will take umbrage at being treated with such disdain. For the record, I have edited over 200 editions of a variety of nationalist newspapers and have used British Jobs for British Workers as a front page headline on at least half-a-dozen issues with probably the first occasion being the launch issue of The Flag in July 1986. Maybe Daniel could mention this the next time Downing Street calls.

Nick Griffin's invitation to a debate at the Oxford Union gets widespread coverage in this morning's newspapers. I see that The Guardian called upon the services of one Duncan Money, a second-year student at the university, to condemn the Oxford Union which he considers "has chosen to promote and legitimise fascism." Now, I do know Duncan, and he really is a strange fish. He was campaigning against my wife Tina and I in Maryport at the local elections in May, and when we held a paper sale in the town, he turned up. At one time during an exchange of views, Duncan spoke for ten minutes without drawing breath on the history of the BNP. It was quite an incredible delivery and left us somewhat speechless. It was as though he had digested the contents of the last 20 years of Searchlight magazine and was able to regurgitate its stories at the push of a button. Second year student? I bet I know what he's studying . . . the history of British Nationalism!

Finally I'm hoping for the result of the Burnley by-election recount today. It's three weeks today that the votes were examined again by court officials and I'm certain this is time enough for justice to be done.

Andrew Green - Just another safety valve

World at One today reported on the figures published by the Office of National Statistics this morning. Over 500,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe have come to Britain in the 18 month period since Poland and others joined the European Union.

It's the largest wave of immigration this country has experienced in its history and the influx has placed a huge strain on the public services within our country. There can be no doubt from the comments of the population experts interviewed, that there are grave worries about whether our tiny island can accommodate such numbers. Everyone seemed to acknowledge that this is an important issue, yet there wasn't one representative from our three main political parties prepared to appear on the programme and reassure the public that they would tackle this issue and call for an end to immigration.

So it's left to the toothless Andrew Green from Migrationwatch to make all the correct noises that are expected of him . . . pressure on housing, taxpayer footing the bill, many more immigrants than the Government says . . . yet who, of course, is able to achieve absolutely nothing to stop the flood.

Freedom's inbox is always full of emails praising the Fab Four - Richard Littlejohn, Peter Hitchens, Jon Gaunt and Andrew Green, and I suppose that is just a sign of how successful they have been as the Establishment's safety valves that even some BNP supporters have been duped into believing that they are 'on our side'.

Their job for the Government is to articulate the concerns of those worried about immigration in the language of their particular field of influence in the hope that any restlessness on behalf of the electorate can be soothed by their words. "Gaunty knows what's going on," is a favourite quip in the emails to Freedom, and my response is . . . and yet he is doing nothing about it!

Someone who is doing something about it is brave Donna Bailey, standing for the British National Party today in a local council by-election for Horsham District Council's Holbrook West ward.

Donna knows she has a mountain to climb taking on the Tories and Lib-Dems in a ward where they polled 1,000 and 700 votes respectively in May. Yet she is prepared to stand up and give the voters in the ward the chance to voice their concerns at the ballot box. A far more constructive course of action than the weasel words of the Fab Four. There's an interview with Donna on Simon Darby's excellent blog. www.simondarby.blogspot.com

Matt Monro! How could I have missed him off my favourite artists. Matt's a class act and his music is as enjoyable today as it was at the height of his popularity. He was the bus conductor from Shoreditch with the golden voice, Britain's answer to Frank Sinatra. Sadly, Matt is no longer with us, having lost his battle with cancer back in 1985. At his last performance he sang Softly as I leave you as his finale and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Great singer and great songs and I'm putting him on my favourites as soon as I have posted this afternoon blog.

NUJ sub-editors, Raleigh & Genocide

In the Daily Telegraph this morning, Alasdair Palmer reviews Freedom's Frontier: Censorship in Modern Britain by Donald Thomas. It's the history of the British Government's attempts to suppress free expression and details just how inept our state censors have been. This current Labour Government's efforts to silence the British National Party by prosecuting its chairman are included.

The Telegraph report of this in its original form probably read as follows:

"The two trials which led to the acquittal of Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, for inciting racial hatred, had exactly the same result of spreading, rather than suppressing, the BNP's views: the BNP received an unprecedentedly large vote in the local elections that followed Nick Griffin's trial."

But then a sub-editor, who just happens to be a member of the National Union of Journalists, ran their eye over the copy and what actually appeared in the newspaper was thus:

"The two trials which led to the acquittal of the odious Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, for inciting racial hatred, had exactly the same result of spreading, rather than suppressing, the BNP's repugnant views: the BNP received an unprecedentedly large vote in the local elections that followed Griffin's trial."

Easy isn't it? The inclusion of two derogatory adjectives and the omission of a Christian name by some NUJ toadie has turned a factual report into a smear on the British National Party.

My chest swelled with pride this morning when it was reported on Radio 4's Today programme that the profits of the British cycle manufacturer Raleigh were at a thirty year high. Disappointingly, John Humphrys quickly deflated that pride by pointing out to Raleigh's Chief Executive, " . . but of course you don't actually make any bicycles in Britain do you, and you are not really a British company at all". And the embarrassed chap had to admit that Raleigh bikes were now made in Eastern Europe and the Far East, and not a single one was made in Britain. His get-out clause was - ". . . we do still have some management posts here in the UK".

I just hope that others listening to that news felt the same anger that I did - so now, the one time workshop of the world can't even make a bicycle!

Across the pond, the White House is upset that Congress has voted to allow US historians to describe the slaughter of Armenians by the Turks in 1915 as "genocide". Bush and Co don't refute that 1.5 million Armenians were systematically wiped off the face of this earth, they just don't like this new more accurate terminology at this time. Bush fears it might sour the American/Turkish relationship when the situation is rapidly deteriorating in Iraq. It's food for thought that politicians in 2007 can seek to influence the annals of history just for political convenience today.

Democracy, Vietnam & Stalybridge Celtic

We get a box of fruit and vegetables grown locally delivered every week, to show support for Cumbria's farmers and to avoid putting any money in the pocket of the supermarkets. Everything always gets eaten and if there is anything left then we make it into a soup which gives us lunch for a couple of days.

I mention this because it was while I was enjoying a bowl of leek and potato soup and listening to Radio 4's World at One today, that a Labour adviser, being interviewed by Martha Kearney, confirmed the points I had made in my blog this morning. He thought that the convergence of Labour and the Conservatives into the centre ground was bad for democracy because voters were being denied a real choice. He also went on to say that it definitely wasn't the way forward for the Labour Party which was losing support hand over fist in its traditional heartland . . . and we all know where that support is going.

There have been a few emails over the blog entry concerning the Vietnam War. My interest in the 20th century history of Vietnam is anything but support for American involvement there after the country was divided at the Geneva Conference in 1954. American foreign policy was a disaster for Vietnam and the Vietnamese people.

I also get irritated by those who dismiss Ngo Dinh Diem as an American puppet. Once they start down that track I know that they have only read the one book on Vietnam - Stanley Karnow's Vietnam - A History. Diem and his brother Nhu were nationalists who had the best interests of Vietnam at heart. A great many Vietnamese thought so too because when the country was about to be divided, over 1 million people left their property and belongings behind in the North to move to the South to be under Diem's rule rather than that of Ho Chi Minh. America's involvement there was never about Vietnam or the Vietnamese people, but just about confronting Russia and China.

When I was running my 'Books on Vietnam' website I was always being asked to recommend books. Obviously it depended on what the reader was really after, but if, like me, they were interested in the time when French rule was coming to an end, I always pointed them towards Lucien Bodard's The Quicksand War. This book provides a vivid picture of what Vietnam was really like in the early 1950s. Once you have read it you will know why the Americans were destined to fail and acknowledge the massive achievement of Diem to bring order and stability to the country.

UPDATE: In yesterday's blog I said that Stalybridge Celtic were one place below Workington Reds in the Conference North table. Well they beat Gainsborough Trinity 5-1 last night and are now one place above us. Let's just hope that the scoreline included the goals they were going to score this Saturday as well.

Standing apart from the others

It's a little disappointing that there's still no news from the Royal Courts of Justice on Burnley's Rosegrove Ward local council election recount. You can understand that sometimes a judge's decision might take time to formulate, with so many different strands of evidence to be brought together, but this is just the counting of ballot papers and a decision on whether one or two ballot were valid votes or not. My concern is that this long wait for a verdict might be due to pressure from above, maybe advising Mr Justice Irwin to take a second look at his decision. Still we might hear something today.

All the news this morning concerns Chancellor Alistair Darling's statement in the Commons yesterday. I like the headlines - Labour steal Tory policies. It's on a par with headlines that appear at the time of an election when a Labour incumbent will plead Vote for anyone but the BNP in order to hang on to their seat. The more Labour is seen to move towards the Tories, the better it is for the British National Party. As the economic downturn takes hold and people's personal comfort zones contract with the credit squeeze, voters will be looking for something different, and in the British political arena today there is only one political party that stands apart from the others.

The fuss about inheritance tax is all to do with the General Election that never was and those key marginals in Middle England which would have decided the outcome. Just 10% of the population would be affected by the threshold of the tax being raised from £300,000 to £600,000 or £1 million, and the majority of these families just happen to live in those key marginals. A Labour Party stealing Tory policies will be going down like a lead weight in areas like Barking, Burnley and Stoke and will boost the chances of BNP candidates in the all important local elections next year.

The Guardian reports that next week, the Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) campaign against the BNP launches its biggest initiative to date with a 29-track compilation album featuring some of the biggest names in indie rock and underground dance, including Babyshambles, the View, Bloc Party and Lethal Bizzle. The CDs will be distributed around schools, colleges, youth clubs, universities and workplaces via the National Union of Teachers, student unions and trade unions, teachers, pupils, parents and youth workers.

Now I am not going to pretend to know anything about indie rock or underground dance, but I do know something about music being used for political recruitment. In the 1980s I spent many a Saturday morning at an office-cum-shop in Croydon selling records recorded on the White Noise label to enthusiastic youngsters in the hope of boosting the fortunes of a political party. But as with the LMHR campaign, the music we were promoting had a very narrow appeal and only recruited within one or two youth cultures. So while it made money, White Noise's political value was not only zero, in fact it was detrimental to the organisation it was set up to help.

One of our election boffins, who gets as excited as I do over any forthcoming contest and was also hoping for a November General Election, is worried that there now might be a 'Super Thursday' in 2009 with combined, council, General and Euro elections held on the same day.
"I could only see this harming our chances. What are your thoughts on the likelihood of this happening?" he emailed me this morning.

It's a possibility but I'm not certain that it would be a bad thing for the BNP. As we have seen, a week is a long time in politics, so an awful lot can happen in 21 months. I expect that the political temperature within the country then will be very different to what it is now, and that the public might be delighted to be able to make a wholesale change of their political representatives all on one 'Super Thursday'.

One for the anoraks & the road to Wembley

Just tidying up my desktop and putting away the file for the General Election 2007 that never was. Some might find the intended introductory leaflet for the Workington constituency of interest, so it gets its first and final airing.

It's an exciting week for thousands of non-League football fans as on Saturday it's the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and for those clubs competing, the Wembley dream is still very much alive.

Workington Reds have a difficult trip to Stalybridge Celtic. They are also in the Blue Square Conference North and just one place below us in the table. Celtic were at Borough Park a couple of weeks ago when the Reds won 1-0. But it was a close game and we will have to be on top form to progress further in the competition or to bring Stalybridge back to Borough Park for a replay. The winners get £5,000, which is a considerable sum of money to a club like Workington, constantly struggling against the spiralling costs of football at this level.

Ten years ago I travelled to every away game, but nowadays I pick and choose my trips out of Cumbria. With Saturday's game having a one o'clock kick-off because of the England vs Estonia European Championship Qualifier, I shall be listening to the Reds' game on Radio Cumbria. Readers of Freedom will know that I seldom have a good word to say about the BBC, but Radio Cumbria's sports coverage is an exception. As the county only has one club, Carlisle United, in the Football League, our two main non-League sides Workington and Barrow receive excellent coverage. Each Saturday there is full match commentary from one Conference North game on the AM frequency which is a service not matched by any other radio station in the country.
So the cup dream will be alive all week and if on Saturday evening the Reds are in the hat for the 4th Qualifying Round draw on Monday, there will some celebrating going on in Silloth.


The death of a soldier serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles near to Kandahar Airfield last week was the first fatality of a soldier serving in the Gurkhas in the current conflict in Afghanistan. One of my favourite authors is John Masters who served in the 4th Prince of Wales' Own Gurkha Rifles in Afghanistan before the Second World War. He said then that it was impossible for any invading army to conquer the Afghan tribesmen and he has been proved right time and again in the years since.

Afghanistan was the theme of a book I borrowed from my eldest daughter recently for some light reading. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was an enjoyable read and I was surprised I liked it. It's a very well written story about two Muslim women in Kabul living through the actual events of the past 20 years. A couple of weeks later the book was featured on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime but I didn't listen, preferring to keep my reading in my head rather than replace it with the one from the Corporation.

Any old excuse to talk about the past

How kind of British National Party website editor Steve Blake to refer to me as "the most experienced nationalist journalist in Britain". The terminology usually used to describe me is "veteran", which could mean 'someone who has given long service in some capacity', or more unkindly 'old and past it'.

But I don't mind. I see the veteran tag as an allowance given to me. It is almost tacit encouragement to recall the past and inform those in the Party who haven't been around as long as I have, of my particular view on what is happening now compared to what has gone on before.

And the past is always cropping up in conversations. Yesterday Nick Griffin called to discuss next month's Conference, the consequences of Gordon Brown pulling out of a November election and Geoff Hoon's incredible appearance at Sadie Graham's community meeting. We also touched on the problems within UKIP. Last weekend it was the AGM of Farage's UKIP and at the end of this month it will be the AGM of the non-Farage UKIP. Of course Nick and I went through a similar scenario over twenty years ago when in 1986 our political party, through internal difficulties, had become two separate entities. Experience tells us there can only be one outcome to such a situation.

Seeing the scenes in Berne in Switzerland over the weekend also jogged memories. The first political march that I ever went on was in Lewisham in August 1977. Then there were over 5,000 in opposition to around 400 marchers and mayhem ensued as soon as the march started. Bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were hurled at us and but for the police presence I think that lives would probably have been lost that day.

The protest was over the immigration issue and by a political party that put its policies before the electorate at every opportunity. Immigration was the political talking point of the time, topping voters concerns in all opinion polls. Even Conservative opposition leader Margaret Thatcher, said that she could understand peoples' fears about being swamped. So you would have thought that there would have been public outrage that a mob had attacked the demonstration and the police, and that 200 people had been injured and over 300 arrested. But that wasn't the case. The media painted the marchers as the villains of the piece and the electoral fortunes of the National Front took a dive on that day from which they never recovered. It will be interesting to see how the Swiss public reacts in their General Election later this month.

There was a posting on the BNP Members' Forum in the thread concerning the Shepshed by-election. This BNP member was concerned that the Forum was too easily pleased by our vote. "We came fourth of four!" the contributor pointed out. The argument was that although 20% might be considered a satisfactory vote it could have been more if the ward had been canvassed rather than just leafleted and that the BNP might even have won with that extra effort.

Of course, it's a very valid point, but I couldn't help smiling. Since 1979 I've been the editor of a nationalist newspaper and reported on thousands of election results. For much of that time, a local council election result of 3% would have been hailed as a great success and anything over 5% would probably have warranted a spot on the front page.

The reaction of that contributor on the BNP Members' Forum just goes to show what a long, long way we have come, and what makes this time so exciting is the possibility that we might still just be at the start of our journey.

Lunchtime in the Freedom Office

It's been a busy morning with lots of reports of BNP activities and comment on the current political situation filling my inbox.

At lunchtime I normally trawl through some of the regional newspaper websites that start to post their stories online at this time, but with Monday always a quiet day, I'm taking the opportunity to update my blog.

Although I'm a blog novice, I have had a couple of websites which has helped to instill the discipline needed for regular updates to keep the website of interest.

My first website was Books on Vietnam, which as the title describes was where I bought and sold books about that country. Of course 75% of the books were about the American/Vietnam War but the most popular ones and most in demand were the books dealing with the military and political situation before the American troops arrived in 1965.

Another website was Burnley Bravepages which had a brief and fraught existence back in 2002 in the run-up to the May elections in that Lancashire town. Visits to the website grew steadily during the early part of that year and we were receiving around 2,000 hits a day. Once the campaign started and the website address went out on election leaflets, visits were up to 5,000 a day.

With about two weeks to go to polling day, I came down one morning to find that there had been 15,000 visits to the site overnight. I knew something was up and my fears were confirmed when Bravenet emailed me to say they had received 13,000 complaints about the site and were pulling it.

The customer services chap was very apologetic. He said he couldn't see anything wrong with the website but that the high number of complaints and the threats to take this issue to the highest level were more aggravation than he needed.

I later found out that a campaign against Burnley Bravepages had been organised by a trade union and they had fed all the anti-BNP websites with an email complaint form to Bravenet. Thankfully there were a couple of mirror sites, and by using the BNP server we were back online within a couple of days. I think the website played its part in helping to secure the BNP's three new councillors in those local elections - and by the reaction of our opponents, they must have thought so too.

Books on Vietnam? Why Vietnam I can hear you ask, and the simple answer is that I don't really know. I think it must have been something to do with the TV images that were on screen almost daily from 1965 to 1975, charting America's disastrous war in Indochina and that they left a lasting imprint on me. The first book I ever read on America's war there was Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie, the story of John Paul Vann. It left so many questions unanswered that my fascination was stirred, so much so that at one time I had over 2000 books on Vietnam.

My interest was always more in the political nature of the time, especially the ill-fated rule of President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese nationalist ruthlessly murdered in 1963 by an American financed and promoted coup. Once Diem was gone so was any chance of Vietnamese nationalism and the way was left clear, despite America's military might, for the Communist takeover of the country.

It's a complex story, but I find it riveting and shall return to in future posts.

Now back to work on Freedom and a report of a successful fundraiser in Stockport on Saturday.

Local elections take centre stage again

We're kicking ourselves here in Cumbria over a missed election opportunity, and I'm afraid I must hold my hand up and take most of the blame.

There was an excellent Allerdale BNP meeting at a pub in Maryport the Tuesday before last. Around fifty people present and a collection of over £130 which I can assure you is very, very good for our region.

At the meeting, Cumbria's Press Officer Clive Jefferson, was arguing the case for contesting a county council election in Penrith. The town forms the lion's share of the Penrith & the Borders parliamentary constituency and is in Eden District Council. It would have been a good election to fight as we don't have any organisation within Eden or in Penrith itself and our raised profile would almost certainly have led to a BNP group being set up in the town.

I argued against Clive because I was worried about activists being drawn away from Carlisle, Workington and Copeland where we would be fighting the General Election, or that the Penrith candidate might be left high and dry when there were other more pressing priorities and get a poor vote which might harm our chances in the General Election.

It was decided not to contest the seat - and that was the wrong decision. Nominations have now closed and we have missed the boat. It would have been useful this week to have been blitzing Penrith which would have helped sweep away any remaining non-General Election blues.

There is one local council by-election this Thursday that I'm aware of and that is for Horsham District Council's Holbrook West ward.

The candidates are:

Donna Bailey (British National Party)

Raymond Chapman (Labour Party)

Ronald Vimpany (Conservative Party)

Belinda Walters (Liberal Democrat Party).

Result - May 2007: Con 1018, Con 959, Lib-Dem 712, Lib-Dem 698, Ind 361, Lab 78.

Our candidate Donna, is a well-known local campaigner through her efforts to establish more facilities for youngsters in her community and is featured in the October issue of Freedom regarding her attempt to get on to her local parish council.

This week we might get a ruling from the Royal Courts of Justice on the Rosegrove & Lowerhouse council election result for Burnley Borough Council. It was back in May that our candidate John Rowe, was defeated in the drawing of straws by a Labour candidate after they had allegedly tied. John had been two votes ahead after the first count and one ahead after the second count. The Returning Officer then allowed a vote that had already been rejected as a spoilt ballot 'back into play' to level things. It was this action that John found unacceptable and the reason why he took his case to the High Court.

Yesterday we were hoping to walk in the Lakes at Whinlatter but it was too wet underfoot so we decided on Silloth Promenade instead. It was a grey, dank day and we walked to the Skinburness Hotel which only added to the general feeling of melancholy. On summer evenings 18 months ago it was our favourite walk to this hotel where we would have a drink sitting outside before making our way home.

It is a very imposing place on a tight corner of a country lane and exudes character, mystery and prestige from a time gone by. It was bought by a couple who were changing their lifestyle and was featured in a TV programme called something like 'Changing Lives'. Unfortunately it all ended in tears and the old place is now boarded up and according to locals, wrecked inside. It comes up for auction in London later this month.

* If you know of any other BNP by-elections on Thursday please let me know.

Toddler targets BNP members

Most have probably heard of the story reported late on Friday about BNP members being targeted by terrorists, but it's how the BBC reported it that deserves further comment.

Its headline was 'Boy in court . . .'

The opening sentence: "A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court.

The Huddersfield Examiner wasn't much better with its "Teen targets BNP members . ."

'Boy' and 'Teen' could be considered strange words to use in the headlines of a report of someone facing two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000, one relating to the possession of material for terrorist purposes and the other to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.

But the words will have been specifically selected by the respective news editors to soften the implications of the story in an attempt to trivialise the seriousness of the offence. This is because the 'victims' in this case are members of the British National Party and under no circumstances does the National Union of Journalists allow the BNP to gain victim status.

The 17 year-old in court can by no stretch of the imagination be called 'a boy' and given it is reported elsewhere that he has dual Pakistani nationality, in the eyes of most British people he wouldn't be considered your run-of-the-mill 'British' teenager.

The correct headline should, of course, have been 'Pakistani terrorist targets BNP members'.

Election fever and a late goal

I should have been delighted when I arrived home from football early yesterday evening to find out that there was no November General Election. It is not in the best interests of the British National Party to contest an expensive election which it has no chance of winning and which, in the main, provides little or no benefit to the Party.

But I wasn't. I felt disappointed and deflated and that was because for the last three weeks I have been suffering from a bout of election fever. This 'illness' puts one in a state of hyper-excitement every time the word 'election' is mentioned. The buzz is so great that you spend most of your time searching for the word in newspapers, on television and on the radio desperate for any information that helps to raise the temperature.

Make no mistake, election fever is a sickness. When struck down with it, rational thought goes out of the window and the mind is filled with the possibility of attaining the impossible.

Every election campaigner needs a mild dose of election fever when those nomination papers have been handed in to give them the necessary lift to be able to knock on all those doors in the push for victory, but the after effects of the sickness can be debilitating depression and disillusionment.

So there won't be a General Election in 2007. Away can go the maps of the Workington Constituency, the prepared introductory leaflet, the endless financial calculations and appeal letters for funds.

It's back to working on Freedom and preparing notes for a meeting in Carlisle on Thursday. Planning for a General Election has been my over-riding preoccupation for the last three weeks so without it, just for the moment, it all feels a bit empty.

My disappointment and deflation over no General Election was added to by the knowledge that my small wager on a November poll at 6/5 with Betfair was now in the pocket of someone not struck down by election fever. On top of that a superb late summer afternoon at Borough Park was spoilt by an 88th minute penalty for Redditch United which gave them a totally undeserved share of the points.

But that's football and that's election fever.

All Roads Lead to Borough Park

It's a 20 minute drive down the picturesque West Cumbrian coast through Allonby to Workington and Borough Park this afternoon for Workington Reds v Redditch United in the Blue Square Conference North.

I'm going with my eldest daughter's boyfriend's father who back in the mid-sixties was an 'A' team player with the Reds. He was signed on schoolboy forms by Ken Furphy and played under managers Keith Burkinshaw, George Ainsley, Bill Lievers and Frank Upton before moving into local soccer.

Today's game sees Darren Edmondson confirmed as the new Reds manager after a month as caretaker. Also new signing Matthew Berkeley from Altrincham will be in contention for a start. Matty played for us when on loan from Gretna and was a big hit with the Borough Park faithful with his incredible pace opening up defences.

Last week it was FA Cup action at Consett and Reds were able to progress through to the next round. I dropped Tina and the mother-in-law at the Metro Centre and then sped down the A692 to Consett. The ground was brilliant, still stuck back in the fifties. Lovely old grandstand and like Borough Park back then, the terracing was made of old railway sleepers and over the years these have become completely overgrown with grass. 7,000 filled the stadium in its heyday but there were just 400 to see Reds win 2-0 with goals from Kyle May and Johnny Wright.

Today's encounter will be a tense affair. Last season the game against Redditch was abandoned after their manager came on to the pitch and refused to leave. There had been a brawl involving most of the players after a potentially leg-breaking tackle from a Redditch defender. He was sent off and their manager came on to argue with the referee who then took the players off the pitch.

Thankfully the FA found in Workington's favour when the incident was reported and Reds were awarded the three points as they were leading 1-0 at the time and Redditch were heavily fined.

It's the same manager this afternoon so I expect there will be some choice remarks from our supporters behind his dug-out.

Ready and Waiting in Workington

Five miles on the exercise bike listening to Brian Matthew's Sounds of the Sixties, always starts a Saturday morning. Crossroads theme tune brought back a flood of memories today.

The exercise bike will hopefully get me in shape for the huge leafleting task we have here in the Workington Parliamentary Constituency if or when a General Election is announced.

We are certainly ready for the off with an introductory leaflet all prepared, costed and ready for the printers. 20,000 of these will go out in the towns of Workington, Cockermouth, Maryport, Aspatria and Silloth. There are teams in place in each town to get them out.

Workington has real potential for the British National Party. In the May elections this year, one-third of those who voted within the boundaries of the parliamentary consituency didn't support any of the three main parties. The BNP fought three wards polling 30% in two wards in Maryport and 10% in rural Broughton.

In Maryport there hadn't been an election for 12 years such was Labour's dominance. One Labour campaigner told me the BNP wouldn't get 50 votes in the two seats and were wasting our time and money. On polling day we received over 600 votes and provided a mini earthquake under the local Labour Party.

In the third Maryport seat, Labour were returned unopposed and Steve Harris, the local BNP representative, received a lot of stick from voters there for not fielding a BNP candidate . From feedback it seems the BNP would have received around 30% in this ward as well.

I think the same thing could happen in Workington, which means the BNP could be a real wild card in this election in West Cumbria.

On the money side we are struggling. There is a strong groundswell amongst local activists to contest FOUR Cumbrian seats - we couldn't fight any in 2005. Fighting Carlisle, Workington, Copeland and Barrow would mean 160,000 homes down the West Cumbrian coast receiving a BNP leaflet and getting the chance to vote for one of our candidates.

It does seem to make sense as we averaged 18% in six wards fought in Carlisle in May and scored 23% in a Whitehaven (Copeland) by-election the other week. Even in Barrow we managed 10% in one ward. But it will mean the funds will be spread thinly and just an A5 election address looks on the cards when an A4 one would put us on a par with the three main parties.

If anyone can help with vital funds please contact me. It's not vast sums that are needed -around £400 per constituency to upgrade the Royal Mail delivered leaflet from A5 to A4 size.

Still silent on Shepshed

If it's Friday evening, then it's a three hour Taggart marathon courtesy of UKTV Drama to keep my mother-in-law in a good mood.

I kept dropping off so I had an early night.

I woke up at two o'clock, had a cup of tea and read the political news in The Times, Telegraph, Guardian and Independent online. Not one mention of the Shepshed County Council by-election.

I am mystified how a telephone opinion poll of 800-odd voters can make all the headlines yet a REAL election in a key marginal with 4,000 people actually going out and voting rather than just answering the telephone at home, is completely ignored.

What makes it even more strange is that the newsfeed outfit 24 Dash reported it at 9.00am yesterday and normally all the main newspapers would have carried their report - they do most other times for the council election results.

Their report was:

"Tory hopes of a by-election boost after their conference were dashed today when Labour defended a key council seat, keeping alive the possibility of a November general election.
Conservatives achieved a net swing of just 1.2% at Leicestershire's Shepshed division in Loughborough.
It had previously been fought in May 2005 on the same day as the last general election.
The vote share movement was less than the 2% Tories need to capture the barometer marginal Loughborough constituency which has consistently backed the party forming the Government in every poll since 1974.
Of concern to the major parties was the 20% scored by the far right BNP.
Leicestershire County - Shepshed: Lab 1217, C 1074, Lib Dem 933, BNP 807. (May 2005 - Lab 2864, C 2461, Lib Dem 1356). Lab hold. Swing 1.2% Lab to C..

Also there was a mention from Sean Fear on the Political Betting site.

He wrote:

"Leicestershire County - Shepshed: Labour 1217, Conservative 1074, Lib Dem 933, BNP 807. Labour hold. This was a good result for Labour, as they managed to keep the swing to the Conservatives down to 1.2%. The BNP’s best performance in a Leicestershire County Council seat in 2005 was 11%, so this result (like May’s district elections) implies that their support has grown considerably in the County since then."

Maybe Sunday's newspapers will be a little more forthcoming.

Salmon Supreme & John Ward

There's something of a tradition on Friday. My in-laws come for dinner and stay the night and I do the cooking.

In the kitchen whilst preparing the meal I listen to BBC Radio Cumbria's Sports Hour with Paul Newton, hoping to get any team news for the next day's game for Workington Reds.

It was salmon and mushroom supreme last night.
Sliced mushrooms flash fried in olive oil and butter -
One inch cubes of salmon flash fried in the same pan -
Deglaze the pan with white wine and add a pint of double cream -
All in an ovenproof dish and topped with fried coarse wholemeal bread crumbs and chopped mushroom stalks -
About 15 minutes in a hot oven.

John Ward, the new Carlisle United manager, was the special guest on the sports hour so it was all about the Cumbrians and nothing about the Reds. I would have liked to ask John Ward what he remembers of his time playing for my team back in September and October 1972 when he had a loan spell at Borough Park from Lincoln City. I would also have liked to ask him whether with his past links to the Reds, there might be renewed co-operation between the two clubs who are both still very much soccer outposts. Disappointingly I didn't get the chance.

The meal didn't do the waistline any good but served with oven-finished new potatoes and a green salad with an olive oil, balsamic vinegar and black pepper dressing it went down well accompanied by a couple of bottles of Riverquest Chenin Blanc (£5 Co-op).

Deathly Silence from Shepshed

A county council seat was fought last night in one of those key marginals that the political pundits are always talking about.

But surprise, surprise it hasn't been mentioned this morning, despite Labour holding on to the seat and the Cameron bounce hardly leaving the ground.

Why is this?

Probably something to do with BNP candidate Julia Green polling 807 votes which was 20% of those cast.

According to a posting on the BNP Forum, BBC Radio Leicester didn't even acknowledge that the British National Party were standing and after the count interviewed the other three candidates but left Julia out.

Lunchtime news on Radio 4 had time to discuss, in depth, all the opinion polls and even promote the disintegrating UKIP, but no time to report the result of an actual by-election where there was a nearly 40% turnout involving over 4,000 voters.

The establishment and its media are so petrified of providing any BNP bounce.