Back in the Swing

It's a natural reaction when you come home from a brilliant holiday to think back on your time away and feel melancholy for something that has gone and can never come back again. Tina and I try to overcome this by returning the following year, so that although we mourn what has passed, we can look forward to it coming around again.

But there wasn't much time for reflection when we came home from Austria. I had Freedom to get to the printers and Tina had a week's membership post to process.

And on that membership side, I can report that things are really moving ahead for the Party, with London and the East Midlands leading the way as far as new recruits are concerned. Have no doubt whatsoever, the BNP is easily Britain's fastest growing political party and if the intensity of the membership surge of the last four months is translated into votes at the ballot box in the local council elections, then Britain will have a record number of BNP councillors on May 2nd.

Freedom is out at the weekend and I'm happy with this issue which has caused me so many problems, far more than any of the previous 67 I have edited. In this one I especially like The Cathy Duffy Story - from Airline to BNP councillor. It's written by Cathy herself, who was one of the 'stars' of London Weekend Television's Airline series, and is in two parts with this Freedom covering her life up to the time when she was elected to Charnwood Council. It's something a bit different for Freedom and I know our readers will find it interesting.

I'm disappointed that our list for the GLA elections only has one lady candidate on it. With the media doing its best to portray us in the worse possible light, a BNP list of six men and five women for the GLA would have gone a long way to soften our image. Still, I live 300 plus miles away from the capital and the selection committee has every right to tell me to mind my own business. I'm just making this point as a 6/5 make-up of our London team would have warranted a front page spot in Freedom as a great recruitment photo, with ten men swamping the solitary Roberta Woods, the photo doesn't have nearly the same impact.

No doubt I shall be accused of advocating quotas and ignoring the requirements of any selection committee which is to choose the best people for the job. In my defence, I shall just say that I want to see the BNP get as many GLA candidates elected as possible and sometimes it pays to give the overall image of a team a consideration as much as the qualifications of each of the individuals concerned.

Simon Darby tells me he was celebrating last night after West Bromwich Albion's demolition of Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup. I'm afraid there's no such celebrations in line for me. Workington Reds went down again on Saturday 3-0 at Stalybridge and have now lost seven of their last eight games. They have dropped down the table and are now hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone.

I hope we survive because our team is built almost entirely on local lads, with some having come through the ranks of the youth team and the reserves to make the grade in Conference North. That is something very rare today with so many players prepared to travel to get a contract. My main worry now is finance. Our crowds have dropped to the 300 mark and we need 600 through the turnstiles to pay the wages, so precious financial reserves are being eaten into. Attendances haven't been helped by Carlisle United's promotion push in Championship One or whatever it now called (in reality it's the old Third Division) and with United at home tomorrow night and Reds entertaining high-flying Hyde United I'm fearful of a less than 300 gate.