Busy summer on all fronts

THERE'S no respite for British National Party activists here in Cumbria with two local election campaigns already under way just three weeks after the big effort of contesting eight seats in Carlisle on May 1st.

Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford, is our candidate in Cockermouth's All Saints ward for Allerdale Borough Council on June 5th. This is very much new territory for the Party and whatever the result, the campaign will help promote the BNP's credentials in this West Cumbrian market town. The ward is a real Labour/Tory battleground and last May the six candidates contesting the three seats up for grabs were only from those two parties. Labour polled 874, 695 and 642 votes, while the Tories polled 767, 745 and 666 votes.

The candidates are:
Helen Graham (Green)
Christine Smith (Lab)
Paul Stafford (BNP)
Alan Tyson (Con)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Ind).

On June 12th there are two vacancies in the Upperby ward for Carlisle City Council. The election was first postponed from May 1st when our candidate, Les Griffiths, suddenly died just after the close of nominations. His tragic death was followed only days later by that of 72 year-old Labour councillor June Martlew.

The British National Party have fought this ward before, back in May of last year, when our candidate was Christine Williamson.
The result last time was:

June Martlew (Lab) 677
James Osler (Lib-Dem) 371
Mike Clarke (Con) 215
Christine Williamson (BNP) 168
BNP Percentage: 11.8%.

We have two excellent candidates in Brian Allan, who polled 28% for the Party in Currock on May 1st, and Alistair Barbour who was last week was voted on to Hesket Parish Council in a unanimous vote by his fellow councillors. I know our campaign manager Clive Jefferson will be working hard to try to increase the BNP's vote share in Upperby which is normally a very strong Labour seat.

Disgraced Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain acknowledges in The Guardian today that Labour voters are turning to the BNP. I believe this will be a recurring theme amongst Labour MPs in the coming months as they begin to panic about their future in Parliament under Gordon Brown's leadership. Every time it appears in print, or is mentioned on the TV or radio that traditional Labour voters are turning to the BNP, it helps to cement this trend in the public's mind which will in itself will help to encourage more deserters tocome to us.

There are a lot of interesting projects and events in the pipeline. Nick Griffin has asked me to investigate to costs and feasibility of a huge print-run for a special 8 or 12 page edition Freedom in preparation for the European Elections. Also on the Euro Election theme, there's a key planning meeting next month to start the launch of our campaign. Again in June is the Summer School, taking place this year in beautiful rural Wales, and those looking for accommodation, rather than camping, should start making arrangements ASAP as some places on Michaela's Mackenzie's B&B list are already booked up.

And finally one of those morale boosts from an unexpected source.

"Unless we can get to grips with the reason why people are voting for the BNP, we shall see the party expand dramatically and this could happen as soon as next year’s European elections."

That comes from the editorial in the current issue of the anti-BNP magazine Searchlight - let's hope it's right!