Financial backing - a vital piece of the jigsaw

WOW, have you read The Guardian this morning? It provides a massive boost for the British National Party with Patrick Barkham's in depth analysis of the political situation in Stoke admitting that our opponents are just about bankrupt of any ideas on how to stem the growth of the BNP in the city.

Apparently the only answer Labour has is to cut the number of councillors and scrap the post of Mayor of Stoke. Patrick Barkham reports:

"Others argue that the ineffectiveness of Stoke's elected mayor has contributed to the rise of the BNP. Today, professor Michael Clarke, vice-principal of Birmingham University, will deliver a report calling for a radical rethink of how the city is governed. "We are dismayed at the extent to which the city's political system is damaged," he says. "There is a deep-seated malaise in the city's politics. As a consequence, the people of Stoke-on-Trent have been short-changed." The report, commissioned by John Healey, the minister for local government, urges Stoke to reduce the size of its council and to rediscover its civic pride, while telling political parties they need to re-engage at a local level. In recommending a drastic cutting of councillors and a referendum on whether Stoke should keep its mayor, there is a danger Labour will be seen to be changing the rules to stop a future BNP mayor. But Tappin believes that keeping the system will guarantee a BNP triumph. "If we get the structure wrong and there is an elected mayor, this city will become controlled by the BNP," he says. He fears the BNP could gain power in three years."

What better boost can there be on a wet and grey morning at the end of May, than a huge double-page spread in a newspaper that rather we didn't exist, telling its readers that the British National Party are not only winning, but will carry on winning and there is very little, apart from moving the goalposts, to stop us taking control of the council.

We do seem to be taking all before us at the moment, and on so many different fronts, that we should be reporting that all is well, and to a certain extent we can, in almost every department apart from that of finance. Despite our excellent election results, and boost in membership and GLA victory, money is still desperately tight which does slow down our development.

The BNP doesn't have any big financial backers and every penny we get comes from the hard-earned money of our members. But it is at times like this that we could do with someone with some real financial clout helping us to develop to our full potential. I find it most depressing that a 'dead-in-the-water' party like UKIP is underwritten to huge financial sums by its anti-EU supporters, yet the only political party that will ever be in a position to get Britain out of the EU is not funded by any of them. I'm hopeful that sooner or later the BNP will get the financial backing it deserves and then just watch our progress shock the opposition.

I have sent off a policy submission to a Pensioners Forum this morning, and it's nice to know that these organsiations now have the courage to contact us for a contribution. 12 months ago they probably would have been much too wary to do so.

There was another report on us in The Guardian this morning, this time about how the Daily Telegraph was hosting Richard Barnbrook's blog. The Guardian have been trying to exert pressure for the blog to be axed but the Telegraph seem to be holding firm.

"The newspaper yesterday defended its decision to host the blog and said it has had no complaints. A spokeswoman said: "Our readers are entitled to their opinions and, within the law, they're entitled to publish them on the My Telegraph blogging platform. We believe our readers are intelligent and discerning enough to avoid the content they dislike and report that which offends. That doesn't mean the Telegraph necessarily endorses their opinions nor promotes them."

The June issue of Freedom needs some serious work done on it, so that's where I'm off to now. More thoughts tomorrow.