Well done Simon

Congratulations to Simon Darby on his 500 posting on his blog. Well done Simon, that's real consistency. Yours is one of the first websites that I visit when I sweep my favourites just after six o'clock each morning. You are slotted in between the main BNP site and Betfair.

We are having cavity wall and loft insulation put in today so things are once again a bit hectic. The drilling which is going on as I write makes it very difficult to concentrate.

I see that a youth in Hounslow has been sent to prison for two months for spraying an anti-Islamic message on a wall. Can you image the uproar if that court had sent a Muslim youth to prison for spraying an anti-Christian message on the wall. According to the police when the unfortunate chap was arrested he was found in possession of some BNP stickers! Wow, I hope the police are looking after them because they must have antique value because the BNP haven't produced any stickers to my knowledge since I joined the Party in 2001.

Better day weatherwise here, so I'm hoping to get out in the garden this evening.

You have to worry about the consequences

SAD news from Burnley yesterday concerning Luke Smith. It takes a tortured soul to do something like that and so publicly. I never met the lad because his brief and disastrous forray into politics came 12 months after my time of close association with Burnley for the local election campaign of 2002.

Back then, myself and two colleagues, Paul Stafford and Kevin Clarke, travelled down each week from Cumbria to help with the campaign. Everything was a bit strange there then to say the least. The organiser, Steven Smith, Luke's uncle, had a sort of antique shop and accountant's office right in Burnley High Street and we used this as a headquarters. I got on quite well with Steven, although he was a bit of a moody character, and it was a major blow when he was sent to prison right in the middle of the campaign for filling in a nomination form at the local council election the year before all by himself!

Steven's mum ran the office while he was a way and she was a friendly lady and the campaign went very well. In the end we got the results we worked so hard for, so that time only has happy memories for me despite what was to take place shortly afterwards.

Luke should never have been put forward to stand for council, he was completely unsuitable, but there was a mentality in Burnley at that time, to go for it and worry about the consequences afterwards, which was typified by the nomination form that was filled in by the organiser on behalf of the nominees.

The events of 2003 and 2004 could well have destroyed the BNP in Burnley but the branch came through it and is now stronger and better organised than ever before. I met some very good people in those five months, over six years ago, some like Len Starr who was a new member then and is now a key BNP councillor and some like Simon Bennett, then the assistant organiser but who has now disappointingly lost his way politically.

It was an interesting time, but this morning our thoughts must be with Luke Smith's family as they come to terms with their loss.

Laughable pomposity and Zimbabwe Jackie

THE Liverpool Echo last week reassured its readers, "Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of a democratic society", but then in the very same sentence qualified the statement "but when does one person’s right to express their views infringe another person’s liberty?"

It was preparing its readers for a change in editorial policy which could be found at the bottom of the report. "We are currently reviewing our policies with regard to the BNP".

What made me laugh was the pompous headline of the article: "The ECHO will stand up for freedom of speech", when what it was actually saying was exactly the opposite and its editorial policy was now being dictated by opponents of the British National Party.

Make your own mind up and read it here

More fall out from the attempts by Sheffield Labour Party to stop the BNP from holding a meeting in the city by threatening venues with the loss of their licence if they hosted the event. Along with Sheffield MP David Blunkett, one of the main instigators in this Mugabe-style intimidation was none other than Labour councillor 'Zimbabwe' Jackie Drayton, and now she has been whining to her local newspaper that she has been bombarded with emails from the public, angry at her attempts to stifle freedom of speech.

More laughable pomposity here, as Zimbabwe Jackie assures the Sheffield Star: "I believe in democracy and free speech", but apparently that belief in free speech doesn't stretch to any organisations that she doesn't agree with.

And there was an even more bizarre quote from Sheffield Council leader Paul Scriven, who said that differences of opinion were vital in a democracy so people had choices, and that . . "those who threaten or intimidate people undermine the very democracy they say they support."
Now could he just have been talking about the bully-boy antics of Blunkett and Drayton!

Weather forecast says it's meant to be sunny and 82 degrees today. Well I can report this morning from West Cumbria that it's cloudy, raining and nearer 60.

Over the past few weeks quite a number of you have mentioned the Small Faces ad on this website. Here is one of my all time favourites, its a shame that there is no live performance of them actually singing the song.
Channel 4 did a great programme on them about ten years ago in their My Generation series. I have an excellent book on them as well, Small Faces - The Forgotten Story by Paolo Hewitt. It's a very sad tale but well worth reading.

Own goal saved . . . I hope!

Full marks to my Rover for getting me to the West Midlands and back yesterday for an advisory council meeting. The journey was an exhausting eight hour round trip but with the M6 relatively clear of hold-ups and the car performing well, I was back home by half past eight.

The meeting was very constructive. I had hoped to give a report of it on this blog but the Chairman reminded everyone as we left the venue that the discussion that takes place and the decisions that are made at AC meetings are confidential. So I am unable to brief you.

The most important item on the agenda, in my opinion, was left until last and I am delighted to report that the possibility of a massive BNP own goal has been averted. I would love to tell you more about it, but I can't, although I expect the news will filter out this week. I shall just allow myself the one pronouncement on the issue. "Self-interest and short-termism has no place in nationalist politics!"

While I was burning up the tarmac on the M6, Workington Reds were beating Scottish non-league outfit Spartans 3-0 in a four team tournament at Annan. I was there on Saturday to see Reds draw 2-2 with the home side, and there's a little bit of a political story here which is worth recounting.

Most will know of the demise of Gretna FC who have gone from the Scottish Premier League to football oblivion almost overnight. Well, their place in the Scottish League has been taken by Annan Athletic who were voted into the Scottish Third Division last week, and to say that it was a shock is an understatement.

There must have been half a dozen clubs more suitably prepared to take Gretna's place, but because Annan is just seven miles up the road from Gretna, politics has taken preference over commonsense and Annan have been given the mantle to carry on the football revival in the south of Scotland.

Now don't get me wrong, Annan is a smashing little club. I was there a couple of years ago for another pre-season friendly and you get a great welcome there. It was the same on Saturday although those associated with the club were walking around in a state of shock. They are just not prepared for the transition, they didn't expect it and now I think they have just been swamped by the magnitude of it all. The club didn't even have floodlights, although the holes were being dug for them last week.

Of course, I have an interest which is why I am telling you this tale. Annan Athletic have been given £60,000 by the Scottish League to facilitate the promotion and that gives them a budget vastly superior to Workington's and they have already been after three of our players, trying to entice them away from Borough Park.

Sadly that's the politics of football at our level and especially in a football outpost like West Cumbria. I'm hoping our players stay loyal and aren't attracted away by the lure of possible higher financial rewards, but with the credit crunch hitting football up here hard, local part-time footballers are looking for the best deal they can get, which is understandable.

Long haul to the West Mids

I DON'T like driving, I suppose in part, because my old Rover is on its last legs and there's always an element of doubt about whether any trip will be successfully negotiated. But I find driving on motorways mind-numbingly boring and I always feel I could be doing something much more productive with my time.

So the thought of an 8 hour round trip to Coventry on Sunday for a five to six hour meeting, does exactly fill me with excitement. Please don't get me wrong, the meeting is important and I find it stimulating to be involved in the Party's decision-making, but it's that journey that depresses me and with the rising price of petrol, the whole day will cost over £50 which is an amount that anyone on BNP wages can ill-afford.

Interesting email from a colleague in Whitehaven on developments in Germany with regarding the building of a mosque in Cologne.

Apparently both the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany have, on the face of it, approved the construction the controversial mosque, but behind the scenes they are lobbying for Muslim countries to allow more Christian churches to be built.

Protestant Bishop Huber also wants Muslims given the unrestricted right to convert to Christianity from Islam, while his Catholic colleague Archbishop Meisner has asked that the DITIB, the largest Muslim organisation in Germany which is building the mosque in Cologne, support a project in Turkey, building a church at the birthplace of the apostle Paul in Tarsus.

Some politicians in Cologne are even more forthright saying that land available for mosque building should be strictly restricted applying the same standards that are in effect for the construction of new Christian religious buildings in Turkey!

It seems that the Christian church in Germany has a little more backbone in defending the country from the spread of Islam. Our church leaders on the other hand seem all too willing to surrender to the infidel.

Thoroughly deserved recognition

I SEE my Cumbrian colleague Clive Jefferson is up for the BNP Activist of the Year Award at the RWB - and he thoroughly deserves to be. Clive has been a revelation since coming on the scene up here around two years ago and he has certainly been behind the rapid growth we have seen across the whole county.

There was big debate going on yesterday about maximising the potential of the British National Party's website. It got quite heated at times with discussion focussing on the mechanics of the website not being used to capacity because not enough people were writing, filming or recording the reports to make the most of it.

While I'm quite comfortable with my computer and am competent with my software which helps me to produce Freedom, I find some of the latest technology a bit confusing. Back in 2002 I went to college in Carlisle to do a course on website design and computer language. For a couple of years it held me in good stead, but now I feel a bit in the dark again with innovation steaming ahead at break neck speed. In the morning I feel quite relieved when I have posted my piece on the main website and it appears to be in good order.

Now it's all about web-cam and audio reports, and not just written reports and this is progress and which I'm quite happy about. My concern is that when you have many more people, with many different media modes contributing to the website, there must be a strong editorial control to ensure that what is posted on the website is in accordance with nationalist principles and that there's nothing that can bring the party into disrepute.

There have been many new members recruited in the past two years which now form a sizeable percentage of the Party. It is vital they are well briefed about nationalism and understand how our ideology works as a whole and not just the parts of it that they were attracted to which led to them joining us.

I've probably mentioned it before, but sometimes I'm dismayed by some of the comments posted on our website in response to reports. There was the classic one where one poster thought the foreign takeover of British industry was OK as long as it protected British jobs. That's the typical short-term approach of politics today - quick fixes.

Foreign ownership of British industry is not OK because money made in Britain by British workers goes out of the country and when there's a downturn in business, foreign bosses have no loyalty to Britain or their British workforce and will pull the plug on their operations here and return to their own country.

The growing pains of our Party is the best way to describe the transitions that are taking place at the moment and we must all work together to ensure that this growth continues but also ensure that the growth is in the right direction . . . along the road of British Nationalism.

Brassed Off

FULL marks to Tiscali's, presumably off-shored, technical services. A very helpful Asian gentleman spent nearly an hour on the telephone with me yesterday evening helping me to get my wireless broadband sorted.

And once I was sorted, which messed up Tina's connection, he then spent another ten minutes getting that sorted.
It was an efficient and polite service, I wish it could have been a call centre here in Britain and manned by British technical staff, but as it wasn't I have to be grateful for the gentleman from Mumbai for getting me back on line.

Yesterday, on the main website, I posted a story of a miner who had written to Freedom about the coal industry. That prompted me to watch one of my all time favourite films, Brassed Off, late last night. It captures the hopelessness of the battle to save our pits from Thatcher's henchmen and none more so than in this musical extract which I found on YouTube this morning.

There's an important AC meeting this weekend so I have to work on a report from Freedom. There might be changes a foot, as I have mentioned in an earlier post, but more will be known after the meeting. My first Freedom was in June 2002 and that was No. 27. Now I am working on issue No 98. It's a fair number of newspapers and there have been few months missed - just a couple of Decembers and once when I was away Summer ski-ing on the Hintertux glacier in Austria and a rush issue had to be got out after the BBC's Secret Agent programme.

A final story today on 'racism' and its perception. A 'left-wing' friend of mine has fallen out with the wife of another 'left-wing' friend of mine because of perceived racism. Now before you think it might be something to do with any association with me, I can assure you that this isn't the case. No, they have fallen out over Israel and the comments the former made which were critical of that country's treatment of the Palestinians. Apparently now, in some left-wing circles at least, criticism of Israel is tantamount to being 'racist', which just goes to show what a brilliant job the Zionist lobby has done in stifling criticism against what is, without a doubt, the most 'racist' country in the world today.

Nightmare morning

Broadband problems this morning.

We have just changed our broadband supplier from BT to Tiscali to try to save a few bob. That might just have been a bad move. Apparently Tiscali isn't Mac compatible and I can't get it on wireless and that is something that I wish I had investigated beforehand.

Thankfully we have a few weeks of BT left on our other telephone line so I am still on line and able to post this. Tiscali are meant to be telephoning this afternoon to try to sort out the problem so I hope it all goes OK.

Depressed - back tomorrow.

Setting the record straight

FOLLOWING on from Friday's post and the subject of hitting the newspaper owners where it hurts when their editors allow the publication of such anti-BNP drivel as that appeared in the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald last week, I received an interesting idea from my colleague John Ryde in Leicester.

He wrote:
"For some time I have had the idea that our lady members could attack those newspapers who are "anti" by complaining directly to the editors about adverts for massage parlours, personal services and sex chat lines.
The removal of these would reduce their revenue, maybe not a lot, but as the supermarket says "every little helps".
It may only be a pinprick to some, but for others it could be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Complaints too, to the major advertisers within the paper, could put extra pressure on the editors to be a little fairer in their coverage of the BNP.
To those ladies with the connections to the WI, there is the possibility of lobbying a few more ladies there to help any campaign.
It's just a thought."

John is right to point out the importance of advertisers. On Radio 4's Today programme this morning it was saying that newspaper advertising is currently at an all time low and that newspaper proprietors are really feeling the pinch.

Now on to another topic and a depressing one for me.

I have received a number emails and telephone calls saying that postings from my blog are appearing on some of the cranky neo-nutzi websites in America. In the past I have just dismissed this as "not important" and told those who have been in contact that there is nothing I can do to stop this as whoever is doing it, is just stealing the postings from this website.

However, it now transpires that some people think that I am actually posting them myself on these websites, and that is something that I find very disturbing. Nick Griffin even called me last week to find out what the score was as he had received a number of complaints as well.

Anyone who knows me, and my track record within nationalist politics, would know that this would never be the case. Over the past 30 odd years I have received many more death threats from the nutzis brigade than I have from the 'Red Front'. They don't like me because they accuse me of watering down policy. I'm regarded by them as a 'liberal' for rejecting all their hardline nonsense out of hand and because I have always pushed for a brand of nationalism that is more publicly acceptable.
I certainly wouldn't want to be associated with any cranks, especially American ones, and wouldn't want my offerings on this site, my personal weblog, to appear anywhere else other than here.

I hope this sets the record straight.

Hit them in their pocket

I shall gloss over last night's election results, well the two I know about, because they are disappointing to say the least.

I had been hoping for some improvement in Wigan West but our vote dropped back from 14% to 10% with UKIP seeming to pick up our lost vote. The Conservatives put up a really good campaign here and made significant inroads into Labour's majority but Gordon Brown's gang still comfortably held the seat.

In Redbridge our vote hardly registered which shows that the few remaining White people living in Cranbrook ward are quite happy with their lot or if not have lost the will to do anything about it. If you have a strong stomach you can find the results here

I don't know the result from Dalton ward in Kirklees, and for a number of reasons I'm not too hopeful that it will alter the overall summary of last night's efforts as 'disappointing'. Check the website I've linked to above and you will get the result later on this morning.

"Voters turn out in force to reject BNP" was the headline in the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald to a report by Rachel Allen which started:
"Corsham voters turned out in force to keep British National Party candidate Michael Howson out of the town council."

It was a shocking piece of journalism and that it was allowed to get past the editor shows that he or she is at best incompetent and at worst so anti-BNP that they are happy to sanction this rubbish.

Rather than rejecting the BNP, our vote was up 2% on 12 months ago. In fact it was Labour and the Green Party that saw their votes drop.

The report claims that it was a huge turnout when actually the 43% turnout was 5% less than in 2007.

In her desperation to do down the BNP, Rachel Allen in fact does an injustice to winning candidate Isabel Langford implying that she only won because people turned out to vote against the BNP.

Sadly these doctored stories are quite common and the only way to fight back against them is to stop buying that newspaper and write to the owners of the newspaper and tell them exactly why you are taking this stand citing the offending article.
Hitting them in their pocket is the only way to get their attention.

Incommunicardo

Hello there, back blogging again.

For the last week it has been all systems go finishing Freedom and I had to clear all the decks to get it done.

Not much of a post today as I have a mountain of emails to respond to and almost as many telephone calls to return. Everything has to go on hold while the newspaper is finished, so it always takes a couple of days to get back to normal once it has been sent off to the printers.

There are some changes to Freedom in the pipeline and I shall brief you more when the details become clearer.

Good telephone call just after nine this morning to the Membership Office from a former miner, 40 years a member of the Labour Party and who was keenly involved in the Miners Strike of 1984. He and his wife wanted to join the BNP but he was worried because he had been arrested on the picket line back then, his only ever brush with the law, and that this might effect his membership.

"Only that you should be given a medal as well as your membership card", quipped one of the telephonists and how true that is.

The Miners Strike saw Maragret Thatcher use our police force as her own political army to start the closing down process of our pits and Britain's coal mining industry. It was a disgraceful tactic and something the Tories can never be forgiven for.

This chap and his wife are typical of the new members the BNP are now attracting - traditional Labour voters who feel betrayed by New Labour.

Where's it all gone - Savile Town

I SAT down last night with a glass of wine and played my favourite CD, Truth Hurts. I must have played Where's it all gone - Savile Town at least three or four times. It's a great song and loses none of its impact the more times you listen to it.

I haven't had the CD out for a bit and it was nice to listen to all the tracks again. Colin Auty is a brilliant nationalist musician and, as someone else in the business of winning people over to our cause, I know just what a potent message there is in his songs. Great stuff Colin, well done.

I see dear old Melanie Phillips is worried about the growth of the British National Party. Writing in The Spectator yesterday she said:

"It is a source of great concern that far too many otherwise decent British people now refuse to believe that the British National Party is what it is -- a bunch of viciously racist and anti-Jewish bigots. The recent debacle in the Henley by-election, where the BNP did better than either the Labour party or UKIP , shows that it is now tapping into a disturbing level of support."

Melanie, just like the other establishment safety values employed in the media such as Richard Littlejohn, Jon Gaunt and Peter Hitchens, is stuck in a time warp with her attitude towards the BNP. She must spend days ferreting out the most obscure BNP references to back up her viewpoint while deliberately ignoring anything that appears in our publications, on our website or our pronouncements in the media.

I would like Melanie to meet Pat Richardson and some of the hundreds of other Jewish members of the BNP and have a chat with them about how they find it in our Party. But of course she won't, because what she would find is that her prefered BNP "of viciously racist and anti-Jewish bigots" just doesn't exist anymore and hasn't done so for the last six years at least.

The Tories are already claiming victory in Chadwell Heath, Hornchurch and Bexley on various websites and I certainly have no grounds to say anything different. What is important to the British National Party is our vote and its percentage. We are building our support in these areas and contesting elections is all part of that process.

Freedom is in its final week now and once again it's an issue full of positive publicity for the Party and should be a good recruitment tool for all the county shows that will be taking place over the next couple of months.

Good publicity creates interest

WHAT concrete differences does a spell of good publicity make? That's a question that is often asked and the answer was graphically illustrated yesterday by a day in the Membership Office.

The telephone never stopped ringing with new members joining up and former members renewing. There's also an overflow line for the donations department and that phone was also ringing as people wanted to pledge their support for the BNP and they were being re-directed as the main line was constantly busy.

Of course, when the business of membership has been done, people always want to talk and everyone is buzzing over the impact that the BNP has made with its excellent vote in Henley last week. That 'BNP beats Labour' headline shows the public that we can be successful and I think that it is this that prompts people to want to become part of our team pushing for victory.

July is usually an easy-going month for politics but, just like June, it's still very busy and with Summer School now completed, it is all systems go for the Red, White & Blue Family Festival in August.

Following on from that editorial in the Daily Express last Saturday which said that as well as beating Labour, the BNP's achievement was to poll 1,300 votes in Henley, there was a letter on the same theme in The Times yesterday:

"Sir, The Labour Party should be feeling concerned at the outcome of the Henley by-election result (report, June 28).
However, the electorate of Henley on Thames should be feeling even more concerned that more of their number prefer the BNP to the Labour Party.
Mark Clements, Auchterarder, Perth & Kinross"

Manipulating the news

I sat and watched SKY news at six o'clock yesterday evening. The headline story concerned the murder of Ben Kinsella, who died after being stabbed seven times by four black youths.

Sky's Crime correspondent Martin Brunt spent ten minutes talking about the crime yet never once mentioned the words 'race' or 'racist murder'. In fact, that this might possibly be a killing with a racial motive apparently never occurred to Brunt or his anchor man Jeremy Thompson.

Now just imagine that it had been a young Black lad who had been stabbed seven times by four White youths. What would Brunt and Thompson have ONLY been talking about . . yes, that's it, another racist murder.

I'm afraid it makes me so angry that I can't write anything more today. If the British people can't see through this blatant manipulation of the news by the media, then you must wonder whether they will ever wake-up in time to save their country.