The countdown to the RWB has begun

THE BNP telephone lines just haven't stopped ringing since Monday as members and guests are enthusiastically making their arrangements for the RWB. Apparently a lot of the Bed & Breakfast accommodation in the area is now fully booked and members are telling us that they are having to spread their net a little wider to find somewhere for the weekend.

There are a lot of lovely places to stay if you look a little bit further out from the festival site with plenty of pubs with accommodation in some of the nearby towns.

The five of us are off on Friday morning and will check in at the RWB to locate and organise the Freedom tent on Friday afternoon before the journey on to our accommodation which is around 20 minutes away.

Colin and Sue Goodgroves are in our tent this year and they will be encouraging any visitors to take out a subscription to the newspaper. I will be on hand to answer any questions concerning Freedom, and Tina is in there as well dealing with any membership queries.

I'm on the Question Time panel on Saturday lunchtime and then hope to take a good look around the RWB on Saturday afternoon and to enjoy a plate of what ever is on offer in the Traditional Food Hall.

There was an email from Wayne McDermott yesterday which I am very pleased to include in today's blog.

Wayne writes:
"As you all may recall last month Maurice Collett made the 100 mile cycle to Skegness from Leicestershire as a Euro Election fundraiser for the region. The target was to make this the biggest ever fund raiser held in the East Midlands. He is only £200 short of his target and whilst I know many of us have already given to this fund, I would like to ask you all to please try and give a few extra pounds which would take us to a record breaking sum.

The hard work put in by Maurice and his co-riders to achieve this feat deserves recording-breaking status he has done his bit we need to do ours.

We will be taking donations at the East Midlands stall at the RWB or you can post them direct to our regional address - PO Box 8186 Coalville LE67 0BR.

Many thanks"