Meeting by the Lake

THE West Wing of a huge country house on the shores of Lake Windermere was the venue for a conference that Tina and I attended yesterday.

The meeting was most definitely on our patch, but getting there still took us over an hour and a half which just shows what a huge county Cumbria is. The house had been hired for four days and there were 12 or so of the BNP's leadership all sleeping under the one roof for the brainstorming conference on the European Elections, something which thankfully our opponents didn't know about.

Apparently the week has been a great success and certainly the intensive eight hour session we attended revealed that the Party is well prepared to make the maximum impact in the run-up to that all-important day at the beginning of June. Obviously I can't go into detail, but what I can say is that we will be matching the old gang parties with regard to the professionalism of our campaign and our publicity initiatives will certainly be much more eye-catching than any they will come up with.

I do feel very comfortable with the team that we have at the helm now, and I can't remember feeling so 'at one' with my close political colleagues. In the past there has always been one or two who worried me because their politics weren't really the same as mine. Now I feel that we are all on the same wavelength and are working towards the same goal.

As the meeting drew to a close yesterday, although there was to be another evening session after Tina and I had left, I thought about the past, which is something that you do more often as you get older. I looked at Nick Griffin in his multi-coloured rugby shirt at the head of the room drawing some diagram on a whiteboard and then across at Eddy Butler sitting in a huge armchair next to mine.

Now back in the summer of 1986, there was a Sunday morning at Brick Lane market when the three of us were leaning against the wall just a few yards apart selling nationalist newspapers. But what you might find interesting was that we were each selling a different newspaper promoting a different nationalist party. Eddy was with the BNP, Nick was with the National Front and I was selling my newspaper The Flag which was the mouthpiece of something then called the NF Support Group. Just two months earlier NG had ousted me from the Chairmanship of the NF and run me and my colleagues out of the Party. He wasn't my flavour of the month then but that's all water under the bridge now.

Regarding him yesterday afternoon, I now see the consumate politician and I feel much more warmth towards him, while Eddy has always been my favourite election guru and was responsible for bringing me back into politics after my five year sojourn in France.

Exciting footie tomorrow, weather permitting, an FA Trophy clash against Kings Lynn. There's £5,000 for the winner and that's money the Reds are desperate for in these credit crunch times.

Off to the mother-in-laws in a moment for a Christmas buffet from Iceland, you know the "500 king prawns for just £2". I just hope my stomach's OK for the big game tomorrow. When I come back I shall watch my favourite DVD again. Here's the final song for you.