The start of the snowball

DID you see Newsnight on BBC 2 on Wednesday? There was a surprising plug for the British National Party in a discussion on what effect the current recession might have on British politics. The issue under the spotlight was the traditional Labour voters that were turning in significant numbers to the BNP.

Did you see the Daily Mail today!!

Well, that same theme - Labour voters turning to the BNP, is continued over two whole pages of that popular tabloid along with quite a good photo of two long standing BNP activists, Derek Adams and Roy Goodwin. There was a mention in the report of a Freedom papersale in Salford just before Christmas, and yesterday I had written up the very same activity for Freedom. Unfortunately the photograph of the three local activists, Tommy Williams, Kevin Henshaw and Wayne Taylor was of not good enough quality to reproduce, so the activity just got a few lines in Freedom. Anyway, I have to admit that I much prefer the Daily Mail's report of the paper sale. It read:

"Of course, these words were lapped up by the contingent of would-be BNP councillors in Salford. They include a former managing director of a packaging company, a railway worker and the owner of a driving school. Every so often they set up a stall on a Saturday at the Salford shopping precinct. They hand out leaflets which are more moderate in tone than in the past.
'The BNP don't hate anyone,' states one. 'We just want to make sure that our own people aren't turned into second-class citizens.'
Another adds: 'It's wrong that immigrants who've never paid a penny into our system can come to Britain and go to the front of the queue.'
A third makes it clear where they are coming from. 'Teach the politicians who have ignored you a lesson. In 2009, everyone can vote BNP in the Euro Elections.'
Few born and bred Salfordians would disagree with their sentiments. Certainly, on one Saturday before Christmas, every single leaflet from the BNP stall was carried off to be read by eager locals, many of them women.
When the activists ran out of magazines and literature there was, according to one shopkeeper who was watching, nearly a riot as the disappointed were turned away empty-handed.
Perhaps this should serve as a timely warning to Hazel Blears and the rest of the New Labour hierarchy, who many feel have let down the ordinary people who put them in power."

The theme - Labour voters turning to the BNP - is gaining credibility each time such a story is covered by the media, and as more politically-minded journalists investigate the evidence of this and discover our recent results in Cumbria and the North East, there will be even more reports following the same line.

It's a great position for a political party to be in at the start of a year and the run-up towards the European Elections in June when everyone in Great Britain has the opportunity to vote. Our snowball of popularity started rolling at the end of December with those three stunning by-election results, and now just weeks later, the popular press are helping it roll faster and get even bigger by talking up our support.

"Stop moping and get posting!" - That's what one colleague emailed me this week referring to the lack of activity on this blog. He was under the impression that I had thrown a strop over the possibility of UKIP MEP Ashley Mote, joining the BNP and leapfrogging to the front of our Euro Election list in the South East.

I can assure you that wasn't the case. I must admit that I was very unhappy that it was deemed necessary for any such meeting with the discredited MEP to take place, and made my thoughts clear in last Friday's post. But as the outcome of the meeting was as I had hoped it would be, this wasn't the reason for my absence.

I'm off ski-ing for a week in Austria next month and in my over eagerness in the gym to lose some of the weight that I put on over Christmas, I damaged my back and it was this injury that has laid me flat out for the past few days. I'm getting better by the day now, but not quite up to the 8 hour round trip to Nottingham for the Organisers' Conference. I hope it went well.