So there are still some honourable journalists left

Well, I'm gobsmacked.

Can you believe The Independent this morning?

Read the report here.

And this is the very newspaper that was hitting us below the belt last Saturday with that phony photograph of the 'BNP'.

Off for a five hour stint of leafletting in Carlisle in a moment. I'm hoping to get away to Borough Park after that for Workington Reds vs Southport. I'm gambling that Mr Jefferson will be in an excellent mood after his publicity coup with The Independent and let me go with his blessing.

Main job today, as well as campaigning, will be to try to quell any unrealistic optimism for Thursday's results - not an easy job with anyone who has read that report.

More tomorrow.

Could he mean me?

I'm really under the cosh this morning with Freedom deadlines approaching, but just had to share this story with you.

Labour MEP Glyn Ford, believes the British National Party could win SEVEN seats in the European Parliament in June.

Well I'm wondering where he has got the seven seats from, and can't help but get excited at the thought that he might have included me, as No. 2 on the North West list, in his calculations.

According to my understanding we need over 16% in the North West for the BNP to get that second seat, which is probably beyond us - but maybe Gyln knows different!!

Anyway, he has certainly cheered me up this morning - here's the link

An establishment safety value stuck in 2002

What connection does Peter Hitchens have with the much publicised anti-BNP smear photograph that appeared in last Saturday's Independent newspaper?

No idea? Then I shall tell you.

But first things first.

Peter Hitchens is just the same as Richard Littlejohn, Melanie Phillips and Jon Gaunt. An establishment safety value whose purpose is to befriend those disillusioned with the three main political parties and empathise with their concerns.

That's it. Nothing more. They don't offer any political solution and just to safeguard their role in society they 'rubbish' the only political party that can actually change things.

At one time, back in 2006, I did have hopes that Peter Hitchens might be different. I took issue with one of his articles which denigrated the British National Party and we entered into a short correspondence. I was hoping to be able to enlighten him on the changes that had taken place within the BNP in recent years and to show him that the Party and its membership was nothing like how he described in his newspaper column.

But I'm afraid that Hitchens would have none of it.

"I know all about the British National Party. I was in Burnley and interviewed your officials there in 2002 and I know exactly what your membership is like."

Well, I was in Burnley in 2002, as campaign manager for the BNP's local election push in the town, and I certainly never met him and when I asked for further details about who he had spoken to it transpired that he hadn't met 'officials', but just one official, Steve Smith, who was then the Burnley organiser.

Now Steve was a character, I would certainly admit to that. He had just served a prison sentence for electoral fraud - filling in all ten names on a candidate's nomination form himself because there wasn't time to get the proper signatures. He wasn't worried about his appearance and would take pleasure in making controversial statements. He was a prolific leafleter, one of the best I have ever known, and used to run while making his deliveries, which didn't do much for his personal hygene.

So this is the character that Peter Hitchens is still, or certainly was in 2006, basing his evaluation of the average member of the British National Party on.

If Steve Smith was politically 'online' you could certainly have forgiven his other shortcomings, but he wasn't. He was way off beam and within 18 months had left the British National Party and set up his own organisation that spent most of its time attacking his former colleagues.


Now fast forward to last Saturday's copy of The Independent. The gentleman with the megaphone is Steve Smith, no doubt looking very much like how he would have done when he was interviewed by Peter Hitchens.

It's very unfair that Peter Hitchens equates today's membership of the British National Party with this one individual. He should of course be updating his research, but that's not what's suits him. He prefers just to have the Steve Smith image of the BNP in his mind, so that when he pens his 'nasties' about the British National Party and its membership, he can convince himself that he is telling the truth.

Many thanks to all those who have complained to Liverpool Council about the banning of my blog. This was its set answer to all those complaints.

Dear Customer,
Thanks for your email which has been passed to me to respond to.
The Library public computer network uses the International web filtering system called Fortiguard which categorises over 30 million websites into over 70 content categories and allowing unacceptable categories to be filtered. Fortiguard is one of a number of products which operate this way and is widely used in a number of countries.
Anyone can see the categories and challenge the listing directly on the Fortiguard website - http://www.fortiguardcenter.com/webfiltering/webfiltering2.html
I’ve just input the URL you mention and it is classed as ‘racism’ and ‘hate’ – categories filtered out on public library computers.
The website gives anyone the option to challenge a classification with any challenge be investigated by Fortiguard and changed if appropriate. If it is moved out of these categories it will be visible.
Yours sincerely
Liverpool Direct
liverpool.direct@liverpool.gov.uk
www.liverpool.gov.uk

However this is a 'fob off' and I'm grateful to Nigel Kay for investigating this further.

He responded to Liverpool Council with this:

"Thank you for your prompt reply.

When the URL "martinwingfield.blogspot.com" is entered into the Fortiguard database, it comes back as "Category: News and Media" as of the February 18th database update, as it should. As I understand it, when this database update is applied to your filtering software, this restriction should be lifted.

Please note, as I am sure your IT department understands, that the list of categories is completely configurable by the administrator. "Racism and Hate" is a very subjective category, and it very often abused to attack and censor different political views by activists who populate these lists based on their own political agendas.

Most public computers use the barest of minimum categories to protect users from pornography, malware, and other hostile Internet sites. I would recommend that you remove the "Racism and Hate" category from your filter list to prevent political abuse.

Our local library is also struggling to implement a filtering system that balances the need to protect end users from malware and pornography, while ensuring freedom of access to information, and it is a general consensus that too much filtering can lead to political abuse."

We await their reply with interest.

And finally it's the Greasley by-election today and I'm grateful to Broxtowe organiser, Nina Brown, for this update which I received late last night. She wrote:

"As far as we know UKIP have not put any leaflets out during this campaign at all, so this shows they have nothing to offer the electorate and are there simply to act as BNP vote splitters.

"Nick Palmer, Labour MP for Broxtowe, Anna Soubry Prospective Conservative MP for Broxtowe, and Judy Mallaber, Labour MP for Amber Valley, have all been seen out canvassing in the ward, which appears to indicate that they have very few grass roots activists.

"Broxtowe Group has received over 30 enquiries for membership just from this election.

"Whilst the other parties have been campaigning on local issues such as bus routes and traffic flow, we have been campaigning on national issues with specially adapted British Jobs for British Workers leaflets, Heat or Eat leaflets and the new national glossy anti EU leaflet.

"This is a safe Tory seat, but we are hopeful of improving our vote share and closing the gap on Labour."

Taking the protest vote away from the Lib-Dems

DO you remember, back in December, that there were some eyebrows raised when the Lib-Dems in Bexley asked the UAF to help with its campaign in the East Wickham by-election? It was a bit of a surprise because in the past it had always been Labour that had worked hand-in-hand with the 'anti-BNP' group run by the Socialist Workers Party.

I believed that I mentioned at the time that there was more to this than met the eye and it was not just about the Lib-Dems wanting to parade its anti-BNP credentials in order to pick up the immigrant vote.

This has come to mind again after a report on the Kent News website this morning - Lib-Dems organise anti-BNP rally. Now the Lib-Dems weren't even able to put a candidate up in Swanley, so it is a bit of a surprise that they feel able to organise a rally. It would have been something you would have expected from Labour with us having just taken its seat.

Now cast your mind back to last Thursday. No, I'm not thinking about the Sevenoaks by-election, but the contest in Thringstone. What was the real surprise about this result apart from the huge 28% vote for the BNP? It was the derisory vote for the Lib-Dem candidate - just 76 votes which amounted to 4.6% of the total vote. What makes this vote even worse is that it was down by a massive 20.3% from the Lib-Dem vote back in May 2007.

When at Steyning Grammar School back in the early 1960s, I joined the Young Liberals, and then when I was 18, the Liberal Party itself. I did so because I felt a 'plague on both your houses' attitude towards the class based Tory and Labour Parties. I was looking for a Third Way and the Liberal Party was all that was available . . . until the National Front came along.

I believe that there are many people out there who feel now, how I felt then. They vote Lib-Dem because they can't stand New Labour or the Conservatives and are showing their opposition to the two main parties - it is just a protest vote. In fact, I would venture to propose that nearly half of those who vote Lib-Dem have little idea what its policies are all about at a national level. Yes they like the community politics, but I'm pretty certain would shy away from any true 'liberal' agenda.

Today, with its shallow Cameron-like leader, the Lib-Dems has lost that edge that made it an alternative and the home of the protest vote. Now, for people who see through the media spin and are tired of the cosy relationship between the Old Gang parties, there is the chance to lodge a real protest vote, a vote that has the establishment quaking in its shoes, a vote for the dreaded British National Party.

That's why the Lib-Dems are in a tizz over the BNP because they see us taking the protest vote which has been theirs by default for the last 30 years. This is very important for us as the European Elections are all about our 'vote share'. If we can shave a percentage point or two off the Lib-Dem vote and put it on to ours it could mean the difference for a region between having a BNP Member of the European Parliament, or not.

My theory might be tested tomorrow in the Greasley by-election in Broxtowe. This is a safe Conservative seat with Labour as the main challengers. The BNP candidate polled 17% here last time and the Lib-Dem 10% which should already prove my theory but I'm hoping that there still might be a little more movement here despite the already low bottom-line of the Lib-Dem vote. The last minute intervention of a UKIP candidate might also skew the figures but it is worth checking out the percentages when the result comes in tomorrow evening.

Very good letter from Alistair Harper in The Scotsman this morning. Alistair has the knack of getting his letters published which is no mean feat with the anti-BNP stance of the media. You can read it here.

And finally thanks to Freedom's trusted Subscription Manager Colin Goodgroves, for this photograph of the Wingfield Castle taken at the marina in Hartlepool. I love anything like this and for many years have lobbied for family holidays to be taken 'barging' on a river or canal on the Norfolk Broads or in France, but I have always been out-voted 4-1. Hopefully with the chicks flying the nest at a rate of knots and hence the anti-barge holiday vote losing its majority, I might just get my wish in the not too distant future.

The Labour liars

THE Labour Party is full of liars - so what's new. But it does get a little more worrying when Government ministers are caught out telling deliberate lies to try to gain a party political advantage.

Listen to this one from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Andy Burnham:

"This sorry saga exposes the BNP for what they are. They've no regard whatsoever to the cost and inconvenience to football supporters when they refuse to change the date of their march."

BNP march? What march?

Burnham knew there was never any BNP march planned. What the local BNP group in Liverpool had applied to the police for was permission to hand out leaflets to members of the public in Liverpool city centre in support of the British National Party's European Election campaign.

The only march would have been one organised by the Labour Party and the myriad of anti-BNP groups that it funds itself or hands over public money to, to keep them going.

It was a deliberate lie from a Government minister desperate to try to stem the growing tide of support for the British National Party.

And then there's the Home Secretary, Jackie Smith. Take a look at this.



The deliberate lie here, in a letter to BNP Redditch councillor David Enderby, is that she claims that she only "recently" came across Nick Griffin's, now retracted, remarks concerning the Holocaust. "Recently" and "alarming". Where has Jackie been for the last decade. The Labour Party have been hauling out this quote almost every week for the last ten years, so it would be impossible for Jackie Smith to have only recently come across it. Just another deliberate Labour lie to try to hurt the BNP.

And she finds his WORDS "alarming" does she?

But not as alarming, I expect, as over 100,000 (see comments) innocent and now dead, Iraqis found the ACTIONS of her Government in its complicity with the 'shock and awe' annihilation of their country and population back in March 2003.

Hogan-Howe is looking for a high-profile job

I KNOW from first hand the very nature of the beast that calls itself Merseyside Police. Back in November, after the leaking of the BNP Members List, we were plagued by telephone calls from a couple of its officers desperately seeking information in order to persecute one of their own whose name had appeared on that list.

They were reptilian! Jobsworths desperately seeking to curry favour with their Chief Constable, Bernard Hogan-Howe, as he was instigating his anti-BNP crusade across the region.

One morning I got a call before nine and it was one of these Wormtongues scratching around again for any scraps of info that might help him 'hang' his colleague. (The BNP had been asked by the family of the officer to co-operate with the police investigation).

"Hello Martin, how are you,' he slimed. Now I had never spoken to the officer before and had told him my full name when he called. Yet now he was keen to be on first name terms.

I don't very often say the F word but I did then with an 'off' after it and then put the telephone down.

Then, off course, Merseyside Police arrested 13 members of Liverpool BNP for puting out Racism Cuts Both Ways leaflets in the city centre. Days later at 6.00am on a Saturday morning officers distributed notices informing the now quite famous 'Liverpool 13' that they would not be facing any charges.

What an embarrassment for the Chief Constable because he had been bragging to local Labour Party councillors and officials that anyone distributing the 'Racism Cuts Both Ways' leaflet would be arrested and prosecuted. Then came the news that the Crown Prosecution Service had ruled that the leaflet "was unlikely to increase racial hatred" and could quite legally be distributed. Apparently Hogan-Howe was livid and immediately appealed against the decision, sending in a huge list of objections to the ruling. But it was all to no avail, his appeal was rejected which meant that he had to inform the local Labour Party that the British National Party were quite at liberty to put their leaflets out in Liverpool after all.

And now we have had the Everton vs Stoke City football match saga. The BNP asked permission to hand out leaflets in Liverpool to launch the Party's European Election campaign on Merseyside. The Labour Party and its acolytes then announced a march against the BNP. The Police granted this request but then told the media that they were putting the Everton game back 24 hours because of "the BNP march" . . . need I go on?

Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe had aspirations to become the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. He is very much a political policeman and he sees his Bash the BNP campaign as a way to impress the Home Secretary so she promotes him to another more high profile and better paid job.

On a more uplifting subject, yesterday I headed a panel interviewing applicants for the places on the Scottish European Election candidates list. There was a very high standard of interview from those who attended and our findings have been forwarded to the Advisory Council for approval.

Glasgow was a very busy city yesterday but we did find the venue without any problems, were able to park for five hours without any charges and were greeted by Charlie Baillie with very welcome refreshments of coffee and tea.

The BNP in Scotland is moving ahead at a pace. The calibre of our officials is impressive and when the Party gets the growth spurt here that has recently taken place south of the border, we will be very capable of capitalising on it.

The lead candidate on our Scottish List will need 10% of the vote to win a seat, as there are now only six vacancies not seven. The BNP only polled 1.6% in 2004 but will significantly improve on that this time around and with UKIP's 6% vote share also up for grabs, as well as the volatile political climate, anything might happen.

Off to work on Freedom now - more tomorrow.

Simon says . . . "You can smell the fear"

THEY are desperate, make no mistake about that. This morning's huge coverage in The Independent - as the struggling newspaper tries to out-Guardian The Guardian and capture that newspaper's left-wing readership in order to stay in business - just reeks of panic.

As British National Party Deputy Chairman and Press Officer Simon Darby, said in his excellent blog last week . . ."You can almost smell the fear as they see their power slipping away."

On its front page The Independent carries a large photo of some neo-nazi cranks and claims that they are BNP members. They pulled the same trick some time ago with exactly the same photograph and at the time acknowledged their mistake. You can clearly see from the banner being carried that the people in shot are nothing to do with the BNP, yet now the newspaper has done the very same again. That is desperation - so desperate to try to smear the British National Party that they are resorting to "lies and distortion".

In the very same report it was claimed that BNP supporters were chanting "Blacks Out" at the count in Swanley on Thursday evening. It's a blatant lie made up by a shell-shocked Labour Party campaigner.

All this makes The Independent's editorial "Expose the BNP's lies and distortions" all the more laughable coming from a newspaper that has sunk to new depths of the worst kind of journalism this morning.

Anyone who wishes to complain about the photograph should do so to the Press Complaints Commision under its Accuracy clause:
i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.

The Independent is using picture of neo-nazi skinhead supporters and attempting to pass it of as BNP members.
That's all, keep it simple and be polite.

Another big day in Carlisle today with canvassing taking place in both Belah and Castle wards and then tomorrow I'm off to Glasgow for the Scottish European Election Candidate List interviews.

Reds are down at Tamworth this afternoon, taking on the team that is second in the Conference North table. I'm expecting nothing from this afternoon's 90 minutes after being so badly let down at Solihull on Tuesday. However, we do seem to raise our game when taking on the high-flyers in our league and have already beaten Tamworth at their Lamb Ground this season, knocking them out of the FA Trophy.

If it hadn't been for the credit crunch, this morning we would have been traveling back from a week's ski-ing holiday in Kuhtai in Austria. But when Sterling started to slide against the Euro back in October, we switched to a much cheaper week in January to keep inside our strictly limited budget. What a good excuse to inflict another holiday snap upon you . . . but no, I'll save it for another day.

Gagged on Merseyside

BEFORE I start gushing effusively over the by-election results from last night, it is with great pride that I have to announce that this blog has been banned, presumably by Liverpool City Council, from being viewed in libraries across Merseyside.

This is according to a posting on the main BNP website which states:

"It's nice that Martin is commenting on the main site because on Merseyside on the public computers in the libraries his blogsite has been banned. The following message appears:

- You have tried to access a web page which is in violation of your internet usage policy.
- URL: martinwingfield.blogspot.com/
- Category: Racism and Hate
- To have the rating of this web page re-evaluated please contact the Helpdesk on 0151 225 2928.

I have tried complaining on the number provided a few times but all to no avail. Can someone from the Party get on to it as this is clearly a draconian censorship act on Martin's site."

This ban is so ridiculous that it's funny. There's certainly no racism or hate on this site, just distaste at the way that the corrupt politicians from the Old Gang parties are destroying our country. If anyone feels inclined, please telephone the number above and try to get me back on line in Liverpool!

Now to last night! They were a set of results to get us all buzzing and rubbing our hands in anticpation of the next round of elections - one in Broxtowe on Thursday and four the following week with two in Carlisle, one in Warwickshire, and one in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The vote share everywhere was everything we wanted and more, with even in Harrogate our percentage creeping up to the 10% mark.

On the political discussion forums this morning there are some disgruntled postings from our opponents who claim that the BNP had kept its aspirations for last night quiet and hadn't let on that we were going to win in Swanley and poll so strongly in Thringstone.

I think this is very unfair criticism. On this blog and on my postings on the main website, I made it very clear that the Party was hoping for over 20% of the vote in both wards. No responsible spokesman for any political party exaggerates its candidates chances in official statements because, not only can this come back to haunt you, but it demoralises your own supporters when over-optimistic goals are not achieved.

I spoke with Wayne McDermott with regard to Thringstone and he told me to expect us to come third with around 25% of the vote, and he was just about spot on. When I asked Eddy Butler about our chances in Swanley, I got an answer that was all about sweeps, re-knocks and whipping in and although his reply was full of information, it told me very little. Eddy won't be pinned down but he did give the impression that he would be very disappointed if we didn't poll 20%, and that was the exact information that I passed on.

There is no secrecy or hidden electoral agendas. When the British National Party contests an election properly we get very good results - it is as simple as that. At the moment there is a growing groundswell of support for the BNP and it is only the smears in the media and the lies from our opponents in their leaflets that is keeping this support for us in check. When a campaign is fought properly and every voter in the ward has met and spoken with the BNP candidate and one of his or her team, that is when we gain the full potential of our latent support.

Busy weekend with the Scottish interviews and next week is the last one for finishing off the March issue of Freedom.

Battle of Britain Appeal gets a plug

WHAT a publicity coup to launch our Battle of Britain European Election Fund.

On the very week that 20,000 Battle of Britain Appeal envelopes are popping through the letterbox, almost every single newspaper in Britain is associating the BNP with the White Cliffs of Dover song and even including a photograph of our national icon Vera Lynn as well.

Our donation lines reported "telephones ringing off the hook" yesterday, and with more publicity in The Sun this morning, the British National Party's Battle of Britain European Election Appeal has received a massive boost. One minute The Sun is calling us 'nazis' and the next it is claiming that we are evoking the British spirit of 1944 which defeated the Nazis - confusing for its readership or what?

As I have said before, and I will no doubt say again . . . politics is a lot about own goals - and not scoring them. For thirty plus years British nationalist political parties were prolific own goal scorers, our opponents had to just sit back and wait for us to hit the back of our own net. But not any more. Now it's our opponents that are making the mistakes - the persecution of our members after the leaking of the list, the CofE clergy ban, the scrapping of the St George's Day march in Sandwell and now exploiting Dame Vera Lynn. All campaigns designed to stem the growing support for the British National Party, but yet all doing the opposite.

There will be a litmus test on BNP support in Thringstone in Leicestershire, and Swanley in Kent, today when voters go to the polls in two by-elections where the local BNP teams are hopeful of gaining a 20% share of the vote. Two seats never fought before by the British National Party, so two seats where the voters will have their first opportunity to "Vote BNP" - you probably can't get a better test of public opinion as to how voters see the BNP.

And still on the Battle of Britain theme, I'm grateful again to Bob Cherrie for alerting me to the Forces Discount Scheme with which he is involved. Apparently many servicemen and women and their families are not aware of this scheme which was set up as a "thank you" by firms and organisations in the UK to personnel from all the services for their commitment to the defence of Britain.

Full details of the scheme is shown on the website here . . .

No, I don't want to talk about Solihull on Tuesday night. I have been a member of the Workington Reds Supporters Club since 1972 and you would have thought that with the number of bouts of depression that the Reds' performances have inflicted on me over the last 37 years that I would be immune to the odd setback or 500. But defeats still hurt, especially when expectations were so high, so please let me suffer in silence.

The Battle for Thringstone - can you help?

IT'S proving a very hard fought by-election for Thringstone Ward on North West Leicestershire Council where our candidate Roy Harban is battling to take a 20% share of the vote in a ward that the British National Party has never fought before.

The Old Gang parties are livid that we have turned up on their patch and there has been a concerted effort by them to denigrate the BNP. But as well as all the usual smear leaflets there has been one rather strange one - what do you make of this?


Nothing new here, you might say, apart from peddling the lie that Andy Sykes was a former BNP organiser. He was of course a trade union plant placed in the Party to help with the BBC's smear programme which was aired in July 2004.
But what about what's on the other side of the leaflet . . .



Yes, it's a Tory leaflet, produced in conjunction with Unite Against Fascism which is run by the Socialist Workers Party. Now that is a marriage made in hell - the very worse that British politics has to offer uniting against the BNP.

But this all goes to show how desperate the Old Gang parties are as well as just how similiar they are.

In Bexley it was the Lib-Dems that lined up with the UAF, in Newcastle it was Labour, and now in Thringstone it's the Tories. All tarred with the same brush and working with the lunatics of the Socialist Workers Party.

If reading the leaflet makes you cross, and you live in the East Midlands, then please get to Thringstone today and tomorrow and give brave Roy Harban and his hard-working team a hand. Let's show these Tory creeps, and their Marxist bedfellows, that the BNP are here to stay.

Our agent in Thringstone Wayne McDermott, believes that in spite of the deluge of anti-BNP leaflets that there is still strong support for the BNP on the doorstep and that the next 48 hours are crucial for maximising our vote.

Let's get the BBC to update its BNP files

I AM grateful to Robert Cherrie for forwarding me his correspondence with the BBC regarding the non-appearance of British National Party spokesmen on the Question Time programme.

Robert asked the Corporation:

"When is the BBC going to accept that a very large number of people in the UK support the policies of the British National Party and would like to see a representative of the Party on your Question Time programme?

"I am not just referring to those of my generation, born in the 1930's, but of all age groups including teenagers.

"The BNP is very relevant in today's political climate, so why are its views not discussed on the programme?"

Alec Mackenzie from BBC Complaints replied:

"I note you feel that BNP representatives are not being given the opportunity to appear on the programme and air their views.

"As a public service broadcaster the BBC is committed to impartiality in its reporting of political issues. Freedom of expression is a very important democratic right and across our news programming we don't ban any group from taking part in debate as long as they are operating within the law.

"Question Time aims to represent a broad range of views but it cannot always do this while ensuring strict political balance each week. The panel usually consists of MPs from the main political parties, together with representatives from various organisations and newspaper columnists or editors. The programmes try to achieve balance over a reasonable period and certainly have a firm commitment to political balance over their series as a whole.

"There is a great deal of interest from many groups for people to sit on the Question Time panel. As far as those occupying the "political" seats (usually three) goes, in general they are taken by parties which have demonstrated a significant level of electoral support in the UK by being represented at Westminster, in the devolved bodies or in the European Parliament.

"A small number of council seats does not, in itself, signify sufficient electoral support to warrant inclusion on Question Time, though there may be other BBC programmes where, depending on the news agenda, appearances may be appropriate from time to time.

I appreciate your concerns that the BNP is not adequately represented on the programme and please be assured that your comments have been included in our audience log. This is circulated widely within the BBC and made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers."

Is that a 'fob off' or is there just a glimmer of hope that the BBC might just be shifting its stance on us. The last paragraph is interesting.

I see that they are still using the line that because UKIP has representatives in the European Parliament it must have a significant support base. UKIP's vote back in 2004 was Kilroy-Silk and media inspired and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. UKIP candidates now get derisory votes, yet the Party's spokesmen are still regularly trotted out by the BBC.

But then, of course, the BBC is painfully ignorant about everything to do with the British National Party. The Corporation's website still has the files for that ridiculous "Under the Skin of BNP" Panorama programme it made in 2001 coming up on BNP searches. Talk about out of date, the BNP leadership page names 14 individuals on the Advisory Council where only Nick and Simon Darby are still in post and out of 30 organisers named, just three are current.

Maybe that should be our campaign this month - to get the BBC to update its BNP files.

Tory defends Freedom's honour

IT was a big day in Carlisle on Saturday and a full report with photos can be found on Clive Jefferson's informative blog here.

I did a 'gruelling' three hour stint but had to scoot off at one o'clock in order to get to Borough Park to see my beloved Workington Reds secure a brilliant 1-0 victory over title-chasing Telford, making it was a very good day all round.

The response in Carlisle has been very positive and we are in for a good percentage of the vote here I'm certain. My neighbour yesterday reported that he had seen someone reading a copy of Freedom while standing outside Tesco on Saturday afternoon. This goes to show the impact the BNP is making here in that someone is quite comfortable reading the newspaper in the busy city centre - it provides good advert for us as being part of mainstream politics.

There was an amusing exchange on the Vote 2007 by-election website. A Labour Party apologist who had obviously never read Freedom called it "a rag full of racist rants and photos of skinheads." It was down to the Conservative candidate standing in Carlisle's Belah ward to come to the rescue of the newspaper's reputation saying: "I think the BNP are a bit smarter then that now, and pitch their material to a wider audience, which can resonate with supporters of the main parties and the disillusioned with the political process."

Even a rabid Red, who you can imagine foaming at the mouth every time he has to mention the BNP, had the decency to set the record straight with his "a readable populist style paper more in line with the Daily Mail." You can see how the debate is progressing here

Off to Scotland on Sunday to interview candidates for the Scottish European Election List, otherwise it's a busy week on Freedom. Workington Reds are down at Solihull on Tuesday evening and if I had money and a decent car I would be off like a shot as the team is on a roll at the moment. Sadly I have neither, so I will be glued to Radio Cumbria listening for any score updates.

No time for moping

DISAPPOINTMENT this morning. The BNP might have jumped up from 5th to 3rd in the Waddon by-election for Croydon Council, but our vote share of 5% was depressing - I had been hoping for double that. As I have said on many occasions, and will say so again, our results from now until June are all about vote share and there's no way of glossing over what was a poor result for us last night.

I suppose that I am depressed because 85% of those who voted in the contest supported either Labour or the Tories. The very two parties that when in Government have failed miserably in protecting the interests of the British people. Anyway here is the full result from last night.

Thursday 12th February 2008
CROYDON COUNCIL
Waddon Ward
Clare HILLEY (Con) 1462
Ian PAYNE (Lab) 1222
Charlotte LEWIS (BNP) 157
Patricia GAUGE (Lib-Dem) 150
Mary DAVEY (Green) 115
Kathleen GARNER (UKIP) 48
Mark SAMUEL (Ind) 13
John CARTWRIGHT (Loony) 11
BNP Percentage: 4.9%
May 2008 GLA LIST:CON 1353, LAB 893, LD 323, GRN 234, BNP 211, UKIP 103.

One crumb of comfort comes to me and that is something I was told back in the 1970s by a sympathetic Conservative MP. He said that if a nationalist party was ever to have an influence in British politics it would first have to replace the Liberal Party as the home of the protest vote. When looking at the results of the last two years, I think there's certainly some evidence that we are beginning to do this.

Thankfully there's no time to mope over last night's result as tomorrow is a big day for us locally in the Castle and Belah wards where we are contesting seats for Carlisle Council. And next Thursday there are no less than FOUR local council elections taking place and in two of them, at least, we should be back above the 20% vote share mark.

I have to admit that I'm not a Fitna fan. I watched all the news bulletins last night and I found the contributions of the majority of those involved in the debate, cringeworthy to say the least. Lord Pearson and Chris Huhne both made me want to reach for the 'off' button while, surprisingly, the gentleman who talked the most sense was a Muslim spokesman on Channel 4 News - and unfortunately I missed his name.

When you are confronted with a dangerous snake you don't antagonise it by poking it with a stick. What you should do is to cajole and manoeuvre it into a safe and secure place where it can do no harm, and then return it to its own environment.

Well, I witnessed first hand last night an example of the BBC's ethnic quotas at work - on BBC2 at 8.00pm in Masterchef. The only White contestant was a mile in front according to the comments of the judges and what had taken place during the programme (and as a former head chef at the Abbotsley Golf Hotel near St Neots run by one time ladies golf champion Vivien Saunders, I do have some knowledge on the subject) yet she failed to get through. When the result was announced the Indian contestant had come from nowhere to qualify for the next round and it very much seemed as though someone had had a word in the judges' ears at the 11th hour to ensure her progress.

And finally there's a good plug for the BNP's European Election aspirations on, of all places, the Guardian and Observer website this morning . . . here.

Giuseppe and Julian win the day

I AM delighted to report two stories about BNP members taking on an irresponsible press and thank you to Giuseppe de Santis and Julian Leppert for drawing my attention to their sterling efforts.

On January 15th there was a very nasty smear attack on the British National Party in a report published in the Paddington & Westminster Times. It related to an arson attack on a synagogue in Brent and in the article there was a suggestion from a spokesman representing Jews for Justice for Palestinians that the British National Party may have carried out the attack.

Giuseppe takes up the story:

"I complained to the newspaper and I got in touch with the BNP legal office. A few days later Tim Cole, the editor, emailed me saying that he understood that this caused great distress to us and he would write a clarification.
I can now report that this clarification has now appeared on page 3 of the newspaper."

CLARIFICATION: REPORT OF ATTACK ON SYNAGOGUE
On Thursday January 15th a report was published in the Times about an attack on a synagogue in Brondesbury Park: Campaigners slam synagogue attack. In that report a quote was included which suggested it was possible that the British National Party (BNP) might have been responsible for the attack.
We would like to clarify that we have been given no indication by the Metropolitan Police that they believe that the BNP had any connection to the attack.

"I think this must be one of the first times that a newspaper has apologised to the BNP and it's an achievement given that this news group of newspapers is very hostile the British National Party.
It sends out a strong signal that we will not be bullied or intimidated."

There was a similar type of story in the Ilford Recorder which Hainault BNP councillor Julian Leppert clinically nailed with a satrical letter which was also published.

"ACCORDING to your correspondent, Abdurahman Jafar, and a mystery "local MP" with no name, Redbridge British National Party intends to "commit acts of crime against the Jewish community, in a bid to whip up hatred against Muslims and divide the two". Sorry, not true.
My "henchmen" are too busy with our sinister plan to hold the world to ransom by aiming a laser at the moon from our underground lair in Hainault.
This is not the first fairy story about the BNP to grace the pages of the Recorder, and with local elections next year, I suspect it won't be the last.
I wonder if Mr Jafar's Redbridge Against Islamophobia and Hatred outfit want to hustle themselves a nice grant from the council? Happily for them, most Redbridge councillors are relaxed about allocating public funds.
Those who fret over Islamophobia should consider this.
Who lied and conspired in parliament to prosecute an illegal invasion of the sovereign Muslim nation of Iraq?
Who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Muslim men, women and children, and the unbearable loss of our own servicemen and women?
While Labour and the Tories have blood on their hands, I am proud to represent a party that opposed this needless and wicked war, from day one."

And finally "good luck" to Charlotte Lewis and her BNP team in Croydon for today's Waddon by-election. 6% is the vote share we have to improve upon from last year's GLA election and despite a vicious anti-BNP campaign in the local Croydon Advertiser, I'm hopeful that we might be able to top the 10% mark here.

New faces - and very keen at that

WHAT a good meeting last night in Workington. On a bitterly cold Tuesday evening, 35 people turned up and all of them were from the Workington area apart from a husband and wife from Whitehaven. And even better than that, nearly 20 of those present were new faces, which is something that a political party needs to see all the time - new people coming in to share the work and the responsibility.

There were good speeches from Paul Stafford and Clive Jefferson all about local elections and our plans for the County Council elections in June, and after the meeting two people came forward to ask to be considered as candidates in Workington, with one of them a former chairman of the local Conservative Party.

During the meeting I scanned the faces of those attending their first BNP meeting and it was a very different sight from when I had done the same thing a couple of years ago. Then, sometimes, some of the new people tended to look as if they didn't really want to be there, as if they had made a mistake in coming along, while others just looked bored and were impatient for the proceedings to be over.

But not last night. The newcomers were completely absorbed with what was taking place, a fact underlined as they queued up to speak with Paul and Clive after the event. It's a totally different political climate today. Peoples' minds are much more focused because their future is threatened and the BNP has without a doubt come in from the political fringes in the thinking of many people.

Further to my story on the main BNP website today and the revelation that one of the killers is living in ********, I have seen an exchange of correspondence about this and have no reason to believe that it is not the truth. I know the exact address but with so much going on politically I don't want to attract any unnecessary attention from the authorities by going out on a limb over this. Suffice to say, hopefully the report on the main website this morning will stimulate a journalist to go in search of the story if there is one.

Now a little job for those of you who enjoying posting comments. A regular reader of this blog, David Moon, tells me that Blue State Digital have a website where they are asking for comments in response to its decision to "take on the BNP". You will no doubt recall that BSD are the web team behind Obama's victory and which has been signed up by the Labour Party and their anti-BNP front organisation, Searchlight, to try to stop the British National Party from getting MEPs elected in June. You can see it here.

David told me yesterday: "Nobody has posted at all yet and they are encouraging debate so I have posted the item following. Their 'moderator' hasn't put it up yet, and I won't hold my breath. This is what I wrote:

"It appears you have been mis-informed if you believe that the BNP is a "fascist" organisation.

"I think you will find that the 'fascists' are to be found in the UK's Labour Government which in the last twelve years has brought in legislation to curb free speech, to hold people in detention without trial, has introduced surveillance on a massive scale, including CCTV cameras as well as plans to monitor private email and other telecommunications correspondence.

"There is repressive anti-free speech legislation on the statute book which was introduced by a previous Labour governement and has been built on incrementally by subsequent governments, both Labour and Conservative. All of these things are the hallmark of a totalitarian fascist state. Additionally, this Labour government has, in conjunction with your own government under Bush, waged war against Iraq without any legitimate or legal justification and killed countless thousands of people in the process. It also, continues to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan with huge loss of life, not least of our own servicemen and women who have no choice in the matter.

"The BNP is a LEGAL political party in the UK which seeks a mandate from the British people through the ballot box by standing candidates in lawfully - and hopefully properly and fairly -conducted elections at local, national and EU level.

"It is improper that a foreign country should interfere with another country's internal affairs by campaigning on behalf of any political party, or 'third party' organisation, whether paid or not. Searchlight is not even standing candidates, it is a 'third party force' and any expenditure must be declared on the expenses of one of the party's which is standing, otherwise it will be in breach of UK electoral law and liable to, aswell as deserving of, prosecution.

"I would respectfully suggest therefore, that you desist from interfering in our country's internal affairs."

And finally, the British National Party's victim status scaled new heights yesterday when the Church Of England banned its clergy from holding BNP membership. With the Witchfinders now turning their attention on brave BNP teacher Adam Walker today, that victim status looks set to rise again shortly.

Aren't our opponents stupid? They have completely failed to understand the British psyche - we feel sympathy for the victim and the underdog and don't like to see the bullies picking on people who can't, or are not allowed to, defend themselves.

Elections, elections, elections

ELECTIONS have always motivated me. It's my favourite part of politics - when you take your policies to the public and voters give their judgement on whether they are deemed relevant to the current political climate.

Even in the bad old days when nationalist parties were receiving derisory votes, I would still get excited when it was decided to contest an election. In Brighton in the late seventies and early eighties we were on the end of some shocking results. I remember one election when we received 23 votes (about 1%) and we knew exactly the people who had voted for us. Then there was another when we polled 6% (three times what we had expected), we were as bemused as the opposition in the rise in our vote but later, after a Labour Party inquest, they reported that a number of their voters had got confused over the candidates and cast their vote for our Taylor instead of their Turner.

So if I got excited about contesting elections back then, you can imagine how I feel now when we are scaling the heights with an average vote of 14% (that's according to the BBC2's Politics Show last Friday). And as there's such a lot going on over the next few weeks I thought I would use my blog this morning just to give you a run down of what elections are coming up where we have a candidate standing.

Thursday 12th February 2008

CROYDON COUNCIL
Waddon Ward
John CARTWRIGHT (Loony)
Mary DAVEY (Green)
Kathleen GARNER (UKIP)
Patricia GAUGE (Lib-Dem)
Clare HILLEY (Con)
Charlotte LEWIS (BNP)
Ian PAYNE (Lab)
Mark SAMUEL (Ind)
May 2008 GLA LIST:CON 1353, LAB 893, LD 323, GRN 234, BNP 211, UKIP 103.

Thursday 19th February 2008

HARROGATE COUNCIL
Bilton Ward
Sharon BENTLEY (Con)
Steven GILL (BNP)
Andrew GRAY (Lab)
Clare McKENZIE (Lib-Dem)
May 2007: LD 974, CON 877, BNP 122.

LEWISHAM COUNCIL
Downham Ward
Christine ALLISON (Con)
Duwayne BROOKS (Lib-Dem)
Jenni CLUTTEN (Lib-Dem)
Tess CULNANE (BNP)
Damien EGAN (Lab)
Andrew LEE (Con)
Cath MILLER (Green)
Pauline Morrison (Lab)
Lee ROACH (Green
May 2006 result LD 2230/1117/1106 LAB 590/586/554 CON 403/330/326 GRN 153/149/137.

NORTH WEST LEICS COUNCIL
Thringstone Ward
Tony DANDY (Con)
Roy HARBAN (BNP)
Terence MORRELL (Lib-Dem)
Ray WOODWARD (Lab)
May 2007: LAB 634/564, CON 501/376, LD 355/331.

SEVENOAKS COUNCIL
Swanley St Mary's Ward
Paul GOLDING (BNP)
Mike HOGG (Lab)
Tony Searles (Con)
May 2007: LAB 462/420, CON 208/197, UKIP 165.

Thursday 26th February 2008

BROXTOWE COUNCIL
Greaseley Giltbrook & Newthorpe Ward
Edward JACOBS (Lab)
Keith MARRIOTT (UKIP)
Gwen ROBB (Lib-Dem)
Wayne SHELBOURN (BNP)
Penny SPENCELEY-STEVENS (Con)
May 2007: CON 1232/1136/1129, LAB 624/474/448, BNP 396, LD 280/243/205.

Thursday 5th March 2008

CARLISLE COUNCIL
Belah Ward
Hazel BOWMAKER (Green)
Tony CARVELL (BNP)
Gareth ELLIS (Con)
Paul IM THURN (Lab)
David Miller (Ind)
James Osler (Lib-Dem)
May 2008: CON 1212, LAB 431, ED 176.

CARLISLE COUNCIL
Castle Ward
Alistair BARBOUR (BNP)
Steven BOWDITCH (Lab)
Colin FARMER (Lib-Dem)
John REARDON (Green)
Allan STEVENSON (Con)
May 2008: LD 652, LAB 299, CON 206, IND 202.

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME COUNCIL
Ravenscliffe Ward
Sarah BARNES (BNP)
Stephen BLAIR (Con)
Gillian BURNETT (Lab)
Geoffrey LOCKE (UKIP)
John PARSONS (Lib-Dem)
May 2008: CON 399, LAB 224, LD 189, UKIP 189.

NORTH WARWICKSHIRE COUNCIL
Atherstone Central Ward
Gill DAVIS (Con)
Neil DIRVEIKS (Lab)
Ray JARVIS (Ind)
Matthew MASON (BNP)
May 2007: CON 449/386, LAB 433/331, LD 151.

These are the ones that I can find. If you know of any more then please let me know.

Allerdale meeting tonight, Freedom arrived in Cumbria last night and I've just signed up for leafleting again on Saturday although I will have to finish at one o'clock as Workington Reds entertain Telford at Borough Park and that's a game that can't be missed.

A very good day in Carlisle

"Hello Stranger," - that was how the newly promoted North West Elections Officer Clive Jefferson, greeted me yesterday morning as I turned up for leafleting duty in Castle ward in Carlisle. Clive reminds me of one of my old schoolteachers at Steyning Grammar School who whenever he spoke to you seemed to be reprimanding you, even when just saying "Good morning Wingfield".

Clive's greeting did make me feel guilty for all those leafleting sessions that I have missed in recent months, and it had the effect of pushing me into a marathon (for me anyway) 4 hour 10 minutes stint to ease my conscience and try to make amends.

Leafleting is a great morale booster and moral yesterday amongst our sixteen activists out and about in the city was sky high. At ten to ten, Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford and I met up with Castle ward candidate Alistair Barbour and his team of Natasha, Glenn and Gary and by mid-day, with the help of four Scottish activists who had popped o'er the border to lend a hand, the ward was completed.

Meanwhile in Belah ward, candidate Tony Carvell along with Brian and Clive, had already made a start, and at mid-day our team of ten moved on to Belah for the rest of the afternoon. Clive then met up with Kevin and friends who had come across from Penrith and they went into the city centre to set up the now regular British National Party stall.

By two o'clock, I was shattered and had to call it a day, but the rest of them were still in full swing and thousands of leaflets must have been put out.

Let's now have a closer look at the two wards we are contesting in Carlisle on March 5th.

In Castle Ward our candidate Alistair is taking on the three main parties and a Green candidate, who was out and about puting out his leaflet just in front of us. The Conservative candidate is a former Labour councillor who has also stood as a Lib-Dem candidate and the Green candidate is another former Labour councillor. The Lib-Dem's candidate's parents are both Lib-Dem councillors and the Labour candidate was a councillor nearly ten years ago.

Last May, this was the result in Castle Ward:
Jim Tootle (Lib-Dems) 562
Christopher Southward (Lab) 299
Charlotte Arnold Conservative 206
Simon Osman (Ind) 202

I can report that Alistair is working hard within the ward and is already canvassing on a daily basis. He told me yesterday that he's getting a good response and is encouraged by the feedback he's receiving on the doorstep. The BNP have never fought Castle ward before.

Belah ward, on the other hand, we did contest in 2007 where we polled 5% of the vote. This is a big ward right at the Northern end of Carlisle with a large Tory majority and on the face of it doesn't look too promising, but after two hours in the ward yesterday I get a very distinct feeling that we are going to do well here.

The Tory candidate is still embroiled in controversy over a 'porn-watching' reprimand he received when he was a city councillor five years ago. His selection has caused a split in the local Conservative Association and this could well effect its campaign here. Labour, the Lib-Dems, Green and Independent candidates also standing could well start to take Tory votes if the dispute escalates and gets more publicity.

Last May, this was the result in Belah Ward:
David Morton (Cons) 1,212
Elaine Thomson (Lab) 431
Stephen Gash (Eng-Dem) 176
2007: Con 818, Lab 482, Ind 399, BNP 96, Eng Dem 96.

I believe that because of the damaging publicity about the Conservative candidate - two big articles in the local newspaper - the Tory vote could be halved and that would make it a very interesting contest.

And finally, yesterday in Belah, while leafleting with candidate Tony Carvell, I had to take a confession. Tony, who originally hails from Liverpool, admitted that he was once a keen supporter of the Anti-Nazi League and used to go along to their concerts.

"What could I have been thinking of. All those wasted years when I should have been campaigning for British Nationalism," he agonised. He was very contrite so I accepted three 'Hail Mary's' and gave him absolution.

All in all it was a very good day, so keep an eye on these elections as I think we will do well here and help push up that all important percentage vote in the North West constituency for the Euro Election on June 4th.

Pakistan calling . . . Pakistan calling . . .

YES, all rather sinister I'm afraid. A country, with a huge number of its nationals residing in our country, trying to interfere with British democracy.

The worrying revelation comes in the Pakistan Daily under the headline "Register to vote or this racist BNP man Nick Griffin get elected". Well if that's not enough to motivate the British people themselves to ensure they have the vote on June 4th and support the BNP, I don't know what is. You can read the story here

Sometimes anti-BNP reporting is so appalling that you can't help laughing. This is how the Tameside Advertiser yesterday covered the Hyde Newton by-election result. What do you think of this report

Adam Derbyshire, who penned it, is a real creep and this is par for the course for him. What surprises me is that an editor, presumably the Advertiser has one and it's not Derbyshire himself, has allowed such drivel to pass without any changes. 900 BNP voters aren't going to be happy with this summary of events and could well stop buying the newspaper. Playing so fast and loose with a significant section of the readership is a dangerous game for any newspaper to be undertaking in these difficult economic times.

In fact, the biased slant of the report didn't go unnoticed by a Labour Party supporter on the Vote-2007 website. This wag wrote: "If the BNP limped home in second place then the Tories must have been stretchered in to take 3rd and the Lib-Dem candidate exhumed to finish 4th!"

I'm just off to Carlisle to help our excellent BNP candidate Alistair Barbour, in the Castle ward by-election. I'm hoping that I will be dispatched to leafletting duty as I have some serious weight to get shot of. Check out Clive Jefferson's brilliant blog here to get updated as to what's going on in Cumbria and the two by-elections we are currently contesting in Carlisle.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories but . . .

FRIDAY has always been the best day of the working week, but over the last few months waking up to a string of excellent BNP election results, has given the day an extra shine.

Make no mistake, that was a massive result in Tameside last night. The Old Gang Parties had a specific agenda for this election campaign and that was to reduce the vote share of the British National Party. While both Labour and the Tories were of course "in it to win it", all the anti-BNP campaigning that went on was specifically orchestrated with only the one goal in mind - to reduce the BNP vote so that they could all claim, whoever won the seat, that support for the BNP was in decline.

Now I know this is the case because I was tipped off by a disgruntled Tory that an all-party meeting had taken place and that this strategy has been put into place.

As I said on this blog earlier in the week, our experienced elections manager for Tameside, Mike Lester, said that he had never witnessed an anti-BNP campaign of such intensity before and that he was worried that our vote might indeed suffer under the constant barrage of anti-BNP publicity.

But thankfully the British people of Hyde Newton weren't about to be bullied and our vote not only held firm, but actually rose by 2% and that is something that we should be shouting from the rooftops about. We withstood all that the Old Gang parties and their agents in the establishment and media could throw at us and came through not just unscathed but even stronger.

Years ago I would have felt uneasy writing something like this. I hate conspiracy theories and talk of secret meetings and hidden agendas. Back in the seventies and eighties, the Nationalist movement seemed to attract the conspiracy theorist by the busload and to coin a phrase, it used to do my head in. I'm afraid I used give them short shrift and made a number of enemies because of my lack of tolerance in listening as they expounded on their convoluted theories.

But something now is going on behind the scenes - the whole of the political establishment organising against the British National Party.

I don't think this is wishful thinking and an exaggeration our importance just to make us feel we are something that we are not. I seriously believe that there is an OFFICIAL hidden agenda against the BNP.

On this very subject there's a little snippet in The Guardian this morning with Martin Kettle writing in support of a Government of National Unity to tackle the economic crisis. But there's another reason why he is advocating a coalition Government . . . "for the BNP to be resisted"! You can read the full article here.

And finally the Church is bragging that its intervention in the Hyde Newton by-election stopped the BNP from winning the seat - talk about turkeys voting for an early Christmas. You can read that story here.

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Doing our job for us

THERE are 5,500 homes in Hyde Newton ward and according to my information there have been five anti-BNP leaflets put out. That's a total of 27,500 leaflets distributed attacking the British National Party.

Now put yourself in the position of an ordinary voter. You are well aware that there's an election going on because you have already had leaflets from the main parties. Yet that letterbox keeps on banging. If you are home when the letterbox goes, you can't help but jump, especially if you hadn't heard the gate open. You stop what you are doing and go and see what it is.

OK, so the first 'Don't Vote BNP' leaflet might be of interest if you have an open mind and haven't decided where yet to cast your vote.
Then the letterbox goes again, so once more you stop what you're doing and go to see what it is.
"What! another anti-BNP leaflet." You're a bit mystified at this.
Letterbox again - slightly irritated.
Letterbox again - quite angry now.
Letterbox again - getting really cross and want to do something about it.

On top of this, then there's the doorbell.
It's a Labour canvasser and the conversation goes something like this . . .
LAB: "Can we count on your vote on Thursday?"
VOTER: I don't know, I haven't decided yet.
LAB: "Well can I ask you to vote for any of the candidates but not for the BNP."
VOTER: Why's that then?
LAB: "Because they are nazis, fascists and racists."
VOTER: "Yes I know, I've already had five leaflet telling me that."

Once Labour has gone, it's the turn of the Tories and Lib-Dems and virtually the same conversation takes place.

Now one thing is certain if you live in Hyde Newton, whether you are interested in politics or not, you know that the British National Party is standing in the election, because this has been embedded in your mind, not by leaflets that the BNP has put out, but thanks to the campaign of our opponents.

Best of luck to Ros today.

According to a local website in Tameside, both Labour and the BNP were out early this morning putting out their last minute leaflets. Election experts are in agreement that this is the best local campaign fought by Labour for many years and if they don't win the seat then they are in very big trouble.

My information is almost a carbon copy of last week's polling day report from Newcastle, and that is that anyone of three parties (Lab, BNP and this time the Tories) could win it and everything depends on who can get its vote out today. On the postal ballots, Labour have a slight lead but on the votes in so far, the BNP has done better that it did last year when we finished up 278 votes behind Labour.

As I said on the main website on Tuesday, unlike with Labour, winning or losing is not a matter of life or death to us, it is vote share that is all important.

Freedom should be busy rolling off the presses this afternoon, so with the newspaper out of the way I have been seconded to the Membership Office to help open another big post. This afternoon I will hopefully get the chance to answer correspondence and then tomorrow the cycle starts all over again with work beginning on Freedom 103 - the March issue.

If I hear anything from Hyde Newton during the day, I'll update this blog.

BNP braves the snow

IT takes more than a bit of snow to deter intrepid BNP councillor Cathy Duffy from going about her council duties.

The representative for East Goscote ward on Charnwood Council was out and about in the bitterly cold weather to deliver leaflets advising her constituents of her forthcoming surgery dates. Husband Maurice, is very much part of her campaign team and he was on hand to help deliver the leaflets and take the photographs.

While doing the rounds, Cathy was stopped by a gentleman (above, right) who had just been made redundant and he had a number of questions about what the BNP 's policies were to get people back into work.

"He went away reasonably happy with what I told him and I said I would get a BNP information pack sent to him. Over the last few months people that you meet are becoming more and more interested in politics. I think that they are beginning to realise that it's time to make their voice heard," she told me.

And talking about the weather, I understand that the BNP campaign teams in the Hyde Newton by-election were the only ones to brave the weather on Sunday and that is something that didn't go unnoticed by the electorate. Time and time again those out and about in the ward remarked on the fortitude of the BNP leafleters and praised their determination to get the BNP message across whatever the weather.

There's a rumour doing the rounds that Labour is in front on the postal vote but not by the margin that they would have hoped for or with the sort of lead on the postal ballots that they have had in previous contests. Whether this is good news for us or not, remains to be seen, but if it is true then of course it gives a boost to the campaigns of ourselves and the Tories who are the only challengers.

Now a photo from York where the BNP's ongoing leaflet campaign in North Yorkshire has already made headlines in York and Harrogate.

Freedom is off to the printers this afternoon, and then it's straight on to the next issue as this month is a short one. Everything is going to be very intense in the run-up to the Euro Elections in June and with an increasing number of local by-elections being fought and activities taking place, there is going to be plenty to report in the pages of the newspaper as the BNP strides on to take centre stage on the British political scene.

Quote of the month

I AM delighted to have a bit of space left in the February issue of Freedom so that I can include the following as the newspaper's Quote of the Month:

"In the 1930s, the Jarrow Crusade marched on London to demand work; now in 2009 they will be marching to demand foreigners are sent home. The British National Party is finally in from the cold - inheritor of the great tradition of British industrial militancy."

It comes from Iain MacWhirter writing in the influential Scottish newspaper The Herald and many thoughts and threads aired in its pages find their way across the border to our media. So here's hoping.

The latest BNP leaflet in the Hyde Newton by-election.

Mike Lester is one of our most experienced election campaigners and he is a veteran of many titanic by-elections struggles in recent years such as the Brunshaw ward by-election in Burnley in 2007. But Mike admits to being shell-shocked from the onslaught against the BNP that is taking place in Tameside where he is the campaign manager for BNP candidate Rosalind Gauci.

He reports that there are attacks on the Party from all and every quarter. In the election there are just two sides - the BNP and those against the BNP. Party politics as defined by Labour, the Tories and the Lib-Dems is non existent as canvassers from the three main parties have the same message to anyone who opens the door to them . . "Vote for any party but the BNP".

To the outsider looking in on this by-election it seems impossible for the BNP to overcome such co-ordinated opposition and to achieve what would be an historic victory, and I'm certainly not going to raise hopes here by predicting it will happen. But what I will recall for you is a line from one of my favourite films The Verdict.

Paul Newman is a lawyer taking on influential opponents and his case seems lost. Only the jury can change the almost certain outcome and in his closing speech he says something along the lines of;

"I believe people have a huge capacity to see through things to find the truth and despite however others may try to exert their influence over them, they will do what they think is right."

The jury came good for Paul in the film and I hope that the voters of Hyde Newton will come good for Ros on Thursday.

For the record, some of the rubbish put out by our opponents in Hyde Newton.

I think that this Lab/Con/Lib-Dem pact will be key to playing into our hands in future local council by-elections. All three parties are discredited and voters know that they are all as bad as each other. If they take a joint stance against the BNP it will show that we are very different from them, which can only be of benefit to our electoral aspirations.

So on this theme, you can imagine my delight when I read the BBC's report on a forthcoming local election in Harrogate:

"Labour candidate Andrew Gray, Lib Dem candidate Clare McKenzie and Conservative candidate Sharon Bentley say they are working together to prevent the BNP having a presence on Harrogate Borough Council."

In the same report there's a great quote from our own Chris Beverley who responded:

"The fact that the Lib-Lab-Con cartel parties are working closely together against the British National Party just goes to show that there is no real difference at all between them.
"They are all liberal globalists who believe in destroying our country through mass immigration and giving away every last bit of our hard-earned sovereignty through our continued membership of the European Union."

And finally I'm delighted to report a Tory creep in hot water.

When a constituent wrote to Harwich MP Douglas Carswell asking for his opinion on immigration and the multi-cultural society, he responded, no doubt seeking votes, by spinning the line that he was campaigning to reduce immigration and believed multi-culturalism was a divisive public policy.

Unfortunately for Carswell, the constituent didn't believe him and joined the BNP, and then publicised what he had said in a local BNP leaflet. Now the Tory MP is in trouble with David Cameron because his remarks are not in line with current Tory thinking.

Freedom's front page

A quick glimpse of Freedom's front and back pages. Busy day today, so just the minimum of posts.

Mark Walker did very well on the Politics Show yesterday. He looked very smart and presentable, conducted himself well and what he said made sense. I'm certain he will have appealed to voters more than the two anti-BNP spokesman. Labour MP Phil Wilson, was very poor, you would have thought that someone with his experience of the media would have appeared more competent.

Spoke to Mike Lester briefly last night about the campaign in Tameside for the Hyde Newton by-election on Thursday. He reports that the Labour Party are throwing the kitchen sink at this one with MPs, MEPs and councillors all drafted in to canvass homes over the weekend. Mike desperately needs help over the next three days of campaigning so if you can get to Tameside to lend a hand, please contact your local organiser and they will be able to provide all the details.

Great quote on BBC Radio 4 this morning with one commentator noting that the current round of strikes are nothing like any that have gone before because workers are ignoring their union representatives and taking the action themselves.

So Jo Brand is "surprised and upset" that the Police are investigating her 'joke' about sending "poo" through the post to BNP members. I expect she would have been the first one calling for a prosecution if Bernard Manning had suggested sending poo through the post to members of the Labour Party's Black Sections.

Double front page for 'Freedom'

I RECEIVED a superb photo from Mike Turner, our Exeter organiser, yesterday of a papersale in Exeter City centre. Eight local activists standing behind their stall holding up copies of the "British Jobs for British Workers" issue of Freedom and the "Safeguarding British Jobs" issue. In the background is a bustling High Street and most important of all, the activists featured show the true face of our Party - ordinary British people worried about the future of their country.

It is such a good image that it has made me re-think the February issue of Freedom and now I'm going for a double front page newspaper, something I haven't done since my days at the helm of NF News. The front page will remain as it is as present "BRITISH NATIONALISM - the only answer to the global chaos", but the back page will now be an alternative front page featuring that photo and the slogan . . . yes. you have guessed it "British jobs for British workers".

The photo is so good that I'm emailing it to Mike Lester, our man on the ground in the Tameside by-election, to see if he can use it on a last minute leaflet in the crucial contest which takes place on Thursday.

Lots of mentions in the newspapers this morning and a big TV performance coming up at mid-day on the Politics Show in the North of England. Now we have been privy to clips of this programme during the week courtesy of the local evening news bulletins up here and unless there has been some very heavy last minute editing, the programme won't do us any harm at all.

Big meeting at Sellafield tomorrow about coming out in sympathy with British workers at Immingham. I was stopped twice at football yesterday by people who I didn't know but who work at the plant telling me about it. Apparently our representative at Whitehaven has been cleaned out of all his copies of Freedom by workers calling at his home and wanting to distribute them at the meeting. Hopefully some more will be made available in time to meet the requirements.

Two lots of "and finally" today.

At Borough Park yesterday we were 17 minutes from a famous victory, before Wrexham the best side in non-League football, scored three late goals. No shame at all for Workington, we played to our best and the crowd was a very healthy 1,029.

Alan in our comments section, and three other emailers have warned me about drinking Cava, so I better take heed. Can anyone help suggesting another tipple. I like dry white wine, but find Chardonnay too woody. I like Hock, Piesporter and Niersteiner but all the ones I can buy up here are very cheap supermarket brands and taste like anti-freeze. If anyone can suggest a new drink for me, please do.