If it's Thursday it's election day

I HAVE been making some enquiries to try to find out what our expectations are for today's contests in North East Lincolnshire and Melton.

It hasn't been easy because both campaigns have been very much local affairs and none of our growing band of 'have election will travel' electioneers seem to have been involved.

On the Melton and Rutland blog which can be found here, local BNP councillor James North reports in his diary;

"This weekend served as a catch up few days for the by-election.
"Luckily after a quick text message around to our local activists we had full teams for the leafleting sessions.
"The election is now back on target and it will be interesting to see what kind of result we get on March 26th.
"I spoke to the most people on Sunday as it was a fabulous day with the sun shining and many people were out in their gardens. The response from the public was nothing less than fantastic, with a lot of people pledging to vote for us."

I tapped up the East Midlands Election Officer Wayne McDermott, for further info and this is what he had to say:

"Melton . . . umm, not sure what to expect.
"I haven't been involved but the local group have put out 2 leaflets and run a basic campaign to find our level of support in a tough rural ward.
"Initially I thought we would struggle to get 10%, which would still be fine in the big picture of the Euro elections.
"But I have heard that neither the Labour nor the Independent campaign have been great shakes which could help us in a ward where the Tories will win by a massive majority."

Another bit of good news from Melton is that they will be contesting all four county council seat in June with the candidates already selected.

Although North East Lincolnshire is in the Yorkshire region, Wayne did spend a morning canvassing in the Yarborough ward which he described as "challenging". It seems as if this is another two leaflet campaign with some canvassing.

"It's a better campaign than we have done in the past in Grimsby," he said.

I'm grateful to John Waller and F.M. Mallon for sending me their responses from the Postal Review Panel to their concern over the delivery of the BNP's election material. This is it:

Thank you for contacting the Postal Review Panel regarding the forth coming election material that Royal Mail will be delivering.

I do need to advise you that the BNP is incorrect in advising you to contact the Postal Review Panel to register your complaint regarding the European Election material. It is the responsibility of the Panel to review decisions taken by Royal Mail Customer Services, not to deal with an initial complaint. As before we can review a complaint, we must firstly allow Royal Mail the opportunity to deal with the matter.

Royal Mail has an obligation under the Representation of People Act to deliver election material, so long as the material is lawful and adheres to all current legislation. Royal Mail always tries to have a flexible approach, so if an individual feels that they are unable to deliver material because of personal circumstances or beliefs or where an individual believes that delivery of a particular item may incur personal risk, they are asked to discuss this with their line manager who will deal sensitively with any concerns. Royal Mail will make alternative arrangements as appropriate. Please be assured that Royal Mail will endeavour to maintain continuity of service to its customers.

Yours sincerely,
Postal Review Panel.

There was a bit of excitement in Kendal yesterday which you can read about on Clive Jefferson's blog here.

The report is by Kevin Clark who is a great BNP stalwart. Kevin has certainly played his part in writing the history of the BNP, joining myself and Paul Stafford in our marathon 250 mile round trips to Burnley, which we did twice a week for the first five months of 2002, to help the Party make its all important breakthrough in the May elections of that year.

Kevin was a popular canvasser, especially with the ladies, and while Paul and I were half way down the street, Kevin would still be chatting away with the lady at his first port of call.