Doing a Kinnock!

I don't mind admitting that I did a Neil Kinnock in the early hours of this morning when the Moston by-election result came through.

Mimicking the Labour leader's bizarre "well alright!" show of emotion during the Sheffield 'victory' rally at the 1992 General Election seemed quite appropriate at just after one o'clock in my thankfully deserted office.

I felt especially excited by this result and I hope that you did too. It was much better than some expectations and these results are always the sweetest to savour. I do sometimes get criticised for playing down expectations, but the Moston result provides the necessary proof that in the majority of cases, this is the best policy to follow.

Just after reporting the result on the main website, the Comments Section was jammed with those wanting to share in the glow of satisfaction that a better than expected election result brings. Everyone is bubbling with enthusiasm and no one is disappointed with last night's effort.

Yesterday I said that I would be happy with 8% and 'over the moon' with 10%, and I would have been. We just didn't know what level of support to expect, so it would have been quite wrong to unjustly raise people's hopes. Privately both Clive Jefferson and Mike Lester had said they were hoping for a vote around the 20% mark but 'on record' neither wanted to make any predictions.

I received numerous emails from those involved in the campaign who talked about "the brilliant reception we have received in Moston". Two or three confidently predicted our second place and the collapse in the Tory vote, while one even thought we might win.

Reporting these prediction yesterday would have raised expectations and, although they would have been exactly right with their take on how the result was going to go, if they had been wrong, people would have been left deflated. If we had just polled the 12% vote share, which was our target, it would have just been seen as disappointing, when in the bigger picture this was exactly what we wanted.

The blanket coverage of 12 Pakistani Muslims wanting to blow up Manchester's Trafford Centre, must have boosted our vote and this is something we must bear in mind as well, so we mustn't get too carried away.

Managing expectations is going to be key over the next 8 weeks in maintaining the morale of our campaigners who will be working harder than they have ever done before in their political lifetime. Also it doesn't end for the BNP after June 4th - it will be just beginning.

If we succeed in getting an MEP elected it will make things that much easier both financially and with greater representation in the media that this new status will afford us - but our battle will still have to be fought, with an MEP or without one.

For me it's head down on Freedom for the next three weeks so that the newspaper is out for the first of May - I had the Chairman of the Party on the telephone yesterday describing all sorts of horrors that will befall me if I miss this deadline. After that I shall be concentrating on Maryport West where I am standing in the Cumbria County Council elections. I will thoroughly enjoy this campaign, especially if the weather's fine in May, and there's no better way to lose a bit of weight and to keep yourself fit.