A successful Saturday in Maryport East

THERE was still a spring in our step when Steve Harris, the BNP's Maryport election agent, and I had finished a two hour leafleting session covering The Beeches and surrounding estates at the north end of the Maryport East ward.

"Well I've never received a response like that before on The Beeches," Steve tells me, still apparently shaking his head in disbelief.

And he was right. I leafleted the area three times in 2007 and although people were always polite - this is very much the well-to-do part of Maryport - there was little or no hint of support.

Yesterday was different. Steve must have spoken to nearly two dozen people of all ages out in their gardens and more than half gave a definite 'yes' to voting BNP. Even the others said they were considering it. It was such an unexpected response that Steve was still talking about it half an hour later in our favourite 'watering hole' up on the Ellenborough hill.

That leafleting session has to colour my prediction of Thursday's County Council result for Maryport East. I had pencilled Tina in for a 20% vote share, but now I think this might be a little higher.

There was also this in Friday's local newspaper, The Times & Star:

Maryport East Labour councillor Keith Little said public reaction to the political system was the worst in the 16 years that he had canvassed for the party.
He said: “What’s happening nationally is having an adverse effect.
“I hope people don’t go out and spoil ballot papers. These are very important elections, both for the county council and Europe, and I hope people treat them as such.”

Now Keith is a popular councillor, probably the most respected in Maryport according to Steve Harris, and if voters are 'luke warm' about supporting him then things are very bad for Labour in the town.

So my prediction is:

Cumbria County Council
Maryport East
Thursday 4th June 2009
Keith Little (Labour) 55%
Tina Wingfield (British National Party) 28%
John Stanyer (Conservative) 17%

This would be another very good result for the British National Party because it will presumably ensure a strong showing here in the European Election as well.

Notice how The Observer surprisingly leaves me out of its "BNP's ugly leadership" report.

You would have thought they would have jumped at the opportunity of smearing me over my time in prison. Maybe the newspaper is worried that its readers may feel some regard for someone who feels so strongly over a political issue that they are prepared to be incarcerated for three months to make a stand on it. After all, buried away in every Guardianista there is a little bit of an establishment rebel.

Back to the pavements today even though it's a Sunday. The last 'day of rest' before polling day is always the exception to my 'No campaigning on Sunday' rule.

This morning I'm in Maryport West with our candidate Carl Edgar, while Steve Harris is continuing our campaign with others in Maryport East.

This afternoon, I'm mowing the lawn if my back is up to it and then downing a few Bucks Fizzes while sitting in the garden to celebrate another opinion poll putting us on 5%. This one is of special interest as it's the ICM poll which seven days earlier had us on just 1%. A 4% improvement on the week might mean the BNP is coming good just at the right time.

A scorcher in Cumbria.

IT was a sweltering day up here yesterday and Paul Stafford and I must have sweated off quite a bit of excess weight as we pounded the pavements in my ward of Moss Bay.

It's all finished there now so it will provide the focus of my results prediction this morning.

In the Times & Star yesterday, sitting Labour councillor Barbara Cannon said that from her campaigning she believed that voters in Moss Bay accepted that it wasn't local Labour representatives who were at fault over the expenses scandal.

She could be right but there was still a lot of hostility for Labour from the people I met.

We were challenged by "You better not be Labour" on numerous occasions as we walked up the garden path and on the whole, people were pleased when we said we were from the British National Party.

In the past three weeks there has been a dozen enquiries from people in the ward about the Party and there are BNP posters up in windows in both Salterbeck and Moss Bay, the two centres of population that make up the ward.

Yesterday, I even had a call from a lady who had just received my candidate card and wanted me to sort out a problem for her in an ongoing dispute with the council.

Labour have put out two leaflets, both full colour and glossy, and the Independent has put out one leaflet. I haven't seen anything from the other two parties.

We have delivered newspapers to the postal voters and our candidate's profile to all voters.

So what of my chances?

Maybe I'm being a little optimistic, but I think a second is on the cards, hopefully finishing just a whisker in front of the Independent candidate.

I would be happy with this sort of result.

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay Electoral Division
Barbara Cannon (Labour) 48%
Martin Wingfield (British National Party) 17%
John Bracken (Independent) 16%
Judy Prest (Conservative) 12%
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat) 7%

Campaigning in Maryport East this morning, that's Tina's ward and then Maryport West on Sunday, before finishing off with a big push in Workington concentrating on Moor Close and St John's wards on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I took one look at the headline's of this morning's newspapers and then clicked off the link. The Times can no longer be considered a newspaper of record after the drivel of the past few days. It's been as bad as The Mirror this week with its anti-BNP smear stories.

If you want to read the stories behind the anti-BNP headlines, then click here.

To finish on a positive note, the latest opinion poll has us on 5% (up 3% from last week). Five years ago we were never mentioned in the polls yet still attracted a 5% vote share, so on that form line we could, in reality, be up around the 10% mark.

A scorcher in Cumbria.

The countdown begins

VOTERS went to the polls in Middlesborough's North Ormesby & Brambles Farm ward yesterday and despite the press smears of the past week, nearly one-in-five of them voted for the British National Party.

Here's the full result:
Len JUNIER (Labour) 549
Michael TRAINOR (British National Party) 175
David CROSBY (Conservative) 131
John HEATH (Liberal Democrats) 63
BNP Percentage 19.1%

Now cast your minds back just seven days to the Irwell & Riverside by-election in Salford. If you can't remember the figures then here they are again:
Matt MOLD (Labour Party) 606
Steven MIDDLETON (Liberal Democrats)293
Gary TUMULTY (British National Party) 276
Chris BATES (Conservative Party)189
Rob MITCHELL (Green Party) 125
Duran O’DWYER (UK Independence Party) 123
BNP Percentage: 17.1%

These are the results of real elections that have taken place in the last week. The verdict of people who actually went out and voted, rather than just answered a telephone to an anonymous pollster and told them what their political preference might be. Both are solid BNP performances.

Congratulations to Michael Trainor and his hard working team for an excellent result achieved in the face of a week of attacks on the British National Party in the media. What a timely morale boost for all our campaigners working so hard across across the country to maximise the British National Party vote in both the County Council and European Elections on June 4th.

Locally yesterday, Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford, and I had our most productive day yet. We put out our first leaflet in High Harrington just after nine o'clock and our last one six hours later in Stainburn. It was the big day's campaigning that we needed Over the next few days I'm going to make some predictions for our seven Allerdale seats and I'll start with Harrington, Clifton & Stainburn today as we have now all but finished our work in the ward.

I think we shall poll quite well in both Clifton and Harrington, but unfortunately these are the smallest of the four areas that make up the electoral division. High Harrington is the biggest and we do have some support here, but Stainburn appears to be quite solidly Tory and we will probably struggle to make an impact.

So my prediction is . . .
Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Allan Caine (Liberal-Democrat)
 34%
Robert Hardon (Conservative)
 32%
Marjorie Rae (Labour) 21%
Vincent Richardson (British National Party) 13%

This would be a very acceptable result as in all our seats we shall be looking for the 8% vote share Nick Griffin needs to get elected to the European Parliament plus a safety zone of another 4% for those wards where we don't achive this level of support. So 13% here would do very nicely thank you.

Six massive days of campaigning left when Paul and I will be joined by at least another three full-time activists to help us make sure all our literature is put out.

Back with more tomorrow.

Here are today's media smears if you want to bother with them.

The media onslaught

SOAKED to the skin. Faced by an endless row of houses winding up the steep Harrington hill to the aptly called High Harrington, and then I saw it. Another BNP poster in a window and suddenly the rain doesn't seem so heavy and the road not so long.

It was a difficult day yesterday. My broadband was down early doors so I couldn't post on this blog. The problems with the website seem to have affected my emails as I'm not getting any through. The constant rain meant we were drenched through after just a few minutes leafletting and although we kept going for over four hours in the end we had to stop early when the conditions became impossible. To make matters even worse I slipped on a step and ricked my already problematic back which just makes even the simplest task that much harder.

The only plus is that the candidate cards are ideal for wet conditions. No folding, just straight from the bag into the letterbox and despite the conditions were arriving in pristine condition.

It's a massive day today and the weather is just about holding at the moment. A huge shift could claw back some valuable time and an excellent forecast for the weekend will also help.

The constant media barrage continues unabated with the predicted front page story on the BNP's finances in this morning's issue of The Times. Can you believe the gall of this newspaper when there are over 600 MPs ripping off the taxpayer for millions of pounds, they are investigating our meagre finances.

Cameron's attack on us at least shows that he is hearing on the doorstep what we are hearing. A future Prime Minister and leader of a Party with a 20% lead in the polls shouldn't be creating headlines by attacking a Party that according to the last opinion poll was showing just 1% support (ICM/Guardian).

Would you like an idea of the media onslaught that the British National Party is facing, then just click here. Thousands of negative stories revealed by Google in less than a fifth of a second.

'Media's fury' will add a million viewers

OUR final Allerdale candidate card is featured this morning and it is for Tina who is standing in Maryport East.

Steve Harris is her election agent once again, as he was in 2007, and he has been busy working hard within the Electoral Division to maximise our vote on June 4th.

Maryport East is made up of the borough council wards of Ellenborough and Ewanrigg and we fought both these 2 years ago.

It was the first time that Labour had been challenged in a borough council election in the town for 12 years and we were rewarded by two votes of 30%.

Here are the candidates and stats:

Cumbria County Council
Maryport East
Thursday 4th June 2009
Keith Little (Labour)
John Stanyer (Conservative)
Tina Wingfield (British National Party)

COUNTY 2005: Keith Little (Lab) 2044, Derek Pattinson (Con) 421.
BOROUGH 2007:
Ellenborough Ward: Janice Wood (Lab) 635, Martin Wood (Lab) 580, Martin Wingfield (BNP) 342.
Ewanrigg Ward: Carl Holding (Lab) 610, Carneem McCarron (Lab) 572, Tina Wingfield (BNP) 276.

While Keith Little appears to have an unassailable lead on the county result from four years ago, if you take the votes from two years, things are much closer. Labour's best vote is 1,245 against our 618 which make things look slightly more competitive.

"Hole in my Shoe" was s 60's song by Traffic and I have one after leafleting yesterday. Just hoping it doesn't rain to day or I'll have a wet right foot! - at the moment the weather looks OK.

Thanks to the Daily Mail and the The Sun, our broadcast is guaranteed to be the most watched PPB of any Party.

The media loves that word 'fury' when describing people's reaction to something that the naughty BNP has done. It certainly makes any headline an attention grabber.

We have scored some own goals of our own during this campaign but thankfully they have been matched by our opponents and their friends in the media.

Make sure you tell everyone you know about the broadcast tonight. It might just prove to be a pivotal point in British politics.

Our Quiet Revolution has given us foundations

"A WEEK is a long time in politics," so goes the saying, and how true it is.

Last Sunday it was all about UKIP. A 19% poll rating, Nick Griffin jocked off The Politics Show and replaced by Farage, and wall to wall Sunday newspapers enthusing about that Party.

It was very different yesterday with the BNP the centre of attention. A prime time spot on the BBC's seven o'clock evening news and our opponents up in arms about the Corporation giving us the oxygen of publicity.

Who can say what the state of play will be next Sunday, or more importantly a week on Thursday, when voters will make their choice.

Firstly, today, I want to draw your attention to an editorial in this morning's Independent.

I'm not surprised that there's no name attached to this 'Comment' because it's so shockingly researched that it's an embarrassment to the newspaper.

"The BNP has developed into a significant political force in only a handful of areas, mainly in a few troubled towns in the north-west of England that have experienced prolonged high unemployment as a result of the collapse of traditional industries and which have been under the complacent management of a single political party for decades. Outside these pockets, the BNP has made few inroads."

The author obviously hasn't bothered to check the local council by-election results of the past 24 months. Like a lot of journalists he has failed to notice our Quiet Revolution which has kept beneath the media's radar clocking up those 10-15% votes time after time in almost every county in the country.

I know my colleague Wayne McDermott and his boss Geoff Dickens, will be rather irritated that our excellent efforts in the East Midlands, seem to have been ignored by The Independent. Late last night Tina completed the 'New Member' stats for the past week and it was the East Midlands that topped the table from Yorkshire in second place and the North West back in third.

It was a worry when UKIP were being hyped up last week and many of us feared that it might be a repeat of 2004 all over again. But please rest assured things are very different for us this time around.

Our support has been built up over the past five years on firm foundations. There is a bedrock of BNP support that really exists and is there whether the media puts the spotlight on it or not. It is there whether there is an Expenses Scandal or not. It doesn't just exist, like UKIP's alleged support, only because of the Expenses Scandal.

Our campaign this time is on a different level than anything that has gone before and together with that solid bottom line of support we should make the necessary step up in votes needed to win a seat in the North West at the very least.

And remember that's what this campaign is all about, gaining an MEP to take the party another step along the path to an increased political influence within Britain.

It is a black and white issue, there is no grey area. If we get an MEP elected our campaign has been a success, if we don't it has been a failure.

At the moment Betfair, which is the public betting site where people put their money where their mouth is, has the odds for the BNP winning a seat in the European Parliament at 1.51, and the odds against us winning a seat at 2.56, so fingers-crossed at the moment it seems as though we are on target for a successful outcome.

There was a much better researched report in this morning's Independent about the BNP's website, which is still under attack from our opponents at the time of writing. You can read that report here.



Today's Allerdale candidate card is for Vince Richardson in the Harrington, Clifton, and Stainburn Electoral Division for Cumbria County Council. Here is the info for this one.
Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Allan Caine (Liberal-Democrat)

Robert Hardon (Conservative)

Marjorie Rae (Labour)
Vincent Richardson (British National Party)

County 2005: Allan Caine (Lib-Dem) 1603, Joseph Holliday (Lab) 1450.
Borough 2007:
Clifton Ward: Heather McIntosh (Lib-Dem) 290, Maureen Rourke (Lab) 272.
Harrington Ward: Ian Francis (Lib-Dem) 610, Alan Caine (Lib-Dem 594), Marjorie Rae (Lab) 534, Hillary Harrington (Ind) 363.
Stainburn Ward: Robert Hardon (Con) 278, Edward Routledge (Lab) 120, Mary lancaster (Lib-Dem) 85.

So you can see that it's virgin territory for us but we are hopeful that Vince will make his presence felt.

Lovely day up here in Cumbria this morning so I'm off leafleting shortly - the forecast for this afternoon is not so good.

Opposing the Islamification of Britain

THIS first words I heard this morning when my radio alarm went off were read by a newsreader concerning the Archbishop of Canterbury telling voters not to support the British National Party.

But I didn't have time to feel any disappointment at this intrusion into the European Election campaign by a clergy which has always had its own politically correct agenda.

That was because the BBC ended the brief news item with a quote from a British National Party spokesman saying that the BNP was the only political party campaigning against the Islamification of Britain.

Dare I hope that this will be the phrase that sticks in the mind of anyone listening to this report?

Text from Nick Griffin last night at quarter past nine enthusing over the response he had received yesterday when he and the Truth Truck had visited Whitehaven.


This photo is taken early morning in nearby Cleator Moor so it's no wonder that Clive Jefferson who is a candidate here, can't hide his delight that the Chairman of the British National Party has come to support his campaign. Bill Pugh is a Whitehaven candidate and he seems to be impatient to get the Truth Truck to the coast to start campaigning there.

There is a growing unease amongst workers at the near-by Sellafield nuclear plant over foreign contractors bringing in foreign workers and with many Sellafield employees living in the borough of Copeland, our full slate of candidates in the county council elections might just provide the ideal protest vote (with or without the Archbishop's blessing.)

I was out on my own yesterday in Wigton, pounding the pavements delivering the candidate cards for our candidate Paul Stafford. He couldn't be there because he was attending the ceremony to swear in his wife, Debbie, as Wigton's Deputy Mayor - something that certainly won't do his campaign in the Wigton county council seat any harm at all.

Our Allerdale candidate card this morning is for Stephen Stoddart our representative in Workington's St John's Ward.



This ward should provide us with our best result in Allerdale. Clive Jefferson fought a borough council by-election here in November of last year and secured a very promising 20% of the vote. Todd, as Stephen is called locally, is very well known on his patch and he will certainly attract a personal vote which could just take us within striking distance of the Labour and Conservative candidates.

Here are the election stats:
Cumbria County Council
St Johns Electoral Division
Michael Davidson (Conservative)
Joe Holliday (Labour)
Stephen Stoddart (British National Party)

County 2005: James Samson (Lab) 1345, John Heathcote (Con) 984.
Borough 2008: Gerald Humes 452, Simon Collins 394, Clive Jefferson (BNP) 257, John Bracken (Ind) 113, Alistair Grey (Green) 55.
Borough 2007: Joseph Holliday (Lab) 788, Michael Davidson (Con) 780, John Heathcote (Con) 698, Konrad Hansen (Lab) 418.

There doesn't seem to be any real nasties in newspapers this morning, I expect they are being saved up for next weekend.

There was this carried in a report in The Sunday Times:

"The market is closing up and hard rain falls on the shoppers. Brynley McDonald, 63, sells DVDs from his stall. He has always voted Labour, but not this time.“They’ve no control over anything – like immigration, it’s just chaos,” he says. “I’m thinking about BNP. We look after everybody who comes in and we treat our own like crap.
”Two unemployed men in their fifties are both considering BNP. One was a builder: immigrants take builders’ jobs. His mate, Paul Brooksbank, worked on the railways until five years ago. He hates what has happened to the industry.
“People don’t work for the love of the job any more, the love of the railways.
”It is another big theme: the collapse of ethos. That, after all is what has happened at Westminster where, to quote Flaubert, there are people who would pay to be bought.
Outside the Golden Lion, the lunchtime smokers and drinkers all want to have their say. Awful, embittered stories of NHS and welfare persecution tumble out. Mention expenses and half of them cry: “Snouts in the trough!”
Noreen Stanley, a cleaner, says MPs should get £7 an hour. Here, too, some are veering towards the BNP, though Noreen and her husband Leon say they will stick with Labour out of habit, but “they’re all the same”.

You can read the full report here.

The Sunday Express reports:

"The Sunday Express survey also suggests that a disillusioned 55 per cent would not vote at all.
Among those intending to vote, the BNP picked up 38.4 per cent support compared to 19.2 per cent for Labour.
The result, in what was a safe Labour seat, gives the Tories 13.4 per cent of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 10.7 per cent and the Greens and the UK Independent Party 7.1 per cent each.
If the result is repeated across the North-West in next month’s European Parliament elections Mr Griffin will be elected to Brussels."
You can read that full report here.

There's more leafleting with candidate cards tomorrow in all seven Allerdale seats and then the process of targeting wards to get them completed starts in earnest on Tuesday.

A broadcast to stir the nation

WOW! What a broadcast! If our European Election PPB doesn't stir the nation, I just don't know what will.

It's brilliant and must strike a chord with the majority of British people.

Yesterday I was in the Salterbeck part of my Moss Bay ward putting out election cards. This part of the ward in on a hill so at every house you are either going up steps or coming down steps. Very good for improving fitness levels but also very tiring. We had been hoping to complete this section, but in the end only managed about half.

Over the Whit bank holiday all seven wards will see the candidate cards being put out. I shall do a couple of hours in Wigton this morning if the rain holds off.

And now for today's featured electoral division - Maryport West. This is the candidate card for Carl Edgar who has also been one of our key activists over the past three weeks.



Maryport West must have one of the oldest sitting councillors in the country in Bill Cameron . . . and he's standing again.

These are the candidates:

Cumbria County Council
Maryport West
Bill Cameron (Labour)
Carl Edgar (British National Party)
Jacqueline Mounsey (Conservative)
John Peel (Independent)
John Rivers (Liberal Democrat)
County 2005: Bill Cameron (Lab) 1706, Neville Lishman (Con) 615
Borough 2007: Labour candidates returned unopposed.

Back in 2007 at the borough council elections, Tina and I stood in Ellenborough and Ewanrigg wards which make up Maryport East. We didn't have candidates for either Netherhall or Flimby, which make up Maryport West, and received quite a bit of stick for not putting up a candidate there from those residents who complained that once again, for the 12th year running, they didn't have a chance to vote.

Well there's certainly a contest this time around and I think that Carl Edgar will poll very well.

The Palace publicity stunt is running and running with even a cartoon in The Sun yesterday of Nick Griffin. When you are personally lampooned in a cartoon in Britain's biggest circulation tabloid, it well and truly announces your arrival into mainstream politics.

Here is the latest on this treasure trove of publicity, posted on ITN website just a few minutes ago.

There doesn't seem much else around in today's newspapers although expect some more negative stories shortly. I spoke to Nick yesterday evening and he said that the media were digging around desperate for smears for the final days of the campaign. The trouble is that they have fired off their anti-BNP ammo all a bit early in order to compensate for the shocking expenses scandal headlines.

Surprise, surprise the Times & Star didn't publish my letter yesterday. In the newspaper, which is a large broadsheet, there were two full pages of letters including another two letters attacking the BNP from the two very same people who had letters published the previous week again attacking the BNP.

I should be irked by this, but I'm not. The editors of the Cumbrian Newspapers must be desperate to sink to such depths, which in a way is a compliment to us for our efforts up here in Cumbria.

There's a spring in my step this morning

Off out shortly with a double shift of delivering candidate cards as they didn't arrive till late yesterday afternoon.

There's a spring in my step this morning after last night's by-election in Salford and evidence that at last the media are beginning to take a closer look at the corrupt UKIP.

Also there's good news on the expenses scandal front. Labour MP Ian Gibson has been a particularly nasty anti-BNP campaigner over the years. Telling lies about the BNP never bothered the Norwich North MP at all in the past and now he has told lies on his website and to his local newspaper about the extent of his fingers in the public purse. Another anti-BNP campaigner is about to bite the dust.




This is Paul Stafford's candidate card for the Wigton Electoral Division.

Paul was our first ever BNP candidate in Cumbria when he polled a very respectable 15% and beat a Labour candidate in the same Wigton ward back in 2003. The media campaign against him was quite incredible. On the eve of poll a whole editorial was devoted to him standing.

The now imfamous editor's comment started off by saying:

"I wouldn't dream of telling you how to vote . . .

and finished off with:

" . . . please vote for any party but the British National Party!"

To get this in perspective, remember Paul was the only BNP candidate standing in Cumbria. There were hundreds of other candidates contesting elections yet the editorial was just about him.

Cumbria County Council
Wigton Electoral Division
Thursday 4th June 2009.
Joe Cowell (Conservative)
John Crouch (Labour)
Paul Stafford (British National Party)
County 2005: John Crouch (Lab) 856, Stuart Moffat (Con) 804, George Scott (Ind), Jacqueline Forsyth (Lib-Dem) 299.
Borough 2007: George Scott (Ind) 821, John Armstrong (Ind) 756, John Crouch (Lab) 650, Alan Hortin (Ind) 518, Paul Stafford (BNP) 347.

Apologies if there any typos, but I have to fly. Probably back later.

Simplicity is the key

ANOTHER very simple, but extremely eye-catching candidate card that will be going out to voters in the Electoral Divisions we are contesting in the borough of Allerdale for seats on Cumbria County Council.

We know from our three weeks of campaigning so far, that people have had enough of professional politicians, their broken promises and their empty soundbites. Our small, colourful, easy to read cards about our candidates might just get noticed when compared to the heavy tracts of waffle and excuses from the other candidates.

The count at the Moorclose Sports Centre on the morning of Friday 5th June will tell us whether this was the right strategy or not.

There was some complaint yesterday that there was no electoral background to the Moorclose seat where Glen Brew is standing (the candidate card show yesterday) so here it is:

Cumbria County Council
Moorclose Electoral Division
Glen Brew (British National Party)
Gerald Humes (Labour)
Denis Robertson (Independent)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Conservative)

County: 2005: Gerald Humes (Lab) 1358, Christine Johanssen (Lib-Dem) 551.
Borough: 2007: John Bales (Lab) 602, Nicholas Hardy (Lab) 546, Denis Robertson (Ind) 522, Roger Tibble (Lab) 403.

So Glen is not only taking on the sitting Labour county councillor, but also the colourful Independent borough councillor, Denis (Cocky) Robertson.

In my electoral division of Moss Bay, I'm up against another colourful Independent candidate in John Bracken. John's a great Workington Reds fan and we sometime have a chat about things on the terraces of Borough Park. He was just two votes short of causing a shock by taking a seat from Labour in Moss Bay at the last round of borough council elections.

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay Electoral Division
John Bracken (Independent)
Barbara Cannon (Labour)
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat)
Judy Prest (Conservative)
Martin Wingfield (British National Party)

County 2005: Barbara Cannon (Lab) 1172, Robert Hardon (Con) 316.
Borough 2007: Barbara Cannon (Lab) 507, Carole Armstrong (Lab) 439, William Bacon (Lab) 432, John Bracken (Ind) 430.


Still waiting for the candidate cards to arrive from the printers. If they come today we shall be out with them, otherwise we shall have to put in some extra shifts tomorrow. I think it would be useful to get some out in both a Maryport and a Workington ward before Saturday so they provide a bit of a talking point over the Whit Bank Holiday.

Yesterday I dealt with a large backlog of correspondence, I worked on Freedom and did a three hour stint on a Streamline machine putting through the credit card payments of some of the hundreds of new BNP members signed up just 24 hours earlier. Interest in the British National Party is as never before. Jim Dowson and his Midas Management have certainly taken the Party to new levels of which we could have only dreamed of two years ago.

Good luck to Gary Tumulty and his team for the Irwell & Riverside by-election in Salford today. Just to help keep every ones feet firmly on the ground, there are now more than 2,000 students on the electoral role for this ward, as Irwell has become a popular dormitory area for the local university.

I do know that my father-in-law story carried on yesterday's posting did make it to the desk of the editor of The Sun. Whether he read it or not is another matter.

I sent it in to the newspaper yesterday morning and late afternoon I received a nice note from Amanda Greenley, the Letters' Editor, saying that she had passed it on to the Editor. Could an apology be on the way?

With the Buckingham Palace Garden Party publicity stunt reaping 100 times more attention than we had envisaged, there's a lot of BNP stories to sort through for some real news and opinion.

Roy Greenslade's viewpoint in The Guardian is worth linking to.

A correction in The Guardian boosts our Chairman's credibility.

Mike McCarthy who was at our North West Euro Launch last week has a piece on Sky News.

That's all for the moment, maybe back later if the candidate's cards don't arrive.

UPDATED 12 NOON:
Some excellent articles in today's New Statesman, especially the Andrew Grice revelation that the Old Gang parties want the protest vote to go to UKIP.

Unfinished business

Just the sort of place the BNP loves

From the street to the screen

The Sun falls from grace

MY father-in-law just loves reading The Sun.

He has a copy delivered six days a week and on the seventh day he has the Sunday Mirror.

He is an avid reader of the newspaper and if I should pop in during the morning to check he's OK, The Sun is always lying open on the kitchen table next to a cup of tea, packet of cigarettes and an ashtray.

Brian is a great horse and greyhound racing enthusiast so when we tease him about reading The Sun, he meets the criticism with a straight bat, saying that the newspaper's racing coverage is second to none.

When he comes over for a meal on Friday evening, quite a bit of time is spent on discussing current affairs and the news and Brian always has his slant on things heavily influenced by the pages of The Sun.

We have suggested that he might prefer the Daily Mail or the Daily Express where the racing info is equally as good, but Brian won't have it.

"I like The Sun, it suits me fine," he says folding his arms as if to indicate he won't budge on the issue.

On Monday I was leafleting in the morning but on the way back at around two o'clock popped to see Brian. The Sun was on the table, a cigarette was smoldering in the ash tray and At The Races was on the TV in the kitchen. Everything seemed normal but you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

"I'm resigning from the BNP," he told me. "That leaflet is disgusting, and I don't want anything to do with it."

"It's a forgery," I replied trying to lighten the atmosphere. "It's just a dirty tricks campaign by the Labour Party and The Sun has been duped by it."

I should say here that Brian is not only a member of the Party but also donates each month via standing order. He attends local meetings and always signs our nomination papers. When the 2007 membership list was leaked, his name and address was featured on a rap video about the leaked list.

I spent the next half an hour trying to explain why we knew that the whole story was a hoax.

Brian had been to a meeting where Adam Walker had spoken and had been very impressed with him. On a Friday evening we had often discussed the Gurkha issue and had generally agreed that they should be at the top of the list of immigrants allowed to settle in Britain.

But he still wasn't convinced. So I drove home and picked up my copies of Freedom No 96 and 98 which carried reports on how the BNP had even raised money for the Gurkha Trust.

He read them carefully and said that he accepted they were true but couldn't understand why a national newspaper should tell lies:
"The Sun has a huge team of legal people who vet everything that goes in the newspaper. They wouldn't allow a mistake like this to be made," he told me.

Later, when at home and the report was removed from The Sun's website, I called Brian to tell him about it, but he wasn't impressed.

"Yes, but it is still in my newspaper," was his reply.

Yesterday morning Brian called me early:
"I've been through the newspaper cover-to-cover and there's no retraction. In fact there's another story attacking the BNP."

I told him it was just another smear story but felt depressed that he still had such faith in The Sun.

Then, yesterday afternoon, came the statement from Joanna Lumley and the Justice for the Gurkhas organisation.

I printed it off and rushed it up to Brian. He looked unconvinced at the printing on a plain A4 sheet of paper. I had an idea that this might happen so I gave him the number of the Gurkha organisation and he called it and verified their statement.

Brian tore up his letter of resignation there and then and said that he would give The Sun a week to print an apology for the story and if it didn't appear he would change his newspaper.

OK, that's a long story to start this blog off with this morning, but it is an important one. If you don't have access to the internet then you have to take what the newspapers say at face value. We must do everything we can to make sure that a printed apology appears in any newspaper that tells lies about us.

Yesterday at ten past two, I delivered a copy of Freedom and a postal vote leaflet to a house on Eskdale Crescent in Moorclose in Workington. It was our last postal voter delivery. In the past two and a half weeks we have put out 6,000 copies of Freedom to specific addresses in seven wards in the borough of Allerdale. As well as that, over 20,000 Euro leaflets and Nick Griffin letters have been delivered.

Now we are waiting for our candidate cards to arrive and if the printer keeps his promise they should be here tomorrow.

I would like to thank all those that played a role in their production. Charlie for the superb design, the Print Factory for slotting us in as a priority job (see Freedom for their advert) and most of all, Derek and Gina and the Sherwood bandits for their generous donation that made it all possible.

The candidate cards are simplicity itself and almost non-political. This is deliberate. Politicians are totally discredited at the moment so we wanted to focus on the individuals standing for the BNP rather than a load of political statements.
Homes in the seven wards we are contesting have already had two quite heavy political leaflets from us as well as two political letters and two-fifths of homes have had a copy of Freedom. People have had enough of policies.

This is the sort of simplicity I'm talking about.




I shall feature a candidate card each day to add a bit of colour to the blog.

Immune to the worst expenses abuse

LET'S start with a photo of Gary Tumulty, the British National Party candidate in Thursday's Irwell & Riverside local council by-election in Salford, on the doorstep accepting another pledge of support.

Gary reports that the opposition have really turned up the heat in the past seven days resorting to all sorts of underhand tactics. They had the same strategy in the Moston by-election in Manchester last month, with three anti-BNP leaflets in the last week of the campaign, but Derek Adams was still able to comfortably take 2nd place. In Salford we are looking for 12% of the vote and to finish in front of UKIP.

Some people claim that the media's campaign against us is only our persecution complex and just a figment of our imagination. I think the events of the last 24 hours prove that it is nothing of the sort.

The Sun's shocking lies about Adam Walker yesterday sunk to new depths. Thankfully Adam is being back by the Solidarity trade union and they issued a statement on his behalf.

"Mr Adam Walker, lead candidate for the British National Party in the North-East region, slammed his political opponents for producing a 'fake' leaflet. Purporting to come from the BNP the forgery opposed the settlement of Gurkhas in the U.K.
"Mr Walker said "As a former soldier I have the utmost regard for the Gurkhas who have served loyally in the British army for nearly 200 years. I back the campaign to allow ex-servicemen to live here. This offensive leaflet has not been produced by me or the BNP."
"He declared "Press reproductions of the leaflet show it is of poor quality and bears no imprint or personal details. It is clearly a forgery designed by opponents desperate to stem our advance. We have no proof it has even actually been distributed yet the Sun chose to run a highly defamatory article without even contacting me for comment. The Sun, either willingly or otherwise, has been duped. I demand an immediate apology and retraction together with a substantial payment in damages".
"Other more responsible newspapers such as the Northern Echo contacted Mr Walker before running the story and published his denial of having anything to do with the alleged 'leaflet' and his strong backing for the Gurkhas."

But there has been another equally revealing report this morning, "England World Cup bid embarrassed by BNP man's presence" - you can read the report in today's Guardian here.

Richard Barnbrook was elected to the London Assembly by the votes of Londoners. So what what the report is really saying is that England World Cup bid is embarrassed by the political choice of the capital's electorate. Doesn't that really say everything about the contempt in which the media and the establishment hold the British people.

Richard was one of of only four London Assembly members who bothered to attend - now that lack of interest and support is not just embarrassing but very revealing.

I have received a lot of emails from people who tell me that my polling information is wrong. Well, it could be, but I think it's best to ignore the polls for the next ten days until things start to settle down and expenses scandal has run it's course.

The Daily Telegraph is stringing the saga out much too long and this risks that the worst abuses, which it is presumably saving till last, will fail to get the publicity they deserve because everyone will be immune to feeling any further disgust.

There's a poll for Sky News this morning which has us on 9.6%, but any poll that has the discredited UKIP on 19% must be flawed.

Freedom came under fire in one of our local newspapers, so I have sent this letter in response. The Times & Star, (where the Mike Bird's letter appeared) is just like the News & Star and the Cumberland News and has an anti-BNP stance. They don't publish our letters or ever ask for a comment from the BNP. Instead they just print anti-BNP stories and tell their readers at every opportunity not to vote BNP.

So rather than let my letter go to waste I shall print it here.

MIKE Bird's claim (Letters 15th May) that the British National Party's monthly newspaper Freedom is "a rag that makes the Daily Mail's position look all bleeding heart liberal" tells me one thing - he never read it.
I expect he didn't want his preconceived notions of the BNP challenged, so the newspaper went straight into his recycling bin.
As the editor of Freedom, and a candidate for Moss Bay in the county council elections, I do agree with Mike that my newspaper is very different from the Daily Mail. That newspaper promotes Tory values while Freedom campaigns on traditional Old Labour policies.
Articles calling for the care of the elderly taken out of the hands of the private sector, workers given a share in the profit of their labour, our troops brought back from Afghanistan, nationalisation of the banks, help for small businesses and farmers and a call to celebrate our Christian heritage, can all be found in the latest edition of Freedom.
These are the issues that matter to the British people and which the British National Party campaign on.
Martin Wingfield,
Editor of Freedom,
British National Party candidate for Moss Bay,
No. 2 on the BNP list for the North West Region.

We dodged the showers yesterday and delivered Freedom to 500 postal voters in the Moorclose ward in Workington. Today will be our last day on postal voters. Fingers-crossed on Thursday morning, our 35,000 especially designed candidate cards arrive, and then it will be all systems go to get them out to voters.

Stay focussed!

An horrendous smear in The Sun this morning. A bogus British National Party leaflet made up by our opponents who then claim it has been put out by the BNP.

Hopefully The Sun will come clean and admit that it has been duped, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Such tactics just show how low the Labour Party will sink, but 'the truth will out' and voters, when they find out they are being manipulated in such a way, will react accordingly.

As I said to our people in the audience at the press conference to launch our North West and Yorkshire campaigns for the European Elections:
"Stay focussed. Don't worry about what the opposition is doing or saying, just concentrate on doing your job properly."

The media is a distorted mirror. It claims to show what is happening but it doctors its message to suit the agenda of its financial backers and its editors. Polls are exactly the same. The way the question is asked dictates the response given.

A by-election in Salford on Thursday will give a much clearer picture as to the voting intentions of the electorate on June 4th.

We need to be looking for a 12% vote share and to finish in front of UKIP. The polls at the moment stay that can't happen, because they have UKIP on 17% and the BNP on just 4%.

Thursday will be an interesting exercise to see whether the reality of actually going out and voting gives the same result as that claimed by the pollsters.

Here are the candidates.
Salford Council
Irwell Riverside
MOLD, Matt (The Labour Party)
MIDDLETON, Steven Ian (Liberal Democrats)
BATES, Chris (Conservative Party)
TUMULTY, Gary (British National Party)
O'DWYER, Duran Benjamin (UK Independence Party)
MITCHELL, Rob (Green Party)
2008 result Lab 888 LibDem 337 Con 286 BNP 233

Hitting the postal voters again today and then by tomorrow we are very hopeful that the process will be finished.

UPDATE 3.20PM.

Don't let The Sun get away with its lies about the BNP. Follow these guidelines.

The first step is to go the Press Complaints Commission website complaints form, which you can find by CLICKING HERE

Once on that page, fill in your name, address and contact details, so that the PCC can inform you of the progress of your complaint.

You can cut and paste the information you need directly from here into the form:

In the part asking for Newspaper/magazine, type in: The Sun

In the Publication Date space, type in the following date: Monday 18th May 2009

For the headline, insert the words: Lumley: BNP sickos slur hero Gurkha

The Internet link to the article is HERE

In the section marked "Please explain how you believe the Code of Practice has been breached. Which specific clause(s) of the Code are you complaining under?" please insert the following comment:

The Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice clause 1 reads as follows:
"Accuracy. i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures."

The disgusting leaflet that the Sun refers to has NOT been distributed by Adam Walker or anyone else within the British National Party. The Sun did not even contact the British National Party to verify whether the leaflet is genuine.
I demand a full written reply to my complaint. I wish to see The Sun print a full retraction and apology

UPDATE 4.30pm

I have just written to the Gurkha Justice campaign and sent them two pages from Freedom that were published last year.

The pages contained these articles. Rather ironic that Adam Walker is featured in the second one.

Waiting for Cruddas

THERE is not much worthy of comment in this morning's newspapers apart from an hysterical attack on the BBC from Searchlight.

This is the offering from Jane Merrick in The Independent.

"The BBC was last night plunged into a row over claims of "disgraceful" bias in favour of the British National Party.
"Anti-fascist campaigners Searchlight launched a formal complaint with BBC director general Mark Thompson after a series of broadcasts which, the organisation said, broke strict election rules on impartiality. Searchlight said the BBC was claiming the BNP were the main beneficiaries of the "anti-politics" sentiment caused by the MPs expenses scandal, when in fact the UK Independence Party and the Greens were ahead of the far-right party in the polls.
"A BBC spokesman said the corporation "is obliged to treat all political parties... with due impartiality" and said the BBC "strongly contest" Searchlight's allegations."

Apparently Searchlight issued instructions telling all media outlets to carry a report that the BNP weren't the beneficiaries of the disenchantment with establishment politicians. The BBC was a little tardy in its response so hence the broadside.

Also worth noting is this from The Observer:

"The PoliticsHome poll found that of the 27% of voters now prepared to defect from their current party, 28% will back Ukip, 16% the BNP and 15% the Greens. More than eight in 10 voters wanted MPs caught abusing expenses deselected."

Sky News has been disappointingly anti-BNP in its coverage. In the last 48 hours, the BNP prospects have been discussed on numerous occasions by the likes of Weyman Bennett from the Socialist Workers Party, a spokesman from Respect as well as Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem local party workers. They all are given a green light to say what they like about the British National Party but there's never any response allowed from the BNP itself.

Sky News even admitted yesterday evening that the BNP had been in Bury with a loudspeaker van but it was deliberately not showing it!

While the media, Searchlight and the establishment chosen pollsters desperately try to create another UKIP surge similar to 2004, the reality on the ground is very different.

A Freedom and literature stall in Whitehaven yesterday was literally swamped, while the Labour MP Jamie Reed, turned up with a Labour stall, took a few photos, and then disappeared all within 30 minutes and well before it had started to get busy.

Bill Pugh, one of our Copeland candidates, reported that there were people in Whitehaven walking around with 'Vote BNP' posters snapped up from our stall under their arm whilst they did the shopping.

Many thanks to Derek and Gina Butler and the Sherwood Bandidts for their generous donation to the Allerdale election address appeal. It was so generous that we are helping out our colleagues in Carlisle and Copeland as well. Let's hope we can deliver the results in Cumbria that reward their financial faith in us and we shake the political status quo in this far flung corner of England to its core.

This was my contribution to the North West European Election campaign launch on Thursday in Manchester. It could be a collector's item as I have more than done my stint of public speaking and only get wheeled out for specific occasions such as this one.

And finally correspondence from Steven Dunkin with regard to the expenses scandal. He's concerned that there's still one MP missing from the list of those exposed!

"I have seen no reference of Jon Cruddas in relation to' noses in the trough' coverage in the Establishment media.
"I suspect that this might be because he is regarded as a media lovvie to be treated with kid gloves because of his attacks on the BNP.
"It appears that despite the fact he has a house in his constituency of Dagenham, a mere 15 miles from Westminster, he is also claiming £23,000 Taxpayer funded housing allowance in 2007/8 and no doubt continues to do so.
"The accommodation is a private portered block called Matlock Court, in Kensington Park Road Notting Hill Gate W11 opposite the private Ladbroke Square in which I regularly see a remarkable look-a-like walking on sunday mornings, which puts me off my tennis.
"From what I have read he sends his son to Cardinal Vaughn , an exclusive Roman Catholic school in Holland Park, and the move to this flat may have been to facilitate entry to this school.
"One wonders why he did not consider a diverse school in Dagenham ?
"The area is home to Lord Stansgate (Tony Benn), Lord Sainsbury, Lord Lamont (the former Tory Chancellor failure) and round the corner from a £2 million house (Lansdowne Road) that is occupied at taxpayers expense by a Somali family that featured in the London Evening Standard.
"Enquiries advise that his wife also works and therefore I suggest that their combined incomes pay for the exclusive flat and not the taxpayer.
"A bespoke 'noses in the trough flyer' relating specifically to the Cruddas rip-off distributed in the area would put frighteners through the liberal establishment some of whom would choke on their croissants, but could get an interesting reception as the Notting Hill Carnival, makes life hell for residents every August."

Updated at Mid-day:
This offering appeared quite late on the The Telegraph website this morning. Apparently in its original form it was quite an objective article, but under pressure Sunday Telegraph editors had to toughen it up quite considerably to avoid the the tirade of complaints from the Old Gang leaders and Searchlight.

Pakistan calling . . . Pakistan calling . . .

"The fascists of the British National Party (BNP) are a threat to everyone. But they are particularly dangerous for Muslims living in this country."

So says the Pakistan Daily which presumably must be a newspaper for Pakistanis living in Britain. You can read the report here and when you have finished that one, there's another one from the same newspaper here

Dare I suggest that the "threat to everyone" posed by Pakistani Muslims is far more serious as the London tube and bus bombings have illustrated and that Pakistani Muslims are "particularly dangerous" to BNP members as Keith Brown found out at the cost of his life.

Life after Malik begins today and it's a sunny morning in Cumbria in celebration. I find it ironic that the former Justice Minister who skillfully manipulated the media to futher his career should be brought down by that same media.

When I was campaigning in Burnley in 2002, I met an ambulance man who was with Malik when he was allegedly hit by a police baton during the Burnley Riots a year earlier. He told me that Shahid would not allow his wound to be treated until the media had photographed it. It was a good move on his part because it was those pictures that propelled him on to the national political stage.

Malik blamed a "media feeding frenzy" of bias and poorly researched reports for his downfall and I can sympathise with him on this. Take a look at what the British National Party has had to put up with this morning.

A BNP vote is a big mistake

Posties in storm over BNP leaflet

BNP hope perfect storm will sweep them to power

BNP could be at heart of Far right EU group

British pensioners on BNP leaflets are Italian models

The last two reports are from the Daily Telegraph and a long time, non-political, friend who works on that newspaper says to expect more of the same as long as the expenses scandal keeps on rolling on. He told me yesterday:

"Every single exposed MP has used the "your boosting the BNP" argument when trying to persuade us not to publicise their particular abuses of the expenses system.
"All three party leaders have been on to the editor using the same argument in an attempt to get us to finish the story quickly and not to drag it out.
"The anti-BNP stories are part of a sop to Brown & Co. as is the promotion of a blog attempting to discredit the BNP."

Now I'm quite pleased to hear this. In a way it is good news.

Yesterday's YouGov poll and quite a few political commentators are indicating that we are not benefiting from the Expenses Scandal and that disillusioned voters are turning to UKIP. That's certainly not what our activists have been reporting, or it seems now, the activists of the three main parties, as my friend at The Telegraph reveals.

Last night as Tina and I sat down for drink after a quite manic week. We watched the fall of Malik on Sky News and then discussed the whole expenses saga. Surprisingly we were both of the same opinion.

We rather it hadn't happened!

Some might find this attitude astounding, but we have come to this conclusion because of the voter volatility it has caused.

Without the expenses scandal, the BNP was quietly working towards having three MEPs elected on June 4th. It would have taken a political earthquake to stop us winning in the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands . . . and now, of course, that is exactly what has happened.

Softly, softly . . . it's Shahid Malik

NOTICE anything different in the media's, especially the BBC's, coverage of the expenses scandal this morning?

For the past ten days, The Sun has been putting pig snouts on those MP's caught with their fingers in the public purse . . . but not this morning. I wonder why.

Lots of worried emails already over UKIP's 15% YouGov poll showing. Don't worry, is my advice.

Such polls will only go to rattle the Tories and prompt them into using their substantial media clout to expose UKIP for what it really is - a divided Party whose MEPs are even worse than the Old Gang MPs currently under the spotlight.

If you are still worried, maybe getting out and doing some extra campaigning might help you feel better, that's what I shall be doing.

I'm quite happy with our poll showings, because I know that the last thing the vast majority of our voters want to do is to tell complete strangers on the telephone or in the street how they intend to vote.


What a good press conference yesterday in Manchester. As I told the my four colleagues who travelled down with me in my car yesterday, I have attended in excess of 40-odd press conferences in my time in politics and for 90% of those not a single member of the press bothered to turn up. What a difference yesterday with all the main players in attendance.

I felt some sympathy with Mike McCarthy from Sky News. We know from his reporting that he particularly dislikes the BNP, yet yesterday he stoically lasted out the full press conference. I wonder whether he really listens to what is being said, and I wonder whether his entrenched view of the BNP shifts just ever so slightly as he witnesses the clearly changing face of our Party.

The weather is pretty grim up here this morning but that mustn't get in the way of our election schedule. Still on the postal voters today, but we coming to the end of this time-consuming but vital exercise. I think we will be finished by Tuesday which is well in time for the postal ballot papers which go out on May 22nd. As I have said before, if we can just dent Labour's massive superiority in the postal vote count, it will all have been worthwhile. In 2007 in Allerdale it was a definite 95% to 5% in Labour's favour - I'm hoping we might have reduced that to 80% to 20%, and we shall have some idea of how we have done when the postal votes start being opened on May 25th.

And finally something for those nationalist political history buffs. Yesterday lunchtime I met up with Andrew Brons for the first time in over twenty years. It was also the first time that Nick, Andrew and I had been together in the same room since a National Front directorate meeting held at our Pawsons Road Head Office in Croydon in May 1986.

Going into that meeting I had been the chairman of the National Front and Andrew a member of the directorate. Coming out of that meeting 40 minutes later neither of us were even members of the Party and Nick was the new NF chairman!

Such were days of British nationalism in the 1980s. Who would have believed that the three of us would still be here, on the verge of our long-awaited breakthrough into the political mainstream, some 23 years later.

Three weeks today . . .

IT'S the official launch of the British National Party's European campaign in the North West today, so a hold has had to be put on our campaigning in Allerdale as we shall be hot-footing it down the M6 to attend.

It was a very competent BNP TV broadcast last night which will certainly resonate with the public, and hopefully sign up a significant number of new members.

A fair report on Radio 4's Today programme this morning at 7.13pm on the BNP's chances in the North West and focussing on Hazel Blears's Salford constituency. There was a very professional performance from Eddie O'Sullivan, our Salford organiser, who got all his points across very well indeed. You can listen again to the report here.

Locally yesterday we delivered copies of Freedom to postal voters in Broughton Moor in our Maryport West electoral division and then in the afternoon to postal voters in High Harrington and Harrington in Workington.

The weather has been brilliant here in Cumbria over the past two days so many people have been out in their gardens when we have called to deliver the newspaper. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and in over a week of campaigning, I have had just three negative reactions.

One lady almost had a fit and went into shock when I handed Freedom to her, but two other gentlemen just refused to take, and I did sense a resignation in their attitude, it was almost as if they expected that the only campaigners out and about would have to be the BNP.

On that theme of an attitude of resignation, do I sense this too in the Mirror's daily anti-BNP rant this morning. What do you think?

The info for all seven election addresses is now with our graphic designer and these will hopefully be with the printer by the end of the week. We are nearly ready to start delivering them and with around 3,500 homes in each electoral division that's 24,500 letterboxes to hit before June 4th.

If there are any readers of this blog in Workington, Maryport or Wigton who would like to help us in this work, then please call Paul Stafford on 0783-700-1465.

Lovely story from further afield to finish off with today.

My colleague John Ryde wrote to me . . .

"I see from your blog, Martin, that you faced the trials and tribulations of getting nominations.
 "Not that we in Leicester would wish to rub it in, but one evening, door to door and including a 20-25 mile round trip, I completed a full nomination paper in one and a half hours. Gloat, gloat.
 "But the real story was that I visited a new member for the first time to get his signature . His name is George and he joined us at the ripe old age of 90. (Life membership for over 75's?)
He then proudly showed me his medals and told me a little of his very eventful life in the Navy during the war (Dunkirk, Arctic Convoy, Tirpitz, D day etc). Hopefully after the election with his consent I will do a feature for Freedom.
 It brightened up my day, hardened my resolve, and yes I did shed a little tear and gave thanks that people like George at his age were now prepared to join our ranks."

George and his medals.

Guess what Harriet and Eric decided!

IT'S difficult not to get cross when you see the Old Gang Parties and their anti-BNP acolytes manipulating the media.

Last night on Channel 4 News, a rather frightening looking individual from Searchlight announced, out of the blue, that voters were showing their anger at the abuse of the MP's expenses system by switching their support to UKIP and not the BNP. He then went on to suggest that the level of BNP support was now lower that it was in 2004!

Interviewer Jon Snow let both statements go unchallenged.

Then, in this morning's Daily Express, we have another report saying that disillusioned voters are turning to UKIP rather than the BNP. You can read here what Labour insiders are claiming!

And, of course, late yesterday afternoon Lord Tebbit suggested that the public should punish MPs from all the main parties by voting for UKIP at the Euro-Elections.

So just like five years ago, suddenly UKIP is being talked up again . . . I wonder why?

Could it have anything to do with the meeting that took place yesterday morning between Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman and Eric Pickles of the Tories? A meeting to decide on a specific cross-party strategy to try to stop the British National Party getting MEPs elected on June 4th.

Thankfully not all journalists are swallowing the bait.

UKIP is the most corrupt of all the political parties. Its percentage of crooked MEPs makes even Labour, the Tories and Lib-Dems look squeaky clean.

As Fiona Hamilton points out in today's issue of The Times:


"However, the party is itself vulnerable on the issue of politicians’ expenses, given that Ashley Mote, a UKIP MEP, was imprisoned in 2007 for falsely claiming £65,000 in welfare benefits. Last month another UKIP MEP, Tom Wise, was charged with false accounting and money laundering over allegations that he misused nearly £40,000 in expenses.
You can read the full report here.

We are quite excited this morning as the BNP's Euro leaflet is expected to be delivered. Yesterday while we were out and about we could see both The Greens and UKIP's leaflets on the door mat. Tonight there is the first of our two television broadcasts.

Thoroughly enjoyable day yesterday with 500 postal voters in Harrington, Clifton and Stainburn receiving a copy of Freedom and another 1000 plus British jobs for British workers leaflets put out. Off to Maryport West this morning, and then back to finish off High Harrington this afternoon.

And finally a nice bit off gossip from the ward I'm contesting, Moss Bay. Over the weekend Barbara Cannon, the leader of the Labour group on Cumbria County Council and one of my opponents, went to see the ward's most respected community campaigner.

"I hope I can count on your vote," says Barbara.

"No, I'm afraid, you can't," came the swift reply. "This time I shall be voting for the British National Party."

Our Magnificent Seven

Stephen Stoddart, Tina Wingfield, Paul Stafford.
Glen Brew, Martin Wingfield, Carl Edgar, Vince Richardson.

A SINGLE telephone call at twenty past two yesterday afternoon has transformed our election campaign here in Allerdale.

Derek Butler from Newark was on the other end of the line and he, along with wife Gina and a group of friends called the Sherwood Bandits, were calling to pledge to underwrite any shortfall in our Allerdale Election Appeal, allowing us to go ahead straight away and order an election address for each our seven candidates.

It is a magnificent gesture and I'm hoping that they won't be too much out of pocket. The Appeal to date has raised £200. If you can help us with a donation it would be very gratefully received and help 'soften the blow' on what Derek and Gina have to find. Please make your cheque payable to British National Party and send to The Secretary, PO Box 107, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 0YA. Please make sure you state that the donation is for the Allerdale Election Appeal.

The campaign is now in full swing with the release of the candidates by Cumbria County Council yesterday morning.

This is our battleground:

Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Allan Caine (Liberal-Democrat)
Robert Hardon (Conservative)
Marjorie Rae (Labour)
Vincent Richardson (British National Party)

Maryport East
Keith Little (Labour)
John Stanyer (Conservative)
Tina Wingfield (British National Party)

Maryport West
Bill Cameron (Labour)
Carl Edgar (British National Party)
Jacqueline Mounsey (Conservative)
John Peel (Independent)
John Rivers (Liberal Democrat)

Moorclose
Glen Brew (British National Party)
Gerald Humes (Labour)
Denis Robertson (Independent)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Conservative)

Moss Bay
John Bracken (Independent)
Barbara Cannon (Labour)
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat)
Judy Prest (Conservative)
Martin Wingfield (British National Party)

St Johns
Michael Davidson (Conservative)
Joe Holliday (Labour)
Stephen Stoddart (British National Party)

Wigton
Joe Cowell (Conservative)
John Crouch (Labour)
Paul Stafford (British National Party)

Yesterday Paul Stafford and Stephen Stoddart started leafleting Moss Bay ward where I'm standing at 10.00am. At 5.00pm they had just finished.

I was on postal vote duty drawing up the final two lists for Harrington, Stainburn and Clifton and Moor Close. Delivering Freedom and relevant postal voter leaflets to these 1000+ addresess is our priority over the next few days. What a relief when these are out of the way.

Desperate Labour lies

Can you believe this?

It's a sign of desperation on behalf of Labour that it has turned on its most loyal of allies, the BBC. Obviously I'm upset that the Daily Mail has reported that I was "imprisoned", when in reality I was fined and then chose to go to prison myself in order to make a political point.

But what is even more bizarre and has no doubt left BBC executives scratching their heads this morning, is that I didn't even appear in the Newsnight programme. It is shocking reporting by the Daily Mail to publish such Labour Party propaganda without even checking the facts.

I would have liked to publish our candidates and wards for Allerdale this morning but as it's not yet in the public domain why give our opponents the inside track? We are out this morning leafleting an electoral division in Workington and then tomorrow it's back to postal voters in another electoral division in Workington.

If I may, I would like to mention our Allerdale Election Appeal again and will do so each day this week. We are hoping to have a full colour election address for all our seven wards. It's £160 per leaflet which makes our target £1,120. It's a daunting total but the appeal got off to a promising start yesterday when Steve Johnson handed over a cheque for £50, as he left after staying the weekend with us. Then last night I got a call from Paul Stafford who said that Matthew had driven over from Workington and donated £150 after reading about the appeal that afternoon.

So now there's just £920 to go. If you can help I can guarantee your money will be put to good use. Please send your donation to: The Secretary, PO Box 107, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 0YA and make your cheque payable to the British National Party. Please make it clear that the donation is for the Allerdale BNP Election Appeal.

Thank you for your help.