Neil's starting early for the Euros

MANY thanks to Somerset organiser Andy Bamford for this photo of Monday's meeting in Wells. A record collection of nearly £600 will help with the county council and European Election campaigns in the region.

Not much in the newspapers today but you mind find these of interest.

Hodgkinson is up to his usual tricks in this morning's Cumberland News. You can read the report here. If you want further information on his particular political bias just Google "Neil Hodgkinson and BNP" to discover more on the "impartiality" of the editor-in-chief of Cumbria's local newspapers. Some of his quotes while in charge at the Yorkshire Post are quite enlightening.

This is interesting, here, in today's Financial Times. Mainstream parties agreeing not to discuss immigration in these elections . . . and they think this strategy will make inroads into BNP support!

Great news in the Basilidon Recorder. Full BNP slate in Essex here!

I did my first TV interview of the campaign yesterday. A taped interview for the North West Politics Show, which will be screened on Sunday 24th May. It was filmed in the car park behind the Radio Cumbria offices.

I was asked three questions and had to give a 20 second response on BNP policy. It went something like this:

Question: What is the BNP policy on immigration and workers rights?

"The British National Party would stop all further immigration into Britain. Illegal immigrants, bogus asylum seekers and foreign nationals in our prisons would be sent back to their own countries.
The economy under a British National Party Government would be made up of British and state owned companies employing British workers in British factories. There would be no place for the off-shoring of our jobs to Eastern Europe or the Far East, or for the importation of cheap foreign labour to undercut the wages of British workers."

Question: What is the BNP policy on the environment and agriculture?

"The carbon footprint left by the global economy as goods are transported across the world is the biggest environmental threat and we would play our part in reducing this by striving for self sufficiency within Britain where all the goods, food and services our people need are made, produced and provided in Britain.
We need our farmers to produced the bulk of the food we need. The BNP believes the future of agriculture lies with small family-own farms rather than the vast agri-busibness combines. Farmers must be paid a fair price for their produce and that would mean the break-up of the supermarket monopoly on purchasing."

Question: How does the BNP feel about the European Union:

"Britain must leave the European Union at the first opportunity and all decision effecting Britain and the British people must be made in Westminster and not in Brussels.
The first job for elected BNP MEPs will be to lobby for the reintroduction of border controls between all European countries to stem the tide of bogus asylum seekers and refugees heading across the continent to Britain."

I was delivering Freedom to postal voters in Maryport when I got the call for the interview. If I did that afternoon in Carlisle it would save a trip to Manchester next week so I hot-footed to the Radio Cumbria studios. Thankfully I was given the questions beforehand which allowed some mental preparation on the journey.

OK result in Hartlepool yesterday. I'm certainly happy with 12.5% of the vote in the only ward that UKIP had a chance of winning in the North of England. UKIP had to win this one and they failed miserably with its vote going down despite spending a small fortune on the contest and bussing in campaigners from as far away as Staffordshire.

This was the full result:
Hartlepool Borough Council
Rossmere Ward
Thursday 7th May 2009
Christopher AKERS-BELCHER (Labour Party Candidate) 532
Dave PASCOE (UK Independence Party) 300
Pamela TURNEDGE (Liberal Democrat) 166
Cheryl DUNN (British National Party) 157
Ray POCKLINGTON (Conservatives) 102
BNP Percentage: 12.5%
May 2008: Lab 488, UKIP 373, LibDem 291, Con 197.

Just to underline the mentality of UKIP, guess which is the one seat they are contesting in the Copeland District of the Cumbria County Council elections. Why it's Kells & Sandwith . . . the very seat where last December the BNP slashed a Labour majority of over 1000 to just 16 votes. If anyone still believes that the Farage gang isn't just an establishment safety value kept alive to try to siphon votes off the BNP, then they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Off to Workington shortly for the postal vote campaign there. Great day yesterday in Maryport where all the postal voters in Maryport West were covered and a final few streets were leafletted to complete coverage with our first Euro leaflet. It was fine but windy yesterday, but this morning the rain has returned which will make our deliveries much more problematic.