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