So who's making the headlines this morning

LET'S start off with today's newspapers . . .

Tories and Labour both fear BNP surge - Daily Telegraph

Shock at BNP coin sticker - Sheffield Star

Labour disunity and the rise of the BNP - Daily Express

Tories to blame for BNP rise - Daily Mail

Anti-BNP campaign - Daily Mirror

Our final nomination papers go in this morning and then the campaign in Allerdale starts in earnest. But before that there's the small matter of taking delivery of 30,000 copies of Freedom which will arrive on a great big pallet some time today. They will have to be got indoors as soon as possible as it's bucketing down with rain here in Cumbria at the moment.

Tomorrow we start on the postal voters in Workington, delivering to them a copy of Freedom, a letter from Nick and a leaflet introducing the local candidates and briefing people on what smear leaflets to expect from the local Labour Party.

Fingers-crossed, it appears that Clive Jefferson might just have performed the impossible and come up with a full slate of candidates for Copeland. I can't tell you what an incredible performance this is considering our limited manpower in West Cumbria. There's more news on Clive's informative blog which can be found here.

Nasty smear leaflet about me put out in Manchester over the weekend claiming I was sent to prison for "race hate crimes". This is just another Labour lie.

For the record, I wasn't sent to prison and my appearance in court was nothing to do with "race hate crimes".

In 1983, in an election leaflet, I warned that immigration must be stopped because it was destroying British culture and the British way of life. A full year after that election leaflet had been put out, the authorities decided to prosecute me over it and I was found 'guilty' and fined £1,500.

On a matter of principle I refused to pay that fine and hence had to serve three months in Pentonville Prison including Christmas 1985.

On my first morning of incarceration I was visited by the Prison Governor who said that I was free to go anytime I liked if I paid the fine which would reduce in amount for each day I spent in prison. I told him that I was making a stand on behalf of those who felt the need to speak out on immigration issues and was duty bound to serve my full term.

I am very proud of what I did, and the Labour Party can can twist the truth and try to smear me all it likes. There's not one politician in its ranks today who would have the courage to do what I did, let alone come out and carry on the struggle, in the face of overwhelming odds, for another quarter of a century after that ordeal.

Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest . . . I feel much better now.