Have the General Election on your mind

FIRST things first. Here are the initial contact details for the Norwich North by-election direct from one of the campaign's co-ordinators.

"Those wishing to contact us for offers of help for the by-election should do so by e-mailing norfolk@bnp.org.uk giving their name, address and telephone number. Accomodation can be provided for people fancying a working holiday."

Please make sure this information is as widely distributed as possible. Contacting the postal voters is a vital first task, so help with this is needed immediately.

We are still waiting for the Labour candidate who will selected on Sunday. The date of the election will be either the 16th or 23rd July if it is called in the next few days, otherwise it will be in October when Parliament returns after its summer break.

The Lib-Dems and the Greens are already having difficult media presentation problems. The stories doing the rounds are that April Pond was only her Party's third choice for the seat and that Green candidate Rupert Read has been branded an extremist by his opponents.

David Cameron visits Norwich today.

At the moment these are the names in the frame for the contest.

Thomas Burridge (Ind)
Bill Holden (Ind)
Craig Murray (Anti-Sleaze)
April Pond (Lib-Dem)
Rupert Read (Green)
Chloe Smith (Con)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP)
Robert West (BNP)

Just heard from Rob West - he's up and about early this morning - that Dave Fleming is his agent and campaign manager.

After Norwich North, and in less than eleven months from now, there will be a General Election and in any of the Parliamentary seats that come under the ten local authorities listed below, the British National Party will be a major player.

Barking & Dagenham 19.4% (14.8%)
Stoke-on-Trent 17.6% (22.0%)
Thurrock 17.5% (21.6%)
Barnsley 16.7% (18.7%)
Rotherham 15.4% (20.7%)
Havering 14.8% (26.9%)
Burnley 14.6% (14.8%)
NW Leicestershire 14.5% (16.3%)
Bolsolver 14.0% (14.8%)
Ashfield 13.5% (15.6%)

The list shows the vote share we gained in each of these authorities at the European Elections. It is, of course, well short of what is needed to win a seat at the General Election, but there is something else to factor into these returns.

It’s what I call the ‘disillusioned vote’, the support for the UK Independence Party in the European Election which could well all but disappear as it did five years ago after their similar spectacular Euro vote.

Some of this support (in the brackets above) will go back to the Tories from where it came, but the lion’s share will be up for grabs and the British National Party can capitalise on this.

In quite a few of the local authorities above, when the disillusioned vote is added to the BNP’s support, you have a vote share that is approaching 40% and in a well balanced contest where the three main parties are fully campaigning, that could well be be a winning percentage.

These are exciting times but the British National Party can only make further progress if the hard work for the General Election starts now.

In the Parliamentary constituencies where we know we can unnerve the three main parties we need to have the best candidate selected and in place as soon as possible, the campaign strategy needs to be planned and the work got under way.

After our European Election victories and our successes in the County Council elections we are on a ‘win/win’ footing for the General Election. No one expects us to win a seat under the first past the post system so we can give it all we have got and not lose any of our newly gained electoral credibility if we fall short of our goal.