Manchester here we come . . .

AFTER much deliberation, I think we will get to the City Hall in Manchester earlier rather than later so that Tina and I can see the count unfold for Manchester itself, which could hold the key to our success or failure to win a seat in the North West.

Sleepless night as I have figures swirling around in my head. My slight concern now is over our results in 2004.

I pulled out the July 2004 issue of Freedom last night and digested the results in full and on reflection some of them were very good indeed. In Blackburn, Bolton, Rochdale, Tameside and Stockport we polled some very, very good results and at this incredible tense time I would probable accept those sort of results again at this moment.

It's all on a knife edge in the North West and I wouldn't like to call it.

We have had the best British National Party campaign of all time, but that has been met by the most ferocious anti-BNP campaign in the media ever seen.

I go back once again to the scene from one of my favourite films, The Verdict, when lawyer Paul Newman making his final plea to the jury says:
"People have a great ability to see through things to find the truth."

I hope that has happened with regard to the media campaign against us.

Of course, it's not only the North West where we are in with a shout of a seat. Yorkshire still looks a serious possibility, especially after the County County results in our most poorly supported areas.

West Midlands looks very good too after the council results there although there are worries over our support in Birmingham, the largest population area, where BNP votes in the Euros were said to be 'hard to find'.

I have received complaints that my results presentation on our local elections was 'below the usual standard' so I will rectify that now:

Cumbria County Council
Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Thursday 4th June 2009
Marjorie Rae (Lab) 748
Robert Hardon (Con) 612
Allan Caine (Lib-Dem) 454
Vince Richardson (BNP) 251
BNP Percentage: 12.2%

Cumbria County Council
Maryport East
Thursday 4th June 2009
Keith Little (Lab) 904
Tina Wingfield (BNP) 328
John Stanyer (Con) 266
BNP Percentage 21.9%

Cumbria County Council
Maryport West
Thursday 4th June 2009
Bill Cameron (Lab) 628
John Rivers (Lib-Dem) 334
John Peel (Ind) 282
Carl Edgar (BNP) 259
BNP Percentage: 17.2%

Cumbria County Council
Moorclose
Thursday 4th June 2009
Gerald Humes (Lab) 591
Denis Robertson (Ind) 462
Eddie Woodthorpe (Con) 148
Glen Brew (BNP) 131
BNP Percentage: 9.8%

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay
Thursday 4th June 2009
Barbara Cannon (Lab)411
John Bracken (Ind) 277
Martin Wingfield (BNP) 130
Ian Francis (Lib-Dems) 104
Judy Prest (Con) 77
BNP Percentage: 13.0%

Cumbria County Council
St Johns
Thursday 4th June 2009
Joe Holliday (Lab) 759
Michael Davidson (Con) 563
Stephen Stoddart (BNP) 237
BNP Percentage: 15.2%

Cumbria County Council
Wigton
Thursday 4th June 2009
Joe Cowell (Con) 918
John Crouch (Lab) 651
Paul Stafford (BNP) 248
BNP Percentage 18.8%

Five years ago Tina and I arrived back in Cumbria after the European Election count at 4 o'clock in the morning tired, depressed and with the BNP facing extinction because of the challenge from UKIP and the fact the Party was bankrupt.

Five years on and we will definitely be exhausted when we arrive back home again at about the same time. Maybe we will be feeling depressed again, I don't know.

What is certain is that we won't be facing a challenge from UKIP once the European Elections are out of the way and that the British National Party is in the best shape possible both financially and in organisation, to take on the challenges of the next five years.

And finally a reason to be cheerful. This was posted on the Vote 2007 website by a Labour Party supporter just a few minutes ago.

"I happened to notice that there was a very high BNP turnout in Featherstone.
I happened to see a full bundle of 25 being counted and 21 of them were BNP. Because they were top on the slip I could see them all clearly. Baring in mind that this is a random bundle and no sorting had taken place.
Draw whatever conclusions you wish from it.
Doing as best as I could to get a flavour of how the vote might go, I think Labour have done very poorly. We looked quite good in our strong areas...Wrenthorpe, Horbury, West and so on."