Norwich North - a bit of background

HERE'S a nice photo of the Reverend Robert West, the British National Party's candidate for the Norwich North by-election, to accompany a bit of background to the contest.

The constituency includes parts of two local government areas, Norwich and Broadland with the majority of the electorate in Broadland.

At the European Election these were the votes cast in Broadland

Conservative Party 11,647
UK Independence 8,117
Liberal Democrats 5,141
The Green Party 3,549
Labour Party 3,247
British National Party 1,864
BNP Percentage: 5.6%

and these were the votes cast in the City of Norwich.

The Green Party 9,039
Conservative Party 6,329
The Labour Party 6,045
Liberal Democrats 5,409
UK Independence Party 4,449
British National Party 1,686
BNP Percentage: 5.1%

We fought just the one county council election in the consistuency, and that was in Sprowston where the result was . . .

John Ward (Conservative Party 1123
Glenn Tingle (UK Independence Party) 663
Barbara Lashley (Labour Party) 593
Corinne Russen (Liberal Democrat) 564
James Dexter (Green Party) 298
Julia Howman (British National Party) 228
BNP Percentage: 6.6%

We shall be campaigning very hard to save our deposit and on the above results, we must be in with a chance.

I'm hoping that the new issue of Freedom, which goes to the printers tomorrow, will be used as a warm-up for the postal voters. The newspaper shows that the BNP are now winners - and big winners at that - and with all the publicity the Party has had since our 'Victory in Europe', I think our vote share will be on the increase.

The two unknowns are what will happen to the UKIP and the Green vote. The Greens don't usually perform too well in by-elections whether it's local council or Parliamentary. UKIP's European Election vote disappeared to nothing in domestic contests after their success five years ago and with all the internal disputes within the party at the moment I can't see it being any different this time around. Neither party saved their deposit in 2005.

This was the result then:

General Election 2005:
Ian Gibson (Labour) 21.097
James Tumbridge (Con) 15,638
Robin Whitmore (Lib-Dem) 7,616
Adrian Holmes (Green) 1,252
John Youles (UKIP) 1,122
Bill Holden (Ind) 308

I know that the Tories are concerned about UKIP and will be looking to try to discredit their prosepctive candidate by exposing his alleged past political affiliations.

12 months ago we fought an excellent mid-summer campaign in Henley for the parliamentary by-election there. We only polled 3.6% but because we beat Labour that news made the headlines. This time we could make the news again by saving our deposit.

I'll try and get some contact details today for anyone who wants to go to Norwich to help. It's a lovely area around there and could make an interesting holiday destination with a bit of campaigning thrown in for good measure.