Not a happy bunny!

I'm afraid I'm seething this morning.

I wake up to find the contents of this personal blog splashed over the main British National Party website. I AM LIVID!

I didn't post the report on the main website although the number of times the 'Wingfield' name appears in bylines gives the impression that I did.

I didn't authorise its posting on the main website.

I wasn't asked if it could appear on the main website.

If I had been approached I would have said 'No', at least not until it was re-written to make it suitable for a wider audience.

I am bitterly disappointed that my colleagues can act in such an unprofessional and inconsiderate manner.

What's all the fuss about I can sense you thinking.

Well, I write for both the main website, in my capacity as the editor of Freedom (now former) and as EU communications officer, and for the two MEP sites. When I contribute to them I am writing as a Party official and the reports and updates are penned in a different, more formal style.

When this blog is updated it is me personally speaking to you. I let my hair down a little and speak more from the heart about the issues that I think you might be interested in. I don't necessarily always follow the popular Party line on certain things and can do this because these are my personal thoughts which is why it's called Martin Wingfield's blog.

If I had wanted 'The Danger of Europe' on the main website I would have posted it there in the first place. I didn't want want to do that but rather moot these ideas on my personal blog first to see what the response was.

Politics is a minefield which is why I have to have sole responsibility on what I submit for publication and where it goes. I feel thoroughly let down this morning, like I have been mugged by a friend.

Back later when I've had a cup of tea and calmed down.

30 minutes later . . . .

Let me tie up this disappointing affair with an example of the difference of personal and Party.

A couple of weeks ago on this blog I acknowledged (please note the word, I didn't 'admire') the effort of Searchlight in trying to scupper our Euro Election effort. I'm a politician and I personally regard the opposition as political opponents despite the depths they might sink to in their campaigning against us.

When I'm standing on the terraces of Borough Park and the opposition playing my beloved Workington Reds have acquitted themselves well, I acknowledge their efforts. For me, it's the same with politics. In the European Elections our opponents lost and we won, but they still acquitted themselves well.

Needless to say my inbox was swamped within hours with people taking issue with me giving any credit at all to the Searchlight gang. I responded to most of them explaining that this was my personal view, and certainly not the Party line.

Now imagine if that post had been 'lifted' from my site and placed on the main BNP site.

As I said before I made my cup of tea, politics is a minefield, you have to tread so very carefully.

Anyone see The Observer this morning. A lovely photo which answers the media's favourite question of the moment to our spokesmen, "What do you mean by British?"


The caption is: 1936, Teacher Miss B. Casey coaches the boys from the football team in the school playground in Bradford, England.

As we all know, Bradford is a very different place today. Here's the accompanying article if you want to read it.

Although I have little interest in foreign politics I shall be watching the result from a municipal election this evening in the classic heartland of French socialism, Hénin-Beaumont. Here in the first round of voting, the Front National polled 40% of the vote more than 20% ahead of its nearest rival. Now it's a run-off between the FN and a single united opposition candidate.

If the Front National wins it will be running a municipal authority again for the first time in several years and for the first time in northern France.