Ready for the General Election year

BEST WISHES for 2010, a year that will hopefully see further electoral progress for the British National Party.

No posts during December for very good reasons. My visit to Cockermouth just after the floods brought home the magnitude of what had happened. When you see the reality of people's homes and businesses virtually destroyed, words seem frivolous.

Updating my blog seemed trivial to say the least - especially with talk of politics and policies when the constituency where I am standing has been split in two by the loss of the two bridges that connect Northside, Seaton, Flimby and Maryport to the main town of Workington.

There's been a lot of gossip about what took place and just how a torrent of water was able to take out the main Workington bridge which had stood for nearly 100 years. It's important to fact find before pointing any fingers, and that's what I and my team will be doing in the run-up to the General Election.

Although, I wasn't blogging, I was busy with a trip to Brussels for some training and then a week in Strasbourg as the Parliamentary Assistant to Andrew Brons. This was a fascinating few days, researching for the numerous votes that were taking place, helping Andrew prepare for two speeches he made in the European Parliament and attending a meeting of European nationalists where I met Jean Marie Le Pen, his daughter Marine and the impressive Bruno Gollnish.

Below is a photo of us in Andrew's Strasbourg office, preparing for around 30 different votes on the Thursday morning.



The weather has been playing havoc here in West Cumbria and the rest of the North of England. When returning home from Strasbourg my eldest daughter met me at Leeds Bradford Airport. On the trip home there was a blizzard and we got stranded, first along the A1 and then on the A66. Despite landing just after 9.00pm, we didn't get home till three in the morning.

Then two days later I met my other daughter, returning from university in France, at Newcastle Airport. Here again we got caught in a blizzard on the way home and were trapped for an hour on the A69 because cars were unable to get up the hill at Haltwhistle. There were incredible scenes with cars sliding all over the road and others trying to climb the hill via the central reservation.

Here in Wigton we have been frozen solid for the festive week. Pavements are lethal and venturing out in the car takes ten minutes of preparation because of frosted windscreens. Very little football with Workington Reds not having played since a victory over Nuneaton saw us through to the next round of the FA Trophy. The next outing is due to be at Blyth on New Year's Day, but reports from Croft Park say the pitch is still frozen.