Why our opponents inflate our prospects

YESTERDAY in the News of the World, Peter Hain followed the line previously taken by Labour MEP Glynn Ford a couple of weeks ago and warned that the British National Party could win SEVEN seats in the European Parliament on June 4th.

Our opponents are using this strategy of inflating the BNP's prospects for two reasons. Firstly, it is to motivate those who oppose the BNP to pull out all the stops to combat this proposed threat of seven MEPS. This of course means raising huge sums of money to fund the anti-BNP campaign and there's nothing like a bit of scaremongering to make people cough up more cash.

But the strategy of inflating our prospects is also targeted at the British National Party's own membership, in particular those members who are relatively new to our cause. By keeping talking about the BNP winning seven seats, they hope that it will become embedded in our members thinking. Then when the BNP just gets one MEP elected, our members will be disappointed and disillusioned instead of celebrating the huge breakthrough that we have just made. The hope is that this will ferment trouble within our ranks which will scupper our General Election effort the following year.

To the likes of Hain and Ford this might seem a good strategy, but there are many within the Labour Party calling it a much too dangerous game to play. That's because of the very nature of the European Elections. In the past, both the Greens and UKIP have made short term breakthroughs thanks to the proportional representation system used and that was because the chances of both parties were talked up in the media just prior to the elections.

Now Labour Party activists are warning that whenever the European Elections are discussed, the BNP's chances are always mentioned and that the two are becoming intrinsically linked. They are worried that scaremongering stories such as the one in the News of the World will actually help cement this BNP and European Election link and this could become set in the public's mind and lead to a BNP breakthrough.

Our advantage is that we aren't effected by what strategy our opponents decide on. We have a job to do and we must just keep our heads down and get on with it.

Thanks to the incredible hard work put in by our Battle for Britain roadshow, funding for our European Election campaign is rolling in and if the momentum is maintained we should just about be on target.

Thanks to the incredible hard work put in by those election teams who have contested local council elections this year, our results have put us on course to be in with a chance of winning a seat in the European Parliament in a number of regions.

And it's got to be more of the same for the next ten weeks, with no distractions engineered by our opponents, just hard work focused on getting the maximum BNP vote on June 4th.

Anti-BNP thugs at last being called to account

THE strategy of our opponents with regard to the European Elections has become a little clearer after a BBC Radio programme on Sunday.

I'm grateful to Caroline for the feeds.

The success of the BNP

What's driving the BNP

How to stop the BNP

It seems that British National Party chairman Nick Griffin, is the target. They are upping the stakes in the North West making it a do or die scenario on whether Nick makes it to the European Parliament. Note the prediction that Nick's leadership will be challenged if he fails to get elected.

It's a clear indication where they will be targeting all their efforts which might just play into our hands in Yorkshire and the East and West Midlands.

There's also another development which has taken place in recent weeks. In the past when our opponents targeted our venues to get our meetings cancelled, it went unreported and with no public concern voiced about their Stalinist tactics they were free to carry on with more of the same.

Take a look at this sent in by Elizabeth Lake:


It's a landlord speaking out about the intimidation he received at the hands of the UAF.

Then there's this report in the Leigh Journal.

Here even an anti-BNP protestor is condemning the thuggery of the UAF and the mindless violence it resorted to in the hammer attack on Tony Ward.

There's a shift taking place and the actions of the anti-BNP thugs are at last being called into question.

But this fact seems to have been lost on Labour's Roger Berry the MP for Kingswood in Bristol. When one of his constituents asked him if could could still support the UAF after the violent attack on a BNP member in Leigh, he responded:

"Of course I support Unite Against Fascism! It does not advocate violence, and nor do I."

Talk about being out of touch with reality!

Fine Ambassador

His was the first face I usually saw. He was always smiling and always immaculately dressed. It didn't seem to matter where the meeting or activity was - Carlisle, Maryport, Workington or Whitehaven, he was always one of the first people there . . .

But sadly no more. The untimely death of Nigel Williamson is a devastating loss to everyone who knew him. Nigel was a great team player and fine ambassador for the British National Party. His friend and political colleague Clive Jefferson, provides a moving tribute on his website: cumbrianpatriotbnp.blogspot.com

Nigel was working hard along with Clive, Brian Allan and our team in Carlisle for the local elections in May where the Party is hoping to have more candidates and secure a bigger share of the vote than we did in May last year. In recent weeks Nigel had been out leafletting and canvassing three times a week and the response on the doorstep had been even more enthusiastic than it was 12 months ago.

Everyone campaigning here in Cumbria will have in their minds that all our efforts for May 1st are now for the BNP and for Nigel - these local elections will be dedicated to his memory and I'm certain he will be looking down to see how we have fared.

There was a useful Advisory Council meeting yesterday where future plans for the Party were discussed in detail. Suffice to say after May 1st it will be all systems go for the European Elections and the 2009 local elections. Planning meetings start in June and the Summer School this year will have a whole day on maximising election performance.