Church intervention in the political process

I USED to get upset and depressed when church leaders attacked the political parties promoting British nationalism of which I was a member. This feeling was probably something to do with my strict Christian upbringing which meant that until I went to boarding school in 1962, I was hauled off to church every Sunday morning at 11.00 and sometimes back again for Evensong at 6.30pm.

But such criticism doesn't worry me any more and, in fact, as far as the British National Party is concerned in today's political climate, I welcome the intervention into the political process made this morning in the Northern Echo by the Bishop of Durham.

The newspaper reports:
"ONE of the Church of England's most senior clergymen last night issued a hard-hitting warning about the growing threat of far-right extremism resulting from voters "giving up hope" in mainstream politics.
In a rare move, the Bishop of Durham issued a rallying cry to North-East churches to join forces to thwart the British National Party (BNP) in the forthcoming local elections.
The Right Reverend Tom Wright, called for more to be done by political parties to stop the rise of the BNP.
In an open letter, the bishop said people could not afford to become complacent and his warning was endorsed by all the major political parties."

I don't know where the Northern Echo has been for the last five years in describing the church's interference in elections as "a rare move". Every May, and sometimes even for a particular local council by-election, the church issues the same message telling people not to vote for the BNP. It is old hat, this intrusion in the election process, and in recent years has had no other effect than to provide the BNP with some welcome publicity.

In the Northern Echo, the BNP's North East Secretary Ken Booth was given the opportunity to respond to the Bishop of Durham and said:
"This is not his place at all. He should be trying to regain his flock.
"While the bishop's banging on about how evil the BNP is, he is going to find out one day that there will be more practising Muslims going to mosques than any practising churches in Britain."

While in the Sunderland Echo, Sunderland BNP organiser Alan Brettwoood, who is standing as a candidate in Southwick in May's council election, said the bishop should stay out of politics and be more concerned with what's going on in the church.
"The election is a democratic process and it's really strange how religion is starting to intervene. Religion and politics are two totally different things," he said.
"The bishop is intervening in the political process by asking people not to vote for the BNP, he should be concentrating on what's happening in his own religion."
He added: "The press have always given us this bad image of being thugs and Nazis. We're not thugs, we're not Nazis, we're just ordinary, hard-working people that want the best for our country – what's wrong with that?"

This close to polling day, getting the chance to have some well chosen BNP responses so highly publicised can only raise the profile of our campaign.

I missed Dispatches on Channel 4 last night and I'm annoyed about it. I had completely forgotten it was on. I was greeted at six this morning by an 'inbox' full of praise for the programme and had a call from Nick Griffin just after eight who was enthusing over the advert for the series of three programmes on immigration. He said that the trailer of a bulldog in a park gradually getting swamped by foreign dogs was a powerful media image and we should look to use it to encourage debate on the controversial issue.

The Dispatches programme is an enigma. Two years ago it appeared to be for everything that a nationalist would oppose. Now its programmes almost have a nationalist script. One correspondent this morning said last night's programme could have easily been produced by BNPtv!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a story on the main website about a leaflet being distributed in Carlisle by a Labour Party front organisation called Carlisle against Racism and sponsored by the GMB trade union which claimed to show a photo of Nick Griffin doing a nazi salute. Well, now it appears that the leaflet has been withdrawn and Carlisle Against Racism have admitted that the photograph wasn't of Nick Griffin. This should be a newsworthy story for our local newspaper the News & Star. But the newspaper has shamelessly promoted this organisation and its meetings . . . so I won't be holding my breath waiting for its report.

Carlisle campaign: Just 37 days to go

It will be a sad day for British National Party members and supporters in Cumbria on Thursday when we attend the funeral of our colleague and friend Nigel Williamson.

On the evening before, there's a meeting of Allerdale BNP and although there was discussion that this should be postponed, it was decided that Nigel would have wanted it to go ahead, so it will take place as advertised  and the collection will be for Nigel's widow, Martine.

In one of last week's entries I mentioned the local elections in Carlisle on May 1st, and there's been quite a bit of correspondence regarding how we performed last time and if we can improve on this in five and a half weeks time.

In May 2007 these were the results:

Carlisle City Council
Belah Ward
Wayne Newton (BNP)96
BNP Percentage: 5.1%
Con 818, Lab 482, Ind 399, ED 96.

Botcheby Ward
Karl Chapple (BNP)217
BNP Percentage: 17.6%
Lab 618, Con 400.

Currock Ward
Brian Allan (BNP)309
BNP Percentage: 24.1%
Lab 571, Con 235, Lib-Dem 169.

Harraby Ward
David Fraser (BNP)262
BNP Percentage: 15.2%
Lab 776, Con 456, Lib-Dem 232.

St Adians Ward
Tony Carvell (BNP)200
BNP Percentage: 13.7%
Lab 750, 512.

Upperby Ward
Christine Williamson (BNP)168
BNP Percentage: 11.7%
Lab 677, Lib-Dem 371, Con 215.

As to our candidates and hopes this time around, please keep in check with Clive Jefferson's website at cumbrianpatriotbnp.blogspot I understand we will be contesting more than six wards this time around and that canvass returns in our target wards are already significantly up on last year.

Yesterday we had snow in Cumbria, and it was laying up on Shap as I made my way down the M6 to junction 28 and then on the country route to Southport for a crucial Conference North fixture.

It was an excellent day out as Reds secured a much-needed point against the promotion hopefuls. But as sometimes happens on these occasions there was some welcome political news at the game. I was approached by a West Cumbrian town councillor who told me that he and a number of his friends had "had enough" and are joining the BNP. He wanted details of meetings and how he could help so I briefed him over a cup of soup and a meat and potato pie at half time.

Labour demolition in Horsham

Brave Donna Bailey. Brian Allan opens the BNP meeting in Carlisle last night.

Congratulations to Donna Bailey and Horsham & Crawley BNP on an excellent result in the Holbrook West By-Election last night.

Full Result:

Belinda Walters (Lib-Dem) 602

Ronald Wimpany (Con) 554

Donna Bailey (BNP) 163

Raymond Chapman (Lab) 52

Turnout 32.2%

BNP Percentage 11.9%

It was the first time the BNP had contested the ward which last night became a Lib-Dem gain from the Tories. What was especially pleasing for the hard-working BNP team, was their comprehensive demolition of Labour. Its candidate devoted the whole of his campaign to attacking the BNP and even held an anti-BNP rally in the ward last Saturday.

Last night I attended a very good meeting in Carlisle. A city centre pub gave over its public bar to the local BNP and an attendance of over 40 made sure that it was a worthwhile exercise for the landlord.

The May elections quite rightly dominated the proceedings and it was very encouraging to hear that campaigns are already underway in the key wards. Last May saw the BNP fight elections for Carlisle City Council for the first time and the results were quite impressive in the six wards contested:
Currock 24%
Botcherby 18%
Harraby 15%
St Aidans 14%
Upperby 12%
Belah 5%

Organiser Brian Allan, who stood in Currock and pushed the Tories into 3rd place, is working hard in his ward to overturn a 262 Labour majority, and both Karl Chappell and Tony Carvell are quietly confident of improving their share of the vote in Botcherby and St Aidans respectively. What was rewarding for me was to see the development of the personnel running the branch. I've known them all for around 18 months now and in that time they have acquired the knowledge of what is expected of them as branch officials and conduct their business in an assured and professional manner.

Daniel Finkelstein writing in the Jewish Chronicle informs us that he got himself into a bit of trouble with 10 Downing Street last week for some posts on his blog about Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Party conference and the British National Party. Daniel expands on this to his JC readers:

"Brown said he was in favour of 'British Jobs for British Workers'. Rather naughtily, I fished out a British National Party leaflet, created in August, with exactly this slogan and allowed readers to play spot the difference. That was when the phone rang. The problem, an aggrieved adviser informed me, is that I was implying that Mr Brown had copied the words from the BNP. He had done nothing of the sort, I was told. This was a phrase the Prime Minister had used, for instance, in June, weeks before the leaflet was printed. “So you want me to point out,” I asked, trying to suppress my, erm, mild surprise, “that they copied you rather than the other way round?” Apparently, the answer was yes."

It's just further evidence confirming the contempt that Gordon Brown feels for the British people. Thankfully there are a growing number of journalists within the establishment media that will take umbrage at being treated with such disdain. For the record, I have edited over 200 editions of a variety of nationalist newspapers and have used British Jobs for British Workers as a front page headline on at least half-a-dozen issues with probably the first occasion being the launch issue of The Flag in July 1986. Maybe Daniel could mention this the next time Downing Street calls.

Nick Griffin's invitation to a debate at the Oxford Union gets widespread coverage in this morning's newspapers. I see that The Guardian called upon the services of one Duncan Money, a second-year student at the university, to condemn the Oxford Union which he considers "has chosen to promote and legitimise fascism." Now, I do know Duncan, and he really is a strange fish. He was campaigning against my wife Tina and I in Maryport at the local elections in May, and when we held a paper sale in the town, he turned up. At one time during an exchange of views, Duncan spoke for ten minutes without drawing breath on the history of the BNP. It was quite an incredible delivery and left us somewhat speechless. It was as though he had digested the contents of the last 20 years of Searchlight magazine and was able to regurgitate its stories at the push of a button. Second year student? I bet I know what he's studying . . . the history of British Nationalism!

Finally I'm hoping for the result of the Burnley by-election recount today. It's three weeks today that the votes were examined again by court officials and I'm certain this is time enough for justice to be done.