Freedom front page - can anyone help?

There was a very good local election result down in South Somerset last night when Robert Baehr polled 17.2% in Chard Crimchard ward.

The full result was:
South Somerset DC
Chard Crimchard
Thursday 29th May 2008
Jenny Kenton (Lib-Dem) 423
David Mears (Con) 320
Robert Baehr (BNP) 154
BNP Percentage: 17.2%

Robert is a smashing fellow and I reported on him in depth in a broadsheet I produced around five years ago called The Countrysider. I would have liked to reproduce that feature on him and the photos that accompanied it, here, but unfortunately everything was destroyed when my computer failed back in February. Robert is a local organic grower and environmentalist campaigner dedicated to promoting self-sufficiency, the only lifestyle that in years to come will ensure the survival of our people. Well done to Robert on all fronts.

The consequences of that computer failure hurts me nearly every day. Yesterday Nick Griffin wanted a copy and exact date of the front page of Freedom from either the Summer of 2003 or 2004 when the newspaper first reported on the Peak Oil crisis. Before the computer failure I could have found that information out in seconds, but now I am unable to locate it because my file copies of Freedom are in storage while we have building work done here.

If anyone can come up with a date and a pdf of the front page that would be useful.

Apparently there was big BNP coverage in the Daily Star yesterday but I have been unable to locate it it online. If anyone has the link or a scanned copy, again I would be grateful.

Next week is a huge week for my wife Tina as the Party has a new sophisticated software programme for all administration matters installed. It's a massive step forward and the computer programmers will be here for four or five days.

Everything is a bit of a nightmare at the moment. We have just moved house, have the builders in, are trying to work from a tiny boxroom and on top of this have a series of vitally important meetings to attend and a Freedom deadline to meet.

To say it's stressful is an somewhat of an understatement - hopefully a bottle of Chardonnay Pinot Noir that has been in the freezer for half an hour will help relieve some of the tension this evening.

Don't fret, the people of Stoke know the score

OUR thoughts this morning must be with the family of Keith Brown who have conducted themselves with such dignity during their ordeal.

Justice has not been done, but as I said at the beginning of the trial, the script for this tragic saga was written long ago and there could only ever be one outcome.

Our websites have been bombarded with emails from dismayed and angry people would cannot comprehend the injustice of it all. How could this loss of life during a dispute about property and boundaries be portrayed as something completely different is the question everyone wants answering. My answer is because an astute defence council knew that by introducing race and the BNP into the equation it would give his client a better chance of getting off.

I have tried to reassure those who have contacted me personally, that where it matters, in Stoke, the people know exactly what the score is. They have seen Kahn's monstrosity and are well versed in the long-running saga over how it was built and how land that was not his, was grabbed.

The people of Stoke will give their verdict on this miscarriage of justice at the next round of elections in the city. In the rest of the country, a few more eyes will be opened to the unequal society that we now live in - if you are White and British and in dispute with someone from an ethnic minority, the odds will be stacked against you.

Thankfully I can salve the hurt I feel this morning by burying myself in the June issue of Freedom, knowing that when this paper is published it will hopefully be recruiting more new members to our cause.

For Keith Brown's family there is no such escape. They are left with a terrible void that can never be filled and the knowledge that British Justice wrote off the life of a father, a husband and son as next to worthless just because he had been a member of the BNP and had been killed by a Muslim 'elder'.

Financial backing - a vital piece of the jigsaw

WOW, have you read The Guardian this morning? It provides a massive boost for the British National Party with Patrick Barkham's in depth analysis of the political situation in Stoke admitting that our opponents are just about bankrupt of any ideas on how to stem the growth of the BNP in the city.

Apparently the only answer Labour has is to cut the number of councillors and scrap the post of Mayor of Stoke. Patrick Barkham reports:

"Others argue that the ineffectiveness of Stoke's elected mayor has contributed to the rise of the BNP. Today, professor Michael Clarke, vice-principal of Birmingham University, will deliver a report calling for a radical rethink of how the city is governed. "We are dismayed at the extent to which the city's political system is damaged," he says. "There is a deep-seated malaise in the city's politics. As a consequence, the people of Stoke-on-Trent have been short-changed." The report, commissioned by John Healey, the minister for local government, urges Stoke to reduce the size of its council and to rediscover its civic pride, while telling political parties they need to re-engage at a local level. In recommending a drastic cutting of councillors and a referendum on whether Stoke should keep its mayor, there is a danger Labour will be seen to be changing the rules to stop a future BNP mayor. But Tappin believes that keeping the system will guarantee a BNP triumph. "If we get the structure wrong and there is an elected mayor, this city will become controlled by the BNP," he says. He fears the BNP could gain power in three years."

What better boost can there be on a wet and grey morning at the end of May, than a huge double-page spread in a newspaper that rather we didn't exist, telling its readers that the British National Party are not only winning, but will carry on winning and there is very little, apart from moving the goalposts, to stop us taking control of the council.

We do seem to be taking all before us at the moment, and on so many different fronts, that we should be reporting that all is well, and to a certain extent we can, in almost every department apart from that of finance. Despite our excellent election results, and boost in membership and GLA victory, money is still desperately tight which does slow down our development.

The BNP doesn't have any big financial backers and every penny we get comes from the hard-earned money of our members. But it is at times like this that we could do with someone with some real financial clout helping us to develop to our full potential. I find it most depressing that a 'dead-in-the-water' party like UKIP is underwritten to huge financial sums by its anti-EU supporters, yet the only political party that will ever be in a position to get Britain out of the EU is not funded by any of them. I'm hopeful that sooner or later the BNP will get the financial backing it deserves and then just watch our progress shock the opposition.

I have sent off a policy submission to a Pensioners Forum this morning, and it's nice to know that these organsiations now have the courage to contact us for a contribution. 12 months ago they probably would have been much too wary to do so.

There was another report on us in The Guardian this morning, this time about how the Daily Telegraph was hosting Richard Barnbrook's blog. The Guardian have been trying to exert pressure for the blog to be axed but the Telegraph seem to be holding firm.

"The newspaper yesterday defended its decision to host the blog and said it has had no complaints. A spokeswoman said: "Our readers are entitled to their opinions and, within the law, they're entitled to publish them on the My Telegraph blogging platform. We believe our readers are intelligent and discerning enough to avoid the content they dislike and report that which offends. That doesn't mean the Telegraph necessarily endorses their opinions nor promotes them."

The June issue of Freedom needs some serious work done on it, so that's where I'm off to now. More thoughts tomorrow.

Labour's desperate brainwashing of our primary school children

THERE was another desperate attack on the British National Party over the Bank Holiday, this time from one of Gordon Brown's dwindling band of buddies, Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

He was announcing the funding of a permanent exhibition at the Holocaust Centre near Laxton in Nottinghamshire for primary school children who will be able to talk to survivors of the concentration camps. Whilst touring the centre, visiting the nine rooms where the exhibition will go on display, he said:

"I think it is a really brilliant centre and I am really looking forward to coming back and seeing the exhibition open. This is really relevant to our society today - whether we have the British National Party and racism in our society or whether we have genocide in parts of Africa."

It should be very worrying that someone like Mr Balls, the Minister who has responsibility for our Children, Schools and Families, is unable to differentiate between a nationalist political party that stands for election on a platform based on the increased self-sufficiency of our nation and the ethnic conflicts in Africa which result in the slaughter of hundred of people on a daily basis.

But don't worry it's just part of a deliberate New Labour strategy. The reality is that Balls & Co don't give a damn about the genocide in Africa, that's just a side show to try to make the issue relevant today. The only purpose of this Holocaust Centre is to brainwash children of primary school age into associating the word 'holocaust' and all the shocking images from the Second World War with the British National Party, in a pathetic effort to stem our growth.

Richard Barnbrook is certainly blazing a trail for the BNP in the GLA which is exactly what the Party needs. The media might be trying to keep quiet about our London Assembly success, but Richard and his team have the nack of making the headlines. And this is important because it opens another 'front' for the BNP and will distract our opponents from our all-important business of winning more elections to gain further representation on our country's local councils.

The campaigns for our two local elections in Carlisle and Cockermouth next month appear to be going well and all the latest news can be found on Clive Jefferson's very informative blog here.

Well, what a disappointment the Eurovision Song Contest was this year. My bet before the first song had been sung was Sweden, which although it was one of the favourites, finished near enough last. There wasn't really a memorable song and my other fancy as the evening unfolded, the offering from Bosnia, was branded one of the worst songs by Terry Wogan. I thought that unfair, and although I admit that the 'washing line' and backing singers were bizarre to say the least, the song was really quite catchy and might prompt me to buy the Eurovision 2008 CD . . . . I know, before you say it, that's pretty sad.

I won a few bob on Betfair with my fancies for play-offs all winning. The reality of Hull City's victory is that it will be a miracle if they are not straight back down next season. Doncaster, if they stick to playing the sort of football they have shown over the past season might just survive in the Championship, while Stockport should be comfortable in Division One. One of the heroes for Stockport was a player who had been at the club since he was the age of eleven. Now that is what football should be all about - youth development and club loyalty, not expensive foreign players and managers who just travel around looking for the highest wage packet.

We have been so lucky with the weather here in the far North West this Bank Holiday. Three lovely days of sun although there has been a bit of a wind. Reading Simon Darby's blog, the rest of the country has received quite a lot of rain and Chepstow races were abandoned yesterday because all the rain made the bends unsafe.

If it wasn't a plug for Labour, it was a plug for Islam.

I FINALLY saw the offending Border News clip around lunchtime yesterday. Now I know why our Cumbrian Press Officer, Clive Jefferson, was so outraged by the blatant anti-BNP propaganda.

I banged off an email to Border News to complain. I wrote:

"I was disappointed in your report on last night's news regarding the Labour councillor for Currock ward.
Although this was dressed up as story about Carlisle's first Muslim councillor, it was in fact a blatant plug for the Labour Party and deliberate anti-BNP propaganda.
In the light of the forthcoming by-election in Upperby, which like Currock is a key political battleground between Labour and the BNP, it can best be viewed as an ill-timed report.
The very same same story appeared in the Cumberland News just a week before the local elections on May 1st and it almost seems as though someone is manipulating the media in Cumbria at election time for the benefit of the Labour Party."

Steve Lambden, the Editor of Border News, replied:

"Thank you for your e-mail. I don't accept that this was either a plug for the Labour Party or anti-BNP propaganda.
If you believe that and your worries of media manipulation, you should contact the television regulator, Ofcom. Their contact details are on their website, ofcom.org.uk"

To that I responded:

"I'm surprised that you are so adamant that Border News hasn't been used in some way by an influence from inside or outside Border TV.
"I would be interested to know who chose the soundtrack for the final shots of the Muslims coming out of Brook Street Mosque.
"That music was a clear indication what the report was designed to portray and I believe to use such deliberate sentimentality in what should be unbiased news reporting is a cynical abuse by someone of the responsibility Border News has to the public."

Not surprisingly Lambden didn't answer that. If the programme wasn't a plug for the Labour Party then it was a plug for Islam which in today's climate is ill-advised to say the least. Our soldiers being killed by Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and Muslim bombers are targeting ordinary British people to promote their doctrine. Such pro-Islam propaganda something that a television news programme shouldn't be broadcasting.

There was an excellent report by Geoffrey Alderman in the Jewish Chronicle this morning regarding the bizarre decision of the Police to prosecute the makers of the Channel 4 documentary programme Undercover Mosque.

He wrote:

"The apologies given in the High Court last week by the West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service to the makers of an extraordinary documentary have thrown a welcome light upon that species of malign political correctness that is eating away at British tolerance and respect for minorities.
On January 15, 2007, Channel 4 aired a documentary entitled Undercover Mosque. The film-makers distilled, into one hour, content from more than 25 hours of footage filmed secretly and at great risk at a number of mosques in the West Midlands. These recordings made very public what some of the imams at these mosques had been preaching to their congregants:
- “Whoever changes his religion from al-Islam to anything else — kill him in the Islamic state.”
- “Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a PhD, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional.”
- “If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that is my freedom of speech.”
- “You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews you kill them physically.”
Other footage showed one imam lavishing praise upon the murder of a British soldier in Afghanistan, while another encouraged violence against non-Muslims. Marriage with pre-pubescent girls was also advocated, as was the physical punishment of girls who refused to wear the hijab. Muslims were exhorted not to integrate into British society. The deputy-headmaster of an Islamic high school in Birmingham was filmed telling an audience at the Sparkbrook mosque that he disagreed with democracy and with the word democracy.
“They should call it... kuffrocracy [kuffir means unbeliever], that’s their plan. It’s the hidden cancerous aim of these people.”
No sooner had the documentary been aired than there was launched against it a sustained campaign of vilification, aimed primarily at its makers — Hardcash Productions — and at Channel 4 for having had the courage to authorise its transmission. The Muslim Council of Britain claimed that the film-makers had edited their footage so as to “misrepresent” the content of speeches. The Islamic Human Rights Commission condemned the film’s “inherent Islamophobia”.
You might have expected the police and the CPS to have ignored these responses, and, instead, to have objectively evaluated the chilling evidence that Undercover Mosque presented. But they didn’t. Using taxpayers’ money, the CPS actually began investigating the producers of the film, and it was they — the producers — who were accused of undermining good community relations, by alleged selective editing and distortion.
The police, meanwhile, referred the documentary to the media watchdog, Ofcom. But Ofcom praised the manner in which the evidence gathered in the film had been edited and presented. Hardcash and Channel 4 launched a libel action against the CPS and the West Midlands Police. And last week the defendants had to issue an unreserved and grovelling apology. An undisclosed six-figure sum has been agreed in damages. Again, the taxpayer will foot this bill.
But the last chapter in this sorry tale has yet to be written and, before it is, there are a great many questions to be answered. By what twisted logic — for example — could the police and the CPS have concluded that it was the film-makers who needed to be harried and pursued, rather than the imams and the mosque trustees who afforded them platforms from which to launch batteries of hateful invective which, in any commonsense view, must have amounted to incitement to violence?
A few of the British-based preachers filmed for the documentary have been prosecuted, but not those who facilitated the dissemination of their views. Why?
Then there is the Saudi connection. Many of the mosques featured in the documentary were funded by, or from, Saudi Arabia, and reflected the primitive Wahabist form of Islam officially sponsored by that country. We have already seen, in the history of the bribes and kickbacks said to have been paid to Saudi officials by BAE Systems (in order to win lucrative defence contracts), that political sensitivities at the highest levels in British government led to the Serious Fraud Office being ordered to drop corruption inquiries. Did these same sensitivities dissuade the CPS from pursuing the truths revealed by Undercover Mosque?
Many of us are dismayed at the strong support for the British National Party reflected in the recent local elections. Given the official attitudes reflected in the story of this documentary, is it any wonder that the BNP should be doing so well?"

Of course readers of the Jewish Chronicle should be delighted, not dismayed, that the British National Party are doing so well, because it is only the BNP that will stem the growth of Islam in this country.

I'm hoping for a weekend in the garden, weather permitting. First job is to dig over another area that is to be turfed and to prepare another part of the front garden that can be used to park our car.

There's also some good TV and I'm afraid I have to admit I'm a Eurovision Song Contest buff and have been hooked on it ever since Waterloo and Abba won in Brighton back in the Seventies. My first memory was even further back than that with Sing Little Birdie by Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson. I've seen both semi-finals and must admit the standard this year seems pretty grim, but I'm hoping on the night that there will be at least one song that stands out and will stimulate some memories of 2008 in the years ahead.

There's also the Football League play-offs over the Bank Holiday weekend and for what it's worth I shall be supporting Stockport County, Doncaster and Hull City because they all have strong links with my team Workington Reds.

. . . and the media coverage continues unabated.

THERE is uproar here in Cumbria this morning after ITV's Border Television last night carried a blatantly anti-BNP report on 'alleged racism' and included footage of Brian Allan the BNP's lead candidate in the forthcoming Upperby ward by-election for Carlisle City Council.

It's not the first time Border News have done this in the run-up to an election - two years ago they promoted the 'Maryport against Racism' Labour Party scam, pretending it was just a couple of schoolboys behind it and not the local Labour MP.

I didn't see the offending report, but it was bad enough to set Cumbrian BNP Press Officer Clive Jefferson off on one of his 'crusades for more balanced reporting'. Clive's like a terrier with a bone and he won't let go, so the story could be set to run for a bit which won't harm our prospects in the two by-elections we are contesting locally. You can read the full story on Clive's blog here

The media coverage from our hugely successful local election campaign on May 1st continues unabated with our two candidates in Rotherham this week grabbing the lion's share of the publicity.

Today in the Sheffield Telegraph, Archdeacon Richard Blackburn says community relations and social cohesion could be at risk after the success of the British National Party in the local elections which saw John Gamble winning in Brinsworth beating the town's Labour Mayor Allan Jackson and in Maltby, shopkeeper Will Blair beating sitting Labour member Glyn Robinson.

The Sheffield Telegraph reports:

"Speaking at Rotherham's annual civic service, Archdeacon Blackburn said people probably voted the way they did because they felt they were not being listened to elsewhere.
He said: "The BNP often finds support in the context of significant problems, where people feel that no one is listening to them.
"Some of the results have provided a sobering wake-up call for all of us who care about democracy and the way in which our councillors are elected.
"The arrival of the British National Party on our scene and into our council chamber is a concern."
Archdeacon Blackburn said it was necessary to make it absolutely clear that the far-right party did not advocate Christian policies, whatever their literature might say.
"The BNP has traditionally presented its election message as 'Christian' and some of its election literature claims they promote 'traditional Christian values'.
"However, its policies and practices, which promote racism and racial intolerance, are incompatible with the church's social witness, biblical teaching and our understanding of the love of God for all people," he added.
The Archdeacon went on to say that good community relations and social cohesion relied on people exhibiting understanding and tolerance.
"I wish to publicly affirm our care, as the Church of England, for our Muslim sisters and brothers."

The Archdeacon talks about 'tolerance' and 'Muslim brothers and sisters' in the same breath which only goes to show just how ignorant of Islam he must be. He has obviously not read the Koran or has been briefed on the stonings that that take place on a daily basis in Muslim countries.

Also in Rotherham, the New Musical Express revealed yesterday that Babyshambles and The Reverend are to take on the BNP in the town. The music newspaper reports:

"Reverend And The Makers' Jon McClure and Babyshambles' Drew McConnell are currently organising a Love Music Hate Racism festival for the north of England.
The show is likely to be near the city of Rotherham, where the British National Party recently won two seats in the local government elections.
McClure and McConnell are looking to follow up the bash in Victoria Park in London that they recently contributed to.
McClure said: "I hope to help Love Music Hate Racism and Drew McConnell organise a Northern carnival this summer. I hope you'll give us your support."
Writing about the London event, he wrote: "At last month's Love Music Hate Racism carnival I saw people of all races and denominations together in the afternoon sun listening to free music.
"My worry is that the battle for the people's hearts and minds is being lost to a reactionary right wing press and an altered BNP, who cloth themselves in the suits of politicians.
"I hope also that as young people, we will stand against their bullshit together and stick the BNP in the history books where they belong."

Of course it's the likes of McClure and McConnell that are full of "bullshit", trying the revive flagging music careers by exploiting the publicity available from attacking the BNP. And with regard to the 'history books' - I would like to get a wager placed on who will be appearing in them first.

They're trying to silence the BNP online

I COULDN'T get beyond the headline in The Times report on the Keith Brown murder trial report this morning. "BNP activist fell on knife says Asian neighbour" - I fully expect to read soon that the accused wasn't even at the scene of the crime and was at a meeting of Muslim elders at the local mosque while it was Keith Brown himself, no doubt so busy shouting racist abuse and probably wielding a knife, who tripped over and stabbed himself. This case, or the reporting of it at least, is a farce. Keith is never referred to as anything other than a "BNP activist", yet Mr Khan has never once been referred to as a "Muslim".

My colleague and Freedom contributor Bob Gertner refers me to a report that appeared in the media supplement of The Guardian newspaper on Monday. It mentions Carlos Cortiglia a member of Bob's Croydon branch. Journalist Sean Dobson apparently doesn't like free speech on the internet and even telephoned Carlos last week while researching this topic.

Headed "Platform for free speech ... or hate?" it dealt with the comment sections at the end of articles that are proving popular with many newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and some of the pertinent passages were as follows:

"Several My Telegraph bloggers have trenchant views on political correctness, EU membership and race. One likens the Daily Mirror to an outpost of the Stasi and another blames women for prostitution. It includes posts from active members of the BNP itself. Regular bloggers include Carlos Cortiglia, who stood as a BNP candidate for the Greater London authority in the 2004 London election.
"Unlike Cortiglia, most bloggers hide their true identities behind personas. Telegraph bloggers can choose their own icon. Popular ones include Del Boy, Barry George and Enoch Powell. One called "Lickylips" (who chooses the icon of a pit-bull) publishes BNP campaign literature and flyers.
"Most papers, including the Telegraph, now employ a team of people whose job is to moderate user-generated content. The process differs from organisation to organisation. Some publishers "post-moderate" - in reaction to readers' or editors' complaints or monitoring (The Guardian does this); some "pre-moderate" (such as the Daily Mail) and only allow vetted comments to be published.
"The Telegraph is not the only newspaper to provide such a platform. The Sun also allows its readers to publish their own blogs with its My Sun service (thesun.co.uk/portal/site/mysun). The red-top uses a "reactive moderation" system which relies on its readers to police material on the site. It features wannabe glamour models who post pictures of themselves and invite others to leave comments. The pictures are checked before they go live. My Sun employs a team of 10 moderators who work around the clock. It claims that all complaints are dealt with in 15 minutes.
"Ilana Fox, editor of My Sun, says: "About a year ago BNP members started posting on our message boards. What we found was that our community rallied round and took the BNP to task."
Every Telegraph blog has a flag offering readers the chance to report the link. A spokeswoman says that its site includes content from Conservative, Labour and Ukip activists. "We don't endorse content posted by BNP supporters but we accept that they are a legal political party and they have the same right to free speech as anyone else."
"My Telegraph will be relaunched later this summer but the company has declined to say whether it has any plans to change the site. The Telegraph says: "It's been clear from day one that My Telegraph is a platform for our readers to express their own views. That said, we are a responsible publisher and have a team in place to respond to reader complaints ... Readers can report content that concerns them and appropriate action will be taken."
"Yet one BNP apologist and active blogger on the site described themselves as "poised like a cobra to strike and defend England from the Muslim menace" and no one seems to have complained."

The quote of the report must be Ilana Fox's " . . . our community rallied round and took the BNP to task." What she means is that The Sun's 10 moderators started deleting any postings favourable to the BNP!

And I'm not surprised that our opponents are worried about the use of these Comment Sections in newspapers. During the election I read a ton of them and in the main when the BNP was mentioned it was saying something supportive at best and uncritical at least. It provides great propaganda for us so no wonder there are efforts to have them moderated to exclude comments favourable to the BNP.

The June issue of Freedom is now taking shape and there are some more good stories and photos from our superb election effort on May 1st.

The script for the Keith Brown trial was already written

I'M AFRAID I find the court case over the murder of Keith Brown just too depressing reading. Quite understandable the defence council are playing the race and politics card at every opportunity and the pen portraits of those involved in this tragic case seem to be more important that the events that actually took place on that afternoon.

The accused Habib Khan is being portrayed as "a Muslim community elder" who had experienced "years of trouble from the British National Party activists next door".

The victim Keith Brown, 53, who died in his driveway after being stabbed with a kitchen knife is portrayed as "a BNP activist", "a friend of Nick Griffin" and of course "a racist".

So race and politics are being used to influence the jury and important facts such as that Keith and Mr Khan had worked together for eight years and even travelled together on many occasions, are forgotten and that the fall-out between them only happened when there was a dispute over property.

I could be wrong, and often am, but I feel that the script for the outcome of this case was probably written well in advance and that the proceedings taking place are just the going through of the motions.

Tina and I have our accommodation for the Summer School now booked after initial concerns that everywhere suitable was being snapped up. We are both students on the Saturday, and then turn lecturers on the Sunday, with Tina talking on administration while I'm briefing on PR and publicity from our media viewpoint. Thankfully we only have one half hour slot each. Two years ago, when I was giving a talk on Nationalist history, I had to do five half hour slots in a rotating classroom format. It was hard going and makes you realise just how well teachers do to hold a class's attention at the end of a long day.

May is a strange month in politics. Once the local elections are out of the way there tends to be a bit of a lull in which everyone recoups from their exertions. In the distant past I was always busy this month trying to put a positive spin on dismal election results in the nationalist newspaper of the time. It was a difficult job and sometimes almost impossible, but the bottom line was that the Thatcher years were desperate days for British nationalism and the very fact that there was a British nationalist political party actually contesting elections and a monthly nationalist newspaper to report on this, was an achievement in itself.

I'm 57 tomorrow, but won't be celebrating until Friday when we have a meal booked with friends at a local pub. I've recently started corresponding with an old school chum who I first met at Steyning Grammar School in 1962. We were friends for the next 30 odd years but lost contact when I moved to France in the 1990s. Thanks to the school's Old Boy website, we got in contact again recently and most Saturday evenings we exchange long emails recalling school days, holidays in Ibiza and Livigno or Thursday nights out at Worthing's Assembly Hall watching the Kinks, the Move or the Small Faces. Reminiscing via email over a glass or two of wine is an excellent weekend pastime.

Postman has just been and there's a card for me!! - Thanks Ems, with all your exams I thought you might forget.

Busy summer on all fronts

THERE'S no respite for British National Party activists here in Cumbria with two local election campaigns already under way just three weeks after the big effort of contesting eight seats in Carlisle on May 1st.

Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford, is our candidate in Cockermouth's All Saints ward for Allerdale Borough Council on June 5th. This is very much new territory for the Party and whatever the result, the campaign will help promote the BNP's credentials in this West Cumbrian market town. The ward is a real Labour/Tory battleground and last May the six candidates contesting the three seats up for grabs were only from those two parties. Labour polled 874, 695 and 642 votes, while the Tories polled 767, 745 and 666 votes.

The candidates are:
Helen Graham (Green)
Christine Smith (Lab)
Paul Stafford (BNP)
Alan Tyson (Con)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Ind).

On June 12th there are two vacancies in the Upperby ward for Carlisle City Council. The election was first postponed from May 1st when our candidate, Les Griffiths, suddenly died just after the close of nominations. His tragic death was followed only days later by that of 72 year-old Labour councillor June Martlew.

The British National Party have fought this ward before, back in May of last year, when our candidate was Christine Williamson.
The result last time was:

June Martlew (Lab) 677
James Osler (Lib-Dem) 371
Mike Clarke (Con) 215
Christine Williamson (BNP) 168
BNP Percentage: 11.8%.

We have two excellent candidates in Brian Allan, who polled 28% for the Party in Currock on May 1st, and Alistair Barbour who was last week was voted on to Hesket Parish Council in a unanimous vote by his fellow councillors. I know our campaign manager Clive Jefferson will be working hard to try to increase the BNP's vote share in Upperby which is normally a very strong Labour seat.

Disgraced Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain acknowledges in The Guardian today that Labour voters are turning to the BNP. I believe this will be a recurring theme amongst Labour MPs in the coming months as they begin to panic about their future in Parliament under Gordon Brown's leadership. Every time it appears in print, or is mentioned on the TV or radio that traditional Labour voters are turning to the BNP, it helps to cement this trend in the public's mind which will in itself will help to encourage more deserters tocome to us.

There are a lot of interesting projects and events in the pipeline. Nick Griffin has asked me to investigate to costs and feasibility of a huge print-run for a special 8 or 12 page edition Freedom in preparation for the European Elections. Also on the Euro Election theme, there's a key planning meeting next month to start the launch of our campaign. Again in June is the Summer School, taking place this year in beautiful rural Wales, and those looking for accommodation, rather than camping, should start making arrangements ASAP as some places on Michaela's Mackenzie's B&B list are already booked up.

And finally one of those morale boosts from an unexpected source.

"Unless we can get to grips with the reason why people are voting for the BNP, we shall see the party expand dramatically and this could happen as soon as next year’s European elections."

That comes from the editorial in the current issue of the anti-BNP magazine Searchlight - let's hope it's right!

Hopeful signs from Barking & Dagenham

STILL fragile today after a poor night. I'm taking antihistamines and steroids and despite feeling better for short spells, the rash and swelling comes back again, especially at night time. You would have thought that whatever it was would have passed through my system by now. I had been hoping for a weekend in the garden but at present (lunchtime on Friday) I certainly don't feel up to it.

When you are not well, you tend to be disagreeable and all the news items of interest this morning have an irritating angle.
Reports on the Dambusters 65th anniversary today are all full of a new film on the raids by Stephen Fry(!). Well, I could be wrong, but I would like to bet that his version of events will differ considerably from the 1954 classic which starred Richard Todd as Guy Gibson . . . and I bet Guy's dog will have a different name. A few years ago we had the farce of the voice of Richard Todd being dubbed out whenever he mentioned the dog's name when the film was shown on terrestrial TV - thankfully the last time I saw it on SKY it was the full version.

The Ripley & Heanor News advises us this morning that a decision on whether to allow live music and alcohol at the British National Party's annual festival in Denby will be made on June 10th.

"Amber Valley Borough Council's licensing panel will meet at Ripley Town Hall to consider whether music can be played at the event, hosted by Codnor Denby Lane resident and BNP member Alan Warner.
"The festival is scheduled to take place between August 15th to 17th.
"Last year the event was given a license by the council despite objections from local residents. The festival passed off without incident and the BNP has vowed it will return this year bigger and better than the previous one."

Following the report, there was a good 'comment' from Nina from Nottingham who wrote:

"The Red White and Blue Festival is a fantastic weekend for all the family in beautiful surroundings in the English countryside. This is all a fuss about nothing, blown up by the media and lefties on the local council. What is so offensive about celebrating our culture, heritage and history as we have for thousands of years? It is disgusting that we do not celebrate it regularly nationwide and any British person that thinks it is offensive to do so should hang their heads in shame."

Some good news to finish off with. This week I received an email from Wayne McDermott who has been number crunching the GLA results. He reports just how squeezed all the other parties were in this election by the BIG TWO and how well the BNP did to get Richard Barnbrook on to the Greater London Assembly.

Apparently even on the London List Vote, people still saw it as LAB vs CON contest. The Lib-Dems were well and truly pushed aside and won just THREE wards across the whole of London. A shocking performance from a party of its size and with its easy access to good media publicity.

The winners of wards on the 627 wards on the London list vote were:
Conservative: 330
Labour : 285
British National Party: 8
Liberal Democrats: 3
Green Party: 1
Others : 0

The BNP won in Alibon, Goresbrook, Heath, Mayesbrook, Parsloes, Valence, Village, wards that are all in Barking and Dagenham and in Gooshays ward in Havering.

Wayne's analysis of this is:

"The big squeeze hit everyone although, as expected, Barking and Dagenham still looks very good for us. We won 7 wards, Labour won 8 wards and the Tories won two wards. There were some close encounters and it looks like we still have a great chance of taking that council in 2 years time. Using the GLA list vote as a guide we would have 21 councillors to Labour's 24 with the Tories on 6."

That's excellent news for the British National Party and shows that after two years with twelve councillors on Barking and Dagenham Council, the BNP are still as popular as ever in the borough.

Two and a half days as John Merrick

LITTLE politics in this entry as I've just returned home from Carlisle Hospital after spending two and a half days in Willow Ward.

It all started on Monday after I had posted a story on the BNP website and updated this blog. The turf for the back lawn arrived and as it was a warm and windy day the chap delivering it said that I should get it down ASAP and give it a good watering, which is exactly what I did.

I finished at lunch time and went in to have a bath when in the mirror I noticed that I had a lump on my lip. When I took my boxers off it also looked as though a midge or something had been trapped in them because there were bites all over my groin area.

I felt OK and worked on Freedom all afternoon and although a rash was starting to appear on my body, four of us went to Workington to hear Nick Griffin speak.

It was a brilliant meeting with Nick at his very best. He had just come down from Carlisle where he had spoken earlier in the evening, and an audience of around sixty gave him an enthusiastic welcome when he arrived at around 9.00pm. Nick just answered questions from the floor and what he had said was summed up by an Independent councillor at the front of the queue for the Gents an hour later. "That's something we don't hear very often today - a politician talking common sense."

After his speech, Tina said that one of my eyes was closing and by the time we were back home it has closed completely and had a big drooping swollen bag of skin beneath it. The same happened to my other eye and my lips were trebled in size. I was really worried by now and with my body completely covered in raised red blotches and the roof of my mouth swollen, Tina ran me to the A&E at Carlisle around midnight.

I was admitted immediately and had various things pumped into me and over the next two days had numerous tests taken to find out what had happened.

But as often happens with these sort of things it seems we might never know. Obviously I was allergic to something. Favourite bet is that I was bitten by an insect. Or it might have been some treatment put on the turf, or some of the topsoil I bought might have had something deposited in it.

Anyway, I'm home now and this blog and replying to emails is all I feel up to for the moment. I did feel rough and it didn't help when the nurses kept saying I looked like John Hurt in the Elephant Man.

Carlisle Hospital looked very clean and was ultra efficient and I was sent home with a bagful of drugs and creams to keep me on the mend until I go back next week.

Nick Griffin: An impressive performance in Workington.

Bully boy tactics exposes true face of anti-BNP brigade

THE mistakes of our opponents seem to be multiplying by the day as they seek to try to stem the progress of the British National Party, and a prime example of this has just been revealed this morning.

The Hampstead and Highgate Express gave £5,000 to the Exceptional People in Camden awards, which celebrates the work of community volunteers but now the Camden Council has decided to give the money back and look for alternative sponsors because the newspaper carried an advertisement for the British National Party in the run-up to the local and GLA elections.

The newspaper has been heavily involved with the awards, including running publicity stories, and was due to be represented on the judging panel but now it looks certain that this invitation will be withdrawn also.

It's a pathetic decision, which penalises those working hard within the community, and its a political decision as a spokesman for Camden Council openly admitted:
"Camden Council has now made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship agreement. This followed strong concerns raised by the local councillors across the political spectrum," he told the Hold the Front Page website.

Ham & High editor Geoff Martin, summed up the feelings of many when he said:
"It seems to be a decision that was taken without consultation with us. I would say it's a spineless decision.
"I am supposed to believe no undue political pressure was exerted? I am sure there has been.
"This decision has blemished the awards irreversibly."

Gone is the subtle approach of the anti-BNP brigade, which in the past gently exerted its influence to get its message across.

Now it is open bully boy tactics and that is certain to backfire and expose them for what they really are.

There was a good letter in the Worcester News on Friday exploiting another Labour 'own goal' under the heading "Just who are you calling abhorrent?". Lee Hancock from Evesham wrote:

"SIR - In regard to Roger Berry's comments that the people of Gorse Hill had rejected the British National Party and "its abhorrent policies". Can I remind Coun Berry that the BNP polled 21 per cent of the vote in Gorse Hill. He is therefore branding almost a quarter of his constituents as abhorrent.
"This is graphic illustration of the contempt with which Labour holds the British people and just how out of touch with public opinion they really are. The British National Party has 10 new councillors. Labour has lost almost 300. Perhaps Mr Berry should look a little closer to home in regards to which political party the British electorate truly finds abhorrent."

It was a day in the garden yesterday preparing the ground for some "Cumbrian Turf" arriving from Kirkbride this morning. My back is paying the price for all those exertions but I must steel myself to get the job finished. The weather was brilliant and it seems as though it's going to be more of the same today.

At the weekend our eldest daughter comes home from a year's stint in Cairo as part of her university course. Twelve months ago she left our lovely town house overlooking Silloth Green and her own bedroom and own bathroom on the top floor. She's coming back to a home one-third the size and to sharing a bedroom with her sixteen year-old brother (Just a short term arrangement while the garage is converted). It's going to be a culture shock for her and I'm hoping that a nice green lawn after all the concrete of Cairo, will help to soften the blow.

Rotherham - a victory for Marlene

When the results came through for Rotherham and it was announced that the BNP had won two seats, I shouted to Tina, who was in the kitchen making our umpteenth election night cup of tea, "Marlene's got in at last in Rotherham."

But of course I was wrong. The next morning I found out that she had failed by just 118 votes to win in Wingfield ward despite polling 992 votes.

Marlene Guest is the BNP's 'Mrs Rotherham". She joined our Party from the Liberal Democrats after making a name for herself in the town by expose the corruption of the Labour Party in local government.

She and a couple of other lady colleagues have stood numerous time for the BNP in Rotherham and polled such good votes that the cage of the Labour MP, Denis MacShane, was rattled sufficiently for him to launch his own campaign warning of the growth of the BNP in South Yorkshire.

Marlene became something of a celebrity when she appeared on the Sky programme BNP Wives back in January and who could forget the closing scenes when there was film taken at a Rotherham branch meeting and she was seen pleading for men to come forward and stand as candidates to take on Labour in the May elections.

Well four men did come forward and two of those, John Gamble and Will Blair won seats on Rotherham Council.

Now that was just a week ago and Marlene and her two new Rotherham BNP councillors are already hitting the headlines.

This is from today's The Star newspaper:

SOUTH Yorkshire's two British National Party councillors have snubbed an invitation to a civic banquet – slamming the event as a waste of public money.
The BNP took its first ever seats in the county in Rotherham, where Coun John Gamble was elected in Brinsworth & Catcliffe and Coun Will Blair won Maltby.
But the councillors have already clashed with the authority over its traditional annual Mayor-making ceremony.
They have refused to attend the event which officially announces Rotherham's new Mayor, this year Coun Ann Russell.
BNP spokeswoman Marlene Guest said: "We think that, when the council is making so many cut-backs, it's totally wrong to have a banquet.
"The council is cutting services and it's appalling to have this dinner when people in the borough are struggling with budget-cuts.
"Councillors are not there to have jollies and enjoy themselves.
"The BNP councillors are very angry and disgusted and will not take part in this dinner or any others in the future."
But Rotherham Council defended the event as not just for councillors but for the wider community too.>
A spokesman said: "The cost of the Mayoral dinner will be met from the dedicated civic budget which exists for events such as this.
"This dinner serves as a launch for the Mayor's year of fundraising and is not just for councillors, but also for people from the wider Rotherham community, including representatives from the voluntary and charity sectors.
"This long-established traditional event will be a non-political, civic occasion which aims to foster good relations.
"Those attending will celebrate all that is good in Rotherham as well as being introduced to the official charities and good causes the Mayor will support during her time in office."

For the record here are those Rotherham results:
Rotherham Council
BRINSWORTH & CATCLIFFE
John Gamble (BNP) 1430
Lab 1369, Con 708.
BNP Percentage: 40.8%

MALTBY
Will Blair (BNP) 702
Lab 684, Con272, Ind 519,
Ind 427, Ind 343, UKIP 94.
BNP Percentage: 23.1%

Rotherham West
Brian Jessop (BNP) 587
Lab 1227, Con 382, Ind 958.
BNP Percentage: 18.6%

Valley
John Wilson (BNP) 811
Lab 982, Con 666, Ind 443.
BNP Percentage: 28.0%

Wingfield
Marlene Guest (BNP) 992
Lab 1110, Con 429, Ind 624.
BNP Percentage: 31.4%

It's an afternoon in the garden for me as I have to prepare the ground for some turf to be laid. I shall probably have an interest at Ascot - so will be popping in and out to catch the odd race.

Even our Harrogate results had a sting in the tail!

Well, it's exactly a week since my last post, but I have a good excuse. Getting Freedom finished for the printers, with all the local election results and a limited election analysis, was a massive job and there just wasn't any time to be sidelined on anything else.

The newspaper is OK, and has all the information that our readers have come to expect of the May issue. No doubt there will be some mistakes in some of the results, so if you spot any, please let me know. Last year we missed out our best result in Sedgefield - still, it made a good story when we published the correction in the June issue.

The dust is settling on our excellent election campaign and quite naturally much of the publicity is focussing on Richard Barnbrook and our victory in London. The front page on the May issue of Freedom highlights this success and how it was achieved against all the odds. The logos of those organisations that campaign against us help to illustrate this point.



But May 1st was about so much more than just our GLA victory and this comes across in Freedom if you take the time to study the results in detail. There are lots of special stories from our local election campaigns across the country and over the next few issues of our newspaper I shall be covering these in more details.

One campaign that didn't get any coverage in Freedom was in Harrogate. This was because the results there could only at best be described as "low". But from these votes some excellent publicity has been gained, which will help the British National Party to progress in Britain's more rural areas.

Janet Street-Porter covered the BNP effort in Harrogate in her report Deep in rural England, fresh fields for the BNP. She wrote:

"Now that the BNP has gained its first seat in the London Assembly, commentators have tended to focus on the party's growing appeal to lower-middle and working-class urban voters. But there is another side to the story.

"For the last 20 years I've had a house in rural Yorkshire, and the list of candidates who stood for election to Harrogate council last week was fascinating. The BNP fielded no fewer than six, four of whom were under 25 and male. None was successful – the percentage of votes gained ranged from 6.4 per cent down to 2.8 per cent.

Examining the profiles of these four BNP candidates is interesting; Ashley Banner, a 19-year-old bricklayer, stood for the pretty village of Kirkby Malzeard, surrounded by fields of cattle with a sleepy main street of picture-book cottages.

Gamekeeper Joel Banner, 21, stood for my local town of Pateley Bridge in Upper Nidderdale, which has a thriving tourist trade, an award-winning museum and where black faces are rarely seen.

This beautiful valley, a chain of tiny villages and unspoilt moorland, is utterly harmonious – a place where the community turns out in force for charity events and the annual agricultural show on the last Tuesday in September. The biggest cause for concern at council meetings seems to be improving flood defences, and the band of youths who lounge outside the branch of Spar at the bottom of the high street every evening.

Further down the valley, James Thackray, a 22-year-old gardener, stood for Lower Nidderdale, and on the outskirts of Harrogate Sam Clayton, a green recycling worker, also 22, stood for Marston Moor.

There are plenty of issues in North Yorkshire really affecting young people, affordable housing being the biggest problem, with property prices in rural areas remaining high as retirees seek the good life. Many derelict cottages and barns are restored and rented out to holiday-makers, remaining empty for most of the winter. Lack of jobs is hardly an issue – the hotel and restaurant industry in Harrogate, which has a thriving exhibition and conference trade, would grind to a halt without the help of thousands of young eastern Europeans, who seem to have been accepted without much comment. So it is depressing that the BNP is clearly targeting working-class younger voters further out in the countryside by fielding candidates like Joel, Ashley, James and Sam."

It's a good report, appearing in a newspaper where the Party seldom gets a mention and showing the BNP in a completely different light to what is normally expected. I expect our candidates in Harrogate were disappointed on election night that they hadn't done better, but I hope after reading the Independent's report that the disappointment will be replaced by a determination to carry on the work in their local areas which will help increase the British National Party vote next time around.

Our Quiet Revolution has taken EIGHT steps forward (6.30am 2nd May)

Good Morning, Good Morning!

It was a long night, but worth staying up just to see Geoff Hoon's face as he announced that the BNP had polled 'disappointingly' well in Derby and gained its first councillor in Amber Valley.

The state of play as I write this at 6.30 this morning (just three house sleep) is that we have made eight gains, with new BNP councillors in Amber Valley (2), Nuneaton & Bedworth (2), Rotherham (2), Pendle and Thurrock.

Today, watch out for results in Burnley, Stoke and Epping Forest as well as, of course, for the London Assembly where the huge turn-out might dash the BNP's hopes of a taking a seat although this will go down to the wire.

The results in Carlisle were another step forward. Brian Allan increased his vote although falling well short of victory in Currock, and overall our performance in the wards we fought was satisfactory and provides something to build on.

The BNP vote across the country last night shows that we are growing in significance within the political arena and reports of near misses in a number of seats are now filtering through.

I'm off on Freedom duty now , but you can keep up-to-date with the results as they come in today on Simon Darby's excellent blog here

Success, even before the first vote has been counted

Yesterday I was waiting on the publication of our local evening newspaper, the News & Star.

Last year on the day before polling day it had a double-page spread telling its readers how wonderful Polish migrant workers were and the obligatory editorial instructing people not to vote for the BNP.

This year things were different and that in itself is something worth celebrating. There was no anti-BNP tirade, just an election guide that studiously failed to mention the British National Party.

OK, there was the usual editorial telling its readers to vote for any one of the main parties and even Independents . . .

"To vote for anyone else runs the risk of at best electing a councillor who can effect no change or at worst one that has a negative effect on society. As a city seeking to build an exciting future, we can do without that sort of surprise."

The editor is Neil Hodgkinson and you can read about him here.

For Neil to have to written that final paragraph without mentioning the British National Party must have hurt him badly. He probably did so to save his blushes if the BNP just happen to take Currock from Labour tonight. It would have been a real snub to him to have his instructions implicitly ignore by the voters of this ward.

I'm suprised he missed out the word 'vibrant' when talking about Carlisle's future. Have you noticed how those in the media seeking to inflict large scale immigration on us lesser mortals always talk about multi-culturalism being exciting "and vibrant".

You can read the News & Star reports I have referred to on Clive Jefferson's excellent blog here

Clive was up at 4.00am this morning updating his blog and preparing the last minute leafleting teams for delivering the 'Don't Forget to Vote BNP' leaflets today. In over thirty years involved in nationalist politics I have seen hundreds of 'deciated activists' come and go, but for activism AND understanding of politics and the media, Clive must rate amongst the best I've known. He's an energetic and tireless worker, despite being beset by health problems, and with his trusted assistant Bill Pugh has really motivated Carlisle BNP to produce a herculean effort in campaigning across the city with a limited number of activists.

And there's more. Clive has stood up to a violent campaign of intimidation orchestrated by the Labour Party. The details of which will come out when Clive is ready to tell them. I will just say that many people would have kept their head down after such targeting, but not our Cumbrian press officer. He is even more motivated now, than he was before.

In a free and fair society, with a free and fair press, the efforts of the BNP in Carlisle would be the subject of constructive reports about how a new political party with radical new policies was campaigning for votes in the city. There should be criticism of the illegal and untrue leaflets being put out by the Labour Party and the fact that it was pretending to be an independent 'third party' whilst doing it. There should also, of course, be condemnation of the Labour Party thugs trying to silence the BNP by targeting one of its key officials.

But I'm afraid there is no chance of this happening while we have editors like Neil Hodgkinson who has so much political baggage to take with him to the office each day that he has no room for any objective journalism.

Best of luck to all our candidates and congratulaltions to all our activists involved in the London Assembly and local elections. Your efforts have already ensured that our May 2008 election campaign is a success and that's before the first vote has even been counted!