They should have been reading Freedom

I SAT in amazement and watched two financiers being interviewed by Jon Snow on Channel 4 News last night. Both were in a state of shock over the banking meltdown as though it was something that was totally unexpected.

The collapse of this house of cards has come as no surprise to those of us in the British National Party and it's worth looking back at a couple of reports from past issues of Freedom to see what we were saying at the time. In just five minutes of looking through my file of old newspapers, I found a couple of relative articles. This was the front page from July 2005 called "The Credit Card Time Bomb".

"HOW ON EARTH could a Government that took a country into an illegal war against the wishes of its people be re-elected to serve another five year term?
How could politicians that have presided over the dismantling of British industry and the off-shoring of British jobs to Eastern Europe and the Far East be returned to Westminster?
How could a politcial party that has actively encouraged the settlement of economic migrants in the country with all the strains and stresses this puts on our essential services and the population as a whole, get another manadate to continue for more of the same?
The answer is simple. It has happened because a majority of the British people have disengaged from the political system and turned inwards, just living for the present and thinking solely of themselves and their family.
They have been able to do things because outside pressures of every day life have been temporarily put on hold thanks to the availability of unlimited credit. The bigger picture of Britain's current situation and the looming crises ahead should be setting the alarm bells ringing in homes up and down the country, but at the moment, life can go on relatively undistrurbed thanks to the credit card and the short term escapism that it can buy.
Lloyds TSB, the largest unsecured lender in the UK, is just the latest bank to announce an increase in the number of customers facing repayment difficulties on credit cards and personal loans.
The average family now owes £19,000 on credit cards and this spralling debt crisis in Britain prompted the Government to create a £45 million fund to pay for hundreds of new debt advisers.
The money will largely be given to existing organisations, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, which already offers debt counselling. It currently has 1,025 debt advisers who had to cope with 1.1 million debt inquiries last year, one of the biggest single problems that prompts people to visit its offices.
The debt charity, Consumer Credit Counselling Service, reported that 25,000 people rang its helpline for advice last month, almost double the number who had called in May the previous year.
The fuse that will ignite the credit card time bomb will be the end of the 0% balance transfer when credit card debit can no longer be shifted from card to card to get a zero interest payment. When that interest rate soars from 0% to 21% overnight, lives being lived on credit card debt will get that long-awaited reality check.
Tony Blair and Labour have survived because Dad can still go to his football, Mum can still go shopping and the children can still have the latest PS2 games. There's still the summer holiday to look forward to and Sky Television to come back to.
When all this ends it will be Labour's time of reckoning. When the cards have been stopped and repayment for the outstanding debt being taken directly from the wage packet, then people's minds will start focussing on what has happened to our country since Labour came to power.
Only then will politics in Britain become meaningful again and will the public really take on board what the different political parties are campaigning for.

More recently there was this offering from March of this year.

LAST month the world's central banks pumped £140 billion of liquidity into global markets. In America, the US Federal Reserve offered $140 billion in secured Government bonds in exchange for packages of American mortgages held by banks in trouble because of the credit crunch, which is in effect part-nationalising the mortgage market there. So now if someone defaults on one of those mortgages, it's the American taxpayer that foots the bill, not the bank which lent the money.
Here, the Bank of England made £10 billion available for banks unable to raise funds because of concerns over their viability to continue in business, and said it would consider providing another £10 billion next month. Remember, that this is your money being used to bail out private banks that have got into trouble because in their greed for higher returns they lent their money unwisely.
What is happening here is that money is being created rather than earned and that will bring the whole system cashing down. The first rule of good banking is that if a bank makes ill-advised loans it should have to pay the penalty for that bad judgement. The credibility of the banking system is built on sound investment, so if bad banks are propped up, then confidence in the system is eroded.
These desperate measures are being taken in a last ditch effort to maintain the supply of easy credit on which the growth of the global economy depends - but it is doomed to failure and that is something that should be welcomed by nationalists in every country across the globe.
Easy credit has certainly been the worst enemy of the people of this country. It has encouraged Britons to look inwards, to feather their own little comfort zone with material goods and luxury services, insulating themselves from the reality of what is happening in Britain today.
The awakening of the British people will spread across the country in direct response to the decline in the availability of easy credit. Once money has to be earned again, the fact that migrant workers are taking the lion's share of the jobs available will become THE political issue of the day and then there will only be one political party that will have the policies that the British people will be demanding - the British National Party.


As I said on Monday, these are historic times that we are currently living through, witnessing the collapse of global capitalism and the greed that is its hallmark. In a future where the British National Party has a significant input into how things are run, it will be 'small is beautiful' for any private enterprise and all of Britain's large scale undertakings will come from the State. That is the magic mix that makes nationalism the only way forward for our country.

Repossessions should become council houses

What a day it was yesterday! I had my radio with me in the office so that I could keep up to date with the latest developments as the global economy came crashing down around us.

I feel little concern that tens of thousands of jobs of have gone in the city. These people have shown no sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost in manufacturing over the years, many as a consequence of the greed of the finance industry. I feel no concern that nearly 4% was wiped off the value of the FTSE. The shareholders have had year upon year of a rising index and common sense tells you that this can't carry on - sooner or later the fall must come. They should have been better prepared.

The global economy is responsible for the destruction of the British manufacturing industry and rising unemployment. Cheap foreign imports have closed our factories and low-paid migrant workers have put British workers on the dole. I am certainly shedding no tears this morning.

With the disappearance of the cheap credit that fuels the global market place, rising transport costs and the unpredictability of foreign exchange, countries will have to retreat within themselves, looking to the home market for both sales and production. In Britain it will be this self-sufficiency that is seen as the only way forward and that, of course, is the basis of the British National Party's economic policy.

But what of the repercussions for the man in the street from yesterday's historic events? - and make no mistake that is exactly what they were historic!

Well, the biggest jolt for us is still to come and that's the collapse of the personal credit market. Those firms that have been lending to all and sundry (you know the ones, where they are willing to lend money to you even if you have a bad credit rating, no equity in your house and even CCJs) will go to the wall. The credit supply will disappear and the credit card time-bomb that Freedom warned of more than three years ago will explode.

And from the wreckage a sound financial system will emerge. Money earned will have a real value once again because there will be no easy money to borrow. Financial prudence and savings will be rewarded once again as rising interest rates due to the credit shortage will benefit savers. People will have to live within their means once again which will provide the stability that the country needs.

A major downside will be the collapse of the housing market and that will hurt every family in the country as we all have our money tied up in our property. Back in the 1990s, the downward spiral in house prices was exacerbated by the repossessions that were coming on to the market. In the very dark days it was only houses that had been repossessed that were being bought because they were the only homes providing value for money amongst those up for sale. This time around there will be many, many more repossessions and something must be done to limit their depressing effect on the price of property.

One answer is to use the repossessions to boost our council housing stock. Any home being repossessed should be viewed by the local authority as to its suitability to provide social housing and then if it is feasible, the Government should make the funding available for the transaction to take place. As many lenders will have little chance of recouping any money from the family that has lost their home, a good deal for the taxpayers could be agreed upon. The council could then offer the family evicted their home back as a council house for which they would pay the going rate in council rent.

This will massively increase our much depleted (thanks to the Tories) social housing stock and also help shore up the fragile property market.

That's my take on things this morning at around eight o'clock. What do you think?

Watch the Noel Edmonds Show tonight on Sky One at 7.00pm

An email in my inbox this morning from Frank O’Brien of Solihull BNP who like me is still a committed SMALL FACES fan and survivor of the 1960s mod /rocker / hippy era!.

I wasn't going to post today as it's a lovely morning here in West Cumbria and the garden beckons. But I'm feeling very happy this morning as yesterday Workington Reds secured a vital three points against Solihull, so I can hardly refuse Frank's request.

He writes:

"About twelve months ago the Solihull branch of the British National Party were asked to help out a local group of ex servicemen at the Royal British Legion in Knowle, Solihull.
"These ex-servicemen had decided to help out soldiers returning from active service in Iraq and Afghanistan. They decided to call themselves “Troop Aid”. The soldiers returning from these theatres of war were being ignored by our Government, so local BNP groups rallied together and raised thousands of pounds to provide facilities at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham to enable families to stay with their loved ones while they recovered from their injuries.
"This charity has gone on to become a major charity in its own right, gaining official charity status a few months ago. Prince Harry is rumoured to be a possible patron in the near future!
"On Sunday 14 September Troop Aid will be featured on the Noel Edmonds Show on Sky One at 1900 hrs. Could you let BNP members know that we supported this charity at the very start - we were there when it mattered!
"Solihull BNP have helped raise over £1000 pounds today, Saturday 13 September for a local charity. Will be sending full details and ‘photos very soon."

Delighted to oblige Frank, keep up the good work.

Media frenzy and that saved own goal

ANY disappointment that I was feeling yesterday because the electorate in Braintree had been denied the opportunity to vote for the British National Party in a local election due to the last minute withdrawal of our candidate, quickly disappeared when I read the massive media coverage this event received.

It was hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of very good publicity and in almost every national newspaper. However much hostile journalists tried to dress it up, the bottom line of the story in every report was that people have had enough of the corrupt old gang politicians and are turning to the BNP.

One of the most expressed disappointments of our membership, especially new members, is that there are no high profile public figures coming forward to announce that they are supporting the British National Party. Yesterday's media frenzy over just a relative of a 'celebrity' expressing support for the BNP illustrates perfectly why this doesn't happen. When the Party membership of Simone Clarke, dubbed the BNP ballerina, was discovered by an undercover Guardian reporter it made worldwide news. Even the brother of an England footaballer standing for the BNP was seized on as a headline story by the tabloids.

That's why our BNP 'celebrities' and public figures keep their heads well and truly down and their support for us under wraps. There are some big names, household names, who support us but they know that the media would shoot them down if they placed their heads above the parapet, and with a living to earn that depends so much on the help of that very same media, it would be tantamount to committing professional suicide.

One big name, and I mean BIG - a star of TV and film, told me that I wouldn't believe the support that the BNP had within the entertainment industry. And what is of most note here is that this conversation took place in the run-up to the Euro Elections in 2004, well before the BNP started to have a real impact in British politics.

In the Daily Telegraph this morning, Daniel Hannan complains that the BNP are getting too much publicity . . . . and then he spends his whole of his column giving us even more!

And on the subject of publicity here are two more stories, and just like the day before yesterday one comes from Devon and the other from South Tyneside. Our opponents do seem to be playing into our hands every time they open their mouths.

Searchlight magazine appears to be getting all the inside info on what is being discussed at our Advisory Council meetings and have made it public. The Guardian even picked up on the Ashley Mote decision in yesterday's newspaper. I had alluded to this discussion in this very blog at the time and was disappointed that it wasn't made public knowledge much sooner. I shall repeat what I said at the time just to make my views very clear if anyone has any doubts.

"The most important item on the agenda, in my opinion, was left until last and I am delighted to report that the possibility of a massive BNP own goal has been averted. I would love to tell you more about it, but I can't, although I expect the news will filter out this week. I shall just allow myself the one pronouncement on the issue. Self-interest and short-termism has no place in nationalist politics!"

I have no problem with Gerry and Sonia Gable (who had a brief liaison with a nationalist colleague of mine back in the 1970s, something I expect embarrasses them both now), the proprietors of Searchlight publishing what took place at AC meetings, I only wish that we had published it first on our website. Openness in politics should be the hallmark of the BNP to set us apart from the corrupt old gang. Some might argue that it's vital for some confidentiality, but then again if it's going to come out anyway, it might as well come from us first.

Garden again this weekend, weather permitting, as well as a visit to Borough Park tomorrow for a 'must win' game against Solihull Moors.

Bullyboy tactics backfire in Broadclyst

WELL, the Labour Party bullies are out in force again with intimidation taking place at opposite ends of the country.

Here's a story from Jarrow in Tyneside where a local taxi firm has been targeted after having some leaflets about the BNP on show in its office - that really upset the local Labour Party because it doesn't want anyone to be allowed to read about alternative political thinking.

Then in Devon, there's a campaign to hound local BNP councillor Colin Fribbens, out of office in Broadclyst. Just read some of the comments attached to this story and you will realise the extent to which these bullyboy tactics backfire and actually encourage support for the British National Party. Colin sent me the Letters' Page from his local newspaper this morning which had five letters of support including one from the vice chairman of the local parish council who was full of praise for the work the BNP councillor does in his village. The story will be in the October issue of Freedom.

A classic from John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning on Radio 4. He was talking about the 'Liquid Bombers' trial and he said, I quote:
"Although the defendants were all British, the expertise for making the bombs came from Pakistan". !!!

It was said with a note of surprise in his voice as though it was quite extraordinary that there should be a connection here.

John, John, how are you able to deliver such lines and not snort with derision at such nonsense. Just take a look in the newspaper at the faces of these Islamic terrorists. There shouldn't be any surprise at all that they are getting their bomb-making expertise from Pakistan . . . and that's because they are quite clearly Pakistanis!!

I hope that the latest Freedom has been well received and that the copies are being put out in significant numbers. I know a team are out tonight in Workington preparing the ground for a forthcoming local council election.

There's been much speculation as to the future of Freedom, especially on those websites that are anti-BNP or just against the BNP leadership (there's very little between them, have you noticed?). Well, the newspaper is back to normal next month with the October issue coming out right at the beginning of the month and then the November issue will be another big print-run and it will cover the month of December as well as this is a time when politics is put on the back-burner in favour of celebrating Christmas.

It must be the weather

I'M grateful to Steve Dunkin for a copy of the letter he sent to The Times concerning the Notting Hill Carnival. Needless to say, it wasn't published, no doubt because it provides an insight into how this multicultural celebration decended into a nightmare for the long-suffering indigenous residents of our capital city.

Steve wrote:

"Dear Sir,
I refer to the unattributed article ( Page 21 , 26th August 2008 ) concerning the Carnival and was surprised that no reference was made to the riot at Ladbroke Grove station but the item had the curious reference to harmony.
I live in the area and experienced boarded up designer shops, sealed letter boxes, the constant drone of police helicopters, security fencing on blocks of flats, vandalised cars etc making the place feel like a war zone and the annual chore of clearing up the detritus thrown into our communal garden and disinfecting my garage that is used as a urinal.
I am curious about the vast difference in numbers reported to  have attended the event which presumeably is for PC reasons to allow for the most favorable hype according to circumstances but from own observations and knowledge of the area, shuttered windows, unlit properties and empty pubs that are normally heaving a greater number of locals leave the area than on other bank holidays. The Local Council is forced to provide  holidays in Folkestone for older residents to avoid the disruption at Council Tax payers expense.
I do not regard it as reasonable that residents should have to endure this event every year just to salve the consciences of the liberal media and three establishment political parties."

No punches pulled by Steve here then, and I expect the Letters' Editor on that newspaper almost had a heart attack when reading such an uncomplimentary account of this 'vibrant' annual event.

My old friend Frank Field was being rather unfair yesterday in his dismissal of the BNP as being ineffective over the years for failing to get immigration debated on the political agenda. We have certainly tried our hardest within the BNP, and in the old National Front prior to that, but the establishment did everything in its power to stop the immigration issue coming up for discussion. And when I say everything I mean just that . . . sent to prison, losing your job, physically attacked, financially squeezed and generally vilified as a political pariah. It is as though Frank is almost blaming the BNP for the fact that immigration is now becoming such a problem.

The collapse of America's two largest mortgage lenders and their nationalisation yesterday by the American Government is a testament to the fraudulent nature of usury. Nationalists have always said that this had to be the endgame for such a fraudulent system, but when we did we were attacked and called 'nazis' - that was because the Nationalist Socialist Government in Germany in the 1930s also called the 'banking' business corrupt.

Lending money that you don't have, and in many cases doesn't even exist, at an extortionate interest rate makes a nice little profit for the userers as long as everyone plays ball. It is making money out of nothing and can continue unrestricted if the greed is kept in check - providing a comfortable living for those involved without any real work being done.

But the greed for easy money can never be contained and that's what has happened in the banking industry over the past three years and now their house of cards has collapsed and the taxpayers are having to bail out the bankers.

Unfortunately the Governments in the US and UK don't have the money to be able to underpin the industry either and will have to print more to honour its commitments. This will lead rampant inflation and the further collapse in confidence.

Where will it all end? Probably with us having to take a suitcase full of twenty pound notes down to the supermarket just to buy a loaf of bread.

It's a grim blog this morning - it must be the weather.

Agonisingly close yet again.

"YE GODS", as my dear departed colleague and legendary nationalist scribe Ted Budden would have said.

It was exactly my reaction to last night's narrow defeat in Melton. Nick Porter was just 78 votes short of taking the formerly safe Labour seat. Agonisingly close but just not quite enough for victory.

My information is that our canvass returns showed us well ahead of the Labour vote of 315 so it appears that a number of our supporters didn't make it to the polls. They might have been put off by the last minute smear leaflet put out by Labour which just reprinted the report in this week's Daily Mirror concerning the Young BNP.

It was harmful propaganda and could worry some people. I have made my views very clear on this in an early posting and just to reiterate the point I would like to see the YBNP concentrating on canoeing, rock climbing, and orienteering and forgeting about those other outdoor activities that our opponents have made such a meal about.

Melton Borough Council

Egerton Ward

Thursday 4th September 2008

Steve Dungworth (Lab) 314

Nick Porter (BNP) 236
Jeanne Douglas (Con) 177

BNP Percentage: 32.5%

May 2007: Lab 431, Lab 386, BNP 251, Con 216, Con 194.

There was a very pleasant surprise from South Cumbria last night with Mike Ashburner pulling a cracking result out of the bag in the Tory stronghold of Newbarns. I was led to believe that the local unit thought that anything over 5% would be regarded as a worthwhile result and Mike went and polled more than double that securing 104 votes which was 11.8%. I can tell you now that this result will upset the local newspaper which doesn't attempt to hide it's dislike for the BNP.

Barrow Borough Council

Newbarns Ward

Thursday 4th September 2008

Bob Maltman (Con) 478

Lorraine Biggins (Lab) 177

Sarah Martinez (Ind) 155
Mike Ashburner (BNP) 104

BNP Percentage: 11.8%

May 2008: Con 609, Con 516, Con 486, Ind 511, Lab 299, Lab243, Lab216.

Well, that's it for today, apart from congratulating both Nick and Mike on their efforts last night. Tina and I are just off for a trip to Scotland to check out a hotel for a leadership weekend just before Christmas.

Radio 4 is becoming a bit of a tease!

BBC Radio 4's Today programme is becoming a bit of tease.

It carried the story of a soldier home on leave who was refused a room by a hotel when he showed his military ID card at reception. Corporal Thomas Stringer, from Gwynedd, was visiting a wounded colleague in Surrey when he was turned away from the Metro Hotel in Woking. Corporal Stringer's mother, Gaynor, says he was forced to sleep in his car as a result. During the report it came out that soldiers were worried about wearing their uniforms in some towns because there were an increasing number of incidents of servicemen being spat at!

Well John Humphrys said that he found it hard to believe that there was this sort of attitude towards our servicemen and that he was certain the listeners would be angered by the news. I wonder if John knows who is doing the spitting or was he as genuinely surprised and as much 'in the dark' as he made out.

I'm afraid I know exactly who is doing the spitting . . or is that just my inherent racism colouring my judgement just like yesterday?

The beleaguered non-Muslim folk of Pendle will be taking the British National Party a lot more seriously come the next round of elections after a mosque in Nelson was given the go-ahead for an extension despite opposition from local residents and Pendle’s planning officers.

The Mohammadi Mosque, on Netherfield Road applied to the borough council to build a first floor extension over the present premises and an existing car park, but council planning chiefs had opposed the venture, claiming there was a major increase in floorspace with only one extra car parking space provided. That was because the existing prayer room was being relocated within the car park extension.

All members of Pendle council’s Nelson committee voted to approved the mosque extension - with the exception of British National Party councillors Brian Parker and Adam Grant. Let's hope that this won't go unnoticed by those residents who have seen their objections to the mosque extension completely ignored.

I've reported on the Melton by-election on the main website. Wayne McDermott is quite bullish about our chances here so it could be worthwhile saying up till 11 o'clock to catch the result on the BNP website or failing that on Vote 2007 which can be found here.

Starting on the October issue of Freedom this afternoon. It's always a bit of a difficult time as you are staring at 16 blanks pages and the worries about getting it out on time start to gather in the back of your mind. As the month goes on, this anxiety increases and there will be numerous times when I think that it just won't be finished in time for the printer's deadline . . . but that is the very nature of the newspaper business.

Football on Saturday and I'm already looking forward to it. Reds are at home to Redditch which is a real needle game. After good away performances and a point each from visits to Alfreton and Droylsden last week, I'm quietly confident of picking up all three points.

Jumping to conclusions again?

THERE is a smear story in The Mirror this morning regarding the Young BNP. The Labour Party and its friends in the media are desperate to put people off supporting us and will pull every trick in the book to try to discredit us.

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of youth organisations connected to political parties because the Party as a whole becomes vulnerable to the brainwashing charge. In nationalist politics over the years, we have only received detrimental publicity concerning our youth wings - from the leafletting at school gates charge, through to targeting football supporters and now to learning about guns and knives at a summer camp.

While team leader Mike Howson, and all those associated with the Young BNP do a brilliant job in giving our youngsters an exciting time and a grounding in the values that are important to us as well as preparing them for the political struggles ahead, they have a tightrope to walk in regard to avoiding own goals as far as publicity for the British National Party is concerned. As the editor of the BNP political newspaper, a positive image for the Party is my main priority, so I'm probably over sensitive on this issue and accept that many of the readers of this blog won't agree with me.

There's always some little piece of information that seeps through the BBC's PC guard on their Radio 4 flagship morning news programme Today and this morning was no exception. In a report just after seven o'clock, Martin Barnes of the drug information charity DrugScope explained how diazepam, which is better known under its old brand name of Valium, is re-emerging as a drug of choice among abusers. He said that traditionally the illegal trade in this drug came to Britain from Pakistan and India, but that now it was being manufactured here in Britain. With that tradition of manufacture in Asia in the past, it's probably a safe bet who is behind its manufacture in Britain in the present . . . or is that the inherent racism in me jumping to conclusions again.

There's an interesting by-election taking place on Thursday in Melton Mowbray and the political temperature in the ward is rising by the day. You can read all about our campaign on the excellent Melton & Rutland BNP website here

Media's agenda and my bad habits

CARLISLE BNP are having concerns about their PO Box. There were difficulties with mail going missing when it was first opened back in May but then, after a complaint, the mail started flowing again. Now it's going AWOL again and Carlisle organiser Alistair Barbour, has made a formal complaint and informed the Police. He has sent a number of test mails through which haven't arrived, so it looks as though someone at the city's sorting office is pilfering, diverting or withholding the BNP post.

There's a valid point made in the editorial of the The Independent this morning over all the fuss concerning Hurricane Gustav. At the very same time as our TV screens are full of images of residents fleeing New Orleans - some say to escape the looting and lawlessness that a hurricane encourages as much as the weather - the catastrophic floods in the Indian state of Bihar, where hundreds have died and more than a million people have been left homeless, barely gets a mention.

What is wrong here is that it is the media that is setting the agenda, telling us what is important and what isn't. To qualify that a little more, it is individual editors who are dictating priorities and each of them will have their own political axe to grind. The BNP knows about this more than most, as we almost always suffer as a consequence of the political leanings of those who have power within the media to compile the sort of news that suits them best.

As usual the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning was playing the 'sackcloth and ashes' card asking why, in an incredulous tone, Britain wasn't providing aid for those suffering in India? As I covered the miles on my exercise bike I told my trusty transistor that a country that can spend a small fortune on nuclear arms and already receives Oversea Aid from us should be able to look after its own people in time of need.

We also had Thought for the Day with the Right Reverend James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool telling us that criminal aren't as bad as they might seem. Of course this mis-guided cleric was talking about meeting offenders inside prison when they are feeling contrite and sorry for themselves at being detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. He should meet them when they are out on the street, full of bravado and committing their crimes before asking us to feel any sympathy for them.

The sorry state of Britain's Premier League couldn't have been better encapsulated that in this morning's news that Manchester City has been taken over by a United Arab Emirates investment group. Joe Mercer must be spinning in his grave. If I was ever Minister for Sport, I would ban foreign ownership of British football clubs, ban foreign managers from managing British clubs and limit foreign players to one player per club per season. These vast sums of money swilling around the Premiership should be being invested in grass roots football.

Finally I've picked up a bad habit from holiday - reading crime thrillers. Rather than watch the box in the evening I'm off to my bedroom with a book and can recommend from this week's reading Hilary Bonner's A Fancy to Kill For and A Moment of Madness and Val McDermid's The Mermaid's Singing. Tonight I'm starting The Safe House by Nicci French.

Like my football with Workington Reds, these books provide a nice escape for a couple of hours from the depressing political situation in the country.

Back with a chill

BACK in the blogging business again as my responsibility for Freedom is over for another month. It's now down to John Walker and his team to get the newspaper distributed around the country and with the printing presses rolling as I write this, hopefully the majority of the huge 100,000 print-run of this special issue edition will be out over the next couple of weeks.

Lots going on at the moment including another revelation due in the media of a British National Party member, in fact a BNP candidate for a forthcoming election, with celebrity family associations.

There's that leaked letter from the Home Office warning of growth for the BNP as the credit crunch takes hold and this has been borne out this morning with the Membership Office telephone constantly ringing with new memberships.

Last Thursday there was that brilliant election result in Rotherham. Our candidate for Wickersley Ward polled 20% of the vote and the combined BNP and UKIP vote totaled more than the victorious Labour candidate could muster. There has been much bemoaning of the UKIP vote handing the seat to Labour, but that's not the story at all. This was UKIP's best ward in Rotherham and their candidate fought the ward in May and polled over 800 votes, so for the BNP to come from nowhere and beat UKIP out of sight was the real achievement here. Next time Wickersley is fought the remaining UKIP support will be firmly behind the BNP and we should be on course to win the seat. Well done to Marlene and her team for a brilliant effort.

Got soaked yesterday digging in kerb stones for our driveway. Today I have a chill and feel well below par. So hopefully I shall be more forthcoming tomorrow.