The Church in a dilemma

This is Michael Elliott with family and friends at Saturday's Battle for Britain fundraising social in Cumbria. Michael (stripped shirt) is one of our candidates on the North West list for the European Elections. Yesterday I received some superb photos taken during the evening by a professional photographer and no doubt many of these will appear in various leaflets, newspapers and on local websites in the coming months.

Freedom deadlines are hanging over me yet again so it's a truncated blog this morning. Our 'Jesus Poster' made both today's issues of the Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman. Those political church leaders who like to manipulate the Gospel to suit their own ends seem to be having a bit of trouble with this one. And I think this story could run on a little because the media quite likes to see sanctimonious clergy struggling with biblical interpretations.

And just this minute there has been another offering on the subject from Ekklesia which IS the political church. There appears to be some dissension in the ranks as to what Jesus would have said about the poster. Enjoy their dilemma here.

Four elections on Thursday and the word from Yorkshire is that our vote is holding up quite well in both Leeds and Halifax in the face of huge campaigns from Labour and the Tories. I hope to get some more info from all four contests during the day.

Battle for Britain comes to Cumbria

IT WAS a great night on Saturday when the Battle of Britain Roadshow came to Cumbria.

There was a near full house in the village hall in one of North Cumbria's most rural locations, to see a very slick fund-raising presentation and a brilliant speech from British National Party chairman Nick Griffin.

I've heard hundreds of Nick's speeches but this one was something special and in conjunction with the film show, it provided a very potent message. No wonder nearly £100,000 has been raised from the 20-odd roadshows that have taken place in the past month.

The whole evening went very well with a super buffet, and a bar run by Tina and her father.

At the end of the evening, North West Elections Officer Clive Jefferson, made an impassioned plea for candidates to come forward for the Cumbria County Council Elections in June and when I left there was a queue of people waiting to give their details to him.

A full report can be found on Clive's Cumbria BNP website here.

Lots of correspondence this morning regarding Stuart Wheeler's £100,000 donation to UKIP. So they got in seconds what Nick and his team have spent a whole month on the road and 22 Battle for Britain evenings working incredibly hard to raise. It is a little upsetting but not something to fret about too much. In fact it is something that we should even welcome.

It won't do the BNP any good if the UKIP vote collapses and all returns to the Conservative Party. A bigger Tory vote raises the bar for us and the vote that we will need to get MEPs elected. We need UKIP to hold on to a 5-6% vote share just to keep the Conservative vote down and if Mr Wheeler's most generous donation enables this to happen then all well and good.

Margaret Hodge, whose warning about the growth of the BNP in April 2006 led to the Party wining 12 out of the 13 seats we fought in Barking and Dagenham, is at it again in today's Guardian. Let's hope her intervention has a similar effect on our European and County Council votes. You can read the report here.

And finally, what do you make of this? 'The Church' seems a little upset over our new poster which will be widely seen in the run-up to June 4th. No doubt Vasantha Gnanadoss will be livid, a thought that gives me a real lift this morning.

They must have the patience of Job

Congratulations to Stephen Fyfe and Lawrence Perkins on their votes last night.


I didn't stay up last night for the results, so there was a pleasant surprise this morning.

The site that is normally first with the news, along with the Comments' Section on www.politicalbetting.com, is Vote-2007, but this site had been down all day so I thought I would go to bed early with a good book - "White Nights" by Anne Cleeves. It's just a whodunit? but I like the descriptions of the Shetland Islands where it's set and this one is as good as her previous novel set there, 'Black Raven'.

So it's another upbeat Friday, and the telephones here are already ringing off the hooks and it still isn't yet nine. As I said earlier this week, we have an overflow line for enquiries, thankfully just for a few days, and although I only do a short stint to cover a lunch break, I am full of admiration for Donna, Jean and the team for their efforts. They must have the patience of Jobe.

I had had enough after just a handful of calls yesterday.

"You should get on TV more"

"Why don't you put out leaflets"

"You never put up a candidate here'

Aaagh!!

All well-meaning suggestions from people who must think that the Party is ten times the size it actually is.

With some, so full of urgency, it's as though they have just woken up. I feel like asking them what they have been doing for the past 30 years while our country has been taken over. But I just have to bite my tongue.

The membership of the BNP has never worked harder, so it's a bit galling that people who aren't even members are so quick to tell us that we are not doing enough.

I think my lack of enthusiasm yesterday to welcome these enquiries to the fold was noticed, so I expect shall be passed over if there's a call for volunteers today.

I see that Bob Crow's No2eu party will not be taking up their European Parliament seats if they win any in June. You can read the report in this morning's Tribune here.

I'm certain that Bob Crow's lot will play a similar role to that of Respect at the last Euro Elections in 2004.

I was the No.2 candidate in the North West and at the count at Manchester Town Hall, the Respect team spent they whole evening standing around just abusing the BNP candidates and agents. It turned out that they were all anti-BNP campaigners and had no interest in how the votes were stacking up for Respect. They made it quite difficult for us to move around and monitor the counting and were constantly shouting abuse at us. Apart from our security, there was no one official to tell them to behave themselves.

I expect all the UAF people that have been busy campaigning against the BNP in the North West will turn up as counting agents for No2eu. Thankfully our security is well up to speed on all this and will be alerting the authorities about these concerns at a special meeting tonight.

If it's Thursday it's election day

I HAVE been making some enquiries to try to find out what our expectations are for today's contests in North East Lincolnshire and Melton.

It hasn't been easy because both campaigns have been very much local affairs and none of our growing band of 'have election will travel' electioneers seem to have been involved.

On the Melton and Rutland blog which can be found here, local BNP councillor James North reports in his diary;

"This weekend served as a catch up few days for the by-election.
"Luckily after a quick text message around to our local activists we had full teams for the leafleting sessions.
"The election is now back on target and it will be interesting to see what kind of result we get on March 26th.
"I spoke to the most people on Sunday as it was a fabulous day with the sun shining and many people were out in their gardens. The response from the public was nothing less than fantastic, with a lot of people pledging to vote for us."

I tapped up the East Midlands Election Officer Wayne McDermott, for further info and this is what he had to say:

"Melton . . . umm, not sure what to expect.
"I haven't been involved but the local group have put out 2 leaflets and run a basic campaign to find our level of support in a tough rural ward.
"Initially I thought we would struggle to get 10%, which would still be fine in the big picture of the Euro elections.
"But I have heard that neither the Labour nor the Independent campaign have been great shakes which could help us in a ward where the Tories will win by a massive majority."

Another bit of good news from Melton is that they will be contesting all four county council seat in June with the candidates already selected.

Although North East Lincolnshire is in the Yorkshire region, Wayne did spend a morning canvassing in the Yarborough ward which he described as "challenging". It seems as if this is another two leaflet campaign with some canvassing.

"It's a better campaign than we have done in the past in Grimsby," he said.

I'm grateful to John Waller and F.M. Mallon for sending me their responses from the Postal Review Panel to their concern over the delivery of the BNP's election material. This is it:

Thank you for contacting the Postal Review Panel regarding the forth coming election material that Royal Mail will be delivering.

I do need to advise you that the BNP is incorrect in advising you to contact the Postal Review Panel to register your complaint regarding the European Election material. It is the responsibility of the Panel to review decisions taken by Royal Mail Customer Services, not to deal with an initial complaint. As before we can review a complaint, we must firstly allow Royal Mail the opportunity to deal with the matter.

Royal Mail has an obligation under the Representation of People Act to deliver election material, so long as the material is lawful and adheres to all current legislation. Royal Mail always tries to have a flexible approach, so if an individual feels that they are unable to deliver material because of personal circumstances or beliefs or where an individual believes that delivery of a particular item may incur personal risk, they are asked to discuss this with their line manager who will deal sensitively with any concerns. Royal Mail will make alternative arrangements as appropriate. Please be assured that Royal Mail will endeavour to maintain continuity of service to its customers.

Yours sincerely,
Postal Review Panel.

There was a bit of excitement in Kendal yesterday which you can read about on Clive Jefferson's blog here.

The report is by Kevin Clark who is a great BNP stalwart. Kevin has certainly played his part in writing the history of the BNP, joining myself and Paul Stafford in our marathon 250 mile round trips to Burnley, which we did twice a week for the first five months of 2002, to help the Party make its all important breakthrough in the May elections of that year.

Kevin was a popular canvasser, especially with the ladies, and while Paul and I were half way down the street, Kevin would still be chatting away with the lady at his first port of call.

Labour's coat trailing exercise

THE Labour Party's dangerous game of inflating our chances of success in the European Elections continued apace yesterday with the findings of Gordon Brown's own poll into how the BNP might fare published in the London Daily News.

You can read it here.

Another briefing, this time talking up our chances in Yorkshire, appeared in the Yorkshire Post and you can read it here.

As long as our supporters understand what this strategy is all about, I'm quite happy for it to continue. "Scaring people into turning out against the BNP," is how such tactics are described by one political pundit.

While it might do that, it is certainly motivating our people at the moment with my inbox full of messages reporting Brown's internal poll and how it has sent our morale sky high. If it has that effect on BNP activists for the next 72 days, then let them play their mind games.

Here are some other comments on this Labour strategy which are worth repeating from election anoraks aligned to the main parties:

"Am I the only person to be deeply cynical whenever "shock private polling" is mentioned??"

"The point of that sort of leak isn't to provide accurate information."

"Why on earth would Labour want to do a coat trailing exercise with a story like this? I can't see what they are aiming at. Maybe they want to generate a backlash"

"Yes, I'd say that it may be a way of managing expectations in advance."

In this office yesterday we hosted an overflow enquiry telephone line and I took half a dozen calls while covering a lunch break. Half of them came from people who had seen the previous night's Look East news programme on our Battle for Britain campaign. It probably shows the importance of fair media coverage for our Party. When we get it, there is an instant response from the public.

And finally please visit Clive Jefferson's excellent blog here. The Penrith activity is another first for the Party in an area where we need to start preparing for the Euro Elections as well as the county council elections.

In Eden five years ago, at the last European Election, we polled 3.1% of the total vote so we need to nearly treble this to ensure victory in the North West on June 4th. Yesterday's activity will certainly start the ball rolling in this process.

Pat on the back for the BBC

I CAN'T fault this offering from the BBC on last night's Look East evening news.

What do you think?

BBC Look East

What a contrast, comparing those people at the Battle for Britain evening with the likes of Weyman Bennett and the rather effeminate Labour MEP Richard Howitt. This is something that I'm sure would be noticed by viewers.

The BBC's political analyst David Cowling, said he couldn't see any growth in support for the BNP in the opinion polls and he is probably right. But I don't think that people are too keen on saying that they are going to vote BNP when telephoned, out of the blue, by a complete stranger, especially with the hammering the Party gets in the media.

I'm grateful to Peter Youngman for his take on Constable's The Hay Wain in the light of the changing make-up of the population in East Anglia.

There was no surprise in this office at the outcome of the witch-hunt conducted by Merseyside Police against PC Steven Bettley. Those who were hounding him would not have accepted any other verdict.

I just hope that Steven takes his case all the way to the European Court. This persecution of employees just because of their political beliefs is against the law and if Steven has the staying power he will win his case and get the compensation he is certainly due.

It still amazes me that Merseyside Police have not been criticised for using stolen property and breaching data protection guidelines to victimise one of their own. Surely there should have been a voice from somewhere saying, "this isn't the right thing to do."

And finally . . . the Old Gang parties are uniting in Yorkshire to tackle the BNP, you can read about it here.

Why our opponents inflate our prospects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playing the media

AT our Windermere conference back in December when we planned our European Election strategy, I was sitting next to Nick Griffin one lunchtime eating a chicken and chilli stew that he had made himself. It was so hot it nearly blew your head off.

We discussed the developments of the morning's session which had been an extensive run down of our Battle for Britain campaign. This was designed to motivate the British people to make a stand by rekindling the spirit of the Second World War and Britain's finest hour when, with our backs up against the wall, we fought off the enemy.

I said that I thought it was a brilliant idea and would certainly buoy up our own people for the arduous campaigning that lay ahead.

I also said that it was a pity that the media would 'black out' the campaign so that the public wouldn't be aware of it.

"It would have been good for our image for the British National Party to be associated with the songs of the time which are going to be played at our fund raising gatherings," I said.

"It would have been good for our image for the British National Party to be associated with the Spitfire, the symbol of British resistance, a photo of which is to provide the huge back drop at our functions," I said.

"It would have been good for our image for the British National Party to be associated with Winston Churchill and his V for Victory sign which is to appear on our Battle for Britain literature and which you make at the end of your speech," I said.

But the media won't touch our campaign with a barge pole I told the BNP Chairman - "It won't get a mention anywhere."

Nick said that he had a few ideas on how to get around the media black-out by using their enthusiasm to smear us as a way to get our message over to the public. I guess this is what he meant . . .

"There'll be blue birds over . . . . "

"Never in the field of human conflict . . ."

"We shall fight them on the beaches . . ."

The expression hook, line and sinker comes to mind.

Sometimes we don't even have to play the media. In their desperation to smear us the anti-BNP brigade, which is embedded in so many of our national and local newspapers, come up with the goods without even being prompted to do so. There's a classic in yesterday's Cumbrian Newspapers' News & Star.

Our old chum Neil Hodgkinson is the editor and he is very anti-BNP. He falls over backwards to publish anything that is derogatory about the Party, whether he writes it himself or whether it has been sent into his paper by our opponents.

This was a letter published yesterday.

A Labour candidate congratulating a Tory on winning, and praising voters for electing him! It can't get more bizarre than that, can it?

The letter confirms that there is no difference between the Old Gang parties and that they are all the same. This is something we constantly say in our election leaflets and here it is being confirmed by our opponents themselves in a letter to our local newspaper. We couldn't have asked them to do any more.

The BNP don't want to be tarred with the same brush as the Old Gang parties. We want to be seen to be different, so that all those people who have lost their jobs recently (including the 40 at the News & Star office itself) and who are really hurting at the moment, know that the British National Party is very different from the Labour and Tory Governments that have brought Britain to its knees.

I'm certain that the patronising tone of the letter won't go unnoticed either which will alert any readers to its purpose.

Anti-BNP thugs at last being called to account

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

I'm grateful to Caroline for the feeds.

The success of the BNP

What's driving the BNP

How to stop the BNP

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

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

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

Take a look at this sent in by Elizabeth Lake:


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

Then there's this report in the Leigh Journal.

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

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

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

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

Talk about being out of touch with reality!

Muslim youngsters on church visit? . . . I think not

There's an interesting report in The Sun this morning which can be found here.

It's interesting because you wonder what the average Sun reader is going to make of it.

The purpose of the report is to show how 'open-minded' and 'free-thinking' White British youngsters are in the 'BNP city" of Stoke. But I just wonder if that's how it will be perceived.

I can't image Muslim children sitting around a Church of England vicar while he explains about Christianity and I don't expect many readers of The Sun can either. This leads us to the conclusion that these unfortunate British children are just being exploited for political ends.

There's another interesting snippet in the Daily Telegraph. What do you make of this?

My take on it is that there have been too many letters sent in recently to The Torygraph that have been sympathetic to the British National Party and it wants to frighten off any would-be deserters to the BNP with this Marxist nonsense.

Of course the newspaper's leader writer Singleton, leaves out the all important word 'International' and he has done so deliberately. You can't have Marxism without it, and the BNP's nationalist agenda makes it impossible for us to be Marxist.

I'm grateful to Michael Barnbrook, the BNP's spokesman on Policing and Crime for keeping me updated on his efforts to expose the smear tactics of the Labour Party and their acolytes working for The Independent newspaper. This his update:

"With reference to my complaint to the Tonbridge Race Hate Unit regarding the alleged comments in The Independent by a Labour activist by the name of Lesley Dyball.
"Constable Nova O'Leary from the unit telephoned me on 16th March, 2009, to inform me that she has spoken to Ms Dyball about her alleged comments that BNP supporters chanted "blacks out" after the result was declared.
"According to Constable O'Leary, although Ms Dyball did make a complaint of a racist incident having taken place, at no stage did she mention or implicate the British National Party as having been involved in the incident.
"It appears therefore, that in addition to the photograph that appeared in the same article that attracted over one thousand complaints to the Press Complaints Commission, Ms Dyball is alleging that she has been misquoted by Jerome Taylor, the journalist who wrote the article.
"I intend to make a further complaint to the Press Complaints Commission alleging that the sole intention of the article appears to be no more than an attempt to demonise the British National Party."

Great stuff from Michael showing all the instincts of a former policeman dedicated to uncovering the truth!

Another £2 million spent on discriminating against British people

APPARENTLY our Fire and Rescue Service's main challenge isn't to save and rescue people any more . . . it's about meeting new equality and diversity targets!

New recruitment targets have been announced for the Fire and Rescue Service because representation and promotion rates for people from the ethnic minorities is still too low.

The Fire Minister Sadiq Khan said that the biggest challenge to the Fire and Rescue Authorities was to improve their performance on equality and diversity by meeting the new ethnic minority recruitment target of 2 to 5% above the percentage of the population . . . a target that would make nearly one-in-five of those working in the service either Black or Asian.

His Department is making £2million available to make sure these targets are met.

John Evans (above), the British National Party's candidate in the Wanstead by-election for Redbridge Council, must be rubbing his hands with delight this morning.

For last night the local newspaper, the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian, gave his campaign the greatest boost it could ever have wanted when it reported that politicians from the Old Gang Parties in Redbridge were uniting to campaign against the BNP.

What better endorsement could a candidate have than to be criticised by the discredited political parties that have brought our country to its knees?

Just read what the Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrats dinosaurs had to say:

Council leader and Conservative party head Alan Weinberg said: “Something that unites all the main political parties in Redbridge is our condemnation of groups like the BNP.

Labour leader Cllr Elaine Norman said she thought the party were fielding the candidate in preparation for the upcoming European elections. She added: “They have been leafleting around Wanstead with leaflets focusing on Europe recently.
“I’m disappointed that an extremist fascist party are standing but we will strongly fight against them.”

Redbridge’s Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Hugh Cleaver, added his concerns.
He said: “I would hope they won’t get much support in the area, we don’t have any time for their views and outlook at all.
“I hope that they don’t get very far."

The newspaper even invited our old friend Gerry Gable, of Searchlight, for a comment and he said: “They're a party with a fascist ideology. I would say to people in Wanstead don’t waste your vote on them.”

Not surprisingly, the comments section on the newspaper's website was quickly filled with messages left by voters saying that any political party that was opposed by all three main parties was the one they wanted to vote for.

But what was surprising was that the majority of these pro-BNP comments were then deleted from the website, leaving just the ones that were critical of the BNP!

Fancy trying to redress the balance . . . .then click here.

Inciting violence against the BNP

I REGARD myself as a Christian. I was baptised, confirmed, married in a church, go to church at Easter and Christmas and try to uphold traditional Christian values.

But this morning, once again, I'm ashamed of those 'men of the cloth' who claim to be Christians yet whose attitude to the British National Party has prompted the sort of violence against BNP members that was seen over the weekend in Leigh.

The Church of England, when it banned BNP clergy was in fact declaring an open season on BNP members. It was giving a green light to those who oppose the BNP to persecute any members and supporters of the Party both by discrimination at work and by physical attack on the street.

The appeal above probably incited someone to attack Tony Ward with a claw hammer. And it was the ban of BNP clergy orchestrated by Vasantha Gnanadoss (below) that has given the impression that members of the BNP are 'beyond salvation'.


Some might take these as too strong words, so let me tell you more.

Alistair Barbour was out canvassing in Castle Ward in Carlisle just after the Synod's ruling on the BNP. He called upon a local vicarage and was met by a vicar who was beside himself with anger when he saw Alistair's rosette.

"You are the anti-Christ," he said. "The BNP is the Devil Incarnate that has been sent to cause carnage on earth."

I kid you not. A vicar who the following Sunday got up in his pulpit and preached to a congregation who were hanging on his every word 'as gospel', believed that a BNP candidate was the anti-Christ and that the BNP was the Devil Incarnate.

If such an attitude is not inciting violence against the membership of the British National Party, I don't know what is.

ADD ON: It's just gone mid-day and I have received this link which shows that not all churches are against the British National Party. What a great report for the April issue of Freedom.

Still on course in the North West

I EXPECT that Nick Griffin has already been on the telephone to Clive Jefferson this morning thanking him and his team of twenty-five activists for their efforts in St Helens on Wednesday which just about kept the British National Party on target to win a North West seat in the European Parliament on June 4th.

Nick is the lead BNP candidate for the region and Clive is the North West's Election Officer. On hearing that our campaign in St Helens was in trouble, Clive organised a day of action just 24 hours before polling day and campaigners from Cumbria, Manchester and Liverpool rallied around distributing more than 9,000 leaflets in a manic 8 hour session.

And their efforts just about paid off with the BNP's percentage across the two wards around the 8% mark required to get Nick elected.

Clive was particularly pleased with the 10% in Parr ward which hadn't been fought before.

"Parr is very promising for the future. Two people actually came out and joined up on the spot, others wanted newspapers and posters and at least 4 ladies came out when they saw my rosette to say their family would be voting BNP.
"There were some good local people who had worked hard with what they had, but with no local leaflets until the last minute it was always going to be an uphill struggle. This could be a very good ward for the BNP next time around," he said.

Here are the results:

Parr Ward
Andy Bowden (Labour) 851
Barry Dodd (Liberal Democrat) 551
Paul Telford (BNP) 183
Mark Arnold (Independent) 98
Madeleine Wilcock (Conservative) 55
Andrea Pennington (Green) 27
BNP Percentage: 10.4%
May 2008: Lab 1251, Lib-Dem 506, Con 212.

Rainhill Ward
Barrie Grunewald (Labour) 1562
Denise Aspinall (Liberal Democrat) 1059
Stephen Bligh (Conservative) 512
Eric Swindells (BNP) 215
David Rothwell (Green) 80
BNP Percentage: 6.3%
May 2008: Lab 1740, Con 877, Lib-Dem 455, BNP 299.

A couple of interesting articles in this morning's Tribune Magazine.

One is an editorial here. The other is the usual rant from our old friend Glyn Ford here.

Reading room up and running

THE Freedom reading room on the main website is now up and running, enabling any visitor to Britain's most popular political website to read the back issues of the newspaper online.

By clicking on the little white square in the top right hand corner of the box presenting each issue you can have Freedom as 'full screen' and there is also a facility for printing off each issue.

Many thanks to the webmaster Simon Bennett, for setting up this reading room which I will update each month. It will only go online five weeks after the newspaper itself has hit the streets so that Freedom subscribers and those that buy it at branch meetings will still always see the newspaper first, a good month before it goes on line.

What was interesting was that Simon and I couldn't get in contact with each other until late afternoon because the telephones were ringing off the hook. I did a spell taking calls and took half a dozen new memberships all from people fuming over the Muslim demo against our troops in Luton. This has really angered people and the BNP was certainly reaping the benefit yesterday.

Clive Jefferson (4th left) and his 'firefighting' team in St Helens yesterday.

On the political forums last night some were discussing the possibility that the tabloid headlines about the demo could benefit the BNP vote in today's by-elections in St Helens, so this will be something to monitor.

Here are the details of the contests:

St Helens Council
Parr Ward
Thursday 12th March 2008
Mark Arnold (Ind)
Andy Bowden (Lab)
Barry Dodd (Lib-Dem)
Andrea Pennington (Green)
Paul Telford (BNP)
Madeleine Wilcock (Con)
May 2008: Lab 1251, Lib-Dem 506, Con 212.

St Helens Council
Rainhill Ward
Thursday 12th March 2008
Denise Aspinall (Lib-Dem)
Stephen Bligh (Con)
Barrie Grunewald (Lab)
David Rothwell (Green)
Eric Swindells (BNP)
May 2008: Lab 1740, Con 877, Lib-Dem 455, BNP 299.

Eric Swindells is also standing in a parish council election in Rainhill along with the same represenatives of the main political parties standing in the borough council election.
Rainhill Parish West election
Denise Aspinall (Lib-Dem)
Stephen Bligh (Con)
Barrie Grunewald (Lab)
Eric Swindells (BNP)

I have no information as to what our expectations are here but the fact that North West Elections Officer Clive Jefferson, had to hot foot it down from Cumbria to St Helens yesterday to ensure that the election address was delivered seems to indicate that it hasn't been a model BNP campaign.

Personally, I shall be delighted if we can get around the 8% mark which will keep us on track for the Euro seat in the North West.

I'm grateful to Trevor Richardson from Lincoln Coastal BNP for the clipping below:

He says that he of course supports all anti-litter campaigns but suggests that the "Dirty Pig" title is rather strange and that there might be some Islamic input here. Having said that, I don't expect a Muslim pulled up for dropping his halal pastie wrapper in the street will take too kindly to being called a "dirty pig"!

And I'm also grateful to Colin Farquhar for this link to those behind the victimisation of BNP clergy. You can find the Church Times report here.

No real surprise then.

A Moston memory from 1978!

CASTLE WARD: It's last Thursday at 8.00pm and North West Elections Officer, Clive Jefferson (2nd left) marshalls his troops for a final push in the Carlisle by-election where the British National Party secured an impressive 20% of the vote.

Well, there's no rest for the wicked and as I write this blog, Clive and a team from Carlisle together with another car load from West Cumbria, are speeding (not literally) down the M6 to St Helens to help with two local by-elections there. The Cumbrian contingent will be joined by activists from Liverpool and Manchester for the delivery of the election address in Rainhill and Parr wards later today.

We polled 9% in Rainhill in May of last year but didn't contest Parr. The figure we must have in mind is the 8% needed to win a seat in the European Parliament for the North West, so we will be hoping to poll around that sort of mark when voting takes place tomorrow.

I also understand from Clive that we will be contesting the Moston by-election in Manchester next month where Derek Adams will be our candidate.

The name "Moston" conjures up a memory for me. I was in Manchester back in 1978 campaigning in the Mosside by-election where Herbert Andrew was the National Front candidate. It wasn't a promising constituency and the NF was in decline after the heady days of 1976 and 1977. Vanessa Redgrave was standing for Workers Revolutionary Party and I remember that as we were sent out leafleting we were warned to watch out for the Moston Brigade who were a gang of her supporters who were going around attacking our campaigners.

Fortunately I didn't meet with any problems but I do remember that at our rally at the end of the day there were some violent scenes as we were attacked by the Moston Brigade. Coming after the confrontation at Lewisham the year before, it prompted me into some serious thinking on the long coach trip home to Sussex that evening as to whether there might not be just too much aggravation involved with nationalist politics.

Well I'm still here thirty-one years later so it obviously didn't put me off too much and although our candidate polled just 2.3% in Mosside, we did beat Vanessa Redgrave which must have boosted morale a bit.

The Freedom website is back on line after a year 's absence. Twelve months ago my computer of eight years called it a day and I lost all my back issues of Freedom. At the same time the new BNP website meant that the old Freedom website became obsolete, so things have been at a standstill.

But now our webmaster Simon Bennett, has set up a new "Reading Room" for the newspaper which can be found on the top bar of the main website.

I'm hoping to get a few back issues posted on there later today.

Workington Reds won 5-0 at Farsley Celtic last night and following on from the 2-1 victory at Gainsborough on Saturday, I'm quietly confident that any relegation worries have now been dispelled.

County council campaign launched in Maryport

Elections agent Steve Harris, with Tina who is standing in Maryport East

THERE was a very good Allerdale BNP meeting held in Maryport last night where Tina and I were adopted to contest the Cumbria County Council seats of Maryport East and Maryport West.

As in 2007, when Tina and I stood in the Allerdale Borough Council elections, Steve Harris will be our election agent and will be running both our campaigns in the town.

Two years ago I stood in Ellenborough ward and Tina stood in Ewanrigg ward and each of us polled 30% of the vote, which was quite an incredible performance considering Labour hadn't been challenged in the borough council seats for 12 years. Our results shocked the political establishment in Cumbria and even though the local newspapers tried to play down the significance of our votes, they had to admit that there was a groundswell of support for the BNP in Maryport.

In my acceptance speech last night I said:

"We lived and worked in the town for 5 years from our home on Curzon Street. Two of our children were educated at the excellent Camp Road school and our youngest had two very happy years at the Stepping Stones nursery on Wood Street. We made, and still have, many friends in the town.
"We moved up from Worthing in Sussex to live in Maryport. We chose to come and live in this town, to bring up our family in this town, which shows just how much we valued Maryport and the way of life it had to offer."

Back in 2005, when the county council elections were last contested, the result in Maryport East was an easy victory for Labour candidate Keith Little, with 2044 votes over his sole Conservative opposition Derick Pattinson, with 421 votes. On that result it looks as though Tina has a mountain to climb, but the votes in 2007 put a completely different slant on things.

Maryport East is made up of both the Ellenborough and Ewanrigg wards so the results from 2007 show that Labour has 1200 votes against the BNP's 618 - a majority of under 600 votes.

Now just before Christmas the BNP contested another county council seat in Kells in Whitehaven and cut a Labour majority of 1010 votes to just 16! If we can do it in Kells, we can certainly do something similar in Maryport, so there's everything to play for in this ward.

In Maryport West, where I am standing, last time around Labour's Bill Cameron polled 1706 votes against Conservative Neville Lishman, who polled 615 votes.

This ward includes the Allerdale wards of Flimby and Netherhall where Labour was unchallenged in 2007. Well, they are going to be challenged this time around and leafleting is already taking place in Flimby and in Netherhall.

Two years ago there was a real buzz about our campaign in Maryport. Local people rallied around and we had teams of leafleters out working for most of the four weeks of the campaign. We put out four different leaflets and it was only the Labour Party's well organised system for getting out its postal vote support that secured the victory. This time around we have started our campaign much earlier and hopefully we will be able to close the gap on Labour even further on June 4th.

Standing up to the bullies

THIS is the front page of the March issue of Freedom which is out today. I make no apologies for including the photograph from our papersale in Exeter for the second month running. It's a cracking image that not only shows our support for British jobs for British workers but is also a great advertisement for the British National Party at the same time. The front page report, which continues on page two, explains why protectionism is the only way to safeguard the economy and secure financial stability.

Our opponents were up to their dirty tricks at the weekend using bully boy tactics to threaten venues hosting BNP events. If this was Zimbabwe and it was Robert Mugabe using such methods to try to silence an opposition party, the media would be up in arms crying 'foul'. As it is us, the Bristol Evening Post just talks about as our opponents as "good-natured protestors".

It is enough to make you want to spit! These people are in fact acting like the very nazis they claim us to be - denying freedom of speech and assembly to those whose political views they don't agree with.

But I'm glad to report that we are standing up to this sort of bullying, and the mis-reporting of the BNP by our opponents in the media.

Former police inspector Michael Barnbrook, who was our excellent candidate in Bexley in January and was just pipped by 8 votes from winning a safe Tory seat, is taking on a lying Labour former councillor. Here is a press release I received this morning.

"Michael Barnbrook, Bexley Branch, today made an allegation to the Kent Constabulary Racial Incident unit of a race hate crime.
The allegation relates to an article by Jerome Taylor in The Independent newspaper published on Saturday 21st February, 2009, reporting the victory of the British National Party in the Sevenoaks District, Swanley Council By Election on Thursday 19th February, 2009.
The article quotes a Labour activist by the name of Lesley Dyball claiming that British National Supporters chanted "blacks out" after the result was declared at Swanley Town Hall.
Michael was a polling agent at Swanley Civic Centre, where the count took place, between 7.30am and 11. 30pm. He was in the Civic Centre during and after the result had been announced and is emphatic that no such incident took place.
There were three police officers on duty at the count, including an Inspector, a Sergeant and a Constable, who, if such an incident did take place , would surely have reported the incident and made arrests.
The Returning Officer actually thanked everyone at the count for the smooth manner in which it had been conducted.
Michael is alleging that the comments allegedly made by Lesley Dyball, if the article is correct, amount to an intention to stir up racial hatred, an offence under the Public Order Act, 1986. He is asking for a full investigation to take place into the allegations made in the newspaper article.
Michael is prepared to make a statement and attend court to give evidence, if necessary.
Michael is requesting that all members present at the count contact the Kent Constabulary Racial Incident Reporting Line on 0800 138 1624 to complain about the newspaper article and request an investigation."

Great stuff - showing that we won't be bullied or lied about.

And on a similar theme I am delighted to report a couple of responses to the shocking anti-BNP diatribe printed in the Cumbrian News and Star just two days before polling took place in a couple of Carlisle by-elections where our candidates were standing.

My colleague John Bean wrote to the editor:

"It is not the BNP that I find 'revolting' but the crypto-Marxist Neil Hodgkinson who makes a habit of interfering in the electoral procedure by smearing the BNP, but never the Labour, Tory or Lib-Dem parties.
He writes of the BNP, "The party refuses to give respect to the millions who lost their lives fighting the Nazis..."
As a senior member of the BNP I certainly have no love for the Nazis. My family and I were bombed out in 1940 in the London blitz (two of us had superficial wounds) and my father then sent us to live in Ambleside, where I attended Kelsick Grammar School - together with 400 girls evacuated from Newcastle.
In March 1945 I was accepted for RAF Aircrew Reserve, but not old enough to see action.
So please Mr Hodgkinson do not infer that I would not give respect to those who lost their lives fighting the Nazis."

Another response to the smear came from Iris Chalenor and Ian Walsh. They wrote to the Press Complaints Commission.

Interference in Democracy - Cumbrian News & Star.
We wish to register a complaint against the News & Star of Cumbrian Newspapers, Dalston Road, Carlisle, CA2 5UA.
Please find enclosed a printout from their website.
Some of the comments are just terminological inexactitudes, the most diabolical being "The party refuses to give respect to the millions who lost their lives fighting the Nazis…". In actual fact Nick Griffin requested members and supporters to assist in the British Legion Poppy Appeal and purchase and wear a poppy. Many veterans of the Second World War are proud members of the British National Party.
Other comments are derogatory to the many citizens of Cumbria who chose to support and vote for the British National Party.
Such an article only a few days before two important by-elections in the city can only be designed to affect the result of the elections.
Will you please take our complaint forward.

Great responses again showing that we won't be bullied by the opposition and their agents in the media.

When am I going to learn?

Bitterly disappointed this morning.

Bitterly disappointed with myself for breaking, for the umpteenth time, the number one commandment of electioneering . . . .

Thou shalt not be over optimistic about your election prospects.

When am I going to learn? Since 1976, and the Walsall North by-election, I have been getting over optimistic about election results - committing the cardinal sin of nationalist politics - believing that the impossible can be achieved, when I should be happy with just achieving the improbable. I had thought that in recent years I had conquered this shortcoming in my character, but obviously that isn't the case.

Last night in this office when the result of the Carlisle Castle ward by-election came through on the Vote-2007 website I should have been punching the air and dancing around shouting: "YES! - 20% in a ward we have never fought before. We are on course for a seat in the European Parliament." Instead I felt a little deflated, having hoped to poll even better and take second place off Labour.

And I should have been just as happy when the Belah result came through. Doubling our vote from two years ago and polling 10% in a ward that is true blue Tory. But then again here I was hoping for 12%, so still wasn't satisfied.

My sin was compounded furthermore by the announcement of my over-optimistic expectations on this website burdening nearly 2,000 other people with the same unrealistic hope for the Castle ward election.

I fully deserve the ridicule that appears on the pages of various political forums this morning as our opponents snigger: "The BNP believed their own hype over Castle ward", although in fairness it wasn't all our own hype but that of The Independent newspaper as well. This in itself is an interesting point and is a story for another blog. At the back of my mind I have the feeling that it might signify a change of tack by our opponents.

Well, that's my sackcloth and ashes bit over with. Will I learn from this mistake? Well, I haven't yet after 33 years, so please don't hold your breath.

The big picture for the European Elections is looking very good and I was able to snatch a few words with Nick Griffin yesterday morning while leafletting and he said that every aspect of our campaign is on target. Yesterday afternoon Tina spoke with Jean Griffin at fundraising and she reported that two huge mailbags of donation envelopes had just been delivered by Royal Mail. The new Euro-Election orientated BNP website should be launched next week and the website continues to attract record numbers of visitors.

It has been another excellent week for the British National Party - let's just hope Workington Reds can provide the icing on the cake with a victory at Gainsborough tomorrow afternoon.

Carlisle Update . . . 2.30pm

Half past two and just back from a good stint in Carlisle.

First thing this morning it was the delivery of our "good morning/it's a two horse race" leaflet to the confirmed BNP voters and to the possible BNP voters. Then, at ten o'clock, it was telling duty at the Silloth Street polling station.

My impression is that Alistair Barbour and Clive Jefferson have run an excellent campaign in Castle ward. It's meticulous in its planning and there is a full squad of campaigners in the city today to ensure that every last BNP voter gets to polls.

When I left, a team was just going out to hit the 200 postal voters who hadn't returned their ballot papers. Apparently if they take them to the polling station they will still be added to the count.

The Lib-Dems have cranked up their campaign over the last three days. A mail merge personal letter and a huge A3 Focus leaflet which was still being delivered this morning. Like ours it was saying that it's a two horse race and warning that the BNP was close on their coat tails. Now this is a change from an earlier leaflet of theirs which claims it was a two horse race between the Lib-Dems and Labour.

The BNP had tellers at all five polling station from 7.00am, the only other Party doing telling was the Lib-Dems but they weren't covering every one and were only doing selected times at the others.

We are by far the most organised party on polling day and I have no doubt that we will get ALL our voters out. Whether that will be enough to win remains to be seen, but I'm certain that the BNP vote will be over 20% and that we should take 2nd place from Labour.

I have just heard from Wayne McDermott, the East Midlands Elections officer and an expert elections number cruncher. He makes the valid point that in this current round of local council elections leading up to the Euro Elections we should be looking to secure another 50% of the vote over and above what we actually need at the Euro Poll. So in the North West we should be looking to gain a 12% vote share rather than 8% and in the West Midlands over 17% rather than 11.5%.

Freedom 103 went to the printers yesterday and work on issue No. 104 must start tomorrow. But this afternoon I have nearly 200 emails to respond to, so that's what I'm going to do now.

Early Start

Well, I've read the newspapers, answered some emails and had two cups of tea and it's still only ten past six.

I'm up at this time because I'm doing the early shift for polling day in Carlisle for the Castle and Belah ward by-elections. I'm picking up Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford, at half six and we are meeting Castle ward candidate Alistair Barbour at seven. I understand that our duties will be some 'telling' at a polling station and the delivery of a 'Good Morning' leaflet.

Elections are very exciting and at this time on polling day there is everything still to play for. In four by-elections today voters get their chance to pass judgement on the BNP message and it is a nervous time as we wait to see how our campaigns have been received.

It's very easy to become over-optimistic as to expectations. It happens to me at almost every election. But we must keep our feet on the ground and worry about only one aspect of the result - and that is vote share.

The important elections this year, the European Elections, are conducted under proportional representation which means that its not about getting the most votes, but about getting a certain share of the vote .

In the North West Euro-Constituency that share of the vote is 8%.

In the West Midlands Euro-Constituency it is 11.5%.

These are the important figures to have in mind when judging whether our four elections today have been a success or failure.

As regular as clockwork . . .

When polling day in any Cumbrian election approaches, and there are British National Party candidates standing, you can always rely on one thing.

An attack on the BNP by Cumbrian Newspapers.

It's as regular as clockwork and here's the one that appeared yesterday, timed for the two council by-elections in Castle and Belah wards on Thursday.

No room for racism

No other political party standing for election in Cumbria has to put up with this sort of press coverage just two days before polling day. It is a calculated attempt to interfere with the democratic process and it happens every time.

Please make your feelings known to Cumbrian newspapers, and the PCC, at this intrusion into local politics by the editor, Neil Hodgkinson, who is using the newspaper to promote his own personal political agenda.
(see Ref)

Contact Cumbrian newspapers
Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Carlisle, CA2 5UA Location map
Main switchboard: 01228 612600 - fax 01900 612601
Newsdesk: 01228 612665 - fax 01228 612640
3. By email,
Send a letter: letters@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk
Newsdesk: news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk

Press Complaints Commission
Halton House
20/23 High Holborn
London
EC1N 2JD
Tel: 0207 831 0022

Ref: Just Google "Neil Hodgkinson and BNP" for further background.