Nick's a celeb!

OK and Hello magazines had better get their skates on if they want to have a Nick and Jackie exclusive because the other celebrity publications are already asking for features on the British National Party chairman and his lovely wife.


Before Question Time we would have regarded such string of requests for non-political and just personal and family interviews as highly suspicious. But now they have become a regular occurrence and our internet research shows that the journalists are who they say they are and that their previous work has been reporting on political 'celebrities'.

I don't know what Nick and Jackie will make of all this personal attention. I expect they will be rather reluctant to say anything, after their recent experience with the seriously physiologically damaged Dominic Carmen.

Nick's MEP mailbag is massive as is his European Parliament workload. How he manages all his British National Party work as well is a testament to his 24 hour, 7 days a week commitment to both jobs.

THE FRENCH DEFEATED: America should have heeded history before getting involved in Vietnam. Britain should have done the same before getting involved in Afghanistan.

Re-reading The Quicksand War by Lucien Bodard and it is a brilliant book. It's the best one to read if you want to understand the Vietnam War. The book covers the period after the Second World War to the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. If the Americans had known what Bodard did about the commitment of the Vietminh, they would never have got involved.

Workington Reds are away at Telford tomorrow so I shall be glued to Radio Cumbria all afternoon listening for the latest updates. In the morning it will be putting the garden to bed for the winter. I had been hoping to do this on Sunday, but the forecast for Cumbria is gale force winds and torrential rain with the possibility of storm damage and flooding so I shall probably pop into the office and do a bit of work.

The Stormfront Times

Well can you believe it?

The Times, once the newspaper of record, is using a so-called neo-nazi website that has more anti-nazi contributors than those who worship Hitler, as a source for its information.

This once proud newspaper is sinking to new depths at a rapid rate of knots and you just wonder why the current editor allows Fiona Hamilton's ridiculous anti-BNP tirades to appear day after day.

I see the 'fish killer' Matthew Collins was also contacted for a quote, but I have to admit that he is very knowledgeable on the subject of the Stormfront website. That's because he posts on it himself under three different names and often starts the anti-BNP threads before calling The Times to tell them about it.

You will see plenty more of this 'over-the-top' reporting on the British National Party in the run-up to next month's all important Annual Conference when the preliminary discussion on the possibility of changing our membership criteria will take place. Our opponents are desperate to whip up a storm of opposition to the proposed change in a last ditch effort to get our Party banned, and today's promotion of the Stormfront website in The Times is the opening shot of this campaign.

The flood of support for Nick Griffin after his performance on Question Time is unrelenting. There's telephone call after telephone call at all the British National Party offices from people contacting the Party for the first time to voice their support and express their disgust at the tactics of the BBC.

The British people don't like to see unfairness or victimisation. Their eyes have now been opened and, as I said yesterday, all these new attacks on Nick and the BNP only go to confirm our victim status.

Of course I'm delighted that The Times also boosted my 'street cred' within Party as mooting me as a new fuhrer. However this boost will be short lived if Colin Goodgroves' photo of me allegedly dropping off during the Trafalgar Club dinner at the weekend get circulated amongst the membership.



Colin calls the photo, "tired but happy" and I think that just about sums up how I was feeling.

But the genie is out of the bottle

AFTER Saturday's brief respite in the media, the attacks on the BNP are back with a vengeance with the newspapers of the last two days full of the same old hate stories designed to whip up a campaign against the British National Party and its membership.

But I firmly believe that the public will now have a different slant on those stories to what they would have had before the Question Time programme.

The bullying of Nick Griffin on that programme and the gloating about that bullying that appeared in Friday's newspapers have certainly propelled the British National Party into the limelight with a considerable victim status, and any further nasty media attacks on the Party just go to elevate that victim status in the mind of the public even further.

I think the Genie is certainly out of the bottle

The higher profile of the British National Party increases the workload of those employed by the Party and who work for our two MEPs and the telephone in our North West Office has been been constantly ringing over the past few days with callers wanting to become involved or to offer support.


It was an excellent night on Saturday and contrary to what was said in today issue of The SUN, the dinner was a thank you to those who have supported the Trafalgar Club over the past 12 months. The only collection taken at the event was for the staff at the hotel for providing a brilliant evening with superb food.

We stayed at a stunning hotel on the outskirts of Ross-on-Wye and thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, although we didn't stay for Sunday's boat trip but made an early start for our long trip back home to Cumbria.

"EVENING": Hardworking NW Regional Organiser Clive Jefferson.
STOP PRESS:

Ooops . . . . The Sun scores an own goal!. Our call centre reports donations flooding in after The Sun had claimed today that a "fund-raising" dinner in Ross-on-Wye was a flop.

Fund-raiser Jim Dowson is delighted:

"The Trafalgar Club dinner wasn't a fund-raiser, but thanks to The Sun it has now become one as the public, sympathetic to the BNP after the lion's den of Question Time, want to show their support."

WOW!!! Get the newspapers

THEY must be talking about two different events!

Compare the newspapers of this morning with the newspapers of yesterday. Nick has gone from villain to victim and that's because of the public outcry over Question Time.

And it's almost every newspaper, with only The Sun , Daily Express and The Mirror that are still out of touch - but then they almost always are.

The most important contribution comes from the Daily Mail in a report about the Question Time 'set-up'. There's a comment on my posting yesterday from someone who attended which confirms what took place.

There's also the revelation from a former Tony Blair speechwriter that Labour have encouraged immigration to change the demographic face of Britain.

For me, I'm interested in an article in The Times which says that William Hill have cut the odds of the BNP winning a seat at the General Election from 10/1 to 7/2 . . . money often talks.

I'm sorry there are no links but Tina and I are off to the Trafalgar Club dinner which is a very long drive for us. What a celebration this is going to be.

The bullying will backfire

AT last, back blogging. I was trying to update this site last night after Question Time but my site was down with a series of bizarre messages denying me access.

Huge response this morning with every call saying that the whole programme was a stitch-up and many of the comments on the newspaper websites are following the same argument. And I think this take on Question Time will gather pace as the day progresses and this will be helped by all the biased headlines this morning.

Brits don't like victimisation, and that is happening to Nick at the moment. The political elite and their friends in the media are misreading the mood of the nation and their bullying tactics will backfire.

One of our local councillors has just popped into the office and she says that all the talk amongst young mums dropping their children at school was about Nick and the BNP. Not many watched the programme but had seen the news this morning and they all said that what they saw was very unfair.

And this very moment I have taken a call from a Jewish lady who wanted to congratulate Nick. She said he did very well in a difficult situation and that many people like her supported what he had to say.

I know Nick is shattered this morning after a gruelling week, but there is no respite for the BNP chairman with a string of interviews arranged for today. Tomorrow it's the Trafalgar Club dinner so at least then Nick will be able to relax amongst friends.

And I think that was the over-riding impression from what took place last night - there wasn't a friendly face in sight. Certainly no one in the Question Time programme was able to offer Nick any respite, and amongst all the other invited guests on every news programme there wasn't one who spoke up in support of the British National Party.

Just taken another call on the programme from another lady with that same word mentioned again and again "unfair".

And guess what . . . others think so too.

This is worth a read too.

Snow steps in to save a chinless wonder

LATE on parade this morning due to the need to hire evening dress for this weekend's 10th Anniversary Trafalgar Club Dinner.

I have never attended one of these functions before so I am looking forward to it. A sign of the credit crunch times maybe was that Greenwoods were selling evening dress for half price. I bought a complete outfit for just over £100, when to rent it would have been £55. So if I wear it on two occasions I am in pocket.

When I woke up yesterday morning I was preparing for a very difficult day, but as the hours passed things just got better and better with the Party enjoying a £multi-million media advertising coup thanks to the Tories and their anti-BNP campaign.

What better way can there be to end a day than seeing Nick demolish chinless Tory Toff James Bethell on Channel Four News. Jon Snow had to effectively get in and stop the interview by interrupting Nick and making comments about the size of his poppy badge. Bethell had been floundering, even calling Nick by his christian name, something which is completely taboo for opponents to do on TV.

Personally we had a good day as well. After Tina was sacked as a mental health graduate because of her membership of the British National Party she took up a job as a part-time health care worker. This involved working every Saturday and Sunday to feed, wash and put elderly and disabled folk to bed. It was a poorly paid job but we needed the money.

At the time, the workers' union were campaigning for parity of wages with male care workers. Well, Tina left when she got a job with the BNP and thought nothing more of it, so it was a pleasant surprise yesterday morning to receive a cheque for £600 which was the balance of a new back-dated pay structure giving the lady care workers a fairer deal.

I think it's called a win/win situation

IT'S nearly three o'clock. Tina and Alistair are fielding telephone calls and Clive is next door monitoring the huge amount of media coverage.

I'm trying to post reports on "this morning in Parliament" on our MEP's websites but both sites, along with the main website, are down under a prolonged attack.

In the past hours our victim status has risen to an all time high with the public, in phone-ins and on the internet, rallying behind the Party and against the unfair bullies in the media, the Labour Party and the Tory Party with their over the top attacks on us.

I have just spoken with Nick in Strasbourg and he says that this morning has been "quite incredible". Not only did both he and Andrew get to make statements on climate change in the European Parliament but then they have been besieged by the media ever since.

The political move by 'the generals' who despite being retired have still used their position to lobby for Labour and the Tories against the BNP (make no mistake that is what this is all about), has backfired into giving us a massive media coup with the opening scenes of our brilliant European Election Broadcast being played over and over again on every news channel.

With regard to the list, this is not a membership list as such but just a collection of segments comprising of some members, enquirers, lapsed members, subscribers and supporters. It was cobbled together by yet another former member of staff who was sacked. I understand that the police have already paid her a visit.

And please call the police if you get any grief from our opponents telephoning late at night. Don't let these cowards get away with it. It is easy to track calls nowadays so they will find the culprits.

Peter Hain is going to the BBC Trust in his last ditch attempt to get Nick barred from Question Time. But it doesn't matter now.

If Question Time goes ahead - it will provide great publicity for the British National Party.

If Peter Hain manages to stop Nick appearing - it will provide great publicity for the British National Party.

If our opponents physically stop Nick from attending the recording of the programme - it will provide great publicity for the British National Party.

I think it's called a win/win situation.

Stand firm and stick together

Ten past eleven and it has been manic at home this evening.

Around eight o'clock we found out that another stolen membership list is due to be posted on the internet.

Quite how this list has come to be in the public domain is still being investigated, but I know the leak certainly didn't come from our end here.

According to a report that has just been posted on The Guardian website, the list appears to date back to April and is described as a snapshot of our 11,500 members at that time.

The Wigton office fielded all the furor that came about from the last membership list leak so I know, first hand, the concern that such publicity will bring to our members.

I urge everyone to see this attack on us as just another desperate effort to hurt us from an establishment that is living in fear of our growing support within the ranks of a disillusioned public.

We must stick together and stand firm in the face of this barrage.

Media frenzy extends into Monday.

SO the abhorrent Peter Hain wants to deny the British public the right to hear the leader of a political party which received a million votes at the country's last nationwide election . . . . well, well, what a surprise.

This is a South African who has been discredited by the expenses scandal and numerous other political and financial 'dodgy dealings' trying to dictate to the BBC. I hope his demand receives the ridicule it deserves from the Corporation.

There's so much media coverage at the moment that it's difficult to keep up to date with it. I have just received a text from Clive Jefferson saying "listen to Radio Five Live".

This is what I have found this morning in the broadsheets.

The Times:
BNP launches online assault on Question Time panellists.
Oh dear, the rather dim Fiona Hamilton seems to have missed the fact that this was all covered yesterday by the Sunday Telegraph.

Daily Telegraph:
BBC could face legal action over BNP appearance on Question Time

Let's incriminate the BNP – not indulge it with Question Time

Nick Griffin: Sikhs and Hindus support BNP

The Guardian:

The right to be heard?

The Independent:

Hain aims to prevent BNP Question Time appearance

Nick Griffin was on the telephone yesterday evening asking me to investigate a photograph that appeared in yesterday's edition of The Observer. It claimed to show a National Front rally in Hyde Park in 1981.

However after a bit of research I found some other photographs from the same agency of the same event that were filed under British Movement and they clearly showed banners and insignia from that organisation. For anyone not around at that time - the British Movement was an openly neo-nazi party that was proscribed by the National Front. Anyone of our members found associating with them would have been banned.

In the article there was another discredited photo which had previously appeared in The Independent and for which the BNP received an apology when that paper tried to claim it was BNP members.

I have forwarded my information to the BNP website so hopefully this will be covered there in more depth.

"Supporters protest as Nick Griffin appears in Leeds Crown Court in 2005, charged with inciting racial hatred."

That's what The Observer claimed yesterday but the people in the photo are anything but supporters - they hate Nick Griffin and the British National Party even more pathologically than the Labour Party.

A Veritable Sunday Feast

HUGE press coverage this morning and I shall list the links below.

I have just watched Nick on Sky News being interviewed by Adam Boulton. He did very well indeed against an interviewer who, when he didn't like Nick's response, kept trying to butt in. This can't have been lost on the many of impartial viewers watching proceedings. Adam is of course part of Tony Blair's entourage having written the former Prime Minister's memoirs and married a key member of Blair's Downing Street team.

Here are the links:

In the Sunday Times

Taxpayer foots the bill for BNP Minder

I get a mention in this one. The editor's blue pen was at work here with the original "refused to pay a fine" changed to "failed to pay a fine" implying that it was lack of funds, and not political principle, that sent me to prison.

The BNP won't go away if we ignore it

Tough Question Time for BNP leader Nick Griffin

In the Sunday Telegraph

Holocaust survivors on Question Time

In The Observer:

How the BNP's journey ends up on prime time TV

In The Independent:

BNP attacks Question Time panellists

There are probably some other offerings in the popular Sunday newspapers, but I haven't trawled through them yet.

Last week I was in Brussels - doing the job I am paid to do (so no story for the Sunday Times there). Nick and Andrew are off to Strasbourg tomorrow and the following week both MEPs will be in their constituencies where I know there are some high profile activities planned.

Eddy Butler was with me on this trip to Belgium and he was gutted over our narrow defeat in Boston. But I don't share his disappointment. To me the result was brilliant - a welcome boost after a series of pretty grim votes. I even thought the Barnsley result was commendable, because although our vote was down, we have established ourselves as the main opposition to Labour in the town with the other parties nowhere.

Here are Thursday's results for those who missed them.

BARNSLEY
St. Helen’s Ward
Roy Butterwood (Lab) 1520
Lisa Brooksbank (BNP) 590
David Pickering (Barnsley Independent Group) 171
Neil Robinson (UKIP) 94
Clive Watkinson (Con) 89
Eddie Gouthwaite (Lib-Dem) 78
BNP Percentage: 23.2%

BRACKNELL FOREST
Hanworth Ward
Mark Phillips (Con) 640
Janet Keene (Lab) 377
Larraine De Laune (Lib Dem) 206
Jeff Newbold (UKIP) 139
Steven Gabb (Green) 77
David Penson (BNP) 70
BNP Percentage: 4.6%


CANNOCK CHASE
Heath Hayes East & Wimblebury Ward
Thursday 15th October 2009
Chris Collis (Lib Dem) 314
Michelle Lucas (Con) 300
Brian Gamble (Lab) 267
Shaun Grimsley (BNP) 116
Sean Gleeson (UKIP) 51
BNP Percentage: 11.1%


LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
Boston North West Ward
Thursday 15th October 2009
Andrea Jenkyns (Con) 597
David Owens (BNP) 581
Pamela Kenny (Lab) 204
Michael Sheridan-Shinn (Lib-Dem) 160
BNP Percentage: 37.7%

Penrith by-election

JUST back from the early morning shift in Penrith.

I did about three an a half hours from seven this morning, mixing and matching targeted leafleting to our 'yes' voters and telling on one of the polling stations.

Back in June at the county council elections our vote in Penrith West was 8%.

I know the North West Regional Organiser Clive Jefferson is hoping for around 12% this time, and according to my returns this morning, we are bang on that mark. Four definite BNP votes out of the 33 voters who registered their preference.

Clive and Alistair Barbour have worked incredibly hard in this election and I hope their efforts pay off.


Here's Clive after he took over from me this morning with a very friendly Lib-Dem and a Tory who never stopped talking. So much for the Old Gang's policy of sending BNP campaigners to Coventry.

The candidates are:

EDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL
Penrith West Ward
Thursday 8th October 2009.
Alaistair BARBOUR (British National Party)
Alan MARSDEN (Green Party)
Elissa ROBINSON (Liberal Democrats)
Geoffrey ROCKLIFFE-KING (The Labour Party Candidate)
Rebecca TAYLOR (Independent)
David WHIPP (Conservative Party)

Back in Blighty

LONG haul back from Brussels yesterday. It was a nine hour trip in total, taking in the clock change, and we left the European Parliament at two o'clock and had the key in the door of our home in Cumbria at midnight.

It was a very interesting week and you couldn't help but be impressed by the whole set up. It was a pleasure to work there because you have everything at your finger tips. Civil servants to help guide you with regard to procedures. A massive library to help you access all the information you might require. IT technicians to help you set up all your equipment and then rooms full of bureaucrats to help explain all the red tape.

It was a week of committee meetings and I was disappointed not to see either Nick or Andrew in action, but I was kept in the office on more mundane, but essential, allowance and expenditure work.

I came back to a full inbox and one of the emails that is worth passing on came from John Mills who has an online petition on the Downing Street website.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reduce the amount of time and red tape it takes to remove immigrants from the United Kingdom

This places a vast cost and burden on our social resources such as health care, housing and the benefit system not to mention the social unrest this problem is causing among all communities.

We respectfully ask that the processes and systems in place to be drastically reviewed and reduced to remove illegal immigrants far more effectively than the current system.

We also ask that no more amnesty be given to illegal immigrants and that any Illegal immigrant found guilty of a crime be removed without delay.

The petition came be found here