A successful Saturday in Maryport East

THERE was still a spring in our step when Steve Harris, the BNP's Maryport election agent, and I had finished a two hour leafleting session covering The Beeches and surrounding estates at the north end of the Maryport East ward.

"Well I've never received a response like that before on The Beeches," Steve tells me, still apparently shaking his head in disbelief.

And he was right. I leafleted the area three times in 2007 and although people were always polite - this is very much the well-to-do part of Maryport - there was little or no hint of support.

Yesterday was different. Steve must have spoken to nearly two dozen people of all ages out in their gardens and more than half gave a definite 'yes' to voting BNP. Even the others said they were considering it. It was such an unexpected response that Steve was still talking about it half an hour later in our favourite 'watering hole' up on the Ellenborough hill.

That leafleting session has to colour my prediction of Thursday's County Council result for Maryport East. I had pencilled Tina in for a 20% vote share, but now I think this might be a little higher.

There was also this in Friday's local newspaper, The Times & Star:

Maryport East Labour councillor Keith Little said public reaction to the political system was the worst in the 16 years that he had canvassed for the party.
He said: “What’s happening nationally is having an adverse effect.
“I hope people don’t go out and spoil ballot papers. These are very important elections, both for the county council and Europe, and I hope people treat them as such.”

Now Keith is a popular councillor, probably the most respected in Maryport according to Steve Harris, and if voters are 'luke warm' about supporting him then things are very bad for Labour in the town.

So my prediction is:

Cumbria County Council
Maryport East
Thursday 4th June 2009
Keith Little (Labour) 55%
Tina Wingfield (British National Party) 28%
John Stanyer (Conservative) 17%

This would be another very good result for the British National Party because it will presumably ensure a strong showing here in the European Election as well.

Notice how The Observer surprisingly leaves me out of its "BNP's ugly leadership" report.

You would have thought they would have jumped at the opportunity of smearing me over my time in prison. Maybe the newspaper is worried that its readers may feel some regard for someone who feels so strongly over a political issue that they are prepared to be incarcerated for three months to make a stand on it. After all, buried away in every Guardianista there is a little bit of an establishment rebel.

Back to the pavements today even though it's a Sunday. The last 'day of rest' before polling day is always the exception to my 'No campaigning on Sunday' rule.

This morning I'm in Maryport West with our candidate Carl Edgar, while Steve Harris is continuing our campaign with others in Maryport East.

This afternoon, I'm mowing the lawn if my back is up to it and then downing a few Bucks Fizzes while sitting in the garden to celebrate another opinion poll putting us on 5%. This one is of special interest as it's the ICM poll which seven days earlier had us on just 1%. A 4% improvement on the week might mean the BNP is coming good just at the right time.

A scorcher in Cumbria.

IT was a sweltering day up here yesterday and Paul Stafford and I must have sweated off quite a bit of excess weight as we pounded the pavements in my ward of Moss Bay.

It's all finished there now so it will provide the focus of my results prediction this morning.

In the Times & Star yesterday, sitting Labour councillor Barbara Cannon said that from her campaigning she believed that voters in Moss Bay accepted that it wasn't local Labour representatives who were at fault over the expenses scandal.

She could be right but there was still a lot of hostility for Labour from the people I met.

We were challenged by "You better not be Labour" on numerous occasions as we walked up the garden path and on the whole, people were pleased when we said we were from the British National Party.

In the past three weeks there has been a dozen enquiries from people in the ward about the Party and there are BNP posters up in windows in both Salterbeck and Moss Bay, the two centres of population that make up the ward.

Yesterday, I even had a call from a lady who had just received my candidate card and wanted me to sort out a problem for her in an ongoing dispute with the council.

Labour have put out two leaflets, both full colour and glossy, and the Independent has put out one leaflet. I haven't seen anything from the other two parties.

We have delivered newspapers to the postal voters and our candidate's profile to all voters.

So what of my chances?

Maybe I'm being a little optimistic, but I think a second is on the cards, hopefully finishing just a whisker in front of the Independent candidate.

I would be happy with this sort of result.

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay Electoral Division
Barbara Cannon (Labour) 48%
Martin Wingfield (British National Party) 17%
John Bracken (Independent) 16%
Judy Prest (Conservative) 12%
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat) 7%

Campaigning in Maryport East this morning, that's Tina's ward and then Maryport West on Sunday, before finishing off with a big push in Workington concentrating on Moor Close and St John's wards on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I took one look at the headline's of this morning's newspapers and then clicked off the link. The Times can no longer be considered a newspaper of record after the drivel of the past few days. It's been as bad as The Mirror this week with its anti-BNP smear stories.

If you want to read the stories behind the anti-BNP headlines, then click here.

To finish on a positive note, the latest opinion poll has us on 5% (up 3% from last week). Five years ago we were never mentioned in the polls yet still attracted a 5% vote share, so on that form line we could, in reality, be up around the 10% mark.

Our Quiet Revolution has given us foundations

"A WEEK is a long time in politics," so goes the saying, and how true it is.

Last Sunday it was all about UKIP. A 19% poll rating, Nick Griffin jocked off The Politics Show and replaced by Farage, and wall to wall Sunday newspapers enthusing about that Party.

It was very different yesterday with the BNP the centre of attention. A prime time spot on the BBC's seven o'clock evening news and our opponents up in arms about the Corporation giving us the oxygen of publicity.

Who can say what the state of play will be next Sunday, or more importantly a week on Thursday, when voters will make their choice.

Firstly, today, I want to draw your attention to an editorial in this morning's Independent.

I'm not surprised that there's no name attached to this 'Comment' because it's so shockingly researched that it's an embarrassment to the newspaper.

"The BNP has developed into a significant political force in only a handful of areas, mainly in a few troubled towns in the north-west of England that have experienced prolonged high unemployment as a result of the collapse of traditional industries and which have been under the complacent management of a single political party for decades. Outside these pockets, the BNP has made few inroads."

The author obviously hasn't bothered to check the local council by-election results of the past 24 months. Like a lot of journalists he has failed to notice our Quiet Revolution which has kept beneath the media's radar clocking up those 10-15% votes time after time in almost every county in the country.

I know my colleague Wayne McDermott and his boss Geoff Dickens, will be rather irritated that our excellent efforts in the East Midlands, seem to have been ignored by The Independent. Late last night Tina completed the 'New Member' stats for the past week and it was the East Midlands that topped the table from Yorkshire in second place and the North West back in third.

It was a worry when UKIP were being hyped up last week and many of us feared that it might be a repeat of 2004 all over again. But please rest assured things are very different for us this time around.

Our support has been built up over the past five years on firm foundations. There is a bedrock of BNP support that really exists and is there whether the media puts the spotlight on it or not. It is there whether there is an Expenses Scandal or not. It doesn't just exist, like UKIP's alleged support, only because of the Expenses Scandal.

Our campaign this time is on a different level than anything that has gone before and together with that solid bottom line of support we should make the necessary step up in votes needed to win a seat in the North West at the very least.

And remember that's what this campaign is all about, gaining an MEP to take the party another step along the path to an increased political influence within Britain.

It is a black and white issue, there is no grey area. If we get an MEP elected our campaign has been a success, if we don't it has been a failure.

At the moment Betfair, which is the public betting site where people put their money where their mouth is, has the odds for the BNP winning a seat in the European Parliament at 1.51, and the odds against us winning a seat at 2.56, so fingers-crossed at the moment it seems as though we are on target for a successful outcome.

There was a much better researched report in this morning's Independent about the BNP's website, which is still under attack from our opponents at the time of writing. You can read that report here.



Today's Allerdale candidate card is for Vince Richardson in the Harrington, Clifton, and Stainburn Electoral Division for Cumbria County Council. Here is the info for this one.
Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Allan Caine (Liberal-Democrat)

Robert Hardon (Conservative)

Marjorie Rae (Labour)
Vincent Richardson (British National Party)

County 2005: Allan Caine (Lib-Dem) 1603, Joseph Holliday (Lab) 1450.
Borough 2007:
Clifton Ward: Heather McIntosh (Lib-Dem) 290, Maureen Rourke (Lab) 272.
Harrington Ward: Ian Francis (Lib-Dem) 610, Alan Caine (Lib-Dem 594), Marjorie Rae (Lab) 534, Hillary Harrington (Ind) 363.
Stainburn Ward: Robert Hardon (Con) 278, Edward Routledge (Lab) 120, Mary lancaster (Lib-Dem) 85.

So you can see that it's virgin territory for us but we are hopeful that Vince will make his presence felt.

Lovely day up here in Cumbria this morning so I'm off leafleting shortly - the forecast for this afternoon is not so good.

Opposing the Islamification of Britain

THIS first words I heard this morning when my radio alarm went off were read by a newsreader concerning the Archbishop of Canterbury telling voters not to support the British National Party.

But I didn't have time to feel any disappointment at this intrusion into the European Election campaign by a clergy which has always had its own politically correct agenda.

That was because the BBC ended the brief news item with a quote from a British National Party spokesman saying that the BNP was the only political party campaigning against the Islamification of Britain.

Dare I hope that this will be the phrase that sticks in the mind of anyone listening to this report?

Text from Nick Griffin last night at quarter past nine enthusing over the response he had received yesterday when he and the Truth Truck had visited Whitehaven.


This photo is taken early morning in nearby Cleator Moor so it's no wonder that Clive Jefferson who is a candidate here, can't hide his delight that the Chairman of the British National Party has come to support his campaign. Bill Pugh is a Whitehaven candidate and he seems to be impatient to get the Truth Truck to the coast to start campaigning there.

There is a growing unease amongst workers at the near-by Sellafield nuclear plant over foreign contractors bringing in foreign workers and with many Sellafield employees living in the borough of Copeland, our full slate of candidates in the county council elections might just provide the ideal protest vote (with or without the Archbishop's blessing.)

I was out on my own yesterday in Wigton, pounding the pavements delivering the candidate cards for our candidate Paul Stafford. He couldn't be there because he was attending the ceremony to swear in his wife, Debbie, as Wigton's Deputy Mayor - something that certainly won't do his campaign in the Wigton county council seat any harm at all.

Our Allerdale candidate card this morning is for Stephen Stoddart our representative in Workington's St John's Ward.



This ward should provide us with our best result in Allerdale. Clive Jefferson fought a borough council by-election here in November of last year and secured a very promising 20% of the vote. Todd, as Stephen is called locally, is very well known on his patch and he will certainly attract a personal vote which could just take us within striking distance of the Labour and Conservative candidates.

Here are the election stats:
Cumbria County Council
St Johns Electoral Division
Michael Davidson (Conservative)
Joe Holliday (Labour)
Stephen Stoddart (British National Party)

County 2005: James Samson (Lab) 1345, John Heathcote (Con) 984.
Borough 2008: Gerald Humes 452, Simon Collins 394, Clive Jefferson (BNP) 257, John Bracken (Ind) 113, Alistair Grey (Green) 55.
Borough 2007: Joseph Holliday (Lab) 788, Michael Davidson (Con) 780, John Heathcote (Con) 698, Konrad Hansen (Lab) 418.

There doesn't seem to be any real nasties in newspapers this morning, I expect they are being saved up for next weekend.

There was this carried in a report in The Sunday Times:

"The market is closing up and hard rain falls on the shoppers. Brynley McDonald, 63, sells DVDs from his stall. He has always voted Labour, but not this time.“They’ve no control over anything – like immigration, it’s just chaos,” he says. “I’m thinking about BNP. We look after everybody who comes in and we treat our own like crap.
”Two unemployed men in their fifties are both considering BNP. One was a builder: immigrants take builders’ jobs. His mate, Paul Brooksbank, worked on the railways until five years ago. He hates what has happened to the industry.
“People don’t work for the love of the job any more, the love of the railways.
”It is another big theme: the collapse of ethos. That, after all is what has happened at Westminster where, to quote Flaubert, there are people who would pay to be bought.
Outside the Golden Lion, the lunchtime smokers and drinkers all want to have their say. Awful, embittered stories of NHS and welfare persecution tumble out. Mention expenses and half of them cry: “Snouts in the trough!”
Noreen Stanley, a cleaner, says MPs should get £7 an hour. Here, too, some are veering towards the BNP, though Noreen and her husband Leon say they will stick with Labour out of habit, but “they’re all the same”.

You can read the full report here.

The Sunday Express reports:

"The Sunday Express survey also suggests that a disillusioned 55 per cent would not vote at all.
Among those intending to vote, the BNP picked up 38.4 per cent support compared to 19.2 per cent for Labour.
The result, in what was a safe Labour seat, gives the Tories 13.4 per cent of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 10.7 per cent and the Greens and the UK Independent Party 7.1 per cent each.
If the result is repeated across the North-West in next month’s European Parliament elections Mr Griffin will be elected to Brussels."
You can read that full report here.

There's more leafleting with candidate cards tomorrow in all seven Allerdale seats and then the process of targeting wards to get them completed starts in earnest on Tuesday.

Simplicity is the key

ANOTHER very simple, but extremely eye-catching candidate card that will be going out to voters in the Electoral Divisions we are contesting in the borough of Allerdale for seats on Cumbria County Council.

We know from our three weeks of campaigning so far, that people have had enough of professional politicians, their broken promises and their empty soundbites. Our small, colourful, easy to read cards about our candidates might just get noticed when compared to the heavy tracts of waffle and excuses from the other candidates.

The count at the Moorclose Sports Centre on the morning of Friday 5th June will tell us whether this was the right strategy or not.

There was some complaint yesterday that there was no electoral background to the Moorclose seat where Glen Brew is standing (the candidate card show yesterday) so here it is:

Cumbria County Council
Moorclose Electoral Division
Glen Brew (British National Party)
Gerald Humes (Labour)
Denis Robertson (Independent)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Conservative)

County: 2005: Gerald Humes (Lab) 1358, Christine Johanssen (Lib-Dem) 551.
Borough: 2007: John Bales (Lab) 602, Nicholas Hardy (Lab) 546, Denis Robertson (Ind) 522, Roger Tibble (Lab) 403.

So Glen is not only taking on the sitting Labour county councillor, but also the colourful Independent borough councillor, Denis (Cocky) Robertson.

In my electoral division of Moss Bay, I'm up against another colourful Independent candidate in John Bracken. John's a great Workington Reds fan and we sometime have a chat about things on the terraces of Borough Park. He was just two votes short of causing a shock by taking a seat from Labour in Moss Bay at the last round of borough council elections.

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay Electoral Division
John Bracken (Independent)
Barbara Cannon (Labour)
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat)
Judy Prest (Conservative)
Martin Wingfield (British National Party)

County 2005: Barbara Cannon (Lab) 1172, Robert Hardon (Con) 316.
Borough 2007: Barbara Cannon (Lab) 507, Carole Armstrong (Lab) 439, William Bacon (Lab) 432, John Bracken (Ind) 430.


Still waiting for the candidate cards to arrive from the printers. If they come today we shall be out with them, otherwise we shall have to put in some extra shifts tomorrow. I think it would be useful to get some out in both a Maryport and a Workington ward before Saturday so they provide a bit of a talking point over the Whit Bank Holiday.

Yesterday I dealt with a large backlog of correspondence, I worked on Freedom and did a three hour stint on a Streamline machine putting through the credit card payments of some of the hundreds of new BNP members signed up just 24 hours earlier. Interest in the British National Party is as never before. Jim Dowson and his Midas Management have certainly taken the Party to new levels of which we could have only dreamed of two years ago.

Good luck to Gary Tumulty and his team for the Irwell & Riverside by-election in Salford today. Just to help keep every ones feet firmly on the ground, there are now more than 2,000 students on the electoral role for this ward, as Irwell has become a popular dormitory area for the local university.

I do know that my father-in-law story carried on yesterday's posting did make it to the desk of the editor of The Sun. Whether he read it or not is another matter.

I sent it in to the newspaper yesterday morning and late afternoon I received a nice note from Amanda Greenley, the Letters' Editor, saying that she had passed it on to the Editor. Could an apology be on the way?

With the Buckingham Palace Garden Party publicity stunt reaping 100 times more attention than we had envisaged, there's a lot of BNP stories to sort through for some real news and opinion.

Roy Greenslade's viewpoint in The Guardian is worth linking to.

A correction in The Guardian boosts our Chairman's credibility.

Mike McCarthy who was at our North West Euro Launch last week has a piece on Sky News.

That's all for the moment, maybe back later if the candidate's cards don't arrive.

UPDATED 12 NOON:
Some excellent articles in today's New Statesman, especially the Andrew Grice revelation that the Old Gang parties want the protest vote to go to UKIP.

Unfinished business

Just the sort of place the BNP loves

From the street to the screen

Our Magnificent Seven

Stephen Stoddart, Tina Wingfield, Paul Stafford.
Glen Brew, Martin Wingfield, Carl Edgar, Vince Richardson.

A SINGLE telephone call at twenty past two yesterday afternoon has transformed our election campaign here in Allerdale.

Derek Butler from Newark was on the other end of the line and he, along with wife Gina and a group of friends called the Sherwood Bandits, were calling to pledge to underwrite any shortfall in our Allerdale Election Appeal, allowing us to go ahead straight away and order an election address for each our seven candidates.

It is a magnificent gesture and I'm hoping that they won't be too much out of pocket. The Appeal to date has raised £200. If you can help us with a donation it would be very gratefully received and help 'soften the blow' on what Derek and Gina have to find. Please make your cheque payable to British National Party and send to The Secretary, PO Box 107, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 0YA. Please make sure you state that the donation is for the Allerdale Election Appeal.

The campaign is now in full swing with the release of the candidates by Cumbria County Council yesterday morning.

This is our battleground:

Harrington Clifton & Stainburn
Allan Caine (Liberal-Democrat)
Robert Hardon (Conservative)
Marjorie Rae (Labour)
Vincent Richardson (British National Party)

Maryport East
Keith Little (Labour)
John Stanyer (Conservative)
Tina Wingfield (British National Party)

Maryport West
Bill Cameron (Labour)
Carl Edgar (British National Party)
Jacqueline Mounsey (Conservative)
John Peel (Independent)
John Rivers (Liberal Democrat)

Moorclose
Glen Brew (British National Party)
Gerald Humes (Labour)
Denis Robertson (Independent)
Eddie Woodthorpe (Conservative)

Moss Bay
John Bracken (Independent)
Barbara Cannon (Labour)
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat)
Judy Prest (Conservative)
Martin Wingfield (British National Party)

St Johns
Michael Davidson (Conservative)
Joe Holliday (Labour)
Stephen Stoddart (British National Party)

Wigton
Joe Cowell (Conservative)
John Crouch (Labour)
Paul Stafford (British National Party)

Yesterday Paul Stafford and Stephen Stoddart started leafleting Moss Bay ward where I'm standing at 10.00am. At 5.00pm they had just finished.

I was on postal vote duty drawing up the final two lists for Harrington, Stainburn and Clifton and Moor Close. Delivering Freedom and relevant postal voter leaflets to these 1000+ addresess is our priority over the next few days. What a relief when these are out of the way.

So who's making the headlines this morning

LET'S start off with today's newspapers . . .

Tories and Labour both fear BNP surge - Daily Telegraph

Shock at BNP coin sticker - Sheffield Star

Labour disunity and the rise of the BNP - Daily Express

Tories to blame for BNP rise - Daily Mail

Anti-BNP campaign - Daily Mirror

Our final nomination papers go in this morning and then the campaign in Allerdale starts in earnest. But before that there's the small matter of taking delivery of 30,000 copies of Freedom which will arrive on a great big pallet some time today. They will have to be got indoors as soon as possible as it's bucketing down with rain here in Cumbria at the moment.

Tomorrow we start on the postal voters in Workington, delivering to them a copy of Freedom, a letter from Nick and a leaflet introducing the local candidates and briefing people on what smear leaflets to expect from the local Labour Party.

Fingers-crossed, it appears that Clive Jefferson might just have performed the impossible and come up with a full slate of candidates for Copeland. I can't tell you what an incredible performance this is considering our limited manpower in West Cumbria. There's more news on Clive's informative blog which can be found here.

Nasty smear leaflet about me put out in Manchester over the weekend claiming I was sent to prison for "race hate crimes". This is just another Labour lie.

For the record, I wasn't sent to prison and my appearance in court was nothing to do with "race hate crimes".

In 1983, in an election leaflet, I warned that immigration must be stopped because it was destroying British culture and the British way of life. A full year after that election leaflet had been put out, the authorities decided to prosecute me over it and I was found 'guilty' and fined £1,500.

On a matter of principle I refused to pay that fine and hence had to serve three months in Pentonville Prison including Christmas 1985.

On my first morning of incarceration I was visited by the Prison Governor who said that I was free to go anytime I liked if I paid the fine which would reduce in amount for each day I spent in prison. I told him that I was making a stand on behalf of those who felt the need to speak out on immigration issues and was duty bound to serve my full term.

I am very proud of what I did, and the Labour Party can can twist the truth and try to smear me all it likes. There's not one politician in its ranks today who would have the courage to do what I did, let alone come out and carry on the struggle, in the face of overwhelming odds, for another quarter of a century after that ordeal.

Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest . . . I feel much better now.

Could it be 40 for Cumbria?

A DIFFICULT day for us yesterday compounded by the news, delivered by a smirking Copeland organiser, that they now have 11 candidates, just one short of a full slate.

Allerdale BNP had been hoping to pip them 9-8 in the seats being fought stakes but now the final score looks like being 7-11, a crushing defeat for Workington, Maryport and Wigton by Whitehaven.

So added together it looks as though it's going to be an impressive showing by the British National Party in the Cumbria County Council Elections on June 4th. These are unconfirmed figures but at the moment, as I understand it, we have Carlisle (17), Copeland (11), Allerdale (7), Barrow (3), Eden (1), South Lakes (1). That's 40 seats, just two short of the 50% of seats available on the council.

Our difficult day came from people being out, not having the correct paperwork, both our key activists having to work and being side-tracked by having to move some heavy printing equipment - and I mean heavy - which took an hour and a half out of our busy day.

We did submit three nomination papers, which were accepted provisionally but because we lacked the BNP's certificate of authorisation were returned to us. When I last contested elections back in 200,7 I'm certain I just wrote on the nomination paper 'British National Party' and that was it. Anyway by four o'clock the papers were re-submitted and accepted so it's three down, four to go.

This morning we are splitting forces so we can actually start some campaigning. Paul and Carl will be putting out the Euro warm-up leaflet in the small remaining part of Maryport West that still has to be leafleted and I shall submit another two sets of nomination papers that were completed late yesterday, and try to complete a third.

Last night, when I got home, I finished our postal vote leaflet which will go out with a complementary issue of Freedom and a letter from Nick Griffin. Very simple leaflet just introducing the candidate with their photo and warning about the smear leaflets - telling voters "It's just the Labour Party" so don't be conned by the array of grandiose titles that appear on the anti-BNP leaflets.

I've also got two more candidates photos to get which must be taken today. As you can see there will be no 'paper' candidates in Allerdale, not like some places where you might find a jar of Hartleys on the supper table at five o'clock!!

No news from Sheffield, so who knows. Andrew Brons our lead candidate in Yorkshire and Humberside needs 10% of the vote to make it to Strasbourg, so with a bit of a buffer zone something around 12-13% would be a great result for us.

No other news as everyone is busy getting their nomination papers signed.

First stop this morning is Morrisons for some A4 paper for the leaflets - apparently is the cheapest port of call.

Is there a record number of BNP candidates standing in Carlisle?

Just to stop people complaining, here's the other half of the centre page spread of our European Election candidates that appears in the May issue of Freedom.


ANOTHER excellent article this morning on the main website from my long-term political colleague, Steve Johnson. When it comes to the effects of globalisation, both economic and social, Steve knows how to spell it out and make it interesting to read.

I first met him thirty years ago, when he turned up one day out of the blue to help with our campaign in the Lewes constituency in East Sussex for the 1979 General Election, where I was election agent for our superb candidate, Betty Webb. He was rather an eccentric character, but a brilliant writer, and despite all the division and turmoil within nationalist politics over the next 15 years, we always seemed to end up on the same side, which was no mean feat.

I'm delighted that Steve is getting more involved now. He has enjoyed a success career in business, but now feels now, as we all do, that significant political change is in the air and that the British National Party might be on the verge of its long-awaited breakthrough.

I'm off to do my bit for that breakthrough this morning by helping to get the signatures for our seven (yes, still only seven, I'm afraid) candidates for the Cumbria County Council elections in Allerdale. I heard last night that another record number of BNP candidates will be standing in Carlisle for the same authority. That's going to be some news that will be difficult to ignore for our pathetically anti-BNP local newspaper up here, the News & Star.

As I'll be out of the office for much of the time over the next five weeks, I shall try to do an update to this blog each evening as well. In the morning bulletin I shall say what we hope to achieve during the day, and in the evening tell you how successful we have been. It will provide a good incentive to get things done.

There's a council by-election in Sheffield on Thursday, and if anyone knows how our campaign is going I would be grateful if they could drop me a line. South Yorkshire likes to keep its cards close to its chest as far as letting Freedom know what's going on in the region.

Back later if there's anything to report.

Salford says "Thank you"

Don't say you didn't see it first on this website!

This is one half of the centre page double spread of our European Election candidates in the May issue of Freedom. The newspaper is at the printers as I write and delivery to the units is promised for May 1st.

The front page headline is "Take care of our old folk" and calls for care homes to brought back into the public sector and for our elderly to be looked after in a way their lifetime of service to the nation and paying of their tax, deserves.

It could be a good issue to get out to postal voters in the first two weeks in May.

Congratulations are due to the readers of this blog who rallied around to support Salford BNP with the funding of its vital local council by-election on May 21st, just two weeks before the Euro poll.

Candidate Gary Tumulty, told me last night:

"We have been around the Irwell Riverside ward leafleting and have put out over 7500 leaflets. The response has been excellent with many people coming out in support and shaking my hand and saying they will be voting for us in the by-election and then again for the European Elections.

"Locals have told me of an issue they have with a park in the ward which I have acted upon and people will see that the British National Party listens and gets things sorted out.

"For the Euro elections we are going around the whole of Salford visiting the postal voters with our message and we now have our own "Truth Trailer" which we will be using in the by-election and the European Elections. I will send you a photo when we have one taken.

"I would like to thank you as well for the appeal that you ran on your blog and to all those who contributed to the Irwell by-election fund. We received a considerable amount of money to help us on our way, and even had our colour election address paid for by Bury BNP."

I would like to reiterate what Gary says and to thank all those who contributed to the fund. And full marks to the British National Party in Bury - it's a great example of how units are working together in the North West.

I'm on telephone duty, as well as election duty, today as Tina is on a course in Leicestershire.

My main job this morning is preparing the county council electorial divsion maps for the seven seats we are contesting. I'm still hopeful that it might be eight, and there's even an outside chance it might be nine, but there's no arm-twisting on my part, it's up to those concerned whether they come forward to stand or not.

Back with more news tomorrow.

Allerdale 7 - 8 Copeland

THERE was a final planning meeting last night for the Cumbria County Council elections in Allerdale.

North West Regional Organiser Clive Jefferson, was there and he made it very clear that yesterday was the cut-off day for candidate selection and those who had, for the last month, been a pain in the backside by sitting on the fence as to whether they would stand or not, have been dismissed so we are left with SEVEN confirmed candidates.

There are 16 county council seats in Allerdale so we are just below the 50% contested mark. There are 84 seats on the full council. We are contesting six wards held by Labour and one held by the Lib-Dems.

Back in 2005 we didn't contest a single county council seat across the whole of Cumbria, let alone any in Allerdale, so this is a massive achievement. Also, all seven will be properly fought campaigns with an election address for the candidates. This, together with one Euro Election leaflet being distributed now, and the Euro Election address delivered by the Royal Mail, will form the backbone of our campaign although there will be some tweaks to it during the next 42 days just to maximise our vote.

I'm still hoping that we might be allowed to contest an eighth seat as I'm seeing one of the fence-sitters tonight. We get our election packs tomorrow, so once I have that nomination form in my hands I shall be able to find out which way he will be jumping.

The only 'disappointing news' was that our arch enemies within Cumbria, the dastardly Copeland BNP, are fielding more candidates than we are. Clive is also the Copeland organiser and he took great pleasure in telling us that they already had 8 candidates selected for Copeland's 12 county council seats.

There's a great traditional rivalry between the towns of Workington (Allerdale) and Whitehaven (Copeland) and they call each other's residents, "Jam-Eaters", which is the biggest insult possible up here in West Cumbria. I believe it stems from the idea that your parents don't earn enough money to provide a cooked evening meal, but I might be wrong.

So things have started to buzz in Allerdale and I can't wait to get involved with the campaigning next week. I have a list of election tasks to undertake, but first Freedom has to be finished, and that's the priority for the next four days.

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.