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.

Carlisle campaign: Just 37 days to go

It will be a sad day for British National Party members and supporters in Cumbria on Thursday when we attend the funeral of our colleague and friend Nigel Williamson.

On the evening before, there's a meeting of Allerdale BNP and although there was discussion that this should be postponed, it was decided that Nigel would have wanted it to go ahead, so it will take place as advertised  and the collection will be for Nigel's widow, Martine.

In one of last week's entries I mentioned the local elections in Carlisle on May 1st, and there's been quite a bit of correspondence regarding how we performed last time and if we can improve on this in five and a half weeks time.

In May 2007 these were the results:

Carlisle City Council
Belah Ward
Wayne Newton (BNP)96
BNP Percentage: 5.1%
Con 818, Lab 482, Ind 399, ED 96.

Botcheby Ward
Karl Chapple (BNP)217
BNP Percentage: 17.6%
Lab 618, Con 400.

Currock Ward
Brian Allan (BNP)309
BNP Percentage: 24.1%
Lab 571, Con 235, Lib-Dem 169.

Harraby Ward
David Fraser (BNP)262
BNP Percentage: 15.2%
Lab 776, Con 456, Lib-Dem 232.

St Adians Ward
Tony Carvell (BNP)200
BNP Percentage: 13.7%
Lab 750, 512.

Upperby Ward
Christine Williamson (BNP)168
BNP Percentage: 11.7%
Lab 677, Lib-Dem 371, Con 215.

As to our candidates and hopes this time around, please keep in check with Clive Jefferson's website at cumbrianpatriotbnp.blogspot I understand we will be contesting more than six wards this time around and that canvass returns in our target wards are already significantly up on last year.

Yesterday we had snow in Cumbria, and it was laying up on Shap as I made my way down the M6 to junction 28 and then on the country route to Southport for a crucial Conference North fixture.

It was an excellent day out as Reds secured a much-needed point against the promotion hopefuls. But as sometimes happens on these occasions there was some welcome political news at the game. I was approached by a West Cumbrian town councillor who told me that he and a number of his friends had "had enough" and are joining the BNP. He wanted details of meetings and how he could help so I briefed him over a cup of soup and a meat and potato pie at half time.

Four candidates in two council by-elections

There's no let up in the British National Party's election push as the year draws to a close. With just a week to go till Christmas, teams of activists are out in Benfleet in Essex and Shepshed in Leicestershire campaigning hard to recruit more voters to the BNP's Quiet Revolution.

The borough of Castle Point, situated on the coastline of south-east Essex on the northern side of the Thames estuary, has an area of 17.3 square miles and a population of approximately 86,000 people. The main population centres are Benfleet, Canvey Island and Hadleigh.

St Mary's Ward is in Benfleet and it is a Tory stronghold. In May it was just a straight fight between the Tories and Labour with the winning candidate polling 1129 to her opponent's 524. The two vacancies have come up after the winning candidate in May and her husband, also a sitting Conservative councillor, faced accusations of benefit fraud.

The details for this elections are:

Castle Point Council
St Mary's Ward
Thursday 20th December 2007
(2 seats)
Peter Barber (BNP)
Mark Howard (Con)
John Morgan (BNP)
Alf Partridge (Con)
Brian Wilson (Lab)
Tony Wright (Lab)

Julia Green is one of our two candidates in the contest for East Ward seat on Shepshed Town Council. Julia, you will remember, made the front page of the November issue of Freedom when she polled 20% of the vote in a county council election in Shepshed just before Gordon Brown called off his early General Election. Labour advisers at the count in Shepshed phoned the Prime Minister as soon as the result was declared and 24 hours later he pulled the plug on his intended November 8th polling day.

Lets just remind ourselves of that stunning BNP result:

Julia GREEN - British National Party 807 20.02%
Kevin PARKER - Labour Party 1,217 30.19%
John POPLEY - Liberal Democrat 933 23.15%
Christine RADFORD - Conservative Party 1,074 26.64%

Postings on the BNP Members Forum suggest this campaign is going well with very good canvass returns so it's hoped that Julia and Martin can improve on that 20% BNP vote share.

The full details are:

Shepshed Town Council
East Ward
Thursday 20th December 2007
(2 seats)
Colin Chapman (Con)
Sarah Fall (Lib-Dem)
Martin Foster (BNP)
Julia Green (BNP)
Stephen Londsborough (Lab)
James Nasmyth (Lib-Dem)
Richard Tabberer (Lab)

There is a very good local election website called Votewise at www.votewise.co.uk. If your BNP unit is contesting an election please make sure this website gets your candidate's photograph, biographical details and policy statement. The website is a popular news source for the media and has a growing visitor hit rate as local elections are attracting more and more public interest. All the details on how to post the information are on this website.

My soapbox is back in the cupboard

I am paying the penalty this morning for getting on my soapbox again yesterday.

In yesterday's blog I had intended to put the matter of Conservative Party recruits to the BNP to bed. I had set out to apologise for my rather blunt and insular remarks in Wednesday's posting and to get on with covering yesterday's media confirmation of the lead article in December's Freedom that 'A slump is on the way.' Sadly I didn't. Once I started blogging, my 'high & mighty attitude' (as one correspondent called it yesterday) surfaced again and I ended up making what many see as another unfair attack on former members of the Tory Party who have joined our ranks.

I have taken the liberty of publishing one email I received on the Comment's Section of yesterday's blog because I think it provides a good overall summary of the heavy correspondence I have received on this matter. I hope Dean doesn't mind this.

The two key points he raises which I must acknowledge are:

That I ignored the role of the media during the 1980s & 90s which shaped public opinion of that time.
That someone in my position should keep private views for the pub and not air them on a blog which has as its only claim to fame that it comes from the editor of the BNP's newspaper.

I wholeheartedly accept this and apologise again for any offence caused. We have a huge battle ahead of us to keep hold of our country and everyone joining our Party to stand by our side in this crucial campaign is very welcome.

Sadly, I can claim that I was right about the result of the Prince's End by-election. Our vote did collapse and my thoughts today are with our excellent candidate Karen Parkes and her small and dedicated team who suffered for the non-performance of the previous BNP councillor. The same thing happened in Burnley and Barking where because of the disappointing performance of our councillors, our Party was severely punished in by-elections following their demise.

Last night's result was:
SANDWELL MBC
Prince’s End Ward
Thursday 6th December 2007
Delia Edwards (Lab) 796
Beatrice Owen (Con) 517
Karen Parkes (BNP) 314
Dorothy Brayshaw (Lib-Dem) 29
BNP Percentage 19.0%

In the greater scheme of things, this result does us a big favour. It shows everyone connected to our Party that you can't play fast and loose with the electorate. If our councillors don't do their jobs properly BNP candidates will be rejected - end of story. If we had still won in Prince's End after all that had happened it would have sent out the message that the BNP can win seats regardless of how effective or not our councillors are. That would have been bad for the British National Party and bad for local politics.

Our team in Prince's End have got to keep their heads up and start working for next May's elections. Russell Green, who I understand is a hard-working and effective BNP councillor, will be defending his seat and hopefully the electorate will have forgiven us by then and acknowledge his endeavours.

Off to the doctor on Monday for a blast of antibiotics. I should have gone a week ago but I was hoping that nature would just run its course.

Workington Reds are at Gainsborough Trinity tomorrow, desperate to bring something back from the game and halt a rather worrying slide down the table. I have made the trip to their Northolme Ground many times before with my favourite memory being when Reds won 4-2 in a snow storm and I spent the second half praying that the referee wasn't going to abandon the game.

Difficult by-election in Prince's End

THERE is just one local council election on Thursday and it will be a very difficult one for the British National Party to gain any satisfaction from.

SANDWELL MBC
Prince’s End Ward
Thursday 6th December 2007
Dorothy Brayshaw (Lib-Dem)
Delia Edwards (Lab)
Beatrice Owen (Con)
Karen Parkes (BNP)

Our excellent candidate Karen Parkes, faces the almost impossible task of trying to defend the Prince’s End seat on Sandwell Borough Council.

Yes, it is a BNP seat and the by-election has come about because of the ‘under-performance’ of sitting BNP councillor James Lloyd, who was elected in May 2004 but hasn’t attended a council meeting for the last six months which means he forfeits his hard-earned place on the council.

It’s a sorry state of affairs for which I know of no mitigating circumstances and as such the electorate will punish the BNP at the polling stations on Thursday. In Burnley and Barking where similar situations occurred three years ago, in the resulting by-elections the BNP vote fell by between 10-15% and it’s difficult not to expect the same sort of shift from voters in Prince’s End.

This is very hard on Karen Parkes who contested the ward for the BNP in May and came within 20 votes of winning Labour’s one remaining seat
May 2007
Raymond Howes (Lab) 898
Karen Parkes (BNP) 878
Beatrice Owen (Con) 498
June Newell (Ind) 241

In May 2006 the BNP won its second seat in the ward with the following result:
Russell Green (BNP) 1128
June Newell (Lab) 1050
Jean Nugent (Con) 415

The full result in May 2004 when James Lloyd won his seat was as follows:
James Lloyd (BNP) 987
Raymond Howes (Lab) 947
June Newell (Lab) 939
John Salvage (BNP) 886
Andrew Millard (Lab) 866
Mark Nelson (Con) 423
Kevin Richard Walker (UKIP) 388

One interesting development this time around has been the withdrawal of the Green Party candidate Vicky Dunn, after the close of nominations and with her name on the ballot paper. She told the Birmingham Evening Mail: “The Greens don’t want to split the vote and let the BNP in, so I have withdrawn.” But within hours of her decision, a lifelong Green Party supporter had contacted the newspaper to say that they were switching their support to the British National Party as it was the only political party talking about the effect of immigration on the environment.

Thankfully because of the BNP’s summer and winter training schools, which focus in particular on the role of councillors within local communities, the calibre of the new slate of BNP councillors and candidates is now much improved.

Good luck to Karen and her small but dedicated team for Thursday and I hope she can buck the trend and save this seat for the BNP. Prince's End is a special ward for British Nationalists with a long history of supporting our cause. I remember travelling up from Worthing in the mid-1980s for a local by-election campaign. We polled around 15% which was a stunning result in those days and made the local headlines because of the exclamations of dismay expressed by the other parties at our vote.

On a personal note, I’m still well below par because of a flu bug that has shown little inclination to leave me. It’s two weeks now and I’m contemplating a visit to the doctor to try to get something to shift it. Next September I am going to invest in a course of flu jabs which will hopefully see me through the winter without being laid low. I failed my fitness test on Saturday morning so was spared Workington Reds 3-1 home defeat by lowly Hucknall Town – “worst Reds performance of the season” my man at Borough Park informs me.

No UKIP revival in 2007

There was a significant county council by-election in Lincolnshire last night and this was the result.

Lincolnshire County Council
Heighington & Washingborough Ward
Thursday 15th November 2007.
Clive Oxby (Con) 788
Darren Hopewell (Lab) 206
Roy Harris (Lib-Dem) 137
Michael Clayton (BNP) 126
Stephen Pearson (UKIP) 52
Victor Sahunta (Ind) 21
BNP Percentage: 8.9%

This was a target seat for UKIP which polled 419 votes last time around scoring a very creditable 11.3% of the vote.

Wayne McDermott from the BNP's Election Department emailed me this morning with his take on the result.

"This is an area where UKIP stood 14 candidates to our single candidate in May 2007, so it was a very strong area for them. I feared we would be beaten by them but still hoped that our low key campaign might just be enough for the BNP to prevail. In reality we ended up thrashing them, leaving nowhere in the East Midlands where they can beat us. After confidently predicting at the beginning of the campaign that they would come 2nd to the Tories, the nearer they got to polling day the more the hard-working UKIP team began to realise there was no support on the doorstep for their party. In the end they didn't even show at the count, probably well aware they were about to suffer another huge blow to their electoral credibility. I can't remember the last time they beat us in a by-election, can you?
"This is another new area for us and another step in the right direction. I don't expect anyone to get excited with a 9% BNP share of the vote - on the plus side our campaign was completely local with no outside help whatsoever - but there were six candidates standing and we were within striking distance of the 2nd place Labour candidate who saw his party's vote share fall by a huge 26%."

I'm grateful to Wayne for that analysis and I can confirm that initial UKIP optimism about the campaign. I correspond quite regularly with a couple of UKIP officials and they have been adamant that the east of England was still very much 'their area' despite the setbacks elsewhere this year. Last night proves that this is not the case. I always urge these people to come and join us and shall do so again today if they contact me. Sadly, although they acknowledge these are desperate times for their party, they all still believe that the public will turn again to them as they did at the Euro-Elections in 2004. I tell them it won't happen again. That was a one-off Max Clifford miracle. His publicity machine got UKIP the peak time TV coverage and provided it a certain 'celebrity'status which was enough to appeal to a public desperately seeking an alternative to the old gang parties. But UKIP today is totally exposed and has no credibility. It won't ever come back.

And talking of exposure, over-exposure this time, if anyone reading this blog has five minutes to spare please email BBC's Any Questions and ask them why on tonight's programme to discuss "British Jobs for British Workers" they have that UKIP fraud Nigel Farage, rather than inviting the BNP's Nick Griffin, the leader of the political Party from which Gordon Brown actually stole the slogan.

Busy weekend. Annual Conference on Sunday and Freedom's deadline worryingly looming.