My 80th and my last 'Freedom'

NICK has hit the headlines this morning across the country with newspapers reporting "BNP's Griffin weeps over EU success".

What has happened to the NUJ's censorship? Surely it doesn't fit their criteria to report that Nick has shown emotion - devils don't have feelings.

You can read the report here

What is rather strange though is that at this moment, ten-to-nine, under some of the headlines the story is 'unavailable' - are they belatedly trying to pull it? See here

I know why Nick felt so emotional. We all did.

Simon Darby was responsible!

In his introduction he recalled how Tony Blair and his Government had twice tried to jail Nick with the two Race Act trials in Leeds.

When Simon said: "If Tony Blair had had his way, Nick would now be in prison rather than an MEP going to Brussels to represent the people of the North West," - I think it brought home to everyone just how massive our success has actually been.

Great day yesterday and also very constructive. At 9.30 there was an Advisory Council meeting where the plans for the future were set out. This went on till the Victory Rally started.

I reported on our election results and there were also speeches from both our MEPs, Deputy Chairman Simon Darby, our fund-raising magician Jim Dowson and Paul Golding on the BNP's Operation Fightback against a biased media.

Our breakthrough into the mainstream thanks to our two victories in the European Elections will certainly be life changing for Tina and I.

After thirty years of producing a monthly newspaper - firstly for the National Front, then the National Democrats and finally the British National Party, I'm now moving on to something different.

At the meeting Nick announced that I am to be the Campaigns and Communications Officer for both himself and Andrew. This will involve getting the maximum publicity for our MEPs to ensure that every voter in the North West and Yorkshire is aware that they are working on their behalf.

Tina will be Nick's PA and Constituency Office manager, while hard-working Leeds BNP councillor Chris Beverley, will be filling a similar role for Andrew.

There are some more appointments to be made to both teams, but we are awaiting on the official announcement.

Today, for me, it's back to Freedom, my 80th issue and my last. The immensely talented Mark Collett is taking over at the helm of the newspaper and I have no doubt he will make it into a really eye-catching publication.

North West analysis

I'M clambering over piles of copies of Freedom to provide this morning's blog but by the end of the week the newspapers will all be distributed to homes across the region.

Not much in the NewsRound today, with predicted smears in a couple of newspapers failing to materialise.

A rant from Harry Phibbs in the Daily Mail

More from Denis McShane in the Daily Telegraph

Four Jags campaigning against the BNP in the Daily Telegraph

The Greens can beat the BNP in The Guardian

As I said in a posting last week, I'm not concerned at all by the media's promotion of the Green candidate in the North West. Rather than hurting Nick Griffin's aspirations to become an MEP it will help them. Green votes will only come from Labour and the Lib-Dems and it's their votes that need to come down from what they were in 2004, as well as the BNP's vote going up, to ensure that the North West region elects a BNP representative to the European Parliament.

Consider this example:
The result in 2004 in the North West region was as follows::
Labour 27.4% - 3 seats
Conservative 24.2% - 3 seats
Liberal Democrat 15.9% - 2 seats
UK Independence Party 11.7% - 1 seat
British National Party 6.4% - 0
Green 5.6% - 0
Others 8.8% - 0

Well like it or not there is going to be some quite serious vote share changes with UKIP's and Labour's vote certain to drop. I envisage . . .
5% of UKIP's vote will go to the Tories and 2% to us.
2% of Labour's vote will go to us, 2% to the Lib-Dems and 2% to the Greens.
2% of Lib-Dem votes could go to Greens if the media campaign promoting the Greens gets a foothold.
The other's vote will disappear too, probably evenly divided between the Tories, Labour and the Lib-Dems.

So this is my prediction of the vote share in the North West on June 4th.
Conservative 31%
Labour 23%
Liberal Democrat 17%
British National Party 10%
Green 9%
UKIP 5%
Others 5%

The seats will be divided up like this with one less seat to fight for than five years ago.
Ist seat - Conservative 31%
2nd seat - Labour 23%
3rd seat - Liberal Democrat 17%
4th seat - Conservative 15.5%
5th seat - Labour 11.5%
6th seat - Conservative 10.3%
7th seat - BNP 10%
8th seat - Green 9%

So we are in comfortably and could even survive with the Lib-Dem vote share a little higher and them taking the final seat rather than the Greens.

All interesting calculations anyway.

Today first thing I'm off to Workington to drop the troops to start delivering copies of Freedom to the postal voters, then, I understand, I have to meet up with a team from BBC Newsnight who apparently want some footage of us campaigning. Waiting for confirmation of this, is a distraction I could do without. I dislike the media intensely and see no reason why we should put ourselves out just to accommodate them. We would be much better off just getting on with the job in Workington but orders are orders so I have to do as I'm told.

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.

Could he mean me?

I'm really under the cosh this morning with Freedom deadlines approaching, but just had to share this story with you.

Labour MEP Glyn Ford, believes the British National Party could win SEVEN seats in the European Parliament in June.

Well I'm wondering where he has got the seven seats from, and can't help but get excited at the thought that he might have included me, as No. 2 on the North West list, in his calculations.

According to my understanding we need over 16% in the North West for the BNP to get that second seat, which is probably beyond us - but maybe Gyln knows different!!

Anyway, he has certainly cheered me up this morning - here's the link