Clive's scheme, Gerry and the Grand National

It's off to Carlisle shortly to continue the huge job of leafletting the city. Our campaign has been going on since late last year with canvassing in the five target wards and this early start has paid dividends with the British National Party up and running before Labour and the Tories were out of bed (together).

As you will have no doubt seen from the BNP's main website, we already have two parish councillors, elected unopposed for Wetheral Parish Council. This was one of the schemes that Clive Jefferson had up his sleeve which I alluded to in yesterday's blog. Brian Allan and Tony Carvell are both standing in our targets wards for the City Council and the publicity gained from them already being elected, albeit to a parish council, will help raise their profile with the electorate.

I expect Clive will tell you all about his successful 'Plan B' on his excellent blog - here - but as I understand it, the fact that someone at City Hall was leaking information  to our opponents was used to our benefit. Suffice to say that on Thursday afternoon when Clive collected nominations papers for Brampton Town Council there were still eleven vacancies on that council, when he returned to hand in nomination papers at just twenty minutes before mid-day on Friday - and the close of nominations - he was told that all those eleven vacancies had now been filled . . . . so it was a good job that the two BNP nomination forms Clive was handing in were for Wetheral Council on the other side of the city and where the Brian and Tony were elected unnopposed.

It's a bit of frantic time when nominations close, and to find out how many candidates we have standing I sometimes go on our opponents sites to see if they have any info that I haven't received. From visiting these sites you also see who has won the battle between those who oppose us to take up the mantle of the most active opposition to the BNP for the May election campaign.

Once again I can report that it's Gerry Gable and Searchlight who appears to have won the day with the UAF site now months out of date. Presumably the funds ran out and the trade union money that had been keeping it going was switched to Searchlight.

Gable is a resilient fellow and has been around as long as I have, and probably more. I can remember in 1977 trawling the left-wing bookshops in Brighton trying to buy a copy of Searchlight for the latest news. In those days, the magazine told you as much of what was going on in nationalist politics as the publications of the parties fighting for the cause.

Grand National today and I can't get away from the favourite, Cloudy Lane. I would just hate to have to back a horse at such short odds for the race, but it does look a good thing and barring accidents should run out an easy winner.

Workington Reds are at Hyde where I shall be hoping for a point to ensure our survival in Conference North for next season. Very disappointing performance on Tuesday evening when we were beaten 2-1 by a very average Alfreton Town - we were bullied out of it by a bigger more physical side who didn't let us play football.

Lost in the Christmas rush

Jon Cruddas and Gerry Gable are two unhappy bunnies this morning.

And it's not because their anti-BNP campaign, which was making all the headlines before lunch yesterday, was suddenly trumped in the media's BNP stakes by the announcement from our London Mayor candidate Richard Barnbrook, and English National Ballet principal dancer Simone Clarke, that they were to wed.

The 'celebrity' news concerning the two high profile BNP members certainly spiked the attempt from Cruddas and Gable to try to portray the British National Party as something more akin to Marlon Brando's family in The Godfather, than a political party scrupulously vetted by the Electoral Commission.

But it's not only Richard and Simone's announcement that has caused the upset.

Jon Cruddas' abuse of Parliamentary procedure, which was guaranteed to attract the media's attention, and Gerry Gable's latest 'shock and horror' dossier on the BNP were meant to grab the headlines next year, at the end of February, in order to stop the BNP's GLA and local election campaign in its tracks. But unfortunately for Jon and Gerry, the Gang-of-Four's takeover bid for the British National Party was rumbled two months before it was due to go public, so their hand was forced. And it couldn't have been a worse time of year - all those prime anti-BNP headlines intended to put hundreds of thousands of voters off supporting the BNP, just lost in the Christmas rush.

Richard and Simone have certainly captured the media's attention this morning with the London Evening Standard carrying one of the best reports albeit under a rather unkind headline. Almost every newspaper reports the engagement but my favourite comes from today's Diary in The Guardian. Its view, with a tiny bit of editing to make it acceptable for this blog, is . . .

"Congratulations to Simone Clarke, principal dancer of the English National Ballet, and Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's London organiser, who are to marry. They say The Guardian, which outed her as a BNP-ite, brought them together. That's marvellous. The ENB was supportive of Simone when her views came to light. Will it celebrate with a recital? Of course, Barnbrook has his own background in the arts, having directed the film in HMS Discovery. A life in glossy magazines awaits. Move over, Posh and Becks."

Best of luck to our four candidates in by-elections in Benfleet and Shepshed today.