Ready for the General Election year

BEST WISHES for 2010, a year that will hopefully see further electoral progress for the British National Party.

No posts during December for very good reasons. My visit to Cockermouth just after the floods brought home the magnitude of what had happened. When you see the reality of people's homes and businesses virtually destroyed, words seem frivolous.

Updating my blog seemed trivial to say the least - especially with talk of politics and policies when the constituency where I am standing has been split in two by the loss of the two bridges that connect Northside, Seaton, Flimby and Maryport to the main town of Workington.

There's been a lot of gossip about what took place and just how a torrent of water was able to take out the main Workington bridge which had stood for nearly 100 years. It's important to fact find before pointing any fingers, and that's what I and my team will be doing in the run-up to the General Election.

Although, I wasn't blogging, I was busy with a trip to Brussels for some training and then a week in Strasbourg as the Parliamentary Assistant to Andrew Brons. This was a fascinating few days, researching for the numerous votes that were taking place, helping Andrew prepare for two speeches he made in the European Parliament and attending a meeting of European nationalists where I met Jean Marie Le Pen, his daughter Marine and the impressive Bruno Gollnish.

Below is a photo of us in Andrew's Strasbourg office, preparing for around 30 different votes on the Thursday morning.



The weather has been playing havoc here in West Cumbria and the rest of the North of England. When returning home from Strasbourg my eldest daughter met me at Leeds Bradford Airport. On the trip home there was a blizzard and we got stranded, first along the A1 and then on the A66. Despite landing just after 9.00pm, we didn't get home till three in the morning.

Then two days later I met my other daughter, returning from university in France, at Newcastle Airport. Here again we got caught in a blizzard on the way home and were trapped for an hour on the A69 because cars were unable to get up the hill at Haltwhistle. There were incredible scenes with cars sliding all over the road and others trying to climb the hill via the central reservation.

Here in Wigton we have been frozen solid for the festive week. Pavements are lethal and venturing out in the car takes ten minutes of preparation because of frosted windscreens. Very little football with Workington Reds not having played since a victory over Nuneaton saw us through to the next round of the FA Trophy. The next outing is due to be at Blyth on New Year's Day, but reports from Croft Park say the pitch is still frozen.

It's the West Cumbrian way

I went to Cockermouth on Thursday, just to take stock of the situation and speak to some local people.

Clive Jefferson, who lives in the town, and Eddy Butler, who was there on a fact finding visit for Nick Griffin MEP, were with me as we walked down the main street talking to residents and members of the emergency services.

We did a bit of filming for BNPtv away from where people were trying to salvage what was left of their belongings and down by the river. The strength and height of the Derwent was still very worrying, although the weather had improved and level of the river is said to have dropped.

We visited the home of a BNP voter and he told us the harrowing story of the night and how events unfolded. It all happened so quickly. One minute he was watching television and the next his car had been washed away and his lounge was knee deep in water.

He was busy cleaning up and getting on with life. And that seems to be the way of things. It's the West Cumbrian way.

Football at Borough Park this afternoon where there will be a minute's silence for the brave Bill Barker who lost his life saving the lives of others just a few yards from the ground. Borough Park itself was just six inches from being swamped but the double bank that protects the ground from the Derwent held firm and withstood the raging torrent.

Stunned

WEST Cumbria is in a state of shock this morning after the events of the last 48 hours.

The tragic loss of Bill Barker on the bridge in Workington, just by the Reds football gound, has left everyone stunned.

Clive Jefferson reports that Cockermouth is virtually under seige from rising water and there's the worry that the renewed onslaught from the weather, which is forecast for today, could have further devastating effect.

On Thursday when the storm hit us, at one point it seemed as though the roof of our constituency office might blow off. I was crawling around in the eaves with buckets trying to catch the leaks as the rain came down in sheets.

There are floods everywhere but thankfully the office has survived so far and Tina and I live on a hill so we should be OK.

Today's FA Trophy tie against Solihull has quite correctly been postponed - not because the pitch is waterlogged - apparently it's quite playable - but because of the tragedy at the bridge.

I spoke with Nick Griffin at length yesterday as he wanted a complete briefing on the situation in Workington and Cockermouth. He wants to help but said that we must wait until the emergency services have done their work and the media circus has left the area. Then we will see how we can be of use by utilising Nick's English Fair Fund to support any local projects helping the stricken community.

Tina's off the Carlisle this morning to do a bit of shopping by has strict instructions to be back by mid-day when the next round of weather is due to hit. At the moment the sun is shining and there's not a breath of wind . . . . the lull before the storm?

Desperate Labour lies

Can you believe this?

It's a sign of desperation on behalf of Labour that it has turned on its most loyal of allies, the BBC. Obviously I'm upset that the Daily Mail has reported that I was "imprisoned", when in reality I was fined and then chose to go to prison myself in order to make a political point.

But what is even more bizarre and has no doubt left BBC executives scratching their heads this morning, is that I didn't even appear in the Newsnight programme. It is shocking reporting by the Daily Mail to publish such Labour Party propaganda without even checking the facts.

I would have liked to publish our candidates and wards for Allerdale this morning but as it's not yet in the public domain why give our opponents the inside track? We are out this morning leafleting an electoral division in Workington and then tomorrow it's back to postal voters in another electoral division in Workington.

If I may, I would like to mention our Allerdale Election Appeal again and will do so each day this week. We are hoping to have a full colour election address for all our seven wards. It's £160 per leaflet which makes our target £1,120. It's a daunting total but the appeal got off to a promising start yesterday when Steve Johnson handed over a cheque for £50, as he left after staying the weekend with us. Then last night I got a call from Paul Stafford who said that Matthew had driven over from Workington and donated £150 after reading about the appeal that afternoon.

So now there's just £920 to go. If you can help I can guarantee your money will be put to good use. Please send your donation to: The Secretary, PO Box 107, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 0YA and make your cheque payable to the British National Party. Please make it clear that the donation is for the Allerdale BNP Election Appeal.

Thank you for your help.

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.

New faces - and very keen at that

WHAT a good meeting last night in Workington. On a bitterly cold Tuesday evening, 35 people turned up and all of them were from the Workington area apart from a husband and wife from Whitehaven. And even better than that, nearly 20 of those present were new faces, which is something that a political party needs to see all the time - new people coming in to share the work and the responsibility.

There were good speeches from Paul Stafford and Clive Jefferson all about local elections and our plans for the County Council elections in June, and after the meeting two people came forward to ask to be considered as candidates in Workington, with one of them a former chairman of the local Conservative Party.

During the meeting I scanned the faces of those attending their first BNP meeting and it was a very different sight from when I had done the same thing a couple of years ago. Then, sometimes, some of the new people tended to look as if they didn't really want to be there, as if they had made a mistake in coming along, while others just looked bored and were impatient for the proceedings to be over.

But not last night. The newcomers were completely absorbed with what was taking place, a fact underlined as they queued up to speak with Paul and Clive after the event. It's a totally different political climate today. Peoples' minds are much more focused because their future is threatened and the BNP has without a doubt come in from the political fringes in the thinking of many people.

Further to my story on the main BNP website today and the revelation that one of the killers is living in ********, I have seen an exchange of correspondence about this and have no reason to believe that it is not the truth. I know the exact address but with so much going on politically I don't want to attract any unnecessary attention from the authorities by going out on a limb over this. Suffice to say, hopefully the report on the main website this morning will stimulate a journalist to go in search of the story if there is one.

Now a little job for those of you who enjoying posting comments. A regular reader of this blog, David Moon, tells me that Blue State Digital have a website where they are asking for comments in response to its decision to "take on the BNP". You will no doubt recall that BSD are the web team behind Obama's victory and which has been signed up by the Labour Party and their anti-BNP front organisation, Searchlight, to try to stop the British National Party from getting MEPs elected in June. You can see it here.

David told me yesterday: "Nobody has posted at all yet and they are encouraging debate so I have posted the item following. Their 'moderator' hasn't put it up yet, and I won't hold my breath. This is what I wrote:

"It appears you have been mis-informed if you believe that the BNP is a "fascist" organisation.

"I think you will find that the 'fascists' are to be found in the UK's Labour Government which in the last twelve years has brought in legislation to curb free speech, to hold people in detention without trial, has introduced surveillance on a massive scale, including CCTV cameras as well as plans to monitor private email and other telecommunications correspondence.

"There is repressive anti-free speech legislation on the statute book which was introduced by a previous Labour governement and has been built on incrementally by subsequent governments, both Labour and Conservative. All of these things are the hallmark of a totalitarian fascist state. Additionally, this Labour government has, in conjunction with your own government under Bush, waged war against Iraq without any legitimate or legal justification and killed countless thousands of people in the process. It also, continues to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan with huge loss of life, not least of our own servicemen and women who have no choice in the matter.

"The BNP is a LEGAL political party in the UK which seeks a mandate from the British people through the ballot box by standing candidates in lawfully - and hopefully properly and fairly -conducted elections at local, national and EU level.

"It is improper that a foreign country should interfere with another country's internal affairs by campaigning on behalf of any political party, or 'third party' organisation, whether paid or not. Searchlight is not even standing candidates, it is a 'third party force' and any expenditure must be declared on the expenses of one of the party's which is standing, otherwise it will be in breach of UK electoral law and liable to, aswell as deserving of, prosecution.

"I would respectfully suggest therefore, that you desist from interfering in our country's internal affairs."

And finally, the British National Party's victim status scaled new heights yesterday when the Church Of England banned its clergy from holding BNP membership. With the Witchfinders now turning their attention on brave BNP teacher Adam Walker today, that victim status looks set to rise again shortly.

Aren't our opponents stupid? They have completely failed to understand the British psyche - we feel sympathy for the victim and the underdog and don't like to see the bullies picking on people who can't, or are not allowed to, defend themselves.

Election fever and a late goal

I should have been delighted when I arrived home from football early yesterday evening to find out that there was no November General Election. It is not in the best interests of the British National Party to contest an expensive election which it has no chance of winning and which, in the main, provides little or no benefit to the Party.

But I wasn't. I felt disappointed and deflated and that was because for the last three weeks I have been suffering from a bout of election fever. This 'illness' puts one in a state of hyper-excitement every time the word 'election' is mentioned. The buzz is so great that you spend most of your time searching for the word in newspapers, on television and on the radio desperate for any information that helps to raise the temperature.

Make no mistake, election fever is a sickness. When struck down with it, rational thought goes out of the window and the mind is filled with the possibility of attaining the impossible.

Every election campaigner needs a mild dose of election fever when those nomination papers have been handed in to give them the necessary lift to be able to knock on all those doors in the push for victory, but the after effects of the sickness can be debilitating depression and disillusionment.

So there won't be a General Election in 2007. Away can go the maps of the Workington Constituency, the prepared introductory leaflet, the endless financial calculations and appeal letters for funds.

It's back to working on Freedom and preparing notes for a meeting in Carlisle on Thursday. Planning for a General Election has been my over-riding preoccupation for the last three weeks so without it, just for the moment, it all feels a bit empty.

My disappointment and deflation over no General Election was added to by the knowledge that my small wager on a November poll at 6/5 with Betfair was now in the pocket of someone not struck down by election fever. On top of that a superb late summer afternoon at Borough Park was spoilt by an 88th minute penalty for Redditch United which gave them a totally undeserved share of the points.

But that's football and that's election fever.

Salmon Supreme & John Ward

There's something of a tradition on Friday. My in-laws come for dinner and stay the night and I do the cooking.

In the kitchen whilst preparing the meal I listen to BBC Radio Cumbria's Sports Hour with Paul Newton, hoping to get any team news for the next day's game for Workington Reds.

It was salmon and mushroom supreme last night.
Sliced mushrooms flash fried in olive oil and butter -
One inch cubes of salmon flash fried in the same pan -
Deglaze the pan with white wine and add a pint of double cream -
All in an ovenproof dish and topped with fried coarse wholemeal bread crumbs and chopped mushroom stalks -
About 15 minutes in a hot oven.

John Ward, the new Carlisle United manager, was the special guest on the sports hour so it was all about the Cumbrians and nothing about the Reds. I would have liked to ask John Ward what he remembers of his time playing for my team back in September and October 1972 when he had a loan spell at Borough Park from Lincoln City. I would also have liked to ask him whether with his past links to the Reds, there might be renewed co-operation between the two clubs who are both still very much soccer outposts. Disappointingly I didn't get the chance.

The meal didn't do the waistline any good but served with oven-finished new potatoes and a green salad with an olive oil, balsamic vinegar and black pepper dressing it went down well accompanied by a couple of bottles of Riverquest Chenin Blanc (£5 Co-op).