Well done Simon

Congratulations to Simon Darby on his 500 posting on his blog. Well done Simon, that's real consistency. Yours is one of the first websites that I visit when I sweep my favourites just after six o'clock each morning. You are slotted in between the main BNP site and Betfair.

We are having cavity wall and loft insulation put in today so things are once again a bit hectic. The drilling which is going on as I write makes it very difficult to concentrate.

I see that a youth in Hounslow has been sent to prison for two months for spraying an anti-Islamic message on a wall. Can you image the uproar if that court had sent a Muslim youth to prison for spraying an anti-Christian message on the wall. According to the police when the unfortunate chap was arrested he was found in possession of some BNP stickers! Wow, I hope the police are looking after them because they must have antique value because the BNP haven't produced any stickers to my knowledge since I joined the Party in 2001.

Better day weatherwise here, so I'm hoping to get out in the garden this evening.

You have to worry about the consequences

SAD news from Burnley yesterday concerning Luke Smith. It takes a tortured soul to do something like that and so publicly. I never met the lad because his brief and disastrous forray into politics came 12 months after my time of close association with Burnley for the local election campaign of 2002.

Back then, myself and two colleagues, Paul Stafford and Kevin Clarke, travelled down each week from Cumbria to help with the campaign. Everything was a bit strange there then to say the least. The organiser, Steven Smith, Luke's uncle, had a sort of antique shop and accountant's office right in Burnley High Street and we used this as a headquarters. I got on quite well with Steven, although he was a bit of a moody character, and it was a major blow when he was sent to prison right in the middle of the campaign for filling in a nomination form at the local council election the year before all by himself!

Steven's mum ran the office while he was a way and she was a friendly lady and the campaign went very well. In the end we got the results we worked so hard for, so that time only has happy memories for me despite what was to take place shortly afterwards.

Luke should never have been put forward to stand for council, he was completely unsuitable, but there was a mentality in Burnley at that time, to go for it and worry about the consequences afterwards, which was typified by the nomination form that was filled in by the organiser on behalf of the nominees.

The events of 2003 and 2004 could well have destroyed the BNP in Burnley but the branch came through it and is now stronger and better organised than ever before. I met some very good people in those five months, over six years ago, some like Len Starr who was a new member then and is now a key BNP councillor and some like Simon Bennett, then the assistant organiser but who has now disappointingly lost his way politically.

It was an interesting time, but this morning our thoughts must be with Luke Smith's family as they come to terms with their loss.

Laughable pomposity and Zimbabwe Jackie

THE Liverpool Echo last week reassured its readers, "Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of a democratic society", but then in the very same sentence qualified the statement "but when does one person’s right to express their views infringe another person’s liberty?"

It was preparing its readers for a change in editorial policy which could be found at the bottom of the report. "We are currently reviewing our policies with regard to the BNP".

What made me laugh was the pompous headline of the article: "The ECHO will stand up for freedom of speech", when what it was actually saying was exactly the opposite and its editorial policy was now being dictated by opponents of the British National Party.

Make your own mind up and read it here

More fall out from the attempts by Sheffield Labour Party to stop the BNP from holding a meeting in the city by threatening venues with the loss of their licence if they hosted the event. Along with Sheffield MP David Blunkett, one of the main instigators in this Mugabe-style intimidation was none other than Labour councillor 'Zimbabwe' Jackie Drayton, and now she has been whining to her local newspaper that she has been bombarded with emails from the public, angry at her attempts to stifle freedom of speech.

More laughable pomposity here, as Zimbabwe Jackie assures the Sheffield Star: "I believe in democracy and free speech", but apparently that belief in free speech doesn't stretch to any organisations that she doesn't agree with.

And there was an even more bizarre quote from Sheffield Council leader Paul Scriven, who said that differences of opinion were vital in a democracy so people had choices, and that . . "those who threaten or intimidate people undermine the very democracy they say they support."
Now could he just have been talking about the bully-boy antics of Blunkett and Drayton!

Weather forecast says it's meant to be sunny and 82 degrees today. Well I can report this morning from West Cumbria that it's cloudy, raining and nearer 60.

Over the past few weeks quite a number of you have mentioned the Small Faces ad on this website. Here is one of my all time favourites, its a shame that there is no live performance of them actually singing the song.
Channel 4 did a great programme on them about ten years ago in their My Generation series. I have an excellent book on them as well, Small Faces - The Forgotten Story by Paolo Hewitt. It's a very sad tale but well worth reading.

Own goal saved . . . I hope!

Full marks to my Rover for getting me to the West Midlands and back yesterday for an advisory council meeting. The journey was an exhausting eight hour round trip but with the M6 relatively clear of hold-ups and the car performing well, I was back home by half past eight.

The meeting was very constructive. I had hoped to give a report of it on this blog but the Chairman reminded everyone as we left the venue that the discussion that takes place and the decisions that are made at AC meetings are confidential. So I am unable to brief you.

The most important item on the agenda, in my opinion, was left until last and I am delighted to report that the possibility of a massive BNP own goal has been averted. I would love to tell you more about it, but I can't, although I expect the news will filter out this week. I shall just allow myself the one pronouncement on the issue. "Self-interest and short-termism has no place in nationalist politics!"

While I was burning up the tarmac on the M6, Workington Reds were beating Scottish non-league outfit Spartans 3-0 in a four team tournament at Annan. I was there on Saturday to see Reds draw 2-2 with the home side, and there's a little bit of a political story here which is worth recounting.

Most will know of the demise of Gretna FC who have gone from the Scottish Premier League to football oblivion almost overnight. Well, their place in the Scottish League has been taken by Annan Athletic who were voted into the Scottish Third Division last week, and to say that it was a shock is an understatement.

There must have been half a dozen clubs more suitably prepared to take Gretna's place, but because Annan is just seven miles up the road from Gretna, politics has taken preference over commonsense and Annan have been given the mantle to carry on the football revival in the south of Scotland.

Now don't get me wrong, Annan is a smashing little club. I was there a couple of years ago for another pre-season friendly and you get a great welcome there. It was the same on Saturday although those associated with the club were walking around in a state of shock. They are just not prepared for the transition, they didn't expect it and now I think they have just been swamped by the magnitude of it all. The club didn't even have floodlights, although the holes were being dug for them last week.

Of course, I have an interest which is why I am telling you this tale. Annan Athletic have been given £60,000 by the Scottish League to facilitate the promotion and that gives them a budget vastly superior to Workington's and they have already been after three of our players, trying to entice them away from Borough Park.

Sadly that's the politics of football at our level and especially in a football outpost like West Cumbria. I'm hoping our players stay loyal and aren't attracted away by the lure of possible higher financial rewards, but with the credit crunch hitting football up here hard, local part-time footballers are looking for the best deal they can get, which is understandable.

Long haul to the West Mids

I DON'T like driving, I suppose in part, because my old Rover is on its last legs and there's always an element of doubt about whether any trip will be successfully negotiated. But I find driving on motorways mind-numbingly boring and I always feel I could be doing something much more productive with my time.

So the thought of an 8 hour round trip to Coventry on Sunday for a five to six hour meeting, does exactly fill me with excitement. Please don't get me wrong, the meeting is important and I find it stimulating to be involved in the Party's decision-making, but it's that journey that depresses me and with the rising price of petrol, the whole day will cost over £50 which is an amount that anyone on BNP wages can ill-afford.

Interesting email from a colleague in Whitehaven on developments in Germany with regarding the building of a mosque in Cologne.

Apparently both the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany have, on the face of it, approved the construction the controversial mosque, but behind the scenes they are lobbying for Muslim countries to allow more Christian churches to be built.

Protestant Bishop Huber also wants Muslims given the unrestricted right to convert to Christianity from Islam, while his Catholic colleague Archbishop Meisner has asked that the DITIB, the largest Muslim organisation in Germany which is building the mosque in Cologne, support a project in Turkey, building a church at the birthplace of the apostle Paul in Tarsus.

Some politicians in Cologne are even more forthright saying that land available for mosque building should be strictly restricted applying the same standards that are in effect for the construction of new Christian religious buildings in Turkey!

It seems that the Christian church in Germany has a little more backbone in defending the country from the spread of Islam. Our church leaders on the other hand seem all too willing to surrender to the infidel.

Thoroughly deserved recognition

I SEE my Cumbrian colleague Clive Jefferson is up for the BNP Activist of the Year Award at the RWB - and he thoroughly deserves to be. Clive has been a revelation since coming on the scene up here around two years ago and he has certainly been behind the rapid growth we have seen across the whole county.

There was big debate going on yesterday about maximising the potential of the British National Party's website. It got quite heated at times with discussion focussing on the mechanics of the website not being used to capacity because not enough people were writing, filming or recording the reports to make the most of it.

While I'm quite comfortable with my computer and am competent with my software which helps me to produce Freedom, I find some of the latest technology a bit confusing. Back in 2002 I went to college in Carlisle to do a course on website design and computer language. For a couple of years it held me in good stead, but now I feel a bit in the dark again with innovation steaming ahead at break neck speed. In the morning I feel quite relieved when I have posted my piece on the main website and it appears to be in good order.

Now it's all about web-cam and audio reports, and not just written reports and this is progress and which I'm quite happy about. My concern is that when you have many more people, with many different media modes contributing to the website, there must be a strong editorial control to ensure that what is posted on the website is in accordance with nationalist principles and that there's nothing that can bring the party into disrepute.

There have been many new members recruited in the past two years which now form a sizeable percentage of the Party. It is vital they are well briefed about nationalism and understand how our ideology works as a whole and not just the parts of it that they were attracted to which led to them joining us.

I've probably mentioned it before, but sometimes I'm dismayed by some of the comments posted on our website in response to reports. There was the classic one where one poster thought the foreign takeover of British industry was OK as long as it protected British jobs. That's the typical short-term approach of politics today - quick fixes.

Foreign ownership of British industry is not OK because money made in Britain by British workers goes out of the country and when there's a downturn in business, foreign bosses have no loyalty to Britain or their British workforce and will pull the plug on their operations here and return to their own country.

The growing pains of our Party is the best way to describe the transitions that are taking place at the moment and we must all work together to ensure that this growth continues but also ensure that the growth is in the right direction . . . along the road of British Nationalism.