One too many glasses of Cava

OH DEAR, I over did it last night celebrating what must rank as one of the best days ever for British Nationalism.

I have forgotten how many issues of NF News, The Flag, and Freedom that I have banner-headlined with "British Jobs for British Workers, so to read the slogan in every single newspaper this morning is very rewarding.

It's only ten o'clock and Tina must have already taken 30 plus calls for new memberships, membership renewals and donations. I have a feeling that British Nationalism is facing its best opportunity to make significant progress.

The Truth Truck was at Sellafield, Whitehaven and Carlisle yesterday before going on to Immingham. I've already received some great photographs from the Carlisle visit and will give them a good spread in Freedom.

This from yesterday's issue of The Times:
“Yesterday was a great day for British Nationalism,” said a spokesman for the far-right BNP.
As workers addressed a crowd of around 600 outside Lindsey one of the workers shouted: “Get the BNP rep up there.”

I'm off for some more aspirins, back tomorrow.

I say give Weyman a chance!

I SHALL be scanning the Newcastle Chronicle today for Gerry Gable and Searchlight's comment on last night's Fenham Ward by-election in the City. Remember my prediction of yesterday that he will say:

"This result does not reflect a rise in the Party's popularity in the area. They have always had a strong base in Newcastle, so this is no great shock."

I would hazard a guess that with the year just one month old and with only four BNP results to date in 2009, Gerry's £multi-million deal with the Labour Party and Trade Unions to stem the votes of the BNP, is already in jeopardy. I'm thinking of starting a campaign to get Labour and the Unions to switch the funding to Weyman Bennett and the SWP's UAF - at least they can't do any worse than Gerry and his gang.

Joking aside, what a result last night. Beyond our most optimistic expectations. That sprightly young sapling, Ken Booth, had told me that he had wanted to close the gap on Labour and the Lib-Dems and put distance between the BNP and the Tories. Mission achieved. He also told me that he would be delighted to double the BNP's share of the vote. Mission achieved and more . . . . he trebled the vote.

East Midlands Election Officer, Wayne McDermott, an expert number cruncher on elections, told me late last night as we waited for the result that 18% would be a brilliant vote and would keep our Party's election momentum 'on high' . . . Ken received a 27% share of the vote!

As the editor of Freedom, I'm especially delighted with this result. It was the third election that has used a blanket distribution of the latest Freedom as a pre-canvassing warm-up 'leaflet'. In Workington, Whitehaven and Newcastle we have achieved votes beyond expectation, so I'm hopeful that the BNP's Advisory Council will give its approval to roll out this scheme nationwide. Next election up, where this has been done, will be Tameside on Thursday.

Congratulations to all those hard-working activists who made this result possible. I know Cumbria's Election officer Clive Jefferson and his team were regular visitors to Fenham, and it is this sort of co-operation between our two regions that made this campaign such a success. Next stop for us in Cumbria, is two city council elections in Carlisle next month.

And finally, on another great Friday for the British National Party, two bits of news about UKIP. I'm not going to comment on the items but will just make one plea to any UKIP members reading this blog - don't waste your time, energy or money on this lame duck. If you believe you are a British nationalist then your home is with us.

ITEM 1:
Statement from the Electoral Commission
22 Jan 2009
The Electoral Commission today (Thursday 22 January 2009) welcomed the decision of the High Court to order the re-hearing of a case concerning donations to the UK Independence Party. The Commission had brought a judicial review of the decision by Westminster Magistrates Court to order UKIP to forfeit only £18,481 of £367,697 in impermissible donations that the party had accepted. A re-hearing will take place at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Commenting on the decision, a Commission spokesperson said: We sought judicial review of the original decision of the Magistrates Court because we thought that it was important for parties, the public and for the Commission for there to be greater clarity about how the rules on forfeiture of impermissible political donations are applied.
The judgement has set out considerations that should be taken into account when a court is deciding cases about impermissible donations. In particular, these must include Parliaments intention when passing the legislation that the test for permissibility of a donation by an individual to a political party is whether the donor is on the electoral register.
Political parties are vital to the health of our democracy and they need to raise money to campaign, develop policy and communicate with voters. However, it is also important that they follow the rules on party funding.
Ends/

ITEM 2:
Dear UKIP member,
We are writing this letter more in sorrow than in anger. At a time when every effort should be directed to our June election campaign, the NEC is wasting time and money on divisive and controversial changes to the UKIP constitution. It is now holding a members' referendum on this.
What is worse, the purpose seems to be to make it easier to get rid of members at a time when we should be concentrating on the reverse - expanding our membership. The changes will stifle freedom of expression within the party and reduce and weaken the power of members:
Quote:
Amendments 6 and 19 (VOTE 2) The changes abolish the annual business meeting. Members will be deprived of their current absolute right to *vote* annual on the Party's accounts at a meeting of all members and to *receive* annual reports from all national officers. Yet the Party should belong to its members and the leadership should be accountable to them.
Quote:
Amendments to 14 (VOTE 4) the changes will *abolish the democratic right* of members to elect a Disciplinary Committee at the annual business meeting. Instead a Disciplinary Panel of three will be selected arbitrarily by the unelected Party Secretary from a "pool" of about 55 people, themselves appointed by regional committees. Further changes will give the unelected Party Chairman (appointed by the Leader) arbitrary powers to suspend temporarily any member for any reason without a hearing.
These changes are worthy of the EU itself - *reducing* accountability and democracy.
Given that the leadership launched this attack on members' rights and is now asking your view, we feel it right to present the case against. We ask you to vote *AGAINST* all changes but particularly Vote 2 and Vote 4. The other changes are simply needless.
In less than six months voters will be choosing their MEPs. *UKIP should be campaigning now for a major breakthrough*. yet it is low on the opinion polls and short of campaign funds.
The NEC discussed the coming campaign for the first time only a few days ago. Meanwhile it has been wasting energy on feauding and squabbles. It then launched a witchhunt for imagined enemies within. Two NEC members elected by the members were summarily kicked off the NEC; their crime apparently being to express their own opinions (and absolutely nothing to do with the BNP as some have tried to imply). The deputy Treasurer was similarly removed. Ordinary members have been thrown out without being given the right to any hearing.
We condemn this navel-gazing and misdirection of effort. It must stop. We call on the leadership to accept that any democratic party is bound to have a spread of views; that intellectual debate can be healthy and that, amazingly, the Leader, the Chairman and the NEC may not always be right.
As promonent UKIP members we call on the Party to unite, dispose of this distraction quickly *by voting against these unneeded changes* and concentrate on the proper task in hand.
Yours sincerely
Sir Richard Body, was MP for 39 years
Tim Congdon CBE, leading economist
Roger Knapman MEP, former Party Leader and MP
Dr. Eric Edmond, elected NEC member
Piers Merchant, former UKIP Chief Executive and MP
Bruce Lawson FCA, former UKIP Treasurer
Martin Haslam FCA, former UKIP deputy treasurer
Del Young, elected NEC member
Dr. David Abbott, elected NEC member

Have a great weekend. Big FA Trophy game for me with Workington entertaining Wrexham. The last time the two sides met was 29 years ago when both teams were still in the Football League. Hopefully there will be a 1,000 plus gate at Borough Park tomorrow.

At last, Britons are stirring!

WHAT a good story to wake up to this morning! British workers at the third largest oil refinery in the country walking out because the management has brought in 90 foreign workers to cut costs.

Over three hundred staff took part in the unofficial action at the Lindsey Refinery, near Immingham, yesterday and one worker told BBC Radio Humberside: "We are angry that workers have been taken on from outside the UK when people here are out of work."

Great stuff. Let's hope the local BNP unit can organise an activity at the gates today giving out our British Jobs for British Workers leaflets.

Fenham Ward by-election today and I am very lucky that I am still able to give you the latest news from Newcastle. That's because Ken Booth, our excellent candidate, wasn't happy with me yesterday because someone told him that I had described him as "a boring old fart" on the BNP website. What I actually said was "a rather dry old stick" which is very different. After checking for himself, Ken agreed to this latest run-down. He told me:

"Everything depends on today. Either Labour, the Lib-Dems or ourselves could win. We will do everything we can to get our vote out. But what is most important is to look at our vote share. We are coming up from just 10%, where the other two parties are working from a base of 35%. That's a huge amount of ground to make up."

Cumbria's elections officer, Clive Jefferson, was at the opening of the postal votes yesterday. Of course he is sworn to secrecy about what took place, but what I did glean from what he was able to tell me was that neither Labour, nor the Lib-Dems had built up an unassailable lead and Clive confirms what Ken told me . . . "Everything depends on today".

If anyone can get to Newcastle today to help, activity will be going on till 10.00pm.

Interesting quote from Gerry Gable in the Bexley Times yesterday:

The newspaper reported: "But anti-BNP campaigners said the result did not reflect a rise in the party's popularity in the area. Searchlight publisher Gerry Gable said: "They have always had a strong base in the Bexley area, so this is no great shock.".

Our antagonist-in-chief acknowledging that we have a strong base of support!!!!

Normally he says we don't have any support and that anyone who has voted BNP "has been duped".

So why the change of tack?

I'll tell you why. Searchlight has just been handed a huge budget by the Labour Party and Trade Unions to try to keep the BNP votes down this year. Gerry knows this is a forlorn hope so in order to keep the funding coming in he will be dismissing every significant BNP vote with the quote: "This result does not reflect a rise in the Party's popularity. They have always had a strong base in the area, so this is no great shock."

I predict that Gerry's next three quotes to the press will be:

"This result does not reflect a rise in the Party's popularity in the area. They have always had a strong base in Newcastle, so this is no great shock."

"This result does not reflect a rise in the Party's popularity in the area. They have always had a strong base in Tameside, so this is no great shock."

"This result does not reflect a rise in the Party's popularity in the area. They have always had a strong base in Croydon, so this is no great shock."

Experience teaches you to always keep your feet on the ground, and that is what everyone must do during these exciting times. I have the greatest antidote when I suspect my expections are running away with me - the Mid Staffs by-election in March 1990.

I was the National Front's campaign manager and spent nearly a month in the constituency, working every day to try to maximise the Nationalist vote.

This was the result:

Mid Staffordshire (Lab gain from Con)
S Heal (Lab) 27,649
C Prior (Con) 18,200
T Jones (Lib-Dem) 6,315
I Wood (SDP) 1,422
R Saunders (Green) 1,215
J Bazeley (Ind) 547
D Sutch (Monster) 336
C Hill (NF) 311

It was a 'throat-slitting' result, just 0.6% of the vote and beaten by the Monster Raving Loony Party. But little did I know at the time that those four, what appeared to be wasted, weeks would provide me with so much stability today.

And that's because it taught me to take nothing for granted and to appreciate each and every day that our Party is making progress. The membership of the BNP is growing every day and our election results are getting better every week. That is a massive feat considering what our enemies have thrown at us.

And finally, we are nearly through the week after ski-ing. Anyone who goes ski-ing will know that it is the hardest holiday to come back from. The first week home is just full of memories of the previous seven days and it's almost like 'doing time' to get through it. Now, if I may, the last photo from the holiday (I promise). "On top of the world, Ma"



My hat is an exclusive Workington Reds bobble hat. Guaranteed to keep you warm in freezing temperatures at Borough Park or on top of an Austrian mountain.

What's in a few beers?

THE following was posted on the comments section last night and I'm re-printing it here just in case some readers don't visit there. Alan is one of our dedicated activists in the North East and he has been working hard in the Fenham by-election which takes place on Thursday.

"Some impressions from canvassing in 2 parts of the ward, one a council estate, the other highly 'enriched.'
1. English voters on the council estate were highly resentful of foreigners jumping the housing queue.
2. Support was generally good on the council estate, at least 50% of those at home when canvassed.
3. Supporters could all give a reason for voting BNP. 'No' voters never gave any reason for voting 'No' to the BNP (or for not voting at all).
4. 2 people canvassed reported threats of dismissal from employers about voting BNP. They were advised to report the threats to the police and reminded that the vote is a secret ballot (unsure why they didn't know this, apparently).
5. 'Enriched' parts of the ward are clearly victims of 'mouseholing,' foreigners occupying one house at a time in sequence, eventually forcing most whites out.
6. Many white voters in the 'enriched' areas said 'No' to the BNP. At least some may fear reprisals if the BNP does well.
7. Foreigners are conspicuous by their presence i.e. they don't have jobs - Fenham high street is as bad as or worse than the centre of Leeds in this respect, I thought.
A salutory experience."

Alan's thoughts show just what a difficult contest this one is to call. Probably that 11% ethnic minority vote will decide the outcome especially if there is a block vote for either Labour or the Lib-Dems.

Yesterday I reported on the Deputy Returning Officer at Bexley responding to complaints concerning the East Wickham by-election where the Tory candidate beat our own Michael Barnbrook by just 8 votes. I've been asked to provide some background.

There's a very good by-election website called Vote-2007 and on this site all the by-elections taking place are discussed by activities from the main parties.
Now one posting after the count came from a Lib-Dem in response to a spat with a Tory who had accused the Lib-Dems of taking votes from the Tory candidate and almost handing the BNP victory. It said:

"I would also talk to any friends you have in the local Tories about what happened at the count... but all I can say is the local Tories owe us some beers!"

Just some web-room banter you might think, but what makes this interesting is the 'Borrowman' who posted this comment has been identified as the husband/partner of the Lib-Dem candidate and so was definitely at the count. The key words are "what happened at the count" which indicates that is was something untoward.

The saga is continuing and David Moon, a nationalist who I have known for nearly a quarter of a century, is not letting the matter rest. He has responded to the Deputy Returning Officer's letter:

"I did not suggest that the website I referred to, 'Vote UK Discussion Forum', had anything to do with Bexley Council. You appear to have missed the point! I referred to it because it was potentially evidence of some collusion between the scrutineers/counting agents from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties aimed at affecting the outcome of the election. You are, I am sure, well aware of the particular circumstances surrounding this by-election. The Lib Dem, Conservative and Labour parties were more concerned with the prevention of the election of the BNP candidate than the success of their own campaigns.
The result was a very close one and whilst the candidates and agents may have consented to the result standing following the recount, I do not think it helps the publics confidence in the democratic process if you ignore any potential evidence of fraud because it is inconvenient. Never forget that you and the other employees of the council are SERVANTS of the people, not their masters!

There's more on this, here, from a Lib-Dem Euro candidate.

Although it might all seem rather mysterious, our election guru Eddy Butler is very happy with the way the count was conducted and believes there is no reason for anyone to suspect that there was any skullduggery taking place. He told me this lunchtime:
"I am perfectly satisfied that the count was conducted in the correct manner (I was there) and there is no evidence of cheating. The staff at the count conducted two re-counts on their own initiative - without us even having to ask - which speaks for itself."

Freedom, Freedom, Freedom - that's me for the next few days, although I will keep this blog updated. Our own election guru up here in Cumbria, Clive Jefferson, has ordered 6,000 extra copies of the newspaper for the two by-elections in Carlisle that we are contesting, and he wants them "yesterday". . . . Hopefully he will have them late next week.

Third Parties in Fenham!

This is a letter being sent out by the trade union Unison, intent on interfering with the result of the Fenham ward by-election which is being fought on Thursday. This is on top of a scurrilous leaflet put out earlier in the campaign by the same trade union. It will be interesting to see on which candidate's election expenses these items appear.

On the subject of interference in elections by "third parties", I am delighted to report that the BNP's legal eagle, Lee Barnes, has been in touch with the Electoral Commission with regard to a number of recent developments which appear to indicate that huge sums of money are already being spent by such "third parties" which could be in breech of electoral law. Needless to say this money is being spent on schemes designed to try to stop people voting for the British National Party. I will keep you up to date with any developments.

"It was all fair!" That's the bleat from the deputy returning officer at Bexley Council after he received a deluge of complaints concerning dubious electoral practices at the recent East Wickham by-election where the Tories held the seat by just eight votes from the BNP. In a letter to a regular reader of this blog he wrote:

"The Council has received a number of enquiries about comments appearing on the website “ Vote UK Discussion forum.” This website has nothing to do with the Council. I can confirm that the count was conducted to the highest professional standards within election rules. If you need further clarification I suggest you take up your concerns directly with the author of the comments.
Malcolm Constable
Deputy Returning Officer / Electoral Services Manager
London Borough of Bexley"

I was offered a 3 minute slot on Sunday's Politics Show which is covering the growth of the British National Party in Cumbria and the North East, but because of pressure of work (Freedom must be ready for next week) I had to decline the invitation. I understand that Adam Walker from Durham has been lined up as a more than suitable replacement.

I have appeared on the Politics Show before, back in 2004, when once again I was promised a three minute slot. I travelled over to Sunderland, a drive which took nearly 2 hours. I waited around for another two hours, did the interview and then drove back home. It was a day out from work but which would be worthwhile if it provided some good publicity. When I was watching the programme a couple of days later, the door bell rang and I opened it to let in a friend of my daughter. When I settled back to watch the rest of the show, I suddenly realised that I had been and gone. My three minute slot was, in fact, just 15 seconds. I have had numerous similar experiences which have put me off ever making any effort to accommodate the media.

I forgot to tell you about Christmas, I won the draw to choose the afternoon film and we all watched "Brassed Off". Everyone liked it and I will no doubt enjoy watching again. Here's a scene that's quite poignant. Stephen Tompkinson is Phil, a miner badly in debt after being arrested and imprisoned during the Miner's Strike. He supplements his income by being a clown for children's parties but when his wife and children walk out on him because the debt collectors have taken their furniture, he votes to take the pay-off offered by the Coal Board and votes to close the Grimley pit - hence this scene is called Coco the Scab

BBC on a sticky wicket

DON'T you just love John Humphrys. He utterly destroyed BBC Director General Mark Thompson, presumably his boss, on the Today Programme this morning over the Corporation's decision not to carry the charity appeal for the victims of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

I would have liked John to ask him the question that must have been on the mind of those who were listening to the interview: "Aren't you blocking the appeal because you have been instructed to do so by the powerful pro-Israel lobby within the BBC?"

I expect I will be accused of being anti-semitic for just thinking such a thing, but let me tell you that by banning this appeal the BBC are themselves stoking up anti-semitism, especially amongst Muslims living in this country and the supporters of the Palestinians who will wonder just what has to be done for the BBC to say something critical of Israel.

The Metropolitan Police says that there have been 150 anti-semitic incidents in the capital since the start of the conflict in Gaza, including a suspected arson attack on a north London synagogue, verbal abuse, offensive graffiti. No doubt some of these have come about due to the frustration of protestors at the blanket ban by the Beeb on reporting the anti-Israel demonstrations that have been held in the city. Personally, I don't believe that this ban is anything to do with protecting Israeli sensibilities, but more to do with the BBC being worried that the sight of 10,000 very angry Muslims on the march will frighten the life out of ordinary Brits and drive them into the arms of the BNP.

Congratulations to Gerry and Sonia Gable and their Searchlight organisation - they have been awarded the golden goose that lays the golden egg. Labour Party and trade union funds will be channelled into their Stop the BNP front in the run-up to the local and European elections in June, while the SWP- run Unite Against Facism (UAF) will have to be satisfied with any crumbs from their table.

I'm happy with this. For the past 30 years, Gerry has been the main torchbearer of those who oppose British Nationalism. The fact that we are now at our most influential position ever, shows that he hasn't done a very good job. I'm quite content for his Searchlight gang to keep hold of the "anti-BNP" reins, while the virtually untried UAF is kept in the background.

A huge dollop of Labour Party money has already come Gerry's way enabling him to sign up Barack Obama's web strategists Blue State Digital (BSD), to try to stem support for the British National Party. The consultancy was behind Obama's online success and the idea is that they will use the Internet to help Searchlight stop the BNP winning a seat in the European election.

I'm not particularly concerned about this. There is a huge difference in generating support for something - as BSD did for Obama - and generating opposition against something. Anyone living in Britain who opposes the British National Party so strongly is already involved in campaigns against us. BSD say they will help Searchlight by innovative messaging, which I can only think means targetting recently-arrived immigrants in their own language warning them that the BNP would like to take away their seat on the gravy train.

And finally . . . Nigel Farage. Back in the Summer of 1967, my second favourite group, the Small Faces, made a record called Lazy Sunday, you probably know it. It was a music hall number and nothing like anything the band had done before. Although it was a hit, organist Ian McLagan said it sounded the death knell of the group because they had become a joke band and no one took them seriously any more. Months later Stevie Marriott left for Humble Pie and the Small Faces were no more.

I expect you are getting my drift if you watched the Politics Show yesterday. Although he might have been pleased with the personal publicity, Nigel Farage was seen as a joke politician and the high profile BBC slot showed that his UK Independence Party can't be taken seriously any more. I shall leave the last word on this to Anthony Butcher, a longstanding administrator of the UKIP-supporting website Democracy Forum. He said:

"I can't imagine that anyone watching would think that it was his finest hour.
The whole smoking thing doesn't look good to most people, especially littering fag butts - that's just annoying.
"Don't talk to me about money"... "I don't have any money"... from someone on £100K+ (I believe) isn't going to connect with many voters especially in a recession. I thought that he looked a little 'tired and emotional' at that point too.
The many and varied pictures of UKIP MEPs boozing away wouldn't be my first choice of image either. Combine that with the interviewer calling them schoolboys engaging in silly games and I can't honestly think that this will gain UKIP any credibility. It just didn't come across as a serious venture."

. . . . but Lazy Sunday was still a great record - have a listen.