April 27, 2009

April Fools

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

March was a worrying month for anti-fascists. The BNP was gaining an unfortunate amount of publicity, and a worrying degree of support. They still weren't terribly good at actually fielding candidates - contesting just eight out of twenty one contests. But where they did stand they polled disturbing percentages. In seven seats contested for the first time they averaged 15.97%, with three around the 20% figure and only one (just) below 10%. More encouraging was the result in the only ward that they'd previously contested (in St Helens) where they fell from a poor 8.9% to a dismal 6.3%.

As the song almost said :
To know, know, know them
Is to hate, hate, hate them
April has been less positive for the BNP. They managed to contest four of the seven by-elections on the 2nd, and came worryingly close to snatching the Temple Newsam ward in Leeds (which the Tories gained from Labour, and in which the Lib Dems achieved the biggest swing!). However, even here their vote share only increased marginally, from 22.2% to 23.6%. The moral seems to be that where several of the major parties compete energetically the BNP's chances to advance are limited.

In the Dormanstown ward of Redcar Labour again lost the seat, this time to the Lib Dems, and the BNP (standing for the first time) polled 16.6%. They also polled 13.6% in an Arun Council by-election in rural West Sussex - geographically and demographically a long, long way from Dormanstown!! But in the Skircoat ward of Calderdale, in an area of West Yorkshire once considered a BNP stronghold, they polled just 6.5%. Their failure to field a candidate in Camden on that date might be a reflection of how badly they have done in some recent Inner London contests, but is also part of a pattern of failing to contest byelections in areas one might regard as quite important to their wider strategy (on the last Thursday in February they failed to nominate in seats in Newham, Redditch (2), Oxford and Wolverhampton).

Mid-April was quiet, with no byelections on the 9th and just one on the 16th (in Somerset - no BNP candidate).

On the 23rd though there were six contests, and three BNP nominees (giving a total so far for the month of 7/14 = 50%). In Wanstead (Redbridge London Borough), in their supposedly fertile East London/Essex belt, they managed a thoroughly miserable 4.9%. In Erewash, in their showpiece East Midlands region, they took a poor 11.5% as Labour took the seat off the Conservatives. And then they showed that they are truly the British Nationalist Party (and not just a bunch of English racists) by contesting the Aboyne ward of Aberdeenshire Council. And they got 44 votes - that's a magical 1.2%! It was a result that provoked a lively 'exchange of views' among the keyboard warriors of Stormfront. 'Jacob Cobain' had a ready explanation of the poor result - the ballot boxes had clearly been tampered with!! And every anti-fascist will laugh along as a claim that this was a "worst ever" BNP result was rebutted by a list of results where the deluded fools had managed to plumb the depths of less than 1%. Where but in the BNP would supporters defend a terrible result by listing even worse examples?
"Yeah, we didn't do very well - but it's better than 0.7%. Innit!"
June's Euro-elections are still a worry, with the distinct possibility of one or more of our regions suffering the shame of being represented in the European Parliament by racists, but for the moment just enjoy the thought of taunting your local fascist with their April Fool question:

Which was your worse result BNPer - 4.9% in East London, or 1.2% in Scotland?

20 comments:

Antifascist said...

Welcome back, Iliacus. Great to read you again.

DT said...

Good to see you back mate. :)

Anonymous said...

Jacob Cobain is a complete wanker, well below even the unusually low standards at Stormshite. For some reason he seems to be forever up Lee Barnes arse.

John P said...

I wonder if I still have the wonderful poem Jacob wrote Barnes last year. I shall have a look when I get to work tomorrow

Sooo said...

I like these by-election reports. Thanks Iliacus.

Anonymous said...

The Temple Newsam result raises important questions about the relationship between the Lib Dems and the BNP actually. In that particular election, the Lib Dems resorted to outright lies (i.e. things which were clearly and demonstrably lies, as opposed to the highly selective use of the truth that is their normal way) on their leaflets, but more serious are the multiple reports I've heard of their canvassers referring to the ethnicity of the Labour Candidate.

Dangerous and irresponsible, and handed a massive publicity victory to the BNP - it's worth noting that the Labour Candidate stood against Mark Collett in the last local elections.

His Honour Lee Barnes said...

Well I think young Master Cobain is very sweet. He always sticks up for me.

Anonymous said...

Jacob Cobain is a complete wanker, well below even the unusually low standards at Stormshite. For some reason he seems to be forever up Lee Barnes arse.

That's 'cos 16 year old Jacob, living in the south east one day, Scotland the next, friend of Griffin IS Lee Barnes

Anonymous said...

LOL 1.2% Fook me.

Anonymous said...

Scotland BNP are going nowhere, they have more officials than activists and most of the officials are not even active - they are a complete joke!

Jace said...

Welcome back, Iliacus. Great to read you again.

I'll second that.

Anonymous said...

Jacob Dumbass Cobain, following a minor verbal attack on Dave Hannam (serial adulterer and joint would-be peedo with Mark Collett)

"Leave Dave Hannam out this.He works like a slave for this party and goes over the call of duty to drive the party forward or so l have heard."

This moron is up everyones arse!

Anonymous said...

The BNP have no chance in June, as this article shows; they're hopeless fools. The whole 'BNP threat' has been created by New Labour simply to gain them votes.

Anonymous said...

UAF activists should emphasise that the BNP is not even worthy of a protest vote. Their basic idea, encouragement to repatriation, is nothing more than a euphemism for ‘make them any offer they cant refuse’. They make this clear by the way they regularly insult the Asian community. Calling Asians perverts and much else is hardly a way to initiate encouragement, persuasion or any other reasonable sort of dialogue.

A vote for the BNP would be a vote for violence on the streets, violence initiated by BNP activists. They make this clear from their campaign literature.

Anonymous said...

"4.9% in East London, 1.2% in Scotland"

Oh happy day. Let's watch those votes dive...

Nick Griffin said...

Jacob sits on my lap while writing on Stormfront.

Anonymous said...

Don't delude yourselves. The BNP will get over a million votes in the Euro elections.

Sorry to be a damp squid but you can't just sit back and laugh at them. This is grown up stuff - you need to have convincing arguments that their policies are bad for Britain.

I suggest reading the Hope Not Hate literature.

iliacus said...

Many thanks for the kind comments BUT to the Anon who said "as this article shows the BNP has no chance in June" please, please, PLEASE don't come to that conclusion.

Their recent foul-ups are a delight to see, but we must not underestimate the threat. Get out there to campaign, get out there to vote, get everuone you know out to vote.

WE MUST FORCE DOWN THEIR SHARE OF THE VOTE !

Thank you

I

Anonymous said...

bnp vote collapsing...

branch organisation collapsing...

roll on then tearing each other apart when their vote goes down in june

Anonymous said...

"Sorry to be a damp squid"

Surely ALL squid are damp? Possibly even wet.