July 24, 2009

Woeful West Walloped

Norwich North voters gave a two fingered salute to the BNP and its bogus vicar in yesterday's hard fought by-election, rewarding the racist party with a deposit-losing 2.7% of the vote - putting the "reverend" Robert West in seventh place, behind Craig Murray, the "Honest Man" candidate.

The full result from the Press Association:

Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, +6.29%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, +9.45%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, +7.08%)
Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48%, -0.17%)
Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)
Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)
Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.10%)
Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)

C maj 7,348 (21.37%)
16.49% swing Lab to C
Electorate 75,124; Turnout 34,377 (45.76%, -15.33%)

2005: Lab maj 5,459 (11.61%) - Turnout 47,033 (61.09%)
Gibson (Lab) 21,097 (44.86%); Tumbridge (C) 15,638 (33.25%); Whitmore (LD) 7,616 (16.19%); Holmes (Green) 1,252 (2.66%); Youles (UKIP) 1,122 (2.39%); Holden (Ind) 308 (0.65%)

The BNP realised that it was in for a drubbing in Norwich North some time ago, and though it announced its intention to stand the dodgy West in a blaze of hype that saw excitable BNP members predict their first MP, it quickly became obvious the party's campaign was firmly stuck in some very deep mud.

The party attempted to stir disharmony in the constituency by falsely claiming that African immigrants were being housed ahead of locals in Norwich, and West became a figure of ridicule as doubts about his status as a "reverend" surfaced and dogged him throughout the campaign.

Realising the party was on a hiding to nothing the BNP stopped mentioning the by-election, and national support for West was not forthcoming. Planned visits to Norwich by BNP Euro MEPs Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were shelved so as not to taint the pair with the impending disaster, and the puny Norfolk BNP organisation was left to sink or swim on its own.

It sank - and how!

The BNP's dismal Norwich North result falls into a clear pattern that has emerged since the heat of the Parliamentary expenses scandal has abated. In three significant local by-elections the racist party has seen its share of the vote tumble.

Last week in Nuneaton Arbury and Stockingford (Warwickshire County Council) - a division the BNP thought it could win - their vote share crashed by 11% as two thirds of those who had voted for the racist party in June deserted them.

Yesterday, in Reddish North (Stockport), the BNP vote share fell by 6.6% as more than half their votes evaporated - bad news for Nick Griffin, as Stockport falls within his North West Euro-region constituency. And in Dormanstown (Redcar-Cleveland) the BNP again managed to lose more than half its votes, its share again down by 6%.

As we saw in June, despite Nick Griffin's claim that the expenses scandal and disquiet at the scale of immigration amounted to a "perfect storm" for the BNP, the party managed to increase its vote by only 1.6%, and only disgusted stay-at-home Labour voters allowed him and Andrew Brons to win their Euro seats.

Griffin's lucky success was the only thing disguising what was a disastrous election for the BNP given the circumstances in which it took place. In fact it's pretty obvious that had the expenses scandal not broken when it did then the BNP vote would have fallen, with the happy result that Griffin's alleged electoral Midas Touch would have been exposed for the self-serving fiction it always was, and that with nothing to show for all the money, time and effort expended by the BNP in June the party would now be looking at its all too fallible leader in a very different light.

The Norwich North result shows that the BNP will never achieve power in the only place that matters - Westminster - and their disastrous vote losses in recent local by-elections give a true picture of the situation viz-a-viz the electorate and the BNP. Whichever way the BNP wants to look at it that picture is one of utter electoral failure.

Finally, we should like to mention the tireless anti-fascist campaigners of HOPE not hate and other organisations, and thank them for their unstinting efforts in getting out the truth of Robert West and the BNP in Norwich North. And to our list of people to thank we'd like to add Nick Griffin MEP, for providing us with the sitting duck candidate that was the ropey "reverend" Robert West. We couldn't have chosen better ourselves.

Report by Atreus (in his living room) and Denise Garside (by email from Berchtesgaden!)

Thanks to Atreus + Denise from Norfolk Unity

15 comments:

Antifascist said...

Lost deposit? Oh dear.

Anonymous said...

They're fucked good and proper. A few celebratory bevvies tonight for me!

Barbara Suzuki said...

Lost deposit, exposed the sordid underbelly of local BNP supporters (thug Steve Ames and golly-vendor Martin Roberts), united leading clergyment in joint repudiation of the "reverend" Robert West, killed any notion of BNP "going mainstream" dead in its tracks, and gave great fun to the anti-racists.
Not a bad result at all.

DD said...

Bye-bye, fake Reverend West. Even Stormfront hates you.

Jamie the antifascist said...

Smite thee Robert West to the ground!

Anonymous said...

But the election has shown there are almost a thousand fascist in the area lets not forget that people.

John P said...

That wasn't the only good result from yesterday, there were a few local coucil by-elections where the BNP stood.

Dormanstown result, Redcar-Cleveland Council, 23/7

Lib Dems 805
Lab 515
bnp 145
Con 73
Turnout 29.8%

April 2009:
LibDem 809
Lab 667
BNP 305
Con 125


Stockport Reddish North

Lab 1218 49.5% +1%
Con 403 16.4% -8.8%
UKIP 342 13.9% +13.9%
LD 303 12.3% + 0.7%
BNP 195 7.9% - 6.6%


Swanspool, Wellingborough result

Con 548
Lab 361
Lib Dem 162
BNP 120

In the two elections where we can compare the results the BNP's share of the vote has fallen by around 50%

A bad day got worse no matter what spin they try and put on it

Anonymous said...

They're resorting to calling the voters lemmings 'cos they can't accept reality

YOU GOT BURNED BIG TIME, LEMONS!

How come Denise is in Berchtesgaden, Adolf's old home. Is that for real or an ironic joke?

Anonymous said...

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I'm surprised that West and Griffin aren't tring to say that it was a fake result, inline with their equally fake 2Reverend" candidate.

Stockport Fan said...

Just to say to the HnH guys and gals in Stockport a big thank you. Your leaflets were brilliant and so well received.

I really appreciate what they say here about Norwich too, you guys and gals are an inspiration.

xx

Trash the Fash said...

I'm starting to think that the BNP resemble the gang from the Italian Job:

They have Dicky Barnbrook (aka Camp Freddie), Collett (or Hannan) for the pervy Professor Peach, Griffo as the fat and slightly gay Mr Bridger. (And Griffo likes being seen in a mini, though only the newer version that can accommodate his considerable bulk.) The phony "Rev" I admit is a new and somewhat amusing addition to the gang.

All that's needed is style, something that will always be beyond the means of the Neanderthal nazzers.

They are the Self Preservation Society!

Anonymous said...

Simon Darby does come out with some bullshit that the BNP plebs swallow.

I think it's great the way theyr're blaming everybody for not voting for them.

Fuckwits.

Good report by LU. The BNP is in shit street. Only the expenses row saved Griffin's arse.

derk said...

The podgy Norfolk BNP Dinner Club members will be rather rapidly losing their apetite with Cyclops and Darby me thinks!

Kev Scott loves The Jam said...

"The British National Party is now firmly established in Norwich after cracking one of the most difficult regions in England for the party, said deputy leader Simon Darby."

Cracked is the key word there Simon!

"We were also able — despite financial limitations ...

Surely not, not now that Prick is in 'the trough'?

"to test out a new literature via the mail delivery system and get it thoroughly debugged...",

Test out a literature eh! A new leaflet?

Email delivery system and debug it? WTF, you mean you cant even send an email properly? Or do a lot of ISP's can bnp mail as spam?

Half wit...........

iliacus said...

By the way, did the byelection scrutiny actually find any further details regarding West's "Reverend" status?

Like -

who ordained him?
what course did he study and where?
does he actually have a church or is it all in his head?