December 21, 2009

Is BNP leader quitting now while he's ahead?

The British National Party has been at the forefront of politics in Stoke-on-Trent for the past seven years, since outsider Steve Batkin stunned sceptical observers by coming third in the 2002 mayoral elections.

Since then, while more established political parties have crumbled and lost ground, the BNP has seized upon the slightest sign of weakness in its opponents.

Mr Batkin may have been a lone figure in the council chamber in 2003, but within five years he was joined by eight more members. In the same period, Labour's once total grip on power evaporated, leaving the party with little choice but to go into opposition for the first time in the city council's history. The Conservatives have had to form a tenuous alliance with centre-right independents to muster enough numbers to occupy key political posts.

The recent emergence of the Stoke-on-Trent Independent Group not only cut the Conservative and Independent Alliance to just seven members, but also made the BNP the outright third largest political group in the city, just five seats behind Labour.

When last year's mayoral referendum took place, the BNP backed the campaign to retain the elected mayoral system, leading many political commentators to speculate openly about the possibility of a BNP mayor running the city. In short, the BNP under Alby Walker's leadership had become a major political force. But that all changed on Wednesday evening when Mr Walker sent a tersely-worded email to council officers stating that he had quit as leader.

Of course, he would not be the first senior political figure to stand down for personal reasons. But the email made it clear that he was stepping down before his group had even begun to appoint a successor. In fact, that is not likely to happen until January. Then, when The Sentinel contacted deputy group leader, Councillor Michael Coleman, three hours later, he said he knew nothing of the resignation.

Leadership changes happen, but stable political parties try to plan ahead to smooth the transition and reassure their members and supporters. The BNP is not a localised council group operating in its own tiny bubble of influence. It is part of a large, organised political body with its own national and regional leadership structure. It is unthinkable that anyone in the BNP's hierarchy who knew of Mr Walker's intention would let him make his announcement without carefully managing the situation.

But party leader Nick Griffin certainly seemed to have no knowledge of the crisis developing in the city he likes to call the jewel in the BNP's crown. Speaking from the climate summit in Copenhagen, an obviously flustered Mr Griffin said: "I'm afraid I don't know anything about this. I've no idea what's happening in Stoke-on-Trent."

Clearly party chiefs, like the council group, did not know of Mr Walker's plans until after he had executed them.

When he confirmed his resignation that evening, he not only admitted that he was unlikely to stand for election to retain his seat in May, but also refused to say whether he would remain with the party at all. One source close to Mr Walker has suggested the announcement was timed to prevent someone else leaking the news of his planned resignation to "stab him in the back". But the fact that his own group did not know what he had done, even hours afterwards, implies that the attack he feared was expected to come from within, rather than from rival parties.

Since Wednesday, the group has been displaying a united front once again, and members are bullish about its chances of making yet more gains at the polls. Mr Coleman confidently expects to take 10 more seats in May and a further 15 in 2011. But he may have given an insight into the real mood within the group when he said: "It is going to be a difficult 18 months ahead of us. It's getting harder now, not easier."

He also said that he felt Mr Walker had "done the sensible thing" in resigning now, to let others take on the burden of fighting three Parliamentary and 20 council seats next year, as well as all 45 council seats in 2011.

Up until now, the BNP's successes have been victories against the mainstream parties on the back of mounting public discontent with New Labour, and the Blair and Brown Governments. It would seem that Mr Walker certainly has done the sensible thing – he is quitting while he's ahead, before the progress he has made begins to falter.

The current balance of power within the council means that, in order to continue their meteoric rise, the BNP is soon going to have to vie for votes with the independents – solid community candidates who are not shackled by party dogma and whips or hampered by the conduct of their representatives in Westminster.

Mr Walker was facing re-election in May, and would have been a prime target for his political foes. Defeat would have been a massive blow for his party and a major propaganda coup for his rivals. But his departure ahead of polling day means that, should another party take the seat, they will not be able to claim the trophy of toppling the BNP leader, and their victory cannot be recorded as a defeat for the far-right party.

Mr Coleman may make an even stronger leader for the group; only time will tell. But if he fails to deliver on his morale-boosting promises of sweeping electoral gains over the next two years, then he could find himself at the head of a declining party with no political weapons he can use to fight back at the formidable independents.

The Sentinel

14 comments:

M. B. said...

Damn, I thought you meant fat boy. :(

ttt said...

Has anyone read the comments on this shit?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/12/443795.html
Lancaster Unity should be defended.

Anonymous said...

"Has anyone read the comments on this shit?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/12/443795.html"

Cheeky bastards. That's probably Paul Golding or Simon Bennett.

Anonymous said...

"Damn, I thought you meant fat boy. :("

LOL Me too.

Anonymous said...

Alby Walker as leader of the group will be a real loss to the BNP. Michael Coleman will probably end up as group leader but he doesn't have the nous to be any good.

Anonymous said...

Are you all mad or something? He hasn't left he's just cut his workload. And as for the other two - who cares? Nothing has changed. We know you are desperate but this is ridiculous.

Antifascist said...

'Are you all mad or something? He hasn't left he's just cut his workload. And as for the other two - who cares? Nothing has changed. We know you are desperate but this is ridiculous.'

You should try reading the article. The section below might help.

'When he confirmed his resignation that evening, he not only admitted that he was unlikely to stand for election to retain his seat in May, but also refused to say whether he would remain with the party at all.'

Anonymous said...

"Are you all mad or something? He hasn't left he's just cut his workload. And as for the other two - who cares? Nothing has changed. We know you are desperate but this is ridiculous."

Idiot!

Anonymous said...

"Has anyone read the comments on this shit?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/12/443795.html
Lancaster Unity should be defended."

The worst comments have been deleted.

Pits N Pots Sucks! said...

Far worse comments supporting the BNP and the EDL and laying into organisations like LU and the UAF can be found at the Pits N Pots website, which is supposed to be a radical press organisation, but is home to mostly fascist trolls.

Which idiots the PitsNPots website?

Does anyone know why the PitsNPots administrators are such sickening apologists to fascism, while bloody well claiming to be "radical"?

Is Pits N Pots run by the Stoke BNP?

NewsHound said...

BRAVE BULGARIAN ANTI-FASCIST GETS 20 YEARS IN PRISON:(

http://denverabc.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/bulgaria-anti-fascist-gets-20-years-prison/

ralph said...

I was surfing the net and looking for the usual suspects in the BNP blogosphere when I noticed that there are less pro-BNP blogs around than precisely a year ago.

Most notably the blog entitled "BNP And Me" is no-longer around.

http://bnpandme.blogspot.com/

Whoever "Me" is or was, the chances are, they no-longer see the need to pay sychophantic lipservice to Cyclops Gri££o, lol!

Anonymous said...

The thick-as-pig-shit Griffinite BNP posters on Pits N Pots think the BNP in Stoke are hardworking and willl get better without their resigned chief at the helm.

http://pitsnpots.co.uk/blog/2009/12/wol-alby-and-bnp

Stoke Observer said...

Not sure who runs pitsnpots these days; a few months ago it was an unaligned chap of moderately radical leanings i.e. he didn't like the BNP but was willing to let them have their say so long as they didn't go over the top.

I think he then joined the Lib Dems (or at least declared his support for them), but he seems to have left them now! There also seem to be other mods active on the site.

Turning to the Alby Walker/ Stoke BNP subject:

I always view the BNP (like most political parties!) as a coalition of different elements.

At the core there are a bunch of nasty racist, anti-semitic, hardliners [and some total nutters beyond them!]. They are allied with a group of weirdos of various sorts who attach themselves to the organisation (football yobs, violent thugs, weird sociopaths, inadequates and misfits).

Most of this shower are beyond any hope of redemption!

But there are also what I might term the 'civic disaffected' - people who feel genuinely let down by the system (sometimes with good cause). Some are themselves racist, others prefer to pretend the party isn't "really" like that, others are quite genuine people who have "gone astray".

Don't know quite where Alby Walker fits in all this, but I don't think he's a knuckle-dragging thug!

So his departure as Group Leader, and likely departure from the Council (and the party?) suggests some flaking off from the more 'moderate' wing of the party, at least in Stoke.

Interesting times.