February 01, 2008

Calne Town Council Lickhill ward: BNP's rose-strewn path turns thorny

First, let's deal with the lies.

The main BNP website says: "The decision to stand a candidate was taken after extensive canvassing of the ward [Calne Lickhill] where residents welcomed the arrival of The British National Party into Calne politics."

The BNP's "arrival"?

Then who was Alexander Davison standing for on May 3rd last year in the very same Lickhill ward? And who were Robert Baggs (Calne Abberd) and James Martin (Calne Quemerford) standing for in the very same elections?

And let's not forget that the residents of Lickhill ward evidently doing the welcoming saw fit to award Alexander Davison and the BNP just 91 votes, or 7.5% of the total, on the BNP's apparent non-arrival last May.

If you were to believe current Lickhill ward candidate Robert Baggs it's been roses all the way for him but for one (alleged) fly in the ointment:

"Whilst campaigning today a young 'lady' came out of her house to remonstrate with members of our team. This wasn't to debate our policies but to spout foul-mouthed abuse at them... Our team ignored her and walked away as there is no point in even attempting to debate with such people. It was interesting to note that within minutes of closing her door a red "J" registered car arrived with 4 black gentlemen inside who had obviously arrived to intimidate and harass our team, who, to avoid any confrontation, consequently walked away to work in another area."

A stupendously fast arrival by the "4 black gentlemen ... who had obviously arrived to intimidate and harass our team".

Baggs does not elaborate (we won't speculate why) and is soon back on his rose-strewn path:

"Although unsettling, this negative experience was soon countered by several positive thumbs up and toots from passing motorists."

Lickhill is a town ward of Calne Town Council, and as it isn't our normal policy to report these elections in any depth, we don't propose to profile the locality in our normal manner.

That we are reporting it at all is because, as usual, the BNP is working up this parish election into something it isn't, and has sunk resources into its campaign that are entirely out of proportion to Lickhill's importance. Reading the witterings on Robert Baggs's blog, it's clear he believes that the BNP has put in a greater effort here than any of the other four parties standing candidates.

In May 2007 the vote went as follows (first four elected):

Cons 431
Cons 423
UKIP 380
UKIP 378
UKIP 356
LibD 312
UKIP 279
LibD 253
LibD 247
BNP 91

With vote averaging, the BNP's performance looks slightly more impressive, at 7.5%, than its 91 votes suggest.

In May the BNP also contested two other Calne wards:

Abberd 163 (17.3% - last of six. The candidate was Robert Baggs)

Quemerford 124 (11.0% - last of seven)

As the BNP love to judge their performances against those of the hated UKIP (but only where they do better than the UKIP), they won't object if we do the same - and we think they're going to come a cropper, almost certainly beating only a first-time Green candidate to save their blushes.

Even so, it would not be an enormous surprise to see a modest increase in the BNP's percentage vote to reflect the huge amount of work they have put in, but we think, given Baggs's optimism and propensity to bump into BNP voters wherever he goes, that anything less than 15% would be a crushing disappointment for them.

Calne Town Council Lickhill ward result (percentages in brackets):

LibDem 278 (35.14)
Con 256 (32.36)
UKIP 150 (18.96)
BNP 84 (10.61)
Green 23 (2.90)

Total 791

A modest increase indeed for the luckless Baggs, less than 3.5% on a reduced 25% turnout, a distant fourth to the UKIP, and no welcome at all into Calne politics. One wonders what happened to all the horn tooters, thumbs-uppers and those offering the "positive words of encouragement" he blogged about?

Another one for the BNP to forget, and not much for us to write about, so we'll finish with some comments by the BNP's self-appointed election expert and personal Uriah Heep to Nick Griffin, the much ridiculed Green Arrow:

Sadly it seems that despite the efforts of the British National Party, there are still those in uninfected parts of Our Country that remain indifferent to what is happening to their fellow True Brits. We shall just have to work harder. You can bet that Robert and his activists will be out next week.

Which is a bit more than any of them will expect of Green Arrow.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Although unsettling, this negative experience was soon countered by several positive thumbs up and toots from passing motorists."

Hopefully people who enjoyed the sight of the BNP shitting themselves when confronted by 4 big Gs

Anonymous said...

“We handed the leaflet to [Robert] Baggs personally in his front garden, and he was furious. The BNP were absolutely rattled and put out a leaflet in reply, which was a rabid rant, accusing us of \"defecating on democracy\". Somewhat ironic you might think! The BNP leaflet also accused us of all being from outside the area (not true รข€“ Calne people were out leafleting against the BNP and Swindon is hardly \"outside the area\")”.

http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=14330

Anonymous said...

“BNP provokes anger with leaflets

Robert Baggs (The one without the mayoral chain of course)NATIONALIST party the BNP has been leafleting homes across Calne as part of a massive campaign. Furious residents complained to police after the far-right party pushed propaganda through their doors. The leaflet claims that robberies, muggings and sexual assaults are on the up across the country. It reads: "While the police are sat at the side of the motorway or in political correctness classes the real criminals are free to wreck decent people's lives. "A wave of anti-social behaviour is sweeping our streets and estates with a minority of rowdy youths making life unpleasant for the law-abiding majority." Richard Snell, the landlord of The Kings Arms in Calne, said: "The BNP have picked an electoral stance to become more attractive to the electorate and get more people involved. "They are not showing their true colours."

Swindon Advertiser”

http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2007/12/bnp-provokes-anger-with-leaflets.html

Anonymous said...

Robert Baggs seems to be just another fascist BNP fantasist. He tried to argue before an employment tribunal that his membership of the nazi BNP was equivalent to a “religious or similar philosophical belief”! Obviously, the employment tribunal rejected Roberts Baggs’ preposterous assertion. As a lawyer who wrote an article in The Times on Robert Baggs’ failed legal attempt concluded:

“It will come as some relief to employers and to the framers of legislation that tribunals are unlikely to accept claims from BNP members who believe that they have been discriminated against because of their extreme political views”.

(‘BNP loses battle’, The Times, April 26, 2005)

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/legal/article384990.ece)

Here, here. No surrender to fascism, no surrender to the BNP!

Anonymous said...

Robert Baggs is a fascist liar. In an interview with the Western Daily Press (‘POSTIES REFUSE TO DELIVER BNP MAIL’, 25 May 2004), Robert Baggs, the BNP’s South West Regional Organiser, denied the BNP is racist. Here’s an excerpt from
the above article:

“However, the BNP claims the union has misled its members by telling them the [BNP] leaflets contain "racist and fascist material". BNP candidate Robert Baggs said: "Anyone taking more than a cursory glance at our policies will realise this is complete nonsense”.

So, here with have Robert Baggs stating that the claims that BNP materials are racist is ‘complete nonsense’. But, back in 2003 the same Robert Baggs at the BNP’s annual Red, White and Blue gathering introduced Mick Holmes, the BNP’s Lincolnshire organiser, who claimed on stage that he was proudly “a racist”. In that same speech introduced by Robert Baggs, Mick Holmes went on to say, “Every problem in this country is down to race.” He blamed blacks for all crime, Asians for “breeding like rabbits” and when he came to Africans with Aids, he simply said: “Let them die”.

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=33

btw, this is the same nazi Mick Holmes who proudly bears massive swastika and Hitler tattoos on his chest and back. You can see the photos of Mick Holmes and his nazi tattoos on http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/. Scroll down on the left of the kirkunity site and you’ll see it. Amazing BNP nutzi stuff.

Anonymous said...

It seems that Alexander Davison, the nazi BNP candidate for Lickhill, isn’t the most articulate or fluent writer. Here’s Alexander Davison’s appallingly written rant on The Times website in response to the article, ‘Ex-BNP candidate 'spoke of shooting Tony Blair':

“its funny how the media only publish bad things about the BNP but this time is good you go on bout this stupid man and his bomb well look he is if ever was a BNP member why is he an x BNP member because of his views and mentality the BNP are nothing like this man there all good british people looking out for british safty

alex davison, calne, England”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1380013.ece

Anonymous said...

On a website, BNP nazi candidate James Martin posted, “Does anyone remember me??” (http://knowhere.co.uk/board/kb36/threads.html?start=40). Well, given that James Martin came last of seven when he stood as the nazi BNP candidate in Calne Quemerford, I think he has answered his own question! LOL

Antifascist said...

An outstanding report (and a LOT of informative comments too).

Unknown said...

great stuff, hopefully the fantasist Baggs will get the message that he is not wanted here. He now blames the weather for his pathetic result... well not only is he a fantasist he obviously has his own micro climate , because it was fine in my part of Calne yesterday !!
regards The moonraker 3 and the Calne J reg car club.

Anonymous said...

why don't you do reports before the elections with predictions ?

no offence but it's quite easy to say l predicted this and that after the election the result is already in

if u can rise to this challenge,a 20 pound donation will wing it's way to luaf

Anonymous said...

It will come as no surprise to many of you avid anti-fascist fans out there, that Robert Baggs was represented at his failed employment case by the nazi BNP’s very own legal beagle, the verifiably sane Lee Barnes (LLB of course, but surprisingly no LPC or BVC). Round of applause for Lee Barnes everybody. Encore! Wait, gotta go: just saw Lee Barnes fly past my window on one of those UFOs he keeps talking about on his ‘blog’.

Anonymous said...

Very good report. I would agree with Denise's comment that Town (ie urban Parish) Council by-elections wouldn't normally merit such attention, but the BNP HAD been making a lot of noise about this one.

From a BNP perspective this result was dreadful, appalling, awful, terrible etc. etc.

How sad . . . .

Unknown said...

@ anon

The body of our election reports above the results is always composed in advance of election day and never altered once written.

You'll have to take my word for it, but it's quite true, as at least one of our previous election reports shows, since the result varied from our prediction (although "prediction" isn't perhaps the best word).

I didn't put much research into this by-election, simply because we were dealing with a town ward, but normally it takes quite a while to gather things together and to come by a "feel" for how things will go.

The background research and the result are published in the same post to keep things together - and because I usually have to stay up very late waiting for results, which then have to be analysed. Believe me, after getting up early, putting in a day's work, then staying up late, I'm not in the least inclined to re-write anything. By that time I just want to have the analysis done, the post up, and to go to bed for a few hours before getting up for work again!

Where's my medal!

Anonymous said...

The "4 black gentlemen" story sounds like Baggs' usual crap.

Who's putting in for Denise's medal?

Anonymous said...

Well, moonraker3 here’s fascist Robert Baggs blaming UKIP for, well, existing as a political party:

“Robert Baggs, BNP candidate for the region said: "UKIP stole our thunder. If it were not for them we would have done a lot better than we did. They took everyone a little bit by surprise”.

(‘UKIP and BNP votes rise in Euro election’, Swindon Advertiser, 17 June 2004: http://archive.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/2004/6/17/114668.html)

Kind of ironic Robert Baggs blaming UKIP for the nazi BNP’s inability to gain elected office in south west England back then, given that his aunt was a UKIP councillor around that time.

Anonymous said...

"4 black gentlemen" sounds more like Baggs' sub-conscious sex fantasy.

Anonymous said...

Hilarious to read some of the posts on Stormfront pre- and post-result:

Lord Kitchener predicted "I would think maybe a first but more probably a second place there, UKIP and Greens are definately (sic) out as hopefully are Lib Dems . . ." [er, fourth is the new second? And the Lib Dems were so hopefully out that they won the seat !!!]

And after the result?

Byron Boy "Over 10% is hardly a disaster" [ er, just how tiny a percentage does the BNP have to plumb to earn the description of "disaster"?]


Another Day "It isn't a bad result"
[ under 100 votes - 2.7% of the total electorate? I'd be interested to see a "bad result" then !]

And Brighton Rock ? Er, no he's just too ridiculous for comment!

And Mr Baggs himself, on his blog just 3 days before polling, was claiming that "things are definitely looking very good".

The BNP really is an extraordinary mix of evil and incompetence!

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed the imagery that always crops up in their pieces - attempts at propaganda, I suppose? Hence, these cretins like to cultivate the view that they are the long awaited rescuers riding into town at the last minute to save the oppressed and oh-so grateful population. Of course, these heroes they have to face down the 'oppressors' in the process. Do they really think people are that stupid?

Anonymous said...

What's going on in Preston Ketlan?

By-election on 14th Feb in a ward where the BNP got 18% in 2006 - but no BNP candidate.

Thought they were supposed to be "Britain's fastest growing party" ... yawn ... yawn

Looks as though their quiet revolution is asleep in Preston !

Antifascist said...

'Thought they were supposed to be "Britain's fastest growing party" ... yawn ... yawn'

Yawn indeed. That 'fastest growing party' bit is being changed to 'fastest disintegrating party'.

'Looks as though their quiet revolution is asleep in Preston!'

Better check it's still breathing...

Anonymous said...

Griffin's personal Uriah Heep.

Brilliant.