The past couple of days have been interesting for Lancaster Unity for a lot of reasons - not just the obvious ones. Our experiment with 'live' updating has been a lot of fun and a tremendous success thanks to our contributors who have plied us with information and laughs almost non-stop over this election period.
Thanks to Denise and her insatiable information-gathering, we have kept pretty much on top of things, giving our readers a snapshot of the current situation at any given moment. In fact, this election has been invaluable for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is by showing us that we can work in an entirely different way by embracing all the means that both new and old media can provide.
The results are not good - there's no getting away from that fact - though the BNP's net increase of ten councillors and the idiotic Richard Barnbrook's election to the London Assembly are more as a result of the rocky position in which the current government finds itself rather than anything the BNP has done or said. That said, the result is very far short of the BNP's expectation - they were hoping for forty new councillors and three Assembly members. And there is even more good news, as reported by Searchlight, which pointed out very clearly how the BNP's vote in many of its heartlands has gone down, in some cases quite considerably.Nevertheless, with the Euro-elections coming up, we need to remain alert and to keep working hard and continually against the ever-present threat of the far-right.
The election results themselves, though irritating, are not catastrophic. Given the usual disasters the BNP is prone to, we should lose half of the new input of BNP councillors within a year or so and Barnbrook will be sure to provide us with a constant stream of gaffes and idiocies to brighten the darkest days.
You can be sure that we at Lancaster Unity will be doing our bit in the fight against the BNP and that we will do as much as is possible to continue to spread the truth about the British National Party and its fascist links and followers, its covert racism and anti-semitism, and its continued internal corruption. The fight against the far-right is not over - it will probably never be over - but Lancaster Unity and its many friends and allies will be there at the front, with your help, doing its best to oppose it wherever we can.
May 03, 2008
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There's an interesting quote from the cerifiably insane Lee Barnes on his blog
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA YOU EVIL, PATHETIC SCUM LOSERS !"
Thank God he isn't gloating.
Well said Antifascist. The fight goes on but yes, the past two days have been a lot of fun on here. Looking forward to doing it all again.
Great guys, really enjoyed it. I dont contribute much but I enjoyed reading the constant updates. Well done everybody.
Nice report here from Nick Lowles of Searchlight
Waking up to a different London
So the BNP has one person on the London Assembly. If someone had offered us this two days ago, coupled with a net gain of just ten councillors across the country, we would have jumped at it. The media's one-sided obsession with immigration and migration and in particular the BBC's and Channel Four's fascination with the anniversary of Enoch Powell, together with the obvious collapse in support for Labour, meant we entered polling day fearing the worst.
Even the BNP was predicting 40 new councillors and three on the London Assembly.
That they didn't achieve this was down to the hard work of literally thousands of activists across London and the rest of the country. We have never had so many people involved in the anti-BNP campaign before. Against the odds, both political and climatic, decent people took to the streets and campaigned for HOPE not hate.
We suffered a few defeats but overall we held back the BNP, and in many areas we actually reduced their vote.
Even in London, their biggest prize, we succeeded. In 2004 the BNP polled 4.8%, just missing out on a seat by 0.2%. In the same election UKIP polled over 8%. Since 2004 the BNP has grown significantly in outer East London and generally become a household brand. With the collapse of UKIP we really believed that the BNP were on course for two, if not three, seats.
In the end they just got one. They polled 5.4%, hardly increasing their share of the vote. Obviously, the BNP getting anyone elected is bad but we can all be proud that we helped keep them to just that. Indeed, for much of the day we actually thought there was a chance that we were going to stop them altogether.
The campaign against the BNP will continue. We will expose the incompetence of their councillors, we will highlight the extremism of their politics and we shall work to bring hope instead of hate to communities.
There are several new fronts around the country where the BNP has now emerged and we have to start working. Next year we also have the European Elections where they will pose a serious threat in several regions. However, we feared that London would act as a springboard for future success but with just 5.4% we have shown that the vast majority of people continue to reject the politics of hate and that there is still everything to play for. And in many of their heartlands, such as Sandwell, where the BNP vote has halved in two years, we have shown that we can beat them anywhere.
I would like to finish be reiterating my thanks to everyone who got involved in this campaign. There are lessons to be learnt and techniques to improve but we can safely say that we did our bit to prevent the BNP making a major breakthrough and I look forward to continuing the fight together.
HOPE still won out over hate.
Lee Barnes is a fucking fruitloop.
I'm not happy with the "homophobic"
comments that were posted and got through the censors.
It's been a great couple of days on this blog, the live updating has been real fun. Let's do it again soon.
Two things.
How did Denise get hyperlinks in her comments last night, and how about a forum?
And have a look at this
http://messageboards.sky.com/ThreadView.aspx?ThreadId=15195
"Lancaster Unity and its many friends and allies will be there at the front, with your help, doing its best to oppose it wherever we can."
Thats the stuff to give the troops. Well said. Congrats on the election coverage.
"I'm not happy with the "homophobic"
comments that were posted and got through the censors."
What homophobic comments?
how about a forum?
I used to run a forum and they're a real pig to keep control of. All those bloody nazi spammers!!! Denise and Ketlan would never have time to do anything on the blog.
"they were hoping for forty new councillors and three Assembly members"
Well, Lee Barnes was but then we all know he's a Class A dickhead.
Is it morning already? Oh, well...
@anon
We know who's making the "homophobic" comments and why. It's nothing to do with homophobia and everything to do with highlighting the hypocrisy of BNP leaders who say one thing to their membership and do the opposite in private.
If they were open and honest nobody would care less.
@dave s
"Let's do it again soon."
Ketlan, I'll kill him!
Putting a clickable link in a comment is easy - it's just the usual basic HTML code. I can't show you here without my example turning into a link, so go here. The first example is the one you want.
Anybody posting long links would be best advised to create a hyperlink.
A forum is more than possible, but there would have to be the call for one and it would require 24/7 moderation by reliable volunteers.
To date, calls for a forum have been sporadic, and we wouldn't want to start something that died on us.
* * *
Thanks to all you lovely people who supported us over the last few days. It's your blog and you make it - we just type the words.
And don't forget to pop over to Nick and the gang at Searchlight. They've provided a great service this week, and without them our life would be much harder.
DG
Lee Barnes would easily blow his top and start threatening people, if for instance, a few teenage girls giggled at him. Taking the piss out of these racist dinosaurs would probably get these lowlifes arrested, not that I condone confrontation.
The next time you see a bnp man with the police in close proximity (for your ultimate safety), laugh in their faces, and they would surely rise to the bait, and end up in the back of a police cell.
It's ironic that Lee Barnes calls campaigners against racism "evil" when what he is wasting his stupid insignificent little life over, speading hatred and suspician, stirring up racial attacks is clearly immoral, and downright evil.
Just one question: - Has Lee Barnes ever visited Aushwitz and did he find it amusing to see all the dead bodies, the victims of the same race hatred that he is propagating?
While denying the Holocaust happened, the demented racist Lee Barnes would piss himself laughing seeing all the women and children murdered because they were not of the supposed "ayran white race".
Not that he would be laughing for long, with the fists of sickened and disgusted anti-racists in close proximity.
Nice one Lancaster Unity, Searchlight & all involved.
As for forums? Big trouble, but would be useful. It would give me somewhere else to post I suppose, having been banned by Newsquest Oxford whilst Newsquest seem to ignoring the fascists so they continue with their propaganda on the Oxford Mail forum! Now there's an example of what happens to forums when the fascists target it and it's not moderated properly. A right old mess.
Apparently it's all the fault of us anti-fascists though - according to the fascists themselves that is. I think Tony Lecomber has even got a user name on it.
Ah well. Not good though, a major local newspaper irresponsibly running a forum, allowing racists and fascists a platform whilst denying it to those who have been opposing racism and fascism. I'm not suggesting that Newsquest Oxford support fascism but their actions and lack of moderation effectively amounts to that.
The BNP is still racist, the BNP is not against immigration it only wants to stop some immigrants on the basis that they might not be white. The BNP would allow unlimited immigration from countries where the population is mostly white but stop all immigration from countries where the population is mostly non-white. It's all there in their last proper general election manifesto and hardly anyone has picked up on this fact even though it completely disproves the idea that the BNP's issue is with immigration per se, resources, over population etc. If this fact hadn't been overlooked by the mainstream media then perhaps the BNP would not be doing as well with the electorate who think they are supporting an anti-immigration party.
Well done everybody - we were lucky enough to have no BNP this year.
There's a parliamentary by-election coming up in Crewe & Nantwich on 22nd May just down the road from me. Anybody know if the Nutzis are standing?
@webeatthebnp
Just talking about that. Hang fire for now.
@Joe
Love the hyperlink :-)
Just made the terrible mistake of reading the blog of Mr Barnes, and have to conclude that one of us must have left the world of reality !
Struck by his claim that in Swansea, the BNP "trounced the Tories, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems".
So I checked the Swansea City Council website to find out how many councillors they each have, and found:
Lib Dems 23 councillors
Tories 4 councillors
Plaid Cymru 1 councillor
BNP ... er ... no councillors; that's nil, zero, none at all, a total absence, not a single one.
So, Mr Barnes - with no councillors at all you have trounced the Liberal Democrats who have 23 !
Surreal. Or perhaps he's just an idiot.
Yep, Lee Barnes really is a complete an utter nutter:
"We all know that we actually got about three elected and that postal ballot fraud, tampering with the boxes, stealing votes, fake voters and an unprecedented influx of aliens all allowed to vote in the GLA were all used to deny us the true numbers of elected representatives - BUT WE DID IT !" - Lee Barnes, British National Party
It's a conspiracy against the poor old racist BNP, it must be, an old racist BNP member says so.
Firstly my thanks to all of you for keeping us so well informed over the last few days, and sharing the laughter and the tears its been great.
So what now....the one positive thing to come out of Diva Dicky winning a seat on the GLA is that now the whole of London is going to find out what a drunken DICKHEAD Dicky is.
Here in Barking & Dagenham we have seen this day in day out for the past 2 years and have done everything we can to share this knowledge, but of course it only appears in the local press, the nationals have shown very little interest, and to be honest it has only been with the support of one of our MPs Jon Cruddas that anyone uptown knows whats going on.
Hodge took the view she would just ignore him and his party....silly bloody woman.
So now he will be there at City Hall all on his own, YOYO, billy no mates.....Bailey will not be around to read his papers for him, dont forget Dicky is dyslexic (too pissed to read them) that he goes into meetings having NO idea whatsoever what they are about unless Bailey briefs him first, even his speeches which are externally written for him, he has to have Bailey prompt him on every other word......so im hopeful in fact im convinced that he will make a total prat of himself.
But there is a sub level to all this that is worthy of our communitys consideration. At the moment as far as London is concerned Dicky is the Leader of the BNP he is the high profile...hes the face in the press and on the TV. Griffins not going to like that is he? Griffins not going to like it when Dicky pockets his allowance cos believe me Dicky has expensive tastes and he wont want to share with Griffin. And if as has been hinted there will be a challenge to Griffins leadership next month who are the knuckledraggers more likely to get behind, a one eyed welsh farmer, or a drunken successful BNP GLA Member, i know where i would put my money.
Anyway just my thoughts, meanwhile in B & D we are looking forward to seeing a lot less of Dicky, with Bailey stepping up to the plate to fill his spot, and we already have his measure....he is so easy to wind up...he regularly goes into a hissy fit throws papers about the chamber and storms out....and this allows us to get onto the serious business of working for our community.
thanks to you all once again
tulip
The Oxford Forum had one person logging on who openly called himself "HITLER".
I complained to Newsquest, and they ignored me, and refused to speak to me, after I sent them a letter, three years ago. I also complained to Evan Harris the spineless Liberal Democrat MP, and he too refused to take up my complaint.
www.evanharris.org.uk
Newsquest is owned by Gannet, the heavily rightwing American media company which supported Bush and Runsfeld's media forays during the Iraq weapons of mass destruction era, and funds the Republican party for large amounts of money, and also helps support rightwing think tanks, the likes of, some of which, are extremely Islamophobic as well as being pro-American, so there are many elements of the Americab big business community which wrongly view the BNP not as racists and Nazis but as a rightwing party.
Preserving freedom of speech is just a cover, as anybody daring to support a Muslim hatemaker such as Osama Bin Laden, would be removed immediately. As experienced by the Dixie Chicks, who's "crime" was only to criticise the loss of American lives in the Gulf War 9they compared it to Vietnam), the neocons only practice free speech in one direction (pro-righting extremism allowed, but any other dissent banned).
My critique might sound political, but since 9/11 Islamophobia has become acceptable amoungst the American media, particularly with large comglomerates such as Gannet and News International.
I'm just glas that the media laws don't allow Fox News to operate in the UK. The worry is that David Cameron might deregulare the media, privatise the BBC, and allow political news broadcasts on UK television.
If this ever happened, the BNP would have a field day.
Bumbrook's going to make an ass of himself, like the bum he is. Especially if he's been having liquid lunches, and he tries to shout down Boris Johnson.
In the long term, racism will die, as once mostly white countries become multicultural.
I like the idea of winding up Alf Garnett-type racists so they lose their temper and get arrested.
Cool!!!!
"Paedo Boy" Mark Collett seems to have gone quiet.
Anybody knows what he's up to, other than pleasuring himself infront of pictures of his "sop-idol" Adolf Hitler.
"Show me the money", Cyclops will be saying, threateningly, as soon as the money hits Bumbrook's bank account.
If he refuses to hand Griffin's 90 cut over, he'd more than likely send around Le Comber and some steriod-pumped thugs to put the pressure on poor Dicky.
Scared? If I was Dicky, I'd be pissing my pants.
Cyclops is the Godfather, and Dicky is the little shopkeeper living "under the protection of the BNP".
I'm not a big fan of Boris especially after the insensitive remarks about the Hilsborough Disaster fans who died, after the hideous remarks about Doreen Lawrence, and the "piccanniny" racial slurs, but I sincerely imagine that if Bumbrook walks into the assembly chamber pissed, and takes on Boris in an exchange of words, the drunken bum Bumbrook will come off the worst, amd lose total credibility.
I just hope the London Authority meetings are filmed on camera, and can be put up on YouTube alongside the exccelently funny Mark Collett interrogation video.
Forget your unfunny attempts at humour, Leagle Beagle, the humiliation of the BNP on live telly and video would be well and truly funny.
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
SF has been neutered of its bnp cheerleaders. Whatever way they try to spin this the comments on there tell a tale. The realise that the electoral route will not get them the power they crave - cue describing the 'great british public' as 'sheeple'. The number of posters questioning the democratic route and calling for other action is a clear prrof that even the nazis are not fooling themselves that yesterday was a disaster.
related - was bumbrook pissed at his acceptance speech. I definitely thought so. Man - 4 years of him - loverrrly!
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