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.