Fears move to poll reform 'will give BNP voters more say at ballot box'

More than 90 per cent of Labour and Conservative
voters would have been unlikely to get a second vote

Election candidates will have to pander to the views of supporters of the far-Right BNP and other minority parties if Britain agrees to scrap the traditional first-past-the-post electoral system, campaigners warned last night.

Research suggests that a shift to the continental-style alternative vote would mean an end to the principle of ‘one person, one vote’. Those voting for the BNP and other small parties will see their votes counted over and over again, with their second, third and subsequent preferences influencing the result.

Under AV, which was backed today by Labour leader Ed Miliband, voters have to rank candidates at Westminster elections in order of preference rather than simply voting for the one candidate they want to win.

Any candidate who secures 50 per cent of the first-choice votes is elected immediately. But if they fall short of a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and those who voted for him then have their second choice votes counted instead. The process continues round by round until one candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote.

The system means that the second and subsequent preferences of voters who back minority parties knocked out in the early stages are far more likely to be counted than those who back one of the three major parties.

The Prime Minister agreed to a referendum on AV as part of Nick Clegg’s price for entering coalition, and a poll is due to take place on May 5. Now research by the NO to AV campaign reveals that if the 2010 general election had been run under AV, in seven out of ten seats not a single Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem voter would have been likely to get a second vote. More than 90 per cent of Labour and Conservative voters would have been unlikely to get a second vote.

By contrast, in some constituencies, supporters of the BNP would have had their preferences counted six times before a winner was declared. In all, BNP voters would have had two or more votes counted in 193 constituencies.

Matthew Elliott, campaign director for the NO to AV campaign, said: ‘A Yes vote to the unfair and expensive alternative vote on May 5 is a Yes to unequal votes and a Yes to giving BNP supporters more power at the ballot box. Candidates would have to worry about the unpleasant views of people voting BNP in order to try to pick up their second preferences. One person, one vote isn’t just the bedrock of the British voting system, it is a principle which has become a beacon to the rest of the world. The alternative vote threatens that principle.’

Yes campaigners dismiss the concerns as unfounded, pointing out that the BNP is opposing reform. They say the far-Right party would be even less likely to gain Commons seats under AV than it is today, since winning candidates would have to command broad support. But No campaigners say candidates from major parties would have to pander to the views of BNP and UKIP voters, since their second preference votes would become all-important. Foreign Secretary William Hague and three of his predecessors today insist the principle of one person one vote is ingrained in British democracy.

Mr Hague’s fellow signatories of a letter to the Times warning against AV include Labour’s Margaret Beckett, and Tories Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Lord Hurd.

Growing tension over the referendum is threatening the harmony of the Coalition, with one Lib Dem Cabinet minister accusing a Conservative colleague of backing the ‘politics of the gutter’.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has written to Tory Party chairman Baroness Warsi asking her to disown the ‘scaremongering and misleading’ publicity of the NO to AV campaign. The campaign, of which she is a patron, claims the referendum and a shift to AV would cost £250million, a figure denied by Yes campaigners.

Mr Miliband today urged people not to make the referendum a vote on the Deputy PM. Making his first appearance on the 'yes' platform, the Labour leader said AV would enable 'progressive' parties to come together to beat the Tories. He appeared alongside former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy and Lib Dem president Tim Farron as well as Green Party leader Caroline Lucas.

Mr Miliband has refused to appear alongside Mr Clegg, arguing that the Lib Dem leader is so unpopular he would be a liability for the campaign. In his speech however, he said it was important that supporters of AV should set aside their party differences in the referendum.

'I urge people to look beyond particular individuals, and vote in the national interest,' he said.

Mr Kennedy said it was vital that the supporters of electoral reform took the opportunity presented by the referendum on May 5

'This represents the force of political reform,' he said. 'This is a chance that has got to be seized.'

Daily Mail

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Former soldier fined for 'brutal and excessive' force against anti-BNP protester

Steven Thomson, 42, repeatedly punched a man he saw vandalising a campaign poster in Aberdeen.

A former soldier who assaulted a protester for vandalising a British National Party campaign poster has been fined £300. Steven Thomson, 42, claimed he had been making a citizen's arrest when he saw Stefan Knust defacing the poster in Great Northern Road, Aberdeen, on March 25 last year, in the run-up to the General Election. But Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard he chased Mr Knust up the road and used "brutal and excessive force", punching his victim several times on the head and body.

Sheriff Malcolm Garden ruled that Thomson, of Gibblestone House, Scalloway, Shetland, "went too far" in his treatment of Mr Knust, although he had substantial grounds to make a citizen's arrest.

Thomson, a former BNP member, claimed he had used "minimum force" and merely "grabbed" his 21-year-old victim, but the court heard that this was inconsistent with Mr Knust's injuries. Thomson claimed he and his son had been "guarding" the £1,600 poster after it was repeatedly targeted by vandals.

Mr Knust, 21, told the court the pair got out of a car and chased him along the Great Northern Road before assaulting him.

Thomson, who denied the charge of assault, said he was "shocked" and "disgusted" with the verdict and was considering rejoining the BNP. He added he planned to appeal against the sheriff's verdict. His son Gregor Thomson, 21, of Summerfield Terrace, Aberdeen, went on trial beside his father, but the case against him was not proven.

STV

BNP says election campaign cost under £30,000

Clive Jefferson, the BNP’s moronic national treasurer and elections officer

The British National Party promised to spend nearly half a million pounds on its general election campaign. In the event it paid out a mere £29,460 according to its election expenses return published today.

When the BNP launched its general election campaign fund on 10 April, it claimed it had already raised £275,000 towards the £455,000 cost of its campaign, and had paid £100,000 towards the £150,000 cost of printing 15 million leaflets “specially designed by industry experts to ensure maximum response and impact”. Either that statement or the party’s election expenses return – or both – must be untrue.

People who responded to the party’s appeals to “to save the country that our War Heroes fought and died for” by helping “the BNP get elected to local councils and to Parliament” must be wondering where their donations went.

The BNP has also breached electoral law by not having its expenses return audited. Parties that spent more than £250,000 on last year’s European election and the general election combined were required to submit an audited account. The BNP’s return showed expenditure of £313,217 on the two elections, but the box for the auditor’s name and address was blank.

Another unlikely element of the return, which was signed by Clive Jefferson, the BNP’s moronic national treasurer and elections officer, is the nil figure for unpaid invoices, despite revelations by former BNP officers that the party owes printers and other businesses large sums of money. Eddy Butler, who unsuccessfully challenged Griffin for the BNP leadership in summer, commented today that several of the invoices included in the return were unpaid.

Most of the claimed expenditure of £29,460 went on leaflets and newspapers, with only £562 devoted to the BNP’s television broadcast. No wonder it was so awful. The return also shows nothing spent on advertising. Yet on 30 April Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, appealed for donations to pay for newspaper advertisements in “working class target areas” in the final days of the campaign.

Another surprising revelation is that Sentinel Publications Limited spent nothing on the election campaign. Adam Walker, the BNP’s staff manager, registered the company as a third party campaigner for the election and BNP members distributed a nasty 12-page antisemitic newspaper in Barking and Dagenham that bore the company’s imprint. Butler recently described it as a “ridiculous anti-Hodge newspaper” and said party activists had to use “black marker pens to cross out an anti-Jewish remark”.

Even if Sentinel Publications Limited persuaded a printer to produce it for nothing, the value of the “notional expenditure” should have been declared.

Meanwhile Griffin has announced that he is to launch legal action to have the “Barking and Dagenham” election result overturned, claiming that Margaret Hodge, the Labour victor, lied during the campaign. Griffin stood against Hodge in Barking in the general election, but now reveals he was so much of an outsider that he does not even know the constituency name.

Griffin’s complaint follows the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary The Battle for Barking on 30 November in which Hodge was recorded telling a public meeting that the BNP wants non-white people expelled from the country, dropped from an aeroplane or helicopter and left in the sea.

Over the past year Griffin has bankrupted the BNP through a series of reckless legal actions. He appears set on pursuing more of the same.

Hope not hate

BNP members accused of Aberdeen attack

Trial hears alleged victim defaced billboard

Two BNP members attacked a protester who pelted one of their Aberdeen billboards in the run-up to the General Election, a court has heard.

It was alleged Stefan Knust, 21, was racially assaulted after he paint-bombed a British National Party poster on Aberdeen’s Great Northern Road.

Gregor Thomson, 44, whose address was given in court papers as 10A Summerfield Place, Aberdeen, and Steven Thomson, 20, whose address was given as 5 Gibblestone House, Shetland, both deny assault.

The trial continues at Aberdeen Sheriff Court next month.

Evening Express

The BNP since May...not performing well!

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

There have been 65 local council byelections since the May General Election.

Courtesy of a posting on the excellent Vote-2007 website I can offer a breakdown of the BNP's vote share in those byelections, on a region by region basis. The table below lists the region; the number of byelections held in that area since May; and the BNP's vote share overall in that region.

It makes grim reading for the BNP - and happy reading for sane human beings!

East Midlands 6 - 1%
Eastern 6 - 1%
London 7 - 1%
North East 7 - 2%
North West 11 - 1%
Scotland 1 - 0
South East 11 - 0
South West 4 - 1%
Wales 5 - 0
West Midlands 5 - 2%
Yorkshire 2 - 2%

The dreadful performance of the BNP reflects two elements - the fact that they are failing to field many candidates, and that the candidates who do manage to stand are polling very poor results.

Enjoy!

BNP try to sneak back into Barking

Richard Barnbrook - desperate and useless

After losing every seat that they held in the borough, the BNP are now trying to sneak back into Barking and Dagenham.

Defeated candidate Richard Barnbrook has forced his successor's resignation after discovering that she was working for the Council during the elections. The BNP will now attempt to usher Richard back into his old seat on a low turnout.

So what great conflict of interest and public corruption was Ms Couling involved in? And what evil deed has Richard Barnbrook bravely revealed? Oh yes that's right, she was a lollipop lady.

Great work there Richard. Your former constituents must really miss you.

Tory Troll

Thanks to GW for the heads-up

BNP man’s poll form had forgeries

A man has been cautioned after signatures on the nomination forms of a defeated BNP candidate in the General Election were found to have been forged.

South Wales Police received a number of complaints from members of the public concerned that their details had been used on Richard Barnes’ nomination form. Mr Barnes stood for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney in the recent election, but received only 1,173 votes.

Before a prospective candidate is allowed to stand, he or she must obtain 10 signatures: a proposer, a seconder and those who signed the nomination papers. Police investigated the claims and as a result a 30-year-old man was arrested and later cautioned for tampering with ballot nomination papers after he was found to be responsible for forging signatures.

A South Wales Police spokesman said: “Mr Barnes was unaware of the actions and the man was cautioned on May 16.”

Ronald Fealey, of Penydarren, was one of those who had his name used to forge a signature. He said: “Someone told me my name was on the nomination form and I thought they were taking the Mick about it. My son downloaded the nomination form and there my name was. I reported it to the returning officer and they informed the police. I don’t know why my name was chosen, it possibly could have been out of a hat for all I know.”

Katy Meredith, of Church Street, Penydarren, was also a victim of the deception. She did not sign the nomination papers and said she did not vote BNP.

The Echo contacted the BNP but received no response.

Merthyr Tydfil Council was unable to help the Echo contact Richard Barnes, but did say: “Fraudulently signing election nomination papers is a criminal offence. Therefore, when Merthyr council was officially made aware that there was a potential issue with one of the candidates’ nomination papers the week after the election, the matter was referred directly to South Wales Police for investigation. Merthyr council has no further role.”

Wales Online

PFA takes a stand over Wayne Brown’s BNP revelations

For this to come from within a dressing room is very disappointing, says Bobby Barnes

Leicester player Wayne Brown’s admission that he voted for the British National Party at the General Election has angered teammates, including PFA chairman Chris Powell, and fellow professionals – and has come as a major disappointment to the Professional Footballers’ Association.

The PFA has worked hard for many years with a number of anti-racism bodies to try and eradicate racism from our sport, at all levels, and according to Deputy Chief Executive Bobby Banes, Brown’s comments have ‘set the movement back’.

Brown, whose announcement caused angry scenes within the Leicester dressing room, was told to stay away from the club after reporting for duty before Leicester’s play-off semi final clashes with Cardiff, and was urged to make a public apology.

The player’s future is now shrouded in doubt and when asked whether it would be hard for Brown to stay at Leicester, or even find a new club, Bobby Barnes said: “I would like to think so. We have a zero tolerance policy on issues like this. Football has worked hard over the years to really be a beacon in the fight against racism and it is very discouraging to hear these comments when you think of the tireless work so many people, and so many organisations, have put in to get to where we are today.

“In my day as a player you had to contend with racist comments coming from the terraces, so for this to come from within a dressing room is very, very disappointing and our members are angry that Wayne Brown was not prepared to abide by our mission statement.”

To listen to what else the PFA Deputy Chief Executive had to say, click here.

Give Me Football

Griffin tries to buy time with resignation ploy

Under pressure from a series of revelations by the British National Party’s former webmaster Simon Bennett and calls for new leadership by party activists and organisers stung by their disastrous election results, Nick Griffin has announced that he will step down as leader “by the end of 2013”.

His declaration, made to a meeting of the party’s Advisory Council and key organisers on 22 May, is unlikely to satisfy those who have been contributing to Bennett’s website trying to win support for a leadership challenge this year. Many will consider that three and a half years is too long for the party to stagnate under Griffin, and will be all too well aware of Griffin’s past form at wriggling out of awkward situations and commitments.

According to a statement on the BNP website, Griffin intends to concentrate on getting re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014. He then intends “to help the other European nationalist parties to achieve the level of sophistication which the BNP has been able to build up, because a victory for any one of these parties is a victory to all of us”.

These “European nationalist parties” are likely to include some of Europe’s most hardline racist and fascist organisations. Griffin and his fellow BNP MEP Andrew Brons are members of the Alliance of European National Movements, a far-right group in the European Parliament formed in Budapest last October. Its other members are the three MEPs from Hungary’s fascist Jobbik party and the three French National Front MEPs.

The group is also supported by Italy’s Fiamma Tricolore, the Belgian National Front and the Swedish National Democrats, none of which have MEPs.

Griffin’s announcement shows that he remains more an internationalist fascist than a British nationalist, true to the politics he learned from his mentor, the convicted Italian terrorist Roberto Fiore. No doubt he has also become accustomed to the European Parliament’s generous salary and expenses regime.

Between now and 2013, Griffin intends to concentrate on “putting into place of the last ‘building blocks’ of the BNP’s administrative and political machine”. This is a more buoyant description than in his e-newsletters since the election in which he said that the party’s “underdeveloped elections department” had to be overhauled and restructured.

Griffin would then make way for “a younger person who does not have any baggage which can be used against the party,” a recognition that his presence is a liability for the party. Finding a person without “baggage”, who “will be able to drive support up to where it [the BNP] can be a serious contender for power” may be hard. Until now, any person fitting that description has left the party either in one of Griffin’s “purges” or because they have discovered that the party is not what they expected it to be.

The extended Advisory Council meeting also heard “consultant” Jim Dowson claim that “contrary to internet rumour-mongers”, the BNP owns the “Truth Truck” advertising vehicle for which Dowson raised a reported £80,000 or more in 2008. This was apparently confirmed in person by Jennie Noble, “the BNP treasurer who paid for the vehicle”.

If that is true then why did the BNP’s solicitors tell bailiffs trying to seize the vehicle to meet a debt that it was owned by an unconnected third party?

Dowson also stated that he did not take a commission on transactions through the BNP’s Belfast call centre. However he was silent on whether his call centre staff, who include friends and relations of Dowson and Griffin, were paid commission on party memberships and other sales, as evidenced by Bennett.

He did however reveal that he, under the guise of his “Midas Consultancy” business, was paid £165,000 for raising £2.6 million in donations for the party since January 2008.

Whether Dowson really has raised £2.6 million cannot be verified at present. The 2008 accounts showed an increase in donations of £662,000 over 2007, but the 2009 accounts will not be available until the end of July, provided the party manages to submit them on time. The BNP claimed to have raised over £500,000 for its European election campaign and there have been some fundraising appeals since then, such as to fight the legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over the BNP’s “whites only” membership criterion, but central party fundraising for this year’s elections seemed to have stalled. Much of the money to pay for general election deposits and leaflets was raised locally by party branches, with no input from Dowson.

Even if Dowson has raised a seven-figure sum, BNP members might raise eyebrows at the amount paid to a consultant who is always keen to point out that he is not a party member.

The meeting was told that BNP membership now stands at “just under 14,000 … increasing by several hundred every month” and that the rate at which BNP members fail to renew has decreased from over 70% to less 20%, now doubt testament to the harassment several members have reported from Dowson’s call centre – people rejoin just to stop the constant phone calls. The BNP has past form in exaggerating its membership and we can only wait to see how these claims compare with the audited figures in the party’s 2009 and 2010 accounts.

Missing from the announcements was any response to the numerous members who are calling for greater transparency in the BNP’s finances.

Griffin concluded by claiming that the party had “emerged from the meeting re-energised and ready for the ongoing struggle to save our nation from destruction at the hands of the old parties”, which is a rather creative way of describing the widespread disillusionment following the twin blows of the party’s capitulation over admitting “non-white” members and its rout in the general and local elections.

Hope not hate

BNP licks wounds after poll wipe-out

As the dust settles after the general election, the far-right British National Party (BNP) is reassessing its strategy after its much-hoped for success turned into a spectacular defeat

After winning its first two seats in the European Parliament last year, the BNP had promised to create a "political earthquake" in the May 6 elections by winning its first MP in Barking, east of London. On the night, however, leader Nick Griffin did not even come close to unseating incumbent Labour MP Margaret Hodge -- and the party lost all 12 of the local councillors that it won here four years ago.

"You're not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy. Pack your bags and go," a defiant Hodge said in her victory speech.

Their poor showing was a surprise and goes against a European trend -- the far-right entered parliament for the first time in Hungary this year, holds power in Slovakia and Italy and contested presidential elections in Austria. But experts warn it is too soon to write them off, as the party won half a million votes nationwide, a tripling of its support since the 2005 election.

"It certainly wouldn't be wise to be complacent about the BNP's demise," said Dr. Robert Ford of the University of Manchester.

One reason for this is that the key concerns that drove the party's support show no signs of going away, in particular immigration, which the BNP has promised to halt and reverse with a voluntary repatriation scheme. National politicians avoid the issue - but Hodge has tried to tackle it ever since the BNP won its 12 council seats in 2006, as well as a perception among many working-class voters that the Labour party has abandoned them. While she can do little about the influx of migrants, she assured voters she would address the perceived unfairness in the way they use public services, in particular social housing, and sought to listen to their other concerns.

"Was I certain we would win? No," she told AFP - but hundreds of hours of campaigning, with the help of anti-fascist groups, ensured she took 54 percent of the vote compared to Griffin's 15 percent.

The message she sent to her Labour party -- currently embroiled in a leadership election after Gordon Brown stepped down -- was that they had to engage with the BNP. "You can't beat them by ignoring them," she said.

In a radio interview shortly after polling day, Griffin admitted the party "took the most terrible battering" in Barking but blamed in part the "very high expectations" after the EU elections last year. The BNP campaign was damaged by the arrest of its publicity chief on suspicion of threatening to kill Griffin, and the taking down of the website by a disgruntled party member just two days before polling day.

But Griffin also said Labour had put together a "fantastic" operation and said the BNP's trouncing must be taken as a "wake-up call". The party has a serious image problem, however. Despite Griffin's modernising efforts over the past decade, the media and many voters still see it as racist and Ford warned this could prevent them ever winning power.

"It's not that there isn't a potential support for the kind of politics that the BNP represent, it just looks increasingly unlikely that the BNP will be the party that successfully mobilises that potential," he said.

This view is reflected on the streets of Barking, where Rashid Aleem, 41, pointed to Griffin's appearance on a prime-time TV debate last year as the moment when it became clear what the party stood for. Although he cites immigration as a concern, he told AFP: "People saw that and realised he's using the influx of eastern European immigrants as a front for his real agenda, which is racist."

Unemployed construction worker Guy Kerr, 47, admits he is the kind of person the BNP courts and backs their policies on more jobs for indigenous British workers and to pull troops out of Afghanistan.

"But they're racist," he said, adding: "I honestly thought they would get in here and I'm glad they didn't."

Yahoo

BNP supporter in court today over election assault charge

A supporter of the British National Party is due to appear in court today after allegedly attacking a gay Conservative candidate at the UK's local elections, earlier this month

A supporter of the British National Party is due to appear in court today after allegedly attacking a gay Conservative candidate at the UK's local elections, earlier this month. Desmond OFlynn, 45, is said to have attacked the openly-homosexual Tory candidate on the evening of 6 May.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service told PinkPaper.com: "We can confirm that a 45-year-old man f.rom Mitcham Park, Mitcham has been charged with a section 4A public order offence. He will appear on bail at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today, 18 May. This follows an incident at Canons Leisure Centre in Mitcham on 6 May."

Pink Paper

Leicester City star Wayne Brown forced into grovelling apology over BNP stance

Wayne Brown has been forced into making a grovelling apology to his Leicester City team-mates after admitting that he voted BNP in the general election

The Foxes defender sparked fury among several of his colleagues last week during a dressing-room debate turned sour and now he has been forced to ask for forgiveness. A number of his team-mates — principally winger Lloyd Dyer and veteran defender Chris Powell — were particularly upset and rounded upon the former Hull City man.

Reports of a dressing-room punch-up appear wide of the mark but several of the Foxes’ squad were unhappy and told him so. Matters became so heated that when Brown reported for duty ahead of the weekend’s play-off game against Cardiff City he was told to leave the club, having been suspended for the two fixtures against the Bluebirds.

Brown was told that he needed to apologise on Thursday after Leicester’s season effectively ended following a penalty shoot-out defeat at the City of Cardiff Stadium on Wednesday night. It is unknown as yet whether he has had the opportunity to do so as the Foxes’ squad were allowed a day off following their heartache in south Wales.

A Leicester source said: ‘There was no punch-up. But Wayne has been asked to apologise to anyone he may have offended. It seems as though there was a discussion and he disclosed how he had voted.’

Daily Mail

General election 2010: the defeat of the BNP

The BNP had promised a 'political earthquake' in east London. Instead, unexpectedly, it was wiped out. Matthew Taylor and Hugh Muir report on the forces that came together to defeat it, and ask: is this the end for Nick Griffin's party?

At two minutes past six last Friday morning, Nick Griffin walked to the front of the makeshift stage at the Goresbrook leisure centre in Barking, east London, and tried to make his voice heard above a braying crowd. The BNP leader had just suffered a humiliating defeat, beaten into third place by Labour MP Margaret Hodge in the constituency where he had promised to create a "political earthquake".

But as he began a flustered and angry speech, Griffin already knew that worse was to come. Rumours had been circulating round the east London count for more than an hour that the party had not only failed to get its first MP, it was on the verge of an electoral disaster in the area Griffin had once described as the party's "jewel in the crown".

"Within the next five years, the indigenous people of London will be a minority," barked Griffin, as jubilant Labour supporters taunted him with shouts of "Out, out, out!" "It is going to be too late for Barking, but it is not too late for Britain." By then, though, no one was listening.

In the next 12 hours, Griffin's worst fears were realised – and even exceeded. The party was thrashed in its two key parliamentary constituencies of Barking and Stoke Central. Its record number of council and parliamentary candidates failed to make a single breakthrough; and of the 28 BNP councillors standing for re-election, all but two were beaten.

But the Barking and Dagenham council election result was the most dramatic. The BNP had plans to take control of the authority – instead, it lost every one of its councillors there. Twelve elected in 2006. Twelve thrown out in 2010. A ruthless purge, more shocking because they didn't see it coming. Neither, for that matter, did their opponents. It was the miracle of Barking.

"This really was a disastrous result for the BNP," said Nick Lowles, who led the anti-BNP campaign Hope Not Hate. "It will have long-term consequences – particularly for Nick Griffin."

This week, those predictions are beginning to be realised, as senior BNP figures break ranks to question Griffin's leadership and, again, raise concerns about the party's finances. Griffin has been all but untouchable since he took control of the party in 1999, but now he seems increasingly isolated: mocked on far-right internet forums, forced to defend himself from the criticism of one his chief lieutenants.

"The BNP looks set to implode," says Matthew Goodwin, a specialist in far-right politics at the University of Manchester. "Griffin may hang on but, if he does, it will only be because there is no easy way to oust him and no obvious successor. He had plans to expand his reach. Now he is fighting to survive."

Walking amid the shops and bustle of central Barking this week, Zain Achtar, a 19-year-old student, could hardly stop smiling as he basked in a borough free of the BNP. "It feels like something has been lifted from the place. We can get on and go forward again."

Karena Johnson, who works in Barking's Broadway Theatre, agreed: "Having them here was an embarrassment. What happened last week means the story of Barking has changed."

Or perhaps the story of the BNP has changed. Twelve months ago, the party was celebrating its big breakthrough after winning two seats in the Euro elections. So why did that momentum stall in Barking?

The answer is a tale of determined activism by Griffin's opponents, aided by the antics of his self-harming party. That activism began to develop a sharp focus two weeks after those Euro elections, when Lowles chaired a meeting of MPs, anti-BNP campaigners, church groups and trade unionists. He gave them a detailed breakdown of the BNP's support. The message was stark.

"A decision was made to draw a line in the sand," says one Labour party figure who was at the meeting. "The coming general election was going to be the defining moment. Everyone knew that if they won then, it would be almost impossible to remove them in the future."

There was never a single anti-BNP campaign in Barking. There were meetings, events, leafleting initiatives run by Hope Not Hate – which coordinated much of the activity – and also by Labour and Unite Against Fascism. Hope Not Hate set up a base in derelict premises, and volunteers travelled across the country to prepare it for the coming battle; putting up a new ceiling, plumbing in toilets and setting up a print room. Some slept on the floors.

"The response was truly overwhelming," says Lowles. "On one day of action, we had 541 people; on another, 385; and even on election day itself, 176 people came out to help get the vote out." Many of the volunteers had not been involved in political activity before. "We had teenagers travelling up from Kent, old ladies from the other side of London turning out. It felt like a liberating experience for people who felt like we were doing something politically important."

The Hope Not Hate campaign was supported by Joe Rospars, chief digital strategist for Barack Obama from 2007 until his inauguration, who said it was the "best example" of a British organisation applying the lessons of the US presidential elections. "We are seeing a genuine community-based organisation, with people coming together around a common purpose," he said.

Campaigners were able to identify the key groups least likely to vote for the BNP – women, pensioners and people from ethnic minorities. They built up an online volunteer force of 140,000 people, and Rospars advised on how to use them for maximum impact. In the month before election day, Lowles says more than 1,000 volunteers descended on Barking, delivering 350,000 specially tailored leaflets and newsletters.

At the same time, the Dagenham MP John Cruddas, and his neighbour who seemed most under threat, Barking MP Margaret Hodge, were fighting a parallel ground war against the BNP. Hodge escalated the effort she had begun some four years earlier to reconnect with voters Labour had lost to the BNP. Their rise in Barking had seen the then culture secretary heavily criticised by many inside her own party. For her, this election result represents a triumph for decency, and personal redemption.

"When Griffin announced in September that he would stand, that gave me a real scare," Hodge says. "My husband had not long died, and I was still in grief. It was a tough period. I was quietly confident that I would win, but I really wanted to smash him. And I was really concerned about the prospects for the council."

Hodge, with the help of volunteers from Unite Against Fascism, turned to the politics of shoe leather, knocking on doors and listening to people's concerns. "'What do you want to talk about?' I would ask. It was up to them."

Most talked about street cleaning, wheelie bins and antisocial behaviour, but inevitably many raised the BNP trump card of immigration. Even black residents raised the issue with Hodge. "I would say to them: 'I can't turn the clock back, but this is why the borough has changed, and we must make it work for all of us.' Some people hated that. Some would understand. But they came to feel I was listening."

The more so, perhaps, because the BNP was itself struggling to cope under a harsher spotlight. Griffin's Question Time appearance last October, with its gurning and yammering, shocked his supporters within the BNP and appeared to weaken his authority. The decision by the Equalities Commission to challenge the party's racist membership rules occupied too much of his attention, and drained the party's meagre resources. Indiscipline, heightened by personal rivalries, created a string of difficulties for the party and its leader.

At the beginning of the campaign, the BNP's publicity director Mark Collett – once a firm ally of Griffin – was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him. In Stoke, Alby Walker, a senior BNP councillor, said he would stand as an independent because of a "vein of Holocaust-denying" within the party. Then, a few days before the election, the party's website was closed. It was replaced with a posting from Simon Bennett, the website manager, who accused Griffin and James Dowson, the BNP election fundraiser, of being "pathetic, desperate and incompetent".

But the incident that might have had most impact on the voters of Barking concerned Bob Bailey, the BNP's London organiser and one of Griffin's closest confidants. On the eve of the election, Bailey was caught on camera throwing punches and kicks at a group of teenagers. Earlier this week, he was arrested and bailed on suspicion of assaulting two men (an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old man have also been arrested and bailed, on suspicion of assault and affray).

"That caught the attention of voters," says Hodge. "One of the fears many people had was that a BNP win would result in violence on the street. That seemed to confirm it."

It is impossible to say how much of the Barking miracle can be explained by the efforts of the forces ranged against the BNP, and how much of the wound was self-inflicted, but after a shaky start at the Goresbrook leisure centre – before postal votes confirmed the landslide – the outcome was certainly decisive. Each confirmed result elicited whoops and backslapping, and by the end of the purge, only Richard Barnbrook, one of Griffin's senior lieutenants and himself a casualty of the wipeout, remained. He smiled a smile that at first seemed defiant, but eventually gave the impression that he was feeling queasy.

Around Barnbrook, officials – joyous at having the stain on the authority so ruthlessly removed – were quick to share the good news with friends and loved ones. One texted as each far-righter was shown the door. The last text read: "Bye bye, Nazis."

A widely shared thought is that the BNP was overwhelmed by the sort of grassroots activism that must now become a template if there is to be resurgence for the Labour party. In fact, Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, says it was all about Labour.

"It would appear that the vote for the BNP in 2006 was some kind of political cry of anguish, based on the perception that the Labour party simply didn't understand the concerns of that part of the electorate. The fact that the BNP has been dropped in 2010 heavily suggests this section of the electorate now believes it has got the attention of the Labour party." Back in 2006, the morality of supporting an intrinsically racist party wasn't an issue, says Travers. "The voters simply used the most shocking mechanism they could to get Labour's attention."

But there is good and bad in that conclusion. Good because it suggests people in Barking voted BNP for reasons other than racism and antisemitism. Bad because if it was all a means to an end, did no one consider the impact on community relations of voting for the far right?

In any event, Dan Hodges, a strategist and spokesman for Hope Not Hate, says the safest conclusion to draw is that wider society should never again be so complacent. "We were lucky this time. People realised the threat just in time, we mobilised just in time. But we may not be so lucky next."

What is the future for the BNP now? Griffin doesn't know. He can point to the fact that the BNP won more than half a million votes, but his mood is changeable. Yesterday he sent another email, brimming with anger. "The old east London is dead," he wrote.

His party is at a crossroads. A Tory-led administration may worsen social divisions, providing the far right with new opportunities. But it might also clamp down on immigration, rendering the BNP irrelevant. Even if opportunities come his way, Griffin's party has so many problems that he may not be able to take advantage. The BNP is not dead, but it took a mortal blow in Barking. It will be hard-pushed to find its feet again.

Guardian

Alternative voting system on its way

Following the discussion here, one of our readers, James J, has sent in his idea of the only alternative voting system absolutely guaranteed to keep Nick Griffin and the BNP out of Parliament forever.

Thanks, James. :-)

Proportional Representation = BNP MPs!

This article was submitted by one of our readers, bnpinfo. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.


After the crushing defeat inflicted on the BNP in the 2010 elections, BNP chairman Nick Griffin e-mailed BNP members to plead for their continued financial support, arguing that blame for the BNP defeat lay in the electoral system, not in his leadership. Nick Griffin argued that the BNP "tripled its vote from 2005, jumping from 192,746 to a healthy 563,743", ignoring the reason why BNP votes rose after 2005 - which was only because the BNP contested 3 times more seats in 2010, not because the proportion of voters who support the BNP had increased. Nick Griffin also ignored the catastrophic collapse in BNP support since the BNP polled 1 million votes in the 2009 Euro election - between 2009 and 2010 Nick Griffin LOST the support of half a million voters!

Nick Griffin also argued that if the UK adopts the Liberal Democrat policy of Proportional Representation (PR), the BNP would win seats in Parliament... he's right, and that's exactly why Britain must never adopt Proportional Representation.

If British people wanted our MPs to be elected by PR, then we'd elect a Lib Dem government. Instead the Lib Dems lost the election, but, in a complete travesty of all the moral principles underlying democratic politics, we now find the Lib Dems using the disproportionate and un-representative power given by their ability to swing a hung parliament, to try to impose a policy that Britain effectively voted AGAINST in the General Election.

It takes very little political sophistication to realise that PR is only superficially more "democratic" than the first-past-the-post system used in traditional British democracy, and Lib Dems who support PR should examine their motives very carefully before choosing to open the door to a party run by Holocaust Deniers, racists and closet Nazis. Green Party supporters who support PR should also remember that the Greens achieved their historic breakthrough MP without Proportional Representation.

A bad, bad day for the BNP - how sad, how very, very sad

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

Griffin's failure in Barking, and the almost laughable performance by Simon Darby in Stoke-on-Trent (in reality the word actually is superfluous - it was a laughable performance, at several levels), have attracted significant media comment - and of course put big smiles on the faces of anti-fascists (and rational human beings!) everywhere.

But in the long term the local council elections may prove to be even more significant in pointing to the BNP's decline. Now once upon a time it was relatively easy to explain the structure of local government in England, but successive piecemeal reorganisations have led to different arrangements in different places so I shall review BNP performance (with passing reference to other parties of the right) by the different types of council. (And at this point I need to point out that what follows is based on the 148 local authorities whose final results are available as of today - the few remaining authorities are unlikely to affect the general picture.)

London Boroughs

I have figures for 15 London Boroughs, all of which feature all-out elections (i.e. the whole council is up for election every four years). In 14 of these the BNP had no councillors, and still have no councillors! The fifteenth of course is Barking & Dagenham, which the BNP was claiming as a target for outright control. They went in holding 12 seats - and lost the lot!

Across the 15 boroughs 868 councillors were elected. The BNP scored...nil.

Metropolitan Boroughs (the 'Mets')

These are the authorities within what used to be the Metropolitan counties (before they were abolished by Thatcher). Areas like South & West Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and authorities such as Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Sunderland, Wolverhampton and so on. Their electoral arrangements are different, using election 'by thirds'. Generally they have three-member wards, with one councillor up for re-election at a time - 2010, 2011 & 2012 then starting again from 2014. The 'blank' year (2013, 2017 etc) used to be the Metropolitan County election year.

The BNP had representation on seven of these councils going into this election. In Calderdale and Rotherham they have a single councillor, but not up for re-election this year. In Kirklees, Leeds and Solihull they had single councillors, all due for re-election this year. All lost. In Sandwell they had two councillors. Both faced their electorate this time. Both lost. In Bradford they had two councillors, one of whom (Cromie) was up for re-election. He held on by 15 votes.

To summarise the BNP held nine seats in total. Three were safe, in that they were not up this year. Of the six who were up for re-election five lost.

There was also an English Democrat up for re-election in Calderdale. He lost. Across the Mets in total 824 councillors were elected. The BNP won...one.

Unitaries

These are single-tier local authorities, mostly in larger towns and cities away from the major metropolitan conurbations, ranging from Bristol through places like Hull and Plymouth to towns such as Hartlepool or Southend. There were 19 of them voting this week, and they elect by thirds.

Only two of them had BNP councillors (Stoke and Thurrock), and one (Blackburn) had a single English Democrat councillor - he lost. The sole BNPer in Thurrock was not up for re-election.

In Stoke the BNP was defending two seats - and lost both of them. The BNP group there has now gone from nine members a few weeks ago to five today - two resignations (Alby and Mrs Walker), and two rejections by the electorate. In the Abbey Green ward (won for the BNP by said Mr & Mrs Walker) the result was Labour 1,639; Conservative 1,170; BNP 835; Lib Dem 809; Walker - ex BNP 279; Ind 258.

Across the 19 unitaries 340 councillors were elected. The BNP amassed...no seats!

Shire Districts

These are the district councils in areas which have two-tier structures i.e. district councils and a county council. An example would be Lancashire which has a County Council, but also a series of District Councils (e.g. Burnley, West Lancashire, Preston). Again, they hold elections by thirds.

No fewer than 78 of these councils went to the polls. The BNP had a presence in six of these. In two (Nuneaton and Three Rivers) they have a single councillor on a different electoral cycle, and therefore not up for re-election. In Redditch the sole BNP councillor was up for re-election - and lost. In Burnley two of the four BNP seats were up for re-election - they lost in both (but still have two councillors on a different electoral cycle). In Epping Forest three of their four councillors faced the electorate. They all lost.

In Pendle they had two councillors, one of whom was up for re-election. Sadly, he held on, so 'no change' there.

I may be an election anorak, but even I draw the line at totting up the total number of seats across 78 authorities, but it's around the 1200 mark. Of which the BNP won...one.

Summary

Approximately 3250 seats were up for election last Thursday. The BNP won two of them [is it Old Sailor or Irish Tony who likes percentages? I make it 0.06%!]. They were defending 30 seats - they held two, and lost 28. That's a 7% defence rate - most parties panic if they fall below 60%! They made no gains. By any known electoral standards it was an appalling, disastrous, dreadful performance. They went into the election with representation on 16 councils. On ten of these they also have councillors on different electoral cycles, so could not be wiped out (yet!).

On the six councils where all of their councillors were up for election they were wiped out in all six - Barking & Dagenham, Kirklees, Leeds, Sandwell, Solihull and Redditch. As a poster on the Forum might put it - byebyebnp !

Looking ahead

Local elections held on the same day tend to differ from local elections held on their own. The larger parties tend to perform better as they benefit from their national coverage, and the higher turnout of their 'softer' support. With a lower turnout next year there is no guarantee that the BNP will perform as badly. There is some evidence from Stoke in particular that the BNP is still strong enough to elect councillors if turnout was significantly reduced (and if they could find candidates, which they are finding increasingly difficult). Let's enjoy Thursday's outcome, but there's still work to be done!

BNP - Nick Griffin Humiliated in Barking!

Click here to watch the video of the result being announced

Because of the involvement of the BNP, the 2009 European elections were effectively a referundum on British attitudes to immigration and multi-culturalism. In the Euro 2009 election, 94% of British voters actively voted against the BNP! Despite this, the BNP still chose to run over 300 candidates in the General Election on May 6th, 2010. All the BNP candidates failed, nearly 90% lost their deposits, and the BNP were even defeated in their strong-holds of Barking and Stoke, failing to achieve the historic breakthrough they'd predicted and failing to gain any elected MPs. In fact, the historic breakthrough went to the Green Party, who successfully achieved their 1st MP.

British people rejected Oswald Mosley's Fascism before, during and after World War 2, and rejected the National Front in the General Election of 1979. British voters have now conclusively rejected the BNP - twice; and there is no doubt that the BNP's defeat is a huge victory for the complementary strategies employed by modern Anti-Fascists.

Respect is due to Hope not Hate, One Million United Against the BNP, Nothing British About the BNP, Love Music Hate Racism, Unite Against Fascism, the Centre for Social Cohesion, Scotland United, Lancaster Unity, Antifa, Liverpool Antifascists, Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance, Unity Web Ring and MANY others, to all Interfaith and liberal religious groups, to all Anti-Fascist campaigners on Facebook and You Tube, and to the millions of decent people who lend their support to Anti-Fascist campaigns.

Non-aligned, freelance, no-budget and DIY web activism played an important (largely unacknowledged) role in informing a new generation of voters about the dangers of supporting the BNP. As someone who dedicated 2 years to doing exactly this, for the record I don't vote Labour, I'm highly Euro-sceptic, and while respecting and learning from other cultures is important, I believe UNITY is more important than diversity, and would not support any extreme form of multi-culturalism where different races live side-by-side without any form of reciprocal integration. I also agree some sensible immigration controls are necessary in modern society.

Nick Griffin pretends "the establishment" only acknowledged the need to debate immigration because the BNP placed this issue on the agenda. In fact immigration has been hotly debated for decades before the BNP existed, and the BNP's direct forerunner - the NF - was formed by Nazis to EXPLOIT fears about immigration, to cynically sneak Nazi racism into mainstream politics. The BNP are right that some people are reluctant to discuss immigration for fear of being branded "racist", but the reason people have that fear is because of the decades of violence that NF and BNP thugs inflicted on immigrants. In other words if debate about sensible, non-racist immigration controls is lacking in the UK it is because of the disgusting actions of the NF and BNP!

bnpinfo

BNP wipe out - THANK YOU

It is almost unbelievable. But the stain of far-right politics has been wiped off the face of Barking and Dagenham. Not only was the BNP thoroughly beaten in the general election, the council lost 12 councillors. This means the number of councillors left on Barking & Dagenham council went from 12 to 0 overnight.

We cannot thank those who made this possible enough. Huge respect goes to Nick Lowles, Matthew Collins, Sam Tarry, Caroline Alabi and all those who have worked so tirelessly organising activists against the BNP in the Borough for many months. And huge thanks to almost 1,300 people who have volunteered valuable time over the course of the election - in Barking & Dagenham (where we put out 130,000 pieces of literature), and in Stoke-on-Trent - where the BNP were also humiliated.

We have had brilliant support from pensioners, black and Asian voters, white voters, young voters, women and men. On Monday 385 people delivered 55,000 leaflets and even on polling day we had 175 people out knocking up the vote. We also had huge moral and financial support from hundreds of thousands of people across the country, and fantastic support from the Mirror which kept us all going.

As ever our celebrity supporters have been magnificent, from Billy Bragg, Eddie Izzard and Speech Debelle, to the casts of The Bill, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, plus too many more to mention. Thank you one and all - you've done a wonderful thing.

Mirror

BNP - Where did it all go wrong?

There are many people who will not be surprised (and probably relieved) that the BNP had a disastrous result in the recent General Election, where they failed to obtain a single MP and lost many Council seats.

With such a large number of people seriously concerned about immigration levels, and the main political parties offering very little to combat this problem, it was reasonable to expect that the BNP might pick up a few seats from protest voters. However, the electorate not only voted for a hung parliament, but rejected what they saw as the extreme views presented by the BNP.

To have a policy that encourages people of foreign origins (who were born in this country) to leave the UK is not only offensive, but impractical. Had such a plan been put into practice, it would have solved the unemployment problem, but also created millions of vacancies with no one to fill them!

The BNP could have suggested an immigration policy that insisted on only allowing new immigrants into the country that had required skills or sufficient funds to support themselves (without claiming government benefits). But they chose to make colour and race more of an issue. Some of their other policies (not related to immigration) may have been more reasonable, but certainly needed a lot more thought.

Perhaps one of the other reasons for their failure in attracting support was Nick Griffin, who wanted to run the party like a one man show, rather than a team (did anyone see other members of the party involved in their election bid?). Whilst many of the BNP supporters are not racists and were genuinely interested in doing what was best for Britain, there were still a number remaining with more extreme views.

The British public has shown their lack of confidence in the main parties, hence the hung parliament, and clearly would welcome a new party that reflects their political views more accurately. Obviously, this is not going to be the BNP, at least not in their current form, and we must hope that a new contender will appear in the near future that will offer realistic and acceptable alternatives.

There is talk that Nick Griffin will be asked to step down as leader of the BNP, but I doubt if this will make any difference to their future hopes of success. The BNP would have to dramatically change their image (and policies) to attract any serious interest, but it may be impossible to escape the reputation of their past to achieve this.

Nick Griffin has said that the BNP is now a "big small party", but if it can't win a seat at a time like this, it won't remain a party of any kind much longer.

News Blaze

LIVE election and results blog

What a great night of live election blogging we had last night. Loads of people on, up to the minute results and analysis, lots of laughs and the odd bit of verbal abuse. Great fun! Thanks to all who spent the night with us and made the General Election tolerable. :-)