One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - February

Not being endowed with the greatest of political imaginations (as opposed to fevered fantasy), the BNP thought it would be a wizard prang to produce a racist leaflet entitled "The Londoner", which it hoped to confuse with the Greater London Authority's own publication of the same name.

Naturally, the political geniuses of the BNP had neglected to check on the status of the name "The Londoner", which, as they should have known, was a trademark registered to the GLA. The GLA promptly fired off a legal missive accusing the BNP of "intentionally trading on the goodwill of the GLA in the trademark of ‘The Londoner’ by using a trademark which is confusingly similar to ‘The Londoner’ and that the use of the trademark, does, or is intended to, confuse or mislead members of the public". The same missive demanded that the BNP cease and desist and remove from circulation any publication using "The Londoner" as its title.

This wasn't to be the last time in 2008 that the BNP sought to sow the seeds of confusion by conflating other, perfectly respectable causes with its own racist campaigns.

In the best piece of national press publicity to come the way of racism for many a year, the Daily Mail developed a soft spot for what it called "the BNP's blonde bombshell", and devoted a two-page spread to Upper Beeding's best known paragon of virtue, community activist, all-round good egg (and BNP member), Donna Bailey.

Donna has the kind of looks that drive normally woman-free BNP members to stock up on tissue papers, and was the perfect antidote to the recently aired derangement of Lynne Mozar. Nobody ever commented on the BNP website to the effect that "We need more like Lynne Mozar in the BNP", but the party's article showcasing the Daily Mail's Donna tribute quickly filled with comments that might have come from schoolboys drooling over a Penthouse centre-spread.

As we noted: "Donna is, as they say, a class act. It's almost as if the BNP has recruited its very own Julie Andrews who comes skipping and singing over the Sussex Downs spreading sweetness and light wherever she goes."

This Julie Andrews had selective vision, however.

Donna told the Daily Mail: "I thought probably exactly the same of the BNP as you do. I thought, if this [the BNP website] is all racist, offensive stuff then I am switching right off. But it wasn't. It was all perfectly sensible. I found myself agreeing with everything - especially the immigration stuff."

Just in case Donna missed it, we pointed out that "the immigration stuff" was very difficult to avoid on the BNP website, as was the barely disguised racism behind it, and that if you took away "the immigration stuff" you could fit the BNP's policies on the back of a postage stamp. Even more difficult to avoid was the overt racism of the BNP's keyboard army of bloggers and forum posters, but Donna must, by some mysterious means, never have come across these dubious delights.

We said:

"...we'll presume that Donna refrained from visiting the numerous websites of the BNP's Blog Battalion, where open racism and complete contempt for other peoples and cultures is all too obvious ('Turnips', 'Muzzies', 'Mudslimes' ''Groids', Donna?). Or that she has never visited a BNP-infested Internet forum where the tone is somewhere between the toilet and the sewer, and the mental ability to step back a couple of rungs on the evolutionary ladder is a prerequisite to talking on anything like equal terms with them"

and added:

We'll also assume that Donna suffers from some unspecified but mercifully unique condition that blinds her to any awareness of the after-hours activties of so many of her fellow BNP members - you know the kind of thing, trivialities like murder, solicitation to murder, bomb-making, wife-beating, GBH, fraud, attacking Eddy Butler... not to mention the latest additions to the list, such entering members' homes by deception to make off with their property, bugging their private conversations and then pasting them on the Internet.

Donna told the Daily Mail that, just like her, BNP were "quite normal" and that the party suffered from a "bad press".

Hey ho.

Back in the reality of the BNP, the Decembrist rebellion limped on. An increasingly confident Nick Griffin made the rebels a tricksy offer they could all too easily refuse, as Searchlight reported:

In exchange for giving up their ‘strike’ and taking down their insurgent website and blogs the rebel leaders were given the chance of getting their party cards back.

The only condition laid out by the ever-so-generous party leadership was that they would only return as probationary members. This would mean that their immediate future in the party would be dependent on good behaviour and, just as importantly for Nick Griffin, they would not be entitled to stand for the party leadership at least the next three years.

The move was typical of Griffin. Everybody beyond the gullible BNP membership saw a trap being loaded, especially the rebels, who knew they would be lucky to last three months, good behaviour or not, as Griffin picked them off at leisure. This was a double trap, though, since in refusing Griffin's offer the rebels gave the BNP leader the opportunity to portray himself as a man of compromise and reason, spurned by disruptive splitters. And so, as always, it was win-win for Griffin.

At the same time Griffin-inspired rumours began to surface portending yet more changes to the BNP constitution, aimed at curtailing challenges to Nick's leadership - and the BNP's ever obliging mug battalion nodded sagely that this was the right and proper thing to do.

The saga of Donna Bailey finally came to a head with the Upper Beeding Parish Council by-election in which the flaxen-haired goddess rather less than honestly stood as an independent. This stance was contradicted, rather, by the BNP, which claimed her for its own, and sat back confident in expectations of a famous victory that would propel Donna into Upper Beeding's corridors of power.

Alas, Donna badly misfired. Having failed to secure co-option by invading an Upper Beeding Parish Council meeting, she also failed to secure election, losing out to a woman "who likes poodles", as a later film, based on these events, reported.



Four Burnley BNP supporters found themselves on the thick end of a High Court ruling that landed them with £30,000 in costs after they challenged an election result in the town's Rosegrove with Lowerhouse ward. Not mincing his words, Burnley Council Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow said that the four had failed to obtain proper legal advice (we wouldn't care to guess where they did obtain it) and had been "cajoled into going on a fishing trip".

He added: "Four citizens of Burnley have been put in a position where they face substantial costs, which could have been avoided. The fact that it's four individuals means the British National Party isn't liable for any of the costs despite the fact they've been using this for party political means."

You really would have thought that Burnley BNP might have smelled a rat when advised to object to the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse result on an individual basis. Obviously somebody in the party hierarchy knew they hadn't got a hope and wasn't prepared to sacrifice party money in a lost cause - but was more than happy to encourage the unfortunate four into financial penury.

The bewildering melange of fact and fiction that are the BNP's finances came under the scrutiny of Radio 4's "File on Four" in a programme Simon Darby predictably pre-warned was an "attack" on the party.

With considerations of impartiality and legal responsibility to address, "File on Four" put itself at a disadvantage in its dealings with a party never knowingly observant of either, and the resulting programme, while still damaging, was not the killer blow it should have been.

Still, enough evidence of BNP shady dealings was presented that would in any other party have led to an internal inquiry at the very least, and should have been of deep interest to the Electoral Commission. As Nick Griffin, chief suspect in many of the allegations made, was the only person within the BNP who could order an inquiry, that was always a non-starter - not that anybody would have trusted a Griffin-instigated inquiry, - and the Electoral Commission... well, our experience of that particular "watchdog" is such that we wonder if there is any point to it at all.

Lancaster Unity listed five points of interest raised by "File on Four":

* Possible donation fraud
* Potential PAYE fraud
* Dodgy unreceipted transactions
* Lies from the BNP's treasurer
* Shredded documents

and concluded

All in all, an intriguing programme that was only able to touch the surface of the corruption that is endemic within and around the British National Party. The feeling I got from it is that there is a lot more information to be dug out - but that's the feeling we all get when the words 'corruption' and 'BNP' are mentioned in the same sentence.

News that the BNP had moved its Excalibur tat outlet to Deeside in North Wales was greeted with digust on the part of local Labour MP Mark Tami. “This is a very unwelcome development,” he told the North Wales Daily Post. “Clearly their views are abhorrent to the vast majority of the British public. Nobody would want to see this in the area and I hope that people steer clear of buying any merchandising from the BNP.”

Naturally Excalibur failed to inform landlords Evans Easyspace of its connection to the BNP, and moved heaven and earth to keep the location of its premises secret. It was so secret, apparently, that Nick Griffin told the Daily Post that even he didn't know where it was - and if you believe that...

So began the quest to discover the whereabouts of the BNP's repository of fake Victoria Crosses and cheap t-shirts, which we'll return to in a later post.

Meanwhile, local opposition gathered as the BNP announced plans to stage its annual Red White and Blue money-spinner in Denby, Derbyshire, for the second year running. Party member Alan Warner, on whose land the August event would be staged, had initially sided with the Decembrist rebels until leaned on by panicked local officials, and later resigned his Denby parish council seat claiming that other councillors didn't talk to him and that parish councils "have no power".

Denby residents objected to the BNP's presence after witnessing their loutish behaviour the previous year. Denby man John Lumsden told his local newspaper: "The people who caused the main problems were the organisers who stayed up all night having large karaoke parties." 76 year-old Brian Bentley said: "We had a lot of noise last year and a lot of people from the festival left the site and were just walking around the village drinking."

All political parties are prone to pulling some low tricks, but few do so with the resolve and tenacity of the BNP. Treating the Hastings Voluntary Association for the Blind with utter contempt, the party of truth and honesty booked the Association's premises under the name "British Heritage" so as to hold a meeting addressed by Nick Griffin.

An appalled HVAB spokesperson said: "To say we are shocked about this is an understatement. We are horrified. We would not have allowed the booking if we had known it was for this purpose."

Lancaster Unity remarked:

The BNP's current infestation of South African ex-Security Service personnel seems to be increasing the BNP's love of cloak and dagger operations. Supporters were told to meet outside a nearby Methodist Church before being directed to the venue, a five minute walk away. The password, apparently, was "buffoons".

"Buffoons", we can safely assume, tells us all we need to know about the BNP's attitude towards Hastings Voluntary Association for the Blind.

Cloak and dagger was also the order of the day in Birmingham, where a tiny band of fascists skulked around the back streets a-purposed on holding a "trade union" AGM. This wasn't just any old trade union, however, this was the "one big union", the "fighting union", the "[insert windy hyperbole here] union", Solidarity - general secretary Patrick Harrington.

Our friends at Norfolk Unity take up the story:

In Birmingham on February 23rd the BNP's bogus micro "trade union", Solidarity, held its annual conference at the Apollo Hotel, Birmingham. The booking was made in the name of "Accentuate", a vaporous one man "PR company" which seems to exist to issue press releases nobody takes any notice of.

Solidarity, taken from its founders Clive Potter and Tim Hawke in dubious circumstances in a Griffin-inspired coup and handed to failure and nonentity Patrick Harrington, is so useless that the only advice it could give Mark Walker, at the centre of its feeble cause celebre case, was to "hire a lawyer specialising in employment law".

Some union!

The reason for booking the Apollo Hotel in the name "Accentuate" was purely to con the owners and to disguise the fact that this was a BNP event in all but name.

True to paranoid form, Solidarity insisted its members meet outside a McDonalds from where they would be redirected. I understand they were also told to keep schtumm so that the Apollo's owners didn't tumble to the fact that it was playing host to a gathering of hardcore racists.

The paranoia extended even to its own small band of deluded devotees, who were subjected to bag searches and "other security measures". Photography was out, so were mobile phones and "recording equipment", and only three hours were allowed from start to finish.

After the AGM, Harrington and Solidarity began issuing grandiloquent statements on the business conducted and debates held, neglecting to mention that only 27 members of the "one big union" could be bothered to turn up out of the 211 Harrington claimed were members - itself a lie, as Solidarity's accounts were later to prove.

As February closed the Guardian broke an interesting story on the West London-based CL English Language college, which teaches hundreds of foreign language students, charging fees of up to an eyewatering £30 per hour.

What caught the Guardian's eye was that the college was controlled by old Nick Griffin friend, Roberto Fiore, leader of the neo-fascist Italian Forza Nuova, who had in the past held international fascist gatherings on the premises.

The college was a "substantial business", according to one of its accountants - and with 100 students claimed to be there at any one time paying £30 per hour we imagine that it is. Odd then, as the Guardian clearly felt, that it should produce so little apparent profit: "Despite its size ... its latest accounts show that it recorded a profit of just £2,214 during 2006, and £1,821 the year before."

Or perhaps not so surprising.

CL English Language's accountants refused to be drawn on why the profits of the "substantial business" were so small, claiming client confidentiality - but we're sure you won't fall off your chairs in astonishment to learn that the reluctant currency counters were none other than sweet old Edgar and Jean Griffin, Ma and Pa to the BNP's own Nick.

To be continued...

One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - January

Never very far from some self-imposed crisis, the BNP saw in New Year 2008 as only it knows how, in division and acrimony. Still reeling in the swirl created by the Decembrist revolt it was far from certain at the time that the BNP would survive into the Spring as a unified party. Badly shaken, the Griffinites predictably resorted to the underhanded tactics of which they are grubby past masters, raining down a venomous fire on the heads of leading members who, only weeks before, were lauded as paragons of BNP virtue. For good measure, the party even invented the "engagement" of Richard "Mine's a double" Barnbrook and Simone "Formerly had prospects" Clarke.

The trouble for the Decembrists from the beginning was that not only did they underestimate their real enemy, Nick Griffin, but they completely failed to land any telling blows against him, preferring to attack Griffin by proxy, venting themselves against the unpopular Mark Collett and David Hannam in the hope of damaging Griffin.

It was never going to work.

Lurid stories of Collett (left) and Hannam being caught in what we might discreetly call "inappropriate circumstances" with two underage girls during a BNP conference had been doing the rounds for some time, but for the Decembrists not only to resurrect them but also to admit to an intimate knowledge of what had happened not unnaturally led many to the observation that those renewing the allegations were as complicit in covering up the incident as the hierarchy of the BNP, as they had firmly sat on the allegations for more than a year.

We quoted a BNP insider, posting on an anti-Griffin website, thus:

We all could tell they were underage as soon as they walked through led by Collett and many of us said as much to each other including the barman.

When the girls came back down complaining about the demands for sex it was even more obvious they were children and it was Kenny Smith who persuaded them not to go to the press with the mobile phone footage and promised them that Collett and Hannam would be disciplined by the party.

One of the girls bluetoothed the footage to Kenny and I believe he gave it to security (pos. Martin Reynolds) the next morning.

If Kenny hadn't persuaded them and their mother - who arrived later with a security guy - out of going to the press Collett and Hannam would have had to be expelled, but such a media furore would also have been very damaging for the party.'

In response we asked:

* Why didn't Kenny Smith and the other witnesses report this alleged crime when it happened?

* If Smith and co 'could tell they were underage as soon as they walked through led by Collett', why weren't they stopped immediately?

* If the barman at Blackpool's New Kimberley Hotel could tell that the two girls were underage, why didn't he report these activities to the police?

* Matt Single, formerly one of the BNP's security team, has admitted that he knew about this incident when it happened. Why didn't he report it?

* Why did Kenny Smith persuade the girls and a parent of one of them not to go to the police with the mobile phone footage of the alleged incident?

* If Kenny Smith sent the mobile phone footage to Martin Reynolds, the BNP's pervert Head of Security, who was it who then sent it both to us and the Blackpool Gazette?

* What kind of political party would rather hide alleged child abuse than cause any harm to itself?

The fuss eventually died down, but continues to smoulder barely noticed in the background and may yet return to haunt Britain's most voluble anti-paedophile party.

Underestimating and failing to attack Nick Griffin from the outset was the biggest error made by the Decembrists. Second to that came their failure to seek alliances with the surviving Tyndallite/hardline groupings within the BNP - though admittedly, it is difficult to see how softening moderates of Sadie Graham's stamp were ever going to work with Tyndallite purists. But, if the common enemy was Griffin some form of strategic alliance was vital, yet little effort was made to bring it about, and though the Tyndallites may have cheered from the sidelines they were careful to keep their distance.

Not that it did them any good, since Griffin took the opportunity to oust the elected Tyndallite Chris Jackson from his post as North West Regional Organiser and installed himself as head man in the Tyndallites' most visible area of strength.

Despite the deep damage inflicted on the BNP in the few weeks of the rebellion, as January progressed it was evident to some observers that, through a combination of lying, ruthlessness and the rebels' own incoherent strategy, Nick Griffin had already gained the upper hand. Searchlight noted: "If they [the rebels] continue to oppose the party leadership whilst falling over themselves to appear loyal to the party then they will wither away in the not too distant future."

Only when it became obvious that the rebellion had reached its point of maximum impact did the rebels finally fix their sights on Nick Griffin, but by then it was far too late. We said:

[The rebels now] implicitly acknowledge what was stark-staringly obvious from day one - that whatever the accusations against Collett and Hannam, the real problem in the BNP is Nick Griffin himself. Belatedly, the rebels have shifted the focus to Griffin, but the weeks spent in half-heartedly professing loyalty to the BNP leader have cost them dear. Griffin is a ruthless operator, as the rebels knew full well before beginning their adventure, and nothing was more certain than that he would act aggressively, decisively and without scruple. Nothing less on the part of the rebels was ever going to bring them anywhere near success.

By now operating under the name "Voice of Change", the rebels began, as we put it, to "grind into action". Long on promise and short on delivery, the rebels said: "Every single individual expelled in recent weeks is determined to have their own membership reinstated through formal grievance procedures, acknowledging that this may involve costly legal action."

Alas, this did not happen - nor did a promise to stand "independent nationalist" candidates against BNP candidates materialise. This promise was made when it became clear that "Voice of Change" could not (and would not be allowed to) operate as a dissident group within the BNP.

Providing light relief from the rigours of the BNP's internal travails at exactly the right time was the Sky TV documentary, "BNP Wives", which introduced the world to terrifying racist Lynne Mozar (above) and the dippy, deluded (not to mention deserted) Marlene Guest. While Mozar maniacally declaimed that the BNP was hers, all hers, and (while being no Kate Moss herself) called a woman objecting to a BNP anti-mosque campaign a "fat slag", Marlene found herself on the wrong end of a question about Nazi medical experiments: "Well apparently didn't they get a lot of dentistry and plastic surgery?" she sort of explained in one of many convoluted Marlene-isms.

Hailed as "fine ambassadors for the BNP" by, er, the BNP, The London Paper saw Mozar and Guest in a different light: "Marlene Guest, busy giving idiocy a bad name in Rotherham; and Lynne Mozar, the BNP's Southeast regional secretary, proving you can be a Southeast regional idiot as well as a village one – are out on their own. Just BNP Women, then."

Badly in need of a morale boost - and to prove that the membership was backing Nick Griffin - the BNP called a national mobilisation of activists for a weekend of leafleting in London, allegedly to get the party's May GLA and mayoral campaigns off the ground (in January?). Most of the BNP's big-wigs, Griffin included, turned up, but apparently the membership (even that based in London) found better things to do, and - not for the first (or last) time - the BNP lied through its teeth about how many members had actually turned out. The figure, and the number of leaflets delivered, varied depending on which BNP blog you read - anything up to 250. Even 250 is a derisory figure for a party of the alleged size of the BNP, but ever-vigilant Searchlight disputed even that.

Finally, BNP elections "guru" Eddy Butler gave a figure of around 100. Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate and Searchlight noted: "Given that this was a national turnout then a figure of only 100 is not too impressive. I was in Sandwell earlier this year when we had 221 people (yes, that is the number who signed in), virtually all from the Black Country and Birmingham area. On that particular day we managed to deliver 45,000 newspapers. Now that was impressive."

If the BNP's flop of a "national mobilisation" had the hidden agenda of underscoring BNP members' alleged support for Nick Griffin, then part of that same agenda may have been Griffinite Richard Barnbrook's insertion of himself into a Police Federation march calling for better police pay. Of course, Barnbrook's overweening ego played its part, but the circumstance was calculated to generate BNP publicity on the back of quite another (and better) cause.

Brian Paddick told the London Evening Standard, "I felt very uncomfortable that there was someone from the BNP. I was aware of him being there and I pointed it out to federation officials but there was nothing more that I could do. I was very uncomfortable that he was anywhere near me." Searchlight's Gerry Gable said: "The police federation leaders should have told him to get lost." And so say all of us.

The name of the BNP's highly presentable answer to Julie Andrews, Donna Bailey of soon to be infamous Upper Beeding, came to greater prominence in late January when she and her supporters stormed into a meeting of Upper Beeding Parish Council, and, amid scenes described as "quite threatening" by one councillor, demanded Bailey's co-option.

Not getting her pushy way, Bailey then forced a by-election for a vacant parish council seat.

The Observer reported:

"In Upper Beeding, Donna Bailey's candidature is being opposed by Joyce Shaw, a former stalwart of the parish council, who's come out of retirement, and Becki Davoudi, who has an Iranian father, and, like the Asian family who have revived the village shop, has good reason to oppose the far right. What they're fighting is nothing as concrete as a political programme or the certainty of violence, but something vaguer: a chilling of the atmosphere, a potential for disgrace."

More in hope than expectation the Voice of Change rebels came together in Brinsley Parish Hall to discuss their next moves. As there hadn't been too many previous moves, and since Nick Griffin had had the best of them, what might just - if called earlier and under decisive leadership - have sounded Griffin's death knell instead underlined the differences between the rebels themselves and highlighted their lack of direction. The meeting served only to sound the rebel's death knell.

Searchlight's own Scarlet Pimpernel Nick Lowles, who attended the meeting, reported:

Griffin would not have been too concerned with the outcome of this meeting. It finished with the rebels being in the worst possible position. They are no longer in the party (or at least in positions of influence) in any real sense yet they have backed away from launching an alternative party at a time when they still have a degree of support around the country. Launching a new party is of course not easy and would alienate some of their key supporters who wanted to remain in the BNP but when is there ever a good time to split. The answer surely has to be when you can achieve your maximum influence and that is certainly now and not after a possible BNP London or European victory.

One day the rebels will surely look back at the meeting as being an opportunity wasted. Massed in the room were many of the BNP’s super activists and surely a nucleus of a new party and if ever they had the momentum to launch an alternative the time is now. Throughout Griffin’s career he has shown himself to be a master of factionalism and spitefulness and as night follows day it is clear that over the next few months he will drive his opponents out of the party one way or another.

The last act of January was an obscure parish-pump by-election for Calne Town Council's Lickhill ward. Ever optimistic BNP candidate Robert Baggs spoke as if the election was in the bag (sorry!), with tales of "thumbs up and toots from passing motorists" intertwined with an unlikely story concerning the arrival of "4 black gentlemen" in a J-registered car "who had obviously arrived to intimidate and harass our team".

Sadly (or not) Baggs bagged 84 votes out of 791 cast and reached for the sick-bag.

To be continued...

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.