BNP keeps a brave face as disappointments keep on coming

This last few days must have been terribly disappointing for the BNP.

Not that we care, but we'd imagine Nick Griffin would have liked something to cheer up the troops after the ructions of the past couple of months and after the resignations of Alans Warner and Bailey from their positions of, respectively, town and real councillor.

Happily, the situation has gone from bad to worse. Despite putting everything into a major fight to win a mere parish seat (so desperate are they for a win of any kind) for dismal Donna Bailey at Upper Beeding, the far-right party was pipped at the post by twenty votes.

Joyce Shaw (Ind): 297
Donna Bailey (BNP): 277
Becky Davoubi (Ind): 196

Bailey, variously described by the creepier than usual BNP as the British National Party Blond Bombshell and brave (why brave?), received an astonishing amount of support for her campaign and cost the local council tax payer a few thousand quid just to prove the party could lose even where it had its own version of Julie Andrews standing for it. Even when the Dail Mail had assisted by printing a two-page puff-piece about her.

James Clayton (see pic), though no blond bombshell, deserved more support from his wretched party than he actually got. No mass leaflettings for him, no double-page spreads in the Mail and no commiserating posts on the BNP website either.

Despite standing for a real council seat (on Wyre Borough Council) and probably being its youngest candidate, the BNP chose to ignore young Master Clayton, which might explain why he bombed at the polls.

Con 769
Lab 339
BNP 222
UKIP 151

So nice to see the BNP failing its young up and comers.

But these results pale almost into insignificance at the latest news - that the High Court has awarded the disputed (see here and here) Burnley seat of Rosegrove and Lowerhouse to the Labour candidate, Paul Reynolds, leaving the BNP's John Rowe with egg on his face and a bill estimated at around £30,000.

Given the BNP's treatment of Sharon Ebanks (and she was only stuck for £5000 after following the party's advice and taking her disputed vote to the High Court), we'd advise Rowe to grab the money NOW before the party changes its mercurial mind and tells him to get lost, or to save time and declare himself bankrupt now.

If the BNP really intends to cover the costs of this wasted case, we wonder how the funds will be found - a raid on Nick Griffin's legendarily deep pockets, a dig into the hidden donations from Civil Liberty or the Trafalgar Club or yet another begging letter to the members. Or maybe it'll just come out of the membership fees paid for this year - a juicy thousand of them.

Antifascist

BNP's "Blonde Bombshell" misfires

Elevating an obscure and unimportant parish council by-election into a matter of national importance, the BNP somehow got itself to believe that the election of Donna Bailey to Upper Beeding Parish Council was a forgone conclusion.

Carried away with the idea that a pretty face and a much discussed article in the Daily Mail (which BNP members linked to on almost every forum they infest) would secure Donna's victory, they seemed to forget that the BNP was also contesting a real election for a real council with real power on the same night in Lancashire.

Having demanded co-option on to Upper Beeding Parish Council (Sussex), Donna Bailey and her vociferous band of supporters forced the council into the needless expense of a by-election when she was refused.

Bailey stood as an "independent", as did the two other candidates opposing her, but it was very clear from the beginning that the BNP regarded her as anything but "independent" - and it seems that the voters of Upper Beeding were of the same mind.

Proving beyond any doubt that Upper Beeding Parish Council were right not to cave in to her demands for co-option, Bailey came second, rejected by nearly two-thirds of local voters:

Joyce Shaw (Ind): 297
Donna Bailey ("Ind"): 277
Becky Davoubi (Ind): 196

A twenty vote shortfall, but, given the hype and the media coverage Donna Bailey and this by-election have received, a real embarrassment for the BNP and its golden goddess, who expected to win this contest by a wide margin.

We await the stock BNP excuses that Donna wuz nobbled.

Back in the real world of real politics that matter, BNP candidate James Clayton took part in a four-cornered contest in Victoria ward (Cleveleys) for a seat on Wyre Borough Council. Last May Victoria ward returned as follows:

UKIP 353
Lab 474
Lab 472
Con 1351 Elected
Con 1150 Elected
Con 1165 Elected

In May 2007 Clayton fought Cleveleys Park ward, coming seventh of eight candidates, with 19.6% (after vote averaging). Last night in staunchly Conservative Park ward, Clayton managed a so-so 14.99%:

Con 769 (51.92)
Lab 339 (22.89)
UKIP 151 (10.20)
BNP 222 (14.99)

Total 1481

The BNP did nibble into the UKIP vote, but UKIP's surviving 10.2% gives lie to the BNP fantasy that UKIP voters are always interchangeable with its own. Disappointed BNP supporters not getting the message that to be anti-Europe is not to be pro-fascist were this morning sourly condemning the UKIP as "ludicrous" and "pointless".

Just like that costly by-election one of their supporters forced on Upper Beeding Parish Council.

Denise G