BNP takes 13% of vote in Horsham By-Election

dvd | 08.12.2006 22:33 | Anti-racism

In the By-Election for the Denne ward in Horsham, the BNP candidate Richard James Trower has taken nearly 13% of the vote, coming third after the Lib Dems and the Tories.

The election was called after the previous Lib Dem councillor resigned. Although they regained the seat, both they and the Tories lost some share (about 5% each, and about half the vote for labour) of their vote to fringe parties, most of this share going to the BNP. This 13% gain was despite a lack of campaigning or presence in Horsham, with only a report of a leaflet drop a few weeks beforehand. It also seemed there was some police presence at at least one of the polling stations in central Horsham.

As a result of this lack of major campaigning, and the fact that Richard James Trower normally stands in a ward in nearby Crawley, suggests that this was aimed as a test of the support they might recieve in Sussex. It could also have been part of their new initiative to present themselves as the other main party in elections, which unfortunately they have achieved in this election.

It seems Sussex may be the subject of a future campaign by the BNP, with reports of a '10 point plan for Sussex' being published and distributed.

See

http://www.horsham.gov.uk/your_area/News/news_7233.asp for details of the vote.

dvd

Additions

and

09.12.2006 09:16

13% equals 171 people - still 171 too many but put it in context

2 other bnp results from Thursday 7th December........

09.12.2006 09:31

2 other bnp results from Thursday 7th December........

Conwy Kinmel Bay Ward- 13.2% beating Liberals
Southend West Shoebury - 17.9%, 2nd place- beating Labour and Liberal

steady as she goes for antifascism? more of the same antifascist tactics or review tactics?

JimPage

Comments

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lack of campaigning??

09.12.2006 14:53

Just had a look at the BNP web site which mentions Horsham.

It says three different leaflets were delivered, presumably at different times otherwise it would be pointless, also "most of the ward was canvassed", this to me doesn't add up to a lack of canpaigning! Can't see why they would lie about this, better to say we did nothing and still got this vote.

Roy

UKIP site

09.12.2006 15:13

Just found this load of stuff on Horsham. If you want to know whats going on you've got to look on these fascist fringe sites.

http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=15714&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

roy

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Fascist Fringe Sites

09.12.2006 19:53

As the previous poster commented, you have to keep an eye on fascist nut sites to see what the bastards are plotting, if you can bear to wade through the conspiracy filth, anti-semitism, gay bashing and puritanical hectoring - oh no, wait, that's Indymedia UK as well, isn't it? Over to you, twilight....

Caz
Homepage: http://www.indymediawatch.blogspot.com

Statistics

10.12.2006 00:58

Regardless of the number of people voting, if they win they still get 1 councillor. So the percentage and relative position IS the important issue, not the actual number of people voting.

Mercury Kev

Drops rather than Canvassing

10.12.2006 11:58

I was only aware of one leaflet drop, and that was mostly removed by the police after a complaint. If there were two more, it was probably done quite covertly like the other one and so may be why I wasn't aware of them. There's no evidence to suggest they actually handed them out or went door to door. The fact that their only method of campaigning was to leave leaflets lying around in the town seemed to suggest they weren't spending too much time on campaigning heavily here, just testing their support in the area. Myabe they're being economical with the truth on their website saying they canvassed rather than dumping the leaflets.

Although it was only 171people who voted for them, this I think is more than the Lib dems' majority over the Tories, so in this seat is actually a significant number. It was also roughly the same turnout as previous elections, and so accurately represents the proportions for future elections.

dvd

UKIP site

10.12.2006 14:40

If you read the UKIP supporters message board they speak about meeting 15-20 BNP members putting out literature, this hardly seems a operation done at the dead of night.

As I said read what's on the UKIP site link above, I think it's all balls about the police collecting up their literature. I too read that on some message board but I think it wishful thinking.

Roy

Horsham

10.12.2006 15:03

The comments below have come from the UKIp site I keep going on about, the man is apparently the son of the UKIP candidate. I couldn't believe the BNP got 13% by sitting on their bums, I'd been bloody worried if they did. Like it or not they seems to have put a lot of resources into the election. That we don't even seem to know what's going on in the town says a lot for the local anti-fascists if such a thing exists!

"I was very shocked that in such a Conservative area UKIP did not perform better. Our candiate has even been involved for 5 years on the committe for the new sports and social centre down the road. The BNP candidate comes from Crawley!

The BNP were very organised. They have a younger membership, delivered 4 leaflets with 15-20 people each weekend.

The BNP had the manpower to go door knocking and undertake proper campaigning.

The Horsham UKIP branch was only revived in September after it collapsed previously. It does however have 90-odd members and growing.

UKIP has a lack of committed manpower due to age of members and general lazyness!!!!!!! which i cannot stand.

I think in May we will see UKIP performing much better in wards where the BNP are not standing.

The interesting thing about yesterday was the 31.9% turnout. I can tell you that the parties were shi*ting themselves about the BNP! They made sure they turned their vote out and i think we lost quite a few 'on the fencers'."

Roy

limited sources of informationat my end!

10.12.2006 15:56

Unfortunately there is little anti-fascist presence in Horsham - I only go to college there and had to rely on hearing about any campaigning from friends who live there, who weren't even aware of an upcoming election, and on message boards. I'm not really around at weekends either as a result, so would have missed any of their activities.

The fact that the UKIP people say that all the candidates were worried by the BNP presence is interesting, suggesting they know they're liekly ro make gains in future... perhaps this may well be a beginning to a larger initiative than expected.

I'll work on establishing some more reliable sources of information in Horsham/Sussex in future, sounds like it will be needed sooner rather than later.

dvd

BNP = Nu Labour

11.12.2006 22:32

Has anyone noticed the strong resemblance between the BNP and Nu-Labour..? Spot the difference if you can.. I can't.. well actually I can: Nu Labour are successful fascists with the blood of millions of brown/black/iraqi people on their hand, the BNP aren't even in the game.

Cassandra

New-fascist New-Labour hypocrites

13.12.2006 10:02

Absolutely right. New-Labour are an absolute joke.
The only reason they don their 'UAF' vests and leaflet where the BNP stand is because they are worried not about fascism, but losing their positions on the councils and the expense claims that go with it, like a little club all for themselves!

It's high time we faced up this reality and make them choose, New-fascist New-Labour or not; not halfway between when it SUITS THEM!

ARTY

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