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Bye bye BNP?

anon@indymedia.org (East Midlands Anti-fascists) | 04.05.2012 14:55

Fascists had a bad night in local elections across the country. The BNP has, at the time of writing, lost all of the seats it was defending and failed to win any new seats. None of the smaller fascist groupuscles has fared any better.

In the East Midlands, the BNP lost their two seats in Heanor where their share of the vote was considerably reduced. Cliff Roper’s term as “the invisible councillor” obviously didn’t go down well with the electorate and his share of the vote has fallen to 19.1% from the 36.5% he won with in 2008. Beaten into third place, Councillor Roper has become simply another nationalist chancer, the Heanor Patriot. Lewis Allsebrook’s replacement, Adrian Hickman, also failed to impress and came last. In Heanor & Loscoe the BNP’s share of the vote was halved and in Ripley & Marehay it was reduced to a third of the 2008 result. Emma Roper did particularly badly, getting only 59 votes (4.2%) in Codnor & Waingroves. This is about a quarter of the share won by fascist farmer Alan Warner in 2008.

The National Front’s Amber Valley candidate, Timothy Knowles, only got 99 votes in Langley Mill, coming in last place.

Over in Lincoln, disgraced Nazi sympathiser and BNP candidate, Dean Lowther, got a pathetic 49 votes (2.8%) coming in last place. This is less than a quarter of the 12.2% he got last time around.

In Derby, the BNP did slightly less badly but their vote was still down on the 2008 results. Paul Hilliard’s black shirt campaign won him 14.7% of the vote in Chaddesden, but this was down from the 17.9% he got in 2008. The only good news for the party was that candidates in Derwent and Spondon beat the Lib Dems into last place, gaining 11.9% and 8.1% of the vote respectively.

Hope Not Hate are collecting the far right’s results on their website and you can compare them with the results from 2008 here.

It seems that electoral support for the fascists is well down from its peak. Nick Griffin’s troubled leadership of the BNP looks decidedly shaky and party activists and voters are leaving in droves. The new fluffier British Freedom Party, who are backed by the EDL, haven’t got off to a good start either. Their candidate in Basildon only managed to get 4% of the vote and none of the 4 candidates currently declared in Liverpool got more than 3%.

These are good results for anti-fascists but we should never be complacent. The BNP was still voted for by a little under 1 in 5 people in Heanor and they are consistently winning over 10% in parts of Derby. There is always the danger that the far right will rearrange itself around a new pole in the wake of the BNP’s plunge into obscurity and start building on these foundations. Their current failure is a cause for celebration. Let’s make sure they don’t come back from the dead.


anon@indymedia.org (East Midlands Anti-fascists)
- http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2564

Comments

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noneoftheabove

04.05.2012 17:03

Those sad racist thugs represent only one facet of fascism.

With war-corporatism on the other hand seems to be (global) business as usual (along with the help of the political 'elite' who organise our policing).

If voting changed anything etc. hence why the turnout was low. A 'none of the above' wish seems to be most peoples feeling

90percentsaynoneoftheabove


HOLD THE KNIFE

07.05.2012 18:44

Griffin is the wounded leader, he lays aside his dying horse on the political battlefield, however tempting it may be to put him to the sword, he must be left to slowly live out his days as leader.
He has done far more to close down the BNP than any other group or individual .
Griffin does not do ideas, as soon as any voice is raised amoungst his troops. like Genkus Khan they are put to the sword, one party, one leader.
He has closed down dozens of local units where desent was even suspected or a voice raised doubting his leadership, hundred by hundred his troops have walked away from the battlefield.

He is alone and isloated, vulnerable, but his enermies must recognise he is the BNP's own worst nightmare on his own, the party are unable to shift him as he milks them for every last penny he can, as soon as a voice is heard, thier head is taken, in fact it has only left those near him whop were tasked to watch him, others have fled, he is surrounded by governmental spies in his foolish belife they are his supporters, indeed they are, for with him at the controls, the ship is drifting in circles quickly running out of fuel.

He must be left to continue the slow death.

If griffin were to be ousted, a new stronger leader who knows why men have two ears and one mouth could take the troops on the field.
The BNP and its ousted troops are still as blood thirsty as ever they just refuse to fight for Griffin, but if he goes, a new leader could re-kindle the BNP back in to the mainstream, the "watchers" and yes men would go with Griffin and a new leader could bring back the ousted divisions and troops by the thousand, make no mistake, they sit and they wait for the day he goes.

Griffin is the BNP's death, but his demise shall be it's re-birth.
Long Live Griffin.. For all of our sakes.

Braz