We're off for a couple of days (again) so thought we'd leave you with a bit of reading material. :-)
It's been an interesting year, to say the least. What with the elections back in May, the revelations about Tony Lecomber's bizarre plans for getting rid of public figures who annoy him, Sharon Ebanks' on/off relationship with the BNP and Sid Williamson's disastrous (and speedy) sacking and eviction from homes old and new plus a host of criminal and useless councillors, the British National Party has provided us with hours of fun and games.
Relive the experience with a stroll through a sometimes turbulent and frequently funny 2006 with our eight page review of the year. Available for download as a doc or pdf file. It's the first one we've done so feedback would be appreciated.
Downloads here
http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/index.php?itemid=642
Just in case you have problems downloading, here's the summary:
All in all, the year has ended reasonably. Although the BNP gained a lot of seats back in May, it has managed to lose quite a few through incompetence, it has maintained its high reputation for opportunism and exploitation, and has repeatedly shown itself to be rabidly racist and anti-gay. Its financial incompetence is beyond question and as fast as it gains new members, old members walk off or are thrown out in a huff. The fact that it only gained 140-odd members in the last complete financial year (including the period after the July 7th bombings) shows that it is far from having a grip on the pulse of the nation, putting the lie to almost every leaflet that comes from its printers.
Regarding Lancaster UAF itself and the organisations who work with it - Barrow UAF, Blackpool TUC, Lancaster University SAAR and so on, we've enjoyed a year where we've established some solid links in our fight against the fascists. The Blackpool anti-BNP demo helped create new liaisons between local groups (thanks BNP), which we'll use whenever necessary, and has increased our contact list dramatically.
The blog goes from strength to strength. This time last year, we were pleased to report that we had around 3-400 hits per day. Now we're hovering around 10-15000 hits per day and gently going up. Our new donations button is proving useful (as it certainly needs to be given that we have the full May elections coming up in the area) and plans are underway for a large fund-raising event for spring next year. That's purely local though. Many towns and cities are going to be having their full council elections this year and have a difficult job ahead of them fighting the BNP who are frequently ably assisted by misguided or just gobby government ministers and a media whose agenda is sometimes all too clear. For a lot of places, the fight against the fascist BNP (and the other smaller groups that jump on the racist bandwagon, like the EFP) will be arduous.
Nevertheless, fight them we will. And we'll win. Although the BNP is a danger to all of us in that it creates disharmony everywhere it goes, it's worth remembering that it still has considerably less members than the National Front had back in its heyday in the seventies - and where is the national Front now? Run by some old racist who is out of touch with the real world, it's a party of about ten people still droning on about how great Hitler used to be. We look forward to the day when we can say the same thing about Griffin and the BNP.
Finally, our many thanks to all the people who have helped us in one way or another over the past year - national UAF, North-West Region TUC, many local newspapers (including some a long way from Lancaster) and local radio, Searchlight, dozens of helpful, generous and informative individuals (many of whom contribute to the blog), Notes From the Borderland, many politicians from all parties both in and beyond Lancaster, our friends at Barrow and Blackpool and many, many more.
Thanks to all of you and Happy New Year from all of us at Lancaster UAF
More here http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/index.php?itemid=642
Relive the experience with a stroll through a sometimes turbulent and frequently funny 2006 with our eight page review of the year. Available for download as a doc or pdf file. It's the first one we've done so feedback would be appreciated.
Downloads here
http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/index.php?itemid=642 Just in case you have problems downloading, here's the summary:
All in all, the year has ended reasonably. Although the BNP gained a lot of seats back in May, it has managed to lose quite a few through incompetence, it has maintained its high reputation for opportunism and exploitation, and has repeatedly shown itself to be rabidly racist and anti-gay. Its financial incompetence is beyond question and as fast as it gains new members, old members walk off or are thrown out in a huff. The fact that it only gained 140-odd members in the last complete financial year (including the period after the July 7th bombings) shows that it is far from having a grip on the pulse of the nation, putting the lie to almost every leaflet that comes from its printers.
Regarding Lancaster UAF itself and the organisations who work with it - Barrow UAF, Blackpool TUC, Lancaster University SAAR and so on, we've enjoyed a year where we've established some solid links in our fight against the fascists. The Blackpool anti-BNP demo helped create new liaisons between local groups (thanks BNP), which we'll use whenever necessary, and has increased our contact list dramatically.
The blog goes from strength to strength. This time last year, we were pleased to report that we had around 3-400 hits per day. Now we're hovering around 10-15000 hits per day and gently going up. Our new donations button is proving useful (as it certainly needs to be given that we have the full May elections coming up in the area) and plans are underway for a large fund-raising event for spring next year. That's purely local though. Many towns and cities are going to be having their full council elections this year and have a difficult job ahead of them fighting the BNP who are frequently ably assisted by misguided or just gobby government ministers and a media whose agenda is sometimes all too clear. For a lot of places, the fight against the fascist BNP (and the other smaller groups that jump on the racist bandwagon, like the EFP) will be arduous.
Nevertheless, fight them we will. And we'll win. Although the BNP is a danger to all of us in that it creates disharmony everywhere it goes, it's worth remembering that it still has considerably less members than the National Front had back in its heyday in the seventies - and where is the national Front now? Run by some old racist who is out of touch with the real world, it's a party of about ten people still droning on about how great Hitler used to be. We look forward to the day when we can say the same thing about Griffin and the BNP.
Finally, our many thanks to all the people who have helped us in one way or another over the past year - national UAF, North-West Region TUC, many local newspapers (including some a long way from Lancaster) and local radio, Searchlight, dozens of helpful, generous and informative individuals (many of whom contribute to the blog), Notes From the Borderland, many politicians from all parties both in and beyond Lancaster, our friends at Barrow and Blackpool and many, many more.
Thanks to all of you and Happy New Year from all of us at Lancaster UAF
More here
http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/index.php?itemid=642