Anti-fascists in Nottinghamshire have expressed pleasure at the BNP's drubbing in a by-election held in the Hucknall Central ward for a seat on Ashfield District Council following the death of the incumbent Tory councillor. The BNP would normally be expected to benefit from a low-turnout, but only managed 7.5% on a 32% turnout, coming fifth behind UKIP.
Compounding the BNP's problems, a group calling themselves "Broxtowe Reds" claim to have vandalised vehicles belonging to Dave and Nina Brown with paint stripper. The Browns are local BNP councillors who turned against the party leadership following Sadie Graham's expulsion from the party, but have now returned to the fold.
Meanwhile, autonomous anti-fascists in Nottingham have produced the first edition of a newsletter dubbed, "Burnt Flag." The newsletter includes analysis of the EDL's visit to the city in December last year, a record of anti-fascist actions through 2009 and a report on the second leaking of the BNP's membership list.
On the newswire: Broxtowe BNP vehicles damaged | BNP trounced in Hucknall election | Burnt flag: new nottingham antifascist newsheet | Stop the Nazi BNP in Hucknall! | BNP Candidate Standing at Hucknall Central By-Election
Previous features: EDL riot in Stoke | Fascists rally in Nottingham | Anti-fascists challenge BNP's return to Derbyshire | BNP candidate "would revel at causing some havoc"
Links: Antifa England | Love Music Hate Racism | Notts Stop the BNP | Unite Against Fascism | Notts Indymedia anti-racism newswire
Despite their rather pathetic result on Thursday, it isn't clear that the BNP's candidate, Edward Holmes will be all that. The former councillor and council leader for the Labour Party, has his sights set on a seat in parliament. He’s the prospective BNP candidate for the Ashfield constituency in the coming general election; a seat likely to be hotly contested following Geoff Hoon's decision to step down as MP.
Holmes was among the BNP activists interviewed by BBC weatherman Des Coleman for a documentary about the party in the East Midlands. Holmes established that Coleman was British based on which side he would fight for in a hypothetical war with Jamaica, but despite the TV presenter making the 'correct' selection, was still adamant that a black man could not join the party.
Although the constituency was extensively leafleted by activists from both Unite Against Fascism and Notts Stop the BNP, nobody should have any illusions about a Labour victory constituting some kind of high-water mark for anti-fascism. It is the very policies pursued by Labour at local and national level which have disenfranchised large sections of the working class, creating the space in which groups like the BNP, and more recently the EDL, operate.
Nevertheless, we should take some comfort from the BNP's pathetic showing in Hucknall. Not just because they were defeated there, but because of the implication that party's great hope for Ashfield is something of an electoral handicap.