The Rise Of The BNP?
TheEye is very interested in political as well as military matters and was intrigued to see ConservativeHome reporting the Local Government By-Election Results for the 19th of Feb.
As every political junkie knows, they showed a result which particularly stood out:
Swanley St Mary’s, Sevenoaks district council
BNP – 41% (+41)
Lab – 34% (-21)
Con – 25% (-)
(UKIP did not stand, having previously secured 20%)
BNP gain from Lab
TheEye would not normally comment on local matters of which he knows naught, but as the last post shows – one is in a parochial mood today. The result has been commented on by Michael Fallon, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks here, but to quote it all he said:
“Swanley St Mary’s was Labour’s safest seat on Sevenoaks District Council. There are three Swanley wards; we won all three seats in Swanley Christchurch, leaving Labour with three councillors in Swanley Whiteoak and two (now one) in Swanley St Mary’s.
We campaigned hard with a strong local candidate who was born in the ward; I had a team of eleven with me canvassing there on Saturday. We put the Tory vote up from 208 to 247. The Lib Dems didn’t bother to stand. BNP attracted frustrated traditional Labour voters (they did the same in Welling (Bexley) a few weeks back). Their literature and message was relatively moderate but focussed on immigrants and asylum-seekers jumping the housing queue.”
Does anyone have any views or opinions? Anyone with any local knowledge or with general observations?
No mention on BBC Radio 2 or 4, not had time to read any of the papers ( front page Indy, dunno Telegraph ).
Lab (-21) + (UKIP …. 20%) = BNP (+41)
Seems fairly obvious at first glance.
Con – 25% (-) = Static ? Bit poor for them really at this stage.
Immigration would be a big issue locally ( illegals arriving on trucks ) and no doubt their opponents will accuse the BNP of playing the ‘race card’. Possible BNP gain as a protest against the 3 lookalike mainstream parties, not unlike the Poujadists in France late 20C.
ie the three main liberal/conservaitve/socialist parties have pissed Joe Public off so much they are voting for the only other party with a local ‘brand’; ditto UKIP in Europe.
As the red Labour rose fades, the BNP blooms. The media can’t handle it.