Hope Not Hate, who ran the campaign against the BNP for the European elections, are canvassing for views on how the movement they have built can be developed.

Nick Griffin and former National Front leader Andrew Brons may have been elected, but the fight against their abhorrent politics continues apace. Air your opinion on the forthcoming campaign by clicking on the image below:

Well, their survey. But they didn't do a graphic for that!

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With the catastrophic national results it has emerged that Blackburn with Darwen, Waltham Forest and Leicester are possibly the only count areas where Labour's share of the vote has actually gone up. Our local party Secretary Phil Riley was interviewed by local radio station The Bee about the unusual results here in the borough:

And it appears Blackburn's political activists are in high demand! Tory Iain Dale and Labour blogger Hopi Sen ran a radio show on the European election results last night. We put them in touch with John Murphy who ran the Hope Not Hate operation in Blackburn with Darwen:

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As the sample figures began to emerge last night, it was clear that under the d'Hondt system the Greens needed to beat the BNP tally or UKIP to double it (they already had one seat) in order to deprive Nick Griffin of a place in the European Parliament.

The eventual totals were as follows:

UKIP: 261,740
BNP: 132,094
Green Party: 127,133

If 817 BNP voters had switched to UKIP then it would be then Michael McManus would be on the Eurostar and not someone with a conviction for race hatred.

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It looks like we now have a racist, homophobic, holocaust-denying criminal representing the people of Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria in the European Parliament.

This Cook Report footage from 1997 demonstrates powerfully that the BNP and Nick Griffin are just the same old Nazis in a new suit. 

Cook's words are tragically prophetic: “It's to be hoped that this will be Griffin's walk into political oblivion ... his period in the wilderness may not be nearly long enough.”

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New councillor Dave Smith

Every proverbial cloud has a silver lining. Good news was scarce from Friday's results but we are thrilled that Dave Smith secured the highest personal mandate of any candidate in the Darwen Town Council elections, despite being the sole Labour presence in the new chamber.

Accurate percentage figures for individual parties are difficult to calculate with the multi-member wards because not all take up their full entitlement of candidates. We have created a model which assumes a party's mean performance and applies an appropriate weighting based on the number of candidates put forward.

The localist For Darwen Party led by former Liberal Democrat Tony Melia tops the poll and we have the British National Party at 9.51% in Darwen:

The most discouraging regional BNP result was the election of their first ever county councillor, Sharon Wilkinson, in Padiham and Burnley West where the party already has four district councillors. She grabbed a worrying 30.51% of the vote although only 10.7% of the electorate voted for her when turnout is taken into consideration.

The trend seems to be towards high concentrations of BNP votes as the party polled only 3.50% across the whole county. The chart below is cribbed directly from the Lancashire CC website.

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UPDATE: Apparently scrutineers from Trafford have complained as well

With twelve possible party lists comprising 93 candidates (plus one independent), the North West postal voting ballot slip for the European Elections is pretty long. It seems a number of voters have torn the paper - returning only the section corresponding with their chosen party and 'X'.

These mutilated ballots are all being rejected. All of them apart from those cast for the British National Party.

The reason for this is that torn ballots are rejected for lack of the 'official mark'. As this mark is printed at the top of the paper alongside the first party on the list, only the 'torn' postal votes for the top party are getting through. In the North West this is the BNP.

This has been picked up by our genius numbers guy and scrutineer Michael Poultney.

He reckons this could possibly amount to several hundred votes across the North West Region.

He has already complained to the Electoral Commission and suggested that the ballot paper be redesigned. This isn't the first time the Commission have been under fire for the design of ballots.

His letter is reproduced below.

Dear Sirs,

Whilst acting as scrutineer of postal ballot papers in the Blackburn with Darwen Borough section of the European Election for North West England, I have noticed that a few postal voters have cut or torn their ballot papers only submitting the portion of each paper in line with their marked X.

The consequence of this is that their paper is rejected for want of official mark - unless their vote is for candidate list No.1 at the top of the ballot paper which happens to be the British National Party. This is because the official mark on the front of the paper is at the top and therefore still intact and that the numbers on the reverse of the paper are also at the top behind section No.1.

Do you not believe that, in future, there is a case for the ballot paper numbers on the reverse being printed lower down the paper leading to all such mutilated papers being rejected? Or do you believe that entries numbered 1 on the ballot paper deserve this extra advantage?

Yours sincerely,
Michael Poultney
Labour Party sub-agent Euro Election

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We've just had a look at the fantastic new online campaign started by Tim Montgomerie (of Conservative Home fame) and James Bethell. There's Nothing British about the BNP draws attention to the BNP's criminal connections and their appalling record when they get hold of elected office.

Unfortunately they couldn't resist a bit of horseshoe theory here (yawn) but their magnum opus is definitely this video. Well done, guys!

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Dozens of people from across the community and of various political persuasions descended on a Blackburn sports centre car park at the weekend to pick up batches of Hope Not Hate material to distribute in their neighbourhoods. The newspaper-style publication aims to get out the anti-BNP vote and was produced in conjunction with the Daily Mirror.

Here is an excerpt from Nick Lowles' blog on the Hope Not Hate website:

The HOPE not hate campaign really kicked into gear this weekend with over 150,000 leaflets and newspapers being distributed around the country. Setting the pace was Blackburn with Darwen, where over 80 people distributed 20,000 newspapers, with a lot more being taken away to deliver over the next week.

Some of our Labour activists were out delivering in, among other locales, Beardwood yesterday (pictured). Unfortunately, Conservative peer Norman Tebbit was spending the day confounding our efforts to prevent Nick Griffin becoming an MEP representing the North West in Europe:

The Noble Lord suggested that voters should punish the big parties by voting for one of the smaller ones. When pressed by Nick Robinson as to whether he meant UKIP, Tebbit responded:

They can vote for one of the other parties or they can sit on their hands ... They might vote for the Christian Alliance, they might vote Green and if they're our of their minds they might vote socialist and go for the BNP.

Needling the left with horseshoe theory aside, his qualification that voters would need to be "out of their minds" to vote BNP rings hollow. Tebbit knows full well that his outbursts may be used by some people to rationalise support for the BNP in June.

How can a leader tolerate prominent party figures suggesting that people should support their opposition in the full knowledge that this might take the form of a vote for neo-fascists?

What will it take for Cameron to take on lunatic right-wingers like Tebbit?

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UPDATE: This news report has been running all day on local radio

Despite CCHQ pleading with him not to talk to the press, the BNP's Nick Holt is now spilling the beans to anyone who will listen on the approach made by the Conservatives to stand him as a council candidate in Darwen, Lancashire.

Jake Berry is the Conservatives' prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for the constituency of Rossendale and Darwen. Like all the local Tories, Jake has been curiously silent on this issue. Now we know why!

Guess who attended a key election strategy meeting last month with BNP man Nick Holt and the Darwen Conservative high command?

© UPPA/Photoshot

The answer is Tory Westminster candidate Jake Berry, pictured here with David Cameron! UPDATE: Jake's election agent has just rung making legal noises about the copyright of the Berry/Cameron photo (available here). So above is another snap with him looking somewhat grumpy.

Cameron will be holding a town-hall style meeting this evening in the constituency in which Berry plans to become the next member of parliament. The regional and national media will be there.

Source: Swindon Life

Perhaps they will both use this opportunity to distance themselves from this fiasco and the councillors who invited a notorious BNP organiser to stand as an official Conservative candidate?

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David Cameron is visiting Blackburn with Darwen Borough today as well as the constituency of Rossendale and Darwen. These areas overlap the town of Darwen, where theTories shortlisted a local BNP headbanger to stand as an official Conservative candidate. Local radio is reporting that Cameron is "under pressure" to distance himself from the fiasco.

© Alan in Belfast

 The blerb on his 'Cameron Direct' material heralds that he will 'anwer your questions'! We certainly hope that he is better at this than the distinctly cagey Tory leaders at the all-member council meeting in Blackburn town hall last night:

“That is being left with Rossendale and Darwen Conservatives and I therefore cannot comment at the moment.” - Cllr Michael Lee, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council

“It is being dealt with by the Association and we don't intend to go any further with that.” - Cllr Colin Rigby, council executive member

Looks like Team Cameron have told the local Tories to kick this one into the long grass!

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