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:

Comment (0)

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.

Comment (0)

In the morning after the night before, we have established that the Labour share of the vote has actually gone up in the local area since the last European Parliament election in 2004. The Labour tally was 24.7% in 2004 and has increased 2.2% to 26.9%.

Here's our quote from party Secretary Phil Riley:

“This is a body blow to the Blackburn Conservative’s prospects at the next general election as they were well beaten into second last night.”

“In the current circumstances this is a very impressive result and augurs well for Labour’s chances in Blackburn at the general election.”

“The result reflects the fact that the local Labour Party is still trusted and our campaign will now build on this vote of confidence as next year’s elections approach.”

Comment (0)

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.”

Comment (0)

LIVE UPDATES: Follow us on Twitter and also the #eu09 tag

The Tories hopes against Jack Straw at the next election have been dealt a massive blow by Labour's local success in the European elections. Despite the current political climate, Labour topped the poll in the borough:

Counting underway at King Georges Hall

Comment (1)

UPDATE: Rt. Hon Jim Murphy MP has done his bit. Jack Straw doing one later on!

It's not an easy time to be a political activist out on the doorsteps canvassing, leafleting and talking to voters. But when the going gets tough it's good to remember what motivates us to fight for what we believe in.

We're putting together a video featuring Labour activists, candidates and MPs. Here's how you can help

1. Send your short "I still believe in..." message to believevideo@googlemail.com
2. If you see an MP or other politician out on the campaign trail, grab them and do a quick video
   
3. Give this a plug on your blog if you have one

You can easily record them with a camera phone (okay) or a digital camera (better). Check out the video below:

Comment (0)

A couple of us hopped on the train to the big smoke yesterday to take part in phone canvassing organised by LGBT Labour North West.  A shedload of voters across the region were contacted in aid of our Labour North West European team. Plus we got a free glass of Fanta.

A great job by Kevin Peel and the other organisers!

There's another one today. If you can help out please call 07772 608 058.

Comment (2)

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

Comment (3)

The BNP may be the scummiest of the small parties in the forthcoming European elections but the gong for the most misleading easily goes to No2EU - oh sorry - no2eu.

"No 2 EU yes to democracy", bellows their leaflet, "THE EUROPEAN UNION ISN'T WORKING":

As the run-of-the-mill Eurosceptic pencil hovers over the ballot paper on June 4th it would be forgiven for placing an X, on this basis, in the blank square next to No2EU.

In fact, No2eu are not agitating to withdraw from the European Union (like UKIP) but are running on a somewhat watered down platform of opposition to the Lisbon Treaty and anti-union EU directives.

Their North West candidate list is packed with trade union officials and detritus from the political wilderness such as Liberal Party councillors.

Of course, none of this would be a problem if their party name and leaflets, which borrows from Margaret Thatcher, didn't pose them as traditional Eurosceptics in the UKIP/Veritas (remember them?) mould.

How many former UKIP voters would be hopping mad to discover they had accidentally voted for a party led by a firebrand union leader, former communist and card-carrying member of the awkward squad?

Lefties in Eurosceptic clothing?

Comment (1)

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!

Comment (0)