Yorkshire BNP Regional Council Outlines Growth Plans
The British National Party in Yorkshire completed a positive regional council meeting which dealt with expansion plans, a review of election results, the proposed leadership contents and the work of MEP Andrew Brons, regional organiser Chris Beverley reports.
“All BNP officials and councillors from the Yorkshire and the Humber region were invited to the meeting where a number of important issues were discussed in a free and open manner,” Mr Beverley, who also works as personal assistant to Mr Brons, said.
“It was made clear to everyone that no subject was taboo or ‘out of bounds’ and if people had concerns then it was important that they were raised at this meeting.
“On the subject of the expected leadership election, which will take place assuming the necessary signatures are successfully gathered by a challenger, those in attendance were reminded that they were perfectly entitled to campaign for one or other or indeed none of the candidates involved as long as this was done in a respectful way,” Mr Beverley said.
“People should refrain from personal attacks on their fellow nationalists, even if they happen to disagree with them over certain issues. Civilised and sensible discussion regarding the future direction of the party is to be welcomed and encouraged, whilst personal attacks and the circulation of damaging and groundless allegations which lead to fall-outs and divisions within our party can cause long term harm and only go to aid our enemies, should therefore be avoided at all cost.”
A full and frank debrief relating to the recent general and local election campaigns followed.
“Local organisers were congratulated on their Herculean effort that resulted in 47 out of our 54 constituencies being fought and paid for by our local units. Were other regions to have fought the same percentage of seats then almost 90 percent of the UK’s constituencies would have included BNP candidates,” Mr Beverley said.
“They were also congratulated on fielding so many local candidates across the region, and it was noted that of the only two surviving BNP councillors who were defending their seats this year, one of them was from our region in the form of Cllr Paul Cromie, who was re-elected to represent the Queensbury ward of Bradford Council.
“A number of problems were discussed such as issues surrounding the handling of the centrally produced local and general election leaflets, and steps were identified that could be taken in future to avoid such problems affecting this region.
“It was also pointed out that despite the overall feeling that we did not perform as well in the elections as some people had hoped, our average vote across Yorkshire and the Humber in the general election was 4.4%, which compares very well with the 2.8% of the Establishment safety-valve of UKIP.
“It was also pointed out that the other small parties all did worse than we did in Yorkshire with, for example, the joke ‘English Democrats Party’, a party who got their Mayor elected in Doncaster in 2009 and hoped to win some local seats, failing to win a thing.
“Andrew Brons MEP and I updated those present on the work of Andrew in the European Parliament and the work carried out through his constituency office in Leeds. We outlined the fantastic response we have seen to Andrew’s constituency newsletters, which have been delivered by activists and also by the Royal Mail to homes across the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency by the hundreds of thousand, and what was being done to keep in touch with those who contact us.
“A number of other exciting plans were discussed which have the potential to hugely increase the profile of our MEP and the good work he is doing throughout the region, which would inevitably have a knock-on effect on the popularity of our party as a whole. We will report more on these plans in due course as they begin to be realised,” he continued.
“I reported on a number of new appointments and the setting up of new units, which includes plans for a group to cover the Richmondshire local authority area. Once this group has been set up, this region will for the first time ever have an organisational presence in every local authority, which is a situation I have been working hard to bring about since becoming regional organiser last year.
“All in all the meeting was a very positive one which went to show that Yorkshire’s officials continue to work together in a positive manner to build our organisation and further our electoral progress in this region.”
