Tag Archives: Elections

2015/05/05

Flogging a dead horse : far right election candidates

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

This is a really bad time for the electoral ambitions of the far right.  In the run-up to the most unpredictable General Election for many years, the far right are nowhere.  With their own little parties in disarray, and most of their thunder stolen by the rise of UKIP (more on that later), only three candidates in the East Midlands are stepping up to lose their deposits on Thursday.  In Lincolnshire, the ludicrous pretend vicar Robert West is standing for the BNP in Boston & Skegness, whilst Cathy Duffy is the BNP candidate for Charnwood in Leicestershire.  The English Democrat’s one candidate in the region is the party’s National Secretary Derek Hilling, standing in Kettering, Northants; the ED were hoping to contest at least three seats in the county, but have decided not to spread their meagre resources too thinly, and are going all out behind Derek.  Hmm….

Rabbit in the headlights….Derek Hilling

 

There are more far-right candidates in the local council elections, also to be held on Thursday.

The BNP have Cathy Duffy (again) standing in Charnwood.  Duffy is an endangered species, being one of only two BNP councillors in the whole country, and the only one in the East Midlands.  We’ll see if she manages political survival on Thursday.  Meanwhile, the Derbyshire Blackshirt Paul Hilliard is standing, as usual, in Derby; and Marc Whitestone is standing in East Northamptonshire.

The English Democrats have two candidates, Oliver Healey and David Haslett, in Leicester.

The British Democratic Party, an Andrew Brons-inspired BNP breakaway, are standing five candidates in Leicestershire, which they regard as their stronghold – Kevan Stafford, Chris Canham, Julia Green and Paul Newman in Charnwood, and virulent muslim-hater Graham Partner in North-West Leics.

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2014/05/28

Euro election results

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Last week’s elections for the European parliament were a significant national success story for UKIP, and the East Midlands echoed this unwelcome trend.  UKIP polled first in our region with 32.9% of the vote – one of the highest proportions returned from any region.  There are now two UKIP, two tory and one labour MEPs in the East Midlands.

The results for the small far-right parties were, happily, very poor.  Mirroring their national decline, the BNP polled only 1.64% of the East Midlands vote (down from 8.7% in 2009, the largest percentage downswing of any party).  They got even less votes here than the new and obscure AIFE eurosceptic party, and their disastrous electoral meltdown continues.  Ex-MEP Nick Griffin is vowing to continue as party leader – welcome news for anti-fascists, who applaud the greedy incompetent as he drags the BNP further into the political wilderness.  Keep up the good work, Nick!

The English Democrats polled just over 1%, down from 2.3% in 2009.

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2014/05/21

Far-right election candidates in the region

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

There are a number of fascist candidates standing in this week’s Euro Parliament and local council elections :

European parliament

BNP : Cathy Duffy, Robert West, Bob Brindley, Geoffrey Dickens, Paul Hillard.

English Democrats : Kevin Sills, Dave Wickham, John Dowle, Oliver Healey, Terry Spencer.

 

Cathy Duffy...she's not going to be an MEP...

Cathy Duffy…she’s not going to be an MEP

Cathy Duffy from Charnwood is the obvious choice for head of the BNP list, being a rare animal – one of the party’s two local councillors in the whole country.  The inclusion of Paul ‘Aloe Vera’ Hilliard as the last candidate on the list shows how his stock has fallen in the party, with outright fruitcake and twitter twat Bob Brindley selected above him.

 

Kevin Sills - nor is he...

Kevin Sills – nor is he…

The English Democrats are the usual mix of ex-members of other far-right parties, and people who find UKIP a bit liberal.  Veteran party-swopper Kevin Sills is their lead candidate.

 

Councils

Amber Valley : Alan Edward (Codnor & Waingroves), Ken Cooper (Ripley).

Derby : Paul Hilliard (Chaddesden), Carol Tucker (Derwent).

The most interesting feature of the local candidate list is how sparse it is, with only four candidates from the BNP standing in our region, all in Derbyshire.  This reflects the general decline of the party, who are fielding 114 candidates nationwide, compared to 739 in the equivalent elections in 2010.  The party seems extremely unlikely to add to its pitiful national tally of two councillors.

 

Although these elections promise very lean pickings for the BNP and their ilk, it’s likely – and alarming – that UKIP will do well (taking votes from all parties, including the BNP).  They are standing numerous candidates in both Euro and council elections, have a huge campaign budget, and have a high national profile.  Although their politics are vague and vacuous, they are undoubtedly pushing the political discourse to the right and need to be opposed.  The results of Thursday’s elections will make interesting reading.

 

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2013/05/04

Election nightmare for BNP

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The BNP’s election campaign turned out to be a disaster yesterday as their share of the vote was seriously cut down across the East Midlands and the country as a whole. Newcomers, the British Democrats, failed to make any impact and the English Democrats did very badly as well. UKIP’s populist right wing politics seems to have eclipsed the far right, perhaps for good.

Here’s how the BNP share of the vote looked in the wards in which they stood at the last elections in 2009 compared with the current results.

  • Derbyshire:                 2009: 19.2%    2013: 5.5%
  • Leicestershire:            2009: 14.3%   2013: 8.4%
  • Lincolnshire:              2009: 11.1%    2013: 4.3%
  • Northamptonshire:   2009: 13.2%   2013: 4.7%
  • Nottinghamshire:      2009: 10.9%   2013: 2.4%

In other words the BNP has done extremely badly, a view shared by their last remaining councillor, Cathy Duffy, who flounced out of the count in Leicestershire before her (poor) result was even announced.

Another welcome result at these elections was the booting out of Graham Partner, elected as BNP Councillor for Coalville in 2009 and being rejected by the electorate as a British Democrats candidate this year. We won’t be sad to see him go.

Whilst the further collapse of the BNP is to be welcomed, the rise of UKIP poses new questions and challenges for those who oppose anti-migrant racism and right wing populism. This analysis by the Independent Working Class Association is not a bad place to start in understanding the relationship between UKIP and the BNP and stating the challenges facing those who seek to oppose their right wing populism with a genuine working class politics.

 

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2013/05/03

Bad day continues for BNP

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The bad news keeps coming for the BNP who have seen their vote collapse across the East Midlands, even in previously strong areas such as Charnwood and Amber Valley. The results are now in from Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and they’re not good for the BNP.

The Fuhrer gets the news

The Fuhrer gets the news

In Amber Valley, the Invisible Councillor’s stay in the wilderness looks set to continue. Cliff Roper blogged excitedly about UKIP not standing in his Greater Heanor ward a month ago but it didn’t help him out. He managed to get 336 votes (12.5%) but that was nowhere near winning. Adrian Hickman failed in Heanor Central only managing 5.5% in a ward that the BNP got 12.5% in in 2009. In Ripley the party’s results were even worse with Alan Edwards getting a pathetic 2.6% in Ripley East & Codnor and Ken Cooper only scraping 63 votes (1.5%) in Ripley West & Heage. There have been some boundary changes in the area but the BNP got 7.2% in Ripley and 6.3% in Heage last time around so this is a significant drop in their share of the vote.

The BNP were  standing 6 candidates in Charnwood and 1 in the nearby ward of Glenfields, an area of north Leicestershire they have previously done well in. It was not to be this time around though. Peter Cheeseman’s share of the vote in Glenfields slumped from 16% in 2009 to 3% and the party’s share of the vote was halved across Charnwood. The best results came from Cathy Duffy in Syston Fosse (11.4% compared with 25.6% in 2009) and Robin Derrick in Thurmaston (10.5% compared to 19.6% in 2009) although in both wards their share of the vote had dropped dramatically.

Things weren’t looking much better for the newly formed (and probably soon to demise) British Democrats either. Kevan Stafford, a former BNP candidate got 7.4% of the vote in Loughborough South (the BNP did better with 12.4% in 2009) and we are very happy to announce that nasty islamophobe and former BNP councillor Graham Partner lost his seat thanks to a massive desertion by his voters. Partner won the Coalville ward with 27.7% of the vote in 2009 but only managed to get 7.4%, less than a third of his previous share, this time. Good riddance!

In Nottinghamshire the re-emergence of Broxtowe BNP seems to have been dealt a fatal hammer blow. Broxtowe organiser David Wright only got 78 votes (2.6%) in Beauvale and fellow activist Alex McConnell did even worse in Eastwood, only managing to attract 57 votes (2.1%). The BNP got 19.7% in Beauvale in 2009 so this is shockingly bad.

With only Northamptonshire left to declare, the news is grim for the far right who have seen voters desert them. No doubt this is in part due to a surge in popularity of the slightly more moderate UKIP but also undoubtedly because the BNP has failed to offer anything to voters in times of austerity except a racism that is increasingly out of touch with the public. Infighting in the far right has meant that many of the party’s activists have given up in despair or left for other pointless groups, leaving the BNP unable to contest elections effectively. We will doubtless see many more desert following these appalling election results and hopefully the knives will be out for Griffin again.

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2013/05/03

BNP losses in Lincolnshire

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The first East Midlands county election has declared and the BNP have done rather badly in Lincolnshire. The “Reverend” Robert West got a measly 88 votes in Holbeach, 4% of the vote and a massive collapse since 2009 when the BNP came second with 418 votes (16.5%). In Louth Wolds, John Hattersley’s 318 votes (10.8%) in 2009 slumped to 176 (7.9%) this time. In Spalding East & Moulton where the BNP polled 573 votes (20.5%) in 2009, Anthony Williams only managed 94 votes (3.9%) – the BNP’s share of the vote is only a quarter of what it was.

Robert West - God is not on his side!

Robert West – God is not on his side!

It seems that all their leafleting in Skegness around the halal slaughterhouse has come to nothing as well. Robert Ashton, Lincoln Coastal Branch organiser stood for the BNP in Skegness South, a seat the party has not contested previously, and managed a very poor 77 votes (4.3%).

In the run up to these elections anti-fascists were pleased at the low number of candidates the BNP were standing, suggesting that the party was collapsing. The BNP claimed they were concentrating on areas where they thought they would do well. That is not turning out to be the case.

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2013/04/11

Derbyshire fascist candidates

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Derbyshire BNP have only mustered 4 candidates for the County Council elections next month. The same tired old faces are:

  • Greater Heanor – Cliff Roper
  • Heanor Central – Adrian Barry Hickman
  • Ripley East & Codnor – Alan Edwards
  • Ripley West & Heage – Ken Cooper

In 2009 they fielded 17 candidates and the NF fielded one. It’s another poor showing for the fascists.

Now that they are all announced we can see just how badly the BNP are doing in terms of putting up candidates compared to their campaign in 2009. Back then they fielded 115 candidates in the 5 East Midlands counties. This time they’ve only managed to find 27 willing to stand – less than a quarter of the 2009 figure. It can’t be money for deposits that’s the problem because the party has been trumpeting about the generous bequests it’s been receiving from its elderly supporters in recent months. The fact is that members have left the party in droves so the remaining organisers are scrabbling around desperate to find someone, anyone, who will stand for them.

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2013/04/09

More East Midlands far right candidates

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The nominations are in for Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire County Council elections. In all three counties there are fewer BNP candidates than in 2009 suggesting the party’s support has collapsed across the region.

Lincolnshire

  • Holbeach – Robert Malcolm Brian West (BNP)
  • Louth Wolds – John Atty (BNP)
  • Skegness South – Robert John Ashton (BNP)
  • Spalding East & Moulton – Anthony John Williams (BNP)

BNP had 23 candidates in 2009

Northamptonshire

  • Brickhill & Queensway – David Peter Robinson (BNP)
  • Clover Hill – Victoria Hilling (Eng Dems)
  • Corby West – Marc Gordon Riddell (BNP)
  • Croyland & Swanspool – Terry Spencer (Eng Dems)
  • Delapre & Rushmere – Mark Andrew Plowman (BNP)
  • Desborough – Kevin Sills (Eng Dems), Clive Skinner (BNP)
  • Hatton Park – Rob Walker (Eng Dems)
  • Irthlingborough – John Elvis Whitestone (BNP)
  • Kingsthorpe North – Peter James Whitestone (BNP)
  • Kingswood – Stella Wright (BNP)
  • Lloyds – Gordon Riddell (BNP)
  • Oakley – James Andrew Gordon Campbell (BNP)
  • Towcester & Roade – John Hughes (BNP)
  • Windmill – Derek Hilling (Eng Dems)

BNP had 12 candidates in 2009 and English Democrats had 4.

Nottinghamshire

  • Beauvale  – David Michael Matthew Wright (BNP)
  • Eastwood – Alex McConnell (BNP)

BNP had 15 candidates in 2009.

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2013/04/07

Fascist candidates for Leicestershire elections

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Leicestershire is the only East Midlands county to have announced the candidates for next month’s County Council elections so far. There are 9 fascists who fancy their luck – the BNP have 7 candidates and new-fash-on-the-block the British Democrats have 2. All of the BNP’s candidates are standing in the Charnwood division, covering the area north of Leicester, meaning that they are not even contesting their former stronghold of North West Leicestershire. Whilst 7 may sound like a lot it is tiny compared to the 48 candidates fielded in the last elections in 2009. Despite having trumpeted about how much money they’ve been conning their elderly supporters into donating to them recently, the BNP is clearly in disarray and it looks like the party will have a poor showing at the polls.

The BNP’s candidates are as follows:

  • Glenfields – Peter Cheeseman
  • Birstall – Ken Tilson
  • Bradgate – Jim Taylor
  • Sileby and the Wolds – Maurice Oatley
  • Syston Fosse – Cathy Duffy
  • Syston Ridgeway – Stephen Denham
  • Thurmaston – Robin Derrick
Derbyshire BNP organiser, Paul Hilliard and Charnwood organiser Peter Cheeseman: Who's pimping who?

Derbyshire BNP organiser, Paul Hilliard and Charnwood organiser Peter Cheeseman: Who’s pimping who?

Steve Denham

Steve Denham

East Goscote BNP councillor Cathy Duffy

East Goscote BNP councillor Cathy Duffy

The British Democrats are yet another breakaway from the BNP, headed by Andrew Brons and launched at a meeting in Queniborough village hall in Leicestershire in February. Despite talking up their status as a rival to the BNP they are only fielding 3 candidates in these elections across the entire country. Former BNP councillor Graham Partner will be trying to hold onto his Coalville seat under the new Brit Dems banner and former Charnwood BNP organiser Kevan Stafford will be standing in Loughborough South. Looks like another BNP splinter group that is rapidly sinking without trace.

Kevan Stafford

Kevan Stafford

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2012/11/19

Far right do badly in Corby

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

As well as seeing the far right fail to muster a single candidate for the Police & Crime Commissioner last week, they also did very badly in the Corby by-election. The BNP fielded Gordon Riddell who only got 1.7% of the vote (in 2010 the party got 4.7% in Corby) and the English Democrats’ David Wickham did even worse with 1.2%. That’s two more lost deposits for the fascists!

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