Author: Nick Lowles | Date: April 2006

Hope v Hate - The 2006 local election campaign

As the 2006 local election campaign kicks off, Nick Lowles looks at the campaign we can expect from the BNP and calls for a greater anti-fascist effort.

The 2006 local elections will be the toughest ever. Against the backdrop of growing disillusionment among Labour’s core support, and about the political process generally, and the backlash from the reaction to the anti-Muslim cartoons, the British National Party is enjoying a growing sense of confidence.

In councils across the country the racists are sensing a breakthrough.

The BNP is fielding a record number of candidates next month. Most of them are concentrated in the BNP’s heartlands of West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and the West Midlands but there are also candidates in places the racist party has not contested before.

Many will be little more than paper candidates, with the BNP not putting in much of an effort in their support, but in a growing number of wards the BNP’s campaigns are becoming more sophisticated.

Searchlight has already received reports of systematic door-to-door canvassing in several parts of the country, including in places such as Manchester where the party has never performed very well in recent times. There have even been some second-hand accounts of BNP telephone canvassing and its direct mail operation in a very small number of areas appears to be on a par with the three main parties.

While it is unlikely that the BNP will be able to match the intensity of a quality by-election campaign, such as those fought in Goresbrook (Barking and Dagenham) and Heanor and Loscoe (Amber Valley), other political parties should not underestimate the BNP’s capability.

Burnley conference

A recent BNP organisers’ event in Burnley last month put down the foundations for the BNP’s election campaign. Run by the party’s new group development officer Sadie Graham, the day focused on modern electioneering techniques such as direct mail.

Graham has some recent experience in this. During the recent Heanor and Loscoe council by-election, where the BNP came second, the party sent out a direct mail letter from its candidate to every voter who had responded positively during canvassing. Not only was the letter personally addressed and printed in a typeface that made it look handwritten but it was also customised for each street. A picture of the street adorned the letter, together with one or two promises from the candidate.

This degree of targeting has not been seen before from the BNP.

Of course, direct mail relies on having the data to target voters and few BNP branches either have this data or appear capable of collecting it in a four-week campaign. However, there is a small but growing number of wards where this is possible, principally where the BNP has contested council by-elections and thrown regional or even national resources at them. Thurrock, Barking and Dagenham, Epping, Bexley, Stoke-on-Trent, Dudley, Oldham, Manchester, Burnley, Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale and Amber Valley are all councils where the BNP potentially has canvassing data or its collection is under way.

Aggressive Islamophobia

Election techniques are simply a means of selling a message and for the BNP in 2006 the message is the danger of Islam in Britain.

Since last autumn the party’s publications have been describing the local elections as a “Referendum on Islam”. Since the London bombings they have portrayed Islamist terrorism in Britain as the consequence of the Government’s slack asylum and im-migration policies and the war in Iraq.

“If only they had listened to the BNP,” proclaimed a BNP leaflet distributed only days after the bombings last July. A picture of the bombed-out bus adorned the front page.

The BNP’s anti-Islam stance gained momentum with the acquittal of Nick Griffin, the party leader, on some charges at Leeds Crown Court in February. The verdict came at the same time as the controversy over the offensive anti-Muslim Danish cartoons and the offensive spectacle of a handful of young Muslims dressed up as suicide bombers on the streets of London, a coincidence that enabled the BNP to present itself as the defender of freedom of speech and the British way of life.

For more than a week the images of extremist Islam and a victorious BNP swamped media space. Searchlight’s mailbag reflected what seemed to be a real sea-change in opinion and the BNP’s must have been similar.

The BNP responded by moving further to the right in its anti-Islam strategy. Emboldened by this apparent changing mood, the BNP has become more hardline. It began with the reproduction of the Danish cartoons in a national leaflet in what was a clear attempt to incite and raise tensions.

Several BNP branches actually refused to hand leaflet out, both recognising the incitement element and through fear of attack. That the risk was real was confirmed when the Pendle BNP organiser was put in hospital after being attacked on the street while distributing the leaflet.

An even more hardline approach was taken in Leeds. The latest edition of the BNP’s Morley Patriot called for the banning of the burka and the removal of Muslims from any job that involves chemicals or electronics.

But it is no way clear whether this strategy will work. The hardening anti-Islam line might play well with the party faithful and its hardcore support but it will increasingly repulse opponents of the BNP. In an election where turnout will be key, the BNP message may have a quite unexpected impact.

Damn lies and BNP leaflets

Another element of the BNP campaign is the “Big Lie”. Perfected by the BNP’s election officer Eddy Butler, the “Big Lie” is a story the BNP will introduce to the campaign with the sole intention to wind up and motivate its supporters.

The “Big Lie” will vary from area to area depending on what local issue is available for the BNP to exploit.

• In Heanor the BNP claimed a 15-year-old girl had been gang raped by asylum seekers. This was untrue.

• In Sandwell the BNP claimed a local library was going to become a mosque. This was untrue.

• In Barking and Dagenham the BNP claimed that a secret “Africans for Essex” scheme gave Africans £50,000 to buy property in the area. This was untrue.

• In Thurrock, the BNP claimed that the local council had a secret deal with Hackney to transfer 3,000 asylum seekers to the area. This was untrue.

In many recent elections rival parties and candidates have complained to the police and returning officer but so far no action has been taken against the BNP. Unfortunately, each investigative body has looked at each leaflet individually rather than at the deliberate strategy to whip up tensions.

Dealing with the “Big Lie” is crucial to defeating the BNP. For too long councils and the other parties have ignored the BNP’s lies. The failure to refute the claims (albeit in an imaginative way so as not to allow the BNP’s agenda to govern the debate) will invariably mean the lies become facts. And then the BNP has won.

Old Labour

A lesser element of the BNP campaign will be presenting itself as “Old Labour”, or, as a recent BNP leaflet in Sandwell proudly announced, “the Labour Party your Grandfathers voted for”.

The BNP has pushed the link with Old Labour values in parts of the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and the North East.

Turning out the anti-BNP vote

In the mad frenzy of an election campaign the difference between winning and losing is often determined by the quality of the campaign. For all the BNP’s growing expertise, the anti-fascist campaign is still more advanced. We know that the majority of people in every single ward in the country are against the BNP; the question is getting them out to vote.

Searchlight has been identifying anti-BNP voters for several months now and together with a more sophisticated trade union operation this year’s anti-BNP campaign will be the most advanced yet.

But victory is nowhere near certain. Against a backdrop of increasing apathy among Labour voters, disillusionment among Labour Party members and rising Islamophobia, our task is hard.

That is why we ask all our readers to give that little bit more during the next few weeks. From making telephone calls to stuffing envelopes, leafleting to talking to your neighbour, there is something for you to do.

So we make this one appeal. Get in touch and get involved. You could make a difference.

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