> Print window < | > Close window < |
Author: Nick Lowles | Date: March 2002
Nine months ago, in the aftermath of the general election, Searchlight warned its readers that 11 months' hard work lay ahead to prevent the British National Party taking seats in the 2002 local elections. Now, with only two months to go until polling day, Nick Lowles asks whether enough has been done to stop the BNP making an electoral breakthrough.
Thursday 2 May 2002 will be an important day in the political calendar. Across the country millions of people will vote in local elections. In addition to the one third of borough council seats up for election, all the London boroughs will be contested, making it the largest election day outside a general or European parliamentary election. Labour is expected to lose hundreds of seats. Turnout is expected to drop still further. And maybe,
just maybe, the British National Party will win seats in Northern England.
The BNP goes into the campaign in buoyant mood, confident that it can take seats in two councils. The most likely venue for an election victory is Burnley, where the BNP polled 11% in last year's general election, arguably a more significant result than the 16% polled by Nick Griffin, the party leader, in Oldham, which was achieved against the backdrop of a race riots only ten days before polling day. Frighteningly, some have put the party's current support across the town at over 20%.
Last autumn it achieved an average of 20% in three council by-elections in the town but considering Labour had two full-time organisers overseeing its campaign, produced glossy leaflets and had the open support of the Liberal Democrats, who withdrew their own candidates, the BNP will be hoping for an even greater share of the vote this time.
BNP chances are likely to be enhanced given that because of the boundary changes the whole of Burnley council is up for election. With three seats available in every ward, and none of the main political parties likely to stand a full slate of candidates, the BNP is unlikely to have a better chance to secure at least one councillor.
In some wards, particularly those where three or even four parties are vying for victory, the BNP only needs a small increase in its vote to secure a councillor. In one ward, where the BNP candidate disowned the party a few days before polling day but still received 19%, the winning Labour candidate won the seat with only 31%.
The next best hope for the BNP is Oldham, scene of last year's race riots. The local BNP believes it stands a good chance in two wards, Hollinwood and Alexandra. Mike Treacy, the local organiser, will be contesting Hollinwood, a deprived and virtually all-white ward. With only one councillor up for election in each ward the BNP faces a tougher battle than in Burnley. However, its task has been helped by the continuing problems within Oldham Labour Party. Two ward branches have had their selection procedure removed from their control and investigations are continuing in other wards. At one ward selection meeting a gun was pulled in an act of intimidation.
The BNP has its sights on three other target seats across the country, although its chances of success are slim. The North End ward in Bexley was the scene of a 27% BNP vote in a council by-election in July 2000. Colin Smith will be contesting the seat again. John Salvage will be standing in Tipton Green, Sandwell. In May 2000,
the BNP polled 23% there but the party will be hoping to improve on this given that three of the Britons captured in Afghanistan come from Tipton, and two of them are related to local Labour councillors. The BNP will also be hoping for a strong showing in Eccleshill ward in Bradford. Despite only having a small local branch, the regional party has been working the area hard over
the past few months and has held two meetings, both attracting over 100 people, since the general election.
The BNP will be standing a record number of candidates across the country, including for councils it has never previously contested. It will be hoping to break the 10% barrier in several of these polls, though in others the party will simply be aiming to enhance its local profile.
The BNP election campaign will draw heavily on the Liberal Democrat tactics of community politics and grass roots work at ward level. At the BNP's annual college last October, branch organisers were taught canvassing techniques, using marked registers and creating a local celebrity of the intended candidate in the months leading up to the election.
Much of the BNP strategy discussed at the annual college was prepared by Shane Sinclair, a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Swansea East until he was forced to resign after his support for loyalist paramilitaries was revealed. Although the Swansea-based football hooligan was unable to attend the annual college himself, his paper was presented by Martin Wingfield, a former National Front and National Democrat organiser, whom Nick Griffin introduced as "the nationalist movement's best ever propagandist".
The college was followed by the party's November organisers' bulletin, which outlined a four-stage election strategy. Written by Tony Lecomber, it told party regions to focus their energies on a single ward, canvass it repeatedly and then concentrate on the "yes" vote rather than the probables. Those indicating they would definitely vote BNP were to be encouraged to apply for postal votes.
Since 1997 the BNP has moderated its public policies, such as advocating voluntary rather than compulsory repatriation, and has become far more adept at manipulating the media. This process has quickened under Griffin, who became party chairman in 1999. There seems to be no limit to the political summersaults he is prepared to perform to adopt a more populist appeal. Unfortunately, much of the media have been taken in by his cosmetic acrobatics.
His latest stunt has been to find a handful of rogue Sikh and Hindu extremists, unite them behind the BNP anti-Islam campaign and claim this is evidence that the party is not racist. Privately, Griffin scoffs at such adventures and in internal BNP meetings reaffirms his commitment to removing all non-whites from Britain.
The improving tactics of the BNP can only partly explain its growing support. It cannot, for example, explain how the party polled 6.1% of the general election vote in Barking and 4.99% in neighbouring Dagenham with little or no local organisation and certainly no election campaigning. Nor can it explain the 20% vote in the Burnley by-elections in the autumn despite a very low-key campaign.
The fortunes of the BNP are intrinsically linked to the growing political alienation in society and in particular the disengagement of working-class voters. The 2001 general election saw, at 59%, the lowest turnout for over one hundred years. In one Liverpool constituency only 39% of people voted. In Glasgow, four of the nine constituencies attracted turnouts of below 50%. In local and European elections the decline in voter turnout has been even greater. In one polling district in Sunderland it has been reported that only 1.5% of the electorate cast their vote in the 1999 European election.
The disengagement with the political process was highlighted in all three of the government-backed reports into last summer's riots.
The Labour Party has been worst affected with turnout dropping sharpest in its traditional heartlands.
Who would have imagined that Sheffield, once dubbed the People's Republic of South Yorkshire, would now see Labour's safest areas switching to Liberal Democrat control?
Much of the current problem is of Labour's own making. It has failed radically to improve the lives of ordinary people, especially in the north of England, since coming to power in 1997. It was elected on a huge mandate for change and an expectation that it would reverse 18 years of under-investment in the public services. By keeping to tight Conservative spending limits it has failed to match expectations and now, with the economy stagnating, further cuts look likely.
Just as significantly, the Labour government has failed to restore power to local government, which the Conservatives so cynically reduced during the 1980s as a means to undermine Labour councils. If anything, the Labour government has simply continued the process.
This has severe repercussions at a local level. Voters are increasingly viewing local government with irrelevance, believing that little changes irrespective of which party is in control. All now seem to support, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, privatising local services, transferring the housing stock out of council ownership and balancing government-set spending limits.
It is against this background that the BNP is making advances. There is a severe housing shortage in Burnley yet over 5,000 dwellings lie empty and in need of repair. The cost of upgrading these homes stands at £150m but central government has only offered the council £1.5m,
a measly 1% of what is required. Against a backdrop of abject need, some local white people take little convincing from the BNP that they are going without because the Asians are getting plenty.
The declining importance and power of local government has also meant that the calibre of councillors is dropping. With little prospect of really making a difference to local people's lives, activists who once came forward to serve the community are increasingly finding other outlets for their time. This not only affects the day-to-day running of council affairs but contributes to a lack of political leadership at times of crisis. This point was repeatedly highlighted in both the Oldham and Bradford reports.
Disengagement and alienation is also affecting the Asian communities, in particular young people of Pakistani and Bengali descent. Younger Asians' increasing readiness to turn to violence is symptomatic with a feeling of political and economic powerless.
The BNP is better positioned to take advantage of an election victory than it was in 1993 when Derek Beackon won a by-election in Millwall, Tower Hamlets. This time a councillor will be in place for four years rather than the eight months Beackon was in place. The calibre of a possible BNP councillor will undoubtedly be better and the party, at local and national level, is better placed to take up and develop the large number of enquiries that will result. In 1993 the BNP received over 500 enquiries for membership but no more than a couple of dozen people joined and fewer still remained active 12 months later. Already, there has been a sharp increase in people joining the party, the standard is higher and new members are immediately becoming active in party affairs. One or more BNP councillors in Burnley, Oldham or Bradford would become a minority voice on the council and so a focal point for any frustration with the established parties.
More importantly, the BNP would have a councillor during a period of office of an increasingly unpopular Labour government. In 1993 Labour was riding high in the national opinion polls and safe in the knowledge that it was the only alternative to a despised Conservative government. This time the situation is radically different. With political disengagement and alienation growing, especially in traditional Labour heartlands, there is a real threat that a BNP victory will transform the party into the voice of the dispossessed white working class, albeit focused in the north of England.
In a six-month period in 1974, the National Front attracted over 9,000 new members. A strong BNP showing across the country is likely to be matched by a substantial increase in BNP membership. Already, since the general election, almost two dozen new BNP units have emerged across the country, some already containing over 20 activists.
A BNP victory would give the party the credibility it now lacks and encouragement to activists and supporters across the country. With a minority group on Burnley council working for a simplistic white-only agenda, the BNP would present itself as the voice of the disposed white working class.
Next year's European elections will be fought under proportional representation. The BNP will certainly be hoping to translate local success into an MEP in the England North West constituency, which would bring it further money and credibility.
BNP branches will spring up throughout the country and, because of the close relationship between the BNP and certain football hooligan gangs, electoral success will also be translated into racial violence and public disorder.
Given the threat posed by a BNP election victory, the response by all those opposed to racism and fascism has been poor. Sectarian divisions continue to dog the anti-racist and anti-fascist movements and very little work has been done in the predominantly white communities where the BNP is attracting support.
But there is a limit to what activists on the ground can do. The real work to undermine the BNP message can only be achieved by addressing the quite real social and economic concerns felt by people of all communities in the northern towns. Unfortunately, the political establishment is found wanting. In the wake of last year's riots, there was a real hope that finally the hardships highlighted in the numerous reports commissioned into the cause of the riots would be addressed. Nine months on, little has changed.
Only now are politicians facing up to the threat the BNP poses. A BNP victory in May will have repercussions far in access of its immediate significance. There is now less than two months to ensure this will not happen.
The growing sophistication of the BNP is one reason the party is now seriously challenging for seats in several towns. Across the country BNP branches are embracing "community politics", even if in a limited form. In Bexley, local activists have gained positions on community police forums and residents' groups. In Dewsbury, the local BNP has carried out a "survey" of local people asking them whether they approve of council tax money being used to pay for race equality workers.
In Sunderland, BNP canvassing teams have been out working the area the party intends to contest.
© Searchlight Magazine 2002