By-election test in Oldham

On January 13th 2011 the ruling Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition will face its first serious electoral test in the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election.

While Prime Minister David Cameron, his Deputy Nick Clegg, and newly elected Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, are seen by the mainstream media as locked in a three-way gladiatorial contest, Oldham East & Saddleworth may be even more interesting as the final chapter in the history of the BNP, and a turning point in nationalist politics.

The circumstances of the by-election indicate the special status of Oldham as the frontline of England’s racial divisions. At the General Election on May 5th last year most political pundits expected Labour’s Phil Woolas to lose to the Liberal Democrats. Woolas was the hapless immigration minister in Gordon Brown’s government, and had repeatedly faced public humiliation, first over his government’s failure to control illegal immigration and abuse of the asylum process, and latterly after the much hyped dispute over the immigration status of Gurkha veterans.

Ever since Tony Blair’s illegal war of aggression against Iraq in 2003, Labour had lost significant numbers of Muslim votes to the Liberal Democrats. This contributed to a sensational defeat at the Brent East by-election in September 2003 and heavy losses at local council elections. At the 2005 general election Muslim groups explicitly targetted certain pro-war and pro-Israel Labour MPs, notably Lorna Fitzsimons in Rochdale, who lost her seat to Liberal Democrat Paul Rowen on a 7.7% swing.

Rochdale councillor Elwyn Watkins was then selected to take on Woolas in the neighbouring Oldham East & Saddleworth constituency, and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee saw Woolas as the next pro-war, pro-Israel target. Woolas responded vigorously with a highly personalised anti-Watkins campaign, labelling the Liberal Democrats as the allies of Islamist extremists.

The result was a narrow and unexpected Labour victory by 103 votes. Paradoxically Woolas had benefited both from his anti-Islamist leaflets rallying White Oldhamers, and from a nationwide swing back to Labour among some Muslim voters, who did not hold Gordon Brown and his ministers personally to blame for the disgraceful Iraq policy to anything like the extent they had blamed Blair.

Elwyn Watkins wasn’t prepared to accept this defeat and petitioned an election court, claiming that Woolas had lied about him in Labour’s leaflets and breached the Representation of the People Act. The election court agreed, ousting Woolas in the first judgment of its kind since the election of Irish Home Rule MP Richard Hazelton was overturned in 1911.

So Oldham was faced by a multiple paradox: a Labour MP was ousted for fighting a deceptive and quasi-“racist” campaign and the Liberal Democrats forced a re-run of the poll in circumstances which had been transformed since last May. Having fought the general election with a radical appeal to protest voters, and pitching particularly for the support of Muslims (with the most anti-Zionist stance of any mainstream party) and students (with a solemn pledge to abolish university tuition fees), the Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins is now the standard bearer for a party which is in government as part of a coalition with the Conservatives – Europe’s most pro-Zionist government – and proposing not to abolish but to treble tuition fees!

And what of the nationalist challenge in Oldham, which had once grabbed the attention of the world’s press? Check back later for Part Two of this article…

Support Our Troops – Soldiers to march through Blackburn in homecoming parade on Wednesday December 1st

All Lancashire England First Party supporters are urged to support the homecoming parade for the Soldiers of the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment who are to march through the streets of Blackburn to celebrate their return from Afghanistan on Wednesday December 1st.

EFP supporters will be meeting up with like-minded Patriots and Loyalists from Blackburn, Burnley, Preston and Lancaster in the town centre on the morning of the parade.  There will be an English nationalist social in the afternoon/early evening following the parade, details of which will be given out on the day.

Some 120 soldiers in full uniform will then exercise the regiment’s right under the Freedom of the Borough to march through town.

England First Party Chairman Mark Cotterill (a former Blackburn councillor) called for anyone against the war to show the soldiers respect.  He said:
“There will be people who support the War and people who are against it, out in Blackburn on December 1st. Whatever your personal feelings are towards the Con-Lib Government and New Labour before them, please put that to one side and support our brave Lancashire troops.”

“Afghanistan is a sensitive issue. Somebody’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. However, if the sight of Lancashire troops parading through an English city upsets you that much, then please stay away. Stay at home, in the pub or in your community centres. I just hope that all extremists stay well clear of Blackburn on December 1st and the troops get our full support.”

The last time soldiers marched through Blackburn was in October 2001 when what was then the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment celebrated the Freedom of the Borough, which was awarded in 1948 to The East Lancashires – one of the regiments which has subsequently merged to become what is now The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. The historic regiments which formed the Duke of Lancaster’s were:
The East Lancashire Regiment
The South Lancashire Regiment
The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
The King’s Own Royal Border Regiment
and The King’s Regiment.

It is especially obscene that the self-styled patriots of the English Defence League have sought to abuse the sacrifice of British forces in Afghanistan to build support for the criminal Zionist regime in Israel – given that Zionist terrorists built Israel on the murder of British soldiers such as 19 year old Private A. Kenyon of the South Lancashire Regiment, whose comrades of later generations will be marching through Blackburn on December 1st.

Private Kenyon was one of three British soldiers killed in an Irgun bomb attack on the Goldsmith Officers’ Club in Jerusalem (click here for a photo of this atrocity), and he lies in the Ramleh War Cemetery outside what is now the Israeli city of Ramla. Newsreel footage of Private Kenyon’s funeral is online here.

The leader of the terror gang responsible for Private Kenyon’s murder (and the deaths of hundreds more British servicemen in the war against Jewish terrorists from 1945 to 1948) was Menachem Begin, who became Prime Minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983. Other Irgun killers included the parents of Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister during Israel’s recent criminal war in Gaza.

Nor should Blackburn’s MP Jack Straw take any role in December’s ceremony, given his own disgraceful role as Britain’s Foreign Secretary for almost five years between 2001 and 2006 – the very years during which catastrophic decisions were taken to commit British troops to an illegal war in Iraq and an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. In his recent evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry, Straw admitted that his role was decisive in determining whether Britain went to war in Iraq.

In a “secret and personal” memo to Tony Blair in March 2002 (available online here) Straw admitted that British military involvement in an attack on Iraq without a new UN resolution would probably be illegal and that it was difficult to see how toppling Saddam would be of any benefit. Yet he still ended up supporting the decision to go to war – in other words he was happy to send British troops to war when he knew this was probably illegal and pointless!

If you wish to join the EFP in Blackburn on Wednesday December 1st, call our office – 07833 677484 or email us at – englandfirstparty@yahoo.com

“Retarded Reprobates”? More trouble in the English Defence League

Long suffering members of the English Defence League have been branded “retarded reprobates” by the organisation’s supposed leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, alias Tommy Robinson, who objects to recent questions about his profits from EDL merchandising.

The EDL is a politically confused gang, who wave Israeli flags and proclaim their “anti-racist” credentials at every opportunity, but whose members also pose for some peculiar photos!

Click here to read a full EFP analysis of the English Defence League.

Meanwhile the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reports that former Blackburn with Darwen councillor Michael Johnson has been condemned as “a rather foolish individual” by the Conservative ex-leader of the council Colin Rigby, after Mr Johnson spoke at the EDL’s recent demonstration in Bradford.

Ex-BNP men hold balance in Blackburn with Darwen

[see reports by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and BBC News]

Two former British National Party members, including Trevor ‘Max’ Maxfield the former BNP organiser for Blackburn with Darwen, now hold the balance of power on Blackburn with Darwen council and are expected to put Labour back into office in this racially divided East Lancashire borough.

Cllr Maxfield (who was BNP branch organiser for the area in 2003-4) and fellow Earcroft ward councillor Anthony Meleady (also ex-BNP) were elected as members of the For Darwen Party, which campaigned for the town of Darwen to have its own council rather than being dictated to by its larger neighbour Blackburn. For Darwen was always a peculiar coalition, led by local millionaire and former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Tony Melia.

Even after achieving their aim of a Darwen Town Council, the party’s representatives remained on the overall Blackburn with Darwen Council, where they came to hold the balance of power and joined a coalition with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, forcing Labour into opposition in the area for the first time.

Only a few weeks ago Cllr Maxfield became a member of the Borough’s Executive alongside his then allies in the Conservative and Lib Dem parties. However he quickly became the focus of local protests after being made responsible for implementing cutbacks, including the closure of the Shadsworth leisure centre in one of Blackburn’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

This week Cllr Maxfield quit the Executive (and the For Darwen Party) and joined Labour, where he expected to be followed by his former BNP colleague Cllr Meleady. They argued that conscience would not allow them to push through the Tory/LibDem budget cuts.

For the time being Cllr Maxfield remains leader of the Darwen Town Council, but his former allies are set to oust him since the Maxfield-Meleady block and Labour combined will not control sufficient votes to keep him in power at town council level even though they will probably take control of the overall Blackburn with Darwen Borough. Ironically another former BNP organiser in Blackburn, Nick Holt last year joined the Conservative Party but was not allowed to become a Tory candidate because of his BNP past.

Many observers are now predicting a collapse of the For Darwen and Liberal Democrat parties at next year’s elections and a big swing to Labour, but what must Blackburn’s large Asian population make of this strange turn of events? More importantly, will any political party address the obscene waste in Britain’s defence spending on wars that have nothing to do with our national interest, leaving national and local government unable to pay for essential public services?

John Tyndall Memorial Meeting

1 pm, Saturday October 9th

Lancashire

This year’s John Tyndall Memorial meeting is being organised by Heritage and Destiny magazine and will be held in Lancashire on Saturday October 9th. All racial nationalists of whatever political party are most welcome to attend.

Speakers confirmed so far include:

Martin Kerr, Assistant Editor of H&D and former deputy leader of NSWPP (USA)

Keith Axon, founder member of the BNP and former West Midlands regional organiser

Dr Jim Lewthwaite, former Councillor on Bradford City Council and co-founder of Democratic Nationalists

Peter Barker, former BNP North-West England press officer and founder NorthWestNationalists web site

Paul Ballard, leading campaigner on behalf of jailed ‘thought criminals’; former organiser of Croydon NF and BNP; co-defendant in the Harrow Race Trial as publisher of The Rune magazine

Peter Rushton, Assistant Editor ofH&D; founder and editor www.jailingopinions.com

If you would like to attend please call 07833 677484 or email heritageanddestiny@yahoo.com for more details

July 1916 remembered

Probably the most famous were the ‘Accrington Pals’ who formed the 11th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment, recruited in September 1914. The battalion consisted of four companies, each of 250 men: W Company from Accrington itself, X Company from the surrounding district (including some from Blackburn and nearby villages), Y Company from Chorley, and Z Company from Burnley.

Within about half an hour on the first day of the Battle of the Somme – 1st July 1916 – 700 of the Accrington Pals went into action, suffering 585 casualties.

In Preston 250 of the first volunteers in September 1914 became the ‘Preston Pals’ – D Company of the 7th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Two hundred of these fell during the second phase of the Battle of the Somme which began on 14th July at Bazentin-le-Petit.

Seven battalions of ‘Manchester Pals’ were recruited – overall almost 10,000 men of whom 4,776 were killed during the course of the 1914-18 war.

It was entirely a matter of luck whether a particular battalion was decimated or not, depending on where they happened to be sent. The battalion raised in Oldham were known as the ‘Oldham Comrades’ and suffered relatively light casualties. By contrast the 22nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, raised in the city centre mostly from cotton workers, suffered 472 casualties of the 796 men who saw action on the first day of the Somme.

20,000 British soldiers were killed on that first day, with a further 35,000 wounded. A month later their commanders accepted there was going to be no breakthrough, and dug in for a campaign of attrition, with further offensives in September and November.

Though by the final end of the Battle of the Somme on 21st November 1916 the British Army had gained only two miles of territory after four and a half months of fighting and 420,000 casualties – two men for every centimetre of ground gained – historians are divided over whether the battle should be termed a military disaster.

One recent analyst, Prof. Gary Sheffield has concluded:
“The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918.”

Yet as with the second European civil war of 1939-45, one thing can be said for certain. For the men and families of the Accrington Pals, the Preston Pals and their equivalents across the country, there was to be no victory.

England First Party election results 2009

EFP Chairman Mark Cotterill polled 599 votes (22.17%) in Preston East ward – Lancashire County Council Election.

The full result was:

Labour – 1004
Conservative – 707
England First – 599
Lib-Dem 371

.

Elsewhere in Lancashire County Council Elections, Tony Justice polled 482 votes (11.53%) for the English Democrats in Rossendale North ward. The full result was:

Conservative – 1894
Labour – 1343
English Democrats – 482
Lib-Dem – 435

And Ken Walters polled 179 votes (5.18%) in Ormskirk West ward. The full result was:

Conservative – 1465
Labour – 968
UKIP – 427
Green – 412
English Democrats – 179

There was also a by-election in Radcliffe West ward on Bury Metropolitan Council. Steven Morris polled 228 votes (8%) for the English Democrats. The full result was:

Labour – 879
Conservative – 870
BNP – 459
Lib-Dem – 429
English Democrats – 228

.

Well done to all English Nationalist candidates who stood and also a big thank you to everybody who helped with their campaigns.

English Nationalists campaigning in Lancashire

EFP and EDP activists were out and about in Lancashire over the weekend, delivering leaflets for both the 2009 County Council and European Elections. The response from the Lancashire public was very good, with many pledges of support, to vote England First Party in the County Council election and English Democrats in the European election.

We will be out leafleting every weekend – and some mid-day days – between now and Election Day (June 4th), but we do need volunteers to come up to Lancashire to help us canvass and put out leaflets door to door. In some cases we can even arrange a lift up there and back for you and/or overnight accommodation – depending on where you live.

If you cannot physically help then you can help financially. Please send us a donation – however large or small – towards the election campaign.

If you’re online please check our online donation page at www.efp.org.uk/support-us/donate/ where you will see how to make a donation via PayPal.

If you don’t have PayPal, then just mail a donation to England First Party, 40 Birkett Drive, Preston, PR2 6HE. (Cheques or Postal Orders should be made out to ‘England First Party’, with a note enclosed saying ‘2009 election’.) Details of how to make a donation to England First are all on the ‘Donate‘ page.

If you want to help with canvassing/leafleting, please contact us by email or telephone and let us know which date(s) you are available to help.

Let’s put Oldham back on the map!

Oldham EFP activists lead by Andy Clayton delivered almost 1,000 “Its Our England” leaflets door to door, in Oldham’s Hollinwood ward – an area that has been neglected by Nationalists for many years now. The response from local English people was again very good with many “well-done lads” and “it’s about time someone did something for English people”.

Andy stood for the EFP in the nearby St. James ward last year – polling almost 20% – and hopes that a local candidate will come through so the EFP can stand in Hollinwood next year.

Oldham was once a stronghold for nationalism, but since the total collapse of the local BNP branch under the able leadership of Roy Goodwin (who lives in Blackpool!) nothing much was happening until the EFP came on the scene. The EFP plan to put Oldham well and truly back on the nationalist map!

The EFP intend to target Oldham again – and other neglected areas of Greater Manchester – in the run up to this years European Elections. If you live in the Greater Manchester area and would like to help, please do get in touch, you will be made most welcome.

EFP Activists Target Failswort

After a period of inactivity, Manchester EFP activists – joined by party Chairman Mark Cotterill – delivered almost 1,000 “Its Our England” leaflets door to door, in the Failsworth area of Tameside (which lies between Manchester and Oldham). The response from local English people in Failsworth was very good with many ‘thumbs up’ and “it’s about time someone stood up for the English”.

Failsworth, it seems, is an area that has been ignored by the BNP, who have not been seen locally for many months now. * The EFP intend to target Failsworth again – and other neglected areas of Greater Manchester – in the run up to this years European Elections. If you live in the Greater Manchester area and would like to help, please do get in touch, you will be made most welcome.

* We finished the day with a well deserved pint in the local Last Orders Pub, where we were informed by a local supporter that the BNP once held meetings in the local Liberal Club, which is right in the middle of the area we had just leafleted. He went on to tell us that although he thought the BNP were right to “soften up their image”, holding meetings in the local Liberal Club was taking things just a bit too far!

Who were we to disagree!

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