Morally and intellectually bankrupt

Question Mark Looms over National Elections Strategy

Posted by admin, on 29 July, 2011, to Andrew Brons' BNP Ideas web site

A string of poor election results has cast a shadow over the British National Party’s election strategy and the street demonstration tactics currently employed by the party.

Prior to the latest election, in Bush Hill Ward, North London, candidate and London regional organiser Steve Squires was quoted on the party’s website as saying that “the central party machine is doing a brilliant job.

“We’re getting great-looking leaflets spot on time, together with personalised mail-merge letters for postal voters. The service we get from Head Office is outstanding – the machine runs like clockwork.”

Mr Squires added that the contest, in a confirmed safe Tory ward, would give the BNP an “opportunity to test our new methods prior to the GLA elections in 2012.”

The result – 61 votes or 2.5% — put the BNP behind UKIP once again. The party now has 12 Local Councillors in all of Britain, having suffered another resignation yesterday (Martyn Findley on the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council).

Obviously, whatever election strategy is being followed, is not working. Is the election department looking critically at its own strategy?

What then, is causing the dramatic decline in votes?

There is one primary reason, and two secondary causes. The first is that politics is primarily about image. Voters tend to make up their minds on how to vote based foremost on a party’s image.

We need to ask questions about our public image and the party’s current street demonstration strategy.

In addition, it is clear that the return to National Front-style street demonstrations, as announced and propagated by the Chairman at the December 2010 conference, have achieved nothing.

In fact, the return to street demonstrations appears to have had a negative impact upon voters, as the vote share obtained by the party has continued its steep decline.

Another factor to be considered in this strategy is that sooner or later, the violent UAF thugs are likely to become tired of chasing around police-protected EDL demonstrations, and will doubtless resort to attacking the small and unprotected “halal meat” BNP gatherings.

The end result of such a configuration will doubtless be “violence breaks out at BNP rally” media headlines, which will negatively impact the party’s image once again.

Finally, the third most likely cause of the party’s poor electoral performance is that whatever “system” has been put in place, is clearly not working.

The much-vaunted “Alfred” system was promised to be the answer to campaigning issues. It is still unclear if Alfred has even been completed (more than a year after it was launched) and if it has, the results have been less than satisfactory, to put it mildly.

Covering a ward with leaflets, customised appeals and “Alfred” have not provided an answer.

The party’s winning election strategy of starting from the ground up with old fashioned community work, non-confrontational political activity and a reformation of the party’s national image provide the only true solution to the declining votes issue.

It is time for the party leadership to look at its strategy critically and the contribution made by particular individuals before it is completely too late.