Will something turn up?

As members may recall, the British National Party's 2010 Accounts, in respect of both the Central Accounting Unit (CAU) and the Regional Accounting Unit (RAU), are overdue.  As a result of this failure to submit the Accounts to the Electoral Commission by the statutory deadline, in July, the BNP has incurred two fines, one in respect of each set of Accounts.  The longer the period before the Accounts are submitted the larger the fines become.

Since 2007 the party has been running a deficit.  That is to say its expenditure has exceeded its income over the course of the year - Mr Micawber's definition of misery.  Yet there is no obvious  reason for this.  Over the three accounting years 2007, 2008 and 2009, the party's income rose dramatically.  The trouble is that over the same period its expenditure rose even higher.

Consolidating the party's Accounts for the CAU and RAU we arrive at the following illustration, which I think tells its own story.  It looks very much like a classic tale of "boom and bust."  These are the latest years for which Accounts are available.

2006  £    36,256
2007  £   (34,523)
2008  £ (192,714)
2009  £ (116,982)

Figures in brackets denote an excess of expenditure over income, ie, a deficit.

Now I would love to believe that the deficit for 2010 was smaller than that for 2009.  I would be overjoyed if by some miracle the party's financial problems were to be solved.  Like many others I am heavily invested in this party, not so much in a financial sense as in an emotional sense, having put so much of myself into it.

Sadly, the evidence would appear to suggest that the 2010 Accounts may be the last set of Accounts the party ever submits to the Electoral Commission.