DOWNFALL IN FELTHAM

An ex-Organisers view.

This account of the Feltham and Heston by-election was sent to me by a long term West London nationalist that I know well for a long time. It makes interesting reading and I publish it here to stimulate debate.

The Feltham and Heston by-election result for the BNP is a bigger disaster for the party in London than the loss of all its Barking council seats in May 2010.

Given the ongoing, indeed exponential, change in demographics across London, the Feltham result indicates the removal of the opportunity even under proportional representation, for the BNP on the Greater London Assembly.

There are London boroughs where the indigenous, and may I say fellow traveller, population is already of a proportion too small to achieve even influential votes at Parliamentary level for a party with even the more noble aims of the BNP. Obvious examples being Brent, Newham and Tower Hamlets. It was thus recognised at least 6 years ago, that the way to gain any influence was through the PR route to the GLA.

This route could not be achieved through the gaining of a bloc of councillors in any one borough, but required a steady vote across the outer London boroughs that had not changed as much as inner London. Thus in a borough such as Hounslow, of which the Feltham and Heston constituency is part, a PR vote of perhaps 5-8% was a realistic target, with the likes for example of Barking, Havering and Bexley returning a higher percentage, and Ealing ,Harrow and Richmond lower. This strategy was called the doughnut, the type with a ring not jam in the middle!

The strategy relied on targeting the borough wards most likely to be responsive.

I was not aware of any effective BNP organisation in Hounslow before 2005, although the borough had seen other nationalist groups organising there in the 1970's and 1980's. In fact the only BNP organisation in West London had been destroyed by the Chairman about 2004. That was the Hillingdon Group where the key players were removed over the matter of selling their own locally sourced t-shirts!

From the summer of 2005 just 2 new members set about re-starting and organising the party in West London. In a remarkably short space of time Nick Eriksen had risen from Richmond to London Organiser and I had become West and North London Sub Regional Organiser. Decent and talented people appeared from almost nowhere and suddenly there were unique and active groups in the boroughs of Hounslow, Kingston, Richmond, Ealing, Hillingdon and Hammersmith. Each group held regular meetings and leafleting and canvassing sessions as well as table-top sessions in local high streets. When there was an activity there were always members from other local groups assisting. There was cross fertilisation of activity and organisation. There was always one if not two social activities each month in West London. Local knowledge was increasing too.

The zenith for Feltham and West London was May 2010. Despite losing the Hillingdon Organiser at the last minute we were able to continue to plan. I switched into that role because the Hounslow team where now so well practiced that they really did not need me there. That really is achievement when a manager or leader realises that the team can be left to act almost autonomously. There were many council candidates attracting up to a thousand votes and the 3.54% achieved on the Feltham parliamentary was an achievement against a background of a campaign hindered by a lack of head office support e.g. advertising hoardings (it was always sickening to see the UKIP hoardings in the area when we had none), and negative publicity resulting from the Chairman’s false claims of death threats against him. Indeed from the weekly campaigning that had taken place over the preceding three years, and with an excellent candidate in Jon Donnelly, it is not unreasonable to say that without the BNP Chairman’s effect the BNP long campaign could reasonably have returned 6%.

It is noteworthy that this was not a one off fair result in Feltham. In the adjoining constituency of Hayes and Harlington I polled 3.6% with a smaller team of party workers and with a shorter campaign. There were excellent council election results in Hillingdon with our candidates not ahead of just independents and Greens but also the Lib Dems!

Whilst there had been an excellent Hillingdon Organiser in Mike James, more work had gone into Feltham. However the Hayes result too would almost certainly have been over 5%, but an ex-BNP nationalist stood against me under another banner simply, in his words, "not against you but against Griffin".

There were good results following workmanlike campaigns in other parts of West London too.

Despite the 2010 West London votes being lower than they should have been, the BNP was still well placed for the 2012 GLA elections.

However after the General Election elementary questions regarding party finances clearly threatened the Chairman’s permanent position and so all London Officers received a text from Head Office. In fact Jefferson, whatever his capacity was, sent the text. The text simply said that all London Officers were no longer officers until further notice.

Subsequently there was a meeting in a member’s home in North London where the Chairman decided who the London Officers would be. The only invites to the meeting were for those that the Chairman considered too gullible, naive or stupid to ask questions about party finances. In ascertaining which members might be completely gullible, thus loyal even to the most appalling leadership, the Chairman was ably assisted by the most pathetic and shabby permanent raincoat wearing element in the London membership. Obviously I was one of those not invited to the meeting and that was the end of my active involvement with the party.

In effect the Chairman called a few people together and said:

"You select few can continue at playing BNP but only as long as you accept that I am not accountable to anyone".

He thus met the need of those who want to feel that they are doing something regardless of cost and/or futility.

What we find in the last 18 months of the once impressive West London BNP is this. One or two meetings in Hounslow, none in Kingston, Richmond or Ealing, one in Hammersmith. No social activity. No regular weekly leafleting anywhere. No production of local newsletters. No communication to local members and supporters by email, text, phone or post.

This is why the Feltham set back is worse than the loss of the Barking council seats. It represents evidence of the total breakdown of effective organisational structure within London BNP. The inability to mobilise local members and supporters, to have regular visits from neighbouring groups and/or to have 20 visitors helping once from Merton, then Croydon, then Andy McBride visiting with 20 South East helpers. Inablity to canvass key areas.

Inability to make super human efforts. If this by election had been 4 years ago then the Mayoral and lead GLA candidate would have been in Feltham every day for a month before polling day. I am not a fan of Richard Barnbrook, on the contrary I am his greatest critic (I hope), but it cannot be denied that on most occasions he worked manically when the cause demanded it. Was the current Mayoral candidate in Feltham most days before polling day? Of course to make such an effort requires belief, and there is no longer anything left to believe in the Chairman’s words or the achievability of the party message.

In fact there was an inability to address even one local issue, the concept of literature addressing local as well as national hopes and aspirations has disappeared with the most talented activists. Even the UKIP literature managed one local issue to campaign on.

To cap it all, Feltham has all the factors for a BNP message to be well received. The engineering jobs have largely moved on. Though some remain relating to Heathrow Airport it is notable that the former Spitfire factory site is now a cinema-bowling-fast food location. The area is characterised by rising unemployment in a blue collar area that retains much of its council estate housing. Adjoining Hounslow is openly Islamic. Saturday sees Islamists preaching in the high street alongside the SWP in the spot that Gospel preachers once enjoyed. There are long housing waiting lists for the children of the dispossessed majority. There is compulsory enrichment, concern over crime, etc.

Feltham was potentially the BNP's Barking of the west.

It was the hope of West London, now it is the death knell sounding.

Now Feltham, call it Hounslow or West London if you like, is just an example to show that most London BNP groups cannot do what they were doing between 2005-10. It is evidence that there is no longer the organisation, membership, expertise, enthusiasm or belief necessary to get even one representative on the GLA. Last time it was obvious that polling boxes were tampered with between the poll and the count in order to reduce the BNP vote, this time it will not be necessary.

The BNP are on target for a 2012 GLA top up vote of only 2.5%, just ahead of the English Democrats and 3.5% behind UKIP. There would be greater wisdom in the remaining BNP active members doing nothing rather than wasting time AND MONEY, and regrouping in some way than throwing money at a BNP GLA campaign denied positive branding and head office investment.

Never before, in the history of politics, have the hopes of so many been dashed by so few.