[Marxism] BNP sees marginal rise in votes

["Martin Spellman" <martinwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/front
page/4519347.stm

The BBC website has generally been very useful and up-to-date on
all this.

As a rule of thumb less than 5% of the vote is pathetic. You
become a factor when you get around 20%.

Jack
============================================

The British National Party has slightly increased its share of
the vote, but failed to take any seats.

The party took nearly 200,000 votes across the UK, but its
overall share of the vote was up just 0.55% on 2001.

Leader Nick Griffin said he was delighted with his party's
progress. He polled 4,240 votes in Keighley, West Yorkshire -
9.16% of the total cast.

But the BNP's best result was in Barking in east London, where
Richard Barnbrook won 16.89% of the vote.

Mr Barnbrook polled 4,916 votes, coming a close third behind the
Tories. The seat was won by Children's Minister Margaret Hodge
for Labour.

        
LATEST RESULTS

In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, David Exley polled 5,066 votes
(13.13%). The seat was won by Labour's Shahid Malik.

In Rotherham BNP candidate Marlene Guest polled 1,986 - an
increase of 7%, amounting to a 7% share of the votes.

The party also scored 4% in Sunderland North, as well as in
Sunderland South.

'Hope not hate'

But with most votes in, the BNP's share of the vote was about
0.74% - below exit poll expectations of about 3%.

It lost its £500 deposit in 84 seats, leaving it with a bill of
about £42,000 overall.

Mr Griffin, who came fourth in Keighley as Labour's Ann Cryer was
elected, said smaller political groupings rarely did well in
closely contested elections.

Mrs Cryer said at the beginning of the campaign she was preaching
a message of "Hope not hate".

After being re-elected she said: "Hope has succeeded and hate has
been defeated."

Ms Cryer later claimed the BNP's presence in Keighley had damaged
race relations. She said: "I am absolutely delighted that not
only have I won but I have seen off the BNP who I hope won't
return again.

"I have a lot of work to do with my colleagues to repair race
relations in Keighley."

'Respectable' result

But Mr Griffin denied it had been a vicious campaign. He told Sky
News: "It is a perfectly respectable base for us to go on next
year to look at winning extra council seats."

Mr Griffin told ITV News he had worn a bullet-proof vest during
the campaign, after receiving death threats from Muslim
extremists.

The BNP's vote dropped dramatically in Oldham West, where they
did well in 2001 when Mr Griffin was the candidate.

This time, with Mr Griffin standing elsewhere, its vote fell by
nearly 10 points to 7%.

In Sunderland South David Guynan finished in fourth place up 2%
from 2001 with 1,166 votes.



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