Wednesday 28 May 2008

Politics and Flag-flying in Calne

We recently had the privilege to yet again be invited to the Calne Town council Mayor-making ceremony. It seems a good indication of how acceptable the party has become in the main stream political arena when such an invitation is received and this for the third year at that.

This year was slightly different, however, as I was seeing Councillor Baggs become Mayor Baggs. Yes, the name may be familiar, as it is my Auntie Mercy who received the mayoral chain and become appointed to this office for the next year. The Town Hall was full with invited guests and local dignitaries and the ceremony was quite formal opening with prayers by the local vicar. The out-going mayor, Roy Golding, an ex-Conservative, now Independent spoke about how his year had gone and incoming mayor, Mercy Baggs, ex-UKIP, now Independent, spoke about her vision for the year to come.

All but 2 Town Council members attended dressed in ceremonial gowns and despite any potential political friction, acted in the way elected officials should, in a dignified and respectful manner. This shouldn’t come as a surprise however as I have been told time and time again that, once elected to the council chamber, party politics are put aside and the interests of the local community come first. However, it was of interest that, despite this being one of the most important council events of the year, two councillors, Councillor John Ireland and Councillor Dave Bland tendered apologies for non-attendance. It may have been a co-incidence that both of these councillors could genuinely not attend but it is certainly no co-incidence that both belong to UKIP and are responsible for local efforts to ensure the Union Flag is flown from the Town Hall continually and causing heated debate amongst the locals as a consequence – my blog of Monday 18th February gave details of how this began.

Nationalists reading this are probably thinking that these are the sort of chaps this country needs as councillors and I would agree that the flying of the Union Flag from all national and local government buildings should not be open to debate but should occur without question. It seems all other countries quite rightly fly their own flags with pride so why not us, there is after all, little that is done any more to engender a sense of national pride in Britain.

However, this flag flying campaign needs to be put into the right context. Firstly, both Councillors Ireland and Bland started the flag campaign in early 2008. It is interesting then that Councillor Ireland became a councillor in 2002 and Councillor Bland in 2004, a good 5 and 3 years earlier respectively! So this wasn’t a case of taking this stand as soon as they became councillors but several years later but coincidently a couple of months before the May local elections. So, it seems that, whilst attempting to appeal to those who have a pride in their race and nation, they are simply using this issue, as a cynical attempt to garner support for their election campaigns. Consequently, other local councillors have seen through their plan and voted against this.

On a similar note, there was a report in the local papers regarding a local lad who whilst driving his car around his home town of Melksham, was routinely stopped by the police for a check. On seeing the lad had a Cross of St George flag laid out over his parcel shelf, as I myself have done, he was told by the police officer to remove it as it was racist and would upset immigrants.

I think it is about time that all British people made a stand by flying the flag as a show of pride and also as an act of defiance against the attempts by this Stalinist regime to ride roughshod over the rights we fought two World Wars to preserve.

Local People Working For Local People

As a time-served Nationalist it becomes increasingly difficult to accept how far down the road this once great nation of ours has declined and continues to decline and how the majority of the population, even if it recognises this decline, fails to rise from it’s slumber to do anything about it.
Even when there are those who join together to challenge this decline, there seem to be endless wrangles with regards to how the resistance should be organised, resulting in seemingly perpetual splits and disputes. It seems to me that whenever the chance of a breakthrough into the mainstream is imminent, there is an incident which halts this, with the regularity of such an incident being such that one can’t help but feel it is orchestrated in some way, in order to contain any challenge to the mainstream political parties.

On top of this, at national and particularly at local level , where politicians gain any level of authority, the “power” that comes with such a position, more often than not results in politicians with over-inflated ego’s whose main aim changes from their wish to make this land a better place , into one where their own self-importance is the primary consideration.

If this doesn’t cause enough disillusionment then there are those lost chances where political capital could be made but for whatever reason, is not. Take, for example, the recent Crewe and Nantwich parliamentary by-election which was won by the Conservative party with a massive vote swing from the Labour party. This election, coming so soon after abysmal local election results for the Labour party, was seen as a major test of how the electorate would vote for a parliamentary seat and as such, received a massive amount of publicity. This by-election was only ever going to be won by the Conservatives but even assuming the deposit for standing was lost, the resultant publicity for any of the parties standing would be well worth the money and would allow the smaller parties to gauge the strength of support that might be expected. It was particularly pleasing to note that UKIP received just 2.2% of the vote. However they did make the effort and ensured the party name was kept in the public eye.

Similarly it was disappointing that the BNP did not stand in Swindon at the local elections despite standing 3 candidates last year and 1 candidate the year before. This, together with the elections next year would have been the ideal investment in preparation for the Euro-elections later on that year. The party needs to be kept in the public eye or any progress made will come to nothing. Sadly for the BNP, UKIP did stand and may well have taken votes that the BNP had worked for in previous years. As a consequence UKIP did pretty well and as a result has since seen, almost on a daily basis, letters of support being published in the local Swindon Advertiser to the extent that it could be argued the paper is supportive of the party. Despite UKIP being on the verge of collapse, this can only be seen as a very successful move in it’s build-up to its Euro election campaign.

This time should, like no other, provide an ideal opportunity for smaller, radical parties to do well. The leaders of the main parties are a disgrace, Conservative leader David Cameron has no real backbone for tackling the real problems of society and is seen as a Blair-clone, the Lib-Dem leader, has made so little impact on the political scene that I just can’t currently seem to recall his christian name but whose surname is Clegg and then there is the leader of the Labour party Gordon Brown, that excuse for a politician who is currently in charge of this country, but who I wouldn’t leave in charge of my children. Gay Gordon should be tried for treason for the damage he has done to Britain.

The time has never been better for there to be a radical change in this country, so disillusioned are the electorate with what is happening, and if the smaller parties cannot take advantage of this and provide the alternative the public want which ought result in increased numbers making the effort to go to the polling stations, then the whole political system needs turning on it’s head.

Those at the top of political parties are out of touch, they can never understand what is happening at local level nor respond in the way local people need them to do in a timely and effective manner to the issues of the day. Rather than political parties operating in a top-down manner, perhaps they should work in the opposite way with those at local level taking action, making decisions and formulating policy to suit the needs of their local communities first, with the upper echelons of the party being there only to offer support to those doing the work on the ground. In my discussions with local people and politicians it seems there are others who see this as the way forward and with the right support and the right backing I predict that we can turn the general political apathy and mis-management into a better solution to the problems we face.

Local people working for local people.

Thursday 15 May 2008

Update - Proposed Gypsy Site In Calne (Meeting - Friday 16th May)

Firstly, for those locals who read this, please note that there is a meeting in Calne Town Hall tomorrow night (Friday 16th May) at 6pm at which a working group, as set up by Calne Town Council, will be discussing the proposals. All are welcome to attend.

Having spoken and written to local councillors and also local MPs, James Gray and Michael Ancram, it is apparent that the only ones who are in favour of siting gypsies / travellers here are our wonderful Labour government led by that splendid, gentleman (?) Gordon Brown, otherwise known as "The Spot". The information I have is that whichever site is chosen it will consist of 24 pitches catering for around 140 gypsies.

The local people certainly do not want a site in Calne, The Town Council do not want a site in Calne, The North Wilts District Council do not want a site in Calne and even the gypsies do not want to come to Calne. The responses I have received from he councillors who bothered to reply to my email were all supportive of moves to prevent this. The letter I received from James Gray was also very supportive and although stressing that he had some sympathy for North Wilts District Council with regard to the pressure being placed upon them by this government to identify sites he was certainly on the side of the local people.

No, it's just the government who have decided, in their wisdom, that as the gypsies / travellers are a disadvantaged group, each county must look at potential sites on which these people can stay and therefore have the benefit of all of the amenities non-gypsies and travellers have. I think the government are missing the point that these people choose this way of life so as not to join in with conventional society.

The situation is that the matter is now out for a six week consultation period which ends on Friday 20th June. Full consultation documents can be accessed by visiting the District Council web-site:


Additionally local people may want to visit:


where you will find discussion and updates on what is happening. A co-ordinated approach to oppose this is being organised by those running the site.

If you are local please support this campaign. If after the period of public consultation there is no site that is felt suitable I am sure that one will still have to be chosen and with Calne's history I think that the site that is currently favourite will be the one chosen, so very strong action is necessary now and also later to fight this.

On a final note for now, if anyone has any doubts about the potential impact of this then the recent falling through of my neighbour Tracey's house sale has been specifically attributed to this, as her buyer's did not want to live in an area close to a proposed gypsy site, despite the decision not even having been made. Apparently the estate agent has said that house prices will suffer and houses will be difficult to sell, as if things weren't bad enough already!

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Here We Go Again Then!

Regular readers of my blog have asked me why I have been so quiet of late and there are several reasons why. However, those of you that know me, will know that I cannot stay quiet for long particularly when I care so passionately about this once great nation of ours and our people.

Well, I am back and my return is, in part, due to the anger I feel towards those people who believe they have the right to question the behaviour of those in the BNP and somehow that they will be as bigoted as they themselves must be in dealing with other people. Very few people have ever seen my anger but those that do do not forget it, so Mr Anonymous, congratulations to you for achieving what very few others do, but regular readers will notice a subtle change to my blog as a result.

What makes me angry is when attempts are made, usually by anonymous people who talk about equality and suchlike, to try and deprive others of their livelihood just because they do not agree with their politics. Simon Smith, a friend of mine and a teacher, as was Mark Walker and Tina Wingfield, a health service employee all suffered at the hands of those who thought they were incapable of carrying out their duties as a result of their political beliefs.

More recently we have Barry Towers who has also been dismissed as a result of his standing as a candidate for the BNP in the recent elections. More details of the injustices that BNP members have to suffer can be found on the Civil Liberty website and also on the independent trade union site Solidarity.

If only the people who attempt to destroy the lives of the good people in the BNP, realised that by doing such things only serves to strengthen our resolve to carry on with the fight against those who seem determined to destroy the British people and our traditional way of life.

Additionally, they need to realise that as well as our policies on race and immigration the BNP does actually have a whole raft of policies, in the same way that all other legally registered political parties have, just take a look at the "About Us" section of http://www.bnp.org.uk/ to see.

Finally I would just like to add that whilst we still have some element of the freedom of speech this country is supposed to be famous for, although if you speak to Nick Griffin or Mark Collett about this I am sure they may disagree as a result of the trial they underwent for speaking their minds in private meetings, I will continue to use this blog as a way to highlight and give my opinions on the wrongs and injustices that occur in our society.