Shortest Day - Longest Night - The Start of Winter

I forgot to mention yesterday that in my quest for Christmas presents in Shrewsbury I successfully deployed my SatNav facility on my N96 to guide me to a rather nice tobacconist. Not that I smoke, but if other people want to, I'll not stand in their way.

This afternoon I briefly met up with Nick on his way back after staying overnight at a BNP branch Christmas party. Unfortunately I couldn't make the Birmingham Christmas do on Friday owing to the late delivery of my new cooker, with the prospect of nothing to cook my Christmas lunch enough to swiftly extract me from risk taking mood.

Talking to Nick, everything seems in place for the European elections apart of course from the massive amount of money involved in a professional and credible campaign. As each piece of dire economic news further enhances our chances of success next June, even from our gathering in Windermere the prognosis has improved considerably. Newspaper reports today of major retail outlets about to go into receivership and poor people being hammered with 27% interest on government loans will hardly detract from that position.

Referring to a post I made in early November concerning a rumour to ban the St George's Day march in West Bromwich, disturbing news reaches me on this theme. It would seem that the ruling Labour Council in Sandwell have objected to the fact that "political extremists" were present at the last march and that as such they wish the march to be banned if this reoccurs this year.

Obviously mindful of the forthcoming European elections in June, Sandwell's Labour Politburo are naturally concerned about the elimination of any form of meaningful political opposition. During the last European contest in Sandwell Labour polled 27,500 votes, the Conservatives 13,000 votes, the LibDems 6,900 votes and the BNP 10,000 votes. With 13% of the total vote share, easily beating the LibeDems, the interpretation of the term "extremist" does look somewhat shaky.

Unperturbed by this Labour, the party who would not allow the phrase "English" on the last census, have come up with the following somewhat less than subtle measures to ensure that any deviance from their way of thinking is eradicated:

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Report to the Cabinet
17th December, 2008
St George’s Day Parade
Recommendations of the Scrutiny Management Board
1. Summary Statement
1.1 On 16 October 2008 the Scrutiny Management Board considered a report and evidence into the St George’s Day Parade and made the following
recommendations.
(1) that the Management Board notes that there is clear evidence of
far-right political extremists infiltrating the 2008 St George's Day
Parade in Sandwell, with no apparent observation or record of this
by any of the stakeholders;
(2) that the Cabinet and other stakeholders be recommended:-
(a) to examine the evidence of the events that took place,
particularly in the context of the responsibility of all public
bodies to promote good race relations and develop
community cohesion in Sandwell;
(b) to give early consideration to how, and if, political extremism
can be eliminated at any future St George's Day events in
the Borough;
(c) to give consideration to developing the St George's Day
celebrations into a static park event with the aim of
providing a family-friendly event in a safe environment;
(d) that an analysis of the members of the public who attend
future events is undertaken by stakeholders;
(e) that intelligence is gathered on any future events by all
stakeholders in order that early de-briefings can identify
issues and concerns;
(f) that no politicians be invited to speak at any future St
George's Day events and that no political parties be able to
display banners or promotional materials;
(g) that West Midlands Police Officers undergo training to develop an
awareness of the covert signs of any political extremism at future
events.

In case any of you are left in any doubt as to what this actually distills down to, later in the report we see the following little gems:






Let's look at this once again. "Stewarding/marshalling plans to be eveloped in conjunction with the Police and Security Company to manage extremist groups out of the Parade". "That the Cabinet and other stakeholders be recommended to insure that intelligence is gathered on any future events by all stakeholders in order that early de-briefings can identify issues and concerns. Police have agreed to assist in the debrief procedure, providing a structure and clarity of purpose to the process".

As most of you will already know, West Bromwich is the place of my birth and naturally enough being proud of being English, I happen to enjoy a great deal this most patriotic family parade amongst tens of thousands of fellow black country people. It would seem though that this time Labour intend to arrange for the police to either prevent me from attending or physically removing me, along with many other BNP members.

What a headline that would be in the run up to the European elections - "BNP deputy leader arrested for attending St George's Day Parade". I can't wait and speaking to a few of the chaps responsible for the march last year, I've little doubt that they'll not be intimidated by this disgusting interference in their day. After all it was local Labour MP Tom Watson who threatened to have them all arrested when the Stone Cross St George Association defied both Labour and the police by starting off the march in the first place.

For those of you who did not see the video of me during last year's parade, here it is, I still get emotional looking at it now.