We’re glad to report that the British National Party has pulled off our best-ever result in a parliamentary election in Scotland, demonstrating just how far we have come in a very short time and the extent to which the party is now perceived as a credible, mainstream contender by increasing numbers of voters.

There was no surprise about the top two positions at the Glasgow North East by-election on Thursday 12 November 2009, but the entire story of the contest was the battle for third place.

For our party to even be fighting over third place at this early stage in our Scottish growth is astonishing. Three years ago we wouldn’t even have placed in the top six. Now we’re fighting for third. It just demonstrates the potential out there.

For our readers in England, remember that this result is even more remarkable given that we have four, not three, Westminster parties up here.

When we consider what we were up against, we really have done remarkably well.

Let’s reconsider our seven stated aims at this by-election, which we published in our article on the BNP website on 9th November, here.

Our first aim, to beat all the extreme left-wing parties was achieved, in spades. In fact, we beat the combined vote of Solidarity, SSP and Socialist Labour, added together. So, aim achieved.

The second aim, to get in the top six. Achieved.

The third aim, to beat one of the following: the Greens, Conservatives or the Lib Dems, who on past outings have come above us. Well, we tanked the Greens, and that is so necessary if we are to stand a chance of getting our candidate elected on the Holyrood PR ballot in 2011 or more probably 2015. Achieved.

The fourth aim, to come in the top five. Achieved.

The fifth aim, to beat any two of the Greens, Conservatives or Liberal Democrats. Well, we also tanked the Lib Dems. Achieved.

We said that if we achieved any one of our seven aims then we would have done extremely well in the first by-election that the BNP has ever contested in Scotland.

Fact is, we achieved five of our seven aims, failing only to save our deposit (by 17 votes) and come third, which would have needed an additional 63 votes.

So we came fourth, but consider what we are up against.

The Conservative Party is a multi-million pound machine. It has virtually unlimited access to finance from the City. We had access to exactly £890.34 which we raised at our fundraiser on 27th October.

The Conservative Party has a big team of well-paid, full-time employees in Scotland who are dedicated full-time to winning elections for their party. We had a small band of hard-pressed men and women, squeezing in activism when they could get time off their work.

And then there is the full-spectrum dominance of the Conservative Party, and the other Westminster parties, on our national mass media. We can’t escape seeing them or listening to them in the papers, the TV and the radio, every day, 24/7/365. Yet they have the cheek to complain because Question Time hosted Nick Griffin … once.

Yet still we pushed the Tories to the wire. Indeed, the entire story of last night’s election on TV was whether we were going to take third place from them or not.

Furthermore, all the four Westminster parties had privileged access to the national mass media. They were invited onto radio hustings. We weren’t. They were in the Scottish press every day. We weren’t. They received invites to all the hustings meetings in the constituency. We received not one.

Yet still we tanked the Lib Dems, taking over twice its vote.

We’ve also learned many valuable lessons in this campaign. These lessons are being recorded right now. We know several areas where we need to improve, and we’ll be rolling out this best practice for all our teams during the General Election next year.

Talking of which, we are launching the biggest-ever campaign in Scotland for next year. We have identified 23 seats and we aim to contest them all. That makes a difference from the 2005 General Election when we contested two.

As our candidate, Charlie Baillie, said at the count, this election has established us as a credible alternative in Scotland.

Incidentally, while all the candidates lined up on stage for the announcement of the result, they all, like ill-mannered peasants, left the stage when Mr Baillie walked forward to speak. By so doing they were demonstrating their sneering contempt for the 1,013 good people of Glasgow North East who voted for the BNP, as well as their contempt for the democratic process.

Let us leave the final word to Mr Baillie who told this website: “I’d like to thank all the activists from Glasgow, and the others who travelled far distances to be with us, and without whose help this result would not have been possible. I’d especially like to thank our Chairman Nick Griffin for visiting Glasgow twice. His tremendous popularity really helped us deliver this result. Thank you, Nick. To the 1,013 people of Glasgow North East, thank you.”

Now please take the next step. Please register your interest on this website. We want to meet you and speak with you. We need your help.

If you can help BNP Scotland at the General Election — we are looking for candidates, activists and people who can help pay for the £500 deposit in each constituency — please contact Scottish Regional Organiser Gary Raikes at Scotland @ bnp.org.uk with your full name and address, or send a letter to PO Box 11815, Turriff, AB53 8WB.

And remember you can help us do all these things, and more, without even being a member!

It’s a lovely sunny but chilly morning on Monday 9th November 2009 and BNP Scotland is delighted to welcome to the streets of Glasgow North East, Nick Griffin MEP and Richard Barnbrook GLA (Member of the Greater London Assembly) for a day’s campaigning in the constituency.

We started in Springburn Shopping Centre just after 11am where we spent a full hour in the presence of the national media.

Richard Barnbrook took up the megaphone and regaled shoppers with our message while BNP activists leafleted everyone coming and going. Meanwhile Nick spoke to an eager media as the Truth Truck drove all around the area with its positive message blaring from the speakers.

Interestingly, there was no sign of the other parties at all, as Nick went walkabout, meeting and greeting the locals.

It was then onto Saracen Street with the media keen to keep up.

Richard walked ahead of our entourage, right down one side of Saracen Street with his message sounding out from his megaphone. It was clear to us all in BNP Scotland that Richard is a real professional and judging from his confidence and skill, he has done this many times before! In fact, Richard told us that Glasgow North East reminded him of Barking and Dagenham 3 years ago.

Nick followed and greeted passers-by, shaking their hands, stopping to talk to them and giving them our leaflet. On the other side of the street, our party activists were handing out leaflets as the Truth Truck drove up and down the street.

On one side of the leaflets was the message “SNP – The Mass Immigration Party” and on the other “Fair Play for Glasgow – Stop Asylum Dumping Now!” The leaflet was well-received by everyone.

The leaflet continued: “The SNP are showing their real unpatriotic colours. They want to see even more immigration to Scotland and don’t care that it’s unfair on our own jobless, homeless and taxpayers. An SNP vote is a vote to import even more unemployment, crime and poverty into Glasgow.”

The Truth Truck is very tall and visible. As a passerby commented, “You can see it for miles!”

After spending time in Saracen Street everyone set off for Duke Street. Here we did the same thing. Our entourage walked down one side of the road, led by Richard with Nick and the media and our leafleters in tow, and then we walked down the other side, while the Truth Truck drove up and down and round about the entire area.

Nick was on top form and was as happy to be with us as we were to see him. He is a very friendly politician and loved to shake hands with the people who recognised him – which was everyone.

Everyone was friendly. The only sour note was from an SNP activist who stumbled into our entourage. He called one of our leafleters a “fascist”, only to be brought up short by our activist who rebuked him, “You Sir, have not been brought up properly!”

The frantic SNPer also received a particularly unwanted reminder of his own party’s history from our activist: “Calling us ‘fascist’ is rich coming from a member of a party whose former leader, Arthur Donaldson, was a Nazi sympathiser during WW2 and wanted to set up a Vichy-style regime in Scotland!” he was told. The SNPer stormed off in a huff – we guess the truth hurts!

The facts about Donaldson were explained in a 2005 Sunday Times article which stated:
“Arthur Donaldson, the former SNP leader, planned to set up a Vichy-style regime in Scotland in the event of a Nazi invasion, according to a newly released MI5 file. Donaldson intended to infiltrate the party with Nazi sympathisers, who would undermine the British war effort by carrying out acts of sabotage and spreading misinformation. Following a widely anticipated invasion by Hitler’s forces, the Nationalist leader hoped to establish himself as a ‘Scottish quisling’ in charge of a puppet government. Donaldson, who led the party from 1960 to 1969, was arrested in 1941 and was held for five weeks at Barlinnie.”
(Peter Day, “SNP boss planned Nazi Scotland”, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2005).

You can read the story yourself here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article587207.ece

Let our candidate Charlie Baillie have the final word after today’s wonderful activity. As he told us:

“This was a great day’s activism. Thanks to Nick Griffin MEP and Richard Barnbrook MLA for coming up to help. We really appreciate that. Nick got a great response from the voters and Richard is an extremely impressive politician who really helped to turn the visit into an event! It was especially appropriate that Nick and Richard were here on the same day that Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, was also in the constituency. This is a man who says in today’s papers that he wants ‘a debate’ on immigration. Well, talking is nice, but action is what is needed now! The fact is, Alan Johnson can debate immigration until the cows come home, but he has no intention of ever actually doing anything about it! The voters can see through him. That’s one of the reasons why voters in Glasgow North East are supporting the British National Party – the only party that is not just talking about it, but will actually do something to stop mass immigration.”

Voting is this Thursday 12th November between 7am-10pm. See the “Point of Light” manifesto on which Charlie Baillie and the BNP are standing here:
http://bnp.org.uk/2009/11/a-point-of-light-the-bnp-manifesto-for-glasgow-north-east