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

Activists canvassed in Saracen Street which is a busy shopping area in a part of the Glasgow North East constituency which has not, hitherto, been visited by the BNP.
This area includes Possilpark which has a reputation for being one of the tougher parts of Glasgow. Our team spent some time here and discovered that the residents were very friendly and forthcoming. The issues here are similar to those in other areas of the constituency; namely a feeling of detachment from their rulers in government which manifests itself in neglect and even disdain. Virtually nothing is done here by the politicians and if any action is taken then it is usually too little too late. The bare minimum seems to be the rule. Needless to say this has a depressing effect on the people and leads to apathy and a sense of hopelessness which translates into a low turnout at elections. We hope that we breathed some optimism and fresh air here and that the people feel that they are no longer taken for granted.

Meanwhile, other activists were busy at Springburn Shopping Centre and although they encountered some opposition from the socialists this was half-hearted and ineffective. To prove the point we set up a stall and six of us continued for another 2 hours. In the meantime, Charlie Baillie received a text from a 25 year old woman we had canvassed an hour before in Saracen Street saying that she would vote for him. A wonderful morale booster to finish the day on.

Campaign team member

If you can help Charlie’s team contact 07827811008

Saturday saw a day of action in West Lothian, local organiser Mike Coyle reports.

Activists started their day in Bathgate town centre where hundreds of leaflets and magazines were handed out in less than an hour. The team spent a great deal of time talking to many supporters even having a cup of tea bought for them!
Mike told the news team, “This was the first time the new group took to the streets in West Lothian and the support was overwhelming. Many people not only took our leaflets but stopped to talk and express their views and gratitude to seeing us. The only bother we had was one untidy Marxist student who thought it was ok to roar the usual profanities in front of young children. It was actually a member of public that sent him swiftly on his way”.

Following the success in Bathgate the activists moved to Livingston to leaflet outside the shopping centre where more leaflets were handed out before Mikes hunger got the better of him. After a brief fast food stop the teamcalled it a day. Mike finished by saying, “I was taken aback by the support shown and the success of our first day leafleting and that was just a small team. As the group grows I firmly believe the party could establish itself in West Lothian. One chap that came out with me even took a bundle of leaflets away with him to hand out round his home town….and he is not even a member…..yet!”

West Lothian is going from strength to strength with their next open meeting set for 22nd October. For details contact Mike 07815597675 or coyle409@btinternet.com.

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