We are happy to report the return of Mike Coyle after his recent personal tragedy. Mr Coyle will be helping new Lothian’s organiser David Orr Jnr to take up the reigns in Lothian and has been appointed Sub-Regional organiser for the Central region.

We have a great deal of support in the central region based around Falkirk which is one of our target regional seats for 2011, Mr Coyle is keen to get to work organising our many members ready for this coming election and building a team ready to strongly contest the regional seat next year.

Speaking to the Scottish leader today Mr Raikes told news team, “I have been talking with Mike and have asked him to take things easy not to throw himself back in to the fray to soon, the fact he has returned shows just how committed to our cause he is and a example of true British grit he is the kind of guy you want in the trenches with you”.

I too would like to express my admiration for a true British nationalist and wish him and his family all the best for the future.

Nick Teasdale
Scottish News Team

Scottish leader Gary Raikes and Glasgow organiser Walter Hamilton made the long trip South to attend the regional organisers training event this weekend.

Management style work shops show how the party is progressing as does the turn out of over thirty officials from around Britain under-taking training in a high class venue.

Mr. Raikes told news team, “This was a busy weekend for myself and Mr. Hamilton which started on Friday with a meeting with a Scottish journalist who has taken a real interest in our party’s growth and potential, this was followed by another meeting this time with an old friend and ex Deputy chairman of the BNP Scott McLean. I am happy to say that Mr. McLean will be back working for BNP Scotland in the near future. Scott is someone I really respect who has a life time of involvement with the nationalist movement behind him his experience will be invaluable to us”.

“After Saturdays training finished we had a chance to catch up with all the other officials to see how things are in their regions, it would seem we are all plagued by the same problems at one time or another yet all remain dedicated to the cause. Sunday we took part in a ‘how to argue’ exercise, something we are very good at here in Scotland! This was an interesting task which Hammy took to like a duck to water, the fact Paul from Essex couldn’t understand his Glaswegian accent helped somewhat, as Jim Dowson said ‘people in Glasgow make saying good morning sound like a death threat’! Cant work out if that’s racist or not”!

During the weekend the pair managed to secure the Truth truck for a weeks tour of our target seats in March, more on that later.

Nick Teasdale

BNP Scotland held an organisers meeting on Sunday 7th to discuss the General Election. Topics included candidate admin, dealing with the media and campaign tactics.
Ten confirmed prospective candidates will be standing in Scotland we hope to make that up to twelve to reach the target we set ourselves last year.

Aberdeen organiser, Barry Scott reported that his group will be putting up two billboards to aid Susan Ross’s campaign, a first for the BNP in Scotland, we are also hoping to secure the truth truck for a tour of our target seats backed up by a newspaper campaign based on the Barking paper used down south which Glasgow Organiser Walter Hamilton and other Scottish officials helped distribute in Nick Griffins seat.

A new organiser for Lothian’s was appointed to build on the good work done by Mike Coyle who sadly due to family bereavement has had to stand down from the role. I know all BNP members will wish him and his family well, we are all thinking of you at this difficult time.

Taking over from Mike will be David Orr Jnr whose father has been one of our longest serving activists and a prospective candidate in the coming election.

Photographs were taking by our own professional photographer, Dave Jeffries, who will be on hand to capture activities through out the campaign.

A fundraising evening with guest speaker Cllr Paul Golding will be held in Aberdeen on Feb 17th followed by another event in Glasgow in March with Chairman Nick Griffin or another high profile speaker. This weekend activists from Glasgow are travelling to Aberdeen to help Susan’s campaign. BNP Scotland have candidates standing in all North east seats in this election another first, one of many more to come!

BNP Scotland are now in reach of winning a seat in Holyrood, that is if the usual suspects don’t change the voting system by 2011. This reflects the hard work that has been done over the last two years that has resulted in doubling our membership and increasing our vote to with in a whisker of saving our deposit for the first time ever in Scotland

Another five members have stood up to the mark and are in the process of being appointed Local Authority Organisers which will add Dundee, Fife, North lanarkshire, Highlands and Clackmannanshire to the ten organisers already appointed which means a leap from three groups two years ago, to fifteen now!

Issue three of our Scottish news letter ‘The Bugle’ will be going out in January to every member helping to keep all up to date with our progress and our official web site www.scotland.bnp.org.uk will spread news further a field!

It has not all been plain sailing, steering the good ship BNP never is, but we are in the best shape we ever have been and moving rapidly ahead. Our target now is 2010 when we aim to stand 23 candidates across Scotland, every group must now start raising funds and appoint candidates, some have already done so but every group has to start campaigning now, paper sales and leafleting events held by every one of our 15 groups will ensure the BNP’s message of hope starts to reach the Scottish people on a unprecedented scale!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6905279.ece

Mainstream parties say that Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time has raised the BNP’s profile.
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The mainstream political parties are increasingly worried that British National Party could achieve a political breakthrough in Scotland in next week’s byelection.
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Some privately believe that the BNP stands a chance of winning third place in Glasgow North East, ahead of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, or, at best, save its deposit — something the party has never achieved in an election in Scotland.
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In the European elections in June the BNP won 545 votes in Glasgow North East — 4.4 per cent of the overall vote on a 21.5 per cent turn out. To save its deposit on Thursday, the BNP needs to achieve 5 per cent. If the turn-out in Glasgow North East is around the predicted 40 per cent, the BNP would require only 1,200 votes to reach that target.
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The main parties believe that the BNP’s campaign was boosted by the appearance of Nick Griffin, the BNP’s leader, on Question Time last month. They also say that the BNP is feeding off voter antipathy created by the MPs expenses scandal
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Allied to that, Glasgow North East is the only Scottish constituency with a relatively high number of asylum seekers. Ten years ago the city decided to take part in the Home Office’s asylum seeker dispersal programme and many of the several thousand asylum seekers who were sent to Glasgow ended up in the constituency’s notorious Red Road towers.
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Asylum seekers say they regularly face accusations that they are given preferential treatment over local families when it comes to housing allocations.
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Labour MPs out canvassing in the constituency say that they have come across growing support for the BNP among voters.
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“It’s not just in these places where you would expect it but among some of the better-off people as well. I’m worried that the BNP could cause a real shock here,” said one.
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Another was concerned that the BNP could achieve 10 per cent of the vote, although his colleagues disputed that support was as high as that.
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Professor John Curtice, Britain’s most respected polling analyst, said: “You would have to say that this is potentially the best place in Scotland for the BNP.
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“The social profile in Glasgow North East means it is the kind of area where the BNP tend to do well throughout the UK. But you do not expect them to do as well in Scotland as they would do in the same social situation down south.”
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He said that the chances of the BNP coming third were slim. For it to do so would mean that support for parties other than Labour and the SNP had totally collapsed.
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The BNP candidate in the byelection is Charlie Baillie, a long-time member of the party. “The message is that the BNP is opposed to the dispersal policy enacted by the city council. We are opposed to mass immigration and we seek an immediate return for bogus asylum seekers,” he said.
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With the byelection campaign now in its final lap, the Labour candidate, Willie Bain, appears increasingly confident of holding off a strong challenge from the SNP and avoiding a repeat of Glasgow East byelection last year, when the SNP overcame a 13,000 Labour majority.
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Political observers say that the SNP campaign has failed to develop any real momentum.
Labour has made great play of the SNP government’s recent decision to cancel a rail link project from Glasgow to the city’s airport. The SNP has tried to hit back by reminding voters that they have been electing Labour representatives at all levels of government for the past 74 years but that the constituency still remains one of the poorest in the UK.
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The byelection was triggered by the decision of the former Commons speaker, Michael Martin, now Lord Martin of Springburn, to stand down in June as the MP for Glasgow North East in the wake of the expenses scandal.
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Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, which will also be fighting to save their deposits, did not contest the seat at the General Election in 2005, observing the Westminster tradition that the Speaker is not opposed.
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My information to date, which includes a very good estimate of the votes already cast via the postal votes, is that third place and a stunning shocker is ………..possible, very possible!

Lets not disapoint them! Every member who can get to Glasgow over the next week please contact 07827811008 or 07717774730

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has claimed that the Scottish government/SNP were on target to reach their election promise of 1000 police officers by 2011. There are, however, some serious issues regarding these new young officers. One of which was described in an earlier post by the British National Party Scotland news team (see link at end of post).

The young recruits that are making up these numbers of “new” officers now have a new cause for concern.

Strathclyde police are reportedly receiving weekly reports on criminal gangs that are attempting to infiltrate the police force through social networking sites i.e. Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

Young and inexperienced new recruits are leaving themselves vulnerable to this sort of technological criminal activity and have been warned against writing personal information on such sites.

As criminal networks are aiming to take advantage of the latest police recruitment initiatives to infiltrate the police force.

Who knows what sort of police officers they are recruiting in order to meet the SNP manifesto promise!

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Gall, head of the force’s Counter Corruption Unit, said when speaking about criminal organisations:

“Their desire to protect their finances is so great now. They see opportunities within the huge recruitment drive within the service.

“They will recognise that there’s an opportunity there to put individuals into the service.”

Gall also hinted at the large numbers of new younger recruits who have “less life experience” and are particularly vulnerable to corruption – this is also something criminal gangs were looking to exploit.

Officers have been issued with guidelines warning them about using such social networking sites as described above.

Gall added: “They need to be mindful. They can be damaging to the reputation of the service and to their own personal circumstances.”

In the first quarter of 2009, 17,048 police officers are in the police force in Scotland. In 2008, 15 Strathclyde officers and staff members were reported to the procurator fiscal facing charges of corruption.

Article – SNP Pledge Could Put Lives At Risk With Newbie Recruits In High Gang Areas