The following letter has been drafted by a BNP member in response to Jim Murphy MP trying to get Churches to vote Labour and turn them against the BNP, copies of this excellent letter are being posted to all Churches in Renfrewshire.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you on behalf of the leader of the British National Party in Scotland to explain a little about our party and dispel some of the misrepresentations you may have heard about us.
British National Party Scottish leader, Gary Raikes has been selected as the prospective candidate for the East Renfrewshire seat, currently held by the Labour and RCP “ex-member” Jim Murphy. Mr. Raikes has stood in both local council and Scottish parliamentary elections and was lead candidate in the 2009 Euros. He has been our Scottish leader since 2007. Gary’s website is at http://eastrenfrewshire.blogspot.com/
Jim Murphy is known to many as an extremist who flirted with the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) during his student days and regarded members of Labour’s hard left Militant Tendency as TOO SOFT.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5488742.ece?print=yes&randnum=1151003209000

The British National Party has a long history and growing support in Scotland and has recently stood in the high profile Euro Elections (June 2009) and NE Glasgow Bye-Election (November 2009) with ever – increasing votes. We now have members from all ages and walks of life and are established as a credible mainstream alternative.
We have taken part in many local initiatives from clean-ups of vandalised parks to support for Army veterans’ charities (FEBA) in Scotland to name but a few.
Increasingly, numbers of voters are expressing apathy and discontent with the endless incompetence, lies, false promises and sleaze coming from the three parties that make up the Old Gang of Lib/Lab/Con. And who can blame them? Labour’s recent record has involved illegal wars, the banking bailout scandal, the MP’s expenses scandal, the sell-off of British industry; and the handover of our sovereignty and power to unelected and unaccountable politicians in Brussels, never mind the destruction of our heritage and culture posed by uncontrolled mass immigration! We can revitalize interest in British politics. The process should be more inclusive, with more democracy, not less. We would like to put the British people first in choices for their own country – after all it’s only fair.

The British National Party is a legal, moderate, and legitimate political party which is making progress in elections and now has over 100 Councillors, one London Assembly member, and two MEPs, including our chairman, Nick Griffin.  Most of the people who attack the BNP are opposed to free debate and dislike both moral standards and Christianity, and have sought to marginalise our Christian heritage whilst paving a way for extremism from the Middle East.  What is done to the BNP now could be done to Christians later.  Christians would do well to stand up for the rights of the BNP to free debate and to seriously consider their views, which reflect up to 70% of the people of Britain, on many issues, including that of mass immigration.

We have a vast and growing raft of sensible and viable policies to lay before the voting public, far transcending the mythology that we are merely a political party only concerned with immigration. Our full manifesto and policies can be found at http://bnp.org.uk/policies/. We are interested in the future and how to improve the well being of our people based on the lessons from history. At the moment it seems we are becoming second class citizens in our own country, with rising crime, plus increasing poverty and taxes, for many becoming the social norm.

I can assure you the men and women of the British National Party are well meaning and decent individuals, only motivated by a love and admiration for the traditions of our land and who wish to build a decent community based on family values. There are a significant number of active Christians within our ranks and they will be making sure that churchgoers throughout the country are made aware of what the British National Party really stands for in the run-up to the General Election. The BNP has indeed warned about the danger Britons face from the growth of Islam on our shores. The vast majority of congregations agree with our stance on this and understand the long term social and ideological threat posed to Christianity. However, we have no quarrel with individual Muslims and have no wish to divide communities. The BNP is not anti-Jewish either. In fact we have one elected Jewish councillor (Pat Richardson – Epping Forest). The BNP has members in it who are Jewish, who are secularist, who are evangelical Christians, and who are Roman Catholics.

SNP

We are opposed to SNP separatism and believe Scotland is better off as part of the Union. Far from being impoverished; as part of Britain, Scotland is allocated more funding per person than any other part of the UK. We support the devolved parliament and all local decision making in Scotland. We would also support a referendum on Scottish independence.

We oppose totalitarianism in all its forms, both Marxist and Fascist. We believe this Labour government has implemented some of the most sinister laws attacking free speech and censorship this country has ever seen.

Anti – War

Our party is determined to re-awaken Britain’s manufacturing sector, dismantle its monopolies and generate green jobs. Our party’s foreign and defence policy of armed neutrality would see British forces withdrawn from global conflict theatres in which the country has no vital interests.

Supporting Our Troops – Bring them home now!

We believe Britain has no business intruding into the affairs of the Middle East in respect either of Israel or any other territory. Nor is it our business to support American foreign policy in the Middle East as the USA’s junior partner. We disagreed with and opposed involvement in Iraq long before the war started, together with the Green Party.

Please do not simply let the powers-that-be demonise us unfairly. Give our policies a chance and you will see they
are based on common sense and with the best intentions.

Yours faithfully,

Carrick Crawford.

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