Labour division 'could boost BNP'

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has issued a warning to the party that continued in-fighting risks handing seats to the far-right BNP in next month's European elections.

After a weekend of turmoil at the top of the party, Lord Kinnock urged members to unite behind Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In an interview with The Guardian, he said that talk among discontented MPs of a possible leadership challenge to oust Mr Brown from No 10 was "ludicrous and damaging".

The latest blow to Mr Brown's authority came from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears who slammed the Government's "lamentable failure" to connect with voters in a weekend newspaper article.

She even took a sideswipe at the Prime Minister's notorious YouTube appearance, saying: "YouTube if you want to. But it is no substitute for knocking on doors."

Although she was said to be "horrified" that her comments have been seen as an attack on Mr Brown - and swiftly pledged her "100% support" for his leadership - they fuelled speculation of a possible move against him.

Rebel MPs, such as former ministers Frank Field and Kate Hoey, were already talking openly of a possible challenge if Labour fares badly in the European and local government elections on June 4.

Lord Kinnock, however, said that such talk simply played into the hands of the party's enemies.

"In order to maintain Labour advances like Surestart and investment in health and education we have all got to get behind Gordon. We need to present a united front and not keep in-fighting which will hand victories to the BNP. Discussions of leadership challenges are ludicrous and damaging."

Mr Brown's position had been damaged by a bruising week which saw him suffer his first Commons defeat since becoming Prime Minister in an emotive vote on Gurkha rights, and a further climbdown on reform of MPs' expenses.

Blackpool Gazette
Monday, 4th May 2009

Twitter users tell the BNP where to stick it

We're loathe to write a second blog post about Twitter in such a short period (more from Kate Hollern coming soon) but for, as Harold Macmillan once said, "events dear boy, events"!

It seems that a number of BNP activists have ventured away from the chummy racist echo chamber of angrylosers.com the BNP website to perform a bit of ill-advised "online engagement" with Twitter, the fast-growing internet messenging service. In the process, they've discovered first hand what the vast majority of the general public think of them.

The BNP leader Nick Griffin is standing as a North West candidate in the European elections on 4 June and Harriet Harman was correct in her recent assessment of the threat.

But we can take heart from the sturdy - and sometimes very witty - rejection they have suffered from Twitter users!

They seem to have adopted the "follow 1,000 people and hope they follow back" strategy. It's not even as they're targetting political people, as these hilarious posts show:

mattkirshen: Why are the BNP following me? Does he know I'm a Jew? And I'm in America so when I *GO HOME*, I'll be re-entering Britain

Flangel66: @BNPBen Get ready for a near-fatal overdose of Harry Potter and Doctor Who, 'cos I don't really Tweet about anything else!

blanche_dubois: Darling, what is the BNP? Is it some kinky British thing?

We're afraid it doesn't get any better for them:

Rogue_Leader: Urgh. The BNP followed me. How shall I get clean?

will_full: I'm disturbed to have found a user named BNPBen following me - I hit Block pretty quickly... Look him up though he's hilarious/disturbing.

christinamartin: Help I'm being followed by the BNP! Not for long though. Thank goodness for 'block'!

formulaic666: Why are the BNP following me? Let me put it simply. I hate you, your idiot redneck mates and everything you stand for.

Some users even tried to engage them in logical argument. Still no joy!

mrsminns: @BNPBen also thinks the anti-BNP messages he's been getting show a refusal to engage. Does he think "engage" means "agree"?

jaylett: On the prompting of @BNPBen, have read the BNP policies on their website. The words are 'thundering loonies'.

Well said guys. We couldn't have put it better ourselves!

Anyone wanting to read more (including things we can't print) or who doubts that these are representative can look here and here. Also check out our page on the BNP threat and Asif Sange's call to arms.

Source: Blackburn Labour Party

Apr 16, 2009