My Polling Day

Visited polling stations in Bethnal Green & Bow with Jeffrey Marshall. Chauffeured around in a minicab by another activist.

The only trouble were rossetted activists over-enthusiastically breaking the rule of not wearing-rosettes in or within a certain distance of a polling station.

Everyone friendly, civilised, cheerful.

RESPECT were the most visible.

It was asked by another activist why even the wearing of a rosette was not allowed inside a polling station and I felt I had the answer after I saw Jeffrey Marshall going goo-goo ga-ga over the Conservative candidate Caroline Kerswell who was canvassing and accompanied by her minder. She is a barrister, blonde and top totty, as you can see at http://conservativecaroline.blogspot.com/2009/10/caroline-kerswell-selected-to-stand-in.html

She had been threatened with violence by an Asian Labour councillor for daring to point out that there were rules about how close you can come to a polling station with leaflets and rosettes. He said he would give her a smack, apparently, and she called the police.

This of course brought out all Jeffrey's manly and protective instincts, and he hid from her his dreadful secret that he was a BNP candidate. He knew Caroline's shutters would come down the moment she knew the terrible dark dirty secret of his party affiliation.

I asked after the encounter if he had outed himself to her as BNP candidate and he cooed with every evidence of infatuation: "I spoke to her and she smiled at me and confided in me. I really couldn't bear to see her manner towards me change the moment she finds out I am a member of the BNP " or words to that effect. "If only I could ask her more about herself, her work, her life ..." he added wistfully.

Such are the sacrifices some men make for their nation, race and party.

Imagine a situation where an exquisitely beautiful woman - Aryan, noble, angelic, rather like Caroline Kerswell perhaps - wearing a BNP rosette in a polling station, mysterious and mute.

All she had to do was catch the eye of any male voter, smile at him seductively, and then lower her eyes and look away.

They would fall instantly in love with her and vote BNP. No doubt about that.

A male candidate wearing a rosette would have to offer promises, proposals, arguments and bribes and would be simply unable to compete with the spell a beautiful woman casts over the much weaker sex - men.

After all, we already know that men actually lose their minds when they fall in love.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6132718/Men-lose-their-minds-speaking-to-pretty-women.html

That is obviously why Labour and Tory have their all-women shortlists. It is because they already know this dirty trick they can play on their own supporters and of course the supporters of other parties.

Then we went to Television Centre in Wood Lane for Jeffrey to be filmed attempting to persuade a voter to vote BNP.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4s-alternative-election-night/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1


Below was the gist of his speech:

For the disgruntled Tory voter who has been left in the lurch by David Cameron, who does not understand the first thing about Conservative principles, but who is vying with New Labour to be more gay-friendly than they, who thinks to way to power is to ape New Labour, may I draw your attention to the fact that none of our policies would have raised any eyebrows in the 1950s.

You may well say to yourselves: “Things have moved on since then,” but I ask you this: “Are we now in a better place than we were in the 1950s, 60s and 70s?” If you think not, then vote BNP.

For the disgruntled Labour voter – the white working class - who feels that any questioning or complaining about immigration automatically makes you a “bigot”, may I point out that the Labour government are scattering British passports like confetti in the hope tilting the vote in their favour. These new citizens will be expected to vote Labour after being bribed by Labour with British passports.

For the disgruntled non-white Briton, may I point out that uncontrolled immigration is bad for you too. It brings with it higher crime rate and a strain on national resources such as social housing, education and health services. We at the BNP know that the Liberal Left have told you that you cannot complain either, because you are also an immigrant, and that if you don’t like it you should go back to where you came from.

For the concerned Muslim, who thinks that voting BNP is tantamount to turkeys voting for Xmas, may I point out that if there had been a BNP government this country would not now be embroiled in two disastrous invasions of two Muslim countries nor would we have the blood of any Muslims in Iraq or Afghanistan on our hands. The BNP is the party that has been the most strongly and consistently against the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The BNP are, like Muslims, socially conservative, as we believe in family values, married two-parent families that stay together and, like you, reject all that contributes to family breakdown, juvenile delinquency, feral youth and higher crime. We reject feminism, single motherhood, progressive education, soft policing and favour corporal and capital punishment, zero tolerance policing and the reintroduction of fault in divorce.

Like you, we are called extremists by the Liberal Left just for stating the obvious. So there you have it: something for everyone. Let it not be said that the BNP is not a broad church, or even a big mosque …. [he ended, rather shamelessly targeting the mythical Muslim bloc vote]

Jeffrey was filmed talking to an assertive and intelligent black woman who went to Barking College and complained about the racism of Barking residents. She was one of the group of floating voters inveigled into giving up their time to listen to the respective spiels of all the candidates.

Jeffrey went first - candidates were made to draw lots - so his audience were still fresh and unbored.

Of course no one would admit they had been persuaded by Jeffrey that he had changed their minds, even if he had. Admit to being persuaded by the National Party of Political Pariahs??!!

Never!!

As it happened, there was a young and pretty Muslim female who asked him - disapprovingly as it turned out - if he proposed introducing Sharia law into the UK. (This was because his proposals included hanging and flogging.)

This took him aback slightly but he dealt with it as well as he could. She however was not particularly impressed by his response that this was the sort of thing that went on in this country way before anyone in this country had ever heard of Sharia law, and was clearly one of those young, liberal and compassionate types.

That is the trouble with dealing with a group who are mostly young. They have no experience of life, no experience of financial problems, of having to bring up children, fretting about finances and schools, crime and boring things that the young, free and single disdain to concern themselves with.

If it had been me I would have grandly declared that there is no point talking to people who have it so good that they actually cannot understand that there are people who live in horrible neighbourhoods who have horrible neighbours making life horrible for them that they would like to discourage by means capital and corporal punishment. Or have horrible schools that you have no choice but to send your children to, helpless to prevent the fruit of your loins from becoming teenage mums and NEETs.

As it is, the BNP is simply wasted on idealistic feckless youth.

The Tory candidate was well-dressed, good-looking and articulate, remembering to say all those reassuring phrases that they are all so media-trained to utter.

The Labour candidate was the most offensive of all and came out with the usual "fascist party" smears and referred to the awfulness of having "a real live fascist in the room".

It had such comedic value that if we were in fact being filmed it would be the cue for Jeffrey to pop up behind his shoulder, looking the very image of the pantomime fascist with jackboots, toothbrush moustache and all, laughing maniacally and looking for Jews to roast in gas ovens.

The UKIP - chap was quite good with figures about how wasteful and useless the EU was, but that always bores everybody else, including Eurosceptics themselves.

The Green Party activist read his speech and so did the Independent candidate who said nothing particularly memorable though a lovely lady and very friendly. Speech-reading is bad, bad, bad. It is worse, worse, worse, if you do not read it properly or read it too quickly and stumble over your words.

After all that, none of the candidates' speeches was even being recorded.

A total waste of time the Independent candidate remarked as we left. Well, that's TV for you.

As for the famed generosity of BBC hospitality in the Green Room, that has long since become extinct. Hot drinks and Celebrations were all that was on offer.

So we had something to eat at a pretty pink pizza restaurant that was being self-consciously Italian and which played opera throughout our meal.

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant-8276.php

Also there was a grandmother with a 6 year old - who bought a bottle of champagne for a couple. Her accent was middle class, and her words suggest that she wished to recapture a special time in the past perhaps before she was bereaved. She spoke to her grand-daughter in a way that was disturbing in its mawkishness and maudlin sentimentality, making us a little uncomfortable because the night was no longer young and the child still in her school uniform. The woman eventually started to go - just after 11pm - and was sent on her way by a hug from the restaurateur's wife. Concern for the child and the evident desolating loneliness of the woman was a slice of life that was not particularly cheering on our plates. She had bought a meal and shared a bottle of champagne with a black couple she did not know particularly well and who did not have much to say to her.

Then to Mile End Sports Centre for the count.

A few remarks were made about someone like me wearing a BNP rosette but otherwise we chatted to people and saw familiar faces. Jeffrey was deep in conversation for ages with someone who turned out to be a RESPECT supporter.

Bumped into the Labour activist Bill Turner - also my FB friend - at the polling station buffet. Gave him a cheery "Hi Bill" but he completely blanked me. I wonder why.

He was asked by David Cohen of The Evening Standard if he wanted any party other than his to win and Jeffrey said RESPECT rather than Labour on the grounds that RESPECT and BNP are both against the war.

Over 51,000 votes had to be counted under three separate elections for the local, parliamentary and referendum on whether to have an elected mayor.

I cat-napped intermittently, unlike the Labour Counting Agent called Nishi who worked straight through taking comprehensive samples and notes in her high-heeled shoes, looking as enviably fresh at the end as she was at the beginning. She would start at one end of the table go to the end and work her way back again and again and again, like a clockwork doll.

Chatted to the United Voice Hasib Hikmat http://www.unitedvoice.org.uk/object.html and his wife whose sweetness of countenance reminded me of an Asian Mona Lisa.

Jeffrey and I both recognised his policies as something that the BNP would favour.

Indeed, I was pleading with Jeffrey and the others to endorse Hasib as BNP-approved so Jeffrey would be free to stand in Hackney North & Stoke Newington after announcing that the BNP would stand in Hackney-Stokey to

1. make things more interesting for them

2. to address the problem of gun-crime (particularly after the cycle-by shooting of Agnes Sina-Inakoju who died as a result of being in the wrong place - a fast food outlet on a Wednesday afternoon at 7:18PM last month).

3. to defeat Suzanne Moore -The Mail and Guardian journalist - who was standing as an independent candidate. I found it infuriating that her bright idea of solving gun crime ie to tell children at primary school that it was wrong to shoot people, was being given any house space anywhere at all.

Here is what she actually said at http://www.facebook.com/notes/moore4hackney/my-manifesto-moore4hackney/109393619097748:

My family has been personally affected by the wave of gun and knife crime and we all know we can identify at an early stage kids who are likely to get into gangs. We need really early intervention in primary schools to help kids find a different path.

Since she represents feminism, liberalism and socialism, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for the BNP to challenge feminist-socialist values and declare a war on feminism and liberalism from the outset to the Hackneyites. I was quite confident that whatever her vote was (258 as it turned out) Jeffrey (who received 1405) would comfortably get more votes than her, even in Hackney, if he took a more racially-inclusive approach towards spreading the BNP message and running a campaign on a law and order ticket.

That was not to be despite my best efforts, sadly.

I mentioned to Hasib how shocking I found it that it when chatting to Labour- and Tory-supporting Muslims on Facebook that when I talked about "the war" they would ask "What war?", "It is only a little skirmish - about to end," was one of the more dismissive remarks I had heard.

Hasib agreed that the Afghans would not adopt a similarly casual attitude towards the invasion of their country. He remarked that the political concerns of most Muslims in Tower Hamlets do not extend beyond Tower Hamlets. (By political concerns I think he must have meant "bribes by Labour to vote Labour again".)

The count was conducted with impressive impartiality by the Polling Officer. I was called with the other agents to decide upon the ballot papers to be adjudicated on as to whether its voting intention was clear. The other candidates were happy to allow questionably marked ballot papers in favour of the BNP if it was obvious that the voting intention was clearly in its favour, and were the opposite of obstructive, and we must be grateful for small mercies.

When Jeffrey's result was announced at around 1 pm the next day, it was drowned up by a loud roar of "SCUM!!!". When the vote of RESPECT was next announced some Labour wag also cried "Scum!" I couldn't help but smile.

Afterwards, while having a rollie outside with the others, a female photographer on behalf of http://www.banglamirrornews.com with a Nikon camera asked one of us for a light. She was smoking a rollie too, I noticed. One was duly produced and we had a pleasant chat, and I wondered if she knew who we were.

Rob Slade, a nice guy if ever there was one, said he was more familiar with Canon and gave her a few tips about fixing the aperture but changing the shutter speed to this budding Bangladeshi photojournalist. She is of course absolutely right that it needs more pictures to go with its stories.

It occurs to me too that the Bangladeshi National Party and the British National Party may have a few things in common from this Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Nationalist_Party and perhaps an attempt at forging closer links could be considered.

The BNP promotes a very center-right policy combining elements of conservatism, corporatism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism and anti-communism. It is more popular among the country's business class, military, and conservatives.

Guess which BNP I am referring to? Surely it is time for the British BNP to aspire to the political and ideological respectability of the Bangladeshi BNP?