Lincolnshire Voice

HOPE not Hate (oh the irony Ed) have sent out this strategy briefing regarding the BNP:

The BNP is likely to contest over 200 parliamentary seats in the General Election and up to 1,000 council seats. The main threat is in Barking & Dagenham, where they could take overall control of the council, and Stoke-on-Trent, where they could become the largest single party – and we fear that Nick Griffin could win the parliamentary seat in Barking.

The HOPE not hate campaign has identified 102 council wards in 31 local authority areas that are at risk from the BNP. Just over half of these risk wards are in just 10 local authority areas. The concentration is even starker when one counts the most at risk wards. All but three of the 25 most at risk wards fall in 10 local authority areas, as do 38 of the 50 most at risk wards.

The high risk local authorities, where the BNP pose a threat in multiple wards, are Barking & Dagenham, Stoke-on-Trent, Thurrock , Nuneaton, Sandwell, Amber Valley, Burnley, Barnsley, Rotherham and Leeds. But there are other areas, such as Wigan, Tameside and Bexley, where the BNP will be pushing strongly for the first time.

However, amidst the BNP threat we have an opportunity to roll them back. Over half of BNP councillors are up for re-election this May. That means that if we can run an effective campaign we can actually remove a large swathe of BNP representation in local government. It is going to be a hard fight but it is one that we can win.

Barking & Dagenham will be our national priority. We simply cannot allow the election of a BNP MP or for them to take control of the council. While we are massively increasing capacity in the local area we will be giving our supporters ways they can help.

To defeat the BNP we have devised our largest and most sophisticated campaign plan to date. It includes:

• Building local networks of activists. Since the European elections we have been investing in Local Organisers who are becoming the backbone of much of our campaign. We recognise the vital important of building local capacity in our key areas, without which we cannot achieve our goals, so over the next few weeks we will be launching several local initiatives to achieve this.

• Telephone canvassing. In February we will telephone canvass as many of our top 50 key wards as possible, with our aim to make at least 50,000 calls. This will be done online, so enabling our supporters across the country to help in these elections, with HOPE not hate telephone parties bringing people together to phone collectively. The Voter ID operation will seek to identify voters who dislike the BNP. We will then build up a relationship with these voters through a series of mailings and leaflets during the spring, which will hopefully increase the likelihood of them voting in May.

• Mobilising women voters. Research has repeatedly emphasised that women are less likely to vote BNP than men. We intend to produce a leaflet aimed specifically at women voters.

• Localised material. We will be producing localised material for all of our key areas, with up to 20 different editions of a HOPE not Hate/Daily Mirror tabloid with articles customised for that local authority area.

• Daily Mirror. The HOPE not hate campaign will again be working closely with the Daily Mirror and for the third year running we will organise a HOPE bus tour. There will also be an 8-page supplement inside the Daily Mirror.

How many of the other parties have to put up with this behaviour?