BNP Fail to Get Bristol Breakthrough

bristol | local government | news report Friday June 05, 2009 07:32 by antiBNP

Poor performance of party in Bristol elections may cause more infighting

All the omens were with the BNP, yet on the day in Bristol, the performance was poor.

The BNP is already wracked with infighting (see for http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/690469 more) but they must have been hoping for lots of good local elections results to stave this off.

And conditions both locally, nationally and internationally could no have been better for the BNP to make their breakthrough in Bristol. The local council has seen changes in hands as Labour and the LibDems fight for power. The recession has been biting the local economy. Nationally, trust in the mainstream parties has collapsed due to the expenses scandal and the recession rumbles on. Internationally, Britain is still locked in a grinding, expanding war in Afghanistan.

The effort the party had put in was huge; national flyer campaigns, local activists going foor-to-door and the election broadcast on TV. So now was their chance to make gains. So how did the fascists do? Not that well...

Avonmouth 11% (3rd)
Frome Vale 11% (4th, close with Greens who got 10.7%)
Hillfields 13% (4th)
Horfield (5th (3.5% - last! Beaten by Greens),
Lawrence Hill 8.14 (8.1% - last! Beaten by Greens)
Lockleaze 8.3% (5th - Respect came 3rd here with 14.9%)
St.George East 17.4% (3rd)
St.George West 7.5% (5th, Beaten by Greens with 10.4%)

(We include other small parties as a comparison)

So overall their best result was St.George East - but this was a 35% turn-out and still represents only 575 votes. They never got close to a 2nd place, ever mind a first. In some areas they were last (Horfield, Lawrence Hill) or almost last (Lockleaze only 20 more green votes would put them last, or St.George West where only the English Democrats did worse)

The MEP results are still due; their main chance for a breakthrough. But in Bristol, the BNP have failed.