May 06, 2005
Extremists on the march
While Britain's radical Islamists made their mark by helping to elect George Galloway, the racist British National Party did unnervingly well in some of the seats they contested:
The BNP's best result came in Barking in east London, where Richard Barnbrook won 16.89% of the vote, coming a close third behind the Tories and Labour.
Although immigration was one of the top election issues, the far-right party secured only a marginal increase in its share of the overall vote, up 0.55% on 2001.
But it did win significant shares of the vote in some of the 120 constituencies where it put up a candidate.
These were concentrated in areas with high immigration, including Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
Party leader Nick Griffin stood in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and attracted 4,240 votes - more than 9% - just behind the Liberal Democrats at nearly 12%.
The result comes despite 45-year-old Mr Griffin facing race hate charges following an undercover TV expose.
Anthony Jones, BNP candidate in Ashton under Lyne, Greater Manchester, got more than 2,000 votes, as did Nicholas Cass in Rother Valley. Both seats were held by Labour.
In Wentworth, Jonathan Pygott of the BNP got nearly 1,798 votes.
In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, David Exley polled 5,066 votes (13.13%). The seat was won by Labour's Shahid Malik.
And in Rotherham BNP candidate Marlene Guest polled 1,986 - an increase of 7%, amounting to a 7% share of the votes cast in the constituency.
I fear this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Update: more depressing analysis from Melanie Phillips, Stephen Pollard and Harry's Place.
Update II: on a related note, Pim Fortuyn was murdered three years ago today.
Posted by damian at May 6, 2005 03:13 PM | TrackBack