Sunday, March 08, 2009

Eurosceptics spoilt for choice.

Was walking down Broad Street in Newtown yesterday morning when I came upon a table on the pavement outside Bear Lanes, loaded with political paraphernalia, manned by a fair sized group handing out leaflets. At first, I thought is was Ukip - so stopped for a chat. Accepted a couple of leaflets, including a copy of 'Identity', a professionally produced and rather good looking magazine. After a few seconds I realised it was the British National Party, out on the campaign rail. Now I reckoned that it was not smart politics for me to hang around for long, so I beat a polite retreat before anyone snapped the scene with a mobile camera.

This was a first for me. I've not encountered the BNP out on the stump in Montgomeryshire before, despite it being the home of party leader, Nick Griffin. Could it be that the party is going to target the constituency at the next General Election. Not sure what impact the BNP would have. The target yesterday was very much the anti EU vote - so it could be bad news for my good friend, Ukip's Bruce Lawson. I locked myself in the bathroom to flick through 'Identity. (Not really - but I made sure that I did not read it in public). The main photographs were of Daniel Craig (Wonder if he knows), a rotten apple, three chimpanzees (representing Lib Lab Con), JFK, a gold prospector, and some sepia action shots from the trenches of the First World War. Connections to the articles were tenuous. And on page one, there was a bizarre article about black men being three times more likely to get prostate cancer than white men. Decided that I'd read enough. But yesterday was also enough for me to realise that the BNP is not a force to be underrated.

And then today's TV main politics programmes gave terrific advertising space to more emerging parties who may be putting candidates before the good people of Montgomeryshire. Firstly there was former Conservative, Sir Paul Judge on Andrew Marr, telling us about his Jury Team, which may well be fielding a candidate. I certainly do not dismiss the impact that this could have on an election in Montgomeryshire, which I'm told the media are likely to focus some attention on. And then we has Declan Ganley on the Politics Show, informing us that he wants his Libertas Party to put up candidates all over Europe. We should hear more about this next Tuesday. At present, its the EU election that's his target, but who knows what happens after that. For sure, the Eurosceptics are going to be spoilt for choice.
when I came upon

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