Thursday night saw the first official British National Party meeting in Telford, Shropshire, attended by 45 people specially invited to inaugurate the new unit. “The area needs a local group because there are so many new BNP members in the area as a result of the large number of enquiries generated from the Euro elections,” said meeting host and West Midlands organiser, Alwyn Deacon.
West Midlands election officer James Whittall revealed that without any local organisation, the BNP had polled nine percent of the vote in Telford. “This is an impressive result when it is considered that we only put out the one election leaflet in the area,” Mr Whittall said. “That compares to an average of eight and a half percent average for the rest of the West Midlands where we did canvass and leaflet.”
Next speaker was West Midlands training organiser Richard Lumby who dealt with some practical issues in making a group popular amongst locals by, amongst other things, assisting residents with issues which other parties do not wish to touch.
The meeting was then opened for a question and answer session during which local attendees were able to ask questions about the functioning of a local group and how best to go about setting one up.
Last speaker was West Midlands Secretary Mike Bell who detailed how he and four others had started the South Birmingham Group which had now expanded into a branch which could hold meetings of 200 people or more.
“We did this from a support base similar to that here in Telford,” Mr Bell said, adding that it was the intention of the party to have Telford BNP fully functioning with all officials in place before the end of the year.
A collection was held in which £100 was raised to launch the new group.
