A full house

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Thursday, 23 April 2009, 23:23

Just got in from a meeting of Blackburn and Darwen United Against Racism. I’m feeling shattered but really upbeat. Fifty people, from different parties and faiths, gathered to plan out their strategy for the next few weeks. In a borough of 56,000 houses, they have agreed to take 48,000 copies of the HOPE not hate newspaper. In addition, Salim Mulla reported on how the Lancashire Council of Mosques were mobilising to turn out the Muslim vote, while the Deputy Council Leader David Foster promised to unite with the other main parties in supporting the anti-BNP statement issued by BADUAR

The group is so confident of distributing its papers early that it is already planning a second, more localised leaflet drop closer to polling day.

Reports of our growing campaign are coming from across the country. Two hundred students have already signed up to the campaign in Lincoln. Students at Birmingham University are promising to deliver 10,000 newspapers in Halesowen, the London Anti-Racist Alliance are taking 18,000 leaflets for Harrow, in West London, and Burton-on-Trent are taking 20,000. Alec McFadden rang me this evening from a campaign meeting in Liverpool to say that they were increasing their newspaper order to 85,000 for the city. I congratulated him wholeheartedly but thought the better of telling him about my meeting in Manchester this afternoon. Last week I reported on this blog that we were confidently hoping to cover 27 of the city’s 32 wards. Well, I am really pleased to say that we are now expecting to cover the entire city during a few days of May. If this is achieved, it will be the largest anti-fascist leafleting operation in UK history and more importantly mean that 330,000 voters receive an anti-BNP newspaper ahead of the election. Our aim now is to cover the entire Greater Manchester area, which equates to 36% of the North West electorate.