Welcoming new friends

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Sunday, 3 May 2009, 11:33

It’s Sunday morning and I’ve finally got a moment to catch my breath. The last of our tabloid newspapers went to the printers last night which I have to admit was a great relief. The papers are good, especially as we are customising them for our key areas, but they certainly take some putting together. Fortunately we have a great team who are now pretty used to the last minute rush that is required to put the newspapers to bed.

On Friday I sent out our latest national email, this one asked people to sign up to local events. Hundreds responded, which was really great. Several people have come forward from areas where we have nothing organised, including Southport, Bootle and Sale in the North West, Glasgow and Aberdeen in Scotland, and Brighton and Chichester in the South East. We’ve so far advertised about 100 events on our website but I hope to add another 40 or 50 over the next couple of days.

The campaign really seems to be getting off the ground in the West Midlands. Got a call from Alan Weaver from Nuneaton yesterday to tell me that they had delivered about 5,000 leaflets and more were getting put out today. Matthew was speaking in Wolverhampton on Friday night where he announced that the biggest anti-BNP campaign in the region was now underway. With groups springing up all the time and activists signing in to events in their droves we have had to increase the print-run of our Midlands newspaper to 180,000 and this is in addition to the 300,000 leaflets which are being circulated.

Talking of the West Midlands, I see the BNP’s Simon Darby has disgraced himself again, this time claiming that Ugandans were ‘spear throwers’.

I cannot go without mentioning football. Today, two of my closest friends will be watching their respective teams bid for promotion to the Premiership. Jason Hunter will be in Burnley and Paul Mezsaros is down at Crystal Palace watching his beloved Sheffield United. My day, however, was yesterday, when both Leeds and Shrewsbury – my two teams –made it to the play-offs in their respective divisions. It’s a shame Shrewsbury had to do it at the expense of Dagenham and Redbridge, and incidentally with a two-one win at their ground, but I guess that’s football. Leeds now have a clash with Millwall, a team supported by three other good friends. Luckily we are all grown up enough to put aside our club allegiances to fight our common enemy – the fascists.