What a day!

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Monday, 3 May 2010, 23:00

It’s 10.30pm and I’ve just got home. I’ve been out since 6.30am and I’m totally shattered – but what a day. The final tally was 385 people and 13 wards across Barking & Dagenham covered. That's about 55,000 leaflets. We could have done a lot more but we simply ran out of walks and leaflets. By 12pm we were rationing people to 100 leaflets each just so there was something for everyone to do.

What was even more amazing was that most of the people out today were totally new to us. There were people from across London, Essex and Oxfordshire.

And I really do think we are having an impact. The BNP has rushed out an appallingly tatty leaflet in response to our 12pp women’s booklet which only makes them look even more stupid and extreme. Griffin, interviewed on BNP TV, has begun to admit that our literature is hurting their campaign. If they were angry about the women’s booklet, which has gone to every woman in the borough, I dread to think about their reaction to the ‘Apology’ leaflets that went out today. In them we highlight the ineffectiveness of the BNP councillors and the extremism of some of their candidates.

We have little more than 48 hours to go and we will be driving forward our campaign. Given our turnout over the last few weeks, I’m confident that we will get 150 people helping out on Election Day – so many that we will probably be able to increase the number of wards we can cover. We have identified 16,000 voters who we will be aiming to turn out on the day and if we succeed then we will stop the BNP. It's that simple.

There is a lot to do but I’m growing in confidence that we can do it. The hysterical response from the BNP is a sign that we have them on the backfoot. And it is only going to get worse for them over the next 48 hours.

Thanks to everyone who came today and I hope to see you all before the campaign is over. There is a lot of work to do so any time you have will be greatly appreciated.