It has to be pointed out that the rise in the BNP is based on one small area and they attention they get compared to their votes is unreal.

At the last General Election for instance the BNP took 46,000 votes in England, less than 300 in wales and no votes at all in Scotland.

Compare this to The Socialist Alliance (55,000 in England, 2,500 in wales) The Socialist Labour Party (51,000 in England, 2,800 in wales, 3,000 in Scotland) or the Scottish Socialist Party (72,000 in scotland alone).

It seems that the SSP can gain more votes in Scotland than the BNP can in the whole of the UK. Yet when Le Pen visits the BNP it gets national coverage. When SSP leader Sheridan met Chavez, it gets no press whatsoever. Even though Sheridan represents a party bigger than the BNP and Chavez is a countrys leader not an opposition leader.

The SSP then went on to record over 130,000 votes in the Scottish elections. Where are the news stories about the rise of the left?

The BNP will concentrate all their efforts on a small pocket in the North West and possibly come away with a result but they are a very small fringe party with little or no structure and are not the threat people percieve them to be(electorally).

Ever visit their website? I advise that you do, they have a thing called policy forum which had me and my mates in stitches for a whole weekend. It was the funniest thing.

The press are being conned in to giving them coverage which makes them appear bigger than they actually are. At the last general election they were the sixteenth most popular party, behind SSP, SA, SLP, Sinn Fein, UUP Greens, Plaed Cymru and others. Hardly the stuff of revolution is it?