Shame, and hope not hate

I feel ashamed that people in the north west have elected a BNP candidate to represent them and all this entails.

The further south you go it seems that on balance the BNP vote diminished and the Green vote increased. I've always thought of us northeners as being really warmhearted and welcoming as a people and so I found the results of the election very saddening.

But then I think about what I perceive as the differences in the rates of ethnic minorities residing in the south and north and can bring myself a little to understand what pushes someone to vote BNP.

I remember a van driver last week in Widnes who told me he'd be voting BNP - because the simple mantra he'd received from all sorts of sources had told him he'd lost his job because of others from elsewhere.

I think of some 'good' people in Burnley I know who didn't vote BNP not because they weren't sympathetic to what the BNP was going on about but because they considered that they didn't want any blood baths on their doorstep.

This is reality and I'm sure we've all come across such reasoning.

What of the future - well its too early of course - we need to reflect. A couple of simple things struck me last night when I was watching the results programme. (Or maybe it's me whose simple - Linda nods!)

I felt uneasy about how all the candidates snubbed Nick Griffen. I too would have walked off the podium but I would have felt uneasy. I had this feeling even more so a couple of years ago at election time when I'd gone to the local election office for a run down on procedures. After the meeting as I was going out of the door I noticed a few BNP members coming out as well. I felt the urge to let the door shut in their faces but I couldn't. I didn't know these people - but they were human.

The other thing was the fact that the Green vote nationally was up and as Caroline Lucas said if the system of PR in Germany had been operating (national poll plus candidates in regional areas) we'd have obtained about seven or eight seats. And what about the Green result in Norwich definitely bodes well for the by - election.

Well done everyone particularly Peter.