The dust has almost settled. My assessment of how the BNP performed.

[daftpunk]

Ok, they didn't make the political breakthrough I'd hoped for, but if you look at the results they are actually very encouraging.

The BNP got 563,743 votes (dispite only fighting half of all the available 650 seats)

They got 10% of the vote. That is pretty amazing for a small party, and under proportional representation those votes would result in seats.

NC will merge with someone (eventually?) and as one of his main aims is to push through PR it's all good for the BNP.

What do these results mean for the BNP ?

The tripling of the BNP vote on May 6th has some important implications.

Firstly, where they went head to head with UKIP and the Greens they thrashed them, they overtook UKIP in 178 seats, and UKIP have far more money than the BNP, and of course UKIP and the Greens are favoured by the media.

Secondly, while all minority parties were pushed to the edge by the bigger parties, the BNP's vote not only help up, but proportionally increased when compared to their June 2009 Euro election results.

The BNP are here to stay, and although the election was a disappointment in some respests, it was a clear sign that 1000's of people up and down the country support the policies of the BNP.

And let's not forget, political pundits had all but written off the Labour party after they lost the 92'election....

They went on to win 3 elections.

In 2000 the BNP polled 47,000, votes in 2010 over 500,000. Scarey stuff. I still want the stats.

DP - it has taken you nearly a week to come to a completely inaccurate conclusion?

You'll never make a career as the next presenter of Newsnight, will you?

LemonEmmaP. Is that right oh, dear. No hang on here are you saying that the seats that UKIP and BNP contested together that the BNP did better? Somethings gone wrong here, Why is this?, Daftpunk may have the answer.

does anyone know how many seats the Greens stood in? It is amazing that the BNP polled more than the Greens.

Daftpunk, you can work it out yourself.

Open 'calculator' on your computer.

Divide the number of BNP votes (563743) by the total number of votes cast (29,653,638)

Multiply by 100 to express as a percentage.

In one or two seats they got 10% or more, it's true... but in 269 seats they lost their deposit, at a total cost of £134,500.

To be fair, LemonEmma, the BNP were only contesting the seats they thought they'd do best in. I think if they'd stood in the other ?300-odd, they'd have got maybe 1-2% in each.

dp

several posters have pointed out that BNP did not win 10% of the vote or anything like it

they also did very badly in the local council elections, for example losing all their seats in Barking

The Greens actually have an MP now, the BNP do not, thank god

now go away and stop droning on about the bloody BNP, thanks very much

Now, to be fair everyone, this is the first time DP has ever tried to back up a post with any sort of fact or statistic.

OK, it was a wee bit inaccurate maybe, but the general principle should be encouraged surely?

Now that her inaccurate summary has been corrected though, I personally would like to see her comment on that.

I am telling you, this is DP being very true to form, posts something, get challenged, says she will be back, and then.....nuffink

It both angers and saddens me that some people honestly think it is acceptable to think like this...

There was a party with similar principles who came to power in the 1930s, called the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei...

Daftpunk said she would give me the stats at 14.47 and said she would take 40 minutes, she's late, I'm sure she will be back.

CLAIG. Just checked it out, the Greens polled 400,000, the BNP polled over 500,000 and UKIP polled 900,000.

Apologies re; 10%, that was clearly wrong.

.

Plus, the 6620 votes secured in B&D was the highest number ever cast for a BNP candidate, so that is encouraging.

I'll go back to the 97' election.

The BNP fought 54 seats and polled 35,000 votes.

In 2001 they fought 33 seats and polled 47,000 votes.

In 2005 they fought 117 seats and polled 192,746 votes.

In 2010 they fought 339 seats and polled 563,743 votes.

How can anyone argue that the BNP is not a party on the rise..?

If PR is introduced, the BNP could fill a bus with MP's.

In many areas UKIP did far better than the Greens. The BNP did better overall than UKIP although UKIP polled many more votes.

"How can anyone argue that the BNP is not a party on the rise..?"

Try this:

1997 - 47,000 votes per seat contested
2010 - 1663 votes per seat contested

Ah bugger it - read it wrong But hardly a major rise is it?

thanks complimentary, is there a website that says how many seats the parties contested and what percentage they got in each seat?

And there was me thinking all BNP voters would be brilliant at maths, what with being so well-informed, educated and generally clever. BNP voter too stupid to work out percentages? Egg and my face are in alignment.

Daftpunk. I have a question to ask of you and
I'm sure you can answer it. Many people when asked if they would vote UKIP say "no" I'm voting BNP, why is this? As far as I'm aware UKIP has firm based immigration policies, would like a referendum on the EU, has broad based policies that appealled to the 900,000 that voted for them and is very patriotic. What other factors make people vote BNP? do they think the other parties have forgotten them? including UKIP, in your opinion have other factors come into play?

Oh, and thankyou for providing the stats.

ohemgee;

Not sure why a BNP voter needs to be brilliant at maths? plus I have explained that The BNP got almost 10% of the vote in B&D, would also like to remind you that this is Mumsnet not Newsnight...

The BNP appear to be on the wane in my area DP.

[hurrah]

They used to have 7 seats on the local council - as of Thursday they have 5.

Seems like a bit of commonsense has filtered down through to the less bright of the electorate. Hopefully it will get to you eventually.

Votes per seat contested:

1997 ; 648
2001 ; 1424
2005 ; 1647
2010 ; 1662

Seems to be levelling off.

Given that it takes around 25-30,000 votes to win a seat, I'd say you still have some work to do, DP.

Fill a bus under PR?
Well, a people carrier, maybe....