BBI won't get the messaage

Boston's newest councillor, BNP member David Owens, will doubtless be at his desk today waiting to get stuck in, and to see how the powers that be plan to fit him into the scheme of things.
Between his election on Thursday night and this morning , the borough's website - after a couple of early errors - corrected the spelling of his name and issued a correct link to his new e-mail address.
Whilst council leader Richard Austin continues to "reflect" on what he calls the "serious implications" of the result, the BNP is in no doubt of them.
"The BNP campaign was fought on national issues, and on immigration in particular,” said Councillor Wayne McDermott, the BNP’s East Midlands election officer.
"There are a large number of similar wards in and around Boston, in which this result could easily be replicated. Boston therefore has the potential to become a key area for the BNP."
Doubtless someone will soon bob up to claim that the low turn out for the Fenside ward at 22.1 per-cent was not truly representative of the sort of result that would have been achieved at a general election of the council.
But we think that what we are seeing here is a repeat of what happened in May 2007, when the BBI stormed to victory.
People were clearly unhappy with the status quo - the traditional political hierarchies, with all their incompetencies and broken promises.
So they voted en masse for a party that they believed would actually do something for them.
Eighteen months on, the voters have decided that they are clearly unhappy with the Boston Bypass Independents, with all their incompetencies and broken promises, and their view of the old guard parties clearly remains unchanged.
There is a lesson here for the BBI, but we somehow doubt that they will choose to heed it.
Expect bluster and the usual political cliches concerning the BNP.
Then sit back and expect to be force fed the mixture as before.

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