Nick "No-Mates" Griffin to Norwich?

Apparently the BNP's "Reverend" Robert West is poised to start a belated and ill-fated campaign for a seat in the Norwich North by-election.

The by-election takes place July 23 - just eleven days away.

Whilst other candidates have been on busy schedules of meeting the people of Norwich North and noting their concerns and problems, Robert West has been whiling away time in Wales, where he gave a speech.

This attitude does not show much respect for the BNP supporters in Norwich North. Neither is it calculated to gain any new supporters.

But rumour has it that at last the BNP has decided to initiate some sort of last-minute effort to gain votes and avoid total humiliation at the ballot box.

According to one report, some BNP members demand that the only way to put a more positive spin on the lacklustre and lackadaisical Robert West campaign would be a visit from the BNP Chairman and new MEP, Nick Griffin.

Griffin is still smarting from three major snubs in Europe.

First, he was unable to muster enough allies to form an official political grouping in the European Parliament, which begins work next week.

Second, he was asked to leave one of the main drinking haunts of European Parliament staff and MEPs in Brussels.

And now he finds he is not on the Government's guest list for a formal drinks party for British MEPs in Strasbourg next week.

In Norwich North the BNP campaign is a damp squib, fizzling out before it begins.

As the European Parliament begins work next week, Griffin is faced with a choice - lonely evenings in a foreign city, surrounded by foreigners, without any pals to plot sinking immigrants' ships with - or a quick ego-boosting foray to his few supporters in our fine city.

A Griffin no-show would suggest that the BNP have decided to write-off Norwich North altogether.

The few local BNP supporters are a long-suffering group, that's for sure.

Let's hope that they reward the contempt with which they have been treated by the "Reverend" West with no votes at all.