>IN BRITAIN, A FAR-RIGHT PUSH THREATENS TONY BLAIR Thursday's vote for
>local councils will gauge views on Labour Party's government and
>immigration policy.
This story is somewhat misleading. First of all, the whole idea that Blair is actually threatened chiefly by the far right is something recently put about by Labour spin doctors (and Margaret Hodge is certainly exaggerating the BNP's appeal in her own constituency). I suspect the reason behind it was to motivate reluctant Labour supporters, but there's also an important sense in which Labour has to disavow threats from the Left (because otherwise it has to seriously answer left-wing questions rather than purely right-wing ones).
The BNP have 24 councillors. I'm willing to bet they won't expand very much beyond that, and certainly won't get the 70+ councillors that some of the more excitable press have been talking about.
It's worth bearing in mind that Labour faces the serious prospect of losing a heartland East End council (Tower Hamlets) to Respect. That's a much more serious threat than the BNP poses anywhere in the country. And this is why, despite talking up the threat of the BNP, Labour has preferred to send all of its activists to Tower Hamlets. They would much rather lose to the far right than to the left.
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