David Edgar rightly suggests it is worth looking at Oldham, Burnley, and Bradford 10 years after the race riots to chart the demise of the British National party (In the decade since Oldham, the only thing that's been swamped is the BNP, 11 May). But it's also worth looking at Stoke-on-Trent. Following last Thursday's local elections, the BNP has no democratic representation in the Potteries. This is partly down to the internal collapse of the BNP, but just as importantly to a re-energised Labour party. In those communities – already suffering the effects of deindustrialisation, unmanaged migration and globalisation – where Labour got lazy and took the white working-class vote for granted, the BNP made a series of electoral inroads. But in wards where the party did its job and worked hard for its vote, the BNP failed to get a foothold. This is a story as much about political activism as the relative merits of multiculturalism.
Lab, Stoke-on-Trent Central
