UKIP: "fruitcakes", "loonies" and "closet racists"- Cameron has never spoken so much sense! (Forest of Dean Liberal Democrats)

Forest of Dean Liberal Democrats <hdalziel@cix.co.uk>

UKIP: "fruitcakes", "loonies" and "closet racists"- Cameron has never spoken so much sense!

November 28, 2009 12:00 AM
Originally published by Sir Graham Watson MEP

Nigel Farage has been a fantastic leader for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

He has used his slick presentation skills to distance the party's leadership and policy from a sizeable faction that called both UKIP and the BNP home. He has successfully focused efforts on both generating and seizing upon public misunderstanding about the EU.

However, on Friday the party completed a vicious leadership battle by electing Lord Pearson of Rannoch. In the process, it exposed some alarming truths about worrying elements of its membership.

We all know that Farage, Pearson and other UKIP parliamentarians like to play on the old boy, public school image that appeals to some people. Godfrey Bloom MEP's concerns over women's rights- 'they don't clean behind the fridge' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/3912385.stm)- and advice to his female assistants to go "on the game", were undoubtedly aimed at amusing the male-chauvinists.

But this attitude manifests itself in much uglier forms that are rarely seen, such as the hounding out of office of a female press officer, who was the butt of frequent sexist slurs. It is also worrying to think what would happen if these jokers acquired any sort of power.

What people should really know, however, is that Lord Pearson was the favoured candidate of the BNP. This was not an electoral ploy to see UKIP move towards the out-of-fashion mainstream; bloggers believe a UKIP that is tough on supposed "Islamification" under Pearson would present the best chance to push a far right, BNP agenda. He admitted himself on the Politics Show last Sunday that 'there is a thin line between UKIP and the BNP'.

This is all too much for UKIP Councillor Alan Wood from Wiltshire, who promised he would leave UKIP. I hope many others follow.

His election means UKIP is once again teetering on the brink of becoming a BNP bedfellow. Some members are alleged to maintain active links with the BNP, and it is unusual (to say the least) that during the summer the BNP was free from a UKIP challenge in 80% of seats it was contesting, whilst UKIP had no BNP challenger in 85% of the seats in which it was standing.

Could this all be coincidence and speculation? Yes.

But what is real, and what I see every week in the European Parliament, is an openly nationalistic, right wing and often racist group of which UKIP is a leading component.

The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group have members from parties that describe immigrants as "bingo-bongos", compare the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and have been proven racist by the courts.

Some people who have supported UKIP in the past are liberal by nature. They want a democratic, transparent society which helps individuals realise their hopes. But they have been seduced and misled by lies about the EU. It is only right that these people are made aware of the real UKIP.