Self-congratulating yourself for abject failure: HnH's self-deluding campaign 'analysis'

Nick Lowles -
Now lacks the smug grin after UKIPs
advances in Labour heartlands

After Lowles congratulatory tweet and blog posting (both now deleted) to a far-right former BNP councillor, his latest contribution is his 'analysis' of the elections so far.

As might be expected, his analysis is not what it quite appears to be. For a start, on UKIP he writes:

"The earthquake promised by Nigel Farage has not materialized. Yes, UKIP gained 128 seats and held on to 35 others, but at 17% of the national vote, support for the party was down from last year’s 23%."

Which may be technically true. But we reckon in England there were 4211 council seats up for election, of which UKIP contested only around 2300. As the vote share is calculated across all seats and not just the seats the party contested, that means that the 1911 seats which UKIP didn't contest count as a 0% vote share. If you take out those almost 2000 seats, UKIPs vote share in the wards it contested climbed from the 17% Lowles quotes to closer to 30%. Lowles is not so stupid that he is not aware of this, meaning his argument is somewhere between disingenuous and a downright lie. It is certainly a wilful distortion.

He then returns to the Labour fantasy that somehow it is Tories who are voting for UKIP and not Labour, dismissing as aberrations UKIPs results in Rotherham and other Labour heartlands and pointing to the 'success' of Hope not Hate's campaign in 'halting' UKIPs advance. Perhaps he should have taken a closer look at the voting figures in cities where they previously weighed the Labour vote rather than counted it. Somewhere like Bradford perhaps, where of UKIPs 16 candidates, 1 was elected, while 11 took second place, some just a handful of votes away from winning. Only 4 candidates received under 20% of the vote, while 6 scored over 30%: and this despite - or more likely because of - a sustained and concentrated effort by Hope not Hate throughout the city. A full breakdown of UKIP's results in Bradford can be found here on the local branch's blog.

Then there is some more Lowles comedy - what used to be called spin before it became so outrageous that it expects to get away with saying that white is black:

"HOPE not hate ran its largest campaign to date, with over two-and-a-half million newspapers and leaflets being distributed nationally, thousands of people involved and strong and lasting links across many local communities built. Over 3,600 of our supporters donated to our campaign over the last few months and this helped us fund an eight-page supplement in the Daily Mirror."

We have discussed their newspapers and leaflets before following the failure of their action days over the May Day bank holiday and on 'Transport Tuesday' last week. The claim that they deliverd 'over 2,500,000' leaflets and newspapers is rather strange, since on the 2nd May they announced that their

Only a week ago, HnH were asking for
help to deliver half as many leaflets as
they now claim

'Deliver Hope' campaign 'have produced over 1.3 million leaflets and newspapers', and their ability to deliver even that many seemed suspect. In Brighton they claimed to have delivered 27,000 newspapers despite having a campaign team of only 5 people for 2 days. Our suspicion is that they did indeed deliver 27,000, except that 24,000 were delivered to one of the many recycling centres run by the Green council there in a single batch.

The discrepancy of 1,200,000 leaflets can only be accounted for by including the circulation of the Daily Mirror, which included an 8 page insert shortly before polling day - Lowles was begging for the £10,000 needed to pay for it, despite Hope not Hate being awash with Labour Party and trade union funds simply to create the entirely false impression that HnH is somehow a grassroots campaign which relies on donations from individuals, whereas in fact the vast majority of its money in 2009 - 89% - came from the largest trade unions. As for the Daily Mirror, their efforts succeeded in turning out their readers to vote for UKIP on a scale previously unimagined.

Lowles then went on to make the laughable claim that:

"While not underestimating the size of UKIP’s advance, we believe that our efforts made a real difference."

So lets take a look at that real difference (with thanks to a poster on our Facebook page for the figures):

Party                              Seats before                Seats after               % increase/decrease

Labour                           3827                            4111                        +     7.4%
Conservative                 2927                            2702                         -     7.7%
Lib Dem                        1168                            893                           -   23.0%
UKIP                             17                                184                           +980.0%

Yep, that really put the brakes on UKIPs advance, didn't it?

As Lowles says in his closing remarks, 'We really did make a difference'. We'd agree. Without you, we couldn't have made the British public realise just how much of our country had been sold out from underneath us. We couldn't have made them feel that they were being lectured to by a bunch of middle class kids with no understanding of working class life. We couldn't have highlighted just how alien some of our largest cities have become. So thanks, Nick. We appreciate the help. Keep up the good work, and you just keep fooling yourself that you helped your side of the argument.

We believe Hope not Hate is now entering its final days as the anti-UKIP campaign of the Labour Party, a subject we will return to later.

On a point unrelated to this post, Hope not Hate deleted Nick Lowles' congratulatory posts to former BNP councillor Paul Cromie on his success in barely holding off a UKIP challenge in Bradford, and claimed later that the posts were 'a joke' and that Cromie 'hated them'. And yet earlier in the evening, Lowles and Hope not Hate seemed to be getting their information on how the count was progressing in Bradford from Cromie, as the following blog post on Lowles blog makes clear:

Nick Lowles supports former BNP councillor and friend of Nick Griffin over UKIP

Former BNP councillor Paul Cromie
- congratulated by HnH for beating
the UKIP candidate!

It's true. It really is. On Nick Lowles personal blog on the Hope not Hate website he writes:

"Former BNP councillor, turned Independent, Paul Cromie, has fought off a strong challenge from UKIP in his Queensbury ward, in Bradford.
Well done Paul!"

You can read the post yourself, here. And it's screen-shotted below in case they have a change of heart and remove it.

Changes of heart seem common when it comes to Paul Cromie and his wife Linda, who is also a local councillor. Cromie professed to have left the BNP in 2011 and yet in April 2012 Lowles was writing on his blog a post entitled "He's Back", in which he passed comment on the Cromies attending a BNP fundraiser in Yorkshire where they met with Nick Griffin. Cromie wrote in his defence that Griffin was a personal friend.

The date of this meeting makes it doubly interesting because of the elections in May 2012. In the Queensborough ward which the Cromies represent on Bradford Council, the Conservative Party candidate was a Michael Walls. What is remarkable is that he was proposed and seconded on his nomination papers by Paul & Linda Cromie. Since his election, he is very close to the Cromies, who helped him with his campaign in 2012, and were at the count cheering as he won. Queensborough is a three member seat elected in thirds.

It really is true. Nick Lowles is congratulating an ex-BNP
councillor for beating UKIP.

The chumminess the couple display towards their Conservative colleague in Queensborough is nothing compared with their closeness to the ruling Labour group. At the Bradford count following Thursday's elections, Cromie was seen laughing and joking with the local Labour councillors, including those who run both Hope not Hate and local UAF activities across the city. Rumours persist that Cromie would defect to Labour if he thought he and his wife could hold their seats under that party's banner: in the meantime, the Cromies know what side their bread is buttered on in a city where in most wards they weigh rather than count the Labour vote: if Queensborough was not one of only a few non-Labour wards in the city, the Cromies would sign up in a heartbeat. Labour's perpetual grip on Bradford politics means only they can hand out the plum jobs, the seats on local boards. Its not just the plums, either - there's the icing too: Hope not Hate spend some of their 'restricted' funds which they receive from the Department for Communities and Local Government on their 'anti-racist community work' campaign in Bradford.

In Bradford, Hope not Hate were particularly active during the local election campaign. It was one of the places where the Labour Party instead of running its own campaign against UKIP based on policy ran Hope not Hate's leaflets based on scaremongering. It is not by accident that HnH's leaflets were all in Labour Party colours. UKIP Bradford have published on their own blog pictures of Labour councillors and campaign teams engaged in such negative campaigning which were tweeted by Labour councillors using campaign groups bought and paid for by Hope not Hate's government grant allied to those made by Bradford council itself.

They hypocrisy scarcely needs pointing out, although that Lowles would be so blatant is rather a surprise. They had nothing to say about the former BNP councillor who is now a Labour cabinet member in Darwen. No comment on the former openly Nazi Labour councillor in the Home Counties. Nothing about the 9 Labour councillors in Harrow or the 5 Labour councillors in Middlesbrough who resigned because of racism within the Labour Party.

The message is clear. There are no allies too low, no racism which is too much: to be considered a Labour Party ally is to be immune to criticism from Lowles and his chums. This extends to UAF, who are also notable by the silence over such incidents.

Many of Hope not Hate's own supporters are not best pleased by Lowles support for a 'former' racist though. On Twitter, Lowles & co are not backpedalling furiously as suggesting their support for Crombie was an 'in-joke'. Clearly it's an in-joke their own supporters didn't appreciate, and one which 41 of their supporters didn't see, as that's how many times their original message of support for Crombie was re-tweeted!

Electoral Fraud, Homophobia, Racism, Firearms Charges - what the establishment parties have been up to this week.

A brief round-up of the latest councillors and activists from the Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrats who have found themselves in the news for various arrests, charges and convictions since our last round-up on Friday. Please bear in mind that most court hearings are on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so please keep checking out Facebook page, where we will keep you updated as we hear of further cases.

A relatively small list for the first half of this week, although the establishment parties will have been working hard to keep details of their wrongdoing out of the press ahead of polling day.

Interesting to see how Hope not Hate doesn't much care about anti-Semitism, homophobia or racism by the other parties.

Labour Party suspends council deputy leader over electoral fraud allegations
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11226014.EXCLUSIVE__Senior_Hyndburn_politician_suspended_after_election_fraud_accusation/?ref=var_0

Two Tory councillors previously convicted of electoral fraud (but cleared on appeal) now support Labour in Bradford. We're sure their experience is vital to Labour's efforts.
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/11225499.Two_former_Bradford_Tories_now_backing_Labour/

Police investigate homophobic Tory leaflet in Newham
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/05/20/met-police-investigate-muslim-pro-tory-anti-gay-election-leaflets/

Labour councillor under fire over anti-Semitic holocaust leaflet
http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/news/local-news/sir-tony-baldry-attacks-holocaust-tweet-posted-from-account-of-banbury-labour-councillor-1-6069496

Majority of Labour Euro candidates support anti-Israel pledge
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/118196/majority-labour-euro-candidates-back-anti-israel-measures

Labour mayor forced to stand down over bullying goes to High Court to clear name
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/disgraced-blyth-mayor-bob-parker-7144460

Wisbech independent councillors boycott inauguration of mayor nominated by Tory facing firearms charges
http://www.wisbechstandard.co.uk/news/independent_councillors_boycott_wisbech_mayor_making_in_protest_over_the_arrogance_of_the_tories_1_3609019

Peace party candidate punched in face in Bradford. Local Labour Party 'refuses to comment on specific incidents'
http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/11223206.Call_for_calm_after_Heaton_councillor_punched_in_Frizinghall/

Tory Euro candidate under fire for racist Facebook posting
http://thetarge.co.uk/article/current-affairs/0280/european-campaigns-enter-final-week

Labour Party campaigner 'may face axe' (not 'may') after homophobic rants against fellow councillor
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/05/16/campaigner-may-face-the-axe-from-labour-party-over-gimp-in-basement-accusations/

Labour councillor fined over illegal firearms
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Ex-police-authority-chief-fined-unlicensed-gun/story-21107212-detail/story.html

Voluntary Repatriation - on the statute book in the UK since 1971

Hope not Hate - attacking UKIP for daring to mention a
law on the statute books since at least 1971, and one signed
up to on a European level by Labour PM Tony Blair

UKIP MEP and Newark by-election candidate Roger Helmer is today targeted by a piece in the Observer for 'backing voluntary repatriation'. It is also heavily plastered over Hope not Hate's Facebook page, where the usual tribe of commenters proclaim loudly how it is 'a disgrace', 'racist' and 'like the Nazis'.

Sadly for them, the voluntary repatriation of migrants is already existing government policy, and the current scheme was introduced by Labour PM Tony Blair in 1999 when he signed the UK up to the 'European Return Fund', which helped 'managed migration' by, erm, sending foreigners home.

In the UK, this is dealt with by the charity 'Refugee Action', who administer the scheme on behalf of the UK government and the European Commission as a part of the VARRP, or Voluntary Assisted Return and Repatriation Programme. This deals with the voluntary repatriation of legal migrants within the UK.

Up until 2010, there was also a similar programme for illegal (or 'irregular', in jargon speak) migrants, called AVRIM, or Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants.

The hypocrisy of attacking Helmer for a programme which has been operated under both Tory and Labour government - and which a Labour government signed us up to - is clear enough. As for the background of such a policy, we suspect that the European Return Fund has its roots in the Dublin Convention of 1997, which dealt with asylum seeking within the European Union and which was responsible for the UK being landed with a significant proportion of the EU's asylum seekers because of such short-sighted negotiations by the Major government in its dying days.

The scheme is much older than that though. According to an internal UKIP briefing paper rapidly produced yesterday afternoon, a voluntary repatriation scheme was outlined and included in Section 29 of the Immigration Act 1971: the provisions were repealed and replaced by S58 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (passed by Labour's Blair government) which states:

58 Voluntary departure from United Kingdom

(1)A person is a “voluntary leaver” for the purposes of this section if—

(a)he is not a British citizen or an EEA national,

(b)he leaves the United Kingdom for a place where he hopes to take up permanent residence (his “new place of residence”), and

(c)the Secretary of State thinks that it is in the person’s interest to leave the United Kingdom and that the person wishes to leave.

(2)The Secretary of State may make arrangements to—

(a)assist voluntary leavers;

(b)assist individuals to decide whether to become voluntary leavers.

(3)The Secretary of State may, in particular, make payments (whether to voluntary leavers or to organisations providing services for them) which relate to—

(a)travelling and other expenses incurred by or on behalf of a voluntary leaver, or a member of his family or household, in leaving the United Kingdom;

(b)expenses incurred by or on behalf of a voluntary leaver, or a member of his family or household, on or shortly after arrival in his new place of residence;

(c)the provision of services designed to assist a voluntary leaver, or a member of his family or household, to settle in his new place of residence;

(d)expenses in connection with a journey undertaken by a person (with or without his family or household) to prepare for, or to assess the possibility of, his becoming a voluntary leaver.

We look forward to reading Hope not Hate's article claiming Tony Blair is a racist for passing such legislation.

The latest digest of crimes etc by the establishment parties - 2 days worth!!

Our original plan was to publish a digest of criminality, electoral fraud, arrests and convictions of
councillors from the establishment parties every 3 or 4 days. It seems like it's been a busy week this week, and as there are a whole load of them since we published our last list on Wednesday, we thought we'd bring you up to date earlier than planned - it makes our task easier too!

This list covers yesterday's (the 15th May) and today's press reports only. The breakdown is:

Tories - 2 on firearms offences, 1 for falsely claiming to be a barrister, 1 drink driving ban, 1 disqualified for benefits fraud, 1 cronyism over pub license breach, 1 accused of sexist remarks

Labour - 1 banned from office for bullying, 1 cronyism delaying prosecution for benefits fraud, 1 electoral fraud allegation, 5 resignations over racism claims, 2 resignations over homophobia claims, 1 facing investigation into homophobic remarks

Lib Dem - 2 on benefits fraud charges

Take a look, and see how many of these you can spot on Hope not Hate's website, or in the national media!

Tory councillor in Chingford to be sentenced today over firearms charges
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/11217704.Gun_offence_Tory_to_be_sentenced_today/

Tory councillor resigns from party over firearms conviction in Somerset
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Conservative-councillor-Tim-Marter-resigns-ban/story-21098133-detail/story.html

'Independent' councillor - whose wife is a Labour county councillor - has disqualification for bullying reduced to 18 months
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/flintshire-councillor-banned-bullying-disqualification-7127671

Labour councillor has case adjourned until safely after the election after her own (Labour controlled) council makes shambles of court paperwork in Thurrock
http://www.yourthurrock.com/2014/05/16/councillors-shambolic-case-adjourned-until-october/

Former Lib Dem councillor now standing as independent charged with benefits fraud in Kingston
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/kingstonnews/11216830.Kingston_councillor_charged_with_benefit_fraud_will_face_polls_before_court/

Conservative councillor arrested over false barrister claims in Guildford
http://www.964eagle.co.uk/news/local-news/1285174/exclusive-guildford-councillor-speaks-to-eagle-following-her-arrest/

Lib Dem councillor convicted of benefit fraud charges forced of council committees after refusing to resign in Tiverton
http://www.middevongazette.co.uk/Fraudster-councillor-Tiverton-forced-committees/story-21101893-detail/story.html

Conservative councillor receives one year ban for drink driving in Skegness
http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Conservative-councillor-handed-ban-drink-driving/story-21093349-detail/story.html

Police launch electoral fraud investigation into Labour councillor in Slough over intimidation relating to postal votes
http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/slough/articles/2014/05/15/100278-police-launch-election-fraud-probe-after-allegations-a-slough-labour-candidate-intimidated-a-resident-into-filling-out-her-postal-vote-/

Conservative candidate disqualified after £30k benefits fraud conviction comes to light in Enfield
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/conservative-candidate-guilty-of-cheating-london-council-in-30000-benefits-scam-9375335.html

5 Labour councillors resign from party in Middlesbrough citing racism of local Labour Party among other complaints
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/five-middlesbrough-councillors-resign-labour-7080454

Tory council accused of turning blind eye to license breaches at pub owned by Tory councillor during function on behalf of Tory mayor in Crayford
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11207456.Bexley_Council_accused_of__whitewash__on_investigation_into_strippers_at_Crayford_pub/?ref=var_0

SNP activists claims Tory councillor made sexist remarks (but nobody else heard) in Berwickshire
http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/local-headlines/tory-in-indy-sexist-claim-1-3411729#.U3R80R4ieDw.twitter

Labour councillor faces investigation over homophobic remarks directed at gay rival in Liverpool
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-liberal-councillor-steve-radford-7122909

More resignations from Labour Party in Thanet following leader's resignation over homophobia claims earlier this week
http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/Labour-leader-hits-deputy-leader-resigns/story-21093241-detail/story.html

Did Labour MP release confidential constituency mail to damage UKIP candidate in Dudley?

UKIP Dudley chairman Dean Perks
Did his local MP release details of a problem he had asked for
help with before he was UKIP to Hope not Hate?

We don't know Dean Perks, the chairman of UKIP's Dudley branch. We were though interested to see
that he is the subject of Hope not Hate's latest attack upon UKIP in a post entitled "UKIP candidate owes thousands in missed VAT payments". Included in the story is a link to a judgement by the First Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber which gives an official record of an appeal by Dean Alan Perks against a decision by HM Commissioners for Customs and Excise relating to VAT assessments.

All of which is rather rich given that Hope not Hate Ltd have evaded over £70,000 of VAT which their (and the Labour Party's) consultants Blue State Digital failed to charge them.

So, does Mr Perks owe thousands? We have no idea, and neither can Hope not Hate. While the judgement went against him, there is nothing to indicate that he did not pay the full amount due, while his statement to the local newspaper would seem to indicate that he reached a repayment agreement with them and continues to repay the money outstanding.

And then there is the case itself, in which Mr Perks appears to have been very unlucky and in which the court sympathises with the predicament he found himself in.

The details appear to have been as follows. Mr Perks is a plumber. His business was struggling largely because he had to charge VAT as a self-employed and VAT registered sole trader. He contacted his accountant to see whether it was possible for him to de-register, and was told it was. He instructed his accountant to do so.

His accountant, a Mr Summerfield, was subsequently arrested for money laundering offences which did not involve Mr Perks. Many documents were seized from Mr Summerfield's offices, including some relating to Mr Perks. It transpired that not only was Mr Perks not entitled to de-register, even if he had been Mr Summerfield had made no attempt to do so. When VAT demands continued to arrive addressed to Mr Perks, Mr Summerfield told him to 'bin them' as such demands 'often turned up after deregistration'. Mr Perks duly did so.

After Mr Summerfield's arrest, Mr Perks was left to try and sort out the mess which had been left behind. Relying on information from his accountant he believed the VAT Office assessment of money due was incorrect, and appealed to the tribunal, which it was his perfect right to do.

As stated in the court judgement to which Hope not Hate had linked, while Mr Perks' appeal was dismissed, the judge said,

"Mr Perks approach was that he was a plumber not an accountant. He had taken professional advice from Mr Summerfield in good faith and had accepted his advice at all stages without question....

We accept that he was following professional advice and that, as he now fully appreciates, he was appallingly let down but that does not displace his legal responsibility as a registered trader....

We took careful note of and had some sympathy with Mr Perks’ confusion over his understanding of the Demand Notices"

Unlike Hope not Hate, Mr Perks has a real job. He appears to have paid for professional advice and been badly advised by someone who was subsequently arrested. As a result, he found himself before the VAT tribunal appealing a VAT demand which flew in the face of what his professional advice had stated, and was there as a result not of his own wrongdoing per se, but that of his accountant who advised him poorly. If anybody at Hope not Hate had ever worked for a living, they might understand that.

A further question has also arisen over this story. While we accept that the Tribunal finding is a matter of public record, we had some difficulty finding it on a Google search even though we knew it existed.

We also found the Halesowen News article from this morning, and noted that in it, Mr Perks was quoted as saying, "I went through several tribunals and appeals as I thought it was a genuine mistake, I even asked Dudley North MP Ian Austin for help but got none."

This was quite interesting, because in March 2009, Nick Lowles wrote on his blog (we wouldn't normally link, but here it is - look quickly before it disappears!)

"Last night I spent about an hour on the phone with Ian Austin, the Labour MP for Dudley North. Ian is a long-time friend of Searchlight, and by that I mean since he was in his mid-teens, but today he is more helpful advising us on a media strategy"

We wonder whether that media strategy for 2014 would involve illegally passing on details of constituents and their problems to Hope not Hate and the local media when they become a UKIP branch chairman and candidate?

Here's three days worth of news Hope not Hate haven't mentioned.

Hope not Hate are this evening pushing a story concerning a UKIP councillor who has allegedly been arrested for assault.

We have no idea whether the story is true or not, but given the timing - a week before polling day - and the source, it is unlikely to be entirely what it appears.

In order to put that into perspective, we thought we'd post three days worth of councillor related stories from the other parties as featured on our Facebook page, which is updated daily. To be clear, these are news articles from the 11th May to the 14th May only. We'll bet you haven't read about any of them on Hope not Hate's website, heard about them on the national news or read them in anything apart from local newspapers with the exception of Lord Hanningfield.

So when Hope not Hate try and tell you how bad UKIP are, you can be sure they're just acting as tools of the establishment. Worse, they're treating you like a fool, because you're only getting what they want you to read. Here are the ones they and the establishment would rather you didn't read:

Potentially ineligible Tory candidate arrested in Tower Hamlets
http://www.wharf.co.uk/2014/05/conservatives-suspend-party-ca.html

Local residents call for Lib Dem MP and local councillor Mike Hancock to stand down ahead of his civil trial for sexual assault
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/calls-for-massively-respected-mike-hancock-to-quit-rather-than-stand-for-election-1-6058687

Tory councillor Saeed Akthar on trial for perverting the course of justice after tricking Tory MP into giving character reference for son who was on trial for grooming 15 year old girl
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/huntingdon_mp_jonathan_djanogly_likely_to_be_prosecution_witness_in_perverting_course_of_justice_trial_involving_former_mayor_1_3599092

Tory councillor faces ban after drink driving arrest
http://www.louthleader.co.uk/news/local/eldc-councillor-from-fulstow-faces-ban-after-drink-driving-1-6058289

Labour councillor stands down from Co-Op board in row over fake qualifications
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/co-op-board-member-labour-councillor-munir-malik-leaves-amid-qualification-probe-1448467

Labour council leader stands down in Thanet amid allegations of homophobia
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/council-leader-resigns-after-angry-17091/

Welsh Green Party leader apologises for lying over polling data
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/wales-green-party-leader-pippa-7093559#.U3HEyaClygk.twitter

Entire Independent Remuneration Panel resign in protest as Tory councillors in Surrey increase their personal allowances by 60%.
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/11207641.Shock_resignation_in_council_expenses_row/?ref=var_0

Lib Dem candidate tweeted he 'loved to kiss and lick feet' and was 'looking for large women'
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/liberal-democrat-election-candidate-tweeted-7101941#.U3DxzV622PA.twitter

Tory Peer and former leader of Essex County Council fined £3,300 and suspended from Lords over expenses 'signing in' fraud - he has already served a prison sentence for fraud
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10824430/Tory-peer-set-to-receive-record-Lords-ban-for-abusing-expenses.html

SNP student leader in racism row
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10823301/SNP-student-leader-in-racism-row-for-calling-David-Cameron-an-English-t.html

Tory councillor fails to enter plea to child pornography charges at court hearing
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Resort-s-mayor-court-facing-child-indecency/story-21081963-detail/story.html

Electoral fraud case against two Labour councillors thrown out on legal technicality relating to costs
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbrian-election-challenges-rejected-by-high-court-1.1135120

UKIP leader's personal details published by violent 'anti-fascist' group

The personal details of UKIP leader Nigel Farage - including home address, home telephone number and personal mobile number - have been published on the internet by a violent anti-fascist group.

The group - whose name we are withholding for obvious reasons - is based in the South East local to Mr Farage's home, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters.

In the posting (pictured with identifying details removed) the group calls for its members to harass Mr Farage saying, "In an age where the art of the letter and the beauty of a phone call is lost, why not relive this wonderful method of communication by getting in contact with your local racist". It also features the address details of UKIP's South Eastern Regional Office, but doesn't bother to give telephone details for it.

Other posts on the page include information on what to do in the event that you are arrested for a violent crime at an 'anti-fascist' protest, details of how to obtain free legal advice from 'like minded friends', and exhortations to 'kill a fascist'. It makes it clear that it considers UKIP to be 'fascist'.

The disclosure comes just a day after UKIP London MEP Gerard Batten had his house attacked by brick-throwing yobs in the middle of the night.

A UKIP source told us this morning that while the address details of candidates are a matter of public record, 'the publications of details in this manner, in close proximity to threats of violence and accompanied by private information such as home and mobile phone numbers, amounted to an exhortation to harass both Nigel and members of his immediate family'.

Moderate exhortations from the site which published
Farage's personal contact details

The group, whose logo is of a masked and hooded anarchist, is tied via its association with an anti-UKIP group known as SLATUKIP to Hope not Hate - who regularly feature information they receive from them - and to an off-shoot of the pro-EU, pro-big business British Influence organisation via its Action2014 anti-UKIP arm. British Influence is headed by former Conservative Party staffer Peter Wilding, and is supported by both Kenneth Clarke and Lord Mandelson. Wilding is a close friend of Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman, who defected from UKIP to the Tories and who is set to lose his seat next Thursday. Campbell Bannerman appears in today's 'Times' newspaper attacking UKIP for discussions regarding MEP funding which he himself proposed while UKIP chairman, and which were rejected by the wider party.

SLATUKIPs links to Hope not Hate run deeper than mere Facebook likes. Permitted to post on the

Is this the sort of 'British Influence' a capitalist,
corporatist pro-EU pressure group seeks?

heavily censored HnH website, they have regularly praised Hope not Hate in a show of mutual backslapping. Meanwhile, HnH relied heavily on SLATUKIP for doctored screen grabs and for offensive comments from false Facebook accounts created in the names of UKIP candidates to 'prove' UKIP racism during last year's local elections. SLAT's website - with a .eu domain - is hosted in homophobic Moscow, while its 'whois' details are anonymised to prevent discovery of who is behind it, although considerable Hope not Hate involvement has long been suspected.

UKIP MEPs home attacked with bricks as campaign of hate against UKIP steps up.

News reaches us that the campaign of violence and intimidation against UKIP has been stepped up a notch. UKIP's London MEP Gerard Batten and his wife were woken at 3:30am this morning by a loud noise in their house. On getting up and investigating they could see nothing and assuming their cat had knocked something over they went back to bed. 45 minutes later, they were woken again by a loud bang followed by the sounds of breaking glass. There was no mistaking the cause this time, as on coming downstairs to investigate they discovered a house brick in the middle of their living room and their living room window smashed. Police are investigating and reviewing local CCTV footage.

This is just the latest in a string of increasingly heated attacks on UKIP supporters, activists and premises and comes just hours before a UKIP meeting in Hove this evening which is expected to be heavily picketed by Hope not Hate and UAF activists. At UKIP's last meeting in the area, Hope not Hate activists verbally abused and intimidated pensioners they believed to be attending the UKIP meeting only to discover that they were in fact blood donors attending a regular NHS donor session in the same building.


Nothing to do with Hope not Hate, says Lowles

Elsewhere, UKIP leader Nigel Farage was assaulted by Hope not Hate activist Andrew Scott in Margate - Scott was subsequently convicted - and by HnH/UAF activist Fred Glenister in Nottingham. Glenister is awaiting trial.

UKIP billboards across the country have been repeatedly targeted in an organised campaign of
destruction, with hard left activists encouraged to post pictures of their handiwork on a Facebook page. Look into the active member's profiles, and you'll see plenty of likes for the usual hard left suspects - UAF, SWP, AntiFa, Hope not Hate and all the rest, mostly combined with 'likes' for various Green Party organisations. The Greens are currently the subject of an internal takeover attempt by the hard left which wants to turn them from watermelons into tomatoes. Hope not Hate and UAF of course claim no responsibility for this and deny it is anything to do with them. Most of the poorly spelt slogans painted onto the UKIP billboards are taken directly from Hope not Hate and UAF literature.

MEPs windows and UKIP billboards aren't the only targets for damage, however. In Plymouth, the UKIP shop on Mutley Plain has had its windows smashed 3 times since

Smashed UKIP shopfront on
Mutley Plain, Plymouth

March. In the Wythenshawe by-election, hard left activists daubed the windows with paint on three occasions, broke in and stole equipment on once occasion and stormed the premises while it was open on one occasion, stealing leaflets and letting off stink bombs. Elderly UKIP by-election campaigners were insulted and threatened while canvassing, and council house tenants were threatened with the loss of their housing unless they removed UKIP posters.

Meanwhile, UKIP meetings have been increasingly targeted by elements of the hard left who find intimidation easier than argument. 'Stand up to UKIP' another SWP front organisation has seen it's demonstrations publicised across many groups - including the billboard group - as Hope not Hate continues to publicise yet another SWP front organisation, Love Music Hate Racism (run by SWP rapist Martin Smith).

Concerns are being raised at UKIP about how long it will be before these increasingly aggressive tactics turn into open violence, particularly given the large UKIP vote expected on the 22nd. Several 'anti fascist'  groups have published the home addresses of UKIP MEPs on their Facebook pages with the suggestion that members 'pay them a visit', while the intimidatory tactics directed at UKIP supporters grow ever closer to open violence. Last week's UKIP public meeting in Westminster saw SWP, UAF and Hope not Hate activists debating whether to use racist terms such as 'coconut' and 'oreo' to describe UKIP candidates from ethnic minorities in a further sign of the lengths they are prepared to go to in order to deter public support for UKIP.

Are Hope not Hate and UAF responsible for the actions of their activists? By their own standards of attacking UKIP based on what isolated individuals say then yes, they are. And yet these are not isolated incidents: UKIP has had a handful of individuals who have said or done stupid things, and has dealt with them all swiftly. This campaign against UKIP of violence, intimidation, assaults both verbal and physical, and criminal damage is widespread and being conducted by significant numbers of people. It is time for the Hope not Hate and UAF leadership to publicly distance themselves from these people: if they will not, that can only be considered as their tacit acceptance of the actions of their activists.

For more updates, follow us on Twitter @nopenothope

Green Leader Natalie Bennett to appear on anti-UKIP platform with convicted fraudster

We were not entirely surprised today to receive details of a meeting by yet another anti-UKIP campaign group which has popped out of the woodwork. The 'Movement Against Xenophobia' is an umbrella group comprising 99 separate organisations operating under a secretariat provided by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Included in the 99 are many of the usual suspects: UAF, SWP, Unite, the Green Party and many others - the full list is here

This latest piece of scaremongering is based on distortions of UKIP's position by MAX offshoot 'Stop Scapegoating Immigrants' is a Rally Against Racism on the 19th May at the Indian YMCA in Fitzrovia, London: details are here and as shown on the screen grab.

What was more surprising was to see the speakers list. Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader is the headline speaker: she fits right in, representing as she does the watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) wing of the Green Party. What was rather more shocking was to see her sharing a platform with Jasna Badzak and Lee Jasper.

Regular readers of this blog will recognise Badzak's name. She was briefly employed by UKIP MEP

Jasna Badzak - convicted fraudster and forger

Gerard Batten before defrauding him of £3,000 by using a forged bank statement to claim she hadn't been paid. She was convicted of fraud and forgery at Southwark Crown Court, received a 12 month suspended sentence and was tagged and curfewed for 6 months. The judge at the trial said if it wasn't for her child she'd have been imprisoned, and described her as thoroughly deceitful. Which was much the same verdict reached by the Industrial Tribunal she took Batten to for racial  harassment, and from which her multiple cases were thrown out, and her failure to pay fines, compensation and legal fees lead to her bankruptcy. She was never a 'UKIP' press officer either, and is also the architect of a long-running fraud perpetrated on Central European banks which has links to the Russian mafia. Full details can be found here

A measure of Badzak's consistency can be found on her Twitter feed. Aside from clearly being obsessed to the point of barking mad, she also claims to be a Tory supporter. This is surprising to say the least, as only 5 years ago Badzak left the Tories claiming 'racial and sexual harassment' - full details can be found here, but in brief she claimed that

"I have been told by the party agent that people like me can forget about progressing in the Conservative Party. This is not just locally, but nationally. It is just jobs for the boys. Unfortunately, I did not go to private school. I did not go to Oxbridge"

Alternatively, they may have found that her CV was a complete pack of lies. Which makes her tweet (below) all the more surprising.

Then we have Lee Jasper, former Director for Policing and Equalities under London Mayor Ken Livingstone who left under rather a cloud - Jasper had sent e-mails of an intimate nature to a woman involved with organisations who had received Greater London Authority grants and that Jasper has not declared the relationship. A subsequent report concluded that "Jasper failed to record declared interests to the "standards expected". He also found that Jasper's role in approving funding was "inappropriate given his interests" in a number of cases".

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett - in trouble if you
know a person by the company they keep.

For Natalie Bennett and the Green Party sharing a platform with a convicted, mentally unstable fraudster just because they have an unfounded vendetta against UKIP is surely scraping the barrel, not least because you know a person by the company they keep, as they say. We understand that they are desperate to save the seat of their London MEP Jean Lambert - aka 'the bag lady' - but this really is pitiful stuff. Bennett's leadership has already drawn criticism and created factionalism within an already divided Green movement, as can be seen in the Green stronghold of Brighton. The lack of judgement shown borders on the suicidal, displays the lack of foresight which has marked her leadership and will surely come back to haunt her in the future.

It hardly reflects well on JCWI either, although relying as they do on support from the SWP - where unreported rapes seem to be a matter of course - such unsavoury participants are perhaps more a matter of course, if not daily visitors.

"We're not responsible", bleats Lowles as the focus shifts to Hope not Hate inspired violence and lies

Having spent the past year doing his very best to stoke up hysteria by misrepresenting UKIP's immigration policy, HnH director Nick Lowles has this afternoon published a self-justifying set of lies and evasions on his personal blog. This came after UKIP leader Nigel Farage shone a spotlight on the violence Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism  have incited against UKIP in an interviewon BBC1's 'Sunday Politics' programme this morning.


Farage said, "Sadly we have a a couple of organisations out there headed up by senior Labour Party figures, who purport to be against fascism and extremism, who receive funding from the Department of Communities, who receive funding from the trade unions, who have acted in a violent way more than once."

Asked if he was accusing the Labour Party of organising the violence, he said: "No. I said Unite against Fascism and Hope not Hate are taxpayer-funded, they are trade union-funded, they are headed up by very senior Labour figures".

Lowles bleats a whole host of untruths and partial truths in his defence as he sees his income stream unravel before his eyes. In his response, it is what he fails to say which is more revealing than what he does. As an example, nowhere in his blog posting does he deny that Hope not Hate members have acted in a violent way and he makes no attempt to disassociate Hope not Hate from such violence.

Hope not Hate of course have a long history of inciting violence against groups they don't like. We blogged back in February of this year how HnH 'director of intelligence', former BNP thug Matthew Collins sent a series of tweets during a visit to London by members of the Hungarian far-right party Jobbik which were designed to vector Unite Against Fascism boot boys to their exact location. This sort of incitement has been carried out repeatedly by Hope not Hate, including during EDL demonstrations both in the UK and overseas.

As for direct violence against UKIP Andrew Scott, the man convicted of assaulting Farage with a banner in Margate, was a Hope not Hate supporter. Fred Glenister, the man currently on bail after assaulting Farage by hitting him with an egg in Nottingham, was a Hope not Hate supporter.

Of the rest of his evasions, to take some of them in turn:

"We are not aligned to any political party" - This is hardly worth responding to. It is so transparently a Labour Party & trades union front that such an assertion is simply laughable. Lowles deputy director is Ruth Smeeth, a Labour parliamentary candidate selected for a safe seat, while 80%+ of their funding comes from the trades unions. UnionsTogether organiser Byron Taylor sits on HnH's management board. Meanwhile, in 2009, Lowles wrote, "anybody...serious about stopping the BNP was by now mobilised behind the Labour Party campaign. The campaign was carefully planned with Hope Not Hate Yorkshire to coordinate Labour activity and third party interventions". Former Labour MEP and Europe Minister Glenis Kinnock is a patron. Meanwhile, Hope not Hate's online campaigning is managed by the Labour facing Blue State Digital. Verdict - Lie

"(Our) supporters have not attacked or disrupted any UKIP meeting, nor have we encouraged anyone to hold protests outside such meetings." - Except that UnionsTogether is closely aligned with the UAF's "Stand up to UKIP" campaign, while their organiser Byron Taylor said earlier this year on the Labour List website, "To save them a lot of time and effort, I’m very happy to point out that in my spare time I’m on the management committee of HOPE Not Hate". Attendees at last week's UKIP rally in Westminster may have noticed that alongside the Socialist Workers Party (no imperialist apostrophe in their name) banners were a large number of 'UNITE' ones. And it was difficult to miss the UnionsTogether advertising truck with their poster on it which drove past repeatedly. As we reported the following day, our own representative at the protest reported that a number of SWP people present also identified themselves as Hope not Hate activists. The membership overlap between these organisations is so great that it is impossible to tell where one ends and where another begins. We have of course dealt with precisely this issue in more detail in an earlier posting and comprehensively demolished Lowles' lies then Verdict - Lie

Nigel Farage has claimed  that I'm a member of the Communist Party with close links to the Socialist Workers Party: claims which are utterly untrue - We can not comment on his membership status with the Communist Party, but it has long been rumoured that he was a member in the past. As for links with the Socialist Workers Party, HnH paid hack Carl Morphett is a former member, while the HnH website frequently highlights events run by Love Music, Hate Racism, another (like UAF) SWP front organisation, this one headed by UAF in-house rapist and former SWP leader Martin Smith. Meanwhile, UnionsTogether - who are actively represented on HnH's board and who supply funding to HnH - work closely with the UAF in the 'Stand up to UKIP' campaign (see above) Verdict - Lie

"Now Farage is peddling a fantasy that we have received Government money to take him on. This is a lie. Three years ago our charitable arm received a grant for £60,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to undertake anti-racist community work in four areas of the country. This was a one-year project which ended in 2012, long before we started scrutinising UKIP" - Hope not Hate's accounts show a total of over £120k received from the DCLG between 2010 and 2012. As their most recent accounts have yet to be filed, it is not possible to tell whether this has continued. Meanwhile, Hope not Hate has been scrutinising UKIP since 2005, as confirmed by former UKIP staffer Mark Croucher who liaised with them. Verdict - Lie

"Last year we began to identify racists and extremists within UKIP. We initially tried to form a constructive relationship with the party leadership but it became quickly evident that they had no interest in working together to root out these racists" - UKIP worked closely with Searchlight and then Hope not Hate (see above) up until the scale of the drift in support from Labour to UKIP became clear. By 2011, this cooperation had completely ceased, not because of UKIP, but because of Hope not Hate, who had no interest in continuing cooperation with a party it was about to start actively campaigning against. Verdict - Lie

So why did Lowles fail to disclaim violence? A look at their supporter's comments on their Facebook page is instructive. In an article published on the 25th January this year regarding comments by UKIP's Farage on gun control, a whole series of HnH supporters made violent suggestions, including the following:

 

These are the sort of comments which - had they featured on a UKIP website or been written by a UKIP supporter - would be spread all across Hope not Hate's page as 'evidence' or 'proof' of violent intentions.

Owen Jones gave a party, and nobody came. Or reported it.

Professionally outraged journalist Owen Jones, 17, made a guest post on Nick Lowles blog yesterday

No, that is the crowd. Behind
the mascot.

praising the 'Colchester Comes Together' event at Wivenhoe Town FC.

Despite the event's name, this was not a shoot for the 'British Dogging' website, but Hope not Hate's latest feeble attempt to convince people that allowing 200,000 people a year into the country to work for minimum wage is somehow good for us all rather than just being good for the richest 1%.

Jones talks about the significance of their game as a 'local derby', neglecting to mention that as they play in the Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties League, almost every game is a 'local derby'. Stanway is so local that it is further away then the footballing might of other teams in the league, such as Clacton FC. Still, as Carl Morphett ably demonstrated by mistakenly thinking Albania was an EU member, geography is not a strong point at Hope not Hate.

Jones continues, using the name of murdered soldier Lee Rigby to push a rather tired political point just as cynically as Britain First would. He went on to say,

"Colchester has been benefited (sic) from various cultures choosing to come to the town and make it their home; embracing the local ways of life while living (sic) their own mark on the community. Children participating in fun village fate (sic) style games, where they won Chinese Spring Festival gifts, presented in the custom (sic) red envelope to bring good luck. Later in the evening while people tucked into some delicious Indian curry, made just around the corner from ingredients all scored from within the town" (We haven't inserted mistakes, it was published like that - Ed)

So how many people attended this first class event organised by 'Colchester Together', the local campaigning arm of the Labour Party?

According to the match report on Wivenhoe FC's website, attendance at the game was 173. To put that another way, 'Colchester Together' brought together less than 0.1% of the 176,008 residents of Colchester. That's under 0.003% of the population of the Eastern Region.

With a turnout like that, UKIP - who are polling over 50% regionally, and who the event was targeted at since Hope not Hate have given up on fighting racism - should be quaking in their boots.

Jones finishes his report by saying "Hopefully as HOPE not hate’s campaign heads into the final straight of the European Elections, ripples from this event will disperse within the town reminding people of that the subconscious tolerant and peaceful town must be defended".

We're not quite certain what the end of that sentence means, but his ripples appear to have dispersed already. The event was held not last weekend as might be thought from the tone of the article, but on the 21st April, some 3 weeks ago now. A quick scan of the local media reveals that this event was so important to Colchester that not a single local media outlet covered it, and it isn't mentioned anywhere on the Wivenhoe Town FC website.

Quite what Wivenhoe Town thought of being used as a propaganda tool by a load of middle class posh kids is not mentioned. Having an additional 50 people in the crowd who were united in their complete disinterest in such a working class game as football must have proved bemusing at best, but we wish them good luck in what has proved a difficult season, and hope that they benefitted from it.

As for Owen Jones, we feel obliged to include the YouTube video of his car crash interview on This Week. We can't stop laughing.

UAF and Unite protesters debated calling UKIP candidates 'coconuts' and 'oreos'.

One of our contributors last night joined the demonstration held by UAF, Hope not Hate, Unite and

HnH/UAF protesters didn't seem to realise that the terms
'oreo' and 'coconut' are racist as they debated whether to
chant them at UKIP candidates.

the SWP outside the Emmanual Centre in Central London.

Wearing a concealed camera, they captured many of the discussions which took place within the rag-tag army of unwashed, unemployed and professionally outraged demonstrators.

Twice during the course of the demonstration, protesters debated whether to call UKIP members from the BME community - that's Black and Minority Ethnic for those who prefer English to buzz words - 'coconuts' and 'oreos', ie to suggest that they were black on the outside and white on the inside.

One of these discussions took place within earshot of a pair of BBC comedians from the television show 'The Revolution will be Televised', who spent some time chatting with the demonstrators. It will be interesting to see whether that makes the show.

Unfortunately, we can not use the video our informant shot - other demonstrators were also filming, and it would be a relatively easy matter to work out who our informant was by comparing the two videos. Understandably, our informant is rather concerned that their safety would be put at risk, given the documented willingness of particularly the SWP to resort to violence.

We have however seen the relevant video. A number of people were involved in the discussion, including a young lad of about 18 wearing a green combat jacket and a woman with strawberry blonde hair carrying a 'Unite' banner. Both thought that using such terms would 'highlight UKIP's racism', and said this apparently unaware of the irony of using racist language to do so. The general consensus was that they were right, but then a woman identifying herself as an organiser stated that while she agreed that's what they were, there 'were TV cameras present' and such phrases should not be used 'on this demo'. Our informant believed that she was from the SWP.

Both of the terms - coconut and oreo - are considered racist. 4 years ago, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bristol - Shirley Brown - was convicted of racial harassment for calling Tory councillor Jay Jethwa - whose family came from India - a coconut. Cllr Brown - who is black - was given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £620.

It comes as no surprise to us to find racism within these supposedly anti-racist organisations. UKIP spokesmen Stephen Woolf and Amjad Bashir were both quoted in today's Daily Express as saying they had been called 'Uncle Toms' in the past by members of the anti-fascism industry.

If any UKIP members have photographs of yesterday evening's demonstration, we would ask them to PM them to our Facebook page - we can use them to shame the 'anti-racist' demonstrators who were willing to hurl racist abuse at Black and Asian UKIP candidates.

A final note of interest. Several of the SWP activists present were actively involved with Hope not Hate, rather giving the lie to Nick Lowles assertions that they are not linked.

Don't worry, Nick - it'll be all white. UKIP can teach you what equal opportunities really look like.

A deafening silence has surrounded UKIP leader Nigel Farage's final speech of his tour of the UK last night in London, not least because of the picture Hope not Hate don't want to see:

'Bloody racists'

In the interests of fairness, we thought we'd take a quick look at Hope not Hate's record of equal opportunities over the past year or so.

Hope not Hate leadership: (LtoR) Nick Lowles, Ruth Smeeth, Matthew Collins, Carl Morphett - doing all white

No luck there in our search for equal opportunites. Still, perhaps they're training people from our minority communities how to 'Stand up for HOPE'? Maybe pictures of their training events will prove more fruitful?

Still doing all white......

 

Oh, OK then. Not there either. Maybe we're just looking in the wrong place? Perhaps on their action days when they get all their supporters out delivering leaflets?

It's all looking a bit white and middle class

Hmmm. After all that, we're still struggling to find the inclusiveness that Hope not Hate constantly trumpets - indeed which is part of its founding statement - being shown in practise.

Unlike Hope not Hate, UKIP is a party of inclusiveness, with senior members from the Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Islamic faiths; from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, India, Pakistan and Europe; from the rich and from the poor. All that is required is a love of our shared nation, its values and its culture.

If you were planning to get to the top of an organisation because you're white, don't bother with UKIP - all it takes is dedication, commitment and belief wherever you're from.

If what you want is a colour bar to help you get on, Hope not Hate is the obvious place to be.

PS It helps if you're middle class too. Hope not Hate are just as committed to selling out the working class as their Labour and Union paymasters.