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.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood - I agree with Nigel. On HnH's website!

In a 'guest blog' on Hope not Hate's website, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood desperately tries to

PC leader Leanne Wood - a surprising convert to UKIP's
point of view!

save her party from electoral oblivion in Wales by making statements which would see her branded racist if she was a UKIP candidate. Normally we wouldn't link to HnH's website, but we feel the article to be so remarkable an admission of defeat that we will make an exception in this case - you can find it here. It's not every day that Nick Lowles blog contains a guest post which essentially says 'I agree with Nigel'.

Wood - who just a couple of months ago said of UKIP that "your politics have no place in our country, not now, not ever" - appears an unlikely convert to UKIP's point of view. In her Hope not Hate article, she argues:

"Not enough has been done to clamp down on gang-masters who exploit migrant workers by paying below the minimum wage and in doing so pricing out local – often low-skilled workers - from the labour market with devastating consequences for both parties...

A borderless trading bloc... was not meant to include narrowing the economic options of the people in its poorest regions to westward migration.

The principle of EU wealth redistribution... should and must result in enhanced living standards and prospects for all EU citizens in their home communities so that moving to another state is seen as an option rather than a necessity."

In other words, that UKIP are right - unlimited immigration does drive down wages, create wage compression, and reduced employment for British workers, while the EU's disastrous economic policies have made the UK the country of choice for people whose home nations have been devastated by the Euro.

Wood now belatedly supports all the things Hope not Hate have been denouncing as lies for the past year in their campaign against UKIP. Still, a consistent argument was never one of Hope not Hate's strong points as their 'head of intelligence', former BNP thug Matthew Collins trawls UKIP member's social media desperately seeking past links to, er, the BNP.

What is interesting is that this is published not just on Hope not Hate's website, but on HnH director Nick Lowles own blog. It is difficult to see this as anything other than an admission by Hope not Hate that UKIP are correct in their assessment of the problems facing the working class, and also a tacit admission that Hope not Hate's aim is not to fight racism, but to fight UKIP on behalf of what it defines as 'the left' - which includes Plaid Cymru and the watermelon Greens just as much as Labour.

HnH/UAF handing out leaflets on your High Street? Stand next to them and dish these out.

 

 

This is not a party political leaflet, and as such does not require an imprint. It should not be delivered with party political literature. It endorses no party, and the SWP, UAF and Hope not Hate do not stand for election - they'd rather just shout from the sidelines.

 

 

HnH incites violence against immigrants

It was instructive to watch the Hope not Hate Twitter feed earlier on today. With Jobbik set to hold a meeting in London - originally in Holborn, but moved to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park - Hope not Hate were busy providing a blow by blow account of how many people were present, exactly where they were, what the police presence was like, and how and where they were moving.

It is difficult to guess what the point of this is if it is not to cause - or at least enable - violent opposition. There is a certain irony here given that most of those attending were Hungarian immigrants to the UK: Jobbik leader Gabor Vona's visit is ostensibly to speak to the large Hungarian population in the UK ahead of forthcoming elections in Hungary.

So what else could be the point of this and other such detailed tweets? Hope not Hate are not a rolling news provider, and the precise location of far-right activists on a minute by minute basis is hardly news in any case: these are demonstrations and meetings which would draw a limited audience at best. As we have seen previously in Woolwich and elsewhere, the object of the exercise is solely to draw 'anti-fascist' activists onto those Hope not Hate decides to be far right while being able to decry responsibility for the resulting violence.

In the past, this has not made a huge difference. It is fair to say that a significant proportion of the 'far-right' were nearly identical to their anti-fascist enemies: thugs spoiling for a fight. The question must be at what point does this spill over into mainstream politics?

We have already seen Green Party councillor Ian Driver taking part in a violent protest against UKIP in Margate earlier this month. That Driver has close links to the Socialist Workers Party, Unite Against Fascism and Hope not Hate is indisputable. We also reported on our Facebook page about moves by the SWP, UAF, HnH and the Labour Party to actively campaign against UKIP in this year's European Elections, not under a party banner, but anonymously with placards designed in UKIPs colours. Given the links between these self-proclaimed anti-fascists and their use of fascist tactics, how long will it be before we see a repeat of Margate's violence, but directed specifically against the demographically older UKIP membership and activist base?

That it is coming is almost beyond argument. We have seen situations bordering on violence at several other events, including Hove. These intimidatory actions make a poor substitute for reasoned argument or debate, but Hope not Hate are not without form in this: their own 'director of intelligence' Matthew Collins is a former NF thug with a record by his own admission of beating up elderly ladies.

Hope not Hate's guiding ethos according to their website is their opposition to racism and fascism. With UKIP's membership increasingly comprising settled immigrants to the UK from many former British colonies, their continued targeting of UKIP appears increasingly absurd: how long before their braying band of supporters finds itself chanting 'UKIP scum off our streets' to a primarily Asian or Caribbean UKIP meeting?

As for the fascism, the idea of destroying political meetings with violence is nothing new. It happened in Soviet Russia. It happened in Nazi Germany. It happens around the world now, in Ukraine, in Turkey, in North Africa, in Zimbabwe. The common thread is the fascism not of the meetings, but those who would break them up.

It hardly needs saying that UKIP is not the far right. UKIP is a moderate, democratic party. Do people who belong to UKIP say stupid things from time to time? Yes, of course they do. The difference is that while UKIP removes them immediately, there are plenty of instances of homophobia, mocking of the mentally ill, threats of violence and even racism on Hope not Hate's own Facebook page as detailed on this blog many times. Hope not Hate regularly censor their own page: in a recent debate about Nigel Farage's comments about gun control, they carefully removed comments which pointed out that they had nothing to do with racism or fascism and that Hope not Hate was exceeding its stated remit in attacking on straight political grounds. It left behind multiple comments from people encouraging others to use a gun on Mr Farage.

HnH Xmas Party - Reach Arounds all round, according to Collins

Hope not Hate's Xmas party will be fun this year with the revelation that 'reach arounds' are official policy. This was confirmed by HnH's former BNP thug and current Director of Intelligence Matthew Collins on Twitter earlier today as he commented on Tory minister Anna Soubry's comments regarding anal sex which were directed towards UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

 

 

 

You can follow us on Twitter - @Nopenothope

Car crash blogging as HnH consumed by jealousy and hate

Hope not Hate have spent the morning writing a blog post on Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, and his past statements on Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants after controls are removed at the beginning of next year.

It has not been a good week for Hope not Hate. After finding themselves overshadowed by the 

Nigel Farage (l) with fellow UKIP MEPs
Stuart Agnew and Derek Clark

Quilliam Foundation over the departure of Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll from the EDL, most of their postings have been directed to mocking the sincerity of any of the parties involved. Quilliam, whose receipt of money from the public purse dwarves Hope not Hate's publicly funded handouts, have long been a target of animosity for the hard left from which Hope not Hate and the UAF draw the majority of their support, not least because it dares to actually educate and act, rather than propagandise and stir up hatred.

Thus we see the unedifying spectacle of Hope not Hate's jealousy breaking out unashamedly on their assorted blogs, switching between wistful envy, jealous mockery and, ironically, outright hate.

Part of HnH's angst is because while they focussed on UKIP, they took their eye off of the EDL and have consequently been left looking rather foolish. Their claims of 'inside intelligence' from the far-right did them little good when they were forced to admit they'd learned of Robinson & Carroll's EDL resignations from normal media outlets. So much for the actions of their own tame Nazi, HnH head of intelligence Matthew Collins.

Then there are the results of last nights local by-elections across the UK. Despite the best efforts of Hope not Hate, UKIP again polled well above their opinion poll levels gaining a seat in Haverhill with 43.4%, and polling 20% in South Staffordshire, 17.6% in Selby, 18.5% in Salford, 23.2% in Barnsley and 9.4% & 9.2% in Manchester and West Lancs respectively.

Today's tack therefore is to attack the mainstream media for daring to give Farage and UKIP a platform - one which is increasingly denied to Hope not Hate as the past week accelerates their slide into irrelevancy.

With righteous indignation in full flow, they demand evidence for assertions that there will be a flood of Romanian criminals and deny with some pretty evasive statistics that Romanian gangs are responsible for any more crime than any other ethnic group. And this just a couple of months after banker's associations and the City of London police stated clearly and uncategorically that Romanian gangs were responsible for 90% of the UK's ATM fraud at cash machines.

It also ignores figures from February this year which demonstrated that up to a third of Romanians living in the UK had been arrested for criminal offences - over 27,000 out of a total of 84,000.

Neither of these figures were produced by or at the behest of UKIP, a fact which HnH deliberately overlook.

The week has further demonstrated not only Hope not Hate's irrelevancy to the current political debate, but has highlighted their own failures. While the Quilliam Foundation is prepared to tackle not just the far-right but also Muslim extremism, Hope not Hate's efforts on the latter amount to little more than tokenism: we discussed last week their latest anti-Islamist 'campaign', which they jumped on board of late, and which consisted of HnH owner Nick Lowles writing a single letter and making one blog post.

Their failure is demonstrated neatly by the anti-Farage article attacking the media. Despite the air of authority with which it is written, it fails to tackle inconvenient facts like those regarding Romanian crime above. While asking what to do about the '4,000 doctors and nurses' - actually medical workers would be more appropriate, for the vast majority are care assistants - and 7,000 Romanian students, it fails to address or even mention the 27,000+ Romanian arrests. It is all very well quoting the Romanian ambassador to the UK saying how wonderful and law abiding Romanian expatriates are, but he is hardly an unbiased source, and his comments fail take into account the criminality figures.

And so we see Lowles and his crew retreat into the sort of Stalinist hyperbole and myth from which they came as they attempt to salvage a working and relevant organisation from what is increasingly becoming a car crash in slow motion. Their campaign against the EDL looks decidedly shaky as that organisation appears set to collapse into chaos, while their campaign against UKIP seems to be driving more voters to UKIP than the reverse as the ordinary working class recognise the truths that HnH refuse to see.

Beating women - fine when done by Hope not Hate's allies

Hope not Hate's gloating over a fight at the Young Independence ball last Thursday night has become somewhat muted lately when it was revealed that the man who bravely attacked a young woman, punching her, pulling her hair and calling her a 'fascist', was none other than Hope not Hate commentator Timur Moon.



Alex Nixon, left, and Timur Moon, the 36 year old who thinks
punching young women and pulling their hair is ok, so long as
he also calls them 'fascist'.

Mr Moon began assaulting guests after being told that it was a private function at which journalists were not welcome. In fairness, Mr Moon barely qualifies as a journalist, but striking a young woman and then having to be restrained until police arrives is hardly dignified behaviour. Still, it is what we have come to expect from Hope not Hate and their associates. No doubt the NUJ will investigate the circumstances closely, and then stand up for women by doing nothing.

Quite why 36 year old Mr Moon, who has a track record of poorly researched articles on the far-right, felt that he qualified either as young or as an independent has not been disclosed, although the recent closeness between Hope not Hate, UAF and Lord Ashcroft's dirty tricks department may provide some indication. Ahead of May's local elections, HnH and the Tories were peddling such headline grabbing news stories as Young Independence members 'dancing stupidly'. We should all count ourselves lucky that our fathers haven't ended up on the front page of the Sun if that is now a noteworthy event.

Still, Moon's crass articles still appear all over Hope not Hate's website. Apparently, it makes no difference if one of their own is likely to be convicted of a criminal offence, even where the crime at hand is gate-crashing a party and punching a young woman. We can only assume that these things are only bad when their opponents do them - another Hope not Hate case of 'do as we say, not as we do'. After all, their own Director of Intelligence (sic) Matthew Collins boasts of his days spent 'Paki bashing' as a member of the BNP in his recently published book (available from bargain buckets everywhere, price £0.25), but apparently he is not a reformed character in a way any former BNP members not involved in Hope not Hate can never be.

It would be a shame to forget the UAF in all this too - for all their talk of equality, rape appears fine. As Martin Smith discovered, a penchant for sexually assaulting young women does not mean giving up your far-left sinecure, organising music festivals to give yourself access to even more young women.

Lowles fights hypocrisy with hypocrisy in blog post

Nick Lowles - as guilty of hypocrisy
over freedom of speech as Igler

In an article apparently written without any sense of irony, Hope not Hate director Nick Lowles focuses today on the links between Pam Geller, Robert Spencer and Discourse Institute director George Igler. In it, Lowles says,

"it would appear that the Discourse Institute is quite selective in the  (sic) free speech campaigns and from a quick look at the organisation's website it regularly defends the EDL but seems not to offer these same freedoms to Muslims who are being silenced."

This is the same Nick Lowles attacking the Discourse Institute for not defending all free speech who just weeks ago organised the petition to prevent Geller and Spencer from coming to the UK and exercising their right to freedom of speech. At the same time, Lowles' organisation was quite happy to turn a blind eye to other hate speakers visiting the UK, including Mohammed al Arefe and Yasser al Habib. Lowles is also behind the 'no platform' campaign which seeks to deny activists his organisation deems 'far-right' from addressing public meetings, while just yesterday HnH and former NF activist Matthew Collins used the 'Insider' blog to lobby against Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon being given a platform a the Oxford Union.

As we have said before, we do not support the views of Geller, Spencer or Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon any more than we support the views of al Arefe or al Habib. The price of freedom of speech however is that even those on the extremes are entitled to it. You can not change peoples minds by victimising them, silencing them, ignoring them or inciting a large mob of UAF bully boys to turn up and beat them, you can only do it by taking on their arguments and defeating them. Lowles needs to get over himself and realise that without freedom of speech, you only have Hate, not Hope.

Only one surprise in an entirely predictable day

There has been an air of predictability about today.

 

EDL leaders Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon were arrested for attempting to deviate from the route set by the police for their 'charity walk'. This was after a pair of UAF activists assaulted Carroll - there is no indication as to whether the UAF pair were also arrested. Carroll and Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon both protested their innocence despite having set out to be arrested in the first place. They then bizarrely claimed that the police were enforcing 'Sharia law'.

Elsewhere, EDL activists laid a wreath at the place where Lee Rigby was murdered before predictably decamping to the local pub.

While all this was happening, Hope not Hate kept up a running commentary. Not just any old running commentary, but one designed to lead UAF activists directly to the EDL, as can be seen from the following messages from their Facebook feed.

Predictably, the whole thing has been a farce. The EDL's poorly organised attempt to hijack Armed Forces Day has distracted attention from what should be a day celebrating the military. The presence of UAF, and their assault on Carroll and Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon served to give their attempts publicity it didn't deserve. Between the two organisations, they managed to tie up a huge number of police resources to achieve precisely nothing.

Meanwhile, Hope not Hate were busy stirring the pot for all they were worth, with such detailed information - which added nothing to the news value of what they were supposed to be 'reporting' - clearly designed to lead to a violent confrontation.

The saddest thing about it all is that we are sure all three organisations are sat back feeling quite proud of what they have 'achieved' today.

Possibly the only unexpected thing to happen today came from a Hope not Hate posting in the
discussion following the last screen capture above. It would appear that Hope not Hate are just as much in favour of bombing Muslims in the Middle East as sections of the EDL are of beating them up in the UK. We are informed that Matthew Collins - the ex far right thug now employed by HnH - was in charge of their Facebook postings today. Perhaps old habits die hard?

 
 

HnH triumphalism over failed far right meetings hides failure of 'Stand up for HOPE' tour

There was much triumphalism (although now rather toned down) on the Hope not Hate website over the 'Brighton & Hove Strong' march on Saturday. Despite being advertised to hundreds of followers, only 6 people turned up: 5 children and an old man. None had any connection to the far right or the EDL, prompting much disappointment amongst Brighton Anti Fascists and Hope not Hate supporters who were looking forward to a fight. Even they drew the line at attacking such a small gathering.

What started out as a long article full of mockery on HnH seems overnight to have shrunk to a mere paragraph mention linked to the local newspaper, the Brighton Argus.


Empty chairs at the HnH
Basildon meeting which
descended into farce.

Those with memories longer than the average goldfish might recall the wildly successful Hope not Hate meetings in Warrington (attendance 5), Basildon (attendance 6, organisers scarpered in fear despite a police presence and no danger) and Harrow (attendance 9). Meanwhile, last nights meeting in Woolwich appears to have been cancelled due to overwhelming public apathy after details disappeared without explanation from the HnH website, although tonight's anti-UKIP meeting in Wimbledon seems to still be on.

Readers may recall that originally HnHs events were billed as public meetings, although now due to low attendance and the fear that members of the public may actually attend the venues are now concealed to enable organisers to hand pick their audience.

Elsewhere on HnH, the 'Insider' blog pokes fun at a rather more obviously far-right march in Burnley where former members of the NF and BNP were among 144 people attending the 'North West Front Line Firm' march. With a population of 73,500, this represents 0.2% of the population. The article, written by former far-right thug and Hope not Hate employee Matthew Collins, neglects to mention this was rather more than the 0.04% of Shrewsbury's population or 0.01% of Leicester's population which bothered to turn out for HnH meetings there within the past few weeks.

What these low attendances on both sides show is that HnH is facing a real problem. Apart from their own failure to draw people to public meetings, what they class as the far right is also struggling. Where a few years ago EDL inspired marches would draw thousands, they now struggle to draw hundreds. It is the marked decline in the far-right which keeps HnH director Nick Lowles awake at nights - he needs them to keep the money flowing in, and if the far right have disappeared, what is the point of his organisation?

This of course explains his shift towards attacking UKIP, a party which he and other anti-racists and anti-fascists have previously declared non-racist and non-fascist. As UKIP begin to eat heavily into the Labour vote - as can be seen by various by-elections in the Labour heartlands recently - Lowles and his colleagues in the Labour dominated executive have seen a means of continuing an organisation which has largely outlived its original purpose: holding back the purple tide in formerly Labour red areas.

Ruth Smeeth - HnH
general secretary and
failed Labour candidate

At stake is not just his job, but the influence and power which go with being the sole shareholder of an organisation which turns over around £1m per year. That Hope not Hate has proved a failure since Lowles wrested control from the Gables and Searchlight is immaterial: the far right has been defeated not by HnH, but by the rise of UKIP with its moderate, small 'n' nationalism and libertarian stance. All of this has left Lowles and his organisation looking for a purpose, and the rise of UKIP appears to have provided it with one. With an executive dominated by people from the Labour Party, the trades unions, or both, UKIP provides a natural target - all that is required are some minor tweaks to HnH's standard operating procedures, and a focus on the small number of UKIP personnel who say stupid or racist things while ignoring any from Labour, Lib Dems or the Tories who do the same.

But this is a plan which is not going smoothly. Beyond Lowles and HnH general secretary, the perpetually second placed Labour candidate Ruth Smeeth, HnH's activist base remains unconvinced, and this is reflected in the poor attendance at HnH's meetings which are designed to whip the masses into an anti-UKIP fervour. Activists are staying away in their droves, a reflection that they simply do not believe that a party which polled 24% in recent local elections is what the HnH leadership now claim as they attempt to save their positions.

Racist 'UKIP' profile: A thick wannabe, or a Hope not Hate creation?

Yesterday, the Hope not Hate website lead with the story of Mick Parker of Fenton, Stoke on Trent, and called on UKIP leader Nigel Farage to "to put his money where his mouth is and deal with a Stoke on Trent UKIP supporter we have discovered who has bigotry oozing from every pore."

The article, written by someone using the pseudonym Simon Cressy, included screen shots of Parker's Facebook wall which featured such gems as 'get theres shit scum fuckin muslims out of my country'(sic). There were plenty of other examples since the account was created on the 5th January this year - in fact there were almost no posts which were not clearly an attempt to tie UKIP to the EDL and other similar racist organisations.

Clearly, this is not the page of someone UKIP would wish to be involved with. And inquiries with the local branch proved that, in fact, UKIP was not connected with him. Mick Parker contacted the local branch on the 9th May expressing a desire to 'get involved locally'. He was invited to attend the next branch meeting, but did not turn up. This was the only contact between UKIP and Parker, despite his Facebook page having the UKIP logo as his image since the account was formed at about the time UKIPs latest poll surge began.

There are two options here. The first is that a chap called Mick Parker came along on the 5th January - shortly after UKIP began their rise in the polls - decided it was time to have a Facebook account, signed up and then posted items almost exclusively about UKIP and the EDL, with the odd, semi-literate comment interspersed. All this despite not being a member of UKIP, and having no contact with UKIP whatsoever until 4 weeks ago.

The second option is that the Parker Facebook account is one of many maintained by Hope not Hate as they attempt to shift their focus away from fighting racism and onto fighting UKIP. What better way to achieve this than creating straw man profiles to knock down at a later date? There was a time when Hope not Hate were more than happy to call UKIP and discuss individuals posting material which implied that UKIP was racist, but sadly under Lowles those days appear long gone: the facts come a distant second to his attempt to persuade his supporters - who remain far from convinced - that UKIP is a worthwhile target.

It would be nice to think that Hope not Hate would remove their article, which is clearly untrue. They may or may not, but in any case they will feel that the damage is done: even if they remove it, they will have reinforced the impression their distortions, half-truths and outright lies are designed to create in the minds of their less than enthusiastic band of supporters.

Hope not Hate Warrington meeting report

An interesting report has been received regarding the Hope not Hate meeting in Warrington last night. We're not entirely clear whether this was a 'Stand up for HOPE' tour date, as the dates and venues of this 'public consultation' have still not been published, despite them being due 'early next week' on the 18th May.

Whether it was or wasn't, it was clear from the start that this was the point of the meeting. Attendance was sparse: the Chairman, two aides, our informant, and 5 members of the public.

The meeting itself was confused; perhaps not surprisingly as at one point the Chairman himself said that 'even in the office they can't agree on whether to go after UKIP or leave them alone'. Despite this, it was quite clear that the Chair was definitely of the opinion that they should 'go after' UKIP, and the whole direction of the meeting was clearly geared to achieving this end.

There seemed broad agreement to the idea that UKIP weren't fascist. There was less agreement on whether UKIP were racist: there was some anecdotal evidence of casual racism, and much was made of former BNP members found to be members of UKIP. The irony of this appeared to escape those attending a meeting of an organisation whose head of intelligence is ex-National Front activist Matthew Collins.

The Chair repeatedly claimed that ex-BNP members were 'fleeing' to UKIP. It was clear that either he was not aware or was not telling that up until the split between Searchlight and Hope not Hate UKIP had actively worked with Hope not Hate to try and prevent just this, a policy begun back in 2005 and continued until Hope not Hate fell under the leadership of Nick Lowles.

The meeting moved on to discuss the stream of 'racist remarks' from UKIP members. As can be seen on our Facebook page, this is not a problem which is limited to UKIP: currently half of the Labour councillors in Harrow are sitting in an Independent Labour group due to institutional racism in the Constituency Labour Party, but naturally this was not mentioned.

There was some discussion of - and disagreement with - wider UKIP policy backed up by the usual misquotes, misunderstandings and faulty logic.

These included that:

• UKIP is a single issue party
• UKIP is only interested in Europe
• UKIP would strip workers of all rights
• Where UKIP stand there is a rise in racist attacks
• UKIP leaflets are racist
• UKIP don't throw out racists quickly enough (!)

The Chairman was forced to concede that opposition to immigration is not the same as racism.

Our informant's comment perhaps best sums up the meeting: "They weren’t a bad bunch of people just misinformed and most definitely being lied to as to what UKIP is all about."