Militant rises - Hope not Hate & SutU incite wave of violence against UKIP

If there is one thing we will remember this election for when polling day is gone and the campaign is long forgotten by most, it will be the violence. Mostly unreported, mostly directed towards UKIP, we have seen reports flood in from around the country. Billboards destroyed. Shops and offices vandalised. Activists assaulted. Vehicles damaged. Candidates intimidated. The scale of it has been unprecedented in the UK. And the source of it has been the hard left, even on the handful of occasions when the Labour Party has been the victim, getting called 'Red Tories' in Scotland.

Mark Smith, the Bournemouth UKIP activist assaulted by
5 men attempting to remove a UKIP sign from his garden

In the last 24 hours, we've seen a UKIP poster van in Eastbourne severely damaged in the third attack on the vehicle in 2 weeks. In Plymouth, council officials acting at the behest of foul-mouthed Labour councillor Tudor Evans have harassed UKIP candidates, removing placards and threatening council action. In Bournemouth, a UKIP activist was assaulted by a group of 5 men attempting to remove a UKIP placard from his garden.

These things are not isolated incidents; in fact, they have been brewing for some time. In July 2013 we blogged of a UKIP candidate in Swansea who stood down after his wife's career was threatened by a UNISON rep if he dared to stand for the party. Throughout 2014 and the European elections, we saw a rising tide of vandalism directed against UKIPs poster campaign and against campaign shops and offices. Nigel Farage was assaulted on several occasions - always by people with

UKIP MEP Gerard Batten's London home after it was
attacked with bricks

links to Stand up to UKIP and Hope not Hate - and other candidates and activists also came under violent attack. This included UKIP MEP Gerard Batten, who had a brick thrown through his window at home.

This year, the violence and hate has been even greater. As of 2 weeks ago, over 30 UKIP shops and campaign offices had been attacked, some several times. Ramsgate, Blythe, Folkestone, Kidderminster, Southport, Herne Bay, Wrexham, Penarth - the list goes on, across the country from North to South and East to West.

It is not just UKIP premises which have been targeted. Householders in Lincoln who displayed 'Vote UKIP' banners found their windows put through. People unconnected with UKIP who signed UKIP nomination papers have been harassed and threatened. Potential candidates have been physically intimidated into not standing. A UKIP candidate was forced to withdraw from a local hustings after receiving death threats from Stand up to UKIP. Nigel Farage was harassed by Green Party and Labour activists while eating Sunday lunch in a pub with his family.

What has been the official response to this? Beyond local newspapers, it may as well not be happening. None of the national media has seen fit to report on this wave of political violence, while the police can barely stir themselves to take statements. There have been few if any arrests.

So what is the cause of this?

Hope not Hate and their allies in the equally union-funded, SWP-run 'Stand up to UKIP' campaign must take a significant share of the blame. Neither are 'grass-roots' organisations in the sense that UKIP is - the vast majority of Hope not Hate's funding comes from the big unions: Unison and Unite. They also were in receipt of a significant slice of public funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Hope not Hate claim they do not take part in violence. This may be technically true. But what we have seen on repeated occasions is Hope not Hate activists attending rallies by the far-right, and using their Twitter account to direct the hard-left thugs of UAF towards a confrontation by giving precise

Weyman Bennett of Stand up to UKIP, having his collar
felt once again, but not at an anti-UKIP event

locations of far-right activists in a running commentary. When the inevitable violent clashes occur, HnH stand back and hold their hands up in mock horror. Add to that their hate-filled rhetoric, their demonisation of insignificant UKIP members who have said something they regard as politically incorrect. Labour and Tory candidates invariably have many years of sucking at the public tit before being selected as a candidate for a Parliamentary election during which time they learn the language of empty words and politician-speak. UKIP candidates are builders, housewives, truck drivers and nurses, unused to talking the foreign language used to disguise the true meaning of words so beloved of our professional political class. They say what they think - sometimes in colourful language, sometimes in intemperate language, and rarely in the sort of doublespeak used by those with an elected position to protect. This relentless focus on pensioners who say 'coloured' or 'black' instead of the currently preferred 'BME' (Black & Minority Ethnic, in case you wondered) is not because they have said anything particularly terrible, nor even that they have expressed racist sentiments. It is because the media outcry will deter others from sticking their head above the parapet. It is part of a long-running campaign of intimidation.

We then move on to UAF and their Stand up to UKIP front campaign. Relying on the same funding sources as HnH - the large unions - much of the overt violence has been caused by them. The intolerance of activists such as Bunny La Roche in Thanet South (who now also works for Hope not Hate) has positively incited a core of hard-left activists drawn from an assortment of hard left groups ranging from the Greens to the SWP via International Socialists to take violent action against UKIP. Is there any condemnation from their organisation? From the Labour Party? None. That La Roche is a defender of a racist sexual practise is of no interest to the anti-UKIP brigade.

Thanet South is particularly interesting. After a spate of violent attacks against UKIP activists and properties, there were claims of UKIP activists attacking Labour campaigners while simultaneously claiming they were National Front. A more convenient state of affairs is difficult to imagine, ticking all the right boxes for them to claim victim status. A few blurry photographs and a couple of quotes from professional politician and Labour candidate, the 12 year old Will Scobie, was enough to send the Daily Mirror close to orgasm over 'UKIP violence' with no actual proof whatsoever.

This victimhood was continued in Grimsby, where a Hope not Hate day of action which had already been called into question over claims of 'treating' ended as a damp squib after a mere handful of HnH activists arrived. To cover their embarrassment, claims were made of assaults and intimidation by UKIP supporters to the local newspaper, who ran a story pointing out that despite these claims, Hope

Thanet Green councillor & candidate Ian Driver being
'non-violent' at an anti-UKIP demonstration

not Hate had failed to provide any evidence, and were unable to provide the paper with a crime number despite them claiming the police were investigating.

We should also mention the active participation of the Green Party in this. Those peace-loving bunny huggers have not found themselves averse to a bit of violence against UKIP, as we reported on a few months ago in Penarth where the Green-run 'Stand up to UKIP' campaign refused to take action against a member who threatened to burn down a UKIP shop.

But what responsibility do Labour bear for this? It is ironic that the only violence suffered by Labour has been at the hands of hard-left activists links to the SNP in Scotland, where they label Labour as 'Red Tories'. Across England and Wales, we have not found a single story of a vandalised Labour shop or vehicle. The same applies to the Green Party. The truth is that both parties are quite happy to tacitly condone this: after all, it is their activists who play a large part in it. It is not by accident that

Labour MP Liam Byrne delivering Hope not Hate literature

Hope not Hate's leaflets are in the same colours and style as the Labour Party's, nor that Labour activists frequently double as Hope not Hate ones: their aims and objectives are similar, if not identical. They seek to prevent discussion of the topics which ordinary people outside of the Westminster bubble care about: immigration, Europe, crime, benefits. A visitor from another planet who listened to any Labour Party speech would be forgiven for thinking there was nothing else in the UK apart from a 'weaponised' National Health Service.

Labour and the hard-left are desperate to avoid some difficult questions, and not just for obvious reasons. Unlimited immigration has driven down wages - anyone who gets paid on an hourly basis can tell you that. The problem for Labour is that this has proved of limited benefit even for the migrants, who eventually end up relying on state assistance in some form just to get by. The only people it has proved good for are the large corporates who ultimately fund the Labour Party, and for the Unions, who see a pool of labour from which to draw more members (and who also fund Labour). The hypocrisy of their position on this is quite breath-taking: can anyone recall when the Labour Party and the Unions were supposed to support the British worker rather than consistently undermine him or her?

What is the answer? Some fair, balanced media coverage would be a start, exposing those who would subvert our democratic process in order to silence views they don't like. There appears little chance of that, with the BBC preferring to focus on UKIP trivia and the stupid comments of a handful of individuals rather than report on the 2 Labour candidates convicted of fraud last week.

It is difficult to know where it will end. Chaiman Mao said that 'political power grows from the barrel of a gun', and the hard left, lead by Hope not Hate, the SWP, Labour and the Greens, seem to have taken this to heart. Until they take responsibility for their actions and cease trying to howl down valid political arguments, there seems little chance of a retreat from the violence. None of them seem in any danger of choking on their own hypocrisy, from Bunny La Roche's race play sex to Labour's acceptance of former BNP councillors.

For the Tories, who seem eager to jump into bed with Hope not Hate in their desperation to retain
Thanet South, they should remember one thing: if the hard left succeed, you're next. Be careful what you wish for. MacKinlay's desperation to come first in anything other than a safe ward handed to him as a prize for defecting from UKIP should not blind the Tories to the dangers welling on the hard-left.

'Scum' mob lead by Green Party member and PCS NEC member with links to Diane Abbott and Chukka Umunna

The mob which attacked UKIP leader Nigel Farage in a Kent pub was lead by Green Party member and 'Stand up to UKIP' activist Dan Glass and PCS Union NEC member and Hope not Hate activist Zita Holbourne, it can be revealed.

Holbourne was recently pictured at the House of Commons with Labour MPs Chukka Umunna and Diane Abbott (not really a surprise, is it?). She appeared on a platform at the TUC conference with PCS Deputy President Kevin McHugh vowing to 'develop campaigns with Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism' to stop UKIP. Is this the sort of action they had in mind, attacking a family while they ate lunch? Intimidating a couple of teenage girls?

Holbourne is a co-chair of BARAC (black activists rising against cuts) with Lee Jasper. Regular readers may remember Jasper as a former deputy mayor of London until leaving under a financial cloud after being accused of using the public's money to make unauthorised grants to an organisation run by a woman he was banging. He also regularly appears on platforms with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and with Jasna Badzak, the fraudster currently awaiting trial on harassment charges following her conviction for stealing from UKIP MEP Gerard Batten a year or so ago.

Glass meanwhile is a professional campaigner against, well, everything. From airport runways to NHS cuts, he's a typical middle-class Green Party watermelon - green on the outside, red on the inside. A member of the 'Green Left' movement - it's far enough left to make Josef Stalin look like a liberal - he is also an activist with the union funded 'Stand up to UKIP' movement. His Facebook page is a web of organisations which protest against things, but its rather harder to find something that he's for besides a lot of protesting. He does write for the Guardian periodically, and says of himself:

 

So far, we have involvement in this from the Labour Party, the big unions, Stand up to UKIP, UAF, the Green Party, Hope not Hate and the SWP. Anyone care to take a bet on how many will apologise?

 

So far, there is apparent silence from Hope not Hate on the attack, which is rather surprising as they normally post anything to do with UKIP within minutes of it hitting the news. Its not as if they're not posting, as they continue to post UKIP related stories, but for some reason when Hope not Hate activists attack the leader of UKIP during a family lunch, they don't think its newsworthy. Strange, huh?



HnH Activists pay Jim Carver's office a visit - Spotlight on Hope not Hate #2

Continuing our series looking at what Hope not Hate mean in practise, news reaches us that some of their activists paid UKIP MEP Jim Carver's office a visit last night. The display window was smashed, and paint was thrown over the windows and internal fittings.

Jim Carver's Kidderminster shop - redecoration provided by Hope not Hate

Of course, Hope not Hate will say that it's 'nothing to do with us or our activists' and that they 'deplore violence'. But as we saw in Wales recently, those who attacked the UKIP shop in Penarth were active supporters of Hope not Hate, as were those they were affiliated with, including 2 Green Party PPCs and 2 Labour councillors.

And let's not forget Hope not Hate's contribution whenever there is a far-right event: tweeting and Facebooking the precise locations of far-right activists to help their fellow travellers in Unite Against Fascism find them to ensure that there's a punch up.

The simple truth is that Jim's shopfront is merely the latest casualty of the politics of division, hate and envy that Hope not Hate seek to spread. You'll see no condemnation - and perhaps some triumphalism - on the HnH pages, but not all hate is equal: Nick Lowles is quite happy to condone just about anything directed at UKIP or the party's windows.

Wave of hard-left violence directed at UKIP premises

 

The UKIP shops pictured are (Left to Right) Newark, Plymouth, Thanet and Penarth.

Calls to burn down UKIP shop by members of group run by Green PPC & Labour Councillor

A Facebook group run by a Green Parliamentary Candidate, a Welsh Scottish Nationalist and a Labour councillor has members who advocated burning down the UKIP shop in Merthyr Tydfil.

Elspeth Parris, Green Party 'watermelon'
who is happy to associate her group
with instigators of political violence and
intimidation

The group - Merthyr says NO to UKIP - was founded by Elspeth Parris, Green PPC for Merthyr Tydfil. Other admins were David Davies, a Labour councillor in Merthyr and Harriet Protheroe-Davis, a student activist who will apparently join any campaign so long as it features a red star.

Also members of the group are two other Labour councillors from Merthyr, Darren Roberts and Rhonda Braithwaite, a Plaid Cymru PPC, Freddy Greaves, and UNISON managers Dawn Bowden and Dan Beard.

The member we are interested in though is part time musician Malik Furreed. Furreed was so incensed by the operation of democracy that he called for volunteers to 'fuck up' the UKIP shop in Merthyr which was due to open a couple of days later.




Malik Furreed's barely literate call to violence

His friend Jake Morgan was quite enthusiastic about it, suggesting that they 'burn whatever cunt goes in there as well', an idea that Malik was quite happy with. Similar comments appeared on his Facebook page. Clearly someone has been in touch, as young Malik has deleted the comments. Luckily we have the screen grabs (right).

Had it been a UKIP supporter who'd said such things about a political opponent, UKIP would have expelled them and/or cut all links to them. No such scruples in 'Merthyr says NO to UKIP' though. Although the tweets and Facebook posts have been deleted, Malik remains a member. As do the Labour councillors, the Green PPC, the Welsh Scottish Nationalist and the Plaid PPC.

Perpetrators of the violent attack on the UKIP shop in Penarth

That they would put up with such threatening behaviour is hardly surprising. On the 14th December, a group of youths - one of whom does not look dissimilar to Malik - attacked the UKIP shop in Penarth, a short distance away from Merthyr. On that occasion, a gang of 6 - 5 youths and one older man who stayed safely out of range of the CCTV cameras - urinated in the shop doorway and threw beer glasses and bottles at the shop frontage. This was just 4 days before Malik was appealing for volunteers to do the same to the UKIP shop in Merthyr Tydfil.

Such behaviour in this part of South Wales is hardly new, although it has stepped up a notch since UKIP finished a narrow second behind Labour in this year's European Elections. In July last year, we reported how a UKIP candidate in Llansamlet was forced to withdraw after his wife's UNISON rep at work warned her that if her husband stood as a UKIP candidate, her career would be at an end. It is not surprise then to see two UNISON reps as members of the 'Merthyr says NO to UKIP' group - UNISON's regional manager Dawn Bowden and University of Wales UNISON secretary Dan Beard.

Protheroe-Davis and Merthyr's homeless with a
rather confusing sign

There's plenty of other hate around in the group. David Davies, group admin and the Labour councillor for Town ward on Merthyr council is a Hope not Hate activist who 'likes' Socialist Worker, UAF and In Defence of Marxism among other hard left groups. Double-barrelled class warrior Harriet Protheroe-Davis, another admin, belongs to a veritable smorgasbord of radical, hard left groups including Radical Independence Campaign, the violent Scottish Nationalist group, although her only link to Scotland appears to be as a student at Edinburgh University.

To date, actions directed against the Merthyr shop have amounted to little more than a poorly thought out sign held briefly outside the door by Protheroe-Davis and a number of Merthyr's homeless to judge by their appearance. Some speeches were made, and a lot of people who pretended to be local turned up 'spontaneously', although a significant number went to some lengths to show their affiliation with the hard left of the Socialist Workers Party by staying out of camera shot and covering their faces. A number of 'Stand up to UKIP' signs were also present: the campaign is a strange mish-mash of activists which receives funding from both the trade unions and big business through the 'British Influence' group, but is run by the SWP front UAF. As we have seen elsewhere in the country, how long will it be before they tire of their tactics of intimidation in the face of UKIPs continued rise and resort to the sort of violence advocated by Furreed and seen elsewhere in the country?

LaRoche supported 'race play' sex leader of International Socialist Network

Bunny LaRoche - fond of calling people racist, but happy to
support the idea of 'race play' sexual relationships

Long terms readers of this blog will have recognised the shrill, blue haired scold in the Question Time audience last night as professional middle class agitator and Socialist Worker's Party/International Socialist thug Bunny la Roche. La Roche, who hails from Thanet, was a leading organiser alongside Thanet Green Cllr Ian Driver of the demonstration which saw UKIP leader Nigel Farage assaulted in Cliftonville at the beginning of this year. It is no surprise to discover that she is also a personal friend of Andrew Scott, the man convicted of the assault.

More surprising for a woman whose every other sentence involves labelling someone racist is her involvement with the International Socialist Network (ISN). When LaRoche left the SWP she joined ISN, one of the splinter groups formed as the organisation began to break apart following the rape allegations directed towards leader 'Comrade Delta', normally known as Martin Smith. We suspect that she wasn't one of Smith's victims.

The International Socialist Network - of which she became one of the self-appointed leadership clique - was itself almost immediately riven by dissent. Much of this centred on a row about a sexual practise known as 'Race Play', in which partners of different ethnicity ignore social conventions and - basically - call the black one a 'nigger' while shagging. Life doesn't really get more racist if not white supremacist than that. The main proponent of this rather bizarre, counter-revolutionary activity was Richard Seymour, the 'leader' of ISN and a close ally of Bunny LaRoche.

Despite many of ISN's activists departing over the row, LaRoche has stayed loyal to Seymour, and continues to feature him on her website. All of which seems to indicate that LaRoche thinks racism is just fine so long as she decides on who gets to be racist and when. As LaRoche has a face like a slapped arse and a body like two billiard balls in a sock, we haven't dwelt too long on whether she herself partakes in 'Race Play' lest we lose our breakfast at the very thought, but it wouldn't surprise us.

Elsewhere, La Roche is hardly popular even among the self-described 'anti-racist' groups. She is also not averse to a bit of capitalism, as this posting from 'Socialist Unity' outlines: when their Stoke branch received an £2000 donation from the PCS union, she attempted to bill them £1800 for UAF's unwanted assistance. They write,

LaRoche - back on the SWP payroll as a 'Stand up to UKIP'
paid organiser.

" Bunny Laroche, a full timer who previously excelled herself by making the SWP’s name mud in Kent"
"Bunny accused the activist of stealing them from her. She then changed tack and said she was “not allowed” to sell the shirts"
"Bunny came into her unpleasant element again... She went from sweetness and light at the founding meeting... to an aggressive bully at the anti-fascist rally held a few days later"

There is much more, and we really recommend that you read it the Socialist Unity report linked.

It is worth mentioning that LaRoche has rebuilt her links with the SWP while remaining a defender of racist sexual practises, and is now involved with the SWP inspired 'Stand up to UKIP' campaign, the bully boy front of that other union funded organisation, Hope not Hate. We understand she receives a salary in return for her efforts.

HnH supports Human Rights Day by continuing the fight to suppress the rights of opponents

A reasonable Hope not Hate protester standing up for freedom
of speech and human rights. The right to thump coppers.

While Hope not Hate and their supporters may not see the irony, HnH owner Nick Lowles blog is full of information on how his organisation is supporting Human Rights Day for the United Nation's Declaration of Universal Human Rights. It is ironic that many countries consider the UDHR to be 'racist' in the sense that it imposes western values on nations where such values and beliefs are not culturally accepted. Who'd have thought that Lowles, Smeeth and all would be supporters of cultural imperialism? Muslim states do not recognise the UDHR as it is considered un-Islamic, and instead support the 'Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam', while Asian states support the Bangkok Declaration on Human Rights because the UDHR's western bias fails to take account of Asian values. Nick Lowles and Hope not Hate supporting something seen as racist? Fancy that.

Still, as he himself says, "Everything we do at HOPE not hate, every ounce of support we seek, is cemented by our faith in the universality of human rights." To celebrate the day, Hope not Hate have continued to do their best to infringe the human rights of everybody who doesn't agree with their point of view, something they do each and every day.

HnH's beliefs include the right to use violence to
suppress political ideas they don't agree with

Hope not Hate's entire campaign against UKIP is based on attempting to suppress the freedom of speech of anybody who dares disagree with their hard left ideology. Needless to say, the right to freedom of speech is enshrined in the pre-amble of the Declaration. When internet campaigns aren't sufficient, there's always the bully boys of UAF and the SWP to hand to take practical action on Hope not Hate's behalf and suppress dissenter's human rights just a little bit more.

We could remind him that using individuals as pawns in his attacks upon UKIP are contrary to Article 12 of the Declaration, which states "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." Tell that to the private individuals his organisation is happy to label as Nazis just because they don't share his views. Still, they're all grist to his propaganda mill.

Then there is Article 19, which states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;

The Human Right to hit people over the head with placards
if you don't agree with their views - one of HnH's key principles

this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." This right only applies if you agree with Nick and Hope not Hate. If you have a different opinion, be prepared for a bunch of unwashed, hard left activists to descend upon you and troll your social media.

And we shouldn't forget Article 20, which states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.". Unless you're attending a UKIP meeting, when the same unwashed, Hard Left activists will turn up and harass you with the intention of preventing the meeting taking place. If you're really lucky, Hope not Hate's UAF allies will respect your human rights by hitting you over the head with a placard or throwing eggs at you.

What we find most sad is that Lowles can trot out his 'everything we do is in support of human rights' without any sense of irony. We can only suppose that the hypocrisy is so deeply ingrained amongst his organisation and its supporters that they no longer bother with facts or reality. There is a danger in believing in your own propaganda though, and we can only remind him of Noam Chomsky's words - "Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to the totalitarian state".

HnH activist and Labour MP sought Commons breastfeeding ban

Nick Lowles - not the only one with Photoshop

A story which we missed - or at least didn't get around to mentioning - last week was Hope not Hate's attack on UKIP leader Nigel Farage and his comments on breastfeeding. Farage had been asked about breastfeeding while being interviewed on LBC last week and was heavily criticised by the usual coalition of the professionally outraged for suggesting that organisations should be free to make their own rules regarding suitability and perhaps offering alternative locations for breastfeeding, and that breastfeeding mothers should exercise discretion so as not to cause offence among sections of the population who would not be so keen to see it.

This pragmatic approach did not meet with Hope not Hate's approval, of course. An internet meme rapidly appeared on their Twitter feed which appeared to miss the entire point - no surprise there.

What Hope not Hate appear to have forgotten is that not only is breastfeeding not permitted in the House of Commons, but one of their prominent supporters lead the campaign to keep it out because it was not a suitable place. The Early Day Motion was submitted by Helen Clark, former Labour MP for Peterborough and a noted Hope not Hate supporter (she lists them on her Linked In page) stated that the "Commons Chamber, committee rooms and division lobbies are not the right places for breastfeeding."


 HnH activist and former Labour MP Helen Clark's EDM to ban
breastfeeding from the Commons chamber

In other words, a noted Hope not Hate campaigner actively sought to ban breastfeeding from Parliament. Now, we take no opinion on whether this is right or wrong. What we do have an opinion on is that yet again, Hope not Hate and Nick Lowles' attack on Farage and UKIP is based on blatant hypocrisy.

A final note - Helen Clark was a founding signatory in the creation of Unite Against Fascism.

UAF, Unions & Labour in Portsmouth and their links to a convicted ISIS terrorist

Regular readers may recall that earlier this week we looked at Unite Against Fascism's thinly disguised 'anti-UKIP coalition' in Portsmouth which largely comprised people who stood to lose financially in the event of further UKIP advances: Labour and Lib Dem politicians, trade union activists who haven't had a proper job in years and 'community activists' who have long been supported on the Council payroll while genuine public services went down the toilet.

You may recall that we mentioned Zuber Hatia, who is invariably described as 'a prominent figure in Portsmouth's Muslim community and a community activist' in newspaper reports covering UAF's demonstrations in the south coast city - a helpful description which makes it sound like the Muslim community is steadfastly behind UAF's efforts.

Zuber Hatia urging attendance at a UAF event on the
Portsmouth UAF Facebook page

The truth is rather different. For a start, Hatia is a member of the local UAF branch, and has helped
with the organisation of events in the past: the screen grab shows Hatia talking about 'we STILL need' and 'more of us' as he exhorts people to sign up for a UAF march in Portsmouth last month on the event page.

All of this begs the question 'to what extent is Hatia representative  of the local Muslim community'? While genuine Muslim community leaders in Portsmouth such as Abu-Suyeb Tanzam condemned the young men who had travelled to Syria and said, "If anyone belongs to those groups they should be punished’, Hatia was nowhere to be seen or quoted, certainly not in the local newspapers. When news broke that 6 men from Portsmouth had travelled to Syria in November 2013, the Portsmouth News ran an article entitled 'City's Muslim leaders condemn Syria fighters'. The article named the leaders, and said,

"Speaking yesterday, leaders from the city’s Jami Mosque said the men had made the journey without the knowledge of their parents, the mosque, and the Muslim community.
Jami Mosque committee members Abidur Rahman Chowdhury, Mosud Ahmed, Aziz ur Rahman, Abu-Suyeb Tanzam and chairman Abdul Jalil said the mosque has been working with the police after it emerged the group of men had made the journey.’

The advert for the 'Stand up to UKIP' rally - all allegedly
knew convicted ISIS terrorist Mashadur Choudhary

You will note that Hatia is not mentioned in the article despite being a self-proclaimed 'prominent figure in Portsmouth's Muslim community and community activist'. He is not mentioned in another article on the 29th October this year 'Leaders condemn those radicalising young Muslims' either. In an article in the Guardian, local mosque leaders said,

"Choudhury had been under pressure from within his community because he was being blamed for encouraging the group to travel to Syria. Leaders of the Jami mosque in the city feared that as Choudhury was a youth worker, his actions might overly influence vulnerable young people."

So what did Zuber Hatia have to say about Mashadur Choudhary, the man sentenced to 4 years yesterday for travelling to Syria to fight for ISIS? In May this year, he was complaining on Facebook - reposted on the 'Portsmouth Anti-Fascists' blog - about how unfair Choudhary's conviction was as he hadn't done anything:

"There is no reason to assume that with such convictions in British courts as Mashudur Choudhary’s – who clearly went to Syria as plenty others have done so and who clearly did not join any combatant group and returned back to the UK having committed no crime, either abroad or here"

Hatia - knew Choudhary
through 'community
activism'

In other words, in spite of long-standing fears amongst genuine leaders of the Muslim community in Portsmouth that Choudhary was radicalising young men with a view to encouraging them to join ISIS, Hatia feels he 'has committed no crime'. We have spent some time attempting to find anyone in the Portsmouth Muslim community who agrees with Hatia, but without success. His view is emphatically not representative of the local mosque or the local Muslim community, and it is clear that while he is prominent, he is hardly an acknowledged mouthpiece for anything or anybody other than the hard left.

So what of his links to Mashadur Choudhary? Choudhary had worked previously as a racial harassment case worker for the local authority, which regularly brought him into contact with Hatia's self-appointed status as a 'community activist'. Sources in the Portsmouth Muslim community tell us that Hatia and Choudhary were 'not close, but knew each other fairly well and worked together on various causes'.

Woods - knew Choudhary through
union activities

So what of the other UAF people involved in the 'Stand up to UKIP' event?  Choudhary was a trade union member, which brought him into personal contact with Portsmouth Trades Council president and UAF activist Jon Woods, the organiser of last weeks anti-UKIP protest and the local chairman of UNISON, the union to which Choudhary belonged. A UNISON member in Portsmouth who didn't wish to be named because of career repercussions accused Woods of 'cosying up to the most radical views he could find' and said Woods 'had no wish to be associated with Choudhary now, but didn't have that problem when he thought that Choudhary could help sign up new members to Woods' various causes a few years ago'. Woods is also the Portsmouth North PPC for the TUSC, and previously was closely associated with the SWP in Portsmouth.



Labour PPC Sue Castillon - knew
Choudhary through youth work
in Portsmouth

Finally, of the advertised speakers, we have Sue Castillon, Labour's PPC for Portsmouth North and a Hope not Hate activist. Castillon previously ran two youth schemes in Portsmouth which brought her into frequent contact with Choudhary during his time as a council youth worker. At least 2 of the other Portsmouth men who travelled to Syria to join ISIS may have been known to her, according to our source. Using the Twitter handle @eurosue, she has also frequently shared a platform with both Woods and Hatia as part of their anti-UKIP campaign.

A final twist of irony is that for 6 months, Choudhary was employed as an outreach worker as part of the government's 'Prevent' strategy designed to halt the radicalisation of young Muslims by groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. Choudhary, who is in his 30's, travelled to Syria with a group of young Muslims who, according to media reports, he had encouraged to sign up with ISIS and travel to Syria. His secondment to the Prevent group was organised by the then Liberal Democrat controlled Portsmouth City Council. Former Lib Dem council leader and Portsmouth South PPC Cllr Gordon Vernon-Jackson also attended the launch of the anti-UKIP group.

Portsmouth anti-UKIP coalition run by SWP & UAF member with links to rapist & terrorist

Jon Woods, Portsmouth SWP & UAF member

In today's news round-up on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, we mentioned the creation of an anti-UKIP coalition in Portsmouth comprising Labour, Lib Dem, SWP, Greens, UAF and Hope not Hate. The linked story contains a video made by the ' President of Portsmouth Trades Council' Jon Woods.

While it is interesting to see varying shades of left wing thought come together not in the interests of the people of Portsmouth but to save their own crumbling voter base, it was even more interesting to see what other hats Mr Woods wears. In a news report from last year, Mr Woods was describing himself as 'a member of Unite Against Fascism' when he was so terrified by 'threats' made against him by the local EDL ahead of a march that the first thing he did after reporting them to the police was to go to the local press.

From the SWP's 'branch meeting' guide, 2010

He has lots of other hats though. Apart from being president of Portsmouth trades council and a member of UAF, he is also variously listed as 'Portsmouth City UNISON branch chair', North Portsmouth PPC for TUSC and as a member of Portsmouth SWP, but nowhere can we find any information about any proper job he may ever have held. He is also a frequent correspondent to SWP internal rag 'Socialist Worker', and is listed in their 2010 meeting guide (for early 2011) as speaking at the SWP Branch Meeting in Portsmouth on the subject of 'Strikes and Struggles for Revolution'.

He has some form on the anti-UKIP front. His part in organising the UAF's 'Stand Up to UKIP'

Portsmouth's LMHR concert on behalf of
rapist Martin Smith's organisation

campaign last May helped get 6 UKIP councillors elected to Portsmouth City Council, so we look forwards to him having similar success this year.

Labour Portsmouth South candidate Sue Castillon attended the meeting, and spoke of "women in this city who fear walking outside their front doors". Although this rather pointless barb was directed towards UKIP, it might have been better directed towards Jon Woods' associates. His continued involvement with UAF lead to a 'Love Music, Hate Racism' concert in the city in July. Love Music Hate Racism is another SWP front organisation, this one run by former SWP leader Martin Smith. Smith was the 'Comrade Delta' named in an internal SWP report as having been responsible for the rape of at least one young activist and its subsequent hushing up by intimidating the victim (UAF LMHR events run by man accused of rape). Whether encouraging impressionable youth to attend concerts run by a rapist is a good idea is something Woods will have to answer himself. One thing is certain though. UAF and Woods are very keen to point to individual idiots within UKIP who say or do stupid things, and tar the whole party with that brush. If you know a man by the company he keeps as Woods clearly believes then remember his friend, the rapist Martin Smith.

It is worth mentioning that the anti-UKIP meeting was organised by a man called Simon Magorian, who although presenting himself without title in the Portsmouth News article today was previously described as 'Portsmouth UAF Convenor' in an earlier article about the EDL.

Also quoted is Zuber Hatia as 'a prominent member of Portsmouth's Muslim community and a community activist'. Hatia wrote in May this year in defence of Mashadur Choudhary, who was convicted of terrorist offences for having fought with ISIS in Syria, although Hatia says of him that he, " clearly did not join any combatant group and returned back to the UK having committed no crime, either abroad or here",  a view not shared by the British courts or even by the local Mosque in Portsmouth, where committee member Abu-Suyeb Tanzam condemned Choudhary for his 'betrayal' of the local community.

Finally, we have already mentioned Portsmouth South Labour PPC Sue Castillon, who you might be surprised to find sharing a platform with two associates of a known rapist and an apologist for Islamic terrorism. It is hardly a shock to discover that apart from being a raving Europhile (her Twitter name is @Eurosue), she is also a leading Hope not Hate activist in the area.

Leading local Hope not Hate activist Sue Castillon retweeting
Hope not Hate messages.

UEA student who blocked UKIP speech has conviction for assaulting police at UAF demo

UEA student officer Liam McCafferty is a violent criminal
with conviction for assaulting a police officer

The student union officer at the University of East Anglia who helped organise a petition to prevent local UKIP candidtes addressing the University's Political Studies Society because he claimed students wouldn't 'feel safe' with UKIP on campus has a conviction for assaulting a police officer at a UAF demonstration.

Liam McCafferty, 22, from Doncaster was arrested at a UAF demonstration against an EDL march in Bolton in March 2010, and was convicted of the assault in June 2011 and fined £100. He subsequently appealed his conviction, but it was upheld in March 2012, when in addition to the £100 fine and £630 costs he was ordered to pay a further £200 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge, bringing his bill up to almost £1000. McCafferty asked to pay at £10 a week, but was told that 'if he could afford to swan off to demonstrations, he can afford to pay up' by the judge. He was permitted to pay the costs at £5 per week, but inquiries indicate that he may not have done so.

The judge, in upholding his conviction, said he had taken 'sly digs' at an officer manning a cordon to keep UAF and EDL marchers apart.

McCafferty, speaking about his campaign to prevent UKIP speaking on the campus, said, "the talk was cancelled because student members did not feel safe", despite neither of the UKIP speakers having a conviction for assaulting a police officer. He also Tweeted the following,

Can students feel safe around a man with a conviction for political violence?
McCafferty was fined £1,000 for assaulting a policeman at a demo.

apparently forgetting to mention that even the police can't feel safe when he's around. Of course, the police can't feel safe when any UAF activist is around, and it is hardly surprising to discover a boy with links to the UAF is attempting to suppress freedom of speech. Normally they resort to bully boy tactics and violence, and we're sure that UKIP can look forward to that when sanity returns to UEA.

Full details of his conviction can be found on the Bolton News website here : £1000 bill as student loses EDL demo appeal

We wonder whether students feel safe knowing that their full time student union officer is a violent convicted criminal with a history of beating law enforcement officers, and whether that makes them feel safer or not?

How to find out if your Facebook 'friends' are hard left supporters

We've seen several postings recently which tell Facebook members how to find out if their friends 'like' what is described as the far right, most recently in this morning's 'Metro' newspaper. But how can you tell if your Facebook friends burn literature, physically attack people for their views and violently disrupt political meetings they don't agree with?

To help our supporters, you can use the links below to find out if you have anyone on your friends list who supports Hope not Hate, Unite Against Fascism, AntiFa or the Labour Party.

To find friends who like Hope not Hate -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=91897231853

To find friends who like UAF -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=101124430813

***UPDATED***
To find friends who like the increasingly SWP linked Watermelons of the Green Party -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=20995300784

To find friends who like AntiFa -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=37315363535

To find friends who like the Socialist Workers Party -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=132633832928

To find friends who like 'Radical Independence Campaign', the Scottish soap-dodgers -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=566948540013005

To find friends who like 'Left Unity' -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=327424650740809

To find friends who like the Labour Party -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=25749647410

To find friends who hate music and like the band 'One Direction' -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=121930497861753

We think that just about covers the most tiresome of the fascist, anti-free speech, pro-intolerance groups. If we've missed any off, please let us know and we'll add them to the list.

If you want to know who supports far-right groups, they links are:

To find friends who like Britain First -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=300455573433044

To find friends who like the BNP -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=173163939435977

To find friends who like the EDL -
https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=238696516197018

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.