Lowles bends the truth as he tries to fight of 'establishment' claims

Lowles fights 'establishment' label

It was interesting to read Hope not Hate director Nick Lowles self-congratulatory puff piece in the Huffington Post yesterday, not least because of the levels of distortion it contained.

In the article, Lowles says,

"In fact, the UKIP leader sounds worried. This morning he attacked me personally, and HOPE not hate, on BBC radio and in national newspapers, claiming I was a Communist and linked to the Socialist Workers Party (I am neither), or that we were linked to another organisation Unite Against Fascism (we are not) and that because our charitable (non-campaigning) arm accepted government funding in the past (now ceased) we are part of the 'Establishment' trying to stop them. I guess he must be feeling riled."

To deal with these distortions in turn:
..claiming I was a Communist and linked to the Socialist Workers Party (I am neither)...

Lowles originally worked for Searchlight before engineering his own well paid political career by breaking Hope not Hate out of its founding organisation after an internal power struggle. Searchlight was founded and run by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Some of his Hope not Hate staff members - including website contributor Carl Morphett and his pseudonyms - remain associated with hard left, communist groups.

As for the SWP, it is true that the SWP and HnH had a falling out, although close links remain between them. HnH staff regularly attend far-right demonstrations, often disguised as serious journalists, and their detailed tweets giving the specific locations of far-right activists are eagerly used by UAF/SWP to target them for violence. Meanwhile, SWP front organisation Love Music Hate Racism - headed by rapist Martin Smith, former SWP leader - regularly has its events publicised by Hope not Hate. A quick internet search shows Norfolk Hope not Hate advertising an LMHR event at the Mulberry Tree, Ipswich in October last year.

Verdict: False. While Lowles' assertion that he is formally linked to neither the Communist Party or the SWP may be true in the narrow sense that he is a member of neither, there are clear, ongoing links between all of these groups.

... that we were linked to another organisation Unite Against Fascism (we are not)...

If his denial of involvement with the SWP is false, his denial of links to UAF must also be false, since the UAF is merely an SWP front organisation, as is LMHR. HnH is more than happy to use the street violence of the UAF (see above) as a part of its tool set, while not being stupid enough to permit more direct links. Notwithstanding that, at last years failed 'Stand up for HOPE' meetings which were designed to produce an anti-UKIP consensus within the Hope not Hate membership (they didn't, and few people turned up, as we reported at the time), UAF members were conspicuous attendees advocating a harder line against UKIP and were welcomed because of it.

Verdict: False. As above, Lowles denial is disingenuous at best as clear links between UAF and HnH exist and are well documented.

.....because our charitable (non-campaigning) arm accepted government funding in the past (now ceased) we are part of the 'Establishment' trying to stop them....

Lowles closeness to the Labour Party is no secret, and that of his deputy, Ruth Smeeth could hardly be clearer - she is an open Labour supporter who has just been selected to fight a safe Labour seat. Their own accounts with the Charity Commission and Companies House show them receiving government funding - 2013's accounts have yet to be filed, so it remains to be seen whether his assertion that such funding has ceased is true. In a week in which we have seen the Corporation of London donating money to oppose UKIP politically, it is difficult to escape the notion that Lowles is indeed a part of the establishment. After all, unlimited cheap foreign labour undercutting the British workforce - whatever their race - is only good for the richest in society.

Verdict: False. Hope not Hate attempts to present itself as a grassroots organisation, but in fact has solid links with bankers, big business, the Labour Party and the media, as evidenced in its sponsorship by the Daily Mirror. It doesn't get much more establishment than that.

Far from UKIP's Farage feeling riled, it would appear that Lowles is concerned that the general public is seeing through his propaganda to the point that he feels obliged to write a HuffPo article patting himself on the back. How nice it would have been to have seen some honesty in it, but that would be a step too far for Hope not Hate.

Immigration - the partial truth Hope not Hate want to sell

We've published this before here, but it is worth a slight edit just to drive home the point!

 

Brits in EU countries: 2.2m. Foreign born residents of the UK: 7.54m. HnH distorting figures again.

Hope not Hate this morning posted a graphic from the IPPR showing the number of British citizens - ie emigrants - who live in other EU countries. The figure was 2.2m.

What they failed to show were the corresponding figures for immigration to the UK. The 2011 census - available from the Office of National Statistics - showed that as of 2011 there were 7,354,000 foreign born residents of the UK, or 9.1% of the population, against an EU average figure of only 8.6%. Of these, 4,760,000 were born outside the European Union, and 2,240,000 were born within the European Union (these figures are rounded off, hence the total not equalling the 7.354m).

Since the census, there are figures for a further 2 years: in the year to October 2012, net immigration was 152,000, while in the year to October 2013 a further net increase of 183,000 was recorded for a total net immigration figure of a further 335,000 people. By comparison, the Leicester metropolitan area has a population of 330,574.

Some other interesting facts from their 'favourite infographic'.

The Foreign Office estimates that of the 1,000,000 British citizens resident in Spain, as many as 800,000 are retirees living on either their pensions or their savings. British residents under pensionable age have no free access to the Spanish healthcare system following a change in the law in 2006.

Of the 330,000 British citizens resident in France, the Foreign Office estimates that 250,000 are retirees or early retirees. In 2007, the French government withdrew free access to the French healthcare system for retirees under the age of 65: 100,000 people were affected.

Of the 107,000 British citizens resident in Germany, over 40,000 are servicemen, families of servicemen, or otherwise employed in British Forces Germany, formerly the British Army of the Rhine.

Of the 31,000 British citizens living in Belgium, up to 15,000 are employees of either the European Parliament, the European Commission or SHAPE/SHAFE.

The list goes on. Needless to say, their infographic is not what it appears to be. Why are we not surprised?