Labour announce new policy on EU for Stoke by-election

Spotlight on Hope not Hate #4: HnH ignore Lib Dem PPC who labelled people 'retards'

Last May, Hope not Hate were in full outrage mode as they attacked a UKIP candidate in Dudley for daring to use the word 'retard'. That candidate is now a councillor in Dudley having won his seat despite HnH's repeated attacks on him, but it is interesting to see how they deal with a Liberal Democrat candidate who branded council officers 'retards'. Their preferred method for dealing with

Powell - luckily for him, HnH don't much care
about people being labelled 'retards' unless
its done by UKIP

indiscretions by the 'Tory lite' party has so far been absolute silence.

Pontypridd Lib Dem Councillor and PPC Mike Powell labelled local council officials and contractors 'retards' in a Facebook posting in a dispute over progress on a Lido complex in one of the town's parks, and was subsequently forced to apologise publicly.

It hardly needs saying that had it been a UKIP candidate - let alone a councillor - who'd dared to call someone a 'retard' it would be headline news on Hope not Hate, and probably front page of the Daily Mirror as well. But as we saw with Labour's Selby 'racist' 10 days ago, they have no interest in standing against discrimination, racism or anything else - just in standing against UKIP. If you needed a lesson in how frightened their union paymasters are of UKIP, this is it.

We mentioned earlier how HnH had previously attacked a UKIP candidate who called someone a retard. It is worth taking a look at some screen grabs taken from Hope not Hate's own Facebook page. You will see that slurs on the mentally ill and calling people retards is pretty standard fare for Hope not Hate supporters.

Hope not Hate supporters calling the EDL 'retards'
on HnH's Facebook page

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.

Lowles cries crocodile tears over Paris magazine he formerly called 'Muslim haters & counter-jihadists' who were 'asking for it'

Before today, Lowles was suggesting that
they 'deserved it'.

Crocodile tears are much in evidence today at the offices of Hope not Hate. After spending years
labelling anybody who criticises Islam as a racist or fascist, HnH director Nick Lowles today offered a message of 'solidarity' with the journalists killed at French magazine 'Charlie Hebdo'.

It is reported that the journalists were at an editorial meeting for a special edition due to be called 'Sharia Hebdo', something which before today Lowles would have called them Nazis for.

Lowles 'solidarity' overlooks his comments in 2012, when he attacked the pubishers of Charlie Hebdo as 'counter-jihadists' & 'Muslim haters' and complained of their publication of cartoons. His conversion to the cause of free speech has come rather late for the dead journalists. In case he forgets what he wrote, he said:

"The so-called 'Counter-Jihadists' (real definition ‘Muslim haters’) know full well that an incendiary video, poster, cartoon or burning will create a reaction from extremists across the world. ...... last week there was the Innocence of Muslims video. This week we have a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, publishing obscene cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Next week we will have Pam Geller's outrageous "savage" posters.... These Muslim haters...."

He then goes on to say that people like those at Charlie Hebdo are 'asking for it' -

"These Muslim haters know that any stupid stunt is going to cause a reaction, and probably a violent one at that.... The Muslim haters know that the images of Islamists attacking buildings and murdering people only reinforce the view of some that Islam is a violent and intolerant religion...."

We don't normally link to Hope not Hate, but the article can be found here - read it quick before they edit it.

And so today's statement comes as something of a shocking volte-face for Lowles when he now states

We wonder what it will take for Lowles and his motley crew of apologists for radical Islam to grasp that the beliefs of the fundamentalists are directly opposed to the basic liberties we all enjoy in the West, and that labelling people who point this out as 'fascist' and 'racist' is not only counter-productive, but lends a spurious support to the radicals who use Lowles words to justify their continued radicalisation of western congregations.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Lowles is desperately denying that he said what he clearly did -

 

Which can be compared with the quote from his article above. Lowles and the truth remain strangers. We feel obliged to repeat his own words - does it sound like he's 'clearly talking about the people behind the Innocence of Muslims film' to you? No, us neither:

 

"The so-called 'Counter-Jihadists' (real definition ‘Muslim haters’) know full well that an incendiary video, poster, cartoon or burning will create a reaction from extremists across the world. ...... Last week there was the Innocence of Muslims video. This week we have a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, publishing obscene cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Next week we will have Pam Geller's outrageous "savage" posters.... These Muslim haters...." 

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.