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.

HnH defends Croatia regardless of facts - another 'Purple Rain' fail

Carl Morphett (writing as Simon Cressy) has just posted on Hope not Hate's blog about comments made by UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall regarding the accession of Croatia to the EU, and the possible effects on UK immigration.

Carl Morphett/Simon Cressy -
So eager to write propaganda he forgot
to check the facts

Once again, HnH show an astonishing lack of regard for the facts.

While Croatia is a small country it is getting ever smaller due to the net outflow of people - it is ranked 46th in the world for net migration according to the CIA World Factbook, and this rate of emigration has been accelerating for some time. Youth unemployment ranks 16th in the world, higher than Jamaica, Egypt and Iran, while adult unemployment is 35.6% for males and 36.8% for females.

While Croatian citizens may not in theory be able to work in the UK until 2020, Romanians are also technically unable to work in the UK until next year. This has not prevented a considerable inflow of Romanians, including those who obtain works permits as 'self-employed' sellers of the 'Big Issue' magazine, a route which also allows them full access to the benefits system as reported by the Daily Telegraph two years ago. Romania's youth unemployment rate is a modest 23.7%.

Paul Nuttall - elected to raise concerns

Nuttall also highlighted the issue of organised crime groups in Croatia, which is similar to the situation in Romania. It is clear that Romanian organised crime has extended its operations to the UK using Romanian immigrants, and Croatia remains a key entry point into Western Europe for drugs smuggled from South America. The BBC featured a report on Croatia in 2009 - Croatia cursed by crime and corruption - which outlined some of the problems the Balkan nation faces, while a HUMSEC report - funded by the EU - highlights the problems of crimes such as terrorism, trafficking of women and organised crime in the Western Balkans.

The accession of Croatia to the EU may or may not cause problems for the UK. What is certain is that however well Croatia has done since gaining its independence from the Yugoslav federation, it is not a nation without considerable internal problems of its own, and one could not blame its residents for seeking a better life elsewhere. Whether that is likely to be the UK will only be seen over time, but given the problems caused to date in the London alone by organised crime from Romania - whether that be in the form of trafficked women as in this BBC report or over reports that up to 1/3 of Romanians living in the UK have been arrested - it is not unreasonable to raise concerns.

Rather than attacking Nuttall for raising perfectly reasonable concerns, should HnH not be asking why politicians from the other parties are ignoring them?