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.

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.

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".

"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.