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

Hope not Hate mock and smear mentally ill man in supermarket

News today in the Daily Mirror of a man entering a branch of Asda in full Nazi SS uniform.
Naturally, HnH - who are partially funded by the Mirror - reposted the story with the heading 'It's not easy being in the BNP.....'

The article explains that the man in question is Paul Dutton, a former IT engineer of Cambridge, and that he did it to promote his website.

If you take a look at his website, he believes he is the nephew of SS General Dr Hans Kammler, the man who built the concentration camps. The rest of the story is too convoluted to repeat, but involves secret Nazi time machines, enhanced intelligence injections and SS General Paul Dutton. It is quite clear that Dutton is seriously unwell and suffers from psychiatric problems. Since when was it acceptable to mock the afflicted?

What was interesting is that nowhere on Dutton's site does he mention the BNP. Neither does Dutton appear on either of the leaked BNP membership lists. There is also - if you search on Google - not a single webpage which would indicate any form of link between Dutton and the BNP.

Here at Nope not Hope we do not support the BNP. We do however find it strange that although clearly in possession of the BNP lists, Hope not Hate either couldn't be bothered to search for Dutton on them, or simply didn't care that this is a man apparently suffering from a brain tumour and associated mental impairment before smearing him as a BNP member. As if the poor guy's life isn't miserable enough already.

This is not of course the first time that HnH have been happy to either poke fun at the mentally ill - we exposed how they were happy to call people 'retards' less than 3 weeks ago. Their approach is hardly universally popular amongst their own supporters either - several people questioned their mockery of the mentally ill within minutes of them posting the story on their website

 



We should not be surprised by such double standards though: while they are happy enough for their own supporters to mock the mentally afflicted, even in such obviously serious cases as this, woe betide any who are not on their side who dare say the word 'mong', as a UKIP press officer found out recently. Final words though to another HnH supporter happy to carry on a disgusting attack on an ill man:

 

 

'Faggot', 'chav', 'retard' and calls to violence all acceptable to HnH - just make sure the EDL are the target.

One again, Hope not Hate was setting new standards of hypocrisy over the EDL demo in Bradford yesterday.

Perhaps the most remarkable event after HnH attacked UKIP member Andy Lovie for daring to talk with a former BNP activist on Facebook was HnH Campaign Director and owner Nick Lowles re-tweeting former EDL deputy leader Kevin Carroll's tweet despite publicly questioning the sincerity of his resignation just the previous day:

 

Still, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? No need to get hung up by the same standards he applies to everybody else, where a similar re-tweet would see them marked as violent fascists. Can we look forward to an expose of Nick Lowles contacts with fascists by Carl Morphett? Let's not forget that HnH attacked this blog and our Facebook page for having people associated with the far-right as 'likers'!

 

Still, it would be a shame to leave the double standards there. After the HnH 'campaign' - a single letter - to prevent the 'Beloved of Allah' conference at the Edmonton Islamic Centre in London last week because of its open homophobia, Hope not Hate were still more than happy to allow homophobic comments on their Facebook page so long as the EDL were the target:

 

 

Tahair's comment is still there now almost 24 hours later, although several messages by EDL supporters have been removed, so we can only assume that homophobia is OK by HnH so long as the EDL are the target. If only the 'Beloved of Allah' organisers had known, they could still have had their conference just so long as they made clear it was only the EDL they were bashing because of their sexuality!

 

And bashing it would have been. While Hope not Hate regularly uses posts on other's Facebook walls as 'proof' that they are violent, far-right thugs, they are not so keen to police their own Facebook, where the EDL were the subject of several threats of violence. Not a surprise really, given the closeness of HnH and their UAF boot boy allies, but it rather puts their sanctimonious hectoring of others into perspective:

 

But that is not the end of it, because several HnH supporters were advocating that people should piss on the EDL:

 

 

There were some decent people around, but sadly they were in the minority by a considerable distance. And their calls for the HnH admin to delete comments which amounted to incitement to violence were simply ignored:

 

 

For the only messages which were removed were those from EDL supporters. You can't beat a good bit of censorship, can you? But then with Hope not Hate being run - and supported by - largely nice, middle class students, it is fair enough that they show their appreciation for and understanding of the working class: HnH is just a Labour front organisation nowadays, and Labour has nothing but contempt for the working man:

 

 

There were people who thought this show of class solidarity were wrong, but they were clearly in the minority, if you look at the number of 'likes' their comments garnered:

 

 

But of course poor old Angus misses the point - HnH is 'elitist' and comfortably middle class in a 'New Labour' and 'Progress' sort of way, and will only get more so now that Lord Ashcroft shares common cause with them. Still, such hypocrisy should not stand in the way of the work which pays best, ie attacking UKIP. After having a go at UKIP press officer Alexandra Phillips a couple of weeks ago for daring to mention the word 'spaz', even if it was in jest, the use of insults directed towards the mentally handicapped is just fine so long as the EDL are the target -

 

 

So as we can see, calling people 'retards' is officially approved by Hope not Hate on their Facebook pages just so long as the EDL or anybody else deemed far-right is the target, and on the condition that it is accompanied by some acceptably trendy, right-on left wing student politics sound bites. A few simplistic phrases of Labour ideology makes any taunt acceptable and certainly won't upset the 'tards, as Nick, Ruth and Carl like to call 'em!

 

Still, as the Hope not Hate team try and make their efforts appear a success, their own posting from the IBT - written by Mark Piggot, as Timor Moon is presumably still in prison for his assault on UKIP activists in London - states

 

"However, there seemed little danger from today's soggy turn-out, which was estimated at just 200.A rival anti-fascist counter-demo by "We are Bradford" attracted even fewer people."

 



Hardly the 'resounding success' claimed by Hope not Hate, who themselves conceded that there were between 350 and 750 EDL marchers present. #We Are The Many seems like just a distant joke now. #We Are The Not So Many seems more appropriate.

All in all, what a strange day. We have Nick Lowles and Hope not Hate retweeting messages from Kevin Carroll with approval, deleting messages from EDL supporters and yet approving of calls for violence against the EDL - not to mention pissing on them. We have the working class described as 'brain dead chavs', while the EDL are called 'faggots' and 'retards' with the tacit approval of the HnH admin team.

Once again - because HnH may not grasp such a simple point - we at this blog do not support the EDL. Our mission is to expose Hope not Hate's hypocrisy - something which should have been done years ago. So here you have it - it's official - Hope not Hate support misogyny, homophobia, violence and the use of the word 'retard' while retweeting messages from the far-right, and that's ok. God help anyone else who does it though, for their finger is ever ready to point and hurl the usual insults.