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.

'Scum' mob lead by Green Party member and PCS NEC member with links to Diane Abbott and Chukka Umunna

The mob which attacked UKIP leader Nigel Farage in a Kent pub was lead by Green Party member and 'Stand up to UKIP' activist Dan Glass and PCS Union NEC member and Hope not Hate activist Zita Holbourne, it can be revealed.

Holbourne was recently pictured at the House of Commons with Labour MPs Chukka Umunna and Diane Abbott (not really a surprise, is it?). She appeared on a platform at the TUC conference with PCS Deputy President Kevin McHugh vowing to 'develop campaigns with Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism' to stop UKIP. Is this the sort of action they had in mind, attacking a family while they ate lunch? Intimidating a couple of teenage girls?

Holbourne is a co-chair of BARAC (black activists rising against cuts) with Lee Jasper. Regular readers may remember Jasper as a former deputy mayor of London until leaving under a financial cloud after being accused of using the public's money to make unauthorised grants to an organisation run by a woman he was banging. He also regularly appears on platforms with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and with Jasna Badzak, the fraudster currently awaiting trial on harassment charges following her conviction for stealing from UKIP MEP Gerard Batten a year or so ago.

Glass meanwhile is a professional campaigner against, well, everything. From airport runways to NHS cuts, he's a typical middle-class Green Party watermelon - green on the outside, red on the inside. A member of the 'Green Left' movement - it's far enough left to make Josef Stalin look like a liberal - he is also an activist with the union funded 'Stand up to UKIP' movement. His Facebook page is a web of organisations which protest against things, but its rather harder to find something that he's for besides a lot of protesting. He does write for the Guardian periodically, and says of himself:

 

So far, we have involvement in this from the Labour Party, the big unions, Stand up to UKIP, UAF, the Green Party, Hope not Hate and the SWP. Anyone care to take a bet on how many will apologise?

 

So far, there is apparent silence from Hope not Hate on the attack, which is rather surprising as they normally post anything to do with UKIP within minutes of it hitting the news. Its not as if they're not posting, as they continue to post UKIP related stories, but for some reason when Hope not Hate activists attack the leader of UKIP during a family lunch, they don't think its newsworthy. Strange, huh?



Calls to burn down UKIP shop by members of group run by Green PPC & Labour Councillor

A Facebook group run by a Green Parliamentary Candidate, a Welsh Scottish Nationalist and a Labour councillor has members who advocated burning down the UKIP shop in Merthyr Tydfil.

Elspeth Parris, Green Party 'watermelon'
who is happy to associate her group
with instigators of political violence and
intimidation

The group - Merthyr says NO to UKIP - was founded by Elspeth Parris, Green PPC for Merthyr Tydfil. Other admins were David Davies, a Labour councillor in Merthyr and Harriet Protheroe-Davis, a student activist who will apparently join any campaign so long as it features a red star.

Also members of the group are two other Labour councillors from Merthyr, Darren Roberts and Rhonda Braithwaite, a Plaid Cymru PPC, Freddy Greaves, and UNISON managers Dawn Bowden and Dan Beard.

The member we are interested in though is part time musician Malik Furreed. Furreed was so incensed by the operation of democracy that he called for volunteers to 'fuck up' the UKIP shop in Merthyr which was due to open a couple of days later.




Malik Furreed's barely literate call to violence

His friend Jake Morgan was quite enthusiastic about it, suggesting that they 'burn whatever cunt goes in there as well', an idea that Malik was quite happy with. Similar comments appeared on his Facebook page. Clearly someone has been in touch, as young Malik has deleted the comments. Luckily we have the screen grabs (right).

Had it been a UKIP supporter who'd said such things about a political opponent, UKIP would have expelled them and/or cut all links to them. No such scruples in 'Merthyr says NO to UKIP' though. Although the tweets and Facebook posts have been deleted, Malik remains a member. As do the Labour councillors, the Green PPC, the Welsh Scottish Nationalist and the Plaid PPC.

Perpetrators of the violent attack on the UKIP shop in Penarth

That they would put up with such threatening behaviour is hardly surprising. On the 14th December, a group of youths - one of whom does not look dissimilar to Malik - attacked the UKIP shop in Penarth, a short distance away from Merthyr. On that occasion, a gang of 6 - 5 youths and one older man who stayed safely out of range of the CCTV cameras - urinated in the shop doorway and threw beer glasses and bottles at the shop frontage. This was just 4 days before Malik was appealing for volunteers to do the same to the UKIP shop in Merthyr Tydfil.

Such behaviour in this part of South Wales is hardly new, although it has stepped up a notch since UKIP finished a narrow second behind Labour in this year's European Elections. In July last year, we reported how a UKIP candidate in Llansamlet was forced to withdraw after his wife's UNISON rep at work warned her that if her husband stood as a UKIP candidate, her career would be at an end. It is not surprise then to see two UNISON reps as members of the 'Merthyr says NO to UKIP' group - UNISON's regional manager Dawn Bowden and University of Wales UNISON secretary Dan Beard.

Protheroe-Davis and Merthyr's homeless with a
rather confusing sign

There's plenty of other hate around in the group. David Davies, group admin and the Labour councillor for Town ward on Merthyr council is a Hope not Hate activist who 'likes' Socialist Worker, UAF and In Defence of Marxism among other hard left groups. Double-barrelled class warrior Harriet Protheroe-Davis, another admin, belongs to a veritable smorgasbord of radical, hard left groups including Radical Independence Campaign, the violent Scottish Nationalist group, although her only link to Scotland appears to be as a student at Edinburgh University.

To date, actions directed against the Merthyr shop have amounted to little more than a poorly thought out sign held briefly outside the door by Protheroe-Davis and a number of Merthyr's homeless to judge by their appearance. Some speeches were made, and a lot of people who pretended to be local turned up 'spontaneously', although a significant number went to some lengths to show their affiliation with the hard left of the Socialist Workers Party by staying out of camera shot and covering their faces. A number of 'Stand up to UKIP' signs were also present: the campaign is a strange mish-mash of activists which receives funding from both the trade unions and big business through the 'British Influence' group, but is run by the SWP front UAF. As we have seen elsewhere in the country, how long will it be before they tire of their tactics of intimidation in the face of UKIPs continued rise and resort to the sort of violence advocated by Furreed and seen elsewhere in the country?

Portsmouth anti-UKIP coalition run by SWP & UAF member with links to rapist & terrorist

Jon Woods, Portsmouth SWP & UAF member

In today's news round-up on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, we mentioned the creation of an anti-UKIP coalition in Portsmouth comprising Labour, Lib Dem, SWP, Greens, UAF and Hope not Hate. The linked story contains a video made by the ' President of Portsmouth Trades Council' Jon Woods.

While it is interesting to see varying shades of left wing thought come together not in the interests of the people of Portsmouth but to save their own crumbling voter base, it was even more interesting to see what other hats Mr Woods wears. In a news report from last year, Mr Woods was describing himself as 'a member of Unite Against Fascism' when he was so terrified by 'threats' made against him by the local EDL ahead of a march that the first thing he did after reporting them to the police was to go to the local press.

From the SWP's 'branch meeting' guide, 2010

He has lots of other hats though. Apart from being president of Portsmouth trades council and a member of UAF, he is also variously listed as 'Portsmouth City UNISON branch chair', North Portsmouth PPC for TUSC and as a member of Portsmouth SWP, but nowhere can we find any information about any proper job he may ever have held. He is also a frequent correspondent to SWP internal rag 'Socialist Worker', and is listed in their 2010 meeting guide (for early 2011) as speaking at the SWP Branch Meeting in Portsmouth on the subject of 'Strikes and Struggles for Revolution'.

He has some form on the anti-UKIP front. His part in organising the UAF's 'Stand Up to UKIP'

Portsmouth's LMHR concert on behalf of
rapist Martin Smith's organisation

campaign last May helped get 6 UKIP councillors elected to Portsmouth City Council, so we look forwards to him having similar success this year.

Labour Portsmouth South candidate Sue Castillon attended the meeting, and spoke of "women in this city who fear walking outside their front doors". Although this rather pointless barb was directed towards UKIP, it might have been better directed towards Jon Woods' associates. His continued involvement with UAF lead to a 'Love Music, Hate Racism' concert in the city in July. Love Music Hate Racism is another SWP front organisation, this one run by former SWP leader Martin Smith. Smith was the 'Comrade Delta' named in an internal SWP report as having been responsible for the rape of at least one young activist and its subsequent hushing up by intimidating the victim (UAF LMHR events run by man accused of rape). Whether encouraging impressionable youth to attend concerts run by a rapist is a good idea is something Woods will have to answer himself. One thing is certain though. UAF and Woods are very keen to point to individual idiots within UKIP who say or do stupid things, and tar the whole party with that brush. If you know a man by the company he keeps as Woods clearly believes then remember his friend, the rapist Martin Smith.

It is worth mentioning that the anti-UKIP meeting was organised by a man called Simon Magorian, who although presenting himself without title in the Portsmouth News article today was previously described as 'Portsmouth UAF Convenor' in an earlier article about the EDL.

Also quoted is Zuber Hatia as 'a prominent member of Portsmouth's Muslim community and a community activist'. Hatia wrote in May this year in defence of Mashadur Choudhary, who was convicted of terrorist offences for having fought with ISIS in Syria, although Hatia says of him that he, " clearly did not join any combatant group and returned back to the UK having committed no crime, either abroad or here",  a view not shared by the British courts or even by the local Mosque in Portsmouth, where committee member Abu-Suyeb Tanzam condemned Choudhary for his 'betrayal' of the local community.

Finally, we have already mentioned Portsmouth South Labour PPC Sue Castillon, who you might be surprised to find sharing a platform with two associates of a known rapist and an apologist for Islamic terrorism. It is hardly a shock to discover that apart from being a raving Europhile (her Twitter name is @Eurosue), she is also a leading Hope not Hate activist in the area.

Leading local Hope not Hate activist Sue Castillon retweeting
Hope not Hate messages.