HnH meetings statement 'simply not true'

News reaches us that Hope not Hate have put out a statement regarding their cancelled and rescheduled meetings, including the one in Basildon which Nick Lowles scarpered from. It reads:

Nick Lowles -
HnH statement is a lie

"Some news : Hope Not Hate meetings are not being rescheduled or cancelled they are taking place at venues known to the people that actually want to participate in democratic discussion. The people like EDL/SEA/NWI etc have been given false information and sent on wild goose chases"

Once again, this is not just stretching the truth, spinning the story a bit or exaggerating the facts. It is an absolute, outright lie.

At the Basildon meeting, a handful of HnH supporters were simply abandoned when HnH called the venue shortly before the meeting was due to start and cancelled it. The police who were present - who had been called by HnH - also confirmed that that was the only meeting, and they knew of no other venue. Even the few HnH supporters there knew of no other venue, and simply went home.

The simple truth is that Lowles does not want democratic discussion. He wants his consultation exercise to deliver the verdict he has already decided on - to attack UKIP - with no dissent, and has realised the best way to achieve this is to have public meetings whose sole attendees are carefully selected representatives of the Labour Party and the large trades unions who also happen to fund his organisation.

If he wants to see how to hold a proper democratic meeting, UKIP Basildon and Thurrock have a public meeting this evening, and you can be certain that the local committee won't up and scarper if people who disagree with them turn up. They'd even welcome Mr Lowles, and give him an opportunity to have his say even if they disagreed with him. That's democracy, not his gerrymandered meetings which are designed to exclude the working class.