Hope not Hate's selective magnifying glass turns to (some) poll results

More wishful thinking on the part of Hope not Hate's 'Purple Rain' campaign, which promises to put UKIP under a magnifying glass, albeit an increasingly selective one.

Leading their campaign today is a repost of a report from 'Political Betting' focussing on today's ICM poll which shows UKIP down 6% in the polls and level pegging with the Liberal Democrats.

This is the first mention of UKIP polling results on 'Purple Rain' since they launched their rather less than exhaustive examination of the party last November just as UKIPs rise in the polls began: even UKIP hitting 19% in last months ICM poll wasn't worthy of a mention.

It is no surprise then to discover that their selective magnifying glass has failed to miss two other polling related stories since yesterday.

The Independent's 'Poll of polls' published yesterday showed Labour's lead being eaten into by UKIPs continuing rise, and gave the following results: Labour 35% (-4), Con 30% (-1), UKIP 15% (+3), LD 11% (NC). The full story is available here Labour lead lowest for a year as UKIP threatens all three parties

Meanwhile, today saw the publication of an TNS/BRMB poll, with fieldwork conducted over the last four days (6th to 10th June). The results of this poll were Lab 36% (-1), Con 27% (+3), UKIP 19% (NC), LD 8% (-2). Full details of this poll can be found at TNS/BMRB

Meanwhile, the poll which Hope not Hate features - by ICM, which doesn't prompt for UKIP - had the following results: Lab 36% (+2), Con 29% (+1), UKIP 12% (-6), LD 12% (+1). Full details can be found here UKIP support falls back, but man parties remain weak on economy

Of course, it is for them to decide what to post and what not to post, but given that they are supposed to be running an open consultation to 'decide what to do about UKIP' - remember the 'Stand up for HOPE' series of public meetings which were to be announced 'in the next few days' on the 18th of May and which have yet to appear? - it hardly bodes well for the impartiality of their consultation.

Those with long memories might well recall that this is the sort of selective reporting which Hope not Hate used to condemn the BNP for back in the days when they were interested in fighting racism, rather than helping the Labour Party with scaremongering and distortions. Since the split with Searchlight - which used to help UKIP keep out racists and fascists - HnH has become little more than a source of income for its staff, whose tarnished reputations would hardly bear scrutiny in mainstream politics. As it increasingly becomes an irrelevance in the face of UKIPs success, Nick Lowles and his fellow travellers - several of whom are former Nazis themselves - are desperately clutching at whatever straws they can find. Clearly they are now falling back on the reporting skills of their former BNP staff.