Lowles flees and abandons HnH supporters, then lies to save face

News reaches us from one of those opposed to Hope not Hate's attempt to drum up support for its attacks on UKIP that would seem to prove HnH Chief Executive Nick Lowles to be a liar.

Lowles claimed via twitter earlier today that the Basildon meeting had not been cancelled, but had in fact been moved to Thurrock. At the time, we were under the impression that no members of the general public beyond the dozen opponents had turned up at the Basildon venue.

One person who was there has stated several things of interest.

Firstly, the police who were present confirmed that they had been called by Lowles, that the meeting was there, and that they were there to 'prevent trouble'. Perhaps Lowles had expected a number of fascist thugs to turn up, possibly from UAF.

Not a distortion. Not an evasion. An outright lie.
Lowles ran away and abandoned his supporters at the Basildon venue.

Secondly, a small number of HnH supporters apparently did turn up. They were spoken to by those there to oppose Lowles absurd 'consultation', and they confirmed that as far as they knew, that was the venue. It was clear that nobody knew of any alternative venue.

Lowles and his HnH organisers of course failed to turn up, and simply abandoned his supporters and any members of the general public who were interested in what he had to say.

We hesitate to say that Lowles simply ran away but we are at a loss to guess why else he failed to turn up - with a police presence on hand, there was unlikely to be any violent confrontation, and supporters and opponents appear to have chatted amicably enough in the absence of the meeting organiser. Perhaps the thought of real democracy was just too much for him to bear, not least because his plan to use Hope not Hate for partisan political purposes was likely to be voted down.

Some things we can be almost 100% sure of. Lowles abandoned his supporters. Lowles appeared to run away when he realised his 'consultation' meeting would be more than just a rubber stamping exercise. Lowles had no alternate plans for a different venue, and this was confirmed by the small number of HnH members who did turn up. And finally, Lowles tweet from earlier today was not a distortion of the truth, and nor was it spin. It was an outright lie, told to try and save face because he was too scared to argue his point.