Labour join Tories with the 'dog whistle' racism in Thurrock: Hope not Hate silent

Tory leaflet condemned as 'diving head first into the gutter'

We posted a link on our Facebook newsfeed to stories in the mainstream media concerning Tory
racism in the council by-election battle for the Aveley ward in Thurrock last week. To recap, the Tories had put out a leaflet referring to the UKIP candidate, MEP Tim Aker as 'Timür' in order to draw attention to his half-Turkish parentage.

Jackie Doyle-Price, the shockingly dim-witted local Tory MP, dismissed the row as nonsense, saying it 'did him a favour' in a multi-cultural area, although this was not a view shared by the Tory supporting Mail on Sunday, which condemned the Tories for 'diving head first into the gutter'.

Hope not Hate's complaints were muted compared to the invective that would have broken lose from then had UKIP done such a thing. Deafening silence came from the Thurrock Labour Party, despite the leaflet also screaming in large headlines 'Labour Soft on Travellers'. As the travelling community is now a protected minority under the terms of current racial equality legislation, this is akin to saying 'Labour Soft on Muslims', but nobody seems too bothered about that as the prime purpose of the leaflet was to stop UKIP, not to worry about protecting minorities. We assume that it could have said 'Labour soft on Blacks' and Hope not Hate wouldn't have complained too much.

Scott Nelson proves just how desperate Labour are to halt
UKIPs advance: Use overt racism on the people of Aveley

Another reason has come to light for Hope not Hate's lack of outrage though. One of their leading activists in Thurrock is also a Labour Party activist called Scott Nelson. Nelson, who tweets under the user-name @TheMockneyRebel, is vociferously anti-UKIP and clearly didn't believe in casual references to Aker's Turkish father. The subtle call of Tory 'dog whistle' racism wasn't good enough for an anti-racism campaigner. No, better to go the whole hog and not just label Aker Turkish, but accuse him of wanting to bribe the electorate too simply because as part of his campaign he had promised to donate his councillor allowances to local causes as he considers his MEP salary sufficient.

In the end, neither the Tory's nor Labour's racism helped them. Tim Aker won the seat by a considerable margin, holding it for UKIP with a considerable majority following the sad death of Cllr Maggie O'Keefe Ray in September.

What is clear is the extent to which both main parties are prepared to suspend the 'normal rules' of politics in their fear of UKIP's advance. Tim is UKIP's parliamentary candidate in Thurrock, and whith Doyle-Price defending a majority of just 96, he could well find himself in the first tranche of UKIP MPs returned at a general election after next May's polls.

More surprising perhaps is the extent to which Hope not Hate are prepared to ditch their founding

Ford's UKIP leaflet - unauthorised by UKIP, but now worse
than racist Tory & Labour smears against UKIP MEP Aker.

principles in the interests of electoral politics. Earlier this evening, they were feigning outrage over a UKIP leaflet allegedly issued by Martyn Ford, UKIP's PPC for Swansea West, who supposedly issued a leaflet condemning multiculturalism. Despite this story being almost 2 months old, HnH writer Simon Cressy (Carl Morphett under a pointless pseudonym) builds himself up into a proper fit of righteous indignation over its 'shocking racism', despite the target of the leaflet's wrath being a religion as opposed to a race. Such distinctions are lost on Hope not Hate. They have no real problem with the leaflet's contents, just with the leaflet's author: he's UKIP. As we have seen in Thurrock, the political establishment can be as racist as they want, and as long as the target is UKIP, Hope not Hate will condone it by their silence.

A final point: of these three 'racist' communications, which one do you think has seen it's author face party disciplinary action? That's right, only UKIP. Martyn Ford is currently facing a disciplinary hearing for issuing a leaflet without central party authorisation. The Tories and Labour are taking no action against their much more obvious racists.