HnH defends Croatia regardless of facts - another 'Purple Rain' fail

Carl Morphett (writing as Simon Cressy) has just posted on Hope not Hate's blog about comments made by UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall regarding the accession of Croatia to the EU, and the possible effects on UK immigration.

Carl Morphett/Simon Cressy -
So eager to write propaganda he forgot
to check the facts

Once again, HnH show an astonishing lack of regard for the facts.

While Croatia is a small country it is getting ever smaller due to the net outflow of people - it is ranked 46th in the world for net migration according to the CIA World Factbook, and this rate of emigration has been accelerating for some time. Youth unemployment ranks 16th in the world, higher than Jamaica, Egypt and Iran, while adult unemployment is 35.6% for males and 36.8% for females.

While Croatian citizens may not in theory be able to work in the UK until 2020, Romanians are also technically unable to work in the UK until next year. This has not prevented a considerable inflow of Romanians, including those who obtain works permits as 'self-employed' sellers of the 'Big Issue' magazine, a route which also allows them full access to the benefits system as reported by the Daily Telegraph two years ago. Romania's youth unemployment rate is a modest 23.7%.

Paul Nuttall - elected to raise concerns

Nuttall also highlighted the issue of organised crime groups in Croatia, which is similar to the situation in Romania. It is clear that Romanian organised crime has extended its operations to the UK using Romanian immigrants, and Croatia remains a key entry point into Western Europe for drugs smuggled from South America. The BBC featured a report on Croatia in 2009 - Croatia cursed by crime and corruption - which outlined some of the problems the Balkan nation faces, while a HUMSEC report - funded by the EU - highlights the problems of crimes such as terrorism, trafficking of women and organised crime in the Western Balkans.

The accession of Croatia to the EU may or may not cause problems for the UK. What is certain is that however well Croatia has done since gaining its independence from the Yugoslav federation, it is not a nation without considerable internal problems of its own, and one could not blame its residents for seeking a better life elsewhere. Whether that is likely to be the UK will only be seen over time, but given the problems caused to date in the London alone by organised crime from Romania - whether that be in the form of trafficked women as in this BBC report or over reports that up to 1/3 of Romanians living in the UK have been arrested - it is not unreasonable to raise concerns.

Rather than attacking Nuttall for raising perfectly reasonable concerns, should HnH not be asking why politicians from the other parties are ignoring them?

Democratic engagement vs Encouraging censorship: what a meeting with no empty chairs looks like, Nick!

Hope not Hate continue to post articles poking fun at the low attendance at assorted rallies and meetings which they deem to be 'far right'. Some of them even are. Low attendances are not a problem for UKIP though, so instead they send along their UAF bully boys, even though officially both HnH and UAF have declared UKIP to be non-racist and non-fascist.



Several rows of empty chairs turned up to hear Nick Lowles
speak in Basildon. They were devastated when he ran away
rather than face democratic argument.

Meanwhile, Hope not Hate's own meetings continue to go from strength to strength. After kicking off with attendances of 5 (Warrington), 20 in Shrewsbury and 70 in Leicester (from a population of almost half a million), the meeting in Basildon was cancelled after the organisers ran away. This was followed by attendances of 9 in Harrow, and then the meeting in Woolwich - the events there being what they are trying to cash in on - was cancelled, apparently through lack of interest. We now hear from another source - although it is unconfirmed - that other Hope not Hate meetings in Ipswich and Hackney drew record attendances of 7 and 3 respectively. No news has reached us yet regarding their meeting in Wimbledon earlier this week, but we can be sure that had there been a decent turnout, it would have been all over their website by now.

Now, we understand how depressing it must be for poor old Nick Lowles to spend hours addressing row upon row of empty chairs. One of the problems is that at a public meeting, people will disagree with the speaker: Nick has attempted to overcome this by holding secret public meetings, with the venues publicised only at the very last minute. And who said there was nothing he could learn from the BNP?

Here at Nope, not Hope, we are concerned that Nick might forget what a roomful of people looks like and so as a public service, we have attached below the video of UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall addressing the Stourbridge branch of UKIP a couple of nights ago. Not only did people buy their own meals, but at the end of the evening, the collection raised more than the scrapings of peoples Giros and some shirt buttons. This is what happens when like UKIP you engage in the democratic process and rely on the power of your ideas rather than encouraging the censorship of the state, Nick.