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| Labour MP photographed with known NF activist in her constituency |
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| UKIP MP pictured with stranger |
Showing posts with label distortions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label distortions. Show all posts
Friday, 21 November 2014
Hope not Hate's '85%' campaign runs into some factual difficulties
Hope not Hate's 85% campaign appears to have run into some difficulties, most of them factual. To make up for this, we've created our own '16%' campaign to highlight the share of the vote Labour gained in Rochester and Strood. See if you can spot which one is ours below.
The top picture of course shows Labour MP Dame Anne Begg photographed with her local Scottish NF activist during the recent referendum campaign. She knew who he was. The bottom picture shows UKIP MP Mark Reckless photographed with a stranger who came into the constituency office and who was unknown to him. Even HnH don't name her. Somehow this makes him racist in a way that Dame Anne Begg isn't.
Sunday, 22 December 2013
HnH's Morphett photoshops details on latest 'expose': not spin, an outright lie
Hope not Hate's latest 'expose' of UKIP members with links to the far right has just been written in rather excitable style by Simon Cressy, the pseudonym for Carl Morphett.
According to Morphett, "Only three days away from Christmas and those lovely people in UKIP have given us a smashing present for us to unwrap in time for the big day". It could take some time, because the wrapping is quite complicated. Essentially, three former NF activists once belonged to a party - Third Way - set up by a person who now works for Nick Griffin. At some point but over a decade ago Third Way changed its name to the National Liberals. According to Morphett, this is clear proof that UKIP is linked to racists.
There are several problems with his breathless logical fallacy. The first is that it is an open group, meaning people can be added to it without their knowledge or consent. This is easily spotted by the 'added by' information under the members names. You would be able to see this on the screen grab Morphett helpfully appended to his post, except that he has photoshopped it out. You can see the two versions on this page. Certainly in the case of Davies, he did not join this group, he was added to it. Don't believe me? Go take a look - just search on Facebook for National Liberals.
We move on to the other two UKIP activists Morphett names -
Arthur Thackeray and Alexander Balkan. Morphett does not appear to have photoshopped their entries in the list of members, and they appear to have joined themselves.
If this makes them racist, then I wonder how Morphett explains the membership of some of the other group members? I have screen grabbed some images, but among the other people he feels are also allied to the National Front and the BNP because of their membership of this group are Ruby Akhtar, Shira Singh, Sabiha Choudhury, Paul Siwela, Samer Reza, Tarig Anter, Thabisa Mabhena, Majid Sandilo etc etc. You get the idea. Bloody racists.
The point about Morphett is that he is not an internet amateur - this is what he does for a living with Hope not Hate. He has not made a mistake, and he is well aware of how these groups work. He knows that Davies did not sign up to the group voluntarily, but he has deliberately removed the wording which proves it. This is not spin. It is not propaganda. It is not a mistake. It is a deliberate lie intentionally done to smear the name of Davies.
It is also worth noting that if he found these three UKIP members in the group, he could hardly fail to have noticed Akhtar, Singh, Choudhury, Siwela etc. I don't know how Thackeray and Balkan came to join the group - perhaps they just hit 'accept' on an invite, perhaps they intentionally joined. Either way, it is no more proof of racism than it is proof of the other member's racism. Particularly as Morphett - under a pseudonym - is also a member.
Interestingly, Edward Davies was added to the National Liberals group by Richard Byng. Byng joined facebook in September, just weeks before he started adding people to the National Liberal group. Amongst his FB 'likes' are Radical Independence Campaign Scotland - the group which barricaded Nigel Farage in a Scottish pub, and who have close links to both Hope not Hate and the UAF. This looks more and more like a set up.
According to Morphett, "Only three days away from Christmas and those lovely people in UKIP have given us a smashing present for us to unwrap in time for the big day". It could take some time, because the wrapping is quite complicated. Essentially, three former NF activists once belonged to a party - Third Way - set up by a person who now works for Nick Griffin. At some point but over a decade ago Third Way changed its name to the National Liberals. According to Morphett, this is clear proof that UKIP is linked to racists.
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| Morphett has photoshopped out the 'added by' details and altered Davies position within UKIP |
We move on to the other two UKIP activists Morphett names -
Arthur Thackeray and Alexander Balkan. Morphett does not appear to have photoshopped their entries in the list of members, and they appear to have joined themselves.
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| How Davies entry actually looks |
The point about Morphett is that he is not an internet amateur - this is what he does for a living with Hope not Hate. He has not made a mistake, and he is well aware of how these groups work. He knows that Davies did not sign up to the group voluntarily, but he has deliberately removed the wording which proves it. This is not spin. It is not propaganda. It is not a mistake. It is a deliberate lie intentionally done to smear the name of Davies.
It is also worth noting that if he found these three UKIP members in the group, he could hardly fail to have noticed Akhtar, Singh, Choudhury, Siwela etc. I don't know how Thackeray and Balkan came to join the group - perhaps they just hit 'accept' on an invite, perhaps they intentionally joined. Either way, it is no more proof of racism than it is proof of the other member's racism. Particularly as Morphett - under a pseudonym - is also a member.
Interestingly, Edward Davies was added to the National Liberals group by Richard Byng. Byng joined facebook in September, just weeks before he started adding people to the National Liberal group. Amongst his FB 'likes' are Radical Independence Campaign Scotland - the group which barricaded Nigel Farage in a Scottish pub, and who have close links to both Hope not Hate and the UAF. This looks more and more like a set up.
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| Racist members of the National Liberals Facebook Page |
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Brits in EU countries: 2.2m. Foreign born residents of the UK: 7.54m. HnH distorting figures again.
Hope not Hate this morning posted a graphic from the IPPR showing the number of British citizens - ie emigrants - who live in other EU countries. The figure was 2.2m.
What they failed to show were the corresponding figures for immigration to the UK. The 2011 census - available from the Office of National Statistics - showed that as of 2011 there were 7,354,000 foreign born residents of the UK, or 9.1% of the population, against an EU average figure of only 8.6%. Of these, 4,760,000 were born outside the European Union, and 2,240,000 were born within the European Union (these figures are rounded off, hence the total not equalling the 7.354m).
Since the census, there are figures for a further 2 years: in the year to October 2012, net immigration was 152,000, while in the year to October 2013 a further net increase of 183,000 was recorded for a total net immigration figure of a further 335,000 people. By comparison, the Leicester metropolitan area has a population of 330,574.
Some other interesting facts from their 'favourite infographic'.
The Foreign Office estimates that of the 1,000,000 British citizens resident in Spain, as many as 800,000 are retirees living on either their pensions or their savings. British residents under pensionable age have no free access to the Spanish healthcare system following a change in the law in 2006.
Of the 330,000 British citizens resident in France, the Foreign Office estimates that 250,000 are retirees or early retirees. In 2007, the French government withdrew free access to the French healthcare system for retirees under the age of 65: 100,000 people were affected.
Of the 107,000 British citizens resident in Germany, over 40,000 are servicemen, families of servicemen, or otherwise employed in British Forces Germany, formerly the British Army of the Rhine.
Of the 31,000 British citizens living in Belgium, up to 15,000 are employees of either the European Parliament, the European Commission or SHAPE/SHAFE.
The list goes on. Needless to say, their infographic is not what it appears to be. Why are we not surprised?
What they failed to show were the corresponding figures for immigration to the UK. The 2011 census - available from the Office of National Statistics - showed that as of 2011 there were 7,354,000 foreign born residents of the UK, or 9.1% of the population, against an EU average figure of only 8.6%. Of these, 4,760,000 were born outside the European Union, and 2,240,000 were born within the European Union (these figures are rounded off, hence the total not equalling the 7.354m).
Since the census, there are figures for a further 2 years: in the year to October 2012, net immigration was 152,000, while in the year to October 2013 a further net increase of 183,000 was recorded for a total net immigration figure of a further 335,000 people. By comparison, the Leicester metropolitan area has a population of 330,574.
Some other interesting facts from their 'favourite infographic'.
The Foreign Office estimates that of the 1,000,000 British citizens resident in Spain, as many as 800,000 are retirees living on either their pensions or their savings. British residents under pensionable age have no free access to the Spanish healthcare system following a change in the law in 2006.
Of the 330,000 British citizens resident in France, the Foreign Office estimates that 250,000 are retirees or early retirees. In 2007, the French government withdrew free access to the French healthcare system for retirees under the age of 65: 100,000 people were affected.
Of the 107,000 British citizens resident in Germany, over 40,000 are servicemen, families of servicemen, or otherwise employed in British Forces Germany, formerly the British Army of the Rhine.
Of the 31,000 British citizens living in Belgium, up to 15,000 are employees of either the European Parliament, the European Commission or SHAPE/SHAFE.
The list goes on. Needless to say, their infographic is not what it appears to be. Why are we not surprised?
Friday, 25 October 2013
Another HnH campaign descends into farce as Polish AntiFa condemns Morphett article
Chaos is surrounding Hope not Hate's latest campaign against a Polish politician on a speaking tour of the UK. Robert Winnicki is the President of the Młodzież Wszechpolska, or All Polish Youth Movement, MW. HnH blagger Carl Morphett (aka Simon Cressy) is the author of HnH's piece, which accuses Winnicki of everything short of child sacrifice.
The comments threads are particularly interesting. They start with simply mocking 'retards', the 'mentally handicapped' and the 'brain-damaged': all fairly normal stuff for Hope not Hate supporters so far:
A new touch - even for Hope not Hate - is the implicit racism in this one but of course you can't be racist if you're a Hope not Hate supporter, can you?
However, their already ropey campaign descended further into farce when several Polish supporters of Hope not Hate - including prominent anti-racists - accused Morphett of using discredited media reports and distorting the facts surrounding Winnicki and his MW movement. After initially deleting posts which called into doubt the veracity of the article, they then resorted to simply reposting the same media reports they used as sources, while denying that the broadcasters concerned had apologised for them
So what was the original comment that Hope not Hate removed? A rather damning critique of their own story which exposed it as being largely rubbish and propaganda put out by Winnicki's political opponents:
To those of us in the UK, Hope not Hate's refusal to correct glaring errors is nothing new for we see them as the propaganda machine they are. That the article smacks of anti-Polish racism is beyond doubt - as a primarily Catholic country it is hated by the hard left for (a) throwing off the shackles of the Communism HnH so adores and (b) daring to have moral values which do not equate to Hope not Hate's own, ie they don't tell enough lies and aren't keen on homosexuals.
The final word must go however to an exchange between London Antifascists and Hope not Hate. The former had asked on behalf of several Polish members for the article to be removed or amended. Hope not Hate showed their usual solidarity:
With friends like Hope not Hate, who needs enemies?
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