Portsmouth anti-UKIP coalition run by SWP & UAF member with links to rapist & terrorist

Jon Woods, Portsmouth SWP & UAF member

In today's news round-up on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, we mentioned the creation of an anti-UKIP coalition in Portsmouth comprising Labour, Lib Dem, SWP, Greens, UAF and Hope not Hate. The linked story contains a video made by the ' President of Portsmouth Trades Council' Jon Woods.

While it is interesting to see varying shades of left wing thought come together not in the interests of the people of Portsmouth but to save their own crumbling voter base, it was even more interesting to see what other hats Mr Woods wears. In a news report from last year, Mr Woods was describing himself as 'a member of Unite Against Fascism' when he was so terrified by 'threats' made against him by the local EDL ahead of a march that the first thing he did after reporting them to the police was to go to the local press.

From the SWP's 'branch meeting' guide, 2010

He has lots of other hats though. Apart from being president of Portsmouth trades council and a member of UAF, he is also variously listed as 'Portsmouth City UNISON branch chair', North Portsmouth PPC for TUSC and as a member of Portsmouth SWP, but nowhere can we find any information about any proper job he may ever have held. He is also a frequent correspondent to SWP internal rag 'Socialist Worker', and is listed in their 2010 meeting guide (for early 2011) as speaking at the SWP Branch Meeting in Portsmouth on the subject of 'Strikes and Struggles for Revolution'.

He has some form on the anti-UKIP front. His part in organising the UAF's 'Stand Up to UKIP'

Portsmouth's LMHR concert on behalf of
rapist Martin Smith's organisation

campaign last May helped get 6 UKIP councillors elected to Portsmouth City Council, so we look forwards to him having similar success this year.

Labour Portsmouth South candidate Sue Castillon attended the meeting, and spoke of "women in this city who fear walking outside their front doors". Although this rather pointless barb was directed towards UKIP, it might have been better directed towards Jon Woods' associates. His continued involvement with UAF lead to a 'Love Music, Hate Racism' concert in the city in July. Love Music Hate Racism is another SWP front organisation, this one run by former SWP leader Martin Smith. Smith was the 'Comrade Delta' named in an internal SWP report as having been responsible for the rape of at least one young activist and its subsequent hushing up by intimidating the victim (UAF LMHR events run by man accused of rape). Whether encouraging impressionable youth to attend concerts run by a rapist is a good idea is something Woods will have to answer himself. One thing is certain though. UAF and Woods are very keen to point to individual idiots within UKIP who say or do stupid things, and tar the whole party with that brush. If you know a man by the company he keeps as Woods clearly believes then remember his friend, the rapist Martin Smith.

It is worth mentioning that the anti-UKIP meeting was organised by a man called Simon Magorian, who although presenting himself without title in the Portsmouth News article today was previously described as 'Portsmouth UAF Convenor' in an earlier article about the EDL.

Also quoted is Zuber Hatia as 'a prominent member of Portsmouth's Muslim community and a community activist'. Hatia wrote in May this year in defence of Mashadur Choudhary, who was convicted of terrorist offences for having fought with ISIS in Syria, although Hatia says of him that he, " clearly did not join any combatant group and returned back to the UK having committed no crime, either abroad or here",  a view not shared by the British courts or even by the local Mosque in Portsmouth, where committee member Abu-Suyeb Tanzam condemned Choudhary for his 'betrayal' of the local community.

Finally, we have already mentioned Portsmouth South Labour PPC Sue Castillon, who you might be surprised to find sharing a platform with two associates of a known rapist and an apologist for Islamic terrorism. It is hardly a shock to discover that apart from being a raving Europhile (her Twitter name is @Eurosue), she is also a leading Hope not Hate activist in the area.

Leading local Hope not Hate activist Sue Castillon retweeting
Hope not Hate messages.

Hope not Hate apparently supported by witchcraft as electoral return shows no donations at all in first 5 months of 2014

Ruth Smeeth, Labour PPC and
witch-in-chief for Hope not Hate's
campaign donations

Hope not Hate Ltd's owner and director Nick Lowles was today praised by transparency campaigners for funding his organisation's 2014 anti-UKIP European elections campaign entirely by witchcraft.

The revelation of the supernatural source of Hope not Hate's funds came after their donation report for the period January to May 2014 showed that the organisation had received no reportable donations whatsoever to fund the campaign. This was despite the organisation running a number of high profile fundraising campaigns during this period. Electoral legislation requires that all donations in excess of £500 be reported to the Electoral Commission, although there is currently no reporting regime for magical acts, witchcraft or the work of wizards, a loophole through which Hope not Hate appear to have slipped.



Lowles spoke about cash, without realising his organisation would instead rely
upon witchcraft, which does not need reporting to the Electoral Commission

Campaigners for open democracy further praised the organisation for not having received any reportable donations since  trade union UNISON handed over £70,000 on the 12th March 2010, after which date the chequebooks of the trades unions apparently remained closed despite UNISON continuing to advertise the ongoing funding of Hope not Hate on their own website. The success of raising magical, non-reportable donations was attributed to HnH charity president and witch-in-chief Ruth Smeeth, although earlier statements by Lowles suggested he was prepared to resort to more traditional means of financing the organisation. In fact, in his 'Campaign Plan' for the European elections, he spoke of how the Euro campaign would be his organisation's 'most ambitious to date' and appeared to rely upon cold, hard cash rather than the magical powers his organisation was forced to fall back on, as can be seen from the attached commentary from their website. Lowles has subsequently denied that there is anything about Ms Smeeth which is 'like a wizard's pocket or a wizard's sleeve'.

No mention was made of the plan to replace donations with magic in the period just after the

The largest campaign to date, and yet not a single person or organisation
donated over the reporting limit. Magic!

elections either, during which Hope not Hate spectacularly failed to halt the advance of UKIP having apparently lost the Paul Daniels touch. In fact, on the 26th May, Lowles was proclaiming the HnH campaign to be 'it's largest... to date' despite having no reportable funding at all. This was particularly strange, as on the 21st May, Lowles was blogging about the 8 page insert in the Daily Mirror which was made possible 'by donations from over 650 of our supporters'. Nowhere in any of these reports or blog posts was the use of magic mentioned by Lowles.




Lowles himself said that 650 supporters had donated
to make this possible. A wave of the magic wand though
and 'poof!', the donors are gone! A single page
ad in the Mirror costs £45,000 according to their rate card

The magical touch does not finish there, however. We shall look at their campaign expenditure in detail in a later blog posting, but the total expenditure for their campaign in 2014 - which featured 2.5 million leaflets, an 8 page full colour supplement in the Daily Mirror, and all sorts of events around the country - was all achieved for a truly magical £129,000 of declared expenditure! Whatever you might say about Nick Lowles and his crew, they certainly know how to shop around to get the best bargains! Did they order it all on Black Friday last year?

Of course, there are some who might suggest that their donation - and their expenditure - reports owe more to Hans Christian Andersen than they do to witchcraft. This is a subject to which we will return over coming days.

We did ask the Electoral Commission for comment, but according to a spokesman their entire staff was busy combing Nigel Farage's expanse claims for offices declared on his register of member's interests to the European Parliament, but not specifically declared to them. "We can fine him £200 for this outrageous circumvention of the rules", they said, continuing, "In future, he should rely on witchcraft".

What are Hope not Hate hiding as Electoral Commission registration lapses?

Smeeth - allowed HnH
registration to lapse

Casual browsing on the Electoral Commission's website while looking at Hope not Hate Ltd's expenditure for this year's European Elections lead to the surprising discovery that the organisation's registration with the Commission has lapsed.

Due for renewal on the 6th November, the failure to register by HnH general secretary Ruth Smeeth - a Labour parliamentary candidate in Stoke on Trent - is doubly surprising as we are currently in a period where expenditure is regulated by the Electoral Commission ahead of next year's General Election, something Ms Smeeth can hardly be unaware of. The controlled period ran from the 23rd May this year according to guidance on the ElComm website which is made available to all parties and third parties, including serial electoral failure Ms Smeeth. Although Smeeth's name is listed as the 'responsible person', it can hardly have happened without Hope not Hate Ltd owner Nick Lowles knowledge, as any correspondence relating to renewal would have been sent to HnH head office.

At height of HnH campaign barely 70% of website visitors
were located in the UK, and 20% were in Belgium

All of which rather begs the question 'what are Hope not Hate hiding?'. With their recent campaign to encourage otherwise non-eligible donors to become 'Hope not Hate Supporters' by donating via online payment processors being a couple of months old, there is the possibility that they hope to escape the reporting requirements by some legalistic dodge. The failure to re-register also coincides with their innumerate 'we are the 85% campaign', launched shortly after UKIP's Rochester & Strood by election victory and designed to 'represent' the 57% of people (!) who didn't vote UKIP.

Are there any other reasons? We are interested by the big business ties of some of their donors, but we'll go into the detail of their expenditure at a later date. Be aware though that anything HnH does now in relation to the forthcoming general election is outside of the law and potentially illegal as they are no longer registered as a third party participant for the General Election.

Hope not Hate Ltd's lapsed registration with the Electoral Commission, making their anti-UKIP efforts since the 6th November illegal under current electoral law.

UEA student who blocked UKIP speech has conviction for assaulting police at UAF demo

UEA student officer Liam McCafferty is a violent criminal
with conviction for assaulting a police officer

The student union officer at the University of East Anglia who helped organise a petition to prevent local UKIP candidtes addressing the University's Political Studies Society because he claimed students wouldn't 'feel safe' with UKIP on campus has a conviction for assaulting a police officer at a UAF demonstration.

Liam McCafferty, 22, from Doncaster was arrested at a UAF demonstration against an EDL march in Bolton in March 2010, and was convicted of the assault in June 2011 and fined £100. He subsequently appealed his conviction, but it was upheld in March 2012, when in addition to the £100 fine and £630 costs he was ordered to pay a further £200 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge, bringing his bill up to almost £1000. McCafferty asked to pay at £10 a week, but was told that 'if he could afford to swan off to demonstrations, he can afford to pay up' by the judge. He was permitted to pay the costs at £5 per week, but inquiries indicate that he may not have done so.

The judge, in upholding his conviction, said he had taken 'sly digs' at an officer manning a cordon to keep UAF and EDL marchers apart.

McCafferty, speaking about his campaign to prevent UKIP speaking on the campus, said, "the talk was cancelled because student members did not feel safe", despite neither of the UKIP speakers having a conviction for assaulting a police officer. He also Tweeted the following,

Can students feel safe around a man with a conviction for political violence?
McCafferty was fined £1,000 for assaulting a policeman at a demo.

apparently forgetting to mention that even the police can't feel safe when he's around. Of course, the police can't feel safe when any UAF activist is around, and it is hardly surprising to discover a boy with links to the UAF is attempting to suppress freedom of speech. Normally they resort to bully boy tactics and violence, and we're sure that UKIP can look forward to that when sanity returns to UEA.

Full details of his conviction can be found on the Bolton News website here : £1000 bill as student loses EDL demo appeal

We wonder whether students feel safe knowing that their full time student union officer is a violent convicted criminal with a history of beating law enforcement officers, and whether that makes them feel safer or not?

Illiteracy new job qualification for Labour MEPs

We're sure Labour MEP Paul Brannen thought he was being clever. Except as you'd expect of the son of 2 socialist teachers brought up in Labour controlled Newcastle, he can't spell 'artificial'. Still, it's an improvement. A sign written about UKIP by Labour which doesn't have the word 'racist' in it.

'Artificial', Paul. It's spelt 'Artificial'

 

13 years of 'education, education, education', and this is the best he can come up with.

Hope not Hate use seminar organised by victim of Labour racism

Hope not Hate's 'Jihad news' - it's token attempt to make it appear to be targeting more than UKIP for the Labour Party and unions - was over the weekend pushing a BBC report of a 'counter-extremism' conference' held in Slough.

The conference was run by a Mr Zafar Ali, the chairman of the board of governors of the Iqra Primary School.

 

Mr Zafar Ali - victim of
Labour Party racism

We doubt whether Mr Ali appreciates being used as propaganda fodder by a Labour-front organisation like Hope not Hate as he had formerly been a victim of racism in the Labour Party, and successfully sued the party all the way to the court of appeal over its persecution of him and 4 other local Slough members.  In 1998, he along with 4 other men including 2 councillors were suspended from the local Labour Party for what was euphemistically described as 'membership irregularities'. Behind the scenes briefings expanded this to make accusations of bribery and corruption against Mr Ali. Despite these allegedly criminal activities, nothing was reported to the police by the Labour Party, and suggestions persist that the dispute was designed to ensure Labour got its preferred candidates to the top of the European elections list for the London Region.

Bad feeling unsurprisingly continued to persist between Mr Ali and the local Labour Party and in 2009 local Labour MP Fiona McTaggart was barred from visiting Iqra school unless she first apologised for criticisms of the Slough Islamic School Project made in 2006. Despite her unfounded criticisms, the Government later awarded around £8m to run the school in Grasmere Parade, Slough.

There is a double embarrassment for Hope not Hate however. Nick Lowles toured the TV studios in 2008 speaking about the leaked BNP membership list and persecuting people on it - many of them mistakenly -  while making sure that everybody who heard him was left in no doubt about where to find it on the internet so they could join in the persecution. Mr Ali, at the time chairman of the Slough Race Equality Council - was giving an interview to the 'Slough Express' newspaper on the same subject. In his measured response which showed considerably more appreciation for democracy than Lowles' had, Mr Ali said,

"I don’t support the leaking of personal data of this nature and irrespective of what party you believe in, you have the right to confidentiality... We would deplore any action of intimidation or violence against any BNP members.”

As Hope not Hate's actions seem designed to do precisely that, it would appear that Hope not Hate represent exactly the sort of extremism against which Mr Ali is directing his efforts. We wish Mr Ali well in his endeavours and hope that the Labour Party has now ceased to persecute him because of his race.



 

 

 

Senior Labour Party figures Miliband and Ummuna closely associated to man with links to 'Britain First'

A 'Mr Robinson', happily posing with
Britian First candidate

Senior figures within the Labour Party including leader Ed Miliband and shadow Business Secretary Chukka Ummuna had been repeatedly photographed engaged in earnest discussion with a man known to associate with far-right group 'Britain First'.

Left wing commentators and campaign groups showed their outrage by not saying anything, and threatened to protest at such outrageous behaviour by not highlighting it in any way and by not flagging up the connection on their blogs at all.

Labour shadow business secretary clearly
associating openly with 'Mr Robinson'
despite his far-right links

Neither Miliband nor Ummuna had any comment to make on photographic evidence that they had repeatedly been seen in public with a Mr Nick Robinson, the political editor of the BBC, despite recent photographic evidence that he was in a 'selfie' photograph with the deputy leader of Britain First and their candidate in the Rochester and Strood by-election Jayda Fransen.

Mr Robinson, 51, of North London, has a long history of talking to people involved with politics, and has previously spoken to Nick Griffin, former leader of the BNP.

Self-appointed 'anti-fascist' leader of Hope not Hate Nick Lowles has remained strangely silent on the subject, despite earlier tweets during the by-election campaign demanding to know "Why are UKIP campaigners having photograph taken with Britain First candidate in Rochester today?" after Fransen 'ambushed' them for a picture. At the time, Lowles

Labour leader Milliband and Robinson

rubbished claims that they did not know who Fransen was, and said it was 'clear proof of a link between UKIP and Britain First'.

We asked Hope not Hate whether Robinson's photograph was clear proof of a link between the Labour leadership, the BBC and Britain First based on exactly the same logic, but their press officer put the phone down without responding. We also e-mailed the question to Mr Lowles, but on attempting to e-mail again 12 hours later after he had failed to respond, discovered that they had blocked our e-mail address. We were going to contact both the BBC and the Labour Party with the same question, but then remembered that we weren't Nick Lowles, and that drawing conclusions based upon photographs taken out of context was absurd, stupid and the sort of puerile childish behaviour one expects from an anti-UKIP organisation.