Farage's Fruitcakes
Just because the Westminster parties have stopped being rude about them doesn't mean that UKIP isn't full of fruitcakes and loonies.
The latest embarrassing episode involved a washed up Radio One DJ called Mike Read recording a woeful calypso song praising Nigel Farage and his UKIP supporters who quickly claimed they would propel the tune to Number 1 in the charts.
But no sooner had they announced this ambition before Mike Read withdrew the doing and apologised unreservedly for the offence he had caused.
Yet the nasty side of UKIP hasn't gone away and in this article for The Telegraph Dan Hodges shines a bright light on a party that is still full of fruitcakes and closet racists, just like the comedian Beppe Grillo and his ridiculous Five Star Movement in Italy.
Of course Ukip won't condemn its racist new partners, because Ukip is the cult of Nigel Farage
Ukip has allied itself with racists and Holocaust deniers - but as long as that's OK with Nigel Farage, the cult leader, don't expect a peep of condemnation from within the party
Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip and purveyor of Kool-Aid
By Dan Hodges - The Telegraph
Yesterday Iain Martin posed a very good question. “Will anyone in Ukip condemn Farage's despicable new EU alliance?”, he asked, in response to the news the People’s Army had done a deal with the extremist Polish KNP (New Right) party to secure group status, and a stream of lucrative European Union funding.
And this morning we have our answer. No.
Nigel Farage is always at pains to explain how his party shuns racism and extremism. It’s a sham, of course, as I’ve written countless times before. And his embrace of the KNP proves it’s a sham.
The KNP are racists and Holocaust deniers. In July, KNP leader Janus Korwin-Mikke called for the abolition of the minimum wage in Britain by claiming that “four million n****rs” lost their jobs after John F Kennedy introduced a US national minimum wage in 1961. He also claimed Adolf Hitler “was probably not aware the Jews were being exterminated”.
The KNP are so extreme that, according to a report from Rajeev Syal in the Guardian, even French BNP leader Marine Le Pen ruled out forming an alliance with them, explaining that Korwin-Mikke’s "remarks, his political views, ran contrary to our values”.
But, clearly, not contrary to the values of Ukip. Or at least, not contrary enough to prevent them forming a political alliance with them.
The deal with the KNP didn’t happen by accident. Ukip have confirmed they actively courted the party, and that KNP MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz was seconded to the Ukip grouping with the personal blessing of his party leader.
Condemnation of the alliance has been swift and strong, especially from the Jewish community. Jonathan Arkush, vice president of the Board of Deputies, said he was “gravely concerned” by the deal. “Extremists and racists should be roundly rejected, not embraced”, he warned.
Well, Nigel Farage and Ukip have embraced them. And from within Ukip there hasn’t been so much as a peep of condemnation.
In November 2013, in response to reports some of his MEP colleagues were seeking to form an alliance with Dutch extremist Geert Wilders, Farage said “Just to make clear, there will be no alliances with extreme parties of either the Left or Right with Ukip in the EP [European Parliament].” But yesterday, a Ukip spokesman simply said“Everyone has odd bedfellows in the European Parliament.”
When he won his seat in the recent Clacton by-election, Douglas Carswell gave a speech in which he said “We must be a party for all Britain and all Britons, first and second generation as much as every other. Our strength must lie in our breadth. If we stay true to that there is nothing we cannot achieve”. As of now he has made no comment on the fact his party has entered joined forces with racists and holocaust deniers.
So as I say, the answer to Iain’s question is no. There will be no voices raised in protest. And there are several reasons for this.
The first is that Ukip – despite their self-indulgent protestations to the contrary – are just as keen on gorging themselves on the European parliamentary gravy train as any other party. That’s why the deal was done – so they could form the grouping, and get their hands on more EU cash.
Another reason Ukip have been happy to get in bed with Korwin-Mikke and his extremists is because Ukip is an extremist party itself. As it has demonstrated, it regards Holocaust deniers and racists as its political soulmates.
And the third is that Ukip is only a party in the loosest sense of the word. In truth it is more akin to a cult, a cult that follows one man, and one man alone – Nigel Farage.
There has been talk in recent weeks about tensions between Farage and the more socially liberal Carswell. How their very differing visions of how Ukip should reach beyond its base could produce splits within the party.
There will be no splits. And that’s because Carswell’s vision is his, and his alone. Ukip are not a party of libertarians. They are a party of worshippers. They worship at the Shrine of Farage. He is the way, the truth and the light.
Nigel says Putin is someone he admires, so the message boards fill up with Ukip supporters expressing admiration for Putin. Nigel says Robert Iwaszkiewicz was just having a bit of a laugh when he said beating women “helps bring wives back to earth”; Twitter comes alive with Ukip supporters explaining how Robert Iwaszkiewicz’s views are being traduced by Ukip’s opponents. Nigel announces a “Wag tax”; Ukip members applaud. Two days later he announces he’s scrapping his “Wag tax”; they applaud again.
So no, Iain, there will be no condemnation of Ukip’s new alliance with the racists and holocaust deniers of the KNP. Not unless Nigel Farage – the tweed godhead – decrees it first.
