This is a cross-post from Howie’s Corner
I had to laugh when I read this mornings edition of The Times. It seems that allies of the Prime Minister David Cameron have finally recognised that a lot of Tory activists are “mad, swivel-eyed loons”. That’s not going to win the PM and his chums many friends amongst the Tory rank and file, especially at a time when the Conservative party is threatened by the rise of the UKIP.
However the rest of us will recognise that there is a certain truth to this comment as the Tories have always had their own form of the Militant tendency, one that is quite reactionary and xenophobic with Europe being at the centre of their grief with the party leadership. They also still bang on about single-sex marriages even though the rest of the country has accepted it’s going to happen and moved on. That’s the nature of “conservatism”, lagging behind social and cultural change, bleating on about an England that never truly was what they remember.
At the same time we saw Nigel Farage leader of UKIP get mobbed by the Radical Independence Movement in Edinburgh when he arrived to begin his electoral gambit in Scotland. According to reports in the media he was called “a racist” and at the same time told to “go back to England”. I sometimes wonder about the logic, let alone the sanity of some of the groups that choose to protest.
Most of the actual demonstrators were students, and if you take a quick look at their website you’ll find some pictures and bios of the Radical Independence group’s supporters. These include a fair sprinkling of the far left with members in the International Socialist Group (a Scottish breakaway from the SWP), members of the Scottish Socialist Party, peaceniks and a former President of St Andrews Student Union, Patrick O’Hare, whose CV includes supporting Arab revolutions whatever that is supposed to mean.
The fact is Nigel Farage is not a racist, nor is the UKIP related to the fascist far right in any shape or form. UKIP even bars former members of organisations like the BNP from membership in their constitution. That some have slipped through the net is not surprising given their recent growth but these malcontents are removed when exposed. They represent an old fashioned form of conservatism that has been alienated by the “posh boys” in the cabinet.
And anyway isn’t telling someone to go back to England itself racist?
In any case the description of Tory activists as being “wide-eyed loons” sounds very much like the way I see the far-left activists that inhabit my trade union PCS. You should meet some of them!
They must share some of the same DNA it would seem?
Sarah adds Although I think it’s tiresome when the term ‘fascist’ is used as a random term of abuse for anyone right of centre, I think Howie is maybe just a little generous to UKIP. The fact it needs to have that rule about the BNP is itself suggestive, and this story is just the latest in a whole string of similar incidents.
A UKIP councillor has announced he will probably have to step down after less than two weeks because he posted a series of offensive messages about Jews and Muslims online.
Eric Kitson, 59, has admitted ‘I don’t see how I can possibly carry on’ after sharing racist cartoons and messages on Facebook.
One included a picture of a nuclear weapon exploding emblazoned with the message: ‘Some cancers need to be treated with radiation, Islam is one of them’.
He also shared an image of a Muslim being roasted over a pile of burning Korans, as well as several anti-Semitic outbursts linking the Rothschild banking dynasty to Adolf Hitler.
In one comment he said in reference to Muslim women: ‘Hang um all first then ask questions later.’
I don’t want to demonise UKIP or its supporters, and have posted against such steps in the past, but they definitely attract a disproportionate number of people with highly objectionable views.
