Tim Worstall

UKIP and BNP

I do get a slight feeling that there’s a certain amount of stretching going on here. The latest horror story to come out about UKIP is that a member of the national executive (for which, as you know, the DK is standing) has connections with the BNP.

A senior official from the UK Independence Party gave money to the far-Right British National Party and met the party’s leader.
David Abbott, a general practitioner who serves on Ukip’s ruling
national executive committee, made a donation to American Friends of
BNP while he was living and working in the US.

UKIP’s reaction to this has been to ban him from standing as a candidate, indeed, when he was a candidate, he was forced to declare that he would not take his seat if elected. A reasonably robust response, don’t you think?

One further small point. How much did he donate? £100. Yes, that’s all, one hundred pounds.

Worth space in the Sunday papers don’t you think?

In

7 responses

  1. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    Well, you are a prostitute if you sleep with someone for £5 or £1000. The only difference is the price.
    At what monetary value would you have considered such a show of support for a fascist party to be a sign of sympathy with that party?
    £101?
    £1002.92?
    Or do people routinely throw money at organisations they have no interest in?
    Have you given £100 to Greenpeace recently?
    Tim adds: Err, no, RNLI actually.
    My point really is that two Sunday papers (their daily compatriots being rather less scathing) have been running a series of hit stories on UKIP (no, I’m not a member although I know several people who are). This latest one seems spectacularly trivial: I’m sure we could find Labour Party members who had donated £100 or more to Communist parties, neck and neck with the Fascists as the creators of misery in the 20th century.

    Reply
  2. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    “Worth space in the Sunday papers don’t you think?”
    I’m not sure which Sunday paper you read, but the Telegraph, which i do and which is by no means the largest, finds ‘space’ for about a million things more trivial.

    Reply
  3. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    This latest one seems spectacularly trivial: I’m sure we could find Labour Party members who had donated £100 or more to Communist parties, neck and neck with the Fascists as the creators of misery in the 20th century.
    Well, I’m no apologist for apologists of communism, quite the opposite in fact. Expose them as well. If there is a Labour Party member donating money to the SWP, the current totalitarian leftist party, then I’d like that exposed too.
    However, I fail to see why drawing attention to a UKIP member’s interest in the BNP is really a problem, unless you believe are an organisation that should be given a free pass when it comes to this sort of thing. I don’t think any of the major parties wold have expected this story to be buried if it involved them.
    In addition, there are rational reasons why this is of wider interest in any case:
    1. The effect that UKIP have had on the Conservative Party over the years.
    2. The fact that the BNP are still an issue in UK politics.

    Reply
  4. Adrian Rowse Avatar
    Adrian Rowse

    The BNP are not a ‘Far-Right’ oragnisation. They are not ‘Right-wing’ at all.
    Just look at the economic policies of the BNP, NF etc and you will see that they are Left-wing!
    It is possible to be Left-wing and racist. Just look at Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the Khmer Rouge! They dont call it ‘National SOCIALISM’ for nothing.

    Reply
  5. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    See here.

    Reply
  6. Andrew Zalotocky Avatar
    Andrew Zalotocky

    The thought occurs that if DK gets onto the UKIP national executive the papers might find him a good subject for their next hit piece. It would be very easy to pick a few of the more colourful quotes from his blog and portray him as a drug-loving psycho who fantasises about murdering Polly Toynbee. Indeed, it would be an absolute gift for any journalist who wants to portray the UKIP as nutters.
    I’m not saying that it would be right or fair, but I do suspect that any scatological hyperbolic swearblogger who attempts to become a serious political figure is setting himself up for a major kicking from the legacy media.

    Reply
  7. UKIP@HOME Avatar
    UKIP@HOME

    Let him get elected…

    Reply

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