Yes, we all know a UKIP councillor in Kent used to be in the National Front

The Guardian must be having a few slow news days judging by their shock revelation that a UKIP councillor in Kent used to be a National Front member.

The party has made no secret of Cllr Martyn Heale having been a member of the National Front in the 70s and has explained every time a newspaper has decided to try and make something of it that he was a member of UKIP before the rules were brought in banning past and present members of the National Front and other racist or fascist organisations from joining the party. Cllr Heale was eligible to stand as a UKIP candidate despite his past membership of a proscribed organisation under rule U.5 of the party rulebook.

Cllr Heale's past was brought up during last year's election campaign and failed to damage the UKIP vote. In fact, a quick Google search turns up discussions about his past as far back as 2006 and every year since. Strangely, there is no mention of the former militant Nazi and convicted animal rights terrorist, Margaret Burke, who was elected as a Labour councillor in 2013.