Malicious lies from anti-UKIP campaign Hope not Hate

Trade union front organisation, Hope not Hate, has given up any pretence of non-partisanship and is openly attacking UKIP.

Nick Lowles: Bought and sold
with union gold

Hope not Hate claims to be an anti-fascist campaign group with no political axe to grind but it is funded almost entirely by trade unions and has admitted that UKIP isn't a fascist organisation and therefore shouldn't be targeting UKIP. Hope not Hate is running a political campaign against UKIP on behalf of the trade unions. They even have an attack blog called Purple Rain which is devoted to campaigning against UKIP.

Hope not Hate claimed yesterday that a former Labour Party branch chairman in Dudley who has defected to UKIP is a former BNP member. They have seen the same name Steve Daniels on the BNP membership list which was leaked a few years ago and made an understandable assumption that it was him as the address is the same. However, if they'd asked for clarification before posting a libellous article on their attack blog they'd have been told that Steve Daniels has a son also called Steve Daniels who used to be a BNP member living at the same address. Hope not Hate have been told about their mistake but from experience there is little hope of a correction.

On Tuesday another post on their Purple Rain attack blog claims that an ex-National Front member has been made chair of Boston & Skegness branch with a picture of Cllr Victoria Ayling and some quotes from the widely condemned and refuted Daily Mail smear against her. Hope not Hate's selective quoting makes it appear there is no doubt about the claims when Cllr Ayling has denied being an active member of the NF and said that she had some involvement with them in the 70s as research for a degree course.

In an email newsletter sent out yesterday begging for money to fund their anti-UKIP campaign, the man who profits from their trade union funding, Nick Lowles, said:

At this weekend's party conference, they tried to remove journalists from a fringe meeting on Sharia Law. They didn't want the public to see their true colours -- and sure enough one of the first questions asked was, "How can you be both a Muslim and an English man?"

What Lowles fails to mention of course is that this wasn't a question asked by the fringe organisers, it was a question from the audience and the rest of audience booed and jeered the man who asked the question. UKIP is quite happy to shows it true colours - the reaction of the audience shows that the implication that you can't be English and Muslim is something that UKIPpers don't agree with even if the British government says you can't be - but Lowles and his trade union paymasters instead prefer to mislead the public to help their election campaign on behalf of the Labour Party.

UKIP won't reveal their true agenda to voters. That's up to us. Make a £25 donation now to help us expose the extremist views they're trying to hide.

The more supporters like you chip in, the more leaflets we can deliver, the more ads we can run, the more campuses we can visit -- the more hope we can spread.

And here we see why Lowles and his trade union paymasters are lying and defaming UKIP members - they're trying to raise funds for a leaflet and advertising campaign attacking UKIP and judging by the fact that tax dodging Hope not Hate is asking for £25 a time in donations they must be planning to spend big.

Hope not Hate's new-found obsession with UKIP isn't ideological in any way, it's purely financial. Like any self-respecting communist, Nick Lowles makes a lot of money out of his political career and that money is only going to keep coming while there is an "enemy" to fight. For the trade union money, the enemy is anyone who challenges Labour. For government money (they get a lot of our taxes as well) the enemy is anyone Lowles calls a fascist or racist.

Daily Mail in second attack on Victoria Ayling

The Daily Mail launched another attack on Cllr Victoria Ayling at the weekend in a desperate attempt to recover from the embarrassment of being comprehensively dressed down by readers on their own website the previous week.

Last week's smear was based around a heavily edited video from several years ago given to them by Cllr Ayling's bitter ex-husband in which she said that she would like to send all illegal immigrants home. Despite being classic Daily Mail rhetoric, they tried to portray this as a racist outburst with the result that the comments section on the website was flooded with comments agreeing with her and criticising the Daily Mail for attacking her.

The latest attack on her is a claim that she was a member of the National Front in the past - again this has come from her ex-husband and this time her mother has joined in, making "the painful decision to speak about the past for the sake of the family" and saying that she doesn't think her daughter should be a politician.

Cllr Ayling says that she attended National Front meetings as a student as part of her research for her thesis for a politics degree. Her ex-husband says this is a cover story, her mother says she doesn't remember it being about a degree and one of her friends who is such a good friend he helped the Daily Mail carry out a second attack on her a week after the last one says that she was a member and took him along with her.

The Daily Mail has once again referred to her as a "trusted ally" of Nigel Farage and refer to "public outrage at her comments" despite there being no such public outrage at her, just at the Daily Mail for its attack on Cllr Ayling.

Cllr Ayling says that this is just the latest in a "bitter vendetta" against her by her mother and it certainly seems that way.  She says that her ex-husband took to cross-dressing and forced her to go out with him while he was dressed as a woman and cheated on her with other women.  She says that he refused to leave the family home when their marriage broke down and threatened to go public with details of their divorce which she wanted to avoid for the sake of their son.

The Daily Mail's obsession with Cllr Ayling, their misleading comments, their reckless disregard for the welfare of her son and providing a platform for what is evidently a campaign of vindictiveness and revenge by her mother and ex-husband is irresponsible and unprofessional.

UKIP councillor "racist" smear by Daily Mail

On Saturday the Tory-supporting Daily Mail published a smear against UKIP Councillor Victoria Ayling, accusing her of making an "astonishing racist rant" in a 2008 campaign video given to them by her bitter ex-husband.

Cllr Ayling publicly resigned at the Conservative Party conference earlier this year telling David Cameron to his face how disappointed she was with him. The disappointment at Cameron's weakness - even 5 years ago - is obvious from the 2 minute extract of the 20 minute video that the Daily Mail have published.

By careful editing the Daily Mail has managed to remove the context from the video to enable them to make the accusations of racism. The "astonishing racist rant" was Cllr Ayling saying that all illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers - people with no legal right to be in the country - should be repatriated.

As well as smearing Cllr Ayling, the Daily Mail is trying to portray her as a "close ally" of Nigel Farage. They point out she has a picture of herself standing next to him, that she spoke on stage at conference, that she was invited to a photoshoot in London by him and claim that he fast-tracked her as a council candidate.

Nigel Farage has his picture taking with hundreds of people at conferences because he's extremely popular not just with members but with ordinary people. Having a photo of yourself with him doesn't make you a "close ally".

A great many ordinary members speak at conference and I had a 2 minute cameo appearance at one conference trying to convince members not to vote to send Nigel Farage on a "tour de force" of Scotland to promote the union (the vote passed and he ended up having to have a police escort out of a pub in Edinburgh but hey, you can't win them all). Speaking at Conference doesn't make you a "close ally".

Every UKIP councillor was invited to London to take part in a photoshoot as part of the party's anniversary celebrations. I got the invite as well. It wasn't a personal invite from Nigel Farage, it was arranged by the conference organisers and the press office. Being one of hundreds of councillors invited to a photoshoot doesn't make you a "close ally".

Nigel Farage is leading the fastest-growing political party in the UK - a party with over 30,000 members - as well as a group of 35 MEPs in the EU Parliament. The idea that he has the time or inclination to personally intervene in the selection of a candidate for a county council election when the party was coordinating the largest local election campaign in its history is frankly ridiculous.

We can expect more of these attacks from Tory and Labour supporting newspapers as the EU elections get closer and certainly when the 2015 general election campaign starts. The smear has backfired on the Daily Mail judging by their readers' comments which are overwhelmingly in favour of Cllr Ayling's comments and critical of the newspaper for attacking her.

Councillor announces defection to UKIP at Conservatives' Spring Conference

East Lindsey District Councillor, Victoria Ayling, has defected with style from the Tories to UKIP.

Cllr Ayling attended the Conservative Party's spring conference so she could personally tell David Cameron that she was defecting!

Cllr Ayling was close to winning the Great Grimsby seat in the last general election and currently holds the Corporate Affairs portfolio on the district council.

Lindsey is the site of the Total oil refinery that saw protests in 2009 over the decision by Total to award a contract for new equipment to an Italian company that imported 300 Italian workers to do the work rather than employing locals.

Update:
Cllr Ayling reports that David Cameron "lost his temper" when she told him she was defecting and twisted her hand.  More on the leader of the nasty party and his temper tantrum at the Daily Mail.