Thursday, April 25, 2013

Another UKIP Scandal

Crampton and UKIP leader Farage
Only this morning I posted about the pitiful election leaflet we have received from our UKIP candidate. I was only out for a few hours but when I came back I heared of yet another reason, far more serious, for not voting UKIP on May 2nd.

One of their candidates in Sussex, Anna-Marie Crampton, has been told to stand down in the election, although her name will still be on the ballot paper, for alleged anti-Semitic remarks regarding the Holocaust. It seems she has also urged people to read 'The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion', a pretty vile hoax written around 1900 by Russian anti-Semites to justify their anti-Semitism. The story is covered in the Jewish Chronicle Online.

The problem with UKIP is that despite an army of staff, funded by their MEPs, they don't seem to use those resources to vet their candidates. Or maybe they just hope the more 'eccentric' ones will be able to survive a campaign without coming out with something embarrassing at best, utterly damning at worst.

Part of the problem is that the amount of coverage a party gets during an election campaign, such as the number of election broadcasts they are allocated, depends on the number of candidates they have. So pressure is put on branches to find candidates, at all costs, so an occasional nutter slips through the net. But it's hard to blame it on that when the photograph of a shamed candidate with her party leader is all over the internet.

UKIP is riddled with people who believe in conspiracy theories, especially Common Purpose and the New World Order. The problem is that people like Anna-Marie Crampton are exposed every now and then, as are other 'eccentrics' in UKIP, but what if the one that flies under the radar gets elected?

More on this story from The Brighton Argus.

7 comments:

Peter Metcalfe said...

'but what if the one that flies under the radar gets elected? '

They did - to the European Parliament

Sean O'Hare said...

Gregg,

Hi Mate,

I understand that you are ex-UKIP and a Libertarian. I surmise that your exit from the party was not totally amicable and hazard a guess that the root cause of your departure is something to do with UKIP not being as Libertarian as you would like as you couldn't get your way in some policy decision.

Nevertheless I feel that by sniping at UKIP in this way you undermine, not only the leadership, (which may just be excusable), but also the work of thousands of UKIP activists, including myself, whose only goal is to extricate the UK from the yoke of Brussels and socialism.

The likes of yourself, Junius, GL_W and the rest are not going to achieve anything. The way things are going UKIP stands a chance. FFS bury the hatchet, re-join, criticise the leadership from within if you must, but lets work together for the sake of our children,

Stuart Heal said...

Sounds like some of the dingbats I came across in my days with the Libertarian Party, so I don't think it's a problem that's unique to UKIP. Does politics just naturally attract a high proportion of nutters?

Gregg said...

Believe what you will Sean. UKIP is a very dangerous organisation that has set back the cause of independence for decades. The MEPs and staff are in it for the money and if all UK MEPs were UKIP it still wouldn't get us out of the EU. I'd rather peel my eyeballs than rejoin UKIP. As for Greg Lance-Watkins, his only rival in the lunacy stakes is Nigel Farage.

Gregg said...

Next time we meet Stuart I will tell you about some of the loonies I had to deal with when I worked for UKIP. Much, much scarier than anybody we came across in the Libertarian Party. That's what concerns me most about UKIP. Also, if the majority of members actually knew what libertarianism is they would have heart attacks, the overwhelming majority are highly authoritarian/paternalistic.

Sean O'Hare said...

if the majority of members actually knew what libertarianism is they would have heart attacks

Having read up on libertarianism quite extensively I believe I know what it is and I am attracted to it. I also know that 99% of the electorate do not know what it is and would not be at all attracted to it if they did.

..the overwhelming majority are highly authoritarian/paternalistic

That may have been true a few years ago Gregg, but I don't believe it to be the case now.

Gregg said...

All these nutters being uncovered says it all. It's no good UKIP blaming the press, the Tories or anybody else, that's just juvenile. I know from experience that too many nutters were, and quite obviously still are involved. Godfrey Bloom MEP is still at it. The man is clearly mad.