UKIP racism row: latest

The Lincolnshire Echo has breaking news about UKIP Councillor Chris Pain, leader of the opposition on Lincolnshire County Council, who has been accused of posting “racist rants” on Facebook:

Chris Pain has stepped down as East Midlands chairman of UKIP amid a police investigation into racist remarks on Facebook.

He is still protesting is innocence, insisting his Facebook account was hacked. Meanwhile, police investigations continue.

We should not be complacent and assume that such rows will necessarily damage UKIP. The party has been embroiled in various scandals before. Two UKIP MEPs, Ashley Mote and Tom Wise, were jailed for fraud but this appeared to have no effect on their party’s reputation.

Indeed, the prosecution of Councillor Pain may even win support among the sort of people who believe this is “political correctness gone mad” and that UKIP is telling you what the establishment “doesn’t want you to hear”.

UKIP: Police probe ‘racist’ councillors

The front-page headline in today’s Lincolnshire Echo: “Police probe ‘racist’ councillors in Lincolnshire”.

This news follows last Sunday’s post about the UKIP group leader’s comments on Facebook.

Three councillors are under investigation but all insist that their Facebook accounts were hacked:

Cllr Pain, leader of the opposition at Lincolnshire County Council, insists his Facebook account had been hacked into at least three times.

At least three times? If that were the case, did it ever occur to Councillor Pain to change his password?

UKIP’s new councillors: the revelations continue...

More sordid details of UKIP councillors have come to light.

Following the resignation of “race-ranter” Eric Kitson from Worcestershire County Council, today’s Sunday Mirror has unearthed more racist rants on Facebook.

The Mirror reports several nasty outbursts but pride of place must go to Chris Pain, UKIP leader of the opposition on Lincolnshire County Council and the party’s East Midlands regional chairman. He wrote:

“Have you noticed that if you ­rearrange the letters in ‘illegal ­immigrants’, and add just a few more letters, it spells, ‘Go home you free-loading, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, baby-making, non-English-speaking ********* and take those other hairy-faced, sandal-wearing, bomb-making, camel-riding, goat-********, raghead ******** with you.’”

Councillor Pain came up with a predictable excuse:

Mr Pain said the comments on his Facebook pages were “not my original posts or writings”, claiming his ­account had been hacked.

What Councillor Pain cannot deny is a report in the Lincolnshire Echo that his group made a unanimous decision to refuse to sign an anti-racism declaration.

The UKIP group took this decision in a week when, just a few miles from the county council offices, there were commemorations at RAF Scampton to mark the sacrifices of the Dambusters who died fighting the Nazis. It is probably safe to assume that Councillor Pain failed to notice the irony.

Postscript: Three UKIP councillors in Lincolnshire are now being investigated by the police.

UKIP’s new councillors: the implosion begins...

It’s started.

In Worcestershire, UKIP “race-ranter” Eric Kitson is embroiled in an on-off controversy over whether he has resigned as a county councillor, only a few days after being elected.

UKIP’s national office says he has resigned but the county council confirms he has not – at least not yet. The council is nevertheless investigating Kitson’s racist comments on Facebook.

In case you doubt the terms “race-ranter” and “racist”, consider this:

The posts made on Mr Kitson’s facebook profile, which has now been taken down, included one of a Muslim being spit-roasted on a fire fuelled by copies of the Koran.

He also said, in reference to Muslim women: “Hang um all first then ask questions later.”

UKIP admitted it had not been able to vet its candidates before this May’s elections, so we can expect more such episodes in the coming months. But given that the pre-election media hatchet job seemed to have no adverse effect on UKIP’s vote, don’t assume any post-election embarrassments will necessarily damage UKIP.

Postscript (1): Eric Kitson’s resignation is now confirmed. Kitson has also been interviewed by the police.

Postscript (2): More revelations here.

How far right must you go to be rejected by UKIP?

It comes as no surprise to discover that several UKIP candidates in the local elections hold some rather unpleasant opinions.

According to today’s Daily Telegraph, some of them have such extreme views that even UKIP has baulked. Scrutinising various candidates’ statements, however, it is hard to tell where UKIP draws the line.

The following views appear to be acceptable for a UKIP candidate to hold:

• Mick Philpott, who killed six of his children in a house fire, should have faced “chemical castration” to stop him claiming benefits for more than two children. Philpott should be “hung or burned at the stake”.
• Objecting to police charges against “three blokes [who] kill a pedo”, adding “if they can’t do it we will”.
• Endorsing the far-Right English Defence League.
• ‘Liking’ Facebook groups with names such as “No more mosques in Britain”, “Women deserve as much respect as men … LOL joke” and “Racism? No mate it’s just ethnic banter”.
• Referring to a risk of tuberculosis after barriers to Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants are lifted next year: “I would suggest not going to London after January 2014 unless you absolutely have to and if you do, adopt the Japanese practice of wearing a face mask.”

These views, on the other hand, are sufficiently unacceptable to UKIP that you will be withdrawn as a candidate:

• Blaming Jewish people for the Holocaust.
• Being a former member of the British National Party.

Of course, it is perfectly possible that there is no morally consistent dividing line because UKIP is an incoherent shambles. If there is a clear threshold, it is probably not a moral one but a cynical calculation about what you can get away with.

Please spare some of your outrage for this

What with secret courts, immigration and now the snoopers charter, it is understandable if Liberal Democrat members’ anger is all used up on civil liberties issues at the moment.

But please spare some of your anger for this: the introduction of food stamps:

“Food stamps” arrive in Britain next month, when tens of thousands of vulnerable people will be issued with food vouchers in lieu of money to tide them over short-term financial crises.

Rather than, as now, offering a cash loan, most councils will from April offer new applicants who qualify for emergency assistance a one-off voucher redeemable for goods such as food and nappies.

Many of the 150 local authorities in England running welfare schemes have confirmed that they will issue the vouchers in the form of payment cards, which will be blocked or monitored to prevent the holder using them for alcohol, cigarettes or gambling.

In a perceptive piece in today’s Guardian, Suzanne Moore contrasts this news with the middle class obsession with food evidenced by the boom in TV cookery programmes. (It’s more food voyeurism than cookery; we can see from what’s on offer on the supermarket shelves that the middle classes aren’t cooking more but are actually relying increasingly on ready meals). She reveals that the switch from cash assistance to vouchers is not about saving money but imposing a moral view:

In this world of endless gastronomy, the superstar chefs say eat seasonally and simply. Again, this requires dosh. Choice costs. So what so we do for genuinely poor people? We take away even the most basic of choices. We infantilise them. They are not our problem any longer, but charity cases.

In order to treat people like this one must first vilify them. This has been the coalition project from day one: the immorality of those on welfare is the basic recipe. Repeat after me: austerity removes autonomy. We turn the vulnerable into villains, but even the most rabid rightwinger must pretend that little children should be fed. Do food stamps achieve this? This may indeed be the most ineffective way of administering aid. Edward Glaeser, a Harvard economics professor thinks so. In the past 40 years the use of vouchers and stamps has grown hugely in the US, but dependency has not stopped. Putting money into people’s hands may actually stimulate the economy, but that remains abhorrent to this government, except in its bizarre sub-prime house buying fantasy...

If you accept poverty is the fault of poor people themselves, then you can refuse them choice or money, because you believe they cannot be trusted to spend it properly. Let them eat crappy cake while the rest of us carry on stuffing our faces with ever more exotic ready-meals. Or just say no to this sickness. Fasting is in after all.

How do you take even more away from people with nothing? You strip them of even the most basic of choices, that’s how. The notion of food stamps in a still wealthy country makes me gag. Swallow this and you will swallow anything. But that taste at the back of your throat is pure bile.

Oh, and if you still think that food stamps are justified because otherwise the poor will only waste their benefits on cigarettes and alcohol, the evidence suggests otherwise.

And now planning officers are in the sh*t

Yesterday, this blog reported the Daily Telegraph’s exposé of local councillors offering themselves for hire to property developers to provide planning advice.

Today, the Telegraph’s exposé continues with a report that local planning officers are also on the take:

Moonlighting planning officers help builders exploit ‘vulnerable’ councils

Planning officers are offering to draw up applications for developers who can take advantage of “vulnerable” councils in the wake of the relaxation of building laws, The Telegraph can disclose.

The public sector officials, who work full-time for councils, charge thousands of pounds in consultancy fees to assist companies, including supermarkets and property companies, with planning applications.

A consultancy in Cambridge advised undercover reporters that the planning officials could explain the complex planning system to private clients while still working for local authorities.

The local councillors exposed yesterday were behaving unethically but probably not illegally. For local government officers, however, there is less ambiguity. The Telegraph quotes government minister Brandon Lewis:

“As employers, individual councils should set out clear terms and conditions for their staff, including rules about outside employment to prevent conflicts of interest. Breaking those conditions could amount to gross misconduct. Council planning departments routinely offer formal and official pre-application advice as part of their normal service to both local residents and firms.

“However, it is totally inappropriate for council employees to be personally receiving extra payments on the side in relation to their own councils. Such activities could entail a criminal offence under the Bribery Act.”

Meanwhile, there have been consequences for two of the three councillors exposed in yesterday’s Telegraph. The Tory councillors in East Devon and Esher have both been suspended. But in Newcastle, Liberal Democrat councillor Greg Stone is being treated more leniently. The Northern Echo reports:

Coun David Faulkner, leader of the Lib Dems at Newcastle City Council, said he was not aware of any conflict of interest “nor anything inappropriate about Coun Stone’s role as a planning consultant and how he carries it out”.

And today’s political scandal is...

Monday’s Daily Telegraph leads with an exposé headlined:

Councillors for hire who give firms planning advice

The story begins:

Councillors across the country are offering themselves for hire to property developers who are hoping to take advantage of relaxed planning laws which come into effect within weeks, a Daily Telegraph investigation reveals on Monday.

Local government politicians are trading on their inside knowledge of the planning system to receive fees of up to £20,000 for advice on how to get developments approved, it can be disclosed.

One Liberal Democrat councillor is amongst those named by the Telegraph (although it points out that “All the councillors said their activities had been appropriately declared.”):

The Daily Telegraph’s investigation also looked at the activities of Indigo Public Affairs, a lobbying company, with offices in London, Newcastle and Manchester.

Its brochure for clients lists the current and former councillors it employs and sets out how the company “helps our clients achieve planning committee approval”. The firm claims it works with major firms and developers including Tesco, Barratt Homes and Taylor Wimpey.

In Newcastle, Greg Stone, a Liberal Democrat councillor who works for the firm, boasted that the company had “a good chance that via our network someone will know someone who knows somebody” at every council.

“Tricks of the trade” used to gain approval for developments included making sure planning committees included “friendly faces”, he said.

Greg Stone explains some of these “tricks of the trade” in this video interview. The Telegraph provides more background to the story here.

I suspect we will be hearing rather more about this story before the week is out.

Update: Our prediction was correct. There was more about this story.

When politics becomes too local

American politician Tip O’Neill famously said that “All politics is local”. Up to a point.

In the Hertfordshire village of Little Gaddesden, the vice-chairman of the parish council has just resigned on the grounds that the council’s discussions have become too, er, parochial.

A councillor for ten years, David Brattle complained that much of what the council debates has no impact on life in the village:

Everyone has got food on the table and can have the heating on when it’s cold, so I do not know why people make such a fuss about some things like why the green has been cut. We have not got people dying of hunger there.

Cllr Brattle’s resignation has created a second vacancy on the parish council. Today is the deadline if you’d like to apply for either of the seats.