It’s difficult to talk about UKIP, I mean properly discuss it, without causing umbrage or someone telling you to keep a lid on it. My neighbour across the road is a supporter and has the flags to show it; one of the three UKIP county councillors lives in my village; friends and acquaintances are quietly thinking they may possibly vote for them – if only to register a protest against the Tories, LibDems and Labour, believing they offer some kind of alternative to the political establishment (they really do not).
Because many of us know, associate or work with UKIP supporters and we don’t want confrontation or disharmony, we’re not happy to take the subject on. Or if we do, we don’t really engage with it – many might think ‘ah but UKIP have got a point about…’ We don’t get the chance to counter the blatant lies UKIP repeat again and again, offer any resistance to the media onslaught which seems to be telling us on a daily basis, ‘ah UKIP may be a bit dodgy but they have got a point about…’
UKIP projects itself as a populist party, speaking the mind of “ordinary British people”. At its heart lies a toxic compound of fascism and Thatcherite neo-liberalism, bankrolled by rich rightwingers (http://www.channel4.com/news/the-publishers-and-lords-bankrolling-ukip-factcheck). UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage thrive on community division and hate, delivered in the most genial, jovial and respectable-cloaked fashion. In their policies, there is little difference between them and the BNP – except UKIP has none of the BNP’s policies on social justice (whites-only, naturally). UKIP are proud to be British nationalists, repeatedly use the phrase “indigenous Britons” despite it being meaningless and racist.
The far-right wing has achieved respectability and mainstream acceptance from the media and rival political parties, who are doing little – if anything – to even question the UKIP package.
The words of Michael Rosen seem quite pertinent
“I sometimes fear that people might think that fascism arrives in fancy dress worn by grotesques and monsters as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you…It doesn’t walk in saying, “Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”
And I can’t help agree with this Facebook poster:
“Throughout our history, there have always been vicious, nationalist parties or factions who exhort us to blame immigrants for our woes. Historically, this deflection of the blame served one main purpose: to save our political masters – the industrialists and capitalists – from any responsibility for the reduction in wages and increase in poverty. In the 19th century it was the Irish who wanted to take your job; in the early 20th, it was Mosley’s Blackshirts blaming the Jews; in the 60s it was the Enoch Powell predicting “rivers of blood” over the immigration of Commonwealth citizens.
Now the scapegoats are our European neighbours and the party is UKIP. What has changed? Who benefits now from UKIP’s spreading of xenophobia, racism and anti-immigration feeling? It’s the same old trick and it’s the same old ruling classes – the privateers, the bankers and their good friends in parliament – who benefit. We must fight this, as always, with a positive message of solidarity, of internationalism and anti-racism – as our forebears in the movement did.”
The rise of UKIP, eh? Well, as that old phrase goes, if you don’t laugh, you’d cry. We’re hoping to see Lydney Town Hall flooded with tears of mirth when JONNY & THE BAPTISTS take the stage with THE STOP UKIP TOUR on Sunday May 4.
This is a top musical comedy act, featuring stars of Radio 4’s NOW Show and Infinite Monkey Puzzle. Therefore we are charging £10 entry. If you think that’s too much, you can get in for £5. This concession applies to anyone on low income [please read on for more below the poster]
The award-nominated show has been touring the country, with UKIP attempting to shut it down (see http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2014/03/06/19735/ukip_tries_to_shut_down_comedy_tour). When UKIP have comedians telling racist jokes at their functions they laugh it off saying “can’t you take a joke?” But it’s different when the joke is on them. Political satire is what it is – humour. At the same time, you shouldn’t underestimate its potential for telling the truth as well!
The show is described as “songs, satire and silliness ahead of this year’s European Elections”. They take a “gently provocative” look at the rise of UKIP to the decline of voter turnout, along with a lot in between from library closures and loneliness to the decline of the great British pub. Their new 20-date tour follows a year in which the musical double-act have been nominated for the 2013 Musical Comedy Awards, Amused Moose Edinburgh Awards and New Act of the Year Awards, and appeared on Radio 4’s The Now Show, Infinite Monkey Cage, Sketchorama and C5’s Gadget Show.
During the past 18 months, they have become a mainstay of the UK’s musical comedy scene, playing at major festivals and venues and headlining clubs across the country.
Before Jonny & The Baptists take the stage at 8pm, Forest-based Nigel Costley will be delivering his talk on TRUTH, LIES AND MIGRANTS, in association with Forest Unity and the TUC (Trades Union Congress), from 7.15pm. This is essential mythbusting on all the misinformation and blatant lies about immigration fed by UKIP and echoed in the media, and it’s related to the South West and the Forest of Dean in particular. To give you a flavour, see: http://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/myths%20book%202013_0.pdf
Immigration fear-stoking is UKIP’s modus operandi, seen here in its latest billboard (very reminiscent of BNP and National Front propaganda from the 1970s and 80s, and also British Union of Fascists from the 1930s)
Who can stop them? Us, all of us, but we need to actively challenge their propaganda on all fronts – get engaged, read up, have enough knowledge and backed-up arguments to counter UKIP’s. Not easy, but there are materials out there to help.
Forest Unity was formed last year as a direct result of UKIP declaring themselves county council representatives of most of the Forest of Dean. So far we have brought people together on several occasions – for a launch event in Ruardean, a kind of eco-symposium near Redbrook and a HOOF benefit ceilidh at Westbury. Now we are putting on The Stop Ukip Tour at Lydney Town Hall.
Why haven’t we done more, or aren’t we doing more, folks may ask? Basically because there are only a small group of us putting the effort in, and we are all busy trying to earn a living and with other work-life commitments…
We have been so busy we haven’t had time, for instance, to sort out a mailing list, discussion forum, or any ways and means people can get together to discuss what we can do and how we can do it. This is where you all come in. Apologies, but the email address on this site doesn’t work, so send us a message on the Facebook page to get in touch.
We haven’t got a box office number to book tickets for the comedy do, and nor have I got one to put on here. The reasons are because a. we’re all busy people, and b. we don’t want to have to deal with abuse from right-wingers. Going back to what I wrote at the start, it’s hard to oppose UKIP when there are few willing to talk about it, while the pro-UKIP camp gets all the primetime media saturation – nationally and locally – it could ever wish for.
There are no doubt more, but here are some reasons why UKIP should be resisted in our Forest:
1. British nationalism has no place here – multiculturalism does: the Forest has no tradition of British nationalism. Foresters often regard the Dean as the “land between two rivers”, “a country on its own”, or “between England and Wales”. It’s also a well-known phrase: “Foresters hate the Welsh, but they hate the English more!” Vurriners (foreigners) resisted by Foresters have tended to be white, British and rich, intent on exploitation of our forest and its resources.
Gypsies, white and black American soldiers, Italian and German prisoners-of-war, plus working-class refugees from Wales to Derbyshire to Sussex have all historically been welcomed in the Forest by the general population. With two out of three of the UKIP councillors in the Forest hailing from London and the Home Counties, who are the vurriners here?
There are no immigrants flooding in to the Forest from Europe to take our jobs – there are no jobs. However, there are plenty of wealthy retired city folk heading west to buy and put up the price of houses. As for all this moaning about the EU from UKIP, South Wales would have been left destitute by the Thatcher-led demise of coal, steel and manufacturing had it not been for EU funding.
Independence from Brussels? I think we’d rather independence from Westminster and Shire Hall!
2. UKIP want more nuclear and fracking: Anyone fancy not only the proposed nuclear collosus across the Severn at Oldbury but twice as many nuclear power stations? UKIP do. The Forest of Dean is also on the UK ‘fracking’ map for ‘virgin coalbed methane extraction’, and UKIP have stated on several occasions their support for fracking.
UKIP also wants an end to renewable energies such as wind and solar power. Many are oblivious of the quiet green revolution taking place in St Briavels, where in less than a year of operation, a single wind turbine from local company Resilience has delivered thousands of pounds to a village community fund. Many people have solar panels on their roofs. UKIP would end any incentives, such as feed-in tariffs, for people to adopt greener energy, would oppose any wind turbines – no matter how sensitively situated – and those solar panels wouldn’t be allowed.
Oh, and they’d also ban any education explaining scientific theories about climate change. The recent floods were the fault of gay marriage as climate change doesn’t exist, one UKIP figure proclaimed. Farage said he was entitled to his “honest beliefs”.
3. UKIP supported the forest sell-off plans: Nigel Farage confirmed in a meeting at the Annexe in Lydney that his party would have backed the Government’s 2010/11 attempt to privatise our Forest had it been a contender then. UKIP’s involvement in Forestry has been confined to stoking up the anti-boar campaign in the Forest, a divisive issue our MP has also taken sides on. On the international front, on one of the few days UKIP MEPs bothered turning up in Brussels (despite getting paid a lot more than MPs do), they voted against a clampdown on the ivory trade.
4. UKIP is the enemy of the worker: “British jobs for British workers”, the BNP slogan paraphrased by UKIP propaganda… but what kind of working conditions? UKIP want to do away with all legislation aimed to protect workers, their rights at work, and vote against equal pay for women. They want contractual obligations ripped up and replaced by individual contracts drawn up by employers.
Oh and they would also do away with all human rights legislation, build twice as many prisons, have twice as many police and army protecting property. And of course they are going all out to divide us as much as they can. Divide and rule: it’s how the ruling class works.
5. UKIP are a nasty, intolerant bunch not just tolerated but promoted by the powers-that-be: Forest of Dean UKIP chairman Richard Leppington’s Facebook profile is like a descent into a Dantean dystopia. He passes on Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech (“a genius… the prime minister that never was but should have been”, he has publicly said of his hero”) from hooligan group the Infidels of Britain, calls women who dare to oppose him “hags” (with shamefully no subsequent action taken by council ‘monitors’) and uses the kind of “get the reds” language synonymous with fascist hardliners.
Their candidate for Newent, John Sullivan (who came second in the 2013 county council election), posted fascist cartoons about Hitler from renowned hate site White Rabbit Radio, is a proud member of far-right “traditionalist” groups, and believes physical exercise “cures” men of being gay. Other evidence from his Facebook shows he also likes to find ways of ogling women in low-cut tops while at work and relishes the idea of public-school beatings.
However, their most popular councillor in Lydney, Alan Preest, has the genuine populist touch and is basically a well-meaning guy who seems to have fallen in with a bad crowd. How are they promoted by the powers-that-be? A Labour district councillor recently proposed that UKIP should have a seat in a cross-party Cabinet, despite only having one district councillor. A town council recently published a newsletter delivered to thousands of homes with a blatant endorsement of UKIP contained within it (written by the chair of Age Concern). I registered my protest, reporting to the council that I had ripped up several leaflets, only to have the council write to my employer to try and get me the sack! Every councillor (and none are declared UKIP) supported the motion.
* * * * *
No political party in the Forest of Dean is doing anything to oppose UKIP. At Tory HQ, there have been talks of a future Tory-UKIP pact or coalition. Some Labour members I have spoken to believe they are good for splitting the Tory vote. But UKIP is taking the Labour vote too. Many of its supporters are people at the bottom of society – they might have voted Labour if Labour was speaking for them. But sadly, it’s not. A Green Party supporter also advised me that the best thing to do is ignore UKIP.
So what can we do? First of all I’d like to knock on the head one wholly false rumour circulating that has reached me: Forest Unity is not a Labour front group and it’s sad that people who should share our values have written it off as such. If it was, I’d personally be out of there! Yes we have a few people who are Labour Party members involved; we also have Green Party members while the majority has no declared political-party allegiance. We receive funding from Unison, the public services trade union, but Unison is not Labour and vice versa. Forest Unity fits Unison’s pro-community criteria.
Forest Unity is a pluralistic community association. What we stand for can be found in the About section and front page of this website. Providing we stick to what we’re for, and what we’re against, we can do all sorts of things to promote community cohesion between all kinds of people and oppose divide and rule. But collectively we are not doing enough. UKIP is on the rise, and while their machine is well-oiled, well-funded and well-resourced, our opposition could and should be much more effective than it is.
Sadly though, I predict UKIP may get the “political earthquake” they claim there will be on May 22, but people would rather “not do politics” than resist them, despite being aware of some, if not all, of the dangers.
At the risk of repeating myself here, the few of us engaged in Forest Unity cannot make much of a difference – IT DEPENDS ON YOU. THE MANY NOT THE FEW. Even if we can find a way for people to play just a TINY part, and get organised in some way, that would be great. For instance, we’ve been offered thousands of tabloids countering UKIP produced by the Daily Mirror to deliver door-to-door before May 22, but we haven’t currently got the manpower, time or resources to do it… Send us a Facebook message at https://www.facebook.com/ForestUnity for private correspondence.
3. Talk to people, discuss with them how nasty and dangerous UKIP are despite that cloak of respectability (which sometimes slips), and that bankers (UKIP’s allies) and capitalism not immigrants or Europe is to blame for economic problems.
4. Spread the word about the event on May 4 even if you can’t make it!
Check Stand Up To UKIP’s mission statement. One which I think is in tune with Forest Unity:
“We are deeply concerned by the rising level of support for UKIP, shown in recent elections and opinion polls.
UKIP is a far-right populist party. It similar to far-right populist parties across Europe — such as Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands — and the Tea Party movement in the US.
Like these parties, UKIP stirs up racism and reactionary views. It scapegoats immigrants, blaming them for the economic crisis, unemployment and lack of housing.
UKIP has also targeted Muslims, LGBT people and other minority communities. It attacks our multicultural society.”
It encourages a racist and reactionary current of public opinion that threatens black and Asian people, Jewish people, Eastern Europeans, LGBT people and others.
The problems we confront are not due to immigration, our multicultural society, equal rights, or the influence of supposedly ‘alien’ ideas or culture.
The bankers and their rich City friends are to blame for the economic crisis and austerity. Creating division and hatred in our communities will make life worse for everyone.
We believe people of goodwill must come together to stand up to UKIP and say no to its racism and reactionary ideas — regardless of our differing views on Europe or other political issues.
If we do not, there is a danger that UKIP will grow in influence. This will give increasing legitimacy to its racist scapegoating, which in turn will have an impact on mainstream politics.
Such a climate of racist and reactionary ideas also creates a fertile breeding ground for fascist organisations, such as the British National Party and the English Defence League.
We call on all those who reject racism, scapegoating and xenophobic nationalism to join us in campaigning against UKIP. Let’s say no to racism and stand up for our multicultural society.”
If you’d rather not get more involved… turn up at our event on Sunday May 4 for the entertainment, it’d be lovely to see you! Just to know there is some solidarity and mutual respect for humankind and the planet left out there! And people who like comedy.
Forest Unity 