UKIP – Asleep At The Helmer

If anyone was in any doubt about the miasma of rank hypocrisy, bigotry, sleaze-baggery and general spivvery that envelops Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his fellow saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP, today’s news on the upcoming Newark by-election lays it out for all to see. Because the party’s candidate is going to be none other than seasoned bigot Roger Helmer.

Squeaky finger up the chicken bum time

You may recall that Farage had chickened out of the contest because he wanted to concentrate on the campaign for elections to the European Parliament (EP). So, as UKIP is allegedly a repository of high principles, it might be thought that the candidate could not already be an MEP. But Helmer is already an MEP, although he was elected on the Tory Party list in 2009.

So much for consistency. But it gets worse: Helmer is in the right party when it comes to being described as a Kipper. Yes, there he is, trousering salary and allowances just like his fellow UKIP MEPs, and when he can be arsed to turn up at the EP, he uses it as a place to catch up on his sleep. There’s more high principles and respect for his employer in one.

Roger Helmer - a genuine Kipper

Helmer’s ratting to UKIP caused the Leicester Mercury to observe “A Euro MP has been branded a hypocrite by a former party colleague after quitting the Tories to join UKIP ... Mr Helmer had urged party colleague Bill Newton Dunn to resign when he quit the Tories to become a Liberal Democrat”. Newton Dunn said “Though I can understand Roger's decision, what I cannot abide is his hypocrisy – even duplicity”.

Rog also came to the attention of Damian Thompson at Telegraph blogs after he asserted “It would not be fair to describe the [Catholic] Church as “institutionally paedophile”. So far as I know it has no rules or systems designed to support or promote paedophilia.  But I think it would be perfectly fair to describe it as systemically paedophile”. So that’s a little more of his electorate he just alienated.

Can it get worse? You betcha, says Sarah: Helmer said that “‘homophobia' is not so much a word as a political agenda” which “describes something which simply does not exist ... the word homophobia has no meaning. I have never met anyone with an irrational fear of homosexuals, it is just a propagandist word created by the militant gay rights lobby”. More electorate alienation, then.

And Helmer backed his dishonest colleague Dan, Dan the Oratory Man over the latter’s attack on the NHS: “I think Dan has done us a service by raising these issues which need to be looked at”, he said. Hannan had just gone on Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) to tell a series of whoppers about healthcare, an area where his beloved USA spends almost twice the GDP for less good outcomes.

So there’s plenty for UKIP’s opponents to get their teeth into. Let battle commence!