Sun UKIP Racism Hypocrisy

The Super Soaraway Currant Bun has been having a go at those intending to vote for Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his fellow saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP for some time now. This came to a head yesterday as Rupe’s downmarket troops swung behind Young Dave’s instruction to wavering Kippers to vote Tory, if only to save the political skin of Himself Personally Now. But the Sun has been facing both ways to pursue this one.

Tuesday’s editorial said of UKIP voters “They are understandably sick of professional politicians, and a Britain powerless to control immigration and dictated to by unaccountable Eurocrats”. Then they attempt to rubbish Mr Thirsty and his pals, in the same way the paper used to try and put voters off what was then called the Liberal Party in the 1970s and 80s - it was a “protest vote” that wasn’t worth it.

“Racism & Ukip” declared an editorial recently, telling readers “NIGEL Farage was challenged yesterday over whether Ukip is racist. He put a gun to his temple and fired … Farage told a radio interviewer people would be worried if a group of Romanians moved in next door. Asked what the difference would be between them and some Germans, Farage, whose wife is German, said ‘You know what the difference is’”.

There could be only one conclusion: “This is racism, pure and simple … It is not racist to worry about the impact of millions of migrants on Britain, as we have argued for years. It IS racist to smear Romanians for being Romanian … Nigel Farage, Ukip leader, did just that”. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the Sun has no room to call racism on anyone else, given its past and present behaviour.

The paper has recently given former editor Kelvin MacKenzie a column, and recently, with no hint of irony at all, he told Farage that he must “state his party is not racist”. Under the less than benign editorship of Kelvin McFilth, the Sun had a reputation for “jingoism, racism, homophobia and intolerance” according to John Pilger. The portrayal of Winston Silcott after the Broadwater Farm riots was typical.

Even today, the racist and bigoted are still welcomed by the Sun, and chief among the best-known is professional motormouth Katie Hopkins, whose recent form in this area even taxed the Mail: “A number of anti-Muslim rants were sent from Katie Hopkins' Twitter account last night including one that called Palestinians 'filthy rodents … Tweets from her account also made jokes about Ebola’”.

The Independent observed “The former Apprentice star takes aim at 'gypsies' and 'travellers' in an attention-seeking Twitter rant that would curdle [Nigel] Farage's tea … Today’s targeted cultural groups were ‘travellers’ and ‘gypsies’, whom Hopkins declared were ‘ferrel humans [sic]’ that ‘we have no duty to’”. But the Sun gave her a column.

So don’t forget, Sun readers, don’t vote UKIP because Mr Thirsty is racist, but keep reading our dubiously sourced copy, even if the pundits are, er, racist. No change there.