Arron Banks - Bigot And Hypocrite

While former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage tells anyone still not asleep that no-one should support leadership hopeful Anne Marie Waters, as he believes she will turn the Kippers into a single issue party, that issue being Muslim Bashing, his old mucker and lover of all things Russian Arron Banks has been saying more or less the same thing, and Mr Thirsty has thus far not said a dickybird about it.

Nige has happily been Retweeting prompts from Banks’ piss-poor Westmonster propaganda site, but, as the Bristol Post observed, his best buddy in the Leave EU cause has been causing some disquiet: “UKIP donor Arron Banks likened to National Front after calling for Muslim immigration ban and 'levelling' of mosques … The Bristol businessman who 'bankrolled Brexit' was likened to the National Front - by his own supporters”.

The Post was putting it mildly. And it was Ms Waters’ prompting that set him off: “I'm in favour of a Muslim ban into the UK until we deal with the issue we have. I get it perfectly well thanks”. So what was the difference between her and her critics? There didn’t appear to be very much. And what there was, was about to get rather less.

Prompted by one Tweeter who suggested that the only way to fight fanatics was with fanaticism - whatever that was supposed to mean - Banks volunteered “If banning Muslim immigration and levelling all Saudi/ Qatari funded mosques isn't strong enough for you , I'm not sure what is!” So that’s arbitrary demolition of peoples’ property, arguably approval of collective punishment, as well as stinking hypocrisy in his attack on Ms Waters.

No doubt Banks’ stance would have found favour with the motley convocation of Eastern Bloc leaders he appears to pine for, as well as the Greek Colonels, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira Salazar. But we have a thing called a functional democracy, and arbitrary confiscation of property is Streng Verboten. So it vigilantism, collective punishment, and anything resembling kangaroo courts.

This did not deter Banks, who did not object to being called a “Fascist” and added “The actual quote is ‘mosques funded by Saudi and Qatari money’, presumably you are happy to leave them as centre of excellence for Terror” [no citation]. We also have a thing called due process of law, but this too does not deter The Great Man, who simply doubled down on his ranting: “Mosques funded by Saudi / Qatari money dopey”. He’s all class.

Did he want Parliament to pass some sort of legislation? You jest. He’d probably just line them all up against the wall and empty his Uzi into them, but the first step would indeed be curtailing freedom of movement and arbitrary property confiscation: “I'm clear mosques funded by Saudi / Qatari money should be demolished and Muslim immigration halted under we have the issue under control”. He’d probably proscribe al-Jazeera as well.

Arron Banks is a bigot. He is also a hypocrite to attack Anne Marie Waters and then come out with more or less the same policies. And Nigel Farage scores high on guilt by silence, RTing his pal’s lousy website while keeping schtum about his bigotry.

UKIP is fast becoming an irrelevance. Just rejoice at that news.