When former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage announced he was returning to active politics, something he had made into a catalogue of serial failure when trying to get elected to Parliament, he did not signal a return to Planet Kipper, choosing instead to throw his lot in with Leave Means Leave.
Richard Tice
This is the group fronted by the rictus perma-smile of Richard Tice, another talking head who has inexplicably been provided with a slew of media appearances that he does not merit. For Tice, Brexit will be fine, providing we all feel optimistic thoughts and smile like him. He is also leading an unashamedly entryist organisation.
Although Tice is a Tory Party member, he has long experience of working with those outside it, having been a co-founder of Leave EU, another of those organisations that somehow managed to break the law during the EU referendum campaign.
So it should surprise no-one to see that Leave Means Leave’s “advisory board” includes the likes of David Campbell Bannerman, whose recent pronouncements have contained more than a whiff of anti-Semitism, and who foolishly claimed that if Airbus was to leave the UK, its plants could be nationalised. He spent some time as a UKIP MEP.
Squeaky following the money finger up the bum time
Also in there is Simon “Enoch was right” Heffer, a past guest of honour at the annual gathering of the far-right Traditional Britain Group. Supporters of Leave Means Leave include disgraced DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr., Angus Dalgleish, the Professor from the University of London who blames any and all health care problems on the EU (and is a member of UKIP), and other non-mainstream luminaries.
So it is no surprise to see former UKIP leader Lord Pearson in there, someone who has said “We see Sharia law running de facto in our land and we see a birth rate which is several times ours … These people hate us with frightening religious fervour and we are right to fear them”, and has invited bigot Geert Wilders to the UK.
All of which, together with the intolerant, dishonest and freeloading Farage shaping up to join, means that Leave Means Leave is not a mainstream Tory group, despite the presence of many of the party’s MPs in its list of supporters, including disgraced former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Jacob Rees Mogg, Andrew “HS2 ate my house” Bridgen, and John “Live long and prosper” Redwood.
No, with Farage bringing his less than total expertise to the group, it makes Leave Means Leave an entryist group seeking to drag the Tories further to the right, and preferably over the Brexit cliff edge. It also contains significant support for the Muslim-bashing far right. If the Tories had any backbone, they would declare it a proscribed organisation and discipline any of their members who supported it.
But they haven’t, and so they won’t. Be concerned, ordinary voters. Be very concerned.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at
1 comment:
The tories need no "dragging" further to the right.
That is their logical function.
They only "object" when it gets too obvious, as with Trump in the United Staes of Amnesia.
Whatever form they take, they'll always be the Nastzi party.
Post a Comment