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UKIP
What started as a party set up to oppose the Maastricht treaty
has grown into a monster. In 1997, the party was abandoned by
its most notable founder, Alan Sked, who noticed that the UKIP
was attracting the far-right. But like the BNP, there is a more
sinister problem. UKIP also has a public face which is generally
considered ‘acceptable’ within mainstream politics. With its
bright pink and yellow logo and constant messages from the
leadership that this is not a racist party, the behaviour of leading
party members often tells a very different story.
As the European elections loomed, UKIP started to show their true colours. Last year, the
Daily Mirror exposed that the forums on UKIPs website were filling up with racist and
homophobic comments. On the forum, Oxford branch chairperson Dr Julia Gasper branded
gay rights as a ‘lunatic’s charter’ and claimed lesbians and gay men preferred sex with animals.
Another member, Jan Zolyniak claimed that there is clear evidence ‘the percentage of gay
men who molest children cannot be dismissed’.
But these were not isolated incidents. Henley UKIP MEP Roger Helmer famously
commented how the winter floods was God’s revenge for same-sex marriage. Douglas Denny,
council candidate for Portsmouth, made comments on the UKIP forum stating homosexuals
were ‘disgusting’ and that LGBTs were ‘abnormal’. The sixth-biggest donor to the party
Demetri Marchessini, claimed same-sex couples were incapable of love and could only feel
lust. Moreover, he said the average homosexual would prefer to sleep with 10-15 partners a
night rather than be monogamous.
In terms of BNP intake, UKIP has not attracted too many members, but may well win the
votes that would have once headed to Nick Griffin’s way. The hard-core BNP member will
almost certainly either stay loyal or join one of the splinter parties, but the uniformed voter
who reads a party’s leaflet and takes it at face value is now the prime meat for UKIP just as
the BNP once were.
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