[ 2015-01-01 ]

Nigel Farage: Links to a 'racist age' could 'bury' Ukip
Nigel Farage has admitted that his party will be
"buried" if people are able to link the UK
Independence Party to a "racist age".

The Ukip leader made the unguarded comments at a
meeting of senior party figures following
allegedly racist comments made by a councillor on
the internet.

The Telegraph has been passed a copy of minutes
made at the meeting of Ukip's national executive
committee which met to discuss Chris Pain, who was
suspended by UKip in 2013 over allegedly racist
posts on his Facebook page.

Mr Pain claimed the posts were the work of a
malicious hacker. A police investigation could not
find sufficient evidence to prosecute.

At the meeting, held in June 2013, Mr Farage
described the alleged comments as a "grave lack of
judgement".

He warned that "the one thing that is able to bury
the Party if [sic] they can link us with a racist
age".

His comments show the level of concern amongst
senior members of Ukip about the party being
linked to allegations of racism.

Both the Conservatives and Labour have attempted
to paint Ukip as a party with old-fashioned views
that has no place in modern Britain.

A series of figures in Ukip also appeared to use
the meeting to attempt to brush Mr Pain's alleged
comments under the carpet.

David Coburn, now an MEP in Scotland, described
the controversy as "a technical/PR problem’ and
asked: "Do have anyone that can come up with a
sufficiently greasy excuse?"

Ukip has in recent months been embroiled in a
number of controversies surrounding allegedly
racist comments made by its candidates and
members.

The party was forced to distance itself from a
claim by Kent councillor Trevor Shonk that the
established parties "have made the country racist
because of the influx" of immigration.

And Kerry Smith was axed as a would-be MP after it
emerged he mocked gay party members as "poofters",
joked about shooting people from Chigwell in a
"peasant hunt" and referred to someone as a
"Chinky bird".

Mr Farage defended the language, saying Mr Smith
was a "rough diamond" council house boy who
"speaks in a way that a lot of people from that
background do".

Douglas Carswell, who earlier this year became
Ukip’s first MP in the Commons after defecting
from the Conservatives, has warned that his party
must show an "inclusive" face and not blame
immigrants for Britain's woes if it is to become a
serious force in politics.

He said that a said that a dislike of foreigners
was "not merely offensive but absurd".

“No Ukip candidate should ever make the mistake
of blaming outsiders for the failings of political
insiders in Westminster,” he said.

“There has never been anything splendid about
isolation.

“It was our interdependence that put the Great
into Great Britain - and it is what sustains our
living standards today. In such a world, a dislike
of foreigners is not merely offensive, but
absurd.”

Ukip did not respond to requests for a comment.

Source - The Telegraph

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