UKIP: Gerard Batten racism accusations

Hello Campers!

You will recall that allegations of racism were made against Batten by a former member of his staff. He was also accused of electoral and financial irregularities. We note that the case against him continues. We also note that REPORTING RESTRICTIONS have been removed by the Judge. This was despite Batten's desperate attempts to gag the press and use the police to intimidate those who dared to mention the hearing on their websites or blogs. LINK

The Judge has quite rightly rejected Batten's pathetic attempts to silence the truth.

An insider has this to say:

It is untrue he was found not guilty because the case was not fully heard. All that happened was that he lost his precious reporting restriction and now everything can be openly written about. Judge rightly said he is politician, is open to public scrutiny, is nothing special and reporting restriction discharged.

Batten's actions make a mockery of Farage's so-called support for the reform of Section 5 of The Public Order Act:

“Not that I have ever been known to insult anybody in the course of my work, nor indeed that anybody has ever felt the need to insult me or UKIP for that matter.

But the principle that freedom of speech, a basic Liberty, must be defended and protected from well meaning legislation is one that UKIP has supported for years. We have had a commitment to reform Section 5 almost since we had any commitments.

In a robust democracy people must be free to insult and be insulted. We have laws that protect against incitement to violence and hatred, that should be enough. To protect my feelings from those who wish to laugh at me or hold me in contempt is a freedom I never wanted, nor hoped for.

So three cheers for this campaign, three cheers for those like Peter Tatchell, The Christian Institute, David Davis, The National Secular Society, the Freedom Association, Big Brother Watch and all the others standing up for the liberty of people to throw verbal brickbats around."

What a pity that he doesn't apply this to his own party where censorship and intimidation of members are the norm! The UKIP members only forum is just one example of this. Posts are regularly removed if they dare to criticise Farage and his cronies. See: LINK

And remember how Dr Eric Edmond and Dr David Abbott were thrown off the NEC for daring to raise concerns about corruption in UKIP? The so-called leadership then tried to smear them by claiming they were BNP supporters. LINK

And remember when Del Young was subjected to similar treatment? LINK


The reform of Section 5 is just another bandwagon for Farage to jump on in a desperate bid for more publicity. Yet another example of UKIP hypocrisy from UKIP's Hypocrite-in-Chief!

Also see: LINK