Day: June 2, 2013

Nigel Farage, the controversial leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), will be speaking at Hove Town Hall on Monday, June 3 at 7pm. The venue has a capacity of 860 and organisers say seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Doors will be locked once the venues capacity has been reached.

UKIP have been outspoken opponents of Equal Marriage and have become the natural home for disenchanted right wing Tories.

UKIPS views on homophobia as researched by BUAF include:

In December 2012 The Guardian reported Farage’s links with anti-gay, far-right European politicians amid claims he backed a populist Polish priest who describes homosexual men as “sodomites”.  More recently, The Pink News reported Farage as saying he would not expel UKIP members for voicing “old-fashioned” views about homosexuality, including those who describe it as “disgusting”.

UKIPS views on xenophobia and racism as researched by BUAF include:

According the Daily Mirror (May 18) Ukip’s leader on Lincolnshire Council and East Midlands Chair, wrote: “Have you noticed that if you rearrange the letters in ‘illegal immigrants’, and add just a few more letters, it spells, ‘Go home you free-loading, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, baby-making, non-English-speaking ********* and take those other hairy-faced, sandal-wearing, bomb-making, camel-riding, goat-********, raghead ******** with you.’ He also objected to foreign doctors working in the NHS writing: “We don’t want them taking all the jobs in the local community and we certainly don’t want them working in our  hospitals!”  The Mirror story also reported UKIP’s party Chair in Bury writing of Barack Obama: “I bet he’s a closet ‘Imam’ as well!  ”If I ever see him on a Greyhound bus wearing a rucksack, I’m getting off!!”  During the council elections last month a Ukip candidate in East Sussex was suspended after reportedly posting anti-Semitic comments on a conspiracy theory website including a claim that the second world war was “engineered by the Zionist” (The Guardian 26th April). A UKIP candidate in Kent, referred to risk of tuberculosis after barriers to Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants are lifted next year on his blog “I would suggest not going to London after January 2014 unless you absolutely have to and if you do, adopt the Japanese practice of wearing a face mask,” (Daily Telegraph 26th April) and there are reports of BNP and EDL members joining UKIP. The chair of the Hillingdon UKIP branch boasted on his blog that he “joined my friends from March for England to tag along on the EDL Tower Hamlets demonstration”.

Local groups including:

Brighton, Hove & District Trades Union Council, Sussex Labour Representation Committee, PCS South East Region, PCS DWP East Sussex Branch, Brighton University UCU, Brighton Defend the NHS, Brighton Queers Against the Cuts, Brighton Love Music Hate Racism, Varndean College Against the Cuts, Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Brighton International Socialism Network, Brighton Socialist Resistance, Brighton SWP, Brighton UAF, West Sussex Coast UAF……..are planning a protest outside Hove Town Hall from 6pm

Event: Nigel Farage Speech

Where: Hove town Hall, Norton Road, Hove

When: Monday, June 3

Time: 7pm

Cost: Free entry. First come first served

Labour have chosen Emma Daniel as their candidate in the Hanover and Elm Grove by-election in July.  The ward originally Labour became a stronghold for the Greens during the last 12 years. The result will give an early indication as to the extent of damage caused by the failed coup by the Greens to dispose of their Convenor, Jason Kitcat last month.

Emma, 36, said:

“I am very pleased to be selected and I look forward to talking to local people about the positive policies and new ideas Labour has for Hanover and Elm Grove, as well as the city as a whole.”

Leader of the Labour and Co-operative Group Cllr Warren Morgan, said:

“I’m delighted local members have chosen Emma, she will be an outstanding candidate and a fantastic councillor for Hanover and Elm Grove. So many voters are telling us they voted Green last time but are disappointed and will be returning to Labour in this election.”

Emma has over fifteen years experience in the voluntary sector, working in housing and homelessness policy. As a senior member of the city’s Community and Voluntary Sector Forum (CVSA), Emma supported elected representatives in their work in partnership with the statutory sector.

Emma also served as a member on the Sussex Police Authority, and founded the Coats for Kids project which collected and distributed winter coats to families who could not afford them last winter. Emma currently works in the city’s digital sector.

Passionate about equalities, Emma combines her work and political activism with family life, often bringing her step son and little girl, who goes to school in Hanover and Elm Grove, out campaigning on the doorstep.

The by-election has been caused by the resignation of  Cllr Matt Follett, one of the three Green councillors for the ward and comes at a time when the Greens are currently bitterly divided and openly criticising each other, while at the same time rubbish remains uncollected in city streets.

The result is expected  to be close with some predicting defeat for the ruling Greens. It would be the first time Labour have ever regained a seat from the Greens in the city, and would mark a sea-change in Brighton and Hove community politics. A lively campaign is expected by all.

Polling takes place on July 11.