Liberal Democrats criticise Hackney Unites for ‘no platform’ stance on UKIP
Mayoral candidates at a hustings event organised by the Hackney Citizen last month. UKIP has not fielded a candidate for Mayor of Hackney, but has a candidate running for election in Dalston. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
A community group has come under fire for excluding a UK Independence Party candidate from its hustings debate taking place in Dalston tonight at the Trinity Centre, Beechwood Road.
Hackney Unites, which describes itself as an “anti-racist community organisation”, has barred UKIP candidate Luke Basevi from taking part in the panel debate between candidates vying for votes as part of local council elections taking place on 22 May.
A statement on the Hackney Liberal Democrats website said ‘no platform’ policies had “no place in a free and open democracy”.
Hackney Unites’ Dalston debate takes place tonight from 6.30pm.
Hackney Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate Simon de Deney said: “We oppose everything that UKIP stands for, but it is not for us, nor for Hackney Unites, nor for anyone, to prevent a declared candidate from attending an open hustings and being heard by the people of Hackney.”
He added: “Individual UKIP candidates have exposed themselves as racist, homophobic, misogynist and generally deluded, but their party does not hold these views as official positions. Attempting to gag their candidates will only make them appear more attractive.
“We have shown that we are not afraid to confront UKIP and we urge others to do the same.”
“Hackney Unites is an excellent community organisation and we appreciate its efforts to bring the parties’ and candidates’ views to the public. But we believe they are mistaken in this and we urge them to reconsider.”
Hackney Unites secretary John Page declined to answer questions over the phone but emailed a statement saying Hackney Unites opposed “the politics of divide and rule, and as such we do not work with organisations that seek to scapegoat communities.”
The statement added: “We were surprised and disappointed to hear that UKIP (a party whose spokespeople have called for Lenny Henry to be ‘go back to a black country’, posted on twitter that we should ‘ban Islam, and knock down all the Mosques’ and denounced British Olympic Gold medal winner Mo Farah for not being British enough) were standing in multi-racial Dalston. The communities of Dalston have for generations had to endure the racism of parties (from the British Union of Fascists onwards) who have sought to blame ‘immigrants’ for unemployment and poor housing. We oppose all ideologies of hatred and are equally concerned about the sexism and homophobia spouted by UKIP spokespeople.”
“It should surprise no-one that Hackney Unites will not work with UKIP, we are certainly under no obligation to let them use our resources to promote their electoral ambitions and we choose not to sully our good name within the community by having any association with them.
“After consulting on the legal position we informed the other candidates of our anti-racist position. We understand that some parties have consequently decided not to attend our community meeting. That is a matter for them. We are free to invite who we like to our meeting; equally, those we invite are free to decline our invitation.”
The Hackney Citizen is awaiting a comment from UKIP.
Contrary to the Lib Dem assertion, Hackney Unites is not supporting a ‘no platform’ policy. That would mean preventing UKIP from holding a meeting itself, by calling for bans or calling for disruption.HU is just exercising its right to choose who it deals with. Since UKIP clearly trades on racism and xenophobia it is not appropriate for an anti-racist community organisation to promote it. What is undemocratic about that ?
Racism = •prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
xenophobia = intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
You claim the UK Independence Party clearly trades in the above, in which case you should find it easy to provide evidence from the party’s policies or constitution?
Bigotry = intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself.
Clearly Hackney Unites trades in bigotry
Andy, all the evidence you need is available here: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ukip/ I think calling for Lenny Henry to be sent back to a black country is racist. I think blaming floods on the legalisation of same sex marriage is homophobic, and suggesting that women who are raped ‘share some of the responsibility’ because they have established ‘reasonable expectations’ is misogynist. Personally, I am intolerant of racists, homophobes and misogynists: I think they divide and weaken our communities. I also don’t buy the nonsense that just because this is the ‘personal views’ of their candidates it does not represent the essence of the party, but even if you choose to hide behind ‘it is not their official policy’ you cannot escape the evidence of their election billboards: 26 million migrants are after your job. It could be straight from the National Front.
I think the definition of bigotry above is faulty: it involves unfounded prejudice. For some of the unsavoury views of UKIP candidates it is not necessary to look further than their candidate for the Newark by -election: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/06/ukip-selects-former-tory-roger-helmer-parliamentary-candidate
Hackney Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate Simon de Deney is quite wrong to criticise Hackney Unite. The Hackney Unite hustings was for Hackney’s mayoral candidates.
Two years ago Hackney Unite came under similar – unwarranted – criticism when it organised a hustings event in Dalston for candidates seeking election to the London North East GLA constituency. Hackney Unite was criticised for failing to provide a platform for members of the UK Independence Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. Yet neither of these parties were putting forward candidates for the constituency!
And Andy, if you want evidence of UKIP’s “intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries” just take a look at their election poster!
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1780944/thumbs/n-FARAGE-POSTER-large570.jpg
John Thornton, while I welcome your support for Hackney Unites, on this particular occasion the event was a local Dalston event (one of a series of ward based events organised by Hackney Unites). Our mayoral question time takes place next Thursday 15 May and free tickets are available here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hackney-unites-hackneyspeaks-mayors-question-time-tickets-9628130999 I hope to see you (and Simon de Deney) there.