Wednesday, September 14, 2016
New Welsh Assembly term, new UKIP gaffe
I am rapidly coming to the view that the disgraced former Tory MP and UKIP Assembly leader, Neil Hamilton should be kept away from microphones for the good of his own party. On the other hand as somebody who abhors everything UKIP stands for, long may he continue embarrassing his colleagues.
The latest gaffe came at the first UKIP press briefing of the new Assembly term. According to the Western Mail, Hamilton once more inserted his foot in his mouth and pronounced:
"With the boundary changes that are going to take place before 2020, Labour are going to suffer a holocaust, particularly in Wales, and I’m looking forward to the blood-letting which the current leadership contest has been the precursor to.”
This provoked an immediate reaction from Labour AM, Joyce Watson who said: “Even by Neil Hamilton’s standards, this use of language is absolutely unforgivable. He should withdraw these remarks, apologise and spend some time thinking about what the word holocaust really means, in particular to Jewish families in Wales.”
Hamilton is no stranger to gaffes and actions that cause embarrassment to his own party of course, as these blogposts show. His latest blunder is not just a misjudgement on his part but offensive to a significant number of people and he should apologise. It shows a complete lack of historical and cultural awareness as well as a reckless disregard for the responsibilities associated with his position.
Oh, and UKIP are hardly free from the sort of infighting currently crippling Labour, some of it focussing on Hamilton himself.
On a secondary note Hamilton also illustrated once more his party's ineptitude by suggesting that the £150m a year needed to fund a Commonwealth Games bid could be found "if the Welsh Government scrapped the funding of wind turbines in the Welsh countryside."
Nice try, but any subsidy for alternative power generation comes from the UK Government, not the Welsh Assembly budget.
The latest gaffe came at the first UKIP press briefing of the new Assembly term. According to the Western Mail, Hamilton once more inserted his foot in his mouth and pronounced:
"With the boundary changes that are going to take place before 2020, Labour are going to suffer a holocaust, particularly in Wales, and I’m looking forward to the blood-letting which the current leadership contest has been the precursor to.”
This provoked an immediate reaction from Labour AM, Joyce Watson who said: “Even by Neil Hamilton’s standards, this use of language is absolutely unforgivable. He should withdraw these remarks, apologise and spend some time thinking about what the word holocaust really means, in particular to Jewish families in Wales.”
Hamilton is no stranger to gaffes and actions that cause embarrassment to his own party of course, as these blogposts show. His latest blunder is not just a misjudgement on his part but offensive to a significant number of people and he should apologise. It shows a complete lack of historical and cultural awareness as well as a reckless disregard for the responsibilities associated with his position.
Oh, and UKIP are hardly free from the sort of infighting currently crippling Labour, some of it focussing on Hamilton himself.
On a secondary note Hamilton also illustrated once more his party's ineptitude by suggesting that the £150m a year needed to fund a Commonwealth Games bid could be found "if the Welsh Government scrapped the funding of wind turbines in the Welsh countryside."
Nice try, but any subsidy for alternative power generation comes from the UK Government, not the Welsh Assembly budget.
Comments:
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Oh, please .................. if it offends don't listen. We live in a free country, he has a right, a legal right, to say what he wants (subject to inciting violence and so on).
Hamilton is one of the few speakers worth listening to. Most of the rest just make you want to turn the broadcast off and do something else. As for his comments about middle aged men and models, priceless!
karen
Hamilton is one of the few speakers worth listening to. Most of the rest just make you want to turn the broadcast off and do something else. As for his comments about middle aged men and models, priceless!
karen
# posted by 
: 9:16 AM
: 9:16 AM
It would be interesting to hear what the voters say about his comments, that will test the level of his and UKIPs support.
Sorry for the delay.
Hamilton was asking the First Minister a question on trade in Europe (well after FMQ's). He poo poo'd the Plaid Cymru idea of using either the Norwegian or Canadian models for trade arrangements and instead said that in his experience middle aged men and models don't mix very well and certainly not for the long term.
It was all very amusing!
karen
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Hamilton was asking the First Minister a question on trade in Europe (well after FMQ's). He poo poo'd the Plaid Cymru idea of using either the Norwegian or Canadian models for trade arrangements and instead said that in his experience middle aged men and models don't mix very well and certainly not for the long term.
It was all very amusing!
karen
# posted by : 7:20 PM
: 7:20 PM<< Home
