Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Farage tries to emulate Trump, falls flat on his face
Nigel Farage's tweet yesterday, about the terrible events in Berlin was straight out of the Trump playbook. He posted: 'Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.'
Even if scapegoating an entire group of people from one incident was legitimate, the problem is that the assumptions behind that tweet were completely erroneous. Firstly, he assumed that the asylum seeker who had been arrested was the perpetrator. That proved to be incorrect and the person concerned was released without charge.
Secondly, it is clear that the German police do not know who carried out this crime. They certainly cannot say if it was a migrant as Farage claims. In fact a non-German was involved. The Polish truck driver was murdered so that his vehicle could be hijacked.
The vast majority of migrants are law-abiding honest citizens who want to pursue a normal life. It is entirely possible that the perpetrators of this outrage were German citizens in which case Farage will end up with egg on his face, again.
But even it the guilty party does turn out to be a migrant or an asylum seeker, that does not excuse a crass tweet which incorrectly smeared tens of thousands of people.
By the time the truth is established, it will be too late. Farage will once more have used a tragic event for his own political purposes and got away with it.
That is why I am rooting for Hope not Hate who, according to the Guardian, are taking legal advice over remarks made by Trump's number one fan on LBC.
The paper says that Farage suggested on the radio that Jo Cox's widower, Brendan “would know more about extremists than me” because of his connections to Hope Not Hate, a campaigning charity that seeks to combat political militancy, especially from far-right groups.
Farage, who has previously accused Hope Not Hate of disrupting his public events, said the group pursued “violent and undemocratic means”:
Hope Not Hate dismissed Farage’s description of the group, saying it was “a well-respected, civil society organisation whose more than 200,000 supporters come from all political persuasions”.
A statement said: “That Nigel Farage made his remarks in the context of a discussion about Jo Cox, who was so brutally murdered earlier this year, makes them all the more poisonous and hateful.”
The organisation posted an appeal on its website for supporters to help pay for any legal case. “Help us take Nigel Farage to court,” it said, with a link to a donation button.
I hope the dreadful man gets his comeuppance.
Even if scapegoating an entire group of people from one incident was legitimate, the problem is that the assumptions behind that tweet were completely erroneous. Firstly, he assumed that the asylum seeker who had been arrested was the perpetrator. That proved to be incorrect and the person concerned was released without charge.
Secondly, it is clear that the German police do not know who carried out this crime. They certainly cannot say if it was a migrant as Farage claims. In fact a non-German was involved. The Polish truck driver was murdered so that his vehicle could be hijacked.
The vast majority of migrants are law-abiding honest citizens who want to pursue a normal life. It is entirely possible that the perpetrators of this outrage were German citizens in which case Farage will end up with egg on his face, again.
But even it the guilty party does turn out to be a migrant or an asylum seeker, that does not excuse a crass tweet which incorrectly smeared tens of thousands of people.
By the time the truth is established, it will be too late. Farage will once more have used a tragic event for his own political purposes and got away with it.
That is why I am rooting for Hope not Hate who, according to the Guardian, are taking legal advice over remarks made by Trump's number one fan on LBC.
The paper says that Farage suggested on the radio that Jo Cox's widower, Brendan “would know more about extremists than me” because of his connections to Hope Not Hate, a campaigning charity that seeks to combat political militancy, especially from far-right groups.
Farage, who has previously accused Hope Not Hate of disrupting his public events, said the group pursued “violent and undemocratic means”:
Hope Not Hate dismissed Farage’s description of the group, saying it was “a well-respected, civil society organisation whose more than 200,000 supporters come from all political persuasions”.
A statement said: “That Nigel Farage made his remarks in the context of a discussion about Jo Cox, who was so brutally murdered earlier this year, makes them all the more poisonous and hateful.”
The organisation posted an appeal on its website for supporters to help pay for any legal case. “Help us take Nigel Farage to court,” it said, with a link to a donation button.
I hope the dreadful man gets his comeuppance.
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