MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
UK Independent party EU election posters considered 'racist'
Immigration to the UK has become a central issue of the May elections campaign United Kingdom's Independent Party, (UKIP), Britain's anti-EU party, launched its campaign for next month's European elections fending off accusations from rival lawmakers that its pre-election posters were racist.
With polls showing the UKIP will come second ahead of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in the May 22 election but behind the opposition Labour Party, UKIP hopes to attract enough extra votes to win the ballot outright.
UKIP wants Britain to leave the EU and an end to “open door” immigration, particularly from inside the 28-nation bloc. Polls show immigration to be one of voters' top three concerns and PM Cameron is under pressure to make good on his promise to cut net migration to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.
Launching its campaign in the northern English city of Sheffield, UKIP released a series of posters urging voters to “take back control of our country” by electing UKIP candidates.
One poster featured a picture of a finger pointing to anyone reading it, saying “26 million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they after?”. Another showed a picture of a man dressed as a construction worker begging on the street, saying: “EU policy at work. British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour”.
Mike Gapes, a Labour lawmaker, said the posters were “racist”, while Nicholas Soames, a Conservative lawmaker and the grandson of Winston Churchill, condemned them as “deeply divisive, offensive and ignorant.”
“This UKIP campaign is a racist, xenophobic campaign designed to win votes by whipping up animosity against foreigners living and working and contributing to this country,” Gapes wrote on his web site.
The party's leader, Nigel Farage, who is married to a German citizen, rejected the accusations, saying the posters were aimed at highlighting the fact that an influx of cheap foreign labour had driven down wages and increased youth unemployment.
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Read all commentsA country with finite resources can only supply a reasonable standard of living to a limited number of people, that's logic. Are the borders monitored properly? No. Are visa violations investigated properly? No. The UK has a problem with immigration, everyone knows and can see that, unless you're an MP living in a secluded village somewhere, giving opinions on things you won't experience and can't understand.
Apr 23rd, 2014 - 06:45 am 0I fail to see how this poster is racist exactly, most people from the EU would be classed as the same “race” as people in the UK, despite some claiming that the British are not a race at all... so as British Asians might struggle to find work because of unrestricted immigration, and when the Afro and Afro-Carribean communites of the UK suffer some of the highest unemployment levels of any group, I would suggest that restricting immigration would help those groups as competition for free positions reduces.
So, as this poster is basically calling to protect all with a UK passport, and doesn't specify a “race” it either wants to protect or reject, I ask again: how is it racist?
1 Boovis
Apr 23rd, 2014 - 07:51 am 0the simple answer is “It isn't” All those idiots like camer-moron and his little b*tch Nick Clegg can see their re-election hopes fading away so they are desperate, DESPERATE to make something stick.
Rather than actually listen to what the people want, successive governments have lead this country down the road to ruin. Now that Nigel Farage is talking common sense, they hate it and they want rid of him. I am hoping, I am really hoping that the “Earthquake in Westminster” is nearly upon us and that we can consign the Conservatives and Labour to the scrap heap, where they rightfully belong
I'm not sure I know enough about immigration to offer a useful opinion.
Apr 23rd, 2014 - 08:58 am 0What is UKIP against? British membership of the EU. Yes I'um with them on that.
Are they against immigration? If they are then that would just be silly and it would be racist.
Are they against uncontrolled, open border immigration? If this is the case it is just common sense.
No country can afford uncontrolled, open door immigration. Least of all a welfare state.
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