Nigel Farage's party may win up to 10 seats in the Welsh Assembly
HOPE not hate launched its Welsh Assembly campaign against UKIP last week.
We began with a hard-hitting ad van that toured the South Wales valleys and by the end of the week 125 volunteers had hit the nation’s streets, organising leafleting actions, flash mobs and voter registration drives across the country.
Polls suggest UKIP will win up to 10 seats in in the Welsh Assembly next month, taking advantage of the regional vote system.
Candidates angling for seats include the disgraced former ‘cash-for-questions’ Tory politician Neil Hamilton (who suggested he might buy a mobile home in Wales if he wins); ex-Right-wing Tory Mark Reckless (standing in a region where Thatcherism is despised); and Gareth Bennett, who remains top of the UKIP list for South Wales Central, despite a bizarre attack on Cardiff’s ethnic minorities in March, blaming them for rubbish on the streets.
The General Election last year saw UKIP billboards begin to spring up for the first time in Wales.
The party’s tactics were divisive. The Swansea candidate published a leaflet with the words: ‘Islamic terror, abuse of our children, the consequences of multiculturalism…UKIP candidate condemns diversity.’
Their candidate in Merthyr Tydfil was caught on camera telling Welsh shoppers that the Polish shop down the road would not serve them. Both have been re-selected as candidates this year.
Voters get two votes in the Welsh Assembly: the first is for a constituency candidate; the second is for a party, held under proportional representation (PR).
It is the second vote that will benefit UKIP, and it is the candidates above who are hoping to take advantage of PR. Because of PR, we know we can’t prevent UKIP getting people elected to the Welsh Assembly.
What we can do, though, is to make it as hard as possible for them to do so: by educating and mobilising communities to understand the divisive truth behind UKIP’s message.
Over the next four weeks we will be out campaigning in every corner of the fantastic Welsh nation, distributing over 500,000 leaflets and postcards. Many more people will be engaged through social media.
We will do what we can to limit the success of UKIP in Wales, and we will continue after this campaign to challenge the party’s divisive message.
Tom Godwin is Welsh organiser for HOPE not hate @HNHWales
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
12 Responses to “UKIP on the rise in Wales – how can we fight back?”
NHSGP
Stop using rhetoric of violence and hate
Maggie Chapman
Heres a novel thought.Let people vote for who they want to vote for.You wouldnt like it if someone dictated to you who you should or shouldnt elect.Live and let live
Hope not brains
Here’s a novel idea. Why don’t you let people vote for who the bloody hell they like? This IS a democratic society after all. People have the right to make their own damn mind up. What right have you got to tell people how they should vote? That is fascism
Jimmy Glesga
There are probably some hard left nutters who want a dictatorship opposed to UKIP. And raising the matter of islamic terror is a relevant issue as we have islamic terrorists in Britain.
Alexsandr
Labour are on the wrong side on the EU and on immigration. expect a bad time on May 5. People do see immigration, and the rise of islam, as a problem and failing to address this makes Labour unfit to govern. Not really looking after the traditional labour working voters either.