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
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
12 Responses to “UKIP on the rise in Wales – how can we fight back?”
jimmy
Traditional LABOUR VOTERS would never ever have considered marginalising any ethnicity they would rather be fighting for change within Europe than out in the cold and they would rather protect the people who depend on them instead of attacking them. immigration isn’t a problem the perception and portrayal of the immigrant is the problem!
Dougal Hare
To be honest, what’s the point of UKIP ? There will be a referendum on EU membership in a few weeks, which will probably result in brexit, which is presumably job done as far as UKIP are concerned. Therefore, what’s the difference between UKIP and the right-wing of the tory party or , given some of their pronouncements, the political wing of the EDL ? This isn’t a rhetorical question and I would welcome hearing a rational and calm exposition of the post-brexit case for UKIP from some of the UKIP supporters posting on this page.