Doris Karloff and Claire Foster

Newsnight last night reported the slide towards the Brexit Party with a slew of Tories from the right declaring they either wouldn’t vote or would vote for Farage’s new outfit with the veteran Michael Heseltine declaring he wouldn’t vote for them either. So far so grim. The Tories are going to get annihilated and while that’s normally a source of much satisfaction this time it might not be.

The Brexit Party are like a Who’s Who of Ghouls and Swivel-Eyed Loons including Gorgeous George Galloway the candidate in the Peterborough by-election; Claire Fox, Alka Sehgal Cuthbert and James Heartfield on the lists and the charming Stuart Waiton on the Scotland list. Before we get to these lovelies it’s worth looking at Widdecombe.

Her rehabilitation started with the Spectator declaring her:

“Former Tory MP, borderline national treasure, and now Celebrity Big Brother contestant Ann Widdecombe is the common sense feminist icon we should all get on board with…”

Widdecombe, sharp-eyed readers will recall, is the formers Prisons Minister who insisted that women prisoners should be manacled to their hospital beds while giving birth. As a feminist role model she’s probably up there with Meghan Markel.

But as Peter McColl points out: “Anne Widdecombe wasn’t always a ‘national treasure’. She was a mostly anonymous junior minister in the Major government. When the Tories lost power in 1997 she came to prominence by attacking Michael Howard, former Home Secretary and leadership candidate in the race to succeed Major. Attacking Michael Howard isn’t something I’m averse to. His politics are repellent and very different from mine. But that’s not what she attacked Michael Howard for. Instead, she chose to describe Howard, the child of Romanian Jewish refugees, as ‘having something of the night about him’. That is a very thinly veiled attack on his heritage. It directly evokes the blood libel (a set of canards that claimed Jews stole Christian children for use in religious ceremonies).”

Oh well, an antisemite should be right at home at the Brexit Party but what about the multiple-named Claire Fox/Foster?

Here’s some of Claire’s clear thinking…

 

But child porn aside, as Otto English writes: “Claire Fox, revolutionary communist-turned-director of the Academy of Ideas-turned MEP candidate is starting to prove a major headache for the Brexit Party.

Since being placed at the top of their list of North West EU parliamentary candidates, there has been increased scrutiny of her past involvement in the Revolutionary Community Party (RCP) and, in particular, her active defence of IRA terror atrocities over a period of two decades.

Nowhere has this been more intense than in the town of Warrington.

It was there in 1993 that an attack by terrorists killed toddler Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry, 12, who passed away in his father Colin’s arms five days later. Despite almost universal condemnation of the murders at the time, Fox’s RCP defended the IRA attack. In a statement insensitively put out the day after Tim’s funeral, the RCP argued that nationalists had a right “to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom”.

Yikes.

Otto English continues:

“As if all of this was not bad enough, it now transpires that there is another former RCP candidate standing for the Brexit Party – this time in London. Spiked contributor Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is seeking to represent the party in a city that saw multiple bomb attacks and many dozens killed and injured over three decades of hostilities. All of which were defended by the RCP. In an even more bizarre twist, Sehgal Cuthbert is standing on a party list that includes Aileen Quinton whose mother was murdered, along with 11 others, by the IRA in the Enniskillen attack in 1987.”

But wait a minute, back to Claire Foster-Fox. This isn’t the first time she’s stood for election. She stood for election way back in 1986 for the RCP when she was er, a revolutionary, honest guv.

But back then she stood on the name of Claire Foster. Now she’s Claire Fox. So at some point she must have been standing illegally. Was it then or now? As a libertarian I demand the right to know.

Oh well, readers huffing and puffing, this has nothing to do with Scotland, right?

Except for Tiffany Jenkins and Stuart Waiton. 

One of the Brexit Party candidates in Scotland is Dundee’s finest Stuart Waiton who started getting involved with the LM/Spiked network in around 2000.  Of course one of the casualties of the Brighton bomb was Lady Muriel McLean whose husband (Sir Donald McLean) was Scottish Tory President and Chairman so  it would be great if someone would ask him his views on all this? Does he share his comrade , sorry colleague Claire Fox-Foster’s view?

Stuart’s a regular in the Scottish media – [here he is “Being Reasonable” about smacking children ] but flying below radar and almost always ignored is who Jenny Turner called “the kittenish, aubergine-haired Tiffany Jenkins”.

She was a regular contributor at Spiked(!) for a decade (including this lovely piece about art and oil) and is listed as the Director of the Academy of Ideas.

You might be thinking “Oh who cares if a clandestine network of Koch-funded far-right libertarians have infiltrated the media and politics and are standing with some of the most repugnant reactionary people in British politics”.

Fair enough, but here’s another example of one of their bizarre front-groups. This time covered by the Hackney Gazette it features a story about one of their “charities” WORLDWrite.

Worth reading.

Anyway, shackle me up for some rebel tunes Doris.

 

 

* Correction. We stated that George Galloway was the candidate in the Peterborough by-election. In fact George Galloway withdrew as a candidate in the Peterborough election, see here:

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/politics/peterborough-by-election-george-galloway-withdraws-from-contest-after-missing-out-on-brexit-party-nomination-1-8920318

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  1. Monty says:

    fantastic piece. just when you thought British politics could not get more strange the RCP joins forces with Farage and chances are that Fox/Foster will get elected. Big question is who is using who Farage or the RCP. Glad that Waiton and Jenkins get a mention though not sure if Jenkins is still a true believer. Now these people managed to worm their way into the heart of the British media and now the Brexit party is one of the great mysteries. Fox saying she is of the left and having this parroted by Farage is the worst moment in British politics I can remember. Thanks for the Hackney link which is both hilarious and disturbing

  2. Ann Rayner says:

    Interesting reading and, it just came to me as I was reading this: Tiffany Jenkins is married to Iain Macwhirter.

      1. Graeme Purves says:

        Well I never!

      2. Jo says:

        EEK! Nooooooo! That’s bizarre.

  3. Welsh Sion says:

    The issue of ‘criminalising’ parents who smack their children is a matter currently under discussion in the Welsh Senedd. (See Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill”). The Welsh Government has garnered all-Party support for this measure, although there are dissenting voices amongst the public. Much of these voices are focussed on “Be Reasonable Wales”, among whose supporters you in Scotland you will see a familiar name:

    https://www.bereasonable.wales/supporters/

    The other oddballs mentioned in Bella’s article feature as decidedly unsavoury characters. If this is what Farage means by no longer being Mr Nice Guy, I shudder to think what will happen post the Euro Elections.

    1. Welsh Sion says:

      More research available by digging further into LinkedIn and the relationship between Ceri Dingle, Stuart Waiton and WORLDwrite.

      https://www.linkedin.com/company/worldwrite/

      https://www.linkedin.com/in/worldwrite/

  4. florian albert says:

    Mike Small wrote an article about the abuse he has to endure online. I sympathized with him and was glad when he wrote that he intended to persevere with Bella Caledonia.
    Now, he has an article about ‘Doris Karloff’, an insulting reference to Anne Widdecombe. Is he unaware that this is a reference to her physical appearance and that the actor Boris Karloff was best known for playing Frankenstein’s monster ?
    Anne Widdecombe is, of course, a legitimate target for criticism but, if you object to personalized criticism, it is better not to involve yourself in it.

    1. indyman says:

      I thought the comparison was a flattering one.

    2. I admit I did know that it was a reference to Boris Karloff and plainly indulged in a bit of headline pun-making. I suppose I was thinking that the joke made reference to her macabre and grisly social olicies and attitudes rather than her appearance, for which I am not the slightest interest.

      1. Millsy says:

        I’m surprised Karloff hasn’t complained !

  5. Derek Henry says:

    Yet, No matter how many times you are asked Mike. You still can’t explain how 3% government deficits and 60% debt to GDP ratio’s are going to create the Scotland you want ?

    Independent Trade deals with the EU should not include allowing the EU to tell us what we can or cannot spend or dicate to us about competition and free markets.

    Eurozone Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale

    http://wer.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/WEA-WER-7-Mitchell.pdf

    1. Gashty McGonnard says:

      It’s quite possible to be in the EU (and/or the SM, CU, EFTA, EEA, schengen, etc, etc… pick your own smorgasbord) without joining the Eurozone with its fiscal constraints, though.

      1. Derek Henry says:

        No it is not it is a pipe dream

        Plus the snp want single market and customs union. You have to understand what that actually means. In reality.

        You have been told lies.

  6. Derek Henry says:

    For example outside the EU we can cancel PFI contract that are currently closing A&E departments at hospitals. And they can be cancelled without compensation if parliament chooses – as they should because they are a rip off.

    Similarly outside the EU we can nationalise the Railways and other institutions – again at a compensation level set by the Scottish parliament not the ‘market’ as required by EU law.

    And most importantly of course we would be outside article 123 of the EU treaty which prevents access of a government to a simple overdraft at a central bank. So we could end the corporate welfare of government bonds paying risk-less income to the wealthy. Stop issuing debt all together.

    More importantly, the ability of currency-issuing governments to finance deficits. It is prohibited by article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty to which an indy Scotland will be a signatory if the SNP get their way. By which the Scottish Treasury account (the Consolidated Fund) has to be kept in balance from the Government Loan Account which is itself will be funded by the sale of Treasury Securities by the new Scottish central bank – It’s madness !

    What I find entertaining is that those on the left love everything about the EU except the treaty, the commission and how it is run. It’s not perfect but we can fix it they say it is hilarious !

    With independence Scotland has a real chance for the first time in Centuries to create its own path. Change the central bank and commerical banks to suit public purpose. For the life of me I will never understand why once we’ve taken it we would ever want to hand it all over to Brussels.

    At the Scottish MMT conference’s in both Edinburgh and Glasgow there was a full discussion around what size of government deficits would be needed for an Indy Scotland to create a green new deal, create the public services needed that we all want and how to make businesses competitive and attract investment and get full employment with decent wages and improve productivity using the actual economic data. The answers from world leading economists was that the Scottish government would need to run budget deficits between 10- 12%

    It’s incredible that so many people think we can get the Scotland we all want with government deficits in the growth comission and the EU rules under 3%. The 6 pack, the 2 pack the excessive debt proceedure, the corretive arm of the EU.

    The difference is that out of the EU we can change the latter at the ballot box. We can never change the former. For democracy to work it has to be close to the people. A bunch of unelected bureaucrats and the EU rubber stamping the Scottish parliament is not democratic and never will be.

    The whole love affair with the EU on the left started in the Thatcher era. And there are still people who think it is somehow a brake on neoliberalism. A very anti-democratic brake. Quite how they see that in the 21st century after the total devastation handed out to the Eurozone I don’t know. It’s almost like what happened to Greece and what is happening in Italy and France is filtered out of the thought process.

    But ultimately it is supported by people who actually believe they can never win the argument in the UK in a democratic manner and want to stop the democratic will of the people being implemented. Hence their love of European Plantocracy as an alternative to being ignored.

    1. Wul says:

      Derek,

      Hijacking an article’s “comments” thread to push a totally unrelated topic, which is your own personal hobby-horse, is a step into “troll” like behaviour.

      Honestly, it’s not going to do you or your case any favours.

      I used to read what you wrote on here but now, when I see your name, I just ignore you and skip down to the next person’s comments. I’ve still no idea what your point is, unless its simply “an independent Scotland is uniquely impossible, blah, blah”. Your tactic is not working. Best to change it if you want an audience.

  7. Jo says:

    Widdecombe has many callous statements to make about WASPI women like me, born in the fifties, who have lost out on NI pensions at 60 even after working for more than 40 years. Can’t stand her.

    Btw Mike, what’s Meghan Markle done to upset you?

    1. Nothing, she seems fine.

      My objection is for people who are in the royal family, which is a feudal relic institution, being presented as feminist icons or progressive figures. You cant be a progressive figure if you live in a palace.

      1. Jo says:

        But…but…she lives in a “cottage”. : )

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