Are the three main parties being driven mad by panic? I ask this because an organisation that draws its support from the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems will tomorrow condemn Ukip as racist.
The all-party Migration Matters Trust is launching a campaign backed by posters and social media. Its intervention comes days after the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt unwisely condemned Ukip as an unpatriotic and divisive party that attracts racists.
There is no mystery about what is happening. The major parties are rattled by Ukip's strong performance in opinion polls — which show it either ahead of the field, or neck-and-neck with Labour for the European elections, which are only three weeks away.
The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party Nigel Farage is seen at the Britannia Pub in Dudley
Understandable though it may be, I can think of no strategy more likely to backfire against the mainstream parties, and to boost Ukip's prospects. It suggests they have learnt nothing from the Ukip phenomenon.
Offensive
I accept, of course, that the party harbours a few racists. In the past week, a Ukip functionary has been suspended after tweeting criticisms of Nigerians and Islam, and a candidate has suggested that the black comedian Lenny Henry 'should emigrate to a black country'. This came after Mr Henry said there should be more people from ethnic minorities on television.
But the offensive comments of a handful of Ukip members do not prove that the party as a whole is racist, or that the policies it is putting before the British people could be reasonably so described.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616445/STEPHEN-GLOVER-Im-no-Farage-fan-But-calling-thinking-voting-Ukip-racist-dangerous-folly.html#ixzz30KrvTpYb
