22 April 2014 - Ukip's racist posters under fire
Nigel Farage defends Ukip's election campaign after critics call ads racist
Andrew Sparrow (The Guardian)
Nigel Farage has defended a new immigration-centred Ukip poster campaign as "a hard-hitting reflection of reality" after it was attacked as racist by political opponents.
Farage's anti-EU party is using £1.5m of funding from Paul Sykes, a multi-millionaire former Conservative donor, to launch its biggest ever publicity drive before the 22 May European parliamentary elections.
The ads, to be launched by Farage today and displayed at hundreds of sites across the country, will claim that "British workers are hit hard by unlimited foreign labour" and that 26 million unemployed people across Europe are "after" UK jobs.
They were revealed as Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called on pro-Europeans to unite against the "anti-Europe establishment" led by Farage.
Read on...
______________________________
A new BNP?
Oliver Wright (The Independent)
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has defended his party's controversial election campaign ahead of the May European elections, after its posters were called "racist".
The party’s economic spokesman, Steven Woolfe, announced the campaign on Twitter on Sunday, and said the giant posters would be “coming to you soon”.
One billboard depicts a man dressed as a builder begging for spare change next to the words: “EU policy at work. British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour.”
Another poster reads: “26 million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they after?” alongside a giant hand pointing at the viewer.
Read on...
____________________________
Ukip on the rise
Alison Little (The Express)
Membership has now passed 36,000 – only around 8,000 behind Nick Clegg’s party.
As it prepares today to launch the campaign to win next month’s European Parliament elections, Nigel Farage’s anti-Brussels party also revealed £1.5million of funding from former Tory backer Paul Sykes.
The Yorkshire businessman’s cash will pay for a hard-hitting advertising campaign, including billboards that provoked accusations of racism when they were unveiled yesterday.
Following their bruising encounters during the two live debates, Mr Farage will taunt europhile Mr Clegg yet more as he launches the campaign in Sheffield where the Deputy PM is MP.
The Ukip leader is expected to highlight a poster showing a Union Flag with its centre burned out to reveal the EU flag behind, the claim that 75 per cent of UK laws are made in Brussels and the question: “Who Really Runs This Country?”
Read on...
______________________________
Context
Cole Moreton (The Telegraph)
Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic churchman today condemns politicians for deploying “alarmist” language in the debate over immigration.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales spoke out against the use of arguments which stoke up “distress” about foreigners coming to the UK.
His comments, in an interview with The Telegraph, come amid a furore over a new £1.5 million advertising campaign by the UK Independence Party which includes billboards suggesting to people that millions of foreigners are after their job.
One poster shows a massive finger pointing at the reader next to the message: “Twenty six million people in Europe are looking for work – and whose job are they after?”
Read on...
Archives
Accédez aux archives de la revue
La Clé anglaise
Accédez à notre portail de ressources
[page;/html/cle/facebook/FacebookCode11.html]
Pour citer cette ressource :
"22 April 2014 - Ukip's racist posters under fire", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), avril 2014. Consulté le 11/10/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/22-april-2014-ukip-s-racist-posters-under-fire