The "star" of the Home Office's grotesque immigration propaganda video is failed UKIPper Steven Woolfe, who nearly succeeded Farage as UKIP leader, until he was in a punch up in Strasbourg with a fellow kipper. He's also featured in #TuftonStreet's abysmal 'New Culture Forum'. 😬
Woolfe's English father was mixed race, born to a British Jewish mother & a Black American father, who abandoned Woolfe as a small child.
His first role as an Employed Barrister was acting as General Counsel for a stockbroking firm Merchant Securities Limited.
Woolfe moved to the Union Bank of Switzerland, London office in the legal & compliance department, & then went onto work for several investment banks such as Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital and Standard Bank as well as Aviva.
He spent several years as general counsel for hedge fund managers, then co-founded the Hedge Fund lawyers Association & was its chair for 2010 to 2102. Since 2019 he has also acted as a legal & regulatory consultant to financial institutions.
Woolfe was introduced to UKIP by Lord Pearson of Rannoch & made his debut speech at UKIP's 2010 annual conference. In 2010, Nigel Farage declared his intention to stand in the UKIP leadership, he appointed Woolfe, who was not a member of UKIP, to his team of senior spokespeople.
Woolfe stood as a UKIP candidate for the City & East for the Greater London Authority in May 2012.
In November 2012, Woolfe won UKIP's nomination to contest the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Woolfe's campaign message was one of being tough on crime.
Woolfe was selected as number 3 on UKIP's regional party list in the 2014 European Parliament election in North West England. He was one of three candidates from the party to be elected as MEP in the region.
In 2014 Woolfe became Spokesman for & shaped UKIP migration policy, then from July 2014 until May 2015, Woolfe's was responsible for macro policy & taxation % City of London spokesman. Predictably, he advocated a simplified & lower tax regime for all.
On 4 September 2014, Woolfe was chosen as UKIP's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stockport. Woolfe came third at the 2015 general election with 13% of the vote.
In July 2016, Woolfe launched his bid to become leader of UKIP following the resignation of Nigel Farage.
In 2017, Woolfe produced a report for Brextremists Leave Means Leave, detailing a visa system they wanted the Govt to implement post-Brexit, with the aim of bringing net immigration down to 50,000 people. He claimed large-scale immigration caused wage depression & job shortages.
Woolfe gained the support of the leaders of UKIP in Wales, Scotland & London. His running-mate was Welsh UKIP leader Nathan Gill, who during the #GE2015 campaign, denied human involvement in climate change. He resigned from UKIP & was briefly Leader of Reform UK Wales in 2021.
Woolfe promised to 'ruthlessly' go after Labour seats in Northern England & the Midlands, claiming UKIP had "won the argument" for managed immigration.
But on 31 July 2016, he was blocked by the party's National Executive Committee because his application was 17 minutes late.
On 5 October 2016, Woolfe was reported saying he was considering joining the @Conservatives Party - but didn't.
On 6th October, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Woolfe was in a fight with fellow UKIP MEP Mike Hookem, which ended up with Woolfe in hospital.
Hookem told the @BBC that Woolfe objected to comments he had made & asked him to "take it outside of the room... 'mano a mano'."
Hookem claims he forced to defend himself after his fellow MEP Woolfe "came at me".
Sources reported that Mr Woolfe was punched in the face.
After only 2 years as a UKIP MEP, Woolfe resigned & spent 3 years as an Independent & never joined a political party after that.
Woolfe became the director of legal affairs & main (only?) shareholder of the 'think tank' The Centre For Migration & Economic Prosperity in 2019.
He is also the editor & head of communications of 'Libertatio' - a "platform that promotes writers, campaigners & freethinkers who challenge elites & champion liberty" - which sounds suspiciously like a platform for right-libertarian "freethinkers" & assorted right-wing cranks.
And now Woolfe has popped up as the star turn in the Govt's grotesque "How the Government plans to stop the small boats" #propaganda video, as spokesman for The Centre For Migration & Economic Prosperity, a 'think tank' which appears to comprise just 3 people, including Woolfe.
Details are thin on the ground, but according to Companies House, Woolfe is the only person associated with the Private Limited Company, the accounts are overdue, & there is an "Active proposal to strike off" the company.
The companies website says "CMEP believes that immigration if managed & controlled by governments who think about their people, nation first can develop policies that listen and are accepted by the community."
Imho, a proof-reader would be a sensible investment for Mr Woolfe.
The website claim that "This in turn will reduce the negative language & concerns that uncontrolled migration brings & will lead to a beneficial system where immigration is no longer seen as major burden or concern."
"REDUCE THE NEGATIVE LANGUAGE"!
Whose language is that then?
Website 'commentary' articles by Woolfe includes "13 ways to stop the channel migrant crisis", which states "If the boat doesn’t get you there People Traffickers Holidays will call the RNLI emergency lines who will collect you for free. It’s cheaper than Uber & more reliable." 😬
The 'Centre For Migration & Economic Prosperity' @Twitter account has gained just 197 followers since it launched in June 2020, & follows #TuftonStreet's 'Migration Watch' (led by Lord Green of Deddington,& Chaired by Alp Mehmet), & the extremely dodgy "Active Patriot" account.🙋♂️
Within hours of the grotesque Home Office #propaganda video launching, Home Office officials altered a @Twitter post about the illegal migration bill to remove an image of the newsreader Huw Edwards after complaints from the @BBC.
The Govt #propaganda video still features @thehuwedwards at the start, in a @BBCNews clip, followed by another news reader from @channel5_tv. Given the recent furore over Gary Lineker & Govt pressure on the @BBC, this signals the Tories are out of control.
"Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government."
John Prescott has died.
In September 2000, John - then Deputy Prime Minister - gave a speech at the @UKLabour Party Conference, introducing Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela died in December 2013. Writing a tribute in the Daily Mirror, John reflected on his death, writing: “In my office at home I have a picture that is my most treasured possession. It’s of me shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand on stage at the @UKLabour conference in 2000."
At the Rivonia Trial, between 1963 & 1964, Mandela gave a dramatic speech from the dock.
John wrote in 2013 “When I read that, I knew that I wanted to enter politics. He was my inspiration. So when he walked free in 1990, we felt as if one of our own comrades had been freed.”
🧵
Allison Pearson posted then deleted disinformation, falsely accused three people of being "Jew haters", lied about where the photo was taken & what they were doing, then lied about what the Police said to her - and then moaned about being a victim! FFS
The Telegraph's divisive shit-stirrer Pearson falsely claimed she was told by the police who came to her home it was over a “non-crime hate incident”. Her lie was then dutifully amplified by every Reform UK MP & billionaire-owned right-wing "news" media, painting her as a victim.
Essex Police said “At no stage... was she informed that the report being investigated was being treated as a non-crime hate incident. To suggest otherwise is wholly inaccurate and misleading.”
Pearson, Farage, Musk, Young, Habib, & many other shit-stirrers who shamelessly try to normalize hateful, divisive, provocative & inflammatory rhetoric, often refer to George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is much closer to the dystopia we inhabit...
Harassment, malicious communications, incitement, & threatening violence are all crimes in the UK, & have been for a long time.
Print & broadcast media, & online social media are simply platforms on which we behave or misbehave: it's not about the medium, it's about the offence.
The UK is signed up to Article 10 of the #ECHR: everyone has the right to free speech, which may only be qualified in limited circumstances, including: national security; public safety; the protection of morals & of the reputation or rights of others.
"Enoch Powell was a hero of the young Nigel, but at this point he could do without any association with the politician who made the notorious Rivers of Blood speech... the accusation of racism follows Farage & his party around like a bad smell." - Allison Pearson
"Farage has tried for years to shrug off the charge that his parties are more than “the BNP in blazers”... although I don’t think Farage is a racist, it’s a problem that racists attach themselves to Reform." - Allison Pearson
“We’re investigating a report which was passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.” - Essex police spokesman
Not a lot of people know that Oxbridge alumni Fiona Bruce, presenter of 'Fake or (paid a) Fortune?', and since January 2019, the @BBC's interrupting Chair of #bbcqt, was born in Singapore.
One of her first episodes as Chair was the one that made Laurence Fox a household name.
In my widely read & reported February 2023 Open Letter to the @BBC about @bbcquestiontime, one of my concerns was about Bruce’s chairing of #bbcqt which I said was "at best, unacceptably poor."
The Mail reported the violence ahead of the match against Ajax, reporting 'Israeli football hooligans tore down Palestine flags as they marched through Amsterdam. Videos show hooded figures dressed fully in black cheering & chanting 'fuck you Palestine'.'
On 7/11 the Mail said 'Israeli thugs shouted 'ole' as one climbed the front of a building & removed a Palestinian flag. Footage also shows a thug thumping a taxi with crowbar before the driver takes off, while there were reported clashes between the visiting hooligans & cabbies.'