UKIP plumbs the depths with lies, innuendo and deceit.

Politics is a dirty game at times but respectable political activists in Britain rarely sink this low. What the above shows is a large group of UKIP supporters posing in front of a campaign poster of such offensiveness and duplicity that it takes the breath away. Some of them may be stupid. OK, they could be in the right Party. But others, perhaps including the candidate Mr Clarkson (sic) know exactly what they are doing.

The reference in the slogan is to the 1400 victims of child abuse in Rotherham. It was a horrific story and the negligence of the (mostly) Labour council was culpable. But this is not a Council election. It is a vote for a Police Commissioner in South Yorkshire. Labour's candidate, the Reverend Dr Alan Billings, was a parish priest in Sheffield and is currently director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University. He has nothing to do with Rotherham. He is entitled to ask for support and the issue of "trust" relates only to him. His track record is impressive.

There is code in play here. The Rotherham offences were commited by Pakistani heritage gangs. UKIP doesn't like the multi-ethnicity of places like Rotherham. The fact that the vast majority of British Asians are law-abiding gets UKIP no votes. So with barely disguised rhetoric they make a link between Labour and ethnic heritage criminals. "We know what you're thinking" as someone once said. 

Labour wasn't responsible for child abuse in Rotherham - although it's negligence was a contributory factor. The Labour candidate in this election had nothing at all to do with the events. Yet UKIP implicitLy slanders him and tries to make a link which isn't there. This is what this grubby apology for a political party does. Everyone knows what the bigots of UKIP are against. But what are they for? It certainly isn't truth or decency ...