UKIP MS NEIL HAMILTON HAS LAUDED THE EFFORTS OF EMERGING FAR-RIGHT THREAT VOICE OF WALES, HEADED BY SWANSEA-BASED EX-DFLA ACTIVIST DAN MORGAN.
THEIR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP THREATENS “WAR” AGAINST WHAT THEY CALL “INVADERS” AND CIRCULATE BIZARRE CONSPIRACY THEORIES, ALL OF WHICH GOES UNCHALLENGED BY MODERATORS.
HAMILTON HAS A CONTROVERSIAL PAST OF PROMOTING ENOCH POWELL AND SIDING WITH PRO-APARTHEID ACTIVISTS.
By Mark S Redfern @genericredfern. Hamilton being interviewed by Voice of Wales leader Dan Morgan
UKIP MS Neil Hamilton has history of linking up with far right and racist characters and promoting their causes.
But one group in particular he has been promoting recently is Voice of Wales (VoW), an organisation which has links to far right and fascist figures across Britain, and recently tried to capitalise on opposition to a refugee camp in Penally, Pembrokeshire.
voice.wales has looked in detail at the group, even going undercover on online forums, and the findings are shocking.
VoW, a recent rebrand of the virulent Leavers of Swansea group, has been a key force in trying to drive up racist hatred of refugees in Penally. At a demonstration led by the group outside the army base, a woman who spoke to voice.wales was told: “Do you want your kids to be raped? That’s what they [refugees] do in their country:”
Neil Hamilton is a keen supporter of the group, never once condemning the racism associated with it. He was even recently interviewed by Dan Morgan, one of the leaders of VoW, and has praised them as “patriots” as well as having incorporated the group’s footage in UKIP propaganda on their social media channels.
Hamilton wrote on Twitter following the interview: “Fantastic talking to Dan and [Voice of Wales] in front of City Hall today. We need more patriots to get involved and start standing up on behalf of the silent majority against the #BlackLivesMatter hysteria.”
While Hamilton promotes VoW, the group’s Twitter account parrots white supremacist talking points about the depletion of the white race in Britain: “More Diversity = Less White people. Wake up UK, it’s your children who will pay the price!”
The VoW Facebook group is closed to the public, but we gained access to the forum and can reveal the cesspit of racism that lies within, deeming the incoming migrants as enemy combatants.
Calls to violence go unchallenged from users, as one posts on the forum: “How do I join? And other UK people, we need you and all to join as ONE its WAR.”
Another posts: “Time to stand… at this time we will probably lose our country in a people’s war so make your mind up soon”.
Some of the posts are openly racist yet go unchallenged and even gain positive reactions: “Send the smelly bastards back they only here for the benefits where’s the women and children there ain’t none just full of terrorists”, read one.
Users also share around Islamophic conspiracy theories on a thread about the refugee camp: “Islamic soldiers waiting for the call to cause mayhem around europe”.
Dan Morgan, leader of VoW, is also direct about what he thinks of the refugees arriving in Penally: “It’s an invasion, plain and simple. ISIS have said they are sneaking people in. We reap what we sow.”
Morgan also comments on a user talking hypothetically about an increase in crime due to migrants in the private group: “and not petty crime like theft, we’re talking, rape, pedophilia, torture and murder.”
Dan Morgan, as well as being forthright about his beliefs on the group’s private Facebook group, is also an ex-activist with the Democratic Football Lads Alliance, a far-right street protest movement which styled itself on the Tommy Robinson-fronted English Defence League. Pictures at these group’s events have often shown crowds performing the Nazi salute.
Morgan has also helped organise demonstrations in Swansea with For Britain, headed up by Anne Marie Waters who is famous for telling an undercover reporter that she thought the EU was secretly trying to turn Europe into an Islamic state.
Stan Robinson, another leading figure, was recently outed for his sick social media posts about castrating a journalist during an election bid for Swansea Council, as well claiming Pakistan imports “90% child groomers” in the UK.
Neil Hamilton has tried to ingratiate himself with the group by retweeting their sensationalist videos of protests outside the Army barracks housing the mainly Iraqi and Iranian refugees, helping their harmful messages spread even further.
The UKIP MS follows VoW’s principal leaders on Twitter.
Hamilton clearly sees VoW as an important vehicle for his re-election campaign to The Senedd in 2021, while the group considers him a key platform for their agenda in the national parliament. It is a two way relationship and both need each other.
As the Brexit cause fades in popularity amongst his supporters, Hamilton has decided to get in bed with the extreme fringes of the far right to bolster his lagging voter base ahead of the 2021 Senedd elections.
Anti-fascist organisation FarRightWatchWales, who have monitored the group, told us that VoW was “operated by people who openly support far right organisations like the For Britain movement.”
“People who only 2 weeks before they made a video with Neil Hamilton were making a sick Islamophobic video in Swansea with For Britain movement leader Anne Marie Waters and former BNP organiser Eddy Butler. People who operate a Facebook group where members have posted comments calling for the asylum seekers at Penally to be shot and gassed.”
Now VoW and fellow activists hang outside the camp and harass those inside, but despite some initial success in getting a few locals behind them, they have been reduced to a small core thanks to anti-racist activity in the area. At the same time, many locals have been organising day trips with the refugees, as well as bringing them food and supplies.
