Kilroy shouldn’t be here?

After the revelation by the Guardian that Mike Nattrass, deputy leader of UKIP, has been making some incautious comparisons between Russia and Chechnya on the one hand, and the UK and the EU (see link), today's Sunday Telegraph draws attention to another less than happy situation in UKIP.

It appears that Kilroy-Silk, who achieved considerable publicity after being sacked by the BBC for writing disparaging remarks about Arabs, now employs an assistant who likens the Prophet Mohammed to a paedophile.

The "aide" is none other than Tony Bennett, who himself was hauled before a party disciplinary committee two years ago for writing offensive remarks about Islam in a pamphlet published in 2000. He was banned from holding any UKIP office for two years.

Yet, despite his uncompromising views on Islam, Bennett was given a job a month ago as a political researcher by Mr Kilroy-Silk, having been previously been sacked from his position as an aide to Jeffrey Titford MEP after making disparaging remarks about a colleague.

The full story can be read from the link above. As to the broader issues, it has been known for some time that UKIP was penetrated by a group of fundmentalist Christians, who held extreme anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic views. This group was strongly opposeed to UKIP appointing Moslem candidates to stand in the general elections.

Many of these fundamentalists have since left but, if the climate appears to be shifting closer to their position, UKIP could again find itself dealing with infiltrators who hold views totally at odds with the anti-racist mantra currently espoused by the Party.