Bongo Bongo Land

When making a valid point it's important to remember what century you are in and use the appropriate language. As an example, if a left wing politician had commented "it doesn't appear right that billions are being given away in foreign aid and yet we have millions of people in the UK living in poverty. Having to feed their family with donated food from food banks, going hungry at winter because they were choosing to heat rather than eat" then no doubt many would agree.

But if you are a UKIP politician and you use terms like Bongo Bongo Land then no matter what message you try and put across it's not going to go down very well, apart from with the people who belong in a different era.

Tory Map of the World (Spitting Image)

Back in the 1980s my brothers had the spitting image annual and inside was a "Tory Map of the World", no doubt it was inspired by friend of Thatcher Alan Clarke who once referred to Africa as Bongo Bongo Land. So that also tells us something we already knew, UKIP are not original, they are trying to out Tory the Tories and as we all know that is Labours job.

Alan Clarke (Guardian)

Alan Clarkes comments came just two decades after campaign leaflets for the Conservatives in Smethwick contained the slogan "if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour". Three decades on from the original Bongo Bongo Land comment and they put "racist vans" on the streets of London encouraging those who are there illegally to text the home office number or face arrest. Even UKIP thought that these Tory vans were a step too far with leader Nigel Farrage branding them "nasty and unpleasant".

So what's this got to do with us then? Why mention all this on a Welsh blog? Well last week saw UKIP come third in the Ynys Mon by-election. Only a few hundred votes behind Labour. One of the reasons touted for the landslide victory of Plaid was the local factor. They had elected one of their own, a point that UKIP candidate Nathan Gill appears to miss when he stated.

"They weren't just looking at the assembly elections. They were looking at issues around immigration, issues around people coming here to work."

Nathan Gill came to Wales after selling his family business, no doubt being hired by your dad is what he is referring to when he says he "worked in the real world". He left the Tories because they weren't Tory enough for him and when refering to the EU he brings up trench warfare and D-Day landings.

"I resigned my membership and joined UKIP in February of 2005 deciding then and there, that this was a fight worth fighting.  I was not being asked to stand in the trenches, or storm the beaches of Normandy for my country.  This was to be a long and mainly thankless battle to inform the public, and raise UKIP’s profile as a professional mainstream party."

It will be interesting to see whether UKIP can make the gang of four into a gang of five or whether they will remain one of the fringe parties along with the greens, the socialists and the communists. If they can win votes in Wales in future elections then those voters will not come from those who are pro-Wales they will come from those who are anti-Wales. Who knows, maybe some seats that are traditionally Red v Blue will suddenly open up as the anti-Wales parties start losing votes to UKIP.

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