ROBERT KILROY Silk, former tribune of the Kirkby
working class, and the octogenarian soap star Joan Collins, now threaten
to deliver a hammer blow to Britain’s membership of the European Union.
Tony Mulhearn, former Liverpool councillor 1983-1987
Their rise to prominence on the political stage in the
recent Euro-elections was apparently made possible only because Bob
Monkhouse had died and was thus unavailable, and Barbara Windsor was too
heavily committed to Eastenders.
The fact that such a motley crew of fading celebrities
and failed politicians in UKIP received 18% of the vote was due to many
factors: huge dollops of money for publicity, a media desperate to include
‘personalities’ in news broadcasts and to fuel the anti-immigrant and
nationalist moods they so assiduously cultivate, combined with a complete
absence of mainstream politicians who can offer a radical socialist
alternative to the rich man’s club which is Europe.
I was on the short list for Ormskirk constituency
(after re-organisation becoming Knowsley North) in 1972 when the then
right-wing constituency Labour Party adopted Kilroy as the candidate.
Totally besotted with his own sense of worth, he
declared, within a fortnight of being elected, that he aspired to be prime
minister within 15 years. This ambition sank without trace.
However, whilst his political achievements didn’t
match his aspirations, he made up for that by moving into an expensive
pile in one of the southern counties whilst many of his constituents
continued to suffer in some of Britain’s worst housing estates.
Spanish estate
His response to the growing hostility to his politics
in his constituency was to purchase a 500-acre estate in Southern Spain.
From there he launched attack after attack on the lefts who, he claimed,
had ‘infiltrated’ his constituency.
By 1986 when it became obvious that he no longer
enjoyed the support of a majority, he became alarmed at his possible
de-selection and replacement by a left candidate.
I was the front-runner, having secured a majority of
nominations from organisations affiliated to the constituency.
Silk displayed a complete lack of confidence in the
membership. Instead of campaigning amongst the rank and file and the
Kirkby working class, he appealed to Kinnock and the NEC for support.
Kinnock duly obliged by expelling me from the party.
Silk heaved a sigh of relief, now he could continue to
represent the Kirkby working class as he’d always done, from his retreat
in Spain. But his personal ambition soon reasserted itself.
On being offered a job as a television presenter he
abandoned Knowsley North and joined the TV gravy train; remaining there
until he was dumped after making racist remarks about the Arab community.
It wasn’t the money of course. Silk claimed "Militant
made me quit". As a ‘man of principle’ he could take no more opposition.
He whinged the usual claptrap about ‘Militant violence,’ whithout a shred
of evidence.
He then later bragged about the violence he inflicted
upon a left-winger in his biography.
Even Kinnock commented that his reason for quitting
was ‘rubbish’. Just to make sure that a left candidate wouldn’t replace
Silk, Kinnock closed down the party and imposed right-winger George
Howarth.
The question for Silk is "where next?" He claims he is
out to wreck the European Union and expose its corruption and waste.
How is he going to do it? Perhaps live on a worker’s
wage and donate the £1 million a year surplus to the anti-Europe cause.
Britain watches with bated breath.
MEP Silk’s past record gives us a clue. Since 1972 he
has moved to the right. What lies to the right of UKIP, ground currently
occupied by the BNP?
Robert, I believe, would regard the BNP as being too
obviously vulgar and racist.
But, under his and Joan Collins’s leadership, it can’t
be ruled out that UKIP could develop into a ‘respectable’ extreme
right-wing organisation, pandering to the forces of nationalism and
racism.
