Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom criticises aid to 'bongo bongo land'

[oldironside]

A senior Ukip politician has been recorded telling activists that Britain should not be sending aid to "bongo bongo land".

Godfrey Bloom, a Ukip member of the European parliament, made the comments to a meeting of supporters in the West Midlands. He suggested foreigners used aid to "buy Ray-Ban sunglasses" and "apartments in Paris".

His remarks have emerged in the week Ukip is due to publish its list of approved candidates for next year's European elections, in which the party hopes to get the biggest share of the vote.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/06/ukip-godfrey-bloom-bongo-bongo-land

It's like deja vu all over again.

[non sociopath skin]

1. They wouldn't be spouting crap like this ...

... if our pernicious media hadn't already convinced the more gullible among us that it's true.

Amusing, isn't it, that racist clowns like Bloom are quite happy to trouser the rich pickings of an organisation they purport to loathe.

Wonder how much of the European taxpayers' money he spends on his apartments in Brussels and Strasbourg?

The Skin

[T_i_B]

2. And let's not forget....

...that Godfrey Bloom is the 2nd most prominent UKIP politician after Farage. He was on Radio 2 boasting of his use of nepotistic employment arrangements yesterday, and is being given another platform on the same show today.

UKIP have been given a free pass by the mainstream media for far too long and they don't like it when they are given genuine scrutiny.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Boasting of them? Back in 2009, he was lying that he didn't employ family members

Emma Brader, his accredited parliamentary assistant, and Victoria Skowronek, his secretarial assistant, were both working in the York headquarters of TBO Investments yesterday, six days before the European elections. David McLaughlin, another member of his staff, is a director of TBO Investments.

Mr Bloom, 59, has used his official website to highlight the expenses scandal at Westminster. It says: “Godfrey Bloom employs no immediate members of his family on his secretarial allowance, unlike most other MEPs (non-UKIP).” It also laments the “woeful lack of candour and common sense in modern-day politicians”.

He confirmed yesterday that Ms Skowronek was his niece and lives next door to him in Wressle, East Yorkshire. Ms Brader, 26, a leading point-to-point rider, wrote on Facebook about their prospects if Mr Bloom was not re-elected: “This would mean that Vicki and I would lose our jobs and Godfrey says we’d have to go on the game, but we wouldn’t make much money because we are too old!”

http://juniusonukip.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/godfrey-bloom-another-corrupt-ukip-mep.html

So he's gone from lying about it (and criticising others for it), to admitting it, to boasting about it.

This shows the problem with a closed list PR system. UKIP voters vote for the party, and the party has all kinds of scum as its candidates, and they don't get scrutiny as candidates by the public. They had a criminal in the South East in 2004, of course.

[LeftishBrit]

5. I remember Ashley Mote all too well; continuing to get his MEP salary while 'inside'

His replacement was Marta Andreasen, from Spain; an interesting choice to represent British anti-EU xenophobes, but everything about UKIP is a bit surreal. Eventually had a big row with Farage and switched to the Tories.

The South East is also of course gloriously represented by Farage himself, and by Daniel Hannan.

To be fair, we also had Caroline Lucas.

[T_i_B]

6. Looking at the list of reprobates........

....people like Hannan, Mote, Tom Wise, Nick Griffin, Andrew Brons, Robert Kilroy Silk and so forth, it's not unreasonable to conclude that most regions in the UK have had a real stinker as an MEP.

And if your region hasn't, consider the chances of getting a stinker of an MEP at the next Euro elections. The ongoing Eurozone crisis and the uselessness of the 3 main parties means that unfortunately, I can't see UKIP doing badly next time around.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Absolutely right on both counts!

I always say that UKIP's motto is 'Hate the EU, love its gravy train'.

[CJCRANE]

7. Bongoland = Tanzania

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongoland

"Bongoland" is the locals' nickname for Tanzania and/or its biggest city Dar es Salaam.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It does now, but that seems to date from after 'Bongo Bongo Land' was a term of abuse

Certainly BBL was used, by a Tory MP, in the 1980s (with the same controversy as with the UKIP MEP) - it inspired this satircal map posted a few days ago in this forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10884458#post3

The BBC reckons 'Bongoland' is about 15 years old:

BBC Swahili reporter Aboubakar Famau explains. "Dar es Salaam is a place where people have to use their brain. You could be a conman or just a businessman but they have to work out how to make money."

It's a relatively new term - Famau estimates it at about 15 years old. His dad wouldn't use it and, he muses, it's probably only known by people under 35-years-old. But it is widespread enough to be the title of a 2003 film about a Tanzanian moving to the US, and its sequel, Bongoland II.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23600129