Stephen Tall

A couple of months ago you may recall a big row when it was alleged three eastern European children were removed from their foster parents by Rotherham council because the couple were members of Ukip.

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies certainly recalls it. And on Monday he made a one-minute speech in the European Parliament about it:

Chris Davies (ALDE ). – Mr President, before Christmas there was, rightly, a furore when social workers in Rotherham took away children from foster parents because they belonged to UKIP, believing it to be racist. Yet what are they to make of the fact that the UK Independence Party’s local MEP, Godfrey Bloom, is a former president of the European Free Alliance, a body that includes the French Front National, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang and the Austrian Freedom Party, whose leader has recently been compared by a judge to a Nazi? These parties are the natural recipients of racist votes.

I have called on the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, to expel Godfrey Bloom, but instead he has hugged him close, giving a nod and a wink to the racists. It is dog-whistle politics. Website references to some of the links between UKIP and these parties have strangely disappeared in recent weeks, but I have kept copies. Nigel Farage denies that UKIP has racist associations, but the characters of parties, just like people, are formed by those with whom they choose to associate. By your friends shall ye be known.

He followed it up with a succession of tweets. Rather confusingly numbers 1 and 4 contradicted each other:

In Strasbourg tonight I defended the Rotherham social workers who believed that UKIP was racist and took away foster children.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 14, 2013

In Parliament last night I said that Rotherham social workers were “rightly criticised” for taken children away from UKIP foster parents.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

But whether to defend or attack Rotherham’s social workers, I’m not clear what Chris Davies’s reasons for wading into this debate in this way are.

There are two separate issues here: whether the foster parents were able to provide the children in their care with a loving home; and whether any of Ukip’s leaders can be said to be guilty of racism-by-association.

It’s crude beyond belief to link the two in this way for the sake of a political point.

Here’s all Chris’s tweets on the issue in sequence:

In Strasbourg tonight I defended the Rotherham social workers who believed that UKIP was racist and took away foster children.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 14, 2013

I told MEPs that the Yorkshire UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom was a former president of the alliance of Europe’s most racist parties.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 14, 2013

The character of political parties, like people, is shaped by those with whom they associate. Too many UKIP MEPs associate with racists.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 14, 2013

In Parliament last night I said that Rotherham social workers were “rightly criticised” for taken children away from UKIP foster parents.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

The European Free Alliance brings together the parties that are the recipients of racist votes. The Rotherham UKIP MEP is close to them.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

If UKIP doesn’t want to be thought of as linked to racist parties then Nigel Farage should expel Rotherham MEP Godfrey Bloom.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

Nigel Farage denies that UKIP has racist associations, but by your friends shall ye be known!

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

When I said European Free Alliance I of course meant European Alliance for Freedom. Typing too fast!

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

Rotherham MEP Godfrey Bloom is a former president of the European Alliance for Freedom, the home of racist parties in the EU.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

And speaking too fast. I said European Free Alliance in Parliament when I meant European Alliance for Freedom. Oops. Sorry Greens.

— Chris Davies (@ChrisDaviesMEP) January 15, 2013

* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.