In the build-up to this week’s local elections, the main political parties are devoting huge amounts of time and resources to attacking UKIP.
Yesterday, the Tory Cabinet minister Ken Clarke branded Nigel Farage’s party ‘a collection of clowns’ which had no ‘positive policies’.
Mr Clarke went on to say that some of the people intending to vote for UKIP were ‘fruitcakes and closet racists’.
In response, UKIP, which admits not vetting all of its candidates, claims it is the victim of a reprehensible ‘smear’ campaign by a rattled Tory HQ.
With UKIP regularly polling higher than the hapless Liberal Democrats, and threatening to take seats from all three main parties, Mr Farage will need to get used to much greater scrutiny.
But hurling insults at UKIP is not the way for the Tories to win over a sceptical electorate sick and tired of squabbling politicians and Westminster parlour games.
Rather, the public wants David Cameron’s party to show it understands their concerns on growth, immigration, Europe and the rampant abuse of human rights law.
Today, we report on Iraqi drug dealer Hesham Mohammed Ali, who claimed his tattoos and British girlfriend meant he was too ‘Westernised’ to be deported.
More...
'They're a bunch of waifs and strays': Ken Clarke goes on the offensive against 'racist' Ukip as Tories go to war ahead of polls
UK economy is 'bouncing along the bottom' and could take three years to heal, warns Ken Clarke
The UKIP leader and the Facebook racist: Nigel Farage shakes hands with party candidate who says discrimination is 'just ethnic banter' and supports extreme Right
Incredibly, an immigration judge agreed that, because he had a ‘genuine’ relationship in this country, he had a right to a ‘family life’ here – despite already having two children by different women with whom he has no contact.
The frightening truth is that Ali is just one of 1,200 criminals, including child rapists, three murderers, 40 sex offenders and even a terrorist, who have used the Human Rights Act to cheat deportation.
If the Tories had dedicated as much energy to fixing this wretched mess over the past three years as they have to attacking UKIP in the past three days, Britain would be far safer – and the public more likely to turn out and vote for them on Thursday.
Price of secrecy
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Today, the Mail reveals how £2billion is being held by the secretive Court of Protection, which seizes control of the assets of those whom it judges can no longer manage their own affairs.
These most vulnerable people, who include dementia sufferers, are then paid an interest rate of just 0.5 per cent – leaving them helpless to stop their life savings diminishing in real terms.
This is the same court, of course, which also decides whether the very sick should live or die, and which jailed Wanda Maddocks for ignoring orders not to remove her father from a ‘prison’ of a care home where she feared he would die.
With such vast power at its disposal, it’s an affront to open justice that it should be permitted to continue to operate almost entirely behind closed doors.
The wrong target
A blind man blasted to the floor after police mistook his white cane for a samurai sword... people already in handcuffs being shot for failing to obey orders... a man who had doused himself in petrol turned into a human fireball when officers Tasered him...
A deeply troubling picture is emerging of how police are aggressively turning their 50,000-volt Taser stun guns on the public after as little as three days training.
Even more worrying is the fact the Police Federation wants ministers to arm all officers with these potentially deadly weapons, which were supposed to be used to save lives, but are fast becoming a tool for crowd control.
Shouldn’t they first prove they are not misusing the Tasers they already have?