Robert Kilroy-Silk's views about foreigners

Robert Kilroy-Silk was parachuted into the UKIP list with such indecent haste that as late as May 19 his name still didn't appear among the twelve (yes, twelve for some reason) submitted by UKIP to the LGIB website. Perhaps it still doesn't.

Did the whole UKIP membership in the East Midlands vote for this list, as East Midlands Green Party members did for ours?

After the anti-arab rant that lost him his BBC job, Private Eye performed a useful service by listing some of the racist nonsense Mr Kilroy-Silk has written in his Daily Express column. The following examples of his views about foreigners (and some fellow-Britons) are taken from that article. I am grateful to Private Eye for permission to quote from it.

The Irish. In 1992 the Daily Express apologised for printing a Kilroy column which described Ireland as a country peopled by peasants, priests and pixies. (9 Nov 1992.) He has been wary of going public on the subject ever since, though a couple of years ago his Sunday Express column included a swipe at "no-mark countries such as Belgium and Ireland" (28 Jul 2002) - "no-mark" being a favourite Kilroy expression of contempt.

The Scots. No better than the Irish. "The Scots suffer from a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to the English," Kilroy reveals (19 May 2002). "Scotland is dying," he adds. "Between a quarter and a third of its graduates escape every year, mostly to England!.. They cannot bear to live in their own country" (9 Mar 2003).

Pakistanis. "Here we go again," Kilroy sighs. "The minister responsible for defining the British identity, Michael Wills, still obviously feels the need to pander to the multicultural lobby, even at the cost of making himself look ridiculous. He solemnly proclaimed: ‘The essence of being British is that you can be British and Pakistani, British and Scottish, British and Geordie.’ What a dumbhead!... Will someone please inform him that Scots are British, that Geordies are British, but that Pakistanis are not. They’re Pakistanis!" (23 Dec 2001). And Kilroy takes a dim view of the Pakistanis. "Rather than promote peace and understanding between people, the Pakistanis want to generate hate," he writes. "But then what else can we expect from Pakistan?" (7 Jul 2002)

French. Not Kilroy’s favourite race - "devious" (2 Feb 2003), "treacherous... not to be trusted" (16 Feb 2003) and "self-regarding" (9 Mar 2003). In short, they are utterly unlike the British and Americans, who "can be relied upon to keep their word and to act with altruism to a degree that would seem foolish to the French" (13 Apr 2003).

Germans. Kilroy finds the Germans "truculent" (2 Feb 2003). As he asks: "Is there no limit to their brazen cheek?" (13 Apr 2003).

Russians. They are "opportunist" (2 Feb 2003) and "posturing" (9 Mar 2003). But maybe not quite as bad as the French.

Africans. No bloody good at all. "Africa’s plight is mostly the fault of Africans," Kilroy notes (5 Oct 2003). "Most of what is good and decent in Africa has been provided by Europe and the United States."

Iraqis. What a rabble! "They are not grateful for being liberated. They do not appreciate that the coalition forces are attempting to build a decent, democratic, civilised country. They certainly do not appear to be either able or willing to contribute to its reconstruction. Why should we put British lives on the line for this lot? They are not worth the life of one British soldier, not one. All they seem to do is moan, incessantly, about their lack of amenities" (29 Jun 2003).

Asylum-seekers. "The barmy liberals like Diane Abbott don’t like the word ‘swamped’ when used by the Home Secretary to describe schools and GPs’ surgeries being overrun by asylum seekers who cannot speak English. What word would they prefer? Overwhelmed? Drowned? Submerged? What is the problem with using proper English words to describe an appalling situation that many British people have to put up with?" (28 Apr 2002). But Kilroy has a solution: "It is simple enough. We station paratroopers a mile from the British end of the [Channel] Tunnel.. The paras herd the immigrants together and cart them off to Dover where they are dumped on a secure slow boat to -- wherever" (17 Mar 2002).

Black people in general. "Can we ask why whites are usually better swimmers than blacks?" Kilroy wonders (5 Jan 2003). "Can we, moreover, articulate some other, less palatable truths: that there is, for example, more racial prejudice within and between ethnic minorities in Britain than there is between the white indigenous population and immigrants? Can we acknowledge that black youths are responsible for the majority of gun and street crime and that it is they who ought therefore to be targeted without feeling the necessity to point out that the majority of burglars and conmen are white?... Yes, of course we can -- and we should." Kilroy can’t stand "pushy blacks" or "talentless blacks and Asians" (19 Aug 2001.) Or whingeing ones: "Are you fed up of some bleating blacks and Asians blaming their own failures on how their forefathers were exploited by the British Empire?... Why don’t they stop whining and get a life?" (7 Dec 2003). Not that he’s slow to defend black people when they’re genuinely oppressed: a few years ago he took up the case of a black motorist who was stopped by the police in Cheltenham. The man in question was, er, Kilroy’s chauffeur.

Foreigners in general. Otherwise known as "parasitic foreigners" and "dodgy foreigners". (2 Dec 2001). Kilroy gets very angry if anyone blames the rise in British HIV cases on sexual promiscuity or suggests that TB might have something to do with inadequate sanitation, bad diet, poverty, etc. "The indigenous population is not responsible. The diseases are being brought here by refugees, immigrants and tourists... It is the foreigners that we have to focus on" (1 Dec 2002). And focus he does.

Arabs. "Can everyone stop blaming the British and Americans for the fact that there are a load of thieving Arabs in Iraq?" he demands (4 May 2003). "The orgy of thieving in Iraq has more to do with the character of the people than the absence of restraining troops." So what is the Arab character? "There could be few starker demonstrations of the difference between Britain and the United States and the Arabs than the manner in which they treat their civilians and their dead," he writes (4 Jan 2004). "While the Arabs desert their dead soldiers in the desert to be buried with reverence by the Americans, we go to enormous lengths to retrieve every single body... Who says that all cultures are morally equal?" Certainly not Kilroy, who regards the Arabs as a waste of space. "Few of them make much contribution to the welfare of the rest of the world. Indeed, apart from oil -- which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the West -- what do they contribute? Can you think of anything? Anything really useful? Anything really valuable? Something we really need, could not do without? No, nor can I."

Copyright Pressdram Limited 2004. Reproduced by permission. The full article can be read at http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6203


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Published and promoted by Brian Fewster on behalf of the Green Party and himself as candidate at 89a Winchester Avenue, Leicester LE3 1AY.