Methinks they do protest too much

UKIP's website states that: it's a "Libertarian, non-racist party seeking Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.".

I'm not aware of any other party describing itself as non-racist right there, up front. It is, as a Facebook friend remarked, rather like a motel advertising clean rooms as a selling point. Or, as another FB pal commented, using: '"No Confirmed Cases Of Botulism for (insert number) Days!!!" to promote a restaurant.

Sadly for Farage and the bar-room bores, the dirty rooms and the botulism are already public knowledge. To argue, as Farage does, that he 'can't keep out BNP or EDL activists' begs a rather obvious question - why would racists want to stand as UKIP candidates in the first place? After all, it's a self-defined non-racist party. Gosh, what a mystery.

Then there's our wonderful free press. The Greens might have more actual support and even an MP, and have obviously got staying power, organisation, grown-up policies etc. But who cares about that stuff? Because when you offer our right-wing hacks outright bigotry they act like a weak-willed fat bloke at a free cake buffet. They know they shouldn't, they feel guilt and more than a little self-loathing, they desperately try to summon the will-power to resist. But... Green salad? No thanks.

They know it's wrong, but it's all so deliciously tempting. And part of the pleasure is the thrill of transgression. They know that if they try to drag xenophobia and all the rest of that Tea Party shit into our political mainstream they'll regret it. But it is a defining characteristic of right-wing hacks to be instinctively sympathetic to simple-minded, brutal, ignorant solutions to complex problems. They can't help stuffing their faces with that sweet, yummy prejudice.