Email to UKIP

Today Pink News published this article. Suffice it to write that I found it so galling I felt I had no option but to send my own comments to the subject of the story. I have posted it below.

Dear Councillor Silvester,

I am writing to add my voice to what must be by now a loud chorus of opposition to your published views on the cause of the recent floods that have affected some parts of the country. Frankly, it simply beggars belief that you could exploit human misery to attack a minority. You complain about crocodile tears whilst performing two acts of cowardice in one. You seem, unaccountably, to have ignored the fact that opinions must be informed.

So, let us consider:

·       This country has a strong recent history of flooding that goes a lot further back than any link with the fight for equal rights for LGBT people. What caused the floods of 1953, for instance, when (put very simply) homosexuality was illegal?

·       Many countries around the world have enacted equal marriage for same sex couples. Please could you set out the humanitarian disasters that have affected these countries? I am unaware of them – and I avidly follow the news so it is remiss of me if I have somehow missed them.

·       There has been widespread reporting for many years around the risks of building on flood plains, the dangers posed by global warming/climate change etc. Are you going to blame that on the gays as well?

·       You comment on a petition, 600,000 signatures strong, against equal marriage. Well, you ignore the tens of millions in favour. Why?

 

I could go on but suffice it so say I do feel you are very much putting yourself forward as a standard bearer for this nation’s greatest affliction – a staggeringly uninspiring generation of local and national leaders who have nothing to contribute and can only blame the manifest problems we face on scapegoats and easy targets. We have real problems; if you can’t help, and are incapable of making things better, then get out of the way. You should not put yourself in the same political spectrum as radical Muslim fundamentalists, fascists, and tinpot third-world dictatorships.

 

Finally, and this is a message for all your party: if you single out a group of people to point fingers at and call names then you will never have their votes. Consider the wisdom of alienating millions of LGBT people who, because of the struggles they face, are far more likely to vote than the average voter. Make no mistake, that is us, voters, taxpayers, citizens too. The same as and equal to you in law and before God. We are also sons and daughter; brothers and sisters; uncles and aunts; nieces and nephews; employers and employees; volunteers and church goers; and great companions to our many friends. How else can we respond to these attacks with our own voice –  ceaselessly reminding to all of the many people we know and love never, ever, EVER to vote for UKIP. Because of the way that you have behaved.  

I don’t expect a response. I am confident you will not even read this far. I do hope, however, you will learn from what I suspect is a lot of negative feedback about your article and adopt a more rational tone and some political sensibilities in your future conduct.

 

Regards,