The Tories are letting this guy get away with sharing Britain First and EDL propaganda

The Tory councillor for the Westhill ward in Aberdeenshire has been sharing propaganda from the extreme-right hate group Britain First and the English nationalist street thugs the EDL.

Ron McKail's woeful excuse is that he was supposedly ignorant of the existence of Britain First and the EDL, that he didn't bother to investigate the source of the images and just blind-shared the faux patriotic memes from these extreme-right organisations.

He then went on to give the classic politician's non-apology by apologising for any offence caused rather than apologising for his actions, as if it's people who are angry at his sharing of extreme-right propaganda memes who are the ones with the problem, not him for sharing them.

The Tory party have accepted this woeful excuse and non-apology and are letting him continue seeking re-election in the local elections.

There is no excuse

The BNP splinter group Britain First have been stinking out Facebook with their bigotry, lies, hatred, ignorance, gullibility, violent lawless fantasies, and money making scams for years, and the EDL street thugs have been around for even longer.

Both of these organisations use honey trap images in order to con people into giving them free publicity.

One of the most commonly occurring forms of extreme-right social media honey trap is the faux patriotic "support our troops" type. These faux patriotic images are often emblazoned with red poppy symbolism despite the Royal British Legion having demanded that they stop using the red poppy to raise funds for their extreme-right political organisation.

After all of these years of the same shockingly deceitful tactics from the extreme-right, there's no excuse for falling for it.

If you share extreme-right memes you either support the extreme-right, or the most charitable interpretation possible is that you're so complacent about the rise of extreme-right fanaticism in the UK that you literally don't care that you're aiding extremists by spreading their propaganda.

Imagine if ...

Imagine if it was a Labour Party candidate who had been spreading propaganda memes from criminal extremist organisations. Do you think the mainstream press would have let them get away with pleading ignorance and then making a politician's non-excuse? Or do you think the story would have been used to reinforce the mainstream media's anti-Labour agenda?

The same goes for any other political party. If a SNP politician had been found spreading propaganda from an organisation that repeatedly commits criminal activity and calls for lynch mob killings on the streets, how do you think the unionist press would have reacted?

There is a clear double standard going on. When the Tories promote extreme-right fanaticism they're given an easy ride and their infuriating politician's non-apologies are accepted, but if other parties shared extremist propaganda they'd be dragged over the coals for it.

The Tories and the extreme-right

The Tory party are not just complacent about the rise of the extreme-right, they clearly see the extreme-right bigot demographic as an important one to be pandered to. Hence Theresa May's disgustingly divisive anti-migrant rhetoric, her tactic of trolling ethnically diverse communities with misleading "Go Home" vans, and her faux outrage about the perennial extreme-right trope that "Easter is being banned".

The Tories don't see the everyday extremism of Britain First and the EDL as a problem. In fact it's actually good for them because these extreme-right groups create social divisions and keep the "lower orders" fighting amongst themselves whilst the Tory elitists can get on with asset stripping the country, attacking workers' wages and labour rights, and constantly rigging the economy even more in favour of the tiny super-rich minority who bankroll their party.

Conclusion

The Tories clearly don't give a damn about the rising popularity of the extreme-right (in fact they consider it a useful distraction) and they're intent on letting their candidate get away with assisting the extreme-right by sharing their propaganda with nothing more than the unacceptable claim of ignorance and laziness, and an equally unacceptable politician's non-apology.

If the people of Westhill, Aberdeenshire want to be represented by a guy who promotes the propaganda of the bigoted criminals at Britain First and the EDL street thugs, and considers that the only people to have done anything wrong are those who got offended by his behaviour, they can reelect him. Otherwise they should support a candidate who doesn't promote criminal extreme-right organisations.

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