Nasty politics...we expect it from the extremists but not from Labour MPs

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This lunchtime I had a brief chat with Khadim Hussein, currently Bradford's Lord Mayor. The discussion was chiefly about this:

...members of Britain First, who are led by former BNP councillor Paul Golding, visited his house in Keighley last Saturday and entered it without permission.

Although he was not there at the time, Coun Hussain said it had been a “distressing” experience for his daughters, who were forced to tell the men, who he said were “aggressive, but not abusive”, to leave. 

Cllr Hussein is a genuinely nice man, indeed his comment about Britain First's visits to mosques in Bradford were very different from the confrontational, intemperate comments of George Galloway - "the mosque is a public place" observed Cllr Hussein contrasting this with the frightening experience of ten burly political activists appearing on the doorstep of a house in Keighley.

Indeed, I'm told that Paul Golding had spoken with the Lord Mayor who had advised him to contact his office and make an appointment! Instead the Britain First bunch went off to Keighley claiming that the Lord Mayor was avoiding them.

This, we will be reminded again and again is the nasty side of politics. And my friends on the left will then point at Britain First (or the latest bunch of racist nutters than pop up) and say: "look, you right wingers are all nasty".

However such words - however unpleasantly racist folk like Britain First might be really does excuse this:

This is the photograph tweeted by Labour MP, Karl Turner to his 9,000 plus followers with the ever-so-witty words:

 Just got in to find #UKIP crap on the door mat. It's off back #Freepost #VoteLabour

That's right folks, a Labour MP suggested that the way to 'return' UKIP literature is to wrap it round a brick and presumably bung it through the candidates window? Of course Mr Turner is far too responsible to actually throw a brick through a UKIP candidate's window. But others aren't:

UKIP MEP Gerard Batten had a brick thrown through a window at his London home in the early hours of Tuesday.

Mr Batten said he suspected it was part of an attempt by political opponents to intimidate UKIP candidates ahead of next Thursday's European elections.

I'm guess that the Labour Party approve of this sort of violence - or at least one of its MPs does?

Politics is a passionate business but, while we expect exhortations to violence from the loonies of right or left, we really should see them - even wrapped in a cloak of bad humour - from politicians in a political party that might form the next government.

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