'Bongo Bongo' cartoon lands Ukip candidate in the soup
Ukip’s man in Dover posts cartoon lampooning party’s values – but is this how Ukippers truly feel, asks Tory
It seems Ukippers are now so confident about their surge in popularity - Clacton in the bag, Rochester looking good – that they're able to send themselves up. It's a worrying development for those of us spooked by the party's anti–immigration politics and where it could all lead.
The Ukip candidate at the centre of this story is David Little, who is standing in Dover at the next election – surely the most iconic of seats for a party intent on closing our borders to foreigners.
Little saw a cartoon he liked by Marf on the Political Betting website and, although it was clearly designed to take the p*** out of Ukip, decided to re-post it on his Facebook page. [I should disclose that the cartoonist is my former wife.]
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the grand tradition of spoof maps, Marf had drawn a 'Ukip Map of the World' complete with angry arrows denoting the paths of "zillions of immigrants" from "Bongo Bongo Land" and Eastern Europe, London written off as the home of "cosmopolitan poofters" and Clacton marked as the "proposed new capital".
But while David Little was happy to see his party lampooned, Tory MP Charlie Elphicke, who has to defend Dover and Deal against Little next May, refused to see the funny side.
He told yesterday's Sunday People: “I’ve had complaints about this from constituents. They think it’s disgusting, anti-gay and anti-women.”
As the People helpfully reminded us, Ukip has actually banned its members from referring to Africa as "Bongo Bongo Land" and cut its ties with Godfrey Bloom, MEP, who famously used the phrase in an attack on British aid going overseas. (Ukip plans to cut the overseas aid budget by 85 per cent.)
None of this mattered to Little, who posted the cartoon anyway, saying: “I love Marf’s cartoons and I thought it was a brilliant bit of satire lampooning Ukip.
“It’s clearly a joke at Ukip’s expense. I think it’s really important to laugh at yourself now and again.”
But Tory MP Elphicke remains suspicious of Little’s motive for re-posting Marf’s cartoon. He went on Radio Kent this morning to argue that Ukip appeared to see the cartoon as “a badge of honour rather than the satire of shame it was intended to be”.
His constituents, said Elphicke, were worried “that this is what they [Ukip] really think.”
As Ricky Gervais wrote in 2011, discussing the difference between American and British humour: "We [the British] mercilessly take the p*** out of … ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out."
That's the problem: after the self-deprecation, we're threatened with the “swagger” - and down in Kent there could be a lot of it to come from Ukip.
First, there's the 20 November by-election in Rochester, 50 miles up the road from Dover, where Tory defector Mark Reckless looks set for victory.
Then there's the general election in May. An opinion poll published last month for the Dover Express put Ukip on a stunning 48 per cent in Dover and Deal, making Little the likely winner by a landslide. Which, depending on your point of view, will or won't be funny at all.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Nigel Horne is Comment Editor of The Week.co.uk. He was formerly Editor of the website until September 2013. He previously held executive roles at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.
-
The hunt for Planet Nine
Under The Radar Researchers seeking the elusive Earth-like planet beyond Neptune are narrowing down their search
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Magazine interactive crossword - April 26, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - April 26, 2024
By The Week US Published
-
Magazine solutions - April 26, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - April 26, 2024
By The Week US Published
-
Will Aukus pact survive a second Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question US, UK and Australia seek to expand 'game-changer' defence partnership ahead of Republican's possible return to White House
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
It's the economy, Sunak: has 'Rishession' halted Tory fightback?
Today's Big Question PM's pledge to deliver economic growth is 'in tatters' as stagnation and falling living standards threaten Tory election wipeout
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why your local council may be going bust
The Explainer Across England, local councils are suffering from grave financial problems
By The Week UK Published
-
Rishi Sunak and the right-wing press: heading for divorce?
Talking Point The Telegraph launches 'assault' on PM just as many Tory MPs are contemplating losing their seats
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
How the biggest election year in history might play out
The Explainer Votes in world's biggest democracies, as well as its most 'despotic' and 'stressed' countries, face threats of violence and suppression
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Good democracies include their poorest citizens. The UK excludes them'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published