Aid goes to 'bongo bongo land' - MEP

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 07 Agustus 2013 | 15.36

7 August 2013 Last updated at 04:34 ET

A UKIP politician filmed saying British aid should not be sent to "bongo bongo land" has stood by his comments.

In film obtained by the Guardian, MEP Godfrey Bloom was recorded telling supporters that aid was spent on items like sunglasses and Ferraris.

He also claimed British aid was spent on fighter planes in Pakistan, which he called "treason" by the UK government.

Mr Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, told the BBC giving to charity should be a choice.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "What I would argue is that it is for the individual citizen. It's not for the likes of David Cameron to pick up our pockets and send money to the charities of his choice.

"If I want to send money to charity, I will do it of my own accord."

UKIP politician Godfrey Bloom

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'Beyond me'

He said that "there are people in this country who can't get treatment for cancer, there are people who are waiting in the queue for dialysis machines" and that "charity begins at home".

He added: "If I've offended anybody in bongo bongo land I will write to their ambassador at the Court of St James."

In the footage obtained by the Guardian, recorded last month at a meeting in Wordsley, West Midlands, Mr Bloom said: "How we can possibly be giving £1bn a month, when we're in this sort of debt, to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me.

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Godfrey Bloom is no stranger to controversy and he's not shying away from the comments he made.

In fact he took to the airwaves to defend them and said suggestions they carried any racist implications were "absurd" and "laughable".

He's also tried to make light of his comments, saying that bongo bongo land isn't real but if he's offended anyone there he'll apologise personally.

He appears bullish and says he speaks for ordinary people who are unrepresented by the current system.

The comments are embarrassing for UKIP as they come just days before the party is due to publish its list of approved candidates for next year's European elections.

Leader Nigel Farage has pledged to purge UKIP of intolerance and racism. Critics will argue that, if he's serious about that, he must now show that applies to everyone in his party.

"To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid.

"F18s for Pakistan. We need a new squadron of F18s. Who's got the squadrons? Pakistan, where we send the money."

A UKIP spokesman told the Guardian the matter was being "discussed right at the very highest level of the party".

In the video, Mr Bloom also criticised the European Court of Human Rights and European treaties.

"You can torture people to death but you jolly well can't give them a full life sentence because that's against their human rights," he said.

"We can't hang them because we're now a member of the European Union and it's embedded in the Treaty of Rome."

Mr Bloom said he would be "delighted" to "throw the rope over the beam" at the hanging of certain criminals.

Laura Pidcock, from campaign group Show Racism the Red Card, told Today that "these crude stereotypes that see Britain as a civilised place and overseas as tribal" were "incredibly damaging".

She added: "I think what Godfrey needs to understand is that intention is irrelevant in defining the outcome of prejudice or the existence of prejudice and actually who defines what political correctness is?

"Political correctness is not homogenising people, is not saying that they are the ones who need to be civilised - they are still part of this colonial idea of bongo drums.

"Actually he needs to understand that it is highly offensive and what he meant by it isn't important - it's the outcome that's important."

The MEP is no stranger to controversy. In 2010, he was ejected from the European Parliament for directing a Nazi slogan at a German colleague.

And in 2011, he said small firms would have to be "stark staring mad" to hire young women because of the risk of them taking maternity leave at a later stage.


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