Labour Candidate Called People Who Fly England Flags ‘Simpletons and Racists’

A Labour Party parliamentary candidate called people who fly England flags “simpletons” and “casual racists” and called for their cars to be damaged. Huw Thomas, who is standing in Ceredigion in Wales, made the comments in a blog post about the World Cup while he was a student in 2006.

Thomas wrote:

“I agree that it’s completely sickening how many England flags are to be seen around Wales. It truly shows the degree our society has been infiltrated by incomers who are not ready to integrate.

“Very often, from what I see, some flying English flags are young people, who have been brought up in Wales, but who are loyal to England. This raises questions about us as Welsh people as well.

“It’s true that the parents are at fault, but it’s obvious that the education system has failed to create a Welsh Nationalism in these people, and I wonder also how many of us Welsh people, in our school days, tried to bring these people (aka chavs) into the Welsh circle.

“I can’t speak with a clear conscience by a long shot, so don’t think that I’m preaching, but it’s something to consider I feel.

“The retail sector is also responsible for making the situation worse I think, and all across Britain not only in Wales. The World Cup, to a large extent, is just an opportunity for high street shops to ‘cash in’, using special offers and social pressure to create a fake group mentality – Nationalism Asda style!

“Having said this, I had the opportunity, when I had the opportunity to buy an England flag for half price in WH Smith, Oxford, to answer with the phrase: ‘Since I am neither a simpleton nor a casual racist I must decline your offer’. Poor ‘Stacey’ didn’t know where to look!”

He concluded by calling for cars displaying England flags to be vandalised.

Wales Online reports that the comments were uncovered just days after Thomas called for a rival candidate to resign over comments he had made 14 years ago. Mike Parker, the Plaid Cymru candidate in Ceredigion, wrote in 2001: “To some extent, rural Wales has become the British equivalent of the American mountains, inhabited by a sprinkling of paranoid conspiracy theorists, gun-toting Final Solution crackpots and anti-government obsessives.”

Thomas said: “These outrageous and deeply offensive remarks are exactly the sort of poisonous rhetoric you’d expect from UKIP, not a party that claims to be progressive and left wing.

“There should be no place in our politics or our society for such divisive and hateful language.

“As a Cardi to my core, I’m proud that Wales and Ceredigion have a history of welcoming people from across this island and across the world.”

However, he has now been forced to apologise for his own comments, saying: “I apologise wholeheartedly for these comments, made while I was a young student.

“These are not my views now and I deeply regret writing this post online. Every candidate at this election will have gone through a political journey.”