Afzal Amin’s deal with the devil?

Former Conservative candidate for marginal seat of Dudley North Afzal Amin may well argue that he was set up by the EDL and a national newspaper in a sting operation, but one thing is clear; Amin sought to collaborate with a Far Right organisation,-The English Defence League- well known for its thuggery and hatred for Muslims and Black people in General.

If it is proven he sought to sow further seeds of division between Muslim and Christian communities by a manufactured protest through EDL, only to ride in as a community saviour is truly despicable, only made worse by the alleged deal that if he was elected he would be a mouth piece for the racist group in Parliament.

For the Conservatives this is a particularly bad story, not least because today’s headlines should be:

“The Conservatives outstripping the Labour Party on selecting BME candidates in winnable seats”, according to Sunder Katwala’s think tank British Future.

Instead they find themselves looking for another candidate in a seat they thought they could take from Labour, and being asked to explain why their candidate was doing back room deals with Far Right groups.

The publics distrust of mainstream politicians is further dented when we see that two parliamentary candidates in the space of one week have been forced to stand down –Ukip’s Janice Atkinson, and now Afzal Amin-, due to ‘gross inappropriate behaviour’.

OBV’s campaign to ‘reclaim democracy’ by registering to vote and change the balance of power from politicians to the people is more important than ever.

As for Afzal Amin, well, he’ll have to answer first to his party, then his community and ultimately to himself.

Simon Woolley