Ex Radio 1 DJ withdraws Ukip calypso song

Up unill today, Ex-radio DJ Mike Reid and Ukip leader Nigel Farage saw no obvious offence in making an anti-immigration song, in a faux calypso accent.

Aimed at stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment, Reid’s song includes lyrics about “Open borders”, and “illegal immigrants in every town”.

But yesterday Mike Reid did an about-face and has apologised for causing offence and asked his record company to withdraw the song.

Given Ukip’s political surge at the moment, some argued that the song could have gone to number one.

Ukip themselves were unrepentant arguing that: “it was a shame Read had been treated “so harshly” by the “right-on media” and its “synthetic outrage”, describing the song as “just a bit of fun. "This is Mike’s song and it is obviously his decision what to do with it,” said a party spokesman.

We are of course pleased that Reid did the right thing and pulled the song. But we must be clear that Ukip are on the rise and they now believe that promoting ideas that there are ‘Illegal immigrants’, in every town is not ‘just a bit of fun’.

The opposite is true; their political race hatred ideology gives a nod and a wink to others who will be more verbal and more physical with people who they suspect to be ‘illegal immigrants'.

Simon Woolley