UKIP are contemplating taking legal action after Nigel Farage’s face was included in a PowerPoint presentation about the Holocaust, during an assembly at Challeston Academy in Derby. Picture from ibtimes.co.uk
Chellaston Academy in Derby is facing legal action as well as an investigation from the Department of Education, after likening UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, to a Nazi propagandist.
The controversy was founded when one of the school’s assemblies, commemorating the Holocaust, featured a picture of Farage next to a quote of his raising concerns about Romanian immigrants integrating into British communities.
The quote was included in a slide entitled: ‘There’s no way modern Britain could repeat Melita’s mistakes… right?’, referring to Melita Mashcmann, who worked as a Nazi propagandist, developing and spreading rumours regarding the Jewish population in the run up to the Holocaust.
The slide also featured a picture and quote from David Silvester, a former UKIP councillor, who in 2014, blamed recent flooding on the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Mr. Silvester was expelled from UKIP following the incident. The slide also featured campaign literature from the party.
Alan Graves, UKIP’s East Midlands Chairman, has said UKIP’s legal department are putting together a case to possibly bring to court, and have complained to the Department of Education.
Chellaston Academy’s head teacher, Ray Ruszczynski, has revealed the school is already receiving a number of “ferocious” calls on the matter. He argues that the slide was not meant to imply that UKIP could bring on a new Holocaust; only that students should be mindful of political rhetoric in the run up to the general election.
This controversy is a rare misstep in this school’s otherwise clean record. Chellaston Academy was rated as “Good” overall by Ofsted in November 2014, and 78% of its students received grade A*-C at GCSE in 2014, far above the national average of 56%. It is attended by 1,750 students, including a Sixth Form.
Mr. Ruszczynski stated that the teacher responsible for the assembly had emphatically made clear that they were not comparing Mr. Farage to Hitler, nor UKIP to the Nazi Party. He also stated that, following the assembly, the slide show was changed to remove any suggestion of such parallel.
The Department of Education have not commented on the matter, and haven’t confirmed that UKIP have contacted them regarding the matter.
