Charity Boss Who Called for Acid Attack on Nigel Farage Fired

British politician and The Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage attends the launch of The Bre
OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty
Victoria Friedman

The policy director of a UK charity which campaigns to increase happiness has lost her job after calling for Brexit leader Nigel Farage to be doused in acid.

In the now-deleted tweet, Happy City UK’s Ruth Townsley shared an article reporting Mr Farage being assaulted whilst on a walkabout in Newcastle, writing: “Great that milkshakes have become a thing when it comes to racists in our midst. I’d prefer acid but milkshakes will do for now.”

Guido Fawkes reports that Ms Townsley was in charge of social media engagement at Happy City which claims to work for the “wellbeing for people, place and planet” and reportedly receives taxpayer money through the West of England Growth Fund. Ironically, just days before the attack being celebrated and violence being called for by one of their staff the organisation emphasised the importance of letting go of anger as a means to boost mental and physical wellbeing.

The charity confirmed that Ms Townsley no longer works with the body, writing in a statement on Tuesday evening: “Happy City is aware that Ruth Townsley has previously posted tweets from her personal account including one about the Nigel Farage protest.

“We do not in any way agree with the contents of these tweets which contradicted all of our strongly held values.

“We believe all politicians have a right to have their voices heard, and condemn violence of any sort at any level of society. Ruth Townsley no longer works with Happy City.”

The Brexit Party leader is the latest right-wing politician to have had a milkshake thrown at them, with Independent MEP candidate Tommy Robinson and UKIP MEP candidate Carl Benjamin having been similarly assaulted in recent weeks.

Social commentators have warned of the escalation of violence that a permissive view of throwing milkshakes at politicians could lead to, with Breitbart News’s James Delingpole recently writing on the milkshake assaults on Mr Robinson:

Once you start suggesting that physical assaults of any kind are acceptable then you are legitimising violence. And violence has a nasty habit of escalating.

Look at what happened to the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. First they came for him with a cake (filled with vomit and excrement); next it was a bullet in the head from a left-wing environmental activist who no doubt felt emboldened and morally justified because Fortuyn had been vilified by the left-liberal Establishment as ‘far right’ and an ‘Islamophobe.’

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