A lecturer at London’s left-wing School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has drawn ridicule after delivering a “fictionalised”, hour-long talk about the UK Independence Party, in which he used spoof posters that stated UKIP claimed EU migrants would eat British babies.
Ryan Brading, who is a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, delivered the remarks in a lecture entitled, “From populist rage to institutional norms. The case of Venezuela and UKIP”, as a part of the “Populismus” series of lectures, funded by the European Union.
During the 50 minute long speech, Brading cited a number of examples to students of how UKIP’s campaigning was getting “very, very aggressive” — and prompted awkward silences from the audience as he claimed that a spoof poster created by online, anti-UKIP trolls, was real.
The poster read: “Guess whose children EU migrants want to eat? Vote UKIP on Thursday May 22nd”.
The material was obviously not genuine, though Brading didn’t pick up on this. He then went on to falsely claim that UKIP has said that every single man, woman and child in Bulgaria and Romania would come to the UK, before getting the population figures for the respective countries incorrect for the period in question.
UKIP actually campaigned to stop a further door in Britain’s immigration system opening when Romania and Bulgaria gained full access to the EU’s freedom of movement in January of 2014.
A UKIP spokesperson told Breitbart London: “I’d say this was hilarious, but actually, here is a series funded by the EU, which means the money is coming from the European taxpayer. Furthermore, parents and the students themselves are paying thousands of pounds for the pleasure of being presented with farcical lectures and outright lies. Brading should be removed from his position immediately.”
The lecture was uploaded to YouTube several days ago, and appears to be part of a Greek government and EU funded series promoting left-wing academics, ideas, and speakers. The Populismus website reads: “Populism is dynamically and unexpectedly back on the agenda. Latin American governments that dismiss the so-called ‘Washington consensus’ and extreme right-wing parties and movements in Europe advancing xenophobic and racist stereotypes exemplify this trend. At the same time, emerging social movements that resist the current administration of the global financial crisis (from the ‘Indignants’ in Spain and Greece to ‘Occupy Wall Street’) and the Tea Party movement in the US have also been branded ‘populist’.”
Mr Brading did not respond to Breitbart London’s request for comment on the matter.
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