Nigel Hastilow

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Nigel Hastilow (born 1956) was a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for the British Conservative Party who tendered his resignation as PPC in November 2007 after sparking a controversy with a newspaper column about immigration. Hastilow was due to stand in the Halesowen and Rowley Regis constituency but comments he made in a column in the Express & Star newspaper, in which he claimed that Enoch Powell, a politician noted for his Rivers of Blood speech, was "right" on immigration, led to him being criticised by senior members of the party.^[1] Hastilow chose to resign as PPC rather than apologise for the remarks, but his resignation was not accepted by the local party, which referred the matter to the national Party Board.^[2]

1 Background
2 2007, Halesowen & Rowley Regis
- 2.1 Powell controversy
- 2.2 Anti-Muslim blog comments
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Background

Hastilow was born in Birmingham and educated at Mill Hill School in London. After graduating from the University of Birmingham, he trained as a journalist. Working for a variety of local newspapers in Birmingham, Hastilow became a political correspondent and eventually editor. He subsequently became a columnist and also worked for the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

In 2001 Hastilow stood as a Conservative Party candidate in the constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston. He failed to get elected, coming second behind the Labour Party candidate. During the campaign it emerged that he had put a comment on his website a year before suggesting that the Conservatives under their then leader, William Hague, were a lost cause.[1]

In 2002 Hastilow was elected to Stratford-on-Avon District Council where he served as a councillor for two years.

[edit] 2007, Halesowen & Rowley Regis

In April 2007. Hastilow was selected to represent the Conservative Party in the constituency of Halesowen and Rowley Regis at the next General Election.

In August 2007 he caused controversy when he wrote in his blog that Scottish people were "exploiting" England "in much the same way that colonial powers in the 18th century used to exploit the natives of South America".[2]

[edit] Powell controversy

Hastilow wrote a regular column for the Express & Star regional newspaper. His column [3] in the 2nd November 2007 edition of the newspaper included references to the controversial British politician Enoch Powell and his Rivers of Blood speech.

Hastilow wrote:

When you ask most people in the Black Country what the single biggest problem facing the country is, most people say immigration. Many insist: “Enoch Powell was right”... He was right. It has changed dramatically. But his speech was political suicide. Enoch’s successors in Parliament are desperate to avoid ever mentioning the issue.

He then went on to criticise the welfare state:

It’s claimed we couldn’t survive without immigrants to work in our hotels, pubs and restaurants, to pick our fruit and clean our hospitals. But that’s because we make life too easy for the five million or more people who could be working but enjoy life too much living off the state. Why are 1.65 million people unemployed when it seems as if there’s a job for more or less anyone who wants one? Why are 2.4 million people claiming incapacity benefit when society is getting healthier? In the past they would have been accused of “swinging the lead”, “skiving”, “scrounging” or “cheating”. Now we’re told they need “up-skilling” and then they would be only too happy to work (but for their bad backs). We only need so many Polish waitresses because so many people who were born and bred in Britain can’t be bothered to work. This week we have seen a slight but important shift. Immigration has come out of the closet.

These remarks were interpreted by some people as being racist - Labour MP Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that Hastilow's remarks showed the Tories had a "racist underbelly". Fellow Tories such as David Davis also criticised the remarks.^[3]

Following a meeting with the party chairman, Caroline Spelman, Hastilow chose to resign rather than apologise for the comments and submit his future columns to the party's central office for approval.^[4]^[5] On 13 November, the local Conservative Association rejected Hastilow's resignation and referred the matter to the national party.^[6]

[edit] Anti-Muslim blog comments

Mr Hastilow was criticised by Labour Party MP Tom Watson at the time of his resignation for allegedly approving the publication of a comment in his blog's comment section which stated:

I've never met a Muslim I liked. They reek of hate and are sick in the head. Their religion is based on evil and hate. To hell with them and long live the Queen.^[7]

The comment was anonymous, submitted several days after the publication of the article which discussed the differing application of anti-discrimination laws to various groups- using the example of "heterosexual white men aged 37"- and included a passing mention of failing to profile terrorists as being absurd.^[7] As Hastilow's blog had comment moderation facilities,^{[citation needed]} he was criticised for his decision to publish the comment.

Several days later Watson wrote on his blog:

I am now completely satisfied that the reason [these comments] were on the site was because Nigel lacked blog experience and technical knowledge of the ‘blogger’ platform. I don’t think he approves of the sentiment of the racist comments and from our conversation, I think he finds the language as appalling as I do. The words have been deleted from his site and as far as I am concerned... the matter is closed.^[8]