A story UKIP won’t use

During the 2010 general election UKIP seized upon the Miss Winkfield story. Miss Winkfield Westward of Devon was 83-year-old and refused to pay her council tax in protest against the amount paid to the European Union. UKIP fetched Max Clifford in and he got the story in the far right Daily Mail. Miss Winkfield got £10,000 and then someone noticed that she was supposed to be getting only £112 a month.

The Labour Party who were portrayed as the bad guys pointed out nobody got £28 a week and the whole story was in fact total lies. Still UKIP was happy as some people still believed it.

Now to get this next bit in the Daily Mail would take 10 Max Cliffords and then it would be buried in the ads. Stephanie Bottril’s story could not be used by UKIP, Conservatives or the Lib-Dems in the run up to any election because it’s totally true — ex-postal worker Stephanie Bottrill was struggling and then George Osborne introduced the bedroom tax.

This additional tax which was not mentioned in any election manifesto tipped Stephanie’s over the top. She’d never been in debt and left a note saying that she could not afford £52 a month. She said goodbye to her family and neighbours and walked to the motorway and straight in front of a lorry. There is not one falsehood in Stephanie’s story, which is why you will never see it mentioned by the far right or UKIP in the next eight months or so in the run up to next May.

Miss Winkfield like stories will around while Miss Bottrill’s as rare as cuckoo clock droppings. If any politicians buy a new house car or go on holiday you can bet the opposition say the tax payer paid for it when the truth is it came of their own pocket. In fact I bet it’s started already — it’s Chinese to me how people believe it.

Mr R Billups, Rawmarsh