A disgusting smear

THE repulsive poster of a snarling white skinhead trying to intimidate a serenely smiling Asian lady has understandably provoked a storm of protest, and ought never to have seen the light of day.

This tasteless and misguided stunt was dreamed up by the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi for the pressure group Operation Black Vote, which somehow deluded itself that this was an acceptable way to encourage ethnic minorities to vote in the EU referendum.

Last night, the Charity Commission demanded an explanation about why OBV says it is a charity when it is not.

But the Cabinet Office, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which all help fund OBV, also have questions to answer. Rowntree has already been investigated by the Charity Commission over its £300,000 support for Cage, a Muslim ‘human rights’ group which are apologists for IS executioner Jihadi John.

Almost anyone glancing at the poster for the first time will assume the aggressively gesticulating and tattooed skinhead is supposed to represent a Brexit voter.

This is a horrible slur on millions of peaceable and well-mannered citizens – including many of immigrant descent – who want Britain to leave the EU.

If the poster had been done the other way round, with a hateful-looking Asian gesticulating at a gentle white lady, it would immediately have been dismissed as racist: and that, unfortunately, is exactly what this poster is, except that this time the racism is directed against the white working class, many of whose children suffer from over-crowded schools and hospitals, to which mass immigration is a significant contributory factor.