With the appearance today of an “interview” with Nigel Farage which appeared in the Mail, there are those that have classed it as a “hatchet-job”, while the dyed-in-the-wool “party-faithful” have lauded it on Twitter for showing their leader as a “man-of-the-people”.
At the outset – and before the “party-faithful” pile in, accusing me of bias – allow me a personal summation of the man, someone I have met and spoken to whilst I was a member of Ukip. Yes, he has the ability to communicate with the “man-in-the-street”; yes he “talks” their language, saying a lot of things that they are themselves saying, consequently he has the ability to resonate with the public. On the downside let us consider: once you have heard one speech in public, you have probably heard them all; his “Jack-the-lad” persona undoubtedly has a public appeal, but when looking at potential party leaders, the public expects a certain amount of what may be termed “gravitas”, a factor sadly lacking with Farage; when answering questions, invariably every response is “EU-based”, a strategy which undoubtedly does “turn-off” sections of those to whom he should be appealing.
Another area wherein Nigel Farage and Ukip are missing what may be termed an open goal is educating the public on ‘matters-EU’. The Lib/Lab/Con have no wish to talk about ‘matters-EU’ and when, on the rare occasions they do, invariably what they say is either slanted pro-EU, misleading or totally incorrect. The public are ill-informed about the European Union; have no idea of its aims; understand nothing about ‘matters euro’; know nothing about what mechanisms are available whereby our membership of the EU could be terminated; have never once had it explained to them that some form of trading arrangements are necessary – and what the options might be – to continue imports and exports with the EU; have never had explained what “life after the EU” would comprise. Should not Farage and Ukip be talking about these matters? What better time than when the subject of the EU and our membership is almost a daily news item? What better opportunity than now to expose Andrea Leadsom and her Fresh Start Group – along with Cameron et all – as the false prophets that they are?
Let us now turn to Farage’s “New Year Message“. At 1:50 in the video, Farage states:
“I won’t believe Cameron is really serious in renegotiation unless he invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which is the only mechanism by which somebody who wanted to stay in the EU could actually begin a process to claw back some powers.”
Who on earth allowed him to utter such rubbish? Anybody who wanted to stay in the EU would not invoke Article 50, which is the means of giving notice to leave the EU. As for “clawing back powers”, then there are two words that prevent that, namely’ “Acquis Communautaire”. This is the “acquired Community practice and powers”; the irreversible and irretrievable body of laws, policies and practices which have at any given time evolved in the EC/EU – note the two words “irreversible” and “irretrievable”.
Later, in this “New Year Message” “Soviet-style-misinformation-broadcast”, Farage lauds the percentage of votes his party obtained at the recent by-elections held at Corby and Rotherham. Where the latter is concerned, as this post shows, Labour, with an unpopular candidate and dysfunctional campaign, delivered a record low majority. It polled 9,866 votes – less than MacShane’s last majority – taking votes from only 15.6 percent of the electorate to win the seat. UKIP, which had an unusually high profile during the election after the “child snatching” case, only managed a distant second with 4,648 votes. BNP was third with 1,804. Respect took 1,778, followed by the Conservative party with 1,157, the Lib-Dems coming eighth.
Still on the subject of percentages, Farage mentions that in two polls his party achieved 14%, pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. To put that into perspective, tonight an Opinium poll, on the Guardian website, puts Ukip at 15% – a result which prompted Mike Smithson, Political Betting, to promptly pour cold water on Ukip hopes by tweeting that the UKPR commons seat projections with those figures would produce a HoC of: LAB 381: CON 219: LD 24: UKIP 0. So the vagaries of FPTP provides a party polling 8% with 24 MPs and Ukip, on polling nearly twice that figure, with not one MP. Smithson also notes on twitter that since the Rotherham Westminster by-election the Tories have lost 5 council by-elections: 1 to LAB, 4 to the LDs and none to UKIP.
When considering the outpourings of Farage – and also, on twitter, those of ex-candidates and those supposedly ‘running’ the party – then Ukip is guilty of providing a mis-service to the public, their supporters and members; and cannot by any logic be described as an alternative , credible opposition party. It is undeniable that Ukip, bearing in mind the present state of this country, bearing in mind that the EU is almost a daily news item, should be polling percentage figures in the high 20s or even the lower 30′s. The fact that they are not can, reasonably, be explained by their lack of strategy, their lack of administration, coupled with a complete lack of political ‘nous’.
Some may consider the opinions that I have expressed as being ‘over-critical’ – they are not. They are simply a recitation of facts that are plain for anyone to see – if they care to open their eyes.
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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