to think that it's unacceptable to frighten someone's DC even if you think they're a nasty bigot?

[OTheHugeManatee]

I just saw this story about protesters forcing Nigel Farage and his family out of a pub where they were having lunch.

I don't really like Farage's politics. But I support his democratic right to hold those views. AIBU to think hounding him and frightening his DC during a family lunch is unacceptable, illiberal and frankly nasty, whatever you think of the things he says?

hillingdon. My opinion would remain the same.

Plus Britain First are now exercising there right to threaten to publish the addresses of Sundays protest cabaret to their mob of support

You'll forgive me of I consider a pantomime gay donkey less threatening by a mile.

But who here has supported Britain First's antics? If they do that there will be legal consequences.

The whole 'they did x bad thing, so we'll do y' isn't very edifying.

Of course it's wrong to harass someone and frighten the children. If you don't like their politics, vote for someone else, that's what the ballot box is for.

Yes, they did indeed get together and foisted themselves all over all of us.

Not at all comparable to the events of the weekend. Don't agree with UKIP? Don't vote for them. Even people in the public domain have a right to a private life, regardless of whether or not we agree with their views.

The people who are in Britain First and who do all those threats are totally out of order. That goes without saying. It's sadly predictable the stuff and the threats they come out with.

It's also out of order to - when you realise that your "target" is not in the place where you booked your birthday party diversity cabaret - to go over the road to the pub he is in, invade it and force him out when he is having lunch with his family.

Of course it's far less threatening. It still does not make it acceptable. I think it will have backfired on the organisers - who could have made their point far more effectively at a political event he organised. Which could have been in a pub of course. A lunch with family is a personal event.

I think we shall have to agree to disagree.

Ultimately, I don't think that you get the right to sit and eat a lovely roast dinner in a cosy pub in Downe with your family on a Sunday when you spend Mon-Sat trying to ruin people's lives by exploiting the ignorance of the downtrodden and egging them on to oppress the equally downtrodden but duskier of hue.

Equally, I don't think anyone should take a day off from trying to stop your vile ways. Be it during breakfast, lunch or dinner.

And calling them "rabble" and "sadly mistaken" is the sort of language that means the issue can be ignored in favour of ad hominem attacks.

We still don't know if his family were actually with him. We have Farage's word for it and nobody else seems to have contributed with any sort of definite. I wouldn't trust Farage as far as I could spit.

So what - the protestors didn't know who was there.

Did someone say "I've seen Farage across the road, let's go there"

I wonder if anyone stopped and thought about it - or were they caught up in a mob mentality?

So you can't protest, just in case? Don't be so bloody ridiculous, honestly, we can't protest against government cuts in case there are some children outside the benefits centre, we can't march up Putney High Street in case Nick Clegg and family have popped into Macdonalds. Daft!

Nice spin.

You seem to think it's ok to protest in a pub where someone is eating.

Others don't.

No one is saying don't protest. People are saying there's a time and a place.

He had similar treatment in Scotland a couple of years ago, except that then he had to barricade himself inside the pub

But Farage's children are German, surely that the whole ethos of UKIP is making foreigners leave? Then they are just following the Dear Leader's example. Also, hiding from Scots, in a pub? Not the cleverest.

I live in Edinburgh and according to people who saw the incident and the aftermath, it mostly consisted of people chanting Nigel is a bawbag. He wasn't physically attacked or threatened. He seems to be extremely thin skinned and willing to play the victim card when it suits him.

I was part of a mass walk out when he came into a pub near me- was that unacceptable too? Sadly I think that would have been more upsetting for his family than a conga line- but I was certInly not going to share a pub with him......

haylut

A mass walk out is less disrupting than being disturbed. It makes a point that you wouldn't want to be seen with him.

Less disrupting, maybe. But surely much more upsetting for his children? To see that three quarters of the people in a pub don't want to share the same air as your dad?

And calling them "rabble" and "sadly mistaken" is the sort of language that means the issue can be ignored in favour of ad hominem attacks

Hardly.

Walking out may have been upsetting for his children - but a rabble descending on him must have been pretty scary for his children. Nothing whatsoever achieved at all by their actions - other than rallying the UKIP troops.

Haven't read the whole thread. But whilst I know that the civilized response is clearly to live and let live etc, part of me is kind of glad that people are outraged enough about this guy to tell him so to his face. And as for his children being 'scared', I am not sure how much of that to believe. The protesters were in fancy dress, not a armed convoy of skinheads, ffs. Perhaps he would like to explain to his children why such a diverse range of people don't like him or his policies?

TBH - I'm thinking more about the other people in the pub enjoying their Sunday lunch when a congo bursts in. Then the car he is in gets attacked.

I am sure my DS would have been very upset that if we had been in that pub when the congo - who realised they'd fucked up and got the wrong pub - burst in, drove someone out and then attacked his car.

Doesn't matter if they are dressed up as donkeys or skinheads - a large group descending on them as a family during their private time together is not acceptable.

The point is still that if the 'Diversity Cabaret' had conga'd through a UKIP campaign rally or event no-one would have batted an eyelid. It's the intrusion onto a private family occasion that's the issue here, not the protest as such.

I have a great deal of sympathy with the fact that they are protesting against policies they see as socially destructive even if Farage stands little chance of ever getting anywhere near enough real power to implement them. The people minimising that are missing the distinction.

There are no political opinions the holding of which justifies attacking the holder as a private individual in private life, rather than as a politician in public. Behaviour, maybe. Opinions, no.

But I forget, it's OK to attack people as a private individual for their opinions, as long as it's only bad opinions that get treated like this

descending on them as a family during their private time together is not acceptable.

It wasn't private time, he is a public figure who is standing for election and was in a public place. Therefore he should expect interaction from the public both positive and negative.

'Private family time' is behind closed doors in their own home, not in a busy pub in the midst of an election campaign.

Absolutely agree Manatee

I would add that one person's view of what constitutes a bad opinion is very different from anothers , and if we take the approach that everyone (and their family) in the public domain is fair game then we have to be clear on where that stops - does it mean that a large crowd who disagree with a decision can ambush a planning officer on a family lunch, for example, or the Chief Exec of the local NHS? I'd be very concerned that this lack of respect for 'off' time would put people off from taking up roles in the public domain.

As I said, i think our mass walk out would have been much more upsetting for his children.

And in the run up to election, if a politician wants private family time, they do not go on a pre announced trip to a pub they regularly go to. There are hundreds of pubs in the depths of Kent where they could be quite private.

And nobody excuses the 90 second jump on the car, by the way, including the organisers of the meeting/demonstration/whatever it was.

sitting in a pub is not 'private family time' is it?

No, private time should absolutely not be limited to time behind closed doors at home. What an awful thought.