I can't link to the Sky news interview with Nigel Farage but it was terrible

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It was Kay Burley. About 3pm today. She made his case for him just now and I don't even think she meant it. In fact I think she's sure she made a good job of portraying him as a mad racist while talking to him about UKIP's poster suggesting migrant workers were stealing British jobs.

He seemed quite reasonable in the face of Burley. He didn't emerge as racist - protectionist at best - xenophobic at worst. He didn't even grab anyone round the throat or ask them if they'd have given it up a bit more their husband wouldn't have been tempted to murder prostitutes.

Then she went on about a pretty young woman they're featuring as a candidate who is from her appearance, clearly of Anglo-Asian background and demanding why UKIP didn't declare her background. Burley was the one who mentioned pretty. Not me or Farage.

Farage asked why they should and to be fair I had to agree. And also, she's a pretty woman who's used a flattering picture on her literature. Wouldn't you? If you want to know more about her views then read her literature and ask her questions, rather than the party.

Oh criminy. I had to admit that Nigel seemed reasonable. They're heading for a major result in the European elections. In my mad moments I toy with voting UKIP just because I've always lived in Tory constituencies and want to crush them now more than ever.

It could happen here. I won't do it, but the temptation is fucking strong.

I'd think it was a right-wing plot if I didn't know Burley of old and realise it was incompetence.

'But once the UKIP get to brussels this is exactly what they will do - shout loudly and get nothing done.'

xpatmama, have you gone native over in Brussels?
The public don't care if UKIP do nothing in the EU Parliament, because the public don't care about the EU Parliament. That is what they are saying with their polling opinions. You care, Cleggy cares, but the huge numbers putting UKIP in the lead don't care.

That is why this is a revolution, and that is why I believe Cameron cannot possibly survive it.

"senior political figures warned on Sunday, in a result that would be viewed as a collapse of trust in the political establishment"

"if they finish in first place, that amounts to an entire rejection of the British establishment's political past"

What happens then? Do we live in a democracy or not? We are about to find out.

'And all that dedication and hard work is getting shouted done by the pub bores.'

That is that dreadful thing called democracy that the privileged elite hate so much - where the "great unwashed", the fruitcakes, the loons and the pub bores who pay their taxes to fund the expenses of those who so dedicatedly work hard for our interests, have their say and kick them out.

I'm telling you the reality.

You vote for UKIP, you vote for a load of people that won't put the work in where it's needed.

Unfortunately you have been blinded by the anti eu rhetoric - it's no use blaming the eu for all the bad things in the UK. It's a classic tactic - when things are going wrong point the finger at the foreigner. Of course there's plenty of stuff I hate about what goes on here, but UKIP are not part of the solution.

It may be that people don't want to hear this.

But actually I think you're a bit optimistic on the polls side. The 30 % hard line figure for groups across Europe you've quoted contains a lot of different groups. And the open Europe poll has been discredited to some extent.

Also, UKIPs programme is so vague, that if they actually got some power they would be bound to disappoint a lot of people.

I've been trying to think of recent examples in Europe where similar parties have got power in European member states.

Unfortunately outcomes have not been good - you could see some parallels with berlusconi's forza Italia party. Or the Hungarian government. Neither of which have delivered for their countries.

Or perhaps the lega nord in Italy is the true parallel.

It's a classic tactic - when things are going wrong point the finger at the foreigner.

But they keep telling us that we are in a strong recovery so why should we need someone to blame - for our great good fortune

Agree that 30% is way out.

You cannot seriously compare UKIP to Berlusconi's bunch of idiots. That's ridiculous. More like the Bepe Grillo's than Berlusconi's.

'I'm telling you the reality.'

No, the reality is the polls. It is the people's voice that counts. We don't care if UKIP do nothing in the EU Parliament, because we don't care about it and want to get out of it. The only work that we think is needed is getting out of it.

'it's no use blaming the eu for all the bad things in the UK'
We are not voting against the EU because teh EU is not standing, we are voting against the establishment parties

"senior political figures warned on Sunday, in a result that would be viewed as a collapse of trust in the political establishment"

"if they finish in first place, that amounts to an entire rejection of the British establishment's political past"

'Of course there's plenty of stuff I hate about what goes on here, but UKIP are not part of the solution.'

But if you want to get out of the EU, surely UKIP are the only serious option?

'It may be that people don't want to hear this.'
Cleggy found that out. he thought his clever patter would convince them otherwise. He slowly and solemnly pronounced "it's about YOU and YOUR jobs", but the public thought it was really about HIM and HIS job.

'But actually I think you're a bit optimistic on the polls side.'

I think the opposite. I think you are seriously underestimating the real public mood. You thought that UKIP was an "extreme right" party. It's not, it's not about that. It is about a breakdown of trust between public and puppets and a closing of ears to all of their spin, and that is why they cannot sway the public however many smears and fruitcakes they come up with. I think the real result will be a lot worse for teh establishment parties than is now being forecast.

"Also, UKIPs programme is so vague, that if they actually got some power they would be bound to disappoint a lot of people."

Yes, I agree with you there. UKIP have got so many politicians and councillors from Labour, Conservative and LibDem that they are bound to have some of teh same old "politically correct" spinners that are so prominent in teh establishment parties and if the public find that out, they will be sorely disappointed. I think it will be hard for UKIP to maintain their popularity if the spinners start spinning. But that is politics, that is life, things move on and the public may end up disappointed

"if they finish in first place, that amounts to an entire rejection of the British establishment's political past"

I think that may be slightly exagerating things Claig. It's ony an EU election after all. The result doesnt really bother any of the parties because there's no real power at stake anyway.

TBH the major parties will be far more concerned if they loss voters at the local elections as that really is the first step on the domestic political ladder - as the Liberals practised back in the 70/80/90s.....

WetAugust, there were commentators who said that Cameron should have resigned after he wanted to strike Syria and the Parliament opposed it. Very rarely has any Prime Minister advocated an attack on a foreign country and has Parliament turned it down. But Cameron survived that.

But, for a party of so-called "fruitcakes, loons and closet racists" to have the majority support of the British public against the pronouncements from the entire establishment of all the other parties that UKIP is "divisive", "un-British", even "racist", then I think that that really would be a crisis of credibility and would question what kind of democratic representation there really is, particularly witha first-past-the-post system where that same party could only hope to have a few MPs elected at best.

Farage is now the most popular leader of all the parties with the highest approval rating and yet he can't even appear in the leadership debates. What is going on? Is there a stitch-up? How long can the people's views be ignored? When will they be asked in a referendum?

There is nothing more imporatnt than democracy and nothing more important than the British people and their wishes. Petty party advantage and position holding and point scoring must always come second to the views of the British electorate. Democracy is more important than any bureaucrat, functionary or politician.

The Daily Mail, one of the greatest newspapers in the world, has no time for UKIP, but it respects democracy. Here is today's Daily Mail Comment on UKIP.

"This paper holds no brief for Ukip, whose leaders we would shrink from trusting with the levers of power. The party also appears to attract more than its fair share of candidates with eccentric and, in some cases, obnoxious views.

But when polls show Nigel Farage’s supporters streaking ahead of Labour and the Conservatives, while trampling the Lib Dems into dust, isn’t it time for the mainstream parties to wake up to what’s happening in modern politics?

To date, their sole line of attack has been to seek out and heap abuse on mavericks in Ukip’s ranks.

Indeed, this was the approach adopted yesterday by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, a normally mildly-spoken Cameron ally, who condemned the offensive views of a local council candidate as ‘absolutely disgusting’, ‘divisive’ and ‘un-British’.

But if the idea is to tarnish Mr Farage’s whole party with guilt by association, it clearly isn’t working.

With 31 per cent now saying they’ll vote Ukip in the euro-elections – against 28 per cent for Labour, 19 per cent for the Tories and 9 per cent for the Lib Dems – it seems that the more the party is insulted, the stronger its support grows.

Are Mr Hunt and Co trying to suggest that almost a third of the population are disgusting, divisive and un-British?

On the contrary, the overwhelming majority of Ukip supporters are decent people, heartily fed up with having their views ignored by the political class.

If they want to regain lost ground, the mainstream parties should try heeding voters’ wishes on such issues as uncontrolled immigration, human rights madness and the relentless surrender of our sovereignty to Brussels.

Abuse alone, however merited in individual cases, just sounds like panic."

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2614611/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-Mere-abuse-wont-stop-voters-backing-Ukip.html

'Are Mr Hunt and Co trying to suggest that almost a third of the population are disgusting, divisive and un-British?'

The more we are insulted, the greater we grow in number. They need to start respecting the British public.

The British public always goes for the under-dog, so if they try to freeze Farage out of their televised debates it will backfire badly and robably result in even more support for UKIP

But I do wish people would lose this misplaced optimism that they will do well in the domestic GE. They won't. They'll be lucky to get a thousand votes per constituency. At this fever level there will be a lot of very disappointed people post May 2015.

You are probably right, but we don't know what will happen between now and the election.

There may be leadership challenges. There is the situation in Ukraine and the whole EU/Russia relations, there may be more flooding (but will the luvvies have dredged the rivers?), there is the Chilcott report which may eventually be released, there are the Cyril Smith and similar scandals that are being investigated.

Or there may be "politically correct" spinners scoring own goals by not understanding the public. They've come up with a new "politically correct" term that the public has not heard before - "Euracism".

Here is tomorrow's Guardian

"Ukip condemned by cross-party group for running 'racist' campaign

Aggressive move accusing Nigel Farage's party of 'Euracism' comes as study puts anti-EU vote in Europe at 30%

The first cross-party campaign to condemn Nigel Farage's party as racist is to be launched this week amid fresh polls showing Ukip may come first across England in the European elections in May.

The campaign is led by the former Labour immigration minister Barbara Roche, who claimed: "Ukip's campaign needs to be exposed for what it is, a racist campaign. The party is practising what is in effect a form of 'Euracism'. They are deploying the same language and tactics used by openly racist parties like the BNP, but instead of targeting migrants from Africa and Asia they are targeting migrants from within the EU."

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/28/ukip-european-election-accused-of-racism

Have these "politically correct" spinners never read the story about the spinner who cried wolf?

Is this really the calibre of people that we have in charge of our country?

Well, well, who'd have thought it - The Guardian has just 'exposed' a 'cross-party' attempt to smear UKIP as racist.

twitter.com/guardian/status/460903220727255040/photo/1

Not news at all as Paul Nuttall told us 3 weeks ago there was an organised smear campaign to brand the party as racist.

Ooops! Snap Claig - just noticed your post.

"there was an organised smear campaign to brand the party as racist"

I bet the spinners organising it are from Oxbridge or Eton. How stupid do you have to be to not realise that it will backfire? How "out of touch" are these people? What do they teach them there?

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"

Mahatma Gandhi

Where are we at present? Step 3?

What's happened to the other UKIP thread in Politics?

Absolutely

Farage must be loving this. He has never come across such fools as this lot, and they have the cheek to call UKIP "fruitcakes"

Which thread? It's probably old and has slipped to page 2

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"

Just in time for May 2015.

Don't underestimate how incompetent these spinners are. Putting their foot in their mouth is their speciality.

Farage doesn't even have to try. All he has to do is say nothing and watch them unravel.

The 'Anyone voting UKIP' one. Think it's been deleted but don't know why. Things aren't usually deleted over here.

You're right. It is no longer there. Don't know what has happened.