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.

... and Dave is now saying that if he is elected next time he will definitely, definitely, absolutely, definitely, you-have-to-believe-him sincerely definitely, hold an EU referendum and nothing, not even forgoing a shiny new coalition with his chum Cleggy will dissuade him from holding a refereundum and it will be a resigning point if he can't.

Why don't I believe him

Anyway, off he see Nigel tomorrow night at the public meeting.

I'll send him your love Claig.

"David Cameron threatens to resign without 2017 EU vote

Cameron makes in-out vote on Europe a dealbreaker in second coalition as Tory activist tells PM: 'No-one believes you'. "

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10794368/David-Cameron-threatens-to-resign-without-2017-EU-vote.html

I think Cameron will be gone long before 2017.

Have a great time listening to Nigel. Tell us all about it afterwards.

Will do (it's tonight actually).

Cameron's barking to think that will sway Tories.

So, he'll resign. Wrong.

If the Tories are the largest party but without an overall majority and Cameron will not eneter into Coaltition-The Sequel if he's not allowed an In/Out vote then all that will happen is the Tories will ditch Cameron and replace him with a Leader who will do the deed with Cleggy.

Power is power and nothing will stand in their way of obtaining it even if they have to sell their souls to achieve it via Coalition II.

He must think we're really dim. He's had 5 years to renegoiate EU terms and what has he achieved - bugger all!. Plenty of time to devlop crap policies like HS2 though, but no time at all to think about renogiating our 55million pounds a day.

Sorry - time's up.

Just looked at Farage's flyer for his meetings. It says

"A Meeting with Nigel Farage

Leader of Britain's Most Popular Party"

He really knows how to wind the spinners up

They must be absolutely fuming about that line, and scribblers, schemers and spinners must be working overtime on new smears to "stop the people's party".

Farage is pure teflon, nothing sticks, the spinners are sh*tting bricks

wetaugust
I am afraid that this is exactly where I think your perception of UKIP is at odds from the reality - you say that we cannot compare them to Berlusconi's bunch of idiots, or potentially to Lega Nord.

But they are VERY different to Bepe grillo.

The reason is that Berlusconi and Lega Nord consistently blame immigration for Italy's woes e.g. And they show what happens when aa more centre right party (ie Berlusconi's) joins force with a more extremist party (ie Lega Nord), which doesn't have a strong legislative platform. So vote UKIP and you get Italy ;-)

Bepe Grillo is an environmentalist for example. He is populist but left wing. If he joins the EP it will be with the United European Left for example. UKIP denies climate change and sits firmly on the right wing of the Parliament.

Here's a YouTube video about the different layers of support for populist parties in Europe. They discuss the main traits of populist movements and parties in Europe and why they might be appealing to increasing numbers of voters, but also highlight the threats they bring to democratic societies.

and frankly how can you vote for a party like UKIP where so much of hte stuff they say is just sooo nasty and bigoted.

I despair.

adding onto xpatmama's post, an article from today's Guardian about Left and Right eurosceptics: www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/brussels-braced-influx-eurosceptics-parties-european-union-polls

thanks Molly!
yep the article puts UKIP around the same place on the scale as Geert Wilders' Freedom Party, the Vlaams Belang (ie the Flemish extremists) and the Northern League (the Lega Nord I was mentioning before) which feels about right given what I know about their policies.

I would reckon Bepe is further left though than they put him.

xpatmama, what on earth has that video got to do with UKIP.

Trying to link UKIP, Britain's most popular political party, to Golden Dawn is a tactic worthy of the best spinners from Oxbridge. It has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with desperation and smears.

Farage has warned and told the Eurocrats that they are reponsible for the rise of Golden Dawn and Farage has said that he worries for the future in countries brought to their knees by the economic mismanagement caused by the Euro - the dream of the Eurocrats and socialists. Farage has said that he will not join the group with Marine Le Pen's party.

Smears won't work, UKIP is growing ever more popular as the public sees the bare-faced lies that the spinners in their desperation are resorting to as the people abandon them.

ha well UKIP are not on the level of goldern dawn it is true. lacking criminal records and racist convictions!

I just thought it was an interesting video!

Just point to where I have lied eh Claig? Or spun?

Meanwhile, here's an example of a Farage 'spin' to be kind:
factcheckeu.org/
factcheckeu.org/factchecks/show/362/nigel-farage

UKIP (although not the only offenders) spin massively on the EU and parrot all kinds of myths and inaccuracies.

They are not bad at spin themselves Claig. Certainly not immune.

factcheckeu.org/factchecks/show/136/nigel-farage
here's another one

same website also points out where Nigel has used the correct figures, so not biased.

Who do you think made that video? Who do you think paid? Why do you think they made it? Why do you think they put a picture of Farage in it and the majority of the video was about people talking about Golden Dawn, the Front National and Wilders?

Spinners are desperate. All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Numpty back together again.

'Just point to where I have lied eh Claig? Or spun?'
You are falling for the spin.

Listen to the truth from the horse's mouth - no spin, no smears, no lies - just Farage speaking with a conviction that no spinner has or ever can have, because the truth is real and spin is lies. Farage is on about democracy, something spinners pay lip service to but don't really believe in.

Claig, if you believe that UKIP does not spin you are deluded. Farage is a politician, he is not a saint.

see my links above

the golden dawn are an example of a more right wing version of UKIP. They are drawing on similar preoccupations in the population, even if the goldern dawn are a much more extreme and nasty version.

here's one on fraud in the EU by Derek Clarke: factcheckeu.org/factchecks/show/177/derek-clark

'Claig, if you believe that UKIP does not spin you are deluded.'

I agree with you. They do stretch their points. They don't explain every caveat etc to every point because they need to try and speak in bullet points since that is all the attention span most people will have or the airtime that the media will allow them.

'the golden dawn are an example of a more right wing version of UKIP'

This is nonsense. UKIP have candidates from ethnic minorities.

the thing is in my opinion they dont just stretch their points, they spout total inaccuracies.

and I did say that the Golden Dawn was a much more extreme and nasty version than UKIP. I mean the Golden Dawn are fascist whereas UKIP is right wing/ xenophobic.

this does not affect the point that the reasons both parties are prospering may be similar.

let me adjust that - UKIP are right wing/ bigoted/ xenophobic

in a real national election under proportional election, UKIP would win hands down and Farage would be Prime Minister. The Tories would be history and Labour would be our second party.

I understand that spinners don't like that, but that is how the people would vote in a real democracy, in my opinion. The spinners wouldn't stand a chance.

For now, the spinners will remain in charge because we have first-past-the-post, but it is now obvious that that will not be able to endure over the coming decades, because it is as plain as the nose on a spinner's face that there is now a huge democratic deficit with the people not being represented. We will have to be granted a proportional voting system. The spinners will have to let the public will be expressed. They will delay it for as long as they can, but they cannot hold out forever.

This EU election will cause an "earthquake" just as Farage keeps saying

As the Guardian article said

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

Mmm Kay Burley is an awful woman. I complained to ofcom about her harassing those two poor people who were waiting to hear about April Jones. I watched it live and it appalled me. The woman is nasty, heartless and incompetent.
She asked the girlfriend of the Ipswich serial killer Steve Wright if he wouldn’t have committed the murders had their sex life been better . I mean, REALLY! How can anyone be that insensitive.

I refuse to watch sky news because of her and probably because it's crap too

Farage is the leader of UKIP. Is he xenophobic?

He has a French name and a German wife. He is for democracy and the people, he is populist, not xenophibic.

And a real proportional system would be fantastic for the people.

Heaven knows I believe that global warming is a scam and therefore do not support the Greens, but Natalie Bennett was on the Daily Politics yesterday and she was excellent talking about her opposition to the TTIP trade deal and fracking. Establishment LibDem, Sir Menzies Campbell, said something like the TTIP deal should not be discussed in public so as not to have people "grandstanding" which he implied Natalie was doing.

Even if you don't like the will of the people and their backing for UKIP, it is now clear that proportioanl representation will one day be granted to us by the spinners because of UKIP, and that will be good for the Greens and Green voters and all the people of the country. The only people it will be bad for is the spinners.

His policies are xenophobic and UKIP are as bad spinners as the rest of them Claig. And there have been so many nasty xenophobic and racist comments by members of the party it doesnt really matter whether Farage himself is. He seems to be motivated by his desire to leave the EU and will ride whatever political beast necessary to get that and to get his hands on some political power.

This is the problem with UKIP - they all have "foreign" workers in their teams, using other EU people, but yet they rail against EU immigration into the UK. It's ok for them then, right? Hypocritical is the least you could say. They say they employ the best people for the job, but would restrict that possibility for other employers.

EG Farage employs his German wife, MEP Gerard Batten has hired Pavel Stroilov, from Russia, and Kamila Zarychta, is his accredited assistant in Brussels. MEP Roger Helmer has an Italian Assistant, William Dartmouth employs a Dane.

Eg some examples of nasty tweets: from the Guardian www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/27/ukip-farage-racism-lenny-henry-politics-europe: Ukip has attempted to improve its vetting of candidates in the local and European elections to be held next month, but it appears that some of their members will not be constrained on social media. Along with his comments about Henry, the party's candidate in Enfield Town, London, has tweeted that "Islam reminds me of the 3rd Reich, strength through violence against the citizens". He said Muslims "like us to fawn to them" and "young Muslim men remind me of young Afrikaners. They are taught at an early age they have the right to abuse".