webchat with "loons, fruitcakes and racists"

[glasnost]

Is it ok for MN to be hosting a webchat with someone branded the above by our PM?

Why not? He is allowed his opinion like everyone else I guess. I am expecting that he will get a rough ride on here though

What?

I'm referring to Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP who's been invited to do a webchat tomorrow (24th).

When I saw he was doing a webchat here I thought, either he's very brave or very stupid.

Glasnost. Who branded him this? remember lawyers may be watching!

Our PM back in 2006. It said so in the DM so must be true. He has never gone back on this assertion even though you could argue that the tory party harbours its fair share of "loons" etc. Allegedly.

Loon, fruitcake or whatever... he's always good value on political panel shows etc. Mad as a box of frogs but very entertaining. :)

I think MNHQ are on dodgy ground giving him air time. It all helps 'normalise' his views. Why would we want to talk to him anyway? It'll all be bullshit and spin. That's what you get from the vaguely decent politicians on here anyway...

I think they should reconsider. He shouldn't be given this platform. Or maybe the point is to give him enough rope.

I'd rather just ignore him.

Yes but all aspiring tinpot dictators can be occasionally amusing. Even Hitler could elicit a few giggles to English eyes as he was so blatantly and ridiculous. Not that I'm in any way comparing Farage to Hitler. Perish the thought!

Glasnost. Cameron never said that about Farage. He was talking about the party, which I thought was a stupid thing to say.I'm sure he never used the word racist either, 900.000 voted UKIP in the last election are they all mad? Cameron's voters switched to UKIP Cameron lost many, many votes.

Farage would have sued Cameron for defamation of character! Thanks to your post he could now sue MN!

Chil1234. You say that he's 'mad as a box of frogs. He's far from that, he's an astute politician who it would be very difficult to argue with, as most he espouses are facts. I have met both Cameron and Farage, and it was Cameron who became flustered with my questions, which I found surprising. Farage holds his ground I feel he's a strong character, although he comes across as humourous, he did not get to where he is today by being a 'soft touch'. I always notice when someone has a dig at him, he brushes it off, tries to humour the person. No I'm afraid you've not heard the last of Farage. he's been in a near fatal car crash, had cancer, been in a near fatal plane crash. Someone's looking after him!

Here is a link with the quote:

" he claimed its members were "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly".

So, not specifically about Farage.

Grimmathenome. I thought he would not say anything drectly about Farage.

I thought he would not say anything drectly about Farage.

I wouldn't have thought so either, because I don't think Cameron is particularly given to personal attacks.

Anyone who makes a laughing stock of themselves (and British people by association) by comparing the president of the EC to a damp dishcloth falls into my definition of 'mad as a box of frogs'. He may have survived a plane crash etc. but there's definitely something not right about him.

GrimmaTheNome so Cameron is not given to personal attacks? Branding the members of a political party "loons" etc is OK then, is it? That makes 900,000 of them. The original point of my post was to ask whether it's Ok for MN to be giving someone like him airtime and where do we draw the line?

It's facile to say he's got a huge following so it's legit to have him on. Alot of folk would be in favour of hanging, drawing and quartering certain types of criminals but it doesn't make it acceptable.

Erm, I don't think UKIP has 900,000 members, does it? People who vote for a politcal party are not necessarily members of the party.

Oh give an opinion instead of nitpicking midnight.

You get the general idea I'm sure.

Farage's one-trick-pony views may be peculiar but they're not actually offensive, are they? Unless I've missed something. I'd be rather if it was Nick Griffin being given air-time but a few thorny questions aimed at Farage that he can't answer by blaming the EU seems fair enough

A generalisation isn't a personal attack. I didn't say it was ok anyway, just responding to complimentary saying 'he would not say anything drectly about Farage'

Farage on the other hand did make a personal attack on the president of the EU (and a general one on the whole of Belgium), for which he wouldn't apologise. This article about it includes a nice definition of the neologism 'to farage'

Complimentary if Cameron became flustered with your questions and Farage didn't that is probably because you're a UKIP supporter and sweetened your questions accordingly. Cameron, however, seems to be moving towards UKIP's general ethos. (See his comments on multiculturalism recently).

Farage is a xenophobic little englander who appeals to the worst in our nation's collective character.

It's interesting you should mention Nick Griffin Chil1234 as members of UKIP have had links with BNP in the past and they both draw on similar electorates. The BNP are the bovver boys to UKIP's DM readers but there's not alot of difference between them.

I was a bit about the webchat too. Looking at the figures, they did get 3.1% of the vote, although didn't gain any parliamentary seats. Presumably they had a lot of candidates, which makes the percentage figure less impressive if spread across the constituencies.

It's a tricky one for MNHQ. UKIP apparently asked them for a webchat, and statistically they do probably represent the views of a least some posters (most of them new to the site it appears though ).

I don't like UKIP. Any party that has to state they are 'non-racist' immediately gets my back up. I've asked a question though as I want to see their thinking and hopefully give them enough rope - won't ever be compelled to vote for them though.

But if he turns up at MNHQ and finds out no-one wants to talk to him, wouldn't that be a victory of sorts?

Cant stand the man or his parties policies but I would never support censorship and I am surprised others on here seem to be considering it.

Beat these people with logic and argument not by sticking your fingers in your ears going "nah nah nah im not listening" :o

Remember Griffin appearance on Question Time probably cost the BNP a lot of votes.

I'm not nitpicking glasnost - I actually think it's an important distinction. Judging by some of the comments on the webchat thread, some of UKIP's members could be described as 'loons'. However, I suspect that a proportion of the people who voted for them in the last election are disaffected anti-european tories, who are quite possibly unaware of the (to my mind) xenophobic, rascist and otherwise offensive attitudes in some of UKIP's literature and the behaviour of their MEPs.

Is that OK for you?