UKC

Did anyone watch this?

Yasmin Alibhai Brown was on the show to act as a critique to the Farage spin and she actually said that she thinks that the media should stop giving Farage air/print time to dampen his popularity , inferring that we are too stupid to be allowed to listen to his nonsense and we should have our news manipulated by the powers that be (presumably ones she agrees with) so we cannot hear his message.

Seriously, has she read 1984? Staggering arrogance.

Farage is an interesting character. Like a tin of Ronseal, he appears to do exactly what it says on the tin and is the antithesis of the political correctness agenda that has crept into our system. Rightly or wrongly this clearly appeals to a lot of (mainly older) people.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:


I din't see this, but he strikes me as being very similar to David Cameron. He has a very carefully crafted media persona (the affable straight talking bloke down the pub) which belies the detail of the policies of his party (which are far less straightforward, often contradictory and unfocussed).

In reply to toad:

Funnily enough, the show dismantled the theory that his persona is carefully crafted. Much more that he has now realised that his actual personality is his greatest asset (unlike a lot of his party members) He was walking around his home town, in the local pubs, chatting to friends...people genuinely seemed to know him and like him. He went into the City and bumped into traders smoking outside offices...again hand shakes, how have you been, great to see you, lets go for a beer...

This actually resonated with me because my own career closely maps his until he went into politics. No uni and straight into the City working up from the bottom. I often bump old colleagues from the LIFFE floor (very similar to the metals exchange where he worked) in the bars in the square mile.

It's worth watching, even if just to get more of an insight to the behemoth that is the European parliament

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

You quite like him don't you?

In reply to Saor Alba:

I like "him" a lot more than I like his party. He is very similar to Salmond isn't he. A maverick politician trying to break the status quo.

For me, its a bit "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" as I am pretty underwhelmed with the current offering over the usual political spectrum. He's the underdog, he's not grown up wanting to be a politician like the current mob, but became one because he didn't like what he saw and wanted to try and force change. I like that.

He's not perfect by a long chalk, but he's mixing it up which I like.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

I caught the last half of it, I thought it was quite good. Neil Kinnock didn't seem to do himself any favours.

Farage played the game well and knew how to get the right spin.

In reply to Jim Walton:

Yes, Kinnock came across badly, his defence of the European tariffs on food was beyond pathetic. He floundered badly, and you could see he was annoyed with himself (and getting annoyed with the interviewer) "It's for health and safety, but mainly safety" ?!

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:
>Seriously, has she read 1984?

Seriously, do you really not think that Farage is getting far too much air time relative to his total unimportance, and that decisions made as to the amount of air time minor politicians get affect the public consciousness greatly? Imagine Caroline Lucas had had the same exposure, for instance.

Still, I'm all for it. The more votes Farage takes off Cameron the better.

And indeed we must all be grateful to Farage for that magnificent moment during the last election when his banner wrapped round the tail of his private aeroplane and almost killed him. The perfect political metaphor. I'm not sure any event in public life has given me quite such a good laugh since.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Why do you think Caroline Lucas gets less time on TV?

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

>Why do you think Caroline Lucas gets less time on TV?

Doesn't she? I had the impression Farage had some kind of televised debate with the deputy Prime Minister/teaboy lately. CL doesn't do that kind of thing, does she?

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Maybe she should. Is she doing her job properly do you think?

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

There are some parallels with the early 90s when the Greens did reasonably well in local/Euro elections before bombing spectacularly in the general election. Wonder how we'd be if Nick Clegg had won his PR referendum after the last election?

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:


Are you suggesting that Nige isn't really a him?

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

UKIP are regularly polling around 11%, and the Greens are round 2%. That puts UKIP above a party that forms our government, and the Green party in the same league as the BNP. Regardless of the reasons why, this does influence media coverage!

In reply to climbwhenready:

On the other hand, the Greens do have a member of parliament. But you're right, of course, and as I say long may it continue. If Scotland secedes UKIP's my best hope of seeing another non-Tory government in my lifetime (and I don't mean by UKIP forming one either!).

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

You contradict yourself when you say in one sentence "his total unimportance" then two later, "the more votes he takes off Cameron the better".

This is exactly why he isn't unimportant, and is taken quite seriously by the main parties. It turns out lots of traditional labour support is moving to UKIP in the north of the country, plus a lot of traditional tory voters as you allude to.

If anything, you are showing the same arrogance as Yasmin Brown in trying to dismiss him as an irrelevance purely on the basis that UKIP have no MPs when in fact he could very well influence to outcome of the next general election.(and UKIP could still have no MPs)...interesting times

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

>

I thought the bit that all the media people who seemed to admire him all fiercely criticised his immigration policy as contrary to his stated core political beliefs was interesting - He did come across as quite charmless at times (the awards speech).

I'm not sure that he is in the same class as Salmond - after all AS has been an MP etc, long part of the conventional UK political scene in a long established party - quite a different kettle of fish.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

UKIP's my best hope of seeing another non-Tory government in my lifetime (and I don't mean by UKIP forming one either!).


And you care because? What did the last non-Tory government do - part from land us with crippling debts?

jrg

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:
It was interesting to see how undemocratic the whole EC thing really is. I can see his point of view on some issues like non-EU imports. I think we have lost too much control to the EU. But I don't think we should leave.
The Tories are the most democratic in this respect as they have pledged a referendum. Labour and the Lib Dems won't give us the choice.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:


We should burn his books and leaflets.

In reply to stroppygob:

I wish you'd stop being so damn liberal, stropster. xxx

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:



Brilliant, the utter lack of self knowledge of these people and their contempt for "ordinary hard working people". The main attraction of Farage to the voters is that he is not one of the liberal elite establishment -which includes Cameron et al- which had been ignoring or disdaining the views of Joe Public for most of the last three decades or more. So their reaction is the use the "liberal" media establishment to suppress him .

Fascinating that the media generally thought Clegg had won the first debate but polls showed the opposite. Utterly out of touch, the lot of them.

In reply to Postmanpat:


Hmm....

"Farage was born in Herne, Kent, on 3 April 1964, to Guy Justus Oscar Farage and Barbara Stevens.[7][8][9] The Farage name comes from Huguenot ancestry.[10][11] His father was a stockbroker who worked in the City of London financial district. A profile on BBC Radio 4 claimed he was an alcoholic[7] and he left the family home when Nigel was five years old.[6]

Farage was educated at Dulwich College, a public school in south London.[9] On leaving school in 1982, he decided not to go to university, but to work in the City trading commodities.[7] Initially, he joined the American commodity brokerage firm Drexel Burnham Lambert,[9] transferring to Credit Lyonnais Rouse in 1986.[9] He joined Refco in 1994, and Natexis Metals in 2003.[9]"

In reply to Oceanrower:


The liberal elite establishment is not defined by it's background but by its attitudes. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown grew up in Uganda but you'd struggle to exclude her from the category.