Was Nigel Farage ‘absent on the job’ this week, addressing a conference in America instead of focusing on the immigration figures and Ukip’s spring conference? He defended the trip on the Sunday Politics today, arguing that he recorded plenty of radio and TV interviews from Washington.
‘I did quite honestly as much media from Washington as I would have done had I been in Westminster,’ he said. When pushed again by Andrew Neil on whether he’d have better served Ukip by staying at home, Farage responded ‘with all due respect, I can’t see the difference’ between doing the interviews in Washington and Westminster.
Although Farage has a point — a TV camera is a TV camera both sides of the Atlantic — some senior kippers aren’t so sure and have questioned why he went, given the need for Ukip to make a bang after a quiet January. Farage said he thought the trip was worth it because there is plenty for Ukip to learn from conservatives in the US:
‘Every single year, there is this big conservative conference and a leading figure from the UK Conservative Party gets invited and for the first time ever, someone from Ukip got invited and that meant the opportunity to sit down and meet some of the big think tanks in America but perhaps more importantly for me in the short term, it was the chance to meet some of the really really top class campaigners in America, where their methods of data profiling and campaigning in individual constituencies is way ahead of anything we’ve got in this country.’
This is the same Nigel Farage who wrote in the Independent a few weeks ago that he was unhappy at the thought this could be one the of ‘dirtiest general election campaign in British history’ — thanks to techniques adapted from those across the pond:
‘Both Labour and the Conservatives have drafted in expensive, US-style attack campaign strategists. What this means, in practical terms, is that our election campaigns, traditionally marked by playful newspaper headlines and upbeat party political broadcasts, are more likely to become a ‘tear chunks out of one another’ affair. It’s a great shame, and I have personally said that I want to have no part of this.’
On the topic of negative campaign, Farage also spoke about his health, which has been the subject of rumours in Westminster over the last few weeks. After whispers of a serious illness reached the ears of Ukip’s ‘most senior backers and donors’, he decided to put any fears to rest:
‘The rumours that were put about was that I was seriously ill and unable to lead the Ukip campaign, which is why we hadn’t been firing our artillery pieces in the first six weeks of this year in the same way as the Labour and Conservative parties and I just thought I’d knock it on the head. ‘I am fit and fill but absolutely accept I won’t be doing the London Marathon next year but I am certainly fit and capable for the next 66 days – a very long way to go – for this next general election
The negativity weaved throughout American campaigns may be a different matter to the greater professionalism and use of data/voter targeting. But can you have one without the other? Labour and the Tories have decided the answer is no, having both hired Americans to advise their sophisticated campaigns. Farage appears to disagree and seems keen to adapt one fundamental part of American campaigning and stamp on the other. Although elections in Britain have become far more professional in recent years, it seems Ukip won’t be running a full on American-style campaign between now and May 7.
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