Nigel farage

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 23 April 2015

Home The prospect of a parliamentary alliance between Labour and the Scottish National Party injected an element of fear into the election campaign. The SNP manifesto promised to increase spending and to find a way to stop the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, said she wanted to make Labour in government ‘bolder and better’. Lord Forsyth, a former Conservative Scottish secretary, said that the building up of the SNP, to take seats in Scotland, was a ‘dangerous view which threatens the integrity of our country’. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said the Tories should not be ‘talking up’ the SNP. Even the Democratic Unionists

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Exclusive: Ukip slams ‘terrible’ ComRes poll of ten ‘target seats’

The Ukip fox may have entered the Westminster henhouse but how many more chickens will it kill? ComRes has released a new poll revealing that Ukip is trailing in third place in ‘ten Conservative-held seats which Ukip have targeted’. Across the polled seats, the Tories are on 39 per cent, Labour on 28 and Ukip trailing on 21. While the latter party’s vote share has increased by 15 per cent since 2010, ComRes’s findings suggests they will struggle to win thanks to the collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote. According to the poll, a quarter of Lib Dem voters in these seats say they will now back Labour and 21 per

Steerpike Steerpike

Exclusive: UKIP donor already organising South Thanet victory party

Nigel Farage has fought off accusations that he’s an invisible candidate in South Thanet, claiming to have held more public meetings than all of the other candidates put together. But are Ukip getting ahead of themselves in the ultra-tight race on the Kent coast? Mr S hears that invitations are already circulating for an election night party in the constituency, hosted by fun-loving donor Arron Banks. Organising the victory party two weeks out from polling day looks complacent at best. Sources familiar with party planning have revealed to Mr S that the multi-millionaire tycoon has invited people to join him in the constituency on election night and drinks will certainly

Tuesday

Steerpike

Boycie: Nigel Farage ‘sounds nothing like me’

Nigel Farage may see himself as the quintessential British politician, but is he modelling himself on a national comedy treasure? Mr S’s colleague Sebastian Payne noted that in Lord Ashcroft’s latest focus groups, voters reckoned that the Ukip leader ‘would only watch British comedies’ in his spare time, such as Only Fools And Horses. One respondent even said ‘he models himself on Boycie’. Judge for yourself: But Boycie is not happy with the comparison. John Challis, who plays Boycie in the series, told SunNation ‘Farage sounds nothing like me; he’s going to have to try harder.’ But Challias did find one similarity. ‘I noticed he wears a warm, British coat

Sebastian Payne

The battle for South Thanet — can Nigel Farage win?

Isle of Thanet, Kent ‘Are you having me on?’ a lady shouts from inside her bungalow. ‘I’m going back in the bath.’ As with many residents of Ramsgate, this voter, who is wearing nothing but a towel, can not believe Nigel Farage is on her doorstep. The Ukip leader belts out his hearty laugh as her husband admits the pair will be voting Ukip — another tick on the clipboard. Farage’s cabal of sign carriers and bodyguards shuffle towards the next house before we are interrupted by a group of goths keen for a selfie. They appear too young to vote but Farage happily obliges. Has he got a chance of winning

Sunday

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage: David Cameron’s ‘fanaticism’ is to blame for Libya migrant crisis

Nigel Farage tends to stick to one line on foreign affairs: no more foreign wars. On the Sunday Politics today, the Ukip leader claimed that the migrant crisis and tragedies in the Mediterranean are the fault of countries such as Britain and France who bombed Libya in 2011: ‘Actually, it was the European response that caused this problem in the first place — the fanaticism of Sarkozy and Cameron to bomb Libya and what they’ve done is to completely destabilize Libya; to turn it into a country with much savagery; to turn it into a place where for Christians the situation is now virtually impossible and we ought to be honest and say

Molly Guinness

Duelling advice for Nigel Farage

A Polish prince this week challenged Nigel Farage to a duel. The prince, Yanek Zylinski, blames Farage and Ukip for anti-Polish sentiment in the UK so he’s suggesting they meet in Hyde Park with their swords one morning. The Spectator of 1838 would be disappointed that 21st century princes are still throwing down gauntlets: The pretence on which duelling has been defended – that it serves to polish society – is untenable. The witty Mr Whistlecraft, indeed, speaking of King Arthur’s Knights, avers that: “Their looks and gestures, eager, sharp, and quick, Showed them prepared, on proper provocation, To give the lie, pull noses, stab and kick, Which is the very reason, it

Friday

Julia Hartley-Brewer

45 million reasons why donations to political parties are dodgy as hell

If I had a spare £1 million swashing about in my bank account or down the back of the sofa, I am pretty sure I could come up with, give or take, a million different and better ways of spending it other than donating it to a political party. A children’s cancer charity, for instance. Or, if I’m feeling a little less altruistic, a nice yacht maybe. Clearly, Richard Desmond, the owner of Express newspapers, couldn’t think of any better way to spend his hard-earned dosh so he’s decided to give his spare £1.3million to Ukip to help fund their general election campaign. This comes on top of an earlier £300,000 donation. Cue

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Ukip plans to boost its national campaign

What will Ukip do with the £1.3 million donated by Express chief Richard Desmond? The party cannot plough the money directly into its fight in South Thanet because strict spending limits apply on fights in seats during the short campaign. But it can spend it in other ways to promote the party, and of course to promote Nigel Farage. The plan, sources tell me, is to buy more billboard posters and other national advertising slots, as well as being up Ukip’s social media presence. The Tories have been spending hundreds of thousands of pounds each month on this, so Ukip will never match them – but the party benefits not

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

It takes guts to stick it to the stuck-up BBC audience

I thought Farage was rather good in that debate yesterday. It’s about time someone stuck it to the bovine, self-important, audiences – it takes a bit of guts to do that. My suspicion is not that the audience was unrepresentative (although it often is in these shows) but that the liberal left simply will not listen to views with which they disagree and feel a childish need to boo. It is the mindset which insists not that other people may be mistaken, but that they are foul for having the views they hold and should be subjected to spite and nastiness. As you are aware, I hate these totalitarian people

Sebastian Payne

Is Douglas Carswell avoiding the HIV question — or should he be given a break?

Does Douglas Carswell agree with Nigel Farage’s controversial comments on treating foreigners with HIV? When I asked the Ukip leader, Farage responded ‘Yeah of course, he thinks we should have a national health service not an international health service.’ The question was put to Carswell directly on Question Time last night, when Piers Morgan took him to task if he was ‘ashamed’ at the comments. Carswell responded: ‘I think it’s entirely legitimate and right that we should expect that our National Health Service is a national health service and not an international health service. Now if someone was to fly into this country with no prior connection here at all and to fly in

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The BBC debate confirmed some unhelpful female stereotypes

If I were a nicer person, I suppose I’d have been rather more moved by what the Independent called the moment that summed up last night’s leaders debate, the ‘beautiful group hug’ by the three women leaders at the end while Ed Miliband looked on.  Rather, it summed up for me what I felt about the entire event, that it was a slightly embarrassing affair for women whose approach to politics is anything other than the sort of thing espoused by Greece’s radical left-wing party Syriza. If you take seriously the notion that the deficit is something to be addressed rather than put on hold, that the national debt is something to be talked

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Farage, the debate audience wasn’t left-wing but it was affected by groupthink

The BBC opposition leaders’ debate wasn’t great political theatre, but it did turn into a fascinating experiment in human behaviour. A third of the way through, Nigel Farage suddenly imploded, attacking the BBC for putting together a left-wing audience – which he then went onto to insult and dismiss as an irrelevance, the real audience being at home. On this occasion, Farage was almost certainly wrong about BBC bias. I am sure that David Dimbleby was telling the truth when he said that the audience had been put together by a polling company to reflect the balance of voting intentions. And yet Farage was right to detect that the audience,

Thursday

James Forsyth

Why Ed Miliband is taking part in tonight’s TV debate

Tonight Ed Miliband takes one of the big risks of the campaign. He debates with Nicola Sturgeon, Nigel Farage, Leanne Wood and Natalie Bennett. All of these leaders will be aiming to score points off Miliband. Those close to the Labour leader give several reasons for why he is taking part tonight. They argue that he does well whenever he’s given the chance to speak to voters directly. But the main reason for Miliband’s doing this debate is the Scottish situation. Labour feared that without Miliband present, this debate would have turned into a clash between Sturgeon and Farage — which would have benefitted the SNP north of the border.

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Nick Clegg tempts fate with BLUKIP photoshop

Today Nick Clegg revealed a new poster claiming that the Tories could form a coalition with Ukip. Speaking about the prospect of ‘BLUKIP,’ Clegg warned of the potential dangers of such a pairing: ‘The prospect of a left wing alliance between Labour and the SNP has been well covered. What’s equally possible is an alliance that will drag Britain further and further to the right: BLUKIP – a bloc of right wingers from UKIP, the Conservatives and the DUP that could hold the balance of power. There is a very real danger that Nigel Farage and his friends could hold David Cameron to ransom.’ Still, Mr S can’t help but think Clegg is already pre-empting his

Sebastian Payne

Watch: Nigel Farage interview on South Thanet, tactical voting, Douglas Carswell and those HIV comments

Nigel Farage has been mysteriously absent from the election campaign trail. In the latest Mini Election interview, I spoke to the Ukip leader about his race in South Thanet and whether he any regrets about choosing a seat that was not particularly Ukip-friendly. ‘None’, he said despite the ‘vitriolic campaign against me’. Farage added, ‘Don’t forget I stood here in 2005 and I’ve worked with this branch since 1999 to try and build it up.’ Nor does Farage regret saying he would stand down as Ukip leader if he fails to win South Thanet — arguing that ‘it’s the right thing to do’ and this fight is his Becher’s Brook.

James Bartholomew

Easy virtue

Go to a branch of Whole Foods, the American-owned grocery shop, and you will see huge posters advertising Whole Foods, of course, but — more precisely — advertising how virtuous Whole Foods is. A big sign in the window shows a mother with a little child on her shoulders (aaaah!) and declares: ‘values matter.’ The poster goes on to assert: ‘We are part of a growing consciousness that is bigger than food — one that champions what’s good.’ This a particularly blatant example of the increasingly common phenomenon of what might be called ‘virtue signalling’ — indicating that you are kind, decent and virtuous. We British do it, too. But

Wednesday

Steerpike

Ukip win and lose a celebrity supporter in the space of an hour

Last year Mike Read had to withdraw his Ukip Calypso song from sale after a number people complained that it was racist. So Mr S was cheered to hear that there could be a turn in the party’s musical fortunes today after The Rifles voiced their support for Ukip. The indie band tweeted that Nigel Farage’s party are the only party ‘with the balls to make a change’: Alas, soon after the tweet was published it was hastily deleted and the band claimed that their account had been mysteriously hacked. Given that their most successful song reached only number 26 in the charts, Mr S suspects that the retraction of their support will not come

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Ukip pledge that other parties may well adopt

One of the Ukip manifesto pledges that’s making certain types a bit grumpy today is a pledge to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Unite has said that this ‘beyond barmy and would create chaos’. Unite is a union and is naturally keen to support the jobs of those who work for DECC and in industries covered by the department. But this particular Ukip policy might be one that a party of government ends up adopting. Nigel Farage’s party’s manifesto said today that DECC should be abolished because its ‘essential powers and functions can be merged into other departments’. Influential Tories agree with this: in 2013, the Free

Sebastian Payne

Ukip attempts a professional manifesto launch in Thurrock

There was one star of Ukip’s manifesto launch today: Suzanne Evans. For once Nigel Farage didn’t steal the show, it was the party’s deputy chairman — and the brains behind its ‘Believe in Britain’ manifesto — who came across as professional and reasoned. Over 100 people turned up at the Thurrock Hotel in Essex to see the release of the manifesto booklet. While it is a slick offering, and full of glossy pictures of its senior figures, it revealed nothing particularly new. The two main messages in Ukip’s manifesto were already briefed out in the Telegraph and Daily Express this morning: a pledge to increase defence spending beyond the 2 per cent Nato