On the 2nd of May 2014 I was in the audience for the last stop of UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s touring one man campaign show.
Farage said the best people to govern Britain are the people of Britain themselves and that we ought to decide for ourselves who can live, work, and settle in Britain.
Farage accused the entire political class of coming together with their friends in the media and being as vile and nasty about UKIP as they could possibly be. He also said that this country is run by Oxford Politics, Philosophy and Economics graduates to who’ve never done a days real work in their lives.
UKIP have a policy of allowing people to film their public meetings. It is notable that when national leaders of the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Labour Parties visit the region their appearances are tightly choreographed and there is no access for those who are not party members.
18 responses to “UKIP Leader Nigel Farage Speaking in Cambridgeshire – May 2014”
Nigel visited my home town of Swansea on Wednesday and wowed his audience. At the end of the meeting people were taking UKIP membership forms as if their lives depended on it. All this in spite of the fact that earlier his walk through the town centre was cancelled because of a bunch of foul mouthed bigots threatening trouble. They also turned up at the Liberty Stadium in the evening, bolstered by members of UNISON, chanting and harassing our audience. These people who call us fascists are actually employing the tactics of fascism in an attempt to disrupt and discredit us. They have had limited success but the real success will be at the ballot box when people vote for us in their droves on May 22nd. The Lib/Lab/Con are running scared of us. Go UKIP!
The irony of a party who wishes to remove Britain from the European Court of Human rights, a court that the UK was instrumental in setting up post WW2, meeting at a place called liberty stadium clearly escapes you.
Eh? I’m not sure about Cameron and Clegg’s recent visits to the area (which I think have mostly been trips to visit businesses and the like), but when Miliband was last in Cambridge he was up on a soapbox in the Market Square. It’s simply not true to say that non-party members were denied access.
Miliband getting on a soap box on Market Square, or as a few days ago, walking down Burleigh St, were not events publicised in advance. Non-party members, unless tipped-off, had no way of knowing they were going to happen. That’s very different from holding a public event open to all.
You have of course shifted the goalposts there, Richard. “Not widely publicised in advance” and “no access for those who are not party members” do not mean remotely the same thing. In any case, both events took place in major shopping areas where a lot of the general public are likely to be anyway, so it’s not like they were hidden from view. I believe Miliband has also done public Q and A events elsewhere in the country.
Fundamentally, the nature of a meeting tells us very little about UKIP (or Labour for that matter.) Holding public meetings is just a tactic which parties use when they think it will benefit them. As UKIP currently have a smaller and less organised membership than do the three main Westminster parties and as they are new on the scene, the tactic works for them in terms of raising their profile and attracting new supporters. Similarly, Labour events right now are probably on aggregate better publicised than Conservative events, because as a non-governing party we need the publicity more. But the tactic doesn’t have any deeper meaning.
I spoke to Nigel Farage after the event.
To do this I joined a queue of people, some of whom wanted him to sign copies of a book, and others who wanted a photograph with him.
Bizarrely I spoke to him inside his photo-booth.
I spoke to Farage about UK science funding being spent via the EU, with appointment not on merit, but subject to criteria aimed at social engineering and encouraging people to move around the EU. For example one advert for a current position at Newcastle University states:
Source.
Farage agreed this kind of thing is wrong and I told him I hoped he’d be in a position to put a stop to it.
Hi there. I was also at the meeting and this is a fantastic video record of the occasion. Brilliantly filmed!
Would you be OK with me linking to the video from the new UKIP Peterborough website? I will of course give you full credits.
Many thanks
Graham
Perhaps Graham Whitehead would also like to link to your video of Councillor Gillick asking for fees for filming in council. The same Councillor Gillick who failed to do anything to present his views to his electorate, and just got elected by voters who feared immigrants. The same Councillor Gillick who asked the vunerable children in the care of the council what it felt like to be takers. Or maybe your film of Councillor Gillick describing the economic endeavors of Cambridge. http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/ukip-cllr-gillick-on-cambridge.html
Farrage is clearly an effective public speaker but the reality is that UKIP is a thoroughly nasty party pandering to the fears of those who have suffered materially from the financial crisis generated by the deregulation and greed of the City and the austerity policies of the Tories. Policies that have led over 900k people to seek help from food banks from theTrussel Trust alone, and to have sanctioned nearly 1 million benefit claimants in 2013, and to have stood by while 1.5m people were employed on unsustainable zero hour contracts. People pushed to the limits look to find easy scapegoats and UKIP provide them. Funded by wealthy business men it is easy to see why UKIP have found such success blaming immigration and EU regulation as the cause of low wages. Anything but blame the real causes of poverty – successive governments undermining the labour market, undermining labour rights and unionism, supporting exploitative contracts, and devaluing the worth of unskilled work through workfare.
I physically shuddered seeing a large UKIP poster with party leaders gagged in the centre of Romsey Town. This was an area of Cambridge known for its left wing history, and today its streets are sullied by a politely racist and bigotted party posting images that suggest that silencing politicians with an alternative view to Farrage is acceptable politics. Post war it was Britain that led the way in founding the EHCR, it was Britain who having fought against fascism and racism sought to protect our basic human rights including the right to free speech. Farrage may be entertaining and speak for increasing number, but he is not the answer.
An alternative video that Graham might like to link too – interviewed outside of the beir keller athmosphere of the UKIP hustings Farrage didn’t sound so good.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farages-carcrash-lbc-interview-halted-by-ukip-spin-doctor-over-expenses-queries-9386105.html
I was quite impressed with Farrage, and the interviewer’s performances in the LBC interview. I thought there were excellent well researched questions which Farage answered well. If I was in a constituency where Farage was on the ballot paper his performance wouldn’t put me off. As it was though the performance of my UKIP candidate here in Cambridge, Patrick O’Flynn intervening to pull Farage out, that does put me off voting for him.