'Every pub is a parliament': on the campaign trail with Nigel Farage

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[/audioplayer]Ambushing your opponent’s walk-about is a classic tactic of the political insurgent. When a major party leader comes to town, you position guerrilla campaigners on his route, near the cameras. Then you pounce, so the local news features your posters and messages, rather than his.

Senior Tories often complain about how often Ukip has done this to them. But in this European election campaign, it is the Tories who were trying to muscle in on Nigel Farage’s action. In Portsmouth, as Farage arrived to much fanfare, the wiry Tory candidate Flick Drummond was lying in wait with a posse.

As Farage progressed from the train station, he was surrounded by photographers and camera crews and a couple of burly security guards. Unlike with most politicians, nearly all the cries were of encouragement (his only detractor kept yelling ‘He’s got a German wife!’). But then Farage spotted the Tory ambush. Most party leaders, at this point, would take evasive action. Farage strode over. He and Drummond exchanged words. In the end, the confrontation was cut short by a tangle among the various European TV crews following the Ukip leader.

The incident explains much of Farage’s appeal. In an age when politics is scripted and controlled, he seems to relish impromptu debate. Later I ask him why he took the risk. ‘Spontaneity is fantastic and exciting and it’s what we do,’ he replies. ‘It’ll go wrong sometimes, but it will go right more than it will go wrong.’ Farage’s commitment to debate isn’t just for the cameras. In the pub later that day, a group of politics A-level students marched up to him to tell him he was disgusting. He stayed to argue his case. When Farage says ‘Every pub is a parliament’, he means it.