Ukip

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 23 May 2013

Stay Conservative Sir: Dr John Hyder-Wilson wrote (Letters, 11 May) of my calls to ‘shift Tory party policy rightward’ to meet a threat from Ukip, which he felt was inconsistent as he could not remember me advocating a leftward shift in response to a threat from the SDP/Alliance in the early 1980s. Of course he could not. I am afraid that he is in a muddle. I responded then to the SDP/Alliance, and would do so now to Ukip in exactly the same way, by advocating Conservative policies for the Conservative party. As Dr Hyder-Wilson may remember, Margaret Thatcher won her third election victory on Conservative policies after eight years

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 23 May 2013

Home A senior figure in the Conservative party with strong social connections to David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was reported by the Telegraph and Times to have said that Conservative constituency associations ‘are all mad swivel-eyed loons’. Lord Feldman, the party’s co-chairman, said it was not he. Mr Cameron sent an email to party activists saying: ‘I am proud of what you do. And I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise.’ The rumpus erupted as Conservative voters defected to the UK Independence Party, and Conservative MPs became impatient with the leadership of Mr Cameron. It followed a rebellion by 116 Conservative backbenchers, who had voted

Sebastian Payne

Hunting the home counties for Conservatives’ ‘swivel-eyed loons’

Oxfordshire The Westminster pundits have all been obsessing over Andrew Feldman’s alleged ‘swivel-eyed loons’ comment about the Tory party’s grass roots. But what about the ‘loons’ themselves? Few in SW1 bothered to ask, so I spent a day in David Cameron’s back yard, hunting them down to find out what they really think of the Prime Minister and Ukip and whether they believe their party chairman’s denials. First up was Keith Mitchell, a Conservative councillor of 24 years. Despite his long history of public service, Keith has never felt greatly appreciated by his party. We chatted about his career over a midday pint at Marco Pierre White’s trendy pub in

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Here’s why Tories shouldn’t do smear campaigns

‘Pick the target, freeze it, personalise it and polarise it.’ This is the best-known of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals, and even if you haven’t heard of the man or the book, you’ll be familiar enough with the technique. We saw a classic example a couple of weeks ago: the way that off-the-cuff remark on Keynes by Niall Ferguson was seized by his enemies on the left to ‘expose’ him as a wicked homophobe. We saw it again in the recent black-ops campaign conducted by Conservative Central HQ against Ukip. What CCHQ did, you’ll recall, is get all its spotty interns to go through the social media pages of every

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

Swivel-eyed loons are a feature of British democracy

I’d just like to point out, having been a journalist for many years and having met these people, and also having been a member of the Labour Party for more than thirty years, that the constituency activists of every party are, in the main, swivel-eyed loons. They are endlessly busy, busy, busy, little monkeys, obsessive and shrill. This is the problem with democracy; the people who involve themselves in it most actively are the very people you would never wish to see near the levers of power. I’m an irregular attender at meetings these days, but back in the 1980s I went every week or so to my local ward

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Will Nigel Farage and UKIP help ditch Alex Salmond?

Yesterday’s Survation poll reported that UKIP (22%) are, for the moment, just two points behind the Tories (24%) and therefore and given the margin of error in these things possibly tied or even ahead of the senior governing party. Blimey!  It is understandable, therefore, that the idea we are on the brink of a Great Realignment in British (or rather English) politics is popular today. See Iain Martin’s Telegraph column for an excellent example of this. He says it feels as though the right has split irrevocably. He may be right! British politics has been extraordinarily stable since the Labour party supplanted the Liberals. Nothing, really, has changed. At least,

Monday

Rod Liddle

Eurovision was as hilarious as ever

Only in The Guardian could Britain’s humorous disdain for the Eurovision Song Contest be linked to the rise of UKIP and the decline of the British Empire: ‘I think Eurovision-bashing reflects a crisis of collective national identity in the UK; it’s a way of expressing feelings of unprocessed anger, frustration, and loss about the UK’s place in the rapidly changing Europe and in the world more broadly. The great British social theorist Paul Gilroy has written of the UK’s post-colonial melancholy, a failure to properly process and accept the end of the country’s status as world leader, and I think that’s what’s at play here. The UK has been suffering

Alex Massie Alex Massie

UKIP, Pierre Poujade and a political class that’s seen to be “out-of-touch”.

Parliament is a “brothel”. The state is an enterprise of “thieves” engaged in a conspiracy against “the good little people” and the “humble housewife”. Time, then, for a party that will stand up for “the little man, the downtrodden, the trashed, the ripped off, the humiliated”. Not, as you might suspect, the most recent UKIP manifesto but, rather, the sentiments expressed by Pierre Poujade during the run-in to the 1954 elections to the French National Assembly. Poujade’s party, the Union to Defend Shopkeepers and Artisans,  shocked France’s political elite by winning 2.5 million votes and sending 55 deputies to Paris. Charles de Gaulle sniffed that “In my day, grocers voted for

Friday

Douglas Murray

Some anti-fascists are very fascistic

Nigel Farage has just met one of the most fascinating aspects of modern politics. He was surrounded in Edinburgh by left-wing ‘anti-fascists’ shouting ‘Racist scum. Go back to England’. The same mob also screamed ‘scum’ repeatedly at the top of their voice until they made him leave. This is probably the best demonstration so far of something which has gone un-remarked upon for too long. Among the closest thing we have to fascists in modern Britain are people who call themselves ‘anti-fascists’. Not all people who call themselves ‘anti-fascist’, thank goodness. But a sizable portion.  If you ever see these people in action you will notice that they behave in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why was Nigel Farage so rattled on the radio?

Nigel Farage seemed rather rattled when discussing his Edinburgh escapade on Good Morning Scotland today. You can listen to the full clip below, which culminates in the Ukip leader announcing ‘I wouldn’t have met with such hatred as I’m getting from your questions and frankly, I’ve had enough of this interview, goodbye.’ listen to ‘Nigel Farage interviewed on Good Morning Scotland, 17 May 2013’ on Audioboo

Thursday

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 16 May 2013

The BBC loves nothing better than a narrative in which Tory anti-European eccentrics split their party, and a bewildered public votes Labour. It is certainly the case that some of the Tory sceptics are half-crazed by dislike of David Cameron. But the reason the subject keeps coming up is because it matters, and it remains unresolved. The Tory rebels understand this in straightforward electoral terms: the rise of Ukip threatens their seats, so they must do something about it. What is maddening is not so much Mr Cameron’s actual policy on Europe, but his patent longing to avoid the subject. His refusal to ‘bang on’ about Europe has brought about

Mark Gettleson

Sandcastles, lettuce and a big train: where Ukip won and why

Anyone who watched the latest episode of Mary Queen of the High Street will have been mildly amused to see the retail diva encounter the good burghers of Margate. Urbane, fabulous and witty, with a mission tinged an air liberal imperialism, as if ‘to explore strange new worlds’. One can almost imagine her government reports: ‘It’s commercial life, Prime Minister, but not as we know it.’ Suffice to say, much as some of the animosity was no doubt hammed up for the cameras, not every inhabitant of Planet Thanet welcomed Portas with open arms. What project more symbolises the Cameroon ‘big society’ effete tofu-laden conservatism than Operation Portas? And how

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 – Nigel Farage debates future of Ukip, the return of Nadine Dorries, Eurovision and a Boris for Paris

Does David Cameron have a plan for dealing with the EU? In this week’s Spectator magazine, James Forsyth reveals that No.10 has little idea of how they will actually renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Europe. Cameron’s position risks dividing the Conservative party and pushing us automatically down the road to withdrawal. On the latest View form 22 podcast, Ukip leader Nigel Farage debates the Conservative MP Kris Hopkins on whether the Tories or Ukip are the party of progress on the EU. Are Ukip a party of policy or protest? How does Farage expect to do in the European elections? And will electorate rally round the Conservatives or continue to float

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nadine Dorries interview: why I want to run as a UKIP-Tory joint candidate

It’s not often you see Tory MPs celebrating anything, but on Monday a bunch of them were packed into an office high in Portcullis House to toast the rehabilitation of Nadine Dorries. Last autumn the Mid-Bedfordshire MP was suspended from the party after appearing on the reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! For six months she has been in limbo, unable to call herself a Tory. Last week, she was allowed back into the club. We met in the House of Commons after her bustling ‘Return of the Prodigal Daughter’ reception. Her fellow Tories, she says, are pleased she’s returned. Every day, she’s accosted by

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Would joint candidates with Ukip really work?

Westminster is on fire with speculation about Tory/Ukip joint candidates after The Spectator’s exclusive this afternoon. But would it really work? CCHQ has already rejected the idea, with a spokesman telling Coffee House: ‘It’s not party policy and it’s not going to happen.’ Currently, joint candidates can’t officially stand without the sign-off from Labour or Conservative head office. The national nominating officers from both parties would have to co-sign an application to register a joint description. Although in practice the Conservative party gives someone in each local association permission to nominate Conservative candidates, they don’t give other people permission to change the party’s registered descriptions, which this arrangement with Ukip would do.

Sebastian Payne

Exclusive: Nigel Farage says yes to Dorries and backs joint Tory and Labour Ukip candidates

Following Isabel’s revelation that the newly-reinstated Nadine Dorries will be pursuing an electoral pact with Ukip, Nigel Farage reveals he is open not just to Dorries’ advances but also those of other Conservative and Labour MPs. Speaking on this week’s View from 22 podcast, the Ukip leader says: ‘If Nadine Dorries’ association come to me and say they’ve passed a resolution, and they want her to run as a joint candidate in 2015, I will go and ask my local association how they feel but my inclination would be, why not? What on earth is wrong with doing this? ‘I would also say this could apply to other Tories too. It

Monday

Isabel Hardman

How will the Tory leadership deal with MPs wanting a UKIP pact?

Nigel Farage says his party is in talks with a number of Conservative associations about a joint endorsement with UKIP. He told the Daily Politics today that ‘there is no doubt that there are Tory associations, and one Labour that I know of, who are saying “look, the law was changed two years ago, there is a provision now, that one candidate can have the endorsement of two political parties, i.e. two logos on the ballot paper”‘. Farage added that ‘there are associations out there that I believe want this’. Freshly returned to the Tory benches, Nadine Dorries made the case for this in yesterday’s Sun on Sunday. She wrote:

Thursday

Peter Jones

Aristophanes’ advice for Nigel Farage

Ukip is on the march, and the F word on the lips of every ashen-faced MP in the House — or the NF word, to be exact. What should be NF’s next step? Let the Athenian comic poet Aristophanes insert a tiny thought under his seething trilby. Aristophanes’ Men of Acharnae (425 BC), reflecting the feelings among ordinary, farming people during Athens’ long war against Sparta (the Peloponnesian War, 431–404 BC), opens with the hero farmer Dikaiopolis waiting for the democratic Assembly (all citizen males over 18) to begin. The war has been going on for six years now, and like everyone else he is cooped up inside Athens’ impregnable

Dot Wordsworth

Game-changing

In the days when we had bottles of milk delivered, some tits discovered how to peck through the foil tops and consume the cream beneath. Suddenly all the tits were at it. This illustrated what the alternative scientist Rupert Sheldrake called morphic resonance. Something similar has happened over the past days with the phrase game-changing. Trevor Kavanagh, in the Sun, commented: ‘The local elections delivered a ground-breaking, game-changing, seismic political moment.’ In the Independent, Donald Macintyre compared ‘Ukip’s position to that of the game-changing SDP’. Except, in the days of the Gang of Four, the obligatory epithet was not game-changing but breaking the mould. That metaphor was used erroneously almost

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 9 May 2013

On Tuesday night, at a Spectator readers’ evening, Andrew Neil interviewed me about my biography of Margaret Thatcher. He asked me if, after leaving office, Lady Thatcher had come to the view that Britain should leave the European Union. I said yes (I think it happened after the Maastricht Treaty in 1992), although advisers had persuaded her that she should not say this in public since it would have allowed her opponents to drive her to the fringes of public life. I had believed this was widely known, but according to Andrew, it is a story. My revelation, if such it was, came on the same day as Nigel Lawson’s piece