Ukip

I think I have seen Nigel Farage’s future, and it is not pretty. A copy of Farage’s The Purple Revolution reached my desk today. The cover instantly reminded me of a cover manifesto for Ron Paul, the once inspiring libertarian radical who has turned into something of a crank. On Farage’s book, the word LOVE has been mirrored on to the word Revolution. Ron Paul posters used to employ the same silly trick. As did Russell Brand. It is becoming a sort of logo for anti-establishment feeling. It is also hilariously crap. ‘Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket,’ said Eric Hoffer. The quote certainly

Ed Miliband will respond to the Budget today (the Shadow Chancellor responds to the Autumn Statement, and has a Budget speech the day after the main event). In the past couple of years the Labour response hasn’t been fantastic, partly because the Tories have got a very well-organised (and at times just rather brutish and silly) heckling squad ready to create a wall of noise, and partly because it is difficult to respond to a Budget that contains good figures. But Labour thinks the Autumn Statement gave it the opportunity to attack the Tories on something other than the cost-of-living. The party can now say that George Osborne is planning

Downing Street has agreed to an offer from the broadcasters for one seven-way election debate on 2 April. The Tories felt that it was close enough to their final offer of one multi-party debate in the week starting 23 March to be acceptable. However, Labour has yet to agree. A Labour source said, ‘We’ve accepted the proposal from the broadcasters for three debates. There is no other proposal from the broadcasters.’ As well as this one seven-way debate, there would also be several election specials involving the various party leaders under this scheme. On 26 March, Cameron and Miliband would be interviewed by Jeremy Paxman and then questioned by a studio audience in

Can Nigel Farage survive as leader of Ukip if he doesn’t become an MP? Although he stood in South Thanet ten years ago — and gained a meagre 5 per cent of the vote — he has much bigger hopes for the impending election. But the dangers are also much higher than ever before. As I wrote in the Spectator recently, if Farage doesn’t win South Thanet, his position as Ukip leader would become untenable. He admitted to me it ‘could be a car crash’ if he doesn’t become an MP. Farage has publicly admitted today that South Thanet won’t be an easy fight and there is a huge danger if he doesn’t

The Liberal Democrats sense an opportunity in all this speculation about who the Tories and Labour would do deals with in the event of a hung parliament. They believe that they can position themselves as the responsible party that will keep the country in the centre ground in contrast to the other smaller parties. Today, in his speech to the party’s spring conference, Clegg ruled out joining any coalition that involved the SNP or Ukip. He also tried to use the moment to reinforce voters’ worries about either main party governing on their own. He argued that the Tories would cut needlessly—‘Cows moo. Dogs bark. And Tories cut. It’s in

Is Jacob Rees-Mogg confident about reelection in North East Somerset? For the latest Mini Election video, I visited the West Country to speak to Jacob (and his son Peter) about his efforts to hold onto his marginal seat in the upcoming election. Although he was victorious in 2010 with a comfortable majority of 4,91,  the constituency was held by Labour — albeit under different boundaries — so he has been campaigning almost non-stop for the last few years. Does he think that British elections are generally becoming too American? We also discussed his long-held belief that the Conservative Party needs to have an electoral pact with Ukip and whether it is

Why does Nigel Farage keep on doing it? Whether it’s immigrants blocking up the M4, ostentatious breastfeeding or today’s controversy over scrapping race discrimination laws, the Ukip leader has a knack of making statements that outrage the political establishment. Sadiq Khan accused Farage of ‘breathtaking ignorance’ while Ed Miliband and David Cameron took to Twitter to express their disagreement with Farage. .@David_Cameron The people the law doesn’t protect are British workers, black or white. Disturbing, though unsurprising, that u don’t care. — Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 12, 2015 Farage’s statement is not the usual fare we’ve come to expect from political leaders, at least to the metropolitan mindset. But this isn’t just oddball rantings, Farage knows exactly what he is doing: hunting

MPs are voting today in favour of the introduction of standardised cigarette packaging. There hasn’t even been a debate on the issue and the BBC thinks the result is a foregone conclusion. That’s bad news for the tobacco industry, hardline libertarians and Nigel Farage. It’s been amusing watching the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association carve out its nuanced – almost schizophrenic – position on the matter. Smoking is bad for our health and it is impossible to argue otherwise. So they don’t. Theirs must be the only industry which is resigned, ostensibly at least, to deterring potential customers. Big tobacco firms have an obligation to their shareholders, so they have to say something in their own defence. Their position is

Imagine a party that’s a cross between the SNP, Syriza and Ukip – one that is anti-establishment and combines the self-regard of the plucky outsider with an intermittent lead in the opinion polls. Imagine that and you’re getting close to the character of Sinn Féin, as manifest in its party conference this weekend. The last you may have heard of Sinn Féin was as a purely Northern Irish outfit, getting on just dandy with the DUP if intermittently embarrassed by reminders of its past during the Troubles. Well, think again. The party regularly outpolls the major party of government in the Republic, Fine Gael, and seems likely to do just fine in

Oh dear, Mr S has some bad news for Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader’s South Thanet rival Al Murray has had his application to make the Freedom United Kingdom Party an officially registered political party approved. This means that he can now run for the coveted seat in May. The Electoral Commission has given the application the green light despite reservations from Ukip supporters that FUKP is too similar to Ukip so could muddle voters. A spokesman for the commission confirms the news:  ‘I can confirm that Al Murray’s party has had the name Free United Kingdom Party approved by the Electoral Commission. We have informed the party of our decision.’ The