Nigel Farage - do you agree with him?

Another gem from NF this week...
In an interview with GQ he said that Putin was the world leader he most admires.
And criticises Merkel for being "cold" and "miserable'. I wonder if he would have described a man like that? Presumably she is not smiley enough for him.

I don't know if anyone watched the programme about Nigel Farage last night. Yasmin Allibah Brown was commenting on him in a negative way, fair enough that's her prerogative, he isn't everyone's cup of tea. However, she made a comment that I thought was somewhat out of order, I can't remember exactly how she worded it so I am not quoting verbatim but I thought it was along the lines of "why can't he be denied airtime", so obviously she's doesn't subscribe to the "I hate what you say, but I defend your right to say it" point of view. I'm amazed at someone who would surely see themselves as an advocate of free speech would react like this purely on the basis that she does not agree with his political stance.

Here's a YouTube clip of her actual words

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPIThDVeLxw

Thank you Ana. "The media has to be kind of controlled as to how often Farage rules the airways" Possibly not exactly the wording I remembered, nevertheless a somewhat censorious attitude. I don't know whether he receives more airtime or not, I wouldn't like to say, but I'm not sure Yasmin Alibah Brown is impartial or dispassionate enough to offer a critique of Nigel Farage or his politics.

She describes herself as being "leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim, part-Pakistani, and ... a very responsible person".

Make of that what you will!

He gets more airtime than the Green Party, despite having no MPs in parliament.

Yes there was that stunt where he crashed his plane in the middle of the election campaign. Anything to get attention.

He does seem to be omnipresent

Jess M

Even the odious Alastair Campbell and Damian McBride would never have said Nigel Farage 'had crashed his plane to get attention'. Even if said with a grin.

It was hardly a 'stunt'.

The sad fact is a man committed suicide because of the accident

Miraculously nobody was killed 'at the time' of the accident. The Pilot was seriously injured and Nigel Farage was physically unhurt. The banner the plane had been trailing became caught on the tail of the plane forcing it into a dive.

The poor man suffered severe depression after the crash. He was angry at the length of time the investigation into the crash took. His marriage broke up, his business failed due to being unable to claim insurance money because of the accident investigation taking so long. He was also physically and mentally having to deal with the trauma of the accident.

He was charged with threatening to kill both Nigel Farage and the Air Investigator and blamed depression and drug and alcohol abuse at the time of his trial. Tragically he took his own life some time later.

As for Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, don't get me started. [cross]

Anybody watching tonight's debate with Clegg.

I think they are a bit more angry with each other this time. Might be a bit more of a clash and looking a bit more personal.

Yes, Farage is being challenged about his exaggerations and failure to act in Europe, and Clegg is becoming increasingly angry with him for distorting statistics and catastrophising immigration.

My post X with JessM's.

Nick Clegg sure looked rattled after the debate when being questioned by the waiting media scrum.

I am none the wiser really, both made good points and I can't say I honestly know yet which way I would vote, if ever given the opportunity of a referendum.

Farage has won the YouGov vote 68% to 27%. I thought it would have been closer than that.

POGS I'm sorry if my light hearted remark was offensive to you. Didn't know about the aftermath.
However I do think Farage has studied in the school of Boris J when it comes to publicity. BJ is the only other politician who would have considered being in that plane in the first place. And his Putin remark was obviously an intentional attention getter. (surely?)
I have recorded the debate and will watch it over the weekend.

We watched most of the debate, and it was refreshing to hear a politician (NF) speaking in a direct way, apparently giving his true opinions. Nick Clegg prevaricating as usual.
But I wonder, if NF ever gets to be PM, he will end up the same as the others?
Just struck me - NF also stands for National Front - is he really so right wing?

I think if Nigel Farage had a decent team of UKippers, instead of the chauvinistic idiots that he seems to have behind him, he could really start to scare the other parties.

I agree, Lona. There's just no way at the moment UKIP has a cat in hell's chance of making proper headway in the polls - get your act together, Nige!

I quite like the term "UKippers"

I have been supporting the campaign to have all clinical trials in Europe registered and transparent so that pharma companies can't hide results, or the fact that lots of subjects dropped out of trials. This weeks good news is that the EU parliament has voted in favour. This will benefit all europeans - the clinical trials for that drug that you need might have been trialled in another EU country after all.
UKIP members either didn't turn up or voted against. Maybe on the principle that the the EU can do no good?
I resent the fact that Farage and other UKIP MEPs take the money but don't do the work as MEPs.

Ukip did pretty well in the Euro elections five years ago. As the vote is for a party and not for individuals, Ukip can have a slate of candidates that nobody has ever heard of and still get some of them into the European Parliament. Each party gets its MEPs in proportion to the party's share of the vote.

Contrasting articles about farage in the Independent and the Telegraph today. I thought the Indie one well written.

We live in a world that is changing faster & faster with greater & greater inter-connectivity. Of course anyone appealing to the old days, which many hanker after, will pull at the heart strings. However, the mega-trends won't stop, however much we try to reverse them. Rather than playing on fear I believe instead we all need to be pulling together across national boundaries to resolve the fears & look for solutions. However much I want to be back in a place with which I feel familiar, it won't happen & I am increasingly feeling that we really are better together to ensure our inter-connections work for us positively.

Thanks, gadabout, I agree wholeheartedly and abhor the petty isolationism of Ukip and its supporters. 'Playing on fear' is exactly what Farage does and unfortunately it is working.

I won't say I agree or dis agree because I do not follow politics(they say one thing so that you vote for them then go on and do what ever they wish) and do not have a clue what his beliefs are, but what I will say is that he has guts, and I am not sure if he is insane or just courageous.