EXCLUSIVE – Nigel Farage says "just maybe I’m reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership".@Nigel_Farage | @Matthew_Wright | #wrightstuff pic.twitter.com/T0fROToskr — The Wright Stuff (@5WrightStuff) January 11, 2018 When I saw this breaking on Twitter earlier I sort of expected he meant […]
Tag: UKIP
What shock will finally break the cosy Westminster consensus?
A friend on Facebook pointed me towards an article in GQ about the Wythenshawe & Sale East byelection. I’m not a regular GQ reader, but the headline – Running On Anger: on the campaign trail with UKIP – and the content of the piece are worth reading. The tactics employed by […]
What percentage of cars manufactured in the UK are exported to the rest of the EU?
I’ve been deluged with a load of bile on Twitter today about exports of cars manufactured in the UK to the rest of the EU (see here, here and here). There is even the line that “sales to the EU are so low”. I do not deny that there has been a slump […]
UKIP, the Lernaean Hydra of British politics
In Greek mythology the Lernaean Hydra is a monster with many heads, and every time one head is removed two more grow in its place. So too, it seems, is the case for the UK Independence Party just now. Yesterday there was a new (and, for UKIP, rather predictable) media […]
How a Labour victory in 2015 makes the UK leaving the EU more likely
Two separate conversations in Brussels this week, both with Brits, but with people of very different political persuasions, led me to the odd conclusion summed up by the title of this blog entry – Britain leaving the EU is more likely if Labour wins the UK general election in 2015 […]
On UKIP and legitimacy
Alex Andreou has had a go at UKIP on the New Statesman website. It’s a detailed, but relatively standard, attempt to critique the party – that they have no coherent, let alone costed, policies, and that many of the people in the party or associated with the party are either […]
Sod what Olly Neville said. It’s what it says about UKIP as a party that’s interesting.
Yes, most of UKIP are opposed to gay marriage. The party is largely composed of right wingers, people with conservative values. We knew all of this. If, like me, you support gay marriage, then UKIP’s position is wrong. This evening, with the chairman of Young Independence (UKIP’s youth branch) Olly […]
“We’re standing up for Britain” or “We’re all in this together” – ways to explain the EU budget
A tweet by Emma Burnell pointed me towards this blog post by Tracy Hill about UKIP, and the threat they pose to Labour. You can read the whole blog post to look at the stuff about UKIP, but there is one paragraph I will highlight, for it shows the problems […]
Lazy Daniel Hannan MEP
I suppose drafting polemics takes time, or perhaps there is another reason for his deficiency. For Daniel Hannan MEP, European poster boy for the Tory right, seems increasingly to be neglecting the very work he is supposed to be doing – representing his constituents from South East England in the […]
Comment is Free post on True Finns and populist parties
After appearing on BBC World Service World Have Your Say to discuss the True Finns, I’ve now written a piece for Comment is Free about the same issue – you can read it here. The comments thread is full of bile, although there is one issue I would like to […]
Clearly UKIP’s poison is all-invasive
Since the 2009 European Election I’ve kept an eye and an ear open for what MEP Marta Andreasen will do in UKIP’s delegation. Today I seem to have my answer – she’s willing to be just as stupid and poisonous as the rest of them. The issue at stake is […]
Britain and Europe: In, out or somewhere in between? – well, that’s the wrong question for a start
The Fabians are running an event tomorrow entitled “Britain and Europe: In, out or somewhere in between?” I can’t attend the event as I’m in Austria at the moment, so I’ll raise a few points here instead. Frankly, the very title of the event makes me annoyed. Why can we […]