Tonight at 9pm on 18DoughtyStreet I'll be interviewing UKIP leader Nigel Farage for an hour. If you'd like to suggest any questions please feel free to do so either here or on the Vox Politix blog on the 18DS website
Tomorrow the two guests are Ann Widdecombe and chairwoman on Women2Win, Anne Jenkin. On Thursday Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty is on the show followed by Mark Oaten on Monday. Get your questions ready!
UPDATE 10am: Nigel Farage has just pulled out of the interview but has promised to rearrange. So, ten hours to find some replacement guests. I love my job sometimes...
With membership dropping from 25,000 to 16,000 in just a year and with some of your members openly claiming you now only have between 10 to 12,000 members is UKIP drinking at the last chance saloon?
ReplyDeleteMembership figure from Minutes of the Party Business Meeting 25 June 2005 – “Registered membership stands at 25,618 paid up.”
Current membership calculated from the number of votes cast and % of members who voted.
Claims of 10 to 12,000 members taken from UKIPforum website.
Are you just stealing large chunks of previous Conservative Manifestos.
ReplyDeleteFor instance the idea of education vouchers was something championed in the 2005 Conservative Manifesto - and now embraced by UKIP as 'their' idea.
It is widely reported that your Ashford Call Centre in Kent keeps 85% of every £1 raised from donations as 'running expenses'. Why should members of the public donate via your Ashford call centre when very little money actually goes on campaigning? Who are the Directors of the Ashford Call centre and do they get paid?
ReplyDeleteas someone who is not going to vote for cameron.I would like the chance to vote UKIP at a general election.will they be standing candidates across the country ?Previously,I believe UKIP did not stand against Eurosceptic Tories.Will this happen again and does he not feel that it smacks of being a sort of Tory protest party?
ReplyDeletemark oaten.Why doesn't he just dissappear?
ReplyDeleteLast year UKIP received €250,000 (£170,000) of EU taxpayers money to help it campaign against Britain's membership of the EU. The money was supposed to be spent on a 2 million signature petition against membership of the EU. I understand from UKIP members that the petition form were scrapped as they were too small for people to write their names and address and the national petition was quitely dropped.
ReplyDeleteHow can people trust UKIP when they are financially incompetant with taxpayers money?
UKIP are the Nuclear power party? If UKIP ran Britian they would start building more nuclear power stations - at a time when people are trying to cut down on energy use and increase alternative renewable sources of power.
ReplyDeleteYou have a reputation of 'making policy up as you go along'.
ReplyDeleteHow can UKIP be taken seriously without proper costed poklicies?
Shami Chakrabati is on TV more than Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and George Bush put together.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that's only because of this government's shameless and constant assault on our liberties ...
Question for Nigel Farage:-
ReplyDelete"Are you keen on corporal punishment?"
I'd be tempted to ask him which of the three possible pronunciations of "garage" his name rhymes with.
ReplyDeleteWill you be using the interview to continue your regular attempts to smear UKIP as racist, linked to the BNP etc etc?
ReplyDeleteThe main problem UKIP has with being taken seriously by the electorate is a lack of policies. The EU is a big enough issue to get UKIP a handful of councillors and MEP's but to win an election requires more than a single issue. If UKIP were to get into power they would withdraw us form the EU but then what? As a party that has focussed on a single issue for so long, how can UKIP convince voters that they can form a useful and strong government with policies that have been formed relatively hastily?
ReplyDeleteFor Nigel Farrage:
ReplyDeleteConsidering the lurch to the left by Cameron how come UKIP is not doing a better job at filling the Conservatives shoes in the centre-right? Surely there is an open goal that UKIP is just not hitting.
How about Nick Griffin?
ReplyDeleteHe ticks your right-wing box.
Why did Farage pull out?
ReplyDeleteYou'lll have to call in Ed Vaizey...
ReplyDeleteSir Bernard Ingham, who is now secretary of SONE, (Supporters of Nuclear Energy).
ReplyDeleteJerry Pournelle (by phone since he is in Califoria) - while american does understand the big principles behind any political system.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/
Nick Griffin is a National Socialist, he's not a conservative or even a Conservative.
ReplyDeleteYou should get Jonathan Isaby of the Daily Telegraph, he's normally quite good at this sort of thing and at the very least could do his impressions for you.
The UKIP leader Nigel Farage
ReplyDeletecannot get his car out of the garage
to drive to meet Mr Iain Dale
Tis indeed a sade tale...
Ask him why he looks like
ReplyDelete"Tim, nice but dim"?
(Harry Enfield.)
Try and get Alan Caruba on the phone from the States. He's an excellent political commentator.
ReplyDeleteHis main website is this one
Alan Caruba
No suprise ( I expect he didn`t like what you recently publicised about his embarrassing party)If he ever does , which I doubt. What about this ponderous statement
ReplyDeleteThe thrust of the Yes campaign, as described by its treasurer McAlpine, was, “to depict the anti-Marketeers as unreliable people - dangerous people who would lead you down the wrong path”. This tactic was greatly assisted by the right wing detritus that clung to the campaign as the only log floating nearby. It reminds me of the miscellany of wastrels attached to the anti -hunting and animal rights lobby .
The rational, democratic and self interested argument against Europe, which I broadly support, has made great strides into the world of moderates since .This is what has saved the Conservative Party, not a drift in the other direction .
On the other hand, because Euro scepticism has won ground across a broad spectrum, the same rules apply today, to those who have actually become traitors. People who would rather let Brown-nose in than knuckle down to winning an election. Look at the party he is leading . Richard Suchorzewski recently pulled the rock up to reveal business as usual
“Nothing however prepared me for the scurrilous behaviour, defamatory comments and downright dishonesty of some of Nigel Farage's & David Bannerman's staff, supporters and members of the Press Office staff, in which they clearly colluded. I was accused of having associations with the BNP – even when these scoundrels knew that my grandfather was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp and my Great Grandfather was discovered hanged by them from a lamp post near his home by my 14 year old Father.” ………………………and much much more of which I trust you are aware. .
There is a real problem here both for the Conservative party and, ironically for UKIP. The types of people that become involved, not only undermine UKIP, which so badly needs respectability, but also the debate within the Conservative party. If you were go to the Bruges group, as I have done, you feel amongst friends with a valid point of view that you might have a slightly different take on. Other UKIPs remind me far too much of the doctrinal religionists of the Labour party or, at worst, of the BNP. They remove the ground on which a Christopher Booker stands the moment they open their mouths
The Europe case is sound but the baggage that comes with it is unattractive and in any case a world of electoral dreams The other problem is that this attitudinising will leave the Conservative party entirely in the hands of Liberals with any move towards UKIP policies, which are widely supported, appearing actually treacherous This is very bad indeed and entirely the fault of UKIP who have failed to maintain respectability and civility. I see there will be no end to this.
Q; When are you gojng to stop
1 being a disgrace
2 Working for Gordon Brown
But he will never answer
I
Alan Caruba's website is www.anxietycenter.com
ReplyDelete(apologies for the previous bad link)
Newmania, Suchorezswski is a former failed Tory candidate and a total embarrasment to UKIP.
As for your other comments - what about the vast majority of Conservative MEP's in Yerp who continually support federalist anti-British interests?
As I've stated here before' why bother voting for feckless Blue Labour (who don't believe in Tax-Cuts) when you can have the real thing with Brown/Miliband's NuLabour?
It's the Conservative Party who are a disgrace not UKIP.
Ask Louise Bagshawe or Kit Malthouse
ReplyDeleteJerry ! Jerry!
ReplyDeleteAs for your other comments - what about the vast majority of Conservative MEP's in Yerp who continually support federalist anti-British interests?
HMMMM good point. I `ve met one or two and they are a waste of space. Nonetheless you are working for the Brown-nose ,and if you can`t see problems with UKIP you are an
interesting and unusual indiviual .
Better admit it and do something about it. I see no future except in the Conservative Party but , on Europe and tax I doubt we would differ much
Salutations
Nigel Farage was at 18, Doughty Street this morning ready for his interview, as he made clear yesterday on the telephone.
ReplyDeleteThat the organisers did not tell him they wanted him in the evening is, I presume, a lesson they will learn from.
Anonymous, I wasn't going to mention this, but since you have -and spun it to your heart's content, I will give you the real story. Nigel's assistant was told quite clearly last night that it was for the Vox Politix programme which was live at 9PM and he should be with us by 8.30PM. I just want to set the record straight.
ReplyDeleteDid you see Farage in the Observer's Pendennis column on Sunday...denying an affair...he he he.
ReplyDeleteAl Bore over there yet ?
ReplyDeletePerhaps his mysterious absence is explained by the pile of vomit left outside the UKIP rooms in Queen Anne's Gate today..?
ReplyDeleteWhat an impressive and mature Party they are!
According to my contact, Nigel thought that it was between 9 and 10 in the morning.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the press office should certainly be keeping up with the fact that Doughty Street broadcasts live and in the evening only.
Never mind, these things happen; misunderstandings all round and no one's fault in particular.
DK
I seem to see Ann Widdy and Mark Oaten everywhere. Or is it me? I come over all tired at the thought of hearing more from either of them, even though I like her. Not him, of course.
ReplyDeleteDevils K- Never mind, these things happen; misunderstandings all round and no one's fault in particular.
ReplyDeleteIt will be UKIPS fault in particluar if they manage to let Brown nose in though. As a party i `m not sure they don`t harm even their onwn cause more than the Conservative Party at least.