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| Nigel today, in a pub, before he was carted off. |
In any case he may wish that he had. The conference, held in a pub in the Royal Mile was infiltrated by demonstrators and the press conference had to be abandoned, the pub cleared and Farage had to be smuggled out the back door and taken away in a police anti-riot van.
Farage's party's 2010 general election manifesto pledged to replace the 129 MSPs with Scottish MPs.
Edinburgh's parliament would be retained only on a part-time basis with MPs spending one week a month on ''devolved business'' in Edinburgh and the rest of the time in London. (I think he got the idea for Europe spending a week every month in Strasbourg.)
English MPs would sit on ''English-only days'' to give people south of the border a more distinct parliament.
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| Nigel some other day...in a pub. |
Ukip also proposes reducing Holyrood's power, arguing that all UK citizens should be entitled to equal treatment in health, education and public services. (So what exactly would the point of Edinburgh be?).
I imagine that under Ukip the English systems would be forced upon Scots, opening up further opportunities for friends of the Tories to make a lot of money as they privatise Education and health.
Ukip won 147 county council seats in England earlier this month, a gain of 131. At the 2010 election in Scotland they got precisely no seats with less than 1% of the vote.
Some Scots may not want an independent Scotland, Nigel, but there are very few that want the parliament to be downgraded to a talking shop to decide what colour to paint the park fences in Edinburgh.
Take the hint, matey, and concentrate your efforts on England. You're on more fertile ground there.
Footnote:
The protest was organised by Radical Independence Edinburgh who called an 'emergency protest' on their Facebook page earlier today. They told the Huffington Post UK: "Farage came up to Scotland to spread his racism and bigotry here - we showed he's not welcome.
"His party UKIP have always achieved a derisory vote in Scotland but Farage thought that could change after their recent local elections successes in England.
"In 2014 we finally have the chance to get rid of the political system at Westminster that pours fuel onto the bigoted fire of Farage and UKIP. Scotland wants to be a country that welcomes immigrants - but we need independence to make that desire a reality."
Take the hint, matey, and concentrate your efforts on England. You're on more fertile ground there.
Footnote:
The protest was organised by Radical Independence Edinburgh who called an 'emergency protest' on their Facebook page earlier today. They told the Huffington Post UK: "Farage came up to Scotland to spread his racism and bigotry here - we showed he's not welcome.
"His party UKIP have always achieved a derisory vote in Scotland but Farage thought that could change after their recent local elections successes in England.
"In 2014 we finally have the chance to get rid of the political system at Westminster that pours fuel onto the bigoted fire of Farage and UKIP. Scotland wants to be a country that welcomes immigrants - but we need independence to make that desire a reality."
No, Ukip won 147 seats in England, not 'England and Wales'. In the only election taking place in Wales (Ynys Mon) they only polled around seven percent, admittedly narrowly beating both Labour and the Conservatives in terms of percentage, though Labour took a couple of seats. The largest party by far was Plaid Cymru with around thirty four per cent of the vote (the assorted independents came first).
ReplyDelete:) I stand corrected and have altered the text to reflect your info... Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThese kind of operations will step up a gear as the referendum approaches. Designed to cheapen and undermine the Yes Scotland campaign and timed for the 6 o'clock news.
ReplyDeleteAncient psyops but still effective.
The reporting of course missed what Ukip had in store for Scotland.
DeleteAnd of course it failed to mention that the protest, which we used to be able to have in Scotland, was organised, not by the SNP, or the Green Party or Yes Scotland or even the Scottish Socialists, but by Radical Independence supporters.
They also failed to mention that although he had to be taken away by the police, there was not one single arrest. Strange that.
Tris
ReplyDeleteIt is a good thing that people expressed their feelings and did so in a loud, boisterous manner but reading some of the tweets this morning from certain people in the NO camp you would think this was an SNP rally that turned violent and Nigel had to be protected from those horrible and racist anti-english jocks.
I hope that we are not going to get more of that kind of rubbish from the NO camp. I just don't understand how they can talk their country down all the time. They accuse people of calling NF a nazi but it's ok for AS to be called that on Newsnight and no doubt the media will jump all over this today.
I think UKip are good for England because it might shake things up down there given it is dominated by the Tories and the in fighting might just show the Tories and Labour for what they really are. They are also good for Scotland as it will show Scots what the UK is moving towards and we might wish to avoid but for Scots to be slating Scots as being racist is a sad day.
Bruce
As far as I can make out there was no violence. There were people who were asking very probing questions.
DeleteThe SNP is accused of being party based on hatred of the English. Whatever some individual Scots may feel for any number of reasons about the English, the party and its leader is not anti-English.
Nigel Farage's party seems to be anti-almost everything that isn't English. The leadership is racist, homophobic, anti-women, and anti foreigner. The party's policies say that the UK should be run from England (and with 550 out of the 650 MPs being English, that means BY England). In almost everything they are taking backward steps.
I doubt a racist, homophobic, anti-women, party that believes that its own people are miles above everyone else, is good for anyone anywhere Bruce, but if the English want that, then that is what democracy demands they have.
The NO camps (and we must remember that since this week, there are now two..Better Together and Better Together Apart..) jump on every silly band wagon, No EU, Passport to see yer granny, no money, and according to one, we wouldn't be able to survive alone because we don't have any gas or any oil... wooo!
It is, as Mr Major once said, all froth a bubble, becasue the truth is that Together means more of the misery for ordinary people, and more of the good life for royals, aristocrats, top businessmen and, of course, more importantly than anything else, MPs.
If it's better together apart from Europe with Nigel anywhere near the top, then it's also a privatised health service run from England, privates schools run for a profit, from England, public services under Eric Pickles benign control... I would certainly emigrate.
Oh I'm pretty sure UKIPs message is beginning to resonate in Scotland too. There's fear from the established parties there too
ReplyDeleteStrange that hasn't been reported widely then....
DeleteBBC website reporting 2 arrests.
ReplyDeleteI take back the no arrests then, Jutie.
DeleteStill hardly a full scale riot. What were they arrested for?
The arrests will amount to nothing. Window dressing, nothing more.
DeleteThere is a top rate analysis from Pa over here:
ReplyDeletehttp://fazzledown.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/nigel-farage.html
We need to get the criticism in perspective. There were, it seems, only around 20-30 demonstrators... and Scotland still has free speech.
Iain Gray hid in a Subway because he couldn't answer the questions that were being thrown at him; the heckling which politicians in the old days used to manage perfectly well.
Nigel, who is reputed on occasions to be incapable of doing his job, so drunk is he (and that from his own people) took refuge in a pint glass. I wonder he liked our Scottish beer!
I'm becoming quite exercised myself at this, its like a replay of the Calman thing.
ReplyDeleteI said elsewhere, if Alex Salmond went down south and stood in an English inner city Pub in order to promote a political party that wished to do harm to the English voter's lot, he could expect similar treatment.
The difference is, none of the press would be on hand with sympathetic words or complaints about infringement of rights in terms of freedom of speech.
I mean sure, it would be nice and civil to sit down and listen to Farage's shtick, but why bother?
What did he expect, his party wishes to harm Scottish interests, they want to further strip mine Scottish natural resources presumably to fund the 40% hike in defence spending and to pay for the tripling of BA staff - reduce democratic representation (not to mention the regression in terms of rights for LBGT people and an enhancement of 'traditional values', otherwise known as fundamental christian nutjobbery, with emphasis on the 'mental'.)
The more I think of it, the more I think I might have taken myself down to the mile to tell him to fuck off.
I think your article put it really well Pa.
DeleteOf course, I understand people not liking Europe and objecting to Europeans living here, although as I never tire of saying, there is nothing to stop Brits getting off their backsides and going to look for work in another European country that is richer than the UK. Scandinavia, Germany, Austria. Plenty of work in some of these places despite the Eurozone financial crisis.
There is also nothing stopping Brits retiring to the sun in Malta, Spain, Italy and the South of France, refusing to learn the local language and organising enclaves of Englishness.
I can understand that Christians don't like Muslims and Jews coming in with their religious practices like Halal and kosher, and wearing traditional dress, although it is pretty limited in Scotland.
But what I don't understand is that people could possibly support the rest of Ukip's policies, like increasing defence spending, from the fourth largest in the world, by 40%... Why? What for? Who is the UK going to fight now? Is there anyone left?
What about getting rid of equal rights for women... Who thinks that's a good idea. Getting rid of the Scottish parliament and our right to decide how we fund education, or health or public services?
Nigel Farage is a man who has missed the chance (according to his own colleagues and other MEPs) to vote down policies harmful to the Uk, because he was in the most expensive bar in Strasbourg legless. He seems to me to be a drunk and certainly some of his colleagues appear to agree with that. (Ex Ukip leader has indicated that Farage is frequently too drunk to do his job).
Of course the reason that the Sun has come out in favour of Nigel today, is that, at the moment Nigel is the one person who can hurt Cameron the most, and Rupert LOVES to hurt Cameron.
Given that Rupert doesn't have to live here, and is an Australian with American citizenship of convenience, it doesn't matter to him whom he backs as long as it causes Cameron the maximum discomfort.
I don't think there is anything wrong with telling a politician from another country to take his repulsive policies and ... erm go home.
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ReplyDeleteamazing and really excellent stuff for visitors.
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Oh yes, Anon. I'm sure it's very good. Argan oil is much, much better though...
ReplyDeleteJust saying...
Does this dick head think that the flag of England is the union jack?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22566180
I'm looking at that photograph and finding it hard to see 50 people that this bloke says are there.
ReplyDeleteNow he thinks the BBC is biased towards nationalists...pfff.
So the way that he deals with political debate is to hang up the phone saying he's had enough of this interview.
The man is a prat of the highest order.
The question that must be asked is whether mob rule is now the norm in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThis demonstration was not authorised by the City of Edinburgh Council, check their website and the actions of the Police in not arresting all the demonstrators blocking the road must be raised.
This was a sad day for democracy in Scotland.