It was billed as ‘the great debate’ as the leaders from Britain’s third and fourth placed parties put on the gloves and went at it for an hour on LBC radio and the Sky News Channel on the question of EU membership for Britain and a national referendum.
Polly Toynbee, writing for the Guardian, actually got it spot on for the first paragraph of her ‘coverage’. Unfortunately, the said reporting quickly de-generated into almost a plea for the establishment class to rise up and boldly make the case for staying in.
She wrote: “Britain inched a step closer to a European exit this week. Simply by giving the UK Independence party (UKIP) a mighty national platform raises the credibility of the ‘outs’. Nick Clegg, dead in the polls, had everything to gain from his strong stand on "in" – virtually his last unsullied point of principle. Yet in the process he gifted Nigel Farage, and the act of voting Ukip, an aura of respectability.”
It was at about this point that dear Polly stopped sounding smart. But the point had been made. Clegg, leader of the Lib. Dems. and Deputy Prime Minister, is becoming increasingly irrelevant as UKIP have supplanted his party in third place. And it’s not a politically seasonal shift, the Liberal Democratic Party is on life-support and death row as Euro elections are less than eight weeks away.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage meanwhile went toe to toe with the Deputy PM on live national media and cleaned his clock. Clegg had little choice in ‘going deep’ to coin NFL terminology but a pass interception was always on the cards and Farage ran it back forty yards.
Appearing on his regular LBC weekly slot the next day Clegg was already administering damage control by none other than changing the subject – sort of. Right at the end of the debate was a question about the situation in Crimea which Farage made no bones about being partly the fault of the EU.
He said that the British government had geed up the European Union, to pursue an imperialist expansionist empire. “We’ve given false series of hopes to people in (Western) Ukraine. They toppled their own elected leader – provoking Putin; the EU has blood on its hands.” He went on to say he doesn’t want a Euro Army, Navy, Air Force or euro foreign policy, that it is not a thing for good.
Clegg is using this bold statement to try and change the subject calling Farage’s remarks insulting. But the UKIP leader continually demonstrates why his party continues gaining by answering in common sense terms that people relate to.
Friday, Match 28th also on LBC he responded to Clegg: “I don't support Putin. I don't like what he's done, but I do understand if you provoke him, he will behave like that. Now what we see in Ukraine is the result of an absolutely stupid, almost imperialist EU policy that says like all empires it wants to expand and expand and expand. Its given false hope to all those predominantly Catholic western Ukrainians, leading them to rise up, topple their own democratically-elected leader. If you poke the Russian bear with a stick, he will react."
And again Farage demonstrates that he is light years ahead of Clegg and David Cameron for that matter in understanding Putin and the Russians. And it’s not really complicated. In fact Farage has a quality similar to Sarah Palin of making what establishment types have tied into knots into something simple and understandable.
LBC – maybe with a tip from Candy Crowley, managed to throw in the gay marriage question (which becomes legal this weekend) into the debate despite the fact it was supposed to be strictly about matters pertaining to the EU and whether Britain should remain in. Clegg is all in on the subject, Farage carefully opted for re-visiting the question once the UK in out of the EU.
Why did Farage win this debate? (and he did 57-36 according to YouGov) He understands the frustrations of the British people and is able to communicate. He talks, almost Thatcher-esque, of putting power back in people’s hands with statements like “trade is negotiated by consumers”.
Clegg has no sense of humour, and is stuck making disingenuous arguments about such uninteresting topics as the European Arrest Warrant. Too many people, while not getting the fine print, can see through it. Farage meanwhile can joke about himself and others, complementing EU membership, for example, for improving the quality of British food. (Although random acts of microwaving would have done that)
UKIP does represent real change because if they gain real power it will turn the political system on its head. That’s what makes some voters reluctant! But election by election, Farage and his team are chipping away at the political establishment.
