Despite some of the quite appalling statements they’ve provided us with in recent weeks, I’m getting fed up of hearing UKIP supporters described as nutters. I’m no psychiatrist: it’s hardly my place, or that of anybody else, to decry someone as a nutter. But more importantly than that, I’m fed up of it because it’s insulting to everyone who supports UKIP, and it gives them a cast-iron reason not to place their cross elsewhere.
As a recently-selected Lib Dem PPC, I obviously don’t agree with UKIP. I’m pro-Europe, primarily because I’m pro-British and I want what’s best for the only country I’ve ever lived in and loved. But having reflected a bit on Channel 4’s documentary about Nigel Farage, as well as the two Europe debates, it wasn’t policy which upset me quite as much as two things which he has managed to claim as his own, and which I don’t think are rightly his.
The first is freedom. In the documentary, Farage speaks passionately about liberty and democracy, about a smaller state, about giving people genuine control over their lives and communities. I agree with him: they’re key reasons I’m a Lib Dem. So why do we allow him to parade values which are the backbone of our own movement, and which he doesn’t truly represent?
The second is pubs and what they represent – normality. After I was selected last month, I went to the pub. Unlike too many politicians, I also go to work; I couldn’t afford not to. This doesn’t make me UKIP: just a normal, hardworking bloke who likes the occasional pint. Again, then, why does Farage get a platform for things plenty of us have equal claim to?
We need to stop knocking Farage. We just need to reclaim the things he’s made his own. Now, more than ever, is the time to shout about what freedom means to us as Lib Dems, and why we’re the real champions of it – as the party which unlike UKIP actually has a lengthy record of local improvement. The other day a voter asked me why I was a Lib Dem, and I told her it was because we were the only party which offered real control over your life and community combined with complete fairness and equality. “Well, that’s great,” she said. “I like that. Why don’t the Lib Dems talk about that?” Oh – and she was a Lib Dem party member. Not ideal.
And we have to reclaim normality. We have to accept once and for all that the public – me included – is done with out-of-touch politicians. What’s most irritating is that Farage ought to be one of those – he was first elected the same year as Nick Clegg (who he now labels a career politician), and he’s not exactly short of a bob or two. Our fantastic policy of increasing the personal tax allowance won’t change his life one iota. It’ll change mine, as a young public sector worker, a good bit. So he can get his hands off my normality, too, not to mention my next pint.
I could never support a single UKIP stand, never mind the party. But Nigel Farage’s supposed normality seems to make people like and trust him, even when his policies are as outdated as they are unsupported by fact. So if Lib Dems reclaiming the pub and talking more about the values of liberty and democracy which are why our party exists are the way to defeat him, let’s do it. They were our values long before they were UKIP’s. Let’s do it soon.
* Ben Nicholls is PPC for Romsey and Southampton North. He works in education and runs the youth theatre charity RicNic.
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13 Comments
It’s not UKIP supporters that are nutters. It’s the UKIP leadership.
Tony Greaves
I like the sound of Ben Nicholls. You see, he hasn’t appeared out of touch by calling names or scaremongering, he’s spoke like a normal person.
I’m back to supporting Clegg (my tantrums only usually last a few days), but where I think it has gone wrong for the Lib Dems is associating pragmatism with things like being loose with the facts. I love pragmatism, but it is coming across as a normal person that is pragmatic. Nick does this best when he is on things such as Call Clegg or the Twitter meeting.
Our fantastic policy of increasing the personal tax allowance won’t change his life one iota. It’ll change mine, as a young public sector worker, a good bit.
Well yes, as you’re funded by the tax revenue raised, yes it will. Probably not quite how you’d want though. Below inflation pay rises, lower average pay than equivalently qualified individuals in the private sector, an easy target for politicians ‘cutting waste’, and an ever diminishing pension.
I agree with Ben Nicholls. The press of all political shades is smearing Farage and his party in a huge show of childish desperation. It encourages UKIP supporters to support UKIP all the more.
I don’t think I agree with Mr Nicholls on much else, but I sense that he is happy to debate politics without stirring up hatred. That is as it should be. Its a pity that the press doesn’t agree….
This man speaks sense. The more incandescent and outraged the LibDems get about UKIP, the more people wil vote for him. The more the party gently, politely, firmly consistently disagrees where it does and needs to disagree without taking up stands theatrically for the sake of little other than the symbolism alone, the more chance we have of making our point while not making ourselves ridiculous.
But Ben, you are wrong on one thing; presumably you do agree on at least one UKIP stand – they apparently (I think) continue to support proportional representation (although in what form is vague).
Oops, ‘him’ should be ‘them’. That would make more sense.
Matt (Bristol),
I thought it was Freudian slip, talking about the Farage party.
I think the idea of “gently, politely, firmly consistently” disagreeing is a recipe for losing. What is needed is robust counter-arguments, including arguments which take the points made by UKIP and turn them against UKIP, including being as tough, impolite, and varied as UKippers can be, if these tactics achieve their objective..
As I’ve stated before, other parties need to stop obsessing about Farage and cut off his oxygen supply – http://towardsgunfire.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/time-to-starve-ukip-of-oxygen.html?m=1
I also agree with Richard Dean that we can go too far the other way and be too polite about UKIP. I was thinking this myself, but we still need to learn a bit from Farage. I don’t think hating UKIP is attractive, but we should still point out some hard truths about how they make others feel. Farage might seem normal to white men down the pub, but to many people, especially eastern Europeans, he comes across as unwelcoming, unfair and awkward.
I still dislike the hatred of conservatives among a minority on the left, so overall the article resonates with me.
“As I’ve stated before, other parties need to stop obsessing about Farage and cut off his oxygen supply”
Absolutely. If it wasn’t obvious to people before the debate debacle, it should be blindingly obvious now!
@ Peter,
Please could you tell me what you mean by smearing Farage? It seems to me that he is being held up to to same scrutiny as other political leaders.
In what way those myself who believe Ukip to be guilty of hypocrisy and double standards, stirring up ‘hatred’?
I like the plea for us to talk in language most people can understand. Mind you, most local activists do. I too enjoy a pint in the pub – but I don’t think that’s unusual for most activists, councillors of all parties and so on. It’s at leadership level that such everyday behaviour comes to seem exceptional.
I agree we should engage with what UKIP says and show they’re lying, show their own record is pathetic, rather than bandying about generalities. I think calling them extremists or nutters is counter-productive unless we can quote policies which obviously don’t make sense (spending more on services and cutting tax at the same time). As for calling them racists, I suspect most UKIP supporters are racist in some degree: it certainly comes to light quickly in most doorstep conversations. So calling them racists won’t do any good, but showing how they’re distorting the facts may work. Where they stand for local councils and have almost nothing to say about local policies the council is responsible for, we can certainly ask what they stand for and what they’d do.
By the way, Party HQ sent out a briefing on fighting UKIP some time ago, with some interesting stuff from polling showing there were not many people who might vote for us and might vote UKIP. However, it contained absolutely nothing drawn from the experience of local campaigners who actually had fought UKIP and ALDC did not seem to have been asked to contribute.