Could Nigel Farage end up a great British political leader?

[brightn'ove]

Thus making him the Di Canio of politics surely?

Personally, I can see UKIP gaining a few seats at the next election, doing nothing of note with the small foothold it gains them and then fading into obscurity.

Ukip don't have concentrated support anywhere. they'll never win a seat.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Hi Tricky hows you, hope all is well.

I agree with you about being in charge, but if you do not have characters around like him and Bob Crow then there is never anyone to compare those in charge with, and sometimes they do have good ideas and intentions.

New opinions and ideas are always good to add to the mix, but anything of real substance would be picked up by one of the mainstream parties anyway. I find him quite amusing and his party suffers from not having the resources of the others to weed out any undesirables from within his own party. I believe his motives are honest, but I'm personally favour being in Europe - albeit an EU of a different shape, so can't really agree with him.

 

[Frampler]

He's a foghorn politician, utterly unsuited to governance but great at sniping from the sidelines. UKIP will either be disbanded, or politically irrelevant, by 2024.

 

[Don Quixote]

The party has one policy, who cares?

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

He seems passionate and honest, which is more than can be said for the leaders of the three main parties. The problem isn't his personality, it's his politics. No far-right leader can ever become "great" in the modern Western world, they can only be villainous - and rightly so.

He maybe what you call right wing but not what I would call right wing and I actually believe he is not a Nazi or harbors any feelings similar to real right wing groups who would go so much further than asking for a cap on immigration, Having said all what I have about him I would not vote for him just looking at him objectively as I can.

 

[Titanic]

The party has one policy, who cares?

and somewhere between 8-15% of people say that one policy is important enough to ignore all the other stuff and actually vote for them in a General Election. Weird.

 

[edna krabappel]

people are pragmatic and or dont have the courage of their convictions. would you mention it to anyone at work that you had voted UKIP edna?

Nope, you're probably right.

But a lot of by election results are reversed when it comes to a general election, so even if UKIP managed to get themselves a seat somewhere mid term, they may end up losing it come the main event. The protest voters feel they've made their point, and go back to their usual preference.

Remember the Eastbourne by-election, following the IRA murder of Ian Gow? Seen as a massively safe Tory seat. Some weaselly, deeply unimpressive bloke in glasses- I forget his name - stood as the Lib Dem candidate and unexpectedly took the seat by about 5,000 votes.

Then promptly lost it again by the same margin two years later at the next general election. No idea what happened to him after that. Probably faded into the pages of history, right?

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure significant numbers of voters feel confident yet enough to go with UKIP in a general election, although they might put an X in the box for their MEP. And that's why it feels like the coverage Farage gets is disproportionate to his political standing as things are.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

New opinions and ideas are always good to add to the mix, but anything of real substance would be picked up by one of the mainstream parties anyway. I find him quite amusing and his party suffers from not having the resources of the others to weed out any undesirables from within his own party. I believe his motives are honest, but I'm personally favour being in Europe - albeit an EU of a different shape, so can't really agree with him.

The EU is never ever going to change and this is the problem. It will never ever change.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

He maybe what you call right wing but not what I would call right wing and I actually believe he is not a Nazi or harbors any feelings similar to real right wing groups who would go so much further than asking for a cap on immigration, Having said all what I have about him I would not vote for him just looking at him objectively as I can.

That is probably the biggest reason I stopped voting for Labour, stupid people who associate a cap on immigration as being Xenophobic, Racist and Bigotted. A cap on immgration would be a good thing. One of the reasons would be a good chance for this country to catch up, and get some our young people in to work.

 

[The Spanish]

Nope, you're probably right.

But a lot of by election results are reversed when it comes to a general election, so even if UKIP managed to get themselves a seat somewhere mid term, they may end up losing it come the main event. The protest voters feel they've made their point, and go back to their usual preference.

Remember the Eastbourne by-election, following the IRA murder of Ian Gow? Seen as a massively safe Tory seat. Some weaselly, deeply unimpressive bloke in glasses- I forget his name - stood as the Lib Dem candidate and unexpectedly took the seat by about 5,000 votes.

Then promptly lost it again by the same margin two years later at the next general election. No idea what happened to him after that. Probably faded into the pages of history, right?

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure significant numbers of voters feel confident yet enough to go with UKIP in a general election, although they might put an X in the box for their MEP. And that's why it feels like the coverage Farage gets is disproportionate to his political standing as things are.

i forgot about the eastbourne by election you are right.

i think it tells you all you need to know about the latent levels of support for UKIP policies that their airtime far outstrips the greens who have an elected mp. and if you had told anyone in brighton 25 years ago they would have a green mp most people would have laughed.

 

[Bold Seagull]

He maybe what you call right wing but not what I would call right wing and I actually believe he is not a Nazi or harbors any feelings similar to real right wing groups who would go so much further than asking for a cap on immigration, Having said all what I have about him I would not vote for him just looking at him objectively as I can.

He does co-chair the EFD, of which UKIP is a member along with other European far right groups. He co-chairs this with Francesco Speroni of Lega Nord who said of the mass murderer Simon Breivik "If [Breivik's] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I'm in agreement."

Not sure you can say he doesn't harbour any feelings to real right wing groups when he co-chairs this lot.

 

[Ernest]

Farage hates Europe but has his snout in the Euro trough, typical hypocritical politician so he is just the same as the others

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

He does co-chair the EFD, of which UKIP is a member along with other European far right groups. He co-chairs this with Francesco Speroni of Lega Nord who said of the mass murderer Simon Breivik "If [Breivik's] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I'm in agreement."

Not sure you can say he doesn't harbour any feelings to real right wing groups when he co-chairs this lot.

Well to be honest I am not sure you can say he does, just because he is co-president to the United Kingdom not the whole of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy which does not sound as bad as EFD does it. They have thirteen counties affiliated and countless members throughout those countries.As stated before we can not make rash judgement's on people without evidence that as you suggest someone like Nick Griffin would have no worries about saying.

 

[edna krabappel]

i forgot about the eastbourne by election you are right.

i think it tells you all you need to know about the latent levels of support for UKIP policies that their airtime far outstrips the greens who have an elected mp. and if you had told anyone in brighton 25 years ago they would have a green mp most people would have laughed.

Be fascinating to see how Caroline Lucas gets on at the next election. I don't live in Brighton so I know little of her activities. But have heard from a couple of people (hardly representative, I know) that she's a good MP, whatever her politics. That itself would probably be subject to endless debate on here, no doubt.

I reckon she'll keep her seat. If only because none of the main parties have done anything striking enough to make people feel confident in them, no matter how much the economy might be on the rise.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Well to be honest I am not sure you can say he does, just because he is co-president to the United Kingdom not the whole of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy which does not sound as bad as EFD does it. They have thirteen counties affiliated and countless members throughout those countries.As stated before we can not make rash judgement's on people without evidence that as you suggest someone like Nick Griffin would have no worries about saying.

Not entirely sure what you are saying here? He is co-president to the EFD.http://www.efdgroup.eu/members/category/co-presidents.html

Their affiliations are political parties from 13 countries, most of which harbour an either right, or far right agenda, some more outright vocal than others. Nick Griffin has spoken at rallies with quite a few of current members of the EFD.

 

[nicko31]

Farage is fully of idealogy but if he got in he'd be pretty useless, he performance as an MEP has exposed his flaws. At times he has really let himself down resorting with playground type behaviour..

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Not entirely sure what you are saying here? He is co-president to the EFD.http://www.efdgroup.eu/members/category/co-presidents.html

Their affiliations are political parties from 13 countries, most of which harbour an either right, or far right agenda, some more outright vocal than others. Nick Griffin has spoken at rallies with quite a few of current members of the EFD.

I am a terrible writer sorry, basically I was saying we can not be sure what he believes just because he is co joined or chairs a group of parties with varying degrees of right wing ideas. To be honest I did not know that about him, and not that I am surprised but he does go down even further in my estimation now.

Who actually determines what a right wing group or person is I have often wondered and why is a cap on immigration right wing ? I know what is right wing but to me that would seem a reasonable idea if the need arose.

 

[Ali_rrr]

I think he's a great politician. I don't think he's racist personally, but I think for what his party stands for is without meaning to.

 

[User removed 4]

I agree there's little to choose, or for that matter like, out of the other leaders, but I dread to think what a mess this rank amateur would cause if he ever had any real power. He may come across as passionate, but it doesn't make him right.

rank amateur ?? The bloke has more real world experience than the rest of them put together , its not as if the ' professionals ' have done much of a job is it ?

 

[User removed 4]

He seems passionate and honest, which is more than can be said for the leaders of the three main parties. The problem isn't his personality, it's his politics. No far-right leader can ever become "great" in the modern Western world, they can only be villainous - and rightly so.

He's not ' far right '.