UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP described Labour leader Ed Miliband as ‘spineless and clueless’ over his failure to stand up to the Unite union over a bizarre report which described UKIP as having ‘the hallmarks of a pre-fascist movement’. Recently, Nigel Farage wrote to Ed Miliband inviting him to condemn inflammatory, narrow-minded and provocative behaviour by Unite Against Fascism – but never even received a reply. Nigel Farage wrote the following article for the Mail Online, which is worth reproducing in full:
The leaked Unite report sadly underscores all that is wrong with the Left of British politics. When I wrote to Ed Miliband after the protest organised by Unite Against Fascism at the UKIP public meeting in Hove, I would have expected a responsible Party leader to condemn inflammatory, narrow minded and provocative behaviour against valid political debate. The reply simply never came. It suits the spineless and clueless Labour leader to promulgate the utterly reprehensible and totally unfounded view that UKIP is somehow xenophobic or dangerous. The only danger we pose is to the other three parties, who have for too long ignored British voters. What we are looking at is the Left Wing of British politics trying to control the views of their voters, particularly among blue collar workers, while at the same time ignoring their voice.
This is a left wing that feels it has an automatic right to that vote, and cannot bear the idea that another party is gaining credence. This is a left wing that cannot fathom that it has ever done anything wrong despite senior Labour figures revealing that they openly courted Eastern European workers to come to the UK in their hundreds of thousands. The report describes the UKIP vote as having the hallmarks of pre-fascist movements. What he is either naively or arrogantly failing to identify is that UKIP is the solution to the problem, not the problem itself. What he calls ‘the UKIP vote’ is a society that feels let down; a society that wants to rise up against a democratic deficit.
History has shown us that all too often such a vacuum is easily filled by opportunistic and unsavoury political elements that play upon long ignored societal issues and dissatisfaction to further their own ill ends. The political class should be grateful that a responsible, reasonable and rational political power is representing the unheard voices underpinning this discontent. In the battle against fascism, UKIP is far and above the best medicine. In the UK, and indeed across Europe, people have felt unrepresented and ignored for too long, while great change such as mass immigration set against a backdrop of economic turmoil has not only been ignored but wilfully swept under the carpet.
Yet instead of reading the signs, Unite and The Labour Party instead obsess over their self-preservation. Where voters are turning to UKIP, they wish to discredit and destroy our party, rather than seeking to understand the needs of the people increasingly identifying with our policies. The problem, to them, is UKIP. Not the fact that they are not listening to the electorate, whereas we are. But it’s not just the Labour party who are missing the point about the UKIP surge. Today’s ICM poll showing – astonishingly – the Tories and Labour on 36 per cent is a symptom of a political class more interested in polling data backing up their pre conceived views.
Just as the media have their favourite political parties, polling companies now lean towards their own politics with the results being skewed in favour of the paymaster’s allegiance. Just as a bookmaker at a race course would slash the odds on a favourite horse to encourage punters to put their money on the least risky option, political parties want voters to go with the same urge of ‘backing the favourite’.
I’ve often said I thought the effect of UKIP on the Conservative Party was more psychological than arithmetical but when political parties rely on manipulated data sets they risk once again ignoring what gets people voting UKIP. It’s not a risk for me, of course. It’s always been UKIP’s unique selling point that we actually listen to the people rather than convince ourselves that the public think we’ve all the answers and nothing to improve upon. Because what happens is that election time comes as a bitter disappointment.
I’m not taking the ICM poll to heart today despite calls from many quarters saying that the Tories have effectively managed to ‘squeeze UKIP out’. One deported terrorist suspect does not a summer make. If the data had been from a pollster who prompted UKIP in the first round maybe I’d be more concerned but the figure they have UKIP on, 7 per cent, is the same figure they polled us at a mere two months before our best ever election result, scoring an average of 25 per cent where we stood. Most of the pollsters don’t know how to handle UKIP, and neither do the political establishment. In some respects, they are all doing us a favour.
The arrogance of both sides reveals a deliberately myopic political establishment that would have the UK sleepwalk towards a situation where wholly undesirable organisations such as the EDL gain traction with people who otherwise have absolutely no sympathy with their dangerous views. We are not afraid to talk about immigration and the EU, even if we must suffer the name calling and abuse, for we understand how important these issues are to any society. These last few weeks, both Unite and The Labour Party have demonstrated a distasteful and corrupt obsession with forcibly trying to dominate the political landscape, by any means.
It is time the Left Wing stopped focusing on their selves and started waking up to what the people of Britain really want. This blind, narrow minded hostility towards UKIP is a blind narrow minded hostility towards Britain itself.
