Blooming hell
Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 7:54 I've been following the Godfrey Bloom incident with interest.
A few weeks ago Forest was invited to sponsor/support the inaugural meeting of ‘Women in Politics’, a lunchtime event hosted by the EFD group, Godfrey Bloom MEP, members of the Women’s Rights and Equality Committee and UKIP MEP candidate Janice Atkinson.
Date: Friday, 20th September
Time: 1pm
Venue: The Library Bar, Cinnamon Club,
The Old Westminster Library,
30-32 Great Smith St, London SW1P 3BU
Champagne, wine and canapés
I was told:
We want more women in politics and we aim to encourage more able women to step forward.
Any help would be most helpful, particularly as Godfrey Bloom supports your cause and it is supported by the EFD group in Brussels. It is not a UKIP event.
My reply?
I am personally sympathetic to the theme of the event but it would be difficult to justify the use of Forest funds on something that isn't directly related to tobacco and/or lifestyle issues.
Given what happened yesterday I feel that response was more than vindicated!
However much Godfrey Bloom may support our cause, the combination of the outspoken MEP and women's rights didn't seem a particularly good fit.
What were they thinking?!
According to the invitation:
We do not believe in positive discrimination, gender quotas and tokenism, therefore you are cordially invited to bring a man.
Next time, perhaps, they will choose the men they invite a bit more carefully!
Update: My first response when I heard Godfrey's joke and the laughter that accompanied it was that people who weren't at the event were over-reacting to some ribald humour taken out of context.
Unfortunately that's the nature of politics and the modern media. You have to be so careful at all times.
Godfrey then exacerbated the situation with his crass response to Channel 4's Michael Crick who questioned him about a different issue - the absence of black faces on the UKIP conference brochure.
His subsequent interview with Newsnight's Allegra Stratton didn't help either.
When you're in a hole stop digging. No wonder Nigel Farage was in such despair last night.
They say a week is a long time in politics. Yesterday the positive impact of Nigel's speech in the conference hall was undone in the space of just two hours.
That's some achievement.
Update: Godfrey Bloom: Defending the Indefensible (A Brief Encounter). Worth reading.
Reader Comments (7)
Well, at least Godders didn't punch a member of the public like Prescott did.
I'm sad at what happened and fear it is the first step to a PC UKIP. I wonder when it will be too unPC for the party to continue to support adult tobacco consumers?
Personally I feel this Chanel 4's Michael Crick was trying to dig up dirt on UKIP, he tried it on with Nigel Farage, and was told after Nigel's speech he didn't want to talk to him. I'm not going to judge what happened between Crick and Godfrey Bloom, but it was a very unfortunate situation, but in all party's these things can happen and worse things have been said, and as Pat said he didn't punch anyone.
I'd rather a politician that makes me belly laugh any day over than one that makes me cry with frustration and anger.
Bloom is a Col Blimp but he's not malicious. Smearing against ukip has begun and Bloom's an easy target - "the gift that keeps on coming" as one newsreader said last night.
He's no worse than Prince Philip with his gaffs - but he's certainly no Lord Rennard or Cyril Smith. Perspective is everything. As we smokers know, perspective gets blown out of proportions when there is an agenda.
Bloom must be doing something right if his constituents keep voting for him. Only the faux outraged were offended by a bad joke and his amusing over reaction to a provocative journalist.
UKIP should rethink it's action against Bloom or the message the voter gets is that when push comes to shove, ukip is not much different.
Farage blinked, as they say. There is to be a disciplinary hearing. The best outcome would be for Bloom to be warned to check his foot isn't in his mouth before he opens it but to keep him in the party as he ads much needed humour to a very depressing modern political landscape.
”Yesterday the positive impact of Nigel's speech in the conference hall was undone in the space of just two hours.”
Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think this incident will prove to be much more than a blip on the radar as far as UKIP’s fortunes are concerned, to be honest. Most people that I know, and I suspect that it’s reflected country-wide, intend to vote for UKIP for one reason and one reason alone (the non-smokers, that is – smokers have two reasons to vote for them!) – because they are the only party who have promised to take us right out of the EU if a referendum shows that’s what we want. And that hasn’t changed because of Godfrey Bloom’s gaffes and inappropriate behaviour. Those of us who want out still don’t have anyone else to vote for! And if anyone’s going to be put off voting for the one party which could get us out because of the odd activities of one member, then I’d pose the question as to how much that person really wants to come out in the first place!
In fact, for some voters, it could actually make them warm to the party even more. I’m certainly sick to the back teeth of squeaky-clean, suited-and-booted, happily-married-with-children, politically-correct, slick-talking clones supposedly representing me and I often look back on the days when we had some real characters (some of them distinctly oddball) in Parliament. It seemed that at least then people like that could sometimes cut through all the bullsh*t and put the cat amongst the pigeons by saying what they thought and to hell with the consequences, no matter how much their parties might disapprove. If they thought it was the right thing to say, they said it.
Whether or not one disapproves of Bloom’s words and actions, at least it shows that UKIP isn’t stuffed to the gills with well-groomed snake-oil salesmen who would willingly smile in your face one moment only to be stabbing you in the back the next – and then having the gall to try and tell us that they’re doing it “for our own good” into the bargain. As we smokers know only too well …
If UKIP is on the side of choice and against a forced change in culture then maybe they could show that to us by saying that if they win any seats in Parlt in 2015 they will immediately fight to overturn the prison smoking ban.
Let's face it, forcing prisoners to quit is nothing to do with threat of legal action by prison officers but because smokers represent 80% of the prison population. Force them to quit inside and they may have quitters for life. Prisoners are an easy target to try first. Who will be forced to quit next and what, exactly, is UKIP doing about it?
Traps and Tricks?
Perhaps I’m seeing too many conspiracies around every corner. You were quite right Simon to refuse the invitation from the EFD group (Europe of Freedom and Democracy), because UKIP withdrew from this group in Brussels if you remember some time ago. They are anti gay and I believe anti Jewish.
Had you attended then this could have been something that would have been used against Forest at some stage in the future – the BNP had some involvement here at one time too. This was why there was a proviso of it not being a UKIP event, because UKIP would have nothing to do with them.
I did find it odd that Godfrey Bloom turned up there in the first place; did he discuss this with Nigel Farage? Farage was entirely right to withdraw the whip from Bloom. This man is a loose canon and a dangerous one at that. You cannot now in politics make off colour remarks whether openly or in private. I’m not being PC about this, but you must be highly disciplined, because the media are always on the lookout for incidents like this – especially with UKIP. Left wing luvvie Kevin Maguire associate editor of the Daily Mirror said that UKIP attracts 'nutters' whilst licking his lips. UKIP have to lose this kind of stigma, and that means losing people like Bloom no matter how affable a man he is.
Michael Crick is someone I loath and detest with every fibre of my being, his only function in life is to turn up and embarrass politicians especially those on the right, more so than Labour. If you noticed Crick was there to doorstep Godfrey Bloom right on cue…good timing eh…I wonder how he managed that, and the episode with the party flyer was just what Crick wanted. This man now pops up on behalf of the BBC, Ch4 and Ch5. I’m sure you saw Ch4 making a feast out of this that same night…what a gift.
Nigel Farage must now surround himself with capable spokespersons who are media savvy – and a PR professional preferably from an ethnic minority.
Between now and the next election rebuilding the brand without equivocation is a necessity.
I think what the Bloom incident really shows is the lamentable state of the media. All they were interested in talking about was a joke that could have been misconstrued as an insult (it wasn't – they all laughed). And totally ignored all the important issues raised at the conference which should have been the primary duty of the media to report.
Having said that, Bloom should have been more careful because he knew they were watching him closely.
Personally I hope he gets reinstated after the disciplinary hearing.
BTW I believe UKIP is still very much part of the 'Europe of Freedom & Democracy' group. See http://www.efdgroup.eu/