Ukip conference diary
Monday, September 29, 2014 at 16:37 I'm a bit behind. The Ukip conference already feels like old news.
Nevertheless …
I spent Friday and Saturday in Doncaster. It was my first Ukip conference and I was curious to see what it was like.
The first person I met was Brian Monteith, former chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students.
Brian edits Forest's Free Society website but on this occasion he was wearing his Global Britain hat.
Like me he wasn't there as a party member. He was speaking at a fringe meeting.
And he wasn't the only ex-FCS member in Doncaster. Another old friend, Gary Ling, was working for Steven Woolfe MEP.
Gary helped write Woolfe's speech and the inclusion of his joke about "Mr Ed", the TV talking horse, generated a big laugh in the conference hall.
Jonathan Bullock, a familiar face at Tory conference, revealed he is now a Ukip councillor after defecting from Kettering Conservatives.
And so it went on, an extraordinary gathering of people, many of them former Conservative activists.
Don't be fooled into thinking they're all libertarians, though. Far from it. I had several very heated exchanges with delegates.
One asked me if was true that a tobacco company was taking the Australian government to court over plain packaging. He then began ranting that companies had no right to take legal action against governments that had a "mandate" to act as the Aussie government has done.
He visibly shook with rage. I thought he was going to (a) hit me or (b) self combust.
Another approached our stand and said, in time-honoured fashion, "I'm a libertarian but …"
In this instance the line was, "I'm a libertarian but I'd ban smoking in the street."
When I suggested he was not, in fact, a libertarian I got The Look That Could Kill.
And there was more. If someone dares smoke in the open air within five yards of him he has to cross the road!
Anyway, the conference took place at Doncaster Racecourse which boasts a large modern grandstand with a fantastic view of the racecourse.
Unfortunately, with 2000 people in the Exhibition (or Main Betting) Hall, it was monumentally hot and stuffy.
A good excuse, then, to spend most of our time on the Hands Off Our Packs stand along from the windowless hall or, occasionally, with the smokers outside overlooking the winning line.
The stand consisted of a table and two pop-up banners promoting our new Last Chance Saloon initiative.
Special thanks to that old warhorse Roger Helmer for visiting the stand and having his photo taken.
What we really wanted of course was a picture of Nigel Farage – but, boy, did he make us wait.
Messages pinged from his people to our people yet Friday came and went with Nige nowhere to be seen – apart from the main stage, of course. (Perhaps he had other things on his mind, who knows?)
Eventually, on Friday evening, in response to a plaintive email from me, his press officer replied, "Yes, tomorrow, certainly."
And so it came to pass that on Saturday morning the great man did indeed visit our stand and, surrounded by cameras and microphones, he did what Nigel Farage does best – he extemporised on the subject of plain packaging in a manner that, at the very least, should give David Cameron cause for thought.
One tiny problem. Within hours any hope of Nigel appearing on the evening news with our Last Chance Saloon banners either side of him had evaporated into the hot Exhibition Hall air as Mark Reckless announced his defection.
C'est la vie.
Oh well, at least we have some evidence of his visit. Next stop: Birmingham.
Simon Clark
H/T Dick Puddlecote.
DP spotted a tweet by BBC journalist Rajesh Mirchandani in response to another tweet by political correspondent Ross Hawkins.
While Hawkins' tweet was strictly neutral, Mirchandani's was rather less so.
Seriously? Someone thinks plain packaging a bad idea? “@rosschawkins: Farage at anti plain cigarette packaging stall pic.twitter.com/kFTRiGWs5L”
— Rajesh Mirchandani (@rajeshmirchand) September 27, 2014
Reader Comments (7)
BBC service resumed...
You just knew that the Beeb wouldn't show UKIP's conference in the same way as Labour or Conservative conferences. UKIP had been relegated to a slot somewhere else. I saw Nige Farage's speech on my computer.
Naturally there was a nicely timed piece of entrapment to embarrass the defecting Conservative MP Brooke Newmark. A male journalist sold his dirt to that grubby cloth the Mirror. Kevin Maguire a rag-arse from nowhere tried defending this reprehensible behaviour by the Mirror by saying we expect better standards from those in public life...quite right too.
Perhaps Maguire's sanctimonious words should be followed by the sludge-pump he works for!
I think the two Smokerphobics you met are indicative that UKIP still has a few of its nutters on board. As for the party, well Nigel not being too ashamed or embarrassed or unPC to stand at your stand in full media presence shows the party has a different view on smokers than a few individuals.
However, should the party's stance on smoking or smokers change, then it will lose a great chunk of the membership that has helped to bring it this far since 2008 when the first batch of us abandoned our traditional parties of choice. Many more have seen the light since the GE of 2010.
Sorry to hear you came across a nutter or two. I think you should name and shame them. The antis would have no compunction about doing so if the position was reversed.
I didn't attend but recorded most of it overnight on the BBC Parliament channel. Shame you didn't video Nigel's words at your stand.
Simon, it was unfortunate that you met this fool, Ukip is a libertarian party, as Pat said they will lose a great chunk of their membership if they change the party's stance on smoking or smokers, added to which they will lose a large amount of votes as well, plus the party now are starting to get a lot of support from pubs & bars etc.
I was at Conference, it is so different to only a few years ago, I am sorry you had to meet a couple of Smokerphobics Simon, Pat has said that there are still some nutters in the party, these are new nutters, with the massive intake of new people in the the party, it takes time for them to realise we are not the conservative party or the Labour party, and tolerance is the byword.
One ex conservative who is now an= UKIP MEP namely Janice Atkinson (Small) who appeared on question time with Prof Robert Winston, stated we all know about the dangers of SHS, and was later corrected by Prof Winston that there is actually very little evidence, She is one of those in UKIP who I hope Nigel has had stern words with, it is a battle to educate all the newcomers of how they have been fed misinformation and with such a massive influx of people we hope core values are held, Godfrey Bloom being replaced by Pattrick O'Flynn (UKIP Economics) is maybe another worry after hearing his stance at the fringe meeting held by the IEA, but he could just be looking at his view of economics, Tim Aker (UKIP Policy) is holding his own though, Roger Helmer UKIP MEP, a not so recent newcomer and is for fair policy even attending Stony Stratford when he was a Conservative MEP, Judith Morris a good friend of mine who is now Yorks and North Lincs, Regional Chair, so it is swings and roundabouts at the moment.
And there was more. If someone dares smoke in the open air within five yards of him he has to cross the road!
Excellent. What's needed here is someone walking towards this guy smoking while I wait on the other side of the road.
I'll let him get halfway across and then light up.
Hey, these people aren't going to go away or develop any intelligence. Might as well play with them ;)
hahahaha LegIron - good idea.
Next time Simon perhaps you could point out the "research" on 7th hand smoke ; ie : Directly talking to a non smoker who stands up for smoker's rights and informed freedom of choice can give you cancer, heart disease, etc, etc..
8th hand smoke is when someone else who doesn't smoke tells "the victim" what the non smoker standing up for smokers rights said ....
I wish I could believe it wouldn't get this silly but we are a third of the way there already ;)