A pint and a fag with Farage

Nigel Farage is rumoured to have been paid £1.5m for appearing on the current series of I’m A Celebrity.

Only ITV executives will know whether they are getting value for money, but this observation by the Telegraph’s arts and entertainment editor is quite telling:

The nicer he appears, the less he stands out from the crowd and the further ratings plummet.

If true, what a horrible indictment of modern life.

I haven’t watched the current series, so I can’t really comment, but Farage’s appearance on the programme is a reminder that ten years ago the former Ukip and Brexit party leader took part in a fringe event organised by Forest at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

We had heard that he was coming to speak at another fringe event so we invited him to be interviewed by Mark Littlewood, director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, at the Comedy Store where we were already hosting a reception and comedy event, Stand Up for Liberty.

‘A Pint and a Fag with Farage’ was scheduled for 6.15pm on the second day of the conference.

Unknown to us, however, Mayor of London Boris Johnson was the star guest at another event taking place at exactly the same time, which led to the BBC comparing the two, right down to the venue, crowd, atmosphere, funniest gag, surprising revelation, and so on.

Naturally we couldn’t compete with Boris on numbers, or excitement, but ‘A Pint and a Fag with Farage’ received reasonably favourable reviews. Here’s a snippet from a BBC News report.

The small basement auditorium is just over half full, with a mix of refugees from the Tory conference, UKIP supporters, newspaper hacks and curious members of the public. A slightly younger crowd than the average Tory conference gathering. The event is sponsored by smokers' rights campaign Forest - but no one flouts the law by lighting up …

The evening may be billed as a "pint and a fag with Nigel Farage" but it is far from a raucous boys' night out. Farage happily slurps down a pint of Guinness as host Mark Littlewood, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, probes him about his attitude to personal freedom and whether he is trying to turn UKIP into the 19th Century Liberal party.

The report summarised each event as follows:

Johnson: Most politicians' best hope is polite applause, and, if their luck is in, a standing ovation. Few can expect whoops and cheers, but that is what Boris Johnson managed here, as well as applause and a standing ovation. People expected to be entertained, and quite a few Conservative activists are willing to entertain the idea of Boris Johnson as party leader, one day.

Farage: It was no stand-up routine - there was much earnest talk about the evils of the EU - but this being Farage there was still plenty of self-mocking humour and eye-rolling pretend outrage at his outlaw status at the Tory conference. His stance on immigration and free enterprise went down well with the Tories in the audience, his pops at Tory politicians less so, but everyone seemed to go away happy as Farage headed outside for that fag.

See - Tory conference: Boris Johnson versus Nigel Farage (BBC News)

Funnily enough, on the two previous occasions Farage spoke at Forest events he wasn’t strictly invited.

In June 2009, when we launched the Save Our Pubs & Clubs: Amend The Smoking Ban campaign at a pub in Westminster, the advertised speakers were Forest patron Antony Worrall Thompson, Conservative MP Greg Knight, and Labour MP David Clelland.

If I remember, Nigel wasn’t even on the guest list, but his press officer got wind of the event and asked if they could attend, and one thing led to another.

The previous year (2008) he made a similar ‘surprise appearance’ at another Forest event - this time at Boisdale of Belgravia - to mark the first anniversary of the public smoking ban.

Again, I’m not sure he was formally invited but that didn’t stop him coming and giving a rousing address to our 200+ audience!

That, I suspect, is the Nigel Farage the producers of I’m A Celebrity thought they were getting - an outspoken, slightly belligerent disruptor happy to gatecrash the party.

Like many people, though, they have probably underestimated the former MEP because Farage will know that polarising the television audience into two camps - those that like him, and those that hate him - is not going to get him far.

With rare exceptions, the winners are usually the most likeable characters. Tony Blackburn, Stacey Solomon and Jill Scott come to mind. Likewise Shaun Ryder who didn’t win but made the final.

As it happens, Farage has arguably dialled things down too much, with the result that his impact on the programme has been fairly muted so far.

We’ll find out in the next few days whether his ‘plan’ (if he has one) is working.