General Election 2015: Ed Miliband gives me the heebie jeebies, Nigel Farage models himself on Boycie and Nicola Sturgeon has “thin lips” – here are the best reactions to the party manifesto launches April 20, 2015 Voters have had some interesting reactions to the manifesto launches of the last week – and not in the way you might expect. They collectively had only “the haziest recollection” of the details – despite them dominating the news all week. As part of the weekly poll update for Ashcroft National Polls, they had [...]
Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood to appear in BBC election specials after Ed Miliband, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg get Question Time slots April 18, 2015 Nigel Farage is to be served up to a regional audiences as part of a several BBC specials ahead of the General Election. Farage will appear in a programme in England on 30 April, the same day Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood will appear in [...]
Would raising the minimum wage really attract too many immigrants, as Nigel Farage suggests? April 17, 2015 The arguments against raising the minimum wage are many and varied – but is Ukip leader Nigel Farage's assertion that an increase might attract Romanian immigrants fair? While businesses argue hiking the minimum wage could raise the unemployment rate and lead to more illegal labour, today Farage suggested it would cause "even more people [to] [...]
BBC debate: Here’s what Twitter commentators made of Nigel Farage’s attack on left-wing audience April 16, 2015 The BBC leaders' debate had clashes on all sides, but Nigel Farage was very much everyone's favourite target. After Farage argued immigration was a driving factor in the rise of house prices, the other leaders piled in on him. However, Farage also turned to an interesting tactic of attacking the audience. The Ukip leader said [...]
General Election 2015: The battle for South Thanet is hotting up as Nigel Farage calls on Ukip supporters to help fight Tories April 16, 2015 Things are hotting up in South Thanet, the seat Nigel Farage is hoping will be his come May 7. By now, the Ukip leader may well have expected to be storming ahead in the polls considering the huge publicity he has generated. But yesterday it emerged that he was likely to come in third, with the [...]
General Election 2015: How are Ukip and Nigel Farage doing in the “people’s army’s” target seats? April 15, 2015 Last year Ukip’s plans to storm to 12 seats at this year’s General Election were revealed, but as the election draws near, how is the party faring across those constituencies? Ukip won its first MP in October when Douglas Carswell won a landslide victory in Clacton. This was followed up by a less decisive, but [...]
Ukip legal battle: Nigel Farage could face High Court fight with Amjad Bashir April 7, 2015 Nigel Farage could be facing an intense legal battle with a former Ukip MEP. Amjad Bashir, who defected to the Conservative Party in January, has had his lawyers write to the Ukip leader asking him to withdraw allegations made earlier this year. Bashir's lawyers said Ukip could be taken to the High Court for possible [...]
Mythbusting Nigel Farage: Why immigration doesn’t erode social cohesion and trust April 6, 2015 The political scientist Robert Putnam famously found that Americans “hunker down” in the face of social diversity, doing less in the community and trusting people less – even their own compatriots. When Nigel Farage suggested that one reason kids tend not to play on the street nowadays was immigration, he was voicing a common concern: [...]
Leaders’ debate: Why Nigel Farage failed to break through with HIV claim April 3, 2015 Last night's rare spectacle of seven party leaders tearing each other apart on live TV proved more entertaining than the pundits had feared. Instead of a two hour bora-thon, sparks flew as the seven leaders accused each other of everything from economic incompetence to conspiracies over support for mass immigration. But perhaps the surprise loser of the [...]
Blue and Red Ukip profiled: The two tribes at the heart of Nigel Farage’s party March 26, 2015 Ever since Ukip began to breach double digits consistently in the polls and win over councillors and MEPs beyond its southern heartlands, the makeup of Ukip supporters has shifted. Back in the old days Ukip voters were almost entirely made up of ex Conservatives and those who hadn't voted before. But with an increasingly aggressive [...]