04/05/2015
On the brink of electoral defeat, it seems Farage is aiming to get his excuses in early, complaining
to LBC about the "cult of celebrity" which, he claims, "is affecting the election and detracting from the serious issues facing the electorate".
This adds to his condemnation of
the BBC, which has now grown to a wish to see curbs on entertainment programmes such as Dr Who. And not content with that, he's also having a go at
the pollsters who, in the litany of Faragian woes, seem to have it in for him.
Nothing from The Great Leader, however, admits to any great error on his part, except perhaps to a
minor misjudgement over Miliband's intentions on the referendum. Yet, despite some
wishing to see what impact Farage might have on our sadly diminished House of Commons, we already know the answer to that from his performance in
Strasbourg. Even on the key issue of asylum policy, all he could do was deliver a
pub-bore rant.
Interestingly the
Sunday Times had
Dominic Lawson commenting on the general theme of immigration, remarking that Farage is either deluded or trying to fool the public when he continually trots out his mantra that Ukip â in a UK outside the EU â would be able to control the figures by introducing "an Australian-style points system".
Lawson recalls that Owen Paterson pointed out recently that the Australian points system has let in a greater proportion of immigrants relative to the existing population than we have done as signatories of EU freedom of movement treaties.
The point is that there are almost uncountable numbers of aspiring immigrants to developed countries who have the skills that any points system demands. And as Paterson also noted: "As long as there are significant incentives to move, people will cross borders ⦠When controls are imposed, people find a way round them . . . In the UK there are over 30 million visitors each year and attempts to pull up the drawbridge would simply lead to a massive surge in illegal immigration".
The criticism here, though, is not confined to Ukip. All the parties pretend this is a force they can control as if it were a bathroom tap. Lawson asserts. Miliband has even commissioned the printing of Labour campaign mugs covered with the words "Controls on immigration". The real mug, Lawson says would be the voter who bought that â at least in the sense of believing it.
The sad thing is that there are real world problems, for which no parties are currently offering sensible (or any) solutions. Over the weekend, for instance,
rescue operations recovered more than 3,400 people off the coast of Libya on Saturday, as potential asylum seekers took advantage of the calm weather to renew their assault on fortress Europe.
The Mediterranean may, for the moment, seem a long way away, but with record number of migrants already in reception camps in EU Member States, it is only a matter of time before some of these reach Calais with a view to crossing the Channel and claiming refuge in this country.
Since no party has the answer to this problem â not even (and especially) Ukip - it is not surprising that the election campaign reverts to trivia and celebrity politics. Rather than whinging, though, Farage might reflect that if his party had come up with some credible policy ideas on key issues, voters might be more inclined to support him.
But there's the rub. For Farage's complaints about the dumbing down of the election process to be justified, he and his supporters need to do more than contribute simplistic nostrums which are no better that the other parties' offerings.
As it is, they are not anything like enough to convince voters that Ukip is a party to be taken seriously, which is why they have failed to register and will not make their breakthrough on Thursday.
