Lessons on positive campaigning from UKIP

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The picture above was posted by Maria Pizzey on Facebook, along with text as follows:

“This is UKIP’s MEP candidate for the South East. She described herself as ‘Nigel’s number two’.

“She told us to f**k off because we stood peacefully holding placards accusing UKIP of racist policies.

“She offered no debate or arguments to defend her party and despite the chap in the picture asking us to pose for photos, this was her response when asked to return the favour.

“She made personal comments about my body size and when I told her I would quote her widely she said, ‘I don’t care where you f***ing post this, just f**k off!’

“Hilariously, I have just discovered she is UKIP’s press advisor. This is the most rude and aggressive individual I have had the misfortune to come across and she wants to represent this country in Europe. By the way her name is Janice Atkinson.”

The racism debate has been running for some time and many readers may wish to defend Ms Atkinson’s attitude towards people acting in as provocative a way as to display posters accusing her party of promoting such behaviour. In addition, it is impossible to provide empirical verification of the account; given the photographic evidence, there just seems to be little reason to accuse Ms Pizzey of falsehood.

Bearing in mind those caveats, we are told that Ms Atkinson did not even try to persuade the protesters that they were mistaken – she just went straight to the abuse.

UKIP is currently riding high in voting intention polls for the European Parliament election.

With this attitude, one has to ask why.

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23 Comments

  1. wrjones2012 May 18, 2014 at 12:48 pm - Reply

    As I mentioned on a previous post of yours,UKIP activists are a very unique bunch!They seem to have a very strong belief that water runs uphill!

    • Barry Davies May 18, 2014 at 3:02 pm - Reply

      It does if it has run downhill fast enough for the momentum to keep it going.

  2. Bryn miller May 18, 2014 at 12:55 pm - Reply

    The more UKIP is smeared by the media or other parties the stronger it becomes,Why? When I was being trained as a sales executive for a major company one of the points drummed into us was”Never knock your competition”it will only alienate your prospective customer and insult their intelligence.Instead demonstrate the benefits of your product over your rivals,you will have a better chance of getting the order. Isn’t there a lesson here for all politicians?

    • Mike Sivier May 18, 2014 at 1:02 pm - Reply

      This article isn’t a smear, Bryn – it’s an account of events.
      Politics isn’t business – the Conservatives regained power many times in the 1980s and 90s by attacking Labour, rather than promoting their own policies.
      As for demonstrating the benefits of your product over rivals, UKIP members have been parading their homophobia, racism, hypocrisy and intolerance around the country – are those the benefits you mean?

      • Bryn miller May 18, 2014 at 2:02 pm - Reply

        If you remember I commented on my reasons to exit the EU because it’s about space not race and I gave a pretty good account of my logic.Does this make me a racist for being concerned about overpopulation and it effects on our quality of life?,I don’t think so! I agree with you that UKIP may attract some xenophobes, racists and homophobics. But you must realise that a good number of ukipians are of the older generation (me included) and cannot come to terms with the vast changes to our culture and country compared to the memories of happier times.

        • Mike Sivier May 18, 2014 at 9:35 pm - Reply

          In comparison to the vast majority of UKIP supporters, you are a breath of fresh air, believe me! No, I do not believe you personally are a racist but, like you, I do think UKIP has attracted people who hold such views. My own opinion is that we should close the door to countries whose economies are not comparable to our own, in order to end the financial incentive for people from poorer countries to come here. I also agree with another commenter elsewhere who reminded me that the global population is growing unsustainably and this must be controlled.

  3. Crash Raindog May 18, 2014 at 12:55 pm - Reply

    Nice to see this starting to go viral within 24 hours of it being posted on FB, I only saw it an hour or two ago and immediately shared it with a link back to the original post.

    I reckon good advice when encountering any politician is have your phone ready to snap a quick pic when they let they’re out in the wild and it can’t be edited for broadcast.

  4. peeve May 18, 2014 at 1:20 pm - Reply

    If you go to Maria Pizzey’s Facebook page, there are additional photos of this scene, showing Maria and her friends and their peaceful placard-hoisting. In this collection, there is another photograph of Ms Atkinson doing her finger-hoisting riposte, while the other UKIP-badge-wearing man tries to restrain her. Hilarious.

  5. aimingtobegreen May 18, 2014 at 1:47 pm - Reply

    I worry about the sanity of anyone associated with that party.

    • Bryn miller May 18, 2014 at 2:20 pm - Reply

      I’m not insane,but consider myself intelligent enough to make my own choices.looking at your logo I assume you are a disciple of the Green Party does that make you insane also?

      • Mike Sivier May 18, 2014 at 9:48 pm - Reply

        I’d like to insert a note of caution at this point. Comments about other commenters that may be seen as personal attacks are discouraged here. If anyone wants to take a pop at me or the people mentioned in the articles, that’s fair enough (if you’ve got good arguments) – but I don’t want to see any offence created or taken between commenters. The comment to which you were responding, Bryn, is permissible because it refers to all UKIP members/supporters, and if you had replied in similar vein about all Green Party members/supporters, I would not be writing this. I am doing so because you singled out the other commenter.
        That’s just so you all know.

      • aimingtobegreen May 18, 2014 at 9:50 pm - Reply

        You’d have to ask my psychiatrist that one…..

      • Seb Dolling May 20, 2014 at 12:27 am - Reply

        Why would any intelligent person vote for a openly homophobic party?

        • Mike Sivier May 20, 2014 at 12:32 am - Reply

          You’re opening yourself up to thousands of homophobes who are desperate to validate themselves and their intelligence, there.

  6. […] The picture above was posted by Maria Pizzey on Facebook, along with text as follows: "This is UKIP's MEP candidate for the South East. She described herself as 'Nigel's number two'. "She told us t…  […]

  7. […] See on voxpoliticalonline.com […]

  8. Hermes May 18, 2014 at 3:26 pm - Reply

    I had a little run-in with UKIP supporters on Twitter yesterday / today and was quite worried at their hostile tactics. One woman had repeatedly tweeted aggressive and rude things after I left an approving tweet with LBC about James O’Brien’s excellent interview with Farage. This supporter would not let it lie and a cascade of abusive tweets followed, leading to me being called a ‘Leftard’ (like, what?). I had a morning of angry tweets from her and was copied in with several people and it all got very confusing for me.

    Eventually they steered me to the ‘disabled advisor’ to UKIP who promptly blocked me after looking at my TL and deciding I was a Labour supporter (I’m not). One guy was polite and sweet to me, but I am left with a nasty taste in my mouth. And I still have no idea what their policies are regarding disabled people because their manifesto hasn’t been written and none of their literature mentions disability. I have genuinely been trying to find out what they stand for vis a vis disability and other non-Europe issues, but will have to wait until 2015. How can you vote for a party that has no manifesto, only local pledges that vary according to the area?

    What an unpleasant experience it has been. One good thing came of it: a relative of mine was dithering about voting for them as a protest but after the way I was spoken to has decided against! So not a total waste of my morning.

  9. Thomas M May 18, 2014 at 3:28 pm - Reply

    That’s UKIP for you.

  10. beastrabban May 18, 2014 at 3:40 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
    UKIP’s press advisor, MEP candidate for the south-east and Nigel Farage’s self-proclaimed number 2, shows the wit, tact and intelligence UKIP is known for in reply to allegations that her party is racist. If you’re worried about the quality of political debate in this country, so you should be.

  11. Molly May 18, 2014 at 6:23 pm - Reply

    I can vouch for how rude they all were- I was part of the opposition. UKIP didn’t seem to have any solid arguments to anything that was asked of them. They do seem to enjoy swearing though.

  12. […] Lessons on positive campaigning from UKIP. […]

  13. Bryn miller May 19, 2014 at 7:32 pm - Reply

    Mike,Thanks for the feed back on my comments With sensible reasoning. I really fear the future of the human race resulting from overpopulation. Our planet long term cannot sustain this onslaught.Its going to run out of the resources required to maintain our desire for “things”when this happens it will be survival of the fittest and all hell will be let loose,rioting,wars etc will be more frequent. As a species we are indeed brilliant,but at the same time stupid.I worry about these things not for myself as I’m in the autumn of my life,but for future generations which will inherit this mess.
    Sorry to be so pessimistic .

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