Passionate UKIP supporter can’t name a single thing the party represents – Metro

[Image: alecshelbrookeblog.com]

[Image: alecshelbrookeblog.com]

UKIP may have experienced some pretty significant wins over the past 24 hours, however all you have to do is listen to one of their average supporters to realise how far they still have to come, writes Oliver Wheaton in Metro.

A supporter who recently called in to radio station Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC) seemed to be just as loud as Nigel Farage but had very little information on UKIP policies.

When host James O’Brien asks Jack, from Welling, what the party stands for, the hapless supporter is at a loss for words.

After struggling through some meaningless rhetoric about immigration, Jack stutters through several David Brent-like answers, such as: ‘Loads of things.’

When Mr O’Brien continues to press Jack for one UKIP policy he is met with several awkward pauses.

Poor Jack at one point even asks the host himself about UKIP’s policies, suggesting he didn’t exactly come into the debate as an informed voter.

James O’Brien and UKIP leader Nigel Farage have clashed before on LBC, in which Mr Farage was criticised for saying he would not want a Romanian immigrant as a neighbour.

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16 Comments

  1. leonc1963 October 11, 2014 at 10:33 am - Reply

    One of many who have just jumped on the bandwagon with very little to no research and that scares the hell out of me.

  2. HomerJS October 11, 2014 at 12:49 pm - Reply

    When I saw the headline I thought, ‘here we go, another story about Nigel Farage’.

  3. Lovejoy October 11, 2014 at 12:51 pm - Reply

    I’m sure this is true of all other parties – who actually sits down and bothers to read a manifesto?

    • Mike Sivier October 11, 2014 at 2:06 pm - Reply

      Then again, you don’t have to read a manifesto. I know UKIP’s tax policy would raise the earnings threshold to £12,500 before income tax is payable, and give huge tax breaks to the higher earners by dropping the rate payable to 35 per cent and raising the threshold at which the higher rate becomes active (getting rid of the highest – 45 per cent – rate altogether), and I’m not a UKIP supporter.

      • Lovejoy October 11, 2014 at 5:57 pm - Reply

        True, but that still involves reading the non-sports section of the news! Misinformed voters are sadly not exclusive to UKIP!

    • hstorm October 11, 2014 at 10:31 pm - Reply

      “True, but that still involves reading the non-sports section of the news! Misinformed voters are sadly not exclusive to UKIP!”

      Well yes, but what makes ‘Jack’ interesting to me is that, from his words at the beginning, he appears to have phoned in specifically to *correct* O’Brien on UKIP policy – rather snottily at that.

      But how can he do that when he doesn’t appear to know anything about UKIP policy at all, and just comes up with transparent bluffs like, “THERE ARE TOO MANY TO LIST!!!!111111one”? He doesn’t even appear to know that UKIP’s primary, founding policy is not on immigration at all, but about withdrawing Britain from the EU.

      Under the circumstances, I’d say Jack has rather set himself up for a public ribbing, and earned it.

  4. Guy Ropes October 11, 2014 at 7:27 pm - Reply

    My betting shop clerk can’t even pronounce “UKIP” : this says more for the abject state of our state education than anything else. Education that is directed at keeping unfortunate people in an unfortunate state for the rest of their lives. What they can’t understand they can’t objectively vote for. What is your argument exactly – that all Labour voters are more intelligent than those of UKIP? What useful purpose is your ‘observation’ supposed to support? I can recite the names of – for starters – 10 Labour MPs who do nothing to support constituents who have approached them for help. How about lambasting the dreadful state of our education system resulting from years and years and years of neglect by all 3 ‘main’ parties? Edjewcashun, edgeyoucayshon, ejUcashone.

    • Mike Sivier October 11, 2014 at 10:11 pm - Reply

      It’s ironic that you’re being so passionate about people being ignorant (whether through any fault of their own or not) when you don’t seem to have read the article properly. It’s nothing to do with Labour – just UKIP, and a supporter whose issues are adequately described in the headline of the article that was published in Metro and was not written by me at all.

  5. Barry Davies October 13, 2014 at 9:01 am - Reply

    Oh dear give it a rest why not post something that really is true like the lib dum M on sunday morning politics who thought TTIP was an american health care provider because this ultra europhile knew nothing about it whatsoever, never even heard of it.

    • Mike Sivier October 13, 2014 at 9:06 am - Reply

      But this really is true, Barry – the man was recorded speaking live on the radio.
      As for a Lib Dem not knowing what TTIP might be – doesn’t surprise me in the least. It just shows the extent of the media blackout on TTIP (which UKIP supports, by the way).

    • hstorm October 13, 2014 at 12:42 pm - Reply

      “why not post something that really is true like the lib dum M on sunday morning politics”

      YES, GREAT IDEA!

      Or, even better, you could stop trying to change the subject, and face up to the reality that when people criticise UKIP, 19 times out of 20 the criticism is accurate and fair.

      Pointing the finger at other parties (who I can promise you from regularly reading this blog get heavily criticised on here too) is just a rather primitive distraction technique. It’s very old, it’s very familiar, and it’s really quite cowardly.

      And yes, this radio interview with James O’Brien and ‘Jack’ genuinely DID happen, and ‘Jack’ genuinely DID make himself and his fellow UKippers look like whining no-nothings. You wanna get angry about it, get angry with ‘Jack’.

  6. Guy Ropes October 13, 2014 at 10:53 am - Reply

    As Labour are ardent in their support for Europe, do they support TTIP? They surely must be.

    • Mike Sivier October 13, 2014 at 12:42 pm - Reply

      Labour supports an equitable trade deal. Think of it this way: If the deal included mechanisms to ensure that only the highest standard of goods was allowed to pass between countries, and that companies could be sued by states for failing to support those standards, would there be any protest?

  7. Guy Ropes October 13, 2014 at 12:55 pm - Reply

    TTIP is not equitable. Do they support it? Did they support the current extradition act between the US and the UK?

    • Mike Sivier October 13, 2014 at 12:59 pm - Reply

      Again, you’re trying to change the subject – and you’re referring to TTIP as though it is immutable, rather than the subject of negotiation that may be changed considerably before a final deal is reached. I repeat: Labour supports an equitable trade deal. When that is proposed, Labour will vote in favour of it.

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