The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Monorchid means "having only one testicle" by the way. And the hero in question is a man named Nigel Farage, who lost his other one to cancer. In fact, he has survived at least three brushes with death. The other two were being mowed down by a car while inebriated (he likes his drink, does Nigel) and the time while campaigning during the last British general election when the plane in which he was flying got tangled up with an advertisement banner trailing from the rear - with very nearly fatal consequences.
Apart from having more lives than a cat, Farage's main claim to fame is as leader of Britain's soon-to-be-third largest party, Ukip. (That's as in UK independence party). Currently in the polls it's just one percentage point behind Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats. Given that Ukip was created in opposition to the European Union, and given the strength of feeling in Britain on that score right now, it stands to get a great deal more popular yet.
In my Spectator column this week, I analyze the Ukip phenomenon. Conservatives and libertarians should feel very heartened by its success for - as I note on the new, must-listen Ricochet podcast - Ukip is now the true voice of Tea Party-ish values in Britain. It has been described as the "Conservative party in exile": not unreasonably given the dismally leftwards drift of the nominal Conservative party under Britain's answer to Mitt Romney, David Cameron.
Indeed, perhaps the most surprising thing is that Ukip isn't doing even better. But I can answer that in three letters: BBC.
Imagine a world in which your pretty much your entire broadcast media was dominated by the kind of people who make Keith Olbermann look like Charles Krauthammer. Yep, that's how suffocatingly left-liberal the BBC is - and remember, we've no Fox news or right-wing talk radio here to make everything a bit more fair and balanced.
So it is with Ukip. Policy-wise they're the dream ticket: small state, anti-EU, anti-regulation, low-tax, pro-liberty, pro-traditional-values. Yet thanks to the relentless smearing in the MSM, cheer-led by the BBC, they're still burdened with the unfortunate image of swivel-eyed, eccentric, dangerously right-wing, out-of-touch no hopers.
But Ukip's time may yet have come. Not necessarily as an election winner, but certainly as an ideological king-maker. With Ukip ready to steal the votes of disgruntled Tories, the relentless drift leftwards by Cameron's Conservatives can surely not continue. A lot of this is thanks to the charisma and drive of the rumbustious, amiable, hilariously outspoken Farage.
To see the great man in action do check out this hilarious Youtube footage of him haranguing the nonentity EU president Herman Van Rompuy in the Brussels chamber:
"You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a bank clerk."
What a man! What cojones!
- Comment (30)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Aug '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
DocJay: I enjoy watching the man even if he gets a little testi. It's nice to see him mix it up with the liberals instead of taking his ball and going home.
There is not a vas deferens between the UKIP and the TP so there is hope for the UK
DocJay, you would get along famously with my fiance, a rather brilliant physicist whose primary character flaw is his proclivity for making very bad puns-- the worse, the better. If one is still causing my eyes to roll four hours after it was made, he's a happy man who knows that, at least on this day, he has done something to justify is existence.
Dec '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
"Monorchid means "having only one testicle" by the way."
Greatest opening sentence in the history of Ricochet.
Apr '11
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Hang On: So vote Daniel Hannan out to be replaced by Labour or or the LibDems by voting UKIP?
And I've got to agree with BThompson on your assessment of Romney. He may not be as conservative as I like, but he is certainly no David Cameron. · Nov 10 at 7:03am
That's not how the electoral system works for European elections. Both Farage and Hannan are MEPs representing the same constituency, South East England, which has 10 MEPs. Each party puts forward a list, and receives a number of seats according to vote percentages. The Conservatives got 34.8% of the vote, which translated into 4 seats. Hannan is at the top of the list, so unless the Conservative vote fell to somewhere south of 7% or so, he'd get a seat. UKIP came second at 18.8%, which translated into 2 seats, with Farage at the top.
The party favorites from all major parties are essentially assured seats. Even dramatic changes in the vote do not change the seats allocated all that much (kinda like California), so the parliament is, to an extent, more appointed than elected.
Apr '11
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Hang On
And I know Hanan is an MEP, but my impression was the UKIP first arose to contest MEP slots. · Nov 10 at 10:39am
It did, and UKIP domestic election campaigns are still slightly silly, but MEP slots are not just contested with Conservatives. Because of the list system, one has no idea which marginal candidate you're voting for. eg. At the last election, despite being a UKIP member, I kinda optimistically campaigned mildly for JP Floru (4th on the Conservative list), who is wonderful, and probably a friend of Mr. Delingpole's; certainly there are a lot of mutual friends between their circles. Instead, my campaigning marginally solidified the election of the terrible Marina Yannakoudakis (3rd on the list).
It is not easy to tell if increasing UKIP votes in Hannan land would reduce the Conservative total at the next election. It is just as likely that it would remove the sole Labour MEP, Peter Skinner, as to boot the 4th Conservative MEP, James Elles. If my Euroskeptic activist friend is right, and the Conservatives will be catastrophically down in 2014, the 3rd Conservative, Nirj Deva, could be threatened, but this seems pretty implausible to me.
Apr '11
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Oh, final thought; if Farage's vote increased to the point where they got a third seat, the current #3 is an American three tour US Navy Vietnam vet called Steve Harris (#2 is an Argentine born Spanish ex-EU accountant, with her family still in Argentina). Harris is a hard worker for the party, and his chief issue is sovereignty in defense matters. The marginal Conservative (assuming the Conservative vote doesn't go up, which seems unlikely), Hannan's #4, is a lifelong MEP who writes a blog here. It is my sense that for most of Ricochet, these are not similarly appealing characters.
Dec '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
James, I LOVE THIS GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks
May '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
James,
I had to listen to the last podcast twice as I could not believe that there was someone on the planet whose ideas so exactly match my own. The only difference I can find is that I have mainly given up trying to convince others of the insane thinking, hubris and corruption that is driving us to ruin. You on the other hand make your living from it.
more power to you.
Aug '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Mike Visser: "Monorchid means "having only one testicle" by the way."
Greatest opening sentence in the history of Ricochet. · Nov 10 at 1:48pm
Certainly one of the most modest.
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
Steve MacDonald: James,
I had to listen to the last podcast twice as I could not believe that there was someone on the planet whose ideas so exactly match my own. The only difference I can find is that I have mainly given up trying to convince others of the insane thinking, hubris and corruption that is driving us to ruin. You on the other hand make your living from it.
more power to you. · Nov 10 at 7:24pm
"Living"? *laughs bitterly* But always glad to make someone else feel not alone.
Nov '10
Re: The Heroic Monorchid Who Could Save Britain
DocJay: I enjoy watching the man even if he gets a little testi. It's nice to see him mix it up with the liberals instead of taking his ball and going home.
There is not a vas deferens between the UKIP and the TP so there is hope for the UK.
I also can't help wondering about the laterality of his persisting man-pod.
Politically speaking, dextral would be neatly symbolic; but sinistral would delightfully ironic.