Nigel Farage talk

[MJC]

Last night I attended the talk hosted by the European Society. I found Nigel Farage to be an interesting speaker with some compelling ideas on the EU. Whilst I disagreed with some of the things he said I was shocked and dissappointed by the hostile reaction given to him by some members of the crowd. Particularly a chap who accused him of being racist and an associate of the BNP citing google as a reliable source of information. I was wondering why do people seem to find it acceptable to be so rude to right wing politicians? Even if you disagree with what he says it is possible to make a point in a reasonable and polite manner.

[Wonderboy]

Good point.

[RandomMusings]

Good point.

Good to see flatmate solidarity there...... good work.

[MJC]

Good point.

Good to see flatmate solidarity there...... good work.

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[Hennessy]

You're right. People who are led to believe by what they read that they occupy the moral high ground can always be relied upon to be idiots, regardless of their personal political politics. This happens more often in this country because we are more liberal than most, and through our long affiliation with left-leaning intellectual movements many people simply believe conservatives of all stripes these days have nothing to offer in the way of innovation and progress. Etched into the minds of everyone, even some conservatives themselves, is the notion that conservatism itself wants to simply reset present laws and social mores back some way (the optimum date always seems to be 50 years ago, Austerity Britain apparently had no flaws). Look at the last ten years of labour government however, and you'll find a sizeable proportion of its initiatives were generated inside the Conservative Party or by right wing think-tanks. These were essentially read and adopted by Tony Blair's government, as so many socialist command-economy policies are defunct now. Nicked, for want of a better word.

As for the BNP, apart from having Polly Toynbee and her cadre of reliably white middle-class Guardian journalists on the edge of their seats chattering with fear, they represent such a small and inferior force in modern Britain, even during times of recession, as to be laughable. My second point is that the BNP are by no means right-wing, in fact their manifesto could be a Labour or Lib Dem pamphlet, with "for white people only" tagged onto the end of each sentence, such is the force of their socialist conviction in the NHS, public ownership and the unions. Indeed they go further, much further in such a direction than the Labour party has dared to since the days of Michael Foot.

The Right is tarnished enough repeatedly with accusations of racial and economic bias that are older by far than those hurling them (apart from Tony Benn, bless him), and the only thing that keeps these views constantly highlighted is the aforementioned cadre of journalists and morons who believe everything they read. We can all agree racism for example is a problem that is not confined to one party or political belief, or indeed one set of political beliefs, and nothing about being a modern conservative or libertarian indoctrinates you as such either.

So in the end when you encountered aforementioned morons, prejudices on the tip of a mind closed by fear, ready to spit fire at any poor Tory who peeks out from above the parapet, just laugh. That's all they deserve.

[David Bean]

Good work by the European Society in getting him up, I'd say, but a poor show by the hecklers.