Throughout the election, the BBC regarded UKIP as the party it despised but had to mention now and again; when it did so, Paxman and his cronies treated them with sneering disdain, as if their libertarian policies were akin to Nazism, and in line with David Cameron’s description of UKIP members as “fruitcakes”. I accept that during the campaign, the party compounded the problem by sometimes appearing to be not fully in command of its own message. But let’s get things in proportion. UKIP, on a shoestring budget, attracted almost 1m votes last Thursday (up 50% on 2005), and, according to the latest analysis, probably cost the Conservatives upwards of 25 seats, thus depriving them of their overall majority.
The reason is that the boy Dave took a cynical gamble that he woud win by not “banging on about Europe” (and rejecting a referendum on Lisbon)and by instead winning Liberal Democrat votes through centrist and loony greenie policies. His bid failed, and his strategy effectively disenfranchised and alienated all those who are true eurosceptics; mostly natural Tory supporters who saw through his pathetic porky that powers can be repatriated and the Brussels monster stopped in hits tracks without holding a referendum.
Meanwhile, at the BBC, there’s absolutely no attempt to analyse this aspect of the election – it’s as if UKIP now don’t exist and were never relevant as a force; that 1m votes count for nothing. The Greens, of course – who commanded less than a third of UKIP’s total vote and lagged way behind even the BNP – have attracted acres of fawning coverage because the odiously self-righteous Caroline Lucas won a solitary seat. To the boys and girls at the BBC, she is already a saint in the Bob Geldof league, and her cause is one they will champion with renewed fervour. Prepare for her loony,extremist, voice – that advocates condemning millions to fuel poverty and forcing us back to the stone age – to be featured on every BBC outlet until it makes you sick.
The terrifying thing is that Cameron agrees with almost everything she says. Aided and abetted by his best chum, Steve Hilton, and that eco-freak in chief, Zac Goldsmith. Look at his and Dave’s policies and weep.