UKIP leader swarmed by protestors in Edinburgh

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Would have been nice of he'd been genuinely scared or shaken, but you can't have everything. This guy winds me up as much as any of the other fuck nuggets leading the main parties.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage had to find refuge in a pub after he was swarmed by angry protesters as he left a press conference.
When he later left the Canons' Gait pub in Edinburgh's historic old town and was escorted into a police van, protestors chanted "scum, scum, scum".
Mr Farage was in Edinburgh to launch his party's Scottish campaign following recent electoral gains in England.
Police said two men had been arrested following the protest.
Mr Farage told the BBC he had never had a reaction like this before.
Earlier this week, Mr Farage said First Minister Alex Salmond was "illogical" to want to keep an independent Scotland in the EU.
During the protest, Max Crema, 21, Vice President of services at Edinburgh University Students Association, suggested UKIP has "a well documented history of racism".
Mr Farage replied: "If you believe that then you are less intelligent than you look, dear boy.
"We are a non-racist, non-sectarian party and unlike every other party in British politics we actually forbid people who have been on extreme left or right-wing extremes from joining our party."
Protesters chanted "Farage is being lifted" and "How does it feel to be treated like an asylum seeker?"
A UKIP spokesman described the scene as "inchoate rage".
"Was it anti-English? I doubt it, I don't think they thought that far," he said.
"I don't think he was shaken up by it. He was laughing, in fact."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Two men have been arrested following a protest outside a public house on Edinburgh's Canongate.
"Officers responded to the address to facilitate a peaceful demonstration which arose during a UKIP meeting that was taking place inside.
"During the protest, which took place around 4.30pm, a 49-year-old man was escorted from the premises to ensure his safety."

(BBC News)

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Just..ugh, I hate this fucker..

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has described protesters who besieged him in an Edinburgh pub as "fascist scum".
Mr Farage had to be escorted from the Canons' Gait pub in a police van after angry confrontations on Thursday.
He told BBC Scotland the incident was deeply racist and displayed a total hatred of the English.
Mr Farage called on Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond to condemn the behaviour. The SNP said the UKIP leader had "lost the plot".
Mr Farage was in Edinburgh to launch his party's Scottish campaign following recent electoral gains in England.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67659000/jpg/_67659913_hi018015318.jpg


Police said two men had been arrested following the protest.
Speaking to the Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Farage said: "If this is the face of Scottish nationalism, it's a pretty ugly nation."
He added: "The anger, the hatred, the shouting, the snarling, the swearing was all linked in to a desire for the Union Jack to be burnt."
The UKIP leader said the demonstrators did not represent Scotland and dismissed suggestions his party was an irrelevance north of the border.
"The fact that 50 yobbo fascist scum turn up and aren't prepared to listen to the debate, I absolutely refuse to believe is representative of Scottish public opinion," Mr Farage said.
He said he had heard before that some parts of Scottish nationalism were "akin to fascism" but "yesterday I saw it face-to-face".

(BBC News)

[Comrade #138672]

Good for him.

Of course, some people are not going to want to listen to a racist "debate".

Also, he may pretend that he wasn't really scared, but I think it is hard not to be. He is just keeping up appearances by "laughing it off".

[Futility Personified]

Fascist scum? Takes one to know one.

EDIT: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/farage-attacked-by-scottish-farage-2013051769143

SNP are more emancipatory than nationalist, but still worth a chuckle.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

God that face.

Aren't the UKIP like a political manifestation of the choppers'-boy military nut atheist highschool nazism you see in most colleges these days?

[Bronco]

God that face.

Aren't the UKIP like a political manifestation of the choppers'-boy military nut atheist highschool nazism you see in most colleges these days?

Not too sure what that means but doesnt really sound like Ukip, they're mostly just old school Tories who try and appeal to traditional, grassroots conservatism

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

If I remember correctly, UKIP voters tend to be older males with low incomes, or at least that's one cohort in which UKIP finds significant support.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

If I remember correctly, UKIP voters tend to be older males with low incomes, or at least that's one cohort in which UKIP finds significant support.

Also among the 'anti-politics' vote; as they're perceived / sold as more down to earth and less concerned with Politics and Political Correctness. Also a healthy cross-section of homophobes, xenophobes and right-wing libertarians.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

http://i39.tinypic.com/23wwt1t.jpg

[ed miliband]

ukip as a party are basically a mixture of old school tories, conspiracy theorists and right-wing libertarians, but their newfound support is more complex than that.

[The Idler]

RIC? Bit rich for them to argue Ukip stand for the politics of division when they campaign for 'Scottish Independence'. Will they be heckling Bob Crow's Little Englander No2EU campaign next?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Am I the only one who actually found this a bit repulsive?

I mean, yes, Farage is an absolute asshole as a person, but he's not a Nazi or a Fascist per se. His party contains lots of those types but you can't just go around shouting 'fascist' at every right-winger you don't like who looks like a sort of stereotype arch-capitalist/conservative.

I found it a bit self-defeating to 'drive him off our streets'. If it was a group of troublemaking UKIP supporters, fair enough, but this was one guy (albeit a massive asshole) in a pub, effectively surrounded by crowing protesters whose nationalism isn't much better than his.

Whilst I don't have any sort of tears for his demise, I found this a bit of a PR disaster; though equally he was just as stupid for calling them 'fascist scum'.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Giving myself a verbal warning for using a naughty 4 letter word. :blushing:

Sigh.

[Sam_b]

effectively surrounded by crowing protesters whose nationalism isn't much better than his.

Well by all means please let me know about the nationalism of RIC, a campaign I am a member of, and argues for a left-wing and internationalist alternative to the SNP and Yes Scotland's vision of independence. The nationalism that is obviously seeping through in RIC's campaigning against Trident nuclear weapons and calling for Scotland to not be a part of NATO right?

[ed miliband]

ric's slogan, 'another scotland is possible', isn't nationalism?

is it an isg front?

[Sam_b]

no, no it isn't.

[Sam_b]

Says it all if that's the best you've got.

[The Idler]

Well by all means please let me know about the nationalism of RIC, a campaign I am a member of, and argues for a left-wing and internationalist alternative to the SNP and Yes Scotland's vision of independence. The nationalism that is obviously seeping through in RIC's campaigning against Trident nuclear weapons and calling for Scotland to not be a part of NATO right?
The nationalism in RIC that campaigns for an "independent Scotland" rather than "workers of the world, unite".

[Sam_b]

I understand you've obviously read and had no engagement with RIC Idler, but a seasoned sectarian like yourself can surely do better than this.

[The Idler]

quote from the facebook page - about

We are fighting for an independent Scotland that is for the millions not the millionaires!
and


We stand for a vision of Scotland that is:
• Green and environmentally sustainable.
• Internationalist and opposed to Trident and war
• For a social alternative to austerity and privatisation
• A modern republic for real democracy
• Committed to equality and opposition to discrimination on grounds of gender, race or sexuality

We want this campaign to belong to everyone who holds a radical vision of an independent Scotland.Just saying you're not nationalist is not proof you know.

[ed miliband]

social democracy in one country.

[Bronco]

Not that I'm an expert on the Radical Independence movement or anything, but does it not kinda speak volumes that they pride themselves on having the support of Patrick Harvie, MSP and Green party member

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Well by all means please let me know about the nationalism of RIC, a campaign I am a member of, and argues for a left-wing and internationalist alternative to the SNP and Yes Scotland's vision of independence. The nationalism that is obviously seeping through in RIC's campaigning against Trident nuclear weapons and calling for Scotland to not be a part of NATO right?

Perhaps nationalism is too strong to brandish against the entire campaign, but I would generally say that the campaign for independence is naive and has national-leanings; we are now spending SO long talking about whether the national bourgeoisie of Scotland can survive in independence and the macroeconomic implications of an independent Scotland vs a devolved Scotland. I don't see how this has done anything but put the microscope on the implications of national power vs devolved power, so yes, I think there are strong nationalistic elements to the overall campaign. Though of course, not every supporter of an independent Scotland is a 'nationalist', i'd add.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Started this off as a means of insulting Farage but it's morphed into a debate about Scottish independance...fair enough.
I only ever favoured Scottish independance when I first heard of it years ago because it was against the traditional tory / unionist line, and as a youth I thought anything contrarian and remotely leftward was worthy of support.
The more I think about it, and read discussions on here, I find I'm less sure of it's merits and how it could ever fit into the long hard road to communism.

[ed miliband]

Not that I'm an expert on the Radical Independence movement or anything, but does it not kinda speak volumes that they pride themselves on having the support of Patrick Harvie, MSP and Green party member

indeed, a self-described group of:


... activists, intellectuals, and representatives from across the progressive movement have united to build an extra-parliamentary conference in support of Scottish independence.

activists, intellectuals and representatives, but no mention of workers? telling.

their plans of a 'radical summer' include voter registration drives. radical.