Britannist

For those who never saw the interview; for those that want a written record and for those who never saw it and do not have access to recordings of it on the internet (if there are any):

Full Transcript of the live interview of Nigel Farage MEP, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), by Huw Edwards on ‘Sunday AM’ on BBC 1 Television on 15.10.2006 from 9.06 am to 9.10 am (duration of interview 4.13 minutes):

Huw Edwards (HE): Both Labour and the Conservatives treated UKIP as a bit of an extremist fringe hardly worth bothering with. But with 10 members of the EU ‘Parliament’ UKIP is now a force that they can’t ignore. And they recognise the success of UKIPs appeal in many key seats. Nigel Farage is UKIPs leader who was elected just a few weeks ago. He’s with us. Good morning to you.

Nigel Farage (F): Good Morning.

Huw Edwards (HE): How’s life as leader.

Nigel Farage (F): well, I haven’t been in the job very long. What I am very struck by are the number of people that have said to me thank goodness you are leader of the party. Thank goodness UKIP exists because we can’t tell the difference any more between Labour, the Lib ‘Dem’ and the Conservatives. They look the same. They sound the same. They are saying the same things.

HE: Let’s test that. Not on european policy. But on one of the main items. Today’s news. Because we’ve had a big row about religious symbols and a row about the veil in this country and now a row about a worker with BA (British Airways) wearing a cross. What is your perspective on this as a party.

F: Well both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, over the last 30 years, have encouraged mass immigration and promoted multi-culturism. Now it seems, that David Davis and others are saying Oh! You know, we shouldn’t be doing this. They are the people that got us in this mess in the first place
and our position is clear – if people are going to come and live in this country they’ve got to be British; they’ve got to be loyal to Britain. We could learn an awful lot from Australia in terms of how we deal with these things.

HE: So what is the logic of that when it comes to wearing a veil, for example?

F: Well, that’s slightly different. That’s slightly different. Because it’s quite possible, er, to maintain your religion from a previous country and be loyal to Britain. The veil question, though, is slightly different isn’t it? I mean, should somebody who is interviewed as a schoolteacher and then changes faith midway through be allowed to teach a class of children when they can’t see her face?

HE: And your view?

F: I wouldn’t have thought so, no.

HE: And British Airways with the cross, what is …

F: Well, I find that amazing. British Airways is one of those companies which has been consistently anti-British er, whether it’s taking the flag off the tailfins; whether it’s been one of the few companies that thought we should give up the Pound and adopt the euro. So I’m not surprised at all by BA’s behaviour.

HE: Now when you look at the policies that you are developing as a party – beyond the european core if you like. What are you trying to do. Basically appeal to disaffected Tories (Conservatives) and that’s about it?

F: No, it’s much wider than that. The underlying philosophy which runs through every single UKIP policy is that we want less Government interference in our lives. That’s why we are saying that the Government should take less of our money in tax. Er, that’s we are saying there needs to be a far greater degree of independence for local government. That’s what the party is about. And it’s not just the Tory vote we are after. Do you know there are nine million people who voted in 1992 in the General Election who now vote for nobody? Because they are disenchanted with politics. Well I’m disenchanted with politics - that’s why I’m in the UK Independence Party and we are the only party standing up and saying what most people really think.

HE: The logic of your position economically is that if you cut back on some of the taxes you are talking about – we are talking about big sums of money.

F: Yes.

HE: …schools will suffer, health will suffer, public will suffer. It’s inevitable.

F: We learnt these lessons back in the 1980’s. If you cut taxes you stimulate economic growth. You have a wealthier country. You’ll also have a lot less of our young people emigrating and moving off to America and elsewhere. You’ve got to give people incentives. The tax burden in Britain is rising faster than in any other european country. We need turn that around.

HE: We’ll be talking to the President of the European Commission in a short while. The big issue here, of course, the expansion of the European Union to take in Romania and Bulgaria, possibly looking at Turkey. Erm…what is your view on this and its impact on the Union?

F: UKIP was the only party to vote against enlargement (of the EU) in 2004. We did so predicting a huge flood of migrants to Britain. We were condemned at the time for saying it, but we have been proved to be absolutely right. We are still the only party opposed to Bulgaria and Romania (entering the EU) and we’ll vote against that in the European ‘Parliament’ in a couple of months time. Having the free movement of goods and services between countries is one thing, but to have the free movement of peoples where there are massively different GDPs we think is madness. But we are getting to the crux here – as Bulgaria joins (the EU), as Romania joins we and as we begin to talk about the possibility of Turkey joining the European Union, we have got to understand that we cannot have our own immigration policy. We cannot have proper border controls and stay part of the European Union. And that’s why the UKIP view – is let’s trade with europe, let’s be friendly with europe, but let’s be - not be part of full political union (among the EU member states).

HE: Very briefly. Erm.. Some people say that from your point of view the more the Union (EU) expands the weaker its structures become; the weaker the decision-making becomes and you (UKIP) should be in favour of it.

F: Yea.. that’s a Tory argument. Er… they were wrong about it in 1981 when Greece joined the European Union – they’re still wrong about it. What the British people want, the majority want, is a different relationship with the European Union.

HE: Nigel Farage, Good to talk to you.

F: Thank you.

HE: Thank you very much.