Del Boy Blames The Beeb

Amidst all the froth generated by the Eurozone – and also the wider EU – some clearly believe that what they call “Euroscepticism”, or more correctly forthright Europhobia, should be rather more on the march than it is. So James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole has stepped in to talk up the prospects for his team, while putting the boot into those supposedly holding it back.

Del Boy’s stance will be familiar to those who have observed the modus operandi of our old friends at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse): he presents his position of screaming anti-Europeanism as “mainstream”, digs out one recent opinion poll as clinching evidence, and concludes that anyone not following his One True Path is another of those rotten lefties.

So which political party satisfies the Del Boy agenda? Not the Tories: after all, Del has already condemned Young Dave by comparing him unfavourably to Sailor Heath, who took us into the then EEC. The thought that Cameron is having to manage the first peacetime Coalition for 80 years does not enter. Instead, Del comes out for Nigel “thirsty” Farage and UKIP.

This, in Delingpole’s world, is the home of true Conservatism, and the only reason that UKIP is not attracting more than a 7% opinion poll rating is down to one thing: it’s being ignored by the dastardly BBC. Coincidentally, that’s the same BBC that broadcast “Science Under Attack”, where Royal Society president Paul Nurse did Del Boy up like a kipper. Twice.

So Del’s talk of “the BBC-led media” has to be seen in context, that context being that Del is generating large amounts of the northbound by-product of a southbound bull. Even in broadcast media, Sky News (“first for breaking wind”) and ITN do not follow the Beeb’s line. And many papers (think Sun, Mail, Telegraph, Express) are consistently hostile to the Corporation.

The problem that fringe parties like UKIP have – and Delingpole at least touches on this – is that they all too often rely on one high profile individual to raise and maintain their profile. With UKIP it is Farage, who talks the talk, but only walks the walk as far as the nearest watering hole. No significant part of the electorate has ever trusted him at UK Parliamentary elections.

I’ll go further: if that electorate was better informed about the UKIP presence at the European Parliament, and what it was costing (£2 million for Farage’s expenses) versus what the party was actually achieving there, many of those voters who had previously supported them at EP elections would have second thoughts.

Young Dave was right when he said UKIP were “a bunch of ... fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists mostly”. Del Boy needs to get out more.