UKIP MEETING IN HOVE GOES AHEAD DESPITE PROTESTS
by William Mills
UKIP held a meeting at Hove Town Hall on Monday evening 3rd June, as part of their current national tour.
HEAVY SECURITY
Some 500 people turned out to hear UKIP leader Nigel Farage speak amid heavy security and rumours of counter protests.
At around 7.30pm, Nigel Farage MEP arrived and took the podium.
As he began to speak, several protesters, who had infiltrated proceedings, started to cause disruption which lasted about 10 minutes. They slow-clapped, whooped and chanted “Nigel! Nigel! Nigel!” and “he’s a racist!”.
CHALLENGE TO THE PROTESTERS
Farage tried to make himself heard over the commotion and directly challenged them: “If these people believe in democracy, they will sit down, they will give an argument and they will get their opportunity to give a counter argument. Are you big enough to do that? Do you have the moral courage in your arguments to take me on in public debate?”
“If the answer is yes … if the answer is yes, then you’re welcome to stay. But if the answer is no, and you are down to hysterical ranting, then really I think perhaps the audience ought to feel sorry for you because you don’t understand the hard work and fought for freedoms that make this a great country.”
Those who refused to be quiet were finally manhandled out of the auditorium to cheering and applause from others in the audience, who counter chanted “Out! Out! Out!”. One person shouted “Never you mind Nigel, most of this audience believe in democracy and free speech!”
Farage exclaimed:
“I have over the course of the last 20 years spoken at over 1,000 public meetings – up and down the length of this country – and never, never have I come across an attempt to stop UKIP from putting an argument and shame on these people outside and in this hall. Shame on them.”
He continued:
“There is one political party that has consistently defended individual liberty, and that party is UKIP. Because the other parties actually want to take away and hand our freedoms to an unelected bureaucracy in Brussels and I think that if you call yourselves Unite Against Fascism, ladies and gentleman, you’ve chosen the wrong completely the wrong target.”
Farage asked the audience of this open meeting how many were members of UKIP? He appeared surprised to find only about half were. He encouraged them to join in, saying;
“If we get everyone together, then ladies and gentlemen, between us, we can get our country back.”
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
After speaking for twenty minutes the UKIP leader took questions from the audience.These ranged widely from immigration to the housing crisis. He strenuously denied reported links with other parties.
FARAGE ISSUES A CHALLENGE TO LABOUR LEADER ED MILLIBAND
After the meeting, a visibly angry Nigel Farage spoke exclusively on camera to the-news.co accusing factions within the Labour Party of organising the protests which he described as “shaming and utterly disgraceful“.
He said:
“There was an attempt to close it down and stop it from even happening. That is a disgrace. I know exactly who it’s organised by. It’s organised by an outfit called Unite Against Fascism and the first point I made was we are the most libertarian small state political party in British politics and they’re firing at the wrong target.”
“But … if you actually look at who funds Unite Against Fascism, it’s the same Trade Unions that fund the Labour Party and if you look at the governing board, and the senior representatives of Unite Against Fascism – it’s Peter Hain, it’s other MPs, it’s MEPs – they are in effect an organ of the Labour Party.
“I put this challenge down to Ed Milliband : are you really the kind of modern political Labour Party that wants to suppress democratic debate in this country?”
Nigel Farage and his party are a growing force in British politics. Expect exciting times ahead.
