Nigel Farage used to get thirty second slots on the BBC... he now gets 12 minute grillings

By Tim Montgomerie
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Recently in a sign of UKIP's rise Nigel Farage had the top 0810 slot on Radio 4's Today programme. Yesterday he had a 12 minute slot on Andrew Neil's Politics Show. Polls differ on how well UKIP is actually doing but its new popularity is producing a much greater media profile. That is only like to grow in advance of 2014's European Elections when UKIP is expected to perform well.

Comments

[MartinW]

Message to Cameron: Be very afraid!

[boudicca]

Andrew Neill used half this interview to challenge Nigel over the fact that he is a couple of months late posting his EU MEP expenses on the UKIP website. Even when Nigel admitted that he was late and said it would be dealt with, Neill persisted.

It was a very poor attempt to link the idea of possible expenses abuse with UKIP. I doubt very much that faced with Blair, Neill would have questioned him for 5 minutes about the 'accidental' shredding of his espenses; or Cameron, Clegg and Miliband about the failure to deal with so many of their MPs who abused the expenses system so blatently.

Still, Nigel should be flattered. The BBC is changing tack....

First they ignore you
Then they mock you
Then they fight you
Then you win
(Ghandi)

The more Nigel appears on TV and radio (along with other UKIP representatives) the more people will listen.

[christina Speight]

CLICK on above and twice I've had "Media selection request failed"

???????????????

[CDR]

Same here. What's up, too many keen listeners bombarding the website? Or more a case of trying to silence the truth?

[MichaelYHunt]

ConHome links to the BBC again. For what you and your commenters regularly call a one sided, communist organisation you don't half use their material a lot.

[MartinW]

I think this link is the one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20205730
Robust questioning from Andrew Neil, and none the worse for that. An interesting innovation was putting quotes from manifesto and speeches on a large screen during an intereview, so that viewers could read what the interviewee had actually said in the past. I've not seen this done before, and look forward to same being done 'to' Milliband and Cameron and Balls and Osborne. However, I suspect than none of these people would agree to such a ploy: their 'inconsistencies' (a euphamism) would be rapidly and starkly revealed.

[P_S_W]

Martin, I can only think you've not been paying too much attention recently. This is not a new innovation with Neill, and generally his interviews always contain a "and who said this before the last General Election?" type line, which is always someone prominent within the party leadership of whoever he's interviewing.

[MartinW]

Thanks, P_S_W. What you imply is quite correct: my viewing of Neill's programme is sporadic. Of course, all interviewers love to confront politicos with their past remarks, but I was referring specifically to putting his words up on a big screen behind the interviewee in order to give him no wriggle room at all. Diagrams and graphs are often put up, but I have never seen the big guns of politics confronted by their past WORDS on a big screen right next to them. Okay, I might well have missed it!

[Malcolm Dunn]

We'll see how much UKIPs media profile which appears to be Farage and no one else benefits them. They should be looking for a huge swing in Corby. We'll see.

[Nicholas Keen]

Neil is a very effective interviewer. His questions reflect the nagging concerns that might cause an exit vote to fail. To Farage's point, note that the CBI was one of the most consistent voices supporting the Conservative Wet position and opposing the Thatcher reforms. The Institute of Directors, however, was on-side.

[recaptcha solver]

Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn't appear. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say excellent blog!