UKIP: Junius on Nikki Sinclaire and Nigel Farage

For a long time, UKIP members and leadership have bleated about how impossible it is for the party to get favourable press coverage. Perhaps the real reason was not an establishment and media conspiracy, but the fact that the messenger was flawed.

Stuart Wheeler has a manifesto very similar to that of UKIP, and the media has covered the launch of his party fairly, and without the critical sarcasm that generally accompanies coverage of UKIP.

Now we see another interesting phenomenon. Since leaving UKIP's EFD group, MEP Nikki Sinclaire has been attracting considerable media attention. Recently, the International Journal New Europe covered the controversial Belgian Burqa ban. To whom did they turn for an opinion? To Nikki Sinclaire. How many EFD MEPs would expect that? Not only did she give her opinion, but she was gracious enough to acknowledge Nigel Farage's earlier support for a ban. Compare that with the decidedly ungracious and un-gentlemanly way in which Farage lied about Nikki on the BBC, and has tried to smear her since.

Here it is: New Europe

It is very interesting to note that Andy Carling refers to UKIP as a far-right party. More and more journalists are now doing this.

Now we really see what some of the UKIP MEPs are made of, and what they can do when they are free from the suppression of Nigel "look at me" Farage.

Nikki Sinclaire is known to have been deeply upset at being prevented from standing as a UKIP candidate, having committed so much time, money, and energy to a cause she believed in for so long. Now she may be lost to UKIP, and will stand as an independent candidate representing local residents. She has attracted the attention of her local press, and is being touted by them as the main rival to sitting MP Caroline Spellman, who has been implicated in expenses scandals.

See: LINK

She has also received coverage for being the first British MEP to receive a satisfactory audit of her account. Compare this with the story of another UKIP MEP -Stuart Agnew - who claims to be audited on his website, and then admitted in the national press that he is criminally abusing his expenses.

If it were not for Nigel Farage, this level of press coverage would be coming to UKIP.

Farage, of course, will not care. All that matters to him is his own media profile, and if he has to embarrass his party and offend foreigners to get coverage, then so be it.