! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.
I went to a UKIP fundraising dinner last night at Patshull Park near Wolverhampton. The food was fantastic and the comedian was very funny.
The event was hosted by Peter Roberts, the guy who started the petition against road pricing that got 1.8m signatures. Mike Nattrass, the UKIP MEP for the West Midlands and Nigel Farage, the Leader of UKIP, also came. Nigel Farage’s speech was excellent – energetic and unscripted. Can you imagine No Mandate Brown or David Camoron giving a thumping, unscripted speech to a room full of people – only 30% of which were party members – and receiving cheers and applause from the whole room?
Nigel Farage was very approachable – not at all pretentious or full of self importance.
All in all, a good night out.
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I\’m sure his speech was about as unscripted as David Camerons speech to Tory party conference.
Also, i think that most MP’s and politicians are actually very approachable, contray to popular opinion.
Today i was at the anual Progress conference, and all the MP’s i spoke to there were very approachable. People like Ed Miliband, Jim Knight, Ed Balls and others. Also, whenever i have meet high profile government niminsters along with less well known figures i have found them nice and down to earth, the slight exception being Derick Conway, who was very nice, but a little aloof. However, i think that that is just how he is, typical Tory!
MP’s are, in my opinion normally very approachable. I’ve meet a number of high profile Labour Ministers (i have meet very few Tories so cannot comment, but i’m sure that some of them are ok) and they have all been very nice.
I think that we need to do something to shake of the misconception that politicians are crusty old fools who have no interest. That isn’t the case.
So how many people were there, then?
Allie, there were about 70-80 people there. It was a fundraising event for Telford & Wrekin branch.
Calum, his speech as unscripted. He went on to answer questions which, again, were unscripted.
Unscripted like David Camerons speech. No notes or paper, still scripted.
Anyway, i sure it was off the cuff. But any decent politician should be able to do that, and most can. Most speeches by MP’s and ministers at smallish events are done off the cuff, they have a rough idea of what they are going to say and then improv. You only see politicians using notes when they are at a lectern. Even then they use their notes sparingly.
I don’t see why you find the fact that he gave a good unscripted speech so amazing. Unless you thought him to be incompetent before. I have seen a number of politicians give very good unscripted speeches. Big whoop.
I enjoyed the evening very much.
Peter Roberts speech was very informative and held everyones attention.
Mike Natrass and Nigel Farage were very interesting and funny at the same time.
The night was a success on a number of levels, but most of all, everone I met and had the pleasure of speaking to had their feet firmly on the floor.
Jill Seymour worked hard to make the night a success and her efforts worked, it was a success.