UKIP speech flops following rescheduling

The rescheduled UKIP speech took place on campus last night – and proved to be a huge fail.

The talk – which was cancelled amidst a storm of student protest – was allowed to go ahead on condition that it included “clear debate and challenge to the views of the external speaker via an opposing speaker.”

The role of “challenger” was filled last night by Nick O’Brien, a founding member of anti-racist group We Are Norwich.

But the event attracted less than 100 students and a handful of protesters – and failed to fill even half the seats in the lecture hall.

Students in attendance noted that the event would have attracted far more students – and protesters – had it not been rescheduled.

The rearranged event took place two days before the end of term, at a time when most students are in the midst of coursework deadlines.

Five protestors standing outside also told us that they weren’t against UKIP’s presence on campus, but were all strongly opposed to their views on immigration.

But UKIP representatives Steve Emmens and Eric Masters received a sceptical reception inside. Students questioned, countered and outright laughed at the politicians’ increasingly outrageous comments.

Among the most striking statements of the evening were the politicians’ views on climate change, breast-feeding, and their “kilt-wearing gay Scottish MEP.”

After talking for around twenty minutes about the parties’ lesser-known policies – including scrapping tuition fees for some home students and increasing them for EU ones – the UKIP speakers covered their own political histories and Steve Emmens’ plans if he is voted MP for Norwich South in 2015.

Masters also publicly insisted that UKIP was “not a racist party”, arguing that UKIP had an Asian MEP, a mixed-race MEP, and “even a very proud, kilt-wearing, gay Scottish MEP.”

Probably the most quoted line, however, came later in the evening. After a question from the floor about how many unemployed people there were “in the world”, Mr Emmens shouted: “I don’t care about the world!”

He quickly clarified this position, adding: “My constituency is South Norwich” – but not before the line was repeated multiple times on Twitter.

For a politician whose prospective constituency includes the Climatic Research Unit at UEA, Mr Emmens expressed surprisingly strong climate-change denialist views, saying that he “didn’t believe that man-made global warming was responsible for climate change.”

He said: “I believe in climate change. Climate change is real. I am a global warming denialist.”

Photo: Amy Rust

The debate also took a surreal turn when the politicians were asked about Nigel Farage’s recent statements on public breast-feeding.

While Mr Masters claimed that he personally had no opposition to women breastfeeding “anywhere they liked”, he also said that he believed businesses should be able to ban women from doing so on their premises.

When asked what reason businesses would have to ban breastfeeding, Masters suggested “if they often have very small children there” – prompting laughter from the crowd.

UKIP’s points about fox-hunting, military spending and whether immigrants lower house prices were also fiercely contested throughout the night, with several students pointing out contradictions in the UKIP candidates’ argument.

When we spoke to Masters at the end, he told us: “We didn’t expect an easy ride tonight.

“But it’s democracy. And democracy should show through at all times.”