UKIP MP Douglas Carswell: ‘I frequently went to the LCR’

‘What I got up to in the LCR is just a distant, hazy memory that I will deny’


We caught up with UKIP MP and UEA grad Douglas Carswell ahead of his talk as part of the PSI’s “In-Conversation” series of lectures.

Entering the room we found Carswell seated alongside two women from the press office. Shaking our hands, he offered us tea before asking us what the difference was between The Tab and Concrete. We went straight onto the questions…

We asked him a bit about his time at UEA and where he lived for his three years here.

“I was at Fifers Lane, which was very spartan, and we used to complain about it all the time, but actually it was wonderful.

“It was near the airport and it was great fun, and we had to entertain ourselves because there wasn’t a lot to do.

“I was at Fifers Lane in first year, then I lived in a wonderful, rather squalid house with a group of friends – most of whom I am still in touch with – in town afterwards.”

He then spoke fondly about the Golden Triangle before asking if LCR nights were still running.

“I frequently went to the LCR. The best thing is it was before the invention of digital cameras so what I got up to at the LCR is just a distant, hazy memory that I will deny.

“I absolutely loved UEA. I think it was three amazing golden years. I really loved it.

“I was in the rugby club but I didn’t play much rugby. I fenced a lot. But I mainly just hung out in the Square.

“To be honest, I looked at people in the politics societies and I steered clear of it. I had better things to do with my time than politics.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying that. Should I be saying that?

“I had other things to do.”

Carswell was giving a talk for PSI’s “In Conversation” series. Photo: @LaughTrustLove

We then asked him about UKIP being banned from UEA – a topic he’s been vocal about on Twitter, blaming the ban on “student lefties”.

In person he was rather patronising, putting on a forced smile while telling us “university is the place you go to do daft things”, adding that he “wouldn’t be too harsh on anyone who perhaps didn’t mean what they thought they meant at the time”.

He went on: “UKIP is a legitimate democratic party. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not an extremist party. Its views are not a threat to anyone.

“You might not like it, you might not agree with it, but it’s a legitimate part of democratic discourse.

“By all means, come along, disagree, protest, all those things, but UKIP is a legitimate mix in the spectrum and I think most people recognise that.”

Protesters outside the lecture theatre. Photo: @UEAPolSoc

His response to our next question – about international students and where they fit in – was naturally well-rehearsed.

“I think international students are absolutely essential to this country’s future prosperity. You need to be able to attract the brightest and the best from around the world – a key way of doing that is by attracting international students.

“When we’re outside the EU, we’ll be able to innovate and create an immigration policy that attracts the brightest and the best.

“At the moment we’ve got a policy that discriminates against the brightest and the best. The policy is biased against non-Europeans irrationally.”

And he failed to answer our question about why tuition fees should be scrapped for maths and science but not arts subjects, instead telling us about the importance of “investing in yourself” and how “the most important thing you have is your brain”.

He added: “You want UEA – I want UEA – to be a world-class university. If you abolished tuition fees I think you would create an enormous problem – you would have equal mediocrity.

“What you’ve got to do is allow people to invest in themselves but guarantee that no-one is ever not going to be able to go to university because they come from a poor family background.

“You might come from a house where dad’s got massive negative credit ratings and mum’s got a criminal record – that should never prevent you from being able to borrow money and go to university.”

We wanted to point out this doesn’t happen under the current fees system (if it ain’t broke…), but were pushed on by the press officers.

We took our chance to get a photo of Carswell holding a Tab T-shirt but he wanted to check what it said on the front first: “What does it say, vote Green?”