It’s with some amusement I’ve been reading the fall-out from the Scottish Farage fiasco.
We’ve had denials, exaggeration and – quite amusingly given the profile (or lack thereof) of UKIP in Scotland – days of publicity for the party.
So many different versions of events have been thrown about, including propaganda from people taking part, people who were targeted and – incredibly – people who weren’t there.
For what it’s worth, here are my recollections, with as much objectivity as possible.
The Canon’s Gait pub was quieter than expected when we arrived. Farage had a brief off-the-record chat before nipping out for a cigarette.
It was then decided he would do broadcast interviews, followed by a newspaper huddle.
While on camera for the BBC, a group of protesters arrived and surrounded him. Naturally that meant everyone piled in to make sure no story was missed.
At this point the group were pretty subdued and shouted a few questions at the MEP, which he didn’t answer while on camera.
When the written press questioning took place, he did speak to a couple of protesters. Their questions were reasonably put forward but fairly unoriginal. “Why are you a racist?” and “Why are you against immigration?” featured. Response “I’m not racist, I want immigration capped.”
So far, so non-event.
Then, however, a couple of folk started chanting and singing. This spread quickly and turned the press interview into a bit of a farce, as no one could hear anything.
Unsurprisingly, the bar manager – unaware of UKIP’s plans to hold the presser in his venue – chucked everyone out. I heard my first “**** off back to England, you racist” call there. More followed outside, despite what I’ve been told by folk not in attendance.
The street scenes were pandemonium, but I never got the impression there was a threat of violence. It was people being a nuisance.
Blocking a taxi Farage got into by standing in front of it, barricading him into the pub when police pulled him back in there, a couple of folk banging and pushing the riot van he was escorted away in. All of this was kind of intimidating but not particularly scary.
The group seemed to be made up of the people from the pub and a few professional protesters I’ve seen three times in the last few months now.
The right to protest is vital, of course it is, and there are groups who will do far worse than this.
My personal view is that it was misguided, ill-thought-out and a pretty unsavoury.
Plus they gave the very person they were fighting against far more publicity. Bet they chuckled at his car crash interview on the radio the next day, though. I certainly did.
At the end of it all, I wonder if they think they made their point.