[gallery ids="30733,30736,30737,30738,30734,30735"] “Welcome to Dreamland”
So reads the sign above the abandoned theme park which sits rusting in the middle of the town of Margate, where Ukip held their Spring conference over the weekend. There are plenty of critics who'd say that's exactly where Nigel Farage, the swaggering commander of the “people's army,” is leading his followers. This weekend's conference was the latest in a series of set-pieces aimed both at presenting the party as a serious challenger to its more established rivals, and at dispelling the hard-to-shift perception of the party as racist and “nasty.” But is a new emphasis on discipline among his troops enough to extinguish the memory of past gaffes? And will a focus on optimism, openness and opportunity for Britain convince those who view the party's attitude toward immigrants and other marginalised groups with caution?
At least since its autumn conference in Doncaster last year, one purpose of the party's communications strategy has been to draw attention to its broader policy offering (yes, it exists, and it isn't just “leave the EU”). At that event, reporters were bombarded with announcements aimed at Labour's working class base, such as the removal of income tax on the minimum wage. That approach meant the party bagged itself coverage which was, if not exactly favourable, then at least focused on what it planned to do to the country, though a u-turn on a proposed “luxury tax” muddied the waters a bit.
Journalists were expecting the party to launch their manifesto at the start of this conference. In January, the party's Deputy Chairman Suzanne Evans was put in charge of creating Ukip's manifesto (she took over from former policy chief Tim Aker, who dropped out citing overwork.) At the time, she said she'd be “presenting a sensible, radical and fully costed manifesto at our spring conference in Margate.” In the end, though, her 15-minute speech was just a taster, with little hard policy detail, though her respectful, grey-haired audience gave it an obligatory thunderclap of applause anyway. Why the delay, I asked her? Evans claimed a manifesto launch was never planned for the conference (a claim Farage has since matched): “irrespective of when we release the manifesto, we've made it quite clear from the word go that it will be fully costed... and of course we can't do that before the budget,” she said. That rules out a full manifesto launch before mid-March.
Find out why the people of Thanet are not all proud Ukippers in this short film by Emily Finch:
The lack of many big policy announcements left this feeling a little like a conference without a cause. Ukip appears to be doing what its more mainstream rivals have long done and going into full-on bland mode as polling day approaches, keeping eccentricity and divergence of messaging to a minimum. Farage's keynote speech was not a barnstorming rampage but adisciplined briefing for his troops. His one major new policy position—a commitment to match the main parties in eliminating the deficit by 2018—shifts his party significantly toward the mainstream; this is the first time Ukip has signed up to a Westminster consensus on any major issue.
Attendees were conflicted about the slicker atmosphere. One tweed-toting elderly chap rose to breathe fire at a TV crew whose light was getting in his eyes during the speeches. “The hierarchy are terrified of oddballs saying stupid things... so virtually everything you say is monitored. It's an improvement but in many ways you could regard it as a limitation on freedom,” said another delegate, longstanding member John Barry. That said, a ranting performance by Scottish MEP David Coburn on Saturday's Any Questions on BBC Radio 4 shows the party isn't above the occasional old-fashioned meltdown.
Perhaps this slickness comes from the fact that Ukip are no longer a mere protest party. They are the most trusted party on immigration, a major election issue, according to a ComRes poll. They have two MPs (both of whom, relative unknowns in their old Conservative roles, got thunderous standing ovations for their Margate speeches.) Douglas Carswell's speech to conference focused on how Ukip could “break up that cosy little clique called Westminster.” Hostile MPs scrawled the letters “F O” on the card he left to book a seat for one debate in the chamber, he said: “I took it as a compliment. I assumed they wanted me in the Foreign Office.” But “there are some really good people in a lot of parties,” he told me afterwards, praising superstar corporation-botherer Margaret Hodge, Labour Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, as “someone [who is] interested in restoring purpose to parliament.” His policy proposals for the manifesto focus on parliamentary and electoral reform.
Far from the rioting and hysteria that filled Channel 4's Ukip: the first 100 days, a docu-drama following the hypothetical rise of Ukip to power in May, Ukip's early experiences in parliament have been decidedly low key. Both Carswell and Reckless spend more time serving constituents and working on wonkish issues such as electoral reform and the NHS than they do making furious speeches.
But Ukip's unpleasant image among the wider public endures. A poll carried out by ComRes found that 44 per cent of the public thinks Ukip has a racist agenda. That view was very much in evidence among the 250 or so marchers who gathered to show their opposition to Ukip outside the conference hall on the second day. Among their number I met plenty of ordinary locals who said they were afraid of the division they think will appear in their community if Farage takes power in South Thanet, a nearby seat, in May. “Ukip brings out the worst in people,” one said. That impression will only have been reinforced by the presence of a small gaggle of activists from far-right movementBritain First, draped in England flags, some wearing masks, who turned up chanting “smash, smash, smash the reds,” and shouting “how are we racist?” into TV cameras. A spokesman for Britain First said they had not had any contact with Ukip before turning up to defend their conference. Farage has in the past been forced to distance his party from Britain First, notably after the far-right group claimed their campaigning helped deliver victory for Mark Reckless in Rochester.
Its figureheads may publicly laugh off criticism as an establishment smear, but Ukip is clearly aware of a need to present a more positive image. After Carswell wrote a column for the Timesearlier this month proclaiming that immigration had largely been good for Britain, some commentators painted him as being out of step with the party. This weekend showed that the party is, in fact, keen to bring its message into step with its liberal (he counts Gladstone among his heroes) and optimistic first MP. Immigration spokesman Steven Woolfe gave a speech saying that “we are no longer a nation of Anglo-Saxons, but of Jews and Catholics, of Muslims and Hindus, of those who are non-believers alike... Our Ukip family is a Britain for all Britons.” Woolfe told me that he and Carswell have recently discussed some public communications to be sure that “we're getting the right tone.” Farage told the Sunday Politics that prior to the influx of Eastern European immigrants in the early part of last decade, Britain had been coping perfectly well with immigration from elsewhere.
Shaking off this perception of racism and bigotry will be crucial if the party is to return the sizable bloc of MPs in May that its members demand (some of the party's footsoldiers expect as many as 80 or more, a near-impossibility.) If it is to wield serious power in any deal with the Tories, it will want to hit double figures. All major predictions put Ukip's likely result as under 10 seats, showing that the party still struggles to reach beyond its zealous base. The party—and Farage himself—are investing significant time and money in making sure their figurehead wins his own Westminster battle; a failure would look terrible publicly and potentially spark internal power struggles.
But it will also be important in the grand scheme of things. If Ukip wants to have a hand in any future “out” campaign in an EU referendum—and be in with a chance of winning it—it will need to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The keys to Westminster, Brexit and Dreamland aren't completely out of Farage's reach, but if he's to get his hands on them, he and his party need to keep playing nice. On the evidence of this weekend, they're getting better at controlling their message, but perhaps at the expense of some of the frenetic energy and do-or-die spirit that's got them this far. “Have we peaked?” party Chairman Steve Crowther bellowed to his audience in his conference-opening speech. For now, the reply was an emphatic “no!” Crowther and the rest will hope they can still expect such a confident response come May 7th and beyond.
