Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Farage is not popular. There is a reason the official Leave campaign didn't want to use him and why he has failed to be elected 6/7 times. He has some loyal support spread out thinly across the country.
He has represented relatively popular positions though and even if the supporters of those positions think it is a poor cheerleader for them he has often been the only outlet for them.
I don't really think he needs to be 'beaten', it's just a matter of continuing to argue against those positions and to not get drawn into Farage's ego-trip whilst doing so.
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On the contrary, Farage is popular. He’s just not quite popular enough to win a first past the post Westminster election. He is also marmite ... relatively few people are ambivalent towards him. It’s love or hate. There was no way he could ever win over the soft middle ground in the referendum. That was down to Boris, with his appeal further broadened by a couple of accessible Labour leavers like Gisela Stuart and Frank Field. Yet it’s fairly clear there was, at some level, an understanding that the official leave campaign would leave Farage alone to do dog whistle campaigning among those who do like him.
The EU elections are proportional, but given the number of seats available the proportionality is only rough and smaller parties can still lose out. So a lot will depend on how far the Leave vote splits between The Brexit Party (Farage) and UKIP (now infested with BNP and EDL entryists and other assorted nut jobs).
The Brexit Party wouldn’t stand a chance with anyone else in charge but with Farage front and centre, his appeal to the bulk of the Brexit-minded electorate shouldn’t be underestimated.