UKIP GET THE FULL SOPEL TREATMENT

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The Conservatives certainly received unfair treatment from Jon Sopel on today's The Politics Show, but they can at least be thankful they weren't the United Kingdom Independence Party. UKIP may have inflicted a few wounds on themselves in the course of Sopel's report but most of the wounds resulted from Sopey's left-wing bias. He had clearly gone there with the firm intention of doing them as much damage as possible.
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We began with mockery: "So we've got three MEPs, a millionaire peer and the chairman, yes a chairman, of a parish council in Wiltshire." Snippets of various election speeches were interlaced with shots of the audience, lingering long on a man with a fine handlebar moustache. (The handlebar moustache, and a Union Jackie dickie-bow tie, also got a mention on a Today programme report earlier in the week.)
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Short extracts from interviews with each of the candidates for the leadership of UKIP followed. I would love to know how long the actual interviews lasted from which these crumbs were drawn and what questions were asked. Here the focus, initially, was firmly on immigration - and Sopel had the clear aim of painted UKIP as a far-right party analogous to the BNP.
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First came Gerard Batten MEP. He said that immigration should be reduced to a trickle and that Sharia Law is unacceptable in this country. An unhappy-looking Sopel said "I 'm sure that Nick Griffin wouldn't disagree with anything you've just said."
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Next came front-runner Lord Pearson, who Sopel clearly had in his sights. He was labelled a "former Tory" (boo!) and "old Etonian" (boo!), and a "field sports campaigner" (boo!)" and as the man who invited Geert Wilders to the Houses of Parliament (boo!). Wearing a sour expression, Sopel asked him "So is there a danger you could be confused, UKIP and the BNP?" When the lord answered (slowly), Sopey interrupted and twisted his words: "Are you saying that there's a fine line between UKIP and the BNP?" The over-polite peer should have replied "No, you twit, of course not - and, unless you're thick, you know I didn't."
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The mere councillor came next, Alan Wood - "chairman of Fittleton Parish council", a man who "breeds spaniels". "Do you respect Lord Pearson?" asked Sopel. "No I don't", replied Mr Wood. "Are you saying that if he's elected people will think you're too close to the BNP?", asked Sopel. "Yes", replied Mr Wood. Job done for Sopel!
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Next up was Mike Nattrass MEP. He was labelled a "former member of the right-wing New Britain"(boo!). 'Right-wing' is usually BBC code for a fascist nut. Mr Nattrass is absolutely no such thing, but how are BBC viewers to know that the 'right-wing' New Britain was not a fascist organisation, like the BNP? This is a low subliminal smear. Mike disagrees with Lord Pearson over whether there should be co-operation with Eurosceptic Conservative MPs (he thinks there shouldn't be) and Sopel, with mock incredulity, interrupted him to ask "Sorry I just dont...Sorry to interrupt, I just don't understand how you can work with somebody, Lord Pearson, if you disagree with the cornerstone of his policy, this idea of deals." Mike Nattrass replied, reasonably, that that's called 'democracy'. UKIP are nothing if not keen on democracy.
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Finally, there was Nikki Sinclaire MEP. She "worked in the US to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger" (boo!). The beauty of being a biased BBC reporter is that you can nip and tuck all your interviews to validate your point of view and, having doubtless done just that, Jon Sopel could fairly ask Nikki: "Your party has got a bit of history of kind-of infighting." His other questions pursued the point with a vengeance: "Are you worried there's going to be a bloodbath after this election?" and "It almost sounds as a party as if you could do with some group therapy."
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Having presented the party as being too close to the BNP - i.e. racist - Sopey ended by clinching his other point - that UKIP is bitterly divided: "Do get the impression (he asked us) that the United Kingdom Independence Party is a party at ease with itself, where they all really like each other?". He then answered his own rhetorical (?) question: "Probably not."
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I, though a floating centre-right voter, am very sympathetic to UKIP. They are not helping themselves, however, by talking about each other in this way, but they can surely all unite in one thing - their fury at the disgraceful way the BBC treats them.
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