Issue six Friday 17 May 2013

UKIP here to stay?Harewood’s latest exhibitionAndroid apps for the visually impaired Get active for Mental Health Awareness Week

Plus:

Meet the brave Yorkshire women who madethe same agonising choice as Angelina

‘We are more than just a pair of breasts’

Visit us online atleedsnorthern.wordpress.com/features

In this issue:

Page 2Android apps for the visually impaired

Page 3Beating depression

Pages 4-5Preventative mastectomies

Pages 6- 7In coversation with DianeHowse and Iwona Blazwick

Page 8The rise of UKIP

The YV team

Editor

Jon Cronshaw

Contributors

Jon Cronshaw@Jon_Cronshaw

Sallie Gregson@Salliex

Kate Russell@littletinykate

Tom Swain@tjoswain

@Yorkshire_Voice

With everyone banging on about how great iPhones are,spare a thought for those of us who can’t see their fiddlylittle screens. Here are my top five free apps for visually impaired Android users. By Jon Cronshaw.

1. Catch NotesThis is your basic note-taking and memo app. It’s infuriating to try and take notes on atouchscreen phone, especially if you are visually impaired. But with the app’s compati-bility with Google’s latest voice recognition software, it can transcribe your naturalspeech in real time. Great for budding novelists – and just think, even with the occa-sional lapses in accuracy, you’ll still write better than Stephanie Meyer.

2. Your Magnifying GlassUsing a smartphone to enlarge print is simple, yet ingenious. But Your Magnifying Glass is simply brilliant. Utilising your phone’s camera, you can zoom inand out over text, freeze the image, flip it, invert the colours, light up the page withthe camera’s flash, and then save the image onto your Google Drive to view later.

3. Walky Talky There are dozens of free satnav apps out there, but few of them are of use to a visuallyimpaired user who doesn’t drive, but needs help with navigation. What makes WalkyTalky stand out from the pack is that it is made for walking and using public transport. Itconstantly updates you on your location – even down to the house number you’re walk-ing past, and vibrates if you're going the wrong way.

4. Ideal Accessibility InstallerBeneath its clunky interface lie some great features for visually impaired and blind Androidusers, including KickBack, SoundBack and TalkBack. The installer allows the user to add audi-ble, vibration and spoken elements to any Android device.

5. AudiobooThere is a large visually impaired podcasting community on Audioboo, and the Androidapp gives you access to all of the site's features through a user-friendly interface. It’s perfectfor catching up with the audio version of the Guardian, packages from Radio 4’s Today,and podcasts from all manner of people – I recommend Sean Dilley and Documentally.

The top 5 free appsfor visually impaired

Android users

by Kate Russell‘Charming’ and ‘worms’ aren’t necessarily words you’d put together.But Castleford and Pontefract Lions Club are embracing the wriggly creatures to hold

the first ever All Yorkshire Worm Charming Championship this year.Organiser Michelle McArthur said: “We wanted to do something unusual to raise

money, something a bit quirky.“When I was a child I had a wormery, and one day I dug up a load of worms and posted

them through next door’s letterbox, so this event struck a chord with me.”Worm charming has its roots in the Cheshire village of Willaston in 1980, when a Mr

T. Shufflebotham wooed 511 of the little beasties out of the ground. He held the worldrecord until 2009, when it was smashed by 10-year old Miss S Smith and her incredible567 charmed worms.Each competing team of between two and six people has 30 minutes and a three-by-

three metre plot in which to stick a fork and entice as many worms from earth to bucketas they can.Common techniques include using a vibrating fork in the ground, dancing, and playing

music, but as Michelle says: “Anything goes, short of digging them up. And definitely nowater – water is classed as a drug in worm charming.”

But don’t worry, animal lovers – this is about charming, not harming. The worms arecounted up and weighed, then the responsible charmers wait until after dark to re-re-lease them so opportunistic birds can’t snaffle them up for tea.The first Yorkshire championships this year coincides with Father’s Day and the organ-

isers have a whole host of family-friendly events and food stalls planned. Plus, make sureand keep your eye out for the rules translated into broad Yorkshire dialect.“We hope to grow the competition every year,” says Michelle. “So get your wellies on,

bring your fork, and get stuck in!”16 June 2013, Castleford Rugby Union Football Club, doors 12pm.

A wriggly good day out!

2

Relax in the parkSimply sitting on a bench and soaking up thespringtime colour and scents can be a great wayto relax and get some breathing space.When you’re feeling low, a gentle stroll can be justenough to pick you up.If you’re feeling more energetic, why not arrangeto meet some friends and make use of any sportfacilities. These are usually free! Bring the children too. Kicking a ball together orplaying on the swings can improve your sense ofwellbeing and is an easy way to strengthen con-nections with your family.Picnics can be a great way to bring people to-gether and are perfect for strengthening thoseconnections with family and friends.

Join a walking groupIf you have good mobility, walking groups can be afantastic way to boost your energy levels, improveself-esteem and meet new friends.There are groups across the country who meet forshort walks every week. You don’t have to go intothe countryside – even in cities you’ll find lots ofgood walks within easy reach.Some walking groups cater for different groups –Ramblers has groups for different ages, shortereasier walks, and even family walks.Find the right walk for your level and enjoy thewarmer weather!

Try cycling or joggingWhenever you feel tense, exercise outdoors canmake you feel better. Cycling can help to improve your confidence andindependence.It doesn’t matter if you are a total beginner, startsmall.If you haven’t been out on a bike or running forwhile, why not ask a friend to join you – it maygive your confidence a boost.Make sure you warm up properly. A brisk walkshould be enough to get your muscles warmedand your lungs ready for a workout. Avoid stretch-ing cold muscles as this can cause injury.Plan your route. Try to avoid traffic hot spots andconsider cycle-friendly routes such as canal tow-paths and cycle paths.As you get more confident, plan some more chal-lenging routes.

Make a date with natureWhy not join the other three million people who gobird watching in the UK each year. With somebinoculars and a guide for spotting birds youshouldn’t have to travel too far.Wildlife Trusts welcome visitors to a network of2,300 nature reserves across the UK. You’ll besurprised at what’s on your doorstep! You can spot seals around many of our coasts.About half of the world's population of grey sealscan be found around British coasts so there is agreat chance of spotting one.

Take some spring nature photos

Spending time outdoors can give your mind a realboost. Why not take some photos of those colour-ful spring scenes that make you feel good.Spring brings many opportunities for the outdoorphotographer. With flowers blossoming, green fo-liage returning and more people enjoying the out-doors, there’s lots to inspire.You don’t need to be a professional photographer,and photos taken on your phone are fine.

The charity Mind hassome helpful tips fortackling depression by

enjoying the outdoors

Throughout this year’s Mental Health Awareness Weekvolunteer groups, charities and health services have beenencouraging people to get exercising because of theenormous benefits keeping fit can have on mentalhealth.Stress and depression can hit us all, 1 in 4 people will experi-

ence a mental health problem in any given year. Like manyother problems, the solutions are different for everybody andsome may never work.Organised by the Men-

tal Health Foundationthis awareness week hastried to focus on the re-sults physical activity canhave on people’s wellbe-ing, quality of life andmental health, as well asimproved fitness levels.Instead of being pre-

scribed medication some patients are already recommended al-ternative therapies that can help sufferers of mental healthproblems such as depression. Among the number of therapiesexercise in particular can help to give back the feeling of con-trol that might have been lost.Sports psychologist, Professor Craig Mahoney chief executive

of The Higher Education Academy said: “Exercise can be incred-ibly beneficial in helping people with mental illnesses, a fewyears ago a project I was involved in got people exercising inthe local parks. The project was effective in changing the waypeople with depression approached exercise and it also encour-aged interaction, which is another major benefit, the social as-pect of keeping fit really helps some people.”The benefits of a well-balanced exercise programme can be

huge, because it affects people both physically and mentally, itcan help to improve sleeping patterns as well as body tonewhich can further improve self-image. The release of endor-

phins during a workout or even gentle exercise such as walkingcan have a huge relaxation effect for anyone not just sufferers ofmental illnesses.Overall, depression occurs in 10 per cent of the population in

Britain at any one time according to the Office for National Sta-tistics. Mental illnesses are very hard to classify because thereare few known genetic causes which can point to environmen-tal factors being the more likely cause.On Monday the Division of Clinical Psychology, the body that

represents Britain's clini-cal psychologists, releaseda statement outlining theneed for a “paradigm shift”in the way mental illnessesare classified. This bold statement is

essentially saying thatmedication is not alwaysthe answer when it comes

to treating patients with mental health issues because there isnot enough evidence to support that using schizophrenia orbipolar disorder is a valid or useful diagnosis. This is in response to current psychiatric diagnostic classifica-

tions set by the American Psychiatry Association's Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders who will release thefifth edition of classifications later this month.Professor Mahoney said: “Exercise is an element available in

the treatment of some mental illnesses but it is not a panacea, itwill not work for everyone.“Although some areas of the UK prescribe exercise instead of

anti-depressants, there would be a much healthier UK popula-tion if exercise was prescribed for a number of illnesses, notjust mental health related.”The NHS advice is if you’ve been feeling down for more than

two weeks, see your GP to discuss your symptoms. They cantell you about the choice of treatment available for depressionand help you decide what’s best for you.

This year’s mental healthawareness week focuses onthe advantages of keeping fit.

3

by Sallie Gregson@Salliex

“Exercise can be incredibly beneficial

in helping people withmental illnesses”

The Mental Health Foundationwants to get you exercising

The women who had pre After Angelina Jolie went public with her double mastectomy, Kate Russell t

Tracy Child (left) with her sister Rochelle

BRCA1 is a gene that helps to repair damaged DNA. In some women thegene is ‘faulty’, which increases their risk of breast cancer.

Having the faulty gene does not mean that a woman will definitely getbreast cancer, but it is more likely that they will.

The gene fault is hereditary – passed on from parent to child.

Women that carry the fault have around an 85 per cent increased risk ofbreast cancer and a 40-60 per cent increased chance of ovarian cancer,though this differs from person to person.

Faulty BRCA1 genes are partly responsible for around 1-in-20 instances ofbreast cancer.

If a woman has a strong family history of breast cancer, there is a possibility that they carry the faulty BRCA1 gene.

The only way to know for sure whether a woman is a carrier is if she istested.

Geneticists look at the breast cancer history of your close blood relativesfrom the same side of your family. High risk indicators include womengetting breast cancer at a young age or in both breasts, men in the familyhaving breast cancer, and the presence of ovarian cancer in the family.

For women with the BRCA1 gene mutation, there are lots of optionsavailable. Please visit www.cancerresearchuk.org for more information orcall the National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline on 01629 813000.

The facts about the faulty BRCA1 gene

Above: Tracey Barraclough with her son Joshua.Left: Tracy Child (left) with her sister Rochelle Billingworth.

talks to women from Yorkshire who have taken the same difficult step.Around one-in-eight women will contract breast cancer at some time in their lives, but forsome, the likelihood is much higher.This week, Angelina Jolie revealed that she had taken the tough decision to have both of her

breasts removed. She discovered that she carries a faulty gene called BRCA1 which increases herchances of contracting breast cancer, the disease that killed her mother, to 87 per cent.In her article My Medical Choice, printed in Tuesday’s The New York Times, Angelina de-

scribed the impact losing her mother had on her, what it was like to find out that she likely wouldface the same fate, and how she made the decision to have the potentially life-preserving surgery. Angelina has raised an issue affecting the lives of women throughout the world. Here, two

Yorkshire women tell the story of their fight to keep cancer out of their lives by having surgery toremove their breasts.Ovarian cancer has been a cruel but constant player in the life of Tracey Barraclough, 53, for as

long as she can remember. She could do nothing but look on as, one by one, her great grand-mother, grandmother, and her mum died from the disease. Tracey took the decision to have theelective surgery in the hope that she might escape the same fate.Towards the end of her mum’s life, doctors were working on isolating the gene – now known

to be BRCA1 – that was responsible for the devastating impact ovarian and breast cancer werehaving on entire families. Tracey and her mum felt lucky to be given an appointment with a ge-neticist in 1993: “They told us they were close to it, but not quite there yet.“They took mum’s blood then, so I could be tested later. It was a poignant moment – we knew

that, by the time they had worked it out, she would be dead.”Tracey’s mum died on Boxing Day in 1996.Just ten months later the hospital contacted Tracey to confirm that their suspicions were right –

her mother had tested positive for the BRCA1 gene, and Tracey should be tested too.By this time, there was someone else in her life to think about – her son Joshua, now 18, had

been born just two years earlier. Having her son to bring up only made Tracey stronger: “Josh wasmy reason for having it done. I didn’t want him to see me suffer like I’d seen my mum.”And when she found out that she had tested positive, it was her mother’s words that were at

the forefront of her mind: “Mum had always said, don’t keep your ovaries. She always told me.The decision to have them removed was an easy one.”But for women that carry the BRCA1 gene, there is also an incredibly high risk of breast cancer

– around 85 per cent in Tracey’s case. “Because it was ovarian cancer in my family, I didn’t realisejust how big the implications were for breast cancer. But after I saw a feature about it in a maga-zine I realised – I was going to have to do that, too.“People need to understand that these are perfectly healthy parts of your body. You’re perfectly

healthy. But it’s like sitting on a ticking time bomb.” Tracey chose to have silicon implants fitted straight away – ad feels that this decision was key to

her emotional recovery. “I went onto the operating table with breasts and I woke up with breasts.I chose to keep my own nipples as well. It let me keep a little bit of me.“I could have had it different – I could have had the reconstructive surgery six months later. But

I thought, if I can have it straight away then why not?“It’s amazing to have all this choice. I consider myself very lucky – my mum didn’t have the

choice. Choice is very important, it’s empowering. There is a choice, and so many of them.”Like Angelina Jolie, Tracey doesn’t believe that femininity comes solely from having breasts: “I

don’t feel that the surgeries affected my femininity at all – and it’s not affected men, either.“I always say, there’s more to me than just a pair of breasts.”Tracey is now a prominent fundraiser for Cancer Research, a competitive body builder, and an

inspirational speaker at events all around the UK. “I’ve had no regrets at all. In fact, my life hasgotten better and better. I’d do it all over again.“The fact that we can have these tests is an incredible thing – it shows how far we’ve come. It’s

only a matter of time before we find a cure, I’m sure of it. And won’t that be great.”Another woman who knows the legacy of hereditary cancer all too well is Tracy Child, 32,

from Bradford.She saw her mum, aunt and grandma suffer breast cancer at several stages stages throughout

their lives. Her mum was diagnosed at the young age of 36, and Tracy’s grandmother lost her lifeto the disease in her early 60s.“Once I saw what my mum went through when she got it for the second time, my sister and I

saw a genetic counsellor. We looked through our family tree and both decided to have the tests.In July 2011, Tracy and her sister Rochelle Illingworth, 35, got their results – Tracy was a car-

rier of the gene, but Rochelle wasn’t. “It was actually a massive relief. We were each hoping to bethe one to have it instead of the other.”And Tracy’s mind was already made up. She and Rochelle had been given extensive counselling

before the tests were done and had prepared themselves for bad news: “You just expect the worstoutcome.“Even before we got the results, I’d made the decision that that was the route I wanted go

down. My mum went through chemotherapy three times. Watching her do it again, seeing hergo through it after she had already gone through a mastectomy - for me, this seemed like the ob-vious option.”Testing positive for the faulty gene meant that Tracy’s risk of breast cancer was 85%, and her

risk of ovarian cancer as high as 60%, but her outlook felt far from beak: “In that situation, youjust focus. I knew this was what I wanted to do.”Tracy’s preventative double mastectomy took place in December 2011 – just six months after

she found out that she had the gene. Her breasts we reconstructed straight away using musclestaken from her back - and she says you’d never know the difference: “I said that I wanted them tobe like they were before, and they look almost exactly the same.“I chose not to keep my nipples – it would have left a three per cent increased risk and I didn’t

see the point of keeping them. I always cover them up anyway! Not keeping them means my riskof breast cancer is now lower than a normal person’s.”The decision to have a hysterectomy followed soon after: “Once I’d had the breast operation,

the risk still left behind played on my mind. I already knew I didn’t want a family, and they adviseyou to wait until you reach 40 to have the procedure. I didn’t see any reason to put it off.”As well as the much-needed support from her family and husband Dean, 43, Tracy found com-

fort at the National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline, where she now works. The 24-hourhelpline was set up in 1996 by Wendy Watson, the first person in the UK to have a preventativedouble mastectomy. Tracy said: “It’s a massive help being able to speak to others going throughsimilar experiences.”A year and a half on, Tracy has never once regretted her decision: “It’s given me such peace of

mind. It was a no-brainer for me.“Unless you’ve walked in someone shoes, you have no idea. I used to think it was so drastic but

when you’re in that position you have to make these decisions. It’s a brave decision to make, and Ithink it’s the right one.“The man that performed my hysterectomy, Dr Hudson, said something that really stuck in my

head. He said, ‘at the end of the day, it’s you that has to rest your head on the pillow at night.’ Andhe’s right. I’m really grateful to him for at.”Tracey Barraclough with her son Joshua

In her article My Medical Choice in The New YorkTimes, Angelina sends a strong positive message aboutliving under the threat of breast cancer.

She talks about her her mother, who died after a ten-year battle with breast cancer at the young age of 56. Amother of six herself, Jolie describes how difficult it isto explain what happened to her children’s grand-mother and to reassure them that their mum wouldn’tsuffer the same fate when, really, she feared that shemight.

In the article, she explains: “Once I knew that thiswas my reality, I decided to be proactive and to mini-mize the risk as much I could.” This proactivity is themessage Jolie stresses . She encourages women at riskto be tested – to be informed – and to make decisionsbased on that knowledge. She says: “For any woman

reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have op-tions.

“I wanted to write this to tell other women that thedecision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it isone I am very happy that I made. I can tell my childrenthat they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breastcancer.”

And as regards her femininity, her message is clear: “Ido not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered thatI made a strong choice that in no way diminishes myfemininity.”

She hopes that more women will be inspired to gettested and know that they have options. “Life comeswith many challenges,” she says, “The ones that shouldnot scare us are the ones we can take on and take con-trol of.”

Angelina Jolie. Her brave choice.

eventative mastectomies

The reputation of art inspiredby nature has taken somethingof a battering over the past fewyears – especially if it has a ten-dency towards abstraction. There is so much kitschy andinoffensive art littering thewalls of hotel rooms and coffeeshops that the idea of an exhibi-tion focusing on the abstractionin nature is one that is easy todismiss.But the latest exhibition atHarewood House sees curatorsIwona Blazwick OBE, Directorof the Whitechapel Gallery,London, and Countess of Harewood, Diane Howse, takea daring approach to the genre.

Jon Cronshaw reports.

In Cloud Country is an exhibition that doesn’t just capture your imagi-nation – it teases and prods it, pulls at it and contorts it beyondrecognition.At each turn you are met with seeming unrelated works coupled

together. One can see an early 19th century sketch by J.W.M.Turner hanging next a piece by contemporary artist Chris Ofili,who is best known for his paintings featuring elephant dung.Iwona explained: “We felt we had a licence to do this partly be-

cause we had both seen an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery inthe 1990s curated by Michael Craig-Martin called Drawing the Linewhere he just ran amuck with a whole collection of drawings. Youcould see Leonardo Da Vinci next to Sol LeWitt – it was really lib-erating.

“So we thought why not travel across space and time and seeing ifthe concerns are the same. And sure enough, we found that therewere these parallels. So, for example, we could see that you couldput together an oil pastel by Degas and find it next a contemporarywork by Julian Opie – they’re both intimations of something sub-lime, but the Julian Opie has a motorway in it.“It was looking at the similarities, but also the differences, and

rather than telling this story as a chronology, it was actually to saythere are themes within this topic. The word ‘abstraction’ is as big asthe word ‘nature’, and we wanted to find all different manifestationsof it – hence the grouping of different themes.”The very definition of the words ‘nature’ and ‘abstraction’ are

called into question throughout the exhibition. Diane said: “There’sa notion that if you work with nature thatit’s about trees and landscapes seen from acertain perspective, but that’s not necessar-ily always so. Nature is everything that is inour physical world – there’s gravity, radia-tion, the movement of the planets, and soon. A lot of artists are working with thatnotion in the broadest sense, even thoughthey are not in any way, shape or formlandscape artists – it’s how we experiencethat landscape, or our relationship to thephysical world.“A lot of artists now work in the studio,

completely removed from natural stimulus,so there’s a notion there of memory, em-bedded memory, and perhaps of personalmemory or even some sort ancient mem-ory that we all have.” Iwona added: “Throughout the whole

thing you get this miraculous process, thisalchemical process where an artist can re-duce an entire environment – a huge 360J.M.W.Turner, Rome from Monte Mario

Diane (left) and Iwona (right)Picture courtesy of Bethany Clarke

6

In Cloud CountryIn conversation with Iwona Blazwick and Diane Howse

degree panorama – onto a piece of paper. How do theydo that? That’s what we’re hoping to show. These are themany ways that artists have done this over the last threecenturies and continue to do so.”

The term ‘abstraction’ is used metaphorically through-out the exhibition. Iwona said: ”We’re looking at ab-straction where art becomes a symbol, where naturebecomes a symbol. So we’ve got a grouping of workaround nature and society where we start with WilliamMorris. And even though the drawing that we have,which is a design for a wallpaper, is really a very precisepicture of petals, flowers and tendrils, the concept is anabstract one because he reflected a society where peoplesaw the growth of Satanic mills and the way that humanbeings were losing touch with their environment and de-stroying it at the same time. Belching smoke, mines, fac-tories, so Morris’s project was to bring nature back tourban society, and bring nature back into the home.”

Alongside the works of Morris and Turner are piecesby contemporary artists such as Imran Qureshi. Iwonasaid: “He has an extraordinary skill for depictingchrysanthemums and turning those into quite a shockingimage of political trauma. That image is really about par-tition, and it’s a bloody footprint. But when you lookmore closely, you see that it made of these beautifully,exquisitely rendered chrysanthemum petals embossedwith gold.”

The exhibition ventures into the terrain of conceptualart, as Iwona explained: “There’s a thread of post-warconceptual art where language becomes another form ofrepresentation. The idea of a proposal such as Paolo Bruschi’s idea that he could colour the clouds over NewYork, or indeed Lawrence Weiner – one of the greatestconceptual artists in the world – evoking a structuremade out of bamboo purely with words on a wall.”

But it is the historical scope of the exhibition that make it such anengaging and surprising experience for the audience. Iwona said:“You have these great, acknowledged art historical giants like Turner,but seen at their most intimate – the sketch. The deftness withwhich they capture something with pen and ink, or with water-colour, juxtaposed with some of the most important developmentsin modern and contemporary art.

“It has a strong locus in the British art scene and within British col-

lections. We’re sad not to have Van Gogh or Mondrian, or the Barbi-zon school, but we do have a Degas and a Matisse. We’ve tried tomap the key moments right up to Richard Long, perhaps one of thegreatest post-war British artists, who uses his body as a form ofmapping. He describes his journey across the moorland to create asort of conceptual sculpture.”

In Cloud Country breaks the trend for exhibitions to focus on oilpaintings or sculptures, and instead relishes in the spontaneity andpotential associated with works produced on paper. Iwona said:“What is thrilling about working with works on paper is that they

are rarely seen except for in small galleriesand storerooms. There’s this ‘what if?’ po-tential about them – they’re quite utopian.They’re about grabbing something fleeting– they’re about the possibility of somethingmore. And that somehow gives them atremendous energy which oil paintingslack.

“I hope people come away feeling excitedand maybe even grab a pen themselves, andfind themselves drawing and reacting to thenatural environment around them.”

In Cloud Country is on display atHarewood House until June 30.More information can be found athttp://www.harewood.org/.

Imran Qureshi, This Leprous Brightness

7

In recent local elections, the UnitedKingdom Independence Partygained 139 seats in council authori-ties across the country. That tooktheir overall total to 147 seats na-tionally, a rise of some 1700 percent from before the elections.And whilst UKIP didn’t gain full con-

trol of any council authority, and theyare a long way off the totals for the mainpolitical parties, their success has madea lot of headlines.I suppose it’s because they’re a small

time club mixing it with the big boys,but to be quite frank, what is 147 seatsin the grand scheme of things?They haven’t got a single chap inparliament yet.It has been widely publicised

what UKIP stand for, that is, put-ting power back in the hands offBritish people, in a way. Key pol-icy seems to boil down to this: im-migration, Europe, and saving theUK from elitism. Rudimentary denomi-nators, but broadly accurate, I think. The UKIP website lists stock policy on

healthcare and crime alongside ‘defendingour borders’ and ‘restoring self-govern-ment’. I wonder if using the phrase ‘de-fending our borders’ is a bit much – weare not at war, Mr Farage, it’s just thatsome people think there are a few toomany Eastern Europeans in our country.I hasten to add I am not ‘some people’.Nigel Farage, UKIP Party Leader, has

appeared extensively in the media in themonths before and days since the coun-cil elections, and he seems like a decentbloke. He seems to like a pint, at least.In an interview with BBC World Ser-vice’s Newshour, presenter Julian Mar-shall described Mr Farage as “very

plausible, very genial, very affable” – Idon’t think that’s overstating the truth.He is affable, and a lot more believablethan Messrs Cameron and Miliband – Ihave a bit of a soft spot for Cleggy, solet’s leave him out of it.Something else is that Mr Farage

stands up well in interview, he’s clear inwhat he says, and is realistic aboutwhere his party in the ecosystem ofBritish politics. Other party leaders donot stand up so well to inspection. MrEd Miliband has been royally slated forhis performance in an interview onRadio 4’s The World At One, for example,and Mr Cameron is the poster boy forposh-boy-idiot.

Let’s turn first to the accusation thatUKIP’s council election success is due toa protest vote against the incumbentgovernment.I’ve always wondered why people vote

for minor parties, since those minorparties will likely never garner enoughvotes to be able to have any measurableinfluence. So why bother at all? Democ-racy and freedom of expression, I sup-pose, and I’d suggest UKIP is anotherparty preying on this instinct.It is no secret that immigration and

EU membership are hot topics at themoment, so it is logical that a party of-fering a hard-line on these issues wouldattract voters. Enter Nigel Farage andUKIP from stage right. UKIP is a party that offers a strong,

no-nonsense approach to Europe, aswell as a reasoned, rationalised approachto immigration. Hmm. Manifesto cites a‘tide of EU immigration has pusheddown wages and restricted job opportu-nities’, so how can immigration be agood idea? Non-discrimination and EUlaw are two reasons. But I can see whypeople voted for UKIP councillors inthe sense that they are pinning theircolours to the anti-immigration, anti-EU flagpole for all to see – and for allthe empowered parties to see.I would say voting for UKIP is a

protest vote. UKIP are not planning onleading the country any time soon, andMr Farage himself laughed off questions

regarding the proposition of him asPrime Minister in a BBC interview. Andan amendment to last week’s Queen’sSpeech outlining a referendum on EUmembership seems too timely withUKIP gains to be merely coincidental.Mr Cameron, it would seem, has got themessage.So how seriously can we take UKIP?

Once upon a time, they were labelled“fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” byConservative politicians, though DavidCameron has backtracked on thesewords recently. They are bound to havemore widespread support than the trulyhorrendous EDL and BNP brigade, sinceUKIP just aren’t as extreme. Definitelynot ‘fruitcakes’, more plausible thanthat, but maybe not quite politicians yet.

Think what you like about Nigel Farridge (come on Nige, you’re notFrench) and his band of merry men, he’sdone an excellent job in expediting thedebate on Europe. A debate which needs to be had

sooner rather than later.What is particularly concerning, how-

ever, is UKIP’s proposal to withdrawfrom the European Convention ofHuman Rights and the European Con-vention on Refugees. The given reason is– and I quote directly from policy out-line – “this would enable us to deportforeign criminals and terrorist suspectswhere desirable.” Terrifying.If something like that came into force,

deporting Abu Qatada to Jordanwould have been an awful lotmore straightforward, but wherewould UKIP stop? And what hap-pened to ‘innocent until provenguilty’? This sort of approach to‘foreign criminals and terroristsuspects’ would lead to xenopho-

bia of the most paranoid kind.Ultimately, I can’t see UKIP lasting.

They put forward potential answers toreal issues, but they’re not a seriouscompetitor to the Conservative govern-ment or Labour opposition. If that wasgoing to be the case, we would haveseen a wholesale shift in voting patternsin the council elections, with UKIP tak-ing control of councils. The debate overEurope is happening now and will con-tinue to happen until a referendum onEU membership, but it isn’t going to intensify much more, I wouldn’t havethought. And since apathy and/or antipathy to Europe are UKIP’s reasonsfor existence, if they can’t win overenough of the electorate now, then theynever will.

The United Kingdom Independence Party is this year’s one-policy party, with a firm approach toEurope and immigration when these issues are most prevalent. But with an intelligible leader, andsome rational reasoning behind policy, should UKIP be taken seriously?

Protest voting and xenophobia of the mostparanoid kind.That’s UKIP.

...says Tom Swain@tjoswain

Nigel Farage,UKIP Party

Leader, speaks ata party conference

“An amendment to last week’s Queen’s Speech outlininga referendum on EU membership seems too timely with

UKIP gains to be merely coincidental. Mr Cameron, it would seem, has got the message.”

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