It seems to me that UKIP has a bit of a mountain to climb to conquer popular confidence. Apart from Farage I’m not sure the party ever had it. For every prominent straightforward and stable party official there has been a huckster to point at, and the herding-cat metaphors are justified.
So, what’s to be done? JRE has proposed the unifying force of a crowd-sourced manifesto, an emergent document for which no one will take credit and to which no democrat can object. Certainly Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced encyclopedia, is a wonderful thing – but it’s a fragile thing, vulnerable to attack by egotists, trolls and factions. And furthermore, it has no human face or voice. A political party must have a human voice.
What UKIP needs to do is this: to establish public confidence that its higher-ups are on good terms with each other, it must have a common set of values and motivations. Thebosses must be seen [shock!] talking to each other.
Not all readers of this site may be aware of it, but humans are not natural readers. Reading is a new phenomenon. We are listeners to conversations. The great communications revolution going on right now is a listening revolution. It’s medium is the podcast, more than it is the video.
Now, relying on the mainstream media is, everyone knows, a mistake. Not only because of the framing of the debate, or exclusion of certain topics, but because of the soundbite, time-limited presentation. You can’t say a thing in five minutes, and in your next five minute interview you’re back to square one. Neither are hustings any better – too many people and too many bells.
The radical factor with the podcast, the extraordinary thing, is that it’s quite possible to secure a listener’s interest for an hour, or for three hours, at a go IF the speakers are interesting, topical and entertaining. If you haven’t heard Joe Rogan talk to Jordan Peterson, or Sam Harris to Douglas Murray, or Dave Rubin to Bret Weinstein, you won’t know about this yet. That’s most of your weekend taken care of.
So here’s the opportunity, the jeopardy, the necessity: UKIP must set up a video/podcast channel on which its top people talk, discuss differences, develop ideas, reflect on the culturally important moments, the cultural backstory, their own experiences. They must be seen to get along with each other, even while they disagree. They must, in fact, actually get along with each other, through their class / character / religious / professional differences. They must fold in conversations with non-UKIP figures to link the party with the wider cultural environment. Extended conversations, short commentaries, religion, cultural items, personal reflections, all of that. AMW is already involved here – she’s been a minor figure on the revolving circuit of liberal YouTube channels. Who wouldn’t like to hear AMW and Mr Bolton chewing the fat for an hour? It would be absolutely fascinating.
But where has Peter Whittle been with his cultural think-tank? Why has JRE, a really interesting speaker, kept himself aloof? This is a flaw in ALL political parties, which makes one suspect that no politician can stand another’s company. The only watchable political figures seem to be the marginal, the non-aligned and the unambitious. Mediated by mainstream journalists UKIPers are bound to come off poorly. We have to go over their heads.
If of course UKIPers are truly all at daggers drawn, then close up the shop and forget it. (It’s going to be fascinating to see how many of the leadership candidates take themselves off, or get locked out, when the result comes in.)
If I can compare this to JRE’s proposal (his proposal as I understand it), a consensus will emerge from these conversations which will be every bit as genuine as that which JRE is after. An organic party ‘brand’, a culture, a consensus, a common purpose [yikes], a philosophy. But it will have human faces.
A DIY channel isn’t a second-best or a last resort – it’s the future, the present, the natural way to communicate. If the party has anything to say, if it has any commitment to the truth, if it isn’t a bore, and if it isn’t stuffed with egotists and hucksters, this will gather an audience and this will work.
Thanks for your attention.
Footnotes.
1. What would the set-up costs be? Start with audio: some adequate microphones. Move up to some quality webcams. Move up to a dedicated room in somebody’s London home with a green screen and adequate lights and cameras. In other words, minimal. This is an area where flashiness, above a certain baseline functionality, is actually a disadvantage. The cost is the time dedicated to it.
2. Some model example channels, from a crowded field: the Michael Knowles show, the Andrew Klavan show, the great Sargon of Akkad, the 3 Martini Lunch, James Delingpole.
Glad this generated some responses!
After writing it I did discover the Westmonster interviews of the Kurten, Whitle and Waters. Whittle even said that more video was vital. A bit late in the damn day I’d say. So I learned more about those 3 than from all the hustings. Kurten especially improved and shed his slightly bumptious teacher persona. I really hope they all hang together, in a nice way.
By nature I am a visual person. I have always enjoyed watching the videos of Nigel Farage in the EU parliament, because they are sound AND vision. I recently listened to some 2-hour-long sound-only broadcasts on YouTube (you just stare at a single picture for the whole time) and found it hard to keep focus. Some animation keeps the mind awake. As for reading, I was onto astronomy books at age 5, so am very much an advocate of the book. I would like to see more UKIP broadcasts, it gives life to the main players, rather than just being names on a sheet of paper.
What`s a podcast?
Aggers on Test Match special keeps on going on about them; could it be an angling term?
Sorry, I am making a bit of fun, but they don`t apply to me and I refuse to have anything to do with Facebook or tweeting and certainly not Linkydin
At best I watch a bit of Utube, generally my favourite entertainers like re-mastered Enrico Caruso and what do you know at the end of the performance they tell me I should also take a look at a chap called Nigel – I`m quite pleased really about that – he`s still UKIP`s greatest asset, about time somebody started wooing him back – to take complete charge
We can`t just rely on Boris to keep St Theresa`s toes to the flames although I approve of his 4000 word essay that I, Oh yes READ in the Daily Telegraph
I have always read and so did my wife and so do my daughters, at least they did when they were young!
In fact one of them started reading at the age of two, we found out she could sort out which bus was ours at a multi route stop “This one`s ours daddy!”
So my wife put her on flash cards – remember those, then Janet and John, then she said, age 4, she wanted to go to school, the only one we could find was a coaching college which taught young remedial children – way above her age
When she eventually went to school they said, we thought accusingly, do you know this child can read?
So they gave her the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
The other one wasn`t in to pre-school reading so she was bribed with a new doll, bit by bit, first the legs, then the arms and so on – she also could read when she went to school
As it happens my Grand daughter gas prizes or certificates for reading so many mullion words or something
I know JRE made some great videos for some GE candidates who took him up on his offer
Roger
I don’t remember flash cards but I certainly remember Janet and John. They were by far the best books for primary school children back in my day.
Sadly, they were discontinued because they were too white and too middle class. One of the characters I dare not mention by name or I’ll get done for racism!
Political correctness has much to answer for.
Regards
How to publish podcasts or videos?
Podcasts (just means an audio recording which can be listened to over the internet) can be placed in existing social media websites. In that way the technical side is handled externally. Facebook, Twitter, Minds all allow this. (Some sites such as Youtube don’t allow audio only recordings) Minds is less censorious than Facebook and Twitter. Another less well known site specifically for audio recordings is SoundCloud,
Video recordings YouTube is obviously the market leader, but they are very censorious these days. Vidme and Minds allow video uploads (Minds.com is a social medium like facebook).
Using any of those is either free or cheap. And it is possible to use those and link to them from a UKIP webpage.
If using Google Hangouts to record a discussion with various people in different parts of the country the stored recording can be uploaded to YouTube or elsewhere.
Remember that there are lots of existing channels with large audiences that would probably be interested in interviewing our people or even moderating such discussions.
I am sure that if UKIP were discussing Postmodernist-Marxism that Sargon would be interested in sharing that with his 700,000 subscribers. A debate on Islam would probably get coverage internationally on channels with many hundreds of thousands of viewers. The existing ‘alternative’ media channels have huge reach.
(Sargon featured one of my projects on his channel last year and I met him in London together with other youtubers in July at a meeting of activists from several countries.)
I have such a studio and can explain the costs roughly.
PC (I assume you have one) + internet connection
Mic + pre-amp + stand + pop shield + cables minimum £200 (You can do it for much less but sound quality is likely to be very poor)
Sound recording & editing software FREE
Helps to have bass absorbing foam tiles in room £100 (Explained below)
Video:
Camera + tripod minimum £70
2 Lamps on stands minimum £80
Extra, only if you want special effects: Green screen £25 + something to hang it on. (It is just a green textile that you hang behind you)
Editing software FREE unless you want to do complicated stuff
Many youtubers record in a spare room or even bedroom without green screen or studio backdrops.
The usual problems are: Having enough space to have lights in front of you and some distance behind. Sound recorded in small rooms will have a problem that the low notes of voices (especially male) will be louder and make a kind of ‘booming’ sound. This can be prevented with bass note absorbing foam or being in a bigger room. The other problem is extraneous noise especially from a computer with a fan.
There is also free software that can film your computer screen and you so that you can show things in the video that are on websites.
Finally, Google Hangouts and Skype allow people to not only see each other and hear each other speak, but also allows recording it all AND have a vast audience watch and send text messages to the speakers.
Excellent article. I originally agreed with JRE’s Direct Democracy but I think you are quite correct in your comment that it would be”….vulnerable to attack by egotists, trolls and factions”. I believe UKIP needs a leader to lead, but who would request and consider input on major policy decisions from members as well as other senior party figures. To me the current leadership have neglected to do this.
As an ex-kipper waiting to see the result before hopefully rejoining, and having watched a number of hustings on You Tube, I actually am optimistic about the future for the party if almost any of the hopefuls are elected with the possible exception of Peter Whittle, who as far as I can tell would leave the status quo at Head Office. My personal favourite has remained David Kurten throughout.
We seem to be living under a one party state at the moment, and the current PM is as effective as a wet lettuce in providing strong leadership. There is surely a wide open gap for a party that provides a strong leadership with alternative policies to LibLabCon.
Speak for yourself. I AM a natural reader. My mother started to teach me basic reading (and writing) when I was four years old. By the time I started school at the age of five I already had quite a good vocabulary.
I joined the children’s’ library at the age of six. By the age of ten I was choosing books for my grandfather when he was unable to get to the library to get books for himself. By the age of twelve I was allowed to join the adult library…..the usual minimum age for that, at the time, was fourteen.
I have been a keen library member, and avid reader, ever since. I am now 62. Many of my neighbours are keen readers, as is my husband. We all, sometimes, sit face to face, discussing books we’ve read.
I also like writing letters. Literally putting pen to paper and I do use a fountain pen.
TV generally bores me. Videos have no place in my life and the only podcasts I have ever listened to are the ones relating to when I go jogging/running which provide instruction and the appropriate beat to run to. They are never longer than 40 minutes….my ears wouldn’t stand any longer.
Podcasts may well be the future. Sadly, so will be the paucity of literacy in the younger generation, which is already becoming apparent.
Hi Brenda – I too was taught to read early – too early actually as my father had me reading Sherlock Holmes at age 5 – the Speckled Band and the Hound of the Baskerville still linger today in my memory – and I only read them then!
I am older than you, but I find these days that Radio 4 – I used to have a radio in every room in the house – is impossible to listen to as I do things, so I have graduated to utube on iPad and it is an excellent tool – though I would like to be able turn the sound up sometimes!
UKIP needs to have a vibrant designated on-line site – I’m sure it’s well within John R-E’s capabilities – and somewhere perhaps YI could be guided to shine.
BT.W Viv’s poetry Saturdays were a delight – hopefully we might go back to them, Viv?
Hi Dee
Yes, I love reading although I wonder if Sherlock Holmes was a bit heavy for a five year old.
Videos and podcasts have their place but some people still prefer the written word. I know people who still don’t have (or want) internet access. For myself, I’ve tried watching the video clips that JRE produces but, after a couple of minutes I completely tune out. I was pleased when the written version of his manifestos were available.
I agree that the Saturday poetry on here was delightful. Hint, hint please Viv. Some jokes and funny stories might be good as well if only to relieve the tension of the past few weeks.
If podcasts did take over from the written word….well, I’ve just had an amusing vision in my mind of a can of soup with a podcast listing the ingredients etc. Ha, I’d never get any shopping done except for fresh foods.
Regards.
Hint taken, Brenda – it’s just these dratted elections got severely in the way, and of course on the last Saturday of this month (which happens to be the last day of the month as well) there will only be space for an outpouring of wailings and gnashings of teeth, regardless of who has won the leadership.
Perhaps a classical-music-thread with funeral music would be more appropriate?
Hi Viv
I can’t take credit for the hint about poetry, Dee beat me to it.
You’ve had the patience of a saint editing this site over the past few weeks and I don’t envy you the task once the leadership result is announced.
Try to put your feet up, have a stiff drink and a bit of a breather if you can.
Kind regards
Thanks, Brenda – but all the UKIP Daily duty editors deserve that praise, this is not a one-woman-enterprise!
I’m prohibited myself from thinking further than Sept 30th, everything is simply too volatile. All I know is that I’ve never looked forward to an AGM with as much interest as this year. Frankly, the suspense is killing me … a pity I can’t take my wonderful stress-reliever with me: the current collie who own this house …
Here’s a list of ten Viv. I think my favourites would be the Elgar, Mahler and Barber.
https://www.funeralzone.co.uk/blog/classical-music-for-funerals
Strewth – I never even imagined such list circulating!
I see they’re for private funerals. What I had in mind is more along these lines:
I hope we can all agree, though you wrote that comment in a spirit of fun, Viv, that on this forum we will keep cheerful whatever happens and negative comments will do no good either to us or the Party we love! Stiff upper lip, that’s going to be my watchword!
Ah – but ‘stiff upper lip’ is now racist and bigoted because it described the proper British gentleman: white, male, possibly military and rich. No, you must see, Dee, that dissolving into tears at every possible opportunity is the only way forward to the desired snowflakey future!
(Stock up on paper hankies ..)
I agree with all you have written, Chris – and I have gained a great deal of insight into Anne Marie’s politics, thinking and feelings by listening to debates, lectures and interviews she has done with people long before she stood for the Leadership. I wanted to be sure in my own mind that the smears of infiltrator, Communist and the rest of the rubbish talked was just that – before I trusted her with my support, never mind my vote. I wonder how many of her detractors can say, hand on heart that they too have listened to any of those. Or that they have in fact researched before they smeared, and weren’t just repeating what they have read.
John Rees-Evans too has a very good way of communicating through utube his opinions and thoughts – he would, I’m sure, have been capable of setting up just such a forum as you describe, so that candidates could have been interviewed. i would have loved them all to have been interviewed by someone like Raheem, or Michael Heaver, it could so easily have been done. Too late now though, and we must hope for the best.
As to the footnotes, Michael Heaver does Westmonster interviews that look fairly cheap and simple to achieve – and I think Jon Gaunt is investing in a podcast studio he might hire out. But talking of podcasts – how simple are those! Hundreds are done in people’s front rooms!
And of course I woke up in the night and realized that I meant PERISCOPE, not Podcast! Though they are useful, Periscope is simply like FaceTime only to anyone who links to it!
Brenda – my being force fed Sherlock Holmes put me off murder mystery for life! These days the library man laughs at me because I always ask for books where nothing happens to anybody!
Even if this isn’t “the solution” it is almost certainly part of the solution. In particular we have to do some “in depth” documentaries to explain what is actually going on – perhaps starting with “security”, which seems to be the area where Mrs May has begun to show her hand. Bill’s article on ukip.org is a start buy it is in no way sufficient. And the meja hate in-depth as it exposes what they are trying to cover up.