“When they distract you, they control you,” rambled TV hardman and ex-soldier Ant Middleton earlier in the day.
“We have harbored those who hate us, tolerated those who threaten us, and indulged those who weakened us,” proclaimed new MP Rupert Lowe.
“Just because a little boy picks up a doll, it doesn’t make him a girl,” quipped fellow MP Lee Anderson, who ditched the Conservatives after claiming “Islamists” had “got control” of the center-left Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
Unlikely Lib Dem praise
Farage brought dull but important changes to the conference. He is giving up some of his shares in the party, which has hitherto been a limited company in his control. There was hard-headed pragmatism in the push.
“I never thought I’d say this, but we have to model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats,” he grinned, to boos from the crowd aimed at the pro-European centrists.
He heaped praise on the Lib Dems’ political operation, from branches to leafletting “despite the fact they’ve not got any policies at all,” and pointed out that they’d managed to win 72 seats in parliament despite winning fewer votes thanks to ruthless targeting.
