at the same time, his public persona is cheeky and cheerful: he sometimes seems to heckle himself.a recent public meeting outside Bristol, in south-west England, Mr Farage played the packed room (Tory-faithful types, ranging from pensioners in blazers to brawny small businessmen) like a virtuoso. Tiny model Spitfire fighters flashing at his shirt-cuffs, Mr Farage told the crowd what it wanted to hear. Britain is run by college kids. The dead of two world wars are being betrayed by Westminster politicians impotent to defend democracy. Britain has turned its back on its kith and kin in the Commonwealth. It is an outrage that eastern Europeans can come and claim benefits. Charity begins at home, shouted Mr Farage, and the 250-strong crowd roared.from the floor were darkly angry. Could Britain be trapped into bailing out the euro by some hidden EU mechanism? Was political Zionism behind the world s woes?. Farage turned the mood upbeat. He described how his post as a Eurosceptic group leader in the European Parliament had earned him a meeting with Germany s chancellor, Angela Merkel (cue chuckles). He had asked if it might be kinder to free Greece and other debtor nations from the euro-zone prison. He mimicked Mrs Merkel s solemn reply: that countries leaving the euro would end the European dream. The crowd cheered gleefully. He urged the questioner worried about Zionism to beware conspiracy theories: We must, must, must be optimistic. counties to the east, such optimism is on display in Ramsey, a Cambridgeshire market town which is home to the only UKIP-controlled council in Britain. Ramsey s UKIP councillors take turns cleaning the public lavatories, clearing dog mess and patrolling local pubs at weekends. Pete Reeve, a UKIP councillor, spent the Diamond Jubilee celebrations dressed as the town s mascot, a furry ram. Yet Mr Reeve (interviewed in his ram suit while wartime melodies such as We ll Meet Again boomed from loudspeakers) also explained, earnestly, that Eurocrats were trying to build a European army and an electricity grid controlled in Brussels, so that in a few years Britain might not be able to leave the EU. Immigration is a big issue in Ramsey, he added, citing complaints about local factory jobs reserved for Polish-speakers.short, UKIP is trying something ambitious: upbeat protest politics for angry, anti-political voters. Will this achieve Mr Farage s short-term goal of supplanting the Lib Dems as Britain s third party? It may not matter. Mr Farage s real dream is to reshape Britain, by pulling the Conservatives to the right and bouncing Mr Cameron into a referendum on EU membership. If he pulls that off, his insurgency will be no laughing matter.
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