Scott Campbell

(from Blithering Bunny)

BBC News 24 covered Kilroy’s launch of his new party Veritas today (which blogger Jonathan Lockhart seems to be involved in). Some people have suggested previously that the BBC would give Kilroy a lot of publicity in order to split the hard right/anti-EU vote (and also so that Kilroy would make himself look foolish with his extreme comments).

But it may have backfired. Kilroy raised a lot of “populist” concerns about immigration while managing not to put his foot in his mouth for a change. I suppose few BBC News 24 viewers will be attracted, but perhaps Kilroy’s comments may open up the debate. Then again, the BBC is probably right in thinking this will split the anti-EU vote.

(I don’t mean this to be an endorsement of Kilroy. Whether he says things that I agree with or disagree with, I still think he’s a massive egotist. His website address, I note, is “voteforkilroy“. Perhaps this is not his idea, but it maintains the impression that it’s the Kilroy party).