Its hard to avoid the idea that Nigel Farage is willing to say pretty much anything to get some more public attention. However every so often it is tempting to apply some logic to his arguments just in case he does eventually emerge as a serious political figure when no one is looking. It was fascinating to hear one of Andrew Neil’s guests on this weeks Sunday Politics suggest that the European Union is not the top priority for UKIP voters (unlike the members of the Conservative Party). As surprising as this is, it does suggest that there are other ideas that are attracting the support the party does have. The number of policy areas that UKIP have attempted to focus their strategic thinking on is still reasonably small and so the news that they have added a new chapter to their manifesto gives a fresh opportunity to work out if they are any closer to sounding credible. According to the Saturday edition of the Yorkshire Post, Nigel is giving advance warning of the UKIP Health Policy with the proposal that they outsource significant parts of the NHS to ensure that patients are spared from the threat as he sees it of foreign-born doctors from attending to us when we are ill. The Politician who is descended from French immigrants is at pains to distinguish this policy from a full blown privatisation of the NHS although he is not explaining how.

It is hard to imagine any substantial additional private provision for the Health Service that did not involve AXA the French Multinational or that the private contractors that Nigel anticipates filling the space currently filled by the foreign born GPs, Nurses and Surgeons will be able to assure the UKIP Government (a frightening idea) that they won’t employ staff from outside the UK. Nigel is also ignoring the fact that one of the truly private parts of the NHS, the cleaning contractors, employ significant numbers of foreign born workers. However these arguments don’t stop this publicity junky from trying to pay for another fix with the fear and concerns of Millions of voters. At a time when public support for the Triumverate of Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem is at a very low ebb, we need to find a better alternative than this!