Kirsty Wark on Nigel Farage

We were treated to the deep political insights of Newsnight's Kirsty Wark during the newspaper review on this morning's Broadcasting House. And what a treat it was! 

Paddy invited her to reflect on the latest opinion polls showing UKIP doing very well indeed, and this was her reflection on the whole phenomenon:

I just can't get over the..kind of..Nigel Farage here in Scotland. Do you remember when he came up and he got attacked outside a pub? {laughter from Lord Ian Blair} This is my..kind of..abiding image of Nigel Farage.

But the thing is, you know, he is making headway and, as opposed to what's happening in Scotland, I think it's quite an interesting kind of dichotomy for people in Scotland because what he is saying is that, you know, an independent Scotland would then have to..er..you know, it would be out of the...would be out of the EU as well, you...presumably...and I think he's getting everything mixed up, Nigel Farage. I don't actually think he understands what's going on in Scotland.

Well, with all due respect to Kirsty Wark (which, of course, is Journalese for 'with no respect whatsoever'), her shallow contempt for Nigel Farage and her (and Lord Blair's) amusement at that attack on him last year, suggests bias.

Plus, it appears to be her - a Newsnight presenter - who's got everything mixed up, as evidenced by the barely coherent way she expressed herself there [though her contempt for Nigel Farage couldn't have been much plainer, could it?] 

Reading what the UKIP leader told Scotland on Sunday, it seems pretty clear that Nigel Farage understands the logic of Alex Salmond's position rather better than the BBC's Kirsty Wark, and that Mr Farage wasn't saying what she thought he was saying. 

Alex Salmond's position is predicated on the presumption that Scotland will automatically remain inside the EU if there's a 'yes' vote in the referendum. His unionist opponents believe - as Kirsty appears to believe - that it won't, and that it will have to reapply. 

Nigel Farage was clearly taking Alex Salmond's starting point with regards to Scotland's EU membership after the referendum and running with it, turning its logic against the SNP leader. 

You may not buy Nigel's own starting point that you cannot be an independent country if you're inside the EU, but it's a popular one - even with a sizeable minority of Scots - and there's nothing illogical about the point he's making.

Here's how Scotland on Sunday reports his remarks:

SCOTS should be offered a referendum on European Union membership if there is a Yes vote to leave the United Kingdom, Ukip leader Nigel Farage said last night.

Claiming that Scotland would not be a truly independent nation unless it was out of the EU, Farage attacked Alex Salmond for failing to offer another referendum in the event of a Yes vote. In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, the Ukip leader said Scots were being denied “true independence” by Salmond.

...as Salmond was delivering his keynote speech in Aberdeen, his vision of independence came under attack from Farage, who said it was “unacceptable” that Salmond’s independence white paper made no provision for an EU referendum.

Farage said: “It seems to me that it would be completely wrong for Scots not to be offered a referendum on EU membership if they vote for independence. Salmond is not offering true independence. Most of our laws and regulations now come from the EU.”

EU membership has been a vexed question for the SNP. The party’s position – that Scotland would automatically be included on independence – has been strongly disputed by EU officials and Salmond’s political opponents.

Last night the SNP dismissed Farage’s intervention in the referendum debate. An SNP spokeswoman said: “Ukip support a No vote in September’s referendum, and one of the reasons why a Yes vote is essential is so that Scotland doesn’t risk getting dragged out of the European Union against our will in a Westminster in/out referendum.”

What in any of that suggests that Nigel Farage is "getting everything mixed up" and doesn't understand what's going on in Scotland? 

Let's 'replay' Kirsty's comments again in the light of that. 

I'd say that she's  the one who's getting everything mixed up and who doesn't seem to understand what Nigel Farage is even saying, or even what Alex Salmond believes will happen after a 'yes' vote:

But the thing is, you know, he is making headway and, as opposed to what's happening in Scotland, I think it's quite an interesting kind of dichotomy for people in Scotland because what he is saying is that, you know, an independent Scotland would then have to..er..you know, it would be out of the...would be out of the EU as well, you...presumably...and I think he's getting everything mixed up, Nigel Farage. I don't actually think he understands what's going on in Scotland.

Kirsty Wark is clearly confused (well, confused about this story, if not about her own negative feelings about Nigel Farage.) 

Maybe, Kirsty wasn't just pretending to be a zombie last year.