UKIP: The First 100 Days Review

Done? Good. Then we shall begin.

 

UKIP: The First 100 Days, as the title might suggest, looks at the impact of the party in the first 100 days after the election, with a jolly and possibly tipsy Nigel Farage in power churning out tough immigration policies left, right and centre. The programme took the form of a(n admittedly dodgy) Dispatches type documentary following Deepa Kaur, the MP for Romford and the only Asian MP from UKIP as she tried to deal with the impact of those policies that she promoted on the people around her, including her family.

 

So how did she deal with them? Not too well, as it turned out.

 

 

As soon as the first tough policies were introduced, she was facing protests, a brick through the window of her office and redundancies from one of the top employers in her constituency as they found it impossible to continue business in light of Britain’s upcoming exit from the EU (commonly being dubbed a ‘Brexit’ as if a portmanteau is needed here). All the while, she was towing the same party line that the policies were only targeting those illegal immigrants who weren’t supposed to be here or the unemployed immigrants smoking cannabis. Anyone deemed ‘unworthy’ in other words. If, she argued, you were a hard-working immigrant contributing to the economy, you were alright. Please take that sentence with a hint of sarcasm (whatever your politics).

 

The far-reaching effects of the tough policies were shown across Britain in the form of mock news reports from different channels all merged together in a rather annoying fashion. Aforementioned protests started up across the country, with well-paid extras the protesters shouting ‘Racist Scum’ at Deepa and presumably other MPs as they defended the right of the immigrants to stay and live in Britain. While this happens, three MPs are forced to resign for being just that little too racist, the programme using at least one past controversy here as inspiration.

 

Back to Deepa’s life and her family are also looked at here. Outwardly at least, her parents seem very supportive but her brother is against UKIP and what they stand for in every sense of the words, causing some tension between the siblings. It was good how that was played, Deepa getting annoyed while her brother worried that she was being brainwashed (and rightly so in this case).

 

 

The situation developed as Deepa announced to a citizen against the tough new policies on immigration that she was going on a raid, presumably without telling anyone else first if I read the look on her assistant’s face right. In a lighthearted moment, she got to have a selfie with the leader of the raid who waxed lyrical about how he couldn’t get a job after touring Afghanistan and how UKIP had transformed his life, with Deepa milking the situation for all its worth. Things took a turn for the worst however as the MP accompanied the raid squad into the flats, with the camera crew waiting outside. A scream then rang out as the documentary cut to a break… Yeah yeah, nice direction, very reminiscent of a horror movie etc. but was that really necessary?

 

Cue an injured teenage boy being arrested for assault and a massive justice campaign starting up. We’re kept in the dark about what happened at first but it is clear that Deepa starts having second thoughts about who she is working for and what she is promoting. The final 15 minutes of the mockumentary focuses on her internal battle between her ambition and her morals, plumping for the latter during a speech to UKIP supporters as she finally admitted what had happened. Didn’t like how no one clapped her afterwards, save her brother. An obvious attempt to demonise UKIP voters.

 

In fact it’s a fair case to argue that the programme was nothing more than a cynical attempt to demonise UKIP all round, and I have to wonder about the motive of showing such a programme as this several months before a general election. If, in the extremely unlikely event, Nigel Farage became prime minister, who’s to say that the country would suddenly be divided? The worst case scenario speculation is not helpful.

 

I could go on and on about the elements I didn’t like in this mockumentary - the casual racism, the bad editing - but in the interest of keeping this blog post to readable lengths, I won’t. What I will say is that I felt very uncomfortable at the end of the hour, and it had nothing to do with UKIP’s controversial policies.