Alex Salmond has added his voice to those of the anti-Ukip protesters who forced Nigel Farage out of an Edinburgh pub yesterday, declaring: "We can frankly do without Ukip."
The Scottish first minister rebuffed Farage's tirade against "fascist" opponents of his party following the incident late yesterday afternoon in the Scottish capital.
"If there has been any law-breaking – and that is still to be established – then obviously we condemn that, as we always do in Scotland, but you have got to get things into context," Salmond said. "A student demonstration ain't the Dreyfus trial."
Farage was heckled at length by locals in the Canons' Gait pub in Edinburgh before being forced to make a getaway in a waiting police van.
The incident, which aides said left him shaken, has obviously upset Farage, who appeared on BBC Scotland this morning to attack the "fascist scum" who had ruined his press conference at greater length.
"If this is the face of Scottish nationalism, it's a pretty ugly nation," he declared. "The anger, the hatred, the shouting, the snarling, the swearing was all linked in to a desire for the Union Jack to be burnt."
He called on Salmond to condemn his treatment. The first minister responded: "We can frankly do without Ukip, who dislike everybody and know absolutely nothing about Scotland."
The protest appears to have been organised by Radical Independence, a grassroots campaign organisation which called an "emergency protest" outside the pub at 17:30 yesterday.
"He's a scumbag, he needs to go back to London," one angry local observed. Others accused Farage of being "elitist" and "homophobic".
Farage finally took umbrage when one pub-goer called him "a hybrid Conservative BNP in a bloody suit".
He replied: "That's a silly comment." The local responded: "No it's not." Farage rebutted by expanding on his earlier observation, saying: "That's a really silly comment."
He was then told he was "not wanted in Scotland at all" before attempting to leave via a taxi. When that failed he was eventually rescued by the police.
Anti-fascist protesters waiting for him chanted "scum" repeatedly and banged on the door of the van before it drove off.
Its Twitter account retweeted numerous examples of approval for the protest action.
Have to say well done @radical_indyfor giving Nigel Farage such a warm reception in Scotland.
— Frankie Tervit (@frankiet67) May 16, 2013
huff.to/17A4X88 via @huffpostukpol "Farage came up to Scotland to spread his racism and bigotry here – we showed he's not welcome."
— Radical Independence (@Radical_Indy) May 16, 2013
The irony of Farage blaming racism for getting a hard time from anti racism protesters is highly, highly amusing. What an arse.
— stuart braithwaite (@plasmatron) May 16, 2013
Lets remind ourselves that #Farage is a man that once said: “we will never win the nigger vote. The nig-nogs will never vote for us.” #ukip
— Radical Independence (@Radical_Indy) May 16, 2013
