Nigel Farage on Sophy Ridge, fact check starts here.

Responding to a request on Twitter I sent in my question. Probably a coincidence but my question came up. Sophy Ridge did ask about UKIP and racism, also asked about Oldham. My concern is that so far there seems to be very little questioning of how the new party is different to the old party. Or what Farage has said recently.

(By the way, makes blogging / twittering more interesting even if the connections are in my imagination )

I thought the interview was searching enough for this stage of the EU election. Definitely different to the BBC approach which seems to be more about a platform for Farage views. Not many questions. Maybe I just find a misleading sample when I watch / listen. Clips very welcome for future posts on this blog.

So far most interest in refusal to say where the funding comes from. This may be another connection with UKIP. Or maybe not. Suggest follow @CaroleCadwalladr .

But I have found some links around Oldham story.

Some cut and paste in best blogger style

Mail Online strikes some balance and quotes contrary opinion

Not surprisingly, his comments were met with condemnation in some quarters. Oldham MP Jim McMahon accused him of trying to ‘stoke up tensions and create division’ with his ‘us and them’ rhetoric.

Had Farage been speaking in Britain, instead of playing to an American audience in an area full of Trump supporters, he might well have chosen his words more carefully. He thrives on controversy, but he is no fool. The fact of the matter is there are relatively few ‘black’ faces in Oldham. Only 2,797 — 1.2 per cent of the 219,000 population — were classed as ‘black ’in the 2011 census.

But they go back to a pub firebombing and riot in 2001 and find many issues in the later reports.

The Sun quotes local resident Graham Foulkes whose verdict is that Farage is “playing on people’s fear” to win votes in the European Elections.

"I’m angry that someone who doesn’t know Oldham, who’s only been here once, is stoking up racism … I challenge Farage to come to Oldham and find one street that matches his description. They don’t exist."

The Sun adds that

That’s perhaps not strictly accurate: plenty of areas of Oldham are predominantly Asian or white – like Waterloo Street in the overwhelmingly South Asian area of Glodwick, where colourful fabric shops and stores selling exotic vegetables and spices nestle alongside rows of small terraced housing.

Criticism of Farage is more direct in the Manchester Evening News

Nazir Afzal , former chief prosecutor in Greater Manchester, and now chairman at Rochdale's Hopwood Hall College, said Mr Farage was 'stoking racial tension'.
He said: "I know Oldham very well and this is dangerous scaremongering again from Farage, 'integration' is not 'assimilation'.
"All towns have their problems, but none are improved by him stoking racial tension.

It will be interesting to see if Sophy Ridge takes up the offer to visit Oldham with Farage. Others can comment also.

More stories may come from the USA. Farage has spent some time outside the UK while between parties.