We must be doing something right

Well that can be the only conclusion to come to following the publication of one of the nastiest interviews I have ever read about a public figure.You get a good basic idea just from the title,

Nigel Farage: Brimming over with bile and booze

As you can tell, balanced and reasonable from the start. It opens with,

I’m quite relieved that Nigel Farage MEP has only one testicle.

What on earth is Camilla Long of the Sunday Times suggesting? That he was about to jump her? Put it this way, the interview was conducted in a public place - my office. It was a little bit jokey, but all done with smiles and laughs.

The only bile visible is that dripping from Ms Long's pen. When Farage points out, talking about Baroness Ashton,

“Who is Herman Van Rompuy? Baroness Ashton [the EU high representative for foreign affairs] is even less well known. She never held elected office. She obviously ... married well.

So, an inside job, because her husband, Peter Kellner, is an old friend of Tony Blair? “Of course it is! I very much doubt she’s up to doing it. But the highest-paid female politician in the world is not going to resign.”

Her response?

He’s got a point, but I do wish he wouldn’t deliver it so odiously. But then, Farage is pretty odious: a shifty saloon-bar lizard.

What pray is odious about pointing out that the Baroness who rose without trace was the wife of a great Blair supporter? Nothing.

I will tell you what is odious. The fact that on Friday, just after Farage had delivered a barnstormer of a speech at the Milton Keynes conference I recieved a phone call. It was Camilla Long,

"Look Gawain", she said, "I am really sorry to ask you this but the editors have told me to",
"What's that?" I said,
"They want me to ask which one of his balls was removed after his cancer".

You want odious? I would suggest even asking that question is pretty bloody impertinent and cheap, and I told her so, but she persisted. So I agreed to ask, but told her not to expect a particularly forthcoming answer.

When I asked Farage, he was, unusually for him somewhat put out, but after saying that he though it a cheap shot he then he recovered his normal poise,
"Tell her if she is so bloody interested that she can come over and check herself".
So I called her back and told her, both that he felt is tawdry, but if she must then that is his coment.

Or as she puts it..

...two days later when I call his press officer to confirm which testicle he had removed. Farage has just given his party conference speech and is in high spirits. “Tell her to come and find out, ha-ha-ha!” he shouts over the din.

So do tell me, who is vile and odious?