Friday 20 January 2012

What hold does Nigel Farage have on people?

No ski-ing today as it is snowing heavily so I looked at Junius's blog where he was writing on Nuttall and Greg Beaman. It has always puzzled me how Nigel Farage manages to control some people in UKIP. It is easy to see how he manages it with those who aspire to preferment and want to get on the MEP gravy train. That is the carrot end but there are some to whom this does not apply so he must be using the stick as well.


I do not know Greg Beaman but I have always found his behaviour regarding his 2009 MEP candidacy very puzzling. He spent a long time working to get votes from the North West membership to be on UKIP's MEP slate and came top in the members ballot pushing Nuttall into second place. It is rumoured he then received one or more phone calls from Nigel and having worked so hard for his number one position on the slate he stood down.


Greg Beaman must have had some reasons for his resignation and given it cost him something approaching one million pounds to resign from the EU gravy train they must have been very good ones. It of course left UKIP North West in the hands of Nuttall, a long time Farage associate with results that according to Junius have been dire for UKIP in the region and I would say UKIP over the whole country.


MEP positions are very lucrative as is shown by Yorkshire LibDem Diana Wallis who announced her resignation yesterday. She will be succeeded by her husband Stephen Arnold who was next on the Lib Dem Yorkshire list. That nicely keeps the EU gravy money in the family! 


It seems that Mr Arnold was previously Ms Wallis's chief of staff under an EU loophole that allows MEPs elected before June 2009 to employ their close relations. Now guess who else used that loophole to employ his wife? That's right, UKIP's Nigel Farage! When Mottram raised the issue at the famous Nov 2009 NEC that was the answer Farage gave. It certainly maximises the family income from the EU.


The reported reaction of Denis MacShane, former Europe minister to Wallis Arnold was blistering. He said it was unacceptable," by any standards of nepotism".


North West Lib Dem MEP said the decision would leave a bad taste in the mouths of voters and reinforced the "jobs for the boys" image that many people have of MEPs.


A man is known by the company he keeps. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy to continually slag Farage off, but in the absence of a coordinated and effective campaign highlighting the inadequacies of the EU, he's by far and away the best voice there is.

Eric Edmond said...

Scarcely surprising as he has got rid of loads of good able people and kept the self serving anonymous dross