It is a truth universally acknowledged that even if EUKIP won all 73 UK MEP seats our country would remain a member of the EU on exactly the same terms as before. It was profoundly depressing that immediately after the result of the Eastleigh, Farage was ectstatically pronouncing now we must go on and achieve record results in the Europeans. Such a result will only feather the nests of Farage and his cabal and thus entrench Farage's dictatorial control of the party and in the fulness of time bring forth another embarassing crop of defectors Andreasens, Bannermans etc. EUKIP is built on this lie. It is a cruel deception of its thousands of ordinary, honest decent poor members and exists only to benefit the Cabal financially while the poor ordinary members are fleeced of their 'donations'. EUKIP has no prospect of getting us out of the EU without MPs in parliament.
Power in the UK has since the Civil War rightly resided in the House of Commons. It is not impossible for new, small parties to win such seats at Westminster, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, IRA and the Greens, a non-nationalist party with a woman MP, Caroline Lucas in Brighton.
It was a woman, Diane James who came close to winning Eastleigh with 27.8% of the vote. EUKIPs previous best by-election results in the last 12 months were also by women Jane Collins in Rotherham, 21.79% and Margot Parker in Corby, 14.32%. The male candidates have done less well, around half the women's percentage vote. Farage's efforts in Buckinghamshire etc have proved to be very expensive flops. The lesson is to choose nice middle class ladies as parliamentary candidates not NF's syscophants and drinking pals. Incidentally that is what polling organisations do when recruiting staff to approach the public. That's where to get UKIP candidates that stand a chance of winning not propping up the bar at the Dog & Duck.
UKIP gets away with these talentless sycophants as candidates in the Europeans as they are buried on the party list and voters can only vote for the party not individuals from different parties. Farage has already established himself as a serial failure in Westminster elections. Do you think Nuttall or Bloom would fare any better? Of course not! Ladies like Mrs James can win because they don't fit the public image of UKIP of BNP in blazers. UKIP's problem is they do not have nearly enough of these ladies. They do of course have a huge surplus of male middle aged sycophants whose main talent is flattering Mr Farage to put them on a UKIP MEP European slate.
Farage is also incapable of drawing the rational lessons from Eastleigh. Here we had the two parties, Con and LibDems, members of an increasingly unpopular coalition government, easy targets for UKIP but yet the LibDems held on. The reason is obvious. Over the years the LibDems have built up a strong local presence winning local council seats steadily until they had virtually 100 % of the council seats in Eastleigh. In the corse of winning such overall control they built up a very effective electoral machine which had won the Eastleigh by-election shortly after it was called by getting all its postal vote in. Whatever then happened with Huhne and Renard was irrelevant the votes were in the bag.
I well remember when I was being kicked out of UKIP's NEC by Farage hearing him boast to his sycophants that "I will make sure he (that is me) won't even be able to stand for the parish council as a UKIP candidate" Wow, that is really the way to build up strong local UKIP branches but Farage sees UKIP as his personal cult. To dare criticise or oppose the leader is to be drummed out. Do you suppose every Lib Dem in Eastleigh loves Cleggy? I doubt it.
I once stood for the District Council based in Yeovil. I was on my own with no help either in terms of people or money. I got 11.5% of the vote. Yeovil is very similar to Eastleigh. It is dominated by the LibDems who have a very good electoral machine. My candidacy brought me into contact with a number of LibDem candidates many of whom were vociferous in their criticism of their leader. Were they kicked out of the LibDems? No. Were they banned from standing as LibDem candidates? No, they are all still there working away to ensure the LibDems do well in the May County elections and in 2015 they will be out working to get our expenses tainted local MP Laws relected. That is the way proper, dare I say professional, political parties operate but I repeat UKIP is not a party it is a Farage cult.
Watch Farage's interviews after Eastleigh and you will see the low a priority he puts on winning council seats. The EU is where the money is for Nigel and the Cabal so you will see almost all UKIP's election funds squandered on the Europeans as Farage calls them which can never get our countries independence back. Its a pity more of UKIP's ordinary members do not read this blog.
Whilst in UKIP I met three guys who were great at electioneering and won! Trevor Colman now SW MEP, Alan Wood who was a District Councillor in Wiltshire and Stephen Allison who was an independent District Councillor in the North East. Where are they now? Well not out working for UKIP. Does Farage think we can get our country back losing people like that to install sycophants many with dodgy backgrounds
When I was voted on to the SW MEP slate by the membership at number 5 I was appalled that AlanWood was at no 7 and worst of all William Legge OE and failed Tory parliamentary candidate was voted in at number 2 by the members. That shows how little the members know of the candidates they are voting for. Alan should have been number 2 for his work, experience and nous on winning elections. It was of course arranged to remove me from the list by the late Malcolm Wood, Farage's fixer in the SW. I was not even invited by the SW committee to put my case! That is undemocratic UKIP and puts you alongside great democrats like Mugabe. I was proud of our efforts to oppose the Lisbon Treaty when Farage was doing nothing. Loyalty is a two way street. To get it you need to give it. Farage mistsakes flattery for loyalty, a mortal defect in a leader.
In summary choose women candidates if possible and vigorously contest the County elections. I have some good opinion poll figures I will write on tomorrow.
11 comments:
Another brilliant piece, Dr. E.
You certainly have your finger on the pulse.
Nigel has said, even to Andrew Neil (live) just after Eastleigh vote, that he wants all county council seats contested this May. A bit late to realise the value of structured power-base building, isn't it?
By the way, did you see Annabelle Fuller and Sean Howlett staring into the camere at Eastleigh while Nigel was speaking? hey looked like rabbits stuck in a car's headlights.
Thx Richboy. I hope I am only stating the bleedin obvious about UKIP.
You are correct to say its a bit late now to start building up local strength. Del Young went on to Farage about this 3/4 years ago but NF and his Cabal just want the EU gravy.
I missed Fuller and I don't known Howlett. Presumably YI?
I heard Farage say he wanted to contest every concil seat but that was added as an afterthought after the importance of the 'Europeans'
To contest every council seat might take 2000 candidates, say 30 per UKIP branch. UKIP's zombie branches don't have that number. Then there is the literature, assentors etc...
Nigel only does TV studios
Just so Ukip can make sure they get all their candidates in, here's the programme.
Nomination papers received from 18th March (by candidates). Either download of the council web site or go and collect.
Deadline for receipt of nominations 5th April. After that it's too late.
Publication of Statements of persons nominated 9th April.
Deadline for candidate withdrawal 10th April.
So, as you say Eric, candidates need a proposer, a seconder and 8 assenters from the register they want to get elected on.
They need a witnessed consent to nomination form and the form that allows them to us the Ukip name and logo.
Mind you, if you havn't done anything for the community in which you are standing, why should anyone vote for you.
Thx Mike but you must remember it is alleged UKIPs Mr Crowther could not get the London Assembly nomination papers in on time. You can take a horse to water as Doggie Wood might say.
At the 2009 Wiltshire elections we had an excellent team built up for the European elections. County elections are about 3 times harder to win than District elections but we frightened the ruling Conservatives. One fragrant lady who managed to do some canvassing came close to beating the immediate past leader of Kennet DC.
The problem with Farage is that he and his biggest fan, Malcolm Wood, only wanted to turn the Conservatives into the UKIP. Common Sense says that this is impossible on number of voters that would turn. One has to have universal appeal.
At the European elections Malcolm Wood promoted the cause of Dartmouth because he had money but he was persuaded that if he gave generously he would get the second MEP seat and the EU would repay him handsomely. Malcolm Wood became his paid assistant.
At the 2009 Leadership election Farage dished the other candidates by saying on TV that Lord Pearson was the only realistic candidate. This was contrary o election rules.
At the London hustings Isuggested that each MEP should fund the General Election campaign with a £50k donation by taking out a loan and repaying it out of their huge MEP salary.
Batten said that he had given up a good job and would not do that. So much for the plebs giving their money for the cause whilst the MEP's got rich.
Farage has never shown any interest in the Regions and the ordinary members other than as a milch cow for his adventures.
The only way out of the EU is for UKIP and the other parties to lose their seats to a genuine anti-EU party.
Farage's one-shot IN-OUT referendum sounds a cheap solution but it could be lost, the UK government could ignore it or the rules/question be rigged.
Dr. Richard North's Harrogate agenda is the only current initiative whilst we wait for the time to capitalise on tensions in the Eurozone.
Another anti-EU Party in the European elections of 2014 could destabilise Farage but it will take effort and money. We know how to build a party machine.
Alan, Farage illegally endorsing Pearson the leader who on national TV did not know what was in his party manifesto and made UKIP a laughing stock sums up Farage's incompetence and lack of judgement.
I am not wholly convinced know about Richard North's chartist type movement but it is more likely than the alternative of gettin a genuine leave the EU party into Westminster with a minimum of 30 seats to hold the balance of power. Look how the LibDems have made Cast Iron rust up.
Eric,
You keep on nailing the problems with UKIP. Excellent work.
I'd bet money that the best result in Wiltshire for an INDEPENDENT will be Mike Bridgeman if he stands. UKIP nowhere !
Annabelle Fuller is someone I met in a pub after the 2009 candidates' seminar. Whilst there, Nigel Farage was being very attentive between slugs of beer and numerous fags.
My brother, being an astute young fellow observed the demise of the Canadian Liberal Party (CONS in our language). He suggested joining the Conservative Party and undermining it from within. Just could not bring myself to carry the tag.
I think that Cameron hit the self-destruct button over gay marriage, and now Leveson will bury him.
As Peter Hitchens thought - the Tories are finished now that their post war core voters are beginning to die off in big numbers.
My sister-in-law showed me a Menu for the Waterlooville Golf Club Annual Dinner and Dance of 1964.
Celebrity speakers like Henry Longhurst, a huge menu, top band, all the fluff.
The committee were all my old golfing buddies - great fun guys who were mainly local businessmen. The golfers of today are very different showing how the local businessman have lost out to Tesco - and no longer there to support the Tories.
Another excellent post, this time by Mr Alan Wood.
Although "I am UKIP", we've never met, more's the pity.
Well, they say you can judge a man by the quality of his enemies (or by the company he keeps), and judging by the standard of intellect and bearing, he has some quiet extraordinary enemies indeed. There is currently a debate - well, no, petty-minded bickering exchange raging on the British Democracy Forum, and apart from 1 or 2 posts by a 'Geoffrey Collier', it is the most illiterate and cretinous dross ever sent over the internet. They who post from anonymous false names do indeed bring the party into deep disrepute.
If only some of the people outside the party were running it....
Alan,
to be clear-I will stand.
Alan, I agree Cast Iron is finished and his referendum promise is thus valueless.
Cameron made a huge strategic error entering a coalition with the LibDems. Like Farage he makes these decisions for selfish reasons. It was his only sure opportunity to be PM for a year or two. It would have been far better to form a minority government, let the LabLibDem vote them down and have another election. He would still have been PM and if he had won an outright majority he would have served for another 5 years. If he had lost and Lab had gone into coalition with the LibDems then they would be in severe trouble by now and subsequently out of power for a generation, like what is now going to happen to the Tories.
To Richboy,
Very kind of you to express your thoughts so sincerely.
Eric, Mike Bridgeman and I tried to inject something special into UKIP - at much expense in time and gold.
Farage has been brilliant at one thing - the art of survival - perhaps two - the art of self-promotion - maybe even three - the art of parting others from their money whilst he banks his.
He is no fool, but then neither was Napoleon, Stalin, Mussolini, Mugabe et al.
The Britih Democracy Forum started out with good intentions - I think - but it has been hijacked by the worst sorts of internet Troll. It's obvious that enemies of UKIP from every source are time-wasting. I went away eventually when it was apparent that it was not helping the anti-EU cause.
I will be putting my time to better use by helping Mike B.
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