Monday 18 August 2014

Sausages Gill revisited

Thanks to the wonders of the internet I can write sittting in the setting sun on the porch of my wife's bijou holiday home in South Brittany and I have just received Tim Congdon's latest news email, that is news about TC, saying he is stepping down from his position as Chairman of the Freedom association, TFA for short. Like all economists Tim takes himself far to seriously and like jazz maestros can only interact with others whom he considers of similar status to himself. Tim's problem is ordinary people, even extraordinary people, cannot understand what he is on about.

Tim's foray into the TFA seems to have followed his scarcely surprising defeat by Farage for the UKIP leadership in the 2010 post Pearson UKIP leadership contest. His path into chairman of the TFA seems to have been smoothed by ex-Tory MP Christopher Gill known to his Tory MP contempories circa !990 as 'Sausages' after the family sausage business. Even by the standards of Tory back bench MPs he was undistinguished  and never progressed in 15 years as an MP beyond backbencher. He seems to have been useful to TC in soothing his hurt feelings following his 2010 leadership defeat and getting him another platform. Its sad that a man of Tim's undoubted intelligence should have had to be assisted by Gill.

Gill did immense damage to UKIP by smoothing the path of Marta Andreasen as a UKIP MEP candidate in the 2009 European elections an as number two to Farage on the SE list she was duly elected. Farage had put Gill in overall charge of 2009 UKIP MEP candidate selection in the sure and certain knowledge that Gill would do whatever Frage told him. Anreasen should never have been allowed on any UKIP candiadate list as she breached 6  seperate UKIP and electoral commission. When Del Young, David Abbot and I pointed this out at the NEC we were duely attacked and villified by the Cabal as 'malcontents'. Gill waived the rules and waved Andreasen onto the SE slate.

Andreasen eventually turned on Farage, joined the Tories and was almost re-elected as a Tory SE MEP this year. Bannerman did the same but was successful in getting back on the EU gravy train in 2014 as a Tory MEP after publicly professing deep admiration for David Cameron. He previously of course professed deep admiration for Nigel!

It is this willingness to ignore the rules at Farage;s behest which makes UKIP a cult, not a party. Indeed with people like Gill, a man who told me at my fitrst NEC meeting  Farage was 'UKIP 's greatest asset, to do unquestionly do Farage's bidding ignoring the rules UKIP can never be a serious political  party. My reply to Gill 6 years ago was UKIP's greatest asset is its members who believed in and were committed to getting us out of the EU. I doubt that will last given the saturation of UKIP's leadership by Farage with failed ex-Tories with no real belief in our cause and only intent on jumping on the EU gravy to line their pockets.

UKIP is now on a downward trajectory.

2 comments:

Niall Warry said...

Enjoy the wine mon'ami 1

Eric Edmond said...

I can't drink these days. You should not fraternise with the oyher ranks