Wednesday 1 April 2015

Diane James is UKIP's real star

Diane James came desperately close to wining an MP seat at Eastleigh last year. My esteemed neighbour Paddy Ashdown opined that if the campaign had been one week longer she would have won. To see how good she is watch how she handles a BBC selecred hostile audienc plus two biase BBC moderators. Click on link below to watch her superb performance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05pl8g6/free-speech-series-4-4-battle-of-the-kingmakers-ukip-and-liberal-democrats

Farage clearly perceives Mrs James as a threat to his UKIP supremacy hence Mrs James was dispatched to the unwinnable seat of North West Hants with Eastleigh awarded to one Patricia Culligan. Who I hear you ask. Well the story is laid out in the local rag, the Eastleigh News. I quote a chunk from their piece below,

Last week the businesswoman and mum of three was selected by Eastleigh Ukip members to go one better than Diane James in the 2013 by-election when Ukip came a close second.
At the time James said she would be back to contest Eastleigh in the 2015 General Election so it was a surprise when she withdrew from the selection process.
James,who is now also a South East Regional MEP and the Ukip Home affairs spokesman, released a public statement saying
“There are some extremely strong candidates locally, who have a far better claim to represent the people of Eastleigh than I do.”
But in the event Eastleigh’s Ukip’rs chose Culligan, another Surrey resident, over Fair Oak county councilor and local man Martin Lyons.
Mrs. Culligan told me “I don’t want to people to think I’m some rich bitch from Surrey who has been parachuted in” and was anxious to stress that although she didn’t actually live in the area she was still close – five minutes from the Hampshire border -and she had good local business connections having previously worked here.
A Redhill postcode didn’t seem to dent her predecessor’s prospects at all and in any case Culligan said she also had experience of Crewe – which is also a former railway town.
“But Eastleigh is nicer… I’m so looking forward to moving here.”
Earlier in the year Nigel Farage had also been mooted as a potential candidate for Eastleigh after he hinted he was looking at a seat in Hampshire, as was Ray Finch who was previously the candidate here in 2010 and is now an MEP and County councilor.
Culligan strongly denied that the withdrawal of Ukip ‘big hitters’ meant that Ukip thought that this a ‘target seat’ they could no longer win following their failure to take any of the council’s wards from the Lib Dems in last May’s local elections.
Culligan said that Farage was always going to stand in Thanet and said she was serious about winning Eastleigh.
As she is sixth on the Ukip MEP list, if Farage wins a seat in in the General Election along with Janice Atkinson, Diane James or Ray Finch they would have to resign from the EU Parliament and Culligan would become a South East MEP by default (a situation she describes as ‘a win-win for Eastleigh’ ) but she said she is not prepared to simply sit and wait for that to happen – she is, she says, determined to represent Eastleigh at Westminster.

So Mrs James wanted to fight Eastleigh but was blocked. Who by? Obviously Farage, who would be rapidly deposed as leader if Mrs James was an MP and he was not. Hence La Culligan is selected for the very  winnable Eatleigh and Diane James for an unwinnable seat. Threat to Farage removed plus of course La Cullligan is unlikey to win Eastleigh but if others in the South East won as MPs then Ms Culligan would move into an MEP slot. Farage must be very sure of Ms Culligan's devotion to his cult!
Devotion to Farage has always been the main criteria in UKIP party nominations. Talent is secondary hence Ms James is frozen out. Such a pity Ms Atkinson, another Farage favourite blotted her copybook and had to be deselected as PPC candidate for Dover, She may even be kicked out of UKIP.

http://www.eastleighnews.co.uk/2014/09/ukip-candidate-the-future-is-purple/ 







2 comments:

The Double Event said...

Meanwhile another great Farageenie, Suzanne Evans, has been doing her bit along with the Great Leader himself to make a complete public balls-up of UKIP immigration policy.

It all started when Farage's inability, whenever he sees a microphone, to keep his big gob shut and avoid announcing party policy on the hoof, surfaced again on Dover beach yesterday. There he grandly imparted his wisdom upon his fawning public by estimating that an annual net immigration rate of 30,000 would be a "return to normality" and that "if we had a referendum at the end of this year, there is absolutely no reason why midway through this (next) parliament we could not return to normality".

So 30,000 by mid-parliament - that was clearly what Farage was putting on the table. His "pledge" to use the Great Spiv's current "Would I lie to you, missus" language of choice.

Before yesterday was out, Steven Woolfe had contradicted this and said UKIP policy was to set the cap at 50,000 a year, not 30,000.

Already a spanner in the works from Mr Woolfe, one might say, but today Miss Evans has thrown the whole toolbox in, saying UKIP has "no migration targets" at all and the suggestion that it had was just a "media confection".

"Nigel was talking about what might be an ideal, he was talking about a return to normality."

Ah yes, Miss Evans, he did indeed use that word, but he also said there was absolutely no reason why such a return to normality could not be achieved within two and a half years. A clear statement of what is acceptable and of the timeframe within which it is achievable - I call that a target. If Miss Evans wishes to obfuscate and call it an ideal, that's her problem.

But it's also UKIP's problem, as is made clear from media headlines such as this in the Telegraph:

"50,000? 30,000? Nothing? Ukip changes immigration target twice and then drops it altogether in 24 hours"

Swiftly followed by the observation that "The UK Independence Party’s immigration policy is in chaos."

Farage's leadership style is chaotic, that's for sure. We see it twice here, both in his initial remarks and in the fact that the useless Suzanne Evans is another of his over-promoted protegés. If this is how she rewards him, he has only himself to blame.

And of course, there is a third rather crucial product of Farage's hopeless leadership style on display here. The fact that, with the buck stopping entirely with him, the much-promised and then much-delayed election manifesto is still awaited with the election campaign well under way. Indeed, from all this, one may glean that far from being ready at the printer's it is still the subject of heated behind-the-scenes debate.

Chaos? Utter shambles, more like. Total laughingstock. UKIP's pitch as the party which would be different, and actually mean what it says, is falling apart under the full glare of election coverage.

Well done, Nige and your little helper Sue.

Eric Edmond said...

DE I completely agree with you. Suzanne Evans grins inanely and thats it. Farage is only interested in bigging himself up for his self perceived future media career. He has no interest in our cause. The sooner UKIP gets rid the better and he can take his sycophants with him.