I was on the UKIP NEC for around 6 months before I was kicked off by Farage. He got Bannerman now a Tory MEP and a then Tory plant wannabe UKIP MEP . How do I know Farage was behind it? I, and the late Piers Merchant overheard Farage ranting in the corridor to his sycophants,"I want him off". The him was of course me an elected representative who asked too many questions about UKIP finances.
The NEC duely voted for my removal at a time when I and my two supporters could not attend. This happened in 2009 so things have obviously not changed between Farage and the NEC . Mr Bolton at least got to vote for himself. I was not given that chance.
I was however glad to be off the NEC because of the financial risk I was exposed to as an elected representative. Farage then had two sets of changes to the UKIP constitution voted through by a costly poll of the membership. for the same reasons he was citing today. He obviously did not do a very good job on these changes. He and his place persons, Nuttall et al still had NEC problems.
I had some experience of politics in the Civil Service. Some of the NEC members had won first past the post UK elections something which despite 7 well funded attempts Farage never achieved. Farage is a very good media performer but not a good campaigner. Take what he says about incompetent NEC members with a pinch of salt. Disagreeing with Farage does not make you incompetent, quite the contrary.
His achievement was to get us a referendum but it was Bojo and Gisella Stuart, both great campaigners, that won it. Farage was not part of the campaign. He is a Marmite vote loser . Bojo and the rest knew this and rightly kept Nigel off the winning campaign team.
3 comments:
I contacted Douglas Denny again this week to get his take on UKIP's current predicament.
He of course told me he did no wrong in his NEC days standing up to Nigel when necessary?
As we know he eventually fell out big time with Nigel but still believes leaving him as leader served some greater good?!
What is your take on DED?
Certainly no acknowledgment in UKIP for ballot box success. In NELC we reached a peak of nine councillors. Obviously councillors begat members of parliament, there is no shortcut apart from shed loads of money. Come to think of it there was shed loads of money in Grimsby but a hopeless hanger-on candidate cancelled out the money.
UKIP ignored our achievement that was based on local people and hard work. Dare I say there was jealousy. UKIP should have been asking how we did it but no.
There was a number of hangers on, Andreasson, Moncton and Hamiltons. A sad demise because the country did/does need a party free from the city or unions.
What questions were you asking? The problem with Nigel is that he is a great performer but like many great actors, he should not write his own lines.
Post a Comment