Monday 1 January 2018

Farage's failings are coming home to roost

In today's DT there is a rant by Farage on how the political Establishment had conspired against UKIP and were now pursuing UKIP donors.Link is below

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2017/12/31/nigel-farage-establishment-targeted-leave-campaign-donors-attempting/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Its a fine rant but misses the point that that is what establishments exist for, to keep out annoying outsiders who will spoil the lucrative cosy set up of the established players in this case LibLabCon.

Farage's UKIP great weakness was it only had one MP, Carswell a converted Tory, for any significant period of time. The other convert, Reckless, lasted only a year before losing his seat.I and many other surged UKIP to put more time and money into cultivating around 5 promising seats  that UKIP might win. Farage does not do this sort of serious political groundwork. He went for turning UKIP intoa Nigel Farage cult aided by his gravy train mercenary sycophants.

Seven times a promising seat came up, Seven times  the cult sycophants  ensured Farage was the UKIP candidate. Seven times he lost. Like the Bourbons Farage learned nothing from his defeats and forgot nothing blaming his fictitious enemies in UKIP. He did not get the message, people like local candidates they know and believe in not wannabe chat show hosts.

The idiocy was perpetuated under Nuttall who was Farage's place man for many years. He got himself parachuted into Stoke, a very winnable seat for UKIP and lost. Midlands people do not like the Scouse accent or trust those who speak it. A decent local candidate with a Brumy accent of whom there was many might well have won Stoke for UKIP.
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Where are Nuttall and Farage now? Still collecting their large EU MEP salaries with a generous EU pension to look forward to and for  UKIP members ? zilch.

Farage did induce Cameron to commit to our Referendum because he, Cameron, thought no one would vote for a UKIP inspired referendum. As Mrs May also found out when she too believed her own publicity the agenda and players can quickly change and nice Ms Stuart and showman Bojo led the Leave campaign to success. It was a brilliant switch. to ditch Farage.

If we want our referendum result implemented however we need more MPs committed to leaving the EU asap. I therefore urge  all former UKIP members to join the Tory party and start lobbying these Tory MPs who are lukewarm voting for Brexit with the scare tactics they used on us.

16 comments:

Stephen Harness said...

The great legacy of Farage, UKIP and UKIP activists was the granting of the referendum. At that moment UKIP was finished, sadly because the UK does need an alternative party.
UKIP attracted some strange characters who were just following the money.
Local candidates are always the best and I am proud of my 8,000 plus votes achieved on my shoestrings.
Party discipline, or lack of it, ensured a dramatic end. But it was fun while it lasted.
I did urge a new campaign to replace the granting of a referendum campaign - full proportional representation for the House of Commons. Absolutely no chance of achieving this but then...there was no chance of a referendum.

Eric Edmond said...

Mr H I agree with a lot of your views but full PR would give the Lib dems a perpetual king maker role given the collapse of UKIP. That is why the Lib Dems want it so much! A never ending stream of Cleggs - no thanks!

Niall Warry said...

Eric, I agree 100% on PR as more Cleggs would be insufferable.

I of course also agree that we need to leave the EU but would add that is the political part and not yet the trading part.

The straggering thing is that Mrs May's two year transition period will mean accepting all the whole EU's acquis but with no say at all in their implementation.

Efta/EEA or the Norway option would have kept the trade but not the EU's politics.

L fairfax said...

I think PR would destroy the Lib Dems even though they think it would be good for them. However it would probably create a new party or help UKIP/Greens.

Don't forget the Lib Dems wanted a referendum on the EU 11 years ago to show how much we all like it!

We need PR to give us more choice - the current choices are depressing.

Niall Warry said...

LF - learn from Italy that PR leads to the same lot doing deals behind closed doors that leads on to a corrupt state.

For all its ills FPTP keeps politics the cleanest.

L fairfax said...

Niall
Learn from Switzerland there PR plus referenda to keep the politicians honest has resulted in a much better economy than here.
If you think that the only difference between Italy and the UK is the voting system please read about the Mafia and the history of Italy.

Eric Edmond said...

There is a lot to be said for the Swiss structure of binding referendums called at a threshold level of requests. There are no career politicians in Switzerland and the ETH rivals Oxford and Cambridge in academic merit and I don't think they have the curse of a PPE course there.

They have an open border with France, indeed Swiss France border runs right through CERN the huge International particle physics installation.

The spirit of William Tell however still rules Switzerland.

L fairfax said...

@Eric Edmond
They also do a lot more stuff locally - which is what we used to do in the 19th century.

Niall Warry said...

LF - a quick look at Switzerland looks very interesting and being involved with The Harrogate Agenda I knew of the local referenda votes at the Canton level but will admit I had not focused on their overall voting system which I note includes the best of FPTP and PR. The plus in Switzerland is the mix of both so I still stand my comment PR own its own is to be avoid IMO.

Eric Edmond said...

Niall,

just watched School For Scoundrels with Alastair Sum on afternoon TV. Seemed to beset at Clifton Maybank

Stephen Harness said...

Sorry Mr E my thoughts were UKIP needed a new banner to chase and one they were not likely to achieve. However one problem the UK has suffered from is lurches to the right and left. Health and education being used as political footballs because the new guy knows best. UKIP have floundered because they are lost without a cause to chase and leadership who try to impose their brand of politics on their membership and rivals.
UKIP have a perfect reason for PR. 4 million votes - one MP...SNP 1.5 million votes and 59 MPs.
The system is flawed. Unless you have a massive banner or 10 million pounds donations each year, the old tory/labour system is here forever to destroy the UK.

Eric Edmond said...

I take your point Mr H but you must ask yourself why are the Lib Dems so desperate to get PR.

The realpolitik is the EU electoral system rewards geographic vote concentration which is why Islamics do so well and get proportionally many MPs

L fairfax said...

The Lib Dems are keen to get PR because it would have been good for them in the 1980's.
In the same way that the French wanted the Mannheim line in the 1930s because it would have been great in WWI.
However it does not mean that PR would be good for them in the future. As there is a lot of discontent regarding immigration and they are more pro immigration that the Tories or Labour PR could make the Lib Dems the 4th party not the 3rd party.
They should be careful what they wish for.

L fairfax said...

@Niall Warry
I agree with you we should learn from Switzerland.

Stephen Harness said...

It looks like Maj.Bolton has something else to keep him interested now, and it is not PR.
The UK will stay with first past the post for ever and ever. It suits the two major parties and turkeys do not vote for Christmas.
UKIP are finished. The only hope for the LibDems is for Corbyn to make a mess of government and the frantic voters look around for an alternative, however unsuitable it is.
My point has been missed here. I simply state that UKIP have no rainbows to chase, and as such, they are finished. There was a glimmer of hope that a real alternative to LibLabCon had emerged but it has died from 'shot in foot' syndrome and intellectual vacuum and hangers on syndrome. There is no cure for this. Clegg gets a gong and Farage is ignored.

Niall Warry said...

SH - I agree 100% UKIP is finished with Bolton following in Nigel's footsteps with a new much younger woman. Someone also told me, who saw him on Question Time, that he was completely useless.

Nigel Farage had a huge ego and ran the party for his own, mostly financial, ends and ensured all his MEPs were second raters to ensure he looked good. While good at PR he was a very poor team leader and could never really hold the EU properly to account as he was up to his neck into the EU's gravy train.

His lasting legacy is that he left nobody capable to replace him which just proves what an appauling leader he was.