Things are moving on apace. No sooner do I write reiterating my previous comments on Pearson and Farage being closet Tories than they both pop out of the closet. Worse, today's story in the Telegraph, the preferred news source for the UKIP Faragista faithful, headlined, "UKIP leader, his £3.7m home, and £100,000 in expenses" shows the UKIP ruling Cabal as no different from the LibLabCon politicians. If anything Pearson looks worse than many of these LibLabCons most of whom did not acquire multi-million pound houses, only 500k to 750k dwellings. So much for UKIP being the party untainted by the expenses scandal!
The Pearson/Farage offer to sell UKIP down the river to the Tories for a mess of potage is causing huge resentment amongst the UKIP troops and some UKIP MEPs who have to take the flak in the media while Pearson quaffs red wine with his controller Malcolm Wood. (Nigel cannot be in two places at once, Brussels and Salisbury!). The quotes below come from the Junius blog but give the general flavour of how the foot soldiers feel.
"I am appalled they can offer to sell the party down the river to the Tories — it is a betrayal of the members and we will probably see a wave of resignations over this," Mr Batten said yesterday.
Batten goes on to make the obvious points I and also Alan Wood made during the weeks of the campaign.
"If he had run in the leadership election telling people that is what he had done, he would have come bottom. The membership do not want it and it has caused outrage.
I have been saying all along we have not just got to talk to the Tory voters but also the Labour voters who are not going to vote Labour any more. This makes it much more difficult.
Having a Lord as leader of the party who is trying to do deals with the Tories is going to make it that much harder to win the disenchanted working class votes."
Junius quotes Nikki Sinclaire,
"I do not see what legitimacy Nigel had to make such a deal. A lot of members feel very cheated judging by the amount of phone calls I have received.
"Ultimately the members should have been consulted to have negotiations with any party, it should have gone to a referendum among the membership. People have contacted me talking about resigning."
Its not UKIP members who should resign it is Pearson and Farage who are prepared to sell UKIP out to the Tories in the UK and to the European racists and Fascists in the EU parliament!
The most telling comment on Pearson came from my wife at breakfast this morning. Seeing a photo of Pearson peering over the top of his half moon glasses she remarked he looked like something out of a 19th century Dicken's novel, not a 21st century politician. Image is everything in today's politics but UKIP's cabal like the rest of the political elite dont get it. They are now indistinguishable from all the other duplicitous political elites and they deserve the same fate.
The last chapter of Animal Farm sums it up when the ordinary animals peer through the windows of the farmhouse to see the pigs, the new elite, playing cards with the humans, the old elite, and having a furious argument about who was cheating most. Even LibLabCon will easily out cheat UKIP's incompetent, talentless Cabal.
Monday 30 November 2009
Saturday 28 November 2009
Pearson's Duplicity
I wrote yestreen about my doubts about Pearson's real loyalty and lack of political sense and Farage's real agenda. I did not think I would be proven right so soon. I switched on Radio 4 this morning to hear Pearson saying he had offered a deal to the Tory leader in the Lords, Tom Strathclyde, that UKIP would not stand in the coming General Election if the Tories included in their manifesto a promise that if elected they would hold an in or out referendum with an agreed wording included in their manifesto.
His offer can only have been made with Farage's knowledge and approval. Pearson and Strathclyde are old Scottish buddies from their days in the Llyod's insurance market. The Tories of course have rejected this out of hand saying they do not make policy based on secret agreements with other parties, leaving Pearson looking an idiot.
Pearson then went on to say that if this referendum resulted in an Out vote UKIP would disband!
Pearson is a bigger political liability for UKIP than even I thought possible.
The only way we can leave the EU is through a vote in parliament to essentially repeal the 72/73 European Act. MPs will do what is in their own and their parties sordid self interests. They have blatantly ignored the will of the people before now and can ignore the result of Pearson's referendum if they choose to. And with UKIP disbanded our cause will be in the gutter. Its only bums on green leather that count. UKIP bums on red leather are a liability.
His offer can only have been made with Farage's knowledge and approval. Pearson and Strathclyde are old Scottish buddies from their days in the Llyod's insurance market. The Tories of course have rejected this out of hand saying they do not make policy based on secret agreements with other parties, leaving Pearson looking an idiot.
Pearson then went on to say that if this referendum resulted in an Out vote UKIP would disband!
Pearson is a bigger political liability for UKIP than even I thought possible.
The only way we can leave the EU is through a vote in parliament to essentially repeal the 72/73 European Act. MPs will do what is in their own and their parties sordid self interests. They have blatantly ignored the will of the people before now and can ignore the result of Pearson's referendum if they choose to. And with UKIP disbanded our cause will be in the gutter. Its only bums on green leather that count. UKIP bums on red leather are a liability.
Friday 27 November 2009
Lord Pearson's Downside
Well Malcolm Pearson has been elected new UKIP leader with 47.7% of the vote on a 74% turnout of almost 10000 votes. This implies a UKIP membership of 13250 and is one of the first problems for Pearson to tackle. Just after the 2004 European election UKIP had almost 30000 members. As Nikki said during the campaign UKIP has more ex-members than members so the first question for Lord P is how does he intend increasing the membership?
My main concerns about Lord P are he is a poor speaker, was ennobled by Mrs Thatcher, has a real hang up over Islam and is a closet Tory who does not want to oppose BOO group Tories.
The latter is patent nonsense and may show Lord P's true allegiance. This week in our local weekly the Western Gazette in response to a Tory attempt by a Mr Wilding to defend Cameron's melting cast iron position on the Lisbon Treaty there were around five letters printed from former Tories so angry with Cameron that they have either Joined UKIP or say they will vote UKIP. These letters were headlined by the editor, 'Devious approach of the Tory Party'. I can do no better than quote from one of these letters by a Mr Turner,
"Cameron is yet another Tory con artist in promising a referendum with strings attached and failing to do so. These promises by Tories have been on their hymn sheets since their earlier leader Edward Heath sold us down the river in the 70s.... Cameron has put people such as Kenneth Clarke on the his front bench; people who are not only pro-EU but also members of the secret Bilderberg group."
Now if the ordinary citizens of Yeovil can see the old Tory con trick why can't Pearson. The answer is he does not want to and neither does his master Farage.
The biggest tranche of votes up for grabs next year will be disillusioned Newlabour voters but they will never vote for any one so closely connected to Thatcher as Pearson. Put that with Pearson's intemperate and ill judged statements on Muslims and you have not a leader but an electoral liability as Nigel Farage well knows.
The shame of it is that there is a huge chance for UKIP with so many disillusioned Labour and Tory votes up for grabs. Tory fellow traveller Farage has well and truly dished that chance. In the fullness of time he will get his reward from the Tories for this sabotage.
My main concerns about Lord P are he is a poor speaker, was ennobled by Mrs Thatcher, has a real hang up over Islam and is a closet Tory who does not want to oppose BOO group Tories.
The latter is patent nonsense and may show Lord P's true allegiance. This week in our local weekly the Western Gazette in response to a Tory attempt by a Mr Wilding to defend Cameron's melting cast iron position on the Lisbon Treaty there were around five letters printed from former Tories so angry with Cameron that they have either Joined UKIP or say they will vote UKIP. These letters were headlined by the editor, 'Devious approach of the Tory Party'. I can do no better than quote from one of these letters by a Mr Turner,
"Cameron is yet another Tory con artist in promising a referendum with strings attached and failing to do so. These promises by Tories have been on their hymn sheets since their earlier leader Edward Heath sold us down the river in the 70s.... Cameron has put people such as Kenneth Clarke on the his front bench; people who are not only pro-EU but also members of the secret Bilderberg group."
Now if the ordinary citizens of Yeovil can see the old Tory con trick why can't Pearson. The answer is he does not want to and neither does his master Farage.
The biggest tranche of votes up for grabs next year will be disillusioned Newlabour voters but they will never vote for any one so closely connected to Thatcher as Pearson. Put that with Pearson's intemperate and ill judged statements on Muslims and you have not a leader but an electoral liability as Nigel Farage well knows.
The shame of it is that there is a huge chance for UKIP with so many disillusioned Labour and Tory votes up for grabs. Tory fellow traveller Farage has well and truly dished that chance. In the fullness of time he will get his reward from the Tories for this sabotage.
Tuesday 24 November 2009
A false market in HBOS & RBS shares during Glenrothes by-election
I was going to write about another Nuttall gaffe on the 5 pm radio 4 programme last night querying the inspection frequency of Cumbria bridges. An incredulous engineer and interviewer explained in words of one syllable to Nuttall that the inspection frequency of two years was the recommended one and had nothing to do with the disaster. That was caused by extraordinary water flows. Nuttall then went on that a lot of these failed bridges were very old. That makes the engineer's point! These bridges had stood for hundreds of years. It shows how exceptional the conditions were. Some Roman bridges have stood for 2000 years. Nuttall gets the wrong end of the stick yet again. Old bridges were built stronger and more durably than modern bridges. Look at Brunel's GWR bridges. Nuttall is supposed to have a history degree. Some degree that must be!
More important is today's revelation that last Autumn, HBOS and RBS were propped up by secret Bank of England, HMG guaranteed, loans of £61.6bn! Wow, still no mention of the crucial Glenrothes by-election that if Labour had lost would have forced Brown's resignation. Many thousands of HBOS and RBS employees lived in Glenrothes and commute to Edinburgh over the Forth bridge. Had RBS and HBOS gone bust there would have been huge redundancies and Brown would probably not even have stood again for Dunfermline that adjoins Glenrothes. I wrote about this under-reported factor in my blog last year.
Darling Brown will claim this was needed to save the banking system. That was a minor factor in their calculations. Brown was saving his own skin. That's modern UK politics for you.
Worse, it now appears the Llyods directors, wooed by Brown with the waiving of compettion rules to take over HBOS and save Brown's bacon, were informed of these covert BoE loans to HBOS and did not pass on the information to their shareholders whom they were asking to vote through the takeover! So the shareholders were conned into taking over a failed bank HBOS and ruining their own solvent profitable bank Llyods TSB. This sets a new nadir in arrogance and deceit by the banking elite!
Political elite, banking elite always come out on top and poor Joe Public picks up the bill.
More important is today's revelation that last Autumn, HBOS and RBS were propped up by secret Bank of England, HMG guaranteed, loans of £61.6bn! Wow, still no mention of the crucial Glenrothes by-election that if Labour had lost would have forced Brown's resignation. Many thousands of HBOS and RBS employees lived in Glenrothes and commute to Edinburgh over the Forth bridge. Had RBS and HBOS gone bust there would have been huge redundancies and Brown would probably not even have stood again for Dunfermline that adjoins Glenrothes. I wrote about this under-reported factor in my blog last year.
Darling Brown will claim this was needed to save the banking system. That was a minor factor in their calculations. Brown was saving his own skin. That's modern UK politics for you.
Worse, it now appears the Llyods directors, wooed by Brown with the waiving of compettion rules to take over HBOS and save Brown's bacon, were informed of these covert BoE loans to HBOS and did not pass on the information to their shareholders whom they were asking to vote through the takeover! So the shareholders were conned into taking over a failed bank HBOS and ruining their own solvent profitable bank Llyods TSB. This sets a new nadir in arrogance and deceit by the banking elite!
Political elite, banking elite always come out on top and poor Joe Public picks up the bill.
Monday 23 November 2009
Beware Greeks bearing bonds and EU regulators
It is a while since I wrote on topics economical but the above issues I raised here around 6 months ago and are now coming to the boil.
AEP in today's business DT has a piece entitled, 'Greece tests the limit of sovereign debt as it grinds towards slump' The Greek bond to Bund spread is now at 178 basis points and Greek debt yields which used to trade at slightly over Italian yields have now blown out also. The average maturity of Greek debt is shortening. No one will lend long term to Greece. The ECB can fund them at the short end but the amount of debt needing to be rolled over each quarter is steadily rising. This is exactly the problem that hit Northern Rock. Greece is not a company and in the crisis in February the German Finance minister Steinbruck promised to rescue any eurozone state in dire trouble. He is no longer Finance minister and anyway it was only a worthless political promise. Greece cannot rely on EU help as Trichet has hinted. CDS Greek bond default insurance jumped 40 bps last week.
The Greek government finances are in a worse state than ours, debt will be 135% of GDP by 2011 on EU figures. The budget deficit will be 12% of GDP. There is a current account deficit of 14.5% of GDP. Around 200 anarchists were arrested in Athens last week in a running battle with the police. Communist shipyard workers have also clashed recently with police. They have just had elections and a new government talking about a pay freeze on state employees on more than € 2000 per month. The Greek nation is in denial about this.
Their tourist trade is 20% down as the diminishing number of holidaymakers flock to Turkey which is cheaper and has better food. I was on holiday in Greece last month and I wrote here how the country was being kept afloat on EU funded public infrastructure projects, many largely useless. They need to devalue but they can't! They are in the Euro so they cannot print money to devalue their currency. Is a salutary lesson to those who think joining the Euro will be a panacea for the UK!
We will see similar civil unrest here in the UK as we also have to bite the bullet.
The UK's problems will be exacerbated by the new EU financial regulations claimed to be needed to restore financial prudence but in reality aimed at getting the lucrative business out of London to Paris and Frankfurt. This will manifest itself by an exodus of wealth creating finance houses to Switzerland and huge pressure on the UK government from the London City establishment to stop this EU grab. This is the sort of pressure that can and must succeed and is our best chance of rolling back the EU and eventually getting us out of it. Its hedge funds, private equity etc that generates all that lucrative work for City law firms and the whole UK legal establishment. If these funds move to Switzerland then they wont need English common lawyers as their contracts and deals will be written under Swiss law.
AEP in today's business DT has a piece entitled, 'Greece tests the limit of sovereign debt as it grinds towards slump' The Greek bond to Bund spread is now at 178 basis points and Greek debt yields which used to trade at slightly over Italian yields have now blown out also. The average maturity of Greek debt is shortening. No one will lend long term to Greece. The ECB can fund them at the short end but the amount of debt needing to be rolled over each quarter is steadily rising. This is exactly the problem that hit Northern Rock. Greece is not a company and in the crisis in February the German Finance minister Steinbruck promised to rescue any eurozone state in dire trouble. He is no longer Finance minister and anyway it was only a worthless political promise. Greece cannot rely on EU help as Trichet has hinted. CDS Greek bond default insurance jumped 40 bps last week.
The Greek government finances are in a worse state than ours, debt will be 135% of GDP by 2011 on EU figures. The budget deficit will be 12% of GDP. There is a current account deficit of 14.5% of GDP. Around 200 anarchists were arrested in Athens last week in a running battle with the police. Communist shipyard workers have also clashed recently with police. They have just had elections and a new government talking about a pay freeze on state employees on more than € 2000 per month. The Greek nation is in denial about this.
Their tourist trade is 20% down as the diminishing number of holidaymakers flock to Turkey which is cheaper and has better food. I was on holiday in Greece last month and I wrote here how the country was being kept afloat on EU funded public infrastructure projects, many largely useless. They need to devalue but they can't! They are in the Euro so they cannot print money to devalue their currency. Is a salutary lesson to those who think joining the Euro will be a panacea for the UK!
We will see similar civil unrest here in the UK as we also have to bite the bullet.
The UK's problems will be exacerbated by the new EU financial regulations claimed to be needed to restore financial prudence but in reality aimed at getting the lucrative business out of London to Paris and Frankfurt. This will manifest itself by an exodus of wealth creating finance houses to Switzerland and huge pressure on the UK government from the London City establishment to stop this EU grab. This is the sort of pressure that can and must succeed and is our best chance of rolling back the EU and eventually getting us out of it. Its hedge funds, private equity etc that generates all that lucrative work for City law firms and the whole UK legal establishment. If these funds move to Switzerland then they wont need English common lawyers as their contracts and deals will be written under Swiss law.
Friday 20 November 2009
UKIP's Lost Leaders
Well the hustings are over and soon we will know the result. Meanwhile Farage on Newsnight bumbles on answering hypothetical questions he asked himself and implying his support for Tony Blair as EU president! Every politician I have ever heard knows the danger of answering hypothetical questions but Farage seems now to believe he transcends the safety first rules that apply only to lesser politicians. Farage again shot himself and UKIP in the foot. We cannot get a new leader quickly enough.
I ponder on who we might have had. Many people ask me why Del Young did not stand. He is a fine speaker, politically very astute and he has real integrity and dedication to our cause. The reason Del did not stand was that Nuttall kicked him out on the allegation of being a member of UK First. The allegation was completely untrue and no evidence was ever produced to support it but in UKIP any allegation made by the Cabal needs no factual basis or hearing. It's pure Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, verdict first trial later except UKIP dispenses with the trial bit.
The other leader UKIP might have had was Richard Suchorzewski. He stood against Farage in the 2006 leadership election and was subject to a vitriolic character assasination by the Cabal by the vilest allegations, many personal that were totally untrue. His manifesto then can be seen by clicking the link below:
Suchorzewski
Both Del and Richard are around 40 years old, would not have gone to Brussels but would have campaigned in Britain, built up the party structure in the UK and encouraged youth in the party. Both have the management background needed to build up a real effective UK based party strucure.
None of the present candidates recognise the importance of this.Ex UKIP election candidate Rob McWhirter said: "If we don't serve our existing membership adequately, and reduce the churn of new members, no amount of swanning around TV studios or call centre recruitment will save us.
As the result of the personal villification Richard resigned from UKIP. A big mistake as he could not get back in despite the support of Roger Knapman. The truth was Farage did not want a potential leadership rival back in the party.That is the reason Farage now supports Pearson. He is no threat to Nigel and will simply keep Nigel's seat warm. The other candidates all have their strengths and weaknesses but none will make as good a leader of UKIP as Del or Richard would have made. All are however preferable to Pearson but I still mourn UKIP's loss of Del and Richard.
I ponder on who we might have had. Many people ask me why Del Young did not stand. He is a fine speaker, politically very astute and he has real integrity and dedication to our cause. The reason Del did not stand was that Nuttall kicked him out on the allegation of being a member of UK First. The allegation was completely untrue and no evidence was ever produced to support it but in UKIP any allegation made by the Cabal needs no factual basis or hearing. It's pure Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, verdict first trial later except UKIP dispenses with the trial bit.
The other leader UKIP might have had was Richard Suchorzewski. He stood against Farage in the 2006 leadership election and was subject to a vitriolic character assasination by the Cabal by the vilest allegations, many personal that were totally untrue. His manifesto then can be seen by clicking the link below:
Suchorzewski
Both Del and Richard are around 40 years old, would not have gone to Brussels but would have campaigned in Britain, built up the party structure in the UK and encouraged youth in the party. Both have the management background needed to build up a real effective UK based party strucure.
None of the present candidates recognise the importance of this.Ex UKIP election candidate Rob McWhirter said: "If we don't serve our existing membership adequately, and reduce the churn of new members, no amount of swanning around TV studios or call centre recruitment will save us.
As the result of the personal villification Richard resigned from UKIP. A big mistake as he could not get back in despite the support of Roger Knapman. The truth was Farage did not want a potential leadership rival back in the party.That is the reason Farage now supports Pearson. He is no threat to Nigel and will simply keep Nigel's seat warm. The other candidates all have their strengths and weaknesses but none will make as good a leader of UKIP as Del or Richard would have made. All are however preferable to Pearson but I still mourn UKIP's loss of Del and Richard.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
No Pearson, No Nigel say cult faithful
The latest piece of puerile propaganda and arm twisting from the Faragista cult faithful is along the lines, if Pearson is not elected leader Nigel may leave us, followed by much wailing and gnashing of teeth. How gullible can you get! If the membership believe this then the moon is made of green cheese. Farage needs UKIP to get him his high profile media spots, to secure him his joint leadership of the EFD along with his far right racist Liga Norda friends. UKIP can survive and will indeed thrive without Farage and his dubious EU friends. Farage is nothing without UKIP.
It reminds me a bit of when Charles I had a spot of bother with the Scots, a notoriously troublesome nation, who refused to have bishops in their church and said in St Giles, Edinburgh the fatal line, "No bishops, no King". This was a bad mistake! Charles I ended up beheaded and the divine right of kings that he espoused could not save him. Farage is now taking the same line and although we do not behead people now he risks political decapitation if he persists in trying to force Pearson on UKIP as a proxy for himself.
I am becoming increasingly certain there is a long running plan behind all this. In 2004, Paul Sykes donated almost £1,500,000 to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) for advertising during the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, making him the primary source of funding for the party. Robert Kilroy Silk was then UKIP's major media star, a much better performer than Farage then and now, and wanted to become UKIP leader replacing ex-Tory MP Roger Knapman. Sykes immediately withdrew further funding for UKIP. Why? Petrina takes up the story on todays Forum;
"Sykes had his arm twisted re Kilroy by people outside UKIP when RKS made it clear that Kilroy wanted to take on the Tories and try to destroy them. Sykes liked Kilroy,at least to begin with but later found him too hot to handle."
Kilroy was absolutely right. For UKIP to succeed it must first destroy the Tories and replace them as the UK centre-right party. Farage, Pearson, Bannerman, Dartmouth and many others in the UKIP hierarchy are closet Tories who are happy to play at being Eurosceptics as long as it does not damage their first love, the Conservatives, where it really counts, in the ballot box. They have all except Pearson tried and failed to secure 'safe' Tory seats. The Tories obviously felt they had better candidates! Pearson was kept at Tory fund raising which given his recent inept political utterances was clearly the right decision.
As long as UKIP is in safe Tory sympathiser hands Cameron is secure on his right flank. He knows that the Tory line of, we must get Labour out at all costs, will keep all but the most committed Eurosceptics voting Tory. This was the line used in Norwich to see off the Conservative Turnip Taleban rebellion. It was very successful and brought the Tories to heel. Farage will huff and puff and I and David Cameron both hope he will unseat the odious Bercow in Buckingham. But in 18 months time or so there will be another election. The Conservatives will ditch Bercow for a true blue Tory and UKIP's MP will disappear.
But Nigel will pop up in the House of Lords as Lord F of Brussels for political services and worst of all this will eventually happen whether or not he wins Buckingham. Noel Coward had it right in his war film, In Which We Serve' after the UK warship sinks and the captain, also Noel Coward pops up alongside the dirty British sailor who remarks, "Scum Floats".
It reminds me a bit of when Charles I had a spot of bother with the Scots, a notoriously troublesome nation, who refused to have bishops in their church and said in St Giles, Edinburgh the fatal line, "No bishops, no King". This was a bad mistake! Charles I ended up beheaded and the divine right of kings that he espoused could not save him. Farage is now taking the same line and although we do not behead people now he risks political decapitation if he persists in trying to force Pearson on UKIP as a proxy for himself.
I am becoming increasingly certain there is a long running plan behind all this. In 2004, Paul Sykes donated almost £1,500,000 to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) for advertising during the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, making him the primary source of funding for the party. Robert Kilroy Silk was then UKIP's major media star, a much better performer than Farage then and now, and wanted to become UKIP leader replacing ex-Tory MP Roger Knapman. Sykes immediately withdrew further funding for UKIP. Why? Petrina takes up the story on todays Forum;
"Sykes had his arm twisted re Kilroy by people outside UKIP when RKS made it clear that Kilroy wanted to take on the Tories and try to destroy them. Sykes liked Kilroy,at least to begin with but later found him too hot to handle."
Kilroy was absolutely right. For UKIP to succeed it must first destroy the Tories and replace them as the UK centre-right party. Farage, Pearson, Bannerman, Dartmouth and many others in the UKIP hierarchy are closet Tories who are happy to play at being Eurosceptics as long as it does not damage their first love, the Conservatives, where it really counts, in the ballot box. They have all except Pearson tried and failed to secure 'safe' Tory seats. The Tories obviously felt they had better candidates! Pearson was kept at Tory fund raising which given his recent inept political utterances was clearly the right decision.
As long as UKIP is in safe Tory sympathiser hands Cameron is secure on his right flank. He knows that the Tory line of, we must get Labour out at all costs, will keep all but the most committed Eurosceptics voting Tory. This was the line used in Norwich to see off the Conservative Turnip Taleban rebellion. It was very successful and brought the Tories to heel. Farage will huff and puff and I and David Cameron both hope he will unseat the odious Bercow in Buckingham. But in 18 months time or so there will be another election. The Conservatives will ditch Bercow for a true blue Tory and UKIP's MP will disappear.
But Nigel will pop up in the House of Lords as Lord F of Brussels for political services and worst of all this will eventually happen whether or not he wins Buckingham. Noel Coward had it right in his war film, In Which We Serve' after the UK warship sinks and the captain, also Noel Coward pops up alongside the dirty British sailor who remarks, "Scum Floats".
Monday 16 November 2009
UKIP is now a Farage Cult, not a Political Party
I previously noted my unease at all 5 leadership candidates saying, if elected, they would keep Nigel Farage as UKIP's main spokesperson. After Farage's blatant rubbishing and denigration of four of these candidates on last Wednesday's Daily Politics I was horrified to watch the performance of two of these candidates, Nattrass and Sinclaire, on the BBC West Midlands lunchtime Politics Show yesterday. See for yourself by clicking the on link below and skipping to 44 mins into the programme,
Politics Show
Both candidates sought to defend Farage's improper and arrogant behaviour on this national TV Andrew Neil show despite being both trashed by Farage on that show and described by him as not credible leadership candidates! What can be the reason for this supine and craven behaviour by Nattrass and Sinclaire? The answer is that UKIP is no longer a political party but a Nigel Farage cult where the leader's word is law and the leader can do no wrong. Opposing the cult leader leads to villification and expulsion at the hands of the 'true believers' in the cult. A fate worse than death for our lickspittle MEPs
It was toe cringing to see them both describing Nigel as a 'very strong personality' a 'strong' campaigner. Nikki wrote to Farage that, ' we need you to spearhead our campaign in the UK as only you can'. Talk about sycophancy!
Nikki described the illegal Bown donation as 'an administrative error' , the Farage line ignoring the 67 warnings they got from Elco! Nattrass took the other Farage victim line, why us why not the LibDems. Not an answer to the charge, made worse by Nattrass's idiotic claim that Bown did not really break the rules. The court said otherwise and no serious politician would ever say a court judgement is wrong.
The interviewer then turned to the EFD grouping membership particularly allying with the Liga Norda whose leader describes the illegal African immigrants as Bingo Bongos who should be shot on arrival in the EU. Nigel has some friends that make Nick Griffin look like St Francis! How on earth can UKIP cope with the BNP highlighting, as they will, these remarks from Nigel's allies. Clearly Nattrass and Sinclaire are not happy about this but the justification Nikki came out with gave the game away, 'if we were not in a group Nigel would not be able to make these statements' in the EU parliament to nobody i.e. its all about giving Nigel an opportunity to grandstand!
Nattrass and Sinclaire are clearly quite happy to let Farage walk all over them to retain their places as UKIP MEPs. They saw what happened to me, David Abbott and Del Young at the hands of the faithful for opposing Farage's worst transgressions of UKIP rules and political idiocies.
The bottom line is that neither dared criticise the cult leader who has led them into an unholy alliance with racists, fascists and other weirdos. Farage is right about one thing, they are neither fit to be leader but then neither is Pearson.
Politics Show
Both candidates sought to defend Farage's improper and arrogant behaviour on this national TV Andrew Neil show despite being both trashed by Farage on that show and described by him as not credible leadership candidates! What can be the reason for this supine and craven behaviour by Nattrass and Sinclaire? The answer is that UKIP is no longer a political party but a Nigel Farage cult where the leader's word is law and the leader can do no wrong. Opposing the cult leader leads to villification and expulsion at the hands of the 'true believers' in the cult. A fate worse than death for our lickspittle MEPs
It was toe cringing to see them both describing Nigel as a 'very strong personality' a 'strong' campaigner. Nikki wrote to Farage that, ' we need you to spearhead our campaign in the UK as only you can'. Talk about sycophancy!
Nikki described the illegal Bown donation as 'an administrative error' , the Farage line ignoring the 67 warnings they got from Elco! Nattrass took the other Farage victim line, why us why not the LibDems. Not an answer to the charge, made worse by Nattrass's idiotic claim that Bown did not really break the rules. The court said otherwise and no serious politician would ever say a court judgement is wrong.
The interviewer then turned to the EFD grouping membership particularly allying with the Liga Norda whose leader describes the illegal African immigrants as Bingo Bongos who should be shot on arrival in the EU. Nigel has some friends that make Nick Griffin look like St Francis! How on earth can UKIP cope with the BNP highlighting, as they will, these remarks from Nigel's allies. Clearly Nattrass and Sinclaire are not happy about this but the justification Nikki came out with gave the game away, 'if we were not in a group Nigel would not be able to make these statements' in the EU parliament to nobody i.e. its all about giving Nigel an opportunity to grandstand!
Nattrass and Sinclaire are clearly quite happy to let Farage walk all over them to retain their places as UKIP MEPs. They saw what happened to me, David Abbott and Del Young at the hands of the faithful for opposing Farage's worst transgressions of UKIP rules and political idiocies.
The bottom line is that neither dared criticise the cult leader who has led them into an unholy alliance with racists, fascists and other weirdos. Farage is right about one thing, they are neither fit to be leader but then neither is Pearson.
Thursday 12 November 2009
Can UKIP afford more Farage media disasters?
I was appalled at the arrogant incompetent performance Farage gave on yesterday's Daily Politics. The unbelieving look on the other participants faces, Ben Bradshaw, Labour and Michael Howard, Conservative as Farage waded deeper into the mire with his idiotic fixed grin. Farage obviously thought he was giving a virtuoso performance!
As Robert Burns put it,
Oh would some power the gift to gie us
To see ourselves as others see us
You can see this painful ten minutes by clicking on the link below,
Farage Interview
I can do no better than quote from Anthony Butcher on the forum,
Absolutely unbelievable. He has actually declared all other candidates as lacking credibility. They must be absolutely furious, and rightly so. Is this Nigel Farage's lack of professionalism sinking to an all time low? Has he lost all political judgement? The damage done if anyone else wins would be immense, not just in PR terms, but internally - how could any of them work with him in future?
NF: "Only one of them is a serious credible candidate, and that's Lord Pearson"
AN: "So if it's not Lord Pearson, you'll end up with an incredible leader?"
NF: "If it's not Lord Pearson, things will be tricky, yes."
So none of the three UKIP MEPs standing, Natrass, Batten and Nikki are credible leaders and nor is former District Councillor Alan Wood. They have all been elected to public office but acoording to Farage, Pearson who has never been elected to public office in his life, is overwhelmingly the best candidate to lead UKIP in a General Election. Farage is living in cloud cuckoo land. Pearson is and will be an electoral disaster. Look at his recent US interview, click on link below.
Pearson US interview
I quote from some of these comments,
Womb shattering nonsense.
I can't take UKIP seriously with characters like this leading it.
The BNP now want Pearson as a member and many of the other comments on the above NoW piece have a BNP flavour.
And this man is a racing certainty to be UKIP's next leader. Poor old UKIP!
As Anthony Butcher puts it,
I think that Lord Pearson's first act as leader, if he wins, should be to remove Nigel Farage as leader of the MEPs in Brussels and send him on some management training courses. How can they possibly work effectively as a team when he has declared three of his supposed colleagues as lacking credibility and seriousness while they are in the middle of an election?
Put yourself in the shoes of Nattrass, Batten, Wood & Sinclaire and imagine how they are feeling right now.
Farage has to go and go soon.
As Robert Burns put it,
Oh would some power the gift to gie us
To see ourselves as others see us
You can see this painful ten minutes by clicking on the link below,
Farage Interview
I can do no better than quote from Anthony Butcher on the forum,
Absolutely unbelievable. He has actually declared all other candidates as lacking credibility. They must be absolutely furious, and rightly so. Is this Nigel Farage's lack of professionalism sinking to an all time low? Has he lost all political judgement? The damage done if anyone else wins would be immense, not just in PR terms, but internally - how could any of them work with him in future?
NF: "Only one of them is a serious credible candidate, and that's Lord Pearson"
AN: "So if it's not Lord Pearson, you'll end up with an incredible leader?"
NF: "If it's not Lord Pearson, things will be tricky, yes."
So none of the three UKIP MEPs standing, Natrass, Batten and Nikki are credible leaders and nor is former District Councillor Alan Wood. They have all been elected to public office but acoording to Farage, Pearson who has never been elected to public office in his life, is overwhelmingly the best candidate to lead UKIP in a General Election. Farage is living in cloud cuckoo land. Pearson is and will be an electoral disaster. Look at his recent US interview, click on link below.
Pearson US interview
I would use the title the Cabal applied to John West's test video, "How not to do politics"
The News of the World picked this up. Click below to read their take on it and be sure to read the comments.
News of the World Story
The News of the World picked this up. Click below to read their take on it and be sure to read the comments.
News of the World Story
I quote from some of these comments,
Womb shattering nonsense.
I can't take UKIP seriously with characters like this leading it.
The BNP now want Pearson as a member and many of the other comments on the above NoW piece have a BNP flavour.
And this man is a racing certainty to be UKIP's next leader. Poor old UKIP!
As Anthony Butcher puts it,
I think that Lord Pearson's first act as leader, if he wins, should be to remove Nigel Farage as leader of the MEPs in Brussels and send him on some management training courses. How can they possibly work effectively as a team when he has declared three of his supposed colleagues as lacking credibility and seriousness while they are in the middle of an election?
Put yourself in the shoes of Nattrass, Batten, Wood & Sinclaire and imagine how they are feeling right now.
Farage has to go and go soon.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
UKIP Leadership Electoral System
The decision to use the first past the post, FPTP, system for the current UKIP leadership contest is puzzling for a party that complains so bitterly in public about the electoral unfairness of such a system. Surely it would have been a shining example of UKIP integrity if the had chosen the Single Transferrable Vote, beloved of the electoral reform society, or even UKIP's very own ranking system used in ordering UKIP MEP candidates for last June's Europeans.
It is important that a leader has the widest possible support and the fewest possible enemies within the party he wishes to lead. Labour has its tri-partite collegiate system. The Tories have their multiple round system amongst only their MPs straight out of Bertie Wooster's Drone Club elections. The Lib Dems use an alternative vote system (AVS) sometimes known as instant run-off voting, that again asks voters to rank their preference for all the candidates. The Wilkepedia description is:
Instant-runoff voting
(IRV) is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in
which voters rank candidates in an order
of preference. If no candidate is the first preference of a
majority of voters, the candidate with
the fewest number of first preference rankings is eliminated and
that candidate's ballots are redistributed at full value to the
remaining candidates according to the next ranking on each ballot.
This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of
votes among candidates not eliminated. The term "instant
runoff" is used because the method is said to simulate a
series of runoff elections tallied in rounds, as in an exhaustive ballot election
So why does UKIP use FPTP. Easy! It means the winner need not get over 50% of the votes just like in the good old British General Election. The Tories love it because it keeps small parties out, Labour loves it because they can win a parliamentary majority with 35% of the popular vote. UKIP aka Farage love it for leadership elections for the same reason. Last time Farage won with around 40% of the vote and I expect Pearson to do the same this time with around the same figure. Its not surprising that Farage had so many enemies in UKIP, most of the party wanted somebody else as leader! STV and AVS ensure the leader is a combination of the most liked and least disliked which is what a party leader should be.
So UKIP's Cabal like the EU Commission choose the system that ensures they get the result they want. Les extremes se touche as the actress said to the MEP in the Brussels bordello.
It is important that a leader has the widest possible support and the fewest possible enemies within the party he wishes to lead. Labour has its tri-partite collegiate system. The Tories have their multiple round system amongst only their MPs straight out of Bertie Wooster's Drone Club elections. The Lib Dems use an alternative vote system (AVS) sometimes known as instant run-off voting, that again asks voters to rank their preference for all the candidates. The Wilkepedia description is:
Instant-runoff voting
(IRV) is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in
which voters rank candidates in an order
of preference. If no candidate is the first preference of a
majority of voters, the candidate with
the fewest number of first preference rankings is eliminated and
that candidate's ballots are redistributed at full value to the
remaining candidates according to the next ranking on each ballot.
This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of
votes among candidates not eliminated. The term "instant
runoff" is used because the method is said to simulate a
series of runoff elections tallied in rounds, as in an exhaustive ballot election
So why does UKIP use FPTP. Easy! It means the winner need not get over 50% of the votes just like in the good old British General Election. The Tories love it because it keeps small parties out, Labour loves it because they can win a parliamentary majority with 35% of the popular vote. UKIP aka Farage love it for leadership elections for the same reason. Last time Farage won with around 40% of the vote and I expect Pearson to do the same this time with around the same figure. Its not surprising that Farage had so many enemies in UKIP, most of the party wanted somebody else as leader! STV and AVS ensure the leader is a combination of the most liked and least disliked which is what a party leader should be.
So UKIP's Cabal like the EU Commission choose the system that ensures they get the result they want. Les extremes se touche as the actress said to the MEP in the Brussels bordello.
Sunday 8 November 2009
UKIP Leadership Vote
Having thought about the candidates I think the most important single criteria is who can one trust to keep faith with our, the ordinary members, aspirations and hopes for our country or to put it another way who is least likely to be seduced by EU Euros or bulldozed by Farage in pursuit of his personal, egocentric, agenda. Only Nikki and Alan pass that test.
Alan is a fine campaigner and a good friend of mine but I think since 4th June Nikki has really made an impact. She has built up a good team of around 6 people and clearly knows her Onions as she has got Clive Page on board as media adviser. Her web site is good, she gives a large chunk of her salary to UKIP, and she has said she will go to Afghanistan to see our troops there something that will endear her to the British public. Remember the picture of Mrs Thatcher in the tank at Bovington! Conjures up images of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, who led us against an EU invasion 2000 years ago. Nikki had to fight very hard to stay in UKIP when the forces of darkness in UKIP tried to expel her. She has the Boudicca spirit!
Nikki's downside is obvious, no one is perfect but she will keep faith with the grass roots and put herself about in the UK for all our sakes.
I would therefore like to see Nikki as leader with Alan Wood as NEC chairman.
The more one reads the more certain I am that Pearson would be a complete disaster. He gives th impression of a man who does not really want the job. He would make an excellent chairman of the fund raising committee Gerard's views are sound but he has wobbled much to often for my liking. Natrass obviously cannot be bothered.
The Tom Wise case got a big write up in today's Sunday Times, click below to read the story:
Tom Wise
The clear implication is that other pre June 09 UKIP MEPs may be investigated and who knows what will be the result. UKIP will come under intense scrutiny by the Tory press in the run up to next years election. The Tories are really desperate and are going on the line we must get Brown out so do not split the anti Brown vote. UKIP must of course combat this but must also be prepared for further revelations true or fictitious about pre 09 MEPs. The best defence is to have a leader and chairman who are 'clean skins' with no possible taint of corruption. Nikki and Alan both fit this bill. We have had Ashley Mote, now Tom Wise. As Warren Buffet says, "There is never just one cockroach in the kitchen" so in UKIP's case it would be prudent to find some fresh cooks.
Pearson and to a lesser extent Gerard's anti-Islamic views will be a god send to the media especially when they get picked up, as has already happened, by the BNP. This will naturally lead on to intense scrutiny of Nigel's new far right friends in the EU. Farage got a free ride from the media especially the BBC in June. It will be viciously reversed next May. UKIP must distance itself right now from this and that means ditching Farage as spokesman asap. Nikki is far more likely to do this than Alan. She has already shown she can act decisively with Jill Seymour.
As a student I was taught by the same lady, Dorothy Hodgkin, who taught Mrs Thatcher, then Maragaret Hilda Roberts. Unlike most men I therefore have no problems about working with and respecting able women in positions of power. Some of the things said about Mrs Thatcher were medieval.
Cometh the hour, cometh the woman, Nikki Sinclaire!
Alan is a fine campaigner and a good friend of mine but I think since 4th June Nikki has really made an impact. She has built up a good team of around 6 people and clearly knows her Onions as she has got Clive Page on board as media adviser. Her web site is good, she gives a large chunk of her salary to UKIP, and she has said she will go to Afghanistan to see our troops there something that will endear her to the British public. Remember the picture of Mrs Thatcher in the tank at Bovington! Conjures up images of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, who led us against an EU invasion 2000 years ago. Nikki had to fight very hard to stay in UKIP when the forces of darkness in UKIP tried to expel her. She has the Boudicca spirit!
Nikki's downside is obvious, no one is perfect but she will keep faith with the grass roots and put herself about in the UK for all our sakes.
I would therefore like to see Nikki as leader with Alan Wood as NEC chairman.
The more one reads the more certain I am that Pearson would be a complete disaster. He gives th impression of a man who does not really want the job. He would make an excellent chairman of the fund raising committee Gerard's views are sound but he has wobbled much to often for my liking. Natrass obviously cannot be bothered.
The Tom Wise case got a big write up in today's Sunday Times, click below to read the story:
Tom Wise
The clear implication is that other pre June 09 UKIP MEPs may be investigated and who knows what will be the result. UKIP will come under intense scrutiny by the Tory press in the run up to next years election. The Tories are really desperate and are going on the line we must get Brown out so do not split the anti Brown vote. UKIP must of course combat this but must also be prepared for further revelations true or fictitious about pre 09 MEPs. The best defence is to have a leader and chairman who are 'clean skins' with no possible taint of corruption. Nikki and Alan both fit this bill. We have had Ashley Mote, now Tom Wise. As Warren Buffet says, "There is never just one cockroach in the kitchen" so in UKIP's case it would be prudent to find some fresh cooks.
Pearson and to a lesser extent Gerard's anti-Islamic views will be a god send to the media especially when they get picked up, as has already happened, by the BNP. This will naturally lead on to intense scrutiny of Nigel's new far right friends in the EU. Farage got a free ride from the media especially the BBC in June. It will be viciously reversed next May. UKIP must distance itself right now from this and that means ditching Farage as spokesman asap. Nikki is far more likely to do this than Alan. She has already shown she can act decisively with Jill Seymour.
As a student I was taught by the same lady, Dorothy Hodgkin, who taught Mrs Thatcher, then Maragaret Hilda Roberts. Unlike most men I therefore have no problems about working with and respecting able women in positions of power. Some of the things said about Mrs Thatcher were medieval.
Cometh the hour, cometh the woman, Nikki Sinclaire!
Friday 6 November 2009
Kilroy on Question Time & Nuttall
I have always had a certain affinity with RKS. Like me he lectured at Liverpool University leaving just before I started there. His performance on QT was a tour de force from the Farage seat on the far right of Dimblebore. He was head and shoulders above the other pygmies particularly Hain & PC Blair.
He started on the evils of the EU with a 5 minute monologue of dense argument that Dimblebore abetted by the odious Hain could not halt. On Afghanistan he was supremely well informed and silenced Hain by asking him to name one UK Islamic terrorist born in Afghanistan. On immigration he was lucid, rational and very convincing.
What a pity he no longer represents UKIP. He ubdoubtedly has a huge ego but then so does Farage. The difference is Farage does not have 10% of Kilroy's debating ability.
I cannot understand why Nuttall did not announce his resignation at the Exeter hustings to make it clear to the members there would be a new chairman as well as leader? It would have been good manners to do so. I have no idea what lies behind it. We will have to wait some time for the real reasons to emerge. It clarifies things for me. In an election year Alan Wood or Nikki would make excellent NEC chairman of what would be effectively be a campaign committee. Both are good organisers and campaigners. Pearson's role is to get the money.
He started on the evils of the EU with a 5 minute monologue of dense argument that Dimblebore abetted by the odious Hain could not halt. On Afghanistan he was supremely well informed and silenced Hain by asking him to name one UK Islamic terrorist born in Afghanistan. On immigration he was lucid, rational and very convincing.
What a pity he no longer represents UKIP. He ubdoubtedly has a huge ego but then so does Farage. The difference is Farage does not have 10% of Kilroy's debating ability.
I cannot understand why Nuttall did not announce his resignation at the Exeter hustings to make it clear to the members there would be a new chairman as well as leader? It would have been good manners to do so. I have no idea what lies behind it. We will have to wait some time for the real reasons to emerge. It clarifies things for me. In an election year Alan Wood or Nikki would make excellent NEC chairman of what would be effectively be a campaign committee. Both are good organisers and campaigners. Pearson's role is to get the money.
Thursday 5 November 2009
Exeter Hustings & UKIP's Best Team
I attended these hustings yestreen. None of the leadership candidates impressed me but any except Pearson would be better than Farage. What concerns me most is they all lack faith in their ability to speak for UKIP and want Farage to continue as party spokesman! In my book a leader that does not feel up to speaking for his party is not worth having.
The most telling thing to emerge was that the UKIP press office is actually the EFD group press office controlled by Nigel Farage and run by Bridget Rowe! So UKIP does not actually have a press office. This is entirely in keeping with Farage's ambitions to take UKIP into a pan European party with himself as leader.
The candidates performed much as I expected. Pearson mumbled away. He is clearly Farage's man and a first class political disaster that has happened and is waiting to happen again. Malcolm Wood dared not stray more than 2 yards from the Thatcher created Lord all night. Pearson's main attribute is he has money and knows a lot of people with money. His seat in the Lords gives him a platform but given his propensity to put his foot in it that is a doubtful blessing. He was the only one to suppot the BOO group beloved of Nigel.
Gerard Batten spoke well and has some good ideas. In my opinion he lacks political courage and wiil get easilly bullied by Farage. All in all he looked the best of the bunch last night.
Nikki spoke decently but perhaps too passionately. She is the most left wing of the candidates and was the only one to mention education. She has, and clearly will be able to stand up to Farage bullying better than Batten.
Alan Wood has the clearest and best set of political priorities but he is not a good speaker. He knows where the votes are and how to get them. He rightly criticised Pearson for his Islamic remarks, his support of the BOO group and how damaging his Tory ties will be with disillusioned Labour voters. Alan was the only candidate to criticise Farage for stepping down at a bad time for UKIP and will stand up to Farage.
The worst thing about all four candidates was how they floundered on a question about dealing with our ballooning budget deficit and the credit crunch and how spending progammes are paid for. This is the bread and butter stuff of politics and all four are simply economically illiterate even Gerard Batten. Its a standard political interview. First question, what are your policies. Second question how will you pay for them.
All in all not an inspiring evening. Pearson would be best employed as chairman of a fund raising committee. Alan Wood as chairman of the campaign committee. For leader its a toss up between Gerard and Nikki.
Gerard Batten did mention getting back those who had left UKIP. Many of those who have left or been forced out by the Cabal would have made far better leaders than those candidates at Exeter. Their leadership potential and therefore the threat they carried to Farage and the Cabal was precisely why they were forced out and why UKIP is now so bereft of leadership talent.
PS
I received my leadership voting papers just now. I am amused that UKIP has at last seen the merit of using the Electoral Reform Society Service for their elections. When I was on the NEC I argued for this service to be used for the MEP list elections and indeed got a vote passed in the SWCC to use it in the South West. Needless to say on the NEC I was shouted down by the Cabal. Farage stated the ERS only does Single Transferable Vote - completely wrong as usual with NF. Whittaker said he investigated this and confirmed Farage's erroneous view. Clarke seemed to be having apoplexy shouting it was ridiculous as did Zuckerman and the rest. Well look what we have now but Zuckerman uses the ERS!
The whole problem with the Cabal is they do not do their homework. I gave them a fully costed quote from the ERS confirming they could implement any voting system we wanted. This was shouted down and rubbished by the Cabal. Is it any wonder UKIP staggers from crisis to crisis.
The most telling thing to emerge was that the UKIP press office is actually the EFD group press office controlled by Nigel Farage and run by Bridget Rowe! So UKIP does not actually have a press office. This is entirely in keeping with Farage's ambitions to take UKIP into a pan European party with himself as leader.
The candidates performed much as I expected. Pearson mumbled away. He is clearly Farage's man and a first class political disaster that has happened and is waiting to happen again. Malcolm Wood dared not stray more than 2 yards from the Thatcher created Lord all night. Pearson's main attribute is he has money and knows a lot of people with money. His seat in the Lords gives him a platform but given his propensity to put his foot in it that is a doubtful blessing. He was the only one to suppot the BOO group beloved of Nigel.
Gerard Batten spoke well and has some good ideas. In my opinion he lacks political courage and wiil get easilly bullied by Farage. All in all he looked the best of the bunch last night.
Nikki spoke decently but perhaps too passionately. She is the most left wing of the candidates and was the only one to mention education. She has, and clearly will be able to stand up to Farage bullying better than Batten.
Alan Wood has the clearest and best set of political priorities but he is not a good speaker. He knows where the votes are and how to get them. He rightly criticised Pearson for his Islamic remarks, his support of the BOO group and how damaging his Tory ties will be with disillusioned Labour voters. Alan was the only candidate to criticise Farage for stepping down at a bad time for UKIP and will stand up to Farage.
The worst thing about all four candidates was how they floundered on a question about dealing with our ballooning budget deficit and the credit crunch and how spending progammes are paid for. This is the bread and butter stuff of politics and all four are simply economically illiterate even Gerard Batten. Its a standard political interview. First question, what are your policies. Second question how will you pay for them.
All in all not an inspiring evening. Pearson would be best employed as chairman of a fund raising committee. Alan Wood as chairman of the campaign committee. For leader its a toss up between Gerard and Nikki.
Gerard Batten did mention getting back those who had left UKIP. Many of those who have left or been forced out by the Cabal would have made far better leaders than those candidates at Exeter. Their leadership potential and therefore the threat they carried to Farage and the Cabal was precisely why they were forced out and why UKIP is now so bereft of leadership talent.
PS
I received my leadership voting papers just now. I am amused that UKIP has at last seen the merit of using the Electoral Reform Society Service for their elections. When I was on the NEC I argued for this service to be used for the MEP list elections and indeed got a vote passed in the SWCC to use it in the South West. Needless to say on the NEC I was shouted down by the Cabal. Farage stated the ERS only does Single Transferable Vote - completely wrong as usual with NF. Whittaker said he investigated this and confirmed Farage's erroneous view. Clarke seemed to be having apoplexy shouting it was ridiculous as did Zuckerman and the rest. Well look what we have now but Zuckerman uses the ERS!
The whole problem with the Cabal is they do not do their homework. I gave them a fully costed quote from the ERS confirming they could implement any voting system we wanted. This was shouted down and rubbished by the Cabal. Is it any wonder UKIP staggers from crisis to crisis.
Wednesday 4 November 2009
UKIP fiddles while Britain is enslaved
It is a black day for our country following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty followed soon after by the betrayal of the quisling Cameron and his Tory henchmen. But what did our noble UKIP MEPs do to oppose this Treaty? Nothing, they were to busy on the EU gravy train doing their committee work, giving the EU a legitimacy it does not deserve. You only have to read the ridiculous 800 postings on the Democracy Forum by Croucher, Septic and McTrough on the subject of John West's expenses of probably less than £500 to realise how far they are prepared to go to avoid discussion of the major issues affecting all of us. Its the politics of spin gone mad.
Will things change with a new leader? Possibly but noticeably none of the candidates have said if elected they will immediately replace Farage's placeman Nuttall as party chairman so I am not optimistic. I expect the UKIP masses to vote in Lord Pearson despite his crass blunders in the media this last week, his ignorance of how UKIP works and his hesitant and faltering speech delivery.
I am increasingly impressed by Nikki Sinclaire. She is well organised and puts her money where her mouth is unlike most UKIP MEPs. I am grateful to her for pointing out the code of conduct for UKIP MEPs, agreed in Jan 99 by UKIP NEC as a precondition for UKIP MEPs going to Brussels. I quote from this document by Michael Harvey and George Franklin-Ryan dated January 1999.
"The NEC has stated that MEPs will donate some or all of their salary to party funds.
1. The exact amount or percentage should be agreed with each individual prospective MEP before they are adopted.
2. It would also be sensible to agree at the outset how any substantial increase in MEP's salary is to be allocated.
3. All agreements shall be in writing.
4. Since personal income is a private matter, public disclosure of these arrangements should be subject to the express agreemnt of individual candidates, although an argument could be made for sisclosing the minimum amount/percentage of donations."
The general tenor of the above shows how far the moral standards of UKIP have sunk from its earlier days when it was a party for patriots to now, when it is a party at the top dominated by a Cabal of third rate political careerists. Bring back our old standards!
The trial of Tom Wise and his assistant continues and is scheduled to last 3 weeks! I gather Farage will be called as a prosecution witness. I hope Wise's defence team have done their research on Farage's numerous media statements on this subject thoroughly!
Meanwhile Griffin seems to have got himself on the right side of a court case for once something UKIP seem to have a problem doing.
I will attend the Exeter hustings tonight to listen to the leadership candidates in person.
Will things change with a new leader? Possibly but noticeably none of the candidates have said if elected they will immediately replace Farage's placeman Nuttall as party chairman so I am not optimistic. I expect the UKIP masses to vote in Lord Pearson despite his crass blunders in the media this last week, his ignorance of how UKIP works and his hesitant and faltering speech delivery.
I am increasingly impressed by Nikki Sinclaire. She is well organised and puts her money where her mouth is unlike most UKIP MEPs. I am grateful to her for pointing out the code of conduct for UKIP MEPs, agreed in Jan 99 by UKIP NEC as a precondition for UKIP MEPs going to Brussels. I quote from this document by Michael Harvey and George Franklin-Ryan dated January 1999.
"The NEC has stated that MEPs will donate some or all of their salary to party funds.
1. The exact amount or percentage should be agreed with each individual prospective MEP before they are adopted.
2. It would also be sensible to agree at the outset how any substantial increase in MEP's salary is to be allocated.
3. All agreements shall be in writing.
4. Since personal income is a private matter, public disclosure of these arrangements should be subject to the express agreemnt of individual candidates, although an argument could be made for sisclosing the minimum amount/percentage of donations."
The general tenor of the above shows how far the moral standards of UKIP have sunk from its earlier days when it was a party for patriots to now, when it is a party at the top dominated by a Cabal of third rate political careerists. Bring back our old standards!
The trial of Tom Wise and his assistant continues and is scheduled to last 3 weeks! I gather Farage will be called as a prosecution witness. I hope Wise's defence team have done their research on Farage's numerous media statements on this subject thoroughly!
Meanwhile Griffin seems to have got himself on the right side of a court case for once something UKIP seem to have a problem doing.
I will attend the Exeter hustings tonight to listen to the leadership candidates in person.
Monday 2 November 2009
UKIP's Leadership Contenders
I watched the video clips Roddy kindly put up of 4 of the leadership hopefuls. Nattrass was not there ad wont be there at Exeter I gather. All four are patently honest and sincere which makes a welcome change. All raised some good points and all have clear weaknesses.
Pearson was the most disappointing. He speaks poorly and hesitantly. He clearly has little inclination to build from the grassroots but worse he uses intemperate language on sensitive issues. The media already have enough from his own mouth to crucify him. He carries a lot of baggage as a Thatcher appointee so he has huge downside risk.
Batten spoke well but lacks passion. He has a bad record of caving in under Farage pressure.
Alan Wood also spoke quite well. He wants to build from the grassroots and recognises the need for an urgent UKIP policy rethink. Bannerman has really made a complete dog's dinner of UKIP policy. Alan will stand up to Farage and the Cabal.
Nikki also spoke well. She is clearly prepared to do what is needed to build a grassroots organisation. Her expenses are published and she gives a lot of her salary to UKIP and quite rightly so! She also will not take any nonsense from Farage and his Cabal.
The most disappointing aspect was they all want to continue with Farage as UKIP's main spokesman. This is worrying. Farage is not a great media performer by other party standards and he comes across a bit like a used car salesman. All four of these candidates are devaluing themselves in this respect. Their strong point is their patent honesty and sincerity that I think will resonate well with a UK public sick of professional politicians.
Personally I would prefer Alan Wood or Nikki.
Pearson was the most disappointing. He speaks poorly and hesitantly. He clearly has little inclination to build from the grassroots but worse he uses intemperate language on sensitive issues. The media already have enough from his own mouth to crucify him. He carries a lot of baggage as a Thatcher appointee so he has huge downside risk.
Batten spoke well but lacks passion. He has a bad record of caving in under Farage pressure.
Alan Wood also spoke quite well. He wants to build from the grassroots and recognises the need for an urgent UKIP policy rethink. Bannerman has really made a complete dog's dinner of UKIP policy. Alan will stand up to Farage and the Cabal.
Nikki also spoke well. She is clearly prepared to do what is needed to build a grassroots organisation. Her expenses are published and she gives a lot of her salary to UKIP and quite rightly so! She also will not take any nonsense from Farage and his Cabal.
The most disappointing aspect was they all want to continue with Farage as UKIP's main spokesman. This is worrying. Farage is not a great media performer by other party standards and he comes across a bit like a used car salesman. All four of these candidates are devaluing themselves in this respect. Their strong point is their patent honesty and sincerity that I think will resonate well with a UK public sick of professional politicians.
Personally I would prefer Alan Wood or Nikki.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)