Farage Attacks Own People

[FredPuli43]

Nigel Farage has lashed out at the “Walter Mittys” damaging UKIP as he warned the party’s candidates that they must show more discipline before a series of crucial tests at the ballot box. In an interview with The Times, the UKIP leader admitted that the party had “got it wrong” in the past and allowed in some people who had proved to be “disappointments”. “It’s very natural that a newish party will attract all sorts of people,” he said, admitting that it had not always succeeded in screening out “Walter Mittys seeking a role in politics which, in the end, they will let down not just us but themselves with”. The party was confronted with widespread ridicule this month [The Times]

Is he too late? Why is the Party still doing well in the polls?

[Gromit]

UKiP does not have a huge member base or party aperatus. And it does not have a proper command structure. In its haste to fill as many seats as possible with candidates, it did not fully check out properly applicants and as a result a few unsuitable people were accepted.

There isn't a lot they can do about that until the party grows. Farage can only apologise when one of the loonies makes a gaffe.

UKiP are doing quite well because the EU is an easy target for politicians to blame. And some people think that being a member of the EU means we are being ruled by foreigners.

[jno]

... even though one of the foreigners ruling us is Nigel Farage.

[ChillDoubt]

Is he too late? Why is the Party still doing well in the polls?
---------------------------
I'd hazard a guess that the electorate are:

1. Impressed that a politician is so openly honest and forthright as to admit the party's past mistakes/errors and is willing to say so in public, as well as vow to correct them.

2. That the other main parties are terrified because a fair few of said electorate can identify with such a character and possibly concur with more than 50% of his party's current manifesto.

[Gromit]

Chill,
The public do not know 50% of UKiPs manifesto. Even Farage didn't know half of what was in there when he was interviewed by Andrew Neil the other day.

[jno]

CD, remember that if he says "our policies were rubbish", he's effectively saying "so you must have been mad if you voted for us", which is not exactly a good way to keep past supporters happy. He is in effect trying to lose lunatic fringe voters in order to look more attractive to the mainstream.

[mikey4444]

But UKIP isn't doing very well in the Polls Fred. They are doing very badly indeed. See below ::

http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

Here is another, this time from YouGov ::

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/pvdphqk6nw/YG-Archive-Pol-Sun-results-230114.pdf

There is no Poll anywhere I can find that gives UKIP any chance whatsoever of gaining a majority of seats in Parliament.

Its all talk and no action.

I am on record here as ridiculing UKIP and I shall continue to do so when the opportunity presents itself. But I have to admit to feeling a trifle sorry for Farage. He has surrounded himself with some very flaky people, most of which are as mad as a box of frogs, and he only has himself to blame. Being in charge of UKIP must be akin to herding cats. Only last week he admitted that the Manifesto that he fought under in 2010 was "drivel"...his word not mine. What Leader of any political Party is going to expect to do well in a forthcoming Election, when he has just admitted such a thing ?

UKIP are providing us with some much-needed comedic relief and they might take some votes away from other Parties, mostly Tory. But that is as far as it goes.

[youngmafbog]

Mickey

You seem to have conveniently missed this poll in your own favoutite lefty rag

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-cut-labour-lead-to-just-one-point-in-latest-comres-poll-9089044.html

UKIP up four points at the expense of labour !!!

I would suggest you labour supporters be aware of UKIP as much as us Tories. They aer not a party to be ridiculed, they aer in their infancy and if Farage gets his house in order he could make big in roads.

[DrFilth]

to be honest if we had one standing near me i was thinking of voting for them as labour are getting as bad as the other scum that was until xmas time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529489/Tally-ho-ho-ho-Thousands-gather-watch-traditional-Boxing-Day-hunt-riders-hounds-parade-country.html

[naomi24]

jno, //... even though one of the foreigners ruling us is Nigel Farage. //

How come? He was born in Kent and educated in London.

[jno]

he's an MEP, naomi, a member of the dreaded "foreign" parliament.

[naomi24]

Oh, right.

[youngmafbog]

jno is hinting at MEP I think.

Not quite the same as the real ruling that comes in the form of diktats out of Bruxelles driven by Germany.

[naomi24]

Indeed.

[FredPuli43]

Mikey , I wasn't thinking of a general election as a measure of doing well in "the polls". I was thinking that 12 (from one of your links) or 14 per cent of voting intention (from the latest opinion poll) was doing well. It's certainly better than the LibDems at around 8 per cent !

Of course, this is of no help unless there is a big percentage in one seat. As it is, UKIP won't win any seats in a general election. (Perhaps we should call them New KIP, after their leader rejected previous policies and started trying to widen the party's appeal)

[mikey4444]

Of course you are right Fred. Being "being ahead in the Polls" means nothing unless it can or will be converted into seats at Westminster. I was merely pointing out that in the big picture, UKIP just don't really count one way or another.

If there are people on AB that think that UKIP can assume control of the House of Commons, in the near or medium future, based on their current total of zero MPs, perhaps they had better look again at the arithmetic involved and have another think.

[mikey4444]

DrFilth...a picture of Farage, with a pint in his hand ? Well, what a novelty that is !

[jno]

a Ukip donor has been speaking out about sodomy

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/28/ukip-donor-telegraph-advert-sodomy-crime-libby-purves

He's no longer anything to do with us, say Ukip, not since he denounced women in trousers.

[naomi24]

jno, That’s misleading. He also made it clear that he is no longer associated with the party. Your link is of no relevance to this thread.

[jno]

I haven't seen anything to say he has distanced itself from the party, only that the party has distanced itself from him, as I said. His views have not changed since he gave them money last year. Have they given it back, I wonder?

[jim360]

From the Guardian article:

[A spokesman] said when UKIP "publicly opposed the crazy female trouser-wearing comments made by Marchessini last year he made it absolutely abundantly clear that he is no longer associated with the party at all". [My italics]

I don't agree that UKIP is insignificant -- even if they end up winning no seats, there is always the "spoiler effect" that could hurt whoever is in control of a particular seat. Mainstream political parties are, surely, much harder to trust no than ever before, and while we might not see too many changes in overall seat numbers it's easy to imagine incumbent MPs being hit hard by a swing towards UKIP, letting the second runner in instead. UKIP could win no seats at all and still have lots of influence on which MPs we send to the Commons and which we end up voting out.

In a sense I'm hopeful that UKIP does do very well, so long as the party continues to get rid of the considerably large number of nutters it's picked up. The party surely represents a legitimate position in Politics, and even a couple of MPs might make the main parties stop, think again, and sort themselves out -- which can only be a good thing.