Will #UKIP Survive the leadership battle?
One of the biggest problems I have seen in UKIP over the years has been the members blind loyalty to certain individuals in the party and they certainly do not seem to put very much thought into who they elect to certain roles. The NEC is only as bad as it is because the members simply voted the wrong people onto it and that was probably due to the fact that most members only voted on what they read about each candidate in the UKIP magazine just before the election. Rob McWhirter, is a prime example, not only does he not live in Britain, he doesn’t even live in the EU, he lives in Switzerland and yet a member of the NEC of the most anti-EU party in Britain, as Nigel likes to say, you really couldn’t make it up.
I remember a long time ago pointing out that Suzanne Evans was a career politician only interested in her own self interests, the type of politician that UKIP were so adamantly against and at the time I received a lot of flak from the Blind Loyalty gang and now it has to be blatantly obvious I was right as most of the party seem to want her and her boss Carswell out, “Told you so” seems to be a very common phrase of mine of late. Now I am getting the same kind of flak because of my concerns about Diane James and yet they are genuine concerns. I seriously do not think that she is the right person to lead UKIP and to be honest if she said good morning to me I would seriously consider donning my PJ’s and calling it a night.
But before you fly off the handle I don’t base that on her as a person but simply because of what I have seen for myself over the years. I recall at the Eastleigh campaign in 2013, UKIP had rented a shop and Diane made her first appearance to go walkabout with Nigel campaigning, someone handed her a UKIP rosette to put on, which she proudly pined to her cardigan and then stood up and put her coat on over the top of it. Admittedly that could have been down to nerves but did make me think at the time, God help us. Anyway it was a close call at the end and we were only just beaten by the LibDems and I have always thought that with a better candidate or even Nigel himself we would have won that seat. There were many in the party not happy with the fact that she was at the time of her selection an Independent candidate in Waverley even though she was a member of UKIP and a lot of people in Waverley were somewhat confused about their independent Councillor suddenly announcing she was standing as a UKIP candidate in Eastleigh, which probably cost her, her Council seat in 2015 and on top of that some people in Eastleigh were talking about her past indiscretions, which is why when she stated she had no skeletons, I knew she was not being entirely honest. However, private lives and political lives should remain separate entities really.
A UKIP member at the time use to call the likes of Diane James, Suzanne Evans, etc NARPs (Newly Arrived, Rapidly Promoted) and was quite vocal about it on the old UKIP forum and as much as Nigel is a great bloke, one of of major downfalls has always been picking the wrong people around him, as we have all seen over the years. But for those of you who think I am totally wrong about Diane James and feel she would make a great leader, ask yourself this, what has she actually achieved from being pushed to the forefront of UKIP? She failed to get elected in Eastleigh, She failed to win her own council seat back in Waverley in 2015 when she refused to stand as an MP for UKIP. Yes she became an MEP in 2014 but that is only because her name was on the ballot paper, people voted for UKIP not the person and her record in parliament isn’t actually brilliant. VoteWatch figures says she has asked 1 parliamentary question since 2014, Bill Etheridge has asked 33 and he actually did manage to get elected as a UKIP councillor as well. So I do hope people are not saying she would make a great leader based on her actual performance because its not actually that good really.
Another thing that really does stick in my claw is the timing of her entry into this Leadership battle, just 15 hours before the deadline, emails were being sent out to get nominations for Diane James, apparently she managed to get her application in just 17 minutes before it ended, however that was still before Steven Woolfe had been supposedly too late getting his application in. Now even the most ardent DJ fans must agree that if it had been down to a leadership contest between Steven Woolfe and Diane James, Steven would have walked it, so what made her suddenly change her mind at the last minute to stand. Also the fact that she would not debate with the other candidates stating that it was a free for all, she had no intention of getting involved in. Another lie, because the Hustings rules clearly stipulate that personal attacks on other candidates are forbidden. To me it seems that she is simply doing the bidding of whoever is funding her one woman campaign so I do not seriously believe that voting for Diane James will actually get Diane James but a party controlled by an unknown backer and I do not think that is really in UKIP’s best interest.
I personally believe that Bill Etheridge will put together the best team to take UKIP forward and I do know he is definitely UKIP through and through. It will take a good team for UKIP to survive and Bill has always gotten on well with some of the best people in UKIP, he has also stated that he would reintroduce the old UKIP forum to give the members a voice within the party and that gap between hierarchy and branches most certainly does need closing. I was one of the top commentators on the UKIP forum and it was a mistake to close it down because it kept members and branches connected right across the country.
I guess it really comes down to whether the members want UKIP to remain being UKIP or become a completely different party using the same name, because that is what I fear you will get with Diane James as leader.
Just some food for thought for you Kippers, written because even though I am no longer a member of the party myself, I would hate for all the hard work that I and so many others did put into the party, to be all for nothing in the end.
