Well, it’s not far off the pantomime season and UKIP has certainly been writing the script for a Bramah production. They say a good story should have a beginning, a middle and an end – so should a good pantomime.
It looks as though finally it will be Paul Nuttall offering the shiny new vision for a rejuvenated UKIP relevant to the new role of independence after Brexit, which I assume in whatever battered guise will surely come, leaving Nigel to continue to find hidden goodies in his box of magic tricks which will keep Magpie May’s toes warm, directed to total/complete/hard Brexit.
So it’s for Paul to complete the story … I know one shouldn`t mix metaphors and perhaps even mix plays, but I’ll bet at the moment his thoughts go something like “A Policy, a Policy, my Leadership for a Policy!”
Perhaps some of you may remember the last visit to these shores of the current US President and his never to be forgotten stricture that we would go to the end of the queue (or line) in negotiating a trade agreement with his country, and his further advice that we should “Get back in our Box”- the box that was the “EU Care Home for Failed European Nations”. Can you remember the simpering, treacherous Cameron standing there and mentally ticking off each ‘fear’ as Obama enunciated it, as per the agenda they had scripted in collusion prior to that press conference?
Perhaps some of you will remember also the reason for this surprising and unfortunate intervention by a foreign statesman who should have known better than to trespass on another nation’s affairs, especially one with which there is supposedly “a Special Relationship”. Anyway, he did it. Why did he do it?
Apart from the USA’s psychotic problem with once having been a colony of this, our nation, we had dared to think we could throw off our shackles of the perfidious EU and resume our relationship with the Commonwealth. Whether or not one still calls it the British Commonwealth, it is “our” Commonwealth – many members of which are kith and kin or their descendants, and many of whom have actually given blood or their lives in two World Wars and other actions involving their “mother” country. In the perception of this vainglorious Mr. Obama (whose wife seemed to have a problem in keeping her hands off our Queen) we were about to step back onto the world stage – his patch! I’m sure running through the mind of this “exceptional” President, head of an exclusive and “exceptional” nation, was the phrase “there ain’t room for the both of us on this planet”, or words to that effect.
In condemning us back to the barracks of the EU box, as well as placing us at the end of the line in many other aspects, he would be aware that it was the EU dream to relieve us of our permanent seat on the security council and take up the position themselves, which in effect would prevent our ever emerging as a truly independent nation ever again.
So as for an UKIP policy Mr Nuttall – it’s the Commonwealth!
I would say our prime purpose must be to reset our trading relationship with this enormous global body. As a cohesive trading block it must offer a much larger populace and wider organisation than does the EU.
When I say “organisation” I see it as “integrated” where each nation offers “Commonwealth Preference” across the whole Commonwealth – not as previously “Empire Preference” where the inference was that we represented the hub of the Empire, and designed to further the mother country’s war effort. In effect each member of the organisation would be its own hub.
As well as trade with and amongst the Commonwealth, we must facilitate trade by the Commonwealth with other interested developing nations. We can no longer allow the dead hand of the totalitarianesque EUs’ thoughts, methods and institutions to stifle our international get up and go, nor be such a drag on enterprise through association with a body that refuses to recognise the eventual failure of the Euro nor recognise that with that demise the body of the EU was also fatally wounded and would implode, despite constantly throwing non-existent money at it.
Finally one big task for UKIP: I don`t know whether it should be in Paul or Nigel`s brief, but the EU has got to be excised from the warp and weft of national life!
Children have been taught they are “Children of the EU” – that has got to go, as has “EU think” from the body politic, the law, local government, the services, the NHS, the universities etc. Root and branch it has to be chopped out!
I would like to see an Implementation Commission and Tsar and even Truth Tribunals.
This is a cancer that has been insidiously and malevolently infused into our very being for over 40 years – we cannot just “hope” it will fade or go away! It is a cancer that has to be cut out.
I don`t see why this cannot be enacted, since we already have such a movement for installing “Diversity”!
Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office 
So the Commonwealth is Toxic,
Please forgive me for mentioning it, but ever since I joined UKIP in 2009 resumption of relations with the Commonwealth and “righting the wrong” perpetrated on the Commonwealth by our accession to the EU was a cornerstone of UKIP “ideology”
That there appears to be so little (NIL) enthusiasm to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to harness the now “free” USA to us and our bounteous Commonwealth is personally aggravating to me and in my opinion another example of UKIP navel gazing, along with the missed opportunity to fill the vacuum left in the UK political pantomime.
If we have truly shed the Commonwealth then I am ashamed- in my opinion it was those roots that led Obama to go over the top, interfere in our BRexit referendum and in fact contributed to our success – I don`t say it was the only reason, but one of the primary ones.
Dee,
I appreciate JRE seems to have his drawbacks but, the very least you can say, is that he wants the party to continue in the direction that Nigel steered it.
With the other two (plus Carswell) we can say goodbye to the party as we knew it. Surely, we don’t want a party that may pick up a few more parliamentary seats in the short term but, by doing so, has abandoned its core beliefs?
You say you hope it works for UKIP but I don’t, because I know it won’t last. Look what eventually happened to the LibDems who used to adopt different policies depending on which part of the country they were campaigning. They were eventually found out, as I am sure UKIP would be.
So I hope you will vote for JRE, in the expectation he will ‘do a Trump’, but if he doesn’t I think we’d have to look to this new set-up for policies we can relate to.
Having said all that, though, what about the opposition at the top that JRE will face if he does win? Oh, crikey, I give up!
I will, don’t worry, he’s the only hope.
I meant that I hope it’s the party those that support Paul Nuttall want, if he wins – I dont think it will last either, as the membership will dwindle. But there may be short term benefits which would see us through Brexit – which I think, after Trump, will probably be achieved by May anyway, and it would be criminal to leave Britain with no alternate choice at all at the next GE. So with Paul, we will probably get Brexit, and some seats in Westminster, but Brexit is not the answer to the danger that Britan is in from Islamisation, is it? And we know that seriously tackling Islam’s hold in Britain will result in UKIP being called toxic once more. Suzanne definitely doesn’t want that, I have no idea what Paul wants, but if it’s unity, then that goes for him too.
But I firmly believe that many in the country want it tackled, as well as immigration.
If we get a new NEC hopefully they may be more willing to listen to members wishes, so JR-E might get support.
He seems to have inspired those he has met – and he will and must be getting better at speaking – he takes ages to give an answer because he wants to be precise – on his website his answer to is UKIP racist took far too long! But his heart is in the right place and he wants to listen to members.
At this point all any of us can do is vote for the candidate who we hope will give us the UKIP we want, and see how the cards fall. Don’t give up yet!
I’ve just looked at his response on racism.
Over 7 minutes to dismiss something he could have done in about 30 seconds. He’ll have to be more precise on Question Time!
I’m trying not to give up hope!
For one thing JRE can’t possibly win. for another I DON’T want us to continue in the same direction. We had the referendum, we won, we will leave the EU and even now, before we trigger Brexit, we live in a different country. You want to be part of a protest group, I want to be part of a grown up party able to offer a raft of policies better than those available elsewhere. This requires some change, perfectly possible without giving up our core principals.
What does deeply worry me is that whichever minority is disappointed at our leadership election result will run off and try to do their own thing in a fit of pique. That’s exactly what the establishment are hoping for,
will destroy years of hard work and guarantee a Tory (anti Brexit) majority for the foreseeable future.
We need to stay together or we will have won the battle but lost the war.
Well, I hope, then, you don’t run off in a fit of pique if the candidate who you say can’t possibly win (even before a vote has been cast) does, in fact, win.
Obviously, you’re entitled to say that you don’t want us to continue in the same direction. Other members are perfectly entitled to decide if the party is any longer one they wish to support.
By the way, there were some replies to your posting on the Wednesday News Review thread, which I note you haven’t responded to.
Paul,
Unfortunately, I think you may be right about UKIP splitting if we do not all get round our new leader who is likely to be PN. As long as he and we do stick to our core principals but modernize the party at the same time, what’s the problem?
I also agree that we could remain a protest group with absolutely no chance of any forthcoming power of changing things and thus having any real influence on government policies.
We should stop comparing ourselves to America, our politics is very different and I cannot see us storming into power as some are suggesting, unless we learn to play by the rules to some degree. It may be the game that some do not want to play but that is the way it is, and you have got to start somewhere, once you have a foot in the door then you are in a position to change things.
It is a case of being realistic.
Paul, you probably won’t see this as its now tomorrow, but I shall stick with UKIP and see what happens.
I don’t want a protest group, but I want a party offering alternatives which were, but are no longer, radical . I feel you are underestimating the wind of change and the fact that Trump won, as UKIP won Brexit, by daring to offer that radical alternative. We need a raft of policies, but we absolutely must take on the threat of Islam in Britain, and offer a different direction, and that will cause waves because the Globalists are fighting a dirty last ditch fight.
Vision is what we need, and at the moment none is being offered.
Finally, from what was a promising array of candidates we have been left with Hobson’s choice (who was Hobson?) which is not, repeat not the fault of members.
Graham, I agree with every word you write. I hope we are both wrong, but I think it is a tragedy that UKIP, or rather those who decide policy direction in UKIP, (I think a great many ordinary members are in despair) have decided that we must be forced to embrace the ‘unity’ which got us into trouble in the first place. Because, frankly, who can we vote for?
I have tried to get excited about John Rees-Evans, because he is young, energetic, wants a democratic party and at least has policies, though on reform of UKIP I can only find democracy – but he is traveling round the country taking questions, so he may have some ideas that I haven’t heard. Try as I might, just can’t see him as a charismatic whirlwind of a Leader – although far more so than Paul Nuttall or Suzanne Evans!
All the hard work by members over the years to get UKIP where it was, bold, radical, unafraid, all thrown away in persuit of unity.
You are right, I think. Nigel gave us UKIP – or rather he left UKIP in what he thought were the safe hands of his Deputy, and he has seen, first that his Deputy left the field, and left the party rudderless and directionless when it mattered most, and second that he has now, late in the day, returned intending to lead a party that apparently wants to embrace those whose stated aims are to ensure that UKIP is no longer toxic. Nigel has given up.
I hope it works for UKIP, I really do, I hope they will be bold. As you say, the radical policies so needed are in plain sight, and there is little time to grasp the nettle.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, one Tory I respect, said today that Trump offered the people an optimistic vision for the future. Where is UKIP’s?
The EU is quite capable of destroying itself but we need, along with our like-minded friends in Europe, to help it on its way at every opportunity.
I’m really sorry to write this, but rather than refer to the panto season the author should cast his eyes across the ocean at what just happened in the US, and what is happening in Europe. The commonwealth is all very nice, but the US is where the money is. Also, there are many European countries where populism is no the rise. UKIP needs a broader vision for its purpose, broader than identifying a trade partner. The purpose should be populism. The Liblabcon cannot deliver populist, nativist policies. Brexit is simply a necessary stage 1 in rescuing our country from 40 years of left wing policy enforced on it by liberal elites. We should be representing the common sense of ordinary people and be radical like Trump in putting these policies forward. Indeed, radical like Nigel, but I am afraid it is pretty clear that Nigel has abandoned UKIP and is setting up his own party/five-star movement with Banks and Kassem. I think their idea is to leave UKIP in the hands of PN to be embraced by DC/SE in a vain attempt to turn it into a centrist confusion. The lesson of Trump is that you have to radicalise your base with radical policy (not hard to do in the case of the UK if you look at any demographic forecast and the boldness of muslim activists who openly proselytise on our streets) and don’t be like the established republicans in embracing the left and compromising to it (the photo of George W Bush being embraced by Michelle Obama like a child so represents what happened to the republicans that repulsed Trump voters). We need a radical UKIP, which can radicalise and mobilise a base of fighters to take our country back!
Very well said, Sir. I wonder if anyone sitting on the UKIP High Table is willing to listen.