I started to write a response to the excellent article by ‘flyer’ in Thursday’s (28th June 2018) UKIP Daily, but it got a bit lengthy.
And I also felt a reluctance to say what I feel must be said, but in so doing inevitably undermines UKIP Daily, of which I am enthusiastic supporter.
I am afraid that Gerard’s “red alert” for an imminent election, followed by a vacuum, is depressing. A call to arms with an obvious worthy cause but without the leadership to make effective use of the willing volunteers sadly reminds me of WWI: troops being sent over the top to perish for lack of knowing what else to do. And that on a day when England are taking on Belgium! (Not exactly the right analogy, but I hope you get the whimsical point).
So, where do we go?
Presumably UKIP needs a lot of money to set up and man the Party web site that we desperately need. The only other option I can think of is to amalgamate the available online resources, at least for the time being [Ed: UKIP Daily is already doing so as far as possible, with those who don’t shun us because we’re UKIP.]. But if we do not do much better and soon there will be no UKIP future to worry about.
There are plenty of voices arguing in their own way from their own perspective to achieve the BREXIT won by the Leave vote in the Referendum. There are examples from history about the success of previous very well support campaigns, such as “Ban the Bomb” and against the war in Iraq – nothing.
By contrast, UKIP achieved far more with far less support pushing the Government into offering a referendum on a contentious subject. They did this because they felt threatened at the ballot box.
All of us, the electorate, should place this in the forefront of our minds.
All the campaigning groups should realise that their efforts, no matter how worthy, extensive or popular, will count for nothing if the Government chooses to ignore them. Government’s view is not on the merits of the case but the effect on number of votes cast.
UKIP is uniquely well placed as the only credible alternative to voting Con/Lab/Lib. This should put UKIP in an excellent position to exploit the desires of BREXIT campaigners and there by force the Government to deliver a “true” BREXIT or loose a damaging number of votes. But at the moment there is no coherence between BREXIT campaigners’ wishes and the political Party that offers the best prospect of those wishes being fulfilled.
And this is not going to change unless UKIP makes it change. To change, UKIP has to be active and seen to be pushing the BREXIT case continuously in every aspect every day. This requires, at least, a thoroughly professional website that is the go-to place for BREXIT news and information. ALL Brexit campaign groups must feel that the best way to get their arguments in front of the Public is for them to be featured and remain readily accessible on the UKIP web site.
When this happens the MSM then cannot but recognise that UKIP is again a force to be reckoned with, and a Party which they must cover in their reporting. This in turn will increase UKIP credibility as a Party worth of your vote. Even negative MSM reporting can have a positive consequence, for people empathetic to the UKIP message will see the Party is back as an electoral force worthy of their vote irrespective of the biased presentation.
As to what voting UKIP can achieve, well there is no prospect of UKIP forming the next Government but that is not the point. UKIP can change the balance of power in various ways. For instance, a handful of UKIP MPs could hold the balance of power, rather as currently in the Commons. Further, the greater the “popular” UKIP vote the greater the prospect Conservative and Labour MPs would join UKIP: after all, Churchill once left the Conservative benches and joined the Liberals.
However, I would caution on the prospects of UKIP popularity. It is vital that the Party, and all speaking on behalf of the Party, present a united and coherent front. There will be only one issue of significance, BREXIT. For now everything else is of minor relevance; disagreement on minor issues will simply be an unhelpful distraction. Having won, eventually, on BREXIT, UKIP will then be very well placed to push on as a credible political party.
For me UKIP are the one and only common sense middle-ground party in the UK. Great things could be possible. Lead on!
May I make so bold as to suggest that only when and until UKIP begin majoring in public discourse on Barcelona and Marrakech will I believe that they have any intention of becoming a true alternative to the LibLabCON or indeed are concerned with anything other than posturing.
“…present a united and coherent front”
That seems to me to be a major issue, with one particular branch venturing recently into launching a petition on national policy. I’m not expressing any disagreement with that action, except that it is not currently a priority, but if it were a priority it should have come from HQ.
Branches should only be free to implement policy on local matters; national policy needs to come from the top, agreed at conference as necessary, and respected. As you say UKIP is our only hope and the reason for my joining. We need to work together to ensure that it is battle ready.
Obviously there is work to be done on clarifying our core values and getting the policies out there that will attract the voters. Depending on an outdated election manifesto will not do the job. We must also inspire confidence in voters that a vote for UKIP will not give the advantage to a different opposing party.
-“UKIP is uniquely well placed as the only credible alternative to voting Con/Lab/Lib.”
UKIP is the ONLY alternative to the current Establishment cabal of Conservative/LibDem/Labour. And I suspect the cabal’s tentacles also penetrate the ‘other’ parties such as the Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru.
When it comes to election time, the Establishment will go on the attack, with their lies and smears about UKIP. We will need to hit back, I don’t like to say this but we will also need to play dirty.
The Conservative/Labour/LibDem parties are all different ‘masks’ on the same body, different sides of the same coin. Our campaign literature must not single out any of those parties, it must attack ALL of them. They are all LIARS, they appear to be ‘different’ on the surfaces, with different policies, but notice that NOTHING ever really changes no matter which party is in power?
People have been conned into believing that they have a democratic ‘choice’ at election time. If the Tories are no good, people vote Labour. If Labour are no good, people vote Tory. This mindset (or ‘perception’) is what needs to be challenged amongst ordinary voters. It is always the ‘lesser of two evils’.
And yes, they are all EVIL. They break manifesto pledges. They never follow through on their promises (unless it involves enriching the bank accounts of their buddies). They have nothing but contempt for the “will of the people” – hence the lack of interest in following through on the EU referendum result.
But the ultimate truth is that these politicians are themselves merely puppets, carrying out the orders of their hidden masters, hiding in the shadows, pulling the strings to ensure their ‘agenda’ goes to plan.
UKIP will only do well if it tries NOT to become part of the Establishment, but to rail against it. You only have to look at the low turnout figures at recent elections to understand there is a massive untapped resource of disaffected people, who can’t be bothered to vote because “they’re all the bloody same” or “it doesn’t make a difference who gets in, nothing changes”.
Find a way to reach and engage with the ‘non-voters’ and give them something worth voting for. That’s the only way to end the ‘tyranny of the minority’.
My problem with the assertion that Ukip is the “only credible alternative” to voting libconlab is that Ukip, the Party, does not explain why it is the only credible alternative, and therefore it isn’t.
I have seen nothing which would give the average libconlab voter serious reason to question the integrity of their normal choice and thus even begin to reconsider their voting intention.
Whenever the next election is (and quite how they will get around the Fixed Term Act if there is a snap election, I don’t know), I believe the only issue that matters is not so much Brexit per se as exposing the choice between Patriots or Traitors, and that we are the only credible, patriotic, choice.
Libconlab ARE all sides of the same treacherous, common purpose coin, who’s purpose by the way is not to make things better.
The (Nazi) design purpose of the EU is and always has been, to destroy Europe, it’s nations and cultures. (As Nicholas Ridley once said and was sacked for, “another German racket”).
Political correctness is cultural Marxism.
The Islamic invasion is Kalergi plan in action, deliberately invented to achieve our cultural destruction.
AND THE ACTIONS OF EVERY PARTY SINCE MACMILLAN HAS BEEN TO DELIBERATELY LIE, CONCEAL AND GRADUALLY REEL THE UK IN, BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN.
BOTH GB and David K know this, but will not or cannot raise their strategy to target the main Parties head on and expose their treachery in sufficient terms that will put doubts in the heads of their supporters.
Yes the Party structure is shambolic. Yes there is much that could be done to harness the volunteer talents and goodwill that exists. But while twitter and Facebook are increasingly hearing from people who have finally realised what is happening, and WHY, Ukip doesn’t seem capable of trusting its instincts and raising its game to expose that why.
I saw Nigel speaking a few weeks ago and he came across to me as a classic 1980’s thaterite city boy (as I was until I headed north almost 20 years ago). And yes he’s still a fantastic speaker with incredible political insight but even he cannot make himself sufficiently outspoken to call the political establishment out, and I realised he’s still an unreconstructed Thaterite.
And he clearly doesn’t like ex union man GB.
But in spite of the mosques blaring out, Brexit betrayal, May’s BINO, JRM, etc, etc, I’m still not hearing why Ukip is the only credible alternative……that we are the only patriotic cross-party alliance that doesn’t wish to sell our kids’ futures to a Nazi-Inspired form of European slavery, that our generations have been fool enough to go along with, without realising the true purpose until now, because we hadn’t realised or recognised that the different Parties we used to vote for are all happy to conspire and see our country and culture destroyed.
TGF Ukip daily which gradually opened my eyes.
Alan – I was just remembering why I started to write articles for UKIP Daily. I visited the British Consul before the Brexit referendum and as I hadn’t renewed my British passport they made it very difficult for me to vote.
I decided that if by writing articles I could get one extra person to vote for Brexit, I’d have my vote, two extra people and I was on to a winner, I’m hoping that I may have done even better, I’ll never know.
I’m still following UKIP because it’s still we Brits best chance of gaining a voice and I know from talking to people that millions of Brits are totally p**sed off with the mainstream political parties, they don’t want another one, they want true democracy as they’ve always been promised.
It seems to be a cynical perversion of modern democracy, that by voting for the mainstream parties, we don’t in reality have any good choices and I think people are beginning to realise.
At the time of the last election, the UKIP powers that be, decided that they couldn’t miss a chance to join the possibly lucrative mainstream and well, look what happened. At least Gerard Batten isn’t doing this, I can’t help but feel he needs a bit of help and support though, there are some very talented people that write here a bit of teamwork is required.
As far as the other, so called, Right Wing, patriotic parties are concerned, well, we’re all Brits, perhaps for now and until after a clean Brexit we can just think of ourselves as different regiments in the same army.
Flyer, Hope you did renew your passport successfully.
I don’t think most people accept that by voting for the mainstream parties, they don’t in reality have any good choices.
Quite the opposite the bulk of voters will continue fuelling the C-L-LD-G parties and at the same time turn their nose up at UKIP. I do not however know the numbers-trends against whatever the UK population is now and am not a psephologist.
It is frustrating that the energetic talent here (including even the odd one or two I disagree with ) are not invited to actively work within the UKIP machinery. I would name them, but don’t wish to cause offence by missing some off inadvertently.
“As far as the other, so called, Right Wing, patriotic parties are concerned, well, we’re all Brits,” Sadly the last bye-election demonstrated that UKIP has a lot of work to do.
I agree especially this observation: “UKIP is uniquely well placed as the only credible alternative to voting Con/Lab/Lib. This should put UKIP in an excellent position to exploit the desires of BREXIT campaigners and there by force the Government to deliver a “true” BREXIT or loose a damaging number of votes. But at the moment there is no coherence between BREXIT campaigners’ wishes and the political Party that offers the best prospect of those wishes being fulfilled.” For the time being, leave things as they are no election for a new leader.
UKIP is not just a body to regain UK independence from the EU it is a political party with a well thought out manifesto and has 24 MEPs: “In the 2014 local elections, UKIP won 163 seats, an increase of 128, but did not take control of any council. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, UKIP received the greatest number of votes (27.5%) of any British party, producing 24 MEPs.”
Nigel Farage speaking in the EP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXDeB2fNYqQ I am going to add this link to one of my websites as Nigel is so persuasive.
Having clicked on the “flag” symbol, thinking it must mean “to bookmark”, I got a message telling me that the flag means “to report”, of all things. And it wont let me “unflag”.
So my apologies to the writer, who I certainly would not wish to “report” to anyone.
I daren’t click on the chain symbol – god knows what that does
There is a tag on the flag (at least in my browser) but surprisingly none on the chain.
The party is incapable of reaching out to people and building a management team. See Pat Bryant’s comments in Russell Hick’s article last week, they NEVER make general requests for help or try to identify and talent in the ranks, they only ever look to the people they directly know themselves and ask a friend a favour. Until UKIP becomes professional – i.e. does an audit of the volunteer resources available to it and organises them -then I refuse to do anything. This was the only thing I agreed with JRE on. Can you imagine if in business you only ever hired people who you knew, or were introduced to you by a friend, or who donated money? This is the way UKIP has been, and is, run, regardless of leader. Oh, unless you are a high profile internet star who has never done anything for the party, in which case you get promoted straight to the top of the tree. Oh, and the chairman, who got his job via a QUID pro quo rather than searching for the right person, is now too unwell to do anything. Rome burns.
I do so agree with this analysis. I contacted UKIP headquarters before the referendum to find contact details for my local branch to offer my help. All they could tell me was the name of the ‘chairman’ but no other details. The local website gave no contact details, but did advertise a stall in the town centre one Saturday; I turned up but no one else did! I telephoned HQ again to explain the situation and commented that if this was typical of UKIP organisation, it did not deserve to succeed!
To echo the comment. Can’t remember – at the election or Glorious 23 June, I phoned up the UKIP candidate – name was on the flyer, to offer my services. I phoned twice leaving details and never heard a dicky bird.
BTW how many correct capture codes are needed to get past the Three Headed Dog at the River?
Re Russell Hicks’s “roadshow”, which I really congratulate him on: I didn’t know, till I looked at his poster, about the Barcelona Agreement, This must be about the worst of many betrayals by European politicians , agreeing to the systematic deliberate islamicisation of Europe. Why the hell isn’t this, plus RH’s roadshow, on the ukip.org website? And why is this website so poor?
If its any consolation to RH our local branch will I think be starting a street stall: draft leaflet (which I hope they don’t alter) has a photo of his roadshow and shows how it and the pro- brexit march were blacked out by MSM.
Correction: Barcelona Declaration
Absolutely spot on Tacitus. We need to change it.
OK – agree with the thrust what you say .
Meantime though, a *targeted flyer explaining how to deselect your MP (before the next election) would be a good step forward.
As a scientist, wordsmithing of such a flyer, is not my bag, otherwise I would find out and have a go at it.
A shot across the bows of some of these remoaners might sober them up a little.
*Councillors, MPs themselves, brexit activists and suchlike – feel free to add to the list.
Having had quite a lot of experience with ‘flyers’ of various sorts over the years, my experience is that returns are very very poor, even if these are included with a local ‘news’ free sheet it makes little or no difference.
I don’t wish to be negative, but ‘flyers’ are just a waste of time and effort. Internet, emails, facebook and so on generate far more interest and often that is sporadic.
The advertising industry is finding out the hard way that most hard copy advertising goes unread straight into the trash can.
I’m sure you are right. However what can we do to mobilise people/public to shake the chair these remoaners sit on?
Up to now the remoaners have done whatever they want with no repercussions.
Somehow they must be made to understand there are consequences.to going against the will of the people who gave them their thumping great salary, expenses, house in Londonstan, sinecure positions on banks, and on and on.
(Many of us would steal a Lambo and drive it around if there were no consequences to stealing it!).
This is why I keep stating that a membership drive is needed … to bring in actual new people and funds to be ready for whatever happens in the future
I thought we were already in the middle f a membership drive and it was ne f Gerard Batten
s prime concerns in saving the party and that he had already taken steps t enlist 16000 VATs (Veterans against terrorism ) who were enthusiastically endorsed at an NEC meeting.s the 1000 “within a month” announced in the “1st” UKIP Minutes..Then there
I would also guess there is a fair churn rate going on (i.e those not renewing and just fading away
I agree with you Grumpy – there is no apparent co-ordinated impetus and without new members we die.
You would think that is would be the first thing to do after getting the finances sorted after the Bolton debacle,setting the UKIP stall out for all to see,what the party stands for etc …with more members there would be money for a dedicated web team to coordinate the UKIP message….the added advantage would be that it would put fear into the political elite again,Brexit came about because of that fear …with added impetus what more could be achieved,the opportunity is there to grasp…using all the UKIP sites,affiliates and other pages on Facebook etc we could gain a lot with little effort …well I hope so