A week ago I was hurriedly trying to finish an article before going to our monthly branch meeting. I didn’t quite complete it, but promised Viv I would shortly be able to send across a radical manifesto. So much has happened in the intervening period however, I’ve had to completely rewrite the first part of the article. In fact the article has morphed into a monster which has had to be split across several parts. Please indulge me. I’ve saved the radical manifesto until the end.
‘TNS’ is an abbreviation for “The Next Step”. I borrowed it from the title of a newspaper sold each week by the Revolutionary Communist Party at university and I’m still using it 30 years later. I’m not interested in being in a communist party. I’d quite like to be in a revolutionary party. Instead I’m in UKIP, which hasn’t been anywhere near as revolutionary as I would like it to be in recent months.
Last week I was just about hanging on in here in UKIP. My confidence in the leadership and central organisation was at rock bottom after the previous 9 months, with the public perception of UKIP not far behind. Everyone on this site seemed to be feeling much the same. Paul Nuttall had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Stoke. The press and the public were asking, “What’s the point of UKIP now?” with Teresa May ready to invoke Article 50 and get on with Brexit. The leadership didn’t seem to have a clear message as to where we were going next, despite contributors to this site having some firm opinions. Those running the party just didn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the situation and how let-down people felt.
Instead we got emails from the boy Oakden telling us everything was in hand, with veiled threats to us to stop all this criticism, because it was doing down UKIP. A party which had only received £35K in donations in the last quarter of 2016 and then spent £100K on a disastrous campaign to parachute its leader into parliament, spent several thousand on a mailshot to reassure members that it was solvent, while begging for money – a move both counterproductive in its primary intent and also demonstrating that it still hadn’t moved into the 1990s and the digital age. On top of this, following a terrorist attack on the home of our democracy, our leader circulated a weak and equivocal statement to members.
It would take dramatic turnaround to renew my faith.
Might a new party emerge which is more strident, focused and savvy than UKIP? Sad to say is a supposedly democratic society, any political organisation which is going to speak out on issues such as immigration and Islamisation needs powerful friends. UKIP has got this far partly by having the support and involvement ofmillionaire businessmen, Tory-linked public school educated establishment-connected persons,one or two lords, sympathetic journalists and editors and a high-profile talented spokesman like Nigel Farage who can tread the line between telling the stark truth and still getting invited onto Good Morning Britain. We’ve seen over the last few years what happens to predominantly working class grassroots organisations who try to tackle these issues. They get crushed and demonised. Their leaders are personally destroyed, dragged through the courts, bankrupted and even imprisoned.
I was therefore excited to receive an email on Friday night from Arron Banks announcing the launch of a new movement called the Patriotic Alliance. Could this it be it? The new movement to be the standard-bearer of the Patriotic Spring in the UK? Well-funded, well-organised and with its finger on the pulse of public opinion? I would join in a heartbeat. Sorry Paul but history sometimes only gives you one chance and you blew it.
As I read the detail of the email though, it wasn’t clear whether this was a new party. In fact it wasn’t clear at all what the Patriotic Alliance would be or who else was involved in it. It vaguely said it would assist independent candidates to win seats in Parliament from the most corrupt and negligent MPs. It also talked about an Australian-style points system for immigration into the UK, when anything short of a near-moratorium is totally inappropriate for a country which is now the fourth most densely populated in the world.
Sadly Arron Banks is just another of those factional egotists which UKIP seems to be plagued by. He’s been talking about setting up a party like the Italian M5S for a couple of years. Instead he just creates bad publicity for UKIP. I thoroughly agree that Paul Oakden should go (as he promised he would) and be replaced with someone who can put a professional organisation in, but really Banks should have made his criticism and offer behind the scenes. There’s no way Nuttall could have caved-in publicly. And the claim be had been suspended from the party after not renewing his membership? Arron Banks is a timewaster who hasn’t given UKIP any money since the 2015 general election.
I was overjoyed on Saturday to hear the news that Douglas Carswell had left the party. It’s a shame he was allowed to leave of his own volition, giving him the opportunity to spin it that UKIP had now served its purpose. A case of too little too late methinks. He should have been kicked out of UKIP. Nuttall was trying too hard to be a unifier though to bring him into line. He’s gone now at least. I had been seriously asking myself, “What am I doing in the same party as this man?” I am exactly the kind of Brexiteer who Douglas Carswell joined UKIP to neutralise and support just the kind of populism he wants to avert. There’s an outside chance that he was right that the referendum campaign wouldn’t have been with Nigel Farage leading it. In that case I say, “Thanks Doug. I now intend to use the result as a springboard to usher in exactly the kind of nativist populism you despise.”Anyroad, it seems to have set UKIP free.
On Monday UKIP announced its six tests to prove Brexit means Exit. Nothing to disagree with here.Then I’m reading more reports of UKIP statements in the media. Nuttall is talking of rebranding the party – not top of my list of priorities, but it all helps. Freddy Vacha joined the debate on this site to bring out the nuances of how we approach Islam.
On Tuesday night Paul Oakden has emailed members to say the leadership will work with John Rees-Evans on building our direct democracy credentials – something which several UKIPDaily contributors have been calling for. He produces a good video too. So long as he’s kept away from interviewers, I cautiously welcome this.
Nuttall is promising wide-ranging reforms of the party, its structure and its constitution, along with involving the membership in policy and decision-making. I was astonished to learn that I my place at UKIP’s Environmental Forum in June has been confirmed, despite my history of environmental activism. Hopefully it won’t take until June for us to have a full set of policies.
Could it be true? Could Paul Nuttall and the party leadership final be getting themselves in gear and stepping up to the plate?
To top it all, Teresa May has finally, belatedly invoked Article 50. Hot Dang! Even Johnny Rotten has been praising Brexit.
Seriously though, we’ve got a lot of work to do – and we haven’t done ourselves any favours over the last 9 months to put it mildly.
To borrow a book title from Lenin: ‘What is to be done?’ ….
[To be continued in Part II tomorrow!]
Are we all to assume that the disasters that have befallen UKIP are part of a dastardly plan to sink UKIP by a bunch of Tory plants. If it was it would be easy to stop, plots of this sort have been active across the political spectrum for 100’s years. Labour has one at the moment in its very bowls run by Momentum, 30 odd years ago it was Millitant and before that the SDP. The Tories have had similar plots with the Tory Reform Group and the Monday Club all being guilty of plotting to overthrow the leadership.
In UKIP however it is not a plot but simple downright incompetence. From the refusal of Carswell to understand that his plan to pour mopey into pointless seats was a waste, to the resigning non resigning of Farage two or was it three times. An 18 day leadership under Diane James prefaced by the daft idea that someone guilty of election fraud should run as leader. Then the will I won’t I run of Paul Nuttall, the totally pathetic inability of the likes of Crowther and Oakden now in charge to actually do the job of running the party. The total collapse of candidate numbers in the local elections. Defections first of our only MP toasted by the NEC and recorded with a picture a truly idiotic idea. Then we have Wales which promised so much and has been reduced to a complete shambles because of inaction on behalf of whoever now claims to be in control crowned with the defection of first one AM to a straight independent and now another to the Tory whip in the Welsh Assembly. Anyone who suggests that this is a plot most likely believes that the moon landings were faked and we have fairies at the bottom of the garden. For the record I warned the NEC that Reckless was off in January ! How I have been asked did I know was I told was it part of the conspiracy NO it is down to observation and an ability to put the jigsaw together with out the picture
As long as no one at the UKIP office is raising concerns by having a pot plant…. We don’t want any claims of ‘racism’.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4369316/Council-worker-sues-racial-discrimination-plant.html
Comrade K – you fail to mention the bone idle MEPs. All too many of them do nothing tangible of value, some do not give any financial help to the party.
Most seem to have never ran a system of visits to all Branches in their region nor held surgeries nor helped local businesses.
They have the privilege of high office but shun the public obligation that comes with it – unlike many perhaps most MPs.
I see this said quite a bit in these pages. I can only speak for the Eastern Region wherein the weekly newsletter shows a pretty hefty workload actioned at all times by two of our three reps. Stuart Agnew, particularly, sometimes appears to imitate the Duracell bunny travelling and speaking hither and thither, or chairing committees in Brussels; keeping many plates spinning. Tim Aker does a lot of work on a more local basis cultivating and maintaining a strong and wide voter base in his area. Admittedly O’Flynn appears to have a more personal agenda, never failing to give the impression he is running the party, sucking up to Carswell and the clique, and slyly (he thinks) pushing their agenda. How that will change now will be interesting. I would be interested to hear from folk in other regions how their MEPs come across.
Stuart Agnew and Tim Aker are not bone idle and are exempt from my contempt. Other illustrious names include Jane Collins Roger Helmer and Mike Hookem.
CK, I too am dubious that the Patriotic Alliance will be more than Arron funding individual candidates to stand against ‘unpatriotic’ MP’s. I wait and see, but whether they will stand on a universal policy platform I’m not sure.
Paul was quite good (I bit the bullet and, in spite of opposition from himindoors, turned on Question Time) for the first couple of questions, but disappointingly, fell apart when asked the point of UKIP.
I think it is up to the members, via Direct Democracy (if it ever actually comes off) to wrestle the Leadership in the direction we want it to go. That’s why I am very grateful to J R-E for hanging in there despite being ignored and sidelined. Why keep J R-E away from interviewers, CK? He has, from a dodgy start, become more self assured over time, though possibly still rather too wordy. At least he has convictions, has tempered some of those more extreme ones, and even with the unfortunate Ian Dale Leadership interview and the Gay Donkey, has far less baggage than Paul will always have, post Stoke. The interviewee who never fails to impress me with sticking to his guns, even if his delivery isn’t snappy, is Peter Whittle, who, I think is under rated and could make a splendid leader. Paul Nuttall was, by a large majority, voted in to the Leadership position. I hope he is getting his act together, though I think it was poor advice and poor judgement that meant Carswell was allowed to undermine UKIP for so long. Personally I fear that the damaging exposure, as well as the dreadful leaflet, has meant that UKIP will not be credible during the dirty fighting that will go on during the next election, under his Leadership. I take no pleasure in saying it, but it’s what I think.
Arron Banks; plan does sound limited at first sight but a robust policy platform explaining the opposition to some MPs and lots of campaigning could generate a lot of steam. He won’t want to waste his money so I doubt he’s planning hardly noticeable token opposition candidates. But we must see.
Hi Dee
Yes, I know I was being a bit cheeky with that comment about John Rees-Evans when I know he has some stalwart supporters on this site. There’s another in tomorrow’s article. I may ask Viv to take that out. We’ll see.
I have to say, when I met JRE, I found him to be a perfectly nice and personable guy – a little eccentric and other-worldly though. His lifestyle and outlook are far removed from many of the people we’re trying to appeal to and he did seen somewhat naive and unaware of typical political attitudes & allegiances in the UK. In some ways this is refreshing and he doesn’t look at things through the same paradigm. I do think though he could easily put his foot in it. I had conversation with him about how he home-schools his schoolchildren and corporate punishment and my wife & I still have a standing joke about the horse-whip.
I’ve only seen him interviewed once on TV and they just seemed bemused. I do think an aggressive interviewer could easily make him look like an odd character and it would be very embarrassing for the party.
Here in South Wales we see very little of him, except when he pops up promote himself.
CK – I personally think JR-E is great, but I do agree he could seem a little off the wall to some – to me, and to lots of young people, that might be some of his undoubted appeal. He has been working on the DD thing, I think that’s why you haven’t seen much of him recently anyway. His other appeal for me is that he understands just how crucial UKIP still should be for this country. Please don’t delete anything in tomorrows article – every view is valid, and yours are always very much so! Can I just say there’s whacky as in J R-E’s approach, and then there’s whacky as in pantomime ugly sisters as…in Stoke? More embarrassment we can do without, so perhaps he should be Our on-line presence, where he will shine, although he does, I think, have leadership qualities that probably need honing!
Someone who has impressed me, to my surprise, every time I’ve seen him, and outshines Nuttall imo is Peter Whittle – he needs to be front and centre. Please leave the next article as is, though!
“Nuttall is promising wide-ranging reforms of the party…”
Bit late in the day for that; those reformd should have taken place before Dr. Tomas Slivnik felt it necessary to resign. I wonder if they reforms will be based on the ones suggested by Ray Catlin (https://therightwaycampaign.wordpress.com/) following that event?
It would not be a bad stareting point.
In hindsight it would have been better for the party to have had a caretaker leader for say six months. During that time to review all policies to work out what direction the members want the party to go in. Then hold the leadership contest, with the clear requirement to select someone who could steer the party in the direction of those policies.
To be fair to Paul Nuttall, his chasing after the Muslim vote in Stoke was a direct effect of the bad policy direction put in place two years previously. Specifically on 13th April 2015 when the humane policy was reversed, and the party became pro-Halal and pro-Kosher presumably under pressure from the religious lobby.
Appeasement never works. You just postpone the day that you become crocodile food. If the two Pauls and the NEC can reverse this disastrous policy it would go a long way to regaining the trust of the members. See all the comments below the article by Ian Kealey and myself: …
If it is any consolation the Labour party should also have spent six months working out their policy direction before holding their leadership contest. Now they are utterly stuck with Corbyn.
I do not think that UKIP is in anywhere near such a dire situation as Labour. Once the policy direction more closely matches the concerns of the members then good progress can be made. A rapid move could be made to reverse the non-stun policy. This is a touchstone for so much else. We must get back to being a party which believes in Britain and decent Britich values. Put in a local candidate for Gorton who will not even attempt to chase after the Muslim vote. That route is madness.
UKIP can turn around if it responds to the wishes and concerns of the members. Labour can be defeated in places like Gorton – they are trying to serve two masters (LGBT and Islam), they will fail. It should be relatively easy to tie them up in the knots of their own contradictions. But only if UKIP has the right candidate, the right policies and the right vision for the party and more importantly for the country.