UKIP-The Real Opposition?

If you want to know how farcical UKIP really is then watch the following  effort from one of their members/ex-members on Merseyside. No wonder they have so few elected representatives in the North West of England, a handful of town and parish councillors, probably co-opted rather than elected, and a defector from another party on Merseyside.



UKIP, too busy fighting each other to fight the European Union.

Oldham East and Saddleworth By-Election: UKIP Disaster and Expenses Questioned

Despite spending thousands of pounds of your tax money on their campaign UKIP could only muster a mere 5.6% of the vote in Oldham East and Saddleworth. Why your taxes? Well ther candidate, Paul Nuttall MEP is on a salary, allowance and perks package worth well over £100,000 pa, paid for by the taxpayer. Makes UKIP's attacks on public sector pay in the UK seem slightly hypocritical we think, and they have over 10 MEPs, they keep losing them so it's hard to know exactly how many at a given time. Remember the UKIP MEP John Bufton, who was confronted by journalists about receiving an extra £250 a day just for turning up? His response was: "Well, that's the system". That's how UKIP fund their campaigns.

So UKIP ran an extremely expensive campaign, paid for by you, and what did they get? The result is below:

Labour: 14,718 (42.1%)
Lib Dems: 11,160 (31.9%)
Conservatives: 4,481 (12.8%)
UKIP: 2,029 (5.8%)
BNP: 1,560 (4.5%)
Green Party: 530 (1.5%)
Monster Raving Loony Party: 145 (0.4%)
English Democrats: 144 (0.4%)
Pirate Party: 96 (0.2%)
Bus Pass Elvis Party: 67 (0.1%)

To put the result in perspective compare last night's result with the UKIP vote in a simialar by-election in 1999. In Wigan, a not dissimilar place to Oldham, the UKIP candidate achieved a vote of 5.2%. So having numerous MEPs since 1999, a much higher profile and staff employed on MEPs allowances in the northwest since 2004 UKIP only got 0.4% of the vote more last night than they did twelve years ago. That's hardly progress.

Add to that that our man in Oldham this week being told by people from two other parties that they would be going through UKIP's election expenses with a fine tooth comb then there could be further trouble ahead for UKIP. There is a widely held view in Oldham that they could not have run the campaign they did within the statutory expenditure limits. We will see.

Oldham East and Saddleworth By-Election: Paul Nuttall MEP

When people leave UKIP, usually after a disagreement with the autocratic leadership, UKIP sets out to lie and smear the person who has departed. This usually takes the form of accusing the person of being a BNP infiltrator. It sometimes seems that UKIP have so many infiltrators that they just can't be anything but a shadow of the BNP. But last May we reported here how UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP had been photographed meeting Tony "The Bomber" Lecomber. Why would the UKIP leader have had a meeting with  a notorious man, even by BNP standards like Lecomber?

The Junius on UKIP blog helps to shed some light on this with a recent article about UKIP's colleagues in the European Parliament here. Nikki Sinclaire MEP refused to sit with UKIP's group in the EU parliament, quite reasonably she would rather not be associated with far right racists, holocaust deniers and homophobes. She has been joined by fellow MEP Mike Nattrass. Sadly other UKIP MEPs, including Paul Nuttall, are happy to associate with the nastier far right elements in the EU parliament. Nikki Sinclaire recently won a legal action against UKIP reported here.

UKIP have a history of changing policy in midstream if it suits them, and producing ill researched policies that don't add up.  Gary Cartwright is an ex-employee of Nigel Farage in Brussels, but left disillusioned and disenchanted. Of course, as with anybody who leaves the dangerous cult that UKIP became under Farage he is constantly smeared and attacked by Farage's disciples. Now that Mr Cartwright works for ex-UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire, he is coming under renewed attack and smear by certain UKIP people. Truly, UKIP is the politics of the playground but a very nasty and unpleasant playground.

Unable to garner the needed 5% to save their deposits in most parliamentary elections, UKIP have now come out in favour of Proportional Representation. Well if you can line your pockets becoming an MEP with a small perecentage of votes in EU elections, try the Westminster gravy train next. When UKIP claim to be the straight party remember Ashley Mote and Tom Wise. God knows what UKIP would get up to under PR. Pole dancing and prostitues on MP's expenses maybe?

Here's what Gary Cartwright says about the UKIP way of developing policy:

"The UKIP policy making process was always a bit different. Although I was one of those who called for a widening of the policy base from the moment I joined the party, I eventually came to agree with Roger Knapman who argued for a narrower and more focussed set of policies concentrating on withdrawal. Britain does need a new party, but UKIP clearly ain't it!

I was very surprised, however, to read that UKIP is now coming out in favour of farming subsidies, a la the Common Agricultural Policy. Opposition to the CAP is one thing that traditionally unites all eurosceptics - and quite a lot of europhiles as well. Maybe UKIP has become so obsessively contrarian that it has even turned against conventional euroscepticism now, who knows?

I recall a transport policy paper which called for the electrification of a line that had, in fact, been closed for many years. There was also a local government paper that was quite probably the most politically illiterate thing I have ever seen.

The biggest question that observers will be asking, however, is not whether UKIP has done an about-turn on farming subsidies, but whether the party is, as it appears to be, out of control".

Taken from Gary Cartwright's Brussels Blog.

Oldham East and Saddleworth By-Election

Paul "Roderick Spode" Nuttall

UKIP recently announced former party chairman John Whittaker would be fighting the Oldham by-election on their behalf. They have now announced their North West MEP Paul Nuttall will be standing in the by-election. Who knows maybe they are putting up two candidates. Or even more, after all nominations are open until Thursday.

They do have a habit of making themselves look foolish. When Whittaker was an MEP he stood in multiple seats in the 2005 general election, proving the contempt in which UKIP hold the electorate. Maybe now they are going for multiple candidates.



Nigel "Bertie Wooster" Farage

 The problem with Nuttall is that he lacks sincerity. He dresses like Roderick Spode as a sign of his worship of Bertie Wooster impersonator and UKIP Fuhrer Nigel Farage. Despite dressing like a country squire Nuttall actually comes from one of the rougher parts of Liverpool. Any illusion created by his Roderick Spode dress sense is soon shattered when he opens his mouth, he makes Lily Savage sound posh.

So the running comedy that is UKIP continues. Except it isn't all funny really. It's ironic that UKIP pitch in an MEP in a by-election caused by Phil Woolas being sacked for telling porkies. Let's not forget, if UKIP try to play whiter than white, that two of their MEPs have spent time at Her Majesty's Pleasure. They are Ashley Mote and Tom Wise.

UKIP Chairman Paul Nuttall MEP

Hating the European Union is one thing, hating the cash to be harvested from the European Union is another it seems:

Picture the scene. I'm driving Islington yesterday and notice in front of me a big Land Rover Discovery.

It's all black with tinted windows. Then I notice the number plate EU06 0UT.

At the next set of lights I pull up and there is none other than UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall in the driving seat.

So while Liberal Democrat Colin Eldridge wears his parliamentary ambition on his sleeves, Mr Nuttall displays his politics on his plate.

From the Liverpool Daily Post.

It seems that thousands of people are making a packet out of the EU and they are all evil according to UKIP, unless of course they hate the EU enough to want withdrawal from it, then it's OK.

Landrover Discoveries start from £34,000. Check prices here.

Mr Nuttall was a researcher in the European Parliament, for UKIP, before becoming a very well paid MEP. Before that he was a PhD student.

Nice work if you can get it!