Politics – UKIP _It’s That Man Again
UKIP now reduced to an old comedy programme? Readers of a certain age will be aware of an old, (very old) radio comedy programme called ITMA (It’s That Man Again) starring Tommy Handley. UKIP have their very own version starring Kerry Smith one time candidate for South Basildon and east Thurrock. You may remember that he was the official candidate before Neil Hamilton became it. He was it again after Hamilton was forced to resign after his expenses were called into question. Smith was then forced to resign after he made some choice remarks. He made offensive remarks about gay people, other UKIP members and Chigwell in Essex. You may ask what those remarks were? The Maiil on Sunday says that he mocked gays as ‘pooftahs’ and referred to a woman as a ‘chinky bird’ in phone calls. Just what did he say about Chigwell? I have yet to find out but for it to be on a par with homophobic and racist comments it must have been quite something. That is all getting away from my point, if I have one. Mr Smith says that he may have been the victim of “black arts” within the party, however that does not seem to ring true if you read The Mail Online. That says that Smith was protected by Farage. It says; A leaked email shows the lengths Mr Farage was prepared to go to help him be selected for the seat. When Ukip members in Basildon met 11 days ago to pick a candidate, Mr Smith was not on the list, having been banned weeks earlier. But hours before they met, Mr Farage emailed Ukip’s national executive urging them to give him another chance. He wrote: ‘As leader of Ukip I have never involved myself in candidate selections. But in the case of Basildon South, I have received many objections to the removal of Kerry Smith from the local branch. The reason for his exclusion is he is a bit rough and ready, and there were several rumours which have not been substantiated. ‘We have been too cautious so I recommend we reverse our earlier decision.’ It may well be that Farage’s main concern was to block Neil Hamilton, not that I would blame him if that was the case. Hamilton is seen as a toxic candidate given his past, and obnoxious wife. His candidacy would taint the rest of the party although not everyone agrees with me. (Also from the Mail Online) A senior Ukip source said: ‘Nigel has shown a lack of judgment over Kerry Smith. In the eyes of some he abused his power in trying to get him a Parliamentary seat. We can’t understand why he appears so keen to speak up for Smith. It looks as though he was so desperate to stop Hamilton, whom he dislikes and sees as a rival, he lost all sense of proportion.’ Ukip leaders also revealed a tape of Mr Smith’s remarks was sent to them months ago. A party insider said: ‘Farage’s team knew about Smith’s disgraceful remarks. That is why he was fired in the first place. They thought the tape recording would never see the light of day so they put him back on the list. Others thought the public should know the truth.’ The most amazing thing about this whole story is not that Farage wanted to stop Hamilton. It is not that Smith used racist and homophobic terms. It is his excuses for his language; After apologising “unreservedly” he added: “My language, for the record, was no worse than watching an old episode of Fools and Horses to be fair. I come from the East End, the word was never offensive and if you talked politically correct where I grew up you were battered for being a boffin.” Sorry, he still watches Fools and Horses? That is just the forward thinking MP that we need. Also what does it say for where he grew up that not using racist language makes you “a boffin”? Mr Smith said the UKIP constituency had “become a real farce as far as the national party’s concerned”. At least the former UKIP candidate has that right.
Politics – UKIP – Such a Well Run Party!
UKIP not paid their bills? UKIP has been receiving plaudits about how much better their organisation has become since the last election. They seem to have modeled themselves on the Liberal Democrats’ local strategy that they have been working for years. UKIP’s local organisations have become much slicker. Testament to that was the show of organisation that they put on for the recent bi-elections. They identified the vote. They organised the vote and then they mobilised the vote. Perfect! However, not all their organisation seems to be as slick. Their web site has disappeared! It was on UKIP.org. Try putting that in today and you get one of those DNS holding pages. You know the sort of thing, if you do not renew the registration the domain gets parked until you pay up or someone else buys it! As an aside I have just tried Godaddy.com to see if UKIP.org was available. Sadly, it was not. I really fancied starting a one trick pony political party to grab all that money from Europe while saying how dreadful the European gravy train is. Oh well, never mind, at least I will not have to associate with ex members of the National Front and other sundry nutters. As a service to the party, just in case someone else has nabbed the various UKIP domains. I can offer them this bit of information. According to Godaddy USKIP.org and variations on USKIP are available. It seems to me that this is a good alternative. After all where else, apart from a skip, would you want to dump stupid policies?
Politics – UKIP – More Twists to the Soap’s Plot
UKIP Kerry Smith Resigns from the party. Following on from my last comment about the continuing soap that is UKIP Kerry Smith has resigned from the party. He said that he was “sick of internal backstabbers who hold minor roles in the party”. Now, hang on a second he resigned as the UKIP candidate for South Basildon and East Thurrock after racist and homophobic comments he made came to light. True, the comments came to light after “insiders” apparently released a tape of the comments, but they were HIS comments. He did say that he was on medication at the time. (As if medication turns you into a racist homophobe.) He will now be an independent councillor on both Essex County Council and Basildon District Council. He also stated that he continues to support the general goals of UKIP. Remember they are the party that went into the last general election saying that they wanted to reduce Social Security to 1997 levels, in cash terms, not adjusted by inflation. They were also in favour of lifting gun controls and heaven knows what else. Actually, heaven may know but not many of their party did as most did not read the manifesto. In another development UKIP hates the EEC so much that it has created a new pan-European party so that it can skim £1.5m from Europe. The new party is called The Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe. It is so pan Europe that 21 of the 27 registered members belong to UKIP. Jumping on the Euro gravy train (as Farage puts it) is not new for UKIP. It already gets money from Europe by being a member of Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy, another pan European grouping. UKIP skimmed £2.1m from Europ in 2013 with that wheeze. By the way, UKIP talks of democracy. In 2011 UKIP held a big internal debate on the issue. The party membership voted two to one against UKIP’s affiliation to a PEPP (one of those nice and lucrative pan European groupings).
Phil’s British Heart Foundation Donation – you know it makes sense
