UKIP Uncovered

UKIP Uncovered
What motivates the leaders of the United Kingdom Independence Party?

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

UKIP and its Links to Right Wing Groups and Parties

The Guardian in its edition of 18th May 2002 reported on the expulsion of Michael Smith from the Conservative Party, linked from here, from which we quote:

In a blunt letter, Michael Smith was told that he was being thrown out for "conduct bringing or likely to bring the party into disrepute".....

Mr Smith, the chairman of the Conservative Democratic Alliance, was expelled on the technical grounds that he was planning to field candidates against official representatives of the Tory party.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph last week, he said: "There is a scenario that is being discussed by myself and my colleagues that we could run candidates against the Conservative party as Real Conservatives."

AS revealed here yesterday Mr Smith has now admitted to being a long-standing member of UKIP and suggested that Nigel Farage could vouch for that fact. He has apparently attended Branch meetings in Portsmouth, Chichester and Guildford.

To support candidates to run against one's own party seems to this observer quite extraordinary, but probably not a great deal more so than belonging to more than one party at any one time, something now allowed under the amended UKIP constitution(corrected 2230 GMT 25/02/04) and presumably made use of by Michael Smith. In the 30th January update of "The Flag," the magazine of the 'National Democrats', linked here,we find this quote regarding last May's elections:-

ANALYSIS
The claim of many UKIP members that they are the way forward for sensible patriotic policies must now be seen as false. Their inherent problems are preventing them from making any impact despite reasonable levels of funding, a substantial membership, even a party political broadcast failed to prevent them from getting a real trouncing in the polls. In stark and awful comparison the extremist BNP achieved good results and made real impact.

What is clearly needed is a centre right party or alliance that can address the real concerns of the British people while keeping out the lunatics, thugs and racists. The attempt by the Conservative Democratic Alliance last month to start this process is laudable but seems to be stuttering. However we understand that a new attempt is now being made to start the process of launching an alliance of independent groups and parties and that a number of interested parties have already agreed to a conference at the end of this summer, not to discuss policies but to talk of startegies and tactics. If you are interested please contact us and we will put you in touch with this group. (Email: ian.anderson@netmatters.co.uk)

It might be remembered that it was an Ian Anderson of the 'National Democrats', (also, he claims, formerly of the National Front) from whose letter of 21st July 1999 to Mr Farage, published in 'Notes from the Borderland', that we quoted in our post of 21st February regarding the problems that might be caused by UKIP's anti-racist pledge, linked here, or by scrolling down this page.

It appears increasingly incongruous that Andrew Edwards should have been instantly permanently terminated from his party membership for apparently having forwarded a circular e-mail which included two BNP members, while the lead candidate for the South East Region of UKIP in the 1999 European Parliamentary elections was allowed to stand, with far greater question marks outstanding over his past associations.

At the very least it now seems time to inquire whether all the requirements for his UKIP candidature were indeed fully met in 1999 and if not, in view of the new higher standards regarding the avoidance of any communication with BNP or former BNP members now established by the Party Secretary Derek Clark, his candidature and possibly certain others should be withdrawn for the coming June elections.

posted by Martin |7:30 AM