UKIP Uncovered

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

Thursday, August 12, 2004

UKIP abandons any pretence of role in National Politics

The UK Independence Party Hartlepool Constituency representatives last night selected a Hartlepool born, former independent local councillor as their candidate for the coming by-election. They gave no consideration to my offer to stand, although I had made every effort and complied with their requirement of being a fully paid-up party member when applications closed last Sunday.

When did Mr Allison join UKIP? - and WHAT are his anti-EU credentials?

I do not blame the Hartlepool Committee for this exclusion or question their motives for this decision. In conversation with their Branch Chairman, Mr Eric Wilson, I had understood their concern over strictly local issues, particularly the potential loss of their local hospital. The NEC, who the constitution grants a guiding role in by-elections, is not, of course, similarly blameless.

In fact the NEC and leadership of UKIP are an entirely different matter. The pretence that UKIP believes in the cause of EU withdrawal has now been shown for the empty sham this writer had long ago begun to suspect was truly the case.

A detailed report of the Hartlepool candidate selection fiasco, starting from the presentation by John Harvey to the Party's NEC declaring Hartlepool as the golden possibility for a national break-through, up to last night's final decision will be posted here in due course. It will naturally concentrate particularly on the delay in publicising Robert Kilroy-Silk's decision not to stand on the basis of the impossibilty of holding dual mandates, a fact of which both he and the party should have been aware since the Hodge Hill declaration. Why was no other candidate of stature ready to go from the moment of Mandelson's appointment?

The BBC report on the candidate selection may be read from here and The Scotsmanfrom here.

My offer to have buried the past and selflessly throw myself into the herculean task of making UKIP a national force by fighting the Hartlepool by-election on the issues for which the UK Independence Party purportedly stands - namely for restoring Britain's democracy - having been so callously disregarded; needless to say my rescinding of my party membership is already on its way.

This quote is from the last linked press report :-

Mr Allison is a married father of two who was born in Hartlepool and, until recently, was an independent councillor.

A spokesman for the party said he had been very active in the local area.

He added: “He knows the local issues and has campaign actively to save the hospital and campaigned on issues such as the ghost ships. He knows what’s happening in the area and he is a good choice.”

It sums up UKIP's irrelevance and ineptitude, and demonstrates its apparent present purpose, (secondarily, of course, to keeping its undeserving MEPs on the gravy train) as having its first prospective Westminster MP be able to :-

'Save the hospital and understand the Ghost ships' - UKIPs new party purpose - Shameful and Treacherous!

Can any now doubt that UKIP seems to mainly serve the EU Federalist cause?

posted by Martin |8:30 AM