UKIP Uncovered

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

Friday, December 03, 2004

Attacks mount on Cornered and now Catty Chairman

Yet another exchange of e-mails, denouncing the running of the party by the cabal, has now come my way. This time it seems to have been started by a Mr Collings, (clearly no relative of the obsequious Mr Collins of 'Pride and Prejudice') but they close with Nigel Farage, for the second time in a week being forced into print, this time trying to defend 'Dressing Gown Bown' - For those who will not wish to plough through it all I will highlight the end of his contribution first:-

The manifesto is nearing completion and is far more radical than I had dared to think. Leave it to the leadership to decide on how to release it, trust the people that brought success on June 10th. (Of course that is exactly what those supporting Kilroy as leader are trying to achieve! - after all there was really only ONE! - ed!)

Your attitude towards Alan Bown is very insulting. He has helped UKIP in every way he can, is full of ideas and never tries to dictate the agenda. Thank God for Alan.

BUT to begin with the earliest e-mails I received, addressed to many in the party and copied to the Chairman and Mr Bown, read from here:

Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 1:09 PM
Subject: Manifesto or joke?

Folks

I suspect that there is considerable truth in today's posting on UKIP Uncovered that Alan Bown is deciding what goes on as the man paying the bills.

At the SE Regional meeting on 13/11 I did wonder how it was that he could go ahead and print the cartoon leaflets (not my idea of good voter communications) and start a national advertising campaign without the manifest being published but to my eternal shame I didn't ask the question. Perhaps I was too dazzled by the fabulous Bown Dressing Gown offer (has to be a joke there somewhere) to stand up again.

Petrina says that we should keep the manifesto under wraps to avoid other parties stealing our good ideas!! What good ideas?? If this is the best that can be done the secrecy is probably just helping all the other parties by preventing their leadership from dying of laughter.

Truly we seem to have the blind leading the partially sighted along the cliff edge whilst those with 20:20 vision are held back by a Maginot Line stretching from Newton Abbott to Ashford via Uckfield and Lyminster.

The more of this rubbish that is sent out the more difficult it will be to retract when reality sets in and someone produces a manifesto for voters from the whole spectrum.

If the others parties choose to take any notice of UKIP at all, and they won't unless we have a charismatic leader, they have a cartoon gift showing UKIP as the Zimmer frame voters. Why not go the whole hog and have UKIP Zimmer frames on the party website that have hooks for the Bown Dressing Gowns - now there's joined up thinking worthy of Tony Blair.

We deserve better - much, much better - when the political establishment are offering up huge targets by the hour. It was said in WW1 that the British Army was Lions led by Donkeys. Applied to UKIP today Donkeys is far too kind - sadly the word wankers seems much more appropriate and would be better understood by younger voters. Philip

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The Chairman replied to this with another widely circulated e-mail as follows:

Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: Manifesto or joke?

Dear Philip,

Thank you for your charming email.

I am glad to see that your sense of humour has not deserted you.

This is the first time I have had the honour of being called a wanker, may I return the compliment.

For your interest may I point out that I have not withheld the manifesto from the NEC nor do I intend to .They will receive a copy of the up to date version tomoorrow ,which I have not seen as yet .

If this matter has been kept under wraps it is because the NEC has not yet seen it and it is for that committee to see it ,discuss it and maybe change it.

After that it is for Roger to OK the final document and then it will be issued immediately or issued bit by bit over the next few months.

Do I detect a touch of malice in your email because you were not put on a policy committee? yours sincerely, Petrina Holdsworth

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To which Mr Philip Collings replied :-

Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: Manifesto or joke?

Petrina
How kind of you to respond so quickly. The only reason for humour is that to alternative is to weep with frustration - something that many are very close to doing.

There's a first time for everything but I carefully chose a word that is in common use rather than what I really thought which is unprintable. I'm sure that other honours await you unless things improve very quickly.

You do not, or will not, address the issue of how the party can be advertising its policies if the manifesto has yet to be agreed.

If I recall my history correctly, J Stalin announced policies that his terrified apparatchiks then turned into the manifesto for the next Praesidium whilst at least A Hitler did everyone the courtesy of publishing a manifesto (that nobody took seriously) and then put in place the policies that it implied. UKIP seems to be operating on the Stalinist model with the NEC as the apparatchiks. If people are to go out and campaign seriously they need a manifesto that they can believe in now in which they can see policies they can use to enthuse the electorate.

Two key points seem to have escaped the notice of those currently guarding the secrets.

First is that neither the EU nor regionalisation will play as issues in the General Election as the voters know that there will be a referendum on the former and the latter is more than somewhat dead in the water.

Second is that nobody will believe that UKIP is capable of getting control of Government in 2005 and therefore will not be in a position to deliver on any spending promises. So they therefore need to be offered new ideas and carefully thought out radical policies to which enough can say 'I'll go for that' and then realise, because we have told them, that these policies cannot be implemented whilst in the EU. That combination should stimulate enough British Bloody-mindedness to get them to vote for us so that we get a handful of seats. The electorate has regularly shown that it is much cleverer and can be more passionate than it is given credit for - hence Dr Richard Taylor's election in Wyre Forest.

Thus my consistent pleas for headline policies that people see as sensible, practical and honest. Heaven knows that Blair and Co have given us a range of fat targets that cause popular anger that we can capitalise on.
I cannot bear malice for the terminally incompetent. One last point, I trust that Tony Stone passed on to you the views expressed at the Knowl Hill meeting that you sadly were unable to attend that we find the approval of the likes of John Browne as UKIP candidates deeply offensive. He single-handedly destroyed the Tories in Winchester which has since become (hold your nose) a LibDem stronghold.

The concern is that if we are seen as a rest home for Tories of dubious probity we will destroy our support from Labour or LibDems because it will fit ill with our claim to be honest.

Looking forward to seeing you again in the next few weeks - at the EGM would be excellent. Philip

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Finally the last in this series I have received, from the famous 'THE OFFICE OF NIGEL FARAGE':

Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: Manifesto or joke?

Dr Richard Taylor won in Wyre Forest because the campaign had already won 21 council seats. Yes, policies matter but so does an effective grassroots campaign.

The manifesto is nearing completion and is far more radical than I had dared to think. Leave it to the leadership to decide on how to release it, trust the people that brought success on June 10th.

Your attitude towards Alan Bown is very insulting. He has helped UKIP in every way he can, is full of ideas and never tries to dictate the agenda. Thank God for Alan. Nigel Farage

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Thank God for Alan - can't see it myself! Is he, or is he not, part of the present problems? Judging from the high-powered circulation list of these e-mails quoted above - this hardly seems a party preparing for a major electoral challenge!

posted by Martin |5:03 PM