UKIP Uncovered

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

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Lord Pearson of Rannoch

In the BBC programme aired on Tuesday 'This Sceptic Isle" the transcipt of which may be found a little way down this page, the above prominent eurosceptic says the following:

"I think and many of us think, in fact we’re sure, .....… that if the Conservative party adopted a come out policy and therefore brought UKIP back into the fold, it would lose at most a couple of MPs, 2 or 3 and win the next election. I mean we simply can’t understand why he doesn’t do it. You might lose an Ian Taylor or a Kenneth Clarke, but who cares"......

"UKIP’s aim is to get the United Kingdom out of the European Union, an aim which many of us now share, most of us share. The only way that can be done is for a vote in the House of Commons to take us out of the European Union. The only way that can be done is for the Conservative party to do it and therefore if UKIP put up candidates against eurosceptic Conservative candidates, they’re mad, because they won’t win a single seat but they will keep or they may keep a number of eurosceptic MPs - Labour and Conservative - out of the House of Commons and that is a very very silly strategy."

Lord Pearson, who lost the Tory Party Whip in the House of Lords last year by urging Tories to vote for UKIP in the European Elections, is here being consistent with his earlier activities. As reported on this blog on 22nd August 2003, linked here :-

"..... The Times, 2/3/01, quoted from a confidential report to the UKIP executive by Nigel Farage, detailing his discussions with Lord Pearson of Rannoch over the possibility of UKIP candidates standing down in favour of eurosceptic Conservatives (for up to £2 million). It is claimed that Nigel Farage said to Lord Pearson:

"Ours is an entirely democratic party. I cannot order the constituency parties to stand or not to stand"

That incident of course led to the accusations of extortion against UKIP as may be read in full from the relevant Times newspaper archives detailed on the following blog of that day linked here.

The consequences and results of this earlier 'money for no candidates scam' was more widely reported in papers available to browse such as the Telegraph's 'blackmail' report here, and other links may be found in our posting on the events at Teignbridge on 18th August 2004, linked here and a more general review of the NEC being in thrall to Farage (or is it perhaps Farage as controlled by Lord Pearson?) in our posting of 2nd August 2003 which may be read from here.

I will return to this subject, the problem of what I call 'the Tory Tendency within the UKIP' as time permits, hopefully today. Meantime in researching this item I was struck by the continuing aptness of my closing paragraph of the first posting of August 2003 -

The National Executive who apparently had the good sense, last evening, to make a first tentative step towards halting this mad descent towards oblivion, still have much to do. The self-serving individuals destroying the euro-sceptic cause within Great Britain cling to their party positions while the real battle that should now be being fought is ignored.

(Lord Pearson of Rannoch will be speaking at the London Assembly on 19th January at an event organised by prominent UKIP members within London, nothing wrong with that of course, he is an effective advocate of Britain's withdrawal from the EU. The wider UKIP membership, who voted at conference to stand in every constituency, (something I would not have advocated had IDS continued to lead the Tories while pursuing his ever more vocal withdrawalist agenda) should bear that fact in mind when listening to the noble Lord!

Visitors to UKIP Forum an open discussion debate seemingly connected with the Tory Tendency in the party, will note attacks on Robert Kilroy-Silk based on his socialist past. Is the UKIP leadership split really just another re-incarnation of the old two party political class divide within Britain? Are we really going to ignore what both parties have wrought upon our freedoms, sovereignty and democracy and throw away a golden chance to unite eurosceptics behind an effective and potentially winning leader, Robert Kilroy-Silk with a decent, untainted candidate in every constituency?

Knapman and Farage staying in charge will sabotage key campaigns by fielding unelectable candidates such as Mike Nattrass in Stone and John Browne in North Devon, paying lip service to the Conference decision but clearly thwarting its intent.

Read the Conservative Manifesto, links on Teetering Tories - they are good for absolutely nothing, whatever Lord Pearson and his apparent minions may believe!

posted by Martin |8:09 AM