UKIP: Former policy advisor to Farage slams his leadership in Telegraph article

A damning article on UKIP and Nigel Farage by Abhijit Pandya. Pandya was a policy adviser to Farage. Indeed, he was appointed 'Head of Research' for the party. His criticisms of Farage echo countless others who have left UKIP over the years after becoming disillusioned with Farage's incompetent leadership and corrupt sycophants.

From The Telegraph:

Why no decent Tory should vote Ukip

Abhijit Pandya spent a year advising Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party. What he found convinced him that the anti-EU firebrands are not a serious alternative to the Conservatives.

Nigel Farage: a patriot, but not a serious politician Photo: PA

By Abhijit Pandya

This weekend Ukip was found to be on 11 per cent in one poll. At this testing time for the Coalition, some members of the Conservative Party may be tempted to turn their support to Ukip. They would be seriously misguided.

I would know. I spent the bulk part of the last year advising Nigel Farage; formerly as Head of Research for Ukip. He is a man whose patriotism I admire, but whose methods I deplore.

His party’s MEPs are obsessed with infantile stunts. These include wondering around Brussels, at the taxpayer’s expense, singing “there is a hole in my bucket”. Entertaining as it is watching Mr Farage doing this, and giving bombastic speeches in the European Parliament, it does nothing to curb the powers of the EU.

To my knowledge there is not a single amendment to a European regulation forced by Ukip, despite being Britain’s second-largest party in the European Parliament. Legislation in that forum is almost certain to be passed, due to the numbers being stacked against Ukip, and the European Parliament having no effective method of veto. So it is extraordinary that Ukip has not, in over a decade, managed to develop a strategy to undermine European law by appropriate subtle and strategic amendments.

The party is more interested in ranting and raving than in the more thoughtful task of fully engaging with its opponents on policy terms. This is why its failure to alter the course of Europe away from a social-democratic federal state has been immense.

Worse still its MEPs have been softened by the alluring lifestyle Brussels offers, as the poor expenses record of Ukip MEPs shows. So much for breath of fresh air that Tories upset at the Coalition would be looking for; they simply won’t find it in Ukip.

Ukip membership is based around a universal opposition to the EU. However, this masks the party’s inconsistency on domestic policy. Tories going to Ukip will find the problems that used to haunt the Conservative Party split on Europe in the Major years flipped on their head. Ukip may not be split on Europe, but as a consequence of being a one-issue Party, they are just about split on everything else. Ukip will go Left, Right or centre to grab the next available vote.

For example, instead of trying to appeal to mainstream voters, they are obsessed with grabbing votes from the English Democrats. Hence their unprincipled support for breaking up the Union and having an English parliament. Thus we have a self-proclaimed “UK” Independence Party that doesn’t want a “UK”. This is the level of absurdity Ukip operates under. A sharp contrast to Lady Thatcher’s handbrake on Scottish devolution in her first term.

I am wholly opposed to the EU in its present form, but I am for free trade and movement of peoples (where there is no welfare dependency). Ukip treats these issues in simplistic black-and-white terms, not acknowledging their complexity. For example, Ukip is against immigration in absolute terms, but this is economically unrealistic. By sticking to screaming demagoguery for an immigration ban of a random arbitrary period, without assessing market needs, Ukip loses economic credibility for a few votes.

This is the least of its problems. Christine Hamilton, known for her sexual-innuendo-filled television shows, and her husband Neil, the former “cash for questions” Tory MP, have become the new stars of Ukip. They have been given places on Ukip’s National Executive Committee that runs the party.

For Tories yearning for the old years of glory, a move to Ukip would be a move back to the feeling of looking at the remnants of the Tory Party after its 1997 catastrophe. This is when Hamilton, Aitken and others pulled the great Tory beast down. Worse still it would benefit Labour, and another Labour victory is the last thing this country needs.

It would be far better to support a Prime Minister who managed one of the biggest swings in electoral history, and is harshly been judged for not achieving the improbable all-out victory in 2010.

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