Dr Eric Edmond on Douglas Denny

Taken from Dr Edmond's blog: http://ukiptruth.blogspot.com/

In the words of the common croucher I had a good chortle when I read on GLW's blog the contents of Denny's email to Arnot slagging off Zuckerman,

"I have to say too that to me, MZ has proved himself to be a dubious P.Secretary. There have been a number of times when I have wondered about his competence as a lawyer.

I don't mind saying that because I would happily say so his face (I would not say anything about someone behind their back that I would not be willing to say to their face). In fact have come close to doing so. The only reason I have not is for the sake of conciliatory harmony in the NEC, but it is not easy for my personal disposition to accept fools lightly, and those last two decisions lead by him which swung the NEC into unnecessary decisions are foolish enough by any standard in my opinion.

I know for a fact he deliberately will not answer anything to anyone, unless practically forced to, and complained to me once about being too busy to answer silly people asking silly questions - as he sees it. The whole idea of a PS is to deal with the queries coming in, and organise the direction of party business within his remit. He does not seem willing to do this, beyond narrow confines of what he deems suitable. My opinion is if he does not like the heat he should get out of the kitchen.

"When I was elected to the NEC last March I was in 3rd place and Denny was 4th. The first question I was asked by most people was, "Who voted for Denny? Nobody likes him". I found out why at my first NEC in early April when I was verbally abused by Denny for having the temerity to ask our leader, NF, produce some evidence to support his demand we expel an entire branch. My fate was sealed. Farage was heard later shouting at his sycophants, " I want him off". Over the next 5 months Denny aided by Bannerman led a vicious, unprincipled campaign to have me removed from the NEC. I never did find an answer to the voting part of the question!

I soon found this pattern of expulsions repeated in London and the Eastern region. It is no wonder that UKIP membership is in decline. I sat through a number of NEC discussions on expulsion but not a one on recruitment or coming electoral campaigns.

Their excuse to get rid of me was that I had defamed Mr Gill behind his back. Mr Gill was supposedly in charge of MEP selection and I took the old fashioned view that when you are in charge of something you make sure you can be contacted and better still you are present. Mr Gill was neither. I made repeated attempts to contact him with no success. Is it not ironic that this is exactly Denny's recent complaint about Zuckerman?

I did say that Mr Gill, 15 years a Tory MP, seemed never to have even been a PUSSY. Denny of course thought I was talking about cats but in parliamentary terms a PUSSY is a Parliamentary Under Secretary and is the lowest rung on the government ministerial ladder. No Government Minister is ever allowed to go on holiday without leaving clear and effective contact details with the private office. Mr Gill had gone on holiday and seemed unaware of this important executive convention.

I never impugned Mr Gill's competence or ability in any way. Denny however seems to have impugned Zuckerman's professional abilities something I deplore. Further NF will not forgive or forget Denny's description of him as a waffling Soggy Sheep!

It was clearly convenient to blame me for the NEC leaks. Give a dog a bad name etc. This has now been shown to be completely false. Whilst on the NEC I never leaked and nor did I post Internet comments. Denny is shown as having 1229 posts to his name on Democracy Forum since 2005 the period he was on the NEC! Read Denny's postings on the Democracy Forum thread, Dr Eric Edmond removed from SW MEP list and you gain much insight into Denny's character. Click here to read

I trust the NEC will now act promptly to remove Denny from its number.