UKIPPERS are still reeling from the disastrous election results.
No amount of spin from UKIP’s corrupt leadership will hide the fact that UKIP failed dismally. Not a single UKIP candidate came anywhere near to winning a seat in Westminster. Deposits were lost and in many constituencies UKIP trailed behind the BNP.
The backlash has already begun. Many UKIPPERS are now openly calling for Pearson and Farage to go.
Here is one example of the discontent seething through UKIP :
An open Letter to Lord Pearson and the UKIP leadership
In the aftermath of another disappointing set of election results the leadership must make some crucial decisions, and involve the party membership in the decision making process. The failure of the party leadership to listen to rank and file members is culpable. UKIP must decide if it’s a party only interested in gaining seats in Europe or if it has ambitions to be a mainstream political party, dedicated to governing in Westminster. The concept that gaining seats in the EU would raise the party’s profile in the UK election is no more than a myth as results demonstrates.
If UKIP has a genuine desire to gain seats at Westminster, then we must get away from the concept that UKIP is a grass roots party and join the real political world by understanding what is required to gain seats in parliament, that means UKIP must become a professional mainstream political part. That requires a change in party structure, policies, funding and targeting seats; it requires a change of attitude towards the whole concept of where UKIP stands today, UKIP can no longer be led by mavericks wearing a Tory rosette on one lapel and a UKIP rosette on the other. It can no longer wash its dirty linen in public; it can no longer consider coming fourth a success story or keep using lack of publicity as an excuse for failure. UKIP must take action to bring in professional fundraisers, professional PR consultants and professional leadership.
The results from this election confirm that in order to gain seats any candidate requires both funds and a large team on the ground for months not weeks before an election, the next GE will s in all probability be held within the next 18 months, so planning must start now.
UKIP must understand that it currently lacks the funding and activists to contest the 400 plus seats that were contested at the current election, putting up paper candidates is not the way forward. UKIP should be looking at targeting between 50 and 75 seats selecting these candidates using a professional approach not the “who ‘s willing to stand’ approach each candidate to be approved by the NEC based on their ability to win the seat. Once selected the candidates must be support financially and by a strong election tem at constituency level.
The importance of gaining seats on local councils cannot be underestimated, nor should the importance of local issues when campaigning for parliament. Local council elections are scheduled in many regions for next May (Possible coinciding with a fresh GE) again UKIP must start planning now by selecting candidates, holding local surgeries and general becoming active at community level. None of this will happen on its own, it requires coordination at national, region and local level.
Another weakness within UKIP is the lack of local branches, difficult to remedy but an essential task for regional organisers to tackle.
Finally we come to the crux of the issue, why did we perform badly in the current GE, Even allowing that UKIP increased its share of the vote nationally, in the majority of seats where both a BNP candidate and UKIP candidate stood in the same constituency, the BNP candidate gained more votes. A thorough analysis of all the results is required and quickly to answer some vital question as to which of the UKIP policies appealed to the voters and which failed to impress.
There is also an urgent requirement for UKIP to appoint spokespersons on a wide range of issues that are bound to arise from the hung parliament, on a professional basis we can no longer leave this task to Nigel and Lord Pearson, UKIP requires a much wider range of people promoting UKIP policies in a professional and concise way and making more media appearances in the process, trotting out Lord Pearson or Nigel every time the media require a sound bite from UKIP has a negative effect and quickly becomes stale.
Philip Wray
End of letter. Mr Wray should not get his hopes up. Others have written similar letters and ALL have been ignored.
In January, Pearson received a similar devastating account of UKIP's failure as a party. It was ignored by him, Farage and the NEC. See: LINK
UKIP exists to serve the whims of one man - Nigel Farage. His only interests are himself and his various bank accounts. And the NEC exists to serve Nigel Farage. That will never change.
And if UKIP's leaders were really serious about government they would review how they select their candidates. UKIP could then be spared these embarrassments:
Glenn Tingle, PPC Norwich North
He called for the blowing up of Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons. UKIP was forced to apologise for his comments.
UKIP said that Mr Tingle "regrets any offence he has caused through using such intemperate language".
But would Glenn be so keen for a war against Iran IF he had to fight there himself?
See: LINK
Helene Davies-Green, PPC South Cambridgeshire
She took part in a campaign which blamed Madeleine McCann's disappearance on her parents.
Ms Davies-Green delivered leaflets entitled "Ten Reasons Why Madeleine Was Not Abducted" to the McCann's neighbours.
The leaflet was produced by the anti-McCann Madeleine Foundation, of which she is a committee member.
Ms Davies-Green's husband Grenville is the group's chairman.
The leaflet blames the McCann's for the murder of their daughter.
See: LINK
John Stocker PPC St Albans
Mr Stocker upset Hertfordshire county council after he was seen putting up UKIP posters on lampposts in the town.
Jo Brown, spokesman for Hertfordshire County Council, which owns the posts, said:
"We don't give permission for poster advertising on any of our street furniture whether the posters are political or not.
"This is classed as illegal advertising and the posters will be removed.
Mr Stocker refused to apologise and made matters worse by declining to remove the posters before the election.
"If you look at the lamp posts around St Albans they are festooned with adverts for building developments, industrial sites, weddings and planning permissions all of which stay there for months if not years.
End of quote.
One local resident was less than impressed with Mr Stocker:
John Stocker knows full well that such signs are illegal: he wrote to the Herts Advertiser on 5 November 2009 about the Oaklands development signs that were appearing on many lampposts!
Or perhaps he's forgotten after all this time!
Bodes well for his career as a politician: a selective memory AND happy to break the law when it's otherwise inconvenient for him!
See: LINK
Adam Brown PPC Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
Mr Brown is a former football hooligan, who last year got into trouble for posting a sexual innuendo about a woman on trial for murder on an internet message board.
See: LINK
Philip Ray talks a LOT of sense.
ReplyDeleteWhat UKIP need is good managment.
Good managers.Appointing those with the relevant managerial skills and experience to steer the party forward practically in every carefully planned and strategic way.
All amateurish fumbling has to stop!
UKIP needs to be managererd by Professionals, not enthusiastic amateurs.
It is obvious that local councillors who are ACTIVE and effective at what they do in the local community EVENTUALLY become MP's.
Greg Mulholland Lib Dem MP for Leeds is a prime example of this. Mr Mulholland holds surgeries, is assessible and effective. His office is exstreamly efficient and for instance, he acted promptly to help me out once in a very serious situation ...
It's what Councillors and MP's DO on the ground, in the local community that counts.
Being an MP, means you are REPRESENTING the people of your community and LITERALLY serving their needs.
Only when you do it well as a local councillor, effectively and consistently are you given the great honour of being nominated by your community to represent them in Parliament.
Do Nigel Farage and others realise this?
Up to now, UKIP has been very much a 'protest' group.
Perhaps now is the time for UKIP to discard the behaviours of their university days and to become Professional politicians, behaving and acting accordingly.
In Britian you have to EARN trust and confidence.Being maverick and just having the gift of the gap and a 'personality' won't neccessarily mean we will trust you.
We Brits don't give our trust and confidence to any Tom, Lord, Dick and Harry you know.
Time to get real!
Time to bring in the professionals.
Helene Davies-Green I think is very unwise to be joined at the hip with the group that is anti the parents of Madeleine McCann because they believe the parents have murdered their missing daughter.
ReplyDeleteThese are Very very serious accusations and if they have any PROOF they should be in consultation with the police and not distributing anti-McCann leaflets to their neighbours.
Miss Davies-Greene and her partner are clearly lacking good judgement and good judgement is an absolute MUST in local and national politics.
For that reason if I were in charge of UKIP I would have serious reservations about her candicy for any representation of UKIP at even local level.
We can all speculate regarding the mysterious disappearance of little Madeleine McCann and have our own 'theories', but it is up to those in authority, those local councillors to set an example of not prejudging, being presumptous and instigating campaigns against people for whom no proof that a crime has been committed by them and by which if there were, we have the police of whom we can take evidence, and a judicial system that can try the person and find out if the person is innocent or guilty.
If this kind of behaviour was happening in any other country we would all be shouting, innocent till proven guilty
It is all very well re-structuring UKIP, but if you STILL have those at the helm who are grossly arrogant, difficult to work with,refuse to listen with an open mind, who are unable to delegate, to trust their subordinates who have been specifically employed for their competency and experience, then the ship will get into stormy waters and drown.
ReplyDeleteEventually.
Masters of ships in severe distress generally CHOOSE to go down with the ship rather than leave it to drown on its own.
Do Lord Pearson and Nigel Farage want to do the same?
The trouble is with grossly arrogant people is they genuinly believe they always know better than others. It is completely uncomprehensible to them that they could be mistaken,let alone wrong.
They do not realise,comprehend that is their job to listen, seriously reflect on all the information that has been presented to them and act sensibly, not arrogantly.
As a Conservative blogger said on News 24 just now politicians have to be able to negotiate,make concessions and come to an agreement.
An agreement has to involve more than one person.
A Campaign Manager for instance, is not unlike a Commander in Iraq, who sees how things are on the ground, and suggests to the Prime Minister of the UK that more troops,tanks and helicopters are needed, that soldiers are not adequatley equipped and proctected, but then for the Prime Minister of the UK to entirely dismiss these facts and just follow his own fanciful ideas that bear no relation to how things are on the ground.
This is UKIP.
These kind of people are ego-maniacs, dictators.
I've taken dictation from bosses and I always change what they have dictated to me, because they rarely make any sense.
The secret is to get them to sign said letters, reports etc without them realising that they have in fact signed what you have said not what they have said!
You have to canny and shrewd in this world!
It's important to Farage that UKIP candidates are lower calibre than he is.
ReplyDeleteHence what you will continue to see.
I have been a member of ukip since I first campaigned on their behalf in 1997 in Putney. In 2005 I fought Edinburgh South West as the only UKIPPER in the Scottish capital. Since then I have come to the firm conclusion that no inroads can be made into the national vote at a general election without a moderation of our policies. Labour had to do it, in order to become electable - we are no different. The basic stumbling block for practically everyone ESPECIALLY the up and coming generation is the phrase "withdrawal" from Europe. There is no need for this. Anyone who has seriously studied the history of modern Britain (post war) and had time for reflection will know for sure that we cannot turn the clock back now. And anyone who has been out on the streets fighting for UKIP in this election will know that everyone else knows this too. However this does not mean that we cannot still embody euroscepticism and become a sensible, electable force. Rather than total withdrawal we should be looking at referenda on past treaties, renegotiation, anything but withdrawal. Put quite simply, it is a question of evolve or die.
ReplyDeleteI have been a member of ukip since I first campaigned on their behalf in 1997 in Putney. In 2005 I fought Edinburgh South West as the only UKIPPER in the Scottish capital. Since then I have come to the firm conclusion that no inroads can be made into the national vote at a general election without a moderation of our policies. Labour had to do it, in order to become electable - we are no different. The basic stumbling block for practically everyone ESPECIALLY the up and coming generation is the phrase "withdrawal" from Europe. There is no need for this. Anyone who has seriously studied the history of modern Britain (post war) and had time for reflection will know for sure that we cannot turn the clock back now. And anyone who has been out on the streets fighting for UKIP in this election will know that everyone else knows this too. However this does not mean that we cannot still embody euroscepticism and become a sensible, electable force. Rather than total withdrawal we should be looking at referenda on past treaties, renegotiation, anything but withdrawal. Put quite simply, it is a question of evolve or die.
ReplyDelete