Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Ukip: I Am No Longer A Member.

My membership has now lapsed and a chapter of my life has come to a disappointing end. All politically direct and indirect actions by me are over.
 Of course, it was always principally about Brexit but I had hoped that the UK had also found a force to fight the wicked, anti-democratic evil which exists so heavily in the LibLabConGreens. That was the party's natural next step.
 Those extremists form our political elite and the apathy of the majority has permitted them to prevail.
Ukip once had that apolitical smack of sound common sense: fighting the EU brought many together from politically different backgrounds.
 So what did go wrong? - Regrettably, one thing was that the party's greatest asset was also its greatest weakness. Nigel Farage gained the attention of many and was clearly a clever man and the best orator of this generation. But his personal flaws showed through and his many careless words in public were latched onto and used by an aggressive media.
If Putin is the most unpopular man in the eyes of the British public and The Donald is in second place - why would you praise them? To be fair, he only praised Putin's tactics but with Trump - he praised the lot! Ukip was immediately dead in the water!
 I have read too many pieces by Nigel fans who tried to justify their former leader's folly. In the words of Lincoln (with a tense change) ''That wouldn't scour.'' Countless support was lost.
 Paul Nuttall, as leader, was malevolently hung out to dry by a driven and wicked Press over 'his scandalous remarks about Hillsborough' six years ago. But being Leader of Ukip was clearly beyond Paul's capabilities. His attempts to be 'all things to all men' led to compromises and ultimately, weakness.
 After years of taking good, sound advice - he switched to taking counsel from 'everyone and his cat'. I really rate Paul and have been extremely sorry to see his political decline. He is a most decent guy.
 Ukip had already shot itself in the foot by putting the gravely weak Diane James into a position with which she was never going to be able to cope.
 The fact that anyone such as the dreadful Steven Woolfe could have been considered for high office within the party was an abomination and heralded the beginning of the end. Too many silly members wanted him to be 'the new Nigel' and by an extraordinary leap of faith, decided that this meant that this was what the man actually was.
 The party peaked in 2014 when it won the EU elections but Jonathan Arnott, when elected as an MEP, was lost to the party's administration. From a position of being in the top handful of the party - this, for him, was an effective demotion and a singular, unheralded - indeed, largely unnoticed - disaster for Ukip. His six years of work had turned the party into winners.
 The 'losers', the monomaniacs, the 'users of the party', those with manipulative agendas of their own - all emerged from the woodwork to which they had been previously banished. 
 The unbalanced mixed with the ambitious; the foolish peddled their wares and in public; the politically inept gained influence; those who could not see any big picture prospered. Fragmentation replaced unity. Panacea-makers lacked the intelligence to see how the party was being viewed by voters and few could see the pitch that would turn voters their way.
 So many concentrated on presenting policies which would appeal to hardcore Ukipites but would alienate all the rest of the party's potential voters. Just HOW stoopid could you get?
 This brings me to my final point. How come so many truly ordinary people came to prominence in UKIP? The party certainly contains people of intellect and depth - so why did the structure not permit them, like cream, to rise to the top?
 The dream is dead! If the party survives at all, I fear that it will be as a rightist splinter group - so great has been the recent infiltration by extremists. Quelle ironie! The party which was presented as rightist by its enemies - was never remotely of that ilk. However, I fear that is what it will become!

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