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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Farage should keep his promise?

107 replies

Icimoi · 11/05/2015 16:46

Apparently he has graciously agreed to withdraw his resignation having conveniently been pressed to do so by the party. UKIP are maintaining he kept his promise to resign so that's fine. Farage is on record as saying the leader of the party should be a sitting MP. So what happened to that?

It seems to me that the whole thing has been an absolute farce. It seems fairly obvious that he never really thought he would have to resign and this has been cobbled together to try to come up with some sort of face saving means of avoiding it. If he truly wanted to resign and meant it, then it really wouldn't matter that UKIP allegedly refused to accept it: he couldn't be forced to carry on against his will. It follows therefore that the reality is that this is what he wanted.

None of it is in the least surprising, of course. I would hope that UKIP's followers will see through it, though I suspect that most won't.

OP posts:
slug · 13/05/2015 11:51

If course he didn't really want to go. He's an egomaniac like George Galloway who also can't managed to get to grips with the idea that the general public aren't as in love with him as he is.

Aermingers · 13/05/2015 12:03

I can't believe how deluded some people are. Why would a party reject a leader who had vastly increased their vote share and who is appealing to the type of voter who is likely to vote for them? To appease people who would never vote for them anyway?

I'm no fan of UKIP but I'm not dim enough to think any voter would jettison it's main electoral asset to satisfy people who hate them. Especially when in their minds the fact those people hate them means that they're doing all the right things.

tiggytape · 13/05/2015 12:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Patapouf · 13/05/2015 12:09

slug that depends on whether we count it based on MPs or overall votes. But good point, as I didn't think of the SNP.

Sturgeon never put the caveat on her leadership that she would resign if she wasn't elected though, so not strictly comparable.

Miggsie · 13/05/2015 15:24

How can a party political leader function when they are unable to get into the House of Commons?

He could only go if he was signed in by his actual MP and then only to the public areas.

Perhaps they'll hold party meetings down the pub.

Viviennemary · 13/05/2015 15:37

The Greens are in the same position. I think he made his promise to resign because he thought he'd win the seat. He has the support of the party and a huge percentage of people who voted UKIP. He's there to please them not people who hate UKIP. He's got the support of his party which is more than Miliband can say.

ArcheryAnnie · 13/05/2015 17:07

Miggsie he could be sponsored by his MP for a pass.

But since he does fuck-all in his current position as an MEP, I don't know why he'd bother going into Westminster unless it's just to have a pretty background for yet another bloody interview.

ComposHatComesBack · 13/05/2015 17:39

The Greens are in the same position.

Bennett didn't make her continued leadership contingent on her winning a Westminster seat though.

Farage did.

I am beginning to wonder, are you Frau Farage? Because he can seemingly do no wrong in your eyes.

Aermingers · 13/05/2015 18:26

I think he said he's resign because he thought if he didn't win his seat they would have had a low % vote across the board.

For UKIP supporters the fact he won more votes than the Greens, Lib Dems and the SNP cancels out the fact he didn't win his seat and I don't think he anticipated it.

DogStrummer · 13/05/2015 19:50

"NOPE! Wrong too! Libdems got more than double the UKIP vote"

I'm going on raw number of votes cast. It's the only way to rank parties, as otherwise we'd be saying the DUP have as big a vote as the Lib Dems, etc.

UKIP got more votes than the Lib Dems and SNP combined (UKIP 3,881,129 vs LD & SNP 3,866,000).

The fact that UKIP have 1 MP, and the libdems & SNP have 64?, is down to our voting system. Which is no way to score a party's popularity.... Which is in itself quite worrying I suppose Grin

ForalltheSaints · 13/05/2015 20:10

Not the first election where a promise has not been kept. Think of all the people in 1997 who like me voted Labour because Paul Daniels said he would leave the country, and he remained.

Hakluyt · 13/05/2015 20:15

He resigned. His party executive didn't accept his resignation because on this at least, they are not stupid and know that he is a vote winner for them. He withdrew his resignation. Nothing wrong with that- a perfectly normal thing to do in practically any organization.

KidLorneRoll · 13/05/2015 20:35

3.8 million people definitely can be wrong.

plentychilled · 13/05/2015 20:45

I never voted UKIP nor do I support them but Nigel Farage himself is one of the main reasons why they've gained so much support this time around (not in seats obviously but votes). They would be stupid to just let him go.

BigChocFrenzy · 13/05/2015 21:46

I loved the description by Tory minister Anna Soubry of Farage, that he looks like “somebody has put their finger up his bottom and he really rather likes it”
He likes being UKIP leader too.
I understood his promise as being to give someone else in UKIP a chance at leadership, rather than giving the British public a break from his face and voice.
However, his party adore him and he agrees with their adoration, so they're all happy kippers.

RosaGertrudeJekyll · 13/05/2015 22:25

For UKIP supporters the fact he won more votes than the Greens, Lib Dems and the SNP cancels out the fact he didn't win his seat and I don't think he anticipated it

This ^ whatever anyone thinks its madness for him to resign.

DogStrummer · 13/05/2015 23:09

"He has proved to be someone that you cannot trust."

Here's what a politician who goes back on his word looks like:

orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/inout.jpg?w=480&h=479

I think Farage's credit is pretty good!

oddfodd · 14/05/2015 09:26

His decision is already causing UKIP to implode www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32732129

Good

ComposHatComesBack · 14/05/2015 11:49

odd this could make my week. It has been a shite admittedly.

LikeIcan · 14/05/2015 12:02

Be careful what you wish for guys, a new leader could propel UKIP to even greater heights. Look what happened to the SNP under Nicola sturgeon.

I wouldn't be opening the champagne just yet Wink

ComposHatComesBack · 14/05/2015 12:12

SNP are a far more established party with decades of parliamentary party and were already the governing party in Scotland when Sturgeon took over. She had long been acknowledged as rising star.

Ukip are a single issue party and beyond the cult of idle Nigel, there is no one who could match his profile or appeal amongst the hard of thinking. If he goes the whole ukip edifice comes down with him and they'll go back to be the preserve of the cranks and the obsessive xenophobes.

LikeIcan · 14/05/2015 12:46

ComposHat.

In all seriousness - who needs UKIP when you've got the Tories. Now they're in power without the LibDems holding them back they'll pretty much do everything UKIP would have done.

Original poster
Icimoi · 14/05/2015 13:50

But since he does fuck-all in his current position as an MEP, I don't know why he'd bother going into Westminster unless it's just to have a pretty background for yet another bloody interview.

Maybe to put in more expenses claims?

OP posts:
Original poster
Icimoi · 14/05/2015 13:53

"The attack on Mr Farage comes amid a separate row after UKIP's only MP, Douglas Carswell, resisted pressure from the party to claim £650,000 of taxpayers' money to fund up to 15 additional members of staff.
In a meeting with Mr Farage, Mr Carswell refused to budge from his position on the funds, which are available from public "short money" allocated to opposition parties to help cover their parliamentary costs."

Respect to Mr Carswell. None to Farage who plainly feels his snout should be firmly stuck into the public money trough already.

OP posts:
UncertainSmile · 14/05/2015 13:58

In all seriousness - who needs UKIP when you've got the Tories. Now they're in power without the LibDems holding them back they'll pretty much do everything UKIP would have done.

True. UKIP are a sideshow.