Nigel Farage expels entire UKIP membership for bringing party into disrepute

[ttosca]

The entire membership of UKIP across Britain – including councillors, MEPs and grassroots activists- has been expelled from the party following a hearing in front of a UKIP disciplinary panel in London.

Details of the reasons for the expulsions have not been disclosed, but party leader Nigel Farage confirmed to the media that it was in response to allegations that the entire membership was full of intolerant, narrow-minded, crackpot dingbats who pretend to be libertarian but in fact simply don’t like foreigners and homosexuals much.

In response to the mass expulsions, the former UKIP membership said they “feel sickened” at the way they had been treated and planned to appeal against the decision.

Immediately after the expulsions, the disciplinary panel members announced they had also expelled themselves from the party for bringing the party into disrepute, leaving Mr Farage as the sole UKIP member.

tompride.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/nigel-farage-expels-entire-ukip-membership-for-bringing-party-into-disrepute/

But ukip are a total non-entity outside south East England. All this nonsense about farage being 'what the public want' and the media being in denial seems utterly ludicrous looking in from outside ukip's territory.

The only thing exceptional about farage is how much of a pillock he is. I really don't think anyone who'd have to face him thinks he's some kind of intimidating intellect or debating powerhouse.

CalamitouslyWrong

But ukip are a total non-entity outside south East England. All this nonsense about farage being 'what the public want' and the media being in denial seems utterly ludicrous looking in from outside ukip's territory.

You're calamitously wrong, I'm afraid, and about 4 years out of date. UKIP are picking up stacks of Labour votes in core Labour areas. Most of their largest branches are outside the SE now.

Honestly, round here they have no presence whatsoever. I think the ukip supporters are trying to talk themselves up as some huge threat, when most people do actually see them as fairly ridiculous.

CalamitouslyWrong

Honestly, round here they have no presence whatsoever. I think the ukip supporters are trying to talk themselves up as some huge threat, when most people do actually see them as fairly ridiculous.

Unless you live in the entire country outside the SE, you're painting with a very broad brush indeed. Depends where you go. As is the case with every party, really. Labour have been wiped out of SE England, for example, except in areas dependent on welfare through benefits or a couple of areas stuffed full of Islington refugees. You won't find a Conservative MP north of the border.

But yes, in many respects they're still a tiny party. They don't have the handouts from either the unions or big business, they can't campaign at that scale, and they don't have the infrastructure (eg campaign databases) that the other parties have.

That they're achieving 20% of the vote in Labour and Conservative heartlands without all that money and infrastructure remains a remarkable feat however you look at it.

They're also a bunch of frothing idiots, which limits them somewhat. And I include farage in that.

Frothing idiot = someone who genuinely believes passionately in their cause.

Non-frothing idiot = the rest of the party leaders (except Clegg for whom you can omit the non-frothing prefix).

CalamitouslyWrong

They're also a bunch of frothing idiots, which limits them somewhat. And I include farage in that.

If being idiots limited people, then how did Labour ever get in to power?

But fine, you keep thinking that. Their most effective weapon is that they are consistently underestimated.

CTW Farage is hardly 'a frothing idiot', for a moment I thought you were talking about the war-monger Blair.
Farage is highly intelligent, I have met him on a number of occasions, and contrary to belief he doesn't take any prisoners.
Farage is not a career politician, in fact he let someone else be leader (can't remember his name, some old guy) of UKIP, when he stood as a PPC for Buckingham.

I remember his exact words in a private conversation, he easily let the reins to another person.

Farage is genuine and is not a career politician, he wants out of the EU, it's what he has fought for for the last 21 years.

As he says he "wants his country back" and so do I, that's why I and many others will vote UKIP.

For almost the first ever on MN I find myself in the company of anti-EU ers

It's really quite refreshing

Given Nigel Farrage appears not to know what his party stands for I wonder if anyone voting UKIP really understands what will happen.

'Other gems in the party's election pitch include making the London underground Circle Line actually go in a circle again.'

Can't see anything wrong with that. Make things mean what they say. No more spin.

'Nigel Farage got into a spot of bother on the BBC's Daily Politics on Thursday when he was ambushed with the details of his party's own 2010 manifesto.'

That's what I have been trying to say, it's not about detail, it's about values.

It was disappointing. It was a bit of car crash and nennypops is right that Farage is not too good when he is challenged in a one-to-one. Louise Cooper made mincemeat out of him over sexism in the City.

It was all a bit disapponting for the "people's revolt".
The good thing is most of the people don't watch the Daily Politics. But the bad thing is, I am no longer sure that Farage would cut it in a leadership debate when challenged.

Its sad, but maybe the revolution has been postponed, and the spinners will win again. Maybe 2014 will be the year of the "polar bear" after all.

But I still say that the Euro elections will be an earthquake, so hope remains eternal.

I watched the Daily Politics yesterday when Andrew Neil asked Nigel Farage about these supposed UKIP policies that included taxi drivers wearing uniform etc.

Farage responded that the 2010 manifesto is no longer valid and that a new manifesto with new policies would be followed.

Louise Cooper having ranty shout at someone is not 'making mincemeat' out of them. It was a pathetic attack. He had made it quite clear that he 1) was taliking about a very small sector of city activity, namely brokers who have established personal relations with client groups and 2) that he did not support that 'discrimmination'.

You do blow a bit hot and clod Claig. Politics is a long game and, as I said upthread, it's not about the cult of personality.

Pure media smearing - by concentrating on trivia and opportunities to attempt to sully. You coukd see Farage was just weary at the persistent banality of questioning he was faci anf his interrogators insistence on distorting the facts.

I would be far more concerned that the former Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer voted for the Maastricht Treaty having professed noy to have read that document.

That's far more worrying than the colour of any propsed taxi driver uniform.

'You do blow a bit hot and cold Claig.'

I don't follow a cult of personality and that is why I am disappointed to see that Farage was not as capable as I thought he was.

I do not blow hot and cold in my core beliefs. I am anti the spinners and I want someone to expose the 'polar bear' crap and to restore our sovereignty for us.

I hope that Farage can do it and that is why I support him and UKIP.

But I am disappointed that he may not be able to persuade enough other people based on his performance. It won't stop me voting for him, because as I already said, I vote based on values rather than detail, but most people will probably prefer to scrutinise the detail and Farage was weak on detail.

Louise Cooper brought up a very good point about "gardening leave" which I felt that Farage didn't adequately address. I will still vote for Farage, but I want him to do better or he may not be able to convince enough other people.

Isabel Hardman of the Spectator is on the Daily Politics now.
She rightly said that UKIP is the "hang em all" party.

I agree 100% with her. That is why they now have recently got huge support. These voters vote on values rather than detail. They won't care that Farage is weak on detail. I don't care either. But I want UKIP to win and I realise that lots of other people will care.

I think Farage must up his game for those voters or UKIP may not be successful.

It's a bit worrying though when a person stands for parliament/council on a party platform without knowing what the party stands for. Farage's defence was "I didn't write that manifesto, I was just a candidate" Which strikes me as really strange. How do you dismiss the politics of the party you represent and still hope to be taken seriously.

I rather think that Farrage is relying on his personality and his reputation as the average privately educated bloke down the pub to get him through. It worked for BoJo so I can't see why it wouldn't work for him. His stance seems to be to distance himself from the more swivel eyed or embarrassing UKIP policies even if he's publicly supported them in the past.

Keep smearing - it shows you're rattled.

I have obsoultely no interest in what Isabel Hardman has to say on the subject. She's a Telegraph columnist and the Telegraph is a Tory-leaning newspaper.

Gardening leave is a joke. OK, you are supposed to be out of the workplace but in reality most of those on gasrdening keave use the time to increase their professional skills and in very intense networking within their sector.

Stating the gardening leave is similar to maternity leave is absolute nonsense.

No need to smear. They manage that all by themselves.
I just wonder at the turkey voting for Christmas aspect of the whole thing. I can see how to some, the subject of the EU is very important and should be addressed. However, it seems that the party that makes an issue of it also is constantly exposing themselves as a bunch of racist mysoginists.

I really don't understand voting for a party on one issue and managing to turn a blind eye to the fact that their stated belief is that you are a second class citizen.

slug, they are not a racist party.

Tory MP Priti Patel's dad stood as a candidate.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10028858/Priti-Patels-Ukip-candidate-father-says-Ukip-is-not-racist-party.html

There are some members who are fruitcakes and do make obnoxious twitter statements etc, but that is not what the party stands for.

A lot of pundits do not understand the real mood of the public. UKIP did not get 25% of voters in many council areas because of Europe, because they have had the same European policy for years and people didn't vote for them in large numbers.

There is a huge shift in public sentiment, a feeling that the others are all in it together and that the Tories have let many of the real Tories down and that is why I believe that Isabel Hardman is right in her analysis that the surge in support for UKIP is because they are the "hang em all" party.
And that is why being short on detail won't deter those voters, but we know that the media will do their best to smear and try and stop UKIP over that so UKIP have to put up a good fight on that issue so as not to allow the media to put voters off.

Farage interviewd on LBC this morning by Nick Ferrari.

I didn't read UKIP's manifesto of 2010.
Farage says he didn't read it either and it was drivel. I am a bit disappointed by that because I expect senior party members to check if what it says makes sense and meets party policy.

So, if leaving the EU is your No1 political priority, which party should you vote for?

Looking at the parties that have stated they will leave the EU I have a choice of

UKIP
BNP
SinnFein

I fully expect you'll say that grouping should tell me something. But conversely it shows how disenfranchised someone who has leaving the EU as their No1 political priority actually is.

My big regret is that UKIP ever diverged from being a single-issue party and started having a whole sheaf of policies. It has attracted the lunatic fringe and is now in danger of losing it's long-standing voters.

wetaugust, it is swings and roundabouts. As a single issue party, they never attracted enough votes to challenge the establishment. Farage says in that interview that the scutiny and attacks of UKIP are now because they are really challenging the establishment, and that is true. The establishment is rattled because they know that millions of people do not agree with their policies and have turned elsewhere.

There is a tide in human events and this tide of anti-EU and pro-freedom and pro-truth is now high because of all the lies and failure that the people of Europe have had to suffer under their corrupt, failing, puppet elites who have destroyed their economies, led them into unnecessary wars and been beholden to an unelected, bureaucratic, technocratic elite.

Everywhere you look, you see hypocrisy and lies. That is why a
plain-speaking party is so popular. Farage says in that interview that man-made climate change is nonsense. No ifs, no buts, no spin, no bull - he calls it as it is - nonsense. That takes courage that the puppets do not possess.

Look at the "ethical", party - the LibDems.
These scandals with harrassment show the public the hypocrisy behind their "ethical" mask.

The public is looking for the truth, it is fed up of being lied to.

Well I fear the UKIP is becoming a universal clothes horse onto which every grievance is being pinned.

Expectations need to be managed as the disappointment when UKIP fails to deliver everthing that everyone ever wanted will be huge.

As a single issue party it was not popular but it was credible. As a party with a manifesto covering every aspect of policy, international and domestic, it is not.