Tuesday 3 February 2015

A crash landing

The strange tale of Ukip in Wales has taken another bizarre turn with the resignation of James Cole, the party's deputy chairman, who wrote a farewell message on Facebook saying, "I now believe that the party has lost direction here in Wales, and now it seems to have turned into an autocratic, dictatorial private members club" (see Hope not Hate).

Cole was, for a matter of hours, Ukip's parliamentary candidate for Llanelli, and according to the Ukip Wales website there is still no candidate for that seat, although it was supposed to have selected someone in January.

The same is true for a whole slew of other Welsh constituencies, including the Rhondda, Newport West, Ogmore, Swansea East, Pontypridd, Preseli Pembrokeshire and Cynon Valley - with less than 100 days to go before the general election.

Cole's description of the autocratic, dictatorial nature of the party in Wales is almost certainly a reference to Nigel Farage's appointment of Nathan Gill as "Ukip leader" in Wales.

One of Gill's tasks is, somewhat ironically, to make sure that nobody with a dodgy past gets through the selection process. Having weeded out the crooks, racists, homophobes and nutcases, it seems there is no one else left.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

They have pressed the self destruct button,in Wales
anyway.

Anonymous said...

I suspect not, 06:28.

UKIP represents 'a cause', to my mind not a very attractive or pleasant cause but 'a cause' nonetheless. And perhaps a better cause than Plaid Cymru now represents.

Interesting times. And Nathan Gill certainly does outscore most of his 'Welsh', often rather too Welsh for many, political rivals when it comes to image presentation and the speaking of English.

Emlyn Uwch Cych said...

Despite their total lack of connection with Wales, the Kippers will be given far more media coverage in this country before the Election than Plaid Cymru. Go figure, eh.

Bill Chapman said...

Even where UKIP has candidates, it does not seem to be doing anything, hoping to gain votes from its presence in the U.K. national media. There is no sign in Aberconwy of our UKIP candidate (a Mormon, by the way), whereas the Plaid and Labour candidates have been out and about, talking and listening to people. It seems curious that the party which claims the "establishment" does not listen to the voice of the people does not bother to listen to the people.

Jac o' the North, said...

Cneifiwr, your final paragraph had me laughing uncontrollably. And just when I'd regained my composure Anon 06:28 got me started again. Enough!

Anonymous said...

So 9.58 & 20.06,everything is fine within UKIP ?Defections,suspensions members saying stupid things
unnecessary that's what I have seen in the last few
weeks,or maybe it's me that's living on Mars.I don't
what the polls say now they used to be 14%-16% for
UkIP in Wales for the Westminster election ?Where do they get some of these people from ,cant they see
that the opposition parties are constantly watching
and waiting for any mistakes they make.

Redhead said...

Coincidentally, Anon 06.28 also has an excellent command of the English language don't you think .....

Anonymous said...

Redhead,I am Welsh you see bach,brought up to speak
welsh,and don't be a such a snob.Ok Duckey.