UKC

That didn't take long!

In reply to MG:

He never left. I thought he might be back this autumn, as he said he might run later in the year.. Never thought it would be this quick.

In reply to Dave B:

too big an ego to go. its like multiple encores. eejit.

In reply to MG:

Is the first the first broken promise from a politician since the election??

In reply to MG: Good, should be good for the referendum to have him as leader (in terms of getting a 'stay in' vote).

In reply to MG:

Looks like the party looked at the other options and winced. Can see the decision being used to beat him with for some time to come by sections of the media

In reply to paulcarey:


He told us he is a "man of his word", so there you go......

In reply to MG:
Given that he's their only recognisable member it's hardly a surprise.

In reply to MG:
Isn't it a one man party? Without him there is no UKip, I suppose it was too much to expect that he'd really crawl away to him slime filled cave and and never be seen again.

In reply to MG:
Better him back than some REAL nasty/nazi bastard!

In reply to Dave the Rave:


Better him than someone with a snowball's chance in hell of being taken seriously.

In reply to Removed User:


Yes.

In reply to Trangia:

he did resign, they just didn't accept it. Apparently. Which is handy, because it means he stuck to his word, sort of.lol

With Labour in turmoil, Lib Dems nowhere, SNP rampant and an EU ref on it's way (which will prob derail the tories) and the 3.8m votes they won...it's no surprise the party wants him to stay, it's not like there is a pool of credible candidates with his appeal (like it or not) they can pick from to replace him.

In reply to Mike Stretford:


Not sure about that. Imagine it had been, well, some other UKIP foil hat merchant. Might have been even better.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:


possibly but I suspect without him they would fail to get any mainstream media attention (outside of the occasional making a fool out of someone) and would mostly fade into the background and telegraph comments section.

In reply to dissonance:

Totally agree, UK politics is much more hilarious with him around. UKIP is a one man band , but I put the EU referendum down to him, and he did get 3.8m votes....so on the face of it, he's done his job pretty well (apart from not winning his seat...which was a pretty big fail, and not managing to resign when he promised he would)

In reply to MG:

It was a promise no one expected him to keep, but I don't understand how he gets to say this: "I’m proud that Ukip fought the most positive election campaign of all the parties up until May 7th. We had a message, “Believe in Britain” that we know resonated with more than four million people across this country. Contrast that to the other parties, who used scare tactics about our NHS, about the Scottish Nationalists, and about Britain’s membership of the European Union."

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:


The only other credible candidate was unexpectedly unavailable:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/last-moon-nazi-dies-201505...

In reply to Dave Garnett:
I already had the kids saying Farage looked like a Kerbal space pilot.

Seems they are not alone

http://www.reddit.com/r/KSPMemes/comments/34ekkx/kerbal_enters_uk_politics_...

In reply to MG:
He resigned in the same way that Jesus died.

(count to 100)

Ta DAAAA! Did you miss me?

In reply to Removed User:


He convinced the best part of 4 million people in the country. We ridicule him at our peril. His narrative is very convincing. It is just a shame the reality is far from what he talks about.

In reply to ByEek:


But isn't that like all the other parties as well ?

In reply to ByEek:

He convinced the best part of 4 million people in the country. We ridicule him at our peril. His narrative is very convincing. It is just a shame the reality is far from what he talks about.

Didn't they say the same about Hitler?
He's tried the pub approach. Next it will be a fire and a night of eating pork pies...

In reply to Mike Stretford:


Why? He seems to be pretty good at what he does, he has fairly broad appeal and people believe him. I don't know why personally, it seems obvious to me the game he's playing but he's far from an incompetent irrelevance.

jk

In reply to MG:

And now he's a big advocate of PR!

Grudgingly I suppose he's got a valid point.................

In reply to lone:


Not really no. I am sure that the Conservatives will deliver much of what they promised in the run up to the election. Similarly I imagine Labour or the Lib Dems would have too.

The idea that immigration can be stemmed by simplistic measures he has outlined is just not workable. Leaving the EU will not solve anything with regard to immigration. If people want to come here to work, they will achieve that come hell or high water.

In reply to MG:

The party didn't accept his resignation? He's lost control as leader and should resign.



(Meditating on this paradox is not helping me become one with the universe. Back to the sound of one hand slapping spamface.)

In reply to jkarran:


He's a 'marmite' type, yes he has appeal to some but he repels the majority...... I know polls have been called into question recently, but I think they are right on this one.

This resignation farce will damage him too.

In reply to Removed UserDeleted bagger:

As Billy Bragg pointed out last night on Panorama, if we had PR the result of the election would be a coalition of the Tories and UKIP!

In reply to Bob Moulton:

I'm not sure even the Tories would stoop that low.

Neil

In reply to Bob Moulton:


As much as that idea makes me queasy* I think it's better that parliament reflects those we vote for rather than reflecting generations of boundary fiddling to fix the result at roughly 50:50 red:blue.

*would it realistically be any worse than what we have now, a Tory government with a tiny majority beholden to their rightwing Eurosceptic backbenchers, many of whom would no doubt be willing jump ship for UKIP if they saw the tide turning their way.

jk

In reply to Bob Moulton:


I think the result would have been different if we had have had PR. I think the Tory surge came from people worried about disproportionate SNP influence and instability.

In reply to jkarran:


I totally agree. There has been much derision of people who have voted UKIP and even Tory which seems to completely miss the point of democracy. Calling Farage a joke misses the fact that 4 million voted for him. And they didn't vote because they are stupid, they voted because they felt he offered them something the other parties didn't. If we feel Farage is a negative force in British politics, it is for us to win the debate, not to simply call him a joke.

In reply to ByEek:


Yep, you're spot on, and I was aware of that when I posted, I just couldn't help myself. His narrative is not convincing to me, but yes, clearly it is to 4m others for whatever reasons.

In reply to jkarran:

"Farage is back". Oh great. What will it take to make him and all his vile ilk go away and never come back? Just wondering.

I think I'll go and bash my head on the table now. I want to be unconscious for a while.

In reply to abseil:


I honestly don't know. I think we're stuck with increasingly right of center economics but hopefully the cursed EU referendum will take the wind out of UKIP's sails. That said their support base isn't going away, there'll be more like him to exploit that when Farage eventually loses momentum.

jk

In reply to ByEek:

Those two things are not mutually exclusive. B is clearly true, which in no way means A has to be false.

Do you deal with the public much? In my experience a quite alarmingly large minority of people are utter f*ckwits.

In reply to MG:

I expect Newzoids will milk his resignation and subsequent U turn to maximum effect.

In reply to MG:

Only had a quick read through this thread, but from my experience as an activist and local election candidate this time around I can say that UKIP is certainly not a one man band. I met quite a number of UKIP supporters and activists with whom I disagree with on almost every issue but who none the less were polite, articulate and committed to their cause.

Sadly I fear the 4 million UKIP voters include a significant proportion with racist and bigoted opinions, but it would be quite wrong to tar them all with that brush. They genuinely believe we would be better off out of the EU. Those of us who believe we should stay have a big job to do persuading a majority to vote to stay in. Let's hope Cameron sticks to his Bloomberg message (worth reading at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/eu-speech-at-bloomberg), and leads Tories into the Yes camp even if he doesn't get a great deal out of the renegotiation.

Martin

In reply to MG:

It's simply really, after carefully considering his position, Nigel has decided to stay rather than let an immigrant steal his job

In reply to deepsoup:


This may well be true, but politics is not an intellectual activity despite a third of our MPs being publicly educated. The f*ckwits you talk of aren't going away. They still experience life and all its struggles and their vote counts.

In reply to Martin Hore:


In terms of getting any media attention* they are. Or do you think they would manage to retain the high same presence and not fade to green party levels if they lost Farage. I would go for the latter, unless they got lucky and found someone else who hasnt popped up before.

* By this I mean positive and not local rep says something horrendously racist/homophobic/etc.