UKIP: come friendly bus …
Saturday 17 August 2013
In fact, it is already the case though that my personal issues with the leadership of the party have restrained my writing. Although I have seen for myself the back-stabbing, double-dealing, incompetence and bad-faith within the party, I have been a lot less critical of it than some, such asJunius and Dr Eric Edmond. And, more often than not, on UKIP-related matters, Autonomous Mindrather than this blog takes the lead.
However, as I have observed before, the behaviour and fate of the UK's leading "eurosceptic" party is a valid and necessary subject for discussion by a blog named EU Referendum, which concerns itself with the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. Not to discuss UKIP would be bizarre.
But another very good reason for writing about UKIP is that the subject cannot be left to the legacy media. Otherwise we are left to suffer the soft-focus wiffle about the oaf Bloom, of such profound superficiality that one wonders whether the Daily Mail is parodying itself.
If readers are to have the slightest chance of forming a balanced view about UKIP – those few who want to take the trouble – it is vital that they have a wider range of fare than Mail pap, and are not reliant on Daily Telegraph offerings, the latest one of which is probably conveying the exact opposite of reality.
This is the one (pictured) that has Stuart Wheeler, UKIP treasurer saying that the party would be finished if Nigel Farage fell under a bus, admitting that it is a one-man band.
One is tempted to recall Margaret Thatcher's response to the question of what would happen to her if a bus ran her down. She is reputed to have said: "it wouldn't dare!". But if anything sees Farage's early departure from this mortal coil, it is more likely to be heart disease, as the combination of insufficient exercise, poor diet, too much alcohol and late-night clubbing takes its toll.
However, to paraphrase Betjemen, we might still find ourselves chanting: "Come, friendly bus and run down Farage, then with thanks, return to garage …". But whether it is a heart attack or friendly bus that does for The Great Leader, this could be the best thing that has ever happened to UKIP.
Whatever the utility the man has brought to the Party in the past, Farage has long outlived his usefulness. He could now best serve the Party as a dead hero, thereby ensuring that the real Farage did not interfere with the myth that has been created around him – the one that has him as a decent, caring human being.
In the short-term, the departure of this divisive man would probably see a period of internecine squabbling and blood-letting similar to that which saw the departure of Michael Holmes in 2000 as leader (precipitated then largely by Nigel Farage), from which there would probably have to be a transitional leader of the ilk of Jeffrey Titford, before a new leader emerged.
A feature of this period would doubtless be the clearing out of the Farage claque and the introduction of some fresh blood – and perhaps the return of some members who had resigned or been shunted out of the party. In the absence of oaf Bloom and Farage, even I might be inclined to rejoin.
If their departure also enabled some of the manifest inadequacies of the party to be redressed – not least the failure to produce a credible EU exit plan – then the "friendly bus" will have done good work. The Party will be able to break free from the drag of one of its founding figures and his personal ambitions, and focus on the future.
Come, friendly bus indeed. It could shape the future of the anti-EU movement.
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Richard North 17/08/2013
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