Richard in his opening paragraph links to another blog on the same subject, " I was minded to develop the post by the Compleat Bastard, as he raises some interesting points about Ukip that are not being properly explored elsewhere. " Again click the link to read.
Richard writes, "Where much of the commentary goes wrong, though, is in the assumption that Ukip is a political party in the conventional sense, and can thus be assumed to be structured and behave in the same way as any other party. This is where piece citing Rob Ford, profiled by Bastard, goes wrong."
I do agree. As I have often written UKIP is a Farage gang cult not a political party and should theefore be analysed by gang experts ie psycologists, not political scientists.
Richard sums it up thus. " Actually, it is the shambling oaf Godfrey Bloom who has at least the advantage of having known Farage personally, and thus gets closer to the reality than Ford, the "political scientist". "Unlike his public persona", Bloom says, "he is very impressionable, defensive about his lack of traditional education and, believe it or not, racked with self doubt. I think this accounts for his reluctance to surround himself with alpha males".
And then in a diagnosis that I recognise as very close to the truth, he says: "There are no alpha males left in Ukip, Nigel has expunged all the alpha males. they're all beta, some of them very charming, but they are beta males, Nigel is very uncomfortable with any who can take the spotlight or even the intellectual or moral high ground".
I applies also to females. Hence the able and charming Ms James who almost won at Eastleigh is given a much lower profile than Suzanne Evans of the fixed inane grin. If Ms James had won at Eastleigh she would by now be UKIP's leader. She is a threat to Nigel. Ms Evans is not.
As one like Richard North who also has had the dubious privelege of knowing Farage personally I concur with his views on NF. Richard sums it up below.
"Ukip as an organisation has never acquired the intellectual core that turns it into a properly-founded political party which transcends its founders. Whatever founding principles it might have had when Sked started the party have long gone, and there has been nothing to replace them." Alan Sked is a big brain European historian almost in the same league as Niall Ferguson. Farage likes to wander round WW I battlefields like a tourist.
The Complete Bastard, a phrase used to describe me by one Matthew Hancock, when we both worked for the Bank of England, has some pithy remarks
"As Bongo Bloom remarks "There is a whole mafioso at Brooks Mews [Ukip's HQ in Mayfair, London] who are personally beholden to Nigel for their salary as are most Ukip MEPs" - and that's how he keeps a lid on it. Without that, it would be a squirming bag of competing egos that would have fallen out years ago." Exactly! They are mercenaries whose loyalty to UKIP extends only to their next EU funded pay check.
"Lunchtime O'Flynn warning that the party is troubled by "out of countrol egos", as if we didn't know that - while he attempts to put clear blue water between himself and Dougie, and Carswell, not to be outdone makes his pitch in the Times, while remembering to cover his own posterior."
The effect of this stuff is cumulative but what happens when Farage goes?
As CB says UKIP has no party machine, it has no founding ideas and it doesn't really know what it wants. Better to read it like a playground gang than a political party. Believing it will act like a political party is the mistake which prompts people to believe it has a future. It doesn't.
When Farage goes by whatever means UKIP will implode. It will quickly deteriorate into gang warfare, as rival factions make their bid for the spoils ie the MEP slots at 1 million Euros each. It will be like the Godfather.
As for Farage, I dealt with him post UKIP in an earlier blog. He will be safely ensconced on the red leather of the HoL . Some day some TV person will make a movie about him and he will become a national treasure.
"Ukip as an organisation has never acquired the intellectual core that turns it into a properly-founded political party which transcends its founders. Whatever founding principles it might have had when Sked started the party have long gone, and there has been nothing to replace them." Alan Sked is a big brain European historian almost in the same league as Niall Ferguson. Farage likes to wander round WW I battlefields like a tourist.
The Complete Bastard, a phrase used to describe me by one Matthew Hancock, when we both worked for the Bank of England, has some pithy remarks
"As Bongo Bloom remarks "There is a whole mafioso at Brooks Mews [Ukip's HQ in Mayfair, London] who are personally beholden to Nigel for their salary as are most Ukip MEPs" - and that's how he keeps a lid on it. Without that, it would be a squirming bag of competing egos that would have fallen out years ago." Exactly! They are mercenaries whose loyalty to UKIP extends only to their next EU funded pay check.
"Lunchtime O'Flynn warning that the party is troubled by "out of countrol egos", as if we didn't know that - while he attempts to put clear blue water between himself and Dougie, and Carswell, not to be outdone makes his pitch in the Times, while remembering to cover his own posterior."
The effect of this stuff is cumulative but what happens when Farage goes?
As CB says UKIP has no party machine, it has no founding ideas and it doesn't really know what it wants. Better to read it like a playground gang than a political party. Believing it will act like a political party is the mistake which prompts people to believe it has a future. It doesn't.
When Farage goes by whatever means UKIP will implode. It will quickly deteriorate into gang warfare, as rival factions make their bid for the spoils ie the MEP slots at 1 million Euros each. It will be like the Godfather.
As for Farage, I dealt with him post UKIP in an earlier blog. He will be safely ensconced on the red leather of the HoL . Some day some TV person will make a movie about him and he will become a national treasure.
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