The BBC reports that Lord Pearson of Rannoch, whom this blog and EUReferendum has supported (for instance, here and here), has been elected to be Leader of UKIP. The votes cast were as follows:
Lord Pearson: 4,743
Gerard Batten: 2,571
Nikki Sinclaire: 1,214
Mike Nattrass: 1,092
Alan Wood: 315
Whether that is the entire membership or some could not be bothered to vote remains open to question but, as ever, one can repeat: if you can't be bothered you have no right to complain. Undoubtedly, they will, though.
Naturally, I think this is an excellent move. Pearson will be much better at organizing the party and raising money as well as not putting people's backs up than Nigel Farage ever was. On the other hand, Farage will remain the main spokesman, the known face and very articulate voice of the party. Unless they fall out (and I do believe Mr Farage knows the importance of keeping Lord Pearson and his colleague Lord Willoughby de Broke on side) this should be a good working relationship. One hopes that the losing candidates will not spend too much time sulking in their tents, if for no other reason than that nobody is going to bother to win them round.
Iain Dale has a very friendly and positive posting while Tim Montgomerie contents himself with reporting the news though he cannot restrain himself from posting a silly and irrelevant comment about a peer not having democratic legitimacy. Dear Mr Montgomerie, the leader of a party does not have to be an elected politician; it is when the government is run by them that we have problems. In any case, Lord Pearson has just been elected to the leadership by UKIP members. Most of the comments are the usual silly rubbish.
However, the most interesting development will be reading friendly words from the Boss of EURef about the Leader of UKIP. Woo-hoo!
Is he capable of saying:
ReplyDelete"The Queen is Sovereign in this Realm and any act or treaty that says otherwise is Constitutionally illegal" ?
Also will he support research and essays concerning a post-EU UK in an Anglosphere context?
(I'll help set up a wiki-style site to act as 'The EU Reference' or whatever.
So, who would you consider to be a suicidal choice?
ReplyDeleteSo, I wonder who is in charge of UKIP nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIf Farage has really given up calling the shots, then I wonder why.
Give up being leader in order to stand in an election?
Pull the other one.
Sandy, I shall ignore the first question because it belongs to Umbrella Forum. On the second point, I don't yet know but shall try to work towards it. Certainly your offer is kindly received or will be, finances permitting.
ReplyDeleteDSD, have you looked at the other candidates? I mean, seriously.
David, ask those Toryboys. They seem to know all the answers.
With a sensible and inspiring leader (which I trust Lord Pearson to be) UKIP has a chance to win some seats, bearing in mind that the electorate holds the current bunch of MPs in catastrophic contempt. As for the candidates themselves Batten is ok, and I don't know who Wood is, but the other two would have been a disaster.
ReplyDeleteOn a practical note until Pearson runs his own press office but gets the party to pay for it, like Farage, the new leader walks in a shadow.
ReplyDeleteFor UKIP to give up Farage is a bit like someone giving up smoking!
Pearson was a good choice.
ReplyDeleteAs to UKIP numbers voting, I and several others did not receive ballot papers.
I would hope that this is just a minor, temporary glitch which will not be repeated.
and yet Pearson recieved less than 50% of the total vote.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when it will be his turn to be undermined from within?
Nick