Curiouser And Curiouser !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28977961

UKIP fighting amongst themselves it would seem !

[naomi24]

Hurrah!

[Gromit]

The Party leadership parachuting its own preferred candidate into an area, over-riding the wishes and selection process of the grass roots of the Party.

Something the Labour Party have specialised in for decades.

[mikey4444]

Makes it even more likely that UKIP is going to lose in Clacton it would seem to me. I am still not sure what Carslake is trying to achieve here, apart from his own public suicide. Its going to be enjoyable though !

[Quizmonster]

I'm no lawyer - and I assuredly have no axe to grind for UKIP - but surely Mr Lord was chosen as the party's representative for the 2015 GENERAL election. Carswell's defection has created a need for an earlier BYE-election, so I'd imagine UKIP has a perfect right to use Carswell as their candidate in the latter.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// Makes it even more likely that UKIP is going to lose in Clacton it would seem to me. ///

I think it would be wise for you to wait until after the by election before committing yourself, as you are likely to end up with egg on your face.

[mikey4444]

They may have the right Q but it is tactically a disaster for UKIP. Do they really think people are going to form orderly queues outside the Polling booths, when the Party is squabbling like cats in a sack ?

It is indicative of everything that is wrong with UKIP.....they are seen to be completely incompetent and lacking in credibility.

[naomi24]

//they are seen to be completely incompetent and lacking in credibility. //

Why do they concern you so much then?

[mikey4444]

I have just watched Bill Cash being interviewed by Jon Snow, on last nights Ch 4 News. I can't seem to find a link to the exact clip :::

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

Click on Thursday 28th and then click on the 'I'm not defecting to Ukip' - backbench Tory MP

He is making the same point that I have consistently made. He says that to get a referendum of our membership of the EEC, you have to have a government in place, with a majority, and only the Tories can achieve that. UKIP, Labour, or a Labour/LibDem coalition will never have the referendum.
So I still can't see the point in voting UKIP. Bill Cash is nobodies fool and his anti-Europe qualifications are impeccable. So perhaps people should pay him some attention.

[Gromit]

After initial doubts, I believe UKIP could win this seat. I did say not in a million years yesterday :-) but having looked more closely at the history of the seat and its predecessor, it looks like the place where a Tory/LibDem backlash could happen. It was Labour in 2001 and became Tory in 2005, so they have form on electing then rejecting the Government.

UKIP are not being incompetent. A series of circumstances have presented themselves and they have seen the possibilities and acted on them.

It is opportunistic, but that is how elections are won.

[Quizmonster]

No one ever seems to consider the fact that there is nothing whatsoever to stop the Labour party from promising an EU referendum in 2016 in their manifesto. For some, that would mean, "Yippee! That's a whole year earlier than the Tories have promised!"
(I'm not recommending any such thing, of course, but...what if?

[Gromit]

Mikey, from Today's Guardian...

// The right is beginning to doubt that Cameron can deliver a referendum, and not only because the polls still point to a Labour victory, or a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party. For even if the Tories were able to form a minority government after 7 May next year, they might lack the support to get a referendum. And with an overall majority, the right now suspects that he would find a way to lead a campaign to stay in Europe. That is why they are pressing him to spell out his negotiating terms, terms that can never satisfy at the same time both his own Eurosceptics and the rest of Europe with whom he must negotiate a deal. In short, a decisive Ukip presence at Westminster may begin to look like the best way to get Britain out of the EU. //

[retrocop]

Well mop my fevered brow. I must be delirious. I dreamt that mikey had also defected and was banging the drum for us all to vote Tory in order to obtain the desired referendum??? Must of got out of bed too early today.

[grumpy01]

As I said in my post yesterday the outcome of this by-election will depend on how much of Mr Carswell's vote is party or personally based.If it is the latter he may well pull it off which could then lead to the other handful of Tory MP's that Stuart Wheeler has been wining and dining(we are told) also defecting.

[ichkeria]

Mr Lord was on the radio: he didn't sound so thrilled by the "bravest political gesture of a generation" or whatever Farage called it. In fact he sounded furious. Odd.
UKIP really are a car crash waiting to happen. Part of me actually wants them to get hold of some sort of power, which would discredit them for ever.
But then, no ...

[anotheoldgit]

mikey444

There are some asking about you in your "Another Non-Pakistani Paedophilephile" thread.

[ChillDoubt]

It's such a big story it only just made it(almost as an afterthought) at the bottom of the link.
As soon as he heard yesterday's news the guy must have seen the writing on the wall. He didn't like it but hey-ho, such is political life.
There will be plenty of other marginals for him to choose from soon enough.

[mikey4444]

At least there are two of us that think UKIP are a car crash waiting to happen ichkeria ....I thought it was only me !

[retrocop]

aog
Are you talking about mikeys sudden withdrawal from any further participation in that particular farce or was it tactical?

[ChillDoubt]

The kind of car crash that mounts the kerb, destroys the barrier and ends up in your living room, just like it did in the recent European elections.
Be careful what you wish for mikey.

[grumpy01]

Read in the Daily Mail the other day that our constituency (Forest of Dean) was one of UKIP's target seats.There are a handful of district councillor's here but would expect that if, or more likely when, our sitting M.P.gets voted out next May the seat will return to Labour as it was for quite a time when known as West Gloucestershire.