It really is becoming bit embarrassing reporting on the latest absurd goings on in that retirement home for right wing geriatrics and conspiracy nut jobs that goes by the name of the United Kingdom Independence Party as it continues its journey into the gutter of politics and oblivion.
As we have recently reported, members have been leaving in droves, and the list of its official spokespeople has been shrinking almost daily. Now, they have lost Home Affairs spokesman Steve Unwin, (above left) who quit saying he doesn’t have the time or inclination to be involved any more, and Agriculture Spokesperson Pat Bryant (above right) who died recently of lung cancer and whom they are struggling to replace.
These are significant losses. Bryant was a longstanding senior member, and for the most part blindly loyal. There were signs, however, that before she died the scales had fallen from her eyes and she made no secret of her loathing for Chairman Ben Walker. The only realistic successor to run the southwest region is relatively recent recruit from the Tories, Leanne Barnes, but she appears reluctant to step up and frankly would be mad to do so.
Unwin was also a veteran of the party and is believed to have quit because, like so many others, he lost faith entirely in the leadership vote which led to the election of Lois Perry in May. Perry, of course, herself quit only a few weeks later to be replaced, eventually, by Nick Tenconi, brought over from Turning Point UK. A cunning and nasty piece of work by all accounts, Tenconi has lost no time in sitting down with Tommy Robinson, Lawrence Fox, Katie Hopkins and their ilk (picture below) to discuss working together, in the process dragging UKIP even further down into the gutter,
Tenconi, centre with beard, flanked by Katie Hopkins and Stan Robinson
And UKIP is probably set for another high-profile departure fairly soon. Down in Wales, regional organiser Paul Campbell is displaying all the symptoms of someone on the verge of throwing in the towel. This is the man who, memorably, ran an election crowdfunding campaign for 17 weeks prior to the general election, and raised not a single penny. Small wonder he wasn’t inclined to stand as a candidate himself.
Campbell, who doubles up as probably the most unlikely Elvis Presley impersonator you will encounter, does at least have a modicum of organising ability and if he stomps off the Welsh organisation, such as it is, will probably fall into in the hands of Stan Robinson and convicted fraudster Dan Morgan, the all-talk, no-action duo behind Voice of Wales. That will likely spell the end of UKIP in Wales.
Next to quit? Wales UKIP organiser and Elvis impersonator, Paul Campbell
And there are signs that the attrition is being repeated at less exalted, but nevertheless vital, levels of the party. Whoever was responsible for proofreading UKIP’s publicity material has also either walked or is on an extended holiday: how else might we explain the posters members are being asked to download and distribute which tell us that ‘The UK Indepedence (sic) Party will withdraw from the 1951 UN refugee Convention…’ or that ‘Britain is built on Christian-Judeau values…’?
Perhaps the latter has been influenced by new leader Nick Tenconi’s penchant for the gym and martial arts training. It is certainly part of his declared intention to lead UKIP on a crusade to return Britain to the true path of Jesus Christ and his church, that departure, needless to say, being announced without any reference to the party membership.
The most tantalising, though, is the announcement that the party is “updating its team of Spokes People” suggesting that Royal Navy veteran Ben Walker is also now preparing to assume the mantle of Monty Python’s legendary superhero, Bicycle Repair Man…
