24/01/2014
No wonder Farage considers the 2010 manifesto is "drivel" and its author an "
idiot". It was fronted by his old mucker, Campbell Bannerman, the
very same "deputy leader" who he brought into the party, whence he jumped ship
for the same old reasons and is now a Tory MEP.
However, said Bannerman at the time, "We've had 17 policy groups working on this for three years", which means that Farage has cast in a rather unfavourable light those of his members who contributed to the manifesto.
He was later to complain of spending "four years of hard work creating 18 policy groups to produce a comprehensive set of domestic policies that UKIP could campaign on". But then Farage intervened, arbitrarily jettisoning all his domestic policy papers, ordering them off the national website. Bannerman regarded this as, "an act of sheer political vandalism".
That said, during the 2010 launch, Bannerman was followed by
Farage who had put his name to the foreword of the
manifesto, without a hint of his inner feelings or any attempt to criticise the content. That would only come later, with the remarkable sight of a party leader condemning the very policy he had fought a general election on.
This is now giving legs to
yesterday's story, with the
Guardian pitching in, and
Iain Martin asking whether Farage is losing the plot. And that attracted over a thousand comments on the
Telegraph website within hours, soon to make over 3,500, many from the usual suspects. Content managers must be delighted with the traffic.
North Jr, however, offers his views
on his blog, and so far gets no comments â demonstrating one again that it is the platform, more than anything, which attracts the traffic. But his views make an uncomfortable read for any UKIP supporters â not that many will bother to read it.
On the other hand,
Conservative Home - ever in the forefront - speculates on whether Patrick O'Flynn, "iconoclastic journalist turned political spinner", could be UKIP's next leader. Bless.
What I find particularly entertaining, though, is the claim by Farage that he didn't read the manifesto, which was posted on the party website.
"But, if the party leader is not familiar with the content of his own website, observes North Jr, what then can be said of his competence?" "Here we have a leader who doesn't even know what his own party stands for. Hardly surprising then that his followers don't either".
Then, Farage was the man who used to have his e-mails printed for him so that he could read them. He would then respond to them in long-hand, for some hapless assistant to type the replies into the office machine. In truth, Farage is not really of this world. No wonder he is so easily caught out.
COMMENT: "FAINT PRAISE" THREAD
