dance, dance, wherever you may be
Not so very long ago, and before they turned on themselves, it was the Tories who felt most threatened by UKIP. To such an extent that many believe it was the risk of Conservative MPs following Douglas Cardwell’s defection lead that persuaded Dave to call the fateful EU referendum. Thankfully, following Carswell’s subsequent refusal to claim a £650,000 parliamentary subsidy for UKIP and to actively lobby for Farage’s longed-for knighthood, that relationship lasted no longer than a celebrity marriage. Furthermore, the ‘successful’ referendum result robbed them of their reason being and that, along with a steady parade of new leaders, then did it for the party.
So, it was hugely exciting last week to see another new leader and a new dubiously copied lion logo. Still they go on. Narrowly avoiding the alt-right anti-Islam Anna Marie Waters, along with another who proposes we pay dual nationals ten grand to repatriate and one who aims to spend £1bn mining the asteroid belt, UKIP have opted for former Lib Dem, former army officer, Henry Bolton. The people’s choice! Again. Lest we celebrate too much let’s just recall the dubious winner of one leadership contest, Diane James, lasted just eighteen days and the leading candidate to succeed her, Steve Woolfe, withdrew after being pictured face down in the European Parliament following a spat with a fellow Ukipper.
As for Bolton, the first few months of any party leader are both a very precious and precarious time but it would be all too easy to write them off. And it would be wrong to do so. It’s undeniably great fun to take the mickey but do not think for one second that the anger behind their only success has evaporated into the ether. It hasn’t and it’s bubbling away nicely just under the surface of current Brexit negotiations. Plenty of people considered UKIP a joke. Until they weren’t. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that puppet master Farage and funder Aaron Banks could again rally the pro-Brexit masses to rail against any ‘soft’ (aka realistic & workable) way forward. UKIP were always steeped in the blame-game and in this they remain steadfast and consistent. Positioning itself as the guard dog of Brexit, and with room now existing for an increasingly populist anti-immigration party, it remains too early to dance on UKIP’s grave.
