It was the brother v bro
ther challenge that considerably livened up the Labour Party leadership contest. Imagine if the maverick Nigel Farage had a brother standing against him to lead UKIP, two larger than life Farages, it would never be out of the headlines.
The results will be announced on 5th November and it is unlikely the same kind of fireworks will explode which the Milibands experienced. Farage is the only well known contender, he is brand UKIP, and a media darling. His party members have the chance now to give someone else the opportunity if they want a different style of leadership. He has three challengers – Eastern Region MEP and former Tory activist David Campbell-Bannerman, economist Tim Congdon and former boxer Winston McKenzie.
I met Campbell-Bannerman (left) during Euro election hustings last year and he was a fair candidate who didn’t try to score political points by massaging his own ego or slagging off our candidates. I remember thinking, “a pity he still isn’t Conservative”.
I have met Farage too. He was decent enough to return my phone call when I left a message asking to speak to him about an academic paper I was writing for a postgraduate Social Science Research Methods certificate on the success of UKIP during the the 2004 Euro Elections. A couple of weeks later I was sipping a coffee in the lobby of the European Parliament in Brussels during a visit to my MEP Robert Sturdy when Farage breezed past me. I couldn’t resist introducing myself as the anonymous mature student he had helped recently and explained about my day job for the first time. We sat and had a coffee together, and an invitation for dinner followed if I was ever to return.
I can’t imagine Farage not winning this contest, which is being held following the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch who decided after only nine months that he was not cut out of the job. How refreshingly honest.
I don’t think he can be described as “honest” after all his property flipping to avoid CGT
Can’t see Farage losing either.
Nice looking new site Ellee with good Google and Alexa rank ratings. Well done!
Jeremy, thanks for the compliment, and I’m cool with those rankings 🙂
This is what David says he wants to do on Facebook, and it makes good sense for UKIP. Could UKIP have a dual leadership working the way he suggests?
David Campbell BannermanOctober 7, 2010 at 7:18pm
Subject: PERSONAL STATEMENT ON UKIP LEADERSHIP CONTEST
Dear Facebook Friends,
As many of you will know, I am currently standing for Leader of UKIP.
I believe the choice now is between moving UKIP forwards and upwards to become a fully fledged political party – Britain’s fourth largest ( third if you regard LibCons as one ! ) OR falling backwards into a single issue party that just fights Euro elections.
The party needs stability, and it needs substance – more statesman than showman. The media mock us for having 4 leaders in one year ( Farage / Pearson / Interim / New ) – we now need a safe pair of hands.
I rate Nigel very highly, but he can’t do everything. I want him to be the ‘face of the party’ and lead in Europe why I get on with my team to professionalise the party.
I firmly believe in policies. Unless we have policies we won’t have councillors, if we have no councillors we wont have MPs, if we don’t have MPs we wont get out the EU. That’s why this is a battle for the soul of the party.
Please support teamdcb for a new, more professional and successful UKIP.
See http://www.facebook.com/l/267d0MDwVZwGOn7VXLQtUw5_19w;www.teamdcb.com for full details.
Best wishes,
David
What David says does make sense and he seems a nice enough person but I really can’t see him winning this contest. Then again nobody really expected Ed to win the labour party leadership I suppose.