Wednesday 27 June 2018

"Welsh" Ukip from Farce to Fiasco,

 I know it's Ukip but really!

On; last week i was writingThe BBC reports that UKIP party members are to be balloted on who should be leader of the party's assembly group in the Welsh assembly.Welsh" Ukip's civil war develops into a farce.

 The move could see Caroline Jones - who has only been leader since May after she ousted Neil Hamilton - replaced.The South Wales West AM took over the leadership of the group from Neil Hamilton after two other members - David Rowlands and Michelle Brown - backed her.

She told BBC Wales the party's UK deputy leader Mike Hookem informed the group of five AMs about the vote in a meeting on Monday.
Ms Jones hoped she will win members' support, but said she did not know why a ballot had been called.


With Ms Jones and Mr Hamilton expected to stand  the choice  of the Ukip membership in Wales  estimated by former leader Mr Hamilton around 1,000". ment yjay two out of the three existing AMs would fight for the leadership.

Untoll now because it has emerged   that controversial (even for Ukip) AM Gareth Bennett is running in the party's Welsh Assembly leadership contest.

Mr Bennett was seen as the only Hamilton loyalist in the Assembly group but now he seems to have betrayed him

Seen as being on the right of the party (yes I know) Mr Bennett is Ccalling for a new referendum on devolution, he said he will campaign to abolish the assembly.
Mr Bennett is the second AM to announce their candidacy, after ex-group leader Neil Hamilton put his hat in the ring.
UKIP in members in Wales will be balloted by the end of July. Current leader Caroline Jones has yet to launch a campaign.
A ballot was declared for the leadership following a visit by UKIP deputy leader Mike Hookem to the assembly last week.


Mr Bennett said he would also campaign to row back "against the increasing cost of the Welsh language provisions".

"I am the only candidate with radical policies. The others are just offering things that are little different from the mainstream parties," he said.
"In Wales, the people now need to be able to have their say on whether or not they think that the Welsh Assembly serves a useful purpose.
"The last referendum, in 2011, was a complete con-trick, as people who did not support the existence of the Assembly had no option to vote for. We now need to have a meaningful referendum on this."
He added: "We have to review whether throwing millions of pounds of taxpayers money at a random target of achieving one million Welsh speakers is actually going to achieve anything.


"We should protect the Welsh Language in its heartlands in the Western areas."

 Before we start laughing however we need to remember that the  Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party (even with Ukip standing) achieved 4.4%  in the last Assembly elections (even with Ukip standing ) and a combined vote would even with Mr Bennett's  party low standing could see Anti-Devolution and Anti Welsh language  AM enter the Siambr.

It may have been a nightmare to see 7 Ukip AM elected two years ago , rather than see it end it could get  worse.

1 comment:

Leigh Richards said...

Thankfully the misfit bennett is unlikely to win the kipper leadership in wales - he's a joke even among kipper members by all accounts. But given he's now outed himself as a full blown abolitionist don't be surprised if he defects to the Abolish Wales Party (to give them their proper title) once his kipper leadership bid has been unsuccessful, which would unfortunately mean the wales hating party would have a representative in the senedd.

Course bennett has picked the worst possible time to challenge welsh devolution - ordinary people all wales are up in arms over westminster's snub to wales on the tidal lagoon.