Pearson quits as UKIP Leader

Recovering from the earthquake news that Lord Pearson has quit as UKIP Leader, I found myself wondering if anybody could name any UKIP Leader other than Nigel Farage? Some bloggers are getting very excited today about a Farage comeback, others claiming huge names like David Campbell-Bannerman (against whom I once debated) will stand. Either way I can't see this contest setting the political (or real) world on fire. Let them get on with it in peace.

Oh, and for your interest the previous leaders were:

1993-1997 Alan Sked (who then quit the party claiming it was on the political fringe)

1997-1999 Michael Holmes (who was forced to quit after claims he was too pro-European - he went on to quit the party in 2000)

1999-2002 Jeffrey Titford (probably the only person to come out of this well)

2002-2006 Roger Knapman (who was found to be employing Polish immigrants and spent much of his leadership being undermined by Robert Kilroy-Silk)

2006-2009 Nigel Farage (who ended up challenging the Speaker and begin humiliated in the 2010 General Election but just survived death after being involved in a plane crash)

Chloe Smith MP

So, what's happened whilst I've been on holiday then?

Oh yes, the Labour Party in Norwich completely imploded, the LibDems fell flat on their faces and the Green bandwagon halted at the steps of Norwich North. And we have a new, excellent Conservative MP in the City.

Chloe took a lot of slings and arrows in the campaign for her age and lack of experience; I think that she will now turn these into virtues as she does a clean sweep of Westminster. Chloe will be a great advocate for the constituency and a superb MP. She is the only MP not tainted with the expenses row and has an outlook on life that I wish more MPs - let alone Conservatives MPs - had.

But for a moment let's think of the campaign. Chloe deserves a great deal of credit for the result (shock horror!) because it was her who set the whole tone for the campaign. The themes of honesty and a fresh approach to politics may have seemed like a slogan bought in for the campaign - but far from it. Chloe has been making these an issue for years and, together with myself in Norwich North, has been campaigning on the issues of honesty and expenses well before the media train arrived at Norwich station. Chloe set the tone, particularly on positive campaigning, and each of her votes is a tribute to this.

Luckily, I suppose, Labour chose this moment to implode and both they and the LibDems ran an ultra-negative campaign. I may come back to this in future but especially the LibDems ought to consider that the party who delivered most literature didn't win, the party with the dodgiest statistics didn't win and the party who played the man rather than the ball didn't win. This result is bad for Labour - but at least they can blame the government - but the real losers here are the LibDems and Clegg personally. I do feel for April Pond - what now for her? It would be churlish not to say well done to both the UKIP and Greens who, in real votes, were big winners in the campaign.

Chloe Smith has a big challenge in front of her - not least holding the newly redrawn seat at the next election. But I tell you, after this election there won't be a Labour candidate in the country who would want to face her on the ballot paper.

How many cars should a Councillor own?

The latest bizarre effort from the "Silent Majority" in Lakenham; which most people have concluded is part of the UKIP effort in the ward; attacks the useless LibDems. However, in its regular politican / councillor bashing, the "Silent Majority" blast:

DID YOU KNOW SOME COUNCILLORS OWN MORE THAN ONE CAR - EVEN GREEN ONES.

Ok, Ok, own up - which of Ramsay's brigade owns 2 cars? We know which one uses short hop flights so we may as well know this too! This could be quite funny I suppose (and for the record I own one car but generally walk everywhere).

However, does anybody have the right to know this sort of information about their elected representatives? I suppose if there was hypocrisy involved (Prescott, Ming Campbell etc) then maybe but I don't see what the hypocrisy is here.

And something worse comes to mind; we already struggle to recruit for politics, especially at local government level. If you thought your personal and financial details, which are totally legal and above board, will be broadcast for ridicule by anybody with a photocopier, who would step forward for election? Won't this put people off standing for election? But, on the other hand, shouldn't we be totally open about this sort of thing - and then let the electors decide? Isn't this just People Power taken to the n-th degree? Would be interested in your views ...

UKIP: LibDems are "importing" candidates

After I have done every other conceivable task in my life, I get around to reading UKIP literature. Their latest effort, though, contains something which might just concern us - and, surprise, surprise, it isn't about Europe.

UKIP claim that the LibDems are "importing" their candidate for this year's elections from outside of Norwich - a claim which wa spreviously laid against the Green Party. Interesting, I thought, and given the sudden appearance of Dave Thomas as Bowthorpe's "campaingner" despite showing zilch interest in the area previously and recently moving in from Thetford, I wondered how many other LibDem candidates were newly arrived in the City.

It will be very interesting to look at the background of the candidates when they are announced; because either the LibDems are going to look very cynical or UKIP are going to be very embarrassed!

Labour source: "Vindictive" Lakenham campaign run by UKIP

Although I am fairly sure that both Keith Driver and Mary Cannell are pretty zen about the latest batch of "Spotlight" leaflets doing the rounds in Lakenham slamming the performace of the Labour council and government (see my post below), it seems that Labour high command are less satisfied with them and it seems an all-out witch-hunt is now underway to find the culprits. As the leaflets are anonymous and carry no imprint, they may struggle.

But I am now told by a very senior Labour source that they now strongly believe it to be the work of UKIP; or at least individuals within UKIP anyway with or without party permission. Let's be clear; I'm not aware they've done anything illegal but Labour are clearly spooked by this method of campaigning.

The answer may lie in a conversation I was having with a fellow (non-Tory) Councillor this week. If the county elections go ahead as planned next year, then Lakenham will be one of a number of crucial seats for Labour in Norwich. If the county elections follow the pattern of city elections, the Labour group at county could be heading for wipeout and third place on the council. Don't forget Labour currently hold the county divisions of Wensum (now solidly Green at City level), Mancroft (ditto), Bowthorpe (all 3 City seats are now Tory held) and Catton Grove (where the Conservatives hold 2 of the 3 City seats). So, what's special about Lakenham? Firstly it is the seat of their County Leader Sue Whittaker but secondly it was won by the LibDems last May with a half decent majority. Whittaker may look rather nervously at all this - UKIP may be no electoral threat, but their anti-Labour campaigning could tilt the electoral wind against her. So for the health of the Labour Party in Norfolk, the "vindictive" leaflet is keeping some at Labour HQ awake at night.

UPDATE: Of course! A friend reminds me ... whenever Labout elect a leader at county hall there is the usual debate about which urban area the leader comes from - Norwich, KL or Yarmouth. Norwich Labour are very determined that they should provide, as the county capital, the leadership and the City were thrilled when Whittaker got the job from Kings Lynn North & Central Councillor Irene MacDonald a while back. If Whittaker loses her seat, Norwich Labour are concerned that the top job would revert to a non-Norwich Labour Councillor within just a few years of them having obtained it. The obvious successor to Sue Whittaker is Bowthorpe's Gail Harris ... but given the drubbing Brenda Ferris got in Bowthorpe in '08 you wouldn't bet on Harris holding on either. So Norwich Labour are fighting for Whittaker to hold on for more than just party pride - they are doing it for city pride too. Mind you, the Labour Group at County post-2009 may not be worth leading!

North Norfolk Councillor defects to UKIP

One of the more significant stories buried in the news was that Cllr Mike Baker has quit the Conservative & Indepenent Group on North Norfolk District Council and has joined UKIP instead. Cllr Baker, who owns the local shop in his Holt Ward (!), is always elected as an Independent despite having well known Conservative views. His defection, such as it is, is a blow to local Conservatives but serves as a warning to Conservative associations up and down the county and the country.

For years Conservatives have given Tory-minded Independents a free run in elections, as Cllr Baker was, because they thought it was better to have an elected right-of-centre Independent than to split the vote and elect, say, a LibDem. All probably very true but the fact of the matter is that the majority of these Independent seats are in very strong Conservative areas rather than crucial marginals. If genuine Conservative candidates stood they'd probably win. Sometime a few years back the party made a political decision to give Independents who sat with Conservative groups a choice - join the party and stand as an official Conservative candidate or face an electoral challenge. One of the reason for the decline in the number of Independent Councillors over the past 6 years is the number that have joined the Tories or been beaten by them.

In the case of the member for Holt, the Conservatives didn't challenge him. Why not, as he wasn't and clearly isn't a Conservative?

If we had put up a Conservative and lost, and then he defected we could at least say that his crackpot decision to join UKIP was nothing to do with us. To not challenge him meant Conservatives using their votes to put this man in office. Are we, therefore, somehow responsible for delivering UKIPs newest recruit?

Are UKIP fibbing again?

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has claimed that the party is fielding "one thousand councillors plus" - but a party source has been forced to admit that this includes parish councillors (the smallest electoral unit and there are, therefore, far more up to be elected).

Why do they make these claims when they know people will check? How many district councillors are UKIP standing? They have only managed 3 out of 13 here in Norwich. Similarly I understand that claims to have 20 councillors have also turned out to be false - they have less than 10 and most of those are defections rather than elected councillors!

UKIP - hypocrites or just not very bright?

UKIP in Norwich may be celebrating their launch of three candidates for the 3rd May poll (out of a total possible thirteen), but they don't seem to have thought through their campaign very well.

There is a lovely glossy UKIP leaflet doing the rounds at the moment ... the problem? It is printed in Germany.

Not very patriotic - and persumably access to cheap German printers is something UKIP would want to deny other people.

UKIP are something of a joke and if this is the standard of their campaign, I don't think any party has too much to fear!