Dear All
In politics momentum is important, as the
Scottish National Party has seen they have lost their momentum in the Scottish independence
campaign, in fact some may argue they never had it in the first place.
But’s that’s them!
UKIP has risen substantially as a force in
the UK, they have done well down south, but the breakthrough hasn’t really been
achieved in Scotland.
Scotland is different politically than the
rest of the UK, so it is a harder market to break into, and in order to do so,
they need to win seats in local government and get activists on the ground
selling the message.
UKIP want to be the party responsible for
taking Scotland and the rest of the UK out of the European Union.
Just as there are reasons for going, there
is a case for staying as well. The EU isn’t all bad but by the same token it
isn’t all good either, to best describe it, would be to say, good idea badly implanted.
The future of the UK Independence Party in
Scotland is in trouble, with talk of civil war and a coup against its leader
north of the Border.
It is doubtful even if everything was rosy
in the garden that UKIP could take an EU seat in Scotland, they have made
inroads such as mobilising in Scotland with new branches.
That isn’t enough, their presence isn’t
high enough, the party is said to be split into factions, people aren’t happy,
so an extraordinary general meeting is in the off where three key office
bearers face being possibly ousted.
Several key UKIP members have submitted
motions of no confidence against Otto Inglis, secretary of Ukip Scotland, and
party treasurer Dr Jonathan Stanley.
The business of politics isn’t politics it
is business, professional parties need professional campaigners, part time amateurs
can help but it is a 24/7 world.
UKIP have Dr Stanley, 31, he is a part-time
locum at English hospitals, despite that he only came sixth in a recent
Edinburgh Council by-election with 235 votes.
When I stood for public office, I had no
money, no resources, no personnel, no really time to run a campaign and no track
record as a candidate, wasn’t invited to hustings and was ignored by the press.
I polled 103 votes.
UKIP in Govan polled 112 and they are a
political party.
Another UKIP key member is Otto Inglis, he
is a qualified barrister so despite having brains, do they have campaigning
experience, possibly not enough and have to rely on the ‘brand’ name.
Mr Inglis was fifth in the recent Aberdeen
Donside by-election, with 1128 votes, 4.83% of the poll.
Not bad but not great either, and nowhere
near breakthrough.
One senior source on UKIP problems said:
"It's an utter shambles. We've no
organisation, Mike Scott-Hayward is nowhere to be seen, no-one's heard from
Christopher (Lord) Monckton (Ukip Scottish president) and it's really not like
any political party I've ever heard of. Communications disappear into a black
hole, there's brewing friction and internal politics has taken over. Every
party has divisions but there's no structures here to deal with it. It's all
very demoralising."
Political parties need to be run as
businesses, setting goals, long term and short term.
There is to be an extraordinary meeting in Stirling
this month for candidates and leading members to present views on the future of
UKIP.
One idea is to be more Scottish in their
policies.
Mr Scott-Hayward, another UKIP star and a former
Tory councillor, said the party was experiencing a significant growth in
membership in Scotland.
And cited the party’s re-organising and
setting up new branches in Orkney, Moray, Lanarkshire, the Black Isle and the
Borders.
Scott-Hayward is an ex-army major and
coastguard officer. That probably will tick a lot of boxes with the main UK
leadership but possibly not on the streets of Govan etc.
UKIP is attracting members of various other
parties to join its ranks; with some polls claimed their support is hovering around
the 9% mark.
I don’t see it being anywhere near that
yet, they need to do more work.
Steve McKeane, a recent Ukip Parliamentary
candidate is one of those behind the motions to oust Dr Stanley and Mr Inglis
said:
"These are internal party matters and
will be discussed internally and those within the party will be made aware of
results of those discussions in due course. I don't see why people are trying
to second guess what will happen."
Another party source said:
"There are a couple of people within
the organisation who don't like the way the system is run and organised.
They've tried to move against the leadership earlier this year and
failed."
A UKIP Scotland spokesman said:
"There's an internal dispute and this
is the opportunity to sort that so we can go forward as a united body going
forward towards the European elections."
So, a few bumps in the road and possibly
some major potholes, the UKIP crowd can’t rely on national brand image, they
have to go out and do the long hard slog on the doorstep and with the knowledge
that they might bomb.
But if you don’t try you don’t win.
UKIP is at a stage in Scotland where
everyone needs to be very much hands on and out on the streets, I don’t see a
break through at the Euro elections or Westminster in Scotland, but using the list
for Holyrood could make them credible as a force for Council elections in 2017.
They need to take the Green Vote, and encourage people to use their vote who
otherwise wouldn’t bother. That market is an untapped pool just sitting there,
people need a reason to vote and we are seeing increasing low turn outs.
Voting should be compulsory that way it
puts pressure on political parties to raise their game, don’t deliver get the
bump.
In Govan for example, 80% of people didn’t
vote, untapped market out there for the person smart enough to capture it.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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