British Democracy Forum - View Single Post - Petrina confirms interest in party leadership

Lawrie Boxall · 24-04-2006, 09:15 PM

I honestly don't think Nigel or Petrina would make good leaders.

For Nigel - well the party as it is now is very much in his image except that now he is paying lip-service to the idea of "policies" which he does not believe in. He says they must be right wing core policies and hopes no-one will notice the corner he paints UKIP into. He has been the de-facto leader of UKIP for 4 years and was manipulating previous party leaders and NECs whenever he could get away with it years before then - so no surprise that I don't support him. He could prove me wrong of course but I somehow doubt it.

But to Petrina - sorry about that.

The reason is that someone told me of your analysis presented to the NEC post the 2005 GE debacle, which was essentially that UKIP should focus more on becoming a pressure group and influencing the Tories.

If UKIP is to become electable, which is the task the new leader should take on, then it needs to be much more than you said, more than just a beacon to EU realists. UKIP has to put forward an alternative economic and democratic vision for Britain outside the EU. Obviously this needs to go far beyond Nigel's simplistic ideas for (what he believes is a panacea) a free trade agreement.

Amongst other things the vision we need demands the case to be made for real devolvement of power to the voters at the expense of parliament. That is what Direct Democracy means - so if we believe in it how can that be achieved?

How can these two things, both massive changes, be done in a way which maintains economic stability and growth and still protects people's incomes, health and welfare. It entails major constitutional reform - something I would think Petrina is interested in - but it will not be done overnight. It will take at least 2 terms in government to extricate the UK from the EU and DD will take decades of steady reform. But the case needs to be made at home and abroad why this and not the EU is the future model.

The new leader will not see the end of what should be the UKIP project, but that person has to start laying the foundations now, 10 years or so after it should have begun.

24-04-2006, 09:15 PM	#24 (permalink)
Lawrie Boxall Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sandhurst Posts: 1,031	I honestly don't think Nigel or Petrina would make good leaders. For Nigel - well the party as it is now is very much in his image except that now he is paying lip-service to the idea of "policies" which he does not believe in. He says they must be right wing core policies and hopes no-one will notice the corner he paints UKIP into. He has been the de-facto leader of UKIP for 4 years and was manipulating previous party leaders and NECs whenever he could get away with it years before then - so no surprise that I don't support him. He could prove me wrong of course but I somehow doubt it. But to Petrina - sorry about that. The reason is that someone told me of your analysis presented to the NEC post the 2005 GE debacle, which was essentially that UKIP should focus more on becoming a pressure group and influencing the Tories. If UKIP is to become electable, which is the task the new leader should take on, then it needs to be much more than you said, more than just a beacon to EU realists. UKIP has to put forward an alternative economic and democratic vision for Britain outside the EU. Obviously this needs to go far beyond Nigel's simplistic ideas for (what he believes is a panacea) a free trade agreement. Amongst other things the vision we need demands the case to be made for real devolvement of power to the voters at the expense of parliament. That is what Direct Democracy means - so if we believe in it how can that be achieved? How can these two things, both massive changes, be done in a way which maintains economic stability and growth and still protects people's incomes, health and welfare. It entails major constitutional reform - something I would think Petrina is interested in - but it will not be done overnight. It will take at least 2 terms in government to extricate the UK from the EU and DD will take decades of steady reform. But the case needs to be made at home and abroad why this and not the EU is the future model. The new leader will not see the end of what should be the UKIP project, but that person has to start laying the foundations now, 10 years or so after it should have begun.