Quote:
Originally Posted by mkpdavies
It's not very honourable though is it. If you really think a party is that unpalatable to the public, then why be a member of that party? It seems like a cowards way out to me, trying to hide your membership of a party in order to con the electorate.
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I think that's a bit harsh. I recall speaking to a couple of people in this position in UKIP and their stance was that their names carried some standing locally as councillors because they had originally been elected as independents. If they added 'UKIP' as their party, they felt that this would hinder their prospects as people have all kinds of associations with the brand. I presume that this would have applied to a certain extent no matter which party they signed up to, but UKIP's lack of electoral success must have magnified the risk.
So you can call them cowards if you wish, but until there are enough UKIP councillors to form a group, they are effectively independents anyway. Hence having the UKIP whip is largely irrelevant.