I'll try again!
I make a simple point please by reference to my recent standing for the London Assembly.
The Free England party was founded only this February.
I have no design skills whatsoever, and hence the party logo I designed is very poor.
My election leaflet was no great shakes either.
I attended no hustings.
My party had no mayoral candidate.
There is not a single non-family party member in this huge South West constituency.
99% of the voters would not have heard of me (or my party) before seeing the names on the ballot paper.
I still got almost 3,000 votes and 1.5% of the votes cast.
Does not my example give a guide to UKIP about why it should re-brand?
If the UKIP mayoral candidate does not consider himself English, why should the English people voting in England's capital city give him the time of day (no matter that he was a solid candidate)?
Let me put it in starker terms. Say Edinburgh or Glasgow takes on the elected office of a mayor.
Would the UKIP mayoral candidate campaign on the basis that he is a non-Scottish candidate ... and one who does not recognise Scotland as a nation?
After June 2009 and if UKIP gets the expected wipe-out of its MEPs, UKIP will have no resources and hence nothing to offer the electorate. The English nationalist parties will stay away as UKIP would then only offer reputational risk to any alliance.
UKIP might then be finished to all intents and purposes.
Time is short if UKIP wishes to re-launch.
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