Anthony Butcher

From the Press Office:

Hartlepool

Glad to hear it,thats good,thanks AB.

Lawrie Boxall

Petrina - re targeting europhiles etc

There are two different things here - targetting and seat selection.

I agree that targetting is right and UKIP should do that but the targeted seats should not be chosen on the basis that they are occupied by or contested by europhile candidates. UKIP should put its resources in to those seats where it has the combination of the greatest numbers of activists, the highest local profiles, the best candidates, and where it can identify unpopular sitting targets waiting to be picked off. Selecting target seats by the europhilia of the MP is an irrelevance in a UK general election.

You said the press would be informed about the europhiles we were targetting just before the election and then you said it would generate a lot of media interest but this was not really turning UKIP INTO phpbb_a Tory pressure group.

There are a number of things wrong with this but without going INTO phpbb_those it seems chiefly a complete underestimation of the task. It is in fact pretty much what Mike Nattrass suggested to me would be the strategy for the 2005 election campaign at the (very forgetable I know) meeting when I resigned from the Conference Steering Committe in 2004 - which you chaired. You may not remember but I told him then that if that was all the NEC had to offer we were in for a hiding in May. I later asked Nigel about his plans for anational campaign at Woking in spring 2005 and received an answer of staggering complacency. Sadly I was right, with a few excwptions it was very nearly all they had to offer and the hiding was duly received.

First of all, to have any hope of success in a general election the party leader needs to spend some time knocking the party INTO phpbb_shape and the 2 years prior to the election introducing it and him/herself to the electorate. This can only be done by broadcasting your vision and drip feeding your ideas, not detailed policy, INTO phpbb_the media, getting yourself about meeting and getting to know the movers and shakers in the professions and the trades unions etc, and generally putting yourself INTO phpbb_the media's face.

What you say will be important - when you make your public statements your message must be UK politics not EU because the voters will want to know if they can trust you and your party to run the country, not that the EUs auditers have rejected the accounts for the 99th year running. Not many really care about that believe do they, at least not so much they would vote for Nigel's fruitcake party because of it.

While this is going on and because you are going to ask and expect UKIP members to put themselves, their finances and their relationships on the line in an election, you have in return to back them to the hilt by planning and leading the biggest national campaign you can manage or imagine, centred in London but not exclusively. You will never get enough but if you get this right it will give UKIP some essential media exposure during the critical 2-3 weeks before election day which has previously been denied.

Nothing less than this will do in a general election because anything less will defraud the members. If the new leader is not prepared for this then it would be better to revert the party to single issue pressure group and only fight the EU elections - that would at least have the benefit of not wasting anyones time.

These are the issues which caused me to leave UKIP - if you had not guessed. I used to say we were like a football team where the managers, Roger and Nigel, had refused to let us cross the half-way line.

Anyway, I appreciate that when you wrote your piece for the NEC you were not campaigning for the leadership. Now that you are, I hope you and any other prospective leaders reading this will find the comments useful.

David Holland

Sad but true - I will not stand again even if they pay my deposit unless we have some leadership.

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More people + no new homes = housing shortage.

Petrina

Very Glad to hear about Dick Horsnell but what`s happened to him ? Isn`t he fundraising?

Re Lawrie`s comments .I`m not suggesting that we only run against Europhiles ,simply that we make a list of the worst offenders and put resources INTO phpbb_our battle with them instead of wasting money on paper candidates etc.
Of course we must have a vision for the future or we will not connect with the electorate at a General Election .That `s why I do not agree with Trevor`s analysis that the simple message of self determination is sufficient .I do however like the idea of the posters linked with a leaflet campaign .

The next Leader ,Ibelieve , has got to sit down with the NEC ,MEPs and the Regional Chairmen and" brainstorm " to come out with the agreed vision for the future and then set about selling it to the voters.

We already have the basis of it in the manifesto but we will have to boil it down to a readily understandable set of principles .

tamashi

tut, tut, you should know "brainstorm" is very Un-PC ops: and seen as derogetory to people with mental heath problems.

The correct term is now "Thought Shower"

B.A.Ware

An excellent post Lawrie exactly how i feel.

Intbel

Don't take this personally,Petrina.
There is no polite way of saying this:

Bollox!

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We are all free to choose - every step of the way - no exceptions.

tamashi

Intbel, please do take this personally if you like.......lighten up for God Sake

There was a big clue in the two at the bottom of my post. One of the things that shows a dedicated PC'ite is their complete inability to at themselves. So in a way I agree with your comment of bollox..... because that's what most political correctness actually is, but I think you combat it with humour

Intbel

I do ... the whole PC thingo is too ridiculous to be taken seriously by anyone with more than a few brain cells.

Unfortunately it seems many, many folks do not have the requisite few brain cells so while PC is not to be taken seriously the effect of PC is a serious matter.

Of course, what I have written may be deemed to be offensive to idiots but then the idiots probably don't have sufficient understanding to realise they may be being insulted so there is no problem.

If folks who claim not to be idiots are offended then they are idiots in denial so knickers to them as well.

Anyone who uses the word 'Chairperson' is an idiot as is anyone who orders a 'Non-white' coffee.

I laugh at them daily ...

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P.S. My perception of the PC brigade is demonstrated here
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