Paul Beck

He used to, but he has recently dropped the NOTA stance. He says vote for any parties apart from the big three now (but preferably not the BNP).

Many thanks for all your comments, a nice lunch for Peter Hitchens with Nigel could do the trick indeed. Mr Hitchens always drones on about how David "Camera-on" never gives him interview.

I think it is defeatist for Hitchens to say that UKIP won't get far; if you start thinking that way all the time, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Mr Hitchens can be one of those people who irritates me; because he is one of those people who moans about what is wrong, but rarely offers any practical solutions on solving the problem!

He did try to stand as Tory candidate but was beaten in the selection process by Michael Portillo. So he tried standing for the useless Tories., why not UKIP?

I did send Mr Hitchens an email extolling the virtues of UKIP, link to the main website and this one, but oddly no reply from him

SGK

Well he's right, isn't he? As mentioned on another thread recently, a Yougov survey suggests that UKIP support is around the 1% mark for the young, rising to 7% for the old. I don't want to raise that debate on this thread as it is already on another, but they are statistics (if not 'facts') which support his view. Many on this forum seem to be in denial about that (and it is generally seen as a bad thing, which I don't agree with either).

SGK

I am strongly anti-EU and also do not believe withdrawal can be achieved without action from one or more of the 'big 3'. I don't believe UKIP to be the answer and find it hard to be constructive about what UKIP is doing or where it is going. Surely the failure of UKIP is its failure to bring the likes of me on board. Apparently more than a third of people want out of the EU but only about 5% would vote for them.

Christina

Make sure he's wearing his scarf, Mr Manwairing!

prober

As I understands it from previous Hitchens explanations, he dreams of a solution in which there is a major split in the Tory party, they lose the next election cos of Cameronian thinking and the correct half then rises up as fresh new vote winning party. So in that context UKIP is a nuisance as nibbling away at the correct half. You may ask why doesnt Hitchens see UKIP as the correct half. Again from his utterances in the past he didnt see UKIP as crdible.

Richard Allen

I don't think that we are ever going to get Peter's full support because he quite clearly has little time for those who are leading our party. We may however convince him that UKIP are the tool with which to destroy the tory party.

UK_Patriot

:evil: Just went to the Hitchens blog. Having spent ages composing my pièce de résistance, I got: "an error occurred" when I tried to submit it.

We're all doooomed.

This-England

Hitchens hates the BNP yet claims to be a Traditional Conservative yet the BNP is a close as you can get to a Traditional Conservative party today.

Hereward77

I get the impression that Peter Hitchens doesn't really like his fellow conservative eurosceptics. Don't forget that he spent his formative years on the left, which has an entirely different culture. His description of UKIP as a "Dad's Army" is the kind of stereotype you'd expect from a Marxist mentality.

__________________
"The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in history."
David Rockefeller, New York Times, August 10, 1973

Paul Beck

Often when that message occurs, there's a little box you have to fill in. It has a random selection of numbers and letters to type in, a security device to stop "automated robots" posting-- something like that

I notice a load of UKIP folk have posted some excellent comments on his blog to make him think-- you have done us proud

No doubt he will respond with an anti-UKIP rant in the next few days. Watch his space :wink: