eublues

UKIP would be no more entitled to take us out of the EU without a referendum, than would Blair/Brown to ratify the EU constitution without a referendum.

Britannist

If you say so.

Barboo

britannist wrote:
Another possibility is that it would not have suited either Nigel Farage or RKS himself for Kilroy to have won the Hodge Hill by-election. Farage would have been eclipsed by an even better media performer who had in addition won UKIP's first Westminster seat, and RKS must have been aware of the danger of a by-election triumph being very short-lived. He had been helped in the Euros by massive media attention, probably because he enlivened what would otherwise have been a crashingly boring election, but couldn't hope to enjoy such coverage in a general election. As MP for Hodge Hill he would definitely have had to defend his seat in at most two years, possibly in as little as a few months, and having had to give up his MEPship through not being allowed to hold a dual mandate he would have risked losing both seats almost as soon as he had won them.

Populist Lee

Oh dear.
One despairs of some UKIPPERs at times, one really does.

Britannist

I think this (above) is a correct assessment of what Kilroy's thinking might have been regarding the Birmingham Parliamentary By-Election at Hodge Hill which came up shortly after he won his seat as a UKIP candidate in the EU Election of June 2004. The fact that if Kilroy had won the By-Election (which Richard, earlier in this thread, suggests was unlikely) he would have had to fight the seat again within a year at a General Election).

Maybe, as you imply, Barboo, Kilroy thought about this and came to the following conclusions:

1. He might not win the Birmingham Hodge Hill By-Election. Failing to win it would not do his political reputation much good in UKIP and outside it - so soon after his victory in getting a seat in Brussels.

2. He might win the Hodge Hill By-Election but lose it at a General Election. He would then, as Barboo notes, have ended up with no seat in the Commons or in the EU 'Parliament'.

So, as Barboo points out, Kilroy still has his seat in Brussels and, since 1974 (when he first entered the Commons as a Labour MP) has not lost any public vote.

sean43

Well he has lost a public vote, 2005 General Election. With regards to him being a bit of a disruption, just look at some of the idiots amongst UKIPs MEPS. I mean, Roger Knapman, forgetting the Polish builders etc just look at him. With the big glasses and twede jacket, the image is all wrong. I really think UKIP shouldnt revel in being the odd bod party because you wont get anywhere by doing so. Nigel Farage is superb, but past him, there really isnt much there.

Kilroy made the party appear serious, since his depature it has descended into a bit of joke (Dirty Dai running in Cardiff North for example)

Bluemerle

Most people have no interest in the EU. They cannot see what all the fuss is about, and until our MPs start talking openly about how it affects everyone's lives, a Referendum will be just another distraction.

If you had listened to Any Questions last week when the subject of Waste was discussed, James Delingpole said that it was an EU directive, and our own Government could do nothing about it. The audience howled with laughter. A good 95% of the population couldn't care less about the EU, and they don't believe what we tell them anyway. :twisted:

Britannist

This is a BBC audience we are talking about here - i.e. an audience with more than its fair share of wealthy europhile and politically correct leftists who are totally unrepresentative of the views of the people of this country on the EU nor representative of what the nation thinks about a range of other issues either.

The last thing the BBC wants is an audience which reflects the views of the country the biased pro-EU and anti-English BBC is supposed to serve but which goes out of its way not to.

tito

Nigel Farage got lots of applause on question time though, but he didn't mention the EU.
The BBC really get on my nerves.

Maybe we should stop watching BBC channels and websites, maybe organise a petition to stop forcing us to pay for the propaganda channel the BBC has become.

Britannist

The compulsory television licence must go. It's time UKIP campaigned for this. If UKIP loses its seats in Brussels at the next EU Election, the pro-EU BBC will have no obligation to mention UKIP very often - and we can be sure that it won't.

There are one or two position holders in UKIP who apear to think that the BBC have been fairer to UKIP in recent years. These people in UKIP who presently have a rather misguided charitable view of the biased pro-EU BBC will soon change their tune should UKIP have no seats in the EU 'Parliament' from the middle of 2009 and the BBC virtually ignores the party in its news coverage from that point.