chikrodah

You don't pay attention, do you? I don't belong to "a certain branch". I don't belong to any branch at all. I presume I'm being associated, yet again, with a branch that isn't even in my constituency.

I don't even recall announcing that I didn't like you. Perhaps you have me confused with someone else? Don't presume that, just because I've taken exception to the message, I intend to kill off the messenger. Woolly thinking like that won't help you survive in politics for very long.

Really, the skillsets of some of UKIP's employees and supporters beggars belief.

It's a pity that the efforts of the few excellent members of UKIP, a number of whom are personal friends, are subsumed in the morass of conjecture, half-truths and assumptions that bedevil the rest of the Party.

Congratulations, yet again, John.

Barboo

Correcting the misinformation you posted is not an 'attack'. You have been rightly congratulated over and again on your success and there would have been no criticism - or need for any - had you not made untrue claims about having won a seat for UKIP. To persist with such claims makes you look ignorant and the party rather silly. You are a UKIP member, and may well be a member also of your local tennis club, PTA, Neighbourhood Watch and Christmas Club, but no amount of insisting otherwise makes you a 'UKIP representative' on those bodies any more than on the Suffolk Mental Health NHS Trust.

Getting cross with those who point out this simple fact doesn't alter it either.

Hartlepool

I know what he meant and dont think it was meant to imply he was elected because he was a UKIPPER,a poor choice of words by JW at worst I would say.

Thats all it was,and,certainly not as you/others thought it was.

Perhaps it would have been more accepible if he had just said something on the lines of,"This UKIPPER just got himself elected onto my local PCT"?

That way,nobody could miss his simple glee at winning a place on the PCT.

Aardvark

Congratulations JW, sort of.

You hven't stated how many people voted (not 8000 that's for certain) and what the distribution of votes was.

I was a non-executive director of SW Oxon NHS PCT - paid about 5.5 K pa for up to 5 days per month. Fighting your corner was frowned upon and I ultimately got eased out for doing just that (see: Non-executive was unlawfully sacked ). The governor system came in after I left and was designed to improve public/patient involvement. I'm not sure how much real influence you will have, but I know non-execs (full board members with full voting rights) had to tread carefully in a highly centralised NHS despite our supposed powers.

I'm not even certain that you will influence choice of non-execs as the panels, reporting to the Appointments Commission, only contain 3 members.

Ther NHS is highly politicised in some respects, but is not in others. I had many discussions with highly placed people on this subject. I'm not certain that being a UKIP governor is that major an event. Briefly I was the only NHS non-exec, a real decision maker, who was declared to UKIP, but my party membership was not relevant when forcing me out. My intransigence on the matter of a costly and unwanted surgical facility was.

A governor is like a school governor. You can't influence policy within the NHS as a whole, but if you worked hard you might influnce, for the good, the direction of your local trust. I tried very hard and did not succeed. I hope, JW, that you achieve something, but it will not be to do with UKIP.

__________________
When in Woking do as the Wokes do.

"I do not wish to form my opinions by thoughtlessly quoting others; I wish others to support their opinions by sensibly quoting me." Paul Wesson (Aardvark) 13th April 2008

B.A.Ware

Personally i think this thread has got out of hand John is justified in being proud to being elected as a governor on his local NHS board especially as he declared he was a UKIP member (this could work against him).
I think the way John advertised this thread as a UKIP win was unreasonable as I'm sure nobody voted on political grounds so i can see chikrodah point (someone i can whole heartedly vouch for) If we are being pedantic chikrodah is absolutely correct but if we are being magnanimous then John deserves a pat on the back for helping the cause by being a UKIP member that is trying to help the local community which will go a long way to helping him get elected in an election.

UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL.

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We’re not just about Europe.

chikrodah

You're right, B.A., and I'm partly responsible for this getting out of hand. I didn't realise John would react so badly to what was originally a simple clarification.

He is justified to feel proud of being elected and I fully support anybody who wants to put something back into the community. I have a friend, for example, who works tirelessly in his spare time to raise funds and awareness for MIND in this region.

The issue with John's post is simply that there are too many people in politics who put spin on the simplest thing. My personal tendency is towards the concept of "giving without publicity"; I have much more respect for those who go quietly about their public and community service without advertising it. Seeing, yet again, another member of the UKIP politburo putting political spin on an ostensibly selfless act was like a red rag to a bull, I'm afraid.

John's in UKIP. John's also a governor on an NHS Trust. The two are not related in anyway. The fact that a UKIP Press Officer seems to genuinely believe they are, and takes a correction as a personal attack against his MEP candidacy, suggests a lack of maturity in both the political and personal arenas. That, as well as the spin which was the original reason for my first post, means that I personally would not vote for him if I lived in his region.

The fact is that he knows so little about me that he doesn't understand that I would never seek to sway the opinions of others in something as important as their right to vote for whomever they choose. My statement re my personal views was just that. I'm flattered that he thinks I have so much influence in his region.

Barboo

Oh, come off it, Hartlepool, it's exactly as I and others thought.

"UKIP wins seat on NHS Trust"

"I was elected as a UKIP candidate".

He couldn't have put it any clearer than that. His delight at his success is something we can and do all share, but not its passing off as a political victory when it wasn't.

Bob FM

What is wrong with some people. Lets look at this laterally, John declared his political allegiance, as did others, voters would have known this. Therefore they voted knowing he was UKIP, not exactly a group synonymous with anything Government but got elected anyway. As for the good he can do, he can press for things within mental health like long term patience having the right to smoke in their own homes, as everyone else can. The Rampton test case is going to appeal and is likely to go all the way to Europe, our European links could help this cause. Soem UKIPers on here would never win a race, they have their blinkers covering their eyes

Geoffrey Collier

Lord Castlereagh once said, 'It is not the destiny of a gentleman to be liked'. That is the spirit in which things should be taken. Providing that you have not malevolently harmed anyone, or denied them credit to which they were entiltled, it should be of no consequence whatever to you, whether they like you or not. Are we all going mad?

Display anger at their opinion of you, and they immediately assume that they are more important than their opinions deserve. A generation weaned on Dale Carnegie and Dr Spock, rather than Castlereagh and Cobbett, have a problem which they should recognise and address. Any time now it will be acceptable to cry in public.