UKIP MEP: Home Truths

I always accuse UKIP of being very far from the truth, so it is quite refreshing to see a UKIP MEP tell a few home truths regarding his party.

Jonathan Arnott, UKIP MEP for the North East region wrote a piece for the North East Chronicle newspaper yesterday and admitted that UKIP's election campaign was flawed from the start and that the party's failure to gain more than one MP was in some ways self inflicted.

Arnott wrote "For all we might moan about an electoral system which means that one SNP vote was ‘worth’ the same as 149 Ukip votes, we can’t deny that at least some of this problem is self-inflicted."

Criticising his UKIP comrades Arnott wrote "I’m grateful that Nigel Farage took time out of his busy schedule and Thanet South campaign to come to Hartlepool, but Nigel’s enthusiasm isn’t always matched by the rest of the party."

Attacking UKIP's anti immigration stance Arnott wrote " So why, oh why, do we turn almost every question into an immigration issue? Question about jobs...it’s immigration. Question about housing? Clearly an immigration issue. Class sizes? Immigration. The economy? Immigration. Traffic jams? Immigration. Health service? "

He continued "we sound like a broken record banging on about the same thing over and over again."

Arnott, quite rightly was very unhappy with the UKIP candidate selection process and in particular the selection of Magnus Nielsen, UKIP candidate for Hampstead & Kilburn.

"When as in Hampstead & Kilburn we select a Parliamentary candidate whose abhorrent views were aired and publicised already at last year’s council elections, the resultant bad publicity is entirely our own fault. Freedom of speech is not an excuse"

"The candidate concerned finished in fifth place, losing his deposit. I can’t say I’m surprised - and I’ll be blunt: if I lived in that constituency, I couldn’t have voted Ukip either."

Turning his attention to UKIP's poisonous rhetoric, Arnott wrote "The message we portray is often toxic."

As civil war breaks out in UKIP, Arnott's telling piece will certainly add fuel to the fire.

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ukip/ukip-mep-home-truths-4474

Now that's refreshing.