Brussels

Blogging will be light this week as I'm away for my birthday (the one where life starts apparently). I'll be spending it in Brussels. Before readers begin to suspect I've lost my marbles, my reason for going is not this, but instead to visit locations associated with Belgium's most famous reporter, having been a lifelong fan.

No doubt, through very gritted teeth, I'll go and see the European quarter, though I like to put it on record should any terrorist incident arise during my visit it wasn't me...

Normal service will return shortly

Nigel Farage Not Up To The Job

Not my words but those of Godfrey Bloom. With Clegg vs Farage Round 2 about to commence we have Bloom coming out of the woodwork with an interview in the Telegraph. He makes some pretty disparaging comments about Farage:

[Bloom] said that although Mr Farage acted as a "charismatic" and "articulate" salesman for the Ukip brand he is not up to the role of "managing director or chairman of the board."

Asked if he believed Mr Farage was intelligent, Mr Bloom replied: "In what way?"

By contrast, Mr Bloom said there were many "bright young people" waiting in the wings of Ukip but that Mr Farage was blocking their chances of coming "to the surface" of the party. He added: "Nigel has been doing it for twenty years, I think perhaps one might argue that's too long.”

This is not the first time that Bloom has criticised Farage, and it is probably not lost on most that these comments have only happened after Bloom fell out with him. He was more than happy to be on the gravy train and keep quiet when it suited. Now he's seen which way the wind is blowing out he comes.

Nor are we sure Bloom is the right man to criticise others for “not being up to the job” given his ban from hotels after relieving himself in the corridors and being caught in public cavorting with prostitutes.

When we look at his interview in full (at the bottom of the Telegraph article) it's 46:30 minutes long yet nearly 42 minutes of that time is spent with Bloom defending his attitude to women. His comments about Farage don't come until near the end. How this is supposed to further the Eurosceptic cause boggles my mind.

That said the nature of the messenger doesn't always negate the message. With UKIP more prominent, more scrutiny comes with the territory. And under such intense scrutiny Bloom is right Farage is clearly coming up short. With Farage also currently under a very serious Police investigation we wonder how long he will be around as leader.

Carry That Weight

This morning I handed my nomination papers in to stand in a local ward by-election. A little while ago I attended a meeting with like-minded enthusiastic talented UKIP minded people discussing the way forward in future elections. One such topic was a thoughtful discussion on constructive ways of professionalising UKIP's relationship with the local media. Much potential to the party was evident.

Thus with that in mind I now look with so much despair at the above piece - comments by a senior MEP. It leads me to conclude why bother? UKIP candidates, particularly in General Elections, often spend £1000's of their own money they can ill-afford. Now it seems that their hard work is to be undone by a drunken, racist fuckwit who is on the MEP payroll who as a consequence has no such monetary concerns. Months of hard graft by activists undone by an arse in seconds. Now every hustings meeting, every doorstep conversation will inevitably mean having to wearily quantify or try to justify Blooms' comments. The real message of leaving the EU will be lost in the noise.

I don't care about justifications of whether Bloom's comments have been taken out of context nor whether it's just a crap joke - they are simply unacceptable and unfit for a party wishing to take itself seriously for MP's elected to Parliament. This is also conference season, the idea is supposed to be about positive messages, but no, some imbecile has ruined UKIP's conference message and over-shadowed Farage's speech. This is amateur's-ville writ large.

I guess some will try to justify it by suggesting the media is bias, lies and is useless. Well so it is, that's nothing new. And don't we know it. This is a BBC piece at the 2010 election on Polyclinics. Yours truly is quoted at the end. The problem is I wasn't. The first I knew about it was when my dad rung me up to tell that I was on the BBC website, information which was much to my surprise. The BBC never rang me, the quote was made up.

But that's how it is. Essentially we have to deal with media bias - we have to play the cards we're dealt not the ones we wish them to be. The pro EU media love nothing better than an excuse, provided on a plate, to knock the anti-EU message. To bumble about complaining will not get us anywhere.

Yet again UKIP demonstrate that when facing an open goal, instead of trying to score they are determined to move the goalposts themselves, insist on the ball being made of concrete and using clown shoes to try to score, all with the intention of doing precisely the opposite of scoring.

More seriously, I'm not prepared to associate myself with a party that condones Bloom's comments - by either refusing to condemn them or removing him as an MEP. If he remains in his position then it will be with a heavy heart and much regret that I will no longer be able to be an active member. I will resign from my local committee and allow my membership elapse (again).