Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
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Sure they all bleat about democracy, and iDemocracy, They sit in a group in the Eu parliament called EFD (Europe of Freedom and Democracy) but none of them want to practice it.
Much like all the others, they want to dictate the things you can vote for, a little like would you like your car tyres punctured with a nail or a screw kind of thing.
One of the sad things about Douglas Carswell's defection is that until the point he jumped ships he was one of the voices moving the Conservatives in the direction of great democracy and giving more power to the people through exactly the sort of direct democracy you have often argued for, Jim.
We will miss that voice.
Whether he will succeed in moving UKIP in that direction I do not know, but the manner of his selection is definately not a good start.
The thing that i am wondering now though is, should he be elected under a UKIP ticket, could that be the end of the "farage supporters club" and UKIP actually becoming a serious party?
Farage hates anyone who can do better than he can, he sees talent as a threat to him, rather than a party advantage, though with Carswell as an MP, and Farage not, would that mean the end of his leadership, and hense, a much stronger UKIP?
The track record so far is that everyone else who has the combination of a functioning backbone and anything remotely resembling any ability or star quality who has ever joined UKIP in recent years has gone through the same trajectory:
1) They start out on good terms with Nigel
2) They fall out with Nigel
3) They leave UKIP.
I would not bet tuppence against Douglas Carswell following the same course, though it is of course possible, especially if the two of them have any sense that they will be careful to avoid any bust-up until after the General Election.
Then they will probably have a "winner takes all" fight for the leadership.
You are bang on with your 3 stage UKIP phases in the last few years, and I could not agree with that more. Though i think Nigel is tired (possibly one pint too many) and Douglas is not exactly poor quality. This may well be interesting.