Friday, 13 September 2013

Trouble at t'mill

It's been a disappointing couple of days for UKIP with Mike Nattrass MEP resigning from UKIP in protest at failing the selection process for the EU elections in 2014 and Cllr Chris Pain forming a new group on Lincolnshire County Council with two other UKIP councillors.

↑ Trouble ↑
Mike's motives are pretty transparent and unavoidable really without overruling the decision of the independent panel of head hunters and recruitment consultants as to who made the shortlist.  Chris Pain's decision is undoubtedly in response to him being suspended from the party despite the police dropping a racism case against him without charge.

No reason was given for Mike failing the MEP selection process but the decision was made by independent consultants and Mike's claims of cronyism and rule breaking just don't stand up to scrutiny. Nigel Farage had no part in the selection process because he's a candidate and had to go through the same selection process as everyone else.

The reason for the suspension of Chris Pain has also not been made public but is likely to be in response to an email that was distributed a week or so ago trying to stir up rebellion amongst the membership over the selection process that he was also unsuccessful in.

Whether the decisions were right or not is a moot point - nobody knows enough about what's happened to know whether they were or not - but both cases could undoubtedly have been handled better.  In both cases the membership are getting one side of the story from the aggrieved party and their supporters (who are also only getting one side of the story) because there is virtual silence from the party. This will have all blown over in a couple of weeks but someone needs to do some damage limitation now before it gets out of hand.

Comments (11)

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eegypeegy's avatar

eegypeegy · 600 weeks ago

Fed up of this all UKIP sh**. Jobs for your mates. . Jobs for sycophants. This party is not the promised land, just a bunch of ex Thacherite Tories and empire builders.
1 reply · active 600 weeks ago
Somebody's been reading the Guardian
Eh, they're all suffering from a common problem - they're HUMAN. Imperfect in understanding, in tolerance, in altruism. People will always rub along, resisting change and resenting their own failure, and other people will always pounce on such events with malicious glee and make much of them.
While there are doubtless problems in the MEP candidate selection procedure, and a lot of sore people who didn't make the final cut, the party really should be working hard on being transparent, responsive, and KIND to such protesters. A kindly word or acknowledgement of a grievance goes a long, long way towards defusing it.
George Ashcroft's avatar

George Ashcroft · 599 weeks ago

The sitting MEP should have been automatically reselected. Head-hunters and psychometric testing should have no place in a political party. Political parties are made up of people and principles. They fall out, they argue and they sometimes cause embarrassment. That is true of all parties. I remember Mike Natrass from almost 20 years ago when he polled about 157 votes at the Dudley West by-election. I was supporting a different candidate at the time but I was very pleased when Mike was elected as an MEP as he had worked very hard for the Euro-sceptic cause and at some considerable cost. I knew that the advent of UKIP MEP's would help drive the Tories in a more Euro-Sceptic direction, which is undoubtedly what happened.
3 replies · active 599 weeks ago
Mike's first reaction was to sue the party, his second reaction was to try and incite rebellion amongst the membership and his third was to resign. It kind of validates the decision (of the independent consultants running the process) not to put him on the shortlist. There is nothing wrong with using professionals, used to getting the right people into high powered jobs, to assess potential candidates.
George Ashcroft's avatar

George Ashcroft · 599 weeks ago

"There is nothing wrong with using professionals, used to getting the right people into high powered jobs, to assess potential candidates."

Do you think that being an MEP is a "high powered job"? Being the CEO of EXXON Mobil is a "high powered" job. Being an MEP is to democratically represent the views and wishes of people in a parliament and to put across points of moral and political principle. There is something very amiss, in my view, when a political party even sees the need to hire independent consultants to essentially vet candidates.

"It kind of validates the decision (of the independent consultants running the process) not to put him on the shortlist."

On the contrary, that Mike Natrass fought a perceived injustice should be commended. It demonstrates that the man has fire in his belly and is prepared to stand his ground. Srife, struggle, argument and debate are the lifeblood of politics. UKIP will get nowhere with "independent consultants" running the show.
George Ashcroft's avatar

George Ashcroft · 599 weeks ago

Let us suppose that they get you a goodly number of MP's elected to Westminster. Well done indeed. But what then? It's all very well looking "nice" in a pinstripe suit and holding "power" and a briefcase - there are plenty of Tories for that. But against the Galloway's, the Skinner's and the Salmond's of this world, your consultants men will be eaten for breakfast. Perhaps that's what I've missed - George Galloway needs a firm of "independent consultants" to tell him what to think, say and get elected.
George Ashcroft's avatar

George Ashcroft · 599 weeks ago

Having said that, there is now electoral evidence to suggest that UKIP is gaining considerable traction. I think in particular of Madeley Parish Council in Telford (I once served as a Tory councillor for Woodside), and they also hold 2 seats on Stirchley and Brookside Parish Council, again in an area where I previously held a seat for the Conservatives. As the Tory associations crumble, UKIP can undoubtedly fill the vacuum - provided they are viewed as an authentic voice. The stuff about head-hunters and psychometrics is a real concern - Mike Natrass (who is a person of considerable accomplishment) must be pig sick. P.S. I am not a UKIP member.
Slightly off topic but something that ain't helping is the new UKIP website. It is very nice and flash but also too jumpy - even on my fast windows machine - on an old laptop with Linux or a phone it is unbearable. There seems no way to contact them on it so I am doing it here. It is probably banners etc constantly reloading and will affect many people especially if they have older machines, use Firefox or similar with anti-redirect and pop-up blockers.

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