UKIP - RIP

If ever a party was over it is for UKIP.

Less that 3 years ago, UKIP, led by Nigel Farage, was the scourge of the established political parties, having won elections for the European Parliament in 2014 and given David Cameron such a fright in the 2015 general election that he decided to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union. Since then, it has been downhill all the way.

Nigel Farage successfully resigned the leadership in July 2016, having tried and failed to do the same a year earlier. He was followed by Diane James who survived just 18 days and, after an interim holding role for Farage, Paul Nuttall was elected leader  in November 2016. Nuttall lasted until immediately after the 2017 general election in which UKIP performed dismally, having been unable to change their image as a one-policy party, and that a policy which was no longer relevant. There was then a further period with a stand-in leader until Henry Bolton was elected at the end of September 2017.

Now, Mr Bolton is under attack, having reportedly left his wife for a much younger woman shortly before Christmas 2017, but having left his new partner in the last few days following the revelation that she has previously sent a number of offensive text messages. The party's National Executive Committee, its ruling body, has passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Mr Bolton, although he has refused to step down and remains leader as only a vote of the whole membership can oust him.

If this isn't a mess, I don't know what is. Having achieved its primary objective of getting the UK electorate to vote to leave the European Union, UKIP has failed to maintain its momentum or even to produce a coherent set of policies, and is now on the point of fading away. It has been unable to find a leader who can come anywhere near to matching the charismatic character of Nigel Farage and, indeed, its subsequent leaders have been notable mostly for their lack of public persona. Infighting between various factions and interest groups within the party has done nothing to aid its cause and the general perception now is that it's akin to ferrets fighting in a sack, with little likelihood of anything positive emerging.

Henry Bolton is a leader with no public profile whose time in office has produced little if anything. His character is surely summed up by his fickle approach to relationships and by his refusal to resign even though he is clearly not wanted. His stated reason for this is that he believes yet another leadership contest would signal the end of the party but that, surely, will be the consequence of his remaining in office as well.

Whatever Mr Bolton does, or doesn't do in the coming days, the UKIP party is undoubtedly over.