JO BRAND - BATTERY ACID AND ALLEGED HUMOUR.

When Boris Johnson made jokey remarks about Muslim women in burkas looking like letter boxes, he was vilified, particularly by the supposedly caring left wing. The police launched an investigation to determine whether or not Johnson's comments amounted to some sort of 'hate crime', although the investigation came to nothing.

Jo Brand, a supposed comedienne although her humour seems to be largely based on left wing, feminist, puerile and smutty attacks on anyone with whom she disagrees (which means anyone with vaguely right wing views), has made a suggestion that rather than throwing milkshakes at "certain unpleasant characters (who) are being thrown to the fore and they're very easy to hate" protesters should throw battery acid instead. If this isn't an incitement to the committal of a serious crime, I don't know what is. Brand laughed it off as being a joke and saying that she wouldn't do such a thing, but the damage was surely done. Clearly, the "certain unpleasant characters" referred to included the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, people whom Brand despises. Farage had, of course, had a milkshake thrown over him during the European parliament election campaign and on the day before Brand's 'joke' was recorded.

However, the response from the BBC, on one of whose programmes this appalling thing was said, as well as from the programme's presenter, Victoria Coren Mitchell, has been muted, to say the least. They have joined with other left wing 'comedians' to try to sweep Brand's remarks under the carpet, claiming that they represented free speech and were simply testing the boundaries of humour; clearly their ideas of boundaries are somewhat different to mine.

Now, Brand has eventually admitted that her remarks were "crass and ill-judged" although she has rejected suggestions that they were a mistake. Given the timing of the recording, the day after the milkshake was thrown at Nigel Farage, that the BBC chose not to edit the remark during the 3 weeks up to the date of broadcast drives me to the belief that those in charge of such matters were quite happy with, and even in agreement with, Brand's vicious suggestion. One wonders just what the BBC, and others, would have said had the remark been made by say, Farage, about left wing comedians. 

The matter has, apparently, been referred to the police and we can only hope that the outcome is, at the very least, a severe warning to both Brand and the BBC as to their future conduct.

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.

UKIP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER.

Those who have been claiming that UKIP has served its purpose and is now a 'dead duck' need to think again.

The result of last week's General Election has brought die hard 'remainers' flooding out of the woodwork in droves. The spurious differences between 'hard Brexit', 'soft Brexit' extreme Brexit' and even 'Mrs May's Brexit' are being trumpeted and an assortment of voices are demanding all manor of supposed softening of the approach to negotiations such that the UK would never actually leave the European Union at all.

John Major and David Cameron have both made their latest contributions, calling for some sort of cross-party consensus on the 'type of Brexit' that is negotiated, really meaning that they don't want us to leave; Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland also seems to favour not really leaving and is making veiled threats about the extent to which Scottish Conservative MPs will support Theresa May's administration. Additionally, some voices from Europe are again threatening our financial market, while French and German politicians are starting to suggest the possibility that the UK may change its mind about leaving.

Most of the British voices now coming to the fore talk of the UK staying in the 'single market' and / or 'customs union. None of these voices let on that such arrangements are impossible for a country outside of the EU unless they :

 (1) pay a membership fee and

 (2) accept unlimited movement of people and

 (3) accept the EU's rules and regulations and

 (4) accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice

Given that these are points which the population voted against in the referendum, it's clear that Cameron, Major and the rest continue to do everything that they can to ignore the democratic vote and thwart the will of the people by effectively keeping us in the EU.

When Theresa May said that 'Brexit means Brexit' she was making a simple statement of fact. Leaving the European Union is a case of leaving the European Union, no more and no less. What access can then be negotiated for subsequent access to whichever of its various organs is a separate issue. Of course it would be beneficial to all if a sensible deal can be struck but we must not be diverted by this bombardment from the political elite who, themselves, have benefited hugely from our membership and who are hell-bent on keeping things as they are.

Sadly, the failure of the Conservatives in the General Election has gifted these vehement 'remainers' the whip hand. It is highly unlikely that Mrs May would be able to get anything through Parliament other than the smallest nod towards 'Brexit' that is, in reality, not 'Brexit' at all. With this in mind, it's clear that UKIP has never been more important and the sooner it sorts itself out, gets a new leader (Nigel Farage, again ?) and sets out to harry the government and combat the 'remainers', the better. If they don't, be in no doubt that we will never leave this interfering, bureaucratic, anti-democratic and orrupt institution.

IS 'UKIP' FINISHED ?

Sadly, the resignation of Nigel Farage from the leadership of UKIP seems to have been the precursor to the collapse of the party. Just 18 days after her election as Farage's replacement, Diane James has announced that she will not be taking over after all as she doesn't have 'enough authority in the party'.

It seems that Ms James may have wanted to make changes to the party's organisation or focus, but that she did not receive the support of other leading party figures. Consequently, UKIP is now in utter turmoil as Ms James had not yet appointed a deputy, meaning that there is now a void at the top, although apparently Nigel Farage is still technically the leader.

The real problem is that Nigel Farage and UKIP have been virtually synonymous ever since the creation of the party, and there are no other leading members who have anything like Farage's standing or public profile. Indeed, Farage seems to have failed completely in taking steps to develop a structure within the party that would ensure that future leaders would emerge naturally and with full support. Instead, the party appears to have degenerated rapidly into a squabbling mass, with no one of Farage's authority to bring members together..

Conspiracy theorists will undoubtedly say that this was all just a ploy by Farage to hang on to the leadership but I suspect it's nothing other than a total balls-up. Unless someone with real leadership qualities emerges very quickly, UKIP may well now disappear altogether within a few months, to the detriment  of us all..

MILIBAND + STURGEON IS TERRIFYING.

So 'Red Ed' Miliband won last night's debate between himself, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood, Natalie Bennett and Nigel Farage - Whoopee !

This wholly pointless exercise pitted Miliband against 2 left wing non-entities in Wood and Bennett, a woman who wants to break up our country in Sturgeon, and a man whose party has policies which are diametrically opposed to all of the other participants in the debate. It's hardly surprising that Miliband 'won', though it seems to have been a bit of a narrow victory over Sturgeon, with Farage not that far behind.

The one thing that this debate made clear is that Sturgeon, Wood and Bennett are all to the far left of British politics; any future UK government that involved them in any way would be a government of the extreme left, and disastrous for the nation. Miliband has said that he will not sanction a coalition with these leftie loonies, but that's simply an election promise and will almost certainly be ditched if it suits him after May 7th. There is now a real danger that the United Kingdom will find itself in hock to the Scottish Nationalists, a party which is determined to separate Scotland from the rest of the country.

Having Miliband as Prime Minister would be bad enough; having him as PM but with Nicola Sturgeon, who won't even be a member of the Westminster parliament, gripping his balls very firmly, would be terrifying. Rather shockingly, this suggests that the only way to save our country from disaster is probably to repeat the coalition of the last 5 years between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats; while Farage's UKIP may well end up 3rd in the polls, they're unlikely to get more than 3 or 4 seats at most and, so, are very unlikely to be relevant when it comes to forming a coalition.

Conservative + Liberal Democrats has to be a better option than Labour + SNP + PC + Greens.