Nigel F, UKIP and the People's Army

[David Johnson]

Interesting half hour on Nige and UKIP on Panorama tonight.



"THe People's Army" has some interesting leaders in their onslaught on the "Westminster elite" and the political establishment.

N. Farage

Farage was educated at Dulwich College, a public school in south London.. On leaving school in 1982, he decided not to go to university, but to work in the city, trading commodities at the London Metal Exchange. Initially, he joined the American commodity brokerage firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, transferring to Credit Lyonnais Rouse in 1986. He subsequently worked for a range of City wide boys.

Nige's questionable attitude to expenses and financial transparency re. money from fund raising whilst an MEP as outlined in Panorama doesn't smack of the "new politics" to me.

D. Carswell. First UKIP MP at Westminster.

Carswell was educated at two independent boarding schools for boys: St Andrews School in Turi in Kenya in East Africa, and Charterhouse School in Godalming in Surrey in Southern England, followed by the University of East Anglia (UEA), from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in history. He then attended King's College London, graduating with a postgraduate master's degree in British imperial history. Very handy. That is what we need. UKIP to go out and conquer most of Africa again!

His job prior to entering politics was an investment manager for Invesco Ltd. ian independent investment management company that is incorporated in Bermuda, that well known location that you go to if you are determined to pay all your taxes!!!!!

Carswell supports the removal of legal protections that prevent companies from firing employees without following legal disciplinary procedures, and rules affording part-time workers the same rights as full-time employees.

That should be a surefire winner with Labour voters. We may see this line missed out of the UKIP 2015 election manifesto.

Mark Reckless Latest recruit to UKIP from the Tories. By election in a few weeks time.

Reckless was educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in PPE, with upper second class honours. He then received an MBA from Columbia Business School in the United States.

In the mid-1990s, Reckless worked for UBS Warburg In the late 1990s he worked as a strategy consultant and associate in Financial Services Group at Booz, Allen & Hamilton.

Well if this lot are going to take on the "Westminster elite" with their People's Army, then they are a pretty weird bunch to choose to do it.


Personally I am more interested in the policies but two points: this lot look like the same old, money grubbing Westminster elite they attack; their views seem to be diametrically opposed to those of Labour voters who want legal protections for their jobs and have had enough of the "free market".

Same old, same old as far as I can see.

[max_tranmere]

Nige is now officially in the big league of politicians. He has been invited to take part, by the BBC and Sky, in a number of pre-election debates in the run up to next years general election. Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Greens are annoyed to be left out, but UKIP's inclusion seems to confirm than Farage and his party are now seen as the fourth party of the UK - even though they only have one seat in Westmnister. It is interesting to consider just what they would have to do to make a massive differnce: to get us out of Europe they would have to have over half of the seats at Westminster. There are 650 MP's, they would have to have 351 seats. Yes, three hundred and fifty one seats! They currently have ONE seat! Good luck Nigel, you have a big hill to climb...

[max_tranmere]

Sorry, I meant 326 seats. My maths is crap! Lol.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Problem is gentlemen would a truly working class, uneducated person survive in Parliament? Dennis Skinner is the last of his breed. To make important decisions you have to understand what the briefing papers are about.

[spider]

UKIP keep putting forward Christine Hamilton as their spokesperson.

This is the wife of Neil "Cash for Questions" Hamilton.



This really gets me, because no-one in the media says, when she's playing-up support for UKIP, "well Mrs Hamilton, what's Neil going to charge to ask a question in Parliament when he get's himself elected as a UKIP MP at the next election?".

[number 6]

Dennis Skinner was a grammar school boy who left and followed the family tradition in going down the mines.

[Essex Lad]

number 6 wrote:

> Dennis Skinner was a grammar school boy who left and followed
> the family tradition in going down the mines.

Er, no he wasn't. Dennis Skinner attended, on a scholarship, a fee-paying school, Tupton Hall, in Derbyshire.

[Essex Lad]

Arginald Valleywater wrote:

> Problem is gentlemen would a truly working class, uneducated
> person survive in Parliament? Dennis Skinner is the last of his
> breed. To make important decisions you have to understand what
> the briefing papers are about.

Dennis Skinner is far from uneducated. He attended, on a scholarship, a fee-paying school, Tupton Hall, in Derbyshire.

But in any case, he would never become a minister so he wouldn't need to read briefing papers.

[max_tranmere]

There a quite a few from working class backgrounds. Alan Johnson is another example. He is such a geezer I could imagine him playing piano in an old eastend pub wearing a porkpie hat. Lol.

[David Johnson]

Number 6 is correct. Dennis Skinner attended Tupton Hall Grammar school which was a direct maintained grammar school.

There were two routes to getting into a direct maintained grammar school:

1. Sitting an 11 plus examination which was the route that Skinner went down.
2. Paying fees.

The school was, however, part of the state education system, unlike Eton, for example.