Has Nigel lost it?

I enjoyed NF on Question Time last night. He came over well, i.m.h.o.

Nigel Farage comes across as a pussy cat compared to that nasty piece of work, Patrick O'Flynn.

He makes me laugh (in a good way)

I've never managed to see him as Hitler/Satan.

Well I guess you can argue Labour did not stand by their man and refused to take Milibands resignation nor the Lib Dems tell Clegg to stay on so he is fairing better than them on an individual bases.

Forage at least has some in his party who would like him to stay on, unlike Labour and Lib Dems who's candidates for leader are all happily saying where Miliband and Clegg went wrong. That's politics for you.

Where is Natalie Bennett? Haven't seen or heard from her but I could have missed it.

But Clegg and Miliband at least have parties big enough to have some candidates, unlike UKIP, who could not find anyone to stand in his place.

Not entirely sure that he ever "had" it

I liked his response that he always had a smile on his face and was photographed with a pint in his hand. It should probably have been the other way round, cause and effect.

I agree with whitewave

POGs - it's very common across all parties for leaders to resign after an election defeat - standing by your man is unusual

I have no idea what he had that he could have lost

Do we care?

I'm rather aghast at myself for feeling that he does have some sort of legitimacy, based on the millions of UKIP votes.

I think the events of the past weeks have taken their toll on me!

Granny Twice re your post 12.57 you make my point for me.

It is unusual for a resignation/standing down letter to be refused , it may alter by tomorrow who knows but at least he has a party that don't throw the man/woman they backed for 5 years under the bus. I quite like that.

I never liked the man, for me he was just too 'hail fellow well met'. I am sure the reason his party had so many votes was because of the immigrant issue, something which touches us all, and I think a fair warning to whoever is in government that it is something we worry about. I am not sure that Farage on his own could solve the problem.

POGs I said in my op that I was surprised he resigned given the UKIP vote. He's in a very different category from Clegg and Milliband where it would have not been in the party's interest to have stayed on.

I am constantly surprised that his "I'm one of the lads with my pint and my fag" line convinces anyone. He's a very wealthy man with a public school background who is good at deceiving working class people that he has something in common with them (other than the pint and fag if that is the way they are inclined).
He has obviously annoyed some in the party who would like him to focus on getting us out of Europe, rather than banging on about pints, fags and immigrants. There would be just as many immigrants if we came out of the EU because the economy needs them. In fact there might be more, as the "points system" would allow in more well educated people from India etc than the present system does.

a

?

bcde?

I'd read that Nig said he'd resign if he failed with win Thanet. He failed to win, not the first time this happened to him, so he resigned.

I'm not a Ukip fan but given the number of votes they got and the fact that Nigel (like Boris) makes many people smile, I'm not surprised some of his party want him back.

JessM at one time I would agree with you about the economy needing the immigrants, but the head of the Bank of England recently said that these were keeping wages low in this country, and people really do need to earn more these days. Perhaps I have that out of context, but it was one item which caught my attention, because I know here we have an influx of people at certain times of the year.

A few of the comments that have come out about the party have really shocked me and I am someone who recognised the far-right element (large) in the party. Sadly any nationalist party tends to attract this element and that is exactly what UKIP is. Hearing that their election guru had a Tea Party background I suppose we should be glad they were not advocating armed police and people being armed to protect their homes - that party is so extreme. Also the fact that those aids within the party called the strategy they planned for Nigel, including his reference to people with HIV, "Shock and awful" in an aim to split the Tory vote is both sad and alarming.

Any party that is being led by someone who doesn't think anyone else can do their job has real problems. It usually takes a leader standing as leader for a third term in government to reach such messianic madness; NF seems to have reached it rather earlier.

There has always been an influx of 'foreign' workers during harvest times in parts of the country whether they were gypsies, Eastenders hop picking in Kent or immigrants. Admittedly this was to top up the workforce as required and after the harvest the workers moved on but it shows that extra labour has always been required at times.

The problem these days is that the indigenous workforce don't want/won't do the harvesting work so the farmers have to look elsewhere. There was a programme last year (I think last year) where they got unemployed indigenous people work in the fields and the potato factory. Few of them stayed the course. They complained the jobs were too tiring and objected to being on minimum wage. Many simply failed to turn up for work. The farmers explained that the reason they employed immigrants was that they worked hard and turned up when they were supposed to.

Perhaps we need to change the unemployment benefit system so that people can't sit on the dole for years. Not attack the soft options like the sick. Not schemes or six months 'training'. Put people into proper jobs even if they're part time and top with with more generous working peoples benefits. Don't take the 'I don't want to do that' as an excuse. DH was a manager but when he was made redundant he took a job (well several) as a part time cleaner. If someone deliberately messes up a job to get the sack then they can be penalised by the benefit system. I'm obviously not expecting every job to be filled by indigenous unemployed. A miner can't become a brain surgeon but a lot of vacancies could be filled.

Not everyone who becomes unemployed gets unemployment benefit after the first six months. If you have other household income or savings it ends then.

I am not sure of the relevance of this thought but I do think people get fed up with things now we have moved so far from the "insurance" model and into the "need" one.

I suppose that what prompted the thought was the idea that, if we need to make it impossible for those from the EU to claim until they have paid in for, say, four years, surely that should apply to everyone. If you claimed in relation to your previous earnings then those who had paid in more could expect more but this should apply to everyone surely.