Has Nigel lost it?

Nigel's obviously found a new job as a knitting pattern model!

JessM

Sounds like he really stands up for freedom of speech within the party?

UKIP is not the party it was a few years ago they have turned their backs on supporters like myself who have been in the party years .
I know Mr farage very well in fact we have had meals out with each other and I was chairman of a town ,but now I have had my membership taken away for getting up and talking what is true.Alot of the new members in the party have taken over chairmanships and they are there for their own ends and not the partys.He needs to stand down from leader now and this will help him get back to the basic thinking of the party .He is a very good talker and would make a very good MP .

Printmiss you are taking Mark Carney's remarks out of context. He said something very qualified and cautiously worded - that higher than expected migration may have been one factor constraining productivity – and wages – over the past five years.
Let's remember that he is an immigrant and that the UK was unable to find someone better than him to run the Bank of England.
The economy in the SE clearly relies on immigrants - glaringly obvious if you visit a hotel or catering outlet, or happen to want a train cleaned etc etc
There is a shortage of hospital consultants in Wales and due to the coalition's change of policy it has been very difficult to recruit from outside Europe which would be the traditional solution.
Likewise in recruitment in the IT industry, an area with which I am familiar, the restrictions have meant that companies struggle to recruit the programmers they need to grow and thrive (and generate the tax revenue that is so badly needed) We are not producing anything like enough programmers in this country. Under the previous scheme a highly skilled migrant could come from, say, India and look for a job once she got here.
Same in science - expertise in this is international and current policy has been sending PHds home as soon as they have completed, just so they can drive down immigration statistics. UK science needs to retain some of them as not enough being trained from UK population - and many of our own want to travel elsewhere. It is an international job market.
Managers in the City would probably say the same about their industry.

My thoughts about Nigel Farage "unresigning", is that given the nature of the very racist, sexist and homophobic comments of some of the UKIP candidates these lines from Hilliare Belloc fit the situation.

"And always keep ahold of nurse, For fear of finding something worse."

However it may be that Farage is just a little more intelligent than some of the other UKIP candidates and knows better when to keep his mouth shut about how extremist his real views are.

I probably shouldn't have made such a personal comment about Nigel F, especially as I've never had lunch with him so don't have first had information. I agree, being photographed with a pint doesn't mean you always drink it. I have read in more than one news paper, on more than one occasion, comments such as Nigel is enjoying lunch, and is only on his first bottle. He also looks like a drinker. I apologise in advance for being judgemental and I'll be delighted to be proved wrong. He looks like a man who enjoys life to the full!

Does it matter if he smokes?

Doesn't Nick Clegg smoke? (Secretly, in his case )

I agree, merlot! If his alcohol consumption was conspicuously over the top that fact would have been used against him relentlessly by the media and his enemies. I don't think I've ever heard such an allegation before.

How do you know he drinks a lot, Iam64?

Doesn't Farage smoke too?

But does he really drink a lot? Just because he's frequently photographed with a pint in his hand doesn't really say much other than he likes a pint. He's never appeared the worse for wear when on TV and I'm not counting the 'chat' with Steph and Dom from Gogglebox because that was all staged managed. Charles Kennedy, on the other hand......

Putting yourself forward as a political leader demands a certain self belief. I seem to recall this has been discussed previously with reference to the presence of people with narcissistic or psychopathic personality traits in senior leadership posts, whether in politics or business.

I don't like Mr F's politics but confess to having found myself smiling at some of his comments. The ability to charm and seduce people is another personality trait that can be enjoyable, but rings alarm bells. One of the things about Mr F that does bother me is his alcohol consumption. I hope I'm not offending anyone, but he does drink a lot - another worrying personality trait imo.

I can think of quite a few fanatical political leaders (some from many, many years ago, some more recent) who might have been considered insane. I suppose it goes with the whole symptom (not just in politics) of being convinced that you are right and everyone else is wrong..

I agree with Gracesgran. He does seem to be verging on the edge of insanity.
Actually, it would be terrifying if he got to be an MP and even more so if he and his party became part of the government.

Do you imagine he'd do it for nothing, soon. The annual pre-tax salary for an MEP is currently €96,246.36 (£78,000) but they can pick up a fat sum on expenses. Many MEPs make a statement of pay and expenses on their web sites in order to maintain transparency at a time when some have been accused of fraud.

He is an MEP so will be getting a salary from that?

As he did resign I cannot understand why he did not let things continue till the Autumn and just put himself forward again in their leadership election and see if he was Re-elected. Does being leader of the party give him some extra salary from somewhere?

I agree not everyone is entitled. DH could only claim JSA for six months because I was still working and even though he has worked for the last four years he doesn't qualify for JSA because he didn't earn enough to pay a stamp.

I'm not against benefits. In fact virtually all our income is made up of them since I became too ill to work and DH has recently had to give up work to become my full time carer. I just wonder if it's a good thing that some able bodied people seem to live on them for years when there are jobs available. If the jobs weren't available then the foreign workers wouldn't be doing them.

Farage and UKIP seem to be attacking the foreign workers but in effect they're often taking jobs that the indiginous population won't do.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

bcde?