What do we think of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party?

Thanks Lily65!

This has now been taken down. One guess only as to why.

pbs.twimg.com/media/D42PDF-WsAAj4z9?format=jpg&name=medium

?????here is to you Nige.

How can someone who has never been an MP, indeed has stood seven times for parliament and lost every time, be considered "one of the most prominent politicians of the last two decades". He's a good PR man, a good salesman but would you want a good salesman running the country. It appears the people say "no".

As for "recognising that the referendum result has not been honoured" it would be better if he recognised that we have so many iterations of the what "leave" means that we cannot have agreement. May's deal is definitely a version of 'leave' but it does not command a majority. The ERG who stood out against it want an different version of leave, extreme but still a version of 'leave'. The Labour Party are offering yet another version of 'leave'. The problem is not that 'leave' has not been honoured, it is that 'leave' was never defined.

At this point leavers usually start throwing around the insults or getting upset because they believe that they, individually, each know what 'leave' is. But this is not helping; it is just driving the country further apart. There was the run up of a year to the referendum but there was no actual proposal when we voted. Perhaps the best thing we could do is retract Article 50 and send a cross party group off into a darkened room to get a possible agreement for leaving. Meanwhile we could get on with all the other things we need in the country. Once they had an actual plan which they can show could be implemented we could have another vote on two things that actually exist, the status quo and the plan to leave. Nigel Farage could be involved if he wanted to be and if he could get a seat in parliament. At the same time we could have another cross party group looking into the democratic deficit within the country, including our current voting system which favours a two party system and my personal favourite - an English parliament.

People do not have their heads in the sand - resorting to abuse hasn't solved a single issue - what people want are proper answers to complex problems. The MPs have not behaved disgracefully; they have tried to bring about what they think is best for the country. That is why we send them to parliament. They are not there as delegates to carry out our individual view. That is not our democratic system. Causing ripples, shouting the odds, threatening people, etc., these things do not take us one step forward. We actually need something that moves us forward without dividing the country.

Farage has started the Farage party. He has almost total control over the new Brexit Party, with power to appoint its governing board and all but no membership to keep him in check. While more than 100,000 people have signed up to be registered supporters, it is not yet allowing them to become formal members with power to vote on the leadership. It is understood only a handful of people have actual membership of the Brexit party, which is a skeleton operation. The party’s constitution, released under freedom of information laws, also reveals Farage’s power over the project, with the leader having the ability to appoint four to eight board members and the chairman.

Nepotism - unelected! Surprise ... not!

Farage is a bit like a 'pop-up shop'. They open temporarily selling short-term bargains, taking advantage of trends or stuff that lasts for a season only. I've seen them selling limited edition garments like manufacturers samples and one-off make-up offers.

Limited stock, and demand usually short-lived. Very flexible, here today, gone tomorrow.

So people don’t like Farage, welcome to the real world folks, it’s not perfect.

Nigel Farage was leader of UKIP for 10 years, hardly ‘short term’

It's being reported on the news that Ann Widdicomb has joined the Brexit Party.

yay, one of the few very honest politicians and one who speaks her mind. Exponential growth of the brexit party, everyone I know is joining them and many have donated small amounts

honest??

crafty , my I respectfully ask what exactly it is they are joining and why?

Kandinsky, yes- long term failure all the way.

"ay, one of the few very honest politicians and one who speaks her mind. " Craftyone

Which is fine if it's a mind that says something useful. Just "speaking your mind" is not always a positive.

Politicians have indeed behaved disgracefully, in that they agreed the referendum and agreed to trigger article 50 to start the process of us leaving the EU then done all they could to scupper it ever happening.In spite of all their promises they have broken them, I call that disgraceful and so do millions of voters.
Both Conservative and Labour Parties are mistaken if they think there won’t be political consequences as a result.
Voting for the Brexit Party (MEP’s) will show them that they can’t continue with business as usual.
Whatever you think of Farage, he is intelligent and resourceful.

As a reader of political biographies and autobiographies I read Nigel Farage’s ‘The Purple Revolution’ a while back.

It was written just as UKIP was becoming a political force with a leading position in the 2014 EP elections and 2 MPs.

Nigel Farage theorised that the 2020 elections (as was then scheduled) would mark a bigger breakthrough in Westminster - in fact they made an impact in vote share, although not MP numbers, in 2015.

Then the 2016 Referendum happened, UKIP was redundant, split, and sank into disrepute.

Some thought that, Brexit notwithstanding, this disappointed Nigel Farage’s political ambitions.

He needn’t have worried!

Theresa May’s mishandling of Brexit and the hopeless indecision of Parliament, which set up a 29th March Exit Date and then failed to deliver on it, has given him a narrative of mainstream political incompetence and betrayal to trade on.

It’s a powerful message he is well able to put over.

Change UK simply does not have such a powerfully emotive message. In fact Chukka looks like a person who realises he’s made a mistake.

If Westminster had conspired to give Nigel Farage a terrific platform, they could hardly have done better.

lemongrove, I agree ?

Urmstongran so true ?

Totally agree with your comments Lemon. To go along with something to the point of turning it into law, in the full knowledge that your real intention is to do your level best to sabotage that something is by anybody's standards completely shameful. At least Ken Clark as a remainer didn't vote for article 50, and made his position quite clear before the GE despite Conservative policy on Brexit. At least he can't be accused of hypocrisy! As for others, particularly the smug self satisfied members of the new Independent ? Instead of looking so cocky, they actually should be ashamed of their blatant deception!

Whatever you think of Farage, he is intelligent and resourceful.

Most charlatans are, lemon. That's how they keep one step ahead of the law...

The old Conservative Party is dying. Instead we are seeing a reinvigorated Farage seizing the ground. Wiping out UKIP (while at the same time allowing them to exist just enough so that he can say "I'm not the extremist, they are" like he used to with the BNP). So confident of his Conservative Brexit voters that he is banking them and turning his guns on Labour.

For those who have long defined the Conservative Party as the existential enemy and worked for its destruction, the phrase "be careful what you wish for" has never been more apt.

Labour, meanwhile, remind me of the man who, when faced with a charging lion, puts on running shoes and says to his companion "I don't need to outrun the lion, I just need to outrun you".

In other words, taking a bad hit while watching the Tories get wiped out would be a good outcome. But not surprising given the three way split - not just between Corbyn and the anti-Brexiters, but the increasingly violent and depressing split between the "Peoples Vote" and "Common Market 2.0" factions.

And meanwhile, TIG and the Lib Dems focus on the real enemy... each other.

Sorry for my long posts.
You can tell it’s raining here in Malaga!

I think it was Tony Blair who said the days of centre ground politics is over. ( although it might have been someone else? but it was recently on the Andrew Marr show ) People are moving to the hard left & hard right, which the people in charge hate because they’re losing control. They like us all middle ground / grey / boring, because it’s easier for them.

I see Widdicombe has joined. They are welcome to her.

She opposes abortion and LGBT rights.

She opposed repeal of section 28.

She supports the reintroduction of the death penalty, and wants blasphemy laws retained.

She supported the shackling of women when receiving anti-natal care.

All round good egg I would say????. Or perhaps someone who lives in the 19th century?

nasty piece of work. Utterly without charm or humour.

Tories I like, Michael red trousers Portillo, Tarzan, the man in the hush puppies, William Hague.

There, I said it!

AW is a misogynist - no wonder she converted to being a RC

I’m an atheist (humanist) maryeliza but I think you may well have just insulted a great many Christians of the RC faith on here with that remark.

I don’t actually care - denying access to contraception and divorce and believing that raped children should be forced to give birth is misogynistic.