Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Allen
Given that Niall was responding to me I wish to disassociate myself with his comment. Given that as a branch Chairman he had no interest in fighting local elections I don't think anyone should take lectures off him about how to build up from the grass roots.
My annoyance is that in the West Midlands we don't have a single candidate such as Drew or Ray (both in the SE) who are clearly committed to building the party in their region.
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Oh, dear, you mean Niall finds building the grassroots up "boring"? Looks like he might have something in common with those he accuses!
I'm sorry you don't seem to have anyone in your region that you feel you can vote for. As you point out, in the Southeast you have Ray and I, and several other candidates who want to devote MEP resources to developing the party at the grassroots level. In the East Midlands and Northeast you have Steve Allison, in Humber Jonathan Arnott, and in the Northwest Paul Nuttal. I believe there may be others in those regions as well.
Everywhere I go I find that UKIP members, particularly the activists, really want the party to grow and to do better at the local level. I think that whereas a few years ago, our activists would stand for local elections to show the flag (and this is still true in many cases) we now have many who want to
win. Unfortunately I'm not sure that the leadership of the party recognizes this just yet, which I think creates a great deal of frustration. If we were as focused as the BNP at organizing locally, and winning council seats, I think we would soon discover that the rest (organizing for Euro and Westminster elections) would become much easier, and would fall into place.
Drew
