Birmingham Hustings

I made extensive notes at last night's leadership election hustings in Birmingham.  Here's what I can make sense of from the three and a half pages of notes I made.  Observations are in italics.

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Introductions

WM
Very enthusiastic; reinvigorate branches; overcome perception as a racist party; appeal to "young kippers"; change comes from NEC and members; very funny, improve IT; communications; Commonwealth; no microphone.

DCB
Nigel said he can't do 2 jobs - EU and Westminster (not true); "safe hands"; can't keep having leadership elections; councillors important; have to contest elections; have to get out of comfort zone; "vision, experience, teamwork;, target of 20 MPs under AV+ and 30 elected peers (10%); have to be more professional; got 20k votes as a Tory PPC; enjoys media; can give fundraising advice; Frank Maloney bringing in professional fundraiser.

NF
Founder member of UKIP; election success as 2nd largest EU party; corrected DCB - said he couldn't do 3 jobs: leader, MEP & PPC; Bercow decision "went wrong"; best person to communicate policy to public; which candidate are LibLabCon scared of most? Been on Any Questions/Question time 30 times; track record of fundraising; Pearson will be chair of fundraising committee with Steve Woolfe & Jill Seymour as secretary; no discipline in party; can't put cigarette paper between LibLabCon.

TC
Hesitant; greatest threat to constitution & democracy is EU; sounds scripted; 4 leaders in 1 year "not a happy show"; MEPs don't have time to deal with branches; don't want to be a one man band; don't want to be an MEP; 4 year plan; will set up London office part funded himself; "candidate for change"; "want my country back".

Commonwealth


WM
Introduced 8 country Commonwealth forum to UKIP.

NF
Appalling to break links; free trade with Commonwealth.

DCB
Future is India; EU has dwindling share of world economy free trade.

TC
Free trade; argument for EU common market no longer valid as no more high tariffs from Commonwealth.

Electoral Pact/Not standing against eurosceptics


NF
Priority is to get 646 good candidates; never been any secret deals; no leader could say never form electoral pact.

DCB
Will not wear blue rosette or write to papers undermining our candidates; sell policies.

TC
No secret deals; something must have happened because papers said so!

WM
Members should decide.

Domestic Issues


DCB
Wrote manifesto; common sense policies; lower taxes; immigration.

TC
EU is central policy; need domestic policies; "freedom, fairness, patriotism"; only British patriotism; "believing in Britain".

WM
Reinvigorate branches; communication Branch > NEC > Leader; break members apathy; clear line of communication through party.

NF
Was told UKIP was a 1 trick pony, then a 2 trick pony, nobody says that any more; local issue (Thanet wind farm) got him invited onto Question Time (not any more, thanks to DCB).

Referendum - disband?


TC
Plan for next 4 years; if we leave party celebrate but carry on.

WM
We can't leave EU without Shadow Cabinet and MPs; why disband when we have MPs? (popular with the members)

NF
Used to think so but MPs don't have patriotic bone in body; "I'll be blown if I give my country back to scoundrels that sold us out".

DCB
Swiss referenda are the only thing keeping Switzerland out of EU; finish off europhiles once and for all.

Most media savvy


WM
"Nigel's almost as good as me!"; been on radio a lot; "I'm showbiz".

NF
Doing Question Time difficult; media appearances not about surviving, "about dominating, being nimble, being fast, thinking on your feet"; unparalleled media experience.

DCB
NF stay as media representative; need more faces on media or party looks small; trained in media handling.

TC
Says he's "good on television"; acknowledged expert on public policy; former journalist; "I'm the media savvyist of this lot".

Biggest weakness and how to turn into a strength


NF
Intolerance; don't suffer fools gladly; getting in barrister to change constitution so it isn't at odds with party rules.

DCB
City being destroyed (answering wrong question!)

TC
Vain; have a team that can criticise me; never resent criticism.

WM
Women! NF is an inspiration; ex-fighter; members views important.

What will failed candidates do to support winner?


DCB
Whatever asked; loyal to party.

TC
Nobody offered me a job; fight cause for the rest of my life.

WM
Offered job to all candidates including TC (TC apologised); "groundwork, time, dedication, glory, cause"; action speaks louder than words.

NF
Role for all 3; WM ambassador for Commonwealth; would loyally support winner.

Devolution (my question)


TC
Devolution = subsume into EU; federal arrangement; no independence.

WM
No independence; galvanise and come together; work together.

NF
UKIP have underplayed Englishness for too long; party policy is right; another layer of politicians; want less politicians (gave me an "I know that you know that I know it's wrong" look)

DCB
We lost 300k votes to EDP; supports Grand Committees instead of devolution; want St Georges Day bank holiday.

Extremist


WM
"Simple - elect me as your leader!"

NF
Took libel action against the Times on 1st day as MEP for associating him and UKIP with BNP; 10% BME candidates last year.

DCB
We represent view of majority; reinforce links with Commonwealth.

TC
Membership form should say if you are found to commit racist activity you will be expelled (disapproving murmurs)

Quantative Easing


NF
Great fear of deflation but are we ready for more QE? Americans practising extreme Keynesian economics; defer to TC on QE.

DCB
Defer to TC on QE; China & India will have resource war; have to be disciplined & anticipate inflation sadly.

TC
Government required banks to shrink balance sheet which caused recession; advocated QE and partly reason why it happened; no worries of inflation at the moment; advocates 0.5% QE per month.

WM
QE was a stopgap; nobody knows what to do; no need for QE; need to create industry.

WM County Committee 9 point plan improve party


DCB
Welcome feedback; suggestions should go to party board subject to NEC.

TC
Agree we need small government; branches have been neglected; leader should write to branch chairmen regularly.

WM
Want us to make news; need leader with profound understanding of community.

NF
Not enough direction from centre; Staffs is an example of UKIP success and probably be first branch to get UKIP MP; clear goals.

Unite factions


TC
4 year plan

WM
Shadow cabinet; raise profile; put EU on the side.

NF
Address churn; need to have continuous campaigns; promote new media; ask dissidents "are you with us?"

DCB
Promise to look at NF's plan when elected.

Sum up


TC
We will leave EU; most people want to leave; put pressure on political class; need change; experience of building up business; uninspiring.

NF
Crash - "lucky, given 2nd chance, want 2nd chance of leading UKIP"; sadly all about personality politics now; opponents fear NF most; not afraid of anybody; will delegate management and just lead party.

DCB
Wrong to criticise manifesto as too long; "New UKIP"; place in team for all candidates; keep NF as face of party; vote DCB get NF as well.

WM
Read manifesto - "freedom of action, freedom of resources, freedom of the people", "I will not wilt, I will not fail to deliver".

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That's my notes, now my own summing up:

Winston was hilarious, a real breath of fresh air and extremely passionate and enthusiastic.  A very good public speaker.  He doesn't stand a chance, sadly, but he's a good guy.

Tim Congdon was a poor speaker, hesitant and monotonous.  Doesn't seem to be able to see beyond the EU issue.

Nigel Farage was ... Nigel Farage.  Exactly what you'd expect - good public speaker, knowledgeable and funny.

David Campbell Bannerman was a strong public speaker and quick with his answers.  Spoke about loyalty to the party then dumped on the party to get one over on Farage.

At the start of the hustings, Congdon got the most applause (as expected given that the West Mids is Nikki Sinclaire territory and her supporters are behind Congdon).  By the end he got the least.  Winston got the most applause at the end of the night.

So who was the winner at the Birmingham hustings?  Using the incredibly scientific method of listening to the amount of applause the candidates were getting, it swung from Congdon-DCB-Farage-Winston to Winston-Farage-DCB-Congdon.  Winston got his applause for his personality rather than his leadership credentials so the winner by the end was Farage.