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Sunday, 29th November 2009
Lord Pearson has been elected the new leader of UKIP after a generally well-conducted campaign.
The results of the election were as follows :
Malcom PEARSON 4,743 votes 47.7%
Gerard BATTEN 2,571 " 25.8%
Nikki SINCLAIRE 1,214 " 12.2%
Mike NATTRASS 1,092 " 11.0%
Alan WOOD 315 " 3.2%
Spoilt papers 12 0.1%
Total votes 9,947 100.0%
A
fairly convincing win for Lord Pearson who has been setting out his
ideas for the future of UKIP in the media over the last 48 hours. I'm
going to set out below some of the things he has said and also provide
a few links so people can see him being interviewed.
First
and foremost, the biggest change so far is Lord Pearson's emphasis on
radical Islam. This is a difficult area to go down and the party will
inevitably come under fire for this. Something that's worth putting
into the mix is that Gerard Batten would also have started talking
about radical Islam if he had won the contest. Both candidates made a
point of mentioning this in their election presentations.
In
his article in "Independence" magazine prior to the elections, Lord
Pearson said that the old parties were guilty of "appeasement of
militant Islam". Earlier this year, Pearson caused a considerable stir
when he invited Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch politician, to
the House of Lords to show his film "Fitna", described as an
"anti-Islamist" film. Quite ridiculously, the Home Secretary of the
time banned Mr Wilders from entering Britain, a rather unprecedented
step to take against an elected politician from another EU Member
State. Pearson went ahead and showed the film anyway, while Mr Wilders
subsequently overturned the ban and came to the House of Lords to give
a press conference.
Significantly,
in the press conference or a related television interview, Lord Pearson
distanced himself somewhat from Wilders' position. For example, Wilders
says that the Koran should be banned (a rather contradictory call given
that Wilders' whole platform is based on freedom of speech). Lord
Pearson, by contrast, as a strong believer in free speech, publicly
disagreed with Wilders on that point.
Lord
Pearson reiterated his opposition to a ban in an interview with The
Times on the day after being elected, saying "I absolutely don't agree
with him that the Koran should be banned but I do think we should
discuss what to do about extremist Islamists".
He
makes a point of highlighting the Moslem treatment of women, having now
apparently coined the phrase "gender apartheid", saying : "it is very
worrying that a large and growing sector of our society is set against
our way of life and laws, our treatment of women and religion".
He
may surprise some in UKIP when he says, according to The Times, that
Islamism is a bigger threat than the European Union : "its problem is
that it is a religious, political and legal system all rolled into one,
the penalty of leaving it is death, and it is on a roll all over the
planet".
Lord
Pearson does, however, make the vital distinction between radical Islam
and moderate Islam. In a Channel 4 interview on Friday, after being
elected, Pearson said : "I make a permanent distinction between the
Islamist, the jihadist, the violent Moslem, and the 98% of Moslems who
are mild and peace-loving and our friends".
According
to another article in The Times on November 27th, just before the
results were announced, a UKIP source said : "You are going to see
quite a lot stronger position from us. Nigel has always been afraid of
the Islam thing backfiring. But the BNP are taking ownership of issues
that have not been addressed by Labour, the Conservatives, or the Lib
Dems and they need addressing".
That
may be, but this new policy priority will lead to intense opposition in
the media and from organisations which had basically accepted that
UKIP, while certainly not establishment, was not on the BNP side of
politics. Henceforth, it seems likely that the party will come under
renewed attack on that front.
On
strategy, Lord Pearson has stated that "we must march on to even
greater heights at the General Election and thus trigger a
revolutionary realignment in British politics". That's fighting talk
for a 67 year old but I suspect the phrase "revolutionary" will be
welcome to many. These days, UKIP is less and less reactionary, if it
ever was, and potentially is on the way to being a revolutionary party.
The
offer earlier in the year, after the European elections, to "disband"
the party, made public after his election, if the Conservatives agreed
to offer a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, looks to have been a bit of
a gaffe. Later media articles noted that what had really been intended
to have been said was that the party would allow the Conservatives a
free ride in a General Election in return for such a promise, but that
disbandment was not what was on offer. It would probably have been
wholly unacceptable to the membership if that had been proposed.
Turning
to public presentation, Lord Pearson said in his article in
"Independence" magazine that "dauntingly, I would also find myself
successor to the most eloquent politician in the land". In his Channel
4 News interview, Krishnan Gurumurthy put a number of tricky questions
to Lord Pearson and it was clear that he was struggling through some of
them. Lord Pearson also occasionally stumbled over his words. I imagine
that the Channel 4 News room is a far more hostile place than the House
of Lords. Maybe that will serve to sharpen things up in due course.
Lord
Pearson also said, during the interview : "I'm afraid I'm not much of a
politician". One imagines that this was deliberate but, not
surprisingly, Krishnan Gurumurthy retorted : "that's a bit of a
handicap if you're the leader of a political party, isn't it". Lord
Pearson responded that, in these days of deep distrust of professional
politicians, his modest approach could actually attract the electorate.
That seems like a high-risk strategy, but it might work.
Another
part of presentation and that elusive appeal to the electorate, over
and above party Manifestos is, does the person appeal to a broad
cross-section of people ? The risk with Lord Pearson is that his
Conservative, Lords background may put off voters on the left. And one
thing that UKIP should surely recognise is that it cannot build itself
into an even bigger, more influential force, solely on the back of
eurosceptics deserting the Tory party.
Its
early days yet, Lord Pearson's leadership is only two days old, and so
it is premature to reach any conclusions. I'm sure everyone in UKIP
will be on a learning curve, including Lord Pearson. But hang on to
your hats, the ride could be very interesting.
SOURCES :
Elected as leader :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8381992.stm
Channel 4 News interview on being elected leader :
http://playpolitical.typepad.com/other_uk_parties/2009/11/islam-is-guilty-of-gender-apartheid-says-new-ukip-leader.html
Geert Wilders banned from the UK : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPgOb3a5AQ&feature=related
Geert Wilders returns later in the year :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2xWGsNt6I
Interview with Lord Pearson at the "Free Speech Summit" :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWwrrWqdXSU&feature=PlayList&p=DDADE0A443784FF8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11
Controversial Pearson comment (later admitted to be wrong) on rate of birth :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQisZM1X8lU
Interview in The Times, the day after being elected :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6935401.ece
Article in The Times just before the election : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6934064.ece
Offer to "disband" the party :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6935779.ece
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