29 March 2010Vic Matcham with the UKIP High Flyer Nigel Farage.
The pictures show our very own forumite
Vic Matcham, the local UKIP candidate in the forthcoming election, in photo call opportunity with their leading high flyer
Nigel Farage. A well known face indeed is Nigel Farage, often the spokesman for the UKIP party line on the BBC's popular Question Time, which is of course the programme of easily assimilated politics for the masses. He is not someone known for his shy and retiring nature, is often highly outspoken, and as you would expect from the UK Independance Party, very anti-european. This often illicits warm applause on the aforementioned programme. Mr Farage was recently featured in mass media coverage due to his outrageous and somewhat daft attack on Belgium of all things, and its new european first minister. But here he is with Vic the local candidate, and of course making sure to get his new book into the picture.
In normal circumstances you would expect the general election to be something of a three way fight between Labour, Conservative and the LibDems, but not so in Dover. The LibDem candidate has a lower profile than...well lets just say a low profile, a very low profile. Into that gap once occupied by the LibDems, has stepped the highly energetic Vic Matcham, bad knees and all, to mount a strenuously robust local campaign on behalf of UKIP.
But who or what are UKIP?? Are they just a branch line of the Conservative party? Well to some extent yes. They are the Party of conservative policies but with the added bite of 'total withdrawal from Europe' as their main policy. This is something the Conservatives themselves shy away from. UKIP want OUT and thats it, no dillying, dallying or shilly shallying!
More info now from the UKIP website...
UKIP was formed on September 3, 1994 at the London School of Economics by several members of the AntiFederalist League and the party's first electoral outing at the 1994 European elections saw 24 UKIP candidates secure 157,000 votes.
The party held its first annual conference at the London School of Economics in October 1995.
The first General Election contested by UKIP was in 1997 but it was not until 1999 that the party achieved its first major breakthrough. With the new system of proportional representation taking effect at European elections in 1999, voters were prepared to consider alternatives to the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems. UKIP won its reward taking three MEP seats.
By 2001, the party was able to contest most seats at the General Election and its long-term survival seemed assured.
The next major opportunity for UKIP came in the June 2004 European Elections, having broken the 'electability barrier' in 1999, the public already believed UKIP was capable of taking seats. A £2million campaign – the biggest yet – saw 2.6 million people (16%) vote UKIP. With the Liberal Democrats unceremoniously dumped into fourth place nationally, UKIP secured 12 MEPs.
UKIP followed this up in September 2004, finishing third in the Hartlepool by-election and relegating the Conservatives to fourth place. Some internal difficulties saw UKIP slip back slightly at the 2005 General Election. Nevertheless, 610,000 votes across 497 Paliamentary constitutencies still showed progress since 2001.
The arrival of Lord Pearson and Lord Willoughby de Broke in January 2007 gave UKIP its first Parliamentary representation. By 2008, UKIP had started to make inroads at Council elections and it was clear that the electoral tide was about to turn.
Paul Boland
