At the risk of sounding immodest, this unquestionably trustworthy poll is conducted by me – and on me.
The lamentably narrow sample admittedly discourages any far-reaching generalisations, but at least the poll’s reliability can’t be faulted.
Hence it’s on unimpeachable authority that I can announce the changing fortunes of Ukip, if only within this limited group of one.
If not so long ago Ukip polled 100 per cent among me, it’s now losing ground to a most dangerous opponent: ‘none of the above’.
Ukip still is in a winning position, but the party can ill-afford another statement like the one made the other day by Diane James, MEP, who is generally regarded as the successor to Nigel Farage.
The need for succession may arise if the sainted one fails to gain a parliamentary seat and then acts on his promise to resign as a result. Since polls less reliable than mine, but somewhat more representative, suggest that such a development is likely, Miss James may well be the next Ukip leader destined to contest many elections to come.
And I am not entirely sure that I’m prepared to vote for a party whose leader-to-be professes unbridled admiration for Col. Putin, as Miss James evidently does.
“I admire him from the point of view that he’s standing up for his country. He is very nationalist,” she said. “He is a very strong leader, and he has issues with the way the EU encouraged a change of government in the Ukraine which he felt put at risk a Russian population in that country.”
True enough, every party has a certain number of utterly disagreeable individuals among its leaders. The only exception to this general observation is the Labour Party, in which all its leaders aren’t just disagreeable but downright evil.
However, even within that party the leadership has enough street smarts to discourage the lunatic fringe from airing its views in public.
Labour, especially under the two Eds, doesn’t mind coming across as socialist, but that’s as far left as it’s willing to go. Under no circumstances does it wish to come across as the communist party in disguise.
By the same token, Ukip, if it’s to have the faintest chance of electoral success, can’t afford to look like a BNP in disguise. Yet that’s the area into which the views expressed by the party’s supposed future leader have placed it.
First, Miss James doesn’t seem to realise that the word ‘nationalist’, as distinct from ‘patriotic’, is pejorative in most languages, including English. A patriot loves his country, a nationalist wants her to trample over every other land.
Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle were patriots; Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were nationalists.
Hence using the word ‘nationalist’ as an accolade for my friend Vlad may suggest only three things: 1) the speaker is unaware of the semantic distinction, 2) hence she thinks ‘nationalist’ is a synonym of ‘patriotic’, and probably believes that Putin is typologically closer to Churchill and de Gaulle than to Hitler and Mussolini, 3) she is aware of the difference but nevertheless thinks nationalist is a good thing to be, even if this puts Putin in the same bracket as Hitler and Mussolini.
In the first instance, Miss James is stupid. In the second, she is stupid and ignorant. In the third, she is stupid, ignorant and immoral. If there is any other possible interpretation, I’d like to know what it is.
Now I number many Ukip supporters, members and even some of its leaders, among my friends. Generally speaking, they are all visceral conservatives like me, who have chosen Ukip by default, what with the Conservative party under Dave having nothing conservative about it other than its name.
None of them would ever dream of saying something as idiotic as Miss James’s pronouncement, for the simple reason that they are neither idiots nor ignoramuses.
Yet one is aware that outside the coterie of my friends Ukip attracts many followers who are more BNP than Tory in their intuitive inclination. That’s fair enough – as I said before, every party is allowed its own lunatic fringe.
But when Farage and James begin to express views that no real conservative would recognise as his own, the party is in danger of alienating its core support.
It was only a few months ago that Farage himself declared that he admired Putin as “a brilliant operator”. He then realised what he had said and backtracked promptly: “Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?”
Actually, not that many, Nigel. Putin’s preferred way of dealing with dissidents isn’t putting them in jail but putting them six feet under, by such methods as shooting in a dark alley, defenestration, torture or poisoning with radioactive isotopes.
Anyway, Miss James hasn’t been around for as long as Mr Farage, and nor is she obviously as shrewd as he is, so she felt no need for disclaimers.
Nonetheless, accepting for the sake of argument that Putin is indeed nationalist in the sense of patriotic, that he indeed “puts his country first”, and that he indeed detests the EU as much as your normal Ukipper does (I count myself in that category), do Nigel and Diane feel this is a sufficient recommendation?
Well, in that case they must also admire Hitler, Mosley, Mussolini, Ivan the Terrible, Stalin and Nasser, who all had impeccable nationalist credentials. And if any enemy of the EU is a friend of Ukip, will the party come out in support of Isis, who clearly aren’t well disposed towards European federalism?
Chaps, you are on your last notice. Since I not only take my reliable poll but also determine its findings, one more pronouncement along the same lines from your leaders, and ‘none of the above’ will get my vote.
As clearly no other party deserves it, my vote is yours to lose. And you are teetering on the verge of losing it.